Now that Wintersday is over, what did you like, and what do you think could be improved?

[Mylerian.9176]

> @"Ayumi Spender.1082" said:

> I want:

> Single instance for jumping puzzle.

> Removal of the "play your masterpiece" in choir.

 

So much this! I can not do it with all those people running beside, in front and in back of me. Just too distracting to me. But I suck at JP's anyhow so...

[SRoth.3781]

Yes. I would be happy to have rewards adjusted if PYM was removed to keep the same rate as now. The game would feel so much better to me with less down time. I play bell choir because I enjoy it, not because of the presents. I do the jumping puzzle if I want presents.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

The 'Play Your Masterpiece' does not bother me, so I would vote leaving it in, rather than risk bugs from adjusting loot-distribution and removing the 'rest period'.

[Ayumi Spender.1082]

> @"Mylerian.9176" said:

> > @"Ayumi Spender.1082" said:

> > I want:

> > Single instance for jumping puzzle.

> > Removal of the "play your masterpiece" in choir.

>

> So much this! I can not do it with all those people running beside, in front and in back of me. Just too distracting to me. But I suck at JP's anyhow so...

 

My only issue are Charrs. Seriously just Charrs.

That or if I try the medium or hard route and having to either wait until everyone go ahead or risk messing up because everyone trying to go at once and... that's never pretty.

[pholtos.9751]

> @"Gaile Gray.6029" said:

>What if the developers feel that it's fair and right for someone to get XX prizes in YY time? In that scenario, simply taking out the PYM would mean that we'd all be getting rewards on a faster schedule that intended, right? So to balance that, would you be content to have the rewards adjusted to accommodate a faster playing schedule? If we earn 18 boxes in 9 minutes, remove PYM, and end up with, say, 12 boxes in 6 minutes, would you be good with that?

The tricky thing with messing with the rewards is you'd probably have to look at all the other wintersday activities as well for comparison. Bringing up the Jumping Puzzle, I can complete it around three times in that same 6 minute span getting 45 boxes and 5 personalized, in that same amount of time those 12 would be acquired. Meanwhile things like Toypocalypse you get around.. 23-31 boxes in 20-30 minutes, the infinirarium gets 50 once then 25 subsequent in a day for however long it tends to take on average, and the snowball fight maybe 10 in 10? (I don't play snowball mayhem very much. Not a big PvP guy, so I'm probably incorrect on this one.)

[OneYenShort.3189]

> @"Gaile Gray.6029" said:

>What if the developers feel that it's fair and right for someone to get XX prizes in YY time? In that scenario, simply taking out the PYM would mean that we'd all be getting rewards on a faster schedule that intended, right? So to balance that, would you be content to have the rewards adjusted to accommodate a faster playing schedule? If we earn 18 boxes in 9 minutes, remove PYM, and end up with, say, 12 boxes in 6 minutes, would you be good with that?

 

I find the box rate, even if changed that is more in players favor, to be a non issue. Why? Because if a person is serious about getting gifts, they still do the JP.

[Daddicus.6128]

I liked:

* The addition of two levels of difficulty to the JP.

* Some of the achievements seem to have reset. (They ALL should, every year, IMO.)

* Two levels of the race event (runners and mounted).

* Overall tone was good.

 

I didn't like:

* Small amount of achievement points available. With dailies capped, it will take forever to get radiant armor finished. IMO, at least festivals shouldn't limit that, since they come about only infrequently.

* Missing vendor for snowflakes, recipes, and such after the event. (Although, I understand that this is a quirk of fate, and will be fixed later. I just wanted to bring it up so it isn't forgotten.)

* Nothing really new (except the race and easier JPs).

 

[Cragga the Eighty Third.60]

This was my first Wintersday, and I had fun!

Tried all the events except Snowball Mayhem, and particularly enjoyed Toypocalypse. The Star of Gratitude is quickly wiping out all those Empyreal Fragments I've been stockpiling since summer in anticipation. ^^ Got some great drops from the Wintersday presents. And really enjoyed finding the big old presents scattered around the world. It was especially amusing to cruise around Bloodtide Coast on my skimmer, looking for packages on the beaches.

Suggestions for improvements? Maybe we could do something nice for the Skritt since we spend so much of Wintersday beating them up.

