Guild Wars 2

FlamingFoxx.1305:

^— and that has absolutely nothing to do with the HoM…

I’m saying, which I forgot to say obviously, was that I doubt any of these “known” races created HoM. I am more inclined that HoM was created by another race that we do not know yet, even older than the previous cycle. We don’t even known which cycle of the world we are in.

Secondly, I was also answering to someone else’s reply on the “elder races”. :p

With each new patch, playing GW2 on GNU/Linux is getting harder and painful.

Please, join the other game development companies in supporting Linux! For sure you’ll get new players. Linux gamers are very supportive of gamedevs who supports Linux.

“Kite City”, kite, flying = Zephyr Sanctum

Zephyr = West wind
Sanctum = sacred or holy place

Zephyr Sanctum = A holy place from the West winds.
= A flying city from the west.

Yep, many of those zone-portals have been around since day 1 of GW2. Even in GW1, there were plenty.

When creating a map, usually you forget you placed a zone-portal spot. Or it is too tedious to remove it and place an art there, then later clean up again. The easiest way is, like that screenshot, destroy the bridge.

Now if someone was able to cross, bug or not, that zone-portal is dead anyway, it won’t trigger a rezoning script to put you into whatever zone it is connected to. However, if that is indeed connected to a different zone, which probably it is, otherwise they wouldn’t place that there (but later decided to add it as part of some new content), then congratulations :p

Aetherblade = flying
airships = flying
Zephyr Sanctum = flying

Then “new” movement. No doubt it will be something related to flying too. The question is, is it a mount or something else?

And how would it fit considering we have waypoints?

Don’t forget the possibility that all these living world stories would tie-in for the next Elder Dragon showdown.

The way I see it and the way it looks to me, all the recent living world stories is a work by a certain Elder Dragon or a Lt. intelligent enough to weave all these to weaken the races of this cycle – what with they surely know Zhaitan was defeated.

Get them busy for one, make them to take their eyes off the bigger threat. Make them fight each other. Weaken their alliance. Plant seeds of doubt. Make them declare war on each other. Terrorize everyone. The more chaotic and anarchy there is, the better. Then whoever it is that is behind the strings, can tell his/her ED boss to strike hard and fast.

And since the tengus seem to be very knowledgeable of what is happening and probably knows a secret or two, we might see them in the near future before we face the next ED.

Or maybe get help from Cantha and not the tengus.

From the lost scribes of Tyria…

The mysterious monument in northern Shiverpeaks was made by humans. They even have a name for themselves: ArenaNet, whatever that means. It was made by humans from a world called dirt when they got lost in Tyria having come via the Mist. Some of them became gods after they harnessed the magical threads of this world. The rest were able to return to their world of dirt.

Years passed… another group of humans from their world arrived, landed on a continent which they called Cantha. They ventured forth and landed on the far east and south of the continent we call Tyria. They established a new kingdom they called Elona and claimed a large part of it as their own. Years later they traveled west and north and established a nation called Orr and grew into a vast kingdom. These humans spread east and north, eventually encountering the charrs, the war that is still ranging to this day. Should we help the charr and drive out these invaders? The charr however is losing, a pity for such a promising young race.

These humans are resourceful to have been able to traverse the territories of the {unreadable}, those snakes, not to be trusted.

Ahh, but I have to go. We need to move further west, deep into the forests of maguuma and disappear. Some say we should go south from there but we risk meeting the cathans, those dragon worshippers, if only they knew! The sixth elder dragon {too damaged to decipher}

Some say we should go sail further west, find new uncharted lands. Or go north even deeper into the jungle, into the night, where no one has returned. But go we must or our knowledge and secrets will be destroyed by these invaders from dirt. They might even use it for their selfish ambitions, like those mursaat cowards!

No. We need to keep to ourselves. This knowledge we hold is far too advance even for the young native races of Tyria to handle, especially the asurans. Trial-and-error younglings, I wonder why they have not wiped themselves to oblivion.

Time to go… will continue later… my granddaughter Lusia is here, oh dear Lusia.

~ Arkania, Scribe of Tears

The Eye, these humans call it the All-Seeing Eye. They also called the monument Babel before.

{missing}

The charr were defeated. The humans established a city called Ascalon and Kryta. Oh, grandmother, I wish you and mother were here. We should guide them, we should help them! The dwarves are keeping to themselves too. What should I do? The cowards have returned too!

~ Lusia, granddaughter of Arkania the Scribe of Tears.

^ the above is fan-fiction written for just this reply :p

Yep, there were only 5 races that banded against the Elder Dragons prior to the present GW/GW2 time period.
1) dwarves
2) jotun
3) “forgotten”
4) mursaat
5) “seers”

However, it doesn’t mean there were only 5 races back then. There were possibly the:
1) kodans
2) quaggans
3) tengus

Let’s say the quaggans were a youngling. But the kodans and tengus can not be. If the norns were a devolution of the kodans, then it means years, even centuries have passed since the first norn appeared because there are a lot of norns already. Then there are the tengus who are very knowledgeable of the previous cycle. They were probably already in the world but chose not to join the war.

And do not forget:

Ancient jotun stelae indicate that throughout prehistory, the Elder Dragons have gone through cycles of awakening, destruction, and hibernation, each time ending an era of life in Tyria and bringing forth a new one.

In this cycle of the world, we have 5 races again, banded together to battle the EDs:
1) humans
2) asurans
3) sylvarians
4) charrs
5) norns

I doubt. The tengu gate on LA’s side is probably just a gate to guard their LA-sector, or probably to guard the land-based path to their territories or a port. So it would make sense why the Ætherblade seems to appear as inside the mountain ranges supposedly controlled by the tengus.

