[Kvinna]

Hey everyone! This Q&A entails some of the questions you guys asked over in Tyrian Assembly before gamescom was over. The reason it has taken so long is because I had to wait for the mp3's in order to transcribe them. Sorry about the wait!

Now I know a lot of you are going to be disappointed with some of the answers, but to be fair we did ask a lot of tough questions. However, I must say that that we did get some interesting info even though they couldn't answer some of the questions directly.

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(cuts in)...
Chris Lye: You spend 80% of your time in combat so why shouldn't it be more fun?

Jeff Grubb: Exactly. And it choreographs much more easily and gives a flow to: I'm leaping in, I'm charging, I'm hitting, and now I'm going to pull back, now I'm going to switch weapons and go to my axes and go roaring in, you know? And so what we're seeing in play is – both at home and play testing here this week – is people who are embracing a much more of a mobile sense and that they're more aware of their gaming surroundings. They aren't just concentrating on the thing that's lined in red. They are aware of all the targets, they are aware of all of the potential allies next to them. Someone's down and earlier you told me you like to run as a priest. While we've gotten rid of a dedicated healer class, everybody has the potential to heal.

Zyuu: I noticed that the elementalist has an ability to recover HP?

Jeff Grubb: Yes, they have their water attunement – you'll have a lot more healing with that. But I'm also talking about how if an ally falls, you can go and rally him. You can go bring him back up as opposed to in a game with a dedicated healer. Their dedicated healer would have a resurrection spell with a long timer and it'd be used, etc. This sort of thing created design problems for the fact that you had to figure out how to design around that – will we just assume everyone has a healer and then design accordingly or do we design like it could be anything and then having a healer would just make it an advantage? So, we ended up having everybody capable of rallying their allies. We've found that the players who like to run the priest, the cleric, the monk, the healer class, naturally continue to do what they were doing before because they had a style that basically made them happy. And that style is “I want to help others.”

Chris Lye: But they also have more options. Like my wife is a great healer, she loves playing a healing class. But there are always times where she has to play solo and she can't do enough damage. That's not going to be a problem if you are playing an elementalist.

Jeff Grubb: Yes. And it's going to be a case of, you know, not what do we need in the party, but what do we need in the situation.

Chris Lye: What do we need right now.

Jeff Grubb: Mhm. What do we need, a damage dealer? I'm going to be attuned in fire. Am I going to be needing that healing capacity? I'm going to be attuned to water. If I'm going to be more defensive, I'm going to be in earth. So, more choices for the players. Warrior. I like playing warriors but I hate fighting big monsters as a warrior. I just see the foot.

Zyuu: That's what I was going to say. A warrior is too close to see anything...

Chris Lye: But not with a bow.

Jeff Grubb: But not with a bow!

Chris Lye: The bow is a completely viable way to play a warrior.

Jeff Grubb: And you can swap weapons so easily. I can use the bow to kite them, to bring them into me, and then unload on them with the axes which is a very offensive weapon set.

Chris Lye: But the thing is is that bows aren't just for pulling anymore. It used to be that warriors would carry a bow around just so that they could pull. But no. If you want to play a ranged warrior with a bow, it's a very viable way to fight.

Jeff Grubb: We're not saying, "you are the warrior, you will tank; you are a priest, you will heal." But rather, "you are a warrior, you've got many options; you're a ranger, you've got many options." And if those options include a playing style that you're comfortable with... again, go for it.

Zyuu: What can you tell us about the necromancer?

Jeff Grubb: We just revealed the necromancer – he just showed up this week. We've been slowly rolling out all of our professions and we've got four of them unlocked and four to go. The necromancer works off minions, and life energy. It has area-targeted buff spells, healing areas, and wells. These are all components that make the necromancer work. I like the minions which are the short term pets. You can summon three different types of minions that will run into combat and when you summon the creature, the skill button changes. So you've summoned a bunch of these small creatures and then you send them into combat and you push the button again and they'll blow up. You create a healing pet that every time it hits something it will give you more healing and if you hit the button and it blows up, you get a lot of healing at once. One of the other cool things for the necromancer is the Death Shroud.

