Templates Preview Guild Chat -- We want your questions!

[SnakeWildlife.5623]

> @"Dzjudz.9142" said:

> > @"SnakeWildlife.5623" said:

> > Why are we getting only 3 Equipment templates per character to start like the 3 build templates? 100% of builds uses different equipment load outs.

>

> We're not. We're only getting 2 equipment templates. Never mind people who use 10+ equipment loadouts with their legendary gear.

 

That's a typo. I meant 2.

 

Overall separating the templates instead of putting them together is pretty disrespectful to those who made legendaries. You don't need the extra equipment templates since they already don't take up space.

 

So much for "people with legendaries will really take advantage of this system". Not without spending more money on top of what they have to get the legendary "perks".

[BrendanMcCoy.1289]

When you buy it a new tab it should be unlocked for all characters. I still can't believe bag slots don't work that way =/

 

Edit:

Seriously though, either have a higher starting count or make premium unlocks account wide instead of character specific. You did this with dyes and skins, bank slots work this way, so why not bag slots and gear slots?

[perilisk.1874]

> @"Dami.5046" said:

> I don't think they are being greedy, I think the players are.

> You ASKED for it, If you think about the man hours and development and just how much free stuff we get given and you complain about a charge on a QOL item?

> We have to pay for bank we have to pay for more inventory. You get given some slots and if you want more then fine, you need to pay.

> Spare me the 'I'm not going to play anymore' BS - If you don't want to support the game anymore you're either not playing anyway or not a worry.

 

I mean, imagine you had been complaining about needing a car for a while. Then, eventually, your parents bought you a used car to help you out. Several years later, the city says "Hey, we heard you say needed a car. Good news, we are now providing car rentals to everyone in town. First half-hour each day is free, after that you need to pay. Oh, also, we towed your car and scrapped it, so you have no choice but to use this system."

 

And then people say "Hey, look, they deserve to get paid for buying that fleet of rental cars. And you were whining that you wanted a car, so why are you mad?" For a lot of people out there, Arenanet isn't giving them much of anything (other than some inventory slots, granted) -- they're taking something away and then nickel and diming them to get it back. Of course it's going to piss them off, it's a net loss either way: they don't pay and lose functionality, or they do and lose money while being right back where they started. It's not greedy to charge for giving people something they need. It's absolutely greedy to charge people for something they only need because you took away what they had, which you did no work on and no moral right to.

 

Arenanet should have never considered charging for anything other than the inventory slots. Their own official build template system could have just been a loss leader to enhance the value of gear templates.

 

[Vegeta.2563]

> @"SnakeWildlife.5623" said:

> Why are we getting only 2 Equipment templates per character to start like the 3 build templates? 100% of builds uses different equipment load outs.

 

Maybe you can use 1 set of Legendary armor in 1 equipment template. And you can change builds and it uses the same gear but swaps stats without taking up another equipment template.

[Stu Grockalot.2937]

This may have already been answered, but please can you explain how equipment templates function between different characters.

 

For example, my mesmer uses Greatsword and Axe/Torch combo, so too does my necro. They also use both Staff and Sceptre/Focus combo. I have in their inventory, 1 greatsword, 1 staff, 1 sceptre, 1 focus, 1 axe and 1 torch. I have to move items from 1 characters inventory to another when I swap their equipment over.

 

You have stated that once a piece of equipment is added to the equipment template, it disappears from the characters inventory, while this is great and will save so much space, how do I use this with another character now.

 

For example, if I save Greatsword Axe/Torch to my mesmer build, and then want to use that (ascended) gear for my necro, how does that work? Can my necro use the same equipment template as my mesmer?

 

If not, do I have to unequip my gear from the mesmer equipment template to add it to a separate necro equipment template? then what happens if I try to equip that equipment template on my mesmer but the gear isn't there? will the template fall over?

 

Many thanks, and keep up the great work!

 

Stu.

[Moira Shalaar.5620]

I’m coming into this 6 pages in so I will admit right up front I didn’t read all 6 pages, but will this effect the already in game build changes for going between PvE and WvW or entering and leaving underwater?

 

I for one expected this to be monetized in some way. If I understand. It right equipment templates will give us ext a bag space (currently gem item) and the entire concept is going to eat into the sale of character slots. Those are two different products this will impact. As one who cannot use the third party template system, I am really looking forward to having these in game, although I can understand how the change may negatively impact those able to use the third party option. However, I do hope that the price per slot is more reasonable than shared inventory slots.

[AdahnSurian.3895]

How will this work regarding legendary equipment. Can I use it for every equipment template? Is there a benefit for legendary equipment that I can't get from just using multiple ascended/ exotic sets? Will there be a limit on the number of equipment templates we can have per character?

[The Last Hobbit.6492]

What are your plans for players who use legendary equipment across multiple characters?

 

Will we be able to save equipment tabs but still move the legendary gear to other characters without it forgetting the settings?

