Guild Wars 2

KOPPER.1458:

While we’re at it; what the heck. MORE FIRE on everything.

I know this is a joke…

…and it still hurts my soul.

Gasoline.2570:

44 silver powerful blood
gg

This just makes me laugh – they aren’t any harder to go out and get than before.

If enough people keep telling folks “Don’t farm the actual mats, just do dungeons and buy it” what did you think was going to happen?

More fun with mix and match:

The Lost Witch.7601:

I’m good with the 3 weeks rotation. As for the initiative becoming 1/3rd as effective… I don’t think so. They should have more time to respond on each individual thread now. (I hope!)

That’s just untrue. A WvW Dev is not going to spend time posting responses to a Living Story thread for example. In fact the fewer topics going, the less (total number of) Dev responses we’re likely to see during that timeframe.

Besides, looking at WvW – Commander Functionality, there could be something in there for PvE-ers as well.

Sure, for players. But its unlikely to coincidentally summon an artist Dev or a writer. More threads are more ‘windows of opportunity’. If its just ‘PvP week’ there’s a slew of Devs that won’t be engaged at all that could have been if it was instead ‘PvP week’, ‘vistas and mini-jump puzzles week’ and ‘armor themes week’ all running concurrently.

Also:

• Weeks go by quite quickly.

• This gives the devs time to have some internal aftermath before heading on with the next topic.

• It gives devs time to prepare for an upcoming topic. (‘Ok guys, we’ll do an extra meeting on the upcoming CDI subject next week. I’ll be busy keeping an eye on the thread, so if you could take some work off my chest, that’d be great.’)

• It could give them time to respond to non-CDI topics. Be it suggestions/general discussion/dungeons/professions forums who knows? (Yes, you should do this!)

I don’t believe any of those things will be less true by having three Devs assigned with Host duties vs. just one. Ok, the two extra hosts might do a bit less random combing through the boards, but the trade-off is they might actually have official company time set aside to do so because they are playing host – the chances we’ll see more interaction are night and day under those circumstances .

The limiting factors are more “can ANet afford to set aside that much work time for unknown gains…” Three threads at once also means we need to be on our best game (critical or brainstorming) to show them its actually worth their time to stop and talk to us to that degree. If they launch three threads next week and one of them is a ghost town because of a lack of constructive players, I think we could see a noticeable scaling back on ANet’s investments in round three. The ball is in their court right now, but its gonna be coming back at us fast .

I dunno – there is a case to be made that people with the original Cultural armor are the only ones who understand how to stop, drop and roll…

Maybe the new armor should give you a continuous Burning condition until they are removed…

Zaxares.5419:

Good thing I wasn’t in that taxi though. When the girl claimed that they update every two weeks, I’d have said, “That’s not really a good thing though…” XD

That scene may have been recorded several times… It just wouldn’t make it into the edited reel.

Dr Ritter.1327:

keep her out of the christmas event please

The decision to make Scarlet the new Grinch would have taken place three-and-a-half months ago. If they did so, there is NO STOPPING this train wreck now.

I just never realized taxi riders were the next great untapped source of MMO players.

Generally, I imagine if you have 30-50 bucks to blow on a single ride across town, you have more pressing things to do with your leisure time that fret over whether it costs a whole $15 per month. Like go skiing at your winter house, maybe.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Well i certainly understand where your coming from. So the other option is to run 3 on Monday and we go in knowing that we still have some way to go in terms of us all getting everything right in terms of the spirit of the initiative.

I am happy to do this to. Thoughts?

My thought is it comes down to a judgment call you’re better prepared to make than we are: Do you feel you can get three Dev-Owners coached, prepped, and preferably eager to take on hosting a Collaborative Discussion thread?

Its not an idle question. We can be abrasive. There will be tumult. Feelings will occasionally get bruised. Things will be said. And actionable insights are not a 100% loot drop at the end of the process. If you only have two lined up, only do two threads, but if you have three steadfast souls ready for the harrowing journey before us, let’s dance!

Edit: …and Inculpatus cedo totally beat me to it. Well played !

DusK.3849:

I gave my guardian an update recently.

Nicely done!

My recently re-worked Warrior

I’m bummed that the rate of CDI activity is getting cut to 1/3 of its initial vision- especially after seeing what I feel were most of the weaknesses of the initial launch detected, dissected, and likely resolved (or at least greatly improved) in this thread. If we have to crawl before we can walk, ok, but I’ll always be wishing we could get to the point where the process dances even if it means another 1/3 or 1/2 of the threads fall short along the way.

I worry that with all the eggs in one basket, we risk having one bad mis-step or failed attempt make the whole process look bad because there’s only one thread at a time. It really restricts the rate at which we can detect problems and improve the process and it cuts the actual collaboration off to a trickle of what it could be.

