Guild Wars 2

Been anxious to see what January brings to the game, as we have been promised by Anet. I know Devs post on other websites as well.

I am personally more interested to see news regarding the in game economy and whether there are plans to adjust the supply of some items(such as Charged Lodestones and precursors)

Anyone found something yet?

I know they said there would be 2 big updates for January and February, equaling out to what they said would be an expansion worth of free content, but no news as to what it will contain.

How about you wait until Three Kings(Jan 7), before asking for anything. They could still be on holiday you know?

I guess we’ll have changelog/resume of it by 18th at the very latest…

Kyosji.8961:

I know they said there would be 2 big updates for January and February, equaling out to what they said would be an expansion worth of free content, but no news as to what it will contain.

Source on this? I’d like to know this to be true.

I am starting to think these “2 big updates for January and February” we were promised will really be ONE update launched at the end of January and continuing through till February.

They said the fractal changes will not come into effect till the end of this month, plus on there Facebook page they have a poll to select what member of Destiny’s Edge will be there Facebook cover, normally the Facebook cover would advertise that months event. Also the monthly achievement for January has nothing related to any special event unlike previous monthly’s.

So sadly i have a horrible feeling we will be very bored till late January, maybe even the very last week of January, and this “2 huge patches” was a lie.

I’m glad they aren’t adding a holiday event, we need seriously REAL content updates and we need what they promised in every pre-launch interview to date, DE meta’s what happened to the population is they made a very bad set of moves all at once.

I hope they make these patches FULL of fixes because they are definitely needed especially in the Engi’s house.

BulletNG.7069:

Kyosji.8961:

I know they said there would be 2 big updates for January and February, equaling out to what they said would be an expansion worth of free content, but no news as to what it will contain.

Source on this? I’d like to know this to be true.

Here it is, it was discussed in an interview with Gaming Bolt.

http://gamingbolt.com/guild-wars-2-interview-we-talk-to-areanet-about-how-the-mmorpg-has-been-doing-post-launch

BulletNG.7069:

Kyosji.8961:

I know they said there would be 2 big updates for January and February, equaling out to what they said would be an expansion worth of free content, but no news as to what it will contain.

Source on this? I’d like to know this to be true.

Colin Johanson Interview

We had a huge Halloween update in October, we just had a big one in November, we have a giant Christmas update coming in December, and all of those have gone over really well, and I think in December people are going to be really excited. But January and February are actually are biggest updates to date. They’re even bigger than all the stuff we did in October, November and December. And I think that when people see how much stuff they’re gonna get for no monthly fee in January and February, they’re probably going to be blown away. These two months combined are basically an expansion’s worth of content for free.

My only hope is that we don’t have a repeat of the Karka event. Fantastic, beautiful new zone….with the only visitation reason being to farm a few Ori Ore once a day.

If they can’t pull off something that people will truly find worthy of repeat-visiting, they shouldn’t bother.

That said…I have faith that they’ll knock one out-the-park.

I’m with you OP. I’m hungry for details… or even little teases. Colin did mention that there will be a new map in WvW come February. I’m not concerned with Feb though, I want to know what’s in store for us this month.

Hopefully we get a blog post tomorrow, if not, next week. They’re consistent at giving info by the 2nd week of the month.

Arnath.2319:

I am starting to think these “2 big updates for January and February” we were promised will really be ONE update launched at the end of January and continuing through till February.

They said the fractal changes will not come into effect till the end of this month, plus on there Facebook page they have a poll to select what member of Destiny’s Edge will be there Facebook cover, normally the Facebook cover would advertise that months event. Also the monthly achievement for January has nothing related to any special event unlike previous monthly’s.
So sadly i have a horrible feeling we will be very bored till late January, maybe even the very last week of January, and this “2 huge patches” was a lie.

i actully think their will be 2 patches on in Jan one in Feb

but hell i dont think at all they will be huge, somehow by Anet they will be considered huge but i say this

IF people are Expecting some huge Things coming oh my

your gonna get disappointed…………. and this time its Anets fault for using the words Like an !Expansion!

