Guild Wars 2

Kasmeer’s bikini.

Faren’s speedo.

http://youtu.be/yR9T5yYEkR4

Happy Wintersday All!!!

MithranArkanere.8957:

Suzie? What’s that? Some pet? A llama?

Susie is was their pack bull.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Susie

Hi everyone! I’m a commander on Henge of Denravi, NA, who has been playing since release in WvW. I’m also a former game developer (Activision) and animator myself, so I’ve bit of an insight into game development. I’m really excited to see John Corpening actively thinking what WvW can become. Thinking about competitive sports (and the recent Alliances idea) I’ve a few thoughts:

• Include PVE hourly or major updates

In Guild Wars 1 we occasionally had an update “North America has Defeated Europe” or something to that affect. I really enjoyed this as it gave the PVErs an exact connection with what was happening in Guild Wars. Occasionally those updates would include “Your World has increased X” because of some sort of win.

I imagine in Guild Wars 2, PVErs could see an update such as:
“Your World has lost half of it’s Borderlands, Consider joining the fight!”
or
“Your World has just captured and held Stonemist Castle! Hold it for an hour to increase your vitality!”

Some sort of update that encourages an actual living world. That your actions, or inaction to help defend your Borderlands, could lead to different results in PVE. Of course these would be just above minor advancements – we wouldn’t want to severly overpower someone. Gaining 5% vitality or 10% more gold from holding your own BL or SC seems significant enough to encourage you to join.

• Outnumbered should do one thing only: Half Supplies needed to build Siege

At the moment Outnumbered is a fundamentally useless attribute (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Outnumbered) given to the smaller side.
More experience won’t help, since as a low level you will not be able to gain any from the blobs destroying you. World Experience won’t help for the same reason; and if you’re coming to WvW to mine/farm you probably would fair better off in PVE (no chance of immediate death.) Magic Find is completely useless in WVW – not because finding great items is bad, but because the point of WVW is competition, not finding loot.

I propose Outnumbered has one feature only: Siege cost 50% to build. A team of 5 players with two Guild Catapults (that’s 5 players, one party, or 50 supplies total) can wreck havoc on a well fortified Borderland. Two Superior Flamerams, 50 supplies total, would also be a frustrating thorn in the side of an Outnumbering force.

• Quick Squad/Commander Menu on the Top Right of your screen

Squads, in PUG worlds like ours, are vastly underutilized. If a player joined World vs World and there was a quick list of Commanders on the top right, with the option to easily join their squad, then I think we would solve two major problems: What to do in WVW when you first join, and how to build up your Zerg/Squad to run plays.

Of course there would need to be limits, maybe only 5 Commanders can be present at once, maybe a scroll wheel to choose Commanders, maybe just an option to hide the dialog box much like we can hide Dailies. All things to think about.

• Quick Commander Commands

Something that corresponds to the current Squad commands. Maybe they are actual icons above your main attacks. It can get pretty tough to type “FALL BACK” or “ATTACK” while also trying to attack and coordinate yourself. The Squad tools are awesome, and the icon minimap stuff is handy, but again if no one near you is in your squad, or if you can’t type it out fast enough… well you’re dead.

• Dual Monitor support for your map

Seriously. Yes I run WVW with Millenium.org open in another window – but it can be late in showing you the latest information. An internal solution would be awesome.

• Bloodlust should Begin turned ON, not OFF

At no time have I ever seen Bloodlust completely captured before the world battles begin. Often it is after the fact, after everyone owns the map, or a large percentage, that someone chimes in on TeamSpeak “hey we should capture Bloodlust.” My thought: Start Major Bloodlust ON for the defending World, not OFF. This makes it more of an uphill battle for the incoming worlds. For those worlds who are constantly getting run over, this would be a great boon to them. Admittedly for those worlds currently dominating, this would only further solidify their strength.

Perhaps as a counter to this domination, Minor Bloodlust could begin at TWO captures, not three.

• Show off your World (now Alliance?) support in PVE

Thinking about the recent FIFA World Cup here, how many people showed off their pride for their side during the tournament? I think in PVE you should find a way to show off which World/Alliance you support. Wether it’s an actual banner, perhaps a back item, or even a color trail that could follow you. This is obviously a ton of work, but I feel would further reinforce the camaraderie and community Worlds currently have.

