Guild Wars 2

Would be nice if there was a manual way to unlock certain waypoints, as long as you are 80. For example, unlocking a WP in cursed shore instead of going through 3-4 different zones just to go find a merchant there to get a soulbound-on-purchase piece of karma gear. Ahem.

Other than QOL stuff like that, I really don’t care. I don’t see any reason why map completion should automatically be easier the second time around. It’s already going to be anyway because you know where more things are.

My question is: Is this actually about map completion itself or is it about getting enough Gifts to get all of the legendaries that you want?

By the way, I don’t think it’d really hurt anyone badly to give people the option to unfog one waypoint in level-appropriate zones (ones that they have unlocked on another character) without needing to travel through one of the pre-set portals (in fact, perhaps this could be done with some sort of custom portal item). Something like that would hardly be a significant speeding up of the process, unless you are a straight-up power-mapper.

In a nutshell, I kill stuff. Then I salvage what I loot and sell anything I don’t want/need.

More specifically, I do quite a bit of farming in places like CS for quick bursts of gold. Sometimes I have to take a break and get some pain reliever to handle the mental complexity of pressing 11111111 on my guardian.

I understand exactly what you mean and it drives me crazy. The lighting in this game really messes with appearance (makeover kit or even wardrobe look different because they aren’t using the same lighting). And afaik, there is no way to disable the lighting based on what area you’re in, or tone down its effects on your character.

One thing to keep in mind is you can toggle lighting on/off in the character screen to see what that looks like (and it looks like the button is there in makeover as well). That’s a help.

You just gotta assume that if you’re working with lighter colors, they are going to end up shades darker in many areas of lighting in the game. For example, celestial white looks like gray in most areas for me. But then, something like a darker brown doesn’t get noticeably darker.

Some of them have tripped me up because the location you’re supposed to kill stuff at isn’t necessarily near the renown NPC. I would give specifics, but honestly, I don’t remember which ones.

Part of me would love to see a circle on the map for where you kill stuff, but I guess it isn’t always localized to one rounded area.

Technically we already have lightsabers and the force. They’re just called swords and magic. :P

Very cool. You make it look so easy lol.

I think the idea is good in principle (in that more exposure means more players) but the reality is that porting over a PC game to console isn’t just a wave of a magic wand. If the game was designed with consoles in mind from the start, I don’t think it’d be that bad, but trying to do it 2 years into the game would probably be a nightmare.

Essentially, it would need to be a carefully analyzed marketing decision that guaranteed enough profit from PS4 users to justify the labor costs of porting over the game.

Twilight: Changes the time of day in your current area to night.

Sunrise: Changes the time of day in your current area to day.

If both are in the same area at the same time, the sun and moon start smashing into each other in the sky, until one of them kills the other. Winner makes that time of day stick for the next 24 in-game hours. Loser crashes into the ground in the middle of the map and drops shards everywhere that can be picked up by players. If you get 1,000 of these shards, you can use it to substitute a gift in the recipe for Twilight or Sunrise.

Eternity: Animation goes in slow-motion (e.g. takes an Eternity to hit stuff).

The Dreamer: 1 min CD, can spawn a traveling group of Ascalonian Ghost Minstrels.

The Bifrost: 1 min CD, create an ice sculpture of a posing Quaggan. Then pick it up and hurl it at your enemies.

Bolt: Character says “Lightning bolt!” every time you attack with it.

Incinerator: Sets random things on fire when you swing it at them. Small chance of yourself getting set on fire and exploding.

The Juggernaut: Every time you hit an enemy, you get a stack of Juggernaut’s Rage. At 25 stacks, you summon a Champion Risen Abomination. You can’t control and it’s unfriendly to everyone. It also doesn’t drop anything if you kill it. Oops.

Howler: 1 min CD, summon a pack of wolves to aid you. Press the ability again to turn the wolves against you, so that you can slaughter them. If you do, you get a buff called Head of the Pack, which transforms you into a wolf for 5 minutes and gives the ability “I’m the Alpha.” 10 second CD, summons a team of wolves to assist you. You can’t attack tho. Alphas get the peons to do it, yo.

The Moot: Every time you hit a mob with it, you die. It’s a moot point, you’re going to die anyway.

