Guild Wars 2

I have not had sound in any cinematic sequence since around the second halloween.

In particular i can say for sure there was nothing for mordramoth’s awakening nor the sequence when you use the omadd’s machine.

including my sound settings
[IMG]http://i1300.photobucket.com/albums/ag90/Teraphas/e766b276-5f98-413d-9a5c-b89dc86eef96_zps557fb2b5.jpg[/IMG]

I dont think i have heard any sound at all during the living story cutscenes for a long time and i am finally curious is this everyone or just me. and its not new I didn’t have any sound for most of season 1 stuff. Kinda disheartening having no dragon roar when you see it roar

Just because they are legendary weapons doesn’t mean they are the original. These items could just be immensely powerful items that when the original was made gained a title. we have exotics that are the same way. Its just that these are imbued with very specific amounts of certain items to achieve their potency.

Think of all weapons in the GW2 universe as black powder. Yes its made up of ratios of a few items but finding that balance is key. The weapons just have more variables as to what creates very strong magics and these are the tried and true recipes for such perfectly proportioned ratios to produce the strongest possible weapon.

And seeing as legendarys will always be as strong as the top tier this makes sense. and if you want you can throw in the ability to alter their stats as the true legendary quality.

The Council could easily come back even if its not the same membership, Shiren

In the face of Lion’s Arch being destroyed and a dragon awakening, morale across Tyria is flagging. Yes we have stopped Scarlet, but at a very high cost. Lion’s Arch has been razed and the world is essentially waiting to see if its people decide to rebuild or move on.

As more time passes without the Captain’s council asserting control they risk losing the city. A city is more then its buildings, if they don’t move to rebuild the morale of their people then any hope of rebuilding Lion’s Arch could be lost and it just becomes ruin’s for future adventures to explore and marvel at the stories of the past.

The only Hope for the city’s future is Dragon Bash.

Previously Dragon Bash was held mid june so i recognize that a lot of the things that i write about in this post may just be wishful thinking but here is hoping the devs were thinking along the same paths.

Dragon Bash is the perfect opportunity for the Council to declare to the world as well as the Dragons that while they may be down they are in no way defeated. The festival is all about defiance. To not hold it would be to admit defeat. Even if the festival is rudimentary as bonfires and alcohol in the ruins of the Grand Piazza, it is in the best interest of the Council to throw a party. The fate of the Spirit of the city is at stake as well as the funds to rebuild.

Fundraising
It has long been a tradition to throw parties to raise support and gather resources to accomplish a goal. The Council could do just that, throw a party and ask people to donate raw materials to help the rebuilding effort. Think bringing can goods to a concert to get in for free. These mats could be dropped off(hobotron, nudge nudge devs) and the player would receive a boon whose duration could be extended by the quality and quantity of mats donated. say 1 tier 1 mat gives 1 second, 1 tier 5 mat gives 5 seconds. so dropping off just 100 scraps of silk would net you 500 seconds of the buff, 8min 20 seconds. The numbers could obviously be tweaked some but you get the idea.

Barnraising
It would be even more exciting to see the Dragon Bash incorporate ideas from old fashion barn raisings. The entire community coming together to build something in a relatively short period of time. For example there could be various sites around the city with workstations the correspond to metal, wood and cloth/leather if you have a profession that can refine one of those materials you can use the workstation. Using the workstation would have you channel for a period of time(say 10seconds maybe upwards of 30 seconds). Doing so would be donating your time and skills to progress the completion of that building. The devs set a crazy high number of activations needed on each building with several different progress models so over time you can see the building take shape. With the mega servers this would obviously mean that the buildings would be universal, that way every version of LA was progressing at the same rate.
A fun thing would be for the devs to monitor your home server when you use a workstation. Doing so could net you a personal buff for doing so but they could also have world buffs that are rewarded to the worlds donating the most to the rebuilding of LA. Ideally everyone would get the buff but say there are 3 tiers of strength to it. The server that is donating the absolute most would get the strongest version. then say maybe then next 8 servers get the second tier and everyone gets the base version. The strongest could be called something like Commodore’s Gratitude with the second tier being Captain’s/Council’s Gratitude(8 councilor’s hence 8 recipients) and the base being Gratitude of Lion’s Arch. Especially if there is no way to see where you stand in comparison to the other servers this would really drive up donations as the community vied for the better buffs. Oh and devs if you do please make them significant especially in relation to each other. if they are highly desirable people won’t mind pursuing then, but if the buff is too weak no one will want to bother seeking the stronger versions.

So that’s my prediction and hopes that Dragon Bash will return next month. Doing other wise would be admitting that despite it all that Scarlet won after all, and we just can’t have that now can we?

So i have Key but no chest and never transfered during the season. Never Left NA when i did transfer back when it was free.

if i read this all correct i am to just wait and hope that the chest appears on friday when it resets again?

DevonCarver.5370:

Chidori.9483:

I fully expect major projects to spring from this initiative, in fact, I thought it was the point.

