Guild Wars 2

Here is my theory on why we will never get guild capes: Back items are the meta rewards a lot of the time. If they release guild capes, it would completely negate my working toward any other back item ever again. Capes are that cool. They have your guild logo on them. They rock. The reason given that Charr can’t wear them etc. is bunk. Just design a cape that works on Charr. Nothing says Charr can’t have a different type of cape that works for them.

That’s my theory on why it has never happened and never will. But hey, the “Guild CDI” is coming up next week. Maybe capes are one of the avenues we need to pursue as a community again. Then again, there are other things that I think are more important than, “just another backpiece” since we have too many in the game as it is, in my humble opinion.

When people say charr can’t wear them, they mean that its not worth the resources to the to design capes that can work on all races.

Look how little effort they put into making armor look good on Charr or even Asura. Lots of clipping issues. Capes would be much harder.

If you are interested in the topic, the team that worked on Batman Arkam Asylum talked about how hard it is to get capes to render properly.

Ehy! Capes are not “just another backpiece”, they are THE backpiece, capes bring color, epicness and identity.

I hope ANet is still working on them.

I would be happy if a dev would reply on this topic. So we know if there’s still some kind of hope or not. Even if the cape is 2000gems, I would Buy it.

As an additional downside, do you know how computationally expensive it would be to render capes in a game like GW2? Its far more than current back items. In large fights everyone wearing a cape could seriously cut framerate.

So not only do you need to create well animated capes, but you have to optimize it so it works well when you have 50+ capes on the screen. Thats a lot of graphic developer time that could be spent on something else.

sirian.4981:

As an additional downside, do you know how computationally expensive it would be to render capes in a game like GW2? Its far more than current back items. In large fights everyone wearing a cape could seriously cut framerate.

So not only do you need to create well animated capes, but you have to optimize it so it works well when you have 50+ capes on the screen. Thats a lot of graphic developer time that could be spent on something else.

We already have the fix for that. It’s called not having your character model limit + quality at highest and highest.

Umm theres lots of official game art depicting capes/cloaks. I think it’ll happen eventually, because this is guild wars, and guild wars needs halls and capes.

Duke Blackrose.4981:

sirian.4981:

As an additional downside, do you know how computationally expensive it would be to render capes in a game like GW2? Its far more than current back items. In large fights everyone wearing a cape could seriously cut framerate.

So not only do you need to create well animated capes, but you have to optimize it so it works well when you have 50+ capes on the screen. Thats a lot of graphic developer time that could be spent on something else.

We already have the fix for that. It’s called not having your character model limit + quality at highest and highest.

Do you see why “Introducing capes means everyone has to lower their graphical settings when capes are on screen” might deter Arenanet from introducing capes?

That capes are costing rendering problems are just speculations. As long as arenanet doesn’t confirmed anything, everything is still possible.

sirian.4981:

Duke Blackrose.4981:

sirian.4981:

As an additional downside, do you know how computationally expensive it would be to render capes in a game like GW2? Its far more than current back items. In large fights everyone wearing a cape could seriously cut framerate.

So not only do you need to create well animated capes, but you have to optimize it so it works well when you have 50+ capes on the screen. Thats a lot of graphic developer time that could be spent on something else.

We already have the fix for that. It’s called not having your character model limit + quality at highest and highest.

Do you see why “Introducing capes means everyone has to lower their graphical settings when capes are on screen” might deter Arenanet from introducing capes?

Who in the world plays with maxed out model limits and qualities in the first place?

The only time these settings (and the graphical “struggles” created by capes) would even matter is in zerg situations. And in a zerg, graphical identity becomes a non-thing in the first place. Which means that, even without capes, you’re probably going to either:
1) Reduce the number of players you see and keep their quality up, preserving some sense of identity (this being the case in PvE zergs)
Or
2) Kill the quality of models to instantly identify friend from foe and reduce any possible lag (in WvW).

At no point would capes create a situation that isn’t frequently utilized already.

i never liked capes in gw1(always hid mine) and dont really care if they implement them in gw2. i know some people like them but they were never my cup of tea but im not to saying no to capes just stating my opinion

I am not opposed to capes, but I have no desire for them, either. Always hid mine in GW, as well. Much rather the Devs spent those resources on something else.

I know not everyone like capes, I respect every opinion.
But hey, at least a cape looks cooler then a pink quaggan backpack. They have tons of these silly backpacks. Time for some heroic looks now xD

We probably never going to get capes, regardless if it is guild cape.

has more to due w/ clipping issues than any conspiracy theory.
capes won’t work as a back item

now……incorporating a cape into into the design of an outfit skin would work perfectly, as you can’t mix and match and create odd clipping issues.

so i’d totally be for a “guild outfit”.

