Guild Wars 2: A Different Kind of MMO

[Silent_Buddha]

The mechanics in this case isn't necessarily dumbed down, although character builds are in a way. There's going to be far less variety in character builds, but that's understandable. GW1 was a balancing nightmare due to the millions and millions of potential character builds that were possible in it.

Had they wanted to, the GW1 mechanics would fit perfectly on consoles. Only 8 skills at any given time versus 10-14 depending on class. Which expands to quite a bit more with weapon switching or with some character like Elementalists being able to switch element affinity.

It's the presentation that I find insulting at times. The "books" are just the most noticeable aspect of this. Heck, I'd be ashamed to even call them Memos as Memos tend to have more text than their "books." For someone such as me that loves in game lore, it's just a huge shame. Some people may not have liked the occasion walls of text in GW1, but I loved them. Learning about the backstory, the gods, the war of the gods, actually REPLACING a god during the game, and then seeing the new lore building up around the new god.

But at least the UI for the PC version has been designed with the PC in mind with options to scale the entire UI. As well the expected things like resizing certain windows (inventory for example).

And the graphics are fantastic. I just wish it had Dx11 tessellation or even PoM. The world just feels so flat compared to Crysis 2 w/Dx11 patch. But then that's a huge problem with just about all games I play now. So can't blame the for this lack.

Norn Elementalist 14, time to change to another class
Probably Human Warrior, maybe Mesmer.

It's definitely worth checking out each of the races. The starting area's for each are radically different. The Human start is the more visually stunning however. Divinity's Reach is just magnificent. I think I'm going to give a Charr Engineer a try next. Or perhaps a Ranger.

From playing it appears that both the Engineer (med pack) and Elementalist (Water affinity, especially with Staff) are the closest to what you would consider a "healer" in traditional RPGs.

Oh and if trying a Mesmer, get a 2H sword ASAP. That has got to be the coolest attack animation in the game. I love it.

Regards,
SB

 

[Dresden]

Is it just me or is anyone else experiencing piss-poor performance? The frame rate jumps from 21 FPS to 60, but it's completely unstable. Which is odd. Because my system should be murdering this game.

 

[AlphaWolf]

The games performance seems almost unrelated to the power of a system. I can only think it's related to their net coding.

 

[Dresden]

The games performance seems almost unrelated to the power of a system. I can only think it's related to their net coding.

I suspected as much, I blamed poor optimization, but figured I'd ask anyway. It kind of makes the game unplayable to me; I want to be able to experience it without a major sporadic frame rate drop every few seconds.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

I've only experienced the occasional very rare slowdown. Otherwise it's been pretty smooth.

I'd imagine there's still quite a lot of debug code (monitoring and tracking and whatnot) in the game at this point.

Queensland for the humans appears to be by far the most crowded zone (at least on my server). The Charr homelands appear at first glance to have more people but that's only because so many are farming the events in the very start area. Once you move past there it was almost deserted.

Queensland is also the only place I've experienced those very very rare slowdowns. Like maybe once every 3-4 hours or so.

Regards,
SB

 

[Rodéric]

Tried Norn thief and Charr Engineer, disliked the first, not liked the second much, but that's what I intend to check in the beta, what I like or don't ^^
(Went only up to level 6.)

I prefer the Human starting area the most, the Charr one second and the Norn one last.

Going to try other classes.

ATM I'm sure I'll make a Warrior and an Elementalist character at release !


Had little trouble connecting or with lag, that happens but this is beta.


Guys, don't forget to report bugs please ! I'd like the game as great as possible upon release

 

[Silent_Buddha]

The engineer feels underpowered but is amazingly easy to solo with a rifle. Well single target enemies are extremely easy. With turrets multi's become easier. With all 5 skills unlocked rifle does a lot of AE damage, but you have to dodge into melee and then dodge back out to do it effectively without dying. Or just wait til they mob you, AE, then dodge out.

And yeah, Elem is a definite must for me. Engineer as well I think. Not sure on others right now but I already suspect I'm going to have to buy more character slots.

As well, I'm already planning to budget 5-15 USD a month for this game. Figure that's less than what I'd pay monthly for a traditional MMO and the benefits will be great. Once I get everything I want (bank slots, bag slots), I can stop budgeting money for it.

Regards,
SB

 

[Rodéric]

I intended to keep the personal story for release, but I started it on my first Human character and on my second, my background changed a few events, which was nice.
It also seems that, like RPG (the real things), you build your character's background after having started to play. (There was a moment I was asked where I was from since it wasn't decided in the original character creation screens I assume it's added detail to your character and will have an impact on the story flow later on.)
I really liked the Human personal story, the Norn one started interesting, albeit classic.

Looking forward this game a lot
Graphics are great, Divinity Reach is awesome and the Black Citadel is really good too.
There are a number of familiar places and references to the previous game, although I would have liked my former Hero (the one I reuse the name) to be referenced in a way. (Statue or else)

In the end I didn't try any new class, so it will be for the next beta !
(Guardian, Mesmer, Ranger, Necromancer to test)

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Yeah, Divinity's Reach is just well designed. The Black Citadel is interesting with the ruins of Ascalon at the bottom of it. Can't wait to see what the Asuran and Elven cities are like. I wonder if they'll go cliche and have the Elves in the treetops?

