Wintersday JP Feedback [merged]

[TheQuickFox.3826]

The good thing of GW2 is that most of the content, including jumping puzzles, are completely optional.

And most (not all) of the jumping puzzles can basically be skipped by going to the daily jumping puzzle and wait for a kind mesmer to make you a portal to the end chest.

 

There may be a few poor design decisions like putting the legendary trinkets behind one of the hardest jumping puzzles in game, but for the rest I don't really see the issue. There must be a lot of other content which you can enjoy and be good at.

[jediwolf.8724]

I know how you feel. Your character is jumping along no problem and then nope. Down you go. It took me until this year to complete the Wintersday JP.

Mind you it was the Quaggan level. For some reason I always miss jump at the last present before you get to the giant snowballs. So give the Quaggan level

a try and use it for training. That is what I am doing. First two thirds is a breeze for me now on that level. But that last present :(

[Zedek.8932]

I've never done any jumping puzzles. Or maybe I did without noticing. It's more like smoking: If you are not that sort of person that would enjoy it (as it seems you are clearly not), then you should not start it at all :-) The only plattforming I like is in 2D games, Ori for example, or good ol' 90s consoles. But here, especially with my funky ability of randomly doding instead of walking I'd get mad very quickly.

 

Excelsior.

[Schewe.1673]

> @"Faaris.8013" said:

> I would like to see them sorted into their own instance. All Norns and Charrs get into an instance, the rest into other instances. Problem solved.

 

Lol, OR... or... they can make all character models except your own appear as wisps a la Mad King's Clocktower instead of, you know, racially segregating players and allowing the issue to persist.

 

[Sojourner.4621]

> @"Yargesh.4965" said:

> > @"Wandering Mist.2973" said:

> > I'll be honest I don't do a lot of jumping and platforming outside of fractals, but what I don't understand was Anet's decision to tie your jumping distance to your character's running speed.

>

> It is not.

 

It absolutely is. If you have a movement speed boost, you will jump further, and if you have chill you jump not as far.

[Rauderi.8706]

> @"Sojourner.4621" said:

> > @"Yargesh.4965" said:

> > > @"Wandering Mist.2973" said:

> > > I'll be honest I don't do a lot of jumping and platforming outside of fractals, but what I don't understand was Anet's decision to tie your jumping distance to your character's running speed.

> >

> > It is not.

>

> It absolutely is. If you have a movement speed boost, you will jump further, and if you have chill you jump not as far.

 

Can confirm. Swiftness makes my jumps *much* easier.

[Prototypemind.4026]

Jumping tends to be glitchy at best in any game where latency can factor in. I realized long ago that it's best to just leave the puzzles alone unless I really, really, really want something. I agree, the tolerances are way too tight, and for most people it's just going to lead to frustration more than fun.

[Sojourner.4621]

> @"Rauderi.8706" said:

> > @"Sojourner.4621" said:

> > > @"Yargesh.4965" said:

> > > > @"Wandering Mist.2973" said:

> > > > I'll be honest I don't do a lot of jumping and platforming outside of fractals, but what I don't understand was Anet's decision to tie your jumping distance to your character's running speed.

> > >

> > > It is not.

> >

> > It absolutely is. If you have a movement speed boost, you will jump further, and if you have chill you jump not as far.

>

> Can confirm. Swiftness makes my jumps *much* easier.

 

Yeah, there is a reason that you take ticking damage during the entire JP and have all skills disabled. In combat speed is slightly slower, and the jumps themselves are spaced to be possible with the "in combat" speed. Sometimes, though, to make some of the tricker jumps you have to jump from the trailing edge of the snowflake/present/whatever.

[Tsakhi.8124]

I can understand walking away from an aspect of a game, but to quit the game entirely because you don't like an aspect of one, specific, thing confuses me. It would be like stopping Final Fantasy 7 because you couldn't beat Ruby Weapon. You don't _have_ to beat, it is there for the challenge. Same thing with JP, it is there for people to challenge themselves at _something they like_ (or at the very least have an ambivalent attitude towards it). Unless you're a completionist, there really is no point in taking part in it. If it's gifts you want, there are other ways to get them as stated above. And quitting an entire game because of one (optional) feature seems a bit excessive to me. But, do what you have to do and good luck.

