Cleopatra.4068

I don’t understand the raiding community at all. They complain they never get new raids. Then they yell at anyone who wants to play raids that they are all too incompetent, lazy, casual, and suck at the game to play with them. So no one plays raids. So ArenaNet doesn’t make anymore raids. So raiders yell at all the people who they wouldn’t let play raids for not playing raids. It just goes around and around in a circle that somehow never seems to be the raiding communities fault. If you want people to play raids, stop insulting people who want to play them and let them play with you. Stop creating artificial barriers to growing the raiding community by placing ridiculous hoops for people to jump through in the way. Want to play raids with us? First, install a third party application, then spend hundreds of hours whacking a training golem until the third party application says your DPS perfectly matched our arbitrarily defined measure of competence. Sure....I’ll get right on that. Then, join a training guild and spend months running training runs once a week until you have obtained our arbitrarily defined measure of KP and LI that indicates you aren’t too noob to live. That doesn’t sound condescending, insulting, rude or overbearing at all. Who wouldn’t want to play with a community of condescending, insulting, rude, overbearing elitists like that? The hoops aren’t really even the problem. The problem is that only assholes want to play with assholes. GW2 apparently doesn’t have enough assholes playing to support the raiding community.

I think which is hardest will depend on the player, and what kinds of things they are good at. I think races and JP are different skills. One is platforming, the other two are racing. The difficulty is going to be measured differently by people with different skill levels at the activity. Being good at jumping doesn’t make you good at drifting and vice versa. Personally, I suck at all of them. 3-D platforming/racing is just not my strong suit. That doesn’t make the content too hard, it just makes it something I’m not going to do. I can only fall so many times in a jumping puzzle before I get the urge to toss my computer at a wall. Other people are good at it, enjoy it, and play them a lot. It’s way to difficult for me, because my skill level runs in the negative numbers. I don’t want them changed to suit my level of ability, though, as that would ruin them for all the people who like doing them.

> @"yoni.7015" said: > No thanks, underwater combat is no fun. Most player hate it so why should they waste resources on it? How do you know most players hate underwater combat? I like underwater combat. Just because vocal people hate underwater combat doesn’t mean most players hate it.

> @"Inculpatus cedo.9234" said: > Is it really that long, over an hour? > I don't remember it taking much time, but it's been awhile. That first mission is pretty long. First you fight Balthazar’s herald, then you fight her some more, then you fight Balthazar’s hounds, then you stop the city from burning and save the raptors, then you get a raptor and go kill stuff in the caves with it, then you go meet up with your guild mates at the city. The first time through, I can see how it could take an hour. Is all of it in the same instance, though? I never realized that. It felt like multiple instances while doing it, but I guess it might be the same one the whole time.

> @"Bellbirds.1679" said: > > @"Cleopatra.4068" said: > > > @"Bellbirds.1679" said: > > > > @"Astyrah.4015" said: > > > > > @"Bellbirds.1679" said: > > > > > I'm not sure I agree. Anthropomorphic animals have been known for decades if not centuries to be easier to make 'human' than humans. However I'd mainly like to see 'non-interesting' options added. Just long hair, medium hair, etc, etc. Basic looks. Not everyone wants a hairstyle that looks like a mushroom cloud. I think I've only ever seen that once on a player. > > > > > > > > they aren't exactly easier to make human looking because you reference humans, with every anthropomorphic design you come up with you are pulling something out of the human design be it in parts or a whole, whereas humans are already humans. that's just my take on it anyway. > > > > > > > > im all for getting more customisation for all characters since i play each race too and i prefer not looking like the next person as much as possible > > > > > > > > > > > > > > No I didn't mean human looking I meant 'human' as in give them personality/character/a unique design. > > > > I think this has to do with the uncanny valley. It is easier to make animals look human-y without creeping people out than it is to make humans without creeping people out. That comes more into play with hyper-realistic graphics styles. GW2 has more of a cartoonish style so it doesn’t get too close to the uncanny valley with any of the races. > > > > I’d love to see new character options for my asuras. I like making them look more mousy or foxy than droopy and haggard. There are only a few faces suited to that right now. I don’t use hair on my charr at all right now because they are all too weird looking. They all look punk rock or something. I would love a look that just gave my charr a nice mane. > > > > Some more simple stuff for all the non-human races would be great. > > I think it's more to do with the ability to exagerate expressions via ears, snarls etc and symbolism via things such as horns (e.g ram horns versus antelope horns) and markings (e.g tiger stripes versus housecat markings) Oh, I see. Yes, I misunderstood your first post.

