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[2020] Living World Season 4: "Daybreak" devs here – ask us anything!


Original Post — Direct link

Hi everyone,

With today's release we are excited to unveil the first episode of our newest season of Living World! Starting today you'll be able to explore a brand new open world zone in Elona, you'll get a glimpse of the events during the rise of Palawa Joko in the Fractals, gather your friends for a new challenging raid that lets you journey into the Underworld, enjoy a new section for "keys" in the wallet freeing up some of your inventory space, and more! As has been our tradition, members from various teams that support the live game are here to answer your questions. Thanks for joining us here today and enjoy "Daybreak"!

Here’s who’s with us today:

-Living World Team - Morgan Brown, Heather Conover, Andrew Gray, Nicholas Hernandez, Andrew McLeod, Linsey Murdock, Dara Potocska, Ester Sauter, Kirk Williford

-Narrative Team - Tom Abernathy, Eve Eschenbacher, Jessica Price, Bobby Stein

-Fractals Team - Ben Arnold

-Raids Team - Byron Miller, Jason Reynolds

-Tech Design - Sean Conroy

-Legendary Weapon Design - Matt Pennebaker

-Sound Team - Drew Cady

As with previous AMAs here are our ground rules. We’re here to chat with you about the new content and the new season of Living World. We will not discuss or reveal features or items that are currently in development. And please respect that many of your fellow players may not have finished the episode yet, so please spoiler tags appropriately.

Finally, we are all excited that you joined us this afternoon. This is the first episode of a new season of Living World and the start of a new journey for all of us together. Once again, thank you for all of your support and for being part of such an amazing community!

z

Edit: Thank you everyone who came out and helped us celebrate this release! This wraps up the Episode 1 AMA. As always some of us will still be answering questions for a bit longer. Thank you for being such an awesome community and we'll see you in game!

External link →
almost 7 years ago - /u/Mike-OBrien-ArenaNet - Direct link

Hi all,

A few months ago I announced my intention to gradually hand the reins of GW2 game direction to Mike Zadorojny, "Z". You probably already know Z well: he's a 10+ year veteran of ArenaNet, who worked on GW2 from the beginning, and most recently served as the lead designer of Path of Fire.

I'm not going anywhere – Z and I sit next to each other and continue to work together – but I won't be able to continue spending virtually all my time on GW2 in the coming year as I did through most of the past two years. A game director should be 100% dedicated to the game. Z is absolutely dedicated to GW2. He has a deep passion and enthusiasm for the game, the same today as when he started working on it a decade ago. As game director I know he'll continue to champion the needs of players, and continue to set the highest quality standards for everything we do.

So today I'm making it official: Mike Zadorojny is the new game director of GW2. Congratulations Z. :) Community, please join me in welcoming him to the role.

~ MO

almost 7 years ago - /u/Mike-OBrien-ArenaNet - Direct link

Originally posted by queicherius

With the (entirely deserved) promotion of Lawton a few weeks ago, the API has effectively not been supported. This manifests itself in some parts flickering between working and broken, some parts having outdated or missing information and no new features getting developed.

The community has poured thousands of hours (1) into developing applications and sites that make use of the API (including the official wiki). This is a labour of love towards the game.

These applications support a massive amount of players (2) in their in-game pursuits (such as looking up items or helping with crafting), keep the players engaged with the game when they can't play it (such as checking on your TP orders during travel or school/work breaks) and even give additional goals to complete (such as competing on arbitrary leaderboards or finishing all parts of specific content, for example gilder skins).

TLDR: Are you planning to continue supporting the API?

  1. I worked on gw2efficiency ~20 hours a week, every week, for the last three years.
  2. In my case, gw2efficiency has ~200.000 registered users, ~325.000 linked API keys, ~100.000 unique active monthly users and ~4.000.000 monthly pageviews.

Awesome work on gw2efficiency! :) Your question in primarily for SCW, who's out today, but yes we'll keep supporting the API.

~ MO

almost 7 years ago - /u/mikezadorojny - Direct link

Originally posted by MakubeC

When are you going to announce the Design-a-Weapon winners?

Our intention is to have a blog post announcing winners soon!

almost 7 years ago - /u/AnetFrosty - Direct link

Originally posted by Sodenia

I don't have a qustion, I just want to thank you for this awesome release! This is clearly my favourite content update of GW2 so far!

