Guild Wars 2

I’m a veteran and I’m upset that a few months after having some of my favorite clothing taken away, and months before that having the running animation I enjoyed taken away, I’m now being told that the money I spent on mini-pets isn’t of the same value as the money people spend on weapon skins, armor skins, back pack skins and outfit skins, with respect to creating identity for our characters and expressing that to the rest of the virtual world.

But, I’ll also support your anger and sign any petition you would like me to sign.

Default
Off
Disable Personal Story
Hide Events and Personal Story

‘Disable Personal Story’ is kinda neat to help you find events nearby that aren’t on your screen yet, but I’ll probably just turn it off because it’s too big.

Having said that, I want to make sure I’m not missing something.

I can’t tell the difference between ‘Off’ and ‘Hide Events and Personal Story’? Is there a 3rd, 4th, nth type of tying that would be pointed out using the indicator other than events and personal story?

I would rather see the person standing next to me’s mini, so I might ask them about it, or compliment them on it, than the armor of someone standing 10 ft away from me, or if necessary, the person standing 10 ft away from me at all.

Haros.4297:

That’s the thing. It’s not about culling rules that work with skins etc. That comes in when there are too many things in a small area around you that need to be rendered. It’s about server having to calculate movement for up to 150 miniatures at the same time as it calculates it for every NPC and mob on the map (alongside other calculations). When the message about miniature limit shows up it’s not a matter of showing the mini on your PC. It’s the matter of server having to calculate what the mini does. What every mini on the map does in that moment. It requires extra server resources. For the server it doesn’t matter how sparkly the character is. It has to process information about every player regardless of the fact that you might not see them at all. Most of the time it won’t matter but if there are a lot of (as in almost every player on the map having like 2 of them) player summons for example you might experience mob AI just stopping and not doing anything. That happened a few times.
They have turned the limit very, very low playing it on the safe side (even too safe perhaps). They will turn it up – quite a lot probably, when they see what number of minis works safely on each particular map. Probably very Soon™

Again emphasis on that one thing: It’s not about your computer performance. It’s mostly about the performance of the server

I don’t care, they were demoted.

I spend gems on a mini the same way someone spends gems on swords, outfits, backpacks, etc. I want to show them off to the world. I have been able to for 2 years. They have made us new minis and put them up in the shop with the intention of being able to do that. In fact, there’s a brand new pack with 2, and the past week, they even put some old ones on sale for us to buy, to show off to the world.

Regardless as to whether it is using the same mechanic right now, it ‘should’ be using the same mechanic. My gems shouldn’t be treated less than the gems someone spent to show off their sword.

As such, if there are two many things on the screen, then remove ‘people’ from my sight.

If I see you, I should see your mini, if you have one. If that means someone else has to drop off my screen, so be it.

Your mini being seen by me, if you have a mini out, shouldn’t be treated less than me seeing the sword on your back.

How about a Ranger pet? Let’s say for sake of argument, that the number is 30 people. If all 30 of those people are Rangers, do 15 people turn grey or disappear under the current system?

Minis should be treated the same as me seeing the other skins on your back, otherwise it devalues them completely.

This warrants a public (i.e., acknowledging that they screwed a lot of people as they did with the wardrobe system change) buy back program at the same level as the wardrobe system.

Old player has regrets.

FrostwindTTw.9015:

I don’t care if I could see other player’s skin or mini. At least let me see my own mini!!! I spent gems and golds on it!!!

I do care. The gems I paid to show my mini to the world should have the same weight as the gems someone paid to show an outfit or weapon skin to the world. Period.

I haven’t even had a chance to think about anything else in the patch because of how angry I am about the mini-pets being demoted in the culling rules. Some of us buy mini-pets to show them off just like someone would want to buy a weapon skin, back pack, outfit or armor skin and show it off.

If the culling system decides you are ready to be presented to me in all your glory, non-grey, showing me your surf board greatsword, dead quaggan back pack, devil horns, whatever, then it should Show Me The Mini!. If it doesn’t want to show me the mini, then you should remain grey, or remove you entirely from my screen, if it needs the resources to show minis of people I can see.

My culling settings are on high. I tried them on very high, same thing.

