Guild Wars 2

WhiteAndMilky.2514:

I object to this, because it would effect my WvW experience inversely to what you describe. Everyone is always in combat stance in WvW

Which means that they would have their weapons out. Exactly. That’s not what I’m referring to, though.

I’m just talking about how, right now, models are rendering in a relaxed stance with their weapons in their hands, doing relaxed idle animations with weapons in their hands, etc etc.

A little immersion suggestion here. All models, when rendered, should default to sheathed unless they are player models that are in a combat stance.

Guards and NPCs have always defaulted to holding their weapons, and that wasn’t so bad, but the recent culling change has made it so that players are doing that too, and it’s really odd seeing characters stabbing themselves in the face with greatswords and stuff like that.

Even the guards and other NPCs should default to sheathed. City guards wouldn’t be walking around with their weapons in their hands all the time.

I feel like this could be a pretty easy change from a programming standpoint as well.

MrRuin.9740:

Maybe not this extreme,

Definitely not that extreme.

MrRuin.9740:

but I’m starting to think something like this needs to be added, and not just to zergs.
Maybe you get less of a reward for your mob tagging that gets you a bronze in events. No chance of exotic or certain level stuff. Want the good stuff, earn a gold.
Still doesn’t fix the mindlessness of zergs, but would prevent leeching and going a_f_k (edit: seriously this kitten filter is a bit too sensitive)

Something similar should apply to world events, IMO. People who loiter in the swamp, won’t do pre-events (some of whom also complain in map chat how long the pre-events are taking other people to do), whack behemoth a couple times and get the same as those who ran to all 3 portal locations outside the swamp, for example. You do less, you should get less.

Totally agree with this. A person’s reward should reflect contribution, both in regards to any given fight or event, as well as the state of the world that comes as a result. Tag n’ run behavior should go completely unrewarded, those who stuck around for the whole fight should be getting the best rewards, and everyone in between should be rewarded as it reflects their contribution.

Gehenna.3625:

Well a single player game is done when you complete the campaign. MMOs go on after that.

So what would you call content for when you’ve reached max level and finished the campaign?

You want to do the same stuff over and over again or would you want different activities?

See, no matter what you call it, endgame or max level content or whatever…the point of an MMO is that you can play together with people on a long term basis.

If there is nothing new once you hit max level, then most people will get bored on a relatively short term. That is a bit counterproductive for an MMO.

I’m all for new content. It just shouldn’t be implemented in a way that makes all other content completely irrelevant. LS has been treading dangerously close to doing that (Crown Pavilion, invasion meta-events), especially with this latest release. It’s a very delicate balancing act, but I feel it can get done right without compromising the concepts that make Guild Wars 2 what it is and what makes it different from the rest.

Most of what I see as suggestions basically boil down to “let’s bring WoW’s endgame over to GW2” which not only does exactly that (makes previous content irrelevant), but flies in the face of everything that we’ve been told GW2 wouldn’t be at least two years before it was even released.

Too many people picked up this game without learning about it first, and made assumptions on what it would offer simply because it said “MMO” on the box. Complaining that there’s no gear treadmill-esque “endgame” akin to other MMOs is really no different than picking up a copy of Street Fighter IV and claiming it’s not a “real” fighting game because there’s no 8-way run.

Bring in more dungeons, or more areas, hey that’s great. Just don’t make it so that everyone’s funneled into them to the point where nobody’s doing anything else anymore.

Galtrix.7369:

Have you even played WoW before? From your post, it makes me think you haven’t. Just because one piece of endgame is popular, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t other options to choose from when selecting end-game activities. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like being funneled into specific areas and being forced to complete new content that I despise once I hit max level. Go research a few end-game WoW activities and then go research Guild Wars 2 end-game activities. Compare the two. Then come back and praise me for the genius I am.

Check your your narcissism at the door, “genius”.

Yes. I have played WoW. I started playing just before the release of Burning Crusade (I actually remember when weather became a thing, watching Goldshire freak out about rain was a kick), and stopped just weeks before the release of Cataclysm.

