Guild Wars 2

I posted this suggestion over on reddit yesterday and seems the ideas were well received.

I think it is high time that guilds could advertise in-game without the need to spam chat channels or have to go off to 3rd party websites.

Here are some suggestions to be going on with:

• Every City to have a Guild Recruitment Office where people could view guilds that are actively recruiting, see how many members they have, how old the guild is, which game modes they cover (PvE, sPvP, WvW, Raids, Dungeons, Fractals, RP, etc), timezone, language, along with a brief guild recruitment message, % rep, requirements and a little picture of the guild logo.

• The Guild Recruitment office would also make it easier to contact guilds in-game based on external sources like the various guild recruitment channels that don’t require people to contact specific people in -game or to find out a guild is no longer recruiting and hadn’t removed or updated their post.

• Guild Recruitment could be set to only be “active” for a set period, after which it would need to be reactivated. This would stop dead / inactive guilds blocking up the recruitment lists as well as assure people that a guild is genuinely active.
  When players look at Guild Recruitment they will also be able to choose which servers guilds to view (for easy switching to a guild on another server) in addition to being able to contact the guild with any further questions.

• Guilds would have a access to a new Guild Recruiter NPC who would frequent their hall and allow guilds to toggle their recruitment status to active / inactive as well as provide a short recruitment message.

• Guilds would also require their own mailbox (separate from regular in-game mails) to respond to member enquiries and to be able to accept or decline membership.
  The Guild Mailbox could also be used to send a message to everyone in the guild for Event Reminders, Policy changes, etc.

• The Guild Mailbox would only be usable for those ranks with the correct privileges.
  Guilds could also have some form of reward badge added to their recruitment post if they have achieved specific goals (e.g. age of guild in years , server loyalty, pvp tournament winners, etc). Special award badges could also be given to guild efforts within the community. A couple of examples might be for the GW2 Community organisers, The Asura News Network, etc.

• Add a report option for Guilds that might want to abuse this system.

Redditors added the following suggestions:

• Concern with trolls / spam for guild applications, perhaps this could be limited to X guild applications per day per account, recommended 5.

• Having a Guild Crier in the Cities and LA to help make new people aware of guild recruitment that could also “shout” some text from the currently recruiting guilds for that particular server.

• Having a Guild Calendar for Guild Events.

• Some were in favour of a dedicated recruitment channel, that can be toggled off as per the other chat channels but is automatically switched on for new players. For those repping a guild the recruitment tab would no longer be visible unless manually reselected or not repping.

It would be good to hear any other suggestions that that people might like to add.

Thank you Mo for the communication and update .

No.

All female characters should use the female version of Armor.

I know for myself and most of the friends I have in game that Asura Female Armor has always been particularly frustrating in that it uses the male armour variant, especially when Previews show the Female version and then you end up with a Male Chest piece.

Sounds like your Visual C library might be broken and you might find re-installing the redistributable of some help.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30679

Melina Mitchell.3629:

Hey,

Can we get some Character names from you guys? I don’t need account names, just the name of one character from your account.
It would help us track down more information on this issue.

Thank you in advance!

Given that the forum name is the same as the in-game account name surely having people post character names is a bit self defeating?

Had you perhaps meant to ask people to name the character on their account that has this specific problem?

I think I may have found a way to get this to work and keep the settings within the options. At least it has worked for a few repeated logins for me just now.

1. Browse to your C:\Users\[yourusername]\AppData\Roaming\Guild Wars 2
2. Right-Click and select Properites on the GFXSettings.Gw2.exe (32-bit client) or GFXSettings.Gw2-64.exe (64-bit client) and make sure the Read-Only attribute is NOT set and Click OK.
3. Start GW2 and login, set your preference in the Options, close the Options window and re-open.
4. Use ALT + TAB to switch back to your Explorer window and make sure the GFXSettings file for your client version has not had the Read Only attribute set again.
5. Close the Client and then restart and your settings should have persisted.

If this still fails repeat steps 1-4 but at Step 5, try logging out then immediately log back in, recheck the Read Only attribute is not selected on the GFXSettings file and then you should be able to close the Client without losing the settings.

I hope that helps both the Players and Devs alike and for greater visibility I have also put a post up on Reddit here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3x98f8/options_reset_possible_solution/

Tiru.5760:

If you logout via Options -> Logout and then close the Launcher it gets safed.

Any other way resets the options.

Have tried that and didn’t work for me.

