Guild Wars 2

Reborn.2934:

omg … not again against two german BLOB servers

jakub.6857:

The whole wvw system is a bad joke. How we can win if two DE servers are cooperating all the time. 2 vs 1 is just unfair :-/

Some of you guys must really think that if you post such non-sense in the forums often enough, it would somehow become reality …?

The inflammatory accusations from last week were enervating enough. Could we please at least try to have a civil discussion this time?

On-Topic: A salute to Drakkar Lake. I think I never played against your server before, and I actually somehow didn’t expect you to be such a tough opponent. But in the opening hours on EB you have proven me wrong. Now I am really interested to learn how this week will pan out.

(edit:) Also, nice sneak-cap of Anza while were having a hefty 80v80 with Aurora at Speldans. Takes some cunning to pull such a stunt.

~MRA

Roo Stercogburn.9671:

I am deeply suspicious that ArenaNet’s matchup method, despite what they say in public, is actually just a battered D20 and a set of old D & D Dungeon Master lookup tables.

They did the right thing by perturbing the scores to do the match-ups. This is actually (mathematically) necessary to allow the ratings from different tiers to be comparable. It’s just the deviation that needs to be toned down a bit. I see this coming as a simple fix in the near future.

~MRA

(edit:) And If they would be actually using DM tables, I am confident they would use them in the exact way everyone of us had: Do a fake die roll behind your screen to soothe the players, and then just choose most mean or funny item on the table.

Rompy.1429:

So now it’s become a derogatory term to have big blobs? They seem to be darn successful. It might prove Piken’s individual players are better if they can win despite being outmanned, but they aren’t winning right now. Your personal 2v2 victories don’t get you to win until Friday. So, for the love of god, please stop trying to prove who’s got the bigger blobs. The devs said that there’s too much focus on zerging (and I completely agree), and reading Devon Carver’s blog post, we can safely assume that will change over time. Until then: Don’t blame any server (collectively, mind you) for zerging if you agree that it’s powerful. It’s in the game, it works, and if 100vX means that 100 will survive (and the others be sent back to their respective waypoints), of course the people over at RS will use it.

If having a bigger blob means victory then you will blob.
Sun Tzu said that, and I think he knows a little more about fighting than you do, pal.

So true that I just had to quote it again. Also, the right opportunity to quote my favorite Sun Tzu message for all zerg haters:

“It is the rule in war, if our forces are ten to the enemy’s one, to surround him; if five to one, to attack him; if twice as numerous, to divide our army into two. If equally matched, we can offer battle; if slightly inferior in numbers, we can avoid the enemy; if quite unequal in every way, we can flee from him. Hence, though an obstinate fight may be made by a small force, in the end it must be captured by the larger force.” — Sun Tzu’s Art of War, Chapter 3.8-3.11

I guess what he wanted to say was:

SunTzu.544BCE :

darn zergs, u suckx kittens !!!1!

~MRA

Jimmy JimBob.2801:

Guess it comes down to the fun vs points mentality.

Personally, I am one of those guys who cherishes the objective-based “World-v-Worlds part” of WvW. I couldn’t care less whether I win or loose individual duels, I fight to win a war! When our world is in the offensive, I like to manage supply lines and to solidify defenses just as much as I like to be on the front, subduing enemies and building/manning siege to break through your walls or arrow cart batteries. When we are in defense, I like to defend supply camps and structures, man said defenses, and smile while us few defenders foil you offensive plans.

And this, all together, results in fun (for me). You could put this as “playing for the points” but, for me, this is rather “playing for the map”. I like to look at the maps (and the upgrade status of our structures) to get confirmation whether we are actually doing fine in the war. The ppt or the overall score is merely a proxy for the success of our play and not necessarily the prime objective.

Having said that, I do understand that there are folks who would like to have it the other way around: Ignore the World-v-Worlds part and just enjoy the PvP duels. And I am all for giving those folks a playground where they can duel as much as they like. (Maybe even on a special WvW map where they won’t be disrupted by random players unintentionally spoiling their fun.) But, currently, I am still under the impression that they are a vocal minority that want to play a very different game like the rest of us on the very same map, and they maybe even want to play quite a different game than the one ANet intended WvW to be.

Jimmy JimBob.2801:

A genuine question to those RS who steamrolled our borderland late yesterday afternoon. Do you actually enjoy romping over half your number in easymode capping of T1 structures?

I wasn’t there, but I think this in not completely a matter of “easymode” oder WXP (although it may be just that for a larger part of players on ANY server). Also, this surely isn’t intended to be “mean” to a weaker server. This is, in fact, a strategic necessity to win the war. If you want to protect your (upgraded) structures, you have to force upon your opponent where the front line is. If you hold, say, Durios, and your opponent holds Ogrewatch, then the next battle may take place on either side of the border. By trashing your opponents tower on a regular basis (ideally as soon as it is recapped) while upgrading yours to the maximum (and adding an arrow cart, or two, or ten) you have forced the front to be your opponents T0 tower. She now has to invest a lot of effort to rebuild that tower. This means that even if your forces are evenly matched (or you are in a slight disadvantage), you have lots of time and opprortunity to retake that tower while yours is easy to defend. Doing so, your own part of the makitten afe (<— m.a.p—i.s—s.a.f.e, rotfl), and you are winning tick-by-tick.

