[[Forum] Let's have a discussion about removing confused reaction to posts.]

1 hour ago, NitricRose.1863 said:

I wish the emotes would go away.

Confused: Does the responder find the post confusing, or do they think the poster is confused?  Or is the responder just trolling?  Similarly for most of the other emotes.

I have had people go look for other old posts I made, and post reactions to them, because they don't like something I posted (bizarre behaviour to say the least).

These emotes have meaning for the responder, and not for the poster.  I find them incredibly useless.

The irony of that is the forum has a ranking system, it's just (mostly) hidden and I'm pretty sure it counts any reaction as increasing the recipients rank, so if Anet ever decided to make it visible that approach would completely backfire.

I doubt they would turn it on though. There's a lot of functions Invision forums have which Anet choose not to use, and personally I don't think ranking systems add anything useful to the vast majority of forums. (The one I've seen where it was useful was a role-playing forum where ranks were manually assigned to show the users experience with role-playing and specific interests.)

I think it'd be especially a bad idea on this forum, because there is a way to find it buried in the forum's menus and if it was enabled I think the rankings would make some people genuinely confused and angry and I suspect a lot of it is because of this - if people spam your posts with reactions it boosts your reputation.

[[Forum] Let's have a discussion about removing confused reaction to posts.]

I think having a 'disagree' reaction can serve a similar purpose to the positive ones: it gives people who have nothing to contribute except disagreeing a way to feel like they've done that without cluttering up the topic with useless comments. (Importantly this only works as long as it is just an icon, not a 'down vote' button that could be used to hide unpopular opinions, I'd be completely against that function if I thought Anet was ever likely to consider it.)

I agree that it's not helpful at all for feedback. 'Agree' works because if someone pushes the button and doesn't post you can reasonably assume they agree completely and unconditionally with absolutely everything that was said. But even if you reverse that and assume someone who pushes a 'disagree' button disagrees completely with everything you said what are you supposed to do with that information? There's almost no situation where it's useful without more context - why do they disagree? What's wrong with the idea/statement/opinion etc.?

We had a disagree button (or thumbs down or unhelpful or something) for a while and I tried looking at my posts which got that reaction to work out why. Even comparing the ratio of positive and negative reactions and feedback from people who had managed to put it into words I couldn't work out what the 'disagree's' were for. A lot of them weren't even on suggestions or answers to questions, and one was on a post which just said "Wow, I love this" which was especially odd - were they telling me I was wrong about my own opinion?

So I think the only practical thing to do is ignore negative reactions on your posts (I take it further and ignore all of them entirely), but I think it's worth keeping the button for those who want to show their opinion but aren't ready to join the conversation yet.

[I believe Housing system that allow us to build our own Houses is better than Prefab only]

It would be nice to have both options.

I only tend to build houses from scratch in games where that's required (Valheim mainly). I like the idea of doing it in Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) but I never have, even after getting free 'houses' without existing buildings and with enough space. (The first ones like that were cash-shop only and fairly expensive, which also put me off.)

I would definitely like building pieces though, like walls, floors, roofs, doors etc. because those are useful even if you're just modifying an existing house. In ESO I've got one where I added an extra floor to an area with a very high ceiling, one where I've added some stairs and I just recently used what's technically a roof section to block off part of a large and oddly shaped room (Antiquarian's Alpine Gallery, for the ESO players) to make a study.

[Legendary Spear - Requires 2 copies to use both underwater and on land?]

I'm pretty sure as far as the game is concerned it's the same as weapon swapping or main/off hand weapons - it's a different slot so it needs another weapon. When I made a legendary dagger I kept thinking there must be some way for my thief to use it in the main hand slot of one weapon set and the off hand slot of the other, but there wasn't so I had to get an ascended dagger and reskin it to look like the legendary.

[Dungeon and quest question]

There's a few points like that in the story, but I can't remember it happening in a dungeon.

Why do you ask?

[One behavior that I want all old players to do, starting from today.]

2 hours ago, SoftFootpaws.9134 said:

this reminds me of when bladesworn first came out and every new player story dungeon group i formed always had a bladesworn going ahead, clearing the next room and soloing the boss in a few seconds while the newbies were still trying to get there, and would reply something like "it's free loot, just take it".

i think the biggest mistake veteran players make is assuming the game is only about rewards. its an issue in every game, but i feel like its worst in this game, that over time something you could call "the experience" is slowly replaced with "having experience" and they become mutually exclusive, and the entire concept of playing the game being the reward is lost to time on anyone who plays for long enough.

