Guild Wars 2

Pandalishus.8426:

@PixelPumpkin, I read the conversations from the 5 NPCs I had to speak to, but we’re talking maybe a grand total of two paragraphs of dialog. I did get the sense of the basic outlines of a story, but when I got to Levvi, it was “get me samples,” and after doing that, the only dialog was the same one that started me getting samples. So I know about the tension on Pearl Islet, that Southsun is a dangerous place, and that Levvi thinks the plants are becoming hostile. That’s it. Not exactly a complete story, right?

Allow me to clarify

I followed Inspector Kiel around for a few minutes and eavesdropped on her conversations with various NPCs, that was an eye-opener.

So in a nutshell, the consortium generously offered work contracts, shamelessly exploiting the refugees from oop north, and now these poor people can’t legally get out of these contracts.

I know that that isn’t MUCH of a story yet. (Neither were the first 3 chapters of F&F.)

But doesn’t it leave you wondering what the frak the consortium want in Southsun in the first place? What do they need all the settlers/workers really for? Are they really just building a holiday resort, or is there something else they’re after?

What are those samples used for? (Totally confused as of yet.)

F&F didn’t achieve this with its first chapters, but this story arc actually has me intrigued. The crumbs that ANet threw me have left me hungry for more. And I think that is as much as you can expect from a chapter 1 of anything, even a “bridge” story of just one month.

But part of your achievements was to talk to various NPCs. Did you skip the conversations?

I have a pretty good idea of what’s going on I think, and it’s all in game NPC conversations, rogue consortium diaries lying around, event texts… I had to get over myself, mind you, and learn to take a minute to actually read stuff.

I agree, a meta-event would be awesomesauce.

The “bombing karka nests” one almost feels like a meta-event already (several stages, end boss) plus it ends in a chest.

I know, I know, the last thing this forum needs is another Crab Toss thread! But hear me out.

TL;DR: please read the last paragraph.

I am a player who was immediately annoyed, stressed and frustrated by Crab Toss. I am not awesome at it (I’m not super hot at Keg Brawler either). People are different, some find this sort of thing easy and some can’t deal so well with too much information to process at the same time. I am one of those people. Hungry for achievement completion, I forces myself through crab toss games, often coming in last place with 0 points (yes, that bad).

Tonight, however, I suddenly had fun.
What was different?

- There were fewer people in the game. This alleviated the feeling of chaos / being overwhelmed.
- The players that were present, weren’t total jerks about being better at Crab Toss. No L2P, instead helpful hints.
- For both these reasons ^ I actually got better.
- My competition for the most part wasn’t super awesome at the game either, this also helped me have minor successes that kept me going.

I ended up top player in every single category (afaik) at least once; I legitimately won 2 or 3 matches; I legitimately even got Crabtacular. (I say “legitimately” as I had both Crabtacular and Crab Toss Champion before but, I think, in conjunction with the “double crabs” bug (thread).) Crabtacular is of course a lot easier if fewer people are present.
But having some success as opposed to constant frustration meant a lot to me.

What can be taken away from this?

The SAB succeeded (in my opinion) where Crab Toss failed: It gave people an easy start (both with zones that got progressively harder and with baby mode). Players could learn and improve at their own pace. The learning curve was not “too steep” but flexible, and thus players could avoid frustration for as long as they felt they needed.

Obviously in a PvP game (which Crab Toss totally is – we’re even wearning PvP armor) this isn’t possible as you’re immediately competing with other players.

Solutions for Crab Toss

Some of these ideas have come up in other threads, but my experiences tonight pretty much confirmed them. Crab Toss would have caused less negative player feedback if:

- there were different difficulty levels (i.e. 3-player match (easier) and 8-player match (harder), or easy mode without veteran karkas) that players could progress through
- players were matched with other players of similar skill level (as per average score)
- there were more varied achievements, so player who are not awesome at stealing crabs could go for something else instead. (I enjoyed denying the most – sadly no achievement.)
- more Crab Toss players were friendly and communicative, or alternatively, if I could play with my own friends who I already know are friendly and communicative.