• When in doubt, eat the enemy children

Because so many of you read your 8th grade reading assignments… ;D

Alright, debate and comment away

Zesbeer.8365:

Proposal Overview
Guild Event Calendar

Goal of Proposal
create a fast and easy way to schedule guild events without having to send out mail or whispers to your guild.

Proposal Functionality
Under the guild window there would be a calendar tab with a plan blank calendar

• ability to add events
  • date and time info along with ingame waypoint or poi
  • ability to have the event span across more than one day
  • ability to have events repeat like when make up guild missions take place ect.
• rank options for who can add, remove, edit and view
• option to be able to be mailed a summary (per player so if a player wants to opt out of it they can)
• option to turn on anet events ( things like feature patch updates or pvp/wvw tournament starts)

Associated Risks

• spam
• inappropriate language or events added
• conflicting events with other guilds (note that every guild would have there own and other guilds would not be able to see them unless you were a member of that guild)

Was going to post this one.

Proposal Overview
Guild Tags/Leader Tags
Essentially commander tags that are only visible to people in the guild, has its own permission under guild roles.

Goal of Proposal
This would cut down greatly on the amount of commander tags on display during guild missions, prevent accidental splitting of a zerg when a WvW guild group runs through (also would prevent spy’s from knowing the location of said guild group if it was really an issue).

In larger group content it would also allow you to find your group easier and result in less bystanders coming to see why there is a tag up.

Proposal Functionality
A visually distinct map icon (i.e your guilds banner) that appears on the map for players with it active, can only be seen by members of your guild.

A role setting under the guild permissions, activation from the same interface as the commander tag.

Associated Risks
Potentially more tag spam if you’re in a large guild.

Proposal Overview
Display the Guild Message of the Day upon Player login

Goal of Proposal
The current visibility of the Guild Message is less than optimal. Often, it includes some information for Guild Members on upcoming events, things that will be organised, general info, Forum information, etc… However, this is not very clear in the current format where it is (only partially!) shown in the Guild Menu. Changes are also not obvious (simple last updated on – by – would help.). This simple function was available in GW1 and has been greatly missed by my guild since.

Proposal Functionality
This functionality was present in GW1, I don’t know if automated messages like this are possible in the GW2 system.

Associated Risks
Eh, some players/Guilds might find it annoying. So probably a toggle for the Guild Leader.

BobbyStein.2315:

If they weren’t presented as tours for other racial cities but instead shown with characters walking and talking about their surroundings (perhaps independent of player participation) it could get the information across while also differentiating the feel of the different races. Thoughts?

Depends on how it’s done. For a prime example, I’d look to the mother and her cub touring the Black Citadel, or the small fahrar class that talk about Smodur losing his eye. These are cases of teaching young one’s about the glory of the charr. We see on the line of statues (forgot the name of it… Memorial Quadrant?) we have a charr who, with dialogue tree boxes, explains that she’s on punishment duty and her punishment is to tell passer-byes the story of Kalla Scorchrazor (and if you refuse, she threatens to call the Adamant Guard on you for restricting her ability to perform her duties, which is a nice charr-like touch).

With norn, it could be a Skaald around a fire telling stories – or even one of the mysterious and very elusive “skaald competitions” that involve telling stories until all others run out… or pass out from too much ale.

With sylvari, well, we have plenty of mentors and saplings that talk about the tenants voice acted already, why not some such situations talking about the place’s history? Or we could have travelers stopping through and asking questions to one of the wardens, as we have the opposite happening (travelers stopping through and being asked questions) in the ambient dialogue.

