Guild Wars 2: The One Thread

[Karizee]

spend hours doing a fotm or dungeon only to get kicked not gain anything from it

I believe I have identified your problem if you are spending hours without killing even one mob or boss ;-)

But seriously, if you see someone abusing the LFG tool you can right click and report. Those players will face a suspension or a ban in extreme cases.

[Svifnymr]

It mostly looks like a bunch of quality of life changes that should have been there since launch (but took them over a year and half to implement.....bravo?). And some of the changes seem to be for the worse.....aka, only acquiring a trait point every so many levels now. Looks like it will make leveling alts more of a hassle and borefest than it was before.

It's like the change to talent trees between Wrath and Cata, trimming numbers that didn't need to be there. The total number doesn't matter, so much as when it starts. Having none until level 30 feels a little off.

I just don't understand some of the people praising a developer like Anet who gives them features that honestly should have been in the game ages ago. It's almost like people cheering a car manufacturer for adding in heat/AC a year after you bought the car from them. Although, better late than never I suppose.

The comparison is flawed given the feature set isn't requirements, as you said they're quality of life changes. If your car maker came by and upgraded your radio, would you say "hey, that's good" or would you just tell them "better late than never I suppose"?

Edit: I also lol'ed at the people who were valiantly defending the Megaservers, saying it wasn't because of a lower or declining population. I'm sorry, but if a lot of servers can't even fill a zone that has the popular "hot spots" for events, farming, etc....then guess what? The game is losing numbers. And no, a select few high pop servers that people love to show off as the game still being "highly active" do not count. It's like people who were showing off the Fatman server in SWTOR before it merged servers and went free to play.

It may have something to do with game numbers, but it certainly has to do with SERVER numbers. The servers became more lopsided as time went on and this is a balancing factor to spread the population better. Having overflows for some servers while others are unable to complete bosses needs a solution. Luckily it didn't take them forever to develop and deploy.

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i meant i cant get a group going without it falling apart for numerous reasons the lfg system sucks as theres no restrictions or ways to stop people from getting to last boss and kicking you so they can sell it

spend hours doing a fotm or dungeon only to get kicked not gain anything from it

Oddly enough, a friend and I were just discussing this problem with the Arah dungeon. Apparently half of her dungeon runs end in getting kicked at the last boss so the last guys can sell the final kill. She runs other stuff regularly though, so not sure if it's mostly unique to Arah.

[TheWindWalker]

As someone who occasionally looks back at GW2 and plays off and on for a week then leaves it again, the trait is fairly detrimental to lowbies for me.

Part of GW2's biggest problem with leveling is that once you hit about 30, you're done. The rest are done with skill points which you can finish up without ever getting near 80. Traits were the only thing really encouraging leveling up at that point, aside from the story the first time you play it as all three branches have exactly the same outcomes, so having to wait till 30 and then every six levels just means "I leveled up! ... Why do I care, again?"

[Svifnymr]

As someone who occasionally looks back at GW2 and plays off and on for a week then leaves it again, the trait is fairly detrimental to lowbies for me.

Part of GW2's biggest problem with leveling is that once you hit about 30, you're done. The rest are done with skill points which you can finish up without ever getting near 80. Traits were the only thing really encouraging leveling up at that point, aside from the story the first time you play it as all three branches have exactly the same outcomes, so having to wait till 30 and then every six levels just means "I leveled up! ... Why do I care, again?"

I'd think the 1-10 is about weapons/ learning/ unlocking, then I guess 10-30 is about skillpoints, then 30+ is traits, in a general sense. The pace is still iffy of course.

I am curious how folks feel about needing to unlock various traits while leveling.

[Zephyr Storm]

It's like the change to talent trees between Wrath and Cata, trimming numbers that didn't need to be there. The total number doesn't matter, so much as when it starts. Having none until level 30 feels a little off.


The comparison is flawed given the feature set isn't requirements, as you said they're quality of life changes. If your car maker came by and upgraded your radio, would you say "hey, that's good" or would you just tell them "better late than never I suppose"?



It may have something to do with game numbers, but it certainly has to do with SERVER numbers. The servers became more lopsided as time went on and this is a balancing factor to spread the population better. Having overflows for some servers while others are unable to complete bosses needs a solution. Luckily it didn't take them forever to develop and deploy.

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Oddly enough, a friend and I were just discussing this problem with the Arah dungeon. Apparently half of her dungeon runs end in getting kicked at the last boss so the last guys can sell the final kill. She runs other stuff regularly though, so not sure if it's mostly unique to Arah.

