Colin Johanson on Guild Wars 2 in the Months Ahead (2013)

[Fencers]

Will have to politely disagree. Funny that in your next statement you yourself make the distinction between "hardcore" and hardcore.

There is a difference in "I am a hardcore shuffleboard player" [devotes a lot of time to the activity] and "Shuffleboard is hardcore" [the activity is demanding].

It's pretty common for enthusiasts to mistake either phrasing. Because well, enthusiasts like to believe their enthusiasm is justified. Which it may or may not be, natch. Though the distinction is still present and what I was driving at.

Uh, really, no. No MMO I've ever played has had anywhere near the level of game-breaking imbalances that every Elder Scrolls game has.

Well, you are talking about degree there with the whole razing all of Vivec, becoming an immortal vampire-werewolf-cliff racer-demigod & whathaveyou.

That has nothing to do with hardcore game design or bugs/imbalances. There are dozens of MMOs which featured the latter. The only real differences being endemic to the two genres; persistent world multiplayer rpg and single player rpg.

There was/are game breaking stuff such as bugging a boss so he didn't attack [free loot in EQ] which provided an advantage or character classes behaving in such a way as to make themselves nigh invulnerable [thanes DAOC] or simply gaining power by some trick of economy [GW2] in a variety of MMOs.

Now I never levitated above Guk to cast a 1,000 mile radius Fireball. That point is yours, sir.

However, I do think the likelihood of such a thing is pretty low in TESO. A Sasquatch one can get stuck up against wall and cast perma stuns upon? Well, that might be common in TESO... a number of other MMOs too.

[Zilong]

Terrible idea, the advantage of DoTs is it's more damgae per skill use but not at once ( in most cases) if you then convert this to instant damage suddenly DoTs would be superior to 'normal' instant dmg skills

Yeah, that would be really just a band aid to a massive bleeding...
I love conditions (I've played ALOT of ranger shortbow+traps) but it does need some tweak.
It's not broken as I didn't really have a problem so far but at times I felt useless.

To me a more pressing (and extremely impossible to change I would say) matter is the actual enemy.
Most of the mobs are just to simple and not very smart, I wish they would just put some better skills to use them...A snare and a big attack is usually not enough unless Im daydreaming and even so.. Whenever you find yourself with a few mobs with different abilities it's way more challenging, but that's because they all have a different skill (usually) that will make you sweat abit. I don't see why they couldn't give higher level enemies a better selection of skills that makes the combat a little more engaging (Hell give them a "class" and a bunch of skills and call it gw1). The toughness and hp and 1 hard hitting skills are, for me, a lil too little. Give them better heal abilities, drop the stacks of conditions, shield them up (specially if we are talking about a bigger event).

I know it's a lot of ranting but even with this the condition problem could change/minimize?

Well I'm done lol XD

[Lane]

Tissues located in gem shop.

Those tissues are on surprise sale today for 75% off, hope you didn't already buy some!

First thing that came to mind when I read that. :P

[jaakkeli]

If there are 50 players on one event I doubt it matters if bleeds have a cap. The thing will die anyway without you doing anything but spamming attack 1.

You do need to do enough damage to actually get gold credit for the event though. I'm guessing even the lowest damage spec will get that if you start off spamming 1 when a dragon spawns but if you come to an event a bit late after someone in chat alerted you to it, it is actually noticeably tougher to get gold credit with a bleed spec.

That isn't nearly as important as bleed specs being gimped for dungeons because of the cap. I'd love to spec and gear my warrior for bleeds as sword/sword is a lot more fun than greatsword but with that I can get up to the 25 bleed cap all by myself at times, it would be really gimped for group play. It's damn rare to see anyone running anything besides direct damage builds because conditions are so gimped for groups.

[Meledelion]

Yeah, that would be really just a band aid to a massive bleeding...
I love conditions (I've played ALOT of ranger shortbow+traps) but it does need some tweak.
It's not broken as I didn't really have a problem so far but at times I felt useless.

