Did they show how the level balancing actually worked? I mean if you can simply walk into the final area and be bump up to max level, that kinda makes leveling moot. Or maybe they are doing the warhammer way of only buffing your stats, so that you are only less useless.
They had something like that set up in EotN. Stats go up, gear and skills remain the same. Without the skills, you get rocked.
Speaking of skills, they do anything in terms of non-linear skill acquisition in the demo? I'm talking about the sort of stuff you get by talking to out-of-the-way NPCs, fighting special baddies on the map, or acting in a specific way during special events. I know they touched on this sort of progression in the past, and it sort of fits with the cap system from Guild Wars 1, just wondering if anyone went hunting for secrets.
Did they show how the level balancing actually worked? I mean if you can simply walk into the final area and be bump up to max level, that kinda makes leveling moot. Or maybe they are doing the warhammer way of only buffing your stats, so that you are only less useless.
If you are in a high level area I believe you need to have a high level friend 'sidekick' you (sets your level slightly below theirs). You still have your low level gear which may not have great extra-effects, and you might not have all your skills, traits, etc. You'll also be slightly on the low end in terms of pure level stats, and as we've seen in the recent PAX videos 2-3 levels can turn a fight from normal to very tough.
On the flip-side, when you go to a lower level area you are de-leveled to be equivalent to the high end of the level range for that zone. But of course you have all your skills and traits, and fancy high level gear, so most of the zone will only be moderately challenging (but at least not trivial, as it would be if you kept your high level).
Did they show how the level balancing actually worked? I mean if you can simply walk into the final area and be bump up to max level, that kinda makes leveling moot. Or maybe they are doing the warhammer way of only buffing your stats, so that you are only less useless.
If you are in a high level area I believe you need to have a high level friend 'sidekick' you (sets your level slightly below theirs). You still have your low level gear which may not have great extra-effects, and you might not have all your skills, traits, etc. You'll also be slightly on the low end in terms of pure level stats, and as we've seen in the recent PAX videos 2-3 levels can turn a fight from normal to very tough.
On the flip-side, when you go to a lower level area you are de-leveled to be equivalent to the high end of the level range for that zone. But of course you have all your skills and traits, and fancy high level gear, so most of the zone will only be moderately challenging (but at least not trivial, as it would be if you kept your high level).
This, but on the de-leveled part it sounded like you won't get kicked down until you start killing stuff. I imagine this is to allow people to travel through lower level areas without having to worry about aggro unless they start actively attacking things.
Bloodsheed on
Xbox Live, Steam, PSN: Eclibull
0
reVerseAttack and Dethrone GodRegistered Userregular
Did they show how the level balancing actually worked? I mean if you can simply walk into the final area and be bump up to max level, that kinda makes leveling moot. Or maybe they are doing the warhammer way of only buffing your stats, so that you are only less useless.
If you are in a high level area I believe you need to have a high level friend 'sidekick' you (sets your level slightly below theirs). You still have your low level gear which may not have great extra-effects, and you might not have all your skills, traits, etc. You'll also be slightly on the low end in terms of pure level stats, and as we've seen in the recent PAX videos 2-3 levels can turn a fight from normal to very tough.
On the flip-side, when you go to a lower level area you are de-leveled to be equivalent to the high end of the level range for that zone. But of course you have all your skills and traits, and fancy high level gear, so most of the zone will only be moderately challenging (but at least not trivial, as it would be if you kept your high level).
This, but on the de-leveled part it sounded like you won't get kicked down until you start killing stuff. I imagine this is to allow people to travel through lower level areas without having to worry about aggro unless they start actively attacking things.
I'd imagine you get de-leveled as soon as you zone in. Traveling isn't really a huge issue as you can teleport from anywhere to any waypoints you've discovered.
In the persistent world, I headed haphazardly toward an area the scout system pointed me to: the Raven Shrine. There was an ongoing event to basically please Raven by helping find raven eggs, killing off skelk harassing the ravens, and answering riddles at the raven shrine. It was a very relaxing event. After a moment of playing around, I decided to talk to the NPC standing at the shrine. He would explain the shrine and event, but then there was a curious red option. As my character was ferocious, I could basically tell the guy that raven’s riddles were stupid.
