Games Guild Wars 2

[Urgat]

So. Any plans from any of the oldschool daoc players to form a guild?

I reckon this is probably the perfect pvp game for folks that grasp the concept of rvr to get together in.

Edit - bah didn't see the above. Although not heard of AR. which server did you guys play on and in what era of daoc?

 

[eksdee]

Will be rolling with a bunch of buds from DAoC, from Walking Issues/Mardraum etc, all of us were in so many different groups/guilds by now. Let's just hope that WvW delivers.

I'm quite concerned about how the 'downed' system will work out in OWPvP right now. It really would, in theory, favour zergs over all else. One thing I can say, having seen leaked videos and screens etc, the WvW zones look great. It's amazing how so many MMOs since DAoC - see WAR, Rift, Aion for example - completely fucked up their PvP zones or didn't have any proper PvP zones at all.

 

[Chosen]

So. Any plans from any of the oldschool daoc players to form a guild?

I reckon this is probably the perfect pvp game for folks that grasp the concept of rvr to get together in.

Edit - bah didn't see the above. Although not heard of AR. which server did you guys play on and in what era of daoc?

Played on mid/excal, and all since beta start untill about last year. Then started playing Rift hoping that it would eat up some time before GW2. I will announce the guild later, when the website is made and up. =)

 

[AngelHeal]

played GW 1 allloottt... going to buy this game for sure...

 

[svartalf]

Microtransactions!

http://www.arena.net/blog/mike-obrien-on-microtransactions-in-guild-wars-2

Mike O'Brien on Microtransactions in Guild Wars 2

By Mike O'Brien March 20th, 2012
more on: developmentmarketmicrotransactions

In this month’s closed beta event, we’ll do some early testing of the Guild Wars 2 microtransactions system. Our microtransaction content isn’t nailed down yet, but we have a good framework in place to support it. So, I’d like to take a moment to explain our goals and the system we have developed to meet them.


We believe in microtransactions because they fund ongoing development of the game in a very straightforward and open way. You, the customer, get to decide how much money you spend on the game after launch, based on how compelling it is to you. You get a complete and playable game no matter what, but we think we can provide additional content and services that you’d be happy to pay for. And when you pay for them, you help fund our support of Guild Wars 2 in a way that benefits all players of the game.


Here’s our philosophy on microtransactions: We think players should have the opportunity to spend money on items that provide visual distinction and offer more ways to express themselves. They should also be able to spend money on account services and on time-saving convenience items. But it’s never OK for players to buy a game and not be able to enjoy what they paid for without additional purchases, and it’s never OK for players who spend money to have an unfair advantage over players who spend time.


I know none of this is new; the original Guild Wars also had microtransactions. But microtransactions were an afterthought in Guild Wars, whereas with Guild Wars 2, we had an opportunity to integrate the microtransaction system from the ground up, giving players more options and more convenience without sacrificing our design principles. So, here’s what we’re doing differently this time.


In Guild Wars 2 we have three currencies: gold, karma, and gems. Gold is the common in-game currency. Karma, which players earn in-game but cannot trade, is used for unique rewards. And gems are the currency that’s bought and used to purchase microtransactions.


We have a new player-driven market that allows players to trade gold for gems and gems for gold. If you want something, whether it’s an in-game item or a microtransaction, you ultimately have two ways to get it: you can play to earn gold or you can use money to buy gems. We think that’s important, because it lets more players participate on a level playing field, whether they use their free time or their disposable income to do it.


MMO veterans will note the similarities of our system to EVE Online’s PLEX system. As in that case, our system takes gold trading out of the hands of real-money trading (RMT) companies and puts it directly in the hands of players.


We think that’s a great thing.


From a player’s perspective, RMT companies have all the wrong motivations: the more money they make from selling gold, the more they spam ads in the game, run bot networks to farm gold, and hack accounts to loot them for gold. Conversely, under our system, players have all the right motivations. If a player buys gold from another player, he gets the gold he wants, the selling player gets gems she can use for microtransactions, and ArenaNet generates revenue from the sale of gems that we can use to keep supporting and updating the game. Everyone wins.


We also like the tradability of gems and gold because it makes the rest of the game’s economy more compelling. We’ll have a player-to-player Trading Post in the game—it’s like an auction house but better—which we’ll discuss in an upcoming blog post. Because gems can be traded for gold and vice versa, we don’t need two different trading systems, one for gold and one for gems. In Guild Wars 2, everything on the Trading Post is traded for gold, but of course, somebody who wants to earn gems can just sell items for gold, and then convert the gold to gems.


