Guild Wars 2

elithrar.7143:

mournblade.2603:

I can run at 50fps but ONLY if I turn everything off and everything down. And this is on an c with a GTX 580 and 24 gigs ram. The client still needs work. I had hoped for a native client and not a wrapper, but it is what it is and we’re lucky they’ve put a few devs on giving us this. This brings me one step closer to not having to go back to Windows.

This sounds like another issue.

I have an i7 + an OC’ed 6850 (aka 6970M) and manage 50 FPS with most settings on medium, and shadows low, at 2560×1440. I can turn most settings up a notch when running under Windows (via Bootcamp).

I don’t think he’s running a Mac… not familiar with any model that sports his combination of components… not to mention 24 gigs of RAM is a strange combination and wouldn’t be paired (and that leads to performance issues). I’d have said this sounds like a Mac Pro but the i7 processor threw that possibility out the window…

What machine is that? Are you running a Hackintosh?

Sadly the 13 inch Pro models are the only Pro models that only use integrated graphics. If anyone wants to do serious gaming on Macs, they should look at the 15 inch models or the iMacs to take advantage of dedicated cards, and try to get the 1GB version (or better).

The 13 inch MacBook Air with the same integrated graphics card will outperform the Pro in games, though they’ll get pretty hot.

For all you MacBook Air enthusiasts out there… I decided to try running the game on my dated 2010 11" base model, which does NOT meet the minimum recommended requirements. I was pleasantly surprised. My model sports the following:

- 1.4 Core 2 Duo (Less than minimum recommended, which is an i5 processor)
– 2GB Ram (Less than minimum recommended, which is 4GB)
– NVIDIA GeForce 320M 256 MB
– 64GB Flash Storage

This build runs the game at 15 FPS with lowest settings. Sure, it doesn’t look amazing and yes, it’s a tad choppy… BUT, this system (with less than the minimum system requirements) is indeed capable of running the game.

Yet another testament to the architecture of the Air. They’re more than you’d expect. Makes me want to upgrade my on-the-go system!

Cheers!

Do you have anything selected in the “Frame Limiter” field?

GroteDwerg.4752:

Hey people,

I was wondering if upgrading from 10.6.8 to 10.7.5 has an impact on performance?
Playing the game on 10.6.8 medium settings and it runs good most of the times.

When I log in I get this error (warning): https://dl.dropbox.com/u/66317396/Schermafbeelding%202012-09-26%20om%2013.45.52.png

I can see why hardware upgrades have an effect on performance of games, but I don’t see why software upgrades have an effect on performances? The lion only adds a few new features how can it increase a games performance? And why does it give me this warning while the game runs fine on a 10.6.8?

In most cases, Mountain Lion outperforms Lion and Snow Leopard. Most people who have problems have other underlying issues that are hardware or 3rd-party software oriented.

The only reason to hang on to Snow Leopard is if you have any PowerPC applications on your system that you absolutely cannot live without that are no longer being supported by their respective software manufacturers.

IslandFlow.8540:

Ive been thinking of getting a mac book pro 15-inch: 2.3 GHz and I am not sure if it can run Guild Wars 2. Ive looked at the requiremnets and think it can run it but I am not very good with computers. Can someone please tell me if it will?

New or used system? If it’s the new model, keep in mind the 2.3 only has a 512 GPU card, and by spending a few extra hundred bucks you’d go up to 1GB. If it’s a used model, what processor is it sporting and ram type?

SOLIDAge.5618:

To be clear this is me dual booting Windows and OS X on the same MacBook Pro.

The FPS are not locked at all in the application, I checked twice.

I did download that application as well as look in the energy settings. I had thought to check which GPU was being used and to make sure I had disabled the switching and left my 330M on all the time.

I am running 10.8.1

Could you copy/paste the information directly from the “About This Mac” window when you click on the apple logo in the top-left corner of the screen? I’m unable to find your exact model based on your processor speed indicated. Only 1 generation of 15 inch MB Pros were outfit with i5 processors, but the minimum processor speed was 2.4 GHz.