Quip: Makes random wisecracks at 30 second intervals when it is equipped.

Meteorlogicus: Makes it rain thunder and lightning in whatever area you’re in. If Sunrise and Twilight are fighting, it breaks them up and gives them a time out, at which point you get a buff called “Exhausted Parent” that lasts for 5 minutes – allows you to take a nap while still using your abilities.

Ensign.2189:

Labjax.2465:

I’m not convinced we wouldn’t still see strange trends like the ones you have described.

What we are quick to interpret as ‘strange trends’ are quite often boring and common in a statistical sense. Any particular strange trend is usually quite unlikely, but if you look at the entire set of outcomes that people would interpret as a strange trend, the most likely outcome is usually some sort of strange trend – and we are hard wired to find significance in that.

The differences between a contemporary PRNG generator and an analog input TRNG system are essentially zero in the context of the game. It’s not like we’re doing cryptgraphy here where the details people (rightly) pick on in random number generation actually matter – the drops in this game are going to pass any test of randomness you throw them at. Criticisms of the random number generator are ignorance masquerading as knowledge, not genuine insight into a real issue.

Makes sense to me. I have too often seen people reacting to RNG similar to how some people believe in conspiracy theories. I don’t think they’re stupid or anything, of course. I feel inclined to believe the stuff myself sometimes.

But then there’s the part of me that says… I’m going off of horribly limited information.

Occam’s Razor comes to mind. The simpler answer and all that: Thinking that RNG is flawed and biased and making all sorts of assumptions off of anecdotal evidence.

Or thinking that our understanding and info is too limited to grasp the function of RNG in entirety from cursory observation (which is pretty much demonstrable fact) and that most of the weirdness we notice is a product of non-objective perception/memory of events.

I would say the latter is the simpler explanation with fewer assumptions by far.

Hey guys, I took the suggestions for the cyborg concept into account and tweaked a norn of mine for it. Below is the final product.

I ultimately decided to scrap the backpiece because I can’t dye it and I didn’t want to do rusty brown. I may try swapping out strider’s chest for glorious chest, if I ever get around to finishing the reward track for it.

Overall, I’m pretty satisfied with the result – I feel it has an almost sci-fi-cop look to it. Hope you guys enjoy looking at it and once again, thanks for your suggestions!

It is interesting to think about the contrast. Here is Bartle, a man for whom changing the world and removing class/social inequality is part of his dream. And then on the other hand, you have businesspeople, whose dreams may just as easily be filled with dollar signs as making an impact on the world.

And I think that a lot of developers low on the totem pole are not so different from Bartle in their goals. But they are sometimes stopped short with the funds and tools available to them.

The plus side is, I think some of Bartle’s dream has been realized. I know that my life was impacted strongly by my experiences in MMOs. And I’ve heard the stories of people who became empowered in ways that they wouldn’t otherwise have had, or met some of their best friends or spouse through an MMO.

On the other hand, you can see in games like this one that the model is moving somewhat away from the meritocracy idea that Bartle supported. Things like the gem store, although they (quite fairly) keep these games afloat, move into that realm where certain types of progress or achievement are easier if have greater monetary power in the real world.

In fact, I suspect the most fundamental part of things like gem stores that MMO players despise is that these stores are a perpetual breaking of the fourth wall. We come into these virtual worlds to escape from reality and models that use something like a gem store are a constant reminder that the real world is lurking out there and it has an impact on our virtual experience.

I’m not decrying the model as a whole, mind you. I understand the trends of the industry and the reasoning behind many companies adopting such models. But I can’t help noticing its flaws. I would rather I could just forget that it’s there, or see it as an inherent part of the virtual world. Yet I know that it’s ultimately not.

I guess what I’m seeing now that I couldn’t vocalize before is that these stores are not the game; they are the real world creeping in. And that’s what will forever bug me about them. And I imagine it’s what bugs a lot of people about them.

Syzygy.5031:

Some better AI, or enemies that dodge, or group up a little more intelligently would be nice to see. They tried a few of those ideas right back in beta. Always amuses me when you attack a risen and it calls out for reinforcements that never come… they should! Mix it up some.

Honestly, I would be ok with this.

