New article about World vs. World - MUST READ

[omlech]

Yes that does look like a fine piece of tech they are using. Time will tell, i know ANet is doing a great deal of testing in this regard. But id feel better if i see it with my own eyes. Maybe we'll get some beta footage of alot of players running around in WvWvW and using abilities.

Well, prior to Monday I can at least show you this:

This is from the very first showing of GW2 in 2010, 3 years of development at that point, running what we can assume to be max settings for the time, unoptimized, and we can assume the best GPU on the market at the time. Assuming all of those variables are true, with 100+ people in a small clump all casting spells, it was holding at 7-10 FPS on a GPU that is now $80. Though for all we know they weren't even running the best GPU on the market at that point. Though let's say they've done zero optimization since that point, max settings and let's say a 580 GTX, from a pure bruteforce standpoint you could probably pull anywhere from 20-40 FPS with 100+ people on screen all firing spells in a small area.

Obviously they've optimized the game since, so I think we're going to be pretty well off performance wise. ANet has had 12 years worth of experience with this engine now and has said that they do test it on hardware so old they have to get it from ebay because it's not sold anymore. Now on to the video in question:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...Sy0KkUE#t=459s

[Rife]

25 hours until we get to be gloriously inundated with GW2 goodness.

I'm sure many people will have feedback from WvWvW and performance in general. I also suspect that new drivers with support for GW2 at or shortly after launch will improve on what people will be telling us in a few hours.

[Deleted]

25 hours until we get to be gloriously inundated with GW2 goodness.

I'm sure many people will have feedback from WvWvW and performance in general. I also suspect that new drivers with support for GW2 at or shortly after launch will improve on what people will be telling us in a few hours.

Can't wait... I've already got my hourglass setup as a AddOn on my computer screen (i.e. the desktop).

[terrahero]

Interesting, thanks for sharing. Hopefully we'll see more on the subject of optimization tommorrow.

[Mister K]

Looks good. GW2 my last attempt at reviving my MMO love ... Since end of WOTLK (started in tbc) I couldn't not stand most MMOs.

So far this looks good, can't wait!

[Deleted]

Good read with cool innovations.

What I am worried about though is it becoming like the keeps in Aion (can't remember the place - where all the floating islands are) where as you get closer to the action and in fact when the action begins, fps begins to dramatically decrease.

[luedieniel]

Good read with cool innovations.

What I am worried about though is it becoming like the keeps in Aion (can't remember the place - where all the floating islands are) where as you get closer to the action and in fact when the action begins, fps begins to dramatically decrease.

But this has been answered in this thread before, mind you not this particular example with Aion's Abyss, admittedly the keeps in aion were a cool idea, but overall the game was just not that well made.

Depending on how they eventually implement it, this can ofcourse be a problem but as I understand it they'll be having WvWvW separated from the rest of the server, thus reducing the pressure. But we'll see, I'm keeping my hopes up tho.

[Deleted]

But this has been answered in this thread before, mind you not this particular example with Aion's Abyss, admittedly the keeps in aion were a cool idea, but overall the game was just not that well made.

Depending on how they eventually implement it, this can ofcourse be a problem but as I understand it they'll be having WvWvW separated from the rest of the server, thus reducing the pressure. But we'll see, I'm keeping my hopes up tho.

Ah yes, the Abyss - that's the name.

But yeah, I imagine that the seperate server scenario will be the case.

[terrahero]

Ah yes, the Abyss - that's the name.

But yeah, I imagine that the seperate server scenario will be the case.

They are also deploying some rendering techs and they are working with an engine they are intimately familiar with. Theyve been testing for performance for some time and even in a very early build they could already support alot of people clustered together spamming spells with a "manageable" framerate.

Thats what ive found out since i asked that very same quests in this thread a little earlier. :P Still, ill believe it when i see it. But i do believe that ANet is doing everything they can to make it work, if anyone can do it they can. Afterall, they have alot riding on it aswell.

edit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU2L7IdYDVc
They are using that in GW2.

