Guild Wars 2

timidobserver.7925:

I think the problem is more with her than the game. It is going to sound cold, but game developers can’t design their game to accommodate every condition that a person may have.

It’s a more common problem than you might think. Most people who run into something like that just do what she did, they quietly walk away. The forums are the vocal minority, after all.

And the problem wasn’t with the game. The problem was with the Devs trying to pressure her into PvP by putting one of the big PvE goals behind a layer of PvP. Had they not done that, then she might still be playing. (I say “might” because I do not know this person, so I can’t really speak for her.)

I doubt she’s the only one that quietly gave up on the game due to this. The new LS will make even more quit. Given that there’s no subscription fee or way to quit, I have to wonder if ANet’s numbers reflect this, or if they’ll just continue to count all these as “active” accounts.

No word on them even starting to plan to maybe someday consider trying to develop either of those.

In other words: No.

lordkrall.7241:

Quite interesting that you link to something that proves quite fast that Scarlet would not be classified as such.

The other common overlap is the God-Mode Sue, with a ridiculous power level, forcing the heroes to hold the Idiot Ball, and/or requiring Deus ex Machina in order for the protagonists to stand a chance of defeating them. This is the type that generally shows up in canon. It can overlap with other types, such as Jerk Sue, as well, but it never overlaps with Purity Sue (although they might become one after the Heel-Face Turn, once the plot forgets everything evil about them).

Sounds like Scarlet to me. The main difference is that she’s making the other villains hold the idiot ball as well. (Seriously, she must mass produce those things.)

Some of us (yes, including myself) simply and strongly dislike being at odds with people. Even in a video game.

Give me an NPC boss that’s as tough as a good PvP player, and adaptive, and I’ll give it a shot. There’s a solid chance I may even enjoy taking it on in a fair fight, even if I lose.

Give me a player to fight in PvP, even an unskilled one that I can easily beat, and I’ll feel bad. Uncomfortable. I’ll worry that they were having a bad day, and instead of getting to blow off a bit of steam, I just added that final straw that takes them from unhappy to miserable, or something similar. It may not be rational, but it’s there.

With all that said, I’m thrilled they’re putting the LS into PvP areas. I hope it’s such an unmitigated disaster that they finally realize that the game modes need to be kept separate. No more forcing players into other parts of the game against their wishes.

In other words:
Go. Hunt. Kill Skuls… err noobs.

Syryn.7591:

Again with this Mary Sue term, it’s becoming more and more apparent that people obviously don’t understand what it means. Scarlet is NOT a Mary Sue by any means of the word. Look it up, it doesn’t mean what you think it means. A Mary Sue is a character which is infallible and a ‘do-gooder’ NOT a psychologically cracked, partial homicidal maniac. Yes, Scarlet “excells” in many fields but she had to LEARN them as expressed many times throughout the living story, a Mary Sue is naturally gifted with talents well beyond what her age would allow, and without any formal training. Also a Mary Sue is a character that is associated with horrifically written romantic undertones to normally a character well beyond her age. These are all things that Scarlet does NOT fall under the category of. So if you’re going to give reasons for Scarlet being a bad character, please realize that that term is not one that you can use correctly in context to her.

You’re right. She’s not a Mary Sue.

The correct term is Villain Sue, which is the evil version of a Mary Sue. Specifically, she’s the second kind, which is somewhat crossed with the God-Mode Sue.

Just to be accurate.

BobbyStein.2315:

DarksunG.9537:

But telling us we can’t have any opinion on what we’ve played over the past year is totally unfair. I’m not sure it even makes logical sense.

When did I ever say you can’t have an opinion? I’m just asking that people reserve judgment on the next release until they’ve played it and absorbed the story components.

We know enough about the effects biting down on cherry pits to know that we don’t want to eat a bunch of cookies with them baked in. We might take a careful nibble of the edge, and freely admit that the cookie itself is rich, soft, and buttery, but we’re already well aware that we won’t be heaping praise on the cookie as a whole.

Scarlet is the cherry pit. Or a handful of sugar free Gummy Bears.

