That's the most pointless PvE-Update ever

[Alek Seven.2374]

Fishing in Crystal Oasis is my main source of income these days, so I care. 

Edit: I just wish the forced map close stop. It happened even with four commander tags doing bounties.

Edited February 2, 2023 by Alek Seven.2374

[Excursion.9752]

On 2/1/2023 at 1:33 PM, NotTooFoolish.7412 said:

Do ppl really swap their jade bot stuff so often?

do people actually remember to equip a jade bot?

[Linken.6345]

4 hours ago, Excursion.9752 said:

do people actually remember to equip a jade bot?

Pretty sure alot dont only 1 out of my 18 character even have the thing equiped.

[Kozumi.5816]

On 1/31/2023 at 5:07 PM, Justforvisit.3709 said:

EoD was the only relevant content, surrounded by Returners Event before it and LS1 revival before and after it. Maybe it's not 337 days, but it's still over a year since we have seen any relevant content update that is not an Add On.

And the final Chapter of the Icebrood Saga was released on April 27th 2021. Ever since it's just old, rehashed / redesigned stuff and one single add on, without any further communication on what are the plans up ahead for GW2 except "Yeah, Alliances for WvW"....

I think that says it all.

Games been in maint mode since PoF release.

[kharmin.7683]

2 hours ago, Kozumi.5816 said:

Games been in maint mode since PoF release.

How do you define maintenance mode?  I don't think that it means what you think it means.

[Sugar Min.5834]

TBH, I thought they were going to add the workbench instead of this. I didn't know that they are not the same.

Edited February 4, 2023 by Min Min.9368

[Ultramex.1506]

1 hour ago, kharmin.7683 said:

How do you define maintenance mode?  I don't think that it means what you think it means.

Seeing how many negative posts this person have made. The game is dying inside their head but in the real world? Not even true

[DarcShriek.5829]

Can't you buy a workbench for your guild and use that to switch out your bot?

[Gehenna.3625]

6 hours ago, Min Min.9368 said:

TBH, I thought they were going to add the workbench instead of this. I didn't know that they are not the same.

Yeah I made that mistake as well. Terminals are not for upgrading your jade bot but for flying around with it.

[Gehenna.3625]

45 minutes ago, DarcShriek.5829 said:

Can't you buy a workbench for your guild and use that to switch out your bot?

True...so what would you suggest for people who are guildless by choice? I suspect there's a fair few of them. 

[IAmNotMatthew.1058]

10 hours ago, kharmin.7683 said:

How do you define maintenance mode?  I don't think that it means what you think it means.

Maintenance mode = New content not released according to my liking apparently.

[Kozumi.5816]

11 hours ago, kharmin.7683 said:

How do you define maintenance mode?  I don't think that it means what you think it means.

I define it by every game mode being abandoned and extremely minor + slow updates

[Bladestrom.6425]

3 hours ago, Kozumi.5816 said:

I define it by every game mode being abandoned and extremely minor + slow updates

 

'Maintenance mode is the point when an MMO is being maintained reliably but isn't being actively developed any longer. This is almost always a net result of the game being older and not having much in the way of budget and/or active playerbase left to really appreciate active development.'

 

Gw2 is being actively developed and has a healthy pop.  It is objectively not in maintenance mode.  GW1 is for example in maintenance mode.

Edited February 4, 2023 by vesica tempestas.1563

[IAmNotMatthew.1058]

3 hours ago, LSD.4673 said:

It's not in maintenance mode but it's a far cry from "active" development. They either have a very small staff, or a very lazy staff.

This WvW update is a prime example.

Prime example of WvW not being main focus due to the years of decline in engagement of the gamemode due to both Anet and community.

You notice that PvE has been the main focuse for years since it makes them the most money. 
But Anet has to do something about WvW and PvP, since the constant whining about abandonment - in the middle of whining about PvE players of course - becomes too much for them from time to time. That's how you get these kinds of updates.

[Infusion.7149]

23 hours ago, LSD.4673 said:

It's not in maintenance mode but it's a far cry from "active" development. They either have a very small staff, or a very lazy staff.

This WvW update is a prime example.

I don't think calling Arenanet lazy is justified. The majority of their staff appears to be artists , writers, audio related contractors, programming for PVE (tools creators and users of said tools). see https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Game_credits#Guild_Wars_2:_End_of_Dragons_Credits

We are slated to be receiving more Living Story updates like it or not (the entirety of content released after EoD is LS1 returned), the DX11 client is the native client now rather than beta, and a forth expansion is expected. For the first time in a long while we actually have updates for Alliances (even if still very early on in the process), balance patches actually have feedback reviewed before they hit live servers to pinpoint potentially broken (OP/terribly bad) things, etc.