To me a more pressing (and extremely impossible to change I would say) matter is the actual enemy.
Most of the mobs are just to simple and not very smart, I wish they would just put some better skills to use them...A snare and a big attack is usually not enough unless Im daydreaming and even so.. Whenever you find yourself with a few mobs with different abilities it's way more challenging, but that's because they all have a different skill (usually) that will make you sweat abit. I don't see why they couldn't give higher level enemies a better selection of skills that makes the combat a little more engaging (Hell give them a "class" and a bunch of skills and call it gw1). The toughness and hp and 1 hard hitting skills are, for me, a lil too little. Give them better heal abilities, drop the stacks of conditions, shield them up (specially if we are talking about a bigger event).

I know it's a lot of ranting but even with this the condition problem could change/minimize?

Well I'm done lol XD

The issue with this is that most players aren't smart either. People who heal every time they lose 5% of their hp is a good indicator for instance. (similar to people who reload after every kill in fps games).
Most people who die/get downed, simply don't know what to dodge. Oh an animation, better dodge and then the "real" thing comes and they can't dodge any more so a rant follows "Not enough endurance to dodge QQ"

Another issue is how locked down the mechanics of the game are. You can't put in "must interrupt" skills since then their philosophy of "everyone can do our content" falls short, all of a sudden they are forcing people to equip x-weapon since they need the interrupts (I don't have issues with this but I don't count for everyone).

Not having a trinity also makes it so there are more limits, taunt rotations can't exist, cd rotations can't exist (unless you force everyone to bring Ash legion spy kits or normal stealth skills).

However those things still aren't an excuse as to why the mechanics are so dull. What they could do is use de buff/buff mechanics more. I love the Dredge fractal for this. Or simple things like 5pools you have to jump into where each pool has a certain effect, the blue pool gives you regeneration, the green pool gives the boss poison so he heals less, red gives you 10% more power, yellow gives everyone toughness and black removes conditions from your team every X seconds.
With phase shifting where you have to change pools according to what phase the boss is in.

[jaakkeli]

Another issue is how locked down the mechanics of the game are. You can't put in "must interrupt" skills since then their philosophy of "everyone can do our content" falls short, all of a sudden they are forcing people to equip x-weapon since they need the interrupts (I don't have issues with this but I don't count for everyone).

They could actually easily get around that with the game mechanics. If the boss has an ability you need to interrupt, just put in some environmental weapons near him in case a party simply doesn't have anyone with an interrupt ability on their weapon sets (which right now is really more than probable since the weapon sets with interrupts tend to be used only in PvP). And it would still be better if you could use someone's own interrupt so that they could use the weapon that they traited for.

[Meledelion]

They could actually easily get around that with the game mechanics. If the boss has an ability you need to interrupt, just put in some environmental weapons near him in case a party simply doesn't have anyone with an interrupt ability on their weapon sets (which right now is really more than probable since the weapon sets with interrupts tend to be used only in PvP). And it would still be better if you could use someone's own interrupt so that they could use the weapon that they traited for.

So you're still penalising people who don't "bring" the other weapons. Don't get me wrong I love your idea (I think it's a good solution and I overlooked it with my example) but the moment people "have to" use something they don't want to there will be loads of QQ. Especially if you're in a certain group where nobody wants to "pull levers, yes you again mr dredge fractal". But what they did with CM was really good imo and proof that your idea works, kudos!

Or platform jumping, where there's a huge asura golem that deactivates parts of the field depending on what "area" you attack (you shoot his leggs, bam all tiles that are more than 600y away are gone, you shoot his arms all tiles to the left and right drop off so only one big lane is now open for "kiting",...)

[Drakhar]

That's not a strong point.

Not only is it not a strong point, it's not the point at all...

jaakkeli pretty much covered it:

You do need to do enough damage to actually get gold credit for the event though. I'm guessing even the lowest damage spec will get that if you start off spamming 1 when a dragon spawns but if you come to an event a bit late after someone in chat alerted you to it, it is actually noticeably tougher to get gold credit with a bleed spec.

That isn't nearly as important as bleed specs being gimped for dungeons because of the cap. I'd love to spec and gear my warrior for bleeds as sword/sword is a lot more fun than greatsword but with that I can get up to the 25 bleed cap all by myself at times, it would be really gimped for group play. It's damn rare to see anyone running anything besides direct damage builds because conditions are so gimped for groups.

