Redownloading the gw2.dat file got me a file size of 13.6 GB, which is 14,280,302 KB.  So even redownloaded/compressed, however it works, the file size is still a minimum of four conventional DVDs.

I remember something similar happening with the gw.dat.  

I recall that when I played Everquest the opposite was true.  There was little questing to grind, and a lot of learning where to camp and find other players to group with for zones that have higher populations of monsters.  When that was the case, every single little bit of experience you gained was a blessing.  You ground and ground that bit of experience and you couldn't complain because everyone else was going through the same thing.  I understand that feel like you've been doing the same thing for the last few days, and you just want to get it done.  

It's probably time to hop on a few other games to diversify your gaming experience a bit.  Too much of that one thing can kill your interest in a game.  I try to alternate FPS, RTS, MOBA, and MMORPGs for gaming part of my life, so things don't get too stale.  

Maybe you need to find something to ease off that grind.  It's a game until it becomes a grind.  Then, it becomes a job, and you don't need to work that many jobs.  

The box would have to include a few DVDs to hold content for the most recent datfile.  My dat file is already "15.4 gigs".  16,203,520 KB.  I can't even carry this on my thumb drives anymore.  I'd have to get a 32 gig one to do just that.  

The file size for the game could be discouraging if you don't start downloading now, you might not have the game in time.  I'd suggest if possible to find a friend that can get the file for you, so you can hand it to friends.  

I'll delete the datfile and redownload it to see if the size has been compressed.  I'll post when I finish getting it again.  I have a FIOS line, so it's not too much trouble.  

The Sylvari and Asura content was internally tested by the beta testers that they trusted to maintain their NDA.  The open beta is nice for testing scaling problems, but any problems that occurred with massive events can easily be transferred and checked in content that wasn't revealed.  If they reveal all their cards to the open testers, then the game will be completely spoiled before it leaves the door.  That won't sell boxes.  It'd probably just bore the heck out of everyone playing the starting areas for those races.  

I like how I see the secret world ad on the side bars.  What components of the secret world would pull players away from Guild Wars 2's fanbase?   

I don't see the two being much competition for each other.  If you paid for the secret world, I imagine, you're prepared to pay the subscription if it's fun.  Then, there's not much motivation to turn your head away to play Guild Wars 2 come release.  Sounds like an unnecessary survey for a hypothetical question that will not exist.  The game release date was announced.  Arenanet spent years avoiding a release date.  It was announced two months in advance because that's probably how long it takes for boxed editions to hit the shelves.  

The financial consequences, we can study in retrospect and see if it's a good idea in two months.  It'd be an interesting study, but the survey holds no meaning.  And an interpretation of the ultimate results would be at best a guess.  There could be many factors contributing to the game not doing well in sales.  School in session, sudden rise in lay-offs, the game having a crippling bug announced, poor advertisement, etc.  They don't seem to be on that huge ad campaign swing yet, so there's not much to project.  

Though a game like Raiderz would sound fun with a more open-ended PvP, I just somehow feel a cash-shop with a pay to win strategy employed might raise the entry bar too high for new players that want to just test the waters.  

Maybe if some PvP was introduced that could combine the big monster/end-game raiding/PvP might entice players with promises of dangerous hunting grounds for rarer monsters.  You introduce mechanics for notoriety and fame and apply some sort of reward/punishment mechanic for playing.  I do have some doubts if that would work though.

Studied and drilled teeth and dumped as much time possible in getting work done.  Dental Student.  

That was a human?  That looked like a Norn to me.  

I do agree on the attitude part.  If you play the noble storylines, you can feel how much better the nobility feel compared to the other "inferior" races.  Maybe it's just an outlook of having a race that has a more noticeable social ranking.  The Norn don't follow the concept of leader that well and prefer being-- well, the the hero of their personal story, ha.   The Charr are cogs in their huge army.  The other races will be fleshed out, but having the social standing of humans can be easily used to show how significant different the life within the city is compared to those outside the walls, suffering from Centaur attacks.  I don't think anyone here likes the social standing they perceive in our current society.  I'd imagine humans would not be attractive for that reason.  We've seen enough stories of corruption, that it's easy to hate the humans.  

Lion's Arch is really that melting pot for people care about the fighting against the Dragons since you see the devastation of the original city everytime you dive underwater.  With the three organization focused on fighting the dragons all parked there, more opportunities are available to flesh out a human player that dislikes the stark contract within the walls of Divinity's Reach compared to the villages around.  

I do plan on playing a human, but for more traditional reasons.  I liked the original Guild Wars, and it feels wrong for me not to make at least one human character.

