Guild Wars 2

CruSheR.3297:

Just couldn’t help myself :’D

We’re so far into meta territory now, I lost count of how many metas we just triggered.

Vayne.8563:

How does Anet fix this? The only way I can see would be to remove players freedom. That would be worse than what we have now. The bottom line is you can’t really give me a good reason why you refuse to use the LFG tool to solve a problem. Clue: I shouldn’t have to isn’t a good reason.

Shall I reciprocate by challenging you to explain how ArenaNet should fix the lack of optimization of the game engine, lingering problems with NPC pathing or some other longstanding issue, then badger you about it if you don’t? That would be just as relevant.

Berating players for noting the presence of empty maps and not instinctively knowing to use the LFG tool to taxi doesn’t solve the problem either. Your workaround isn’t a solution, nor is your professed inability to conceive of a solution evidence that the problem can’t be solved by ArenaNet.

In the case of the Silverwastes, almost all taxiing would be unnecessary if chest farming didn’t conflict with completing the meta events and map population algorithms were working as intended. There are any number of ways ArenaNet could accomplish that, such as working chest farming into the downtime period of the meta chain and locking chests out when other major events are in progress, or changing the chest and reward mechanics altogether to a form that allows players to focus on map objectives instead, such as that used in HoT.

In general, ArenaNet could also adjust the map population algorithms to account for established patterns of player behavior, such as world boss farming and moving to adjacent maps. They could also make the process of transitioning between map instances less disruptive by preserving buffs and other character state information that is currently lost, add functionality to move players seamlessly into other instances on the fly (as is commonly done in other single-shard games) and even design dynamic events to allow such transitions without losing credit or reward eligibility.

And that’s not even the tip of the engineering iceberg for improving the megaserver system. I could propose several other approaches and solutions, we could fruitlessly debate their merits, feasibility or indulge in a tedious round of the ever-popular and presumptuous zero-sum game of unilaterally assigning development priorities, and go even further afield of the topic of this thread, and that would be equally pointless, because that’s not what any of this is about.

In a broader sense, however, this exchange does relate to the future of Guild Wars 2. If both ArenaNet and we as players are willing to let problems with the game go unresolved, and presume to blame players for their continuing existence, no less, then the future of the game is bleak.

On the other hand, if we are willing to challenge ArenaNet to make the best game possible, and they are willing to deliver it, then I’m confident they can do it, and we will all benefit.

Accepting and excusing mediocrity works against that goal, against our best interests as players, and against the future of Guild Wars 2.

CruSheR.3297:

QQ content is too hard
QQ not enough new content
QQ no new content pls
QQ I keep dying in the new maps
QQ Area gated by mastery
QQ Can’t solo HP’s

These kind of posts are a joke!

Rest is cool :P

If you read the OP, you’ll find the joke’s on you.

Vayne.8563:

Fix it HOW? What is YOUR solution? Stop people from changing maps?

You’re quoting something that was said beforehand. The game has evolved. The solution is there.

It’s like someone being cold in a room and refusing to put on a sweater. This is ridiculous.

What was said beforehand constitutes intent. When it doesn’t work the way it was intended to work, it’s not working as intended.

Nothing you have said refutes anything I have said. That may explain your exasperation.

I am confident ArenaNet possesses the ability to fix this problem. The fact that I haven’t fixed it doesn’t excuse them from their responsibility for fixing it.

Vayne.8563:

Unless you can think of a way for all servers to be busy all the time, I’m not sure what else there is to say.

An explicit purpose of implementing the megaserver model was to prevent players from finding themselves in underpopulated maps. If the system was working as intended, players would not be placed in underpopulated maps, which is something both you and Sicarius agree is happening.

As explained by Colin Johanson:

The biggest benefit of this new system is that you’ll always find other players to adventure with in the open world, no matter what time of day it is. There are some maps in the game that tend to have smaller populations in them on each world; with megaserver technology, these lower-population maps will be full of players from the same global region, so you can always have a great experience and play any of the content in those maps. People online during nonpeak hours will be able to play in populated zones with other players, since they will all be sorted together to create fuller maps.

“Taxiing” is a workaround for the failures of the current system, but is not a solution to the underlying problem, and chiding players for not using it is a direct acknowledgment that the system isn’t working as intended.

The solution is for ArenaNet to fix it.

Vayne.8563:

Sure you have. Because you don’t know how to use the LFG tool. Everyone transfers to the better/busier server, and boom, you’re in a busy map.

Players should not have to use the LFG tool to do something the game should be doing automatically.

If anything, it illustrates the problem and supports the assertion you are attempting to refute.

Fluffball.8307:

If you play it for even 1 month, you definitely got your money’s worth!

