Guild Wars 2

Falunel.7645:

What timezone are you referring to by 2 PM and 8 PM?

excellent question. I was referring to 2 PM – 8 PM PST. Thank you!

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

the arena where logan fought the watchwork is nice.

open space, no domes.

this would be awesome

I’d add such arenas to the open world too, and enable 1vs1 duels there. + some PvE challengers.

what about an hard mode server with it’s own rules? It’s one or two new servers which can’t be picked as homeserver and can only be guested to.

sample rules:

• your level is -2 of the normal mode equivalent of the area.
• down mode loses health 20% faster
• +50 magicfind accountwide for this guestserver
• a player limit per map (about 20players) – then overflow
• downmode removed
• only top 5 players receive drops → anti-zerg

1.) what do you think? Would this be something that could satisfy the hardcore players without hurting the casual crowd?
2.) Would you implement it differently?
3.) What would be your rules?

hm what if Anet implements 1 or 2 new servers which has different rules – a hard mode server? You could only guest there, so it can’t be your homeserver.

I think Anet absolutely is aware that people want really challenging content. And people who want easy stuff. Look at the Super Adventure Box. We had this cloud which enabled easy mode and devs talked about an hard mode incoming in one of the next SAB releases.

I think Anet only needs to find out how to implement this without hurting their core principles. They need more suggestions how a version of hard mode could be implemented.

hmm, If I want to switch my homeserver from EU to US, would I have to start with new characters or will I be able to play just fine with my beloved characters?

Also, does someone know a server where a lot of guild missions are going on between 2pm and 8pm? I’d look for a server where a lot of open world PvE is going on + medium-good ranking in WvW.

my solution:

equal rewards for everything… depending on time spent and difficulty (just like they attempted with the new dungeon rewards)

• farming 1h = average 5g
• exploring the map 1h = finding random spawned artifacts (new collectible), alternative use: vendor for 5g
• doing a variety of unique events 1h = average 5g
• playing WvW 1h = average 5g
• dungeons 1h = 5g
• jumping puzzles 1/2h = 2.5g

(this are random numbers of course)
Now you might say: but this can’t be balanced accordingly. A perfect balance is impossible. I’ll respond: of course. But having nearly similar outcome is still much better than doing stuff and having the feeling of wasting time.

because of time constraints, do you only read threads with a minimum of replies (20+ or so) or do you also take a look at threads with no reply?

TooBz.3065:

Edit: in general, my advice to devs has always been, if you want me to do something, make it fun. I do fun things. Rewarding me for doing something dull isn’t a good long term solution.

the thing is, there are many things I consider fun and those aren’t rewarding at all… I doubt that many players would continue doing that fun stuff long, when there is no outcome. Best example: I love hidden secrets, so I enjoy exploring the world. Probem is: I rarely find something valuable out there. Hidden underwater-caves with a veteran inside, and nothing else? wtf?

Colin in an interview about champion loot and the chance for t6 mats:

I think the Champion rewards are intended to help fix the ability to earn the Tier 6 crafting materials. Champions will have a chance to drop rare crafting and Tier 6 materials. The hope would be that it’s going to help players get together to hunt down the Champions all across the world or form large groups in Orr or Southsun and work through fights to kill Champions.

http://www.guildwars2hub.com/features/interviews/colin-johanson-interview-looking-ahead-part-2

survey on drops:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Champion_loot_bag/research

is this working as intended? t6-mats drop rarely, lodestones even less… so I’m a bit confused here? Shouldn’t this be a fix to get t6-mats more frequently? It’s not like I encounter a champion every 5 minutes (except I farm those rare spots which get nerved anyway).

I’m sure a lot of people would also love ascended/legendary gear if they would only add new effects to skills instead of power creep, what do you think?

I know Legendary gear is 100% cosmetic + same stats as top tier items, so no advantage. The thing is… ascended is not.

Well is it really hypothetical?? I mean: a lot of players are already full exotic… each piece of loot they get is obsolete. (except precursors, but I don’t know many who actually farm that).

I guess most of those players play WvW, enjoy the PvE world as it is (do completion/achievements etc.) or leave.

