Guild Wars 2

I thought this on some of my alts last year, as I made 5 characters within minutes of the game going live. Then I remembered that some of them were just name place holders who got deleted and remade a few days later with the actual race/profession/appearance I wanted.

Check the days played on the alt, not the overall account time, to predict your accurate birthday.

Mark, I have a friend who works as a lead at a major MMO company. It’s his third MMO company (not his fault the first two folded). He designed the game mechanic I most love in the current MMO, which I felt that way about even before learning it was his baby! I’ve heard enough to know just what you have to put up with and how hard it is to soldier on in the face of constant attacks on something you’ve poured your heart into.

So yes, please know that some of us out here know you’ve worked insane hours for the pure love of it, and cared about the quality of all pieces big and small of your product. I may not agree with parts of it coughRNGskinscoughcough but I will never question your dedication or hard work. As I’m not a game designer and even suck at any attempt to min-max a single character, I can’t claim my disagreement with parts of your implementation has nearly as much merit as your choices in how to make it all work.

Thank you, and all your colleagues. You’ve put out a kick-feline product and any other MMO I’ve tried since has had some good parts but a lot of frustration when it doesn’t have the GW2 good parts.

I agree with the stacking. There have been bugs like that before with other items, eventually fixed, so hopefully they’ll fix this.

I’ve used a scant few of my level 20 scrolls, mostly when I was raising an alt quickly for RP purposes. But as someone who actively enjoys leveling, I tend to avoid them. I’ve got an asura necromancer in his early 30’s now that I made so I could see the Infinity Ball PS line, and I got him up to 20 the normal way because that’s a nice daily project for me to work on.

If/when they do give us a new profession and/or race, I won’t want to skip all the learning I can do in the first 20 levels. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t want a +20 either, but that’s just me. For most people +20 would be delightful and far more useful than a 20-cap one ever could be.

The subforum doesn’t have to be huge, Chris. It can be inserted right under General, with people only making new threads on topics that have a full life of their own. (Hello mods, yes, I’m suggesting increasing your workload dramatically … sorry …)

As to a downvote feature, I’m against that. I think it’s too hard to police or create intelligent safeguards on a small specialty subforum like that. I wouldn’t mind a Block feature so individuals can choose not to see other individual’s posts. However, I’ve been dabbling in another game’s beta this weekend. In that game’s forums there is an up/down vote feature. Guess what the only two threads were that I saw with indented garbage can icons suggesting they were on the chopping block? The ones setting up to choose unofficial NA/EU RP servers. There was nothing toxic in them, the only toxicity was from the — feline filter will censor me if I use the descriptive phrases I want to — who downvoted RPers out of spite.

Birthdays are per character. If you made a few alts over a few months and retained them, their birthday gifts will arrive on their individual anniversaries. The people nabbing 2nd birthday gifts right now are those who made and kept characters in the head start period right before main launch.

So you have 75 days to your oldest character’s first gift.

I think it’s for the character’s second birthday, so when your next alt gets to 2 years old, you’ll get one?

Go to the birthday vendor in LA lion plaza. Looks like she’ll replace it if you lose it but I don’t know if she’s a permanent NPC.

edit: Oh, I just opened my 2nd birthday present and it was in that too. The present came in the mail.

I won’t be entering this one as I actively shy away from making MMO characters that look like media images. However I am fascinated by how well people have been able to use GW2 armor and dyes to match a variety of looks.

Hmm, I suppose I could be tempted to try making one of the Four Musketeers — I’d have to pick what interpretation, though. And spend a ton of transmute charges on a new alt. So I’ll just sit back and enjoy what you all are doing instead

Palador.2170:

Suggestion: When you do the next CDI, don’t make it a thread.

Make it a sub-forum.

Part of the problem in the old CDI threads was how much of a mess they became. But if it’s a sub-forum with one main CDI thread, then when something interesting comes up you can say “That might be worth a more in-depth discussion in its own thread, go ahead and start one.” They can then make the new thread in the sub-forum, and that topic can get talked over in more detail without derailing the main thread.

Of course, any devs in the CDI could start new threads there as well. Such as “You say you want better rewards. What does ‘better rewards’ mean to you?” Getting details talked out and making sure everyone is on the same page without cluttering up the main topic.

When it’s over, lock the sub-forum and have someone work up a “final results” post. Keep that somewhere, and wipe the sub-forum when the next CDI starts.

