Guild Wars 2

Precompiled shaders will help. However I would also note that these drivers aren’t for older AMD cards.

AMD Radeon™ HD 8000 Series (HD 8400 and below), Radeon™ HD 7000 Series (HD 7600 and below), Radeon™ HD 6000 Series, and Radeon™ HD 5000 Series Graphics products have reached peak performance optimization as of November 24th, 2015.

Frame pacing is only for multi-GPU setups.

Frame rate targeting is a limiter for times a game’s frame rate goes through the roof on things like menu and loading screens. No reason to go to 150 FPS on a loading screen when your monitor is still 60Hz. It’s a power saving/noise reduction feature.

And FreeSync requires a monitor that is compatible. It’s AMD’s method of dynamic VSync, eliminating tearing while achieving a higher frame rate.

So I’m not sure how much this helps here.

You really have four cores, the other four are smoke and mirrors that act more like a slight overclock of the four actual cores you have.

And yes, the game doesn’t generate enough work for more than 2 to 3 cores most of the time. Not sure how Windows average HT cores so I’m not sure if you are seeing 50-75% or half that.

That’s the nature of the game engine. The main thread can only run as fast as a single core which is why instructions per second is the limiting factor. Overclocking helps.

However if you GPU is showing 100%, that may be an indication that it’s the issue. And if at some point the engine is waiting for the frame to finish on the GPU before issuing the commands for rending the next frame, that would impact how much CPU you are using. Not saying you need a 980Ti but a pegged GPU is an indication that it’s a bottle neck.

On the characters without the permanent versions, multiple salvage kits usually basic and master. A replacement set of gathering tools. All the weapons my character can wield and aren’t currently slotted. Food buffs depending on planned activities.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Reading back over some of the comments posted, some people fail to understand the relationship between us and ANet and expressed the belief that remarks not sufficiently friendly will drive ANet staff away.

We are not friends. We are not friends posting to each other. They are a business and we are their customers.

If a business can’t handle complaints and even rude or abrasive remarks when speaking to its customers then they are going to continually have problems as they will be unable to address their customers concerns. it’s their JOB to handle customers and the idea that a few angry, salty, abrasive or rude comments is enough to send them shrinking back is laughable, or if true, shows that employee needs more training or needs to find a different job.

If ANet is not posting on their official forum but on an unofficial one to avoid salty remarks because they are such fragile blossoms that salt burns too much, then I’m sad for their salt burns but maybe they need to grow a tougher skin. If they want to reduce the salt, then they communicate with us with a steady stream of the same type posts that they put on the unofficial forum. If they can’t handle remarks then maybe they need to hire someone who posts by proxy for them and forwards only a sanitized version of the thread to them so they can respond only to that.

But as a developer, a person who codes the game, it may not be in their wheelhouse set of skills to deal with the customers directly. That’s what the community team is for, they are the buffer, a semi-permeable membrane that lets constructive information through to the dev and control information coming from the devs.

Now before people scream about the second part let me explain. Software developers are a clever lot and they love to tell people about the clever bits of work they do. They also tend to under estimate the time it takes to fix/implement something and over promise what will be done because most don’t see the whole schedule. They may be able to get their little corner of a feature done but the art asset, UI code, flavor text, etc doesn’t get schedule for the next patch. Bugs can be fixed but doesn’t get in under the deadline for their QA before pushed to live. Etc.

So really it’s fairly normal for devs not to talk to customers. Project and Group leads who have a bigger picture usually do this but even that is problematic because people at that level are herding cats which requires nearly their full attention. Plus they are the ones who have to handle when the schedule go all cattywumpus when priorities change.

All of that is fine and dandy but it doesn’t address the elephant in the room which is information should always appear in these forums or the GW2 website either first or very soon after it’s published elsewhere, whether that’s twitch, twitter, reddit, facebook, etc. Timely game information to your customers shouldn’t be an like a collection achievement.

See I normally don’t read reddit for anything. These are the official forums and any information conveyed to us or asking from us should be made HERE first or nearly simultaneously at other forums. I am normally a fairly patient individual but the back channeling of devs all the way up to Colin posting on reddit rather than here is starting to annoy me.

Are these the official forums or not? Or are these the penned off area to contain the “wretched hive of scum and villainy” that the forums are mutating into with 9 out of 10 threads being … negative in tone?

