Guild Wars 2

Destai.9603:

We should not be seeing posts from Colin and whoever else saying they’re figuring things out – your game isn’t in beta. I’m sure both investors and players alike would love to see some standards conventions – like an expansion.

They may not have the game in beta, but they didn’t make an MMO before with Guild Wars 1. It was a different game, most akin to a bunch of players funneled into lobbies for short jaunts of adventure at their own pace. Loot wasn’t too important, the difficulty wasn’t too hard for most players, and it was full of buildcrafting I hadn’t seen then since MTG.

Guild Wars 2 . . . is a far more traditionally worked MMO. Class customization was trimmed back in favor of streamlining how they worked, loot is either very important or unimportant depending on who you ask, and “short jaunts of adventure” exist but have the potential to turn “five guys and a ranger” into “five guys, a ranger, and the whole server.”

I didn’t mention the story in either case because, frankly, GW1’s story was nowhere near as groundbreaking or awesome as people want to hold it up to. The only difference was characters people latched onto and enjoyed seeing, and there was less eye rolling at them – note the recurrence of certain henchmen characters who have their own personal storylines going on throughout every outpost you can talk to them in. Now note how many of them were cliches.

The writing hasn’t gotten worse, it’s just not gotten better and it’s been exposed to more people.

killcannon.2576:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

killcannon.2576:

Vayne.8563:

morrolan.9608:

Darkstar.6178:

To my mind, this says only that they wanted to make it complex and keep people guessing. Well, they kinda did that…I saw a lot of people stating “I wonder what Scarlet is doing with these things this time.” Just because we know who is behind it doesn’t mean we know how things are going to work out, or really even WHY she is doing it.

The only guessing game people are indulging in now is guessing when Scarlet will finally be gone.

Clearly you don’t read lore forums or reddit. On reddit, people are speculating constantly. There are many threads about what’s coming and have been for a while now.

Reddit…..lol. It’s like the mirror universe of 4chan.

. . . which one has the goatee?

I think they share one and just switch days.

As someone who follows Reddit for a couple things in particular? Yes, this wouldn’t surprise me at all.

On topic again.

If they can make the LS Chapter interval longer and make them more rounded so they’re not “whack-a-chievement” type things then I’ll give it a C- . . . if they can actually work up something permanent people actually feel like doing after a month or two, they’ll get B+.

They won’t get an A until I either get to kill mursaat, crown a new human king/queen, stand in Sifhalla again, or get those asura siege engineer assistants.

killcannon.2576:

Vayne.8563:

morrolan.9608:

Darkstar.6178:

To my mind, this says only that they wanted to make it complex and keep people guessing. Well, they kinda did that…I saw a lot of people stating “I wonder what Scarlet is doing with these things this time.” Just because we know who is behind it doesn’t mean we know how things are going to work out, or really even WHY she is doing it.

The only guessing game people are indulging in now is guessing when Scarlet will finally be gone.

Clearly you don’t read lore forums or reddit. On reddit, people are speculating constantly. There are many threads about what’s coming and have been for a while now.

Reddit…..lol. It’s like the mirror universe of 4chan.

. . . which one has the goatee?

Bathos.6341:

I think the Junundu wyrms of the Desolation are the real Sand worms of Tyria, you could even ride them. That said I do still sometimes shout “SHAI HULUD!” when the Jungle Wyrm spawns!

. . . and on an off note, I really want to see if we can get an eborsik dragon style champion.

ASB.4295:

Kevan.8912:

why am i so scared of “growth” and “tradition” in the same phrase?
oxymoron…

Well, tradition in this sense doesn’t refer to the prequel but rather to traditional MMO concepts. Moving goalpost stat grind, to be precise.

Or to include more . . .

Expansions indicate there is more content with a certain scope in mind. Gone are the days when Meridian 59’s “Vale of Sorrow” (one region, one node, nothing else) or Baldur’s Gate Tales from the Sword Coast were a viable option to sell. It’s more akin to how Ultima Online or Everquest continuously added big bundles of open area . . . and if it didn’t, people were lackluster about them. So if they say “expansion” and we’re not given something on par with Cantha or Elona but instead overhauls and additions which sum up to roughly the same amount of data size? People will riot.

Then there’s the concept of Expansions for MMOs including increases to level caps or other mechanics, somewhat regularly. Considering this is a nervous fear held by a lot of the people playing GW2 (increasing the level cap, new gear tier) . . . “Expansion” is by nature going to include assumptions it’s coming instead of nebulously “not being ruled out”.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Right now, she is perceived to be insane and delusional, and that’s a really bad character building if she turns out to be the one trying to save Tyria — only misunderstood because of her radical ways.

Why do I think her version of “saving Tyria” has more in common with Maester Seymour’s method of “saving Spira”?

That’s a typical cliche twist in many stories — bad buy turned savior.

