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Guild Wars 2 |OT3| Two Week Updates, One Box, Zero Subscriptions

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Principate

Saint Titanfall
Again, players should not be faulted for the game's lack of foresight. What is intended or not is irrelevant; what matters is only what is possible and optimal.
I wouldn't call that lack of foresight it's simply how the game mode works, In a 3 faction game is almost impossible to avoid that sort of stuff and even if you did, what's the point of it being a 3 faction game.
 

Luigi87

Member
Thanks to the efforts of JQ being jerks to SoR last week, my server (TC of course) looks to have a solid lock on third place in gold league.
... not that I even completed the meta (or even if it means anything if you aren't in first), but I thought TC would end up in fourth for certain.
 

nataku

Member
I wouldn't call that lack of foresight it's simply how the game mode works, In a 3 faction game is almost impossible to avoid that sort of stuff and even if you did, what's the point of it being a 3 faction game.

It's a lack of foresight in the way ANet set up WvW. The entire system of weekly matches and highest points to win promotes that type of gameplay, especially in competitive seasons. It's only going to get worse from here on unless ANet figures out a way to counter it without completely ruining the mode. My guess is they won't even try, saying it's within the game rules... because it is.
 

Proven

Member
It's a lack of foresight in the way ANet set up WvW. The entire system of weekly matches and highest points to win promotes that type of gameplay, especially in competitive seasons. It's only going to get worse from here on unless ANet figures out a way to counter it without completely ruining the mode. My guess is they won't even try, saying it's within the game rules... because it is.

I still wish they lowered the match times from one week games to three/four day games.
 
I wouldn't call that lack of foresight it's simply how the game mode works, In a 3 faction game is almost impossible to avoid that sort of stuff and even if you did, what's the point of it being a 3 faction game.

Indeed, that was exactly my point earlier ("why make it three way in that case?"). Anyway, there's only two possibilities:
1) Either it's unintended, but allowed by the rules, therefore it's a design issue.
2) Or it's entirely intended.
I'm not saying which of these it is (I'm leaning towards 2, but I'm unfamiliar enough with WvW and especially this metagame "season" thing that I don't want to venture a verdict). The point is that in neither of these cases makes it any sense to fault the players for allying.
 
Looks about right w/ Kos and Hawk down
You don't play but I am banning you anyway.

I don't mind that they teamed up but the fact that they also had people going to our server destroying all our golems when they had like 50000+ points on us is just way too much. Also if you team up and just try to avoid each other as much as possible that is fine but when team 1 is giving up all their fortifications on the last day to team 3 just so they could push us down to 3rd spot, I think is disgusting especially since we could not get 1st but we were really trying to get 2nd but when you have stuff like that happening it just impossible.

Also I am not blaming the game for this, it is build to allow these kind of situations but that doesn't mean I have to like WvW players from YB and Ebay. I think they are scum and I will stick to that.

More 3G playing for me today. Hope I can help out with guild missions later. 9pm or 8pm?

https://soundcloud.com/scarletbriar/dragons
Scarlet talking about dragons! Maybe she will finally get more interesting.
 

Principate

Saint Titanfall
It's a lack of foresight in the way ANet set up WvW. The entire system of weekly matches and highest points to win promotes that type of gameplay, especially in competitive seasons. It's only going to get worse from here on unless ANet figures out a way to counter it without completely ruining the mode. My guess is they won't even try, saying it's within the game rules... because it is.

The purpose of 3 servers is to even out a disadvantage against a 2 weaker worlds against a stronger one (generally referring to numerical, but it was general also). They've said this every time it was introduced by them. That's why it exists

Double teaming is entirely intentional. The issue of this that a stronger server could lose in this potential match up, but A-Net didn't want the most probable scenario of a point where the strongest server could almost never lose and the weaker ones had no chance in the typical 1vs1 match up ala Warhammer.