Assuming that’s just a typo, it sounds like you’ve got a Mid-2010 model, and the entry level one at that which means your dedicated card has 256 MB of memory… am I correct?

While your card does indeed meet the minimum specified requirements, what isn’t noted on the tech specs page is the minimum amount of recommended memory recommended for graphics cards, nor does it delve into dedicated vs. integrated cards, and I believe this may be what confuses some people about FPS performance.

I would think that you are getting optimal performance out of the card that you have. It will not perform as well as a card with 512MB or 1GB of dedicated memory, but it will perform better than your integrated card.

Something that may help, is selecting the “Discrete Only” mode under the gfxCardStatus app that you’ve downloaded. Sometimes graphics cards will “do battle” when under heavy graphic loads and this could affect your performance. By selecting Discrete Only you force the Mac to only use this card and never switch.

You’ve already maxxed out your RAM, but one other inexpensive upgrade that could improve your performance include upgrading your HD to a faster speed.

Good luck!

Spiteful.3158:

Any news on this Anet? It’s still bugging me to have an expensive Cinema Display providing nothing other than a shiny black reflective surface?

While it’s not ideal if you want dual display, if you want to play on the Cinema Display closed clamshell mode should work. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3131

That system should be getting much better performance than you’re reporting. I have a model 2 generations older than yours and I’m averaging 50-60 FPS on low-medium custom settings. I only get the settings you report when I have everything running on High settings with extras checked.

That said, there’s a couple of things that you can check:

What is your native setting resolution at in-game, and in System Preferences. Ideally it should match. 1440 × 900 should work best.

Go to the App Store and download a free app called gfxCardStatus. This app monitors your GPU switching and allows you to manually manage them. For the purposes of this test, just make sure that a message pops up that tells you your graphics card has switched to your Discrete (dedicated) card, rather than the integrated card (the HD 4000).

Leave all 4 boxes at the bottom of your Graphics Options unchecked, and keep your shaders on low settings until you identify your issue. Again, make sure your resolution is set to Full Screen 1440 × 900.

I covet your Graphics Card and Processor (Ivy Bridge yummeh!). While I have twice the amount of RAM you have, yours is faster. The only other big difference is that I’ve swapped out the generic 5400 RPM hard drive for a faster Hybrid 7200/SSD… but I don’t think that would cause such a dramatic change in performance.

Good luck!

Your best bet is to take it to an Apple Authorized Dealer. It’s not an Apple Store, but they are authorized to sell and service Apple products. Dealers tend to have more variety in terms of upgrade hardware, particularly for models older than 2 years.

I work for one of these myself, and the Apple Store in our region frequently sends customers to us for upgrades for reasons noted above.

Generally they also do installations too. We do free installation of all RAM upgrades. Hard Drives we do charge a fee since there’s more involved. Each dealer reserves the right to set their own prices… you are probably looking anywhere from $50 to $90 for installation.

I strongly recommend avoiding any PC shop that doesn’t have an Apple Logo with the “Authorized Dealer” statement on it. In my experience a lot of these try to save a few bucks getting parts from questionable sources… parts that don’t work and often lead to other problems. Few of them know how to service these machines as well, and while RAM is easy enough to install, I wouldn’t want someone who has never opened a MacBook before installing a Hard Drive for me.

Good Luck!

Nice… you’ve got one of the newer ones Upgrade that puppy to 8GB and swap out the Hard Drive to a faster RPM model (7200RPM minimum). Parts total should cost about $200, plus labour.

You’ll experience a whole new machine.

sregtur.3615:

I am happy for all of you that have 10.8.2 installed and working. All I know is the GW2 game is badly broken on my system. It ran fine before 10.8.2.
And no – I am not using FileVault or any A-V stuff. And yes the whole game is blessed in the security pref. I got the Windows version running under Wineskin by updating XQuartz to 2.7.4 RC1.
What version of XQuartz are you running? Do you run the app level firewall on or off?