MRA.4758:

Just some brief remarks:

Palador.2170:

Well, here’s your answer. She’s been accessing lands within the mists. We’ll have to forgive the fact that this means she’s (once again) able to do something nobody else can do by freely creating access to new lands within the mists. In this case, it’s one more bit of Mary Sue-ness that actually works to fill a gaping plot hole.

Well actually, there are pretty obvious, existing portals in Fort Mariner and at the Claw Island Portage that are used for the exact same purpose. I’d say using portal technology to reach the Mists is far from being “something nobody else can do.”

Question since I am no native English speaker: Since when and to what end is “Mary Sue” used as an adjective?

I guess I should have been more clear. IF she’s doing what I suggest she’s doing, then she’s opening more and bigger portals than anyone else has shown themselves able to do.

The term “Mary Sue” is in reference to a story someone wrote, set in the Star Trek fictional setting. Their character, Mary Sue, instantly proved to be better at everything than anyone else, and everyone loved her. To call a character a “Mary Sue” is to say that they are poorly written and overpowered beyond reason for the story, and beloved or respected by all the characters in the story without having earned it. A Mary Sue character is a bad thing to have in your story.

Unless they intend to revamp Orr, the Tengu have to go through some variant of the current Personal Story. 20 levels (2 arcs) of race stuff, one arc that shows you the orders and lets you join one. Two arcs working with that order, and then you get stuck with Trahearne.

Why, you ask? Because the personal story is how you unlock not only membership in one of the orders, but it’s also how you unlock the asura gates to Fort Trinity. Even if they want to do something new with the Tengu, those asura gates need to be unlocked, either through the PS or for everyone without the PS. And as I don’t think they’re going to rework the second half of the PS no matter what Scarlet does, it’s safe to say that they’ll still be unlocked through the PS.

Telling Tengu players that they’ll never be able to use those gates wouldn’t be very fair, nor would it make sense. ANet really needs more people playing in Orr, not fewer.

BobbyStein.2315:

You’ll have to wait and see how we integrated story into the release. I think it works pretty well but I’m biased. I am looking forward to the feedback we receive next week.

I have a pretty low opinion of the LS, but I’ll take a shot at this:

In the current LS, people are asking “How can Scarlet build that?” Not only are they questioning where she gets her resources, but where she could build things as large as the Twisted Marionette and the flying machine above it.

Well, here’s your answer. She’s been accessing lands within the mists.

We’ll have to forgive the fact that this means she’s (once again) able to do something nobody else can do by freely creating access to new lands within the mists. In this case, it’s one more bit of Mary Sue-ness that actually works to fill a gaping plot hole. Now we know where she’s been getting her resources (thus the Watchwork mining pick that went on sale a week before this update) and where she’s been building all her toys. In the mists.

I’m going to guess that we go to the Edge of the Mists to cut off her access to the parts of the mists that she’s using. Her story is wrapping up, now’s the point where we cut off her supply routes, what she has on Tyria is enough to make it through two more updates. Meanwhile, we’ll never actually see the lands in the mists that she’s been more heavily exploiting, so they can be reintroduced as a plot point for a later LS.

Quarktastic.1027:

I love how the forums blew up so quickly over this, without anyone actually testing the pick to see what it really does.

I’ve been using the pick for the better part of a day, just running around mining nodes in Orr and Sparkfly Fen. I’ve noticed that I never seem to get multiple ore chunks from a single swing with this pick. Rather, I get one ore chunk and a sprocket. So my running theory is, the pick replaces the bonus ore chunks you would normally get from nodes with watchwork sprockets. If this is true, the pick is far less “pay2win” than it appears.

12 strikes off of the rich copper vein in the Shamans’ Rookery JP. Sprockets and gems came with it, as usual.

Hofulu.7325:

why haven’t they said anything yet? are they waiting to see if this really does anger the community like the flamewhatever armour?

I hate to say “give them a day”, but you really do need to give them a day.

This has to go up and down the chain of command a few times before anyone will be allowed to come to the forums and say anything. They’ll want to know what’s going on, why, and have at least an answer of “will we do anything about this” if not an actual plan as to what to do.

