Originally posted by DarkPony

Originally posted by Vannor

Originally posted by DarkPony

Originally posted by VowOfSilence

Oh, and 1 more:

Pricing & distribution of additional content / expansions.

Completely unknown.

Good one. Added.

When have we ever known this about any game?

You are right in that but I thought it was a "genuine unknown" as it's supposed to be a pillar of their business model. I think people are very curious whether we will have to buy mini-expansions every few months or a big fatty one every half year/year and what it will cost them to stay up to par, content wise.

 

I hope it's both mini's and fatty ones. More content is something I'll gladly pay for.

Originally posted by DarkPony

GW2, What we still don't know at this time:

- Lag levels in WvW: The released videos so far have been a mixed bunch: some with and some without lag. Because the game will offer 100's versus 100's of players duking it out but we haven't seen battles on that scale yet (correct me if I'm wrong), this is important to those planning to live of WvW.

HERE is the only one i've seen so far with lots of enemies on screen in the Zone, the commentator said he was only getting hit in a minor way and that his framerate was already lowered due to his recording in RAW format.

- NDA drop: The NDA is supposed to drop at the next beta event but so far there haven't been any overall impressions from long term testers. Only long term testers are able to speak up about unforseen aspects and maybe give us an idea of the longevity of the game.

HERE is commentary from the only reviewer i trust as he has shown time and time again that he is honest as a reviewer. in this same video he's even made comments about things like how showing the exact number of objectives is game breaking and explained that to the devs he's working closely with so it's not all shinies. But he does say this game will be him game of choice.

 

Originally posted by EvilGeek

 

---

Originally posted by DarkPony

---

Originally posted by EvilGeek
You only need to go to guildwars2.com to see confirmation of the Asura city, there's a lengthy video posted quite a while ago that shows Rata Sum off, just scroll down. There's another video on the sylvari page showing their 'home soil' again quite old, maybe Anet want to keep a few things a surprise? But that should be confirmation that these exist and have been in development for a while now.

---

Yeah we know they exist: we've seen fabulous fly-throughs a long time ago already, (they look awesome) but they haven't been playable yet and those cities and zones haven't been accessible yet. So the question about their general leve of polish still stands. We can't confirm or deny that it's simply Anet keeping things a surprise for us at this time.

---

 

Good point Mr Pony :)

As for the 'region lock' I don't know if you saw this post over on their facebook page which explains it well, it also adds they are looking in to a solution for those who travel, don't lose hope just yet on that one.

 

---

Here are some answers and clarifications for you! First, if you purchase the game from https://buy.guildwars2.com/ you'll automatically be sorted into the right region.

 

And don't worry -- we want you to play with your friends wherever you are. This policy only affects where you can login from -- not which worlds you can access. People from NA will be able to play with people from EU at launch. We've got two datacenters -- one in NA and one in EU. Those who do not fall into either of those two regions will default to the NA datacenter.

Finally, we are aware that a lot of our players travel, and we are looking into a solution for you.

Hope that helps some! ~RB2

---

 

Yeah I read that, still leaves the question how they will combine "This policy only affects where you can login from" and "we are aware that a lot of our players travel, and we are looking into a solution for you.".

I'm not an IT specialist but I am really curious about their technical workaround to allow for IP blanketing with individual exceptions.

Originally posted by DarkPony

There has been an awful lot of press information regarding GW2 coming at us the past weeks and even though we caught a fair glimpse of a lot of aspects of the game there's still a lot of things we do not know at this time. Things that might or might not influence your decision to go for an early purchase.

Let's try and sum them all up and please correct me where I am wrong (I sucked up a lot of GW2 info but it's very likely that I missed some aspects) also please add those that you think I missed.

 

GW2, What we still don't know at this time:

 

- Launch date: pretty obvious one. Might be important for people for planning their weeks off.

- Higher than level 30 PVE content: there have been 50 levels missing in the press event. What is the state of this content?

update: So far two higher leveled areas have been in the Demo: posters report they are polished.

update: some links from wordoftruth showing demo play of higher level content in this post

- Higher than level 30 zones and regions: Due to the level restriction in the past event I think we've seen only a small part of the world. What's the state of these areas, polish wise?

update: So far two higher leveled areas have been in the Demo: posters report they are polished.

update: some links from wordoftruth showing demo play of higher level content in this post

- Dungeons: The bread and butter for some gamers: We saw only one of eight announced dungeons in action. (Correct me if I'm wrong).

update: Actually it seems it has been 1 instead of 2 of eight dungeons so far.