[Mireles Lore.5942]

This will probably get burried and never read since I am late to the party but....

 

Since sharing equipment templates could not be done...

 

Would it be at all possible to implement a vendor that we could use that would allow us to cheaply get copies of our legendary gear that we have created to populate our equipment templates with?

 

Of course these items would be unsalvageable and unsellable, in addition to being only used inside equipment templates. It just seems like equipment templates don't help people that use account bound gear on multiple characters. And this feels like this is the main inconvenience these equipment templates should eliminate.

 

We can already apply legendary appearance to any item, why don't we do the same for thier functional ability instead of making us continue to shuffle them in a post template world?

[varitano.4328]

Is this how much you respect your players?

2 gear templates? the absolut fkn minimum?

It's disgusting how you monetize something that is right now provided by a trird party tool for free.

I promise you i'll never spend a € again if you keep trying to squeeze out every little penny from your playerbase.

[Aeon.4583]

Another question:

Are you sure that adding 'build sharing via chat link' is good idea?

I already see so called 'build checks' in lfg. And people who will be kicked if there will be no link.

[Widmo.3186]

100-200 gems per additional template? Good job ANet, im proud of you and appreciate your work.

Above that amount of gems - > are you serious? Id rather switch manually traits and gear instead of buying another cheap work :)

[Doutrinador.6285]

Any plans in the future to allow (with cooldown) build/equipment swap in pve while in combat?

[susana.7814]

Monetized templates.....yeah think im done here.

[sajah varel.9261]

Why not doing it like GW1 ? it was perfect. We don't need additional equipment space, we just need a way to memorize builds ingame.

A string that load a preset like in GW1 would have been fine. Stored localy, no real build limit (GW1 allowed 550 templates in the folder). And it was free, so it's not like it has not been done before.

 

This is clearly going backwards, where other mmos either have unlimited templates or have official interface APIs to build the feature ourselves.

[UnDeadFun.5824]

Why encourage people to try raids with strike missions and then monitize the trait/equipment swap system .. oh wait a minute :(

Sorry, Anet this will not encourage me to spend more money in the gem shop.

[ZolracAtrox.2908]

> @"FrigginPaco.4178" said:

> I'm very disappointed, but not surprised, to see that additional templates will need to be purchased via gemstore. People who play a higher number of build variations and game modes are ironically the ones hit hardest by this decision. I play across PvE, WvW, and PvP. Even if you get a new set of fresh templates per game mode that's an astonishing amount of locking done by this marketing decision.

 

Why ppl always cry cuz there's nothing free in the world?

[Mantrix.8329]

In original Guild Wars Build Templates are free to use with no limits to save or swap.

 

For Guild Wars 2 it was a promised feature before SAGA episodes by Mike Zadorojny on April 02, 2019:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/whats-next-for-guild-wars-2/

 

With no signs that the feature would have a cost

and so far features of rune and sigil salvaging, max cooking level from 400 to 500 are available for no charge.

 

A lot of my friends see that paying would be reasonable for Equipment Templates and not for Build Templates and Build Storage.

Players were promised that pay-to-win features will never appear in gemstore and only cosmetic and convenience items.

 

**Main question: why Build Templates and Build Storage are getting priced as it potentially causes pay-to-win situation.**

 

I would like to **elaborate why it's possibly pay-to-win.**

People with enough templates will have builds prepared in World vs World suited for:

Roaming, zerging, range combat, underwater combat, destroying siege, defending siege, defending gates from inside, killing lords.

 

Such gameplay to change builds will make WvW alive again and more interesting

but the need to buy more build templates will be seen as pay-to-win.

[Shailyn Slay.7234]

Will sPvP & WvW skill selection still be independent of the build templates in general?

Let's say I play mostly PVE so I'm using all of my 3 build templates for different PVE builds (quite easy with 2 elite specs). If I then switch to WvW or sPvP will my skill selection there be locked to one of the build templates or is it still independently saved (just not insta-loadable)?

[Vinceman.4572]

> @"ZolracAtrox.2908" said:

> > @"FrigginPaco.4178" said:

> > I'm very disappointed, but not surprised, to see that additional templates will need to be purchased via gemstore. People who play a higher number of build variations and game modes are ironically the ones hit hardest by this decision. I play across PvE, WvW, and PvP. Even if you get a new set of fresh templates per game mode that's an astonishing amount of locking done by this marketing decision.

>

> Why ppl always cry cuz there's nothing free in the world?

 

"Cuz" people would pay for real content and good stuff, not things that should have been in the game from the start and features that are available for free in other, comparable games.

I paid 100 bucks thrice (special editions of vanilla, HoT & PoF) and some gems here and there over the years. I would pay another 100 for a "real" expansion with inclusion of build templates and story content I can play for more than one day + 2 weeks achievement hunting.