Ever one of the optimists for this game.

[zed zebes]

Friends don't let friends PUG.

[draykorinee]

Friends don't let friends PUG.

My friends quit after this first run of AC

[Sunseeker]

I'd think the 1-10 is about weapons/ learning/ unlocking, then I guess 10-30 is about skillpoints, then 30+ is traits, in a general sense. The pace is still iffy of course.

I am curious how folks feel about needing to unlock various traits while leveling.

As much as I like GW2, I'm still baffled by the desire to have 80 levels. Was it a competing with WoW thing? Is having a shit-ton of levels "in" these days? I guess we couldn't have small, quickly-finished-off levels if say, a whole zone only gave us one level instead of 5. I'd really be happy for someone to take a step back to the more D&D-sourced days of MMOs and stop at 20 or 30. Because I generally agree that everything after 30 or 40 isn't really that interesting. Especially now that they've made so many levels into dead levels, just empty numbers.

I dunno. I barely log in anymore, maybe GW2 just isn't the kind of game I want anymore.

[Zephyr Storm]

As much as I like GW2, I'm still baffled by the desire to have 80 levels. Was it a competing with WoW thing? Is having a shit-ton of levels "in" these days? I guess we couldn't have small, quickly-finished-off levels if say, a whole zone only gave us one level instead of 5. I'd really be happy for someone to take a step back to the more D&D-sourced days of MMOs and stop at 20 or 30. Because I generally agree that everything after 30 or 40 isn't really that interesting. Especially now that they've made so many levels into dead levels, just empty numbers.

I dunno. I barely log in anymore, maybe GW2 just isn't the kind of game I want anymore.

GW2 was designed to not have levels honestly. They seemed to just tack them on at the end of development to appease all the people who were use to leveling up a bunch in MMOs. The levels literally seem like an afterthought or an "oh shit!" type deal with GW2. I dunno. And now that there is a bunch of "dead" levels with the trait redesign, the levels seem even more useless.

[Deleted]

i meant i cant get a group going without it falling apart for numerous reasons the lfg system sucks as theres no restrictions or ways to stop people from getting to last boss and kicking you so they can sell it

spend hours doing a fotm or dungeon only to get kicked not gain anything from it

What levels do you do? Ever since I started doing levels 28+ I've had some amazing groups. I've done level 49 faster than I did a level 10, because they all know what they are doing. Also it helps a ton to start a party yourself, even better with at least one guildie so it gives you some power like not being able to be kicked or basically 'owning' the party. I don't really join other parties through the lfg system unless it's something simple like CoF.

And if you feel the party is going to fail (like, they don't communicate at all), just leave right away. I don't even try.

[Smitzelplix]

Edit: I also lol'ed at the people who were valiantly defending the Megaservers, saying it wasn't because of a lower or declining population. I'm sorry, but if a lot of servers can't even fill a zone that has the popular "hot spots" for events, farming, etc....then guess what? The game is losing numbers. And no, a select few high pop servers that people love to show off as the game still being "highly active" do not count. It's like people who were showing off the Fatman server in SWTOR before it merged servers and went free to play.

I think megaservers or just less overall servers are going to become the norm for most games. Even WoW has started doing the connected realm thing, and Elder Scrolls Online started with megaservers. I think it's logical for most MMOs to do this, because the initial population of the game isn't always going to stay interested in the game. Also having less servers or just having megaservers are good because it would hopefully eliminate mergers later on to avoid forced character name changes, which is a sore spot for a lot of MMO gamers.

[Karizee]

I think megaservers or just less overall servers are going to become the norm for most games. Even WoW has started doing the connected realm thing, and Elder Scrolls Online started with megaservers. I think it's logical for most MMOs to do this, because the initial population of the game isn't always going to stay interested in the game. Also having less servers or just having megaservers are good because it would hopefully eliminate mergers later on to avoid forced character name changes, which is a sore spot for a lot of MMO gamers.

It's also a great way to future proof the game as new zones open and the older zones naturally have less traffic. Smart of them to put it in now before we get the new zones for S2 Living Story.

It's kind of amazing to see Hoelbrak as a bustling metropolis. I don't remember it ever being this busy even at launch. And Orr is back, baby!

Megaserver = MegaAWESOME

[Svifnymr]

Ever one of the optimists for this game.

Compared to your straight bashing with no real purpose, I guess giving a mixed response IS optimism, but I think that reflects more on you than me.

