Guild Wars 2

Djinn.9245:

When people read and hear about the new LS content, they are going to want to participate. Not being able to might just cost players.

Allowing new players to take part in the content can also cost players when they get annoyed that they keep dying because they don’t know, for example, what retaliation is and can’t remove it and have neither the gear nor the traits to survive the fights.

Also, should they make all dungeons and fractals available to everyone new to the game too? When new people hear about them, they might want to play them, and that might cost players too, right?

The purple stars are for achievement instances. To get into non-achievement instances, you have to be at the green star step.

Swagger.1459:

Filaha.1678:

Swagger.1459:

as a former rper, i feel zero sense of urgency from this zone content besides getting to the event on time for a chest and am (and have been) completely disengaged from anything story related so far. we have a mighty and dangerous dragon (who can slay gods mind you) that is waking up and we are playing around in a glorified jumping puzzle with a bunch of silly mini events that are mostly focused on earning pieces of stuff for loot we have to craft. i know this is just the start of ls2, but i personally feel that anet needs to get their heads out of the sand and start producing more meaningful zone and story content if they plan on continuing to invest more labor and resources into ls while professions and combat remain stale and stagnant.

As a former RPer, I’d laugh at your attempts to RP if you thought that, given the stage of the story we’re at, you’d be able to rush ahead to your goal.

Do your characters when you RP tend to know everything about what you’re fighting, where you’re going, and how to win?

Because the stage the story is at, that’s what we’re trying to find out. There’s no sense of urgency because we can’t really do anything until we find out more about what we’re supposed to do it to. The most we can do right now is react, not act.

It’d be a terrible story if we just knew exactly what to do and where to go and didn’t need to find anything out first.

i’m sure you were an amazing rper who could put me in my rping place with your superior rp skills, but i don’t think you get what I’m talking about. the point of my post was to say that the ls content continues to be subpar and needs to be improved. anet has generated more sense of urgency and care for loot related things and finishing timed events as opposed to ls zone and story content. if you were to remove loot and achievements from the equation, the ls updates would be dead on arrival.

also, If anet plans to neglect and underfund other important areas of the game in lieu of the ls, the least they could do is create quality zone and storytelling updates.

You mean you’re annoyed that they’re spending time on giving people things to do in between story chapters instead of attempting to shove the entire story at us immediately?

I have an idea if you want to get your point across. How about some specifics instead of a general “it sucks, make it better”? I’m sure a former RPer like you can eloquently state your specific concerns and suggestions for improvement.

Swagger.1459:

as a former rper, i feel zero sense of urgency from this zone content besides getting to the event on time for a chest and am (and have been) completely disengaged from anything story related so far. we have a mighty and dangerous dragon (who can slay gods mind you) that is waking up and we are playing around in a glorified jumping puzzle with a bunch of silly mini events that are mostly focused on earning pieces of stuff for loot we have to craft. i know this is just the start of ls2, but i personally feel that anet needs to get their heads out of the sand and start producing more meaningful zone and story content if they plan on continuing to invest more labor and resources into ls while professions and combat remain stale and stagnant.

As a former RPer, I’d laugh at your attempts to RP if you thought that, given the stage of the story we’re at, you’d be able to rush ahead to your goal.

Do your characters when you RP tend to know everything about what you’re fighting, where you’re going, and how to win?

Because the stage the story is at, that’s what we’re trying to find out. There’s no sense of urgency because we can’t really do anything until we find out more about what we’re supposed to do it to. The most we can do right now is react, not act.

It’d be a terrible story if we just knew exactly what to do and where to go and didn’t need to find anything out first.

The story line wouldn’t be any greater and the rewards they give would have to be terrible to allow for the fact that some of the instances are super easy to get through.

You get rewards for the achievements. That’s enough.

One of the most annoying parts about Boss Blitz was the uplevels who’d scale the fights up but not be of any particular help because they’re wearing low level gear and don’t have the traits and possibly skills to be able to lend much of a hand. It was a complete pain to fight Boom Boom with half the group there being uplevels who are just making the turret harder to kill while supplying a quarter of the DPS that they should be bringing.

Additionally, the living story content comes after the personal story in chronology, so really, they should be doing the PS first. It was only fair to allow taking part in the previous season because it was temporary. This will be here forever, so there’s no rush.

As for:

Makes me wonder why they don’t implement a feature where people “upleveled” based on the zone.
Let people who just get the game jump right into the action in the new areas instead of make them level if they so choose.

So they can get annoyed and angry that the game is too hard because they just got it, don’t know what they’re doing or how to play their classes, and rushed into content with terrible gear and no traits or skills against swarms of enemies?

Yeah, that makes sense.

CameronJames.4897:

But are there other spots?

As far as I’m aware, no, although I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s how they open up more to the zone in the next chapter.

Where the vine bridge waypoint is, when the Mordrem are attacking, the vine bridge goes away. After you finish the Mordrem event, the ground where the vine bridge starts is glowy and stuff and you can plant the seed there to make a bridge.

Did you pay attention to the rest of the dialogue?

“Besides, my mind is far more resilient than Scarlet’s was.”

The last thing she says before leaping into the machine.

How is it a stretch for her to leap in heedless of danger when she clearly doesn’t think there is any danger?

“So, who do you think Luke’s mother is since Darth Vader is Luke’s father?”

