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    Guild Wars 2 [Art] Eternal Pledge

    September 21, 2020

    Guild Wars 2 [Art] Eternal Pledge

    [Art] Eternal Pledge

    Posted: 21 Sep 2020 04:52 AM PDT

    Can we take a moment to appreciate how cool The Bitter Cold looks?

    Posted: 21 Sep 2020 01:53 AM PDT

    An Open Letter to the Arcana Council, Rata Sum

    Posted: 20 Sep 2020 02:11 PM PDT

    A matter of occupational health and safety has come to my attention in the lab you rent to me at slightly over market value.

    The area near the ledge where regulation requires me to keep both mining nodes and my vegetable garden is unnecessarily dangerous. As those same regulations allow neither gliding nor the riding of mounts, I have lost more than one lab assistant and worse, the occasional golem or even visiting guild member over the edge.

    We know the invisible barrier technology exists, because it is used effectively and occasionally frustratingly in other cities (reference Divinity's Reach). Please make the necessary changes to make my lab safe, as I am gradually running out of qualified lab assistants.

    While you're at it, I wouldn't mind having a stables in the lab, so that I can keep an eye on my various mounts while I work. They are a considerable investment in training and gold, and I like to keep them close even if your regulations prevent me from riding them.

    Sincerely,

    The Great Imagio

    submitted by /u/nagennif
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    Is someone really enjoying these games?

    Posted: 21 Sep 2020 04:55 AM PDT

    The state of thief is ruining roaming in WvW

    Posted: 21 Sep 2020 02:19 AM PDT

    I've become more invested in wvw over the last few months, and thief seems to be one of the more popular classes to roam with, which is no surprise given how much mobility and stealth that the class offers.

    While stealth and mobility should remain a core theme of Thief, the ability to fully disengage from a fight by stealthing and teleporting/running so far from your target that you leave combat entirely seems pretty unnecessary, not to mention the ability to stall duels by repeatedly stealthing to heal and regenerate initiative while being able to build very aggressively due to the innate survivability that stealth gives.

    I am not suggesting that thief is brokenly overpowered, but their ability to opt out of, or easily stall fights with long duration stealth and long range shadowsteps (in particular Shadowstep and Death's Retreat) makes duelling them more frustrating than fun, and I think stealth duration should be decreased to curb this.

    submitted by /u/lehmunayde
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    My first legendary and the guild mascot!

    Posted: 20 Sep 2020 08:41 PM PDT

    What happened between Griffon and Mordrem mount? Caption this:

    Posted: 20 Sep 2020 10:46 PM PDT

    [Fanart] Sendoff for three charr from the personal story

    Posted: 20 Sep 2020 11:33 PM PDT

    I turned off the content guide and now I'm hooked

    Posted: 21 Sep 2020 06:35 AM PDT

    I've tried the game a few times in the past, but have never been able to get into it. I'm a completionist, and in theory I should enjoy completing maps and exploring. However, something about it in practice always felt like a chore.

    I was between MMOs a few weeks ago and decided to give GW2 another shot. This time, while running around, I realized that my eyes were constantly drifting to the top right of the screen, fixed on my compass and guidance arrow. I decided that instead of letting the game tell me where to go, I'd turn off this feature and freely roam around the map. And let me tell you, it's like night and day.

    Suddenly exploration feels way more like an adventure. Scouts now feel actually useful instead of just being another bump in the road, and I'll sometimes find myself wandering into challenges that the game says I'm too low level for, and require strategy and caution to complete. I'll still pull up my map if I get lost, but I try to hold off looking at it at as long as possible before doing so.

    TL;DR - If you're having trouble getting into the game, I highly recommend you go to the options menu and turn off the content guide. For me, this made all the difference.

    submitted by /u/the12ofSpades
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    The Commander In A Pinch

    Posted: 20 Sep 2020 10:09 PM PDT

    It was all going well until..

    Posted: 21 Sep 2020 06:42 AM PDT

    GW2 Community

    Posted: 21 Sep 2020 06:01 AM PDT

    Started a game 2 weeks ago, so far i'm blown away at how much ppl are helpful and have patience with newer players.. (even in PvP ppl don't seem to mald as much nor they salty about things)..