> @"Bellbirds.1679" said: > > @"Astyrah.4015" said: > > > @"Bellbirds.1679" said: > > > I'm not sure I agree. Anthropomorphic animals have been known for decades if not centuries to be easier to make 'human' than humans. However I'd mainly like to see 'non-interesting' options added. Just long hair, medium hair, etc, etc. Basic looks. Not everyone wants a hairstyle that looks like a mushroom cloud. I think I've only ever seen that once on a player. > > > > they aren't exactly easier to make human looking because you reference humans, with every anthropomorphic design you come up with you are pulling something out of the human design be it in parts or a whole, whereas humans are already humans. that's just my take on it anyway. > > > > im all for getting more customisation for all characters since i play each race too and i prefer not looking like the next person as much as possible > > > > > > No I didn't mean human looking I meant 'human' as in give them personality/character/a unique design. I think this has to do with the uncanny valley. It is easier to make animals look human-y without creeping people out than it is to make humans without creeping people out. That comes more into play with hyper-realistic graphics styles. GW2 has more of a cartoonish style so it doesn’t get too close to the uncanny valley with any of the races. I’d love to see new character options for my asuras. I like making them look more mousy or foxy than droopy and haggard. There are only a few faces suited to that right now. I don’t use hair on my charr at all right now because they are all too weird looking. They all look punk rock or something. I would love a look that just gave my charr a nice mane. Some more simple stuff for all the non-human races would be great.

The boss fights in instances drive me nuts because I always have to google them to find out what the mechanics are supposed to be. Once you know how they work, most of them are not actually hard. I must be missing the bossy sense some people have, though, because I can never, ever, figure out by myself what it is I’m supposed to do. I hate having to google the answers.

> @"Slowpokeking.8720" said: > > @"Zephire.8049" said: > > > @"Oxstar.7643" said: > > > Build demand with limited access, I assume. Pretty standard marketing strategy. > > > > To expand on this for the OP, it: > > * Creates a sense of scarcity so people drop more money more often to get something before it rotates out because of FOMO. > > * Can make people check the cash shop weekly which in turn makes it more likely someone will buy something in the meantime. It also trains people to check out the store periodically even if they don't have something specific in mind. > > * Items like vouchers and bundles that contain vouchers are more desirable because there is no advanced notice on rotation. > > > > If all items were available all the time, that would be great for players but video game marketers are convinced that would mean a drop in revenue. Think of it as the video game version of stores changing their layout periodically (forcing you to spend more time looking at more products), putting things like milk at the back of the store (making you walk through aisle(s) to reach it), and having highly marked-up small items at the till to tempt you. There's an easy way to make it more convenient for the customer but marketing says inconveniencing the customer will make more money so that's what the company does instead. > > Still I think the current rotation is way too slow, we should not wait for half a year to buy something. I think the rotation is too slow as well. There have been items I wanted, checked the store for daily for, and they never came. Then I take a break from playing, and by the time I come back I no longer remember exactly what it was I wanted or why. So it never gets purchased. Right now I want the volatile magic gathering tools because I am playing those maps. If they don’t come back until I’m done playing LS4, though, I will probably never buy them. I’m not going to go back and play those maps again later just because the tools come back 6 months from now. I want them for convenience. They are only convenient while I need them. If the rotation comes around while I’m playing them, they will get purchased. If it comes around once I’m done, I won’t. Some stuff is always useful, but other stuff isn’t.