Nevertheless, breaking into an undefended T0 tower is far from epic, and not really a satisfying experience. The fight that you remember most are the sieges that last for hours, where your success comes in very small steps (and is sometimes waging back and forth), and only by organizing to cope with the parallel side objectives leads to the final victory. And the fun thing is, these battles are memorable regardless whether you are on the winning or loosing side of the siege.

~MRA

Jimmy JimBob.2801:

Hmmm, I thought it was one of those standard “haha we got your tick to 0 GG” posts.

Well, from my understanding, it was such a post. But shouldn’t we all be grown up enough to accept a little non-offensive smack talk without taking it as an insult? (Comment not necessarily directed at you.)

Commie Terra did actually work quite hard for these 0ppt. While getting down to 20ppt wasn’t too difficult once Piken’s defenses had been broken down, the final ppt were a little bit tricky since Piken’s commando squads kept capping back supply camps. So there was actually some fair share of organization and splitting across four maps necessary to actually get the counter down to zero.

However, it was fun, and you should try doing it yourself when you have the opportunity. Beside that it was merely our spontaneous “project of the morning”, nothing too serious about it.

Dawdler.8521:

Anyway, ze Germans knew what they where doing. They took the opportunity to do this on a Swedish national holiday. We cant control WvW every day, especially not when drunk and/or hungover

I am almost 100% sure that nobody in the field was aware of that fact. In Germany, the knowledge of Swedish national holidays is far less solid than the Swedes might rightfully expect.

Jimmy JimBob.2801:

There is something to admire about Riverside’s “we will play the game how we enjoy it, and there isn’t anything you can say to stop us” attitude. A big fat middle finger to the elitest guild attitude you so often see on these boards.

And that’s actually the perfect way of describing the experience of the match-up this week. I completely agree, thanks for putting it that way.

(to be continued …)

BloodyB.4320:

It was raid of my guild with “badge on”, bcs we had only 15 ppl. Or u think that we should jump to 70 Riversiders with 15-20 ppl?

flowjob.7934:

Sorry but we were only 30 people, not 70 …

Obviously, counting seems to be a way too hard task in WvW these days. I wish people would just accept this as a fact and stop arguing about imaginary numbers …

~MRA

Mist Y.5214:

I main engineer and I obviously get hit with a LOT of retaliation whenever I use grenades or flamethrower, which is pretty much all the time. I don’t wear PVT gear, but I do have a neat trick to counter the damage from retal: stop attacking for a moment and heal. My number 6 skill is really good for this.
Coming from someone who suffers more than most: please DON’T nerf retaliation.

… plus, popping some Elixir B and watching a noob thief Heartseeker himself to death: priceless!

~MRA

xiv.7136:

Riverside WvW Player Decision Algorithm

01 Move with zerg
02 Can you build an arrowcart;
—————if Yes GoTo 03;
—————if No GoTo 01
03 Build Arrowcart
04 Use Arrowcart

To be more funny, you should have put the whole piece of code into a loop.

~MRA

Elvirais.5472:

A lot of us at Piken were so frustrated that when we finally broke through inner Stonemist yesterday, we ran straight up the stairs to take out the arrowcarts :-)

Yeah, we did make some pretty hefty mistakes yesterday evening which allowed you to do so, like not dealing properly with Quentin when we still had a formidable map control (while you were playing a patient and steady treb offensive), not protecting our supply routes adequately, and allowing the Gunnies to sneak up on us (while we were fighting you) by breaking the northern wall of SM. Actually, I personally was blind enough trebbing Durios for minutes while not noticing that GH rushed in “left of my screen”.

So, well played, PS and GH, you fully deserved your success.

~MRA

MandJ.8965:

And a Player, which got attacked by 8 Players, not run is silly.

I rarely decline the opportunity of a fine 1v8 suicide.

There are also sometimes very sane reasons for doing so, like:

• making a cap take ~5 seconds longer, which may make the difference
• tagging the neutral mercs they are fighting, so that you may actually win the dredge, frogs, etc when they kill them for you
• taking out that treb, ac, cata, etc. which might have been your actual target
• knowing that your zerg is just coming in while your opponents don’t, and steal them some seconds from their precious “running away budget”
• knowing that they will catch you anyway, so why not try to have some fun downing at least one guy?
• and, of course, finding out how many of them are actually running away in panic (at least for a second) when they see a single engi charging in, flamethrower blazing. You will be surprised if you try out!

~MRA

Lyndis.2584:

Don’t know if ignorant or just stupid, you don’t have time to click on every enemy in a 50 man zerg to check if they have retal before attacking.

Fortunately, you don’t necessarily have to. You will get a special damage floater for retal damage. Just stop attacking once those floaters appear.

Lyndis.2584:

“Stop attacking” isn’t a solution. Confusion was the same exact thing. You could just ‘stop attacking’, right?

Actually, that’s exactly what I do. I usually just pause to pop a condi removal instead of attacking, and then go on with killing the mesmer.

~MRA

ANet, please don’t shut WvW down. I am still having fun.

However, performance improvements are always welcome.

~MRA

Maladon.5760:

Solution: Stop spamming attacks like a moron. Paying attention is all you need to do to make this “problem” go away.

