Guild Wars 2

I’m at a loss here. I have played this game fine since launch, but yesterday, I took my computer to a friends house and it won’t even launch.

Now when I launch the game, it brings up the launcher screen and says “downloading 0kb (0kb/sec)” and sits there stuck. I have tried common fixes (restarting, drivers, resting connection) with no luck and because my problem happened to correspond with a patch, maybe something there.

Any advice is welcome, thanks.

Are world transfers free? If so, is there a limit on how often they can be done?

I whole heartily agree. I believe Anet did a great job, and although I did miss most of the lost shores events, if they do these things monthly, I’m sure there are many more I will be able to do.

I’m glad that there is at least one person on these forums that doesn’t use them as their handkerchief. As people expel bodily fluids, and cry into both things.

Does anyone know the current guesting situation? I’d love to play with some RL friends, but we both have our home-servers with guilds and friends and such.

So does anyone know and ETA for the guesting feature, or atleast if it is still being developed?

And also, as a temporary fix for now, are there any world transfer restrictions? Would I be able to play on my main server then just transfer if i want to play with friends on other servers?

Nels the Cornwhisperer.8025:

http://poll.pollcode.com/zryv2e_result

That’s the poll, it originally came from a forum topic that is now merged in the General Discussion sub-forum.

And really, new content for free is something we’re used to from A-net. It’s not special that they’re giving us the game that they sold us. This isn’t a big expansion, it’s part of the unfinished product that you bought months ago.

Honestly, I cant believe that. People have a tendency to exaggerate things to convey their point, this effect is amplified on the internet where there is no accountability.
But disregarding that, even if we assume that all 550 of those people will quit the game if this goes through (very unlikely), it is unfair to extrapolate those results beyond the numbers sampled. That type of poll would obviously only be viewed by a very specific group of people. That is, those who are already very angry about this update and we’re pissed enough to create/search for polls about the update.

Nels the Cornwhisperer.8025:

Cloud.7613:

I highly doubt you NEED back piece to do it initially, so if you did the first path without it, you still need the ring for completing it(Even this is shady because we don’t have the entire picture) I don’t know about you, but I have a friend and 3 others already committing to doing it back piece or not. When the patch hits and you have the full information on how it’ll work and if they are actually NEEDED, please do tell me because at the moment, we’re just guessing.

“Agony makes progress increasingly difficult, until they reach the point where some defense against this condition is a must.”

What is shady about that? It says, in unmistakable wording, that you will reach a point where defense against agony is a must.

“The only way to mitigate Agony damage is by building up resistance through Infusions”

So, you need defense against Agony, which is only available through Infusions.

“Infusions are a special new type of Upgrade Component that can only be slotted into special Infusion slots on gear… Infusions slots can only be found in gear of a new rarity type: Ascended.”

So, to get infusions, you need Ascended armor.

Now, from those quotes, from Linsey, the way this works is:
You will, at some point, be required to have some Ascended gear in order to participate in the Fractals of the Mists dungeon.

As for more people playing, I think you’ve got it all wrong. You throw in gear progression to a game that’s already been called World of Charrcraft since shortly after Utopia was scrapped, and you don’t get more players. Out of an actual poll of a little over a thousand GW2 players, 52% have said they will leave the game if ascended items are continued.

Think we’d actually make up 52% of the playerbase, when quite honestly, there’s no reason anyone should ever buy this game except for the hope that A-net might do something right?

Firstly, in my post, I was mostly touching on the gear itself. The dungeon and corresponding infusion stuff will be isolated, meaning it will not affect a player’s ability to take part in future content, however, I do see your point about how that is a bit treadmill-y. I honestly believe this is a knee jerk/quick fix to people complaining about a lack of endgame.

By the way, I’d love to see this mystical and elusive poll of 1000 players in which 520 of them said they would quit the game because of a new reward from a new type of dungeon on a new island within a new zone discovered through a new massive chain of meta events all released through a completely free content patch for a subscription-less game.
(That’s me calling bullcrap mate, links or GTFO)

Snoring Sleepwalker.9073:

These quotes are the reason Ascended is a big deal:

“Here’s what we believe: If someone wants to play for a thousand hours to get an item that is so rare that other players can’t realistically acquire it, that rare item should be differentiated by its visual appearance and rarity alone, not by being more powerful than everything else in the game. Otherwise, your MMO becomes all about grinding to get the best gear. We don’t make grindy games — we leave the grind to other MMOs.”

-Mike Obrien, President of Arenanet

Fun impacts loot collection. The rarest items in the game are not more powerful than other items, so you don’t need them to be the best. The rarest items have unique looks to help your character feel that sense of accomplishment, but it’s not required to play the game. We don’t need to make mandatory gear treadmills, we make all of it optional, so those who find it fun to chase this prestigious gear can do so, but those who don’t are just as powerful and get to have fun too.”

– Colin Johanson

Finally, since combat is such a core part of the gameplay of any MMO, we’ve put a lot of emphasis into rethinking combat. So much of traditional MMO combat is rote and repetitive. You execute the same strategy over and over again, just augmented over time with better and better gear. After a while it starts to feel like you’re playing a spreadsheet. Combat needs to be about making creative choices, and it needs to feel immediate, active, and visceral.

