Guild Wars 2

The Personality options are still there in conversations (of course, I haven’t tested ALL the conversations I remember them being in, but I made a new character and they’re there), and although the Personality icon seems to be gone from the Hero Equipment screen, you can still see what you picked in the first panel of your Personal Story.

I’ve been having latency and a few disconnects for about an hour. I don’t know if it’s just Blackgate, or if it’s multiple servers.

Cool! Still need my first.

Not to be a Necromancer – I’m a Warrior! – but I think this should be looked at with the introduction of the Megaserver. If it was impossible before, it’s double impossible now.

I vote for the “crystals have actual hitpoints” solution, so they stick around for 5-10 seconds and you get credit by dealing damage.

It’s good to know ANet knows the problem exists (and its cause), but I really hope they prioritize this. It’s a serious issue.

That /wiki tip is gold. Thanks!

I’m coming back after a pretty long break, and while I see people complaining about the patch breaking their builds/classes and whatnot, that’s normal and doesn’t elicit the kind of urgent dev response that I’d like to see for, let’s say… the “improved” Trait system. With so many people visibly against the changes (well, at the very least, against moving the first Trait from 10 to 30 and adding a bunch of tedious unlock requirements), ANet should calm the fires a bit.

I thought all the people who hate the idea of Ascended gear would be smart enough to quit (especially since they’re not paying $15 a month – they feel no obligation to stay), not reroll alts. The shift in population is noteworthy, however.

Yeah. They’re fixing the FoV for widescreens, so perhaps this will be their next step in improving the camera. I certainly hope so!

Lutharr.1035

Anet is a buisness who have to listen to paying customers if they want them to remain so. If they dont they lose money. They have wages to pay.

Heh, I don’t have a quote option (weird) so I’m doing it with tags manually!

Anyways, A-Net has to “listen” to every paying customer’s opinion, but they only have to pay attention to those who A] Make logical, constructive suggestions, B] Align with THEIR vision of the game – because yes, it’s their game, they designed it, they keep it running, and they don’t want it to be like certain other MMOs – and C] Understand point B. Now, I’m not saying A-Net is going to completely ignore something that may not necessarily align with their vision of the game, but that would substantially improve it in the eyes of the majority – they’re going to be flexible if they want to be successful. However, they will draw the line on some things, and if you don’t like it, you have many other choices.

Chamone.6890

Why does there have to be progression of any kind? Just because it’s an MMO and that’s the way every other MMO does it?

You’re probably going to disagree, and that’s fine, but the simple reason is because the base ingredient of any MMO is competition. No, that doesn’t mean whacking someone’s face in with your hammer in PvP. It can be any sort of competition: Direct (PvP), indirect (levels, both 1-80 and levels of skill in anything, be it PvP, PvE, doing jump puzzles…), and even illusionary (“My gear looks cooler than yours!”). When you’re playing with other people in an MMO, the main driving force for the majority of players is improving yourself. Why? Why does that matter? Because you’re competing with everyone else.

It sounds like you loathe WoW, but it’s easy to understand why the tiered gear progression in that game works so well. A maxed player realizes that although he’s max level, he’s got a whole meta-game to play through. He sees the elite raiders of the world and envies their skill (subjective, some people think raiding doesn’t take skill) and their gear. He wants to be like them, but the only way to do that is to grind through the lower tiers. When examining it from the outside, it’s a bad system, and we’ve had it for too long. But while you’re doing it, it’s not so horrible, especially if you haven’t done it before.

That kind of system won’t work in GW2, and A-Net shouldn’t even try. But when they say “the whole game is the endgame!”, we have a problem. If the whole game was the endgame, there’d be no level cap. You provided great examples of non-MMOs which prove the point, but to keep things in context, look at a sandbox MMO. You’re not bound by anything except your proficiency in certain arbitrary skills, and just as with levels, you work to improve them. But in a properly designed sandbox, either one of two things will happen: You realize it’s very easy to become powerful, and that opens up the rest of the game for just messing around for fun (this is where GW2 is right now) or you realize it will take years to become powerful, but so long as you don’t FEEL weak, you will keep progressing (this is where a game like EVE Online is).

So, yeah, GW2 may be trying to break out of the mold, but it’s using an outdated system (1-80 levels) that severely bind it and lead to problems like this.

