Guild Wars 2

Thanks for making me waste some of my casual player’s time, ANet!

Oh. Well thanks for making me waste my time slaughtering all those champs earlier. Anything else I shouldn’t bother with?

Somehow I’m pretty sure ANet forgot about that as well.

I’ve always been a fan of this idea.

Use a transmutation crystal on something, and now its skin is unlocked forever to apply to anything you want – you know, like what we already have, with unlockable dyes!

Evidently this gets in the way of ANet’s plan of charging us 10$ every time we want a new set of armor. Harr harr.

But, really, you could AT LEAST make an exception to Legendary weapons. The effort to acquire them is already utterly obscene.

The items will remain as they are, you won’t lose anything. You’ll be able to double-click the back/armor/weapon item and choose another set of stats for it. That’s it.

Can’t login either.

GW2 is incredibly poorly-optimized, so expect to run at very poor framerate most of the time. But if you can handle that, yeah, it’ll do.

Even exotics themselves are absurdly grindy.

Yep. It was a lie.

We don’t know how they’ll handle it yet, but ANet said they want to make it as painless as possible for owners of magic find items.

Hope so. I have a full deck of MF armor myself.

I’ve been away from the game for months too and, honestly, you’ll be hard-pressed to find any meaningful difference. For some reason, ANet decided to focus on temporary additions rather than permanent ones.

AnthonyZdravko.2051:

i don’t entirely mind it but it messes with mechanics in WvW, the perma-stealth thief can keep a supply camp from being captured by 4,5 even 6 people just by abusing this rendering issue.

Well, that’s a balance problem then. ANet are definitely aware of the rendering issues and are presumably working on them as we speak, so it’ll go away in a while.

Aren’t Thieves meant to be 1-on-1 specialists?

As much as I hate being randomly paralyzed and kitty-slapped down to 0 health out of the blue, you have to admit that it makes sense in a game that’s meant to be played in a group.

You’d hate Counter-Strike or any other modern multiplayer game then. “I already finished this map, what else is there to do?”

It’s just how the game goes. If you don’t like, you don’t like, that’s just a matter of personal taste.

About “spamming the same skills”, by the way: that means you haven’t understood the rules, or haven’t learned them yet.

GW2’s combat is spectacularly dynamic and multi-fold, more than enough to carry an entire skill-based PvP mode on its shoulders. It’s too complex to explain in game’s term, in fact. You’ll want to make a mental list of all the skills at your disposal and ask yourself how they interact with each other and with your traits – both in effect and in timing.

I assure you, completing a twelve-skill combo chain in the middle of a chaotic battle is no easy – nor boring – task. And that’s me speaking as a Signet-wielding Warrior type, one of the least complex builds in the game.

Something tells me ANet wouldn’t waste their time designing entire mini-games that would only be available for a few days at best.

It’s a very basic flaw, at it applies to all MMORPGs, as well as RPGs in general: if you have level progression, you have players abandoning lower-level content. It doesn’t just apply to someone reaching the level cap, the process is gradual and constant.

ANet never solved this issue. They only made feeble steps towards making adventuring in low-level areas tolerable, but players are still strongly discouraged to do so. Which is a shame because I much prefer many of the “low-level” areas to Orr.

The only real solution is to do away with levels completely – at least as they pertain to endgame on all maps – and offer unique rewards for being in unique locations.

Yes, really.

I have little experience, but I doubt those fancy-shmancy pay-every-month MMOs do even half of that.

Thanks, ANet!

You’re right. ANet didn’t pay much attention to perfecting – or even improving at all – the most crucial part of what they’ve based a great chunk of their content on. Even the early-bird reviewers chastised them for it.

It’s not like it’s an easy thing to do to begin with, but results speak for lack of understanding of what collision meshes should do to begin with.

May I suggest shooting off an e-mail to Overgrowth developer (Wolfire), asking them how to integrate proper platforming methodology into a modern action game?