You don’t see how that would be a spoiler to people who didn’t see ESB?

Erukk.1408:

Maybe it’s because they didn’t want to start any (Teen)Wolf Form Braham jokes.

Or Team Braham.

Thuggernaut.1250:

Filaha.1678:

Thuggernaut.1250:

Of course, here come the white knights to ride to Anet’s rescue. Nothing excuses sloppy writing (reusing tired old themes with a lot of “convenient” similarities to other RPGs), and nobody can deny that the Omadd’s machine sequence is a direct ripoff from Mass Effect. The “coincidences” are more than coincidences; the circumstances of the entire bit happen exactly like Mass Effect. It’s not just the vision that’s a ripoff, the way that the entire scene unfolds happens exactly the same as the scene with Commander Shepard.

It did? When did a Mesmer bubble Shepard before rushing to save Ashley?

Cute, but you know what I mean. Anyone that’s played Mass Effect knows exactly what I’m talking about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyIa_q8i7lI

Nobody (non-troll/non-fanboy) can with a straight face deny that the scene is a direct ripoff.

Anyone around here that hasn’t swallowed the Anet Kool-Aid yet?

Read the edit.

It’s still not exact. The only direct similarity, really, is that they get a vision from a machine. In ME, it’s activated unwittingly after being found by accident. In GW2, Taimi knows exactly what it is and intentionally goes in, having led you to it intentionally.

Mass Effect invented recurring invasions!
Mass Effect invented visions!
Mass Effect invented armies of multiple races!

Dwaynas Avatar.1562:

Filaha.1678:

GOOD MMOs are designed to please everybody (as much as they can). BAD MMOs are designed to please the majority.

Fixed this for you

GW1 was a good one.

Guild Wars 1 didn’t please everybody though. Hell, my entire guild quit well before the first expansion came out simply because we ran out of things to do.

Dwaynas Avatar.1562:

Filaha.1678:

Why should they risk displeasing 85% of the game in order to satisfy 15%?

Ok, this is like talking against a wall.
Maybe the anet devs understand it, if they read this thread.

Funny, I was thinking the same thing, except I’m sure that Arenanet won’t see it your way.

Despite what you seem to want to think, I’m quite well aware that you’re not saying they should make EVERYTHING hard.

However, you’re not getting what I’m saying. If most people want to do the achievements and get the rewards, making it so that most people can’t do the achievements and get the rewards is displeasing.

Again, why should they attempt to please a significant minority which may or may not be pleased with their attempts anyways, just to risk displeasing a majority who may or may not be able to do the achievements but want them?

That’s just illogical and bad business.

MMOs aren’t designed to please everybody. MMOs are designed to please the majority.

J envy.5270:

Lopez.7369:

The pig problem for me is that, even if it wasn’t bugged, it’s horribly designed. It’s so unintuitive. There is zero indication that you’re suddenly supposed to save a bunch of NPCs.

Pig problem indeed.

It’s so unfair to have it broken so it hogs all your time.

It was just such a ham-fisted attempt at a fix.

Dwaynas Avatar.1562:

Filaha.1678:

Except for the fact that it’s immediately counter-balanced by people who think it’s already too hard. If 15% of 100 people is enough to make them want to think of how to make it harder, why isn’t 15% of 100 people enough to make them want to think of how to make it easier?

Ok, listen:
There is no such thing as counterbalance in this case. Why?
Because there are different kinds of players, and a mmo is there to give them all something to do, because it’s focused on a large number of players.
I DONT say they shall only make difficult achievements, the 50/15/15/20 means following: they should do manly achievements like the ones right now, but also some easier ones and some more difficult ones, and for the 20% that don’t bother either higher the rewards or make it in some other way enoyable.
Understand it now?

Or they can stay doing what they’re doing and satisfy the greatest number of people without having to come up with things while thinking “Is this going to be hard enough?”

Again, what’s challenging to you might be easy for someone else. What happens if they cater to you and make you happy but there’s still half the “too easy” people who think it’s STILL too easy? Then once they’ve hit the point where it’s challenging enough for everybody, everyone who thought it was just fine now or too hard now will be dissatisfied that they’re now entirely locked out from getting all the achievements because what was too hard before is now easy comparatively.

For every person they try to please by putting in something harder, they’re potentially displeasing 3 to 4 times as many (and this is by your entirely untrustworthy poll) by saying “Nope, sorry, these achievements aren’t for you.”

Understand now?

Why should they risk displeasing 85% of the game in order to satisfy 15%?

Rym.1469:

Filaha.1678:

Rym.1469:

To all who suggest “taking off armor”. Doing that only reduces your stats.

It doesn’t fix mechanics or make encounters more fun.

Right. Lower stats = harder fights. The longer it takes to kill something, the more you have to be able to avoid their attacks.

Okay, look.

If the entire boss mechanic is mostly sidestepping AoE pools, taking off your gear will just make the fight longer. You still sidestep.

If the boss mechanic is big one-shot from time to time, taking off your gear will just make the fight longer. You still dodge same one-shot.

You can argue that, yeah, more dodges makes more room for that one failure. But again, is it fun? Besides, once you catch what to dodge doing it won’t be considered as “challange”.

Excuse my words, maybe I’m wrong, but you seem like a kind of person who plays the game not to have fun in combat and trying different approaches, but getting the stuff done and getting your reward.