We have always taken our responsibility to players seriously with the original Guild Wars, and we will continue to do so with Guild Wars 2. We believe the foundation I’ve described here is the right foundation for us to build upon, and we look forward to sharing more details with you in the future as we nail down our microtransaction content.


-Mike O’Brien

* 3/20 10:50 AM PDT. Text updated for clarity.

 

[Moriath]

Microtransactions!

http://www.arena.net/blog/mike-obrien-on-microtransactions-in-guild-wars-2

How else are they to pay for the servers etc as there is no subs system?

 

[Soazak]

How else are they to pay for the servers etc as there is no subs system?

The microtransactions look pretty good, they work well in GW1. There is a lot of drama on the GWG forums about them, but tbh I think the people crying have not actually read anything (like they think the res orb will be used in WvW to stop wipes etc)

 

[svartalf]

How else are they to pay for the servers etc as there is no subs system?

I prefer the subs system.

 

[Aada]

I prefer the subs system.

I prefer the system in place now tbh and a sub system would turn people off GW2.

 

[Soazak]

I prefer the subs system.

I prefer the subs system to F2P (as in you must buy progression in the store), but GW2 is running a non-essential cash shop like GW1. The items in the cash shop (no matter how much the whines on the other forums claim) are not really essential and can be obtained by everyone through normal gameplay...not really much different to Ecto in GW1 or PLEX in Eve.

 

[Chosen]

I agree with Carlos here. It's not like you can buy yourself to become "godlike" in this game, seeing that the dynamic fighting actually requires skills by the players itself! But having these cash shops can make it easier for grown-ups to gain items at a same level as the young lings(Seeing almost none of us have the time to play at the same time we did at our younger days).

 

[Docmandu]

I think Itsumi / Docmandu will be playing it, not sure about the rest of them

I sure will... hopefully enough people will be doing roaming RvR (WvWvW) and not just play in Structured PvP all day.

Anyway hopefully this game delivers... and while it all sounds and looks good.. I'm still doubtful on the roaming WvW potential..

 

[Ctuchik]

From what i've seen there isn't a whole lot of space to roam in. So the few "good" places will probably end up being quite crowded with massive addfests.

 

[svartalf]

I think they're on the right track with the Server vs Server 2-week 3-way . I am also particularly impressed by the way they haven't been tempted to put different classes/races on the different sides. I do wonder if it'll seem a bit 1st-person-shootery because of this, though.

 

[Soazak]

From what i've seen there isn't a whole lot of space to roam in. So the few "good" places will probably end up being quite crowded with massive addfests.

This is one of the worries I have right now really, the PvP may not be shaping up to be anything different from other games. WvW looks like it may only ever be zerg v zerg as there are no places for smaller groups to roam (as in proper roaming, rather than camping objectives - I guess roaming will never be like daoc without a /stick command and speed but meh). I hope structured brings some real competitive pvp, but open world needs to be fun too

 

[Aada]

Fuck DAOC and it's shitty stick command and train assists i'd rather have a zerg fest then that crap again.

 

[eksdee]

www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/rb4x0/a_lot_of_good_players_sceptical_about_the_combat/

I think it's a steaming pile of turd so far tbh. Completely homogeonised class system and dull combat, with open world PvP which is completely tailored for zergs and nothing more. Such a shame.

 

[svartalf]

www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/rb4x0/a_lot_of_good_players_sceptical_about_the_combat/

I think it's a steaming pile of turd so far tbh. Completely homogeonised class system and dull combat, with open world PvP which is completely tailored for zergs and nothing more. Such a shame.

I bet it's still possible to outplay others.

 

[eksdee]

I hope I'm wrong, that's all I'll say.

 

[Ctuchik]

www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/rb4x0/a_lot_of_good_players_sceptical_about_the_combat/

I think it's a steaming pile of turd so far tbh. Completely homogeonised class system and dull combat, with open world PvP which is completely tailored for zergs and nothing more. Such a shame.

That does look pretty damning tbh...

Now i'm not so sure about the game any more.

 

[Soazak]

That does look pretty damning tbh...

Now i'm not so sure about the game any more.

I still think it looks better than the rest of the garbage that is on the MMO scene at the moment.

From what I hear, the PvE is pretty good too in GW2, PvP is what I'm really holding on for though, so hopefully it will be good.