Yes champion loot bags are both good and bad. Finally we are rewarded for spending time killing those champs, it feels really rewarding for solo-players and groups. The thing is: people tend to do the more rewarding stuff than the stuff they consider fun.

Now we got the dungeon reward revamp. It’s the first step of rewarding players based on difficulty and time spent. There may be some balance-issues and the numbers could need a bit of tweaking, but the idea is the right one imho.

The next step I think would be applying it to the rest of the game. Reward players for all kinds of things they enjoy – based on time spent and difficulty. Not pure rng. This probably would look like this:

• rewards for explorers: randomly spawned artifacts on maps, a bonus reward for doing a variety of different events (like a bonus chest for doing 4 unique events in a row),…
• rewards for people who enjoy grinding: while some people enjoy exploring others enjoy farming the same spot over and over. Give a bonus in magicfind to players who kill an enemy type for a certain amount of time.

the important part: none of these 2 different playstyles is superior to the other. 2 kinds of players should have the freedom to do the thing they enjoy most.

• meta event encounters get their redesign as devs stated. The rewards have to be adjusted. It can’t be that it’s more profitable to teleport from one boss to the next (via. the information from dragon-timers) instead of putting effort in finding different events.

What we also know about future implementation: we get a chance to increase magicfind via. consumables out of blues and greens. What will happen then? Will people farm the same event over and over with huge groups so that more enemies spawn? A lot of players would feel punished to run in small groups. This has to be adressed… I don’t know how though.

TL;DR: Anet started balancing rewards with the new dungeon revamp (time+difficulty=reward). Next step would be applying this to open world content. Spending time doing events shouldn’t feel like a waste of time. Farming shouldn’t feel like a waste of time. Running around on maps shouldn’t. Nothing should

I haven’t had the time to get to Liandri but I’m very pleased with all the bosses I’ve encountered. This is huge for me

I learned that

• you can design encounters which aren’t sponge-like with thousands of hitpoints (solo-battles against the champions should be more like this, before the scaling up when new people arrive)
• non-instanced battles are fun because it feels more connected to the world than being in your own little universe. Waiting times were almost non-existent for me, so it worked really well.
• arena like battles where others can’t interfere are the true challenge – would love to see this more often
• I hate those glass-domes… bad vision on the battle. You can’t target the players / mobs to see their healthbars. Invisible walls would be totally ok imho – asuran forcefields.

Edit: I’ve heard that berserker builds can break the mechanics (again), if this is true, please Anet: fix this.

silvermember.8941:

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

• $ > Gems > Gold

I am not trying to call you a liar, but do you have any evidence of that? It seems people like you keep saying that to make yourself feel better, but w/o proof all you have is nothing.

anyways anyone that can speed 700-1000 bucks probably in my book deserves that legendary (I think legendary was the wrong choice of words just like rare and exotic are), because they are funding the game for me.

of course I haven’t but it’s only logical, looking how many people had legendaries early in the game. Gems were also much cheaper in the first months.

First of all I have to say that once you have full exotic gear (and even before) you are quite powerful in almost all zones lower than your actual character level. Mobs fall like flies already…

so my question to you:
Do we really need more power?

There is one other game I can think of (maybe you have more examples) which has a different system. New weapons don’t necessarily mean more power. Instead they mean: different playstyle, which may cater to you or not. Can you guess the game? TF2. New higher tier weapons do not only have advantages, sometimes they have disadvantages in certain areas too.

what if…

• an Ascended Longbow would shoot 3 projectiles instead of 2, but each with less damage (20,20,20dmg instead of 30,30) – stats would be the same as exotics
• an Ascended chestpiece would grant you 1000 more healthpoints but 10% of all dodges would eat +30% stamina.
• Ascended boots would give you +1000 healthpoints when moving but -1000 healthpoints while standing still. – same stats as exotics

etc.

What do you think? Do you really want more power to a long-term item? So that players who spend much more time than you playing the game will have an advantage to you. An huge advantage… 12% per piece.

Xenon.4537:

They supposedly introduced a system to reduce spell effect clutter in zergs, but I haven’t noticed a kitten difference.

I have to agree, same here

Adding better rewards wasn’t a bad idea. When I solo a champion I really should become something good for the time invested. It feels good too.