This is actually the correct answer. (Give this man a cigar!)

Problem solved, thread can be closed now.

~MRA

MRA.4758:

I usually would also send a friendly salute to Piken Square as well, but reading the many arrogant, disrespectful, and borderline inflammatory comments of so many of your players here in this thread made me temporarily loose all my respect for you guys.

genowefapigwa.5769:

MRA.4758:

Actually, the weeks against AM have been the best fight in months.

Lol 2 weakest servers ever Fresh meat for other servers

I rest my case.

~MRA

nagymbear.5280:

If you gain ranks so fast I presume its because you run in big groups, fighting other big groups. Others that are scattered through their BL on reset night helping here and there, as the need arises don’t see it that way. And I think roamers are the same deal. If you would make it even slower I think it would push even more people towards zerging just to farm WXP. I cringe at the thought of farming WXP, as I don’t think its what fun is. I see it as a slow climb, but don’t give it too much thought. I got my rank 1 AC and Cannon skills, which are more than enough for me. I don’t really care about the title, but its nice to see that once in a while you get 5 points and can buy something with it.

No, this is my observation as a “soldier” who is doing his part wherever he is needed. It is usually more likely that I am part of the support and defense troops, than that I am running with the big groups. And still, as a regular player, ranking up happens to fast for my liking.

But I agree with you that there is a bias in favor of offensive gameplay with WvW, ans especially Commanders burn through the ranks even faster. This is just part of what I don’t like at the the system.

~MRA

DevonCarver.5370:

We agree that the rate is simply too slow right now and the build next week will make some major adjustments to that.

Really? I kind of disagree, I find the leveling through the WvW ranks happens way to fast. I don’t even care for what my current title is called anymore, since it will be obsolete so soon anyways. I find the systems fails in making me proud of being a “soldier/knight/general/whatever in the glorious army of Riverside.” Those titles just fly by and are as easily forgotten as they are obtained.

Also, from my understanding, earning titles in WvW should be an endeavor that evolves over many months, and not some project that is done in a few weeks of farming.

Personally, I would have preferred a system that (maybe) keeps the numerical ranks, but only has a fairly small number of titles such as just ‘recruit/soldier/veteran/elite/champion/legend’, with the first tier (e.g., soldier) being obtained pretty early after, say, one or two weeks of WvW, and the final tier (e.g., legend) only being achieved after a fairly extensive period like six to eight months of very active WvW play. These would have been titles that a player can be proud of.

Just my 2 cents.

~MRA

nethykins.7986:

However, A PR company (I’m sure it would have been one of a few), that helped market the game you spent 5 odd years making, and millions of dollars funding? I’d know the company name at the very least!

I think you are mixing things up here. ArenaNet (the company Colin Johanson is working for) is the developer of Guild Wars 2. It is NCsoft who acts as the publisher of Guild Wars 2.

Marketing and advertising are usually the responsibilities of the publisher, not the developer.

~MRA

Maz.8604:

Just to point this out, it seems like you are still hyping up your achievements post-launch beyond their scope. People do have a fairly commonly accepted idea of what is worthy of being an expansion, and if what you plan on releasing as a paid expansion is of the same scope as the updates we have gotten so far, I think it would be a poor consumer decision to purchase it.

Maz.8604:

So Colin, if what you say is true, then how come Bastion the company that printed the original press release, lists NCSoft as a client here?

It seems this company is employed to speak for NCSoft and by extension, ArenaNet as as you are a wholly owned subsidiary.

Unless you are in the habit of letting firms issue releases on your behalf without vetting them, it seems this company does in fact speak for you.

Maz.8604:

Good to know, Colin.

Because they apparently know you.

Maz.8604:

I’m surprised you didn’t run into these guys while preparing the game for launch.

Apparently, it’s not the only thing they’ve written about you guys.

Well, really? That’s it? That’s the scandalous affair that required a three pages thread and two dev postings? A UK marketing company that is just doing their job by overselling a product to those who are gullible enough to take obvious marketing trash talk as facts? Seriously?

Ok, this now officially classifies this thread as the most superfluous thing I have read this month in the forums. And now I have also posted in it. I feel dirty …

~MRA

Amelia Knox.9362:

i’m sure that Rs when is playing for points is good, for open field aside DW and DTK we never felt any threat aside from much bigger numbers, on equal numbers most RS are made of pure paper armor.

Then let me offer you my congratulations for either your self-confidence, your courage, your luck, or your selective perception.

But I agree with your assessment that [dw] displays some awesome team tactics in the open field. (I never personally witnessed [DTK] in the open field, but they are experienced enough that I understand that you should feel threatened.)

~MRA

Karahol.9840:

And again… Ask RS how well their strategies worked against the superior coverage servers of Tier 3 and come back to talke about WvWvW being a game of strategy.

Actually, when we are even in the strength of our forces, RS strategies work quite well in T3. I think we have already demonstrated time and again that we are a serious opponent for those teams, may it be in the open field or during sieges.

That we cannot compete with T3 in terms of points is, as you already noted, mainly a matter of coverage. And outside of the weekends, RS does not have the capabilities cover all 24 hours. That is the reason why you will see us sent back to T4 again and again.

