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A Message from Andrew Gray


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I can get behind Strike Missions being stepping stones to Raids. Rewards do need to better to get people to come. I'm okay with unique rewards only available in a Strike, kind of like raid skins.

I like the concept of fractals, but really would prefer dungeons or shifting dungeons into the fractal system. Good content is going unused. Please help it come to life again.

Final comment, please do something to support Guild play, like updated Guild Missions!

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@Madja.1369 said:This sounds really good. I'm hoping the secret content is another expansion as we desperately need some new class, race or specialisations.

In regards to raids I think the main issue is that all the bosses seem to be a pure DPS race and the way to do enough DPS is to memorise a 20-40 step rotation.i know that's what pushed me away from raids despiterreally wanting to experience them. The mechanics for the bosses that I've attempted are very simple. Vanilla WoW level simple and the only thing that held my guild back from progressing was the lack of DPS.

I think if you want raids to appeal to a broader audience you need to focus more on mechanics and less on enrage timers and DPS races. This will allow it to not be exclusively for those that can devote such a long rotation to muscle memory and it will allow for more classes and specialisations to join.When it's a requirement to have a banner slave, chrono tank, druid healer, alacrity and quickness spammers if you want to progress at all that doesn't leave room for most people to play what they want.Obviously it shouldn't be a cake walk, raidsshould still be for the people who put effort in, but the current DPS requirements are ridiculous and excludes most classes and players.

But the enrage timers are ultra forgiving even when you compaire them to most mmos. Iirc vg has a enrage timer that require what? Less than 6k dps per person to fail?

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@Fire Attunement.9835 said:I can't go into a ton of details on episodes three and four because, you know, spoilers and all, but I can tell you the map is meta-focused with a push-and-pull feel similar to WvW in a PvE setting.Cool! ? This reminds me of the dynamics of Silverwastes, defending the four forts against enemy waves (using WvW siege, even!)

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Despite all the good and bad feedbacks of this post, just.. thank you.

Thank you for sharing this, as players currently stand not knowing what is going to happen in 2020 for guild wars 2.

I also think for stir missions to be used and played more the rewards needs more value. Sure currently you can get items from strikes that are worth plenty of gold but something people can achieve.Some liked the idea some didnt but a suggestion was thrown around for a new strike currency maybe leading towards a piece of ascended gear.

There are certainly alot of players who have not touched the strike missions, some dont like it but alot is to do with it being 'not worth it's to them as they see nothing rewarding by doing them.

To leave on a positive note, YAY MORE FRACTALS

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I'm exiciting to see this!

May I wish that a legendary armor set to be added to fractal? Please ;)

As for raid, I wish that there's a practice mode for certain mechanics (such as the orb push) in the special forces training area, such that it's easier to train another player for important task. I say this as I always see that the people who already mastered this often get "jailed" on the same task.

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@Blackhearted.1264 said:

@"Blocki.4931" said:

Because they don't want to hold the entire devlopment of the game for over a year? lolNot sure what to tell you. Tweak your settings.

Other MMOs have made improvements to their engines as well as adopted modern API's that make proper use of of modern hardware without having to halt any and all content development. I don't know why you think that would have to be any different here. Perhaps you're just making excuses since you seem to think that "tweaking your settings" is an acceptable solution to a
7.5 year old
game running with very sub-par performance on pretty much every machine out there.

It's running fine in most situations, and has been for years. Unless the issue is that you can't display 50 players on your screen at full detail simultaneously (other games solve this problem by not attempting to do it - it always causes problems), there's something wrong with your hardware.

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@Ben K.6238 said:

@"Blocki.4931" said:

Because they don't want to hold the entire devlopment of the game for over a year? lolNot sure what to tell you. Tweak your settings.

Other MMOs have made improvements to their engines as well as adopted modern API's that make proper use of of modern hardware without having to halt any and all content development. I don't know why you think that would have to be any different here. Perhaps you're just making excuses since you seem to think that "tweaking your settings" is an acceptable solution to a
7.5 year old
game running with very sub-par performance on pretty much every machine out there.