You don’t get the reference.

That’s okay, nobody really played Final Fantasy 10 either

Donari.5237:

Nor is there any promise there not to throw an Asura and a Dwarf.

Yes, but I don’t have any dwarves. Nobody ever did find Kilroy Stonekin though . . .

. . . hmmm.

As to that interview, I am feeling a frisson of my original excitement for this game. Don’t get me wrong, I love it dearly and play it nearly daily and any other game will have to work very hard at being so perfect for my playstyle, but that breathless anticipation I had when the beta weekends were coming, when launch was just around the corner, when the Mad King flung his pumpkins over the land … that’s been missing.

Now it just might be rekindling.

It comes and goes with me. I have a relatively busy life these days with various other things and when it gets busy gaming is usually the first thing to get dropped with the exception of Minecraft. But only because it helps me get to sleep.

What got me more interested was participating in the CDI Horizontal Progression thread. Because there’s a lot of players out there who have strong ideas, useful insight, and were laying them out there.

Kuro Zetsumei.1397:

the thumpers no doubt stirred up that worm.

Captain Kiel, we have wormsign!

Paulytnz.7619:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Paulytnz.7619:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Vayne.8563:

Sunshine.4680:

Penguin.5197:

Paulytnz.7619:

Sounds like it could possibly be dragon related then! O.O

Nah everybody hopes its a dragon. I’m rooting for her in becoming our ally and joining that new group forming up that has Rox and Braham in it. They still need a sylvari

I hope not, enemies becoming allies is so played out. I also wonder if every group HAS to have one of every race in it, seems silly.

It is silly. However there are some people who only play one race and are vested in that race. So to not include a race is to exclude that player. It has more to do with inclusivity than anything else.

There are people in this game who play and like nothing but Asura or nothing but Norn. Shrugs.

I need the names of those who play only asura, for a . . . yes, a science project. I’m testing this improvement on the Superior Trebuchet and need . . . assistants.

Never throw a dwarf…umm errr I mean an asura!

You have my solemn promise I will not throw an asura or a dwarf.

While you promise this I do note you not once, ever say that the Treb wont do the throwing. :P

Karizee.8076:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Vayne.8563:

Sunshine.4680:

Penguin.5197:

Paulytnz.7619:

Sounds like it could possibly be dragon related then! O.O

Nah everybody hopes its a dragon. I’m rooting for her in becoming our ally and joining that new group forming up that has Rox and Braham in it. They still need a sylvari

I hope not, enemies becoming allies is so played out. I also wonder if every group HAS to have one of every race in it, seems silly.

It is silly. However there are some people who only play one race and are vested in that race. So to not include a race is to exclude that player. It has more to do with inclusivity than anything else.

There are people in this game who play and like nothing but Asura or nothing but Norn. Shrugs.

I need the names of those who play only asura, for a . . . yes, a science project. I’m testing this improvement on the Superior Trebuchet and need . . . assistants.

Do not attempt to deceive – you need ammunition!

I do, I do, and they will help me develop that ammunition so it will do the most maximum damage.

Here, would you kindly hold this and stand two feet to the left to be out of the way?

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Right now, she is perceived to be insane and delusional, and that’s a really bad character building if she turns out to be the one trying to save Tyria — only misunderstood because of her radical ways.

Why do I think her version of “saving Tyria” has more in common with Maester Seymour’s method of “saving Spira”?

Paulytnz.7619:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Vayne.8563:

Sunshine.4680:

Penguin.5197:

Paulytnz.7619:

Sounds like it could possibly be dragon related then! O.O

Nah everybody hopes its a dragon. I’m rooting for her in becoming our ally and joining that new group forming up that has Rox and Braham in it. They still need a sylvari

I hope not, enemies becoming allies is so played out. I also wonder if every group HAS to have one of every race in it, seems silly.

It is silly. However there are some people who only play one race and are vested in that race. So to not include a race is to exclude that player. It has more to do with inclusivity than anything else.

There are people in this game who play and like nothing but Asura or nothing but Norn. Shrugs.

I need the names of those who play only asura, for a . . . yes, a science project. I’m testing this improvement on the Superior Trebuchet and need . . . assistants.

Never throw a dwarf…umm errr I mean an asura!

You have my solemn promise I will not throw an asura or a dwarf.

Vayne.8563:

Sunshine.4680:

Penguin.5197:

Paulytnz.7619:

Sounds like it could possibly be dragon related then! O.O

Nah everybody hopes its a dragon. I’m rooting for her in becoming our ally and joining that new group forming up that has Rox and Braham in it. They still need a sylvari

I hope not, enemies becoming allies is so played out. I also wonder if every group HAS to have one of every race in it, seems silly.

It is silly. However there are some people who only play one race and are vested in that race. So to not include a race is to exclude that player. It has more to do with inclusivity than anything else.

