Guild Wars 2

Khisanth.2948:

Hmm …

Capture Stonemist
-> build upgrade for hang gliding platforms
-> fly into enemy keeps :P

Maybe in the new borderland map.

Wow. Now I want to see this… just once, because I know it’ll turn WvW into a joke, but just once.

Yamsandjams.3267:

(the current tengu models in game are very “samey” and overall bland).

Actually, I believe there is only one model, with two skins (one red garb with brown/white feathers, the other blue with dark grey/white). That’s why they look samey – because they are

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Player Sylvari – they are the 1%

Yep.

Though I’m figuring there will be some in-game explanation for this. Not all sylvari will go evil – that’s an absolute necessity – so you’d have to have a reason for why there are exceptions. Whether Trahearne will be one of them, I don’t really know – but I can imagine it would make some people’s day to have him turn evil then go beat him up.

It would be a mistake to not do anything. That six weeks is just for basically a playable demo – the actual release is most likely months out, and that’s an unprecedented lull with GW2’s track record.

Troll’s End became a lot less arduous once a couple people showed me how to skip the initial “climb and fall” part of the puzzle. If you can just jump up from the floor the tricky bits are only a minute or so long.

But yeah, it’s certainly a dysfunctional little puzzle with a huge character. You can’t really see where you are so you just have to kind of guess. Not impossible but not easy either

Well, looking at what they have said up-front:

…and be among the first to hear how we’re setting up a new framework for how an MMO can grow its universe. The Living World was just the beginning.

1) It’s probably not a traditional expansion, because that’s not “a new framework for how an MMO can grow its universe”.
2) It’s probably not just more Living World, or they wouldn’t say it “was just the beginning”. Also, it doesn’t explain why “Heart of Thorns” is significant enough to warrant a trademark.

It seems most likely that this is something expansion-like that is not delivered as a traditional expansion. That could mean a lot of different things, but I guess we’ll find out tomorrow. I’d agree though: keep an open mind. (Or don’t – it’s a free country. )

There are some things that dodge doesn’t help with, but plenty more it does – if you don’t have enough time to clear the red circle of an incoming AoE, dodge can quite frequently buy you that extra time. That’s extremely valuable against most bosses, even.

Option 1: Start the tengu PS 2 years in the past, before the territory is opened and before Zhaitan and Scarlet and all that. The first 30 levels are race-specific (as they are for the other five races anyway) and may take part inside the DoW, or maybe you’re sent on errands outside for some reason. During that you get in touch with the three Orders and eventually decide to join one of them. Yes, you’ll be unusual since there are very few other tengu around there, but there are a few – so it’s not unprecedented. The remainder of the personal story would consist of the “common” storyline.
Issues: You have no obvious mentor in Destiny’s Edge, which isn’t a huge problem since that mostly only affects dungeons, but on the other hand sort of is since the “kill Zhaitan” dungeon is written to assume they’re familiar with you. It’d probably be easiest if you were introduced to, say, Caithe at some point along the way.
Also, you miss out on LW Season 1 (though any new players also will regardless of race) – this will mean you have no context if you want to play season 2 or Heart of Thorns, so there would need to be something to bridge the gap – maybe cinematics.

Option 2: Skip the Zhaitan arc entirely – and LW Seasons 1/2. You might be able to play bits of them, including the dungeons, but the game would basically need to pull the GW1 Factions/Nightfall “re-enactment” trick for these. Instead, you’ll need to have something else to catch tengu characters up to level 80. Either they start very close to there (which abridges the learning process) or it means a lot of extra content that existing characters don’t get to see, which may be unjustified.
Alternatively, maybe you don’t get caught up to level 80, just 30, and the early areas of Heart of Thorns are lower-level – which means everyone else gets downscaled and gets easy-mode. That happens for new characters already anyway, so no big deal.

Either way – there are solutions – they’re not perfect, but they’re definitely possible and don’t even have to be bad.

Oh, there is a lot more to do. Even I would be disappointed if a new race were all the expansion had given we’ve had this huge build-up to Mordremoth. But I am fine with a mix, because it’s not all going to be new personal story for the Mordremoth campaign – I’m sure that would disappoint people too, because there’s just no variety in that.

The problem with variety is that most things are not appreciated by everyone (actually PS included: see PvP/WvW-only players), and what those things are will differ from one player to another. You don’t care about new races. I’m a bit “meh” about dungeons and fractals. A bunch of people are going to hate any jumping puzzles they add anywhere. But other people will love those things.

