Guild Wars 2

I liked the capes in Guild Wars, especially since the art and animation teams got such a fluid “flow” to the fabric. (Actually, other game designers asked how it was done, back in the day!)

I imagine there would be challenges in incorporating capes, and naturally a cape would cover some of the armor pieces, which is a drawback when you’ve worked hard to get the whole “look” going on. As mentioned, it was brought up in the CDI, so that’s good.

Paradox — I’m curious. Why do you say “no capes?”

I always figured the NPCs were already staying over a bit, since they don’t depart until November 4th. That’s a +4 to Halloween, giving us a bit of extra time to complete our transactions. As much as I love Halloween, I think part of its appeal is the limited time that the whole event, including the NPC crew, is around.

Basically, having a bunch of NPCs with jack-o-lanterns and candy corns over their heads in April or July might be a little odd.

Bellizare.5816:

Santa and the Easter bunny are Americans.

Oh really? Seems rather international to me, with origins in Scandinavia. And hey, the North Pole isn’t located in the U.S.

Valentine.6529:

Earlier this year I suggested that they play the screaming sounds during the Escape Lions Arch Event, and place them into the Halloween event. It makes the ambiance even better. Thank you Anet!

Nice, eh? I’ve been enjoying the whole Halloween experience with extra spooky sounds.

Closing thread as per the OP’s request. GazaKnight (the OP) added a few final comments above.

As previously mentioned, we have people monitoring infractions on a 24/7/365 basis. If you’re not sure how to report someone for griefing, perhaps the most obvious choice would be “offensive language.”

If you report, the chat will be reviewed and action will be taken. You don’t need to submit a ticket; you don’t need to ping someone directly. Report and it will be dealt with. (You’re welcome to submit a ticket, but truly that seldom is necessary.)

Rainmaker — having spent a bit of my evening on my patoot last night, as a result of the foe you handily vanquished, I must say I’m very impressed with your achievement and your style. Well done!

This thread seems to have run its course. We’ve said it many times, but anyone whose account was suspended or terminated should submit a ticket to discuss the matter with the Customer Support Team. Posting on forums — about your own account or someone else’s — simply isn’t an effective way of submitting questions or making an appeal of account action.

ozmaniandevil.6805:

Hi Gaile While I’m sure we all appreciate your response, I believe the reason that the thread has gone from suggestions to merely complaints is that probably every possible suggestion has already been made, yet players still want to voice their concerns and opinions on these still-bad April changes. We also don’t want the thread to fall to the wayside or be forgotten.

Understood. Suggestions that have been made are good; they don’t need to be repeated. It’s a huge thread, but it’s extra meaty and it’s been and will be read.

And the devs have made it clear that there’s no chance that these concerns will be forgotten. Absolutely no chance of that at all.

This would be a big undertaking. I’ve seen people get bogged down in events of this type that involve only a few dozen people. Imagining one person managing potentially 2,000 players (at 1 gold each) is mind-boggling. Looking at technical limitations like the 10 mail limit makes it even more challenging.

Our current position on this is that we will not take an official position on this. We cannot sanction, vet, approve, recommend, or support it in any way. I’ve already provided some information about potential issues, and while we don’t want to suggest that any of these would be the case with this event, a short list includes:

• Not enough interest, event cancelled, no refunds given
• Typo’d list, can’t send refunds even if intended
• Asking for player’s information (even for prize distribution) that exposes credentials through using an account name instead of a display name or character name
• CS is asked to intervene (to force prize distribution, to settle disputes). We can’t and we won’t get involved. This is a player-to-player arrangement for which we do not offer support
• A host does not take enough care to ensure legitimacy and transparency, and is subject to complaints and appeals, which again CS would not be responsible for resolving
• Host requests CS help in distribution
• Host is harassed and insists that CS mediate disputes
• Item is never distributed

Each player needs to decide if this is something that s/he wants to get involved with, and needs to do so with the caveats and cautions in mind. We’re all for fun, and this could be great fun. But there are risks, too, and those should be viewed with care.