 

(as an aside, I've done one JP and failed. A lot. I was kind of like: "I suck at this, time to do something I'm a bit better at." Also, I don't know where hardly any of the JP are. XD)

[pah.4931]

I played this game in the very first beta and followed the hype for months up to launch and was stoked for jumping puzzles and events (left the game for years after launch but happy to be back!). I did one jumping puzzle then and knew they weren't for me. Platformers are hard enough when the game is designed to be a platformer. MMO glidey glitchy movement just isn't the right place for them. I am glad others like em, but no thanks! :D

[Gaile Gray.6029]

I want to point out something I learned this afternoon during Joe Kimmes' visit to Community Showcase Live: The Wintersday JP has been changed, and it now offers three routes. If you choose the middle, you'll experience pretty much the normal decay rate for those snowflakes, normal freeze factor, etc. If you choose the left-most path, you'll be challenged to an agonizing (some editorializing implied) route with faster freeze rates and beastly flake decay. **But**.... if you choose the right path -- the Quaggan Path -- you will find that there is slower (or even eliminated) decay, slower freeeze rates, and it's altogether more approachable for players who -- like me -- are not adept at JPs as a whole.

 

I'd encourage players to give this a try. Clearly the devs have listened to your feedback, and positive changes have been the result.

 

Let us know your thoughts!

[Randulf.7614]

Feel free to use this as the feedback thread. It started out a query, but it evolved into a feedback thread

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/20468/wintersday-jp/p1

[Gaile Gray.6029]

> @"Randulf.7614" said:

> Feel free to use this as the feedback thread. It started out a query, but it evolved into a feedback thread

> https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/20468/wintersday-jp/p1

 

Thanks for pointing out we had another thread. I figure they're on the same topic, so merging and making that clear in the title helps, and we can gather all feedback in the same thread!

[Bad Wolf.3541]

I feel like i'm in the minority, but I adore this jumping puzzle. Last year was my first Wintersday experience and after finally mastering the Winter Wonderland JP, it's all I wanted to do, and I've spent all year looking forward to its return. It's my GW2 happy place (Norns and Charrs be damned).

[Shard.4791]

The JP is definitely better for majority of players. There's some things that still could be improved. Especially now that the solo instance feature has been all but removed. RIP.

 

Constructive feedback to the devs.

1. Gingerbread path's first (and by extension second) snowflake disappears too fast. It causes people to fall from it that try to start the jp even a second or two later than others. It happens all the time.

2. Gingerbread path's final snowflakes (edit) appears too late for speedrunners. Waiting at the start circumvents this problem but is hard in non-solo instance.

3. Dodge jumping gingerbread path's 2nd snowflake skip still can randomly port you back to the starting platform.

4. Exploding presents stairs cause too much RNG for the current speedrunning timing method (it can be changed of course). The stairs are rarely up when needed causing restarts after restarts.

5. Rip solo instance feature. I've waited 8 days to get in one. I very much would like the option back to do solo runs. It's both good for relaxed completion of the jp without charrs blocking your view, speedruns, or for farming presents.

6. Q: Quaggan path is still too hard for some people. Is this intentional or was the frostbite damage just meant for flavor in that path?

7. Leave instance prompt at the end is still too close to the return to the start prompt causing people to leave the instance accidentally.

8. AFK timer is really bloodthirsty. I find myself in the character select screen really often. Afaik the timer was changed for clocktower? WW needs the same treatment.

9. Thanks for this top tier content. It's one of the few ways a JP player can earn gold. The other being clock tower. Availability uptime for these is bit low though.

[Tekoneiric.6817]

> @"Bad Wolf.3541" said:

> I feel like i'm in the minority, but I adore this jumping puzzle. Last year was my first Wintersday experience and after finally mastering the Winter Wonderland JP, it's all I wanted to do, and I've spent all year looking forward to its return. It's my GW2 happy place (Norns and Charrs be damned).

 

I like what they have done with the JP but the blocking visibility by other characters makes it annoying.

[Miss Lana.5276]

> @"Tekoneiric.6817" said:

> > @"Bad Wolf.3541" said:

> > I feel like i'm in the minority, but I adore this jumping puzzle. Last year was my first Wintersday experience and after finally mastering the Winter Wonderland JP, it's all I wanted to do, and I've spent all year looking forward to its return. It's my GW2 happy place (Norns and Charrs be damned).

>

> I like what they have done with the JP but the blocking visibility by other characters makes it annoying.

