Well, I for one love the zone, and doing the achievements was fun. But I gotta agree the sanctum model was a pretty horrible reward.
Also Belchers Bluff is a horribly rigged, and bugged game.
Belchers bluff as an activity is fine, its a very good idea (not sure if players bother but that’s on them!). Getting the signature moves has too much of a difficulty range though (yea I mean the norn).
The jumping was fun too. Then there’s the pvp map.
Unfortunately the rest of the update isnt that interesting, I’m getting sick of yet another temporary minigame. Imo that work should’ve gone into polishing parts of the open world that could use some work and/or adding new dynamic events to various areas. Or a new mini-dungeon. Really, anything that enhance the existing outdoor maps of Tyria instead of a 4 week minigame blurb.
I see no problem with the price of 15g for this item.
I think both of the price reduction offers are crap, you’re giving the black lion key way too much credit. I agree that the waypoint cost reduction is equally worthless.
I believe the vote comes down to any of the other features each of them offers, like minigames and fractal dungeons. I’ll probably vote Evon for the fractal.
Is there an actual ArenaNet employee post or news item that clearly states at what date the BotFW living story achievements are removed?
Excuse me for not reading all threads everywhere but each one I followed only had assumptions and conjecture by players, not facts straight from the dev team.
Most of the time possibly important posts are also drowned out by people attacking Anet over not including such details and other rushing to their defense, as witnessed in this thread
Afaik they Grawl tribal leader said they arent going with the consortium back when the refugees all gathered in LA. Looks like he stood by that. He made the right choice, too, considering what went down on southsun shortly after. And you could do alot worse then setting up your small tribe at a nice beach in the safety of LA.
I agree, I’d like it added to the available landmass instead of the way it was handled.
At the core, this is again the request for more permanent and less temporary content. Imo, a storyline needs AT LEAST 50% permanent additions.
What exactly is permanent from the Bazaar chapter? The mini-game (good so far) and the quartz node and respective recipes. Am I missing something? I sure hope I am cuz that isnt much.
What’s permanent from Sky pirates? A jumping puzzle (again, good) and a scavenger hunt in LA, and … drawing a blank.
Now I am at work and not thinking about every detail so I probably missed some additions, but I think the big works of each patch should if possible be permanent. For Sky pirates that would be AR, for Bazaar that would at least be zone itself since the airship departs per the story. They could have left the zone in and just thrown in some vistas and only a few npcs that tell about the last time the zephyrites did trade there, maybe a skill challenge and DEs. It would be some lasting mark at least.
hopefully the upcoming chapter with the election has more permanent stuff to it.
They’ve been formulating this concept since at least last year and laying the ground work since January… where are the results? This isnt a moon landing project and this filler is taking entirely too long. I do hope they come out with a real longterm direction for each aspect of the game soonish, because I feel
1) they think WvW is there and just throwing an xp bar to fill makes it permanently interesting
2) they have these huge aspirations for e-sports for sPvP but its just wishful thinking and hot air right now.
3) their pve is consumed, the last permanent update with some meat to it was in november and while they produced some nice content they decided to remove it again. Worse, they now focus on doing that every other week at a pace that costs them quality and depth and replaces that with pressing (F) alot, reducing these updates to gem shop commercials for new skins.
Some parts of the commercials are good though. That’s why I am still here. I do not have the impression that they have their act together right now though, and hope they manage that soon. The comparison to laying tracks in front of a moving train was pretty spot on, too.
That being said, I feel its best for her to win, for lets face it, Evon, isn’t that great of a guy, even among char who are well known for their despicable nature. Money+Power+Greed/ambition
I dont see the problem there, he seems right at home in the ruling council of a pirate town. More Captain Barbossa and less William Turner please.
I’m not sure I like the changes to Kiel. Being the tough cop that gets it done works for her. Instead of twisting an existing character into a new mold they should’ve introduced someone else during Southsun that could run against Evon now, while keeping Kiel as the Lionguard lead for camos and lionguard-suitable story parts.
From all the living story parts so far I’m actually mostly interested where Braham’s story goes (not Rox though). I kinda like Mai too, hope she plays a further role.
