Guild Wars 2

Here are some screen shots for ya. Trust me; it’s no fun running around with a dumbfounded look on your face all day.

cheshader.5081:

Hamfast.8719:

The “official” reason for removal of the female human idle animations was that some players complained they were “immersion breaking” during some cut scenes (especially certain NPC death scenes, when the mood was supposed to be sad).

Any source on that?

Considering there is a lot of literally immersion crushing stuff, not only not being removed but being added to the game…

Here’s what Gaile told us several months ago (I can’t use the “quote” feature… I guess the thread has been deleted or locked, but I dug it up on Google).
_________________________

Soooo sorry! I asked about this and forgot to post!

Some time ago, it was noticed and reported as a “bug” that during cinematics, the “fidget” animations continued. So you’re seeing this exciting story bit about a dragon attack and, behind the scenes, your character is yawning and toeing the sand. It just didn’t fit.

So the animations were temporarily removed to be worked on and reincorporated in a way that allowed them to perform normally in the game but to stop (or maybe change) during cinematics. But getting to a place where the animations could be configured on a more fine-grained basis took more time than anticipated.

From what I understand, the team has the tools to reconfigure and re-enable the animations, but the team lead told me that naturally they’ll need to figure out when someone (or maybe more than one person) can be assigned the task. As it turns out, each animation bit needs to be reconfigured individually.

TL;dr: This change is coming, as soon as it can be scheduled and prioritized. Naturally, some matters that are higher on the priority list but this project will be scheduled as appropriate.
______________________________

Can we please get an update, Gaile? You tell us ANet knows the problem. ANet has the tools. Can we please hear that this hasn’t been swept under the rug? (You said “temporarily removed” there).

Easiest, quickest fix: Just put ’em back! A couple of seconds of “fidgeting” during a cinematic is less than .01% of our everyday play. If you really, truly think this needs fixed, then fine – fix it. But don’t remove them from the other 99.99% of the game in the meantime. It’s my bet that if restored, you’ll get tons of “thank you, ANet!” responses, and never hear a peep about “fidgeting in cinematics” again.

I want to be able to do THIS again! …

(And yes, it’s just a little bit sexy, especially when presented this way. But so what?)

My character for the Stress Test was Beta MAX. I played an Elementalist (my favorite) in order to get a feel for the new content while using a character I was comfortable with. I figured everyone and their brother would be trying and reporting on the Revenant. So here is the Beta MAX record of my experience for those of you who weren’t selected this time around.

Heart of Thorns picks up with the cinematic of the Pact fleet being devastated, and you are called upon to help in the aftermath.

The small area we were able to access (in the treetop section where the fleet came down) was dark and full of wreckage. It felt like just a continuation of the Living Story, which or course it is. But I also got a twinge of the feeling I got when I left Pre-Searing Ascalon in GW1 and found myself in a whole new world. Not so much “cool!” as “uh, oh… what have I gotten myself into?”

As with any new experience, it took a bit of fumbling around to figure out what I was supposed to do and where I was supposed to go. But it didn’t seem any more complex than any other LS update. In fact, the Mordrem seemed to drop a little easier than I’ve become accustomed to.

We got an opportunity to take some baby steps with the hang gliders. The updrafts were a little hard for me to see, so it took a little nerve to jump off a cliff the first time. If you miss the updraft, you fall and fall and fall and POOF; back to the start. (You are too high up to go splat). It might be different as you improve, but from what I can see at this point they will not act as parachutes in spots with no updraft.

The “finale” of the Stress Test was a boss battle against our first Wyvern. Overall, I liked this for several reasons. First, it wasn’t too crowded. I despise zergs, but I was able to feel that my contribution might have had a little impact here. Second, the guy moves fairly often – sometimes seemingly in response to my AoE attacks. This is refreshing in a boss. Lastly, he makes you move a lot. Not just to chase him around, but also to avoid his devastating fire strafing attacks. All in all, this made the fight feel far less “scripted” than many I’ve experienced in the past.

Being a “Stress Test”, I expected lag and bugs. But as I said, the Wyvern fight wasn’t overly crowded when I was there, so maybe they are controlling the populations better. (It is sort of instanced I think… we had to take a helicopter to the area, and they could manage our population that way I suppose). My Internet connection isn’t particularly fast, and lots of fire/bright lights can tend to bog down a graphics card. But I chugged along far better than I do at MAW or Jormag after reset. I ran across zero bugs.