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As much as I like GW2, I'm still baffled by the desire to have 80 levels. Was it a competing with WoW thing? Is having a shit-ton of levels "in" these days? I guess we couldn't have small, quickly-finished-off levels if say, a whole zone only gave us one level instead of 5. I'd really be happy for someone to take a step back to the more D&D-sourced days of MMOs and stop at 20 or 30. Because I generally agree that everything after 30 or 40 isn't really that interesting. Especially now that they've made so many levels into dead levels, just empty numbers.

It could have been levelless without me caring, but I think they wanted to avoid the situation with GW1 where you hit max level halfway through the campaign and then didn't level anymore. In the same way that folks now say after a certain level you really aren't changing anything anymore, I could see a lot of folks complaining if the game maxed level at 20 or 30 and there was still a lot of stuff to do. I think the level system is also just "easier" from a "sorting zone challenges" manner. I'm not sure what rpg's lack levels aside from Secret World, but in there you still have levels in the form of the skills you accumulate.

I like that there's no recurring gear treadmill, but then adding in 80 levels of upgrading gear only to stop at the end probably doesn't fit.

[zed zebes]

My friends quit after this first run of AC

That happened with a lot of folk. Many could never adjust from the trinity to fending for themselves.

[Svifnymr]

I think megaservers or just less overall servers are going to become the norm for most games. Even WoW has started doing the connected realm thing, and Elder Scrolls Online started with megaservers. I think it's logical for most MMOs to do this, because the initial population of the game isn't always going to stay interested in the game. Also having less servers or just having megaservers are good because it would hopefully eliminate mergers later on to avoid forced character name changes, which is a sore spot for a lot of MMO gamers.

It's the way of the MMO World that "server mergers=game dying", so they put off mergers as much as possible (WoW's had dead servers for many years, TOR took months more than needed). GW2 tried to head that off with the overflow system, so they didn't need to have as many servers at launch, but then you also have the issue of WvWvW, so they can't really merge servers too much or they'll have no one to compete!

Either way, folks don't really view "we've increased our tech so rather than 1 million people on 1 server, we can fit 5 million on 1, so we're merging 5 realms into 1!" as the truth of a situation. They see "our servers are so dead we're merging 5 into 1 so there's at least 5 people to stand around and talk to".

At least GW2 had the universal name system from the start, with longer names and spaces for some variety. WoW has also done well in their "linked" setup since you can keep your name even if someone else has it in the other realm. (Plus you can make alts on the other linked server to exceed one realms 11 limit.) I was in on day 2 of TOR's prestart, and yet I didn't happen to pick what would eventually be one of the remaining servers. So when they merged stuff, I lost most of my names.

[Ealyssa]

That happened with a lot of folk. Many could never adjust from the trinity to fending for themselves.

Yep it's hard for a lot of people to switch from some strategy fighting experience to a mindnumbing spamfest. I like GW2 PVP part, but PVE killed the interest of so many of my friends it's sad.

[Svifnymr]

Also it helps a ton to start a party yourself, even better with at least one guildie so it gives you some power like not being able to be kicked or basically 'owning' the party.

Again, this is just what my friend was saying, but it's just kicker+1 voter to boot you, so you'd need nearly a full party to avoid a kick. She did say if you open the instance, then form a group, if they kick you the instance will close so they'll at least gain nothing from it, but not sure. I'd think folks wouldn't join you in that case since they'd figure you're looking to boot them to sell the run later!

I guess if you grabbed a couple friends, formed the instance and just invited a couple others rather than forming a group around your solo self, it would work, but that sort of hinders the concept of a LFG system.

(And of course, it just shows that people will abuse every system in some way!)

[zed zebes]

Mindless spamming is the type of play that kills people and has them quit. PVE encounters need improved, but gathering mobs, LoS, reflect placement and the best use of combo fields helps. But mostly it's staying alive without a babysitter that gets people.

[draykorinee]

That happened with a lot of folk. Many could never adjust from the trinity to fending for themselves.

Oh definitely, it went from controlled mechanics with reliable teamwork to wtf is going on, who is doing what, where did that come from. With experience they may have improved I'm sure, but they had raiding to do.

[Karizee]

Some of those dungeon videos from launch are freakin' hilarious! The way they would keep dying and running back from spawn until they were naked from broken gear all the while going What in the F ???!!!

Hahaha, I'll have to dig one up - so funny now that people actually know what to do and dungeons go so smoothly.