The problem is rather: the balance between rewards and difficulty is a total mess. I mean:

• you get a guaranteed rare for waypointing to a metaevent-boss and spamming 1 all the time VS playing an hour WvW in order to maybe get a rare.
• you solo a champion 10 minutes or longer for a champion loot bag VS you zerg down that champion for the same reward

Now what would be a solution to that? You can’t make the reward you get from that champion becoming worse if others join you, because you should always be happy to see other players. It’s a real dilemma. So can you make the champ scale up so that it stays equally difficult, the more players participate? – I haven’t seen that working in the game yet. if 5 players can aggro the boss by standing next to him, the other 30+ won’t have a problem 1-spamming him down from afar.

something I want to add: give champs less HP against Solo-players. The players may get the movement how to avoid damage but still needs way too long for killing the boss.

• add a even smaller chance (but a chance) to drop the new weapon-skins to normal mobs.
• then increase magicfind on events which haven’t been finished for a long time, the longer – the more magicfind.

—> people would go out in the world and look for hidden events (huge magicfind → more mats + higher chance than on champion lootbag to drop the skin)
—> or people farm events which have really high mob-spawns

OP, do you seriously believe that most people with Legendary have farmed that on their own?

• $ > Gems > Gold
• huge guilds who sponsor their guildleader
• trading post flipping

those methods are far superior than any farming method since release. More rewards would only mean that the precursors/legendaries will get even more expensive in the TP.

I would love to know this too, why implementing something that isn’t nearly worth it’s price. What was the idea behind this? Compared to the teleportation gun which costs 32 copper… hmmmm

Watchwork Portal Device:

5 Orichalcum Ingot
1 Charged Lodestone
250 Watchwork Sprocket
2 Master Tuning Crystal

most complaints GW2 has is about how grindy it is and that Anet nervs farming. This would not have happened imho if Legendaries would have been time-gated. Think of it: those weapons are long-term goals, but people want those asap, so they farm and farm and grind and grind… and then whine because they find out that it’s not that effective.

On the other hand, if Legendaries would have been time-gated, people would get the mats while playing the game normally. Let’s say Anet made middle-mats which can be bought once a week for 1 lodestone, and 5 t6mats… no big deal.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Queen%27s_Gauntlet

Rangers already have to find juvenile animals to tame… Make this part of the log for every character, since some of the animals aren’t too easy to find.

log entry:
Find each of these juvenile creatures
checklist

I’d rather say Anet implements better rewards not for grinding, but for doing a variety of different content and rewarding exploration. I’m not talking about dailies. I’m talking about the core-content of the game: dynamic open world events / open world exploration

So how to do this without the grind? Rewarding players for exploration.

• find and finish 20 unique events in a zone to get rewarded with a new lootbag (lots of rare mats and chance for lodestones + loot). It’s not grinding, since a lot of events are not obviously on a linear path. Suddenly solo-players can be equally effective than big rolling zergs.
• reset this after each 20 events
• rarely spawn hidden artifacts for an incentive to not use waypoints. Each artifact could be sold for 50s OR collect a whole set and turn it into a new skin (e.g. the new champion loot skins). Don’t forget that artifacts also are items rich of lore.

about the rewards: remember: 5min of world boss = 1 guaranteed yellow (or orange). Make it really worth it finding 20 unique events which can last longer than some might think.

the 1vs1 battles are awesome, finally some challenging stuff for solo-players, which are fun.

Today I came back to Orr champions, soloing them. Most of the time I didn’t suceed and that’s totally ok. What’s not fun though is the huge amount of health they have. These battles would be equally challenging if the mobs had half the health they currently have. If you have the skill to beat them with half health, then you certainly will with full, vice versa if you can’t bring down a champ to half health, you probably won’t beat them at all.

What I’m trying to say: Solocontent can be fun if battles are tuned like the Queens Gauntlet solo-battles: challenging mechanics (I was surprised at how interesting some mechanics of champions in Orr actually are) while defeatable in a certain timeframe (QG-bosses had timelimits of 2min and the battles still felt awesome)

Then the zerg-battles against the champs. I could make out a lot of anti-zerg attacks and quite a lot of players went down, but I didn’t have the feeling of encountering challenging enemies. I could stand back with my ranger and autoattack, crowd control skills did not matter, especially since a huge number of players are there.