I’m bummed that the rate of CDI activity is getting cut to 1/3 of its initial vision- especially after seeing what I feel were most of the weaknesses of the initial launch detected, dissected, and likely resolved (or at least greatly improved) in this thread. If we have to crawl before we can walk, ok, but I’ll always be wishing we could get to the point where process dances even if it means another 1/3 or 1/2 of the threads fall short along the way.

I worry that with all the eggs in one basket, we risk having one bad mis-step or failed attempt make the whole process look bad because there’s only one thread at a time. It really restricts the rate at which we can detect problems and improve the process and it cuts the actual collaboration off to a trickle of what it could be.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/lore/The-Uncategorized-fractal-and-Proxemics-lab/first#post2624893

Funny. I called it 3 month ago .

Substance E.4852:

Yes, proper marketing. Making your game into a walking joke is not proper marketing unless you are a fp2 browser game created for kids.

There’s a Scarlet joke just waiting to happen after that comment, but I’m too annoyed to dig for it.

They’re just so pleased with themselves that they managed to combine fire, trenchcoats, and enraging every player who has ever bought a cultural armor piece (for astounding amounts of gold) all at the same time.

Its a hat trick!

I think the OP either has a bizarre concept of ‘winning’… or of ‘paying’.

Not sure which, but the entire premise of the thread is kind of ludicrous.

KOPPER.1458:

CD was added to the last rune. I am guessing this is the nerf? You forgot to add this to the patch notes. Again.

I saw it in the patch notes. 8 second internal cooldown.

Irony of ironies, going all the way back to the first post:

Now the players are Scarlet’s newest servants – you can head into the fractals and do her bidding!

BobbyStein.2315:

Fractal work started back in August, which is when players first encountered Scarlet and around when the votes were tallied.

That must have been some kind of private hell, sitting through the entire CDI-Living Story thread knowing – knowing for 4 months now – that Scarlet’s next trick would be to reduce the players themselves into her next band of mindless minions.

I’d say the debacle of the Leafy-Messiah of Chaos is now complete… except is its not. We’re still not into any sort of endgame/resolution, are we?

Bornthisway.4609:

Pay to win, here we come.

Neat. You managed to find the overlapping area between ‘melodrama’ and ‘mass hysteria’.

Cerai.9741:

When everyone’s special. No one is

When everyone has access to the same tools, the talented will still do more with them .

Norn Medium 3 – so do want that on non-Norns…

SallyStitches.4096:

Umm, good luck? It won’t happen.

There is precedent – the Soul Bound/Account Bound tools. When a new gemstore release obsoletes something, they have accepted tickets to refund the outdated items.

sigh Scarlet did it…

If you think there’s only two you haven’t looked hard enough… .

I think when a Norn wears it its a fiery version of their T3.

Have to check once the store actually has it.

Its MORE FLAMES.

For the love of all 6 Gods, stop with the flame fetish already…

The thing is they CAN’T be open indefinitely. The Dev owning them has to move on after a certain amount of time, and once they do the thread is not a CDI thread anymore. If there is any lesson to be taken from the cluster of “Dec 10 changes” posts its that once the Dev managing them left, leaving them open only allowed them to fester rather than promote communication.

The problem with a CDI forum is the Devs will certainly know the threads exist (no matter where they are…), but many of the players won’t.

We’ve had a couple requests for what CDI means just in this thread. Imagine how many people will never show up at all because its in a sub-forum with a mysterious naming scheme.

I think the threads need to be right where they are – square in the path of day-to-day traffic for the topic category they relate to.

Because gold is worthless? It decides what order people get stuff in, not whether or not they get it. You could farm the champ train for 9 hours a day for two months… and someone else would too, and you’d still be in line behind them.

You are way better off pursuing the tasks and the smaller purchases that will allow you to craft one – to actually build value – rather than chasing mudcoin.

Put a 120 second timer on the 3 SB pre-events – if they aren’t all done within that time SB DOESN’T SPAWN. Can’t be bothered to walk across the swamp? No loot for ANYONE then.

There’s no incentive because there’s no negative consequence for not getting off your butt and helping…

Silence IS an official response .

DevilLordLaser.8619:

Even if it does feel really awesome to see your name in the quote box, eh Nike? :p

Would it surprise you to know I take as much, maybe more, pleasure in posts like this from other players?

We know Chris and some of the other Devs are dedicated to reading all the posts. You said it yourself: many players don’t have the time to read anything but redname posts.

In this environment, being eloquent enough or persuasive enough to get other players to stop and think about and even respond to your position is the high accomplishment . Likewise I try to applaud posts I think are promoting a good concept and politely criticize posts that rouse my concerns.