For me, interesting, demanding and fun (!) mechanics are what make encounters and content good.

P.S. Instead of taking gear off, I reccomend you to click below on my signature. You’ll find plenty of ideas satisfying everybody.

And how about the achievement to not let any of the minions die? Slower kills = needing more to keep them off. Slower kill on boss = more things you have to protect. More challenging right there!

Also, I’d like to know how you come to that conclusion of how I play the game. If I find the game fun as it is, then what makes you think that I don’t want it to be fun by not thinking they should waste time ramping up challenges for a minority of players that may STILL complain about it not being hard enough, so that the majority of players can then complain that it’s too hard?

From a business standpoint, potentially satisfying a handful while risking annoying a majority is, frankly, stupid.

Dwaynas Avatar.1562:

Filaha.1678:

Votes: 100

14 people are with you.

16 and I said: ~15%,
but this is not the point, the point is: it’s more than expected and enough for Anet to
cover.
(100 votes is not too much, I know, but I can’t do a gamewide poll as you may know)

Except for the fact that it’s immediately counter-balanced by people who think it’s already too hard. If 15% of 100 people is enough to make them want to think of how to make it harder, why isn’t 15% of 100 people enough to make them want to think of how to make it easier?

Dwaynas Avatar.1562:

sorudo.9054:

Dwaynas Avatar.1562:

Strawpoll results until now:

Votes: 100 Achievements are ….
hard: ~15% || easy: ~15% || good: ~50% || not worth doing: ~20%
Surprised: not for 1%, but ~15% of the players the achievements are too easy

and the same % shows it’s to hard, better yet 50% tells that it’s good the way it is.
conclusion, why change when it works….

I think too many people don’t understand my goal:
I DONT want them to change ALL achievements, I just want 1 (or more if they want to) achievement that is really difficult even for the hardcore players.
Everyone else just gets everything how it is.
TY

Edit: and around 15% of the players are with me

Votes: 100

14 people are with you.

Dwaynas Avatar.1562:

Filaha.1678:

Why should they make challenges based around requiring top gear instead of spending their time on making their game good for the greater number of people?

Hell, even the achievements now are challenging for some people. Just because you can do them easily doesn’t mean they’re not challenging.

They should because it’s a mmo, people like me want such things, I don’t demand all their resources, just a tiny bit like I said.
Achievements should be challenging and there should be for everyone something, thats all I’m saying (I would take more if I would get it).
There is a reason that single player games have different difficulty options, in
guild wars 2 there is no such thing (in gw1 there was at leas “Hard Mode”), so they could give the players that are more good at the game something to do.
Noone in GW1 argued about Hard Mode (before entering a map you could choose this and then everything got harder), you needed top gear for it. Everyone liked it, I don’t say they should do something like this again (would cost too many resources) but there should be something really challenging for everyone.

Again, “challenging” is subjective. What you think is challenging may be impossible for other people.

They already have “challenging” achievements in the game. What they don’t have are achievements you want.

Are they supposed to just keep turning up the difficulty a bit until they hit what you want? Seems like a waste of time to me. Time better spent making sure the content in general is good for the clear majority of players.

Dwaynas Avatar.1562:

Strawpoll results until now:

Votes: 100 Achievements are ….
hard: ~15% || easy: ~15% || good: ~50% || not worth doing: ~20%
Surprised: not for 1%, but ~15% of the players the achievements are too easy

Are you implying that 100 votes is indicative of the entire playerbase?

Rym.1469:

To all who suggest “taking off armor”. Doing that only reduces your stats.

It doesn’t fix mechanics or make encounters more fun.

Right. Lower stats = harder fights. The longer it takes to kill something, the more you have to be able to avoid their attacks.

Dwaynas Avatar.1562:

Filaha.1678:

Why is it rewarding to do something that’s natively hard but not something that you make hard if you’re getting the same objective rewards?

I don’t want to make it hard by myself, whats the point in an MMO to play for good gear / traits / skins… and then have to not use it in order to make the game challenging?

Why should they make challenges based around requiring top gear instead of spending their time on making their game good for the greater number of people?

Hell, even the achievements now are challenging for some people. Just because you can do them easily doesn’t mean they’re not challenging.

Crovax.7854:

Let me put it this way: Overcoming a game that was designed to be difficult from the start feels rewardig because you get the felling that you actually beat the game itself.
It throws everything it’s got at you but you still come out on top while playing it as it was originally intended.
Having to kitten yourself to get some sort of challenge doesn’t give that same feeling of accomplishment because you have to tinker with how the game works/you interact with the game and tweak difficulty through ways that were not intended.

I’d rather meet a challenge that was there from the start instead of having to make my own because that would only make me feel like the designers are insulting my intelligence and ability to understand the most basic principles and game mechanics.

Okay, so let’s say they put in an achievement that’s actually challenging for you, and you manage to beat it with all your gear. Would you then feel no greater sense of accomplishment if you were to try it again with no gear on and succeed, knowing that they threw their best at you and you still could do it while naked?

Out of curiosity, did you beat Liadri with all gambits on?

Crovax.7854:

Nope, that’e exactly what i personally want. Of course it’s nice to get something special but what you said is perfectly fine.

See, that’s where I’m stuck.

Why is it rewarding to do something that’s natively hard but not something that you make hard if you’re getting the same objective rewards?

