Yesterday, Reddit set up an AMA for a bunch of Arenanet Developers to answer all of your questions about this weekend’s BWE2. We’ve distilled down all of the questions and answers for you, however if you want the raw feed, you can head over to Reddit right now and check it out. Here’s who was there to answer questions:
Mike O’Brien – President/Founder – MO
Chris Whiteside – Lead Producer – Chris
Mike Zadorojny – Content Designer – z
Mike Ferguson – WvW Designer – Ferg
Peter Giuntoli – Programmer – Peter
Jon Peters – Systems Designer – Jon
Isaiah Cartwright – Lead Systems Designer – Izzy
Regina Buenaobra – Community Manager ~RB
Keep reading for the full transcript.
ArenaNetTeam: Re: What is the thought behind the mechanics of the different profressions downed abillities? Some classes get really useful abilities like interrupts and stealth, others get long-cooldown abilities that won’t save them.
We are aware that some professions downed skills are, lets say, less than or greater than desirable. We will need to take a close look at these and I suspect we will do so “soon” TM.
Since there is some debate on it. Bottom line is we want you to be string enough to have a chance to rally but not so strong that you just easily rally every time or are impossible to take down.
Jon
ArenaNetTeam: Re: Sense of moving is a great idea, what about a sense of being connected to the ground with walking/animations? Players also experience a ‘sliding’ effect when walking.
We have worked hard on this issue. Just like any game there are cases where you can make it look crazy, but we feel like those are mostly edge cases at this point. We still have some things in mind that we want to do here, but what you see now is close to what you will get.
I will explain a bit how it works.
Visually we have transition animations that help blend between different states, but for those worried about responsiveness those transitions are purely visual so as soon as you press strafe left you are moving at full speed to the left. This disconnect is what sometimes causes the floaty feeling.
Jon P
ArenaNetTeam: Re: How come Guardians are the only Profession that are limited in range abilities? Everyone else has true-ranged skills, but Guardians have skills that can’t go up inclines/ledges (they don’t travel through the air, but on the ground!
I actually updated those skills since the last BWE. Give scpeter a try I tried to make this the ranged option, particularly in WvW for Guardian.
Jon P
ArenaNetTeam: Re: What is the status on performance optimization?
We’ve worked on improving client and server performance between BWE1 and 2 and plan on focusing more on performance and polish as feature development winds down.
-Peter
ArenaNetTeam: Re: Can we get class icon’s above the Mesmer illusions, as to help with them being actual illusions? Right now it’s easy to identify which one isn’t the real one!
Nice catch. Putting in a bug on this right now!!! Bug #249954!
Jon
ArenaNetTeam: Re: Will Engi’s get more weapon options in the future? Or possibly more weapon kits?
Yes, both at some point!!!
Jon P
ArenaNetTeam: Re: What is the intent with game performance as it applies to multi-core processors (2, 4, 8 core etc
As part of our performance improvements we plan to push more processing on to multiple cores. We’re already utilizing multiple cores though!
-Peter
ArenaNetTeam: Re: Is there a re-work in progress for the Mesmers? A lot of people are unsatisfied with the current AI + shatter mechanics. Additionally, there are issues taken with the class mechanic being susceptible to AoE weakness, lack of synergy between the scepter and other weapons, lack of utility/power of the illusions, amongst other things.
There have been some changes already, but if it is not responsive enough we will make the changes necessary to make Mesmers viable. Please give them a shot in this BWE and let us know what you think. Jon P
ArenaNetTeam: Re: What is the status of the Engineer re-work? What kind of changes are being made?
Still in progress. I think the key piece is getting their kits to inherit some of the benefits that you get from collecting and customizing weapons.
ArenaNetTeam: Re: What is the status on fixing Pet AI?
We have fixed a large number of bugs with pet AI, but there are still some lingering ones. Anyone that finds a good case for reproducing them, please don’t hesitate to post about it in our beta forums or somewhere on the internet and hopefully it finds its way to us.
Jon P
ArenaNetTeam: Re: Is first-person-view going to be available? Can we disable the camera-swing?
We are going to making a number of improvements to camera between now and ship. First person is something we want to do but might be a post release things. Yes we will disable the camera swing. Someone just showed it to me.
