Guild Wars [Archive]

Navaros

04-29-2005, 02:50

Technology-wise no complaints at all.

let me add one for you then: constant loading screens

loading screen are everywhere in Guild Wars. very annoying.

plus whenever they patch the game, they will automatically spam your screen with green text constantly until you restart the program so you can download the patch

at least that's how it was in the betas

also, it was really really hard to find your own Guild Mates in the betas. you had to manually tell them what town you were in and what rock to meet you by or whatnot. this of course is complicated by the fact that towns in Guild Wars are nothing other than glorified chat channels akin to the Diablo II Battlenet Channels. hence there are millions of people standing around in mass clumps in every single town.

i'm sure there's more but it's been a while since i played the betas so it's not all fresh in my mind ~D

Thoros of Myr

04-29-2005, 07:00

I know which game I wont be buying now.

Heheh, I wasen't going to buy it anyway but now I have no reservations about that decision.

Navaros

04-29-2005, 07:10

that's a good point about not being able to solo in Guild Wars

what really sucks is that people get lied to all over the Internet because Guild Wars fanboys tell them "you can solo by hiring henchmen"

but they fail to also include in that statement the reality that henchmen in Guild Wars are dumb as bricks (in terms of having horrible AI) and hence are guaranteed to commit suicide vs. any semi-strong enemy mobs. which in turn results in your death.

Louis de la Ferte Ste Colombe

04-29-2005, 08:10

Is that based on the actual game? Or is it just another beta feeling?

I'd appreciate that whether it is beta or actual game to be clearly stated. I wonder if I buy this one or not, and got little interest in hearsay from betatest.

Thanks,

Louis,

DragonRider

04-29-2005, 11:58

loading screen are everywhere in Guild Wars. very annoying.

plus whenever they patch the game, they will automatically spam your screen with green text constantly until you restart the program so you can download the patch

also, it was really really hard to find your own Guild Mates in the betas. you had to manually tell them what town you were in and what rock to meet you by or whatnot. hence there are millions of people standing around in mass clumps in every single town.

Well, I started this thread by praising this game, so I feel duty bound to defend it somewhat, now.
Playing solo: I played up to level 7 solo with no problem at all, it's only after you go through the acadamy that you need "social intercourse", & if you can't deal with real interaction, you have spent too long in front of this monitor, my friend.
Playing solo: It's a social game, that's the whole idea of it.
It's called Guild Wars. Not "you & some NPC Wars"
People standing around in mass clumps in towns: well, gee, that's what it's like in REAL towns, at least mine is. I have met new friends in these towns, it's great.
spam screen with text reminders: in the actual game, yes. But after 5 mins it stops. The game is designed to patch automatically, without having to go searching separately for them & then downloading/unzipping/etc.
To me, that's a good thing, and this reminder is a small price to pay for the convenience.
Hard to find mates: Once again, does this not sound like reality. I phone a mate, & say meet me in the pub. What's the problem.

I still say this is a great game, with no monthly fee, & ongoing expansions.

Crandaeolon

04-29-2005, 12:10

I'm playing the retail version, and it's certainly very different from the early betas. I don't understand the complaint about loading screens - they appear when you travel into a different region, and last a couple of seconds. That's pretty much standard fare in computer games, isn't it?

that's a good point about not being able to solo in Guild Wars

AFAIK, it's technically possible to solo through the main plot, only some of the side quests absolutely require a human ally. It's probably very difficult though, the NPC henchmen are much worse than good human players. That said, in retail the henchmen are better than in the public betas and don't get everyone killed as often as before.

Gotta agree with Nav that the game shouldn't be marketed for single players. The current campaign is reputed to be around 40 hours of gameplay (dunno how accurate that is), which is mostly preparation for the PvP aspects of the game. Characters can get only 20 levels, so it's not for peeps who enjoy the leveling treadmill.

Edit2: Chomp chomp, munch munch. That's me eating my words. :tongue2: After more playtime, the RPG content of Guild Wars feels undermarketed, a pleasant surprise in this age of excessive hyperbole.

Edit:

Playing solo: I played up to level 7 solo with no problem at all, it's only after you go through the acadamy that you need "social intercourse", & if you can't deal with real interaction, you have spent too long in front of this monitor, my friend.

How did you get the resurrection signet without an ally? ~D

Other than that, I agree with you. It's an online game and is meant to be played with other people. I like the design that rewards partying, and the guild and PvP aspects of the game. Overall, GW is the best game on the market for players who enjoy PvP action but don't have the time to level-grind their chars or collect tons of items to get into the thick of PvP.

Navaros

04-29-2005, 15:18

Playing solo: I played up to level 7 solo with no problem at all, it's only after you go through the acadamy that you need "social intercourse", & if you can't deal with real interaction, you have spent too long in front of this monitor, my friend.
Playing solo: It's a social game, that's the whole idea of it.
It's called Guild Wars. Not "you & some NPC Wars"
People standing around in mass clumps in towns: well, gee, that's what it's like in REAL towns, at least mine is. I have met new friends in these towns, it's great.

@the response to my complaint about loading screens, which says loading screens are standard and load fast etc.: yes the screens load fast, but that does not matter because once the loading screen appears, your immersion in the game is already broken. no, loading screens are not standard. at least not in PC games in general. generally speaking, in a good PC game you'll only encounter a loading screen once every hour or two. not once every 5 minutes, as is the case in Guild Wars.

