Guild Wars 2

“A Single Death is a Tragedy; a Million Deaths is a Statistic”

Joseph Stalin

Zera Allimatti.2541:

Lion’s Arch definitely deserved better, that’s for sure. And you’d think Claw Island would have been outfitted with airships and all forms of AAA batteries (that’s anti-aircraft artillery for those who don’t know). The undead had some, why not Claw Island? Claw Island was completely ignored. They didn’t even light the watch towers.

Regarding what someone said earlier about how my/our standing as Commander of the Pact is irrelevant because each player’s personal story has nothing to do with another player’s (which is correct, of course), it’s worse than you think. You forget that ArenaNet could have easily made it so that the interaction dialogue with certain key NPCs would at least reflect it correctly. As I mentioned before in another post, interacting with Logan or Rytlock in past LS instances, the player was treated as a nobody. Given that the LS instances were tailored for the player, that disconnect is horrible from a story/writing standpoint. Surely the members of Destiny’s Edge would remember the hero who brought them all back together and fought along their side against Zhaitan. But no, both the NPC’s and the player’s dialogue play off as if nothing of the sort ever happened. THAT is the problem I was referring to about the whole ‘my/our standing as the Pact Commander’. The LS is not canon at all.

You are correct. Let me say that it is better to treat the Personal Story as non-canon and treat the Living Story as canon. Things make more sense this way.

I don’t think GW2 will continue the PS. LS is what they are pushing forward now. And I think it is better this way. PS is solo, so the player might as well go play a single player game.

bri.2359:

CHIPS.6018:

Saint.5647:

Correct me if I’m wrong, but there isn’t a Light/Medium/Heavy version of the backpiece right?

Just craft it with a character who is an armorsmith or leatherworker. Problem solved there. You don’t need to do it with a tailor.

What if tailoring is all I got? This event is time limited and it is way too late to start levelling up leatherwork now.

Too late for what??
You can level leatherworking from 0-500 in under 2 hours!!

Sir, will you pay for my gold?

Having the quest reward tied to crafting mastery is a very dumb idea in the first place. I should be able to just do the new content and get my quest rewards. Why is it even linked to something (e.g. crafting) that has nothing to do with the new content???

Zera Allimatti.2541:

You completely missed the point I was bringing up… I know they aren’t trying to make GW1 with revamped graphics. The issue I have is that there is very little left of the original game for continuity’s sake, and it seems that the game is no longer about the player on an individual level (the Pact is nowhere to be found during all of this, plus the player has become a complete unknown to Destiny’s Edge and the majority of the rest of Tyria).

All we are now is just another zergling in the massive player zergs that just overwhelm everything with large numbers. As I said, they should just change the game’s name and get it over with.

Because the personal story was messed up right from the start.

GW1:
Vizier Khilbron: Yes, you are all Chosen.
GW2:
Trahearne: You, player 1, is my commander.

It was a grave mistake to the story to name you, the player, the solo commander of the Pact. If you are indeed the commander, you have to deny the existence of everyone that you played with in your universe. Why? Because they are ALSO commander(s) themselves. So these players CANNOT exist in the same universe as you do.

What this means is that, you playing together with anyone in GW2 is PURELY a game play mechanic. You do not know them. You will never know them. Because they cannot ever exist in your “personal” story.

Or, you deny to accept that you are the commander. In fact, you have to believe that NO PLAYER is the solo commander of the Pact. The commander in, in fact, a NPC that we still hasn’t seen. We, the players, were on that ship fighting Zhitan. But we aren’t the commander.

I personal go with the 2nd option. I am not the commander. Right now my character is on a break from the Pact, after Zhaitan was “killed”. During my vacation, Scarlet starts causing trouble and now she is in LA. Most members of the Pact is also on vacation, so they weren’t ready when this invasion hit.

I know this isn’t a good explanation. And no I never liked the Scarlet story arc. But I just try to make sense of it.

Let’s just look forward to the next story arc. For now, enjoy the game play and loot. ^^

As for LA getting destroyed, this has nothing to do with anti-GW1. This change is required for the living story to be considered living. Things needs to be changed so much that they never can return to how they used to be. Think of the Searing in GW1. This is a GOOD move on Anet’s part.

Now no city is safe for future destruction. This is how is should be.

Ok I have seen the Tempered Spinal Blades and obviously it is cool. But can someone give me a short version of how much farming time is needed for them? Also how much gold and crafting materials are needed for them? Thanks? ^^

Saint.5647:

Correct me if I’m wrong, but there isn’t a Light/Medium/Heavy version of the backpiece right?

Just craft it with a character who is an armorsmith or leatherworker. Problem solved there. You don’t need to do it with a tailor.

What if tailoring is all I got? This event is time limited and it is way too late to start levelling up leatherwork now.

I have edited the first post, as recommended by Chris in this thread here. Please read and discuss thanks. ^^

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Format-Proposal/first

Nike.2631:

Its not desperation. It’s experience.

I enjoyed Champions Online tremendously. I have a lifetime subscription – Its a B2P game just like this one form my perspective. Played the holy heck out of it and amassed BiS everything for my main. Continued to play events, dabbled in PvP, and generally swanned around annihilating bad-guys by the hundreds chasing after achievements and various cosmetic gee-gaws plus a few rare seasonal items (sound familiar?).