And now the whole point of this thread:

What does this mean for future mini games?

Mini games (no matter whether they’re PvP based or not) will be a success with the community if they are inclusive of the majority of players. People will love them if:

- you let players learn at their own pace. (different difficulty modes, or being matched with other players of similar skill level for balanced teams, …)
- they offer a diverse array of achievements.
- they have a friendly atmosphere (i.e. let players play with/against their friends if they choose)

/cheer if you agree. Or not! I am looking forward to reading your opinions.
Please keep “Crab Toss sucks!” and “Crab Toss is easy, YOU suck!” replies to the appropriate other threads, thank you

Making a player leave the match by making the experience as miserable as possible for them is griefing / bullying and doesn’t make you the better player in any shape or form.

Hmm, I rallied today on a veteran karka’s first form (when it shed its shell) – twice. So maybe that only happens under specific circumstances?

1. added.

Job-o-tron is hilarious.

Oh and… I like Ellen Kiel. I know she’s kind of… plain(?) in comparison to some other of the new NPCs. But for some reason I really really like her.

It’s events that you have to do under the buffs, not achievements, as far as I remember. So you’re fine

Yep, five per buff.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all sorts of relieved that I have the achievement, but I’m really not happy about how I got it or that it is in the game in its current form in the first place. So I’m happy, but grumpy. Grumpy-happy.

Your solution is to grief people?

Legendary weapons are already unobtainable for most players, and there are a LOT more of them than 80 in the world.

But if there were housing instances, I don’t see why you wouldn’t be able to move different people in the same house, they’d just each get their own instance (like dungeons) when they enter with or without their party members.

+1 to both of these

heymermaid.9560:

That way, by the time the zone “counts,” it has already been thoroughly vetted by your users. The last thing they’d want is to have untested content required for world completion.

That makes sense to me. Thank you.

heymermaid.9560:

I get the impression that the addition of more vistas, skill points, etc may be an outcome of this month’s events. More locations and features are being constructed throughout.

I really hope so!

I’d like to sign the OPs feedback.

I experiences this (two crabs) today and I got crabtacular this way. At the time I already doubted that I actually deserved the achievement. I’m 99% certain that at least both crab-holders were up.

I got the achievement for winning on the first day of the event and I’m also 99% certain that I never ranked #1 ever. (I ranked #2 in the bugged game today, other than that I seem to come last or one of the lower ones all the time.) I don’t remember there being two crabs in that game, but I can’t say for sure as it was chaotic and it was one of my first games.

Basically I totally suck at crab toss and don’t spend a lot of time playing it and I somehow managed to get both achievements, and I’m pretty certain that must have been a mistake.

So yeah, I think you’re right that there’s something fishy there.

I personally don’t enjoy it, but I see no reason to take it out after the event. What’s the worst that can happen, that somebody plays it?

People took the time to implement it, so I see nothing gained by removing it. So, I won’t be playing it I don’t think, but I wouldn’t want to take it away from the players who enjoy it.

(Plus, I guess it would be nice for future players to be able to get the achievements later, but that’s just a side-thought.)

With Southsun Cove being heavily developed by NPCs, I find it weird that the map doesn’t have POIs and vistas.

There wouldn’t have to be many of them, but as of right now the map is inconsistent with the rest of Tyria and for some reason that bothers me.

Things such as the karka hive, the sand wurm pit, the research camp and other distinct parts of the landscape are definitely points of interest to me.

There are some awesome spots which would be perfect for vistas:
- the steam vent thing where you find one of the samples
- the dinner table up the stairs
- Little ledge halfway up skipping stones – perfect practice for if you consider one day going the full length of it
etc.

I don’t really care about skill challenges but for consistency’s sake, a brawl with a settler or a particularly vicious drake in the drake cave would have been good.

I think if they aren’t in the map right now, they’re probably not going to be added later either, so the whole thing looks like a conscious decision to me that I just don’t understand. I would be able to sleep easier if I knew why these weren’t added to the map when it got its overhaul.

Missing waypoints:

- that settlement (OP)
- research camp
- crab toss arena

Missing POIs:

- all of them.