Chris Lye: Death Shroud is unique to the necromancer.

Jeff Grubb: It is a unique thing and I'm still wrapping my head around it.

Chris Lye: Basically, Death Shroud is a way for a necromancer to separate his life force from his body. It looks really dark and it moves very fast and it has a number of different skills. It almost looks like you're in downed position because your skill set has changed, but it allows you to do some cool effects. You can summon a shadow fiend. Necromancers are going to be the hardest to deal with. When you think they're downed, they automatically go into Death Shroud and they have a whole other life to them.

Jeff Grubb: Now Death Shroud has a timer on it, too. And basically after it's done it will suck you back into your body.

Chris Lye: Some of us are still learning how to use Death Shroud. I use it to lure everything away from my body and then return back.

Jeff Grubb: And I tend to use it as a scouting type thing. If I want to know what's out there with a minimum amount of danger to me, I can use Death Shroud and then come back and I'm still in a relatively safe place. What we do with the skills once we get them is something we're still learning. But the necromancer is just really dangerous and really nasty.

Zyuu: Will we be able to reach level 80 by simply doing your personal storyline?

Chris Lye: You know, that's an excellent question. I don't know if you know the hard answer that I was told, but...

Jeff Grubb: What were you told?

Chris Lye: I was told that basically, the personal story and the dynamic event system are meant to kind of pull together. The personal story is one of the ways that we guide you through the course of the world and in going through the world, we think it would be a shame for you to not experience dynamic events. So I don't believe you're going to be able to level purely based off of your personal story content.

Jeff Grubb: By the same token, I think there is going to be situations in going through your personal story that it's going to be inevitable that you're going to be interacting with dynamic events in the world. One of the reasons, as Chris mentioned, is that we use that as a guide to get you into areas that are level appropriate for your characters and as such. Even if you try to eschew and stay away from events, you're still going to be in the middle of a lot of them.

Chris Lye: And it's so easy to get sucked into dynamic events and help them succeed. I mean it's almost like free XP. Why wouldn't you want to do that?

Jeff Grubb: It's not like you have the journey and then the fight at the middle. You're having the fights and you're having the encounters and it's having an effect on your character all the way through.

Zyuu: Will we be able to customize the UI like we can in Guild Wars 1? Will we be able to do things like turn off the targeting auras that appear?

Chris Lye: You know, I think that UI is definitely something we're still working and taking feedback on. So, we're not ready to commit to exactly how the UI is working, but we're definitely taking the fact that players do like to customize UI's to some extent.

Zyuu: Can you tell me more about the home instance? What can do you inside? How will it reflect who you are?

Jeff Grubb: One thing that the home instance has is that it's got that sense of permanent change. We talk about how you make decisions in your personal story and they have consequences. You chose to rescue a friend and he will still be in your home instance. If you make another choice and he dies – he's gone. You might have a gravestone for him somewhere. If you rescue somebody out in the wilderness, they may move into your home instance. These are permanent results of your choices. If you have to make the decision of saving the orphanage or save the hospital and you chose one and the other burns down, that burned down building is in your home instance. This is where we can basically show things that you've done. You know, they've put up a statue for you... you've got a statue. Your personal choices have results and while it's difficult to show those results in a persistent environment where everybody is running around, we can show it in an instanced environment which is your home instance. People ask, "is this player housing?" It's not a word we would use because it's much more. It's a larger area where characters are dynamic. It's not just a place to store stuff.

Zyuu: Will the Ranger's pets increase in size or change in appearance as they as the Ranger progresses in the game?

Jeff Grubb: I do not think we have changed appearances yet. This is one of those things where we'll still playing with it. I do know that we have more skills and abilities available for them.

Chris Lye: Yeah, but I'm not sure that we've played around with appearance.

Jeff Grubb: But I don't know if we've played specifically with appearance. You know, that you get a bigger bear or a larger moa. And I'm very hesitant to say we're going to go one way or another. I don't think we've had that discussion to that degree.

Zyuu: Since the Necromancer was revealed, does this solidify that the Ritualist will not be present in GW2?