    I'm playing on Desolation (EU) and i'd like to know more about notable guilds on EU, if there are any individuals who are well known throughout their world/server(epic WvW commanders, godlike 5v5 players,streamers etc...) videos of epic WvW/Raids/5v5 battles and things like that.. Keep up being awesome GW2 people! Wish i discovered this gem of a game before :/

    submitted by /u/rampantstaff
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    Drew my PvP Fresh Air Tempest��

    Posted: 20 Sep 2020 04:29 PM PDT

    I must go. My guildmates need me.

    Posted: 21 Sep 2020 07:36 AM PDT

    Boy ♂️ Next ♂️ Door

    Posted: 21 Sep 2020 07:52 AM PDT

    The Weekly Map Recap, Special - Living World Map 1+2 Design

    Posted: 20 Sep 2020 12:23 PM PDT

    Welcome to the Weekly Map Recap, a series where we look back at one map in the game each week. We'll look with a critical eye at how each map represents its theme, proves faithful to its lore, and implements its design. We'll see how effective its gameplay is, whether the art holds up, and the forecast for the map's long term retention. With 52 maps to date, it'll be quite the journey!

    Today's a bit different. Before we dive into each LWS1+2 map individually, we're going to take a broad overview of their shared context and design elements.

    Links to the previous entries in a reply at the bottom!

    Also, before we get to the recap, you should know that I'm currently conducting a survey on map preference. I'm currently still accepting responses - and I'll be publishing the results in a Weekly Map Recap Special article. Get in those responses while you still can!

    Living World Season 1 and 2 Primer

    So last time we talked about the launch of the game and what 'PvE content' was like at the time. We talked (at length) about what the community was like at that time.

    "Okay, but isn't this a series on in-game map design and implementation?" you ask. Well, here's why it's important to talk about all this in the context of design conversations.

    Like any live-service game, Guild Wars 2 is a conversation. It's a constant, sometimes volatile, conversation between a service-provider and customers. It's a discussion with every patch, every release, about the merits of the direction the studio has taken in their latest content - and about where they should go next.

    Despite the separation between Arenanet developers and their community in the modern day (as a result of a severe, long fermenting breakdown in relations, communications and community management which continues to this day as result of mistakes from the community management team, marketing department, a very small number of developers, and bad actors in the community) they continue, as the always have, to respond to community feedback in their live support of the game. It's impossible to argue otherwise: we might disagree about what they do with that feedback, or what happens when their internal metrics disagree with that feedback, but it is obvious that many of their design priorities are driven by it.

    In fact, design direction since launch has been based almost entirely - since around midway into Season 1, which we'll get into - on community feedback to Arenanet success and mistakes. How else are we to interpret the crazy ping-pong of map designs since Living World Season 1? Let's look at the structure of maps, by and large. Let's make a 'map', so to speak:

    Southsun Cove

    Starts as a grand experiment in what 'living world' could mean. A one time 'conquer the island' event is bold, but results in negative feedback due to logistical and technical problems.

    Criticism follows that the map is barren and empty, with Arenanet updating it with persistent events (though some argue still not enough) almost a year later. Some argue that the company did not 'think through' the implementation of Southsun Cove as a whole.

    Additionally, in terms of rewards, Southsun Cove did not have a clear reward system. It added new materials, but nearly all rewards on the map could be purchased on the trading post. This immediately devalued the map and gave it low retention save for the few karka shell farmers.

    Dry Top

    In a number of ways, this map is the opposite. Dry Top's release is methodical, with small chunks released over time that are jam-packed with content and detail. It is clear from how the sections are hooked up together that this was planned out by the close cooperation of different release teams. This map also introduces a map-wide meta for the first time with a map-wide tracker: the sandstorm.

    The rewards, as well, were more clearly thought out. This was the first map which introduced a clear system of rewards (including skins) that were exclusive to the map and could not be purchased on the trading post. The system combined random drops with map-wide currency, which is something that will be tweaked in the future to focus more on the map currency.

