Originally posted by Master10K

Yes cooking a bit of an exception and I think it is by far the best crafting discipline in the game. Two things you should craft loads of are "Loafs of Bread" and "Balls of Dough". Those two things alone can easily be made into dozens of different discovered foods, like different types of burgers and every single kind of tart/pie you can think of.

 

Also talking to every Heart you've unlocked is a must as a cook, since a lot of the times you can buy bulks of cooking ingredients from them. Once you've found the Lemon, Cherry & Peaches NPCs you are pretty much set.

Thanks for the tips.  I've found lemons, but not cherries or peaches.  I'll keep an eye out for them.

Originally posted by Vhaln

Originally posted by Master10K

Yes cooking a bit of an exception and I think it is by far the best crafting discipline in the game. Two things you should craft loads of are "Loafs of Bread" and "Balls of Dough". Those two things alone can easily be made into dozens of different discovered foods, like different types of burgers and every single kind of tart/pie you can think of.

 

Also talking to every Heart you've unlocked is a must as a cook, since a lot of the times you can buy bulks of cooking ingredients from them. Once you've found the Lemon, Cherry & Peaches NPCs you are pretty much set.

Thanks for the tips.  I've found lemons, but not cherries or peaches.  I'll keep an eye out for them.

The cherries are in a cave to the south of Harathi Hinterlands. Heart involves killing crabs. Once you get those and can make something with them (e.g. Chocolate Cherries), then you should be able to easily level your cooking to 225. But till then, just make stuff like chocolate chip cookies.

I'm still loving the game, but I would like to see some roadmap as to what is coming.  Especially pertaining to other game mechanics such as Housing and the other mini games supposedly in the wings.  Just want to know that while I'm busy leveling alts that more is coming.

 Endgame is ok.  It's better than most other games I've played and yet, I still am looking for some type of "progression" and right now we don't really have that at endgame.  YOu could literally stop doing anything at 80 on a character and you wouldn't be missing much.  

No, I don't want to go back to gear treadmills or raids I can never get into due to time or other reasons.  However, and this is why I mentioned Housing above, I would like some type of carrot to chase or progression to unlock.  For me I'm an explorer, and I'm at 98% world map completion.  Once I'm finished what else is there for me as an explorer to do?  This is why I hope they give us a roadmap stating new zones or housing or other things, just to flesh out what already is an awesome game. 

It's time to take it to the next level though and build from here.  Much like Trion is doing with Rift, I want to see these updates on a very consistent basis and some transparency from the dev team at least hinting at what is coming down the road.  

Originally posted by evolpc

Originally posted by Homitu

Originally posted by evolpc

Originally posted by BillMurphy

Originally posted by evolpc

Judge the game on its current merrits at the time of the review. If a feature is unavailable to be reviewed.... well then the recourse is very simple. Why go out of your way to avoid taking any points away?

It's not about that, but rather about missing out the biggest part of it's PVP. I'd not be able to judge it at all, whereas I can judge a majority of the PVE content and sPVP, but not the big draw: WVW.  I can't judge it on its current merits, if I can't access all systems.  And I can't really take away points because a feature is popular either.  

You sound a lot more like a fan than a journalist. Obviously you would not be taking away points because a feature is popular. That's another cop out. When looking at it objectively the feature is unavailable to be scored. The reason is irrelevant. It is one of the major features of the game and should be available, within reason, to all who purchase the game. If it is not then it is a shortcoming of the game design, which you are representing yourself as a reviewer of. You keep saying yourself that you can't access the systems to review them. However the game will receive a glowing, gushing review at press time. It seems intellectually dishonest.

The only journalistically honest thing he can do here is exactly what he has done: state and explain the current shortcoming and wait until he can actually play that aspect of the game before he analyzes, you know, that aspect of the game.  It would be downright dishonest to give WvW a completely negative review as you seem to desire him to do when he has zero experience to go by.  The only journalistic obligation is to report the fact as it is, which right now for him is that he hasn't been able to access WvW because of queue times.  That is what it is.  It's a negative strike against WvW.  He reported it.  What more do you want? 

What I want is for it to be a negative strike against WvWvW, just as you said yourself. Many customers are affected and unhappy about this shortcoming, myself included. I do not think it should be glossed over that this is a problem when he finally does review it. They do not do favors like that for other games. I suppose I will reserve further judgement for when he publishes the official review but I will not hold my breath. It is a great game but does not deserve a free pass on anything. If the game is really that great, favors like that will not be necessary will they?

