Curse

Gun Pierson · Apr 28, 2009, 10:17 AM // 10:17

I'm gonna use a 5 star rating system to keep things simple. If you give Anet for example 3 out of 5 stars at a particular part of the update, it's welcome you explain why they lost 2 stars on that part.

Equipment Pack: **** (4/5)
This could have been an instant 5/5 stars, but they loose one for the grind involved.

Xunlai Storage: *** (3/5)
They loose a star because you have to buy them. They loose another star because the free one we got (thanks Anet!) was linked to the hassle of going through the NCSoft site (which was not ready to deal with this) and NCaccounts.

Zaishen Challenge Quests: **** (4/5)
It's a nice addition as it concentrates the playerbase more, but the fact that it's all repeating old content will cost them a star.

Zaishen Coins: *** (3/5)
They loose a star because of the bug that you can't put them in storage. This should have been tested and fixed.
The rewards are not spectacular (except for the equipment pack which should not be linked to grind because they have nothing else people would play for) and you need to pay lots of coins. For example 30 copper zoins for one sparkler. This costs them a second star.

Zaishen Menagerie: **** (4/5)
Well worked out, but the grind involved to unlock stuff with zoins will cost them a star.

Nicolas the Traveler: ***** (5/5)
Great game design. It's fun, new rewards etc. Good job Anet.

Hall of Monuments: now account wide: ***** (5/5)
A long awaited feature and it finally arrived.

New character customisation: **** (4/5)
Also features that the players were asking for. They loose one star because they're not free.

Miscellanious *** (3/5)
I'm sure they can fix more bugs and glitches so here goes a star. Also the greased mini came with a bug now, this costs them another star.

My final rating: 35/45 stars or 3.8/5.

Conclusion:
All in all a decent update and the live team did well. Not all good and perfect though.

Abedeus · Apr 28, 2009, 10:47 AM // 10:47

Equipment Pack: *** (3/5)
Grrrrind. But it's worth... so I don't have to store armor in Xunlai Storage.

Xunlai Storage: ** (2/5)
Would be 3, but paying $10 when I can get much, much more by buying a new account for $15-$20?.

Zaishen Challenge Quests: **** (4/5)
Okay, that's the best thing IMO. Makes people PUG and maybe improve skill. Not 5/5 because PUGs are still retarded.

Zaishen Coins: ** (2/5)
Bug - I don't even want to waste time getting them. Also, more grrriiiiind.

Zaishen Menagerie: *** (3/5)
Useful, but grind again. Or PAYING FOR IT. Two stars down.

Nicolas the Traveler: **** (4/5)
Useful for new people... but they probably won't know about him for a long time.

Hall of Monuments: now account wide: *** (3/5)
Cut few points for the massive delay. Also, there are still character-specific titles that shouldn't be. I'm looking at you, allegiance titles.

New character customisation: ** (2/5)
What is this, play for free, get more by paying MMO? After you said it's impossible to change character looks?

Miscellanious * (1/5)

WHERE ARE SKILL UPDATES?

24/45. About 2.7/5? I guess so.

tmakinen · Apr 28, 2009, 10:57 AM // 10:57

I don't have to write a long review about the update because I feel that you already did a perfect job at it, Gun

MrDark88 · Apr 28, 2009, 10:57 AM // 10:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gun Pierson

Zaishen Coins: *** (3/5)
They loose a star because of the bug that you can't put them in storage. This should have been tested and fixed.
The rewards are not spectacular (except for the equipment pack which should not be linked to grind because they have nothing else people would play for) and you need to pay lots of coins. For example 30 copper zoins for one sparkler. This costs them a second star.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Linsey Murdock on her talk page;

...the bug did not exist on our Dev and Staging servers. We thought it was bug free, the bug only appeared once it was on Live. - Linsey 20:43, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

Just to clear that up.

Hyper.nl · Apr 28, 2009, 11:02 AM // 11:02

Equipment Pack: ** (2/5)
Only 2 stars because the purchasable equipment pack is very small and bigger packs are almost unreachable because of their prices.

Xunlai Storage: **** (4/5)
Nice we got an extra pane and fair enough of them asking money for the other panes.

Zaishen Challenge Quests: *** (3/5)
The quests are fair enough, but the rewards are quite small. Because of the small reward, not worth the time for me.

Zaishen Coins: * (1/5)
Unneccesary because we already have gold as currency. And the items are way too expensive.

Zaishen Menagerie: ***** (5/5)
Hm, I still have to try this one, but the idea of storing pets sounds great.