Obviously this means simply being stronger doesn't mean you will always win. But this fact was known since the second they mentioned the concept. The way to fix this would be to make it 1 server verse 1. I'll be honest while double teaming is annoying and unfair in top level play, 1v1 in server vs server would be outright boring. At least 3 servers always keep the top server on their toes. Your never safe at the top.

What I will say is that the leagues are too short, if they were longer the effects of double teaming would be far less pronounced. e.g the only time we faced vizunah (number 2) in this league was against the number 3. If we had more chances against them without face number 3 also we would kick their ass.
 

Retro

Member
The complaint isn't "two servers working together to beat us is unfair," it's "one server taking a dive to purposely skew another's standing is unfair."

I don't mind an alliance. I mind throwing a match simply to antagonize.
 

Principate

Saint Titanfall
The complaint isn't "two servers working together to beat us is unfair," it's "one server taking a dive to purposely skew another's standing is unfair."

I don't mind an alliance. I mind throwing a match simply to antagonize.

Those two are the same thing, it's simply the degree said server chooses to push it. You can't remove one part from another. If a commander (or rather a large majority) says fuck it completely ignore one server, then that's that. It's intrinsically a part of a 3 server match up.

Direct communication is bullshit and unfair and they'd probably rather not have but it's impossible to stop, and the only way to completely nullify is not having 3 opponents fighting each other. Otherwise they'd always find a way.
 

Shiokazu

Member
Regarding WvW, I hate to be the discordant note, but I see nothing wrong with servers allying with each other in order to beat the third. That's the way the game is set up, and if that's the most efficient way to play a given match-up, then that's the optimal strategy. As a disclaimer, I have to say I adhere to Dave Sirlin's philosophy of "play to win".
In a way, it's a situation not entirely dissimilar to this:
http://www.sirlin.net/blog/2012/8/1/playing-to-win-in-badminton.html
In short, if the game's rules encourage undesired behaviour, the fault is within the game rules, not the players that engage in it. Now, the crucial difference here is that I believe two-teaming is actually intended behaviour in WvW. Otherwise it simply makes no sense to make it a three way to begin with.

On a more positive note, I believe we should be proud of this. Having two servers ally against a third means that they see it as the bigger threat, one that they simply cannot tackle on their own. In a sense, it's the biggest compliment. That might be somewhat undermined by the fact that it also has roots on past animosity between them and SBI, but still.

In any case, I don't play barely any WvW, so I might be misrepresenting some facts. Ignore me if that's the case. :D



Varix did the exact same thing with the Thaumanova Anomaly yesterday (Tron-ish fight) in our story run of the reactor. It was the most epic thing I've seen in GW2. You really had to be there to see him jump from platform to platform as they vanished, with catlike precision, while killing the boss singlehandedly. Beautiful in every sense of the word.

i WAS there to see it happening. a screenshot wouldn't make justice to that.
 
i WAS there to see it happening. a screenshot wouldn't make justice to that.

You know, I was thinking that when it was happening. As I laid dead (and therefore could focus my attention on what Varix was doing), I remember thinking "I'm going to regret not being able to make a video or animated gif of this stuff". There was a moment where he was walking perfectly from platform to platform as they vanished, and at one time, he was standing on a lone, blinking platform. As I expected him to fall to his doom, he effortlessly jumped across to a far away platform, all while still shooting the boss. In a platform game it might be just good platforming, but as improvisation in an MMO boss fight? Simply amazing.

Love the Sirlin reference, Weltall. His stuff should be mandatory reading for anyone who wants to play a game competitively.

Mandatory is a very strong word, yet that's exactly what I would use too. His early articles opened my eyes and changed my view on competitive gaming forever, well over a decade ago.
 

Hawkian

The Cryptarch's Bane
Guess they won't bother banning you for this since you don't play anyway.
I sort of just feel like banning someone anyway to get it out of my system. Pity nobody comes to mind :D
Lol damn! So true :p
You I just won't res anymore.