If you look at the map, there could be at least 2 or 3 zones that can fit in the empty area between LA and the Western zones. We know for sure where their city is located, thanks to the walls, but no such walls exist in the other empty areas before you reach LA from the South-West.

You can also view it as a buffer. Since LA is a hub and is neutral, it will house all sorts of races with different goals and ambitions. The best way to keep them away is to create a buffer.

Though I am more inclined that it is just their LA-sector, probably a tengu port or a mountain path they want protected.

Or, it is we that they are protecting because the area between their city and LA was probably overrun and they do not want to admit it. Although we know, from stories that they too are having problems already within their territories.

Since the Aetherblade patch, I noticed that there are more and more Cathan-based NPCs. I don’t know if they are from Cantha but you know what “Asian” look is – especially if you are an Asian living in Asia (like me).

Then this, Bazaar of the Four Winds.

As for the Zephyr Sanctum, it could very well be from the other continents. It was able to finally land in Tyria because we defeated one Elder Dragon blockading the continent. If it is, then it would explain why there are humans there and why it looks Asian in style.

However, we have to remember that Cantha, last information we know and heard, is in strict dictatorial rulership and has shut all non-humans out. The Kurzicks and Luxons no longer exist as separate nations.

If we do see NPCs from possibly Elonian origin, then that would explain it further – this airship has been travelling all around the Planet Tyria, but with the continent of Tyria blockaded, it has become a mystical airship that no one knows if it truly exists… until now.

If you want to solo GW1, go Elona then EotN. Collect the heroes. It is easier to solo it with controllable NPCs than the old-style hencemen.

But it will require patience. I finished Faction, Nightfall, and EotN 48-76 hours on release, solo – except for the missions that forces you to team up like in Faction, there were two such missions, which forced some of us to wait for players to catch-up. Our secret? Lots and lots of patience. Especially during Factions, there were no heroes back then.

And when I say patience, I mean, PATIENCE. Even if you have -60% penalty, you stay in the mission, study it and defeat it despite all odds. In Nightfall, there was a mission where I stayed on it 3-4 hours each attempt (IIRC, I made 6 attempts) until I finished it solo. It was tricky, but the key is that, each reload of the mission is unique. And each movement that you do makes it even more unique. For example, if you move too fast into the mission, you’ll probably end up loading groups of mobs at the same time. If you go slow, you get to load each group separately.

Then again, that was back then :p GW1 is very different today than it was. Some of my tricks in soloing no longer work last time I tried it, but still soloable, I just have to find a new way of doing things which Im no longer willing to do :p So I just joined PUGs.

You get the idea Most of GW1 is soloable, you just have to be patient and take it slowly. Not because you have -60% penalty does it mean you’ll never be able to finish the mission. But there are also missions you will never be able to solo because the mission requires at least 2 real players :p Again, except for the two missions in Faction haha, where you need a full PUG

It’s a Star Gate! Don’t get too near it, your character might show up in Real World Online and you will get suck into Guild Wars.

But seriously, it’s either the old entrance – however that is weird because the position is indeed wrong (when GW2 first came out and I reached that area, I alt-tabbed to GW1 to see what it was and it doesn’t fit), or it’s a future content left for future development.

It could be a marker too. If you were with us the first days of GW1 release, we encountered placeholders that were later removed (which we already reported pre-release but placeholders are the least of devs concern).

I say they probably learned to put in placeholders that look “good” instead of the placeholders that were left in GW1 and us players had fun with it :p

One could simply say that Planet Tyria is engulfed in some magical barrier making the North and South connects, and the West and East as well.

Forget not that NCsoft also have other MMOs with magical planets like Aion. Planet Tyria was probably influenced by the idea behind Aion, at least for GW2. Then again, even during GW1, we could argue that they also had an influence from Richard “Lord British” Garriott and Starr “Lord Blackthorn” Long. The world of Ultima after Ultima 1 was centered only on Britannia, one of the four original continents of the planet originally known as “(Planet) Sosaria”.

For every Ultima release, there were changes in the world. In one release, all eight directions are connected. In another, they are not connected but a barrier is blocking. In yet another release, later releases, it was revealed that the continent of Britannia itself became a Planet on its own!

How’s that possible? Magic.

Planet Tyria couldn’t be any different especially since it is a world deeply influenced by magic as well. Just how much the world of Aion and the Ultima series were deeply rooted in magic too – side-by-side technology.

IMO, don’t try to explain the world of Tyria. It just is. If you actually live in their world, you wouldn’t even know the world is being messed up my magic. What with the North connecting South, West connecting East. They probably do not even know there are more lands beyond their “observable” world – or probably just pure water or interstellar space.

Just like how it is in the real-world, we only know the “observable” universe. There were even theories that what we are seeing West or North of interstellar space is the same as what we see in the East or South. A mirror. What we think as different galaxies are actually the same!

Although that theory is not popular since there is a lack of observable evidence – people tried to see if the galaxies were actually just mirrors but they did not match up – the theory was still not dismissed, why? Because we can only see as much.

But what if the theory is true? What we think as a huge universe is actually just small? The galaxies we see in one direction is just a mirror in another direction? Would we know it? Would we be able to explain it? What is beyond it? Could it be that we are being protected from whatever is beyond?