Nicolas the Traveler: ***** (5/5)
Excellent!

Hall of Monuments: now account wide: ***** (5/5)
Thanks a lot for this one. This is where I've been waiting on for so long. Great work here!

New character customisation: **** (4/5)
Also features that the players were asking for. They loose one star because they're not free.

Miscellanious ***** (5/5)
Thanks for adding head armor collector + equipment pack to presearing!

the_jos · Apr 28, 2009, 11:20 AM // 11:20

My two c, not going to rate, just comment.

Equipment Pack: think it's a great addition and solves some of the storage problems. Being able to obtain in game, even though the largest one takes some time to get. I don't mind, I only need/want one for my main and my monk. That should free up enough storage on other characters....

Xunlai Storage: Free tab is nice of A-net to give. If I needed more I would buy. NCsoft could have scaled up the store servers to ease the initial pressure of registration though.

Zaishen Challenge Quests: Like them and it brings players to outposts
Sure, it's old content, but I don't mind playing old content with old friends. Brings back memories. Meeting new friends in old content is also nice.

Zaishen Coins: Like the idea, the storage bug is a little annoying though. But then, it would not have been fun to see masses of players with the hard-to-obtain stuff already.

Zaishen Menagerie: Didn't try this one, looks like a nice feature

Nicolas the Traveler: Just good fun, nice implementation.

Hall of Monuments, now account wide: Nice, though I didn't really feel any need for it. But it bridges GW1 and GW2, so it's ok.

New character customisation: Long time request, nice of A-net to implement

One thing I feel I want to say something about.
Not everything is free, some stuff can only be bought at the store.
I think this is ok.
A guildie of mine said he wanted to change name but thought the price is too high. My reply: "then you don't want it that bad....".
People without their own money (specially children who need to use their parents CC) might not like this though. I understand this, but whenever I want something I like there is a fair chance I need to pay for it.
This is for music (I still buy cd's I like at the store), pencils/paper for drawing, going to amusement park, a new video game, new sunglasses or something like that. It all has a price and probably lasts shorter than my GW game.

When you've bought all the chapters at full price you would have spend about 150 euro total. And a possible 4 years of gameplay. Another 10 euro to add some more fun (rename, other appearance should only be done when it adds fun) isn't that much.

In general I think this is a very nice upgrade to the game with some changes that might bring players together again.

Raccoon · Apr 28, 2009, 11:22 AM // 11:22

Equipment Pack: (3/5)
I'll let you know what I think of it in a few weeks time when it will actually be released to the public -____-

Xunlai Storage: (2/5)
All you had to do was put the free pane straight into the game like you did before. What gives?

Zaishen Challenge Quests: (4/5)
It's good. Gives me a reason to do things. Pity it's just Old content.

Zaishen Coins: (2/5)
GRINDING. Also what do we do after we get the heavy pack? Because there isn't a single thing on there that's worth the grind for the coins.

Zaishen Menagerie: (3/5)
No intelligent person uses pets. But at least it's new. *kinda*

Nicolas the Traveler: (4/5)
Once again, gives me a reason to go do things, even if it is GRINDING.

Hall of Monuments: now account wide: (5/5)
Took your time.

New character customisation: (1/5)
You get one star because it let me change my mains hair color. You lose four stars for charging us for something so cheap and pathetic as hair color.

Miscellanious (1/5)
Like a few have already said, Skill updates? kkthx.

Overall

2/5

Too much time and effort went into trying to dress up old content as new features, The highlight of this update is the zaishen quests which means people will gather and do easy/annoying missions and dungeons just for coins. Problem is it's once again old content. There's also quite a few bugs, even after you held back the last skills update to "fix" these bugs. Charging people for storage is acceptable, but charging for silly things like the way a character looks is questionable in a thousand ways.

I just hope GW2 comes out relatively soon.

CyberNigma · Apr 28, 2009, 11:31 AM // 11:31

Equipment Pack: **** (4/5)
I'm glad we finally have some equipment storage. It'll take longer than I had hoped to get it all - but that's probably more to me having multiple characters than anything else.

Xunlai Storage: *** (4/5)
It offers something I can't do by buying new accounts or character slots - transferring and storing more stuff fast without logging out or running multiple clients, which is a big, big bonus for me. Mules and/or separate accounts just don't cut it for me. If I could transfer stuff to and from mules without switching characters or running multiple accounts then yeah I'd say that would be better for me. Unfortunately that's not possible and I can afford to be lazy/ask for convenience.