Maybe it’s because I used to do the whole “Making things harder for yourself” in single-player games which didn’t give any special rewards either, be they RPGs or action games. I quite definitely felt better about my accomplishments in games while nerfing myself.

The sad thing is that it’s actually already partially implemented. When using charges for fashion, you’ll use them up in 1s, 5s, 10s, and 25s (don’t know about 100s) depending on how much you have in the stack.

They just need to extend that to other items.

Edit: They just have to be reeeeeeally careful what they apply it to, so that they don’t accidentally make people eat 25 foods at once.

Crovax.7854:

Filaha.1678:

Crovax.7854:

Fun fact: i did all of the ls 2 achievements naked without trinkets; weapons only.
Didn’t feel rewarding. I also did liadri and got a mini; felt very rewarding.
I do like a challenge and yes, i do like if the game acknowledges what i did.
I am what you would call a completionist: i like to complete challenges the game offers me natively. I’m also not into min-maxing stats or have much time to play the game. Sorry if that doesn’t fit into your neat little black and white view of casuals and elitists.

So what you want isn’t a challenge, it’s a reward that you can hold over other people.

Gotcha.

Also, I didn’t use the word casuals, and elitism quite definitely does have a very factual definition, so not sure what that last sentence was supposed to mean.

What you don’t seem understand the notion of getting a reward and just being proud of it because for some reason you think people want to feel superior.
I can’t understand your inability to comprehend that putting effort into something and getting something in return doesn’t mean a person wants the feeling of superiority over others.
When I did my naked LS runs or a DSII SL1 run, i did it because I wanted a challenge, not to show others how much better I am. Killing Liadri felt rewarding because i did it and getting out that mini feels good because I know that I did something hard to get it.
Also an MMO has many different of players that all have a different playstyle. It’s a good thing to provide content that suits all needs. Maybe try to understand the thought process of people who are not necessarily of your opinion.

Overcoming a challenge should feels rewarding and doing the achievements doesn’t.
Beating super meat boy or binding of isaac felt rewarding because it was natively hard.
Doing tedious achievements where i even have to take off all my armor to make them even remotely difficult doesn’t.
This has nothing to do with impressing or superiority over others

It’s rewarding to do something if it’s natively hard, but not rewarding to do something that’s not natively hard, even if you were to get the same rewards either way?

So if they were to put in an achievement that’s actually hard, except you still get the same Geode cache, you’d be fine with that as long as it’s kitten its own?

Or would you still complain because you want something special for it?

Crovax.7854:

Fun fact: i did all of the ls 2 achievements naked without trinkets; weapons only.
Didn’t feel rewarding. I also did liadri and got a mini; felt very rewarding.
I do like a challenge and yes, i do like if the game acknowledges what i did.
I am what you would call a completionist: i like to complete challenges the game offers me natively. I’m also not into min-maxing stats or have much time to play the game. Sorry if that doesn’t fit into your neat little black and white view of casuals and elitists.

So what you want isn’t a challenge, it’s a reward that you can hold over other people.

Gotcha.

Also, I didn’t use the word casuals, and elitism quite definitely does have a very factual definition, so not sure what that last sentence was supposed to mean.

Wait, it’s not realistic to be able to laugh after someone dies?

That’s funny, since every funeral I’ve gone to has had receptions afterwards where most people are quite sociable and light-hearted and are able to laugh with each other. And that’s after people they were related to died.

Belinda was, to everyone there, a stranger. A face they only could pick out because of a relationship to someone who wasn’t there. Why should they be overbearingly sad that someone they only met for a couple minutes in total died?

Crovax.7854:

Filaha.1678:

Crovax.7854:

People want a challenge. That’s why spelunky was critically acclaimed. That’s why dark souls 1 and 2 were such big hits.

I’ve already pointed out how people can make it more challenging if they want challenges.

It seems that the only argument against it is that people wouldn’t get extra rewards for doing it.

So if that’s the only argument, then it’s not challenges people want, it’s someone patting them on the head afterwards and giving them a cookie so they can show all the other kids that they have a cookie and the others don’t.

If people legitimately just want it more challenging, they control that. Taking off gear can make combat challenges far harder, especially if you combine it with “if I get downed, I exit instance and restart”. If they think they should be rewarded for doing it that way, then they’re clearly not just after a challenge.

The fact that achievements can’t be viewed by other players renders your whole argument useless. It’s funny how people get offended by the idea of adding something for every group of player in the game.

Except my argument isn’t “useless” since, if you bothered to read what it was in reference to:

Extraordinary effort or skill should absolutely rewarded with extraordinary rewards. That content should exist, and certain rewards should absolutely be reserved for those who go above and beyond to get them. That’s a large part of the problem with GW2. It does a great job of adding inclusive content, but it doesn’t implement any sort of enhanced risk/reward mechanics to give people any reason to attempt to improve.

Clearly he’s not suggesting “just getting an achievement”.

Secondly, I don’t think it should be added because there’s already plenty of ways to increase the challenge if you just legitimately want a challenge. People who play single-player RPGs have been doing it for ages. When people wanted a challenge in the original Final Fantasy, they didn’t write Square to add a harder difficulty mode. They bust out “single character” runs and “only white mage” runs.

The issue here clearly isn’t “I want more challenge”, it’s “I want something that makes me feel superior to others.” Because if people only wanted the challenge, then nothing needs to be added to the game.