Maybe it's because I've spent longer because the inexperienced player on the other side of it, but I've had many more (and worse) experiences with that in other games. Especially being rushed through things - being told it's really important to pick up a quest only to then be told to literally run past NPCs while they're speaking because the group is already on the next boss, and then finding out afterwards it's not repeatable and now that character can never do that quest properly. At least if someone ruins a dungeon for a new player in GW2 they can do it properly later on.

I agree that helping new players needs to go at their pace though, but it's important to remember that what that means will very between players. I see that a lot on this forum, some people come on here and say they've been playing for 3 days then ask incredibly technical questions and the specifics of builds which I can't answer after playing for 12 years, because I've never worried about that level of detail. I don't think it'd help to tell them to slow down and go and play the story, any more than it helps to force someone who just wants to explore to watch you speed run a dungeon and tell them it's good they get loot from bosses they never saw.

It's difficult to know what's right for each person, especially if you don't know them, and difficult to avoid 'over helping', but I think a good rule is to offer help, and answer questions if they have them but let them take the lead and decide when and what to ask, even if that means letting them do it 'wrong' so they can learn from the mistake.

[I am once again asking for Fashion Templates.]

5 hours ago, Gehenna.3625 said:

It's interesting how you and others focus on this one element though. I did mention 4 things but this one thing is what people are responding to 🤷‍♂️

The rest of your post was all about SWTOR, which I've never played, so I can't comment on it. It sounds like their system is pretty different to what's already in GW2 (for example we've already got the wardrobe to save skins without having to keep the items) so obviously any templates we get will also be very different, but other than that I can't comment on comparisons because I don't know enough about the game you're comparing it to.

11 hours ago, Danikat.8537 said:

If they wanted to they could keep transmutation charges involved. It could work pretty much like it does now - you pay charges to apply the skins or to make changes to a template and it's only swapping between your saved templates which is free. I doubt many people are routinely swapping between exactly the same skins, so I don't think that would make a big impact on how many transmutation charges are used overall. (Elder Scrolls Online introduced wardrobe templates - which they call outfits - and added a cash shop item to allow you to save skins to them, although you can also use gold.)

5 hours ago, Gehenna.3625 said:

Well, I hear you on that but you might underestimate how much swapping back and forth is going on. Unfortunately the preview window doesn't really show how things look once it's applied. And I know this because I've got legendary gear and I swap stuff around a LOT just to find that perfect combination.

That would be changing the skins saved to a template. When I said swapping I meant swapping between templates. If it costs transmutation charges to save skins to a wardrobe template then people who apply one, decide they don't like it and change it for another would still be paying two charges to do that. The only thing which currently costs transmutation charges which would become free is changing between entire looks.

Say for example someone wants their character to look like an NPC when they're doing the story, but when they're doing raids they want to show off cool skins they've unlocked, but they use the same equipment for both. At the moment they'd have to change all the skins - paying transmutation charges - when they do a raid, and then pay again to change them back afterwards. With wardrobe templates they could save both sets and as long as they don't want to change any of the skins they use in either set they could swap between them for free. If they want to make any changes to their skins they're using in either set it would still cost transmutation charges.

But I doubt there's many people who currently do that who don't have multiple sets of equipment and don't have legendaries (either of which allows them to save different skins in different equipment templates), so I think the overall impact on the number of transmutation charges used would be minimal.

[One behavior that I want all old players to do, starting from today.]

19 hours ago, Dibit.6259 said:

From your title and what you wrote not sure what exactly you're trying to achieve here. Was this an attempt to highlight your "admirable" giving of 100 cat minis that serve little to no purpose to "encourage" other to do the same or you wanting people to offer guidance which does not involve the use of gifts at all?

If former then what benefit does a player who spent time and effort to accumulate gd and resources get from giving them away for free? People usually save gd for a reason, maybe they want to craft a legendary? Or they like to buy gemstore stuff so farm gd for the next item that interests them. Gd in this game is not hard to accumulate with the right efforts but it can take only a few minutes to spend most of it. As said some people do like to give, which is great, but I feel like it should be a choice rather than expected or forced.

I think some people assume that anyone who has been playing for a while will end up with more gold than they know what to do with, and the ability to easily get more if they want it. Which might be true for some people, but I suspect they're the minority.