Lastly, it would not be appropriate to use the Guild Wars 2 Discussion Sub-forum for this event. The player event sub-forum would be the place, if it’s promoted on our forums at all. If this does appear on our forums, please add the following message:

This event is not offered or supported by ArenaNet. This event is offered by [name, an individual player, and any disputes or issues that might arise in connection with this event should be addressed to the sponsoring player.

Having answered the questions, it’s appropriate for us to close this thread at this time.

I promise that you’re not being snubbed (Tachenon, you made me both smile and wince there, with your definition of the term). Please know this thread is serving a good purpose and that is is offering the dev team valuable information. The fact is, though, there’s simply nothing new to say on the subject right now.

We know that you’d like to have some info on this subject. But until there’s something of substance to say, devs wouldn’t post in the thread due both to their generally busy schedules and to our practice of talking about matters of this sort only when we’re able to provide something of substance, within a meaningful timeframe.

Having said all that, your input is extremely valuable, and that’s why it was requested back in April. We reached out to you, and you provided a good deal of insight, and of good value, too! With subsequent changes to the game, your input shifted to address current concerns. That’s very meaningful to those team members following this thread and we thank you.

We’ve said it before, but giving details about for a suggested change is better than saying “I don’t like it.” If you can say why, and give a proposed fix, that’s very useful to the team. You are not in any way obliged to do this, you know that and I’m agreeing. I’m just making the suggestion to put the most value on your time in posting and the devs in reading.

Thanks.

My personal first order of business would be to rally the troops (boy those workers are slow!) to repair this icon. It just makes me so sad.

HHR LostProphet.4801:

Gaile Gray.6029:

Flitzie — I am not an economist. But I know our resident experts in this field have posted about this in the past.

I suggest you read this thread, it’s fascinating!

Or search for John Smith’s posts here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/members/John-Smith-4610

Both links point to John’s profile.

Gosh darn it! I’ll fix, and thanks for pointing that out!

Flitzie — I am not an economist. But I know our resident experts in this field have posted about this in the past.

I suggest you read this thread, it’s fascinating!

Or search for John Smith’s posts here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/members/John-Smith-4610

daimasei.4091:

What I’m supposed to do with 1 gem???

What do you do with 1 cent in change? Isn’t it the same thing?

daimasei.4091:

Wow, they “fixed” this and now everything is on sale? Clever strategy indeed!

No, the team rushed to update the exchange because they knew there was a sale coming and didn’t want to cause disappointment. No strategy involved, just addressing player feedback.

I was really pleased that it rolled out so quickly, because we have a sale going on and it’s always nice to take advantage of those!

Thanks for your patience and support, everyone!

Here’s the interface for exchanging gems for gold.

Hopefully someone can explain what they feel is wrong about this, because in both cases the amount is carefully parsed to the smallest denominator that I can see.

Are you concerned that you cannot buy 512 gold, 4 silver, and 93 copper? Well, that’s true, it’s not possible. But there’s no “cash grab” that I can see, and I’m trying to understand what your concerns are.

I confess: I’m confused. I just went and talked to our UI developer/programmer type people, and they opened up the UI and showed me an incremental purchase rate. As they put in a figure, say, 512 gems, they got a price in gold, silver, and copper, nothing rounded up to the next gold. And when they completed the transaction that amount — and only that amount — was what was deducted from their total currency.

Can you show me what you’re seeing that doesn’t present an exact amount?

Thanks.

Lishtenbird.2814:

IIRC the rounding is only on the display side, when you buy, the correct amount is subtracted. Or that’s how it used to be.

Oh, that would be great, if it’s display and not functionality. If someone verifies that, could you please post? Thanks a bunch.

Lodius — thank you for asking. Please allow me a bit of time to investigate this and get you an answer.