[JVJD.4912]

I liked the achievement where we had to do the race without using the mount. I had to trait and use weapon specific to mobility on my warrior

I beat a mesmer who i was neck and neck with in the running race because they teleported and missed the checkpoint :)

[DebraKadabra.5278]

**What I liked (my first Wintersday was in 2013):**

- The two new JP difficulties, and scaled rewards for the new paths. I thought that was genius.

- The race. I also liked that it didn't punish players who don't have the Path of Fire expansion. The alacrity was nice too.

- The new snowflakes. It was honestly getting a tad tedious to collect the five (or six?) different tiers.

 

**What I wish would change for future Wintersday festivals:**

- I know that Lion's Arch is a lag fest, but I really miss Lion's Arch having and hosting the festival. I only got to see it once, and that was before megaserver and before LA got kerploded. Maybe LA and DR could switch years, much like how the Winter and Summer Olympics alternate every two years.

- New songs in Bell Choir, with the removal of Play Your Masterpiece. Though it is nice to stand and sort your inventory during PYM, Bell Choir also has the PvP inactivity warning after a certain amount of time has passed. I also agree that the same songs every year does get old.

- A slight rework of the JP to be more in line with Clock Tower, especially turning other players into orbs of light. I can't count how many times my human main would get lost in someone else's leg armor (usually light).

- Present trees in other areas of the host city. We've had present trees in the same three locations in DR since 2014. Any way we can.. mix that up a touch?

- A rework of available festival AP, as Daddicus mentioned. Since I'm getting close to the daily/monthly AP cap, AP will become tougher to come by.

- I noticed this year that silver donations to Ho-Ho Tron didn't move the bar as much as they did in prior years. Is there a way that that can be looked into?

- Something else I think that should be looked into is how often people get the really good loot only in the first few hours of the festival (Halloween and Christmas). Not all of us can start playing right when the festival content becomes available.

- The drop rate of the required sigils for Winter's Presence. These were so plentiful in 2014 that they were rendered pretty much worthless when they were first introduced. Now that they're not dropping as much, it's become more cost prohibitive for newer players who aren't as flush with gold to achieve the shoulder piece to make their character pop.

 

I was a little disappointed at first that the festival ended on the 2nd, but since there was less newer things for 2017 Wintersday than there were for 2017 Mad King, I was ready for it to be over this year. Plus--and this is personal--I really don't like to hang out in DR for an extended period of time anymore. I know that's just me. I did have fun this year though, even given everything.

[STIHL.2489]

For me. it was the Jump Puzzle. Normally.. well lets just say.. till this year.. me and holiday jump puzzles were not on speaking terms.

 

But I loved the Hard/Normal/Easy set up in the Jump Puzzles.

 

It gave me to the chance to take my time, learn the start, learn the end.. work over the jumps and get a feel for the place and then slowly.. very.. very.. slowly.. I worked up from easy.. to normal.. to hard, to being able to farm hard. I went from someone that hated the P to doing it well over a 100 times.

 

To me, that really made the whole thing fun.. nothing felt out of my reach this year.

 

Great work!

[Dreamy Lu.3865]

Regarding activities:

I do love:

- Orphans

- Bells

- JP with one reserve: Please turn other players into little twister like in mad clock tower.

- Racing, whereas once in a while only, as I am part of those getting motion sickness on mounts.

- Toypocalypse, however sporadically only as I am a bit bored at it. Can't help it.

 

I dislike:

- Snowball Mayhem. I don't do it at all.

 

I don't do the rest. Earlier years, I was doing the Hoho escort, but I got bored at it and have not done it this year.

 

Regarding achievements:

I don't do them upon intention. I miss a final reward that would motivate myself to care about that. The daily one complete mostly automatically as I do orphans, bells and JP with gifts opening every day, but if not, I don't even care to complete.

 

All in all, for me, the main motivation is that I love the bells and JP activities a lot, and that I want karma points. Aside of it, the gold earnings via selling stuff is an additional bonus, but not the main objective. The other rewards don't interest me.

[Klipso.8653]

This was the first time I've been able to play during this festival in 5 years, and I have to say that I didn't feel like i was missing anything. Halloween has a labyrinth that I enjoy farming each year, but this? Was not really that exciting.

I mean, we have the tower defense thing in toypocalypse, but even that was only fun for 4 or 5 times.

