Wow I cant believe people are still confused after all this time if this is instanced or not, all you need to do is go the GW2 offical site and read a little.
this world is NOT instanced , there will be some instancing for certain situations.
It is not anything like GW1
Will Guild Wars 2 be an MMO?
Yes. Guild Wars 2 provides a massive, online persistent world
Will Guild Wars 2 be an MMO?
Yes. Guild Wars 2 provides a massive, online persistent world
Will Guild Wars 2 be an MMO?
Yes. Guild Wars 2 provides a massive, online persistent world
Will Guild Wars 2 be an MMO?
Yes. Guild Wars 2 provides a massive, online persistent world
The game looks great and I will be playing for sure but I am one who goes by what I see and now what a dev says. So far I am yet to see a video showing an open world enviroment where alot of people are running around doing there own thing. I clearly remember the devs of Global Agenda saying before it released that it was a persistent world and its not.
That was a disapointment with Global Agenda, but in the videos i clearly saw a open persistant world. So in my opinion, i am pretty sure there is for sure, an open persistant world with people running around.
Oh, man. This looks like it's going to be great. I liked the original Guild Wars, and I find most MMO's combat boring because I'm used to console games like Red Faction: Guerilla, Red Dead Redemption, Mass Effect, and Monster Hunter. This game seems like it's going to have aspects from these games.
-------- "Chemistry: 'We do stuff in lab that would be a felony in your garage.'"
The most awesomest after school special T-shirt: Front: UNO Chemistry Club Back: /\OH --> Bad Decisions
Oh, man. This looks like it's going to be great. I liked the original Guild Wars, and I find most MMO's combat boring because I'm used to console games like Red Faction: Guerilla, Red Dead Redemption, Mass Effect, and Monster Hunter. This game seems like it's going to have aspects from these games.
Of course no gameplay like RDR and stuff. lol. but even for people who dont really like MMO's can try this out.
No healers, long cooldown skills (720seconds), statboosting consumables and Diablo 2 style potion popping because of no healers...
I will admit that I'm not a fan of the long recharge skills either but we also haven't seen nearly enough skills to see if that is the norm for elites. And for potions, the only potion is an energy potion, there are not any health pots. E-pots are just a replacment for energy management. With the difference in gameplay they couldn't go with the old energy management system and be able to balance it correctly. But again, your fears of D2 style health pot popping are completely unfounded since...there aren't any health pots.
Oh, man. This looks like it's going to be great. I liked the original Guild Wars, and I find most MMO's combat boring because I'm used to console games like Red Faction: Guerilla, Red Dead Redemption, Mass Effect, and Monster Hunter. This game seems like it's going to have aspects from these games.
I have a feeling TERA will have a lot more of those aspects and DCU for that matter but I understand what you mean. More abilities and attacks does not mean more fun combat.
I liked GWs combat too and I think anyone who did will like this even more. People on the other hand that want 30 different attacks + loads of other abilities will probably not be so happy.
Nope. You could dodge projectiles. Ever heard of dodging the lightning orbs of a lightning spike to save yourself? Or dodging crippling shots as a flag runner? Or dodging wand projectiles so that the warrior can't collect adrenaline through it? Plenty of dodging in GW1. Not just while you were casting a spell or using a skill.
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been-Wayne Gretzky
I will admit that I'm not a fan of the long recharge skills either but we also haven't seen nearly enough skills to see if that is the norm for elites. And for potions, the only potion is an energy potion, there are not any health pots. E-pots are just a replacment for energy management. With the difference in gameplay they couldn't go with the old energy management system and be able to balance it correctly. But again, your fears of D2 style health pot popping are completely unfounded since...there aren't any health pots.
I am sure there will be a big variation of elite skills with very varying cooldown, the first game had that (meteor shower had something like 45 seconds while my favorite barrage had 1 second or they at least had about that long time, a few years since I played).
