Промоакции для игроков не только в шутерах — воспользуйся промокодом Vavada от наших партнеров и получи бонусы, которые подарят азарт и атмосферу, сравнимую с игровыми победами.
.City of Heroes will go offline in a few months after 8.5 years, two expansions, and 23 issues (major updates). I played for about half that time, level-capping 11 characters, getting my money’s worth, and finding examples I still keep citing under the heading, “Congratulations on catching up to CoX in 2004” (or “…ATitD in 2002”).
Ethic’s 2005 post about the end of Asheron’s Call 2 remains one of the most popular pages on the site.
: Zubon
Many people have observed how Guild Wars 2 content flows naturally across the map. In WoW or LotRO, you know you are done with your current quest hub when your quest list fills up with “go talk to Alice, Bob, Cogsworth, and D’rkesh in the next hub.” In GW2, theme park ride A exits by the entrance to ride B, and because you do not need to go back to town to turn in your quests, you just keep rolling. “Protect the caravan” events are an obvious, justified way to move people between towns, and frequently a defense event will transition into an assault event that has a similar effect. (More on that tomorrow.) Scouts also point out the rides in advance, in case the flow fails.
My point today is simpler: the mini-map design is excellent. The right side of your screen naturally pushes you to keep rolling through new content. I have often spotted and followed a trail of resource nodes into a new area. More importantly, the map includes things that are off-map. A waypoint you have yet to find will appear at the edge of the map, guiding you toward that new content. It hovers enticingly, retreating as you approach until it is legitimately on the map. I never would have thought that I would want a map that shows things not on the map, but it works beautifully. Look, a dully colored thing! Go light up the dully colored thing!
Just above it, you have a list of hearts and events. Those work beyond the mini-map, too, particularly the events that alert you to nearby opportunities. Look, an orange thing! Go see the shiny orange thing!
: Zubon
The grinning bobcat refused to disclose why he grinned.
One of many actual responses I’ve seen throughout the ‘nets and in-game stemming from planting of seeds.
-Ravious
p.s. I was not part of that chat exchange at all.
SynCaine is right: Guild Wars 2 does not scale perfectly when you visit lower-level zones. As you might expect, a level 30-something scaled down to level 4 is still more powerful than a level 4, and then the content was balanced around level 2-3. I confirmed this when I took a low-30s elementalist into Queensdale and one-shotted elementals with Arcane Blast. Fast-leveling guildmates also report feeling much more powerful in WvW as a 50 scaled up to 80 than as a 10 (also scaled up to 80); this reminds me of WAR scenarios, where you knew you were going to lose when half your team queued up a the minimum level. Scaling does not overcome the fact that higher level characters have more and better gear, traits, and abilities.
Some of that may be a factor of the small numbers involved. This is not hard math: 2 is half of 4 but only 10% of 20, so a two-level difference means a lot more at level 4 than 20. Visiting areas in the teens and 20s, the difference seems less severe, although I have not tested it vigorously. I also expect there to be some scaling tweaks in place by the time we have enough level-capped characters to test scaling over its full range.
As usual, I would like to point out that City of Heroes solved this problem years ago. Your entire group is set to the same level. You can set the content to whatever level and group size you like. Here you would scale the characters rather than the content, but the principle is the same. City of Heroes faces the same problem, that a level 50’s enhancements make him/her far more effective when scaled down to 20 than a level 20 character is, but you can always choose to adjust your challenge level if you want a more authentic level 20 experience.
: Zubon
Each race’s starting zone has a capstone meta-event that ends the zone in a nice bang. Of the five, I have played every one but the asuran one. The sylvari starting zone finale, The Battle for Wychmire Swamp, is by far my favorite. It also provides a really good starting point for what to expect as far as open world “raidâ€-like content.
The meta-event kicks off unassumingly when the Nightmare Court (evil syvlari) attacks a small warden encampment, Falias Thorp, in the swamp. After the camp is defended, Gamarien pokes his head out and asks players to escort him as he checks for more Nightmare Court activity because he believes that some summoned husks are harbingers of a greater foe. The summoned husks are tree-like elementals clearly twisted by nightmare. Then players escort Gamarien in a loop around the swamp to eventually land near the center, where chaos begins and Gamarien flees. I would call these first two events, the defense event and the escort event, the prelude to the battle. Continue reading [GW2] The Battle for Wychmire Swamp
I have earned that last bit of xp and leveled by:
But as of yet, not just from the xp of killing a monster.
: Zubon
This week’s theme brought to you by Anjin, the letters G and W, and the number 2.
Dear Bookah. You bookahs don’t waypoint here anymore; I’ve noticed that this year, you seem to shun the place. Maybe it’s the genius of the asura coupled with our sheer force of unbridled will to tame this tarnished coast. Perhaps it’s me. When he first travelled here, Drojjenny wrote that the jungles were filled with the chaos of magic and life and bookahs seeking the druids lived in this jungle. A hundred years later, even they have departed. Continue reading Dear Bookah
The other day on Reddit’s Guild Wars 2 page, a discussion was had about a Guild Wars 2 Guru forum thread about the three-day bannings regarding names and speech. Most of the smarter comments with people that wrote like they knew what they were talking about seemed to suggest that there was little difference between a stonewall ban using form letters and writing a personal “This is why you were banned” letter. I tended to agree.
ArenaNet decided that it would be better to air some dirty laundry. The effect? It appears that they are reinforcing how they want their community to be, and people appear to be rallying behind them in force. I won’t reiterate them here, but a few are absolutely golden. The way ArenaNet presents them is so deadpan. “Name: OK Chat: Not OK [some horrible thing where your mother would slap you until you bled].
I realize that different people have different jobs. For instance the valiant(s) behind ArenaNetSupportTeam are not the people fixing the Trading Post. Still, I was initially amazed that they could spend the time checking into people’s accounts, and responding so publicly. Hopefully what this really does is give a few more people pause before making a character based on something crass.
At the same time, ArenaNet Zeus, Mike O’Brien made sure to clear the air that the first player to reach level 80 did so with ArenaNet’s good graces. It’s interactivity like these that makes me an ArenaNet fan. I can’t wait until the Guild Wars 2 forums open up. I expect a lot of good developer interaction.
–Ravious
Hearts are Guild Wars 2’s upgrade to quest hubs. While “I need help…” usually means “…killing [these things],” I have also filled hearts by:
Dear Bookah. I sometimes feel as if I’ve given birth to this Province. Somewhere, between the verisimilitudes of the jungle and geodesic batteries a split opened up and order evolved here. No matter how hard I ponder, Metrica Province remains a singularity, an alpha point in my life that refuses all hypotheses. I return each time making my mark in this zone that I hope, in the blinding glare of my genius, will have blossomed into progress beyond this anomaly. Continue reading Dear Bookah