[Achievement Points lost [Merged]]

Hopefully info is still being collected on this issue, as I see that I'm missing 15 AP too, and the issue seems to be the EoD Act I mastery. Previously I'd completed the meta (missing only the 'don't get hit by cannons' achievement), and the reward, The Storyteller's Lute, is in my bank.

 

Will submit an in-game ticket, just in case. 

[Fishing feedback thread]

This may come across as somewhat bitter/ranty, but hopefully you'll understand why once you've read it ... 

 

My single biggest gripe with fishing is the horrendous influence of RNG, particularly as it relates to the Saltwater and World Class Fisher achievements.

 

On Tuesday, I was almost done with the basic set of achievements, missing only one fish from World Class Fisher and one from Saltwater. I had a beautifully clean inventory, all the bait, lures & food I (foolishly!) thought I'd need - I was good to go. 

 

Now let's fast-forward to this Friday morning, three days of frustrating, infuriating RNG-hell later. I have something like 900 fish in my inventory(which is not counting all the sold junk, tonics, and mackerels), from multiple maps, some of the stacks approaching the max 250. Hours and hours and hours and hours and hours spent trying to catch these last 2 fish. I've fished solo, in parties, with max/near max FP (Fishing Power), with a basic 525% off the docks in New Kaineng ..... you name it, I've probably tried it. At this point I'm just focused on catching these last 2 fish so I can be done with this feature forever. 

 

I finally did catch the World Class fish this morning, probably north of 1000 fish later and with the last Saltwater fish still eluding me. And all thanks to RNG.

 

In short, what should have been a fun, engaging activity has become a horrendous, frustrating, infuriating RNG-plagued sinkhole of lost time, and as soon as I catch that last fish, I'm done with this feature for good.

 

Edit: Just because anyone might suspect I'm exaggerating, here's proof (if anything I rather underestimated the number of fish I've caught in my quest for just 2 ..... )

https://imgur.com/6FeK25u

[Super Adventure Festival 2020]

Even without an ETA it is very encouraging to hear World 3 and even World 4 will eventually be open to exploration. Speaking of, exploration is one of the things I enjoy most about SAB; tons of secrets, hidden shops & rewards, and even short-cuts for those occasions when you're low on time and want to quickly get your dailies done.

Now that mounts are a thing, I do wonder if they could somehow feature in future SAB content. The focus should of course remain on the jumping puzzle approach to exploration, but maybe specific areas where special SAB mounts have a small role to play? Just as an example, maybe you get to actually fly and control Short Cut Eagle the way you do a griffon or skyscale.

Maybe new worlds could introduce new bauble types that give you access to new upgrades as well as new rewards.

And I hope it goes without saying that new SAB worlds means new Tribulation Modes. Perversely I'm rather looking forward to dying 73 times trying to work out which of 3 tiny identical rocks is safe to jump on to ...

[It’s time to roll out! “Visions of the Past: Steel and Fire” is now live.]

Lots of complaints (here and elsewhere) about required 5-10 man content, but I didn't mind it at all, and personally had a lot of fun playing through it with 9 other players. I hope these 'story strike missions' become a feature of the Visions of the Past content, which after all is an accompaniment to the actual Saga episodes, so I think it's perfectly valid for them to do things a bit differently.

I enjoyed the Darkrime Delves instance too; excellent writing and some terrific voice work. It all sets up things nicely for the next episode. Good stuff.

However I am disappointed with the implementation of the 4 Season 1 instances. I guess it was inevitable once it became apparent we'd be accessing it via the EotN, but I do wish they were contained in their own Season 1 section of the Hero panel, right between My Story and Season 2. Oh well.

[Looking Ahead to Spring, Summer, and the Future]

Ah, Cantha.

I know it's a long ways off, but I can't feel anything less than excited at this news. So many possibilities! A new Kaineng City to get lost in, with maybe hidden-away corners that still retain the shanty town, cheek-by-jowl look of the old city; a revitalised Echovald Forest; an un-frozen Jade Sea. And what of the Kurziks, the Luxons? The Ministry of Purity? The Tengu? A land at war, or a land at peace faced with the might of a deep sea dragon?

And in the mean time we have Visions of the past to look forward to, an intriguing sounding trip to the Woodland Cascades .... So much to look forward to!

[Watch the trailer for Visions of the Past: Steel and Fire!]

Just to be clear from the outset, the inclusion of four season 1 story missions is a very welcome surprise, but I'm very curious about exactly how this is implemented and what that means for continuity. Is it a case of you can now access living world season 1, but only through Icebrood Saga (i.e. LW Season 5)? Or are they going to rework the story journal so this re-implemented content fits where it should in the time line, so there's a natural progression all the way through?

I really am excited at the prospect of revisiting some of that Season 1 content, but the idea of it only being accessible via the Icebrood Saga is ... jarring.