 

[Ctuchik]

Yes it does look better and i can probably be quite comfortable with saying that the game IS better. But i'm not sure i can live with an action bar system that is that boring. I mean, as the article say, someone that is just playing casually might not care but those that actually pay attention will find this quite bad. Because in the end it's just spamming the number 1 key with the odd 2 - 5 once in a while.

Many MANY keyboards are gonna get it's 1 key broken from this i suspect.

 

[svartalf]

Character creator guide...
http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/03/26/breaking-down-guild-wars-2s-character-creator/#continued

 

[svartalf]

Beetar Stuffs. It turned out to be a wall of text. Tough.

Guild Wars 2 beta questions: Answered!
by Elisabeth Cardy

on Mar 26th 2012 3:30PM
Betas, Fantasy, Game mechanics, Lore, Previews, Guild Wars 2, Hands-on, Massively Hands-on, Massively Event Coverage, Community Q&A


The second Guild Wars 2 press beta weekend has come and gone, and Massively was there every step of the way. Stay tuned throughout the day today for even more guides, impressions, videos, and Q&As to get you ready for the highly anticipated sequel to Guild Wars.
Last week we asked for your Guild Wars 2 questions as we prepared to head into the beta weekend, and boy did you rise to the occasion! After sorting through all the questions, we made a list of the most interesting and frequently repeated ones to investigate. Have a question you don't see answered here? Tonight I'll be doing a live question-and-answer session on Massively's own livestream! Tune in at 7:00 p.m. EDT and ask away![/url]
How does the storyline tie into that of the original Guild Wars? Does the team do a good job of explaining what happened with Adelbern and Ascalon and how it ties in with current events?
There's a very strong bridge over the 250-year gap -- especially in the early Charr territories. Most of the conflicts you'll see as a low-level Charr revolve around either the ghosts of Ascalon left by Adelburn's horrible Foefire or the sorceress Flame Legion, a fight that we saw the beginnings of with Pyre Fierceshot in Eye of the North. In the level 30 dungeon, players fight their way into Ascalonian catacombs alongside Rytlock Brimstone to find and rescue Eir Stegalkin, who's gone in on her own to try to recover asking Adelbern's sword Magdaer. For a human, a lot of low-level content revolves around problems with the White Mantle, whom we all remember from the original Guild Wars and more recent content in War in Kryta. So, yes, the storylines of the two games are well tied-together.
I'm very interested in the Personal Story of a Iron Legion Charr. If you can play through the first missions I would be very glad.
They're rad! You'll be able to read a more detailed experience (along with information about the other legions) in this week's Flameseeker Chronicles, but to summarize: As an Iron Legion Charr, you're a super cool inventor who's equally determined to create a new ghost-be-gone device, the Ghostbore Musket, and recruit more allies to your warband. Rytlock thinks you're the bees knees, but those pesky Flame Legion baddies keep trying to foul up your plans! Infiltration, invention, ghost-busting, and cleverness are all part of the low-level Iron Legion experience.