Having said that, I suggest just accepting (and loving or hating) the game for what it is, and not getting frustrated since things can get so severely unbalanced at times. In a global context, balanced coverage is an intractable problem, period. After all, there are hundreds of threads and thousands of posts in these forums and I haven’t seen a single reasonable suggestion of how to deal with it.

Personally, I take my satisfaction from the fine display of our server at times when we are at evenly numbered in forces with our opponents. Who cares for the points anyways, they are just a proxy to determine the next match-up.

~MRA

I somewhat doubted that there are really 1500 events in the game when I was asking this question some months ago. Now, with release of the public event API, I have been proven wrong: According to this API call there are currently 1636 events in the game. So ANet has been true to their announcement. Kudos for that.

~MRA

Thanks to both MoS and ANet for their effort on this. This service is awesome.

~MRA

Frostedblaze.9017:

Would the problem be fixed if I switched to a wired connection? Because that would be a possibly for a small fee.

Of course, a wired connection is always more reliable than a wave lan connection, but the connection from your pc to your wlan access point is only the first hop in a series of connection step from your pc to ncsoft’s servers. See the result of your pathping:

Hop  RTT    Lost/Sent = Pct  Lost/Sent = Pct  Address
  0                                           Joe-PC.rentiowatech.com [10.1.13.164] 
                                5/ 100 =  5%   |
  1   27ms     8/ 100 =  8%     3/ 100 =  3%  218hyland.rentiowatech.com [10.1.13.1] 
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  2   43ms     5/ 100 =  5%     0/ 100 =  0%  10.144.69.1 
                                1/ 100 =  1%   |
  3   38ms     8/ 100 =  8%     2/ 100 =  2%  172.30.6.17 
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  4   41ms     6/ 100 =  6%     0/ 100 =  0%  172.30.1.145 
                                3/ 100 =  3%   |
  5   53ms     9/ 100 =  9%     0/ 100 =  0%  12.250.192.101 
                               10/ 100 = 10%   |
  6  ---     100/ 100 =100%    81/ 100 = 81%  cr2.kc9mo.ip.att.net [12.122.150.206] 
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  7  ---     100/ 100 =100%    81/ 100 = 81%  cr1.dlstx.ip.att.net [12.122.28.85] 
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  8  ---     100/ 100 =100%    81/ 100 = 81%  12.122.212.9 
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  9   76ms    19/ 100 = 19%     0/ 100 =  0%  ae7.dal33.ip4.tinet.net [199.229.231.25] 
                                9/ 100 =  9%   |
 10  ---     100/ 100 =100%    72/ 100 = 72%  xe-2-1-0.fra60.ip4.tinet.net [141.136.108.33] 
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
 11  155ms    28/ 100 = 28%     0/ 100 =  0%  cdnetworks-gw.ip4.tinet.net [77.67.71.122] 
                               72/ 100 = 72%   |
 12  ---     100/ 100 =100%     0/ 100 =  0%  206-127-157-94.plaync.com [206.127.157.94] 
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
 13  ---     100/ 100 =100%     0/ 100 =  0%  206-127-157-102.plaync.com [206.127.157.102] 

The percentage values between two steps describe the package loss that occures during that hop. As you can see there are already a number of problems before you reach any ncsoft server (e.g., hops 5-6-7-8). This is your ISP’s responsibility.

However, if I understand this correctly, there seems also to be a high package loss percentage in hop 11-12, which seems to be part of GW2’s content delivery network. I assume this is ANet’s responsibility (or at least the responsibility of ANet’s ISP).

~MRA

VOLKON.1290:

Arrowcarts are fine. It’s the people that haven’t adapted yet that are the problem.

I agree. ANet, please patch people!!!1!

~MRA

Siphaed.9235:

Why….why must it leave?

BrunoBRS.5178:

wait what? what reasoning could you possibly have for this?

Sithaco.4673:

Can I just ask what is your reasoning behind making this (as well as many other things in the game) non-permanent?

As much as I am all in favor for permanent content, I think we have to accept that temporary content is one of the very few dirty tricks ANet has got up their sleeves to “put pressure” on the player base to choose “play now” over “play some time later next month after I have finished Skyrim/The Witcher/Torchlight/Pokemon Black Edition/whatever”. Older MMOs applied this pressure automatically due to the subscription fee (“I have to play today or else I won’t have my money’s worth of game this month”). Since GW2 doesn’t require a subscription (hooray! free at last!) the casual player has to be constantly incentivized to come back to the game.

Also, the removal of content when new content is added helps to focus the player base, which I assume is also intended. And, finally, ANet devs have stated time and again they want the world to feel lively and dynamic. Temporary content contributes to that dynamic feel.

As stated above, I would definitely prefer content to be permanent added to game. (Heck, I didn’t even have time to set a single foot into that new Molten Alliance dungeon, yet.) But ANet also has to take care that the game is successful on the market, and I guess thats their reason for temporary content.

~MRA

Advent Leader.1083:

Live servers do not have several pieces of functionality that can be used for debugging, afaik.

I’d say that when a client application (aka “the game”) can retrieve this kind of information from the live servers for the sake of playing the game, a simple monitoring application should be able to retrieve this kind of information, too. Also, there are usually very helpful auxiliary resources such as log files.