[Razeo]

They are also deploying some rendering techs and they are working with an engine they are intimately familiar with. Theyve been testing for performance for some time and even in a very early build they could already support alot of people clustered together spamming spells with a "manageable" framerate.

Thats what ive found out since i asked that very same quests in this thread a little earlier. :P Still, ill believe it when i see it. But i do believe that ANet is doing everything they can to make it work, if anyone can do it they can. Afterall, they have alot riding on it aswell.

edit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU2L7IdYDVc
They are using that in GW2.

^
This should be the future for graphic engines in all future MMOs.

[Lothaeryn]

This is what I wished PvP was like in WoW, before battlegrounds, it was such (without objectives though). I am glad to see someone is actually thinking of what I feel battles should be like in a fantasy setting.

[Roose]

Obviously they've optimized the game since, so I think we're going to be pretty well off performance wise. ANet has had 12 years worth of experience with this engine now and has said that they do test it on hardware so old they have to get it from ebay because it's not sold anymore. Now on to the video in question:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...Sy0KkUE#t=459s

So what you are saying is that they had better performance a couple years ago than the newest big MMO. Sounds good to me.

[DrunkenBeard]

The only thing that concerns me here is communication. Suppose you're the weak server and you obviously need to make an alliance with someone if you want any chance to pull it off. Even if a large part of the server yells in general to stop attacking players from X server, there will always be people to go and specifically target your supposed allies. Now you may think this isn't much of a problem, until you understand how it compeletely nullifies any possibility of betrayal or complexe schemes :/

Another problem that I could see arising is time zones : if the 3 servers are even on slightly different time zones, it could prove to be very unbalacing (oh god forgive me for saying the word). Actually even if the servers were on the exact same time zones, I'm sure we'll still see fights turning hands overnight as guilds log on very late to lolclaim zones.

[Roose]

The only thing that concerns me here is communication. Suppose you're the weak server and you obviously need to make an alliance with someone if you want any chance to pull it off. Even if a large part of the server yells in general to stop attacking players from X server, there will always be people to go and specifically target your supposed allies. Now you may think this isn't much of a problem, until you understand how it compeletely nullifies any possibility of betrayal or complexe schemes :/

Another problem that I could see arising is time zones : if the 3 servers are even on slightly different time zones, it could prove to be very unbalacing (oh god forgive me for saying the word). Actually even if the servers were on the exact same time zones, I'm sure we'll still see fights turning hands overnight as guilds log on very late to lolclaim zones.

It would be impossible to stop those people from doing their own thing no matter what. So long as it is just a few idiots I do not see them jeopardizing any arrangements. They will just kill them off and move on. There are always going to be players that simply do not care about the main goal or just want to contrarily in-fight. I do not see this as a huge issue. Also need to remember that these people that go against their server will likely get blacklisted. When the option is do what you are supposed to or pick a new server hopefully more people will make a legit effort to contribute. Consequences are there and that is more than I can say for any other game's pvp.

The time zone question is one that seems important in the overall scheme of things. Hopefully they match by server times, but like you say there will always be little attack groups trying to take stuff. That is the glory of the game. If the other servers want to stop it they can. But really though, timing attacks like that need to be in game as part of strategic warfare. Surprise attacks are a part of battle. I would never remove that element. If one server can get a massive raid together that launches at 3am I say good for them. They deserve to win.

I played this game called Travian for a while. The whole goal was to time attacks so that the other players would either choose to set an alarm and get up to stop the attack or just let the attack go through. There is nothing especially tactical about daytime attacks. If you want to make the most impact you will always strike when the opponent is sleeping.

I can see some awesome app features to work into the game. Like an alert system to let you know when your guild's tower is getting attacked. You can either meet the call or ignore it. Also be cool to have the server defense chat away from game so you can see if anything really cool is going on. Soooooooo much potential with this game.

[Razeo]

Actually even if the servers were on the exact same time zones, I'm sure we'll still see fights turning hands overnight as guilds log on very late to lolclaim zones.