For the record, I completed the puzzle. It’s exactly the kind of thing you DON’T do unless you have the mechanics in place to make the experience not horrible.

I understand why waypoints have a price – it’s a gold sink, discourages you from farming DEs, etc. – but what you’re saying is true: I did help out random people out with skillpoints and whatnot on quite a few occasions – probably the most fun you can have in this game, by the way – and it really takes a sizeable chunk out of your already high income tax. So not just that, you have to have quite a bit of money if you’re going to aid someone who asks for your help.

Why would you punish and discourage behaviour that’s absolutely the most crucial part of your game?

As other pointed out, it’s the lighting and post-processing that’s messing things up. Other than that, nothing mysterious going on.

ANet’s designers just don’t have a grasp – yeah, talking to you, guys – on the more subtle, technical, nitty-gritty aspects of graphics productions – just as most people in the industry don’t. That’s why we’ve seen the all-consuming bloom-n’-brown and dirt and grit and motion blur everywhere that everyone hates, yet all developers just keep doing it.

It’s not exactly a simple matter to master, but it all stems from the idea of viewing things from as many different angles and making sure it still looks good. Because otherwise you end up with something that looks good on the rigs you have in your office, yet horrible on your friend’s TV. And you friend ain’t gonna appreciate your game more if you keep telling him he’s looking at things the wrong way.

I feel your pain, OP.

Well, except it was in a different game. LotRO was the game I had to quit simply because after slaughtering 100th badger that did nothing to deserve having my sword shoved up its bum except make pretty pelts for a local quest NPC, my consciousness just couldn’t take any more of it.

I actually find that – refreshingly and thankfully – GW2 does a really, really good job with explaining why exactly you’re fighting local wildlife, and why it’s fighting you. However, it’s not often communicated all that well because you have to get the explanation from the lore, from local NPCs and renown descriptions, and often that explanation is completely arbitrary – to the point where there’s no identifiable reason for some Ettins to be timid and chatty and yet others trying to instantly make you into Ettin stew with a side-dish of Exotic Gear.

Communication is the issue. ANet’s writers have already explained much of this, but the designers didn’t bother communicating it. Tsk, tsk.

Also, about killing hungry-hungry animals and making Chinese lamps out of things minding their own business: I don’t think these are the kinds of things that are meant to be perceived as moral and justified by the players. It’s the kind of grey area that makes sense for the people who do it within context of the game, but someone outside their persuasion might find objectionable.

When a villager wanders into a centaur camp, his judgment just might be clouded by the death of his family at their hands. When Sylvari slaughters a fluffy hamster to make a loincloth out of, he’s really treating it no different we treat animals today. When your hero is tasked with going around poor Skritt’s caves knocking over their junk piles, the local NPCs just don’t consider it might be really rude. Possibly because they’re friggin’ racists, just like many Humans and Charr are towards each other (hell, even Rytlock, our resident canonized Big kitten Hero).

Again though, if that’s the case, it’s poorly communicated.

It’s pretty amazing to me that people would rally against a feature that is technically identical.

There’s literally no difference between joining a dungeon with random players just because you want to run and joining a dungeon with random players just because you want to run. Finding a group through “LFG AC EXP!” or through matchmaking is the same exact thing.

The second just makes the grouping process more technical and civilized, like scooping spaghetti with a fork instead of your bare hands. You might personally prefer to scoop spaghetti with your bare hands because you think it’s more fun, but no matter how much you like doing that, a fork is more technically efficient – and it also saves you the annoyance of being a spaz in the map chat. I mean, er, getting your hands all greasy. With ketchup and pasta. And maybe some special sauce.

What I’m saying is, I’m hungry.

IT WAS HORRIBLE

I request the developer responsible for the idea of forcing multiple people to be in on the puzzle at once to be given 40 lashes, no trial. I will pay 800 gems for it, how about it?

The puzzle itself was pretty neat.