While the level cap didn’t change, they reworked the entire gear system so that I effectively had to start over. I played maybe two whole days under the new regime and dumped the game completely aside from logging in maybe once every 3 months for screenshots. I went from paying customer who frequented the store for a number of goodies beyond my permanent subscription to totally non-involved financially.

History may repeat itself here, but I know exactly what the outcome will look like in my case. I’ve dropped about $500-$600 dollars in the gem store since launch. I expect that rate to continue into the future right up until they think I’ll tolerate the Ascended Grind a second time. Because I won’t. There’s lots of other ways to add content and keep the game fresh that don’t burn my goodwill. Hopefully they pursue those first, before finally wimping out and falling back on the level cap bump.

Glad to have another former hardcore grinder agree with me here. ^^

Shiro’s power came from Abandon. And Abandon is dead.

The fact that they are willing to burn down LA, a capital city, deserves praise. I don’t think anyone else in the history of MMORPG ever did this. This is a bold move and finally the living story is living. History is indeed moving forward.

The game play is, indeed, a bit disappointing. It is a laggy zerg feast. The old problems with these types of game play remains. We have mobs spawning all over the map, so players spend more time running around like headless chickens than fighting. And when the timer runs out (toxic level, in this case), the game is over and players lost without actually losing.

Tactics involved here are zero.

Like I said many times, these event should be in their separate instances to reduce the lag and overflow.

Here is my thread.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/lwd/Instances-will-Reduce-World-Event-Overflow

To prove why build diversity is awesome, I will show you the most dumb (yet funny^^) build ever. If you thought Firestorm warrior (as per the GW1 box example) was funny, you have seen nothing yet! Ladies and gentleman, I bring you Caveman Meteor Shower Warrior!!!! XD

I hasn’t even attempted the content but I know its too easy. Please add Hard Mode please. ^^

Maybe it is indeed a reference to the Battle of Los Angeles (Battle of LA). We got UFOs. We got airships. We got search lights. :P

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Los_Angeles

@ Orpheal.8263

Ok, it seems you have a big big misunderstanding of what GW1 was about. Let me say that:

GW1 was NEVER meant for you to spent 5+ hours on it everyday, for 7 years.

It was never designed to be that kind of MMO.

GW1 have no pressure on you to play constantly. You should play maybe 1 or 2 hours a day, sometimes less. You play until you had you fill for the day, then you play something else. And it was perfectly ok to go Missing in Action for a few weeks. That’s what I did here and there.

Yet, every time a new expansion comes, I would come back full time and spent 5+ hours on it a day. Why? Because it was fun.

And this system was perfect. The game didn’t “fail” when people stops logging on. Because guess what, people always comes back when a new expansion with new game play comes. The game was designed this way. There is nothing wrong with this.

Look. MMOs used to be a big part of my life. In fact they used to be the only game I played. Those grinding MMOs did require me to spent 5+ hours on it every day, just to keep up. I did not have time to play anything else.

Then I got into GW1, and my view changed. I am no longer bounded by MMOs. They no longer take up so much time in my life. I was able to do something else. Going out, etc. And I was able to get into other games. Dead Space, Mass Effect, Last of Us, Total War, Bioshock, etc.

MMO is no longer all of my gaming life, and it will never be again.

So if GW2 or any other MMO tries to become my whole gaming life again, I will simply quit. I enjoy many other types of games. sRPG, shooters, RTS, etc. There is zero chance I will give them all up for one game.

If you want to call that being spoiled, go ahead. There is no way I will waste time grinding like that again. There are tons of other games out there to play.

Many people thought GW2 is only fighting against other MMOs. Nope. They are fighting against every other games out there for the players’ play time.

RyuDragnier.9476:

Oh man Guzzi, imagine if we were the boarding force and it was an instance!

That’s what I dreamt about ever since I heard about airships. But if they don’t have it, at least use air ships as decorations.

Tru Reptile.6058:

Jski.6180:

Tru Reptile.6058:

darkace.8925:

In the 18 months since release we’ve been given:
– 1 new skill per class
– 1 universal skill
– 0 new weapon options
– 0 new playable races
– 0 new playable classes
– 1 new permanent PvE map

Down with options! Down with variety! Hurray for stagnation!

Hurray for Wildstar!

You should call it treadmillstar hehe.

That’s pretty funny. Let me try;

Zerk Wars 2
Temporary Content Wars 2
Zerg Wars 2
Gem Store Wars 2
DPS Wars 2
Stack Wars 2
2 Blues and a Green Wars 2

Hey, this is pretty fun!

You forgot Grind Wars 2. :P

@ Orpheal.8263

Benefits:
-Balancing has nothing to do with increasing the level caps. The game DOES NOT become easier to balance with higher levels. It is the same, if not more difficult because of increased trait points and stats.
-Class build variety does not increase at all with high level cap, unless new skills are introduced. And adding new skill (something I support) have nothing to do with increasing the level cap.
-I played GW1 for 7 years, and all 10 of my characters are level 20. I do not need grind to keep me playing. In fact grinding will turn me away from the game. I never felt the game stagnated. I had 10 characters and so there were plenty of stuff for me to do across 4 campaigns.
-Challenging contents can be introduced without increasing the level cap. Players should overcome challenges by player skills and experience. If you overcome challenges by increasing your stats, you DIDN’T become a better player. Your stats won the game for you, not your skills and experience.

