I've read/watched so many gw2 coverage and none seem compare the game to the original, most are comparing the game to WoW and seem to be completely ignorant of gw1. which is soooo frustrating, because gw1 is such an underated game and because you'd never see other game sequels reviewed without knowing the original, and frankly its tedious when reviewers have no clue about what they are talking about. so anyway it was nice to see some comparison to gw1 finally even if it was only on a few UI elements.
It's as if people forget that FFXi has been out for 9 years now and the majority of players used a controller, even the PC players. Need to type? Put down the controller and type. What's so difficult about that?
Here's the kicker; KB + mouse sucked in that game and we had double the bar slots of GW2.
GW2 has fewer bar slots to worry about which would work perfectly with a controller and the movement and combat is a million times more fluid.
Now, i prefer my naga+n52 but i see no reason why controller couldn't be a valid option. As long as the game is built for the PC first(which XI was not), then i don't see a problem.
And how would you show where aoe skills need to fire up with a controller? Oh you can do it with a stick 3 times slower than with a mouse. So If you want to play GW2 with a controller better make a special servers for console players.
And how would you show where aoe skills need to fire up with a controller? Oh you can do it with a stick 3 times slower than with a mouse. So If you want to play GW2 with a controller better make a special servers for console players.
i happen to like the controller functions in FFXI, and you can bind vent to an xbox controller. there's a chat pad thats ok for typing a little, but there's no reason to not have a keyboard close by if you have to type longer messages
And how would you show where aoe skills need to fire up with a controller? Oh you can do it with a stick 3 times slower than with a mouse. So If you want to play GW2 with a controller better make a special servers for console players.
You could do it with the directional keys but you wouldn't be able to move which defeats the point really. It can be done but i agree with you that with so many ground target abilities, it wouldn't be efficient.
And how would you show where aoe skills need to fire up with a controller? Oh you can do it with a stick 3 times slower than with a mouse. So If you want to play GW2 with a controller better make a special servers for console players.
Auto cast target skills is available in the options, seen it on videos.
Assume is fires in the middle of the screen or whereever your cursor was when you entered mouselook mode, either way.. it can be worked into it pretty easily.
3 seconds with a stick is a massive over exaggeration anyway and if it takes someone that long then they definately shouldn't be using a controller.
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
the amount of keys available on the keyboard is obviously way beyond anything a controller can ever provide.
Completely untrue. Using an xbox controller as an example:
No buttons held down = 14 buttons
Left trigger held down (same concept as shift 1) = 14 buttons
Right trigger held down = 14 buttons
Both triggers held down = 14 buttons
Thats 56
Add hold zones to every button and shift so that they do different things if pressed or held for 1-2 second/s. This doubles it.
Thats 112. Thats also more keys than on a standard keyboard. It's also waaaay more than you'll ever need for any game.
You can also create cycle commands for buttons. Useful for say.. selecting group members. First time you press it, it selects group member 1, next time group member 2, then 3, 4, 5, 6, then back to 1. Easy to rapidly press a shoulder button to get the selection you want. Cycle commands can also be used as a right mouse button toggle so you can toggle in and out of mouselook easily in any game.
This is easily done with something like pinnacle game profiler. I do it all the time.
I'm not trying to troll, i'm honestly not.. but anyone who can't play an mmo with a controller is simply rubbish with them (controllers, not mmos) compared to those who can. I am currently playing Aion using only a controller and doing amazingly. I also played WoW using a controller and was excellent at PvP, always top 3 in battlegrounds.
I already have my pinnacle profile set up and ready for when gw2 hits and i'll be able to do everything the same as those on keyboard.. possibly better than most but definately better than clickers. Keyboard right in front of me for chat, mouse on hand for managing menus if i dont feel like always using my right stick to do it all the time (a mouselook toggle setup gives you full mouse pointer control when out of mouselook mode).. all from a comfortable and relaxed seated position...
... and looking forward to meeting keyboard users in WvWvW.
Balderdash! Key/Mouse action owns anyone with a controller! It has been proven time and time again. There is such an overabundance of proof on this it is not even worth siting it. You need to get out more.
Balderdash! Key/Mouse action owns anyone with a controller! It has been proven time and time again. There is such an overabundance of proof on this it is not even worth siting it. You need to get out more.
Of course! I must have been winning all the time to other people with controllers then otherwise I must be crazy.. because beating keyboard with a controller is impossible apparently.
I was talking strictly MMO here, not FPS.
No, I'm not crazy and I'm not just making stuff up for the sake of it. I don't need citing or proof to your claim, I've already tried it myself. I wouldn't argue the point if I had been losing. Why would I want to keep using a controller if it wasn't working for me? I'm fine with keyboard and mouse as well if it worked out better. In FPS and proper twitch gaming then I agree a mouse is better for aiming and such, for that genre I'd always use a mouse. MMO's are not like that though, including GW2. Targets get selected just like all the others.
