You can be so dismissive now because the dwindling playerbase probably hasn't affected you yet. I am a WvW player only and that game mode is on it's deathbed. Most of T2 has gone to T1 recently because their tier is essentially dead, and everything below that is a ghost town for the majority of the day too.
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Guild Wars 2 |OT4| The only subscription you need is this thread.
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You can be so dismissive now because the dwindling playerbase probably hasn't affected you yet. I am a WvW player only and that game mode is on it's deathbed. Most of T2 has gone to T1 recently because their tier is essentially dead, and everything below that is a ghost town for the majority of the day too.
Um, I'm sure Hawkian can correct me here, but I don't think he was being dismissive or sarcastic; ArenaNet could theoretically drop the initial box purchase and go full F2P.
maybe you're right. Poe's law and all that....
I'm a bit touchy right now because my guild disbanded yesterday. I spent most of today considering whether to just quit the game entirely. It's always a weird feeling when you leave a game you've spent so much time on.
UltimateIke
Member
I'm not sure that telling someone (who just had their guild disband over losing numbers) that fewer people in WvW is more fun for you is the most sensitive response.
Somehow I am troll rank.
Boss Doggie
all my loli wolf companions are so moe
Hmm wonder if Queen Jennah is profitable
I'm sorry for appearing dismissive. I didn't expect that, and I'd actually want an answer to what I asked, if you have one. There aren't that many "brinks" for Guild Wars 2 to potentially be on, and I doubt you're suggesting the game, which has been a fairly solid success in financial terms, is on the verge of shutting close its doors (right?). so I'm wondering what you meant by that. I think they would be nuts to try f2p, in fact I expect several permanent price reductions first (they've already done it once) as they did with the gw campaigns, decreasing cost of entry for an occasional sales push years into production. But I don't even think that's coming really soon.
You are right in assuming that I'd be wary about your assertion of the game dying in any sort of imminent sense, just because I think there are a few logical flaws in the reasoning you just presented. I think the point you're making, possibly without realizing it is that the game might be dying for you, which is important and definitely not a good thing for the game itself, but different.
For one, you're extrapolating your personal experience to the playerbase at large. That can be misleading in a lot of ways, like if one guy has a run of bad luck and everyone he meets for 3 days straight quits the game, I can't infer anything about the total population based on that experience. I can't use my experience as evidence the game is doing great, either. It's just too small a sample when we're talking about tens of thousands, more likely hundreds of thousands, or possibly millions of players of all different activity levels and playstyles. Your subset of the community is (I'm sorry, if I mischaracterize anything, please correct me) a good proportion of the T1/hardcore WvW raiding/GvG players and you can obviously speak with authority on their numbers and the population issues they have had recently. But anything beyond that is a little dangerous. I think you must be concluding that "if the hardcore, devoted, veteran players leave, the rest of the players are soon to follow" when you say the dwindling haven't affected me yet, as would be the case for many games of sharper focus. It's just... it might not be the case here, or anything close to it.
From the perspective of what has "affected me"... not only have I not been impacted by a dwindling playerbase... my manifest experience over the past few months is that there are way more people everywhere than there used to be. Surely it can be argued that the Megaserver concept itself was created due to dwindling population back in April, but that's how it feels as a player in a way that has impacted my experience. It has even altered preexisting content for me. For example, I used to like doing the Karka Queen boss a lot; it wasn't hard, but required a small amount of coordination and could be done by almost any group size. Now, she is overpowered by brute force so quickly that I don't even enjoy it anymore. The guild... activity levels typically center around and peak at content drops, so when there's a patch a bunch of people are on, and when there isn't one for a while there are lulls. In terms of total active players it's only ever really gone up after the launch dropoff. So if I really were going to try and draw any conclusions based on my anecdotal experience it would be totally contrary. But I know I can't really do that. Other factors are way more important... ArenaNet hasn't had any forced layoffs, QoQ profits are at least solid in NCSoft's ledger, there was a region launch just this summer... put more simply, I know what a dying game looks like and this isn't quite it.