@the social intercourse comments: but making parties is not really about social intercourse at all. parties are formed by the following process, usually:

go click on as many people standing around in a clump as possible . click on them, then click on the INVITE button. do this until enough people click ACCEPT and your party is full.

as you can see, there is no social intercourse involved at all. now i realize there are other ways to make parties in this game, but the point is that this is the way things are done during the normal course of gameplay

@the "mass clumps of people look like what happens in real towns": not exactly true. in real towns you'll never see groups of dozens of people all standing around like statues in the exact same spot. but that is all you see in Guild Wars. it's not realistic at all. i find it makes towns very boring and not-fun to be in. as the mass clumps of statue-like people everywhere just reminds you that you're playing a game, and that the towns in Guild Wars are not real towns persay, but rather they are simply glorified chat channels as stated earlier

@the green text spam response: 5 minutes is better than infinity, but 5 minutes of spam can still ruin your day. especially if you're in the heat of a tough mission when you start getting spammed by the devs. they should only send you only one message to restart your game (maybe along with one audio reminder too), not spam you for 5 minutes with green text that interferes with your enjoyment of the game and ability to survive in the game.

my bad for not being clear enough earlier: my comments are based on playing the betas of Guild Wars. i have not yet played the Retail version. i probably will get around to doing that next week. but i presume that many of the things i've noted from the betas are still the same in Retail. in any case i'll be sure to post Retail thoughts in this thread once i've got Retail

PS: don't take my comments to mean i'm saying that "Guild Wars sucks" or anything. i'm just pointing out the flaws i've noticed since it seems most people like to "hush up" the flaws of their favorite games rather than be honest about them.

question: can you still only take one type of each henchman into your party? ie: in the betas you could only take one tank henchman into your party at a time. which especially sucked if you yourself were not a tank.

and another question: do AI henchman still get loot allocated to them? i found this to be extremely stupid in the betas; that henchmen would get loot that you are not allowed to pick up. in the betas this totally defeated any and all purpose for ever taking henchmen with you, since they'd get many of the cool stuff that drops as you try to solo. is this still the case? and do henchman still get your gold too?

DragonRider

04-29-2005, 21:35

in a good PC game you'll only encounter a loading screen once every hour or two. not once every 5 minutes, as is the case in Guild Wars.

go click on as many people standing around in a clump as possible . click on them, then click on the INVITE button. do this until enough people click ACCEPT and your party is full.

as you can see, there is no social intercourse involved at all. now i realize there are other ways to make parties in this game, but the point is that this is the way things are done during the normal course of gameplay

the mass clumps of statue-like people everywhere just reminds you that you're playing a game, and that the towns in Guild Wars are not real towns persay, but rather they are simply glorified chat channels as stated earlier

they should only send you only one message to restart your game (maybe along with one audio reminder too).

question: can you still only take one type of each henchman into your party?

I accept that the ressurection signet is an exception to solo play, yes.
That quest introduces solo players (me at 1st) to real player teamwork.
I agree about loading screens.
I have not tried multi-invites. Never even occurred to me. Sounds like a quick way to form a team, I might try it.
I normally go up & strike up a conversation first, see if they are interested, before inviting. If they invite me, I talk first, "where r u going", then I might accept.
Mass clumps of people standing around like statues: try standing on a train platform during rush hour!
The only reason they are standing still, is because they are deep in conversation. Or they are AFK, but as experience gains, players will go and sit down in a corner, I do when AFK.
And frankly, I have never used a henchman, never needed too. If I can't find real people, I come back later. Never had a need, though for NPCs.
You are right on about the need for only one message. I think this is a change the dev's will soon make. The beta test was also for player feedback, aswell as fixing any bugs.
One fix I would like to see is the ability to walk. It annoys me that I can only run.
Thanks for the responses.

Navaros

04-30-2005, 03:40

i was downtown today so i bought myself a Collector's Edition of Guild Wars, because of a feature what the back of the box lists as:

Collector's Exclusive: Divine Aura
Each character you create manifests the gods' favor with a glowing aura, visible to all

that is exactly what the back of the CE box says. it's the first feature listed, too

the official statement on the devs' website about this states:

Only an elite few gain the attention and favor of the gods, but those who do receive a celestial gift -- a Divine Aura, a glowing visible token of their god’s blessing. When players purchase the Collector’s Edition of Guild Wars, each of their characters will receive this unique in-game item. Characters who equip the item are surrounded by a unique aura determined by the god who has bestowed it, and the item itself has a shape and color distinctive to that specific god. Once blessed by the gods, Divine Aura stays with a character; it cannot be traded or given to others.

sounds great right? sounds like you get a cool glow effect on you at all times, just like some of the monsters in Guild Wars have.

yet in reality, this feature only works when you are using emotes (fluff command animations that have nothing to do with gameplay), and they don't make you glow either

this is the most blatant case of false advertising i've seen in a real long time

i bought three copies of the CE today. one for me to play with, one for me to sell on eBAY a few months down the road (thinking everyone would want a glow aura after CE are off the market), and one for my friend who i called (who said he wanted the CE for the glow aura)

CE is $50 more than the normal version, and the main feature of it does not even work as advertised.

i'm real steamed about this.

luckily i got this info to my friend before he opened his game, and my 2 copies aren't open either. we can get refunds.

but i feel really sorry for this who were scammed by this false advertisting and can't get a refund since they opened the game before they realized they were being scammed

DragonRider

04-30-2005, 13:09

i bought three copies of the CE today.
Navaros, frankly I find it amazing that you can knock this game for two days in this link, and then go out & buy 3 boxes of it!! ~:eek:
The most expensive version aswell.
I read in the home site that pre-purchase players like me get the aurora too.

My biggest challenge with this game is not the gameplay, the PvP or the quests. It is trying to find a guild with a few members who live in my timezone. Not easy, when I live on the other side of the planet to the rest of the world. :laugh4:

PanzerJaeger

05-03-2005, 00:28

I got the game a few days ago and have been enjoying it ever since.

Crandaeolon

05-03-2005, 16:11

Nav, you probably know this stuff already since you bought the game, but for others:

question: can you still only take one type of each henchman into your party?

Yep, only one of each type. Warrior, healer, mage, archer. I've found that for a caster type (Elem/Necro), a warrior supported by a monk is sufficient for tanking most enemies in the explorable areas.

Edit: Later on, additional henchman types become available, and their purposes overlap a bit. Dunno if it was so in the beta, didn't play it that much.

and another question: do AI henchman still get loot allocated to them?

Yes... and no. Gold is "shared" like before, and monsters simply drop less if you have henchmen in the party. Makes good sense IMO; if one needs NPCs for soloing, one shouldn't reap the same rewards as a player who actually goes alone into the wilds. (Yes, tough guys _can_ do that and snag up 100% loot... ~D)

I got the game a few days ago and have been enjoying it ever since.

