Speaking of grinding, here's the article about the level progression in GW2.
http://www.arena.net/blog/progression-and-leveling-in-guild-wars-2

On PvP, ArenaNet will be revealing it at Gamescon.
http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/0...uild-wars-2-pvp-and-customization-at-gamesco/

 

When I read '80 levels' and 'flattening the level curve' I went cold. But I can see that they're trying to mix up a tired formula, and I can appreciate that. The sentiment of simplifying games is very dangerous though.

Also, one of GW1's strengths was its lack of focus on levels, by only giving you twenty and letting you experience most of the game at max level. If they changed it so you go through more than half of the content when leveling they'll have made a mistake.

So yeah, apprehensive about these changes.

 

I plan on finally getting Eye of the North a little bit later this month. I know that I already have at least 8~12 points worth(when I last checked when the calculator first released months ago), for when I can access the Hall of Monuments. I'm still curious about who here still plays, or is willing to play, even if it's just to work together towards said Hall of Monuments.

Anyway, The Berkeley Hunt, I can't say for sure at this time how much the new leveling system will work. For one thing, you can level in WvWvW from level one, if you really wanted to try it. Another, is that Dungeons are currently slated to be at least level thirty-five and above. The sidekick system could be an interesting way to alleviate some of the downsides of the large level range.

Honestly, I think it was a means of them to relent somewhat to those many people that complained about being max level practically by the end of the beginning area. I never had a problem with it really, as discovering and mastering your build(s) of choice could potentially take quite a while, especially as you captured more and more Elite skills. Of course, that's influenced by the fact that I never looked at online guides for skill builds. Then again, with the flattening of the curve, they do perhaps recognize the original's "levels beyond twenty."

Speaking of skills, I will admit that I'm not overly keen on them reverting to the concept of "Ranks" of skills, even if it's just weapon skills. Sure, it means that you are gaining something tangible when you level up aside from stats, but I admit that I quite enjoyed the attribute point system of the original game. Even with the fact that you often had a leftover point or few, depending on your distribution...
Actually, I wonder if they will have a Skill Trainer NPC in the WvWvW zone, or if you have to leave to the 'normal world' to rank up a skill if you level up there. Yes, you don't have to queue up to rejoin, but it's still a bothersome result of a skill rank system.
It's a rather different case, but I remember gaining levels in lower-tier RvR in Warhammer, and depending on the level, it could be definitely worth it to return to an outpost to train up before returning to the battlefront.

Well, it's not a huge deal, and I suppose it sort of supports the idea of specializing in a particular couple sets of weapons, depending on the cost. Of course, most players will probably eventually just learn all of the abilities for the sake of doing so, even if they never use particular weapon sets.

 

Being almost a day and a half later, and on a completely different topic, I'll just make another post rather than edit into my previous.

Anyway, I thought that I would bring a collection of recent links related to the games audio/sound design(the links use both words).
The first two are a two-part series of three-minute videos about their methods for acquiring sounds, and mixing them appropriately. For whatever reason, portions of both videos are accompanied by a banjo playing...:
~First Video~

~Second Video~


The latter two links are articles. The first discusses organizing, mastering and processing sound files. Interesting if you like the technical details.
The Hidden Complexity of Sound Design

The second discusses the audio engine for the game. It also makes mention that the audio engine is completely multi-threaded, and thus can take advantage of multi-core processors without sacrificing performance. Also, of note, is that the game supports external playlist selection, including a separation for ambient and battle music. Also, when appropriate, it can revert to the proper in-game music for cinematic scenes, before resuming the custom playlist. Anyway, here is the second article.
James Boer Talks GW2 Audio Design


p.s. On a related note, I know that I've done it on here before, but for the life of me, at this moment my mind is drawing a blank on using word(s) to represent a link, rather than the link itself.
...I knew that, GL... yes...

p.p.s. Oh, and "Next Week is Sylvari Week".