It’s really hard to know what to share and take away from the demo. It’s like being able to smell a 12-course Michelin-rated dinner. The thing I can share is that combat is fluid, extremely fluid. The way the skills felt. The way the AI responded. The way the character moved. It felt right. It was more balanced than Vindictus’s frenetic pace, but it felt more real than Dungeons and Dragons Online pseudo-action. It was also apparent that each profession had their own rhythm. The guardian was going to be in the center of the action, while the thief was going to dance around the edges. The necromancer felt like an utility guy, just like he should.
The demo makes me even more excited for the upcoming beta, and Jon Peters told me that they were looking forward to beta just as much as the fans were. They want to see people playing and experiencing the game.
CorehealerThe ApothecaryThe softer edge of the universe.Registered Userregular
edited March 2011
OP updated. Videos are in there a bit with more to come, did some tweaking, and got the Thief stuff in there.
All and all great videos and information have streamed in from PAX and I really cannot wait to see more in regards to what's left for them to reveal, specifically the last two professions and PvP.
Watched the whole of the QandA videos. There are some interesting things in there, but some of the answers seemed like they didn't understand the question or they didn't really have an answer so they talked about the general subject instead. It's not upsetting or anything, but it seems like they didn't really give any real information away, aside from a few tiny morsels.
OhtheVogonity on
Oh freddled gruntbuggly...thy micturations are to me/ As plurdled gabbleblotchits on a lurgid bee
Watched the whole of the QandA videos. There are some interesting things in there, but some of the answers seemed like they didn't understand the question or they didn't really have an answer so they talked about the general subject instead. It's not upsetting or anything, but it seems like they didn't really give any real information away, aside from a few tiny morsels.
A few of their answers indicated the nature of the question and the fact that they ethier weren't able to reveal info because it was too soon in development or because it was too soon for the hype machine. I still thought it was good and interesting enough and clearly indicative of the passion these people have for their creation, something sorely lacking in bigger game titles in the industry today.
How on earth are they going to pull off 100v100v100 fights
Even WAR, which looks like shit in comparison and was designed for it all along couldn't handle that many players fighting
The original Guild Wars engine looked way prettier than it should have for how much system resources it consumed. They've got great artists and developers at ANet.
Also remember that Tribes 2 featured 64-player battles on much slower computers over much slower connections ten years ago. This is not a technical impossibility.
Also, WAR was pretty much the most horribly optimized game of all time.
KetBra on
0
CorehealerThe ApothecaryThe softer edge of the universe.Registered Userregular
How on earth are they going to pull off 100v100v100 fights
Even WAR, which looks like shit in comparison and was designed for it all along couldn't handle that many players fighting
The original Guild Wars engine looked way prettier than it should have for how much system resources it consumed. They've got great artists and developers at ANet.
Also remember that Tribes 2 featured 64-player battles on much slower computers over much slower connections ten years ago. This is not a technical impossibility.
Also, WAR was pretty much the most horribly optimized game of all time.
Also Also, EVE Online runs off one server and (at least in the past) hosted upwards of a couple hundred people in a single star system with little to no lag, fighting each other actively in their spaceships. They have been having issues with lag lately, but in the past it wasn't much of an issue.
Guild Wars 2 could conceivably do this with their heavier engine, especially considering the fact that the Mists are most likely vast and filled with space to spread out the latency most of the time when there isn't a huge battle or location siege going on. We'll definitely know more when the PvP stuff is released.
From what I've heard (from friends who do play) massive battles in EvE are lag fests galore. And "single server" is a pretty nebulous definition when it doesn't actually mean a single hardware server.
From what I've heard (from friends who do play) massive battles in EvE are lag fests galore. And "single server" is a pretty nebulous definition when it doesn't actually mean a single hardware server.
I'm pretty sure the accepted definition of an MMO server includes all the servers involved with running a single world. Even wow's servers/shards what have you dont operate on a single machine.
From what I've heard (from friends who do play) massive battles in EvE are lag fests galore. And "single server" is a pretty nebulous definition when it doesn't actually mean a single hardware server.
