Because we want more of them. The current available skins are great (well, for heavy and medium… old Profane was so much cooler) but it’s hardly the sheer volume or vatiety players are after.
That much I agree with. I also think that Palawa Joko and his followers would be amazing to have around in GW2. Is it bad that I’d want him to continue to be a… sort of ally? I know he’s basically conquered a nation and wiped out the Sunspears but I just like the guy’s style. Besides, I think we’ve all faught enough undead at this point =P
I’d hate seeing animal mounts clutter the beautiful cities and zones of GW2. A few little toys like the broomstick wouldn’t upset me, but anything that could be used in combat, anything large would just be a blot on the landscape, and lore.
Also, horses are extinct. C’mon, at least get creative guys!
Of course having been made aware of the possibility of players-as-mounts, I am not all in favour. Something inside me, something evil and twisted, is greatly amused by the idea of riding asura into battle.
The vast majority of those ‘Asian style’ MMOs are nothing like GW1’s Cantha. There’s a lot less… fetishisation of the culture, and the continent had strong Greek and Germanic influences as well. Echovald Forest and the Jade Sea were very imaginative areas jumping through Kaineng would be pretty awesome.
Armour and weapon skins, particularly those from GW1. Astral’s idea of dances would be great too. I’d definitely shell out some cash for the Monk, Necro and Assassin dances.
Actually, there are a lot of people who can’t get the ‘right’ aesthetic for their characters. As a female scholar, you have the choice between puritan, or looking like you fell off the back of a carnival float. There aren’t any simple pants, there’s only one short skirt, there are no minidresses, the only ‘tribal/ritualist’ style is limited to PvP, and the only outright elegant option needs you to have played GW1 to get.
… I think everyone’s covered the issue of trenchocoats as they relate to medium armour wearers. Heavy armour has the most stylistic variety, although next to the choices available for GW1’s warriors, there are still some gaps that could be filled.
Of course, it is a little unfair to compare a game that’s had a number of expansions and content releases to what is essentially a vanilla game. Hopefully GW2’s armour options will broaden as the game goes forward. I would /definitely/ pay good moneys to get some of the old skins though. And some of the old costumes too. Dragonguard, for a start.
I loved a lot of the GW1 costumes. The Winds of Change ones were great, but so were the Godly, Hallowe’en and War in Kryta options. I know a lot of medium armour wearers who’d jump at the chance for the old school Shining Blade set.
Going forward, I do think that Arenanet will add more costumes to the game and store. It’s good business sense. I don’t think that the GW1 costumes will make a comeback but we will probably see more old-school armour skins made available. Female casters have no basic pants… actually, every tier could do with a bit more variety and GW1 had a lot more variation in style than GW2 currently has. Why not take some samples from that? Especially when there’s profit to be made.
You can get exotic Rabid armour and weapons from Caduceus’s Manor, Twilight Arbor, Honour of the Waves and the Ruined City of Arah. Obviously, this is the most cost-effective way to obtain what you need, though not the swiftest.
The ascended rings you can get are Khilbron’s Phylactery and the Ouroboros Loop (35 Laurels or 10 Pristine Fractal Relics for the non-infused versions). The ascended amulets are The Sleeping Seed, Hymm to the Prophets and the Speakers Dawncord (30 Laurels each).
I think Cantha is still absolutely feasable, wether as something predominantly Asian, or more mixed in influences. The team at Arenanet has a century of the unknown to work with and who’s to say that the continent of Cantha develops in the vein of the countries that inspired it. The Kurzick’s European Gothic style might find its way into the mainstream, Echovald could easily be a ‘sylvari tree’, someone, somewhere, might invent or innovate something that simply changes the course of how things develop.
Might as well try and give this a serious answer.
No.
You listed off your achievements as like a completed to-do list and that’s totally fine, but ultimately, you’ve achieved most of the game-set goals. You could come back and push for the best ascended items and infusions, but in the end, I think you’d just end up looking towards the next thing rather than focusing on the actual content.
Guild Wars 2 is centred around the idea of playing, primarily, for the sake of it. Most of the monthly patches have been about fun and frivolity. There have been some special unique skins and items to pick up for each of them, but ultimately they’ve not been on the level of Legendaries, which have now shot up in price. Now, there are players who only jump back into the game once a month, for those big patches. That’s fine. GW2 has been designed to be friendly towards those people, as its not a sub game and doesn’t require people to play continually. Remember, you own GW2 forever now. There is no pressure to play now .
