Guild Wars 2: The One Thread

[Anthoren]

WTB info on when last profession will be unveiled plox.

[Skelington]

WARNING DO NOT WATCH THIS VIDEO unless you like RANDOMNESS, CRAZYNESS, AND WTFNESS, also 4 years laughing experience REQUIRED!
[video=youtube;CmaH_Bwu6KU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmaH_Bwu6KU[video]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmaH_Bwu6KU

Why did i watch that...?

[Scrabblet]

On the fast travel discussion (too lazy to quote):

If I remember correctly they will have it so that if you explore you can find dynamic events (I think they only show on the map if they're near), mini-bosses, traits, etc. That way if you need to go somewhere fast or go long distances you can just fast-travel, but you will lose out on a bunch of stuff.

[Suilenroc]

Not trolling, just so locked into my 'restriction on freedom' mindset that I didn't think of the community arguments. I saw the quotes and the response, and interpreted them as "You can choose not to use them" and "Lol that's idiotic".

Perhaps, also, I just don't care for the community arguments in this case. Fast-travel doesn't detract enough from the community that the downside of long, long travel times is overshadowed.

I think Barrowmore makes good points on this topic.

I agree that GW2 seems to have enough features which would promote a strong server community, that fast travel won't detract from that. I just hope they never implement cross-server dungeon matchmaking.

[bewbew]

I don't know about you guys, but at least in WoW, after the 3rd time you've been flying to a location, you stop being in game, tab out and go do something else while you fly.

So yeah, way points are good.

[Anthoren]

This game needs to come out already, ever since my time at Comic-con I feel like there is a hole in my gaming heart.

[GrodinLB]

And running ICC for 12 months didn't get old?

Also, fun fact: In the 12 months ICC was end game content you paid $180 in sub fees. Do you really think you got good value?

Game, set, and match.

[Guilegamesh]

Am I the only one who is going to play GW2 more like a single player game than an MMO? By "single player" I don't mean playing by myself, I mean viewing levels 1 - 80 as the main game and, once I hit 80 move on to a new profession/race combo? I haven't played WoW for almost a year now and the idea of endgame doesn't appeal to me at all anymore. I am not trying to regurgitate the "the whole game is endgame" thing, but I really don't see the point of focusing on a tiny fraction of the game just because that is what max level characters do (no offense to people who like endgame).

One other thing. It appears from the videos that the Elementalist's skills change with each weapon like the other professions' skills do. My questions is will the Elementalist have 20 skills per weapon (5 skills per weapons per element)?

[Grognard]

Am I the only one who is going to play GW2 more like a single player game than an MMO? By "single player" I don't mean playing by myself, I mean viewing levels 1 - 80 as the main game and, once I hit 80 move on to a new profession/race combo? I haven't played WoW for almost a year now and the idea of endgame doesn't appeal to me at all anymore. I am not trying to regurgitate the "the whole game is endgame" thing, but I really don't see the point of focusing on a tiny fraction of the game just because that is what max level characters do (no offense to people who like endgame).

One other thing. It appears from the videos that the Elementalist's skills change with each weapon like the other professions' skills do. My questions is will the Elementalist have 20 skills per weapon (5 skills per weapons per element)?

Yes, and no; only two-handers affect all five weapon skills - for Elementalists, that's a staff. Eles can also use wands, daggers, and foci, and each one changes the skills available to the hand to which you have one equipped. Daggers, if dual-wielding, will change all five slots, but buttons four and five will be different if you equip a focus - and, conversely, buttons one, two, and three will change if you swap from dagger/focus to scepter/focus or scepter/dagger. This breeds a huge variety of skills for Eles, when you factor in changing attunements into their possible weapon combos.

[Alatian]

So it begins.

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/forum/...ri-t22045.html

[Wyrmrider]

Most people who dislike fast travel mechanics are concerned about the effect it has on the community, not just them individually. Basically, the idea is the world will feel larger and interactions with random players as they move about the world will be more common and significant.

^^ This is well said.

While I'm not hugely concerned about fast-travel personally (I'll be spending most of my time in WvWvW, which I'm sure will have its own rules), I think it's strange... GW2 is bringing us a dynamic, spontaneously cooperative world which should encourage true "adventuring," but then diluting it with a travel system that encourages an "optimal path to the goal" mentality.

---------- Post added 2011-09-17 at 10:17 PM ----------

So it begins.

