Guild Wars 2

Waypoints should be in the major population centers and nowhere else. Waypoints have made the game world feel small. Waypoints have made exploration an exercise in moot-ality (take that, English language!), even in the unreleased new zones, because wherever we go, the waypoint installers have already been there. And on top of that, the waypoint installers are a bunch of jerks, because they they’re all like, hey, there’s this waypoint over there where you want to go that’s been part of our network of waypoints for like forever, but you can’t use it until you ‘discover’ it, bwahaha.

Who installs these things, anyway? It’s a sure bet they’re the ones keeping us from having proper mounts!

Must threats always stem from dragons or wacky alliances or feral quaggans or stuff like that? What about Natural Disasters?

Ya know, things like floods, tornadoes, forest fires, maybe even earthquakes. Seems like these ‘real worldly’ events would lend themselves well to in game events, especially if they occurred randomly (as opposed to running on Old Faithfully accurate schedules).

Anybody out there got any ideas? What areas would be most prone to flooding? That is, areas where such a thing would adversely impact people living there. Do you think Gendarren Fields, given its relative openness, might be a small-scale tornado alley?

What say you, fellow forumites? Would you enjoy such things? If so, how would you like to see it done? How would you design a GW2 Natural Disaster?

I’ve always liked how the zones work in LOTRO.

Eidolonemesis.5640:

Tachenon.5270:

As in, what particular portion of GW2’s playerbase cares about the shape of the zones (or has even noticed the shape) and whether they are artificially square or follow ‘natural’ contours/divisions? It seems logical to assume that if there were a great deal of players who were unhappy with the ubiquitous squareness of our beloved Tyria, there would be more ‘smoke’ here on the forums. So, who are those who oppose the squares? What do they do when they’re logged in? Are they the majority? Are they the game’s target audience?

Who is it, among us all, that cares? And, based on the post-launch development of the game, is this group the group anet most wants to keep playing?

A great many of you guys in the comments ask me questions to which you never like the answers, that despite being answers, you still don’t get it (or you just don’t want to get it).

So to answer your question, Tachenon.5270, the question is not, “Who is it that really cares” because what I point out in my OP is something that should just come from game developers without anybody asking for it in a big title game, especially one like Guild Wars 2 in the year 2015. Just like nobody really asked for the little details in our character animations when standing ‘idly’ by in town. It is these little details that come (or should come) with the territory of a good, big title game like Guild Wars 2.

In other words, your question is one of those questions that are beside the point.

The Anet developers being the professionals they are should know better so as to not come under fire regarding what my OP points out.

Tachenon.5270:

Corollary query: what IS GW2?

Guild Wars 2 is a seemingly living, breathing world (do I got it right so far?) AND so if it is going to be coded to function like one, it should look like one, too.

Therefore, all this ‘blockiness’ is not consistent with what a living, breathing world is truly like, because a living, breathing world also entails how nature takes its course when forming continents, etc. ‘naturally’ to the point where there is very little (if any) signs of man-made shapes like almost perfect squares as shown in Guild Wars 2’s World Map.

Hmm, don’t think you quite got it, but that’s okay. Hint: I am not defending the squares. I don’t like them either.

I, personally, would rather see and play in a game world that looks and feels more natural. Verisimilitude in a game world makes playing in that world much more fun for me. BUT. I think the big question here in GW2 is, and I don’t mean this in a sarcastic way: who cares?

As in, what particular portion of GW2’s playerbase cares about the shape of the zones (or has even noticed the shape) and whether they are artificially square or follow ‘natural’ contours/divisions? It seems logical to assume that if there were a great deal of players who were unhappy with the ubiquitous squareness of our beloved Tyria, there would be more ‘smoke’ here on the forums. So, who are those who oppose the squares? What do they do when they’re logged in? Are they the majority? Are they the game’s target audience?

Some possibilities:

Is it the players who just log in long enough to do the dailies?
Is it the players who just play spvp or wvw?
Is it the players speed running the dungeons?
Is it the players who play the market?
Is it the players who do the world boss circuit?
Is it the players running champ trains?
Is it the players working for legendary or ascended gear?

Who is it, among us all, that cares? And, based on the post-launch development of the game, is this group the group anet most wants to keep playing?