So, all the benefits you listed are non-related to level cap.

-Grind and expansion
The game can provide expansions without increasing the level cap. New skills can also be introduced without increasing the level cap. GW1 did that just fine. Stop linking expansions to increasing level cap please.

Grinding by itself is purely a waste of time. No one can deny this fact.

-Spoiled and Asians.
If GW1 is the only game I played then maybe I am spoiled. But I also played Lineage 1, Lineage 2, Silkroad Online, and many other MMOs. So trust me I know what grinding is. And guess what, I am an Asian myself and I am fluent in an popular Asian language.

I am not spoiled, nor am I misinformed. I just know what is wrong with grinding. Grinding is wrong, period.

Orpheal.8263:

It will happen, so or so.
The question is only in which kind of way and in what kind of extent it will happen and naturally especially when.

What will be dead sure is, that Anet surely will announce it very early before they make the change, so that people can prepare up for the upcoming changes, same like they have done it with the coming changes to the PvP System and its rewards very soon.
They announced these changes months before they get implemented tomorrow, so that people could prepare.
Same they did with Ascended Equipment, they announced it, and gave people time to prepare.
The same way will it be done with a Level Cap Increase….
Anyone who believes, that anet would bring such a change into the game without making the announncement months before actually implementign the change to give us players time to prepare is just very naive.

This game has been designed from begin on to cater a complete different target group and ANet has clearly calculated around it, that many of their design desicisons will find a massive disliking from the old GW1 players. They don’t care, they absolutely know that they will never please all, they just follow to make the game, that THEY want to make and thats good so.

Where do we get to, when players try to “forbid” a Game Developer, how they should expand their very own game…seriously.
When Anet wants to increase the Level Cap for example from 80 to 90, then simply accept it, or leave.

ANet can basically implement a Level Cap Increase of +100, it wouldn’t affect any PvP-Players, because in PvP you are always maximum with max equipment…
In fact, Anet will change PvP soon to make it more fluidly integrated with the rest of the game, what will surely also result in a good new way to earn in a new way Max Equipment through playing PvP, where you need to have instantly Max Equipment so that this Game Mode works

It won’t also affect very much WvW, because in WvW you can simply get overwhelmed at any given time by a Zerg with players that have WvW Buffs, Buff Food, WvW Shrine buffs and whatever else active. WvW isn’t designed around that kind of balance anyway, that PvP has…

In PvE it would just increase the options for vertical progression, the game itself downscales you for low Level Maps, so that you can’t face roll everything in the game in seconds solo 1hittign everything like killing critters.
Again, Vertical Progression – something ANet has already commited to gradually increase – to this belogns also increasign the max level, giving us slowly more trait points to allow us for more build diversity.

With all due respect, I just cannot understand this line of thinking.

You are a supporter of raising the level cap. But In your whole message, you did not post ONE SINGLE benefit, to the players, with the level cap being raised.

All you said was basically “Anet already decided to have vertical progression. They no longer cares about the old GW1 players. Take it or quit the game.”

But where are the benefits to the players?

It seems certain people loves level cap increases just so they have more to grind. Even if the grind brings no extra joy and are a massive waste of time, they just love to grind for no reason. They have a lot of spare time on their hands.

As for the “GW2 is entering the Asian market, and Asians loves to grind”. Asians are wrong, period. How do I know? I am Asian, and I played Lineage 1, Lineage 2 and Silkroad Online. So I know what grinding is. And I tell you for a fact that the Asians are wrong, period.

My friend, listen to my advice. Spent your spare time playing another game instead. There are plenty of awesome games, like The Last of Us.

Please do not support grinding without a cause anymore. Never support grinding. It is a massive waste of everyone’s time, and you know it.

Alukah.2063:

CHIPS.6018:

Alukah.2063:

I’m perplexed with the overall responses here.

I’m kinda hoping for a level cap increase (20 levels or so?) to get rid of all these gw1 fans that still can’t get over the fact that this is not gw1.

If you want to play Grind Wars, there are already plenty of other games like that out there.

20 levels is not a grind, you are overreacting.

Until you actually try what’s real grinding (months to reach certain level) you don’t have the right to call a level cap increase as “grinding”, specially in a game where there’s no exp curve, the exp needed to level up is always the same.

This is not guild wars 1 and this was not meant to have a level set for a lifetime, it will happen and just quit the game now if you won’t deal with it. Stay away from all MMORPGs if you don’t want to deal with level cap increase.

It is not just 20 levels. The players will also need to grind for new gears for at least their main character. And many players have alt characters.

And when they get there, they will find that the mobs have also gotten stronger.

A level 100 player with level 100 ascended gear, fighting level 100 mobs.
(But the player need to grind for 2 months before they can attempt the new contents.)
=
A level 80 player with level 80 ascended gear, fighting level 80 mobs.
(But the player can attempt the new contents right away.)

The fun/utility levels are exactly the same for both! The game play are exactly the same for both! The story are exactly the same for both! Everything is the same, except for those wasted 2 months!

