[Dev Update] - 15 January 2009

i have been playing gw for almost 4 years now. I loved the game from the start. I am extatic that were getting all this stuff for us vets. They are always thinking up ways to improve or expand the things for us in game. Kudos to the staff that are working so hard for me!
Thanks a Million. Looking forward to the updates *drools over a armor closet*

Siadina

I for one won't belittle you for letting people know you appreciate what they are doing. I said people, not the ANET some of you love to hate. You forget that it's people who create and implement the game. I just want to add my thanks also.

omg omg i actually got responded to by regina -melts in chair- *____* lol

anyways, i know u werent around then...
but the faults of hom and how it can be improved has been discussed ever since it was unveiled at the preview weekend of eotn (august 2007)
it had quite the bad reputation of bein broken by most ppl iirc
we're in 2009, and hom hasnt received any "significant" update yet
so technically, they've had well over a year to clean that mess up
but we instead get random new pve updates (that imo only further break the game...but thats strictly my opinion)


regarding storage...
it has been an issue ever since at least nitefall was released
but im gonna say even pre-factions to a degree
while yes, we have received numerous small (and perhaps coincidental) solutions in the past
my question is...why another one? why again now?
is this new solution the "end of all storage problems?"
is it even a new solution? or is a solution that has been suggested before?
certainly this -must- be huge, if it takes a bigger team and 3 months to do it
(but im not gonna hold my breath)

I was actually hoping for a list of what ANet considers needing an update, change, boost, whiplash or anything regarding skills specifically... see what skills get used often, what skills rarely get used and plot accordingly to that.

-First off, you'd get community input.
-Second, you'd have a list to look at to see what can be done without too much effort versus entire changes on the skills themselves.
-Lastly, ANet could hint at what will eventually be coming up sooner than later so people can stop complaining about waiting "forever" on something to happen. Reasons why one skill was put before another, optionally, can also be added.

Just my two cents. Nonetheless, my only concern regarding anything personally is these novels I've heard about the timeframe between GW1 and GW2. Any infomation about that would be helpful.

Kudos to those giving the '+1 brigade' a hard time for being so despondent, negative and not bringing much else to the conversation. It's been said already but I agree that ANet have no real obligation to provide anything additional. We are getting free stuff! Yay!

I look forward to the update but on the issue of storage, I also suspect it will be along the lines of book storage, but 'per character' armour storage would be my preference.

Keep up the magnificent work guys, Guild Wars is still by far the best online game experience in my opinion.

The main task of the Live Team at this state of the game should IMHO be bringing new life to it, reviving what's dead and creating new playable and replayable content out of existing content, for both PvE and PvP.

But storage update was needed, was really needed for a very long time (forgetting about ancient times, GW:EN release got us nothing and thats when the major pain started again, and since then TONS more of new things were added) and it is a good choice for a first big 2009 update. That's because the future updates are likely to contain more and more new items we'd like to keep, first and most expected being 4th annual birthday minipets series.

At least I hope I'll finally be able to craft me some new armor sets. I haven't crafted an armor set in whole 2 years because there's simply no way to store them other than buying even more mule slots and having to do a lot of relogs and moving of stuff just to swap an armor set or a part.

Yeah I understand. Just gotta hope that I can finally free up that space then *fingers crossed*. Tell Joe I will give him special favors if he is able to free up that space <______<;

just in case all of you missed it

I completely agree.

Hmm...hair stylist? Maybe?

They didn't miss it street peddler, but it might placate some of the complaining, so they've ignored it.

i want more storage becuase im a pack rat.

A few not so obvious views on constructive criticism in relation to the ongoing debate:

Studies do not directly prove that constructive criticism unanimously works better than destructive criticism. Mostly, we have self-reports of people who prefer to hear positive comments over negative ones. Some attempts at constructive criticism fail because the message is confused; the receiver mis-interprets the comments as complementary, and discards the true critical message. Constructive criticism fails when it omits the criticism; it ends up being a bunch of insincere ego-gratifying comments that delude someone into making future failures based on the same approaches.