Although gifts for new players don't have to be expensive, especially if you're sending stuff they can use right away.
 

5 hours ago, Zebulous.2934 said:

I ran into one unpleasant individual last year.  They asked for some gold in map chat so I sent them some.  Then they asked for help with a hero point.  Sure, easy enough.  Then they asked if I could craft them some gear, ok.  I look up what mats I need to craft level 40ish gear, then make and mail it to them.
"I wanted the yellow version, not the green ones.  Make me the yellow equips please."
So I blocked them.

I've had a few experiences like that, but thankfully it's rare, there's only two I remember. One was someone who saw me doing a jumping puzzle and ordered me to teleport them to the end (they did not ask, they told me to do it), then accused me of lying and being an elitist gatekeeper when I said I couldn't because I was playing an elementalist, not a mesmer.

The second was someone who firstly took forever to say what they wanted - started off with "help", "help me pls" in map chat, then when I asked what they wanted I got answers like "map". Eventually I worked out that what they wanted was someone to lead them around the entire map so they could get 100% map completion, catch as many events as possible and be lead through any mini dungeons, jumping puzzles etc. and when I said I didn't have time to do that they told me I was being lazy and I shouldn't have "wasted their time" by trying to find out what they wanted in the first place. 🙄

But that's two in nearly 12 years. I've had a lot more positive experiences, both with people wanting help and people giving advice, gifting items, running their own activities and events and so on.

One of the best was someone coming across the Quaggan Waddle for kitten (precursor to Pink Day in LA) starting off totally confused and ending up joining in, visiting the website and I think donating, and making plans to join in with Pink Day on the day as well. 🙂

[I am once again asking for Fashion Templates.]

32 minutes ago, Gehenna.3625 said:

I would love fashion templates

SWTOR has a good system when it comes to fashion templates. However, I'm not sure whether or not Anet wants to get rid of transmutation charges and whether or not it's feasible from a business case point of view. I really just don't know.

SWTOR's system, eats gear pieces when you apply them to a slot in a template. The gear you get from their cash shop you can copy infinitely, so that's how they deal with the pieces you buy. Now, the vast majority of SWTOR gear skins comes from their cash shop (I mean more than 90%) and you can't convert credits (gold) to cartel coins (gems). Those are the downsides of SWTOR's system. 

I do like the idea by itself, however, one does not simply add fashion templates to GW2. It does have consequences for the gemstore, legendary gear, in game reward systems and the UI. And that's just the stuff I can think of. Not saying it's impossible, but those aspects have to be taken into account.

If they wanted to they could keep transmutation charges involved. It could work pretty much like it does now - you pay charges to apply the skins or to make changes to a template and it's only swapping between your saved templates which is free. I doubt many people are routinely swapping between exactly the same skins, so I don't think that would make a big impact on how many transmutation charges are used overall. (Elder Scrolls Online introduced wardrobe templates - which they call outfits - and added a cash shop item to allow you to save skins to them, although you can also use gold.)

But I'm also sceptical of how many players actually buy transmutation charges from the gem store vs. just using ones they get for free. It might be that removing them entirely doesn't make much of a difference to their overall profits, especially if they replace it with something - like selling wardrobe template slots. (Which they almost certainly would do.)

I also don't think direct profit is always Anet's top priority. We've gotten a lot of things some players said they'd never do because it would reduce profits - there was a time they said we'd never get something like the wardrobe because before then players bought bank tabs and even character slots to store items with skins they liked. Same with the wallet (all those currencies used to be tokens stored in the bank), shared inventory slots (reducing demand for additional gathering tools, salvage kits etc.) and various other things. Yes Anet is a company and they need to make a profit to keep going, but I suspect they're well aware that long-term they can make more money with a good game that has fun and convenient features for players to keep us playing (and therefore buying expansions, new skins and other stuff) than by charging the people willing to stick with an annoying game for every little thing they want to do.

[I am too slow for PvE map events]

My advice, especially for the hologram stampede, is don't rush. Don't try to do everything and don't try to keep up with the fastest players. Most of the rewards come from completing the event and the associated achievements, not from individual enemies, so you don't need to tag and kill everything, you just need to do enough to qualify (think of it like claiming an objective in WvW, not farming the enemy zerg for bags). It might take more than one stampede to get some of the achievements (especially minion masher, but you can get that faster in the dragon arena anyway), but you'll do more in each round than if you waste time chasing after other people.

