Why are there no posts from Arena Net regarding the recent, regular performance lag issues?
Whole maps getting disconnected and there’s not a word from Arena Net on what they’re doing about it.
It’s the thousands of weapon and armor skins that need to be loaded for every frakking character in your area. Arena Net should provide an option to switch off all the tihsllub bling, but they’re obsessed with it.
Set your video options, “Character Model Limit” and “Character Model Limit” to as low as you can bear.
Finally, add “-maploadinfo” to your Gw2.exe arguments. It won’t speed up the loading, but you’ll at least see some information on the screen with loading progress.
No one knows?
Here is some fun text because the dumb forum says Message Body length must at least be 15.
I read a number of play “tips” on different forums about triggering skills before the animation of a previous skill is complete to accomplish combo chains. It seems particularly common with Thieves (which I play).
At first, the tactic seems gamey and sketchy, to me. Taking advantage of flaws in the game code timing to either avoid a consequence or short-cut to another, next skill.
However, many things in the game are intended to be all about timing and pressing the button at the right time.
Before I go trying to learn & practice these combos, what is the official Arena Net answer? Are players expected to watch the details of skill animations and benefit from triggering skills before the animation of a previous has completed? Or is this practice gamey, near-cheating and expected to be corrected in future releases?
Suggestion to add the ability for users to save their own Graphics Options.
Currently, users have 3 pre-set options; Best Peformance, Automatic and Best Appearance.
I find these are too extreame; one switches everything off while the other switches everything “high”.
Sometimes I care about the pretty lights and sometimes I want the game to play fast. Through experimenting, I have learned what options to set to my tastes for both scenarios, but I need to manually adjust them each time.
I suggest adding an option to save user Graphic Options so they can be remembered and returned easily.
I want “none of the above”.
I don’t want “two factor authentication” in my games.
Speaking on behalf of the human race, arguably the most intelligent and adaptable creatures on the planet, I think you’ll find most players can still manage to use the maps and function in the game regardless of the presence of a few small, vaguely rectangular blobs on the map or, indeed, above a toon’s head. Some of the players are even capable of following the tag they want and ignoring all the others.
I’ve never seen so much drama about such a small thing. “Cluttered with tags”? Really? How many tags were there? Did you need more than one hand to count them? Did it stop you from using the map? Save the complaints for the important stuff….
Yes, I have seen maps with more than 5 tags. Dozens, in fact.
Yes, it affects my ability to play. There have been cases where clumps of tags covered things I needed to see and use; like resource nodes, POI and waypoints on the map. I have also seen so many tags over the heads of toons on the screen that they blocked watching for important tell-animations from champions and world bosses. (And I normally run my graphics settings with Character Model Limit set to Low.)
If people can whine about weapon skin graphics not looking perfect or dye colors not looking perfect then surely genuine game-play improvement issues can be discussed.
In addition, remove the crafting progress bar animation nonsense. It’s rediculous to sit and watch. If I want to craft 100 of something, just do it. There’s no entertainment and no play value in waiting for a progress bar to animate 100 times.
Feature request: Option to switch off tags on map display.
“Commander” tags were already becoming meaningless as more people simply bought them as look-at-me bling without the skill, experience or even interest to lead people anywhere.
Now “Mentor” tags are becoming as common as Halloween candy.
I have seen several instances of maps cluttered with tags, making none of them relevant. I have also seen at least two cases where a person with a “Mentor” tag didn’t know what they were doing and were posting to Map chat for help on how to get to the event they were supposedly leading people to.
In short, tags are now just screen pollution.
Please add an option to switch off their display from the maps. In some cases, when someone competent is leading, they are useful. But most times they are not.
Feature request: Make the SMS login reminder go away permanently.
Every so often I need to click the “Remind Me Later” button on the annoying SMS login page; as if that’s what I want – to need to click the same button again later.
I want a “go away” option.
I don’t want a “two factor” SMS code to play a game and I would never give my phone number to any non-friend, non-family person anyway.
Also on the subject of improving the “Action Camera”.
