Guild Wars 2

2. Basic Ingredients

These are the basic ingredients you gather in the world, buy from merchants “in bulk”, or otherwise acquire. I shall attempt to break down how you acquire these each in this segment so you know where you need to go for your goods. It may be easier to acquire them off the Black Lion Trading Post, however it will cut into costs. Bulk Ingredients are in groups of 25.

The following ingredients are purchased from the Master Chef stationed at each position for coin (80 copper), in groups of 10: Jars of Vinegar, Jars of Vegetable Oil, Packets of Baking Powder, Packets of Salt, Bags of Sugar, Bags of Starch, Bags of Flour, Bottles of Soy Sauce.

The following ingredients are purchased from the Master Chefs, but for Karma (35-77 Karma) in bulk: Cheese Wedges, Packets of Yeast, Bowls of Sour Cream, Rice Balls, Glasses of Buttermilk, Ginger Root, Tomatoes, Basil Leaves, Bell Peppers.

The following ingredients need to be purchased (in bulk packages) from other vendors around Tyria. If you come across them pick up at least 200 (8 packages) to ensure you do not run out. I shall list the vendors who sell more than one Bulk Package so you can arrange to pick up as much as possible. Most are going to be Heart Vendors, so be sure to check them as you finish.

Farmer Eda (Queensdale, Shaemoor Fields): Apples, Nutmeg Seeds. (Note: She sells a recipe scroll.)
Fallen Angel Makayla (Fields of Ruin, Stronghold of Ebonhawke): Avocados.
Disa (Dredgehaunt Cliffs, Snowslide Ravine): Almonds, Cherries.
Lieutenant Pickens (Harathi Hinterlands, Greystone Rise): Almonds.
Lieutenant Summers (Harathi Hinterlands, Nightguard Beach): Cherries.
Deputy Jenks (Kessex Hills, Giant’s Passage): Bananas, Black Beans, Nutmeg Seeds.
Milton Book (Gendarran Fields, Cornucopian Fields): Celery Stalks, Cumin, Lemons, Nutmeg Seeds.
Naknar (Iron Marches, Obsidian Run): Chickpeas. (Note: He also sells a recipe, though you can discover this one on your own.)
Lionscout Tunnira (Bloodtide Coast, Archen Foreland): Coconuts.
Environmental Activist Jenrys (Mount Maelstrom, Benthic Kelp Beds): Eggplant.
Albin Chronicler (Wayfarer’s Foothills, The Icesteppes): Green Beans.
Laudren (Sparkfly Fen, Thundertroll Swamp): Horseradish Root.
Wupwup Chief (Fireheart Rise, Apostate Wastes): Horseradish Root. (Note: He also sells the recipe scrolls for Godskull weapons.)
Kastaz Strongpaw (Diessa Plateau, Noxin Dells): Kidney Beans. (Note: He also sells a recipe scroll.)
Seraph Archer Brian (Snowden Drifts, Ossencrest Climb): Kidney Beans. (Note: He also sells a recipe scroll.)
Hune (Lornar’s Pass, The Thunderhorns): Kidney Beans.
Shelp (Blazeridge Steppes, Degun Shun): Limes.
Eona (Caledon Forest, The Weeping Isle): Lemons.
Researcher Hrappa (Metrica Province, Voloxian Passage): Lemons.
Agent Crandle (Straits of Devastation, Fort Trinity): Mangos.
Nrocroc Chief (Fireheart Rise, Apostate Wastes): Peaches. (Note: He also sells many recipe scrolls.)
Braxa Scalehunter (Iron Marches, Champion’s Shield): Pears.
Scholar Tholin (Timberline Falls, Krongar Pass): Pinenuts. (Note: He also sells a recipe scroll.)
Ichtaca (Timberline Falls, Hunting Banks): Shallots. (Warning: This area may be thick with Krait.)

Any other ingredients must be harvested in the world from nodes. Some of these are less restricted than others, so be very conscious of where you search. The following link will be of some use determining what you need to go look for, but some of the harder to locate ingredients I shall list below.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Gathering#Harvesting

Cooking For (Almost) Dummies

-=-=-=-=-

1. Introduction

Cooking in Guild Wars 2 is a somewhat expensive undertaking and perhaps one of the most interesting crafting professions you can work with. Okay, that’s stretching the truth a bit: cooking is considerably expensive if you’re intent on discovering all the possible recipes. The good news is that it’s easy to reach 400 in under one gold if you harvest diligently and stick to purchasing as few ingredients as possible. Before we begin, I should once more warn you of a few things.

- Cooking is potentially expensive. You will be spending roughly half of that one gold on basic ingredients from the vendor, and there is a considerable chase to follow for all the Karma-purchased ingredients. As a rule, if you can purchase it from a vendor you should go for a full stack (250) for your Collections tab. If it must be harvested, try to have around 20-50 of the ingredients around (especially ones which mix into mixed ingredients; I’ll have the listing below).

- If you have been doing map completion, then you should be a step ahead so long as you diligently and thoroughly harvest everything you came across. Even so, there are several known gaps (about a dozen) where you will need to fill in. This is because those ingredients are found only in specific areas. I have you covered on where to look, below, if you need to shire up your reserves.

- You should save anything you can re-combine in the Discovery tab rather than pitch it. This means your bank and bags are going to get crowded . . . unless you do this during periods where you’re not going to be doing anything else. I recommend using an alternate character to do the actual crafting, since you can just park them and use their inventory space rather than your own. If your sole intention is to reach 400, then you need not keep anything which combines at skill level 400.

