I’m glad this was reposted because the original time I read it I deciphered it as we should create a Sylvari AFTER the release of HoT to potentially experience something new. This is saying we should create one beforehand if we haven’t already played one so now I don’t know what to think. I’ve only got two more Professions to level to 80, Ranger and Mesmer, and I wanted to level one in HoT as I suspect Heart of Maguuma will be a lvl 1-80 area.
So every time a level 1 participates in a HoT-event everyone else would be downleveled to one? I don’t think so…It’s highly likely the new jungle maps will be lvl 80 only.
Maybe there will be no more sylvari-creation after the expansion..?
That would be absolutely amazing! Think of the possibilities. They could even go one step further and not only remove sylvari from character creation but make existing sylvaris killable by everyone even on PVE-maps with the mandatory “last surviving Sylvari”-achievement of course. The guy who earns that achievement will be transformed into a new playable “pale tree” and instead of running around and killing stuff you’d be rooted in one place and have to manage your new “empire” just like in a 4X-strategy game.
There’s going to be a total of one body of water in the jungle. It will have the size of one square meter and you’ll have to jump from the canopy all the way down. The immense verticality of the map will give you enough time to prey to the six gods of Tyria in the hope of hitting your target. It will be one of the many “challenging” features in HoT.
It still bugs me that the basic infrastructure hasn’t been restored to a usable condition. 100% fixed bridges, leveled roadways, Char or Asura defenses set up, mostly destroyed structure torn down, debris moved and consolidated.
Ohh, I can’t count how many times I fell through the bridge that leads to Fort Marriner xD
@Straylight I think I have gotten over 20-30 popups until hitting lvl 14. 1-3 where the regular ones, but some came back multiple times and the ones for healing when you’re low is super annoying.
They don’t have to do major changes. Just in the options menu to turn off those tutorial stuff.
I really didn’t feel leveling going any faster though that previous times. Took me around 3 hrs to complete Queensdale. :S
I’m just leveling a new Sylvari toon and I got nowhere as near as 20-30 pop-ups. Maybe we don’t talk about the same thing when we refer to popups?
It will always take the same time to finish Queensdale. That’s not the point. The point is you finished Queensdale with a higher level than previously. Therefore leveling is faster.
As for the on/off switch: maybe they’ll introduce this in the future. At least you can switch off the compass if it annoys you. Somewhere in the interface menu.
Next to that, what is up with not being able to get the skill point thing on the minimap and the absence of the minimap markers? Every skill point I ran into in Queensdale was blocked for reasons unknown but that I was “too low level for them.”
Skill challenges are unlocked at level 13. I understand it can be annoying if you’re the type of player who rushes ahead but leveling is really super-fast since the NPE (new player experience) has been introduced and I think the average player doesn’t have to do any backtracking to previous zones. You’ll reach level 13 in no time, trust me.
Third, it’s SUPER annoying annoying to be a seasoned player and get all those tutorials popups on screen ALL the time.
But there aren’t that many right? There’s two right at the beginning that point out movement and camera control and another one if you die the first time that points you to to the next waypoint. Oh and the one at the dodging tutorial where you have to doge to get to the chest. I honestly can’t remember any other popups. The vast majority of notifications are summed up in the level-up screen and they only pop up when you decide to click in the little level-up button at the bottom of the screen.
It was MUCH more fun before they changed this stuff for new comers as if the rest of the playerbase doesn’t exist and isn’t going to make a new character.Hope Heart of Thorns does a better job.
Well, I do understand it can feel totally unnecessary for veteran players like yourself but as the name suggests the new player experience was made for new players. I found it quite distracting too in the beginning but I now I’m not bothered by it anymore.
I seriously doubt they’re going to change that when Heart of Thorns launches though. I’m sure they expect an influx of new players when their first expansion launches.
I dont get it, someone enlighten me: Why do people want LA to be rebuilt?
“Theory of mind – the ability to attribute mental states to oneself and others to understand that other people have beliefs, desires and intentions that are different from one’s own.”
I hope you are enlightened now
That didn’t really answer my question, did it?
I do acknowledge that there are people who want it rebuilt. Thing is; you don’t even know if I share that view, so your hasted White Knight-response is faulty. I dont mind either of the citites.