Everything, the living world, new fractal, new raid and even the new legendary weapon feel so connected by the living world which is absolutely one of my most loved aspects of this release. I hope that future releases will do the same thing! :)

Glad you're enjoying the release!

almost 7 years ago - /u/AnetFrosty - Direct link

Originally posted by MyPatronusIsABigCake

Just finished playing the story for this patch, you guys have done a great job as usual.

What was the best part of your job this patch (favourite thing you worked on for example or really anything you enjoyed) ?

Also, how many different voice recording for any character (ennemy, friendly npc, player character, really any character) do you have saying "Praise joko" ?

The Corsair ships in the Palawadan meta were the worst and best thing I worked on. Worst because they were a total pain to hook up both for me and our prop artists, and best because it's a freakin pirate ship you can board, sink and blast with cannons.

almost 7 years ago - /u/mikezadorojny - Direct link

Originally posted by Vinnicombe

Warden Amala's outfit changes

Warden Amala:

almost 7 years ago - /u/Anet_Kirk - Direct link

Originally posted by EyeofJanthir032

I am so excited to start playing! I did not expect for us to go to Istan on the first episode, it seemed too good to be true! You guys are gods. A couple questions:

  • What made you decide to go to Istan?

  • Was the name Daybreak indeed an intentional reference to the old campaign Nightfall?

  • What were some of favorite parts about this release?

  • I know we aren’t supposed to ask about future items but is there a possibility we will get an Aurene griffon skin in the future? ;-)

You guys are amazing and I can’t wait to see what other parts of Elona we get to visit in the future (me here waiting for Gandara). I spent many a time in Istan in the first game, I can’t wait to see the GW2 version!

I'll answer for the third question... One of my favorite parts of this release was listening to the internal debate of which name would Palawa Joko prefer: Palawadan or Jokodan. #teampalawadan

almost 7 years ago - /u/ANet_Downtown - Direct link

Originally posted by MyPatronusIsABigCake

Just finished playing the story for this patch, you guys have done a great job as usual.

What was the best part of your job this patch (favourite thing you worked on for example or really anything you enjoyed) ?

Also, how many different voice recording for any character (ennemy, friendly npc, player character, really any character) do you have saying "Praise joko" ?

"Also, how many different voice recording for any character (ennemy, friendly npc, player character, really any character) do you have saying "Praise joko" ?"

Not enough.

almost 7 years ago - /u/AnetFrosty - Direct link

Originally posted by Narcissus1415

Hey guys! you did an amazing job with the boss mechanics in the story! i really did loved it :) my question is: Are you pleased with the way your new Palawadan map meta event turned out? are you happy with the difficulty of it and the balance of reward it gives?

I was late to this AMA because I was finishing off you know who at the end. :) It was a blast playing it on live, and the difficulty balance felt good.

almost 7 years ago - /u/Anet_Kirk - Direct link

Originally posted by TyroneTyreseJamal

Domain of Istan is the best living story map so far, gj everyone who worked on it

There are a lot of fine folks who worked hard to bring that map to fruition. I'm glad you like it! <3

almost 7 years ago - /u/Anet_AndrewM - Direct link

Originally posted by [deleted]

[deleted]

We don't currently have any plans to convert unbound magic into volatile magic. We want to make sure that the rewards are tied to the content, while using unbound magic or providing a conversion both makes the rewards available without having to play the new content, as well as making imbalanced farming locations like Bitterfrost Frontier feel like it's required to be efficient for earning season 4 rewards as well.

almost 7 years ago - /u/adamblaen - Direct link

Originally posted by Mike-OBrien-ArenaNet

Hi all,

A few months ago I announced my intention to gradually hand the reins of GW2 game direction to Mike Zadorojny, "Z". You probably already know Z well: he's a 10+ year veteran of ArenaNet, who worked on GW2 from the beginning, and most recently served as the lead designer of Path of Fire.

I'm not going anywhere – Z and I sit next to each other and continue to work together – but I won't be able to continue spending virtually all my time on GW2 in the coming year as I did through most of the past two years. A game director should be 100% dedicated to the game. Z is absolutely dedicated to GW2. He has a deep passion and enthusiasm for the game, the same today as when he started working on it a decade ago. As game director I know he'll continue to champion the needs of players, and continue to set the highest quality standards for everything we do.

So today I'm making it official: Mike Zadorojny is the new game director of GW2. Congratulations Z. :) Community, please join me in welcoming him to the role.