There are also cases where people have received the most destructive form of criticism, and they have used that as a powerful motivating force. People called generic names like loser, failure, and stupid; without any specifics on what they were doing wrong. The most important factor on responding to criticism seems to be stable internal traits; things that do not change when the support is overwhelming or negativity is abundant. People who have made the most impressive accomplishments have both enemies and heroes, although they do not speak of enemies to try not to justify the negativity.

The interpretation of the person making the statement is more important that what is actually said. Highly infallible person makes utterly destructive comments and they get through; stigmatized person makes the most brilliant and insightful comments, he gets completely ignored. This is where interpretation matters; negative criticism is not taken to be a personal attack when it comes from a likeable source. However, from an unlikeable source, any comment can be misread to support an overall negative view of this person (ie. the people who trash Guru users as a whole because of their own biases).

The following happens on forums: person may make an initial comment and face others stereotyping them into a certain subgroup, only to gradually see themselves as fitting more into that subgroup based on the rejection. Negativity does breed some negativity; but polarized opinions (and an unwillingness to achieve compromise) breed the most diverse and radical opinions. If you do not want an extreme negative opinion, do not form an extreme contradictory opinion that accepts none of what the other person says.

Sometimes the destructive person is being genuine, and not trying to present a facade of a tough negative person. Sometimes the constructive person is trying to pretend to be a positive person to ingratiate themselves to get changes made in their own favor. This goes on in these forums when people verbally berate those who give negative comments. Certainly, someone who sincerely believes in constructive criticism could at least make the minimum effort to debate the opinions of someone who disagrees. There is too much do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do.

And finally, constructive criticism works for one major reason: a solution is proposed to fix things that are being done wrong. If you don't present a solution, there is only a chance at construction if the person can figure it out himself. If you do not present criticism, there is also a chance at fixing something if the person has the insight to make criticism. Any other comment is probably more useful for social purposes than it is for getting a game to achieve its potential. Using past references to this game, genuine constructive criticism towards some changes (skill balancing etc) has produced very little. In those cases, I believe there is a massive filter that discards most of the incoming information no matter what form it comes in.

Storage would be nice, a bit late for me but still nice I guess.

I am very happy that they are still trying to improve GW but I wonder if anything at this point will draw back some of the huge numbers of people that have left.

I don't understand why people bitch when ANet give us positive updates. It doesn't matter how little it is, it doesn't matter how late it is. They're showing that they haven't completely given up on Guild Wars. You're bitching at ANet for giving us updates that they don't need to - does that really make sense?

All of you are spoiled and take these updates for granted.

Purposely derailing the thread are you >:[

noooooooooooo Q_Q

Those were very interesting to see and an indication of how well the players performed. HvH ones were good for steelin' builds. Isnt it possible to dump it on the wiki in a slightly less organized fashion (per match or per team)? Less sort and publish effort and perhaps a larger audience. (how should one know that these charts were available on the site)


Cheers for more storage though :]



Edit: 'Account-based changes to the Hall of Monuments'

Does this mean that the miniatures and weapons of 1 char will be displayed in the HoMs of all characters? (once the tapestry is hung and player rezoned) Or that there will be one HoM on my account labeled with my accountname (e-mail adress)? Or that the survivor monument will be in all HoMs? Or that I can cap the rainbow phoenix on any char with a HoM? Wouldn't this be a redundant addition seen the current account wide marking/unlocking, or is this a first step in that direction?

And reserving the name of every current char with a HoM could generate naming issues when players without GW1 (or EotN) buy GW2?

@master fuhon
gettin a bit off topic but...
criticism is imo always a good thing
but some ppl have a problem discerning a useless comment from a useful critique
and then another problem is that it can be naturally seen as negative
so if done without tact, the receiver of the criticism will totally not even recognize there is a valid critique (deny it) even if it is completely valid

but no matter how u go bout presenting ur critique...if its valid, then its useful, no matter how much ppl like it or not

My thoughts exactly except I would probably be a lil more in-your-face.