All that said, you can find a lot of great food to bolster your statistics or offer good effects. Most importantly, you almost always get a bonus to Experience gain when you have food buffs active, so this can be an incredible chance to level your character or get skill points. Working up your skill is not about mass-production, though you may need to resort to that at some points (pick something cheap, like a two-ingredient dish); you want to DISCOVER recipes from your ingredients available to you. This gives you the biggest chunk of crafting experience, sometimes skipping you several ranks at once.

If you know anything about real-world cooking, then you’ll have an advantage to knowing what should go together. If you don’t, then this will be new to you but you should be all right so long as you think it through.

LordByron.8369:

Its like OP never played a mmorpg…
OFCOURSE you NEED best equipment……its one of the basic concepts of mmorpgs since release.

Okay, just stop and explain why “of course you need it”. Saying it is easy, explaining it is harder.

I get where it’s a subconscious thing, people instinctively think about it as needed, “just in case” but I actually have found . . . well, I’m simply not that much stronger unless I Infuse with Agony Resist. As Vayne put it, things which drag my ranger all over the landscape still do it.

(That includes rampant hordes of angry opposed-server WvW players. Yeah, Ascended is not going to save my sorry behind from 30+ people no matter if they were using basic (White) weapons or not.)

What I really need it for is higher Fractals. And I kind of actually do want it now, if only so I don’t get pasted in the Volcano by that grawl. However, I need to be quite patient to get my Infusions all lined up for Agony Resist.

(Worth noting I chose . . . poorly on the amulet I got which had a Utility Infusion. Hey, look ma, no Agony Resist for my Neck! -headdesk- )

RebelYell.7132:

We were sold, by Arenanet marketing, a game of “want” as well. Grinding is out, they said, BiS items rain from the heavens, so you’re free to pursue goals like acquiring the gear skins you want. What a nice little bit of PR that was.

Citation Requested?

Hey, can I shout out for one of the developers who worked on a game I really enjoyed once upon a time and didn’t have levels in a strict sense?

Look up the blog of Brian Green, aka “Psychochild”. The game was an ancient beast I played on a dialup modem (28.8!) called Meridian 59.

Mirta.5029:

the ones that you mentioned seemed to be games played in real life and not PC games. I probably should have specified it though, my bad. The point that I was trying to make – you can build game on physics and a completely different skill based combat that does not have numbers and still make it interesting.

True . . . you can do that. However, try expanding on it into multiplayer . . . then into massively multiplayer online. You might reach some hurdles with interest versus development costs.

Mirta.5029:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Mirta.5029:

you’re making excuses now.
Research dark Messiah
Chivalry: Medieval Warfare is a very nice combat game that as far as I’m aware of you can’t cheat in it
Why are you afraid of a game without stats without even trying one?

Be clearer about what the heck you’re talking about and I won’t be making excuses. If “I have never heard of that game so can’t comment on whether or not it suits” is an “excuse”, then I guess I will continue making excuses.

I don’t follow all the games ever when I stopped being able to afford upgrading my computer every three-to-nine months . . . or have time to actually play them. I have console games from two years ago I purchased and are still in the shrink wrap because I just haven’t had the time.

So, instead of “chivalry” you could have said the title of the game and who published it and not laid a trap of misunderstanding.

or you could… I don’t know… Google?

Yes. I could Google. If it wasn’t, oh, a term I was more familiar with due to attendance of Renaissance Faires than games. But hey, I’m only a lowly peon who doesn’t know to Google every word in a post to be sure it’s being used correctly.

On the other hand, you have yet to read my posts where I said I had played games with no stats, minimal rules, and no score to keep track of. But you can be forgiven for your lack of reading comprehension if I can be forgiven for my lack of Google. Deal?

Mirta.5029:

you’re making excuses now.
Research dark Messiah
Chivalry: Medieval Warfare is a very nice combat game that as far as I’m aware of you can’t cheat in it
Why are you afraid of a game without stats without even trying one?

Be clearer about what the heck you’re talking about and I won’t be making excuses. If “I have never heard of that game so can’t comment on whether or not it suits” is an “excuse”, then I guess I will continue making excuses.

I don’t follow all the games ever when I stopped being able to afford upgrading my computer every three-to-nine months . . . or have time to actually play them. I have console games from two years ago I purchased and are still in the shrink wrap because I just haven’t had the time.

So, instead of “chivalry” you could have said the title of the game and who published it and not laid a trap of misunderstanding.

clay.7849:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Fox.3469:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

GW1 wasn’t an MMO, though, it was a series of instances strung together by open lobbies to group up in. It did that pretty decently, I think, but it was not an MMO.

I don’t agree with this, and i know that it doesn’t specify as an MMO cause somehow it’s been determined all of the world needs to be open for being and mmo, but i think it’s by far the best version of massive multiplayer online content around that time.

GW2 becomes an “mmo” while loosing the entire multiplayer aspect, wich is more mmo? i say GW1 is, cause not having any decent multiplayer system is worse then not having an open world.

I should clarify:

Guild Wars: Prophecies was not initially designed as an MMO as we understood it at the time. Guild Wars 2 was meant to be one, with a persistent world outside the cities. This is where a lot of the friction comes in.

It’s only friction if you use it to say you can’t compare the two games. Clearly, there are things in GW1 that could have been in GW2 and still had the difference between CORPG and MMORPG remain intact.

Sorry, I’m distracted trying to get ready for my shift with a very uncooperative car at the moment, so I should have been more clear:

“The friction between manifesto and reality”.

Fox.3469:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

GW1 wasn’t an MMO, though, it was a series of instances strung together by open lobbies to group up in. It did that pretty decently, I think, but it was not an MMO.

I don’t agree with this, and i know that it doesn’t specify as an MMO cause somehow it’s been determined all of the world needs to be open for being and mmo, but i think it’s by far the best version of massive multiplayer online content around that time.

GW2 becomes an “mmo” while loosing the entire multiplayer aspect, wich is more mmo? i say GW1 is, cause not having any decent multiplayer system is worse then not having an open world.