FrostwindTTw.9015:

oh…my, at first I did not think of how much gems and golds I spend for minis, now you make me really upset….>.<

And here’s the best part. By making it easy for every to just check a pet and turn it on, Fire and Forget, the number of people that are trying to have pets out are now effectively griefing us by taking advantage of a game mechanic to prevent us from enjoying our purchases. I should be able to report everyone I see on my screen for griefing.

The bottom line is, the culling rules need to treat mini-pets equally to other skins. That’s it. It’s not hard to figure out. If it decides it shouldn’t show your mini-pet to me, if you have one out, for performance reasons, then it should leave you grey and not show me your armor, outfits, swords, back packs, etc. Or, hide you entirely. When it’s ready to Show Me The Mini!, then it can show you and all your other shiny skins.

Haros.4297:

Not really a bug. The limiting of miniatures is connected with server resources. The regular culling setting in your client is a separate unrelated matter.

As servers have to calculate the movement of all minis on the map they might need to sometimes limit their numbers so that they don’t exceed resources available for a map instance. As minis are more convenient to use now a lot of people will start having them out permanently. That’s up to 150 minis that need their behaviour/movement calculated. Possibly (just hypothesizing) the “spots” available for minis on the map might be connected with number of other NPC/mobs that there are on the same map. Cities don’t have mobs. WvW maps have greater population limit in general.

They have set the limit right now to be quite low and they will slowly increase that when they get more data on the impact a certain number of minis will have on the server in live environment.

Culling connected with personal game settings is a separate manner and that works in a way similar to player model culling .

It’s not regular culling. If it were regular culling, then as soon as you change from grey to someone where I see your back pack, surf board sized sword, halo, whatever, I should then see your mini-pet, if you have one.

They have been demoted to sub-standard culling priority, and they still expect us to be happy with the money we paid for … nothing, essentially.

Many of us buy these mini-pets just as you would buy an armor skin, outfit, weapon skin. You like how it looks, and you’d like to show that to yourself and the community. It’s how you want to represent your character to the world. A mini-pet is no different than that.

Their whole thing is that what you strive for is awesome skins and things to show the world, not a gear grind. That’s fine. What sort of message does it send when they decide, after two years, and letting us buy 400-600 G pets and enjoy them, that they now don’t count as much as other things you buy and show off?

It’s reprehensible, unwarranted and it sends the message that people that value ridiculous surf board sized swords are more important customers than those who would like to buy a mini-pet instead and show that off with their character.

Gambit.8425:

notebene.3190:

But that’s the thing. A mini pet is a skin. It should follow the exact same rules for culling that the surf board on your back that you spent months and months building does. As soon as the culling switches you from the grey being to me seeing your armor and sword, I should see your mini, if you have one. If the culling system decides it’s not ready to show the mini, then you should remain a nameless faceless blob until it’s time.

To many people, the mini is an extension of their character that they want the rest of the world to see, just like the L33t D00dz Sw0rdz!1!1 you acquired. The system shouldn’t give preference to one skin over another.

But the sad part about all this is it’s another stealth change they were hoping not to talk about disguised as new features. If this is intentional, they should be honest and come out and say what they were really hoping to achieve, and if they have no intention of changing it so people that spent money on mini pets are treated with the same respect as people that spend money on keys to get tickets to buy weapon skins, they should allow us to get a full refund on every mini pet or pet pack we bought from the store since the beginning of the game.

You could already turn down the number of high res models before, hiding all that shiny gear I want to impress you with Pets, I guess get the lowest priority atm, personal one included.

The thing is IMO this was just another “feature” nobody asked for. Before, there were only the few avid mini pet fans who had them out. Now everyone can “fire and forget” a pet and in a zerg of 50+ that does take up resources and would look as silly as all the commander tags does now (who also need better options).

There isn’t many alternatives. Remove the checkbox for the pet so it has to be clicked every map like before or put checkboxes with “always show my pet” and/or “show only my pet”.

If their response after two years of having minis, and achievements, and pushing pet and pet packs in the store is really to just introduce a pet collection shared across your account system that was implemented solely to mask the desire to cull pets out in such a way that they don’t adhere to the exact same rules as an outfit, weapon or armor, then they should offer us a full refund for everything we bought from the store, just like we got when they put no effort into turning some clothing pieces they didn’t deem healthy and appropriate into the new outfit system.

If this is intentional, prioritizing minis lower in the culling algorithms, the we should be given the opportunity to determine whether they still hold the same value they once did, and if not, ask for a full refund.

