Guild Wars 2 Beta

[Collossus]

So I participated in the Guild Wars 2 beta this weekend and had a generally favorable time, there were the usual problems with beta (lagging and problems logging onto certain servers) but as a whole I had a lot of fun, I will probably cancel my SWTOR account to play.

Did anyone else participate? and have any thoughts?

[TheFeniX]

I'm considering giving this game a go considering my reading on it. A few gaming buddies are interested, but all the reading I've found is on gameplay and other stuff. I can deal with questionable gameplay, but I'm tired of games feeling sluggish, like I'm controlling a guy who's playing the game, rather than playing it myself.

I wonder if you could answer a few questions:

How is ability responsiveness?
Old Republic had major issues with abilities not firing. You could literally chase an opponent while in melee range and watch a melee ability constantly "queue up" then not go off. They've improved this immensely over the last few patches, but it is still far behind WoW.

How does the engine "feel?"
Old republic is awash with overhead and non-optimization. Objectives updating and even opening up you inventory can cause it to stutter terribly. Initiating conversations or even talking to vendors does the same thing. Comparing gear was extremely annoying with all the split-second delays in between new windows opening and closing.As buggy as Star Trek Online was, when the game was running, it ran smooth and load times were minimal.

How's the optimization?
It drives me crazy that SWTOR looks dated but grinds your PC into dust while only utilizing 20% of my CPU and 2GBs of RAM. I don't mind a game looking "stylized" or dated (and GW2 looks like a combination of both), but it had better have stutterless gameplay considering the hardware you can get these days. I got Fallout NV off steam for $4 and installed the high-res texture pack (7GBs of textures) and the Weather Mod: the game will run at max everything and will play smooth (crashes aside when I got crazy with mods).

Sidenote: WTF is with review sites and people talking up how great a game looks by posting 500x500 screenshots?

[Collossus]

I'm considering giving this game a go considering my reading on it. A few gaming buddies are interested, but all the reading I've found is on gameplay and other stuff. I can deal with questionable gameplay, but I'm tired of games feeling sluggish, like I'm controlling a guy who's playing the game, rather than playing it myself.

I wonder if you could answer a few questions:

How is ability responsiveness?
Old Republic had major issues with abilities not firing. You could literally chase an opponent while in melee range and watch a melee ability constantly "queue up" then not go off. They've improved this immensely over the last few patches, but it is still far behind WoW.

How does the engine "feel?"
Old republic is awash with overhead and non-optimization. Objectives updating and even opening up you inventory can cause it to stutter terribly. Initiating conversations or even talking to vendors does the same thing. Comparing gear was extremely annoying with all the split-second delays in between new windows opening and closing. As buggy as Star Trek Online was, when the game was running, it ran smooth and load times were minimal.

How's the optimization?
It drives me crazy that SWTOR looks dated but grinds your PC into dust while only utilizing 20% of my CPU and 2GBs of RAM. I don't mind a game looking "stylized" or dated (and GW2 looks like a combination of both), but it had better have stutterless gameplay considering the hardware you can get these days. I got Fallout NV off steam for $4 and installed the high-res texture pack (7GBs of textures) and the Weather Mod: the game will run at max everything and will play smooth (crashes aside when I got crazy with mods).

Side note: WTF is with review sites and people talking up how great a game looks by posting 500x500 screenshots?

1-ability responsiveness

I didn’t notice any problems in this area (at least not as many as is in SWTOR) the responsiveness was excellent in the majority of cases (there were a few laggy matches that may have attributed to the sluggishness and responsiveness). I don’t recall the abilities ever getting hung in queue.

2-optimization

As for the look of the game it definitely looks much better than SWTOR, but there are some issues they had with having the game engine tax heavier on the CPU rather than the video card, I’m not sure if this was due to the developers wanting it to run better on lower end machines but I just noticed that my CPU was being taxed way more that my graphics card, As far as the finished engine I don’t know if they will address this.

Fallout is a much older engine anyway (isn’t it built on the original Oblivion engine?) so it’s not surprising that you can mod the heck out of it and it still runs smoothly. The problem these games run into could also be due to the heavy traffic that they have over there RPG counterparts.

As for the side note……..hmmm I have no idea I hadn’t really looked at many review sites... Maybe that’s all they can glean from the developer right now until it releases, but you would think there would be some high res stuff out there somewhere.

As for the game as a whole I think I will enjoy it more than STWOR because of the new standard of not having a subscription fee and not having the shortcomings of gameplay, mainly in the PvP arena.

[TheFeniX]

Fallout is a much older engine anyway (isn’t it built on the original Oblivion engine?) so it’s not surprising that you can mod the heck out of it and it still runs smoothly. The problem these games run into could also be due to the heavy traffic that they have over there RPG counterparts.

That's the issue I have though: SWTOR took a gamble on the Hero engine that looks like it isn't going to pay off, through no fault of the engine from what I've read.

Checking out the wiki on the engine, Rift seems to use it (the engine Fallout New Vegas does) and Rift ran pretty damn smooth as an MMO even if it wasn't all that graphically impressive.