Corollary query: what IS GW2?

Aw, man, it’s because most of the cool and hip races are extinct or in decline or keep mostly to themselves and all that’s left to run things are the square old fuddy duddy races. Well, the sylvari aren’t old, okay, and they are more or less literally ‘flower children’… but they’re still pretty darned square, man! Rectangular. Trying to fit into the Establishment. ‘Cept for Scarlet, you know, and look what they did to her. It’s an observer-created universe, man, where what you see is what you get, and all the squares want to see are more squares! Because squares fit together so squarely. You can’t stack round objects, but squares stack up all nice and neat and, you know, square, like they were made for it. So, it’s a square world, man. Square squared.

Dondarrion.2748:

Not sure what you mean by “once upon a time”, as in back in GW1? Asura and Norn featured there so they were around 250 years before now.

Once upon a time as in prior to the release of the Eye of the North expansion.

Alternatives:

Kick Their Kittens!
You and What Army!
Oh, You Want Some of This, Too?
In Your Face!
Ramming Speed!
More DOTS!
I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing!
Zerk or Go Home!

All the dwarves. Every single one of them, man, woman, and child. Well, sure.

Except for the ones who weren’t involved in any of that last stand business. Surely by now you know how it goes. Possibilities. Always possibilities. There could be an unknown kingdom of dwarves living in some remote (or not) region of Tyria our characters have never visited, in either the old game or the (still relatively) new one. We’ve just never heard of them. No big whoop. We’d never heard of a lot of things — until one day when we did. And just like that, they’d been there all along.

Once more with feeling: there are always possibilities. Flesh and blood dwarves that are beholden to neither Deldrimor nor Stone Summit could be lurking right over there behind that copse of trees, under that odd looking outcrop of rock, down in that quiet, secluded river valley where no one ever goes, somewhere just out of sight, until such time as something brings them to our attention. Just like the asura. Just like the norn. Just like a bunch of other things that never were, until, suddenly, they were. And then they would become part of the ever-growing, ever-changing lore of Tyria.

Forevermore.

I couldn’t do it. I am an altoholic. Back in the early days of Guild Wars, when we couldn’t buy extra characters slots, I bought a second account just so I could have MOAR ALTS. Alts are my ‘endgame’.

Currently I have 14 level 80s on my main account — two of every profession except thief and engineer — and 5 ‘in progress’ characters on my relatively new alt account (which I picked up last winter during a 75% off sale): ranger, mesmer, elementalist, thief, engineer. 4 asura, 3 sylvari, 1 norn, 1 charr — all the rest are human.

I am more than ready for some new professions, new races, new places, new stuff for new alts. Not much interested, though, in jumping mushrooms. Unless jumping mushrooms is a new playable race…

lordkrall.7241:

Of course it could be done.

It could also be written that aliens came from outer space and nuked all of Tyria and killed all life on the planet.

Now you’re getting it. Make it dwarves from outer space instead of generic aliens and you’ll even be on topic!

Ceridwen.6703:

Sirius.4510:

I have to admit, after I got to the “charr on motorbikes” bit, I didn’t really see anything else. Mostly because I couldn’t really see anything else.

Me too. Now I want Rox to star as a charr dissatisfied with her warband in a film called “The Charr on a Motorcycle”. I’m sure she can source a blonde wig from Kasmeer.

AKA ‘Furred Under Leather’. With a little sidecar for Frostbite.

lordkrall.7241:

Not being seen before isn’t even remotely close to completely rewriting a race story.

Both can be done with the same pen (see also: keyboard). And who said anything about rewriting the entire history? Couple of paragraphs, tops.

Reminder: I am not saying it should be done. I am saying it COULD be done. Which of these are you arguing against?

rapthorne.7345:

The dwarves are practically extinct, allowing player character dwarves would completely negate a large portion of Tyrian lore

Asura? Norn? Quaggans? Skritt? Once upon a time, these things were not part of Tyrian lore. Now they are.

All it takes is for new information to come to light, and the lorekeepers will rewrite history.

Again.

Heh. Would you have committed the entirety of your forces to that one big dramatic all out attack?