One of the things that has always bugged me is when it feels like zones are overpopulated with mobs for no justifiable reason, other than “we want to make it harder for you to run through.”

First MMO I ever played – SWG pre-CU – I distinctly remember that mobs were spaced such that you could usually weave through them if you were paying attention. A lot of them were localized to “lairs” too, which made it somewhat challenging if you decided to attack (and distinctly more dangerous if you did aggro).

This meant there was real skill to running past mobs because you had to watch closely and ride the line sometimes between two different lairs to avoid aggro. In many areas in GW2, I find that avoiding aggro is nothing short of impossible. Sure, you can trump aggro with dodging, ports, stunbreaks, etc., but I miss that feeling of using careful awareness of my surroundings to avoid enemies – and knowing that if I did mess up, I could be in real danger of dying.

Anyway, that’s my nostalgia moment for the day. I don’t expect them to go and change all of their zones, but since I’ve been decrying the chain-CC nonsense, that’s an idea of what I would enjoy seeing: Real possibility to outsmart/avoid enemies entirely, but greater consequences for failing to do so. For example, mob patrols that move in clusters.

Perhaps they could try it in a new zone someday. Wink wink, Anet.

Malediktus.9250:

Even atmospheric noise is not random. It only cosists of a very high (insanely high, lets say (10^25)! (! = faculty) possibilities in a m³) number of variables.
Currently scientist believe that quantum computers would offer true randomness, but only time will tell if they are correct or if there are hidden laws behind that, too.

Interesting, cool to know.

MibuGenjuro.2365:

not to mention that I heard from a few coder friends that true randomness is super hard to code, and those of them who play this game for over years do not believe gw2 hav a decent rng system, its pretty bugged to say the least.

I have a dedicated dungeon group for over a year, we use to do every dungeon every path except Hotw, one of us get a precursor drop almost every month, at one point he got 2 shield precursor within 2 weeks, myself have only gotten 2 precursor drops ever which happened within 2 month of each other, other members never got a precursor drop ever.

One might say this is not big enough a sample, but we played together in every dungeon over a year, clocking thousands of hours, yet the result is so different, and from guildmates and their friends stories, it seems in this game those who get lucky always get lucky, those who doesnt almost never do ever, that seem like a badly coded rng right there.

Ofc I cant prove anything, and I have never looked at anets code, but this is how it feels like after playing this game over 2 years and having in total over 5000 hours.

I see what you mean and I think part of the problem is that even with “true” randomness, some of us are just luckier than others. Even with atmospheric noise like random.org uses, I’m not convinced we wouldn’t still see strange trends like the ones you have described.

I mean, we’d all love to think that the universe operates on some kind of balance of luck and chance, but I think a lot of the whole “law of averages” and so on is only consistently evident when you’re operating in a controlled environment.

For example, if I roll a virtual die 5000 times in isolation, my results are probably going to average somewhat, but… in a complex MMO, there are a lot of variables going on that we tend to forget about. Like… just how many dice rolls we’re having compared to the people around us, how many rolls we’ve realistically received that are “better than average” (as opposed to being based on a single standard of luck like a precursor), etc.

So while your coder friends are absolutely right that “true” randomness doesn’t really happen in games, I suspect that even with “true” randomness, we would still find ourselves noticing various oddities of luck, such as your dungeon example.

Ario.8964:

I do not have the money to craft and unlike some I do not find it the least it enjoyable to run around looking for waypoints and poi’s. Once was enough for me and I know I am not the only player who feels like this. I do not enjoy being locked out of content I want to participate in because I am being help back by a system that I already dislike.

While I agree it’s fairly easy if you have the money for crafting and the patience for running around from place to place with absolutely no competitive side to your gameplay, I still am going to assert my position that there needs to be an alternative to just grinding boring things over and over again when you get nothing but frustration from a system that has been unnecessarily messed with for no real purpose that was already unenjoyable for me, and others, in the beginning.

I have no idea how much sense I am making so I hope I have made a clear point.

Makes sense to me. I can sympathize because every time I level a new character, I find myself going for options that involve zerging with a group and requiring no effort to learn my class. Not because I don’t want to put in the effort, but because I feel it’s pointless to try to sort things out under so many arbitrary restrictions. Skills, traits, etc… there’s no motivation for me to really learn until I’ve hit 80 and can start accessing everything.

