Beta changes

[Kageru]

There's a list of GW2 changes going around. They're probably NDA leaks so I believe the practice is to not link or repost them here. Hopefully there'll be a public version at the next open-beta event so they'll be available for discussion.

Getting a good feeling they're on top of the development process, looks like they've got a focused closed-beta process going on and two new structured PvP maps to come which just sound heaps of fun (pirates rule).

Same site also referenced an article giving some design insights, Guild Wars 2 on rifts, Waterworld and putting a nail in the coffin of quests. Some of the following hit home alright,

"I've played both [RIFT and Warhammer Online] and while participating in rifts and public quests, I couldn't shake the feeling that I was in constant competition with the other players to make sure I got my share of XP or pushed out enough DPS to make sure I got better rewards than them."

"In one particularly painful incident," he remembers of his days in RIFT, "high-level players came back to the starter areas and started one-shotting the rifts so I didn't even stand a chance. In Guild Wars 2 this just doesn't happen. Dynamic events play out the way you would expect an enemy encounter to play out in a fantasy world - everyone rallies together to help and you don't resent the addition of other players."

[kildorn]

Article is also forgetting to note that if a high level player comes back to play in the lowbie zones, they get downleveled. Ideally, it's so you can do new content as the game evolves, and the devs aren't stuck with only being able to add max level content.

[Lantyssa]

More importantly, the downleveling is fairly seemless.

It's funny how much of this game taps into the dynamic scaling I used to talk about ages ago, but gave up hoping anyone would bother.

[Kitsune]

Yeah, the design for player interaction is just plain better in GW2 than anywhere else.  Other players can only ever help, not hinder, putting everyone on a friendlier page from the get-go.  I got so spoiled by it that when I was playing Secret World and saw a guy fighting some stuff, I just waded in, blew it all up, and kept running.  Only later did it occur to me to wonder whether my being helpful had hindered him in any way.

[Kageru]

Yeah, it's spoiled me.. Wanted to duo with my wife in Aion and all the content is balanced to be easily soloable so I'm not really needed, I'm stealing her XP, we need to kill more mobs to complete some quests, have a loot mechanism active and if we differ in levels even a little it all falls apart. Not to mention the fun of "Which point in the quest are you upto? I can't see the details / drops / nodes any more".

The "Groups happen" idea is pretty much the path forward now that most aren't willing to dedicate hours of their life to sitting in a spot with their LFG up but don't necessarily want to be soloing all the time either. Even the "you can support your allies, but they don't need to depend on you" is good.

[Tmon]

More importantly, the downleveling is fairly seemless.

It's funny how much of this game taps into the dynamic scaling I used to talk about ages ago, but gave up hoping anyone would bother.

It took me a day or so to even notice I was being downleveled as I traveled back through the lower levels of the map.  I think I only realized it when a bunch of us were running around fighting stuff after we failed at running a dungeon and I died leading people into what should have been a fairly easy encounter for a level 15.

[01101010]

Man I hated public quests in WAR. Now at first they were fucking awesome... alert to a public quest area, auto-join the group, all band together to finish it. Then it happened... the end of the public quest and the rankings and scaled rewards therein. That is when it all ended for me... screw trying to run around and outdamage/outbuff-heal everyone else for the carrot. The mobs stopped mattering along with the purpose of the quest - it became a fight between players rather than what it seems here, in GW2.

[Tyrnan]

Not to mention the stupid random roll afterwards, so even if you did come top on contribution (and I did a lot on my Magus despite doing fuck all damage because of AoE dots or something, something else that was totally borked) you could still be beating out by someone getting lucky if you got a crap roll.

[Tmon]

I sort of remember them admitting that contribution had nothing to do with the rewards and that they were completely random after some players who thought they were chasing a bug did some testing showed that contribution had no effect.

[Kitsune]

The fact that downleveling doesn't strip away any of your powers is what makes it palatable.  It would suck fairly mightily to cross an invisible zone line and suddenly find out that half of the things on your toolbar no longer work.