acapela.8215

Thanks to everyone for their comments. So, I finally finished this on one of my two accounts (I expect the second account to go much more quickly). The basic strategy of ignoring whatever guide you are using for reference, and just following the light pulses and positioning mirrors empirically until they reflect the pulses was generally sound. However, with most of the indoor puzzles simply following the pulses is not feasible. The route through the indoor environments is generally discontinuous (Raven Gates, jumping/climbing/falling, backtracking... in general pathing through a "labyrinth"), so for the complete neophyte, referring to a guide is probably advisable. At this point, I do agree that the basic premise of my original post was incorrect, and the other posters are correct: other players cannot interfere with light puzzles in progress. Each player is given a private "state" throughout for these light puzzles, and can proceed through them without interference. However, the puzzles do indeed time out. As well, I have noticed the occasional mirror (always in the middle of the puzzle, including the mirror I most recently positioned... this appeared to be random) resetting before the rest of the puzzle times out (I assume this is an intermittent bug of some sort). As well, at least one of the outdoor puzzles passes through a Raven Barrier, which timed out relatively rapidly (much more rapidly than the mirrors do), reactivated, and blocked the passage of the light pulses; this required me to backtrack and re-open the Barrier; fortunately this was close to the finish of the puzzle, and I was well within the global timeout for that puzzle as a whole, so I did not have to re-start the whole thing. You only need one pulse to strike the little shrine at the end of the puzzle. Consistent with other players' experience, I also experienced problems with chests. For instance, in the Tower puzzle (3-part, indoors), I completed each of the sub-puzzles and collected their individual chests, presumably within the timeout for each sub-puzzle. But the final large chest did not spawn. I assume this is another form of timeout (each of the 3 sub-puzzles had their own timeouts, which I did not violate, but I took too long to complete all 3 sub-puzzles within some sort of timeout for the Tower as a whole, and so did not receive the final/global reward, which includes achievement credit as well as the large chest). I re-did the Tower (all 3 sub-puzzles, which were still pretty fresh in memory) from the beginning, and the final large chest did ultimately spawn. Finally, part of "Luminiferous" consists of the puzzles in Bjora Marches East originally contained in "Luminary", plus the "Luminary" meta-achievement itself (though some of these puzzles are named differently in "Luminiferous" versus "Luminary", which could be confusing if you are extremely literal-minded, like I am). In working the Bjora Marches East puzzles comprising "Luminary" (which I had not yet done), I received credit for each of them under both "Luminiferous" and "Luminary" simultaneously, but upon overall completion, and after receiving credit for "Luminary" in itself, I did not receive credit under "Luminiferous" for completing "Luminary". After a moment of panic (and a bit of outrage... what, ANOTHER bug!?!), I decided to try relogging, and this did the trick. Everything completed, I was awarded that pesky mastery point, and went away happy.

I second this concern. It would be nice if these champs lasted more than 15-20 seconds. 90-120 seconds would be better. Enough that simple transit time across a map with a minimal distribution of waypoints does not turn out to be a show-stopper. As well, so we don't have to unrealistically presume on the general level of "socialization" (versus sociopathy?) among our fellow players, please incorporate some sort of announcement when things like this spawn, identifying the type of champ and the general location, or better yet, an indication on the map globally visible on the map from anywhere in the zone. Please feel free to do this all of this now, and in the future. Makework is makework. We do not necessarily expect to "enjoy" it intrinsically, nor are the rewards typically an inducement for sustained participation (case in point: once I got my mastery point from "Party Guardian"... I departed, never to return). The complexity and aggregate duration of things like this, all of that is a design decision. But minimizing senseless frustration, making it possible for people to get things done without being "cheated" out of the intermediate milestones on a regular basis, would be helpful. Unless, of course, it is your intention that "makework" be frustrating, and your game be something other than "fun"? (Alternatively, perhaps you could deliver "makework" that is not "makework"... something that is intrinsically interesting, with sufficient inducement for regular replay, etc?)

Finally... completed "Plant Banners to Challenge the Svanir", on both my accounts in rapid succession. The patrol events documented on the wiki are indeed the relevant events. I did this at [&BCgMAAA=]. Solo, it is a little easier at this location: fewer ambient mobs hanging around to get pulled in, easier to string the event-specific target mobs out and kill them one or two at a time in a controlled fashion, to insure you "stomp" essences and fill the "trial preparation" progress bar before ending the event. Two successive trial event spawns, both "worked", no bug(s) were evident. Perhaps they have fixed the bug (server-side patch of some sort?), perhaps I just got lucky. Hope all this helps others.

Make perfect sense. I am missing some "domain specific vocabulary". Would not be the first time. Thanks.