And the 'You need to get out more' comment doesn't really make much sense... I need to get out more because I like to and know how to use a controller where it works for me? Hmmm.... Or perhaps it's because I already have a controller profile set up for GW2? Well, that only took me about 5 minutes to set up.. since I already know how to use the software.
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
Been playing over 5 years on and off now. Guild Wars is good, Guild Wars is always good but the problem is that Guild Wars is never great. The appeal to the casual gamer has made the mmo genre average. Players want to be awed and have this great experience but ArenaNet and like so many others are " just happy to be in the game" kind of mentality. So the awesome experience suffers because of this. I fully expect Guild Wars 2 to be good but I'm afraid it is only an appetizer.
Gamepads have always felt awkward to me but to each their own. Especially when playing a FPS. I can aim/shoot about 100x faster with a mouse. Couldn't players simply keybind a gamepad?
"Alders- As long as the game is built for the PC first(which XI was not), then i don't see a problem."
And this is why keyboard and mouse were not good in ffxi, it wasn't designed for it. Compared to a game designed with keyboard and mouse in mind from the get go the controllers just don't do it for me. I've tried them and don't like them. But if they can make it work so players have a choice I'm sure it will make more players comfortable and happy.
Question is though- if added as an afterthought, how good will the controllers be in game?
Gamepads have always felt awkward to me but to each their own. Especially when playing a FPS. I can aim/shoot about 100x faster with a mouse. Couldn't players simply keybind a gamepad?
exactly. if some people would prefer a gamepad, theres nothing wrong with just keybinding to one, and go on about your day. People have been playing MMOs with controllers for as long as they have keyboards and mice. Even MMOs like Aion and WoW, games that were never designed with gamepads in mind, all you do is keybind them yourselves.
This is a much better option than the company needing to design controller interfaces into the game. This does add unusual keybinds, awkward control schemes, and most players will still want to change the keybinds to something they are more comfortable with.
Please for the love of all that is holy do not design gamepad controls into the UI. If you want to use one, just use one, there is nothing stopping you at all from doing that, without requiring anything from the development team or game company.
Interesting to think about controller support. The need for keyboard and mouse has largely been driven in MMOs by the need for a hundred icons/hotkeys. Maybe with the limit of 5 active abilities, a controller could work. I only wonder about movement / turnover though being a disadvantages on a controller.
true, Its a shame voice chat has not been implemented properly in any MMORPG to date. It would be nice if they got rid of keyboard chat and forced everyone in the game to use voice chat. wouldnt it be cool if while running by another player game ingame you could hear what he was talking about and as you got further away , his voice gradually faded out? lots of cool stuff they could do with this.
Lord of the Rings Online has a built-in voice chat, if you never tried it. And I think even Dungeons and Dragons too if I remember correctly.
And by built-in, I mean you don't need a third party program such as Teamspeak or Skype.
I'm loving the original Guild Wars and xpacks, but I will say the targetting is awful. A blind 360 degree round robin is immensly counter-intuitive and unresponsive in a wild brawl in your face.
I will go head to head vs a controller player any day of the week. Why would you want to tie your hands like that. Or are you asking for a dumbed down UI like DCU has so keyboard and controller players are on equal ground? IMO MMOs and controllers don't mix unless you wana make a bad MMO or be a bad gamer.
I liked that as well let the noobs wanna speak.Hey noobs if you want to talk go out in real life and have some talk.Games are supposed to give fun with the minimum of talk when theres plenty of action.
If you don't like using a keyboard please go back to console games and DC Universe. I don't mean to be rude but I feel that it is people like you that are ruining the MMORPG genre. MMOs are supposed to be role playing games/worlds - not action games.
Ever stop and think a MMO could be both a game/world and an action game?
I'm happy to see the mapdrawing and ctrl and alt function come back, but I have my doubts about controller use.
How are you going to use the different abilities with controller? Do you need that many buttons? Or do you need to aim at the skillbar and then fire them? Either needing a controller with loads of buttons or a very slow way to control your toon?
Also, I can understand that ppl who used to click abilities with the mouse will have problems with GW2. But I don't see it as any problem for anyone who is used to play FPS games. They are used to react fast using WASD and use keybinds for everything else.
Just learn to play like a FPS player. It is much more efficient for GW2, because you have the keyboard at hand at all times (great for if you want to chat something during fights) and there is room for a lot more conveniently located keybinds.
Balderdash! Key/Mouse action owns anyone with a controller! It has been proven time and time again. There is such an overabundance of proof on this it is not even worth siting it. You need to get out more.
Of course! I must have been winning all the time to other people with controllers then otherwise I must be crazy.. because beating keyboard with a controller is impossible apparently.
I was talking strictly MMO here, not FPS.