Raising the level cap only delay the players from having fun by 2 months. What is the point?

If the level cap is raised, then clearly the old GW1 population is no longer the target audience that Anet have in mind for GW2. You don’t have to ask us to leave. We can find the exit on our own, thank you very much. ^^

Like I said if you treat the whole story as a single person story, where you are the solo main character, and you refuse to acknowledge the existence of other players in your own universe, it would be fine.

This means the players you see online are all in their own separate universes. None of the players actually ever played together.

So let’s say me, you, Bill and John did a mission together in the game. You have to remember that by lore that never happened. It couldn’t happen. Else the lore won’t make sense. The players playing together is PURELY a game play mechanic.

It is perfectly fine if you read the story like this.

I read the story differently. I believe that all the players actually exist in the same universe at the same time. Because no one player can be THE main charater, NONE of us can be the main character. Because we cannot all date Anise at the SAME time, NONE of us can ever be dating Anise. In fact we cannot date any NPC unless they are randomly generated.

It doesn’t really matter if the players can contribute in the battle for the sky or not. But please do add airship vs airship models to improve realism. When the players look up, they should see airships shooting cannons and lasers at each other.

That’s all. ^^

http://theunclean.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/airship-battle-fleet.jpg

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m62mx4klHp1rwauj4o1_500.jpg

http://www.radioactive-software.com/warfare/concept_art/Zeppelin_Battlefield.jpg

http://community.imaginefx.com/fxpose/spikedmcgraths_portfolio/images/315408/425x278.aspx

http://fstoppers.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/composition-of-airship-battle.jpg

http://img.wonderhowto.com/img/85/85/63498639156054/0/why-are-there-so-many-airship-pirates-steampunk.w654.jpg

Cliff.8679:

CHIPS.6018:

The problem is me, you, Bill and John all exist in the same universe at the same time. Remember the time the 4 of us did Twilight Arbor together? This won’t be possible unless we all exist.

So if all 4 of us fall in love with Countess Anise at the same time, this universe won’t make any sense. How can 4 adventurers, who can team up with each other in the same timeline and location, be dating the same woman at the same time?

The same thing goes for Lord Faren, Agent Ihan and Crusader Hiroki.

If there is a “one partner at a time” rule, the situation is even worst. That means an older player have an “advantage” in dating Countess Anise. A new player have no chance at Countess Anise because she is already taken.

Random NPC is the only way to go, if we want NPC romance in MMORPG.

But you’re making a problem where one doesn’t exist. The story doesn’t account for other player characters. That’s why all of us are Trahearne’s right-hand man, the Commander of the Pact. For you, it’s only your character who’s the Commander. For me, it’s only mine. Hell, even having multiple characters on the same account completing the personal story doesn’t make sense by your logic. If one player were to pursue a romance with an NPC, it wouldn’t mean that character is “taken.” It would have no relevance to any other player, because from a story perspective, no other player characters exist.

I see what you mean now. Yes if romance is in personal story only it will be ok. If you treat the story as a single player game it is fine.

However I came from the GW1 background, which look at the story globally. And even in GW2, I follow the GW1 model. This is hard to explain. But let me try to explain to you.

GW1:
Vizier Khilbron: Yes, you are all Chosen.

GW2:
Trahearne: You, player 1, is my commander.

Do you see the difference now?

In GW1, a group of adventurers accomplished something. There was, in effect, no main character. My character was not more important than Mhenlo. Nor was Mhenlo more important than my character. We were part of a team that fight side by side together for years.

You might say: “But there were only 8 characters per mission. It was impossible for everyone to be there.” Actually, that was a game play balance thing. By lore, all the players, heroes, henchmens were in effect part of the same team. It was never stated who exactly was there in certain events. So this actually works great for the lore.

For example Ruins of Surima. Me, you, Bill and John might have never actually done that mission together. But by lore, we DID do it together. Why? Because that event only happened once in history, and we were all part of it.

Does this make sense?

Now in GW2, player 1 was specifically named the main character. The one and only main character. This is VERY BAD for lore. Why? Because by lore, it is physically impossible for all the players in this game to be main characters. How can we all be the one and only commander under Trahearne at exactly the same time?

The only way that I could dealt with such a huge breach in lore, unfortunately, was to refuse to believe that I am the main character. Since we cannot ALL be the main character, the only way out of this error is for NONE of us to be the main character.

Here is my version of the lore:

That final battle against Zhaitan was lead by a commander who is a NPC. That NPC does not yet have a model in the game yet. We players were indeed on that air ship for the final battle. But we were part of the crew. We were important in that victory. But we are not the main character.

Hope this makes sense. ^^

Cliff.8679:

Erukk.1408:

I would argue that while it has certain personal aspects to it, the living story isn’t personal though. It’s about Tyria, not the player in the end. The LS doesn’t stop for the player, or wait for him or her to catch up before advancing. It goes on with or without him.

The devs have been doing a better job with integrating the player into the LS, and making it feel more personal to them, but that only for the people doing it. What about the people that have taken a break from the game? How it is “personal” to them? They have no idea what is going on, since the storyline has moved on without them, and they can feel totally lost at times.