 

Sylvari Week

DAY ONE

The Sylvari redesign is a go, and I must say that I am quite pleased at the detail involved in them.

Kristen Perry on Designing and Redesigning the Sylvari

I always had the intention of making more than one of my characters as a Sylvari, but I am definitely more interested in doing so now. The idea of different seasons of birth affecting your base appearance palette(before customization comes into play) is nice too. I like how they are now far more of a fusion, than the idea of a plant-themed human, as the early design was. I've even seen several people on the forum comment that with this latest design, they seem perhaps more detailed than the other races. Who knows if this precedes a modest update to the others, or if it's simply a matter of perception.

Also, while that page doesn't mention it, there has been a Developer statement citing that the "planty" armors in those images are examples of Sylvari racial armor styles, and that you can still wear the more "normal" armor styles that other players can wear if you so choose. That said, it would seem odd to see a Sylvari Warrior or Guardian wearing metal plate armor.

p.s. Here is an example of the older design. Redesign of Caithe (The Sylvari member of Destiny's Edge)
p.p.s. I have to admit that in retrospect I feel silly for not noticing the link right away but...: Audrey, hmm...


DAY TWO

Explanation of some concepts that explain some aspects of Sylvari lore, as well as several audio clips of in-game characters to relate to some of the concepts. I like some of the voices, and am impartial with some others as well.
The Sylvari Soul - Angel McCoy on Writing the Sylvari

Also, while it's not directly related to today's reveal, I found a music channel that has several(15) of the in-game sound tracks, as composed by Jeremy Soule, of Elder Scrolls fame.
http://www.youtube.com/user/T3hMusicGuru#p/c/0/1tJ1Xzj9kzk
(I can't guarantee that the soundtracks will be allowed to remain up, since one commenter stated that they had been up previously but been removed due to copyright violation.)


DAY THREE

Growing the Sylvari

A roughly three-minute long video, describing some of the iterative process on designing the Sylvari and their lore. There is some nice in-game footage of environments, as well as different versions of the new Sylvari characters.(including some blue-tones and a nearly-black dark brown Sylvari character)

 

Reminds me oddly of something Socar Myles would draw.

 

Winter Sylvari Guardian?

LEGGO.

 

Ok, they look pretty bitchin now. I might just have to play one...

 

(For those interested, check my previous post if you haven't, as I have edited the post over the past two days as the week has gone by, rather than cluttering the thread with a new post per day.)

The following was a kind of interesting Developer response post from a thread about the "DAY TWO" mentioned in my previous post. It's post #60 from this thread, on the Guild Wars 2 Guru forum, which unfortunately went on to become a discussion, for roughly twenty or more pages, about the hows, whys, and why nots of Sylvari being able to have sex...:facepalm, occasionally interspersed with other topics.

Largely, it was interesting because of the discussion that it raised. Well, the more reasonable portions of that discussion at least. If you actually bother to check out the thread, it gets a little silly. One of the biggest detractors, finally after having the lore referenced to him numerous times, makes a point of saying something along the lines of "If that's what it says in the lore, than my questions are answered," as he implicitly admits that he has been arguing for the past twenty pages without actually reading the lore that he is arguing about.

Ah well, I will edit-update another time or two for Thursday and Friday, when more new information is released. I know that the final race's Asura Week is upcoming soon as well. While I have no problem with the game coming out early-to-mid next year, maybe, just maybe, it could come out this year... However unlikely it may be, they could just be getting the eighth class, as well as other things here and there, really nailed down within the next month or two, another two to three months of Beta, then release.

The upcoming Gamescon will allow booth visitors access to all races and classes(except the eighth, unless it's a surprise :awesome), as well as the full character creator. As to the latter, I use 'full' in the sense that character background choices and the like, as well as physical customization choices will be available. It's not too unlikely for there to be some more customization, at least physically, available at release that are not at Gamescon.

p.s. A random fun post about the Thief's Steal mechanic, as well as Initiative: Here you go

 

...what? Why does anyone give the slightest shit about who the Sylvari bone? Besides, they're elves (even if salad elves) and elves are always bi. Definitely rolling at least one though, their art style is really cool.