Human, no boosts.

Definitely the hardest part of the puzzle was not verbally abusing the FOUR kittening NAKED Norn in the same instance. Couldn’t do it for hours on that attempt, logged on again after a while to find a more reasonable party, finished the puzzle on the second try while at it.

Second prize goes to someone at ANet for not studying the theory of player collision volume allocation, thus making the jumping itself extremely counter-intuitive and relying more on muscle memory than coordination and wit.

Could be fun. But isn’t.

I didn’t have that much frustration in any game in a while. No, the puzzle itself is great, it’s the way it’s presented is what… Well…

While other parts of GW2 make you enjoy being around (virtual) people, this one definitely does the opposite.

I think it’s subliminal racist propaganda.

Against Norns. &#* Norns and their *#$& huge fat @*#&$ of fat.

Can’t say it bothers me.

While botting and racist nonsense definitely exist, I can’t say either of these does anything to impact or somehow “ruin” the experience. It’s just a minor annoyance now. It’s not like ANet is inactive either – you’ve seen their reports, they ban these people by the thousands each day.

I consider narrow FoV (which they’re on route to fixing) to be a bigger issue than this. Because, you know, it’s much more annoying than some naked ranger somewhere having [censored] with a bear [censored] for gold that I get just for [censored] as usual.

YES! KEEP IT!

To no one’s surprise, everyone is happy with the change they’ve been asking for a long, long, long time.

Running 16:10 resolution here on a 22’’ display, this is definitely a much better fit than whatever claustrophobic FoV you had before. Camera movement is way less disorienting. Plus, now you can actually judge the scale and position of world objects – which you can’t do with low FoV, which is part of what contributes to motion sickness for many people.

Oh, also, seeing the world in proper 3D makes is considerably more pretty and immersive.

No graphical bugs so far, no noticeable fish-eye, no performance impact (you’re heavily bottlenecked in dynamic entity department anyway), and definitely none of the reasons you’ve listed for not including a wider FoV in the first place. Seriously, that was ridiculous. Keep the wider FoV, it’s better on all accounts.

People who sit closer – or ones with bigger displays – will probably want an even bigger FoV, up to 100(Horizontal), speaking from experience. People who play on their TV or small displays may want 70(Horizontal) or less. That’s why it’s prudent to have a slider: it’s something that’s tied to individual user-to-screen position and NOT some sort of universal standards.

I disagree. I think it’s more important for Charr to be able to lick other people, and for other people to pet the Charr.

Preferably with an animation which shows their limbs being torn off as a result.

Oh, oh, I know! An even better idea than “Cosmetic” armor slots: “Dye-like” skin-picking system for armor! Eh?

As in, you’d be able to “Sacrifice” any random Armor/Weapon you find to “Unlock” it for future use just like you currently unlock and change dyes – so that you’re free to swap out, mix and match random skins at will. Gives you a little more security and customization options, saves bag-space, no messy interface changes either.

It could even be made to require current Trasmutation Stones to do the “Unlocking” if the cash income they produce is so important.

You know how early on in development you figured out that people don’t like the way Dye system worked in other games, so you replaced it with what we have now? It was a great move. It works. I love it! The players love it!

Why not take it further? Why not do away with single-use Transmutation Stones and instead offer Armor and Weapons to be “Unlocked” and re-used, just like Dyes? The system is already there, and it’s proven to work. You even have something roughly similar, in spirit, with the PvP lockers.

Say, the system can be roughly the same: right-click an item, choose “Unlock skin” (or whatever) which will add it to a character’s unlocked list of “Skins” which they can “Wear” by going to the existing Dye panel and, for instance, right-clicking on their armor/weapon slot and receiving a drop-down of unlocked “Skins” to pick from. Or something.

Not too hard in concept, probably harder in execution, but overall much more pleasant for the players – especially those expected to spend months hunting down all the shiny Exotics just for their pretty looks. Right?

Cheers!