~ MO

It's been an absolute pleasure working with Z during (and post) development of PoF. Congrats Z!

almost 7 years ago - /u/AnetFrosty - Direct link

Originally posted by TyroneTyreseJamal

Domain of Istan is the best living story map so far, gj everyone who worked on it

Thanks! I'm really happy with how it turned out. I spent many a'hour in Kamadan and Istan in GW1, so it was a blast being able to recreate it in the glorious image of King Joko.

almost 7 years ago - /u/Mike-OBrien-ArenaNet - Direct link

Originally posted by [deleted]

What's your reasoning for doing these AMA's relatively quickly after release instead of waiting a few days to let the community experience a good chunk of the new content?

We take the company down on release days –– no normal development, no meetings –– so that we can play the game with you and respond to anything that comes up. That makes release days a unique opportunity to get everyone together. And, frankly, we're excited about what we just released and are happy to be able to chat about it.

~ MO

almost 7 years ago - /u/Anet_Kirk - Direct link

Originally posted by MyPatronusIsABigCake

Just finished playing the story for this patch, you guys have done a great job as usual.

What was the best part of your job this patch (favourite thing you worked on for example or really anything you enjoyed) ?

Also, how many different voice recording for any character (ennemy, friendly npc, player character, really any character) do you have saying "Praise joko" ?

My favorite part of this release was to try and think of what kind of skills the final boss would use given it's situation. Without spoiling anything, a lot of iteration went into that encounter.

I also really enjoyed seeing the open world map come together over time - our map artist did an absolutely fantastic job at bringing Istan forward 250 years.

almost 7 years ago - /u/Anet_AndrewM - Direct link

Originally posted by Kreiri

What is the reason for designing LS maps without general goods vendors in them?

While we don't always add basic merchants, most of the things that they sell are available from the heart vendors in the map.

almost 7 years ago - /u/Regina_B - Direct link

Originally posted by Captain_Ozone

Hi Mike and the team,

Congratulations on another successful launch! Can we get anyone to check on the WvW team? I know PvP & WvW teams "release on their own cadence", but lately that feels like "dont ask us about WvW & PvP".

I'm not asking for specific details on upcoming releases, but are there any general (even vague) communications the team can give us about our favorite game mode?

Scourges & Revs still face an "obstructed" bug when placing AoEs even on the tiniest of slopes. Is anyone looking at generating a fix or is this intended?

In the last balance patch, Spellbreaker domes were given a different color if they were dropped by the enemy team, can we see this applied to other skills as well? Also, why was black chosen (a color that is covered by friendly AoE skills) instead of bright red, like in PvE?

Server populations for WvW are becoming a contention point for a lot of players in deciding to play WvW. It seems population calculations seem outdated. Why is a server like FA closed but then given a link? Why are servers who are performing terribly closed and without links? I know there are population metrics you have access too that we dont, but playing the game allows people to see things the metrics may be hiding.

Any chance at another "Adopt-A-Dev" program for WvW?

As a side-note, Is the ArenaNet partner program still being looked at and taken care of? There seems to be a considerable lack of WvW streamers / Youtubers (aside from Teapot). I think most everyone would agree twitch.tv/dyeingaming or twitch.tv/royfromash represent both NA and EU WvW pretty well. I think it would go a long way to show support / community involvement if we could get both of these two partnered.

Thanks for your time!

P.S. #dyeingaming for Anet Partner

Regarding the question about the ArenaNet Partner Program: yes, the program is actively being managed. We review applications and add new members on a regular basis. The volume of applications very high, and the review and vetting process takes time. Due to volume, we are only able to respond to applicants who are selected.

almost 7 years ago - /u/Mike-OBrien-ArenaNet - Direct link

Originally posted by regendo

Hey everyone! Great job with the reverse Nightfall, I'm only about halfway through the story but I really like it so far, especially some of those callbacks with names and locations that have been changed by Palawa's reign.

I've got a pretty unrelated question about the Gen 2 legendaries that I don't think anyone has answered in the previous Q&As. Specifically, what happened to the designs that were planned for Heart of Thorns but never released.