> @"maddoctor.2738" said: > > @"Cleopatra.4068" said: > > > @"maddoctor.2738" said: > > > > @"Cleopatra.4068" said: > > > > Why do people think switching from DX9 to DX12 is something that even can be done? > > > > > > Because games have been using multiple rendering solution since the mid 90s, when switching your rendering solution is as easy as selecting it in a dropdown menu. Plus unofficial mods porting old games to newer versions of DirectX (complete re-writes, not like the GW2 addon). > > > > This game already has multiple rendering solutions, as it also used OpenGL to support Mac machines. That isn’t necessarily relevant. Just because other games could upgrade doesn’t mean this one can. > > This game already has rendering solution but that doesn't mean that this one can have multiple rendering solutions... > You first say that this game used to have multiple rendering solutions and then you say that this game can't. Just because it had multiple rendering solutions already doesn’t mean it can add a NEW one.

> @"maddoctor.2738" said: > > @"Cleopatra.4068" said: > > Why do people think switching from DX9 to DX12 is something that even can be done? > > Because games have been using multiple rendering solution since the mid 90s, when switching your rendering solution is as easy as selecting it in a dropdown menu. Plus unofficial mods porting old games to newer versions of DirectX (complete re-writes, not like the GW2 addon). This game already has multiple rendering solutions, as it also used OpenGL to support Mac machines. That isn’t necessarily relevant. Just because other games could upgrade doesn’t mean this one can.

Why do people think switching from DX9 to DX12 is something that even can be done? Those libraries are so different it would probably require rewriting the entire code base. It is not like you can just download a new version of directX and install it. DX9 and DX12 have almost nothing in common. They don’t work the same on a fundamental level. One does all the shading and effects itself, and the other requires the programmers to do it all. The entire graphics engine would have to be thrown away and rewritten. If the code is completely modular and not tightly coupled at all, it might theoretically be possible, but considering the age of the code, I sincerely doubt that it is. The longer people mess with a code base, the more new features get added, the more tightly coupled junk code gets added by people in a hurry, or trying to fix unforeseen bugs. I don’t know anything about the GW2 code, but I’ve coded using both DX9 and DX12, and I don’t think people realize how ridiculous they sound asking for an upgrade to be done. It isn’t going to happen. They might as well make GW3 if they are going to switch graphics libraries.

I would love for the story to spend less time fighting the apocalypse and more time delving into the world of Tyria. Our characters join one of the orders, the vigil, the order of whispers, the priory, but never do anything with them except fight Zhaitan. I was actually looking forward to exploring the lore of Tyria and digging up cool artifacts in the priory, or snooping around the political scene in the whispers, when I first played the game. That did not really happen. I think it would be great for them to write some stories where we are investigating the politics, history and lore of Tyria, and bring in some of these relationships with lesser races into the mix. Maybe we are searching for artifacts that the skritt know things about. Maybe the grawl are plotting things to disrupt diplomacy between norn and humans. You get hints at all this interesting stuff that is going on with the lesser races, and they have interesting backstories and knowledge. It is all superficial right now, though. Personally, I’m tired of the world ending. I’d love to see more depth built into the civilizations of Tyria.

We didn’t really do much of anything with her when she was young. One story step of supposedly bonding with her, then off to kill Balthazar. Waaaaay more time was spent chasing after her egg so the supervillains couldn’t get it and start whatever world ending disaster they felt like. The story spends way to much time chasing supervillain’s and stopping Armageddon, not enough time doing mundane, everyday things. If everything is the apocalypse, the apocalypse doesn’t seem like that big of a deal. It is the contrast between normal life and a crisis that makes a crisis seem like a big deal. With no low key points in the story, the high impact parts seem low key. It’s just one world ending crisis after another, and its boring for the world to be ending...again. There is never any character development. No ebb and flow. Kill her, don’t kill her, what difference does it make?