I should clarify:

Guild Wars: Prophecies was not initially designed as an MMO as we understood it at the time. Guild Wars 2 was meant to be one, with a persistent world outside the cities. This is where a lot of the friction comes in.

Mirta.5029:

So chivalry is not a game? No actual game could take the mechanics of this fighting game and use it as its own combat system?

Are you talking about the same “chivalry” that nobility ostensibly practiced for other nobility and not for common folk? Or is this something else? Because that was a game you could certainly opt out of playing properly or cheat at rampantly and still be all right in the bounds of . . . you know . . . the game terms?

Shooters don’t have stats. They’re not worse as a game because of it.

No, they’re generally bad for other reasons. By the by, I do like how you pounced on “a game” when I misspoke and assumed we’d be staying within the established conversation and not just pulling in anything you like to counter points. But I’ll play regardless.

Dark Messayah didn’t have stats. Just lots of spells.

This game is unfamiliar to me.

Imagine an RPG with lots of different items having different uses and abilities, but no stats to speak about.

I have. There’s always an issue which crops up which is solved by putting a statistic tracking things into play. And once you do that you’re abandoning “no stat” play. Though I suppose we could talk about card games if you want to go down that route. M:TG probably would suit you, or Mille Bornes.

And I have played an RPG which was diceless, classless, and only one rule: “If you want to succeed or fail at a task more complicated than operating simple machinery, you need to pull from the Jenga tower depending on how tough the action is.” It was great fun but I had about three drinks in me at the time. There are a host of other games which are completely statistic-less but they really function less-adroitly in massively multiplayer environments.

. . . especially if you consider writing. Take a look sometime at “Thieves’ World”.

tolunart.2095:

Reality check: What the devs wanted to do years ago and what they come up with are not going to be the same. A significant number of their customers want something, and a significant number of their customers want something else. They are doing their best to please both groups, which of course means they just p off everyone.

In the case of a lot of those things, I heard from some people I know who are at least tangentially involved in game design go: “They won’t pull it off to the extent they’re talking about, but it sounds like it’ll be a fun game anyway”.

The manifesto has less effect on the game than the “what I want to be when I grow up” essay I wrote when I was five has had on my life. It means nothing.

Yeah, I wanted to be an astronaut. I think certain medical conditions prevent that from happening, so I really am sure it has no meaning anymore

TooBz.3065:

This is essentially sPvP, or street fighter, or Madden Football, or any of a number of different games that supposedly rely on skill rather than grind.

I thought Madden games depended on picking whichever football team was considered “the best” at that year’s release and stomping on everyone else? And Street Fighter 2 was “Chun Li, mash kick button while standing in corner, repeat until win”.

TactiCol.8450:

Expenses are the guild itself, character gear, waypoints and WvW across two accounts. I have been storing mats rather than selling them in order to up my crafting skills later without having to buy everything.

So my last suggestion is a wash. Oooh. I am so sorry for your WvW wallet. I operate by setting myself a 1 gold allowance when I dip into WvW for a large block of time and only spend that plus whatever I may actually make. The remainder at the end goes back into my bank.

And before you say it, 1 gold is not that hard to make . . . do you have oodles of Karma you’re not using? Great. Hop on over to Fort Trinity and buy “Lost Orrian Jewelry Boxes”. You’ll take a bath on costs and won’t get anything spectacularly rare but the “Unidentifiable Objects” add up nicely as vendor-worthy junk.

Next up, your guild. Stop buying Influence with gold if you’re on a budget crunch. I am not entirely sure what to do about this, as my guild is right about at that cusp where we’re small enough not to get Influence fast but big enough to field a full group for a dungeon every other day or so. I would say that you should log the members in every day for an hour so they get the “logged in” Influence gain . . . and do as many chained events together as you like.

clay.7849:

@Tobias
That is true. But, does it constitute making a game around “bad” mechanics over good ones, especially if the band’s first CD was nearly flawless and their second was terrible?

If we’re using analogies? GW1 was hardly “nearly flawless”.

[quote[
Here are a couple “truths” that I think games should try to adhere to, and that GW2 simply ignores.
[/quote]

All good points, but we are seeing problems . . .

. . . people don’t bother learning to dodge, so the Sonic Periscopes mess them up and they complain they’re OP. These are things you can’t just stand and auto-attack 1, mix in 6 now and then, and beat. Similarly, the Molten Alliance events are something you need to be more cautious about taking alone. It can, of course, be done.

. . . people, way back when, complained Ascalonian Catacombs was far too difficult compared to the rest of the game. However, a couple months ago it was so “easy” that it needed to be retuned.

As a game developer . . . you can always expect your players to stick to whatever is the least effort to get through your game. Unless you give them reasons to do it differently. Of course, in the case of MMOs . . . you get the “this is unfair to us casual players, please change it!” posts . . .

So, yes, people may all like grinding, a great treadmill and watered down combat, but I hardly call that a good reason to cater to those people.

The truly sad part is that GW1 attacked these philosophical problems rather well. Not perfectly, but way better than in GW2. GW2 is a step back from GW1 and it’s not because it is different. It is because it is just a worse game with worse mechanics.

GW1 wasn’t an MMO, though, it was a series of instances strung together by open lobbies to group up in. It did that pretty decently, I think, but it was not an MMO.

Mirta.5029:

To be honest stats are an outdated mechanic and an RPG can go without it easily. No rules or boundaries would make it a sandbox and there’s a market for that as well.

To be honest RPGs are an outdated genre and it’s all about retro indie games.

Actually, a game without stats is pretty much a group of people sitting around running improv theatre for each other/themselves. Nothing wrong with that, but it’s less a “game” as we’re talking about here and more a “thing to do to kill some time”.