Lets be honest: collecting the sky crystals, an elaborate jumping puzzle; Belcher’s Bluff and Sanctum Sprint, mini games; collecting parachutes, mini dungeons and jumping puzzles; while many may find these fun and interesting activities, one can’t help but to wonder where is the story in it all? Breathtaking scenery, check; cliche plot devices(a bazaar of dangerous and mysterious traders), check; they even establish the antagonist and conflict, but then what? Its great to experience and take part in the festival, but if the plot is based on garnering favor for the campaign trail, then shouldn’t we see and take part in their efforts? Why can’t the designers implement the mini-games into the story and kill two birds with one stone; an interesting activity for players that also furthers the plot.
-Maybe Evon could set hire a mysterious bazaar trader to scam the Zephyrite’s leader into an unfair trade, then swing in and save the day, thus acquiring the man’s favor.
-Keil could notice this and inform the leader, but indebted as he is (and buttered up on onnyberry, as he and Evon are playing a friendly game of Belcher’s bluff), he would refuse to believe her.
-Keil would hear of a trial where one collects sky crystals to prove they embody the Zephyrites spirit and abilities.
-Impressed at her prowess the Zephyrites leader feels the need to rethink his decision, and would propose that Keil and Evon take part in the upcoming sanctum sprint tournament, the winner of which, acquiring his trading rights.
-After Evon loses, the Aetherblades could rush in, revealing him as their backer.There’s so many ways they could have kept this content, yet implement a story, but once again, we are left wanting.
Do you have a reason to paint Evon in such a bad light? It’s not like he’s Consortium. I’d appreciate a more open mind until he actually does something negatively affecting LA.
I find this patch very light on new content, actually. Where are they pumping it out like crazy?
It would have been awesome if they had placed the kites in NEW mini-dungeons instead of re-using old content (especially since they already did that with Dragon Bash too).
It’s actually ok for me since I havent been to all of them yet, but several people brought it up as a way to pretend you have added alot while in truth they only added a couple of skritt npcs and a kite in several place that were already there. And they are right with that.
I would like more focus on adding more of the mini-dungeons to the open world instead of making yet another temporary minigame like dragon ball or this latest one.
Placing the caches and now kites in existing mini-dungeons and JP was a good idea but not very subtle (and only half as interesting if you already knew them all).
So they should start adding new ones and place some kites there and some in the old ones instead of just re-using the existing content. I wanna say, “Show some effort Anet, we need to see that you care!”.
I think the method where they make the cutscene happen ingame but players could act if they wanted or know it already are the best choice. Like during the AR boss intros or during the conversation between Magnus and Kiel at the start of this arc.
Basically what I am asking is, would you rather the Living Story to continue to have short stories that do not really link back to the previous ones.
Or, would you rather see the Living Story provide us with a story after story that actually link back to the previous one, providing us with a long term story.
Personally, I am by far choosing the second option, I just hate when we get a few short stories and then BAM! That’s the end of that and we go onto something else completely unrelated.
I dont mind that some of them are connected. BUT I definitely want seperate stand-alone stories more often (as is, with 4 living story releases under our belt there was always a connection). That’s still ok, but if they dont introduce stand-alone stories or seperate story lines that never interact, the world will start to feel artificial’.
Wanting both sets is a good point, otherwise its fine with me that it will take some time. I’m tired of instant gratification rewards that are all given the day they come out.
As the title suggests, What are the effects of the Living story having on the player base within Guild Wars 2?
Well I wanted to just throw this out on the table; Is it a good thing or are Arenanet causing people to lose interest in the game due to the limitation of the Living world?
Allow me to elaborate:
There are many Game players out there who want to be able to complete a game 100%, after all that is what gaming is all about, isn’t it? The challenge of beating the game!…
It has been said by Arenanet, in certain blogs, that they intend for some (if not all) the living story content to be gone forever, thus making it impossible for players who join the game at this stage, to complete the game 100%.
…
1. Is the Living story causing more harm than good, within the guild wars 2 community?
2. If you were/are joining the game now, does it put you off that you can never gain 100%?
3. Do you feel that Living story should be permanently re-playable for the achievements?
4. Do you give Living story a Thumbs up or a Thumbs down, and why?
1.) I think the current implementation is causing some harm.
2.) If that was the case, I would be set back for a day or two when I learned about this fact, but it wouldnt bother me further since the stories I didnt take part in each have their own tab and arent sprinkled in the areas I might work on. (I think that is a good choice by Anet)
3.a) No, that would make the whole idea of the living story pointless.