I don’t get why 30vs1 is so popular among developers. Battles that are basically sponge-battles with little thought involved don’t feel as epic as 3vs1 battles against challenging champions imho. It feels fun for me if I experience the exitement of making a difference.

zerg-battles in this game are for me a synonym for:

• tons of particle effects (yes, even after the change it’s still hard to make out anything… I’m not even sure if it’s a bug or if there has something changed. Maybe someone can provide a comparison-screenshot?!)
• standing in the back and hit 1,1,1,1,1,1,..
• OR standing next to the enemy while seeing little and get onehit now and then
• too much normal and veteran mobs around which try to hide the little attack variations the champion actually has.

I have no idea how Anet could split the zerg so that battles become more fun and challenging. With the current QG-area I’d probably do it like this: For each active champion I’d give players a limited number of special-weapons-powders. Only when you’ve consumed that item, you can hurt the champ. As there are about 75 players in the arena at the same time, and 6 areas, each area has 12 powders for 12 players. Now all of these champions would have to be up at the same time mostly, so that you wouldn’t come into the area and have nothing to fight, because all areas are already full (12 players each).

combo events sounds too stressful for me personally. Also having it open ended kind of makes you feel forced to do more and more, just like a huge number of daily quests in WoW… meh.

There is a reward in getting more than the 20 events. The achievement resets and you come closer and closer to the next 20 completion.

I also don’t like the time-limits. It would be ok to do 5 unique events today, leave the area, do something different,… and then come back a few days later and find the 6th unique event etc. Exploring should be something relaxing and not rushing through zones to farm as much as possible.

honestly, I think everyone should be able to get to Liandri. The thing you’ve proposed is already in there, in form of the gambits.

tier 1 = 0 gambits
tier 2 = 1 gambit
…

int randInt return.3280:

Queensdale Token means that each zone has individual merit to go to for different rewards, but starts really cluttering the wallet page up and it puts a much lower cap on the tokens per day toward any specific purchase.

Krytan Token means that people will probably start in the easiest map, so other ones may get ignored, but those looking to make more progress could go to other maps. It saves wallet space and matches the kind of divisions they use for the dailies.

I thought of this issue, and my alternative would be zone-progression. You gain Queensdale levels so that no tokens clutter your inventory. With the new wallet system it would become trivial though, since no currency is physical anymore.

example of Queensdale level:

• level 1: you have unlocked stuff that’s worth 1 level
• level 15 (for completing 20 unique events 15 times): you have unlocked everything between lv.1 and 15.
  …
  Each item could also cost Karma instead of being free, so that you have a use for the tons of karma you’ve accumulated already.

The current level is visible on the vendor who offers you the zone-rewards (+ on the world-map).

So to get the lv.2-Queensdale Centaur 22-slot bag you have to

• do 20 unique events to unlock lv.1 rewards
• do 20 unique events again for lv.2 rewards
• buy the bag with karma.

Mia Lunarfang.5826:

however Achievements should not be impossible, or difficult to such a point that players simply hate playing the game. Is that what you really want? Rage quitters?

You might say that there should be content for advanced players to enjoy, however that does not mean it should be limited to only advanced players. If there is a boss, I should to be able to fight it, if there is an achievement I should to be able to obtain it, if there is a reward, I should be able to win it; regardless of whether I’m the most skilled player online or simply a casual one.

Now im not saying everything should be given to us, or that there should be no difficulty at all, but content should be available to all players of all skill levels, because we don’t play GW2 just to be aggravated and annoyed to the point of rage quitting. As in all games, we play to have fun. And sure, you can tell me that I don’t “have to play this content,” but the content exist, its an experience that as players, we want to be part of and enjoy. So its wrong to lower a bar over who is able to do so.

First of all, if you make achievements which can be achieved by every player, you can’t make challenging achievements. There will always be bad players who can’t beat a normal veteran alone… I definitely don’t want that. I want challenging achievements where you might hate the game at a point, but overcome your weakness by becoming better through trying out different builds, different things until you finally get it. Then you truly can be proud of your achievement.

