Guild Wars 2: The One Thread

[Kaleina]

To answer the griping about quests and dynamic events from this thread. dynamic events are different because you walk into them as they are happening, no person is going to give you a quest to go kill 10 rats who are frolicking in the bush. In a DE, those 10 rats are devouring humans left and right and you have to kill them or they'll take over the outpost then spread to the entire map, but instead of a quest giver, you'll see the rats killing and automatically will start aiding the townsfolk. The difference comes both from the method of accepting the activity (automatically vs user controlled in a quest) and in the effect that the outcome of the interaction will be. For example: in a quest to defend a certain choke point, if you fail (die or a fail to protect something) you start all over with no consequences besides time and maybe a repair bill. In a DE, if that choke point is taken by the enemy, that enemy can then use it as a staging ground to expand their influence over the entire map. In addition in order to push them back and "defend the choke point" the players must go in and destroy the enemies occupying it as well as defend it while it is being rebuilt.

Really the big difference is in scope, consequence, methods of acceptance, and in interaction with the game world. Simply put, a Quest can't alter a game world for everyone, Blizz attempted to fix this issue with phasing which while interesting and cool, also forces the game to be even more of a single player game. DE's are essentially another solution to the problem of static mmo worlds, and it's one that encourages group participation, is more intuitive for new players, and has more of a feeling of accomplishment or "epic-ness" when an entire zone bands together to destroy a big baddy.

On the subject of how high DE's scale, the 10 person scaling limit was arrived at after extensive "all calls" at Arena Net. These calls go out and every employee is supposed to log on and play in a certain zone to test it. In the process of testing, the developers found that in minor DEs no more than 10 people were at any one place at any given time, even with 200+ people on the map. This both speaks to the density of content and the overall map design which funnels people into what dynamic events are closest to them as opposed to only one or a few happening at a time. Dynamic events are always happening even if people aren't on the map or that part of the map.

[Wynnyelle]

One thing my friends and I are concerned about is how tight the controls are. The only reason I've played WoW for so long is because every other MMO has sluggish, slow-to-react controls that make my movement feel limited. I want to be able to do a fast 180 and move in another direction quickly if I need to. So far in a lot of the GW2 videos, the controls and movements do look smooth, but it's hard to tell just what the feel of it is like from watching videos, so I'm wondering if anybody has any information on that?

[Dominating]

One thing my friends and I are concerned about is how tight the controls are. The only reason I've played WoW for so long is because every other MMO has sluggish, slow-to-react controls that make my movement feel limited. I want to be able to do a fast 180 and move in another direction quickly if I need to. So far in a lot of the GW2 videos, the controls and movements do look smooth, but it's hard to tell just what the feel of it is like from watching videos, so I'm wondering if anybody has any information on that?

The original Guild Wars has pretty smooth controls, I'd say. And considering that the sequel is so dependent on positioning, dodging, and moving around, I'd go so far as to say these controls are more smooth, intuitive, and natural than WoW's.

One thing I like about the game is that animations actually look and feel realistic: when your character stops running, he doesn't just grind to a halt--he jolts his foot outward to stop his motion, like you'd expect from any modern third person video game; when you jump and fall, you actually feel a crunching sound and your character kneels down to take in the jump. It's just another reminder of how smooth and polished this game looks, and how dated WoW looks by comparison.

I first started playing Guild Wars in 2007, and then I got into WoW. As Guild Wars wasn't much of an MMO, I didn't find it very fun, but certain aspects of the game (missions, lore, PvP, certain class skills) had me intrigued. I'm glad to see Guild Wars 2 is a legitimate MMO with a massive scope, set to contend with the mother of all MMOs. And personally, I think GW2 is the game that will best WoW in quality upon release. It's time for a change in the industry; GW2 is that harbinger.

[Tristan Khan]

Since I haven't played the demo myself, I couldn't say for sure. But in this almost one hour long video the movement sertainly looks very responsive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoICk5E9X7g

[7seti]

One thing my friends and I are concerned about is how tight the controls are. The only reason I've played WoW for so long is because every other MMO has sluggish, slow-to-react controls that make my movement feel limited. I want to be able to do a fast 180 and move in another direction quickly if I need to. So far in a lot of the GW2 videos, the controls and movements do look smooth, but it's hard to tell just what the feel of it is like from watching videos, so I'm wondering if anybody has any information on that?

This is to do with how the game handles movement. I had the same problem when I played LOTRO, and it was the main reason why I stopped playing.

WoW handles movement locally; I press W, the character moves instantly on my screen and the command to move goes to the server. This means that the movement on my screen is a little ahead of what other people see, leading to the situations where a rogue appears to be stabbing you from 10 yards away, but overall it's the best way to do it.

LOTRO (and a lot of other MMOs) handle movement entirely on the server; I press W, the command goes to the server (all the way across the freaking Pacific Ocean in my case), the response comes back and then the character moves on the screen.

I don't know which system GW2 will use, but I sincerely hope it's something similar to WoW.

[Talaaya]

I have played GW2 and the controls were very tight. It felt really natural, and I never got the feeling that I was trying to force my avatar to do something it didn't want to do.

[Deleted]

I haven't played GW2 (sadly), but the controls in the first GW were very responsive, as responsive as WoW's, I'd say. It even had a quick-turn button (x) that made you do a 180. I really miss that button when I play WoW

[jvbastel]

I haven't played GW2 (sadly), but the controls in the first GW were very responsive, as responsive as WoW's, I'd say. It even had a quick-turn button (x) that made you do a 180. I really miss that button when I play WoW

I agree, movement in gw (except for that god awful rubberbanding sometimes) was very smooth, and it was important, as positioning was a big deal in gw pvp, as opposed to wow pvp.

