Guild Wars 2: Pre-Release Discussion

[Takiwaki]

panel from yesterday. its stuff like this that makes me wonder why I even bother with FFXIV.

[Alderaan]

I want this game. Now.

Ditto.

[Takiwaki]

This is how you do a dye system.

[Lucavi]

To have a dye system like that, you have to have a UI that supports being able to click it with your mouse.

[vrumpt]

This game looks like its shaping up to be pretty awesome. Hopefully it releases at the right time so i can pick it up.

[Alderaan]

Katlan, did you notice the lack of auto attack or was the combat done so well that you didn't notice at all?

[Takiwaki]

Katlan, did you notice the lack of auto attack or was the combat done so well that you didn't notice at all?

you can actually set any one skill on your bar to auto repeat anytime also, so u can create your own auto attack, if using the low recast skills

[Katlan]

Katlan, did you notice the lack of auto attack or was the combat done so well that you didn't notice at all?

I noticed it, but like Taki said (and i think I said in the overview, maybe not clearly),. but by right clicking any action bar icon it gets a white bar around that icon and it will auto-go-off everytime its off CD. So you can set it to do a lot more advance stuff then just auto atk by setting it to rotate a few dps keys

[Zerocool]

Another video showing off dyes. It's older, but it shows a lot of the different colors you'll be able to have.



Also, I believe they said once you unlock certain colors, that color will be saved to your account forever so you'll be able to use it any time.

[Vimes]

played the game at comic con and went to the panel.
<...>

Hey man, thanks for that write-up. Sounds like a pretty positive experience and I appreciate this more than reading it on a fan blog.

Also, I believe they said once you unlock certain colors, that color will be saved to your account forever so you'll be able to use it any time.

Yea, found this:
http://www.arena.net/blog/live-and-l...gw2-dye-system

Up to 3 dye areas per piece:

Spoiler: show

http://www.arena.net/blog/wp-content...rs-600x512.jpg

[Zerocool]

Yeah 400 colors, that's just insane. It's incredible how many developers don't realize (or just don't care) how much this stuff means to players. Being able to customize your character in-depth like this adds to the immersion. Arenanet seems to be one of the few companies that actually know what players want. With the game being B2P, it frees up an extra 15 a month for people to go and spend on cosmetic items in the cash shop if they choose to do so as well. I think both the game itself and the revenue model they're going with is going to have a huge impact on the future of MMOs.

[Lucavi]

Seems that a lot of people who aren't used to immersion turn their noses up at it in other games. Good to see a company that's going the extra mile to put as much in as they can.

[Dranio]

Yeah 400 colors, that's just insane. It's incredible how many developers don't realize (or just don't care) how much this stuff means to players. Being able to customize your character in-depth like this adds to the immersion. Arenanet seems to be one of the few companies that actually know what players want. With the game being B2P, it frees up an extra 15 a month for people to go and spend on cosmetic items in the cash shop if they choose to do so as well. I think both the game itself and the revenue model they're going with is going to have a huge impact on the future of MMOs.

yeah, they did a great job with guild wars, and I fully expect GW2 to be a great game.

[Isiolia]

Seems that a lot of people who aren't used to immersion turn their noses up at it in other games. Good to see a company that's going the extra mile to put as much in as they can.

Well, is it immersion here, or is the game going to continue GW's trend of stats being relatively easy to acquire? Good, bad, or indifferent, nearly everything you do loot-wise in GW is for appearances only.

Not that the simple capability is bad in any way.

[Takiwaki]

Well, is it immersion here, or is the game going to continue GW's trend of stats being relatively easy to acquire? Good, bad, or indifferent, nearly everything you do loot-wise in GW is for appearances only.

Not that the simple capability is bad in any way.

As far as I know yes, stats will be relatively easy to acquire, since the game is pushing a skill based combat system over raw stats. so basically to show you are pimp will be about going after the hard to get unique "looking" weapon/armor sets. Since you can reskin your good stat armor any how you want, people will look how they want to look (both of us can have the exact same stats on our gear and look completely different). I also think there will be traits and elite skills that may require some extra work to acquire through questing.

If someone loves pve and dungeons it will show since the gear acquired there will look completely different that say someone who acquires gear through hard core pvping.

don't get me wrong though there will be a huge stat based gear system. but it will not be about numbers, but about side grades or enhancing of specific abilities to help the build centric players.

[Lucavi]

Well, is it immersion here, or is the game going to continue GW's trend of stats being relatively easy to acquire? Good, bad, or indifferent, nearly everything you do loot-wise in GW is for appearances only.