[Radon.6710]

> @"Blanche Neige.7241" said:

> > @"Sweal.4659" said:

> > Feel free to ban me, i will keep using arc build templates until they won't work anymore. And a lot of people will as well, feel free to ban tens of thousands of players from your game that actually keep your game alive.

>

> Can we have a source for those numbers? Or you made it up?

>

>

 

Anet released thing about having 12m players playing the game. GW2efficiency says that 20% with over 4000h (regular playtime for veterans) have 382 LI -> raided a lot and at that point you have more than 2 builds for sure. Even if in GW2efficiency was only 20% players (which i highly doubt, a lot of people are signed up for gw2efficiency) thus 2 400 000 and let's say 1/5 of them are actual veterans and 20% of those have over 382LI, that still makes 96k players that are impacted and that is ONLY in raid. I know entire zergs in WvW that use build templates.

[BlueIce.6951]

Will the equipment template work across characters on your account?

 

Example, I create a template for a Mesmer that includes armor and a greatsword. Would I be able to use that same template with the same armor and weapon on a reaper without pulling the armor and weapon off of the mesmer into the bank and then loading it on the reaper?

[SoulSin.5682]

Let me ask actual questions;

 

- its specified that you can store build templates in the build bank storage.

Does that build bank storage includes equipment builds or only character builds?

 

- can equipment builds be shared at all?

 

- Please explain how the relationship between legs, sigils and the equipment build will work.

 

- can I store incomplete builds? As in only 2 trait lines and leaving a third one blank?

[EagleDelta.4726]

> @"Astralporing.1957" said:

> > @"Ashantara.8731" said:

> > Not if you want to get more free content in the future. There won't be an expansion anytime soon, so they need to make money.

> Then maybe, just maybe, they should _make the expansion_ already, instead of trying to sell us its features piecemeal. But of course they realized that chopping up that expac in pieces and selling each feature for more than a whole expansion pricetag would net them more money. On paper, anyway, because doing that, unlike expac, will not keep players in the game.

 

Coming from a tech background working as both a Systems Engineer and now a Software/Backend Developer, I don't want them to go back to Expansions if they can avoid it. Expansion style work/releases are simply not really viable for the longterm health of a project anymore.... unless it's an established product already deep into that model (which GW2 has never really been in). It requires a lot of extra work from devs (who don't get paid extra for that work.... we are usually exempt salary which means no overtime in exchange for a steady paycheck), increased stress, increased risk on release day, decreased quality of work due to increased stress, rushed work, etc.

 

If you want a full breakdown of different release cadences, take a look about 1/2 way down this page: http://disciplinedagiledelivery.com/choose-release-cadence/

Note that the release cadence that Expansion fall into (Annual releases and "More than annual" releases) have is significantly higher risk associated with deployment as so many moving parts are touch at once and/or several changes introduced at once. Not to mention that the "Higher risk" ends up usually being a self-fulfilling problem caused by the less frequent releases.

 

> > @"EagleDelta.4726" said:

> > Compare to GW1 all you want, but the ongoing development of that game was short-lived when compared to GW2. With GW1 I had 3 $50 purchases to make and 1 $40 purchase to make for everything. With GW2, I've paid $60, $50, and $30 to get the base content and expansions. I've paid nothing for LW content. So already they make less on the physical copies of GW2 than GW1, especially when you factor in the fact that costs to make this stuff increased, not decreased, over time.

> Cool. Now compare both gemshops, and you will see how GW2 gets way more money even without expacs than GW1 ever did.

 

You mean the skins that people will eventually stop buying because they already have them? Or the "upgrades" that people already have because they bought all they needed? They have to make money and sometimes that means looking forward and covering for when people don't need the initial products anymore.

 

Additionally, as I mentioned, you're ignoring some factors here:

1. Cost to make and maintain GW2 is higher than GW1 ever was (or will be)

2. We don't have anyway of know how much GW1's shop has made vs GW2's. I'm sure that you're right and it has made more money, but you don't know what the actual margins are.

3. Revenue != Profit. Just because GW2 gets a decent amount of revenue from the Gem Store (Which I think is what we see in the quarterly reports), that doesn't translate into profit. A company's goal is profit. I.E. the amount of money actually brought in after all the employees are paid, their benefits are paid, infrastructure costs are paid, rent is paid, etc. We don't know those details....

 

 

[int randInt return.7810]

I would like to know the cost of the templates, and what the arena net stance on third party templates will be going forward.

 

I have heard fears that the existing 3rd party templates will be taken away with the release of official build templates, despite the significant functionality differences.

 

Third party templates can't give you inventory space, but can handle far more builds and make better use of legendary equipment (which tends to be a fairly significant investment).

 

New features are generally good, but taking away features is rarely well received, such as when the Aetherpath removed an existing dungeon path.

 

The potential negatives of removing third party templates seem to mostly impact the raiding population, which is already seeing fears of strike missions replacing raid development, so it would be good to have some clarification.