Kuruptz.4782:

Arnath.2319:

I am starting to think these “2 big updates for January and February” we were promised will really be ONE update launched at the end of January and continuing through till February.

They said the fractal changes will not come into effect till the end of this month, plus on there Facebook page they have a poll to select what member of Destiny’s Edge will be there Facebook cover, normally the Facebook cover would advertise that months event. Also the monthly achievement for January has nothing related to any special event unlike previous monthly’s.
So sadly i have a horrible feeling we will be very bored till late January, maybe even the very last week of January, and this “2 huge patches” was a lie.

i actully think their will be 2 patches on in Jan one in Feb

but hell i dont think at all they will be huge, somehow by Anet they will be considered huge but i say this

IF people are Expecting some huge Things coming oh my

your gonna get disappointed…………. and this time its Anets fault for using the words Like an !Expansion!

The word expansion is usually used when there is at least one new zone and a new profession/race.

The new profession has been confirmed already(somewhere on gw2guru.com) Please site this since i’m at work and i can’t surf too much.

IF people are Expecting some huge Things coming oh my

your gonna get disappointed…………. and this time its Anets fault for using the words Like an !Expansion!

This is my concern too, there are some people thinking we will receive a new class or race to play with, or the Crystal Dessert opening up, or a new Elder Dragon, and its all because they used the word “Expansion”.

I can foresee lots of complaining on the forums about the lack of content come release.

I really hope they do an actual Class balance, fix the classes (especially the outright most buggiest class, elementalist…but even I know i will be waiting 1/2 a year to get ele at least 1/2 fixed, and all i need to wait is until end of january until we get nerfed again due to people wanting it easy not knowing how the ele actually works and cry nerf as we specced into surviability to at least have a chance)

and most of all, they fix the “older” content (Content already in-game at launch) Too many bugs that still haven’t been fixed.

Wouldn’t mind seeing Southsun Cove be more…..useful, right now it is just a waste of resources (Sorry whoever developed it, but right now…well as much as it is nice looking, it is just bland and useless, only 1 thing is useful there and that is the Rich Ori node)

oh and can’t forget for a more optimized game, although doubtful, I am really hoping for this :\

Fractals, I don’t do it I guess i’m just being lazy but meh, The change at end of Jan will be good & bad.

My main concern is that people will be disappointed in the patch due to arenanets choice of words with little to no content changes in the patch….

just wish they would reveal info now though, getting “Impatient” To see what I am looking forward to ;-;

Hickeroar.9734:

My only hope is that we don’t have a repeat of the Karka event. Fantastic, beautiful new zone….with the only visitation reason being to farm a few Ori Ore once a day.

If they can’t pull off something that people will truly find worthy of repeat-visiting, they shouldn’t bother.

That said…I have faith that they’ll knock one out-the-park.

It’s interesting. Based on what Colin Johanson said in this Interview with Colin Johanson, they intentionally used the zone just as a stage for that event, but they intend to flesh it out further.

I have high hopes for the scavenger hunt, just saying ^^

Lunar Sunset.8742:

I have high hopes for the scavenger hunt, just saying ^^

Same here. And not just for Legendary items/pre-requisites.

Class fixes? Please? Missthrower anyone? Minion AI?

I’m just curious if they’re still not working on the things that they said they weren’t actively working on in the interview above. There were a lot of big ticket push button items on that list of “not currently working on.”

Avitarus.1865:

Lunar Sunset.8742:

I have high hopes for the scavenger hunt, just saying ^^

Same here. And not just for Legendary items/pre-requisites.