These things can work with the other races if you change the situation easily. But the humanity’s degradement remains unchanged then, and it doesn’t solve as many issues as it could. While getting more lore out there is great, and I am not against it, I feel that the lack of importance of humanity and GW1 lore is just as great of an issue. Yes, you pull out names like Nicholas Sandford in a side-lined book found in Dry Top. You pull out GW1 names like Shaemoor and Beetletun and Dry Top. But where’s their relation to GW1? The Restoration Camp has a centaur named Eghren which is a name of a centaur in GW1 who followed Ventari, but they say “no we are not tied to Ventari” – which from my perspective is mirroring exactly how GW2 treats GW1 lore. There’s an obvious tie to GW1 via the names and locations, but look into the GW2 lore and you’re given “we are not tied to GW1 lore” despite that. Bloodstones, even jotun, krait, and the Forgotten are all similar such cases – there’s an obvious connection to GW1 lore, via name, but there is no shared lore (the Bloodstones are not made by the Six; the jotun are not spellcasters; the krait do not transform; the Forgotten were not brought by the Six).

Just as humanity is being downgraded in importance – and even if they become a highlight, it is because they took another races’ achievements and remodeled them (Watchknights, for example, were taken and modified off of Scarlet’s achievements), or they get superseded by other races (such as Cathedral of Silence PS step… and meta). Just as humanity is being downgraded in importance, so is GW1 lore in all. We don’t see ANY repercussions from Prophecies, Factions, Nightfall, or even Winds of Change, Hearts of the North, and barely any such from War in Kryta either. And the latter three were built to bridge into GW2. Yet off the top of my head, what can I mention being a repercussion seen in GW2? Gwen has a last name and descendants. Seraph exist. Shining Blade are royal guards. White Mantle are… hidden. Repercussions of Thorn taunting Joko? Nada. Repercussions of Lazarus? Nada. Repercussions of calling forth the druids in Bloodstone Fen bonus? Nada. Repercussions of Rotscale? Nada. You get the system?

We get some acknowledgement, but only in name and pretty titles. Thus, the game feels separate.

Just three huge issues of the storytelling of GW2 (human degradement, lack of lore highlight, lack of GW1 lore). At this point, we might as well had started GW2 off in a fourth continent – one with little human involvement. Would have given plenty of freedom over what to write in such a situation, then.

I went off on a tangent, and I’d love to go into more detail on this – perhaps I will in a new thread later on, to avoid diverging this one – but I have to go for now.

#OccupySAB2014

CureForLiving.5360:

Anyone else see Pene dying and Bloom going all action-hero-revenge. Maybe even becoming a part of Destiny’s Edge 2.0 :P

Kasmeer: Peneloopee? Bloomanoo? Why are they running?

Marjory: Because we have to chase them.

Kasmeer: They didn’t do anything wrong.

Marjory: Because they’re the Quaggans Tyria deserves, but not the ones it needs right now. So we’ll hunt them. Because they can take it. Because they aren’t our heroes. They’re silent guardians. Watchful protectors. AdoOooOoorable Knights.

I think it is more of a case of, well the game doesn’t really animate or depict what that mace can really do to an Aetherblade. It takes discipline to learn to keep your mouth closed in a fight…

There seems to be a lot of people wondering if it’s even possible to reach this goal. I’ve hear servers have done it, so it’s not impossible. I think what you’re looking at is a new model for events. The requirements for rewards have different levels, so if a Casual wants to just do a few things, they can still get some rewards. But if a Hardcore guild wants to get the best rewards, that requires lots of effort. Other events like Teq and the Wurm did give rewards based on levels of progress, but the tiers weren’t as generous as the current LA attack events. Rewards are super easy to get on the low end, but super hard to get to high end.

Look at it this way -> getting 1500+ rescues is Elite content like Wurm kills. It takes coordination and assigned people to duties throughout the map. You need to rescue the citizens and protect them as they run to exits. If people just want to zerg for achievements, it’s pretty much guaranteed you won’t reach that mark, but everyone can still get credit towards something, albeit small. This event, like it or not, has an anti-zerg mechanic. With several events happening at the same time, if a majority of players stack on Commanders in a single area, all other events fail, but it doesn’t end the event as a whole.

The big issue I find is that the rewards are too easy to get. AFKers hurt, as with any event, since they get full credit even if they don’t move an inch. But at least for this, all player types are able to participate and get something. No one can complain that they can’t do it, since it’s Open World. And no one can say they don’t get anything, since loot drops from enemies, as well as the tiered reward levels.