That being the case, I don’t believe “many people won’t care” is enough reason to not add races or professions unless virtually nobody cares, and that’s… probably not going to be happening yet unless they add something like dredge. And I still know people who would play a dredge.

jia li ng.8415:

when asked most players in the game are in agreement another couple classes would be far more enjoyable, something akin to the Dervish and the Ritualist.

I think I’m going to need stronger evidence of this before I’m willing to believe it. I know there are a lot of people who want new professions, but I also know there are a lot who want new races; I’m not sure how the two compare but they seemed to be in the same ballpark, and naturally they also overlap heavily. It’s difficult to use that to say people want one more than another, let alone much more.

To be honest, there isn’t anything that indicates the Dominion of Winds is about to do anything soon. We know that there will be a conflict between the sylvari and everyone else – whether they want it or not – and that could lead to chaos in Caledon Forest, sure – but last time the tengu had chaos on their doorstep (Lion’s Arch) they just retreated behind the wall, and they may do the same thing again.

From a business/release timing perspective, if they’re going to release a new playable race, it would make sense to do it with this upcoming expansion (or expansion-like entity). But from a storyline perspective, nobody is looking any more likely than they were last year.

That doesn’t mean it won’t happen, of course, since it’s not an absolute requirement that it be foreshadowed; but I do think you probably shouldn’t get your hopes up too much.

Personally, my question is why Caithe has been holding onto the egg for so long without doing anything with it if she had no time to explain why. Unless she’s already done it and just dropped by our encounter with the Shadow of the Dragon to say “hi good luck bye”.

I have a feeling she isn’t explaining because you’re not going to like the explanation.

Hahaha… this is going to be good.

Also:

If this is okay, then I’m going to start kicking asura too.

I’m not talking about parties, I’m talking about a full-on punt through the uprights type kick.

Don’t forget to record the distance. Can you make a 60-yarder?

I can’t really imagine a universe in which ArenaNet hadn’t already thought about this many times.

Rich Fuel.7253:

point of no return was the 8th episode and the last episdoe is 9th how i know, go to collection and on each luminanacens armor shows on which episode it gets unlocked, last armor piece on the 9th episode

I’m not seeing this in my collections achievement… it looks like they’re all already unlocked. Plus: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/trailer-point-of-no-return-begins-january-13/

the “Point of No Return” release brings Season 2 of the Living World to a finale

Yeah, my main issue with this release is that I can’t understand why Wintersday dailies don’t count toward the meta, and there isn’t even any choice as to what achievements you have to pick up – it has to be all of a predefined set – thought we moved away from those sorts of meta-achievements 2 years ago…

DarcShriek.5829:

Why was one playable race enough for GW1, but five isn’t enough for GW2?

It’s not really as simple as that. ArenaNet talked about the possibility of adding other races to GW1 since not long after Prophecies, if I recall correctly, it’s just that it never actually happened until GW2. Only one race in GW1 wasn’t “how it’s meant to be”, it’s just what happened.

GW2 is a different kettle of fish, where we do have multiple races already, and it is reasonable to start asking how many is enough. I don’t think you would want lots more – they do add overhead, to new armor sets for instance – but I’m not going to object to a handful more, especially the surprise snubs at release.

(edited for clarity, I had the page open too long before replying)

Honestly, GW2 is better-suited to 3D monitors and shutter glasses than it is to full HMDs. That way you get the 3D without the head-tracking (or lack thereof) confusing you.

Maclaine Diemer.7693:

The suggestion to redo it was designer and occasional composer Leif Chappelle’s. He thought it would tie in nicely to the area where Glint’s Lair was in the original Guild Wars, and I agreed with him. I’m glad people are making the connection.

It made me remember how much I missed the Amnoon Oasis and the rest of Crystal Desert personally Nice touch though.

Isn’t that Labyrinthine Cliffs?

Probably fair enough, though I can’t remember seeing anyone using Snow Leopard during the tournament.

Sideways/vertical movement feeling sluggish still bugs me underwater… that and the camera lock thing (you can’t go past vertical). If it played more like Descent I would bother more often, but that might be dangerous territory

I’m not really sure the console market is that much larger. Intel among others has been making some noise about the PC gaming market overtaking them recently. Haven’t been able to easily find graphics on this but there is an article from 2011 that pointed to the gap narrowing:
http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/97047-thank-you-farmville-pc-gaming-will-soon-overtake-consoles
Apparently PC actually took over ahead of schedule in 2013. The gap in hardware is bigger:
http://www.jonpeddie.com/publications/pc_gaming_hardware_market_report/

So, while there is some appeal in reaching out to the console market, not really sure it’s important enough given that the game isn’t designed for it and would be a little tricky to adapt (mainly thinking of the 10 skills thing).