The position of the gunsight crosshair needs to be adjustable. It is presently stuck in the center of the screen. Combat action almost always happens in the lower 1/3 of my screen, not the center.
The gunsight crosshair should be changed to a different symbol. A gunsight scope looks out-of-place in a fantasy game. A simple circle would suffice.
http://puu.sh/kDUsz/5a53caddf4.jpg
Anything that I put on my back looks like that, what’s up with that? I can’t use any back items at all because they levitate 5 inches away from my body.
You need to find something else to be bothered by.
It’s pixels on a screen in a video game that you will only see while staring at the display with the camera zoomed in and your character standing still with nothing else around.
Meanwhile, no one else will care, because they’ll be busy, actually having fun playing the game.
I know of the mailing system, but sadly it is limited to players who have purchased the game.
There’s nothing “sadly” about that. Riding for free? Enjoy what you get . Want more? Put your money on the table. That’s perfectly acceptable and a very fair way for people to test-drive the game before deciding to buy it.
Thanks for the suggestions of using the mystic toilet to change the stats of another set. That’s a good idea.
What effect (positive and/or negative) would this have on the world in-game if it happened, not to mention the effect on your speakers/headsets?
Would the effect lessen if all the trees and other plants only screamed intermittently rather than all at once?
Since GW2 is already polluted with nearly everything playing a sound effect or speaking, I usually have my speakers turned off anyway.
I like the Power, Precision & Healing Power combination of the Keeper’s ascended armor set but the recipe prices in the TP are stupid and no activities are adding new recipe sheet drops to the supply so the prices stay stupid.
Does anyone know of rumours or plans to either a) drop more Keeper’s ascended armor recipe sheets into the supply or b) a new ascended armor set with Power, Precision & Healing Power attributes?
Thank you. That’s probably what’s causing my friend trouble in trying to create a GW2 free account; he has a GW1 registration with the same e-mail address.
Another Q: If a person has a GW1 account, will that registration bung-up creating a GW2 account? In other words, if their e-mail address has already been used for an Arena Net product, will they need to dig up that registration and / or reset their password?
Well not really 2 factor Auth is nice and helpful if you some one tires to log in. Its just there to make sure your safer. If you live in say the UK and some one from South America IP tries to log on and you dont have 2nd auth its annoying to get the items and things back what iff all the toons got killed and you cant get those names back. Very annoying
Free protip: Whack your keyboard randomly when creating your game password. Be sure to hit some numbers as well as letters. Keep whacking until the password box is full. You just created an impossible-to-guess, fully-unique password that will never be in danger from being discovered in another website’s database. Click the game menu option to remember your password and you’re finished.
Seriously; if a person used a password for their game account that they also used in another website maybe they deserved to have all their nice things taken away.
Arena Net must drop the SMS verification nonsense. Who wants to need their phone with them whenever they want to play the game? Mine is usually in my coat pocket, upstairs, in the closet.
Thanks for the replies and help. I think I’ve figured out what he’s doing. He’s probably clicking the “create account” link on the game start screen. That leads to a web page that wants a serial code.
Arena Net: You have 2, different sign-up pages and that’s going to confuse people. You’ll want to fix that.
Thanks. I’ll assume that if he logs into his newly-created Arena Net account, the correct download will be offered.
A friend is wanting to try the free GW2 but says the installer is asking for a serial code.
“This is the code found inside the game box that you use to register your account. If you purchased digitally you can find it in your e-mail. "
What is the magic dance needed to install / play GW2 free?
Actually no not really. As I said, sigils always work no matter what quality of your weapon.
Unless you are talking about equipping a level 59 or lower weapon, thus losing access to the superior sigils, there’s nothing to compare here. But it’s ultra cheap to get even a level 80 green weapon anyway.
My calculations suggest that using a L80 Masterwork off-hand equipped with a Superior Sigil of … Slaying has maximum potential damage slightly less (-2%) vs the Sigil creature type compared to using an Ascended off-hand weapon without a sigil.
Using a L80 Rare off-hand has maximum potential damage slightly higher (+1%).
Using a L80 Exotic off-hand has maximum potential damage moderately higher (+7%).