It's running fine in most situations, and has been for years. Unless the issue is that you can't display 50 players on your screen at full detail simultaneously (other games solve this problem by not attempting to do it - it always causes problems), there's something wrong with your hardware.

Speak for yourself, the game isnt optimised. Hell, theres a thread in the front page advertising the dx12 addon with plenty of comments from ppl about the performance of gw2.

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First of all, congrats Andrew, albeit a little late. And thanks for this.It's always good to hear from the devs since it feels more like a convo or dialogue instead of just reading updates and stuff.

For someone who's wants to play wvw and raids, I guess I'm kinda semi-happy about the message.I know players are asking for new guild-related material, so I'm guessing wvw restructuring might address that? (Still waiting. Patiently.)

As for raids, I think it's fine the content is super hard. I always thought it was the ultimate endgame, something I'd play after fractals.Most players don't or can't play because of other players asking for li and kp , but there are training guilds that help.Maybe helping these guilds out would go a long way in getting more players to join raids.Perhaps as some players have suggested, some kind of special training arenas would really be great, especially considering the diff mechanics along each wing.Learning on the job on raids is actually pretty hard for both teachers and students.Which is also why I actually felt strikes to be kinda lame; not really a raid, not so much a fractal, just an isolated boss fight.
I'd rather be training for an actual raid. Or doing a bounty. Bounties were a great addition, thank you!

As for meta-based re-playable content, HoT maps are still the best. Heck, that was the best expansion ever, for both elites and maps (even though I hate TD. And why did gyros become wells?!! The scrapper lost its identity. Still upset about that.) But I digress. I feel Saga could learn from HoT or PoF too, or LS3 (I loved LS3; great maps! + Dragonfall). Even the masteries were sensible. I am looking forward to the new content (better masteries please?), and wish everyone at anet best of luck.

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@Donn.9024 said:And WvW? :anguished:

@"Tinnel.4369" said:Zero WvW highlights for the exciting future. Noted.

PvP also isn't highlighted here.

It's almost as if this is a PvE/Fractal/Raid focused update, because you haven't been the only communities ignored.Raids and Fractals have been ignored for a little bit, so this is big news for them.

You guys and PvP had a small update not too long ago, instead of being all like "No WvW, Must Be Ignoring Us" on a clearly PvE oriented modes post, maybe ask if you could have something similar for WvW and PvP modes, because this kind of attitude is probably what makes it hard for them to even make posts like these.

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@jasonorme.5014 said:

@jasonorme.5014 said:I'd love to start raiding but It's too difficult for new raiders to join raids as groups want proof of experience with a currency we are unable to get because we can't get into a raid group because they want a currency we are unable to get because we can't get into a raid group because groups want proof of experience with a currency we are unable to get because we can't get into a raid group because groups want proof of experience with a currency we are unable to get because we can't get into a raid group because... you see the problem?.

No, I don't see the problem. You can go ahead and acquire KP and LI like the rest of us did. Join groups that are learning or training new people, or make your own groups. But if active players haven't tried raiding in all these years, they just dont care about the game mode and they never will, the LI/KP excuse is just an excuse.

That's not the case at all, people want to raid but elitist gatekeepers push them away.The stupid thing is, as Andrew has stated " raids attract a small audience", and that audience will never grow if more people aren't let in.Raiding needs to become accessible for all, otherwise, Anet won't focus their development time working on raids and those elitist gatekeepers will have shot themselves in the foot.

I also think the major "issue" with Raids isn't difficulty or ramp to get into it, nor do I think "elitist gatekeeping" is the primary problem.They are problems, but imo they are symptoms, not the primary issue.

The thing is that GW2 through almost all of it's content trained people that they can just run around solo and never engage with another person in this MMO and just fly through everything and get everything without really trying. There are barely ever any incentives to build up strong communities.