The point of this initiative is not to create major projects but to discuss the basic principles behind the design of our game with you all. That can mean explaining why we didn’t do something one way or explaining why we did do it a certain way. It also means that through that discussion we get a better sense of the best versions of many of the things we intend to work on at some point or ideas for changes that can be made to existing parts of the game. It is not a forum for making demands of what we absolutely must do, nor should the expectation be that whatever we are talking about right now is going to show up next month. If you are expecting to see any of the things we have discussed happening quickly, you should adjust that expectation. Some of it could, but the simple fact that we are discussing it here is not a promise to that effect.

Would you please explain the state of the commander system at launch? I am genuinely curios, not trying to be snarky. I am curious was it realized before the game went live that the command system would be as rough as it has shown to be? Was it a matter of time constraints to get other systems polished and it was deemed low priority at the time? Or with internal testing was the ultra competitive nature of a live community not there to expose the limitations of the current system, that the very nature of commanders to get every last piece of siege they can up has exposed the rough edges?

I am also sure you would agree that most of the wish list expanded functions for commanders that go beyond simple functionality mostly arrived after you asked if we would care for a complete overhaul. The nature of these also vary wildly because of it. It does seem most of us agree on core functions. Perhaps before this thread closes you could include a quick request for us to review the ideas in this thread so far and in as brief a post as possible list what we consider to be needed for a core system, what would be nice and which ideas we would not want to see?

Keep up the great work Devon. Thank you and Izzy both for being so vocal and patient in this subject

Would the commander system be functional enough with more markers, guild only tags, less suppression, better supplyinfo, and possibly additional marker shapes?

As long as those markers are in game ones(think guild banners but taller) that are easily deployed and picked up. Not just over map waypoints. Especially important is only visable by your server. Bonus if that can be squad visual only. But really which ever of the two is easiest to implement. Especially useful would be these being quick communication tools for those not in a ts3 or in situations like tequatl where locating and joining what ever voip the group is using really eats into being able to beat him

I would like to add to the short list being better squad joining functionality. An ability to pull people into our squad (aka invite) vs having to rely on them joining on their own

Isaiah Cartwright.8569:

Thanks for all the answers might be hard for me to answer everyone but I’m up for a bit any questions I could answer?

What are some surprising ideas you have seen suggested so far that you don’t think have been tossed around internally before hand? Just a curiosity

On the subject of wxp based trait skills for commanders. I would not be in favor of basic command functions being gated within such a system as using wxp points to gain the tageither leaves you far less useful unless you tag up as you spent all your points on that. That being said if the tag was still gold based then perhaps if your wxp points could be split to one setup while tagged and another when not. This way you could choose the pricey commander expanding skills while still being able to choose basic functionally for when you are not leading.

That being said I could still see commander options being added to wxp. Not a seperate line or anything like that. But instead a sub line to every existing line. This sub line would let’ a commander rebuy a point they already have purchased at 5x or 10x the original cost. Doing so would enable that skill as an aura to all squad members within a certain readouts. For example if a commander takes ram 1 and then pays the amplify cost all squad members would gain that as well if they did not already.

This hybrid system would allow basic command functionality to be seperate from wxp but to be enhanced by it. This would also make it worth while to join a squad without it being a detriment if you don’t to avoid it becoming blob combat that buffs like +wxp would. This would also increase the reputation of commanders that can offer certain buffs so you can spend your personal points on other things. This could also lead to server wide strategy.

edit: I would like to mention to avoid endless power creep of power commanders in the coming years of insane rank make it that you can only utilize one or two auras at a time. so while you can buy them all you wouldn’t be able to supply them to everyone else at once.

Isaiah Cartwright.8569:

Seems like people really enjoy answering questions so I’ll throw out a few more.

How big do you expect a squad to be?
What kind of content is a PvE commander most useful?
Is money a good enough gate for commander tags?

The question of squad size comes down to functionality that ends up being added to the system.
If it becomes a raid ui like some want I would want the number low like maybe 25. Any more than that and I wouldn’t be able to see from all the health bars. As it is on my old screen buffs can stack well into the center of my play field making the left 3rd of my screen unclickable as it wants to interact with the potraits and by extension the 25 buffs on them.
If you don’t add that and keep it a simple overall text display. Or a bar that shows supply in your squad like a health bar then you could set the squad limit to be as high as the map limit or just above or below. We never have to know for sure but a high limit could work too.

Pve tags are best in Guild missions. In an environment where you can organize ahead of time who will follow who. They are worst in events like Scarlet invasions as many commanders will start but quickly all end up together as the is little prep time to get sorted and make a plan beyond mass zerging. On a semi related note I can understand when events like this start the drop eberything and rush to the zone nature is part of the appeal. But let’s face it given the living story lore shouldn’t we have an early warning system in place by now? I mean beyond the global message. Couldn’t we get the invasion and arrive to a central local on each map with a say 5 minute buffer before the enemy portals are strong enough to open and let mass troops through as a chance to try and coordinate a plan of attack over just ‘omg its timed kill as much as possible with as many people in one place as you can!!’. For more involved scenarios like teq having a moments warning to be able to send the call for people to come fight and organize before the timer is 1/3rd gone would help pve commanding be more than a mobile point of interest.

