Guild Wars 2

UPDATE:

By some miracle it is fixed!

Well, that miracle involves wiping every trace of guild wars 2 from my pc and installing windows 10. Who knows why, but it works.

Healix.5819:

Parlourbeatflex.5970:

- Tried different IPs in shortcut target (wont even connect to any)

.

Thank you for trying to help…

Unfortunately none of those IPs resolve the problem. I am still stuck downloading 8 files that will not download and install on my machine. I have tried reinstalling everything for a third time now and it doesnt work. basically guild wars 2 is screwed on my pc. :*(

EDIT: I have sent a ticket in and hope i get some decent advice.

Update:

OK I can see certain progress now.. Watching the launcher attempt to download these 8 files remaining, results in certain intervals it freezing the download with 1489mb downloaded and again and 1573mb downloading… still 8 files remaining… oh and right after all info disapears again and i see 0% and nothing else.

This is really annoying. Hope its server side and gets fixed soon.

Hi all, hope someone can help me.

I tried downloading the new update yesterday when it was released… My launcher got to 8 files remaining and just froze up (0kbps). I have tried everything I can think of but the launcher just wont finish the download. Whats really strange is after the download freezes, I dont see how many files are remaining or any info on the progress bar, just 0% and apparently the client is ready… Which it doesnt even launch the game in a ‘playable’ state (edit clarity: as in the play button is greyed out whereas gw2 can normally be played within starter citys and LA until background d/ling is complete). Here are the things I have tried:

- Flushing DNS in cmd
- Ensuring ports in router are forwarded
- Repairing client
- Reinstalling the whole client again
- Tried different IPs in shortcut target (wont even connect to any)

Is there anything else I can try? I really want to play season 3 and get back into gw2 after a short break.. but this is frustrating as hell.

My systems specs are:

- AMD phentheom 3.4ghz
- GTX 750
- 8gb ram
- 150+ gb of hd space
- 50mb virgin media conntection

Hi, mailed you in game but will also drop you a line on here.

If your looking for something abit more intimate and personal rather than large guilds where you feel like a tiny cog in the machine of many, we would love to have you in our Eternal [Clan]

Our ‘generic’ ad is this –
[Clan] are recruiting! A smaller guild aiming for a close-knit community, we do all content, have PvP teams, weekly events and a WiP guild hall where all have decorating permissions! /w me for an inv

Ill be online all day but afk here and there, so please get in touch

Very good to have you in guild mate Yes, gilded hollow seems to be community favourite all round! Anet, hats off to two brilliant guild hall maps.. But team gilded hollow for the win

Hi gw2 community!

The Eternal [Clan] is a active PvX semi-hardcore guild dedicated to providing a smaller guild environment for people to feel valued and integral to the guilds development.

We started with a basic concept, wanting every member to be able to work on and decorate the guild hall. We realised that guild wars 2 guilds tend to be focused on heavy recruitment and zerg mentalities, and as such would make guild hall permissions only available to those at the top of the guild. We want to change that for our guild. Here are a few details;

- English speaking only
- Vets and newbs welcome
- Member cap (semi-hardcore+) at 30. Restricted permissions are available to casuals going over the cap.
- Guild hall decorate permissions for ALL active members
- Preparing for raids!
- Dedicated website with forums and more @ http://www.eternalclan.shivtr.com/
- Fun events like screenshot competitions and more for gold prizes!
- Weekly mission schedule every wednesday GMT 8pm
- A lively guild chat where players remember each other and dont feel ‘lost in the numbers’

If this sounds like your cup of tea, please either message me on here or in game. You can also go to the guild website and catch me on the chat, but in game tends to be more reliable way of reaching us.

EDIT: We do some wvw activities and most of the guild is currently on Gandara.

The funniest thing is the type of people that make forum threads like this one are the same people that will complain to anet that they finished all the expac in a week.

Im glad it takes alot of HP for specs. At least it will increase my playtime and value for money.

Yea, realised as soon as i posted! Thanks for the reply though!

Ok so im a gw2 vet, been playing from the beginning however took some big breaks here and there for lack of content and too much RL stuff to support daily playing.

Anyway looking forward to HoT and the fact im less and less busy these days. Unfortunately though me and a friend seem to the only of my RL friends that plays pc games (and im that guy that has tried converting console friends to the master race and failed haha). This has meant that most guilds iv joined have either been completely dead or so active I feel lost in the crowds and to be honest, its getting me down, especially with raids coming and guild halls… Im gonna guess that with almost 450 members and 100+ a night active, the current guild im in will be shy in giving out building permissions. Which is understandable.

So im looking for a group of players to either join or help me create a semi hardcore smallish (20-30 players active) community where everyone can participate in guild hall decorating (love the idea of everyone picking a corner or hidden bit of the map and making that their home within the hall), create a raid team or two, get competitive in spvp and also make a stand in wvw for smaller objectives (gandara).

