Guild Wars 2

Ah, but after that first year of “free” (nothing is really ever free) upgrades, we will then have to pay a monthly service charge to run Windows 10 (I believe) on new installations. For this reason, if no other, I plan to avoid Windows 10 like the plague. Even for the systems that I could upgrade it on for free during the first year I plan to pass.

Rainmaker.7594:

Novuake.2691:

Rainmaker.7594:

I just wanted to add my test results (just a quick test, didn’t try different settings, or run around the whole event area). I was defending north turrets. All settings on max (except the cheap AA, because I supersample instead) @ 2560×1600. The lowest I saw was 19 fps looking directly at the zerg, zoomed out, from north turret area (ran a little closer, didn’t make a difference). I also didn’t get very far into the fight before the game crashed from hitting the 3.7GB memory limit (because its 32-bit).

Relevant specs:
CPU: Intel Core i7-4790k (stock settings = 4.3 GHz constant on my mobo)
GPU: ASUS AMD Radeon HD7970
RAM: 16GB, 1866MHz, CL 8-9-9

Seems about right, maybe a little on the low side, but that could just be the RAM limitation. GET 64BIT NOW! :P

Yeah, I really wish they would release a 64-bit version of GW2. While I usually stick to dungeons anyway, I can’t really do zerg bosses if I wanted to because I have a high chance of hitting the memory limit. I know I could just lower the game settings, but I didn’t spend as much as I did to build this PC to play on low settings (and I’m just too lazy to change the settings before and after events ).

I’ve been having game crashes lately with my system (right after I tried the Nvidia video settings for GW2). I too have a 2560×1600 monitor and I think your post above about the game client being 32 bit being the culprit is right on the mark. I had to lower my settings (which pains me, not why I bought the Titan Black graphics card) to keep it from crashing in large zerg situations (and then not getting the reward for killing the boss).

Sounds like a classic case of burnout to me.

I started a new character after the feature patch and have found it to be just fine. I’m a veteran player (been playing since beta and currently have 22 lvl 80s) and though I kinda missed (the char is lvl 42 now) having some of the stuff available earlier on, I also recall back to the early days with my first character during beta and do feel that if these changes had been in place then it would have reduced some of my early days frustration at trying to figure out what to do next and how to take advantage of some of the stuff I had available.

So from my perspective, I believe that Anet has largely achieved their goals (sans bugs) with this change. My new character got through the first 15 levels in record speed, so some of the stuff I was missing arrived pretty soon.

I’m no gaming expert (hardly, way too old for that), but I have played this game alot over the past 2+ years (more than I should, I have 22 lvl 80 characters currently). I Started a new ranger (my favorite class) last week to see for myself what all the fuss about the NPE was all about. Well, I found it more interesting/engaging to play than I expected (based on all the bashing here). In fact, recalling back to my earliest days during beta for GW2 and my first character, I could see that much of the frustration I felt back then would have been absent had I waited till now to start that first character.

I suspect that some folks here like wandering around not knowing what to do next (enjoying the thrill of discovery and learning something that your fellow players have yet to figure out) and how to get to different places (it was some time…maybe a week…till I figured out how to get to Lion’s Arch), but I don’t. I want to play the game, not feel lost.

Vol.7601:

Stone.7563:

Not retroactively rewarding players for playing their game is a big mistake. I have leveled 13 characters to 80, mapped 100% 5 times, and beaten Zhaitan 8 times.

Now that the game has an update to what was crappy rewards, I am left out of the loop. How is this ok? Why can’t the game see what story steps I’ve finished and reward my characters for doing so? After 13 characters I don’t see any reason to make more…

Sep Feature Patch = New Players > Old Players

Considering that you would be rewarded with items that are worthless for a lvl 80 and probably would have a sum worth of something less than 5 gold…yeah it’s not worth it to retroactively reward players.

I agree. And when I do start a new character (currently have 23, 20 of which are lvl 80) then I will get direct benefit from these changes.

Oh, and it is my feeling that attracting new players and getting them to stay with the game does benefit us old timers.

Zoso.8279:

bob.5680:

biggs.4702:

So people acted like jerks and now their toys got taken away. I’d say “serves ’em right,” but people almost never change.

Agreed, “People don’t change; they only become more so.”