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/forum/...ri-t22045.html

Squeeeeeeeee

[Deleted]

So you're on your way to the Wayfarer foothills for a quest, running through a snowstorm etc. and just when you are about to enter the foothills you take 2 steps into a portal > loading screen. You sit there contemplating life and its meaning for a few seconds and all of a sudden you're in woods without any snow? This just kinda takes me out of that emersed feeling.

Oh god dammit if the moving between zones is like that... That picture looks really terrible! This is probably my biggest gripe about the game so far... I wouldn't have minded if this was the case with big cities but now it'll feel like someone has taken scissors and cut the world in pieces. That's a huge blow to my immersion in the game...

[rhandric]

Yes, and no; only two-handers affect all five weapon skills - for Elementalists, that's a staff. Eles can also use wands, daggers, and foci, and each one changes the skills available to the hand to which you have one equipped. Daggers, if dual-wielding, will change all five slots, but buttons four and five will be different if you equip a focus - and, conversely, buttons one, two, and three will change if you swap from dagger/focus to scepter/focus or scepter/dagger. This breeds a huge variety of skills for Eles, when you factor in changing attunements into their possible weapon combos.

The part you're forgetting, which I assume is center to the question, is that unlike (most) other professions, Elementalists are weapon-locked in combat, and can only switch weapons outside of combat.

[Mif]

Oh god dammit if the moving between zones is like that... That picture looks really terrible! This is probably my biggest gripe about the game so far... I wouldn't have minded if this was the case with big cities but now it'll feel like someone has taken scissors and cut the world in pieces. That's a huge blow to my immersion in the game...

The load screens aren't there for fun, they're there to optimise server stability. The original Guild Wars had no downtime or weekly maintenance. In fact the only time the game has been down in 6 years was for 24hrs when they moved the database servers to a new physical location. Think about that, Wow goes down for an extended time period once a week, GW1 went down once in 6 years!

Secondly, GW2 is made to have mass grouping of players. You can see 100 to 200 players in some of the shatterer videos, yet there is no server lag. In Wow, during wintergrasp all of northrend would lag, and occasionally crash. In GW2 that won't happen. The trade off is you will have to cross a portal once when entering a new zone to discover a waypoint, after you have that waypoint you will use it if you want to travel to that zone, effectively eliminating the portals existence.

[Grognard]

The part you're forgetting, which I assume is center to the question, is that unlike (most) other professions, Elementalists are weapon-locked in combat, and can only switch weapons outside of combat.

I was not even aware of that caveat. It's not something I've really looked into, as I knew from the start I'd be rolling Soldier where vids clearly demonstrate on-the-fly weapon swaps; I just assumed it was a standard feature. Is this a trait limited to the Scholars, or do Adventurers suffer from it as well?

[Suilenroc]

The load screens aren't there for fun, they're there to optimise server stability. The original Guild Wars had no downtime or weekly maintenance. In fact the only time the game has been down in 6 years was for 24hrs when they moved the database servers to a new physical location. Think about that, Wow goes down for an extended time period once a week, GW1 went down once in 6 years!

Secondly, GW2 is made to have mass grouping of players. You can see 100 to 200 players in some of the shatterer videos, yet there is no server lag. In Wow, during wintergrasp all of northrend would lag, and occasionally crash. In GW2 that won't happen. The trade off is you will have to cross a portal once when entering a new zone to discover a waypoint, after you have that waypoint you will use it if you want to travel to that zone, effectively eliminating the portals existence.

I assumed it would be for optimization, though I'd be interested in hearing the technical reasoning behind it. Just saying it will help them maintain server performance isn't enough.

[Deleted]

The load screens aren't there for fun

I know that, but even so it doesn't change the fact that loading screens are annoying. Also the ridiculous terrain differences are making this way worse.

[Lascard]

ive been following news on gw2 for a while but i could never find a clear cut answer for the portals/load screens. i understand that there will be some for the cities but out in the world, how is it exactly?

[StationaryHawk]

I know that, but even so it doesn't change the fact that loading screens are annoying. Also the ridiculous terrain differences are making this way worse.

Loading screens are a minor annoyance that delay you for a second or two (if they work as they do in Guild Wars), which is a fair trade-off for reduced lag and less downtime. And I wouldn't start making assumptions about the terrain differences between portals based off a single video/picture.

[Mif]

the ridiculous terrain differences

Wow has exactly the same thing, but no one seems to care.

As I said before, you will use a portal ONCE per zone, EVER. After you have crossed a portal into a zone, you will pick up a waypoint there. If you want to travel to that zone, you will use that way point. If you don't understand that, then there's nothing anyone can say to make you understand GW2's travel and server layout concepts.