I will admit that I'm not a fan of the long recharge skills either but we also haven't seen nearly enough skills to see if that is the norm for elites. And for potions, the only potion is an energy potion, there are not any health pots. E-pots are just a replacment for energy management. With the difference in gameplay they couldn't go with the old energy management system and be able to balance it correctly. But again, your fears of D2 style health pot popping are completely unfounded since...there aren't any health pots.
I am sure there will be a big variation of elite skills with very varying cooldown, the first game had that (meteor shower had something like 45 seconds while my favorite barrage had 1 second or they at least had about that long time, a few years since I played).
Probably. However, I do see the complaints about long recharge skills as valid. Well at least until we see the whole gambit of skills and varying gameplay. IIRC, the longest cooldown in GW was 120 seconds. I can deal with that. But a 12 minute cooldown for an uber skill just doesn't seem worth it to me. In almost every game that I have played with long cooldown skills I almost never used them. I was always afraid to waste the ability and as a consequence a lot of times just forgot about it. Heck make the cooldown to 5 minutes, I could handle that. Anything more and I feel that I'm only playing with 9 skills rather than 10.
I like GW less and less the more I hear about it...World PvP is actually battleground scenarios, structured PvP is arena style like GW1.
No healers, long cooldown skills (720seconds), statboosting consumables and Diablo 2 style potion popping because of no healers...
The game itself looks incredible, I love the animations, styling and graphics, but those things I listed above pretty much make me not interested.
When people say potion they mean ENERGY potions (do people read things or just skim?), NO health potions and there have always been stat boosting consumables.
PvP is like GW but I'm not sure about the WoW comparison you did with W v W, I think its more like Warhammer's Keep capturing but with its on separate persistence from PvE.
I will admit that I'm not a fan of the long recharge skills either but we also haven't seen nearly enough skills to see if that is the norm for elites. And for potions, the only potion is an energy potion, there are not any health pots. E-pots are just a replacment for energy management. With the difference in gameplay they couldn't go with the old energy management system and be able to balance it correctly. But again, your fears of D2 style health pot popping are completely unfounded since...there aren't any health pots.
I am sure there will be a big variation of elite skills with very varying cooldown, the first game had that (meteor shower had something like 45 seconds while my favorite barrage had 1 second or they at least had about that long time, a few years since I played).
Probably. However, I do see the complaints about long recharge skills as valid. Well at least until we see the whole gambit of skills and varying gameplay. IIRC, the longest cooldown in GW was 120 seconds. I can deal with that. But a 12 minute cooldown for an uber skill just doesn't seem worth it to me. In almost every game that I have played with long cooldown skills I almost never used them. I was always afraid to waste the ability and as a consequence a lot of times just forgot about it. Heck make the cooldown to 5 minutes, I could handle that. Anything more and I feel that I'm only playing with 9 skills rather than 10.
We're going by an assumption that there is a 10 minutes cooldown on an elite skill. That's is improbable unless it is verified. That would have to be a ultra uber skill to have a long recharge time and Arenanet operates on the philosphy of more playtime, more useful skills and not having to wait so long for something to happen.
Playing now: Cities: Skyline / Ori and the Blind Forest / Banished
this is incredible... did u see the combat system?? skill will definitely come into play. pretty big deal for an MMO. i was lookin forward to gw2 but after seeing these, the feeling is x10
I like GW less and less the more I hear about it...World PvP is actually battleground scenarios, structured PvP is arena style like GW1.
No healers, long cooldown skills (720seconds), statboosting consumables and Diablo 2 style potion popping because of no healers...
The game itself looks incredible, I love the animations, styling and graphics, but those things I listed above pretty much make me not interested.
Maybe you like it less and less because you don't seem to understand certain things.
WvWvW PvP will not be like battlegrounds but an improved version of DAoC's RvR....open and persistent zone.
There will not be healers, but there will be healing, all players in a group are responsible to keep others alive, its a joined effort. Keep your friends alive so they can keep doing DPS and keep yourself alive.
With only 10 skills on your skillbar it would be useless to create skills with 12 minute cooldowns... Never heard of this and not read about it... this seems yopur very own misconception.