During the stress test, I went over and over in my head whether my experience were due to lag on my end.  Today, my connection went down, and my roommate said, "Was it because I was downloading too many episodes?"  When I asked him, "How much were you you downloading?"  His answer was a nervous laugh.  So I believe my thoughts that the stress test was more sluggish than the original beta weekend could be clouded.  I think it is better to judge any lag issues or sluggish feature of the game after Arenanet announces that the game is optimized on some level for graphic cards.  

This discussion makes me curious how much of a difference the next beta weekend event would be if the game were optimized for our awesome graphics cards.  Would that take care of the problem that players see?  Lag can cripple an experience and no one enjoys experiencing lag of any kind of they don't have to.  It would be better for the beta test going forward to have that extra time to tighten down those things, so it allows beta-testing players to explore the other issues without being blinded by lag issues.  That said, it would also take time and resources dedicated to other aspects of the game, when the team knows that it's not their main focus right now.  

I think a portion of the gameplay complaints were just part of the learning the game.  The mechanics do take a little thought to understand.  For example, I had issues with leaping and learning the distance and timing of an untargetted leap compared to using a targetted leap.  I feel leap skills would all benefit from ground targetting, but based on what I see of leap, I can accept that this is how the game is going to allow leap to work.  

Some movement control snares and pulls reacted differently depending on possibly the size of monsters.  Some monsters would get knocked down and dragged to me when I used binding blade.  Others would slide over to me and continue attacking me.  If I figure out how that mechanic works, I would really understand what situations would result in a successful pull.  

There are skills that drop wall-like effects, but they don't repel ranged attacks.  When I dropped line of warding, my allies could still use it as a light-effect field, but it restricted physical movement and not projectiles.  The name itself indicates that I draw a line in the ground.  From the visual effects, it seems more of a protective barrier than some line in the dirt.  It has more than once been mixed up in my head because I remember the visual effects of the skill but forget the actual effect of it.  It'd be nice to have visual effect and skill mechanics fit together a little better.  

So far from the content that I played, I admit I could turn a lot of fights into just sequenced cooldown mashing since by the time I reached the last day of the beta weekend event, my equipment and traits were beyond the scope of a typical player in the areas I was playing.  Most of the regular monsters pretty much exploded in moments.  The skill challenge and champions though gave me a run for my money.  Occasionally, there were a few easy champions, but when monsters start retreating, healing, or dropping AoEs point blank or targetted, and bring nearby enemies into the equation.  I had to be very careful unless I didn't mind dying.  

This brought me to one of the annoyances.  When enemies drop area of effects at melee range, it doesn't seem to be as obvious to me as the targetted AoEs.  At least with a targetted AoE, I see the ring a few moments before it actually drops damage on me, so I have time to react.  When it comes to melee range skills, I do not have the same amount of time to pull something off when I see that field.  Especially if I'm in the middle of firing off a skill.  I have died quite a few times because the preferable method of showing everyone a boss is hard is to drop point blank AoEs, so people resort to ranged attacks to whittle down enemies.  I understand this mechanism would be the same if we were in PvP.  The reason why melee can be very devastating compared to ranged is the huge difference in damage magnitude.  The mechanism when applied to a monster far above and beyond your survival level will result in you being stomped flat by the monster.  Trait or not traits.  Gear or no great.  Skill or no skill.  Alone in melee range, you have a higher risk of dying in a few moments.  

It would be easy to say just go ranged, but based on what I've seen on the melee bars, it is possible to survive sequences of spikes of such types from hard champions.  It requires some coordination between players to make happen.  It's a lot easier to just step back and toss ranged attacks at the champion and slowly whittle it down to 0.  You also die less and have to repair your armor less without taking risks, but on the other hand you're spending a lot of time trying to take down something that could die a lot faster with some better coordination.  

I've only seen a fraction of the game, and I just don't want to see everyone resorting to ranged because players can't trust each other to keep each other alive.  The resurrection component is great and the allies and experience sharing is wonderful.  I've seen lots of players attempting to use it.  If we could just push it a small step further, if there was some way that melee players can somehow survive that time between being downed and defeated from stepping into the kill zone, I think there may be enough to convince players to step closer and give them a chance to learn the skills to coordinate their attacks with those of other players around them.   

I wanted a human with an afro.  I can't figure out whether I want to make that one a mesmer or guardian.

Don't underestimate the hatred that players have for small characters.  Sometimes they will go to great lengths to have a gnome dead versus a charr just because of this perceived insult.  I remember a friend that told me whenever he saw a short race in any game with PvP, he would head straight for that target first.  He would go out of the way to find ways to kill them.  

So you'll have players on both sides of the spectrum, those that will ignore the small guys and those that will hunt for them.  

Originally posted by StoneRoses

Originally posted by Xarnthal

I was expecting too much this weekend. I came in expecting a game with ground-breaking new PvE concepts with the dynamic events. I was expecting PvP that offered strategy and thinking, instead I got PvP that involved rolling your face on the keyboard and still killing people.