-Mike O’Brien

Ascended gear looks like ANET is breaking these promises. So we will complain because those promises were a major reason why we bought GW2.

Please tell me how this is different from an exotic set? I have a full set of rares and if i want full exotics, I will have to grind for gear that does not give solely cosmetic benefits.

According to what I’m seeing people say on the forums against ascended gear, people should be of the opinion that exotics are horrible and that Arenanet broke these promises on launch day because it requires a grind to acquire exotic gear. But we all know that is not the case. People seem to be alright with exotics. The reason being is that people do not seem to have a full understanding of the difference between gear and gear treadmill, and this update was worded in such a way that, if taken at face value, can appear to be treadmill-y.

In a traditional MMO, the gear treadmill is meant to be an endless cycle of grinding gear, only to use it to grind the next set, and the next set, and the next set etc etc. The reason this is a problem (aside from the monotony), is that it restricts the content available at any given time. For example, in a treadmill based game, some content will be trivialized by the high-powered gear the player will have, and other content will be unavailable because they have not grinded (should this be ground?…) enough dungeons to have gear powerful enough to progress.

In Anet’s case, we do not have this treadmill, because ascended (again, I am making the assumption that no future tiers will be added) will be the final tier. And once people have their max gear, they are not forced into grinding more gear to continue to experience new content as they would in a treadmill MMO.

Komuflage.2307:

But why add a new tier that has increased stats of the all ready lvl 80 exotics, thus forcing everyone to grind for these better gear. There is already a Lvl 80 exclusive called Legendary, why not just make legendary armor? Then there would be a Fully exclusive lvl 80 tier, but still people wouldn’t be forced to grind.

You have a very strange mindset. You believe that by offering armor with slight stat increases they are "forcing " players to get it and grind? With that mindset, does the game force everyone into getting a full exotic set?
Stat boosts this minor will in no way be able to trivialize content, or be necessary to complete more difficult content. This means that the game is not forcing you to get this armor in any way, so i do not know what is “forcing” anyone to get this gear.
(This is again assuming they do not add further tiers, for if they did, these small stat buffs would be compounded until it was enough to trivialize content)

@ pregnable, Yes, I didn’t mention that, but it is true it will cause some anxiety amongst players who already worked for an exotic set, but if they didn’t do updates because it would cause some players to get annoyed, they wouldn’t get anything done. Ever. Also the rest of your points seem to be speculation (granted thats all we can do), and its unfair to not like an update because you don’t know how they will work it in with crafting.

Ant to others saying that they might indeed add additional tiers: Arenanet are fairly smart people. This is exactly the same thing they said they would not be doing in their manifesto, so instead of freaking out like every other player, I realized they probably had a reason for doing this. I realized that there was no level 80 exclusive tier and it seemed to fit. They very well could have simply not had time to add these in the initial release.
Currently, we have no evidence indicating that additional tiers will be added, and the points I stated above are worth at least something. So imo, there is some evidence they will not add future tiers, and no evidence they will.

Alright, I really wanted to get this off my chest. So here ya go, my 2 cents.

In terms of people freaking out that Anet is going back on their manifesto by bringing back a gear treadmill.
No.

A gear treadmill would imply that Anet will be pumping out updates like this periodically, adding more and more powerful gear each time, thereby forcing you to grind old dungeons to get gear that would make it possible to complete new content.

This is all based on the assumption they will continue to add future tiers of gear, which I do not think they will. Infact, the reason I do not think future tiers will be added is the same reason I think ascended is being added.
There is currently no level 80 only tier!
The highest current tier in the game is exotic which is for level 60’s to 80’s. But as I said before,
There is currently no level 80 only tier!
This leads me to believe ascended is going to be added for level 80 only and fill the last gap for high level gear, after which there will be no additional reason to add additional tiers.

How would adding this final piece of the tier puzzle ruin the game in any way or even create more of a gear treadmill/ grind then there was before? Exotics in the current meta are expensive! and rare! So anyone who has a set likely grinded (ground… idk) mobs or dungeons for a fair amount of time. How does this make the exotic sets that everyone seems to be alright with any better or worse than the new ascended sets?

Let me offer an alternative reality that we may explore.

The game is launched with 6 tiers of gear. Namely normal, fine, masterwork, rare, exotic and ascended. Ascended, the highest gear tier is level 80 exclusive. The game is released and all is well with the world. Players reach level 80 and grind dungeons and orr for their ascended sets.
Arenanet never adds future gear tiers, as they already have an appropriate set for each level. All is well in the world and there was much rejoicing.

The point of mentioning this alternate circumstance is to shed light on the fact that if they choose to release the game with ascended, no one would care, as It would be the same thing as if they launched with exotics (as they actually did) as the highest tier.

Granted I am making the fair (in my mind) assumption that they will add no future tiers beyond a lvl 80 exclusive tier. Also, if they choose to raise the max level, my points are obviously moot, but that will probably not happen for a while (if ever).