That really sucks, and I'm sorry. I don't know how long you'd been with them but a guild falling apart has caused me to quit games before. If I may, think of the hours you spent playing and (hopefully) enjoying the game as merely the total value of the product you purchased, not an anchor tethering you that grows heavier with every added minute. If it's not enjoyable anymore for you should focus on other things or new things that are. Unless you're talking about having your account deleted it's not like you can't just come back for a couple of hours whenever you hear about some big changes and see if it's worth playing again.
WvW is in somewhat of an odd place. I can't really comment too much about it nor do I feel qualified to anymore but the people that play it change as time goes by. For our own server, we've taken in Lunaticos International (I don't know about the main LUN guild honestly) and some other smaller guilds, HIRE is leaving us for the tournament despite their reassurances that they weren't here to recruit and jump again when they first joined us, and then there's always all the undocumented things that go on without any of us knowing.
You should consider transferring to Anvil Rock, Ferguson's Crossing or Eredon Terrace. You can always guest back over to SBI for guild missions and all that.
You should consider transferring to Anvil Rock, Ferguson's Crossing or Eredon Terrace. You can always guest back over to SBI for guild missions and all that.
Ashodin somewhere besides SBI. What is this heresy!?
He wants less blobs in WvW.
Bored at work so I've been reading every single post in this thread. This thread is definitely the most positive GW2 community I've encountered so far which is nice but I'm curious if there is anything you guys don't like about the game? I think i saw a few post about the trait system (i think it was from Retro) but is there anything else?
Lack of trinity
j/k Hawkian
The trait system as it is for brand new characters is dumb right now, but it's not something to loathe.
My three peeves are really just WvW, fractals, and the current zerker meta. WvW has already been well discussed. It hasn't had any major shake-ups for a while now so each match kind of just plods along at the same boring clockwork pace. (I feel like I played way too much of it from launch til its feature patch though and I'm still burnt out on it.)
Fractals... I should have played more of fractals before their feature patch. Fractals now are only just fun for the journey and definitely not the rewards. Instabilities punish those who are still grinding up fotm levels and agony resist, like me. Nobody is going to run a 33 when everybody else is at 39 with 50+ ar already.
The zerker meta doesn't bother me so much as the elitiests that swear by it. I wish toughness didn't seem to equal constant high level threat. GAF dungeon parties are always a pleasure since nobody cares if you're running all cleric, magi, or just plain commando.
The reward system for me. Anet either does it on purpose for some odd reason or they really have no clue on how to balance *most* rewards in the game. They make most rewards RNG dependent (mystic forge for precursors, horrible rates on fractal weapons). Although to be fair, they recently did the Mawdry back piece which is a huge improvement.
Also, I would like to stop receiving 20 greens and a couple of rare's when we beat world bosses like tequila and the wurm. It feels so, so underwhelming and unrewarding, especially when the three headed wurm was still new and super hard to beat.
In other news, a guy who has been writing AI for a very long time has joined ANet to work on....AI. Oh well reading further he also worked with Storybricks which is the basis for EQN's entire AI systems. If this guy is working for ANet in any fashion, that can only mean good things for the future.
http://eqnexus.com/2013/09/utility-based-ai-everquest-next/
http://intrinsicalgorithm.com/IANews/2014/04/now-consulting-at-arenanet-on-guild-wars-2/
http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/DaveMark/285814/
http://eqnexus.com/2013/09/utility-based-ai-everquest-next/
http://intrinsicalgorithm.com/IANews/2014/04/now-consulting-at-arenanet-on-guild-wars-2/
http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/DaveMark/285814/
Kos Luftar
Member
T2 jumping to T1 will be a mistake and once they see the T1 queues at 200+ for every map for hours and hours. They will transfer back to smaller pop servers.
Boss Doggie
all my loli wolf companions are so moe
Yay, now my charr has the fashionist title!
LUN are absolutely terrible. I remember being on SoR and at reset they would rarely hold their map not to mention being hard to coordinate with. HIRE were great when they had Lorthos leading them (I dunno if Scyp/Nonvo are still leading them since I transfered to JQ to be with RL friends), but when he left to do IRL stuff they collapsed and were not the same (although BG coverage had something to do with that too aka morale).
Pretty much a misconception. The ques are there for the weekend, once the weekdays come, those ques dissipate quite fast. And I dont really remember huge ques during Oceanic time at least. That said, I am sure most of the achievement hunters will be training EoTM (basically most of the PvE playerbase). EDIT: Also I am sure many of the people jumping shit during the last season did so because of the 2v1 against BG and the frustration about 'not getting fights', not about ques. People that drop down to lower tiers eventually come crawling back, like AGG.