Well, the problem is, I don’t know whether to ask my question here or post it as a bug because I have no idea what the intention was.

I paid money for mini pets.

I expect to be able to show them off like Timmy shows off his sword skin. My mini pets are extensions of how I want the world to see my character, whether they want to see it or not. I don’t particularly like surf board sized swords, but I at least respect that some folks do and want to show them off.

As such, mini pets should follow the same rules for culling that showing a player and their armor and weapons does. I should always see my pet, unless I under water and it can’t swim, and that part might well be a bug. But beyond that, if I have my pet out, and he culling system decides to show me to you with all my proper armor textures and weapons, then at that point, you should see my mini.

So, if this is a bug and it is supposed to work as I described, then I’ll let it go at that. If it is not, and you have no intention of changing it back, and mini pet purchases are now not to be treated as highly valued as a weapon skin purchase, then we need to talk about what your plans are for allowing anyone that is unhappy with this to return every mini pet and pack we bought over the last two years for a full refund.

I bought my minis so I could see them, and everyone else. I expect them to work with the same reliability and rules that a purchased armor, weapon or outfit skin would perform

Gambit.8425:

Hahahahahaha…. before the patch I thought: ’ Great, now everyone’s gonna run with a mini by their side, instead none are shown because of megaserver culling. Priceless!

How hard can it be to at least put in a “show only my pet” checkbox? No rush, but maybe in a future feature pack two years from now?

But that’s the thing. A mini pet is a skin. It should follow the exact same rules for culling that the surf board on your back that you spent months and months building does. As soon as the culling switches you from the grey being to me seeing your armor and sword, I should see your mini, if you have one. If the culling system decides it’s not ready to show the mini, then you should remain a nameless faceless blob until it’s time.

To many people, the mini is an extension of their character that they want the rest of the world to see, just like the L33t D00dz Sw0rdz!1!1 you acquired. The system shouldn’t give preference to one skin over another.

But the sad part about all this is it’s another stealth change they were hoping not to talk about disguised as new features. If this is intentional, they should be honest and come out and say what they were really hoping to achieve, and if they have no intention of changing it so people that spent money on mini pets are treated with the same respect as people that spend money on keys to get tickets to buy weapon skins, they should allow us to get a full refund on every mini pet or pet pack we bought from the store since the beginning of the game.

And another thing.

This is the part where someone comes and says any of the following:

1. Keep calm, we’re looking into all of this.

2. Your pet should always be visible to you, but sorry, the double-secret hidden effect of all this is we really did just want to make a cool way to hide all your pets to help the world perform better, and yes, minis are skins in the respect that they are things you buy and want to show off, but when we made them, we never considered what a load they would put on the servers, and so now, two years later (Happy Anniversary!) we’re doing this to you. We understand this will make some of your unhappy, and therefore will allow you to refund any mini pet you ever purchased for gems, just like we let your refund khaki’s and other clothing that didn’t make the healthy and appropriate cut.

And then we’ll know, right now, how much of this is bug, and how much of this was intentional, and for those of us that don’t approve of your underlying goals (should they prove to be correct) can get refunds.

YtseJam.9784:

Why hide my mini? Hide others and make mine visible to me. The same way I can turn down the number of other player models rendered, it should hide other people’s and not mine. My char and my mini should have priority over all other player’s on my screen.

I agree, but I stand by the fact that if, all things being equal, the culling rules decided that I should see you now on the screen, the I should also see your mini, if you have one.

If because of that, the culling needs to make one or two more people close to me into ugly, generic models, then so be it. If one of those ugly generic models needs to be drawn to me, and it’s decided that you need to either become an ugly grey model, or drop out entirely, then at that point your pet goes away as well.

I should always see my pet, just as I always see my other skins (weapons, armor, back pack, hair, dyes, etc).

A mini pet is a skin, just a like a sword or armor, and should be treated as such in the culling rules. There is no reason to give Chip’s “Awesome Surfboard of You Can’t Even See Me On The Other Side of This But Trust Me I’m Here” rendering priority over Sue’s mini lion. They are both skins. They are both ‘end game’ things to be achieved (many pets are rare drops or achievements) or purchased.

Speckly.3729:

pls hotfix. culling isn’t supposed to work on your own model period.

And I’d like to add to this. The culling of your mini-pet to others should obey the same rules that you obey to others.