There are people in this game who play and like nothing but Asura or nothing but Norn. Shrugs.

I need the names of those who play only asura, for a . . . yes, a science project. I’m testing this improvement on the Superior Trebuchet and need . . . assistants.

TwoBit.5903:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

TwoBit.5903:

I think the quote was directly referencing the writing of the LS, which in my experience, isn’t anything like the old Guild Wars lore and feels more like a cheesy Saturday morning cartoon in terms of quality. That said the comparison felt like ANet are blatantly coat-tailing the popularity Martin’s work, that is unless they’re referencing the writing of the awful Game of Thrones GAMES :P

I think the quote would have been “I guessed who shot JR” if it was fifteen to twenty years ago. Or “I figured out what the Island was” five to ten years ago.

They’re using the presence of a pop culture, hot topic people can actually relate to outside of small reference pools so they can let it be known “there’s a twist people guessed at already, and others saying it’s just crazy”.

It’s not at all representative of what’s in game though, and by using the comparison they’re setting potential players up for disappointment.

Well I suppose they could have aimed lower and say it would have been as surprising as the fate of Deckard Cain. Or aim even lower and say it was like Bella becoming a vampire.

But the risk of every advertisement or attempt to make your product look in any way decent is going to potentially set people up for disappointment.

TwoBit.5903:

I think the quote was directly referencing the writing of the LS, which in my experience, isn’t anything like the old Guild Wars lore and feels more like a cheesy Saturday morning cartoon in terms of quality. That said the comparison felt like ANet are blatantly coat-tailing the popularity Martin’s work, that is unless they’re referencing the writing of the awful Game of Thrones GAMES :P

I think the quote would have been “I guessed who shot JR” if it was fifteen to twenty years ago. Or “I figured out what the Island was” five to ten years ago.

They’re using the presence of a pop culture, hot topic people can actually relate to outside of small reference pools so they can let it be known “there’s a twist people guessed at already, and others saying it’s just crazy”.

Sirendor.1394:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

People complained about getting too much content, so Anet slowed things down.

Actually no. People complained that Anet sent in “patch” after “patch” (hardly called a patch), with filler content that didn’t really seem to lead anywhere and that brought little to no reward in exchange for grind. What people want is a bigger gap between content releases, but content that actually is good and will keep us busy, not for 1-3 days, but weeks if not months. If they released an expansion with 1-2 new classes, + several maps, new mechanics to explore, I’d be busy with that a long while.

Honestly, if their “Season 2” of Living Story addresses that “not much permanent left behind” bit I would hope that would be good.

Darkstar.6178:

We find out Scarlet is Trahearne .
“Laces OUT!!!”

No, Scarlet kills Traherne in an attack on Fort Trinity, we defeat Scarlet once and for all with Rox, Braham, and Canach helping out. With her last act, she grabs Braham and whispers in his ear, he turns around and says slowly.

“What the heck is rosebud supposed to mean?”

vectorfox.6894:

I guess you could say to save time since she already knows exactly how they work but she seems to have so much time on her hands. Or that she finds it fun to see people getting crushed by their own creation.

The second. She seems to have a . . . delight . . . in twisting what others create to serve a need she has.

StriderShinryu.6923:

, Scarlet fanboy factions?

Scarlet fans vs Traherne fans vs Marjory fans.

Meglobob.8620:

I can’t believe that they compared living story with Game of Thrones…lol…

Game of Thrones utterly awesome 9.99/10 better than Lord of the Rings, Tolkien.

No. No it is not.

Both are made by authors who spent a considerable amount of time crafting their worlds and nailing down details nobody will ever probably know so they can work in a full world. With its own myths, legends, secrets, rules . . .

The only difference is George R.R. Martin went with a more historical interpretation and something less idealized and instead darker and less happy. Tolkein went with forming it as a mythological construct, not unlike how people view Ancient Greece through the myths which are told about it.

I don’t find one better than the other just because one has hobbits and the other has Arya Stark. One had Tom Bombadil and the other had a few really bad weddings/marriages.

I’d say Guild Wars as a whole has felt a lot more like something closer to The Forgotten Realms novel lines from TSR. Really good writing, some really cliched writing (not, mind you, mutually exclusive) and awareness it’s all in a game universe.

Shadey Dancer.2907:

Ranger pets. I really loved how in GW1, you were involved in the evolution of the pet. It felt like, ‘see this pet—-this pet is mine—-I made it this way’. Now it feels like just getting some fast food to go, pity really.

Mind you, GW1 seemed to have a whole lot of people who just went Dire. And the Menagerie sort of made the pet’s evolution nothing you needed to worry about – they would provide you with a spread of options of pets at various “evolutions” and levels. Including Level 20 Dire/Hearty/Elder.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Paulytnz.7619:

Sounds like it could possibly be dragon related then! O.O

Sounds like it is almost certainly NOT dragon related. Pretty much every single post is begging for a dragon to keep people interested and to make the game worth playing.