We had a brief peek at the Mastery system. Once again, only the beginning levels. My hope here is that we aren’t locked in to the masteries we pick. Even if it costs gold to change them, I would not like putting points into something and discovering later through play that I would have been better off having chosen a different path.

We really didn’t see all that much new in our brief two hours, so I hope they have more chances for other folk to get a preview of different areas and features. I came away without any great “Ooh! Ahh! Gotta have it now!” feelings. But I liked the boss fight mechanics, and look forward to getting better at hang gliding. The rest was same-ol’, same-ol’, and I trust that there will be some prettier locales as we delve deeper into the Maguuma.

P.S. – A big thanks to ANet from Max for the first-person camera!

No! Don’t say that! Don’t let them think we’ll settle for low quality! There’s nothing worse than a hair-helmet. It’s gotta move! They just need to be better about it.

I am a child of the Pale Tree. Mordremoth may have planned for us to be his minions, but the Pale Tree has protected us for 27+ years, and still fights against him. So far, she has lost only one battle. And that was after her protection had been weakened from a direct assault on her person. We most certainly have not all turned against our fellow Pact members. We are still strong and in control of ourselves.

“Divide and Conquer” is the oldest trick in the book. Mordremoth is using it against us, and you are falling for it. Stop working for our common enemy! The weakest person is the one who fights alone. You don’t have to like us personally, but you do need all the help you can get. Now put down your traitorous, shameful picket signs, pick up your weapon, and get back in the ranks with us, soldier! It’s time to fight, not bicker!

Just a flesh wound.3589:

All Sylvari are evil veges.

That word “All” is mighty big. You are pre-judging a whole race. Per Merriam-Webster, prejudice is defined as:

• an unfair feeling of dislike for a person or group because of race, sex, religion, etc.

• a feeling of like or dislike for someone or something especially when it is not reasonable or logical.

The definition fits. So you can understand when unfair, unreasonable, illogical feelings don’t sway fair, reasonable, logical people towards your view.

P.S.: Does nobody remember that the Asura captured/experimented on/killed etc. Sylvari when they first encountered the race? I suppose they just get a “pass” for their actions because they have cute floppy ears? There is good and bad to be found everywhere. Certainly the Sylvari’s 27+ years of doing intentional good outweighs the recent evil a few of them have done against their will, though.

Bran.7425:

Yet another set that wasn’t to my taste, but to each their own.

I guess I make number three that doesn’t care for them. I am guessing you want to know for the sake of selling the most desirable one at a profit? But if this trend continues you may have to be patient and hold on to your tickets for the next set.

Edit: I was number three when I began typing. I see you still nave mostly negatives though.

I play a Sylvari. I generally use the wolf and his matching little buddy Goedulf. If I stop running, they pull up and stop well ahead of me over a body’s length away. If I step up to be right next to them, the Animal Companion walks off to stay ahead of me. I can only approach fairly close by toggling “walk” speed. When I stop, I’d rather they come up to within in arm’s reach of me. Personal preference… I take a lot of screen captures and I want them in the shot.

They might also be selecting people known to be good about sending in bug reports. I do my fair share, and in great detail.

qarinus.3869:

For me, it went away after a bit of just ignoring it

Your character probably said something again, and closed its mouth properly. (Even if you don’t remember hearing it, we are so used to their jibber-jabber that it can easily be missed as background noise).

Fair warning, ANet; I’m not going to let this bug get swept under the rug. It’s horribly ugly for my main toon to be running around with her mouth hanging open catching flies. I’m going to keep haunting you about this, so please fix it or be prepared to silence me. I’m about to start pestering you about the idle animations again too. You said you were going to restore them, and I’m holding you to that. Now that I can take nice close-up screen captures, I want my variety of poses back.

Seishiro.7468:

This war is almost lost, even though it is just begining, all because of your kind, with the pact destroyed, the orders in chaos and most of our forces lost, while we can’t trust a fifth of the survivors.
You want to proove your innocence? Turn yourself in so that you can’t harm those around you, willingly or not.
You want to fight Zhaitan? Dig up ore in the mines and join the supplyproduction in our regulated workcamps.
Once all of this is over, you might be able to live a free life again, but for now, only a supervised sylvari in a controlled environment is a good sylvari.