I'm not the fastest either, even though I mainly play PvE, so I don't try to be. For Hologram Stampede if possible I try to find a map without a commander, because there's likely to be fewer players there, and if there is a commander I go in a different direction to their group. I look for hologram projectors on the edges of the area, where I think other people might have missed them and if I'm at one (or running towards it) when a round ends I wait there to see if it's included in the next round, often they are and often by the time it's updated everyone else has rushed off.

I do pretty much the same when there's an objective for completing X events in a map. If there's a group rushing around clearing them, or someone is calling them out in map chat I don't try to chase after them, I go off on my own and look for the ones they missed. It might take me a bit longer than it takes them, but it's less time than it would take me to complete it trying to catch up to them and picking off what I can from what's left over.

Sometimes it's not possible to avoid big groups. World bosses for example, they're always going to attract a lot of people. But again the majority of rewards come from completing the event, not individual targets, so I do what I can to contibute and don't worry if that's not everything. I did Shadow Behemoth earlier this week because it's one of the weekly WV objectives, and I only got to attack 2 or 3 portals in each round (normally I can get about 1/2 of them) but that didn't matter, I still got gold participation for the boss, so I got the same rewards as if I'd hit all of them.

[One behavior that I want all old players to do, starting from today.]

I often see people in starter maps offering to answer any questions players have or help them with things they're stuck on (including giving instructions on how to whisper back, with the additional steps for free players) which IMO is more useful if the goal is to help them learn the game and understand they can ask other players for help.

Don't get me wrong, random mysterious gifts can be amusing and that sort of unexpected interaction is one of the things which makes an MMO fun, but I can't say I've ever thought the people sending random themed items with silly messages to everyone in the map are secretly hinting that they're open to helping new players, and I'm not sure someone new to the game (and possibly MMOs in general) would make that connection either.

27 minutes ago, Bladestrom.6425 said:

Its easy to tell a new player from alt, or you can just ask.

Maybe it's easy for some people but more than once I've been sent a 'new player welcome gift' by someone doing exactly what the OP suggested but with a clearer message and more useful items (like a selection of dyes and some level 10 equipment), when I was on a newly created alt character. Of course long-term players will have many more skins, dyes, minis etc. which can be used on brand new characters and make it obvious they're not a new account, but depending on what the character is for I don't always do that.

[Which leggy to craft]

2 hours ago, Dean Calaway.9718 said:

If you're seduced by their look sooner or later you'll grow tired of it and reskin it anyway i can tell you that right now.

Not necessarily. I made The Dreamer in 2014 and I've been using it on my main character ever since. I changed the skin once for Halloween the year the wardrobe came out, but changed it back before the event was over. I've also got The Bifrost, Claw of the Khan-Ur and Exordium and I don't think I've ever changed the skins on any of them.

I have changed the skins on Ad Infinitum, but that's one I made for practical reasons rather than because I liked the skin.

[So why is it called "Janthir Wilds?"]

IMO End of Dragons always sounded kind of awkward. My guess is Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire came about naturally and just happened to use the same format and it's only after that some people (both within Anet and among fans) decided it was a trend and should continue, but they struggled to get a name which fit the format and accurately conveyed the key features of the 3rd expansion. Then they kind-of broke away from it with Secrets of the Obscure and now decided to fully break the trend even though they could have kept it going, so that in future they'll have more freedom with expansion names.

Especially if they're going to stick with doing an expansion every year it could quickly get restrictive and difficult for marking if every single one has to be called [Something] of [Something].

[JAW New Legendary Spear and Backpack reward]

3 hours ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

No. The Tailor backback is ugly/corny, all red and with scissors dangling down. Has nothing to do with my examples.

If anything, these would come closest, and they are still not ideal because of the wooden frame:
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Intricate_Leatherworker's_Backpack  
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Practical_Leatherworker's_Backpack

An actual backpack which looks both practical and nice is one thing we're still missing in this game.

The crafting packs (some of them anyway) were an improvement on previous options, but they're still not quite there. Like you I don't like the amount of stuff poking out the sides of most of them. (Especially the scissors hanging off the tailor's pack - if anyone did that to my sewing scissors they'd never hear the end of it!)

The Guild backpack is ok, but very plain, and I've got one character using the Ash Legion backpack and one who would suit the Mercenary backpack (but that's definitely not right for all characters). Some of the practical or sturdy crafting packs are ok, but more often boxes than bags which look uncomfortable for long journeys.