And I don't know if it's just me, but the world seems far smaller than GW1. Which I suppose is understandable as it must take far more time to design the world than it did in GW1.

There is one game mechanic that I really dislike. The downleveling of your character. I understand it's there to keep content challenging for both people that grind and people that don't. However, it takes away one of my greatest pleasures in an RPG, leveling up to be hugely powerful and then blasting away lower level content.

I suppose in that light it can possibly prevent high level players from griefing low level players, but I still don't like it much.

I also did a bit of crafting. Crafting is fairly interesting overall. I'm looking forward to this part of the game as well. Still not as good as the crafting in Vanguard (a gold standard for crafting, IMO) but it comes relatively close in variety if not in the challenge.

I also forgot to test purchased bag slots. Are they just for one character or does it unlock a bag slot for all characters? Hopefully it's the latter as it would suck to unlock bag slots on a character then delete him because you don't like how it plays at higher levels.

Wonder if the next BETA will let you buy more cash currency (free for this BETA so one time purchase of 2000 cash currency only) to try out other thing from the cash shop?

Hopefully no character wipe as well. But if there is, I'll just try another class.

Regards,
SB

 

[Rodéric]

Yeah, Divinity's Reach is just well designed. The Black Citadel is interesting with the ruins of Ascalon at the bottom of it. Can't wait to see what the Asuran and Elven cities are like. I wonder if they'll go cliche and have the Elves in the treetops?

They are Sylvaries and they are plant being, so I expect a garden of kind.

And I don't know if it's just me, but the world seems far smaller than GW1. Which I suppose is understandable as it must take far more time to design the world than it did in GW1.

I found the sunken Temple of Ages... *love*
Felt smaller yes, but not by that much.

There is one game mechanic that I really dislike. The downleveling of your character. I understand it's there to keep content challenging for both people that grind and people that don't. However, it takes away one of my greatest pleasures in an RPG, leveling up to be hugely powerful and then blasting away lower level content.

I'll have to strongly disagree with you.
I played GW for 2 years before my brother decided to buy it too, and I didn't want to create a new character to play with him, however my 20th level would insta-kill anything making the experience sad for both of us. (And forced me to create another character.)
With level scaling, I can pick up my favourite character and play with him having lots of fun !

I also did a bit of crafting. Crafting is fairly interesting overall. I'm looking forward to this part of the game as well. Still not as good as the crafting in Vanguard (a gold standard for crafting, IMO) but it comes relatively close in variety if not in the challenge.

I also forgot to test purchased bag slots. Are they just for one character or does it unlock a bag slot for all characters? Hopefully it's the latter as it would suck to unlock bag slots on a character then delete him because you don't like how it plays at higher levels.

Wonder if the next BETA will let you buy more cash currency (free for this BETA so one time purchase of 2000 cash currency only) to try out other thing from the cash shop?

Hopefully no character wipe as well. But if there is, I'll just try another class.

Didn't try crafting however, as I cook IRL, I'd like to try it in game. There was just so much to explore and so many places I wanted to rediscover I didn't spend time on it ^^

No idea about bag slots, got a magic bag with an extra space at some point.

I'm not sure about letting people pay more during beta, everything will be wiped prior to release, of course it could be turned back into some in-game currency... Still feels weird.

I expect a character wipe but don't remember whether they announced one.

 

[Malo]

So the title of the thread is "A Different Kind of MMO".... is it? If so, what distinguishes it from the rest?

 

[Rodéric]

So the title of the thread is "A Different Kind of MMO".... is it? If so, what distinguishes it from the rest?

No quest giver, but quests area, no competing for mobs/resources but cooperating, Dynamic Events, engaging battle system (requires dodging to stay alive).
Beautfiul, personal story line in instanced area, character background building as you play.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

I'll have to strongly disagree with you.
I played GW for 2 years before my brother decided to buy it too, and I didn't want to create a new character to play with him, however my 20th level would insta-kill anything making the experience sad for both of us. (And forced me to create another character.)
With level scaling, I can pick up my favourite character and play with him having lots of fun !

That's a good point, but I wish it was an optional thing like it is in some other games. Where you can downlevel yourself to "mentor" a lower level player.

Didn't try crafting however, as I cook IRL, I'd like to try it in game. There was just so much to explore and so many places I wanted to rediscover I didn't spend time on it ^^

Didn't get to try cooking, but I'm looking forward to that one as well. I too cook in real life, although purely for pleasure and not as a job. I did a bit of tailoring and the one where you make guns (forgot what it's called) just to see what it was like (those were my two most common resources along with wood).

I'm not sure about letting people pay more during beta, everything will be wiped prior to release, of course it could be turned back into some in-game currency... Still feels weird.

I expect a character wipe but don't remember whether they announced one.

No no, you can't actually "buy" cash currency. That is disabled in the BETA. But they let you have a one time "free" purchase of 2000 cash currency so they can test out the cash shop. That's what I meant. If they'll allow another one time "free" purchase of cash currency.