Lol same..hell, just give me any scavenger hunt and I will do it

ColinJohanson.2394:

To set expectations accordingly, the January release will be a relatively small release that sets the table for the stories and features we plan to roll out with the Feb/March releases and beyond. Also, there will be no new race, profession, or new region with these larger Feb/March releases. One of our major goals with these releases is making our existing world as strong as possible, ensuring there are reasons to go to all the locations in the world we’ve already built, and strengthening the core game we’ve provided. In saying this will be an expansions worth of stuff in these releases, we’re talking about the number of new features that will be rolled out across PvE, WvW, and PvP in early 2013, which usually you’d only find in an expansion for a traditional MMORPG.

This sounds WONDERFUL…thank you for spending time on fixing/updating the current content before making new content!

Your response just made my day, ty Colin!

One one hand I’m a bit sad that there will be no new zones, on the other hand it’s probably for the better. I’m glad they’re trying to focus on improving the foundation of the game instead of adding new floors.

Lunar Sunset.8742:

I have high hopes for the scavenger hunt, just saying ^^

Indeed, a lot of us are in dire need of that scavenger hunt… Especially with todays state of the TP…

ColinJohanson.2394:

Hey guys,

Just to help provide some clarity on this, we’ll be releasing within the next couple of weeks a high level summary of our big plans for the first half of 2013 to help provide more transparency into our plans with the game going forward. This will include providing more details about our goals for the game, information about the stories and features that you’ll see in the Jan/Feb/March releases.

To set expectations accordingly, the January release will be a relatively small release that sets the table for the stories and features we plan to roll out with the Feb/March releases and beyond. Also, there will be no new race, profession, or new region with these larger Feb/March releases. One of our major goals with these releases is making our existing world as strong as possible, ensuring there are reasons to go to all the locations in the world we’ve already built, and strengthening the core game we’ve provided. In saying this will be an expansions worth of stuff in these releases, we’re talking about the number of new features that will be rolled out across PvE, WvW, and PvP in early 2013, which usually you’d only find in an expansion for a traditional MMORPG.

More details and specifics to come in the next couple of weeks, but I hope that helps provide some more insight into what to expect at a very high level.

No new region well sounds like there will be no content, as usual

I’m sad now

Guess we’ll have an ascended stuff farm worth of expansion

Fixing guardian shouts? Please tell me you’re fixing that. I wanna know when I have the buffs y’know

ColinJohanson.2394:

Also, there will be no new race, profession, or new region with these larger Feb/March releases. One of our major goals with these releases is making our existing world as strong as possible, ensuring there are reasons to go to all the locations in the world we’ve already built, and strengthening the core game we’ve provided.

Y E S !
That´s exactly what´s needed right now!

Awesome.
Still hope for implementation of the “Underflow Server” to gather deserted maps from all servers into one, for fun´s sake. Basically the opposite of our current Overflow Servers.

HawkMeister.4758:

Y E S !
That´s exactly what´s needed right now!

I agree that it is very needed. However, I expected them to make the core of their game stronger during release and shortly after it. Not however many months it’s been since.

BobJoeXXI.2493:

ColinJohanson.2394:

Just to help provide some clarity on this, we’ll be releasing within the next couple of weeks a high level summary of our big plans for the first half of 2013

So we have to wait 2 weeks into Jan. to only just find out what will be released (which will be small) and it won’t be released in these two weeks. I give you an A+ for procrastination.

This is what concerns me too, im very happy that that Colin took the time to help lower peoples expectations about the upcoming content, its best to get that out of the way now so people dont feel disapointed later on.

However, waiting till February/March for new content scares me, WintersDay got extremely boring as soon as Tixx reached Lions Arch, now this months patch will be tiny with no serious content till March? That is a extremely long time to wait for new content.

But we dont know the details, maybe this months small patch will give us enough things to do until the bigger updates later on, but until we know the details there is no point logging on sadly.

BobJoeXXI.2493:

HawkMeister.4758:

Y E S !
That´s exactly what´s needed right now!

I agree that it is very needed. However, I expected them to make the core of their game stronger during release and shortly after it. Not however many months it’s been since.