[miraude.2107]

A change to the JP. Even with the easy path this year, I never completed it because it went from easy to oh fall to your death. The entire fact that you have to start all over at the beginning too is another reason why I don't think I'll ever complete it. Too much work for little reward.

 

And honestly do not understand why there hasn't been a scavenger hunt/hidden object besides the tree added to festival yet. It'd be a nice upgrade, specially for those that already have a tree in their home instance to instead get another letter from orphans that would put something an icicle mining node that gives you a chance to get other ice related items (ie like being able to have a chance to get a Glacial Core) and then have it be a repeat where you get a present from the orphans that may contain the ugly wool clothes (guess they didn't want them that much after all) to things like the sigils of mischief and the like.

[Scarlett.1605]

Favorite part was on the last day, saw @Gaile Gray.6029 logged in, sort of like meeting virtual celebrity. The JP paths were great, helping ensure I got that puzzle completed this year!

[Vash.2386]

Volunteering to switch teams in Snowball Mayhem should give you a win (like pvp). Too many times I entered a match to be on a losing team where the winning side was stacked full of players vs just 3-4 players on the losing side because players left the instance once they started to lose and of course no one on the winning side was going to volunteer to lose.

[Mortifer.2946]

I went away on 14th December. I came back on 2nd January, but I had a lot of work. Today, on 6th I finally log in and Wintersday is gone....awesome.

[FrizzFreston.5290]

It seemed to me mostly the same as every year, only the race and type of snowflakes and rewards were different.

 

Even the JP seemed just the same as usual, i didn't feel there was any change to them.

 

Only complaint was that it lasted not as long as I would prefer. By the time I actually had time it was already gone. I don't care for wintersday starting nearly two weeks before xmas, but I would like it to last a bit after new years at least.

[HnRkLnXqZ.1870]

Wintersday is my favourite event in the game and the recent version did not change my opinion in any way. As a JP addict, I really appreciated the difficulty-system for the Winter Wonderland. I still think the idea of keeping the characters in shape is good, because it actually feels real. Sometimes it was very hard to see the platforms with all these giant charr and norn. But the size requires high accuracy and speed, what not many people can. They fall more often, overstep and usually lack the speed to be a real obstacle. The additional rewards in the difficult course helped me to finish my xmas preparation within one week.

 

Another thing I enjoyed over the years is Tixx himself in DR. In good tradition I kept shouting a few times per day about his hidden free gift and I always received positive feedback. Surprisingly most responses came from veterans. The loot might not be much, but for me Tixx is the symbol of wintersday. I am visiting him once per day for years and it always makes me feel good. His gift is something special. Pleas ANet, keep Tixx gifting in the next years.

 

The race was something new. I liked the challenge-run without a mount for the special achievement. I also loved to watch Toxx cheating and the players shouting at him, was really funny. Could we get an achievement for finishing the race AFTER toxx next year? Name it "defeated by the best" or so, as a fun achievement. I really appreciated the ability to rent a mount. And the option to keep the mount, even when the race is over. The raptor is nerfed to the ground, but still faster than running. It was quite easy to get DR map-completion with it and it was a real teaser for PoF - well done.

 

I am also always happy to see that the Ho-Ho-Tron event stays with the title-achievement. Although I rarely use titles, I get frequently asked how to obtain the "Finders Keepers."

 

The adjustments to orphan-farming were also really nice, new ways to make gifts and getting rid of the old clothes-system. While keeping the option still available - for people like me who hoard stacks of them for wintersday only XD. I always use Wintersday to refresh my karma stocks, but this year I ended up with 500k only.

 

I am most greatful for the portals-exchange. It is a true pain to craft them with the artificer. They do eat karma like hell, but during wintersday it is not that bad. The snowflake conversion system worked out extremely good for me. The guildhall is full of awesome decorations or at least snow-piles/mounds.

 

The only thing I really regret is, that I had too less time this year. I have given the bell choir one single try and did not test the snowballmayem once ;_;. Same goes for the Toypocalypse. But I did the infinirarium once at least. Now I have to wait an entire year for the next wintersday.

 

Back in my first year with wintersday, we were able to get these frost-gathering tools from boxes. After the events I had a good stack and used them on gathering chars. The optical effect is nice and the bonus snowflakes are always welcome. In the following years the tools became less popular. Can we have the containers as optional loot from presents back?