Kos Luftar
Member
Hardcore WvW people have too much free time to play video games.
What? Hardcore WvW people are just bored as **** because Devon Carver is terrible. This is why many of these hardcore guilds have moved on to other games. But I would not expect people who play PvE predominantly to understand.
The first 6 months to a year of WvW were great. Sure you had problems that are still prevalent now, but at least it was vibrant and at least there was hope something to improve and change the dynamics could come. I recall memories of playing 16hrs straight on reset days without burning out. Now? EotM is more exciting, which isnt saying much considering how it has devolved into a karma train and PvE is a ****ton more rewarding too (which made me quit WvW too essentially combined with when all my guildies moved to Wildstar).
I actually saved a post I decided not to put on Reddit because I figured it would get TLDR / downvoted to hell. The goal was to show what legitimate, useful feedback would look like instead of just a big list of things with no useful reason why. I don't think it's a complete list of everything I dislike, but it's more than enough for now. It also doesn't include things that I know can never be removed but I philosophically disagree with (character levels, for example). It's also hard not to throw my Dream Fractals in there.
You'll note I'm not asking for new weapons, new classes, new zones, etc. because those things are coming. Same with housing, GvG, etc.; they know people want these things and probably have a plan to roll them out eventually, but it won't happen at the expense of existing content. Anyways...
Traits
Point Distribution
"Characters acquire their first trait point at level 30 and earn 1 additional point every 6 levels up to level 66, when they start earning 2 points at a time." Bleh. You end up getting trait points at such odd levels as 42, 54, 66, etc. so that it almost seems random. If you're getting 14 trait points, give em out every 5 levels starting at 15. Or two points every 10 levels, starting at 20. At least then there's a pattern that people quickly grasp.
Unlocking Traits
A huge missed opportunity for world building. This was potentially a way to integrate profession flavor into the game naturally while giving players real, solid and permanent rewards in the form of new traits. Instead it's a list of chores, a checklist of things to do. Trait unlocks should be quests (literal definition here, not gaming jargon), even something as simple as "go to this location and interact with an object", though I'd hope for something more interesting. Thieves could return to their guild and learn new traits from their old master. Necromancers could seek out graveyards or places where the dead linger and reap knowledge from the underworld. That sort of thing.
It doesn't have to be some legendary undertaking, but it would be cool if you had to fight something or solve a puzzle of some sort. It'd be best if each trait required you to complete a task that was thematically relevant (e.g. unlocking a defensive trait requires fighting an enemy that requires you to play defensively). It would at least give you a reason to go out into the world and explore, not because there's a checklist of POIs, Vistas and Waypoints to clear, but because traveling the world and learning new skills is an integral part of heroic mythology and it's a hell of a lot more interesting than map completion. I'm almost okay with being able to purchase them quickly at trainers because convenience is such a big part of the game and sometimes you really want to do something and not have hoops to jump through to do it.
Passive Traits
I'm still shocked by the number of traits that are boring, flat statistical increases. Guardians are especially bad, but every profession is loaded up with them. I get that it's hard to come up with a lot of unique modifications for each profession, and impossible to balance them when they're not easily-quantified stat boosts. But some of them are so blasé in their implementation it's almost a little insulting. The Guardian's "Force of Will" grandmaster trait (Here, have +300 Vitality!) is the worst offender in the game. It couldn't have been a cool armor effect with 3000 health that has to be broken through? At least then it would be a semi-interesting gameplay mechanic and not mundane math.
The more gameplay-oriented traits get, the more difficult they are to balance on a spreadsheet, but I feel like eventually they'll reach a point where the user input (i.e. skill) required to successfully utilize them becomes the balancing factor. Then it becomes "Are you good enough to pull it off" and not "Is your build 2/6/0/0/6?" I do not expect this to ever change, as there is too much RPG in this MMO and everyone (designers, communities, etc.) are still under the delusion that perfect balance is obtainable.
