Guild Wars Is up and Running.

[LochnarITB]

Maybe the most memorable moment I had was in the mission where a large mob was guarding a catapault part

The catapult was fun. The people in my group hadn't done the mission before. Once we had the catapult put together, it was fired. It laid waste to the entire monster encampment below. Everyone said "Wow" or "Amazing" almost simultaneously. I tried firing it again but it wouldn't fire. :angry: I hoped we would have to fix more of them just to see the devastation it brought to the monsters our party struggled against.

All the classes were effective, but warriors (tanks) and monks (healing + rez's) seemed to be pretty essential for almost any mission.

The most effective parties I was in seemed to be half and half warrior/anythings and ranger/monks. I was a ranger/monk and I would fling arrows until the warriors that waded in got low and then a quick click on a name and a click on a heal skill and we were back in business. A quick rez after battle for anyone that did fall and off we went to the next bunch.

They still have to work on the skills (e.g. for rangers, poison arrow was quite powerful, but as far as I could see ignite arrow made a nice explosive ring and did absolutely no additional damage). But, for an alpha, there were remarkably few bugs, even though I never did find a Lynx.

Poison arrow was great but time consuming. It took excessive time to prepare for the shot but worked wonders on the monsters that self healed a lot. Ignite arrow damage depended on the monsters it hit. For example, if I used it on a Resurrect Gargoyle, it would strike twice but the total would be half what a normal arrow would do alone. However, if he were surrounded by his Gargoyle crew, the explosion that hit them would do more damage to each than if I was hitting each with a single arrow. A couple single arrows to knock the big guy down and then ignite arrows as energy allowed and it would wipe out the entire party.

The lynx was fun to have but hard to control. As soon as I started shooting something, it would attack and it seemed to attract all the monsters in the immediate area. I did have a spell that healed only the Lynx but it couldn't be cast fast enough to keep up. If the monsters weren't finished quick enough, my pet would go down and it couldn't be rezed. I was able to grab a new one before each mission though. Not many people must have discovered where the Lynx was because I never saw another ranger with one. There was a solo area called Wastes just off the mission 4 staging area. If I entered and went down the little valley under the bridge to the right I would get to the end and be able to exclaim "There's my kitty!" After a long spell cast, I had a couple claw marks and a brand new pet to run with. I kind of wondered if kitty was glad to see me since kitty was the only occupant of the entire area. It's too bad others didn't know where to grab them. I think an entire party of ranger/monks each running a pet would have been extremely powerful.

[Thecla]

Ignite arrow damage depended on the monsters it hit.  For example, if I used it on a Resurrect Gargoyle, it would strike twice but the total would be half what a normal arrow would do alone.  However, if he were surrounded by his Gargoyle crew, the explosion that hit them would do more damage to each than if I was hitting each with a single arrow.

Well, that may explain my problem -- I was mostly using ignite arrow (or whatever it was) vs single targets, whereas perhaps the point is that the exploding ring hits any surrounding monsters. Poison arrow I used mostly vs bosses and then it was well worth the time it took to cast. Even by the end of the E3 demo, I still felt completely at sea about what the skills were really doing or how I should use them.

As far as the Lynx goes, after reading your previous post, I gambled gems from the exotic gem trader until I got a charm Lynx (the normal gem trader wanted an exorbitant amount) and scoured the wastes off the mission 4 staging post, but I never did find a kitty. :(

[ceolstan]

I didn't have nearly enough time to explore the game. Alas that E3 was last week instead of this week!

I did, however, spend some time dipping my toes into Guild Wars. I saw quite a lot that I liked, so I will be very interested in seeing how the game develops from this mini-alpha demo to a full-scale game.

First impressions:

Communications: While I was frustrated with communications during the first couple of days (couldn't whisper anyone, friends online showed up as offline, chat in towns was equivalent of bnet chat (and some people need to expand their vocabularies)), I thought the game communications had potential to be quite rich. I think the message system is very interesting and potentially useful. For example, if you plan to meet up with your friends at a particular time and in a district, if one friend discovers s/he can't make it, then it's no big deal for that friend to send you a message--even if you're offline!