Money is a great gate for the first tag on an account. 100 is reasonable to keep it from casual buys but not impossible to get with a week or two of determined pursuit. Additional tags for the same account however should be a more casual buy price. IE once you have one commander tag additional tags cost 10g (maybe even as much as 20g) something even easier to earn the Gold for but still enough that you give it a moments thought so it doesn’t become an impulse buy. I am firmly a fan of character based tags but it could be added that accounts that have more than one tag hovering over a tag on the map displays the current characters name but hovering for 3 seconds of more expands the tooltip to display an aka list.

This tooltip expansion I am sure would take a while to add but added advantage is it can be used around the world as a way to inspect objects. This would add depth in lore around the game world. Mouse over to see that this is “blank” stay focused on it to recurve a little more information on it. Potentially flavor text at first but I could see it used to spawn events for staring at a certain character too long or gazing into a cursed object.

Not to sound rude but adding an ability to let someone see a commander tag on the enemy would result in what happens when anet tags are up.

Commanding can be difficult and stressful enough no need to add wvw tribulation modeto it.

Could we also see the commander tag gain on top status? it currently seems to run on the same nameplate level which means your own allies names can obscure the tag not to mention the enemy ones.

Isaiah Cartwright.8569:

A lot of awesome ideas here.

Here are some questions I’ve been wondering about.

How often do people actually join squads and use the features that are there? (4 different way point markers, /supplyinfo). What would make you join squads more?

How much is spies a problem with commander system?

Should the commander icon be shown above the commanders head to the commander?

Should we allow a WvW upgrade to see enemy commanders (not on the map just on screen) ?

In my guild joining squad is generally done only to avoid seeing any other command tags. Legit or trolling. The markers are almost never used simply because not enough people join the squad to be made worthwhile. i would wager a good number of people playing don’t even realize they can join the squad or what it is. I have had my tag for a while now and actually have no clue how to set the 4 waypoints. They just are too obscure.

That being said if it was reversed(or just added) that the commander could use an ability to draft all nearby players into their squad that would improve the functionality.

For Spying, yes it has become huge. there is a good number of people that have bought second accounts and then multibox with the account on an enemy BL in full map mode. I have never heard of it before now but I know we can join party with opposing sides, if we can join squads of enemy commanders that really needs to get shutdown fast. Hotfix remove the chevron buff when viewed by other players, if they can’t find them easy they can’t join the enemy squad. There is nothing more infuriating then having the enemy show up in front of you repeatedly as long as you run a tag and the moment it shuts off you can move freely.

no abilities to see enemy commanders. I like the idea in Edge for seeing enemy forces fine but commanders specifically will just lead to mass tagging or running no tag and just called target.

Glad you are enjoying all the ideas. If its possible when the recap posts come could you sort the ideas as projected short turn around projects and long term projects. We all have our opinions of how easy a fix should be but you all know your systems better and if you estimate so we can see how the list is piling up. Even if an idea wouldnt be implemented it would still be nice to know where in the spectrum they all sit so we can better answer Devon’s previous question about quick fixes or long term scrap and overhaul.

I have some concerns to bring up for all those asking for ‘skill’ or vote based to gain access to commander tags or additional commander abilities.

What is to stop unethical large guilds from voting up their members and down other commanders? Or on the more organized servers the ruling wvw Council banding together to promote select commanders while voting down any commanders that don’t toe the line?

Such systems are easily manipulated by large groups and could be abused to usurp control because guilds x y and z want to call the shots for the server and proceed to wreck all rival guild’s commanders ratings.

Plus overall one has to wonder over the logic of proving you can command before you can command. We all have to learn at some point and as I mentioned any voting system can be manipulated and it would generally be horrible for any new commander to get bored so far down they have no chance before they can even start to learn. For game longevity this would slowly but surely kill wvw as there would be less new blood coming in to replace any experienced commanders who leave the game either temporarily or permanently.

That being said I wouldn’t mind a feedback function that allows players to rate a commander and leave notes on it for the commander. But it should be for that commanders eyes only and have no impact on anything else in the game. Being able to see your overall rating overtime so you can see if you are improving. The comments should be subject to all the normal oversight and ability to report abuse.

Nightshade.2570:

C. I would also suggest a guild/or individual has an option to purchase an upgrade on their commander tags (either thru guild discovery or perhaps a gold/gem option) that actually represents their guild emblem. This would allow other commanders to know who and what guild is on a map.

Yes please. This would be very nice.

ptitminou.6489:

• Siegelocking non-commanders, again an anti-troll system (most trolls do not have a tag)

My server used to have 3 of them that would go around tossing junk seige everywhere especially on things our commander wanted built to waste supply and running with a tag up in hopes of getting people not in ts3/squad to follow them off cliffs and such. they would use a spectral bungie and watch the rest go splat.