Megaservers
Districts
There needs to be a clear way to identify where you are in the game. Megaservers are awesome and they've breathed a lot of life into the game, but having guilds split up across different servers (that then become full) for missions is getting old fast, as are things like Tequatl fights being either "Full or fail". I don't even need the ability to change between them (though that would be for the best), but just being able to identify them and then figure out who needs a ferry (rather than "Can you see commander xyz?").
Cities
Cities need to be built around servers and overflows again. Not seeing familiar guilds or players, seeing Tarnished Coast RPers everywhere (emoting a ton), hearing about WvW fights that are not our own, etc. I don't think there was ever a problem with cities being kinda empty since there aren't events in them. It's kind of a community buzz kill.
Gear
Runes / Sigils
Do away with the stat boosts on them, so that they're only for the bonus effects (stats should only come from gear). Instead of slotting them into weapons and armor, take the single-rune approach PVP uses and apply it game wide. Allow Runes and Sigils to be swapped out at any time, either via a dropdown menu (unlock upgrade items via a wardrobe-like system) or just as equipment you carry with you if you want options.
Aside: They could cut a shitload of passive minor trait effects and roll them into new Rune / Sigils. Stuff like healing or damaging on dodge roll? All the fall damage ones?
Free Transmutes on White Items
Doing away with Town Clothes, I get it. It was a clunky system. Outfits aren't much better, but I have a feeling they've got plans for these that merited the changes. But there's still a lot of gear that would be nice to have access to for shits and giggles, and since almost nobody wears white gear for anything but leveling (where you replace it so quickly Transmuation charges are wasted) or roleplaying, it seems like a nice compromise.
User Interface
Merge the Equipment, Dye and Wardrobe Tabs
Switching between them is clunky, there's a lot of extra room... I have a feeling they were more focused on function than form for the feature patch, and eventually they'll get this sorted out. Not a biggie, but still kind of annoying.
Need a dedicated slot in the UI, need to move faster, need to stay summoned between zone transitions. Pointless, I know, but still. They want us to keep buying Mini-pets, I'd like to be able to use them a bit easier.
Black Lion Trading Post
Ticket Scraps
Black Lion chests should have a 100% drop rate on Black Lion Ticket Scraps, but the actual tickets themselves could require additional scraps (possibly even double). In that way, players are always making progress toward something rather than dealing with the pitfalls of randomness. A Black Lion key becomes less of a gamble and the incentive to purchase them increases substantially.
Things I would like but other people would probably hate:
Get rid of Borderlands
Blow 'em up. Add in two new unique, Eternal Battleground-style maps where no server has an advantage. Incorporate EotM-style features so objectives have more strategic value than simply PPT. Constructable bridges and barriers, camps that let you do crazy, fantastical things like turn into siege scorpions. Risk vs. reward decisions all over the terrain instead of these open spaces where zergs just spin into each other. EotM and the Ruins of Power are in my opinion the best parts of WvW, map-wise.
More involved Crafting
GW2's crafting is functional, but it's boring and people use it to grind out levels more than they do to make something useful. Vanguard still has the best crafting system, where each time you made an item it felt more like turn-based combat, where your enemy is chance and the complexity of changing one thing into another by force. A sword wasn't just 'gather the ingredients and click Create', you had to bring tools and special items to fight any complications that cropped up, from the forge going cold to the accidentally spilling material. You had a finite amount of Action Points (energy), so if you took a turn to stoke the forge, that meant less points to spend perfecting your sword and the quality would be lower.
Sadly, that game is dead and there aren't any quality videos of it without horrible narration. But anyone who played it will agree; the game was an awful mess, but it had a ton of great ideas.
You can see which map you're on with /ip but that's not quite as obvious as the district x banner in GW1 for instance.
My wishlist is the pretty boring zones/race/class/weapon that Retro preempted. Sure. "They're coming". "They can add that without an expansion." Well, it would be nice to finally move from can and will to have and are.
My wishlist is the pretty boring zones/race/class/weapon that Retro preempted. Sure. "They're coming". "They can add that without an expansion." Well, it would be nice to finally move from can and will to have and are.
I don't disagree that those are good things or think that you are bad for wanting them, because I want them too. But they're not 'problems' with the game beyond the fact that we want shiny new things and it's a problem that we don't have them. But without new classes / races / weapons the game itself isn't exactly broken or flawed.