Me and my RL friend already have a guild with a stash called The Eternal Clan [Clan] and a TS to make use of. Anyone who wants to help make this flourish please mail (dont whisper) me in game for an invite and a officer spot. Must be reasonably dedicated but considering the cross guild chat coming, repping at all times isnt required. If you have a small guild and are recruiting players please also mail me in game id love to hear from you. New and old players are welcome, only requirements are that your friendly, mature and dont take yourself too seriously. Banter is the spice of life after all but anything more insidious will not be tolerated.

Thanks for reading, sorry if its TLDR. EDIT: EU players/guilds please

So of course im gonna unlock all specs eventually even if its just for the amour/weapons skins. But my plan is to run these classes/elites as standard.

Thief as main dps. Disappointed with the daredevil until they sort the animation out.
herald just for the new class kicks and new game playthrough
Tempest as a support and auramancer
Druid for healer
Reaper for dps
Scrapper for ?
Chrono for dps and pvp
Dragonhunter just for the kicks of wvw trapping
Berserker if im really bored

So yea, need to get back to farming all the gear im gonna need!

Best answer I can give is no idea. There is no official or formal plans. Whats most likely IMO is we will see an expansion every 1.5-2 years. Remember, if that seems like a huge content gap that they are still (to my knowledge anyway) planning to do more seasons of the living world, festival and holiday events and many more free updates in between.

My guestimate is the schedule will be like this

Expansion hits
Living world season 3
WvW season
Living world season 4
Next expansion

However, I also think that if HoT is a massive success and outsells any other content they have combined, we might see a revised strategy and them pumping out expacs every year.

Starlightpaw.5871:

Parlourbeatflex.5970:

One last thing, the player character could do with some romance options, bringing optional personality back and actually altering relationships within the group because of it. Ya know, the things that attaches and connects different players with different NPCs.

How about no romance at all? I’m freaking exploring the land of Tyria, not the land of some sylvari dude’s body. And I could give less of a crap about other NPCs’ romance.

But I agree we need more game changing, actual RPG decisions that take you down different paths depending on your choice, and then as a result of that choice it gives you more choices that branch off from that, and so on.

Also remember how choosing your personality during character creation was going to actually make a difference? Yeah… what gives.

Well, at least the option to. Id like to turn marjory or kasmeer straight is all. Only if its to stop them from talking about each other SO MUCH

BUT ANYWAY….

Yea like how all events were a push pull mechanic meant to test the map wide effort of players, securing and defending areas with meaningful MOBs throughout the map. Guess there trying again with HoTs…

Godkitten the hype train, I was riding that puppy about 2 years before gw2 came out. Not this time. In wait of just how deep the jungle goes.

Firstly, I know theres already a topic covering the recent recap but regardless I want to say fantastic work filling the gap while waiting for season 1 to be playable.

However, I feel there’s an opportunity here to fill LOTS more gaps and nudge people into the subtle nuances of the worlds lore ALOT more and I am worried Anet will let it slip through the net.

I think historians and related NPCs should be an integral part of the world. Any massive change due to the living world, any known lore that isnt provided already in game and hints towards secrets. For instance, get the priory to send out historians to sites like the nightmare tower or even karka land… Give players background information on these changes so ANY players can see how much the world has changed since the start. Players, explorers and loremasters in particular LOVE detail and depth. This is a really easy and apart from VO work, extremely cheap way to give it to them.

Also, I can see them utilized in the different orders aswell. Have battlemaster’s dotted around the world (especially at world bosses) explaining tactics and mob activity to players. Have historians from the priory explaining past events and world lore (or at least what is known at that time). And even spymasters from the order of whispers explaining things about local friendly minor races, characters of interest and hinting towards mini dungeons and secret events.

EDIT: If you actively support players enough, content CAN be difficult. What kittenes players off on the event side of things is not knowing how to complete content without going onto the forum or another unofficial site. If you have a mega hard small event and explain the fight in game, noone can get kittened off if they dont have the skill or group co-ordination to complete it.

Personally, I would prefer these types of NPCs to be locked to each order aswell, so players have more reasons to complete multiple story arcs with alts. But thats just me and I could appreciate why anet might not like that idea.

Anyway, I thought the implementation (aslong as LW1 is brought back eventually) to be something the game has needed for a while and could really bring players back into the game world of tyria rather than wiki and woodenpotatoes provided lore.

Discuss!

For me its a mixed bag, I appreciate the efforts but I dislike pretty much all of them apart from taimi. LW2 was better than LW1 on this front, purely because it really felt like you were the leader and leaders have to lead people they like and dont like regardless.

I also hate the fact kasmeer and marjory are constantly flaunting their lesbian-ness. None of them have real depth, and they all seem to fit within this perfect dE 2.0 cliche.

I also feel like rather than organic character growth where players are arguing between favourable NPCs because of natural storytelling, anet have been literally shoving big personality archetypes in our face FORCING us to like them. But hey, this is the hardest challenge in writing, coming up with characters that are naturally likeable.