I'm pretty sure the accepted definition of an MMO server includes all the servers involved with running a single world. Even wow's servers/shards what have you dont operate on a single machine.
I think GW2 might actually be formatted in a similar fashion to the EVE's design in terms of how the world environment works. Every so often in the Q&A they would say "maps", as though their world was a series of segmented locations which when stitched together by magic and pixies makes a cohesive environment.
From what I've heard, Vanguard worked a lot like this and, when they smoothed out the transitioning issues, gave the feeling of a cohesive world while still maintaining stability if an area or two went down for whatever reason. This would also theoretically allow them to implement something akin to the lobby system in GW1, where if they only want 100 people to fight a massive dragon, they can simply "overlay" an area and flag certain people for being able to enter and exit the node fluidly.
From what I've heard (from friends who do play) massive battles in EvE are lag fests galore. And "single server" is a pretty nebulous definition when it doesn't actually mean a single hardware server.
I'm pretty sure the accepted definition of an MMO server includes all the servers involved with running a single world. Even wow's servers/shards what have you dont operate on a single machine.
Yeah, but then pointing out that an MMO runs on a single server becomes far less relevant. EvE can't survive the entire populace cramming into a single sector any more than WoW can survive an entire server cramming itself into Orgrimmar, so what's the point being made? That everyone can play with everyone? Only people I care about playing with are my friends and the good people of PA, whether my pool of Random Asshats comes from 10k people or 100k people is irrelevant.
Yes Glal but sometimes a game becomes really popular and it can become difficult to play with all your friends.
Especially if you have friends across several regions.
I expect Guild Wars will take a guild wars 1 approach where you will be able to jump worlds and play with a friend in Europe/US for a bit if you wanted to.
Draygo on
0
CorehealerThe ApothecaryThe softer edge of the universe.Registered Userregular
I expect Guild Wars will take a guild wars 1 approach where you will be able to jump worlds and play with a friend in Europe/US for a bit if you wanted to.
I agree; they are still determining server structure for launch as evidenced by their response on the panel video, and I would believe they are looking into this as per the Scottish guy's question in the video.
From what I've heard (from friends who do play) massive battles in EvE are lag fests galore. And "single server" is a pretty nebulous definition when it doesn't actually mean a single hardware server.
That's why I said that it wasn't laggy in the past. I'm well aware that CCP has kind of screwed the pooch with the latency lately, even at times when there isn't a whole lot going on. And I also know that they, like all MMOs, use more then one machine, just in this case, they all host the same single copy of the game world and it's many star systems.
I expect Guild Wars will take a guild wars 1 approach where you will be able to jump worlds and play with a friend in Europe/US for a bit if you wanted to.
Aye, that would be pretty sweet.
Glal on
0
reVerseAttack and Dethrone GodRegistered Userregular
GW2 will have multiple worlds (servers). That is the basis for WvWvW after all. However the cool trick is you can transfer your character between servers for free, instead of for the b.s. $20 that WoW charges, for instance.
As for the PvP, the competitive stuff (GvG and other competitive modes) are 5v5. In these modes, character levels/stats are all set to equal. There is no stat advantage, period. The less competitive PvP is the world PvP, where you take your PvE character with stats based on level and gear, and slug it out in large-scale 3-way battles with strategic points/forts, supply caravans, etc etc.
The less competitive PvP is the world PvP, where you take your PvE character with stats based on level and gear, and slug it out in large-scale 3-way battles with strategic points/forts, supply caravans, etc etc.
I can see myself playing in this type of PvP quite a bit. I might do competitive with you guys but I will be doing World and hope you guys join me.
This game will eat my life.
Seidkona on
Mostly just huntin' monsters.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
The guy who uploaded that also has bunch of other videos about GW2, check out his channel.
Wow, someone who actually played GW1 making videos! He actually tests out different weapons/attunements. My favorite bit was where he aggroed things with air magic, switched to water to immobilize them, then switched to fire and let them sit in firewalls until they died.
Ahh! I'm excited to hear what they have to tell us.
Personally, I'm reaaaally looking forward to the Hall of Heroes and Guild v. Guild fights. I know the second is in there, but the first hasn't been announced yet.
HoH, at the very beginning of Guild Wars -- the first 6 months -- was perfect and amazing.
