The Guild Wars 2 Thread

[Shannow]

Ah, my pet peeve. KotC was a lot more streamlined in inventory, character sheet, crafting, etc than NWN2. It also was way better than NWN2 in those aspects. (And many others )

No, it wasn't way better than nwn2 in those aspects. Crafting was just as (if not even more) broken, lack of skills points bothered me due to the lack of disable device, mainly, because all the others wouldn't really be utilised anywhere and the inventory had no encumbrance probably so you could lift all those hundreds of plate armours the enemies were dropping.

No delayed right-clicks to open up delayed item information. No clunky delayed clicking around to close the again. No running around searching for crafting stations, clunky delayed opening inventory+crafting station, clunky delayed opening recepy book, checking if you have everything, realizing one small thing is missing, closing everything again, having to area change to get to the merchant, clunky delayed buying what you need. Doing it all again, then realizing Sand lacks one point in crafting to craft the item. Companion changing to get that bard with his moronic skill-enhancing song. Doing it ALL AGAIN TO FINALLY CRAFT YOUR FUCKING SHIT ITEM THAT YOU DIDN'T REALLY NEED IN THE FIRST PLACE BECAUSE YOU ARE FORCE FED OVERPOWERED ITEMS ALL THE TIME ANYWAY. vs. open panel, check if you have the experience, level and gold required and get an overpowered item, that is actually quite useful because the game is not a walk in the park, early... Nope, KotC is way, way better for being streamlined. Would I have liked recepies requiring additional resources and skills? Yes. But I still like the streamlined process much better.

 

[Darth Roxor]

There's a difference between streamlining to increase convenience (removing hundreds of unneeded and wonky menus) and streamlining to increase the fanbase (ACTIONY!!!111 combat, bunnyhopping around like a retard, having 8k hp at level 45, 'people like big numbers', generic and universal attributes - strength, intelligence, etc, 'hexes that aren't hexes', instawin button elite skills, and the list goes on). After watching the 45 minutes of this gamescom presentation, the only things I liked were, what, character creation and pretty landscapes? Everything else was mostly ruined by all the clusterfucks that ensue almost fucking everywhere due to all the other people running around. That fight with the dragon was like one giant 'I can't see shit captain'. Then comes the shoddy and artificial voice acting where everyone sounds like they're talking with this face: "" . I only waited for 'I saw a centaur today, horrible creatures'. Also - let's water some crops in the middle of combat and feed some cows afterwards. It makes you feel like a hero! All those people playing Everquest liked it, let's use it too!

Hello, generic fucking fantasy mmo. RIP Guild Wars, you'll be missed.

 

[Shannow]

There's a difference between streamlining to increase convenience (removing hundreds of unneeded and wonky menus) and streamlining to increase the fanbase

"Streamlining" isn't automatically a bad thing. It can simply mean that you need less clicks, get more information while doing the same thing as before.
If you want to bitch, you always need to go into specifics.

I even put it into OT-tags. Sorry Darth but

 

[Darth Roxor]

Fun, raeg must have blinded me so much that I didn't even notice that sentence.

 

[Exmit]

anyone can tell me how guild wars 1 played? because i never tried it.


The art concept in GW 2 looks very very good.

 

[Mangoose]

I can't fucking believe I'm reading this on the Codex of all places.

Holy selective quoting, batman. They want to increase the fan-base since you actually need people in order to populate the persistent world in GW2, as opposed to just instancing in GW1. And yes, there are a lot of people that play GW1, but a good many are PVPers, and Anet needs people that want to PVE in order to populate the persistent world.

Skill combinations? Let me tell you about skill combinations. Searing flames + glowing gaze. Sever artery + gash. Dismember + axe twist + axe rake. Backfire + wastrel's worry. And the list goes on.

Man, it's good that they're all adding those things.

Skill combinations between classes, fucker.

What does the character on the screen do? Yup, dodge around like a retard.

Dodging costs 10% of all your endurance, you CAN'T dodge around like a retard.

After watching the 45 minutes of this gamescom presentation, the only things I liked were, what, character creation and pretty landscapes? Everything else was mostly ruined by all the clusterfucks that ensue almost fucking everywhere due to all the other people running around.

Yeah man they should've played like experts even though they've only played the game for like 10 minutes.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Skill combinations between classes, fucker.

Oh, then you mean stuff like barrage + splinter weapon? Diversion + glyph of essence? Arcane echo + all spells in existence? Aura of displacement + mystic sandstorm? Spirit's strength + various other classes' attack skills?

Thank god they're finally adding all this stuff! Oh wait, not quite, thanks to the lack of secondary professions, which means you'll have to rely on retards.

Dodging costs 10% of all your endurance, you CAN'T dodge around like a retard.