HoT must start thinking outside the cliched box and give us REAL character development. Brahanm needs to actually have some personality and stop using one liners. Kasmeer needs to stop smiling and actually face some hardship. I mean when I watched the recent story recap it actually surprised me that her family had become poor… Correct me if im wrong but that wasnt clearly conveyed at all until now and even so, you wouldnt be able to tell anyway with how ‘perfect’ and barbie she is. Marjory needs to actually act like a investigator and come to realise how her and kasmeer are like the complete opposites of each other. Rox needs to fall in love with brahamn and bite the bullet when he rejects her… again, without meaning to sound mean, ADDING some actual depth. Taimi needs a sex change because ya know, shes pretty cool and there isnt anyway near enough cool guys in the story.

One last thing, the player character could do with some romance options, bringing optional personality back and actually altering relationships within the group because of it. Ya know, the things that attaches and connects different players with different NPCs.

Healix.5819:

The release date won’t be revealed until after the first BWE, unless they don’t actually plan on doing a legitimate beta. The first BWE should be next week for Gamescom, assuming they’ll be offering demos there. The release date would then likely be revealed on the anniversary or at PAX that same week. imo, they’re going to reveal the date early as part of the 3rd year birthday present, then “officially” at PAX.

Parlourbeatflex.5970:

Id rather pay 50 dollars for a product worth 50 dollars at a later date than paying 50 dollars now for something that just isnt worth it.

ArenaNet isn’t exactly traditional and I highly doubt their expansion will be. It’s not going to be an expansion, it’s going to be an expansion in the format of the living world. Depending on how you want to look at it, they simply added a price tag to the living world concept, but added more meaningful content at the cost of delays.

I really wouldn’t be surprised if HoT only launches with a single main map. The rest of the content that you would expect out of an expansion will end up being gated like the living world. The final product will be the entire west side of the map that is currently hidden; from Divinity’s Reach to Rata Sum.

The living world was always meant to be their own take on an expansion. The problem however was that free content doesn’t sell. People don’t care about some patch a game gets, but chances are they’ll hear about the release of a new game. The solution? Package it as an expansion. You’re not paying $50 for HoT, you’re paying $50 for the next ~2 years of content.

They’ll still probably charge for the living story however, but with a catch. Instead of unlocking it for free based on logging in, it’ll be based on what expansion you started with. Although their new model is to include all prior expansions for free, the living story will not be included, which is how they’ll likely recover that cost.

Pure speculation, as is my own.

Logically speaking though, if that was the case id have thought a release date was easier to announce, aslong as blog posts etc covered your points. Something along the lines of a extremely loose update schedule (maybe inciting monthly new maps). The fact is though they haven’t even referred to time gating content at all since living world season 2 ended, which makes me think the expansion is turning into a more traditional expansion. Im not thinking itll be released with the same amount of maps as gw2 core, but i can see them planning to release 3-5 maps straight out the expansions box but since the outcry and QQing, there trying to push it to 10-12 which would make the vast majority of pvers happy to spend 50 dollars. The problem is how rushed those end areas will be, and whether theyll make the same mistake as Orr.

Nike.2631:

Parlourbeatflex.5970:

I think the recent tinfoil theories about the release date being pushed back because of players expressing concerns over the amount of maps etc has some merit.

And if the date is slipping compared to their internal expectations, you can bet they are dang glad to have not given a public date yet.

Exactly why they didnt announce the release date at the same time of initial announcement… They have learnt alot about community backlash in the past 2-3 years and seem to use feedback more than people think. Silence doesnt mean they arnt listening and it seems to be a minority who have prepurchased. The majority (going off in game gossip and forum QQing) seem to be waiting for solid info on the expanse of content…. Again, its interesting that they are tight lipped on stuff like amount of maps, endgame content etc at the same time as keeping the release date under wraps…. I genuinely think we’ll see a release date after the announcement of hardcore content and an idea of landmass has pleased the majority.

I think the recent tinfoil theories about the release date being pushed back because of players expressing concerns over the amount of maps etc has some merit. Its interesting to me to realise we have no idea how much content we actually have to explore and no release date at the same time.

Regardless of that, here’s what I think about the OP;

Id rather pay 50 dollars for a product worth 50 dollars at a later date than paying 50 dollars now for something that just isnt worth it.

+1 +1 +1

Although the idea of no forced roles being something to admire anet for trying, its time we realise its failure.

Its next to impossible to design something that is hard enough for hardcore players to be happily challenged with WHILE also making the required level of entry for casual players.

Seera.5916:

No to required roles. I do not want to have to wait for a player who has a specific build and is skilled in their role in order to play the game.

I want to be able to group with my friends and we all play the characters and builds we want to play. Not have to worry about finding the content in the game that does require our gear set up or having to have someone play a character or change build to something they’re not wanting to play.

So you want easy content then? Go open world or current dungeons for your content then and again, tell me they are fun enough for you.

Im sorry but any decent enough player should be more than willing to research a role and build their char for the content and anything other zerk is cheap for stats anyway. The amazing thing about guild wars 2 is most classes are capable of filling most roles if they are built right, so therefore by forcing roles, you arnt waiting for the right player who happens to have the right type of player, your waiting for a player who is willing to listen and communicate with the group in building their ele how the group needs in order to clear difficult content. Thats the trade off and it certainly is a much smaller trade off than typical MMOs where you are locked into building one role for your character.