But, of course, I don’t know jack about ANets live servers. I am just saying that if my servers would have such fragile components like the event system, I would develop simple monitoring tools to help me solve such problems efficiently (and more conveniently for me), and I wouldn’t query my customers for their epics (except, maybe, just as a token to show that someone is taking care).

~MRA

Jeffrey Vaughn.1793:

What’s the state of the meta event? Which events (if any) are currently running? I need to know WHERE in the event chain it’s stalled. Thanks!

I am still amazed by this: It is 8 month after the release, hundreds of events have been found broken/stalled and fixed in the past months, and you still have to actually ask the players for that kind of information, instead of, say, opening some back-end console and typing something like

state -info=all -server=gunnars_hold eventchain/3456_the_frozen_maw

to get each an every piece of information that might be relevant.

~MRA

Reslinal.2359:

The arguments here really demonstrate the difference between two play styles in wvw. People who prefer proper siege warfare like the change and people who like open field fights and only use objectives as focal points to find action hate this change.

It’s hard to fill the desire of both groups at once, maybe instead of complaining about the change, the second group should encourage ANET to tweak the mechanisms to encourage more open field battles? I think this change is good for the siege warfare aspect of WvW (the range of AC needs some tweaking) and who knows it may actually create more opportunities for open field battles as well (like more open field siege battles, and more efforts at blocking reinforcements etc).

A reasonable line of thought, though I don’t think your premise is completely correct. Players who prefer the open field battles are actually quite unaffected by the arrow cart buff, since you do not usually find that many arrow carts in the open field.

From my perspective this case more demonstrates the difference between the “extended siege warfare play style” crowd and the “but i want my loot/karma/wxp/whatever now, instantly, without having to earn it or to change anything in the current way i optimized my play style” crowd. A shift in the meta forces the latter group out of their comfort zone, and hence the 18+ pages mega thread. Filling the desire of these two groups at once is just as much a dilemma as the one you illustrated.

Having said that, I am all for giving the “open field battle play style” crowd something they like. Maybe an additional map with non-fortified capture objectives only that contribute to the PPT? This would allow for a very different type of skirmish WvW side by side with the existing siege warfare WvW. (Just an idea, who knows if this would work.)

~MRA

Ok, it’s mega-thread time again…

Since everybody is showcasing their two cents, here are mine:

I find the arrow cart buff an interesting change of pace. Arrow carts are now quite obviously shaking up the established (stalling?) tactics to take towers in less that 2 minutes, and they are a very welcome (if not necessary) buff to the defending side.

Taking towers/keeps has become way to easy in the current “WvW meta”. You shouldn’t be able to ninja such structures just because the zerg banging at the door is large enough (maybe bringing a golem or two, or sixteen). Defenders on the walls have been almost completely powerless against the attacking side, and attacking from the walls (with or without an arrow cart) has been more dangerous for the guy on the wall than for the lad on the ground. I don’t find this correct. A small skeleton crew should be able to stall a full force attack for some time if they are prepared, and the new arrow carts are helping. (Please look up your European history books. Keeps have actually been defended for extensive periods of time by very small defending forces. They usually only succumbed when they were successfully cut off from their supply lines. I wish this would be the same for WvW.)

As always, people need to relax, stop crying/blaming/namecalling, and take their time to come up with new tactics to counter a well fortified keep. And I am quite positive within a week we will have found these tactics. Just allow yourself to try something different.

So please, ANet, don’t falter just because some players tend to flee in panic whenever they see their own shadow, or just because a thread grows to 13+ pages of complaints faster than players could have actually played and tested new tactics to cope with the current rules of the game.

(edit) Having said that, there is still room for improvement. Anet should be vigilant that arrow carts do not become the one and only siege device of choice. E.g., ballistae may currently seem a little bit to weak in comparison. Also, the boiling oil above the doors is still nigh useless (except maybe for buying a small amount of extra time before it is destroyed, or versus very dumb attackers). A defender manning the oil usually survives only up to 10 seconds when the combined zerg is in AoEing. I hope ANet will address these problems in future patches, too.(/edit)

As stated above, these are just my 2 cents.

~MRA

zenleto.6179:

Lol. Official? According to who? Gimme links, I love reading about this sort if stuff.

You are welcome: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/golem

zenleto.6179:

And so what!

Maybe. Also, there will alway some kind of ambiguity in pronunciation since there are many non-native English speakers around (such as myself) who have their own funny habits.

But this doesn’t change the fact that the OP is right.

~MRA

Irena.1062:

Well good, hopefully the prices will keep on climbing so that buying gems and transferring them to gold will make RMT be pointless as buying gems will be more profitable for players.

Just quoted for truth, while hoping that someday players will realize that a high exchange rate is generally good for the game. Yes, a high exchange rate will also mean that you will have to grind a little bit longer until you can afford that sugar-coated sparkling knickknack that you want to buy so eagerly from the gem store (at least if you are unwilling to buy gems with real money). But, after all, these are luxury items with no real relevance for the game.

Behellagh.1468:

No. JS stated a while back the exchange was set up with both a (very, very large) pool of gems and a pool of gold. We as players add and subtract from those pools when we convert. And the relationship between the current amount of both pools factors into the exchange rate.