DevonCarver.5370:

Okay, so before we get too far into this discussion, here is something else to think about:
Would you rather see us make some number of small improvements in the short term and larger changes long term or just tear the whole thing down and start from scratch?

To be a bit more specific, we could probably do something like multicolor markers without too much work, although it is not a given, but that would likely be the extent of things for a long period of time.

If an a complete scrapping and overhaul is necessary i would personally like to see small quick changes added to the current system like the multicolor/multishape tags added now. But the caveat of that being things that can translate into the new system.

As nice as some short term fixes would be if it is decided a new system needs to be Built from the ground up, i would hate to see time used up to implement something that can’t be translated into the new system. That just delays the new system that much longer.

More intensive system

A seperate UI for the commander tag is really needed. a small toolbar would be great. While the chat commands for supply and squad info are nice unless someone tells you about them, you may never know that they exist. Other abilities could be added to this bar.
Implementation: A small toolbar(perhaps above the buff/debuff area) that contains buttons for things like /supplyinfo could be placed. Additional tools could also be added like command flags that can only be seen by the squad(more reason to actually join a commanders squad)
Command flags: These would be drag and drop items that a commander could place to direct his forces without relying on them all be in a voice chat with them. I see 3 obvious ones that could be used. Attack, Defend/hold, and Don’t attack. The Don’t Attack may seem odd until you realize how often a commander doesn’t want anyone to PvDoor or to form a temporary alliance to take out a stronger common foe.

If these flags are added they really need to be made squad view only to avoid confusion with several commanders or trolling

Really Quick change.

Please adjust the commander tag so it operates like the called target icon. The commander tag currently gets smaller the further into the distance the commander gets. however the called target stays the same size regardless of distance.

The smaller blue tag can become hard to see in the chaos of battle. even using your minimap to follow can become difficult. a tag that stays the same size at all times is far easier to follow. In fact many people resort to calling target on their own commander because it is easier to find than the blue chevron

Quick changes.

Please expand the commander icon to be able to be set to 3 colors and 3 different shapes.
Reasoning: Some players are color blind and just going with several additional colors could also lead to some shades being too close together. using 3 primary colors and 3 basic shapes offers 9 distinct combinations. In wvw it could be common practice that main zerg uses Triangle and havocs use Circle and a commander focusing on def and not leaving their side of the map uses square. this could also be done by color: blue red yellow. but say a havoc group gets too big or a side objective needs a short term commander, then another commander could tag up using a different shape or color to match the community accepted norm and carry on with little confusion. In PvE i have yet to see any encounter that could benifit from more than 9 distinct groups coordinating so for the time being 3 colors 3 shapes work
Expansion: Down the line additional shapes could be added to be prescribed different roles by the community, these shapes would be low resource intensive for the devs to add.
interface: next to the create squad icon it already shows the commander icon. Make that clickable to select the shape/color combo you wish to use.

This really stinks. Turns out i apparently purchased my gems this weekend a couple hours too early and now will miss out on the 2 gift items because of it. Please anet expand the gems purchased window to include this last weekend in its entirety.

I don’t think i will be able to afford grabbing a second 4000 gems until the new year and is disappointing to miss out literally by a couple hours because the email game today and we didn’t have prior notice.

Either that or like previous gifts don’t tell us at all until the gifts go out.

Thanks! Love the game.

Just the comments you said about the wvw team being busier than you had realized. A scheduled rotation for dedicated interacting might make it easier for them.

Even if you go one week schedule having designated high focus days would help all involved but especially on your coworkers side allowing them to work the time into their work loads

Chris Whiteside.6102:

StriderShinryu.6923:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

What do you all think of this proposal:

That we only have one thread per area open at one time, for example, the next PVE one then PvP and then WvW?

I have been thinking about this for a few days and believe the major issue would be the overall velocity of the CDI, and the main Pro being that we will have more time to enter into discussions due to only having to focus on one at a time.

Thoughts?

Chris

Personally, I’m not a fan.

I can understand that it would allow the higher ups who have their hands in a number of areas to participate in each as they became active. I think one issue that the CDI faces right now, however, is momentum. The current threads have already been something of a wasteland for meaningful interaction. Perhaps I’m not the normal player, but I play PvE nearly exclusively (I’ve popped into WvW a few times and haven’t touched PvP at all). I’d imagine many players are in the same boat as me, except maybe they focus on WvW or PvP instead. By alternating areas of focus you’re basically going to be leaving the players not interested in that area of the game in the lurch for two weeks at a time.

There’s already a problem with a lack of interaction, and not really addressing entire subsets of players at all for certain periods is just going to make that worse.

Yep this is definitely the major con in the proposal.

Chris

Perhaps a compromise. Establish a schedule ahead of time. Maybe state ahead of time the focus will move in a 3 day rotation. Not to say the devs wouldn’t continue to read all the threads but the community can expect more interaction within the thread on these days, much like you are doing now.

The result would be a micro cycle within the thread of the devs coming in and commenting and asking question new questions expanding the current discussion and then the community has the next 2 days to discuss amongst themselves before the devs come back to talk about where the discussion has gone into the last couple days. This staggering would give all involved time to interact across as many threads as they like. Plus those interested in only taking part in one or two sections wouldn’t have to wait weeks.