Cool numbers by numbers comparison, but one complaint is there will most most most definately be more maps than vardant brink. However, since anet SHOULD have told us how many maps should be included before asking for a prepurchase I can see why its easy to pick on.

And +1 on higher quality of maps.. I think the safe number is around 6-8 new maps. I know with the map quality ill get the same playtime out of those that I would the empty landmass offered in most other MMO expansions.

John Smith.4610:

InfinitytheSoulWarden.5963:

if you look at the world through the cold cynical eyes of economics

You rang?

Firstly, I want to say I am also in the unhappy camp when it comes to the price of the expansion… Because I havnt seen enough of the expansion (unknown release, unknown number of maps, unknown length of the story, unknown challenging group content AND MANY OTHER DETAILS FULLY FLESHED OUT).

But more importantly in my eyes, John, this kind of comment in totally unacceptable. Players are actively complaining about the price and demanding some input from the team and rather than explaining anything you make a sarcastic comment. Not sure whether id prefer silence, but this is almost takes the kitten out the fact that your not commenting. I know asking for open discussion is sadly too much to ask for these days but comon anet… your taking the kitten out of players now.

I really do not get what the complaint is about…

Each class has 5 core specs and 1 elite. You can choose 3 of those 6… On each line you can pick 1 of 3 major traits for a total of 3 choices per line… So correct me if I’m wrong, but that’s a hell of a lot of choices per character. Even though mathematically it’s less choice than before, from the looks of the new traits the viable build options will increase while allowing for a more streamlined experience.

Wow the logic of some people in this forum is actually on insane levels.

The challenge that Anet took up upon devloping this game was to kill off the holy trinity so that there was no forced roles.
After 2+ years, the zerker meta has shown Anet that no matter how hard a MMORPG tries, the player base will generally prefer optimal builds and ‘meta gameplay’, so actually by not forcing any roles, the playerbase in itself makes DPS centric builds completely mandatory for any PVE group, as the meta isnt about completion, but more about time taken… Whats ironic, is the realisation that it is almost impossible to make any build viable for any content, without expecting the players to take the path of least resistance and thus decrease the amount of challenging fun in the game.

So now, its looking like more diversity is being pushed. THANK GOD. And yea, I am of the camp that raids (in some shape or form) will be also coming to gw2, so therefore I expect new content that demands certain role requirements. And yea, I am a little dissapointed that the initial no trinity dream of anet seems to be slowly and surely dying.

HOWEVER

You basically have a simple choice, let the zerk meta continue so it seems like NO OTHER build but zerk is particulary viable. Or try and develop a new and diverse meta in which players are actively challenged by its content, and a diverse set of builds and players options are not only viable, but almost required to complete the challenge.

Now the beauty of Gw2 is the adapable nature of each class in general, so if Anet do this right, most classes will be able to switch hard roles on the fly not just soft. This means you dont need to wait for specific players to do content, but a group communicating role options and adapting their build to suit the groups demands is actively encouraged.

I dunno maybe its just me… BUT when your trying to make a game FUN, this seriously seems like a no brainer to me.

Knighthonor.4061:

Do any of you believe Raids Dungeons are coming in HoT?

Speculation?

I am going over the AngryJoe interview, and get that vibe that Raids are coming.

Yes I truly believe now that very similar to raid style content is coming. This is my logic..

Game developers that concern themselves with maintaining good pr tend to have 3 responses (and meanings behind them) to

any given question about future content… Anet have took this response style on since backlash over the precursor stuff last year:

1. Yes that is happening and we’re looking at this time period to release (self explanatory it’s a 99.99999% chance that content is coming when they promised, and it’s current form is likely to have been internally tested as a late to finished iteration).

2. We’re not currently talking about that, but it’s something we will look into (Translation: YES that content is definitely planned but it’s open to major tweaks and it would be ducking stupid to tell you about it in it’s current iteration.)

3. No we’re not currently looking at that. (Translation: don’t ever expect it to happen any time in the near future, however enough player input would open us up to the possibility of including it.

Now watch anets recent interviews and you can see how the logic applys… Raids are coming, but they might not finalised yet and they might even be called something different.

Also just to add, something tells me that guild hall progression and raids are part of the same system… It’s interesting to hear Colin tell mattvisual that organised and hardcore group content might be something they talk about alongside the guild stuff. That is very exciting to me.

My 2 cents.

To all those sylvari fans who question why a dark side needs to be added;

BECAUSE IT MAKES FOR A kitten GOOD STORY.

Now i wouldnt personally advocate a death camp, but if there was one in game, It make make for a really poiyant narrative that would actually hook me emotionally and intelligently.

I want a story of black, white and all the shades of grey at once, for that would draw real comparison to real stories.

Totally fed up of this bullkitten good vs evil and no depth to either side. YEY lets all run through the kittening fields with our unicorn rainbow shooting bows and destory a dragon without any idea of what we are fighting for.

Was so happy to see the sylvari turn at the end of the last episode.. That with the mursatt coming back gives me actual faith that gw2 narrative will be interesting like gw1.