3.b) Imo the error Anet is making is they dont have enough small ripples that the events in the living story cause all across Tyria. Each chapter sets the stage for the next but doesnt affect anything else.
4. Right now I give it a thumbs down, because of wasted potential. I like the idea, it should make the game much grander and more exciting. Their implementation so far has been mediocre, and I hope they step up their game in the next two months. After the first year anniversary is my personal “draw your conclusion” point about sticking with the game or not.
additional comments:
They sneak a slow development about Braham and Rox in the notes lately, that makes me curious. We need more of that.
I think for an actual living world they need to make unconnected stories from time to time. If everything is connected through a common link it begins to feel less like experiencing a world and more like reading a novel or playing a personal storyline.
They severely need to step up their game on what becomes part of the persistant world and what dissappears. Examples:
A halfdozen or more HUGE underground complexes in wayfarers and diessa vanished without a trace. There’s a pirate hideout with several airships next to LA.
Both of those should have had a follow up that sheds more light on them, instead of being handwaved our of existance after 2 weeks.
Cragstead and the hatchery, again, should have been added to the map proper instead of being an instance. Its “ok” to have them there as an instance but its immersion-breaking, and unnecessarily so. making both locations part of the zone map and giving them a bit of contenta DE or two about rebuilding the last bits of damage, training devourers, a skill challenge in each and maybe a vista.
Saving the Orr restoration for GW3 is a good idea.
Everyone has their own ideas on how the world should evolve, to me Orr should stay as it is for (in-game) decades. The kind of Ordeal that island went through in the last few hundred years (!) isnt wiped away in a few months, or even a few years. It would feel very forced to me if suddenly Orr regains a working flora and fauna ecosystem, something like that should take much longer.
And given the furious debate about permanent vs temporary content, I would rather see the work effort that would be required for a reworking of Orr and the PS to be channeled into completing the Sea of Sorrows or expanding into the charr homelands or the woodlands north of Harathi.
The entitlement is strong in this one. if its just about the amount of money spent I’m sure some folks bought a few legendaries with gems, should they get several nodes on their one and only character because of that?
I enjoyed the whole instance, the two boss encounters were well done and entertaining. I got all the achievements thanks for having a guildies that do alot of dungeon runs, so this isnt a whine about not getting them, but:
I think temporary content and achievements of such difficulty dont go well together. Even less so when the difficult, temporary content also requires grouping. I hope Anet takes that into consideration in future.
Lack of QA and polish has been my main complaint since for the last few months since they sped up the release schedule. So I would welcome a PTR or Test server setup.
I would prefer them investing the necessary funds into into internal testing instead of using the player base, but any bug fixing and polish is better the last few releases where each of them had several medium to severe bugs.
Worst offender Dragon Bash most of the content was actually disabled within hours of the patch release to limit the damage ist was causing to the game economy and stop exploiting of achievements. But Southsun and Sky pirates had their share of bugs too (Goemm’s lab bans among others) and all three were less polished then the release game or F&F.
They need to improve their polish and QA, badly.
I was one of the people complaining about the slow pace of January/February/March, and I stand by that.
I think I wrote that in another post but I feel the amount of polish has dropped with Southsun and beyond, and since I am not privy to internal reasons I attribute this change to the obvious cause: releasing a chapter every month.
So given the choice between very slow and very polished, a bit slow and polished enough, or fast and lacking polish, I am for the middle ground.
I am curious about how long a LS arc like Dragon Bash or Sky Pirates is in development.
How long before the actual release of that arc does the planning start, how many of them are in development concurrently?
The underlying question is how quickly can you change course due to player feedback? Is the November update already in the works or does the work on it start in late august?
Did Sky Pirates or Four Winds take into account feedback we gave during Southsun?
Answers to this would help me and probably others manage their expectations better, because to be honest right now the Living Story seems disjointed, probably because each team has their own approach. I wonder if each team works in a vacuum mechanics-wise or if there is someone overseeing it all in that regard?
If I had to guess, I would say Sky Pirates is done by the same team that did F&F, because of the similarities. Southsun and Dragon bash felt different, in sometimes negative, sometimes positive ways.
If I’m wrong that would probably be the least of your concern, or mine.
