First Impressions

[kildorn]

Districts did not deal with pve zones, it dealt with cities. I like the overflow concept, I just need the popups to not be annoying and the Join functionality to work a bit better. I haven't had issues with it, but everyone else appears to. I suspect overflows can get full, and you can't join someone who is in a full overflow.

Err, districts were the only place where they had an issue where they needed overflow instances, thus my point.  Districts didn't deal with PvE zones because you never had population issues.

I'm just saying they could have used the districting system in GW2 and this whole situation would be absolved.  GW1 only created new districts when other districts were full and it made it MUCH easier to find people you were looking for.  Right now overflow is bullshit, because not only does it make grouping harder, it also messes up a ton of other shit (like you can't see WvW zones properly, you can't enter dungeons from an overflow server as Nebu said, etc...). 

There are a lot of gameplay consequences to this issue when they had a workable solution with the GW1 technology.

Overflow is very similar to districting. The main difference is you can't pick which overflow you wind up in. What it needs is a bit of overhead room saved for people joining friends. You CAN join dungeons from overflow, the part with issues is you need to join your friends first in the same overflow. Basically everyone needs to wind up in US East #976, which is a bit more difficult due to the join button not working right.

[Threash]

Whatever they patched in this morning forced me to switch from high settings to low to be able to play, wtf?

[Sky]

I just noticed at one point last night that I've been down-leveled for 3 levels now  

I'm level 9, still working through the newbie zone, exploring stuff and helping people out. I love ressing someone and then giving them Retreat! so they can get the hell out of (or the hell back into) Dodge.

I really didn't need to get sucked into an mmo, especially a sub-free one. I look forward to the point where it starts sucking so I can get back to my regular hobbies :) Also, that wood isn't going to split itself!

Re: overflow: the only thing that's good about it is that people are playing without queues. Everything else has a fucked up implementation.

[sachiel]

Whatever they patched in this morning forced me to switch from high settings to low to be able to play, wtf?

nvidia released new drivers last week. http://www.nvidia.com/object/win8-win7-winvista-64bit-306.02-beta-driver.html

Maybe this?

[Lantyssa]

I just noticed at one point last night that I've been down-leveled for 3 levels now  

This is why it doesn't matter that Nebu is level 30 already.  At least if he comes and joins you.

[Severian]

nvidia released new drivers last week. http://www.nvidia.com/object/win8-win7-winvista-64bit-306.02-beta-driver.html

Good to know. Just two days old, and, unlike the previous beta drivers I notice it does name something GW2-specific.

◦  Added NVIDIA Control Panel ambient occlusion support for Guild Wars 2

I used that to good effect in Skyrim (670 here).

[Dark_MadMax]

Yes, death zerging is entirely possible, if expensive. Their intent with it was that the cost would keep you from actually thinking that's the tactic.

I'm still of the opinion that Catacombs starts the difficulty off way too high for being the first dungeon anyone's put in, and having a pretty limited trait selection. Doable, but even the trash packs will fuck you the hell up. Fuck those rangers so much.

I dunno I think it just poorly designed overall. All bosses except the caster duo are faceroll, while trash is actually more of a challenge. The death zerging is just stupid mechanic completely breaking any immersion which could be possible

Overall  shit design. Or maybe I am just spoiled by TSW

[Malakili]

So, I picked this up basically sight unseen besides what I've read here or there.  This is the first MMO I have played in at least 5 years, probably actually see closer to 7 or 8 years, where I didn't know much about it before I started playing, but I heard pretty much good things, knew some people who were going to be playing, and just decided to pick it up.

So far I'm pretty pleased with what I see. The gameplay is pretty interesting, and the fact that the quests are just sort of localized stuff to do really feels better to me than having a bunch of NPCs with "!" standing around.  Just level 6 so far, taking my time, and its quite a bit of fun.  

I'm playing an elf (sylvari? whatever they are called in this game) elementalist.  I like the idea of switching between elements like "stances" to open up new sets of core abilities.

So far, so good.  Also, I'll add that a lack of monthly fee ABSOLUTELY played a huge role in my buying this.  Just being a game out of the box just makes it feel like a lot less of a commitment, even more so than "free to play" games do to me.  I think this part of it actually has as much to do with my enjoyment of the game and allowing myself to play "casually" as anything.  Kind of silly when I think about it, but its like there is no pressure at all.