PopeUrban.2578:

Filaha.1678:

PopeUrban.2578:

Filaha.1678:

Smokey.7652:

While what you are saying is true right now you have to consider long term. What happens when a season five instance affects a season three instance that affects a personal story instance. That is where the amount of data starts to pile up. While your idea might work as a stop gap I would rather have them put resources into a long-term fix rather then a stop gap.

I’m thinking long-term. What happens when a season five instance affects a season three instance that affects a personal story instance under the current system?
Let’s say that after season 2, Primordus decides to burn away the vines at Concordia?
Then not only do you have charred remains of vines in your personal story, but in the season 2 stuff as well!

Under the current system, they’re limited in what they can do later. You can’t clean up Fort Salma or Concordia now, because then it’d affect how the season 2 instance looks. Would have an even larger disconnect if you’re running through the attack on Fort Salma while there’s evidence of Jormag’s minions running about.

The general, outside-instance world map already forces a huge disconnect on having a solid living world, because as soon as you enter Orr, you’re suddenly fighting Zhaitan again. We’re in season 2 now, Zhaitan has been dead for a while, and yet running into Orr suddenly flings you back into the past because everything is still about killing Zhaitan and fighting back the corruption which is supposed to have been cleansed.

It pretty much precludes anything from happening in Orr now, unless they retrofit the entire zones to have the corruption be gone and Zhaitan out of the picture, except then when you go do the personal story, suddenly it’s not corrupted and you’re fighting corruption that’s not there.

You’re never actually fighting Zhaitan. You’re fighting risen, and pushing toward arah. The personal story was pretty clear that cleansing Orr and killing Zhaitan doesn’t magically make all the risen explode, but rather that it creates the possibility that eventually, one day, the pact can actually destroy them all.

Incorrect.

NPCs still refer to Zhaitan as an active force, as well as referring to the lands you’re trying to take as belonging to Zhaitan. For example, the attached screenshot was just taken. Notice the present tense. Zhaitan “sends”, not “used to send”. If Zhaitan is dead according to the general world map, then someone should inform the guys still here trying to fight him.

By running around on the Orr maps, you are, effectively, running around in an undetermined time before the end of the personal story, while only a couple zones away, Zhaitan is dead and Mordremoth is in your base, killing your dudes.

That’s not the first, and probably won’t be the last asynchronous NPC side-dialogue. Game is riddled with them. However what I stated is the official explanation for old forum topics like “Why doesn’t Zhaitan fly over Orr” or “Why isn’t Zhaitan a world boss” as well as “Where the heck was the pact during season 1?”

The pact is still quite busy killing risen. In Orr. In The official timeline.

Right. In the official timeline. Where Mordremoth is crushing forts.

However, that doesn’t match up with the game. Which is largely due to the frank impossibility of maintaining continuity in an ever-changing world while operating under a system where past story happens in current lands.

Crovax.7854:

People want a challenge. That’s why spelunky was critically acclaimed. That’s why dark souls 1 and 2 were such big hits.

I’ve already pointed out how people can make it more challenging if they want challenges.

It seems that the only argument against it is that people wouldn’t get extra rewards for doing it.

So if that’s the only argument, then it’s not challenges people want, it’s someone patting them on the head afterwards and giving them a cookie so they can show all the other kids that they have a cookie and the others don’t.

If people legitimately just want it more challenging, they control that. Taking off gear can make combat challenges far harder, especially if you combine it with “if I get downed, I exit instance and restart”. If they think they should be rewarded for doing it that way, then they’re clearly not just after a challenge.

Presumably they broke it when they put in the “fix” so you couldn’t save them afterwards.

It’s actually objectively a poor method of acquisition, at least currently.

Firstly, it doesn’t reward you for playing the content. It rewards you for lots of people playing the content. At the moment, you need a minimum of tier 4 to even buy the recipe. That automatically precludes you from getting the weapons once interest in the zone wanes, which is bad when it comes to the fact that this is permanent content.

Secondly, it necessitates good luck. One could open one, ten, or 100 boxes before getting an insect. Given that each of the recipes also costs 350-400 (depending on tier) geodes, you add to the cost for each additional chest you need to open.

Lastly, you’re incorrect about how it will “literally cost you nothing” on two levels. On the first level, lockpicks cost you money to buy if you don’t get it on with one of your free lockpicks from doing the story. Additionally, in order to farm enough geodes without taking weeks, you’ll have to use waypoints to get to other events, costing you that fee as well. On the second level, time is money. Time spent farming geodes could have been spent more efficiently farming materials or items or gold in other places. You have to make a choice between more efficient farming elsewhere or getting the skins.

To make matters worse, even if you choose to farm for the skins, you aren’t even guaranteed to get ANY of them, because if the RNG decides you don’t get a bug, then you don’t get the skins. For someone with limited time to play, it’s an even tougher choice as to whether to risk no rewards for a lot of effort or get better rewards for less effort but not the skins.

A better method of implementation would be a trade-in to get the insects for X Geodes so that you will, at the very least, not waste your effort if you have bad luck.

Further, they would either need to offer great rewards that will keep a constant draw to the zone for people to continue doing things there even after they get all the recipes so that you can still get the recipes, or put all the recipes on the first tier, even if for higher amounts of Geodes, so that one’s ability to get the skin is not dependent on other people wanting to play that content.