Not that the simple capability is bad in any way.

I can't see a "hard stat" system working for a game that isn't based around "this is the ONLY guy we have that can tank this monster for the 3 hours needed for us to kill it!" system of cooperation that they're going for. With no "dedicated" tanks and no "dedicated" healers, I can't see some hard stat system working. Time after time they've tried to drill it through our heads that this is not a "stand still and macro push" game that's all about a 3% drop from a boss that takes you a week to possibly encounter. This is literally going to be a game where a mage can get up front and tank for awhile in earth aspect, while the "tank" guy that had a sword and board out moves to the back, whips out a bow while standing in a regeneration pool and heals up, before trundling back in front to start chopping with an axe. That sounds 30 times more immersive than "if our blink tank goes down, we're fucked".

I don't think stats count as immersion at all. I think having a person fall in love with every minute detail of what it is that makes their character "theirs" constitutes immersion, and even moreso when that immersion can be spread across to the actual game environment, not simply the character. We've got XI, WoW, and, to a lesser extent, Rift to cover the stat-whore market. A game where I can group up with anyone I want to and simply get shit done however I choose within the loose restrictions of my character archetype sounds absolutely immersive.

[Takiwaki]

I can't see a "hard stat" system working for a game that isn't based around "this is the ONLY guy we have that can tank this monster for the 3 hours needed for us to kill it!" system of cooperation that they're going for. With no "dedicated" tanks and no "dedicated" healers, I can't see some hard stat system working. Time after time they've tried to drill it through our heads that this is not a "stand still and macro push" game that's all about a 3% drop from a boss that takes you a week to possibly encounter. This is literally going to be a game where a mage can get up front and tank for awhile in earth aspect, while the "tank" guy that had a sword and board out moves to the back, whips out a bow while standing in a regeneration pool and heals up, before trundling back in front to start chopping with an axe. That sounds 30 times more immersive than "if our blink tank goes down, we're fucked".

I don't think stats count as immersion at all. I think having a person fall in love with every minute detail of what it is that makes their character "theirs" constitutes immersion, and even moreso when that immersion can be spread across to the actual game environment, not simply the character. We've got XI, WoW, and, to a lesser extent, Rift to cover the stat-whore market. A game where I can group up with anyone I want to and simply get shit done however I choose within the loose restrictions of my character archetype sounds absolutely immersive.

lol awesome, you sure you wouldnt rather go to a counter pick up a couple quests, then go to an outpost to activate said quest, then run for 5 minutes to get to said mobs that needs killing, then run another minute as one runs away, then have to go back to the outpost to activate one of the quests that you already took at the counter and repeat?

[Gokulo]

lol awesome, you sure you wouldnt rather go to a counter pick up a couple quests, then go to an outpost to activate said quest, then run for 5 minutes to get to said mobs that needs killing, then run another minute as one runs away, then have to go back to the outpost to activate one of the quests that you already took at the counter and repeat?

Huh? Where did that come out from.

[Takiwaki]

Huh? Where did that come out from.

Not Immersive, just another example

[vrumpt]

Theres still a bunch of stuff that I'm concerned about regarding GW2 though and some of its systems, like for instance whats going to be the drive to go find all these dynamic events going on? Are you just going to find it via exploration or is the story going to drag you out to a zone and from there you go exploring until you run into something? Theres a lot of preaching from them about running into stuff but whats the drive to do that other than just going looking for it? It seems like you'll just open your map and go towards whatever events you see are running around you. I guess the story could string a lot of this together, but only to a certain extent.

My other thing is with the whole abandonment of the trinity system, since no matter what you're always going to have somebody whos taking damage, somebody whos not and is just dpsing, and maybe everybody doing some kind of support or reviving to keep those guys from dying the whole way. You can only do one thing at a time, so even here people are going to need to be given some kind of direction with what their role is in a group, something to focus on or it turns into 5 people playing together just soloing mobs in the same general area. Its a great approach to not have any kind of specializations, but it worries me that in the end people are just going to play the trinity system anyway as its what people are used to and is whats the most efficient form of play.

And regarding stats, they are pretty much a remnant of the RPG aspect of MMOs thats just being neglected more and more for streamlined aspects that don't have numbers tied to them. It sounds like what GW2 might be doing is maybe doing something along the lines of what ME2 did, with the basic complete abandonment of stats defining weapons in place of just guns that shoot differently or have less/more of an impact than other guns in their category. I could be wrong, since thats just my interpretation of what i'm reading