 

Yeah, I like the changes (though I've never had a problem with this jp or any jp), but I would absolutely love the other players to be made into the sprites that we have in the Mad King's Clocktower. My mains are short human females, and it's impossible to see where I am in the mass of max-sized charr and norn bodies. Until that change is made I'll just stick to the quaggan or snowman route. Too many people on the Gingerbread route block my vision -.-

[Kapax.3801]

I have finished all the routes and I must say that the only difficulty is the Norns and the Charrs <3

[Tekoneiric.6817]

Another issue with the JP is that annoying score board window that pops up right before reset. It blocks the view ahead. It cost me a successful JP when I was about to jump onto the blue gifts after the rolling balls. I would have had time to make it and open the chest if not for the window blocking my view. It would be nice to have an audible 2 minute warning with a count down chime every 5 seconds on the last 30 seconds then show the scoreboard. When someone is in the JP they are too focused on the jumps and not looking at any screen info of when the map is about to close.

 

It'd also be nice if the JP would auto-reward when you get to the reward platform rather than needing to open the chest. If there was one of the shimmering candy cane portals on the platform you could run to it after getting the reward going to the JP start. The faster players wouldn't even have to pause before starting again. I'm probably not one of the fastest ones but it would still be nice.

[pholtos.9751]

Love Jumping Puzzles. Whenever I do the dailies and see mesmers porting people, I go "tsk" but don't say anything. If you want to completely void any semblance of challenge in one of the dailies, you be my guest. (Seriously I wish that portals were disabled in jumping puzzles but I know that's not too popular an opinion... in fact I wish all abilities were disabled in jumping puzzles. But add on a checkpoint location to the start of all jumping puzzles in case you die so it's easy to retry.)

I actually think the Wintersday Jumping Puzzle is too profitable compared to the other activities. It's insane how many presents I've gotten from that left path. If only all jumping puzzles had constantly restoring chests at the end...

[Taygus.4571]

> @"pholtos.9751" said:

> Love Jumping Puzzles. Whenever I do the dailies and see mesmers porting people, I go "tsk" but don't say anything. If you want to completely void any semblance of challenge in one of the dailies, you be my guest. (Seriously I wish that portals were disabled in jumping puzzles but I know that's not too popular an opinion... in fact I wish all abilities were disabled in jumping puzzles. But add on a checkpoint location to the start of all jumping puzzles in case you die so it's easy to retry.)

 

 

Why? Let people play their game, their way.

[Tekoneiric.6817]

> @"pholtos.9751" said:

> Love Jumping Puzzles. Whenever I do the dailies and see mesmers porting people, I go "tsk" but don't say anything. If you want to completely void any semblance of challenge in one of the dailies, you be my guest. (Seriously I wish that portals were disabled in jumping puzzles but I know that's not too popular an opinion... in fact I wish all abilities were disabled in jumping puzzles. But add on a checkpoint location to the start of all jumping puzzles in case you die so it's easy to retry.)

 

Not everyone has dexterity enough to do JPs. As with many things dexterity ranges across a spectrum from excellent to disabilities. Mesmers help people who wouldn't be able to do them otherwise. This is why I'm against blocking mounts and gliding at JPs. People who like the challenge can do a JP the normal way and most likely already have done them. All blocks do is throw the difficulty in the face of players with lower level of dexterity.

 

> I actually think the Wintersday Jumping Puzzle is too profitable compared to the other activities. It's insane how many presents I've gotten from that left path. If only all jumping puzzles had constantly restoring chests at the end...

 

(Popping my knuckles to avoid inserting a reference to a couple of unsavory characters who want to ruin Christmas.)

 

The Wintersday JP is just a few weeks long and most of what you get is the game equivalent of stocking stuffers. If it didn't give so many it might a lot longer to get some of the rewards like for the Festive Imbiber. I read somewhere that a person opened something like 10,000 Wintersday presents to get an single infusion. It would take a long time on the JP to get enough to find something really worth it.

[Wakthor Thorwak.2819]

this year was my first winter holiday which is like more then halloween holiday ingame to be honest but the jp wasnt that hard for me i failed a couple times at start but after that it started to get easier but the thing that annoyns me the most is when my jump dont register for some odd reason otherwise its great and i have 0 problems whit chars and norms on the puzzle and i play as the small female human i can