maddoctor.2738

A graphics update isn't needed, as in upgrade of assets, models and textures, at least not for current maps, old maps could certainly use an overhaul though. A graphics engine update is another story. I voted yes because an engine overhaul is badly needed, the game runs really badly and an overhaul of the engine can make it run much faster, as we already see with dx12py. The problem with dx12py is it can only help in places where the main performance penalty is outside the main thread of the game, where most of the calculations happen. When the main thread becomes the bottleneck, then dx12py doesn't do anything. As for those with older systems, an upgrade in performance will either help them too (based on exactly how old it is) or at the very least not negatively affect their performance. In other words, it cannot get any worse, any performance improvements will only make the game better.

> @"Westenev.5289" said: > It's soldiers, but somehow worse? > > Please don't add more noob traps into the game. Yes this is exactly a worse ~~Soldier~~ Knight stat. Given how Power is 2/3 of your total damage (the rest comes from a combination of Precision and Ferocity) I don't see this as a viable option for any kind of damage, even using sigils and traits that work on-crit. But maybe someone might want only a few pieces to reach a certain crit cap and they don't want to use Assassin or Rampager for whatever reason

> @"Timbersword.9014" said: > > @"maddoctor.2738" said: > > There is a precedent when they saw a useful mod created by someone and made their own version for the game. Unfortunately, the real question is whether they'd monetize such a feature or not > > > Precedent or not, relying on it happening is still being hopeful. A lot of us have switched to using keybinds if a third party app isn't the comfortable option, and that's what I would recommend as well. Having moved my movement keys to ESDF and action bar keys to all the keys surrounding it (weapon bar is XZAQW and utility is VBGTR) I have 1-7 on my keyboard open to mounts, no numpad required. using 7 buttons for mounts is still too many. For something that you can do with a single press using the radial mount menu.

Given how the developers responded and gave us their own implementation of Action Camera, based on a modification created by a user, it's quite likely they will do the same for such a great QoL feature. Keybinds were fine when we had 4 mounts, but their number keeps increasing and it's getting more and more confusing. I use numbers in my numpad for the mounts, but not everyone uses a keyboard with numpad these days. There is a precedent when they saw a useful mod created by someone and made their own version for the game. Unfortunately, the real question is whether they'd monetize such a feature or not edit: as for the approved list, it's rather simple, if you see major streamers and Anet partners using an app, it's likely that there will be no action against you. Otherwise they'd have to ban their own "partners". If sometime they find an app offensive, they will give advance notice about it, and say "we will ban all users of this app if they keep using it after next month" or something like that. It happened in almost every case so far that led to bans

> @"Sobx.1758" said: > At which point did I do this? Try rereading what I actually wrote in my posts. I'd say the same to you. I said that the maximum value as a fact is 10k gold. Then you said that it's not. And now you are asking where you said otherwise. > No, it's not the end of the thread. It's funny that you've tried to take such a blatantly backwards cut throught what I've said while actively ignoring what I write, but you're just incorrect here -again. Market manipulation is present regardless of the market cap and the current market cap makes that manipulation easier with more prominent profits to strictly limited number of players. I already wrote about it and pretty sure not just me. You avoiding the facts -again- won't change them. Who said anything about the cap? The low drop rates are what make market manipulation easier giving more profits to a limited number of players. Make the items more readily available and you eliminate manipulation. You are the one avoiding facts here. > Nope, it's clearly you that seem confused about that and you intentionally leave out most of what I write unanswered. You are the one who doesn't know what the word scam means. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/scam > an illegal plan for making money, especially one that involves tricking people: When someone is selling an item for 10k gold on the TP, he isn't tricked by anyone. Nor it's an illegal plan that involves making money. A player that sells an item for 10k gold plays the game as expected and as intended. A player that buys the same item on an outside market for 20k gold is the one that is being scammed here. It involves the seller making extra money and at the same tricking people (by market manipulation) to think that an item is worth more than it is. Artificial scarcity is a thing. > I already explained where you contradict yourself, again: reread what you were answering to and stop cutting out most of my posts to pretend I didn't write something that I clearly did. I didn't contradict myself anywhere though, you simply stated that I contradict myself without even quoting a contradiction. > How am I defending them? By asking for the cap to be removed, so the market manipulators can sell their items at inflated prices inside the game. It makes sense to support raising the cap if you have of things to sell at prices above the current one. Is the market outside the game for such items so limited that the market manipulators are getting desperate? > :D [i already wrote above](https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/comment/1373076/#Comment_1373076) why that take/suggestion you've previously made is flawed, but -WHAT A SURPRISE- you've intentionally cut out that part while answering. That part you wrote above, and for some reason you quote again here, has nothing to do with the subject of increasing the drop rates of those items. Neither it shows that my suggestion is flawed. I cut things that aren't relevant to the topic, but I didn't cut this part to show you what you are doing. I don't have to respond to arguments aimed at nothing

