The Guild Wars 2 Thread

[Zed]

Does GW2 have anything to offer hardcore raiders? 6-hours-a-day, no-life, min-maxing raid-nazis, in other words.

 

[Mangoose]

Thanks again for the answers, Annie!

Or how about this - there's a waypoint at the Shaemoor Garrison (which can be used to fast travel for a small fee). An event fires where centaurs attack the garrison. If they're not fought off, they'll knock out and imprison the Seraph protecting the fort, and take it over - thus deactivating the waypoint there. If you want to go to that Garrison and/or buy stuff from merchants there, you've got to retake it from the centaurs (which you can do alone, or join the force of NPC Seraph dispatched to try and take it back) Once you've got it back, that waypoint activates again, and you can revive the downed merchant to buy stuff from them.

That's awesome. If you run into Colin or Eric, tell him we want MOAR of this!

Since you are involved int he personal story part of the game, I'll ask some more about that.

x) Stats. I read that personality article a while back, but I didn't notice anything about stats in it. Do you mean stats that track how you treated people (karma, I think it was called), or are there also stats in a Fallout sense with Intelligence/Wisdom/Charisma/etc. affecting what choices you have?
x) I'm a bit worried that the instanced personal story has little effect on the outside persistent world. What carries over from the personal story to the outside world? Is it just that people can see your choices and go OOH, AAH, or are there gameplay consequences such as skills, items, etc?

 

[MapMan]

If the game will suck, expect "Ban Annie Mitsoda" thread in GD

Anyway, what I noticed is that some spells can be cast while moving. Given that players can now roll and dodge projectiles it might be really hard to actually hit someone in PVP. I loved how big advantage good positioning and movement could give. I wonder how it'll be this time.

 

[Mangoose]

Hopefully choice of positioning is important but it doesn't get too twitchy.

 

[Grunker]

Opened the video.

Heard "no grind."

LOL'ed.

 

[Grunker]

Upon finishing the video, my brain was so overpowered with hype it was almost orgasmic. How did they pack so much hype into so few minutes. It was like watching Zero Punctuations review of "Duke Nukem Forever." Almost expected one of the devs to promise a cure for cancer at the end. Jesus.

 

[Zed]

Upon finishing the video, my brain was so overpowered with hype it was almost orgasmic. How did they pack so much hype into so few minutes. It was like watching Zero Punctuations review of "Duke Nukem Forever." Almost expected one of the devs to promise a cure for cancer at the end. Jesus.

They're saying what they have to, to sell the game to a broader audience.

 

[Shannow]

The events actually sound quite awesome. No real, dynamic world simulation but the next best thing

Can I afk through an event, let the morons do the work and reap the rewards like a real world suit?
Or alternatively, can I join an event at the very end, just in time to land the last blow on the boss and reap the rewards like a real world suit?

PAX, sounds like some agent designed by the government to control the populace... Wouldn't go near it. Now, if you'd asked me to come to Cologne that would have been different... *wink, wink, nudge, nudge*

 

[Darth Roxor]

I think I'll ask the most important question of them all: what's the schedule for the goddamn open beta?

But yeah, I know this probably is unknown for everyone, including the devs, and won't be answered *shrug*

 

[Hoaxmetal]

I hope that GW veterans will be invited to closed beta

 

[Data4]

Annie, I live in the Puget Sound area. What are the chances of scoring some kind of LEET SUPAR SEKRET pass into PAX?

I mean, hey, if you don't ask...

 

[Annie Mitsoda]

Data4 - nab a ticket for Sunday! Or check the PA forums for people looking to sell extra tickets. COME AND PLAY THE GAME YOU KNOW YOU WANT TOOOOO
(also no sadly I don't have extra tickets. I have my lovely shiny speaker pass, since Brian and I are going to be speaking on panels on Friday, but that is IT Props for the try tho!)

DARTH ROXXOR: The line to remember is the release date is "when it's ready." I know, I know, try telling that to fans to their faces and seeing them look like sad puppies. It made me feel bad. But when it IS done it will be SO AWESOME you guys OMG.

Shannow: Aw, but PAX is so much fun! GamesCom was fantastic too, but goddamn if my voice isn't still gone as a result 3 days after the fact. Hooray having to yell to answer people for 5 days in a row, 12 hour days! ::hack cough:: I do it for the loooooooooove of the gaaaaaaaame!

Zed: what they sayin' is TROOF, son.

Mangoose: as a matter of fact I sit in the same room with Eric, so I'll go over to his desk and notify him that the Codex wants MOAR, and I'll see what I can scare up for you dudes.

ALSO PERSONALITY: karma is more like a general reputation stat that you get for doing events, and it means you can purchase buffs and special items from various NPCs (like delicious +10 Vitality for 10 mins bread, OM NOM NOM) and the like. It's a reward for doing fun things, and when someone rewards me for doing things that are fun it's like being given candy for petting a puppy, and there's nothing about that I don't like.

