Normally, I would call that excessive self-hype. But in this game, something like that is entirely possible, and even likely to happen! Crazy.
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Guild Wars 2 Press Beta [Prepurchase Is Live]
- Thread starter Jira
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Normally, I would call that excessive self-hype. But in this game, something like that is entirely possible, and even likely to happen! Crazy.
We were told by the devs that, at this point (and subject to change), most of the armor/weapon crafting was designed to provide cosmetic alternatives. Statwise, the equipment you craft will be equivalent or similar to whatever you'd be finding around the world at that level, but it will look much cooler.
Cooking is the skill that gives buffs and stuff, and was being called the "advanced" crafting skill. From the very little I messed with it, it looked like it required a lot more work than the other professions. It wasn't just a system where you mixed a cut of meat with a pile of salt and got a full roast beef dinner -- one of the most basic recipes was something like (going off memory here, this is almost certainly not completely accurate):
Combine cinnamon and sugar to make cinnamon sugar
Separately combine a stick of butter and flour and an egg to make dough
Combine the dough with the cinnamon sugar
Bake
Get a cookie.
The cooking recipes seemed a lot more difficult to discover by just mass combining ingredients, since they appear to involve more steps.
Complex Shadow
Cudi Lame
new page
To be fair, some knowledge of real-world cooking would seem to apply towards the above.
For sure. The process of discovering recipes though seemed to be different/harder than the standard equipment professions.
I know right? I wish there were more Engineer videos because right now its totally one-sided on deciding what to roll.
It's in German, but this is the most Engineer footage I've really seen from THIS beta:
http://www.gamestar.de/index.cfm?pid=1589&pk=64931
12v12 would instantly kill GW2 as an esport. It's one thing to make fun little modes for variety, but the game can't gain a reputation of being fluffed up if the devs want GW2 to succeed as an esport. Teams of 5 is a great size, and it is perfectly fitting with GW2's combat mechanics.
Check out this video for team roles, as you can see, very different from GW1. There's so many gameplay elements from GW1 abandoned in GW2's development, and the sole reason is that those elements were too complicated for most beginners. GW2's gameplay is a simplification of GW1, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The implications of those simplifications extend into top tier PvP more than you'd think. The attention that would have been placed on managing resources is now going to be placed elsewhere (i.e. game environment) which is exactly what the devs want. Players aren't just going to focus less, they'll just focus on different things than in GW1.
The game is taking massive influences from the FPS genre, which is exactly what is required if GW2 is ever going to become a successful esport.
Oh, and according to this there is more than one map, and I imagine there will be more on the way. These maps will need more testing that anything else in the game, so they will take time to develop properly and it's why we haven't been seeing loads of different maps being churned out.
Signing up with a gmail address seems to be fine, but you may have to give the resend page a whirl. I signed up with two accounts (gmail), and while one worked instantly through the resend page, I had to wait a few hours and try again with the second account before it worked. So that was strange, but just stick with it and it'll work. Not that this matters much, it's just a confirmation of signup.
https://beta.guildwars2.com/resend
Oh there was a separate site for handling the gmail problem? I thought I needed to enter all the information again. It can be hard to tell when it ends with "thank you for signing up" instead of "go here if you don't receive your confirmation email soon".
The Gmail issue was affecting more people earlier in the day. If you haven't gotten your confirmation email yet, use that resend page. If that still doesn't work, try the @googlemail.com method which was reposted at the top of this page.
Closest thing to that is:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Jump_Shot
or
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rocket_Boots
ForzaFerrari
Neo Member
The waiting is unbearable since last night. I also insta-lost interest for every other game, welp I hope I will be ok by tomorrow
It would just be awesome. Don't have any clue how it would work for game balance, depending on the design of the PvP areas, but it's just a fun thought.
I agree with you. In my opinion, Arenanet made a good decision to put the competitive side(Tournaments) of GW2 5v5. If they are serious and really want to pursue and make GW2 PvP an esport game, then its the perfect number, it makes thing more easy to balance and reduce the efforts in doing so.
5 people per team is the most balanced and proved number of people if you want to have a game with an esport scene. You can see examples with success of this in DOTA 1 and 2, LoL, HoN and CS.
If there is enough money and prestige in the esport scene of GW2, esport organizations will want to be involved and 5 people is a good and easier number to maintain that 9 or 12.