Edit: I’ve been dropping the n’t a lot lately

NTDK.4897:

this was quoted in another thread

Auralae.7482:

" I took the forum posting class our Community Team gives in order to be cleared to post on our official forums twice. I’ve listened carefully to the Community manager and our studio producer who pointed out specific things I’d said wrong. I’ve been pulled aside by my boss to be told that other departments were unhappy with things I’ve said. Every time this happens I sincerely apologize and try to make sure I re-adjust my attitude towards my communication style. "

" I’m told I can still post, but much much less, and I need to get my posts approved first. So it’s not really a total shut-up. But I know I’d have to come off as a different person if I go through this procedure, which pretty effectively kills the urge."

http://www.joshuaforeman.blogspot.ca/2013_09_01_archive.html#4916848020404903535

the reason seems to be there’re more processes involved in posting on forums compared to reddit

Slightly out of context, the sentences before …

Now, I’ve been reprimanded a couple times over the last couple of years for my forum posting. I’m not diplomatic enough, mention things I shouldn’t, make specific comments that could be interpreted as promises by the community, set precedent for forum interaction that my co-workers shouldn’t feel the need to have to meet, etc.

Nike.2631:

Behellagh.1468:

You can also vote down the “noise” in reddit. Here a thread can get overwhelmed by ragers rather than constructive, polite disagreement.

Right… Because they have so much less control over the moderation here than on reddit.

The mods really don’t over mod negative posts here. You really have to go full hostile to get slapped down. Reddit is selfmodding with the thresholds while here we can only report and hope a mod notices.

Remember, it’s always the darkest just before it goes completely black. /jk

You can also vote down the “noise” in reddit. Here a thread can get overwhelmed by ragers rather than constructive, polite disagreement.

It’s an non-official AMA, sort of.

Okay, back in March? I think we were told new armors weren’t going to be released in store but earnable in game, only outfits will be added to the gem shop. Now that would require new content to be added to the game that had armor as a reward. Now we got some new armor with HoT but other than raids, which will eventually allow you to craft legendary armor, we haven’t gotten any new content.

The Gem Shop on the other hand is fairly independent to content release and can have outfits dropped when ever.

I’m not a fan of the $25 bundles. So much for the micro in microtransaction. Also not happy about Sabetha, the final boss in this raid wing, being a Gem Shop mini rather than a raid reward like virtually every other boss or minor boss in the raid.

ANet needs to understand that Difficult Group Content should have rewards that reflect completing that content and can only be acquired doing that content. The pattern of boss and minor boss being minis is broken by letting anyone have Sabetha.

Sorry for the side rant.

If it helps ANet to sell more games, it doesn’t bother me other than the slight clutter on the main UI when a tournament is going on, telling us on the load screens is good enough IMO.

Sadly to fix the lag, we need to move Australia closer to either Texas or Germany; or Australia needs to revamp their Internet infrastructure in country and more importantly the undersea cables connecting the continent to the rest of the world. A costly proposition for a country with your population and location in the world.

Because “hard-core” isn’t good for business. Just look at what catering to “hard-core” did to WildStar. You sell a lot more copies to players who aren’t looking for “hard-core” but something fun to do.

Welcome to the age of the “filthy casual” gaming. It’s not just for elitists anymore.

Love the fact every weapon can be a stabby weapon. It’s a set for Spiky McSpikester or a metal head. There’s got to be a studded leather outfit or armor set that goes with it.

GW1 had an e-sport PvP world wide competition, that’s why they think it could draw players in GW2.

Also with no barrier to entry to PvP with the P4F account, they are hoping that if it draws enough interested free players, some of those may fork over the B2P cash for a full account.

Tried the 64-bit client when the patch went up, had connection issues so I patched with the 32-bit client. Tried it again an hour or so later with the 64-bit client, worked fine.

Remember the 64-bit client is still in beta and the 32-bit is the official one.

Got one a couple days ago during an boss event in core Tyria. Sadly it was heavy armor and I don’t have any heavy armor characters yet …

This “outrage” happens everytime some players see them mention Gems to Gold. First it was when Evon mentioned in his weekly blog. Then when they revamped the TP interface and there was a “HUGE BUTTON FOR BUYING GEMS” and on the exchange screen itself. And now, it was one of the rotating pics on the TP screen because there was not enough “new” things.

But informing players that the option is available isn’t forcing anybody to buy them.

Remember, the consortium sickle is exceptionally quick and once you’ve used one everything else seems to be in slow motion.

Today’s spike in the rate is brought to you by KEYS …. KEYS when you want tickets and instead get a big pile of miscellaneous Gem Store stuff. Remember KEYS, the odds might be in your favor?

Because an MSI laptop is so self identifying as to which model that is.

Thought they required more than tagging to qualify for the reward now. But I could be wrong.

I was asking NecroN because he was the one who said Anet altered core mechanics from the original game. Sadly I didn’t quote his post before it was deleted by “someone”.

The same uproar happened like 18 months ago when it was mentioned in Evon’s weekly blog post about the TP.

Still no answer to my question. What core mechanics did they change? Oh I see, somebody deleted their post.

Mahou.3924:

Sizer.3987:

I know right? How dare a company try to actually make money off their product!