> @"Psientist.6437" said: > The two situations are nothing alike. You are arguing for the real world equivalent of governments fixing the price of an item. I will defend the position that real governments should do some price fixing for the gaming equivalent of game mode lifestyles. You seem to be arguing that the government needs to fix the price of megayachts. Arenanet is already "fixing" the price of items, having a limit of 10k gold. But to be honest what I find the most surprising in this discussion is the insistence on increasing the cap, instead of increasing the drop rates. I haven't seen a valid reason against increasing the drop rate of items yet

> @"Psientist.6437" said: > Your argument makes sense if we redefine the term "sets the price". Under this new definition, the trade service limit "sets the price" the same way road signs control the weather. Gray markets emerge. Within the gray market for NVIDIA cards was calculating a real although relative to itself market value. You know how NVIDIA is gonna solve the supply problem of their graphics cards? By releasing more of them, so their price drops to the expected range. That's exactly what Arenanet should so as well, increase the drop rates of those items, so their price drops to expected levels (under 10k gold). Imagine if NVIDIA did what people are proposing here, "hey people buy them for 1000$, instead of their MSRP of 500$, let's sell them at that price ourselves!", this is what you are advocating here and we all know it's not the sensible thing to do.

> @"Sobx.1758" said: > According to people that keep buying and selling those items for WAY more than 10k? :o Who is doing that? The TP barons and the manipulators buying and selling among themselves to provide the illusion that a market even exists? Sorry not buying it. > You have interesting take on what amounts to being a "fact". Fact is maximum value for an item is 10k, as that's the limit. An item valued above that limit is irrelevant. > Yeah, that's a great thing. We will have to disagree here. It's not a good thing to manipulate market price of a rare product. And here is why: it's not actually allowed as actual stores don't inflate their prices just because some people are willing to pay the higher price. Much like it's not allowed to put an item at above 10k gold, regardless if some people are willing to pay the higher price. > Woah, so you understand people resell these items outside of tp for profit (all while negating their value that players are buying/selling them for btw), but fail to understand that new-er or uninformed players effectively keep getting scammed ingame because they sell their infusions for 10k instead of twice as much, simply boosting the gain of people that already resell them for profit anyways? Remove/raise the cap significantly and players selling those infusions through TP aren't getting scammed by the redundant cap **set at the time when gold had much bigger value than it has now**. Newer players are not actually "scammed" when they sell the items at 10k gold, they use the system as is. The players that are being scammed are those who think the items are worth above 10k gold and pay for it. Those are the ones being scammed here. The problem is the rarity of the items that allows the TP barons to manipulate the market in the first place. Increasing drop rates fixes the scammers. > Ah, so now they're not reselling for profit, but instead just keep making circles with the same infusions between themselves, ok. Indeed that's how market manipulators work.

> @"Psientist.6437" said: > Nvidia set a price for their items, Arenanet doesn't set the price for anything traded on the BLTP. Arenanet provides the trade floor service so players can set the price. They aren't similar. Arenanet also sets the price for anything traded. It's "under 10k gold". In the end, they are indeed very similar, but you didn't get the argument. There was an argument on how the "value" of an item is determined. It goes like "it's as much as people are willing to pay for it". Using that same logic, if NVIDIA prices their graphics cards at 500$, if someone is willing to pay 1000$ for the same item, that's the "value" of the item. So again, they are the exact same situation. In both cases, the inflated value is NOT the actual "value" of the item, but is a product of market manipulation. > What?!?!!? How does selling something for more than you paid evidence _against_ demand?!?! Is it "demand" if 10 guys decide to trade among themselves to show the world that there is "demand" for their overpriced/manipulated items?

