Guild Wars 2

So let me say I absolutely love the Engineer. It’s a fun, diverse and quirky class that suits a large variety of playstyles. I adore being able to swap kits to alter my combat experience to keep things fresh and mix things up from time to time.

One thing that kinda irks me, however, that I honestly expected to see from such a visually diverse and aesthetically appealing game, however, is so minor a detail it almost pains me to bring it up. However, I do feel like mentioning this because I notice it every time I play my Engineer.

Each race has a large variation where aesthetics are concerned be it character design, armour design or racial architecture. Each race’s section of the world is visually unique. Heck, there are even weapons that are distinctly influenced by the different races, such as the Asuran styled pistols, rifles and bows.

It’s due to this fact that I would love to see the same design ideas applied to the Engineer’s Turrets in much the same way – please forgive me for this comparison – Shaman Totems in WoW were eventually made to be visually unique.

For example, Asura Turrets could reflect Golemancy designs with sharp angles and disjointed parts formed around power crystals similar to what we see in Inquest occupied regions. Charr Turrets could be a patchwork of thick, mis-matched metal plates and cogs that reflect the Iron Legion. Norn Turrets could be more totemic in nature, their designs reflecting the different beast spirits they worship. Sylvari could lay down seed turrets similar to their racial abilities. And I feel that the current turrets are perfectly suited to the humans.

The different turrets could even use different attack graphics and sounds. Asura turrets could fire lightning. Norn turrets, arrows. Charr and Human, bullets. And Sylvari, seeds.

Does anyone else feel the same as I do on this? I freely admit this is a very minor detail and pales in comparison to the intricacies of the Engineer as a whole. It makes no difference mechanically and doesn’t even have a large impact on the game since few serious builds seem to revolve around turrets. But it is something that, as I said before, I believe would help to add some diversity to Engineers of different races.

The more I play and read about engineer, the more I’m reminded about shammies in WoW. It only took blizz what, seven years before they had racial totem models? (after everybody except draenei used tauren models).

Yeah, I agree it’d be kinda cool, but the game is so pretty, the graphics often on the edge of being too busy already, that it’s at the very bottom of things I feel I need for now. Not to mention I hardly ever have turrets out anyway, not until their scaling gets a good fixing.

Im not sure, turrets already look kinda cool. It could be small changes like at sylvari metal branches around the turretbarrel or at norn it would have a small wolves head as barrel or something like that… Certainly nothing more.. Would be way to weirdlooking and busy then. Would not “fit” in with alot of the other mechanical stuff with is proper and smooth wihout to much decoration.

I like the idea but like most suggestions being made on the forums, I think it’s heavily influenced by other mmo’s

No support, I like gw2 as gw2

It’s actually not being influenced by other MMOs in the slightest; you assume much. It’s influenced by the fact that Asura designs are not Charr designs are not Norn designs are not Human designs. Each is unique and I would like to see that aesthetic difference represented in the game.

Or are you telling me that Humans or Charr designed every turret used by Engineers of every race?

I had the exact same idea as the OP, this would be awesome to see.
It just feels so wrong putting out the kind of turrets we got when you’re an Asura as myself.

Good idea, but i rather Anet focuses on fixing the major bugs first. Then maybe we can think about doing a revamp on turret designs cos i think they look hideous. And maybe expansions can implement race specific turret designs.

To be honest, I actually like the grimey, brass-coated look the turrets have now, even with my Asura. I’m sad to admit that I’m a slight sucker for steampunk (the architecture and weapon designs for the Charr give me a raging clue). However, people (not just in this thread, but other similar threads) keep making reference to WoW’s totems, in that it took years for them to implement the different racial designs.

What I’m assuming took them so long was that they didn’t have the designs in game; that had to be put in later, and they probably had bigger problems on their mind. GW2 already has racial turrets, as the OP says. Obviously, the Charr have their turrets (these being the default turret look we have now). The Asura as well as the Sylvari already have potential turret designs in -game. Even one of the skill challenges in Orr involves you fighting an Asuran’s Asura-themed turret.

It’s not that I want Anet to start suddenly worrying about this (there are much more important things for them to do), I’m just surprised that it wasn’t implemented from the very beginning. I’m personally glad that it wasn’t, but I’m still surprised.

I really like the steam punk look they have already, it is perfect for Humans in my opinion. However it would make sense to have the Slyvari have aspects of nature in with their designs, the Charr pure black metal, the Norn and icy look and the Asurans a techno-magic look.

I can’t imagine this happening though, other professions will start asking for racial specific designs, where do they stop? I’d much prefer the game developers to focus on balance and bugs for the time being.

Atrixer.9275:

I really like the steam punk look they have already, it is perfect for Humans in my opinion. However it would make sense to have the Slyvari have aspects of nature in with their designs, the Charr pure black metal, the Norn and icy look and the Asurans a techno-magic look.

I can’t imagine this happening though, other professions will start asking for racial specific designs, where do they stop? I’d much prefer the game developers to focus on balance and bugs for the time being.

Engineer seems to be the only thing that could ask for racially-specific designs. Although there are a few things that come to mind (the “thief buddies” that a thief can summon seem to be only human, unless I have only been running into human thieves), I can’t think of anything the other classes would want that isn’t a complete reach.

At the same time, I personally cannot bring myself to level a ranger other than a Norn or Sylvari, since the profession seems to just hurl “naturey junk” down your throat. Seriously, I don’t remember the “vanilla” ranger being so inevitably nature-oriented. In any case (tangent completed), there doesn’t seem to be many abilities from a necromancer or an elementalist that shout out, “Man, this doesn’t look like a human should have this. I really wish it were more humaney.”

To be honest, I’ve currently been using an elixir gun build, due to the current state of turrets (but man, do I want to use turrets T.T). Maybe it’s just me (and this may be slightly off-topic), but the elixir gun looks like it was made for the Asura.

my brother is an asura thief and his summons are asura.

goes well with my charr engi and his warband. we like to multiple at times, tho his thieves have a much faster cooldown than my warband. (I assume its class vs race balance)

Keep in mind here, folks, I said this is something I would like to see and am surprised wasn’t done from the start. I’m not saying it’s something I feel Anet should absolutely, 100% do right here and now. I am in complete agreement that balance and bug-fixes comes first and foremost followed by future content. I’m currently levelling a Ranger so I know all about balance issues and bugs.

This is one of those things that could be done eventually. I just thought it was unusual considering how varied the racial aesthetics are in game that this one aspect was seemingly overlooked.

i fully support

Would be nice as a purchasable skin on the trading post.

Not for everyone, but just as a little bit of flavor. So if you like you turrets in the default style, then feel free to keep em that way. Plus then you are not limited to the style of your race.

Hehe lets make the turrets usefull before giving them a make-over XD