- Mini games / Activities: Has any activity been available in the press event? (I might have missed some info on these) They mention 30 activities on the wiki.

update: Kegball has been reported to be in the event but hardly enyone recorded footage of it

update: a YT vid of some minigames here

- The current state of Class Balance / Racial Balance: Not only class balance might be a hotly debated aspect of GW2, but also Racial balance: as of now there are racial elite skills capable of one shotting people. Like the Charr Artillery Barage.

Update: Anet has stated that Racial Elite Skills aren't supposed to be as powerful as class ones: there might still be quite some balancing underway.

Update: Racial elite skills can not be usedt in structured pvp (conflicting reports about WvW).

- Their plans for the Cash Shop at launch and in the future: we've seen some itterations on their philosophy behind their cash shop in the past, and they say they want more player feedback in beta, but to me and others this is an important point that might make or break our intent to buy this game. Also the press was barred from disclosing anything about the CS in the press event because it is still subject to changes. But to make an informed decision this might paramount to some.

- Lag levels in WvW: The released videos so far have been a mixed bunch: some with and some without lag. Because the game will offer 100's versus 100's of players duking it out but we haven't seen battles on that scale yet (correct me if I'm wrong), this is important to those planning to live of WvW.

- NDA drop: The NDA is supposed to drop at the next beta event but so far there haven't been any overall impressions from long term testers. Only long term testers are able to speak up about unforseen aspects and maybe give us an idea of the general state and longevity of the game.

- Update: What is the state of Sylvari and Asura races, capitals and starting zones?

update: removed rumor about those two races sharing a starter world. If so it needs confirmation. The general question still stands.

update: there's a map shown here suggesting they share a starting zone

- Update: What is the state of structured pvp? So far people have reported they saw 2 maps and only conquest ones at launch. But there's hints of many more structured pvp options.

- Update: Region Locking: How are you planning to accomodate for people who travel a lot? Is region locking only in place to warrant a regionally specific pricing model with big differences?

- Update: Pricing, frequency, rough schedual & distribution of additional content / expansions. (I added "frequency" and "rough schedual" myself, might be that they already made announcements about this so feel free to correct).

 

TL;DR

DarkPony, while it's a shame what you went through with SWTOR that experience I think has made you a far more objective and scrutinizing poster. Bravo, sir.

Originally posted by itgrowls

Originally posted by DarkPony

GW2, What we still don't know at this time:

- Lag levels in WvW: The released videos so far have been a mixed bunch: some with and some without lag. Because the game will offer 100's versus 100's of players duking it out but we haven't seen battles on that scale yet (correct me if I'm wrong), this is important to those planning to live of WvW.

HERE is the only one i've seen so far with lots of enemies on screen in the Zone, the commentator said he was only getting hit in a minor way and that his framerate was already lowered due to his recording in RAW format.

- NDA drop: The NDA is supposed to drop at the next beta event but so far there haven't been any overall impressions from long term testers. Only long term testers are able to speak up about unforseen aspects and maybe give us an idea of the longevity of the game.

HERE is commentary from the only reviewer i trust as he has shown time and time again that he is honest as a reviewer. in this same video he's even made comments about things like how showing the exact number of objectives is game breaking and explained that to the devs he's working closely with so it's not all shinies. But he does say this game will be him game of choice.

 

 

Yeah, I think pretty much everyone saw those two vids. The WvW one is a good impression but only around 20-25 people though: not nearly what the player caps allow for and we're bound to see MUCH bigger battles at launch.

TotalHalibut has also been my favorite reviewer. I also liked his critical point about the numbered and predetermined sub-objectives in DE's. From what came out of the press event, this is as good as it gets. But of course the press event has been limited in level range and time. I'm sure he will have plenty more to say once he has been playing it for a few weeks.

Originally posted by Tardcore

*wall of snipage*

TL;DR

Rofl!

And thanks for the positivism Pierth! <3

Originally posted by DarkPony

There has been an awful lot of press information regarding GW2 coming at us the past weeks and even though we caught a fair glimpse of a lot of aspects of the game there's still a lot of things we do not know at this time. Things that might or might not influence your decision to go for an early purchase.

Let's try and sum them all up and please correct me where I am wrong (I sucked up a lot of GW2 info but it's very likely that I missed some aspects) also please add those that you think I missed.

 

GW2, What we still don't know at this time:

 

- Launch date: pretty obvious one. Might be important for people for planning their weeks off.

