Guild Wars 2

DevilLordLaser.8619:

Conski:

I suppose, but I’m simply programmed to always think in terms of what we lose in order to get what we’re gaining. What will we end up sacrificing, what will we not get, if ArenaNet gives us an extensive player housing system as has been proposed?

I’d like to think that an individual housing system gives them practice, experience and a body of working, proven code to use to make Guild Halls that much better (and stable) right out of the gate. Or the other way around – a Guild Hall system builds expertise towards releasing a Personal Housing system. Once the work has ben invested, I don’t see them not trying to leverage it to build further offerings. But given a choice between the two, I’d rather everyone have the opportunity to use it before guildmasters get a much more exclusive tool.

@ Devil,
I’d make the counterpoint that this is the Horizontal progression thread which is about you and your characters progression mainly, while the guild is part of that I think individual takes precedence here.

@Donari, I’m not framiliar with the game but looking at the screenshots it has quite the level of customization. In my head I picture a hybrid between the Runescape system for placing rooms and the Sims system for placing items.

Your idea sounds fun if we get the size to do it, but we would have to wait for Chris to give us a rough estimate of what size would be viable without overtaxing the server.

Sirendor.1394:

Mhmmm I personally tired of necro rather fast. It doesn’t look extremely cool, doesn’t have a lot of viable weapons (only staff really) and most utilities are a bit lame. Elementalist has a huge range of skills for weapons, due to having 4 attunements, which makes playing them a lot more fun, because it has so many shiny effects and so much variation. I prefer dagger/dagger, but I guess staff has it’s pros too.

O.O

My berserker PVE Necro wants to have a word with you! Lol the utilities are awesome, just use wells (healing as well) and have the trait where they siphon HP from the enemy and you smack them down fast. Axe works well for groups too surprisingly.

Ele is just spam skill 2 while avoiding getting hit, too much effort! :P

This is fun to see: The mad genius Asuran (creator of super fun box) created a shrink item that shrinks you into a toy box where you can duel eachother :P The toybox is placed into the world and can be seen by people just talking to it (spectator mode kinda – it zooms into the toybox and you see 2 people fighting) The one that placed the item is the “admin” of the toybox as long as it lasts – he can close it any minute or when the duel ends the toybox dissapears.

Elementalist is a ton of fun but your traits have got to be a dedicated work of art, a tiny little diamond from a lump of coal.

Necromancer’s a ton of fun and their traits are pretty much already one big diamond you can’t go wrong with.

The one you express through gear. Oh yeah, and the 300 points of power/healing power you get from traits might also have an impact.

BlizzShark.5410:

My opinion on Sub-class system is:

• The system works very well. Why? Can make professions a little more exclusive. Ex: Thief vs thief and both have different sub classes we can see 2 different play styles.

It makes me wonder where the game has gone wrong that people don’t realize WE ALREADY HAVE THIS. My Super Unicorn in all Settlers gear is an effective WvW Thief spec that doesn’t even go into stealth. A mantra healing Mesmer is completely unlike a Shatter-duelist spec.

• Sub-Classes could also be the way to add new weapons.

Or we could, just, you know… add them to the game and allow players to mix and match as their tastes and imagination prefer.

• Trait Templates – You could save a build to quick change if you are on wvw or pve and change if you are Out Of Combat.

So now I can set up my ‘groups of trash mobs smashing build’ and my ‘boss-killing build’, and sweep through dungeons even faster than before toggling the two because now I don’t have to make any strategic decisions at all… It doesn’t get much more vertical than that.

Horizontal progression design is hard, because you have to add cool to the game without appealing to the lust for naked POWER. Its hard, but its also worth it.

Shakkara.2641:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Hi Shakkara,

I just want to point out that this is not a particularly collaborative or useful post. Please however don’t take this personally.

The whole point of CDI is to discuss, brainstorm and then ‘reduce’ ideas as a group until they reach their pure essence.

Making assumptions about what ‘everyone’ wants just does not work in this kind of collaborative environment and not lead to progression within ideation.

Finally the purpose of the CDI is not for the developer to be told what ‘Everyone’ wants. It is to work together to evolve our design philosophies and experience in game leading toward synergy in problem solving and ideation.

I hope this makes sense.

Chris

P.S: Go Hawks!