JMar.3254:

Lilith Ajit.6173:

JMar.3254:

I think they need to just respond to the things they are ‘watching’.

Look at the 814 posts & 11K views. Two responses that are irrelevant to the conversation. Not to mention the heated debates that are fracturing the community.

This. Why no response? Even if it is a response that makes everything I say invalid, at least then I can stop wasting my time.

Awwwwww yeeeeahhhhh

Spoiler alert: we’re wasting our time =)

My new goal is just get the community to understand why resetting progression is a horrible idea.

It doesn’t matter if it affects you this time, because chances are it will next time.

Every single person arguing for the change is under lvl 30 fotm.

First please don’t hijack threads. Second don’t speak for me, I am for the change and fractal 41. Simply put 30 on is no longer the same content as it was before, how is it right to give you credit for something you haven’t done especially when it’s ranked. Are you scared you can’t easily return to level you were before? Are you not going to run it anyway for the new rewards? Take a breathe is just a game and if it’s stressing you out this much may I recommend taking some time off to destress and actually enjoy yourself. This is supposed to be fun if you are no longer having fun reevaluate how you are spending you time.

Back to the topic as it stands derailed by complaints that the devs don’t listen. Again don’t speak for me. Quit saying the devs don’t listen to us. You seem to be more mad they don’t listen to you. There are plenty of suggestions the devs have adopted, in fact I see one of mine in the edge of the mists and another in the new obsidian jp. Am I the only one to suggest those probably not. But I do know for every idea the are people for and against you can’t please everyone.

As for those saying the devs only change stuff that comes out down the line in the future. We yeah, they do have to discuss design and implement things and that takes time. Just slapping on changes because you want it now is highly irresponsible and would wreck the game quickly. If you are expecting over night changes you need to rethink that expectation.

Hate to break it to some of you but this is anets world, they just let us play in it. We are all welcome to suggest changes to how the game plays. Ultimately it is still their game and they will govern it as they see fit. Sorry if in the end that doesn’t fit your vision of what you want for the game but it frankly just isn’t your game to run.

Anyway back to the real topic could we please get back to constructive ideas on how to progress with CDI. Offer changes you think could make it better. Don’t just whinethat they don’t listen. I’d you didn’t learn when you were a kid that temper tsntrums don’t get you anywhere it may be time to learn. Please just work the problem don’t be the problem

I found focusing on raising luck past 50 a waste. And by focus I mean salvaging everything I got short of exotics. Once I got to 50 I just went back to my normal way of playing the game. A mix of sell and slave depending on space needed and nearness of a vendor. My luck still rises at a decent rate but I see no need to delay raise it and buy things to just farm essence. Just play the game the luck will come. After all 300 is a life time type goal. Once you get it any essence you get while playing normally is wasted for you

Master Yi.6129:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Please do not assume that because a particular comment or post was not replied to that it was ignored. This is simply not true.

There is no bias toward any type of criticism/discussion as long as it is productive.

As i mentioned we need to have more focused topics and more time to be able to fully enter into the discussion. This is something we are actively working on.

Please do not try to derail a thread about how we can improve by building arguments around assumptions.

Finally this initiative is extremely important and should be treated with respect with the focus on evolving a great game. And the first round of CDI around Living World was extremely useful in this regard. Let’s make it better as we move forward.

Chris

I call bs on that. You can’t prove that you read all suggestions by saying “we saw it, no need for comment.” You need to MARK suggestions you are actually reading. No more “we see everything” crap. We want HARD evidence.

How would you suggest this be done? Short of quoting every post and replying read I don’t really see how this would be possible and all that would accomplish is double the length of the thread.

Oh and you may find better response by asking nicely vs demanding and demeaning. I know you may feel strongly about something but kind words and pleases or would you kindly put the reader in a far more receptive mood. Aggressive wording trends to put people on the defensive, and someone on the defensive is inferiority more against you and harder to get to seeing around to your way of thinking and grant your request/desire/point. Thanks!

Those finishers for season 1 are coming add a banner across the dolyaks back with the ability to show the guild symbol on it if repping

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Zaxares.5419:

Not really CDI-related, but it would be great to be able to view only ANet responses in a particular thread. This enables us to quickly look up dev responses and summaries, which I think is an excellent way of keeping us informed of feedback and discussion.

Once you find the first Dev post (or any Dev post in a thread) you can jump to the next (or previous) Dev post only. So, they do have this already, sort of. The problem happens when it isn’t the first post of the thread, or on the first page, at least. I wish there was a way to jump to the first Dev post in any thread. If there is such a function, already, I haven’t discovered it.

To be clearer this is the arrows above and below the dev name

1 the thread becomes a whirlwind of discussion. Dev posts fuel it, while comments and general questions are good to keep the thread on course. But when a topic comes up p the devs would like to dive into further they should be allowed to start a CDI sub thread for that specific topic. The sub threads could have a dedicated 48 hour life and then closed. This way major discussions don’t get lost in the posts of those just posting in response to the original post and not the current discussion.