I imagine, theoretically, you could cut down GW2 to work on a Wii U, but it would be so different you might as well call it a different game by that point. It struggles on middle-of-the-road PCs, never mind the technical equivalent of a middle-of-the-road PC from seven years ago.

Honestly this is giving the impression they want to avoid racial skills being used at all

I’m guessing that was an across-the-board cut to the effects of charge skills in general? Because going out specifically to nerf a couple of elite skills that were already pretty weak would be kind of hilarious, albeit also sad.

Has there ever been any direct evidence about NCSoft forbidding returning to Cantha or Elona other than hearsay over the fate of the Canthan District in Divinity’s Reach? I have a feeling we’re witnessing something akin to apotheosis…

Dustfinger.9510:

There’s very peasant asura when most tend to be egotistical and overbearing.

These ones usually get killed off. Grr.

I think I’m leaning slightly toward this being a joke thread.

+1 for dual-wielding shields though.

I doubt there’s any super-strong reason behind this. The “sympathy” options are different for each race, but it kind of feels more like something had to be cut for difference’s sake, so the options that seemed least plausible race-by-race were cut. Skritt would have been an easy call in that case since many asura outright don’t like them.

I cannot possibly believe that they blew all their art resources for the last 8 months on Dry Top. It’s a great (if half-size compared to usual) map, sure – but if they developed all the original maps at that pace, it would have taken them decades (something like 20-30 years considering their size?) to build them – and my impression is they have more staff now, not less.

If the pipeline from start to finish is 8 months, that’s a different deal and fairly believable – but would mean they have to have been able to work on other maps in the meantime as well.

It is somewhat intriguing. I'm not even completely sure whose side Anise is on - what legitimate reason does she have for sending Canach to spy on the Pact's preparations? Sure, there could be something – it seems like an obvious thing thrown in there to confuse players – but she’s definitely up to something… something that for some reason needs to be a secret.

No word of anything at PAX Prime… if there were going to be a gamescom announcement I’d sort of expect a follow-up at PAX, so my guess would be “no” as well.

Zardul.3952:

and I will kitten you.

Best punchline ever, intentional or not.

I’ve been wondering if they would start recording lines for several episodes at once. That does require an awful lot of planning in advance, of course.

I have no real issues with the way the story is presented in S2 except what Zaxares pointed out – it’s been a really long time since the PC, well, said anything.

Equilibriator.8741:

I also LOVED the fact they used something that has been in the game since day one and made it have a purpose, so many times i’ve been to that statue and wondered why it seemed part of something, yet i never got to see what it was a part of.

I’m guessing you never rolled a charr character – it’s part of their “tutorial”/intro instance. Which was another thing that made it poignant for some – basically going back to where you began and trying not to lose so many soldiers this time.

I didn’t have a problem with it difficulty-wise, although I did screw up on the spectral flames a couple times and had to get ressed by Rox (only went downed, though, not defeated). Was running a zerker sword/warhorn ranger that I normally use for dungeons… which did make it unnecessarily difficult to stay out of AoEs, but they weren’t bad enough to stop me. It did take a while but wasn’t one of the fights that ended up frustrating me – the crazy sylvari at the end of S2E1 (I forget his name) was much more annoying. Menders were easy to stop, so past that everything was progress, however slow it may have been.

Don’t you worry, this is merely Rytlock’s Gandalf moment.

If the group events become impossible to regularly get past in a few months, ArenaNet will fix them, much like they rebalanced the personal story in places soon after release. Since these episodes now persist, they pretty much have to do that.

Sky not falling yet!

In general the open-world stages seemed like an interesting idea, but had enough problems I’m not sure they were worth it – I kind of had the opposite problem – multiple stages where I basically didn’t have to do anything because I got there just after the event had already been cleared. Walk up, click, oh, looks like I get credit, next objective. Including the Sons of Svanir event – pretty much strolled into an empty camp, vandalized a totem, saw the instance indicator pop up, proceeded to get a “see I knew you could do it by yourself!” from Eir. Kind of funny after meeting about as much resistance as a trip to Safeway.

I didn’t find the layout to be immediately recognizable from the GW1 zone, if recognizable at all. It sounded like much of it was in a higher elevation that was inaccessible there though (assuming the areas line up in the first place).