The level restriction definitely sucks – it isn’t something I noticed as I went with my level 80, but I do hope that it is an oversight and will be fixed before the end of the event so that others can get the achievement, too.

And yeah, the omelette event suffers bigtime from scaling – it is very difficult to complete with many people in the area, as there is only 3 nests (right? or is it 4?) and they take a while to respawn. In similar events in the rest of Tyria, there’s sometimes other animals running around that also drop the item (example: wurm eggs in wurm cave), but the two or so young karkas that spawn on the island don’t drop any. It’d still be hard but that would definitely also help.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/southsun/Karka-Shell-Back-Item/first#post2045130

Hey Devs,

From reading different posts on here I gather that the following items would sell like hotcakes in the gem store:

- Lady Kasmeer’s hair
- Lady Kasmeer’s skin color (?)
- Lady Kasmeer’s beach outfit / town clothes
- Lady Kasmeer’s armour

Obviously, Lady Kasmeer is a bit of a “fashion leader” in Tyria.

I don’t personally need any of these but man, many other people seem to. The models for all these things are already in the game, so if you were to release them for money (the way of Rox’ and Braham’s weapons/shield/quiver) people who buy them like crazy.

Maybe something to keep in mind for future living story arcs that introduce new NPCs, too.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/Southsun-Cove-bugs-1

Thayel.1236:

DaMunky.6302:

Engineers are an “Adventurer” profession. Indianna Jones is an adventurer. We should have whips so we can pretend to be Indy. BAM, EXCUSE’D.

Pistol Main Hand, Whip Offhand! Need an attack where you wrap the whip around enemy and then shoot it in the face.

omg, THIS ^ !!!

Other achievements like keg brawler, WvW or dungeon ones rotate through different options too.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/lore/What-do-omnom-berries-taste-like

Conclusion from earlier: like Mangosteen.

Did you read the rest of my post?

He wasn’t fine yesterday for me – maybe it is something that only occurs on certain servers? I’m TC but have been exclusively on different overflow servers so far.

DaMunky.6302:

Engineers are an “Adventurer” profession. Indianna Jones is an adventurer. We should have whips so we can pretend to be Indy. BAM, EXCUSE’D.

I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks of it that way!

Crovax.7854:

i don’t know what you are all talking about whip-weapons,
it looks like a focus to me, and that would be the most appropriate
choice of weapon type imo.

But whips are existing, non-magical ranged weapons. It makes little sense to limit them to magical classes.

When I read the first sentence: “Noooooo!” When I read the rest of your post: “Hmm, I like it.”

I wouldn’t buy it for myself, but it might make for more interesting group events / boss fights if there was actual player intelligence behind them sometimes.

Worth thinking about!

Robert Hrouda.1327:

Hey folks,

Thanks for liking the whip I created (well, as much as a single designer creates anything that is). Currently the whip is not an item players can use. Thieves can steal a tentacle whip off of some creatures, but I don’t think it is something players can use.

I’ll try to keep in mind that there is interest in that weapon, and see if there’s not people I can talk to about adding more permanent solutions.

Robert, that would be awesome. I’m a big fan of whips myself and would love to be able to use it on one of my characters. (As a non-magic “normal” weapon, i.e. no light whip)

There is a thread in suggestions discussing possible new weapon types and which classes they should go with, in case you would find that type of input helpful.

Edit: Link to discussion https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/if-you-could-add-any-weapon

Are you exploring new options just on the trading post? Are you sure you know all the different ones that are already there?
http://argos-soft.net/GW2ArmorGallery/index.php?sex=0&weight=2&color=10&race=4

I like the concept.

The only issue that I have with it is that thieve are already “blade-dancing” pretty good (animation wise) and that makes it feel somewhat redundant. But it’s a minor gripe.

killcannon.2576:

“It’s obviously ok if I don’t see it on TC”…..wow, just wow. TC is one of, if not the, most populated server, so that server won’t encounter near as much lack of population in zones. Also starter zones (1-15) are great, except for the charr area now that F&F is gone, because they each have an event chest and are used to grind out dailies.

