Guild wars (redux)

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2005-05-10 06:53pm

The Chardok has decided that he is buying Guild Wars tonight. I need to know what server or whatever (However this free game shit works) I need to log into for fun and mayhem with my SDN brothers. (and sistahs) I think in the last thread, I saw Ace Pace in on it? Man, would that be cool...

Brother-Captain Gaius · Post by **Brother-Captain Gaius** » 2005-05-10 07:43pm

There are no seperate servers. The entire world is all online in the same world, just that they're separated into arbitrary "Districts" in towns and such for obvious reasons. I recently made level 20 and Ascended with my W/Mo main, hope to see you around soon.

Captain tycho · Post by **Captain tycho** » 2005-05-10 09:48pm

I'm just mucking around with different classes and combos right now, but my main is a 9 Elementalist/Necromancer; Tychon Katashar if you wanna contact me.

Post by **Lagmonster** » 2005-05-11 08:57am

How the hell do you contact other people across the different 'districts'? I've resorted to writing down the names of characters I meet who are polite, intelligent, or helpful, but I can never seem to run into them again.

Brother-Captain Gaius · Post by **Brother-Captain Gaius** » 2005-05-11 09:27am

Lagmonster wrote:How the hell do you contact other people across the different 'districts'? I've resorted to writing down the names of characters I meet who are polite, intelligent, or helpful, but I can never seem to run into them again.

Send a tell/whisper or add them to your friend's list.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2005-05-11 09:16pm

Can someone give me a brief rundown on Guildwars? I know what the devs think, and what the legions of mindless 'LOL OMFGzor' idiots think. I want an opinion I can respect, vis a vis broken game mechanics, intrusive MMORPG 'standards' like respawning right in front of you, etc. I don't know anywhere to go to find actual, normal-person-playing-mmorpg data of this nature.

Brother-Captain Gaius · Post by **Brother-Captain Gaius** » 2005-05-11 09:26pm

Stark wrote:Can someone give me a brief rundown on Guildwars? I know what the devs think, and what the legions of mindless 'LOL OMFGzor' idiots think. I want an opinion I can respect, vis a vis broken game mechanics, intrusive MMORPG 'standards' like respawning right in front of you, etc. I don't know anywhere to go to find actual, normal-person-playing-mmorpg data of this nature.

I'm sure you've read all the highs and "UBER 1337 FEATURES" elsewhere, so I'll just give you the lows (as I see them):

Lots of retards. This is to be expected.
In addition to the usual slew of standard-pattern retards, there's the contingent of whiners who do not understand the PvP balance and mechanics involved, and thus scream "NERF!" The current trend is bashing on the Warrior/Monk class.
Some later missions and solo areas can be extremely frustrating in their difficulty.
The NPC henchmen are pretty damn stupid and have gotten me killed too many times to count. Sadly enough, they're smarter than players (in all seriousness).
It's becoming more and more difficult to find good PvP and high-level PvE groups without a solid guild. With any luck and if enough SD.netters get the game we can form our own haven from stupidity, maybe.
Relatively (as compared with other MMOs/CRPGs) limited character customization options, particularly in the armor/clothing ballyard.

That's all I can think of off-hand. That said, I love the game, and I definitely recommend it, particularly as there are no monthly fees.

Captain tycho · Post by **Captain tycho** » 2005-05-11 10:16pm

Yup, it's a fun game, its just something that I can't play for hours on end. Although thats probably just me; I'll quit in the middle of a game (after saving of course), surf the net, then start up the game again in the span of 2 minutes.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2005-05-11 10:22pm

JediNeophyte wrote:That said, I love the game, and I definitely recommend it, particularly as there are no monthly fees.

Really? I'm not sure how I missed that part!

Thanks for your opinion: I hope the devs don't get on the CS nerf-carosel.

Post by **Lagmonster** » 2005-05-12 07:59am

Stark wrote:
JediNeophyte wrote:That said, I love the game, and I definitely recommend it, particularly as there are no monthly fees.
Really? I'm not sure how I missed that part! Thanks for your opinion: I hope the devs don't get on the CS nerf-carosel.

Here's an opinion from an older guy who doesn't play a lot of RPGs:

It's Diablo. It's Diablo in 3d, but it's still Diablo. I have only, thus far, actually paid any attention to other players in the missions where you have no choice but to pair up with someone, and I got lucky and didn't have to play with anyone who is strictly an idiot or AOL speaker.

The good parts are obvious: smooth gameplay, easy and fast real-time combat, no lengthy travel times between places (just point and click on the map to where you've been), and you don't have to play WITH anyone if you don't want to - all the 'cities' are social hubs where you can interact with people, and all of the 'play areas' are private copies of the world where you don't have to share loot, monsters, or anything unless you want to.

Partying with people obviously makes the game MUCH easier - if they are people you trust. Even that isn't necessary, however, since you can hire on a slew of computer-controlled allies to back you up and go out with them, and I've never had any problems with the computer guys except that they often trigger enemies to attack that I'm trying to avoid. I don't find the game itself either too easy or too challenging - but I'm a Diablo veteran.

That said, it is a good 'middle ground' CO-OP game for people who are neither true RPG players nor fast enough for shooters (or play groups where people like a little of both), and the plot is lengthy and interesting enough. I've been enjoying the game and haven't even touched PvP play - and it doesn't seem like I'll really have to in order to enjoy the game on a level I'm comfortable with and get my money's worth out of it.

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2005-05-12 08:58am

Did you write that Lagmonster? That's pretty damned inciteful and sums up my feelings on the game nicely!