EDIT: Just to show how intelligent the story could be if there was a prison camp:

So imagine a camp for corrupted sylvari being made, ellen keil could make her intentions clear that they are to protect such sylvari from being killed in the open world. She gains support from councils around tyria to keep them locked up in a ‘peaceful’ way. Evon sees this as an oppurtunity to further his pragmatic agenda, and brings the asura in to do specific research, to find out more about mordy and the corruption state.

Sylvari even support this idea aslong as its peaceful, and thus some fearful of corruption (maybe they have started hearing mordy in their mind) have actually gave themselves to the prison camp.

Now some time later the player interacts with certain prisoners to find out some of those that are less under mordys influence have been taken away from the camp (they could say they heard screams in the night or something like that).

After investigation, we find out members of the asura reseach team were actually inquest and have been carrying out horrific research on the slyvari starting to be corrupted. We and ellen kiel go to a secret base to find a mass grave and an inquest lab. We destroy it and happy days and realise the dangers of such a prison camp being made in the first place… But the kicker is, for those that are truly corrupted being targets out in the open world, the prison camp is a nessecary evil until mordy is defeated and the corruption cleansed… giving us the players more climatic reasons why we have to kill mordy.

Then when you piece this together with the theories of dragons being forces of nature that give the world balance by consuming abundant magic.. you have a recipe for a really deep story where doing the right thing might not be right. A story of shades of grey.

This is the way I see it;

Stronghold is a new spvp mode plain and simple.

HoT will bring in guild team queues and leaderboards, thus making all current and future spvp modes applicable within GvG.

Hi all, hope someone can help me.

Been playing for a few years with little problems, the occasional crash or freeze but apart from that everythings always been a quick restart away from working again.

Since a few days ago I have been getting constant crashes upon trying to launch the game, I cant even get to character select, everytime I login and click play from the launcher I just get a black screen with the guild wars pointer… and thats it. Everytime I have to start task manager and manually end the process.

What are my options?
Dont really want to uninstall and install again, as im thinking this is an issue introduced with the latest hotfixes…. Although i would be prepared if thats the only option.

Specs:

AMD Athleon x4 750K quad core 3.4ghz Oced to 3.6
Nvidia GTX 750
8GB RAM
100+ gig left on HD

EDIT: Also i have tried repairing the client to no avail.

What if…….

Trahearne, after falling in the totally unsuccessful attack agaisnt mordremoth falls further to its corruption….

HoT starts with the PC identifying a horrific, tragic yet community satisfying task…

Trahearne must be tracked down and killed before he becomes the dragons new champion. Duh duh dummmb.

Im hoping this will come with HoT, whether it be expansion or large story content update… When players have a chunk of new things to do, challenging content can have suitable distractions from frustration.

I just hope they dont go down this ‘on rails’ bullkitten story in which you might aswell afk every fight other than a boss.

Argh, maybe i dont get it… I am a casualish player, but I havnt struggled with any of the content in quite a while. Even when dying I just res instantly without any kind of reset, so i dont get how some people complain when challenging stuff comes around. Its like some people want to watch a interactive film rather than play a game of skill.

To be fair, I lie.
I did struggle with the shadow dragon fight but it didnt take me long to realise my thief was ultra hard mode without a pot of stability to kitten in.
So what did i do?
I got a grp together to run it and prevailed through cooperation within the community. It is an MMO after all….

Wow actually excited now. New zone and new interesting mechanics to go with that.

LOVE the sandstorm concept and was actually imaging this when i saw the trailer, a big DE arc tied in to an actual zone changing events. Finally cashing in that promise anet. thank you.

Still waiting on patch to see if ill come back to this game properly again but i gotta higher hopes than a few days ago.

Riesty.9075:

some good news for you mr penguin

we never ever have to vote again
why? because china release
if they vote different arenanet have this 2 different content/client it is to riski
and they don t whant this
so if we get a vote or something the only different is the talking npc at the end
maybe with small changes in his word

you never have to face a voting lose again evon train dude
is this good ot not?

Actually Anet have quoted that they want to do more player interaction similar to the evon/kiel vote in the future and that was one of their big highlights from season 1.

Considering that the chinese client will be handled by Kongzhong, and that everything will be localised (v/o) and all, its entirely possible that in 2 years time we could look back and see two versions of the same game with two different stories (or at least major plotline characters). Anet makes the creative decisions, kongzhong do all the monkey work.

The two clients already have major differences as it is, Its not out of the realms of possibility (in fact id say its likely) that the LS will be different in each version as well.

Think of it like this, the chinese version is just another part of the franchise. Similar to macdonalds or any other big chain you can think of. Each restaurant can have different layouts/staff/policies while the brand and theme are consistent.

EDIT: To keep on topic, id say itd be a crying shame if anet didnt do a vote like this in the distant future… Look at the impact its made on the community, its amazing to see someone talking so much kitten based on a connection with a in game character. I bet anet devs read this to remind them that season 1 wasnt that kittenome people make out in terms of MMO innovation.

Yea back to the original topic of conversation, I would argue that if they were to expand out as heavily as players would like in this season, itd be likely that the big lake on the world map would be a pretty much a full zone, rather than split across 3.