 

I won't really bother with explaining DAY FOUR, as it was mostly just an update to the Sylvari page under the Races section of the main website. Adding portions of this week's information, as well as a new video showing Sylvari, and a few new downloadable Backgrounds.


DAY FIVE

...though, had a relatively lengthy and lore-enlightening Blog posting, which extrapolated on the Pale Tree, the Dream, 'Cycles' and how they relate to Sylvari birth, and the Nightmare Court. Included at the end of each section, was a text excerpt in a story fashion. It includes Sylvari characters from the books, but isn't really a spoiler. Oh, and there are some nice pieces of artwork too.

Dream and Nightmare


I'm not sure about when Asura Week is supposed to occur, but considering they are slated to be playable at Gamescon, which is next week if I remember right, then eh...

 

New stuff, for those that are interested, as of this upcoming Gamescon.

Jon Peters on the New Gamescom Demo

He highlights several changes to the game-play functionality as of this latest version. [EDIT: Weapon skills work differently to obtain the base unlocked forms of abilities provided by that weapon, the implication being certain numbers of kills with the weapon unlock the second, third and such, abilities. [EDIT: See below for further skill leveling of weapon skills.]] Utility skills, although likely not all of them(perhaps at least the exception being the non-elite Racials?) will bring back the skill searching mechanic to some degree or another.

Oh, and Energy will apparently no longer function as it used to. In the current version, skills no longer cost energy, which presumably means cool downs are the restriction now. Dodge will still cost energy, but since only dodging will cost it(as far as was implied), they removed the energy recovery potions, and replaced the command with a mappable dodge button. So, you can map it to your mouse, or whichever key you want, rather than the previous double-tapping of a direction. Pressing the command will have you dodge in whichever direction you are moving, or backwards if you are standing in place. Note: You can still double-tap for it apparently, although that may be a toggle-able option.

Other than that, a few images, rough descriptions of the demo-playable areas, and a light explanation of the physical aspect of character creation customization. There are more specific options than Guild Wars 1 at least, although the image doesn't show the contents of the other tabs, and the article makes mention that not all final options will be available in the demo.

Oh, and Rangers will finally show off their Greatsword abilities, as well as a few classes showing previously unrevealed weapons, or in the Elementalist's case, Earth Attunement. Also, apparently some of the previous weapon skills have been changed or replaced.

 

Not that happy with the utility skill levels thing. In oblivion I ended up having to specialize in Swords because it was the most efficient weapon. I like to role play, and my mage ended up a spellsword at best.

The xp level up may be less intuitive, but I like that it lets you play however you want. That said, if well balanced the game should still be playable by different styles.

 

[I found a short and sweet post with Dev comments to summarize here.]


Reading a bit more about it[EDIT:...and some more...]... it seems that the weapon skills 'unlock' by using a weapon and getting kills(or at least partial credit with kills) with that weapon. I saw mention of "ten kills to unlock the second skill, with increasing amounts for the later skills, although not too high." Realistically, it's probably comparable to needing level two for the second skill, or whatever it used to be.
They didn't currently say the removal of skill-tiers, instead auto-upgrading the Tier as you hit certain levels. Personally, I would rather the skills scale with level and stats if they are going to auto-upgrade at certain levels anyway, so we shall see if this current iteration lasts. I still prefer it to talking with skill trainer NPC's though! I'll edit that out of my previous post, since it was stated without proper information.

As for "Utility Skills", I haven't ever seen any mention of them having levels at all. Any variable effect that they have would be based upon stat-scaling and the effects of Traits, as far as I can tell. Just that they are bringing back some form of skill finding/capture again, for the Utility Skills.