FileVault is part of OSX 10.8. It was one of the major features added to the OS.

Open up System Preferences -> Security and select FileVault (the topmost second tab right before Firewall). If you have it turned “On”, turn it off.

There has been no documentation that indicates users need to manually update their XQuartz engines. I imagine that is handled by the installation client for GW2. If you are manually updating things to support your Wineskin Application (and you aren’t doing it in Winery), then you may have created other issues that are causing you problems.

Do you have a Time Machine backup with a restore point before you installed Wineskin & XQuartz? If disabling FileVault doesn’t work for you, I’d suggest rolling back to there, re-downloading the GW2 Mac Beta and hope that the rollback deletes conflicting files.

Laptops in general run hot. It’s not just a Mac thing. Desktops get hot too. It’s just not as obvious because you aren’t handling them with your hands while they’re running, and there is a lot more space between the case and the components within (that are getting hot).

This has happened to several of us in our guild… and I’m the only one playing on a Mac. I’m pretty sure this is a general game bug.

Dwight.5709:

Hello. Im playing on a early 2008 17 inch mac! I have 10.8.2 installed and i have low FPS. Anywhere from low 5 to a high 20. (mostly on the lower side)

Please fix this and get me running fast!!

Early 2008 Mac
OS X 10.8.2
2.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4 GB 667 MHz
NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT 512 MB

Which of the following is your Hard Drive?
250 GB (5400-rpm)
200 GB (7200-rpm)
300 GB (4200-rpm)

If it’s anything but the 200GB drive, swap it out for a faster drive (with more space too). You might want to check how much HD space is remaining. Less than 10-20% remaining will result in slower overall performance.

You could go up to 6GB of RAM (by installing 8GB), but beware… 667 RAM is spendy right now.

I have a 2011 Mac Mini, but I haven’t tried running it on this machine at all. I’m curious to see how it would run with integrated graphics. I did upgrade the RAM to 8GB… how much do RAM do you have in your machine, and what percent of HD space remains on the Mac OS side after the game install? It’s strange to see that much of a drop in performance.

If you have less than 10% of HD space remaining on your Mac OS partition, make some room. This could be what’s cutting into your performance.

15-inch (1440 × 900)
2.2 GHz Intel Core i7
16 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
750GB Momentus XT Hybrid SSD
AMD Radeon HD 6750M 1024 MB graphics
OS X 10.8.2

I’ve upgraded my machine somewhat, specifically the RAM and the Hard Drive.

My GW2 performance is pretty stable at 50-60 FPS throughout the game. On lowest settings, I have spiked as high as 80 FPS. I generally run the game on custom low-medium settings to get a combination of preferred textures, graphics and performance.

I was getting about 5 frames more per second under Windows. Not enough of a difference to go back to using Boot Camp.

With highest resolution settings I get between 20-30 FPS in low populated areas.

Dryze.4697:

Memory 10 GB 1333 MHz DDR3

Really?

I’m going to guess that you are running either a 2.0 or 2.2 GHz Core 2 Duo. Is it white or black?

If your machine is older than 2009, you could upgrade to a maximum of 6GB of 667 RAM, but it’s costly as you will need 2 4GB in order for 6 to be recognized, but upgrading to 4GB would help.

If it’s one of the last two models before they were discontinued, you could put up to 8GB of RAM into it, and if you are lucky to be in this position… RAM prices for 1066 RAM is a lot cheaper than 667, and you might be able to squeeze some more time out of your machine.

If your Hard Drive is failing, that is the least of your worries because not only are they cheap, it’s a good excuse to swap out the slow factory default 5400 speed Hard Drive for a 7200 speed drive with more space. They’re cheap… about $100.00 (or less). Just make sure you spend the extra cash to have a proper Apple Authorized Dealer install it for you (and get the RAM at the same time).

In total, you’re looking at roughly $300 in upgrades (give or take depending on what RAM type you need and what type). At the end of the day though, it’s still a Core 2 Duo machine and you should consider what you’re spending on upgrades could be applied to a new machine.