[Deleted]

Movement looks really responsive and smooth in the videos, GW1 movement was nice and smooth. In GW2 they want PvP to be an Esport so they're going to have to get the movement spot on again, which I have no doubts they will. Anet are a great company for meeting the needs of the players, and not just adding random crap.

[Keller]

Movement looks really responsive and smooth in the videos, GW1 movement was nice and smooth. In GW2 they want PvP to be an Esport so they're going to have to get the movement spot on again, which I have no doubts they will. Anet are a great company for meeting the needs of the players, and not just adding random crap.

Source ??

[Deleted]

Source for what exactly?

[Wynnyelle]

Glad to hear it. Sounds very promising, and that was one of my last concerns about GW2, and one of the biggest ones at that. =)

[jvbastel]

this article on killtenrats discusses the new info on WvW pvp, it's looking to become epic

http://www.killtenrats.com/2011/05/0...are-four-maps/

[Deleted]

And here's another new interview with a smaller fansite: http://guildwars2.cz/otazky-odpovedi...uildwars2-cz/2 Discusses, among other things, mail, mounts/transportation (short version: no mounts), and areas reserved for future content.

[Hraklea]

In GW2 they want PvP to be an Esport...

Blizzard is trying it since The Burning Crusade, I hope this goal doesn't ruin Guild Wars 2 balance too...

[Deleted]

Blizzard is trying it since The Burning Crusade, I hope this goal doesn't ruin Guild Wars 2 balance too...

Anet know how to balance a game without effecting PvP and PvE at the same time, they have a simple system, that Blizzard was dumb enough not to introduce. The changing of skills/skill effects for PvP. Makings balacing easier and makes the game better instead of the crap Blizzard try with WoW.

[Spawnxxx]

Although im not happy my Guildwars 2 thread was closed for this one I thought Id atleast share some of the info I was gonna post in here cause I love the Guildwars community and I want to make sure they have access to good information that might not be easly found.

Enjoy Ill be posting more finds soon. http://gw2.luna-atra.fr/skills_tool/?lang=en

You can also select weapon slots that change your skill Bar bar in Mind everything 1 - 5 on your skill bar is changable while in combat 6 skill is your heal / self heal or support skills 7-9 are your predetermined abilites you choose not sure if those can be changed in combat or not im pretty sure they cannot. and skill 10 is your Elite

Also youll observe your elite skill selection changes depending on race if you select Norn youll see the diffrent animal forms you can choose from and humans can summon duel fire hounds to fight with them ( Human / Necro would be awesome )

Elementalist you can switch attunments right above your 1-4 skill bar which also changes on the fly while in combat with a 30secs CD.

Please Bare in mind this tool is no where near complete its missing many abilites for class and even races and some classes have not been included yet.

---------- Post added 2011-05-05 at 04:59 PM ----------

Blizzard is trying it since The Burning Crusade, I hope this goal doesn't ruin Guild Wars 2 balance too...

Keep in mind Guildwars when they design a spell [Fire Ball] Hit foe for 100 dmg and lights foe on fire for 15secs 5 sec cd That Same [Fire Ball PvP] in PvP is diffrent Hit foe for 100dmg lights foe on fire for 5 secs 15sec CD.

That spell was made up btw LoL but an example of how a spell is diffrent in PvE / PvP which would solve all of WoW's balancing issues and you wouldnt see nerfs every month or buffs.

But thats delibrate on Blizzards part they like nerfing and buffing classes cause it creates FoTM classes and what happens then people make alts to exploite that FoTM class.

Blizzard so called class balancing is a Huge money maker on thier part, which is great for board and invester meetings but horriable for the players goes to show where blizzards loyalities lay.

[Hraklea]

My problem with MMO's PvP becoming e-sports is the impossibility of perfect balance.

We all agree that PvP can't be perfect balanced, alright? I hope so..

When you get strict PvP games, you have no problem adapting to the metagame. There's no such thing like "OMG! I leveled my Ryu for 85 levels and now I find out that he sucks and I have to level an Akuma since level 1! Fuck you Capcom!!!", while in RPG's, changing your option (from Warrior to Mage, for instance) requires you time. (in the case of WoW, a LOT of time, because you have to farm the entire PvP gear)

There's no problem that Dan sucks in Street Fighter, but in a RPG, you can't have even one bad class, or everybody that leveled that class will be mad. And they'll have to level a new character to play PvP competitively.

For the records, I'm not saying that Anet will do a bad job. I didn't even played GW1. I'm just saying that I'm worried about it. I hope I'm wrong, because I'm very excited about GW2 PvE... =)

[Deleted]

while in RPG's, changing your option (from Warrior to Mage, for instance) requires you time. (in the case of WoW, a LOT of time, because you have to farm the entire PvP gear)

This is a valid concern, but GW2 (like GW1) will allow you to play competitive PvP without the hassle of having to level a character up to max. In GW1, this was done by giving you the option of creating a PvP-only character that was max level and had access to all the skills and upgrades you'd unlocked on your account.

In GW2, a character that enters structured PvP (not WvW/casual PvP) will have its level automatically raised to the cap and it will be given access to all skills and items needed. (source) So there's no need to play a Guardian to level 80 after you realize you don't really like the way your Ranger plays in PvP* or whatever

* Disclaimer: I'm sure Rangers will own in PvP.

[ManiaCCC]

* Disclaimer: I'm sure Rangers will own in PvP.

I don't know..these pets seems to be pretty useless for now .. ..and almost everyone can be ranged without weak gimmick )