... And then you have classes like us Necromancers who just have to sit around and be butthurt, whose "viable" power spec is not as effective as other classes. So either go condition and hope no one else stacks them, or go power and be a drag on your group. It was totally awesome getting silver/bronze medals leveling because you couldn't do enough pure damage to targets :/

[Zilong]

The issue with.....snip.

Well yeah, most players aren't smart. But I think what I meant is not really the upmost usage of "musts"

It's more of a trade-off (in the world enviroment, since group efforts inside instances are usually heavier hitting). A bigger amount of slow damage skills with a few variations ( I mean, I would love to actually see a mob dodge me and say...use that ranger sword skill to get away and come back), continue with one big tell heavy hitter, and a few utility skills or even just one.

Gw2 is really combat centered with no problems of "resources" spending aka HP. The battle is over and you are quickly recovered. Gw is really a dueling game but when playing against pretty much alot of the enemies it feels blend.

So what I'm trying to say (and not sure if I'm doing a good job) is that regardless of the people are not smart it feels to me that the trade off would be a TRADE, not a fist in the head of all players. You fight an enemy, he dodges you, you dodge him, your build is tanky you survive abit more, you deal condition damage that specific enemy uses a CD to take it off and so on (making conditions nerfed I know but then It would make sense for having say 2-3 condition damager, and tweak the numbers instead). I think it would be tremendously more engaging and in fact provide more depth in general.

I mean you could make a pack of skritt each one with lower hp and each one with one specific CD that helps all. One dies, gets easier. Ideas are endless.

This is the kind of potential this game have. And that's what I dream about even tho I dont think it will happen lol

About bosses you are right but I think Fractals already put that into play and they said they want to revamp all bosses to a more fun way. So that's covered.

---

@jaakkeli

I've been a condition damager lover since launch and I have 4 chars with that focus. I've have never since launch had a problem with medals...I don't think that's a problem. I've arrived hyper late on dragon fights with bleed specs and got gold medal and if not silver medal which is okay cause I did get late there. So I'm not sure here really, even at launch when some really had problems to get it, now it's even stupid easy to get (Unless you just heal I guess, which I want them to change).

And well It's true that I don't see as much bleed on dungeon groups, but then I can keep up my good damage anyways lol. I've never had a problem with dungeon cap for conditions really.

[Remilia]

What's not to love?

•The concept behind this is to allow players to earn new rewards for achievements, as well as progressing down achievement paths that take advantage of the open world experience. We’ll add tokens for your achievement you can turn in to select from a list of rewards, including new reward types like ascended gear and infusions.

-snip- shorten it.

* Improving the “looking for group” tool to make it easier to find other players to play with in the game.

* The improvements and fixes to the fractal dungeons, detailed in Isaiah Cartwright’s blog post.

I'll be honest. It sounds very much like...
1. Doing dailies for rewards, which is annoying as hell at points, though that's my opinion on dailies.
2. Call of Duty level up and ranking.
(For the 'new' features).

ArenaNet cant tell you what they are doing because thats all subject to change meaning broken promises meaning enraged customers. And as far as ive heard they are following through on the systems they said they are working on. Not everything can be done on your or anyone-else's time table. They let you know before release this is our plan for Esports. Now just because that was the plan doesnt mean that it had been executed. It was still a work in progress and theres nothing wrong with that. There is a community that likes esports and they wanted ppl to know that it was something they wanted to do as well. But there are alot of systems that go into that stuff that were not ready in beta or even up till now. They are finally getting closer to executing their plan. Complain once its launched and poorly done, not while its still being put together and you cant see any of it.

To an extent, any company can.

In terms of programming, I'm more of the, be certain of what you're going to do and do it. If you're going to change your mind every so often it just causes serious problems, PR wise, internally and potentially the quality of the program (game in this case).

There's a certain point where you're telling people what you're going to do / want to do, and then there is just repeating it and making people go... 'stop it, we get it, just shut up and do it'. If they don't, then they shouldn't have said it in the first place.

If it's all subject to change, then they never had a clear plan on it or enough of an understanding of what they're doing. This causes many issues for public relations. This is bad for everyone.

