Playing with friends, devs?

[Won Trapie.5481]

Something we still can't do during certain activities/instances in festivals. At this point, a clear answer as to the technical side of why we can't party up with guildmates, random strangers we befriend during said activities, or just friends from contacts would be great!

I've brought several friends back into Guild Wars 2 with promises of playing the new content together, and now all I can tell them when they want to know why we can't play together in things like Clock Tower or Lunatic Inquisition is: "sorry, idk. been that way since year 1."

So what's the techy reason why we may never be able to play with old friends or new friends we meet, ironically, due to playing the Halloween content?

[Myhr.9108]

This is not a matter of technical issue but rather of game design. Clock Tower and Lunatic Inquisition are solo/competitive modes, they're not supposed to be done in organized groups (and it's frankly useless to organize them). Look for other content to play with your friends, they can discover these two activities by themselves,they're not that complex, after all.

[Lithian.4625]

@Myhr.9108 said:This is not a matter of technical issue but rather of game design. Clock Tower and Lunatic Inquisition are solo/competitive modes, they're not supposed to be done in organized groups (and it's frankly useless to organize them). Look for other content to play with your friends, they can discover these two activities by themselves,they're not that complex, after all.

So then, our existing and/or newly befriended contacts not get the second chance to experience something with each other, for any holiday event? The mode can be competitive but still should allow parties of players. What if, I want to experience the consistent fails of falling on the clock tower? Run around and chase friends as a ghost in the lunatic inquisition? Regardless if its "pointless to have an organised group", you should still be able to experience most if not all the content with friends, or those you've recently met in the available content. Christmas, a time of giving? you can't share in the candy cane hopping, gift wrapping, or joys of laughter in some/any of that content?

There is an option, "Join friend in PvP", why is that an option, but entering an instance with a party is not? It seems this is partly implemented but not fully supported? Even the ability to "create a new/private instance" would be nice(though resource heavy).

Over all, i fully support the idea of being able to party up with friends to experience content together, or at least be less restricted. such that, for example, to allow the clock tower, but not lunatic labyrinth, in case people try to "cheat the system", because you cant really "help/interact" with each other in that content.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Here's the technical reason:

Gaile GrayArenaNet Forum Communications Team Lead

Bottom line: This was not a “choice.” This was not a decision made without thought, or carelessly, or in error. This was a necessary change that stabilized the game, for both PvP and Activities.

We understand that you would have preferred that this change not be made, but the cost of not making this change was too significant to let it slide. The change was necessary and as much as we regret any dissatisfaction that you may feel in relation to it, according to the designers it must remain in this state for this year’s release.

https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/support/bugs/Toypocalypse-and-Parties/first#post4629767

Good luck.

[Won Trapie.5481]

Thank you, that was exactly what I was hoping for!That's unfortunate to read, I also see Gaile posted:

The code that is used for this event is code that also is used for PvP. The code that allowed party joins for Toypocalypse was changed — by necessity — in order to stablize PvP and Activities as a whole. This wasn’t a design decision, this was a necessary change.I’m sure if you look at this objectively, it makes sense to set a short-time event for single enters in order to stabilize all of PvP, which is a permanent element of the game.I’ll ask the designers if they have more insight, but what I was told indicates that “we had to do this change in the short term in order to make PvP and Activities more stable” which applies to the permanent game mode.

Now I wonder if anything's changed in the last two years that it'd be stable again. I don't quite understand how SPvP allows for parties to enter a custom match but not these activities, for example. So maybe there was a change/update to the SPvP code. Oh well. Maybe an employee will verify it's still a no-go.

Edit: I'm thinking with the influx of new/returning players in mind, and I'd bet others would like to know this, as well.