You want “research” comparing WoW’s endgame and Guild Wars 2? Here’s WoW in a nutshell.

1. Roll toon.
2. Level up, skipping all dungeons and raids between level 1 and whatever the current max is, and then proceed to skip all raids that are not part of the current “endgame” meta.
3. Get geared through heroic dungeons or similar mechanisms as fast as possible.
4. Start raiding in whatever raid is considered “endgame” at the time.
5. Do said “endgame” raid over and over and over again.
6. Get geared.
7. Wait for the next raid to release.
8. Repeat steps 4 through 7.

You can’t imagine how heartbroken I was leveling my first toon in WoW. Never finding a group for all of those awesome vanilla raids, having to wait nearly an hour for any non-WotLK dungeon as a DPS, and then reaching the “finish line” only to find nearly the entire server hanging out in Dalaran in between bouts of banging their head against the ICC wall over and over. That sucked. So yeah, to see how sitting here prattling about “options” is hilarious after experiencing first-hand how many “options” there are.

What about Guild Wars 2? Well, no list there; it’s about options at that point. Whatever suits your fancy. See, unlike WoW, there is no endgame; there is only a game. No part of the game suddenly becomes irrelevant at level 80. As a result, no zone is as barren as The Barrens. All of the dungeons in the game have a bunch of players looking to do them. WvW is packed. Even sPvP, despite how little attention it’s gotten, is more viable than any non-“meta” offering in any other MMORPG.

Guild Wars 2 as a game > WoW’s “endgame”.

The most recent NCSoft investor report describes Guild Wars 2 as “stable” and credits it, along with a large spike in Lineage 1 sales in Eastern markets, as a very large source of earnings.

So yeah, pretty sure GW2’s doing pretty well.

Galtrix.7369:

WoW had good endgame because there were countless activities that you could choose from and do at any time you wanted.

This made me LOL quite a bit, considering WoW is the primary example I used to describe “endgame” in that blog post.

From September 2009 to December 2009, you were only doing one thing: Onyxia’s Lair. From February 2010 to June 2010, you were doing one thing: Icecrown Citadel. From July 2010 to Cataclysm, you were doing one thing: Ruby Sanctum.

At any given point in WoW in the past five or so years, only one piece of content has been “endgame” relevant at any given time; the vast majority of the playerbase is, at any given point, focusing on a single sliver of content in what is otherwise an extremely expansive game. If you really think that, in 2013, you still have droves of people lining up to do Molten Core, Black Temple, or have more than three or four people questing anywhere that isn’t Pandaria, you’re deluding yourself.

Interesting topic. Before it gets filled with your typical “water combat sucks because blah blah blah” comments, I’ll go ahead and say my two bits.

I personally don’t see any issue with the weapon choices for underwater combat.

However, I’d love to see water-exclusive utilities now that they’re planning on introducing more skills.

And I’d also like to see more water events as well.

ParnAshwind.4823:

milo.6942:

i don’t see any real cure for zergs when damage > all. what kind of content were you thinking of

Zerg is that hard to fix imo… simply implement a “over crowded” system that decreases player effectiveness when too many players are in close proximity; they do less damage, misses attack and take more damage due to all the chaos.

=)

Or simply make “zergy” content not as rewarding as more skill-oriented content, thus eliminating the “zerg farm” culture GW2 currently possesses.

Casual players would then have their content and are rewarded in some way, and challenge-focused or “hardcore” players would be rightfully getting more rewards than the casual players, and then everyone’s happy. No need for complex damage mechanics like what you just described; just less incentive to farm them and turn it into a low-risk/high-reward farm culture, and more incentive to do more challenging and — and this is an aspect that I feel too many people leave out of the equation — contributive content (i.e., capping temples in Orr).

First off, I’m sick of that word. The concept of an “endgame” is stupid.

More importantly: You’ve stated what you don’t like. That’s fair. So where are the suggestions? Simply saying “revamp the content and make the game zergless” is terribly vague.

He’s gone. Read his FB wall.

Judging from his posts, it looks like he wasn’t too happy with how his last piece of work at ANet was used.

