So, since I was sick (again) recently, I watched a lot of Heart of Elynthi campaign (*shillWatchItHereshill*) and it got me thinking about how a lot of RPG (tabletop or computer/console) tend to focus on the character growth part of the game. Which, don't get me wrong, is great and all — and I understand that a core game loop in RPGs is gain XP → learn new skills → cakewalk previous difficulty → repeat — but a part of me can't help but really enjoy the idea of maxing out character levels after a certain amount of time and just having all the tools available to take on the challenges that the world will throw at you.

It's a bit like how in Guild Wars (not the second one, the OG Guild Wars) your character leaves the "starter island" aka tutorial at level 20 with all of the class' core abilities and with a full skill kit. Of course, you can vary that a lot and tweak it as you progress through the rest of the story, but the growth is far slower and more incremental than the initial loop of practically exponential power growth. It feels like there's basically 10% tutorial and 90% endgame. Of course, there were also plenty of frustrating bits to the game and I do think there are parts that were tuned in such a way that was needlessly challenging, but the overall ratio of "tutorial" vs "end-game" I think satisfies a part of me that really liked playing around with all the levers to figure out how I liked to approach problem solving.

(To be sure, I am still annoyed with Guild Wars over all for having poor class balance, it really shouldn't be the case that certain classes have a severe case of the feels-bad-man. And seeing how little respect GW2 treated the original GW lore and plot points and story, and the fact that the writers in GW2 all seem to be stuck in their own little modules without paying attention to the bigger picture, plus their horrible character writing puts me off of the game. But at its core, I think Guild Wars' original design concept of having most of the game be end-game is actually kind of refreshing and I wish more games took the time to really polish that concept.)

Here's the thing: while most players might argue the "end-game" starts when you've acquired everything there is to acquire and all that's left is super hard challenging bosses and no more room for improvement for your characters, I don't really see it that way. In my conceptualization of end-game, it starts when there are no more stat bonuses to gain. You can't hit harder, defend better, etc. anymore and what improvement is left is fiddling around to look for better and better optimization and synergy with the pieces you've got. And challenges in the game play come no longer from being able to survive, but rather from figuring out the puzzle of the boss, try to understand what you're supposed to do, which skill you need to use, or what plot point to push forward in order to resolve the conflict. The point of end-game is that it doesn't get harder anymore, it simply challenges you differently.

Of course, this design concept is a bit harder for video games due to its vastly larger decision matrix and limited programming power. However, in a tabletop game, where a huge part of the enjoyment is from socialization and exploration and the DM can spin a new location out of nothing by using theater of the mind stuff, this idea of reaching "max level" (by which I mean getting most of the class mechanics early in the campaign, so this applies to level-less systems, too) has a lot of room to explore. Especially since in tabletop gaming, most players are actually very familiar with their class mechanics and would probably enjoy carrying their character through many different worlds that share the same lore. Being able to travel to a new place to find new items that synergize well with the character's build (which is easier to do with a human DM who knows which mechanical holes exist in your character's repertoire and thus can throw an item that can do the cool thing you want to do when you get to a new town) can be really fun. Having the core style of your character's combat remain the same while at the same time being able to augment it for each new challenge can keep the game fresh while not having to abandon the character just to try something new.

In short, I think what I'm saying is that focusing on tweaking optimization as character progression can be really fun, but rarely do I see games design for that and the only instance I can think of didn't really do the design concept justice.

OK, so I pondered on my previous post a bit more and here are some detailed changes that I think would make the Mechanist feel less like a horrible pet and more like a GUNDAM FIGHTER rarrrr!

Change Mech to be pilotable

As previously discussed, one of the easiest ways is to morph the Mechanist into a Jade Mech (narrative: Mechanist now pilots the Mech). Toolbelt skills are still accessible while piloting mech, but regular utility (6-10) are no longer accessible.

F5 - Summon Mech - Drops Mech at Mechanist location and deals 1s stun around the Mechanist, 180 radius.
F5 - Board - Mechanist rides the Mech and changes weapon skills to Mech attack skills. If Mech is out of boarding range (120), summons Mech to Mechanist location then board. Disable access to utilities (signet passives still apply). 10s cooldown.
F5 - Eject - Mechanist ejects out of the Mech and regains equipped weapon skills and utility skills. Mech now auto attacks until it deactivates or reboarded (with F5). 10s cooldown.