I'm enjoying it too. "Streamlined" and "Polished" would be good words to describe the game. There's a plenty of stuff to do, places to explore and the combat is surprisingly tactical.

Are you still in the Raven Clan, PJ? Alrowan is playing GW too?

DisruptorX

05-06-2005, 06:00

This game is quite fun, think Diablo (the original, when it was something new and interesting). This game has managed to pull me away from World of Warcraft, as it is something different. Basically, this is an action RPG based on teamwork. I'm part of the Penny Arcade guild: the Kansas City Hotsteppers.

Crandaeolon

05-06-2005, 12:14

Here's the first useful "official" review: http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/guildwars/review.html

It's admittedly a bit gushy, but provides enough valid criticisms to be taken seriously. And the community seems to give it good ratings too.

Personally, I'm upgrading the game's status from "decent" to "very good, maybe great". Certainly worth the money - I'm still getting surprised by the scale and scope of the game.

The advertising sort of leads you to believe that the RPG portion of the game is shortish and just a preparation for the PvP endgame, but that's certainly not the case. The 100 hours of content quoted in the above review doesn't sound that far-fetched after all... I've put in 40+ hours now, and am maybe halfway through.

Need to take back the comment about soloing - so far, I've mostly soloed through the plot missions without problems. It's certainly easier with a human party, but perfectly doable with NPC henchmen too.

Navaros

05-06-2005, 17:52

DisruptorX

05-06-2005, 20:51

i've recently been moving IRL so didn't have a chance to play Retail yet

but im curious, where is the "100 hours" coming from?

i did most of the beta missions, which were around character level 15 - 20 missions. they usually took around an hour.

since there are only 25 missions in Guild Wars (or so i have read), then how does that amount to 100 hours of gameplay?

There are many, many more quests than missions alone. In addition, you have to actually get to the next mission on foot, in at least one case. The retail game is much harder than the beta, as well.

Crandaeolon

05-06-2005, 21:31

Like DisruptorX said, there's a plethora of quests in addition to the main missions, and the explorable areas are large and sometimes very difficult. The plot missions are longer and harder than in the beta. You'd better do several of the extra quests to gather the necessary experience, skills and wealth to survive the plot missions.

That 100+ hours is probably roughly accurate for the first time through the game, but of course it'll be faster for characters that can get wealth and/or boosting aid from their predecessors or other players. OTOH, if you're a perfectionist who wants to unlock all 75 skills for all six professions, well... that's a loooong project.

DragonRider

05-07-2005, 06:54

Like DisruptorX said, there's a plethora of quests in addition to the main missions, and the explorable areas are large and sometimes very difficult. that's a loooong project.
And besides all that, it is great fun joining up & helping other players achieve their ambitions, whether they are new to the game & you have done the mission yourself earlier, or a more advanced player, on a quest you have never heard of.
Then after all that, there is competition. This could be against random players, or guild versus guild. If you think you have done it all, try climbing the ladder. Of course, this means co-operating with others by joining a guild.

Crandaeolon

05-07-2005, 14:03

I'd recommend visiting the arenas in the middle of the game too; PvP competition is a nice change of pace even during the storyline and the PvP bouts are where the combat system of the game really excels. Also, the first couple of arenas aren't accessible by dedicated PvP characters, so that's a good opportunity to fight with your RPG character on a relatively level playing field.

Navaros

05-08-2005, 00:56

ok i had a chance to play yesterday. i did almost all of the quests up to the searing, and a few of the searing quests

the AI henchman are a bit smarter, but i think saying you can "solo" with them is giving them way too much credit.

i was able to get them to survive pretty well past the wall and in the breach, but there was a major problem still; just around the hill where the protector guy is along with a farmer who he wants you to save, there is this big level 6 troll thing boss named Ooka Mooka or something like that. but even worse, he has millions of shamans around him who heal him up just before he dies. the numbers are simply too overwhelming for two tanks (and a healer and a ranger) to handle properly. well i was level 6 when i was fighting him...i guess if i had a few higher levels i coulda beat him. but IIRC my own henchman were only level 4.

anyhow my point in all of this is to say that i have found henchman to be smarter than in the beta, but still not strong enough to survive under all circumstances. especially since you can only take one of each type - that's lame! now...if i had been able to take 3 other warriors in my party with me, it woulda been a much different story and that troll boss woulda got smacked around real good. :furious3:

something i still really hate is the camera. it's pitched so far away from you that your character looks really small for just about 100% of the game. and if you try to move it closer to your character, then you can not navigate the environment properly because your view is obscured. but do you think they show your actual character size in any of the "official screenshots"? heck no! they always show big huge characters, as if that is the view you get during normal gameplay (it's not!)

another thing i really hate is that your party gets broken up if you use the Map to teleport. that is super lame!

yet another thing i still really hate is the lack of any voice-acting during normal gameplay. instead of hearing voices, you see words floating above people's heads. that may be ok for early 1990's PC games, but it's 2005 now...geez!

and even another thing i really hate is that you have to accept crappy items as quest rewards, and the quest is not complete until you clear your inventory to make space for the crap items that you do not want in the first place. talk about really shoddy design there!

and the loot itself - 95% of it is pure crap. not even worth picking up. they really need to add more variety to loot or something

the dye system is obsolete...they should have let you use a Dawn of War style "paint your own armor any color you want with your RGB palette" system

no ability to upload your own images onto your capes = lame. Dawn of War had a good model that Guild Wars should have borrowed in this regard too.

the storyline has been very disappointing thus far. way too few cutscenes, and the ones that are there are way too short. i was especially underwhelmed by the searing scene. i was expecting a huge apocalyptical event. what i got was barely a fizzle.

the graphics are ok, but not great. i don't know why everyone acts like Guild Wars has amazing graphics. they're not that good.

despite all that, i don't hate the game. it's a decent game. i'd probably give it about a 75% - 80%. certainly not over 85, though. it makes me sick how like with all "super popular" games, the critics unanimously give it illegitmate high scores by default just to appease their audience/advertisers.