I’m sorry but i disagree. We are all constantly changing. Now true not everyone can change but the world is not so dark. We stop changing when we die.

Small changes only. When you get old like me (70 and counting) you may realize this.

biggs.4702:

So people acted like jerks and now their toys got taken away. I’d say “serves ’em right,” but people almost never change.

Agreed, “People don’t change; they only become more so.”

Yeah, sounds like a really bad idea to me. Just suck it up and try again later on the next cycle.

Lamir.6702:

Lazy DNS servers could also scrap their monlist command…

Except that the monlist command is an ntp (network time protocol) feature, not something that’s part of DNS. Of course, the DNS system has had it share of problems with DDoS attacks as well.

The thing that was so bad about the ntp monlist attack was that it was an Amplified Distributed Denial of Service attack. Meaning that the system initiating the attack only had to send a relative small packet to get the ntp server to respond with much more data, and to a different IP address. Made it very effective.

I had some of that going on on my systems at my house with my ntp servers. Didn’t take me long to notice it and shut if off, though (maybe a couple of hours from the time I first noticed it).

Wow! You are all still just kids. I’m 70, been playing since the beginning, have 18 lvl 80’s, and need a life (it would seem).

I like the underwater weapons/skills just fine. Trying to use an axe/sword/bow etc underwater would seem very strange to me. You do need to learn how the underwater weapons & skills work, but how is that different from figuring out how the different land weapons & skill work? Just more to learn. What’s wrong with that?

Yep, naming your pets is a PITA in this game (I don’t remember it being this way in GW1). I want to name the critter, not the slot he winds up in!

scirocco.9805:

Yumiko Ishida.3769:

Its a ddos attack on all of Anet and Ncsoft mainly aimed at Wildstar.

I really doubt they can keep up a Ddos atack for 3 weeks.

Why do you say that? All they’d have to do is keep their botnet sending the flood of packets. My last DDoS attack lasted for over a week. Not reason it couldn’t have gone on if the attacker had wanted it to.

Lots of reasons bad people do DDoS attacks…read up on it. The rate of attacks is way up this year from last year. The Internet is a very wild and dangerous place.

Not directly related, but something that would help me and those that move them from alt to alt would be an account wide inventory bag. Then we could just put something we wanted to move to a different character in there.

I really don’t understand why some people that obviously don’t like the game, don’t want to play it, come here and post their complaints (vs useful critiques/criticisms).

I played WoW for a while, didn’t like it, quit playing it and never looked back; and certainly wouldn’t bother posting to some forum what I thought of it.

Actually, we used to get three stones on city completions so as you did these you could amass quite a number of stones useful for alts. As others have said, that encouraged transmuting the armor of your alts prior to them reaching level 80 to try different ‘looks’. Now days I only (sometimes) transmute my alts to the various Heritage skins gotten from the Hall of Monuments as those transmutations are free.

Well, remember folks: “Other people’s work is easy!”

Belzebu.3912:

Complete a city map 6 times and you can transmute a whole set.
Rata Sum and The Grove takes about 15 mins each to complete.

Yes, but back before the feature patch it would have only taken 2 completions for below 80 lvl gear!

I doubt we’ll ever get free transmutations, but back before the feature patch we could transmute our lower level gear at what has turned out to be 1/3 of what it costs now (using Anet’s 3 transmutation stones for 1 transmutation charge exchange rate). So now I almost never will transmute any of my early on gear to anything other than the skins that are free (heritage, etc).

So what I’d like to see is perhaps some kind of transmutation option for lower level gear that is more inline with what it used to cost.

Oenanthe.6549:

I do have a few characters that I do play hardcore already, if they die they get deleted. My choice, and it does give a whole different mindset when playing.

Yep, one of risk aversion for many players. Can’t afford to die…reduce risk by avoiding risky situations…simple.

Rouven.7409:

I think the developers like us to die.

Get in there guns blazing and try. If you die, maybe rethink your strategy. If not, just go on ahead and do it again.

Spontaneous. Chaotic. Thriving. Potential tales of reviving and turning the tide.

Not players who stand there with their excel chart, calculating they need one more XYZ traited player level OP to make sure you are not dying.

Teamwork, not jealous players who will try to save their own sorry bum first. Yes, 90% will run and not try to rez someone. That’s ok. I think it’s great any time I help some stranger get up again and I just get away with it. Yeah bummer if it doesn’t work. So what?