I didn't have enough time to explore the different communications features. I'd like more people on my friends list, but perhaps when guild features are added, there may be more support for a longer list. Perhaps everyone in your guild will be on your friends list.

Movement: I had a hard time with this initially, but became more used to it as I practiced. I have played Neverwinter Nights, so I found that using asdw worked well in conjunction with the mouse controls. I'd like some options on camera angles so I can get more help with where to position myself. It's hard to see if you're blocking a teammate. Likewise, it's hard to see if you're unable to reach the target. Unlike D2, you can't attack "through" your teammates. The game simply won't let you engage if you're unable to reach the target.


Combat: My primary game experience is D2, which means that my first impulse is to keep clicking away. From NWN, I realize this isn't necessary. Combat take on a cinematic atmosphere as you sit back and watch your toon attack the bad guys. All that's necessary is to select which skill to use during combat. As a warrior/monk with lower-level skills, I found that entering combat with "endure pain" and "frenzy" helped quite a bit. Once my energy had recharged and the enemy was weakened, I could use the hammer skill that knocked the enemy to the ground, making the enemy more vulnerable to my teammates. Likewise, as a monk, I found that I didn't want to be a frontal tank all the time because I could add extra hit points to party members through one skill. I could target party members for healing--a more useful skill in many ways than the heal area skill (which healed monsters as well as allies).

Like others here, I had trouble disengaging from combat when I saw myself in trouble. I know that using the healing signet leaves one very vulnerable, so it's crucial to break off combat before getting into real trouble. In that sense, I found it a lot like NWN's use of healing potions: drinking one leaves you vulnerable to attack, so drink before getting down too low.

Monster spawns: I was amazed that some of my teammates would let us know that there was a boss ahead or where the wreckage was, etc. I wondered if there were some fancy command other than the "shift" key that allowed them to see more than I did. I then realized that they'd completed this mission so many times that they knew exactly which monsters spawned where.

I agree that if the same monsters spawn in the same location and in the same numbers, this game could get boring. I hope that this was a feature of the alpha demo, and I hope that development includes random monster spawns. I have no problems with bosses being found in the same areas (look at Blood Raven, the Smith, Thresh Socket, etc.). However, a nice touch would be to have superuniques bound to a certain geographic area but spawning randomly in that area (something like Bishibosh, who spawns in Cold Plains, but the location is random). Likewise, randomly spawned monsters would also be a nice touch and would keep the variety going.

Towns: I found navigating these to be frustrating. Where are the trainers? Where are the different merchants? A lot of in-town chat asked just these questions over and over again. I did find the trainers after running around a bit and looking for the yellow NPC dots, but I think I'd like more map support. In Neverwinter Nights, for example, the map shows where NPCs sell certain goods. I don't think that Guild Wars should have to label everything, but main areas might be good for people who just set foot in an area for the first time. As the person explores, the person might discover some unmarked vendors, i.e. the exotic gems vendor. It would also be cool to be able to mark areas on your map as you explore.

Items and Equipment: Upgrading was paramount, and as soon as I discovered the weaponsmith, he became my best friend! I ended up with a weapon that did 17-25 damage after it was customized. I had wanted to upgrade other items, but I needed to be able to craft. Unfortunately, I discovered the crafters late into the demo (see comments about navigating in towns), but I'd not played enough to have enough crafting materials to do anything. I think items will be important, but the potential is there for the equipment to be in reach of everyone.

I was very pleased that in co-op play, item drops are assigned to players. This is a great way to discourage the kinds of hacks that plague bnet public games, in which the hacks autopickup good items. I did think of one problem, though. It looks as if everyone in your party can autoloot. That is, if you're dead, someone else can pick up your item. What is there from keeping an unscrupulous player (and unfortunately there will be some) from sabotaging a mission and then looting everyone else's drops? Are these drops tagged in such a way that no one other than the designated player can use them? Since I was more often the one dying :rolleyes: than the one rescuing, I have no idea if those items must first be used by the designated player.