> @"Sobx.1758" said: > Nobody is "pretending" an item is valued more than 10k, it IS valued more than 10k and that's a fact. According to who exactly? No item can be valued more than 10k because you cannot sell an item above 10k gold and that's the actual fact. Good thing is we have a real life situation developing that is very similar to the one we see in game. NVIDIA launched their 3000 series graphics with a certain MSRP, yet due to the lack of supply they are rare enough that certain individuals can manipulate the market, buy the supply, and then resell the graphics card at an insane premium. According to you, those over priced graphic cards, sold outside regular shops, are determining the "value" of these cards? Just because some people are willing to pay an insane premium, because they enjoy being exploited, doesn't mean this is the value of an item. But I understand, market manipulation is a very profitable business and it's why people want to keep it up, and even "legalize" it in game, by removing the cap, that's like asking NVIDIA to allow stores to sell their graphics cards at any price they want, because "someone buys them at x3 the price outside the market, so let's make it legal for stores themselves to use such prices". Wonderful. And if you take your time to check those "out of game" sale websites, you will find that it's the same people trading among themselves, creating an illusion that there is a demand for items and allowing players like yourself to come on forums and post non-sense about the value of those items. There is a guy who bought a Chak Egg Infusion for 25k gold and then resold it for 28k gold just a few days later. Such demand! Such "value" of those items! And not to mention the people that post and buy expensive infusions using accounts with less than 100 AP and posting "thank you for that Chak Egg Infusion" -mistersomeonewith.100AP.

> @"Psientist.6437" said: > If the trade service limit can not be raised or adapted to, then drop rates should be raised. Indeed. > It is absurd that posts explaining the gray market in barely too much detail can be removed from the forums yet the supply and demand of the most expensive item must go to the gray market to get close to market value. Well to be fair, the maximum supported "market value" an item can have is 10k gold. Anyone pretending an item is "valued" more than that is already trying to circumvent a set limit by the developers.

Elementalists have been asking this same question for years. The real question we should be asking is why are some utility skills more powerful than so called elite skills.

Generally speaking, I don't decide to buy, or not, something based on what it **doesn't** have, but rather on what it **does** have. There is a slight possibility that I'd buy an expansion without maps, provided what it offered was very good indeed. But this is a very small possibility as maps are the most important part of the game, so they'd have to add something I'd really really want and be excited about, to ask me money for no new maps. So I vote "no"

Yes it is dead because when someone says something on the internet, it must be true. Joke aside, you should ask your friends why they believe the game is dead. As a whole the game is populated and active, but there are parts that are dead. Some are "officially" dead, like Raids, while others simply have no team working on them, like Guild Missions, bounties and legendary weapons. Fractals were considered "dead" for 2 years but they were revived recently.

> @"Astralporing.1957" said: > I find it kind of funny that Anet, increasing the achievement grind in order to keep players longer in the game, in my case caused an exactly opposite effect - i'm now spending far less time on those achievements than before. I'm in the exact same situation. I had full meta completion until A Star to Guide Us but since then I found it harder and harder to enjoy getting meta completion, I got all meta completions in S4, but I can't say I enjoyed the process, it was more of a slog and took me many many months. While in previous episodes, I'd get the meta completed -before- the next episode released. Until the Icebrood Saga started when I completely stopped caring about the meta anymore, not because of Strike Mission addition but because I found it too boring anymore and I gave up.