(Yes, I’ve done this sort of thing, mind you. I lost my taste for it after a few years.)

tolunart.2095:

But it’s very hard to craft items and sell them for a profit because the mats are more expensive than the items they produce.

Strangely, I may be wrong, but certain food items from Cooking seem quite desired enough to cost a bit. However, getting to the skill to make them can be . . . daunting.

@TactiCol:

I am vastly curious what gold you require which you do not earn as you play. I’ve never been rich like the people who try flipping stuff on the Trading Post (seriously, you do need a nice investment egg to start that . . . and a lot of luck) but I’ve been able to support my gear.

I am running in 1/6 Ascended gear (I could have more, but decided it wasn’t worth my time yet) and the rest is Exotic with two Rare weapons. I have gone to 400 in three Crafting professions now, and have only had to purchase roughly 40s in materials off the Trading Post when I felt too lazy to go find where Tier 3 Fine materials drop.

I am an active member of a guild, which has perhaps taken more of my gold currency than it should. It still is about as much as I spent on Waypoint travel, which is to say I’m figuring about 12 gold over eight months.

Where is your expense coming from?

If you are having problems, you can do a few things to try making some money back:

- Don’t cross-continent travel via Waypoint if you can avoid it. Drop into Heart of the Mists and then go to Lion’s Arch. This alone shaves off 1-2 silver, but if you then use the asuran gate hub to go to the closest city? You can come in under the cost of a straight transit.

- Try to kill things at either end of a Waypoint travel so you essentially make your money back on Green items.

- If you’re not ever going to craft, sell your crafting materials on the Trading Post.

- Don’t do WvW.

ScottBroChill.3254:

Yeah it’s a goal you put on yourself. But you’ll never be on par with those who grind.

Note “par” is an average. So, if we’re talking about averages you will need to be more careful in the future.

Anyway, I’m okay with not being "on par’ with someone who spends more time in the game. People who do things much more often are generally going to be better at it than I am.

About the only thing I’d say isn’t strictly dependent on actual experience is getting a book published.

Mirta.5029:

Kakeru.2873:

Calae.1738:

Kakeru.2873:

I swear the majority of people playing GW2 actually don’t like the MMORPG genre at all, and are constantly coming up with ways to push GW2 out of the mmorpg genre and turn it into an Action Adventure Online Game.

First, the roles and dissolved and almost removed to the point where, 9 times out of 10 someone is playing a damage dealing role. “soft” classes that can do everything. Next we remove the need for grouping and social interaction to tackle content, next we remove levels and make this a Action World Simulator Online.

@ the guy who mentioned monster hunter, MH isn’t an rpg of any sort and also there kind of are levels (there are HR ranks) but they don’t effect your character in anyway they just allow you to face harder monsters.

I like how you assume that MMORPG requires leveling, stat increases, gear grinds, healers and tanks.

These design systems are primitive and obsolete. Just like the elevator man and soon paper mail.

Stats, gear, levels, roles however soft ARE the basis of RPGS. Take them away and the game isn’t an RPG it becomes an Action game.

role playing is what makes the basis of a role playing game. Stats and gear go into games that are not role playing games (like Dungeon Defenders, Starcraft).

And pure roleplaying is, in some sense, impossible in a video game. You are assuming the identity of someone, or you are guiding them through the game rather than being someone of your own fabrication with total freedom to do whatever they would do normally.

Pure roleplaying, by the by, is also quite terrible as a “game”, if there are no stats, no rules, and no boundaries.

marnick.4305:

Most single player games don’t have levels. Fable is a very good example where you still have progress but no real levels.

Fable is a very bad example of everything else, though. I also said “very few” not “none”. I’m aware of Fable and some other RPGs which did not have levels. I did use “RPG” though since moving to “every game ever” gets us to comparing potatoes to apples and saying since they’re both food we can do that.

Ye I’ve done after my first WoW burnout. I basically came to the conclusion that instead of level > gear grind I would basically make it all into shallow gear progression.

In reading the rest of this, this becomes wildly into “not what I asked for” (not for a redesign of Guild Wars 2) but still an intriguing read. I’ve tried my hand at something different, which wound up potentially too difficult to get people more invested in.

Levels are to pve what capture points are to spvp, a horribly broken mechanic that somehow comes back every time.

I cannot entirely agree. Levels and capture points both serve specific design purposes, and are used for a reason. You can do without either or both of these, so long as something is in their place. The mechanic isn’t broken, though. The application of it may be.

Eurhetemec.9052:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Before you go too far into “no level” game concepts, try this on for size: how many people play some form of D&D in comparison to other tabletop RPGs? Rolemaster, GURPS, World of Darkness . . . for as many games which don’t have “levels”, they’re not exactly king of the hill. That says a lot without exactly saying anything meaningful.

Er, Tobias, during the mid-late 1990s, World of Darkness outsold AD&D 2E quite regularly, actually, despite having about 1/10th the marketing budget and a fraction of the production staff. Only with 3E did this solidly change back, and that was more down to the OGL and d20 initiative than anything else.

The main reason those games sell less has absolutely nothing to do with levels, and everything to do with marketing, and the “D&D explosion” in the very early 1980s, which created a huge core of established D&D players who had little knowledge of the greater RPG market. Had it been a level-less game like Traveller which had managed to get out of the hobby-shops and into the mainstream shops as, being sold as a boardgame, then the whole concept of levels might never have become popular (or a whole lot of other things, actually, but that’s a huge what-if).

I did use a current term for a reason. “Having”, not “always had”, and “play” instead of “played at X time”. I’m aware of World of Darkness having outsold 2nd Edition. If I’m not correct, there wasn’t any new material and there were other concerns directly affecting 2nd Edition. Also, at that time, World of Darkness was “cool” and “edgy” . . . I did game through those years In fact I picked up my collection of 2nd Edition books for almost a song compared to the MSRP (Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price) due to a lot of that stuff going on.