What Chamone said. Although some MMOs cater to soloists more than others, A-Net has wisely made the distinction between singleplayer content and multiplayer content. But you argue: “You can do your Personal Story with friends! That makes it singleplayer OR multiplayer. So why should multiplayer content not also have a singleplayer option?” Because if you group up with your friends for a Personal Story quest, you’re not taking away from other people grouping up with their friends for a Personal Story quest. In other words, because the content is designed to be singleplayer, if you add others, the only thing that changes is the difficulty – it becomes easier. However, if you have content that’s designed to be multiplayer, and then you add a singleplayer option so that people don’t feel like they need to work with others, you can see how the content suffers. There will be less people to group up with, partly because they actually enjoy soloing, but mostly because grouping will be seen as the harder, less efficient method (unless A-Net buffs the rewards of grouped dungeons so substantially that soloists would complain. Loudly).

TL;DR: Some content is singleplayer, some is multiplayer, that’s fine. 90% of the game isn’t so explicitly defined, and that’s a good thing. But for the content that is, there’s nothing wrong.

K. So how do you reward progression at 80 without making gear better? It’s a kitten good question. It’s the main flaw of a level-based system, no matter how transparent A-Net wants to make the levels (by having systems such as scaling). Once level progression stops, something has to take its place. Crafting progression? For some characters, sure. But some have been leveling their professions since the start, so it’s not a guaranteed span like 1-80. Exploration progression? It certainly provides an incentive to revisit some low level areas, but the problem is those who have been exploring on their way to 80. Once they hit max level, they’ll probably only need 2-3 more zones to get “Been there. Done that.” That provides, oh, roughly 10 hours of content, if you rush. Legendaries? Yeah, that’s the main grind here. But one logically asks: “If they’re willing to have unique, epic weapons that take a lot of Karma/Gold/Work to obtain, why can’t they do that with armor?” Is it a bad question? Is it so bad if we have epic armors that, like Legendaries, aren’t SUPER AMAZING 200% BETTER than exotics, but that still look amazing?

The fact is, some people already see Legendaries as pointless because they’re not that much better than exotics. If you’re going to have a system where a person must work very hard for something, they have to feel rewarded at the end. Some people feel rewarded with a cool skin and custom animations. Most people feel rewarded with something more substantial, like better stats or perhaps a skill that is usable only by that Legendary (weapon special attack).

If you don’t want a gear grind – in terms of tiered progression that gate future content – that’s understandable. I don’t really want that, either. But cosmetic progression, while suitable to some, is utterly meaningless to others. Those people, I feel, must find another MMO. It’s just the sucky truth.

So long as the main hand shield had some offensive kick.

Perhaps something like this! Call it an Iron Legion invention…

I had it happen to me, apparently, a few times at the beginning of the puzzle. It’s a lonely feeling when you fall almost immediately and you’re the only sucker standing in that waiting lobby while everyone else at least gets to the exploding tower wall. Fortunately, it didn’t stop me from succeeding near the end!

Magister Tassi is Batman as Mad King Thorn is Joker.

What?

I think Mad King’s Armor (heavy) looks like the Pit Fighter set, though. At least, the boots do (which is all I have).

I’m kind of skipping on the pumpkins. I don’t think I can get them all by event’s end. Everything else, I want to try.

“psychotherapeut”

Wut.

Anyways, I’m just about to try the jump puzzle. It sounds like so much fun! I love the Wiki’s dev quote on it: “…maybe 5% of people would make it to the top.”

Gawddang… so this is where all the Trick-or-Treat bags I put up on the TP went… Well, I wish you had better luck, sir, but thanks for fattening my wallet just a bit.

Thanks. It’s also nice to know how to get the “Attend the Party” Achievement now :P.

Looks like the only thing that’ll trip me up is the pumpkins. Not sure if I can get all 150 by tomorrow’s reset.

“It’s inexcusable that at least “This is my story” stuff should have been ready for launch.”

I understand your frustration, but did you read the dev’s response on the first page?

YES.

“Message Body length must at least be 15.”

I’m kind of split on Trahearne. As a character, he’s definitely two-dimensional because we don’t find out much about his personality or his past (perhaps sylvari know more than the other races, but I doubt it’s anything significant). He’s just a scholar-turned-leader after a vision from his Mother, and I don’t think he ever expected to be leading Pact forces against Zhaitan.

I mean, think about it. Is there any reason he’s the Marshal OTHER than that vision? He’s compelled by Fate and tries to embrace his new role, and he uses our clout as heroes and figures of importance amongst our respective races to vouch for him as a leader, especially within our Order. He gets to command because we say he’s capable, and he develops somewhat as he tries to mature into his new role, but ultimately he still feels boring.

I haven’t completed the story yet – seems like a few missions left – but I don’t feel that he’s “stealing” my glory or manipulating me while he sits on his rump and consumes grapes fed by slave girls. He values me as a second-in-command, relying on me for advice and, more importantly, using my blade against the enemy. But he’s not afraid to get his hands dirty when the situations calls for it. Sure, the role could’ve been reversed and I could be the one leading him, but then I’d have to deal with all of the BORING parts of being a leader. The paperwork, the dispute handling, the blah, blah, blah… y’know what? This game is focused on combat, so give me a role that lets me fight. Every mission. I’m fine with that.

