While I approve that ANet is acting to preserve the value of crafting mats, they should not have exempted raid Ascended.
They aren’t exempted, they are subject to just as many restrictions as the other systems. Namely the weekly currency lockout.
The only current problem with the system is the average time & cost across each mode isn’t nearly close enough to what it should be, but that’s not a raid issue that’s an economic issue.
While I appreciate that your concerns and mine might be dissimilar, I don’t care about balancing restrictions. I do care about what I get out of the existence of Ascended crafting.
While I approve that ANet is acting to preserve the value of crafting mats, they should not have exempted raid Ascended.
Ascended is the (atm at least) final gear tier.
Atm?
A-t-kittening-m?
I’m staring down the barrel of trying to level leatherworking and then craft ascended armor for my main, at ruinous expense. The idea that all that work could be undone with the addition of another tier is incredibly disheartening.
Yeah, I know. I remember when Exotic was supposed to be the final tier, so I know what ANet statements are worth. I hope they don’t but I no longer rely on ANet’s word.
I believe the change was inevitable. Why?
- Anet wants Ascended to continue stimulating the economy.
- The game is aging.
- Some people have stopped playing.
- Ascended is the (atm at least) final gear tier.
- ANet has added a couple of ways to gain the top gear without needing to craft.
All of these factors were going to sooner or later cause a serious reduction in demand which would lower the prices paid for mats. This move postpones that happening. I wouldn’t be surprised to see it adopted for raid-available Ascended as well.
New Player, Sad Player. Expansion ruined it.
in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns
Posted by: IndigoSundown.5419
You can argue that it’s too late, and the horse has already left the stable, but that STILL doesn’t really indicate WHY the horse has left the stable. There are only theories here, being stated as facts.
I wouldn’t dignify most of the speculation as theories, nor even hypotheses. More like guesses skewed by Confirmation Bias.
- Cooldown on weapon swap serves the same purpose as cooldowns on skills. They add opportunity cost to actions taken by players.
- Playing with opportunity costs provides some depth to the combat system, just as opportunity costs in traits and gear provide some depth to character building. Deeper systems are inherently more interesting than shallower ones because they engage the brain.
- Without CD’s — or with lesser CD’ — players would have access to more effective character abilities more often, making the game easier for them. That’s not necessarily a good thing because many complain the game is too easy as it is.
- CD’s are one of the tools the devs use to balance the game. Without CD’s the devs would need to re-balance character abilities to compensate. Such changes are risky, because game balance is complicated, involving many factors. Getting it right isn’t easy. In fact, some say the devs don’t get it right as often as those players would like. Also, further complicating the task of balancing the game’s combat/build systems would take serious dev time — and there have been numerous complaints that ANet does not put out balance patches fast enough as is.
If you want faster weapon swap, roll a warrior and trait Discipline.
It’s like Orr. I never soloed a temple but I never grouped for one either.
Yeah, well, I’ve never had to taxi to do a temple, either.
Just like to say again, open maps should be open and explorable not gated.
Stick as many jump puzzles and (insert whatever here) behind gates as much as you want if it doesn’t affect MAP COMPLETION or gaining a Ranger/ Druid whatever pet..
Can I complete so and so jump puzzle?
Probably not as I don’t like them and don’t have the patience or time to spend hours on them for a chest full of crap.
I already have to jump through hoops ( literally in some cases) for even the basic achievements in the game.
(Don’t get me started on the Lions Arch Karka shooting)
Yeah, wait for night time for a door to open then do a jump puzzle and it’s in the bag…
Of course you have six hours to waste on the one thing..
Isn’t this supposed to be fun?
Explorable should be just that. I had no time limits or needed a massive amount of players to get around Queensdale or any of the other core maps.
Why now?I was in Orr today with a new guildie, who was trying to complete Cursed Shore. The temple of Grenth was under risen control and one of the hero points he couldn’t commune with because it was surrounded by poison. Tried laying down a healing spring for him, but he still couldn’t commune.