I would stake that there are more people playing D&D and it’s derivative works (Pathfinder, Hackmaster, et al) than World of Darkness currently.

However, if you want to be charitable, another level-less game does outstrip D&D by quite a lot: Magic the Gathering. Another game I do not want lifted from carelessly.

tolkien.6317:

There are other ways around the problem though without artificially deleveling. In older systems like Rolemaster, the more of any mob you fight simultaneously, the more dangerous it is.

And in Rolemaster you can die on the very first set of dice rolled against you with no chance of avoiding it. No thanks.

If you want games without levels which are “skill based”, as mentioned above tabletop games have been doing it for ages. The question isn’t whether it can be done in an MMO, the question is whether that’s an experience which will keep more than a token number of players.

Before you go too far into “no level” game concepts, try this on for size: how many people play some form of D&D in comparison to other tabletop RPGs? Rolemaster, GURPS, World of Darkness . . . for as many games which don’t have “levels”, they’re not exactly king of the hill. That says a lot without exactly saying anything meaningful.

Now, one of the three RPGs I actually own the books to (or for the third plan to as soon as I possess money enough to purchase it) only one is D&D. The other two hold a higher place in my heart, but I can’t ever get anyone to play them . . . they’d rather play D&D. Why? Because most of the time everyone already has the books, of course.

Stepping back into video games, there are a lot of games which lack “levels” rigidly defined. Upthread I acknowledged Monster Hunter by Capcom. However there aren’t many RPGs I’ve played where level is irrelevant entirely. (Not “none” but “not many”.) At least one took the other route and said “the level counter has four digits, have fun”.

And full circle . . . sit down with a notebook sometime and try to figure out how to do an MMO with no levels but a clear progression system. It’s not as easy as it sounds, or there would be tons more on the market. I don’t just mean “running right now” I mean created at all.

Leo Paul.1659:

tl;dr

Monster Hunter in PSP didn’t have a leveling system and yet it was pretty popular.. I think the game feels awkward that it tries to incorporate a similar idea in a traditional leveling game.. I’m hopeful that Anet will find a way to balance things out.

A different sort of game, and there are several things Monster Hunter does which wouldn’t mesh very well with the rest of Guild Wars 2. Such as the laughability of the Random Number God determining whether or not your gear is going to improve, or the “Best in Slot” items being really hard to earn be virtue of materials being randomly dropped.

(Big E Dragon Jewel, Lao Shan Ruby . . .)

Not that I wouldn’t mind playing the Monster Hunter MMO if it ever is made available. But it wouldn’t be Guild Wars.

Drew.1865:

Jski.6180:

Drew.1865:

The launch was great and the game was great at launch and up till November. It’s almost a completely different game now.

Your right i remember all the bugged skill points when the game first came out and they fixed them. It was a great game when it was first launched now its even better.

Oh you must mean how the ranger pet is fixed right?

Define “fixed” because:

- I can use F2 when I keep a notice on what’s happening with the pet. It queues like any other skill, and can be interrupted by the standards. So I do need to wait for that skill to activate, but I also know that it’s waiting in queue so I don’t mash the button and cancel it by mistake.

- I don’t expect them to facetank champions, or even most veterans. Especially the insects. They get crushed easily.

- I know in WvW they’re going to largely be either ignored or focused into being killed, so they’re mostly not too good for that. Except a couple.

- I know, much like they were in GW1, they are as dumb as a post. They’re really really dumb. So dumb they will chase out at something at 1500 range I tagged and then almost get there to run back to me . . . sometimes. Often enough that I heel them if I plan on that.

clay.7849:

Zeefa.3915:

So if you don’t like it, it is bad, regardless of how many others like it? Music is horrible examble to use for bad vs good. If someone enjoys a certain type of music it is good to them, even if you do not like it.

Nope, music is a perfect example. The reason I specifically chose music is because I know that many people think that music is subjective. When, in fact, there are many objective truths to what makes some music good and other music bad.

And some people know the music is bad and still enjoy it. Nickelback, for instance. I know it’s pretty bad but I enjoy listening to it sometimes. Then there’s my Genesis albums . . .

On topic?

Some people have fun different ways. Trying to figure out why they’re having fun is not “wasted effort”. Trying to cater to everyone at once . . . is.

Two lil soundbites which apply?

“You can please some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, but never all of the people all of the time.”

“If you try to hold everything, you will hold nothing.”

Maendis.3794:

Simply put, Trahearne is a bad fanfiction character.

Oh boy, another checklist.

- Everyone loves him. In fact, the three orders all happily unite beneath his banner, not because he’s qualified as a military leader, a strategist, or really anything beyond being a scholar, but because he’s Trahearne.

Wrong. They grudgingly accept his leadership and chafe a bit at working together in the beginning. It’s not until the Battle of Fort Trinity they really behave in a unified way.

- Trahearne is the only being brilliant enough to think that the orders should unite against the dragons. Given the mentality of each order, this is utter crap: the Priory are brilliant, the Vigil believe in victory at all costs, the OoW is incredibly cunning and clever. And I am supposed to believe that not one of them said “Hey, you know what? We’re fighting against the dragons…and you’re fighting against the dragons…and so are they. We should work together!”?

Forgal said something about “we can’t afford to be fighting each other with the dragons out there”, during the Personal Story. But the Vigil can’t see eye to eye with the other two orders. The Order of Whispers was playing a longer game for this, but got their hand forced by Zhaitan.