2 when moving to the next call for topics make it a blitz. Have it open for a weekend 72 hours. Tell us the 2nd place topic from the previous topic call. Make it a single topic request you either vote for the previous runnerup or submit a new choice. This would lead to fast set up for the next round of cdi

3 reserve a post or two after the initial. Edit and update with links to posts within the thread that you feel should drive the discussion (short summary would be nice) this idea if you feel my first idea would get out of hand to easily with to many places for you all to keep up on.

I personally would go for something subtle as to not to be so noticeable it draws the whole map to you like swords.

Go with the pillar of light dims(width maybe? Wider when fully caped needle thin when about to decap) this way you can tell a little more about the status but would require looking at the game and not the map. It would also serve as a clue to if that node is about to decap or is strongly held.

With the supply camps the point is to add a layer of upgrades to allow a (currently fully)upgraded camp to be an tougher target to take with proper investment. The barricade upgrade just allows the walls to be built. It doesn’t automatically build them. Say there are 10 sections of the wall at each camp and each section takes 15 supply to put up. That means you need to sink 150 more supply to get them all in place on top of the cost of laying the ground work so they can be built. And the net result will be mostly a delay tactic to buy time for the defense to respond and ward against a casual flip team of 3 or so ganging up on a lone scout.

As for the blood lust being farmable I still don’t see how. A couple wxp every 30 sec only when you’re in possession of that borderlands buff doesn’t sound too farmable, especially since that would be an added reason for the other side to take the lust buff. And if you do have people just hanging out in the lust circle then you should have an easier time taking their stuff. At say 2 wxp every 30 sec in 30 min you gain 120 wxp. That’s slightly more than taking a tower but in 30 min you could gain more potentially with the zerg.

However that is a nice reward for holding and defending the node. That plus an wxp for kills makes it worthwhile for a group of 2 or 3 to guard the node for their server without having to be a sacrifice if no enemies come.

Gold Recluse.9128:

I just got up from a dream (is this unusual, dreaming in-character in the game environment???).
I was in a cave, probably Dostoev Sky Peak. I had some items in my inventory that I activated. When three or four had been added together it started an event that everyone nearby joined in. One was like a world war scenario with spies and inventions and combat. In another several buddies were trying to help Marie Curie in her laboratory and I was blocking enemies while riding a Triceratops. Don’t ask, it was a dream, I told you!

To put that into the real GW2 (probably Living World, maybe something that could run for a few months) players would collect special items (your choice as to how and where) and eventually, when they have a matched set, they could combine them to start a special random event designed for this content. Players might chose to use it as a Guild event, or in WvW it might be used to put up a random challenge against Invaders.

This could bring back features from GW1 like the fauna and events in Nightfall, Tarnished Coast or “Beyond” or to bring back previous Living World features in unexpected ways.

The one about finding several objects to kick off an event is already in game. South Side of the volcano you need 5 objects and to toss them in a certain spot.

I do think additional things to do while scouting could be a way to help spread rewards that direction.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Making-Def-in-wvw-more-worthwhile/first#post3103854

I posted several ideas to make defense more rewarding and worthwhile enough to encourage people to take to the walls to patrol and defend. From stuff like expanding camp upgrades to allow for barricades to be built for a little more def to things like a barracks door in keeps and towers so a lone scout can buy reinforcements to come and push off attackers buying time for players to come to your defense.

Charismatic Harm.9683:

Teraphas.6210:

I am curious why they are even in game. Generally around the time you get one to drop you have or can make 8 slot bags. I could see if the first crafted bags were 4 slots but when the stuff you can make right away is bigger why are the 5 slots even a thing?

Really? Do you not remember running through Queensdale on your first character? Do you not remember having ZERO money on your account? Do you not remember having only one 20 slot backpack and nothing else?

These 5 slot bags aren’t placed in the game as a hindrance to you and your Queensdale champion farming zerg. They’re placed in the game, in a low-level zone, to reward NEW players with something beneficial to them.

Not everything is about the zerg. Think about it.

I was in ashford and I had 8 slot bags long before I encountered a 5 slot bag which actually dropped in the 15+ zone. It doesn’t take long to get 20 copper ore and 80c to buy tin. My argument has nothing to do with zerg or farming, it is that the 5 slot bag is easily obsolete before you even get near where they drop. Same in story.

I am just saying the placement in the loot tables and the fact that unless you are ignoring creating that you have better well before. I seem to remember a recipe you can get for a small bag that is also ackwardly placed. A 8 or 9 slot bag makes far more sense for where in the game they drop

I am curious why they are even in game. Generally around the time you get one to drop you have or can make 8 slot bags. I could see if the first crafted bags were 4 slots but when the stuff you can make right away is bigger why are the 5 slots even a thing?

I don’t think it’s hijacking since I suggested similar early in the thread

People in various games have been known to pull the plug on their internet cable to take advantage of such systems and avoid ingame disadvantages.

