DeBussy and Kronos interview with Arenanet on Fan Day (6/24/2011):
Please note that I did not write this. This entire post is taken directly from GuildWars2's Official Game FAQ. Enjoy:
-When is Guild Wars 2 going to be released?
"When it's finished. Guild Wars 2 is the largest project ArenaNet® has ever undertaken. We want to make sure we take the time to do it right."
-When will there be a beta?
"We will be conducting small closed alpha and beta tests in 2011. The feedback from these tests will determine when we will do public beta tests and ship the game. Guild Wars 2 is a very large and ambitious game, and Guild Wars players rightfully have very high expectations. We want players to be absolutely blown away by the game the first time they experience it."
-What platforms will Guild Wars 2 be available on?
"Guild Wars 2 is being developed for the PC."
-Will there be a subscription fee for Guild Wars 2?
"Nope. Like the original Guild Wars, there will be no subscription fee for Guild Wars 2. You just buy the game and play it online without paying a monthly fee."
-Will Guild Wars 2 be an MMO?
"Yes. Guild Wars 2 provides a massive, online persistent world."
-How is Guild Wars 2 different from other MMOs?
"At ArenaNet, we have one mission: to make Guild Wars 2 the best MMORPG ever."
-Will Guild Wars 2 have non-human playable races?
"Absolutely! In addition to humans, players will be able to create, customize, and play a variety of non-human races: Charr, Norn, Asura and Sylvari."
-How many professions does Guild Wars 2 have?
"Guild Wars 2 will have eight professions with very distinct play-styles and skills. We have currently announced the elementalist, the warrior, the ranger, the necromancer, the guardian, and the thief, and we will continue to unveil new professions in the coming months."
-How will character progression work? Will you be raising the level cap?
"Guild Wars 2 will have the kind of extensive character advancement appropriate to a persistent-world RPG. Our goal is to avoid forcing players into the grind-based gameplay that too often accompanies a high level cap. Also, to allow players the freedom to play together even if their friends are at a much higher (or lower) level, we are planning to implement a strong sidekick system, similar to that used in City of Heroes™. We're applying this same philosophy to competitive play. Players will be able to engage in organized, balanced PvP (similar to GvG in the original Guild Wars) without first leveling up characters, finding equipment, and unlocking skills. While inside the organized PvP area, all characters will be the same power level and will have access to the same equipment."
-Will Guild Wars 2 be solo-able?
"Yes. You will be able to advance your character to the maximum level without ever joining a group if you so desire. Most content will be designed in a solo-friendly way, though often with mechanisms for scaling up in difficulty when more players are involved. This will give players the option to experience the game however they prefer. At the same time, it is important for an MMO community to join together to overcome challenges. Guild Wars 2 will feature challenges that require players to join forces."
-Can I play my original Guild Wars character in Guild Wars 2?
"Guild Wars 2 is a whole new game with different professions and races, new technology, and expanded gameplay. It is not possible to directly use an original Guild Wars character. However, your original Guild Wars character names will be reserved for your use in Guild Wars 2. The Hall of Monuments in Guild Wars 2 recognizes the accomplishments commemorated by your original Guild Wars characters and provides you with unique rewards to showcase those achievements."
-What benefits does the Hall of Monuments provide to Guild Wars 2 characters?
"The achievements and honors accumulated by all the characters on your Guild Wars account are commemorated in the Hall of Monuments, which is only available in Guild Wars: Eye of the North. The monuments in the Hall are worth points that can be used to provide your Guild Wars 2 characters with exclusive titles, items, mini-pets, and animal companions. Use the Hall of Monuments Reward Calculator to determine what rewards you've unlocked, and discover what other items will be available when Guild Wars 2 launches."
-What are the system requirements for Guild Wars 2?
"The system requirements haven't been finalized, but just as with the original Guild Wars series, we're committed to creating a beautiful game that will play great on mid-range gaming PCs."
-It looks like the charr have guns in the Guild Wars 2 trailer. Will there be firearms in GW2?
"Since Guild Wars 2 takes place 250 years in the future from Guild Wars, we wanted to
introduce new technology to Tyria. From the mystical tech of the asura to the industrial war machines of the Charr, Guild Wars 2 unmistakably takes place in a different era than the original game, and the weaponry and machinery reflect that. Firearms will definitely be part of the equation — but with a unique twist."
-The aquatic scenes in the preview video look really cool. Will players be able to explore underwater?
"Absolutely! We want to make underwater exploration easy and exciting for players and
eliminate some of the traditional limitations (i.e., drowning) to aquatic travel found in many games. The underwater zones open up exciting new possibilities and greatly expand the explorable areas in Guild Wars 2."
-What is the current transition from night to day? How long does each last?
"Day and night cycle is currently two hours. 1:20 of daylight and 40 of night. Possibly will change before release."
-Is movement speed while weapons are unsheathed still being adjusted?
"A little bit. Something like speed will actually affect you while you're in combat, outside of combat it doesn't so that people can just run down the road really quickly. We're still playing on whether or not we want to keep it the same or adjust it. Right now it's the same."
-Does every profession have a different base amount for health and energy, or do they all have it the same? How do you determine these numbers?
"Yes, right now they all do have different intrinsic numbers. Every class can still adjust those numbers as they want, but they'll have different base numbers. For instance, a warrior will have a higher base HP than an elementalist would. We determine these a lot of times by the feel we want a class to have. Like a warrior should be a little more beefy and strong than an elementalist should be."
-The guardian wards are supposed to make your enemies think twice before approaching you, that is, to make them change their strategy. Most of the wards in the demo lasted a few seconds. Is combat so dynamic that such a short change on the battlefield can produce fruitful results? Can you please give us an example?