Are there any spells/ranged attacks that home in on a target? If so, do they require you to face the target when starting and ending the cast?
Some spells do automatically track their target. For example, the Mesmer's first greatsword skill will lock onto your target regardless of where you are and whether you're faced directly at them or not. Because the game's encouraging mobility, many targeted skills (like targeted gunfire) will do a good job of hitting their mark even if you're moving sideways or at an unusual angle to your target. It's key to keep in mind, though, that there's are many skills that don't require a target but will hit so long as they're properly aimed, and that other skills are ground-based AoE and are positioned by use of your mouse.
How far can mobs be kited before they leash back?
While pulling for aggro control is a viable option, kiting or training enormous distances doesn't work very well. In the explorable mode of the Catacombs dungeon, for example, we found it wasn't wise to pull a creature any farther than about 10 steps outside of the room he spawned in (on the other hand, I was able to pull a huge boss off of his dais, down some stairs, and partway into a corridor -- I might've been able to kite him farther, but I died horribly. Most bosses seem to allow for a farther pull to give players some wiggle room).
Is it fun to grab a small group in WvW and do the alternate tasks (like grabbing camps or recruiting NPC aid? Do you think those who don't play much PvP would find it approachable?
As far as I'm concerned, small groups doing little tasks are the spice of life for WvW.
While there's no denying that huge sieges, massed armies, and grand-scale assaults are awesome and necessary, the smaller tasks add up and can make a huge difference. It's really hard to be a viable fighting force with no supply camps, and those can can easily be captured and recaptured by smaller, more mobile groups. Winning NPCs to your side to distract the enemy or swell your numbers is not just a fun activity to accomplish with a small group; it's also definitely valuable. As someone without much of a PvP background, I found this very approachable and engaging. While I did enjoy my time in larger groups doing the more prolonged slugfests of assaulting major keeps and towers, it's nice to be in smaller groups where you can more easily see the direct benefit of your contribution.
Are the crypts from the beginning of Ghosts of Ascalon available to be explored in Divinity's Reach?
Where's the adventure in my just telling you? You might not thank me for saving you hours of highly entertaining but ultimately fruitless exploration, but no, they are not (presently) reachable in the world. According to Eric Flannum in an interview last year: "You won't be exploring them in the initial release, but you certainly will sometime in the future."
How does the game world seem to be size wise. Does it feel about as big as the original Prophecies with EOTN, or did ANet make the individual zones bigger?
Individual maps are very, very large in this game. For comparison: Plains of Ashford, the zone that holds the content for level 1-15 Charr, appears to be roughly equivalent to the area from the ruins of Ascalon City, South and West through all of Old Ascalon, parts of the Regent River Basin, and a whole bunch of unexplorable and unreachable territory from the original Guild Wars. The establishment of the Sylvari and Asura civilizations has opened up parts of the Maguuma Jungle and Tarnished Coast area that we've never had access to, the Charr have pushed farther East and North than we saw in the original game, and even though the Norn have withdrawn from the northern reaches of the Shiverpeaks, most southern areas have been expanded thanks to the land shift caused by the rise of Orr. It's been said previously that you can spend 10-15 minutes running through one map without taking fighting time into account, and that's entirely true. The world feels huge.
How much does respeccing cost, and how many minutes of grind, on average, are needed to acquire the needed gold?
Attribute respecs cost about 15 silver (or did, when I tried to with my level 31 character -- and trait swapping for unlocked trait slots is free). As an example of the time that would take, just about an hour in the level 30 dungeon got me almost 50 silver pieces, plus two new pieces of armor and a full inventory of loot to sell. Adventuring for roughly 25 minutes in a level 15 area got be about 20 silver worth of coin and loot drops.
If you and a friend roll new toons of different races, how soon can you join up together?
Players of different races have the option of playing together pretty much from the get-go. Asura Gates, which are free portals located in every major city, allow for fast travel between major cities. Since every race starts out right near their home city, you can basically start playing together as soon as you're out of the brief starter zone.
I'd like to know a little more about the dynamic events. Do they repeat themselves? So much has been said by ArenaNet about events having impact on the world around you, I'd hate to see something like this end up on some sort of internal respawn timer... even if that meant me missing out on the event.
I took a look at the mechanics of dynamic events a couple of weeks ago, so you should look there for more detailed reference about 'em. Some events are on timers based on where they are in a chain, some can only be reached by way of other events (you have to route centaurs from Fort Salma in order to pursue them and drive them from their own forts), and some are triggered by other means, but (so far as we know) there are no wholly unique events that can be triggered once and never again. That simply isn't feasible when designing a world for hundreds and thousands of players to share in.