I guess new MMO players enjoy this style of combat. The thoughtless button-mashing where no matter what skill you mash in PvE it works. I heard people say the game was difficult but how can a game be difficult when the skill you use at the start of the game is just as viable 20 hours into the game?

 

I'll be playing because the PvP has potential, but the combat system in this game is awful. Anyone who likes it really needs to break it down and look at it. But to be completely honest, if this game were pay to play, I'd be skipping it the same as I am skipping TERA. At least TERA had an innovative combat system...

I'd love to see a poll on what people thought of the first beta weekend.

 

 

 

Sigh!

 

What do you mean by innovative? FPS style combat that has been used by Vindictus, Dragon Nest, or Chronicles of Spellborn.

 

Not really disagreeing with anyone in general, but Vindictus and Dragon Nest may seem similar to other games, but they're different in their own ways depending on classes you play.  

As a comparison, Vindictus has so far four classes on the US servers, right?  Fiona, Lann, Karok, and Evie.  The control set is very limited, but it's got its unique way of dealing out timing and combos.  Depending on how you play each character, you get use your combos to become more mobile by starting off with an empty attack out of range to close in with your high damage R attack at the end of your skill chain.  So depending on positioning, the melee versions of characters had a lot of ways to use their chains to their advantage, but the limitation was that they were stuck within their combo chains, similar to a fighting game in a lot of ways, you had to go through the sequence to get what you wanted.  There was no button to press to simply fire off any combo you chose.  You had to time it and decide which skill you had the most time to perform.  This was the case even for the magic classes and other classes.  Timing and positioning were pretty crucial to how you played the game.  Using an attack pull off a dodge, is an example of how you played within the set parameters of the game.  Very fun.  The game is less of an FPS and felt more like a co-op adventure game.  A bit more complex than a simple straight out FPS where you aim and shoot.  Without any reticles, you go by judgment of where you are and how far you think you can hit.  

Dragon Nest had four main classes that eventually branched into eight unique classes, so far on the US servers. Regardless of your class, this game has a very fun combo system, and if you've ever played the PvP and pulled someone into one of your attack chains, you'll be reminded of a fighting game in a lot of ways.  Yes, you have the skill recharge, similar to any other MMORPG with some form of mp management.  You are very dependent on aiming your attack to hit your target.  The classes I played were Acrobat and Elementalist.  The more attack-oriented classes had more mobility to start a chain into a series of attacks as opposed to the more spell-oriented classes, but there was a difference in power when you managed to capture someone as any spell caster compared to a quick melee or ranged character.  I cannot say how well the game pulls off allowing you to chain combos.  This game definitely offers something more than just to be labeled as FPS combat.  You do not have the ability to click exactly where your attacks will land when it comes to AoEs.  You have to learn the distance and the radius of your attack to aim them and have them hit properly.  

That said the games I described seem to have similarities on the surface, but their intricate controls and combat mechanics create a completely different experience.   I am certain that whatever style of combat TERA has, it may not deserve the title innovative, but it certainly should get some credit for moving in the direction of this genre and opening people up to accepting Guild Wars 2's combat controls.  

Guild Wars 2's combat pretty much can only be discussed within the scope of the beta weekends, so there isn't much judgment that can be made on a game that isn't even released.  I found that the combat can be more or less intricate than you make it to be.  There is simple button-mashing, which can work very well for you probably for the rest of your gaming days, but there are also ways to manage more advanced AI that don't let you hit them.  One thing I noticed when difficulty rose in an area were more dodging NPCs and unique skills fired off by champions.  There are places where simply firing off your cooldowns will not work out.  Timing certain skills/dodges for very specific situations is not button mashing; otherwise, you would degrade typing on your keyboard to the same category as button mashing.  Cross-profession combos have been discussed more than once by others.  The game's cross-profession combos are a beauty to see in action considering all the different events that may be occurring when you fire a bullet into a static electricity field.  The combat in this game is rewarding and interactive.  I've noticed that after the beta weekend, when I actually checked the wiki and looked up what my weapon skills did, what traits were available, and what skills I had not used yet or dismissed as useless, I completely missed the various ways I could have helped others from dropping like flies in certain events.  There's a lot of complex effects that I did not register when I was in the beta.  The combat was cooler than my original impression.  When I watched other player videos, I felt that there were things that I'd like to try out now that I had no thought of before.  I feel that it's easy to get into the combat in the game, but it is not easy to learn all the various nuances available in combat.  Every new layer of combat just uncovers more possibilities.  It's not just about killing that target.  It's about killing that target while using ally's effect, so you can prevent them from taking damage.  It's about learning to push an enemy out of the way, so you can rescue a friend from a downed state rather than a defeated state.  It's learning to use an attack to shrug off a fatal attack.  

