Guild Wars 2

I think GW is in that weird place where ANet doesn’t want to promote it because they want most of their playerbase on GW2 for obvious reasons. But they still of course love the game so they don’t wanna drop it entirely either.

Hence why it’s still going and why there’s been no sales for it at all.

So, I was hoping that for PoF, they would announce new guild features alongside PoF but that didn’t happen as they’ve stated that they’ve now delinked work on that stuff from the expacks.

Well, this is good. But it’s also bad. It means we’re now completely in the dark as to when these features actually arrive.

- GvG NEEDS to be in the game. I mean, c’mon, ANet. This is GUILD Wars. It really can’t be that hard to set up. What’s going on here?
- Guild capes in GW2 I heard had clipping issues but that was a long while ago. Are these fixed now? What’s going on??
- The Arena in the guild halls needs a little more work. It’s almost perfect but specifically, neither the guild hall or the Arena are designated PvP zones, so everyone’s completely stuck fighting at their current level in their PvE gear and they’re not allowed to use their PvP builds.

GvG added alone would do wonders to bring this game really up to par with the original GW. Let’s make it happen, ANet! Plz.

After its update, I’ve been noticing very long load times now for LA. Up to 2 minutes now or so.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

So, you essentially just want to not be able to see the mount?

I don’t personally care that much but other people do for a variety of reasons. And the Travel Mode would just look cool too.

keramatzmode.1906:

We live in 2017 where mounts trigger people in a videogame, to an extend you want a censorship because somehow you have personal problems with people using domesticated wildlife as a mode of transportation.

Seriously, you are making fun of yourself OP.

I don’t actually have that much of a problem with it and I’m not “triggered”. lol Travel Mode would be totally optional.

Rauderi.8706:

As for what OP is suggesting, I feel like that could be immersion-breaking. Granting the PC the powers of the mount without the mount itself puts a huge burden of disbelief (or “magic” or “rule of cool”) into justifying why the character can suddenly Superman-leap tall cliffs in a single bound or teleport across chasms. Or.. well.. fly without a glider. Like, seriously, if I can glide over deserts without hitting the sand, why can’t I just pop my glider and fly eternally? It stops making sense.

Why can’t you just pop your glider and fly eternally with the mantaray mount? I think we tossed realism out the window the minute we started moving rocks around with our minds and began battling talking cats.

Immersion does not necessarily equal realism. A lot of it equals consistency in the world actually. And Travel Mode would actually be even more consistent with the game world than mounts, giving more focus to the characters themselves as per past games. Furthermore, when in the mode, you would have to summon up the energy to propel yourself that far and across obstacles would naturally require lots of concentration. And you can’t have it on in cities because the guards don’t want you getting to places you shouldn’t be. Hence, the lore reasons why you can’t just be in Travel Mode and still attack and why it can’t be used in cities.

LucosTheDutch.4819:

Your idea sounds rather silly OP. Why would anyone want our super cool mounts to be replaced with turning our characters into The Flash, Superman or The Green Lantern?

Travel Mode is optional. You don’t have to use it at all if you don’t want to.

Hybarf Tics.2048:

All ideas are welcome but seriously and obviously too late, the game is already coming out September 22nd. The only option for the anti mount crowd is to take a hike, I mean walk, until you need to cross a valley or reach a high plateau, then pray for a mount to pass by and give you a lift.

That’s the beauty of this though. As I said in the OP, all ANet needs to do to make a Travel Mode is just to copypasta a bunch of running/jumping/teleporting animations and then slap the mounts code on it and call it a day.

Palador.2170:

I think that part of the reason they went with mounts is because their size gives them an excuse to take them away from us when need be. Entering a small cave or building? No mounts in that story instance. But if the abilities were in your character, then they can’t do that without it seeming … well, arbitrary and stupid.

To be honest, no mounts in story instances seem pretty arbitrary as well. I mean, I don’t personally mind, but if we’re gonna talk about that then yeah.