Perhaps you should address the points I made with my post instead of the way I wrote it.

You’re still not really reading that feedback, are you. This is not a forum for telling other people how wrong they are for disagreeing with your vision of the game, and it’s not a forum for addressing the developers specifically. You had the germ of a good argument in the previous post – that having a set of shared skills that every profession has access to is better than having lots of different subclasses – and instead of railing against other people’s ideas, you should have developed your own and shown how it solves problems that other approaches have.

Ronah.2869:

The amount of diversification that can be done with sylvaries is a lot more compared to humans or norns.

This. Pretty much all human characters look kinda the same imo. Especially female casters, which all seem to have the same armor as well (human T3). Love the sylvari design and the possibilites. Norns have their tattoos, Asuras have a variety of different skin colours (+patterns) and ears, Charrs have all their fur adjustements and horns. Sylvaris have everything! Biggest variety of skin colours and patterns, different earstyles, glow colours. I would even argue and say that their hairstyles offer the biggest variety as well (shroomheads!). On top of that, cultural armors are glowing as well. Fabulous.

What do humans get? Beards. Male only. They should have given them one or two more options. Like optional scars, or something like that.
Seriously, from all races out there, human is probably the most boring one to take. At least in my opinion. I’m glad that Sylvari aren’t just a copy of them with some pointy ears attached to their heads.

Onirae.7123:

Good morning everyone!

- Too much content, impossible to know what to do and when. Came back a few months back, only to be overwhelmed with new portals, NPCs, etc… So many I got overloaded and left again.

- Open world events exploitable. Spam AoE and you get insane amount of XP. Heal and support others, and you get none.

Thanks, and have a lovely Sunday!

Hey just wanted to add my two cents on these points, and welcome back by the way!

You’re right there’s an absolute ton of stuff to do while you’re levelling, and it can get massively overwhelming, in fact the non-linear progression is one of the reasons I originally quit shortly after launch (been back a few weeks myself).

Best help I can provide for that is to advise you to just change your mindset. Don’t come into the game thinking ’I’m going to run quests A, B and C today’, come into it thinking ’I’m going to explore one new area today.’

The world is totally open (level dependant of course). Yep there’s a bucket load of stuff, but there’s absolutely no pressure to do it all, or in any particular order. Because levels scale, you can leave stuff for months, go back to do it later and still get the full benefits of the XP (and the loot drops which will scale up to your current level).

Currently my Asura is levelling in the Asura zone and also in the human zone, simply because I prefer those two. If I get bored of one and want a change of scenery, I’ll port over to the other and uncover some more map, doing the events I find along the way.

It’s a very casual, easygoing approach, but you’ll be surprised how quickly you level and how much you enjoy it!

As for open world events, they can still be a bit of a zerg-fest, but they’re quite enjoyable, the XP and loot can be good too and again, don’t seek them out, just do whatever you happen to run into on any given day – no pressure to go to any particular place or do any particular thing.

Devata.6589:

Vayne.8563:

Devata.6589:

Imho, such rewards for buying gems is always bad behavior ‘love you more’. But I said enough about the cash-shop focus in many threads so I will leave it with that.

Anyway OP. Last times every time they gave these gift of shames (as I have come to name them) they would eventually end up in the gem-store. So you might still be able to get it.

Right because a mini and a quaggan backpack, neither of which affects anything in game, is problematical.

Anet is thanking customers who support their game for supporting their game. It would be different if they gave everyone in game gold, or extra power. A quaggan backpack and a mini should be perfectly acceptable.

Heey Vayne,

I think we have had this discussion before already (when they also gave out gifts before). You might not remind it so just a small summary.

First of all people who buy gems get what they paid for, so giving something extra is really the ‘love your more’ idea. I paid my game, even a collectors edition, got all those nice things I did pay for but not a few months later a gift to thank me.

Thats because they are now focusing on gem-sales and as you might remember from talk we had before I do think the gem-store focus they are having (in stead of a expansion-focus) is bad for the game. So they are loving people more that imho are helping to get the game in a worse shape. Might you not remember again why I thouth that focus was bad read it here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/A-focus-on-micro-transactions/first#post3324571 it has nothing to do with the items giving you a benefit or not.