Still, if MMOs really are about completion to you, then there are games out there which will keep you engaged for longer. Including the ‘old faithful’ WoW, and a plethora of Korean games. I’d also advise you keep watch on the reboot of FFXIV. FFXI was packed with grind, farming and long-term goals. Sub-fee games tend to have more of them, as they need to keep you playing. Again, that’s not a criticism. Different strokes and all that.
There are actually three of each stat combination, but each one has a different type of infusion slot (offense, defense, utility). The rings only have two versions because only amulets have utility slots.
The Luxons and Kurzicks were hybridised, Greek/Indo-Asian and Kabuki/Germanic respectively. They were about as East Asian as the Kodan. Heck, it could be argued that the Kuzicks were less so, so where all this fuss about ‘avoid Asia’ actually comes from… -shakes head-
Still, as someone with a long-time fascination with the ancient Middle East, I’d much prefer to head to Elona first. Give me Persia and Egypt and the awesome Palawa Joko.
Either that or Janthir.
Thinking about it, I believe I like more staves than any other style of weapon, with the possible exception of Greatsword. Even then, I’m not a fan of the overly wide GS models (al la Vigil, Pact).
And if you want a purple glowy staff, there’s always the Nightmare Staff or the Peacemaker Staff.
I wish that acquiring them felt legendary. I’m all for that scavenger hunt/epic quest chain idea. Something that’s hard, full of lore and fun.
One of the best looking weapons in the game is Final Rest. Unfortunately no one knows how to get the darn thing.
Noll, Fahd and Canach all bugged on Piken Square
Piken Square has Noll, Canach and Fahd bugged.
Joy…
Sorry cherrie but i feel this is horizontal progression. If they said they wernt going to increase the stats of gear already in the game then yes i would agree this is vertical progression as you put it. But they are increasing stats of gear in the game already.. They havent said if this would be solely legendarys or not. so in fact they are in my mind adding in a layer of content to help casual players out. They are bringing in some gear that people can aquire along the road to aquiring there legendarys.
Remember the manifesto, most of ppl are here because of that.
No one say that a grindy game is a bad game… i played WOW for about 2 years and i enjoy it every moment… but a was looking for something different, with the constant need to upgrade my gear time to time to be competitive. GW since the start was a real spark of light… i tanke a month to gather my first exotic set, and for me the real game is started when the last exotic piece was setted on my charecter.
Gather equipment is not playing… its a preparation for the real play…and i simply dont want to be always in preparation!What if your getting the equipment as you play the new content?
Say theres a dungeon, theres 5 rooms and a boss room. You have to go through the 5 rooms and defeat the 5 miniboss’s. Now each mini boss drops your new armor garanteed. So by the time you get to the inner depths of the dungeon you already have your new items and are ready for battle. You didn’t have to gear up before entering to even attempt it but rather got your gear progressively from the dungeon on your way to the end.
Would you then consider your time devalued and that you had to prepare for the real play when the real play is what awarded you your gear?
What if you have alts? Worse, what if someone joins the game in six months to find that the only people running Fractals are people who are already Infused, who refuse to accept Uninfused into the group? What happens when the nect level of Ascended and Infused items come, and players who move on to this content refuse to accept Extotically equipped, Uninfused players into their parties for the new content? What if the game wouldn’t let those players survive anyway?
It gates content, adds a gear grind and makes something that might have been fun somewhat less so.
Ah okay I get what your saying about that, and yes ive run into that alot in other games…. what gear you have…. nope sorry you have to have this gear to run in our group, regardless of if you can run it flawlessly…
I however run into this anyways as a ranger in this game. Sorry we dont want a ranger in our group your damage sucks and your pet is useless…… >.> totally sucks.
But ya content gating is bad, players make it worse.
That’s a balance issue that may be addressed in the upcoming patch. Ascended is something that’s /intended/, and may cause some irksome problems in the future.