Until the temple was taken, he couldn’t commune with that point no matter what we did and the temple event wasn’t up.
We had to wait for the temple event to get up. I popped a tag, I got people there, and we finally took back the temple. Then he was able to get that hero point (not the one in the temple of grenth but the one on the north side of the same island).
This game has always had stuff gated by events. It’s just been so long most people don’t remember.
If this comes up again, you can commune at that HC even if the poison field is up if you move all the way up against the back wall. That puts you just out of the poison field. You’d have to wait for the poison to run its course because the damage ticks are what breaks the commune. Haven’t tried it in a while, but it worked last summer, so unless ANet increased the size of the effect … At least it would be worth a shot.
If you want an example of a core HC that cannot be gotten if a temple is in the Risen’s hands, you’d be better to use the Melandru HC on the plain just north of the Grenth Temple. If that briar effect is up … well, I haven’t found a way around it, anyway.
There is no back wall. This is in the open in the middle of a field. There’s no back wall, no way out of the poison field and we spent 15 minutes trying to do it.
There is only one Grenth Statue HC in Cursed Shore. It’s in the Temple of Silence.
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Statue_of_Grenth_
Are you sure you aren’t talking about the Melandru Statue which procs bleed and cripple rather than poison?
I didn’t say the grenth statue. I’m talking about the hero point on the north of the island. But that shrine isn’t actually taken over until you take the temple. You have to take the temple to control the shrine. Before that, it’s just out in the middle of a field of poison and there’s no way to get it. I know because I was there earlier today.
You take the temple, and you can then commune with that hero point.
There are two Hero Points on the northern part of Graven Cay. One is Harbinger Torch, which is not in any kind of damaging field unless someone standing near it gets targeted by the Risen catapults. That one is easily dealt with by getting the catapult to target you a bit away from it, dodging, then running over and communing, for which there is ample time while the catapult reloads.
The other is the statue of Melandru, which is in a vine/creeper field if the Melandru Temple is not in Pact control. That field causes bleeds and cripple, not poison. That one can be gained via stealth, according to both Khisanth and the Wiki.
So, are you talking some other island? Mistook bleed for poison? There’s only one Grenth statue — which is the one that produces a poison field — in Cursed Shore and that’s in the Cathedral of Silence.
Just like to say again, open maps should be open and explorable not gated.
Stick as many jump puzzles and (insert whatever here) behind gates as much as you want if it doesn’t affect MAP COMPLETION or gaining a Ranger/ Druid whatever pet..
Can I complete so and so jump puzzle?
Probably not as I don’t like them and don’t have the patience or time to spend hours on them for a chest full of crap.
I already have to jump through hoops ( literally in some cases) for even the basic achievements in the game.
(Don’t get me started on the Lions Arch Karka shooting)
Yeah, wait for night time for a door to open then do a jump puzzle and it’s in the bag…
Of course you have six hours to waste on the one thing..
Isn’t this supposed to be fun?
Explorable should be just that. I had no time limits or needed a massive amount of players to get around Queensdale or any of the other core maps.
Why now?I was in Orr today with a new guildie, who was trying to complete Cursed Shore. The temple of Grenth was under risen control and one of the hero points he couldn’t commune with because it was surrounded by poison. Tried laying down a healing spring for him, but he still couldn’t commune.
Until the temple was taken, he couldn’t commune with that point no matter what we did and the temple event wasn’t up.
We had to wait for the temple event to get up. I popped a tag, I got people there, and we finally took back the temple. Then he was able to get that hero point (not the one in the temple of grenth but the one on the north side of the same island).
This game has always had stuff gated by events. It’s just been so long most people don’t remember.
If this comes up again, you can commune at that HC even if the poison field is up if you move all the way up against the back wall. That puts you just out of the poison field. You’d have to wait for the poison to run its course because the damage ticks are what breaks the commune. Haven’t tried it in a while, but it worked last summer, so unless ANet increased the size of the effect … At least it would be worth a shot.
