Guild Wars 2

I wasn’t entirely sure if it’s my eyes deceiving me of if GW2 is suffering from extreme stutter at the moment, so I tested it by recording my FPS with FRAPS and taking a good look at the numbers. Now, many have reported issues with camera sluggishness since the last patch, but this data shows they are probably not issues with the camera itself, but with rather extreme stuttering. For testing, I ran around Timberline Falls for a minute. The area was peaceful and there was nothing going on around me.

Here are my general FRAPS results:
Min FPS: 37
Max FPS: 61
Average FPS: 56

Doesn’t look too bad. GW2 isn’t great at maintaining a steady frame rate, but that’s nothing new. Here’s the interesting part: I measured frame times and got the attached graph.

This graph shows how long each frame stayed on screen. The x axis is the frame’s order number, while the y axis is its “frame time” that tells us how long it stayed on screen. As you can see, most frames stay on screen for around 15-30 ms, representing the 30-60 FPS range. The interesting part are the frames well above that range, with two of them being in the 120 ms area. In other words, many frames (~40) stayed on screen way longer than they should’ve That’s almost one stutter frame per second! They seem to occur only when you’re moving your character or the camera, with the biggest offenders being related to camera movements.

I’m not completely sure this was caused by the last patch, but I never noticed such stutter before, so I assume it was. Of course, this test is far from being scientifically accurate, but in my experience the game behaves similarly everywhere and TBH I can’t be bothered to do any more tests or graphs.

My specs are i7 2600K / GTX 760 4 Gb / 8 Gb RAM, if anyone’s interested.

I have to agree with the first two responses. There’s an ignore function. Use it if some idiot is annoying.

I’ve noticed stuttering and FPS drops after the patch. While it’s not game-breaking it’s really annoying. Especially the stuttering, which definitely wasn’t there before.

It doesn’t matter what people prefer. We most likely aren’t getting any major updates before HoT.

Trise.2865:

darkace.8925:

Civilis.2547:

…I don’t think we’ve seen the end of exploration.

Of course we haven’t. But there’s “stop and smell the roses” exploration, and there’s “get across the street as fast as you can before you get hit by traffic” exploration. Lately, Guild Wars 2 has been far too much of the latter and not nearly enough of the former.

With all due respect, what game have you been playing? I often find myself wandering around places like Sparkfly Fen, Frostgorge Sound, and the Fields of Ruin – places that are actually war zones – for hours on end without fighting anything I didn’t deliberately engage and no events going off in my vicinity. Even Southsun Cove and Malchor’s Leap have significant down time where nothing happens. I’m sorry, but this hectic, frantic pace you describe simply doesn’t exist. If you don’t believe me, I’ll show you some games where the pacing IS frantic and we can compare.

I think he means the latest LS updates (Dry Top and Silverwastes) by “lately”. Southsun is something I’d discard entirely, to be honest, because IMO it’s one of the worst areas of GW2 when it comes to DE design, so it’s an outlier.

Of course, I’d rather have events like cattlepult gambling than zombie invasions… which might be the core of this discussion, come to think of it: the same or more “volume” of content, but more ambiance and less action.

Yes, I think that’s it. Of course, an area needs some DEs to work as a hub of activity, and DEs count as “action”, but what I dislike is the focus on Hollywood-like action scenes.

As a side note and random thought: if ANet could find a way for us to have our profession skills interact with the environment in specific ways, similar to the Divinity series – i.e. a fire arrow lighting a torch, or chill-inducing skills soothe an overheated Hylek or machinery – that could add some very interesting elements to exploration as well as this “build diversity” thing people keep complaining about. See also: Pokemon X/Y, specific attacks in specific environments “accidentally” reveal hidden items/treasures during combat.

Unfortunately, it looks like Masteries will server that function. I think using skills to accomplish these tasks would be great, but it’s probably too hard to pull off when all content must be equally completeable by all professions.

The problem with the banwidth cost argument is the contradiction between these two scenarios:

1) Ten condi necros run around Queensdale, each keeping 10 bleed stacks up. The server has to calculate damage for 100 bleed stacks.

2) Ten condi necros go to fight Shadow Behemoth. Each of them keeps 10 bleed stacks up. The server has to calculate damage for 100 bleed stacks.

For some reason, currently scenario 1 is possible, but 2 is too hard to calculate. Why?