And that's exactly what he did.  His journalistic obligation is fulfilled for the time being, and I suspect a mention of the queue times will also be included in his full review of WvW when he gets to it.  If that review section is published without mention of the queues, then and only then will your present gripe be justified.  

At present, it just looks like you've become so jaded by fanboys that you're actually trying to compensate in the opposite direction, which, of course, is equally as dishonest as blind fanboyism.  

Because you will make lots of repeat stuff while you advance your tradeskills. 

Simply not true :)

Originally posted by Shana77
I love WvW but then i've seen the storm coming in the beta weekend events and was smart enough not to pick one of the more popular WvW servers. I only have 10 minute queues at most. Is it perhaps an option for the reviewers to transfer temporarily to another server to take one or two days testing the WvW? You can always transfer back after. 

Same, I feel bad for those on overpopulated or PvP focused servers. It hasnt taken me longer than 20 minutes to get into any of the zones, including the eternal battlegrounds.

I don't feel sorry for you jaded players on the 'PvP servers' .  I'm on the Norhtern Shiverpeaks server right now, and the queues are almot non-existant.  If you guys really wanted to do something about the queue times, you would spread out onto more servers instead of just complaining.

Ditch the elitist attitude about PvP servers and just find a lower population server; everyone benefits, you get into WvWvW faster and the servers become more balanced at the same time.

Speaking of the UI, I like GW2, but I find the locked skill bar based on preset weapon skills rather annoying.

I miss the flexibility of the skill bar system of GW1. It seems like, for each weapon I try (in GW2), there are a couple of skills I like, another skill I like but wish I could move to a different position on the skill bar, and at least one (sometimes two) skills I'd happily ditch altogether. I particularly dislike skills that launch my character forward, backward, and sideways.

If we are going to have such skills, can we not at least put them where we want them?

Originally posted by Homitu

Originally posted by evolpc

Originally posted by Homitu

Originally posted by evolpc

Originally posted by BillMurphy

Originally posted by evolpc

Judge the game on its current merrits at the time of the review. If a feature is unavailable to be reviewed.... well then the recourse is very simple. Why go out of your way to avoid taking any points away?

It's not about that, but rather about missing out the biggest part of it's PVP. I'd not be able to judge it at all, whereas I can judge a majority of the PVE content and sPVP, but not the big draw: WVW.  I can't judge it on its current merits, if I can't access all systems.  And I can't really take away points because a feature is popular either.  

You sound a lot more like a fan than a journalist. Obviously you would not be taking away points because a feature is popular. That's another cop out. When looking at it objectively the feature is unavailable to be scored. The reason is irrelevant. It is one of the major features of the game and should be available, within reason, to all who purchase the game. If it is not then it is a shortcoming of the game design, which you are representing yourself as a reviewer of. You keep saying yourself that you can't access the systems to review them. However the game will receive a glowing, gushing review at press time. It seems intellectually dishonest.

The only journalistically honest thing he can do here is exactly what he has done: state and explain the current shortcoming and wait until he can actually play that aspect of the game before he analyzes, you know, that aspect of the game.  It would be downright dishonest to give WvW a completely negative review as you seem to desire him to do when he has zero experience to go by.  The only journalistic obligation is to report the fact as it is, which right now for him is that he hasn't been able to access WvW because of queue times.  That is what it is.  It's a negative strike against WvW.  He reported it.  What more do you want? 

What I want is for it to be a negative strike against WvWvW, just as you said yourself. Many customers are affected and unhappy about this shortcoming, myself included. I do not think it should be glossed over that this is a problem when he finally does review it. They do not do favors like that for other games. I suppose I will reserve further judgement for when he publishes the official review but I will not hold my breath. It is a great game but does not deserve a free pass on anything. If the game is really that great, favors like that will not be necessary will they?

And that's exactly what he did.  His journalistic obligation is fulfilled for the time being, and I suspect a mention of the queue times will also be included in his full review of WvW when he gets to it.  If that review section is published without mention of the queues, then and only then will your present gripe be justified.  

At present, it just looks like you've become so jaded by fanboys that you're actually trying to compensate in the opposite direction, which, of course, is equally as dishonest as blind fanboyism.  