DisruptorX

05-08-2005, 04:20

yet another thing i still really hate is the lack of any voice-acting during normal gameplay. instead of hearing voices, you see words floating above people's heads. that may be ok for early 1990's PC games, but it's 2005 now...geez! .

Oh please. I hate voice acting, its lame, I don't notice the lack of it at all. Not only that, but the music I'm playing in the background would drown it out anyway.

Now, complaining about the awful voice acting during cutscenes, with sealed mouths would be valid. The don't even bob their heads like in MGS 1 to make up for it.

No one ever said this game was the second coming. If you bought it expecting that, then you are bound to be dissapointed. Never read game magazines or sites, they give ratings based on how much they are paid. Find people with similar tastes to your own and ask around.

Crandaeolon

05-08-2005, 10:10

Whoa, a lot of love there Nav! ~;)

the AI henchman are a bit smarter, but i think saying you can "solo" with them is giving them way too much credit.

Learn to play. :tongue2: I've soloed to way past Lion's Arch, no huge problems yet, though the difficulty is going up all the time. And the henchmen are certainly better than clueless newbies...

i have found henchman to be smarter than in the beta, but still not strong enough to survive under all circumstances.

No one is strong enough to survive under all circumstances. Pick your fights carefully, take the mobs apart if you can, and tailor your tactics to the enemies you encounter. Take down the healers first, the principal rule in both PvE and PvP play. Debuff the warriors until the healers are dead to minimise damage.

Note that you can call targets to henchmen and other players with ctrl+space. 'T' selects a target called by another player.

Personally, I like the steep difficulty. Easy games are aplenty, it's refreshing to see a game that's occasionally hard. And if you think that the post-Searing Ascalon area is hard... boy, are you in for a surprise! :evil:

something i still really hate is the camera.

Eh? What do you expect, some kind of miracle vision? You can zoom the camera all the way down to first-person, all the way up to a bird's eye view, or anywhere in between. You can rotate & tilt the camera at will. What else would be needed? Some kind of situationally aware "movie camera" to show off the eye-candy?

another thing i really hate is that your party gets broken up if you use the Map to teleport.

Agreed, it's annoying.

and the loot itself - 95% of it is pure crap. not even worth picking up. they really need to add more variety to loot or something

Oh, you poor newbie. :bow: Everything is worth picking up. Ever heard of salvage kits? That'll also take care of your inventory space problem. And since you can create new armour only by crafting, you're really at a disadvantage if you didn't start salvaging right away in pre-Searing.

More variety to loot is a bit of a double-edged sword. On one hand it's added spice, on the other it would create more farming for items, which is about the most boring activity in MMORPGs and action RPGs. Pindle / Eldritch / Shenk runs anyone? ~D

GW was designed so that there's not that much difference between low-end and high-end gear. Like it or not, the game is not an item-hoarding game (though the loot does improve in quality later on in the game, with the much shought-after runes, weapon upgrades and rares.)

the dye system is obsolete...they should have let you use a Dawn of War style "paint your own armor any color you want with your RGB palette" system

Dyes are one of the few precious money-sinks in the game, they help keep the economy healthy by keeping inflation in check. You can also "paint" the PvP characters to a degree, though the system could indeed be better.

the storyline has been very disappointing thus far.

Based on your post, you have only played through the prologue. Thus, you have barely started the storyline, and are not qualified to offer an opinion. ~:)

That said, the plot is fairly standard fantasy tripe. Don't expect much, it's an action RPG after all. And, I gotta agree that the Searing scene was lame.

the graphics are ok, but not great. i don't know why everyone acts like Guild Wars has amazing graphics. they're not that good.

Do you mean the technology, artistic design or appearance in general? Technologically, the game is a couple of years behind current FPS games, but the nice tradeoff is that it's playable on older computers too. Three of my friends have bought the game simply because it's playable on their computers, while other new offerings are not.

The art design is just great IMO, and that's what makes the "graphics" good. The game has a distinctive style with a bit of an anime flavor mixed with a traditional fantasy setting. There are a lot of great environments.

despite all that, i don't hate the game. it's a decent game. i'd probably give it about a 75% - 80%. certainly not over 85, though.

You have played about 5% of the game, do you really think that you can offer a reliable opinion? I've played about 50% of the RPG content, and definitely don't feel qualified to "rate" the game yet.

Crandaeolon

05-08-2005, 10:26

Never read game magazines or sites, they give ratings based on how much they are paid.

I resent that implication. I've reviewed games as a part-time job, and have never received anything but the standard pay. Nor were my ratings modified in any way in editing, they appeared exactly the same in the publication.

Sure there are some rotten apples, but not all game critics are crooks. Game advertisements in mags and sites are standard practice, and where else should they be if not in publications for their target market? Duh! :tongue2:

Edit: Wording. Gah, too much time at hand, so easy to quibble about things on forums... ~D

Redleg

05-09-2005, 02:14

Well I just bought the game today - and played it for about 3 hours. Its basically a decent game - with some minor flaws that does not distract from my enjoyment of the game.

Because its an interaction game - the game experience will be different by how you react and deal with others in the game. So far everyone I have joined with have been freindly and helpful in getting the jest of the game. Some of the quests are easy to do with just yourself - and others are very hard - unless you like to run and make the enemy characters fight against other NPC - done that once or twice now.

Overall - a decent game.

Navaros

05-09-2005, 06:54

Whoa, a lot of love there Nav! ~;)

Learn to play. :tongue2: I've soloed to way past Lion's Arch, no huge problems yet, though the difficulty is going up all the time. And the henchmen are certainly better than clueless newbies...

No one is strong enough to survive under all circumstances. Pick your fights carefully, take the mobs apart if you can, and tailor your tactics to the enemies you encounter. Take down the healers first, the principal rule in both PvE and PvP play. Debuff the warriors until the healers are dead to minimise damage.

Note that you can call targets to henchmen and other players with ctrl+space. 'T' selects a target called by another player.