I couldn’t agree more!

phys.7689:

bob.5680:

It’s been said that a greater death penalty will make people think before they act. I seriously doubt that that will work with most folks. More likely they will simply become more risk adverse and be inclined to sit back and let others fail, or just rage quit to avoid dying.

Playing games with heavy death penalties, it does in fact make people play like they are scared, (not everybody), and it does make people rage (not everybody) but they actually tend to play at a better level, because they have to in order to succeed, The glass cannons actually play like they are glass, the people supporting work harder to keep everyone going.

People adapt to the norm, but sometimes they are highly engaged while being at the norm, and sometimes they are pretty bored. Based on what people seem to be saying here in the forums, and what i have seen in game, its less about the path, and more about getting whatever item easier/faster. And the same people often will say they find it boring, so make it shorter and easier.
That wont make it less boring, it will just give you more progress while being bored. The designers have to find ways to keep people engaged while minimizing boredom. There are ways other than battle design, but they would require world/story/etc to be good so the battle doesnt matter for entertainment.

Well, that’s not been my experience. More often than not I would wind up being the only one actually playing or even left in the group.

If Anet ever made most of the increased death penalties being suggested here I’d simply quit playing the game altogether. As I mentioned earlier, I play video games as a stress reliever, not to prove something to either myself or others. Just for fun. Serious death penalties suck the fun right out of a game for me.

It’s been said that a greater death penalty will make people think before they act. I seriously doubt that that will work with most folks. More likely they will simply become more risk adverse and be inclined to sit back and let others fail, or just rage quit to avoid dying.

Severe death penalties just add stress for me, not any additional difficulty or feelings of achievement. I don’t need more stress in my life. I play GW2 as a stress reliever, not stress adder.

I’m 70 and have played GW1 since 2005 and GW2 since Beta. I’m the oldest in my guild. Indeed, my son and daughter also play and they are probably 2nd and 3rd oldest in the guild.

runeblade.7514:

The PvE world is not duel free right now.

There are multiple skillpoints where you duel a npc.

However, they don’t pester you to accept the challenge. Indeed, you have to approach them and ask for it most of the time. Not at all the same experience.

I feel that the cure proposed by the OP is far worse than the disease.

No thanks…hated doing it in WoW, don’t need it here. There’s got to be much better things for Anet to spend time and resources on.

It would seem that you are in the minority here. I know I was surprised that someone would want it back the old way. I have 20 chars and trying to manage gold among all of them was a royal pain. Don’t want to have to do that again.

Interesting, but I’m just about on the opposite side of the coin from you on the removal of obstacles to re-rolling your ranger. I have yet to re-roll a character (just keep creating more of them…got 20 currently) and discarding a ranger for a guardian would be close to the last thing I’d consider. So far, the only character I like less than my guardian (that is lvl 80) is my elemental that I haven’t been able to level past 55 so far.

My favorite parts of the feature pack update have been the dyes (nice that all 20 of my chars can share them), wardrobe (ditto), and the megaserver. I’m mostly a solo player, but I like that when I’m out and about with a toon I don’t feel all alone most of the time, and there’s often others around to help with some of the difficult stuff .

Hmm, doesn’t happen to me. Some armors will have dye slots that others don’t have and when I change to a set with more slots the new slots are undyed.

You can also switch to lower level gear across the board if you want to make it more difficult. I will usually simply not attack so much or with as powerful skills if I don’t want to kill everything before my friends get a chance.

Teon.5168:

You do realize that there is a banker golem you can get that allows you to access your bank from anywhere?

Sure, but account wide inventory would be much more convenient.

Jaken.6801:

bob.5680:

Sigh, I guess the old addage “You can’t please all the people all the time” applies. I like the new armor and am glad they added it. As for the lore related armor, I find most of it ugly.

It is not about the design… geez does anyone even read?

It is about the fact that they do feel not connected to the game at all, just: “Here, have some armor.”

Yes, more armor is always apreciated, but most of the time they took great care to make it fit into the games narrative.
That is not the case with a lot of these armors that have come out recently.

Yep I read what you posted. All I’m saying is that lore related armor isn’t that important to me. Apparently it is to you. So they pleased me and didn’t please you. That was my point.