Please do try to explain why people want it back instead.
No, I didn’t answer your question on purpose in the hope you might do it yourself. I can think of several reasons why people might want LA to be rebuilt. Can you?
I’m not a White Knigh. I’m not defending anything.
I dont get it, someone enlighten me: Why do people want LA to be rebuilt?
“Theory of mind – the ability to attribute mental states to oneself and others to understand that other people have beliefs, desires and intentions that are different from one’s own.”
I think it’s really difficult to gauge how many new maps (or zones, however you prefer to call them) we’ll get since it’s the first expansion for GW2. We don’t really have a reference.
All I can say is that I was initally disappointed by the size of Dry Top and Silverwastes… only to find out they’re full of nooks and crannys and there’s actually a lot to explore even though they look small on the world map. Even if HoT ships with a few maps it can turn out much more than it seems.
The Maguuma Jungle have several existing map like Rate Sum, The Groove, Caledon Forest, Metrica Province, Brisban Wildlands, Sparkfly Fen, Mount Maelstrom and Labyrinthine Cliffs. They could had some more of them in Tarnished Coast and Sea of Sorrow. But to be fair, we pretty much have 70% of Magguma Jungle already explored.
The Magguma Waste also have some existing map. There are the 2 last maps of Dry Top and Silverwaste.
And finally Maguuma falls. It may be an new region or just part of the maguuma jungle or maguuma waste, we don’t know yet.
Sparkfly Fen and Mount Maelstrom are not part of the Maguuma Jungle. No matter what the wiki says.
Metrica Province, Rata Sum, The Grove and Caledon Forest belong to the Tarnished Coast, a subregion of the Maguuma Jungle.
We do not have 70% of the Maguuma Jungle already explored. No idea where you got that number from.
They only use the tag “Maguuma” for the purpose of achievements and to make it roughly equivalent in number of zones to Kryta, Ascalon and the Shiverpeak Mountains. I guess it’s more convenient to handle from a game-mechanics point of view. But in fact the zones under “Maguuma” we’ve got so far actually belong to the Tarnished Coast and the Steamspur Mountains respectively.
Really looking forward to the new specializations, PvP updates, Guild Halls, and group content, but not so much with this whole Dry Top x 10 thing they seem to be adding.
But that’s the natural evolution of things. It’s inevitable. First we had horizontal maps (every MMO that came before GW2) then we had horizontal maps with the illusion of verticality (GW2) and now we’re going to get actual vertical maps (GW2-HoT). It’s the future of map design!
If they updated Orr they would also have to update the personal story to reflect the changes
‘Cuz they totally did that with LA? It didn’t hurt personal stories at all. They can alter the chipset without touching the enemies.
Yes, they did that with LA and it did hurt the personal story. It’s just weird to see Tybalt standing in a ruined marked square selling apples like nothing happened.
I mean seriously, the last chapters of the personal story is all about invading a land that is littered with undead. They can’t change that without altering the personal story and I doubt they will.
We don’t know yet. They haven’t said anything. All we know is that the story of HoT takes off right after the ending cinematic of Point of no Return indicating that no major stuff is going on storywise.
I think it would be great if we get some background on what Rytlock was doing in the mists. How he acquired his new powers, how he managed to get back etc.. It would give some context and build anticipation for the new Revenant profession.
Rytlock. That’s why you see him charging ahead of everyone else in the HoT trailer since he won’t need anyone else to do the job. Frankly, I don’t even know why we as the Player Characters are going into the jungle because we’re obviously not needed.
I think a good time for the restoration of LA would be right after the defeat of Mordremoth since he was indirectly responsible for it. I doubt Mordremoth will be accessible right when HoT launches but rather some time later. Therefore I think we will see rebuilt LA within HoT but towards the end rather than the beginning.
If they update Orr they can only do that by adding new events, new dungeon(s) and generally new meaningful content that reflect those changes. If that was the case they would have anounced it as a major feature, which they didn’t. So…no, I don’t think we will see an update. At least not when HoT goes live.
Besides, it would draw attention away from the Maguuma Jungle and judging from their announcment last saturday everything pve-related in HoT concerns the jungle. They clearly want us to go into the jungle and not back to orr.