Visually, it does take that cue, with the wastes-to-jungle transition. It never looked quite like this in GW1 though – what they pulled off in this area looks amazing. You do have to spin the camera around a lot to see quite a bit of it – but among other things, that north canyon wall would give El Capitan a run for its money. The oasis was also very pretty, though I think that underground ley-line cave would be the overall coolest area

Southsun had its own design concepts that were pretty interesting overall, but the “vista density” of Dry Top is comparatively off the charts…

It seems that the asura were on the right track, although they’ve probably never been able to grasp exactly what the “Eternal Alchemy” is. There was speculation even in EotN that the human gods were just manifestations of that “alchemy” though:
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Kerrsh
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/The_Cipher_of_Melandru
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/The_Path_to_Revelations
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Varajar_Fells_Notebook

It is especially curious that there happen to be six human gods covering their various portfolios… and also, apparently, the same number of elder dragons. And the elder dragons are part of the world of Tyria, or so we’re told. I get the impression there is some kind of connection there – though what it is I couldn’t guess.
I don’t believe that the human gods are similarly part of the world though – from what I recall, they originally came from elsewhere. That, and gods have come and gone over time. But I figure they would know something about this “eternal alchemy”… and I would also wager that their becoming more “distant” has something to do with that, with the dragons, or with the Pale Tree – maybe a mix of all of the above.

I don’t figure we’ll be getting answers to that anytime soon though.

It seems completely plausible that by this point the PC could have figured this out… we just never got an explanation. So, yeah, confusion.

Yeah, I really didn’t see this as amounting to much of anything. There are possibly several ways to interpret it, but considering the context (making people think they’re getting a good deal when you’re just bending them to your whims), what it really seems to be describing is how Varesh set the centaurs up for an arrangement that she later turned into their slavery. This was merely the reason they weren’t in a position to fight back.

Regardless of exactly what happened, considering the context of that statement, it’s absolutely not trying to say that Kourna’s treatment of centaurs under Varesh Ossa was benign.

EdwinLi.1284:

The Tengu culture is global being that there are 5 tengu clans in the GW world and we only know about 2 of the 5 clans being the Tengu naturally born in Tyria and the Tengu of Cantha.

I’m not sure where this comes from? My guess would be that these five clans just count what we’ve seen in GW1 already: Caromi, Avicara, Angchu, Sensali, Quetzal. There are quite possibly even more, though, since there were tengu in Elona, and because of the geographical separation they well might have been another distinct tribe.

Central point remains, though, they were nearly as widely distributed as humans – at least they used to be, before they went all “Attack on Titan”.

That was my thinking, too – that for PS purposes, your character could be one of the few who left the DoW for some reason or other – but there is another snag which would need a resolution. Remember the level 30 cutscene where the “iconics” get into a fight? Why would you be there, who would your mentor be?

Still, I guess swapping out one or two PS scenes wouldn’t be the end of the world. Or maybe just altering – maybe your mentor catches word of Destiny’s Edge possibly getting back together and sends you to investigate and report back later… hm.

It’s probably a solvable issue.

Jeremy Soule’s work in GW Nightfall didn’t sound very much at all like his other work… which was interesting. There wasn’t much that was very memorable to me though.

I would have pointed to Unreal 2, but apparently he was one of many composers there and I don’t know which songs he worked on. Wouldn’t surprise me if it were the cinematics though.

I remember a climbing-all-over-a-dragon phase in Castlevania LoS… I also remember mocking it because it was patently ridiculous. (PRESS A TO HOLD ON! Yeah, that vertebra doesn’t have anything to hold on to.)

They aren’t going to hold still for you to jumping-puzzle them…

Well, it probably did strike a few cords too… with explosions.

The Maguuma area isn’t really a true desert… those arid areas are regularly broken by jungle. Such an environment probably wouldn’t exist in the real world, though – and the drier parts were pretty desert-like (I think what we would normally call “wastelands” though – they weren’t flat like the Sahara).

For a sandy desert I think the Crystal Desert is the obvious pick – though that has a bit more water than it used to thanks to the Elon’s diversion. The map still makes parts look dry though. As bleak as it was, it was one of my favorite parts of GW1 (except the burrowed mobs, they were a little annoying) – it had a kind of serenity to it that I miss.

What I would most want to see in it: remnants of the past that tell stories about the past, much like the original game had. Civilization had basically died out there, but you still saw statues and bones that hinted at those that had come before. It’s a kind of story-telling I have great appreciation for.

Look on the bright side – there’ll still be the Zephyr Sanctum model in your bank or on one of your characters or wherever you put it.

Hope you didn’t delete it now.

Yeah, I’m pretty sure this means they’re not heading to Cantha, which is interesting. I hadn’t figured on them having anything to do with Season 2 either.

But no, there isn’t a lot out that way – that we know of. Maguuma was the end of the region we explored in GW1, and it didn’t seem any more inhabited in GW2.