You know what one in every 20,000-30,000 people is saying….

That scarlet will return next season…

Note, this can be skewed by one in every 20,000 being everyone posting on the forums, or just one in 20k being the only people posting in the lore sections or theorycrafting in seriousness.

I’m going to refuse to try to guess until we get closer, because there’s just not enough for me to go on yet.

@Chris -

I know I saw it mentioned in passing but those ore nodes which could get added to Home Instances? I feel sort of odd seeing them available after saying they could be added to a housing segment . . . and now there’s a teaser of sorts.

It could have been more interesting to quest/scavenge/earn them . . . and assorted other nodes, like we have been doing in the Living Story so far. (Love my Candy Corn node, even if it sticks out like a sore thumb in Hoelbrak.)

Nike.2631:

I’ve always had this vision of an Asura on a Moa… and the player having little to no control over which way the Moa runs…

And the cheers and cries over chocobo racing become louder . . .

Sariel V.7024:

Yargesh.4965:

This got me thinking. There are now 4 ‘companions’. Braham is guard, Marjory is theif, Kashmeer is mesmer and Rox is ranger. This leaves one spot open to finish off a fabulous five, which would be your character. Could be a set-up for a new destinies edge with you in the staring role.

Marjory’s a necro. She just acts sneaky (that whole noir detective thing).
They still need an Asura and a Sylvari to complete the multicultural theme… oh look, Traherne isn’t busy any more ;D Or maybe that Consortium sylvari that decided to take Southsun matters into his own hands last time out…

Official word says an asura is joining this crew of NPCs in the next update.

Asura thief?

Also Canach is more likely than Traherne.

Ameepa.6793:

Hi. Has anyone seen John Connor or his mother Sarah? I am trying to find them. It is a matter of life and death. My future depends on finding them.

Go home River, you’re dreaming again.

Rebound.3409:

Are u sure? From what we’ve been told/shown so far Scarlet is the source of the economic crisis and Cocoa slavery in Africa.

There was also strong evidence reported on CNN that Scarlet killed the dog in Family Guy.

What dog?

Also the economic crisis is due to Ascended. Get with the times . . .

Mada.5319:

If Evon won, we would have gotten the Fall of Abaddon fractal. How would Anet have delivered this:

In the Thaumanova reactor fractal, we discovered that Scarlet and her Inquest cohorts discovered a form of ley lines, magical energy crisscrossing the world that seemed tied to the research being done in the reactor. But what do these ley lines mean?

Would they have retconned the known events of the Fall of Abaddon and modified it to include Scarlet and asuras? (* cringe *)
How else would we have gotten this information?

Or am I right to assume that the election result was obviously predetermined by Anet and the whole thing was just a ruse to make us believe that they cared about what the players wanted?

You can assume whatever you want. But if it was Fall of Abaddon then we likely would have seen something different relating to the story where Scarlet wasn’t involved.

Honestly, if the responses in this thread are any indication?

Yes, people are having fun

Obsidian.1328:

Nicholas

Hey I feel for ya man lol. But it ain’t gonna happen. You have to understand that GW2 is trying to distinguish itself from GW1, and not necessarily be a continuation of. Promoting the other races is just one way to do that, it makes sense from a marketing point of view. You can keep pluggin’ away on these forums about it, The Six know I have lol, but I really don’t see how what you’re talking about is possible for ANet. They made their decision on Ascalon for GW2 like 7 years ago.

If you worked at ANet, how do you think it would go over at the Monday morning staff meeting if you stood up and said, “You know…I know we’ve put in like a million man-hours on this Ascalon-Charr thing, but I think we should scrap it. Or at least have them relocate up north so the humans can start repopulating it. It’s only fair, right? What do you say guys, who’s with me?!?”

crickets

moar crickets

someone hands you a cardboard box

Actually I could see these days they hand the guy a notepad and pencil and say: “Go write us five thousand words on how you can make it work and not screw this up.”

Nike.2631:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Flissy.4093:

Lenor.8197:

Bad people wearing PVT will still die.

No they won’t

Sorry, what exactly did I just witness?

That characters in defensive armor can take on and overcome some of the toughest content without dodging at all.

I take it as a good case that bosses could dish high volumes of unavoidable damage and skillful, well prepared players would still get the job done. They just wouldn’t be wearing pointy-glass to do that particular encounter.

No, no, I got that part. I could see the end result.

I just don’t get what this is, how they did it, and so on. I’ve never done any of Arah except the storyline.

Flissy.4093:

Lenor.8197:

Bad people wearing PVT will still die.

No they won’t

Sorry, what exactly did I just witness?

Vayne.8563:

My guild is having fun. We’re also chatty. Sometimes that chat is on mumble though and not in guild chat. We laugh all the time.