Good thing we have the mana potions, then. Not to mention the sheer stupidity of a single dodge making an enemy's attack useless.

Yeah man they should've played like experts even though they've only played the game for like 10 minutes.

Nice strawman you've set up there. I don't mean they should be superpros, I'm saying that seeing all these hordes of people covering the whole bloody screen and leading to a gigantic clusterfuck, where you can't tell what the fuck is going on is BAD. It's a disgrace to GW1's tactical legacy. Now you just have forty people, who act like single people and not a party, spamming skills on random incoming enemies, who are supposed to grow in numbers, the more the players. I'd love to see how they balance this in a way other than 'MORE PLAYERS = MORE MONSTERS!!!!!!' instead of 'MORE PLAYERS = MORE TACTICAL POSSIBILITIES AGAINST BETTER-PREPARED MONSTERS'. This is level-scaling at its finest, just with 'level' replaced by 'amount'.

 

[Mangoose]

Good thing we have the mana potions, then

Yeah, because we know they are THAT spammable. Anyways, you can keep the skyway facade while I adopt a wait and see method.

Not to mention the sheer stupidity of a single dodge making an enemy's attack useless.

:Not sure if serious:

Nice strawman you've set up there. I don't mean they should be superpros, I'm saying that seeing all these hordes of people covering the whole bloody screen and leading to a gigantic clusterfuck, where you can't tell what the fuck is going on is BAD. It's a disgrace to GW1's tactical legacy. Now you just have forty people, who act like single people and not a party, spamming skills on random incoming enemies, who are supposed to grow in numbers, the more the players. I'd love to see how they balance this in a way other than 'MORE PLAYERS = MORE MONSTERS!!!!!!' instead of 'MORE PLAYERS = MORE TACTICAL POSSIBILITIES AGAINST BETTER-PREPARED MONSTERS'. This is level-scaling at its finest, just with 'level' replaced by 'amount'.

It would be bad if that were the only form of gameplay available. But for those coordinated groups wanting more hardcore gameplay, there are dungeons waiting.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Yeah, because we know they are THAT spammable. Anyways, you can keep the skyway facade while I adopt a wait and see method.

I had a huge boner about GW2 before Gamescom. When I saw some news about it, I became cautiously optimistic and adopted 'wait and see'. When I saw all the previews from Gamescom, nearly all my optimism faded away. When a beta comes, and it's as shitty as these vids, I'm sure as fuck not going to buy this game.

:Not sure if serious:

I AM USING MY ELITE SKILL THAT HAS 720 RECHARGE AND DRAINS ME DRY OF MANA!!!!

*dodge*

Oh, crud!

It would be bad if that were the only form of gameplay available. But for those coordinated groups wanting more hardcore gameplay, there are dungeons waiting.

'So, aspiring champion. You want to play the game with no retards getting in the way of your sightseeing? Go raid dungeons FOREVER and avoid any contact with normal areas! What, you mean you want to limit interaction with other players to a minimum? Oh, tough luck then because we're kicking this cooperative, persistent, massive, epic, streamlined experience INTO OVERDRIVE!!!!'

 

[Mangoose]

I AM USING MY ELITE SKILL THAT HAS 720 RECHARGE AND DRAINS ME DRY OF MANA!!!!

*dodge*

Oh, crud!

Now I'm not sure if you actually watched Gamescom.

'So, aspiring champion. You want to play the game with no retards getting in the way of your sightseeing? Go raid dungeons FOREVER and avoid any contact with normal areas! What, you mean you want to limit interaction with other players to a minimum? Oh, tough luck then because we're kicking this cooperative, persistent, massive, epic, streamlined experience INTO OVERDRIVE!!!!'

You are not skyway.

 

[made]

Surely there must be dungeons/instanced areas to grind loot in. Don't tell me the only epix drop from those public quest chests and everyone who participates ends up wearing the same stuff.

I've watched the presentation and it looks promising, but having played the WAR trial where public quests were a huge clusterfuck of noobs doing anything but work together, I'm a bit skeptic if that's supposed to be how the entire game plays.

 

[Berekän]

It would be bad if that were the only form of gameplay available. But for those coordinated groups wanting more hardcore gameplay, there are dungeons waiting.

Five-Fucking-Man-Dungeons

 

[Ulminati]

having played the WAR trial where public quests were a huge clusterfuck of noobs doing anything but work together, I'm a bit skeptic if that's supposed to be how the entire game plays.

There were a few that were quite good. The orcs vs dwarves PQ, where the orcs were attacking a wall the dwarves were defending often turned into a glorious PvP free-for-all with cannons and catapults.