And, if you don’t like or want the armor you can simply ignore it.

Sigh, I guess the old addage “You can’t please all the people all the time” applies. I like the new armor and am glad they added it. As for the lore related armor, I find most of it ugly.

AtlasSi.9130:

Stephanie Harper.5103:

Alex.9268:

It’s now officially april 16th.kittenanet.

Try to understand. Try REALLY HARD.

Arena Net is in EST. GMT -5:00. They said it would be out on the 15th. That is /IN THEIR TIME ZONE/.

I know it’s a phenomenally hard concept that it’s not the same time everywhere on the planet at the same time, and that the company is going to use the time /they’re in/. But I’m sure you can understand if you REALLY try.

It’s 5:30pm est. Where the kitten is this patch. Starting to get kittened off.

They’re on PST not EST, so it’s currently 2:28pm their time.

tigirius.9014:

Randulf.7614:

As above. They put no time on the patch and it’s based on their day not our day in the UK.

It’s just a video game, it’ll be ready when it is ready.

If that were true than they shouldn’t give a date.

So, does that mean you would have preferred something like:

“We will release the Feature Pack sometime in the future. Wait for it…”

For them to unlock skins that you no longer have they would have had to foresee this change coming sometime back and kept track of them. Are you saying that you think this was done? I certainly doubt that it was.

Yeah, and maybe auto block any messages from someone that challenged you that you had it disabled for.

IndigoSundown.5419:

bob.5680:

Uh, I don’t believe there were any balance considerations in SWTOR or Aion. In fact the higher level toons would seek out lower level “easy prey” in my experience. If I remember right, the rewards for killing lower level toons was the same as for any.

You’re confusing open PvP zones with dueling. Dueling is a feature by which one player can challenge another to a duel. If the challenged accepts, a duel mode engages and they can fight. Open PvP involves anyone from one faction being able to attack anyone from the other at any time, without consent.

Well, I don’t want the challenges either (got tired of those pretty quickly).

Uh, I don’t believe there were any balance considerations in SWTOR or Aion. In fact the higher level toons would seek out lower level “easy prey” in my experience. If I remember right, the rewards for killing lower level toons was the same as for any.

It certainly wasn’t that easy to “just don’t” in either SWTOR or Aion. I never asked for it but was forced into situations where I had no choice in both games.

With luck it will NEVER happen in PVE. It’s what drove me to quit playing SWTOR and Aion. It was almost trivial to wind up enabled for PVP SWTOR and was a pain to get it disabled. In Aion there wasn’t any enablement needed, you could get killed while out trying to do your missions in PVE by enemy players.

Guhracie.3419:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Guhracie.3419:

What? Why are they removing transaction history?

3 million players… 10,000+ transactions per player which include date, item, quantity, and price…

While i’m sure they love storing 100’s of billions of items in their database it is probably slowing down the TP trying to access them.

How do you know that? I’ve had lots of incidents when the trading post was very slow. Are you certain that the extensive history wasn’t at least partly involved?

So it wasn’t slowing things down for the last two years? It just seems like an arbitrary decision to make.

Oops, looks like I screwed up my post and my data wound up in the wrong place. I was trying to respond to Guhracie’s comment…sigh.

Not all lvl 80 characters are going to be full berzerker with all ascended gear. Many of us don’t play that way and can’t be bothered with the grind of ascended gear.

Just go to a higher area and play if you feel starter zones are too easy…duh…

What makes you think wanting map completion is only interesting to make legendaries? I for one, want map completion but am not interested in a legendary. Based on the responses of some others here, I’m not alone.

Kaz.5430:

If it was for a legendary, then this wouldn’t really be an issue anyway. You need the Gift of Battle for a legendary weapon, and that requires you to reach a certain world rank to purchase anyway. If you’ve got to play WvW to obtain the Gift of Battle, then getting the POI’s shouldn’t be an issue.

Here again you are assuming that everyone that wants PVE world completion wants a legendary. That can’t be true, even if I was the only one that doesn’t care about getting a legendary weapon.

I’m with the OP on this. WvW is boring and painful (in time spent) trying to get it completed.

Edit: I may have misread/understood your opening sentence. But my point remains, WvW is boring to some of us and we shouldn’t be required to do it for a PVE achievement.