Guild Wars 2

Natto.5819:

That’s too overpowered.

I think the term is “gloriously overpowered”.

That aside The main question with this “corgi” mount is that, like the other mounts, it needs to have a purpose to fulfill – which generally means some kind of movement it can do that does things the others can’t.

That’s a little tough to come up with, so perhaps the most reasonable option might be a gem shop skin for the sand jackal that looks like a corgi. The legs are not really the same length though, so I’m not entirely sure the result would be satisfying, but if there’s enough demand it might be worth a shot.

You’d probably have to streamline the controls quite a bit (granted, there may be prior examples to learn from by now…), which I see being one of the main challenges. Lots of buttons in GW2 at the moment and it’s only increasing in PoF.

And then there’s the issue of optimizing the engine to work well on the hardware (good FPS is what I’m mostly thinking of). Could probably be done but still potentially a challenge.

I wouldn’t say no if it can be done though – it might be good for sales. I’m just not holding my breath.

zombyturtle.5980:

It would cost way more than 1200 gems. With the amount of work it would take to program this you are looking at 3k gems minimum.

While I agree it’s a complex problem, it’s not really possible to guesstimate how many gems they’ll charge for it, because they also need to factor in the demand curve, not just how expensive implementation was. If increasing the price from 1200 gems to 3000 gems cuts sales by 80%, they’ll make more money at 1200, and that would be the better bet regardless of implementation costs. The optimum price, as a result, is more governed by how much value players feel they get from the service.

I know you didn’t ask me, but the PoF beta was a little different from HoT – mainly because HoT had several beta rounds, which gave ArenaNet time to react to feedback.

This time, the time between betas, and from first beta to release, is much shorter, and I’d be surprised if they can do anything much. We’ll have to hope/wait for balance patches later in the year or in 2018.

Which reminds me… I think I recall spotting a GW2 strategy guide on a table during a recent episode of Silicon Valley.

Expansion 3 probably does need something earlier expansions haven’t had to get more of a buzz around it… don’t really see more professions after Revenant (at least not with elite specs filling much of the same role), and they’ve just done mounts… figuring out how to tackle new races without breaking the game would seem like a logical next step. There might be an alternative, though, but I’m not really sure what it would be.

A battle tonic would, retrospectively, seem pretty silly once they’d introduced the race it was supposed to represent as playable, which does give the impression that the latter still hasn’t been ruled out… although it could equally be explained by the fact that neither tengu nor largos made appearances in LWS3. Although you could argue there were opportunities for that to happen I guess.

Dawdler.8521:

Either way it really doesnt matter – if GW3 is in development it will still be 1-3 years from announcement to release. And it hasnt been announced. It was 7 years between GW1 and GW2.

Could be more, even. GW2 didn’t begin development until not that long before the EotN announcement – probably early 2007, which pegs pre-release development time at about 5 years. As strange as it is to think about, that means it still hasn’t been out longer than it was in development (although it’s getting close now).

And, I guess, that’s one of those things – MMOs are time-consuming and expensive to produce relative to most games, so a GW3 would be a long way off unless it’s already secretly in the works. I’m not even sure ArenaNet would want to stay in the MMO genre once GW2 runs out of steam.

Yeah, as far as QoL features go, this is top of my wish-list – it takes quite a while to switch specs at the moment and that becomes a bit of a disincentive for me to experiment.

Dadnir.5038:

Anet love cats ^^ another 2 cats incoming out of 5 new pets.

I am starting to suspect this. Home instance? Ranger pet bias? Yep.

Part of the difference I guess is that male charr faces are supposed to be a bit more bestial to distinguish them from the females, who are a bit more cat-like. But there’s still some space for variety within those constraints for non-ugly-stick faces – e.g. perhaps something a bit like this guy but in his earlier years? https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Arcanist_Aurelio_Shiverpaw

The key might be the reasonably-sized teeth. Also, there possibly should be more male charr faces with lion-type (round) pupils rather than cat-type (slit) pupils… the females get a lot more variety there.

PM sent.

With all this choya talk going on, I am wondering if fruit salad will be served…

Also, fix the waypoints outside the guild puzzles. TIA

There are workarounds for most issues, but I have to figure if there is a playable race we are going to see some signs in the lead-up. I was already pretty sure after playing LS3 Ep5 that wasn’t going to happen this time.