Originally I thought that when MO decided to bring legendaries back in LS3E02, they would be the designs that were originally planned to release for the jungle but couldn't be finished in time for release, but as more and more LS3 legendaries came out it became pretty clear that these were completely new designs that were in some way related to the episode they came with: An obsidian mace for volcano island with obsidian structures on it, a quaggan bowl for an icy quaggan outpost, a pirate ship for the city docks, a flame god for the flame god, and of course a literal piece of Orr for Orr and the literal Shining Blade for the patch that brought them back (not sure how that amazing tome fits into this yet).

So when did you decide to scrap your HoT legendary ideas and instead design completely new ones for the living world, and what happened to those original ideas? Also, am I completely crazy for thinking that the reason legendaries returned with episode 2 was that you didn't have any great ideas for an episode 1 themed legendary?

We did use the art we'd already developed for HoT legendaries when we started releasing legendaries in the new system. Some of those first pairings were fortuitous. We had Eureka art, we had Shooshadoo art, and we were able to pair them with episodes they made sense with.

~ MO

almost 7 years ago - /u/AnetFrosty - Direct link

Originally posted by EyeofJanthir032

I am so excited to start playing! I did not expect for us to go to Istan on the first episode, it seemed too good to be true! You guys are gods. A couple questions:

  • What made you decide to go to Istan?

  • Was the name Daybreak indeed an intentional reference to the old campaign Nightfall?

  • What were some of favorite parts about this release?

  • I know we aren’t supposed to ask about future items but is there a possibility we will get an Aurene griffon skin in the future? ;-)

You guys are amazing and I can’t wait to see what other parts of Elona we get to visit in the future (me here waiting for Gandara). I spent many a time in Istan in the first game, I can’t wait to see the GW2 version!

I had a Bone Dragon staff I needed to sell, so we had to add Kamadan to GW2. ;)

almost 7 years ago - /u/Anet_SeanC - Direct link

Originally posted by [deleted]

[deleted]

Hey there! As the person who put keys into the wallet, I have to say that I also would love to see them displayed at the bottom of your inventory alongside gold and the map currency. However, there's currently a limitation that prevents us from displaying more than two total currencies at a time in that part of the UI. Fixing that limitation was unfortunately not in scope for the conversion effort that went into this release.

almost 7 years ago - /u/Anet_Kirk - Direct link

Originally posted by [deleted]

This is for anyone on the team if you could eat one food from in-game what would you pick and why?

Gotta go with winterberry pie, simply because pie is delicious and the icon makes it look great :D

almost 7 years ago - /u/mikezadorojny - Direct link

Originally posted by EdmundKeppler

Hi, thank you for your hard work, as always! I wanted to ask about your design philosophy behind the new living world season. Up until this point, each living world season has been wildly different from the ones preceding it. This time however, through early exploration, it seems like you adopted the design of the 3rd season and took it for a second spin for the fourth one. While I absolutely loved what the 3rd season represented, I was quite surprised to see the 4th one having the same mechanics and not bring anything too bold in play. Maybe I hoped to see you try experiment with something new. My personal gripes are the same uninteresting rewards for story instances (they seemed way more unique back in LS2 and HoT, even in PoF a bit) and the fact that there is a new map with a meta-achievement that yet again rewards a stat selectable exotic headgear. Did you choose this design again due to the large positive feedback that the 3rd season brought with it, or was this planned for a very long time already? I do feel comfortable about going into familiar territory, but I am definitely curious to what other ideas you might have had for the fourth season.

Within each season of Living World we experimented with production timelines, styles of content, rewards and more. With Season 3 we found a pace that made sense for us internally but allowed for each team to have the creative freedom to make each map feel different. Compare the battlefield of Episode 4 compared to the exploration of Episode 5. With each release we work on efficiency in how we operate but also discover new styles of expression in what we do. We are just getting started on this new season's journey...

almost 7 years ago - /u/Mike-OBrien-ArenaNet - Direct link

Originally posted by l_Paid_For_Winrar

Recently Arenanet switched from NCSOFT servers to ones hosted by Amazon on the east coast. Many players have reported an increase in overall ping with significant lag spikes as a result. West coast players are looking at a ~30ms increase and for many oceanic users the game is on the verge of unplayable. Going forward is Anet going to commit to these new servers or is there a possibility of reverting this decision?

We've been migrating services to Amazon over a period of months. Amazon has better peering relationships for its datacenters than we could hope to have individually. We're also using newer, faster servers at Amazon than the ones we were using previously. In general we've seen a better play experience, lower latency, and fewer network outages to Amazon servers.

