Palador.2170

> @"DeanBB.4268" said:

> It sounds like a nice idea, but I'm afraid people (aka trolls) would use it inappropriately, like the box o fun on top of a chest or npc.

>

> And if you were downed would you rather have the person that stops at your corpse rez you or stick a sign in you?

Maybe the sign can do something helpful, then? Say, a slower than player rez, where you have to click to confirm the final bit that gets you up? That would also require it being attached to a dead body, but I see that as a good thing as it would keep people from dropping them just anywhere.

> @"Linken.6345" said:

> > @"Palador.2170" said:

> > While I don't like the DRMs, I do think this is the kind of new content that GW2 has been needing for years. I thought this back when this kind of stuff was called ... you know ... DUNGEONS.

> >

> > I mean, the only reason they're not being called that is because they're out in the open world for location. Imagine them putting a DRM into the old Citadel of Flame map. Bang, it's a new dungeon path.

> >

> > With that said, they've improved some over the old dungeon path idea. No need to make four versions of it to make it harder to turn out new ones, and made to be (in theory) soloed if you want.

>

> You do know we will get one in that map going forward right?

No, I did not. But I'd say that just adds to my point.

While I don't like the DRMs, I do think this is the kind of new content that GW2 has been needing for years. I thought this back when this kind of stuff was called ... you know ... DUNGEONS.

I mean, the only reason they're not being called that is because they're out in the open world for location. Imagine them putting a DRM into the old Citadel of Flame map. Bang, it's a new dungeon path.

With that said, they've improved some over the old dungeon path idea. No need to make four versions of it to make it harder to turn out new ones, and made to be (in theory) soloed if you want.

For the Charr and Norn focused part of the storyline, it's been downright awful. The Norn part just glanced off of the surface and trashed the lore. The Charr part only advances because all the charr characters suddenly act like clueless idiots.

The only excitement I feel is for the fact that this will soon be over, so we can go on to an area I have no personal involvement in (having never played GW1), so it won't bother me anywhere near as much if they trash it.

Well, okay, maybe one more thing I'm looking forward to. Nobody was close to Zhaitan when it died, great. Lots of people were near Mordremoth when it died, but it's the life dragon, so everyone lived. I don't think being within bow shot of Jormag when IT dies and releases all that cold will go well for Braham. I doubt being close to Primordus when it dies will go well for Ryland, either.

As a casual player, one of the things I enjoy is cluttering up my home instance.

If I have to limit it to just one wish? Playable Tengu, with some decent lore behind them. Honestly, it's past time for them to open up the gates and start to be more open. The walls don't protect them from Primordus, and now so many people can fly or glide over the walls that their isolation has left the Tengu as the only people blocked by the wall. If they want to fly again, now's the time.

If I can have some other wishes as well?

Side stories: Small stories that take place around the world (or at least in any new places we go to) and don't affect the main storyline. Self-contained, these stories can offer the player a choice at some point that actually changes the end of the story, with the option to take a different path on a different character.

Completed mount skin sets: The next batch of adoptable skins completes all incomplete sets of mount skins before starting any new sets. From this point on, any new theme sets sold as a group (Exo, Cozy, ect.) will be sold as two sets of "Basic" and "Advanced" at the same time. Basic includes Raptor, Bunny, Skimmer, and Jackal. Advanced includes Griffon, Roller, Warclaw, and Skyscale.

A set of reoccurring NPCs that show up at events, like seeing the same players, with slowly unfolding stories for them. The story focuses a lot on the commander and Dragon's Watch, it could be interesting to see another group out there also in the thick of it but not at the focus of attention. And because they're NOT focused on as much, having one or two of them showing up at an event anywhere in the world to join the fight wouldn't cause plot issues.

Any tonics that turn you into one of a set of things now cycles through them in order, instead of randomly. If my redheaded character in red and orange armor wants to turn into an orange cat, there's no sense in making me have to spend several minutes bouncing back and forth between grey and black before FINALLY getting the correct color.

> @"Shadowmoon.7986" said:

> My suggestion:

> Give a node where you can trade x exotic essences of luck for a 24 hour mf boost that behaves like the peach in lake doric or the warm potion in bitterfrost. We need better luck sinks in the game once you hit 300 mf.

That's not really a node, though.

Maybe the Lucky node should rely on luck more than giving it. Just have it give one small SOMETHING every day, with a long list of items it can draw from. Most are minor, a few are actually good, and one or two are "jackpot!" level. Something like "One ghost pepper" would be a minor thing, something of value but by itself very small value. A jug of karma could be one of the more impressive items, possible but very rare.

I can't see a lucky envelope dispenser making much sense given how seasonal I (perhaps incorrectly) believe those to be. I mean, I like the idea of a node for every holiday, but in this case I think it needs to give something other than the envelopes.

Prologue/Grothmar Valley for me, too. In fact, I'd say it's my favorite part of ALL the story after the personal story's end. We got a good look at charr culture, some lore, interesting characters introduced, and a wide range of interesting events. There was stuff to grind, but you didn't really NEED to to enjoy it.