Rewards: This is related to items/equipment, but deserves its own mention. I agree that there needs to be more in the way of rewards. One of the great strengths of D2 is its increased rewards as one progresses. The Blood Moor drops a very few gold pieces, but the Bloody Foothills drops perhaps over a hundred. The quality of the items likewise increases overall. In Guild Wars, my party shared 2, 3, 4 gold pieces. If the drops continue in that vein, then the economy will be based on trading. That could reinforce undesirable behavior.

Furthermore, there were few randomly dropped items. I spotted more wreckage in the group mission areas, and hardly any in the solo mission areas. I suspect that this paucity of drops was a direct result of this being an alpha demo. The developers wanted to give a snapshot of the game, and features like drops are still being worked out.

I'd like to see more rewards more often. Also, depending on what kinds of options players have for exploring/questing in certain areas, I'd like to see a good balance in rewards so some areas don't get farmed more than others--a practice that would have a deleterious effect on PvP.

Missions/Quests: I had no time to explore the PvP aspects of the game, and I'm sure I'd have been very poor at them. I did go on the first 3 missions and some of the Ascalon Wilds solo quests. As I mentioned earlier, I agree with those who say that predictable monster spawn could make these instanced quests boring after a few runs. However, I also found the inclusion of the NPC as a major character very interesting. I hope this inclusion means that the missions will not be random missions representing hoops through which one must jump. Rather, I hope that the missions will be set against the larger background to the world. I think that such a background could be richer than that of D2's, perhaps providing some overall predictability while inserting player options (the character can choose doing X or Y) and randomly determined missions (similar to D1, where different games have different quests within the same overall story line).

The predictability becomes important in skills selection. Good advance choices can help determine the success or failure of a party, and I never felt I had a good idea of what skills would be important until I'd run the mission the first time. In fact, the first time I ran Mission 2, I realized that the new skills I'd learned and thought would be so helpful were absolutely the wrong skills for that mission. They'd have been better for mission 1. If the game won't provide a lot of advance info about a mission, then predictability will be important for development of future characters.

Overall impressions: I thought the demo was truly fascinating, but I also realize it's a demo of an alpha product. I think the company wanted to highlight combat options, skills acquisitions, teamplay, and some trading/items options. I think that only a very few areas were opened up, and that the company trimmed a lot of the surrounding content so that players would get a glimpse of specific features of the game rather than an overall look at the scope of the game. That overall look will, I suspect, come with beta testing later on this year.

I did think the open demo was a terrific marketing ploy and a very good way to get a lot of data in very short order. One hopes that the information gleaned from the demo will help accelerate the development process.

Anyway, I had a good time for the limited amount of time I could play. I'll be following this game closely.

--ceolstan

[TaiDaishar]

The catapult was fun.  The people in my group hadn't done the mission before.  Once we had the catapult put together, it was fired.  It laid waste to the entire monster encampment below.  Everyone said "Wow" or "Amazing" almost simultaneously.  I tried firing it again but it wouldn't fire.  :angry:  I hoped we would have to fix more of them just to see the devastation it brought to the monsters our party struggled against.

Actually there was a nother catapult in there on a hill next to the walls that was surrounded by the tunnel.

Me and my teammates used that catapult for good use, we had one lure the monsters to the impact zone of the catapult and another one to shoot the catapult (Me) and kill all the enemies, a minor setback was that the catapult killed our "lurer" so the monk had to repeatedly ressurect him :).

he most effective parties I was in seemed to be half and half warrior/anythings and ranger/monks

The most effective party I was in seemed to be a nice mixture of everything with a slightly higher monk ratio (1 primary and 1 secondry), with the right people there are some spells that work incredibly well in parties, for example, the epidemics could work very well with the Rotten Flesh spell that would make everyone in the vicinity get Diseased (which oh so bloody hurt my poor Elementalist).

