ArenaNet Studio Update: July 2021

[Dragon.4782]

2 hours ago, Kersya.3145 said:

I see Panda mount incoming.

Could even be a Crane bird similar to an Ostrich.

I’d rather see Crane or Panda pets for ranger tbh but still a funny idea. 

[Caeledh.5437]

14 hours ago, Eraden.8740 said:

With this announcement in mind, I wouldn't be surprised if EoD turns out NOT to be the last expansion for GW2.

I agree.

 

For all that GW2 didn't build well on its launch success, it's still one of the few truly successful MMOs and because they did turn a real profit, it's also one of the few MMOs which hasn't gone full dark side in terms of cash shop shenanigans. Or just shut down.

 

NCSoft might realise that they're better off pumping money into an existing MMO with decent player goodwill than into developing any new MMO.

[MsNineTailz.9508]

While the delay saddens me primarily because now I'll have to juggle two games around the same time frame, I to however share the sentiment that I'd rather see EOD get the development time it needs if ultimately the end result is a quality experience.

 

I am also curious on the technical reasoning behind why they've chosen DX11 over 12, though given the age of DX9 at this point I'll take anything if there is a chance it will help with the long standing performance issues the game has endured over these years.

 

With DX11 on the way I'd like to hopefully see the addition down the road of an LOD draw distance slider option and maybe even some reworks to the post process effects and lighting, right now with post for example you can use 3rd party solutions such as GW2hook etc. but I'd like to see the need for these options become disincentivized unless for the purpose of fancy screenshot taking.

 

 

       

 

 

[Leablo.2651]

This seems a like a doubling or tripling down on failed ventures.

 

The game's stumbles at launch, a disastrous temporary content policy, an undue emphasis on versus modes that relatively few people play, bad choices catering to traditional MMO endgames, culminating in an expansion that alienated much of the player base can all be attributed to the person running the show at the time. This is the same person who undermined the entire gameplay basis of the franchise to push an antiquated RvR mode in its place, and seemingly used GW2 to create a sequel to his previous employer's games rather than to Guild Wars.

 

This former leader left to help produce Amazon's MMOs, all of which are now stillborn due to many factors, but most of them also seemed to be chasing the same idea that MMOs could be a respectable platform for competitive play, which they are not and never will be. And the very moment that this person was invited back to Anet, in virtually the same breath we see that there is now going to be a renewed focus on WvW after years of (perhaps justifiable) neglect. This doesn't strike me as a coincidence, nor does it instill any confidence in the future of the game. I think Anet is about to repeat its own history, almost to the letter. I don't mind a delay for the next expansion, but this change/regression in leadership and development priorities makes me very skeptical that the delay will actually be used for good. I would much rather have seen someone else at Anet be given an opportunity to show their qualities as a leader.

 

Don't get me wrong: I know there are some players who love WvW and that it is a neglected game mode. At the same time, a meaningful investment at this stage of the game's life is not going to produce meaningful returns out of WvW. The alliance system is something we needed in 2013, that's when it could have saved the mode and the game's competitive side. In 2021 it's too little and far too late to push a game mode that requires a critical mass of players to function well, when the opportunity to have them sailed long ago. Does Anet really believe that all those players will come back to GW2? Reprioritizing WvW while an expansion is underway only serves to divert from the quality of that content and what keeps its remaining players in the game. Cantha will be a huge challenge to get right in GW2 and if the past has been any indication, Anet will need all hands to deliver on the expectations that everyone, most especially GW1 veterans, will have for the uniquely dense, urban environments of Kaineng City. Can you really afford to split your attention at this critical juncture?

 

I suspect that if the delay and the focus on WvW are related, Anet might be making a misstep in trying to tie expansion content to WvW, forcing players to participate in alliances as part of the expansion's core content. If this is what's happening, it's a mistake, both for the players who don't want any part of versus play, and for the WvW diehards who don't want PvE tourists interfering in their matchups. These lessons were learned already, but like I said, Anet seems to be bent on repeating history.

 

On the plus side, it's nice that we finally have a leadership commitment to improving the game's performance issues. It is long overdue.

[Fueki.4753]

6 hours ago, Dragon.4782 said:

I’d rather see Crane or Panda pets for ranger tbh but still a funny idea. 

I can see them add both.

They can add those pets with, once again, over-performing abilities.

And then they add a Warclaw Panda skin and a Raptor Crane skin via the gem Store.