The fact that it was followed up by what is likely my LEAST favorite part of all of the Living World story is a disappointment that borders on the cruel.

As someone that took a break from GW2's story and is only now catching up, here's my thoughts on them after getting to that part of the story last night:

These things are the "Dungeon mistake" all over again, where players that are just doing the story slam headlong into group content. Can they be soloed? Yes, but for a lot of people (including myself), it's a pretty awful experience. Not just "not fun" but downright unenjoyable. After the first one, I considered trying to join a group for the other two, but I'm there for the story and a group makes it very easy to miss story beats.

The end result was me spending a couple of hours doing all three of these, and having NO desire to go back into them. I don't even know what rewards are supposed to be for going back, but it would have to be pretty damned impressive to tempt me. And I've seen the skins for those volcanic weapons, they're honestly pretty awful. Who wants to grind for a skin you can't see?

These need a serious rebalance for solo play, the goal needs to be "Hey, I have some time to kill, why don't I do a DRM?", and not "Hey, I have some time to kill, why don't I try to get into a group for a DRM?" Then, make it so having extra players gives you a chance to do side stuff (for bonus rewards) or speeds things up, improving the time/reward ratio.

If I want to do raids, I'll do raids. If I want strike missions, I'll go do strike missions. If I wanted dungeons, I'd go do dungeons. DRMs need to stand as their own thing, light and fast content for one or more players.

By cattlepult, like the cannon travel system in Secret of Mana!

> @"Raknar.4735" said:

> Aren‘t the Sons of Svanir able to create portals? That would be an unexpected way.

Flame Legion can make portals, too. And I could see the Tengu having something that works as the key needed to make a portal to Cantha, but not having anyone that can do it. By allowing new Flame Legion allies to use it, a portal can finally be opened with no questions of "why did nobody do this before" because that's built into the plot.

> @"Funky.4861" said:

> Crafting per-character has always made sense to me; why should one character know max level crafting of a discipline they never studied or practised just because another character they will never meet knows it? Did they leave a note in shared inv or the bank? ^^

By that logic, why do they have shared inventory or bank access?

But the crafting being per-character DID make more sense back when it was harder to get to level 80. With enough gold, you could craft most of the way to 80 by mastering everything. With only a little gold but some time gathering, you could at least make a push to a new level by crafting for that last bit of EXP you needed before the next story segment or chance to upgrade your gear.

It may not make much sense now, but ... Well, ANet doesn't have the best track record with going back and "improving" things.

[Edit] I guess I should have taken the blue option. My bad.

Honestly, I hate this idea, it just makes no sense.

I can't have that hairstyle/perform that emote unless I've cleared this raid and purchased it as a reward? Unless there's a ton of magic behind it, that's not how things work. If you see someone with a cool haircut that you want to try, you just ... get the haircut and try it. (Or a wig, or whatever). You see someone make a gesture that catches your attention and you want to copy it? You just do that, maybe practice it a bit, but there's nothing special about the kind of stuff that goes into emotes. Why should ANYONE need to 'earn' it?

Some ultra powerful magical earrings? Sure, raid reward. But the LOOK of those earrings? Meh, anyone with decent crafting skill should be able to make a copy (unless, once again, there's big magic in how they look).

If I was to suggest something like this, it would be to replace some of the phrases the character says as part of normal gameplay. There's a vast difference between a level 2 character straight out of the tutorial and "The Commander", but they both say the same things when hit with effects. Maybe record new phrases and put them in as rewards, so the character will say the new one sometimes (toggle to turn that off, maybe). That way, as the character does more, they can start to use phrases that actually reference some of the things they've done or at least sound more experienced.

In the gemstore? No, I think that's a bad idea.

Some OTHER way to get them when they're behind content you don't enjoy? Sure, if it's set up right.

I'd like to see the ability to set your mastery EXP to go towards earning a point. Even if it's just one pass of the bar at normal spirit shard speed for one point, that would still be slower than most MP's normal method of acquisition. That way, playing through the normal stuff for the points would still be the practical way to go, but you'd never be 'locked out' by stuff you don't want to do. AND you'd still be playing the game to get that point. And if the devs wanted it to be harder than that, they could set that EXP bar to 2 or 3 times the amount needed for a spirit shard.

> @"wolfyrik.2017" said:

>

> That doesn't seem to make sense either. Aurene had to eat the errant magic inside kralk, she didn't just cause it to no longer be there. She hasn't done the same to Jormag or Primordus. How did she take the power that we know Primordus, consumed? Did I miss something?

I think we can handwave this as a side effect of Taimi's machine being used to drain magic from both Primordus and Jormag back when Balthazar was after them to gain more power. The power drained first was likely the more unfamiliar/alien magics from the other dragons. As they've rebuilt their power, it's been THEIR power and not the stolen/borrowed power they had before.

I'm pretty sure I remember it from fairly early on, and was disappointed that I couldn't actually climb on it.

> @"Gryphon.2875" said:

> Bring back Tybalt from the Mists to replace R&R. Only tolerable Charr character.

I have three words for you: "horrible death moos".

Or Soulkeeper. I mean, imagine if she had been able to replace Rytlock as our resident charr.