ArenaNetTeam: Re: This warrior has what appears to be a 2-handed axe. Are there any intentions on implementing 2 handed axes in the game, or will there be greatsword skins that are designed to look like axes?
Two handed axes are awesome. No reason to skin, lets save some cool stuff for expansions :
Jon P
ArenaNetTeam: Re: (followup to last question Does the team consider big changes to the base game possible following launch?
Yes, we intend to listen to the community and figure out what changes will help improve the game for players, as well as which are technically feasible. There will be a lot of effort going into Guild Wars 2 support after ship.
Jon P
ArenaNetTeam: Re: Are there any plans on making a PvP type that can transit into an eSport?
Please give our automatic tournaments a try this weekend. This is our first step towards e-sport. :
Re: It’s been previously stated that spectator-mode for PvP won’t be available until sometime after launch, any idea about an ETA when we can expect it?
It will be based on how simple it is to add and how requested it is. :
Re: Can we, or are you planning on implementing – a way for players to duel each other?
We intend to have dueling post release, but when will depend on how demanded it is and how easy it is for us to get it into the game. ECHO!
Jon P
ArenaNetTeam: Re: Are all of the game areas (such as Gendarran Fields before this BWE still under development, or are they just being held back until launch?
We’re constantly adding new events and content to the game. Some of these changes are based on feedback and experiences we obtain from playing in weekend events like BWE1. Obviously we’re holding some things back until launch (we don’t want to show you everything yet!, but we very much are practicing the “When It’s Done” philosophy here at the office. This weekend players from BWE1 may notice some new content we’ve added to the existing maps.
~z
BrotherBroc: During this beta weekend will we be able to transfer characters to different servers for free or will they cost gems?
ArenaNetTeam: As we did last time, we’ll have a period of free transfers at the start of the event to help people find their friends. Then we’ll test the full system for the remainder of the weekend.
~ MO
OnodrimTaco: Are there any plans to add an item preview feature? We’ve seen it before in games like LOTRO, where you could Ctrl+Right Click to preview an item on your character. It’s an important feature for a game to have, and the capability is clearly there, as we’ve seen with the dye previewing system.
ArenaNetTeam: We are working on an item previewer right now. It unfortunately didn’t make it in for BWE2, but we’ll definitely have it prior to ship! -Ferg
vee41: What is the funniest bug you’ve found during development process?
ArenaNetTeam: Sit jumping.
I don’t know why, but it seems like everybody loves it (except the guy that introduced it
I’ll actually be sad to see it go.
-Ferg
skytorn: Will there be wandering mobs of a pack of creatures, a la Guild Wars 1? It gave a sense of immersion to know I was fighting a group/pack of dogs, as opposed to like, one dog. Thanks for doing this AMA.
ArenaNetTeam: Depending on the difficulty of the area you can already see things like this. In Queensdale near the Orlaf Escarpments there are roaming packs of wargs and in the western side of Snowden Drifts you can find raptor hunting packs. The further you go off the beaten path the more interesting things you might discover!
~z
Vexacion: Will there be a different closing event this weekend? (Please don’t say you have to wait and see, if it’s the same I’ll get my normal sleep and if not I’ll have to adjust my sleep to catch it because I’m curious
ArenaNetTeam: Good news! We have an exciting new finale for this event! I’ve tried to make each event feel special and capping it off differently was a cool way to do that while trying out new things with our systems. This time around, though, my new co-conspirator Anthony Ordon came up with a really cool idea that we had to bring in additional people to implement. This finale was definitely more than a one person job.
~z
babacinha: Can you fix the ability queue? Currently, if you press a button several times, it fires off several times. Can we have an option like “No ability queue”, “0.5ms”, 1ms”, etc?
ArenaNetTeam: There is a timeout on the queue. We are always tweaking this, but often it still has some issues that we are still working out. We have tried removing the queue, but that felt even worse than some of the issues we still see now. We have made improvements to queueing since the last BWe and there are still more to come before release.
Jon P
Razo: Will you ressurect a Skillpoint giving NPC in Beetletun, Queensdale? It was dead for me since the start of the first BWE. It was the last thing to 100% area completion.