I absolutely loved the conversations in the LA instance, especially when some scholar recapitulated everything that has happened so far. For the very first time in the living story I now really want to find out about Scarlet’s motives and chase that lunatic (if she really is??) further.

Gameplay-wise I have only tried the marionette encounter yet which I thought was quite ok. Not a big fan of lag festivals though :-(

Ay Caramba!

The Voice in the new trailer ACTUALLY is… the narrator.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Zone.1275:

ColinJohanson.2394:

What sort of systems of horizontal progression unlocking would you like to see that’d accompany a system like extended class progression?

I think special dynamic events could be one way. Currently some dynamic events open up special vendors to buy little knick knacks. For example, if in Brisban Wildlands there was a special dynamic event chain where you help the Skritt King in some way and after the events are over you can buy a new skill from him with skill points.

So a question for this, how would we message well to newer players how a system like this would work? One of the challenges of events is simply: they may not be running when you’re in an area. Is it ok to make people stand around waiting for an event to happen so they can get a specific thing from that event? How would they know what to do if the event wasn’t currently active, what form of messaging could help them understand the state of the world – while still being immersive and not requiring them to use a 3rd party app to progress?

Hmm…

Currently in game we have a variety of World Event notifications in various zones. These show progress, whether it be success or failure and the consequences (Tequatl is a nice example, peppers his area of the zone with undead and mines if failed, success makes the zone more friendly.) Actually, while Tequatl is up regardless of where-ever you are in the zone you can see the event icons, but more on that later.

Here is what I think would be fair:

- For rewards specific for difficult content like defeating Tequatl, there are already specific rewards from his chests, but we can also have a vendor spawn at his area with rewards unique to the zone, but only for a limited time after his defeat and items unique to the vendor only. Obviously we want people to try to kill Tequatl for his weapons and mini, but perhaps have the vendor sell the other minis, some named exotics, karma equipment, etc. In fact it would be a great way to introduce some equipment or items players have been really craving, but nothing that might break the Trading Post…

- How would people know? I have an idea, but I can’t quite figure out the pros/cons of the suggestion yet. How about adding a ‘Event Board’ physically in each of the main cities? This may take a bit to program, and could even be as simple as those ‘scout’ NPCs you run into as you explore Tyria. How it works is that when you interact with this quest board, a list of ACTIVE dynamic world events is shown perhaps in a dialogue box, maybe one says ‘Trouble in the Blazeridge’. Clicking on that option pulls up the map like when you did the scout interaction, moves your look over to Blazeridge and a small synopsis shows up, saying ‘We got reports of increased Branded activity in Blazeridge, the Vigil requests assistance…’ followed up by the typical circles that might just show the current events there.

The above example does two things, first, with Lion’s Arch being a primary city hub many people would flock to the board to keep tabs on active quests, while new players would show interest as well, walk over, KNOW where the event ‘sort of’ is, and not have to go to third party maps to find out the status on events. Two, it can promote activity in these events since there are a vast number of people who might not track using 3rd party, and if something comes up the map chat might flood with ‘Shatterer is coming up soon! Let’s roll!’

Of course, what happens if you are already in a zone when a world event pops?

I think in that instance we can have subtle changes in the environment…either emotes, sounds, or freshly spawned yelling npcs crying for help! For example, I am busy in Harathi Hinterlands, far away from the Centaur wars when, perhaps in a unique yellow font appearing in the middle of my screen (See what I did there) it says ‘The air seems to have changed…the flames of war have started’ or perhaps have the sounds of wardrums beating in the background, and follow all of this with the beginning of the wars event shown in red icons on your minimap.

Boom, you being in the zone hear a unique event notification for something big, it shows up on your map. Newer players might be very interested to see what is up, while veteran players can instantly recognize it without having to look it up through a website or by spams in map chat.

Upon further reflection, the rewards idea I had might pale in comparison to what I came up with in dealing with immersion and event notification. I would like to see something of an event board and special event effects to come through so I don’t end up looking at a site online for events to appear in real-time, I can just do it in game through LA or even be in the zone when something happens.