- He appears with almost no pretense and our characters blindly follow him. Let’s recap, shall we? The charr storyline has you, a soldier, ultimately follow someone with no experience. The norn are expected to follow someone who cannot demonstrate strength. The asura are expected to follow someone clearly inferior to them. The humans are told to answer to someone whose orders come from a magic tree. Only the sylvari have any real reason to follow him.

He shows up in Act 2 of the Sylvari Personal Story line, introduced as a Firstborn. Also, the humans believe in six Gods who refuse to directly intervene or do more than token acts. “Because a magic tree told us” is less silly in that comparison.

- The Pact, which is itself made up of an elite few, is expected to lead the charge. Zhaitan has gone from being a massive threat to someone felled by what is a comparatively small portion of the Tyrian population, despite being arrayed against overwhelming numbers, ancient and powerful magic, virtually unlimited resources, and not to mention sheer incredible power.

The Pact brings a lot to the table, and I won’t bother getting into every particular piece as it develops. It’s worth noting a lot of things in Personal Story threads show up here, along with one very ancient and powerful artifact which was lost in Orr when it sank. The Pact is using cutting-edge stuff and focusing rather than swatting at anything that sticks up.

- The story goes from being about our particular race to being about our particular faction to being about the Pact. Those I have associated with in my story are gone, replaced by mere glimpses and flashes of characters that appear briefly and then vanish. The only real constant is Destiny’s Edge, who have been omnipresent: you receive letters of congratulations from them, see them in dungeons. Yet their role is petty at best.

I got nothing here. I could argue, but this is a point I rather would like to have seen some work on.

- Furthermore, with DE, these well-known and well-established characters are made secondary to Trahearne.

No, Trahearne is secondary to them. He’s not the one who spearheads the mission into Arah . . . it’s Destiny’s Edge.

and the real heroes – Destiny’s Edge, our characters, those characters we’ve interacted with along the way – are made to sit in the back seat and obey his every whim.

They’re too busy squabbling for most of the game until they start growing up. At least two voluntarily put themselves in the background (Caithe and Eir) but the other three all are unable to look past grievances and get to work together.

Tachenon.5270:

There’s nothing in in GW2 that has engaged me like that. Characters come and go, they do and say things that often don’t make sense to me, often while standing there waving their arms gently against that abstract backdrop, and then they’re replaced by someone else (equally uninteresting/unimportant/just plain un) who does the same thing.

I had exactly two of those.

Doing the hatchery mission with Rox and finding her all-business for the most part without being abrasive. I enjoyed it, and her character actually feels pretty solid. I hope there’s fleshing out of her later so we get something more substantial.

Rescuing Deborah during my personal story. This is one of the only times my human ranger actually felt like he was emoting properly. It’s a shame she disappeared from the story after that.

I sent you a PM rather than post in the topic.

I also ponder the means of gathering this information, and how exactly it may be used. I think you also may want to broaden your net for who to talk to and actually approach some of the fine folk at ArenaNet for their input.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

The Lost Levels were also designed to keep ramping up from the difficulty of the first game’s World 8-4. Which is why you get things like “Poison Mushrooms” and “Reverse Warp Zones”.

But it was the platforming that killed my interest. I could go back and try again, but if I want terribly hard I’ll find my disc of “Devil May Cry 3”.

Calae.1738:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Blackmoon.6837:

A good story will make you care. A better story will make you question your own mindset and truly test your emotions.

Not exactly…

A good story will merely keep you invested for a time, and allow you to relax without questioning it. It’s pure entertainment, a relaxing experience you can let go of stress over and allow your mind to slow down and just process subconscious bits and pieces which otherwise clog your thoughts all day.

A great story will not only do all the above, but lead you to actively consider aspects of the fiction which were not in evidence . . . to reason and build your own thoughts around where the story ended or began, to inspire your creativity. You don’t merely relax and watch, you feel like it’s real and start to wonder about details you normally would leave alone.

Emotional connection, or intellectual challenge, or assaulting preconceptions are not always a part of a great story, however. You don’t need them to be a great story, and it can fool people into thinking a “good” story or less is actually a great story.

Simple things amuse simple minds.

You can make a child laugh by doing funny faces. Conversely certain adults can be quite entertained by the most childish things.

. . . trust me, I know. I live with someone who is endlessly amused and entertained by “Meet the Spartans.”

. . . me? I find “Doctor Who” more interesting and entertaining. I blame David Tennant.

Yumae.7256:

I personally really hoped they were setting up Traherne to be another Pale Tree type thing. He sacrifices himself to cleanse Orr, and becomes a tree similar to the Pale Tree that gives life to the country again. Was actually very disappointed with the actual ending.

I’m fairly certain there’s a better reason for that than “we’re bringing him back again later for the next story arc”. I’m also . . . fairly certain he will get a heroic sacrifice later on. I can see no other end to his story arc if it’s intended he be a hero alongside the player and Destiny’s Edge.

I suppose another end could be him being killed off to prove a future opponent is very seriously deadly, but I think that could be a colossal waste of the character.

Blackmoon.6837:

A good story will make you care. A better story will make you question your own mindset and truly test your emotions.

Not exactly…

A good story will merely keep you invested for a time, and allow you to relax without questioning it. It’s pure entertainment, a relaxing experience you can let go of stress over and allow your mind to slow down and just process subconscious bits and pieces which otherwise clog your thoughts all day.

A great story will not only do all the above, but lead you to actively consider aspects of the fiction which were not in evidence . . . to reason and build your own thoughts around where the story ended or began, to inspire your creativity. You don’t merely relax and watch, you feel like it’s real and start to wonder about details you normally would leave alone.

Emotional connection, or intellectual challenge, or assaulting preconceptions are not always a part of a great story, however. You don’t need them to be a great story, and it can fool people into thinking a “good” story or less is actually a great story.