Conncept.7638:

Tachenon.5270:

Easily retconned. All it would take is an intrepid band of Stone Summit dwarves who stubbornly refused to undergo the Rite of the Great Dwarf and were either forgotten or stricken from the record due to undwarvenly behavior. Perhaps, after a time, they have come to regret their behavior and have returned from their dark wanderings, hoping to reunite with their lost kin — but alas! Until they make up for whatever undwarvenly thing they did, they are for some reason or other unable to undergo the Rite.

And so they become player characters.

Everything is easily retconed, that doesn’t make retconing any less lazy or stupid.

Not necessarily so. Without retconning we’d have been stuck with the movie version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

lordkrall.7241:

DocZed.6973:

I face-palmed when Trahearne just started barraging an otherwise silent forest.
Like, did he even see anything vital to hit or is he just suspicious of all trees now?

That is how warfare works though.
You have a general target. You hit general target with bombs.
Just look at some pictures how London and Berlin looked by the end of WWII.

Not to mention Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Nope. Trahearne’s attack was nonsense, just like the non-defense of the Pact base in the Silverwastes was nonsense. I’ve already written about it on these forums, not going to go through it all again. Look it up if you feel inclined to disagree.

“Fire!” was all about making a dramatic cutscene. That’s it, and that’s all.

Astralporing.1957:

Tachenon.5270:

Easily retconned. All it would take is an intrepid band of Stone Summit dwarves who stubbornly refused to undergo the Rite of the Great Dwarf and were either forgotten or stricken from the record due to undwarvenly behavior. Perhaps, after a time, they have come to regret their behavior and have returned from their dark wanderings, hoping to reunite with their lost kin — but alas! Until they make up for whatever undwarvenly thing they did, they are for some reason or other unable to undergo the Rite.

And so they become player characters.

By canon, there were holdout groups unwilling to go through the Rite and the change. And all of them were annihilated by the dredge. There may have been some solo survivors, but by now they have all died out.

“There are always possibilities.” ~ Spock

One that comes to mind, borrowed from the ST: TNG episode, ‘Relics’ — a malfunctioning (and long forgotten) asura gateway might have kept a group of dwarves (heck, they could even be the good guy dwarves!) trapped in transit, so to speak, for lo, all these many years. A simple repair and voila. Dwarves, ready to play.

Dramen Maidria.1034:

What they should have done is make the defend events progressively harder and frequent, so that they eventually will be retaken by the risen regardless of how many players defend them. Everyone is happy this way.

Not me. I hate that sort of thing. Just like I hate it when the game spawns enemies behind a point I am successfully defending. It’s cheating! Grr.

I am not a game developer and know little of their ways, but it seems to me those doodads (which I will likely never see) should be potentially awarded not only for a successful capture, but also for a successful defense. The defense should, of course, require just as much effort as the capture.

Living Story S3 all at once instead of spread out over several weeks is all I’m expecting.

Maybe if the tail was heavier…

Not lore determining? Pshaw. Next you’ll be telling me quaggan backpacks and alicorn short bows aren’t lore determining.

You know, what they could do is create a ‘new’ S1 for the newer (and older!) players, something that leads the new players through the aftermath of S1 and gives them an idea of what happened, while simultaneously offering some new but related threat for them to deal with.

Maybe a ‘murder mystery’ kind of thing. Perhaps our very own rock, Marjory, might have heard unsettling rumors concerning some of the S1 locations (and the foes we fought in them) that have just a little too much of a deja vu quality to be ignored, and so she sends some fledgling heroes on a series of quests that would lead them to search for clues in the ashes of past atrocities, ultimately leading to a confrontation with an entirely new threat which the ‘big guns’, being occupied elsewhere, can’t handle.

But no ‘play as someone else in the past’ missions, fer cryin’ out loud. That was bad, mm-kay.

Well, some of us did try to tell them it was a bad idea, but evidently once they set a course they can’t change it until they reach their destination or hit an iceberg, whichever comes first, and so most of S1 remains vanishware, except for bits and pieces stuck in the fractals dungeon thing.

They did, however, make S2 permanent, even if new players will have to pay extra to experience it.

In a world where charr wear Balthazar Regalia, anything can happen.