Sorry cherrie but i feel this is horizontal progression. If they said they wernt going to increase the stats of gear already in the game then yes i would agree this is vertical progression as you put it. But they are increasing stats of gear in the game already.. They havent said if this would be solely legendarys or not. so in fact they are in my mind adding in a layer of content to help casual players out. They are bringing in some gear that people can aquire along the road to aquiring there legendarys.
Remember the manifesto, most of ppl are here because of that.
No one say that a grindy game is a bad game… i played WOW for about 2 years and i enjoy it every moment… but a was looking for something different, with the constant need to upgrade my gear time to time to be competitive. GW since the start was a real spark of light… i tanke a month to gather my first exotic set, and for me the real game is started when the last exotic piece was setted on my charecter.
Gather equipment is not playing… its a preparation for the real play…and i simply dont want to be always in preparation!What if your getting the equipment as you play the new content?
Say theres a dungeon, theres 5 rooms and a boss room. You have to go through the 5 rooms and defeat the 5 miniboss’s. Now each mini boss drops your new armor garanteed. So by the time you get to the inner depths of the dungeon you already have your new items and are ready for battle. You didn’t have to gear up before entering to even attempt it but rather got your gear progressively from the dungeon on your way to the end.
Would you then consider your time devalued and that you had to prepare for the real play when the real play is what awarded you your gear?
What if you have alts? Worse, what if someone joins the game in six months to find that the only people running Fractals are people who are already Infused, who refuse to accept Uninfused into the group? What happens when the nect level of Ascended and Infused items come, and players who move on to this content refuse to accept Extotically equipped, Uninfused players into their parties for the new content? What if the game wouldn’t let those players survive anyway?
It gates content, adds a gear grind and makes something that might have been fun somewhat less so.
I am watching the trading prices of Orichalcum rings and Orichalcum itself. I will continue to run dungeons, for the aesthetics and to help my friends with their Dungeon Master Achievments. As Arah is finally unlocked, many of them, and an alt of my own, can now progress to the end of the story.
Ascended armour irritates me, but I’ll play the grinding game. I don’t want to give up on GW2 just yet.
For those who are enthused about this decision and are terming those who dislike it ‘casual players’, let it be known that many people on this thread have spent thousands of hours in GW1, and hundreds in GW2. So far, I have racked up 983 hours of gametime in GW2, including all the ‘high level content’ where higher stats give you an edge, such as dungeons and WvW. Were 10-25 man dungeons ever introduced, I would play them.
This latest decision by Anet is disheartening. I enjoyed GW1, in part, because I never had to worry about my gear. I thought that GW2 would follow similar principles as Arenanet led people to believe this would bew the case. While Ascended gear isn’t a dealbreaker for me, another tier, and another would put me off buying into their products further down the line.
No. I’d have been happy farming for that back piece just for it’s aesthetics… Pity about the rarity…
I would like a dev to answer me one question – will Ascended be the only tier of rarity added to this game?
I can cope if this is the case. There is a gap between Exotics and Legendaries. Striving for exotics is a Short term goal, Legendaries a very, very long term one and something between them wouldn’t go amiss. That being said, if this is the gate to constantly having to upgrade my gear for every new release – particularly with this monthly update schedule Anet have set – then my feelings will change.
What system is that? Armor infusion against Mursaat? It’s not even close to the same thing. Hell, with a decent hero team in GW1 you don’t even need infused armor. I rolled through Prophecies with Discordway.
This new Agony thing is basically a way to keep people out of certain content because you’re going to need a certain amount of Agony protection to advance past a certain point. It’s basically counter to everything that GW2’s stood for.
You didn’t have Heroes in Prophecies. Or Factions. Those came two years after the concept of Ascention was introduced. It gated content. Pretty effectively.
It this is the only tier that’s ever added, as in GW1, I will be content. Ascended items, and Agony hail back to Prophecies, which also gated content in a similar way. You needed to be Infused to progress with the story, missions and further character development (certain skill merchants).
I do wish Exotic items had remained the top tier and as a level 400 jewelcrafter, I feel a bit worried for my market… but it’s not a dealbreaker. Yet.
I wouldn’t mind seeing Ascended back pieces. It wouldn’t make many things obsolete. Full armour sets of ‘better than exotic’ gear makes me a little edgy. But I’ll wait for more details before making a judgement call.