The exhilaration of being on a team that fought it's way through ten straight wins, beating the best other Guild Wars teams that were on the internet that night and getting our name spammed across the server... I'd love to experience something like that again.
Ahh! I'm excited to hear what they have to tell us.
Personally, I'm reaaaally looking forward to the Hall of Heroes and Guild v. Guild fights. I know the second is in there, but the first hasn't been announced yet.
HoH, at the very beginning of Guild Wars -- the first 6 months -- was perfect and amazing.
The exhilaration of being on a team that fought it's way through ten straight wins, beating the best other Guild Wars teams that were on the internet that night and getting our name spammed across the server... I'd love to experience something like that again.
They already said GvG wont be in the game (as it is implemented in Guild Wars 1).
I remember holding HoH on day 3 of guild wars. Having my name spammed across the world because no one knew about Shield of Judgement. Walk up, smite self, enemy team self explodes on you, win fight move on. Hold HoH till half your team leaves (we won 2-3 people down).
Ahh! I'm excited to hear what they have to tell us.
Personally, I'm reaaaally looking forward to the Hall of Heroes and Guild v. Guild fights. I know the second is in there, but the first hasn't been announced yet.
HoH, at the very beginning of Guild Wars -- the first 6 months -- was perfect and amazing.
The exhilaration of being on a team that fought it's way through ten straight wins, beating the best other Guild Wars teams that were on the internet that night and getting our name spammed across the server... I'd love to experience something like that again.
They already said GvG wont be in the game (as it is implemented in Guild Wars 1).
I remember holding HoH on day 3 of guild wars. Having my name spammed across the world because no one knew about Shield of Judgement. Walk up, smite self, enemy team self explodes on you, win fight move on. Hold HoH till half your team leaves (we won 2-3 people down).
GVG is not gonna be in the game?! God dammit. I coulda sworn they said it would be.
And grats on your HOH holding!
I remember more than one long night in college, where we somehow held onto Halls all the way through the wee hours of the night until morning peeked through the blinds. Ahh, those were the glorious, glorious days.
The only build I remember winning with was with Rangers. You could win lots of the early fights with Ranger Spike -- taking a couple arrow skills to nuke an enemy player before their healers could respond. We'd use that strategy to get to the Halls, and we fell back on this other strategy to hold it:
Back when I played, you could put down an infinite number of Ranger spirits. The spirits we used gave a buff to everyone in the area, friend and foes. One of them increased health and resistances and another gave you extra health for every enchantment you had on you. I remember the Halls area being filled with dozens and dozens of these same spirits everywhere, all over the place, too many for the enemy team to kill. It therefore took ages to kill anyone, meaning they could never kill your Ghost Champion, which was needed in order for the enemy Ghost Champions to cast a victory spell in the Altar area and claim the Halls for their own.
And in the unlikely event that our Ghost Champion would actually fall, we all had these interrupt skills from our Ranger spike strategy. We could simply interrupt an enemy Ghost Champion over and over again and never actually let him claim the Altar.
Gonna need a source for GvG not being in the game. I haven't heard that at all. It would be pretty ridiculous for there to be no competitive Guild environment in Guild Wars' sequel.
Edit: Though I suppose they could have GvG merged with the other competitive PvP modes (aka, just get rid of Guild Hall PvP) if you are running a guild team.
One thing that will be great in the PvP for GW2 is hot-joining. New people can join a match in progress, as in FPS games.
Would that really work, though? If you can jump into a match that's been going on for a while with full health and mp/initiative/etc, that seems a little different than jumping into a match where 1 or 2 shots might take you out from full "health" like an FPS.
Delzhand on
0
reVerseAttack and Dethrone GodRegistered Userregular
edited March 2011
I'd imagine the hotjoinable 5v5 is respawn based, not "die once, you lose" silliness.
Watching that Elementalist video reminds me of my days playing a Mage in RO. I missed out on the Guild Wars bus and was curious if the gameplay in that video was similiar. Is there even a reason to play Guild Wars now to play with professions or are they completely different in the upcoming GW2?