[01101010]

This will be the first game that I throw money at through their RMT. If and when THEY EVER FIX THE TRADING POST... every time I check it gives me that picture of whatever-the-fuck-whale-thing. 

[sachiel]

nvidia released new drivers last week. http://www.nvidia.com/object/win8-win7-winvista-64bit-306.02-beta-driver.html

Good to know. Just two days old, and, unlike the previous beta drivers I notice it does name something GW2-specific.

◦  Added NVIDIA Control Panel ambient occlusion support for Guild Wars 2

I used that to good effect in Skyrim (670 here).

During one of the beta stress tests, when you opened the GW2 launcher, it STRONGLY recommended that you downloaded the beta drivers from NVidia for 304.xx saying something about optimizations. 

[lac]

It did the same for me yesterday. Pointed me to some nvidia beta drivers, it hadn't done that the day before.

[Amaron]

This will be the first game that I throw money at through their RMT. If and when THEY EVER FIX THE TRADING POST... every time I check it gives me that picture of whatever-the-fuck-whale-thing. 

In a game that doesn't even have trading I'm quickly losing my patience with this shit.  It's been down from the first second the game launched and hasn't been up once.

[Trippy]

Ok... this is going to piss me off. 

Group gets to the level 30 dungeon.  We find that we can't get into the dungeon unless we are all on the main server.  So, we wait for 30 mins while each of us gets through the queue from the overflow server to the main server.  After 45 mins, we FINALLY get to start running the dungeon and one of us gets booted from the server after the first pull.  Well, that person not only gets booted out of the instance, they also get booted to an overflow server.  So... we all get to wait for them to get through the queue, back to the main server, and finally back into the dungeon. 

They REALLY need to fix this. 

There is a way to fix this but thanks to the games incredibly obtuse UI basically nobody knew about this until ArenaNet posted a response to a similar complaint written up in a Forbes article. If you right click on a party member's portrait there should be a "Join In" button that will get everybody into the same copy of the zone.

Yes, You Can Play 'Guild Wars 2' in an Overflow Server with Your Friends

Original Forbes article with the same complaint as yours:

The Colossal Folly Of The 'Guild Wars 2' Overflow

[KallDrexx]

Trippy, that feature is bugged and only works half the time.

[Trippy]

Figures

[WayAbvPar]

I haven't tried out a dungeon, so forgive me if this is a stupid question. Are there dungeon overflows as well, or is it just that everyone must join from the same instance before the dungeon? If it is the latter, at least you have some time to get organized/switched. If it is the former, then the REALLY need to unfuck the switching ASAP.

[Sky]

I just noticed at one point last night that I've been down-leveled for 3 levels now  

This is why it doesn't matter that Nebu is level 30 already.  At least if he comes and joins you.

SHOOOOOSH woman, I'm busteen hees nards.

[kildorn]

I haven't tried out a dungeon, so forgive me if this is a stupid question. Are there dungeon overflows as well, or is it just that everyone must join from the same instance before the dungeon? If it is the latter, at least you have some time to get organized/switched. If it is the former, then the REALLY need to unfuck the switching ASAP.

Dungeons are 5 man personal things. But you do appear to need to be on the same overflow as the people you are trying to enter with.

[Modern Angel]

This will be the first game that I throw money at through their RMT. If and when THEY EVER FIX THE TRADING POST... every time I check it gives me that picture of whatever-the-fuck-whale-thing. 

In a game that doesn't even have trading I'm quickly losing my patience with this shit.  It's been down from the first second the game launched and hasn't been up once.

It was up briefly that first night but not long. With the serious lag right after midnight, I'd put odds on one of the culprits being the global auction house. They took it down and it cleared up almost immediately. It's pushing a ton of data and storing a lot of items.

[Severian]

Original Forbes article with the same complaint as yours:

The Colossal Folly Of The 'Guild Wars 2' Overflow

“We currently have a couple serious bugs with one of our important back end systems. This error is causing the loss of trading post, players to sometimes be separated and unable to travel to each other when switching maps and entering overflow servers, and numerous guild errors. We are very sorry for this inconvenience and are currently working around the clock to try and remedy this error.