There is a potion on the hotbar, but thats not a healing potion its an energy potion. This potion has a shorter cooldown out of combat but a longer cooldown when flagged as in combat. There has been no word out about healing potions and or stat boosting consumables... But then it would be kind of fun if everyone could have 1 stat boosting consumable active.. it would replace buffing spells and allow everyone to buff that part that he likes and add depth to a crafting/gathering system.
So by now the game must have cought your interest again.
Right?
No, you don't have to say thank you to me, this service is free.
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
We're going by an assumption that there is a 10 minutes cooldown on an elite skill. That's is improbable unless it is verified. That would have to be a ultra uber skill to have a long recharge time and Arenanet operates on the philosphy of more playtime, more useful skills and not having to wait so long for something to happen.
Elite Skills from the demo.
Elementalist:
Tornado [Elite]
Become a mobile tornado that causes massive damage and launches enemies. [1,108e | 720s]
N.B. Lasted about 20s, lowered health by 290 (gear bonus?) then increased by 2,000 for duration.
Necromancer:
Plague [Elite]
Turn yourself into a cloud of plague. Any enemies you touch are contaminated with multiple conditions. [1,108e | 720s]
Ranger:
Rampage as One [Elite]
Rampage with your pet, moving 50% faster, dealing 100% critical attacks, and ignoring damage. [720s]
All of them have 720 second recharge (12 minute cooldown). I'm not trying to make a big stink out of it, but it is a bit of a concern. I imagine there will be other elite skills that have less cooldowns though. We'll just have to wait and see how it plays out.
Hmm Im not so sure about this one. Sure graphics look nice but thats just substance abuse, can't get excited about that. So I've heard drips and drabs on this one for a few months now, some people seem real eager over it too. I'm not gonna be taken by the hype. Watched that first video, wtf was that idiot talking about, big deal you can change the color of a gem on your head! Is that really what gamers want? Christ, have we fallen that far? Perhaps he could tell us something a bit more important! I'm gonna need to see a lot more of this before I can make any decisions because right now its all fluff.
Whats the deal with PvP in this game any way? Are we talking about another PvE game with PvP as an after thought? Will there be world PvP?
Hmm Im not so sure about this one. Sure graphics look nice but thats just substance abuse, can't get excited about that. So I've heard drips and drabs on this one for a few months now, some people seem real eager over it too. I'm not gonna be taken by the hype. Watched that first video, wtf was that idiot talking about, big deal you can change the color of a gem on your head! Is that really what gamers want? Christ, have we fallen that far? Perhaps he could tell us something a bit more important! I'm gonna need to see a lot more of this before I can make any decisions because right now its all fluff.
Whats the deal with PvP in this game any way? Are we talking about another PvE game with PvP as an after thought? Will there be world PvP?
What he did was choosing one of the 4 elements, it is one of a few things for the single player part of the game (which you can skip).
No open world PvP. Arenas, battlegrounds and the mists that seems to be a single open area but the last is just a guess, they have not revealed any info about that yet. There will also be some games and competitions that is more or less player versus player. Guild vs Guilds and attacking guildhalls will be in too of course.
We are still waiting for more info about the PvP but ANET do spend a lot of work on PvP, GW1 had the only PvP with good balance I ever played.
But if you want to spend an hour camping someones corpse you should really look for another game.
Probably. However, I do see the complaints about long recharge skills as valid. Well at least until we see the whole gambit of skills and varying gameplay. IIRC, the longest cooldown in GW was 120 seconds. I can deal with that. But a 12 minute cooldown for an uber skill just doesn't seem worth it to me. In almost every game that I have played with long cooldown skills I almost never used them. I was always afraid to waste the ability and as a consequence a lot of times just forgot about it. Heck make the cooldown to 5 minutes, I could handle that. Anything more and I feel that I'm only playing with 9 skills rather than 10.
You are right, too long cooldown is not fun. But that is the reason you have a b
Beta, you can get things like that right and balanced. GW2 is still in Alpha so no need to panic yet. And this was just a limited demo anyways.
Well i hope that this game works out for you and doesant flop due to dissapointment, This one is not really for me as i prefer EvE style other what seems to be a Themepark.