Personally, I like the steep difficulty. Easy games are aplenty, it's refreshing to see a game that's occasionally hard. And if you think that the post-Searing Ascalon area is hard... boy, are you in for a surprise! :evil:

Eh? What do you expect, some kind of miracle vision? You can zoom the camera all the way down to first-person, all the way up to a bird's eye view, or anywhere in between. You can rotate & tilt the camera at will. What else would be needed? Some kind of situationally aware "movie camera" to show off the eye-candy?

i don't mind hard games. but having AI henchman die constantly simply because the AI sucks does not make a game "hard" persay. i just realized that most of the time, the level of the henchmen is way too low. you get level 3 henchmen for the seared quests...those henchmen should be level 6 for those areas (at the very least!). then you get level 6 henchmen for the level 8 or 9 areas

i admit i have not yet adopted advanced PVE tactics such as the ones described. i shall do that henceforth and get back to you about how helpful they have been.

btw i'm a Warrior Monk...what skills do i have to debuff warriors with? i don't think i have any.

as for what i expected from the camera: i expected a camera that lets you see the environment properly whilst also giving you a BIG view of your own character.

like in most of the "official" screenshots like the ones below:
http://guildwars.com/images/jpeg/screenshots/gwscreen056-page.jpg

http://guildwars.com/images/jpeg/screenshots/gwscreen055-page.jpg

notice how huge the characters are...which tells the viewer/prospective customer: "this is how cool the game looks during actual gameplay"

below is a screenshot from myself at maxed out graphics, taken from the default camera view. yes you can move the camera closer, but any closer view makes navigating the environment impossible, hence it is not worthwhile to do so.

http://home.ca.inter.net/~navaros/guildwars%20small%20r001.jpg

now do you see what i mean? ~D

Louis de la Ferte Ste Colombe

05-09-2005, 08:56

What I see is an interesting choise of skills...

You play by yourself in your party and still got 2 resurrrect slot?

You go for both Strenght and Tactics?

I am not sure level matters all that much. Better be a level 6 focusing on 2 attributes with complementary set of skills, than a level 12 focusing on 6 attributes. At least that's my thought about it.

I don't think a warrior monk can debuff an ennemy warrior; probably one of the weakness of that set up ~:) . It's one of the good thing about that game; you can't do everything. There must be a reason to play Mesmer ~D

Louis,

Navaros

05-09-2005, 12:24

the reason i use two res slots is because the "normal" res spell is utterly useless in heated combat. sometimes ya just need to get the dead guy back in combat now now now! - and as far as i can tell the signet is the only way to do that without having the dead guy become a dead guy again instantly. but since signet can only be used once, i have to take the "normal" res skill too. kind of a waste of a slot, but what can ya do.

the reason i only had me in my party was because i just went and took a screenshot specifically for this thread at the time of my previous post. nonetheless, good eye on noticing all that! ~D

yes i did go strength and tactics...and healing prayers and smiting prayers. i really like the smiting prayers but alas i think i will have to forsake them in order to beef up the other 3 to suitable levels. ~:eek:

i played some more between this post and my previous post. this time i took a bunch of level 6 henchman on the Rurik "free the prisoners" mission. i did the whole mission...and then came across the bonus "kill the flame temple charr" objective. well, i killed a whole bunch of them that were carrying an ark or something. then after i killed them, the objective was still not complete. so i walked wayyyyyyyyyyy the heck around the Ravine and right past the lever that would have ended the mission (by letting Rurik and Erol over the bridge). just as i walked down into a little cove, i saw millions of charr. knowing how dumb henchman were, i figured this is gonna be close. but since we did all of the mission fine up to that point, i decided to take a stab at it. well...a few seconds later i noticed we were losing real bad, so i started to retreat. i got to safety. of course, none of my 3 henchman bothered to retreat. they just stayed and got slaughtered. i was able to use res signet on the mage henchman and then retreat him back and get us both healed. but the next time we went down the hill, we got slaughtered real bad. i was just about retreated a second time when a charr cast bane signet on me, and that killed me

in retrospect, i learned some important lessons from all this:

1. henchmen are still hopeless in the Retail version

2. i should have just went back to pull the lever after my henchmen died instead of still going for the bonus. although the quest log made it sound like if i killed the charr carrying the ark, then that would have got me the bonus. but it didn't. :dizzy2:

i also notice that the missions that were CLVL 15 missions in the betas, are now CLVL 10 missions in Retail (they made the enemies much weaker in Retail). which would not be a problem, except that in the betas you could take 8 people on those missions with you, not 4 like it is now. i was really peeved that i could only take 4 pre-searing. now that i'm well into the searing and i still can't take 8 people, even on missions where the betas let me take 8...that's very disappointing. the devs should have left these as CLVL 15 missions (with much tougher charr) and let you take 8 people on them :furious3:

when do the 8 person PVE missions start? ~:eek:

oh yes and there is a funny anecdote about one mission: i was partied with 3 other people and we found the bonus "find the ghost's armor" mission. well...his greaves were assigned so that only i could pick them up. but my inventory was full to the brim, and all the salvagable stuff i had was already salvaged. so...i told them i'm not picking the quest item up...why should i waste an item of mine by dropping it. but i made them an offer. 500GP and i'll pick it up. they started getting all irate after i said that. but oh well...if they want me to drop an item from my inventory for their sake then they're gonna have to pay a premium. they yelled at me for a while, and then they left the game. i went on with the mission but unfortunately i wasn't able to deliver all of the ghost's armor back to him because i stumbled upon the end cutscene first. i thought it was a very interesting interaction that was brought about on this mission. ~D

Crandaeolon

05-09-2005, 15:53

1. henchmen are still hopeless in the Retail version

Well... I've soloed to character level 16, the 3rd or 4th mission after Lion's Arch with henchmen only. I'd say that somewhere around / after Maguuma Jungle the difficulty screw is so tight that soloing is not worth it any more. But before that, it's doable though still difficult.

when do the 8 person PVE missions start?

After Maguuma Jungle, in Henge of Denravi IIRC. It's a looong way to go. :tongue2: And, it's not getting any easier. Ever.

I don't think a warrior monk can debuff an ennemy warrior; probably one of the weakness of that set up

Well... that's why there should be a necro, ele and/or mesmer in the group. ~D The W/Mo is basically a tank that can do some healing. Tricky class to play; going for both Smiting and Healing could get a bit too energy-heavy. How about picking one of the weapons masteries? They've got lots of skills that aren't energy-dependant.