Understandable.
I hope they keep trying to put focus on in game obtainables like Mawdrey and the Dry Top weapons and maybe pull back slightly on the cash shop push. Maybe it's perception and cynicism more that truth, but each patch notes seem to have a more extensive "in the gem store!" Section. But it's their income so it's basically necessary. Still don't look forward to reading those.
I hope they keep trying to put focus on in game obtainables like Mawdrey and the Dry Top weapons and maybe pull back slightly on the cash shop push. Maybe it's perception and cynicism more that truth, but each patch notes seem to have a more extensive "in the gem store!" Section. But it's their income so it's basically necessary. Still don't look forward to reading those.
We've been playing basically the same thing for the last 2 years. It's time for something new.
Kos Luftar
Member
I quit for like 4 months, and when I came back nothing had changed.
Kos Luftar
Member
Your such a good nephew, you never stop trolling. So proud of you.
I guess I subscribe to Hawkian's "Fighting Game" / Miktar's "Golden Axe" examples, because while new skills / weapons / classes are exciting, I'm perfectly happy to keep getting new ways to use the existing skills. Other MMOs rain skills upon you through the whole leveling process, but the context in which you use them rarely (if ever) changes.
I feel like GW2 has enough changes between fights due to environment / enemy behavior / other players that even though I'm still using the same 10 or so weapon skills, the fights I'm using them in are fresh. So if you only look at your skill bar, sure, it's been the same for two years. But if you look at all of the fights, from the Scarlet Hologram to Marionette to the Molten Duo to Mai Trin to Liadri (especially Liadri) then there's been a lot of situations where the tools you have aren't as important as the situation in which you use them.
So, don't get me wrong, those things would be great, but I'd much rather have new content to use my weapons in than new weapons to play old content with.
Kos Luftar
Member
Wonder if this hype about the AI guy means they have redesigned another Dragon. *fingers crossed for The Shatner*
The sad part about EotM is that almost no body (that I know of at least) plays in it when they are in queue, which was it's original purpose. Right now it's a completely useless but amazing map that is being heavily under utilized. I'm all for replacing the borderlands with a copy of EoTM.
I actually don't mind our current form of crafting. Sure it can be more involved but the system you're describing sounds a bit excessive maybe? I didn't play Vanguard but I have some experience with crafting mini games and they usually end up playing like a chore just to make a couple of items.
Remember how good that fight looked in pre-release footage? It was the thing I would show my friends to get them excited and get a few "holy crap" reactions so they buy the game and join me xD
I just feel like the Borderlands being three copies of the same map is kind of boring, but I know they have to be identical because one World can't have any perceived advantage over the others. I think it would be much more interesting if they just did away with the idea of each world having a "Home map" and just threw in crazy map concepts that people want to play on because it suits their play style or preference.
As for crafting, I'm not sure I explained it very well. Because GW2 doesn't have a gear grind, crafting could be much more involved because it's not something you would do very often (really, when you just want a new weapon to play with). Getting for 0-500 would feel like a chore, but it kind of does already so....
Tell me about it. I actually wanna level armorsmithing from 0-500 today but I'm waiting for something good to show up on TV so I don't feel like I wasted 2 hours checking things off a list on gw2crafts.
Speaking of which, I'm planning to make a full ascended armor set for my guardian to use at high fractals. Should I make a Zerker set or stick to soldiers for better survivability at level 50?
Speaking of which, I'm planning to make a full ascended armor set for my guardian to use at high fractals. Should I make a Zerker set or stick to soldiers for better survivability at level 50?
Personally, I'd tie weapon skins and outfits to crafting, but make it so that you could buy convenience items from the gem store in order to make the skins faster.
I think it'd be a neat way to dangle the progression carrot in front of people while still funneling to the gem store for skins. Plus, you get the satisfaction of having crafted the skins you own. People like new skins and appearance, so why not tie that to progression? Plus you could mix it up where depending on the ingredients used, the color is different or something.
I think it'd be a neat way to dangle the progression carrot in front of people while still funneling to the gem store for skins. Plus, you get the satisfaction of having crafted the skins you own. People like new skins and appearance, so why not tie that to progression? Plus you could mix it up where depending on the ingredients used, the color is different or something.