Windows 7 64 bit and using the GW2-64 client.

It is sad to see Mesmer being penalised so harshly on Echo of Memory, especially considering this is a skill from an Elite Specialisation and that their other block skills, namely:

Illusionary Counter is 2secs
Illusionary Reposte is 2.25 seconds.

Engineer
Static Shield 1.25s
Shock Shield 2s

Guardian
Shelter – 2s

Revenant
Warding Rift 2s
Duelist’s Preparation 2s
Crystal Hibernation 3s

Warrior
Shield Stance 3s

Glacial.9516:

I didn’t like the death scene much either. It felt odd. I didn’t get the feeling that Eir accepted her fate (though I thought that would have been nice). Nor did I think she was unable put up some semblance of a fight. She seemed confused and unsure of herself, like a deer caught in the headlights.

How I expected it

hide spoiler

Eir’s stare pierces through the Modrem, sizing it up and weighing her options. She prepares herself and focuses on the stinger’s movement. It lunges toward her and she waits, waits, waits and NOW! Dodges to the side, tumbling in the dirt and landing on one knee. She never takes her eyes off the beast.

It raises its appendage for a second strike, this time from above . Eir again leaps at the last second, but she overestimates her strength. She’s too slow. The sharp tip scrapes across her thigh, drawing a cry from Eir that sounds out with as much ferocity as it does pain. Braham calls to Eir, “Hang on Mother, I’m coming!” and charges ahead of his companions through the vines and foliage.

Eir pulls herself to her feet. She’s gasping for air and is nearly out of strength. The Mordrem knows it too. It’s readying its tailspike for the final blow, deciding just how it wants to pierce into Eir’s flesh and how pleased its Mordremaster will be with it. The stinger stiffens and locks onto her. It cuts through the air with arrow-like speed. Eir knows she can’t possibly get out of its way, not with her wounded leg. Her spirit wavers.

Braham breaks through the foliage and cries out, “MOTHER!” Eir turns to him and looks into Braham’s eyes. She nods to him affirmingly. “Not yet. My story isn’t over,” she whispers to herself, “It will live on. Through Braham.” She smiles before turning back to the Mordrem with fierce determination, accepting her fate.

Alternate ending

hide spoiler

The stinger stiffens and locks onto her. It cuts through the air with arrow-like speed. Eir knows she can’t possibly get out of its way, not with her wounded leg. Her spirit wavers. Hope is draining from her like sand in an hourglass. She closes her eyes, her entire being focused on the sound of impending death from the Mordrem spike piercing through the air when… A familiar yelp rings out and breaks Eir’s silence. She opens her eyes to see Garm, impaled by the stinger just inches before her.

Her eyes widen and fury builds inside her like nothing seen before at the death of her beloved companion. Her body shakes with uncontrollable power. She growls and eyes the Mordrem. She begins to change, not into Bear or Wolf, but into some ferocious hybrid over four times as large. She charges the mordrem, tearing into it with vicious claws and ripping its appendages off with her powerful jaws. In a matter of seconds she turns the Mordrem into a scattered mess of tendrils and thorns.

Braham and co. break through the vine barriers and see beast-Eir in a frenzy. Braham runs to her and tries to console her but Eir’s mind is lost. She slashes back at Braham and knocks him away with grievous wounds to his chest. The rest of Destiny’s Edge 2.5 move in to care for Braham and calm Eir.

But Eir kills them all. Mordemoth looks like this -> (O.O). Nearby Mordrem warriors slowly back away, keeping their hands in front of them and not showing any threatening signs. Wherever she goes, vines retreat from Eir’s location and Mordemoth’s minions quickly flee. The same is said for the other Dragon minions. Perhaps the Elder Dragons shall consider forming a Pact of their own…

Some interesting alternatives you have suggested and I think that if I was to consider suggesting alternative ending options then I think mine would go something like this:

This would have been a much more deserving end with Eir’s fiery nature shining through until the end and it would have shown her skill as a tactician and not letting her friends and son simply walk headlong in to the waiting trap to be picked off as Faolin had been.

Braham Eirson is always too quick to simply rush in head first, a trait clearly inherited from his mother. Eir chose to stand her ground and fight and she sacrificed herself that her friends and her son might live.

This would be something to shake Braham to his very core but not without also teaching him some valuable lessons. Braham would go on to re-evaluate his previously reckless and thoughtless approach to simply rushing in to dangerous situations.