Kelesti.2458:

As soon as he’s entered the story line (or re-entered) everything of value in your personal story has been swept aside. It’s not Destiny’s Edge (whom we’ve been trying to rebuild, and working so freaking hard to do so). It’s not the overarching story of events told through the zones themselves and what’s going on in them. No, this is our PERSONAL story.

And that sucks kittens.

Do you really think EVERYTHING in your personal story that happened prior to Claw Island has to be significant somehow? What the hell does saving your sister (or, in my case, finding out about my true parents) have to do with fighting Zhaitan? If there’s a legitimate connection, then fine; A-Net showed some previous choices in the Order missions having later relevance, such as Ftokchak helping out in Orr (he first appeared in a Vigil mission to save a skritt colony). But it’s more like those earliest adventures helped shape who your character is emotionally, and they’re in the past. They’re done. They’re memories. Why should they come up again when your character has moved on to a much greater threat?

Again, I think A-Net should make the distinction between “personal” story and the world’s story. The longer they call the entire chain your “personal” story, the more confusion and dissension there’ll be.

Yes, I’d like a cape. There’s a back item that you can purchase if your guild is advanced enough, but it’s a backpack (still better than nothing). No, capes aren’t in game because A-Net forgot. They’re not in-game because they’d clip with 98% of the armors noticeably enough to be a point of contention.

The “personal” story ends when you join an Order, because that’s when the main story takes over – the one which you signed up to play. If anything, A-Net should clearly make this distinction, but they don’t because they consider it “personal” if you can still make a choice (even if the choice isn’t very significant). The main story in Guild Wars 2, at least until we get some expansions, is defeating Zhaitan. I’m sure we’ll get to swing at Jormag, Kralkatorrik, and Bubbles soon enough, but for now, it’s all about Zhaitan.

Your “personal” story is meant to give some “personality” to your character, but that is overshadowed when you join an Order. When you start off, you’re a stream; a meandering stream, the direction of which you can control. Eventually, though, you’re going to flow into a river, and if you think you can control where the river flows, you’re being silly. That river flows straight into the ocean, and by that point, you’re just along for the ride.

Is it ideal? No, but your personal story is not more important than the one the world is scripted to act out: the main one.

Mr. Machine Gun Man above has it right. In fact, MMOs that have things outside of combat tend to build stronger communities and the players enjoy themselves more when they can do something OTHER than killing a monster in the face (for the 5019382109248109th time).

Thanks for the advice about jumping up and trying to spam-activate the first door – it worked! Stick to the RIGHT SIDE of the door as you jump and spam that F key, and it should open eventually. The second door seemed bugged at first, but after a few attempts (no jumping, just standing in front of it) it opened as well. After that, everything was alright.

I’m sure A-Net has tracked down the cause and will get it fixed in the next patch, especially if it’s only a few days old.

Shouts like that are meant to let you know what your character is doing WITHOUT having to look at the UI. Of course, they don’t always fire, so you can’t ignore your UI completely, but other exclamations (like conditional ones) can be useful.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH” doesn’t tell me my Warrior’s gaining Adrenaline.

The first ability (rock throw) should just explode heads on contact and perform insta-kills. That’s the only way the Warrior’s downed abilities will be balanced.

I felt pretty lame with a rifle until I put 20 points in the Arms tree and got the Crack Shot trait. Greatsword (and any form of melee) is, as Onion said, situational. I’ve found that the wimpy range of the longbow outweighs any usefulness it might have; there’s a trait to increase that range, though.

Do the Brits pronounce “quick” as “kick”? “Quest” as “kest”? What qualifies the “kw” sound as opposed to the “k”, which is supposedly correct for the anomaly known as “quay”?

I’ve heard male asura scream out, “I’m hemorrhaging!” while… you guessed it… bleeding.

Even though the oxymoron “krogan scientist” would cause a laughing fit among most of the residents of Mass Effect’s universe, cRIPP has a good point. Krogan were able to develop some impressive technologies on their own, but their endeavors were stymied by their genetic weaknesses and cultural tendencies. The charr, meanwhile, have the sense to unite into powerful Legions and prioritize obedience and duty above all. They’ve gone through suffering and tragedy, like the krogan, but they’ve gained great confidence with the reclamation of Ascalon and the raising of the Black Citadel. With the efforts of the world focused on defeating the Elder Dragons, it’ll be interesting to see just what the charr can come up with (beyond Engineers).

On-topic, yes, charr are very much like krogan, but they’re in a far superior position.