Then again, perhaps these publicly atypical charr are members of a rising counterculture movement, rejecting the strict and stodgy social norms of established charr society and embracing the less restrictive values and belief systems of the other Tyrian races; human values, in particular. The shock value of venerating the human gods and sporting the associated paraphernalia is, of course, no small part of the appeal, but it goes much deeper. Charr society has settled into predictable — and boring — patterns in the past 250 years, and young charr, being more and more exposed to outside cultures, are less and less inclined to play by the rules.

“Never trust anyone in a warband!”

I suspect, were motorcycles available, we’d see many young charr cruising the cattle paths of Ascalon, looking for adventure, and, of course, whatever might come their way. Meanwhile, in the population centers, especially those of other cultures, young charr may spark a ‘bloom’, if you will, in the florist trade. Divinity’s Reach, particularly the streets and alleys near the Queen’s Pavilion, seems most likely to become something of a haven to these young charr, joining together en masse to express their individuality.

‘By the time we got to Kryta
We were half a million strong.’

Meanwhile, back in the Black Citadel, charr leaders can only scratch behind their ears in puzzlement and wonder what these crazy kids will do next.

Who would win in a pie eating contest, Trahearne or Treebeard?

Look at all those waypoints. It can only mean one thing: whoever built them is keeping secrets from us, secrets that, if revealed, might have prevented the Pact Fleet Disaster.

Rytlock did it.

Here’s what happened.

First, we must go back in time several decades, to Tybalt’s great grandpappy, Humboldt. While fishing one day in a remote corner of Lion’s Arch, Humboldt happened to witness a disturbance in the water — and he saw what he thought was a human, being attacked by feral quaggans! Being brave and bold and all that, he dug out his seldom-used fishing net and cast it over the struggling figures and then hauled them in.

The human was blue, no doubt from lack of air, but the quaggans weren’t quaggans at all, but rather some weird creatures the likes of which Humboldt had never before seen. They shredded the net and escaped into the blue water, but not until after Humboldt had managed to pop a musket ball into one’s rump.

He turned his attention to the blue-hued human and it soon became evident that what he had thought was a human wasn’t any more human than the things he had thought were quaggans had been quaggans. Oh, he was human enough in general form and feature, sure, but the blue hue of his skin was clearly not from lack of oxygen, and the fellow’s armor and accoutrements were like no human trappings Humboldt had ever seen.

“You all right there, partner?” Humboldt asked.

“I will be fine,” said the stranger. “One moment.”

Humboldt had decided the poor fellow must have suffered from blunt force trauma as the blue man began patting himself on the back, but then some sort of compartment opened on the man’s pauldrons and a strange, flowing, filmy cloth-like substance unfurled therefrom, attaching itself to a framework of telescoping metallic rods. The process took only a handful of seconds, and then the man standing before Humboldt flexed what appeared to be gigantic butterfly wings.

“What is your name?” asked the man.

“Humboldt Applespice, at your service. Say, what—”

“I am in your debt, Humboldt Applespice. One day, when certain doom is upon you, I shall be there to repay that debt. If not you, then one of your get. If not me, then one of mine. And now, farewell!”

The blue man dove into the water and was gone.

Humboldt picked up his jug of applespice wine and had a sip, and another, and another, and decided he’d keep all this to himself. He lived a long and relatively happy life and died peacefully in his own bed.

Many years later, as Humboldt’s great grandson Tybalt was about to be overrun by Risen, a strange blue fellow with gigantic butterfly wings suddenly appeared and carried him away into the depths.

So there. Tybalt lives! And is having wonderful adventures — under the sea!

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Tachenon.5270:

Easily retconned. All it would take is an intrepid band of Stone Summit dwarves who stubbornly refused to undergo the Rite of the Great Dwarf and were either forgotten or stricken from the record due to undwarvenly behavior. Perhaps, after a time, they have come to regret their behavior and have returned from their dark wanderings, hoping to reunite with their lost kin — but alas! Until they make up for whatever undwarvenly thing they did, they are for some reason or other unable to undergo the Rite.

And so they become player characters.

It has been explicitly stated that the Stone Summit disbanded and rejoined Deldrimor shortly after Eye of the North, and that by 50 years after Eye of the North, all dwarves that still lived had undergone the Rite.