If I see you, I should see your mini, if you have one.

Otherwise, it’s about as effective as making all armor and weapon skins invisible to everyone else, even if you appear to them. Only generic weapon skins are shown for every type.

A mini pet is just as much of a skin as a weapon skin or armor skin.

Danikat.8537:

I can’t see my own minis, or anyone else’s, on any map outside of a city. Strangely they seem to work find in cities.

The sad thing is I bet not seeing your own is a bug. I bet not seeing someone else’s even though you now see that person and their distinct look (i.e, awesome armor, dyes, hair, eyes, back pack, legendary skin) part is not a bug, and part of their plan all along.

If you see me, you should see my mini, if I have one out. My mini should not be treated less than your Sword of a Thousand Truths. Arguments about what ascended armor really is aside, if we look at the whole “it’s not about the gear grind, it’s about the skins”, well, a mini is a skin. It’s something I work to get, or buy with money, that I enjoy seeing, and want to show off to everyone else, just as much as Captain Testosterone wants to show off his 2 handed sword that, frankly, looks more like a surf board than a sword, but to each his own.

Paradox.1380:

You can see your own minipet. You won’t see other peoples. I seen my mini pet every time this message popped up.

If you see them, you should see their mini. Or more accurately, if someone else materializes to you, in their actual armor and weapon skins, etc, then the mini-pet should also appear.

The mini-pet is a skin. It’s something we buy and seek out and collect just as we would a legendary skin, or a crazy helmet of awesomeness. Some of them we spend money on.

A mini-pet shouldn’t be given sub-standard priority with respect to culling behavior that any other skin gets.

Mine disappears, but I digress.

Culling ‘should’ work as follows:

If Player M makes the culling cut for Player A, and is now seen by Player A, then Player M’s mini-pet should also be seen by Player A, if Player M has a mini-pet active.

Does it work like that?

If it doesn’t, then it’s really a problem. A mini-pet is like a sword skin, armor skin or any other thing we put on our character. It’s there because we enjoy to look at it, and it’s also an extension of how we want to represent that particular character to the rest of the game world.

If it doesn’t work like that, the great irony would be how such great emphasis is put on what you want to spend money on and acquire are ‘skins’, things that you can show to the rest of the world. A mini-pet falls into that category, and to then take that away, would be the same as making it so you never seen anyone’s custom skins, everyone wears the same armor, and then what would be the point?

Now, if culling does work like that (i.e., a player’s awareness to another includes their mini-pet just as it would any of the rest of their custom appearance), then I digress.

Side note: I do notice that my Plush Griffon disappears when that messages comes up. I have to switch to another pet and then back to it for it to show. Now, on a plus side, it appears pets that can’t swim re-appear when you get out of the water, but I’m confused as to why it’s randomly disappearing on land?

I agree. We paid money for our minis, and we should see them.

Furthermore, if Player C makes the ‘culling cut’ for Player A, then Player C’s mini-pet (if they have one active) should make the cut as well.

We buy pets for ourselves, and we buy pets to show them off. They are often times an extension of the armor we choose to wear for others to see, the hair style we pick and it’s color, the color we apply to our clothes or armor, our choice of back piece.

To have that taken away, especially on an item that we pay money for (in many cases), is unwarranted, disrespectful, cheap, and at the same time, sadly nothing I wouldn’t have expected otherwise from them.

naujocks.2319:

Hope they work this out.

Sadly, I don’t think there’s anything to work out. That message never existed before. I’ve never seen it. That message is new, and I fear, was really what this whole thing was about, from the bottom up.

What is the motivation to spend 400G on a pet if Skippington VonMcPerson can walk into the zone and force it to go away?

There always seems to be that thing. That one thing that isn’t mentioned in the stream, or the developer blog, that makes the thing that they were selling to us as this awesome new thing … not so much.

So the pet wardrobe, the UI, all that was just so you could make a performance improvement that consisted of hiding the pets when things get crowded? That was the thing?

It’s like the wardrobe change, which yes, brought some neat functionality, but what it really did was:

1. Allow for the the use of solid body pieces that take you, for arguments sake, 30% or less of the labor hours of previous pieces, since you don’t have to worry about how they interact with other pieces, but you can still sell them for the same amount (or more).

2. Since the solid body pieces can be used in combat, these can serve as new armor skin/types, and you don’t have to design any new armor pieces.