So when new players then try to join a Raid, what they do is join experienced Raiders looking for other experienced Raiders, trying to fill very specific roles with very specific expectations, which obviously doesn't go well, which then makes them blame those Raiders for being "toxic" or gatekeeping.

Here's the thing though, pugging is never the best experience, by far, for content such as this, usually even as experienced hardcore player it can be an experience that grinds you down at times. It's just that we have those other positive impressions of the gamemode already established which is why those bad PuG moments don't scare, or scar us as badly.Raids (and Fractal CM's) are bar non the best PvE content in the game, miles ahead of open world with world bosses, events etc. It's not even a comparison in quality of gameplay or experience as group.But, while all that open world content is best enjoyed just running around alone doing whatever while not having to engage with anyone, Raids are absolutely best enjoyed by forming a static group of like-minded people of a similar skill levels and expectations for the group.

That takes work and effort though, and the game fails to facilitate the forming of these communities with strong bonds and similar interests completely, unless you are a player already into content like Raids, willing to put the effort in to push past that initial hurdle and to seek out other like-minded players.

Raids, imo, never needed an easy mode, a training mode or introductory content like Strikes. That doesn't mean I don't appreciate that content being worked on or don't think it can't be also useful, although it's a shame it seems to come at the cost of actual Raids, and that lack of content and slowed down release schedule since W3 is primarily what drained Raids of it's population.

Everybody can learn Raids while doing Raids, or prepare for more challenging content, both in terms of increasing player skill as well as getting gear ready for it by progression through Fractals already.What the casual GW2 player at large is missing is a community of like minded people in which they feel safe to fail, to be able to get motivated to tackle group content like Raids together as Training groups for the fun of it and spending time together, where it's okay to "fail" for an hour at a boss, slowly learning the mechanics and progressing further and further into the fight, until they eventually beat it and get that rush of actually having achieved and earned something difficult together with their friends, probably for the first time in GW2, to get hooked - because it's done together with friends.

It's a great experience to slowly progress through Raids together as a group, knowing each others strengths and weaknesses, what everbody can play, knowing what the expectations are if any at first and where it's okay to fail and learn.

Joining an experienced group of Raiders who are just wishing to quickly fill a slot to clear things at a speed and efficiency that they are used to and that brings them fun is imo not the way to be introduced to or to get into Raids, nor does these experienced groups having their reasonable expectations of experience of who they want to join to finish their run in a reasonable way make those groups "toxic".

It's simply a clash of peoples with very different levels of skill, experience and expectations, unlikely to ever go over well.

TL;DR:Joining or forming a like-minded training group, which takes some effort and is not otherwise encouraged and facilitated by the game, and growing together as players while getting closer as people, in an environment where it's okay to fail, has always been the way to get into organised group content, and makes for the best experience you can have in GW2 should you put in that effort to do so.

Demanding to just get a spot in experienced groups to get essentially carried is not only doomed to fail in the vast majority of cases it also makes for a highly frustrating experience not only for the players trying to do so, but also all the people in the experienced groups just wanting to do their thing. To then whine and name calling hardcore players as "toxic elitists" when it doesn't work out is just as, if not much more toxic than being reasonably turned away in a sometimes rude fashion.

Raids and Fractal (CM's) are not designed for instant gratification, that's imo not an issue though, the issue is that everything else is.An MMO needs to have a balance of content to stay healthy long term. It can't all be hard content requiring grouping, communication and hour long delayed gratification, as that would be too exhausting and niche. But It also all can't be "Here, a shiny gold medal and an inventory filled with loot! Good Job!" every 5 minutes while running around alone in a circle holding down the Autoattack, or maybe pressing a random other button when off CD, because that just gets incredibly boring and mindnumbing, which is where GW2 ended up over the last years, conditioning players that you never really need to work or team up for anything to not only be successful, but to have a better and more fun experience together than you ever could have doing that stuff alone, even if it might seem scary initially.