Maybe next time (like always).

Sort of feels like this should have been accomplished by, e.g., shapeshifting into a more powerful version of that creature rather than resorting to a mere glowy aura. Would feel more in line with what you’d thematically expect from a ranger/druid.

But, I guess, it would also be a lot of work. So… shrug.

Dolphins would be nice, actually, yeah. Also raptors, skelk, griffons.

I’m expecting to go 0 for 4 because that’s pretty much how it always goes. At least the mounts look cool.

What does “immersion” even mean any more? It seems to be bandied about every time someone disagrees with a creative choice…

A recruitment tool is the only thing I can see definite value in versus just using external websites if you really need them – mostly because people might not know to look on the forums and there is considerable friction when not integrated into the game. (Granted, anyone who is strongly looking for a guild is probably going to find it.)

And, yeah, it would take considerable development effort to do well – because you’d need a way to narrow it down to the types of guilds you’re looking for (filters), you might also want to be able to see indicators of activity (do they regularly play raids? PvP? Guild missions? Claim objectives in WvW?), how many players they have, etc etc.

Nonetheless I would find such a feature well worth it – mostly to try to track down alt guilds to guest with in order to complete certain achievements.

Story-wise, it’s a lot to take in. I feel like I have no idea what comes next (except I presume Aurene will factor in, as will Braham somehow) which makes me feel a little anxious about it, but Ep6 will be anticipated for sure.

The massed battle in the first instance was awesome. My healer druid really came into its own there.

Final instance – amazing visual design. Very appropriate for Primordus.

ArenaNet don’t usually talk about their “maybe, but maybe not” plans. They also seldom rule anything out if they’d like to do it if the opportunity were right, even if it’s unlikely it ever will be; and there’s no chance they haven’t thought about this question. So I’m not holding my breath for an answer on this one.

I, too, feel like this makes more sense going forward than retrofitted onto everything up to this point. Adding anti-air defenses is possible, but it just kind of works better if you design battles from the start to have that element.

I think I would be more excited about aerial dogfights though – i.e. areas, perhaps in the next expansion, where you’re fighting against other things that fly too and can fight back. In order for updraft use not to be a complete blocker (otherwise you’ll eventually fall), you could always just give people really big griffons as mounts just for that area.

cptaylor.2670:

There’s still that huge gaping hole in Tangled Depths behind Rata Novus that’s been unfinished this whole expansion. It’s possible that could be either more of Rata Novus or Quora Sum, and lead into the next map.

There’s a fair chunk of river in the space between Tangled Depths and Metrica Province, too, which would fit the sub scene from the trailer – not to mention the terrain looks the part. It’d make a lot of sense if that’s where the new map slots in.

Yep, Sentinel Outfit, currently still for sale in the Gem Store. It also has four dye channels, one of which can be used to change the glow color (if you should wish to do so).

And yes, it’s one of those outfits that is actually pretty awesome for charr. A little like Balthazar but less horns and more finches, for some reason.

Well, that would explain Braham, now that you mention it.

It’s probably time I got around to posting my set One character but three armor sets.

First one is the earliest I put together upon graduating from noob armor – basically Drover’s with a Wreath of Cooperation because I thought it looked nicer on a ranger. Condi spec gear.

Second is the power (berserker) spec, which is basically sneakthief – wanted something that looked Ash Legion and kind of like armor plates, with a subtle dark green hint because you know, ranger.

Third one is the newest, it’s for a healer druid spec. More mix-and-match there – I don’t quite remember where everything came from! Yeah, I’m one of those horrible charr-with-wings players that makes it impossible to see where you’re going on jumping puzzles… >.> I do try to go quick though…

Does the glider not automatically open if you hold down spacebar (or your jump key, whichever that is) on a high ping? Or open late? That could be annoying.

Strangely I’ve never seen anyone actually push to clear the centaurs out (though they are awfully high-level). But it is definitely manageable to just run past them on certain builds – I can vouch for heal-spec druid as well, you might want stun breaks in case of accidents with the stampeders but most of the time you can just keep out of their way.