Fraaaactals for Dummies in about an hour! Need to go out and grab a bite but I should be home by 4:00EST, else as soon as I get back. Of course, feel free to make a full group without me if there is one. I can still help with tips/strategies on mumble.
 

Retro

Member
Those two are the same thing, it's simply the degree said server chooses to push it. You can't remove one part from another. If a commander (or rather a large majority) says fuck it completely ignore one server, then that's that. It's intrinsically a part of a 3 server match up.

Direct communication is bullshit and unfair and they'd probably rather not have but it's impossible to stop, and the only way to completely nullify is not having 3 opponents fighting each other. Otherwise they'd always find a way.

I'm not disagreeing that it's their right to throw a match, or that it's difficult to stop that sort of behavior in 3-way fights. I know how the mechanics of it work. I'm saying the discussion has two sides; one against bad sportsmanship and one against bad mechanics, and the discussion has bounced between the two kind of haphazardly and it seems like it's muddied the waters. That's all.
 

Mxrz

Member
I'd like to see the Mursaat come back into it somehow. GW really broke the norm with the fantasy villain stuff. Wish they'd get back into that instead of Dragon/Scarlet/Dragon/Evil/Scarlet/Scarlet.
 
I love her voice actor so much.

Yeah, Scarlet is this jarringly discordant combination of a great voice actress with ludicrously bad lines. I mean, reading stuff like "You'll never get out of here alive. Ever, ever, ever. Did I mention ever?" and making it actually sound good is an accomplishment in itself.
 

GLopez12

Neo Member
I actually think even phenomenal voice acting didn't save the dialogue in Thaumanova Reactor. It was exposition to the point of cringe.

On a brighter note, I hit lv. 50 in fractals today:
EKXUMhx.jpg

Most of the instabilities were neat, but I posted a feedback thread with some thoughts on them if any of you want to share your experiences.
 

markot

Banned
Scarlet is just a bad character.

A super powerful being (God? May as well be) that was behind everything pretty much, for no real reason then 'whateva, I do what I want!'

Ruined Asura reactor? Check. Went from an interesting event I wanted to know more about to 'oh, more stuff to make Scarlet even less interesting'.

Dredge? Haha! It was scarlet all along!

Flame legion? Haha! It was scarlet all along!

Tripped over? Haha! it was scarlet all along!

Lagged in wvw? Haha! It was scarlet all along!

>_<

She reminds me of that awful character blizzard made in the wow comic books, that even they thought 'hey, lets not put him into the game cause god I want to cut my eyes out after reading that!'

Arenanet, the fish blizzard rejects?

Its impossible to explain how dissapointing this whole thing has been, and how low my expectations are now. And yet, continually failing to even meet those. Cause did they make the fractal an interesting bit that involved scarlet?

No! It was just scarlet all along!

TEE HEEE HEEEEEEEEEE!
 

Complistic

Member
Scarlets just something they came up with to tie all of their world building in together. They said they were going back through and revisit the old zones and update them with new and interesting things. Players got confused when their updates seemed all over the place and completely random. So Scarlet was something that could be "behind" everything they've added to the game.

They may be giving her a story, but I can't believe they had this all thought out from the start.

I also doubt we'll catch her any time soon. She isn't anything more than a vehicle to explain why they're adding things / updating zones. She may lead us to some more dragony content and disappear for a while, but she'll be back.

That's my thoughts anyway.
 

markot

Banned
They had the consortium, and what happened to that? It was interesting, a black lion competitior, and we just forgot them, they could have done so much more with them.

They could have made them... not tied together? Why tie them together? Why wouldnt the dredge and fire charr dudes and what not be a problem without an uber clown behind it all?
 

Retro

Member
So, average, youd have to open like 200 black lion chests for one black lion weapon?

Not quite that bad. See here. Still pretty awful though.

I stand by my earlier comment that the conversion of scraps to tickets should be increased, but scraps should be a 100% drop rate. Progressing towards something, even if it's slowly, still beats blowing gems and having nothing to show for it because of RNG.

