CrashTestAuto.9108

Yeah +1 to this. I know a lot of the time the responses are "I'd prefer they invest in new maps", but this is such a unique concept for a map that they really can't do again, and was completely wasted here. I'd happily have the map split into two if if there's a technical issue (basically straight down the middle for East and West). Then update the Arborstone mastery to also revitalise the west half of New Kaineng at the same time as Arborstone. Heck, I'd personally prefer they scrap Arborstone entirely beyond the story instance and move everything into West New Kaineng - Club Canach especially would be much better suited in there. Stick a proper holographic Roller Beetle racetrack going over the buildings, and maybe some Griffon masteries as well. It's a perfect hub for activities, and the hologram aesthetic means you can add basically anything the devs can imagine (combat, racing, gambling, minigames...). But yeah, more or less a full overhaul would be worth at least one episode of Living Story effort, then it could be periodically added to. The map was stunning when I first arrived there, and just got increasingly disappointing over time.

I like the idea, and would support it being fully implemented. Assuming it works slightly worse than an average pug group, it's a potential alternative to solo dungeons/fractals. That said, if it is complex, I'd go with a (major) compromise. Give every class an elite skill that is tuned to roughly the strength of the racial summons, then have it summon two of your characters at random (maybe have favourites assignable) as allies. Obviously massively less useful, but also much less of a balancing headache.

Yeah, I wouldn't put too much stock in that. This forum has an extremely low population of active posters relative to the game, and from what I've seen it isn't particularly representative of the player base. Not to say that I think housing will be all that popular, as most people I've played with care very little for decorating guild halls as well (I still think it's potentially a good idea though, as some of the players that do care will probably spend a LOT on it).

I really like the concept, though I do think there are some bits that would be complicated. Specifically, is this a set instance where you own a plot, meaning your neighbour is always the same, or is it that you own the same grid position in a random instance, meaning the city will change around you? Option (1) has issues with low populations, people leaving etc. Option (2) won't really feel like a city. If they added something like this to Guild Halls (basically add a "suburb" section to each hall, there's plenty of space), and players can add houses their, great 🙂 Though I get a bit less cool, I'm just not sure how it could work otherwise (and ANet have surprised me before). On the people saying this is unpopular/waste of resource and guild hall decorations prove it. I really don't think that's a fair comparison. Guild hall decoration, much as I personally enjoy it, is terribly implemented and has a really high barrier for entry. Plus MMO economies run on whales, and housing is hugely monetisable.

Support this, it's in line with other similar armours/items as well (e.g. the Mistforged set, turning off trinket effects, and the two versions of the Virtual Box headset). Probably easier to just unlock a second "slumbering" set of the armour to wardrobe than implement a specific toggle? While we're on the subject, would anyone object to them removing the massive spike on the back of the light chest piece that clips through back and shoulder pieces and points directly at your characters head 😂?

A few people argue that I should be deterred by the number of people disagreeing with me here, but so many posts are complete strawmen, so it really doesn't mean anything. A huge number of posts are like this one (and several immediately after it), which are just pretending I said something I didn't, which is a pretty effective way to make me think there wasn't a good counter to the point I actually made. It's disappointing the forum is like this, because the noise between actually substantive engagement with what I said makes having actually productive conversations much more difficult 😞

Do you think this actually engaged with what I said?

As has been emphasised by many people in this thread, 95% of GW2 is solo/solable. The idea that the end game should be instanced group content is, at best, rooted in tradition. There's no "should" about any type of content being included (heck, a load of people have set up roller-beetle racetracks in guild halls, and I would absolutely support a more official version of that). The last holiday event we had included a bell choir. This isn't even vaguely comparable to a basketball game (though plenty of very specifically focussed games do include random mini-games, so your argument wouldn't work even if the analogy held).

I'm not sure why you think they'd have to be easier. There's nothing presented that would necessitate that, and it would be very easy to simply set the health pools to take longer than average group kills for anyone achieving x% of top benchmarks. If people would still choose to do solo content because they prefer it to group content then... well I don't really see it as an argument against.

I can actually use the same quote from page one here: "The problem with things like "Go solo fractals and dungeons (and CRMs)" is that this gets fairly dull quite quickly because the health pools aren't designed for it. It's like in a single player game when the hard mode just turns enemies into bullet sponges. Moreover, because gold per hour is a thing, you have the nagging feeling that you're wasting your time as you slowly chip down enemy health that isn't designed for one player." You could get in a group and remove your armour and go fight a world boss for challenge too, so the devs could have saved a ton of resources by not building raids/strikes/dungeons etc. But, the idea that this would actually make players happy is a bit silly, so accusing people of wanting something else of "dishonesty" seems a bit... weird?

Okay, this was a substantive post, so apologies for being a little frustrated at this point. But allow me to quote myself from page one of the thread: "The problem with things like "Go solo fractals and dungeons (and CRMs)" is that this gets fairly dull quite quickly because the health pools aren't designed for it. It's like in a single player game when the hard mode just turns enemies into bullet sponges. Moreover, because gold per hour is a thing, you have the nagging feeling that you're wasting your time as you slowly chip down enemy health that isn't designed for one player." It is naïve to think that players will repeatedly log in and play completely unrewarding content. So yes, rewards matter. However, they don't matter that much, so long as the player feels like they're wasting their time. You have interpreted me only vaguely knowing the gold per hour of strikes off the top of my head as an indication I have no idea whatsoever, or no interest whatsoever. Neither of these is true, I just don't spend all my time making sure I'm doing the absolute best gold per hour in the game, and therefore know that the rewards are "good", and "75% of good" will still be fine. I understand that removing rewards from the design would get more consensus from some specific posters in this thread, but my intent is to describe a system I think will actually work, not just one that gets approval here.

Or, as I said, I wasn't sure exactly. I knew roughly that they work out as strong, but limited to daily. Checking [fast], that's broadly true, depending on the strike and what's daily. Now that's established, 75% of "strong", and limited to daily sounds pretty reasonable. So...?

Okay, you seem to think that the few people arguing in this thread somehow constitute that list? Or that the hypothetical new player I referenced is for some reason the person making the argument? I'm not really interested in arguing against a literal "I know best". So thank you for your time.

Okay. And for all the players who bought their first MMORPG when the game released on steam four months ago? There are other types of player than veteran MMO player. And they're the players who would most benefit from an in game learning curve.

This is false (CM has different mechanics than NM), and also missing the point I made about why the test dummy isn't an effective part of the game's learning curve.