Zaishen Challenge Quests: **** (5/5)
These are great. They are dailies done right. Instead of dailies for new content which really just get you to grind out new content over and over, these dailies give people reasons to go back and do old content. After a while I'm sure it will wear its welcome out, but for now it's great. Not many MMOs find ways to get people to go back and play older content. This is great for new players I think since they'll have a chance of playing with other people (according to what the dailies are).

Zaishen Coins: *** (4/5)
It's a way to offer new goods requiring more gameplay (being stocked up on gold/ectos won't net you new the goods right away), but it does seem like it will take quite a while to rack them up if you want to get more than just a few things.

Zaishen Menagerie: **** (5/5)
This makes it easy to capture and release while not having to re-level prior pets. It's really more of an aesthetics thing since the pets aren't really any different from each other (types, not evolutions)

Nicolas the Traveler: ***** (?/?)
I haven't checked him out yet, so I can't really review him.

Hall of Monuments: now account wide: ***** (5/5)
This one is great for those with quite a few characters.

New character customization: **** (4/5)
I don't care about this one, but in context of people asking for it, I think somewhat provides a solution. While some people were hoping it was free, it will provide the service for those willing to pay and be just like it was never created for those that aren't willing (better for some than for none I suppose - which is what they would have gotten if ANet didn't charge for it, nothing).

Miscellaneous *** (4/5)
I don't care that the z-coins aren't tradable/able to be placed in storage right now. It may matter to me in the future, but not now. I haven't had any bugs and I think all of the extras (free storage slot, free equipment slot, getting more people to do certain missions, etc) were done nicely. The NCSoft store couldn't handle the load, but I was able to eventually get in and get it done.

My final rating: 35/40 stars or 4.375/5
- no review on Nicolas, hence the reduced number of stars

Conclusion:
I enjoy the update, especially the dailies and storage. Dailies in MMOs that include old content while giving rewards that anyone (new or old) can use is a smart idea to keep the old world alive for new players. I'm sure they'll eventually need to add new rewards when people start filling up with the current ones, but that's for the future to decide.

Chocobo1 · Apr 28, 2009, 11:31 AM // 11:31

The only things I like is the Pugs actually forming (so cute to see the pve scrubs trying to form HA parties in AMERICAN districts :3)

Other than that I really don't care. I wanted maybe some new wep skins, possibly even armor (didn't count on that last one though). Congrats, you reskinned the fiery dragon sword AGAIN. Now that I think about it, this update just pisses me off.

I also love how we got all the features that we wanted for real money. Can't think of any other word but cocktease. Yeah there are people out there willing to pay for it, but in NZ that is going to cost me about $20-30 which is a little bit insane for a virtual character.

Krah

Earth · Apr 28, 2009, 12:08 PM // 12:08

Equipment Pack: **** (4/5)
Too much grind, and the small one is way too expensive.

Xunlai Storage: *** (3/5)
I don't like the fact that we have to buy them, also I forgot my NCSoft account things and support still hasn't responded yet. Wtf?

Zaishen Challenge Quests: **** (4/5)
It's a nice addition as it concentrates the playerbase more, but the fact that it's all repeating old content will cost them a star. (same as OP)

Zaishen Coins: *** (4/5)
The rewards are not spectacular (except for the equipment pack which should not be linked to grind because they have nothing else people would play for) and you need to pay lots of coins. For example 30 copper zoins for one sparkler. This costs them a second star. (pretty much the same as OP again)

Zaishen Menagerie: **** (4/5)
It's not how I expected it would be, so yeah. Still kinda cool though, I have a moss spider now <_<

Nicolas the Traveler: ***** (5/5)
Great game design. It's fun, new rewards etc. Good job Anet.

Hall of Monuments: now account wide: **** (4/5)
Yes, it was a long awaited future, but it took too long.

New character customisation: **** (4/5)
Also features that the players were asking for. They loose one star because they're not free. (same as OP, we must be soulmates)

Miscellanious *** (2/5)
"There will be no skill update because we want to have a perfect update without any bugs." - Yes, it sure is a "perfect" update without any bugs or glitches, hmm? wtb skill update

kupp · Apr 28, 2009, 12:11 PM // 12:11

Equipment Pack: (3/5)
Much needed but too much grind involved.

Xunlai Storage: (5/5)
They gave us a free pane with plenty of time to get, and if they need to make some money trough micro-transactions on a luxury on a free to play game, let them.

Zaishen Challenge Quests: (5/5)
Pugging is back what else needs to be said? And it's a nice change.