Most of the instabilities were neat, but I posted a feedback thread with some thoughts on them if any of you want to share your experiences.

Very nicely done. I like how it took all of two posts for somebody to start sputtering about how much you supposedly hate their precious zerker gear and how slapping together a set and standing on top of each other is something "only good groups can do properly". Ahhh, official forums.

Scarlet Stuff

I don't like Scarlet as a character, but I can see what they were trying to do. Unfortunately, telling a story like this in an MMO isn't something anyone has tried before, so there have been some pretty nasty stumbles along the way. They've said as much, hopefully they've learned.

It doesn't make the game unfun though, at least. Even if Scarlet does suck, we've gotten two great dungeons (now Fractals), a new dungeon path, the Queen's Gauntlet and Nightmare Tower out of her shenanigans. I call that one hell of a win in my book.
 

GLopez12

Neo Member
A developer recently said on a stream that there's a definitive end to Scarlet, and March is a "good guess" for when it will happen. Hopefully she at least goes out with interesting content.
 

Retro

Member
Hopefully she at least goes out with interesting content.

I forget which developer said it, but one of them described February as "bonkers." Having something massively awesome might make up for almost a full year of Scarlet-based shenanigans.
 

swnny

Member
Scarlet is more interesting than Zhaitan ever was.

Not sure about the interesting part, but anet sure made her more evil and dangerous then Zhaitan...
Just played the Thaumanova fractal... and seriously?! It's so boring and unoriginal.
We don't know if the Abbadon's Fall would have been much better, but at least we Scarlet shouldn't be there...
I hope who ever voted for it, is happy.
 

Proven

Member
I think the biggest thing for me was that getting the Reactor was supposed to be about finding out something about dragon energy that could be used in the future. Instead Scarlet gets the info, speaks about a tiny irrelevant bit while thinking out loud, and we get nothing.
 
I think the biggest thing for me was that getting the Reactor was supposed to be about finding out something about dragon energy that could be used in the future. Instead Scarlet gets the info, speaks about a tiny irrelevant bit while thinking out loud, and we get nothing.

I pretty sure the idea that they were researching dragon energy there was only an assumption made because that is what they are doing at the Crucible of Eternity. I feel like for ANET Thumanova was just an explosion without any background, and when the started doing the Living Story they decided to use Scarlet as the cause because it kills two birds with one stone. Gives background into Scarlet and the Thumanova reactor.
 

Retro

Member
Big Blog post coming tomorrow, apparently.

This thread is slightly ill-timed. I say that because, yet again, I have to say that we’re almost ready to release a ton of information on PvP, but we’re not quite there yet. Next Monday (after the long holiday weekend) we’ll be releasing a blog post that will road-map a great deal of things our team will be working on implementing through the end of this year and going into next year. This should address a lot of the concerns you’ve raised and answer many of your questions. Starting next week we’ll be able to engage in discussion regarding future changes like we’d like to.

. . . .

Personally, I think the changes coming on December 10th will have a significant impact on our current meta. The full implications? I don’t think anyone can predict that quite yet. There may even be a few surprises in there…
(source)

There's also a thread on Reddit, apparently german players received an e-mail about getting the Mr. Sparkles Mini as a bonus for buying 4000 gems. Apparently the e-mail went out earlier than intended, but if you're OCD about these things and planned to buy gems anyways, maybe wait a bit.
 

docbon

Member
Big Blog post coming tomorrow, apparently.



There's also a thread on Reddit, apparently german players received an e-mail about getting the Mr. Sparkles Mini as a bonus for buying 4000 gems. Apparently the e-mail went out earlier than intended, but if you're OCD about these things and planned to buy gems anyways, maybe wait a bit.

missed out on the last two bonuses because i didn't buy gems.

gonna miss out on this one because i didn't buy enough? ;~;

edit: i guess the quaggan pack will be sufficient.
 