This is a brilliant idea. I know some have suggested Reddit-style format, but any time I look at a Reddit page I am totally lost as to what’s been said when. I’m old fashioned and prefer linear text Doing it with subforum threads would let individual conversations get sorted out while still keeping them all in one findable place.

There’s 10 of them atm, starting at 380 gold.

Here’s hoping it happens on the dot — I can easily be up to midnight eastern tonight, but I do recall that it takes time for the game to notice the anniversary. Plus only one of my alts was made minutes after launch, the other 4 from launch were created randomly for names then rerolled once I wanted to start playing them.

CeruleanRevolver nailed it.

BrotherBelial, there’s a very fun one in NE Diessa. It needs an event chain to open, starting at that fortress in the area. You escort some Charr to fight Flame Legion and once the Flame Legion is defeated the fire portal to the mini dungeon opens across a bridge to the NE of that little area.

Once inside there are puzzles to solve in order to advance, and some fairly hard fights made easier if you have others with you.

I’m not so keen on having large groups of people not in my guild come trampling in on my dungeon runs. The dungeons are designed for five people, not fifty.

Though I wouldn’t mind if the dungeon -maps- were available open world, without all the nasty mobs. I want to RP in CM more! Though of course, that would entail dealing with everyone else who also wants to do that. WTB deeply detailed player housing with permissions so everyone in my guild can come hang out in my manor …

Go see the vendor, you get a title. “Loyal” for one year in, and another for two years. I saw a That_Shaman datamine of the titles, and they seem to cover 7 years worth, but I didn’t pay attention to the details.

“Loyal” is in game now if you visit the vendor in the lion fountain plaza in LA on an alt at least 1 year old. She’ll have some more goodies soon, I believe, but I won’t spoil what they are from the datamine I saw

You can, however, go to any home instance. Human and Asura have the best layouts for the nodes. Human does mean approaching one tree from the direction of the Salma entrance so you get the Chop option before the skill point Commune pops up (if you have all nodes).

Shoulders: Deathly
Legs/Coat: Male Tricksters
Gloves: I can’t tell, most gallery shots hide gloves and I don’t have any human male Light wearers
Boots: Ascended

All male Light armor.

ANet should choose, at least for the first one. We’ll get into the meat of the discussion much faster that way, and the devs will have time to maybe work on some of the hybrid suggestions or in-game polls that many are advocating in order to implement them for the next CDI. This isn’t the only CDI we’ll ever get, right?

Granted I do hope the first new CDI discussion will involve PVE as that’s my section of the game, and that it will relax some of the “we can’t tell you thing one” restrictions so we can be told about major amazing things on the way. Still, ANet is in a much better position to know what needs the most community feedback right now.

Indeed, it is from the vendor, very simply achieved. Talk to her, say you didn’t get the title, bam, you got it. My post was in response to Cheshire saying it wasn’t the vendor. A week or two ago visiting the vendor did nothing so I wasn’t clear on the process needed

Note you only need to do it with one alt, it seems to be account wide.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

P.S: In regard to more manpower toward communication we are working on that (-: and I would rather not kick anyone in the balls much less Mo who is a friend (-:

If I weren’t 3000 miles away from you I’d apply for that job! I’ve recently resigned after 19 years as an indigent defense attorney and would sort of like non-attorney helpful stuff to do once I get bored of chilling out at home. Of course, I know how many hours MMO company employees have to put in … so maybe not …

Anyway I hope you find a small team of people who are articulate and calmly rational and good at avoiding ulcers from dealing with nasty attitudes.

Check through http://argos-soft.net/GW2/ArmorGallery/ to see if there’s anything you like. You can select race and gender and armor weight. I usually select the little black and white checker box to color the armor in a way easiest to see details.

Dulfy also has galleries with in-game pics of the armor and some dyes applied.

The abuse comes from people using custom emotes to disrupt others’ play. There are two ways they do this: 1) emote lewd crude things to RPers (because the Block feature does not block custom emotes and a ban won’t happen in one minute after the /report) and 2) spam the emotes constantly to scroll the RP text away (again, unblockable).

Making /em blocked when you Ignore someone would solve so much.

(semi-related, so would giving us a better color than dull grey … /pet project)

If it’s from time alone and not the vendor, why don’t I have Loyal or The Loyal on my alt I’m on in game right now with 727 days since creation?