PVP/WVW are neglected because they probably aren't paying the bills (same for raids), Living Story and selling skins to openworld players that can sit around with chairs /mount skins has the highest ROI possible. Disconnecting you from the map Amazon EC2 instance after you afk is probably to save compute resources. Call me cynical or realistic but the more money that can be extracted  raised from players that only log in to do the story , buy some 2000 gem equipment skins, chairs, gliders, mount skins, or cosmetics that only require the art team, and are absent until the next story are the biggest payoff since server costs add up for people that spend many hours in PVP/WVW. None of those other than warclaw skins and glider skins apply. We cannot use chairs in WVW and most people might not spend much on equipment skins (as opposed to things with actual utility such as legendary items) due to standard enemy model settings. In PVP there are essentially only equipment skins and finishers.

The recent sale on templates could be possibly gauging how much of an impact the WvW weekly update has on player uptick in ARPU (average revenue per paying user) as opposed to LTV (lifetime value).

Arenanet really needs to look for additional revenue streams from WVW much like what has been suggested in the past (siege skins, claiming things, capping things, etc) if they are ridding server transfer costs. Every time people bandwagon and pay for server transfers it just gives financial incentive to delay Alliances which have no known code that works in the existing system. Meanwhile PVE assets and coding can essentially be copy pasted (see DRMs) unless it is an entirely new map. They can only do so much with a handful of people dedicated to the modes, maybe they could organize feedback in a better way (there is a lot of noise) without having to resort to private discords. I think a month or two ago they were looking for a combat designer or something and that is no longer the case so I hope they now have additional people.

I'm just as disappointed as you are about the weekly achievement but I know that the achievement is probably a slimmed down rushed copy paste job from the non-timegated WvW achievements due to being low on the priority list. Their priorities for the WvW team are listed as follows on the post https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/wvw-january-31-preview/:

Quote

 

we wanted to remind the community of our current team priorities:

1. Address player population balance issues through the World Restructuring and Alliances features.
2. Make WvW more rewarding to play with a focus on active participation.
3. Refine and iterate on core WvW systems like scoring, siege, upgrades, etc

 

I would say from a business perspective their priorities should have been:
* Find a way to further monetize WvW without breaking the game (stat boosts as on Chinese GW2, anything that lags out players or adds massive visual noise) through cosmetics such as siege skins (the cosmetic could time out to the normal ones when the structure flips or the person logs out of WvW) or even audio (claim music)
* Possibly make server transfer only work with real money on the website after you transfer a certain number of times a year in the interim or make the cost higher if you keep transferring (cost resetting once yearly). This would cut down on bandwagoning fairweathers that move around every link (2 months) and make servers a more conscious decision. Another alternative would be to make the price higher but then discount it for people that usually don't transfer.
* Make active participation mean that skirmish track completes quicker but not raise the total possible tickets per week - this increases the total duration of engagement in the mode without making it a slog for new players if they want to go for max tickets
* Continue to lower AoE passive boon output (most might is 6s now but herald facets are a prime example of passive boon spam) so that server is not as swamped keeping track of all the players' boon states making large fights slow down serverside and possibly amplifying their EC2 costs if it's an elastic instance. Move more of WvW boon output levels to PvP balance scheme similar to pre-HoT.
* Pinpoint computationally expensive skills for cooldown increases or reduce the amount of complexity for the skill and trait interactions at the backend.
* Bugfix yak defense event (it is used for guild missions too) then remove veteran daily and replace with yak defense daily to reduce people afk at the spawn for the veteran which does nothing for the matchup and consumes server compute time.
* Logout to character screen (disconnect from map EC2 instance and keep connected to the friends "server") everyone from the game that is running against a wall in WvW to pip out for more than one tick and not lagging to save compute resources especially if there is a queue. This keeps skirmish tickets' intrinsic value higher and makes it less annoying.
* Get free publicity by highlighting WvW in some way the same way Living Story updates are highlighted , maybe work with multiple Arenanet partners on this (granted not many Arenanet partners play WvW extensively)

For PVP I would prioritize:
* Find out who actually streams the ATs to get free publicity without having to host the video on Arenanet servers. A key feature of GW1 PVP was spectate.
* Since esports dream died post ESL attempt get some more ingame prizing done that has no gemstore equivalent and no PVE farm equal.
* the friends list changes were a good effort to cut down on queue dodging but more needs to be done to make PVP have better matchmaking as far as I am aware , this is only possible by growing the PVP community
* attempt to design and playtest a new map per expansion release (at least in unranked/private rooms) and rotate out any maps that are buggy
* quarterly balance review at a minimum

There was supposed to be a rewards design person I think, but the liquidity of PVE is steadily going up and as such PVP/WVW will never catch up. Possibly controversial but I think instead of giving 8g liquid the weekly WvW achievement could have actually had memories of battle. The liquid gold should be reined in especially for easy PvE places too, much like was done with Istan. Even T4 fractals could be tweaked by lowering encryption key's ~10% drops rate probably (instead CMs' mystic coins were nerfed for some reason in recent memory).

Also I am sure they are well aware they need to acquire new talent to keep the game fresh, as their careers page shows they are still looking for people despite an economic downturn and recent layoffs at NCSoft:
https://www.arena.net/en/careers

Edited February 5, 2023 by Infusion.7149
spelling

[Bladestrom.6425]

I was only replying to the comment that the game is in maintenance mode (it either is or is not)  and it is objectively not. the armchair design work  people are throwing about here is irrelevant. 

