Soooooo that Guild Wars 2 BWE...

[Niavmai]

this was I think the biggest failing of the beta weekend. the events and gameplay didn't really start getting good until you were in the teens. I have no idea who decided that the first 10-12 levels would be awesome if your character was impossibly weak and underpowered, but they were stupid. once you start getting trait points and buy access to spending them (huge gripe of mine, btw. 10 silver is still a lot at level 11) things get much better and the events at that level start getting far more interesting and involved. I really hope they fix the very early levels over the course of beta because I can totally see them losing plenty of people just like hoho here even though the rest of the game might be stellar.

I'm not sure I follow you here. At no point during my leveling experience did I feel underpowered. I was able to take on mobs well above my level, with a little luck and some skill.

[jakj]

Not to be a pain in the ass, but I'm going to be a pain in the ass here. Isn't the point of having these open beta weekends (in addition to the publicity) to, y'know, find out these things so they can balance them? It's not like you can expect them to simply have a fun and balanced game spring forth full-grown from someone's forehead on their coffee break.

[freakachu]

perhaps I am simply extrapolating too far based on personal experience. my elementalist didn't really feel "weak" at low levels. I guess that is not really what I'm trying to say, but I can't really put my finger on a good way to express what it is I'm actually trying to get across. I guess a better way to put it would be that I didn't feel like my character really "came together" or "came into his own" until teen levels. the early levels felt far less enjoyable than the later ones.

and jakj, I don't think anyone really expected that. I know I didn't. however, that doesn't mean you can't dislike parts of it

[Niavmai]

perhaps I am simply extrapolating too far based on personal experience. my elementalist didn't really feel "weak" at low levels. I guess that is not really what I'm trying to say, but I can't really put my finger on a good way to express what it is I'm actually trying to get across. I guess a better way to put it would be that I didn't feel like my character really "came together" or "came into his own" until teen levels. the early levels felt far less enjoyable than the later ones.

and jakj, I don't think anyone really expected that. I know I didn't. however, that doesn't mean you can't dislike parts of it

I think the idea of that is for players new to MMOs. Learning to know to actually push buttons. And at the right time. All that. It's perfectly fair, and perfectly reasonable.

[freakachu]

not totally on topic, but this picture is a perfect representation of the end of beta event, if not any place with >20 people

[img width=800]

[jakj]

not totally on topic, but this picture is a perfect representation of the end of beta event, if not any place with >20 people

[img width=100]

Things will change somewhat after they have to shell out $60 to get in. Not as much as a sub fee would weed out, but enough.

[freakachu]

everyone in the beta had to have already shelled out 60+ bucks to be there, actually. the screenshot is more of a lucky timing thing than anything else though, it's really not THAT bad all the time. tons of crazy effects is a problem at times, however.

[jakj]

everyone in the beta had to have already shelled out 60+ bucks to be there, actually. the screenshot is more of a lucky timing thing than anything else though, it's really not THAT bad all the time. tons of crazy effects is a problem at times, however.

That's been mentioned by pretty much everyone. Totalbiscuit (John Bain) actually spoke directly to the developers, and informed us (once his NDA was lifted) that the developers already intend to tone down the graphics as necessary to make sure everything is as visible as the community desires.

[freakachu]

yeah, I watched pretty much everything that came out about the game from the press betas, TB included. I'm pretty sure it was better in the BWE than in previous betas, too. mostly I just thought the picture was funny and appropriate.

[jakj]

Personally, I want a toggle (or slider) between "can see the fire to stay out of it" and "omg fucking hell this is beautiful", which I can set based on my group v. solo situation.

[sct]

Did any of you mess with the HD screenshot feature? It's pretty crazy. Here are two uncompressed shots I took with it:

http://www.sctgaming.com/rnd/gw004.jpg

http://www.sctgaming.com/rnd/gw005.jpg

I also didn't resize it, of course. I don't play at that resolution (I play at 1920x1080). The HD Screenshot feature just takes huge sexy screenshots.

[hoho]

At no point during my leveling experience did I feel underpowered. I was able to take on mobs well above my level, with a little luck and some skill.

Well, there was that one quest where I got down-scaled to level 6, had 3 friendly NPC's and two of them just didn't help me at all. The third one ran in the middle of 7 mobs and dropped dead. Whenever I tried to pick off one of those 7 mobs they all agrod me and proceeded to blow me to pieces and that third and only active NPC was just dead and there was no way to either keep her alive or resurrect her.

It was some Norn story quest where I was supposed to save the minotaur spirit. I'm not sure if those NPCs were supposed to help me or not. If not then that quest was horribly out of balance and I couldn't even give any feedback on it as I was unable to finish it.

[Niavmai]

Well, there was that one quest where I got down-scaled to level 6, had 3 friendly NPC's and two of them just didn't help me at all. The third one ran in the middle of 7 mobs and dropped dead. Whenever I tried to pick off one of those 7 mobs they all agrod me and proceeded to blow me to pieces and that third and only active NPC was just dead and there was no way to either keep her alive or resurrect her.

It was some Norn story quest where I was supposed to save the minotaur spirit. I'm not sure if those NPCs were supposed to help me or not. If not then that quest was horribly out of balance and I couldn't even give any feedback on it as I was unable to finish it.

You couldn't even take them down one at a time, and deathrun? I'd says this was probably user error. Or perhaps you were bugged. It was a beta after all.

[hoho]

Pretty sure it was a bug as all three NPCs had speech options that all seemed to indicate them joining me but as I said only one actually did.

As for human-error, I kind of doubt it. Over the years I've pulled off some rather crazy stuff in other MMOs when soloing things I shouldn't be able to and nothing seemed to work there. Perhaps it was my profession that simply lacked the "punch" but I wouldn't count on it (throwing 3 "copies" of myself in as tanks I was able to tickle one mob to around 60% HP before I got gibbed, each copy survived about 2-3 seconds). It wasn't possible to kite them either as they were leashed to relatively tiny spot and when they reached it's border they just turned around, healed to full and ran back.

[jakj]

I hope there is a way to turn off the character voicing things like low health and being frozen. That is getting really freaking irritating and I'm just watching video footage of it.

[freakachu]

I hope there is a way to turn off the character voicing things like low health and being frozen. That is getting really freaking irritating and I'm just watching video footage of it.

but.. but I can outrun a centaur!

[jakj]

but.. but I can outrun a centaur!

Yes, but can you mine for fish?