If you want an example of a core HC that cannot be gotten if a temple is in the Risen’s hands, you’d be better to use the Melandru HC on the plain just north of the Grenth Temple. If that briar effect is up … well, I haven’t found a way around it, anyway.
There is no back wall. This is in the open in the middle of a field. There’s no back wall, no way out of the poison field and we spent 15 minutes trying to do it.
There is only one Grenth Statue HC in Cursed Shore. It’s in the Temple of Silence.
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Statue_of_Grenth_
Are you sure you aren’t talking about the Melandru Statue which procs bleed and cripple rather than poison?
Just like to say again, open maps should be open and explorable not gated.
Stick as many jump puzzles and (insert whatever here) behind gates as much as you want if it doesn’t affect MAP COMPLETION or gaining a Ranger/ Druid whatever pet..
Can I complete so and so jump puzzle?
Probably not as I don’t like them and don’t have the patience or time to spend hours on them for a chest full of crap.
I already have to jump through hoops ( literally in some cases) for even the basic achievements in the game.
(Don’t get me started on the Lions Arch Karka shooting)
Yeah, wait for night time for a door to open then do a jump puzzle and it’s in the bag…
Of course you have six hours to waste on the one thing..
Isn’t this supposed to be fun?
Explorable should be just that. I had no time limits or needed a massive amount of players to get around Queensdale or any of the other core maps.
Why now?I was in Orr today with a new guildie, who was trying to complete Cursed Shore. The temple of Grenth was under risen control and one of the hero points he couldn’t commune with because it was surrounded by poison. Tried laying down a healing spring for him, but he still couldn’t commune.
Until the temple was taken, he couldn’t commune with that point no matter what we did and the temple event wasn’t up.
We had to wait for the temple event to get up. I popped a tag, I got people there, and we finally took back the temple. Then he was able to get that hero point (not the one in the temple of grenth but the one on the north side of the same island).
This game has always had stuff gated by events. It’s just been so long most people don’t remember.
If this comes up again, you can commune at that HC even if the poison field is up if you move all the way up against the back wall. That puts you just out of the poison field. You’d have to wait for the poison to run its course because the damage ticks are what breaks the commune. Haven’t tried it in a while, but it worked last summer, so unless ANet increased the size of the effect … At least it would be worth a shot.
If you want an example of a core HC that cannot be gotten if a temple is in the Risen’s hands, you’d be better to use the Melandru HC on the plain just north of the Grenth Temple. If that briar effect is up … well, I haven’t found a way around it, anyway.
guys, does any number of spirit shards really change your game experience? you can get spirits shards from tome of knowledge, from dailies, from so many surces that the original OP just sound like an angry rant for something very stupid (xp numbers distract me cause i don’t raid and raid is evil).
if anything i find stupid to not even take a look at raid content to try to unlock the mastery track which honestly is not gating anything that you can get more or easily elsewhereIt’s not about the shards. It doesn’t have to be shards, it could be anything. It’s about the wasted XP that the game throws at players in job lots. XP is an everyman currency, but only completionists get anything out of it. The system is borked.
O_o I have to say, you would hate playing pretty much any other MMO out there in the world.
In every single one of those, at max level, all that XP … vanishes. Like, literally nothing. No spirit shard equivalent, just … gone. Kill a mob, that XP was wasted.
If GW2 only hid the “you earned 12 XP” notifications, it would be identical to everywhere else in your situation. Which … wouldn’t have been the worst decision they could have mode.
Just sayin’
Had GW2 started like those other MMO’s, that would be one thing. I’d have been OK with that. It did not, Players continued to accumulate skill points on each level ding post cap, just as was the case in GW. There were fewer uses for them than in GW, but they did have uses. Also, since ANet added uses for the post cap level currency in GW, it seemed possible they’d do so in GW2.
Then, they took away the post-80 ding currency for everyone. I was OK with that, too. Ah, but then they restored post-cap XP granting currency, but only for completionists. That, I’m not OK with.