Jeff Grubb: We haven't revealed the other four so to say that we chose one over the other is to bar hands. We are going to be revealing the remaining four – and there are some surprises there – as we go forward but I'm not going to go one way or another. What we're looking for in general is archetypes of play-styles. People will, who play a ritualist or a mesmer or a necromancer or any of the old, old characters, will feel like they have a home somewhere in Guild Wars 2. We are basically identifying the styles of play for that and then designing accordingly.

Zyuu: Can you talk about some of the persistent world changes? As a player can you hop into, say, the third chain of an event and still get the benefits of doing it?

Jeff Grubb: It will change the experience. It won't affect the personal story as much. Say that we blow up a bridge somewhere and as a result the trade route is interrupted until the bridge is rebuilt. That becomes the next event in the chain – to rebuild the bridge. Now we need to re-establish the trade route. So actions have these chains, these cascading chains that affect it. Now as far as how does this affect my player character? Yes, I come up and I need to get across the valley and the bridge isn't there. Yes, there are additional challenges just as if you come out to the garrison and the centaurs aren't attacking.

Chris Lye: And you have a choice. You can decide to take the longer route and not take the bridge or you can decide to help the NPC's that are trying to repair the bridge so that you can cross it there.

Jeff Grubb: This is the sort of thing that we were talking about earlier when we said it's very hard to not do events when you're on your personal chain.

Zyuu: We've noticed the skill bar and abilities change as you interact with items in the world, how important is this and how often will you notice it in game?

Jeff Grubb: The baseline is very simple but wonderfully expansive. You pick up a lock, or you use a mortar, and your skill bar changes from the weapons you were using to that item. And it's probably, you know, one, two, three skills. Not a lot. For instance we had where you had an elementalist with a rock, you could create a meteor storm. You wouldn't just just throw a rock. You'd have stuff raining down from the sky. And we could tailor it to each profession. But in each case, your skill bar changes and gives you a limited one-shot, two-shot ability with that item. One item that's been very popular with the forums is the jar of bees. You go and you talk to a beekeeper and help her out and she makes a jar of bees available for you. You take the jar of bees and you can throw it at people. The bees get out and they sting the enemy. You can also take that jar of bees and go far, far away and as long as you're holding on to it, you can have that skill on your skill bar and so you can go and use it someplace else. And this is the type of thing, the whimsical side of it. You saw in the demo the mortars and the turrets – that's another interactive item. You go to them, you interact with them, they change your skill bar, and they give you other abilities.

Zyuu: What other kind of objects will be interactive in the world? Will players know they're usable?

Jeff Grubb: This past week I've found one that I didn't know was there. In the wheat fields where you've been fighting those bandits, I found a pack of feed and I picked it up and I looked at the skill bar change and it said, "Bag of Feed, Feed Cow." I went to one of the cows nearby and fed the cow and little hearts appeared around the cow. I haven't seen that before and I said, "Oh, that's cute!" It's a small thing but again we go from that type of mechanic to firing a mortar at the dragon's minions. It's the same basic concept in both cases, but they're used radically differently.

Zyuu: Will the world map, whilst both zoomed in and out, depict a realistic portrayal of game environments like it did in Guild Wars 1, or will it be less precise and more artistic?

Jeff Grubb: You've seen the world map in our demo which is a much more stylistic map that will let us show things like windmill structures, etc. So if you consider that to be less realistic and more stylistic, then yes, that's what we're leaning toward right now. But we've done realistic maps and we've done stylistic maps, and put them up and everybody's argued about them. Right now we're leaning more toward that stylistic, though.

Zyuu: How many character slots can a player have?

Chris Lye: We have not finalized that.

Jeff Grubb: We have not finalized that at all. We are not at that stage yet. We can safely say that.

Zyuu: How easily will dyes be acquired? Will you have to get lots of the same dye to color your gear to match, or can you dye a whole outfit?

Jeff Grubb: Our dye system is different than what we have in GW1.

Chris Lye: It is different and in fact if you go play the demo now, we've completely unlocked the dye system. We have not revealed any details about how the dye economy is going to work, but we will show you the dyeing system and how it's far more comprehensive and gives you a lot more control than the old system.