It’s not that I don’t want mounts. Okay, that’s part of it. But the broader issue is that I don’t want to /see/ mounts. I do not want some obnoxious twerp sat at the very last beam jump of a jumping puzzle, preventing me from success. I don’t want some weird fancy pink bird strutting down the brand, ruining the scenery. I don’t want people in charr cars crowding all the NPCs in LA.
I actually love the design of Orr. I love that it looks like it’s been dredged up from the ocean and isn’t Orr in its prime. It has a much stronger resonance that way. Arah is a broken place, not an awesome place. Everything it was, has gone and that’s the way it should be.
Of course, the mobs wreck it. I can’t look at the areas I find appealing or tragic without spending twenty minutes clearing dozens of Risen in every direction.
That would be lovely…
I have stated my opinions on mounts many times over. For those who want a quick recap: I don’t like them. To an extreme.
That being said, I am not averse to seeing some form of limited transportation beast for specific areas. In GW1, there was an especially toxic area called The Desolation. Living things could not step onto much of its sands. Consequently, people travelled inside giant wurms. These wurms could not be taken through hard rocky landscapes and had their own set of combat skills which replaced the players during transportation.
This kind of mount would be interesting. It wouldn’t conflict with the lore, people would have a reason to use them beyond pure vanity, they couldn’t be used to grief people on jumping puzzles, vistas or difficult areas of terrain, they wouldn’t destroy the beautiful aesthetics of areas and cities.
The Largos don’t fly. They swim and they ‘phase’. If you want a flying race that ‘phases’ and asssassinates from the shadows, there’s always the Mursaat.
I wouldn’t want to /see/ mounts. They clutter the landscape and could easily be used to grief people in certain areas – particularly jumping puzzles.
But as you say, in the end, for whatever reasons, it boils down to likes and dislikes. The people who want mounts think they’d be a cool addition and the people who don’t want them think they’ll detract from the fun/beauty/whatever of the game. -shrugs-
Anyone else notice posters on structures all over lions arch with asian writing?
That’s New Krytan. The ‘common’ tongue of Tyria.
Who says that anybody wants a mount for vanity purposes? I do like the waypoints but I also want mounts in the game. If you wanted Anet to do good then you would understand that people want this. Nobody told you not to use the waypoints anymore and nobody asked for them to be removed. You actually dont want Anet to do well thats not your goal. Your goal is to be as anti wow as possible. " We really like our game" that sounds kinda weird man….
You’re the one who keeps mentioning WoW. I have nothing against that game. I think the way it’s expanded the MMO market is brilliant ankittenhankful it exists.
Some people may want mounts, many others don’t. Adding it in for the players who want them detracts from the experience that those others are after. I do not use waypoints very often, but I do not want to see a plethora of charr automobiles or what have you steamrolling through Brisban.
The game will feel bigger once we get Cantha and Elona back on the map – continents the size of the area we have now. We don’t need mounts to enjoy that and there’s no reason to add them beyond ‘because a few people want them’. For many of us, the lack of mounts is refreshing. Bad experiences in other games, the lore of GW2, the availability of waypoints have all turned people away from them.
When it comes to the lore, it’s tricky to expand in terms of mounts because we already have so many avenues of transportation – many which aren’t featured in other MMOs. Airships, tanks and submarines are present, as are huge charr war machines, mobile golems and the like. There is no reason for a single individual to stray from what they have already and much less for them to turn to, say, a dolyak for transportation.
Is it not enough to dislike mounts because they’re a lorebreaking, unnecessary waste of resources? No? It has to be ‘because WoW has them’.
Quite frankly, I hate them. I don’t want the landscape cluttered, the lore cannibalised or Anets resources drained on this. It’s not worth it and it never will be.
Nothing would be cluttered, are you saying there is not enough room on the map for mounts? They just need to disable them in the cities.
You talk about Anets resources being drained? are you saying that they are small time? It is very worth it and it is a smart move in my opinion. Many people aren’t on this forum to back this up. Don’t be surprised how many people wanted them when the player base starts to drop.
Cities, towns, villages, open workd ruins, graveyards, housing estates and, of course, jumping puzzles. There’s no place for mounts. No need either. Waypoints are part of the lore, personal mounts /aren’t/.