Can you unlock and move the main UI, target frames, etc.? Is there any way to reposition or have custom hotkeys for the weapon slots? Like can I put the default #5 ability in say, slot #1 for my staff, but for the 1H, have the default 1-5 layout?
That functionality isn't in (yet?) -- there was almost no UI customization open to me within this beta. I can say that in the control configuration menu only identifies skills as "Weapon Skill 1" and so on; as yet, there's no option for "Weapon 1 Skill 1" and the like.
What about other preferences, such as video and audio?
The game allows you language settings for both text and speech (independent of each other; I could, if I wanted, have all my text in French and all my speech in German), quality adjustments for both video and audio, sliders for different audio channels (dialogue, background music, and the like), and other basic controls. There are other UI goodies such as camera rotation, compass rotation, camera shake, and name-visibility options. One preference I'm especially fond of is smart casting for ground-targeted skills. With that enabled, rather than activating a skill, positioning it with my mouse and then either clicking on the ground or hitting my hotkey again, I can simply have my mouse "aimed" when I activate the skill and it will cast wherever my mouse is positioned. While that may not be super useful before you're aware of the size and style of different AoE skills, after you get used to them it's wonderfully nifty. There's also an option to create and use your own playlists separated by content (independent playlists for battle, ambient music, and the like), but I was so busy enjoying the soundtrack all weekend that I wasn't really worried about subbing in my own music just yet.
I'd like to know if gear uses a bind-on-pick-up and/or bind-on-equip system like other MMOs or if it uses a customization mechanic like Guild Wars'. Are there attribute or level requirements on gear? Are there untradable items of other types, like the dungeon tokens? Can things that are untradable be moved between characters on a single account?
There is no bind-on-pickup gear in this game (except for some pieces of the very first armor set your character gets at creation and potentially some personal story rewards), although some items are soulbound (certain trophies and dungeon tokens) and others are bind-on-equip. Soulbound items are bound to a specific account, it seems. I was able to earn a soulbound leather coat on one character and transfer it to another, and I saw no UI text informing me that this was a special consideration. I did not see evidence of customizable equipment in the beta. No gear that I saw had attribute requirements à la Guild Wars, though weapons and armor have level requirements.
What emotes are there? I assume there will be a mix of voiced and silent emotes.
Not all emotes are in the game yet. I saw several common emotes: cheering, dis/agreeing, bowing, and the like. You'll find all the emotes I know of in a video at the end of this post, plus my favourite unrefined feature of the game. Dances are not viewable yet. There's also functionality to do emotes withs targeted player character by targeting them and typing, for example, "/salute @" -- the animation will be the same but the UI text will tell you that Lis Triggerhappy salutes Total Stranger. One thing that's been implemented which was sorely missed in Guild Wars is the ability to do custom (unvoiced, unacted) emotes: typing "/me" in front of any given string of words will result, for example, in telling the world that Lis Triggerhappy stands on her tippytoes and pretends she's a Norn.
Are crafting trainers centralized in cities or will you meet some out in the open world at towns and such?
Both! Every major city seems to have crafting trainers, but some towns in the world have them as well. I came across them in the Township of Claypool as a Human and in the Plains of Ashford as a Charr.
I'm interested in know how grouping will go about. I want to know if there are any tools to assist people in finding a group and possibly making a friend out of it that isn't on another server.
There is a LFG function on the in-game social menu. That said, playing together is very natural. Because of ArenaNet's policy of encouraging cooperation, the concept of kill-stealing and loot-stealing don't really exist in the game. That means that (since it's an MMO) you'll often find yourself fighting alongside people you come across in the open world, and you have every reason (combos, challenge, variety) to savor that experience. Several times while I was going about solo, I ended up palling around with a total stranger for a couple of events and hearts, which led to chatting and good times. In a few of those cases, we even formally joined a group for the benefit of group communication and pinging, but it always felt extraordinarily optional. So there is a specific UI tool to help find a group or a buddy, and between hanging around towns and fighting out in the world, you'll have oodles of chances to meet other players.

Even a Bookah like you knows that Guild Wars 2 is on the way, but it takes an Asura's intellect, a Human's charm, a Sylvari's wisdom, a Charr's passion, and a Norn's love of strong mead to dive into beta and make sense of a game this complex. Fortunately, we have all five on the Massively staff. Enjoy our previews, guides, and our weekly GW2 column, Flameseeker Chronicles!

Tags: anet, arenanet, events, fantasy, featured, guild-wars-2, guild-wars-2-beta, guild-wars-2-preview, gw2, iron-legion, ncsoft, preview, previews, q-and-a, qa, questions-and-answers, respec

 

[Docmandu]

Many MANY keyboards are gonna get it's 1 key broken from this i suspect.

It's not SW:TOR... at least in this game the 1 attack auto-repeats.. you just activate it and it will keep on spamming it.

Anyway most PvE stuff is mindless button mashing.. nothing unique to this game.

 

[Ctuchik]

Great, that's almost even worse. That means it's basically an autoattack castsequence macro...

 

[eksdee]

Yeah, it's exactly that. I find it baffling that the reality of this game, having played it, seems to be that it's a PvE game with (bad) PvP tacked on. It's like they just scrapped everything good about GW1 - deep and complex PvP, vast possibilities with builds, high reliance on team work etc - and made a completely new game without it. So, so disappointed.

 

[svartalf]

Yeah, it's exactly that. I find it baffling that the reality of this game, having played it, seems to be that it's a PvE game with (bad) PvP tacked on. It's like they just scrapped everything good about GW1 - deep and complex PvP, vast possibilities with builds, high reliance on team work etc - and made a completely new game without it. So, so disappointed.

Hopefully, you will be in the minority.

 

[eksdee]

Every single friend of mine who has played the game hates it. The PvE is great, but this wasn't meant to be a PvE game.

 

[Chosen]

Give it a rest, still in beta stage. And that is what beta stages if for, to make improvements until the game is out!