Slackware.4582:

Guess I will have to visit the local Apple retailer and look at the different sizes. I dont really like the big 15" laptops.

Is the 2.3Ghz, 4GB ram, nvidia 650 512MB powerful enough or would I need the 2.7ghz, 8gb ram, nvidia 650 1GB setup? There’s a massive price difference :<

If you are going to be doing any kind of serious gaming, as another poster pointed out you are going to want to get the fastest processor and largest gpu you can afford (preferably one that is dedicated such as the Nvidia, not just with integrated alone).

I wouldn’t recommend anything but the 1GB card and the faster processor. I should also point out that the standard MacBook Pro 15" has slightly higher benchmark performance ratings than the Retina, for a substantially lower price. As a bonus, you can upgrade the RAM and even put in an SSD drive down the road to improve your performance even more. You’re looking at several hundreds of dollars worth of difference alone just going with the standard 15 inch MacBook Pro.

Retinas are fantastic machines for Videographers and Photographers. While games may look great on them, they aren’t optimized for gaming and you’ll get more Oomph out of a standard model with upgradability options down the road.

I work as an Apple Product Professional. If you are looking for a Macbook that you will use to play games I strongly recommend getting a model that has a dedicated card. This means you should be looking at 15 inch varieties of MacBook Pro.

The Airs and the 13 inch models only have integrated graphics (HD 4000). While the game may “run” with this card, it won’t be optimal and you will have a noticeable frame rate drop. If you are looking for a 13 inch variety, I recommend going with a 13 inch Air instead of a 13 inch Pro. Similar internals… but the construct of the Air outperforms the Pro in several benchmarks. Just make sure you get a CTO model with 8 GB of RAM and at least a 256 HD.

Having run Diablo 3 on a dated early 2010 Core 2 Duo MacBook Air, I will attest that these machines do a lot more than standard constructs of similar internals are capable of delivering. I will also say that I much prefer gaming on my 15 inch MacBook Pro than on the Air, largely because of the FPS improvement.

Most likely a colour profile issue. Do you use some kind of colour calibration tool for other software that you use on your Mac for print publishing?

I am running 10.8.2 and cannot reproduce any of the problems that you describe.

It sounds like a system security setting issue. You may want to review your FileVault settings. I have disabled FileVault on my system expressly because there are applications I have installed that may not have gone through Apple’s new vetting system (digital signatures within installers/patchers authorized by apple). This is something that the GW2 development team would need to resolve with Apple through their Developer program.

In the meantime, you probably have FileVault enabled. If you want to get it working again, just disable it. Keep in mind that so doing is akin to disabling Anti Virus software (on Windows) so beware.

Chris.9531:

2.4 Ghz i5 Processor
4g 1067 MHz DDR3 RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M 256 MB
OS X 10.8

With minimum settings, I’m getting about 15-17 FPS max in open world zones. I’m afraid to even try PvP right now.

The System Requirements FAQ claims my Mac should run GW2 well or better, and that’s not what I would call my performance at the moment.

Chris,

There are two things that should help improve your performance

1. Check how much extra Hard Drive space is remaining after your install? (Click on the top-left Apple Icon -> About this Mac -> More Info -> “Storage” from the topmost navigation in this window). If you have less than 10-20% remaining, this is slowing down application performance. Try to free up some space.

2. Your card by design uses shared memory with the main memory, and the maximum memory you can install is 8GB. Upgrading your RAM would probably substantially improve your performance. It’s also pretty cheap at just under $50 bucks for the kit. Here’s a trusted source I’ve used for my RAM with price: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/8566DDR3S8GP/

Good luck!

Great link Tick Tock!

I have to say, while “working as intended” I’m glad I took out Applecare. I’m sure tasking the battery like that is not good for it’s overall lifespan. Not even running Photoshop, Premiere, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Bridge, & various Apple Apps simultaneously has produced this issue for me. I’m pretty sure it’s related to the GPU somehow, which those apps don’t make complete use of. Running all of those apps makes more use of the processor.