When the Mech deactivates (looses all HP), it goes away and Summon Mech (F5) goes on a 50s cooldown to dissuade from loosing the Mech.

Mech should have a default of 75k HP or 50k HP with 2000 toughness. Mech is immune to all conditions except burning. However it receives a 1s daze when its breakbar depletes. Breakbar resets when the Mechanist boards or ejects (F5).

Mech Skills

To make piloting the Mech more viable consider these changes:

1. Auto attack - Adopts Mech auto attack. Activation reduced to 1/4s.

2. Mech attack #2 - Adopts current F1 skill, drop damage by 20% (80% of current damage), reduce recharge by 50% (i.e. Rolling Smash 10s, Explosive Knuckles 7s, Spark Revolver 10s)

3. Mech attack #3 - Adopts current F2 skill, reduce recharge by 20% (i.e. Discharge Array 24s, Crisis Zone 24s, Core Reactor Shot 20s).

4. Mech attack #4 - Adopts current F3 skill, reduce recharge by 50% (i.e. Jade Mortar 10s, Barrier Burst 15s, Sky Circus 15s).

5. Mech attack #5 - Crash Down (current F4), leap to target enemy (1200 distance), damage enemies (same damage as current F4) in a 900 radius and deals 1s stun. 30s recharge.

Mace Skills

I honestly like the idea of a Mace Mechanist, but the Mace skills need to have some synergy with the Mech when not piloting it. Here are my proposed changes:

1. Mace #1 - Reduce activation to 1/4s on first two strikes, 1/2s on third strike. Each strike now also heals Mech by 5% of its Max HP. (15% for one cycle.) Also have each strike apply 2 stacks of confusion.

2. Mace #2 - Reduce activation to 1/4s, change confusion application to Daze (1s). Keep everything else.

3. Mace #3 - Reduce cooldown to 10s. If Mech is active, replace with Rocket Punch (with current 5s cooldown).

Dodging when piloting Mech

Mech will roll up into a ball on dodge to avoid damage, like a snail or clam shutting into its shell. Will be cute. Also easy to animate.

Mechanist Traitline

The traitline needs to have more synergy with core Engi utilities, too. Here are my proposed changes.

• Minor Proficiency - Mace Proficiency - You can wield mace mainhand. Tool Kit auto-attack now heals Mech by 5% Max HP for each strike.

• Minor Adept - Mechanical Genius - Gain access to Signets. F5 now replaced by Summon Mech skill. Mech adds 50% of your stats to its base stats.

• Major Adept

  • Mech Arms: Single-Edge Cutters - In addition to current effects, add additional bleed per hit by Mech.

  • Mech Arms: High-Impact Drivers - Change might application to 5s of Might per hit by Mech.

  • Mech Arms: Jade Cannons - Change default attack range to 1200 and apply 5s Vulnerability per attack. Mech attacks now pierce (up to 3 targets).

• Minor Master - Mech Fighter - Change toughness and vitality gain to 1000 flat. Boost base HP to 50k. Experimental Turrets will now affect Mech and cause it to pulse Aegis (3s) every 10s.

• Major Master

  • Mech Frame: Conductive Alloys - Instead of inheriting stats, increase condi duration by 20%. Stacks additively with other condi traits in core Engi builds. (E.g. Firearms: Chemical Rounds + Conductive Alloys = +53% condition duration on pistol poison.)

  • Mech Frame: Channeling Conduits - Instead of inheriting stats, increase boon duration by 25% and stacks 1 extra stack of stackable buffs. (E.g. Firearms: Sanguine Array + Channeling Conduit = 2 Might for 5s instead of 1 Might for 4s on bleed application; Explosives: Short Fuse + Channeling Conduit = 5s Fury instead of 4s when using explosives.)