This calculation accounts for the lower Power compared to an Ascended weapon plus +10% bonus from using a Superior Sigil of … Slaying.
In other words, one could build a cheap inventory of Rare or better off-hand weapons with creature-specific Superior Sigil of … Slaying upgrades to swap as needed and hit as hard against the sigil creature type as using an Ascended off-hand.
Sigils always apply like Power stat applies.
A “cheap” offhand will work wonders for a weapon that is pure support, often like a warhorn, or pure condition damage like torch. You WILL still lose some of those valuable stats in the process though (Power/etc…).
Agree that it would take some spreadsheet & testing to determine if benefit from sigils outperforms loss of power.
Exotics are really inexpensive though.
I’m comparing exotic vs ascended.
Except for thief, you use your main hand damage range stat for skills #1 to #3, and your offhand damage range stat for #4 to #5.
Thief is the same except for #3 which usually does one attack with main hand, and another with offhand, not always in that order.
The item bonuses to power/precision/etc… always matter though, just same as your helmet’s Power stat helps you punch stuff harder.
This is what I suspected.
In follow-up to this; is a damage-boosting sigil on the off-hand weapon only used when the off-hand weapon strikes or does its bonus benefit all sources of damage?
For example, if an off-hand weapon has a Sigil of Ghost Slaying, will all attacks against ghosts benefit or only strikes made by the off-hand weapon?
You can see where I am leading with this; using inexpensive off-hand weapons with desired sigils for different purposes.
Does offhand weapon skills not just use the same formula?
Damage = Weapon strength * Power * Skill coefficient / Armor
Except weapon strength would be from the offhand weapon and not the mainhand weapon.
This is what I’m asking. I don’t believe the off-hand weapon strength is used in the damage calculations. The off-hand weapon adds to power but not to weapon strength.
Is this correct?
Is only the main-hand weapon used for damage calculation? I believe this is correct.
The off-hand weapon contributes to what attack skills are available and bonuses from a 2nd sigil, if equipped. But it is not used in damage calculations.
Correct?
Even with Character Model Limit and Character Model Quality options set to “lowest”, graphical fluff like minis pets, animated backpacks and legendary weapon gear pixel pollution still intrude. A nuisance in the best of times, this dancing bologna on the screen makes the game an visual mess in crowds.
Please add an option to switch off these distractions. The owners can play dress-up with their Quagan backpacks, dance their Wintersday minis and paint with their over-animated weapons on their own screen all they like. I don’t need it getting in my way of my playing.
Thanks.
As any first-year art student knows, what an artist leaves out is as important as what she puts in.
GW II has a beautiful artistic style but it is getting polluted with mini dolls, dancing-bologna back pieces, legendary weapon dirty footprints and birthday guns.
In addition to ruining the beauty of the game, they distract from game play by cluttering the screen and sucking attention to themselves.
Other people can keep all the digital pixel ego sauce they want around their own characters on their own screens. Just give me an option to switch it all off on my screen.
It might be a large-ish code, compared to GW1, however there is at least one build site (http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/) that uses string-code to pass builds. The only issue I see is if the code is potentially too-long to be put into chat.
Here’s the answer. If outside party websites can do it, what’s stopping the game developers themselves?
I’ve already set the Character Model Quality setting to “lowest” to get rid of most of the distracting crap but there are still improvements to be had.
The game needs an option to switch off graphical junk that only clutters the screen and does not aid in play.
Examples: all pets and minis, all back items such as animated wings and the awful spinal blades and all annoying graphical crud from legendary weapons.
This stuff gets in the way of game play.
Agree with this. GW I is far superior in its simple ability to save skill and equipment builds as templates.
GW II still needs to catch up.
You’re running a beta OS. It will have bugs.
yeah my bad. It’s a Mac Pro. 2009 model 8 core 2.26. Good to hear GW2 runs with a 2009 model single CPU, so mine with 2 ought to run as well. I ordered 2 3.0ghz quad core CPUs, and a GTX 680 for it. I have a Win 7 license from a laptop that met an ugly death, so I’m good there. It came with 2 sticks of 4GB RAM, and there are 4 slots open. I plan on getting 4 more 4GB sticks. Even after all that I still won’t be up to what one of these things goes for on eBay. Like I said, it was an unbelievable price.