Despite it being very favorably ‘thumbs-up’d I was a little bummed no one said anything about Doctor Orwen’s Theater of the Ages. I thought for sure somebody would giggle at the Kappa and her dancing moa’s flourish…

I think in regards to formatting and presentation, the best practice will simply be reminding posters to give their best effort towards readability and clarity in the guidelines post appearing in each thread. Maybe strongly encourage a quick tap of the ‘Preview’ button to look at your own words on the page before firing them off.

I’ve slammed face-first into the enforcement of upper limits that ultimately detracted from the possibilities of the thread and I similarly don’t want to see fixed lower limits causing people to be arbitrarily ignored for not being layout and editing masters – that’s not a required skillset for having something useful to contribute to these discussions.

We’re also going to get into difficult territory reminding people that in CDI your odds of being read are exceptionally high, but your odds of garnering a direct response are still limited. If you are here to advance the state of the game, being read is the critical accomplishment. Getting a response should be more about receiving guidance that can help hone your ideas further and less about crowing over the perceived celebrity of your ‘Dev Responses Count’. Speaking from experience, its fun and all to indulge in a little banter with the Devs, but the posts I REALLY crave are the ones that answer my more technical questions so I can present better proposals in the future.

Venus In Furs.9756:

Has science gone too far?

That’s. Not. POSSIBLE!!

Turn in your ears. You’re one of the bookahs, now.

Arikyali.5804:

Nike.2631:

When Norns speak to the peacekeepers, there is a special conversational branch just for them about ‘unnaturally tall beings’… And the city statutes against it…

You sure? I remember speaking to them with my Sylvari, and they said the same thing.

Could be it was just funnier on my Norn .

Small technical suggestion for future CDI threads – if you are going to have multiple-post summaries/summary bumps as seen in the Living Story thread, you may want to lock the thread for a few minutes while you make those bumps so that they don’t end up with player posts interspersed.

Finite thread durations will help cut down on summary bloat and I’m still hopeful that if the summary can be concise enough to fit in a single post, it could be slipped into the designated ‘Answer’ post that appears at the top of every page following the ‘Question’ post containing the thread Primer. Primer & Summary appearing at the top of every page could go a long way towards ease of access to new posters just tuning in.

I use the retaliation on Axe 3 to survive darting in and dropping multiple wells.

I have +70% vulnerability duration – Axe 1 does vicious brutal things on my build already. A smidgeon more damage would be nice, but I find its basic functionality quite powerful.

Only axe request I really have is to make axe 3 a 50% chance of a blast finisher.

John Smith.4610:

When at the same price orders are FIFO

I voiced my doubts in that thread, but the statement is pretty unambiguous.

And as stated earlier as long as that personal meter either filters out or identifies the parts of our so-called personal performance that are actually the efforts of Support effects from your teammates, awesome. When I crit because of someone else maintains fury on me, a percentage of that damage belongs to them, not me.

Actually, as an predecessor to the Infinity Coil, I always thought Thaumanova was an Inquest Facility. I thought the jump puzzle where the crystals used in the reactor were harvested confirmed that.

Now Inquest blowing up Inquest stuff is certainly plausible, it’s not where I would have expected things to go…

And I’m all for using more of the turned-into-Charr technology seen at the Ascalon Shard in more scenarios .

Nike.2631:

I’m curious if you have reasons we are missing for NOT doing smaller arcs?

BobbyStein.2315:

Having smaller story runs with a more focused narrative is something we’re discussing. One thing that we’ve learned throughout our first year of Living World updates is that the pacing of the overall story was too slow for most people.

So this first (very long) storyline is the product of grand ambitions . I’m good with dreaming big but I’m glad the alternative is being examined as your teams acquire experience. If scattered elements and features that were high-points of the last year become more of an ‘excellent norm’ for future episodes, the prospects for the LS could be very bright indeed.

If undercutting by 1c is an “insignificant amount”, why didn’t you lower your original asking price by 2c?

No one‘s price point is sacred. You don’t need additional protections beyond FIFO.

Inspired.6730:

While there may have been a lot of relevant player input months ago, at the current point of ascended gear development/implementation what would be the point? It’s already all in game except ascended armor, and that is clearly already designed if not completely done being developed. So unless there’s some future gear tier being considered that would benefit from the process, it would seem a waste.

Without expending all of my ammo now, I’d say there is a lot that can still be tweaked with Ascended gear present and future to make it less oppressive. Beyond things like tweaking the recipe requirements, as a bare minimum nod to alt friendliness I’d like to see all Ascended gear become account bound without ever soul binding. Then If I do spend a month or so on each item, I can at least pass them around inside my own stable of characters. I have more elaborate proposals, but that should illustrate that there are things that can still be done.

