Guild Wars 2: Pre-Release Discussion

[Katlan]

has beta sign up even begun yet?

[Takiwaki]

there is no sign up, its closed.

[supercoco]

For those ppl that didnt play GW1, will we understand the history of the game? Or it's recommended to play the first game

[Tonka]

It's 250 years later so the they have said the story is easy to understand for those who haven't played GW1. For those that have, they will appreciate a lot of subtleties or might even recognize a ghost as an NPC from the first game as well as landmarks and stuff. But for the most part, you don't need to have played GW1 to know what is going on.

[vrumpt]

Most plausible selection process for this CB phase if i had to guess would be existing GW1 players, probably the most dedicated. This doesn't seem too far fetched to me since they are already honoring their GW1 players with the Hall of Monuments feature, proving that they care about that group of fans. Not only that but how else would they get these testers' contact information?

I'm guessing this phase will last through late March / early April with OB immediately following; release in May. <-- my educated guess.

[Tonka]

I don't want to play open beta when that's available...which will be difficult because I REALLY WANT TO PLAY NAO! But I will try wait until release to preserve the awesome first feeling.

[Takiwaki]

lol

Remember: First rule of Closed Beta is "Don't talk about Closed Beta". If you are actually in and do so - you will be out really fast. ~MK

[Takiwaki]

for anyone that didnt go onto the main site. cracks me up everytime lol

[Takiwaki]

New blog post

http://www.arena.net/blog/guild-wars...lopment-update

One of the elements that makes Guild Wars 2 combat feel different from other games is that many skills have their own unique animations, and the skill functionality is often based on the animations themselves. With a robust animation-blending system, we are able to easily transition between skills. In our previous demos, this was shown through chain skills, such as the warrior sword combo in the first skill slot: Sever Artery leads to Gash, which flows into Final Thrust. We realized that this system did not need to be reserved just for chain skills but could apply to the entire game. There were skills such as Savage Leap, which moved the player into range of their target, and big control attacks like Shield Bash, that you wanted to be able to quickly follow with another skill. The problem was that the animations for these skills had follow-through that was preventing players from using another skill until the animations were finished. You could stun or chase someone, but it was hard to capitalize on it.

Our programmers added technology to our skill data to allow us to specify a point in an animation at which the player could start moving again. This made skills like Savage Leap not only more functional but tremendously fun to use. This technology came in right before gamescom, so we were able to showcase it with a few important skills in that demo. Now that the technology has evolved, not only does it allow players to specify when they can start movement but it also allows us to transition into queued skills so that we can improve responsiveness. We went through every skill in the game and set up these animation breakout timings and the results were fantastic, but we didn’t stop there. I know many people have also noticed the more polished nature of the animations in the G-Star demo. Since we were able to go back and polish it, we also took a look at the impact of the new blending changes and made some timing changes to existing skills in order to give them more-appropriate anticipation, swing time, and follow-through to match the smoother feel that we were achieving with the blending. This really shines with things like big hammer swings, which now have slow buildups, quick attacks, and somewhat lengthy follow-through, depending on the skill. Ultimately, it creates a much more visceral and immediate system, which helps us straddle the line between action game and RPG.

Take notes SE, take notes.

[Dragir]

Limit Break 10, 95-99; you fight what appears to be a Tarutaru named Atori-Tutori, a being supposedly more powerful than any FFXI character could ever hope to be...

Spoiler: show

...because he is a Mesmer.
...and quite possibly an Asura in disguise whose Asura Gate™ malfunctioned and sent him to Vana'diel.

[Takiwaki]

art used in the conventions a couple months ago

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5vHiItdbeV...ithe-Final.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DNKWaTKm2B...ogan-Final.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NbOZtIpo4J.../Eir-Final.jpg

[Zzsark]

So what ever happened to that beta before the end of the year? Im betting I missed the update on that one

[Kuya]

It was closed beta though, as in, not for you.

[notorious bum]

GW devs formed a circle-jerk with their closest friends for beta testing, just like the dolphins do when Wii games need testing.

[Zzsark]

Thanks for clearing that up. I was pretty sure that was what I remembered reading but was hoping I was wrong. Not like I wanted to play this awesome game anyways

[Syntex]

I just hope they don't release on top of Diablo III.

[niwaar]

I honestly think that both D3 AND GW2 are farther off than any of us actually think. Its unfortunate, but I still see D3 not getting a release for a few more months and unless we hear about an actual public CBT for GW2 before mid Feb, I doubt we will see GW2 til July at the earliest.

[Eanae]

D3 is rumored to be end of January beginning of February. I don't see GW2 any where near that soon.

[Celeras]

I hate when this thread is bumped by conversation. Keep expecting news, or something awesome.

[niwaar]

D3 is rumored to be end of January beginning of February. I don't see GW2 any where near that soon.

See, I dont expect D3 before mid to late March at this point. Blizzard will release the game when its ready. It clearly was an extremely poor game to have had them push it back from what everyone expected to be a Christmas release. Blizzard did what SE refused to do with XIV. They listened to their testers, realized they had a bad game and went about starting to fix it. My friends in the beta earlier this month basically said the game was just plain bad, but have since said its a pretty decent and fun game. I expect many more balance and ability fixes combined with some tweaking of mechanical issues, and it will be better off.

I just see D3 being delayed for an extended period of time til at least "Spring". Where I just have this sneaky feeling we wont see GW2 til "Summer" or "Fall"

Sorry Celeras, I am the same way, but I wouldn't expect any new info on GW2 til around the 20th.