Don’t get me wrong, I think GW2 is a great value — the best value of any game I’ve ever bought — and I have every reason to believe Heart of Thorns will continue to be a solid value.

That doesn’t, however, mean I surrender my right to regret pre-purchasing Heart of Thorns down the road, should I be so inclined.

I have tremendous respect for ArenaNet, but that doesn’t mean they don’t make mistakes. They’ve made plenty, and some of them have been major whoppers, so I’ve learned to be skeptical.

But if I’m still onboard with HoT in six months, I’ll call it settled science.

It remains to be seen how compelling Heart of Thorns will be in the long term, and there are a lot of things that need “iterating” or just plain old-fashioned debugging, but so far, I have no regrets.

Ask me again in six months.

That didn’t take long.

Mo Mo.1947:

And you’ve got a mentor tag to boot. Sometimes I have to wait up to 5 minutes to get help on an HP, but people always do come when I pop my tag and ping the nearest waypoint or landmark. OP must be doing map chat wrong.

The very first words of this thread:

Alone.1784:

So the last few days I’ve thrown on a mentor tag and spammed map chat for up to 20 minutes to get 2 to 3 other people to join me for these Champion hero points.

Raap.9065:

What stops me is… Completely empty HoT maps with map mechanics that require coordinated zergs. Even hero challenges require 2-3 people. HoT maps are just too much of a ghost town for the player quantity requirements they have. They need to stop making so many map copies and just dump everyone in one map like they do in the old Tyria maps… Been to Cursed Shore recently? I got zero problems finding large numbers of people in the old maps, it’s just HoT maps that are dead.

The underpopulated maps are likely the result of a bug that Colin mentioned here and which doesn’t appear to be fixed yet.

Needless to say, given the nature of the content, not fixing this ASAP is a particularly bad thing for Heart of Thorns to be saddled with.

For what it’s worth, I’m not a fan of “Zerg Wars” (zerging literally makes me fall asleep), and rarely spend much time following commander tags around in either PvE or WvW.

We’re definitely seeing the same phenomenon in HoT, but it does appear that many of the events are designed to reward players for not zerging, and indeed punishing zerging by causing meta events to fail if players don’t simultaneously complete multiple objectives in different locations.

I’m also not a fan of group-only content, and think it’s a mistake not to scale most non-meta events and hero challenges down to soloable, because when people aren’t there, people aren’t there.

Scaling content to be soloable if only one player is present does not mean it needs to be easy. It can be absurdly hard. As long as it’s doable, it’s reasonable.

One of the marquee features of Guild Wars 2, and what has attracted many players who would not otherwise play it, is the fact that players can enjoy completing group-oriented content without having to deal with the overhead and hassle of joining formal groups.

Straying too far from that formula would forfeit a major advantage GW2 has over most of its competition and would constitute a grave strategic error. I hope ArenaNet recognizes that.

Anyway, long story short, I share more than a few of your concerns, but I also think it’s very likely ArenaNet will tune HoT to make it as fun and inviting to as many players as possible without diluting the difficulty too much.

At least, that’s what I hope.

Hope I’m right to hope.

Guild Wars 2: Come For The Adventure, Stay For The Romance™

May utmost blessings and bliss be yours.

macon.4065:

Yes we are going to see a lot of changes in the Guildwars 2 game but I am not seeing many positives here.

You’re not seeing them because you’re not looking for them.

As these forums attest, there’s plenty to criticize about Guild Wars 2, but your claims are so full of hyperbole and innuendo that it’s almost impossible to discern the facts buried within so much fantasy.

If you’re willing to offer some credible sources to support your assertions, it would definitely help, but absent those, it’s difficult to reconcile what you’re saying with the realities of the game or the company that makes it.

Also, avoiding walls of text makes posts easier to follow and more likely to be read.

Trying not to be too pedantic here, just offering some honest feedback, and I hope it will be taken in the spirit it is given.

The event can be completed without using the arrow cart, though somewhat more slowly.

So this is not a progress-block, just a nuisance.

Same here. Not sure what to do, and the fight is going on right now.

Maybe this is a side-effect of the action camera changes?

Let The Market Decide!™

So instead of tagging a few mobs at the beginning, running off and getting gold, now we can run in, tag a few mobs at the end and get gold.

I guess that’s progress.

Kulvar.1239:

Play the game instead of complain about it.

Complaining is the best part.

Straw man much?

battledrone.8315:

KEY personal Arent important in computer business?
this the business, where they are MOST important, sometimes one person can
make or break a huge investment of time and money
HoT is a fine example of that

Of course they’re important. That’s why companies like Amazon are willing to poach them in the first place.

Not being able to outbid Amazon, however, isn’t necessarily a sign of trouble, and it’s common in the software business for talented people to switch companies to pursue career advancement. Indeed, the opposite is uncommon.