Kal Spiro.9745:

The starter zones are peaceful because they represent the timeline before the major war with the dragons is taking place. They have small concerns like bandits, not big important concerns. As you increase in level the significance of the threats increase and the peace of the areas decreases until there are no more habitats and only war camps. By the time you are in Orr you are in full on life and death battle with an Elder Dragon.

ANet decides what the story is like. While the story’s flow should make sense, it should also allow for good gameplay and area design.

CureForLiving.5360:

Well those zones were pretty much warzones themselves, Queensdale had hordes of Centaurs, Bandits, and unimaginable horrors in the swamp, Kessex Hill was also pretty centaur infested, with a fair number of bandists, Snowden Drifts and Wayferer are under constant assault by the Sons of Svanir, with a nasty dredge infestation. The only real difference is in how content rich and active those zones are (only a hand full of events at a time spread over a large area which leads to the zones not feeling very active).
But I do get where you’re coming from. I like the new meta-map model since it adds a lot of replay, but at the same time the vanilla maps added a sense of exploration and the feel of a lived in world, which maps like Silverwaste and Dry Top don’t, because you don’t have time to stop and smell the roses.

I don’t agree on them being “pretty much” warzones. They contain warzones and that’s fine. Good, even. However, large parts of these zones are relatively peaceful most of the time. That makes the zones much more than warzones, which is an extremely important distinction IMO and one you have noted, as well.

dekou.6012:

but they’re still a bunch of evil things that want to kill you. They don’t talk, they don’t have conflicting thoughts, they just whack stuff until it stops whacking them back.

This is more an issue with the game mechanics though. Does tie in a little bit into how lore is conveyed through the mechanics, but in essence you can say the same thing for almost all the other non-modrem enemy types.

Yes, but enemies like centaurs and bandits have their personal goals and can have monologues during combat, be captured, have deserters, etc. Moth’s minions are just a horde of brainless creatures that have even less of a personality than the game’s zombies.

The dredge are an example of a good antagonist race that works with GW2’s mechanics. They’re not inherently evil. They have a clear, complex social structure. They have conflicting factions and motivations. They are capable of being both menacing and amusing. If their architecture wasn’t so annoying, I’d praise them even more.

Andred.1087:

dekou.6012:

The big problem are Mordrem themselves: they’re beyond boring lore wise. They look nicer that the undead, but they’re still a bunch of evil things that want to kill you. They don’t talk, they don’t have conflicting thoughts, they just whack stuff until it stops whacking them back. This forces the Pact into being a bunch of generic good guys, because when things try to kill you you can only kill them back, with little in-between. I suppose now we’ve got corrupted Sylvari to kill, as well, but brainwashed puppets don’t make for particularly interesting antagonists, either.

Lol, if you’re looking for a compelling story in a T-rated MMO, you’re going to be looking for a long, long time.

M rating is all about sex, drugs and brutal violence. That’s it. Sex, drugs and brutal violence aren’t required to make a villain interesting.

Terrahero.9358:

I know what you mean. But that is part of the development. You start as someone who’s essentially little more than a farm hand, whacking grubs and retrieving birdfeed from bandits.
But as you develop yourself you get faced with bigger and bigger problems and conflicts.

True, but bigger problems don’t necessarily mean larger-scale battles and lots of explosions. You could be exploring ancient temples, doing rituals to contact the dead or calm their spirits, taking down Lovecraftian horrors in strange locations, etc. “Warzone” is just one possible setting for a high-level adventure, but it seems to be the only one GW2 uses.

Lazaar.9123:

Invidia.9074:

I got one important question:

Are we finally getting a condition mechanics rework, that would make conditions much more viable in PVE than they are now?

I agree with the need for this question.

Same here, although I’m not sure if it’s entirely HoT-related. Then again, conditions will also be used in HoT…

Warriors should get a MH shield!

DevilLordLaser.8619:

MY GOD. The NPE is putrid, downright insulting in its assumption of gross incompetence on the player’s part in just about every facet of everyday life, let alone in-game performance, and has been engineered to strip away absolutely everything the player might conceivably be able to do to trip themselves up until level 80, and yet somehow the game still overwhelms?

Unfortunately, you’re wrong. The NPE dumbed down basic things that even a newbie would be able to do, like feeding cows. On the other hand, it did little to nothing to explain more complex and obtuse mechanics of the game, like the downed state. You get a pop-up that semi-explains what the downed state is about, but that’s it. The game doesn’t even offer a convenient method to see what your downed state skills are. NPE also made some elements of the game more confusing. Like getting skills. Previously, you got 1 SP every level and could go to the locations market with a SP icon to get more points. Now you get seven skill points every seven levels (I think?) and can go to the locations marked with a SP icon to get more points if your level is high enough. It’s more complex, not less.

