Guild Wars 2

daros.3407:

Mesket.5728:

Shanaeri Rynale.6897:

Just a quick question. is this the only topic for collaborative discussion or are we getting other ones for the other hot topics (e.g ascended gear, guild systems etc)?

No, this is what we got. I hardly believe living story beat class balance (and the many way players have to call it) but oh wel… class balance doesn’t sell on the gemstore. Living story does, so lets try at least to get this one right.

So this mean we will never get other topics about Asceded gear, conditions in PVE, guilds and others? I thought we will discuss othe topics with devs after this one…
Discussion about just one think won’t help anything. We need to discuss every major topic to help to make this game better.

This is the first pve topic discussion as said in the original post. If successful, they’ll move to the next popular one (prob class balancing or ascended – I haven’t personally tallied the votes)

Shanaeri Rynale.6897:

Just a quick question. is this the only topic for collaborative discussion or are we getting other ones for the other hot topics (e.g ascended gear, guild systems etc)?

There’s a wvw running atm in the the subforum. I suspect we will have one pve one wvw running at a time for now

OK.

So, it might be really useful from our point of view to hear about the pillars of the LW that have often been mentioned and the reasoning as to why we went to such a hectic 2 week schedule completely out of the blue. It’s pretty tight from our playing point of view (for example the TA meta which was also removed after 2 weeks despite being advertised for October) and it often feels we’re playing to a set schedule – one that doesn’t take into account that we all play to different speeds, styles and timescales. In fact its very design appears to assume that we all invest identical amounts and should someone miss a 2 week chapter, the chances of them going along with the rest of the story is lessened.

It also feels you guys are suffering under the workload and pressure which risks content being released before it’s refined. For example, not having any way of tracking the story or catching up with what is going on. I know this being worked on, but we risk going into a year’s LW cycle without it being implemented and I’d have expected LW to launch with it.

I’m also seeing it shut out so many new players. My impression was the Living World would be just that, new content to evolve the world, not simply a story cut into chapters which doesn’t appear to link together at each stage. Tequatl (despite its pitfalls as a too difficult open world raid) was closer to what I expected the LW would be. Potentially the upcoming tower too.

A LW is admirable aim – one I would expect could be better accomplished by fleshing out the existing strengths and unique flavour of the world you launched with incl;

1) Additional DE’s or ones changing/being replaced to reflect the changing world

2) DRagons. OK not them directly, but dragon minions aren’t currently posing a threat. A LW would develop them a lot more. The invasions are good example, but they currently lack motive or reason. They would work so well for minion attacks

3) The World is meant to move on, yet some things haven’t changed at all (Charr/Human peace treaty in the tent outside Ebonhawke. A mini story could be going on here and there could be a whole “where were you when the treaty was signed” rp kind of thing.)

4) Underwater. I love it…but as many thread stated, it needs improvements to mechanics and maybe even a UW heavy zone.

There ya, go…much ramblings

Slightly confused. Can this be a Q&A about the Living World concept for the devs? If it’s just a discussion for the community, we already have wide ranging discussions going on in the LW subforum.

ALso, what do you mean by open discussion after the 4th? Is that discussion on the discussion we had here?

Sorry if my reply sounds weird, I’m all for the initiative, but I’m confused what direction this thread is meant to go in based on what you posted above.

(also..first!)

Specific to GW2:

Long term..I’d welcome Air ships. They’d need to be separate from the maps maybe in their own zone or as part of a GVG mechanic in pvp. Boarding/firing cannons from an airship to another airship could be fun if done right. They could also double as Guild Houses.

Ships? I don’t think we have enough open water for it to work and it would devalue underwater combat which I would prefer to see enhanced/improved.

Behellagh.1468:

Maybe there’s something wrong with me but I still do dynamic events all the time.

Nope not at all, I still do them. In fact I rarely pass one up and am still finding new ones all the time (I only just stumbled across the White Mantle Demagogue DE chain which was a nice blast from the past).

I’d certainly like to see more and longer, branching chains as well. The rewards are a bit naff granted, but it doesn’t stop me doing them.

From the patch notes

“The Blood and Madness content will be available from October 15 to November 11, including rewards and achievements. The only exception is the A Royal Tradition achievement, which can only be completed when Mad King Thorn visits Lion’s Arch.”

So, we get a pretty decent amount of time for Halloween – longer than the 2 weeks a latter half of month update usually gives.

Malediktus.9250:

Randulf.7614:

I would like to know this as well. I’m hoping so since you can node farm candy all year round.

You would have to farm it for years to get 20k candy corn.