- Higher than level 30 PVE content: there have been 50 levels missing in the press event. What is the state of this content?

update: So far two higher leveled areas have been in the Demo: posters report they are polished.

update: some links from wordoftruth showing demo play of higher level content in this post

- Higher than level 30 zones and regions: Due to the level restriction in the past event I think we've seen only a small part of the world. What's the state of these areas, polish wise?

update: So far two higher leveled areas have been in the Demo: posters report they are polished.

update: some links from wordoftruth showing demo play of higher level content in this post

- Dungeons: The bread and butter for some gamers: We saw only one of eight announced dungeons in action. (Correct me if I'm wrong).

update: Actually it seems it has been 1 instead of 2 of eight dungeons so far.

- Mini games / Activities: Has any activity been available in the press event? (I might have missed some info on these) They mention 30 activities on the wiki.

update: Kegball has been reported to be in the event but hardly enyone recorded footage of it

update: a YT vid of some minigames here

- The current state of Class Balance / Racial Balance: Not only class balance might be a hotly debated aspect of GW2, but also Racial balance: as of now there are racial elite skills capable of one shotting people. Like the Charr Artillery Barage.

Update: Anet has stated that Racial Elite Skills aren't supposed to be as powerful as class ones: there might still be quite some balancing underway.

Update: Racial elite skills can not be usedt in structured pvp (conflicting reports about WvW).

- Their plans for the Cash Shop at launch and in the future: we've seen some itterations on their philosophy behind their cash shop in the past, and they say they want more player feedback in beta, but to me and others this is an important point that might make or break our intent to buy this game. Also the press was barred from disclosing anything about the CS in the press event because it is still subject to changes. But to make an informed decision this might paramount to some.

- Lag levels in WvW: The released videos so far have been a mixed bunch: some with and some without lag. Because the game will offer 100's versus 100's of players duking it out but we haven't seen battles on that scale yet (correct me if I'm wrong), this is important to those planning to live of WvW.

- NDA drop: The NDA is supposed to drop at the next beta event but so far there haven't been any overall impressions from long term testers. Only long term testers are able to speak up about unforseen aspects and maybe give us an idea of the general state and longevity of the game.

- Update: What is the state of Sylvari and Asura races, capitals and starting zones?

update: removed rumor about those two races sharing a starter world. If so it needs confirmation. The general question still stands.

update: there's a map shown here suggesting they share a starting zone

- Update: What is the state of structured pvp? So far people have reported they saw 2 maps and only conquest ones at launch. But there's hints of many more structured pvp options.

- Update: Region Locking: How are you planning to accomodate for people who travel a lot? Is region locking only in place to warrant a regionally specific pricing model with big differences?

- Update: Pricing, frequency, rough schedual & distribution of additional content / expansions. (I added "frequency" and "rough schedual" myself, might be that they already made announcements about this so feel free to correct).

 

thats not accurate, Fiontar i think posted the most recent map, Metrica Province (1-15) is the starting zone for Asura, it is to the east of Rata Sum and Caledon Forest(1-15) is the zone north of The grove and is the starting zone for Sylvari. These two zones are right next to each other but not shared. To the north of these are Kessex hills and an unnamed zone that are both 15-25.. Now these 2 zones are shared between human, Asura and Sylvari. I am going to see if I can find the one that was posted or upload it because I saved it and post that.

Originally posted by ariboersma

Originally posted by DarkPony
*snipage*

update: there's a map shown here suggesting they share a starting zone

*snapage*

 

thats not accurate, Fiontar i think posted the most recent map, Metrica Province (1-15) is the starting zone for Asura, it is to the east of Rata Sum and Caledon Forest(1-15) is the zone north of The grove and is the starting zone for Sylvari. These two zones are right next to each other but not shared. To the north of these are Kessex hills and an unnamed zone that are both 15-25.. Now these 2 zones are shared between human, Asura and Sylvari. I am going to see if I can find the one that was posted or upload it because I saved it and post that.

Roger. I'll be waiting.

ok I found it and the credit to locating this goes to Fiontar.. dammit I dont know how to resize it w/o screwing it up but there it is

Nice! Really looking forward to exploring the map.

I hope that people getting into the closed beta aren't too hung up on the small details. I think there's going to be a lot of little things we didn't hear about that could be better, but aren't really game breakers. However, if there are people who have been so focused on scrutinizing the game for the passed 4-6 months, those little things are going to seem like much bigger deals.

Hey Dark Pony ;

I really havent seen much discussion about this disclaimer at the bottom of the "buy GW2 website" it is the part with the asterisk.

*Due to potential changes, system requirements may change over time, and you may be required to upgrade your current system (or obtain a new system) to continue to play the game.

just thought I would point this out and I wonder what you guys thought about it. (didn't seem to warrant its own post)

Originally posted by aesperus

Nice! Really looking forward to exploring the map.