Anet would have a kittenstorm on their hands.
Wouldnt be the first puppystorm they have because of ambiguity and obviously dumb choices on their part with various achievements or deadlines.
Given the fact that they often go “/shrug too bad for you” in those cases, I understand that people are concerned.
In gw1 It was exclusive title. NOT EVERYONE was capable of doing it.
I would say not everyone wanted to commit the time, it certainly isnt difficult now, just time consuming. And even with required death leveling way back before they added content in Pre-Searing it wasnt difficult. It took even more time (well, MUCH more) but that’s it.
Now doing certain speed runs in GW1 or in GW2 doing some JPs within a certain time frame, that is something not everyone can do.
1) Anet will refine and update existing content and locations
2) Overhaul explorable dungeons
3) update the reward system
5) create new activities
Feel free to pick one, some or all of these to comment on. Look forward to your responses
I’d like to focus on these. Soon, they haven been “on their to do list” for a year. That’s a sad state of affairs.
Especially activities (mini-games) were said to be in every city and elsewhere right until a few weeks to release. Then there was only one in the live game. Some came and went for a few weeks. If there was a shred of truth to the pre-release statements it would have taken a few weeks most likely, and a few months in the worst case.
So regarding some of those bullet points I feel pretty much lied to be Anet. They didnt rescind them either, you always have a long list of “it’s coming” from various interviews, news items developer forum comments and so on. But how much of it will really come within half a year? within a year? Judging from the last year, the outlook is bleak.
I think this is the best iteration of RBG boxes yet.
2 things I would change:
1. Make rich coffers more expensive and give them a much better chance at a ticket (500 gems, 50% chance for example)
2. make the ticket sellable on the TP, instead of account bound.
Instead of pauses I suggest just letting each chapter run a bit longer. Like have the dungeon be there for a month instead of 2 weeks.
That still allows you to catch your breath just the same since 4 weeks of Sky pirates and a 2 week break would be the same time as 6 weeks sky pirates.
It also allows them to do more QA work and iron out bugs and design the living story stuff to be a bit more interesting (seriously my F key is breaking soon, kitten pinatas/signs/etc).
And finally it allows people that dont have that much time to see more of each chapter at their own pace.
I want the ‘chapters’ to last 6 weeks but be released monthly, thus overlapping for 2 weeks.
Good ideas. I find the main mistake with the big meta events is the speed at which they run from start to conclusion.
In your queensdale example, given the way meta events are currently implemented, the dam breaking up, the flooding and rebuilding of the village would take about 3 hours and repeat afterwards. Thats just no good.
So I like the idea of making more semi-lasting event chains, and also making current zone-wide metas take a week to complete which each step lasting a day and providing different smaller events to hold off the enemy and drive the push forward ( for zones like Orr camp control and Harathi, not for small metas like Mark II).
I still think living story is a good idea, but less so that is a good idea for GW2.
Halloween was the best temp content they delivered (but that was made before release I’m sure, and even that had flaws), then F&F was great except for being too drawn out and the way they handled the dungeon.
They have reacted to the complaints about the time between changes and this summer so far we’ve had a flurry of updates. So far so good. In my opinion the quality of those updates has fallen far, though. If I have to compromise the quality (and with some of bugs and exploits it was a serious issue) to get the fast updates, I would rather not have them.
Scale back to one patch a month, alternating big and small to buy time for more engaging content* in the big ones, and you still put out way more then any sub game. That’s good enough and it allows them to keep a higher quality standard.
*Engaging content: most of the updates have some of that, but its drowned out by clicking (F) on 150 things. Jumping puzzles, mini dungeons, actual instances are all good. The issue I have is that depending on the team that worked on any given update, they do two things right or better but at the same regress on other aspects of the update. Slower updates would also allow each team to make changes to their upcoming monthly release based on player feedback.
No. Ascended accessories have already forced us to focus too much on a single character, when alts could and should provide enhanced long term playability. Armors and weapons will make that issue even worse.
That’s odd, to me Ascended equipment that takes longer to get DOES enhance long term playability. Again, especially for alts.
You know, the concept of Cosmetic and Prestige rewards, in lieu of gear inflation, could have worked if they could have pumped out quality skins and other specials in a timely manner.