Smith (2012) also concluded:

John Smith.4610:

Astraea.6075:

Another issue that is often debated is to what extent (if any) the initial exchange rates (and possibly initial supply of gold and gems) when the game launched have on the current rates. Are you able to provide any insight on this?

Virtually none at this point.

~MRA

John Smith.4610:

Aurisai.3416:

If this increase in the gold supply is not counteracted strongly enough with gold sinks, we have a textbook economic definition of inflation.

“In economics, inflation is a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time”

Time for new textbooks; change in money supply is not a change in price level, they are not interchangeable.

However:

“Economists generally agree that high rates of inflation and hyperinflation are caused by an excessive growth of the money supply.”

(Same “textbook” source as your quote.)

~MRA

Saint Scarlet.2906:

I bring this to your servers attention due to the fact that 1 guild is doing this alot and even when asked in private has done nothing to remove the members cheating.

I am a regular member of TIA who is playing WvW almost daily, and I can assure you that I have not witnessed a single incident of foul play ever, neither have I ever heard of any such deeds in the internal communication of the guild. I don’t know from what perspective you take your claim of “that 1 guild is doing this alot”, but as far as I can tell, such an accusation is just plain ridiculous.

I don’t have the slightest clue what your screen shot is showing. Also, unfortunately, you have disabled the rendering of the character models which does not help either. If you happen to have any actual evidence pointing to foul play please don’t hesitate to send me a PM. I will relay them to the guild leadership for you.

Also, feel free to use the in-game report function if you witness any foul play, as is intended by ANet, since the rules of conduct of this forum forbid namecalling and fingerpointing. (The last point is something I would really wish for every party to respect. There is no reason that reading these sub-forums has been to be a pain in the kitten.)

~MRA

Stark.1350:

Can someone explain to me how this game has any sort of grind? I haven’t grinded for a single thing thus far.

Same here. I have played for 865 hours since release, not a single minute of them were wasted.

~MRA

Habib Loew.6239:

Hey there Wuvers,

It’s my pleasure to introduce to you Devon Carver, the new coordinator of the WvW team. Devon is an excellent designer and is passionate about WvW so I know that both the team and WvW are in good hands. As I step away to focus on other projects you’ll be seeing more of Devon here in the WvW forums so please give him a warm WvW welcome!

I’ll see you on the battlefield!
:habib

Thanks for your work, Habib, you will be truly missed in this subforum. You did a great job of making the quirks and foibles of the technical implementation of WvW understandable. This is something that is far too rarely seen in game development, and many companies would even forbid their programmers doing so.

(edit: Also, I like the implication that there is “something big” in development that requires your and Mike’s attention.)

~MRA

Endemonadia.8593:

Thankyou for admitting that u only had 1 commander per map.

It is even more “disgusting”: There are times when we have 0 commanders on a map!! Us basterds!

The simple truth is that many times, we do not have enough commanders active to run many squads in parallel. Commanders often have to play for many, many hours with no break since there is no replacement ready. I would be the first who would be happy if we could utilize more split strategies since I think this would only multiply our prowess. From my perspective, Riverside did a good job in bringing new players to WvW, but the server is still in need for a larger number of active commanders.

Winneh.2064:

and we have the guild zergs aswell, running around in their own groups.

This. Smaller strike teams are often formed as a particular guild’s effort, or send off for special tasks by a commander. Those units often do not run with activated commander icon and organize solely by TeamSpeak/chat, so you might not immediately recognize them as such. Please do not blame us only because you are not scouting properly.

Endemonadia.8593:

We will continue to blame RS for breaking WvW as long as u continue to run 100+ zergs.

And this is the most ridiculous statement I have read in a long time. Seriously. Please, don’t be silly.

Also, you have a strange way of counting. In the screenshot you provided I count about 30+ players. In the other screenshots in this thread (not necessarily depicting Riverside players) I count up to 60+ fighters per party. I was not able to play at prime time since the no-culling patch, but I would be delighted to actually SEE a 100+ zerg someday.

~MRA

Vanz.5976:

Lets make the most of it before tomorrow floods the lakes with PVErs testing the new patch.

Ah, 5+ hour long WvW queues after launch, I remember thee well …

~MRA

Teraphas.6210:

Everyone gets legendaries dropping as normal loot

with 30 min timers on them lol

Nah, this would be way too nice for an April Fool’s hoax. I’d rather have this:

Everybody gets a loot drop containing a (random) precursor. But when you pick it up, you only get this “you are encumbered” window pop-up (although you are not), and whatever you do, you will not get it into your inventory.

Although, on the other hand, considering the temper of an average player, this might lead to 55% percent of a server population ragequitting the game .. :-/

~MRA

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

All of the missions are designed to be completed in the fifteen minute window. The pre-scouting methods were never used by the testers. Most found it far more efficient to start the mission and the search the map by dividing up our efforts.

Some of the new bounties are designed to actively encourage this approach instead.

I guess the main reason for complaining here is that most people don’t want the guild missions to be challenging. They rather want their reward delivered instantly, with 0% chance of failure. I for one would be happy if you can succeed in making the outcome of a guild bounty a little bit less predictable in advance and in shifting the focus more towards the collaborative action.

For instance, in my guild, we are diligently scouting and planning a guild bounty for up to one hour before we start them (because there are always that one or two potential bounties missing). Most of the “action” is just waiting until the last potential candidate has been found. Once we start the mission, the bounties go down in parallel in well below five minutes. I don’t find this particularly rewarding, and I am quite sure that the fun will wear off quickly.