I hope that people getting into the closed beta aren't too hung up on the small details. I think there's going to be a lot of little things we didn't hear about that could be better, but aren't really game breakers. However, if there are people who have been so focused on scrutinizing the game for the passed 4-6 months, those little things are going to seem like much bigger deals.

also if you read the Romanian interview yesterday, I doubt many did and no it wasnt IN Romanian =P They explained that there will be NO OPEN BETA.. they go into why they disagree with the term and it makes perfect sense to me. They had NDA beta and the future NON NDA BWE's. Perhaps we need to make a thread on things ppl want to see for those of us that will play the BWE's to help those that aren't playing them. MikeB we need a sticky thread for this =D

Originally posted by paulytheb

Hey Dark Pony ;

I really havent seen much discussion about this disclaimer at the bottom of the "buy GW2 website" it is the part with the asterisk.

*Due to potential changes, system requirements may change over time, and you may be required to upgrade your current system (or obtain a new system) to continue to play the game.

 

just thought I would point this out and I wonder what you guys thought about it. (didn't seem to warrant its own post)

Translation - Don't complain about frames in WvW if you're running a single 560 Ti.

Originally posted by UOvet

Originally posted by paulytheb

Hey Dark Pony ;

I really havent seen much discussion about this disclaimer at the bottom of the "buy GW2 website" it is the part with the asterisk.

*Due to potential changes, system requirements may change over time, and you may be required to upgrade your current system (or obtain a new system) to continue to play the game.

 

just thought I would point this out and I wonder what you guys thought about it. (didn't seem to warrant its own post)

Translation - Don't complain about frames in WvW if you're running a single 560 Ti.

Yeah, something like that I guess: not sure if it's inspired by their concern about performance of current systems in stress testing or to allow for future player cap increasements to have bigger fights in WvW (for example) and to accomodate for an increase in system specs of the average player in a few years from now.

Originally posted by DarkPony

Originally posted by UOvet

Originally posted by paulytheb

Hey Dark Pony ;

I really havent seen much discussion about this disclaimer at the bottom of the "buy GW2 website" it is the part with the asterisk.

*Due to potential changes, system requirements may change over time, and you may be required to upgrade your current system (or obtain a new system) to continue to play the game.

 

just thought I would point this out and I wonder what you guys thought about it. (didn't seem to warrant its own post)

Translation - Don't complain about frames in WvW if you're running a single 560 Ti.

Yeah, something like that I guess: not sure if it's inspired by their concern about performance of current systems in stress testing or to allow for future player cap increasements to have bigger fights in WvW (for example) and to accomodate for an increase in system specs of the average player in a few years from now.

its more simple than that, games evolve over time, you can't play wow with a pentium III anymore, would u expect to in 7 year use a core 2 duo for GW2?

DarkPony , isn't Beta Weekends suppose to test the Lag levels in W v W

They did state that they are allowing 500 players per zone for a total of 2000 players, but also stated that it might go up based on server strength.

And with the Beta weekends with all the players that they will add, it will definitely test out the server strengths.

I believe its really in the hands of the First Beta Weekenders to see if these questions you have listed are answered.

But I am really surprised that this is all the questions that are left for an In development MMO.

SWTOR had so many Unknowns prior to Launch and even now TSW is still an Mystery to me.

Originally posted by Fir3line

Originally posted by DarkPony

Originally posted by UOvet

Originally posted by paulytheb

Hey Dark Pony ;

I really havent seen much discussion about this disclaimer at the bottom of the "buy GW2 website" it is the part with the asterisk.

*Due to potential changes, system requirements may change over time, and you may be required to upgrade your current system (or obtain a new system) to continue to play the game.

 

just thought I would point this out and I wonder what you guys thought about it. (didn't seem to warrant its own post)

Translation - Don't complain about frames in WvW if you're running a single 560 Ti.

Yeah, something like that I guess: not sure if it's inspired by their concern about performance of current systems in stress testing or to allow for future player cap increasements to have bigger fights in WvW (for example) and to accomodate for an increase in system specs of the average player in a few years from now.

its more simple than that, games evolve over time, you can't play wow with a pentium III anymore, would u expect to in 7 year use a core 2 duo for GW2?

 Even though every pc gamer should know that by now. They still footnote it for those who think this works like consoles.

Originally posted by DarkPony

There has been an awful lot of press information regarding GW2 coming at us the past weeks and even though we caught a fair glimpse of a lot of aspects of the game there's still a lot of things we do not know at this time. Things that might or might not influence your decision to go for an early purchase.