From this Braham’s transition to becoming a Dragonhunter would have proved worthwhile and his growth in wisdom that allows him to still support his friends in a way that honors his mothers memory as well as to finally begin down his own path of becoming a Legendary Hunter on the greatest hunt of all, Dragons!

Captain Unusual.9163:

So, like, am I remembering things wrong, or was she stabbed in the gut by Faolain?

After suffering through an airship crash, being abducted by Mordrem, trapped in thorns, starved and dehydrated for days, disarmed, and stabbed in the gut by an arm sized thorn, I don’t think anyone would be in very good fighting shape.

Eir was indeed stabbed in the side with a large thorn by Faolin.

I have just finished playing that story again myself on my 5th?, 6th? toon and just wanted to clarify one of the key points that people had raised.

Eir does say that they have not had food or water for days, so that leaves that element open to interpretation and personally percieve that as 2-3 days since the crash.

Palador.2170:

I picture something like this happening in the mists shortly after:

Eir wanders through the grey void

Eir: Spirits? I don’t understand. Why wasn’t I able to call upon the change? Why did you leave me too weak to fight?

Eir: Wolf? Bear? Have you abandoned me?

A Voice: No, Eir. They did not abandon you.

Raven appears before her, gliding down out of the mists.

Raven: I am the one that prevented you from changing.

Eir: Raven? I… I respect your wisdom, but I do not understand. Why?

Raven: Eir, you were weak and injured. Had you survived the fight, you would have been of no use to your allies.

Raven: Your son would have abandoned his own quest to see you safely home. He would not be there for them when he is needed.

Eir: And with me dead?

Raven: He will mourn, and then he will press on in your memory. With his aid, many more will be saved.

Eir nodded, understanding.

Eir: My one life for many. That is a good death. Owl would be proud.

Raven bowed his head at the mention of the lost Spirit.

Raven: Yes. Owl would be proud.

That is a wonderful interpretation of how Eir might have communicated with the Spirits after her death, sadly it still doesn’t address the manner in which she died which is a key element to how I feel Eir has been treated.

Her death, however harsh and sad I can accept, for the story, for Braham, for Druids / Dragonhunters, even for the future of Tyria.

The manner in which her death occurred though, is ultimately tragic and I feel degrades Eir as a character and as a Norn.

The debate over how well Eir might have survived a crash, lack of food and water and being stabbed could undoubtedly be debated and if it was scientifically possible to do so accurately on specific details within a game, let alone a fantasy based one, then I would be all for it, but in doing so it only detracts from my original reason for posting and in my view detracts from the rich Lore that the game has.

Eir still had the strength to walk and she could have rolled away from the Vinetooth’s tail attack, even transformed in to the Spirit of Wolf. Her fate need not have changed, just the manner of her passing.

Eir was a Legend in and of her own right and she deserved a Norn’s end and a chance to go out with a fight, to die with honor and to face the spirits proud with songs sung by the Skalds of the legend she had created for herself, a legend that would not only inspire her son Braham but one that would inspire future generations from all the races.

Aedelric.1287:

Eir’s death was not wasted, and her death may not have been heroic but it had more meaning. Being killed Mordy infront of Braham has given him drive to defeat the Dragon and perhaps all Dragons giving a bland character more depth and forwarding his story.

Faolin being the reason for Eir’s death also creates conflict within Caithe as she loves Faolin but was a good friend to Eir. Ultimately she makes a decision to side with us and fight to avenge Eir and give peace to her love.

It also gives your own character an enemy to focus on as during much of the story Mordremoth has no face. As I said, it my not be heroic but it does have meaning, it furthers two fairly mediocre characters stories.

Anyway her death is of no great loss to me, their are more interesting characters.

Thanks for adding to the discussion with a more in depth response.

I don’t dispute that Eir’s death was wasted. To have the story pass on to Braham as you have said, to give a bland character more depth, is most certainly a worthwhile choice and direction. While the rest of that chapter as you have summarised rather nicely, all makes sense in the direction the writers have taken us.

Her end even outside of it’s overall impact is still somewhat at odds with the games Lore.

Sadly this isn’t the first time that the lore has been either ignored or overlooked and I can understand the design choices of moving the story on and away from conventions but if the story simply moves on in ignorance of it’s own existence then doesn’t that also undermine the existence of the lore in the first place?

Aedelric.1287:

Lady Elyssa.2469:

One can have or leave behind a Legacy while still being alive…

Stop trying to justify it, just make the change please.