Not only would this eliminate the need for blocking off players via invisible barrier tactics, but would give Anet the chance to promote development of underwater mechanics… altho i do understand its not exactly a favourite aspect of the current game, there is still potential and would add to zone variety within the maguuma region.

It makes sense aswell, looking at the world map you can see a few big lakes like this that are sized suspiously similar to exisiting larger zones. Namely the one im talking about and the one to the left of DR.

I would actually agree that the living world should include its player base alot more into the story and decisions within the story.

And I also agree that the LW should tie in or expand on existing lore to pull gw1s fans back.

AND I would like to add that this game is in dire need of meaningful sandbox gameplay within its pve. Guild halls that all the guild can progress forward for a start.

But hey, you cant have it all…. get ready for another half baked set of releases.

Yea because giving the elementalist more variety in skill selection is exactly the kind of thing this game needs right now.

Sorry, but cant you put up with your insane amount of build selection as it is? At least until the other classes recieve updates… I mean, we only have 5 skills per weapon. Crazy talk i know.

Anet still not added a underflow system yet?

God knows how long ago I heard that simple fix and now theres multiple iterations of it, all being pretty easy pretty intelligent fixes to the problem. Anet I know your busy trying to make people like scarlet (or dislike her in the right way) but come the kitten on!

Fine. Lemme give you a shortcut. The guild wars 1 channel system was pretty much perfect. Copy & paste please.

• Obvously half joking, im sure theres good enough reasons to ignore this.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

Margareeta.3461:

2) Add meaning to existing Personality System
(Charm = Foes less aggressive; Dignity = Foes like they are now; Ferocity = Even yellow and white foes are attacking)

Shouldn’t yellow and white mobs be scared from a ferocious character and run away?

One particular thing I loved about GW1 was the fact that enemies patrolled the area in groups, so you had to watch out for strong patrols to make it through the zone alive. There is one of these patrols (with a champion leader) in one of the north-eastern crystal zones and I really like that…

… have some enemy groups which are really strong and make weaker players want to avoid an encounter at any cost. Areas which hold powerful secrets but are guarded by strong foes. Currently you just run by any encounter with ease.

This is actually a quite cool little idea to add immersion.

Id rather have it something more balanceable, say;

Charming – White and yellow turn green in fights
Dignity – As it is now (can only think that’s most dignified lol)
Ferocious – White and yellow actively run away from players

That way charm and ferocious get very small buffs (so small its more of a gimmick to add to personality choice), help from the occasional yellows that get caught in a fight vs yellows never getting caught in a fight (we all know the stupid moment when youv just managed to down a group of hard mobs solo and end up aggroing 3-4 deers on the last one haha).

Mini battles (polymock arena) with dedicated achievements, ladders and tournaments.

Problem solved.

EDIT: you wouldn’t make it skill based, rather completelty statistical. Give it 3 stats, attack, defense and vitality and assign different minis different stats according to rarity. The actual gameplay would be very much like rock paper scissors turn based (similar to the game in metrica province). JOB DONE.

EDIT2: To make it a really unique system, give each type of mini a special attack (altho I realise this would dramatically effect development time) that can only be deployed once per battle.

Id like to add that personally, I use rata sum and DR as my main crafting/trading areas. These cities have the easiest layout by far for these types of things, and if it wasn’t for the mystic forge being in LA I simply wouldn’t bother going there at all.

Anyway, this is kind of redundant, because even if millions of players crowded around the racial cities crafting areas, the city would still feel dead anyway but the crafting tables. The only way to make them feel alive is giving incentives for players to explore every nook and cranny on a regular basis.. Something which is really hard to achieve.

Noone biting on this idea?

Would love people to get involved with this even if its negative feedback… Been thinking a lot about ways we can get people to the racial cities and open world minigames are a sure fire way to achieve this. Hide and seek might not be the best idea but its the easiest to implement on a open world level. Thoughts?

EDIT: let me clarify that this could be on rotation between racial cities, not just DR.. also I realised there could be a possible exploit in having the seeker go afk so technically everyone would win…. You would have a registration fee and a draw mechanic if this happened – so no one would technically win. This would mean it would cost the players to enter and give incentive to actually play the game fairly. The initial seeker would have his registration fee re-credited so it wouldn’t be unfair to the person whos randomly selected to be the first seeker.

Idea:

Citizens of tyria rejoice! Divinities Reach is hosting a favourite game among humanity for all to come and play. See in the new year by hiding from your friends across the entire city. The queen has even offered to provide special rewards to winners of each game. Completely open world, this new twist on a old minigame idea will be sure to inject some much needed life into one of the best racial cities (imo) within the game. Even if you dont fancy yourself a player, come down and watch the hilarity, cheer on your friends or even betray them and reveal their position.