> @"Dawdler.8521" said: > > @"Cleopatra.4068" said: > > I love engineer, but taking it into the expacs to try and get elite specs is awful. Needs a skill point train for sure. > ... Or play WvW and instantly unlock any elite spec for heroics because its dirt cheap. The game is only as hard as you want to make it. If the modes didn’t have completely different skills, cool downs and damage, I might try that. The divided skills between modes are a huge deterrent for me. It took me ages to get to a decent level of skill in PvE, and taking an underpowered core build into a PvP environment with completely different specs for the skills I already learned so I can learn new specs to get skills to play in a different mode that will have different specs once I get them back there, all while being fodder for people who want quick kills is not something I’m interested in doing. I understand why the skills are different, but the bar is too high. I know some of you are MMO gods who know everything and don’t understand why carebears cannot just do everything the way you do it, blah blah blah. Good for you. It doesn’t help me.

> @"Virdo.1540" said: > feeling scammed? For free to play content? It’s only free to play if you started playing after free to play became a thing. I paid for the content, 8 years ago, when it was buy to play. If you are farming elite specs, then you paid for an expansion.

> @"Orack.9756" said: > I've give up since many day on it. Even both E-spe was not fun enough to keep me in (but way better than core). > In the end of all my test, Mesmer & Thief are what appeal me the most core and their spe are amazingly fun to play. > > @"yLoon.5289" "melting mob" is doable by anyone w/o effort and any build. > Doing HoT HP alone is another thing. > If you can solo balty avatar, Coztic, Chack in auric and so on, then go ahead and show me, I'm curious about it tbh. > But so far I was struggling hard for the 1st time to made them. > I've level up and farm e-spe ALONE, in any other class but rev (not up yet) and it's was sometime hard but doable. But engi ? Uuf.. > > @The boz.2038 Totally explained what's wrong with engi. Add to that the extreme lack of weapon diversity and it become boring and tedious. > > Leveling up core rev to get elite specs is easy. Core power rev can solo at least half the HoT skill points easily. I did it recently. I love engineer, but taking it into the expacs to try and get elite specs is awful. Needs a skill point train for sure. I’ve tried multiple core builds from metabattle, and none of it feels good outside core tyria. I’m in agreement, most of the other classes are much easier to farm elite specs on.

Revenant is not underpowered in casual open world content. Core revenant is very capable of waltzing into HoT and soloing half the skill points. This lets you easily unlock the elite specs, which is great for casual play. Both condi and power have solid builds that make open world content easy to do. It has tons of cc for break bars, it has tons of sustain, and does good damage. Swapping legends when you run out of juice is not exactly rocket science, and as a casual player, I say we can handle it just fine. I don’t know why people keep comparing it to engineer, as rev is 100% easier to play as a casual player. The legends do limit your utilities, but the utilities in the legends are really good for casual play. I don’t know why you would want to make legends kits, as all anyone does is complain about kits on the engineer. Core engineer is kitten for casual play. You cannot use a core engineer to solo much of HoT, which means you have to join a skill point train to unlock elite spec, which many casual players don’t particularly want to do, myself included. Kits eliminate weapon swap on engineer, and force you to use kits anyway. Half the skills in engineer kits are useless at any given time, while legends are not. The weapons for core engineer are kitten for casual play. You have to camp kits for weapon skills, not for utility skills. They replace the weapon skills, not the utility skills, and take up utility slots. This is all a silly, non-comparison. Engineer isn’t comparable to Revenant at all. The similarities are superficial only.

Legendary equipment was originally supposed to be a prestige item. It had the same stats and utility as exotic armor. All the additional perks of legendary armor were added later. I don’t really care if it gets devalued or not. I like this idea.