Lighten up, Francis.

With an oriental-sounding account name like “Seishiro”, I wouldn’t think you’d support something like the Japanese internment camps of World War 2.

Update: When this happens (which is surprisingly often) I can equip/unequip an item until my character says their stock “I got a good item” line. It’s the fastest workaround I’ve found.

This seems to be the “workaround” update. Here are mine:

• I force my character to say something in order to close her mouth.
• I toggle to “invisible” and then back “online” to talk in Guild chat.
• I suspend SweetFX in order to keep installations from freezing, then reactivate SweetFX.
• I play a non-Ranger to keep my Animal Companion from attacking when set on “Peace”.

Fixes are coming, right? Right? Anyone? Bueller?

- Insert cricket chirping here -

I’m biding my time, patiently waiting for a crack at the Mini Jaguar Cub. Remember me, ANet? The guy who spent oodles of money in your Gem Store every week before the updates that killed my Town Clothes and ruined my Toys (Boxing Gloves/Sonic Tunneling Tool, etc.) I’m still here. You just need to entice me with the kinds of things I like again. Get off of your Town Clothes fixation and find something I like, and I’ll start shoveling money in your direction again.

At the very VERY least, they should turn the Town Clothing that we were originally given at character creation into Outfits. This one basic Outfit should then be available for free in the Gem Store. (Call it “Cultural Outfit” or something like that. Of course they aren’t going to make a Sylvari style Outfit for an Asura.)

But yes, I would love to see all of the Town Clothes Tonics turned into Outfits. The Tonics are totally useless, and I’d even put up with the ugly combination they created just to be able to wear my GW2 Dragon Logo T-Shirt again.

My characters must stink. I mean serious B.O.

When my Ranger walks up to her pet, it moves off. It is hard to get a screen shot of them close together.

If I stop long enough for my mini pet to catch up with me, he only comes within 10 feet of me. I need to walk over next to him, or nobody knows he’s mine. (Seriously, ANet… let them keep up with me while I’m running already!)

I suggest a SLIDER for Animal Companion/Mini Pet distance from my toon.

My character doesn’t need a bath… honest!

I don’t know if I’d call the OP’s character “exotic”, but it’s nice to know where Jay Leno’s chin went after he left the Tonight Show.

Another possible factor in their selection process; they know how often people post to the forums. They might also have metrics gathered over time of the type of posts; whether they are troublemakers, problem solvers, question posers, bug reporters, good orators, etc. Since they are encouraging us to post our reactions, they might be selecting based on some of those criteria.

I don’t really suspect any ulterior motives in the “most loyal customers” comment. I think they’re just being polite (and it doesn’t hurt to stroke the egos of people that are being encouraged to express their opinions in social media).

I’m still hoping the rest of the community gets their chance. If you miss out, be consoled… a “stress test” is not the same thing as a beta test. They are trying to make things crash and burn in order to detect trouble spots. We are likely to experience all manner of buggy issues, which could mean virtual unplayability for some players based on the content they try to access and their own computer power and Internet connection.

A sneak peak is neat, but if you are one of the ones with an invitation then I hope you also view this from the standpoint of a responsible member of the community and report any issues you have. This is exactly what people have been calling for in the forums; a chance to test new content before it gets shoved out the door. Remember the latest bugfest? Of course you do! We still don’t have Guild chat, and our Animal Companions are still looking at everything like it’s a Scooby Snack. Let’s hope this Stress Test helps alleviate a repeat of that sort of thing.

Aomine.5012:

They should just change the wording to “selected from some of the luckiest players favored by RNG God” instead of most loyal players.

That would be wrong too. I did get an invitation to the HoT Stress Test, but have always been super unlucky RNG-wise. The RNG gods don’t even know I exist.

I have played almost every day since the GW1 Betas, and have spent tons of money in the Gem Store (mostly before the Town Clothes/Megaserver update). I am a regular poster on the forums. So yeah, I would hope they consider me a loyal customer. But my personal RNG experience leaves me suspicious that I was actually the recipient of good fortune.