[Zilong]

I'll be honest. It sounds very much like...
1. Doing dailies for rewards, which is annoying as hell at points, though that's my opinion on dailies.
2. Call of Duty level up and ranking.
(For the 'new' features).
To an extent, any company can.

In terms of programming, I'm more of the, be certain of what you're going to do and do it. If you're going to change your mind every so often it just causes serious problems, PR wise, internally and potentially the quality of the program (game in this case).

There's a certain point where you're telling people what you're going to do / want to do, and then there is just repeating it and making people go... 'stop it, we get it, just shut up and do it'. If they don't, then they shouldn't have said it in the first place.

If it's all subject to change, then they never had a clear plan on it or enough of an understanding of what they're doing. This causes many issues for public relations. This is bad for everyone.

Dailies are just another thing to do, it's far from mandatory right? And even so it's likely to achieve even without realizing it. Dailies that you must do are annoying in my point of view, but these were never really anything like that. I think it's nice because mainly achievement lovers get to be extra rewarded (which I think it's fair), then there is the ones who will achieve for the reward itself which is also fair (more stuff to do), and then there is the ones who doesn't care that won't miss anything because from what I've gather most things will be available elsewhere (gear, dyes, harvesting stuff..so on.)

I'm not really sure about CoD because I never played it.

---

As for the PR stuff. Yeah of course the change of mind often causes serious problems. But I can't recall any moderate-to-high changes made by Anet, in fact the "mind" was always set and the problem was mainly late features. Which is different right? They've always told what they were actually doing, and they (as far as I can remember) always were clear on the "wants" to do it which usually meant a lesser priority. The "going to do" only fits when they said they were doing it and didn't deliver in time (guesting being the most and probably only one so far). The repeating factor is there but you may recall/notice how much people bring the matter up constantly thus making them repeat, vicious cycle there. The plan is definitely there and what they do (smartly so) is not reveal details (because it just messes up the process of building it, and the potential of being changed and making people mad without necessity) but the mind is set on a goal which was already told to us.

The "I'm more of the be certain of what you're going to do and do it" is certainly a smart pov and I agree with it and as pretty much of all your observations there. But honestly I wasn't sure (must be that I'm sleepy) if you were just talking about it in general or actually applying it to gw2, so I kinda already took that way, pardon me and dismiss it if it wasn't.

[Remilia]

Yes it was mostly in general.

[Lane]

The "daily" in GW2 is nowhere near the level of doing dailies in any other MMO I've played. Currently, I can get the daily done in 30 minutes just running a circle around the beginning area of Wayfarer Foothills and that's if I'm looking to get it done quickly. Otherwise, it usually auto completes itself just through routine playing with the exception being the 15 unique kills, that one I have to go out of my way for sometimes.

My biggest gripe right now are the monthly achievements. It's bad enough that for whatever reason WvW kills are a staple, but the past two months they've thrown in fractal requirements too. So, if you don't like to PvP or running dungeons you're basically screwed on the monthly. I'd really like to see them mix it up more or at least have the monthly operate like the event meta achievements do where there's a couple of dozen to choose from, but you only have to complete about 3/4 of them to get credit.

[Deleted]

http://dulfy.net/2013/01/17/gw2-dev-...17-transcript/
Has it been linked already? If yes , sorry xD

Please AN... don't give portals to other profs Don't make profs all the same !

[Karizee]

There is a difference in "I am a hardcore shuffleboard player" [devotes a lot of time to the activity] and "Shuffleboard is hardcore" [the activity is demanding]

Fencers, I know you like to stick your definitions but sometimes I wonder how just many people have gone into GW2 thinking the dungeons would be easy (based on your comments about how casual they are) and got a nasty shock when it's a difficulty factor of 10 above a game like WoW, haha.

I'd really like to see them mix it up more or at least have the monthly operate like the event meta achievements do where there's a couple of dozen to choose from, but you only have to complete about 3/4 of them to get credit.

Change is coming for that, there will be 6 activities but you can choose which 4 to complete the monthly.

[Fencers]

Fencers, I know you like to stick your definitions but sometimes I wonder how just many people have gone into GW2 thinking the dungeons would be easy (based on your comments about how casual they are) and got a nasty shock when it's a difficulty factor of 10 above a game like WoW, haha.