If acquisition was more linear, I would probably take the time to learn, but so much of it is a “big jump” game. Weapon skills 1-5 from levels 1-10, steadily, then BOOM. You now have every skill unlocked for every weapon you can equip. Utility skills 1-3 at 13, 17, and 19 (glad that they’re early at least). But then…

Nothing noteworthy for 11 levels until you finally hit 30. Whoo, first trait point that gives you a passive bonus. Nothing to learn there other than picking one and moving on. 31, Elite skill. Ok, again, at least it’s not pushed way back as it was at one point.

But then… nothing of note for another five levels, until you get trait point #2. Which you probably won’t be able to use to pick an unlockable trait and will put it into another new tree, because at that point, you’re lucky if you’ve unlocked a single trait, much less one that you want to use.

And then after that, 6 levels between anything of note (yay, another trait point to put into unlocks that you don’t have yet). 42, 1 point. 48, 1 point. 54, 1 point. 60, 1 point. 66, WHOA, 2 points – where’d that come from? Ok I’ll take it (still don’t have many traits unlocked tho). 72, 2 points again. 78, 2 points. Sheesh, so many points all at once. 80, 2 points. OK, slow down. Haven’t even figured out the last two yet.

In short, it feels like the system can’t make up its mind between:
1) Keeping veterans happy by having certain unlocks early.
and
2) Ensuring that new players are introduced to stuff steadily.

Which has resulted in a strange mixture of clustered level-up skills, stuff pushed way back, other stuff pushed early, and generally a lot of levels in there that don’t seem to be for anything, other than boring people who have gone through the experience more than once.

I’m hoping that a strong revamp of the botched trait system will alleviate a lot of this.

Mystic.5934:

they are weak. they need something to boast about. Their thing is cc. I didn’t say it was an issue, just that breaking every kb when there are 10 mummies around you does deplete heavy counter-cc builds. In which case I use my last one, blink, and move on.

Oh, I’m not saying that you were saying there was an issue. I was saying that in light of deciding 4 stun breaks (and wanting more) for some areas is a good idea, I would think it obvious that something is strange about that.

Perhaps I have just not been around enough, but this is the first time I’ve heard of someone talking about 4 or more stun breaks being advisable in an MMO. 2 maybe, is about the most of I’ve heard of before now.

mtpelion.4562:

Random is the single most fair way to do anything.

Not quite. Random is the single most unbiased way to do anything. The fairness of it in any given context is highly debatable.

In fact, it can be argued that to have a truly unbiased system, you have to set aside fairness entirely. Mainly because fairness is such a subjective value and is therefore subject to personal bias.

I mean, one might be inclined to say, concerning a random-based system, “Everyone has a fair chance.” But then, chance itself is arguably unfair. And I think most people would agree that chance results in markedly disparate results, from individual to individual, unless you are taking from a very very very very long maintained sample.

It’s a cool idea. Unfortunately, I don’t have any tips for you as far as making it legitimate. I’ve thought about doing something like this myself before and I got tangled up in thinking about the legitimacy part myself.

I can’t help but feel like there’s some schadenfreude going on in a choice like the way this mini was implemented. I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, but come on Anet… you gotta know how popular minis are. Why else would you make those packs that you sell in the store? And then you put a super-low-droprate-non-tradeable mini in the halloween bags – a mini that can’t be acquired in any other way.

There’s exclusivity and then there’s playing the lottery. But then, you also implemented a virtual raffle with the halloween skins, so apparently lotteries are on your mind.

It really feels like a cheap way to drive up the exchange of halloween bags, along with the low drop rate of the poly items. And guess what? It has worked.

:|

Rainmaker.7594:

Veterans are not anywhere near as powerful as a player. I can stand in one spot, not dodge, and beat most of them very easily. Elites are about equal to players though (with a larger health pool).