My hope: They’re taking everybody in “shifts”. If (for example) they plan on 3 Stress Tests before launch, then it would be cool to take a third of the community now, another different group for the next one, and everybody else for the last one.

We need a checkbox in the options:

• Hear other Players’ special effects (mini pets, toys, backpacks, etc.)

I have had many of my mini pets lose their sounds, and I have an evil hunch that it may be because some party-poopers complained.

My broomstick sounds like a jet engine – cool! But it gradually fades to inaudibility now.

I don’t have the golem backpack, but the one time I did Tequatl next to someone who had one, it made me nauseous. I can certainly understand that content which makes one person happy outrages another person.

Certain other items make annoying sounds too (I suspect Legendaries).

My solution: Stop deciding what’s best for everybody! Reinstate ALL of our sound FX and let us choose whether or not we want to hear other players noises!

(I miss my mini golems’ footsteps and beeps and boops! I miss my princess dolls’ plaintive scream when I jump off a cliff!)

Even the Krait are getting into the act! (This is a Krait, isn’t it?)

I got the invite, and nearly stressed too early when I saw it fell on a work day. But then I read on and saw the second time slot, which I can make. Whew!

I’ll probably be playing an Elementalist (my favorite). I know a lot of people will choose to test the Revenant, and that’s great. But if I’m using something familiar to me, I think I’ll personally be a more effective tester of the other new stuff than if I play a sure-to-be-buggy new Profession.

Congrats to everyone who made it in! The rest of you keep checking your e-mail!

According to the Bug fix Log, the March 18th patch fixed the Guild Chat problem.

Nuh-uh. Nobody on my Guild can see Guild chat. Please keep looking into this. Re-open the support ticket. The job’s not over yet. The fat lady hasn’t sung. It’s not over ‘til it’s over.

(I have a Guildie who can’t read the blue Party text… any chance you’ll be able to fix Guild Chat for her before the weekend’s out?)

I can’t shut my mouth!

Okay, okay… I know what some of you are thinking; “Yes, we know!”

That’s not what I’m talking about. My female human periodically keeps her mouth hanging open after the “lip flap”. It’s really ugly, annoying, and persistent.

Okay, okay… I know what some of you are thinking; “Yes, we know! Female human! Mouth always open! We understand!”

Seriously, though. Please fix!

I THINK I received something by way of reward for defeating the Bandit Boss guarding the tunnel down to the JP that unlocked boots for me at the vendors. Then all I needed to do was cash in 1000 Bandit Crests to unlock the ones I wanted. If that’s correct, it wouldn’t have anything to do with completing parts of the LS I would think.

Stuck in the INITIALIZING phase of the update? Here’s how I got up and running again:

It was SweetFX in my case. (GemFX is apparently a similar program that once removed is getting people over this hump. I can’t help with the specifics here, sorry).

I tried removing the files from my game directory to no avail. It was only after removing them from my BIN subdirectory, that the load continued past the Initialization stage.

If using SweetFX, look in the BIN folder for:

• d3d9.dll
• dxgi.dll
• injector.ini

Move them elsewhere, or delete ’em entirely.

Man, I’m really going to miss SweetFX. I hope they manage to make it compatible again!

Teon.5168:

Geez, dude, lighten up……you’ll live longer.

If I don’t get my Town Clothes back, I don’t WANT to live longer!!!! What’s the fun in looking exactly like every other Tom, kitten, and Harry? It isn’t LIVING if I have to go on this way!!!

How’s that? Any better?

EDIT: Tom, Kitten, and Harry? Oh, brother!

Bensozia.8071:

I dont know how effective the NPCs are since their tools are invisible (at least on my screen). Looks like they are miming repairs.

Must be Union.

Teon.5168:

Hamfast.8719:

The whole thing disgusts me.

Uh, it is JUST a video game, not some sort of life changing, soul enlightening experience.

I don’t think I have ever played any video game on my pc that didn’t have some clipping and/or graphic anomaly somewhere in it.

It isn’t the little bit of clipping that bothers me. I lost my share of real-life money when they took away Town Clothes. Yes, I got “store credit”, but I (and many other people) were rightly disgusted and remain so to this day. The sentiment against Outfits is far older than this little thread.

