Rogue.8235

I think I just witnessed a new religion form, heralding the coming of Rama's Hat.

I enjoy seeing blind characters, as long as the writers are accurate in their depiction of blindness. I don't feel the need to escape from my blindness, nor can I. I actually use head armor skins that cover at least one eye, such as the eye patch and blindfold. I don't have a right eye, and I have a tendency to try to create the same aesthetic for my characters in any game. GW2 already has an eye patch, which is awesome. For games that allow scars, I try to pick scars over the right eye like I have. Don't underestimate the value of representation in popular culture. As I'm writing this, I'm curious to know why I have these tendencies to project my blindness and missing eye onto my characters, even though I design my characters to be different from me and do not project myself in them (i.e., I don't see myself as my characters nor do I see my characters as reflections of myself). This warrants further investigation with a psychologist. I'll probably search PubMed for research into this behavioral phenomenon.

I found the names for the land spear auto-attack chain. Other skills include: "Bigger poke" "Jump and Poke" "Throw Spear" .> "run around trying to get your spear back wondering why you threw it" "Hundred Pokes"

I agree that traits are an issue. I believe this to be the biggest issue with down-scaling. This is compounded by the fact that low level characters do not have the same access to traits. Three full bars of synergized traits probably do way more to kill everything super efficiently than raw stats. Just my 2 copper.

So rather than fighting and killing mobs just to farm some nodes, I can use diplomacy and persuasion to turn hostile mobs into an efficient work force to do the gathering for me? Nice, I'm hiring all the skritt and paying in junk items!.... now that I think about it, skritt might not be an efficient work force....

The problem is not GUI-based, it's data storage. The cost of storing that data is not insignificant. There are additional concerns with how data is stored, which may complicate the addition of more bag slots (either bag expansion slots or bigger bags for existing slots). It's unknown to us, the players, whether ArenaNet has nothing to lose. We aren't privy to the back-end of GW2. Honestly, I'm for more bag slots, but I'm also aware of the costs associated with data storage. Just something to be aware of for the discussion.

Sounds like the uncanny valley. Nothing in GW2 actually moves very realistically. It is highly stylized and doesn't attempt to closely mimic reality. Having realistic motion for the ears is probably edging on the uncanny valley where the rest of the game maintains a healthy distance. Essentially, the closer something is to mimicking reality, the more unsettling it is because it's "not quite right." Further information available in U.S. Library of Medicine.

Hmmm.... Skritt will never be a playable species. Polymock will never be released. There will never be Jeweler 500. <insert your favorite profession> will never be buffed and <insert profession you dislike> will never be nerfed. Charr mounts for Asuran characters will never be a thing. Likewise, there will never be Norn mounts for Asuran characters. You know what, screw it. There won't be Charr/Norn/Human/Sylvari mounts for Asuran characters. There won't be an Asuran with a jetpack as a jade bot skin. New Lion's Arch will never be destroyed. It will especially not be replaced by a sea-creature theme park complete with massive neon signs, roller coasters, fluffy-costumed NPC's to take screenshots with, or food with enough sugar to induce diabetic shock. The Pact Commander will never get a salary from the Pact. Trahearne will never publicly acknowledge your efforts in the core story. There will never be a new species of angelic canines to be the permanent arch nemesis of Charr, the demonic felines. Those canines will never live together with the Charr. Rogue.8235 will never get a full legendary armory for free.

This. I often skip several cycles of chests because I'm not keen on the guaranteed item. If there is a guaranteed item I like, that's when I open chests. Everything else is just a bonus.

As several others have pointed out, you can cancel the animation as soon as the XP hits (which is when you've gathered the material and it's now in your inventory). The time it takes for the experience and crafting material to hit and the time of the tool's animation are two different things. Personally, I use the stow weapon command (my universal cancel animation key) as soon as I hear the chime of the XP gain. Occasionally, I will let the animations of my different tools finish, which are all different from the actual gathering of the material and gain of XP. Stow weapon is one of the most useful commands in the game. People should learn how to use it. Edit: Wanted to add: When chopping trees or mining ore, the third strike is always the slowest. It is quicker to cancel after the first two strikes, then immediately interact to gather again. This is especially true for rich nodes. For me, C is weapon stow and B is interact. Once I hear the experience gain chime twice, I hit C->B in quick succession to finish gathering. Always quicker. Again, the actual gathering of materials is different from the animations of the tools you use.

Using this post as a form of bookmarking. Excellent thread to point new players to. Great work on the compilation.

Stopped reading right there. Not sure what kind of fantasy world the OP conjured in his mind, but real life really is not like anything in the movies....

Those appear to be complex algorithms incapable of adapting and growing on its own. I didn't see any part where the software actually changes and updates itself, on its own, without user input. The systems I was referring to actually do that. They are created and given a database to work with, then the system, on its own, self-updates and modifies its own behaviors, without any input from any human. That is why it is so difficult to troubleshoot when unintended behaviors manifest, the engineers have to retrace the path tthe system took in its self-modification to identify what happened.