Have to say tho the 10 minuite cooldown thing for the Elite skills does make sence.
I remember watching a WoW video on youtube showing an "epic" fight and all i saw was a lot of jumping like everyone was on drugs and lots of sparkelly lights. Basically everyone was spamming the attacks.
With the way combat works in GW2 and the need to be more tactical in the special attacks i can see the potential for a more .... Considered aproach to fighting like i see in EvE.
Another great example of Moore's Law. Give people access to that much space (developers and users alike) and they'll find uses for it that you can never imagine. "640K ought to be enough for anybody" - Bill Gates 1981
Whats the deal with PvP in this game any way? Are we talking about another PvE game with PvP as an after thought? Will there be world PvP?
Why is it that some people see competitive arena PvP as an afterthought?
The PvP in the original Guild Wars was highly polished, well balanced, and exceptionally competitive--no where near to being an afterthought. In fact, the Anet team had said on occasion that the PvE was just a training exercise to teach people the basics before PvP. They even offered real-world prizes (cash money, videocards, etc) for top competitors in the early days of the game. In my experience, I probably put close to 900 hours in on the PvP portion alone--can't say that for any other MMO I've played.
As for GW2 PvP, its already been answered above, but I will repeat it again: there will be competitive arena (like GW1 GvG, but possibly restricted to 5 man teams (the same team size as the dungeons)) and W v W v W (possibly similar to DAoC RvR, or maybe Aion's Abyss--less flying and the Balaur are actually intelligent human players)
to the ones worried about potions here is what developers said about it !
Energy in Guild Wars 2 is a long term resource. It lasts over multiple fights. Every skill uses energy. It is a way for players to gauge how difficult a fight was and how cautious to play. This makes encounters a lot more diverse and in our more solo friendly environment, it allows players to push into higher level and more difficult areas and get into more challenging fights without killing them outright.
Guild Wars 1 did not have a long term resource. Energy regenerated immediately outside of combat. This created a number of problems for us. The greatest of which was there was no good way to balance encounters. Encounters were very binary – you either won or lost and there was nothing available to tip the scales of the fight in your favor. The only way you could tell if a fight was difficult was if players died. Most of the time this was either because they made a series of mistakes that they couldn’t recover from once they realized it.
A long term resource allows players to learn from their mistakes, makes the game more approachable, and together these things make the game more fun. You don’t just win or lose – you have time to react and time to recover from errors instead of being punished by death for not playing perfectly.
Energy regenerates slowly on its own, however, all players have a potion button attached to their energy bar. Drinking a potion returns energy and puts this button into recharge. Out of combat, this recharge is short. During combat, the potions recharge slower, allowing us to reward skilled play and balance difficult encounters against a finite resource pool, so that challenging bosses can’t simply be defeated by bringing more defensive and healing skills. Energy potions are the only kind of consumable that is usable in combat.
Since I know it is the first follow up question, we aren’t talking about PvP yet, but there will be interesting energy dynamics in PvP, but we will not force players to buy and pound potions to be competitive. Potions are not very expensive, they refill a significant portion of your energy pool and they will also drop off of mobs.
Also the second question, what about energy management and energy denial skills? Energy as a long term resource does mean that energy management is no longer a direct mechanic in the game. However, we recognize the strategy implications of this decision and there are other mechanics in the game that replace these elements and play style in a way that makes sense for the new game we are making.
The kind of graphics show clearly the game uses a preloading graphics technique.
Which means graphics will be preloaded before the next scene or battle or adventure.
Call it instanced or preloading or whatever, but it doesn't mean it would be "bad" either.
You can have a persistent world with "meaningful" battles to control some parts of the world and still have preloaded content.
Reasoning is simple: you can't have these kind of graphics at decent frame rates to allow fast paced PvP with limitless pure open world and background loading.
It will depend how the RvR is implemented just how good this will be.
Interesting move I think and since it is free everyone can try it (apart from the box price).
See it as a kind of strategical board game with preloaded battles, but far more developped into an MMO format.