"Being able to throw down wards like that and things on the ground to control positions are very important because sometimes you can put those down, and someone else can then immobilize somebody inside of it so that they would take full damage. It is very powerful, but we're still playing with those numbers. We might increase the duration for a lot of those if we need to. Based on past demos I can't say that's exactly what we're going to ship with, so we'll have to see."
-Can Glue Shot be used to prevent knockdown, and could the oil slick skill be used to quickly slip through enemy lines?
"Right now what Oil Slick does is that it creates a line behind you and if anyone hits -their- knockdown, that's how it works right now, so it wouldn't necessarily help you through an enemy line. Right now Glue Shot just immobilizes people. The idea is that it would just keep people locked in that area."
-Are there any new and more diverse cross-profession combinations?
"We are coming up with some new skills that will actually really augment the skills that you have. So as the skills are augmented, for instance AoEs, it can help your allies because they're going to be stronger based on the traits that you have equipped to make your base skill stronger. We're actually putting in a lot more combos as we speak, though I can't go into detail because we haven't finalized some of the names for those yet."
-Can anyone else pick up the turrets the engineer lays such as with the warrior banners, or only the engineer that summoned them can do this?
"Only the engineer that summoned it can actually interact with it."
-Have there been any changes have been made to the thief's weapon skills, and their layout, as well as any additional traits and utility skills?
"Yes, there are a lot of changes that are in the works right now that you will not see in the current demo. We have a lot of things coming for the thief that are going to be changing."
-Outside of the bar brawls and other usual suspects (mini-games), are there any skills that are influenced by consumables such as alcohol as it is the case in GW1, or do these consumables just provide an attribute or other bonus?
"A lot of times consumables do give you attribute bonuses as well as buffs. You can get a lot of buffs. For instance, the engineer has a lot of elixirs and potions and things like this. We might have other activities down the road that will also use that system, but right now the bar brawl is the one that uses it chiefly."
-Outside of burning buildings and siege weapons, how are environmental objects such as buildings, trees, gates, etc. used in dynamic events? They won't always be in need of defense or repair or putting out, will they?
"Sometimes they can be destroyed so you'd have to repair those as well. Sometimes they can block the way and need to be blown up, sometimes you'll need to repair a bridge to be able to use it again. In World vs. World we have a lot of areas where most of the props can be destroyed - they can be knocked down, they can be repaired by the players. You can set up seige weapons to attack and then set up defensive seige weapons to defend against those as well. In events we sometimes have that, but not as extensive as in World vs. World."
-Will it be possible to change any pet's appearance, other than the animal companions?
"I believe you can change colors but I'm not sure what we're saying right now. I haven't played with the pets in a while."
-Is there anything else you'd like to add; anything the fans over at GW2Guru should know about the game?
"The biggest thing is that we are always iterating the game. Right now we have a lot of big plans to make some changes to some systems that we've talked about. Keep your eyes and ears open because we're making a lot of fundamental changes to things. The reason for this is that we're perfectionists and we want to iterate, we want the game to be fun for our players. So just keep giving the feedback, keep asking the questions because we really take those things into account as we're playing. If you're at a tradeshow, come up and talk to us, give us some ideas. We always love to hear what people have to say."
-Now the team composition for the tournament play is 5v5: Is it actually made more accessible from what it was in Guild Wars? What are the differences?
"One of the things that happened in Guild Wars is that essentially you had two things that were required at all times: primarily you needed a warrior, or somebody that could cause Deep Wound, and you needed a monk to keep that person alive. Then you'd basically establish a frontline, a backline, and then you would fill up your midline. In Guild Wars 2 that's not as important. We said before as a company that picking the right class is not what's important. Knowing how to play your class well, that's what's important. This really comes into play a lot in the PvP that we're doing internally. Somebody could have the perfect composition and not be as good as somebody in a thrown-together group with people that are really good with their position and really good with their class.That's much more important in Guild Wars 2. it's not about builds as much anymore. It's about how well you play your class."
-Can we talk a bit about objective-based PvP?
"Right now one of the primary things that we're testing is basically taking over conquest points or objectives and holding those and scoring based on how long you've held them. We'll have a lot of secondary objectives that flow throughout the map. I can't give any details yet but we want the game to feel fantastic. In this sense what I mean is that, for instance, you're seiging a castle. We want it to feel like you're really seiging a castle and moving through and taking different points and things like that. If you're fighting in an area, let's say it's an underwater area or it's the brand, we want it to feel like you're really underwater or in the brand or somewhere else, like a forest. We want it to really feel like a forest. We really want it to feel immersive, even when you're playing PvP. We're trying to make these competitive game types feel like you're actually role-playing these battles in these really cool areas."
-Other than the team death match, will there be any other free-for-all game mode?
"Our PvP is broken into two major types - World vs. World and competitive PvP. The competitive PvP is broken into two types as well. You have the competitive 5v5, which is where we jump in with our builds and challenge you. There's also more of a freestyle type. You can imagine a FPS where you just jump into a map and pick it up and play."
-One of the mechanics you've talked about for structured PvP are potion drops around the map, since the players have a set amount of potions. How are you progressing with this idea?
"Right now we are. It's one of those things that we are still looking at if it adds anything to the game. If it feels like it doesn't add enough to the game we might take it out but at this point it is still in."
-Are there any plans for introducing different maps for WvW, or will the outlook always remain the same for the four maps?
"The idea, right now, is that the four maps will be the same. We don't have any intentions right now of altering those maps. The reason for this is that because World vs. World is so big and expansive, we don't want new players to have to memorize four new maps every time. We want them to learn their home map and be comfortable with it and then travel to other maps and then become comfortable with those. We want to keep it consistent so that they players aren't overwhelmed."