If there is any way the client could be optimized to reduce this “load”, that would be fantastic! In the meantime, I will just try to start my longer gaming periods at a fully charged battery.

I’m hoping that in the near future, Apple does a complete redesign of the Pro models that recognizes gaming more seriously. Obviously this means designing a system with a larger power supply to accommodate faster GPUs and handle the load. Developers are recognizing the platform… now it’s time for Apple to really answer the demand. Every game I’ve played on the Mac OS has been better overall experience under this OS environment than in Windows. Happy to see innovation moving forward!

Update

I played for several hours this evening and while the behaviour described above has not changed, I did notice something that I felt was relevant to the techs looking into this issue.

After setting my in-game graphic settings to “Low”, the battery drain remains but has slowed down substantially. I started with a charge of 76%, and after several hours I ended up at 74%. This leads me to believe that the game is using the full charge coming from the AC adapter, and on occasion draws extra from the battery. There is no power left over from the game to keep the battery charged (or to continue charging it to full). Higher graphics settings drains the battery faster.

I’m not sure if this is isolated to the Macbook Pro 15 inch and 17 inch models that have a dedicated GPU, but I’d be interested to know if anyone with a laptop model using any integrated (HD Graphics 3000/4000) is experiencing the same issue? This would include all 13 inch Macbook (Pro and White/Black varieties) and all Macbook Air models. It’s important to note that these models use 60 Watt and 45 Watt power supplies respectively.

I don’t think this could be exclusive to Macbook Pros, but I do know that PC varieties have different wattage power supplies, and I’m sure this has something to do with 85 Watts just not being enough to power the dedicated card running the game. I may try running the game using a tool that suspends the dedicated card and see if the integrated card causes the same issue.

SMC update had no effect.

Unless you are running some ancient Power PC applications that you can’t live without, there is nothing Snow Leopard offers you. By upgrading you will keep your system operating optimally for changing demands of software and hardware updates, and your system will be more secure from malware threats.

It’s not good to let your OS get too out of date… Little things like browser updates will cease to be supported if you let it go too long.

Kanako Davis.5364:

Piia.7659:

…I suspect your problem is largely your hard drive. The one I have is roughly $100.00 (depending where you buy, price fluxuates about $20). Most Authorized Reseller/Service stores can order/install this for you (recommended). Maxxing out your RAM to 16GB would be another good option, but definitely do that hard drive!

Thank you for the advice but when i bought the machine i upgraded it as good as possible. I’m running a SSD here. What drivers did you use in Bootcamp? Standard Apple ones or did you upgrade them from ATI/AMD?

EDIT: Just hit auto detect on my mac client and well…some things changed to my manual setting and now i actually get up to 40 FPS.

I used the drivers that I downloaded through Bootcamp. Make sure you have at least 10% (ideally 20%) of your HD free for best performance. A full HD will dramatically slow things down too.

I’m glad you’re finding better frame rates!

Phato thanks for the feedback. It could be, however, I checked with a service tech friend of mine who has a similar machine to yours (17 inch) with similar upgrades. We are pretty sure it’s related to the 85 watt power supply and unfortunately Apple doesn’t make one stronger than 85 watts.

I’ve noticed that minimizing the game or playing in windowed mode seems to bring the charge back on (indicator light goes back to amber). I tried resetting the SMC and PRAM with no results.

I’ve just noticed that there is an SMC update for Mountain Lion which I’m running now. I will report on any progress shortly.

I’m having what I’m pretty sure is a hardware issue with how the game interacts with my Macbook Pro. I’m also curious if anyone else is experiencing this. I’ve had it happen in both Bootcamp Windows and now the Mac Client.

I have an early 2011 Macbook Pro with some upgrades (Ram, Hard Drive). When playing I always use the Magsafe adapter to power my machine. It would seem that during gameplay, the game “suspends” the power adapter and my machine runs on battery alone. When drained, the machine dies. This just happened for the second time in the past few days.