[Ayakaru.6583]

Bell choir, the fact that when I join there’s a ten in ten chance to end up on a “free play” instance is just upsetting. After the second round has started the whole instance should be locked. The free to play section should be removed, and a board of wintersday bell choir should become a guild item thing.

[VAHNeunzehnsechundsiebzig.]

I hate the bells, will hate it in the future, hated it in the past. I am there, the instructions are not very clear, the stuff is moving well too fast for me.

 

Snowball mayhem was fun.

 

The JP: only did easy, because I am not a fast jumper. Would like to see similar adjustment to the halloween clocktower. I am a slow player, it is what it is. clocktower is impossible for me to do. Easy wintersday jp was possible, so I could finaly cross it off my list.

 

Races were ok.

 

Searching the orphans was... annoying. I have a great idea for an activity: round up the orphans, put them in a safe space (cage *cough*) and then throw presents at them. Every time you hit a previously unhit orphan, it is happy. Done. Much more fun.

[qbalrog.8017]

I don't begrudge those who enjoyed it , but I didn't find it much different from years past and early on decided not to do it this year. The entry mode to the JP was a nice touch. The race was only interesting (for me) as a one-time.

[Orpheal.8263]

@ Gaile:

 

Have no problems with it if the reward rate would get reduced for the removal of the PYM, because you can play then the rounds quicker and thus through the quickker rounds will compensate the loss of rewards through playing many more rounds within an hour, than before.. so absolutely no issue there with that.

 

Nice to see, that my proposal for new songs will get asked by you to the devs. When you are at it, can you also ask them how likely it is, that the other activities, will get slightly improved for next time as well? Cause I don't believe it is asked too much for adding in Toypocalyse two new weapons (Staff & Sword) and two new toy types (Charr Car & Wyvern) to spice Toypocalyse a bit and and refresh the activity this way a bit.

 

Same as much shouldnt it be too hard within a year of time to add to Snowball Mayhem two new Jobs to spice up the activity and maket it with the Hunter and the Invoker again more fun to play. because as Snowball Mayhem currently is, are Scouts amogn the only 3 Jobs so far too effective..Gunners are too slow to play an important role and Supporters are just too weak and are easily outplayed as Scout if you are good. Can understand if unique Skills for each Elite Spec would be too much work, but two new chooseable Jobs at least would make Snowball Mayhem alot more fun and would refresh the overall gameplay.

 

But especially I'd love to hear, what the Devs in general think about a Snowboarding Activity for next year.... I think Snowboarding would provide great potential as Wintersday Activity...I know at least, I'd personally play it all day long on Wintersday either solo to try being the fastest (Time Trial) or the most stylish player (Freestyle)

An Activity similar to Snowboard Kids would be so awesome for Guild Wars 2 to have and theres in my opinion no other snow based sport, than Snowboarding, that would fit better to Wintersday honestly ;)

[Aaralyna.3104]

This was my 1st wintersday event. I liked the jumping puzzle having an easy mode that fits bad jumpers like me. I do it for achievements and not really for the gifts. But I started to enjoy it so I did it a few times more than needed. I also liked the availability of the race for players without mounts. Toypocalypse was nice but sometimes took a bit long (depending on the team). Droobur donate activity I personally found totally pointless. Its a lot of snowflake donates for a few minimum reward only and the achievement is infinite as well. I liked Halloweens version of it better. Bell choir I liked best. It was only a bit of a search for a spot at play points which sometimes made me arrive at empty spot too late... General rewards for snowflakes wise, I was missing some. I found halloween gave more to play the event for. I was missing some costumes or looks. There were xmassy outfits in the item shop but if you wanted to dress xmassy without it, it was not possible. I had spent all my money already to get Festive Aurene from the shop. I do know you could get the winters presence achievement (some sort of look) but looking at its massive cost (misschief runes) and the insane amount of drinks etc you need, it is not possible to do it in a year time (not sure if I would even be able to in 2 year time).

 

p.s I did also miss something at new years eve. Idk, fireworks in the sky/ free fireworks or something ^^

[Miko.4158]

Loved:

rolling around as a massive golden ball in wvw

still makes me smile, it works solo or in a pack of balls.

snow diamond skin.

 

not so good?

wintersday bags, it spams drinks whose going to do 10K

with the odd quartz for pve legendarys.