Making games is hard, you’re being unreasonable.

HawkMeister.4758:

ColinJohanson.2394:

Also, there will be no new race, profession, or new region with these larger Feb/March releases. One of our major goals with these releases is making our existing world as strong as possible, ensuring there are reasons to go to all the locations in the world we’ve already built, and strengthening the core game we’ve provided.

Y E S !
That´s exactly what´s needed right now!

Awesome.
Still hope for implementation of the “Underflow Server” to gather deserted maps from all servers into one, for fun´s sake. Basically the opposite of our current Overflow Servers.

This is my single biggest desire for January/Q1 as well. Love everything they’ve done, but it is time to proactively make sure the world’s stay full, population wise.

Did Colin mean that January’s update will be smaller than normal, or simply that it’ll not be as massive as Feb/ March’s updates? There’s a difference here.

Because all the big updates we’ve been getting monthly should also be “relatively smaller” to whatever big is coming Feb/ March, according to his words, so this month’s “relatively smaller” patch could very well be as big as wintersday/ halloween/ etc.

Straylight.7408:

One one hand I’m a bit sad that there will be no new zones, on the other hand it’s probably for the better. I’m glad they’re trying to focus on improving the foundation of the game instead of adding new floors.

Keiran.1896:

No new region well sounds like there will be no content, as usual

I’m sad now

Guess we’ll have an ascended stuff farm worth of expansion

after launch, roughly 50% of Anet started working on the expansion, while the other half formed the live team. anything we have seen and will see implemented into the game between launch and the first expansion is made by the live team.

you will get your new playable races/zones/weapons types (instead of professions, most likely) with the first expansion.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Just to help provide some clarity on this, we’ll be releasing within the next couple of weeks a high level summary of our big plans for the first half of 2013 to help provide more transparency into our plans with the game going forward.

notice how he only said “first half”? complete speculation on my part, but this almost sounds like they’re planning to release the expansion roughly a year after launch.

ColinJohanson.2394:

One of our major goals with these releases is making our existing world as strong as possible, ensuring there are reasons to go to all the locations in the world we’ve already built, and strengthening the core game we’ve provided.

Exactly what I wanted to hear. Y’all are my heroes.

ColinJohanson.2394:

To set expectations accordingly, the January release will be a relatively small release that sets the table for the stories and features we plan to roll out with the Feb/March releases and beyond.

Not to be picky, but that doesn’t match up with the time table promised originally.

Mind, I understand that sometimes you need more time for content, and I’m fine with waiting for all of the huge fixes this game needs. My point is more that you shouldn’t promise a time table that you can’t meet.

Also, there will be no new race, profession, or new region with these larger Feb/March releases.

I didn’t really expect the first two, but the last one is a bit of a surprise. You released a new map for Lost Shores….

One of our major goals with these releases is making our existing world as strong as possible, ensuring there are reasons to go to all the locations in the world we’ve already built, and strengthening the core game we’ve provided.

….oh.

Then GOOD.

There’s a ton of things that this game needs fixed. Looking forward to the updates even more than before now, because honestly, I don’t want a lot of new content right now. I want the existing content to be fixed and made more fun.

More details and specifics to come in the next couple of weeks, but I hope that helps provide some more insight into what to expect at a very high level.

Hope to see those notes soon. I’m intrigued now about what sort of updates we’ll be seeing.

HawkMeister.4758:

Awesome.
Still hope for implementation of the “Underflow Server” to gather deserted maps from all servers into one, for fun´s sake. Basically the opposite of our current Overflow Servers.

That…. would be a very good idea! A great idea!