I'm liking the new storage.
I'm liking the account wide HoM.
I'm liking the fact they actually care about GW1.

I'm not liking this month's balance update.
I'm not liking their new content. A tonic every 30 days is not enough to keep most people interested.
I'm not liking Guru's negativism.

Three years too late. Such idiots...

Three years too late when storage tabs were added like two years ago? Your math doesn't compute, sir.

So basically you want the Assassins to go back into their shelter away from high end GvG competetive play?
Do you QQ everytime you get killed by a Palm Strike Sin? instead why dont you try and kite or think of a counter.
If you nerf Palm Strike, Sins will be out of GvG for a while until Izzy comes up with another buff to Sins.

What, are you saying that it would have been better for them to not give us this update than for this update to be late? I think you're calling the wrong people idiots, sir.

Palm strike was overpowered. If assassins need an overpowered skill to be played in high end GvG, then it's really not a bad thing that they won't see play.

Assassins should go away.

Even that was not enough, people said so. People had been wanting more storage since GW was in beta. At least with WoW you have a ton of space. Backpack + 4 16-20 slot bags, a bank that has 7 expandable areas which can hold the same 16-20 slot bags.

At this point in time, people will log in to look, and then alt F4 and go back to their other games. Yep, Anet is just saying, "Let's try to breath life into a game that has been dying and struggling for quite a while!" They're just trying to hold interest until GW2. But oh wait, the beta was supposed to begin 2008, with details, screenshots and more. Never saw that either.

They should just focus on GW2 and let GW1 die already, put the poor thing out of it's misery.

its bout prioritizing

there r tons of updates that i wish nevar happened
(this one im indifferent on)

personally, i feel the previous storage updates r sufficient enough for enjoyable gameplay
to not have to spend time and effort into another one
unless, like i said in my previous post, this is the end-all-of-every-storage-problem-update
(which im not bettin on it)

edit: any update storages that should be done, should be ones that definitely do not take 4months time to do

If I may put forth a counterpoint.....

While I do appreciate improvements, to me it does matter when sorely needed improvements come so late. Regarding storage, I've had to relegate several characters to mule capacity. If I want to play them, then other characters become mules. It is terribly inconvenient to mule things across characters when storage itself is completely full. I wish I could have kept all those little collectibles along the way that eventually were used as trade-ins during holiday events. I wish I could keep a stock of mod upgrades just in case I get a skin I really like and want to mod. These aren't the biggest problems in my life, but my gameplaying experience would have been better if I never had these inconveniences. So to me, it does matter how late improvements came. Imagine just now Anet got around to introducing secondary class trainers.

Anyways this reminded me of a real-life situation where I got a very nice gift......way too late. My college graduation present from my parents was a brand new IBM Thinkpad (laptop). I sure could have used that my four years in college, instead of all the handwriting, the waiting for a seat at a campus computer lab, or using my housemate's old MacIntosh (remember those?) to write a paper.

damn if you do damn if you don't and what Arkantos says in post #94

and to Abedeus
Regarding palm strike (not arguing wheather it should be fix or not) but not fixing it the minute you yell fix this does not means the Dev Team is not hardworking.

QQ much?

just a thought, reason why there's still update to GW1 is becasue it is still alive and kicking, you think a company would make update if they suspect the game is dying? everyone is thinking wow too late, I AM not playing, but is the update aim at YOU and YOU ONLY?

IMO, it would be better for Anet to spend time on ways to improve the game so that players will come back to play.

Personally, for me to come back to GW, I would need:

1) Global LFG system that is not restricted to outposts. This also means that you should be able to search for people to play with even while you're in a mission or explorable area.