- There’s a bit more for the solo player to do in HoT after the 4/2016 revision and the LWS3 zones are more solo friendly (if solo to you means running around alone plus anonymously joining others for group events).
- Graphics seem the same to me as before, though I have a system and connection that rarely struggled before, and does not struggle now.
- No skills have been added since the Elite Specs dropped with HoT. That said, the Elite specs added with HoT are still the rage in competitive modes and instanced PvE metas. The (few) balance patches since HoT launched have taken some builds out of favor (Reaper in raids) and changed functionality in other builds (engineer flamethrower is now more of a Viper’s build than a Berserker one).
Also, I haven’t seen a single reasonable argument in favor of the cap.
Currently the top Leaderboard AP numbers are 34k plus. The top AP chests that have an armor backpiece skin is 42k. After that it’s only Pinnacle weapons to 56k with no reward skins past that point. Right now the top Leaderboard players can only get new AP from new achievements. If they also were getting a steady 10 AP a day from dailies all this time then they would reach the 42k and then the 56k that much faster.
The cap means that ANet doesn’t have to put resources into more AP armor or weapon skins for a very, very long time. To my mind, that explains the reason for the cap very well.
…and, because ANet also likes to kill multiple birds with the same stone, it allows them to look responsive to achievement hunters with limited self control.
Citation (link) needed.
GW2 NPC’s are total crap, not as useful as Rurik was in the original, which — to those who remember — says a lot. Hero’s/Henchman would be a waste of effort.
guys, does any number of spirit shards really change your game experience? you can get spirits shards from tome of knowledge, from dailies, from so many surces that the original OP just sound like an angry rant for something very stupid (xp numbers distract me cause i don’t raid and raid is evil).
if anything i find stupid to not even take a look at raid content to try to unlock the mastery track which honestly is not gating anything that you can get more or easily elsewhere
It’s not about the shards. It doesn’t have to be shards, it could be anything. It’s about the wasted XP that the game throws at players in job lots. XP is an everyman currency, but only completionists get anything out of it. The system is borked.
Isn’t the AP something that show how many aspect of the game you have succesfully experienced?
The only ones who might recognize how many different areas of the game one has completed by looking at an AP total are those who obsess over them, and even they can only do it for people who are near the top of the board. For everyone else, AP are something to do in a game genre that survives on offering things to do and/or a reward system.
They told us why they were doing it — to ensure that crafting mats, which drive the economy, remain in demand. It’s probably that they wanted to address the mat costs associated with the PvP vendor (i.e, from nothing or not much to something) and did it to the Fractal one also for consistency. I also believe they should do it to the raid vendor as well.
I’d say a week. You can always extend it if you are still unhappy. If you quit “forever” then change your mind later, you’ll just be adding data to the case that players who say, “I’m quitting!” don’t really mean it.
Seems like the last two sales at least have immediately preceded a new Living Story release. If that pattern continues, there could be a sale in 2-3 months if there is an episode then.
There are no documented changes to the regeneration buff in the patch notes. None of the engineer or warrior skills or traits that involve regeneration are mentioned, either. I’m not saying that nothing changed, but I can find no evidence that anything did.
The wiki tells me that with zero healing power I should have 130 health per second from regeneration. In game, the tooltip for Elixir C says, "Regeneration, 10 seconds, 1300 health. Since the wiki page was last changed on Feb. 11, regeneration seems unchanged. If you have evidence otherwise, please share. If it’s a bug, the devs will need specifics to fix it.
I know this is off topic but I need to rant.
Can I just have one day where I can do my own thing? 5 out of 6 days I’ve worked 12 hour night shifts. I just want to kick back get a buzz on and work on my Warrior on the bare hope I might be able to raid some day with out some needy person crawling up my back side. I mean it’s like have some consideration I’ve almost worked 60 hours straight, leave me the hell alone for one night even.