Zaishen Coins: (5/5)
Only if you're looking the other way on the grind issue, they're pretty usefull especially when it comes to tomes, and balthazar faction to unlock hero skills.

Zaishen Menagerie: (5/5)
Don't really have a need for it but it only brings good things so I guess anything less than a 5 would be unfair.

Nicolas the Traveler: (4/5)
Nice adition to the game, even if it's like a 2nd XHT income. However, asking for materials as collector item was a bad idea, and you can see that now. Until next saturday/sunday Linen and Plant Fibers will be out of stock and will be monopolized by players asking for ridiculous amounts of money for it.

Hall of Monuments: now account wide: (4/5)
Good. Though I'd still like to see a 2nd rack of weapons to display all 22 weapons able to be displayed. And I'll take one star off because I shouldn't be forced to costumize something I don't want to, and at least it should be costumized account wide. Kinda feel like rating it 3/5 for that alone, but, well.

New character customization: (4/5)
Welcome to the game, but minor costumizations are slightly overpriced imo.

Miscellaneous: (2/5)
I still think this update could have been much more.

Overall: you do the math.

Gli · Apr 28, 2009, 12:11 PM // 12:11

Equipment Pack: **** (4/5)
Losing a star because I'm unhappy with the price of the 20 slot bag. I know I'll rather get 3 characters a 15 slot bag than get one with 20 slots. Because I have plenty of character who could use a 15 slot bag, it's very unlikely I'll ever get a 20 slot one.

Xunlai Storage: ** (2/5)
I want them. I'm drooling all over my keyboard just looking at the greyed-out tabs. I won't get them before my account troubles are settled though.

Zaishen Challenge Quests: *** (3/5)
Very good addition, but flawed in that I can't decide the order of cashing in rewards. While my AB and JQ PvP quests are partially completed I can't accept rewards for more recent bounties without first cashing in rewards for those partially completed quests. Any day now I won't be able to take new quests.

Zaishen Coins: *** (3/5)
The bugged unmoveable stacks on all my characters have annoying; the vast majority of the rewards doesn't appeal to me.

Zaishen Menagerie: ***** (5/5)
Nice!

Nicolas the Traveler: ***** (5/5)
I love the guy.

Hall of Monuments: now account wide: ***** (5/5)
Finally!

New character customisation: - (-)
I couldn't care less. Can't rate it because I haven't even looked at them.

Miscellaneous - (-)
Can't rate it right now because I can't think of anything to consider included under this heading.

Calaval · Apr 28, 2009, 12:18 PM // 12:18

Equipment Pack: ** (2/5)
The purchasable equipment pack is too small and if you want a larger pack for each of your many toons, it will become a chore to obtain.

Xunlai Storage: **** (4/5)
Great to get a free birthday pane, it would be 5/5 if there was an options to hide the tabs I won't buy/need.

Zaishen Challenge Quests: *****(5/5)
Lots of fun to do missions and pvp again with guildies and friends.

Zaishen Coins: **** (4/5)
Great idea and I love the things you can buy with it, would be 5/5 if the storage bug was fixed.

Zaishen Menagerie: ** (2/5)
Nice idea but something I'll ignore for a long while, as I rarely use or care about pets.

Nicolas the Traveler: ***** (5/5)
Finding Nicolas every week adds a little more fun to the game.

Hall of Monuments: now account wide: ***** (5/5)
I love the new look HOM, its awesome to see what my other toons would look like in FOW!

New character customisation:: ***** (5/5)
Brilliant, better than I could ever of expected, I love the name change option too!

Miscellaneous: ***** (5/5)
A great update, once I’m able to add Zaishen Coins to storage I’ll enjoy it all the more!

Dawn Angelheart · Apr 28, 2009, 12:19 PM // 12:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raccoon

Xunlai Storage: (2/5)
All you had to do was put the free pane straight into the game like you did before. What gives?.

Easy, They wanted Account information.

CyberNigma · Apr 28, 2009, 12:30 PM // 12:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dawn Angelheart

Easy, They wanted Account information.

more likely they had to justify to upper management (or possibly the parent company) why any hours were still being counted towards improving GW other than bug fixes and balances. It's quite possible that the storage tab/makeover prices helped them justify the development and QA of the other stuff (HoM changes, Menagerie, Zaishen Dailies, Nicolas, etc) to those that control the purse strings.