One note: You would never want to ask for a user name — that’s the e-mail address used to log in to the game and it is part of an account’s credentials (which should never be made public). I believe you may have been referring to display name or character name, either of which is publicly viewable and would be equally useful as an identifier.

Questions that people may have include, “What if this isn’t legitimate?” or “What if I get scammed? Can I get a refund?” Customer Support informs me that they would investigate, but that their ability to resolve the issue would be limited to taking action against the person or persons involved and would not include making individual refunds to victims. (Gold would be traced and removed but it could not be individually replaced.)

Please know that I am not at all suggesting that this is a scam. However, I want to provide a generic indication of how situations are resolved when something is not operated with complete legitimacy.

I will respond when I have an answer, and if this is a “go” I will reopen the thread. Thanks for asking about this.

I will be sure to pass along your comments and I know a lot of the devs will see this thread and be glad to hear that you’re pleased with the changes.

Thanks for the insights!

The Currency Exchange was updated this morning to allow players to purchase gems or gold in increments of their choosing. Because of this, I believe this thread is moot, and therefore we’ll close it.

But to address some of the other comments I believe I see here:

If you are suggesting that the exchange rate was somehow tinkered with, that question has already been addressed in this thread and specifically in this post. Such conjecture has been reviewed and found to be completely inaccurate.

If you are suggesting that all new development of every kind — from convenience items to appearance options — should be offered for free, please reconsider that opinion. Much is offered for free, but we need financial support — as any business does — in order to continue to support the game and to offer expanded content such as our Living World episodes. Imagine any business, from a grocery store to a car manufacturer, offering everything they produce in the future on a no-cost basis. It’s not possible in the real world and it’s simply not possible in game development, either, and particularly in a game that does not charge a monthly fee. Voluntary, individual support of our Gem Store is an essential element that allows us to continue to support the game and to continue to offer expanded content, feature additions, and many other things on a free basis to every player.

The Currency Exchange now offers players two choices: Gem packages and a fully-customizable option called Custom Exchange that will allow you to set gold or gem selections in virtually any denomination.

Please see today’s Update Notes for more information.

I love that you’re thinking about this, and offering suggestions on how to keep on our path of improved communications. (And <3 for noticing the recent increase in posts. It’s so nice that so many forum members are noticing our increased focus and efforts!)

Here are a few questions:

• How do we keep the stickied thread meaningful? That is, how do we use it to focus on truly major issues? Because what’s major to one player may be minor to someone else.
  • (See the thread about the disabled animations if you want an example. You’ll note that some players completely agreed with the decision and welcomed the info that they would return; others were puzzled by the decision or felt it shouldn’t have happened, quite the variety, as in most threads.)
• What’s a realistic bar? 5000 reads? 400 posts? 10 pages? And, if there is a bar, can we expect that someone wouldn’t bump a thread — sure, upon risk of forum moderation, of course — simply to meet the bar?
• What about the questions that can’t be answered? I think it would be natural that a “highlights” thread might contain posts that we simply cannot answer. But it would be sad if forum members then got angry because by highlighting the topic it seemed to require addressing? Could forum members — and I know this is difficult — agree that an answer is welcome, and that the answer may not be possible?
• Wouldn’t this possibly deflect conversation in various threads? If such a thing existed, I’d suggest that it would link to the highlighted thread and that any dev response go in that original thread.
• Where does this thread live? Guild Wars 2 Discussion? Somewhere else?

Anyway just some questions that occurred to me. Let’s continue the conversation!

Hamfast.8719:

I loved the Plains of Ashford one. When time expired I was underwater surrounded by sharks, but since I was a bad guy by that time they left me alone.

Professional courtesy.

And hey, I loved that event, too!

At my last counting, there are 4,194 actionable activities self-reported in this thread.

BUT… in the spirit of Halloween, we’re going to look the other way.