Sad news, but Daniel Dociu has built something of an institution at the ArenaNet art department… I expect they’ll be able to carry the flame capably. All the best to all!

It varies a bit in the Seattle metro region. Built-up areas tend to have underground power lines, but the suburbs sprawl out a long way in all directions and the less dense ones quite often do have overhead power lines. With the number of trees around, yeah, they can be subject to outages in the event of high winds or a significant snowfall. I don’t think ArenaNet’s office itself is at much risk of that, but I could be wrong.

One of the other issues, though, is simply commutes. Since the Puget Sound region only rarely sees more than a dusting of snow, when something a little bigger does happen it can leave a lot of roads too treacherous to drive on, especially since there are a lot of hills, and there aren’t as many snow plows as you’d see in the likes of Chicago or Buffalo (because it’s a rare event… though it earns Seattle at least a little bit of scorn from people who have experienced a real snowfall). That can make it hard for people to get out of their driveways. Where I work about 80% of the team couldn’t make it in Monday and had to work remotely.

There actually was a set in GW1. Had some excellent skins, especially the staff. https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Gallery_of_Tengu_weapons
That’s a talented artist up there, though.

I found the DR skritt attacking the dolyak the most reliable, but you had to be quick to hit them because of all the kicking around. Wasn’t usually worth the wait for the event to start anyway – who knows how long that will take?

Infinirarium skritt were a bit of a nuisance because as soon as you get into combat… nope. If you can find somewhere they can’t hit you (which usually avoids the combat thing) it might be OK.

I also tried hitting green skritt in other places of Tyria. (Yes, I know, throwing snowballs at innocent skritt minding their own business… but I didn’t put the achievement on the table. Sacrifices must be made.) These seem to work if you bring enough bags of snowballs but they’re an awful pain to actually get hits to register on. GW2 will seemingly try its absolute hardest to make the snowball visually miss, and even if you find the spot that fools it, it probably won’t register. So, the advice up above to watch the achievement panel and ignore what the in-game graphics are showing you seems to be the way to go… but that’s hugely unintuitive.

End result, the most obvious places you’d think of to go find skritt to pelt are all painful to actually attempt the achievement on.

8 episodes in season 3 definitely seems possible. We don’t know when the next expansion is, and barring a long gap between the last episode and launch (which… is also possible, it happened for HoT), that leaves quite a bit of time. The eighth episode would probably come out roughly the end of this year on the current cadence.

Yeah, if ArenaNet decides to expand the list of playable races, largos are probably high up the “likely candidate” list. Opinions obviously vary about exactly where they rank, but personally I’d place them second (tengu obviously first as we already know they were a candidate). They do appear to have an actual civilization, and unlike most other races that have been floated, there’s nothing that strongly suggests ANet ruled them out of future consideration. The “mystery” thing is a weaker factor as I see it – the devs might gain more than they lose.

Same, I’d figure the Christmas period will delay progress a bit. Late January at the earliest, maybe, but February does seem more likely.

Walhalla.5473:

We’ll see his Endgame when Primordus is dead and he is absorbing its Energy. ( Ironically our Characters now also can absorb Magical Energy, its possible that we also absorb some of the Elder Dragon’s Energy after its Death then, which could be a WTF Moment for Lazarus. )

Lazarus: “You are… Dragonborn. But such a thing… surely that’s not possible…”

Having slightly different reactions by race would have been a neat touch, actually. Charr are probably not so easily grossed out. But there were a lot more hits than misses in ep2 I think.

Anyone remember that challenge mission off Central Transfer Chamber? With the other dragon as we protected it from waves of… oh yeah, destroyers?
Yep, we just replayed that. Except with a bit less help… at least at first. Then a bit more, right as it was getting too… hot… to handle.

Speaking of, didn’t somebody mention a “second scion”? Is the dragon hatchling from EotN perhaps still alive, then?

Jaken.6801:

He looks like a mini mordy Toothless… you know.. there was this one picture…

I was going to say that Rox was the other parent, but… now that you mention it, that’s exactly what she looks like.

I’m pretty sure there’s something he’s not telling us. I doubt we’ll find that out very soon, but there’s every reason he could be another Palawa Joko.