Some of you have reported an opposite experience. SCW has been investigating your reports, collecting traceroutes and ping plots. SCW is out today or he'd answer this question himself, but please continue to work with him if you're having trouble.

~ MO

almost 7 years ago - /u/anet_irenio - Direct link

Originally posted by zachsoul

My question is in regards to balance, is there any talks or plans to increase the frequency of balance updates. Maybe smaller updates and tweaks every few weeks or every month.

Balance patches take a good amount of time to implement and even more time to vet and test the changes; that is a good chunk of why they're on a quarterly cadence.

Path of Fire shook quite a few things up and there have been talks internally about temporarily pushing changes out more frequently to address concerns that have arisen.

To that end the Skills and Balance squad has been putting in solid work to prepare a small bonus balance patch that shouldn't interfere with the regular cadence.

almost 7 years ago - /u/adamblaen - Direct link

Originally posted by anet_jason

Slowly. Hoping for more improvements now that Underworld is released. Who's with me?!

I'm a member of three separate raid training discords. I need a lot of training. :(

almost 7 years ago - /u/anet_mattp - Direct link

Originally posted by rude_asura

just to clarify, can players who only own PoF and not HoT craft any legendary weapon from set two or just the new focus?

All of the "pure crafted" gen 2 legendary weapons can be crafted with the Gift of Desert Mastery. That includes:

Eureka

Flames of War

Sharur

Shooshadoo

The HMS Divinity

The Shining Blade

and of course, The Binding of Ipos and the rest of the set going forward

almost 7 years ago - /u/adamblaen - Direct link

Originally posted by MyPatronusIsABigCake

Just finished playing the story for this patch, you guys have done a great job as usual.

What was the best part of your job this patch (favourite thing you worked on for example or really anything you enjoyed) ?

Also, how many different voice recording for any character (ennemy, friendly npc, player character, really any character) do you have saying "Praise joko" ?

So glad you enjoyed it! My favorite thing I worked on for this release was the look of a certain Awakened Champion. :)

almost 7 years ago - /u/adamblaen - Direct link

Originally posted by TyroneTyreseJamal

Domain of Istan is the best living story map so far, gj everyone who worked on it

Frosty, Kirk, and the entire team did such an amazing job with this release!

almost 7 years ago - /u/anet_stevens - Direct link

Originally posted by Rozanata

So... I'm gonna ask my favorite question, that i never found an official answere to: What is up with the waypoints in timberlandfalls and brisbane that got destroyed during scarlets ls? They were never repaired, yet remain waypoints that are always contested. I was just wondering if it was overlooked or if there is actually a reason why they are neither repaired nor transformed into a POI :)

Btw just tried the raid and its fantastic work so far!

I can't speak to why they weren't 'repaired', but as far as turning them into a POI goes, AFAIK that would be essentially impossible; part of the character record for a player is a list (informally) of what specific points they've hit — waypoints, POIs, etc. — and changing a point from one type to another would involve the kind of change to everyone's database records that would give any DB dev the heebie-jeebies. :-)

almost 7 years ago - /u/AnetFrosty - Direct link

Originally posted by HPetch

Alright, I have a couple.

Firstly, what would you (any of you) say is the hardest/easiest part of designing and/or balancing content for GW2? As an aspiring dev, I'm always interested in opinions.

Secondly, I was wondering how many people (if any) are focused on game balance, particularly skills, at any given time? PvE MMOs generally require less balance than PvP games in my observation, but GW2 seems to need more than most, and every three months can feel like too little, too late at times. I'm aware this is a sensitive topic, feel free to pass it over.

For balancing content, I'd say one of the biggest challenges is scaling for large groups, like in Palawadan. There is a limited number of times you can ask everyone to drop everything to help you test a group event with critical mass, so you have to be able to take the data from one play test and make a bunch of adjustments between sessions, then test it again a few days or even weeks later. It gets easier the more experienced you get with our event and scaling system, but there are variables that always make it a challenge, and something of a math problem you have to solve.

You know, like our laughable DPS compared it to y'all. ;)

almost 7 years ago - /u/Anet_AndrewM - Direct link

Originally posted by PseudoOAlias

Question for anyone on Weapon Design: Love the new Scythe skins!! Very Glad they're in the game. It's a wonderful cosmetic addition & their style is awesome especially considering the -spoilers- you run into in this episode! ... Why aren't they greatsword skins or why isn't there a greatsword version...?