They are probably just being careful. You know how much sensitive people and governments became the past few years We have to remember always that even though GW2 is in a world different from ours, the gods of GW2 are still on planet Earth :p

Anyway, with the recent patches, I noticed there’s a growing number of NPCs that are possibly of Canthan origin. Why they are suddenly in Tyria even though the seas are still being blockaded, is weird. Unless they came via the air, which fits with the sudden appearance of the Ætherblade pirates and the coming next patch Bazaar of the Four Winds and the Zephyr Sanctum.

Just a suggestion, I think it makes sense that there is an access between Southsun Cove and Caledon Forest. The spot pointed in the attached screenshots are a good spot for it. Secondly, both are covered with water, and a “slim” mountain cutting the two looks more out-of-game / technical than in-lore.

Thank you.

Spryt.8012:

Funny that she mentions forced AA on the list. Does that mean using Nvidia control panel to use specific graphic settings and SLI profiles or even just changing gamma levels in GW2 is considered a 3rd party software and not allowed? What about overclocking software?

No, but there are other ways to make AA even better than what the client provides – which it only offers FXAA, no traditional AA even.

Not to mention SMAA too, which is better than FXAA by leaps. (Which NVIDIA will no doubt never support because their flagship is FXAA [and the new one they’re developing that is better than SMAA and FXAA].)

GaileGray.9587:

We’re getting many tickets, forum posts, and other inquiries about our policy on third-party programs. Players tell us a lot of reasons they want to use third-party programs: to avoid hand injury, to enhance their gameplay, or because their hands are too small to reach the keys. Players tell us they want to use third-party programs to make the screen clearer, to make their play more efficient (for instance, by combining several hotkey functions into a single key), to force their video card to use anti-aliasing, or to help them target enemies.

I’m going to run some wording by a few people at ArenaNet and will post our policy as clearly and simply as possible when I have received their input.

Ah, yes please, finally. It is indeed time to have a sync’d statement and avoid sending mixed and/or contradicting messages from different departments (which we can not blame them, they’re just doing their jobs).

And once again, kudos to you Gaile, as always, you have the knack in getting things smoothed out, discussed, and get the company on the same plate and stance.

I for one want to know because I use SMAA and not FXAA. A simple video anti-alias enhancer that is better than NVIDIA’s FXAA (which happen to be a supported setting in the GW2 client). If your devs are willing, they can check SMAA themselves, it does look better than FXAA. (Though there’s a new one coming that is even better than SMAA, but that’s a few years before we see it publikittenested.) SMAA = no blurring, not like FXAA. SMAA = less resource hogger, not like FXAA which adds to the slowness of the machine. It would be great to see GW2 to be the first official implementor of SMAA

Anyway… there are also the gray area for: Combat Mod; the overlay family namely → uMod, TexMod, and even a new one: DroMod; and who knows what else out there.

Secondly, I hope the statement will also cover Guild Wars ¹.

Looking forward and thank you for taking the initiative.

Hi,

Suggestion #1:
I would like to suggest for the repositioning of the “World Map completion data” elsewhere, or make it “hidable” (if there’s such a word). It blocks the borderlands on the left side when viewing the world map.

Thank you

Suggestion #2:
Actually, I don’t like it at all. There is no consistency between the loading screen and the world map. It is confusing most of the time when one will look – at the bottom of the screen or left side of the screen.

If it is below in the loading screen – which is the most we see, then unconciously, our brains expect to see it at the bottom too when viewing the world map. But it’s on the left side.

So that’s suggestion #2, consistency.

Thank you

I suggest to bring back The Frog and in-game CM work (talking to players for example). It helps diffuse the negativity, accusations, and tension that is revolving in, about, and out of the game.

Since Gaile said that The Frog is not her in disguise (although I remember once she made a mistake, then The Frog said in defense that he hacked Gaile’s account :p hehe, [I think I still have that screenshot somewhere]), but now I’d rather believe that it was someone higher than Gaile back then.

Either way, I like The Frog’s style. It is fun. He could very well be a regular again, say giving events or easter eggs or something. Unless you don’t want to do CM-run events anymore (which will be a sad thing).

I can already think a lot of things about The Frog, him being witty, crazy, mysterious… some will say he probably died already after 250 years, and I say, they don’t know who The Frog is – he’s a god! We’ll probably hear him say “I didn’t die because I was hiding under Jormag’s belly and licking, I mean, leeching his magic”.

Well, you get the idea.

Suggestion #1:
I suggest that ArenaNet make a statement clarifying as to what “NA” and “EU” branding really meant. Is it:

• For database and peering purposes only?
• Or, player segregation?

If it is for database and peering purposes only (which I hope it is), then it would help a lot if ANet says so officially. This will prevent players arguing that “NA is for NA players only” or “EU is for EU players only”, which only creates a “foreigner”-racism effect or putting it another way “you don’t belong here” or “go play in your own server”.

If it is for player segregation, then that means you really have to put an Asia-Pacific server. I said, Asia-Pacific because if you called it just “Oceanic” then it will only create yet another “Oceanic is for Oceanic players only” racism.

As far as I understand, the NA and EU branding is for database and peering purposes only. It was not meant to segregate players and promote “you don’t belong here, this is our server, gtho” racism. So an official statement would help a great deal in keeping everyone in-line of ANet’s vision and philosophy re: GW2 overall.

Suggestion #2:
Providing that the branding of servers as “NA and EU” was only meant for database and peering purposes and not to segregate players and call everybody else a “foreigner” and telling them to “gtho of here”, then why separate the WvW and ranking of NA and EU?