They didn’t announce any maps. They announced we will be going into the heart of maguuma which will have three biomes. A biome does NOT indicate a map, region, area, etc.
If the official page to Heart of Thorns is to be believed it’s going to be more than 1 map though. Since they used the phrase “explore new open world jungle maps”.
Guild Wars 2 is not simply a remastered version of GW1 with better graphics. Guild Wars 2 is a continuation of GW1. That’s why they set it 250 years in the future because they wanted to get some distance from GW1. It’s time to explore new zones, meet new characters and participate in new adventures.
Let’s assume they revisit Cantha and Elona again. By the time they’re done doing that it’s time for Guild Wars 3 and then people would again ask for Cantha and Elona etc.. at some point you just have to say “stop, let’s do something new”.
I think adding more races makes sense once the lore of the current ones has been explored. This is clearly not the case yet. The Sylvari, Asura and Norn simply can’t reach the same depth when it comes to lore & history than the Humans and Charr. Adding another race to the pool anytime soon would only divert attention from the current races and they would have to be revisited at a later point.
We are currently learning a lot more about the Sylvari which in my opinion is great since they were the most mysterious of all the races (even to themselves). I think until the moment Mordremoth is dealt with the writers at Arenanet won’t introduce another playable race. The Sylvari are currently in the spotlight and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.
Yes, you do have those glitches. Everyone has it. Just walk around the grove and you’ll see them.
If you don’t believe me just watch that guys video: (credit to Connor.7034). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSOtQeVvmfQ
Glitches happening at following minute marks:
1.27
1.34
2.08
3.20
any many more..
You can easily replicate those glitches by visiting the same locations at those minute marks.
And it’s not just those annoying glitches. Apparently the Echoes of the Past patch unintentionally brought back the “old” night. It’s especially noticable on the lowest level. Here is a picture taken by me for comparison. The left picture shows nighttime in the grove before the last patch. The right picture shows nighttime after the patch.
Since the latest patch the grove is full of graphical glitches. I just did map completion for the grove and it suddenly got dark and misty at many locations (20+ locations). One example is walking from the entrance towards the central plaza where it goes up to the pale tree, right after the Warden’s Watchgate POI. Everyone should be able to replicate that issue.
I’m not sure what you mean with “always been more like the right one”. It can’t be more than one. It’s either or. As you can see on the left picture it used to look different. So no, it did not look like the right one.
The picture on the left was taken about a month ago, the picture on the right was taken yesterday. The pictures clearly show that there’s a difference. They were both taken at nighttime.
Why did they change the lighting in the grove? It’s especially noticable in the lowest level.
Before the patch it was quite dark. After the patch everything’s more illuminated.
I wonder whether it’s a glitch or intentional because on the top level when you walk from the entrance of the grove towards the central plaza there’s a glitch introduced with the latest patch where the whole screen gets dark and cloudy just for a second. Not sure if the lighting changes on the lowest level is also a glitch or intentional.
Yeah… an entire lake just… empty… and essentially rendered both pointless, and depressing. Depressing in the sense that it’s one less place in the world of Tyria with detail or substance. Same with the bundles that involved feeding cows and watering corn. Little things that made the early experience so much more alive. They drew me into the game and made me say: “hell yeah, I’ve never seen anything like that before in other MMO’s, I’m gonna keep playing this game.”
Sadly they dumbed down the farms and the lakes, and various other places in starting areas… content that was by no stretch of the imagination too complicated for anyone to figure out. All you had to do was the put in a little bit time and effort.
And all these changes are parts of the world now, for everyone – new players and level 80 veterans alike. Every person who visits the Metrica Province lake will find it empty, not just the new players.
What are you guys talking about? Nobody in this thread said they would get back by Monday. The only ANet response in this entire thread is about how progress while doing the Greatest Fear plotline wouldn’t be lost, after patch, it would just be shifted.
Which… seems to actually NOT be the case, but that’s beside the point. Nobody in this thread said they’d “Look into it and get back to [us] Monday”.
First of all thanks very much for all of your info. We have actually been using your posts to investigate (or rather Leah and her team has).
Secondly and just to be clear in case it isn’t. I am not a customer service rep, I am a developer and thus you are talking directly to the team.