I know, but it would supplement TP purchases and mean I could acquire at my own pace

No and they usually scale you up should you need to be 80 anyway

I would like to know this as well. I’m hoping so since you can node farm candy all year round.

Rachael Augg.2379:

In regards to obtaining the new converted items needed in the crafting: upgraded versions of the nougat, skulls and fangs. Currently, Sonders the Seller will be available to upgrade your materials until Nov 12th and then the items are set to be removed once Halloween ends. The Candy Corn cobs will still be available for trade.

If the Candy Corn Cobs are staying post halloween…will that mean we can still get the mini after the 12th too?

I’m not against the concept, I just don’t think it is doing anything it set out to do. I don’t feel the world s changing or driving forward at all. It’s just a linear story rolled out in chapters that have yet to start connectng up.

If diff stories were going on around the world eg Centaur wars, charr/human treaty actually being signed rather than a year of the same ppl standing around in a tent etc, then it would be a Living World of sorts.

It also needs an infrastructure rather badly for communicating the lore and background to avoid new players ignoring all this going on around them. Plenty of ppl have joined that I know and have no interest in the LS because it makes no sense or doesnt affect them or they missed previous chapters. As someone pointed out, Living Story for new players is like starting a book halfway through.

Is it a good idea? Well I’m happy to see it through, feeding back where it desp needs improvements. Is it creating a living, breathing world? For me no, not yet – not even close in fact.

Problem is, most players aren’t aware of that stuff because it isn’t packaged inside the game as it should be.

There have been dozens of threads on duelling..its just that the search function is naff. Most of the discussions have been under the General Forum and the community is hugely divided on the issue.

Does it actually say it is a new dungeon? Wonder if it will be permanent

Shame about lack of UW combat, I’d have really enjoyed that.

Still, this looks impressive as a preview. As unlikely as it prob is, it would awesome if this tied into a Dragon. It prob wont…but one can dream!!

Yep, it popped for everyone in my guild by just entering wvw from Friday reset onwards. Def submit a bug report

I don’t roleplay, but sounds like you guys had great fun in there. Hope you get it back!

Was it ever said why it was blocked off? Do they have future plans for the area perhaps?

Wiki suggests the PRince will still be tradeable post-Halloween. Is that likely to be the case do we think (as a sep tab on the festival vendor)?

That could be interesting. The higher the rank…the more you info you are privvy too.

I could see the inevitable grind though, but handled properly it could be interesting

I’ve been quite open about how I dislike the web stories. I (and this is entirely personally speaking ofc) think the quality of writing is well below a company of Anet’s capability and I also agree with the thread that this lore should be in game. Crucial storytelling should be prioritised in game, then expanded on if need be on the web stories. Currently it feels entirely that the story is only driven on these web stories.

It is great that this is being addressed, although it feels slightly like catching up with the horse that has already bolted. I’m still unclear why LS was launched w/o a basic structure in place first.

In terms of addressing this going forward, surely it would help just having NPC’s actually progress the story if we talk to them. Eg, if Scarlet is this Asuran scholared/graduated person the web story made her out to be, why not have lots of Rata Sum NPC’s discussing her? The herald or mail could point us in their direction and we can feed on whatever information we like.

Why not each time we get a mail, we get sent to our Order HQ or even just The Priory? A dedicated NPC each 2 weeks/month could be updating via a text bubble about what is going on the World. They can give us background on current affairs or even hint about movements across the continent that may end up being later LS tie ins. The HQ’s are underused atm and this would address this as well.

No, you just need the ticket in your inventory or the skins wont show at the vendor

There is a random activity everyday which the NPC has a catalogue of all the main activities implemented since launch. It is random to keep them fresh so people aren’t just flocking to the same one everyday.

It was a big hit because it was a) free and b) provided a differing online experience to other mmo’s at the time, many concepts of which have been copied in so many mmo’s today. Probably the biggest of these was the hero/henchies. Being able to solo pretty much everything of consequence in PVE was a massive draw of the time. It’s still impressive today.

However, I’m playing through hard mode atm with my guild. Prophecies itself has a worse story imo than I think people remember. Overall it is more epic, but the missions in Kryta and Maguuma are so long..so dull and so life sucking, the journey itself is a slog. Here is where GW1 loses it vs GW2 for me I’m afraid.

Also, the achievement grind equivalent in GW1 was in many ways worse. Titles needed so much xp, so much grinding out the same content over and over. I’m torn over the ap system here as it promotes a way of playing I can’t decide is healthy for the game or not, but I don;t agree it is worse than its predecessor.