3. Allow you to cull any previous clothing pieces that aren’t healthy or appropriate from existence.

Draugl.8079:

What would be the use of this option?

Well, it doesn’t seem like it would be terribly expensive to implement. I could be wrong, but I ‘think’ the only place it really shows up is in the friends and followers lists? A check box where it might make intuitive sense, like around where ‘show player names’ is. If it’s checked, just hide the values there.

Nothing sinister. It’s a bit like people that wanted (or maybe ‘needed’ is a better word) to have the field of view changed because it would actually make them dizzy to play (in my case, I prefer the old version, so I still use -useOldFoV), only for other reasons.

I think for those that understand why I asked for it, it might make for healthier game play. For people that don’t really understand it, I would just hope that you respect that it would make for healthier game play for some of us, and not impact anyone else’s play style choices.

In my friends list, and anywhere else I might see someone else’s AP. I’d like the option to hide it.

I’m human, so some things ‘yes’ and some things ‘no’.

mtpelion.4562:

It was to be expected. Keys are a source of revenue for ArenaNet, so it makes perfect sense that they would want to find a way to prevent you from getting too many of them “for free” as that means less of them are being bought with cash.

Well, to be fair, it’s not always about money, as there does seem to be a bit of a Hobby Lobby-esque air about some things, and healthy and appropriate can trump money, under the right pressures from quiet letter writing campaigns.

Rouven.7409:

I had a similar thought, was wondering what would happen with a non-swimming pet. Maybe we’ll be pleasantly surprised if we can chose an underwater mini.

I think they showed us a screen shot and it just had one pet. But, it could have been an early build, and they thought of it, but I’m not going to hold my breath…as it were.

Elsdragon.5109:

Hmmm… Not to sound rude/ignorant, but why would we need to?

Not rude, I wouldn’t be the one resetting them.

Sometimes when enough things change, a company will reset all our traits, either because what your class has maybe physically doesn’t exist any more, or because they think they are helping.

And they don’t tell us, and if you aren’t intimately familiar with every one of the traits you have set on every character, and they do, and you hope to get back to what you had, or at least review what you had to build something close to it, if you choose, then you are sol, unless you happened to get some screen shots or take some notes or such.

I guess I’ll just go write everything down.

Are we going to have all our traits wiped and need to reset them as a result of the class changes for tomorrow?

I did just think of one kinda sad thing about the wardrobe pet system, which of course, will probably just effect me and be another ‘one of those things’, I guess.

Many of my pets don’t swim, but they are my favorite pets. For those characters that like to use pets that can’t swim, I have another pet that I carry, and when I hit water, it’s as simple as opening up my bag, and double-clicking on that pet to bring it up. When I get to the surface, I use the other pet again.

Of course, ideally, it would be nice if they’d go back and put the effort into letting those other pets swim, but profit margins, and that’s what we have.

Now, if it’s part of the wardrobe system, it’s not going to be easy for me to find that other pet and change it on the fly. I’ll effectively have to skin my pet from a list of many pets.

I’m sure others have thought of it, but it just hit me while I was swimming around waiting for SB and switched to the Halloween Asuran Pilot from my favorite holiday puppy pet. I suppose I could solve the problem by now skinning everyone with a pet that happens to be on my favorite list ‘and’ can swim, but that’s boring. And I really like the puppy with my Thief, and the plush griffon with my Ranger. Oh well.

FrostSpectre.4198:

Well, it does sound like a good idea tho.

To give transmutation charges instead, enough to apply the gem store skin, along with skin set unlock.

Tho, it’s possible that it can be confusing to some players.

Not terribly confusing, if they shift the paradigm and wording a bit.

“d-clicking this box set of armor unlocks all 6 skins contained within and gives 6 free trans charges to be used on these or ‘any’ skins”

Economically, no one would be buying skin sets, even on sale at like 600, just for 6 transmutation charges. You’d be better off buying 25 at the regular price. It would just be a nice gesture to provide the one time use, the side effect of not having to use the one time use with those particular skins (or all of them) if you choose, and consider what it does to people’s banks, in the event that they bought some of the sets because they only wanted a few pieces out of the set, and don’t want to lose the free charge ‘in the event’ they decide they want to use the skin later.

If you buy a set of armor (6 pieces) from the gem store and open the box and, say, only immediately want to use the boots, you have to store the other 5 pieces somewhere until you use them, or delete them and lose the free use.