Implementation in the open world:

1. A city wide timer counts down, while players register to participate in the upcoming hide and seek round.
2. Once the timer has run out, a participant is randomly selected to become the initial seeker (this in itself gives a achievement) and a new timer starts to 100 seconds.
3. Hiders have that time to find a hiding space
4. Once the seeker has ‘counted’ to 100, a round timer of 10 minutes begins and the seeker must then hunt down all players (players names are shown in a expanded UI upon clicking)
4a. To catch players, skills are used (more on this in a min)
5. Once caught, players become seekers and must hunt the remaining players
6. Once all but 1 player is found OR the timer runs out, the game is over and the top 3 winners are declared and awarded fun prizes like minis

To make the game ‘more’ guild wars, the minigame includes new action bars for both seeker and hider.

Seeker;

Tag = Tag your targeted hider (small range)
Throw Stone = Cripple your target
Sprint = Give yourself quickness for 5s
Seekers Cry = Give target fear for 3s
Over here! = Mark the target and make their position pulse on the minimap

Hider;

Punch = Hit a seeker and immobilize for 3s
Evade = A dodge
Sprint = Rush forward with a burst of speed
Hiders Heroism = Crys out giving allies quickness for 5s
Hide-me = Stealth for 3s

Disclaimer: the conditions and buffs I used as examples are just that. Placeholders due to my limited knowledge in balancing and design functionality.

Please feel free to add your own thoughts, opinions (c&c included).

The crooks of the matter is in the minigames Anet promised before launch and failed to implement now more than a year since release.
Once anet introduce a variety of minigames (more than 1 in each city) with decent achievements, ranked ladders and tournaments, youll see more people in each racial.

IM also hoping that at least some of the minigames will be open world, including a large area of each racial (like a hide + seek game or something).

Although so full of functionality holes I do like your idea.

I would love to see some kind of sandbox endgame that provided players with truly free style emergent gameplay. Altho in its current form this idea would just not work, especially when considering the philosophy and ethos Anet is trying to stick too.

1. Better living story content introducing new perma changes (akin to nightmare tower or completely new maps all together)
2. Guild halls and GvG
3. New skillsets for weapons
4. New race/classes
5. More VERY hard content, instanced and open world.

To be honest the above is pretty much classic to a list of features within a expansion. Its a shame because I was hopeful the LS would bring this kind of stuff in but from what iv seen, presentation of the story is suffering from the rushed release schedule never mind the rest. I hate to say it, but its starting to look like the dream wasnt realistic enough.

I can personally see the OPs point.

One of the problems regarding the LS is how newer players cannot do LS arcs in high level zones, thus meaning most LS arcs are forced to include low level areas for achievement completion or scale all players to 80.

I actually think the original scaling system, which allowed players to scale up from any level into any map would actually be beneficial again. Levels should just be a superficial thing to count character progress and nothing more. That way a player joining the game at a important LS arc (after reading about said LS on a MMO website) can jump right into the content without needing to level his character to even stand a chance.

I actually cannot believe we are more than a 1 year into release and we still havnt seen the basics like MotD in chat and last login date or even dare i say, a guild calender.

Not to mention some of the amazing and intuitive ideas constantly being thrown around in the forum.

Maybe anet is waiting to have something substantial like guild halls before they do a huge guild update.

BobbyStein.2315:

Einlanzer.1627:

Elbegast.6970:

For a Living World, we need:
Seasons
Better Weather Effects
Dark Nights (no, not Christian Bale)
Purchasable Real Estate
Player Owned Shops
Player Owned Farms (for Livestock and Produce)
Fishing, Hunting & Farming Professions
Player-Generated Dynamic Events

For a Living Story, we need:
An In-Game Calendar that lists recurring festival events and distinguishes them apart from the Living Story releases.
Shorter story arcs, more zone-by-zone storytelling and less focus on larger player-funneling zerg events.

I’m a fan of this post. This can all happen in conjunction with larger lore/world updates that are merged with the Personal Story and focused on expanding the world with new content rather than changing or disrupting it through alterations to existing content.

Yeah, these are some interesting ideas.

I’m also a fan of the above post regarding ‘traditional’ open world systems (darker nights and weather related content is a big yes from me but ESPECIALLY sandbox features!!!!!) and I wanted to ask a fairly important question to you Bobby and your colleagues.

What are your thoughts on introducing more sandbox features into the living world? Is it something you are against or do you plan on looking into it once more pressing issues surrounding the LS are dealt with?

I think its very hard to play puppet master with a theme park game and succeed in creating a living, breathing, dynamic virtual world that people love to explore. Even the best D&D dms admit their own limitations in comparison to the group purely interacting, after all.
Look at EVE, or star wars galaxies (preNGE ofc). The reason why they have a dynamic sense of freedom is because the game merely provides tools for the players to create stories from. I think that philosophy can be utilised here as well, even if its just to expand the economy and endgame.

Nike.2631:

ColinJohanson.2394:

Conner.4702:

To me none of the LV felt like it truly impacted the WORLD. Sure zones got changed, but the world stayed the same. Just look at the current LV there is a huge tower in the middle of a lake, but the humans and centaurs still have their petty land disputes..

So how would you try and solve this? And a second question is how far would you like to see the impact of say a tower in Kessex be felt content wise? The balance here is of course total volume of work for those involved, to literally have the entire world react to what’s going on would take us 6+ months to build, which at that point isn’t actually meeting our goals of a regularly changing and evolving world.