Post by **Lagmonster** » 2005-05-12 09:18am

Chardok wrote:Did you write that Lagmonster? That's pretty damned inciteful and sums up my feelings on the game nicely!

Me English write good.

Brother-Captain Gaius · Post by **Brother-Captain Gaius** » 2005-05-12 11:48am

I must disagree on the Diablo comparison, in that it's not such a mindless clickfest (not that that's necessarily bad). The skills/abilities dynamic changes it into something requiring a little more thought, particularly PvP. There are no level 99 uber characters, no uber loot, no uber beat-all builds.

Vanas · Post by **Vanas** » 2005-05-12 01:04pm

I've just got the game, so I'm gonna play around for a bit with characters. I think that being mobile artillery is my bag, so mage-ing, here I come.

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2005-05-12 01:13pm

So is this baby worth getting?

Captain tycho · Post by **Captain tycho** » 2005-05-12 01:39pm

Stormbringer wrote:So is this baby worth getting?

Indeed it is. Speaking of which, I haven't gotten a chance to play it for the last day *grumbles about work*.

White Haven · Post by **White Haven** » 2005-05-12 01:58pm

I would...but my Lv46 Hunter over on Mannoroth calls to me, yes, yes he does...

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2005-05-12 01:58pm

I been tooling aorund with different classes, nothing concrete. When I get home tonight I'm going to try a ranger/necromancer, just for kicks. though my "main" if you can call her that is Sanini Earthmender a lvl 5 elementalist/monk

I didn't know what I was doing...

Vanas · Post by **Vanas** » 2005-05-12 02:55pm

I think I'll go for either Elementalist/Mesmer or /Necromancer.
I would be higher than my present level of three, but I just discovered the 'dance' command. Oh my, that's disturbing.

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2005-05-12 07:13pm

The way the online stuff in that game works is not too different from say, Diablo's Battle.Net thing or Gunbound. You go into a chatroom, you talk to people, you decide to join a game that is actually hosted in one of the computers as a small-scale multiplayer network game, then the mission is over and everyone goes back to the central chatroom.

Except instead of a chatroom, you get the "mission areas" which is like a chatroom with 3d characters. And you got cities which are also 3D with actual shops, with lots of districts that are like different channels (they're all just exact duplicates of the same area, so you don't have 50 million people sharing the same 100x100 meter space).

The other difference is that missions are somewhat "scripted", not in the programming sense, but in the sense that there's an objective, a plot, etc, not just "go bash some baddies and L00T". They're like short episodes in a single-player game. That makes teamplay and planning a more important factor than levels and powers and weapons.

It's not actually a MMORPG, that's not necessarily a bad thing, and a definite plus is that it doesn't cost monthly.

I remember one of the missions in the first free public preview (E3 methinks) in the end we had to kill some uber-baddie with about 50 smaller monsters. We managed to operate a catapult, one of us had to bait them into following, the other player shot and killed them all. But the uber-baddie wouldn't allow himself to be smashed, so we had to concoct some sort of weird plan where one of us would go there, let himself be killed, other player would lure the baddie out, then someone would revive me so I could backstab him or something. It was very fun and very satisfying when we got it right.

Brother-Captain Gaius · Post by **Brother-Captain Gaius** » 2005-05-12 07:21pm

Oh, for everyone who has it, feel free to friend list me or throw me a tell: My main char is Sister Severa, it should forward tells to any alts I may be on.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2005-05-12 07:30pm

JediNeophyte wrote:I must disagree on the Diablo comparison, in that it's not such a mindless clickfest (not that that's necessarily bad). The skills/abilities dynamic changes it into something requiring a little more thought, particularly PvP. There are no level 99 uber characters, no uber loot, no uber beat-all builds.

So there's no queue of people in line to kill the Ragmonster to recover the lost Watch of Zion to complete cutout quest #127? I may have to give this a go!

Brother-Captain Gaius · Post by **Brother-Captain Gaius** » 2005-05-12 08:03pm

Stark wrote:So there's no queue of people in line to kill the Ragmonster to recover the lost Watch of Zion to complete cutout quest #127? I may have to give this a go!

Old habits die hard for some people, and a sizable portion of afore-mentioned retards would sooner die than stop farming the high-level areas. The important thing to note, however, is that this really isn't going to do them any appreciable good. Someone who knows his skills, how they work, and when they work will always destroy someone spamming the same skills over and over with their shiny rare sword and upgraded armor.

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2005-05-12 08:43pm

Not to mention that the only players sharing a battlefield is the 4-6 players that have teamed up for a COOPERATIVE mission, and that all the loot is distributed randomly between the members no matter who clicks on the dead body first (I think, maybe I'm confusing it with some other game).

(not counting PvP which is in some other arena place)

The main difference with Diablo is that missions are laid out in a non-random way and combat is more tactical and teamwork more important.

Also you don't need puzzle items from one quest to complete other quests, each mission is completely self-contained. They're basically the equivalent to a single-player level of any other computer game. Sometimes the mission is to gather 3 pieces to repair a large siege engine, whatever. Either everyone wins or nobody does. Even the ones that died win.

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2005-05-12 08:44pm

Also during the first demo, I remember that you can't even meet othe players in the "wilderness" areas. AFAIK every player gets an instanced version of it when they go out of a city. The game is not much different from hosting a 4-8 player round of Gunbound or Half-Life, but instead of the built-in chat system or Gamespy, the chatrooms and ready-rooms are played like in-game areas. And you can "single play" by going to these generic wilderness areas.