The spear and scythe weapons were built as staves when they were created for the NPCs that use them. We may be able to add some non-standard skins for other types of weapons, but it often doesn't work well as different weapon shapes often have significant clipping issues or look unnatural with certain class/race animations.

almost 7 years ago - /u/AnetFrosty - Direct link

Originally posted by Stormdancer

I really appreciate finally getting a place that's pretty RP-friendly... even if that may have just been an accidental side-effect. Was it purposeful, or did we just get lucky?

We always strive for our maps to be immersive and feel "lived in" which I feel is an important part of RPing, and a lot of folks worked hard to accomplish that on this one. I'm glad to hear you're enjoying your time on Istan. :)

almost 7 years ago - /u/ArenaKeenan - Direct link

Originally posted by [deleted]

[deleted]

Thanks for the kind words! This release was actually huge for us musically with between 8 and 14 new tracks depending on how you count variants and cinematic pieces. If I'm not mistaken it's the most new music in a single release outside of GW2, HoT, or PoF launch!

almost 7 years ago - /u/Regina_B - Direct link

Originally posted by Captain_Ozone

Hi Regina!

Thanks for your reply, it's good to see the program is still maintained.

Looking on the page, there are no requirements or minimums to be accepted into the program.

Could you maybe state what criteria you or the team look for in accepting someone?

Thanks again

We don't add content creators into the program based on an inflexible set of boxes that need to be checked off one by one. We are looking to support all kind of content creators and each application is carefully reviewed. If we feel a content creator could be supported by being a member of the Partner Program, we will respond to their application.

almost 7 years ago - /u/Regina_B - Direct link

Originally posted by rcbaylor

there are currently a lot of partners who dont even play the game anymore or make content on a consistent basis. twitch.tv/dyeingaming twitch.tv/royfromash twitch.tv/gregorpayne These are three people who consistently stream WvW content and deserved to be looked at.

I hope you look into maintaining current partners as well and give those that are still working hard to produce content a chance.

If they applied to the Partner Program and if we feel they would be a good fit, they will hear from our team.

We are in regular communication with our Partners and you may have seen us promoting their content on our social media channels and on our Twitch channel.

almost 7 years ago - /u/adamblaen - Direct link

Originally posted by Lishtenbird

Not a question, but since there's an occasion, shout-out to /u/GaileGray (or was somewhere else responsible for it?) for making Kormeerkat a reality ;)

The credit for realizing the Kormeerkat goes to Chelsea (who also worked on the Legendary Focus that was released today). She took pieces of the Spearmarshal Kormir outfit I worked on and added them to the meerkat, and the result is perfect! :D

almost 7 years ago - /u/Anet_SeanC - Direct link

Originally posted by Overlord_Odin

Will that be looked at in the future?

And will you continue to add older keys to the wallet?

If we have the resources to address that in the future I will certainly be advocating for a change like this. As for older keys, if the community feels strongly about adding other keys to the wallet with large-scale acquisition and use I will be keeping an eye out for that feedback!

almost 7 years ago - /u/mikezadorojny - Direct link

Originally posted by Charrikayu

Over the past five years Guild Wars 2 has slowly built up an arms race of effects and styles that have, in the opinions of some, begun to harm the artistic identity of the game. Daniel Dociu, your former art director and one of the most important visionaries behind the look of both the original Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2, describes the essence of GW2's style as handcrafted and artisanal.

However, the game has built up a cornucopia of auras and infusions, humongous backpacks, and mount skins, many of which clash with the visual style of Guild Wars 2. Even before Path of Fire's launch, players expressed concerns about the possibility of further harm to GW2's artistic style.

While players, including myself, have long advocated their preference for the game's environmental style, this issue took an important turning point with the introduction of mount skins and many players began expressing their distaste more openly.

With that in mind, has Anet considered implementing such possible features as:

It's important to mention that we who enjoy GW2's base aesthetic are a minority and recognize that most players don't care about this issue. But for those of us to whom this matters it means everything. We don't want Anet to stop making anything they think is cool and we don't want players not to be able to enjoy these awesome things however they want. We'd just like some options to help tone down many of these effects client-side so we can enjoy the game's aesthetic in our preferred way.