Keep making noise, get others to post here and make noise if they’re upset by this. But there’s only so fast the company can respond.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Important question here: does the Watchwork Pick still let you get gemstones from ore veins, or do the sprockets replace the gems?

I’ve gotten gemstones and sprockets from the same copper vein.

Allanon.9072:

So you don’t mind if they will take that 20% away and make like old gathering tools?

Given the issues here? Not enough to make a fuss about it.

I’d like it more if it was replaced with a “useless” item that’s worth just a few copper, as I said above. But if the fix for this problem is to just remove the extra gain entirely, then I’m also okay with that.

First of all, I bought this.

Yes, I did. You see, I don’t (or rather, didn’t) see Sprockets as anything useful. They were just junk to sell for a few coppers. As far as I was concerned, it was like getting a few extra “ruined ore” from using the thing. Nothing important, I was more interested in just another unlimited tool and what effect it had in use. (By the way, I do like the effect when you use it.)

Now I’m seeing some potential problems with it. Or, rather, with the tools that may come after it. But I’ve used it, so …

First of all, it’s a chance per strike, not per node. I’ve gotten two sprockets off of two strikes on the same node already.

Second, it’s NOT replacing gems. I’ve gotten sprockets AND gems off of one node already.

So, there’s that. Now you know how it works in those respects.

Finally: I expect to see the Queen’s Jubilee show up again each and every year. By the time it rolls around, Scarlet’s storyline will be done, and I’m sure the Watchknights will be “safe” to use in the arena again. There’s no good reason for them to NOT do that festival every year, all the basic assets are there already. I think they saw it as I did, the sprockets being a small, low value thing like ruined ore would be.

If they do change it, I hope they change it so that it DOES give ruined ore, or some other little item that’s only good to sell to vendors at a small price. “Pretty stone”, or something, and then do the same with whatever sickle and axe come after it. Maybe make the items usable in crafts, to make low level items of no value or stats (Pretty Stone Necklace, 0 stats, for example) if they want people to be able to sell them to each other.

Anyway… good luck!

Lord Kuru.3685:

Palador.2170:

Lord Kuru.3685:

Does anyone eat 25 pieces of food in normal play?

I’m not sure you can say what I do is normal, but…

When this comes up, I usually grab one of my charr and go to the fish vendor in Queensdale (right outside of DR). Crayfish, 16c each, and I can easily see a charr downing 25 of them in one go. I do this because it amuses me to do so, I rather like the mental image it gives me.

It’s not normal play if you only do it when you see that daily is on the list.

Then I guess it’s not normal.

Except for when I’ve run around buying carnival junk food for a character, just so they can eat until they’re ready to hurl.

They shouldn’t all be level 80.

Not every character in the game is level 80. Odd are good that YOU have some that are not level 80. What if you want to play in the new zone, but you’re also in the mood to play one of your lower level characters? (And let’s be honest, upscaling in this game isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.)

They do need a few more level 80 zones, and to move things like the new wurm encounter there. At the same time, though, they don’t want people to feel that they have to rush to level 80 before experiencing anything new in the game. Making people feel they need to rush through the game is bad, and helps to create burn out.

Lord Kuru.3685:

Does anyone eat 25 pieces of food in normal play?

I’m not sure you can say what I do is normal, but…

When this comes up, I usually grab one of my charr and go to the fish vendor in Queensdale (right outside of DR). Crayfish, 16c each, and I can easily see a charr downing 25 of them in one go. I do this because it amuses me to do so, I rather like the mental image it gives me.

Just a simple little suggestion: Let us transmute trinkets (rings, amulets, ect).

I know a few of you are asking “Why, when they don’t change anything about the character?” Well, that’s true from a visual point of view. But for some of us, what items they carry is actually something we pay attention to. It’s a RP thing, I guess. A high level karma item may give me better stats, but I miss knowing that my elementalist is carrying around a pet rock that once belonged to a lonely skritt. I want my warrior to carry around copies of the cease fire between Ebonhawke and the charr Legions, and I’d gladly transmute them to keep them while still having good stats.