As far as what you’re saying about being CC’d is irritating – why do you feel that all content should be afk aa snore-fests? Do you seek no real challenge to be in the game? Last I checked, this is a PC game, not a flash/touch-screen game. PC games tend to be more about challenge, and I for one don’t wanna see that change; If anything, make it more challenging. Maybe enable a special map for people that don’t like pull/knock-back – replace all mobs with elite risen illusionists, hunters, and eles from Arah. See which people prefer

I hate CC because I find challenge irritating and think that content should put me to sleep at night. Is that what you wanted to hear? Will you actually read my words now that I’ve said it?

I definitely hate challenges. Like when I solo’d a champ in Fireheart Rise just to see if I could pull it off. Totally not for the challenge. Or when I helped run a raiding guild in another game for 2+ years and was bummed every time a boss that we were working on get nerfed. Also cause I hate challenge.

In fact, right now I’m dictating my words to a personal secretary to type for me because typing is too challenging for my fingers and I don’t want to hurt them.

Sarcasm aside, being punted around is not challenge; it’s obnoxious design. Carrying 4 stun breaks or constant stability to run through mobs doesn’t make you clever or skilled; it just makes you prepared. I have never enjoyed mechanics that take over control of my character. I never have and I likely never will.

That is just how it is for some of us. Perhaps for you, it is challenging to equip different abilities for a specific purpose and then activate them? It is not for me. Even with lower level toons in labyrinth, I got downed maybe once running through the mobs and that was when they caught me off-guard.

I don’t know how much more clear I can make it that this isn’t a skill issue for me. I simply do not like, as the OP put it, “being a rag doll.” If I can negate 90% of that with one mechanic, then – to put it bluntly – the designers have failed. At best, their CC-spamming mobs become a flytrap for the unprepared. That’s about it.

Astral Projections.7320:

Labjax.2465:

I concur. A search and/or some kind of “sort by color” option, where you can pick a color group like red or blue and then get all of the corresponding shades.

That they are sorted by rarity is better than no sorting at all, but it doesn’t help much in finding a specific dye, or finding a specific set of shades.

You can sort by hue though. It then sorts into several color groups.

Boy do I feel stupid now. I never thought to click on that little cog icon.

Seems to be the simplest way to do it would be to make a separate toggle in the Outfit panel for turning off an Outfit’s headpiece specifically (allowing you to free up that slot for a Wardrobe headpiece).

Currently, the Outfit head toggle goes off of the Equipment/Wardrobe head toggle. Which makes me think the added functionality would be relatively easy to do, as the function of hiding an Outfit headpiece is already there.

I concur. A search and/or some kind of “sort by color” option, where you can pick a color group like red or blue and then get all of the corresponding shades.

That they are sorted by rarity is better than no sorting at all, but it doesn’t help much in finding a specific dye, or finding a specific set of shades.

Rainmaker.7594:

As an engineer, I can load up on plenty of CC (I have a short cd one on rifle 4). Why shouldn’t certain types of enemies be able to do the same thing? Why do we players have to be 1000x more powerful than mobs?

edit: and yes, I can do it without noticable dps loss (Big ol’ Bomb is one of the hardest hitting skills in the game)

It’s not about being more powerful, it’s about irritation. AI doesn’t have feelings and can’t get frustrated at losing control of its character.

Also, we have mobs that are about equal or greater in strength than players: Veterans and Champions.

Mystic.5934:

So few people use condi removal and/or stun breaks.
Everyone is like, ‘berkserker all the way, omg I cant move and kb is op’.
seriously, if you are having problems running from halloween mobs, just use more skills that help you get away, instead of skills that help you kill. fun bonus is that those skills help you fight instead of spending half the battle immobilized in the corner. Sometimes I’ll run with as much as 4 stun breaks (which have other uses as well), and there will still be times I want more.

You sometimes run with 4 stun breaks, while wanting more, around PvE mobs and you don’t see the issue here?

I thought the effect was cool the first time I saw it and it has had its uses on occasion, but the problem is, everybody notices it during lab farming and not in a good way. Cause those doors are designed almost perfectly, so that some guy is going to level up while killing mobs and not be paying attention enough to create some distance before the blast goes off.

*No innuendo intended.

John Smith.4610:

It’s because when I level up in real life, that happens.
(my shockwave is larger in real life though)

You must have some rather interesting birthday parties.