No, I'm not crazy and I'm not just making stuff up for the sake of it. I don't need citing or proof to your claim, I've already tried it myself. I wouldn't argue the point if I had been losing. Why would I want to keep using a controller if it wasn't working for me?
Keyboard turners and clickers say the same thing you know. Exactly the same thing. "It works for me" "I beat people all the time"
Yet when faced with anyone truely skilled, they get utterly destroyed and cry "Hack!" instantly.
In short, you may win.. in fact, I'd say you probably do win a fair amount more then you lose. However, never assume that makes you good.. because the *vast majority of MMO players are horrible*. I'd say 1% are decent, but honestly? I think I'm going a bit too high.
I'm gonna agree with you on the points about the gamepad (mainly the point about it being action oriented lending itself to gamepad playability) and the party window.
And another feature from GW1 I would like to see return is the modular windows. So far, in all the press screens, all of the charqacter information is lumped into one window. And while that is convenient when in town/out of battle, I think that bulky window is going to get in the way. Especially for things like tracking title progress. Some people are going to want that information on hand when in the field, not 3 tabs deep into the character window.
On the subject of gamepad... if you really want to use a game pad, you can always use a program like GlovePIE or MotionJOY DS3 to macro simple interface controls onto a gamepad. Stop being lazy/demanding, the developers have enough to do; with such easy to use tools anybody can do it.
Constantly having to move can be hard on Healers in some games. I wonder about here.
The obvious answer that has been mentioned is there are no 'healers' per se. The less obvious one is that a lot of the heals are ground effects so it is up to the person needing the heal to move into it.
Seems like there are a couple more skills than will comfortably fit on a gamepad, 8 would have been ideal.
If you don't like using a keyboard please go back to console games and DC Universe. I don't mean to be rude but I feel that it is people like you that are ruining the MMORPG genre. MMOs are supposed to be role playing games/worlds - not action games.
Ever stop and think a MMO could be both a game/world and an action game?
MIND BLOWN
I think there is room enough for multiple gamestyles.
Comments
I've read/watched so many gw2 coverage and none seem compare the game to the original, most are comparing the game to WoW and seem to be completely ignorant of gw1. which is soooo frustrating, because gw1 is such an underated game and because you'd never see other game sequels reviewed without knowing the original, and frankly its tedious when reviewers have no clue about what they are talking about. so anyway it was nice to see some comparison to gw1 finally even if it was only on a few UI elements.
My blog:
It's as if people forget that FFXi has been out for 9 years now and the majority of players used a controller, even the PC players. Need to type? Put down the controller and type. What's so difficult about that?
Here's the kicker; KB + mouse sucked in that game and we had double the bar slots of GW2.
GW2 has fewer bar slots to worry about which would work perfectly with a controller and the movement and combat is a million times more fluid.
Now, i prefer my naga+n52 but i see no reason why controller couldn't be a valid option. As long as the game is built for the PC first(which XI was not), then i don't see a problem.
And how would you show where aoe skills need to fire up with a controller? Oh you can do it with a stick 3 times slower than with a mouse. So If you want to play GW2 with a controller better make a special servers for console players.
i happen to like the controller functions in FFXI, and you can bind vent to an xbox controller. there's a chat pad thats ok for typing a little, but there's no reason to not have a keyboard close by if you have to type longer messages
You could do it with the directional keys but you wouldn't be able to move which defeats the point really. It can be done but i agree with you that with so many ground target abilities, it wouldn't be efficient.
Auto cast target skills is available in the options, seen it on videos.
Assume is fires in the middle of the screen or whereever your cursor was when you entered mouselook mode, either way.. it can be worked into it pretty easily.
3 seconds with a stick is a massive over exaggeration anyway and if it takes someone that long then they definately shouldn't be using a controller.
Balderdash! Key/Mouse action owns anyone with a controller! It has been proven time and time again. There is such an overabundance of proof on this it is not even worth siting it. You need to get out more.
Of course! I must have been winning all the time to other people with controllers then otherwise I must be crazy.. because beating keyboard with a controller is impossible apparently.
I was talking strictly MMO here, not FPS.
No, I'm not crazy and I'm not just making stuff up for the sake of it. I don't need citing or proof to your claim, I've already tried it myself. I wouldn't argue the point if I had been losing. Why would I want to keep using a controller if it wasn't working for me? I'm fine with keyboard and mouse as well if it worked out better. In FPS and proper twitch gaming then I agree a mouse is better for aiming and such, for that genre I'd always use a mouse. MMO's are not like that though, including GW2. Targets get selected just like all the others.
And the 'You need to get out more' comment doesn't really make much sense... I need to get out more because I like to and know how to use a controller where it works for me? Hmmm.... Or perhaps it's because I already have a controller profile set up for GW2? Well, that only took me about 5 minutes to set up.. since I already know how to use the software.