Lets see some perspective here, I’ve got two days off, followed by another 12h shift then 5 days off, why can’t I do spouse time then?
End of rant.
Oh and I literally can not post new topics.
PS I distracted her with a live stream of baby cheetahs.
Since you asked for perspective… you can work on your warrior when you have time. What you cannot do is force other people to help you. Owning the game entitles you to raid. It does not entitle you to expect random people in an LFG queue to want what you want. Those people you have to find. It’s unfortunate that you have so little time, because finding the like-minded does take time and effort.
That is why Raiding should never have been introduced, any community that insists on such a draconian approach that excludes whole classes isn’t healthy enough to have a raiding community, especially in this day and age where every other MMO has grown past this sort of thing.
It just seems like I’m arguing modern day social points with some one I met out side of a time machine. I’m not even angry any more it’s more depressing to see what’s happened to this game when in 2012 this game was praised for innovation.
Profession balance would still be needed unless — in addition to adding blind grouping and a hypothetical lower-tier raid — ANet got rid of the ability to kick players from groups. That’s unlikely to happen. There are quality of life aspects to being able to kick, like removing someone who left the game without removing himself from the group. If you think that a profession perceived as useless would not be kicked even in a lower tier raid, you’re dreaming.
LFR works because of the rework of that game’s build system to simplify and role-orient trait choices. If its developer had not made an effort to make better-performing builds simple and accessible and provided a good build for at least one role for every class, LFR would not have worked as well as you seem to think it does. Exclusion based on competence/effectiveness was a part of human social interactions long before the internet and will always be with us unless competitiveness is somehow excised from humanity.
Let’s leave aside the word, “casual.” The fact is that different people think different things when they see the word casual in a gaming context. So, what is the OP really asking for? It seems to me he wants to somehow separate players who establish requirements to participate with them in group content and players who don’t want to adhere to those requirements. At least, that’s what the thread title suggests. When I read the OP, though, it sounds more like, “Either adapt the the meta or stop complaining about things like DPS meters.”
If the OP is after the former, well, players have been trying to separate those groups since group content was first introduced. That is, after all, the purpose of setting requirements in the first place. From all accounts, there have been at best mixed results with attempts to separate the groups. If the OP is really after the latter, it seems more likely that a Mars expedition will launch next year than that people who complain will stop.
That leaves me with the OP’s attempts to outline how he improved and his offer to teach. If that was all the thread contained, it would have been a positive thread. As it is, the rant and the derail caused by the use of the word casual led to lengthy discussions about issues that are not really resolvable or in fact germane.
1) Yes, I would like to see Gear Stats getting removed.
They make GW2 in many aspects unflexible and more overcomplex than needed.
additionally would help their removal in making Classes through a new Health System easier to balance, if that new System relies on Class individual Efficiency Factors instead of on stiff unflexible Class Types that aren’t good to make each Classes individual strenths and weaknesses come up better in the Game.
While I very much preferred GW attribute system to GW2’s stats-on-gear, this is a ship that’s sailed. Removing stats from gear would anger almost anyone who spent time, effort and/or gold to gear up in Ascended for either PvE or WvW. It would also bottom out the economy, making the mats used in crafting gear nearly (if not completely) worthless.
The economy issue could be obviated by also changing the skins system to include a plethora of cosmetic options that can only be gained by crafting which uses similar types and amounts of materials. The ripple downside of that would be the time it takes ANet to generate armor skins, and possible loss of revenue if weapon skins are to be crafted rather than bought via tickets from gamble boxes.
I’m afraid that major changes to how GW2 does stats is probably going to be prohibitively costly in developer effort, lost goodwill from a lot of players and lost revenue.
I never thought I’d see a worse implementation of BIS gear than WoW’s gear treadmill, but ANet proved me wrong. I have to admit, though, that I’m conflicted. Since the economy is driven by the sale of crafting materials, Ascended crafting was very lucrative for me because I sold everything. On the other hand, crafting is the second least fun thing to do in the game.