Currently, NA registered players know that there are only two timezones – NA-side and Asia-Pacific-side. In the EU, as was posted in another thread here, the EU-side and the Quebec-side.

But if NA and EU servers can be matched with each other depending on their performance, then we all have to adapt accordingly. As an example I gave in another thread: a server like IoJ dominating SoS (as it is currently) will find it hard to maintain our domination if we happen to get matched with an EU server.

Simply because that when EU-registered players wakes up, they’ll be able to sweep at IoJ’s winnings. Then when SoS wakes up, they’ll have a chance to fight back (since majority of Asia-Pacific players are at SoS, not IoJ). Then when IoJ wakes up, we take back what was lost.

It is more challenging and there will be less timezone domination, unlike what is happening now in both NA and EU. It may also create the need to recruit gamers from the EU timezone so IoJ will be able to have a good defensive force and vice versa.

The branding of “EU” and “NA” should stay only as a database and peering issue/purpose. When it comes to WvW, it shouldn’t be the case, just like how it wasn’t in GW1. It will create an environment similar to other international games like SL and EVE.

Personally, it would be more fun to have a chance to get matched with any GW2 server, no matter where they are located. Get rankings too that are not separate will make it exciting and challenging as well for the next round.

(This post was meant as a suggestion, different from the other thread that was meant for open discussion.)

Thank you.

Ok, with all the timezone whining going around in almost every GW2 community I visited for the past 24 hours, why not match NA and EU servers instead of keeping them separate?

It creates a wider timezone audience. Asia-Pacific/ASEAN/Oceanic (whatever you want to call them – though I prefer Asia-Pacific – non-racial mind you) will find their matches with EU gamers and vice versa. It will make everyone adapt, and make WvW even more challenging and dynamic.

Currently, we all know that NA is mostly either NA or Asia-Pacific timezone. EU is EU or Canadian timezone (accdg to another thread that is). WvW domination usually happen because we’re all on two opposite timezones.

But what will happen if one day we get matched against an EU server for example? So for a week (currently it’s a week), we have SoS, IoJ, and an EU server matching. SoS is mostly Asia-Pacific timezone, IoJ is mostly balance, and EU an EU timezone.

Still I wonder how much of a balance IoJ is when EU wakes up. I don’t know EU’s WvW timeslot but I won’t be surprised if IoJ gets dominated when EU wakes up. So suddenly, IoJ is vulnerable. This will give say SoS a fighting chance to defeat IoJ.

Not like now, IoJ is dominating SoS all the time (even before the change to weekly, we were higher than SoS).

Throw your ideas. Don’t debate, discuss it. Personally, technical issues aside, I’d choose that EU and NA gets matched and ranked as one. In fact, I believe ANet should categorically state that the “branding” of “EU and NA” servers is nothing but “database and peering” base. Because that’s what it is, it isn’t about “EU server is for EU only” or “NA server is for NA only”, which some EU and NA players are whining about – to the point that they call everyone else “foreigners”. (So yeah, ANet please clear this one out, it will help the community too if you release an official statement about the branding.)

Start the discussion. Maybe you have other ideas, but please let’s not debate about it and let’s be open-minded (no “this is the only solution” or “penalized the non-EU / non-NA because the server is EU / NA in the first place!”)

My suggestion: match up NA and EU servers, rank them as one, it gives a challenge, timezone is more spread. Dominating timezones will more likely than not, have problems this time.

Dee Jay.2460:

Scale the score system according to peak play time.
Peak hours (5PM to 1AM) – 150% the standard score
Late Night (1AM to 9 AM) – 50% the standard score
Day time (9AM to 5PM) – 100% the standard score
-Minimal impact on game-play. Everyone still gets to do whatever they like, when they like.
-No artificial limits, buffs or NPCs.
-Not really unfair since late night players typically face less resistance.
There a simple, intuitive fix that seamlessly addresses many WvW issues.

You have it good until you reach that part. The question I’m going to throw at you is, which timezone did you based your “peak hours”, “late night”, and “day time”? Obviously, yours – the EU timezone. And that’s where your suggestion falls apart.

You are penalizing a region just because of what? That the EU people are sleeping? Why not penalize the EU region when their region is sleeping too? Seeing where I’m getting at?

It won’t work. It just won’t. A 24-hr server will have to find ways of balancing their timezone spread without asking for “changes”. These changes will affect everyone, not just you guys.

Secondly, we have EU and NA servers not because you have to be “proud of your region” or because NCsoft and ArenaNet are ‘officially’ serving “EU and NA” only. No, not at all. We have EU and NA servers for the sole reason of — database and peering issues.

If NCsoft and ArenaNet found a good solution, they would have gone down the road of games like SecondLife and EVE Online – one database to rule them all. But they did not, obviously tells us that they saw problems of doing just that – so they created EU and NA.

It’s already bad that EU and NA servers doesn’t see each other. In my opinion, EU and NA servers should be able to match each other – that will, in a way, give everyone more challenge. For example, in NA servers, we all know when Asia-Pacific and NA players go online, so we time our WvW in it. But if we get matched to an EU server, we will need to adapt if we want to maintain our lead.

Try that first. I don’t know why EU and NA servers are not matched together in WvW, probably peering reasons but I don’t see that as a problem – I mean, if peering is an issue, then they wouldn’t let EU players transfer to NA, and vice versa in the first place.

So, I suggest that: mix EU and NA servers and let us all have a chance to face people in different timezones. That unofficial Quebec server will find their match in one of the unofficial Asia-Pacific/ASEAN/Oceanic (whatever you want to call them) servers.

