This will greatly improve the meta game and make this a much more intense pvp.
Imagine if thief got 5 kills and can summon 20 svanirs around the map to kill the opposing team. Like COD dog kill streak would be so fun. And maybe if you get like 20 kills without getting downed you can activate a nuke like kill streak except it is treb shots all across the map which automatically wins you the game.
This is what’s wrong with FPS.
But also what made them so astronomically popular for a few years. Modern Warfare 2 was the last CoD I played online, but it was impossible to not have fun during those rounds when everything went perfect and you had killstreaks up 90% of the time. Although to be fair, I guess it’s usually a blast when you’re on a roll in any competitive online game, killstreaks or not.
Loved the events, loved them.
BUT… same as with the halloween event, visuals looked cheap. I mean geez they couldnt even do the whole of Lions Arch with snow ! ?
And as soon as you left LA, well it was as if Wintersday didnt even exist. It completely spoilt the asthetic emersion:(
Yep, they could definitely take a page from Blizzard’s book on that…with WoW’s major holiday events, pretty much every little town and quest hub received the visual makeover to some degree. I’m hoping 2013 brings a few changes to ArenaNet’s design philosophy to help move GW2 away from completely becoming a lobby game where Lion’s Arch is the lobby.
It got me to log in every day for 5 days straight, so that’s saying something. I didn’t do much other than run the 5 Tixx stops and dabble with the mini-games in Lion’s Arch, but it was pretty fun. The core game has taken a backseat to non-MMOs and other non-gaming activities right now, so the only times I’ve logged in during the last few months were during Halloween and Wintersday. I skipped the Lost Shores weekend entirely.
Fast respawn rates and high mob density have been two of my biggest issues with the game ever since I first played in a beta weekend, so it’s nice to see people at ArenaNet finally discussing it with players. I agree that it’s important for players to have plenty of things to fight when in areas where fighting enemies is a primary goal (hearts, DEs, etc) but fighting enemies doesn’t have to be a primary goal in every last square foot of Tyria. And if the scaling feature that was designed to increase mob count and difficulty depending on nearby player numbers was working correctly, it would be a non-issue.
As it is, though, unless an area is visually identifiable as a place where certain intelligent enemies would congregate, there’s really no reason to have a dozen creatures standing neatly 10-20 feet away from each other as if the entire world has an invisible grid over it and each square is required to have an enemy in it, or to have them respawn as quickly as described in the examples of this thread.
Just food for thought: in my years playing MMOs, I have NEVER been annoyed that there wasn’t enough for me to kill while traveling from Point A to Point B…occasional combat is good, but constant combat trivializes its excitement. It is only upon reaching Point B — and if I have a goal to kill things there — that having enough mobs to go around could potentially become an issue. There are times when traveling an MMO world when I may crest a tall hill and look down on a very cool environment, and I’ll stop for a minute to take it all in. If I can count 15 bears in that valley below me, all spread out 20 feet apart, that scene loses all of its impact.
I’m just bummed that I accidentally threw the Toy Golem in the forge when I wanted to make the Soldier. I guess that’s what I get for not paying enough attention, but I’ll never once have that pet out.
I had that pop up for an overflow just before the final jump on the Mad King’s Clock Tower before I had successfully completed it. I pretty much lost it when I botched that jump. Thankfully I knew the route so well at that point that I made it again on the next try, but that stupid pop-up caused quite a string of expletives.
If you make dyes account-bound you give me no reason to buy gems any more.
Interesting. Personally, I’d never spend a gem on Dye Packs UNTIL they were unlocked across the entire account when used.
I think it’d be pretty cool to have catapults, scorpions and stuff like that have some mobility, but only if it took two people to move them and they moved forward/backward at a pretty slow crawl. Those people stuck at the moving positions on either side would be sitting ducks without other players around to cover them, or they’d have to stop moving and “exit” the vehicle in order to defend themselves.
