guardian seems ridiculously good, I was running around in zones 2+ levels above me without any problems
guardian seems ridiculously good, I was running around in zones 2+ levels above me without any problems
Played a lot over the weekend and still can't decide whether I like or dislike. Game is basically MMO soup, with pretty much everything all mixed in together, which means it'll appeal to a lot of people but it's also kinda bland.
You get XP for doing *anything*, they may as well just scrap that and give you xp for every 5 minutes you're logged in and active, at this point.
Dynamic events are a nice change but feel just as theme park as any other MMO, with the same lame NPC pantomimes that repeat ad infinitum.
Reknown hearts can be just as tedious as the most tedious quest.
Exploring is "nice" but without any major immersive elements to the PvE gameplay, most of the time it just feels like you're part of some big interactive flyby of some 3D artist's work, rather than actually exploring a living world. Especially in the cities, there seems to be an abundance of things to see but a huge shortage of things to do. And there's this overwhelming awareness that everything is for show rather than function.
sPvP feels too much like joining a game of counterstrike, except the whole map only lasts 4-5 mins, during which time you'll have plenty of AFKers, leavers, and team shuffles.
WvW can be awesome and epic but is going to get old fast, lacks permanency. Also a huge money sink (siege weapons) for what appears to be very little tangible reward.
Couldn't really get into any of the classes properly, all felt quite "meh" after a few hours playing and experimenting in sPvP. Seems to be too much overlap, with not enough stand-out skills that have oomph (maybe I've been spoiled by dota). Lots of uninteresting short duration buffs on long ass cooldowns.
...but despite all this the game has hooked me and I'm looking forward to release. Unsurprisingly it isn't the next-gen breaks-all-moulds-fuck-you MMO that people were gobbling up the hype of 3-4 years ago, but it is a fun game.
Did not end up playing too much this weekend for much the same reasons. I do like it quite a bit but just had the feeling that if I played too much it would become very quickly boring and kinda ruin the actual release. Its really not the kind of game where there is amything to gain by speeding through and getting the mechanics dialed for any kind of head start.
Didnt get to play much over the weekend - just dicked around with Sylvari char design and thier home town on sunday evening.
Cerzi has pretty much summed up all my negative feelings about the game.
But then again.. it has no sub.. and they promise to keep adding shit all zee time once it goes live. So, not too fussed and will look forward to live.
Based on Cerzi's post, I am, for once, looking forward to playing a game again, where I am not pressured by the promise of rewards to get to the end-game ASAFP. I fully intend to explore and dick around accomplishing nothing of significance as much as possible.
Originally Posted by Narmio
Its clear from your post you aren't engaged by the themepark MMO anymore. Guildwars 2 is undeniably themepark. Its not trying to be sandbox and never has claimed it would be. If you go and see Batman thinking or wanting to actually see the latest romantic comedy you're always going to be disapointed.
The way it handles xp is interesting. It is basically take leveling out of the equation by offering xp for basically anything as you said. You could argue that they could remove leveling altogether. If your interest is pvp then you could go sPvP from level 1. If you want to wPvP you could go in at level 2 and still have fun doing it whilst you level.
As for the pvp side of things its hard to gauge in a beta. WvW is going to be driven by prestige and glory more than any permanent rewards. Fun is a far bigger incentive than any loot or rewards for most players. Yes alot of battles will be around keeps and towers but those who want to find open combat will be able to do because of the size of the zone and lack of mounts. Plus to defend a keep you are going to need supply which is going to force some defenders to leave the keep if they want to have any chance of success. Jury is still out on WvW but it has the potential to excel but I suspect the player base has been too dumbed down when it comes to pvp and really needs its hand held so will gravitate to rolling zergs and keep stalemates.
I didn't play much sPvP and I really see it as more of a diversion from WvW but thats my personal attitude. I know alot of players are going to be serious about it and with the tournaments and the myriads of builds available its probably where the highest individual skilled players will gravitate.
As for the classes, theres so much more going on beyond the skills with the various conditions and boons and combos. I've pvped from classic daoc onwards normally at a high level and there were times I felt totally overwhelmed by the pvp combat. The overall skill level in beta was really low probably because most players were in a similar boat to me, but once players learn their class and start to recognise their opponents skills and builds theres alot of potential for high quality pvp imo.
Anyways time will tell, lack of a sub makes a huge difference. I think theres a lot less pressure on the developers as a result, the game will sell big purely because its:
a. at least an 8/10 MMO
b. had crazy hype
c. has no sub
d. people are searching for a new MMO to play
Last edited by Chrien; July 23 2012 at 03:02:33 PM.
Fukken 5 star post m8r.
Sub free is one of the main points that got me into it as with no sub theres no pressure to get your monthly moneys worth. I end up spending more on subfree games with buying lockbox keys and other cosmetic stuff but thats bought as and when I feel like it.
I used to have a sig.