The NPE was a fix to a legitimate problem that altered mostly elements that weren’t part of that problem in the first place. Its compass is the only addition I find good.

I don’t know if I’d recommend downsampling in GW2. IMO the native supersampling AA is good enough. Here’s a very loose comparison:

1080p with SSAA:

http://i.imgur.com/L35drBC.jpg

4K downsampled:

http://i.imgur.com/qriHOEk.jpg

The difference is obviously there. If you take a look at the ropes of the windmill, they’re noticeably less jaggy in the 4K screenshot. However, this change makes FPS drop from stable 60 to unstable 30 on my GTX 760, makes the UI tiny and forces you to run the game in fullscreen instead of windowed fullscreen. It’s nice for taking screenshots, but less practical in action, unless you have a very powerful PC and a big monitor.

cosmatman.9306:

Harak.8397:

cosmatman.9306:

Is there some reason we cannot get heavy leggings like on the Lionguard NPC below?

http://i.imgur.com/j4YFcO7.jpg

That entire set can be made using Karma vendor gear

So that is one, any other options besides that one? something for low and mid levels characters?

There’s the Phalanx set from the gem store, although its female version looks like a wacky disco dress.

The camera has always been terrible even for those without motion sickness. Looks like it’s hard to fix or just not a top priority.

For the same reason you use legs in GW2, even though you have waypoints.

Morfedel.4165:

dekou.6012:

I don’t think this has anything to do with the expansion, as the issue affects the entire game. It’d have to be solved in a universal balance/engine update. They’ve been quiet about it, so it’s safe to say nothing is being done anytime soon.

Just because they aren’t revealing their inner dialogues doesn’t mean they aren’t discussing it. Don’t make assumptions.

When something has been broken for two years and largely ignored by devs, assuming it’s not going to be fixed anytime soon is a smart move. Yes, it’s possible they’ll fix conditions tomorrow. Is it likely? No.

I don’t get why Rytlock has to be the first Revenant, but there should be a reason for it. I don’t believe ANet’s lore team would create such an obvious time loop.

I don’t think this has anything to do with the expansion, as the issue affects the entire game. It’d have to be solved in a universal balance/engine update. They’ve been quiet about it, so it’s safe to say nothing is being done anytime soon.

I think it’s still much better than GW2. That being said, it’s an old game and very different from GW2. It’s less about running around and pressing 1 repeatedly and more about tactical combat and character-building.

I don’t see how largos could become a player race. They’re an elusive underwater race. Seeing dozens of them run around Dry Top would be quite distracting.

I think the reasoning behind them being subpar is quite solid. That being said, some racial elites are decent for some classes. For example, Hounds of Balthazar is useful in solo play for those whose classes only offer unwieldy/group-oriented elites.

Kodan have a huge disadvantage in customization. All of them look like polar bears and all polar bears look pretty much the same. As a side note…

warbignime.4610:

They look so wOrm and fuzzy

Sounds like a Lovecraftian horror.

It’s a weird change. In addition to the above-mentioned complications, I highly doubt it’s going to make Confusion any good in PvE. Many mobs that can’t swing even once before they die and those that do are often capped at 25 stacks already. It could be ok in dungeons… maybe, but ok at most.

11$ for an incomplete set of armor that’s not even fully dyeable? Ehh…

Astral Projections.7320:

Torvic.8256:

myself.2143:

I played the game for 6 months before I realized I had a “house”.

Heck, I’ve been playing this game for a little over two years and only realized fairly recently that I have a home instance.

Does my character actually have a house within the home instance or is the whole instance considered his “house”?

As I understand it, it’s the part of the city you came from, your neighborhood. But your home instance lacks your home. As first glance, a strange oversight but it’s probably because the human chars can be anywhere from street rat to noble. It would be impossible to have one home that fits. If the other races had homes, then it would be awkward that humans do not.

So, “no home for you”.

Isn’t the Human Noble manor in the home instance? Commoners have a friendly tavern. Admittedly, having a proper house would be suitable for a former commander of the Pact.

How does liking one thing and not another make one a hypocrite? I think you don’t know what that word means.