So some have jokingly suggested that perhaps mounts could be forgone entirely that we should have characters themselves making huge jumps and traveling fast and etc.

But then I began to think about that. Why the hell not actually? Why can’t we allow an option to have people enter into a special “Travel Mode” in place of a mount if you so desired. You wouldn’t have a mount but (assuming you had the required mount masteries unlocked) you would have the exact same speed and abilities as someone who is riding a mount. The only difference between the Travel Mode and actual mounts would just be cosmetic.

I personally think it would be pretty awesome to see a few of people’s characters booking it across the desert at high speeds, teleporting, and doing sweet jumps. The more I think about this, the more I really want this now. And one of the cool things is that ANet could implement this super easily since all the animation work for jumps/teleports/etc. are already there of course.

This would give the option to keep things centered on people’s actual characters and allow for even more choice in how people want to play the game at minimal cost and maintenance to ANet.

To everyone who thinks it cheapens map completion, let me ask this.

Why the hell does it matter how someone completed a map. It’s just a stupid map. And even further, you wouldn’t even know if someone completed a map or not. And even FURTHER, it’s just waypoints. Not the whole map. As in they’ll still have to jog around to see everything and get map completion.

I also want to say thank you to ANet for everything. GW2 is one of the best MMOs hands down that I’ve ever played. People whine about the game constantly on the forums but I love it. I really really hope the new expack makes a big splash.

Rauderi.8706:

We have plenty of skills and traits that don’t even get used. They should be making those good enough to justify taking them.

But that’s an issue of balance. Not of new content.

We don’t need another profession, d###it. We need more skills.

No, I’m not gonna shut up about this.

I think the real problem here is that GW2 is normally not a grindy game at all really. Or at least compared to a lot of other MMOs. Thus, after playing this game for a while, it can get rather irksome to run up against some things which DO require a grind, one way or another.

BTW, I did the math and at current conversion rates (13.333333 gold to $1.00), that scythe (6,000 gold) would cost a straight $450.00. Whatever you think about supply and demand in GW2, that’s a lot of ####ing money for just one weapon skin.

He’s just a humble bounty hunter.

Who says I’m here to save Tyria… ?

>_>

Please read this first. It’ll help you understand what GW2 really is:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/On-The-Personality-of-GW2/first#post6645526

Then please watch this. It’ll help you understand why you as a player should play GW2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzFfO_yyxtI

Ultimately, I might be able to help you more though if I knew just WHAT exactly you are looking for in an MMORPG. Because chances very much are that GW2 has everything you desire already but you have not yet discovered it or understood it fully.

Narrrz.7532:

People in this game just generally seem to derive much less pleasure from spoiling other peoples’ fun.

I wrote something up on this actually.

Arnox.5128:

… Even its very community, it mutates. Everyone who sticks with the game, despite it’s alien feel, is changed. Where former MMOs fostered a community of distrust and competition, GW2 encourages its players to work together and changes them in the process. In almost every way, GW2 takes the standard, the tried and true, and mutates and turns it into it’s own thing. And it makes it incredibly attractive while doing so. And that is the core, the heart, of GW2 and even most of GW.

penelopehannibal.8947:

This has actually happened to me with the current model, except luckily people knew it wasn’t me because of an accented í or something.

Now imagine the same scenario but everyone can mimic other characters exactly.

No thanks.

sigh I’m sorry that crap happened to you. This is probably the biggest problem by far with the system I proposed and I don’t quite know how to solve it yet.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Ok. I’m confused.

Let’s say there are 20 chars named Frank in the game. You play with one for a while then sometime later, after you’ve parted, you want to send him an ingame email/message. You don’t know the last 4 numbers that the game has assigned to identical char names. How do you contact the Frank you want and not one of the other 19 Franks?

Edit: for example, if I want to send an ingame email to an account that I don’t know the account name I can type the char name in the Friend’s search and pull it up. If there are multiple identical char names, wont I need to know the assigned 4 numbers? I won’t be able to put Frank in friend’s search to find it.

