Systems Team Forum Chat Summary
In case this proves helpful for anyone, a compilation of some of the various comments made during the forum chat so far. If you wanna join in on the discussion head over to
the forums.
Taking part: Karl McLain, Andrew McLeod, Ben Phongluangtham, Irenio Calmon Huang, Robert Gee.
General:
Balance patches:
Robert - "Testing usually depends on the extent of the change. If we are only increasing the damage of Necro Axe by 5% then the testing isn't very extensive, but if we are overhauling an entire trait line, then testing is more rigorous. When deciding IF a change can be implemented (when the question is "Can we do it in the engine?") we discuss the issue with our programmers. When deciding SHOULD a change be implemented, it can get vetted through the team, through team leads, and up to the game director level depending on the expected potential impact."
Irenio - "We talk to the raids and fractals team about instanced group content balance and consult with them/get consulted on various parts back and forth."
Ben - "The current plan is that we continue to do splits where it makes sense. Keep in mind that we're limited to only numbers changes for splits. Skills must function the same in all modes."
Irenio- "We are planning to continue plowing ahead with re-works and updates to stuff that feels lackluster. Priority is based on a multitude of factors including when something was last changed, player feedback, internal feedback, and the sheer time to make a set of changes."
Irenio - "We try to keep professions within a close range of each other for particular roles. We don't always succeed, but we keep honing in on it. The goal is NOT to make them perfectly equal because then you'd take them based on the next most useful secondary thing they do. Instead we try to keep them at different levels of utility for damage, support, sustain, survivability, etc, so they are less comparable with notable tradeoffs."
Irenio- "It isn't always possible, but we're trying to get more explanations of changes and the goal(s) of the changes. Hopefully that helps inform."
Irenio - "We don't focus on someone being super effective in a mode; we focus on what role they should be effective at and what mechanic will help them do that. We want some professions to be great at, say, boon to condition conversion. As you point out, that is more effective in some (competitive) game modes than others. If more boons exist in PvE, then that naturally those mechanics (and thus specializations) becomes a bit more effective there too. We're coordinating more with the living world and raids+fractals teams to help with these things as well."
Irenio - "I expect balance patches are going to happen at a faster pace than quarterly."
Irenio - "We use metrics such as play-use at the high-end in a game mode. e.g. How many necromancers are using a particular utility/trait/etc in high-end PvP. We also read numerous sources, in particular the GW2 forums, but we also check reddit and other forums."
Irenio - "We are willing to do mid-season patches if they address bad issues."
Robert/Irenio - "Nerfs do not necessarily reduce build diversity. We've used nerfs in the past to reduce the power of skills/traits that were crowding out other options because they were too strong. If there are no nerfs then there is only power creep."
Jump. Jump. Jump around:
Karl - "From an artistic and (historical?) standpoint, combat looks a whole lot weirder if everyone is jumping while swinging their sword. Balance-wise, it's easier to assume that everyone starts using their skills while standing on the ground. Exploits!"
Pets on Ranger:
Irenio - "There is hope for that, and many other re-works, but as someone who has wanted to do a re-work to a lot of pets and their system - this type of task has a lot more in the background to do than is expected. Like, a LOT. No, really."
Providing Feedback
Irenio - "Be specific about the problem. Be positive"
QoL/Rewards:
Andrew - "I think many of our recent collections that are tied closely with content or tell a story are much more interesting than our early collections, and we've been working on making masteries that are more useful and universal rather than some of the specific narrow benefits from many of the HoT masteries."
Irenio - "The time-gating isn't likely to go away. That's something that keeps their values up at least a bit and helps to preserve their value into the future. What is more possible is recipes using different amounts of them."
Andrew - "things like combat tonics, toys, or other items that add some new functionality that works within the existing game systems are relatively easy to add by designers and we've been trying to add these sorts of things to the game. Other rewards like new armors or cosmetic options take a lot of artist time, and so while we're interested in adding more, they take more time and are more likely to be limited depending on things like the number of art assets required for living world episodes."
Andrew - "we've been trying to switch most new rewards over to unidentified gear to help out"
Andrew - "I doubt we'll significantly change the map complete rewards, though the meta achievement rewards and season-wide rewards like Aurora are intended to help provide completion rewards for the living world content."
Irenio - "We'll be more able to review such things as a whole and make sure they don't adversely affect other game modes at the same time."
PvP:
Ben - "We don't have any current plans to bring 5 person queuing back to ranked queue. I don't feel it's competitive. On-Demand tournaments and AT's will be our method of support for people who prefer to play in 5 person teams."
Ben - "We have several changes to PvP coming, which have already been talked about (swiss, on demand tournaments). We do have other plans, but we can't talk about them yet"
WvW:
World Merge:
Ben - "This doesn't benefit or hider World Restructuring."
Irenio - "The creation of the Systems team should not hinder WvW restructuring at all, and if anything, help it."
Field of view issues atop walls:
Ben - "We talk about it from time to time. But most of the proposed fixes internally are fairly complicated and resource intensive."
WvW Loot:
Ben - "I'd like to convert at least level 80 WvW rewards to use the unidentified gear system....while I'll hopefully have at least some improvements coming, it's not set up in a way that's simple to update"
Ben - "No "overhaul" is planned. But we do continually look at rewards to add or things to tweak. For example, the somewhat recent addition of Grandmaster Mark shards. We do have some thoughts on how to better reward activities like defending and/or attacking a defended objective. However, it's much too early to talk about."
Balance:
Irenio - "You're right: WvW is one of the most difficult modes to balance around. We try to use all the different combat sizes, with varying levels of success. In particular we focus a bit more on the 10+ person fights as those have the capacity for greater impact overall and affect the experience of more players currently."
GvG:
Ben - "We have no current plans for a fully supported GvG system. (Queues, leaderboards, achievements, etc.) Future GvG support is likely to come in the form of things like the new Mists Arena or the upcoming custom arena map for larger groups.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/996fvx/systems_team_forum_chat_summary/
