(edited by Ekevu.9263)
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The “mixed tech” is not just to show unity, but rather because the individual approaches complement each other to generate superior results.
The technology in Orr contributed by the different peoples seems mostly in line what is being indicated already in the lower level, racial areas. Good examples would be the Asuran delegations visiting other places to exchange expertise, which also points out how everyone’s own technology is lacking in certain areas.
For example in the Black Citadel, an NPC comments on superior Charr metallurgy and production techniques, while stating how Asura excel in power generation.
At the submarine docks in Plains of Ashford, an engineer points out how Asuran creations often are innovative, but not exactly practical. Speaking about submarines, the ones at Fort Trinity seem to retain the design of the Charr prototype.
As for Orr, other noteworthy contributions can be found in the other facilities along the coast Fort Trinity sits on: to the north, there are cannons shooting golems all the way into Cursed Shore. Golems are the trademark Asuran tech, and it would not surprise me if Charr helped with the cannons.
I admit, though, I cannot think of obvious examples for human technology, most of it seems to be based around Asura/Charr/Sylvari.
Human expertise might be in other fields, though, maybe on the magical side, considering their long and diverse history with magic. Possibly also historical knowledge, since humans were spread out across the world far longer than any other of the current races and have a knack for written accounts.
I went into Orr expecting to see some major lore revelations for the human race and the Six, only to leave bitterly disappointed. I’ll admit there’s a few interesting scraps here and there, […]
That’s just my personal impression, but to me, Orr seemed to hold a wealth of information and revelations on human lore and the time when their gods still resided among them. Especially the Shelter Docks outpost in Malchor’s Leap with it’s Orrian History Scrolls is so rich in lore I’d call it more than just “scraps”.
The most convenient way to accomodate for different wishes would probably be the possibility to define access levels for the general public and for individuals.
If you enjoy your privacy, deny public access, if you want to show off (or run a tavern) you might want to allow everyone to get in at any time. Similarly, if you want to share your home with friends (or family, if you don’t worry about your mother changing everything around all the time) you’d give individual people trusted access so they can add to or change the decoration.This is a good idea, but how would you ever manage that many instances? Just have a giant list to choose from?
Pretty much, yes – been there, done that.
Bonus points, though, if there were tabs or checkboxes to filter by “All”, “Own houses”, “Guilds” (if there’d be an option to allow house access to all members of a guild or for guild houses, especially if you belong to multiple guilds), “Friends” (everyone who explicitly put you on the access list), and “Other” (Houses that just generally allow public access).
Additionally, especially for the last one, being able to search for account and character names would be a big help.
1. It should be instanced and you could invite anyone to join your house and only invited people can get there.
The most convenient way to accomodate for different wishes would probably be the possibility to define access levels for the general public and for individuals.
If you enjoy your privacy, deny public access, if you want to show off (or run a tavern) you might want to allow everyone to get in at any time. Similarly, if you want to share your home with friends (or family, if you don’t worry about your mother changing everything around all the time) you’d give individual people trusted access so they can add to or change the decoration.
Everything else sounds fun, more customization options, yay! (Though I prefer to patiently wait for a good and comfortable implementation of such features rather than getting them quickly, but half-baked.)
Add to that a “homeshow” kind of forum and people can inspire even more players with their creativity.
And let’s not forget the roleplayers, there’s nothing like a nice, player-made and -run tavern to go after a long day of dungeon crawl and dragonhunting. (In games allowing that, I’ve even seen places like this being frequented by people who normally don’t care much about the roleplay opportunities in such games, yet they still took the opportunity to partake in fun social activities.)
If you could get house items from dungeons, there are also the bragging rights for having gathered them all. Certainly, you can show off your dungeon/story progress with armour and weapons as well, but not all at the same time.
Another common use for houses that hasn’t been mentioned so far: They often may get additional storage space, too. Partly necessary to store furniture, it’s also a good place to put “collectibles”. (So if anyone wants to keep fancy gear that they don’t often use but which looks too cool to throw away wouldn’t take up bank space which is better used for items that are needed regularly. And where better to use the various sets of town clothing than in themed homes?)
You might like to look into WvWvW, where you do PvP in your regular PvE equipment.
Giving everyone the same prerequisites and putting them on equal terms in sPvP appears to be completely intentional.
Additionally, if you introduce the same strict equipment arms-race as in other games, you also lock out people from partaking in any content at their leisure, as their play style might not be “Get the best equipment quick”. Group looking for members messages would suddenly gain the infamous addition “with exotic gear”.