I’m playing a few hours a week at most right now, not for the same reasons as all the level-capped players upset about the Ascended gear (my highest character is still under 65), but because I’m simply enjoying other single-player games more at the moment. I’ve had fun with this game so far and have barely scratched the surface of its content in my 160 hours of play time, but the game design and lack of sub fees work together to make it so that I never feel compelled to play if I don’t necessarily want to. And lately, I’d just rather be doing or playing something else.
It’s nice to be able to get around the game world quickly so you can enjoy more content during short sessions, but this is the downside to having a city with free portals to a bunch of cities spread out all around the world. If one city has an obvious advantage as a hangout spot compared to the rest of them, it’s pretty much a guarantee that players will congregate there. The same thing happened in WoW when Dalaran came out with the 2nd expansion, and a lot of players didn’t like it back then, either. I think far more players enjoy the quick accessibility more than they care about exploration or aesthetic choices, though, so developers took that torch and ran with it.
I’m personally against dungeon finder tools the way they’re used in WoW and some other recent MMOs — automatically generating a group for you and porting everyone to the dungeon. The game really does need a more robust LFG tool, though.
A window that allows players to quickly select the type of content they are looking to do from a drop-down menu (Open World PvE, Instanced PvE, tPvP, WvW), and then allows them 140 characters or so to post a more detailed comment, would work out far better than what we have. A 2nd tab on the LFG tool would show everyone on the server who is currently flagged as LFG — with all the info like Character Name, Profession, Level, Current Zone and Type of Content Selected that can be clicked to sort, as well as filters to narrow the search for certain content, level ranges or professions — with right-click functionality so we could whisper players straight from the window. A little pop-up on mouseover could show each person’s comment.
why afk around mobs? you can logout to character select and come back to the same spot. There really is no benefit to staying afk in this game.
Obviously, there’s no benefit to going afk, but sometimes things come up in life that are more important than a videogame and urgent enough to pull you away from the keyboard without taking the time to log out. Most people will be perfectly fine with their character’s death in this situation, but not exactly thrilled with a dozen deaths and a big repair cost just because they had to step away unexpectedly for 10 minutes and a bunch of total strangers ran by and revived them in the meantime. There’s really no reason why revival can’t bring up an ‘Accept’ prompt while still rewarding the EXP to the person who stopped and took the time to try and help someone up.
The first way they should improve performance for this game is to optimize it correctly so that it doesn’t tell our computers to render things that aren’t even on our screens. I get an instant 10fps boost when I reduce my Reflections setting from ‘All’, even if I’m nowhere near any water.
As for view distance, I’m all for a slider, but I’d actually like to see it show things even further. It seems like distant terrain is turned into a blue haze at a mere few hundred yards even with maxed graphics, and other character models, foliage and objects pop in just a few feet in front of my character sometimes. For a game that usually looks great, some aspects of its visuals are just a mess.
It’s a buy-to-play MMO with micro-transactions…inventory space is one of the most common things tied to extra purchases in these types of games. I know it’s frustrating (I’ve got 150 hours played between 4 characters and haven’t made a single gem purchase), but ArenaNet isn’t the first to do this — at least they’ve allowed the purchase of gems with in-game gold to give players a cheaper option if they’d rather take the extra time to earn the gold.
It’s been requested by many people with no official replies. I’d love to see dyes become unlocked for all characters on an account once used, but since they’re a potential source of revenue for ArenaNet via the cash shop, I doubt we’ll see any changes (though I actually think more people would be willing to pay real cash for dye packs if they were unlocked for the entire account).
I’ve seen countless people request a reduction in mob density and an increase in respawn time since I joined the beta (I have, as well). The OP is right: it’s off-putting to have to weave your way through every inch of the game world in an effort to minimize unnecessary combat. Combat in this game can be pretty fun, but that fun is drastically reduced against the 500th generic animal, bandit or Svanir that only exist to slow down my trip from Point A to Point B. Combat against plain mobs is even more underwhelming during the mid-level ranges and beyond, long after your character has learned all his weapon and utility skills and you’ve settled into your preferred play-style. Areas designed to house Dynamic Events and Heart Quests obviously need to have an abundance of mobs to fight, but the rest of the world could really benefit from some open space.