CETheLucid.3964:

Hamfast.8719:

Neural.1824:

They don’t want to spend the time to make a polished game with armor that doesn’t clip

…And so instead they’re whipping out Outfits that clip.

I never bought an Outfit, but I won the Ancestral Outfit in a contest.

The Ancestral Outfit! The very first Outfit they released after killing off Town Clothes. Their vision of the future. And yes, its sash clips with its skirt. Reported on day one, and still an issue.

That is how much ANet cares about our characters’ looks. If they can’t be bothered to fix even the supposedly-easy-to-make Outfits, then I can’t be bothered to buy any. The whole thing disgusts me.

You can probably fix that by using a different body type with the makeover kit if it bothers you that much.

And then I have pipe-stem legs… no thanks.

But this is only one instance. I have read of other Outfits with clipping issues, and so I cringe whenever I see someone support ANet’s decision as being an action to avoid clipping. It just isn’t true.

Bensozia.8071:

Hamfast.8719:

Oop! Ack! Thpppt!!

bill the cat reference?

Absolutely! The thought of our zones remaining in ruins forever made me gag as if I were choking on a hairball.

Neural.1824:

They don’t want to spend the time to make a polished game with armor that doesn’t clip

…And so instead they’re whipping out Outfits that clip.

I never bought an Outfit, but I won the Ancestral Outfit in a contest.

The Ancestral Outfit! The very first Outfit they released after killing off Town Clothes. Their vision of the future. And yes, its sash clips with its skirt. Reported on day one, and still an issue.

That is how much ANet cares about our characters’ looks. If they can’t be bothered to fix even the supposedly-easy-to-make Outfits, then I can’t be bothered to buy any. The whole thing disgusts me.

Like many others, I can’t get into the game because the update is freezing in the “Initializing” phase. My Support ticket is in, but it doesn’t look as if I’ll be back for St. Patty’s Day. So I was wondering if there are any special, festive things I’m missing in-game… any drops or even just an NPC in a tavern that tells off-color jokes.

So to kill time, I gotta ask:

• Would you rather have shamrocks or real rocks?
• Would you rather have champagne or real pain?
• Would you rather have shampoo or real poo?

Just wondering. Just waiting. (Sigh). C’mon, guys… I wanna play again so I can gripe about all the new bugs firsthand!

Never bought an Outfit, and I never will. I don’t care how nice they look, I don’t want to look just like everyone else.

Ayrilana.1396:

Nope. It’ll be forever changed as part of their living world.

Kessex Hills might wind up different from what it used to look like, but that doesn’t mean it has to remain trashed. A living world does not have to be forever changed… it has to be forever changing. There’s no reason they can’t sweep the rubble aside in Kessex Hills, Lion’s Arch, and wherever Scarlet’s Probes were left lying around.

“Living” not only refers to change, but also to life. The world isn’t as “alive” if all that’s left is dead remains. I am all for sprucing up the place. I tend to avoid the ugly areas just because they’re, well… ugly. Especially if they were once dear to me. I don’t like seeing my favorite places lying in rubble. So the more they tear things up and not repair them, the smaller my world becomes.

Oop! Ack! Thpppt!!

So I’m getting my idle-time emotes back, right?

Sankofa Jimiyu.1567:

I think the hardest issues to resolve with clipping is what to do with hair, and Charr body models.
Hats and masks that remove hair is an annoying solution to a issue that they have had since the original Guild Wars.
“Make a basic hair model to accommodate the hat, or design all hairstyles to have a version that does not clip with the hat.”

Charr have the complication of being a really great in design, but are both bipedal and quadrupedal digitigrades, having an extra moving appendage and horns.
Designing (or re-designing) armor for Charr I imagine is a nightmare.

These are all legitimate design issues that an artists and devs would have to work together on. We would really like to see this game be the best at what it does.
The sideflappies on my Pirate Hat are really annoying and I would like to see the roguish coif peek from underneath. I know why they are there and that makes both the gamer and artist side of me sad too.

I’m thinkin’ that is why ANet mostly releases Gloves/Shoulders/Footwear pieces. Easiest things to make. Minimal changes based on race. Less chance of clipping. Heads are indeed harder, and they “solve” their difficulties with weird flaps or total head coverage.