Science.6709:

There’s a party in your instance? Lucky

Sorry for the snark but didn’t we used to be in a queue for the main instance when in the Lab overflows? I’ve zoned in and out 6 times now and there’s nobody in there

If you are having trouble finding a lab group, check LFG open world. Usually a lot of taxis going on.

Part of the reason it’s so bad is because (afaik) there’s no diminishing returns on CC. At least not in PvE. Which means you can break stun/whatever, but they will keep spamming you with CC. I’ve had moments in open world before where I’m trying to run through a cluster of spiders and it’s nearly non-stop root.

Nothing particularly compelling about such content. It’s just a matter of learning how to be powerful enough that they won’t kill you easily (aka: not being too low level), or popping all your cooldowns to get through them (which isn’t skill at all lol).

I guess there’s well-timed dodges too, that can take some skill. But then you can easily have it happen where you dodge one CC only to get hit by another.

The U word is what I’m looking for: Unforgiving.

- I’m a straight male and I have 8 characters, all of whom are human or norn females.
- Sometimes when people get downed, I get annoyed at their incompetence and ignore them. This doesn’t last long. I relent pretty quickly and go back to rezzing everybody in sight, even when they are defeated.
- I’ve half-AFK’d through Jormag p2 on numerous occasions. Thanks for carrying me guys.
- I almost never do pre’s on world bosses. I did the one for Mega once and the one for Centaur guy several times. That’s about it.
- I hate it when people kick offline players without giving them a chance to return in stuff like EotM, but I sometimes go along with the kick anyway because I want a full group to tag stuff with.
- When I first started playing, I thought that the collections storage was for some kind of achievement, so I carefully split stacks and put one of each I found that had a slot in there. Needless to say, my bank filled up fast. And I was overjoyed when I realized I could store materials from anywhere.
- I almost never volunteer for the boat teams on Teq because I’d rather mindlessly mash the boss. Thanks for carrying me guys.
- I started as a Mesmer and quickly gave it up for other classes. I haven’t regretted the decision once. It is probably my least favorite class to play so far and I have tried all of them.
- Before the NPE, I leveled an Asura just high enough to get him through his story quests for the achievements. During one story choice, where I was way too low level, I attempted to exploit the fight in various ways so I could pull it off. (You don’t have to ban me – I failed hard at finding an exploit and had to go level more).
- When I did the Charr storyline, I felt kind of bad for choosing to end the life of the one dude, even though I was wanting to be rid of him for a while.
- I haven’t even made it to Victory or Death on one character. The Orr storyline bores me to death and takes too much of my time for me to bother.
- When I’m traveling around a map and find some random defeated player, I become secretly annoyed at them if they choose to waypoint, when I could have rezzed them. Even though it’s completely their decision.
- I rage pretty hard when I’m melee and people punt around mobs. Incidentally, melee has lost some of its appeal for me in group play.
- I have a working goal (that I don’t expect to ever come close to completing) to unlock every single skin in the game, both weapon and armor. I am already less than 80 away from the 1k achievement and I’ve only been playing a few months.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

This sums up all the arguments for change. Some players feel they deserve everything NOW, regardless of the consequences. There’s a term for this, but it escapes me at the moment…

No, it really doesn’t. Not even close. The argument that precursors should be easier to acquire is a very specific argument. And it is not the same as arguing that precursor acquisition should be more akin to ascended crafting, in that acquisition would be a moderately reliable path, rather than being rooted in RNG.

There’s a term for misrepresenting the arguments at hand to further your agenda of maintaining the status quo, but it escapes me at the moment…

Wait, never mind. I got it. Dishonesty.

Both good points.

Concerning the kill/weapon stuff, I agree completely. That is, as long as they are not raised to the same level of absurdity as the wvw ones. I imagine it would take minimal work to raise them.

Djinn.9245:

Lol, you don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m female and I don’t stretch like that (unless I’m trying to attract a certain kind of attention…). And I didn’t say anything about punishment, or female sexuality being bad – don’t put words in my mouth.

And I don’t know why you are bringing actual sex into this discussion.

The point I’m making is that, as a female, I don’t like my female characters which are adventurers and warriors being portrayed in a sexual manner. I don’t care if other people do want it, that’s fine. I’m speaking for myself and I think I should have a choice.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting choice, but can we at least agree that you are making the animation sexual in your mind?