Sometimes too much I think.

Stop drinking Zommoros’ wine. Drink the fine norn ale instead.

My guild is okay right now, most of us have lives keeping us busy and schedules which don’t mesh.

However, still is fun to poke my head in for a couple hours a day and finish Dailies, a few jumping puzzles, maybe a little progress on Living Story chapters or whatever I want to do that day. If it’s being let known something like Temple runs are happening then I jump in on them; I find them a lot of fun.

Aaron Ansari.1604:

The Marjory-Kasmeer relationship was great at the start- I honestly didn’t see it coming when the first dialogue started up at Thunder Ridge- but I have unfortunately been soured to it, solely because of how tastelessly heavy-handed the nudity twist was. Still, the fault there wasn’t integral to their relationship. Quite the opposite, I’d say it was something that smells suspiciously of fanservice butting in on the relationship.

Now, I’m fine with fanservice, but it has a time and a place, and I like it to stay well out of my character arcs.

The what with the who twist? I must have missed something entirely.

#include < guildwars2 >
#include < fun>

Error. Library not found. Aborting program . . .

^C

>.

Yes it’s just poking fun. No I haven’t written a forum reply bot yet. Yes I am still playing, no not currently due to the mild instability tonight.

DarksunG.9537:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

They were variable and new, in they aren’t always up and in the same place.

If that’s what we call variable then we’re in worse shape than I thought. When I say variable I mean: There are 4 different outcomes to a fight with one of these guys: 2 win 2 lose. branching various outcomes where you chase the defeated foe, fight back-up, take him to a cell while attacked etc etc.. I shouldn’t know how it will end when I win or lose.

Well it is variable, just not the same way you meant it. Should have tacked “outcome” after it, and I’d have known what you meant.

Variable outcome events are an interesting proposal, and it might work to freshen things up. I’d also like the ending outcome to check whether players were even present for the event so something different happens if nobody contested it at all versus just not managing to beat it.

But i’ll save this whole conversation for if they do a CDI on events. I think it’ll be better received there and I’ll get a chance to get my wits and notes together. (Because, frankly, my mind isn’t on the events right now, but on the rewards/progression associated with them. Something which also needs brushing up but . . . as AB says, “That’s another show”)

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

I loved Lost Shores. It was a lot of fun. Half my guild liked it too when we tried it. We were the lucky ones. For every person who enjoyed it and participated, I’d say four more got stuck in “Overflow City” where events were out of sync, where lag was atrocious, and disconnections were common.

yeah but equating how they should design game fun & progression based on tech is… ehhh… i dunno..

I think it’s very simple. If people can’t play in an event or something because of technical issues, it is not fun. Bluntly, Lost Shores wound up being a stress test of live servers and they probably got a lot of good information on what those systems could handle that weekend.

I would kind of like to see what it would have been if it had been designed as a Living Story chapter in scope (that is, over two weeks and with the big events as instanced things you could enter) as opposed to “one time only event open to everyone who can cram into Lion’s Arch”.

Probably would have gone over better.

Also, and to a lesser extent, if the tech/software isn’t able to produce progression as desired, it needs to be known why and if it can be fixed. If it can’t be fixed then one or the other needs to get changed so it works. That is an engineering decision only the people who are actually looking at the whole of the data can make, not us the end users.

In any case, I agree mostly with your point. Much similar, I’d like to see more DEs, and I’d like to see more diversity in them, and while I’m at it I’d like to see a catapult which fires asura. (I’ll settle for two out of three here.)

(Disclaimer: The last may not be an opinion you hold, or dare say publicly but don’t worry about it.)

I would feel better about it if the connection issues get ironed out tonight

Asuran overclocking

Devata.6589:

However I would rather involve them in getting a recipe or unique items. So you ask “what sort of doll would you like” and she gives you a paper.. “one yellow eye, one green, very long legs….” there is your recipe.

Hm, maybe. But more to the idea was similar to how Tixx worked on his toys. Like the charr want toy weapons or “training aids” as they could put it. Or you could make them a Mini Rox. (Whereupon they will now explode from those eyes made even cuter.)

(And humans will go “not another Queen Jennah”, because they are sick of the players having forced them off on them to get rid of the tons which were made.)

Of course, that would be basic stuff. If you wanted rarer things, turning out to be things from the parents for cheering up their children, give them rarer toys or specially created things. Maybe you could during Wintersday even impress Tixx with your ability (“for a bookah”).

As thank you there could indeed be the drawing you talk about. Rather then a way to get karma or a loot bags.

That’s referencing the infamous Thank you drawing from Flame and Frost.

Devata.6589:

VOLKON.1290:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

VOLKON.1290:

Why? Because we can, of course, and it could flesh out tinkering a bit more, that’s all.