Yeah, that's the trick. I actually did not look at the text in the F-key prompt that pops up (i.e. when you are adjacent to anything with which you can interact). Maybe it does actually say "stomp". If memory serves, all the items on the ground dropped in the course of all the "Koda Trials" are indeed labelled "essence(s)", and the documentation emerging on the Wiki certainly refers to these things as essence(s). Anyway, I would have been a lot less confused if people had said "interact with the essence(s) dropped by the mob(s), using the F-key", instead of "stomp". I am a software engineer in real life, I have trained myself to use descriptive phrases, rather than euphemisms (at least until a clear domain vocabulary develops between myself and the customer), and the rigor of that approach probably affects my own thinking. I read/hear something like "stomp", and my response invariably is "EXACTLY, step by step, please describe what you mean by 'stomp'. Ahh, OK, so that is 'stomp'. Be advised, if the meaning of 'stomp' changes at some point, we will need to have this discussion again." The alternative is, unfortunately, a lot of tail chasing (which is a great way to waste time and effort).

Second guessing myself again. No-one has explained the precise mechanics of this "stomp" operation. This poster also doesn't indicate where this was done. I suspect we are all talking about the same thing, there is just a bug that results in (very) intermittent success. I want the blasted mastery point from "Koda Be Praised"... otherwise I would just blow this off, like I blow off everything else that involves unnecessary/senseless makework (such as redoing something ad infinitum hoping to work around a bug).

Not very helpful, I am afraid (though it makes somewhat more sense after participating in the event), but thanks for responding anyway. Anyway, this finally happened to me, in a rocky defile just a few paces south/east of [&BDQMAAA=] (in Bjora Marches East). Interestingly it happened serially, several times in rapid succession, not during the Drakkar event in Bjora Marches West, and then finally once during the Drakkar event. After several occurrences, it stopped happening. I have no idea if it coincides with any other events elsewhere in Bjora Marches, with or without a delay. I would have no idea how to predict it. I was at 30 charges of Resilience 3 when I did all this. The patrol spawns as a "Koda Trial" event, triangular golden icon, etc. A "normal" patrol is not relevant. So, it does appear you do have to wait for the "Koda Trial". The "Koda Trial" patrol spawns (comprised of various Fallen in this part of the map), as an event, not unlike the "normal" patrol event. There is a progress bar integrated into the display for the event (which appears as a normal event display, on the right side of the screen). When patrol mobs die, they drop an "essence", as an object on the ground, marked in the game world and on the map with a little "hand" icon. Interacting with these (F-key interaction, and you must basically be standing on them, even a short distance away is not sufficient) incrementally fills the progress bar on the event display. Nothing appears in your inventory as a consequence.These "essences" despawn quickly, so use them or lose them. During interaction with an essence, an expanding circular targeting grid appears on the ground, suggesting "danger". Indeed, completion of interaction with each essence does appear to do some damage to you (i.e. the player character). Have a self-heal ready. Filling the progress bar constitutes completion of the "trial primer" or "preparation" for the trial (for me, it required interaction with about 5 essences, total). At this point a golden triangle "Koda Trial" object appears on a flat rock adjacent to the rocky defile mentioned above, and is marked on the map. Interacting with this object summons a "Champion Koda Berserker", with a time limit. This is presumably the "leader of the enemy patrol". This guy is fairly nasty, and engages in some sort of "retaliation" mechanic that is fairly dangerous. Be prepared to resurrect fellow players on a regular basis (hopefully others will do the same for you). Killing this champion concludes the "Koda Trial" event. I participated in "trial preparation" and killing the champion half a dozen times. I received credit for the "Daily Trial of Koda" achievement, but I did not receive credit toward the "Plant Banners to Challenge the Svanir" sub-achievement of "Koda be Praised". Perhaps this is due to bugs, as various contributors to this thread have speculated. Finally, there appears to be a wiki page for "Koda be Praised": "https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Koda_Be_Praised". The section on "Plant Banners to Challenge the Svanir" is a bit sketchy, but will probably improve as time passes. So that is a summary of the mechanics/play experience for the event people have been describing in this forum thread. All of this closely resembles the mechanics of other "Koda Trial" events. HOWEVER, I remain unclear as to how the event being described in this forum thread has anything to do with "Plant[ing] Banners to Challenge the Svanir" (the patrol I fought was Fallen, the champ I fought was Koda, and nothing to do with this event involved a "planting banners" mechanic... all comes across as a but of a non-sequitur). This leaves me second guessing as to whether we are discussing the correct event (through this seems to be the last remaining "Koda Trial", so is probably the correct event, and a bug of some sort seems likely). I still have no practical idea how to complete the "Koda be Praised" achievement (I remain stuck on 4/5). I am going to try to catch this particular "Koda Trial" event in the other two parts of the map ([&BB4MAAA=] and [&BCgMAAA=], which will be comprised of Aberrant and Svanir), and see if that does the trick. Other posters have suggested repetition has been a viable workaround for the suspected bug, so maybe that is the trick. I will update if I actually succeed in getting anywhere with "Koda be Praised"/"Plant Banners to Challenge the Svanir".