After some introspection I have to agree with you. I am in a strange no man's land here. I have been so put off by the fanboys of this game that I am starting to jump all over the first signs of it everywhere I look. In the meantime I love the game myself. It's so confusing and complicated. Generally I have nothing bad to say about the game other than some minor annoyances but I am so tired of seeing fanboys bash people who are just trying to express legitimate concerns that it has caused me to despise the game on some level. This is a very interesting case study within the mmo space and one that I have never personally witnessed myself. Have any of you ever experienced this? One thing is for certain... the fanboys are doing this game more harm than good. And I owe Bill an apology. I should have given him the benefit of the doubt. I'm sure the review will be thorough. In the meantime I'll be in game having a blast!

The game is still fun.

My 2 main complaints are the broken events that seems to be more common in high zones and that the dungeons needs some more work. The dungeon bosses needs to be improved, some moves little and like to spamm a few attacks  while others are tough as nails and more unreliable.

Take AC, the lovers are fine and tough, the archer is OK I guess but the rest felt uninspired. ANET can better than this. And I didnt say easy or anything but I just think the fights could be more fun.

As for the auction house there really should be a function so you can search for items you can use.

Otherwise are fixes going fine, they do something almost every day.

And Bill, in our server can you often just jump in and play direct, rolling on one of the fullest servers just is a bad idea if you want to be able to play WvWvW. Go to a medium server and you should be able to finnish the review. :)

Overall the game is great but there are several things I don't like:

1) When I go back to a previous area, there is not enough incentive for me to explore. It drops me down to the level of the enemies, makes it really hard to kill enemies I should have a cakewalk killing and on top of it all, doesn't net me XP that is worthwhile at my current lvl which means that its only worth going back to previous unexplored areas (say if you're 70 to go back to 45) only when you reached the cap and by that point going for 100% completion should be the main priority anyways and anything else would be secondary. 

I think there should be an option to turn off the "lower lvl in lower areas" so that I could have fun obliterating all the enemies since the XP it gives me right now is negligible and not worth the trouble.

2) The dynamic events... are repetitive and do not really have an effect on the world. Same thing happening till the end of time until AN decides to replace them with different ones.

Other than that, not much to complain about

Originally posted by dimasok

Overall the game is great but there are several things I don't like:

 

1) When I go back to a previous area, there is not enough incentive for me to explore. It drops me down to the level of the enemies, makes it really hard to kill enemies I should have a cakewalk killing and on top of it all, doesn't net me XP that is worthwhile at my current lvl which means that its only worth going back to previous unexplored areas (say if you're 70 to go back to 45) only when you reached the cap and by that point going for 100% completion should be the main priority anyways and anything else would be secondary. 

 

I think there should be an option to turn off the "lower lvl in lower areas" so that I could have fun obliterating all the enemies since the XP it gives me right now is negligible and not worth the trouble.

 

2) The dynamic events... are repetitive and do not really have an effect on the world. Same thing happening till the end of time until AN decides to replace them with different ones.

 

Other than that, not much to complain about

 

 

 

1)  Really? I took my level 19 Thief back to a level 1-15 zone (mostly hanging in a level 9ish area) to farm crafting mats. I got a level every 30-60 minutes or so. XP didn't seemt hat negligible.

2) Repetitive, yes. No effect on the world...not permanent, but yes they do. Events can mean a village full of NPCs and vendors is there or not. It could mean a bridge is there to cut travel times across a large part of land and grant access to other events is there or not. And most importantly, events can spawn different events as you succeed or fail.

I think peopole had it in their head (Not saying you, just saying some people that I've seen posting here) that DEs would be permanent. That if centaurs burned down this village, it's gone forever. You kill the bandits and they never, ever come back. That's horrible from an MMO design standpoint. All you need is a few events and a zone would become a barren wasteland.

I can understand the want for persistance in an online world, but to some extent it just kills the ability for large masses of people to play the same game at different times and enjoy it.

On to Bill's review...

I'd mostly agree with this week's. WvW queue times are annoying; and not being able to sort armor by type (cloth, leather, etc) just seems silly. 

Yeah, once I learned that major xp comes from discoveries in crafting, I only sometimes had problems with the amount of trophies I need for mastery items. But I tend to fully complete areas I play in, so usually I have enough by the time I go back to craft. Together with the xp from crafting, you can be lvl80 way before you hit a lvl80 area.