The New AI: The Unpragmatic Rationale

What is really dumb about this thread is that only a matter of weeks ago, I was reading threads where people were whinning that Guild Wars was never intended to be a Farming/Grind style game.

And now that A-net has taken a step towards slowing down such, people are whining about it taking longer and not being so easy to do...

A-net reads these boards people... They are trying to give their target player demographic what it wants. Last week you complained about people over-farming for rares, uniques, gold, rare skins, and Faction Points! Now you're complaining about actually having to work and think in order to accomplish exactly that!

Here is how I see it... If you are spending your time farming, then chances are pretty good that you aren't just a casual player. I'm a casual player. I play 2, maybe 3, hours a night. I only recently made it through Factions and it has taken me 3 months. Does that make me a noob? No. I've just been to busy playing the actual game and enjoying the social interactions, then being worried about pressing through it as quickly as I can so that I can go farm to get some fancy looking set of armor that has the same exact stats as the set I already have, but paid 1/10th of the price for. If it wasn't for the Farmers/Grinders, they wouldn't have needed to include 15k armor because there'd be little need for large gold sinks.

A-net wants the game series to appeal to the average gamer, which have jobs and families, thus only spend 10-16 hours a week playing. These gamers play to have fun and forget about the stress in their life, not to get uber items and unimaginable gold made of pixels. They want the game to be challenging so that they will feel that the $50 they spent wasn't wasted. And once they are bored of the game, they'll move on to something new. That's how the gamer demographics are, no matter what country or culture you are refering to.

And before I start getting flamed (which I know I will), I'm not talking out of my rear about this. I studied Game Art and Design through Westwood College. I know how the industry works and I know how game development companies target their marketing. They are doing exactly what they need to in order to appeal to their target market. If you don't like the changes, then chances are you are not (or are no longer) part of their target market.

JR
I love the new update. I think it is the best PvP update (SF update was the best PvE update).

But your logic does not make sense whatsoever. Why should he care about the 'game as a whole'??
He paid to play the game to entertain him not for some altruistic reasons.
He did not pay to make GW better. He paid to be entertained. The update is bad for him. That is what all that matters.

However!... the nerf to farming should not lead to people QQing about it. I'm sure people will find new ways to farm. They always have. I give it a week.

Not to mention people whinning about Chinese and Bot farmers. Now they fix it and see what happens... :/

IMO, this is still the best update since Sorrows Furnace.

I'm a little split on the numbers... I think they're a bit distracting, but they're far better then the ones we had before.

yeah, I like the new changes.

The new position of the money takes some time getting used to though, but in a few weeks we're laughing at ourselves for crying about it.

The numbers really are just a tad too big. When running a MM, they're all I can see on my screen, and I honestly never had a problem with the old numbers. I love that they're trying to make the game look more polished, even in the small aspects, but...maybe an option to scale them back a little?

And as for the skill icons popping up over your head, you can change that back to text in your options menu (I did...once again, 17 months of the old system and I'm kinda used to it).

Can someone post a screen of the numbers. People at work havent seen the new stuff yet

i lve the big numbers lol

I like the changes as well. ITs very informative now.

I like the changes I found the bigger numbers make it easier to see what is going on and the skill icon just show why you lost that amount.

That is double the work for the developers.

I'm not at home to log in, but I read that you can turn off the combat feedback if you don't like it. I for one like being able to see my damage because I like to zoom out when i fight so I can see other mobs & where they are going & doing.

This is an awesome update. Monsters are less retarded than they were and PvE doesn't feel like as much of an exploit-fest.

That being said, everywhere I farm remains untouched. Ranger FoW forest, elementalist titan farming, runs through talmarck with my ranger, trapping in the UW, all untouched. The people whining about this need to move on, try other builds, and quit whining.

I'm actually looking forward to the oppurtunity to get a full group in the UW instead of 2 manning everything.

QFT

some areas can still be farmed, you just have to take on smaller groups. You just wont make money as fast.

All of the "end of Guild Wars" and "I'm quitting" talk is a bit much.
Anet has made changes before that weren't popular and people adapted.
Farming nerfs happen deal with it.

