The ONE thing wrong with Sandswept Isles

[Aeon.4127]

So after some time I managed to get my friends and family to join me on the hunt to getting the 32 slot bag it seemed like a lot of fun and for the most part it was! Riding around on skimmers/raptors/etc and all while talking about anything and everything while completing things along the way was GREAT! ... Until... the Artificial Diamond hit, some of us got it and some did not - later figuring out it was rng based... and now its just me and the rest moved on separately as well... SUCH a bummer I get it, it keeps you going on the map so it does not become empty or what have you that's fine. However maybe make it so you have to do the event an X amount of times rather than RNG where it feels like its promoting groups to either wait (and make the one person who does not have it feel like an anchor) or just continue alone without that person(s).

Is this just me? or is anyone else at least to some degree ... well agree?

[Preyar.6783]

No RNG should be involved as far as I'm concerned. This is just a case of people doing events before unlocking the collections where their items drop from DAILY event chests so you have to wait till reset to get it again, now with the collection item. This put the brakes on a collection I was doing yesterday where I only needed one event item but I had done that event before finishing the story and gimped myself till daily reset.

[Oldirtbeard.9834]

I've never been a fan of RNG either how ever I plan on doing Open World Events multiple times because I like having fun so there's that.

[Jasmine.8195]

Ah hah, so it is RNG... was following the Dulfy guide and it doesn't mention the Artificial Diamond being RNG so I thought I was doing something wrong after 2 pre meta storm runs and nada.... bleh.

[Vayne.8563]

Not sure why people ask this. If a million people play this game, the odds of someone not agreeing with you is negilible. And the same is true for people disagreeing with you.

I'm sure, absolutely certain some people agree with you. I'm absolutely not sure what difference that makes.

I have fun with my guild all day whether we're all doing the same thing at the same time or not, because we're all in voice chatting while we play. It doesn't matter to me if I'm standing next to them or in another zone, though we're often doing the same thing in the same zone.

RNG serves a purpose in most MMOs, which is why every MMO I've ever played uses RNG. You might argue there's too much or too little RNG, but that's not going to affect whether it appears in the game, no matter who agrees or doesn't agree with you, because it continues to serve that purpose.

[DaShi.1368]

I've done this event 10 times and still no artificial diamond. I'm at the point where I'm camping the event. Is their any other way of getting this item?

[Endless Soul.5178]

Are you killing the elementals in the pre-events? That's where I got mine, although it took several attempts.

[Aurelian Omenkind.2470]

I play another game where rng is a necessary part of the programming and gameplay. MMOs need this sort of thing to keep it interesting. But their system for certain content is to create a superlikely condition that increases odds for a drop when it’s required for a quest and continues to ramp up likelihood if the drop continues to not happen. I might suppose a system like this is in place, but if not, I think it would be a preferable way to keep rng frustration from killing a person’s satisfaction with the quest.

[Friday.7864]

RNG makes the game super annoying :sSome people get the drop right away and move on... While I'm doomed to camp the same event several times.Frustrating to no end.Instead of spending my Sunday doing various content I get to camp in one map hoping for the best... Bleh, such poor game design choices

[Handsel.2891]

@Friday.7864 said:RNG makes the game super annoying :sSome people get the drop right away and move on... While I'm doomed to camp the same event several times.Frustrating to no end.Instead of spending my Sunday doing various content I get to camp in one map hoping for the best... Bleh, such poor game design choices

Your lack of luck was not a design choice. It's just that: lack of luck. If you are dealt a bad hand do you blame the dealer? Or the deck?

[Friday.7864]

Games are supposed to be fun. And if your idea of fun is waiting 30-60 minutes for the dealer to hand you 1 card just so you could flip it over to see if it's the one you need you have a very weird sense of fun my friend.And I do not agree with, nor like your idea of fun.

RNG in general is fine, but using it for items I need to progress the game infuriates me and it just baffles me how you can step up to defend such practices.And please don't respond to me anymore as I no longer intend to discuss this with you.

My post was meant as feedback as in: "I like the game very much but that part right there? I hate it with every ounce of my being."

[Super Hayes.6890]

RNG is cancer to gaming. I am not playing Black Jack or Poker here. It is not needed for a game to be awesome. I still play games from my original Nintendo days that have stood the test of time and have zero RNG. This idea that rewards need to be randomized is, and has always been, nonsense. There are better ways to make a player feel rewarded for their effort than a super rare drop that may never happen.

[crepuscular.9047]

a bit of rng is good, monetised RNG like BDO is cancer

[Vampyria.9514]

I'm also stuck at this. Did the event 10 times and no luck. So annoying to do this over and over :angry: why can't you have a little bit of luck after doing this so many times...

[Linken.6345]

@Vampyria.9514 said:I'm also stuck at this. Did the event 10 times and no luck. So annoying to do this over and over :angry: why can't you have a little bit of luck after doing this so many times...

Or a token system so you know you can get it any time or by doing it 10,15 or how ever many times it needs to be done.

