Guild Wars 2

It’s not a secret that this game often looks very hectic not only for players, but for viewers as well, probably for viewers especially. This hurts GW2 and it’s community on many levels, such as general PvP potential of this game, enjoyment from everyday gameplay for every players etc. There are certain things AN can do about it. It’s not hard to figure out what things are those, all you need to do is to look at GW2’s predecessor — Guild Wars. That game was nearly flawless at how well presented it’s combat was and how readable it was for everyone, be it a spectator or a player. Why is that? I see multiple reasons for that.

1. Cleaner, neater and overall better particle system. Barely anything was over the top, there wasn’t any clutter on the screen.

2. In addition to visual animations and tells many skills, and probably all key skills, had sound tells and effects attached to them. It’s been a long time since in played GW1, but i don’t have any problem whatsoever in recalling the sound of a monk using Guardian or Patient Spirit, or Protective Spirit and animations associated with those spells, or the sound of mesmer’s Power Block, or ranger’s Savage Shot. There are many more examples, those are just few poped into my head just now.

3. Last, but not least, the skill floaters. In GW1 you could tell that Energy Surge was used on you not just from your mana being drained, but also from a very distinct skill icon floater appearing above your character. Just imagine how much easier it would be for new people to understand what is going on in PvP if they could see such floater icons for skills in GW2, how much faster they will learn, how much faster they will be able to build associations during fight: how each class looks like skill-wise, what it’s capable of etc.

Imagine how much clearer and easier to read combat would become for players and viewers (especially those who are not all that familiar with every aspect of GW2’s PvP), for spectators and shoutcasters, if GW2 had all those things: sound and visual tells, skill floaters, proper particle system.

Now, personally i’am very skeptical that AN will and can fix #1 here — their particle system, clean it up and tone it down. But they certainly could work on #2 and #3, and that would improve everyone’s experience with this game by a lot.

I agree that the combat is too… something, I can’t think of the word for it. Looking very hectic is a good description but there’s even more to it.

Your three ideas would help for sure. I still remember those sounds from GW1 too. I especially remember when this one Smite Monk skill was buffed and when you heard that sound you better either get out of the way or lay down some serious defense.

I do hope Anet does something.

What’s wrong with the sound effects? (Honest question, I decided to play with sound off a long time ago because grenades drowned everything else)

Why not show skill floaters, Anet? We already have the combat log and the blue/red letters at the bottom right when we die. The skill information is already there, why make it so cumbersome? Give us an enemy skill floater, and we’ll have a lot less screen clutter, with the combat log and blue/red text gone. Even if it’s something as simple as placing game code under the enemy bar. Then I can move my mouse there to read it if I don’t know what it does.

I want to see mine and other players status effect particles like confusion clouds, poison tinted character, swiftness foot wind, etc, but they get covered up by the ridiculous skill fireworks, and we need to look at the UI instead. How can I have combat awareness like that?

Another thing I would add is that the camera is always turning around like crazy, making you lose track of what’s going on, and Free Camera, which would fix it, turns on and off whenever you turn it with the mouse (left or right); in other words, it’s completely useless, having to micromanage it when you must stay on your toes in pvp).
+ “Standard models” don’t work in Practice mode.
+ Damage numbers are so huge, that they cover the animations and effects.
+ Profession icon is way too small, it should replace the character picture so it’s bigger. Important, because in this game, there’s no profession specific armor.
All these things make it more difficult to learn Pvp than it should be.

lorazcyk.8927:

What’s wrong with the sound effects?
Why not show skill floaters, Anet?

Nothing wrong with sound effects, it’s just more skills need to have them (distinct ones), i.e. steal, corrupt ench. etc. As for floaters, what adds clutter to the screen are over the top particles, floaters won’t hurt that much, perhaps i should clarify that not all skill should have floaters, just more or less important ones, obviously no need to indicate aa etc. The purpose of combat log and floaters is different. Purpose of combat log is to give you info post factum, purpose of floaters is to provide you and viewers with info during fights themselves, shift mind games from aspect of guessing and assuming to more informed decision making.

Hopefully camera thing will be fixed on March 10. \o/