For all the raging against the game by the community, I find myself with simpler squabbles. I hate Logitech. My Rumblepad 2 that I used for years broke while on vacation (during my GW2 hiatus) and so when I restarted I needed to buy their new model, the F710.
The only issue, the F710's wireless strength, unlike its predecessor, becomes shoddy at 6 ft range. So randomly my controller will act up. During an AC run last night I began twirling in circles at the Howler King. Very embarrassing.
The only issue, the F710's wireless strength, unlike its predecessor, becomes shoddy at 6 ft range. So randomly my controller will act up. During an AC run last night I began twirling in circles at the Howler King. Very embarrassing.
A large part of the player base probably hates crafting which is understandable. What's the point of tying goals to crafting when it's tedious at best and insufferable for a lot of people. The GW2 crafting UI doesn't help either. A lot of people never even bothered with Ascended gear because the amount of crafting involved was ridiculous. Using the gem store to "win faster" is also a terrible idea.
UltimateIke
Member
I soloed CM Path 3 this morning. And then promptly added it to the list of things I will never attempt again.
If I didn't know any better, I would say it was something designed for at least five people to do together.
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If I didn't know any better, I would say it was something designed for at least five people to do together.
-_-
But you already use the gem store to get skins. This is just providing more options for getting skins while adding incentive and creativity to the crafting system. Plus, it's not tied to stats like crafting ascended stuff was.
I dunno, just throwin' ideas out.
I think what people are waiting on in terms of "big changes" is some kind of new mechanic. Not merely new weapons or skills, but some kind of actual mechanic that changes how you play a little bit. What they actually mean by that varies from person to person, I'm sure. Anet's added a lot of changes to how groups can tackle events, but not necessarily how an individual can tackle an event. While I don't mind lacking a trinity, most combat boils down to a few similar choices across all classes/approaches, with a few gimmicks for specific encounters. I think we need more options for individuals in terms approaching encounters outside of large mass events like Teq or Wurm.
Now, am I begging for this or do I have any ideas of what this would be? No. I'm just saying what I think people are yearning for when they say they're bored with updates and are waiting for something bigger. Of course, you're never going to satisfy everyone. Anet added a new area, but people are still wanting more. I don't blame them, but it's tough to nail down what people want when they often don't really know what they want either. Anet's focus right now is making it so that new people can still be added to the fold. I don't think veteran attrition is a huge issue for them at the moment, or at the very least, they feel that the living story is bringing some of them back.
Huge changes to WvW are certainly needed, and I think they're probably sitting on a few things they can pull out when they see declining competitive populations fall out beyond reasonable levels. In my opinion EoTM, is a huge wasted opportunity that did not really succeed at it's original goals. I doubt they're incredibly happy with how it turned out either.
While Mawdrey is a very good example, Dry Top weapons are a very bad one if you try to think of weapons skins to obtain done right.
Simply because the base item required is 'once again' too RNG based.
(Also I have my concerns about the map and the ability to get on T5 (or is it 6 now) to be able to grab the recipes once the map isn't a hot topic anymore.)
If you look closer, everything that is/was not tied to a LS story reward is either heavily RNG dependant, or Gem dependant if not both.
RNG might sound like a fair way of putting everyone on the same level on paper, but it's NEVER perceived that way by the players.
Also there has not be an entire new set of armor added to the game since launch that isn't a gem store purchase, and that's extremely sad .....
Spehornoob
Member
I honestly don't think a new race is gonna happen. The personal story is already so tied around the five races as they are, and it wouldn't really make sense for a Tengu or a Largos to be around during the fall of Zhaitan. Unless those new races start at 80 or get a completely new Personal Story path, I think it'll be hard to reconcile,
It's funny, in terms of what the game actually needs, new races, classes, and weapons are actually pretty low on the list in my opinion.
I'm sure they'd be a great marketing pull, but I honestly don't see them adding the "oomph" people are actually looking for.
The PS of the new race do not have to occur in the same time frame as the old PS, and I can see them adding a new race or class further down the road as part of the LS.
I don't even feel like they need new classes. Classes are so general that you can just add a new weapon or two and a few traits to class X and it can play very differently. And I agree with Retro that I think people would rather have new stuff to do with their current options than new options to use on older stuff, if we have to choose between the two.
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