  • Mech Frame: Variable Mass Distributor - Instead of inheriting stats, boost Precision and Ferocity by 20% (to Mechanist and Mech). Give 1s Distortion on crits (to Mechanist when not piloting Mech, to Mech when piloting Mech). When piloted, Mech hover-flies out of battle, movement speed increase 50%. Mounts are disabled while piloting Mech out of battle.

• Minor Grandmaster - Exigency Protocols - Auto-eject pilot when struck at half HP. Mech gains immunity for 5s. Mechanist's next mace or Tool Kit strike heals Mech for 10% Max HP.

• Major Grandmaster

  • Mech Core: Jade Dynamo - Instead of chance of explosions, all Mech attacks cause secondary explosive damage and triggers Explosions traits.

  • Mech Core: Barrier Engine - Add 1s of Aegis along with Barrier boon. Gains boon duration bonus from Mech Frame: Channeling Conduits.

  • Mech Core: J-Drive - Change skill to: when Mechanist ejects, Mech will now become airborne and only susceptible to ranged attacks. Airborne Mech will bombard area within 600 radius with scattering of grenades (activation 1s), triggering Explosives and Grenadier traits.

Signets

Oh man, every signet now needs a toolbelt skill. Let's goooooo.

Healing

Rectifier Signet - Fine as is.
Air Filtration - Toolbelt now purges 2 condis and gives protection to self and allies (600 radius). Compounds with Inventions: Anticorrosion Plating (purge 3rd condi when applying protection). 15s recharge, instant activation.

Utility

Barrier Signet - Passive: Instead of reducing condition damage, change it to purge 1 condi every 5s. Active is fine.
Raise Barrier - Drop projectile reflection dome around self (or Mech when piloting mech) that lasts 5 seconds. Apply protection to self for 10s when dome dissipates. Removes 1 condition upon protection application with Inventions: Anticorrosion Plating trait. Recharge 15s, instant activation.

Force Signet - Passive: In addition to power, add Might (5s) every 5s. (In other words, pulse 1 stack might.) Active is fine.
Repel Field - Launch foes within 120 radius of the Mechanist. Recharge 20s, instant activation.

Shift Signet - Fine as is.
Beam Me Up, Scotty - User shadowsteps to target location (1200 range). Enemies within 120 radius of location are blinded for 5s. (Max 10 enemies.) Stacks with condition duration traits. 30s recharge, instant activation.

Superconducting Signet - Fine as is.
Short-Circuit - Create a field of fire (900 radius) that pulses 3 stacks of burn (5s) and 600 damage every second for 10 seconds. 30s recharge, instant activation.

Elite

Overclock Signet - Passive: Reduce all equipped skills' (includes Toolbelt and Kit skills) recharge by 20%. Stacks with other skill recharge reduction traits. Active: Change signet recharge based on Mech availability. If Mech is deployed at activation, recharge 25s. If Mech is unavailable, recharge 90s.
No toolbelt skill, because F5 is used for summoning/boarding Mech.

---

OK, that's a lot of thought about a game I'm not playing. Back to a game where I'm not so frustrated with the developers.

Thanks for making me aware of MountGate, tanithryudo. Now I'm commenting instead of writing NaNo like I ought to be. >:(

First, I'm more or less caught up on what Anet did, what the responses are, and I'm going to say all of this just convinces me to stop playing. Like. Stop. Period. I've had it. I was already not happy about the decisions that Anet made regarding mounts (giving them faster than swiftness speed), so that is it. I am done. After complaining and complaining for over 5 years about GW2, I am finished with this franchise.

Second, to all those who say give them time to learn from their mistakes, the truth of the matter is very clear: Anet doesn't think it's a mistake. Sorry, but they don't. I'll get to the why later, but I'm going to address the gamer side of things, this relentless giving a pass for anti-consumer practices. For those who say, "Let's hope they don't do it again." I say to you, look at the progression of the micro-transaction. Not only has the gem store gotten more and more expensive skins, but they've gotten more and more RNG with each pass. First, it was the BL chests RNG items, but those were trade-able. Then it's the BLC locked glider skins which can't be sold. Now, it's straight up selling RNG. It's not going to get better, it's only going to get worse. Then there are those who say, "Vote with your wallet." To you, I point out that in a micro-transaction sales model, 80% to 95% of the income comes from 5% of the player base. So even if you manage to get a 90% majority of players to band together, you will make less than 1% impact on their revenue.