    However, even though the individual components of Dry Top are relatively content dense (when compared to a vanilla map or Southsun), some players criticize that they were released two weeks apart. For those players, they felt that the content was exhausted far before the release of the next section. Some also argue that the individual chunks of content give the map a 'jigsaw' feel - unnatural in comparison to other maps. Some criticism was levied at the fossilized insect random drop mechanic for the amber weapons - though I will note this mechanic has led to those weapon skins remaining relatively rare and valuable years after release.

    Silverwastes

    This map responds to criticisms of Dry Top being too piecemeal by releasing the core gameplay of the map in one large chunk. Even from the first release, the PvE WvW Lite experience was here. Future releases would add extra sections that are optional, save for the final release which added the Vinewrath boss.

    These added chunks don't feel oddly welded together with the rest of the map because each of them is a separate gameplay type: the skritt jumping puzzle, the labyrinth, even the boss itself all are functionally distinct.

    In rewards, as well, Arenanet experimented for the first time with achievement panel collection 'quests' for map-specific rewards. This method will serve them well, in conjunction with map-specific reward vendors. Together, this will remain their main method moving forward.

    Criticisms for this map are mainly to do with the long wait between the first release and the launch of Heart of Thorns. Actual criticisms of the map's structure and design tend to be relatively few and far between - save for those who are frustrated that it is the 'meta' choice for farming rewards. Those players feel forced to do this content, but that isn't really a criticism of the design per-se. It seems like no coincidence then that most Heart of Thorns maps feel like a combination of Silverwastes with Dry Top verticality, movement, and map-wide meta structure.

    ------------

    It is clear, then, that each of these maps responds to the successes and mistakes of the previous. We'll see that throughout the history of map design post-launch. What can sometimes appear to players as inconsistency in design has always been about constant responsiveness to feedback.

    All that said, I think there are some clear elements that are consistent between the three persistent new maps that were built in this era.

    Key Elements of Living World Season 1 and 2 Map Design

    1. Movement - Through these two years of map design we can see the team play with the idea of what kind of movement is possible in mmos. Although this started in Labyrinthine Cliffs, it was an astonishing move to bring it permanently to Dry Top. In Silverwastes skritt jumping puzzle we also have a fascinating jumping puzzle that exists across the entire map - a precursor of much of the environmental design in Heart of Thorns.
    2. What does 'Living' mean? - From Southsun Cove's one-off event to the map-wide weather change of Dry Top or the long 'rounds' of Silverwastes, each map in this era experiments with what it means for the world to be 'living'. Is it more compelling to have a one-time event that changes the world? Is it more sustainable to have the design be 'living' in a controlled, repeatable way? These are the questions that drive these maps.
    3. Meta Events - These maps also really experiment with how far a 'meta event' can be pushed. When the game was first built, the technology to completely change the events and environment across a map based on an event chain simply wasn't there. But this would become the norm in these maps and lead directly into the design of Heart of Thorns.
    4. Verticality - Each of these maps - even Southsun - experiment with verticality. How much can the play space be expanded to include vertical space? Do players have trouble navigating in those environments? How should they move around in them? All of these questions are clearly on the designer's minds. Much of this stems from the success of Super Adventure Box and Festival of the Four Winds in LWS1. For his own part, Josh Foreman (the lead on SAB and many other releases) feels that this process was natural: "I think it was mostly organic. People around the office would play SAB and find the mechanics fun and now they have those tools available to them, why would they NOT use them? When your job is to produce a never-ending stream of content you're going to want to look for as many ways to spice it up as possible" (Personal Communication). All of this would of course drastically impact Heart of Thorns.
    5. Who needs water? - Striking in comparison to the late-game vanilla maps, there is no (or minimal) underwater content essentially from here on out. Josh Foreman notes that, "It was a matter of priority. It was clear that fully supporting great underwater combat would require a lot more work." Southsun Cove, especially, was originally going to be a majority-underwater map, before being scrapped.
    6. Rewards - Each map experiments with a different style of reward structure. It is clear that at this time the dev team was trying to identify what would be a sustainable structure to keep a population viable for a variety of maps for many years. Going into Living World Season 3, they would articulate that the goal was to ensure that no map's rewards were 'better' - just different, and unique to that map.