Probably quite a few!

Though casual focused games are not inherently "easy" games. Wither Minesweeper?

A casual play experience is mostly a matter of accessibility and non-punitive systems. A modern example would be say, Oblivion contrasted to Morrowind and further Skyrim. Each iteration was often more streamlined and accessible than the preceding entry. This actually goes back as far as Arena- infamous for stymieing players at level 1.

Don't mistake difficulty for hardcore or casual play for easy. The relationship is mostly fictitious and irrelevant where not; the greatest game ever made was created for literal children. It was neither a "hard" or "hardcore" game.

[jaakkeli]

I've been a condition damager lover since launch and I have 4 chars with that focus. I've have never since launch had a problem with medals...I don't think that's a problem. I've arrived hyper late on dragon fights with bleed specs and got gold medal and if not silver medal which is okay cause I did get late there.

Dragon fights aren't really an issue but the difference is really noticeable with events like "random champion X near waypoint Y". My bursty warrior could step in on a fight with a sliver of life left on a champion, use 2 skills before the mob dies and do enough damage for gold in that time. Condi specs, no way. It's not a huge balance issue, sure, but it's very noticeable.

And well It's true that I don't see as much bleed on dungeon groups, but then I can keep up my good damage anyways lol. I've never had a problem with dungeon cap for conditions really.

I think the problem is that we have a different idea of what counts as a problem.

Have I ever had a problem finishing some random pug dungeon because I've ended up with condition specced players? Not really.

Have I ever noticed a run slowed down because I've ended up with condition specced players? Yes, definitely, to the point where I do not invite condition specced players if I have a choice. If I'm gonna go do all the paths to some dungeon in one go for farm, I want it to go with speed and if I get a bunch of whispers to the LFM spam I'm really not going to invite a necro who probably can't do shit anyway. My warrior with a super pumped crit rate and a crit bleed trait that I really can't get rid of keeps up a good bunch of terrible damage bleeds already taking up space and then add to that all the random conditions that the other not really condition specced players apply.

[Zilong]

Dragon fights aren't really an issue but the difference is really noticeable with events like "random champion X near waypoint Y". My bursty warrior could step in on a fight with a sliver of life left on a champion, use 2 skills before the mob dies and do enough damage for gold in that time. Condi specs, no way. It's not a huge balance issue, sure, but it's very noticeable.

Yeah. Still...maybe because I'm usually on a ranger and 3 shortbows arrows are enough for a gold regardless of bleeds (which only triggers if Im on his back anyways). I played a few with other classes condition focused like my staff mesmer, warrior bleed and so on and I have never had a problem, if I don't get there (and I think your example merely applies to bigger fights since "adds" events would be easy to tag, and dragon events usually last enough to get.) it's because I didn't get there really.. I just think when you say:

"My bursty warrior could step in on a fight with a sliver of life left on a champion"

Probably means that he is bursty enough to do it, and that's a choice you have on a build. Therefore you did damage quick enough regardless of time. We know that conditions specs takes more time to work and that's all around...I still find that's a "weak" point aside from the conditions real problem.

I think the problem is that we have a different idea of what counts as a problem.

Have I ever had a problem finishing some random pug dungeon because I've ended up with condition specced players? Not really.

Have I ever noticed a run slowed down because I've ended up with condition specced players? Yes, definitely, to the point where I do not invite condition specced players if I have a choice. If I'm gonna go do all the paths to some dungeon in one go for farm, I want it to go with speed and if I get a bunch of whispers to the LFM spam I'm really not going to invite a necro who probably can't do shit anyway. My warrior with a super pumped crit rate and a crit bleed trait that I really can't get rid of keeps up a good bunch of terrible damage bleeds already taking up space and then add to that all the random conditions that the other not really condition specced players apply.

Yeah, I just said that It never had a problem since so far without picking groups based on builds I usually get maybe 2 condis, I don't think I ever got 3. The design inside the Condition damage is definitely flawed but I'm thinking maybe raw power is more popular? Or just maybe as you said most people just go Raw power because of the condition's condition. All in all I do agree with you on this altho it goes over class balance too and a tiny bit of discrimination... XD (poor necros.)