I hate answering with “I don’t know” but if bumping’s happening .. well .. I don’t know for sure. I have logged in to game almost every day since launch and noticed most every sale in time to make a considered decision on whether to take advantage of it or not. My memory of last year’s Anniversary Sale is dim by now.

However, if I recall correctly, the March sale this year was one day only for each day’s sales. The safe way to bet is that this one will be that way, so if you can’t log on today to get your 40% off character slot you’ve missed that sale.

A lot of good suggestions here. I’ll add in staff necromancer. Use some minions to help draw mob attention and 4 of your 5 weapon skills are ground target aoe, easily cast by using the hybrid cast where you see the green circle and it casts the moment you release the button. I think I do the least movement and dodging on my necros (though the only minion I generally bother with is the heal one). I have a Naga HEX so my mouse is only for moving and my left hand taps the hotkeys needed to cast; if you’re able to tap just one key at a time while mouse moving, that should be sufficient. I myself don’t use combo keys in combat, I have small hands and poor reflexes.

I’d love all those things as well! I’m curious how they’d look in a male version and whether there’d be any use for them at all for Charr.

Because while those who play human female Light wearers will be astoundingly happy for these dresses (me included), ANet would sorta have to do something equally yummy for all races and genders. Like, a complete new cultural set for everyone, maybe? And these would be Human Female Light?

Lots of fantastic looks and creative backgrounds, I had fun seeing every entry and am getting psyched for all of Lilith’s contests now.

I forget if I asked for this already. A while back there was a Jester outfit datamined. All one piece, and this was before the Outfits debuted, so it seemed to only be for NPCs.

Any chance we could actually get that outfit implemented? It would be thematically perfect for my guild. We could have a dance party in our guild-colored jester uniforms.

(and of course I’d love all the NPC-only outfits to come to players. Race-restrict them if you must. Heck, gender restrict them, if that’s the only way to get some things like Anise’s gown).

Added to one of my mesmers:

We’ll know in 5 days. I’m getting a little psyched. Not bouncing in my chair in anticipatory glee, but definitely looking forward to some good news.

Well pfft. Guess I won’t be getting that achievement ever. Good luck, OP!

I’ve had a lot of fun dyeing it on most of my alts today. I also set up dye schemes on other outfits and typed them up in Word so I can replicate them later (curse that failure to save dye schemes when swapping looks, it’s the same frustration as Ranger pet names).

What struck me is how well arranged the dye channels are. Other outfits have ridiculous pairings of colors — like male Fancy Winter, where the boots will be the same color as the main coat field, so I can’t have a white coat and dark boots — but this one makes sense and even gives a bonus effect on the hip plates as they are a channel separate from the main armor.

I love the collar. The shoulders are a bit out there, but the collar is perfectly Elizabethan. It’s like petals around my sylvaris’ heads, too.

Hurray, I didn’t even have to change an outfit! This is my Scarlet Pimpernel sylvari in his adventure mode, with his identifying glow hidden. As you can see I have already nabbed the sword because I was waiting for it for him. He’s in dark purples because I had him in greys and blacks and he actually looked like a black and white image inserted into the game, plus his nom de guerre is “The Purple Wing.”

Gas Mask – Pitch, Black, Aqua Tint
Shoulders hidden
Aetherblade Light Vest – Midnight Violet, Tungsten, Night Shade
Apostle Wraps – Evening, Abyss, Tungsten
Ascalonian Performer Pants – Midnight Purple, Abyss, Chalk
Aurora Shoes – Midnight Purple, Evening

I think you’re simply putting your own connotations on the name. The rest of us see something innocuous that might indeed mean your real name is Holly

I was lucky enough to know my RP main’s name before the first beta, so I used his name for my id and for my guild forum avatar. However I’ve often found myself using names from previous RP characters for my next MMO account — I just tried out ArcheAge and used my WoW name, whereas in TESO I have the name of my previous WoW RP main …

You don’t have to have them all at once in your bank, I’m pretty sure. At least my bar has progressed just from dropping a mini in and then taking it out to sell. It triggers on being banked, not being kept there.

How do you hit the wrong one when you have both a face icon and a full screen image of the active one? Do you dress them all the same?

I have quite a few more alts than you and if I click the wrong one it’s because I mistook which one I wanted, not because I missed. Very rarely I accidentally click Play when I haven’t swapped yet.

That being said, a fast swap as described could be nice. Not that it takes that long as it is. I’ve been playing another current MMO on the side and it’s frustrating how long it takes to load and log in compared to GW2.