I am hoping that my suggestion gets implemented because A] ANet already finds these to be the easiest/fastest/safest armor parts to make, and B] I am specifically asking for simple styles.

GW1 had this problem too. Not every set of armor. There seemed (as now) to be no rhyme or reason. I tried pointing out to them that an archer needs protection/support on their bow arm (it’s closest to the enemy, and is susceptible to the occasional string burn), and that the arm pulling back the string needs to be flexible and light.

Unfortunately this is fantasy, so designers can make pretty things without being hindered by any of that pesky logic. They can’t always do that in real-life. (Just ask anyone who has ever built a house. You can’t always put things where you want just for art’s sake).

Riku.4821:

Interesting, Granted in a fantasy MMO people want the crazy enormous looks. I’ll keep my eye on this, curious on how the rest of the community responds.

How hard can it be for them to make a plain mask? Or wristband? Or choker? They could whip those out in a heartbeat as a trial run. And as pointed out, there are some veils in-game already; they just need to be ported over to the players.

I think ANet has a huge untapped audience for normal-sized/simple armor and weapons. It would be easy enough to test, and could be a huge cash cow with regard to the relatively little amount of time and effort required.

Dawdler.8521:

You forgot…

Pants!

True, the Light armors could certainly do with some pants. No skirts, no butt-capes, and no flaps. Heavy Metal armors as well. There are a TON of Medium pants available, but most go unseen due to the very many full coats which cover them. The trenchcoat issue has been discussed since day one, and little has been done about it.

I’m looking at headgear, shoulders/neck, gloves, and feet in this thread though. ANet is slow to release full armor sets, but seems to have little difficulty releasing these pieces. I assume it is for ease of cross-race, cross-gender styling and the low chance of clipping issues on the extremities. Fewer spikes would also cut down on clipping.

ANet likes making headgear, shoulder armor, gloves, and boots because they have lower clipping probabilities than torso and leg armor pieces. My complaint is that they give us too much oversized and over-crazy gear. Believe it or not, ANet, not every armor piece needs to be gigantic with huge spikes sticking out all over the place for people to like them. This post is a request for simple armor pieces.

Most of these suggestions would be far easier to implement than current Gem Store offerings. As such, I would expect to see a lot of them, and at reasonable prices.

HEAD

No headgear should ever remove the character’s hair!

• A simple eyes-only mask would go over well. Like Robin Hood is often pictured. Or Robin from the 1960’s “Batman” TV show. Very simple. Not a fancy-schmancy Marie Antionette French party mask.

• Harem-style veils could be cool. Something very much like the current medium weight Ranger masks, except translucent.

• Circlets are nice, but probably hard to make without removing the hair if designed to be visible all the way around the head (like the Laurels). I suggest making a selection primarily for the forehead, that disappear into the hair over the ears (like the many pairs of glasses we have). From simple leather bands, to fancy tiaras.

• Earrings are long overdue. Danglers, hoops, studs, cuffs, you name it.

SHOULDERS (Neck)

• The Winter Scarf would have sold much better if it were of reasonable size. The massive thing they released caused all sorts of hairstyle clipping, and buries some characters up to their nose. (The fourth Doctor Who had a 12-foot long scarf that left more of his face revealed!) We need more scarves. Smaller sized. More (dyable) patterns.

• Necklaces! Where are necklaces and chokers and neckerchiefs? (Charr and barbarian-types need a studded leather dog collar!) Dog tags! Primitive necklaces of beads and claws! Even if many went hidden underneath armor, I think people would still buy them just so they don’t have to hide their shoulder armor all the time.

ANet’s track record on shoulders is abysmal – giant ones that cover everything from ears to elbow and float in midair are commonplace. This has got to stop.

GLOVES

• Gloves keep getting overblown. All we see are bulky, full gauntlets going from fingertip to elbow. My thief can’t rob anyone while wearing Astronaut gloves. Give us small, simple metal and leather bracers covering just the forearm without all the spikes and protrusions.

• Bracelets! As with necklaces, bracelets and simple armbands are long overdue. One wrist or two. One bracelet or many. Handwraps like the GW1 Monks. These are a great solution for people who want to go gloveless, but don’t want to have to hide their hand armor all the time.