Maybe you were thinking of the functionality of Oblivion's or WoW's "Weapon Skill" levels, that had to be trained by using the weapon-type? I haven't seen anything like that either. The only "Weapon Skills" I have talked about are the "Skills" that you can use by having a particular "Weapon" equipped. It just seems that they are modifying them to unlock the basic levels of skills by usage rather than merely character level, so you presumably have some experience with a weapon by learning and using the prior skills before you get the last ones.


[Theory-Mode]

If one wanted to unlock the skills of a weapon that they have never used, I imagine it realistically wouldn't take too long if they pushed for it. Especially with the greater gear, traits and the like as benefits of a higher level, even if you chose to temporarily down-scale yourself and go to an easier zone to test it out, it would likely take relatively little time to get all five of a weapon's skills quickly learned. Presuming such kills would count. If nothing else, I imagine most 'invested' gamers will switch between the different weapons early on as they are running around, just to get the skills unlocked, so they don't have to deal with it later.

If you actually do also have to use the skills of a weapon to learn the higher tiers(provided skill-tiers of the same skill still exist), then while you can certainly change your character up, it will have players truly investing in their chosen weapon(and a swapped choice) style. This has the upside of, theoretically, causing the players to learn more about their chosen styles and become more skilled in them, rather than just changing to something different whenever a new 'better' but different weapon-type piece of equipment drops.
The logical downside, is the reverse case though. It would also likely promote locking oneself in to your chosen styles relatively early on, at least until they get to max level of the weapon's skills for optimization, and actually practically punish those who want to try those different weapons out. Of course, this is relative to how much effort it would take to maximize a weapon's skills, but presumably in such a system, it wouldn't be a matter of just a few hours over one afternoon.
[/Theory-Mode]

Anyway, Gamescon is a go.

Here is the Structured PvP map that they will be using for Gamescon, as well as commentary on general suggestions for the classes, that give a sense of game play:
The Battle of Khylo: Jonathan Sharp on PvP

[Awesome Edit]

Oh, and did I mention this awesome new Game Trailer made for Gamescon? I like that aside from the nifty twenty-second stylized game art montage at the start, the remainder is actual in-game footage. Allowances for certain bird's-eye view camera angles aside. Shazam!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjlWj_aC3Rw

(Several Norn shapeshifted forms between 3:47-49 for those that prefer Norn. All in all, lots of snazzy game play footage inside.)

 

Here's a look at the PvP, looks pretty great to me!

 

Dang. For all that I complain alot about some aspects of the game, it looks fucking rad.

 

40 min Gamescon Press Demo. This game looks more awesome everytime I see it.

 

Hell, it was probably already posted, but I love the new gamescom Trailer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OyHwqokkKk

Secondly, Arenanet vs Other pvp.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uB8z_2OJE70

Fuck it, here's a ton of videos.
http://www.guildwars2guru.com/forum/showpost.php?p=852988&postcount=3

 

Thank you to both of you for the links provided. There has been quite a few videos and interviews coming out the past few days. The IGN 1:01 videos were practically de-advertisements though, with either terrible playing or the video that had a Sylvari standing in place(not even mousing over the UI) for over half the video. The only good thing about the latter, was seeing them and the area in a general sense, and the Thorn Mastiff, one of the Sylvari choices for starting Ranger pet.

Anyway, I've seen several videos today, and I'll probably update with something later when more come out, but I wanted to share this audio-only interview with Ree Soesbee, Lore and Continuity Designer:
TowerTalk Interview With Ree Soesbee
(Note, there are introductions in German, but the actual interview right after is in English.)
A variety of lore questions and answers abound, some perhaps previously known to those that have delved a bit deeper, and some likely not prior revealed. In particular I liked the talk about the Order of Whispers, Durmand Priory and Vigil, as well as the explanation about various races' motivations for playing certain classes. Even the little things, like how some Charr NPC's will be realistic and express their distaste if you are a magic-user, even a Charr one at that.
Also note that it's about and hour long, but it covers a lot, so...