Mob density aside, all MMOs benefit greatly from more “fluff” activities. I have no desire to be a longstanding player in a fantasy world for months or years if it feels like a glorified lobby for instant dungeons and PvP. Activities like playing music in LOTRO, the diplomacy card game in Vanguard, and the excellent housing system in EQ2 are exactly the types of things we need to see more of in the theme park sub-genre.
(edited by Bonzoso.7014)
With so much entertainment out there competing for our free time, it’s harder than ever for games like this to recapture the players that have moved on, even without a subscription fee. For every person who patches 6 months down the road to check out what has changed, there are several that never will. It’s a steady release of new content AND the improvement of the existing game that will keep players logging in and convince lost players to return — one wouldn’t necessarily be enough without the other. To that end, MMO developers like ArenaNet usually split their staff up into teams that specialize in a specific aspect of the game’s development. I’m sure they have different teams working on improving the existing game at the same time that other teams are creating and testing new content. They don’t have to be mutually exclusive.
this will be too confusing for those who want to resurrect: why can’t i resurrect this one and I could the other one. A pop up window for the one that resurrects will become annoying and pretty soon no one will attempt to resurrect anyone anymore
Simple fix: award the exp when the resurrection bar gets to full whether the recipient accepts it or not. This way people will still go out of their way to help up total strangers and they won’t unknowingly be a hindrance to those who afk’d. I agree with the OP: real life happens, and we don’t all get worked up about dying when something comes up. Ten deaths and a completely naked character is a bit more annoying, though.
I would like to see a longer day/night cycle, as well, with it being universal across Tyria like Bruno mentioned. I would also like to see a much longer, more gradual period of twilight lighting during the dawn/dusk transition period in between…it’s lame to have it go from looking like it’s noon to a starry-sky in a couple seconds.
I sorta-kinda yearn for the old EverQuest trains, actually. I have never been a fan of the post-WoW mechanic of tethering mobs to within a short distance from their spawn and resetting them if they’re pulled beyond it.
I fall into a different category — I would prefer to see my shoulder armor, but actually like that my helm is removed during dialogue scenes. For that reason, I’d like it if they went one step further than just honoring the inventory screen check boxes and added a box in the options menu for ‘display head slot armor during dialogue’. I really can’t imagine someone preferring their shoulder gear to be hidden during dialogue but displayed otherwise, so perhaps just honoring the inventory box for that would be enough to satisfy everyone.
I’d rather an MMO have fun, special events that offer unique experiences and have to miss them than an MMO not offer them at all. Not being repeatable is what makes these types of events special in the first place. If more people would just allow themselves to get over their feelings of exclusion and abandon that psychological notion that they HAVE to see all the content that the game has to offer, they just might find themselves having more fun with MMOs and not getting so worked up over them.
I thought the Halloween event was a lot of fun and I played like crazy while it was going, but I honestly have no intention of going out of my way to be available for the various one-time events next weekend. That doesn’t mean I think they should stop doing live special events, though…I just don’t have a problem accepting that there will be a lot of content I’ll never do throughout the time I’m playing this game (or any MMO, for that matter). I hope the events are cool and make the overall experience better for those people who participate, even if I don’t.
I think there are quite a few jumping puzzles that would have to be redesigned if this were done, but I agree that it seems wrong to be able to wiggle around in mid-air.
Actual flying creatures would be awesome, but I’d just be happy to see my arrows actually fired at them based on their current height rather than being fired over their heads all the time and registering as hits. To create true flying creatures would probably mean they’d have to take out all those terrain-based invisible walls that creatures aren’t allowed to cross and design some actual form of pathing AI, which would be great because then we’d be able to knock them off edges and they’d probably be able to reach us more often without going invincible.