Honestly, it sounds to me like you have a very specific perception of how a “warrior” character should behave and the animation breaks that role to you.

DarkOcean.8746:

And, no, I don’t buy that a very small handful of people complaining about them in cutscenes was reason enough to remove them entirely.

I buy it quite readily. Think about how seriously Anet takes the Living Story. Making an immersive, ground-breaking story experience clearly means a lot to them. Having idle animations disrupt that experience is probably embarrassing. Like a filmmaker realizing that the boom mic is in the shot.

Malediktus.9250:

Anet should add more achievements per patch (as long as they make sense) and more importantly reward fair amount of points. 3 AP for dozens of hours of playing or 25 AP for 5 legendaries is stupid.

Fair enough. I could get behind that.

Hey I got a question for you, Malediktus. You are pretty adamant on issues like these, but I’m curious – are there any alternatives that you would be satisfied with? Or are you only happy with the system staying the way it is?

Very cool, I just finished get an engi to 80 and will reference this a lot. Thanks for the hard work!

I’ve never understood why groups are so messy in this game. I think this is the first time I’ve heard of groups where there is no leader (technically there is, but he has no real power), anyone can invite, and anyone can initiate a kick. It’s rather silly imo.

Just keeping kick initiation to a group leader (at the very least, within dungeons) would kill the possibility of people stealing groups from those who are selling runs.

Malediktus.9250:

A) I dont feel like advertising other MMOs here by telling you which already exist for 10+ years. It just results in infraction points. Just google it.
B) Come back if its still impossible when GW2 stopped getting content updates. Not every item added to the game files is meant to be accessible immediatly.

Nice excuse for not backing up your point. I gotta give you some credit for cleverness on that one. Still, I don’t see why you would get infracted for naming other MMOs. I have done so on several occasions myself and never heard a peep about it.

At any rate, your claim is that “many successful MMOs last 10+ years.” Previously, I set aside the fact that the word “successful” is entirely subjective, but since you dodged my request for you to cite your claim, I have to call you on the structure of it. When it comes down to it, your claim is kind of like saying, “Many successful presidents last more than one term,” with “successful” having the made-up definition meaning “a president who is popular enough to last more than one term.”

It’s a circular sort of claim. “They are successful.” Why are they successful? “Because they lasted 10+ years.” Why did they last 10+ years? “Because they are successful, of course.”

But I’ll give you some credit and pretend that you have an iron-clad argument for why GW2 is a “successful” MMO and is going to “last 10+ years.” With that pretending in mind, you seem to think that Anet’s ability to create content for achievement hunters has dried up and that if access to a full set becomes at all more accessible, achievement hunters will somehow run out of goals to reach for. (I take it that’s not far from what you’re arguing?)

I’ll assume it’s close at least. There are some glaring problems with the logic of it.
1) Anet can produce more content for achievement hunters. To think they are so poor at producing content that they need to rest on their laurels and stretch out two sets of armor for a potential 10+ years of content is kind of insulting to their capability when you really stop and think about it.
2) Some people aren’t even asking for the pieces as a whole to become more accessible. Merely for the choices of what/when you get pieces to be more friendly to player preference. Particularly in regards to choosing one set over another to complete first.

But let’s keep the motives clear here. You have made it pretty clear that whatever arguments you make concerning this are because you want exclusive status on the armor set when you finally get it (that’s some crazed planning ahead, but we’ll go with it).

And my motives are something like: I think it’s extremely silly that we’re nowhere near a single full set of these armors being accessible to even one player at the very top of the achievement totem pole. And I feel the design of making you go through both sets to get one complete is a sloppy remnant of slow implementation that would probably have been examined already (who knows, maybe it has) were it not for the numerous other more pressing issues that they’re dealing with.

Malediktus.9250:

Labjax.2465:

Let’s just make one thing perfectly clear: Currently, a full set is impossible to obtain.

That is indisputable fact.

Game is only 2 years old. Many successful MMOs last 10+ years.

A) Citation needed.
B) The truth or falsity of your second statement doesn’t change that a full set is currently impossible to obtain.
D) There is no C. It isn’t obtainable yet.