Maybe we can see in the future some expansion and a come back to 9v9 or maybe more modes in PvP that involves more numbers than 5v5, maybe not and they will only focus in 5v5 as the small scale and WvWvW as the big scale PvP, time will tell. Tho i must accept that we need to see before all the modes and maps of PvP that they'll implement before doing a judgement if it is feasible GW2 as esport or not, nevertheless, i'm excited to play, experience and enjoy the ride.
Complex Shadow
Cudi Lame
I know there is no flying in GW2 (which I like). But will there be a way to fast travel to places in the world without teleporting. Half the fun is the journy.
For physical travel, I believe all we have is walking on foot or in mechs. Other than that there's just the Asura gates and waypoints.
Very nice! Thanks for linking it.
Complex Shadow
Cudi Lame
What are mechs?
That's not how you make a cookie!
CREAM butter and sugar together
add egg
add flavoring and flour and baking soda
make sure you use some salt
bake that shit
PREORDER CANCELED
I mean the golem battlesuits, like the one in the Mundo v Mundo video.
You can fast travel through the waypoint systems as long as you've discovered them, also you can use Asura gates in cities to travel large distances to reach other cities, The Mists, etc. If you really want to get around on foot, it's encouraged because as an explorer you will be rewarded through finding things others may not. I can't overstate how large the world is, you WILL fast travel to a general area in a zone and head out from there, running from zone to zone isn't going to be quick by any means.
He's referring to the Golem Siege Weapons in WvW, they're very slow moving and can't be used elsewhere. However, there is an Asura racial ability that allows anyone to get into a battle golem suit and use it, but once again it is extremely slow and isn't meant to be used as a form of travel.
I totally disagree with the 5v5 being a good choice. The game will need another pvp mode. I think people got a little carried away with the visceral and simple as important to e-sports. A sport must have a high skill and strategy level to reach high legitimacy levels. Otherwise, you're just entertainment. People seem to confuse the two. There's a reason the NFL is held in a higher regard and pays more money than Arena Football or why the NBA is higher than trampoline basketball.
Complex Shadow
Cudi Lame
I was kinda hoping for like hourse riding or something. But this is fine. I can imagine rolling in groups and just having fun attk random shit as we are on our travel. Also can other people use the portal a mess makes and is there a range limit. And can you get your mess friend to tele you across the map?
Sorry, no mounts. I think we'll get along just fine without them, and I was never really a fan of them in the first place.
Here's information on Mesmer portals:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Portal_Entre
The maximum portal range is that which is visible on the compass. Other players can pass through a Mesmer's portal.
5 v 5 and less is a logistical thing. Each person(s) added to an event puts more of a strain on sponsors and makes it less likely for anyone to hold major competitions at all.
the traveling around will mean more use of the dynamic events.
The loot setup may not support this but having valuable landscape hunting in rare monster x is a good way to keep travel interesting too. Make something a player would want to farm but have it roam around outside in numbers that do not unbalance its loot profile.
It explains the chain thing though which mentions "final portal" maybe the chain will work for more than 3 and not regularly but as a ha ha event players will make a stupidly long chain once. Thinking about it though those portal extensions may only work as a set of 3.
Complex Shadow
Cudi Lame
How is the loot divided. Is it just everyone has their own version of loot or something
But why sponsor something nobody holds as truly high end?
Complex Shadow
Cudi Lame
Thanks. I am not really a fan of mounts. But I am also not a fan of fast travel teleport system ethier. Just sayin.
Yes, if you hit the appropriate damage threshold(it's not really that high) everyone will get their own roll on the loot table. In dungeons if you loot a chest, everyone gets their own roll on the loot table. There is no actual rolling for loot, no need no greed, nothing like that at all. Everyone gets their own loot.
In regards to actual mounts, if I remember correctly ANet said that they'll put ground mounts in down the line, but only if they get mounted combat working. They don't want to just put mounts in and that be it, they have to do something different just like everything else in the game. Oh and they said absolutely no flying mounts, ever.
Player housing (separate from your Personal Story instance) and guild halls will be after launch.
Then arena net runs a few tournaments of their own and no one else does. I have not watched any of the full WWW aside from a minute of zerging so I do not know if the game they built even holds up as having more strategy at 8 or more players.
Although it is an industry that sponsored quake 4 and painkiller for the sake of graphics...