We . . . are fleshing out . . . Tinkering, something which doesn’t exist yet, with more things which also don’t exist yet, and we don’t even know if Tinkering is something we should be looking at?

Sure why not?

:)

Though it bears to question just what exactly is “Tinkering” supposed to do which “Artificer” can’t as a flavor thing?

The thought was to have a crafting profession for “fluff” items, such as furnishings for halls or homes, town clothing, etc. The posts go into ideas, such as drops off boss mobs being used to make items (dragon scale table for ex.). Tied into housing and all that it builds on the overall concept and helps players have more of a hand in progressing their place plus pulls the world into it by using items found on certain mobs, etc.

Artificing is tied to combat, as are all the professions. This would be ‘out of combat’ fluff.

Fun crafts as I call them. Yeah thats nice addition that I have been suggesting for a long time. Does not only have to been about housing. Just making fun items. Think of items like the SAB music box or a mini and so on.

It however also could mean raising mounts (not going into the mounts discussion again, just an example here) or taming / raising ranger pets and so on. Many ways to make fun professions. Important element is that you get the requirement really from game mechanics. Not so much from grinding gold to buy it. That means, put them in specific places. Can indeed be a boss but might also be a group of mobs. But not from something like.. it’s a general drop but champions are more likely to drop them.

This however should be mainly for the recipes. Not for every ingredient of course. Most ingredients would be more easily farm-able (wood, metal and so on).

Honestly if we’re talking about minis and being able to craft them . . .

New Crafting Profession: Toymaker
- Craft living dolls resembling real creatures. Killing a creature type enough to earn Rank 1 Slayer for it will open a blueprint for a Common miniature, Rank 4 for an Exotic one. Each mini in a rank is different, so collect them all.
- Refine “Junk materials” such as ‘tattered fur’ or ‘dark stained claw’ into toy parts! Toys require internal mechanisms from “gear” junk, stuffing from “fur” type junk, frames from “bone” type junk, and one other refinement for each type of critter relative to their forms. (Hooves for centaurs and such, warm stones for destroyers, et cetera.)
- Craft toys and other fun diversions for other players to use. Make playable instruments, or confetti guns, fireworks, toy weapons, or even disguises to appear differently. (Note: Disguises disabled in WvW and PvP.)

New NPC options: Bless the Children
- Talk with young children around Tyria and find out what they are interested in most. Present them a toy for karma and a loot bag of a level applicable to the area.
(Tentative: if housing gets implemented, maybe they send a “thank you” drawing you can hang up on the wall for a one-time Karma reward. Instead of eating it. You monster.)

Zalzan Kavol.9048:

Generally I love the game. But, having switched from LOTRO to GW2 at launch, I recently went back and played some LOTRO (for the first time since switching) and was struck by a few things. GW2 absolutely blows LOTRO away in graphics, in every aspect of combat, the hearts are much better than the old-style quests, and doesn’t require nearly the same level of grinding for necessary gear. However, the big things I miss are the social aspects of the game. LOTRO has music you can play, community events, probably 20 times more emotes, mounts, capes, and the best Lore in the business. If I can find a game with as good of combat and graphics as GW2, and the depth and social functions of LOTRO, I would gladly pay a subscription fee for that. Now I am waiting to see TESO in April.

Every time I hear someone talk about LOTRO I can’t help but think of poor Lulzy the Bard

Apologies.

Nicholas S Lin.6187:

At the very least The Serenity Temple needs to be rebuilt and there needs to be a human town built around it.

Can’t happen until the Dragonbrand is cleared from the area, if that is at all possible. Sure, you could build a new one, but I’d much rather spend time reclaiming the Temple of Ages and putting a big seal on the Underworld leaking out through that marsh.

DarksunG.9537:

There is no other direction. Either you add new stuff, or you replace stuff. Either way, it’s more. Weather someone completes it fast or not is immaterial.

It’s very important if many people complete it fast; if on average more people get through content you took time to work on than expected you’ve got a lot of people waiting on the next bit of content. Then there’s pressure to produce more before they get fed up and leave.

DEs: vs LS:

Strangely from this list, it looks like the LS is “better” than DEs and thus DEs should just be chucked out the window rather than reinforced. Especially if it’s not being wanted by the players.

The only remotely fair comparison is comparing the DEs with the first F&F LS Which was a disaster. People voted with their feet? I guess, though the comparison is disingenuous at best.

They did do that. Players flocked to the events which were the most lucrative, the most rewarding, or the most fun and left the others alone. You know that pirates one mentioned a page or so ago, which someone remarked was “entertaining”? Nobody does it. You know Timberline Falls, Dredgehaunt Cliffs, Brisban Wildlands? I poke my head in there from time to time, people aren’t doing the DEs there. Almost all the time I run through Gendarran, Ascalon Settlement is burning.

“They voted with their feet” meaning “they stopped bothering with them except for the champ trains and maybe, on a good day, Straits for a Balthazar push”.