I'm not sure it's a candidate for a legendary skin, but an elegant backpack which is just a backpack without a bunch of stuff tied to the outside or poking out the top would be very nice.

[Which Alt to choose]

You don't have to play the story again. The only downside is there are some maps which you can't just walk into (mainly Living World maps), so if you want to take your new character there you'll have to either do the relevant story steps to get there or find a work around like buying the teleport scrolls on your existing character or using a Teleport to Friend (and a friend!) to get there the first time. Even if you do choose to do the story to get to those maps you don't need to do all of it, each release is seperate, so you can skip to the start of the relevant one.

As for what profession to choose I think the most important thing is to pick one you enjoy playing. There's no profession which is universally the best choice, and none which are so bad you'll never get a group. Some might be more popular in certain areas, but overall it's better to play a profession you enjoy and can play well than try to push yourself to stick with one you find boring or difficult because there's slightly more LFG adverts asking for that specifically. There's enough that are open to everyone that it doesn't matter.

[Let's Brainstorm The Expansion "Nickname"]

I've heard people call WvW "wuv-wuv" or "wub-wub", so this could be "J-wuv" or something.

I'll probably stick with JW in text and just saying Janthir out loud, it's not a long word or difficult to say.

[Please add Player Characters as NPCs to Personal Housing!]

On 6/5/2024 at 5:41 AM, StraightPath.3972 said:

A fine idea.
Now let's crank it up to a great one:

If you log out of a character in your homestead then it stays as an NPC.
And here comes the big part:

If you go to your homestead and talk to your characters there you can switch characters on the fly.

I don't exactly know arena's tech but:

• No need to load new map - both old and new character are in the same one
• No need to load character model and textures - it's already loaded as an NPC

So that's a ton of data that would already be there, allowing for a smoother transition process from one character to another.

I don't see the appeal of this. I know it wouldn't replace the existing function, so it doesn't really matter if I wouldn't want to use, it, but I don't see why anyone would. One of the good things about having multiple characters is being able to leave them in different places and have them stay there while you go and do different things. Pulling them all into the same instance to switch between them would mean adding at least one (potentially multiple) loading screens to get back to where you are and what you're doing - and then having to go through it all again to get back when you want to log out.

I get the assumption that it would make actually switching faster (I'm not convinced it would work that way - I suspect you'd still get a loading screen) but it sounds like the whole process would take much longer than it does now.

[Homestead tied to Janthir Wilds map(s)?]

The announcement mentioned multiple times that homesteads are account wide and an account upgrade, so it's highly unlikely you'll be able to have a different one for each character. We don't know yet if there's only 1 homestead or different ones to choose from, but if there are different ones I suspect it'll be like guild halls where you can only have 1 active at a time.

Likewise we don't know how you get there yet but I'd be surprised if they don't give us a way to teleport there directly, like we have for various 'player hubs' like Arborstone and the Sunspear Sanctuary.

[Do I need to complete EoD in order to unlock the Virtuoso mesmer?]

8 hours ago, Brother Lee.8746 said:

Thanks Schimmi, I have EoD, am level 80, and am working my way ulocking the traits/skills at present.

Do I need to unlock all the traits and skills for the Virtuoso before I can unlock it?

Thanks in advance. 🙂
 

You can equip the specialisation as soon as you've got the first trait unlocked (elite specs have to go in the bottom of the 3 specialisation slots), but bear in mind it will replace one of the 3 you're using now so if you equip it before you've got at least 1 trait in each of the 3 groups unlocked you will be making your character weaker. That might not matter, depending on what you're doing, but it's one reason to hold off a bit.

Equipping the specialisation enables you to equip the utility and elite skills too, but they won't change automatically. Once you've trained them (they're dotted throughout the specialisation training) you'll need to pick a utility (or elite) skill slot and equip them just like with normal skills.

[This may be unpopular, but an easy Skyscale mount?]

13 minutes ago, Astewart.8415 said:

If this is true, then those youtube videos I've been looking at are very, very misleading! Also people in this thread have said it took them weeks to get their Skyscale. I've seen people post on Reddit their Gryphon took them a month. I mean, what am I supposed to think? ... 😔😩

 

There are two seperate and different ways of getting the skyscale. One of them is considerably quicker than the other. Therefore how look it took people to do it the long way is not relevant to how long it could take to do it the new, quicker way.