Gaile Gray.6029:

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.)

FWIW, this is the kind of info I like to hear.

zenleto.6179:

Labjax.2465:

the satisfied people are too busy enjoying themselves to go to the forums.

I’m pretty satisfied. I come here for the same reason I used to watch the Jerry Springer show. Its another form of enjoyment

Would you believe… most of them are too busy enjoying themselves to go to the forums? :P

kaat.8237:

Long term goals means no, you don’t get it rightnowimmediatelybecauseIwantitrightnowimmediately. They aren’t impossible to attain. It’s just gonna take time, and all those who want immediate gratification are just out of luck.

Let’s just make one thing perfectly clear: Currently, a full set is impossible to obtain.

That is indisputable fact.

I’ve said it before in other words and I’ll say it again: It’s how forums stay active (controversy). Pages of threads full of praise for the game are never going to be a thing because:
1) People would quickly run out of things to say.
2) If everyone loved all aspects of the game, they would be playing it, not posting about it. Which is, incidentally, another reason why there is so much negativity; the satisfied people are too busy enjoying themselves to go to the forums.

Thanks for the update, Gaile.

In before the same names come parading in talking about how these are exclusive items and should remain unobtainable to everyone for forever because exclusivity yo.

DeceiverX.8361:

I guess I’m one of the few in the minority that prefers the more subtle animations, even as a straight male.

I’ll quote myself about the running animation change as well. It managed quite a bit of upvotes.

DeceiverX.8361:

It wasn’t feminine before. It was over-exaggerated cutesy bordering on pathetic schoolgirl.

Women, or, rather, female characters, should be entitled to act in whatever way they please. That said, this doesn’t justify making an idle animation into something that can even be disputed as inherently more sexualized than a male’s. I’d actually be fine with both genders sharing a neutral idle animation pool. And that’s precisely the thing; we’re talking about an idle animation – something that has a default and cannot be changed. It’s therefore better to stick with the neutral animation. So what if players want to make their female characters look sexy? That’s what on-demand emotes are for. If you care to look sexy at a given time, you should be in control of that, but that doesn’t justify forcing players into having their characters to natively behave in such a way based upon their sexality.

You know, for all the criticism this game gets, it must be in a pretty good place if people are taking the time to write such detailed arguments about the sexuality of idle animations.

Gaile Gray.6029:

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?

Hmm. My instinct is that saying something like, “I’m going to a review in less than an hour, although that doesn’t set a release time quite yet.” Is one of the best ways to put it. Soon is so hated because it has become like a blanket term to refer to anything that could be done from now to never-actually-finished.

I don’t think being precise is necessarily necessary. Just giving us information on the situation, like you did with the quoted sentence there tells us, “It’s something that’s actively being worked on and progress is being made.”

The trouble with the ambiguity of any time estimation is that we don’t know whether progress is being made. A college student might say “I’m going to get my paper done soon” and then cram it all into one night full of redbull. :P I can’t speak for everybody, but I know I don’t want to perceive a professional company in that way – that it’s just this side thing getting rushed into the rest of the schedule at the end of a deadline; I want to believe that you are making steady progress and prioritizing in an organized way.

Does that make sense?

Schwarzseher.9873:

insanemaniac.2456:

Schwarzseher.9873:

Gaile Gray.6029:

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.

And what does soon mean? 1 week? 1 month? Or rather 1 year?
You know, they say that the new airport of Berlin will be opened “soon” . They have been using the word “soon” since more than 2 years.

since she is allowed to say it, it means that feature is already complete and just waiting on patch cycling. give it 1-3 patches.

shes being really specific here, you need to read between the lines.

Specific looks different actually. Specific would be something like: In the next month or in the course of the next 2 weeks. Soon could be anytime, we could wait until GW9 is out until they change it.

Call me stupidly optimistic, but I am taking soon to mean that it’s probably on the way out today, assuming no major hiccups.

If that doesn’t happen, then I can see why the pitchforks feel justified.

I think it’d make the most sense to let you choose what buff you want, but I guess that might make their boosters look pointless by comparison.

Don’t give them any ideas lol. We don’t want it to become more expensive. This is a tuesday too, so maybe they will have that gem exchange update rolled out today. crossing fingers