“When this bug is fixed overflow servers will keep parties together and players will be able to travel to the same overflow server as any friend or guild member who is in an overflow.”

[Nebu]

Lumberbeard
Lumberbeard
Lumberbeard

I'll only play with Sky if he uses voice chat.  I'm allergic to typing while I catass.

[KallDrexx]

It was up briefly that first night but not long. With the serious lag right after midnight, I'd put odds on one of the culprits being the global auction house. They took it down and it cleared up almost immediately. It's pushing a ton of data and storing a lot of items.

Dunno how much the auction house should contribute to in game lag, it's just a website run on (hopefully) non-game servers.

[WayAbvPar]

Lumberbeard
Lumberbeard
Lumberbeard

I'll only play with Sky if he uses voice chat.  I'm allergic to typing while I catass.

Says the guy who is almost never on WoT TS! 

[Mattemeo]

So let's review my first impressioins before even playing the game...

1: 3 hour download of 3 gb of data that somehow didn't make it to the two DVDs needed for the installation. I know I should be used to this bullshit by now but fuck, that's the entire size of my GW folder alone.
2: being led round in circles trying to register the game on the official site and being more than a little confused by my account/display name being my serial code for the first GW before finally getting the accounts to link
3: being sent an email verification confirmation email with instructions to click a non-hyperlinked link in plain text. Hurfdurf wat

Good start, ANet!

[EDIT] 4: The server I wish to play on (ie: with Slap guildies) is FULL. Not 'We're a little busy right now, but join the queue', but 'Fuck no, FULL'.

 

[Ingmar]

#3 is going to be down to your email client, the link was clickable for me.

Totally with you on #2 though, the account management is a little derpy. Not quite Funcom derpy but up there.

[Mattemeo]

#3 is going to be down to your email client, the link was clickable for me.

Totally with you on #2 though, the account management is a little derpy. Not quite Funcom derpy but up there.

They managed to send a perfectly well formatted 'Thanks for registering!' email beforehand. I don't get why the email confirmation one would be different.

[Ingmar]

And yeah on the server FULL thing, you are going to have to keep logging in and out until you catch it at 'high' to make a character. It is REALLY irritating that they don't have a 'refresh' button on the server population page. On the plus side it never seems to queue you once you have a character made (just dumps you to overflow.)

EDIT: On the mail format thing, what I mean is that many mail clients parse links even in plain text messages. Not sure what you're using to read it, but for example Gmail in the browser will let the link be clicked just fine.

[Riggswolfe]

I dislike the annoying popups about overflow as well. And like others have mentioned, the invitation to change to the main server comes up at the worst times. It seems to love popping up when I'm in a very intense fight with an elite mob and his friends and that damned popup obscures my screen at a critical moment.

I'm still enjoying my thief though he does feel squishy and I wish I had more AOE type potential. Right now I use a dagger/dagger and pistol/pistol build. I murder single targets but get easily overwhelmed by numbers. I may sideline the thief and try out a more AOE friendly class or even a Ranger.

[Ingmar]

One plus about the popups is that the timeout on hitting accept is actually really long. Well maybe not so much a plus, but an ameliorating factor at least.

[Mattemeo]

Failure

The link you clicked is expired or invalid.

That's the result of the two unclickable links I've requested as email verification so far. MAGNIFICENT!

[Ingmar]

On the plus side, you don't actually have to verify your email to log in. I'm actually not sure what the point of it is.

[Mattemeo]

It's all moot when I'm literally cockblocked from playing thanks to their draconian server statuses.

[Severian]

It's all moot when I'm literally cockblocked from playing thanks to their draconian server statuses.

Literally? Must be a specialty input device.
But you can create your character on another server and play there while you wait. Then transfer to desired server, which will probably work best at an off-peak time (or maybe it's not even restricted). I haven't done this, but guildmates have.

[Fordel]

Failure

The link you clicked is expired or invalid.

That's the result of the two unclickable links I've requested as email verification so far. MAGNIFICENT!

I've been getting the same fails on Email verification. The support site said they are sorting it out.

[Modern Angel]

Dunno how much the auction house should contribute to in game lag, it's just a website run on (hopefully) non-game servers.

The quoted bits sound like it's all tied into the backend issues they're having.