I like the idea.
btw: I did not like GW1: being glued to the ground and not even possible to run and cast was very much inferior to WOW's combat.
Hmm Im not so sure about this one. Sure graphics look nice but thats just substance abuse, can't get excited about that. So I've heard drips and drabs on this one for a few months now, some people seem real eager over it too. I'm not gonna be taken by the hype. Watched that first video, wtf was that idiot talking about, big deal you can change the color of a gem on your head! Is that really what gamers want? Christ, have we fallen that far? Perhaps he could tell us something a bit more important! I'm gonna need to see a lot more of this before I can make any decisions because right now its all fluff.
Whats the deal with PvP in this game any way? Are we talking about another PvE game with PvP as an after thought? Will there be world PvP?
Probably need to watch more than just the character creation screen eh?
for those worried about 720 secs cooldown on Elite skills, you may have forgotten about ANET's commitment to both balance and fun... long cooldowns may be at release, but, as GW1 skill balances can attest, this will not be mechanics set in stone
Comments
That was a disapointment with Global Agenda, but in the videos i clearly saw a open persistant world. So in my opinion, i am pretty sure there is for sure, an open persistant world with people running around.
With all the ratings out there, and on this website, that may be true.
Oh, man. This looks like it's going to be great. I liked the original Guild Wars, and I find most MMO's combat boring because I'm used to console games like Red Faction: Guerilla, Red Dead Redemption, Mass Effect, and Monster Hunter. This game seems like it's going to have aspects from these games.
--------
"Chemistry: 'We do stuff in lab that would be a felony in your garage.'"
The most awesomest after school special T-shirt:
Front: UNO Chemistry Club
Back: /\OH --> Bad Decisions
Of course no gameplay like RDR and stuff. lol. but even for people who dont really like MMO's can try this out.
I will admit that I'm not a fan of the long recharge skills either but we also haven't seen nearly enough skills to see if that is the norm for elites. And for potions, the only potion is an energy potion, there are not any health pots. E-pots are just a replacment for energy management. With the difference in gameplay they couldn't go with the old energy management system and be able to balance it correctly. But again, your fears of D2 style health pot popping are completely unfounded since...there aren't any health pots.
I have a feeling TERA will have a lot more of those aspects and DCU for that matter but I understand what you mean. More abilities and attacks does not mean more fun combat.
I liked GWs combat too and I think anyone who did will like this even more. People on the other hand that want 30 different attacks + loads of other abilities will probably not be so happy.
Nope. You could dodge projectiles. Ever heard of dodging the lightning orbs of a lightning spike to save yourself? Or dodging crippling shots as a flag runner? Or dodging wand projectiles so that the warrior can't collect adrenaline through it? Plenty of dodging in GW1. Not just while you were casting a spell or using a skill.
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
I am sure there will be a big variation of elite skills with very varying cooldown, the first game had that (meteor shower had something like 45 seconds while my favorite barrage had 1 second or they at least had about that long time, a few years since I played).
Probably. However, I do see the complaints about long recharge skills as valid. Well at least until we see the whole gambit of skills and varying gameplay. IIRC, the longest cooldown in GW was 120 seconds. I can deal with that. But a 12 minute cooldown for an uber skill just doesn't seem worth it to me. In almost every game that I have played with long cooldown skills I almost never used them. I was always afraid to waste the ability and as a consequence a lot of times just forgot about it. Heck make the cooldown to 5 minutes, I could handle that. Anything more and I feel that I'm only playing with 9 skills rather than 10.
When people say potion they mean ENERGY potions (do people read things or just skim?), NO health potions and there have always been stat boosting consumables.
PvP is like GW but I'm not sure about the WoW comparison you did with W v W, I think its more like Warhammer's Keep capturing but with its on separate persistence from PvE.
This is not a game.
We're going by an assumption that there is a 10 minutes cooldown on an elite skill. That's is improbable unless it is verified. That would have to be a ultra uber skill to have a long recharge time and Arenanet operates on the philosphy of more playtime, more useful skills and not having to wait so long for something to happen.