Stuck in combat and your location is about to fall and be overrun? Pull the cable and get dumped out to deny spikes then just log back in and hop back to spawn? Yeah it would happen to deny spikes.

Besides any systems like this will take longer than getting edge of the mists Live.

I would think fire elemental the prefect example. When there is 1 minute left before the golem breaks releasing it, that is when you see people come flooding in.

Maybe not no loot for people that just arrive for the final part but improved rewards for the pre events that are part of the chain leading to their arrival. This you get more than just some karma coin and xp. All of which the people who came in last minute were all gaining at about the same rate you were for advancing the boss chain.

Best I could think of is have the previous parts of boss chains award buffs to xp, karma, coin, and magic find (or a mf that only affects the boss chests) thus making it more rewarding for your time to do as much of that chain as possible and not just the last part. They could even be made strong and last moderate length but lost when you zone out. That would prevent buff hunters from farming the pre events just to stack the buffs, but would reward players that continued to play in that zone

Having an guild item you can buy with influence would be best. Activate it and for 24 hours events completed yield an extra 5% gold which goes Strait to the Guild bank. Possibly even have the item cost a couple of merits.

This way the guild must work together to get it but individual members are not out anything. But as leaders you would need to decide when is your guilds most active time to get the most out of it

I enjoy the concept of underwater combat in gw2, and I think it is by far the best underwater combat I have ever seen. However it still falls short of being truly enjoyable and something to seek out in part to its disconnect to the rest of your build. You may spec a certain way but if you can’t use the skills that correspond to your build you are left with and underwhelming experience.

To this end I propose a future living story that introduces a new map that is 80% or more underwater, hopefully built with lots of vertically like the zephyr sanctum zone. Especially with a rumored deep sea dragon this seems a highly likely event. However it should coincide with a major rework of underwater combat.

To me the basics of underwater combat are fine, what is needed is the support stuctures to allow diverse builds. That means traits, utility skills, elite skills and potentially even healing skills. Possibly even a few more underwater weapons so everyone isn’t using the same ones.

The trait system should be split to an underwater and on land version. Each would have the 5 trait lines but each would be geared exclusively to terrestial or aquatic. Seeing as some skills overlap there could be some traits repeated in both. Seeing as trairs use a hexagon to denote how many points you have available to spend perhaps use a circle (bubble) to denote aquatic trait points. This would greatly help the feeling of losing our power when we enter the water.

Skills. We have skills that can not be used underwater. That’s all well and good but pleaseadd some aquatic sskills to increase our options underwater. Losing nearly half your potential skills underwater is disheartening. Losing the ones that make your build work even worse.

By adding a series of traitlines and skills exclusively for aquatic use would help flesh the system out and do exactly what the concept is now. To make it feel like a unique part of the game. It is hard when playing a class and have your traits actively work against you underwater. IE guardian concecrations and ground targeting. Instead let us spec for the uniqueness of the water. I may want to be a wellmancer on land and a conditionmancer underwater, and that should be a possibility that is as easy as diving under the waves.

To me the biggest thing about LW is that we don’t have much time to become invested in a character before they fade off to some mission and we don’t see them until their next time in the spot light of a patch.

It would help immersion and for us to come to love these characters if we were able to follow them thru tyria. Each patch even if not part of the current patch story all the main friendly LW characters should be updated with new text as to what they have been up to, potentially even foreshadowing and causing a stir with cryptic comments about needing to investigate x near location y.

This hunting as a community to find where they have moved to and what they have been up to help. It doesn’t have to be as central like rox attending the jubilee but it would be nice to find rox out in the field and she tells you she can’t talk now rytlock has her checking out a rumor and she will let you know later how it pans out.

These additional potential inactions would help flesh out the living world and is characters without it feeling like they only matter occasionally

Not to get to far off topic here. Conncept a) you shouldn’t assume what others are thinking or their reasons for not participating in wvw. In m my experience there are lots of new people in wvw all the time, my guild gets them all the time. Often they are brought to wvw by a friend because they had no interest in pvp and thought wvw was like spvp or things like arathi basin. Also if you are not seeing new players it is more likely because you don’t follow the commander. New players tend to head for the commander so they can learn the ropes.
B) as stated you have just been following mediocre commanders from the sounds of it. Now it is also possible your temperament is not suited to mass combat, that’s okay. But you really should not use this as justification for it having no place in the game. Now I would like to see the game do more to promote multiple zergs over a single map zerg, but that’s me. As to it being boring you should try following a GoF commander on Blackgate when we take on zergs larger than our own and out maneuver and just out play them. Now that’s fun.

Now back on topic based on the faq and other info previously available there will be moblairs. These are intended to be ppotentially solo or small group objectives. So is the ganking of the people attempting to take on the lairs. There is also seige worthy objectuves so expect zerg and non zerg content. Plus if those destructable bridges are actuslly in you should be able to potentially screw over an enemy zerg by blowing the bridge.

Not to be rude but please read the faq first. Majority of these questions have been answered there for some time now.

Yes you can pick to go directly to the Edge from the drop down.