AI, to include machine learning, is seriously not at a point to be able to work complex systems, such as gaming software, without breaking it. Do not confuse AI with scripts. Things like ChatGPT or resume screening AI, has already produced some extremely negative results that are unintended, but still present. For example, resume screening AI does adopt racial bias on its own (due to the human-created data set it is built upon). The way resume-screening AI was developed was thought to be completely equitable. Again, unintended consequences are a huge issue and it's often hard to identify how such behaviors were developed by the AI. Again, AI is not currently at a place to be a reliable tool for development. AI will definitely have a negative (probably positive) effect on game development, in its current state. This will continue to be the case for the foreseeable future, barring any sudden, major breakthroughs. To clarify, I am referring to actual machine learning, not a series of scripts with no possibility of self-growth.

I'm imagining this implemented in the game, exactly as described, then upscaled for a full zerg. Behold, the bandit tents that can, somehow, hold hundreds of bandits! No, thousands! Actually, there are no more tents in GW2. They're all just giant bags of holding with thousands of mobs tucked neatly away in the depths of the void, just waiting to dog-pile on any Pact Commander that so much as looks at them. Okay, I can get down with this. *Rogue Stamp of Approval*

A.I. is still at the point of massive unintended consequences that are truly unpredictable. Automating something as complex as MMO software is as likely to break it as polish it, if not more. I understand the desire for continuous world polishing, though. Unfortunately, A.I. is just not well-developed at this time. Maybe in..... never mind hopefully never. I don't want Cylons building my MMO. Mostly because they'll nuke us before finishing development. It's a small quibble, but the little things matter.

One thing that will help in the long-run is mastering active survival before attempting to master dealing damage. GW2 is built around active defenses, so survival is not based only on defensive stats. Every profession has their own flavor of staying alive, such as guardians with their blocks, invulnerabilities, and self-healing, and thieves with evades, mobility, and stealth. The reason players can run max damage builds and deal huge amounts of damage all the time is because they have mastered how to survive through active defenses and positioning. An easy way to begin mastery is to run around, fighting everything in low level maps. However, focus on not getting hit at all. Not even once. Pretend that every enemy can insta-kill you with one hit. Again, every profession will do this in their own way. In addition to this, play around with all the different skills to avoid getting hit. The early game should be about exploring what your profession can do, rather than deciding on a single build for all time. Simply fighting and using all the different skills will help you master the profession. Once you're able to easily avoid getting hit at all, without really thinking about it, you'll be way ahead of most players in the game. You'll also be ready to play those max damage builds. And the ability to deal high damage is dependent on the player's ability to survive without the need for defensive stats. This is why I suggest mastering active survivability first. It is one of the fundamentals of the GW2 combat system.

Asked the proctologist. Warrior: >_>

Neatly sums up my opinion on the matter.

So, so, very true. The basics of probability, such as whether successive outcomes are dependent or independent, are lost on most people. This is before even getting into things like probability curves to include skew and kurtosis, or chi-square. This emphasizes what @Danikat.8537said. Outcomes are independent, which many seem not to be able to grasp. This leads to: These fallacies are continuously demonstrated with these kinds of threads. The biggest example of, and defining event which named the fallacy, is the incident at the Monte Carlo Casino of 1913. Essentially, the number of keys you use, and the number of chests you open, is completely irrelevant. Knowing the exact probability of obtaining a specific item from a Black Lion Chest, while informative, isn't actually useful to most players, who would not fully understand what the probabilities mean. Another example of very useful, yet completely useless, information is the Nutrition Facts label on every packaged consumable. Most people don't know what specific nutrition is needed, and in what quantities, specific to their homeostatic metabolism, is required per day. The nutrition label is useful information that is useless due to lack of understanding on the part of the consumer. Here, probability information is useful, but useless, due to the lack of understanding of probability.

Fun: just playing the game. More fun: Great fights in sPvP. I'm focused and fighting well, and so is my opponent(s). It's rare, but I love the ebb-and-flow of GW2 combat when it's not a mere spamfest. Not fun: Those times where my blindness becomes a true deterrence to playing the game and I'm consistently failing to find a way to adapt to a specific circumstance that seems to be visual-only. Truth in its most refined form.

Continuing this WvW theme. "You can show off your awesome skins and bright lights at any WvW camp. Just stand in the center and the gawkers will come to idolize your fashion." - Definitely not a Deadey or Catalyst

I'm looking at the wall, but all I see is something about cake being a lie.

Only open chests if you think it's worth it just for the guaranteed item. That way, everything else that comes out is just a bonus, and you won't be disappointed with the other drops. If the guaranteed item, alone, isn't worth it, don't use them.

That was a nice player, too, informing you that they were inspecting. Realistically it would just be: join party > kicked > block > no clue why that occurred.