I have done the following:

Diagnostic of Battery: Pass (not reporting any issues)
Checked the power cord/connector for damage: Pass
Rotated the Magsafe connector

The machine charges fine and the battery holds a normal charge. When I start the game up, the battery slowly starts to deplete. When the game is running, the amber light on the Magsafe connector turns from Amber to Green, and the battery indicator changes from “charging” to simply “battery percentage”.

The hardware does not seem to be the issue. I can’t reproduce this problem with any other application (including Adobe CS 5.5 applications). It seems exclusive to this game.

Anyone else having this issue, or a suggestion on how to fix it? In Bootcamp I was able to resolve it by unchecking all boxes at the bottom of the Graphics settings in-game, but in the Mac Client this did not resolve the issue.

Kanako Davis.5364:

I notice some significant performance drop compared to Bootcamp. I’d love to have a native client but i understand why they gave us a cider port. At least now i don’t have to reboot and i can listen to my music in iTunes. :]

Performance comparison:
Bootcamp most settings on medium(shadows on low) 15-30 Frames
Cider-Port almost everything on low(no shadows) 10-25 Frames.

I have the same model that you have, and my performance on “auto detect” settings are quite different than yours. In Bootcamp I was averaging 50-60 fps and in Mac Client I’m averaging 40-50 fps (as high as 80 on low settings).

I’ve gone up to 16 GB of Ram and upgraded my Hard Drive to a Momentus XT 750, which sports a dual SSD/7200 rpm speed. It is leaps and bounds better than the factory default this unit ships with.

I suspect your problem is largely your hard drive. The one I have is roughly $100.00 (depending where you buy, price fluxuates about $20). Most Authorized Reseller/Service stores can order/install this for you (recommended). Maxxing out your RAM to 16GB would be another good option, but definitely do that hard drive!

BrightFuture.7946:

I’m getting pretty poor results compared to bootcamp.

Low-ish settings on lower resolutions (1680×1050?) in the beta client nets me 20-30 FPS with lots of choppiness (the frame rate intermittently drops to anywhere from 1-14 when just turning in Harathi Hinterlands).

Bootcamp Windows client I had High settings at 1920×1080 resolution and the game ran great: 40-45 FPS consistently.

Really unplayable for me as it stands, especially considering how well it ran in bootcamp.

(Note on my spec screenshot that in addition to the integrated graphics, I have the NVIDIA GeForce 650m with 1GB vRAM)

With that machine, you should see little noticeable difference between OS clients. How big is your SSD drive, and how much of it is available after your installation of GW2 on Mac side? If you have less than 10% of your HD space remaining, everything is going to start running slower on your Mac.

Also, there’s a cool little tool you can download in the app store to manually set your machine to use the dedicated (vs integrated) video card called gfxCardStatus. If you were running the game on the Intel integrated card, that would certainly produce poor results.

Early 2011 Macbook Pro 15 inch
16 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
AMD Radeon HD 6750M 1024 MB
OS X 10.8 (12A269)

If anyone wants to squeeze more performance out of their machine, don’t ignore your Hard Drive. Factory default HD are generally 5400 rpm models, which access large blocks of data slowly (especially on smaller sized drives). I swapped out the factory default HD for a Momentus XT 750 GB Hybrid Drive (partial SSD, 7200 rpm), which has positively affected all games I play on my Mac in a very noticeable way. (Factory default was a 750 GB 5400 rpm drive). If I had a full SSD, it would perform even better!

I have seen virtually no discernable difference between the Windows client under Bootcamp and the Mac client. There is a slight fps drop from Windows to Mac according to numbers, but visibly it’s difficult to tell. I have played in high-population areas with no adverse effects.

Average fps Windows: 55-65 fps
Average fps Mac: 45-55 fps

Enoch.1058:

45-70+ FPS

I was getting a little less FPS (40-50) when running this on the same hardware in BootCamp with Windows 7 using the SAME graphical settings.

Ahh… you got the beefed up custom order 27 inch. Nice! Have you SSD’d it yet?