Ease of leveling up
No vertical gear grind
Dynamic Event chains
Skill-based gameplay
Build variety and experimentation
Exploration
Can easily develop a character the way you want from 1 to 80: in WvW, PvE, PvP, with Personal Story or without, etc.
GW1 lore and ANet’s track record

FlamingFoxx.1305:

Wrong ghostly hero.

The one’s in PvP were just unnamed ghosts that happened to be heroes.

The one we meet in GW2 is the ghost of Turai Ossa, who we encounter in the Crystal Desert in GW1, not in any PvP maps.

Sorry :P

You also fight an enemy named “Ghostly Hero” in that mission. It’s clearly a nod to HA and Dunes of Despair.

Tachenon.5270:

Wait, wait — we had to light the signal fire with a ‘signal flare’? Flare. Um… why not just, ya know, shoot the flare up into the air — like we did that time when we were with Caithe, out in the middle of enemy territory.

Details: the devil is in them.

I question why the signal was needed at all. Considering how fast help came, that airship must’ve been right next to the camp. Surely they would’ve seen the huge brawl that was going on there. The flare could’ve been used as a “we’ve evacuated, fire away” sign… if someone actually evacuated. What did it signal in this case? “Now could be a good time to wake up and kill the bloody invaders with your sniper cannons”?

The entire mission didn’t make sense. Normally, when monsters break through one of your gates, you don’t retreat to defend the other gate on the same perimeter.

A) Yes.
B) Not really. I think they commented on it back when the game launched, saying the cap was due to technical difficulties. As far as I know, there’s been complete radio silence since then.

“Our policy is not to discuss WIP content. However, I can say underwater combat and areas are not off the table.”

Ayrilana.1396:

dekou.6012:

Don’t you have to log in every day for that?

Yes but that’s only a minute out of your day. I’m assuming most people should be able to do that at the very least. There will of course be people who can’t for various reasons (loss of power, out of town, wife grounded you, etc).

It’s not a matter of ability. Logging in once per day is easy enough, but many don’t want to be tied to a game like that. At any rate, I don’t really play anymore so it doesn’t matter to me, but I found it worth pointing out.

Don’t you have to log in every day for that?

Wolfheart.1879:

Over on this thread

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/No-Patch-Next-Week-please-reconsider

this beautiful gem from Anet;

“We pride ourselves on addressing issues as promptly as possible”

To be fair, I think Gaile meant bugs. Still, I also found that post amusing.

Astralporing.1957:

So yes, a year or so before the beta tests, it was pretty clear that the differences would be significant, but at the beginning of the road the situation was different.

Even at release, GW2 had many GW1-like elements, such as its small amount of grind, focus of horizontal progression and expansion-based monetization model. It also promised many things some GW1 veterans wanted, such as a smaller amount of skills with better balance and variety.

Two years later, the grind has grown enormously, horizontal progression has suffered from it, an expansion is nowhere to be seen, monetization is cash shop -based, and skills aren’t any more balanced or varied than they were in GW1. The remaining GW1-like features were axed in favor of LS and gear grind.

Vayne.8563:

This is ONLY an answer to people who are saying NOTHING is being worked on and that Anet has less than 50 employees. That’s what this thread is about.

I haven’t seen anyone say that. Obviously, if ANet has employees, they’re working on something. Otherwise, where would “stuff” like the NPE come from?

Loooking down and being female seem to be the only things they have an common.

“Soon” = maybe in two years.
“Eventually” = you don’t even want to know.

Chris wrote he’s going to make a blog post on how the CDI has affected development, but I guess he’s not doing that.

I think ANet is generally not awful at taking feedback, but their priorities are strange to say the least and the CDI shows it. Now they’re discussing raids when several huge issues go unaddressed. Have fun dealing condition damage to the raid boss. Someone even brought up the fact that half of the skills don’t work in large group environments yet and Chris told that user to pretend the elephant isn’t here.

In the end, brainstorming is fun and sometimes productive, but it’s a very small part of software development. Even if the CDI worked perfectly, its impact wouldn’t be huge.

Beldin.5498:

In the end those mobs were a direct result of people that were posting in the forums
all the time that they want more challenge if we ever get new maps.

And yes, i think its sad that that beautiful zone is more or less a wasteland because of that.

It’s not deserted because of the difficult mobs. It’s deserted because there’s nothing to do there. Outside of the Karka queen, the entire map has six events. Six.

It’s not that bad if you’re Power-specced and have a MH sword. Otherwise, I imagine it can be quite painful.