Playing now: Cities: Skyline / Ori and the Blind Forest / Banished
I been wondering.
How Balance will the Dodging be in PvP. Since unlike Darkfall, you can aim the attack.
But you can cast while moving and dodge.
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
Dodging (well the dodge roll) uses up energy. If you spam it, you'll be out of energy in no time.
this is incredible... did u see the combat system?? skill will definitely come into play. pretty big deal for an MMO. i was lookin forward to gw2 but after seeing these, the feeling is x10
Maybe you like it less and less because you don't seem to understand certain things.
WvWvW PvP will not be like battlegrounds but an improved version of DAoC's RvR....open and persistent zone.
There will not be healers, but there will be healing, all players in a group are responsible to keep others alive, its a joined effort. Keep your friends alive so they can keep doing DPS and keep yourself alive.
With only 10 skills on your skillbar it would be useless to create skills with 12 minute cooldowns... Never heard of this and not read about it... this seems yopur very own misconception.
There is a potion on the hotbar, but thats not a healing potion its an energy potion. This potion has a shorter cooldown out of combat but a longer cooldown when flagged as in combat. There has been no word out about healing potions and or stat boosting consumables... But then it would be kind of fun if everyone could have 1 stat boosting consumable active.. it would replace buffing spells and allow everyone to buff that part that he likes and add depth to a crafting/gathering system.
So by now the game must have cought your interest again.
Right?
No, you don't have to say thank you to me, this service is free.
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
Elite Skills from the demo.
Elementalist:
Tornado [Elite]
Become a mobile tornado that causes massive damage and launches enemies. [1,108e | 720s]
N.B. Lasted about 20s, lowered health by 290 (gear bonus?) then increased by 2,000 for duration.
Necromancer:
Plague [Elite]
Turn yourself into a cloud of plague. Any enemies you touch are contaminated with multiple conditions. [1,108e | 720s]
Ranger:
Rampage as One [Elite]
Rampage with your pet, moving 50% faster, dealing 100% critical attacks, and ignoring damage. [720s]
All of them have 720 second recharge (12 minute cooldown). I'm not trying to make a big stink out of it, but it is a bit of a concern. I imagine there will be other elite skills that have less cooldowns though. We'll just have to wait and see how it plays out.
Hmm Im not so sure about this one. Sure graphics look nice but thats just substance abuse, can't get excited about that. So I've heard drips and drabs on this one for a few months now, some people seem real eager over it too. I'm not gonna be taken by the hype. Watched that first video, wtf was that idiot talking about, big deal you can change the color of a gem on your head! Is that really what gamers want? Christ, have we fallen that far? Perhaps he could tell us something a bit more important! I'm gonna need to see a lot more of this before I can make any decisions because right now its all fluff.
Whats the deal with PvP in this game any way? Are we talking about another PvE game with PvP as an after thought? Will there be world PvP?
What he did was choosing one of the 4 elements, it is one of a few things for the single player part of the game (which you can skip).
No open world PvP. Arenas, battlegrounds and the mists that seems to be a single open area but the last is just a guess, they have not revealed any info about that yet. There will also be some games and competitions that is more or less player versus player. Guild vs Guilds and attacking guildhalls will be in too of course.
We are still waiting for more info about the PvP but ANET do spend a lot of work on PvP, GW1 had the only PvP with good balance I ever played.
But if you want to spend an hour camping someones corpse you should really look for another game.
You are right, too long cooldown is not fun. But that is the reason you have a b
Beta, you can get things like that right and balanced. GW2 is still in Alpha so no need to panic yet. And this was just a limited demo anyways.
I hope Barrage is in again, love that skill.
Well i hope that this game works out for you and doesant flop due to dissapointment, This one is not really for me as i prefer EvE style other what seems to be a Themepark.
Have to say tho the 10 minuite cooldown thing for the Elite skills does make sence.
I remember watching a WoW video on youtube showing an "epic" fight and all i saw was a lot of jumping like everyone was on drugs and lots of sparkelly lights. Basically everyone was spamming the attacks.