We are conscious about not trying to add visual noise to the game, but at the same time we don't want to reduce players' abilities to recognize the investment of characters. It is something that we are balancing "visual epicness" vs "visual chaos". We do hear what players like you are saying and will continue to keep a close eye on this.

almost 7 years ago - /u/mikezadorojny - Direct link

Originally posted by Commander_Freir

In previous AMAs, you've mentioned reviewing the economic impact of sigil swapping of legendary weapons. Is sigil swapping something you are still looking into? If so, what obstacles are you facing to get it done? If not, why not?

As we looked into how to support sigil swapping on Legendary Weapons it opened up the investigation to larger issues with the system as a whole. It is something I still would like us to address, but I want the design team to take the time to do it right.

almost 7 years ago - /u/anet_stevens - Direct link

Originally posted by Kashti_Gauvain

What is your go to comfort when playing the new story releases? I personally go full on bear onesie with a cold drink.

A free evening (all too much a rarity these days!), a slab of reheated apple crumble, a mug of rooibos (caffeine in the evening is a bad idea for me) with cream and honey, and my husband joining me from his own computer ten feet away.

almost 7 years ago - /u/mikezadorojny - Direct link

Originally posted by KarenSoxolkin

Hey @mikezadorojny, what's your favorite profession? (If you have one)

My main is an asura thief. I love the mobility and stealth while exploring.

almost 7 years ago - /u/anet_irenio - Direct link

Originally posted by BobMosses

To hitch hike off of this question, how are buffs and nerfs determined? And how do they get balanced between wvw PvP and pve (fractals and raids)? Does the balance team look at each class and arbitrarily they are in a good spot, or do they take community perspective into account?

Pre PoF, there was a fairly vocal group discussing the ease of certain dps classes (Condi thief) to output high dps which was mostly ignored by the balance teams, meanwhile other builds which required much more effort to play and hot comparable numbers were faced with nerfs, or felt as if they were straight up ignored.

And what will the balance team do so that all classes have at least one viable build from a community perspective on each game mode.

I would personally love to see the balance team engage the community to get a feel for where they should apply changes instead of changing some random trait that didn't see use before or after a change and calling it a day.

We look at each game mode and watch for constructive feedback from Tyrians in-game, the official forums, and other internet communities. Community perspective makes a difference on where we'll look to make changes.

The viability of each profession in each game mode is a goal we are moving toward. What will we be doing? This is an incredibly broad question, so I'm left to answer it in a very broad fashion: Updating professions to create space for each to be desirable and fun in each mode; such changes varies from profession to profession and mode to mode. e.g. In competitive modes we look at improving or creating counters to top builds to bring less played professions into greater use.

almost 7 years ago - /u/anet_stevens - Direct link

Originally posted by JessicaLPrice777

Cozy and sweet is actually a pretty good description of our common area. I thiiiiink we have hot cocoa in the kitchen, but I'm a tea drinker so I'm not sure. :-)

With hamster-hoppers full of M&Ms, Skittles, Reese's Pieces, chocolate-covered raisins, and Jelly Bellies in the kitchen, emphasis on the 'sweet' part of this. RIP my waistline the last few years... :(

almost 7 years ago - /u/anet_irenio - Direct link

Originally posted by Ravengm

Are pure numbers tweaks (specifically damage coefficients) the same level of implementation complexity as functionality reworks? I think the complaint I've seen in most cases is that if a change comes through that drastically changes the DPS or spike damage of a class, it takes a (relatively) long time to get adjusted. Raising or lowering coefficients is usually what people ask for.

The simple answer is: Numeric changes are not the same complexity as functional reworks.

The more complete answer is: Not everything that looks like a numeric tweak is actually a number change on the back end. Sometimes there can be a bevy of moving parts feeding into a skill's damage.

almost 7 years ago - /u/mikezadorojny - Direct link

Originally posted by [deleted]

Since HoT I've been wondering what happened to the Nightmare Court. So my question is; what did happen to the Nightmare court?

I know this is not a question about the new content, but I've been dying to know this "missing" lore. Deffinitly with the introduction of a new duchess at the end of Dragon Stand.