BOOTS

• Okay, I’m not really calling for boots here. We’re talking minimalist. No giant whomping-through-a-snowbank army boots. That means shoes. The men and ladies need some simple below-the-ankle offerings that don’t make them look like they have size twenty feet.

• Sandals. Simple flip-flops. Lace up the legs. Simple. Easy. Wanted.

• Leg bracers. Like the wrist bracers; a simple metal or leather shin guard that covers the shin only … not the foot or the knee. It can wrap clear around, or be open in back held on with straps or laced strings.

Long have the people called for a “Hide” checkbox on footwear. I think some of these offerings would alleviate much of that need.
__________

Check out the head, shoulder (neck), arm, and footwear collages below for ideas and examples!

Where did you see that the Hang Gliders won’t be skinnable? They’d better be skinnable, because the preview looked pretty ugly to me. Not much like a glider or wings. And way too small. This item is nice, but I doubt I’ll get it as a back item. Way too large and view-blocking for something non-functional. Would love ’em as a hang glider skin.

By the way, here’s the in-game chat link for the Black Feathered Wings:

[&C/YWAAA=]

The Sylvari aren’t stupid. They know they aren’t very popular right now, but they still side with the Pact against the Elder Dragons. What better way to re-establish themselves quickly, than to go into disguise as something everyone loves: a toy? And this particular toy not only radiates fun, but it is also combat-ready so it can accompany the Pact into the Heart of Thorns.

Very soon, every Sylvari character will log in to find an Endless Toy Golem Tonic in their inventory. Simply an attempt to mollify the other races, while preparing for the challenges of the jungle.

I can DIE in a Dry Top sandstorm. But I can’t DYE in a Dry Top sandstorm. My character preview is washed out during those periods (see picture). This doesn’t happen under any other environmental effects (night / pitch black / underwater). I have to leave Dry Top or wait until the sandstorm subsides before I can dye my armor.

Please fix.

P.S. – I kinda got that GW1 Dervish thing going on here, don’t I?

Medium armor has TONS of pants. You just can’t see most of them because most of the TOPS are trench coats. That is what has to change. We need more shirts and jackets and vests and other short length tops. Not everything has to be some kind of coat, or have dangling flaps. Rangers and Thieves especially are pictured as needing to be mobile. You can’t tumble and roll and slink around with knee-length and longer leather dangling around your legs.

Hammering, hammering, hammering. Those workers have been hammering every day for 10 real-life months. (That’s 3600 in-game day/night cycles).

The following picture from Fort Marriner is proof positive that nothing is getting done!

Drow.2081:

I’m not really sure I want my mailbox full of festival info. Is there a festival thread on these forums? How many festivals does this game usually run? Are the festival hand-outs good? Are rewards account-bound? I wont work my donkey off for account bound items sorry I hate that.

Most games have a holiday festival thread dedicated solely to non-gamish related events. If this forum does not then bing suggestion.

Usually the ANet team sends one brief game mail that appears when you log in. It doesn’t give specifics other than to tell you there is something going on and then telling you where to get started.

They also generally send out a more detailed real e-mail, but I usually don’t get that until after I’ve logged in anyway. That could be coincidence based on my time zone and normal gameplay time, but I suppose it’s possible that it only goes out after you’ve logged in.

You certainly won’t ever have either your game mail or your real e-mail “clogged” with festival information. Most specific details (for events and rewards, etc.) can be found on the WIKI, or 3rd party support sites like Dulfy.

There were no notifications about the current festival for some reason. Sometimes, if a festival is long enough, or big enough (Wintersday, Halloween, Festival of the Four Winds), ANet will have a section set aside for discussion. Not this time.

In-game you can type /WIKI Lunar New Year for a start on the current festival. Most new content (festivals, Living World updates, etc.) tends to have a 2 week time period.

Normally, I’m against commanders in PvE. Most of the time they’re useless, and only serve to attract a zerg around themselves. (I am firmly anti-zerg, but at least the obnoxious icon on the map lets me steer clear of them). But I recognize that the Vine event, Triple Trouble, Tequatl, and maybe a few more things can benefit from coordinated efforts.