Proven

Member
I've known about the PvP blog post for days but didn't mention it because of the Living Story and WvW discussion ongoing.

Wooden Potatoes decided to put out a video as a counterpoint to all the Scarlet trouble. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLydkYKVKjw. Basically, he's giving ANet the benefit of the doubt and assumes that no matter what they had tried doing story-wise for this first year of Living Story, it would have been bad. Primary evidence he gives is the Zhaitan fight during Arah Story path.

I pretty sure the idea that they were researching dragon energy there was only an assumption made because that is what they are doing at the Crucible of Eternity. I feel like for ANET Thumanova was just an explosion without any background, and when the started doing the Living Story they decided to use Scarlet as the cause because it kills two birds with one stone. Gives background into Scarlet and the Thumanova reactor.
But if it had no real or interesting explanation, then they shouldn't have offered it as a choice in the first place. Unless they actually wanted Abaddon to win and we have to blame the unwashed masses for this.
 

Hawkian

The Cryptarch's Bane
Should've mentioned it earlier guys but my bad- will be with family this afternoon and cannot make Mission Makeups. Hopefully someone is around that can kick them off. Sorry about that. I will be on a bit later tonight.
 

Mxrz

Member
Scarlet's minor appearance is overshadowing the rather neat thing going on there that, as far as I understand, had nothing to do with her.

The Sentient energy boss thing, and even Dessa being 'not normal,'
 
"Oh my guns and iron, it's full of stars!"

ibljXHnnOfAPWg.jpg


I wish they didn't make the Jade Maw fractal so.. dark. A lot of the nice detail is utterly lost in there.

EDIT: Unbrighten version:

ibgiutv98Gweh.jpg
 
It's not actually that sharp in the game, just a result of boosting the levels to try and get detail out. See above comparison shot.

I'm actually really digging the Thaumanova Reactor fractal:

ibzKmIdJF1cVs3.jpg
 

nataku

Member
I long for the day they update the engine to DX11 and add in a real lighting system. Everything would look *amazing*.

I've lost hope of this ever happening. They said they'd evaluate DX11 post launch, but nothing ever came of that.

I really wish we could ditch the horrible shadows the game uses. Seeing them draw a few feet in front of my character, even on ultra, bugs me every time. I think the game actually looks better with shadows disabled because then shadows don't just... appear.
 

swnny

Member
Big Blog post coming tomorrow, apparently.

I love how they "cannot talk about *something* at the moment" and repeating like a broken record "soon, soonish, yes we hear you". Then, at the end of October, they "announce" they are *about to* post a blog post ... in early December. And for a whole month, every "red" post in the PvP section is about this "inc soon big blog post". Who buys this shit anymore?

Basically, what happened last year with the PvP Iceberg blog... "soon, soon" "comming later this month" - we waited month and a half only to read about some gem adjustments in the paid turneys (that are no more) and how great custom arenas will be and how soon they will come.

You've read it here first: Tomorrow's post will be about their great PvP reward system overhaul (ie, from the pointless chest we will get dozen of new pointless mystic materials so we can put them in the mystic toilet to get an legendary) and how only part of it will become available soon (probably 10th December), the rest will be part of the plans for the first half of next year. Same thing with the fixes for mmr and matchmaking.


Don't tempt fate... :D
You are right.
Given how they are doing it so far, it won't be surprising if Scarlet was behind everything in GW1 as well. Including the Searing, Vizier, Titans, Shiro, Varesh, Abbadon, Salma and of course -
it was actually Scarlet who gave the seeds to Ronan and Ventari, so they can plant the Pale Tree, which will eventually lead to her (Scarlet's) (re)birth/bloom.
 
Scarlet is probably responsible for all of the Gods going missing. We're going to break into a room one of these patches and it's going to have all six Gods ties to chairs, with Balthazar exclaiming "Thank the us you appeared! We've been trapped here for years!"
 
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