It could still work, but they’d have to add a few more artists who can actually design and produce stylish and desirable skins for it to work.
You are very right here. Cosmetic rewards being the replacement for vertical gear grind failed completely. Because Anet failed to introduce more content that provides more cosmetic choices beyond their release content.
Everything being limited to a few weeks or restricted to the gem shop doesnt really deliver a new paradigm on the outdated gear grind other games have, it just leaves a void. If they had provided a full dungeon* during F&F and again now during Sky Pirates I would have a much more positive outlook on the future of the game.
*(full dungeon meaning permanent, 1 story mode and 2-4 explorable modes, a set of armor and weapons for dungeon tokens.)
At this point, unless the august patch is huge, my expectations for GW2 drop drastically, and so will my interest. I believe I have cut them enough slack during the last 9 months to come around and make good on at least some of the prerelease promises. My impression is they are in way over their hands and blindly throw design concepts at us while hoping some stick.
Given the current difficulty of the game and assuming the difficulty if future content stays similar, I want Ascended Armor and I want getting Ascended Armor to be a long grind.
The reason I want it that way is that I would consider this ascended armor a long term goal, somewhere between ascended trinkets and the legendary, a goal that I continually work towards while experiencing the whole game (living story, dungeons, etc).
I understand that many players have a different mindset and would find long term goals unacceptable, but you asked for our opinions and well, there it is.
Having played both GW1 and WoW I think playing GW2 feels alot more like playing WoW then it does feel like GW1.
The deciding factor for me is that WoW and GW2 are MMOs with a complete shared, persistant open world that attempted to crearte a server identity (both failed imo and WoW has long given up on that, not sure where the GW2 dev stands, we’ll see with the lfg feature).
GW1 on the other hand is a multiplayer Coop/pvp game where players only share the game lobbies and can freely move between the districts.
About loot, cosmetic only rewards are a big thing in WoW too in addition to their +gooder stat grind. Mounts and Minis are largely cosmetic because just for travel you only need 1 flying and 1 ground mount at best, yet the game throws unique mount skins at you for every step you take. Same with minis.
I am fine with cosmetic only loot. Matter of fact I prefer it. By now as we close in on the first anniversary I just feel that Anet has failed in this regard and has not delivered what they promised a year ago regarding updates to the live game.
Maybe you should view the living story as elaborate monthly commercials for the latest gem store additions. That surely fits them better.
He is talking about RICH dragon coffers, all the tears about the regular dragon coffers belong in another thread.
And imo in rich coffers they might still be too rare because imo 500ish gems should be very likely to get you one, as selling them directly would probably use a similar price. The OP was very lucky with 2 in 2.
This is turning into semantics about who called which collection of trees a forest, weald, orchard or woodland. Dont do that.
Lets just stick with wanting more large forest areas in the game. There are some spots with many trees but usually its just a very small area. Considering how huge some forest areas on earth are I find that this kind of fauna is underrepresented in the game.
If they were only cosmetic that wouldn’t really be an issue.
If I liked and wanted that cosmetic then I would want it to be attainable in a way that wasn’t completely unenjoyable for me.
So, I reiterate- it will only be a problem for me if the items are only available via raiding. As long as they are available anywhere else as well, I can’t see there being any issue.
I feel differently about this.
I think “raiding” should have exclusive cosmetic rewards. By that I mean armor and weapons skins, minipets, tonics, special items like the sonic burrower or flying broom, etc.
That is in line with the way it has been since I bought the game. Most activities have exclusive cosmetic rewards associated with them. Fractal skins, Dungeon skins, Gem store skins, guild commendation skins are all exclusive to their respective source (afaik), and I think they should not make a special exception to the established pattern of the game for “raids”.
If there is anything I know about Arena Net, they learn from their mistakes. We want more Cantha in our Guild Wars, so they’ll give it to us eventually.
I’m afraid I agree with the earlier poster, GW2 is a much bigger undertaking then GW1, in a much different environment as far as online gaming goes, and more importantly, as far exploiting online gaming for profit goes. Big changes in direction are highly unlikely, as is putting out content that apparently alienates your publisher and/or part of your playerbase (however reasonable or unreasonable that may be, it was reason enough to nuke a quarter of DR).
I’ll just say dont get your hopes up.
Stop looking for quests, there arent any. The story quests you have done so far arent the main leveling path.