Besides crawlkill nearly having an aneurism while chastising the imperfection of a fantasy universe he paid to be a part of, this thread is interesting. The fact is, Ventari’s Tablet is open to interpretation (because when, exactly, is something done growing? Physically, it’s pretty easy to judge, in most cases. But mentally, it’s always growing, always learning and always experiencing new things). The sylvari emerge into a world threatened by evil, and the attempt at moral goodness put forth by the centaur sage is simply not enough to combat the malevolence this young race is facing. Can you really blame them? Be glad that while the sylvari have some hive-mind aspects, they are diverse enough (partly because of which Cycle they emerge in, partly because of individual development) to avoid appearing like mind-linked robots.

It’s silly to think that every piece of content should be feasible for every type of player. If it’s too hard, either improve or ignore it. Dungeons are not integral to your enjoyment of the game (because if they were, you wouldn’t be playing).

There’s a disturbing lack of threads in this forum – according to the graph in the most recent State of the Economy newspost, humans are, by far, the most popular race – but I’m glad this one’s here. I got a great shot of me being a heroic delivery boy in Kessex Hills!

Note: Ignore the crate’s clipping. Instead, focus on the ettin smashing the Lionguard in the background, the steaming volcano (which is actually just a steaming hole in the ground, but that’s far less dramatic), and the imposing, magnificent tengu construction in the far distance!

Yes, norn (males) are very disproportionate. The base of their necks is stretched and their arms are bent outwards. They look good in their cultural armors and some cloth/leather robes, but besides that, bleh.

Behold, a fresh new norn!

Yes, it does. I’m willing it ignore it because I like my Guardian, though.

I find that Guardian is fitting my sylvari perfectly; a Warrior could also work. But I think the most “natural” fit, as stated above, would probably be a Ranger or Necromancer. A Thief would not be a stretch, as the sylvari have a Cycle dedicated to stealth and self-independence.

Thieves and Warriors can both use bows without pets. Are they as effective? Sometimes, but they don’t have a pet. Pete said it best.

Implement this kind of thing in premium PvE content first (e.g. dungeons), instead of trying to apply it to the HUNDREDS of dynamic events in the game. Because if you’re going to try something new, you do it on the small scale until you know it works. Then you break it on the large scale.

I’m getting 1c for completing zones, which seems a bit… low… but I’m only level 19, so I can’t confirm it’s a bug. Item rewards seem fine, though.

Your title is too long to read. Nice. Post was good, though.

Zabrios.6079:

The PvE gear is different from the PvP if we are talking about the structured one, not sure if you are talking about the WvW PvP

Nah man, this is a PEE VEE PEE game so you shouldn’t even have anything besides that! WTF is PvE doing in GUILD WARS!? The OP is 100% right.

If the rewards were too easily obtained, they should’ve made certain dungeons’ story mode and/or certain explorable mode paths harder, but not nerfed the rewards. Or, they could’ve made everything easier, but nerfed the rewards. Doing both is a kick in the nuts.

The wiki says progress is reset when you die (not when you go down, as in you can use your downed abilities, but when it says “You are defeated”), when you change zones, or when you log out. Yeah, it sucks, but you’re going to have to do a marathon session. I got the achievement by starting a new zone and fully exploring it. Crafting works too, if you’ve got the mats.

Nhalx.9735:

I’m positive this can’t be due the new nvidia drivers. My nvidia 630GT with the latest beta drivers wasn’t recieving this. And it’s been out for quite some time.
I tested it out as of today and it happens aswell.

Yeah, seeing as it’s happening across a wide variety of hardware it’s almost definitely something with the game itself. I really hope A-Net doesn’t have to check every armor model :P.

I likely hit Escape to close the Hero Screen – I often do – but, most recently, I closed it with the mouse. It also seems to happen almost regularly when I remove all the dyes from all pieces of armor, though I did get a few crashes when I just removed all the dye from a single piece. I don’t think it’s crashed when I’ve removed a single dye from a single piece. I was actually running the old NVIDIA 304.79 drivers, so I’m updating as we speak and will see if it affects anything.

Edit: Well, I tried removing ALL the dye from one piece of armor and closing with both ESC and mouse – it crashed. Tried removing all dyes from all armor and closing with both ESC and mouse – hello, desktop! Unlike before, though, it also crashed when I removed just one of the dyes.

I definitely think it’s just a model issue (briefly reading the crash log). I have the Scale Pauldrons from character creation (Warrior!) along with a Scale Hauberk, Gauntlets, and Legplates from the personal story quests. Wearing Vital Worn Chain Greaves from a random drop. No helmet. This was happening on another, much higher level character too, though. It could be related to just specific pieces of armor, but dang, that’s a lot of armor models for A-Net to check.