I don't really buy the whole "network traffic downgrades gameplay" angle. MMOs really don't require the bandwidth an FPS does in smaller engagements. Even with large battles, BF2 was running 64-player servers and looking better than any MMO I've ever played. Sure, it was laggy at times, but if you had the hardware to run it, it ran well (but loaded slooooow). It's the same thing with Rift, WoW, and STO: the players might start teleporting, my abilities might not fire because of latency, and combat might be shit: but my FPS is still solid and my game is running fine. SWTOR: when the combat gets crazy, the engine just shits itself to death.... oh yea, and there's terrible lag.

Really to test an MMO: get into combat with 10+ players or NPCs, then spam your "Open inventory" button. If your FPS drops into the single digits, the engine is shit.

I should really just shut up and give GW2 a try. I'll probably wait a few weeks as my prime gaming buddy just got a new job and will be looking for a new place (with non-crap Internet). I am really digging that I can just load in whenever I want after a break, like I do with STO when I'm bored.

As for the side note……..hmmm I have no idea I hadn’t really looked at many review sites... Maybe that’s all they can glean from the developer right now until it releases, but you would think there would be some high res stuff out there somewhere.

The real awesome looking stuff isn't gameplay related, just artwork that looks awesome (like what you posted). But people are posting "AWESOME CHARACTER DETAILS!!!!!" screenshots that I'm forced to zoom in on to make out said details. And.... zooming kind of makes it look awful.

On that note, post some full-scale screenshots (like stupid big) if you can. I'd like to see them.

[Collossus]

Fallout is a much older engine anyway (isn’t it built on the original Oblivion engine?) so it’s not surprising that you can mod the heck out of it and it still runs smoothly. The problem these games run into could also be due to the heavy traffic that they have over there RPG counterparts.

That's the issue I have though: SWTOR took a gamble on the Hero engine that looks like it isn't going to pay off, through no fault of the engine from what I've read.

Checking out the wiki on the engine, Rift seems to use it (the engine Fallout New Vegas does) and Rift ran pretty damn smooth as an MMO even if it wasn't all that graphically impressive.

I don't really buy the whole "network traffic downgrades gameplay" angle. MMOs really don't require the bandwidth an FPS does in smaller engagements. Even with large battles, BF2 was running 64-player servers and looking better than any MMO I've ever played. Sure, it was laggy at times, but if you had the hardware to run it, it ran well (but loaded slooooow). It's the same thing with Rift, WoW, and STO: the players might start teleporting, my abilities might not fire because of latency, and combat might be shit: but my FPS is still solid and my game is running fine. SWTOR: when the combat gets crazy, the engine just shits itself to death.... oh yea, and there's terrible lag.

Really to test an MMO: get into combat with 10+ players or NPCs, then spam your "Open inventory" button. If your FPS drops into the single digits, the engine is shit.

I should really just shut up and give GW2 a try. I'll probably wait a few weeks as my prime gaming buddy just got a new job and will be looking for a new place (with non-crap Internet). I am really digging that I can just load in whenever I want after a break, like I do with STO when I'm bored.

As for the side note……..hmmm I have no idea I hadn’t really looked at many review sites... Maybe that’s all they can glean from the developer right now until it releases, but you would think there would be some high res stuff out there somewhere.

The real awesome looking stuff isn't gameplay related, just artwork that looks awesome (like what you posted). But people are posting "AWESOME CHARACTER DETAILS!!!!!" screenshots that I'm forced to zoom in on to make out said details. And.... zooming kind of makes it look awful.

On that note, post some full-scale screenshots (like stupid big) if you can. I'd like to see them.

There is some good HD vids on youtube of the gameplay but as for screens I didnt take any and the beta isnt going anymore so hopefully some review sites will have some soon.

[SylasGaunt]

I had fun with it, though one thing I really hope they fix (they've stated they're working on it IIRC) is the overflow instancing not prioritizing teams when you and a friend load into an overflow instance.. meaning you and a teammate could end up seperated and have to dance back and forth through the instance borders to try and load into the right one.

Other than that I had fun with it though.

[Meest]

Feels like a real departure from the current standard of MMOs. The majority of the features just feel right and make sense. Some examples:

skills 1-5 are based on what weapon you're using, 6 is heal, 7-9 utility, 0 elite, so tons of ways to change your game style just by weapon swapping
holy trinity gone (no tank, healer, dps) and each class has utility
linear xp curve instead of exponential
can't loot steal or xp steal, if you're in the area and helped you all get xp/loot
related to last point, promotes grouping and working together because no need for greed
no traditional quests, most of the world is laced with public events that effect the world (good and bad progression trees)

How is ability responsiveness?
Right now I would say only melee needs work. Range feels great but melee is tough to stay glued and get all your skills off in a row, you are very mobile in game, can dodge and conditions are very shot (1-5sec max, most are 1-2sec for stuns/roots).

How does the engine "feel?"
Engine is great in my mind, the scope of the game is huge was running on balanced the most of the time. Only stuttered in mass PvP sieges. Seems like it can get better if they optimize more, the lag was all server side issues the client feels good.