> @"notebene.3190" said: > > @"maddoctor.2738" said: > > > @"notebene.3190" said: > > > Actually, just went to look at Efficiency to see if I could figure out how to look at it that way , and I did do WitD. I'm noticing I have to go 'fishing' to find the meta. Efficiency shows percentages complete based on 'everything'. I for sure don't do 'everything'. Are your percentages based on 'everything', or just 'completing the Meta' (which I see Efficiency calls the 'Mastery')? > > > > Efficiency shows completion of meta, not completion of everything. > > I must be looking at the wrong thing then. https://gw2efficiency.com/account/achievements shows me I've completed what it calls "Jormag Rising" Mastery, which is what I would consider the 'meta' achievement, but it shows on the left outline bar, and at top, that I've only completed 82% (53/64) of 'everything' for Jormag Rising. I'm not sure how you got that confused. You get the Episode Mastery achievement once you complete the meta, if the meta has achievements to choose from then you don't need to finish everything. There are 38 achievements required to complete the meta and that's what gw2efficiency shows. You can go here: https://gw2efficiency.com/account/unlock-statistics to check what the registered users have completed. "Jormag Rising" Mastery was completed by 1.295% of the users, but The End of the Road was completed by 0.107%, less than the meta completion. So as I said: > Efficiency shows completion of meta, not completion of everything. If you complete the meta you will be in the "Jormag Rising" Mastery (it will have a green check box) regardless if you've finished all other achievements or not. edit: what Vayne calculated is the number of players that finished the mastery of each episode from here: https://gw2efficiency.com/account/unlock-statistics and has nothing to do with finishing everything.

> @"notebene.3190" said: > Actually, just went to look at Efficiency to see if I could figure out how to look at it that way , and I did do WitD. I'm noticing I have to go 'fishing' to find the meta. Efficiency shows percentages complete based on 'everything'. I for sure don't do 'everything'. Are your percentages based on 'everything', or just 'completing the Meta' (which I see Efficiency calls the 'Mastery')? Efficiency shows completion of meta, not completion of everything.

> @"Vayne.8563" said: > One of the things I used to typically do every time a new zone came out with the zone meta. It kept me in zones longer. I played them more. > > According to GW2 Efficiency, the percentage of people who have completed zone meta achievements are trending down. > > Ice Brood Saga > > Blood by Blood 4.559% > Whisper in the Dark 9.028% > Shadow in the Ice 2.809% > Steel and Fire 1.326% > No Quarter 1.493% > Jormag Rising 1.293% > > I know for me, and I can really only speak for me, I stopped doing zone metas the moment strike missions were required for some of them, and I haven't really gotten back into that mindset. To me, Strike Missions are just content I don't find fun, and have the added stress of either having to find a group or having to endure really bad public groups. This problem doesn't exist as much with meta events, because you're not necessarily interacting with others personally. Most of my guild isn't interested in Strike Missions and I'm not either. > > Obviously this is only one person's opinion, which is the only one I can speak too. I guess I"m curious why fewer people are doing meta achievements these days and what would it take to bring them back. > > And yeah, I get 4 or 8% of Guild Wars 2 efficiency isn't necessariliy representive of the entire player base, but it is representative of those who have efficiency accounts, so it can show a trend. I think it's also worth noting the number of players who finished the first instance of each episode too. This also shows a steep decline as the number of players that start an episode decreases, so will the number of players that will finish the meta achievement. Another equally interesting statistic is the one that tells us how many players finished the story of an episode, because a player that never finished the episode, won't finish the meta either. Let's take a look (Episode/first instance/last instance): Bound by Blood: 41.550% / 34.276% Whisper in the Dark: 37.125% / 33.848% Shadow in the Ice: 37.561% / 29.832% Steel and Fire: 27.510% / 26.236% No Quarter: 27.911% / 20.824% Jormag Rising: 19.455% / 15.964% Half the players who started Bound by Blood started Jormag Rising, half the players who finished Bound by Blood finished Jormag Rising. Aside from the declining start/end numbers, another factor is that in the last two episodes a lot of players have map achievements, but no story progress, while in almost every other episode most players have at least the first story instance achievement. This can easily be attributed to the lack of voice acting as quite a few players are waiting for voice acting to be added to experience the last two episodes. Although it's evident that there is a decline in meta completions, there is also a decline in episode activity as a whole. Some of it can be attributed to the lack of voice acting now how much the addition of Strike Missions in the meta achievements is preventing players from playing the story of an episode is anyone's guess.