But, for now, our goals happen to align.

Huge map. Good one too – well done!
Finally got to kill something that makes the Super Banana noise. That was pretty cathartic.
Last mission and the cutscene that pointed you there – epic. Interesting twist, might have seen it coming but I was, um, a little swamped you could say…

I can’t really see Logan holding his own in a rap battle against Rytlock. You need someone who can bring it… someone with attitude… hmm…

Palawa Joko vs Mad King Thorn maybe?

The downside, obviously, is that it would be expensive, and there are ongoing costs as well. We don’t know exactly how much, though, including whether it would really be prohibitive.

The upside is that a lot of people would pay for it. But, again, we don’t know exactly how many, and thus whether it would pay for itself.

That makes it difficult to tell whether it would be a good or a bad idea all-up.

anninke.7469:

And why is tying up Garm’s loose end more important than tying up any of the many other loose ends exactly?

It isn’t, but it has to happen sometime.

Regarding Rytlock, I sort of doubt he would be as compelled to show for a Trahearne memorial. They never really had much to do with each other.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

That region actually did have a half-made map from pre-beta era, but it was nowhere near that completed. that_shaman and WoodenPotatoes and the guy who made Tyria3d did stuff about that map.

Oh, they Photoshopped the whole map up? I’d assumed they repurposed something they found somewhere for the gag. Pretty nice work in that case – it follows the style of the rest of the map really well.

I figure the Eir memorial was more important to the narrative (since Rytlock was more likely to be there, and hence the conversation about starting a new guild; plus it ties up the loose end with Garm) than Trahearne. It doesn’t necessarily mean nothing happened to honor Trahearne though, just that we didn’t get to see it. With 8-9 months between the end of HoT and now, there’s certainly timeline space to put it in somewhere.

If Primordus is becoming more active, there’s a pretty good chance we’ll be hearing about it as soon as next episode of LWS3.

On that subject, there was an interesting map linked in another thread – not sure exactly how they got it but I presume from some pre-release content that was cut: http://imgur.com/bOwDeHt
Now, obviously, this whole map could have been thrown away. But the “Heart of Primordus” intrigues me. Merely idle speculation and possibly wishful thinking, but perhaps we’ll be visiting that in the near future? I note that this map isn’t actually geographically connected to the core Dominion of Winds (even if they throw it away and redo it, that won’t change, since Garrenhoff’s port precludes that) so it wouldn’t necessarily break anything in the event that they wanted to use the DoW for a capital in a subsequent expansion.

Actually, something I realized tonight while playing Druid…
Being able to see friendly HP bars without having to mouse-over. Especially helpful for open-world bosses, that way I can find who needs saving before it’s too late.

Of course, a non-healer would likely just find the friendly HP bars get in the way, so that might require some thought.

Kuja.2503:

Keyboards do not do this very well.

News to me… done all the jumping puzzles, the keyboard was a problem for none of them…

Since they tend to bypass filters anyway, it probably makes more sense not to block it but rather fire an automatic alert when it shows up…

GW1-like build switching is probably the QoL feature I’d notice and appreciate the most.

After that, basically anything that saves me inventory space – all the myriad incarnations of chest keys are taking up a lot these days for instance.

The big catch is you still have to re-record the original GW2 campaign, LS2 and LS3 with tengu VAs (which is going to be… 8 or 10? Male and female for each supported language). That’s expensive – not so expensive that I’d automatically rule it out since they’ll need to record a lot for the following expansion anyway, but it might make them think twice.

Oh, and you might need to do more motion capture for the original campaign’s cinematics – I suspect the cost of those was a good part of the reason they moved away from doing them. Then again, perhaps the tengu skeleton is still close enough to charr that you could just borrow theirs? Though that’s less true than it used to be with the Heart of Thorns tengu model, where they’re standing up straighter than charr do, amongst a few other things.

Technically possible, still, yes; but I wouldn’t be shocked if ANet decided to axe playing through old story with new characters because of it. The cost of voice talent for new races may already be a significant disincentive to add more, never mind if they need to go through the back catalog too.

Today I learned that White Mantle Knights are portable SAM launchers with heat-seeking ammunition.