The NA “HoD” QQ will find their match with one of the EU servers too. Not only that, we’ll get to know who’s the best :p

Why? When they did BWEs and stress tests, public players for the majority just played did not bug test. So they’re better off doing it privately and in “family & friends” system, which all gaming companies do.

And your statement that “Literally every other MMO out there does proper public testing” is far from reality too. How did you know? You played “literally every other MMO out there” to know that they do “proper public testing”? I highly doubt that.

^_^

I remember them saying that they have further plans with the UI. So I guess keep it going, I’m sure they’re reading this thread.

To add: I also like the ability to re-position my UI just like how it was in GW1. And that too, the ability to choose which data to show (those numbers), I for one only want to see my crits. It will also make the client lighter on our mediocre systems

Add me as a friend once the guesting system is up so you can enter Isle of Janthir.

Anyway, it’s a good suggestion however it won’t be easy to implement – probably not even feasible.

Well, what is your definition of hardcore? Raiding? Gearing? Farming? Computing game mechanics and what not? If that is your definition of hardcore, then I don’t like it and I’m indeed a casual gamer.

I say I’m a casual gamer these days because the definition of hardcore changed to that – the WoW definition. But before WoW, I always say I’m a hardcore gamer because I am indeed a hardcore gamer. For example, I used to play UO, DAoC, and Lineage II to mention a few. MMOGs that doesn’t have a concept of “raiding”, “gearing”, etc. but still requires a lot of time.

I even say that I’m a hardcore PK’er – but today people say “PvP”. So what’s your “hardcore”? Do we have the same definition of it?

Because as far as I’m concerned, GW2 is a good game for hardcore gamers too. It just went back to the roots of RPGs / MMORPGs in certain areas, and back then, by the old definition, GW2 is still hardcore.

I also noticed that respawn rates are pretty fast the last few patches. My hunch is that this is a bug. Probably the codes that were adjusted or added for the diminishing returns, dungeon farming, and related stuff, affected the respawn rate too.

And it probably is related, because the respawn rate wasn’t as fast as it is now before those diminishing return-anti-farming-anti-dungeon-farming patches were added.

But not all areas are like that, there are just some that you haven’t stepped far yet and here they are again – veterans even.

Nope. The “home server” flag is account-bound.

It is not because they are unwilling or whatever, it is because that:

1. The game is pretty new
2. It is a known fact that the NA and EU markets get countless of gamers
3. It is a matter of good value. Will an Oceanic datacentre based server justifiable?
   1. Is the amount of resources (money, manpower, etc.) required will pay off the number of users that are going to choose these servers?
   2. How’s the ping? Obviously, when you release a regional-located server, you will aim for the gamers in the immediate area to connect and have good connection to it.
      1. Example: If there’s an Aussie-datacentre located server, will the players in ASEAN, China, Korea, Japan, India, be able to connect fine?
      2. Forget everything, will ASEAN gamers connect fine? And just right here, it will fail – it is a known fact that peering between ASEAN and AU/NZ is very bad. If this fails, then the whole concept isn’t justifiable
4. They have data from GW1 that they are using as a basis which we do not have access to. If you played GW1, you know that there is a Korea-located servers. But it was a huge waste in resources because it did not fly that long in Korea.
   1. I can not even remember correctly if they had a China or Taiwan located server, but I do know that in Korea and Taiwan, GW1 was also offered as a prepaid-based game (you get an account for free, but you have to top-up load to play – the western world were mostly unaware of this business model for GW1). It worked for them but still it wasn’t enough, as evidenced by not seeing a Korea or Taiwan located server for GW2.

No matter how many of us sign a petition, the decision will always be based if it can be justified. It’s not about if “it is worth it”, it is about convincing to the powers-that-be to invest resources (again, money, manpower, etc. etc.) in setting up a regional-located datacentre server.

And that’s just the tip of it. I’ll bet there are developers who are also not-in-favor of it and I won’t elaborate that one

Now, if you are asking for a server tagged as “oceanic” or whatever, so it can have a timezone set to Australia’s capital, I am not in favor of it. My main reason is that, it is better to be in a server that is 24/7 alive than on a server that sleeps.

I played a lot of online games, and I can tell you that the most fun servers are the ones with plenty of players almost in all time-zones. When an oceanic server is opened up, it is usually sleeping opposite our timezone because no one from their timezone plays on our oceanic servers. Yes there are a few, NA guilds even, but still not enough to keep the server alive.

With games where the Asia-Pacific community decides on “unofficial” servers, the lucky servers gets the benefit of being alive and kicking 24/7. No matter what time you login, there are always players around – it’s not lonely, it’s not sleeping.

This is the case in GW2 for example, the lucky servers being IoJ and GoM where we have a good balance of players across almost all time-zones. SoS isn’t as lucky because many NA players knew about SoS being the “unofficial Oceanic server”, so they avoided it – just like how we avoid NA/EU servers.

I play on IoJ and I can tell you, no matter what time I play, the server is alive, either High or Full. Overflow here and overflow there. WvW is kicking too. So if I have to change my work schedule, there are still people to play with even if all of our members are sleeping.

And, I’d rather e-socialize with the Western players than restrict myself and our guild in Asia-Pacific. There are good players there too.

At the end, we just have to live and accept the kind of ping that we get.

Physically located server in our area = hard to justify
Tagged server as “oceanic” or “asia-pacific 01, 02, etc” = possible, but we risk getting servers that sleeps instead of 24/7 servers.