:D

To round out this discussion:

I believe that Djinn hit the nail on the head: Disabling the animations globally took far less time than re-implementing them individually will require.

To answer Kolompi’s question (if I’m understanding it properly), designing, testing, and implementing new animations takes a long time. It was judged more prudent to disable the existing animations (and work on having them function selectively) than to reposition team members into the process of redesigning them.

And again, the animations will be back in the future.

Direwolf.8796:

I appreciate the value of constructive feedback but the online GW2 community just seems so ungrateful and unappreciative Just think of the negative image you are portraying for new/potential players. I think more people should know how great this game really is.

If I was Anet and I read all the crap people complain about I would find it a little disheartening. So I’m posting for the first and only time to say the following:

Anet, I love this game and I think you guys have done a fantastic job. Thank you for all your hard work! Dont forget there are people that really appreciate this game and work thats gone in to it.

New & Potential players, come and give this game a shot and decide for yourself if you like it Don’t get caught up in the negativity of some people . The complainers are the loudest voices but there is a great community in this game if you give it a try.

-happy GW2 player

Thank you. I think it’s a wonderful game, and I’m proud to be involved with the team.

I saw the test of the new interface today and it looks solid to me. (I also happen to think it’s very attractive, but maybe that’s just me. )

The interface and Custom option move into testing now, and the text is already headed to Localization.

The dev team is keenly aware that there are Halloween items available only during a specific period (through November 4) and therefore they intend to do their darnedest to offer the new options in the next few days but certainly in advance of November 4th if humanly possible. (I have confidence this will happen.)

Soooo sorry! I asked about this and forgot to post!

Some time ago, it was noticed and reported as a “bug” that during cinematics, the “fidget” animations continued. So you’re seeing this exciting story bit about a dragon attack and, behind the scenes, your character is yawning and toeing the sand. It just didn’t fit.

So the animations were temporarily removed to be worked on and reincorporated in a way that allowed them to perform normally in the game but to stop (or maybe change) during cinematics. But getting to a place where the animations could be configured on a more fine-grained basis took more time than anticipated.

From what I understand, the team has the tools to reconfigure and re-enable the animations, but the team lead told me that naturally they’ll need to figure out when someone (or maybe more than one person) can be assigned the task. As it turns out, each animation bit needs to be reconfigured individually.

TL;dr: This change is coming, as soon as it can be scheduled and prioritized. Naturally, some matters that are higher on the priority list but this project will be scheduled as appropriate.

titanlectro.5029:

Give us an ETA, emphasis on the E.

When people complain that the ETA was not exact, remind them that estimates are not promises! You could even include that reminder after every estimate. Something like this.

Hi guys,

Don’t worry, this change is in review right now. It will probably be released in the next few days (remember: estimates are not promises). We’ll keep you informed.

-Hypothetical Anet Dev

If a player reads a post like that, and comes back five days later demanding that Anet make good on their promise, it is only because of that player’s stupidity. I hope that the community will address that player’s comments without Anet needed it intervene at all.

This is very sensible. Thanks for the input.

wwwes.1398:

Definitely definitely prefer something specific to soon. I mean, if you give us an estimate and then notify us that its changed, that’s twice we’ve heard a real honest answer. :-)

I like that too. Thank you.

Fernling.1729:

Not giving any useful information by saying “soon” kittenes off everybody. Saying “in a couple days” and then it taking a week because of unexpected issues only kittenes off the unreasonable people.
-The unreasonable people will complain no matter what you do
-The reasonable people will understand

Why kitten off both parties?

Despite the onslaught of “kittens” in this post, I get it. I only hope that the number of raesonables is far, far greater than the unreasonables.

Ok, that was a quick run across the room and here’s the answer:

Yep.

With the Maize Balm recipe making ToT bags a year-around item for those who craft it, or with the use of Vial of Maize Balm drops, pups will continue to be available for the foreseeable future. Obviously there’s Halloween 2015 to be designed, but it would be nearly a year before that would roll out, so the short answer is…

Yes.
Si.
Oui.
Ya.