Also days/weeks/months is not a very helpful way of measuring how much time something in a game takes, because people have different amounts of free time. I average about 2 hours per day (and in reality it's very variable between days), whereas some people play 8+ hours a day, so something which takes me 4 days (and might take a week in total if I can't play 3 days that week) would take them 1 day.

[This may be unpopular, but an easy Skyscale mount?]

1 hour ago, Zeivu.3615 said:

I remember when the Skyscale was first released. People bitched so hard because it took way longer to get and had way more arbitrary time gating.

It's easier than ever before and you now have two options, two paths to use if you want it and more benefits if you complete both.

No. Toughen up buttercup.

Even then the time gating was only a problem if you were trying to grind it as quickly as possible.

I was deliberately pacing myself with the skyscale because I knew there was a risk of burning myself out (my immediately reaction was pretty much "OMG Dragon! Must have dragon!") and there was only once I was aware I'd hit a time gate, because all the other times I'd done a 'section' and decided to stop anyway. Even then it was only because I wanted to check what was coming next and got told I'd have to wait for her to grow up and come back later. Next time I logged in the next step was ready to go.

I'm not sure this applies to the OP but I think some people misunderstood what was meant by 'time gating' or forget how collections in this game work and were under the impression that once you'd started you had to complete it as quickly as possible or you'd somehow lose progress, which isn't the case. If you're not motivated to grind the skyscale collection (or anything else) you can take as long as you like, doing a little bit whenever you feel like it.

[Why mounting the Warclaw?]

This was explained in the announcement:

"In Janthir Wilds, the warclaw mount will be featured with new mechanics. Previously only available through World vs. World, the warclaw will be introduced to players in the story of Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds, including new skills for PvE play."

So no, it's not a WvW expansion, it's adding a way to unlock the warclaw in PvE and more uses for it outside of WvW.

[JAW New Legendary Spear and Backpack reward]

I was surprised they're adding a new legendary backpack as well. But I suppose ever since we got to the point where it's possible to have a full set of legendary equipment they've had to add duplicates of some sort if they wanted to keep offering new legendaries, and we haven't had a backpack for a while, so maybe that's all the logic it needed.

Afterall the legendary weapons all require a mix of PvE and WvW and I don't think anyone's questioned why, other than the perpetually reoccuring topics about having a PvE way to get the Gift of Battle and a WvW way to get the Gift of Exploration or a way to exchange one for the other.

I agree that Ad Infinitum isn't difficult to get though. I was originally going to make Warbringer since I play WvW regularly and had rarely touched Fractals when I decided I wanted a legendary backpack, but it takes me a very long time to get skirmish tickets and I wanted them for the armour as well, so I decided to make Ad Infinitum instead and it only took me a few months of doing it in between other things. If I remember correctly it only requires 1 T4 fractal - I had to ask my guild for help with that one because I hadn't unlocked T4 in the LFG menu but even then completing it was pretty easy (I had enough AR, just hadn't done enough Fractals to reach T4). Most of it could be completed in T1 and occasioanlly T2.

I'm curious about how the new one looks, but I'm unlikely to make it considering I only wanted one in the first place because I was stuck in the 2012/2013 mindset that level 80 exotic/ascended backpacks are extremely rare and hard to get and so I was holding onto a stupid number of spares and making a legendary (after the armoury came out) meant I could free up all that bank space and stop worrying about it.

[Should we work towards our home instances?]

8 hours ago, vrauns.3215 said:

If a sims4 guy is working on it like he confirmed on his twitter, it should work similar to that

Not necessarily. For one thing it depends on what exactly he did on Sims 4 and what his involvement is with the housing system (I didn't see the tweet so I don't know), for example if he's a UI artist his input into the overall system might be limited.

But also I've done the same job at 3 different organisations and the processes I used and the outcomes were very different each time because I had to use their tools and procedures and fit my work into what everyone else was doing. Maybe very senior people can come into a new job and insist on doing exactly what they did at their old place, but I've never seen it happen.

[Should we work towards our home instances?]

We don't know how homesteads work yet and won't until they do a blog post on them (and for some things probably not until they're released).

Personally I wouldn't go out of my way to get something I don't currently want in the hope that in future it will have a currently unannounced additional function which might make it worth having because that's a great way to waste time (and gold/money) and end up disappointed if it doesn't work how you hoped. Whereas if you wait until you know what you're getting it's likely you'll still be able to unlock the nodes and things, it just means you might not have them immediately.