Guild Wars 2

I really like Cirian’s idea, although I imagine if I were to re-write that scene, I’d first have Eir shapeshift into Wolf form, let her engage the big bad in full cinematic glory, then revert the control back to the player.

Cue a countdown timer, as well as a change in music (set to an even more frenetically paced tempo and raised pitch), players are then fed a new objective: Reach Eir before the timer expires.

Unbeknownst to the players, regardless of whether they reach Eir in time or not, Eir still dies. Once players reach a certain distance from Eir, the game triggers another cinematic where Eir is tragically killed in battle. gasp

Although, come to think of it, maybe players would be totally enraged at the fake timer and we’d have a riot on the forums. Lol.

1. Tengu
2. Kodan
3. (And just for the lulz) Dredge. Or maybe Skritt. I don’t know.

Sadly, judging by the many rants I’ve seen from passionate Charr and Asura players, I think ANET should probably stick to more humanoid-ish species so armor clipping won’t be so much of a nightmare for the designers.

Tengu would be really nice though. <3 Birdpeople.

I can’t wait. :>

I actually enjoy Tangled Depths because of its convoluted layout. Compared to the simpler maps in vanilla GW2, I feel that the scale of TD’s map, combined with the many layers, tiny nooks and crannies, and overall ‘wild’ landscape just makes the place feel super realistic and immersive for me.

There’s nothing more satisfying than being able to glide onto a perch in the canopy, then taking a couple of minutes to just survey the beauty and the lay of the land below you, or dropping from the surface into an underground river channel and having to follow it into a cavern chamber where the air is thick with mushroom spores.

That aside, I have the admit that the navigation map doesn’t do justice to the myriad complexities of the Tangled Depths map, which is truly a pity. Especially in the early stages, I recall being EXTREMELY frustrated because there was a boss battle going on nearby and I was 100% sure I was standing right over it, but the tunnel I was in was devoid of people (and the fact that you can see other player’s chat right through the walls was super annoying, lol).

Perhaps if I were to suggest a compromise for the future, ANET could possibly design maps where major causeways (eg roads that lead to other maps, or where teamwork is required – since you need players to get there successfully) remain at surface level (so you can be sure the path trail on the map reflects exactly what you can see).

That way players can get to important destinations easily, while ANET can still insert hard-to-find, high-rewards challenges that can only be found off the beaten track.

Side topic: My definition of ‘hard-to-find, high-rewards challenges’ would probably be jumping puzzles and bosses that are designed such that solo players can handle on their own (or otherwise, easily accessed, say, via a portal).

Lol. IMHO, the BLC is the in-game equivalent of winning the lottery. You put some money in, and pray to the Six Gods you get something kittening fancy.

Or create a new type of key that can only be found in the gem store, that when interacted with the existing BLC, grants a much (MUCH) higher rate of getting something nice.

I think it’s just a bunch of Bandit propaganda trying to rally Separatists, White Mantle supporters and other charr-human treaty dissenters who are already living within Divinity’s Reach to rise and and ‘Restrain the Shining Blade’ from carrying out their duties.

I just logged in today and saw this awesome work of art. Now my sylvari has the perfect set of accessories! Yay!

ANet team outdoing itself again. <3

Also, it really has to do with the setup of your character stats. I remember feeling very, VERY annoyed (and embarrassed) getting downed several times while running around in my glass cannon elementalist.

It was only when I swapped to my more balanced (Toughness-wise) mesmer did it suddenly dawn on me, and I went: “OHHhhhhhh… is that why I’ve been dying so often?”

I believe that a big factor behind this disagreement of expected game difficulty stems from the fact that it’s hard to really say what constitutes as ‘difficult’.

I understand that the mobs in HoT require a little bit more alertness and presence of mind, but I don’t think they’re exceptionally hard to take down.

Pocket Raptors are nasty little creatures – but they’re also fragile as heck. Nothing that a couple of dodges and sword swings couldn’t fix though, and the best part of it is that you get a sense of satisfaction knowing you learned another trick to help you survive the Maguuma.

It’s something that can be applied to real life as well, learning how to apply a little bit of ingenuity and creativity to overcome challenges and setbacks that happen in real life.

Gliding everywhere.

Best. Thing. Ever.

Hey guys (and girls), thanks for the invites!

I totally agree! While there are several things to be fixed, I have been enjoying my time in HoT so far.

The whole artwork is so gorgeous! Right from the claustrophobic, narrow trails, to the precariously perched walkways up in the canopy (combined with superb ambient and combat music), the whole thing comes together to give the place a dark and foreboding atmosphere.

Gameplay has been fun as well. I love being able to glide – and who doesn’t love the Revenant’s ability to <i>chuck hammers at their enemies</i>?