[Elden Arnaas.4870]

re: Your lack of luck was not a design choice. It's just that: lack of luck. - Obviously you don't have an "unlucky" account, or play with anyone who does.
A friend and I started the first book in the Incinerator collection last night - just for kicks. Now the whole point of the Legendary Journey collections was to do away with the RNG associated with getting a precursor.
The first part of the first collection is gathering at copper and iron mining nodes for 3 special drops, so we gather from various copper and iron nodes. On the same maps, at the same time, both using unlimited gather tools and a couple of stacked gather buffs. At the first node, bauxite drops for me, 2 to 3 nodes later the nickel drops for me. 3 to 5 nodes later I get the 3rd thing(zinc?) and my friend gets the bauxite around this time. So in about 20 to 30 minutes, I've completed the first 3 of 18 things. And he only has 1/18. We mined for about another hour and I got multiple additional drops of the nickel and zinc, and my friend gets no more of the special drops. So at the end of about and hour and a half of repetitive gathering, I have gotten the 3 needed drops multiple times over, but my friend has only gotten that first one.(of 18) - How the heck is this fair? Especially in an option path that is supposed to eliminate the disadvantage of RNG?And why do I keep getting the drops I already have?(and don't need any more of) While he gets none?

re: If you are dealt a bad hand do you blame the dealer? Or the deck? - No, knowing my luck I wouldn't gamble. But GW2 locks so many things behind RNG, that you often have no choice.

re: Your lack of luck was not a design choice. - Yeah, it really is. ANet should not lock so many things behind such bad RNG. The friend I was doing the Incinerator collection with is consistently unlucky.(in GW2) He is consistently the last(in our group) to get anything that depends on RNG. Another of my friends is consistently first(in our group) to get anything that depends on RNG. I have observed since GW1 that ANet's RNG does not seem to be truly random. That would be truly fair if it was. But 13 years of playing GW games has lead me to believe that ANet's GW RNG is not truly random(or even close) and thus not truly fair. Ideally, RNG is truly random.(and therefore fair) But in the GW games, that ideal is not actually true.(far from it)

Last night I would rather each of us had to gather at a mandatory 5 nodes to be awarded each drop.(or even 10 for each drop) That way it would be guaranteed,(after a predetermined amount of effort) we would progress through the collection together, and it would be fair to both of us.(and to anyone else)

(edit - clarity)

[Shena Fu.5792]

comparing to poker is stupid. that's a competitive game. sometimes you get lucky, other times your opponent's get lucky. and repeats infinitely.

RNG has no place in collections that is only done once. if devs want events to be done X number of times, then set a finite number so players know what to expect. And they don't get frustrated.

[Etria.3642]

I wouldn't mind random if it had an upper limit. For instance, for a recent collection you had to get something from a certain enemy. Naturally, I got it on the first drop and 40 minutes later of killing things in 3 different maps my daughter finally got hers. If it was rng on first 19 enemies and guaranteed on 20 that would be ideal.

That said, the collections in the latest Visions things are IDEAL. Random from certain enemies, or you can hit the world boss for a guaranteed drop. Good solution. I approve.

[AliamRationem.5172]

@MikeG.6389 said:

@Friday.7864 said:RNG makes the game super annoying :sSome people get the drop right away and move on... While I'm doomed to camp the same event several times.Frustrating to no end.Instead of spending my Sunday doing various content I get to camp in one map hoping for the best... Bleh, such poor game design choices

Your lack of luck was not a design choice. It's just that: lack of luck. If you are dealt a bad hand do you blame the dealer? Or the deck?

It's not like an item having a 50% drop rate rather than 100% is a design choice or anything. It's more like physics. It's just the way of things. In fact, I don't think anyone but the guy in the sky really knows how drop rates came to be. It's just one of life's mysteries we have no choice but to accept.

[VaileCearo.3819]

On 2/16/2020 at 12:51 PM, MikeG.6389 said:

Your lack of luck was not a design choice. It's just that: lack of luck. If you are dealt a bad hand do you blame the dealer? Or the deck?

The issue is that the RNG here is time gated. For every time you don't get the diamond to drop you then need to wait however long it takes for the event to restart and it just feels like such a huge waste of time. I enjoy RNG when the content can be instantly repeated over and over again without the game telling me I have to wait but when the game forces me to wait 30 minutes before I can make another attempt then that's just bad game design. I love Guild Wars and Anet but that part of the design, that time gate that prevents me from using my time as efficiently as possible is just absolutely terrible. I work a full time job, I've got a dog to take care of, I feel like my time is being completely disrespected with this kind of design because if I don't get the item then I have to wait to try again only to just have a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a chance of getting the stupid item then before I know it I've wasted my entire goddamn day and still haven't gotten the stupid diamond to drop. It's ridiculously stupid.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

The events that drop the Diamond don't all occur at exactly the same time, do they?  Plus, there's more than one occurrence for some of the events before Zohaqan. 

Can't you do other events/gather/etc. whilst waiting for the chain to begin? 

[VaileCearo.3819]

20 minutes ago, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

The events that drop the Diamond don't all occur at exactly the same time, do they?  Plus, there's more than one occurrence for some of the events before Zohaqan. 

Can't you do other events/gather/etc. whilst waiting for the chain to begin? 

The diamond specifically drops from the Zohaquan meta events per the wiki and does not drop from anything else. If you're someone who's literally just trying to get that item in order to complete the collection then it's a real pain.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Yes, 3 events that occur in several places. 

I'm not sure why one must wait doing nothing for the chain to begin. 

[VaileCearo.3819]

Perhaps I was misunderstanding what you were meaning to say. I know in my case though that there were no other tasks on the map that I was wanting or needing to do. I was literally on the map just to complete the achievement and that was all. So for me it felt like I was stuck waiting for the chain to  restart without anything else for me to do that I had any desire or intention of doing. When I set a goal for myself I become very singular minded in my efforts to achieve that goal and all other content becomes invisible or annoying to me until that goal is completed.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

That's a choice, I suppose.  Best of luck.