You can't really make a balanced game suitable for eSports-level competition unless you design everything around a very specific number of players per side. In Guild Wars 1, it was eight players and two teams; every step removed from that ideal was a huge degradation in the overall balance and level of play - Guild versus Guild was far and away the most competitive mode, Tombs was the next best, and the Arenas and Alliance Battles were pretty much passed over unless you couldn't get a group together for anything better, assuming that you were after actual 'competitive' play, and not just any PvP at all. (Fort Aspenwood and Jade Quarry were similar, for pretty obvious reasons, although I have to admit that I find FA to be good, dumb fun, the way I expect World vs World to be.)
The thing is, despite the fact that 8v8 worked exquisitely well in the ideal case, where both sides had full groups of players who were skilled both at working with each other as a team, and at individually being able to play their characters well, the ideal just didn't happen often enough to catch on the way they intended it to. Eight players who could play at that level was just too many for most people to be able to scrape together, practice, and play regularly as a group (which lead to all the people who could only really do well by grabbing a build from PvX or whatever and making everybody play their assigned role). It's a lot easier to coordinate yourself with four other people than it is with seven other people, and I think it's pretty clear that the main reason that the game is being balanced with an ideal of 5v5 is because they're hoping that top-level PvP is going to be accessible in a way that Guild Wars 1 really wasn't. The double-edged sword is, you can't really balance a game to a 'competitive' level for 5v5 without making it unsuitable for 'competitive' play at higher player counts.
I don't think you'll really find ArenaNet targeting modes that are in between the 5v5 structured tier, and the #XXv#YY unorganized World vs World stuff. If you want the game to be on the level of an eSport, you'd have to play 5v5 anyway, and if you're not looking for that finely honed of an experience, they're better off having you jump into WvW to keep it populated and lively.
The thing is, despite the fact that 8v8 worked exquisitely well in the ideal case, where both sides had full groups of players who were skilled both at working with each other as a team, and at individually being able to play their characters well, the ideal just didn't happen often enough to catch on the way they intended it to. Eight players who could play at that level was just too many for most people to be able to scrape together, practice, and play regularly as a group (which lead to all the people who could only really do well by grabbing a build from PvX or whatever and making everybody play their assigned role). It's a lot easier to coordinate yourself with four other people than it is with seven other people, and I think it's pretty clear that the main reason that the game is being balanced with an ideal of 5v5 is because they're hoping that top-level PvP is going to be accessible in a way that Guild Wars 1 really wasn't. The double-edged sword is, you can't really balance a game to a 'competitive' level for 5v5 without making it unsuitable for 'competitive' play at higher player counts.
I don't think you'll really find ArenaNet targeting modes that are in between the 5v5 structured tier, and the #XXv#YY unorganized World vs World stuff. If you want the game to be on the level of an eSport, you'd have to play 5v5 anyway, and if you're not looking for that finely honed of an experience, they're better off having you jump into WvW to keep it populated and lively.
Complex Shadow
Cudi Lame
I'd rather have no mounts than post launch mount.
ForzaFerrari
Neo Member
No mounts, thank you
Also: Yes, this. Mounts are horrible.
Agreed.
Another fact of a small player count in competitive games is that it puts a high requirement on each player to pull their weight. You mentioned the NBA, but that's the reason why they're 5v5. And looking at other online games, small player numbers is the easiest way to raise the skill required to be successful.
Plus, the nature of the two maps shown give emphasis on both 1v1 and team fights, as well as giving the players more things than they can safely do with just five people each. Three capture points, a doubled secondary objective, and the absolute need to avoid a 5v4 situation while still needing to risk sending people solo... Not to mention the fact that it is entirely possible to win 2v1 and go on streaks.
And there's bonus from designing around a smaller team size. Even if you allow larger team sizes, and they aren't balanced as well for the map, most of the regular players looking to just hop in and have fun won't care. Especially if they're bringing their friends along. More people often allows somewhat of a safety net, making it hard for one or two people to absolute wreck the other side, and yet not making it possible.
So I got to thinking about Cross Profession Combos and I was looking at the Guardian as that's one of the classes I want to try first.
So in total the Guardian can create 4 initiator fields and has 6 skills that can finish initiator fields.
From what I can see if you're really into making a CPC heavy build for a Guardian, you'll want to run Mace + Shield or Mace + Focus depending on if you want to go with more defense/defense or defense/condition. Mace + Shield will let you make 2 initiators, Mace + Focus will let you make 1 initiator and 1 finisher. Your second weapon will want to be the Greatsword as you have 2 initiators and 3 finishers on it.
If you run M + S & GS then you can make all 4 initiator fields and 4 finishers, M + F + GS would be 3 initiators and 5 finishers.