But that's part of the fun, the element of surprise! You never know what's gonna happen on a 3 way battle. The 3rd realm could either end up helping your cause or even making it worse, which is why DAoC was loads of fun in WvW! (was called RvR - realm vs. realm in DAoC) Especially if your in the guild trying to do the ninja raid on one of the opposing server's keeps. If GW2 is doing it exactly like DAoC (which it looks like they are so far) in terms of keep taking.... If your guild has a keep or tower claimed and one of the opposing realms is trying to take it. Your guild chat should get a pop up message saying that "X amount of enemies are attacking your keep!" Also, taking keeps back in DAoC took a little bit of time, so you'll have a reasonable amount of time to get to you keep and defend it, and if there aren't enough people in your guild on you can always spam your realm/server that the enemy is making a move. This is how it worked in DAoC.

This is just assuming though that GW2 makes everything work the same for keep warfare exactly like it went in DAoC. But like I said earlier, the overall mechanics seems to be like DAoC from the ground up only with a few more features.

[terrahero]

The only thing that concerns me here is communication. Suppose you're the weak server and you obviously need to make an alliance with someone if you want any chance to pull it off. Even if a large part of the server yells in general to stop attacking players from X server, there will always be people to go and specifically target your supposed allies. Now you may think this isn't much of a problem, until you understand how it compeletely nullifies any possibility of betrayal or complexe schemes :/

Another problem that I could see arising is time zones : if the 3 servers are even on slightly different time zones, it could prove to be very unbalacing (oh god forgive me for saying the word). Actually even if the servers were on the exact same time zones, I'm sure we'll still see fights turning hands overnight as guilds log on very late to lolclaim zones.

A server will just do what it does. If one side grows to strong it will naturally get ganged up on. Strategically its also the best solution. So i dont fear that server fights will become horribly one-sided, and your "home map" grants your server a bonus. So even if you are the weak side you should still have plenty of fight in you.

And timezones, yah... thats inevitable. But even if everyone is in the same zone there will always be a few nutjobs who will stay up till 4am on a Wednesday to cap a relic. Its okay, every server will have them likely so itll balance out. But yah some of these epic fights could roar up at any moment. "Guys ServerX is just launching a massive attack on us!" and just watch as many people moblize. And i can forsee such fights drag out for hours.

It is afterall a 2 week 24/7 war. With battles being everywhere. There will inevitably be times that people sleep or eat, and times that there is great activity. Especially since people and their guilds get a personal stake in it.

I think this will be a very successful, my only skeptical point hasnt been dispelled yet. What about performance? I hope to find out in the upcomming beta footage. :P

[Mif]

The only thing that concerns me here is communication. Suppose you're the weak server and you obviously need to make an alliance with someone if you want any chance to pull it off. Even if a large part of the server yells in general to stop attacking players from X server, there will always be people to go and specifically target your supposed allies. Now you may think this isn't much of a problem, until you understand how it compeletely nullifies any possibility of betrayal or complexe schemes :/

You could do something like the small server will attack the fortress from the north while the large server attacks from the south. It would do a great job of spreading out, thus weakening their defence, and anyone from the two attacking servers that tried to attack the other would find themselves in a 100v1 battle.

[General_Typhus]

Honestly there is always the threat of your "serpent" having no "head". Saw this very often in Warhammer where a realm had no strong leaders to take the reins of the WvW warbands so they would splinter apart and flounder tremendously. Even the largest fort sieges and city raids could be led by 2-3 people. I would often take up the mantle on my Warhammer server and once control was asserted over a warband even the densest of players seem to become very malleable. In largescale battles both digital and in real life your soldiers are looking for someone to tell them what to do, keeping their heads down, and following the guy in front of them.

[Dosvidaniya]

Kind of tangential: but, this was posted on twitter.

So it seems Izzy and Tyler did not sleep at all but defended a keep in WvW for 10h. Madness!

https://twitter.com/#!/mkerstein/sta...34825254002688

It makes me wonder how hard it is to take a keep.

[Mkalafut]

Kind of tangential: but, this was posted on twitter.

https://twitter.com/#!/mkerstein/sta...34825254002688

It makes me wonder how hard it is to take a keep.

I imagine if it was meant to be easy it wouldn't be significant. I'm sure WvWvW will be amazing and challenging for attacking and defending groups.