As for calling Anet Lazy, that's simply naïve considering the quality of GW2 and the fact there is no sub.

Edited February 5, 2023 by vesica tempestas.1563

[Kozumi.5816]

4 hours ago, vesica tempestas.1563 said:

I was only replying to the comment that the game is in maintenance mode (it either is or is not)  and it is objectively not. the armchair design work  people are throwing about here is irrelevant. 

As for calling Anet Lazy, that's simply naïve considering the quality of GW2 and the fact there is no sub.

This game is absolutely in maint mode. When was the last NEW content added?  How many game modes are completely abandoned?

The writings all over the wall, people just don't want to read it.

Edited February 5, 2023 by Kozumi.5816

[Bladestrom.6425]

1 hour ago, Kozumi.5816 said:

This game is absolutely in maint mode. When was the last NEW content added?  How many game modes are completely abandoned?

The writings all over the wall, people just don't want to read it.

 

maybe read first?

 

'Maintenance mode is the point when an MMO is being maintained reliably but isn't being actively developed any longer. This is almost always a net result of the game being older and not having much in the way of budget and/or active playerbase left to really appreciate active development.'

[Kozumi.5816]

6 minutes ago, vesica tempestas.1563 said:

 

maybe read first?

 

'Maintenance mode is the point when an MMO is being maintained reliably but isn't being actively developed any longer. This is almost always a net result of the game being older and not having much in the way of budget and/or active playerbase left to really appreciate active development.'

There's no official definition of maint mode. While the game isn't "literally" in maint mode, it's essentially in maint mode. 

Again, I ask, 

When was the last NEW content added?  How many game modes are completely abandoned?

[Sime.3681]

Just now, Kozumi.5816 said:

There's no official definition of maint mode. While the game isn't "literally" in maint mode, it's essentially in maint mode. 

Again, I ask, 

When was the last NEW content added?  How many game modes are completely abandoned?

 

"Essentially in maint mode" after a year of receiving the heavily requested and important re-release of Season 1. Which included totally new content too, btw, and most current players did not even play the original Season 1 so that was new for them too. Maintenance would be 0 updates, it is not like they just pushed a button and the Season magically remade itself into existence.

[Bladestrom.6425]

18 minutes ago, Kozumi.5816 said:

There's no official definition of maint mode. While the game isn't "literally" in maint mode, it's essentially in maint mode. 

Again, I ask, 

When was the last NEW content added?  How many game modes are completely abandoned?

 

No, you are wrong , maintenance mode is very well understood in the industry, and its black or white.  You are either in maintenance or not (on its way = not btw)

 

  There are endless articles on the subject if you care to research yourself. I and many other developers on this forum can tell you the same thing.  What we have here is people desperately trying to associate their perceived issues with the term 'maintenance mode' to show how important their point is.

 

Again, to help GW1 IS  in maintenance mode.  GW2 with ongoing development, a healthy pop, updates,  an expansion last year, and a planned future expansion is far far far from it. (not to mention arguably best mmorpg in the genre)

Edited February 5, 2023 by vesica tempestas.1563

[Gehenna.3625]

On 2/4/2023 at 3:14 PM, Kozumi.5816 said:

I define it by every game mode being abandoned and extremely minor + slow updates

Well that's a very personal definition and a vague on at that. Compared to SWTOR this game gets lots of content still.

Your definition doesn't help much and is unusable. Please explain specifically what you mean by "abandoned", "extremely minor" and "slow". Those are terms that are vague and can mean different things to different people. So what are the thresholds for these terms? When is it abandoned, extremely minor and slow...and when is it not. 

That's what's missing for your definition to have any value at all.

[ThunderX.6591]

Game in maintenance mode or not? Hard to say, for a simple fact........ we have opposite info on it.

On one hand, the biggest thing that say "no maintenance mode" is the talked future expansion and the fact that LWS1 reimplemented in the game ended at the end of 2022, BUT, at the same time, this same thing point to the "yes maintenance mode" because after the last chapter of LWS1 at the end of 2022, we literally know nothing of the future LWS6 about the future adventure after the event of END of Dragon, and considering we are 2023, that is a bit of a concern.

I was considering the new LWS6 to be ready after april (just like the complete passage to DX11 ended), but heard nothing about it until now except the old news from last summer is a mildly concern for my point of view.

But after all that sayd, to me, the result can be like 20% in maintenance mode and 80% NOT, at least for now, so for "at least 1 extra year", i don't see a problem about it; after that, we will see what have happened or not happened.

[Bladestrom.6425]

to look it another way, compare GW1 (officially in maintenance mode) and GW2  - spot the differences.

e.g:

recent expansions

recent changes

actively balanced

future expansions planned

actively developed (regardless of personal gripes about types of content)

regular communications

healthy population.

hardware copes with pop size

well regarded in genre

all the signs  of a game that is thriving, nowhere near maintenance mode.

 

 

Edited February 5, 2023 by vesica tempestas.1563

[patton the great.7126]

Maintenance mode.