Why not just open the box, don’t create the 6 pieces at all (they are already in the wardrobe at that point), and give us 6 transmutation charges?

Thanks folks. On a brighter note, they are starting to get more fun, and I’m starting to learn where I’m supposed to be in each of the cases and what I’m supposed to do. Still haven’t figured out how to avoid all the little red circles at whats-her-name, hopefully I’ll learn that before I run out of revive orbs.

I see there’s a monthly for them too. I’ll need to do one more round beyond what I need for Mawdry for that. I may just end up enjoying them enough to at least do what I’d need to for the monthly until I get better.

Which…if they were trying to nudge people into trying more things without overwhelming them, I guess mission accomplished. Still a little stressful for me, but getting not as scary, and for the most part, everyone in my pugs has been great, which I wasn’t expecting.

One more fractal day, one little mini dungeon thing (not Forsaken, I got that done, and actually happened to go when enough other people were there that I got the Explorer credit for the whole thing, which was awesome) and then I need to go grind out enough geodes for another round of bricks, and I think I got it!

Side note: Complete side note, but did anyone end up with an extra Chaos Orb that doesn’t seem to need to be completed or end up in any finished product after, I assume, making the back piece before Mawdry? I have an extra one, and it doesn’t seem like I need it, but was reluctant to throw it away. :\

Deifact.3095:

Human females really don’t need anymore nice things, they’re already spoilt for nice armours at least. Can the other races/gender get some love instead for once?

I don’t know. The Sylvari have a nice version of Magician Legs that I’d dearly love on my Human. Actually, we have the skin, I’d just like to see everyone have access to both versions.

It will have a positive or negative effect on me, depending on how you look at it.

I really get wrapped up in To-Do lists, and sometimes it’s hard to find the balance between fun and compulsion. Usually, they are great, as they help me pick out a few things to help me focus on. In lieu of them, I usually make my own list of things I’d like to try to achieve in a day.

I’ve always been behind a few people I have become acquainted with in the game. I’ve recently made a push to try to knock out some of the static achievements in an effort to at least close the gap a ‘little’ (I know I’ll never catch up entirely, as I think they do quite a bit of WvW, which I don’t any more).

Now, with more achievements, and specifically calling out new ones for dungeons, and not being a dungeon runner myself, that’s just ‘more’ things I know I’ll never get to do, and is a bit discouraging to me, after having made an effort to try to get some of these other things done (and we won’t go into how ripped off I feel about divers getting their completion before the l33t d00dz dive in that Atherblade puzzle was added :\ – that’s the only dive I had left, and the only reason I’m forced to do it is because I elected not to do that achievement right away).

So, while it’s a bit of a curse, it is also perhaps a blessing, and maybe a sign that I need to let some (or all) of this go.

I have another question about the fractals?

I’ve done 3/5 so far, and not all have gone super well. I always join ones that don’t specifically say something like “no wallys”, or whatever they say, and try to find one that says “daily lvl 1”.

I see that it’s a group of 4 that we do, and I get the item I need at the end. So my questions have to do with how you can tell what you are going to get?

I see there is a daily today to do “1 fractal”. Is that like 1 group of 4, that gets you the item? Or, is that “daily cluster of 4” a unique way to run the fractal to get that item, and some people run it differently? If so, how can I tell what I’m going to get in the LFG tool? Have I just been lucky so far, and the ones I’ve joined have wanted to do the little cluster of 4 that rewards the prize? Or, is “doing a fractal”, by it’s very definition, a cluster of 4 random encounters (at a given level) that reward you that item the first time you do it in a day?

And for that matter, for the daily achievement, the same question. Is it just one little let that people do and leave (leaving me with 3 more that I need to do), or is it by definition, a ‘cluster of 4’, and then you are rewarded with the daily achievement (and the stone thing you need for the mist stone thing, assuming you didn’t get one yet that day)?

2 more to do. I’ve been lucky so far, and no one has singled me out as being terrible, and I haven’t been kicked or anything, so crossing my fingers.

Ah, OK. I’d never seen it before, thought it was odd. Was looking for some help with a few open world things and saw it and found it really odd.

Someone is posting in an open world LFG that they want a 250 stack of ectos for 91g. 6g above TP cost.