Of course TS are currently a source of income through the Gem Store. If you don’t want to change that, then simply change their function: using a Transmutation Stone will instead “Destroy” the select weapon/armor and make it available as a cosmetic “Skin.” This will still force players – bad idea, by the way – to buy TS to transmute their gear as previous, but it will give more confidence in “Going back” to the previous looks if they don’t like a certain outfit down the road. Personally, this is exactly what’s preventing me from shelling out on or hunting Transmutation Stones: they’re single-use.

Well, GW2 didn’t quit live up to my expectations – largely being another clone of Standard MMORPG: Mists of Boredom with rough edges ironed out instead of replaced wholesale – but I still enjoy it because I learned something else about other people from it…

That people can be friendly, helpful, smart, fun and engaging when given a system tailored to elicit just this sort of behavior.

As opposed to being fluffy, meowing, fur-licking kittens that most people usually are…

Solution. Play Planescape: Torment to get over your fear of perma-death.

Also, yeah, that’s not gonna work. However, if you want those rules, why not force yourself to sell all your gear when you die? You sort of start from scratch this way.

Rukia.4802:

What about Battletoads? I cleared that game multiple times, I’m a pro gamer

And a bad liar, apparently. Nice try.

Agemnon.4608:

Comparing older games to newer ones: I played the first Final Fantasy and it was hard!..

One time I was doing boring manual labor in some aging government research facility, when suddenly it all exploded into flames and aliens started pouring in! It’s times like this that put your loot in context: try swatting at a brain-sucking parasite with your bare hands or dodge giant lasers at the start of it, and a simple crowbar will seem like Legendary Sword of Fire and Flames.

See? Pacing. Alien brain-sucking parasites.

Conclusions? Please implement alien brain-sucking parasites, ANet.

If you’re playing GW2 like another WoW clone (okay, Ultima clone) and just grind your way to 80 and then grind for shinier gear and golds… You’re doing it wrong.

It’s entirely ANet’s fault for failing to communicate this properly through game mechanics, because they’ve always made it very clear in their blog posts and interviews. That’s definitely a problem. But.

The objective of Guild Wars 2 is to play the game (preferably with friends or other people) for the fun of it.

Yep. Loot kinda sucks. I think ANet know this already though, but that’s no reason not to keep pestering them about it.

Having a few more armor/weapon skins be in reach of casual players so they don’t just run around in Worn Scale Armor throughout the entire game might be a thing. Not remove the high-tier, expensive content to save up for, but have higher cosmetic diversity within a hand’s reach.

Hooray for ANet!

What if I’m having species identity issues?

I knew from the start Humans were the safest all-around option, but now that I’ve got an amazingly cutesy Charr – huh – in my other char slot, pardon the pun, I’d really like to go with that.

Obviously this would sabotage personal story and cultural armor, but surely there are ways around that. Like a warning label.

I’d like to know this too. The come with so very few uses, and yet cost so many gems compared to ordinary 4 silver, it’s just outright scary to waste even one use. What do you even get for it?

Maybe they’re a way to mine some currently-undiscovered Obsidian nodes or something.

It’s the Transmutation Stones that are the problem: they’re single-use and only paid-for (or otherwise extremely scarce).

If switching out skins for weapons and armors was done in the same way the Dye system works – oh look at that, we did figure out this permanent-ownership system for Dyes already, compared to how its implemented in other games, didn’t we? – then there would be no problem with selling skins. Instead of selling Transmutation Stones, that is.

Personally… I know I’m compulsory buying up tons and tons of dyes to experiment with (if you offered Celestial dye on Gem Store, I’d buy it!), because I know they’re my property: they don’t go away. Likewise with bank or inventory expansion: it stays once you get it. On the other hand, I’ve hunted down a total of one armor skin set, and then realized I can’t even equip it without forking over 10$ or tons of game-time, so that’s the end of that adventure for now. It’s not even such a high cost, but just to re-skin your character once? That’s no good.