Instead just go explore parts of the map you havent seen and do any events you come across.
What I’d like to see is a darker game.
Your character always runs around, doing what is right, that is also the nicest thing to do. The only think you have to fight are plain bad guys, whom you can’t get to know more.
They could manage to do something like that with Southsun and the refugee: a fight between the people of Tyria, who don’t want to take for the refugees, and the refugees.
How did that end? It’s all Consortium’s fault, they are evil, let’s all go home together! No grey shades. Nothing.
We playing characters are all boy scouts who do all that they are told to do. And it’s always the right thing. No bad consequences. Nothing. A bit sad for our personal story.
They outlined the overarching theme of GW2 as the sentient races banding together against the primeval dark forces that threaten them. It’s just not set up to for shades of grey in the story and while I like that in game, this just is not that kind of game. If they suddenly changed direction towards such a theme it would a jarring change.
The best example is LA which isnt anything like a pirate city, and certainly not with their very far-reaching peacekeeping away from the sea. I get that they turned legit and all but that whole lionguard setup just a bit too much goody goody for ex-pirates.
I very much like the constant updates as long as quality doesnt suffer. Imo a 4 week (or 6 weeks but overlapping so you still have a content patch per month) schedule with deeper content like the halloween riddles for the backpiece and less superficial run all over ‘current event zone’ and click things (signs, pinatas, etc) would be better though.
I kinda hope the aetherblades are on their own and not following orders from someone pulling the strings of every villain on the continent.
Mini games that they added should either have no achievements attached to them, or be added permanently.
The only reason you have tons of people akitteng through this is they are OCDing about getting every achievement, so they do pvp even if they dont like it. They have no choice but to do it during these weeks because Dragon ball is gone soon.
If it had no achievements, they wouldnt do it.
If it was permanent, they wouldnt all do it these weeks and the occasional single afker isnt as bad as having 3 in every match.
Terrahero is right – dont buy them. Its the only way to get them to change.
And here’s another idea: Dont clutter the forum with pity stories and ludicrous ideas like getting a ticket for 2000 zhaitaffy, or automatically for completing 12 of the achievements. If you want to whine to anyone whine to the people in your group that keep anet making those RNG boxes. And if you think you arent just hopelessly begging and consider your post and suggestion plausible, then you’re living in a dream world. Keep some attachment to reality please.
It’s obvious they are making good money with RNG and you’re wasting your time and our time with these threads.
Instead, think about the situation objectively and suggest solutions that might help us, the players, without nuking Anets financial bottom line. Such ideas might actually get looked at by them with consideration.
That was a much-discussed topic during Southsun because Faren didnt recognize his ‘old buddy’. Nice to see they pay attention to previous connections again (they also did refer to the PS in F&F). I hope they keep this up and tie it into more content in the future.
You already have another currency then, the jorbreakers. And I agree they could implement it more clever – in my suggestion the jade splinters are for the ticket only and nothing else. If you want overlap with other items (Jorbreaker do buy something else after all) then you could use that, sure.
And you are also right that the suggestion is for future RNG boxes, the ship on this has sailed since people blew money on the bad odds. If this incarnation is any indication they are slowly improving the RNG box for the western market though.
Lol OP, really you would be willing to give up 2,000 candy for a ticket? Shouldnt it be two at least for that much candy?
On the more serious side, the current RNG box is close to good, last missing detail is each dragon coffer having a jade splinter and 10,000 buy you a ticket. Each rich dragon coffer would have like 500 – 1,000 jade splinters. That way, both people that spend time or spend money have a guaranteed ticket at the end of the rainbow if they dont get lucky, but its gonna need a high amount of time/gold/dollars.
Sarcasm is a lost art.
If you think logically about each of your questions you will probably realize that
1) is very likely a ‘no’ and nobody outside of Anet would be able to answer with more then a guess, so its a pointless question
2) you already arent getting a true answer for 1 anyway, but lets assume you believe then again, this question can only lead to guesswork outside of Anet employees who will never respond to something like this
and finally 3) again asks for blind guesswork for anyone that doesnt have a pimped DeLorean at hand. So guessing from everything they’ve done in the past, RNG/luck > effort/skill.
Have fun debating your various guesses and the reasons why you guess as you do, there wont be any facts on the matter.