Well, forum quoting is borked… so…

@Sirius.4510 Hmm… but the lore I was talking about that I remember was revealed in GW:Factions not EotN. Anyway, maybe I mixed it with something else, but it couldn’t be asura because that’s EotN lore. Yep, probably it was something else.

@Larkir.6502: Nope, the tengu were from the continent of Tyria and spread out from there into different clans, which in GW2 was also touched again re: Dominion of the Winds – wherein the reason it was built was because the ED started to rise. Some tengu leaders saw it as a sign that it is time to go home. They went back to tyria and built the DotW and closed themselves up. Except for one known clan of tengu that chose to stay in the forest.

I remember reading a lore discussion about the continent of Tyria elsewhere, also based from revelations in-game of GW2, that Tyria before the humans dominated it, was mainly dominated by the tengu among other races like the jotun. The humans got stronger, were given favour by the six gods, and expanded.

And because of the ED and the expulsion from Cantha to an extent, they decided to go back home – to Tyria, especially since the humans have waned.

If their home is Cantha and not Tyria, they wouldn’t force their way against the blockade of Zhaitan in the seas just to build DotW in a place that is center to the ED “invasion”.

Bloodlust.3672:

i still want confirmation what happens if both GW2 and Fraps use the same screenshot key—from someone who actually tested it.

DUH!

Read and understand our replies again:

Shael.4703:

Remove the keybinding on your Guild Wars 2 client so you won’t get duplicates. Then set your Fraps to use PrintScreen for screenshots.

No, I don’t have Fraps, but I don’t need Fraps to test it :p

I use SMAA which has it’s own screenshot too (SMAA is better than FXAA btw).

Ujest.6548:

One, it is not rocket science.

Yes, You can use Fraps to take your screenshots, and bind the Print screen key to Fraps and delete the bind in GW2 Options.

Yes, I use Fraps so it is tested.

In the first place, why can’t YOU test it yourself? You could have been enjoying those screenshots already instead of posting here, waiting for replies, and when people replied back, you don’t want to accept their help and ask again for help.

It’s faster to test it yourself than ask online and not accept their replies. It’s screenshot/printscreen, it’s not going to blow up all the nukes First World countries are hiding…

>_>

Elowin.9078:

Tried this and got 18 hours and 31 minutes over the last 1 day! But I’ve been playing for more then 1 day. All the same it looks impressive and I am still alive.

It only counts when your character is logged-in not when you, the person, actually plays.

So for example, if it took you 30 days to get to level 80, your /age will probably just show 72 hours, because that’s the total amount of hours your character was logged-in to get to 80, not you, the player, taking 30 days.

;)

Please don’t bump topics for the sake of “getting seen” or whatever. Employees read every topic posted in the suggestions, technical, bugs, forums – they were paid to do just that.

And it’s annoying for the rest of the forumers too.

Thank you and no offense.

Trikittenistos.3046:

Kal.2376:

LF1M AC exp, need tank PST!!!

‘one hour later’

LF1M AC exp, need tank PST!!!

‘two hours later’

LF1M AC exp, need tank PST!!!

‘four hours later’

LF1M AC exp, need tank PST!!! /cry

Tank: Sure, I’ll go. It will be 10 gold for the run.

…..

No thanks…

this is a pvp game for the most part.
and it’s instances dont require the slightest of tactics compared to other games.
here everyone is responsible for himself lol.

so, i dont think u’ve made a great choice if what u like is dungeons.
much better games for raiding out there. u know which one i mean.

pvp needs roles.
people need to be able to spec as tanks or controllers or support.
or else there isnt much strategy and tactics needed
appart from organised movement tactics.

WvW with everyone playing as ranged dps (that’s how it is atm) is just stupid.

i get it that you dont want to spend an hour looking for a tank,
but everyone doing the same things dps/buff/debuff/control/support
makes the game bland and boring as a whole.

You haven’t played MMOs before the Holy Trinity generation if you think there is no strategy and tactics without roles.

That’s like saying: Hey Legolas, do DPS, I’ll tank!

Or Joan-of-Arc saying: Medics with me! We’re assaulting the castle now! Concentrate on healing us! Archers keep DPS, but dont aggro them!"

Nope, roles =/= strategy and tactics. You go back-to-back with your comrades and move in tandem with each other. You know or can predict/expect the next move or moves of your comrades and adapt and adjust based on it.

If you see them down, you think and find a way to survive while thinking of a way to revive them. You don’t just keep doing DPS or tanking or whatever, waiting for a media/healer to come over and revive them.

If your comrade is down, you cover for him. You do the “tanking”, you do the “DPS”. You think. You make decisions. That’s what GW2 is. That’s how games were played before the roles/Holy Trinity was implemented, we use our brains.

Why do people keep pushing for the Holy Trinity in GW2?

1. The game was already made, there is no turning back – do you want to shutdown the game so they can redo it from scratch?
2. Why fix when it isn’t broken? No, seriously, why?

People who are pro-Holy Trinity, just stop it already. There is no way to go back to it, the game has been programmed and launched already.

3rd: This is how they want it and ANet will not change their minds over it.
If you want the Holy Trinity, there are a hundred games out there with it.

Point is, you have to accept the fact that GW2 doesn’t have and will never have the Holy Trinity. There is absolutely nothing you can do about it even if you do petitions or whatever. We see the same posts over and over and over in every GW2 forums – official or not. Just accept it Holy Trinity generation, just accept it.

And man, there never was a Holy Trinity or whatever name you want to call it, before. Learn to play the game the way we used to play games – you learn, you observe, you adapt, you change, be flexible, be open, and you THINK. It is more fun that way, instead of roles and just click-away all you want, which is very boring.