That’s because the story isn’t about them, it’s about Tyria and the events that are happening in it. The player may play a role in said events, and they may even play a large role in them, but they aren’t necessary for the LS to progress. And if the game automatically assumes the player did events and actions they might have missed? Well… that’s about the biggest definition of an UNpersonal Story there is, since we wouldn’t even be needed for it anymore.

As I said before, the personal story and the living story’s main difference is method of delivery. In a way, you can look at the personal story as Season 0 of the living story. However, it shipped with the game rather than being implemented through updates, and was focused on instances rather than open world events. It still became the story of Tyria and the fight against the Elder Dragons, and like the living story, it doesn’t actually require player participation for its events to occur. As an example, even if a player never does the personal story, the Pact still gets formed and sets up a beachhead in Orr, because if you go there that’s exactly what’s going on. Someone can buy the game today, having never done the personal story, and the story dictates that Zhaitan was killed over a year ago. It may be called the “Personal Story” but it was never all that personal, especially after Claw Island.

CHIPS.6018:

The players cannot fall in love or befriend those important NPCs. That is too story altering to be allowed.

Let’s say I married Queen Jennah.
You married Caithie.
My friend Bill married Scarlet.
My friend John also married Queen Jennah.

Imagine the chaos in the story.

If these love or friends relationship are to exist, they must be done though randomly generated, randomly named NPCs. It would be similar to those mercenaries in Diablo 2.

http://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Mercenaries

It is not like GW1, where everyone befriended Mhenlo. Why? Because technically, me, you, Bill and John are all in the same team doing the same quest. So of course we all knows Mhenlo.

But which of us is Mhenlo’s lover? None. Mhenlo’s lover is Cynn, another NPC.

Hence, if you want a lover for your character, that NPC will be randomly generated.

Obviously your examples are off limits from a story perspective, as those NPCs are either already involved in romance stories with other important characters of Tyria or are villains. However, there are NPCs in the story that already exist, or can exist in the future, that could easily be given potential romance paths with the player character where it wouldn’t have any adverse affect on the overarching story. The examples I gave were Countess Anise and Lord Faren. Your examples would mess with the story, certainly, but what about them? What about some of the Order representatives from the personal story, like Agent Ihan or Crusader Hiroki? There are plenty of NPCs that already exist and plenty more that could/will be added in future living story installments. I think you’re going way overboard with the idea that every single player needs randomized NPCs strictly for the purposes of romance.

The problem is me, you, Bill and John all exist in the same universe at the same time. Remember the time the 4 of us did Twilight Arbor together? This won’t be possible unless we all exist.

So if all 4 of us fall in love with Countess Anise at the same time, this universe won’t make any sense. How can 4 adventurers, who can team up with each other in the same timeline and location, be dating the same woman at the same time?

The same thing goes for Lord Faren, Agent Ihan and Crusader Hiroki.

If there is a “one partner at a time” rule, the situation is even worst. That means an older player have an “advantage” in dating Countess Anise. A new player have no chance at Countess Anise because she is already taken.

Random NPC is the only way to go, if we want NPC romance in MMORPG.

Alukah.2063:

I’m perplexed with the overall responses here.

I’m kinda hoping for a level cap increase (20 levels or so?) to get rid of all these gw1 fans that still can’t get over the fact that this is not gw1.

If you want to play Grind Wars, there are already plenty of other games like that out there.

CureForLiving.5360:

CHIPS.6018:

Back in GW1 I used to spent hours designing and testing builds to see what works and what doesn’t. This is one aspect of GW that I really miss.

Yeah… I don’t think I’d find that all too fun.

CHIPS.6018:

Oh I wasn’t asking to use 15 weapon skills at the same time. I was asking for 15 weapons skill to choose from, and we pick 5 to use.

I guess that’s not too bad, or at least I could get use to it eventually (still I’d rather say ANet needs to balance the current abilities and add more weapon variety than add more abilities to current weapons). I’d agree that perhaps we could increase the number of utility ability, perhaps adding 1 or 2 more.

Remember that a character isn’t really yours unless you design his/her whole build yourself. If the build was given to you, then you are playing someone else’s build. And in effect you are playing someone else’s character.

For example let’s say you love playing Street Fighters and you love using Ken. You might get really good with using Ken. You can say Ken is your strongest character.

But is Ken your personal character? Nope. You had no part in designing Ken. Ken is someone else’s character, designed by someone else. You maybe a great user of Ken, but Ken isn’t yours.

Hope now you understand the joy of designing and testing your own build. ^^

Fernling.1729:

Maybe they will make the top level 90 gear easy to obtain, kinda like exotic was at 80. No more ascended at 90. Would only take a couple hours to level and gear up and they can undo their huge mistake from 2012.

I’m guessing we will see a level increase when they open up a big part of land. Maybe Crystal desert or something.

Sounds like a car selling scam.

“Oh its only $50 a day, for the next 5 years!”

I will pass. ^^

Dalris Thane.6314:

CHIPS.6018:

Levelling is bad because it brings absolutely zero enjoyment to the players. No one actually enjoy grinding for hours for an level. They do it because it is REQUIRED. They need that extra level to beat a boss and advance in the story.