That’s not what I meant to say. But if your server population is low in general, then that is a separate problem.

Anyway, are you telling me that on other servers people don’t do the meta-events in low level areas for guaranteed yellow items? The dragontimer suggests otherwise. That would be a big surprise to me.

Braxxis.7062:

But a whole story of the game, with events and NPC’s and new, albeit small, areas just vanishing after a period of time, is just poor design.

I could be mistaken in this however and I can still take part in at least some of the content but it doesn’t seem that way. So as the topic says, can someone add a bit of clarity to this?

The events have taken place – they are in the past. The Molten Alliance has been defeated (as of this week). However, there are permanent changes to the world. And some of the NPCs are still around.

Check out the village of Cragstead (Wayfarer Foothills, NE corner) and the devourer hatchery (Diessa Plateau, SW corner). There’s not too much going on there, but you can talk to some of the NPCs and they will recap the story for you.

There may also still be replayable conversation instances in Hoelbrak and the Black Citadel, but I didn’t check. If they’re still there, you would be seeing a yelloq swirl on the map.

So yes, you’ve missed some stuff (all of Flame & Frost including its limited time super fun dungeon, and April’s Super Adventure Box).

However: the living story has moved on to Southsun Cove, so that’s where all the action is now.

Lexy.3912:

Pixelpumpkin.4608:

I don’t think rotting crab in what appears to be warm climate stays around for that many months, but if the ancient karka’s shell was lying around somewhere as a point of interest (for sightseeing…) that’d be pretty cool.

It’s currently on display at the bottom of the Karka hive – Its crabby interior prevented from rotting by a layer of fossilized lava. Go check it out, watch out for the wildlife

I didn’t even know that!

1. Pearl Islet WP: there is two Advisor Okk NPCs. One is “Advisor Okk” (conversation options). The other is “Advisor Okk [Repairs]” (only option is to abort the conversation, no repairing). They overlap.

Memphis.3274:

With the patch on may 17th the NPCs at Pearl Islet where fixed, but as of may 19th they are bugged again.

• Okk is cloned again
• CSF-A is now also cloned
• Merchant on the left is suddenly back (he was gone after the patch of may 17th)

2. “Crazed Veteran Hermit Crab” looks and behaves like a skelk. (I think this was at Kiel’s camp?)^

3. My settler/consortium boost wears off every time my client crashes. When I’m put back in the game, I’m still at my original location, but minus the buff, which I then have to get again from a town.

4.
There is a clothing line that hangs between a palm tree and a big nothing on the other end – north of Kiel’s waypoint. fixed
Left of it, where the fish hangs to dry, there is a line of fish that hangs between nothing and nothing (just floating in the air).

5. On “defend” and “skirmisher” events, the “counter” text is
“Waves remaining: n/5”
With n counting up from 1 to 5, making it sound like there is more waves “remaining” the more the event advances. Surely it should either count down “waves remaining” from 5 to 1 or count up “waves defeated” from 1 to 5. (Other events correctly say “waves defeated”)

6. + 7.

When tagging veteran karkas for the kill credit, if you don’t do massive damage on both parts of it’s death (armor death then real death) you get zero credit, also you cannot rally off of death #2 even though you might not have used a rally on death #1 and if you’re downed when it dies regardless of how much damage you did, you don’t get credit for the kill. I confirmed this multiple times and am able to repeat it fairly easily. This seems to be mainly a karka problem, haven’t had this issue with any other mobs on the island yet and have done far less damage on some of them because they die so fast and yet still got full credit for it.

Camp Karka skirmishers event gets stuck frequently resulting in contested waypoint .

(Seems to happen for some players but not for others)

8. The veteran karka at the end of the Varrv quest (bombing karka nests in cave) doesn’t drop a karka shell.
This possibly applies to the veteran karka hive defender at the end of the karka egg event in Captain’s Retreat as well.

9.

Also the Heralds in town do not speak about southsun cove events.

10.

I have another bug too, when wearing gem store armor skins like the krytan armor, you won’t remove armor at the beach for the skinny dipping achieve, but it will blank out your skill bar. Added a screenie.