Also, Sylvari in BWE3 please?
ArenaNetTeam: The skillpoint NPC lives!
-Peter
CrispyAlt: In GW1, Dhuum would rise out of the ground and strike people down as part of the banimation. In GW2, will there be anything like that? Commando Firing Squad? Maybe Dhuum again? Thanks.
ArenaNetTeam: Of course we’ll have to do something cool!
Honestly, we haven’t added this to a dev list yet because it’s something we can add so easily after launch. There are so many things we have to focus on before launch.
~ MO
babacinha: Trait tiers: many dislike it other are not sure, what was the reason behind it?
ArenaNetTeam: There were a number of problems with the old system that we felt required a change. We believe this new system keeps the spirit of the old system, while actually working better in the long run. Here are the problems we believe this change solve:
1 Best builds were all 30,10,10,10,10. There was always a super strong trait in every line which made each player only put into that trait line and still gain a very powerful benefit. In the new system this will still be true, but it will be tempered because people will be giving up going 20 or into multiple lines. This has allowed us to shift traits around so that more of them get play at different levels, meaning they don’t all have to compete against each other at tier 1.
2 This system is so much easier to balance. It is not reasonable to make 12 equally useful traits, particularly given how some of them had niche effects. Making 12 equal traits is harder, takes longer and ultimately leads to some traits seeing a lot less use. Finally an important point is that balance creates more choice as well because unbalanced and bad builds aren’t really options. The old system created a very small subset of über-builds which stomped out a lot of the good builds along with the bad ones.
3 Opportunity Costs are what make interesting choices. Trait tiers allow us to split the traits. 6 allowed in slot 1, 10 (6 tier 1 and 4 tier 2 allowed in slot 2, and 12(6 tier 1, 4 tier 2 and 2 tier 3 allowed in slot 3. The final 2 tier 3 traits are “elite”-like, in the sense that you can only ever have one of them on your build at once. If I’m making a damage warrior I am going to put into strength, same as every other big damage warrior, but now those characters are all guaranteed to be split at least in half forcing you to not take one of the two exclusive final traits. Before, anytime a character went in a line they were taking the same 3 (maybe 3 out of 4 traits.
4 Option Shock. New players at level 20 were clicking on a trait line for the first time and seeing 12 options which was very overwhelming. This gives them a bit of a reprieve to pick between a smaller number of traits at first and then learn more as they have played their character more.
5 Putting into a line left you with a climax of picking the third most interesting trait which did not feel good. Players want to feel like that decision to go 30 is a big decision and that when they make it they get to make a big decision that simply could not happen in the old system. Now when you commit to you are rewarded with an important choice as well as options that you didn’t previously have.
Finally, these are not the final balance numbers or often even the final traits/functionality and we will be iterating on this system as we move towards release. I know for certain there are already a number of changes I wish I could have made before this weekend, but they will have to wait until next time. If you had a really fun build before this change and it is lost now, post it in our beta forums and we can figure out how to make it viable. The intention here was not to remove fun, good builds but to create more viable builds that will increase the variety of characters in the game.
Jon P
Apetn: The new system makes sense to me. One question. You said that the 30-point traits were elite-like and a build could only have one of them. I am assuming you mean per tree, and not overall (ie. you could go 30 30 10 and get 2 ‘elite’ traits, one per tree.
ArenaNetTeam: Yeah, per tree.
Starcofski: What have been the most surprising errors or bugs that have been reported in testing so far? And think we’ll have a testing session where the Sylvari and Asura are available before release?
ArenaNetTeam: You’re asking me to re-live my nightmares? When we’re missing models we end up displaying a naked headless human, always a little disturbing.
-Peter
Akitsuki: In WvW theres a lot of people, interaction and basically a lot more things going on… will the person who only have the minimum required system can enjoy playing in WvW?
ArenaNetTeam: We’re doing everything we can to ensure that anyone who can run the game can participate in wvw. We’ve made a number of optimizations since the last event to improve performance and we will continue to do so, hopefully people should have a little better performance in WvW this time around. – Ferg
Plyturon: Will the WvW mini dungeon be instanced or will it be part of the WvW map?