Therefore, the only real impact that can make Anet feel the consequence of their mistake is to simply quit. As long as you're on that game, you are giving the whales someone to show off to, and as long as whales have someone to show off to, they will buy from the gem store, no matter how ludicrous. You want your voice to be heard? Ironically, the only way is to walk away and take as many people with you as you can. Quitting the game is voting with the only wallet that still holds any sway.

Third, Anet's response only solidifies my belief that they don't think they made a mistake. Here's why:
( Anet's apology )
Now, I want you to focus on this bit: "Individual sale is a mechanic that works with a few, flashy skins. Using a grab bag mechanic gives us leeway to create skins to suit a wide range of player tastes while offering a lower price per skin."

Let me break that down in real speak:

"Dedicating resources into making a single item that sells well to the majority of the playerbase is costly. Taking into account the huge variety of taste amongst literally millions of players, it is unlikely that we can monetize any single item toward even upwards of 50% of the player base. Therefore, to justify the cost and make a profit, we must place the price point of the item at the unreasonable 2000 gems as seen in something like the legendary-esque Jackal skin.

"However, if we use an RNG mechanic, all assets in the selection pool can be monetized by using it as a motivation for the player base to play the RNG. If the player received an item they were not hoping for, the slightly improved odds will further motivate the players to spend again. Thus, a player who would have spent only 400 gems once for the item they want can be monetized twice under the RNG model, inducing them to spend 800 gems, or, in the case of whales, repeated ad nauseum until they receive the desired item. Our statistical analysis places the necessary starting pool for highest monetizing percentage, assuming a linear decay for repeated gambling, at somewhere around 1/30, therefore we released 30 skins.

"While we will lose a 400 gem sale here or there from the more discerning players, our research has demonstrated that more than 80% of players are at least willing to risk the RNG once for a chance at something they want. After they have made the first purchase, over half of those players will, statistically, re-purchase in the hopes of getting what they want. Our economic model demonstrates that there is a definitive revenue increase due to these behaviors and that is why we decided to release the mount skins as RNG instead of direct purchases."

And that is why I refuse to play this game. I will not keep confirming your statistical model. I will not contribute anymore to your predatory behavior. I can only hope that sooner or later, the rest of your consumer base realize they've been played, but, statistically, that chance is pretty low. So, I can only take satisfaction in not supporting your BS anymore.

So I was reading up a little on recent Path of Fire expansion release and finally caught up with the new Revenant legend. I mean, I already have zero interest in the new legend, because I'm not giving up my shield on rev (for RP reasons), but I figured I should know what I'm missing out on.

Kalla Scorchrazor? Who the fuck is Kalla?

I mean, I know this point has been belabored to death on the forums already, but why pick such a little known character? Why? It's not like we don't already have a prominent bow wielding female character already, Eir Stegalkin. Remember her? The one you writers fridged for the sake of advancing a male character's story?

Just... I'm all for more female characters, really, especially when you think about how the Rev's base legends are all male, it makes sense to pick some more female legends and I'm glad they're doing it, but it feels so tacked on and thoughtless. No one likes a thoughtless "quota" of female characters. Just...ugh.

Another reason to dislike GW2's direction. Unfortunately, the rest of the gamers seems to be lapping this shit up.

Okay, so after the last bitchery about class difficulty and ranking, I decided to do a little more actual breakdown of the class difficulty (in my experience, of course), taking into consideration things like excelling vs. competence, and general nuance as it were. Since I've played all the classes through to 80, unlocked all the specialization, and even went so far as to go all the way until the story end of HoT with 3 classes, one of which I deleted to make room for new characters, I say I have a good understanding of the classes in terms of general PvE. Now, sure, there's fractals/raids whatever, but that's the small percentage and I'm breaking it down more for the general populous here.