Sorry it took so long to reply.

The thing is, you’re now gonna have to know the extension now. Having said that, if there’s only 3 variations on Frank and you’re trying to find the one you talked to, you could just quickly PM each of the three Franks asking if they know you. If they do not, move on to the next. Having said that though, I can’t think of very many situations at all where this would actually come to play. Most people if they like them friend them or even just mail them. Both of which can easily and quickly be accomplished by right-clicking a name and clicking “Add friend” or “Send mail”.

There’s problems with both systems at the end of the day. And the question is which system has the most advantages.

nottsgman.8206:

could you imagine the abuse this could bring?

imagine someone has a character named Jack, and someone else decides they don’t like the person behind Jack, so they make a character of the same name and then proceeds to be an absolute kitten to everyone, while pretending to be the original Jack. a lot of people then turn on the original Jack for being like that.

First of all, you need to waste an entire character slot just to make that character. THEN you gotta go through the entire tutorial over again. And then you have to finally go to… Somewhere and then be the jerk. Oh, and you’re going to have to have:

1. The same level as the person.
2. The same title.
3. The same minis.
4. The same guild.

Now here’s the thing. You can still kinda do that even now because again, you make a toon name with accented characters. And the two very slightly different names will most likely blur into one in people’s minds.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Of course, but when there are a bunch of other chars named Frank that doesn’t help you to find Frank again if you haven’t friended him. And as I’ve mentioned before, if there are multiple chars with the exact same name that’s going to increase the number of emails (and items in the emails) that go off to the wrong person. Any items sent off to the wrong identical name will not be recoverable by support.

In a single instance on a single server, you’d be pretty hard pressed to find a person with the same name as another in the instance. But let’s assume that you want to whisper them again after a while and they’re in a separate instance now. The thing is, that problem already exists under our current system. If you didn’t save the full name of that person somehow and don’t remember the full name under our current system, you will end up PMing the wrong person or nobody at all.

As to emails, I have no idea what you’re talking about. Emails are emails and will continue to be the same, regardless of the character or account name. Emails are not addressed to individuals characters but accounts anyway. Are you talking about in-game mail?

I’m going to be blunt. I think a lot of your guys’ arguments are spurious at best here. If someone wants to be unimaginative with their name,

1. It’s their decision.
2. They already do it anyway.

Furthermore, I’m seeing more and more toons being named with accented letters and special characters anyway. There’s a gazillion ways to misspell a name, especially a long one. So instead of xX Legolas Xx, we’re now getting even more stupid names like xX Leggolas Xx or something similar. The naming restriction does NOT prevent bad or unimaginative names. If anything, it makes them more silly.

And even further, really, I can’t stress enough how little of a #### I give if someone wants to name themselves xX Legolas Xx. If anything, I find it helpful as it may be indicative of their usual behavior. And neither should any of you care.

As to uniqueness of a name, it’s a give and take. Sure, you can say that under this system, your name is the only one. But the frustration of finding the name you greatly want already taken by someone else that you’re probably NEVER gonna meet offsets this positive greatly.

Under my system, you can make your name and not have to worry. No, it may not be unique, but I guarantee you, you’re gonna forget all about it immediately once you start playing anyway. If uniqueness really bothers you that much though, you can have it still do a check to see if the name is already in use. And that system has already been written so it’s an easy fix.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

The game currently has no mechanism for forcing a rename of toons (and, call it whatever you like, adding “.####” is a “rename”)

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/legal/guild-wars-2-naming-policy/

Guild Wars 2 Official Naming Policy

For the second offense, we will assign you a new name

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Programmers would also have to deal with existing mechanics, such as /invite, /sqinvite, /join, and /sqjoin (all of which use character name).