Finally I will have more info for you Monday or perhaps Leah will post. Either way we will be in touch. Thanks for your support and have a great weekend.
I know what your issues are from having read the rest of the topic but the OP? You have some very strong opinions and you have passionate senses of what you don’t like.
Would you take him more serious if he wasn’t passionate about his opinion?
So, as you’ve probably noticed ANet, a very big part of the community is unhappy
Laughing so hard right now
Do you even know how small the forum community is compared to the entire playerbase? Devs have already said it is minuscule; I would wager less than 2%.
Are there really this many people on here incapable of seeing past their own noses?
Logical fallacy. The majority of people do not voice their opinions. You can not listen to a voice that doesn’t exist. Therefore, you have to listen to those people who express their opinions. These people can be found on the official forums/reddit/popular fansites.
I’m getting tired of the old argument “the forum represents a minority, therefore their opinions are irrelevant”. The forum represents the majority of people who voice their opinions and is therefore not irrelevant.
Actually this is the logical fallacy.
Point 1. This game is played by X number of people.
Point 2. Only Y number of people have an opinion they voice.
Point 3. Any change made to accomodate Y people won’t just affect Y people. It’ll affect the X people too. Anet can’t just make choices based on a small group of people giving that advice, unless they’re relatively sure those changes would go over well.
As an example, the hardest core players who want challenges all over the place are probably not a majority. But they are very vocal on forums. They’re the min/maxers and the people who develop the metas. Logically speaking they are the most vested and smartest players in the game.
A game made for them would increasingly exclude a large number of other people. The more you make it for the top 5% the more the bottom 95% will feel disenfranchised. The more you make it for the top 10% the more the bottom 90% will feel disenfranchised.
The question has always been this. Is the forum a microcosm for the entire game’s player base, or is it a select few who think more deeply about their gaming experience and want something different than the vast majority of people who don’t post want.
I moderated a forum called guildwars2forum.com a long time ago and I had access to the numbers. Less than 15% of the people visiting that forum ever left a post. That means that, at least on that forum, 85% of the people never had a say. Not here, there.
But I’ve moderated other groups that weren’t forums, mostly yahoo groups, in the past and I’ve found the same 15% rule applies. I’ve never been in a group with more than 20% of people reading it ever posted.
Those who post are not necessarily representative of the majority of the player base. And that’s only lurkers and posters. What percentage of those who play never even lurk?
The mind boggles.
Then riddle me this Vayne. Why is A-Net doing the CDI’s? If we forum goers are such a small percentage of the actual players, why ask for our imput on subjects that will effect the future of the game?
The obvious answer is that people on the forum could very well have valuable ideas. That doesn’t mean the forum’s CDIs will dictate what Anet does or doesn’t do.
You see, saying that the forum are the top 15% of the playbase (possibly even the top 5%) isn’t hard to figure out. You ask them stuff because they can have insight. Individuals can give you ideas. This is called brainstorming.
I had a great critique group at one point and often I got a good idea from them. But just as often what they said would have changed the story I wanted to tell and that would have made it impossible for me to tell it.
Simply put, brainstorming is smart. It gives you more ideas. Even if you can’t use the ideas in whole, it can spark other ideas.
But you don’t have to be a majority to brain storm. Anet still can’t just take forum posters into account, because we’re not a majority, almost certainly.
Yes, we are the majority who express their opinions. The only majority you can listen to.
“Hey guys, let’s listen to those people over here for some cool brainstorming but not those guys over there, who’re dissatisfied with the direction GW2 is going”.
You are erroneously conflating majority opinion with ability to possibly make a good suggestion. CDI and forums “not representing the majority of players” are entirely unrelated. The CDIs are not about getting us to fix or change or improve the game as representatives of the majority. They are about brainstorming for cool and interesting ideas. We merely share and discuss these ideas, ANet judge them and pick the ones they like/want/think will be good. We don’t vote the ideas in or anything.
Ideas should be judged on their merits, not the merits of the people who come up with them, so getting a whole bunch of randoms, most with a pretty solid working knowledge of at least part of the game is a great way to source ideas.
We provide ideas, they use them for inspiration, or not, as they choose. It’s really that simple.
You make it sound like “brainstorming & ideas” are sooo different from “dissatisfied players giving feedback”.
most people ive seen complain havent said they quit the game a long time ago. But even if they have, does that matter?