99% of the achievements already can be achieved by investing time, without the need for skill. This is not fun for players who invest time to become better. I can’t show that I am better now than before.

About your next statement: you are talking about gating. You want that everyone has access from the get go to the last tier in Queens Gauntlet – the last boss? Am I right? Well I’m not sure if this would be a good idea. There could be a design where you choose the bosses from a list, where everyone is unlocked from the beginning. You’d get the achievement / mini for defeating every boss on the list. Hmm. I think this would be more frustrating to bad players; they’d try a lot of difficult bosses and fail instead of slowly experiencing the weak bosses first.

I agree though that this gating should not exist in bigger content-parts like dungeons. Zones do have such a gating system, it’s called levels. You can’t play through Orr in the first minutes you play the game. Your character has to become strong enough / you as a player has to go through an environment which becomes increasingly more difficult so that bad players won’t stop playing the game out of frustration.

I’m sure that a player who want’s to become stronger and learns how to play the game has a fair chance to beat any of QGs bosses. It’s just a matter of getting the mechanic, there’s a trick to every(?) encounter.

Burnfall.9573:

I as a Ranger and other classes will continue be Tyrannized and be Trolled by The Over-DominatingTheif class)

a learn to play issue, maybe this might help you becoming better:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgB1anusH7E

it would be interesting to know the number of people working in each of the teams (WvW team, an average living story team, the other team which works on content for future updates).

lordkrall.7241:

At least be fair when you are making lists like that.
You are ignoring quite a few things added in WvW.

they removed culling in WvW long before PvE

Mif.3471:

DevonCarver.5370:

So, as always, make good suggestions in a positive way and you’ll see changes.

People have been making VERY good suggestions for nearly an entire year now, and the number of changes in WvW can be counted on one hand.

People are fed up with WvW being neglected, and this is the reason people are critical of the Devs. It has nothing to do with “hating” as the OP childishly puts it.

I don’t think the WvW devs are sitting in some corner and watch the skies while ignoring user-suggestions. I think it’s rather a problem of manpower and how much one can do while still working on other important features which take time.

also consider that a lot of good suggestions may have downsides too…

That said I would like to see more changes in WvW too. I don’t see how being angry will help though.

Mif.3471:

WvW on the other hand, doesn’t sell gems, simply because there is nothing WvW related to buy in the gem store.

what do you mean? WvW is basically PvE with PvP. All the armorsets, boosters, characterslots,… are useable in WvW. There are also the new finishers which can be used in sPvP and WvW.

I mentioned this in the other thread, but I guess it’s worth posting and pushing this thread here:

I like some parts of that log, not sure about others though. Making it possible to see every ongoing (found) event in a zone makes you even more using the waypoint system. I don’t like that because i’m not happy with the constant teleporting, would be nice to find a system which encourages exploring the world more instead of jumping from A to B to C.

The artifacts you mention would do such a thing. These spawn all over the world in (semi)random locations and people will want to run through the same area again and explore it even more while stumbling over known and new events.

Absolutely YES for implementing the website-shortstories in there! And as much lore as possible.

Gmr Leon.1846:

Gilburt.9146:

A better event finding tool and new (and fun) events would also help.

My adventurer’s log idea might be great for that. (Link in sig.)

Gilburt.9146:

Events could be time gated with diminishing returns to encourage people to spread out and do unique events. For example, the first time you do an event in a day the reward could be 4x what it is now, 2x the second time, and 1x every subsequent time.

I can see where you’re coming from here, but couldn’t you say that the nature of the events themselves is time gated as-is? Besides that, add this on to the idea of only getting rewards for completing the event with a gold status and it might make it a bit more frustrating.

I like some parts of that log, not sure about others though. Making it possible to see every ongoing (found) event in a zone makes you even more using the waypoint system. I don’t like that because i’m not happy with the constant teleporting, would be nice to find a system which encourages exploring the world more instead of jumping from A to B to C.

The artifacts you mention would do such a thing. These spawn all over the world in (semi)random locations and people will want to run through the same area again and explore it even more while stumbling over known and new events.