ArenaNetTeam: It is part of the Eternal Battlegrounds map, not an instance -Ferg
Razon: Are we going to see any increase in FPS this weekend? In other words, did you work on optimization after BWE1 and Stress test?
ArenaNetTeam: Our engine and content programming teams made a number of improvements since the last weekend. Ideally you should see at least some increase in performance, but we’re not even close to done yet so don’t be too discouraged if you’re still having performance issues. Please be sure to leave feedback on our forums over the weekend and let us know how it feels!
-Ferg
InterSlayer: Towards the end of the last BWE, I was disconnected while in WvW and couldn’t get back in since the instance was full. It just kicked me to the login screen and I was locked out of the character. Could you guys fix it so people get sent to Lion’s Arch or something instead?
ArenaNetTeam: Yes indeed! We are right now working on a fix that will save those characters so you aren’t locked out. -Ferg
HellsG: Just a very quick question, will our skill points be refunded this BWE since you have introduced skill tiers?
ArenaNetTeam: Yep, you should be able to select new skills in the skill tree when you log in!
-Peter
Well, I just logged in and checked on my engineer from last time and all my skill points have been refunded, so yours should be refunded as well. -Ferg
lordjmann: Will we be allowed to group with friends for Arena PvP? In the last beta weekend I could not group as a team to join Arena PvP.
ArenaNetTeam: In this BWE we are introducing tournmaments which will allow you to PvP with friends. We have also made some improvements to the hot join games allowing you to follow friends into games via a chat link and will continue to improve these now and after release as well.
Jon P
Peopie: Is there an easier way to stop attacking your target besides running out of range?
ArenaNetTeam: control-right click on your autoattack to turn autoattack off. That is how I play.
Jon
bacole08: Will the guild cap. remain at 100 members for BWE2? If so, any plans to increase the capacity at launch?
ArenaNetTeam: The plan for guild cap is that guilds will be able to gain influence to up their cap. How this will work is not exactly determined yet, but the current limit of 100 is lower than the maximum a guild will be able to achieve.
Jon P
Just got a message from the guild guys that it isn’t influence, but will be some other factor that determines guild size allowed. Also it is not in the next BWE.
Kagetakai: I’m really frustrated at the rate we are able to unlock skills in WvW. It seems (from the last BWE you would have to land the killing blow on an enemy invader to up your progression on the skill you are working on. Is there a plan to somehow get credit for attacking the target and get progress on a skill without having to land a killing blow?
ArenaNetTeam: This was a bug and should now be working as intended. Some of the problems may stil exists but it is our intention that WvW is on equivilent footing reward wise in every way to PvE.
Jon P
Avarial: Hi Mike , long time daoc player here with a question.
What tools are there for smaller groups to combat a zerg daoc had realm ranks with powerful abilities and tons of cc, however in guild wars there doesnt seem to be aoe mez like in daoc what is stopping people from just zerging also are there any rewards for wvw like realm ranks in daoc to give a sense of pvp progression?
Also friends of mine were wondering about a full pvp server like mordred everyone v everyone everywhere what are your thoughts on that?
ArenaNetTeam: Siege weapons are often a great equalizer, because building siege is so limited by supply smaller groups can often always be filled on supply dropping a balista or a arrow cart at a nice choke can really drop a larger group with a smaller group. Also there are mec camps can really help smaller groups as bigger groups are often after the bigger objective but if you take the mec camps you gain a lot of support. Also splitting up can really help, smaller groups can attack smaller objectives and the bigger groups are forces to either split up or divert there force to that objective, cutting off supply lines, or taking key towers can really whittle the large zergs.
~Izzy
tmoss726: What goes in to preparing for the Beta Weekend? I’ve participated in numerous Betas, but I am curious as to what goes on behind the scenes. Thanks so much for the AMA, can’t wait for Friday!
ArenaNetTeam: What goes on behind the scenes? Well first of all we’ve all worked furiously getting the beta build ready for you. We’ve been testing the hell out of it and squashing any bugs we can find. When hundreds of thousands of people start playing on Friday at noon, generally that uncovers some new bugs, which we fix that day. Then we spend the weekend playing the game with you, reading your posts and feedback, and taking notes about what’s working and what’s not working.