Game will now require users to append the 4 digit identifier if they insist on manually entering the command into chat to invite them. Can be completely avoided by just right clicking the name and inviting that person to the party as everyone should be doing anyway. Not an issue.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Are you allowed to name all your characters the same?

Probably not.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

this is a lot of work to cater to the subset of players who don’t want to spend a little more time figuring out a name.

Sooo… Almost everyone. Too much work to fix an issue almost everyone has had. Why are you acting like this is a problem for only a small little group of players? Guild Wars 2 is utterly massive now in terms of toons made. It has hit the point where finding a unique name is now an exercise in annoyance. As I said, for my system, just have it check for the name’s uniqueness as it usually does but allow people to pick a name anyway even if it is. It’s the best of both worlds.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

If there are multiple chars with the name Frank you won’t be able to pull him up by putting Frank in the friend’s list and using search.

You can already set nicknames in your friends list though.

So as we know, one cannot name a character that another has already chosen on that server. But here’s the thing. ANet already has a system in place that allows one to use any name they want already regardless of who’s used it first.

When you pick an account name, you decide whatever the name is gonna be. And then that name will have a random 4 digit number appended to the end of it. This basically means that there can be 10,000 users of one exact name. Why don’t we just do this with characters names as well, only except in the game, the four digit extension on one’s name is hid as long as there isn’t someone with the same name in the same instance you are.

Behellagh.1468:

The fundamental notion behind ascended gear is the player should be the one taking the time to create rather than buy the items off the TP. But if a player wants ascended gear, they need to do the activities that generate those mats for themselves.

Same is true with HoT map specific mats. Do the content yourself if you want them.

Otherwise those with lots of gold can simply buy these mats and not participate in the activities or visit maps that reward these mats.

By that logic though, we shouldn’t even have the Trading Post.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

What currently account bound items do you think should be made tradeable? How will that impact supply & demand of such items, including whether those items feel valuable?

I’d have to go through the list but a lot of the stuff you get in daily logins should not be account bound, like dye packs for example.

As to whether the items are more or less valued depending on whether they can be given/sold or not, I would argue that account bound items all have quite literally zero value since they cannot be sold at all. Allowing them to be sold gives them value which is obviously greater than having no value at all.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Both are ways to sink materials from the economy. Without such sinks, the game can suffer overstock of mats as well as gold. So making exotic soulbound on use means that someone else has to make (or buy) their own gear after you’ve used yours.

Actually, it’s not so much the soulbound items that get on my nerves I suppose. It’s all the account bound ones. And again, I understand why some items need to be account bound, but the amount of them that are is silly.

It’s really baffling to me. It seems like at least 50% of items you get are one of these. I mean, I understand the need to keep some of these items bound but this is silly. You can’t even give it away via mail.

I found it! Know it’s super late but for anyone that wanted to see it, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzFfO_yyxtI

It’s kinda old but in many ways, it’s still relevant. Highly recommend people give it a watch.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Here’s a very interesting page: http://us.ncsoft.com/en/about-us/

Mike O’Brien must be special. =)

And, there’s this: https://web.archive.org/web/20081118082911/http://www.ncsoft.com/global/board/view.aspx?BID=mc_press&BNo=141

The Wayback Machine link doesn’t work unfortunately.

SkyShroud.2865:

Honestly speaking, does it matter? Unless OP is a investor, why does it concern him?

Well, right now it doesn’t make any difference at all. But it WILL make all the difference if there is a schism between ANet and NCSoft and ANet wants to pull away with GW in tow.

infrequentia.3465:

at the bottom of this page you will see the copyright and games under that banner

It says ©2010–2013 ArenaNet, LLC. and NC Interactive, LLC. Not only is this info four years old, it lists two companies as the copyright holder. Not just one. The rest is just trademark/logo stuff.

Monk Tank.5897:

Vladimir Putin

Probably.

SkyShroud.2865:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ArenaNet

This does not give any real specifics. It just says it’s a subsidiary of NCSoft, and for all we know, ANet may have a special agreement with them. It definitely wouldn’t be unheard of.