It's what MMOs needed in my opinion, doesn't feel grindy just fun. The World vs World vs World dynamic brings back the feeling of realm or server pride, you aren't competing with your own realm it makes it beneficial to help them.

[Stark]

When I heard about gw2 ages ago i really liked their ideas around skills, in particular because the way skills were handled in GW was the big draw for me. How do I get in the beta? :V

[bilateralrope]

When I heard about gw2 ages ago i really liked their ideas around skills, in particular because the way skills were handled in GW was the big draw for me. How do I get in the beta? :V

Currently the only way into the next beta is to pre-purchase. The official store didn't charge me more for being in NZ, though other places selling GW2 did.

[TheFeniX]

When I heard about gw2 ages ago i really liked their ideas around skills, in particular because the way skills were handled in GW was the big draw for me. How do I get in the beta? :V

Besides pre-purchase, supposedly you can go to Gamestop (or any retailer that offers pre-ordering), drop $5 on it to get a beta key, then get back/transfer your $5 to something else if you don't like it. Although... I might be thinking about Tera.

The lack of skills (not primary, utility mainly) actually worries me. Having no more than 5 actual skills to manage to do my damage seems great, but I liked classes such as the WoW Paladin, where you were given numerous abilities people claimed were useless but actually came in quite handy. Hand of Salvation worked wonders for DKs in AOE situations (they have no aggro dump) and Hand of Sacrifice was great in arena when fighting rogues (Drop in on your teammate right before you think he's going to sap you). I like the idea of having skills that aren't always needed on my toolbar.

[Meest]

The lack of skills (not primary, utility mainly) actually worries me. Having no more than 5 actual skills to manage to do my damage seems great, but I liked classes such as the WoW Paladin, where you were given numerous abilities people claimed were useless but actually came in quite handy. Hand of Salvation worked wonders for DKs in AOE situations (they have no aggro dump) and Hand of Sacrifice was great in arena when fighting rogues (Drop in on your teammate right before you think he's going to sap you). I like the idea of having skills that aren't always needed on my toolbar.

You can switch skills whenever out of combat, in combat there's a 10sec cool down on weapon swapping, don't think you can change the other skills in combat. There is also traits, which is like the WoW talent tree, every 5 points in that you get related bonus/passive effect to skills and overall boost to related stat. Example is you put 30 points in duelist trait, you get the 6 trait skill bonuses (things like a skills cool down reduced by 20%, or this skill is now AE) and boosts your critical chance by so much etc.

It does get tedious the way it is without any macros or customizing, hope mods or the game will support quick switching your specs around. Cool downs on utilities are longer than average, usually 15-240secs so it does make picking them really strategic depending on what you're about to do (open world fight or keep siege).

[Stark]

If its anything like GW, finding and using useful skill synergies is more important because you have fewer slots, not less. Having specific builds and thus specific roles was a good break from the '5 skill bars mash 1-9 constantly' that you get in some other MMOs.

[Meest]

Yeah there's still a ton of skills, for example the elementalist has 4 attunements and each has 20 skills (earth, fire, air, water) so it's what weapon you are using along with what attunement you are on at the time. Each profession also has F1-F4 as unique mechanic for their class, warrior has "adrenaline" (kind of like rage mechanic) and can use the F1-4 skills when it's built up enough on the meter. So there's plenty of ways to "spec" yourself and makes choosing skills to use important, you do have enough points to get them all. Another good aspect of the game you get everything so it's more about how you want to use them.

[Jaevric]

This sounds kind of interesting, but when I see the phrase "keep sieges" I have bad flashbacks to Warhammer: Age of Reckoning and spending hours trying to push up a narrow staircase with fifty other people while a couple of dozen spellcasters rain AoEs down on our heads. That got old very, very fast, and it was usually a laggy experience to boot. Did anyone have any experience with the Guild Wars 2 version during the beta to see if the keep sieges were reasonably well-done or not?

[Meest]

Guild Wars keep sieges are more closer to Dark Age of Camelot than Warhammer, more flexible and strategic. The walls are destructible so you can avoid gate clusterfucks and force defenders to spread out. The main keeps are also huge, if you remember forts in Warhammer the keeps are like that. There are tons of smaller towers and supply camps that are more close to a single tower inside a 4 sided wall where it can be cramped, but think these objectives are meant for smaller groups.

The ones I was involved in beta were a tower take and defense mostly and the tower champion is up a L shaped staircase (all exposed, no walls or against a wall) and the level the champion is on has open walls all around with just pillars so it's mostly exposed so I didn't get the standoff style from Warhammer. Was pretty easy to get into the champion room because you can AE the defenders just as well as they can, also the AE at this point isn't that powerful because the AE CC is rare and short so you can also dodge/roll out of the AE before too much damage, the most damage I've seen was from siege weapons. Another point is that all classes have ranged weapons that are viable, so a warrior with a rifle can help out with ranged and not just twiddle thumbs until a gate or wall is breached.