Of course you can say.. Well they do get money from those people so make sense they do love them more. Yeah thats nice but I am still waiting for my change to give them money… With an expansion. So it’s not like I am not willing to give them money. I did sign up for a B2P game and now they are generating money with micro-transactions. Something you mainly expect from F2P games.

So those actively supporting the game now, who get a nice thank you for doing so, aren’t deserving of it. It’s fluff stuff that’s all. It doesn’t change your game at all.

You’re waiting to support the game, I’m actively supporting it. So I get a thank you for actively supporting it. You don’t get a thank you for actively supporting it, because you’re not actively supporting it.

It’s called a loyalty reward and it’s fine. Other games have loyalty rewards too. Subscription based games have them for buying many months at a time sometimes. They’re not gem store based, but they still offer incentives for buying more time.

I bought more time for Rift and ended up not playing and I did it before incentives to buy game out. I didn’t get a cool mount for buying that time.

This isn’t a problem with buy to play or gem store or subscription. It’s normal for businesses to offer tokens to people who support them, because it’s good business.

No matter your business model.

JonPeters.5630:

We are trying to take steps to address some of the dominance of Berserker/DPS players. More info next week, I think.

Jon

Got to wonder how people go from “addressing” issues to OHNOES!! They N3rfing mah zerkers!!!

relax people…sheesh.

Morrigan.2809:

I have never thought of them as tree elves- but rather sentient plants modeled loosely on human form because of the Pale Tree’s interaction with humans.
Also I like to think that when she birthed the Sylvari she wanted humans to feel a kinship with them.

This made me wonder what the game would be like if they were modeled after Ventari, rather than humans. Plant-centaurs would’ve been more fun, IMO.

Over a quarter of my characters are sylvari. That’s 14 or 15 out of my total. No two look the same. The customize options are the best in the game for them (in my opinion). Plus I really like their NPC chat throughout the game.

Having said all that they’re only my second favourite in the game. Norn come first.

The sylvari as explained by the lore are human like not because the devs wanted it that way but because the pale tree watched them while she was growing and as she grew taller she wanted to communicate with them so she made sylvari. The design for the sylvari was so that they could talk to the humans without them freaking out and be able to see each other on common ground. Sylvari don’t have the same romantic relationships humans have, they actually tend to just love someone there is never really any dating as far as I have seen.

Sevans.4619:

I really can’t wrap my head around the idea that people are opposed to consensual dueling in the open world. Just click “No.”

Or heck, make it a toggle on the Hero page. “Allow Dueling? Y/N.” That way these folks wouldn’t even be bothered with having to decline duels.

“you scared bro? duel me bro? you scared? I’d kick your kitten , bro!” so you ignore him.

Then his guild starts up with “you scared, bro? duel him bro! don’t hide behind ignore, bro!” And we’d soon discover the upper threshold of the block function.

Put me down in the 100% in favor of having dueling in this game. And no … NO … not in some hidden corner of the WvW map, nor having to create a special instance or whatever – it should be a simple, easy and free thing to do.

So, I do agree with you that this game could very much use a dueling system. And the Arena in the Charr zone seems built to order for this, people can challenge each other inside of that arena, and there and there alone, fight their 1v1s (and perhaps a small arena in each starter city as well). This would please the folks that want their duels, while also keeping the dueling out of peoples faces in the open world.

Thing is, as much as I love dueling, I have to admit that in other games, when others dueled near me it was often quite irritating to me – lol.

IMO, a small dueling-arena in each starter city I believe would be the perfect compromise.

They’re just going to add an ascended crafting material to the game (akin to Deldrimor Steel, Elonian Leather, Damask, etc). That item? Bacon, of course! Bacon will be added to current level 80 dishes to make ascended versions (Bacon Wrapped Truffle Steak, Bowl of Fancy Potato and Bacon Soup, etc).

(2) – Weather Related Events for Harder Mega Bosses
- For This example, I will be using Jormag.
- The Fight with Jormag is exactly the same as it always is. No changes actually need to be made
- A New event Chain can be added though Where the Sons of Svanir are Building Icy Spires for their Lord Jormag so it can create a Corrupted Storm that will cover all of Frostgorge Sound.