( This gets long, so let's get typin'. )

And that is...longer than I wanted to go on. I'm gonna leave the elite specializations for a later analysis. @_@

If Anet actually wanted to fix engineer, here's what they would've done:

1. Increase attack speed of pistol #1 (fragmentation shot) by 50%
   
   
2. Reduce shield #4 (magnetic shield) recharge to 20s
   
   
3. Add 1s stun to pistol #3 (static shot)
   
   
4. Increase radius of all bombs in bomb kit by 60 units
   
   
5. Increase all condition duration by 20% in the trait expert examination
   
   
6. Increase rifle range to 1200 units
   
   
7. Decrease gyro leash length to 180 units, teleport gyro adjacent to engineer when outside of leash length
   
   
8. Return gyro to instant cast
   
   
9. Increase shredder gyro speed by 33%
   
   
10. Gyros blast when destroyed (a la turrets)
    
    
11. Re-enable throwable turrets
    
    
12. Make turrets immune to conditions
    
    
13. Reduce gadget recharge by 33%
    
    
14. Remove RNG from thrown elixirs
    
    
15. Change A.E.D. to instant cast
    
    
16. Increase damage bonus from glass cannon to 20%
    
    
17. Remove cooldown from Thermobaric Detonation
    
    
18. Reduce cooldown for Incendiary Powder to 5s

...and many more, but that would be a good start to bringing up Engineer to baseline level with other professions.

I really don't understand why the writers at Anet decided to completely drop Malyck's plot. It's bad enough that he shows up in the personal story, establishes that there are other Sylvari that are not sprouted from the Pale Tree, is called the freaking Harbinger, and then just disappears from the plot altogether.

Now, with the reintroduction of the Plant Dragon Mordremoth (why does that name sound so Tolkien-esque?) and the reveal that Sylvari were plant dragon minions this whole time, you'd think that this would be the perfect time to pick up Malyck's lost plot thread. Y'know, show us the other Sylvari groves where they don't have Ventari's influence or something. You would think this is the perfect time to introduce some complexity!

Honestly, the entirety of HoT (at least in terms of writing), just feels like someone got defensive when they realized the player base was not happy with how the Sylvari were developed and now is stumbling all over themselves to be like "no, look at how complex they are, look!!", instead of actually addressing the problem of creating a fairly young race that for some reason has the wisdom of the ages.

Housemate put it in pretty concise terms: why didn't they just make the Sylvari a race of tree librarians, with the Dream as a giant archive that they can help people access, but not necessarily be the "wise" race? Ugh.

But seriously, just the entire HoT feels likes an attempt to fix Sylvari when it coudl've been fixed much easier if they didn't keep trying to shove Sylvari into our faces all the time.

So, I mentioned prior that Heart of Thorns expansion was utterly unplayable for me due to technological reasons. However, as I read more, and as I listen to woodenpotatoes' experiences in Heart of Thorns, I've come to the conclusion that the entire new expansion just left a very bitter taste in my mouth. The kind of bitter taste that makes me go "I don't want to support this company."

Reason the first: The new guild system that rolled out with HoT made me very, very angry. Now, I never expected a small guild to be able to compete with a big guild. I never expected a small guild to be able to have access to all the amnesties of a big guild. But prior to HoT, and thus is a function of the core/vanilla GW2, small guilds were able to build up influence and purchase bonuses simply by playing the game. A guild of two was able to pretty much have access to everything that didn't require guild missions. And that was fine. We had a similar but slightly less powerful versions of buffs that the bigger guilds had. We were able to build up our guild bank. Etc. Etc. With the new expansion, everything about a guild is tied to the guild hall, a feature that is only available with HoT purchase, and is not doable with at least three people. So, goodbye micro guilds. Goodbye guild members who may have not purchased HoT. Purchased HoT but is in a two person guild? No guild hall or any of the previous buffs for you. Have a large guild but didn't purchase HoT? No guild hall or any of the previous buffs for you. In short, the game is literally taking away original mechanics that were available in the vanilla game, and putting it behind a purchase *plus* body count wall.