The OP believes it is common sense to use third party sources before playing certain content. I also saw posted that by now everyone should be expected to know what to do. This is bull. Each and every day, people will stumble across something that is new to them and join up. They aren’t going to know what to do, and they aren’t going to log out and read up on it. Who hasn’t seen posts that claim only a very small number of people actually visit the forums? And yet you think everyone uses WIKI or Dulfy? Get real.

THIS is what commanders are for. If you’re gonna fly the icon, then open up your mouth and talk. Don’t complain because we can’t read your mind. And nobody give’s a Dolyak’s backside whether or not you have a blue taco over your head anyway. If you see that something needs to be done, then tell us. Don’t wait until it’s over and complain. Speak now, or forever hold your peace.

TL;DR – The OP’s problem is with COMMANDERS, not the community of players. You need LEADERS, because most people are followers.

Ayrilana.1396:

Aidenwolf.5964:

Hamfast.8719:

Assuming that the current Lunar New Year Festival is supposed to more or less correspond to the Dragon Bash, it falls way short. We have the Dragon Ball activity, a new Vendor, and a lightly decorated Queen’s Pavilion.

With Dragon Bash we had THIS! …

Dragon Bash was fantastic and should be an annual event. The food alone was worth My time. This event is a lousy replacement and I don’t Even bother with it.

Are you sure it’s a replacement? For some reason people got the idea that this event was Dragon Bash when it’s not. This is the first time that we have had this event in GW2. The only similarities that the current even has with Dragon Bash is the activity.

In GW1, we had the lunar festival which is what this event is. GW1’s version is superior still. GW1 also had the dragon festival which Dragon Bash is supposedly based off of. Also, the entire premise of Dragon Bash doesn’t fit with the one for this event.

Chinese New Year (named for the “beast of the year”). Year of the Dragon. Year of the Ram. That’s what I’m going off of. I can’t wait until the “Year of the Monkey” when SAB is year-round, and using a waypoint activates 10 minutes of Bobblehead effect.

Here’s what Gaile told us 3 months ago (I can’t use the “quote” feature… I guess the thread has been deleted or locked, but I dug it up on Google).
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Soooo sorry! I asked about this and forgot to post!

Some time ago, it was noticed and reported as a “bug” that during cinematics, the “fidget” animations continued. So you’re seeing this exciting story bit about a dragon attack and, behind the scenes, your character is yawning and toeing the sand. It just didn’t fit.

So the animations were temporarily removed to be worked on and reincorporated in a way that allowed them to perform normally in the game but to stop (or maybe change) during cinematics. But getting to a place where the animations could be configured on a more fine-grained basis took more time than anticipated.

From what I understand, the team has the tools to reconfigure and re-enable the animations, but the team lead told me that naturally they’ll need to figure out when someone (or maybe more than one person) can be assigned the task. As it turns out, each animation bit needs to be reconfigured individually.

TL;dr: This change is coming, as soon as it can be scheduled and prioritized. Naturally, some matters that are higher on the priority list but this project will be scheduled as appropriate.
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That was 3 months ago. The issue originated 5 months ago. I know “Heart of Thorns” is the current excuse. Back then it was “attention being paid to China”. There’s always something else.

Can we please get an update, Gaile? You tell us ANet knows the problem. ANet has the tools. Can we please hear that this hasn’t been swept under the rug? (I read “temporarily removed” there).

Easiest, quickest fix: Just put ’em back! A couple of seconds of “fidgeting” during a cinematic is less than .01% of our everyday play. If you really, truly think this needs fixed, then fine – fix it. But don’t remove them from the other 99.99% of the game in the meantime. It’s my bet that if restored, you’ll get tons of “thank you, ANet!” responses, and never hear a peep about “fidgeting in cinematics” again.

On a personal note, I am a GW2 “photographer”. I am working on “Screens” folder number 30 (that’s 30,000 screen captures). These animations, while seemingly trivial to some, are very important to me. I would dearly love to have them back in time to catch the beauty of Heart of Thorns.

Two more goodies (see pictures for locations).

Bottom left corner of Timberline Falls… there’s a hidden cave with a quiet waterfall inside, and illumination through a natural skylight. Seclusion is the big advantage here. Not well known.

Prettiest falls in the game is the Vista in Kessex Hills. Noisy, but a few nice little “picnic” spots. It’s a Vista for a reason!

You’re welcome. Enjoy! Happy Valentine’s Day.