Ashen.2907:

Once.

I believe in doing things right the first time : )

Really I am just one of those players who focuses their efforts on one main character.

Whooo! MMO character monogamists unite!

With the Show Player Nameplates (or whatever it’s called) option set to “off”, player nameplates still render at a certain distance, and then disappear once the player is within a certain range.

I doubt this is WAI; I figured turning player nameplates off would turn them all off.

With the much-welcome removal of culling, there has been an unfortunate side effect: My screen is all to often filled with the nameplates of other players.

I’ve turned off player nameplates for the time being, but I feel like having a nameplate distance slider would be better solution. This would put nameplate rendering distance in the hands of the players to adjust to their own taste. Max could be what we get when the nameplates are turned on, min would be no nameplates at all, and then you could go in between, to set it so that nameplates only render a certain distance from your own character?

Great idea? Or greatest?

Let me get this straight:

These elements that you’re complaining about have been in the game since launch. Furthermore, we’ve known that they would be in the game since 2009.

But somehow, now is the time to be all shocked?

No mention yet of Guard Muldoon being an obvious reference to Robert Muldoon from Jurassic Park, “Clever girl” line and all? Man, I feel old now.

A lot of you guys, including Fiontar, are misinterpreting that Manifesto video to a rather hilarious extent. ANet has delivered on their promises. They may not have delivered in a way that you (for whatever reason) thought they would, but they have delivered exactly what product they were advertising.

Here’s a challenge: Instead of simply stating that they’re “drifting from the Manifesto”, how about you provide examples of how they’re doing that? I fail to see how anything in this or any other update contradicts the promises made in that video.

Confirming here. The chest was already open already on my first-ever visit to that tower. No loot (no option to loot), no achievement credit, as if I had already visited before.

Am I right in assuming Tara also voices the “Suspicious Figure”? My girlfriend noted that she sounds a lot like Purple Smartywings.

Evon dodges taxes by stashing wealth in off-shore Xunlai bank accounts. How could someone vote for that?

Kiel 2013. Right for Captain’s Council. Right for Lion’s Arch. Right for Tyria.

Wake up, people! Why’s a charr showing interest in research on a human god? And more importantly, why doesn’t he want us to know what happened at Thaumanova?

Evon is hiding something #ThaumanovaInFourWords

Why is Evon Gnashblade trying to cover up Thaumanova?

Evon is hiding something. #ThaumanovaInFourWords

I just reported this today, as a player (also reported) using this exploit screwed me out of what would have been my first win.

Any ETA on a fix? This breaks Sanctum Sprint for honest players; nearly every race I’ve been in has at least one person abusing this exploit.

I saw some reef riders by the water recently. I steered clear of them!

I currently use left shift for my dodge key and left ctrl for my swim down key . I’d like to be able to link stuff into chat using different keys, or at least allow right shift to function separately from left shift (currently, binding one to an action binds both of them) so I can use right shift to link into chat.

Giving this thread my +1. I’d love to see right-click targeting gone.

Scott McGough.6897:

Lady Kasmeer is a brand new character who is making her extended cameo debut in the Secret of Southsun. We will see more of her in future releases (or, I should say, we’ll spend more time with her but see less of her, as she won’t always be wearing her beach gear).

What a shame.

6th most played game by Xfire users currently, logging about half the hours of World of Warcraft (which seems to have a much larger Xfire userbase than GW2 player-for-player) despite GW2 being only about a tenth of WoW’s age. Fairly stable box sales and a stronger-than-expected cash shop performance.

Tell me more about how GW2 is failing, naysayers. Data’s proving otherwise. You not liking the game =/= everyone not liking the game. Get over yourselves, and check your delusions of grandeur at the login screen.

As for this investor call and mention of an expansion, I recall Colin saying that they had several years of content being planned (planned, as in not actually being put to IDE), and I’ve never doubted those plans include expansions. I speculated then, and continue to speculate now, that they’ll be looking at other dragons (Kralk, Jormag, Bubbles, etc) and additional areas (named areas surrounding the current playable area that we can’t get to yet, Elona, Cantha) to fill out their expansion content while maintaining a steady stream of monthly Living Story and similar content updates as they’ve been doing for the past few months.