If you want to ask why the DEs got left in the box for things to work on? Here’s a good long look why: start going to zones and taking notes on how many of the chains outside of ones which yield Dragonite are in “default fail mode”. Then ask if anyone’s doing them. People aren’t.

I don’t consider 9 new “mob-spawn” events to be variable & inventive. Every map should have 20 odd rare spawn bosses with unique drops just so you can say “oh neat it’s that guy” every once in a while. 9 mobs al over the world? that’s nothing.

They were variable and new, in they aren’t always up and in the same place. Similar to the Skritt Burglar, you can’t count on them being in a spot when you swing through. Inventive, in the sense the fights seem to be against characters using skills similar to players (from the ones I’ve had the fortune to do).

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Seems to be, but then this is somewhat what we asked for after Lost Shores failed miserably all around.

I loved lost shores because it was real & temporal. but the current LS is nice too. But without real content & feature updates like full expansions, it’s not worth it.

I loved Lost Shores. It was a lot of fun. Half my guild liked it too when we tried it. We were the lucky ones. For every person who enjoyed it and participated, I’d say four more got stuck in “Overflow City” where events were out of sync, where lag was atrocious, and disconnections were common.

And that’s before we talk about how more than a few people wound up missing out on the chest from disconnections and were soured on the whole affair. It was a miserable failure on the technical side, and it colored everyone’s perception of the event. I can’t call it a qualified success if what everyone remembers of Lost Shores is “You have been disconnected”, bugged NPCs you had a time crunch to talk with before the story moved on, and not being able to do anything due to a crush of people lagging zones.

Well, this is certainly not true, as people love skins & the game is designed around a cosmetic endgame. While there are issues with in-game rewards who truly believes “well, there are some problems, maybe it would be better if I had less to work towards”?

The people who don’t want Ascended gear.

Personally I want visual progression. If I can’t see my progression in some way I don’t want it. That’s is why numbers are lame. i killed that mob in 1 less swings.. big deal. I want my guy to get scars or maybe get older or unique hair styles , or maybe his hand gets branded by a dragon or he gets mounts or a little sidekick or has medals all over him. 2nd to that is more skills & weapons. but as I said, they have to work out Control & Support before they do that. & I want this stuff though various achievement types/scavenger hunts & adventures, not 500 bolts of silk.

I’d like that too, especially that last comment. I still prize my alt in GW1 who held onto green weapons I was never going to use and had no value because they were trophies of a sort. I really wanted to hang them in the Hall of Monuments, but . . . alas . . . it was not to be.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

- Sub-classes will be discussed again in a CDI once Arena finishes its current balance work in regard to roles.

Many thanks for that, gives me time to mull over anything in there.

- Where possible use the above design paradigm to reinforce and evolve the existing world.

I’d bold that, because it’s kind of useful to enrich what’s existing in a way people might enjoy.

Shriketalon.1937:

Strong metal must be forged in the blazing inferno. Turn up the heat, and we’ll grow stronger and more flexible in turn.

Remind me when the CDI for that stuff comes up, I’ll start sketching ideas.

Serophous.9085:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

I’ll solve this right now.

“Account Wide Crafting Skill”.

If you have account wide crafting, then that destroys leveling alts with the crafting to level 80.

Yes. Yes it does. Except from what I understand that’s not possible anyway. Besides, I’m more at home simply working my skills up on one character (except for Cooking) and using them rather than shuffling alts around.

I honestly don’t think changing it would do any good either, but if there’s a lot of people suddenly wanting access to those skills on other characters? Why not?

souless.1935:

Now it’s on to the next experiment, and the next search for knowledge. Scarlet isn’t out to rule the world, she’s out to change it in a massive way. She’s very slowly getting pieces to put together, a theory taking shape she can use for her ends.

My problem with this is that ‘What Scarlet Saw’ gives quite a bit of indication that she knows what she is going to do and is not astray looking.

“The forces that push us this way or that can be redirected. They can be set against one another to the detriment of both, and now I know how.”

Knowing how to do it and having the tools to do it are two different things. And if she knows how and doesn’t have the tools, then what she is doing is getting the tools ready.

Or “know how” is less complete; instead of it being “knowing exactly how to solve this equation” it’s “I know what the problem is, but not the steps needed to get there”. Her behavior suggests the latter – she’s aware what she needs to do but is working on how to reach the point where she has the tools to do it.

Quotes got messed up so I don’t know who I’m replying to-

Which leads to the problem of having lvl 80 players that have no clue what they are doing in harder dungeons. I’ve seen lvl 80 players who didn’t have a clue what they doing in AC b4 it was patched smh.

Sorry, sorry . . . that was me.

. . . I don’t do dungeons, so I’m usually level 80 with no clue what’s going on in the paths.