I know it’s a small thing that a lot of people won’t care about, but some of us do. Let us transmute them. Because a charr ring that marks you as an honorary member of an elite warband is cooler than “Berserker’s Ring” any day.

Then you could peel it off, read the code, and put it carefully back on. If I understand what you’re suggesting.

The whole point of the silver is that you have to visibly “destroy” it to see beneath it. I’m not sure how Apple deals with the problem.

Besides…. I kind of like scraping the silver stuff off. It’s silly, maybe, but I’ve always found it fun.

I’ve been doing this with my ranger just fine. No pet problems, and it’s useful for “Search and Rescue” and “Lick Wounds”.

Nearly failed the boss 2 platform last night because the boss decided it had a thing for the mesmer on the platform, who ran around like a crazy person trying to shake it. I wish my pet had gotten its attention, that would have been an improvement.

Coldin.2840:

So, other Sylvari could be. Canach maybe? There haven’t been many new Sylvari introduced. Guess it could be just like our new Asura, and be someone that comes out of nowhere.

I’m sure someone will come out of the woodwork.

Kamui SeeD.4271:

scarlet invasion compete with Champion farming. ppl just don’t stop to do champion farming to do Scarlet and scarlet need alot ppl to be “profitable”.
events that u can get reward just once a day don’t compete with each other. usually its the opposite, ppl gather to do one and keep going to do the next, its not unusual that after a temple run or world boss ppl do queen karka event if its up even on small servers.

I’m actually saying that her invasions need to end when this event ends because she’s sending all of her Watchwork in to power up the marionette. By the end of this story, she should have very few left, which she’ll likely need for something else.

Let’s also consider the fact that she has all her other forces out there as well. And if the weapon goes off… they die just like we do. Everyone in the area dies, after all. Even if the storyline assumes that we stop the weapon test, some of them must realize that the only reason they’re not dead is because WE (the heroes) saved them. They should be abandoning Scarlet in droves.

She simply shouldn’t have the forces to continue the invasions after this.

I’d like to see it scaled back and made a fractal. Both the world event and Scarlet’s invasions need to go away soon, though. The story is moving past them, and soon there will be no logical reason for them to exist in the open world.

Vol.7601:

I don’t know, it’s a bit gimicky to kill off a ‘significant’ character that quick. At least let it build up, ya know? Gain some emotional attachment.

Killing someone off like Kasmeer would definitely get people up in arms, especially now that shes sleeping with Jory. Heck, there would be even more outrage killing off those two quaggan lovebirds.

They have time for her to grow on us before they kill her.

I do think it would be bad storytelling to kill her, though. You’re right on that. The question is, has ANet shown themselves to be prone to good storytelling, or bad storytelling?

…. yeah. Start saving up wood for the “Build a small coffin” LS achievement that will come at the end.

She’s annoying, but in a fun way. I’d say she’s the best written character since Tybalt and Sieran.

And I think she’s going to be used in the same way.

She wants to get close to Scarlet to learn from her, thinking that she’s really on the good side. But to do this, she’s helping Scarlet’s enemies to attack her and mess with her plans. So…yeah. She’s going to die. She’s a charming little kid, and Scarlet will kill her horribly. Or mutate her into a monster and make us kill her (though I doubt the writers can pull that off without it drifting into bad comedy.)

First of all, I agree with the change. Then again, I’m a casual player. Only one of my characters carries a handfull of these items, used only in emergencies. I doubt I would have even noticed the change without reading the patch notes.

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

I’d like to shed some additional light here since I actually made the change to the summoning items.

First of all, I’m sorry that you guys are disappointed with the change. Unfortunately, we knew this was going to happen and we tried to come up with a solution to mitigate the disappointment as much as possible.

• the need for the change was identified months ago. Many members of the team were adamantly against making the change because they knew it would destroy a popular strategy.

My question is this: Why didn’t you give some warning that this change was coming? Even just two weeks would have allowed people to stop buying new ones and get the most out of the ones they had, if they wished to. I don’t see how telling people of the incoming change (or just that some change was incoming) would have created any issues that weren’t there already.

All of them.

Toys are weapons for Costume Brawl.