Reason the second: The new HoT maps are absolutely unfriendly to casual players. And by casual, I mean people who just wanna kill some time having fun with friends. I have never met a single hero challenge in the vanilla game that I wasn't able to do by myself on an Engineer (y'know, the most weakass profession in the game). And yet, there are hero points that require no less than three people to complete successfully in the new maps - not because my computer can't render that area worth shit, but because that's just how the game was balanced. That's bull. What is someone on an empty map supposed to do? People say taxi, yet I've looked up the LFG tool and there are rarely taxis into an active HoT map. And without the ability to select an active map to jump into, you're pretty much stuck with no way to complete anything unless you can rally up enough friends, and who's got time for that when you're a casual player? There's definitely a sense of being left behind if you can't keep up and that just makes me so, so frustrated.

Reason the third: Game pricing point was the same as a full game, despite HoT being an expansion. This is just wrong. An expansion should never, ever cost the same as a full game. Some argue that it's because the expansion contains the core game, but that only means those who have already purchased the core game should get the expansion at a reduced price. Otherwise, you're making your veteran players, y'know, the ones who stuck with you and are loyal, pay more than the new players. Some argue that you've already got to play the game for 3 years, but here's the problem: GW2 IS NOT A SUBSCRIPTION GAME. So you should not have to pay for the game again just to play the expansion. Oh, but the core is free to play now, is the other argument I see. WRONG AGAIN. A veteran who paid and a f2p player have very different limitations. This is has a very limited f2p experience, and requires payment for the full game access. HOWEVER. Veterans who have already paid for the core game are still paying the same as new players for the expansion. Thus, the model is simply making the veteran player pay twice. It's a shady, shady business practice and people who keep defending these business decisions are what's wrong with the game industry.

Reason the fourth: The story is shittier than ever. To be fair, I was never that invested in the story of Guild Wars. However, I have grown attached to the Asura race and for the most part, I still get a little squee when I see Ogden from GW1. But between the killing of Eir, Faolain, and Trehearn, I'm seriously questioning just how much the writers give a shit about their writing. For example, Master Togo of GW1 didn't die until the very end; Rurik died earlier, but later comes back to haunt you; no major characters died in Nightfall or EotN; it shows that the writers understood that character death isn't some cheap shock plot trick, it's something that has to be taken very seriously and only used when the plot deems no other way out. Yet, in an expansion of merely 4 maps, three major characters are killed off in quick succession. These aren't some one-off NPCs, they are core characters in a major part of the GW2 story, and yet they're just tossed aside to make room for...what? Canach, Laranthir, and Bram? Fuck that shit. (And I don't even like Eir, Faolain, and Trehearn that much.) This has got to be the most irresponsible writing to date in GW history. WTF.

So right now I have a lot of bitterness towards this new expansion, everything from the meta to the business practice to the execution. The only real way I have of protesting this is to not play. To use my refusal to purchase or play or in anyway giving Anet an asset they can use to promote this shit until they change their ways.

/angry

So, I'm playing the Heart of Thorns (GW2 expansion) beta weekend and I feel like there's been a change in the design philosophy.

In the original GW2, the philosophy seemed to be "reward good play". For example, you get bonus experience when you use combo fields or cooperate with other players. You get extra stuff from going out of your way to do obscure things. You get more experience from completing events and hearts than just mindlessly grinding mobs. In other words, players are incentivized with more stuff when they play well, instead of being punished for playing badly. You will not receive less or no experience for playing in an area below your level or not use combo fields. You aren't locked out of map completion for not completing jumping puzzles or doing difficult bosses. You don't die just because you missed a dodge on a knockdown or AoE attack.

However, in Heart of Thorns, it's starting to feel like the design philosophy is now "punish bad play". Instead of giving your bonus experience or a shiny item for killing a hard mob, now it's kill you with one shot if you don't dodge in time. If you didn't see the sniper or didn't time your dodge right? Immediate death, do not pass go, do not collect 200, start over. Essentially, the game is now punishing instead of rewarding. Sure, some of the hardcore thinks that the only rewarding game is a punishing one, but for the most of us, it's just straight up frustrating.

Quite frankly, I wish Anet will just come right out and say it. They've decided to make Heart of Thorns a punishing game instead of a rewarding one, that way the rest of us can just avoid the expansion altogether.