Let's try and sum them all up and please correct me where I am wrong (I sucked up a lot of GW2 info but it's very likely that I missed some aspects) also please add those that you think I missed.

 

GW2, What we still don't know at this time:

 

- Launch date: pretty obvious one. Might be important for people for planning their weeks off.

- Higher than level 30 PVE content: there have been 50 levels missing in the press event. What is the state of this content?

update: So far two higher leveled areas have been in the Demo: posters report they are polished.

update: some links from wordoftruth showing demo play of higher level content in this post

- Higher than level 30 zones and regions: Due to the level restriction in the past event I think we've seen only a small part of the world. What's the state of these areas, polish wise?

update: So far two higher leveled areas have been in the Demo: posters report they are polished.

update: some links from wordoftruth showing demo play of higher level content in this post

- Dungeons: The bread and butter for some gamers: We saw only one of eight announced dungeons in action. (Correct me if I'm wrong).

update: Actually it seems it has been 1 instead of 2 of eight dungeons so far. 

They dont want to show the other Dungeons before release to keep them fresh.  every dungeon has  a personall story mode and 3 different paths.. so every dungeon consists out of 4 different adventures

- Mini games / Activities: Has any activity been available in the press event? (I might have missed some info on these) They mention 30 activities on the wiki.

update: Kegball has been reported to be in the event but hardly enyone recorded footage of it

update: a YT vid of some minigames here

- The current state of Class Balance / Racial Balance: Not only class balance might be a hotly debated aspect of GW2, but also Racial balance: as of now there are racial elite skills capable of one shotting people. Like the Charr Artillery Barage.

Update: Anet has stated that Racial Elite Skills aren't supposed to be as powerful as class ones: there might still be quite some balancing underway.

Update: Racial elite skills can not be usedt in structured pvp (conflicting reports about WvW).

- Their plans for the Cash Shop at launch and in the future: we've seen some itterations on their philosophy behind their cash shop in the past, and they say they want more player feedback in beta, but to me and others this is an important point that might make or break our intent to buy this game. Also the press was barred from disclosing anything about the CS in the press event because it is still subject to changes. But to make an informed decision this might paramount to some.

They are still testing and nothing is set in stone yet, thats a good reason not to share information about this

- Lag levels in WvW: The released videos so far have been a mixed bunch: some with and some without lag. Because the game will offer 100's versus 100's of players duking it out but we haven't seen battles on that scale yet (correct me if I'm wrong), this is important to those planning to live of WvW.

Some game magazines and other press people reported that the beta scaled very well with higher player numbers and they had virtually no lag, while some others allready had graphical lag with no other people present. Nvidia and Ati are working very hard to optimize their drivers for this game. This is not only important for WvWvW but also for major Dynamic events in PvE

- NDA drop: The NDA is supposed to drop at the next beta event but so far there haven't been any overall impressions from long term testers. Only long term testers are able to speak up about unforseen aspects and maybe give us an idea of the general state and longevity of the game.

- Update: What is the state of Sylvari and Asura races, capitals and starting zones?

update: removed rumor about those two races sharing a starter world. If so it needs confirmation. The general question still stands.

update: there's a map shown here suggesting they share a starting zone

update: a newer map here showing seperate starer zones for both races 

Obviously this zones are still not finalised yet, noboddy 

- Update: What is the state of structured pvp? So far people have reported they saw 2 maps and only conquest ones at launch. But there's hints of many more structured pvp options

At gamescom Arenanet stated that there will only be a few different conquest maps. They will focus entirely on conquest maps to make the E-sports crowd know what they need to concentrate on. There might be other type of maps after release tough, but as far as they knew last year they had no intention of adding them before release

- Update: Region Locking: How are you planning to accomodate for people who travel a lot? Is region locking only in place to warrant a regionally specific pricing model with big differences?

Obviously people like me that travel a lot are in for a dissapointment, i can play US servers from overhere in Holland. But i can not play with my version when i am working in the US or Australia. 

- Update: Pricing, frequency, rough schedual & distribution of additional content / expansions. (I added "frequency" and "rough schedual" myself, might be that they already made announcements about this so feel free to correct).

There will be more free content updates then in the orriginal game

 

Very well tought out post Pony, and you are very right, we dont have all info yet, but thats normal when there is still an NDA.

So people that dont trust this, should hold off buying the game untill it is released.

It is amazing so little has been shown past lvl 30 and people are already clammering and calling this game a "revolution" and "the greatest thing since sliced bread" (These are actual qoutes i have seen on this board from fans mind you)

You guys are in for quite the wake up call..