They’ve already kittened with GW1 lore making it near pointless to care for pre-EotN lore, I don’t want them to go retconning GW2 lore Willy nilly too.

Especially when A net has on many occasions, before McCoy stated that they would never retcon, just give new truths. Sadly, a certain McCoy and LW writing team broke that promise a dozen times over.

Still, no need to make crimes worse.

One more nail in the coffin won’t make the dead any deader.

Dang, I’m pretty darned profound to have had only half a cup of coffee this morning! Let me try another one. Ahem.

There’s no point shutting the barn door once the horse is out, so you might as well open the window and let the alicorn out, too.

Okay, back to the coffee pot.

Randulf.7614:

There is absolutely no way a company of Anet’s size could produce content to fill the gap whilst making an expansion. It is simply too much work and too many resources. It isn’t feasible for them, nor is it feasible to request it of them.

Why not? Wasn’t there a small team working on living story stuff while the rest of anet was allegedly working on something BIG? What’s different now?

witcher.3197:

As far as I remember the reason why Anet turned the dwarves into stone is because they wanted to write them off. They did not want to have the same playable races of other MMOs, so they had to do something about them before GW2.

So no, not going to happen.

I’m sure there are people who were equally certain we’d never see a bow which fired flying unicorns in a Guild Wars game. How many were certain there’d never, ever, ever, EVER be anything remotely resembling a flying mount in GW2?

Besides, what other MMO has stone dwarves as a playable race?

I’m not advocating the return of the dwarves, nor am I rallying against it. I am pointing out that the absence of flesh and blood dwarves is a matter easily retconned. Do you deny it?

Remember: in most MMOs, and this one especially, nothing is (ahem) set in stone.

Edit: they don’t, of course, even have to be flesh and blood dwarves to be player characters.

Say, who are Taimi’s parents? Did Snaff have any progeny?

Easily retconned. All it would take is an intrepid band of Stone Summit dwarves who stubbornly refused to undergo the Rite of the Great Dwarf and were either forgotten or stricken from the record due to undwarvenly behavior. Perhaps, after a time, they have come to regret their behavior and have returned from their dark wanderings, hoping to reunite with their lost kin — but alas! Until they make up for whatever undwarvenly thing they did, they are for some reason or other unable to undergo the Rite.

And so they become player characters.

SlayerSixx.5763:

Give them increased precision at night, kinda like cats :P. When someone goes stealth nearby, let them be able to keep up on their last known position so you could roughly gauge that sneaky snake’s movements.

I know that this wasn’t the topic, but if we’re talking racials, I was thinking giving sylvari greater regen in fields and near water and the ability to shoot wood and stuff like Groot. Give asura higher precision and power when casting spells. Give norn raw physical strength. Give humans……give humans…….the six gods, since they’re practically useless without their weapons :P.

That’s cool, I was hoping a few fellow fearless forumites would take the initiative and write up some threads like this for the other races.

Spinning off from the upright charr thread…

Charr have claws, horns, and fangs — formidable physical weapons — but they never use them. For anything. Which begs the question: are they just for show? If so, WHY?

See also: four ears. Superior senses? Extremely resistant to being sneaked up on? If so, never used. Why?

Humans: weak, mostly hairless, all but toothless. Take away their metal shells and artificial claws and what do you have? Nothing. Well, not nothing. Prey. Meat. But a charr, bereft of such things remains a charr: swift, merciless, deadly. It’s often said, Charr need no gods. Who cares? What Charr obviously don’t need is weapons, for the simple fact that charr ARE weapons. Natural born. Rarr!

Now, of course, charr, being an intelligent and outgoing species, will seek to enhance what makes them naturally grrrreat and compensate for whatever minor little insignificant (ahem) flaws that they might possibly possess. Tooth and claw vs plate armor? Hmm. The greater reach of spears, if charr lived in a world where spears could be used on dry land, that is… hmm. Okay, so it makes sense that charr would see that such things would be of benefit and adapt to use them. Or, perhaps, adapt those things for use by charr…

But how? And how much? How much charr-ity would charr give up to match their enemies?

This is where you come in, fellow forumite! How would YOU (yes, you) make charr more charr-y and less human in a charr suit? Forget resources and development time; such things need not concern us here on the forums. Go wild. Rarr.