There may well be other factors in play, including factors worthy of worrying about, but absent more details that aren’t likely to be forthcoming, assuming the worst is no more enlightening than assuming the best.

Having employees — even key employees — poached by Amazon isn’t exactly a sign of trouble. Amazon is making a play in the game development space, and if they want someone, they possess the wherewithal to make offers people can’t refuse and few competitors can match. If anything, it’s a testament to the talent at ArenaNet, because Amazon is rather picky about who they hire.

I think ArenaNet was reasonably clear that Heart of Thorns was intended to offer greater challenge, and it does. I suppose they could have explained that in greater detail before release, but I don’t think it is fair to suggest they were out to mislead anyone.

As for how hard the level of challenge should be, every player has a different preference, and ArenaNet must ultimately choose between setting the bell curve to satisfy the most players, or losing money.

Though they are quite sensitive to player feedback, the squabbling in the forums won’t change the cold, hard business realities that must drive those decisions. Player comments do have some influence, but the big questions will ultimately be decided by ArenaNet’s core principles, strategic vision, in-game data and revenue.

Otherwise, there really will be reason to worry about the future of Guild Wars 2.

All they have to do is scale the Hero Challenges to suit the number of players present, using technology already in the game since beta, make it a challenging but winnable fight for any number of players, and the problem would be permanently solved.

Why they didn’t do that from the start is a mystery, but the fact that they didn’t is what has inevitably led to the need for quick fixes that are much less satisfying. We really don’t need more places to commune; good fights are a lot more fun.

Should they also properly scale the content throughout Heart of Thorns, the zones would be much more appealing, would still offer plenty of challenge, and generate a lot less ugliness in both the game and the forums.

Paulytnz.7619:

DarcShriek.5829:

I think the skins are awesome. Quite fitting considering the pact fleet just crashed in the middle of the jungle.

Yes, and don’t forget fitting for the incoming new playable race – Skritt!

Yes, Skritt.

Shiny, playable Skritt. Yes!

#RiseOfTheSkritt2016

I asked a mentor if we should make mentor harder to get.

The answer was no.

Is GW2 worth playing without expansion?

The only way to know for sure is to try it yourself, which thankfully costs nothing if you already have the game. Give it a fair go, play Guild Wars 2 the way you want to play it, and see if it keeps you interested.

If it does, then it’s great to have you back, and there’s a pretty good chance (though by no means a guarantee) you’ll enjoy the expansion. At the very least, you’ll know the core game is a good fit, and HoT does bring quite a bit of improvement to the game even without the new maps.

If not, then you aren’t alone. I have played a lot of GW2 over the years and was somewhat burned out before HoT arrived. If you feel the same way, HoT may or may not be the cure for that.

In my case it is — at least for now, and for probably quite a while to come — and that may be true for you. Or not, and before plunking down that much cash, it’s best to be sure.

The forums tend to magnify player emotions, which tends to give a distorted view of the game, so I recommend taking everything said here with a grain of salt. As with most things, however, if you throw out the extremes, what’s left tends to give a decent idea of what’s actually going on.

The fact that there’s so much buzz indicates that there’s a lot going on with Heart of Thorns, so if nothing else, you won’t have to make your decision in a vacuum.

And for what it’s worth, whichever way your path may lead, I wish you the best of luck and good hunting.

DoctorDing.5890:

It seems to me that HoT is designed to bring out the worst in everyone.

I don’t think it was designed to bring out the worst in everyone, but given the amount of acrimony surrounding just about everything related to Heart of Thorns, it’s hard to believe anyone is really all that happy, either.

Happy people don’t tear each other to shreds.

Obvious OP is obvious.

And this thread accomplishes what, exactly?

Is this a game or a social experiment?

I think it’s a little from Column “A” and a little from Column “B”.

Mounts are inevitable.

Because ponies.

This article answered most of my questions, and it explains most of the features:

Introducing the Action Camera

I’m not sure about first-person view, I would prefer the left mouse button respect autoattack settings, and there are a few “quirks” to adjust to, but even so, Action Camera is the way I’m going to be seeing Tyria from now on.

It’s almost as if they’re trying to make them hard to get.

If they made Druid the new 55 Monk, I’d be okay with that.

Gotta remember our roots.

My general advice: take your time.

Although the pacing of events will (by design) tend to make you feel like you have to hurry, you don’t have to. Go easy and give yourself every opportunity to learn all the new things in a manner you feel comfortable with.

Heart of Thorns is best savored slowly, like a fine wine.

It’s possible to avoid a lot of fights by exercising caution, using the terrain and using the various masteries that streamline travel, like gliding, mushrooms, exalted portals and mud wallows. And for a few silvers, there are always waypoints once you have them unlocked.