This question popped up in the Kickstarter thread and I was hoping Gaile or somebody else could tell us. If ANet owns GW2, do they also own GW1?

No, senpai. Not today.

Parks on Fire

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Here’s the Dev response about bringing back Dhuum:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Ingame-GMs-do-they-exist/page/2#post4574838

Good luck.

Yeah, that was the post I think I read. Thanks! Yeah it’s not surprising they don’t really have time to write fun stuff like that due to GW2 being at the state it is now. Game development for GW2 is definitely more resource-hungry than GW1 was I’m sure.

Doesn’t NCSoft own the entire Guild Wars IP?

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

They already own or control all their equipment. They took over production about a year or so ago, as well.

http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1024442/-Guild-Wars-Microservices-and

I believe the equipment’s technically NCSoft’s since ANet is owned by NCSoft. Barring some sort of strange contract they may have with them.

Will we see a return of the reaper bans from GW1? I remember reading somewhere that ANet wanted to do this but due to GW2 game limitations, they weren’t able to at the time.

What in the ####ing #### has ANet done to deserve these attacks? This is so not cool on so many levels. I can think of a gazillion other companies that are more deserving of this than them.

Don’t treat the free version as a full free game. Treat it like a trial. Because it pretty much is except for the fact that you can play as long as you want to.

Let’s not kid ourselves, people. Legendary is the highest tier we’re ever gonna see. And thank **** for that. Bless ANet.

How do I know? Right now, they are pushing to get Legendary Armor out and putting TONS of work into it. They’re not gonna do it again, I almost guarantee you. And nobody in the GW2 community wants more either. It would be a massive waste of ANet’s time to start making more tiers of weapons and armor. They’re focused rightly on providing more Legendary tier stuff and that’s it.

Searing Purge – Charr Elementalist

Named after one of the most bad### spells I’ve ever seen and one of the coolest moments in GW.

It’s supposed to be fixed now. They said if anyone else is having issues, they should file a support ticket so ANet can help them individually.

Would DDoS ANet? >:( That’s like DDoSing Valve. Or at least DDoSing Valve back when they were cool.

I was thinking about this as I was replying to the Mounts thread and now I’d really like to ride this train of thought out.

At first, GW2 seems like yet another medieval fantasy setting. Yet another Tolkien-ripoff universe. But anyone who plays this game for longer than 10 mins will know it’s really not that simple or easy to write off. As I’ve played this game and watched videos and seen and replied to and made threads about GW2, I’ve been unknowingly figuring out just what it is about GW2’s world that makes it the way it is instead of Medieval Fantasy World #437.

I think the best way to describe it would be a mutation. Specifically of Tolkien’s work. But not just any mutation. Now, GW2 is not the only game to do a different kind of medieval fantasy world. Not even close. However, GW2 does more than mutate the standard medieval fantasy fare. It does it stylishly. Attractively. It is a warped version of the sword and sorcery that we know. The elves have become Sylvari. Gnomes are Asura. Wizards have become Elementalists. And that’s where it gets you. It takes Tolkien’s universe and makes it wholly its own, but it in a respectful and very well-written and thought out way.

GW2 does not stop being different at just the lore level though. No, it’s also different in it’s gameplay mechanics. It’s mutating and evolving these things we’ve come to expect in western RPGs into something else.

There are no mounts. There is now waypoints and gliding. Combat is not a standing affair. It is now a dynamic and active affair with dodging mechanics for every class. Resource nodes are no longer a resource to compete for. Everyone can work them. Loot is no longer given to one sole person. It is given to anyone who participated in the kill. Boss rewards are not exclusive to one person. They are given to all who were part of dealing damage to it. Quests have been changed into events, hearts, vistas, and etc. There are no longer two arbitrary factions of players fighting each other in the overworld. It has been taken and mutated into World vs. World. Three separate servers worth of players sieging and fighting against each other endlessly on massive battlegrounds. You do not pay a monthly sub and nor is the game Pay2Win. You pay a flat price and play whenever you like, however you like.