Here’s what I’d do:

I’d give them racial skills/attacks that reflect their actual, ya know, race. Skills/attacks that no human, norn, sylvari, or asura could duplicate without artificial assistance. I’d give them bite attacks, horn attacks, claw attacks. I’d have them mauling their opponents. I’d bring back cracked armor, from Guild Wars, just for charr to have something to play with. Oh, your armor is cracked — here, let me BITE/HORN/CLAW that exposed flesh for you.

Daggers? Good for cutting up meat, sure, in polite company. Or slicing cheese. But what about claws reinforced with citadel-forged steel? What about horns tipped with cut diamond spear points slamming into an enemy’s torso, or horns reinforced with cold, hard metal, bashing an enemy’s faceplate into his face?

If they’re gonna run on all fours, by all the gods that ever were or ever will be or were just dreamed up after too much ale, ale, glorious ale, I’d have them run faster (in short bursts) than a kitten centaur.

I’d give them bonuses vs stealthed opponents. What’s that I hear? A sneaky little mouse? Hah.

I’d throw out all the kitten clothes. What’s the point of picking out fur colors and patterns, after all, if no one ever sees them? Charr need clothes even less than they need gods!

I’d make it so that if someone chooses to play a charr, they’d be playing a CHARR, not a human in a charr suit.

Okay, fearless forumite! It’s your turn. Let ’er rip!

Hang-gliding in areas free of the dense vegetation that makes a jungle a jungle would seem less hazardous than hang-gliding through a jungle and would not require redefinition of the terms ‘hang-gliding’ or ‘jungle’.

Leo G.4501:

Fantasy rules aside, I would assume Charr have less dexterity with their fingers due to the largeness and bulkiness of their fingers. As for their claws, I heard they are retractable. What we see in game though, isn’t an accurate representation of how their claws look and work but simply a limitation of the method the devs used to model the Charr for this game.

Well, if what we see in the game isn’t an accurate representation, then there’s no point in continuing, because that opens us up to saying things like asura really have tiny heads shaped like tennis balls but we see them with big heads due to a limitation of something or other.

(Note: that’s a purposeful exaggeration; here’s hoping the point gets across.)

There’s a way to settle the charr posture issue, though, but it’s beyond my means.

Somebody out there make scale models of the GW2 charr and the upright GW1 ‘shaman’. Now stand them up. On their own two feet.

Which one immediately falls over?

(edited — twice! — for clarity and to rectify a comparative faux pas; the comparison should have been slouching charr vs standup charr, not charr vs human.)

Leo G.4501:

Well yeah, Charr can look around somewhat easier when standing upright…but what proof do you have that they can look around easier standing straight upright? When we’re comparing the two (straight to hunched) the two have different necks. Even if one could look around easier than the other, it’s still two different anatomies. Can you prove that the current Charr anatomy, when lined up straight could see around easier? At what cost?

Height is a distinct advantage when one is looking around. Is it not so? Charr with their heads on top of vertical necks would have the advantage over charr with their heads at the end of those bizarrely long drooping necks.

Leo G.4501:

It’s easier to run faster with an extra set of hands than it is with just two feet, not including that it’s easier to bound with digitigrade feet, but I don’t see you commenting on that.

Luckily for you, though, charr don’t have hands that resemble feet. It’s actually an attribute of most felines to have fore paws with individualized toes built for grabbing and clawing at prey which Charr take to the next level with thumbs.

Upright charr who can run at length while wielding weapons and holding on to various items (all the while not fighting the instinct to drop to all fours) have an advantage over charr who use their hands as an extra set of feet.

Leo G.4501:

Are we looking at the same model? The upright standing Charr look like they’d fall over to a stiff breeze. Look at how close their feet are together, practically right under their knees. You try standing on your tip toes and walking/standing around on your tip toes.

Their feet are much bigger and wider than mine and they have big claws on them. Which, of course, regardless of posture would wreak havoc on most types of flooring that isn’t stone. Also, their center of gravity isn’t out in front of them, as it is with the forward-leaning types.

Leo G.4501:

Current Charr stance, they are hunched lower to use their various appendages to better balance not to mention their feet are spread apart (almost shoulder length apart) lowering their center of gravity…oh, and if they do fall over, they have hands they can readily rely on for balance, recovery and movement.