I wouldn’t go a modern swimsuit route with it. They could do some form of light/medium-looking wetsuit that still looks fantasy appropriate, complete with flippers for footgear. Even stripping down to no armor would look more believable than heavy plate, though I still think there’s not even a slight chance they’d look into changing it. This isn’t the only MMO that doesn’t change your gear appearance when you dive underwater, anyway.
I always thought 8pm was a ridiculous time to reset. I would prefer they reset at midnight server time, so NA servers could reset based on PST and EU servers could reset on GMT.
EDIT: Also, it’s not just us Americans, though it was an American idea. Most of Europe observes DST, as do parts Latin America and Australia.
(edited by Bonzoso.7014)
While I’m skeptical they would ever actually go into such detail for an aesthetic change like this, it’d certainly look a lot more believable. The game — like any MMO — is full of things that could look or behave way better if a little more attention had been paid to “the little things.” Every game has compromises, though.
I understand that and I realize I’m being a little bit nit picky as well. Its just that this game feels polished in all areas except underwater combat, furthermore they already have a water breather which makes me feel like they should add a little bit more to go with it. I would be fine even if it were something really simple like one-pieces and a swim trunks.
I’ve actually nitpicked on a pretty big list of aesthetic or ambient details that currently give off a lazy or unpolished appearance, so I know where you’re coming from. As for the aqua breather, ever notice that you can unequip it and still breath underwater? The game gives off a very polished, atmospheric vibe on the surface, and it plays very well and looks beautiful, of course, but there are a ton of little things that could’ve been done way better, in my opinion.
I agree — all unique starting gear should be sold from a vendor somewhere, so you could recover them later on if they were deleted after being replaced.
While I’m skeptical they would ever actually go into such detail for an aesthetic change like this, it’d certainly look a lot more believable. The game — like any MMO — is full of things that could look or behave way better if a little more attention had been paid to “the little things.” Every game has compromises, though.
There wouldn’t be anything wrong with boss fights taking 5-10 minutes if they had some unique mechanics that changed a few times throughout the fight to keep it interesting. As it is, just multiplying the health pool by 1000 and giving them a one-shot attack that needs to be evaded every 30 seconds doesn’t make for a very compelling fight. They can improve the rewards over and over, and I still wouldn’t run them if they aren’t any fun.
Just a suggestion — if you use a mouse with mouse4/mouse5 buttons on the side, try binding your dodge and weapon swapping to them. I used double-tap to dodge for awhile until, like you, it caused me headaches in jumping puzzles. I rebound them to the side of my mouse, and it works great for me.
I’ve played a lot of MMOs (and other RPGs) over the years and have never made a female character. I don’t know why exactly, except that maybe in a game that relies at least partially on creating your own story or carving your own path through the world, I find it easier to identify in some way with a character of my own gender. I play all different genres of games, and I have liked a lot of games over the years with female protagonists (Tomb Raider, The Longest Journey/Dreamfall, etc). But for whatever reason, in any game that allows me to create my own character, I always make them male.
Upon completion of this event, Oliver returns to his camp and enters the “newly built” tank to tunnel into the ground on his way to assist the nearby camps against the dredge. However, the static “half-built tank” that is always present at the camp is not replaced by the new, fully mobile tank, so Oliver’s tank is just overlaps the original object before rolling off and tunneling away, leaving the existing tank still sitting there. It looks terrible. It’d be nice if the static tank was gone while Oliver was away killing dredge.
If you landed several hits on mobs and never even got exp for them, there’s something wrong and I would report it as a bug. If you got exp for the kills but just didn’t get any loot, that’s just a string of bad luck … we’ve all been there.
I got really lucky with my Charr and managed to fly through this puzzle in under 5 minutes, jumping blind more often than not. You’re right: it’s a pretty awful puzzle and a perfect example of how this game’s camera becomes an absolute disaster in tighter spaces, especially for the larger races.