[Frankie Evernight.3478]

Hope with DX11 yall consider adding DLSS support for that FPS gain,

but please consider Ray Tracing for when GW3 comes out lol( by then more people should be able to get an RTX card haha)

[Touchme.1097]

10 hours ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

 

I believe it's a psychological thing: people feel those things are more likely to happen for real if they encourage the devs with positive reactions to these news.

Positive Reinforcement enables other people around you to be empowered and encourages good result. It's perfectly ok to be hyped and support ArenaNet in this important period of time with a new expansion coming soon. I always positively support people to do their best.

Edited July 4, 2021 by Touchme.1097

[giokun.1845]

lets pour our money to them to make this happen! dx11 support FTW!! love you gw2 dev team!

Edited July 4, 2021 by giokun.1845

[Astralporing.1957]

On 7/3/2021 at 1:00 PM, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

As stated before, the second picture is an in-game screenshot, not 'artwork'. 

Yes. The question is what levels of post-processing were added to it, and if it went through some sort of graphics filter later on. For one, i see a lot of sunlight in that screenshot that definitely is going to make a lot of things brighter. And this is definitely a different sunlight than in Elona (that one made everything look weird, and yellowish).

 

On 7/3/2021 at 1:00 PM, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

I think it looks fine, but others have their own thoughts. 

I just went and looked at my old Shing Jea screenshots, and i think that it's pretty much spot-on. Sure, the colors are more vivid, but that's a general difference between GW1 and GW2 engines, i think. That, and we haven't really seen many truly nice environments in GW2 yet, so we can't really compare.

 

Also, i just looked outside my window, and the colors of the greenery are quite similar as in that picture. If that's toxic, does that mean i should run now?

[Astralporing.1957]

16 hours ago, Kersya.3145 said:

I see Panda mount incoming.

Could even be a Crane bird similar to an Ostrich.

Siege Turtles or riot.

[Majic.4801]

It's great to see Colin and Josh back at ArenaNet.

Make us proud, guys! 

[kharmin.7683]

On 7/2/2021 at 11:19 PM, Caeledh.5437 said:

2) The biggest turn off - at launch - and reason I didn't get into group content was your initially doing away with trinity. I love playing healers and there was no room for me here. With HoT you reversed that bad decision and introduced dedicated healers like the druid elite spec and revenant's Ventari. Hooray. Though for other reasons I stopped playing and never got to enjoy that reversal.

 

I think that for many players, the lack of trinity is a huge reason for playing GW2.  I, for one, hope that it is never implemented in GW2.

[Aeolus.3615]

Finally a bold move :) this is more like the Anet i remember :)

 

 

Hope to see a dx11 testing client soon would love to exp it. :)

[Faridah.8431]

12 hours ago, Leablo.2651 said:

This seems a like a doubling or tripling down on failed ventures.

 

The game's stumbles at launch, a disastrous temporary content policy, an undue emphasis on versus modes that relatively few people play, bad choices catering to traditional MMO endgames, culminating in an expansion that alienated much of the player base can all be attributed to the person running the show at the time. This is the same person who undermined the entire gameplay basis of the franchise to push an antiquated RvR mode in its place, and seemingly used GW2 to create a sequel to his previous employer's games rather than to Guild Wars.

 

This former leader left to help produce Amazon's MMOs, all of which are now stillborn due to many factors, but most of them also seemed to be chasing the same idea that MMOs could be a respectable platform for competitive play, which they are not and never will be. And the very moment that this person was invited back to Anet, in virtually the same breath we see that there is now going to be a renewed focus on WvW after years of (perhaps justifiable) neglect. This doesn't strike me as a coincidence, nor does it instill any confidence in the future of the game. I think Anet is about to repeat its own history, almost to the letter. I don't mind a delay for the next expansion, but this change/regression in leadership and development priorities makes me very skeptical that the delay will actually be used for good. I would much rather have seen someone else at Anet be given an opportunity to show their qualities as a leader.

 

Don't get me wrong: I know there are some players who love WvW and that it is a neglected game mode. At the same time, a meaningful investment at this stage of the game's life is not going to produce meaningful returns out of WvW. The alliance system is something we needed in 2013, that's when it could have saved the mode and the game's competitive side. In 2021 it's too little and far too late to push a game mode that requires a critical mass of players to function well, when the opportunity to have them sailed long ago. Does Anet really believe that all those players will come back to GW2? Reprioritizing WvW while an expansion is underway only serves to divert from the quality of that content and what keeps its remaining players in the game. Cantha will be a huge challenge to get right in GW2 and if the past has been any indication, Anet will need all hands to deliver on the expectations that everyone, most especially GW1 veterans, will have for the uniquely dense, urban environments of Kaineng City. Can you really afford to split your attention at this critical juncture?