Shiren.9532:

One thing that bothers me about this is it demonstrates how secondary the player character has become in the Living Story. We’re playing their story all the time.

BTW they don’t need to steal an Aetherblade ship, Kiel acquired one through the player’s hard work and Magnus’ nepotism.

Yeah.

I did want to give the player character more of the spotlight in my idea, but there are certain things that need to happen to establish the team and everyone’s role in it. (That’s why it’s Brahm that I would have snap Scarlet’s neck, for example.)

Once this team is established and Scarlet is dealt with (however it happens), they really do need to focus on the player character being center stage for the LS.

And the team can “borrow” Kiel’s after they crash the first one they steal into Scarlet’s main forces while packed with all the explosives and energy crystals they could get.

As I understand it (and yes, I could easily be wrong), there are “beats” where the server dishes out condition damage to everyone, based on what conditions are on them.

What you’re talking about would have every bleed/poison/ect working at a different speed, which is simply not how the game works when figuring out condition damage.

Even if I’m not right about that, this would require the game to take each speed of a condition and track it separately from all others to get the damage right. Even if there’s a very limited range of speeds you can reach, the amount of new data the game has to track is huge. Let’s say that there’s only three possible speeds you can get your conditions going at. Speed 1 (normal), Speed 2 (faster), and Speed 3 (fastest). That’s now three different types of each type of condition damage that the game has to keep track of for everything that can take condition damage.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to be able to have my ranger start slapping anime-level bleeds on my targets. I love the idea. I just don’t think it can work with the core mechanics of the game engine.

IF they wanted to do it, they’d have to make sure that each class could fit any of the three rolls, as well as a middle ground where they can solo.

They’d have to implement some sort of fast build change feature, possibly on a 15 minute timer, so you can change from healer to DPS or whatever your group needs.

I don’t really think it would be worth it. As much as I may hate some of the choices the ANet Devs have made (and continue to make), I think the best thing to do is to try and make GW2 work AS GW2. Don’t “fix” it by making it into a different game, just like so many of the others out there already. If they can find a way to make this game work well, then they’ll have something truly outstanding on their hands.

This is a PvP thing, right? It’s sure not overpowered in PvE.

My hopes for this:

Kasmeer becomes very sick due to the thorn that stuck her. Marjory can’t cure her, so they get a hold of Canach (by force, if need be) and ask for his help. As he and the new asura work for a cure, Kasmeer slips further away, and Marjory becomes pretty much useless as all she can do is watch the person she cares for most dies.

Rytlock tells Rox to stop messing around with these idiots, and get back to the Black Citadel for yet another assignment that might convince him that she’s good enough to add to the Stone warband. She snaps at him and tells him he can stuff his assignment up his tailhole, she’s found her warband. She grabs Brahm, slaps some sense and anger back into Marjory, and dives into action. Calling on the players for help, Rox leads an attack on Scarlet before her latest plan can go into action (that’s right, the heroes take the lead finally). While Rox and her group smash down on Scarlet’s forces like the fist of an angry god (bonus if they steal an Aetherblade airship to do this with), you use the diversion to get in and confront Scarlet.

Caught off guard by us taking the initiative and the suddenness of Rox’s assault, Scarlet’s finally caught without a good escape route, and we finally catch her. We get the antidote, and Brahm snaps Scarlet’s neck, ending her threat once and for all.

Kasmeer starts to slowly recover, and everyone decides that they’re going to work together for now on, with Rox as the team leader.

Tman.6349:

Palador.2170:

Something said in this thread has gotten me to thinking. What if pets… had levels?

Let’s say that when you get a pet, it starts at level 1, and it gains EXP if it’s out while you’re kill things. It can go up in level, getting small boosts to stats and size, until it hits level 20 and is “fully trained”. Maybe even an extra attack, or a better version of a current attack/skill, at some points.

Would anyone be interested in that?

This is how pets work already. They are scaled as the Ranger levels.

I’m not suggesting that they shouldn’t. But, rather, that they shouldn’t be fully trained the moment we press “F” near a tamable one.