Tyberius on
0
reVerseAttack and Dethrone GodRegistered Userregular
edited March 2011
The combat in the original Guild Wars is stiff, unresponsive and boring. It's just about the exact opposite of what you see in GW2 videos.
Watching that Elementalist video reminds me of my days playing a Mage in RO. I missed out on the Guild Wars bus and was curious if the gameplay in that video was similiar. Is there even a reason to play Guild Wars now to play with professions or are they completely different in the upcoming GW2?
GW system is horrible and totally different from GW2.
Only reason to play GW series is unless u want 30+ in game bonus items for GW2.
Posts
They had something like that set up in EotN. Stats go up, gear and skills remain the same. Without the skills, you get rocked.
Speaking of skills, they do anything in terms of non-linear skill acquisition in the demo? I'm talking about the sort of stuff you get by talking to out-of-the-way NPCs, fighting special baddies on the map, or acting in a specific way during special events. I know they touched on this sort of progression in the past, and it sort of fits with the cap system from Guild Wars 1, just wondering if anyone went hunting for secrets.
Also, norn racial forms are elites, and you get elites at level 30 - the demo was at level 27.
If you are in a high level area I believe you need to have a high level friend 'sidekick' you (sets your level slightly below theirs). You still have your low level gear which may not have great extra-effects, and you might not have all your skills, traits, etc. You'll also be slightly on the low end in terms of pure level stats, and as we've seen in the recent PAX videos 2-3 levels can turn a fight from normal to very tough.
On the flip-side, when you go to a lower level area you are de-leveled to be equivalent to the high end of the level range for that zone. But of course you have all your skills and traits, and fancy high level gear, so most of the zone will only be moderately challenging (but at least not trivial, as it would be if you kept your high level).
Steam (Ansatz) || GW2 officer (Ansatz.6498)
This, but on the de-leveled part it sounded like you won't get kicked down until you start killing stuff. I imagine this is to allow people to travel through lower level areas without having to worry about aggro unless they start actively attacking things.
I'd imagine you get de-leveled as soon as you zone in. Traveling isn't really a huge issue as you can teleport from anywhere to any waypoints you've discovered.
Steam (Ansatz) || GW2 officer (Ansatz.6498)
All and all great videos and information have streamed in from PAX and I really cannot wait to see more in regards to what's left for them to reveal, specifically the last two professions and PvP.
A few of their answers indicated the nature of the question and the fact that they ethier weren't able to reveal info because it was too soon in development or because it was too soon for the hype machine. I still thought it was good and interesting enough and clearly indicative of the passion these people have for their creation, something sorely lacking in bigger game titles in the industry today.
Also, WAR was pretty much the most horribly optimized game of all time.
Also Also, EVE Online runs off one server and (at least in the past) hosted upwards of a couple hundred people in a single star system with little to no lag, fighting each other actively in their spaceships. They have been having issues with lag lately, but in the past it wasn't much of an issue.
Guild Wars 2 could conceivably do this with their heavier engine, especially considering the fact that the Mists are most likely vast and filled with space to spread out the latency most of the time when there isn't a huge battle or location siege going on. We'll definitely know more when the PvP stuff is released.
Must Play. . . .
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
I'm pretty sure the accepted definition of an MMO server includes all the servers involved with running a single world. Even wow's servers/shards what have you dont operate on a single machine.
I think GW2 might actually be formatted in a similar fashion to the EVE's design in terms of how the world environment works. Every so often in the Q&A they would say "maps", as though their world was a series of segmented locations which when stitched together by magic and pixies makes a cohesive environment.
From what I've heard, Vanguard worked a lot like this and, when they smoothed out the transitioning issues, gave the feeling of a cohesive world while still maintaining stability if an area or two went down for whatever reason. This would also theoretically allow them to implement something akin to the lobby system in GW1, where if they only want 100 people to fight a massive dragon, they can simply "overlay" an area and flag certain people for being able to enter and exit the node fluidly.
Especially if you have friends across several regions.
I expect Guild Wars will take a guild wars 1 approach where you will be able to jump worlds and play with a friend in Europe/US for a bit if you wanted to.
I agree; they are still determining server structure for launch as evidenced by their response on the panel video, and I would believe they are looking into this as per the Scottish guy's question in the video.