(Screenshots: please see below in Ether’s reply)

11. Pearl islet champion skelk chest: if you fall into the little compartment at the side of the boat, you’re stuck (can’t jump out). Oh, you also can’t waypoint out of course if any other player is still in combat with the champion.

12.

I don’t know if this is supposed to go here, but I could find no better place. If you know of a better place, please point me there.

During the Instigator Group Events, the burning-like condition applied by the Champion Instigator seems to have no boon counterpart, so when I try to ‘remove’ it with Pure of Voice nothing happens, which is very impractical as it is my only condition removal.

13.

I don’t have any environmental/ambient audio on the Southsun map. Someone in chat said they only have it when it rains. Southsun is quiet. Way too quiet.

I like the karka… and I don’t find them as hard to kill as last time (maybe because my gear’s better). We can comfortably take out karka vets with 2-3 players now (I even saw some crazy dude solo them).

I’m glad that they added dynamic events, and made gathering a little more rewarding. It is very easy (for now) to get passion flowers and karka shells which is great for levelling up your crafting.

I particularly like the little zone with the sand wurms (tremors!). It takes a few tries (because you only have so many dodges) to mine the rich mithril vein in there and/or gather golem parts, but it’s new and fun.

I am also glad that a few more types of enemies were added to the zone, which is better for daily kill variety. In addition to karka, drakes and riders there’s now also wurms, skelk, regular crabs, barracudas, sharks, mosquitos, and rabid NPCs (the latter probably only for now).
Maybe when the living story progresses further we’ll see even more types of mobs (I am personally hoping for a dungeon that takes us deeper into the structure.)

I enjoy seeing tropical birds in addition to the environmental crabs.

Crab toss: as much as I personally don’t enjoy it, I find it weird that they would remove it after. What’s the harm in leaving it in the zone? Put a waypoint next to it. Worst that can happen is that people go back to Southsun to play it. (Although outside of the living story I think the reward chest would have to be nerfed down to something reasonable.)

After the living story? I hope that the events will scale down so you can do them with fewer people. The big zergs will stop but if you can still do things with 2-5 people then I think people will keep coming to the island. (People might even come back to grab a quick karka omelette from the karma vendor.)

I like the sclerite skins.

I don’t currently play a character that would fancy the style, so I am under no pressure to get a ticket (good – I don’t envy players who really want one of those). But as a player, I do like the designs.

Not that it matters as they’re pretty much unobtainable anyway.

People who say that all you need to do is hold the crab and lure the zerg into the karka trap:

You do realise that everybody else ALSO dodge rolls/dashes… right?

:(

Well, I care about achievements and completion, and I do go out of my way to know the deadlines. It just feels natural to me, I don’t want to take any risks. I don’t really understand how somebody who cares about achievements wouldn’t take the 90 seconds to google this. (I’m not saying you’re doing it wrong, I’m just not following.)

But for what it’s worth: I do agree though that it would be nice to see this sort of information in game. No, it doesn’t have to be an annoying pop-up.

The orange living story reminder in the top right corner is already there, deadlines could be incorporated in the text there.
Alternatively, the in-character message that all players get at the beginning of a living story arc could have this information. (There will still be players who don’t read these, but I guess that’s really their own fault then.)

I thought I’d revive this thread as I am curious about what people think of Southsun Cove right now.

(I do like it there right now, although some of the ideas in this thread were even better in my opinion.)

Gustoril.4195:

So of course lower level zones are going to be empty when there’s higher level zones suited for high levels, also the loot system is connected to this, why farm ore or blood in the low level zones (Which is designed for low levels), when your recipe for crafting requires ore or blood from a high level zone / creature?

I am confused, because this is simply not the case.

I just read a thread that complained about Orr (level 75+) being “empty”. Now you’re telling me that the low level zones are “empty”. Well, they aren’t in TC.

