Guild Wars 2

Can’t tell if this is a consortium speculation thread or an excuse to post complaints. If it is supposed to be the former:

I’ve been interested in the story so far; the settlers being exploited by the consortium and the lion’s guard not being able to intervene has drawn me in. I do also assume that the consortium have other motives – the most basic story would be that they’re secretly digging for something valuable (be it a treasure, raw materials or some other source of financial gain or power) and that the whole resort thing is just a front.

Again, boyfriend and I have played on a US server from Europe since release, and lag has never been an issue for us at all, or for other players from outside US who I met on TC since.

Flowerpower.6795:

Looks like somebody needs a girlfriend.

Most helpful contribution so far. </sarcasm>

Here’s hoping!

When I saw the statues in the aquatic fractal, the first thing I thought of was the colossus from the cliffside one. Could, of course, be coincidence.

After re-reading your earlier post: you’re right, I wasn’t paying attention. Sorry and I’m glad we agree.

Geotherma.2395:

8 Trillion gold and items and characters on data center 1.
Data center 2, 3,4,5,6,7,8,9 all have the same.
Data center one corrupts and loses all information and for some ungodly reason they have no backups. You just lost 30,000-300,000+ people from game who probably won’t come back. But you have 9 others working in the meantime.

If this is the reason, then why divide it into 2 zones only – in this worst case scenario they would still lose half the world as playerbase. Just as unforgivable as 100%. It would be a disaster either way.

For GW2, it is 1 in 2, not 1 in 400. So this makes little sense to me.

Geotherma.2395:

Last I could see (and this was looong ago) even wow had 10+ data centers. It is far easier to manage issues, bugs, glitches, if they are isolated to one center. It is like being in charge of a company. Your computers go down in store 1 of 400. You can get to that store and fix it or attempt to. You have 399 other stores functioning fine because it is isolated from the rest. That’s the least technically explanation I can give.

The same code is rolled out to all servers simultaneously, so why would bugs/glitches only affect a single data center?

Sorry to be a pain but I am trying to get to the bottom of this.

Geotherma.2395:

Neko.6735:

Why have different data centers, is the question….

There’s a saying, never place all your eggs in one basket. Data centers are the baskets.

So if one of the data center burns down, people in the rest in the world can still play?

Please be more specific about how this explains anything.

Ayrilana.1396:

If both data centers have to communicate, you run the risk of both getting bogged down due to latency. Bandwidth plays a big role. If people were to freely guest, the amount of data going back and forth could slow everyone down. Having an individual connect to a server in another database directly, rather than indirectly through a local data center, usually only has an impact on that user.

I’m not entirely familiar with networks and the like but this is my general impression based on what I know and have read over the years. I’m sure there’s at least a few people on the forums that can give a better explanation.

With the sheer amount of data getting uploaded and downloaded to/from GW servers every single minute, I still don’t see how one character’s data upon guesting (which as we all know is limited to 2 servers a day) would even leave as much as a dent. It’s not like the data has to ping-pong between original and guest server during playing. It would be transferred when guesting starts and transferred back when the player signs on the original server after.
Some actual numbers would be nice…

So far, to me, it still sounds like “we don’t allow this for… reasons.”

Player Character.9467:

Pixelpumpkin.4608:

Engineers can’t weapon swap anyway, so weapon swap sigils are completely useless to me.

kit swap
really anything that involves you changing weapon skills (ele attune, engi swap, grabbing a warrior banner or any other weapon that sits on the ground) with the exception being transformations (shrink/mist/rampage/animal forms/etc.) iirc

I had no idea. I thought weapon swapping was disabled for engineers specifically to prevent this. (Why else would they single out one class and not let them swap weapons?) Thanks for the info!

This ^

Secondly, even if there’s different data centers – I see no reason why character data couldn’t be transferred upon guesting. It’s not THAT much data.