Just as you say there are clues to be had, our sense of commitment to the story sometimes relies on the smallest of flourishes.

In this case, I think just setting all the ambient (non-event) centaurs in the zone to neutral/yellow nameplates for the duration of the event would have a powerful impact on player perception of the importance of events.

I know if I were a Dev, I’d love to see a snippet of zone-chat saying:

“Why is this Centaur just standing here? He’s not attacking…”

“Did you not see the tower in the middle of the zone? Even the Centaurs see the threat! Centaurs (&*@#^&ing HATE US, and they’re playing it cool towards us for the duration of the crisis. That is SO AWESOME.”

This is really clever. Small things would work wonders. Changing the maps grey wildlife (in ToN case making them RED and attack players under a toxic state) is another sure fire way to get players noticing.

As for events, there has to be easy solutions for integrating with existing ones on the map. Alot of events could be changed very slightly, in alot of cases adding the appropriate enemy faction for a 3 way battle would show impact. In others simply changing the factions goal of the DE another… For example, Webb could have simply be looking for new toxic heirlooms, still would have made players go, “ah cool”. For metas, simply adding one or two more links into the chain at various stages would be enough for players to feel the world as a living one.

I mean, it would be alot more amazing if a new LS focused on expanding the desires and interests of a faction that currently resides in a particular map, and you completely updated the area and presence of other factions to reflect this.. But I guess the 2 week release schedule is there for a purpose and without hiring more designers to expand the LS design cycle it is limited by time spent on each release.

timmyf.1490:

Parlourbeatflex.5970:

Is anet prepared to re-evaluate and rework massive portions of the game so that in the future, both types of players are happily playing together, while the mechanics of the PS and LS are harmonious instead of disjointed?

And I do not think phasing in the answer. Not in a game that allows you to level up in any way you want and certainly not in a game where the first 80 levels worth of story does a terrible job of conveying a interesting narrative.

But because the Personal Story happens within instances, I think they can keep the existing Personal Story in the game without resorting to phasing. You exist in the real-time world, but when you go into the instance, things may… uhh… “revert” a little.

Yea but its definitely immersion breaking. Especially considering you usually have to go out to the area to start each instance, and for new players, the PS is the first tour around the known world.
I would be content if it were contained within this historian NPC, or trahearne himself retelling HIS story… as long as its suggested to the player that each area might have changed through time, and after then im still unsure on how it would effect a new player experience.

I dunno, I can see the reasoning of keeping it, but dont you feel like its patchwork or tacked on again? Im fed up with anet sticking a plaster over mistakes. It would still feel completely disjointed.

Electro.4173:

I wouldn’t be surprised.

A hallucinogenic poison is a perfect way to force rebattles of old enemies without causing any lore oddities.

Really good shout on that one.

Im guessing thats what the supposed surprises in each room will be about.

timmyf.1490:

Parlourbeatflex.5970:

Rebuild the Personal Story

Sounds crazy I know. This topic is about the LS i know. Just bear with me m’kay.

Recreate the PS and make it TOTALLY about the players character. Expanded on the first half of the current PS it is about decisions that effect your character, its chosen order and its role within your home instance. Some amazing ideas are already out there for using this as a player hub of personal quests, housing and social features. Make the entire personal story about this home instance and your chosen order. You can still provide a decent narrative with interesting twists and turns to hook the players interest. Might not be counted as epic, but lets face it, neither was the current PS.

This frees up the LS to concentrate on world changing things. Maybe even completely revisiting the events that lead to zhaitan’s demise.

I was going to add some other ideas to this topic, but I needed to put this out first as I hope anet are thinking about this and the effect its going to have in the future. ESPECIALLY new players. Imagine a year down the line when the LS is handling amazingly interesting things like new lands or new dragons (fingers crossed anyway). The new player has the PS to introduce them to GW2, and its only going to annoy them if the current PS is out of whack with the LS, especially if they are not leveled enough to join in the LS fun.

hrm. Tying into the phasing conversation earlier, what if the world changed, but you can still complete the original Personal Story instances? Or replay old ones by visiting a Historian at your Order?

For players who have finished it, we get a new story… battling Primordius! Hooray! Orr starts to clear up! etc.

For players who come into the game, they can “relive” the events when they pop into instances.

EVERYBODY gets to experience the current content as it happens.

I guess it brings up this question: is it worth limiting the current state of the game for the hundreds of thousands of people who want the world to actually change in order to keep things pristine for players who will buy the game in the future? That’s a tough call.

Also a question of;

Is anet prepared to re-evaluate and rework massive portions of the game so that in the future, both types of players are happily playing together, while the mechanics of the PS and LS are harmonious instead of disjointed?

And I do not think phasing in the answer. Not in a game that allows you to level up in any way you want and certainly not in a game where the first 80 levels worth of story does a terrible job of conveying a interesting narrative.

The one good thing about the LS and its temporary nature is the fact Anet can experiment with story telling techniques and not worry about them creating a permanent blemish on the game.