WatchTheShow.7203:

Thedenofsin.7340:

Josh Foreman.8250:

Keep in mind we’ve only done world 1, and haven’t got our hard mode working yet. Things will be getting much more difficult. At some point I think most people will have to use easy mode to complete the game.

If the point is to make the mini-game progressively difficult to the point where most people cannot complete it, then why bother having a hard mode at all?

Because that’s how Mario works. Seriously, the normal mode would start off painfully easy, then progressively got harder as you graduated to the next level. By the end of the game (on normal mode) you either were so good you could complete the game, gave up in frustration, or gave it to a friend who could complete it for you.

Lost Levels.

I never tried them after the first attempt.

Here’s why I wish my initial post hadn’t gotten munched by the error. I filled out a bit more about this and included why these things are of limited effectiveness . . . except for #4, the only sure way.

Fortus.6175:

1- Capped, cant be moved, easily destroyed, needs time and resources to be constructed, by the time you build it, the zerg is gone somewhere else….or on top of you. If you use it on keeps then its slightly better, but still capped, and most definitely overcome.

If it’s built already and refreshed often so it doesn’t go away, it can sometimes actually work. I give it a 1 in 3 chance, but then I’m not playing on a higher tier and I’m a terrible player overall. I’ve seen it work, and people other than me who do better have made it work.

But you’re right in that it has its shortcomings.

2-Right now it is the only hope, but even when you do that, by distracting them, you have splitted your own forces, in the attempt to kill them, the smaller enemy cell may still be able to overcome you, while the big part of the zerg will continue at large, battling your split zerg , just to be attacked by the enemy zerg which just destroyed the distraction team. Works, yes, but only 2/5 times.

It works better if your enemy zerg isn’t following closely enough, or if you see that they have an issue with staying together. I agree, works less than it doesn’t. When it does? It usually takes the wind out of their sails for a time.

3 – Once again, splitting own forces, trust me, a large zerg is bound to have som stray elements, a smaller zerg deriving from the big mother enemy zerg might be enough to be able to hold agaisnt your rambo team. Also a good strategy, yes, but unfortunately, if you make a mistake or are unable to take the keep while the enemy is distracted then you have left your server in a bad situation; splitted groups which were already weak together, trying to overcome a big zerg coming their way, all the ways.

I’m not talking about splitting precisely. I’m talking about just flipping any soft targets you can while they’re all focused on offense. After the third time someone looks at their camps all on your side, they’re going to have to turn around and deal with it.

Or, well, they could just keep going? Either way, if you’re taking stuff faster than they are, you’re getting better. Bonus points if it’s on their Borderland.

4 – Bend over and take it? See, this is what Im talking about, this is unacceptable, just waiting for them to go off for a few hours, until the gather up their numbers and retake the entire server. trust me, the losing server is more likely to get tired and frustrated, to the point of not caring for WVW that much (aka, my server, high population, have not gotten a single queue in WVW since release, not even during peak hours on weekends……sad? yes, server 21/24 on WvW rating, 6th largest populated server)

I know it’s not an attractive option but it is literally the only solution which actually works 100% of the time. If they got nothing to capture and nobody to fight, then they’ll go looking for a fight. Come back and deal with the cleanup once they move on.

And honestly? I’m on Stormbluff. We’ve been 100k points behind the lead server on our matchup consistently for . . . what, three weeks running? Four? That’s also pretty demoralizing since we see them rarely holding less than 40% of the “pie” for very long. It’s not just the zerg tactics which kill us, it’s the inability to catch up that points gap. I’ve seen people . . . and said it myself, pop in and go “welp, no chance of doing anything but dying today” and leave.

Valik Shin.9027:

Skill lag can be on the user end but have been on VoIP with people frm all around the world means that it is a server host side issue. Either the server is to slow or the connection is

Quite true, and not contradictory to what I said either Until the communication of that data (which is a whole lot more complex a problem than than VoIP) is instant? You will still see it. And due to limitations of physics, you can only get so close to that goal. So . . .

They can sink a lot of money into better servers and try to buff their connections. Get a three-way matchup in Stonemist? Skill lag and FPS drop is going to happen.

Beast Sos.1457:

imo, they need to fix the 10 fps we get in zerg fights and skill lag before any more WvW updates.

That’s not happening. The FPS is due to the rendering your computer is going to crunch more than their servers.

The skill lag, well, probably isn’t going to be a fixable matter. Not until you get instantaneous communication between two points miles on miles on miles apart.

Hmmm. I’d written a post then a forum error ate it. There are at least four ways I can think of to beat a zerg though, without a bigger zerg.

- Smear them with defensive siege.
- Distract, divide, decimate.
- Hit them where they’re not.
- Wait for them to get bored/frustrated.

RebelYell.7132:

In GW1, we had Maurice LaMarche, the voice of The Brain, playing the main Asura character. In GW2, we have… Felicia Day. That tells you everything pretty much.

We also have Steve Blum doing a charr (again). He’s not small voice talent, and is very good at doing those types of characters. I could be slightly biased because the last charr (Pyre Fierceshot) he played was quite entertaining.

And Paul Eiding as Forgal . . .

. . . and Crispin Freeman kicking around in various places.

. . . and Nolan North. And Quinton Flynn. And Jennifer Hale. There are quite a few recognizable voice talents in here. Don’t sneer at Felicia Day playing an asura. We could have gotten worse . . . could have been Tara Strong.

(I kid, I kid. I would have liked her, but I don’t think you’ll see her available for a while.)

I don’t have anything really against Felicia Day’s acting as Zojja . . . I have everything against the way the character is written because it comes off REALLY poorly.

Also consider in GW1 we didn’t have as many voice talents kicking around but we still had good ones. Who returned for this game too.