Astral Projections.7320:

They stay there for a while when the body despawns

Sparkling bodies stick around for the same duration – the normal bodies despawn, the rest of them can be looted. Just that the remaining bodies are much bigger and brighter colours than the tiny brown bags who blend into the dirty ground all too well… and would be impossible to see in a grassy/meadow environment.

Hardly. I’m European and play on an NA server, and my ping is excellent. I have met other Europeans, Asians and Australians on the same North American server. None of us felt we wanted or needed to switch to a European server for better lag. As far as the people go that I’ve talked to anyway.

What really bothers me is that we can’t guess between NA and EU servers. I honestly don’t see the purpose of that. I have gamer friends from way back, half of them are US-based and the other half are EU-based, and I can only meet up for dungeon runs with 50% of them.

So far, nobody could explain to me why this degree of separation is necessary.

Actually, I find it easier to spot sparkling dead bodies than tiny brown bags…. :\

I started the instances on numerous MF runs, and my GW client crashed all the time. The instance stayed open and I could rejoin my group each time.

If I would have left the group, it would have been a different cup of tea. I think the problem is with the instance owner in conjunction with the party.

In general: I understand that ANet uses temporary content to make sure that players come back WHILE the gem store items are up, and don’t put off playing indefinitely, comfortable in their knowledge that they can always come back. I understand it from a business perspective. Yes, it sucks for some of us.

A compromise would be to make some of the content replayable (as has been suggested before: a shortened version of MF as a fractal) and I would fully support this. But I don’t expect related achievements to come back.

The analogy is: you can’t go back in time and go to the concert yourself, but you can listen to the bootleg and/or watch a recording.

As for the TV series example, you can catch up with TV, but you cannot magically go back to the time when everybody was discussing these episodes on imdb free of spoilers about future episodes.

And in GW: All the recordings are on youtube, you just can’t be there and do it yourself.

Rezzet.3614:

not to mention the skills often suggested are mainly unbalanced such as: knockdown+ cripple on auto attacks lol

That’s what cooldown is for.

Not to mention all the name change contracts ANet would be able to sell if Mcallister, Obrien & co were able to get their intended capitalisation, apostrophes etc…

I’ll have to do Arah eventually, so here goes.

Lale King
Profession: Engineer
Traits: Condition damage / elixirs
Experience: None with Arah willing to learn
Time: preferred timezone differs from week to week. Flexible on weekends.
Other: Currently no access to VOIP, but very attentive of party chat

Engineers can’t weapon swap anyway, so weapon swap sigils are completely useless to me.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

EDIT: As I can see from your Sig that you already had 20(!!!) exotic drops I assume that you love farming. Nothing wrong with that. I see though, why you don’t like the idea of rewards for challenge instead of grind. Just to add, I play since release and had not a single exotic drop from open world mobs yet.

I’ve been playing since release.

Exotics that dropped for me between 2012 and April 2013: zero.
Exotics that dropped for me the last 2 weeks: seven.

My MF: 24%.

(And they didn’t drop in Southsun Cove, so no Settler buff was involved.)

While I use a kit instead of my regular weapons, why would their sigil(s) affect me at all? Logically, I mean.

I understand, but by preventing one, you automatically prevent the other, which is a shame. People are already facing consequences for not adhering to the naming policy, I don’t see why this couldn’t be expanded to “no nonsense capitalization”. If this was addressed on the level of policy rather than technology… it would allow for more flexibility. (While being a lot more work for ANet staff in removing names that violate the policy.)

I think allowing 1 additonal capital letter, hyphen or apostrophe per name would be a fair compromise, AND possible to solve via pretty simple code (rather than policy).

Konig Des Todes.2086:

But an interesting note about Volcanic is that it may be tied to destroyers. All the bats are oddly fiery and the Imbued Shaman’s fight is not only structured similarly to the Great Destroyer’s fight in GW1, but also he wields a Destroyer Bow.

Fascinating, thanks!

What do you think the chances are for ANet planning to release some background on any of the fractals on their blog (or wherever)? Do you think the fractals were designed with any future plans in mind, or just put together quite randomly for a good variety of landscape as playable maps?