Jeff Grubb: I think like the first category we have is standard colors and then we have other-

Chris Lye: Like metallic hues and gem-type hues.

Jeff Grubb: Kristen Perry has been just... the dyes are her heart and soul. She's been working on them and naming them and seeing how they fit together and making sure they work so well.

Zyuu: Will a player be able to chose a secondary profession to specialize in?

Jeff Grubb: Nope. We have gotten away from the secondary profession. We don't have warrior/monks. We basically just have warriors, but then within the warrior we've got the number of different playstyles. One thing we noticed when we played GW1 with the major profession/minor profession, is that for the secondary profession we might have a skill that works very well with the major profession, but we end up nerfing it because it's too good as a secondary profession for somebody else. So it created a lot of challenges for us.

Chris Lye: Balance, yes.

Jeff Grubb: Yeah, from a balance standpoint we are going forward with the main thing in the-

Chris Lye: The thing is, is that we've demonstrated for example, even though you don't have the secondary profession, if you switched to a bow, that's like playing a warrior/ranger. Also, we haven't talked too much about our trait system, but traits are a passive way of speccing your profession build so that you can be more offense oriented, or more weapon specialized, or more support oriented.

Zyuu: Are there any other modifications you can make to gear or weapons, besides color?

Chris Lye: We have not revealed our full itemization strategy, so we can't comment on that right now.

Zyuu: Are there going to be more character development choices available during character creation than we saw in the demos?

Chris Lye: Well, what we showed you in the demo was specific to how a human would go ahead and choose their background story. I don't know if it was clear to you, but each race has a different set of questions.

Jeff Grubb: If you were an Asura basically we will ask questions about what colleges you belong to – Synergetics, Dynamics, Statics. Or if you were a Charr, are you Iron Legion, Blood Legion or are you Ash Legion? And these again effect your story going forward. Was your father a hero or was he considered a traitor to his people? These create stories as whether or not you grew up on the streets or grew up as a noble.

Zyuu: Is there anything else you can tell us that you think is really impressive about GW2?

Jeff Grubb: Crafting.

Chris Lye: We have said we will have a crafting system but we haven't gone into any details.

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The reason this part ended so abruptly is because Zyuu ran out of batteries. (Doh!) The next part of the Q&A will feature more questions with Randy Price so watch out for it!

[DarkWasp]

Kvinna said:

Zyuu: Is there anything else you can tell us that you think is really impressive about GW2?

Jeff Grubb: Crafting.

Chris Lye: We have said we will have a crafting system but we haven't gone into any details.

I hope they go over that soon

[Manzana]

Some interesting tidbits of info in here. Also, after watching that dye video, I now worship Kristen Perry.

[Matthew Browne]

Awesome and comprehensive Q&A Kvinna, thanks!

[muisje33]

hmmmmmm, so every gw1 profession will have its feel returned.... mesmer annoyance :P

[Corsair]

Well, that was a fun little read.

[orfas]

nice interview :)

im excited to know about the crafting system

[captainnl]

Interesting they mentioned Crafting as an impressive feature, because (until now atleast) I had the impression it would be more of a lesser feature. I definitely want to hear about crafting now!

[Gigashadow]

muisje33 said:

hmmmmmm, so every gw1 profession will have its feel returned.... mesmer annoyance :P

YES! I am glad I will be able to play an F U profession.

[Huginn]

Jeff and Chris are always so full of energy and enthusiasm when they talk about gw2. They're an awesome team :p

They would make perfect cartoon characters in a show, I can so see it now ;)

[Stratosphere]

It seems like the more interviews I read, the more I begin to enjoy the people behind the game.

[Thalador]

Very dynamic (;)) interview. Cool stuff. Large thanks to Zyuu! :)

They're going to build a statue of me in my home instance? :cool:

Btw, why did you guys waste a question with the secondary profession stuff? It was stated a long time ago that there was no secondary prof system.

Hope rits are not going to return...

[Verterdegete]

Buy Duracell God damn it...