I loved GW1 (eventually) at the time although it took a while to really come together. NF and EOTN really brought a better class of storytelling to the game and this is where the epic should have carried on in my opinion, into GW2. The level cap and no gear grind was also expertly implemented. I doubt we will see a game that does these aspects so well again.

That said, I love GW2 as well. I certainly don’t find it boring and I try not to compare the two games too often. They are and rightfully so, very different games – each with their own strengths. My biggest yearn is, like yours, they really didn’t do enough to bring the lore forward.

This was already heavily discussed under the collaborative Develeopment thread stickied to General Discussion. A lot of people felt it broke immersion and preferred an email poll, but a poll of some description is being looked into by the Chris and the devs

Redenaz.8631:

Elementalist - Give them another weapon slot, but disable it during combat. While I absolutely wouldn’t want to give eles combat-swapping, that’s essentially two extra inventory slots, and it means that if I want to fool around with a combination outside my main set every once in a while, I just have to hit [~] out of combat, instead of having to dig through my inventory.

It’s more a quality of life improvement than a re-balancing one, but, man, I’d definitely mix up my play style more often that way.

Wholeheartedely support this. It’s something I could make a lot of use of and would save going into invent all the time

I don’t see why, it hasn’t replaced any dailys – it’s an extra. If it encourages more ppl to fight Teq then even better. Also, you don’t have to kill him iirc. It’s just participate until the end.

There’s partly the argument that interest in content wanes over time. It’s noticeable that SAB, invasions, activities all lost people’s interest after the initial buzz, so they remove them to keep them fresh when they wheel them back out again.

I can understand that reasoning..I just don’t necs agree with it. If this game had SAB, the 2 dungeons (which will be fractals eventually I know), the Bazaar for example still in the game..suddenly it looks a lot stronger as a game as it shows off what the team have produced under an immense schedule and pressure.

Also, it means we can duck in at our leisure rather than on the timeframe insisted upon us. I think ultimately that is the biggest gripe for everyone. Every single one of us has differing circumstances. Some are unemployed, some have families, some have lots of free time, others a couple of hours a week. Temporary content assumes everyone plays to the same degree, which ofc isn’t true. And it was not something any of us expected when we bought the game.

There’s been a great deal of rich, interesting content (from my perspective) produced this year by a clearly hard working team, but it should be allowed to stay for our enjoyment and as a trophy to their work too.

Also remember, these are the first 3 topics. Not the only 3. More discussions on a wider variety will no doubt occur if this proves a successful venture.

I enjoy the invasions too – I actually liked the fix implemented to make it consequtive waves. However, this assumed the same number of ppl were fighting the invasions as during the LS peak. The event bar needs to deplete quicker if the aim is to win as it currently is (which I think matches your fourth option there).

Alternatively, just 4 waves and not 5 – so clockwork-molten-clockwork-aether for eg

Blood and MAdness does at least say in the patch notes the below;

The Blood and Madness content will be available from October 15 to November 11, including rewards and achievements. The only exception is the A Royal Tradition achievement, which can only be completed when Mad King Thorn visits Lion’s Arch.

TA didn’t, but it did refer to October in the achievements. It’s still October, but it has ended.

Hopefully the devs have seen this thread and will take this on board for the future, since communication is being improved going forward..

1) Living World/Temp content
2) Grind and RNG
3) Content difficulties and timers

It took me 3 weeks to get to 500, w/o spending gold, but I have plenty of free time atm so that kind of skews it. It wasn’t overly hard, but it was grindy. The difference is, I only needed one weapon for my main and there was an adequate supply of mats I could farm to level (this is proprotionate to my playtime and how I played _ I sympathise with those who have less time and use it more constructively than I)

Armour is different. You can’t node farm the mats – only salvaging and loot bag RNG is your option outside of the TP. For 6 pieces of armour, that is going to to be excessive as it stands for most people. The other issue is the stat gain is very small (+2 I saw on one set) and I believe there is no AR slot either, so I’m slightly puzzled as to the incentive to obtain the armour compared to the weapon.

I presumed he meant lvlling the rest to 500

The original game design is for the game to max at 80. They haven’t ruled out a level cap, but there are numerous large threads from the community pleading for it to never happen.

With the current way armor/weapons are set up and the grind to get them, I wouldn’t expect to ever see a level cap or if we did, it would be years away.

Personally a perm max level of 80 is just fine with me – I am no fan of raising level caps just for the sake of it. There are plenty of other ways to progess charcters which have been done successfully here and in other capped lvl mmo’s

They haven’t specifically said, although ascended armor is due this year so that is three that have a decent chance of getting up to 500 soon.