Capes in my opinion are overrated. In certain situations a cape defines a hero while in most other situations it just looks dorky. A cape on Batman for example defines him while Robin looked stupid. Superman with a cape looks good but try putting a cape on the Flash and it just does not fit.

Mind you, I also think the fairy wing backpack pieces, the quaggan backpack and most others look juvenile and end up hiding my back piece for most of my characters. If they had for example a scabbard backpiece for my GS Guardian I would show it as it fits the character. He just looks pathetic with a grade school quaggan backpack.

Costing computation power? Excuse me but we already have flabby, clothy, capey physics in the game. Draconic leggings, Arah heavy leggings, various other tassets and kilts, some focuses and even the winter dress. Obviously a cape would take more effort seeing as it goes from the very back of the neck, but not entire back has to have the free-ragdoll physics, there are many clever approaches and solutions to things that I’m sure given enough time and resources they’d come up with something decent.

Hoaxintelligence.4628:

That capes are costing rendering problems are just speculations. As long as arenanet doesn’t confirmed anything, everything is still possible.

It isn’t just speculation. This isn’t something specific to GW2. Every game with decent graphics has trouble with capes. Capes are not simple.

Its not just a question of rendering the cape, in order for the cape to flow properly and not clip the player, you need to render the characters body movement with the cape. This requires reworking how you render the entire character. Then you have to do it for each race. WoW solves this by using low res graphics and capes made of cardboard, but that won’t work with GW2 higher res graphics.

It would be a major step forward in graphical development if Arenanet found an easy way to render good looking capes.

Since capes cover the entire back, wouldn’t capes render most weapons carried there invisible? Would there be outlines of where the weapon/shield was? Would the cape move out of the way when the weapon was drawn for battle? Or would the weapons/shields just clip through the cape like many hairstyles do?

I’m not sure how great capes would look since we carry many of our weapons on our backs. /shrug

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Since capes cover the entire back, wouldn’t capes render most weapons carried there invisible? Would there be outlines of where the weapon/shield was? Would the cape move out of the way when the weapon was drawn for battle? Or would the weapons/shields just clip through the cape like many hairstyles do?

I’m not sure how great capes would look since we carry many of our weapons on our backs. /shrug

Realistically we would get something like the link below.

http://www.blogcdn.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/2008/03/425_back245.jpg?1206601074115

Cardboard capes with the weapon on top or clipping through. If they are good and invest significant resources into it, they could remodel each weapon to have minimal cape clipping. It would look much worse in GW2 than in WoW because GW2 characters move much more naturally and have a wider range of motion(what does the cape do when you roll?).

I expect if Arenanet did make this. We would just see a ton of whining about fixing capes.

I just can’t be okay with the idea of a Zephyr Rucksack being less complex than a Cape.

Seriously,it even has a bird with movement and all,if we can play the game with everyone using a Zephyr Rucksack,I can’t see how a cape would make people lag.

Sorean.5379:

I just can’t be okay with the idea of a Zephyr Rucksack being less complex than a Cape.

Seriously,it even has a bird with movement and all,if we can play the game with everyone using a Zephyr Rucksack,I can’t see how a cape would make people lag.

Thats because you don’t do graphical modeling and humans are not very good at estimating computational complexity. For physics purposes, the Rucksack can be treated as one big object. The object changes its position and orientation to match the character. Sure it does all these pretty animations, but those don’t care about the rest of the world. They are premade self contained animations. Thats cheap to render.

You could easily make a cape like this. Treat it as one object with a prerendered flowing animation, but it would look terrible because people expect their cape to match character movement. For capes, you would want to model the cape as a bunch of smaller objects that interaction with each other and the world. Thats where the complexity comes in.

I agree with Ice.5162

Ice.5162:

Costing computation power? Excuse me but we already have flabby, clothy, capey physics in the game. Draconic leggings, Arah heavy leggings, various other tassets and kilts, some focuses and even the winter dress. Obviously a cape would take more effort seeing as it goes from the very back of the neck, but not entire back has to have the free-ragdoll physics, there are many clever approaches and solutions to things that I’m sure given enough time and resources they’d come up with something decent.

And all of those objects will clip quite a lot. Check out where your characters hands are with those poofy dresses. Lots of this:

http://i.imgur.com/N2KMo.jpg

The problem with capes is that you spend 90% of the game looking at your characters back. So these clipping effects become very glaring.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Back-Piece-Ideas/first#post2755204

;)

Capes were clipping nightmares in GW1 (where there was only one race and weapons were absent in cities and permanently wielded in instances), I can only imagine how bad it’d be here.

I loved guild capes in gw1. We need a cool backpiece !

2 years in and no guild capes. It’s not going to happen, folks. All those things you loved about GW and are still waiting and hoping to see in GW2 ARE NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.

Chuo.4238:

2 years in and no guild capes. It’s not going to happen, folks. All those things you loved about GW and are still waiting and hoping to see in GW2 ARE NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.