    ----------------

    Altogether, this era in Guild Wars 2 history was a time of great experimentation in design and systems. While it may have been frustrating at the time for much of the player base to feel 'content starved' during parts of LWS2 or unsure about the direction of the game during those years, the dev team produced some really intriguing releases during that time. Dry Top, Silverwastes, and Southsun Cove are all fascinating maps - using environments and design elements which have remained distinct.

    It's important to note that more than three years passed between the launch of the game and the launch of Heart of Thorns. During that time, only these three entirely new maps were permanently added to the game. Building on our conversation about the community at the beginning of Living World Season 1, it's important to note that many did not stick around that long. In combination with frustrations regarding ascended equipment, lack of 'end-game' support, and a release schedule that was frequent but felt slight in content to some, community concerns grew.

    When Season 2 rolled around, players were happy during the brief windows that Dry Top and Silverwastes were released (over the course of two months for each), but grumpy over the course of the long stretches where little was released. LWS1 ended in March 2014, and Heart of Thorns launched at the end of October 2015. That was more than a year with two maps released - which to be fair was more than we'd had before. For some - especially those for whom the open world PvE content was not their preferred game mode - it was not enough. Combined with the departure of many players in the months following the original release (during the Cursed Shore/CoF farm era), our community felt much smaller when Heart of Thorns finally arrived. A shame too, because they would be missing out.

    ------------------------------------

    But that's all for another day. Next time, we'll be taking a closer look at Southsun Cove. I hope you like crab. Don't forget that survey!

    submitted by /u/Jonah_Marriner
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    Ball of Dark Energy 100% chance from weapons/armor.. yeah no

    Posted: 20 Sep 2020 09:05 AM PDT

    Should we start now or wait for Steam release?

    Posted: 21 Sep 2020 06:46 AM PDT

    So I and my Gf want to play Guild Wars 2. She never played any games before so i want to introduce her to Guild Wars 2 as of her first game. I am wondering if we should wait for steam realase or straight up start now?

    Thanks in advance

    submitted by /u/Hayenowaty
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    What is up with human female necks in this game?

    Posted: 20 Sep 2020 10:38 AM PDT

    High Ping/ms

    Posted: 21 Sep 2020 07:43 AM PDT

    Hey guys, I live in California and when I am playing, I am getting around 110ms. Is there anyway I can lower this? I've tried most VPN, however getting under 100ms is almost impossible. I just recently started PvPing and I notice the delay is making me miss dodges and I am getting some input lag. I have invested alot of time and money into the game and I really want to keep playing, however if I can't drop my ping, I will be forced to leave. Thank you in advance.

    submitted by /u/ezikeo
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    I just got a new PC and I always thought how beautiful this game was. I never played it the correct way. I had everything on medium from 2012 until now.

    Posted: 21 Sep 2020 07:41 AM PDT

    I finally see shadows, the water, reflections, how clear the rocks and the ground are, the character detail, the colours. I went from i5 4460, 8gb harddrive only, r9 270x medium to 1660 ti, 10700, ssd almost everything ultra.

    I am doing a replay again just because of my new PC. And the map load times are sooooo quick. Lions arch below 2 minutes ? Wow !

    It plays really smooth on this new PC.

    Can't wait for cantha!

    submitted by /u/MagnoRamno
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    Knock-knock-knocking on Tequatl's toes

    Posted: 21 Sep 2020 07:35 AM PDT

    Okay, so question.

    You know how you're fighting el taco and when he's about to get shot out of the sky after a cannon defense phase, but hasn't landed yet, there's that magic spot in the middle of the water you can hit with melee that deals damage?

    Does that actually do anything? Is it just some sort of weird environmental placeholder or does it actually apply damage to the boss? I can't really tell.

    submitted by /u/FortressCaulfield
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