The requirement for groups of people to complete certain missions needs a bit of looking at, however – especially since you can’t really predict how many people will want to play the mission you want whenever you want – but I believe the devs should be looking into it.

Combat is also super fun. Mobs I’ve encountered so far don’t have super large health pools like in vanilla GW2. Instead, they have several hard-hitting movesets that keep you on your toes, all the while dancing to evade attacks while simultaneously avoiding falling comically off a cliff.

The devs at ArenaNet really put it quite a bit of effort for this expac.

Hey all!

I’m looking for a semi-casual PvE guild that’s LGBT friendly and hopefully based in Singapore.

Running around solo for nearly 2 years has been kind of lonely (lol), and with the release of HoT, I thought now would be a good time to find a guild.

I currently hang-out on Crystal Desert, but I’m willing to switch servers if necessary. I also typically play PvE, but I’m up for a little PvP or whatever (change is good, no?).

Your guild doesn’t have to be for LGBT people or based in Singapore only, so do hit me up if you’d like to! :o)

Haha, I’m not sure if it would be fair to have each profession locked to a particular glider skin, but that was a fun read. Especially the Beserker part.

Thank you ANet! This is the best birthday present yet!

Lol, I don’t personally think it’s a terrible name… just that it sounds like it’s pigeonholing me into only hunting down dragons.

What if I wanted to hunt Quaggans?

It’s moments like these why I think Anet isn’t just a money-hungry organization. I’m proud to say that I’m a GW2 supporter.

I’m all for reasonable discussions, yes.

I always thought the Asuran waypoints ran on magic as well – at least in the sense that ‘magic’ was treated as a resource like aether, oil or electricity.

Sadly, there are more sad people than happy people on this planet. The number of people sad unhappy about their own paycheck outnumbers those who are content.

That aside, I know ANET isn’t perfect, but they’ve tried very hard to create a game their players will enjoy. It will take some time for things to be perfect, but we’ll get there eventually (although no ‘veteran’ would complain if a couple of freebies were thrown their way, lol).

I have to totally agree with your post. Thumbs up for empathy.

Zaxares.5419:

… or not letting you pick up orbs when you’re standing right over them (desynced due to ping).

Lol, this happens to me so many times. I’ve counted at least 24 times today as I screamed to myself: “Pick it up! Pick up the darned thing already!!!” While pressing the dodge key furiously and my character just stands there dumbly. Lol.

Sorry, when I said to use the bird seed, I think you’re supposed to throw it somewhere near the clump of hawks, but AWAY from Shurakk, so they are lured away from the boss, thereby giving other players a clear path to strike the ogre down without fear of retaliation.

For some reason, there are points during the fight where I’ll pick up the Orbs of Blazing Light and suddenly find myself unable to dodge. I can’t tell if I’m just getting bad lag or what. Le sigh.

Actually, I think the current mechanics for the boss blitz is a great opportunity for people to learn how to co-operate with each other. 8 out 10 times a group wins is usually because they’re communicating.

Of course, when I say communication, I mean friendly motivation and encouragement. Case in point, when commanders carefully coax their team members into using the right strategies: “Great job guys, use the bird seed on Shrek to take him down” or “Thanks for the help, but our team is full. You can go help Sparky, they need more people” it tends to work much better than when commanders act condescending “Ugh, read your map chat and pay attention!” or “People who are dead and don’t waypoint should just leave and get back to their Queensdale train.”

While the intent behind both are the same, the approach is different, and I personally find the gentler technique to be much more effective, most of the time. (Fun fact: this social psychology technique works in a real life setting as well!)

At least you can still get it. I made the stupid choice of picking the Hellfire Vambraces earlier and now I can’t go back. *cry

Lol, as in a tone for an incoming call or a new message? I can just imagine your phone repeating the same line over and over again for an incoming call.

On the upside, I think the new Ancestral outfit looks really pretty on my Sylvari mesmer. It’s such an elegant change from the previous weird horns and fur armor sets (I’m looking at you, Lawless Armor).

Please make some outfits with foofy skirts next ANet (and a nice tux, for the boys), so I can destroy my enemies in style!

I support this. I’m currently not really sure what the home instance is for other than for farming candy corn nodes.

Hi Danicia! I agree with Cagie’s post, but I just wanted to say thanks for dropping by our threads to help clarify information. It makes us all more reassured when we know someone is listening.

Maybe it should just convert into a tight bun when wearing a helmet.

Actually, I’m not really sure I understood what OP meant. Sure, while the zones on the World Map are rectangular (for easier segmentation, I believe), if you were to physically run around the map with your character and trace and outline of the zone by hugging the leftmost wall, I don’t think you’d end up with a box. :/

Little walking bacon… too cute!