Gaia Orunitia.5794:

2015 is in 2 monthes, I really hope you’re kidding :p

Good catch! I meant “Halloween 2015” which is a year from now. Not the whole year’s planning.

wwwes.1398:

Thank you for being on top of this, Gaile.

Do you know whether the mini will still drop from the Trick or Treat bags after the event is over?

I do not know. Let me see if I can find out.

Not next year, no. Not months from now, no. It’s coming, and it’s coming very soon.

In fact, I’m going to a review in less than an hour, although that doesn’t set a release time quite yet.

What I wonder about is this: What if someone says something is coming “in the next couple of days” or “within the next week” or “by the end of the month” and then testing reveals an issue that delays the implementation? Would you rather hear something rather specific, like “in the next couple of days,” even while you know that it could change for reasons outside our control? Or would you rather hear “soon” and not have as solid an expectation, but also take on board that the implementation is a top priority (as was mentioned in the thread about the Currency Exchange changes)?

I feel that either answer isn’t perfect, so I’d welcome your insights. You should know that I truly do understand that “soon” is frustratingly vague and I argue against.. I mean, “I gently speak in favor of alternatives…” whenever we can use something more meaningful. On the other hand, saying something more specific can result in flaming “You promised it by XX time!” comments, because even a casual possible release time could be adopted as an absolute date/time/time zone promise.

Thoughts?

So glad you liked the trailer. I think it was marvelous, too!

The Currency Exchange will be offering incremental purchase options with a new build that should go out quite soon. So no worries about purchasing in “bundles,” you can purchase as you desire using the “Custom” option.

I read through this thread to get caught up, and there seem to be a few questions that I can address:

• The miniature is extremely rare, it’s true. But the drop is random, which accounts for one person getting a pooch in a few hundred bags and someone else not getting it after opening several thousand.
• One of our statisticians just checked the drop rate, and there is no error in the drop rate — it truly is dropping as designed.
• Diminishing Returns do not apply to ToT Bags. I mean, phew! I read that question and my blood ran cold, but I felt sure — and the designer confirmed — that DR is not a factor with the Trick-or-Treat bags. Open 1, open 100, the drop rate is not impacted by diminishing returns.
• I’ve passed along your suggestions. I believe that changes are not planned or even possible for this year’s event. What happens in future events — whether Gwynefyrdd will return — is not yet on the radar. Again, your thoughts and suggestions have been shared and I know that the devs do listen to your input. But what actually takes place in 2015 and beyond is not yet established.

I also want to say that I’d love nothing more than to have Gwynefyrdd for myself. One comment here — “he swims!” and I was gone. I truly wish all of you great good luck with this goal!

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a bug in which players could claim Mad King Says rewards early, preventing them from obtaining their achieved reward.
• Fixed a bug in which the Molten Alliance Mining Pick went invisible while mining.

Arikyali.5804:

Oh, that is so awesome! Thank you for sharing this!

Yes, thanks a bunch!

Xiahou Mao.9701:

The Trick or Treat Bags aren’t going away. They’re going to stay available all throughout the year, and the Maize Balm consumable item has been added to let players continue to generate new Trick or Treat Bags even in December or February or whenever we want. So the mini will remain available in the bags, at least up until next year’s Hallowe’en event where we might see new items dropping.

Go grab your Maize Balm recipe (it’s time-gated, one per day) so that if you can’t get the mini before the event ends, you’ll still have a source for new bags all year long. Then hit up Godslost Swamp with the Balm every now and then to get more bags and keep trying.

Thanks for sharing this tip, Xiahou Mao.

I have passed along feedback about the miniature, so that your concerns can be reviewed.

I will see if I can follow up on this. I may not get an answer today, since it’s Friday night, but I will see if there’s any info on this to share.