I liked the fact that the original Guild Wars allowed me to readily get max stat gear and that the endgame pursuit was for elite skins. It was disappointing (to me) that ANet chose stats and not skins to fuel crafting in GW2.
New Player, Sad Player. Expansion ruined it.
in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns
Posted by: IndigoSundown.5419
Ya’ll do realize that HoT had a prepurchase option available months before HoT launched and the sales from those prepurchases would have been on the pre-HoT quarter.
Profits from pre-purchases are held back to make the launch quarter look better. If that’s not the case, pre-purchasing was a failure (2014 vs 2015).
Pretty much this. Given the volume of posts from players who claimed to have pre-purchased and the numbers in the beta tests, there had to be substantial sales revenue from pre-purchases. So, either pre-purchases counted in Q4 2015 or gem store sales in Q2 and Q3 15 tanked.
Purchasable wardrobe slots into which one could put armor pieces, then switch slots at will would allow players to create their own “outfits.” ANet could even require T Charges to put a piece into a wardrobe slot or change a piece in a slot.
In fact, there was a poll on whether to delete the [Desert Borderland] map entirely and it didn’t go through.
To be fair, the vote may have been skewed by a developer statement that if people voted the DBL out, Anet would not attempt to develop any more new WvW maps. I know I voted for retaining DBL for that reason.
That said, I often see people on the DBL, though maybe not as many as on the ABL’s.
So you’re telling me that the player population on that website isn’t a large enough sample size?
You’re telling me that only a very specific segment of the population is attracted to that website? Any evidence to support that?
Sample size is fine. GW2E population is biased towards players who value the services the site offers.
representative of GW2 as a whole
I disagree here. We already had discussions here why it is not sure to be representative of GW2 as a whole.
We don’t know if gw2efficiency is problably used more often by raiders than others or if it’s the other way round. There are indications for both.
These numbers are numbers but they actually are of very little value.
This is where statistics come in.
And having an understanding of statistics tells us that Vinceman is correct. A biased sample is unlikely to be representative of the entire population. All GW2E can tell us is what percentage of people who signed up for GW2E have LI’s or MS’s.
Loved your work. Best wishes.
That’s an interesting question. If all account data is on either the NA or EU servers, I’d suspect that ought to include guild membership. Why, exactly, is that one aspect of one’s account cross server clusters when nothing else is?
As far as I can tell, mobs only have one speed. With the exception of some mobs that have speed buffs (e.g., Risen Thrall) mob speed seems consistent with character in-combat speed.
New Player, Sad Player. Expansion ruined it.
in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns
Posted by: IndigoSundown.5419
It might have been mentioned that enemies would be more difficult but it certainly wasn’t emphasized. And what people expect from an expansion of a game they like is more of the same thing they already like. I certainly had zero idea that the expansion would be anything like it is. And I would not have purchased it if I did know ahead of time.
So, game companies need to put disclaimers on their games that say: “CAUTION: Game content may be harder than you’re used to!”? Attempting to ensure that people inclined not to pay attention pay attention is not going to be accomplished by emphasizing something.
How about, instead, consumers take responsibility for their own choices? If you bought with no idea what HoT was like, you made no effort to look into it. There were blogs, forum discussions and youtube videos about HoT. Any attempt to learn about the XPac would have yielded the information you needed to make a more informed choice.
There are MANY players on the forums that complain about not being able to complete various parts of the story. And as I have said many times – in my opinion the story should be able to be enjoyed by everyone, not just those who have a certain mastery of their character. Challenge should be relegated to separate places in the game where those who prefer a higher challenge can go seek it.
The problem is that there is no content in the PvE game that players at whom the content in question is not aimed will not demand access to it at a difficulty level they’re comfortable with.
Then there’s the philosophical issue of whether game developers ought to design their products in ways that do not respect the intelligence and/or ability of their players.
Personally, I’d rather a game require me to think from time to time.