Thumbs up, and thanks for responding to this growing market! For a subscription-free game, this is indeed impressive. I’d be curious to see the client breakdown in a few months by OS type…

AMD Radeon HD 6750M 1024 MB (Intel HD 3000 suspends for game)

Windows: 55-65 fps average
Mac OS: 45-55 fps average

Using “Auto Detect” settings under graphics.

Todd.8162:

Arena Net: Since this is obviously based upon Wine technology, I would have preferred to see you spend your efforts on helping Codeweavers with their Crossover software. Why re-invent the wheel?

I tried playing this game via Wineskin, and I can tell you that this install-based client sure doesn’t perform as badly as that did. While I didn’t work on this project, it appears to be a genuine game client.

We shouldn’t be encouraging Mac users to game… They run mobile processors. So I found it laughable when ANET said that requirements are not finalized. Their computers are pretty much all the same.
With that said, I guess it doesn’t matter too much if I buy the mbp for my GF, regardless of how much money I am throwing away for an OP aluminum kiddie computer :/.

Newsflash: All Intel based notebooks run mobile processors and GPUs. This is not limited to Macs (including the iMac family), but also Alienware & ASUS (who produce some of the finest gaming laptop rigs in the biz). Mobility hardware has made leaps and bounds of progress in recent years in terms of capability. Power supply is probably the biggest issue as games continue to push hardware to extremes, and most laptops don’t have hundreds of Watts powering their systems as opposed to tower systems.

Still, you can’t ignore the fact that people are getting tired of having huge rigs take up entire rooms of their homes. Mobility PCs are very much in demand… the choice is up to the consumer as to which brand they buy, and Macs are on the rise largely because of their seamless integration with devices (Tablets, Phones, etc.). This is the direction that technology is going, and devices are becoming a big part of the complete technology picture. Many games integrate device based tools to complete the user experience.

Time to get out of the dark ages, friend. The 90’s are way over.

I’ve become quite addicted to crafting. The levelling rewards alone are amazing.

That said, I’m now level 71 with a 398 Jeweller, a 278 Artificer, and a 178 Tailor (separate character). I have found that the rate of acquiring materials through harvesting and playing (on one’s own) is not sufficient to level crafting trades at an acceptable pace (at least on par with current character level). 6 hours of playing/gathering materials can be burned in about 15 minutes of crafting, and even then you are generally left with a few random mats you need to “top up” your own stash from the Trading Company. There’s no two ways about it… I’d have to say that crafters are forced to use the Trading Company.

The economy reflects this. Since the Trading Company has come online, material costs are generally more than finished product value, and the margin rates increase dramatically every day (in favor of materials). I believe crafting has become economically unviable for a large majority of players.

I generally spend a day of playing, then choose whether I will blow money on PvP (through repairs), or crafting. I run with a float of anywhere between 5 silver to 1.5 gold. Finished product sales generally recoup anywhere from 10% to 75% of my original investment, depending on the commodity that I am selling.

I think that there are several suggestions that might help tip these scales more in the player’s favour, including:

- Reducing repair costs
- Reducing travel costs
- Increasing drop-rates of crafting materials (Fangs, blood, cloth, etc.)
- Yielding more Gems per harvest node

I’ve just started working with Globs of Ectoplasm. I’ve reviewed what is involved with farming these. I’m in an adult guild primarily comprised of RL friends, and our schedules permit us to run a couple of dungeons a week. This means I will also be looking to the Trading Company for materials, and Globs are going for an average of 23 silver a pop. Ouch.

Hope to see some tuning to the economy. I don’t mind things being a bit of a challenge, but some minor adjustments would probably contribute to the fun factor in big ways.

Downloading now. This is amazing thanks so much for acknowledging this fast-growing userbase. I can think of at least half a dozen colleagues that will probably now pick up this game because they didn’t want to set up a Windows Bootcamp partition.

Can’t wait to provide some feedback… bugs or no, it’s still a Mac Client! Happy happy!