Side topic, I just realised why having instanced zones are a good idea:

1. Lighter loading times for the player.
2. Modular system to incorporate Living World changes. I believe if the open world was seamless, updating Kessex Hills to include the Tower of Nightmares would mean having to re-render the entire world map all over again, which would be a waste of time.

I’d probably say no, but only because I actually use the word ‘noob’ as a bit of a playful jab at my fellow PUG members, as in “It’s okay, we were all noobs once. ;D”

You might censor out a word, but creative people are always going to find a way to insult others (as reference, please see the whole of human history. :P)

Lol, is there some sort of storyline behind this?

I too, would like to see SAB stay. But my guess is that ANet will keep SAB permanently open only after the story arc of Moto and his Shadowbox is complete.

Hahaha, that’s what happens when you spend 15 minutes deciding on whether Pale 1 or Light 11 works better with your outfit, or if Autumn Brown or Light Brown matches your hair.

Lol @ Dustfinger.

Case in point, I think the 4 different playable races should have different accents and not all sound so American-ish (with the exception of Sylvari, who sound wonderfully British).

I wonder how the Sylvari sound in French, German and Spanish? XD

@Rebound: Lol, I get what you mean, but let’s assume ANet put a little more quality and thought (for all those diehard ANet supporters out there, hold your horses for a moment) into each Living World release, gave themselves a little bit more time to craft a stunning storyline and finally return with a really rockin’ release, wouldn’t that be even more fantastic?

As another example, just imagine ANet blindly listens to its community and comes up with a mediocre, rushed-out, paid-for expansion, with terrible storylines and clunky skill mechanics, can you imagine the number of people who’d go crazy?

I realize I might be arguing about semantics here, but I just wanted to point out that the problem is not about whether an expansion or the Living World is better, but really that the quality of each release should be a lot better than it is now.

And for the diehard ANet fans, I’d like to say that ArenaNet has proven in the past that it has been able to come up with some truly stellar releases. What ANet really needs is to give to give its staff a little bit of a breather (maybe take a nice vacation) by extending the amount of time between LW releases. This helps give staff more time to produce awesome quality work and players time to regain their work/gaming/life balance.

People have this false impression that the Living World is supposed to worse in quality than an expansion. :/

Ok, my two cents:

I really like the way the devs interact with their players through these forums. Sure, sometimes their response is few and far between, but when Colin or Angel (and the rest of the lovely ANet team) add their voices and speak directly to us, it makes me happy to know they haven’t forgotten their fans.

In a way, it makes me feel like Arenanet is run by a bunch of D&D loving friends (that old school table-top game session), and it makes me feel they’re mine too. Which is also why I want them to succeed.

Collect all weapon and armor skins!

Lol at Primordus.

@Dark: Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t say open world duelling should be totally abandoned, I’m just saying I hope there’s a good way trolling can be minimized should duelling be implemented. Elixir’s suggestion of duelling occurring only in contained places seems like an elegant solution, but I’m not sure how people can use that opening to their advantage.

Also, I hope people realize that not wanting to ‘get hurt’ or simply wanting a nice, friendly game is a fully legitimate reason to think of when considering gameplay mechanics.

^ That would be so cool.

I personally don’t duel or do PvP much, so I will admit my fear of duelling lies mostly in the fact that allowing duels the open world means giving another foothold to people who like trolling me even when I’m out roaming in the wilderness.

My experience of duels comes from WoW, and having a persistent dueller run in circles around me and trailing me despite me blocking him left a very bitter taste in my mouth. I had to log-off and leave the game for a few minutes so I could break him off my tail before I could log-on again.

While I have nothing against PvP’ers, having this sort of griefing that should typically exist within competitive arenas spilling into PvE areas makes me apprehensive. I like the current state of the game where events are designed to be co-operative and helpful.

I think new zone maps should be designed like Kessex Hills in the future, in the sense that they should be designed as stand alone maps with all the normal recurring events and THEN have all the relevant Living World storylines/NPCs/events weaved through them. This should help make the world seem more expansive without seeming like a cage and still allow for Living World content to flow smoothly.

@pdavis: I know what you mean, but now that I know about Modremoth, I want to find out more about him. Can you imagine if ANet chose to just continue leaving him as a perpetually imaginary figure? It’d be so unfulfilling – there’d be no catharsis.

It’s also why Scarlet was a bit unfulfilling for me as a character. Her debut into the world was as a crazed sort of villain. Wanton killing? Check. Maniacal laughter? Check. Hallucinations? Check. But she still seemed to me like a flat character.

I think it’s partly because I can’t empathize with her. She seems like she was supposed to be painted as a tragic character, but the game didn’t really bring that part across. She seems to have been born a snob – even as Ceara.