I’m surprised Jeweller isn’t already – would make sense to make your own ascended jewellery as an alternative to laurels/fotm etc

Chef? I think that is anyone’s guess if that will ever go to 500. The only reason I could see for doing it would be for funky new dyes – luminous/legendary etc

Sometimes you need to step back and think would they say what they post to someone face to face? I suspect 99% of the ppl who say the conspiratorial/unpleasant things to others/anet on here do so due to an aspect of anonymity.

I’m unhappy with communication – for eg the early removal of the TA LS meta which has been reported on a few subforums w/o response. But, feedback is all you can do. Kicking off, screaming, shouting, accusing etc wont make the devs respond any better/quicker, in fact likely the opposite. Frankly these new rules are a welcome addition for both Anet and the community.

At the end of the day, it is just a game. Feedback the issues properly, trust they will be dealt with even if there is no response. If not, meh, it is just a game. There are far more troubling issues in this world than a few unbalanced skills in a video game.

I think this is an excellent idea. After what happened with the TA LS, this would help prevent a repeat and would be the most efficient way of communicating how long an LS is lasting for.

For eg, I have to tab out and search for the end dates for Blood and Madness and WVW atm which I know have been published elsewhere

Ah it’s classed as Living World rather than living story. Sounds pedantic, but it fits better under that category than as you say with living story.

Also, there have been calls for more pvp LS/LW stuff, so this also fits with that.

Exotic PVE gear can be crafted/dungeon run/traded with karma in Orr/bought with wvw tokens. Plenty of ppl run with rares as the jump isn’t huge, but exotic is the current best stat armor. It requires very little grind to get when you look at options to obtain. WVW/Pve gear is interchangeable.

The main grind comes from skins to alter your look – some of those will blow your mind for grind, some fairly easy to get. It’s taste dependant it seems and I seem to have expensively grindy tastes sadly!!

Best place to look for skins to make them “epic” is to use Dulfy. Essentially it’s a web guide to all aspects of the games, but it has complete galleries of all skins for all types of weap/armor and how to get them.

Sadly the LS for TA has been removed in place of the new LS content, so yes we missed it

More info in the living story subforum if you want spoilers on this

mercury ranique.2170:

From the release notes of Twilight assault:
‘During this release, a new set of daily achievements challenges players to complete either Twilight Arbor or another dungeon that rotates daily. Completing story mode or any of the explorable mode paths will qualify. These daily achievements contribute toward Twilight Assaulted, the meta-achievement for the release.’
So release is over and the meta achievement is gone, just as they said and promised.

Correct, but they didn’t say when it would end. Historically all start of month LS metas carry on until the end of the month. There was no reason to believe otherwise.

Anen.1742:

Don’t take anything for granted with Anet. If you want to do something, do it now or this kind of thing happens.
Now from my point of view, just one run of the new path gives you the meta. If you don’t have the meta by the 2 week times, it means you NEVER ran the aetherblade path and hence you don’t deserve the meta.

Not entirely true. Our guild ran it a few times, unsuccessfully. We would have run it more, but we figured we had all month as we had no idea it would be otherwise. Also, the daily key collector was bugged at least once and was not completable, so this didn’t help either.

As I said in the other post on this, I’m disappointed too. They were meant to tell us when they take things away suddenly – all other LS metas last a month when they start from the early part of a month.

Hoping it is a bug – it’s not in historical either.

At least the content wasn’t removed, but I know that’s not the point

Also, this patch specifically says when Blood and Madness will end. the previous patch notes did not say when Aetherblade LS would end.

It’s not in the historical achievements either – is it a bug?

Oh. This is especially annoying as there was a bug which prevented getting one of the dailys which went unanswered. I thought we were going to get better communication when things went away on diff schedules? I was expecting a month on this like the rest, hence why I didn’t grind dungeons out full the whole 2 weeks.

I know the content still exists which is great, but PLEASE can we get communication when LS AP chances are removed..

Not me. I’m not a fan of the energy based system of GW1 (or most mmo’s that use it tbh). It certainly wouldn’t work here as it was trialled (iirc) and scrapped for slowing the combat down too much, something I could see would be the case.

Some things I’m glad stayed in GW1 and for me personally, this is one of them

Prob worth lending weight to the current main thread in Living World subforum which already covers this issue, as opposed to having another thread open on the subject.

There is going to be some extensive dialogue coming up on the forums between devs/community and I suspect Living Story will be a high topic for discussion with the community. Worth ensuring your point is made in those conversations when they pop up.