OT: Looking forward to updates

(Would like a quick review of the Medium SE exotic armour if possible…. take a look at the helm, the texture there looks terrible, while pretty much every other exotic armour is perfectly made. Cost me a lotta tokens! )

Honestly the things I’m looking forward to the most are:

Dungeon revamp
More fractals
More Ascended gear
Lost Shores not sucking
More/More-often world events
The massive number of still-existing bugs and glitched events to be finally FIXED.
Orr revamp…because that place is awful.

critickitten.1498:

ColinJohanson.2394:

To set expectations accordingly, the January release will be a relatively small release that sets the table for the stories and features we plan to roll out with the Feb/March releases and beyond.

Not to be picky, but that doesn’t match up with the time table promised originally.

Mind, I understand that sometimes you need more time for content, and I’m fine with waiting for all of the huge fixes this game needs. My point is more that you shouldn’t promise a time table that you can’t meet.

This is why they hardly ever do give timetables. Even an informal estimate or off-the-cuff remark is often taken as a promise, so realistically the only thing they can do to prevent disappointment is just not tell us anything until it’s 99.9% set in stone. And that makes people upset too, because then the devs are taken to task for not being communicative enough.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Hey guys,

Just to help provide some clarity on this, we’ll be releasing within the next couple of weeks a high level summary of our big plans for the first half of 2013 to help provide more transparency into our plans with the game going forward. This will include providing more details about our goals for the game, information about the stories and features that you’ll see in the Jan/Feb/March releases.

To set expectations accordingly, the January release will be a relatively small release that sets the table for the stories and features we plan to roll out with the Feb/March releases and beyond. Also, there will be no new race, profession, or new region with these larger Feb/March releases. One of our major goals with these releases is making our existing world as strong as possible, ensuring there are reasons to go to all the locations in the world we’ve already built, and strengthening the core game we’ve provided. In saying this will be an expansions worth of stuff in these releases, we’re talking about the number of new features that will be rolled out across PvE, WvW, and PvP in early 2013, which usually you’d only find in an expansion for a traditional MMORPG.

More details and specifics to come in the next couple of weeks, but I hope that helps provide some more insight into what to expect at a very high level.

Thank you! this is awesome news and exactly what is needed- nice post

ColinJohanson.2394:

Also, there will be no new race, profession, or new region with these larger Feb/March releases.

Can we expect this stuff later in 2013?

Cheers.

Bonefield.9813:

critickitten.1498:

ColinJohanson.2394:

To set expectations accordingly, the January release will be a relatively small release that sets the table for the stories and features we plan to roll out with the Feb/March releases and beyond.

Not to be picky, but that doesn’t match up with the time table promised originally.

Mind, I understand that sometimes you need more time for content, and I’m fine with waiting for all of the huge fixes this game needs. My point is more that you shouldn’t promise a time table that you can’t meet.

This is why they hardly ever do give timetables. Even an informal estimate or off-the-cuff remark is often taken as a promise, so realistically the only thing they can do to prevent disappointment is just not tell us anything until it’s 99.9% set in stone. And that makes people upset too, because then the devs are taken to task for not being communicative enough.

I’m actually super glad they’re not dumping a bucketload of new content on us all at once. I’ve still only explored 50% of the map and I’ve played for almost 1000 hours.

I would like a bit of a break to just PLAY the game and not have to worry about dealing with some new event of lots of new content, etc.

HawkMeister.4758:

ColinJohanson.2394:

Also, there will be no new race, profession, or new region with these larger Feb/March releases. One of our major goals with these releases is making our existing world as strong as possible, ensuring there are reasons to go to all the locations in the world we’ve already built, and strengthening the core game we’ve provided.

Y E S !
That´s exactly what´s needed right now!

Awesome.
Still hope for implementation of the “Underflow Server” to gather deserted maps from all servers into one, for fun´s sake. Basically the opposite of our current Overflow Servers.

So long as it only grabs from servers that have low populations, then fine. Tarnished Coast maps are already slammed with people all over the place, not to mention all the RP out in the open world.