- I (and other level 80s that I know) adventure in 1-15 zones ALL THE TIME, they never feel particularly empty to me.
- Maguuma starter zones have the best jumping puzzles.
- Easy chests.
- Maw, SB, Jungle Worm, Fire Elemental…
- Metrica reactor: very easy daily kill variety, daily veteran killer, etc.
- Flame & Frost brought even more population to level 1-25 zones and I’m sure future living story elements will do the same.
- If you level up all your crafts, you need equal amounts of materials from all tiers. It is impossible to level up your 3rd-6th craft while adventuring in high level maps only.

I generally adventure in the zone that I feel like spending time in (many times it will be in Maguuma as it is so nice there) and/or what the dailies suggest (krytan killer, etc.) and/or living story and/or personal story – so many different reasons. Farming for high level mats is only one reason in the list.

Arguably, some mid-level zones are emptier than others. I haven’t been back to Harathi Hinterlands in ages, for example, but I heard it’s pretty barren. I’m sure ANet has statistics, and maybe will place some living story elements there in the future (as they did with Southsun Cove, previously known as the emptiest of zones), or maybe give the meta-events there an overhaul / better reward.

So, yeah, I don’t get the whole “starter zones are empty” premise in the first place.

I’m against this.

I honestly don’t think GW2 needs even more clutter.

I’m sort of glad that not every player brings their mini along all the time…

I would love cultural starter armour.

What’s the worst that could happen? That people would use more transmutation stones to use the cultural armour in higher levels.

(My engi is still wearing her starter monocle at level 80.)

I got map completion in Orr back when everybody hit 80 at roughly the same time so I didn’t have these problems, but I dread going back now. I don’t even want to go back to farm ori and ancient wood (although I really should if ever I want to get a legendary).

Orr always feels slightly “too hard” and for me, personally, it is made worse by the fact that everything in there (with good reason: lore-wise) was made as ugly as possible. You’re not supposed to feel comfortable in Orr. And it’s working a little too well. I avoid it as much as possible.

I think some scaling adjustments would really help with that (as would moving some of the mobs away from some of the waypoints) – the high-end mats are incentive enough for players to WANT to go back so if they don’t constantly feel kicked in the teeth, I’m sure many people would.

I would like to know whether ANet actually lost out on any money by making the SAB skins obtainable through in-game tokens as well as non-account-bound RNG chest drops. Because that system WORKED for the player base.

IF it also worked for ANet, financially, then there’s no excuse to not use it for living story content in the future.

If it means though that people wasted significantly less money on RNG chests and in consequence Josh Foreman has to move back into his parents’ cellar and eat only cheap ramen for the rest of the month, then, well, tough luck for us players.

I don’t think rotting crab in what appears to be warm climate stays around for that many months, but if the ancient karka’s shell was lying around somewhere as a point of interest (for sightseeing…) that’d be pretty cool.

I hope that if/when they bring whips into the game that it will be a new weapon type.

I think whips should be available to thief (think catwoman), necro (for their minions), ranger (?) and if I have my way, engineer, but I have no excuse for this, I’d jut love to be able to use a whip on my main. It is a ranged weapon after all, even if it is a rather short range.

So I hope it’s not just a scepter skin; I don’t think whips suit guardians or elementalists at all. (Mesmers: debatable for style.)

Well, I care about that, too :P

For what it’s worth: I don’t care much if mesmers portal people up to chests, be they at the end of jumping puzzles or not. What bothers me is getting achievements this way.

I think for the jumping puzzle achievements, people should actually achieve to complete the jumping puzzles. And if it was my own game, I would implement several secret “pit stops” along a jumping puzzle and only hand out the achievement if a player went past all of those.
You would still be able to apply the portal skill for our own benefit (as a “save point”) as a mesmer or help another player with a particularly evil jump they can’t make, but at least players would actually have to go through the puzzle itself instead of bypassing it entirely.

Another reason is that the puzzles were designed with so much love and care (occasional annoying bugs aside) and it doesn’t feel fair to me that people bypass them without really looking at the designed landscapes, trying to figure out the mechanics, taking in the lighting and atmosphere and the funny little stories that the puzzles sometimes tell.

So, yeah, I am aware of a few shortcuts (and of course mesmer portals) and I’m not a fan of them. But it depends on the context (chest or achievement).