As many people as there are who want mounts, there are just as many who don’t. Furthermore, of the faction that does, there are further divisions as to what their benefits should be (aesthetic, speedboosts, mounted combat). No matter how they impliment them, there’s no way to please the majority.
I think that’s a little bit harsh. Lorewise we’ve had necrid horsemen in GW1, and Stone Summit riding Dolyaks. Mounts have always been in Guild Wars, but only for enemies.
The horses are exctinct and the dolyak were only ever warbeasts, not a means of transportation.
(edited by Safer Saviour.9685)
Is it not enough to dislike mounts because they’re a lorebreaking, unnecessary waste of resources? No? It has to be ‘because WoW has them’.
Quite frankly, I hate them. I don’t want the landscape cluttered, the lore cannibalised or Anets resources drained on this. It’s not worth it and it never will be.
as for the lore, you seem to be forgetting that they CREATE the lore. they can do whatever they want with it. there’s no such thing as mounts not fitting with the lore. bad argument.
There’s no such thing as Batman not fitting the lore. Arenanet create the lore. They can do whatever they like with it. Bad argument.
Sweetheart, mounts do not fit into the world of Tyria. Where would they have come from? Where would they have been hiding for the past… five+ centuries? Why would people suddenly start using them when far swifter methods of travel are available? There are no logical answers.
//Reason One: Personal mounts are lorebreaking.//
Only one living race ever used personal mounts, that being the dwarves. And those mounts were only ever used as warbeasts. Although beasts of burden, tanks, airships and alike are used to trasnsport goods, there simply there is no precident for personal mounts in Tyria. Teleportation is widely accessable and part of the accepted canon.
And horses are /extinct/ in Tyria.
.
//Reason 2: Cluttering and Aesthetic Disruption//
The zones of GW2 are very wel/ designed. They are cohesive and bringing mounts from one area to the next would ruin that. Furthermore, there’s no way to prevent people from crowding important NPCs or clutting up outposts. Nobody likes that. It’s ugly.
.
//Reason 3: Pointless Drain on Developmental Resources//
Mounts, mounted combat etc. are a massive drain on resources. Balancing, even if all they provide is a speedboost, would be tricky and irksome. Preventing people from griefing jumping puzzles and certain tricky areas of terrain another. There’s more to consider than most people realise. It’s bigger than a speedboost and would detract from further content.
The idea of mounts disgusts me. I’m not entirely sure why I feel so vehemently opposed to them. There are many reasons I dislike them, but… why do I dislike them quiet as much as I do?
Regardless, here are the reasons I do not want mounts in the game.
1. Mounts will clutter zones and crowd important NPCs. This never looks appealing and the zones of Tyria are too appealing to ruin so simply.
2. There’s no precident for it. Teleportation has a long history in Tyria. Mounts have only ever been used by one living race, and only then as warbeasts.
3. Why do people keep suggesting animals? This is a world with golems, motorcycles, tanks, airships and submarines. How many people ride horses (which, by the way, are extinct in Tyria) on todays roads? Furthermore, none of the beasts of burden and machines in Tyria are speedy. With waypoints, there’s no need for that. They’re all for transporting goods and war machines.
People on my server rush to every temple event. Dwayna and Lyssa are under player control just as much as Grenth and Melandru.
But Balthazar is an issue. As are the smaller quests that stick themselves waiting for an NPC that never comes. These need to be fixed, though I’m sure Arenanet is well aware of that.
//Repetition//
There’s a certain degree of this in all MMORPGs. As you say, WoW’s dungeons can get incredibly repetitive and, for many people, the gear is the only incentive to continue going back to a specific dungeon. I much prefer runing through an open world, packed with dynamic content, to powering through a dungeon a hundred times in a row. It might have been fun the first few times, but when it gets into double figures, it’s just not enough.
Now, I do believe that a better loot system needs to be in place for those who’d prefer to linger in Blazeridge Steppes as opposed to Orr or Frostgorge Sound but the principle is solid.
//GW1’s Elite Areas – Environments & Mobs//
I mean that the mobs in GW2’s dungeons, while sometimes strategically placed, do not always feel like they belong in a specific area. In the Ascalonian Catacombs (Explorable), there are two bosses with an identical model which are fought in exactly the same area depending on which path your team chose. Which of these mobs ‘belongs’ there in canon? What’s special about this area?