Making the armor looks as permanent as dyes would handily solve that issue. Of course, you want to earn money from all those Transmutation Stones, but it’s just an unpleasant, heavy-handed approach to monetization in that sense. How about having unlockable “Cosmetic” armor slots (for gems) instead?

This is friggin’s sweet, thanks Donway!

I knew about old FXAA Injector, but this is way better. Looking forward to trying it on older games, particularly the Crysis 2 AA method – which is simply gorgeous.

Whoever came up with this requirement was wrong.

No, no excuses, just plain wrong. It’s a silly thing to ask for from PvE players, and it’s frustrating as hell to do – especially when you can’t make sure your players aren’t getting 1 Frame Per Century in this gamemode.

Kill it, get rid of it. It’s awful, awful, awful.

Thank kittens it doesn’t affect most of the game though.

Yeah, it’s not a terribly big deal, but it’s still kind of… boring, really. If you can make it much better, what’s the reason not to?

Exploring the world and quests is simply better than hunting arbitrary mobs or nodes – it’s a much more fun task. The downside is that it IS a separate task, you can’t get it by doing whatever, that’s right… At least in theory.

In practice, daily achievements rarely work out so well anyway, especially when you’re only playing for an hour or two a day.

Yep, it’s an achievement, you keep it forever.

As they are right now, TS are a rather heavy-handed way of extorting gems from players. Because, you know, looks are important – and if that’s the case, why not just have “Cosmetic” slots – easily the best solution, exists in plenty other RPGs – or have TS be much more easily available? Should we really have to shell out 10$ just to have a change of wardrobe (once)? Dyes definitely aren’t like that…

Obviously ANet needs money in the long run, but this is really rather contrary to their otherwise incredibly nuisance-free monetization scheme.

It doesn’t compromise the game in the slightest, but it’s just plain annoying.

PS: Oh, and let me transmute PvP and PvE gear, for kitten’s sake! And a cuddly rabbit, please! And a candy bar.

It’s actually the “useless last effects” that make runes an attractive option: a lot of these effects can make – or enhance – a very specific build that’ll work amazingly well. Extending effect time of boons and conditions being the easiest examples (can you say: “25 stacks of Might?..”)

Crests and orbs, meanwhile, give better overall range of stats, but no specifically tailored effects. More powerful overall, but more spread out, with no single benefit.

It’s clever, actually. Means they both have a place in the game, depending on what you want.

Maybe not in implementation, but I completely agree in theory.

Leveling is a chore, and the brief “Phew” it provides upon dinging a new one is completely abysmal compared to being locked out of the rest of the game.

SirRicktus.2651:

what’s the motivation to level?

Playing through the game, duh.

Also, no, you can’t do everything. Higher-level areas will still get your low-level character killed.

6G right now. But I’ve spent quite a bit of it on… stuff… probably about 20G total. Playing casually since launch, completed story, explored all areas, invested in crafting, got a set of exotic gear, etc.

I’m constantly decked out in magic-find gear, and the gold flow doesn’t seem particularly casual if you’re going for cosmetic rewards, exotics or other such goals. Buying food, dyes and rare equipment, however, is piece of cake – really glad for that one.

Oh yeah, I’m always running around with that rune, and I don’t think I’ve heard “Yarr!” a single time, ever. Maybe some visual effect or something, too?

Kita.7819:

That’s just because the actual “For Great Justice” skill essentially gives a permanent 3 stacks of might to warriors. Its so broken a warrior has to be stupid not to use it.

My constant 15 stacks of might disagree.

TheDaiBish.9735:

Yes, it would be a massive undertaking. But one that, IMHO, would be totally worth it and appreciated by many people, whether it be the lore buffs, the explorers, the people who like to think or people who simply want a change of pace.

Oh yeah, totally.

Jot down that idea, make sure developers hear it once their suggestion-taking tool is in working order.