(Yes, of course, we could deliberately not pre-scout, but since this is a larger group effort, I am not sure whether we would find a consensus in that discussion. I’d rather like to see the guild bounties fixed in general.)

~MRA

Reztek.7805:

lieschen.6750:

… but we follow him all because the server exactly this needed.

No, we don’t. It’s also kinda naive to think the return of a single player changes anything in WvWvW. Especially with 2 borderland channels being almost deserted at prime time, hence randoms or guilds on their own TS doing all the work there.

Good score attracts more people, as simple as that.

Saying, the success of this week is the deed of “just one guy” is just as much an enormous simplification as saying it’s “just good scores attracting more people”.

I have noticed in this week (actually, already beginning mid of last week) that a large number of people were playing more actively again. Several commanders that I have rarely seen playing during the troubled past weeks seem to have started playing more actively again. (I could try to list their names but I would most likely forget some.) Their experience did most certainly help a lot, and they succeeded in covering a little more of the off-hours when we were used to loose pretty much ground. (Yes, I am looking at you, Aurora-Glade-we-stomp-you-in-the-early-morning-hours-squad. ) And it shows that if you have competent commanders acting on a map, then the rest of the players are willing to go that extra mile.

So, in my point of view, Riverside did not have an increase in the WvW population, but it had a significant increase in WvW activity.

Feierabend Bier is quite obviously a very ambitious and dedicated commander. And yes, at times he leads with the charm of a cliché drill sergeant. But you cannot deny the fact that, during this week, he succeeded in motivating a lot of players to act and defend as a team, and to play at off-hours. He may not be the only reason (or even the main reason) for the performance of this week, but his fingerprints are all over it.

But you are right of course that, in the long run, no server needs “that one guy” to play successfully. What is needed is a dedicated player base — commander, zergling, or newcomer alike — willing to invest time and to work together as a team for a common goal.

~MRA

Chill Winston.7263:

I was wondering if you would share your thoughts on how to effectively play in WvW when you are constantly outnumbered by the players on the other servers.

I’d suggest to try the following:

Coordinate — You are not alone. Many players will be likely minded, so join them. If you do not already have dedicated WvW guilds, found them. If your WvW guilds are uncoordinated, build alliances. Have a voice chat, have a web forum, have regular meetings. Make the WvW success of your server a community effort. Try to develop a server strategy. Have veteran players give advise to new players. Maybe have a regular tutorial day, and advertise WvW to PvE players. Assume good faith of all your guilds, and keep a level head even if things don’t turn out as planned. Refrain from pointing fingers and always remember that any “Guild Wars” should be directed at that other server’s guilds.

Concentrate — If you only have half the players, then play only half the maps. Coordinate before reset which guilds man which map. Let the other servers fight over the maps that you cannot man. Even if this might not help you to gain more points, it will help you to significantly improve the fun on the active maps since you may not be outmanned anymore. If the opponent is able to play at off-hours that you cannot compete with, then take your encouragement from your servers performance during the hours that you can play in full strength. After all, the points are only good for determining the next opponent, they are no measurement of fun.

Fortify — Even a small skeleton crew can defend a well fortified tower or keep. The game has defensive siege equipment for a reason. Heck, I stalled attacks on Quentin several times against groups of ~20 players by using only the mortar. A nightshift of only a few people can defend a map if they have a network of waypoints they can use. Don’t overreach yourself, play safe, and don’t be reckless. If you have secured your third of the map, you can start harassing your opponent. Focus on easy targets first (Dolyaks, supply camps) before trying to attack some low tier towers. Give your opponent something to do in his third so that she is distracted from yours. When in doubt, choose defending your (T2/T3) towers over conquering any enemy keep/tower.

Persist — Growing a lasting WvW community and leading it to success will take time. Maybe even a long time. Be patient, and don’t give up. Maybe you have to loose some weeks to end up in a bracket where you can rise and shine. It will be worth it, and you will have more fun if your opponent is of an adequate level. Define goals for yourself/for your server that can be reached. And if you fail (which you inevitably will from time to time), then stand up and try again.

Chill Winston.7263:

Please refrain from the obvious answer of “Join a bigger server” because, at this point, I would feel like a traitor (even though I do get tempted sometime to just do it!).

I’d never dare to suggest a server transfer, for the very reason you have given.

~MRA

TheGreatA.4192:

Those are signs of respect though.

Well you quoted before I could edit in the flamethrower part, which is certainly not a sign of respect. Although, it isn’t meant to be offensive either.

~MRA

Pheppo.9286:

Just another thing … as i charged alone into your zerg on the bridge to defend the hill and after I got killed … plenty of BB people danced on my dead body … :/

I still fail to see how this is taken as offensive. I find it rather funny. I often also use emotes to wave or salute to tower/keep defenders, and I want to assure everyone that this is never meant ill. I also try to make a habit of using /bow after an 1v1 (well, at least the ones I am able to do an emote afterwards). Also, if a corpse is lying around a little bit too long, I sometime use my flamethrower until to shoo the little spy away.

It’s just a game. Relax, and don’t take it too serious. (Und immer schön flauschig bleiben.)

