Guild Wars 2

Guild Wars 2 Dev Tracker




27 May

Comment

Originally posted by Matthic

I was already a bit scared that this was due to my graphics card and/or fan. I am, so far, not experiencing any problems in other applications. I will clean the fans, maybe buy a cooler too. Would you recommend anything else?

Not that I can think of. But you can also open an in-game support ticket and our CS folks may have some additional recommendations. -K

Comment

Originally posted by Matthic

Hi Kevin, thanks for your time. Here are the screenshots you asked for:
- Mini map: https://imgur.com/a/yKOwl6Y
- Graphic settings: https://imgur.com/a/MNr38Lb + https://imgur.com/a/dnngYvp

Thanks for the screenshots. I went to the location and used your graphics settings, and the trees are rendering properly on the Mac (screenshot). So I'm wondering if there is an odd setup on your computer or if your graphics card is slowly dying (or maybe a fan isn't working properly). Are you experiencing graphics anomalies in other programs or applications?

Comment

This is Kevin with ArenaNet. I'm trying to repro this on my Mac and I am unable to. Can you post a screenshot of your mini map as well as your graphic settings? Thank you.


23 May

Comment

Originally posted by Anon_throwawayacc20

Boneskinner's theme has to be one of my new favs.

I really do enjoy the new music, and I feel it fits the more boreal motif of Icebrood Saga. Hell, I'm digging the boreal motifs in general!

The Boneskinner track is great, I agree. It's not one of mine, so I can say that humbly! Thank you for listening.

Comment

Originally posted by Paradachshund

Absolutely love that creepy string heavy piece in Western Bjora that plays in the woods outside the kodan encampment. Very different from other things in the game and I mean that in a very positive way! It made the map feel so much more hostile and creepy.

I don't think that's one of mine, but thank you for listening and taking the time to appreciate!

Comment

Originally posted by Skankintoopiv

Honestly, the stark contrast between Directsong to "hey sorry it seems like an oversight you can't download my music for free" is amazing and I'm so happy to have you working on the soundtrack. You've done absolutely fantastic.

Thanks so much. It's a team effort for sure.


22 May

Comment

Originally posted by laskodemon

Your work in gw2 is incredible. It's a big reason why I became so immersed in the game itself. Arenanet should do all they can to hang onto you and Lena.

Thank you! I'm very glad to still be working on the game after all these years. The world and the immensely talented people that create it are so inspiring and such a joy to work with, and it's so gratifying to know the music touches fans in the way we hope it will.

Comment

Originally posted by Kalulosu

It could also be that the character models / weapons weren't ready yet, but once they were, they replaced those.

You are correct! Steel and Fire was already underway at the time but I didn't make their appearances until later once we got a better feel for their personalities :)

Comment

I'll check with the team about being able to download them. It's something you have to set manually on each track when you're uploading them, which is an enormous pain. My guess is it's just an oversight.

Thanks for listening and caring about the music, everyone! This season's music has been one of the most interesting and diverse in the history of the game, in my opinion. I'm always curious how the community will react when the boundaries of what "Guild Wars music" is get pushed, so thank you for being open minded and enthusiastic.


19 May

Comment

Originally posted by BeefiousMaximus

Frigid Paw? More like Cold Shoulder, amiright...

Frigid Paw? More like Cold Shoulder, amiright...

+1


17 May

Comment

Now that’s a dude who’s seen some stuff...I almost feel guilty.

Happy (soon to be) anniversary!


14 May

Comment

Josh Foreman came up with the concept and wrote the first draft dialogue. Peter Fries and I punched it up and then George Coe acted it out. Turned out to be a fun little oddity in the game IMO.

I was in the VO booth when George Coe (R.I.P.) was voicing the captain. We asked him to play up the "many wives" bit and he absolutely killed us with his "blub blub blub" ad lib. I think I have video of it somewhere...


08 May

Comment

Originally posted by noon2now

Yeah, I don't imagine it was an easy decision to come to. Because a delay would surely have been indefinite; no one can say with any certainty when things will start going back to normal. A two month delay? Four months? Heck, the rest of the year?

It isn't ideal for anyone, but I think, on balance, they probably made the right call. Probably.

It isn't ideal for anyone, but I think, on balance, they probably made the right call.