Vodac.9742:

Me and my guild have always hate a deep hatred for Traherne, and how he likes to steal moments….but it all came to a hilarious climax after a moment doing a quest with were saska is conspiring against you….Traherne has this line something like “They were targeting you, but the real target is CLEEEEEARLY me”

From the Wiki article script:

Trahearne: You’ve been the primary focus of these attacks so far, but it’s clear that I am the real target.
<Player Name>: That fits. If you can’t trust me, or I’m dead, you lose your second-in-command. It makes you and the Pact more vulnerable.

. . . sorry, that’d be my conclusion as well. Get rid of the Player Character and the Pact can’t survive. After all, we’re the thing that makes it actually work

In the waterfall cave:

The biggest problem is the timing of the geysers, they desync an awful lot. I’ve watched lots of people have problems and one solution:

Jump to the tall geyser and then immediately jump to the dead-end platform near it. Then use it to jump to the geyser after it spouts again to get to the one across from it you need to reach.

I have, after several warmups, managed to make it repeatedly without resorting to tricks like this “dodge jump” . . . which reminds me a lot of the “Super Pogo Jump” of Commander Keen fame.

Agrivar.1560:

My thanks to all the CD and SBI for the past month of fun. I am not a big score person, like most Mags, I just like really fun fights. I know well what it is like to get flattened by zergs when out with a small team. It has happened on more than one occasion in this match up for certain. NA late night has been a blast and at times near equal numbers.

I commend the fighting spirit of both servers. Next week will be a challenge for Mag, and I know many of us are looking forward to it.

It’s been interesting. However, when I’ve been on we just haven’t been able to muster a good defense to the Maguuma zerg. Smaller teams, well, we generally could handle. When the zerg showed up we generally wrote off the tower/keep and thought about taking it back when we were sure the zerg had moved on.

But every night, oh, after 2am CST? Yeah, it was “good luck holding that stuff” o’clock. It was fun last week. This week it was tedious and “call me when it’s over” type stuff.

rizzo.1079:

Josh Foreman.8250:

Yeah, we removed the minimap for a reason. There are several factors that make 8 and 16 bit games feel the way they do. One of them is forcing the player to really learn their environment.

Possibility of a paper map at some point? Oldschool games didn’t have minimaps generally but there was always either a map included in the box or one in Nintendo Power around the time the game was released.

Honestly I wish I’d have kept them, in good condition they’d make cool wall art:)

Mine fell apart for Dragon Warrior. I laminated the one for Dragon Warrior 2 and it still fell apart.

Also -

CreativeAnarchy.6324:

Played games when the only way was to stand at a machine and keep feeding it quarters. My first home system was a Ti994a(I was a kid when we got this…age is showing) and have been playing them since. Yes, I did play those games.

Tunnels of Doom, Parsec, Chisholm Trail. Three games I tended to go back to a lot when I was allowed to play on it.

I also tried several times to play “King’s Quest” but at that age it just frustrated me too much.

McDili.1549:

That doesn’t make me a bully, I’m enjoying the game by playing how I want too. What you’re there to do at the JP is none of my concern, I just want to kill people. I probably make people mad when I kill them, but I’m not interested in how mad they are. I’m interested in killing players because it’s mindless and fun.

Does that make you a bully? Not in my book, no. It’s the times there’s a small group in there that makes me feel bad. A single person gives me that shining ray of illusory hope I can win out.

The fact I never do/will doesn’t bother me as much.

Noviere.7309:

Thanks!

I hate that jump to the shortcut also. There is an alternate way to get to it, that only takes an extra 20 seconds or so. I don’t want to just outright spoil it for you, so let me know if you’d like to know

I have absolutely no trouble using that Shortcut.

Now that last hidden shop in the place with the black “water”? Yeah.

Lokheit.7943:

Zaxares.5419:

It’s like the time I saw somebody bashing the Lord of the Rings movies for stealing ideas from World of Warcraft…

/facepalm

Not worse than girls looking old classic Dracula novels in a library and saying: look! this is the writter that I said was copying Stephenie Meyer (Twilight)…

They must never breed.

Why does this remind me of that Penny Arcade strip where Gabe rants about Warhammer-verse stealing from Starcraft?

Hmm.

Golden Axe: The between-stage map reminds me much of the map from that game.

Ghouls and Ghosts: Watch the opening of those games, then watch the opening of this one. Tell me there’s no comparison.

Dragon Quest / Warrior: So your first weapon is a trusty POINTY STICK. First and weakest weapon in DQ1 is a Bamboo Rod. Even weaker than the club.

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: Of all the incarnations of Zelda, it’s this one which is brought to mind the most.

Castlevania: Too bad the whip never picked up stuff in that game.

Ratchet and Clank: Crazy platforming in third person where you only take a limited amount of hits. Sounds similar to this.

Or I just use bombs, then refill off the Honeycomb behind it

lunawisp.2378:

“you will need to farm periscopes.”

. . . if you choose it as one of your four monthly goals. I didn’t. I went for Events, Veterans, WvW kills, and Monthly Completionist.

Zaxares.5419:

I’m not very fond of Braham (or his appearance) myself, but I’m appreciating the chance to get a deeper look at Norn family values and about Eir’s history and motivations.

It’s entirely possible that Borje and Eir had some sort of falling out, but personally, I have the feeling that when Eir became pregnant, she and Borje discussed what would happen next. They were both famous legend-seeking (the equivalent of career-oriented) Norn, and settling down to raise a child would probably mean the end of that. Perhaps they came to a mutual agreement that Borje would become the caregiver, or more likely, in true Norn fashion, the two of them competed to see who would get to raise Braham. Borje won (or lost, depending on what their contest was like), and so he went to Cragstead with Braham.

While this is an interesting supposition . . .

. . . is it unfair for me to say “we really can’t speculate, or we’re just spinning fanfiction yarns”?