With the way combat works in GW2 and the need to be more tactical in the special attacks i can see the potential for a more .... Considered aproach to fighting like i see in EvE.
Another great example of Moore's Law. Give people access to that much space (developers and users alike) and they'll find uses for it that you can never imagine. "640K ought to be enough for anybody" - Bill Gates 1981
Why is it that some people see competitive arena PvP as an afterthought?
The PvP in the original Guild Wars was highly polished, well balanced, and exceptionally competitive--no where near to being an afterthought. In fact, the Anet team had said on occasion that the PvE was just a training exercise to teach people the basics before PvP. They even offered real-world prizes (cash money, videocards, etc) for top competitors in the early days of the game. In my experience, I probably put close to 900 hours in on the PvP portion alone--can't say that for any other MMO I've played.
As for GW2 PvP, its already been answered above, but I will repeat it again: there will be competitive arena (like GW1 GvG, but possibly restricted to 5 man teams (the same team size as the dungeons)) and W v W v W (possibly similar to DAoC RvR, or maybe Aion's Abyss--less flying and the Balaur are actually intelligent human players)
to the ones worried about potions here is what developers said about it !
Energy in Guild Wars 2 is a long term resource. It lasts over multiple fights. Every skill uses energy. It is a way for players to gauge how difficult a fight was and how cautious to play. This makes encounters a lot more diverse and in our more solo friendly environment, it allows players to push into higher level and more difficult areas and get into more challenging fights without killing them outright.
Guild Wars 1 did not have a long term resource. Energy regenerated immediately outside of combat. This created a number of problems for us. The greatest of which was there was no good way to balance encounters. Encounters were very binary – you either won or lost and there was nothing available to tip the scales of the fight in your favor. The only way you could tell if a fight was difficult was if players died. Most of the time this was either because they made a series of mistakes that they couldn’t recover from once they realized it.
A long term resource allows players to learn from their mistakes, makes the game more approachable, and together these things make the game more fun. You don’t just win or lose – you have time to react and time to recover from errors instead of being punished by death for not playing perfectly.
Energy regenerates slowly on its own, however, all players have a potion button attached to their energy bar. Drinking a potion returns energy and puts this button into recharge. Out of combat, this recharge is short. During combat, the potions recharge slower, allowing us to reward skilled play and balance difficult encounters against a finite resource pool, so that challenging bosses can’t simply be defeated by bringing more defensive and healing skills. Energy potions are the only kind of consumable that is usable in combat.
Since I know it is the first follow up question, we aren’t talking about PvP yet, but there will be interesting energy dynamics in PvP, but we will not force players to buy and pound potions to be competitive. Potions are not very expensive, they refill a significant portion of your energy pool and they will also drop off of mobs.
Also the second question, what about energy management and energy denial skills? Energy as a long term resource does mean that energy management is no longer a direct mechanic in the game. However, we recognize the strategy implications of this decision and there are other mechanics in the game that replace these elements and play style in a way that makes sense for the new game we are making.
The kind of graphics show clearly the game uses a preloading graphics technique.
Which means graphics will be preloaded before the next scene or battle or adventure.
Call it instanced or preloading or whatever, but it doesn't mean it would be "bad" either.
You can have a persistent world with "meaningful" battles to control some parts of the world and still have preloaded content.
Reasoning is simple: you can't have these kind of graphics at decent frame rates to allow fast paced PvP with limitless pure open world and background loading.
It will depend how the RvR is implemented just how good this will be.
Interesting move I think and since it is free everyone can try it (apart from the box price).
See it as a kind of strategical board game with preloaded battles, but far more developped into an MMO format.
I like the idea.
btw: I did not like GW1: being glued to the ground and not even possible to run and cast was very much inferior to WOW's combat.
Probably need to watch more than just the character creation screen eh?
for those worried about 720 secs cooldown on Elite skills, you may have forgotten about ANET's commitment to both balance and fun...
long cooldowns may be at release, but, as GW1 skill balances can attest, this will not be mechanics set in stone
Have fun storming the castle! - Miracle Max