[Edit]
Here, in lieu of a specific link, I'll be lazy and take advantage of someone who is likely the most prolific resource-finder on the Gamefaqs board for Guild Wars 2:
Gamescon 2011 Video Roundup

Heh heh, from the second page.

There were a pair of videos that a few people commented on quite favorably, so I made a point to watch them, and I approve. The two videos by TotalBiscuit(I haven't seen his stuff prior, but supposedly he's notorious for being quite critical in various game reviews?) were rather thorough. He should probably have re-equipped his shield, and he could have setup his weapon swap via his character pane, but even so, he covered a fair bit more than previous videos that I've been watching. They are a pair of videos at twenty minutes each, covering his forty minute demo. He takes a Charr through the tutorial, then plays around with the Dynamic Events in the area beyond, as well as uses several different weapons.
Part 1
Part 2
Structured PvP (Norn Engineer and Asura Ranger)

As an afterthought, it makes me wonder... If one needs to have all three weapon skills learned on a primary hand weapon to learn the first skill of an off-hand weapon(as it appears to be the case), then if you learn the first skill of an off-hand, but switch to a primary that you do not know up through the third skill, then I suppose you get a delay on learning the second skill of your off-hand piece of equipment until you do.
Not a big delay though. As you saw, he was able to learn the three skills of his sword by the end of the tutorial(exactly so, amusingly, since he killed more ghosts than the others tried to). It might be something as simply as 10 kills, 20 kills, 30 kills, 40 kills, for the second slot up to the fifth. It's not instant, but it should not take very long at all either, while allowing some practice with the weapon. Of course, you can technically just jump to Structured PvP and have all weapons and skills(non-racial) unlocked while their, but I think I would rather learn by way of immersing, myself.



[Important Edit!]
Here is a link that I found which is, quite frankly, an excellent compilation of the information from the Wiki and several other sources, all in one page and updated as of Gamescon 2011. Warning, there are quite a few large images.
Guild Wars 2 News and Information Thread

Would a Mod be willing to also splice the directly-above link into a fitting location in my topic starter post as well? Preferably with the preceding short message before the provided link. Considering what is included in the link, you could easily remove everything including and below the line "Some nice concept art, of the Elder Dragons, of the world:" and just replace it with the above.

Anyway, as an aside these two images alone give a rather nice sense of scale for the potential amount of things that can be done in the game:
"I found this screen that I believe was labeled by ArenaNet to give people an idea of how DEs can be laid out. Also, I think that this only shows what happens in any given part if you succeed, it doesn't take into account when you fail and the events that spawn from there and so on."
Dynamic Event Plan for an Area

"If you notice [below], the area on the world map that is uncovered is the above partial bit of that zone there. Gives you an idea of the scale of the world." (two images actually)
Zone Map
Mostly Undiscovered World Map

[/Important Edit]

 

Not too much new information came out of PAX, mostly just more people talking about their experiences with the various classes. Also, while not everything has been explained about Guilds, their current intention appears to be that you can be affiliated with multiple guilds on your account, and while playing an individual character, choose one at a time to currently run with.

That means, that you choose one guild(in some screen or another), at which point you can type in and read the current chat from that guild, but you can change without explicitly leaving your former guild(s). Most people seem amenable to the idea. If nothing else, it means that if you are on your Ranger playing with your "PvP Guild", but decide that you want to play PvP on your Guardian instead, you don't have to have your Guardian leave the "Casual", "PvE", "RP"....etc. guild that it is a member of. Merely log into your Guardian, and change the guild affiliation, and carry on, changing back later.

The only real complaints are some people implicating a decrease in "guild loyalty", but it isn't really all that different from having, say "these two characters in this guild," and "those two in that guild," and also "that one in the other guild." In this case, you can still technically do that, but you don't have to abandon your other guild if you want to play for a while with one group of people, with one of your other characters not normally used with them.

As you can see, I think it isn't such a bad idea. I do think it's a bit odd, but it's not unpalatable.


Oh, and this was awesome:
Fore!