I demand anet become a nonprofit organization and reduce all their employees pay to minimum wage so they can make their product the way I want without me paying anything ever.

Get a clue about what the thread is instead of repeating the same flamebatey nonsense like a parrot, scrub.

Really because the same can be said by those parroting the “ANet nerfed dungeons to force players to buy gold with cash” meme.

What core mechanics did they change? I’ve been here for 3 years and I haven’t seen a change in “core mechanics”. Or do you mean the gold farm that dungeons were. Stacking in zerk gear for big money isn’t a mechanic.

IndigoSundown.5419:

All true. Only the really long term stuff feels rewarding because the rest are so common.

That’s because everything isn’t shiny and new anymore. When you level your first character you actually got excited with blue and greens but once you’re 80, once you had your first set of exotic, suddenly nearly everything is “junk” that you convert to gold.

Now instead of gear from drops, your or other players available on the TP, it’s about working toward that gear that may be locked behind time gates or scavenger hunts or supply squeezes that shoot up the cost. Which is a problem when you don’t bump the level cap because it’s easier to simply add 10 levels you have to grind through to get those gear drops. But it’s still “grind”. Our grind is crafting and milking events that drop particular materials.

Laosduude.1690:

People seem to be blind by “free” when it’s pretty worthless on what they give. Rather have a 50-60% black friday sale over this, so I can get the things I want that isn’t pure kitten

Lol the transmutation charge for today, really? Not even a stack of 5 either, just one, you can easily do map completion on a new character in the city…

But you don’t need to take the time to do that, you get one today, for free. See it saved you time. And if you are a Fashion Wars 2 type player then it’s one less you need to farm or buy. Just like yesterday, if you are leveling a character or earning XP for a mastery, the XP booster was nice.

The sales are generally around New Years IIRC. And don’t expect 50-60%, expect the usual 20-30% unless it’s a one shot discount like they did occasionally in August.

Snoring Sleepwalker.9073:

Mez Koo.9510:

Please explain how it is an extended trial.

Because the limitations on the trial accounts show that there is a very clear difference between the players who bought core GW2 and the players who didn’t.

Plus I don’t like calling a game free to play when there is a large chunk of its content locked behind paywalls. 8 small paywalls for living story season 2 content and a larger paywall for HoT content.

Because it’s Buy to Play. Buy once play forever.

I do agree to some degree about LW season 2. It was free for those who continued to play the game but purchasable for those who weren’t “loyal” players. At least they added a discount plan but I would have preferred that it was included with HoT.

And expansions aren’t paywalls exclusive for F2P since they need to be bought by everyone to get access to the content. And unlike GW2/HoT, buying an expansion in those other F2P games don’t grant access to content that was locked for F2P players in the original game.

Snoring Sleepwalker.9073:

Behellagh.1468:

ArenaNet always uses Play for Free rather than Free to Play. F2P is a term that have a very negative connotation to MMOs and gaming in general that they wanted to avoid.

Is there anyone who can see the distinction that ANET is trying to claim exists between P4F and F2P ?

It would have been better to just call the core game going free an extended trial period.

The distinction is the MMO gaming population associates F2P with content/class restrictions that can be buypassed (misspelling intended) via the cash shop or VIP subscription.

Since GW2 is B2P and not subscription based, their “free” version has to reflect their Buy to Play ideals. So instead of throwing up paywalls and content limitations, there isn’t any besides restrictions that protect the original B2P player base from abusers. Buying the expansion unifies the two groups of players.

So in an attempt to differentiate the difference, ANet coined Play for Free. The problem comes from players who insist that both business models are the same and continue to use F2P when describing this. And because of the restrictions they can’t simply say the game is now free and since there’s no caps and all content is available forever, they really can’t say trial either. So we have Play for Free.

The two starter bundles made sense to me. These latest outfit/skin/dye combos, not so much. Making a bundle out of existing items that are themed I can see but items that are currently exclusive only to a bundle, no, that’s torturing the poor OCD collector to come up with significantly more gems and if they can’t complete their collection before it disappears, then you will lose them as a player. It happened with mini collectors.

Hyper Cutter.9376:

Behellagh.1468:

This is really about dungeon runners still outraged that their gold farm got nerfed. Nobody likes it when their cheese gets moved.

And rightfully so! Anet gutted the dungeon rewards to drive people out of them (by their own admission!). Only the fear of bad press probably kept them from deleting them entirely.

No. The dungeon specific currency/gear skins and the story/lore elements kept them from deleting it entirely.

And don’t give me that PvP BS about earning the currency there, that was added so dedicated PvPers wouldn’t have to sully themselves in the filthy PvE world to get the currency. Without dungeons, no need to have those reward tracks any longer.

warbignime.4610:

Linken.6345:

play for free i would like to guess

Ummm, isn’t that suppose to be F2P? Also if it means play for free the sentence doesn;t make sense.