I hope you guys will get around to posting in the various class forums too. Engineers and Rangers are regarded by the majority of the community to be fighting for last place right now in both PvE and PvP. Hopefully some real progress will come to these classes in 2013 instead of the empty promises and missed oppurtunity we saw in 2012 with QOL improvements beign disguised and class buffs.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Hey guys,

Just to help provide some clarity on this, we’ll be releasing within the next couple of weeks a high level summary of our big plans for the first half of 2013 to help provide more transparency into our plans with the game going forward. This will include providing more details about our goals for the game, information about the stories and features that you’ll see in the Jan/Feb/March releases.

Awesome! If you guys actually do this, and do it on your own website and not Reddit (or similar), I’ll take back everything I said about you

Well, maybe not EVERYTHING…will you settle for almost everything?

Communication is key. I hope this will become a good start.

So it sounds like we won’t be getting any new content this month. At most we’ll have FotM working as it should have been from release had anyone playtested/listened to QA. And even then that won’t be happening until Jan 31 2012 11:59 PST at the earliest.

ColinJohanson.2394:

One of our major goals with these releases is making our existing world as strong as possible, ensuring there are reasons to go to all the locations in the world we’ve already built

im glad you identified this as the KEY to ensuring a successful future for the game. DE’s and the world are kinda dead right now due to bad rewards, scaling, and bugs, which is a shame because DE’s are the best PVE ive ever done in an MMO.

ColinJohanson.2394:

. One of our major goals with these releases is making our existing world as strong as possible, ensuring there are reasons to go to all the locations in the world we’ve already built….

How about you encourage that by making waypoints less crotch-kickingly expensive? I know balancing the economy is important, but you’re cutting off your nose to spite your face. I intentionally limit my travel around (and limit my sight-seeing) because of it.

Have a free-travel weekend and watch what happens.
edited to include the actual complaint instead of just being cheeky

Lankybrit.4598:

ColinJohanson.2394:

Also, there will be no new race, profession, or new region with these larger Feb/March releases.

Can we expect this stuff later in 2013?

Cheers.

I suppose improving the core game now takes priority, and later on we should get new content (= new zones) more often.

Look at it this way: how many of the current zones are a bit forgottable/ repetitive? For most of them, you explore, grind basic heart quests, fight countless enemies with basic AI, 100% complete the zone, and leave. And for the players that don’t even like to fully explore a map, there’s not even motivation for them to go to any those zones to explore them (if anything, they rush through them for the sake of dungeons).

To many players, many of the GW2’s current maps are still “new content” or content that is not fully realized. Making the existing zones more fun and diverse, and adding “quests”/ hunts/ adventures with (maybe) new stories and, certainly, cool rewards (like the exotics needed for legendaries, but not only that) means a lot of new content and a refreshing take on already existing maps. To many players, they would explore the old maps as if they were new, and to the remaining playerbase, they would explore those maps for the first time.

ColinJohanson.2394:

…
Also, there will be no new race, profession, or new region with these larger Feb/March releases. One of our major goals with these releases is making our existing world as strong as possible, ensuring there are reasons to go to all the locations in the world we’ve already built, and strengthening the core game we’ve provided.
…

I think that is definitaly the right choice and way to go… As long as there is enough space to improve what already is in the game! And there certainly is enough space!

I hope you mean with the bolded text that you gonna increase the challenge in the hole world, especially if you enter 80 zones or areas you are getting down-scaled in.
Most players I know that quitted the game did that because they are missing any real challenge in the open world with their 80 chars and visiting lower maps in that concern is useless and so there is only 1 or 2 zones left that are at least challenging a little bit… Not even because of worse loot (what is certainly a concern for a lot of players as well)!

can we please have this stupid dungeon DR removed already? Been months and i don’t want to do my fav paths only once per 24h (no i’m not an AC/CoF spammer). For someone like myself who enjoys dungeons/challenging but rewarding stuff can i expect new fractals, new armors, weapons or even a new dungeon in the next update or do i have to wait March for that?