Do people need to try out the new system to know wether or not they like the idea of having basic skills and functions (such as downed state or even dye’s…) very slowly spoonfed over the course of 80 levels?
I dont think so. We can objectively say that these changes leave you with less skills to play with, and less diversity in your playstyle, for a longer time. Aswell as less room to experiment and find a playstyle you enjoy.
And that is something people either like, or dont like. Most tend to “not like”.
But if you like it so much, why dont we just roll the system back to the way it was? You can, for your own leisure, simply opt to not use that second utility slot untill lv24 (or later!) while those of us who do, can use it sooner.
And it shouldnt take a great deal of discipline to say “nope, one more level before i allow myself to dye my armor”. While those of us who dont want to enforce arbitrary benchmarks, can just make our character look the way we want from the very start.
To address your various points in my humble opinion:
I think people should definitely try out the new system just for the sake of finding out if it’s as bad as they thought it would be.
Do they need to try it out in order to realize that GW2 is being systematically dumbed down so that"the whole family & your dog" can play it? No. This movement started with the first feature patch (some would say even before), continued into the current featurepatch and will most likely continute into the next etc..
Then you’re basically talking about options. Of course options are always better than forcing a system unto everyone. Sadly, arenanet is not even trying to do that. Their whole argument is based upon new players getting confused with too many skills and things to do. But in the end all they achieve is de-conditioning people thinking for themselves. The next wave of GW2 players will even need more handholding and so on. Though this is not a Guild Wars specific problem. It’s currently afflicting the whole game industry.
Dyes can already be used right at the start. The notification just pops up later (I think at level 7). But they can definitely be used right from the start. And yes, that includes all your unlocked dyes.
The tiny percentage of people who are on here QQing nonstop about the NPE are in no way representative of the average player’s opinion. So why should they be listened to? Anet has the metrics. They know far more about the game and the players than anyone complaining about the changes does.
Sorry to say (actually, I’m not at all), this is simply a matter of the ignorant trying to inform the knowledgeable.
Why should arenanet listen to people on the forums? because they express their opinions. Who else does? People who do not express their opinions (which is the majority) can’t be listened to. It is physically impossible.
Presidents get elected by people who vote, not by people who don’t vote.
People who don’t express their opinions do not deserve to be listened to and have to deal with whatever changes happen. If they do care then they are free to come to the forums and express their opinions. Best example: me! I never wrote anything in the past 2 years but yet, here I am, expressing my dissatisfaction with the recent changes. I stopped being a “silent voice” and became a voice.
According to your logic, forums shouldn’t exist and game developers should never change anything ever …because, you know, the majority will never speak up.
By the way, your metrics do not express the majority either.
So, as you’ve probably noticed ANet, a very big part of the community is unhappy
Laughing so hard right now
Do you even know how small the forum community is compared to the entire playerbase? Devs have already said it is minuscule; I would wager less than 2%.
Are there really this many people on here incapable of seeing past their own noses?
Logical fallacy. The majority of people do not voice their opinions. You can not listen to a voice that doesn’t exist. Therefore, you have to listen to those people who express their opinions. These people can be found on the official forums/reddit/popular fansites.
I’m getting tired of the old argument “the forum represents a minority, therefore their opinions are irrelevant”. The forum represents the majority of people who voice their opinions and is therefore not irrelevant.
Arenanet is basically saying : “We need everybody to play this game. We need your grandma, we want your babies, we even want your dog to play our game.”
There’s more truth to this than falsehood, though not for the implication the original poster uses.
AAA developers NEED large player bases to meet the expectations their publishers set. So yeah, they need to constantly attract more and more players. If their metrics were telling them too many people were quitting in those early levels, their publisher is going to say, “Fix it.”
And let’s face it… the biggest pool to draw from is from the “social games” crowd, and yeah, I’ll bet they WERE very confused and frustrated by those early levels. They probably DIDN’T know what to do with themselves when their skills changed upon picking up a bundle. They probably WERE confused by dodge mechanics, and those red triangles and blue chevrons all over their mini map. They probably DID feel overwhelmed by it all.
Now the question is… did they make the right fix? Are they wise to appeal to the “social games” crowd? That’s something that only time will tell.