ArenaNet always uses Play for Free rather than Free to Play. F2P is a term that have a very negative connotation to MMOs and gaming in general that they wanted to avoid.

it was done for e-sports.

Fortune article.

http://fortune.com/2015/11/24/areanet-investing-in-esports/?xid=soc_socialflow_twitter_FORTUNE

Like I said, patches will be killer the less bandwidth she has and you have to get the patch to log in. I have slow 3 Mb/s (million bits per second) and the initial game took 12+ hours to download and the HoT expansion took roughly 3 hours. Adjust up and down according to what she’ll get.

Not being a gamer, you can at least walk around Tyria with her, it can be quite the beautiful world to walk through.

Well there was a downward shift in the exchange rate over the last week or so. Since the rate is set by the ratios of internal reservoirs of gold to gems which implies either less gold and/or more gems within the exchange. It has nothing to do with the amount of either gold or gems in player wallets. As a matter of fact, promoting buying gold with gems will lower the rate which makes it less and less attractive to buy gold and thus self defeating.

This is really about dungeon runners still outraged that their gold farm got nerfed. Nobody likes it when their cheese gets moved.

There was one post on Twitter. Hardly hype. It was however picked up by all the MMO media sites and added to their Black Friday in game MMO coverage.

And in the past when they gave away freebies, they were singular, inexpensive items from the gem shop. We’ll probably get a key, repair canister, transmutation charges, revive orb, maybe an untradeable unidye, mini egg.

What we aren’t going to get offered is any armor skin, outfit, hair style/total makeover kit (unless they feel really, really generous), slots (bank, bag or character) or anything else that’s worth more than 100 gems at the Gem Shop.

It took a bit of time chit chatting at his desk in the BL weapon skin building before he tells you who to see. It could take up to a whole minute.

High bandwidth is really only needed for the initial download and patches. In game bandwidth requirements are well under 100 KiB/s (10 KiB/s standing around DR at the TP). KiB/s is 1024 bytes per second.

It updates every half hour I think? And it’s a lot more accurate than GW2Spidy.

If you want a more up to date figure you can use the API to query the exchange.

Gold to Gems
https://api.guildwars2.com/v2/commerce/exchange/coins?quantity=1000000

quantity is in copper and the link is for 100 gold, the output you get is this;
{coins_per_gem:1776, quantity:563}

It returns the price per gem in copper and the total amount of gems you can get for that amount.

Of course at the exchange you enter the amount of gems you want (custom area) and it gives you the price.

The Gems to Gold uses this query
https://api.guildwars2.com/v2/commerce/exchange/gems?quantity=800

which is selling 800 gems and the out put is
{coins_per_gem:1169, quantity:935683}

coins and quantity in copper

And again the official exchange (custom area) only allows you to buy gold is integer amounts.

Not happy with the bundle being the sole source of particular outfits, glider skins and immortal weapon skins. I’m hoping that it’s just a limited time thing and at some point in the NEAR future they will be individually available.

Message on the load screens I don’t mind. The orange danglely bit in the notification area is taking up screen real estate during play.

Another case of everybody trying to get something ASAP and the rogue demand wave far outstrips the supply which makes the cost astronomical.

The devs aren’t going to tweak supply rates to handle this demand spike. If it’s too costly now, don’t pursue it and use this time to profit providing the needed supply.

You get zilch just like before HoT and after the June Skill→Hero point patch.

Celtic Lady.3729:

Behellagh.1468:

55 laurels every 28 daily logins. No drought here.

I still need hundreds of laurels. 55 a month feels really slow. lol

Craft slower.

Rant time …

Honestly a lot of complaints I’m seeing since HoT revolves around the idea that the player needs to get X now. This “group think” leads to a rush on the TP which shoots up the price of mats for crafting; the gold to gem exchange rate when something cool comes out or goes on sale at the gem shop; hero points for specialization; XP for masteries … I can go on.

A lot of these aren’t a problem if the drive for immediacy is ignored. Since raids rolled out the week it’s now ascended armor and the new precursors/legendary weapons.

It’s Black Friday at Wal-Mart in the microcosm of the game but instead of sucker punching the grandmas for a 70" TV for $499 it’s everyone draining the TP, their collections, cheap salvageable goods all to get affordable mats and if you are late to that party the cry goes out that it’s too expensive or it’s time gated. FOMO is imaginary. There will still be groups doing the first raid wing months from now. Everyone doesn’t need to do it this week so you all don’t need your gear yesterday.

I bought this mere days before launch because I wasn’t interested in the beta but wanted the “free” vet character slot. If the next has something similar I would pre-purchase it as well and also just before it’s launch.

55 laurels every 28 daily logins. No drought here.

Not seeing it here. Looks fine.