And I’m definitely digging that. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have an overflow to greet in this seemingly “dead” game.

Samples are spread all over the island, and in specific spots.

http://dulfy.net/2013/05/14/gw2-southsun-sample-collection-guide/

Midnightjade.3520:

dinominator.9862:

Tower Guard.5263:

But what to do with the Charr…

full-body wax?

https://dviw3bl0enbyw.cloudfront.net/uploads/forum_attachment/file/70809/sphynx-cat-picture-31.jpg

This is the best post ever.

Dunno if this counts for this section, but since release, I’ve notice that a lot of the ground clutter in the game (grass, rocks, flowers, bushes, etc) disappears when the camera faces a certain way.

Video demonstrating here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCcTM7-aKMU

Happens on every map in the game somewhere.

Quick question: What would these mounts be?

And how much sense does it make to be able to pull one of these things out of your pocket like it aint no thang?

I reported this in-game a couple of months ago, and it still isn’t fixed yet, so I figured I’d post here about it.

Scrolling past a certain point on the My Story list makes the list blank. Here’s a video demonstrating the issue:

Some flickering textures regarding a patch of dirt in LA. The game is filled with these odd camera-triggered visual oddities, such as foliage, rocks, and other types of ground clutter disappearing when viewed from a certain angle.

Here’s a video on the specific patch of dirt in LA I was talking about.

Gonna bump this, as I’m sitting in Malchor’s Leap right now staring down a skill point that is literally impossible to cap solo thanks to an active statue (which requires completion of a lengthy group meta-event to disable) and dense mobs.

Keep this in mind: ANet said it would be possible to solo the explorable content of this game. This was stated in several articles before and after the game’s release. So it’s not asking a lot for them to keep their word.

Group events are great, but by no means should grouping ever be required to obtain any objective toward 100% world completion outside of WvW. All skill points, POIs, vistas, and heart quests should be soloable. And they were, up until Malchor’s Leap. This should be changed.

Red Falcon.8257:

Well, it’s Risen territory.
You kinda expect Pact outposts to be constantly under siege and mobs to be aggressively defending it.

This. Orr over those three zones is supposed to be constant ebb and flow of war against the Risen. It’s not going to be a walk through a field of daisies.

bwillb.2165:

And a good chunk of that 300 hours would have been boring grind.

Since when? cause last time I checked, I’m 200+ hours in and haven’t done a single minute of grinding. I don’t expect that to change.

Phy.2913:

robot.9134:

swagjuice.9270:

Anonymous.6935:

You could say that about any game. My point is I know alot of people (me included) who have stopped playing the game completely simply because there’s nothing to do.

There should be enough content in a game to have you happily logging in every so often to play for a while up until they decide to release some addition content.

You plus alot of people that you know means the game is dying? Very nice.

There are AT LEAST 6 others that i know about personally.

7 People think the game is dieing, time to jump ship.

I like how 7 people leaving the game proves it’s dead, but overflows being common occurrence doesn’t prove anything at all.

bwillb.2165:

DusK.3849:

bwillb.2165:

I love when people who haven’t been to all of the half-assed locations, all of the broken events that make up the higher level zones, and who haven’t seen the very obvious grind focus designed into the high-end PvE experience, try to tell people how the end-game PvE works.

So how do you react when people like me who have been level 80 for weeks and are creeping closer and closer to that 100% tell you that you’re overreacting and, in the case of the alleged “mandatory grind”, flat-out wrong?

I mean, you can pretend that everyone saying “L2P” is some lowbie who hasn’t done enough of the game to make a judgement, but it won’t make it true.