We hope so. In the end, people's safety is more important. But also we wanted to make sure that people who wanted/needed to escape into Tyria to connect with friends and take their minds off of everything going on lately could do so. I feel like it was the best compromise but it was certainly a tough decision for everyone involved.

Comment

Originally posted by VanguardN7

Ultimately, actors can turn their room(s) into quasi-studios. But that can take time and resources they may not have, or have shortly. Then there's the organization of recording.

Ultimately, actors can turn their room(s) into quasi-studios. But that can take time and resources they may not have, or have shortly. Then there's the organization of recording.

This was something we looked into. This is fine if you're only recording a couple of people and are prepared to eat the cost of buying equipment for each actor, getting engineers in to set up all the gear (while wearing protective gear), and spending an extra day (per actor) getting all the software and hardware configured. Plus you'd be recording at half-speed (since everyone is remote it takes longer to provide context, do multiple takes, etc.) and getting audio at a lower quality than if you were using a full studio with more expensive mics, better soundproofing, etc.

We typically use 15-20 actors per episode, so this isn't a scalable solution unless the actors were already were set up to do this. And since the sound quality would probably have been noticeably ...

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Comment

Originally posted by Fluffersnuff

Wait, it is getting voiced, just later?

Wait, it is getting voiced, just later?

That's the plan.


06 May

Comment

Originally posted by iopish

it is a level of difficulty that we haven't prepared many of our players to tackle.

I sincerely hope you're still checking replies. This here is a fundamental issue that needs addressing imo. The game doesn't do ANYTHING to prepare people for harder content. It doesn't even teach how to CC, or what your average dps is like compared to others. Difficulty spike upon entering instanced group content, or, heck, even expansion maps, is so huge that it segments people into roughly two categories: one will ragequit, avoid harder content forever and optionally take it to the forums, the other one will actually look to self-improve. I've got a feeling that the game cultivates and encourages the first type of player constantly. We need to change that. Growing and learning should be introduced as another, naturally fun thing to do. You want a unified playerbase anyway. Currently the two player categories are literally hostile towards each other.

I'm always watching ;)

I hear your frustrations, but let's try to stay away from hyperbole. The game definitely can improve in how it educates players in regards to it's various systems, I think that everyone can agree on.

How we improve that educative process is where the challenge lies, and it's something I know many designers think about regularly. There are lots of ideas on how to do so, and we try to figure out where in our content we can do things that ask players to engage with systems they may not be familiar with.

Since we're talking about Drakkar and world bosses here, if you look at Drakkar's overall encounter it focused on three encounter principles: General Organization, CC (Break Bars), and Optimal DPS. And, since you pointed out break bars as a pain point, let's talk about those.

The break bar requirements are easy to see: Drakkar needs to be broken to progress the fight past the shield phase, and the champs can be broken to turn off s...

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Comment

Originally posted by ChmSteki

They said that Drakkar would be on similar level to TT, but it's no different than any other braindead world boss. Even shatterers are harder than it.

Just want to pop in and provide some clarity, as it seems there's been miscommunications about our intentions with Drakkar.

The intent was never to be as difficult as Triple Trouble. That encounter has proven to be one of the most difficult in the game for a majority of players, and while I personally love the fight, I recognize that it is a level of difficulty that we haven't prepared many of our players to tackle.

We aimed for Drakkar to require *around* the same level of coordination as Teq or Vinewrath (splitting the group, catching orbs, bringing stability to counter some of the knockbacks and such) while setting a higher DPS expectation than Teq or Shatterer (those two drop WAY faster than we originally intended due to power creep across the last 5 years, allowing for people to kind of brute force their way through the fight, especially Shatterer). We didn't quite hit the mark we wanted when it came to communication, but based on our internal data collected si...

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04 May


30 Apr

Comment

Originally posted by Nelsiemon

Ehm the voice acting of BG is one of the main things that I got to enjoy more and more over the years. "GO FOR THE EYES BOO, GO FOR THE EYES!!"

Jim Cummings. One of my favorite voice actors! Also does Winnie the Pooh and Tigger! He uses the Minsc voice in the Star Wars shows Clone Wars and Rebels as a pirate, Hondo. I might have gone a bit crazy the first time I heard Minsc in Star Wars. ;)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Cummings