I always wanted one of these, but I’ve built my own PCs for years and couldn’t see blowing that much money on one. So far, even without the upgrades installed, it’s an amazing machine and everything I thought it would be. Once I get the upgrades installed it’s going to be even better. I can’t wait. Next weekend’s project will be to install the upgrades, Windows 7, and see what happens :-) Will report back.
edit: I’m currently using a home built PC – Asus mobo, 16GB RAM, 3.0ghz 6 core, GTX 650, 500gb SSD.
btw – should I get an SSD for this? It looks like it will handle one nicley.
Build it as a Windows only box and it should run well.
8 GB of RAM is more than adequate to play games. Pointless to add more. An SSD drive is also unnecessary for a gaming computer. The graphics card is where you want your money.
Will some sort of laptop stand do the trick? Not sure how you can keep it on a tabletop AND have airspace underneath it at the same time….
But thank you. I thought this was the answer but a lot of other people seemed to think it was more software related. I guess if there’s anything else I can do to keep the game running smoother, I wouldn’t hesitate to try it.
A stand, rubber feet, a couple of rulers under the edges, whatever hack you want to try. Just remember that the Mac Pro was designed to partially keep itself cool by radiating heat from it’s aluminum shell. That works for occasional blasts of full CPU power but it is not intended to run at high power for hours of gaming at a time.
Consider running Bootcamp and playing the game in Windows. Apple graphic drivers are not as good as the Windows versions and the Mac version of the game puts a lot of extra load on the CPU which the Windows version likely does not.
I understand you point, but there is no need to be so nasty about it. People paid expecting to be able to play the game well and for a lot of people the client doesn’t manage that.
THAT IS the reason why people need to start reading harsh words on this topic. “People paid expecting …” They have expectations when they should not. What they paid for was a Guild Wars 2 account. There are two ways to play the game with that account; the Windows way and a beta software Mac way. If they want to try the beta software, that’s great. But it’s BETA software, has always been BETA software and will remain BETA software until it’s not; which might happen or might not ever happen.
To buy an MMO account, install an alternative OS beta software client then complain that the beta software doesn’t work as well as the production-level Windows software and whine “why is it still beta” is too bone-headed for my patience.
I’m tired of the forum being bunged up with whiny posts for a magic unicorn “native” client which does not exist and no one should ever have expectations that it will ever exist. They distract from the purpose of the “Mac Beta Client Tech Support” forum which is, obviously, to discuss technical issues related to the Mac beta client software.
The topper is that any Mac user who really needs the blingy shinies of the Windows version can Bootcamp their way there and this choice has been available to them since day #1 of the GW2 release.
Alright, some updates:
1. My stronger video card is running when I play GW2, even when it is stuttering.
2. I have iStat on my MBPro, so I can see how fast my fans are going and what temperature my components are while playing. In mid-game, each fan runs at 6k+ rpms, and my CPU seems to be the overheating culprit. It runs around 80-90 degrees whenever I am in-game, while all others remain in the 30s-40s range (I believe that’s Celsius, no?). I use a cooling mat which runs before and during gameplay. Stuttering seems to appear later into the game. A couple thoughts:
- My CPU is overheating too much and causing sluggishness on my computer.
– Seeing as my fans re running at 6k+ rpms during the game, is it worth it to get SMC fan control? I don’t know if my fans can run any faster.
It absolutely makes sense that the OS is pulling clock speed to cool the CPU during high temperatures. That’s your answer.
Laptops are not meant for hours of high CPU load. That’s not at all what they are designed for. You can’t expect your laptop to perform well when being used for a purpose that it’s not made for.
Also, throw the “cooling mat” in the trash. All they do is suck on the laptop battery, increasing load and causing more heat. Keeping the laptop on a flat table top with airspace underneath is the best option.
What the heck is the matter with you people? It’s BETA software. It’s always been beta software. Arena Net has always been up-front honest that it’s beta software.