The key issue we face with testing GW2 is that it’s such a social game that it just plays completely differently with thousands of players logged in than it does in smaller internal play-tests. So every hour of play in a beta weekend is super valuable to us. Immediately afterward we make all our plans for what we need to fix/tweak/change prior to the next BWE.
~ MO
Daedalus112: Will the Commander Rank for WvWvW have a working 50man Squad UI? To Elaborate:In BWE1 the “raid-like” group UI to allow for 50 members to be in a Squad together under a person who had read the Commanders Rank Book wasn’t working. Will it be for BWE2/release?
ArenaNetTeam: The followers tab in your contacts panel will show you the members of your squad. There is no limit on squad sizes. EDIT: Turns out I misspoke about both of these items. The only way to see your squad members is with the /squadinfo command. The squad member limit is indeed 50, we only talked internally about raising it. Sorry about the confusion!
We made a bunch of improvements to the squad system over the last month or so and will definitely be looking for feedback on it over the weekend to determine if we need to make additional improvements.
- Ferg
shaman77: For many players Guild vs Guild was our favorite aspect of the original Guild Wars. When I think of Guild vs Guild I think of Guild Halls (home turf and all the hours I spent practicing with my Guild Team. Having 1st and 2nd tier players and just enjoying all the aspects that made GvG such an amazing e-Sport experience.
You have said GvG and Guild Halls will not be available at launch can you confirm that these are features at least being tested internally or on the drawing board for down the road?
ArenaNetTeam: Tournaments, which are in this BWE, are the equivilent of GvG in GW2. Players will be able to form teams and enter the most basic form of tournaments this weekend. More tournament support is incoming.
Jon P
sdyawg: What will be the level cap for this BWE?
ArenaNetTeam: The level cap for this BWE is 80 (just like release. It just might be a little harder to earn experience once you’ve played through Gendaran Fields. However you can continue to level in WvW. I was able to get my thief up to level 39 in BWE1, and I know there were players who broke the level 40 mark.
~z
mstefl: What element/feature/idea are you most proud to have implemented into Guild Wars 2?
ArenaNetTeam: I personally love how easy it is for me to play with other people. I’m not worried about the next player over stealing my kill or taking my loot. On the contrary, if there are a couple of us working on an event I naturally begin to use more skills that help allies and I adapt my play-style to complement theirs.
In addition the game easily allows me to play with my friends, especially the ones that have different amounts of time that they can dedicate to gaming. The level adjustment system doesn’t trivialize the content when I go back to help someone who just started the game, combined with how the dynamic event system changes the world I can go through a map multiple times and see different events playing out.
~z
It’s so hard to pick just one. I’d probably say the fact that we’ve created an online game where people actually tend to go out of their way to help each other and work together. In just about every other MMO I tend to solo and run away from other people unless I specifically intend to group with them, but in GW2 I find myself constantly running towards people because it actually makes life easier and more fun, not frustrating and annoying.
No more shouting ‘that’s my mob’, or getting frustrated at any of the other mechanics that tend to push people away instead of bringing them together. It really feels good to play with other people in GW2, and not just with people I know.
Barring that…WvW ;
-Ferg
QSatu: Why Amazon is offering bonuses of pre-purchases for pre-orders. (all BWE’s and 3 day head start? Confirmed by a number of people who only pre-ordered gW2 there.
ArenaNetTeam: We’re still working with Amazon to figure out what they’ll be able to do, so I don’t have a final answer for you. But the basics are this. We have limited server space, so while we guarantee beta access for people who have committed to purchasing the game, we don’t guarantee it for everyone who just walks into a store and says, “yeah, reserve me a copy”.
Some online stores, not just Amazon, are not able to actually bill the credit card until shipment. But the customer has still made his intent to purchase very clear. It’s more like purchasing but being able to get a refund later, which we’re fine with, than it is like just adding a name to a reservation list and then having to come back and purchase later.
Because we know Amazon is important to a lot of customers, we want to find a way for Amazon to be part of the prepurchase program. It would be unfair to exclude them for being up-front about a policy that’s actually already being used behind-the-scenes elsewhere.
~ MO
LET'S GET SOCIAL