BobbyStein.2315:

Some of the releases have a looser connection to the Scarlet thread than others. Some of that is due to messaging and story/character presentation in the game, and the rest is due to how we, as a group, decided on the location and gameplay needs of each release. Finding that balance of multiplayer-friendly gameplay, satisfying rewards, challenge, and captivating, character-driven story is very difficult especially when you have four teams running at once. This has been the focus of a lot of my meetings as of late. I’m working on a proposal to address the story concerns in the new year.

I’m curious if you have reasons we are missing for NOT doing smaller arcs? Maybe 2 months/8 episodes as an average. I feel like maybe the Frost and Flame arc would have been stronger if, even with unresolved questions, it hadn’t been tied to the mega-arc you’ve been building. I was actually saddened to see Molten Alliance pop up in the invasions – it largely invalidated my previous sense of accomplishment in shutting down that threat.

It seems like shorter story runs would allow for more limited – and plausible – central villains. For more regular pays offs of satisfaction for players at the resolution. For chances at genuine surprise at the occasional unexpected villainous comeback.

One of the best received elements of the LS both posted and in my personal experience have been the undocumented bits of foreshadowing. The unannounced changes in the map that our dedicated corps of Player-Explorers stumble over and bring to the broader public’s attention. These might be made even more effect as catalysts for speculation if we really didn’t know who the next major villain was going to be for the next couple of months.

I could see a DPS meter that only works when attacking the dummies in Lion’s Arch – then you’d have a tool for calibrating your performance and improving your rotations. As long as the tool is limited maybe some of the impulse to make absurd character-to-character comparisons could be reined in also.

Of course, the ongoing problems with Condition Damage against objects/large bosses would have to be addressed…

nethykins.7986:

Pssstttt, Chris,
Still waiting on that response about community manager/community co-ordinator roles being a little ‘redundant’ for lack of a better term. :P

I’m not sure why you say that. The community managers still handle thousands of threads each day. Moderators will still be needed even (maybe especially…) in CDI threads to comb out off topic and abusive posts. Community managers also serve an important function in identifying and forwarding along specific concerns, but in this case that’s unnecessary as there is a Developer-Owner present to do that directly. The handful of CDI threads will likely become magnets for response, which is mostly the point (as long as those responses remain topical). After that I think a fair portion of the burden to use the threads well fall on the posters. To fall back on a previous analogy – Its an open mic on the big stage. The spotlight will be on you. Don’t squander the opportunity.

My prophecy powers are tingling that the next one of these evolution threads will have a lot more emphasis on how to write good rules and guidance for posting into CDI threads. That “post #2” I envision following the topic primer in post #1. Once the Devs step up their game with what’s been discussed here, it’ll be time to help fellow posters step up ours .

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Here is the data you requested:

PvE Request for Topics Results

2 Ascended Gear/Ascended Items
3 Class Balance

WvW Request for Topics Results

3 Commander (functionality, system, tag)

PvP Request for Topics Results

3 Build Diversity

((Cracks knuckles)) I have nine 80s… Believe that I have a few thoughts on the ascended gear acquisition process!

I don’t have a commander tag, but I do follow one around for a couple hours each week. I’m looking forward to hearing more about that and maybe finding a way to get one other than spending the coin I rarely allow to build up to 100g (see the care and feeding of nine 80s, above…).

I think it would be interesting if class balance and build diversity were somehow linked – either sequentially or running side-by-side. They are closely related topics. I actually rather approve of the minimal split between skill behaviors in different modes, but it puts a very high level of onus on the designers to seek equitable solutions for all 8 of the professions. Before throwing around solutions, I plan to have some very revealing questions to ask in those threads…

Not a match for my own list of 3 back during the poll, but certainly some things I think the community can sink their teeth into .

khani.4786:

Krait find these strange birds and thinks they might be significant.

Great discovery!

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Um, thanks, Nike. I think we shouldn’t have to resort to ‘formatting schemes’ to have our posts read, but whatever works.

I get carried away sometimes ((grumble-grumble)). But for any (middle-to-longish) post that included multiple thoughts I just find it easier to break up the quotes and address them one at a time. It helps organize my thinking, which makes it easier in turn for the other person to read and respond to.

I get the feeling it may be all for naught, anyway. The other threads are like ghost-towns. I will leave it in your more capable hands. =)

For the most part I think they’ve just run their course. That’s ok. In my opinion they reach a point where their own length crushes them. They get too big and scary for new posters to approach. I kind of lean towards a 2 week cadence myself. Long enough for people with different work schedules to have at least two good opportunities. But for them to fulfill their potential in just two weeks, they need strong, fast launches. I think it’ll be several more rounds before they have that dialed in. The next round should be better, but imagine where this process could be by round 5… Assuming Chris’ significant other hasn’t strangled him by then .