Astralporing.1957:

Fernling.1729:

Quote from Mike O’Brien

“we’ve always expected that we will someday raise the level cap in GW2”

Fortunately, since that time they seem to have realized it’s not something the majority of players want or possibly even is willing to overlook. the same with gear progression, which got stopped after ascended tier resulted in heavily negative reactions.

So no, hopefully they are no longer planning to do anything like that.

I think that quote is from the time before Ascended, which explains a lot. If exotic gear was still the best in-game, raising the level cap wouldn’t be a big deal and wouldn’t kitten people off as badly.

Beldin.5498:

dekou.6012:

A good example of well-done death penalties is GW1. Dying was a relatively big deal, but you could get back into the game right away.

Really ? I only tested a standalone expansion of GW1 once, and i simply hated it because
i died more than in any other online game ever because i was so dependent on those
stupid mercs .. and dying once mostly meant restarting tha bloody instance because
else you sure died even faster the next time.

If you mean Factions, it had some serious difficulty curve issues. After the newbie island you got tossed in an area full of murderous lvl 20 mobs that required way more experience than newbies had. I still liked it, but it was too challenging for a beginner. Nightfall, on the other hand, had an excellent difficulty curve.

Beldin.5498:

dekou.6012:

Galen Grey.4709:

dekou.6012:

Vayne.8563:

dekou.6012:

Beldin.5498:

Is 15-60 minutes of gameplay really worth all that drama ?

Not by itself. However, the goals and quality of NPE are telling of the direction this game is going in.

Only if you ignore the fact that Drytop mobs are harder than anything else in the game…except maybe Southsun.

I’d say they’re on par with Orrian mobs, except with more HP. It’s a well-made zone. Maybe even the best in GW2. However, it’s not challenging, because you can’t lose. In the worst case scenario, you die and WP back. The WP cost became negligible due to inflation and repair costs were removed, so there’s no real penalty for dying. In that sense, I’d say the only challenging part of Dry Top is the jumping puzzle.

isnt dieing in itself a failure. Does it need to cost you something in order to count?

Well, yes. In most games, you at least have to fight the monster(s) again. That doesn’t work in GW2 for obvious reasons.

Are you talking about corpse runs ?

No, I’m talking about the checkpoint system used in most single-player games. Corpse runs are a horrible idea, because instead of punishing you right away they make the next hour of your gameplay miserable.

A good example of well-done death penalties is GW1. Dying was a relatively big deal, but you could get back into the game right away.

Random event modifiers could work. Such as a chance for an event to be more difficult or improved champion mobs with special abilities a-la Diablo.

Galen Grey.4709:

dekou.6012:

Vayne.8563:

dekou.6012:

Beldin.5498:

Is 15-60 minutes of gameplay really worth all that drama ?

Not by itself. However, the goals and quality of NPE are telling of the direction this game is going in.

Only if you ignore the fact that Drytop mobs are harder than anything else in the game…except maybe Southsun.

I’d say they’re on par with Orrian mobs, except with more HP. It’s a well-made zone. Maybe even the best in GW2. However, it’s not challenging, because you can’t lose. In the worst case scenario, you die and WP back. The WP cost became negligible due to inflation and repair costs were removed, so there’s no real penalty for dying. In that sense, I’d say the only challenging part of Dry Top is the jumping puzzle.

isnt dieing in itself a failure. Does it need to cost you something in order to count?

Well, yes. In most games, you at least have to fight the monster(s) again. That doesn’t work in GW2 for obvious reasons.

Also if you take a peek at the Raiding CDI so far talk by devs has all been about a real challenge and not something a level 1 with common gear can beat

Grinding for a full set of Ascended isn’t challenging, talk is just talk, and raids are for people who like organizing large-scale guild events.

Vayne.8563:

dekou.6012:

Beldin.5498:

Is 15-60 minutes of gameplay really worth all that drama ?

Not by itself. However, the goals and quality of NPE are telling of the direction this game is going in.

Only if you ignore the fact that Drytop mobs are harder than anything else in the game…except maybe Southsun.

I’d say they’re on par with Orrian mobs, except with more HP. It’s a well-made zone. Maybe even the best in GW2. However, it’s not challenging, because you can’t lose. In the worst case scenario, you die and WP back. The WP cost became negligible due to inflation and repair costs were removed, so there’s no real penalty for dying. In that sense, I’d say the only challenging part of Dry Top is the jumping puzzle.