 

I suspect that if the delay and the focus on WvW are related, Anet might be making a misstep in trying to tie expansion content to WvW, forcing players to participate in alliances as part of the expansion's core content. If this is what's happening, it's a mistake, both for the players who don't want any part of versus play, and for the WvW diehards who don't want PvE tourists interfering in their matchups. These lessons were learned already, but like I said, Anet seems to be bent on repeating history.

 

On the plus side, it's nice that we finally have a leadership commitment to improving the game's performance issues. It is long overdue.

 

I wonder if we'll see an almost Factions redux. Alliances, Kurzick vs Luxon again? I don't know. I'm intrigued by how that competitive side might relate to Cantha. Factions upon release very much had that competitive side as a forefront feature with alliance battles and JQ/FA, moving faction border, and alliance ownable towns. Of course the GW2 landscape is very different so guess we'll see...but color me intrigued.

Edited July 4, 2021 by Faridah.8431

[Fueki.4753]

22 minutes ago, Faridah.8431 said:

 

I wonder if we'll see an almost Factions redux. Alliances, Kurzick vs Luxon again? I don't know. I'm intrigued by how that competitive side might relate to Cantha. Factions upon release very much had that competitive side as a forefront feature with alliance battles and JQ/FA, moving faction border, and alliance ownable towns. Of course the GW2 landscape is very different so guess we'll see...but color me intrigued.

Given that Luxons and Kurzick populations have been forcefully integrated into the Dragon Empire, I see little chance of that happening.

Also, GW2 is a far less competitive game, so it would be weird for PvP features to be an important part of the expansion.

[Faridah.8431]

4 minutes ago, Fueki.4753 said:

Given that Luxons and Kurzick populations have been forcefully integrated into the Dragon Empire, I see little chance of that happening.

Also, GW2 is a far less competitive game, so it would be weird for PvP features to be an important part of the expansion.

True, but that history is old at this point in the lore. They might not still be forcibly integrated. We just don't know.

 

As for the PVP, I agree. I don't necessarily see it happening, but it's interesting to consider.

Edited July 4, 2021 by Faridah.8431

[Infusion.7149]

24 minutes ago, Fueki.4753 said:

Given that Luxons and Kurzick populations have been forcefully integrated into the Dragon Empire, I see little chance of that happening.

Also, GW2 is a far less competitive game, so it would be weird for PvP features to be an important part of the expansion.

The Factions border was also reliant on PvE not just PvP: you were also able to farm faction in PvE not just AB or JQ/FA missions via challenge missions, elite missions (Urgoz / Kanaxai), and repeatable faction quests people would speedclear. I'd expect any system similar to alliances in GW1 to work similarly if map or node control is a fixture. There would be competitive (PvP) and resource-based (PvE) aspects just as how WvW servers would sometimes pool PvE player assets to fund transfers.

One of the elements GW1 challenge missions had was the leaderboard, which we have for roller-beetle races and adventures but not for instanced content such as DRMs (which do have timer for how long you took at the end), strikes, fractals or raids. That has led to people using arcdps logs and external validation techniques. So when you talk about competition rather than "competitive modes" it doesn't have to be in the PvP sense.

[Fueki.4753]

26 minutes ago, Faridah.8431 said:

As for the PVP, I agree. I don't necessarily see it happening, but it's interesting to consider.

While it may be interesting to consider what kind of modes would be possible, it is equally necessary to consider that those new modes might actually end up being detrimental to the overall PvP scene.

 

There already aren't too many players left in PvP, which causes those horribly lopsided matches we currently have in PvP.

Having Platinum players being matched against silver players is neither healthy, nor can it be called competitive.

 

Stretching these players over even more modes would just exacerbate the issue.

I don't think new PvP modes would attract many players that aren't already spending time in PvP.

 

Before introducing new modes, I'd like Arenanet to at least try to balance what already exists.

Edited July 4, 2021 by Fueki.4753

[Faridah.8431]

5 minutes ago, Fueki.4753 said:

While it may be interesting to consider what kind of modes would be possible, it is equally necessary that those modes might actually be detrimental to the overall PvP scene.

 

There already aren't too many players left in PvP, which causes those horribly lopsided matches we currently have in PvP.

Having Platinum players being matched against silver players is neither healthy, nor can it be called competitive.

 

Stretching these players over even more modes would just exacerbate the issue.

I don't think new PvP modes would attract many players that aren't already spending time in PvP.

 

Rather than introducing new modes, I'd like Arenanet to at least try to balance what already exists.