I make no justification for stating facts.

You may not be aware but forum titles cannot be changed except by the Mods, who I am sure should they agree with your opinion will be more than happy to.

Lord Trejgon.2809:

well I though similarry but after applying dozen of fridge logics I’ve realised that it has “some” sense – she mentioned earlier that mordrem were starving them

have you ever try to run just after so long time without any kind of food?

I have had to endure being without food for up to 3 days with only minimal water. I was still able to remain active during those 3 days, albeit at a reduced level.

I don’t have the Norn’s survival skills or hardened upbringing but I do know that adrenaline alone would have given my body a boost and a chance to fight or run should the dire need arisen.

…anyway, this isn’t about me, it’s about Eir

One can have or leave behind a Legacy while still being alive…

In chapter 6 of the HoT story, Prisoners of the Dragon when Eir is defeated by a minion of Mordremoth as much as this was foreshadowed, her legacy and her honour have, I feel, been disgraced.

First and foremost Eir was Norn and for over 200 years Norn have been known to be great solo Hunters and Eir was firm in her role in during the start of young Norn’s in guiding them to build their own legends.

Eir was a fierce and strong ally with Wisdom enough to have once lead Divinity’s Edge.

Eir may have been a little weakened from being imprisonment and was clearly worse for wear but with her Totem spirit being Wolf I believe she would have conserved her Strength and even though stabbed by Faolin, she still gave as good as she got.

To see Eir being impaled in to a nearby tree without one last fight, however futile, is what bring disgrace to her Legacy and in my eyes, even if Eir knew the fight was already lost she would have relished that one last chance to go out fighting with tooth and claw.

Eir could have Become the Wolf and entered a Blood Frenzy to recoup some of her strength, Eir could have and indeed should have gone out fighting, with her honour as a Norn intact.

Eir deserves a Heroes death as she also deserves a Heroes Remembrance.

Over the years Hak and Mini have come and gone and done their own things but when ever they have been in need of the other they have only ever need but call, despite the distance between them, no matter the time, they have always been there for each other.

As an Emissary for the Asura, it has been a great privilege to have known these two and see them grow from the young progeny they were when they started their journey together to seeing them now all grown up and still together.

Hakoob (Hak) and Minimeme (Mini) grew up together and thoroughly enjoy exploring and getting in to all sorts of mischief.

Hak and Mini would quite often stop for a nap or sit and admire the scenery as they explored the world of Tyria.

Mini is an Engineer and would quite often get herself in to trouble. Mini would all to often tend to find the smallest hole or crevice and disappear down the hole. Hak would hear cries of “I stuck” and being a Mesmer would portal her back out to safety.

As they grew up together they proved an unlikely synergy as Mini would rip foes apart with her Rifle while Hak would keep foes distracted and confused with his clones. They played with each other as much as they toyed with their foes.

It was when they were pressed and the other was in trouble that their love for each other shone through and won through against all odds. One such occasion was when they had ventured in to the mists in search of the more elusive jumping puzzles.

They were both on edge and were aware of the inherent dangers that lay ahead of them but they had each other and ventured bravely on. They came to the Waterfall and paused to admire the view before venturing inside.

While climbing the wet, slippery rocks a foe from an opposing world caught up with us and knocked poor Mini off in to the water, Hak quickly jumped in and their quarry quickly ran off. Mini and Hak paused to catch their breathe as they swam back out to the waterfall only to find a group of 5 opponents waiting at the top of the rock climb.

They had the advantage of numbers as well as being on higher ground. Hak quickly switched a couple of skills. Hak and Mini stopped and looked at each other, no words exchanged as they began the climb.

The 5 people that awaited them at the top were maneuvering in to position and then Hak and Mini were gone from their view. (Hak had cast Mass Invisibility). Hak and Mini re-appeared in the middle all 5 of them and unleashed their combined fury, in a few short moments 4 were down but one lucky soul had managed to escape and was making a run for the waterfall.

Hak and Mini didn’t miss a beat and quickly caught them and Mini’s trusty net held them in place and all 5 of them were finished.

They went on to finish the rest of the puzzle in peace with plenty of Mini falling down and Hak picking her back up but together they did it.

These two Asura finally made their commitment to each other permanent before setting off on their honeymoon.

https://imgur.com/a/NQPtA

I have been thinking about how things like the upcoming expansion as well as previous living world installments currently work and thought that if they were broken down in to 4 main types that this would help preserve the existing lore and timeline and also allow for real world changes to exist.