And he could easily be added as default resident in home instances, for those who want to test their personal damage output as well as for groups (just enter one home instance together). A few in publicly available locations would be interesting for those who wish to compare damage in a situation that equals dynamic event bosses. But maybe give the results for this in a more private manner, otherwise there’d be massive spam.
There’s one problem with the notion that rangers shouldn’t get rifles, because in every other game setting they’re supposedly about bows, not rifles: The vast majority of these are traditional fantasy settings in which handheld firearms do not exist, or are crude and uncommon… while in GW2, they are a perfectly equal and common weapons, so we’re working with different premises.
(Edit) Addendum: Warriors have 4 of 5 rifle skills with a range of 1200, which is the standard maximum distance that rangers share as well. So it seems long range rifles are already in.
Though to be fair, Rangers already have two 2-handed ranged weapons, with the shortbow already covering the mostly-single-target-condition-inflicting aspect. Adding a rifle would make the class stand out in the field of large ranged weapons, but given they’re a _Range_r, this might be fair. In such a case, though, the rifle could maybe work as weapon with spread to make up for the Ranger’s lack of ranged AE skills.
(edited by Ekevu.9263)
I know what you mean about EQ2 housing cause SWG had a very similar housing.
That actually reminds me of a major difference, which I forgot to point out, accurate, custom placement is one thing, but it also matters how you can do that. (I played both games, even though the latter disappeared too soon.)
SWG was indeed very similar, but having to click direction buttons to move furniture got tedious, so having a phantom image / blueprint of the item displayed during placement, while moving it with mouse and rotating/scaling using mousewheel and hotkeys are so much more convenient (and a lot faster).
As an avid fan of player housing (and associated crafter professions) I can only agree that I’m in eager anticipation, though hoping it will be implemented in an adequate manner (as mentioned previously in this thread and elaborated on below).
Instanced housing? Building in open world? Instanced Neighbourhoods!
As “put houses into the open world” vs “instanced housing” goes, there could be the middle ground of instanced neighbourhoods, which show the local flair and flavour in a condensed manner. (I think LotRO had something like this)
They’d be instanced small zones with a number of open housing lots where you can place the desired house of course choice, and maybe even decorate the exterior and garden. This way, one can visibly be neighbours with your friends or guildmates, without the problem of having to find space in the open world for every character on a server.
Possible additional options could be to have general neighbourhoods (which people can freely move into when there are free lots, whenever free spaces fall below a certain threshold, new ones are automatically generated) as well as private neighbourhoods. The latter might take a hefty fee to create, but in exchange be exclusive to a guild or on invitation of a current resident (letting you choose on creation which of the two you want).
For convenience, such neighbourhoods could also have the basic NPCs: Bank, TP, General Goods Vendor, maybe even a crafting area or for private guild zones the guild vendors.
For the actual house (interior) itself, I’d also like to point at Everquest II, where it is simply amazing, for the following reasons:
- you can place a large number of house items (depending on house size, ranging from 100 in new player inn rooms to >1000 for guild halls)
- these items have a very high freedom for placement: a very fine grid, so location can be chosen accurately; movement in all three dimension, rotation and even scaling
- there is a crafting profession solely for making furniture, with an available selection spanning hundreds of decorative items of various styles (including cultural styles of non-playable races)
- between quest souvenirs, lore books, crafted furniture and NPC purchased furniture, there are probably thousands of different house items to customize your humble abode with (of course, those accumulated over years of content updates, which is perfectly fine, no need to have everything right away)
A short reminder why sophisticated, rather than haphazard player housing is a good idea:
It has a strong appeal to players of the socializer type and is an additional, alternative yet lasting way for players to enjoy the game (those who like this aspect, that is).
Socializers are probably the most loyal and dedicated group and have a general positive influence on player numbers.
Decorating (and bragging with) a house also is a great pursuit through the elder game (commonly known as endgame). After reaching level 80, maxing all these crafting professions, knowing all dungeons and dynamic events… being able to hunt down trophies and neatly displaying them in your luxurious home adds a wholly new layer of elder game pursuits.
Some people even don’t get tired of redecorating every other week. (/me whistles innocently)
TL;DR I like player housing a lot. I hope there will be lots of furniture (and souvenirs) as well as means for detailed, custom placement of house items to make housing fans like me happy.