The Edge will create overflow as necessary.

The map does not influence war score nor is it affected by bloodlust. You can however gain wxp. This would be the number one reason to enter this map after queuing for a BL or EBG over just sitting in la.

Yes the map contains pve elements. However they are in sections vs spread out all over like the currant wvw. By the descriptions you can think of them like creep camps in a moba, little mob camps.

Has our friend, the mysterious kid who is training cats to fight ogres, found his way from the borderlands to the edge of the mists?

Merlin Dyfed Avalon.5046:

Loot: Doesn’t promote respawing and if it does. you have to stand still in spawn or backtrack every time for your loot.
)

Oh all the fallacies in your post this is a big one. Try hitting auto loot as you run back each time you have xp show on your screen. You can easily grab bags while running back without doubling back.

But yes everything about wvw promotes respawning if you are not fighting you are not taking a position. Rallying is one thing but most wvw players would rather get you back on your feet by killing your foes rather than stop and res you. Stoping to res means you now have 2+ people not in the fight. Waiting to be rezed is selfish. Releasing and running back is far more of a benefit and you risk losing more bags

I saw there was some Dev curiosities on how working a team up in game could go for 2 sides that are flagging behind a dominate 3rd, as while it was expected to happen in practice a good chunk of players just attack any enemy force even if your zerg shows up to help them push and uproot an entrenched enemy that neither has taken out alone

My simplest solution is create a small altar of sorts in an out of the way edge of the map in between each servers starting position. Only commanders could activate it and once activated would need saw 9 others on your server to channel into it. This would show an event to the server whose starting zone it borders. For example I am blue on green borderland. I go to this altar below south camp, red would see the event once we activated the altar. This event could be called "The Enemy of My Enemy… " and would allow a commander on the other server again with 9 others to confirm it to complete theevent. Completing this even would cause your servers to call a truce ffor a short period of time. I was thinking 30 minutes to 1 hour. During this time the two servers see each other as neutral, potentially with both sides being able to see the commander tags of the two that made the truce.

This would allow the servers to coordinate and communicate to their members that they are aligned but still allow each other to damage each other. Ideally the allied server should remain neutral(and yellow) for the duration of the event even if you start fighting them. This means at a glance you can determine who is who in a fight with all 3 sides and try to avoid taking out your allies. But this also means that one an objective is taken and both sides try to cap it they can fight it out if one is unwilling to step aside and let the other have it.

I would have to say we use the term server population but we really should be considering what % of each servers poplulation meets certain criteria first. Anet doesn’t have to share these numbers merely reference them internally when making adjustmentson the eenticements and balances of wvw. I would say break it down A) the players that play 4+ days a week in wvw regardless of score the players that play when the server is ahead. Once we see the population densities of regular wvw players as well as how much that increases during a winning week we can tiredly set about enacting plans to try to bring a balance about.

And to me part of that balance is not keeping the t1 servers cooped up and essentially only fighting amongst themselves. Especially on the old system the t1 servers got so high up in ranking score that once the random matches started any week you didn’t fight at least one other t1 server you hemorrhaged ranking points even when winning by a large margin because it wasn’t huge enough. However if it had gone on longer we would have likely seen eventually weeks where all 3 t1 didnt fight each other. This may sound of but I see that as the optimum solution. Especially the regular wvw players they seek a challenge and winning by blowout doesnt offer much. You would see guilds move to other servers seeking battles against the t1s. Hopefully spreading the concentration of regular wvw from just the cuurent kitten potentially the top 9 servers.

Especially if this wascoupled with a personal buff. The buff would be for the servers that are not currently in the lead. And would accrue through out the week as you played in wvw and your server was not in the lead. Think of it as the /age command but would track time played in wvw that week while not Iin the lead. There would be certain milestones that would determine which buffs applied to you or how many. These would apply even if your server takes the lead. You would just quit accruing more once you were in the lead. These buffs could increase gains like wxp coins karma etc. Maybe even some small stat buffs like dmg to guards or temporary ranks in a wvw skill at significant milestones. This would serve as a motivator to still put in the time and fight for your server by turning more of those fair weather wvw players into regular wvw players and help even out population density.

I worry that seige for wxp even with limits on how often you can receive it would lead to servers just building as much seige as the game will let them and then running to that area every 30 min to farm wxp off all of them. The game then devolves into zergs of seige tenders touching each. Can you imagine how long it would take for 50 people to all refresh even just 30 seige if everyone touched then all?

Maybe a mini event that can pop on seige that grants wxp for completing. Maybe the event lets you repair a little damage to that particular seige.

Or very least offer us a second tab of high volume items. I’m looking at you sun beads. Need 250 for each weapon and they are sold one at a time

Well until you see the season in wvw end I doubt you will see anything in the way of major class changes or additions to wvw. This is a simple balance issue to prevent people from saying change x cost us the season because it changed halfway thru.

So settle in living story will be front and center for 5 more weeks. We may get some quality of life ui changes like the tooltips for traits but don’t expect drastic swings in balance