I agree that it should disappear when the UI is turned off for screenshot purposes. Otherwise, I actually wish the character outlines were more pronounced than they are now — it’d be nice to actually have some way of knowing where my target is hiding inside the giant supernova of spell effects covering my entire screen.
Weather-response is relative. We shrug off big snowstorms multiple times every winter in Michigan, but business-as-usual was halted in Atlanta for days when they got hit by that storm a couple years ago because they were poorly equipped to deal with blizzards. That doesn’t mean I was laughing at folks in Georgia because they couldn’t handle it as well…it’d be crazy of me to expect the state of Georgia to be as prepared for wintery weather as the northern states.
I’m always in favor of developers doing more of “the little things” that don’t necessarily affect the gameplay experience but can have a big impact on the believability of the game world and the sense of immersion in has on players. It’d be pretty cool to see the statue rebuilt over time rather than have everything on Nov. 5th be as if nothing ever happened.
Charr Warrior, no speed boosts. It was probably 2 hours of tries spread out over a couple days. At one point, I got to the very top and blew the final jump because the overflow queue window popped on me, and I was so frustrated I needed a break. Next session, I got it on the first try.
Only did it the one time right after it opened — got the 10 slot bag (already had all 10 slots), a tonic and a green piece of vendor trash. Underwhelming loot for me, but it was fun and I’ll do it again, I’m sure.
It’s been a pretty great event. I raged for a minute earlier today when I finally made it to the top of the clocktower and blew the final jump because the overflow queue window popped up right in the middle of my screen at the most inopportune time, but I’ll live, and now I know I can make it.
I had no problem doing the Mad King in a pug — I was level 54. As for the event, it caused my client to crash and when I logged back in the crater was already open, so no cutscene or achievement for me.
I used double-tap for the first couple weeks I was playing, until throwing myself off a platform several times doing the Goemm’s Lab puzzle. Rather than switch it on and off all the time, I bound it to one of my two left-side mouse buttons (put weapon switch on the other one), and it works great.
I just can’t help replying with my agreement every time one of these threads pops up. I’m one of the countless people who have posted the same thing — the environments in this game are way over-packed as it is, but with respawns that can be as low as a few seconds, it’s made 100x worse. There are mobs in the game that come back almost instantly, forcing you to run away from the spawn point to avoid an endless loop of combat. Action-heavy MMOs are fine, but they need some pacing with highs and lows or the action just becomes a repetitive grind and loses its intensity.
The improvements to camera smoothing and the beta option for the FOV change are steps in the right direction, but the camera is still terrible. You hate being covered by Charr and Norn characters, but rest assured, it’s no picnic for us, either…our characters and camera get snagged on geometry and flip out far more often than they do when playing the smaller races. Also, 99% of the Charr and Norn running the tower aren’t doing it to intentionally grief you — the reward is soulbound rather than account bound, so we’re stuck running with the character we want it for.
Anyway, I know where you’re coming from. Fighting the camera while jumping is bad enough in a 3rd-person platformer with a console controller…it’s far worse in an MMO game engine that has no real physics to speak of and obviously wasn’t made with precision mobility in mind.
GW2 Lion's arch to massive? Fps drops? Graphic settings turned down just not enough to enjoy?
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Posted by: Bonzoso.7014
I usually play with everything at their highest settings, but the Halloween event has drawn enough traffic to LA that I started getting frame rate drops down to 30. One thing I noticed is that dropping reflections from ‘All’ to ‘Terrain and Sky’ instantly boosts my fps by about 10, even when I’m in the plaza and don’t have any water rendering on my screen.
I think mergers will come at some point, but it’ll be interesting to see how soon. The media will usually present news of server mergers in a way that suggests a game is dying, and that’s not exactly the type of image ArenaNet wants of their game so soon after launch.
Villagers have a hide skill that allows them to cloak for a short time while remaining still, don’t they? I can’t imagine they would’ve put something like that in if hiding wasn’t one of the strategies they intended.