AngelWJedi · Apr 28, 2009, 12:38 PM // 12:38

Equipment Pack: **** (3/5)
they lose 2 stars. one for grind and one for costing to many gold coins

Xunlai Storage: *** (3/5)
They loose a star because you have to buy them. They loose another star because the free one we got (thanks Anet!) was linked to the hassle of going through the NCSoft site (which was not ready to deal with this) and NCaccounts. this is my thoughts too

Zaishen Challenge Quests: **** (2/5)
lose one star for the same stuff,one for the lack of thought for pvp not everyone can do all these ans last star for giving out weird amount for rewards

Zaishen Coins: *** (4/5)
they are okay but they will be better once the bug is fixed >> two slot my 600 monk cant use now in dungeons/farming

Zaishen Menagerie: **** (4/5)
i like this it loses a star for the fact you have to grind for the moss spider egg and my rb phoenix i caped on other gals wont go into their hom >> tease anet

Nicolas the Traveler: ***** (4/5)
Great game design. It's fun, new rewards etc. Good job Anet. now if they wont do more expensive items like linen then it'll be perfect

Hall of Monuments: now account wide: ***** (4/5)
Grrrrrrr anet! now you get me wanting even more armor now i see what my girl would look like with so and so armor

New character customisation: **** (4/5)
Also features that the players were asking for. They loose one star because they're not free. same it was for in game money then it would be perfect

Miscellanious *** (3/5)
one for putting out stuff with bugs still in them and not for putting more new things in pre

Tommy's · Apr 28, 2009, 12:39 PM // 12:39

Equipment Pack: ** (5/5)
Good job Anet to make it a bit harder and asks to spend some time to it. Otherwise everyone gets on every char, every alt, main chars ftw!

Xunlai Storage: **** (4/5)
Please hide the storage tabs I don't buy!

Zaishen Challenge Quests: *****(5/5)
Tripple hurrah for this. Makes me spend more time in groups, which is quite alot more fun. Everyone with a unity goal is nice.

Zaishen Coins: **** (4/5)
Like them, could add some different rewards though. Also they could change the ammounts of things, so instead of 1500 for equipment bag, you need 150, which saves some room in storage..

Zaishen Menagerie: ** (2/5)
I really couldnt care less about this thing. Its nice to not loose your pet for good forever though. They should make it so that you can instand cap your pets again there, so you can change pets all the time. Or am I talking blabla here, and it that already the case?

Nicolas the Traveler: ***** (5/5)
Good thing, nice thing, love it thing.

Hall of Monuments: now account wide: ***** (5/5)
Quite fun, although they should fix that you can cap a Rainbow Phoenix for every char now.

New character customisation:: ***** (5/5)
Love it, don't cry it costs you some cash, just work an hour.

Miscellaneous: ***** (5/5)
Overall great update!

zelgadissan · Apr 28, 2009, 12:46 PM // 12:46

Equipment Pack: **** (4/5)
The existence of these is amazing. The grind involved with getting the big one - the one that everybody who actually needs an equipment pack is wanting - is retarded.

Xunlai Storage: *** (4/5)
Didn't want to buy them (I did buy some), but overall extra storage is gravy.

Zaishen Challenge Quests: **** (4/5)
This might get 5 stars if it gets PvE'ers to do PvP, likewise the other way. Also it's bringing back PuG's, which I haven't decided if it's good or not.

Zaishen Coins: *** (3/5)
Great system, but the prices for some things (namely the Heavy Equipment Pack) are just ridiculously insane. Add in that I still can't combine all my character's Zcoins and it's average.

Zaishen Menagerie: (?/?)
Been there, talked to dudes, haven't done anything with it. Can't really grade it.

Nicolas the Traveler: ****** (9001/5)
Best part of the update. By far. Amazing.

Hall of Monuments: now account wide: ***** (5/5)
It's funny seeing all my characters in each other's armor.

New character customisation: **** (4/5)
Losing a star because there's no way to pay for it through in-game money, but overall it's a great system.

Abedeus · Apr 28, 2009, 12:50 PM // 12:50

Quote:

New character customisation:: ***** (5/5)
Love it, don't cry it costs you some cash, just work an hour.

Don't be ignorant. A lot of people are not of the legal age to work.

Also, I don't think most of you understand "Miscellaneous". It means "other updates". There were no other updates except for minor bug fixes.

Shadow of Cantha · Apr 28, 2009, 01:02 PM // 13:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Earth

Miscellanious *** (2/5)
"There will be no skill update because we want to have a perfect update without any bugs." - Yes, it sure is a "perfect" update without any bugs or glitches, hmm? wtb skill update

Don't give them anymore ideas!!