He didn’t want to put the skill points into it.

I kind of find it funny when I see people talking about “value” on things they can’t trade.

Obviously they’re not talking about monetary value since you can’t trade them, so what other form of value would they have?

If you like the look of the skin, is it strangely “devalued” by how many other people can get it? I mean, I love the look of my Dragon Jade Longbow, and everyone had and has access to it, and I don’t feel like it’s any less valuable even if I see other people with it.

There is no value on a bound item except that which you choose to apply to it, and it’s silly to claim that it has less value if more people can have it. Are you suggesting it’s only worth having if it’s rare? Then do you really like the skin?

How does it hurt you if more people have it, exactly?

PopeUrban.2578:

Filaha.1678:

Smokey.7652:

While what you are saying is true right now you have to consider long term. What happens when a season five instance affects a season three instance that affects a personal story instance. That is where the amount of data starts to pile up. While your idea might work as a stop gap I would rather have them put resources into a long-term fix rather then a stop gap.

I’m thinking long-term. What happens when a season five instance affects a season three instance that affects a personal story instance under the current system?
Let’s say that after season 2, Primordus decides to burn away the vines at Concordia?
Then not only do you have charred remains of vines in your personal story, but in the season 2 stuff as well!

Under the current system, they’re limited in what they can do later. You can’t clean up Fort Salma or Concordia now, because then it’d affect how the season 2 instance looks. Would have an even larger disconnect if you’re running through the attack on Fort Salma while there’s evidence of Jormag’s minions running about.

The general, outside-instance world map already forces a huge disconnect on having a solid living world, because as soon as you enter Orr, you’re suddenly fighting Zhaitan again. We’re in season 2 now, Zhaitan has been dead for a while, and yet running into Orr suddenly flings you back into the past because everything is still about killing Zhaitan and fighting back the corruption which is supposed to have been cleansed.

It pretty much precludes anything from happening in Orr now, unless they retrofit the entire zones to have the corruption be gone and Zhaitan out of the picture, except then when you go do the personal story, suddenly it’s not corrupted and you’re fighting corruption that’s not there.

You’re never actually fighting Zhaitan. You’re fighting risen, and pushing toward arah. The personal story was pretty clear that cleansing Orr and killing Zhaitan doesn’t magically make all the risen explode, but rather that it creates the possibility that eventually, one day, the pact can actually destroy them all.

Incorrect.

NPCs still refer to Zhaitan as an active force, as well as referring to the lands you’re trying to take as belonging to Zhaitan. For example, the attached screenshot was just taken. Notice the present tense. Zhaitan “sends”, not “used to send”. If Zhaitan is dead according to the general world map, then someone should inform the guys still here trying to fight him.

By running around on the Orr maps, you are, effectively, running around in an undetermined time before the end of the personal story, while only a couple zones away, Zhaitan is dead and Mordremoth is in your base, killing your dudes.

Smokey.7652:

While what you are saying is true right now you have to consider long term. What happens when a season five instance affects a season three instance that affects a personal story instance. That is where the amount of data starts to pile up. While your idea might work as a stop gap I would rather have them put resources into a long-term fix rather then a stop gap.

I’m thinking long-term. What happens when a season five instance affects a season three instance that affects a personal story instance under the current system?
Let’s say that after season 2, Primordus decides to burn away the vines at Concordia?
Then not only do you have charred remains of vines in your personal story, but in the season 2 stuff as well!

Under the current system, they’re limited in what they can do later. You can’t clean up Fort Salma or Concordia now, because then it’d affect how the season 2 instance looks. Would have an even larger disconnect if you’re running through the attack on Fort Salma while there’s evidence of Jormag’s minions running about.

The general, outside-instance world map already forces a huge disconnect on having a solid living world, because as soon as you enter Orr, you’re suddenly fighting Zhaitan again. We’re in season 2 now, Zhaitan has been dead for a while, and yet running into Orr suddenly flings you back into the past because everything is still about killing Zhaitan and fighting back the corruption which is supposed to have been cleansed.

It pretty much precludes anything from happening in Orr now, unless they retrofit the entire zones to have the corruption be gone and Zhaitan out of the picture, except then when you go do the personal story, suddenly it’s not corrupted and you’re fighting corruption that’s not there.

PopeUrban.2578:

It’s not at all suprising. GW2 is based around a crafting materials economy, and expects all players noncombat play to be involved in that aspect of the game. It doesn’t have systems for crafters to turn crafting in to income, but rather assumes everyone is crafting everything (because they let you do that easily), and that the base materials are all of the value.

In addition, because everyone has easy access to crafting, adding craftable rewards without requiring them to be crafted would just make crafting, and thus the economy redundant and a waste of time.

Anet wants everyone to craft, and always has. It’s the most reliable source of stats, and is extremely quick to do for that reason. The entire ingame economy is built around it on purpose, and as a result new rewards will always include some crafting.

If you’re not a crafter, however, the LS rewards being account bound is a huge problem. I believe anet should stop making every single thing account bound, allowing players who choose not to craft to benefit from the crafting economy of new rewards by selling things. Not being able to sell geodes, keys, or recipies doesn’t encourage people to play content, it forces them to. That’s a perfect implementation for time limited content, but for permanent content it’s bad for the overall longevity of new zones.