[Tutorial Achievements Feedback]

I was also hoping for some more combat orientated tutorial achievements here, but Anet have said they plan to expand on this approach, so maybe in the next phase if such a thing is on the cards. Perhaps they could add a new set for the next level of maps (Kessex, Snowden, etc.), slightly tougher or more challenging achievements with a focus on skill usage and combat mechanics - CC, combos, breakbars, and so on.

I do applaud the effort though, some proper tutorialization for new players is long overdue. Anet have made a start, now they need to follow through.

[A Message from Andrew Gray]

@zealex.9410 said:After some time i had to think on the post and a few talks i found here or there i gotta ask, what are you laying the groundwork for for the last 3 or 4 years? Could we instead of laying the groundwork actually get to enjoy the good content all this groundwork is been laid for? How about a mention of what said content is and why it takes years of groundwork?

I've actually been considering this point as well, and there's no denying they've used the 'laying the groundwork....' 'building a foundation for...' argument before, but I think the big factor here is the layoffs last year, soon followed by Mo heading off to start his own studio. I think the layoffs in particular (meaning no disrespect to Mo, I'll add) came as a massive blow, resulting in a lot of restructuring and reassessment. So, in a sense, you could argue they are starting from scratch, building new foundations, laying new groundwork.

I don't know if that argument will hold any sway with you, but it's certainly how I've come to view things. And of course it goes without saying: you've told us, now show us. Proofs in the pudding, as they say. But speaking personally I certainly have more optimism and belief that Anet fully intend to deliver on their promises.

[A Message from Andrew Gray]

As someone who has recently returned to GW2 after a bit of a break, I find this really encouraging. I've been really enjoying the 2 new maps, and I like the plans for the next map in upcoming episodes. All in all there are a lot of positives to be drawn from this post, which is very welcome.

[[Merged] Feedback about today's Icebrood Saga announcement]

Let's start with the positives.

This new Living World 'Saga' looks really promising. The trailer was fantastic - I'd love to see more episode trailers using this art style - and I'm genuinely looking forward to digging deep into Norn & Charr culture and conflicts. I'm also very intrigued by the suggestion of this darker, Lovecraftian approach to some of this upcoming content, as well as those intriguing hints of underwater and Centaur content. All good stuff.

Less positive, however, is my response to how the announcement was delivered. I'm aware there's been rather a lot of negativity surrounding this, and I hate to add to it, but I simply don't understand why Anet took this approach. Yes, absolutely hype up your game and upcoming content for that game, but do so appropriately. What Anet have done is announce this event weeks in advance, rent out a theatre and invite players along to watch the event live, and then cap all this generated hype with a live 48 hr countdown, complete with intriguing imagery slowly being revealed as the timer ticks down. Think about that for a moment. What does that suggest to you? Even given the fact they clearly stated this was a Living World announcement, you have to admit that huge amounts of hype and speculation are as good as guaranteed to be generated by that kind of build up. Add to that the clear indications coming directly from Anet that they can deliver 'Expansion level content' with the Living World, it can come as no surprise to anyone that expectations quickly began to skyrocket.

This was entirely the wrong approach for what, in reality, they did have to announce. And all that disappointment and dissatisfaction could have been avoided. They should have kept this as a Guild Chat announcement, for example. In the preceding days they could have built up to it with Twitter posts of that slowly unveiling image of the Icebrood horde, for another example. Far more appropriate. Hype on a scale with the announcement itself. Realistic expectations.

It's such a shame, because clearly love and passion goes into the making of this game, and as I said at the start of this post I think what they have in store for Season 5 is intriguing and exciting. I just wish Anet had gone about announcing it differently.

[The Skyscale Saddle]

@Cyninja.2954 said:

@Ash.5274 said:Said it before in one of the innumerable Skyscale threads, all Anet had to do was let people know what was involved beforehand, ideally during that preview stream, with a brief blog post here echoing the details. That's all. There would still be complaints of course, because there are always are, but at this point any good or positivity coming from the potential of a new mount is being washed away by the deluge of anger, disappointment and frustration. What a shame.

The result would have been similar. People who watched the stream would have immediately changed the value of trade-able materials on the TP. We would be in a similar situation as with the Superior Sigil of Nullification and the Requiem armor (which surprise surprise has dropped significantly since its introduction).

Now one could argue that they could have hinted at requirements for Living World Season 4 materials, since those do take a few days to farm. Or at the very least let people know at the beginning of the collection to start saving (would have made the time-gates actually useful). Then we have precedent though for needing before hand hints and information. Then the issue becomes: what should and what shouldn't be told, etc. etc.

The two points I think they absolutely should have made beforehand are 1) It will take you around a week to unlock the Skyscale, and 2) a heads-up about the requirements for the saddle. No need to potentially spoil things by revealing too much, but enough to say 'you have a few days before the patch drops, start prepping.'