Rushz.1879:

Please explain how it would ruin the game.

But this thread is about flying. If this one turns into a general pro/contra mounts one (we do have other big massive threads for that) then the whole discussion would be derailed.

I don’t mind them. I don’t expect the Molten Alliance would tidy up after themselves. :P

firefly.4951:

Thanks btw out of curiosity what class and sort off profession combo do you play and how to I start getting guild points to get a guild? (On the face of it I like the sound off that)

I mainly play an engineer and have a ton of fun,
I am leveling all crafts – I started with Chef and Huntsman, while my boyfriend did Jeweller and Leatherworker, so between us we had all the medium armour, ranged weapons, jewellery and food available early. (You can learn all of them but only have 2 active at any time.)
Right now I have 3 crafts left to finish levelling up.

As for guild points, they slowly build up over time when the guild members take part in events while “representing” the guild. You can be member of any number of guilds, but you can only represent (and gain points for) one guild at a time.
These guild points can be used for features, buffs and upgrades.

If you join one or several established guilds, you would have all that available to you early.

firefly.4951:

Finally Im hoping this game is going to keep me busy but be a fun and original experience and I hope to see you all in game sometime

I’ve been playing since release (on and off, depending on RL committments) and I’m not bored yet!

I’m on Tarnished Coast, but maybe we’ll bump into each other while guesting or doing a dungeon run one day

Welcome

Any general constructive advice anyone could give me to help me start out would be most welcome and greatly appreciated.

The sticky threads at the top of this subforum are the best place to start for that. I also use the wiki a LOT.

firefly.4951:

Are the boss fights fun later?

Subjective. I enjoy them.

firefly.4951:

Is it easy enough to create a guild in this one?

Easy enough, but to get anywhere you need guild points which take a while to build up in a small guild.

firefly.4951:

What gathering skills would be best for me as an elementalist, ie using the sickle?

Everybody uses all three of them.

firefly.4951:

What profession would be best for me?

Relevant for elementalist:
Tailor for light armour
Artificer for potions and magical weapons

Relevant to everybody:
Jeweller for magic jewellery
Chef for food

As for tips on playing & levelling & traiting elementalists, I’m afraid I can’t help you there as I don’t play one.

Good luck and have fun!

I think the chance of this happening is pretty much zero.

The whole design of guild wars depends on people NOT flying: WvW mechanics, jumping puzzles, vistas, PvE map borders, etc. Most of this would be rendered useless; most of Tyria would have to be redesigned.

I personally don’t need or want mounts, be it on the ground or in the air.

As for flying, if ever the Tengu City is unocked, it may be possible to fly within one specific map, for example as part of a heart quest (similar to Norn heart quests where you change into animal form). Another option I see is a fractal that transforms you into something else (similar to the Searing one where all players are transform into Charrs). Both options would be interesting to me and enhance the player experience without messing with the rest of the established world.

Other than that – just be glad you can go underwater. That’s already a huge step forward from GW1.

Teraphas.6210:

Necro whip main hand
1 scourge – dmg and bleed target extra damage if you attack from behind
2 false penance – flog yourself to gain might and fury small chance of inflicting fear on nearby enemies
3 hangman’s noose – channel dark energy thru the whip to immobilize and damage your foe (maybe the new condie depending on its final theming)

Excellent suggestions, I particularly like the self-flogging… it would be difficult to do with an 8 foot bullwhip, but it is very creative and befitting of a necromancer…

Phoenix.7845:

SquirrelKing.8964:

Whips would be fun.

Could be added as a focus skin.

I would love to see whips, but not as a focus skin. It makes no sense to me to make the whip available exclusively to magic users… I can see a necromancer with a whip, but a guardian? And elementalists already have a whip-like skill.

Here’s some thoughts about whips as potential main hand and off hand weapons:

Weapon Type: Whip

Is it too late to throw the whip into the mix? —> Weapon Type: Whip
Don’t know if I would count it as melee as you need to be at a specific (short) distance to do damage. But that’s the one I want to see more than anything.