Lunar Sunset.8742:

No more issues here, I disconnected twice came back and finally finished Mad King’s Clock Tower.

Great. And congrats.

One Note Chord.5031:

ozmaniandevil.6805:

That Guy.5704:

ozmaniandevil.6805:

Um… just one thing ANet…. when you look at the base ingredients for say, Zojja’s masque, it LOOKS like you need only 150 scraps of silk, because the picture of the silk scrap covers the EXTRA ZERO. You actually need 1500. This is true for all the the base materials for the light armor. In every one it looks like hundreds instead of thousands.

That really needs to be fixed. Really. I thought I already had all I needed and went to make some stuff and was confused as to why I couldn’t make as much as I needed. Turns out I need more than 9000 more scraps than I thought. Bad. Very bad.

If you are referring to that feature on the wiki, the wiki is player maintained, not ANet. Also, again if you are referring to the wiki, I dont see that problem on my browser so it might be a browser or device issue.

Hmmm… ok, so I had originally used Google Chrome to open up the window. I just tried Explorer and it does show up correctly. Argh! Sorry for my assumption that this was something that ANet should fix. Obviously I have to use Explorer for the wiki now :p Would be nice if all browsers worked the same.

Works for me in Chrome. The last 0 is farther to the right than the last digit of the other numbers, though, so maybe there’s something set up differently in your browser that results in less space between the numbers and icons? Here’s what it looks like for me:

Thanks for the images. That one zero is a little differently aligned, it’s true, but I think you’ve offered an interesting theory about the browser settings and I imagine that the configuration could impact image/number spacing, which could account for the dropped zero.

Is anyone else having trouble with unclear numbers? I can see where it would be quite a shock to anticipate getting 10% of what you really need!

Just got an update and things have been returning to normal. Please post if you’re still having difficulties. Best to do that in the Technical Support sub-forum so that right eyes on on any remaining issues.

Thanks for your patience.

Hi there,

I just got an e-mail that said that the issue has been addressed and the connectivity is returning to normal levels.

Are you able to connect now?

In reading the comments here, it seems that some forum members may have missed the update, originally posted at about 6:00 PM Pacific on 10/22. There are a lot of posts in this thread, so here’s that update, reposted for your convenience:

Here’s an update for you:

It’s clear that quite a lot of you would like to have greater flexibility in using the Currency Exchange. Our intention when we designed the new interface was to streamline large volume purchases, which make up the majority of transactions.

In light of your feedback, we will update the Currency Exchange so that you can decide how you want to use it. We will keep the new streamlined system and also offer a new “Custom” button on the panel that you can use to exchange any increment of gems or gold.

We anticipate rolling this out soon. Stay tuned!

~~~~~

Sorry for the delay in posting this, but out of respect to our international community, we wanted to be able to post in several forums at once.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As of today, Friday, the developers have been actively working on creation of the Custom option. They then will put it through a testing pass after which it will be rolled out into the game. We think you’ll like the option, and I believe you’ll be pleased with the timeframe for this implementation, as well.

I so love this. Thank you for sharing, cDKI!

Vladimer.7051:

I will add as a mini collector and a avid gem purchaser, I am rather ticked that the only way to get this mini is all based on RNG. I have already opened over 5k bags and nothing. I always buy the gem mini’s to complete my collection. I will have to stop now due to this matter.

boohoo to me I know, This is now the only aspect of the game I enjoy ( I am a digital Hoarder)

I understand, Vladimer. I am the same sort — I’m still playing sometimes for a MPB (Miniature Polar Bear) in Guild Wars during the Wintersday event.

If you continue the quest, I will wish you luck, as one collector to another.

Thanks for your help, Aerdwen. We went ahead and merged the thread to keep all feedback and discussion together.

I’m glad you all are liking that little pup. I agree, he’s incredibly adorable!! Except… I thought he was a she. Do we know for sure?