There’s no question that Maguuma is much tougher than the rest of Tyria, but it’s definitely navigable (even for my glass-cannon DPS squishies) and there’s plenty of fun things to do that don’t require zerging.

There’s plenty that does require zerging, too, but for those of us who find such gameplay boring (zerging bores me to tears, whether PvE or WvW), it’s mostly optional.

Overall, I’m really enjoying what HoT has brought to the game, and hope you will, too.

While I think some things need some adjustment, the overall Heart of Thorns package is magnificent, and I’m really impressed by how well everything has come together.

It’s clear everyone at ArenaNet has worked very, very hard to make this happen, and they have every reason to be proud of the delicious (if somewhat thorny) fruits of their tireless efforts.

Most of my favorite games (including GW2) were scored by Jeremy Soule, and I’m a big fan of his work. When I heard he had been snatched away by SOE on an exclusive contract, I was very worried.

Not anymore.

The new music is AMAZING! My only complaint is that I want more of it, more in Maguuma, and more to pad the existing tracks throughout Central Tyria, since even for a die-hard Jeremy Soule fan, the same old playlists get a bit stale after three years and thousands of hours.

So please, keep the new music coming, and the more, the better.

Groupthink

The obnoxious, condescending and flagrantly hostile posts directed toward players who simply want to play the game the way they want to play it explain the popularity of soloing far more eloquently than anything else possibly could.

Maybe if more “pro-grouping” players were less antisocial, more players would prefer group play.

While it is true some content only makes sense if it is scaled for groups, most content can be easily scaled to accommodate anything from a single player to a massive zerg. The technology is already widely used in the game, is one of Guild Wars 2’s key selling points and allows the maximum number of players to enjoy the game with a minimum amount of hassle.

If a group of players want a challenge worthy of a group, by all means, they should have one! And if a single player wants a challenge that is worthy of a single skilled player, why not?

So far, not a single credible reason for denying that to players has ever been expressed.

And that’s because there isn’t one.

UPDATE: Was just able to complete Fire Elemental and, after some fumbling around for a key, the golem as well.

The latency seems to have reduced quite a bit now, at least in this instance of Metrica.

Time to explore around and see what other potential patch- and lag-related mysteries Tyria holds.

In-Game, With Major Lag

I was able to log in one of my characters in Divinity’s reach, and experienced significant latency with item/character interactions. Several people were complaining about lag in map chat as well.

My pings to the game server are normal, so it looks like a server-side problem, not a network connectivity problem.

Waypointed successfully to Brisban Wildlands, saw similar complaints about lag in map chat, and moved to a map gate to enter Metrica Province. There was a delay of several seconds before the gate triggered, but I successfully entered Metrica.

Same problems with latency in Metrica, and people complaining about massive lag in map chat. Running past hostile mobs doesn’t seem to draw aggro, and I’m not in the mood to test how long I would live in combat without being able to respond.

So I’m able to get into the maps, but the game is effectively unplayable.

Just got in!

This is the first time it’s worked since the offending update hit, so something did change. We’ll see how it goes.

The Bad News: Can’t load a character into the game world from the character selection screen due to reported network error after an apparent timeout. Running “gw2.exe -repair” doesn’t resolve this. Accessing the Contacts panel from the character selection screen and changing my status to “Online” doesn’t resolve this.

The Good News: The Heart of Thorns soundtrack is awesome.

To elaborate, I can log in to the character selection screen, but when I choose a character to play, the game hangs at the map loading screen until the network connection apparently times out.

A fellow player who is in a different state and on a different ISP is reporting the same problem.

The forums now take a very long time to load, and all of this happened after the latest update which pushed around 0215 UTC.

Me too, and the forums are extremely slow as well.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

(Frigging pocket raptors keeping me in combat mode too long….)

The secret to dealing with pocket raptors is…

Deep pockets.

I think I’m going to cry.

Given how we got to 250 HP in the first place, I don’t think it’s realistic to expect ArenaNet to revert the change, even a little.

Whatever the merits of a higher HP requirement may be would be obscured by the immense problems lowering it then subsequently raising it would cause.

No harm in asking, but the odds of the reduction being reverted by even a single point are astronomically low.

Do NOT post SPOILERS…

The difficulty is quite intentional, and encourages using masteries and tactics to get around.

For whatever it’s worth, I’ve been running my glass-cannon longbow Ranger all over the place, and it’s definitely doable.

YMMV.

Nick.9572:

So I guess you are saying you are an immature player. Fair enough.

You are free to believe whatever you want.

To the extent your contribution is to insult other players rather than improving the game, it is detrimental to both the game and the people who play it, including you.