And yes Nav, I understood your meaning about the camera. But... by that logic, pretty much every game out there is falsely advertising things. Ever compared RTW "official screenshots" to what you usually get in-game? ~;)

Navaros

05-11-2005, 09:15

today i got scammed in Guild Wars

after doing the Althea's Ashes missions like 9 times already and always dying because my real-people party allies were not-so-bright, i was looking to try again, and seeking a party in town

then someone in Pike town offered to sell me the ashes for 200 gold. so i thought: "this might not work, but im tech-savvy in case it is a scam, so what the heck. 200 gold is worth not having the aggravation of repeating that mission again."

i bought the item. then i realized the Duke would not accept it from me. in fact, i had indeed been scammed!

i told the scammer to give my money back, and then the scammer said "oh you need two of those items, buy another one from me or tough luck". of course i did not do that. i also did not get my money back.

so i took screenshots that proved the entire scam with concrete evidence of the whole deal. i mailed them to the devs along with an explanation of the situation.

i got a response from a GM about an hour later. it read:

Hello,

Thanks for getting in touch with the Guild Wars Support Team in regards to this issue. We will use the information you have provided to investigate whether a violation of the rules has occurred. All information related to the discovery and disciplining of an account will only be discussed between the violator and customer support. If we do find that a rule or rules were broken, you will not hear of any rulings related to the incident and the account(s) involved.

However, when a trade between players leaves one of them feeling he or she was scammed is often an issue of trust rather than a violation of our rules or use of a bug/exploit. We can certainly sympathize with you that this must be a very frustrating situation, but we consider such non-violation scams to be a player-matter to be resolved in-game. We are unable to return any of the items lost to you. Please understand that once you give out, loan or otherwise release control of an item to a person, you are in effect giving it to that person of your own free will. We can only ask that you be more cautious in the future when exchanging items with other players.

Please contact us again if you need further assistance,

- The Guild Wars support team

which of course, is just a nice polite way of saying: "we know you got scammed, but we don't care and we are not going to do anything about it. scamming is not a technical violation of our rules"

so...rather than be left with being missing 200 gold due to a scam, i chose to fully embrace the devs' policy on scamming. i marked up the price to 500 gold, and scammed another poor fellow.

i hope he will complain against me (in which case i will just show NCSoft the email from the GM which said scamming is A-OK). and then i hope he in turn scams someone else in the same way that i was scammed, and that i scammed him. i hope the scamming chain continues, and reaches epidemic proportions to the point where the devs might actually change this absurd pro-scamming policy

Crandaeolon

05-13-2005, 16:46

Consider yourself lucky, 200 gold is chump change. The other day some poor fellow was venting his frustration in the chat channel; he had sold two black dyes for 100 gold each in the newbie area. A jar of black dye is worth about 1.5k-2k, so that was a loss of 3,000+ gold pieces in net worth.

The tutorial should maybe include a basic do's and dont's section about trading. Something like this:

Do:

- Start gathering materials by salvaging things as early as possible

- Always IDentify blue, purple and yellow things; they may unlock upgrades or runes

- If ID reveals an upgrade, stash the item until you get an Expert Salvage Kit

- Hold on to your dyes until Post-Searing, they're potentially very valuable

- Try to hit all quests that give skills or gold before entering the Academy

Don't:

- Don't ever buy armour from another player; all pieces of armour are customized for the original owner

- Don't buy quest items

- Don't buy customised weapons

- Don't sell dyes until you know their value! (Check prices in Old Ascalon, after the Searing)

- Don't hand over items or gold to strangers without getting something tangible in return

DragonRider

05-13-2005, 20:15

Crandaeolon, your insight is invaluable, & very much appreciated. Thankyou.

Navaros

05-13-2005, 20:43

- Don't ever buy armour from another player; all pieces of armour are customized for the original owner

- Don't ever buy armour from another player; all pieces of armour are customized for the original owner

- Don't buy quest items

- Don't buy customised weapons

good suggestions here given the current state of the game. but instead of all that, the best solution would be for the devs to simply make these items not go into the trade window . it would probably only take them 5 minutes to turn this flag ON in the game code for those items. they already have this functionality in place for belt pouches. yet they don't do it for the items that people actually scam with. :dizzy2:

guess it's just another one of those many incomplete, shoddily-designed things in Guild Wars

btw the first even semi-honest review of Guild Wars that i have ever read can be found here (http://gr.bolt.com/games/pc/rpg/guild_wars.htm)

pretty much everything in the review is spot-on and echoes what i've been saying ~D although he did go too easy on the henchmen point. he probably stopped using them after the first few levels and hence was unaware of just how glaringly obscene their stupidity makes them vs. any semi-tough enemy

Crandaeolon

05-13-2005, 22:26

btw the first even semi-honest review of Guild Wars that i have ever read can be found here

Some of the criticisms in that review are valid of course, but others are already obsolete, for example the materials rarity complaint (which was fixed in an update.) And, it's quite obvious that the reviewer hasn't played the game for more than the "first twenty hours." This:

"Common tactical considerations such as tanking, pulling and aggro management are less important than simply dealing out damage as quickly as possible."

Is simply not true. The mid-game and later areas are far too difficult to allow ignoring monster management. Granted, monster variety is a flaw in some stages of the game, but most of the human, centaur, dwarf, birdfolk etc. enemies use the same class system as players, and those encounters tend to be diverse enough.

There are also factual errors, this for example:

"But once you reach level 20, you can port your character over to the PvP server for tournament action."

Eh? That doesn't make any sense at all. There's no "porting" needed whatsoever - all characters can fight in the arenas whenever they want to, if they have reached that arena in game. There are also no PvP servers. There's a chance that he might mean the Tomb, but the comment is a bit too vague for that.

Trust whomever you want, but I'd rather trust someone who gets the basics right... :tongue2:

Navaros

05-14-2005, 02:10

"Common tactical considerations such as tanking, pulling and aggro management are less important than simply dealing out damage as quickly as possible."