Where’s the expectation that it’s ever going to be something more than beta software? Do you people even know what beta software is or means ??
No one here is confused about what beta means; it’s been two years, we want an answer if ArenaNet is going to work on creating a native client or not. It has nothing to do with commitment and everything to do with just wanting an honest answer about what the future holds for those of us using Macs to play GW2. :P
Easy. I can answer that for you: None of your business. No money-making company is going to shoot it’s mouth off about what products it plans to create. That would be stupid to reveal that to competitors.
You also DON’T know what “beta software” means if you think there’s some sort of timeline attached to it or suggestion of some magical “native” software in the future.
This question continually comes up and it baffles me. What, exactly, to people think “beta” software means?
It will be “beta” software until it’s not. Really; it’s that simple.
Bugs will be patched, performance evaluated, customer experience reviewed … If the software reaches a point where it can be promoted to production-level software then it will be. If the beta testing determines that the Mac OS X project isn’t worth any more time and money then the software will die or left as-is.
People seem to think that “beta” is some sort of commitment. It’s an experiment. It might succeed. It might fail.
Considering the constant trouble that some people have to even get the software running (or stay running), if I were Arena Net, I would abandon the project. Just tell Mac users to use Bootcamp and get a better play experience than they are ever going to get from OS X – “beta” software or not. I would not like that decision, since the beta runs fine for me and I’m satisfied with it. But I were the product manager at Arena Net, that’s what I would do.
Just checking, are you sure you mean a PowerMac? They were discontinued in 2005 and run on PPC processors (as opposed to intel), so even if you replace the GPU and CPU I’m not sure the game will run incredibly well :S.
There’s no such thing as an “8 core Power Mac” so they must mean a Mac Pro.
I play in OS X on a 2009 2.66 GHz quad-core Mac Pro with Radeon 6870 GPU. Runs fine for me with fluff graphics, which I don’t care about, set low. Performance would be better in Bootcamp / Windows but I haven’t tried it.
An “8 core” Mac Pro could be older or newer than 2009.
Anything older than a 2009 model won’t run OS X 10.8 which is required for the Mac version of Guild Wars 2. However, an older Mac Pro could potentially run Windows well. I would be inclined to run Windows exclusively on an older Mac Pro if gaming was my interest.
What, exactly, does “beta” software mean to you?
Do you know how long Google’s Gmail was “in beta”? Two years is not “a record of some sort”
It’s common for software to NEVER advance past the beta development stage.
Boot to windows using Bootcamp. Play from there.
I have not yet experienced any problems. My most recent play with friends on Teamspeak was April 29. One friend runs his own Teamspeak server, so all of us are local, in the same city. That may or may not be a factor.
Server is version 3.0.10.2 on Windows.
I am using client version 3.0.14 on OS X 10.9.2
Basically I wrote a simple ticket asking if they can reset the guild creation limit for me just this once- which shouldn’t be too hard to do.
The support staff of Arena Net have more important things to do than whip up a magic button to put you ahead of the millions of players who follow the rules and the 2-guilds-per-week limit.
Seriously; I’m stunned that someone would waste the time of support staff with a ridiculous request to let them break the rules and that they imagined that doing so would be “simple”.
Get over yourself. Wait a week to create a new guild like every other person in the game, don’t waste the resources of game support for “I’m special” requests and don’t whine about not getting your instant-gratification way.
“whining” really? are u kidding mac users? THIS BETA SUCK. freeze,tp not working,launcher not starting,black screen,insane skill-chat lag, u can put everything to Lowest and u will ALWAYS have the same problem,the problem is coming from the beta not from the computers
None of your complaints will be resolved with a magic unicorn “native Mac client.” In fact, such could very well be worse that the current client. The current client, of course, has issues. What does beta software mean to you, anyway?
Also, the shift keys, used for writing proper sentence case so readers can understand you, are on both the right and left corners of your keyboard. Try using the correct word; “you”, not the letter “u”. This will aid in getting people to respect what you write and not get the impression that you’re illiterate, lazy or stupid. I had to read your post three times to understand it.