Romier S Posted May 5, 2005 Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 Please continue all Guild Wars related discussion in this thread. Thanks guys. Part 1 of the discussion can be found here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tonner Cyn Posted May 5, 2005 Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 Sorry I haven't had the chance to get together with you guys just yet. Tuesday night my wife's mom wasn't feeling well and was sleeping in the room with the computer. Last night I did get on and hit level 8, and have done a few of the early quests from just after post-sear. I think I mentioned this before... I guess it was Monday night that I decided to make the move to post-sear. I talked to Tydus and the countdown started. I found myself on a team with one other person and a couple of henchen. We did the pvp thing for the duration of the next timer - no deaths here, but I laid a whipping on the other side, 10-0 I think it was - and the next part of the sequence started. At that point, my daugther and my wife, along with her mom, got home and needed help with groceries. By the time I got back the cutscene explaining the last two years was over and I was standing in Ascalon post-sear. What'd I miss??? Storyline wise, let me see if I get this right....spoilers to follow, though most of you have passed this. . . . . . . It appears that some former enemies are offering to assist Ascalon in its recovery effort. The king is leery, to the point where he was about to go confront the ambassador, but the prince believes Ascalon should accept the help. Right now, it sort of seems like I'm doing stuff for both sides. . . . . So far so good? I can see the story going in a couple of directions. Either the king is right or he is wrong (I tend to think this is where it's going, but I may be overthinking). I've managed to collect a few more skills, though I only have one Water skill atm. I haven't spent the last 5 att pts I earned because I want to see how much more Water I get in the near future. I do have plenty of Fire skills, so I could spend the pts there temporarily I suppose... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PoisonJam Posted May 5, 2005 Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 It appears that some former enemies are offering to assist Ascalon in its recovery effort. The king is leery, to the point where he was about to go confront the ambassador, but the prince believes Ascalon should accept the help. Right now, it sort of seems like I'm doing stuff for both sides. Yes, that sounds about right. From what I remember of the backstory in the manual, there are three kingdoms and for years they have warred with one another, greatly weakening each of them. Then one day the Charr showed up and starting kicking ass, and the three kingdoms are now struggling with ancient mistrust as they try to band together to repel a common foe. The king and the prince differ on a number of issues in the post-searing world, and accepting Kryta's help (I think that's the name of one of the former rival kingdoms) is one of the big ones. The manual that came with the game pretty much sucks as far as telling you how to play the game, but I did enjoy reading the first part, as it introduced some of the main characters (Brother Menhlo, the prince, etc) and it gave a brief history of the world to date. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whooter Posted May 5, 2005 Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 The manual that came with the game pretty much sucks as far as telling you how to play the game' date=' but I did enjoy reading the first part, as it introduced some of the main characters (Brother Menhlo, the prince, etc) and it gave a brief history of the world to date.[/quote'] Yep! It's been interesting to start seeing things in-game that coincide with what's in the manual. Cynn's been hanging out outside of Yak's Bend, and Devona went charging past us coming from the Ascalon Foothills last night. Don't know where she was headed... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark E Posted May 5, 2005 Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 The manual that came with the game pretty much sucks as far as telling you how to play the game, Yeah, tell me about it! That's probably my only complaint with the game right now in fact. The PvE here is great, I'm already anticipating the follow-ups. I've enjoyed other MMO's, but the unique storyline flowing through this one makes it feel really special. I'm quite interested in seeing what exactly happens next, which isn't something you usually associate with these types of games . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tonner Cyn Posted May 5, 2005 Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 Any idea where exactly the content for this release wraps up? How close are some of you getting to being done with the PvE aspect? Once done with the story, is there something to entice the player to stick around and play that character in-between chapter releases? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whooter Posted May 5, 2005 Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 Once done with the story' date=' is there something to entice the player to stick around and play that character in-between chapter releases?[/quote'] The PvP, ostensibly... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark E Posted May 5, 2005 Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 How close are some of you getting to being done with the PvE aspect? I think Romier's the furthest of all of us posting and he just finished instance 6 of the 'main storyline'. There are supposed to be 20 storyline 'shield' instances for this main campaign, after which the guild is ready to fight for glory and honor and such . I do believe we get to look at every part of the big ol' world map in this release. The Fire Islands were open during beta weekend last so they must be there. There's also a jungle section we have yet to see as well. And there's of course who knows how many mini-quests. Every profession has 150 skills and I think my ranger currently has about 20, so I expect much more game to come;). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romier S Posted May 5, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 Any idea where exactly the content for this release wraps up? It wraps up after the 20th instance which concludes this part of the story. How close are some of you getting to being done with the PvE aspect? We have a LONG way to go Tonner. Anya is currently level 15 and I've dumped close to 70 hours of game time into her (do a /age to see how long you've played). She has only 5 more levels until she reaches "Ascension" age (level 20) and I'm sure she will hit that way before the story concludes. All of that time I've spent on her and I've only managed to get 6 of the 20 instances done and I've barely unlocked and explored the rest of the map I've posted (I still have Kryta, a large part of Shiverpeak, the Maguuma Jungle, The Crystal Deserts, Fire Islands etc.) These are huge landmasses with different points of interests, towns, cities, and a crapload of sidequests to accomplish. I can easily see getting a good 200/300 hours out of the PVE portion of the game if you take your time and smell the roses. Plus, as Mark mentioned, I love that there is a progressing storyline that will eventually see a conclusion and setup the next expansion. Once done with the story, is there something to entice the player to stick around and play that character in-between chapter releases? PVP. It's called "Guild Wars" for a reason. There are arena's all over the place that you can enter to get into random PVP battles (and I hightly recommend you do to get your feet wet). Later, when we finally ascend and get access to The Rift and the Hall of Heroes, we can buy a Guild Hall and participate in Guild vs. Guild tournaments and matches like Capture the Relic, Survivor, and King of the Hill. (ie matches that are very simliar to FPS style gameplay objectives) We get to experience this stuff with decked out level 20 characters and skills. We'll have to figure out tactics, skill combinations, and how to win within our group of Guildies. This is what ArenaNet hopes will keep you coming back. I for one am looking forward into diving right in since I'm a HUGE fan of PVP (as anyone that played World of Warcraft with me will attest to). EDIT: The possibilities for the expansions are endless. For everyone thats read the manual, you would have noticed the description of the "The Rift". It's basically an interdimentional portal that allows to travel to many different worlds and planes of existence. For all we know, the next expansion may not even be set IN Tyria! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tonner Cyn Posted May 5, 2005 Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 I figured the PvP aspect would be the eventual end-game, I was just wondering how many of you are going to be compelled to hang around to get that far. As far as the PvP goes, do we know if it will have any effect on future storylines or is it all just for bragging rights? One question about skills - When you purchase a skill from an NPC, are they all 1 skill point or do some vary? I'm starting to see how, even focusing on just sword and one element, the skill bar is getting crowded. If I decide to go Fire until I get a bit more Water skills, I'll have a lot of decisions to make. Glad to hear that the game has such a rich (hopefully ) storyline element to it. The lack of monthly fee does help me to feel okay when I can't get on for a couple of days (wasted fees in other games), but I wonder if it will have the opposite effect on anyone... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PoisonJam Posted May 5, 2005 Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 One question about skills - When you purchase a skill from an NPC, are they all 1 skill point or do some vary? I'm starting to see how, even focusing on just sword and one element, the skill bar is getting crowded. I believe skills are always one point, but be careful about buying some of the early skills. Most of the time you will be given those skills for free as quest rewards. I found this out when I bought four healing spells and then ran a mission that would have given me two of them, and a follow-up mission that would have given me the other two. :mad: Managing your skill bar is definitely one of the challenges in the game. I'm level 11 and I have 30 skills to choose from...picking only 8 from that group is tough. I end up having two different load-outs depending on if I am soloing or grouped (basically I dump most of my offensive spells and replace them with different heals if I am grouping). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlayerLuv Posted May 5, 2005 Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 hello all, I am post searing and looking for some tips... Level 8 Necro/Ele named Ms Rabal. Any help would be appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romier S Posted May 5, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 The lack of monthly fee does help me to feel okay when I can't get on for a couple of days (wasted fees in other games), but I wonder if it will have the opposite effect on anyone... I'm not entirely sure what you mean by the opposite affect James. Care to elaborate? For some reason Guild Wars is regularly compared to any number of MMORPG's out there, but in actuality I find these to be apples to oranges comparisons. The goals of these games are completely different. Just to expound a little little bit, let's just deal with what the real meat of the MMO genre really is. No matter how fun an MMO like WoW, EQ2, or CoH is (and they are!), no matter what innovative features are brought to the table, the main objective is to keep you subscribed. It is to keep you paying that monthly fee. I don't say that as a criticism, it's the reality of how these games work right now. The content added, along with the way the game is changed over time is in a very large way dictated by how best to keep you paying your money on a monthly basis to play the game. This can be done with either genuine good content added on a regular basis or it can be done with backhanded nerfs and an increasing intentional grind that's meant to "keep you at it" until you can't take it anymore. Sometimes it's a subtle combination of the two. Given that, for these developers it's a genuine need to make these games as addictive as possible and to stretch out thier content as much as possible. However, you touched on a good point; is part of that addiction the money you shell out per month on the game? Do you feel compelled to play it more because you don't want to feel as though you are wasting your cash on a monthly basis? I've always been