I don’t agree with the “if they didn’t do it in 2 years they’ll never do it”.
Until there is an official statement I won’t lose hope.

Also, the Guild CDI is gonna start soon, maybe we’ll have the chance to talk about capes.

Implementation of Capes in another recently hyped game .. no clipping at all .. lol

Jandopo.2107:

Chuo.4238:

2 years in and no guild capes. It’s not going to happen, folks. All those things you loved about GW and are still waiting and hoping to see in GW2 ARE NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.

I don’t agree with the “if they didn’t do it in 2 years they’ll never do it”.
Until there is an official statement I won’t lose hope.

Also, the Guild CDI is gonna start soon, maybe we’ll have the chance to talk about capes.

You forget, they don’t make official statements. If they did, they’d either have to live up to them, or continue to take flak from the community for not living up to them.

Short answer: no capes, no official statement. Have hope, if you want, but don’t hold your breath.

Don’t disagree with the OPs opinion about displacing back items, but I think a much larger issue is the effects any decent cape animations would have on the Server infrastructure. I think they could easily add capes but what they could implement and NOT greatly effect Server performance would be considered lackluster and disappointing by most players.

Please recall that the “solid” non moving (very short) capes of GW1 were simply a banner on your back (that in no way moved fluidly) with your guild emblem on it. You can get that now with the Guild backpack skin.

They COULD allow the Guild backpack to be toggle-able visual that could be turned on and off like a cape (would have no effect on existing backpiece nor require any trans charges to turn on / off).

It’s not that I’m against this idea, but there are LOTs of other things Anet could (and should) be focusing resources on (how about some bug fixes?).

Beldin.5498:

Implementation of Capes in another recently hyped game .. no clipping at all .. lol

That’s nice and all but you’re ignoring the fact that a Charr doesn’t look like a human

IrishPotato.6327:

Beldin.5498:

Implementation of Capes in another recently hyped game .. no clipping at all .. lol

That’s nice and all but you’re ignoring the fact that a Charr doesn’t look like a human

That was indeed sarcasm .. don’t you see that it is already clipping like hell on that picture ?

For Charr we need videos where they were more or less rolling like a ball, since they
will tap with their feets all the time on the cape that is hanging down on their side
and touching the ground between their feet.

Theftwind.8976:

Capes in my opinion are overrated. In certain situations a cape defines a hero while in most other situations it just looks dorky. A cape on Batman for example defines him while Robin looked stupid. Superman with a cape looks good but try putting a cape on the Flash and it just does not fit.

Mind you, I also think the fairy wing backpack pieces, the quaggan backpack and most others look juvenile and end up hiding my back piece for most of my characters. If they had for example a scabbard backpiece for my GS Guardian I would show it as it fits the character. He just looks pathetic with a grade school quaggan backpack.

This.

Not only that but considering the setting and cultures of the races capes just don’t make sense for many of them. Even the humans doing away with them seems logical. Not to mention surely they would get in the way of fighting and look silly.

^She knows what I mean!^

Brother Grimm.5176:

Don’t disagree with the OPs opinion about displacing back items, but I think a much larger issue is the effects any decent cape animations would have on the Server infrastructure. I think they could easily add capes but what they could implement and NOT greatly effect Server performance would be considered lackluster and disappointing by most players.

Please recall that the “solid” non moving (very short) capes of GW1 were simply a banner on your back (that in no way moved fluidly) with your guild emblem on it. You can get that now with the Guild backpack skin.

They COULD allow the Guild backpack to be toggle-able visual that could be turned on and off like a cape (would have no effect on existing backpiece nor require any trans charges to turn on / off).

It’s not that I’m against this idea, but there are LOTs of other things Anet could (and should) be focusing resources on (how about some bug fixes?).

What would rendering capes with animations have to do with server stability? All asset rendering is client side, and most visual animations you see are also client side, though some are affected by server time (like dance syncing). Rendering assets would not in any way affect server load, as all the files for animation and fluidity of the object would be in the client, not requiring any interaction from the server to display other than the information that they are present, same as any other piece of equipment

…and 25 months later and we are still here: “Guild capes!”, “Guild Halls!”, “GvG!”, “more Guild missions”, “Guild based WvW!”, “We want guild wars in Guild Wars 2”, “Guild trading”, “Guild raids”, etc.

Anyone at Anet listening? This game is the successor to Guild Wars 1, best PvP MMO ever, and we want more guild-related content.

Sure, the people that have posted here have strayed way far off topic(what else is new?) but my intent was to show why we are never getting capes. The new preview video for the Feature Pack tomorrow by BogOtter further emphasizes my point for me. They are releasing *48 NEW Back Pieces tomorrow. Just let that sink in. The Fractals can’t have a Fractal Armor Set of skins, but we are getting 48 NEW Back Pieces.

^This is the real reason why we won’t ever get guild capes.