1. Why would you just not buy it for 85g from the TP?

2. There were two people in the group. Did someone see the post and say, “Hey, that’s a good deal! I’d like to spend 6 more gold for a stack of ectos then I need to!” and join the group?

:|

Mostly. I’d like some things returned to me that they took away from me in an effort to quietly allowing one group of people to feel better about themselves and the world by being intolerant towards other people who really just want what they want, with no ill will towards the intolerant people.

Other than that, pretty happy with what they left me with. There will be a tipping point, I’m sure, when the secret intolerant people erode away at things I enjoy, and that will be that.

But for the most part, sure.

Ben.2685:

Better drops from dungeons and fractals …

That’s a paradigm. Models America pretty well. Not necessarily a good paradigm.

I’d rather not see Shatterer be Tequilafied. If people ant more challenging things, the by all means build it for them. I don’t like taking things away from those of us who enjoy them. Now, could it be more engaging without taking it to that level? Sure. Just please don’t take it to Teq / Triple levels.

Thanks folks. I’ll see if I can’t sit around and monitor the LFG tool for some level 1 fractals.

I just finished the one before this, and was thinking about pursuing this one too. I kinda like the epic and long crafting and trekking around the world to get the pieces to do these things. I can’t help but think some of this isn’t a dry run for at least a component of how legendary crafting will work.

At any rate, I’m a bit intimidated by the fractal part, and want to make sure I don’t do something wrong there. Do I just need to go on 5 different days? Is there anything special I need to do to collect the item I need, or is it part of a reward chest (lower right) for completing the instance? Or is it like a big ground chest, and I don’t want to miss it? Do I need to talk to anyone at the beginning or end? Or do I really just have to solicit a group or wait until a level 1 pops up and join?

Sure hope I can get this done, the pet sounds fun.

Puddles.6385:

Hannelore.8153:

Its very clear from recent updates that ANet is mostly interested in improving the game for newer players, which I am completely fine with, don’t get me wrong. Like any veteran I wish they would add more end-game content, but I still have friends who join this game and I like them getting a better experience.

The problem is I still cannot play with my friends because when I go to low level zones, even on the weakest of gear and builds, I completely destroy everything.

Now, one of the original promised goals of the game would be that all players would be able to play together regardless of their level; this is the whole point of the downlevelling system, but this system does not work. When you are downlevelled, it does not properly compensate for improved gear quality (e.g Exotics), and full traits, so you end up being just as overpowered as you do in any MMO.

Is there really a big difference if I can go to the starter zone and take on 20 mobs at one time instead of the 200 of other games? I don’t think so. Its still too much.

After the mobs were weakened in the trait update, this became even worse.

Please reconsider the downlevelling system design; I would love to be able to play with my friends and other low level players once again without just one-shotting everything that they attack before they can even target it. And world bosses in these zones should not be dying in a mere 30 seconds, either.

I agree with you.

Until something is done about the scaling, I might suggest that you grab a cheap set of low-level white items (the ones you get from armorsmith and weaponsmith NPCs) for when you want to play with your friends in lowbie zones. With the lvl1 whites on a level 80 character (scaled down to <15), it seems that you end up even weaker than appropriately-leveled characters. However, since you’ve been playing for awhile, your knowledge of game mechanics should make up for almost all of the difference.

Not a fix by any means, but it certainly makes low level zones feel quite a bit less faceroll-y.

And don’t forget to respec and ‘not’ spend any trait points you might not have earned yet under the new system, or any skills you might have not acquired yet.

I don’t know. They took the shorts away. They changed the running animation. New outfits are ‘head to toes’, the last armor we got that was interesting replaced the skin with some sorta blue jelly.

Signs don’t point towards anything like that.

I would like my shorts and running animation back, however.

I’d also like a version of the Magician skirt that the Sylvari get. They already got the version right there, just slap another name on it and let us have it.

And since I’m pining, how about letting some of those vanity pets swim that clearly should be swimming.

This is going to be another one of those topics where they could just come out and make a red post and lay it out and say “this is what it is and why” and squash it, and that would be that.

I don’t blame CMs or Devs wanting to talk about decisions that were made ‘because money’.

But they should make a marketing person, or whoever is responsible for ‘pushing the buttons that make us buy things’, come out as a red poster, and say, “Yeah, we let the developers say ‘key farming is ok’, but at the same time, ‘because money’, we made them get rid of the key we know you folks are farming. Now, key farming is ‘still’ ok, because there is a very slim chance you might get one in the world, so farm away, and enjoy! Or, give us money for chests and gamble for scraps…‘because money’”.