That's why I said that it wasn't laggy in the past. I'm well aware that CCP has kind of screwed the pooch with the latency lately, even at times when there isn't a whole lot going on. And I also know that they, like all MMOs, use more then one machine, just in this case, they all host the same single copy of the game world and it's many star systems.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YW4sGjWJK_0
The guy who uploaded that also has bunch of other videos about GW2, check out his channel.
As for the PvP, the competitive stuff (GvG and other competitive modes) are 5v5. In these modes, character levels/stats are all set to equal. There is no stat advantage, period. The less competitive PvP is the world PvP, where you take your PvE character with stats based on level and gear, and slug it out in large-scale 3-way battles with strategic points/forts, supply caravans, etc etc.
Steam (Ansatz) || GW2 officer (Ansatz.6498)
I can see myself playing in this type of PvP quite a bit. I might do competitive with you guys but I will be doing World and hope you guys join me.
This game will eat my life.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
Wow, someone who actually played GW1 making videos! He actually tests out different weapons/attunements. My favorite bit was where he aggroed things with air magic, switched to water to immobilize them, then switched to fire and let them sit in firewalls until they died.
I can't wait for this game to come out, like at all. Someone tell me how to contain my excitement!
Scream with joy into a pillow maybe?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC9hdFNOR2M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8OIdd5b7ms
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZ0wXrGcSwY
Steam: YOU FACE JARAXXUS| Twitch.tv: CainLoveless
Now to wait for the remaining 3 racial weeks. Two more classes and PvP are the only remaining reveals otherwise. Excitement for beta rising...
Steam (Ansatz) || GW2 officer (Ansatz.6498)
Ahh! I'm excited to hear what they have to tell us.
Personally, I'm reaaaally looking forward to the Hall of Heroes and Guild v. Guild fights. I know the second is in there, but the first hasn't been announced yet.
HoH, at the very beginning of Guild Wars -- the first 6 months -- was perfect and amazing.
The exhilaration of being on a team that fought it's way through ten straight wins, beating the best other Guild Wars teams that were on the internet that night and getting our name spammed across the server... I'd love to experience something like that again.
They already said GvG wont be in the game (as it is implemented in Guild Wars 1).
I remember holding HoH on day 3 of guild wars. Having my name spammed across the world because no one knew about Shield of Judgement. Walk up, smite self, enemy team self explodes on you, win fight move on. Hold HoH till half your team leaves (we won 2-3 people down).
GVG is not gonna be in the game?! God dammit. I coulda sworn they said it would be.
And grats on your HOH holding!
I remember more than one long night in college, where we somehow held onto Halls all the way through the wee hours of the night until morning peeked through the blinds. Ahh, those were the glorious, glorious days.
The only build I remember winning with was with Rangers. You could win lots of the early fights with Ranger Spike -- taking a couple arrow skills to nuke an enemy player before their healers could respond. We'd use that strategy to get to the Halls, and we fell back on this other strategy to hold it:
Back when I played, you could put down an infinite number of Ranger spirits. The spirits we used gave a buff to everyone in the area, friend and foes. One of them increased health and resistances and another gave you extra health for every enchantment you had on you. I remember the Halls area being filled with dozens and dozens of these same spirits everywhere, all over the place, too many for the enemy team to kill. It therefore took ages to kill anyone, meaning they could never kill your Ghost Champion, which was needed in order for the enemy Ghost Champions to cast a victory spell in the Altar area and claim the Halls for their own.
And in the unlikely event that our Ghost Champion would actually fall, we all had these interrupt skills from our Ranger spike strategy. We could simply interrupt an enemy Ghost Champion over and over again and never actually let him claim the Altar.
It was glorious.
Edit: Though I suppose they could have GvG merged with the other competitive PvP modes (aka, just get rid of Guild Hall PvP) if you are running a guild team.
One thing that will be great in the PvP for GW2 is hot-joining. New people can join a match in progress, as in FPS games.
Steam (Ansatz) || GW2 officer (Ansatz.6498)
Steam (Ansatz) || GW2 officer (Ansatz.6498)
GW system is horrible and totally different from GW2.
Only reason to play GW series is unless u want 30+ in game bonus items for GW2.