At least being lvl 80 should mean that you have a certain lvl of expertise; not that you just ran through game cause its causal friendly and show no true skills that you have progressively developed as a player.

No, level 80 will always mean . . . they’re level 80. They could have let their friend level them through because they got bored with the leveling procedure, or Black Marketed someone to powerlevel them . . . or the account itself.

The only accurate yardstick you can use for someone’s skill is actually watching them in action. You can try to link it to achievements/gamerscore, time played, what gear they have, or their guild tag . . . the only way you know they’re going to be “any good” is to play with them.

darkace.8925:

I’m still seeing calls for sub-classes, and I’m still unsure why they’re needed at all. Why do we need another layer of game mechanics to let us play a “druid” ranger with a bunch of spirits or a marksman ranger focused on ranged combat when the current skill and trait system already allows us to do exactly that?

You are using the word “let” in regards to doing certain things but what I really keep trying to aim for mentally and direct attention to is “enhance” doing the things you want to do.

“Subclass” doesn’t even need to be a whole concrete thing so much as it does a way of citing where the options are from and what it is suggested they work with. (Though not concretely assigned “this will only work with this”.)

Orpheal.8263:

GW2 needs more craftign jobs..

I’m not so sure it does. I think what it needs is some different implementation of what we have now. Mostly because if you think the fuss kicked up over Ascended crafting goals was big . . . wait til you tell them there’s more other stuff to access this new cool stuff being put in.

Its much easer to use just with every character 2 different crafting jobs once and brign them per character all only just 1 time to the maxt. Thats the most quickest and effective way how to handle crafting jobs for the cost of it, that you habe always to switch yiour charactters.

I’ll solve this right now.

“Account Wide Crafting Skill”.

DarksunG.9537:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

But more to the second part. “It’ll be chewed through quickly” . . . which is more my concern. They could run themselves ragged designing this region to “go nuts in” as you put it and it would still be almost completely done with in less than a week by a not-insignificant portion of players.

Again,“it will never be enough” is a meaningless design observation since it only informs 2 design responses: Always try to put in more to reach the unattainable. Or: Don’t put in anything since it is unattainable.

No, it’s not a design observation though, just commentary meant to be more seen than acted on. Everyone would love more content, but if we just chase “more content” into the future then it’s a race to try to produce stuff quickly and get ahead of the general curve of people having completed it yet.

You have to create an arbitrary saturation point to get anywhere. For me its: I know right now that the game doesn’t have enough unique interesting goals & unique interesting encounters to feel alive or be worth going back to certain areas. So they need more. I think, again, the abandonment of DEs was just head scratchingly weird.

From what I gather, that was largely due to people not being impressed with it and going “meh, just quests under a different name and not interesting ones”, gravitating to the ones with the quickest reward scheme, and so on. In short – the players voted with their feet.

The game has like 1/2 the number of DEs it should have. & they’ve neither implemented nor experimented with new, more variable DEs.

See above, though I beg to differ – the “Modus Sceleri” events are interestingly variable and were . . . intriguing, but they didn’t seem to have anything to them.

The living story has become the"content". & it’s totally contrary to an actual living world. I feel like they are more concerned with making content that is flashy & advertizable so that players feel like they are getting more than they are, rather than fleshing out the entire world with DEs that fill up every corner of the maps with multi-branching stories.

Seems to be, but then this is somewhat what we asked for after Lost Shores failed miserably all around.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Eh? Tixx’s Toybox wasn’t in the Gem Store, neither was my Injector skin. And my reward for doing WvW Season 1 was rediscovering I really enjoyed getting myself beaten bloody in there and occasionally getting someone else or helping win something.

Sometimes those rewards aren’t tangible.

Non-tangible rewards are a pointless design discussion because they don’t require anything to be designed. They are entirely player-generated. As for the back skins, sure, i can compare my back & hand items to the many full sets of armor, tons of BL weapons & town clothing in the Gem Store, but that would be dishonest. The comparison is an exercise in misdirection.

And designing tangibles has been a problem thus far because they either don’t meet the demand or are odds-and-ends with no real . . . synergy . . . of relation to other things. The skins which were released via Living Story (not Gem Store) don’t really match things which existed already.

And the stuff in the Gem Store . . . notably town clothing . . . seemed to be released in response to some feedback going “ANet, we would pay for town clothing instead of more armor from the Gem Store.” So they put more town clothing in there

The kind of rewards I am looking for from content being discussed here are not “look at this neat thing I got – it sparkles!” or “this is worth a lot of gold” but rather things which lead to or are in themselves horizontal progression. We don’t need to focus on the new shiny skins as much as we do the progression everyone seems to be clamoring for.

Mada.5319:

Mr. E will end up being just another character that Anet completely forgets about. Like Evennia, the mysterious stranger during Zinn’s Task and the “he” from HotM.

“HotM”?