Is simply not true. The mid-game and later areas are far too difficult to allow ignoring monster management. Granted, monster variety is a flaw in some stages of the game, but most of the human, centaur, dwarf, birdfolk etc. enemies use the same class system as players, and those encounters tend to be diverse enough.

There are also factual errors, this for example:

"But once you reach level 20, you can port your character over to the PvP server for tournament action."

Eh? That doesn't make any sense at all. There's no "porting" needed whatsoever - all characters can fight in the arenas whenever they want to, if they have reached that arena in game. There are also no PvP servers. There's a chance that he might mean the Tomb, but the comment is a bit too vague for that.

Trust whomever you want, but I'd rather trust someone who gets the basics right... :tongue2:

funny you should criticsize this reviewer for getting the basics wrong considering that in your words, "the first useful "official" review" was by Greg Kasavin...Kasavin's who's reviews of other games can certainly be systematically debunked as being inherently flawed in terms of getting the basics (and almost everything else) wrong. i could show you some examples in this thread but unfortunately that would take this thread offtopic, so i must refrain. :book:

as for the use of the word "porting" in the review i linked to: it's probably not a factual error. i think you are taking the word "porting" far too literally; which was probably not the reviewer's intention when he chose that word. he probably just meant that at level 20 you will be strong enough to go to PVP whereas before then you're probably gonna get owned if you do so, therefore it doesn't make sense to port your character before level 20

as for the monster management claim: i haven't played far enough into the game to notice that there is anything wrong with the reviewer's comments on that. so far i'm just about done Yak's Bend, i've spent a whole whackload of hours in the game. rough estimate, probably 40 hours already. for those 40 hours, all the stated comments about not needing monster management were relevant. therefore, for a rather sizable portion of the game, advanced tactics are seldom needed or used . so even if that's not true for 100% of the game, it's still fairplay to stick that comment in a review. ~:cool:

Crandaeolon

05-14-2005, 03:52

"the first useful "official" review" was by Greg Kasavin...

I don't care who wrote it, that name means nothing to me... could have been anyone including Tom Chick! ~D The GS review felt tolerable, the guy got most of the pros and cons right, even though his rating was a bit inflated. Most of the questionable game issues were mentioned, including one of your pet peeves, the loading screens. Even the occasionally monotonous PvE was mentioned.

There weren't fact errors in the review AFAIK except one (he got the amount of skills wrong), and although that Greg guy writes poorly, there were no notable ambiguities in the text. He went into specifics like he should have.

as for the use of the word "porting" in the review i linked to: it's probably not a factual error.

"Probably" is not accurate enough. ~;) The writer wasn't clear; he's either uninformed (factual error) or incompetent (doesn't know how to write reviews properly.) I'm leaning towards uninformed because of his other comments. He avoids specifics, which is a common dodge. "Mumble, if you are uncertain."

i'm just about done Yak's Bend, i've spent a whole whackload of hours in the game. rough estimate, probably 40 hours already.

Type /age, that'll give you the exact time played. You're quite easy-going if you have taken 40 hours and are still in the mountains. At the same pace you'll easily surpass 100 hours, maybe even 150 hours before Ascension. Maybe that 40 hours is a bit exaggerated? If not, I'd suggest that you pick up the pace, especially if you're getting bored by the local monsters.
After Lion's Arch, the difficulty should be enough to keep an experienced gamer entertained.

for those 40 hours, all the stated comments about not needing monster management were relevant. therefore, for a rather sizable portion of the game, advanced tactics are seldom needed or used . so even if that's not true for 100% of the game, it's still fairplay to stick that comment in a review.

Not exactly. He should have done something like what you just did, mention that the first 20-30ish hours are easier and consequently uninteresting for some experienced gamers. Personally I didn't mind it much, but I moved at a fairly brisk pace - I arrived at Lion's Arch in about 30-35 hours or so. I've clocked now 55 hours with my main char (E/N 19), and am doing the Ascension trials.

Navaros

05-15-2005, 00:41

Type /age, that'll give you the exact time played. You're quite easy-going if you have taken 40 hours and are still in the mountains. At the same pace you'll easily surpass 100 hours, maybe even 150 hours before Ascension. Maybe that 40 hours is a bit exaggerated? If not, I'd suggest that you pick up the pace, especially if you're getting bored by the local monsters.
After Lion's Arch, the difficulty should be enough to keep an experienced gamer entertained.

Not exactly. He should have done something like what you just did, mention that the first 20-30ish hours are easier and consequently uninteresting for some experienced gamers. Personally I didn't mind it much, but I moved at a fairly brisk pace - I arrived at Lion's Arch in about 30-35 hours or so. I've clocked now 55 hours with my main char (E/N 19), and am doing the Ascension trials.

thx for the /age tip, that rocks. as of right now, i've played 66 hours and 14 minutes as of Beetletun. minus 10 of those to get from where i was in Yak's Bend to where i am now; and hence it took me 56 hours to just about finish Yak's Bend. i was around level 15 at that point, and there are 20 levels. so it seems that for 3/4 of the part of the game in which my character can make progress, it was spent randomly dishing out damage at whichever monster happened to be closest (as all my allies did the same). that's quite a heckuva big portion of the game to have left the dynamic fighting out of!

i have noticed the boring gameplay picks up the pace and strategic requirements quite a bit as of Kryta and beyond...but by then like i said my character is already 3/4 of the way to maximum level...so it's too little, too late.

note: i didn't play for so long because i suck. rather, i had a lot of stupid allies who got me killed and hence had to repeat many quests. and i spent some time trading and recruiting for my Guild which no doubt counts as time in the game even though it's not "playing" persay

one thing that really peeves me about the new strategic gameplay is that Purge Conditions has a 30 second cooldown...that's insane! you are having spells being cast on you and your whole party constantly, and yet you can only remove them from one guy once every 30 seconds! worst-balanced spell ever! and it really sets the player skill cap to VERY LOW by default seeing as fast-acting countering players do not have a chance to shine with their skills and counter the spells effectively due to this ludicrous arbitrary cooldown period :furious3:

Crandaeolon

05-15-2005, 02:04

You're so high in level compared to the areas you're playing that it's gonna be a lot slower getting into the next level. Lion's Arch is not even close to halfway through the game, so ya still got a lot of road ahead. ~:)

Leveling isn't even the most important thing in character development. Gathering skills is. And you ain't gonna get all of the attribute points by leveling... 30 points are quest rewards.