Absolutely YES for implementing the website-shortstories in there! And as much lore as possible.

ManaCraft.5630:

And you come at us with … replacing the krait?

the way I understood it he meant that we will get our krait killing achievement much easier because there is something that makes us want to visit the center of the map much more. (there are many Krait around there) I guess the replacement for the orb mechanic.

because people will be disappointed if they tell us about this cool feature which later gets taken out because it doesn’t work as intended.

the npcs who let you enter the ring could revive you…

insanemaniac.2456:

we want pve in wvw ?

bah why not??

the Jotun Sword idea sparked another idea: Give Heart-NPCs exotic versions of the gear for karma also, so that lv.80 players have viable rewards. The skin could look slightly different than the low-level counterpart. Maybe a new effect.

open world arenas – how to keep the Queens Gauntlet champions around + introduce 1v1 duels

http://redd.it/1k3eo4

small idea about how to keep the gauntlet encounters after the living story update:

• each zone in the game gets one arena (which can also be used for 1vs.1 PvP duels)
• every day 5 random bosses spawn on any of the 25 maps and wander around.
• if you find one, you can talk to him and challenge him: he responds: "sure, we meet in the arena
• now you walk to the arena and queue up (in case duels are going on)
• the boss is now available to fight for you for 20minutes.
• he counts as a champion here too, so you get a champion lootbag for a win.
• the battle is not instanced, but only for you. Others can watch and cheer for you.

hmm, what if we could buy a discount for the gemstore? -20% gem-price for 1 purchase = 10.000 karma. This would also be an incentive for people to spend more in the gemstore.

on the other hand: orrian boxes are the gold-source intended I guess, which would be turned to gems… dang, for a moment I thought it would be a good idea -__-

Black Lion Keys… that would be awesome. They would destroy their Gem-store income through the keys though :-/

(is there actually someone who buys BL-keys from the gemstore? O_o)

I don’t get it. Why does everyone want to farm stuff. I constantly hear the there is grinding in GW2, but it’s really self-made. You don’t have to grind stuff. The goals you are working towards are long term goals. People get stuff like Lodestones by luck. People who don’t need those sell them on the trading post. Now you can buy those there. There is no need to farm this when money is a lot easier to come by.

so Anet get’s rid of the grinding part and then the farming-crowd whines. sigh.

Gizmo.8623:

Imagine how battles with dragons would be fun when after entering dragon zone, each player would be randomly assigned to certain task – attack wings, attack dragon head on, support/defend artillery, fire artillery, fight reinforcements. If you wouldn’t do your job, you would get no reward.

I like this idea very much. You’d have a different experience every time you do the encounter. They could also add random events that COULD happen to some objectives. For example: you got the job: defend the artillery. On one occasion there spawns a huge champion which you have to push away with knockbacks so that he doesn’t destroy the defense. On an other occasion the champion won’t spawn, but instead a friendly NPC champion comes along and you get the new job: storm the flanks and keep the NPC alive.

Astralporing.1957:

It’s all tied to current design of making everything timegated, and making all your past progress worth exactly nothing for all future content.

well if this was true, we wouldn’t have seen retroactive achievements.

but what should we get for karma?
It wouldn’t make sense to give us ascended items for huge amounts of karma.

• players who spent all their karma for orrian boxes would rage
• some of us would get the items (which are supposed to be longterm goals) instantly
  etc.

It’s really difficult for Anet imho. A rushed implementation of karma-rewards could lead to a huge fan-rage.

I’m not sure which kind of rewards would make sense, but I think rather smaller rewards for little karma-costs would make more sense. This way people who have spent all their karma because of no alternatives could catch up quickly.

BUT what could those rewards be? Give us items which currently are available for gold would destroy important gold sinks.

on a further note: give gold medals only to players who get all the bonus objectives. Anet has to design those first. Examples:

• kill at least 3 centaurs and 2 balistas
• make sure that the dolyak won’t die
• no enemy may enter the camp, kill them before

this would bring a bit more challenge to the event-system. Gold-Medals are far too easy to achieve and players already want a hardmode, because there is little failure at the moment in the event-system.