The grouping, proper grouping, not pressing a button in an LFG to get thrown together with random people with widely different expectations, that's the real hurdle of GW2 and Raids.

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@"Fire Attunement.9835" said:We hope this will help introduce more people to 10-person content, which will in turn increase the number of people interested in Raids.

This is going into the wrong direction IMHO. I noticed in the episode achievements that you really, really want to push these, but I don't understand why. I also disagree with having so many achievements in the strike missions just to get the new emote.

I don't think you will be able to force more ppl into strike missions, let alone raids. Many ppl who came to this game were the ones who wanted to get away from raids and group content locked to a specific number of players. The first one was added as trivial event and ppl starting to play and farm it. I remember it reading constantly in the evenings in guild chat. Strike was everywhere. Now these weren't players "compatible" with raids or even interested in them. Then the first ones in Bjora happened and ppl were already starting to be "meh, I pass on this one, too difficult". Bottom line, those players you want to force into the 10-player content, don't actually like to play it. Not on the level of a raid.

Where does this leave the strike missions? Ignored by many of the players you want to push into them and them being salty about their emote locked behind them (I know you can get it without if you do every other achievement). And farmed by the players already playing mostly raids for easy gold.

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@zealex.9410 said:But the enrage timers are ultra forgiving even when you compaire them to most mmos. Iirc vg has a enrage timer that require what? Less than 6k dps per person to fail?

Sure, VG is pretty easy as he's the first boss most people encounter, but once you get past the first 3-4 bosses it's nearly impossible to get into a raid without being one of the few acceptable specs and the main barrier quickly becomes DPS, not peoples ability to react to mechanics. I personally see it is a huge problem when the sole focus is how to maximize DPS. Guild Wars 2 has some of the most unique utility abilities I've seen in an MMO. This should allow for some really cool mechanics, but so far I haven't seen anything that isn't extremely basic.It might be that it changes with some of the later bosses, but I haven't been able to do those as my guild didn't want to attempt them for lack of DPS in our regular group. Focus should always been on learning the fight, so that you can do better and better every attempt. Unfortunately right now it's on learning a ludicrously long rotation on one of a only a handful of acceptable specs.

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@zealex.9410 said:

@"Blocki.4931" said:

Because they don't want to hold the entire devlopment of the game for over a year? lolNot sure what to tell you. Tweak your settings.

Other MMOs have made improvements to their engines as well as adopted modern API's that make proper use of of modern hardware without having to halt any and all content development. I don't know why you think that would have to be any different here. Perhaps you're just making excuses since you seem to think that "tweaking your settings" is an acceptable solution to a
7.5 year old
game running with very sub-par performance on pretty much every machine out there.

It's running fine in most situations, and has been for years. Unless the issue is that you can't display 50 players on your screen at full detail simultaneously (other games solve this problem by not attempting to do it - it always causes problems), there's something wrong with your hardware.

Speak for yourself, the game isnt optimised. Hell, theres a thread in the front page advertising the dx12 addon with plenty of comments from ppl about the performance of gw2.

"Optimised" is meaningless by itself, since there are varying degrees of optimisation and diminishing returns on the things you can optimise.

It is bizarre that the game still doesn't support DX11 or higher, but that has a fairly modest impact - the overhead required to run GW2 over the last 7 years hasn't increased much, while hardware has improved substantially.

It's certainly not in a state where a properly maintained system with reasonable hardware can't run it without significant performance concerns, and hasn't been for years. So aside from some general upgrades for sanity's sake (like moving off DX9 finally) there's not a whole lot of point in going over the game with a fine-toothed comb to get the last few percent out of it.

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as a PVP/WvW player it's great to see anet communicating like this keep this going and make sure to promote wvw and pvp as well most videos that i find in youtube they don't even Know that gw2 have those game modes . they only know it as a story driven game . keep this going

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