~MRA

After the 20+ minutes mass threeway yesterday at Anza/Dredge/Wildcreek, can we all please stop complaining that there would not be room for some nice open warfare battles. Its a shame that there were neither the time nor bagspace to pick up all that precious loot …

It was quite funny, thanks to all parties. I can’t wait to see such battles without culling. (TS was quite literally going: “So, I guess we wiped the Aurora zerg.” — “Oh no, wait, here they are.” — “Ok, now we are done.” — “What, there is still a Baruch zerg???” --- all the time )

~MRA

kuora.5402:

MRA.4758:

kuora.5402:

This is Anet’s problem not ours.

Not necessarily true. Might as well be your ISP’s problem, which makes it to your problem.

~MRA

Fair enough, so our whole map has ISP problems.

… shut up.

Yeah, stupid me. How do I dare to give actual sound advise:

https://forum-de.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/tech/Laggs-und-Disconnects-Telekom-Kunden/235435

I should better shut up and not disturb you in your choice of being ignorant.

~MRA

Fiontar.4695:

It seems like almost every interview the last few months have offered some excuse about relatively straight forward things they would/could/should be doing, but can’t because of a lack of coders. It’s not always that direct, but it seems they really do have a serious lack of coders and if you have a serious lack of coders and that lack is threatening the potential of the game’s ongoing financial success, you go out and get more coders.

I agree. Anybody else ever wondered why the “ANet is Hiring!” ad has been up for months now on the gw2 website? It doesn’t seem to be that simple for them to get the actual coders/artists/writers they want.

Fiontar.4695:

As to “we got this all for free”. Well, some of you are getting it for free while some of us are actually paying for it via gem purchases, often to sums greater than a typical monthly subscription fee. You might say “that’s optional and if you don’t like the ongoing development, stop buying gems”. Well, that’s really what my concerns all come back to.

The business model for the game relies on people making optional cash infusions to the company via the gem store. I have to seriously question their priorities and productivity when it comes to providing ongoing content needed to maintain and drive ongoing gem store revenue.

I’d still argue it is for free. I, for one, have also bough a dye pack, a key, or similar non-essential stuff out of my good-will to support the game. However, in the gem shop, I still only get what I pay for (a dye pack, a key, etc.). Halloween, more PvP maps, the karka slideshow, guild missions, and so were/are available to anyone regardless of their participation in the gem shop. This IS content for free. If the monthly releases also encourages players to buy an additional bank slots/whatever, then this is great for ANet, but it is still optional. If I don’t like the current months release, then no harm is done, and maybe I will like the next month’s release.

Of course ANet should make it’s releases as good as possible to keep people interested in playing (and, as a side-effect, in spending). Yet, I still cannot understand the attitude of some people who seriously now feel entitled to a monthly “DLC’S worth of content for free” (to use a CJ-like description) and are not ashamed to complain rudely if they are not completely satisfied. (Again, this is not necessarily directed at your post, but I have seen enough posts that fit into that category.)

~MRA

kuora.5402:

This is Anet’s problem not ours.

Not necessarily true. Might as well be your ISP’s problem, which makes it to your problem.

~MRA

I just died while I was doing the ogre event. When I reached the event I noticed that we (“red”) had already 50% of progress, so I started killing harpies to help out. “Red” made fast progress and maybe two minutes later the event ended —- uhm, failed? It was not before I was roflstomped by the Aurora zerg that was passing through me when I realized that we had been “red” last week, and that we are “blue” in this week …

On a related note, yesterday, while we were upgrading and defending the captured red keep, I noticed an Aurora player trying for about a minute to enter Veloka through that blue door before him. He obviously wasn’t realizing that we captured Veloka some minutes ago, and, much to his misfortune, I was manning a balista behind him.

~MRA

tlay.1720:

so nice, friday night, baruch fight in teamwork with aurora against riverside for points. aurora give their own homelands as a present to baruch, badest player ever.
all other server should know how this both server play.

I’d say in war, even “kingmaking” is a valid strategy. I’d rather take encouragement from the fact how well we performed even against all odds. It makes so much fun to play for our server, as always.

~MRA

Fiontar.4695:

You guys have definitely added features, but very light on content. I exclude Guild Missions from content delivered to players, because the gating of access to them is so absurd that maybe 95% of players have no access unless they guild leech. Besides, bounties, though I’m sure taking some amount of resources to develop, don’t really offer much in the way of actual playable content.

(My post is not necessarily directed at you, I just high-jacked your post.)

I would argue that content, even if its not for you in particular, is still content. Fractals, for instance, wasn’t for me, but was still quite some load of content, and many (other) people enjoy it.

Also, I wouldn’t underestimate the workload required to deliver new features. Guesting or the removal of culling haven’t been released earlier since ANet didn’t want us to have it, they just needed a significant amount of time for development/testing. I find it understandable that this has required resources that could not act on different tasks. So, while the “story content” of the past two releases was rather shallow compared to the months before, I didn’t see ANet giving us “less than before” in the past two releases.

And, finally, I would like to highlight the fact that we got all of this for free, as a kind of continued service for our one-time purchase. This service is even more impressive than what we got for GW1. Don’t tell me you expected that, say, 12 months ago, since I would not believe you.

~MRA