I have killed "patrols" (event targets marked with crossed swords) at those 3x locations more times than I can count, including just moments before writing this. I have never been offered any sort of "stomp" action (and as far as I can tell, there is no "/stomp" emote). I have never seen any sort of "progress bar". I have never seen a triangular golden "Koda Trial" icon associated with any of these locations or events. None of this makes any sense. So, can you explain exactly what (in terms of specific sequence of operations) you mean by "stomp"? How do you tell whether "stomp" is available (i.e. what appears on the user interface)? What key sequence do you employ to execute a stomp (just a simple "interaction"/F-key)? Do you need a target in order to "stomp", or is proximity sufficient? Where does this progress bar appear on the overall user interface? At what point in the process does this "patrol" event turn into a "Koda Trial"? Is this mainly an issue of waiting until you see a "Koda Trial" icon on the map, before any of this is possible (suggesting that some of these patrol events spawn as just a "plain" event, which is what I assume I have always seen, and some of these events spawn as a "Koda Trial", which I have not yet seen)? Are there any prerequisites for this event to appear as a "Koda Trial" (I have completed 4 of the 5 achievements that comprise "Koda Be Praised"... what about other achievements? For instance, do I need to complete the Bjora Marches story first?)?

Attempting "Lighting the Way" (one of the stages of the Luminiferous" achievement), which takes you all around Bjora Marches West, through the tunnel to Aberrant Forest, and then around Bjora Marches East... the light pulses simply ceased a significant way through (I was well into Bjora Marches East when they ceased). (However, the fact is, in attempting these achievements I have observed the light pulses to cease almost immediately, for instance between the emitter and the first mirror, or between the first and second mirrors, etc, which suggests either the environment can interfere with emitter/mirrors, the game is sensitive to the player's route from mirror to mirror, there are defects in this emitter/mirror mechanism, or any combination.) I see no timer on my condition bar, nor any other indication of a time limit. On "Lighting the Way" I was indeed going slowly, pausing regularly to refer to video guide on YouTube. Perhaps it is expected that the player repeat the process as many times as necessary to learn the route and mirror settings by rote, so the player can proceed from one mirror to another without pausing (such as to view a guide)? Given the length of some of these routes, how long it takes simply to traverse the routes mirror to mirror, plus the aggregate time it takes simply to turn mirrors, much less the apparent requirement to know route/mirror orientation in advance, putting the player on a time limit (or allowing anything to fiddle with the emitter or the mirrors while the player is en-route), just generally, and especially without any sort of timer display... all I can say is: "bleah!" So, I am going to abandon Shadow in the Ice specifically, and Guild Wars 2 generally, for a while. "Luminiferous", combined with the "Party Guardian" achievement (in which targets would spawn and be killed before the majority of the players on the map could even arrive, or for which often no spawn notification was ever provided), all of which I have tried to rush in just a couple of play sessions, and all of which are IMO evidence of less than stellar game design, has resulted in a very high frustration level. Avoiding the whole game for a week or so sounds like a GREAT idea. (When I resume "Luminiferous", I am going to follow whatever route is indicated "intuitively" by the path of the light pulses, and I am going to assume only one orientation of each mirror is relevant and that all other orientations "swallow"/fail to propagate the light pulse... this should allow me to skip referring to a guide, at least on outdoor puzzles with long sight-lines like "Lighting the Way", and should hopefully speed things up.)

Perhaps I am mistaken then. But even when I did not fall from the jumping puzzle, the light pulse would stop, I would turn around and see another player standing next to the last mirror, which was disarranged. Awfully suspicious. I will watch more carefully to see what happens when I fall from the jumping puzzle, and how far away from the seegment of the jumping puzzle I am working on I have to go to get back onto the track.

I am trying to do this achievement. I enter one of the jumping puzzles, start the beam pulsing, proceed to incrementally arrange the mirrors, then someone enters behind me and either disables the pulsing beam or disarranges one or more of the mirrors, seemingly just out of curiosity (and in ignorance that someone may be trying to do something with the relevant mechanisms). I have to start all over again. Part way through, the process repeats with someone new. Then I have to start all over again. This is even when I am doing this on a map that is in the process of closing. There are still enough people on the map to destroy my runs, repeatedly. Hours into this circus, it has become a kind of water torture, or sleep deprivation. Does anyone have any suggestions? Or am I just doomed to rinse/repeat this until I somehow "get lucky" and complete each one (there are 11 jumping puzzles for the achievement) before someone yanks it out from under me? Any help appreciated. Update: on top of that, I finally finished "Lighting the Hidden Tower", collected all 3 of the small chests, received credit for each of them... and then the main/large chest needed for the "Luminiferous" achievement did not spawn. So, I will have to wait for server reset, and try the "Hidden Tower" again. Final update: first full run of "Hidden Tower" was bugged. Changed maps, let the server reset, did it all again (much more quickly, I had done each segment before), picked up each of the small chests, and the final big chest spawned.

Over and over and over again, the champion spawns, is called, and is killed by those camping it before ANYONE ELSE ON THE MAP can even get to the spot. Consequence? If you want to even have a chance, you have to pick one of the spots where a champion you need spawns, and camp it. If it doesn't spawn, oh well, better luck next time. This means you spend the majority of your time camping, in between camping for the next meta event. Sorry, but I don't find this non-game sort of "game" to be very much fun. Given the nature of this community these days (and I fear my respect for it has deteriorated severely in the last couple of days), this was IMO easily predicted. Unfortunately, this means this achievement was designed to be this way. Very disappointing. Leaves me rather apathetic about the game as a whole.