> @"Tuna Bandit.3786" said:

> I loved Eir. hated the part where she got eliminated. But... It was great for the story... I felt the loss.

>

But... it wasn't great for the story. It was a cheap bit of bad writing, and it made a lot of people upset about how poorly it was written. To have that lead up to "Braham the Kitten" just made a lot of people dislike that character turn even more.

Let's take that scene, and with the goal of the same basic outcome, rewrite it. Faolain and Eir are freed and start to run for it. Faolain trips, and falls next to a big thorn. She breaks it off and runs after Eir again, and the monster appears before them. Faolain yells out to Eir, tossing the thorn to her. Eir grabs it, and uses it as a weapon to injure the monster and make it back off a bit. But then a second and a third appear from the forest, surrounding them. Eir tells Faolain that when there's an opening, she's to run for it and not look back.

"You won't last a minute alone against three of them!"

"Then you'd better run fast."

Eir attacks, cutscene ends. By the time we get there, Eir's dead and Faolain is gone. Braham has to deal with his mother's death, though having died in combat as a hero, there's perhaps an even greater legacy to carry now. And when he sees Faolain's eventual fate/fall and that Eir's sacrifice to save her was for nothing, it can leave him with serious morality questions that help to explain the later personality shift.

Do I think the expansion will be 'make or break' for the game? No.

I do, however, think this is the game's final chance at defining how (edit: Non-playing) people think of the game and what they expect of it. I think this is the final shot at getting attention before it becomes just another old MMO that people are surprised to hear is still up and running.

My suggestion: Two versions of Stealth (Partial and Full), and a new buff "Observant".

Full Stealth works as Stealth currently does, though only a few skills will grant it. Partial Stealth works only on people some set distance away or more. Up close, you still see them. Observant allows you to see through Partial Stealth at full range (and maybe treats Full as Partial).

Observant would have to be given out sparingly, but I could see it being given to the Deadeye's kneel skill (after a 5 second delay), Engineer rocket turrets, and Rangers (somehow) as examples.

It's painfully similar, and even the Crash cubs would know enough charr history to instantly see what a bad idea it is. Chalk it up as yet one more in a long string of storytelling failures for this season.

While a lot of my characters in GW2 are just ... characters, a few carry some aspect of me. They're not me, but one of the core parts I build them around is something of me.

My gaudy charr thief? Contempt for those around me.

Human mesmer? Desire to be liked.

Human daredevil? Urge to poke things and find out about them, even when it's not a smart idea.

Charr scrapper (with flamethrower)? That feeling you get when you step on that crunchy dry leaf, or that thin sheet of ice. Or watching something burn.

Human soulbeast? Wishing I could smack stupid people and make them stop being morons.

Charr herald? Patience.

Charr tempest? Feeling lost and betrayed by everyone around you, and not knowing how to tell who you can rely on.

Norn daredevil (my 'racing' character)? The so-called "call of the void".

Human deadeye? That mood of "I'm not sure what the hell I'm seeing, but I'm going to keep watching because at least it's interesting".

Depending on my mood, this makes some of them really easy to play, but others near impossible to get into. None of them are actually 'me', though, and I consider that line to be important.

Make it move slower than most of the other mounts, but then give it a special ability to use its tongue like the grappling hook vine power from earlier LS. NOW it does something the skyscale can't, but doesn't totally invalidate any of the other mounts due to slower speed.

(To clarify, that ability is in addition to climbing walls. So it could pull to a wall, and stick there or climb further.)

The only problem is that any mount that really climbs will remove any remaining barriers on people getting to places they shouldn't be. That might be an issue.

> @"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:

>

> That's not really hybrids really, the skyscales was the Mists creating something using Kralkatorrik as a template. This is the exact same thing as [Razah](https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Razah) from GW1, and is really the same as Fractals except Fractals copy entire space-time events, and not simply using one individual or group of individuals in random creation.

>

> And it has nothing for "just the right amount of magic" - The Mists isn't made of magic, it's made of proto-matter. And isn't very controllable.

What I'm saying is that it could 'create' a hybrid without worrying about parents, if the conditions are right, much like how the first generation of skyscales didn't have parents.

And while the magic may not technically be needed, it seems that creating something out of the mists like this is very rare, normal events don't seem to make that kind of impression on it. That's where the magic would be needed, to make that impression. (Though I may be wrong about that.)

For charr, it's a culture thing. It's not just 'males and females are equal', it's 'treating males and females different is what the bad guys do'. Armor and outfits that are different for the two genders should be the exception and not the rule for them.

For asura, I think it's more of a case of 'This is different. Meh, who cares, I've got more important things to do'. So it's more hit and miss with them.

1: Displayed number values for the sliders. Even if it's by hovering the mouse over the slider to get a pop-up of the number, that would be a HUGE help if we have a look we like, but have decided to reroll as another profession.

2: Saved Outfit color sets. Let's say... 3? Just three you can set the colors to on a character, so when you go to a new outfit, you can also call up one of those color sets instead of having to remember what ones you liked last time, or looking for where you wrote it down.

3: A lot of the other stuff that's in this thread.