Been playing over 5 years on and off now. Guild Wars is good, Guild Wars is always good but the problem is that Guild Wars is never great. The appeal to the casual gamer has made the mmo genre average. Players want to be awed and have this great experience but ArenaNet and like so many others are " just happy to be in the game" kind of mentality. So the awesome experience suffers because of this. I fully expect Guild Wars 2 to be good but I'm afraid it is only an appetizer.
Grim Dawn, the next great action rpg!
http://www.grimdawn.com/
Gamepads have always felt awkward to me but to each their own. Especially when playing a FPS. I can aim/shoot about 100x faster with a mouse. Couldn't players simply keybind a gamepad?
And this is why keyboard and mouse were not good in ffxi, it wasn't designed for it. Compared to a game designed with keyboard and mouse in mind from the get go the controllers just don't do it for me. I've tried them and don't like them. But if they can make it work so players have a choice I'm sure it will make more players comfortable and happy.
Question is though- if added as an afterthought, how good will the controllers be in game?
exactly. if some people would prefer a gamepad, theres nothing wrong with just keybinding to one, and go on about your day. People have been playing MMOs with controllers for as long as they have keyboards and mice. Even MMOs like Aion and WoW, games that were never designed with gamepads in mind, all you do is keybind them yourselves.
This is a much better option than the company needing to design controller interfaces into the game. This does add unusual keybinds, awkward control schemes, and most players will still want to change the keybinds to something they are more comfortable with.
Please for the love of all that is holy do not design gamepad controls into the UI. If you want to use one, just use one, there is nothing stopping you at all from doing that, without requiring anything from the development team or game company.
If you don't worry about it, it's not a problem.
Lord of the Rings Online has a built-in voice chat, if you never tried it. And I think even Dungeons and Dragons too if I remember correctly.
And by built-in, I mean you don't need a third party program such as Teamspeak or Skype.
What is the Targetting like?
I'm loving the original Guild Wars and xpacks, but I will say the targetting is awful. A blind 360 degree round robin is immensly counter-intuitive and unresponsive in a wild brawl in your face.
Did they tune that up in GW2?
Wherever you go, there you are.
Honestly I thought the UI in GW sucked, you couldn't see how much energy your party members had, and that was awful if you were a necro.
As for targetting in GW2, I'd say it's much better.
I liked that as well let the noobs wanna speak.Hey noobs if you want to talk go out in real life and have some talk.Games are supposed to give fun with the minimum of talk when theres plenty of action.
Then make a MMOFPS and stop bastardizing MMORPGs.
I'm happy to see the mapdrawing and ctrl and alt function come back, but I have my doubts about controller use.
How are you going to use the different abilities with controller? Do you need that many buttons? Or do you need to aim at the skillbar and then fire them? Either needing a controller with loads of buttons or a very slow way to control your toon?
Also, I can understand that ppl who used to click abilities with the mouse will have problems with GW2. But I don't see it as any problem for anyone who is used to play FPS games. They are used to react fast using WASD and use keybinds for everything else.
Just learn to play like a FPS player. It is much more efficient for GW2, because you have the keyboard at hand at all times (great for if you want to chat something during fights) and there is room for a lot more conveniently located keybinds.
Here is someone who actually can strafe and dodge while staying focussed at his target :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7gKbdynJek&feature=related
This guy plays well for someone new at GW2 and shows that mouse+keyboard is everything you need.
Keyboard turners and clickers say the same thing you know. Exactly the same thing. "It works for me" "I beat people all the time"
Yet when faced with anyone truely skilled, they get utterly destroyed and cry "Hack!" instantly.
In short, you may win.. in fact, I'd say you probably do win a fair amount more then you lose. However, never assume that makes you good.. because the *vast majority of MMO players are horrible*. I'd say 1% are decent, but honestly? I think I'm going a bit too high.
I'm gonna agree with you on the points about the gamepad (mainly the point about it being action oriented lending itself to gamepad playability) and the party window.
And another feature from GW1 I would like to see return is the modular windows. So far, in all the press screens, all of the charqacter information is lumped into one window. And while that is convenient when in town/out of battle, I think that bulky window is going to get in the way. Especially for things like tracking title progress. Some people are going to want that information on hand when in the field, not 3 tabs deep into the character window.
On the subject of gamepad... if you really want to use a game pad, you can always use a program like GlovePIE or MotionJOY DS3 to macro simple interface controls onto a gamepad. Stop being lazy/demanding, the developers have enough to do; with such easy to use tools anybody can do it.
The obvious answer that has been mentioned is there are no 'healers' per se. The less obvious one is that a lot of the heals are ground effects so it is up to the person needing the heal to move into it.
Seems like there are a couple more skills than will comfortably fit on a gamepad, 8 would have been ideal.
I think there is room enough for multiple gamestyles.