Ojyh.9842

I think the models are okay, for now. They will eventually need an upgrade as the game gets older. If A.Net really wants GW2 to stay alive for years to come, visual upgrades will become mandatory at some point. It's really the kind of update that separates games that are doing okay and just surviving the passing years, and games that have real long term goals and want to keep attracting people. It's not just futile improvement, it's a sign of good health for the game, it's exciting for both old and new players and also for the devs. That is what we're all lacking the most these days with GW2. There is no excitment for the new stuff. But in my opinion the only thing we really need right now is to change some animations that just look silly (some of them look like they've been done by someone who's never studied combat movement). I agree that all races could get some new customization options. But I really think that the Norns in particular should get a total redesign, just like they resdesigned the Sylvari before launch. Right now female Norns are just big woman, and male Norns are just lumpish demi giants. I really don't like their design, I am not convinced by their animations either. I never had a Norn character cause they're just not appealing as they are right now. Their werebeast forms are nonexistent and their Viking/Nordic inspiration is pretty much lost now. Just wanted to add that there are always people who feel like some things are unnecessary and a waste of resources, until the said things are finally done, and when they're done right suddenly everyone's starting to think it was the best idea ever. That's exactly what happened with the mounts. Some people are just unable to see how great something could be and just reject it by pure lack of imagination sometimes.