Fair enough. Thank you for explaining. I just can’t relate. I’d never play a game that “Step 1 is a boring grind. Step 2 is where the fun is.” I guess I’m lucky that I like the levelling and gearing process. I do in most games. I am sorry you don’t enjoy it.

I do wish game companies released their numbers to put to rest the population assumptions. Kind of like Nielsen ratings where they can show TV ratings on a show on a daily basis, plus demographics (Show A ranks well with women, Show B ranks well with older people of both genders, Show C…)

They do it with TV, I don’t know why they don’t do it for games with a log-in survey. It sure would cause people like me to be less bewildered about stuff like levelling and gearing if I knew I was in the 4% (say) bracket that actually likes levelling. That or the other way around if I was in the 96% (say). Too bad games aren’t like TV ratings, at least for me…

For example, let’s say I am a fan of Street Fighters. Well, I want to turn on my PS3, run the game, pick a character, and start playing. All characters start out “maxed” level, so you don’t need to grind. You can enjoy the game right away. In fact, you can start fighting the “first boss”in the first stage right away. The action is where the fun is. If you are good with the game, you can beat the final boss.

Now imagine your character in Street Fighter starts at level 1, and the final boss is level 100. You need to grind mindless mobs for 2 months, get your character to level 100, max all his gear, before you even had a chance at the final boss.

You see, introducing levelling to Street Fighters adds absolute zero enjoyment to the game. It just delay your fun by 2 months. That’s all it did.

@ Orpheal.8263

I don’t know where you get that face roll idea from. GW2’ scales your level down to the level of that area. So a level 80 player will become level 30 in a level 30 zone. There is no face rolling here.

Levelling bring zero benefit to the game, except to appease the MMO crowd. Even the MMO crowd will notice this fact, if they tried GW1.

This game need to be more alt friendly. Not the other way around.

Dalris Thane.6314:

First of all, I’ll admit that I like things being easy. I hate challenges. If that negates everything I say, well, ok then.

For me, levelling is easy, and fun. It’s also fun for me to see the numbers (or colours depending on the game) improve on gear. Also, if I don’t like the story, or the gameplay, well, I don’t play long. I don’t need BiS or theorycrafting for my gamestyle or fun.

So, I apologies if this offends, especially Deathmond.7328 according to his/her post above.

I’ve played EverQuest, City of Heroes, Star Wars: The Old Republic and Marvel Heroes MMO. In all but the latter, the level has increased. In all but the latter, the forum exploded with complaints, but, my friends and family loved the level increases.

Can anyone explain, using easy words (English second language), what is the downside to you folks about level increases. Because, I’m sorry to say, for me, it just means something else fun to do, something that stopped once you hit the cap. (Sidebar = I feel the same feeling of “darn!” when I hit “best in slot” as there’s nothing left to do for that slot…)

Thank you. And, just because your reply above was intense, I’m sorry in advance Deathmond.7328. This seems to really bother you…

Levelling is bad because it brings absolutely zero enjoyment to the players. No one actually enjoy grinding for hours for an level. They do it because it is REQUIRED. They need that extra level to beat a boss and advance in the story.

Bump bump bump. ^^

Cliff.8679:

Erukk.1408:

darkace.8925:

Zhaitain was killed by thousands of players. Big Nose Ted blew the orphanage up thousands of times. The White Stag has been captured by the Nightmare Court thousands of times. There have been thousands of seconds-in-command for the Pact. And there have been thousands of Infinity Balls invented by asuran players. But romances is where you have a problem?

All those events happened in the Personal Story. Personal being the keyword, as canon wise, those actions only happened once, and it was towards or by the player. One player’s PS does not effect or ever conflict with another person’s PS because they are separate entities.

If they ever decide to add light flirtation, suitable to the T game rating, to the future PS, I would be fine with that. As it would be in the Personal Story. The Living Story is more open world though, as it solely focuses on the changing events of Tyria and not the player’s actions. Sure, the player may take part in it, but he or she isn’t needed to progress it. That’s why the LS wouldn’t be a suitable place for any relationship content.

I’m not sure where you get that idea. The living story is effectively an extension of the personal story, the only difference is the method of delivery. Just because ArenaNet continues the story every two weeks doesn’t mean the intention from a story perspective is that each individual player is inconsequential. The story progresses under the assumption that the player participated and was instrumental in it. Marjory did just send us a letter telling us they couldn’t have put Scarlet’s motives together without us, after all. Besides, there’ve been plenty of living world releases with personal story-style instances. Just look at the instance in Lion’s Arch from Origins of Madness.

If ArenaNet were to implement the ability for our characters to become more intimate with other characters in the story, how would it have any negative impact on the way other players experience the living story? One player might pursue Lord Faren, another might pursue Countess Anise. The living story itself would be the same, but perhaps there would be differences in dialogue and certain story instances for these two players. I don’t see how it’s unsuitable, and ArenaNet has even expressed a desire in the past to allow for more choices on a personal level that give different players different experiences throughout the living story.

The players cannot fall in love or befriend those important NPCs. That is too story altering to be allowed.

Let’s say I married Queen Jennah.
You married Caithie.
My friend Bill married Scarlet.
My friend John also married Queen Jennah.

Imagine the chaos in the story.