GrimShade.8091:

Just for devils advocate, how you will keep PK’ing from happening. What about those who do not want to be hunted or play PvP in the open world? What will you recomend for those players?

Playing devil’s advocate too: What’s the difference between PK’ing and PvP? As someone who belongs to the MUD-UO-L1-DAoC generation, “PvP” is just a younglings terminology to PK. They’re one and the same.

If you want to be very specific and separate them, then from my personal observation, PK is literally what these younglings call “open world PvP”. And PvP as itself only, are the arenas or as GW2 calls it “sPvP”.

Anyway, to the OP and topic at-hand:
No. GW/GW2 was made as a cooperative game, even the lore was made that way. We are heroes not ordinary citizens. It’s us vs. the evil in the world.

PK’ing, as it is or was correctly called (ie “open world PvP”), doesn’t fit this game, even if you add servers that are “PK enabled”, it just won’t make sense at all. ArenaNet does everything based on lore. If I will take a guess, it’s lore first before programming. Other games do the programming first then create the lore afterwards (which usually ends up creating a bad game and lore – usually).

Umm, that will cause a lot of problems. For one, I can tell all my members that I’m going to kick them so we can have <20 people. Then move to a new server bringing our influence and upgrade, reinvite them and voila, we’ll dominate the new server and make the new server kicking other servers in WvW.

Secondly, not because a lot of people picked it up or +1 agree to it, does it mean it will get implemented.

I like it the way it is. What we actually need is reflagging some guild upgrades to cross-server like guild emblem, a guild emblem is a social thing just like guild chat and guild roster. A guild roster can also be cross-server, but it will only get filled-up too quickly for bigger guilds, so a balance there is needed, or a different type of upgrade added.

However, most of the other guild upgrades do need to remain server-bound especially Influence. Otherwise it will give advantage to bigger guilds and might end up in a few huge guilds dominating a server and WvW. Would you rather have that environment in exchange for <20 people being able to carry upgrades and Influence? Or a fair, clean environment but you have to restart your effort in rebuilding your guild?

Xuro.5861:

This pretty much sums it up on how I feel about this subject.

Now some fun facts:

Recently Nexon bought nearly 14% shares of NCSoft and became the single biggest share holder of the company and the person in charge of the Gem Store is an employee of Nexon.. Because of this, they have a major saying in what happens at NCSoft and ArenaNet. How far their power regarding the game goes is not known but considering the changes we have seen lately, which all favor towards the Gem Store, it’s pretty safe to assume they have quite an influence.

Correction. Do not confuse “single biggest shareholder” with “controlling shares”. Two different things. Nexon still doesn’t hold any decision making power/domination because, as you yourself said, they “nearly” bought “14%” shares of NCsoft.

Can you influence a company with just 14%? Definitely no. If you want to, you either have to buy 2/3 shares or woo the other shareholders. And since Nexon is the biggest single shareholder, then it means to get 2/3 majority, Nexon has to woo probably a hundred shareholders to get to 66.6% shares.

So no, Nexon is not influencing, or controlling, or guiding, or whatever you can think of – NCsoft or ArenaNet. They only have 14% shares, it isn’t enough unless you can get an alliance.

Xuro.5861:

Nexon is known for ruining any MMO they can get their hands on with their pay 2 win models and although this is not the case here yet, it’s becoming pretty obvious we are near the borderline with all the current nerfs going on.

Don’t jump to conclusions just because you see a company like Nexon as “evil”. I see EA as evil because of what they did to Origin Systems, Inc. (Ultima series, Wing Commander series, etc.) but I don’t judge EA or the companies they bought just because. I play The Sims 1 and 2, I play SimCity, and other sim games EA released, great games.

Xuro.5861:

I for one won’t ever buy another expansion till ArenaNet decides to go back to their old philosophies and start to care about the gamer instead of money.

Well, good luck with that. Whatever “old philosophies” you believe ArenaNet “left behind”. In your point of view, they forgot about their “old philosophies”. In your point-of-view, they started to care about money and no longer the gamers.

In your point-of-view, not theirs, not the investors, not their parent company, not their shareholders. For them, at the end of the day, it is still all about doing business and satisfying your investors and shareholders.

No, they did not “moved on” to a “new philosophy”, ArenaNet is still ArenaNet when they started. If all they want is money, it is very easy to put x1000 XP for 1 hour. It is very easy to create a “Basic account” and “Premium Account”, with the basic account you get less inventory for example, and with the premium account you get 10x more inventory.

No, they’re not doing that, because they haven’t changed philosophies. They’re sticking with their philosophies, their philosophies since GW1 still apply to this day. That’s ArenaNet for you.

Xuro.5861:

On a sidenote, I have my own business and if I evaluate all recent decisions regarding the Gem Store with it’s current major flaws, I would fire the person who is in charge of it, she clearly doesn’t understand what people really want to pay for.

Oh nice. Oh well… >_>

No. It’s rather have a dye market. Making it account-bound will only kill the dye market. It’s a good business to be in, you just have to be patient enough, eventually you’ll get a dye that will give you golds.

It’s fine. It’s been that way since GW1 (I’m sure people will shout “But this is not GW1 this is a totally different game!” <— argument moot, it’s still ArenaNet).

You have to give them good revenue or risk their parent company shutting them down (just like what they did with Tabula Rasa [minus the personal reasons of course]). $10 per character slot, that’s cheap already. Don’t forget, you can convert your gold to gems if you really do not want to spend real world money.

