Guild Wars 2

[PalmTrees]

Is it just me of does her belly button look too far up? Other than that looks nice.

I never played GW, can you expect alot of clothing options or is it one of those every lvl 20 mage wears the same robe type of games?

[pxib]

I never played GW, can you expect alot of clothing options or is it one of those every lvl 20 mage wears the same robe type of games?

In the final iterations of the original GW, armor was almost entirely cosmetic with unusual costumes being rewards for challenging tasks or discovered by accessing new areas. Then the costume parts could be mixed, matched, and dyed to whatever your tastes required. My monk had tattoos (a clothing option) on his head, lower arms, and lower legs... and then wore torso and upper leg pieces from different sets that I thought looked good together. Stat and ability enhancements (as well as protective wards) came from "runes" and "glyphs" attached to the clothing items separately.

Generally no two players looked exactly the same.

[Merusk]

Is it just me of does her belly button look too far up? Other than that looks nice.

It only looks that way because with a waistline that low you know they're going the full Brazilian.

[Azazel]

As another left-handed person, you people are crazy. Just use a right handed mouse with your right hand, it isn't hard! It isn't like it is a pair of scissors! 

I'm a leftie. I use scissors with my right hand, mouse with my right hand, scalpel with either, depending on the task. Harden the fuck up!

 

[Megrim]

Am i right in reading the skill system when i understand it as - five abilities keyed to weapon, five left to customize, with one being reserved for a healing ability and one reserved for shiny magical explodey things. That leaves only three for actual 'customization'? Isn't that a little low?

[Lantyssa]

You can choose which weapons to use!

Yeah, it is to me unless you can customize those weapon-specific slots, too.  I'd much rather two or three weapon-specific while it lets me pick the rest.  As-is, depending upon key mapping, I'll make as many of those as I can passives or rarely-used utility skills.

[Modern Angel]

It sounds to me like you'll be able to choose from a pretty decent list of weapon specific skills. So you'd have a list of Warrior Sword skills, of which five can be active, and a list of Monk Sword skills, of which five can be active, etc. I *really* don't get the impression that it's like five skills permalocked to your hotbar.

[pxib]

Am i right in reading the skill system when i understand it as - five abilities keyed to weapon, five left to customize, with one being reserved for a healing ability and one reserved for shiny magical explodey things. That leaves only three for actual 'customization'? Isn't that a little low?

There will be multiple "healing" abilities with different effects and purposes. Ditto elites and, I wouldn't be surprised if there are a lot more skills available with any particular weapon/profession combo than you can slot at one time.

[DLRiley]

My guess is that the weapon skills are un-customizable, the idea is that the player can not make a dumb decision even if he tries hard. All classes will be able to equip 2 types of mains while some classes came equip multiple mains. Your offhand weapons account for 2 slots out of the 5 weapon slots. They have posted before that guild wars 2 will have signicantly less skills to choose from than guild wars 1.

[Megrim]

You can choose which weapons to use!

Yeah, it is to me unless you can customize those weapon-specific slots, too.  I'd much rather two or three weapon-specific while it lets me pick the rest.  As-is, depending upon key mapping, I'll make as many of those as I can passives or rarely-used utility skills.

Am i right in reading the skill system when i understand it as - five abilities keyed to weapon, five left to customize, with one being reserved for a healing ability and one reserved for shiny magical explodey things. That leaves only three for actual 'customization'? Isn't that a little low?

There will be multiple "healing" abilities with different effects and purposes. Ditto elites and, I wouldn't be surprised if there are a lot more skills available with any particular weapon/profession combo than you can slot at one time.

Hm, we'll see how it works out i guess. I _hope_ that it's not a permalocked thing though.

[ezrast]

It's worth noting that the restrictions may well serve to increase the skill required to play, not lower it. Forcing everybody to take exactly one healing skill (for example) will force people to coordinate their healing, rather than one person playing health bar whack-a-mole while the rest faceroll their ten different variants of fireball.

[DLRiley]

It's worth noting that the restrictions may well serve to increase the skill required to play, not lower it. Forcing everybody to take exactly one healing skill (for example) will force people to coordinate their healing, rather than one person playing health bar whack-a-mole while the rest faceroll their ten different variants of fireball.

I see someone hasn't made it past Random Arena's.

[Zzulo]

Tentonhammer comes out with some new info They address some of the issues you guys discussed concerning the new supposed simplicity of the combat.


Summary for the lazy:

Eric Flannum addresses the new skill system, particularly concerns about it limiting creativity. Says it will be easier to maintain balance, will act as a safety net for new players, but allows for a lot of flexibility at the higher end of play. Low end builds should always at least be functional.

He also described a scenario where Izzy leapt behind someone and pushed them off a cliff with a skill called 'Stomp', illustrating how fast paced and interesting the combat is. There's still a lot of strategy for players to learn, despite the supposedly simplified system.

Hammers home the point by saying there are literally millions of possible elementalist builds in GW2.

Moves on to classes. Mentions that the warrior class has already been confirmed in other interviews, but may have some changes/upgrades. They want the same reaction that the Elementalist received when it was unveiled.

Moves on again to talking about the non-traditional tank system in Guild Wars, where it's not limited to heavily armored classes or even encouraged as a strategy at all. "Holy Trinity" builds were not a feature of GW1, and will not be a feature of GW2.

Chris Lye fields some questions about marketing, says they are ready to 'take the gloves off'. If you're going to conventions this summer they might have something for you... very cryptic.(

[Nebu]

Eric Flannum addresses the new skill system, particularly concerns about it limiting creativity. Says it will be easier to maintain balance, will act as a safety net for new players, but allows for a lot of flexibility at the higher end of play. Low end builds should always at least be functional.