If these love or friends relationship are to exist, they must be done though randomly generated, randomly named NPCs. It would be similar to those mercenaries in Diablo 2.

http://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Mercenaries

It is not like GW1, where everyone befriended Mhenlo. Why? Because technically, me, you, Bill and John are all in the same team doing the same quest. So of course we all knows Mhenlo.

But which of us is Mhenlo’s lover? None. Mhenlo’s lover is Cynn, another NPC.

Hence, if you want a lover for your character, that NPC will be randomly generated.

The level cap should have stayed at 20. Raising it to 80 was already a mistake.

Naus the Gobbo.5172:

The amount of skills we have per weapon set is fine. They just need to be somewhat equally useful.
And we need to have more weapons available for the proffessions, like giving greathammers to engineers, rifles to elementalists and nerfbats to warriors.

Having 100 skills on the screen is a pain in the eye.
Don’t believe me? This used to be my UI in WoW before I polished it:

Every single spell was keybinded.

Oh I wasn’t asking to use 15 weapon skills at the same time. I was asking for 15 weapons skill to choose from, and we pick 5 to use.

Arikyali.5804:

I believe the ‘lack of skill choice’ was an intentional design. The devs didn’t want to have a myriad of skills clogging up the screen. They just wanted skills that were easy to pick up and understand, but still required experience to master.

“Require experience to master” isn’t something unique to GW2 though. GW1 skills takes just as much, if not more, experience to master. Take Grenth’s Balance, for example.

What I see in GW2 is everyone running the exact same few builds. And it gets boring and dull very quickly.

I don’t remember the last time I see someone (pve or WvW) running a totally new build that shocked me.

I mean yeah of course it is easier to balance for the devs. But it isn’t fun for the players.

(Not to mention the game, desperate everyone running the same builds, isn’t even that well balanced. There are plenty of underpowered and overpowered skills and traits everywhere. So what’s the point?)

Now I am not asking for 1000s of skills. But I think 15 skills per weapon set (instead of just 5) and 60 utility skills (instead of just 20) is fair to ask for. And this includes 3 different auto attack skill 1s for the players to choose from, in each weapon set.

War isn’t won by biomass alone. :P

This thread is for posting your general opinion on the current game play meta. You can talk about any aspect of the game. PvE, WvW, dungeons, etc. You can also talk about a aspect on a profession.

As a rule of thumb, we will try to keep all our opinions short and to the point. This will make it easier for the devs to read though many of these.

Lack of skill choices.
Compare to GW1, GW2 offers a lot less skill choices. Back in GW1 I used to spent hours designing and testing builds. Can’t do that in GW2.

Mobs unrelated to the players.
Mobs in GW2 have no relationship with the players. They use different skills, have different health amounts and different damage. Back in GW1 the hard mode mobs, of course, had advantages. But they were still some what relevant to the players’ skills, health and damage.

As a clear example, the WoC hardmode in GW1 were unpopular because the mobs were no longer relevant. They got too strong and too numerous.

Let’s be honest. No one wants to fight dumb but god-mode mobs all day long. Its gets boring quick.

I believe mobs should be bring back down, to be more relevant to how the players play.

Also way too many mobs are immune to snares.

AoE limited to 5 targets.

I believe increasing this to 15 would greatly improve WvW. Mega zergs will no longer be the all and be all in WvW. Now we will see multiple smaller zergs vs multiple smaller zergs in one battle, instead of one mega zerg against another mega zerg.

I highly recommend a beta event to test this new AoE limit.

Too few strategy and tactics in 1v1 fights.

Ok this is hard to describe. But I feel that GW2 fights has very few strategy and tactics when compared to GW1. If you bring the wrong build in GW2 there is nothing you can do. In other words, you already lost before the fight even started.

In GW1, even the “wrong build” have a chance of beating the right build. The so-called “hard counter” builds isn’t as bad as they are in GW2.

Strategy and tactics in GW2 are so weak and small, that they got totally overshadowed by build and profession advantages and disadvantages.

For this to work, they will need to have a random NPC generator. These random NPCs will random appear in the world with random events. And the players’ character may or may not fall in love with these characters. Some may become friends.

Other than random names and random skins, they may also need random stats and skills. Perhaps some will use monster only skills. It should be so random that the players won’t know how powerful that NPC is until it is fully levelled to 80.

Some NPCs will be all look, weak fighting ability.

Can’t have 100,000 players all falling in love with Tony Smith, for example.

Fact: No one use SoV.

Trahearne: Moving on.

Here is Logan, after Queen Jennah dies in LA. :P

deepwinter.9015:

Matthew Oswald.3082:

There will be plenty of new story content needing cinematic moments.

Matthew:

Will future cinematic moments included the player characters speaking as well? One thing I’ve missed from the Living Story is Jennifer Hale’s voice acting (I play a sylvari female).

As someone “in the industry,” I know how expensive voice acting can be, but I’d like to hope that we’ll once again hear our characters interacting with the world – instead of being the mute protagonists.