Well, sorry for the long post, just saying what I had to say on the subject. I originally came to the forums to create this topic myself, but realised it was already discussed here, so that's great ! However I am stunned to see so many people being against the idea of a central Tyria mount accessible to new players. Especially when I read so many irrelevant arguments, even ridiculous at times (the comparison with the legendary weapons sounds ludicrous). I think it mostly betrays a lack of vision and imagination. Let me explain myself : It kind of reminds me of the times when people used to be against the addition of mounts in GW2... And here we are today, probably having the best mount system ever, but still some of us are opposed to the expansion of that system. Some of the arguments against the mounts were not necessarily stupid though, they were just the expression of legitimate concerns, and obviously the implementation of the mounts had to take some constraints and restrictions into consideration, but nothing that would definitely prevent the implementation. The ones who couldn't see the mounts working at all were just people unable to figure a way to implement them correctly. But that way existed nonetheless. In my opinion we're in a similar situation here. The only real difficulty I see would be the resources. If A.net feel like it won't be worth it, it won't happen. That's pretty much the only valid objection to me. Other than that, I don't see why they should not work on it. And noone here is able to say if the devs consider it a waste of resources or not, so let's not debate over that. I didnt read all of the 140 + messages that came before mine, but I've read quite a bit. So maybe I am partly repeating what someone else has already said. I am just going to describe the way I envision that stuff, and also respond to some of the objections I saw. I've been thinking about it for a long time now, so I think I have a pretty comprehensive vision of the topic (hopefully). First, I am a veteran player and I agree with what's being said about new players feeling behind because they can't access mounts. Especially the fact that they feel obliged to use their lvl 80 boost to quickly get a Raptor by doing a story step that should be done tens (undreads ? thousands ?) of hours later, and then go back to their normal progression. This situation is completely absurd. The game's population has more than doubled over the couple past years. It's certainly visible on youtube or twitch where tons of new players are recording their adventures. Iv'e been following many of them, and I can tell you that having a mount during early game would make their experience a lot better. Many of them asked for it, many of them were expecting it when starting the game, just like you would in any MMO that has mounts in fact. Even people here on this topic said the same thing, and I am baffled by some of the responses veteran players gave them. Like they're almost telling those new players "no ! you shouldn't want that, you have no reason to ! You think you'd like it but you don't !" (like players can't know what they would like ? or what would be good for the game just because YOU feel like it ?) and making all sorts of bizarre excuses for that, without realizing that most them don't even hold up if you take the "Raptor trick" into consideration. Sometimes I'm wondering if it's not some kind of jealousy, like "we didn't have it when we started the game, so you can't have it either". I am certain it would be a great addition to the game and help a lot with player retention, but not only that. The way I'm seeing it could also be a nice introduction to some contents and systems. How I see the Central Tyria mounts being implemented : - I believe the central Tyria mounts should be new ones. That is why the question of the resources is important, it requires more work than taking an already existsing mount, which btw would be incredibly lame on so many levels (even for the lore). The Raptor taxi is even worse in my opinion, although I understand why they put it in Cantha it's definitely a useless effort. People want to ride a mount they can move freely, not to follow a guided tour. - This new mount probably should not be accessible right away. Either with a lvl cap, or just by putting them somewhere new players can't access right from the start. I agree that slowing down the pace when you're not even introduced to most of the basic mechanics of the game yet is a good idea. MMO players are used to not get that kind of stuff at the begining of their adventure anyway. The perspective of having a mount to unlock quite soon is something that really has some great power to retain players and keep them engaged. - They are less efficient than the PoF mounts. Similar to a Warclaw in a sense. They have the quality animations, the momentum and a movement skill that make the GW2 mounts great, but they don't have an advantage over the other ones, which makes sure that the expansion mounts stay unique and attractive. I even suggest they would not have an engage skill, it is replaced by a simple dismount button. - The Central Tyria mounts are rented mounts. You have to pay a small fee to an NPC to have access to a mount for a limited amount of time. You can pay several times in a row to accumulate renting time (capped) so you don't have to go back to the NPC too often. The rent takes effect only for the character who paid for it. - Each map should have some stables/barns/ranches where players can rent those mounts. This is also something that requires a bit more resources, because the devs will have to think about where to put them and put assets at these places, because it would be weird to just have a random NPC in the middle of nowhere. Those places should be visible on the map and replace some of the waypoints or points of interest so they are actually part the map completion and the player will be directed towards them while exploring. Also, if everyone can get a mount, then less waypoints is a good thing ! If you're the kind of person who thinks walking is better than having a fast mount to enjoy the world (and I kinda agree to some extent), you would probably agree that exploring the world on a mount is still better than taking waypoints, and players better use a mount suited for that environnement instead of a Raptor they got by using a lvl boost. - When your character hits lvl 80 AND you have purchased an expansion, you unlock a new dialogue option with the renting NPC to begin a collection (not too complicated, we don't want something like the Griffon collection) to unlock your own mount for your account. The recent update that lets people start their mastery training without having to start an expansion story first is a very welcomed thing that would surely helps in this context. In the end it is a first experience with mounts, a first experience with masteries, and an interesting way to tell people they can get great stuff thanks to collections. So you still have to buy the expansions ! The incentive to buy is still there (although I don't believe at all that giving this mount without buying anything would kill this icentive in any way, it would be like saying that people buy all of the expansions SOLELY to get ONE mount wich is ridiculous). Also the collection could be a way to push players towards Central Tyria contents they might miss otherwise. Thanks to the mastery system you can upgrade your mount a little bit, making it more efficient and gaining an engage skill. - For a little bit of flavor and immersion, it would be nice to see some NPCs using the mounts. I probably missed some things here and there but that's pretty much how I see it. Now I also have a bigger and more complete version of this idea that consists in adding one different mount for each playable race. Each mount can be rented by any character, but you can only unlock the collection of the mount corresponding to your race, which means you need one character of each race to get them all. That is also part of another idea I have about giving back some importance to the race you choose, because I believe they lost a lot of their purpose and cultural identity since launch in 2012. But this is probably too much... Although it would be the greater option if A.net had "unlimited" resources. I already have each one them and all their movement abilities in mind, except for the Charr one, I am having a hard time finding a satisfying movement ability for a Devourer mount.

As we all know GW2 is very poorly optimized. The dx11 beta improved the situation a bit though. But for me, it got worse since EOD. The FPS frequently drop to 5 for 5 to 10 seconds, and sometimes it can happen every minute or so, making the game almost unolayable. The rest of the time it seems pretty smooth, from 60fps to 30 when there are a lots of people around in big events, and I wont complain about that, 30 is still okay. It's the big drops that make the game super annoying and make me want to stop playing. It seems to happen a bit more often in open world maps when there are lots of people around, but to be fair it also happens frequently in places where i am alone and absolutely nothing happens around. It feels completely random most of the time. I know the hardware is not the problem, it's the only game I have that has that kind of issues, and it seems to work a lot better oustide of EOD (although I have some FPS drops in other parts of Tyria, but they are a lot less frequent). I tried to uninstall and reinstall the game, all my drivers are up to date, my PC specs are way better than the recommended ones, I try to play without having some other stuff running on my PC at the same time... But nothing works. I also upgraded to Windows 11 (and I feel like I shouldnt have ?), does anybody know if this can have a bad effect ? Do other people have the same problem ? I'm not sure I will keep playing the game in these conditions. Edit : obviously I tried different graphics settings, doesn't seem to do much