[Durzlla]

I pretty much sat there with my dog reading this squealing with joy the whole time... Probably because I want that cat, and because everything I really do is World PvE/ jumping puzzle related with minor exceptions...

---------- Post added 2013-01-19 at 10:49 AM ----------

Yeah, that would be really just a band aid to a massive bleeding...
I love conditions (I've played ALOT of ranger shortbow+traps) but it does need some tweak.
It's not broken as I didn't really have a problem so far but at times I felt useless.

To me a more pressing (and extremely impossible to change I would say) matter is the actual enemy.
Most of the mobs are just to simple and not very smart, I wish they would just put some better skills to use them...A snare and a big attack is usually not enough unless Im daydreaming and even so.. Whenever you find yourself with a few mobs with different abilities it's way more challenging, but that's because they all have a different skill (usually) that will make you sweat abit. I don't see why they couldn't give higher level enemies a better selection of skills that makes the combat a little more engaging (Hell give them a "class" and a bunch of skills and call it gw1). The toughness and hp and 1 hard hitting skills are, for me, a lil too little. Give them better heal abilities, drop the stacks of conditions, shield them up (specially if we are talking about a bigger event).

I know it's a lot of ranting but even with this the condition problem could change/minimize?

Well I'm done lol XD

Well... are you talking about Risen/Skritt? Because both of those mob types are designed around you fighting a large amount of them at once (this is why Risen and skritt have a passive that calls other nearby risen/skritt when you agro one), if you're talking about something more along the lines of Ettins, or Dredge though... well none of those are really in areas that they're supposed to be super dangerous... but i've noticed each race has their own sort of "fighting style".

[Zilong]

Well... are you talking about Risen/Skritt? Because both of those mob types are designed around you fighting a large amount of them at once (this is why Risen and skritt have a passive that calls other nearby risen/skritt when you agro one), if you're talking about something more along the lines of Ettins, or Dredge though... well none of those are really in areas that they're supposed to be super dangerous... but i've noticed each race has their own sort of "fighting style".

The part where you say about noticing the each race has their own sort of fighting style I totally agree, but I think it's pretty safe to assume that none of those styles are really a thread no matter how they do it, the thing that will bring you down is 90% of the time a super strong hit that you missed to dodge (I'll totally disregard rushing thru map and aggroing everyone).

I agree that Risen and Skritt are supposed to be dealt with in a large amount but that's where it fails in concept. Yes they are bringing the density in the maps a little more but only because it's just a pain in the ass to have no breath room and has nothing to do with difficulty or anything like that (just before anyone brings that up XD). The zombies seems to be strategically positioned off each other and besides when I'm just running thru it's pretty rare to actually get a chain reaction of pulls (if any really). Sure if you dodge and keep kiting it away you are going to call one of 2 more but that's far from the "fighting a large amount". I would even "dare" to say that the areas where the density is a bit bigger it seems to be designed for groups that rarely go there anyways and if you go (as I did) going carefully is the way to go of course but generally for the aware of radius and surroundings, the enemies itself are really...blend. Same goes to skritt, besides events I always see them in maybe pairs, rarely trios. And they never where a thread, never.

I'm talking more in the lines of a trade-off in difficulty. Why not have a pack of zombies tight that you will encounter like that and designed to be like that. Also if they can chill, use some necro stuff and so on, wouldn't be too bad to give them a bit more power overall. Same with Skritt. I'm talking more in the lines of little adds togheter type of combat if they are supposed to be like that. Anywhere else, Ettins, Dredge or anything really. They could just have a bit more selection of skills that can counter/make you work a bit more. Why can't bandits dodge YOU as well? Heal themselves if needed (not always, appreciate that what I'm saying is not "I want more difficulty" kinda of deal).

In the end I just think that the balance is one sided. We have 15 skills (possibly more), The class mechanic (initiative, life force, etc), gear, the build itself, the traits you can choose, runes, sigils AND dodge. I feel like the Depth of the combat could be transfered a bit to the other side, make it a bit more alive, maybe how it was in gw1?

Do you understand what Im saying? Or do I sound too crazy lol.