You try it: hunch down, lean forward, stick your neck out as far and as low as it will go, spread your feet far apart and move around. Take a walk around the block.

Leo G.4501:

Do not bring up the size of greatswords. Then you get into the whole mess of how the other races and genders look ridiculous wielding one. It’s not pretty.

No argument there. But it does bring up another question: why do charr use the same weapons and armor types as humans? They’ve got claws. They’ve got horns. They’ve got fur. Seems logical to assume that those things would have played a BIG part in the development of their martial skills.

Bonus round: those big charr claws on the hands/forefeet. How do they manage to grasp a weapon firmly without the points of the claws poking the heels of their hands/paws? Can a charr tailor sew using needle and thread?

Leo G.4501:

But having shorter legs and a forward-leaning posture and broad neck help distinguish them as a race. The above Charr mesmer from GW1 look like a human with a swapped head and feet with a tail attached.

He also looks like he’s got some serious advantages over his hunched-over kindred, all things considered.

Leo G.4501:

If you want human skin swaps with as little imagination or uniqueness, why not just ask for that instead of going on these round-about rants on the apparent ludicrous structure of the Charr? I mean, it’s one thing to want a certain thing and it’s another to incorrectly criticize something else to get what you want.

If you want charr design to exhibit more imagination and uniqueness, why not ask why they use the same weapons and armors as humans, and pretty much do everything else the same as humans, except for how they move and stand around?

HawkMeister.4758:

NO.

Simply because the Charr already have the perfect and anatomically correct posture for a quadruped that can also walk upright, if need be.

There already was this thread where somebody explained it.
It´s got to do with the connection of the neck to the skull and Charr have it more in the back of the skull, so they can actually freely look around WHILE on four feet.

Our “normal” monkey upright posture is built for freely looking around while on two feet due to the neck connecting under the skull.

Incorporating this in a mere fantasy MMO is GREAT design and all you Charr haters should feel bad. :p
;)

I didn’t buy that explanation.

Charr could look around much better standing upright. Also, it’s much easier to use tools and weapons with hands that are hands and not another set of feet. Another factor, charr already look like a stiff breeze would topple them over when they’re standing on two feet — now add in the weight of gear and armor. Put a big metal helmet on the head at the end of that long drooping (especially on males) neck. Ouch.

Relatively short legs, long arms, forward-leaning posture, long neck… flouncing around swinging, say, a greatsword, and not just any greatsword, but a gigantic GW2 greatsword. It’s a good thing this is all fantasy, because it may (or may not, depending on the viewer) look cool, but it’s impractical as hell.

Most profitable occupation for a charr: chiropractor.

I’d like the stand up straight option for charr, please.

One of the devs posted earlier today about a fix they were working on.

Yesterday, in Sparkfly Fen,
A metabuild did let me win.
It let me win in Cursed Shore,
Too bad, too bad the loot was poor.

I guess this is as good a place as any to ask: is the person who made the airplane sounds for female characters the same person who made the asura female dance sounds? To my ears the two sounds sound like they come from the same source, but I have tinnitus and some hearing loss (see: rock and roll) mostly in the upper register, so…

Well, it’s a good thing you guys aren’t really devs tasked with the task of porting the paragon into GW2 without reusing any skills already assimilated by existing GW2 professions because if you were…

I see. Very well. /e makes note on clipboard.

Anyone else?

Heyas!

If you were a dev and you were tasked with porting the original Guild Wars paragon into GW2, with the stipulation that you couldn’t make use of any original Guild Wars paragon skills that had already been used by some other GW2 profession, how would you do it?

Bonus: GW2 paragons will usher in the age of dry land spears in GW2, and you get to choose what other professions get to use them! So, which ones will it be?

Disclaimer: whether it should or could be done is not the point. The point is, how would you do it?

Sounds good to me. Thanks!

draxynnic.3719:

(Logan comments about Kudu having a girl’s name in Crucible of Eternity, for instance.)

Perhaps Kudu is an asuran analogue of Real World names like Francis, Kelly, Adrian, Morgan, etc.

Morgan Fairchild
Morgan Freeman