Once again the word casual appears in a thread. I’m going to assume that the OP is using casual to mean less-skilled, even though that need not be the case. The post would make little sense to me if that is not what is meant.
To the topic, then. Talk about gear sets is over-emphasized. There is no game- or developer-imposed requirement to wear gear which has the same prefix on every piece. If you start with glass gear, you can change out 1, 2 or as-many-as-desired pieces of gear with one (or more) bulk stats depending on individual skill level, content used for, and system/connection.
The game supports mix-and-match, and mix-and-match may very well be the best idea for players in the mid range of the less-skilled to more-skilled continuum. That continuum is going to vary depending not only on skill, but also on preferred content. Not everyone who can go all-glass in core maps can get away with it in dungeons, meta events or HoT maps. Having the flexibility to trade a little damage for a little more survivability is not a bad thing — unless your intent is to join meta groups for group content that express a requirement for all-something gear.
By the way, saying, “… income did get a huge boost with HoT, it just was not able to retain that boost.” betrays a lack of understanding of how an XPac business model works.
That sentence was not about the XPac business model. It was about Vaynes claim that HoT sold badly.
Did you do the math? No? I didn’t think so.
We’re seeing reports about Bastion of the Penitent being “too easy” only days after release. There are challenge motes to make it harder. Is this an ANet version of easy/hard mode for raids? If so, will the people demanding easy mode be satisfied?
HoT sales were not lackluster (F2P people buying GW2/HoT was lackluster), income did get a huge boost with HoT, it just was not able to retain that boost. Looking at the results from pre-HoT, it’s safe to say the total income would have been lower without HoT, so it’s a strange conclusion you make.
Do the math. Extrapolate roughly how many copies of HoT sold in Q4 15 based on the statement in the Q4 15 report that Gem store sales were “stable.” Compare to the reported 1.5M distinct accounts logging in at least once monthly from an article in Fortune published a couple of months before HoT dropped.
By the way, saying, “… income did get a huge boost with HoT, it just was not able to retain that boost.” betrays a lack of understanding of how an XPac business model works.
From the wiki.
“World bosses are special event bosses encountered throughout the open world of Tyria that spawns a ground chest (that can be looted once per character per account per day) and awards players with one “bouncy” bonus chest containing a piece of rare, or exotic, gear (limited to once per account per day) when defeated …. However, characters must be a minimum level of 40 to receive any rare rarity gear from the event."
New Player, Sad Player. Expansion ruined it.
in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns
Posted by: IndigoSundown.5419
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/the-first-beta-weekend-event-begins-august-7/
“We’ve done a lot of work to balance creature difficulty, and we’ll be looking for your thoughts on the overall experience. Do you feel the need to use your entire skill bar in battles? Does teaming up with other players feel more rewarding? Do you find yourself wanting to change your skills and traits to overcome encounters? Warning—creatures will be more challenging than in the existing Guild Wars 2 world.”
As you can see, the intent in HoT was to present more challenging creature which are designed to encourage players to make greater use of their character’s builds than core mobs do, and/or to encourage playing with others. While I doubt that HoT forced the best players to do more than learn new mob moves, I believe it did raise the bar with regard to the minimum engagement with one’s character capabilities needed to successfully deal with HoT creatures. I’d call the XPac a qualified success in that regard.
Whether that is what the design intent ought to have been is another matter. However, the lesson for those who bought without learning what the XPac was intended to be is to exercise due diligence before buying. The information was — and is — out there.
While I’m not the target audience for gamble boxes, I have to agree that the move to replace one of the random items with a seasonal drop easily gained though play is very much designed to make the boxes less attractive, not more.
It sounds like the OP was exchanging gold gained from multiloot for gems. He’s painting the issue as if there are only two options. Either: “Get gold really fast,” or “Spend real money.” The truth is there is a third option, “Get gold less fast.”
When viewed in that light, the issue is really, “OP has been spoiled by the rate at which he was able to gain gold to exchange for gems.” This rant is rooted in player impatience and entitlement.