He also described a scenario where Izzy leapt behind someone and pushed them off a cliff with a skill called 'Stomp', illustrating how fast paced and interesting the combat is. There's still a lot of strategy for players to learn, despite the supposedly simplified system.

Holy crap... does this mean we'll be able to jump in GW 2?  That alone might get me to buy the box.

[UnSub]

I think it was revealed on the last page that there will be jumping.

[Draegan]

The jumping thing has actually been known for a while I think.  This is the one game I'm pretty excited about to learn more of.  I'll have a long wait though to finally get my hands on it.

[Ingmar]

Eric Flannum addresses the new skill system, particularly concerns about it limiting creativity. Says it will be easier to maintain balance, will act as a safety net for new players, but allows for a lot of flexibility at the higher end of play. Low end builds should always at least be functional.

He also described a scenario where Izzy leapt behind someone and pushed them off a cliff with a skill called 'Stomp', illustrating how fast paced and interesting the combat is. There's still a lot of strategy for players to learn, despite the supposedly simplified system.

Holy crap... does this mean we'll be able to jump in GW 2?  That alone might get me to buy the box.

I like how you read that and got excited about jumping with out the Tor Anroc danger klaxons going off in your head! 

Very excited for this game, the only thing I'm unthrilled about personally is the new races. I liked it better when everyone was human.

[Zzulo]

I like the new races. First time I've seen cat people that don't look too ridiculous

[Lantyssa]

Very excited for this game, the only thing I'm unthrilled about personally is the new races. I liked it better when everyone was human.

If it makes you feel better, I'm just a nine foot tall human.  And a human that likes to cosplay as a plant.  And a nine foot tall human in a cat suit.

Also I think you'd play a dwarf if it were an option.

[Megrim]

Very excited for this game, the only thing I'm unthrilled about personally is the new races. I liked it better when everyone was human.

If it makes you feel better, I'm just a nine foot tall human.  And a human that likes to cosplay as a plant.  And a nine foot tall human in a cat suit.

Also I think you'd play a dwarf if it were an option.

ANGRY cat suit.

[Ingmar]

Very excited for this game, the only thing I'm unthrilled about personally is the new races. I liked it better when everyone was human.

If it makes you feel better, I'm just a nine foot tall human.  And a human that likes to cosplay as a plant.  And a nine foot tall human in a cat suit.

Also I think you'd play a dwarf if it were an option.

Actually probably not in that game. I actually found it pretty jarring that in a game that spends so much effort on unique creature design in almost every other area, that there were standard fantasy issue dwarves sitting right in the middle of it. I do  dwarves, but I find them a little out of context there honestly.

[Zzulo]

More models! Now, monsters:

[Tearofsoul]

Guk ? 

[Furiously]

And was that Vrex from Mass Effect?

[Stormwaltz]

And was that Vrex from Mass Effect?

Mordin's the amphibian. Wrex is a lizard.

[Threash]

There was jumping on the first video posted in like the first page of the thread :P

[Zzulo]

New info released today, with some neat screenshots:


Article on the Dynamic Event system:
http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/dynamic-events/dynamic-events-overview/

Screens:

[Draegan]

That sounds sexy.  I hope they're right and it doesn't come off hokey and contrived.

[Slayerik]

Well, I like the direction they are going. Hope they pull it off, this is a rare title that I have hope for.

[Malakili]

New info released today, with some neat screenshots:


Article on the Dynamic Event system:
http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/dynamic-events/dynamic-events-overview/

They talk a good game, but they are setting the bar pretty high.  Though, if they pull it off, it really might change the genre, which isn't something I thought I'd be saying about Guild Wars 2.

[Zzulo]

Honestly, it sounds  too good to be true. So it probably is.

Can't help to look forward to it, though.

[€dit] More articles on the subject of dynamic content:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/guild-wars-2-dynamic-events-interview?page=1
http://pc.ign.com/articles/108/1089082p1.html

[Jamiko]

I'm expecting that the players will still drill it down to finding out which series of "dynamic" events gives the most bang for the buck reward and spend all their time gaming the system and ruining any sort of dynamic feel that may be intended. It sounds great but I can still see a lot of possible problems. Hopefully they are planning for these sorts of things and have some solutions in store.

[Stormwaltz]

Article on the Dynamic Event system:
http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/dynamic-events/dynamic-events-overview/

This is essentially what I wanted to do for Ninth Domain back in 2002, with the addition of having procedurally-generated worlds/zones that would periodically open and close (endless new frontiers for the explorers). We didn't have the resources to do it - we were small, poor startup. Arena Net has the resources and ambition, though I predict the events will either not be as spectacular as their examples, or will be rife with exploitable/griefable edge cases.

[HaemishM]

Wish had something similar in the early parts of its alpha. The dragon would come out periodically to attack the village, and fly around breathing fire. It just didn't actually effect anything. It was cool as hell to watch before I went back to taming my 15th goat.

[Ingmar]

Article on the Dynamic Event system:
http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/dynamic-events/dynamic-events-overview/

This is essentially what I wanted to do for Ninth Domain back in 2002, with the addition of having procedurally-generated worlds/zones that would periodically open and close (endless new frontiers for the explorers). We didn't have the resources to do it - we were small, poor startup. Arena Net has the resources and ambition, though I predict the events will either not be as spectacular as their examples, or will be rife with exploitable/griefable edge cases.

The bit about letting out the cosmic terror that then runs around attacking shipping lanes definitely set off my potential-griefing radar.