Personality - that's tracked via 3 stats: Ferocity, Charm, and Dignity. You pick your initial leaning when you first make a character, but the game tracks how often you select each conversation type in dialogues throughout the game (in the persistent world as well as in home instances). So maybe you start out as charming but you find you really actually like being ferocious - the little "title" you have (based on the distribution of your dialogue choices) will change accordingly, so maybe you started out as a Scoundrel but maybe you become a Brute. And if your personality is slated in a certain way, you might get the chance to do special things in dialogue. Actually, here's my favorite example: so say there's a little girl tromping around Divinity's Reach with a wooden sword, saying "I'm gonna be a Seraph!" maybe if you're super dignified you can play along like "good job, soldier - we've got a patrol to do!" and she'll follow you for a little while - or, my personal favorite, if you're super ferocious you can roar at her and she'll run away screaming. MUAHAHAH!

PERSONAL STORY AND ITS EFFECT IN THE OUTSIDE WORLD: NPCs will react to the things you've done in a general way, and there WILL be an impact there - but not as far as skills and stats go, because we want people to feel like they're building a character, not gaming a system. Organic "this is what my character would do" sort of choices, not something more meta - we don't want to punish players for making choice A instead of B, or make that influence their decisions. Other crossover type stuff hasn't been announced yet, but the big takeaway here is that we don't wanna punish players for making character-based decisions, we want to ENCOURAGE that.

More later! I need some breakfast. Hope you like these here answers!

 

[made]

What I'd like to know is, will I be able to buy a flying translucent horse for RL dollars?
Failing that, what alternative microtransaction scheme have you in store to keep me interested in your product?

 

[Mangoose]

So would you say it's the 3 stats are kinda like Paragon/Renegade in ME1? Will you be given choices more significant than the example you gave, or are they all purely cosmetic like that?

I understand you want to encourage character-based decisions, but on the other hand it would be nice if you and/or others could see the consequences of your personality/choices from your personal storyline. It is a MMO of course. So when you say that NPCs will react to the things you've done, does that mean that you'll just get some change in tone when you talk to an NPC, or will NPCs actually perform actions in the open world that can signify your choices to yourself and others. For example, if you are mean and evil, people run away from you in towns, and other players can see this happening.

I'm curious what your workmates' opinions of the Codex are, given that almost everybody else hates us (except for your hubby, of course).

 

[Hoaxmetal]

We're loathsome bunch

 

[Mangoose]

Also, I noticed some of the Elementalist skills seem to need the element in the terrain to activate the skill. E.g. Water Trident was activated in a pool of water. Is this an actual prerequisite, and are there many other examples of similar skills? Even if this isn't the case, it is a very good idea for making magic skills tactical.

 

[Tycn]

With all the dodging and jumping around what happens to the sorry bastards who live on the opposite side of the world to the servers? Will a 500 ping handicap be more or less problematic than in the first game?

 

[Darth Roxor]

I'm curious what your workmates' opinions of the Codex are, given that almost everybody else hates us (except for your hubby, of course).

I doubt they've even heard about us. I mean, there never was some anti-arenanet crusade here, not to mention the general lack of interest in mmos.

 

[Shannow]

I finally managed "Defend North Kryta Province" with my necro after failing miserably several times with my warrior. So my question is: Will necros be as overpowered in GW2 as they are in GW1?

 

[Zed]

Thank you for taking the time Annie.

About that end-game... Dungeons? Raids? Or is it all PvP when you reach max level?

 

[Darth Roxor]

I finally managed "Defend North Kryta Province" with my necro after failing miserably several times with my warrior. So my question is: Will necros be as overpowered in GW2 as they are in GW1?

You know that you can't really 'fail' this quest? That is, even when the vital NPC dies and you get 'mission failed, return to outpost', you just rez at the nearby rez shrine and you can keep pounding at the titans while ignoring the 'return to outpost' sign?

Also, negrodancer was officially revealed today, and from what I've read about this... death shroud ability of theirs, they'll probably be just as overpowered if not more.

 

[Shannow]

You know that you can't really 'fail' this quest? That is, even when the vital NPC dies and you get 'mission failed, return to outpost', you just rez at the nearby rez shrine and you can keep pounding at the titans while ignoring the 'return to outpost' sign?

Hmm, didn't wait if I'd rez. Still, it was no prob with the necro. No need to abuse any bugs or glitches.

 

[Mangoose]

When does PVE in GW1 get interesting? I played quite a bit of pre-Searing and then have done a few missions in post-Searing, and there are a few interesting encounters and boss fights but there are so many boring trash mobs I just have to tab-attack through. I played with my friend the other day, too, and I got bored and passed out like half an hour in. Or maybe I'm playing an uninteresting class (Necro/Monk, he was a Mesmer/Warrior)?

 

[Black]

It gets little better with EOTN dungeons but don't expect too much.

 

[Wulfstand]

Out of all the campaigns, Factions is the only one I haven't owned/played, but as for the rest: while Prophecies feels more like a Diablo 2 clone, most of Nightfall and all of EotN have loads of interesting and nicely scripted missions (EotN has dungeons, too).