Hooray for the winners! I loved seeing all the shots. If you would like another whale pic (not as cool as Bubbles), here’s one from early Sept 2012.

They vanished during the Scarlet invasion. Probably the lasers scoured that garden down to the rock.

All righty! Here is Donari Mal di Bette himself, in a few of his many fashions. While normally he goes for greens and blacks, when he’s out for an evening on the town he’s more likely to go for white. When adventuring he’s more practical, as you can see when he faces down a Watch Knight (since then he’s collected an ambrite shortbow but he was true to the Krytan style a good long time). That one might count as wallpaper material and a larger version can be sent to you if you want it. Some of these shots have ladies in them; one died to the miasma in the LA attack, but is not forgotten. /mourn

You can set your preferred hot key to toggle the UI. I use F11 as it’s near Print Screen.

I don’t know for sure, Fire Bullet, but “cheesy” is slang for something that is .. ok, this is also slang … corny or lame. Of poor quality, slapped together. A stupid way to achieve something. The connotations are of something one cannot be proud of. Hmm — maybe it’s like “sure, we won the tournament, but only because the better team’s bus broke down. Sure feels like a cheesy win.”

Completely not mine — I can add in my own actually fashionable sorts — but this person must be known. I just happened upon him in Rata Sum. (I do not need a key).

I believe there were lions in Elona, so the memory may persist.

The cat tonic will make you a lion or lion cub at times … they have the models. We could see them in game some time, perhaps.

(Note the occasional NPC comments referencing horses when we see none. Another extinct breed?)

That post is exactly what I thought from the title. I am sure the link-mavens will be able to find the many other threads that have explained why open world PvP is not a good thing for this game, from basic mechanics issues to social concerns.

It looks like the game is half price from now to Aug 24. That date is no coincidence, as Aug 25 is the 2nd anniversary of early access launch. Perhaps your friends could be persuaded to buy the game for the price of a good tshirt?

It’s not the PvP armor, that’s the Glorious stuff shown in today’s blog and already previewed on a live stream. This is an outfit in the costume section of the wardrobe, a one-piece like other outfits. It does have nicely laid out dye channels if you check that with random color applications from the TP preview.

It’s not different per race and only slightly per gender. Men get a sash hanging down on the front right, women get a tighter waist with more skirt flare and a central hanging panel, but it is clearly the same design for both, hurray! Though, erm, the female boots have heels … because those will never be a problem in combat … yeah.

It does not remove a Norn beard, btw.

All this is based on preview from wardrobe and assumptions that the in-game appearance will match the preview.

… feminist? I think that word does not mean what you think it means.

Not being a GW1 person, I have no emotional attachment to the Chaos line of weapons. Nor do I feel any great need to own any of them. The effect is nice, at least when you can see the little blue striations and smeary ripples shimmering off the weapon, but the overall impression is of a bloom overload smashed onto a very crude mass produced item for most of the choices.

Yes, I am in the pro-realistic-weapons camp. I still want elegant ones. Maybe it’s just that I know how grimy the textures are on the sword and spear under the bloom, but there’s a lack of grace to them for me.

But I’m glad they made a line of realistically proportioned weapons that excite a lot of the playerbase.

In all the talk pro and con regarding the current chapter, I’ve not seen one comment on the music. Yet, along with the ringing tones of the herald announcing the leaders, that music did so much to immerse me in the feeling that a major ceremony was taking place, that these really were Tyria’s premier VIPs. I commented in gchat at the time that I foresaw people using this music along with the new laurel wreath headgear to set up wedding scenes

So kudos on that. It certainly sounded inspired by Elgar with maybe a dash of Mendelssohn.

(Another LS moment that hit me more strongly thanks to the music was the death in Ft. Salma. The music told me to be sad, so I was. Movie music generally has its way with me and the music for this LS has been good enough to do that).

I was full of “oh no” with that and the cinematic, and then afterwards most all the sylvari were collapsed on the ground weeping while Menders went from one to the next. I fully intend my three rp’d sylvari to have major reactions to this, even the Valiant in exile who is currently far from the Tree.

Indeed, there was quite a thread explaining exactly why the reward for playing GW1 should remain a reward for playing GW1 (which can still be done). The fair way to get it is to go play GW1. My guildies finally convinced me to do so, but I haven’t done much beyond get to the Searing because I refuse to solo it and there’s been stuff to do in other games.