[The Skyscale Saddle]

Said it before in one of the innumerable Skyscale threads, all Anet had to do was let people know what was involved beforehand, ideally during that preview stream, with a brief blog post here echoing the details. That's all. There would still be complaints of course, because there are always are, but at this point any good or positivity coming from the potential of a new mount is being washed away by the deluge of anger, disappointment and frustration. What a shame.

For the record, I have plenty of map currencies in storage (prep for Aurora 2.0, RIP), but I can 100% understand the frustration for anyone not in that position.

[Looking forward to Living World Season 5]

I highly doubt any of that is on the cards, but I really am curious about what to expect with Season 5.

When they first announced they were moving straight from Season 4 to 5, it was prior to the layoffs, and I really think they had a specific idea mind - basically building up to the end of the story of GW2, with the aim of transitioning to what their next game was going to be. There's a definite sense of that already (you'll see what I mean if you haven't completed War Eternal yet), but now that the focus is back on this game, surely their plans for the next season have changed.

Guess we'll see in time. There's potential here to take the story in any direction they want -Blood Legion Homelands, Cantha, Dominion of Winds, or even somewhere entirely unexpected.

[The Skyscale collection is the best thing of GW2 in the whole season!]

Biggest misstep with the Skyscale acquisition process, imo, is Anet weren't upfront about it from the start. They did a preview stream to get folks hyped, but they should have used that as an opportunity to let us know what's involved. No need to spoil it by going into detail, but just make it clear that it's a process, hatch an egg, raise your skyscale, feed it, train it, and above all make it clear that it will take a bit of time. It would have also been a good idea to make it very clear that access to previous episodes is a requirement, and they even could have put the episodes on sale for anyone who hadn't managed to get them via free unlocks.

A good deal of the complaints we're seeing now could have been avoided by being clearer with us upfront about what to expect.

[Feedback for new living world :)]

Setting aside the whole Skyscale debacle, my biggest bugbear with the episode is the achievements, specifically the meta achievement for this episode.

Why fix it to a specific 18 achievements rather than 18 total out of all the available options? They did this previously and it led to complaints, yet here we are again. I will get that final Corsair armor box for completionist sake, but I'll do it via reward tracks, and the 2 achievements I'm missing from the meta are both from story and are annoying enough that I'm not wasting any more time being frustrated by them. (And as a side note, if they do go on to release a legendary trinket like Aurora, you'll likely need all the armor skins from the metas anyway).

On a brighter note, the map itself is phenomenal and, as is often the case, is one of the real highlights of the patch.

[Requiem on Guild Chat this Friday–we want your questions!]

Where do these stories sit in relation to the development of the overall story line and the progression of the living world episodes themselves? Are the written off the back of the episodes, to expand on a given character's back story, or do they come about earlier in the process, as a way of outlining where you want to take that character or where you want that character to end up?

Also, are there plans to do more? I'd personally love a story focusing on Marjory, with that noir/gumshoe flavor you used for that cutscene back when she was first introduced. Basically a lost Micky Spillane story, but with magic. And dragons. And Kasmeer.

[So You're one POI away from Map Completion ....]

@TheOrlyFactor.8341 said:While we're talking about POI's locked away behind something, as far as I know The Consul's Tomb POI is only accessible via the story. If you try to take a character that hasn't done the story to that POI, you can't reach it.

I don't have too much of a problem with this personally, the first few story steps are comfortably soloable, which is fine. The issue is locking map completion behind large-scale group content, in this case not one but two meta events. Same with the poi behind an event-opened wall in Kourna, it's an easily soloable event, so the only real hurdle is potentially having to wait around a bit for the event to start.

As others have pointed out above, Anet really should have learnt from the complaints about that one poi in Jahai, but here we are again, same issue, same solution - make the poi proc at the gate (and pretty please, don't make the same mistake again on the next map!)

[So You're one POI away from Map Completion ....]

..... only to discover it's locked behind two events, and meta events at that. Why!?! This is by far my biggest gripe when it comes to newly released maps. I was lucky enough to be on a map that completed both metas without too much trouble, so I was able to access that locked room in question, and even luckier to get all 9 of my alts access thanks to an LFG Mesmer, but that's beside the point. What about a month from now, six months from now, a year from now? Map completion should never be locked behind events in this way, especially on maps where population will naturally diminish over time.

Note: I am of course talking about the new map, Thunderhead Peaks, but I'm being deliberately vague about the exact location to avoid potential (allbeit light) spoilers. Trust me though, you'll know it when you see it ...

[Feedback: Official Path of Fire Feedback Thread]

The maps are phenomenal, a sheer pleasure to explore, augmented of course by the equally phenomenal mounts. Speaking of, the entire ‘hidden’ Griffon quest chain is (imo) some of the very best content GW2 has produced so far. Detailed, engaging, an awesome reward - more of this, please. Story was on the whole excellent; started strong, dipped a little towards the end, but peaked again for the finale. Some of the timed achievements are a bit too unforgiving, however. Overall, I’ve loved experiencing PoF so far, and better yet I’m not even close to exhausting the content. Scourge FTW!