The problem is that you can’t attract everyone, no matter how hard you try. That plants&zombies playing grandma is not going to play GW2 no matter how much you dumb it down. She’s just happy playing Plants&Zombies or Angrybirds. But everyone already playing the game has to suffer just for the very low possibility that they might attract that odd grandma or two. (nothing against grandma’s, just an example)
I think the smartest course of action is when a game company says "stop!, we attracted enough different types of players, let’s improve the game for those types of players we already have.
In your search to attract more and more types of players you will inevitably alienate your own playerbase. Finding the exact spot when this happens and avoid crossing it, is crucial. I think Arenanet went one step too far with this Feature Pack.
Arenanet is basically saying : “We need everybody to play this game. We need your grandma, we want your babies, we even want your dog to play our game.”
Chris Whiteside (one of the developers) will come back to us with some feedback regarding the issues you described in your post. He said most likely on Monday (that would be tomorrow).
You’re definitely not the only one who’s upset about these weird PS-changes.
I wish Anet would dump or lock all the “I QUIT” threads. They bring nothing to the table but negativity. The very nature of these posts is divisive and their intent is to stir up angst among everyone.
That’s what a dictator would do. You know, like Kim Jong-un?
People don’t just post “I quit”. They post "I quit because of…
Sorry – they post “I Quit” because they reel they are ‘ENTITLED’ to do so. I left D3 – I didn’t post anything – I just left – done. Same with Rift. Why do these people feel the need to say, "Put in the game what I want or I will not play’ is a childish and immature attitude born on the backs of getting everything they want and never working for it. It is really a spoilt child mentality. What are they going to do next, hold their breaths until they get what they want or throw a temper tantrum? (oh wait that is what the OP did).
A.Net already got you to buy the box. They have no reason to expect you to spend any more money than that. You should also expect no more than that either besides bug fixes, etc. Also, they are still putting patches out free – people never complained when Apple charges for patches to their OS, they just pay and gleefully.
Bla bla bla
People are upset about changes. They leave. They give reasons why they leave. That will give Arenanet some feedback. End of discussion.
I wish Anet would dump or lock all the “I QUIT” threads. They bring nothing to the table but negativity. The very nature of these posts is divisive and their intent is to stir up angst among everyone.
That’s what a dictator would do. You know, like Kim Jong-un?
People don’t just post “I quit”. They post "I quit because of…
Is it that hard to accept that you are above the bell curve of the average MMO player, and that maybe it WAS too kittening confusing or “too hard” for those on the average or below?
Or is always all about you, and anything that doesn’t cater to you and your needs is worthless and terrible and ruins the game?
That’s not the point. Arenanet should stop catering to brainless cretins. Because that’s exactly the type of player these changes are aimed at. And it’s not just Arenanet and GW2. Since gaming stopped being a niche hobby for some computer nerds and became widely acceptable, the gaming industry wants to appeal to as many people as possible. Hence the systematic dumbing down to appeal to the lowest common denominator.
It’s really sad to watch Arenanet (NCsoft cough) taking this path as well instead of swimming against the current. Because that was my first impression from arenanet from all those years ago: a company that wants to be different by creating an MMO-experience unlike anything else. I guess they grew lonely being different.
because retaining new users at early levels wasn’t just a china problem we needed to solve, it’s a problem in the west too.
Then make the game more interesting, not more boring. You removed every unique heartquest in the beginner zones (golem chess, turning into a fernhound, dodging killer-rabbits) and turned them into generic “go there, click that” quests.
There’s nothing in the patch notes about the removed content. The large amounts of removed content. Convenient.
Guess what. The removed content everyone is talking about isn’t in the patch notches. Seriously, think before you write.
Also I wouldn’t describe the removed content as “convenient”, rather as dumbing down. Unless dumbing down is your idea of convenience, then you’d be absolutley right.
It was broken and never really worked from day one! At least when I tried to do it. Good riddance! Anet needs to make a mini game work properly before its released.
Maybe this is why we do not have bar brawls and Mina’s Target Shooting.
Bundles are too complicated/confusing for new players.
Golem Chess is technically a bundle.
Does it appear right at the start of the game? Yes it does → remove it.