So that's all just one class comboing off of itself, not taking into account any other classes.
Then you run something like 30 pts into Honor, 30 into Valor, and 10 into Virtues for your traits:
Ok now the tool I'd use for builds is very out of date so I'll just lay out my heal/utility/elite skills.
This doesn't take into account armor set mods, weapon mods, or jewelery mods either. This is ONE BUILD that I came up with based on maximizing cross profession combos. The depth is far, FAR deeper than most people realize. Not even taking into account the player actually playing well and not just spamming skills.This build focuses on being very boon & heal heavy with shortened cooldowns for Virtues and Greatsword skills so you can use finishers more often.
So in total the Guardian can create 4 initiator fields and has 6 skills that can finish initiator fields.
From what I can see if you're really into making a CPC heavy build for a Guardian, you'll want to run Mace + Shield or Mace + Focus depending on if you want to go with more defense/defense or defense/condition. Mace + Shield will let you make 2 initiators, Mace + Focus will let you make 1 initiator and 1 finisher. Your second weapon will want to be the Greatsword as you have 2 initiators and 3 finishers on it.
If you run M + S & GS then you can make all 4 initiator fields and 4 finishers, M + F + GS would be 3 initiators and 5 finishers.
So that's all just one class comboing off of itself, not taking into account any other classes.
Then you run something like 30 pts into Honor, 30 into Valor, and 10 into Virtues for your traits:
Ok now the tool I'd use for builds is very out of date so I'll just lay out my heal/utility/elite skills.
This doesn't take into account armor set mods, weapon mods, or jewelery mods either. This is ONE BUILD that I came up with based on maximizing cross profession combos. The depth is far, FAR deeper than most people realize. Not even taking into account the player actually playing well and not just spamming skills.This build focuses on being very boon & heal heavy with shortened cooldowns for Virtues and Greatsword skills so you can use finishers more often.
Part 3 of the Yogscast's venture into the human starting area is up:
Guild Wars 2 Beta: Human Part 3 - Bandits and Lightning
Guild Wars 2 Beta: Human Part 3 - Bandits and Lightning
Jira, you're probably as knowledgeable as anyone about GW2; do you know if there are means to directly control Necromancer pets? In the videos I've seen (including some of these from the press beta), the pets seem to just kind of handle themselves. Do Necromancers have any direct control over their actions besides the pet-specific skill that swaps in while they are active?
Not that I'm aware of, as far as I know they do their own thing and only the Ranger can actually control their pets. I'd wager a guess that your Necro pets might focus more on what you're attacking, but who knows they may just attack whatever they want.
Might sound odd, but I'm kind of hoping that is the case. One of the things I found a bit tiring about Warlocks in WoW PvP was micromanagement of the pets (not to mention the hotkey clusterfuck they were subject to).
ForzaFerrari
Neo Member
Jira is GW2 based on one giant map with few loading screens for cities/dungeons like Skyrim or there are many zones connected with loading screens between like FFXI?
Vigilant Walrus
Member
I don't like mounts myself because they are all copy pasted models of each other. and they are bigger than the players so your screen gets full of 100% identical mounts floating around in different colors and it always looks messed up.
its just the way people use them. they are annoying in cities, everyone has one, you cant use them for attack, there is no logistics with them, you dont have to think about when using them, they can usually be used in air balloons, on mountains, swimming, inside houses. they just make the game seem goofy and broken.
the worst thing is in games like wow, were you attack while mounted and your mount just goes poof. so you can run with 310% faster into combat like some weird leap, and go poof, and then intiate an attack. looks stupid as fuck.
but the art problems can already be seen with necromancer and ranger pet. it would just take too long to animate lots of alternatives for players to make their pets / summons look unique or be able to customize them.
There's loading screens for cities and dungeons. Cities are entirely persistent and absolutely gigantic, Divinity's Reach is EASILY the largest city in gaming. There's loading screens between zones as well, though the zones are HUGE and really you're not going to see one all that often unless you're teleporting around over and over or something. I saw a guy go through from the initial Charr zone to the next and it literally took 2-3 seconds to load and very well could take less come launch. It felt more like it was just connecting rather than loading a whole new zone. So you're able to go to level 15 without needing to hit a loading screen if you're not going into a city, even then it's about 5 seconds to load a city? With that in mind seeing as optimization is one of the last things done in game development, they'll probably get the zoning times down to 1-3 seconds. You really have an advantage when the guy who created Battle.net and the Warcraft 3 engine is your CEO.
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