Our goal is not to make content easier, but rather add an additional layer of difficulty onto the challenge motes where it makes sense.
There you go.
And? You said the devs stated that they are against two-modal setup. Which they clearly aren’t.
And if we do know now that two modes can exist, we can safely move the discussion from debating that point to arguing about what level each of those modes should be at (and whether harder mode should be repeatably rewarding – which, at the moment, it isn’t).
Any debate ought to center around two issues:
- What is the base mode of content? In other words, is the lion’s share of development time for that content aimed at the challenge, or the less-challenge demographic? Another question to ask is, “Is it easier to add a mechanic or so onto harder content or to subtract mechanics, change numbers and rebalance harder content to be accessible to people who want less challenge?” What ANet is actually doing is making a hard version, then adding additional mechanics for those who want something more. That’s something they’ve been doing since Queen’s Pavilion.
- If — as i suspect — it would involve considerably more dev effort to produce a tiered raid, where do those resources come from? They’d either come from the existing raid team, or they’d come from other devs within the live team. The former would slow down raid releases. The latter would impact production of other content. Neither is a desirable state, especially when the demand for the existing raids and for regular content updates seems much greater than the demand for easy-mode hard content.
I’m of two minds. Better communication is not a bad idea. However, the only way an announced delay would work is if Anet did not work as hard as possible to hit the deadline. If they said, “Not today,” but managed to release today, there would be complaints from those who went elsewhere. While holding the release until tomorrow or the next day would alleviate that, I’d rather they tried to get it done today. That means a premature no-go announcement would generate animosity, perhaps as much as the way they handled it.
There’s a way to keep charges, introduce a new item to put in the gem store and allow players to change clothes more freely within a subset of options — effectively allowing players to create their own outfits using armor pieces.
- ANet could create multiple wardrobe slots. Slots after the first would be a gem store item. It might be better to have them be account-wide at a higher price, with the alternative being per character at a lower price.
- T. Charges would be used to insert a cosmetic into wardrobe slots.
- T. Charges would also be used if a player decided to change the appearance of an item that had already been inserted.
- Players could switch wardrobe slots with one click, at no cost.
Pros: Players could switch between preset looks with ease. Making it easier to change looks would make pursuing multiple looks for all characters a more attractive prospect. ANet could end up making more money than they do now.
Cons: Adopting this feature might take significant programming resources (or it might be a relatively simple adaptation of existing systems).
I find myself suddenly concerned for tomorrow after this bizarre teaser tweet from Rubi.
https://mobile.twitter.com/GuildWars2/status/828649505658646529What by all the Six is that???
Lady Wisteria Whiskington has gone to the dark side?
Cosmic set is actually missing a harvesting tool, has a mining and logging tool…impatiently awaiting the harvesting tool to complete my set! >:(
You missed it, it came, and apparently went, a short time ago.
Do you not have a million games out there with butt tight silhouette armor? Why can GW2 not be an exception to the rule?
I’m sure ANet appreciates you implying that other customers leave ANet’s game. The fact is that MMO’s thrive on larger, rather than smaller customer bases. Because people have different tastes, it is far better for the developer to offer different options.
Also, you seem to again be confusing a lack of long coattails with “modern.” This is not the case. There are many modern fashions that have coattails, and many less modern fashions that do not.
There is nothing wrong with asking for variety. There is something wrong, imo. with asking for a lack of variety when there are already a multitude of options that provide what you seem to want. That suggests you want not to see different styles that you dislike on other peoples’ characters. Your proclivities end where mine begin.
Your appeal is at least partly based on what you see as a coherent fashion trend. However, the people of Tyria once wore equipment that did not, for the most part, have long coattails. If there’s one thing that’s true about fashion, styles go in cycles. Finally, it seems odd to be concerned about the “ruination” of coherent Tyrian fashion when there are already such egregious departures as people wearing huge Cthuloid tentacular things, plush Quaggan, plush Charr, or 8-bit stuff.