• This event starts immediately after the Claw of Jormag is defeated, and it ends when it appears again.
• In This event, there are 4 locations across the map, where the Sons of Svanir are Constructing the Towers. Whenever a New Tower is Built, a new event pops up, telling everyone that they need to destroy the tower. They go there, fighting off lots of Dragon minions, and also attempting to destroy the tower using Pact Weaponry, Kodan magic, etc.
• Completing each event awards 5-9 Dragonite Ore once a day, so there is incentive to do the event, but they are group events, and will require a 5 man team atleast to clear.
• Destroying a Tower clears the area of Dragon minions until the next time the Claw of Jormag is defeated.

• When the First Tower is Built, it applies a Map Wide effect called the:::
• Storm of Corruption – "Jormag’s Minions are hard at work bringing their icy grip over Frostgorge Sound. Dragon Minions take 10% less Damage, and Deal 10% more Damage to you.

• As more Towers are Built, the Storm gets worse, and the effect increases by 10% each time, until all 4 Towers are built and the Effect becomes:::
• Blizzard of Corruption – "Jormag holds an icy grip over Frostgorge Sound. Dragon Minions take 33% less damage, and Deal 33% more damage to you. All Conditions inflicted on you last 33% longer. Jormag’s Champions in the Drakkar Spurs are Unshakeable and immune to crowd control until atleast 1 tower is destroyed. "

• Fighting the Claw of Jormag will become significantly harder if you fail to destroy all the towers before he appears. But, if you allow him to appear. You can get bonus chests for defeating him equal to the number of towers still standing. They wont award extra Dragonite Ore, but they do have a Rare chance at unique skins and ascended equipment (like Tequatl)

• This will also slow down the Champion Farming Train there, atleast while the Tower events are active, but if the zerg continues to ignore the towers, even basic champions will be much harder to defeat solo, or even in a large group.

What do you guys think of those ideas?

I’m going to expand on the Weather ideas I had from earlier, because I think that Anet could use stuff like this to make MegaBoss events harder instead of completely making them nearly impossible to do like Tequatl.

For this to Work,
- We should Have Random Weather Effects. Those Weather Effects affect both you and Enemies.
- We should also tie Weather Effects into the Event System
- Whenever there is a Weather Effect, it will show an icon on your Buff/Debuff bar telling you exactly what it does, and whether the effect is beneficial or not.
(template I am going to use for all Effects are….

• (name of effect) – (Description when you mouse over Icon)

(1) – Random Weather/Enviroment Effects
- These Are randomly generated Effects that have a very small effect on both you and enemies. They are Meant for Immersion, not to Break the game. So if they seem unbalanced, please say something. I want to post this in a CDI thread eventually!
- Examples Include ::::

• RainStorm – “A soothing rain falls overhead. All Healing is increased by 5%”
• ThunderStorm – “Feel the energy in the air! Swiftness duration increases by 5%”
• Ice Storm – “Its starting to get Chilly! Chill duration is increased by 5%”
• Sunny – “The warm Sun hitting your face feels nice.” (no effect)
• Swampgas – “The Stench is Dizzying! Confusion lasts 5% longer”
• Dust Storm – “Take care of your Eyes in this weather! Blind lasts 100% longer”

- In Harder Areas of the Game, Anet could Introduce even more Powerful Weather Effects that make it harder for the player to play through that area. They could press on, and gain a cool bonus, or they could do some underwater/underground content until the storm passes over, or there could even be effects in those areas as well!
- Examples Include :::

• Chaos Storm – "The Effect of the Dragon Brand can have some dire consequences. All Boons and All Conditions are Random when activated, but Magic Find, Gold Find, and Experience is Increased by 20%. Be Careful out there! (that last part is the same for all these effects)

• Blizzard – “Its Cold and its nearly Impossible to see! Chill lasts 10% longer and all Conditions inflicted also inflict Blind for 1 second.”

• Poison Cloud – "The undead lands of Orr are treacherous to travel through when this storm hits! Healing is 10% less effective when Inflicted with Poison, and all Conditions inflicted aldo inflict Poison for 1 second.

• Explosive Gas – "The Dredge may have found a gas pocket…. Burning Now Explodes when its inflicted, dealing damage to all creatures within 1000 range, including yourself.

