ArenaNet: Fractals of the Mists Dungeon Improvements

[Izzy]

Link to the article.

Hello, everyone! I’m Isaiah Cartwright, lead designer on Guild Wars 2. I wanted to talk to you about two upcoming changes to the fractal dungeons: reconnect and party-tier improvements.

Currently, if a party member disconnects from a fractal dungeon run, they are unable to rejoin, which can cause a lot of issues for that player and their party. Our new system will allow players who disconnect to reconnect to their party and jump back into the dungeon. We certainly understand how frustrating this situation can be, and would like to apologize for the delay on this fix.



We’ve also made a few changes to the way party-level restrictions work. Currently, players who want to join a party are limited to the lowest fractal level in the party. This makes it difficult for lower fractal-level players to find parties, so we’ve modified the party-level restrictions to allow players of any fractal level to group up. At party creation, players can choose any fractal level up to the highest fractal level in the party. Upon completion of the fractal run, all players equal to or lower than the chosen fractal level will have their fractal level increased by one. All players above the chosen fractal level will gain karma, but their fractal level will not increase. Rewards from the fractal will be based on players’ personal reward level as long as the reward level is equal to or lower than the chosen fractal level. For example:

• Player 1 (fractal level 2)
• Player 2 (fractal level 21)
• Player 3 (fractal level 21)
• Player 4 (fractal level 21)
• Player 5 (fractal level 53)

Player 2 makes the party and sets the fractal level to 21, and the party goes on to beat three fractals. Here are the fractal-level results after the run:

• Player 1 (fractal level 3)
• Player 2 (fractal level 22)
• Player 3 (fractal level 22)
• Player 4 (fractal level 22)
• Player 5 (still fractal level 53, but gains karma for helping)

The goal is to allow everyone to play together and make partying less restrictive for everyone. We plan to ship these two features at the end of January.

Thanks for playing!

[Vayne]

Good one! Go Anet!

[Alycaea]

Thanks for posting the article Izzy - the official site is blocked at work heh - glad to see the changes being implemented

[Fey]

Good one! Go Anet!

Ugh... Yeah. Fantastic idea. But they should have done this in the first place. It really feels like a no brainer to add to the list of other things they didn't actually consider. ><

[Steel]

Hmmm I think it needs more working on though. I can see it now, pugging for a odd lvl fractal like 15 or 17 and getting a bunch of lvl 1 fractal players joining without knowing what's what. Will make looking for grps a lot easier but a lvl 3 fractal player I don't think belongs in a lvl 21 fractal imo. Anyone else think there should be a cutoff like if the party is trying for a lvl 15 fractal the lowest you can join as would be a lvl 7-14 or the likes?

[gw2videoclips]

Just created a video on this subject! A very welcome change to GW2 and I personally cannot wait for it to be implemented

[Bell]

Hmmm I think it needs more working on though. I can see it now, pugging for a odd lvl fractal like 15 or 17 and getting a bunch of lvl 1 fractal players joining without knowing what's what. Will make looking for grps a lot easier but a lvl 3 fractal player I don't think belongs in a lvl 21 fractal imo. Anyone else think there should be a cutoff like if the party is trying for a lvl 15 fractal the lowest you can join as would be a lvl 7-14 or the likes?

I think this is one of the things that will get sorted out by the playerbase itself. They are usually pretty exclusive and will want to do it in the easiest way possible, which would naturally be finding a player of the appropriate fractal lvl.
But I think for guilds that are able to play better together than pugs this is a great addition, as they will have an easier time getting groups going.
But I also think that the mentioned example is a bit crass. I think it will rather work in a way that people start looking for players lvl 1-10, lvl 11-20 or something like that. I think few players will be willing to join up for a high lvl with an absolute noob that knows nothing about the dungeon. But for those that have the experience of high lvl fractals, but want to improve the fractal level of an alt it is also a nice option to do so with their normal group.