Anet did a really good job with the classes imo. The mechanics are quite different for each class, and each class can do different roles. The overlap is actually a good thing and intended. No more we need class X to continue. Skillful play is very rewarding and you will own a buttonmasher everytime in pvp, no matter what fotm build he is running.
Most of all i like the general mantra of anet, remove everything unfun and improve on the fun parts. So far they did a splendid job.
They seem to have learned from most of their mistakes regarding the competitive scene, kinda sad tho they removed tombs and gvg, specially gvg. Also kinda worried there is no obs mode yet. Anyone tried the tournaments? Is it just the sPvP maps in a tournament format? The new sPvP map felt a bit more like gvg, so could be good in tournament.
So I've been rapidly reaching a conclusion that Arena Net have truly learned from their previous experiences from the Original Guild Wars. The largest of these conclusions all focus around the PvP aspect of the game, since that's what I focused on the most. Although mostly anecdotal evidence, these obviously learned experiences on ANet's part I expect will make GW2 one of the best games on the market for years to come, something I seriously hope for. It's worth noting that I'm mostly writing this for people who are like minded to me, PvPers and who played GW1 for the PvP.
Most importantly has been the skillbar; in GW1, ANet started with some skills. Then added more, and then more, and then another layer. The idea they had was pretty cool, skills were like cards in your had from the game Magic The Gathering(you can actually see the heavy MTG influence by just looking at the skills). A set of core skills that everyone had and a few semi-core skills(known today as duplicate skills) made up a base line of what was needed to play and each expansion would act as a new card pack so to speak. Elite skills represented a legendary card. The issue is that at the end of all this, there were a total of 1319 skills and 293 of those were elites. Add to that the system of allowing a secondary profesion(IE: having a multi-color deck) resulted in way too much work to keep the game balanced. To fix this problem in GW2, ANet has created a system with nearly the same number of skills as the first campaign, but has come up with a creative way to limit which skills can be used together with other skills that still rewards player skill.
Although the skillbar change is most likely the most important, the best thought out changes are to the PvP structure. I'm going to break the PvP structures down into the blocks they exist in GW1 and compare them to the GW2 counterparts, and explain why they're better.
Alliance Battles were somewhat glitchy and limited in scope in GW1. Mostly it served to piss off anyone trying to do a run through factions or purchase armor due to the moving ownership of towns. For those who played, if you were playing correctly you mostly just moved about the map staying away from the blob of players in the center and capping shrines around them, occasionally ganking the players who manage to stray too far from their group or their blob. AB compares most directly to WvWvW, which really represents a great play by ANet again. wPvP having a third side to it really changes the dynamic. Even should each side decide not to ally together, the split of players across the entire field creates a skill level environment allowing more skilled players to do something against the heavier horde of players, making wPvP a general draw for anyone into PvP and still reward skilled play for the more skilled players.
Until the changes to The Hall of Heroes bringing it up to 8 players, PvP in GW1 was progressively escalating. A newbie starting out could easily enter Random Arenas and when they realized more advanced parts of combat they could move up into TA, then to Halls and finally to GvG. With the change to Halls that all changed, but the same flaw still existed in either configuration, the change to Halls just made it more obvious. RA doesn't provide the same game structure as GvG so there was a huge barrier to cross to move into GvG. With Conquest being the exact same if you're doing random games or if you're playing in an E-sports tourney means that the entry barrier into GvG is no where near as hard. Overall, the entire PvP structure that ANet has added is in my opinion, absolutely amazing.
I played for about 20 hours this weekend. Classes are relatively balanced and the WvWvW shit is awesome. No use for siege weapons? That's the most retarded thing I've read. 4-8 guys with siege weapons can hold off a horde of pubbies who try to bum rush a narrow choke point. Using trebuchets to attack Stonemist from a fort was amazing.
For those who are guildless and want to play with a laid back group I think SpacePanda and I will be making a guild. The game has aviator sunglasses, and we may make them a requirement. Not as cool as Eve's goggles but good enough.
confirming aviator glasses guild. we will be on maguuma (ustz), a name rich in tradition.
Isn't Maguuma where Starfleet Dental is living as well? Could be highly entertaining or incredibly frustrating, depending on how many ways they can come up with to grief people.
i believe so, assuming their tag is [SFD].
They're on Maguuma, yes, and Goon Squad might go there too (all goons on one server, what could go wrong).
Last edited by orcane; July 24 2012 at 10:49:43 AM.
Tombs/HA was originally 8v8, then went 6v6 for about 6 months between (I believe) Oct 2006 and March 2007 before permanently switching back to 8v8 (and thank god for that).
LOL SIGNATURES.
GOON, RZR, and RAWR were all on a different server. Hopefully it stays that way as I don't want to queue up for WvWvW.
Last edited by jonesbones; July 24 2012 at 04:16:40 PM.
Who's Starfleet dental?
Something Awful.Who's Starfleet dental?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swB-CbSZZdw&feature=plcpWho's Starfleet dental?
Their videos are actually shockingly well done, but I'm not sure how i'd feel sharing a server with them.
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