Well, first off, you’re putting words in my mouth. I didn’t say “mandatory grind”, I said that a grind was designed into the game as the “end-game content”. You don’t HAVE to grind, but you’re not going to get cool stuff if you don’t. Second, 100% world completion doesn’t really mean much, all it means is that you’ve done the hearts and vistas and skill challenges. Okay, you’ve got those done. Now what? Have you collected all of the dungeon armor sets? Have you created legendary weapons? Have you taken back every corner of Orr only to have the events either bug out, or have them finish and then reset 5 minutes later, wiping out your contribution to the world? Have you even finished the personal story?

No, because if I had done all that, I would have experienced a good 300+ hours of content and gotten my $60 worth.

Lance Coolee.9480:

A snapshot that is guaranteed to lean heavily in favor of the point ur trying to prove.

Oh no, God forbid a viewpoint other than yours be proven right.

robot.9134:

DusK.3849:

robot.9134:

Lance Coolee.9480:

DusK.3849:

10:54 PM on a Sunday.

LA overflow and W3 queues don’t even come close to exemplifying population health.

Dusk knows more than you. This game is very alive and has 0 issues.

Don’t get all hissy just because I keep bringing evidence to the table to support my claim whereas you have literally nothing other than speculation.

i am getting a bit hissy….far more hissy than id like to admit.

It gets frustrating when someone of your caliber brings all of these undeniable facts to the table. I cant compete. Hence…the hissyness.

Sorry, can you please skip to the part where you were going to say something relevant? Maybe bring something to the table that proves your point?

Lance Coolee.9480:

A snapshot of an in game map does not constitute valid evidence. It holds just as much factual weight as the xfire posts ur so quick to discredit.

A snapshot of a game that shows a mechanic in-place that only occurs when the population of a map is over what would normally be expected doesn’t hold any factual weight. Right.

bwillb.2165:

I love when people who haven’t been to all of the half-assed locations, all of the broken events that make up the higher level zones, and who haven’t seen the very obvious grind focus designed into the high-end PvE experience, try to tell people how the end-game PvE works.

So how do you react when people like me who have been level 80 for weeks and are creeping closer and closer to that 100% tell you that you’re overreacting and, in the case of the alleged “mandatory grind”, flat-out wrong?

I mean, you can pretend that everyone saying “L2P” is some lowbie who hasn’t done enough of the game to make a judgement, but it won’t make it true.

robot.9134:

Lance Coolee.9480:

DusK.3849:

10:54 PM on a Sunday.

LA overflow and W3 queues don’t even come close to exemplifying population health.

Dusk knows more than you. This game is very alive and has 0 issues.

Don’t get all hissy just because I keep bringing evidence to the table to support my claim whereas you have literally nothing other than speculation.

10:54 PM on a Sunday.

If you’re talking about not being able to preview items on the Trading Post, it’s coming eventually.

If you’re talking about from merchants, yes, we are able to preview gear before buying it from them. So if you can’t, I’d fill out a bug report.

He doesn’t want to make a post detailing his dungeon experience because it would yield what is probably a very good reason for his party to say something like that.

Kimbald

Couldn’t it be because you kill more mobs than?
Not only for being stronger than when leveling, but also for not wasting time on ‘questing’ and such?

You should compare the nr of mobs you killed on both ventures, to see if there is a % increase or not.

Maybe you do, just trying to figure out what seems like a very odd thing for the dev’s to implement.

I don’t kill any more mobs than what I would have if I were leveling in that zone, so I’m pretty sure that’s not it. Considering I speed through these zones, I probably kill fewer mobs than I would if I were leveling.

Honestly, the system doesn’t seem out of place to me at all. It’s just another incentive for high-level players to do low-level content.

Anonymous.6935:

Oh Dusk please just give it a rest, you comment in pretty much every post. If anyone’s a troll, it’s you!

Look, everyone, this pot’s trying to call the kettle black. How adorable.

robot

YOUR arguments are making assumptions.

Why would you say this directly after making an assumption as to the reasons for the alleged low player population?

Seriously, I laughed so hard when I read that quote block I nearly fell off my chair.

Personally, I think the downscaling isn’t enough in some cases. I find myself 2-shotting nearly everything in a starting area as an 80, and it gets only marginally more difficult as I move through the maps.

Sounds like a L2P issue in your case, Fatal OEfx.