Or you could use the geodes on lockpicks and use the lockpicks to open chests which give you a bunch of rewards, including champ bags. I got Lord Taeres’s Shadow from one of them. You also get Ambrite, which you can sell.

PopeUrban.2578:

Rainin.9812:

Achievements only attainable by a small percentage of players are annoying.. Just my honest opinion. You are discouraging players who may have a hard time with some stuff skill wise, but still try hard to complete all event achievements. Go try to solo Arah or take a Fort in WvW by yourself. You may like beating your head against a wall, but not everyone does.

Let’s rename the whole system “handouts” then. In fact, why bother requiring anyone to do anything to get them at all? Just fill in the blanks of the character sheet when you log in. Actually, that would exclude people on vacations. Just automatically attribute them to accounts! But then what about people who don’t have accounts yet? Actually, we’d better just give them credit when they establish the account too.

In fact, why is there a losing team in sPvP? Why are there TWO losing teams in WvW? We should probably change those systems too, so that the rewards are fair for everyone that tried.

You see what I’m getting at?

Extraordinary effort or skill should absolutely rewarded with extraordinary rewards. That content should exist, and certain rewards should absolutely be reserved for those who go above and beyond to get them. That’s a large part of the problem with GW2. It does a great job of adding inclusive content, but it doesn’t implement any sort of enhanced risk/reward mechanics to give people any reason to attempt to improve.

“Trying” should never be grounds for completely optional and supposedly “elite skill based” content. Just because it’s PvE doesn’t automatically entitle every single player to every single reward. Just as PvP, there should be variant levels of challenge with corresponding levels of reward. Doing well should confer greater rewards.

The achievements are permanent now, so there’s no applicable excuse outside player ability, which can be practiced and improved upon, for those who want an achievement to not, uh, achieve that goal.

The problem is with players that feel they deserve every achievement, and drop, and rare thing in the game simply because they tried to get it. Achievements are not and never should have been things people deserve but rather things people have to make a concerted effort to earn

And at the end of the day, excluding a majority of the game because a handful of elitists think the game should give them things only they can get is just plain bad business.

Especially in a game which relies on people to actively WANT to spend money on the game, and isn’t subscription based.

I’ve already pointed out how you can get extra challenge if you desire challenge. That way, you get the challenge you want, everyone gets the rewards they are willing to try for.

Lolyta.4582:

Just tried the first achievement (don’t let any workers die) on 2 strong characters. Unless there’s some trick to it that I haven’t discovered yet, it’s impossible to solo- groups of Inquest come from two widely-separated paths at once, can’t be kited to the same place and attack two widely-separated groups of ultra-squishy workers at once. Although there is a “rocky ridge” to stand on that looks like it might be in range of both groups of workers, it isn’t- and even worse, you have to jump DOWN to attack one group, then there is no direct way back up to the other group… you have to run to one end or the other of the ridge to reach the upper group- by which time, of course, workers have died while you’re running around. So the physical layout of this “event” makes it virtually impossible to solo the achievement.

I tried with a 1200-range Staff Ele and a 1500-range Ranger with aoe pet, but It is not possible to cover both groups at once or get the workers to move into a single group where they can be defended by a single player. Even more fun, the mobs are smarter than most- the minute you drop Lava Font or Barrage on a group of them, they scatter out of it. Thanks, Anet.

In my humble opinion, “that’s too easy” postings are generally just elitist brags. So, huzzah for whoever thinks this is too easy. You are so uber. We are in awe of you.

For me, I hit the Exit to Desktop button as soon as I fully realized the necessity to solo-defend both widely-separated groups at once. Personal Story achievements that require a group to complete are just infuriating to me and cause me to go play something else, or watch TV.

You mean the first instance of the first chapter? You only have to protect the guys that build the barriers, not anybody else. And they start on the top hill and don’t move to the bottom until the barriers are built on the top. So… you don’t need to defend two groups at once, you just have to follow them.

There’s no purple star because the purple star is for achievement instances. I’m pretty sure you can run through the entire story again and re-see the instance. If you just want access to it all the time, and have an alt you don’t need to finish, you can just leave them on that step to rewatch it whenever and just don’t finish that instance.

Also, the holographic recorder (and in fact all of the things you can interact with in the first chapter) is in the room in the first instance of the second chapter anyways, so nothing missed.

Well, you’re in luck, my friend. There’s a feature in the game perfect for people like you who crave more difficulty, which allows you to tweak the difficulty so that the game is harder!

It’s called unequipping your gear.

Next time you are faced with a combat achievement that you think will be too easy, just strip yourself and do it naked! Instant extra difficulty! For an added challenge, try removing your traits or using a lower level weapon! Still too easy? Put on more restrictions, like no heal skills, no dodges, or, for the Halo Iron Skull fans, reset the instance upon being downed.

Single-player RPGamers have been using “low levels” and “initial equipment” and other restrictions for added challenge for years. Don’t know why you think the game should cater to you while excluding other people when you have good control over how easy or hard your combat is.

sorudo.9054:

try to survive long enough to get the survivor achievement with anything but a guardian

Crafting works wonders.

Have any of the claims come before it happens or only afterwards?

Djinn.9245:

Filaha.1678:

tekfan.3179:

I would have liked that too.
In a way I’m beginning to hate these Living World episodes.
Everything is just about killing the bad guys and stopping things getting worse.
No way of actually helping things to get better.