When you catch one, it starts out a bit weaker than they do now, and by using it in battle you make it stronger and grow it to full size. Of course, I do expect that they’ll be trying another small buff to pets sometime soon, so the end result would be a bit stronger than they are now.

If there is no incoming buff, then scratch that part of it. Maybe make it so it’s size only. Starts off Juvenile size, then becomes adult size at around the half-way point, and in the end winds up a bit bigger than an adult wild animal. (You ARE taking good care of it after all, right?)

Nury.3062:

Everyone speaks about pets….the pets are not the problem…

They’re part of it, and the fact that they’re the Ranger’s central “thing” makes them very easy to focus on. Even if they don’t add much stat-wise, they add a lot to the feel of the class.

Something said in this thread has gotten me to thinking. What if pets… had levels?

Let’s say that when you get a pet, it starts at level 1, and it gains EXP if it’s out while you’re kill things. It can go up in level, getting small boosts to stats and size, until it hits level 20 and is “fully trained”. Maybe even an extra attack, or a better version of a current attack/skill, at some points.

Would anyone be interested in that?

JBDanger.2603:

There are some amazing stuff coming for the ranger but we can’t talk too much about it yet (and also to other professions).

I’m going to be honest here. The Devs seem to be kind of clueless as to how to fix Rangers. They have a mechanic they don’t wish to give up (pets), less they become second-rate warriors. But pets are … flawed.

There is a very good chance that this “amazing stuff” will leave us all very disappointed.

The number 2 reason why ANet won’t release something like this is that it would devalue the item you get on your character’s first birthday that allows you to boost a character straight to level 20.

There’s enough people calling them useless as is, there’s no point in making them actually useless.

Fenrir.3609:

Palador.2170:

I’m hoping this is just step one. They make this change, see how it works “live”, and then move on to step 2. Step 2 being boosting other kinds of builds to start making them more on-par with Zerker.

If that’s what they’re up to, then it makes sense to bring it down a bit before bringing the others up to its level. Especially for the more defensive builds, as that requires giving us more fights that are a) A challenge, and b) Not one-shot kills. That’s easier to do if things are dying a bit slower.

Will they be “bringing down” non zerk condi and bunker builds in WvW and spvp and “bringing up” zerker/glass cannon in those facets of the game at the same time?

I couldn’t begin to say, I play PvE.

I’m hoping this is just step one. They make this change, see how it works “live”, and then move on to step 2. Step 2 being boosting other kinds of builds to start making them more on-par with Zerker.

If that’s what they’re up to, then it makes sense to bring it down a bit before bringing the others up to its level. Especially for the more defensive builds, as that requires giving us more fights that are a) A challenge, and b) Not one-shot kills. That’s easier to do if things are dying a bit slower.

They’ll never tell you the odds on things, because then they’d have to admit how bad most of them are.

Doodakoff.5246:

Only opinion that matters is my own.

It would be nice if that was true, but in the end it’s not.

The truth is that this is a game run to make money. A lot of money. If it stops being profitable enough, NCSoft will add it to the pile of games they’ve killed. (And I’m sure that if they kill GW2, GW1 will get the axe at the same time.)

It doesn’t matter how much one person may love or hate the game, even if that one person is you. What matters is how well the game’s bringing in money, and to do that they need a lot of people to love it. If you enjoy the game and want it to continue, then it’s in your best interests to let ANet know when you think they’re making a misstep, and why.

I think that the idea was to make the dragons the source of the power, and then make their lieutenants and champions the brains that apply that power most of the time. That way, you can get into a conflict with one of them that feels personal, and at the end kill your opponent without removing the threat of one of the big dragons. You can also have ones like Glint, that start to think for themselves again, and become allies.

With all that said, I hope that they do make one of them smart. I hope that the attack by Destiny’s Edge weakened Kralkatorrik’s mental defenses, and Glint’s death sent her intellect into him. So now, he’s off slowly adjusting to the fact that, for the first time in his long existence, he’s actually AWAKE, and aware of his actions.

It’s true!

1’s AND 0’s! They’re both there!