 

[Angthoron]

Have the system requirements been announced yet? The presentation claims that the game would run on "a mid-range system", but frankly with that amount of shaders I doubt the statement a little.

 

[Data4]

So I watched those three videos of the Gamescom presentation. Huh... Looks... fun, actually. I never did play GW1, because I'm not a fan of having the entire gameworld instanced.

The video explained that opening sequences and your "home" area are instanced, but how much of the rest of the world is so? The event system looks pretty snazzy, but I also like my standard party-based dungeon crawling. What kind of opportunities for that are in GW2?

I guess this is directed towards Annie, but if anyone else knows for sure, I'd like to hear.

 

[Berekän]

The video explained that opening sequences and your "home" area are instanced, but how much of the rest of the world is so? The event system looks pretty snazzy, but I also like my standard party-based dungeon crawling. What kind of opportunities for that are in GW2?

There are some instanced dungeons where you can enter with just your made party, but those are limited to just 5 members.

 

[Data4]

The video explained that opening sequences and your "home" area are instanced, but how much of the rest of the world is so? The event system looks pretty snazzy, but I also like my standard party-based dungeon crawling. What kind of opportunities for that are in GW2?

There are some instanced dungeons where you can enter with just your made party, but those are limited to just 5 members.

Cool. I prefer smaller groups anyway. Large scale raids requiring coordination and everyone knowing their role are always a PITA when you're not in a guild. It's easy to round up 4 other people, especially since you don't have to hunt down a decent healer.

 

[Wulfstand]

First PAX vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMq7RDIphiA&feature=sub

 

[Mangoose]

The compilation of PAX info: http://www.guildwars2guru.com/forum/ult ... t7870.html

 

[Angthoron]

In case Annie (or anyone else that knows the answer to this) is browsing, would it be possible to invite other people to your personal home instance thing, a-la LotRO, or is it purely a solitary place?

Edit: Nevermind, found the answer to this, and it's possible to invite others to your own home instance. Neat-o.

 

[Mangoose]

First PAX vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMq7RDIphiA&feature=sub

Part 2 of that vid is of the Dynamic Events panell, which I'm sure most of us are interested in: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBJ8-N1PTHc

 

[Mangoose]

Just skimmed the Gw2guru discussion about elite skills and found an interesting factoid:

We had the same discussion with fear.

turns out that it's removable and only ~2 seconds in pvp. Even knockdowns are stronger.

So, essentially, certain skills will be treated differently in PVP than in PVE. So this could possibly include the 12-min elite skills or the constant potting.

Any comments on this, Annie?

 

[Shannow]

Look at current GW skills. Full of different effects in PVE and PVP (mostly duration and recharge but sometimes actual "effect") with a whole slew of PVE-only skills. GW:EN is already much like what I expect from GW2. Mini-games, dungeons, no death and stuff. And it's actually quite good, although I suck at "Polymock".

EDIT: Answer some of the questions I've seen popping up. Especially the instances part: http://www.guildwars2guru.com/forum/gam ... t6034.html

EDIT2:

It should be noted though, that dynamic events do not scale to player level. Instead, player level will be scaled to dynamic events, thus higher level players may replay low level content without it feeling dull or ruining it for other newbies.

LOL, GW2 doesn't scale to your level.

 

[Angthoron]

I do wonder how they intend to pull off a tank/healerless MMO that isn't declinefully easy though. Crowd control is one thing, but I'm not entirely sure that's enough for, say, raids?

 

[Shannow]

I do wonder how they intend to pull off a tank/healerless MMO that isn't declinefully easy though. Crowd control is one thing, but I'm not entirely sure that's enough for, say, raids?

I suspect it will be "declinefully easy" for the most part. GW1 is so too. In GW:EN not even party-wipes make you "lose" anymore as they did in the other camaign's missions. But there're always elite areas and challenges that are hard. With decently equipped heroes a two man team can take on 95% of GW1 if they know what they're doing. I've been doing so with a pal since heroes were introduced. But 5% (of PvE) remains that's only possible with a planned group of real people that know what they are doing.
With partly fixed skills and more self-reliance I suspect GW2 will be even easier to get a hang of and thus easier in general.
But since there are no classes with dedicated roles anymore, working together synergetically will be more of a challenge. So areas/missions can be balanced accordingly.
Perhaps, easy: As long as more than 70% of the players are spamming attack-skills and not AFKing, they'll succeed in the "mission".
medium: People need to be active and use the full range of their skills.
hard: People need to work together, call targets, intelligently use their skills, need knowledge how to counteract their enemies and not "Leeroy Jenkins" everywhere.
elite: People need positioning, need to know the other classes to know what they can and cannot do, need knowledge of their team-mates builds and all that was required on "hard" on a higher level.