When you first play the game, you feel like you’re stepping into a world you know, but you’re really coming into an alien one disguised as such. This can be a large problem as players will try to do things as they normally do and become frustrated at the supposed dullness as they keep pursuing heart quests and nothing else, believing that is the only way to gain XP. Perhaps they’re frustrated with the new combat mechanics. Maybe both.

But that’s the thing. Even its very community, it mutates. Everyone who sticks with the game, despite it’s alien feel, is changed. Where former MMOs fostered a community of distrust and competition, GW2 encourages its players to work together and changes them in the process. In almost every way, GW2 takes the standard, the tried and true, and mutates and turns it into it’s own thing. And it makes it incredibly attractive while doing so. And that is the core, the heart, of GW2 and even most of GW.

Whew. That’s all I have to say now. Let me know what you guys think about this.

Monk Tank.5897:

Add skins options for the Flamethrower.

Like this?

There isn’t necessarily any good reason why mounts can’t be in GW2.

BUT, there isn’t necessarily any good reason why mounts SHOULD be in GW2 besides showing off.

Need to get somewhere quickly? Waypoints. Want to fly? Gliding. (Yeah, I know it’s not flying really, but it’s good enough.) If we added flying mounts, it would make Gliding totally useless and would undo all the work ANet has put into that.

The only reason that’s left is for glamour. And we already got a whole lot of stuff for that. More than other MMOs actually in a way.

Another thing is, GW2 has always been an MMO that… Just does its own thing. It doesn’t try to copy WoW at all. It has it’s own personality. It’s own distinctive flavor. And adding mounts would just… It would aesthetically and functionally clash with the kind of world that GW2 is. What ANet has made it to become. No, it wouldn’t be a total tragedy at all if mounts were added, but it would detract from the overall personality of the game.

Conncept.7638:

A suite of new and revamped features, intended to fulfill the original design intents of the games combat system.

• Get rid of dodge. Yes, you read that correctly, trust me, keep reading, I am not suggesting the removal of active defense.

snip

Hm… This is actually a pretty interesting way of doing things. More variety in the combat is great so I think this could really work.

HOWEVER, this may require a complete rewrite of the AI, combat, and netcode.

This seems a… Very specific request to demand.

The thing is, GW2 is a MASSIVE game. More massive than GW1, and much more massive than Runescape. As such, it is limited to AAA design principles, methodolgy, and time. The ANet team for GW2 being over 300 in total. So what does that mean? It means that suggestions are no longer simply a 1-2-and-poof process. WIth all these resources dedicated to merely maintaining the game, adding content is not a trivial thing. It requires, at very least, time from the dev team to create and test fully and completely. And even after that, depending on the feature, it may require long-term support afterwards.

This may be wrong now, but I believe that GW2 is really snapping at the heels of WoW now in terms of player base if it wasn’t before. And if that’s really so, then that means GW2 has a massive userbase. And if so, that means they get THOUSANDS of suggestions. And at least half of the people who suggest things don’t even know the first thing they’re talking about.

Now, having said all that, yes, they certainly do read suggestions, but it’s just one of the many ways they decide what content to produce and when. Time for ANet is literally money, and they cannot afford to be sloppy in what they spend their time developing and testing. It’s sad but it’s true.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

This prevents people from deliberately “pulling” a foe into a position it can’t defend and also gives you the opportunity to run and fight another day.

And it also prevents people from pulling Mr. BigBoss over to a local town or city.

You know, there’s a big ####### in the Heart of the Mists lower level now. It’s where the Classes NPCs are. And he’s just chilling there. You should check it out.

RoseofGilead.8907:

You may want to edit your title. The use of “Bots” in it makes it sound like this is a thread about bots (accounts using third party software to do things in-game) rather than about the training golems/NPCs in Heart of the Mists.

Roger that.