The hammer fits although I wouldn’t want to use it on my engineer, personally.

Nomar Ramon.3107:

Explorer: I locate every inch of the map and find every crevasse, nook and cranny. If something is missing I become obsessed until I find it. I don’t care how much it costs. I am only satisfied when everything and I mean everything is located. The exploring extends to dungeons, crafting and achievements too.

There’s always different sides to everybody, but this describes me the best.

I created an extensive google spreadsheet for my boyfriend and me to be able to keep track of what content we have or haven’t done, on our way to and beyond the in-game achievements….

I want less clutter altogether.

I’m pretty sure that any dungeon to do with the current Southsun Cove content will be located in Southsun Cove.

But I certainly hope that they have plans for the wizard’s tower, I don’t really care whether it is a dungeon or something else… just something… anything

I imagine it is because Southsun is supposed to be a dangerous place (the whole story is based on this) and the lack of a waypoint at driftglass means that players NEED to move past hostile mobs on the island(s) to get to driftglass.

Story-wise, the resorts and settlements are just being built right now and maybe they didn’t get around to setting one up there yet. (Story-wise, I would think though that the research camp would be among the first locations to get a waypoint, though.)

This is already helpful to me, thank you

Thank you for your very helpful contribution to this thread.

Maybe if we kept the discussion constructive instead of just venting and complaining, we could actually get ANet to respond to the OPs questions. That would be super-lovely.

Probably isn’t going to happen in another frustrating QQ-fest of a thread, though. Think about it! Thank you

Actually… that makes sense to me.

Never mind the fact that the most recent update INCLUDED a mini game.

FuriousPop.2789:

Or maybe a yearly?

There is already something that goes in this direction – lifetime achievements.

When I run out of monthlies to do, I got for lifetime events completed, lifetime heals, slayer achievements, weapon mastery, etc. etc. etc… I am quite a way still from completing all (or even most) achievements out there.

… or simply join a guild that is designed to be a secondary guild.

Yes, there is.

Comprehensive list: Activities you don’t know about

Wonderful creative ideas thread: Main Cities Minigames

I joined a guild called “Commendation” on TC. They’re a guild JUST for guild bounties, and that’s all they ever do. No representing required. Once a week I represent them for 20 minutes so I have access to guild chat and the likes, then go back to my usual ways.

I’m also running a very small guild (2 people) so this is the best option for me. Very practical!

+1

(I would like this. Switching between builds can still cost money as far as I am concerned, but I would like to be able to save different builds.)

I have recently started playing fractals (i.e. I’ve done it twice so far). I love the maps, the encounters, the special mechanics and everything else about them.

Just on the lore side of things I was a little disappointed. I read the wiki articles, but there doesn’t seem to be anything there. So just in case there IS background stories attached to (some of) the fractals that somehow hasn’t made it into the wiki, I thought I’d ask the pros here in the Lore subforum.

I know of course what the Searing fractal is based on, and I am vaguely aware of the jade quarry being something that appeared in GW1. As for the rest, I’m at a complete loss. For example Cliffside: who’s that big stone guy and how and why was he imprisoned?

I would appreciate any insights (and also speculation).

:)

Zeefa.3915:

don’t wanna see stupid names with numbers and messing around upper and lower case… the eyesores…

McAllister is an eyesore? Because Mcallister certainly is.

Hmm, when I went and got empty(ish) games, confusingly it was US afternoon/early evening. It shouldn’t have been empty, but it was.

I think this will get slightly easier with time though…

My problem with the names is that the reserved space is always 1 character too short for something fun, such as “Branded Sylvari Male”,

Secondly, no special characters – so “O’Brien” wouldn’t even be possible.

No mid-name Capitalisation, so “McDonald” also isn’t possible.

All in all, too restrictive even for real names, let alone fantasy ones.

draxynnic.3719:

A good thread to look at for this discussion is https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/lore/On-the-Sixth-Elder-Dragon-and-its-corruption/first

So… much… information. o_o

Thank you again, this is really really helpful