Yeah, I hope not on the character wipe. Since I spent some time just looking around, trying the crafting, etc. I only got up to around level 14/15 on two chars. The rest were only to level 2-8 just to see what kind of skills they had (ranger, mesmer, warrior). Then again, if they do, it'll allow me to test out other chars more in depth.

No quest giver, but quests area, no competing for mobs/resources but cooperating, Dynamic Events, engaging battle system (requires dodging to stay alive).
Beautfiul, personal story line in instanced area, character background building as you play.

To add to that and modify it somewhat. There is some competing. It seems to be a bit hit and miss whether quest objectives are updated by everyone in the area or just you. I think some of the rewards for some of the group "raid" like activities are also dependant on your performance (how many eggs you collect, etc.).

But for the most part, it seems non-competitive. I also like the fact that PvP is WvWvW. In that you are never competing with people on YOUR server. You're competing with people on other servers fostering a sense of community on each server. The whole us against them type of thing. It also avoids the whole server population balancing when you have realm versus realm and one realm has far more people on a given server.

And speaking of "raid" like activities. It's nice that not only are raids available from an early level (EQ2 has this as well), but they aren't exclusive. Everyone helps. And since there isn't competition on the server, AE heal spells, heal everyone. AE buffs, buff everyone. Etc. It was amusing watching neophyte casuals raiding for the first time on low level "raid" like encounter and wiping constantly to obvious raid mechanics. Well obvious to anyone that raids. The High Shaman encounter in the Charr homelands for example. He has a shield he periodically puts up that reflects your abilities back upon you. I had to constantly educate people on the mechanics involved so they would stop dying everytime they were revived.

I do wonder if there will actually be raid rewards eventually associated with these raid like activities, however. They do seem to be gearing towards a "buy" your raid reward situation with the whole Karma currency. Not sure how I feel about that. It allows access to more people but part of the what made raid gear great back in the original EQ days was the exclusivity. Even hardcore raiders may not get that piece of kit that you got due to random factors and the competitive raiding scene. There was always a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction when you got a hard earned piece of kit.

Regards,
SB

 

[KKRT]

From neogaf

Well...this changes EVERYTHING. So I never tried it but it seems you can right click any crafting material, cooking ingredient, or minipet and click Deposit Collectible and it'll go into your bank from anywhere in the world. For those who didn't see it, there's a specific tab built JUST for holding all crafting/cooking/minipets on your bank tab.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Yeah, I knew about the crafting tab, but didn't know you could deposit from anywhere in the world. I'll have to try that out next time.

I do also like the craftable bags where all your crafting mats automatically go to that bag (until it is full). It's bugged, however, where cash drop items also go in there.

They also have craftable "invisible" bags. They prevent anything in those bags from appearing in vendor sell lists. Handy to prevent accidentally selling something valuable.

Regards,
SB

 

[Rodéric]

Forgot to mention the Hearts (ie quests areas) can almost all be solved w/o fighting.
In one of them I had a snowball fight with kids, in another I was disabling traps and feeding bears, in yet another I was feeding cows and watering plants...
You can almost always kill things instead if you want, you just have the choice about what to do to get your reward.

-EDIT-
Guild Wars already had a crafting material storage tab, so it's not new to us ;p
However being able to just send any such material to your bank from anywhere in two clicks is certainly welcome.

 

[Malo]

One of the big things i miss from Vanguard is the crafting, talk about a rewarding timesink! I wish someone would have the balls to do a crafting system like that again, but there's no way they would put a possibility of failure past users nowadays.

 

[Rodéric]

I wanna play more GW2 already...
But would like them to change the control scheme to Tera for ease of use, my Logitech G13 & G500 were critical to enjoying the game that much for me.

 

[Dresden]

I'm disappointed the beta was so poorly optimized. According to numerous accounts, it was almost entirely CPU bound.The game was totally unplayable, for me. It was like swimming through choppiness, sorry that's the only example I came up with off the top of my head. I'm really bummed I was looking forward to this beta. Hopefully, I'll be able to partake in the next beta and it'll be better.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

One of the big things i miss from Vanguard is the crafting, talk about a rewarding timesink! I wish someone would have the balls to do a crafting system like that again, but there's no way they would put a possibility of failure past users nowadays.

Aye, it was the perfect mixture of skill and luck with tools/skills available to overcome a bit of bad luck but not catastrophic bad luck. All without having to rely on timing/QTE events (EQ2 crafting system).

And then the variety of items you could create. The extremely rare random critical chanced for an item to progress a rarity tier when finished, etc...

In GW2...

I'm relatively happy with the variety of craftable items and modifications to said items.

I love the ability to discover recipes rather than learning all recipes either from vendors or recipe drops.

I like how the most tedious aspect of crafting is made incredibly easy. The refining of raw materials was always a bit of a relatively meaningless timesink.

I miss having to have some bit of skill play a part in crafting. There's very little player involvement outside of discovering new recipes.

I'm REALLY looking forward to leveling up all or most of the crafting trades. Even if I wish there was a bit more player involvement.

Regards,
SB