• Strong Currents – "The Currents in the Water are too Strong to swim through effectively. All movement speed is decreased by 10% and you have a 5% chance of gaining Weakness whenever you take damage.

Relating this to something said in the CDI thread . . . what if weather could act as sort of a difficulty modifier randomly happening in some zones?

High Winds – Reducing range of projectiles, makes burning areas larger by fanning the flames.
Frostbite – Chill duration increased 10%, chilled targets take 10% extra damage. Standing in a fire combo field will nullify this effect.
Dust Storm – Every 15 seconds anyone not standing still is blinded. Dodge roll will remove the effect.
Heat Wave – Stamina recovers 25% slower, players cannot recover health. Standing in a water combo field will nullify this effect while there.
Lightning Storm – Every 30 seconds a random target will get struck by lightning. Gathering nodes may be targeted to prevent lone players from being hammered over and over again.
Swamp Miasma – Stacks “Nausea”, one per 10 seconds in the area. Becoming Poisoned will add 1 extra stack of condition per stack of Nausea.
Intense Heat – Every 10 seconds you will be given a stack of “Heat Stroke”; if you reach 20, you are automatically defeated. A healing effect will remove all stacks of “Heat Stroke”.
Jormag’s Wrath – An unusually fierce ice storm begins adding stacks of “Icy Grave” (one for every 5 seconds without protection) which continuously deals damage of increasing magnitude for the stacks on the player. A fire combo field will remove 1 stack for each 5 seconds of exposure to it.
Crystal Dust – Add one stack of “Crystal Dust” for each 10 seconds while moving. When hit with an attack which causes Bleeding, deal bonus damage (a % of maximum health; 25 stacks is instant downing on hit) for each stack of “Crystal Dust”; remove all stacks. Dodge rolling will clear all stacks.

Darthaemos.6370:

I’d love weather and day/night cycles from “The Witcher” series. When it randomly rains, NPCs (all of them, including vendors, quest givers, and random wanderers) will run to find shelter, then return to their spots when the rain ends. This made the zones feel so much more alive and organic.

That’s exactly the kind of ambiance I’d love to find in this game.

A year ago, I was very surprised that not every open world zone had a day/night cycle or weather. Seems like they just didn’t have time to implement it everywhere. In a perfect world, I’d love weather and day/night cycles from “The Witcher” series. When it randomly rains, NPCs (all of them, including vendors, quest givers, and random wanderers) will run to find shelter, then return to their spots when the rain ends. This made the zones feel so much more alive and organic.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

~snip~
There was a game called EverQuest which had a day/night cycle. During which in certain areas you were . . . in professional terms “completely boned” if you didn’t have some form of night vision in forest areas. Many human newbie characters died to secure this as one of the fundamental pieces of every character’s “Survival Kit” of abilities. “Must get night vision” was on there, along with “some method of water breathing”. ~snip~

Would love this in GW2. I want to be at least a little nervous about venturing alone at night around Tyria, or have the uncertainty and anticipation that the inevitable gloom would bring.

And night vision abilities or goggles!? Yes and yes! I’m surprised it never crossed my mind but that would be amazing. Really in line with the slightly ‘steam-punk’ aesthetic of GW2 too. Maybe as a type of helm upgrade or as an ‘always on’ elite ability that you could swap to out of combat.

So many exciting ideas come out of this…

It’d be neat if expanding the Weather Effects in the game also had an effect on Conditions and other effects in open world PvE. These could be universal effects that affect you and enemies. For Example,

• There’s a Blizzard in Frostgorge Sound? Chill Effects last 5% Longer.
• There’s a Rainstorm in the Jungle? Healing Effects are 5% Stronger.
• Running Through a Poisonous Cloud in Orr? Healing is 5% less effective when inflicted with Poison.
• Running Through a Heat Wave in the Crystal Desert? Burning is 5% Stronger.
• There’s a Chaos Storm in the Blazeridge Steppes? Critical Hits have a 5% Chance to Inflict Confusion.
• Swim really Deep in the water in the Ocean? Movement is 5% slower because of the water pressure.
• Maybe these effects could have differing Intensities, and make those effects even stronger in harder areas of the game. The intensity of the storm would also show graphically on screen (more rain effect, blinding snow, etc.)

I’m not sure how that would affect balance, but it would help with the Immersion a little.