interested in the underlying addictiveness of these games from other folks perspective. It's an interesting question and it ties into one of the goals of Guild Wars IMHO. Guild Wars to me is far more comparable to something like Diablo with a nice helping of MMO amenities thrown in (chatting, trading, emotes, customization options etc). Why go through the adventure alone when you can have 6-10 friends along for the ride. Even better, they managed to put an entertaining story that progresses similiarly to a single player RPG. Add in a healthy focus on PVP and no monthly fee and you have a recipe for a good (and potentially profitable) game. The developers are no longer focused on keeping you playing month in and month out. They don't have to worry about a monthly fee or keeping you in thier game. Don't want to play for awhile? No problem. When you come back, the game will be here waiting. I sincerely hope this line of thinking rubs off on other MMO developers. I'd love to see some rethinking on the current strategies of the MMO market. Sony recently released an "Adventure Pack" for Everquest 2 for instance that was priced at 5.99. It contained a good chunk of content and story continuation, and it would be a great bargain if the game wasn't already charging you 14.95/month to play. I would prefer to see something like that Adventure Pack happen in intervals of 6 months, with more content (and say a price of 19.99/29.99). Or perhaps 5.99 every three months if it will allow for the removal of the montly fee. This type of content delivery can still make these games popular and appeal to a larger base of fans (hence a larger audience willing to buy your expansion product) by not forcing them to pay for the base game, and only for the extra content. Funcom did something similiar with Anarchy Online, offering the base client FREE for one full year. No monthly fee. You don't get the expansions, but you get to experience the main game regardless. That's awesome. I see this delivery system as being a great alternative to the current model of pay-per-month MMO's we have now. You take away the focus of keeping players paying per month, and you have developers focusing on creating quality content for thier expansions that they can sell for a good price, instead of creating endless grinds to keep players constantly behind the curve and paying to catch up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PoisonJam Posted May 5, 2005 Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 Why don't we put together an instance one group tonight? Who else hasn't run it yet, besides PlayerLuv? Tonner? Chris? People were kind enough to run me through it my first time, so I'm happy to return the favor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeyN Posted May 5, 2005 Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 I should be on around 8 EST tonight to try out the Ash quest if anyone else is on. Um Romier you gonna be on? capt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romier S Posted May 5, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 Actually, more than likely not Joey. I wont be on tonight until around 11:00-11:30pm. I'm just dead on my feet tired and I need to catch some sleep. If I oversleep, you may not see me on at all, but I'll be invigorated for tommorrow night as I may have a Halo 2 match and I'm always down for GW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orpheus Posted May 5, 2005 Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 Count me in for some Charr hunting Joey. Also if you guys want to run Nolani for teh bonus, I'd be happy to join you on that as well. I'll be on shortly after I finish getting dinner cooked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeyN Posted May 5, 2005 Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 Ill hop on to see if you are on Travis. If we can get a group together ill run those things again. If not tommorow is another day capt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeyN Posted May 6, 2005 Report Share Posted May 6, 2005 Travis, Mark The Lone Gunmen and tom good job tonight on the Ash quest(and the Instance again). And Travis we really dont know if there were any boss's up on top as the only person who saw anything was tom and he just clicked on the ash's and died a second after Onto Yaks missions. Now that we can have 6 man parties it would be nice to run a lot of the Yaks missions together. Ill be on tommorow night for anyone who wants to group. capt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romier S Posted May 6, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 6, 2005 Anya, dear Anya has finally arrived in the shores of Kryta. The greeting commitee was less than hospitable as they are all undead! Here's some screenies of yet another new area to explore.... The Undead The beaches of Krya The small town outside of Kryta's Gate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark E Posted May 6, 2005 Report Share Posted May 6, 2005 Yep, I should be able to swing on tonight for some missions. Dying with a nasty cold is an excellent way to promote computer gaming . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeyN Posted May 6, 2005 Report Share Posted May 6, 2005 Ok i just got my ass handed to me trying to go into Ascalon foothills for a mission. What is the point of having Lvl 8 henchmen when you get swarmed by Lvl 10 mobs who kill the healer with 2 blows capt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PoisonJam Posted May 6, 2005 Report Share Posted May 6, 2005 It sounds as though I missed the Ashes quest group...anyone still need to do this? I have heard that it isn't really a quest you want to tackle with just henchmen. Also, I haven't really started any of the Yak's Bend quests so if anyone is looking to do those, I'll be on tonight. I'd also be up for an instance five run. :tu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whooter Posted May 6, 2005 Report Share Posted May 6, 2005 I should be up for darn near anything... My quest log is completely empty. Travis said the Ashes quest has changed, and it's not as hard as it was when we originally ran it... Interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelley Posted May 6, 2005 Report Share Posted May 6, 2005 I too need to run the Ashes quest and get my rear up to with you guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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