Most people posting are acting as if you cannot possibly play the game without gold or expensive weapons and armor.
This is not true.
Yeah, yeah...15k looks great and I want to flaunt my status, but get over yourselves.
Anet is now making you work for the best items in the game. While the casual player (me) will suffer, the best armor and weapons will become more prestigious.
Instead of whining and declaring the end of the world...stop being lazy and figure out a build that will allow you to farm your favorite areas.
In a game with hundreds of skills and thousands of combinations, there will be something that works.
Since all of the hardcore farmers out there are so "leet" or "pro," you should have no problem with that.

If you are too lazy to do that or not as "leet" as you claim to be, just wait.
You can bet, in a few weeks time, there will be that solo farm build that works against the new AI (thank you chinese/bot farmers). Then all will be "right" with the world.

Grimarren is on point. People have been complaining for months about how easy it is to farm this and that, and how the value of greens and rare weapons have plummeted. A change to correct this has been made and it's mass hysteria.
I welcome the change. I will make the game more challenging as well as open the pool for people to do missions and questing, as opposed to solo farming. This will make for a better gaming experience.

I'm a PVE player - but I dont like to farm


*both* henchies and monsters AI was improved


I'm happy with the update
- Henchies perform better
- Monsters are more challenging

Or you could read the update for a change...

The thing that makes farming big mobs impossible now is that everything runs away with even 1 AoE spell. Tell me, how do you want to farm when every1 runs away just by doing 1 single spell?

What Anet's doing now is making gold harder to get, and items are harder to get now as well, as a result, there will be less supply in Gold and Items, so things will start to become worth more. Just look at the ecto prices - it's been only 1 day and the price raised with 2K already.

Also, we don't need all the luxury to play the game, but buying a good Rune of Superior Vigor would help big time with just playing the game, but Anet decided to make it rather impossible to get as a drop, and 'farming' for it (which will become killing groups of 2 monsters, I guess) will take alot of time.

So yeah, you could say the normal thing 'ohh but you can do without the rune of Superior Vigor', but that's not how it works, we can also play the game without any armor at all, while we're at it. But I don't think it'll make things easier.

Of course, if Anet was smart, they'd just let monsters drop more loot when you're in a party, so everyone can get some cash, and not only the rich people.

Anyone else see a problem with this statement? Assuming 10 million "cash not ecto no dye, cash and cash":

1 million in bank + 100k on each character...
means 90 characters. How many of us have 90 characters?

So i doubt your claim and defy you to prove it.


Anyway, overall I'm pretty pissed with the overall nerf to farming. It seems that ANET has gone after bots and instead wound up screwing us all over. I expect material prices to increase a fair amount, and if you've noticed, blue and red dyes are already SOLD OUT.

I'm pissed, but not discouraged. We have 300 new skills to work with. Many skills target many foes and AREN'T AoE. We'll figure it out.

1: Run up to monster
2: Hit monster repeatedly
3: When monster moves, continue hitting it
4: Pick up loot
5: Rinse
6: Repeat
7: Wipe hands on pants

It's still plenty easy to get gold and plenty easy to farm. It will, however, require a bit more thought. At any rate, slowing down the rate at which thousands of bot farmers inflate the economy with ebay gold can't eb THAT bad an idea, eh?

Everyone isn't SUPPOSED to be rich. Everyone can't have a superior vigor rune. There just aren't enough to go around. The high prices price poorer folks out of the market. Armor,on the other hand, has a fixed price, and a relatively low one at that. If you can't manage to pick up 7.5k by the time you need to buy max armor, well, I suggest you spend more time playing the game instead of getting run everywhere.

Here's what the AI improvements (as far as the AoE change) means for the PvE player:

Monsters are now far smarter than their human 'real' counterparts. They run out of AoE spells when they notice they're getting hurt unlike 'real' players who stand there and keep expecting the monks to heal their stupidity.

I can certainly understand how that pisses a lot of people off. However, it's a good thing for those of us who actually PLAY the game without incessantly bitching because our cushy little farm build/area takes a hit.

Understand now? BoofrickinHoo.

You can only have 1 million in cash in your stash and 100k on each of your characters.
But alot of players also have tons of stashed items, materials, dyes, ectos, shards, etc.