[LochnarITB]

A lot of good points there, ceolstan, but I thought I would mention a couple things.

I'd like some options on camera angles so I can get more help with where to position myself. It's hard to see if you're blocking a teammate. Likewise, it's hard to see if you're unable to reach the target. Unlike D2, you can't attack "through" your teammates. The game simply won't let you engage if you're unable to reach the target.

I think one thing that hindered a lot of players was something we really couldn't expect from an alpha - a user's manual. Some things I ended up finding out by experimenting and others from other players. With a couple tips, I didn't have any problems with controls. For movement, I used the mouse to click where I wanted to go. The only times I couldn't move was when I was surrounded. Even then, if I clicked around the mass of monsters, my character usualy found an opening to slip through. The keys I used were the number keys for my main battle skills on 1-4 and the control key. When you held down the control key, any monsters in the viewing area, hidden or seen, had their name displayed above them. A click on their name targeted them. It didn't matter if there were hills or trees or other players in the way. If my character could get into position to target them, she did. Arrows would fly, seemingly, through other monsters and players to hit the target. She made some real hail mary shots doing this - launching arrows down into valleys and over rocks and trees. I also controlled the camera with the mouse. Holding down the right button allowed total control over angle. I could rotate all the way around and from flat to the ground all the way up to looking straight down. My mouse wheel also allowed me to zoom in and out on my character - great for seeing how the new dye looks on the armor.

Towns: I found navigating these to be frustrating. Where are the trainers? Where are the different merchants? A lot of in-town chat asked just these questions over and over again. I did find the trainers after running around a bit and looking for the yellow NPC dots, but I think I'd like more map support.

I can't say I had any problems finding anyone in town. I tended to just follow a wall around an area and note any interior areas that I had to follow up on. There is one feature I would like to see though, both in town/staging areas and in missions - a middle level of map. I would like to have been able to open an area map that bridged the gap between the little radar map and the world map you got when you clicked the open map button. It would be a map of the entire area and I would expect it would include "fog of war". I always use such a map to be sure I explore an area entirely. Especially in this kind of 3D world, it can be so easy to get lost running up and down hills and valleys and such a map would really help me get my bearings and decide what to do next.

I was very pleased that in co-op play, item drops are assigned to players. This is a great way to discourage the kinds of hacks that plague bnet public games, in which the hacks autopickup good items. I did think of one problem, though. It looks as if everyone in your party can autoloot. That is, if you're dead, someone else can pick up your item.

I never noticed that people could grab your drops if you die. In fact, I'm pretty sure that I had gone down, been rezed and then picked up items that were still assigned to me. There is a timer on the assignment too. If items aren't picked up after that time, they are up for grabs. I would like to see the assignment system be a little more sophisticated. It is fine to divy the gold evenly. For items, I would like to see them assigned to characters that can use them. There is nothing worse than seeing that ranger gem of charm lynx, that you covet, get assigned to some warrior oaf who doesn't have the courtesy to ask if anyone can use it and just takes it to the traders for a gold or two. If the items have any semblance of randomness, the value each player gets would eventually even out, even if one mission seems weighted toward a certain player.

Overall impressions: I thought the demo was truly fascinating, but I also realize it's a demo of an alpha product. I think the company wanted to highlight combat options, skills acquisitions, teamplay, and some trading/items options. I think that only a very few areas were opened up, and that the company trimmed a lot of the surrounding content so that players would get a glimpse of specific features of the game rather than an overall look at the scope of the game. That overall look will, I suspect, come with beta testing later on this year.

I did think the open demo was a terrific marketing ploy and a very good way to get a lot of data in very short order. One hopes that the information gleaned from the demo will help accelerate the development process.

Anyway, I had a good time for the limited amount of time I could play. I'll be following this game closely.

Exactly my feelings. Thanks for a good write up of your impressions. I am really looking forward to this game. With what I have seen already, I think it would be hard for them to drop the ball and, unless they do, I do think this would be a strong candidate for the Lurker Lounge's attention.