Purge Conditions has a 30 second cooldown...

Purge Conditions is a good skill when comboed properly. Use Draw Conditions (cost 5, cast 1/4s, recharge 0) or Martyr (cost 5, cast 1/4, recharge 10, Elite) to remove conditions from allies, then Purge on yourself when you need to. There's also an Elite skill called Melandru's Resilience (cost 5, cast 0, recharge 12), which gives you a cumulative health and mana regen for every condition you have. You can cast the Purge right after MR, to remove the conditions, and MR still gives the regen. Together they're a great combo and make the Monk very tough to kill.

There's also Mend Ailment and Mend Condition, Remove Hex etc... so Purge Conditions is certainly not the only option for condition removal. The Elite version of PC, Restore Condition, is probably what you'd like best; it removes all conditions from target ally and has a recharge time of 2 seconds. It costs 10 energy though...

Once you have a good load of skills, you'll start seeing new ways to utilize previously "useless" skills. Keep on trudging through those jungles and remember to keep a Signet of Capture in the skill bar for those Elite skills! ~:)

PanzerJaeger

05-15-2005, 02:46

Are you still in the Raven Clan, PJ? Alrowan is playing GW too?

Im sorry ive taken so long to look this thread over again.

Yes, a few of us Ravens are in there. Alro has a few charactors, and ive got one as i dont have as much time to play. Weve got a nice guild going by the same name, mostly Australians in it though.

www.clan-raven.com/forum

See you around sometime.. ~:cheers:

Navaros

05-15-2005, 23:33

Keep on trudging through those jungles and remember to keep a Signet of Capture in the skill bar for those Elite skills! ~:)

question: as a boss is using an elite skill, does it actually say "elite" next to the skill icon?

or is the only way to know what skills are elite, to look them up on a website somewhere? that would suck ~:grouphug:

i believe warrior bosses are yellow...but what color are the monk bosses?

Crandaeolon

05-16-2005, 11:42

question: as a boss is using an elite skill, does it actually say "elite" next to the skill icon?

Nope. You won't know that a skill is elite until you've captured it. It's not that much of a problem, though; a good skill is a good skill, elite or not, and worth capturing anyways. And if you're hunting for something specific, you'll have to look it up anyway or it's like searching for a needle in a haystack.

i believe warrior bosses are yellow...but what color are the monk bosses?

Blue. The boss auras adhere to the default colour themes of the classes: Warrior = orange, Monk = blue, Ranger = "warm" green, Necro = "cold" green, Mesmer = purple, Elementalist = red.

Ja'chyra

05-16-2005, 15:14

Just started playing, I found £15 of GAME vouchers I forgot about, as a Monk/Ranger, I'll let you know how I get on. Feel free to post or IM me tips though, only played for an hour so far.

Navaros

05-17-2005, 02:13

Nope. You won't know that a skill is elite until you've captured it. It's not that much of a problem, though; a good skill is a good skill, elite or not, and worth capturing anyways.

must strongly disagree about it "not being much of a problem"

other than the skills you use and hence already have, you won't know:

1. if the skill a boss is using is good or not

2. if you already have that skill or not

and you only have less than a second to decide whether to use/waste a signet of capture or not once the boss uses the skill. so clearly then, this is a huge problem

what are you supposed to do...manually study websites to memorize all 150 skills for both of your professions; being sure to know which are good, which are elite, and which ones you already have yet never use...also having the ability to recall all that information instantly in a split-second :dizzy2:

DragonRider

05-17-2005, 04:08

Just started playing, as a Monk/Ranger, I'll let you know how I get on. Feel free to post or IM me tips though, only played for an hour so far.
Savor the moment.
I reckon the best part of the game is at the end of a mission, when all the Crarr are dead (well, most of them) and all my team members have run off to town to get their rewards. I am the last man standing.
It is a strange, eerie feeling being the only one left. I just wander around exploring the area for ages as the sun slowly sets.
Have you tried this?

Crandaeolon

05-17-2005, 10:28

other than the skills you use and hence already have, you won't know:

1. if the skill a boss is using is good or not

2. if you already have that skill or not

First, elite skills aren't automatically "good" skills. Sometimes they're even more specialised than non-elite skills.

Second, you can't cap skills that you already have.

what are you supposed to do...manually study websites to memorize all 150 skills for both of your professions; being sure to know which are good, which are elite, and which ones you already have yet never use...also having the ability to recall all that information instantly in a split-second

Well... that would certainly help, and no doubt the most hardcore are doing that... ~D But in the meantime, I'd advise to just cap any skill whenever you happen across a boss that uses an unknown skill. Like I said before, you'll have to hit the websites and plan out an expedition anyways if you want a specific skill that complements your existing ones well.

Navaros

05-18-2005, 02:17

ran into another problem...i looked up a website to find where to get a skill i need

then i went to get it, which took forever because henchmen are really stupid and have to fight every single enemy along the way...and enemies pop up every 10 seconds

then once i got to the area of the boss, i had to zone back out to the previous area (a few times!) until the correct boss spawned

then once he did, the henchmen killed him right away :furious3:

so i had to zone out a bunch more times

then when the correct boss spawned again, he was not using the skill i needed. so i figured i'd whack him with Stefan in order to help provoke him

two hits later, the boss was dead again. so i had to rezone about 5 more times to spawn him again

this time i equipped a staff so i could hit him without killing him right away

i just watched him for about 30 minutes at this point (retreating when necessary so he doesn't die), and not once did he ever use the skill i needed

all this was like 2.5 - 3 hours into the whole ordeal. at this point i was really peeved. so i went searching the web again

this time i found out that the boss no longer has that skill because the devs nerfed it away from him in a patch!!! argh! how incredibly annoying, and a huge waste of my time!!! :furious3:

if the devs are going to nerf skills away from bosses then they need to be making huge public announcements everytime they do that so as those looking for the skills don't get screwed over with obsolete info on the web :furious3: