Guild Wars 2

DakotaCoty.5721:

You also cannot return to your previous position.

Apparently that’s no longer the case – release notes from yesterday say this:

The Mistlock Sanctuary’s portal to Tyria has been updated with additional teleportation options. Players may now choose to return to the location where they used their Mistlock Sanctuary Passkey.

Not all knowledge your character has needs to be directly referred to previously in game – I take your point in the sense that it might not mean much to anyone that didn’t play GW1 but I think it was just a nod to the surprise many players of the first game would have IRL (if it hadn’t been spoiled in the trailer).

I think it’s ok personally but then I am heavily invested in the lore and it was a big deal to me.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Hey Atonement,

There will be VOD on Twitch, for sure. I think we’ll make this pretty easy to find and view, though, as Fluff suggested.

Brilliant thanks Gaile and all – look forward to catching up on it later!

Enjoy the stream anyone watching it live!

Hey all,

Unfortunately I and I’m sure many others will miss the live xpac reveal tomorrow due to work – where will be the best/fastest place to watch this on catch-up?

I’m not super familiar with Twitch for example – would a VOD appear as soon as they finish broadcasting or is it like YouTube and they have to upload separately?

Anyway super hyped for tomorrow just don’t want to spoil anything for myself until I’ve had a chance to watch the reveal in full (and hopefully the WP post show)

Thanks all

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Atonement.8021:

All I would say is there is just as much onus on you to prove that a new race wouldn’t be an effective selling point as there is on me to prove it would be.

On the contrary, it’s up to those asking for a change to the status quo to show that it’s worth the resources to change it. Especially in this situation, since the goal of threads such as this is to convince ANet to change their plans.

All critics need to do is show that the costs are substantive

Leo G has pretty much summed up my thoughts in response to this but I would add is that none of us, and I mean none of us, have any real idea of Anet’s specific resource costs, ability of individual devs etc. So I don’t realistically know what resources it would take, neither do you (and you also don’t know that the costs for adding a new race would be substantive – unless you have some financial evidence from Anet which clearly shows how much adding a new race would cost them).

Leo G.4501:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Atonement.8021:

All I would say is there is just as much onus on you to prove that a new race wouldn’t be an effective selling point as there is on me to prove it would be.

On the contrary, it’s up to those asking for a change to the status quo to show that it’s worth the resources to change it. Especially in this situation, since the goal of threads such as this is to convince ANet to change their plans.

All critics need to do is show that the costs are substantive

No one is asking for a change to the status quo. A change to the status quo is changing what the game offers. Those in this thread are asking for additions. If critics only have to speculate on resource allocation, practically any change outside of balance patches could be argued as too costly and substantive.

Criticism is a good thing, but mainly when it’s not taking itself as gospel (outside of professional subjects).

Was about to respond to Illconceived but you’ve worded it better than I would have – totally agree.

Ayrilana.1396:

Atonement.8021:

Ayrilana.1396:

A new playable race isn’t a requirement to have a racial city as well as a map just outside it that follows that race’s “theme” for the lack of a better way to describe it. Anet could have not at Asura as a playable race but include everything that we see now. The only content loss specific to the race would be the personal story but that could have been added elsewhere in some form so not totally loss. The player wouldn’t be playing as an Asura but could still experience the majority of those story arcs in whatever alternative form Anet could have gone with.

Unless you like to RP, or want the appearance of your character to be that of a new race, that’s all that a new playable race would provide. Everything else, such as maps and story, is depends on the race actually being playable.

I understand it’s not a ‘requirement’ and neither is a starting area arguably, but the game would be a lot poorer if it were missing regions designed around a particular race aesthetic imo.

I feel like your suggestion here would make the game feel a lot more bland to many people – selecting a race isn’t just about the early game experience after all, it defines your character aesthetic and even at times later game dialogue (see HoT and Sylvari as an example).

I don’t RP at all and appearance is only part of it, to me the lore behind each race has a significant impact on which one I choose to create, which race I feel would best fit that etc.

Regions designed around a particular race aesthetic can very well be included without that race needing to be playable. That’s part of what I was getting at.

Race doesn’t really matter for the most part when it comes to dialogue. It only had a slight impact in HoT because of how the Sylvari were tied to the dragon. I’ve already said that one of the only things that anew playable race provides is aesthetics.

---

Since I don’t want to keep repeating myself:

If you truly believe that a playable race provides so much outside of aesthetics and roleplaying, could you please provide proof?

For regional cities and maps, it’s not necessary. Players who select any race other than Asura, can still experience all of Rata Sum as well as Metrica. Their experience isn’t hindered as they’re not blocked from any content on these maps for not being an Asura. There may be some dialogue differences but none that I have noticed so far.

As far as story goes, the personal story arcs could always be incorporated into the living story and/or expansion story. You can have story arcs centered around a race without needing to play as one. We saw this in GW1 EotN with the Asura, Norn, and Charr. We also saw this in the personal story with the Skritt, Quaggan, Hylek, Ogre, and maybe another that I’m forgetting.

When comparing when something is worth adding (yes, it’s ultimately up to Anet), you should strip away anything that could be provided outside of it. In this case, it’s the maps and story content. What’s left is the aesthetics of seeing the race as your avatar and any role playing that you would do as that race. Some of that could minimally be covered with a combat tonic although armor and physical feature customization would be nonexistent.

I feel this is becoming somewhat cyclical – ultimately you believe adding a new race is not worth it on Anet’s part, I believe it is so we’ll have to agree to disagree. Clearly you get enjoyment from gw2 in a different way to me.

All I would say is there is just as much onus on you to prove that a new race wouldn’t be an effective selling point as there is on me to prove it would be.

Palador.2170:

For those that say that adding a race is impractical because of the armor problem, I would like to counter it by saying that that’s the BEST reason for them to consider adding a new race.

GW2 was supposed to be a game where cosmetics were the endgame. And yet, we’ve seen how far ANet has fallen from that goal. Making new armor, the most basic component of GW2 cosmetics, is too difficult. It’s a failing on the most fundamental level, and one they need to address.

They need to change how they make armor. Bring in more people, get new software, or whatever… Just do what they have to do to make it work smoothly. But that will take money. How do you justify it? That’s right, a new race as a selling point for a new expansion. Now they’d have a cost justification to do whatever it takes to streamline their process, and a chance to get plenty of practice in with the new systems as they fit old armor onto the new race. And when they’re done, they’re set to finally get up to speed on cranking out full sets of armor again.

tldr: Adding Tengu would force ANet to focus on fixing one of their weak points, making armor sets, and give a cost justification for doing so.

Totally agree with this- spot on.

Ayrilana.1396:

Atonement.8021:

Ayrilana.1396:

Atonement.8021:

Ayrilana.1396:

Atonement.8021:

DirtyDan.4759:

A new race has no gamplay impact at all. It is just an insane amount of work (and time) on the developer side. As mentioned: Armor adjustments, animations, voices, story, starting zones.

If you mean it has no gameplay impact in that it doesn’t add new features fair enough but it does provide a significant amount of new, long-lasting content. And we all know HoT was a feature heavy xpac with little content overall. It would make absolute sense for the pendulum to swing the other way now and new races would indeed contribute hugely in terms of giving people something to do.

That content can be obtained without needing it to be attached to a new playable race.

I’m talking about content specifically tied to a new race – e.g. new starting areas, personal story or whatever is in its place, new city hub to explore etc. Obviously the bulk of an xpacs content wouldn’t be just that but I’d argue that early race content, if done well, has good replay value.

Tengu isn’t a new race in the sense that there is already a lot of backstory for them. Starting areas content can be accessed by all races and it’s existence isn’t dependent on there being a new race. You could have all of Rata Sum, and its Metrica, without needing to have Asura as a playable race. Personal story content can be handled in the living story and/or an expansion story. A new city hub can exist without a new playable race.

Practically all content that a new playable race would provide can be obtained without needing a new playable race. The only things that I see a new race providing is a new cosmetic appearance and for those that RP.

Obviously I meant playable race I thought that was a given. Of course they can but a new race is a precedent for a new starting area, as opposed to something like a new profession which, unless Anet change something quite fundamental, isn’t a precedent for a new starting area. The whole point of Rata Sum is that it’s character and aesthetics is defined by the fact Its an Asuran city, obviously you can just take the LA approach and make every city generic and non race specific but that significantly takes a away from the character of the game.

I think it all boils down to how much you personally feel races impact on the rpg element of GW2 – as a fan of the franchise since 2004 I wholeheartedly believe it is fundamental to a rich universe and is a large part of the reason it’s my favourite game.

A new playable race isn’t a requirement to have a racial city as well as a map just outside it that follows that race’s “theme” for the lack of a better way to describe it. Anet could have not at Asura as a playable race but include everything that we see now. The only content loss specific to the race would be the personal story but that could have been added elsewhere in some form so not totally loss. The player wouldn’t be playing as an Asura but could still experience the majority of those story arcs in whatever alternative form Anet could have gone with.

Unless you like to RP, or want the appearance of your character to be that of a new race, that’s all that a new playable race would provide. Everything else, such as maps and story, is depends on the race actually being playable.

I understand it’s not a ‘requirement’ and neither is a starting area arguably, but the game would be a lot poorer if it were missing regions designed around a particular race aesthetic imo.

I feel like your suggestion here would make the game feel a lot more bland to many people – selecting a race isn’t just about the early game experience after all, it defines your character aesthetic and even at times later game dialogue (see HoT and Sylvari as an example).

I don’t RP at all and appearance is only part of it, to me the lore behind each race has a significant impact on which one I choose to create, which race I feel would best fit that etc.

Ayrilana.1396:

Atonement.8021:

Ayrilana.1396:

Atonement.8021:

DirtyDan.4759:

A new race has no gamplay impact at all. It is just an insane amount of work (and time) on the developer side. As mentioned: Armor adjustments, animations, voices, story, starting zones.

If you mean it has no gameplay impact in that it doesn’t add new features fair enough but it does provide a significant amount of new, long-lasting content. And we all know HoT was a feature heavy xpac with little content overall. It would make absolute sense for the pendulum to swing the other way now and new races would indeed contribute hugely in terms of giving people something to do.

That content can be obtained without needing it to be attached to a new playable race.

I’m talking about content specifically tied to a new race – e.g. new starting areas, personal story or whatever is in its place, new city hub to explore etc. Obviously the bulk of an xpacs content wouldn’t be just that but I’d argue that early race content, if done well, has good replay value.

Tengu isn’t a new race in the sense that there is already a lot of backstory for them. Starting areas content can be accessed by all races and it’s existence isn’t dependent on there being a new race. You could have all of Rata Sum, and its Metrica, without needing to have Asura as a playable race. Personal story content can be handled in the living story and/or an expansion story. A new city hub can exist without a new playable race.

Practically all content that a new playable race would provide can be obtained without needing a new playable race. The only things that I see a new race providing is a new cosmetic appearance and for those that RP.

Obviously I meant playable race I thought that was a given. Of course they can but a new race is a precedent for a new starting area, as opposed to something like a new profession which, unless Anet change something quite fundamental, isn’t a precedent for a new starting area. The whole point of Rata Sum is that it’s character and aesthetics is defined by the fact Its an Asuran city, obviously you can just take the LA approach and make every city generic and non race specific but that significantly takes a away from the character of the game.

I think it all boils down to how much you personally feel races impact on the rpg element of GW2 – as a fan of the franchise since 2004 I wholeheartedly believe it is fundamental to a rich universe and is a large part of the reason it’s my favourite game.

Ayrilana.1396:

Atonement.8021:

DirtyDan.4759:

A new race has no gamplay impact at all. It is just an insane amount of work (and time) on the developer side. As mentioned: Armor adjustments, animations, voices, story, starting zones.

If you mean it has no gameplay impact in that it doesn’t add new features fair enough but it does provide a significant amount of new, long-lasting content. And we all know HoT was a feature heavy xpac with little content overall. It would make absolute sense for the pendulum to swing the other way now and new races would indeed contribute hugely in terms of giving people something to do.

That content can be obtained without needing it to be attached to a new playable race.

I’m talking about content specifically tied to a new race – e.g. new starting areas, personal story or whatever is in its place, new city hub to explore etc. Obviously the bulk of an xpacs content wouldn’t be just that but I’d argue that early race content, if done well, has good replay value.

DirtyDan.4759:

A new race has no gamplay impact at all. It is just an insane amount of work (and time) on the developer side. As mentioned: Armor adjustments, animations, voices, story, starting zones.

If you mean it has no gameplay impact in that it doesn’t add new features fair enough but it does provide a significant amount of new, long-lasting content. And we all know HoT was a feature heavy xpac with little content overall. It would make absolute sense for the pendulum to swing the other way now and new races would indeed contribute hugely in terms of giving people something to do.

I would personally love to see Tengu introduced but with everything seeming to point towards a Crystal Desert focused expansion (time will tell), I don’t think it’s likely for the next expansion unfortunately.

However to all those saying that a new race probably isn’t worth the effort – you can point to a number of other MMOs on the market where they are one of the most central selling points of a new xpac. There is a lot that feeds off from a new race and it’s a pretty huge pull to bring in previous gw2 players to at least try something new.

Solstace.2514:

While you can certainly explain why a canthan style boat would be outside of Cantha, why would anet feature it in that photo? They know the significance of that image.

EXACTLY – unless they’re going to do what they did with the SAB minis that time when they didn’t actually bring back the game type, think the community reaction probably showed people hated this though.

While I do think it might be quite unlikely, I wouldn’t completely write off the idea of going to Cantha – as people have mentioned Elona makes more sense in terms of the Elder Dragon story as it’s highly likely Kralkattorik resides in that direction (if you believe the map art), however for me Tengu are the elephant in the room a bit here. We’ve increasingly seen them cropping up in game and adding a new race with the next xpac would be a very popular move with a lot of people – plus we know they’ve already done more work on Tengu than many other races from dev comments. And the obvious connection between Tengu and Cantha means I really don’t think this is as much of a write off as people are saying.

EDIT: Of course there were the junundu models in game not that long ago which is another pointer towards Elona of course

So so sorry to hear about this, an incredibly tragic loss – thoughts are with Doug’s family and all of his friends and loved ones RIP Doug <3
Really hope Arenanet implement this for your guild.

I agree with the OP, I don’t mind Anet putting some armour skins in the gem store but it’s become too imbalanced – and before someone pipes up and says ‘you don’t have to spend real money to obtain these’, true but for those of us that don’t have much time to grind gold for limited time items it can be a problem.

I don’t often post on the forums, although I read them almost every day – but felt like I really have to in the case of this world boss schedule. As someone working practically an 8-6 job in the UK on weekdays, I get at best a few hours in the evening to play on certain days, and perhaps slightly longer sessions on the weekend. This new schedule means that myself many others with similar schedules will miss out on some of the key world bosses COMPLETELY – literally the only chance to play some of the more organised events (karka, teq and 3-headed wurm) will be on the weekend if I’m lucky.

I can’t help but feel that this is restricting our freedom to play how we want, please anet if you have to bring in a schedule at least have shorter time windows between spawns. It really is a shame because the rest of the feature patch looks awesome imo, and the basic concept behind megaservers is good – just read this thread though and you’ll see how people feel about this new schedule.

Immolator.5640:

^It’s a reference, I’ll slow my posting on the thread now as soon it’ll turn too spammy

Ah apologies I know the reference

Immolator.5640:

Bleh if I’m honest I’m just angry that I have to queue for 3 hours just to get onto EB, where I can’t even enjoy myself because of the perpetual skill lag, and literally every single map is queued perpetually now because ‘e-z achievement points’ were introduced, I hope they go back to Orr very soon and stop violating my game mode

Totally agree with the queuing times, something needs to change there for sure. And with the skill lag. However, personally I think the achievements are a nice addition and while there are undoubtedly some PvE players that don’t help the stereotype, I don’t think its fair to say they are ‘violating your game mode’ – after all they have as much right to be there as you do.

Totally agree with the OP on this – I’ll confess I’m a mainly PvE player but have dabbled every now and then in WvW tried a bit of everything I could. These new leagues have reinvigorated my interest in WvW and the achievements are a nice addition. Sure people might just do the chieves and get out, but on the other hand there will also be plenty that will stick with WvW.

I’ve always thought GW2 had one of the nicest communities in any game I’ve played until my experiences over the past couple of days with the ‘us vs them’ mentality – as an avid player of the game it doesn’t really bother me as I’m still happy to play, but I am genuinely concerned at how offputting it must be to new players.

C’mon peeps I think we all want the game to grow – let’s put a bit of trust in Anet and see how these changes play out.

I was gutted to have missed out on virtually all of the Flame & Frost content as I was away travelling (I know I can’t complain really!). For me it is having incomplete achievements (agree that removing them from panel is a good idea – I would forget eventually then :P) and actually missing certain gem store items, as crazy as that might sound. For instance, I bought the southsun sickle tool thingy from the gem store – imo a nice item and something I don’t mind spending gems on (unlike RNG chests). However, by missing Flame & Frost, I missed out on the molten alliance mining pick, which I also would have bought – I would love to see these back in game even if it was just a week where anet said for a limited time only you can buy these items. I don’t think this would take away from players who were there at the time because it’s not like you have to EARN these in terms of putting effort into the game. It’s gonna bug me massively if I get the unlimited sickle and woodcutting axe and then I’m missing the mining pick! Gahhh

It is a bit difficult to get, seems a bit buggy atm but I’m sure it will be sorted with time. Anyways, I managed to do it with a guildie with me (as my ele) laying down a combo field, and then him (as his mesmer) killing the enemy – I had already got it by this point but I can confirm it worked for him. Also we found it MUCH easier underwater, ele combo fields with the trident are easy to attack into and this has the added bonus of getting your daily underwater kills. Hope this might be of some help!

I’ve been a massive fan of the Guild Wars series since the first game and have loved playing GW2 for the most part. However I have been very disappointed at the lack of a proper ‘endgame’, which is something I thought I’d never say. I’ve only got the one level 80 and a couple of other chars at around 30 and I still plan to level these up. The trouble is with this is that I have seen all the areas before from map completion and as diverse as the classes and personal stories are, I still feel like its a bit of a chore to get to max level (not huge fan of WvW so that’s not really an option for me). And this is the problem for me, this is all I can really do on GW2 at this moment in time – I have my fave dungeon armour set on my main with the dyes I want so really the only thing left are either Fractals or going for a Legendary tbh, neither of which really jump out at me. Empty zones is a problem as people have noted, although inevitable I guess, hope they can bring people back to these though. Anyway I’ll definitely still be playing but I do think it is a sort of ‘make or break’ point for GW2 especially now other MMO’s (e.g. The Secret World) are becoming buy once, play forever.

Apologies if a thread like this already exists but just wanted to give a massive Christmas shout out to the best game community out there! Merry Christmas everyone, hope you had a great day wherever you are