And money-wise, they don’t earn a thing if you convert your gold to gems because there’s no way to convert those gems into real-world money unless they start to create an official exchange rate / market. So at the end of the day, it’s best that people buy these extra features with real-world money. And again, $10 is cheap already compared to other games

And mind you, from where I live, $10 is already a big amount.

Golgathoth.3967:

Not sure if this has been brought up (I did a search and didn’t see anything), but aren’t we supposed to be unable to see the numbers after people’s names? As in forumname.#### with the numbers greyed out. I can see mine and everyone else’s. Thanks!

Yes, they did explain that pre-launch, I can’t find it any more either, they probably deleted it post-launch and scrapped the idea of hiding our ArenaNet Display Name.

pmiles.3489:

It’s your username, it’s not revealing anything about you.

No, it is not your username, it is called “ArenaNet Display Name”.

AFAIK, the email notification doesn’t work. Probably intentional otherwise they’ll surely be sending a lot of emails out which in itself adds tremendous load to the servers for an “official forum” like this one, with possible millions of users (don’t forget, there are other language-forums).

Sad, I want to be notified myself. My workaround is bookmarking those threads I want to follow-up. Not efficient but that’s the best solution.

What I can think of:

• different database
• different cookies
• different sessions

It is possible to create a single cookie or single session regardless of the sub-domain but it is a PITA to implement, and usually causes more problems down the road than what advantages it can provide.

What they could have done was provide a single forum for all, and just let users set an option on which language forums they want to see. But it seems that it is not a feature of the forum software they are using, which is fangamer forums (though they can add it themselves).

cherrie.8907:

I just got one of these messages myself.
It doesn’t help that the PMs are not specifying which thread was moved, which is in itself very annoying.

Yep, it only leads to the sub-forum it was moved to. So far, I’ve only seen it work correctly (linking to the actual post) twice and that was weeks ago.

Yes it is annoying indeed. No doubt it is a bug that nobody reported during the BWEs (because those players weren’t really bug testing, they were playing the game [they need bug testers not gamers]).

It is tiring putting back nicknames to your contact list. I’d rather know them by what I know them instead of their ArenaNet Display Name which, in the first place, should have been private (wherein, if you added my character name, then you’ll see only that and never my alts. But if I gave you my ANet Display Name, then you’ll see my alts.)

Kagoshima Josh.5412:

I saw this reported as fixed in the 18th update. Haven’t been able to play in a few days – can anyone confirm if this has indeed been fixed?

No, it still doesn’t work. The missing mouth animation and voice overs happens randomly. When I did some tests, the dialogues that bugs out changes.

Also, the patch said “female”, they missed a lot because when I first encountered this bug, I was playing my male sylvari and the first NPCs with missing voice overs and mouth animation were male NPCs.

After that, it became frequent, male sylvari + female NPC = missing. female human + male NPC = missing. female human + female NPC = missing. Again, random dialogues, if you repeat that storyline, there will always be a different dialogue that is bugging and the previous one started working.

In any case, I sent all the reports I compiled and stopped because it’s just too many to handle (so I’m a little bit surprised the patch notes said “female”, probably I was the only one who reported “male” was bugging too).

It’s happening for every race as I was told, and even in higher level, near-end storylines.

Also, contrary to the patch notes, it is not just female NPCs but male NPCs too. It has become too common, I stopped compiling them all. Especially since it happens randomly.

For example, in one Orr storyline, I didn’t finish it and restarted. The NPCs started speaking, with the mouth moving. But the dialogues where previously they were speaking, this time they weren’t. It’s random.

Yep, there are too many rangers and mind you, they’re all color blue! I ended up changing my male sylvari ranger to pink just to be different, haha. (Imagine a green-skinned male sylvari wearing all pink…)

I’m sure you’ll enjoy the ranger class. I did and still playing it. I still discover new styles of playing it. Unlock all the weapons too, there are different ways of playing each weapon. Combine them, switch. Too many things to do with a ranger

Example, in some areas and mobs, I use shortbow. In some, I combo a longsword and an axe; or a dagger. Though personally, my favourite is a longbow, I like kiting and pulling best especially in tight situations.

But once you reach Orr zones for example, you need a different style again. I wouldn’t say what I use that would be a spoiler of what’s it is like there but you’ll find it out and enjoy the challenge of Orr zones (there are 3 Orr zones, I haven’t finished the second yet :p )

That’s what keeps it fun. The challenge of each zone will make you observer, adapt, and think how best to attack the zone and conquer it.

My tip: always keep atleast one weapon of each that we rangers can wield. (Or two for axes since we can wield two of it at the same time.)

And that’s just PvE and dungeons. In sPvP, it is fun too. I remember being matched 1vs1 in sPvP, I won 4 in a row lolz. I also love hitting on group of players in sPvP capturing a point, they find it hard killing me because of the style I do. (Eventually I get killed if a player who knows how to handle a ranger arrives or I made a mistake.)

See you in-game or in the battlefield

I haven’t seen one that has two folds like that. The only ones I usually get is one side fold with a feather on top or something.

Yes, they’ll start to merge when you get to your Order storyline. Then after that it will merge even more as you get closer to Orr. Once you reach Orr (I won’t mention which storyline is that), we all have the same story already.

Jason King.2647:

Dana windfelt.8160:

Killing a land shark during “Convincing the Faithful”

Totally by design!

Thanks for the report (and the link)! I’ll pass this along so we can look at grounding the flying fish.

Please don’t! Not yet! I want to video it first, hehe.