There are many stories, and many more side-stories, that we want to tell. Some of them evolve during development and some get pushed aside so that we can focus on other larger plot points. As we plan a season's arc we try to focus on bringing together compelling storylines and characters without providing too many distractions. In this particular case I have a personal investment in Duchess Chrysanthea as I worked on that open world encounter, so I understand your feelings.

almost 7 years ago - /u/Anet_SeanC - Direct link

Originally posted by Casiell89

Was it intentional that you didn't add Greater Nightmare Keys and Aetherblade Keys to key chain? They are the only keys that are created from another items so it may be the reason, but they are also very forgettable unless you are like me and carry 50 of them just in case

I commented on this elsewhere but I'll respond here as well- we wanted to add the most commonly used keys to the wallet; items that players get and consume on a large scale. We believe that keys that are used in a small scope such as events or jumping puzzles (or the aetherpath) are better suited as inventory items to remind you of their existence. If the community has strong beliefs to the contrary, I'm keeping my eyes open for feedback!

almost 7 years ago - /u/ANet_Heather - Direct link

Originally posted by MapleAce

Just to say I have a friend called

I named him after my cousin!!

almost 7 years ago - /u/ANet_Heather - Direct link

Originally posted by MapleAce

Haha, that’s amazing!

I just realized that I made this seem like my cousin is a brewmaster, but he isn't :P. I just loved working on this content because I was able to pull a lot of characters from my Moroccan family members. Character Names that are my family:

almost 7 years ago - /u/ANet_Heather - Direct link

Originally posted by ChazGELF

I'm a little curious about the design of the new Living World map - There's a lot of tar pits and such around the place but surprisingly they aren't considered much of a hazard, mostly just slowing players down in one part of the map compared to the seas of quicksand across the other PoF maps that'd kill you quickly if you weren't on a skimmer - Map Spoilers Is there any reasoning behind this design decision?

It's for the sake of consistency! Getting tarred by the awakened army in PoF only slows you.

almost 7 years ago - /u/DrewCady-ArenaNet - Direct link

Originally posted by [deleted]

[deleted]

Yes, thank your for your kind words. The audio team takes our craft seriously and we have fun dong it. We look forward to blowing your mind some more.

almost 7 years ago - /u/Anet_AndrewM - Direct link

Originally posted by TekFan

I've been enjoying Daybreak so far. The story has been longer than I thought(positive), my inventory is much more spacious thanks to the key-wallet and the new map-currency started with a slot in the material storage.

I'm really amazed by the new focus. The dark theme isn't really my thing, but art-wise it's great. I know you're not talking about future designs, but...let's just say among the hammer skins Entropy and Genesis make a really nice pair. So...shiny book focus? ;)

P.S.: Could you add a "Consume all"-option to the new map currency?

I set up Kralkatite to work with consume all, but then apparently forgot to enable that. I'll see about getting that added.

almost 7 years ago - /u/DrewCady-ArenaNet - Direct link

Originally posted by DisappointedLily

Drew Cady

Just major props, I'm an audio/video professional myself and all the sounds in the game are so top notch and rich, from the dialogue to the FX.

The Mesmer sounds are amazing.

It is a team effort to create and implement all the audio and I have to thank the audio team for holding such a high bar. Thank you! I am happy to hear you like it. I had a lot of fun making Dhuum sound the way he does.

almost 7 years ago - /u/anet_stevens - Direct link

Originally posted by KNevermor3

I have not bought the latest addon yet. I logged into GW2 on Tuesday and it told me that the new LS is available but needs PoF to play. That's fine for me now, but is the LS3 Chapter 1 now unlocked for me, so that when I finally buy PoF I can play it straight away or do I have to purchase the episode then afterwards too, just because I did not own PoF when the LS came out?

P.S.: One of the main reasons for me not to get PoF yet was my insane pure hate for mounts. Everything is so WoW now and only half GW2, I am so sad! (now come redditors, give me your hate because I said something against your beloved mounts :p !)

Out of curiosity, did you try them during the demo weekend at all? I'm obviously very biased in the matter, but if you haven't had a chance to give them a spin yet, I really recommend giving them a closer look. They just feel... real, like a proper part of the world. (With glowy neon scales, but hey.)

(And AFAIK, although I'm not 100% sure, you should be fine. Also note that you have until the release of episode 2 to unlock it, regardless, so if you're planning on buying the expansion sometime within the Christmas season you'll be fine in any case.)

almost 7 years ago - /u/anet_stevens - Direct link

Originally posted by Yazure

Hey, maybe i am too late but we can have a selfie from the office today?

Wanna see your mugs, your coffee machine! :D

Like Blue Man Group AmA.

I snapped a couple of pics from the kitchen, will update this with them later on once I get them off my phone!

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