2) Full heroes so that while I'm in search of people to play with, playing the game alone while on standby isn't so mind numbingly boring. Though if a global LFG system works so well that I can very easily find people to play with, I may not even need a full heroes option.

Although GW is more than 3 years old, I don't think the game is any less fun than before. It's just that the game is really only enjoyable when playing with people. A few months after GWEN came out, it's been getting harder and harder to find people to play with. If I can find people to play with, I'd gladly play return to GW. As is now, the focus on grinding to make better use of skills and playing alone with henchies is just too mind numbingly boring (though heroes make solo play a little more interesting, being limited to 3 heroes ruins it).

Still, maybe additional storage and global HoM are in addition to some cool additions. Either way, props to Anet for at least putting in the effort on their game months after their last chapter.

those suggestions r contradictory
if we evar get 7 heroes...no one will evar want to "lfg"

Ok then tell us what you have in mind for storage improvements.

I'll hold my breath while I wait for those details.

Actually no, it wasnt overpowered, it was only overpowered because the QQers here QQ and QQ about every Sin buff, Anet in return had to satisfy the QQers and nerf.

Palm Strike is not overpowered, it brought Sins back into GvG, they give Sins back a skill that made them able to compete with other melee professions.
Far from overpowered, just more competitiveness.

It is easier to disable a Sin than a War and Derv.
Because Sins require combo chains.

Really? Your live team is two people? How long did it take to "assemble" the team? That's awesome. Can't imagine why it takes 4 months to increase storage by a tab.

I guess now that your player base is 1/20 of what it was you have lots of server space to give us this awesome storage increase. Thanks!

Hmmm extra storage is too late imo but i'll take it anyway
So there adding more people to the team hmmm what about GW2 O.o

No, it was overpowered because you could keep multiple people perma crippled while dealing good damage every 4 seconds. You just don't know a thing about balance so you try and blame people who know about balance - I mean the "QQers".

It did bring sins back into GvG, because it was overpowered. It's still a good skill, and assassins are ran a lot less in GvG. What does that tell you? It tells you that assassins were only popular because of an overpowered skill.

Honestly, if you don't know what balance is, you shouldn't be talking about it.

It brought Sins back to GvG because they finally get a USEFULL skill, not overpowered. Only considered overpowered to QQers like you.
You claim perma cripple = overpowered?
I dont see you complaining about Wounding Strike, WS = perma Deepwound + Good damage also?
pffft, you are the one who doesnt know balance AKA another QQer?

theres a palm strikes thread fyi :P

I can honestly say I am still enjoying guild wars

I cannot see why so many negative postings....

You paid for a game and anet has introduced many interesting things since

Compare this to any game that you see out there Anet has given more

content than most ..without costing you a penny and you moan geez

As this site is only a small base of players who for whatever reason think it

should be played my way as its better . you are just a small percentage/

everyone has there own playstyle...

So Guys Give Anet a break for a change and accept the fact that nomatter

what you have been getting great value for your money

I agree with this post.
Now, normally I critique anet. But I'm happy they're adding extra content in the first place. Perhaps with the more storage, I could start armor hunting crafting
Though for Anet's next update, getting old players who quit after prophecies would be a good idea. THEN AGAIN, those same people are interested in getting Gw2. So it would all be a matter of hyping the HoM to the general public and making it people's worth-while.

All I can say is: good luck.

I don't personally think they did fix the AI. In HB I still get heros leaving the shrines to the point of not capping even when on "guard" - of Wars (hero or hench) running off and aggroing groups outside the range indicated on radar - its to the point I wont even use a War in a group anymore.

Anyway, back on topic, thank you for the update. Yet again, people without knowledge acting as experts and QQing anything and everything anet does. If they say it is more complicated to add storage then it does - they have the info at hand, we dont.

Yet again though, we see that the information was "leaked" to certain individuals ahead of time - My request is treat your player base equally instead of this favouritism - at least theres no game advantage THIS time.