Alright, thanks for reading that (you did read the whole thing, didn’t you?). I would love to hear everyone’s opinion on this topic, as there may be things I have overlooked completely that would cause me to not be freaking out and quitting the game like a surprising amount of other fans. I only ask that If you feel compelled to respond, please read my post so you don’t sound like an idiot.

Thanks,

Jollyjolly0

The level to which you blow this issue out of proportions for attention was quite humorous. Thanks for a good laugh OP.

Weird, I just launched the game again with that setting active and its working now. Don’t know what I did before but its working now. Thanks.

Firstly, let me state the only reason you had the “oh neat, lets try it” attitude in the beta was because things were new. Of course after your fifth character things aren’t going to be as exciting anymore.

And also, It sounds like now you know exactly what you want and its all t3, so opening everything up again would not magically make you want to experiment, it would just cost you less skill points to get what you want. This kinda sounds like you just want to save a few skill points by not spending them except on the very specific ones you somehow already know you want (or are you just assuming t1 and 2 skills are crap?).

I think you need to try to force yourself to give new abilities a try instead of finding a few you like and not changing.

Sorry, just tried that and no dice. Not for straight up windowed mode either. Could there be some general setting locking the mouse to GW2?

Wow, I can tell you put a lot of thought inot this =D The only thing is that because you sample a few of the other class specifics, it might hurt the distinctions ANet has for the current classes.

But overall, really cool and well thought out!

So I just got a second monitor, and I was hoping that I would be able to use it to research things while I am playing GW. However, I find my cursor locked to to the monitor with guildwars running.

Is there anyway to “unlock” the cursor from the monitor GW is running in?

As to your first point, I will concede that in the game’s current state, my hopes and dreams may not be plausible. But hopefully with time, optimization and (RL) dev experience, this may come about. One thing to note though is that the times you mentioned could be compensated for by increasing the loading time when logging in or waypointing.

As for your second point, being able to push an NPC that far is quite simply a bug. I am fairly confident manipulating mob spawn points and locations is not something Anet wants their players to do, so if this was released and that became an actual problem, it would get patched relatively quickly.

Because something like this would require so much work, there would have to be an overwhelming amount of player interest. I guess that’s mostly what I was gauging in posting this. Unfortunately, not many seem to share my enthusiasm. I suppose only time will tell if some of the technical barriers involved can be removed.

(Nice description of blizz artists btw, gave me a good chuckle)

I honestly do not think it require an entire restructuring. It would be a bit of work, sure, but not like making an entire new game…

And Nels, how are you getting 1.5 second loading screens? I’m running a homemade build that I’m pretty proud of and my loads are rarely shorter than 7 seconds.

The remainder of your problems seem to be either performance related or very specific problems that are kinda silly.

In terms of the performance, sure, it would require some optimization, so maybe this is a project for further down the line. But let me remind you that nearly all modern MMO’s have this functionality, so yes, it is possible without having an unplayable lag fest.

Have you noticed that mobs give up and stop following you after a while? (so no you would not be able to bring them into low lvl areas…)
And there would not be an invisible wall. The system just needs to allot itself enough time to load it in the background.

This is an interesting idea. I don’t know if you can make low level zones difficult enough to be “end-game”, but certainly cranking up the difficulty a bit would be nice.
And in terms of scaling, Anet made the game, they can scale whatever they want lol. But seriously, gear gives you stats, stats are numbers, and numbers can be lowered. The hardest thing for them to scale are actual player skill, and the fact that a level 80 player has more elites, utilities and weapons in their arsenal than say a level 15.

In terms of your point Enemy,
They just need to make sure you have no reason to sit on the edge of maps, for example leaving some “dead space” where no mobs or gathering nodes spawn near where the portals currently are. That would ensure you weren’t going back and forth accidentally while fighting or gathering or what-not.
Also, they could just display a big banner saying what zone you switched to, and even overlay the exploration info about what vistas, skill points, etc, you have like they display on the loading screen.
And in terms of your point mojo,
I know it would be difficult. I didn’t say it would be easy to slap together. I was just saying that in my opinion it would add enough to the game for it to be worth the devs time.

That is an interesting idea Ronah, but that would require devs to make all those inbetween zones. What I’m suggesting is purely a technical issue. Just the ability for the game to load adjacent zones before you enter them so you can waltz right in.
I hate to bring up WoW, but I think that was one of the biggest things they got right, a completely seamless world, cities included.

I’m gonna try to keep this post short, so here goes. I think that making the world seamless would make the game much better.

Many times I have been out exploring, completely immersed in the incredible gameworld, then I come to the dreaded blue portal. running into these things in a world that is otherwise so immersive really hurt my experience.

I am not suggesting changing map layouts in any way. I am only hoping that the blue portal transition areas can be removed. Yes, I understand this is a technical challenge, but I think it would be well worth it in terms of making players experience’s much more engaging.

Thanks for your time.

Something that has always bugged me about this skill is that the leg in the top left corner of the skill icon always makes it seem it’s is on cooldown when I glance at it.