They will need different voices for each personality type. That’s 13 different types, male and female. They might also need to add different ones for each profession and each race. It can add up quickly, when this is done on a per story, per release basis.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Personality

I am not an expert in cut scenes. But good cut scenes are generally in three categories:

Emotional – focus on drawing feeling from the players.
e.g.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7I3ILw_hqA

Epic-Some crazy huge event going on to “awe” the players. The players are often just a small part of a much larger event.
e.g.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-e1MQnh3V0

Action-The players are “playing” the cut scene without realizing that it is a cut scene.
e.g.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WAu_xaCPG0

The traits can also includes racial traits. For example a Sylvari expert in plant summoning might fight like this.

I will keep this short. I believe that mobs should be designed around existing trait lines, instead of wondering everywhere.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Trait

A boss should be experts in particular fields, that already exist in the game. A boss is considered “ahead of its time”, and the players will hopefully match these bosses’ level of power in the future.

I will use Reiko from GW1 as an example. She was “ahead” of her time in using illusion magic, called “mirrors” back in the days. Although she was evil and was killed, the other mesmers eventually followed her lead and adopted spells similar to hers.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Reiko

For example, we can have have a boss on “Inventions”, a boss on “Skirmishing” and a boss on “Soul Reaping”. Their fighting style will be vastly different from each other. Yet they will be strong in their own ways; each showing the potential of a traitline.

I think this is very important in showing the potentials and direction of a traitline. It is the developers way of demonstrating where they want these traitlines to go. When the players fights a super strong boss, they will know that this is the “future” of themselves. So the players can fight these epic bosses will a smile on their faces.

Thoughts?

They may be related. But it is impossible for a mother-daughter relationship here.

Unless they are going to use the time-travel argument…

BTW, if the story writers want to make this invasion as dark as possible, please see the 2007 documentary on Nanking.

Here is the latest footage of Escape from LA. :P

Aaron Ansari.1604:

Two things: first, bombing is a horrible way to wipe out an enemy army. There are any number of ways to avoid death, including something as simple as running in the opposite direction, and absolutely no way to ascertain rather living targets were actually taken out.

Second, bombing isn’t popular in our world. It’s only used for two things- taking out ground installations (factories, etc.) and breaking civilian will. Arguably, US droning makes a third category, but it’s not really bombing. Bombing is highly ineffective against armies without a coordinating ground force- it’ll scatter the enemy, but it won’t remove them, and as the US has learned time and time again, scattered enemies are the worst kind to fight.

Assuming that you have total air superiority and military superiority over a city.

1) Surround the city so no one can escape.
2) Applies carpet bombing and artillery shelling.
3) Any civilians who tries to escape from the city will first be captured. This gives an illusion that your army takes prisoners, which would encourage defection.
4) After you get these civilians far enough away from the city, kill all of them. That means no combatants hiding with the civilians will survive.
5) With the city in ruins, and all visible defences destroyed, moves in your ground troops. Kill anyone that you see, combatants and civilians alike.
6) The city is now in your hands. The enemy leadership are either dead or powerlessly fleeing.
7) Send the few enemy survivors into slavery. Then send in your own population to resettle the city.

Aaron Ansari.1604:

That strategy has two very major flaws- first the logistics of making explosives to level a major city and fitting them all into your ships in a way that won’t end spectacularly, and second the absolute uselessness of the tactic for any aim other than “wipe a city of a map”. Scarlet’s universe bending powers exempt her from the first one, but also introduce a third constraint, which is game design- players are not going to be able to interact in meaningful fashion with a fleet of bombers. And there’s still a second problem- what if she wants to take out the Ship’s Council as a side objective? Good kittening luck being even reasonably sure of that if you won’t come down. What if she wants to exploit this leyline? She just razed all the existing defense infrastructure, and will now have to build her own and be vulnerable in the process. The bottom line is, carpet bombing is a horrible strategic choice in the Tyrian universe, and 90% of the time in our own.

With all due respect, the only reason not to carpet bomb a city is a for humanitarian reasons. This applies if you don’t want to kill thousands of innocent people. In that case you would need to send in ground troops, who would leave the civilians alone and tries to only kill enemy combatants one by one.

An inhumane and cold bloodied army lead by a psychopathic leader have no problem with this. They get their highs from total annihilation of their enemies.

For example many people have told me that taking over Afghanistan is impossible, even if you have clear military advantage. Wrong. It is impossible if you want to be a humanitarian and refuse to kill civilians. If you are willing to carpet bomb every village, and then throw every single person you capture into concentration camps and then kill them, you can conquer anyone that you can defeat.

And this, my friend, is Scarlet. Does she look like she is humane? Does she look like she care? Nope. She is inhumane, cold blooded and psychopathic.

As for the technological side of things, loading bombs onto airships will be very easy for Scarlet to do. She build a giant UFO and giant robot. She also created bio-organic weapons like the Umbrella Corp. She bend multiple races and groups to her will. She knows all about the Watchknights and twisted them.

So yes, putting bombs on her airships is going to be very easy.

The players won’t be fighting Aetherblade airships from the ground. LA never had air defenses in the first place. But the players can fight Aetherblade airships in the air with Pact airships.

The city must be taken before she can fulfil her objectives, whatever it is to kill the captain’s council or to keep the city. Carpet bombing will certainly weaken the defenders to make the conquest easier. And hence it will be done.

Keep in mind, carpet bombing during WW2 never stopped anywhere in the world. Any nation that have air superiority will carpet bomb their enemies. Its the logical thing to do.