GW1’s Underworld elite area was not well designed, but its final boss was brilliant. He was fought in a place you could only access by completing all the other quests in the area – a great Hall of Judgement. SC’s aside, walking into it felt like crossing a threshold. It felt meaningful, foreboding. My character was in Dhuum’s resting place. His prison.
(edited by Safer Saviour.9685)
I think you misunderstood what Arenanet meant by their ‘everything is endgame’ retoric.
In WoW, you are stuck running the same dungeons over and over until you get the gear to progress to the next level of dungeons and while running those dungeons can be fun, that’s all there is. You are stuck doing the same content over and over again. What getting to level 80 in GW2 does, is open up the whole world to you. Just like completing a dungeon for the first time in WoW, getting 100% map completion in an area doesn’t mean you’re done. You can go back to the areas you liked, play through the events you most enjoyed and garner gold/karma rewards adjusted to your level (I do believe something has to be done about the loot).
That being said, I do believe you’re on to something when you talk about mob and dungeon variation. There are some bosses in GW2 which have notably unique mechanics, such as The Lovers and the Iron Forgeman, and many which present a challenge, such as Lt. Kholer. But there’s something missing.
Don’t get me wrong, I like the dungeons in GW2. I genuinely do. However, in comparison to some of the elite areas in GW1, they lose their shine. Take Urgoz’s Warren and The Deep. For those unfamiliar with these zones, they were areas designed for a group of twelve and divided into zones. Each zone had a different environmental effect or challenge to overcome. These included rapid health degeneration, having to split into smaller groups, having to fight on a narrow platform surrounded by unreachable turrets. Other Elite areas included zones/areas which were pitch black, zones which gated you into small areas. In GW2, ther’s often a disconnect with the mobs and their environments – especially in the explorable modes where you find different mobs in the same area depending on what path you choose.
Interesting use of language there, Chasing. ‘Hardcore’ gamers played GW1, which lacked the gear grind/post-cap stat progression that keeps people occupied in other MMOs. There are people who put thousands of hours into that game, and there are people who will do the same in GW2. Not all gamers who identify as ‘hardcore gamers’, are leaving. For some, the vanity system is enough.
That isn’t to say I don’t think the developers should add more content. I look forward to the Hallowe’en patch, and am insanely excited about potential expansions.
Tengu or Largos.
mrsrachelm, the humans are more elvish than the sylvari, in terms of lore and social position. Additionally, the sylvari did originally have a more pixie-like/elvish appearance… and people /hated/ it. They hated it so much the whole race was redesigned to the beautiful and imaginative plant people we have now. They definitely reflect their origins better than they did prior to the redesign.
The developers wanted to add quivers and capes but there were clipping issues. Hopefully they become available later.
I support almost all the major arguments against mounts, so I won’t rehash them all by paraphrasing. However, one thing I have noticed in reading through this thread is the continual reference to humans with horses.
Horses are extinct in Tyria. Finito. Gone.
Furthermore, personal transformation has /evolved past/ riding beasts. Teleportation is a part of the lore, as are tanks, airships and other motor vehicles.
@ Safer Saviour
Yes FoW and UW were there on release but the way favor worked you could only go there if your servers held halls . So if a European guild held halls America and Asia were pretty much screwed as far as going to FoW and UW .
Ah, I joined around the time Sorrow’s was added, so I wasn’t sure.
And I’m a Euro player. If I was awake and in game, chances are we had favour. Certain times went to Asia… America never seemed to do very well. That’s a whole continent of players who couldn’t access FoW or UW…
Travel was something FFXI got right. You’d have to board an airship, pay for it, and then you’d have to spend the time riding it to get to your destination. During your trip, you could even be attacked. There were quests on board and vendors. It felt like part of the world. It was faster than walking, but you didn’t insta-port.
Sure, some abilities were created to allow for a mark & teleport, but that was a limited magical device and you had to GET there to use it, and you could only mark one place at a time.
The lore and settings of GW2 and FFXI are completely different. The world of Tyria is much more advanced in terms of technology. Teleportation in particular has been part of the lore for centuries. What logical (in terms of lore) reason would there be to remove it?