That’s a perfectly acceptable answer. They can give them login handles like “Chip McMarketing.9999” or “Gordon Gekko.9999” or “Bernie Madolf.9999”. And then the CMs and Devs wouldn’t have to talk about money, but when the ultimate answer to a question really is ‘because money’, we’ll know that’s the answer and we can either accept it or walk away.

Of course, they won’t do that either, because the psychologist they hired (TellMeAboutYourMother.9999), says that you can’t tell us about money, because then the jig is up.

I dunno. I’m still just patiently waiting around for them to announce some sort of “Q&A” forum where you can safely come and ask questions and get answers. I have like 3-4 questions I’d like answered. Some day.

1. All mini-pets swim.
2. My shorts back.
2a. Why isn’t there a human version of the Magician skirt that looks like the sylvari version? Values? Intolerance?
3. My running animation back.

Now that’s what I call a sticky situation.

I’m just going to drop a 5000 ft comment, and that’s that I don’t want to see any existing world boss get the Teq treatment again. Anything on that level should be something ‘new’ added for raider types that enjoy that sort of thing. Many of us don’t, and enjoy the world bosses that ‘the every man’ can do.

Not to say that some shouldn’t be give the ‘SB’ treatment (where the boss killing is broken up with some mini-events that drop mobs that can actually be kinda nasty, and standing around not doing the mini events can be hazardous), I know kitten could use a mini-upgrade like this.

I just know that the phrase, “Change them all and make them like Teq” will come up, and that takes away content from people, it really does. Do like Evolved and ‘add’ more content for people that want that level of difficulty.

That’s my general 2 cents.

Lishtenbird.2814:

notebene.3190:

This is a great example of where a red post could ‘really’ help the discussion.

Anthony jumped in the ‘repeating hearts’ suggestion, and it ends up focusing the discussion another way, and giving an indication as to something that feel won’t work, and why. And that was awesome (thanks Anthony).

This thread needs something similar. Something to direct the discussion, clear up any misconceptions as to what it meant, and in cases where we haven’t misunderstood, explain ‘why’ it was done, exactly, and truthfully, and help direct the rest of the conversation.

I guess that topic was pretty “harmless” as nothing was planned to be done about hearts. This topic is, however, rather hot and touchy, so maybe the policy says “let them vent and say everything before we announce anything based on the feedback and stir it up even more”. Makes sense to an extent.

But that’s the part that confuses me. By letting posts get many pages long and heated and all that, they let the community get angry. Whether it’s collective anger directed in a specific direction or between ourselves. When they could just come into a discussion early, even if it’s to say, “Hey, that’s a reasonable point, and we’re going to go talk among ourselves.”

Now, the answer could be, “Because money”. And maybe they are as frustrated with ‘because money’ as we are, but they aren’t allowed to say anything bad about ‘because money’, so they don’t say anything at all.

I’d honestly rather just know ‘because money’ when that’s the answer. It might not be popular, but if it’s ever truly the case, as it must be at least some of the time, it’s at least the truth.

Regardless, hot topics are precisely the ones that need at least some sort of interaction, because those lead to the most toxic discussions and environment.

But at any rate, if it’s truly not 1-79, I hope there is a switch to flip it on and off in the settings.

This is a great example of where a red post could ‘really’ help the discussion.

Anthony jumped in the ‘repeating hearts’ suggestion, and it ends up focusing the discussion another way, and giving an indication as to something that feel won’t work, and why. And that was awesome (thanks Anthony).

This thread needs something similar. Something to direct the discussion, clear up any misconceptions as to what it meant, and in cases where we haven’t misunderstood, explain ‘why’ it was done, exactly, and truthfully, and help direct the rest of the conversation.

Dayra.7405:

How about packaging every item into a choice box like ascended

10 clicks more per loot item, but hey you can decide on your own what you get

PS: No I do not work for Logitech, I do not want to increase mouse-replacement sales due to broken mouse button.

LMAO – hey, thanks for reminding me! I just switched to my backup M705 and need to contact Logitech (as I do every 5 months) to see about sending this last one back for a warranty replacement. Sure wish they made unifying receiver mice that lasted longer.