Yeah, again it's just a bit of nostalgia that popped into my head. Not saying it's necessarily viable with current make up of the game and how various game modes work. That said, in Factions, a lot of this competition was PvE based. Don't necessarily need to think of it within the confines of the existing PvP or WvW systems. The factions fighting very much influenced the PvE world of Cantha.

 

That said, you do make a good point about adding more to already troubled game modes.

Edited July 4, 2021 by Faridah.8431

[radda.8920]

7 minutes ago, Fueki.4753 said:

 

 

There already aren't too many players left in PvP, which causes those horribly lopsided matches we currently have in PvP.

Having Platinum players being matched against silver players is neither healthy, nor can it be called competitive.

 

 

 

there is almost no one left in pvp because this mode has hardly changed for 9 long years.

The small community of players staying there prevents arena from changing the game, they are obsessed with their boring cap mode.

it's still sad to have a guild wars 1 just exceptional at the pvp level with lots of different modes and gw2 where it's been the desert for years

 

But yes I think it's too late to change anything, the majority of pvp players have left this game and those who stay will prevent any form of change

Edited July 4, 2021 by radda.8920

[Faridah.8431]

Just now, radda.8920 said:

 

there is almost no one left in pvp because this mode has hardly changed for 9 long years.

The small community of players staying there prevents arena from changing the game, they are obsessed with their cap mode boring mode .

it's still sad to have a guild wars 1 just exceptional at the pvp level with lots of different modes and gw2 where it's been the desert for years

Yeah I wonder where they went wrong. GW1 really got PvP right.

[radda.8920]

4 minutes ago, Faridah.8431 said:

Yeah I wonder where they went wrong. GW1 really got PvP right.

 

it's simple, a different community open to change and innovation

players who still populate gw2 pvp will complain if something changes their habit. I played a lot of mmo and I rarely saw a mmo stagnate so much at the pvp level, I find it sad given the potential of the game

Edited July 4, 2021 by radda.8920

[Fueki.4753]

11 minutes ago, radda.8920 said:

 

there is almost no one left in pvp because this mode has hardly changed for 9 long years.

The small community of players staying there prevents arena from changing the game, they are obsessed with their boring cap mode.

it's still sad to have a guild wars 1 just exceptional at the pvp level with lots of different modes and gw2 where it's been the desert for years

 

But yes I think it's too late to change anything, the majority of pvp players have left this game and those who stay will prevent any form of change

I think the bigger problem is that Arenanet hasn't been trying to balance the game at all.

If they had at least tried to properly balance the game in favour of the majority of players, instead of letting the AoE condition vomit dominate the average, more people might have stuck with PvP.

Conquest as a mode itself is more of a secondary problem, as Death Match is facing the same problems.

 

10 minutes ago, Faridah.8431 said:

Yeah I wonder where they went wrong. GW1 really got PvP right.

In GW1, they at least tried to balance the game.

And since the attribute system was much simpler than the trait system in GW2, it was much harder to create over-performing builds (which remove most of the fun that could have been found in PvP).

Edited July 4, 2021 by Fueki.4753

[Infusion.7149]

47 minutes ago, Faridah.8431 said:

Yeah I wonder where they went wrong. GW1 really got PvP right.

There was better support in GW1 for PVP, as you had the observer mode and championships despite having greater complexity in terms of gameplay. After the brief GW2 ESL stint there hasn't been as much done with respect to PvP as a whole. The largest changes so far have been ATs with swiss as well as the 2v2/3v3 additions (which while "new" in that they are modes are no different than people fighting in custom arenas): I don't think a few new maps fundamentally change the way it is played.

In the interim I think the best thing they can do that is relatively low effort is to have the coverage for the semi-final and final monthly AT posted on their youtube/twitch/facebook. It shouldn't be as difficult to find the coverage among the few PvP streamers that still stick around and you would still have full coverage (i.e. the whole AT) and commentary from any Arenanet partners for more context provided they actually do upload the coverage. Reworking 300s traits would also be an improvement.

That said, Tournament of Legends is coming back for the first time in maybe two years (in addition to a dev that was top 2% in PvP rating and might have partially been responsible for the ESL in 2016) so I would be cautiously optimistic.

Edited July 4, 2021 by Infusion.7149

[Redfeather.6401]

I hope someday gw2 will appreciate great things that guild wars 1 did and try to bring them back. GW2 gets stale so fast, but I went back to gw1 for that 2020 anniversary that add 1 new skill to each class. So many people came back to gw1 for that. All just to make new builds and play around with the possibilities.

Edited July 4, 2021 by Redfeather.6401