The way GW2 changes as you move further through the game is amazing.  I was watching from the sidelines and was impressed by the amount of media available from the press, the interaction of the developers with the community, so I pre-purchased the game based on the faith that there was too much investment on the part of the developers for this all to be just smoke and mirrors.  It definitely felt like a game I would want to play after the last beta weekend.  I experienced less issues than others.  My original reservations on the game was that the pacing of the game seemed a little too slow compared to Vindictus and Dragon Nest, but the timing of the game and pacing of the combat makes the game was somehow just the right pace to still enjoy since you have mobility and consequences of wasting a skills built into the game.  I played a Guardian solely in PvE during the beta weekend, and I found it surprisingly mobile compared to my original perceptions of game.  I moved where I wanted without any difficulty.  I could move reposition enemies wherever I wanted.  The controls were more responsive than I had originally imagined, and the timing for attacks were acceptable.  

I'll definitely head up towards the north of Wayfarer Hills next time.  

My journey through the zone was a backwards experience because I zoned in from Lion's Arch's shortcut portal.  I was absolutely clueless as to where I was supposed to go, so I started heading straight towards skill point locations to do them. More than once I ended up having to solo content because the rest of the players were probably playing in the dungeons at this time.  The difficulty of the events all were very fair given the circumstances.  I did not feel it was too difficult to get through the zone.  I played as a great sword/mace and torch guardian.  I had a blast going through that zone.  

My lesson learned was never to run straight towards point B without looking at what you've aggro'd along the way because a few times I had way too much to deal with alone.  I could take a small mob by opening up with a blind and some high damage skills, but I ended up flat on my back a few times from trying to deal with too much at once or pulling another fight into the crowd.  I did learn to keep a few things barely alive just so I could get out of my downed state when in trouble.  That allowed me to kill more enemies than I had originally throught possible.  The game has plenty of fun ways to take advantage of combat.  

It is important to note that I was around lv 24 when I hopped into Wayfarer Hills, so most of the content was not going to one-shot me when I decided to try it out.  It could still give me a hard time if I did not play smart.  

Even though I was impressed by Guild Wars 2 so far, I'm going to contribute to making this silly thread longer until everyone else can learn to resist the urge to shove your opinions down each other's throats.  
 

=)

Originally posted by Greyhooff

Originally posted by DannyGlover

---

People that were once staunch supporters of the game have finally conceded that Biowares unwillingness to merge servers or allow transfers now is doing moe harm than good and this is having even a more adverse effect on the population by driving more people from the game due to the lack of population on many of the servers.

---

 

...hurt my brain. Run on sentences are painful ;)

 

That's actually a pretty good run on sentence. I've seen so much worse, this one is quite well worded in comparison xD

I'm fairly certain that it would have benefited from a single comma.  It's a long compound sentence, but I don't feel it was a badly written sentence.  Unless you're complaining about that lack of a comma, I can't see that many problems with reading it.  

Loved most of the DEs, there was one where I was destroying pillars against the dredge, and when that event was over, everyone nearby got tossed out of the mines, totally confused by what had happened until they read the chat.  

There were a few chaotic ones where there were too many monsters fighting things without me having a good idea why I'm fighting.  The description only told me how much killing was left before it was over.  The problem that I felt about the chaotic events was that there was not a preface giving me an idea why I was in an event.  

The DEs do feel a lot more exciting than the skill point and personal story.  I wish those two would take a page from the dynamic event's story organization.  

I think I played a lot of the above mentioned DEs throughout the weekend in varying stages.  I recalled tossing snowballs at kids, killing antelopes and bears, but I did not stay for more.  

I thought I read that Orr (Arah) was mentioned to played a huge part in the later end of the GW 2 leveling spectrum.  I am assuming Zhaitan is associated with Orr.  I have no support for it because I don't even know which forum post it's buried under anymore.  http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Zhaitan

So the scepter of Orr and all that seems like it'd be important considering how the Eye of the North campaign ends with a bunch of hints of disasters and events to come.  

Guild Wars Beyond though holds a lot of connecting story elements between the original and 2.  

One way to change the skill system would be using the mouse to draw shapes to represent spells (stars, circle, square, etc.)and press combo buttons to active skills if that tickled your fancy.  There are a few online fighting games with such a layout where moving in a certain sequence will trigger a skill.  It opens up a bunch of combos that you learn to pull off.  If you could connect that with the weapon swap system in GW2, you can get some pretty interesting combo ideas going.  

You could build a mechanic like lifting things up into the air to juggle or ground hit something.  

Nah, forget it.  Too much effort to try to reason with the original troll post.  

9588 - We're getting close to 10k aren't we?