[Lyssa]

Thalador Doomspeaker said:

Very dynamic (;)) interview. Cool stuff. Large thanks to Zyuu! :)

They're going to build a statue of me in my home instance? :cool:

Btw, why did you guys waste a question with the secondary profession stuff? It was stated a long time ago that there was no secondary prof system.

Hope rits are not going to return...

Yeah I was shocked to see ridiculous questions coming out from an interview from a place like this.

I mean, come on, we're probably the most informed community about guildwars2 on the whole internet.

Edit:
Oh! No offense meant to the OP or anyone who worked on this. It was a great interview and much appreciated!

Edited by Lyssa, 26 August 2010 - 07:53 PM.

[Llyr]

Kvinna said:

Jeff Grubb:[/B] Warrior. I like playing warriors but I hate fighting big monsters as a warrior. I just see the foot.

Yeah... I keep saying this, but someone should really get the message at ANet that size is not the only thing that matters.

[Shadow Ritualist]

Thalador Doomspeaker said:

Hope rits are not going to return...

Trust me, I know there is absolutely no way they will return. They will not. I've kept track of it. Necros can even wear rit-type headgear.



And I still can't believe the secondary profession thing. But I do want to know if there are any ways to get gw1 armors, remade or otherwise.

[Kvinna]

Thalador Doomspeaker said:

Very dynamic (;)) interview. Cool stuff. Large thanks to Zyuu! :)

They're going to build a statue of me in my home instance? :cool:

Btw, why did you guys waste a question with the secondary profession stuff? It was stated a long time ago that there was no secondary prof system.

Hope rits are not going to return...

The secondary profession question wasn't from the community. I think Zyuu asked it because he played GW and gamescom made him really interested in GW2. :D

[the butcher]

Llyr said:

Yeah... I keep saying this, but someone should really get the message at ANet that size is not the only thing that matters.

But but.... It does? no?!
:)
they prolly got a corrupted asuran as big boss somewhere too... :devil:

[muisje33]

Gigashadow said:

YES! I am glad I will be able to play an F U profession.

haha, me too :)

[Blackfox]

I.... just .... can't wait for this game!!

[Naoroji]

It's funny how they kept finishing eachother's sentences, hah.

[Thalador]

Kvinna said:

The secondary profession question wasn't from the community. I think Zyuu asked it because he played GW and gamescom made him really interested in GW2. :D

Okay, then. I thought it was asked by one of the gurus - which would be nearly impossible, since we are the most informed Guild Wars community in this Universe. :D :p

But I'll say this again: a big thanks to Zyuu for this great interview. :)

[raminus]

Hmm, very nice interview, detailed and informative - can't wait for part 2!

Oh and thank you Kvinna/Zyuu for choosing my question about the map. I guess it's more or less certain that the realistic bird's-eye-view style of GW2 has been abandoned... pity :( Hopefully the new map will more than live up to it's predecessor's greatness :)

[the butcher]

I like the new map actually. Like the style, and the extra info on it. It seems more rp-ish to me, tho I dunno why... :)

[Soy Oil]

If you don't want to play the Rit or the Rit play style, you don't have to. But don't ruin it for the rest of us.

[Kvinna]

the butcher said:

I like the new map actually. Like the style, and the extra info on it. It seems more rp-ish to me, tho I dunno why... :)

Yeah, it's more like a real map with landmarks rather than a satellite image map.

[Tzu Qui Jinn]

Quote

Originally Posted by Kvinna
Jeff Grubb: Warrior. I like playing warriors but I hate fighting big monsters as a warrior. I just see the foot.

I know people don't want to hear it but it's one of the reasons I think C-Space auto target engage should be re introduced for PvE. At least I know I'm targeting something and keeping pace with it instead of getting lost in bodies of monsters.

[Ryuzaki]

Nice interview with some very good questions (apart from the 2ndary professions:p).

Thanks!

[Eramon]

Ryuzaki said:

Nice interview with some very good questions (apart from the 2ndary professions:p).

Thanks!

I know.. I did the most intense /facepalm of all /facepalms.

[Amannelle]

DarkWasp said:

I hope they go over that soon

Same. :D I'm anxious to hear. If that's one of their favorite things about GW2, it must be pretty good (since there are so many other amazing things Lol)