Festival of the Four Winds was based around raising funds for Lion’s Arch.

Honestly, it’d be ridiculous if the “heroes” of the game were running around picking up garbage in Lion’s Arch when there’s (potentially) a dragon about to make things worse.

No one can fight 24/7. Troops IRL are given furloughs to take a break from active combat. And many “heroes” like to help the needy when they are taking a break. So I think its a great idea.

LA has become so disorganized and hard to get around. Everyone I know prefers to go to some other main city to do stuff instead of LA.

We’re not troops.

We’re people trying to prevent potential world destruction and stop vines that are a very real, very immediate threat.

If you’d take a break from saving the entire world just to go kick around a city and pick up some garbage in the streets, then I’d like to vote you out of the running for being a hero.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Shadowmoon.7986:

And to be honest, is there any characteristics to Majory to make her female, beside her voice and character model. If she was replaced by a male character, the script would not need to been changed. Otherwise if we replaced Kasmeer with a male, it would be extremely funny to have the exact same dialogue. This is why I conclude that the decision to have Majory female is so that Anet could capitalize on immature male fan service.

The point is that the standard hard-boiled detective is male. Delaqua’s personality, voice, and actions fit that trope well when originally introduced. It was only later that she and Kasmeer hooked up (and that’s also a trope: opposites that spend too much time together under dangerous conditions fall in love).

I’m pretty sure there’s absolutely nobody in the world that could create a character that isn’t attributable to some kind of trope, because I’m pretty sure that everything is a trope.

darkace.8925:

And where would you be without Taimi’s expertise? Or Marjory’s intuition? Or Kasmeer’s super-Mesmer powers? Or Rox’s connections? Or Mr. E’s hints? You’d be right smack in the middle of nowhere. And unless you’re following Braham 24/7, how do you know he didn’t save people during Lion’s Arch. In a living, breathing world you’ve got to assume some stuff happens off-screen.

Oh, I see where your problem is. You’re confusing me saying that we lead the way as saying “we do everything ever”. Not sure how you got to that conclusion, but okay.

Also, because Braham just stood in the one spot during the evacuation portion of Lion’s Arch. That’s how I know he wasn’t saving them.

the context of this conversation, it’s the only definition that applies.

No it isn’t. It’s the only one you WANT to apply, but that doesn’t mean others don’t apply.
We lead the way.

Warrior Rifle and Ranger Longbow (at least) allow you to max range AFK. You’re juuuuust out of reach of his roar.

darkace.8925:

What you’re doing is taking credit for a win because your RBI single drove in the go-ahead run. You’re not giving credit to the guy batting in front of you for getting a single then putting himself in scoring position by stealing second base. You’re not crediting the rest of your team for playing good defense, or the closer for protecting the lead. You’re being a bad teammate.

No I’m not. I’m telling it like it is.
They did not fight the marionette. They did not run around LA saving citizens. They only barely helped against the hologram, and IIRC, not at all against the Assault Knights. Two of them got blown up by Scarlet. In each case, it’s our characters that are rushing into the thick, getting done the important things, while they stand behind.

Leading a group of people is, by definition, about “being in charge or command of” them. Do you really feel you’re in charge or command of this group of NPCs?

That’s a definition, but that’s not the definition.

“Leading the way” doesn’t necessarily mean you’re deciding, alone, where to go. It just means you’re going in first.

darkace.8925:

Nanashi.6297:

And besides you are the leader of the group. Without you the group wouldn’t even exist. Maybe not even be alive. So ‘Boss’ is fine. Sounds cooler than ‘friend’ or stuff like that.

In what way are you the leader of the group? There’s been neither leading nor following with this group, ergo “boss” doesn’t fit naturally. Sure, you’ve made a few decisions, but those decisions amounted to a mother asking her six year old child if they want Count Chocula or Frankenberry cereal for breakfast.

Who fought the Marionette? They didn’t. They stood at the ends of the pathways.
Who saved people in Lion’s Arch? They didn’t. They just stood near rally points.
Who killed Scarlet? They didn’t. At best, one of them provided a distraction (which there was an achievement to make her actually not do anyways).

Leading a group isn’t necessarily about barking orders at them.

Snowmoon.1758:

If belinda was to die, then there should have been a scene where we see Marjory absolutely POWERLESS to save her and see her slowly die right before her eyes.
It would have been a much more powerful scene then the one we got right now.
Meh~ i guess they have limited budget on cinematics.

After which people would have complained that the game is so focused on Marjory and blah blah forced dialogue.

I’m actually happier that she’s killed off-screen while we’re too busy. I mean, what’s the alternative? We, who have slayed dragons, just kinda stood there and watched a vine grab her and crush her? So heroic.

Had enough “Well, where the hell was I when this guy was getting killed” in the personal story. At least now there’s a REASON why we didn’t save her.

GuzziHero.5104:

A tornado has sucked up chickens. How do we deal with this? HIT IT WITH OUR SWORDS!

Actually, we deal with it by saving the chickens, which is what the event tracker shows. The bar fills up even just pulling a chicken out from the sand after it launches it out.

So… why are we not cleaving chickens in two?

Same reason we can accurately hit a mosquito with a rifle from 50 yards.

Why are we not being sucked in also?

Because we’re heaver than chickens.