Galen Grey.4709:

And what can they do realistically? how can you ever make people care about content rather then reward if all they choose to care are rewards? to avoid the achievement farming mentality all you can do is make the achievements really easy to achieve. Do you think that would solve the problem? cause I am sure all it would do is have people join WvW get all the achievements on day 1 go pursuit the next reward.

This is an attitude problem and nothing anyone can do can change that.

I hope you don’t honestly believe that.

There are more rewards the game can offer than achievements and shiny armor/weapon skins. There are stories and lore that expand the world we play in. There is emotional investment and reward to be had as well. These are why, even within this game, some story arcs and events are more popular than others even when rewards and efforts would suggest it should be otherwise.

It’s also why so many dislike the PS after Trahearne enters at Claw Island. From that point forward, the emotional investment takes a serous dive. The rewards are as good or better as you advance the story, so that would suggest the people would like that part more, but it’s simply not the case.

Rewarding with good stories, emotional investment, and world-expanding lore is hard to do right, and easy to do wrong. But when it’s done right, it’s awesome.

Why did the skritt burglar steal Queen Jennah’s shoes?

Because it couldn’t catch up to Logan to steal his.

Yoh.8469:

But what if it were a softer approach, where the area around you is more like a bubble.

Where if two players are pushing up against each other, that can just about overlap, perhaps even clip through each other. But once they stop moving they will gradually push away from each other until they come to a resting position.
So if someone is in your way, you can kind of push them out of the way, to a limited extent.

You could do something like that in CoH, if you knew how. People often used it for griefing. Being able to move other PCs around without their consent (outside of PvP, naturally) is bad.

Rezzet.3614:

the lack of “Collision” is proof the playerbase chose to be able to move through units as it shows they disabled the Melee Assist box which does exactly what you want = stop players from running through others

Wait… what? There is such an option? Did I turn that off when I started? (I had someone tell me “disable this, enable that” to make the game more playable right at the start.)

Anyway… I don’t think collision is the way to deal with stacking. I have my own idea on how to solve it, but I think it would horrify most people if ANet did it. (“Most people” includes the ANet Devs.)

Henri Blanche.8276:

Wow, I didn’t realize this even existed. A copper, silver and gold mining node usable once a day? What a ripoff! Heck, even if there was an Orichalcum node it wouldn’t be worth 800 gems.

Some of us (myself included, obviously) will buy this not because of the money value, but because we simply like things like this. For us, it’s worth it for other reasons.

They can’t keep grouping everything into one big pile if they want to keep adding things like this to the home instance. So, they have to start spreading them out. Makes sense to me.

In Salma, they’re not too far away from the candy corn and quartz, just a short run to where you can look out the fence onto the street of the main city. With five nodes in my home area now, I can do most of my daily gathering requirement right there. Useful, given that I don’t always have much time to do my dailies. The new nodes appear to give the standard chance for matching gems, too.

The Wurm/Puppet alliance? I have to hand it to you ANet, nobody guessed that one would be next.

I’d shake your hand, but I worry about where you pulled that idea from.

darkace.8925:

When they say “shake Tyria to it’s core” and “Tyria really won’t be the same” I really hope they don’t mean “we’re going to give it the Kessex Hills treatment wherein we tear down a beautifully crafted zone so we can say ‘see, the Living Story has a permanent effect on the world.’”

This right here is a very big point for me. I love how pretty this game is, by and large. I hate Orr because of how ugly it is, though it does make for a good “this is the land of evil” feel when compared to the rest of the world. Making the rest of the world ugly to “evolve” it with the LS doesn’t make me want to play the game more. It makes me want to play the game less.

Now, with that all said…

Let’s not bash on the new fights too much until we know how they’ll play. I’m not much for taking down world bosses, just like I wasn’t much for Incarnate Trials in CoH. But one of the fights I loved most in CoH was the end of the Behavior Adjustment Facility trial, where you had to take down the robots Siege and Nightstar within a few seconds of each other to keep them from reviving. If that’s how the wurm’s three heads work, and the UI shows the life bars for all three throughout the zone, then it might have the same fun to it.

And there’s no telling what a giant clockwork puppet can do.