1) Personal Stories – Instanced stories specific to our character / race / profession. This should not be tied to any specific timeline and therefore fit in at any point in the game.

2) Historical Stories – These would be instanced and involve elements like the creation of the pact. If played after current events, the player should be notified that they are reliving historical events that have already transpired, I remember this becoming a part of how historical events were covered in GW1.

3) Living World – These would be relevant to the current place in time of the world and would also be instanced same as the Personal / Historical Stories and could be replayed “out of order” as long as they inform players that they are “reliving historical events”.

4) Evolving World – This would allow for real world changes that are permanent and reflect the current lore and timeline. This allows the world to continue to change and grow and would not have any actual effects on the other elements. The Evolving World would be able to leave behind lore or traces of previous changes.

• A living example of this is Southsun. Those of us who were there remember well the original Karka Queen event on a massive scale. We still have remnants of that with the current Karka Queen now serving as a World Boss Event. I am sure the Priory has a few more scholars it could contribute to tie together threads like this and any others that may follow.

• This would allow for large scale events like the Karka Queen, Marionette etc to take place as large scale one time had to be there moments that would in turn become a piece of Tyria’s history. Those that are not there at the time are still kept informed and many of us were not present during the original Guild Wars or the Fall of Abaddon or the Exodus of the Gods, etc, but we know about them from the Lore.

• Fractals provides the ideal place for people to traverse these fantastic historical moments and a chance to live and experience them for themselves firsthand. I doubt Anet is short for new content ideas but this would provide an ideal setting to re-use content without all that hard work going to waste.

I think this or something like it would allow the world to continue to grow and expand and at the same time allow the timeline and the history of tyria to remain intact and if anything encourage us to go back and revisit of those key historical moments.

Any chance of something like this for the UK?

Updated Spreadsheet with some improvements on the Basic Gear Calc and Condition Calculations.

I have put together a rough guide to help get people started on using the advanced sheet for this and will endeavour to update this to be more concise as time goes on.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_qpAKCH96aSWjN6RE1JYXEwckE/view?usp=sharing

I have played GW2 now since Beta and always played with what felt right. As time went on I found myself struggling to decide on exactly what gear I wanted to use with any given build or even which gear would be of the greatest benefit.

I have spent 100’s of gold on re-gearing and finally decided to commit to a personal project to help answer some of these questions in black and white so I began work on a spreadsheet to help.

I created it in Libre Office Calc which is Open Source and can be downloaded from https://www.libreoffice.org/ (make sure you select Calc during the Install as this is the Spreadsheet you will be using)

You can preview and download it from Google Docs here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_qpAKCH96aSVzN0UjNoUlo3aVk/view?usp=sharing

The first two tabs are labelled as Basic and Advanced.

• The Basic sheet is quick and easy to use and is for those less familiar with spreadsheets or who do not need a complete stat breakdown.
• The Advanced sheet is for those more familiar with spreadsheets and offers a more in depth breakdown of stat combinations as well as being able to choose individual stat combinations for things like armour and trinkets.

Please Note: It is still in “Beta” and being tweaked, so if you decide to make use of this and run in to any problems please do let me know so I can try to fix any incorrections as quickly as possible.

This is not a replacement for build editors but tool than can be used in conjunction with them.

Your constructive criticism and feedback is most welcome.

Please could it be made possible for items that are account based, whether bought from the gem store, awarded from black lion chests or other means to be traded back to the gem store for a handful of gems (for example, half the gem store price).

For example:
Booster Mutipack is worth 300 gems (making each booster worth 100 Gems), these could be traded back to the gem store for say 50 Gems.

Transmutation Stones – 25 for 500 gems could be sold back to the Gem store for 10 Gems each.

For rarer items like Trading Post/Merchant Express type items these could be traded back individually, for more common items like the Transmutation Stones these could be required to be traded back in batches of 5 or 10.

I think this would be a good way for players to trade in unwanted items or those they have previously purchased from the Gem store and trade them back in return for some Gems to purchase some of the new things they want, return unwanted gifts or to top up their existing Gem purchase.

I appreciate the need for Anet to encourage people to make use of the existing micro transactions which I have myself supported and only seek to further support this in game for the benefit of the developers and players alike.

Could we please have the option to save our builds, armour and trait options and also to have WvW storage as we do in PvP.