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Member
(09-01-2011, 03:40 AM)
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#1101
Originally Posted by Jira:
its clear that this game will be driven by the quality of the player. really looking forward to this release. |
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Member
(09-01-2011, 07:19 PM)
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#1102
Originally Posted by Jira:
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Member
(09-02-2011, 01:08 AM)
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#1104
PAX Art Panel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbYAJ_oK1-E Environmental Artist Interview http://www.g4tv.com/videos/55014/gui...st/?quality=hd
Last edited by Jira; 09-02-2011 at 01:18 AM.
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Member
(09-02-2011, 02:32 AM)
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#1107
Originally Posted by FutureZombie:
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Member
(09-02-2011, 02:34 AM)
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#1109
Originally Posted by Jira:
Personally, in MMOs I've used a hybrid style. Usually move with mouse, but use WASD when I'm targeting or going backwards. That appeared to be the case in the warrior video you posted. He walks backwards quite often. BTW, thanks for bringing tons of info to this thread. |
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Member
(09-02-2011, 03:00 AM)
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#1110
Originally Posted by Instro:
Originally Posted by FutureZombie:
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Member
(09-02-2011, 04:56 AM)
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#1111
Originally Posted by Jira:
I'm actually not completely negative on the goal of these mechanics. You basically have split monitoring of your skill bar and the environment. Good PvP players will have only a fraction of their focus on the actual skills except at times to be reminded of recharges. With the loss of the mana pool there will be even less focus since you can mash or basically rhythm your play. That only leaves your health which will be an at-a-glance graphic. Dodging should be more of an internal clock mechanic since you shouldn't have to hawk the bar if you understand the consumption over time. For those who wondered why changes were made like chucking skill energies well... So this does leave the vast majority of your focus towards the environment. It does make the game easier in a lot of ways because rhythm/clocking gameplay is simpler then actively monitoring multiple systems. However, this enhanced focus is only as good as the developers flesh it out. You then have to break down which areas are consuming the environmental focus. That break down might result in success or not for the entire system. It's an ambitious design but fans of planning over reflex will dislike the change. I personally wanted more reflex in GW2 over GW1 but not to this degree. EDIT: I keep forgetting to mention but the above is regarding PvP. AI elements don't cause as many variables as the human influence especially regarding environmental focus. It is a manner of patterning.
Last edited by gunbo13; 09-02-2011 at 05:02 AM.
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Member
(09-03-2011, 02:24 AM)
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#1114
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&p...hYTZj&hl=en_US
Impressions from page 8-12 PvP impressions http://www.necrobator.com/events/pax...ancer-edition/
Last edited by Jira; 09-03-2011 at 02:37 AM.
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Member
(09-03-2011, 03:37 AM)
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#1115
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Member
(09-03-2011, 03:41 AM)
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#1116
Originally Posted by EhrgeizVII:
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Member
(09-08-2011, 07:52 PM)
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#1118
Originally Posted by FutureZombie:
The other helpful tip is jumping while strafing backwards. What this does is allow you to let go of the strafe key temporarily, so you can input some other action (ie. Jump, let go of the 'A' key, freeing up your left pinky, and hit Shift + 1 or some other input that requires the pinky). It also frees up mouse look temporarily, but this requires some FPS-esque dexterity. Jumping while strafing is pretty paramount for ranged classes that need to kite, but also keep their facing toward the enemy to get off shots, ie. hunters in WoW. |
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Member
(09-09-2011, 12:26 AM)
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#1119
http://www.arena.net/blog/prepare-yo...for-asura-week
They may be small, but they think big. They’re the asura, a race of diminutive geniuses whose inventions, experiments, and research make them a force to be reckoned with in Tyria. Next week we’re examining the asura with five days of blog posts, videos, stories, and more. Get ready for Asura Week, which runs Sep 12-16! Here’s what you can expect from Asura Week: Monday, 9/12 – An asura character design blog post by concept artist Matthew Barrett, the key artist responsible for the look of the asura. Monday, 9/12 – BONUS! We’re throwing in an extra asura short story by loremaster Jeff Grubb! Tuesday, 9/13 – An asura environmental design blog post by Matthew Barrett that takes a closer look at asura architecture and props. Tuesday, 9/13 – Hey, Bookah! This advice column provides smart asura answers to stupid questions. Wednesday, 9/14 – Writing the asura blog post by Writer Angel McCoy, with audio examples of asura chatter. Thursday, 9/15 - Asura animation blog post by Lead Animator Heron Prior, with video examples of unique asura animations. Thursday, 9/15 – We’re updating the GuildWars2.com asura web page with new lore by Jeff Grubb, new screenshots and wallpapers, and a brand new asura feature video. Friday, 9/16 – A narrative asura blog post by Ree Soesbee that explores the world of the asura through fiction. As you can see, we have a full schedule planned for next week – the asura wouldn’t have it any other way. So tune up your golem, grab a spare mojonic control rod, and memorize your meta-survey incantations – Asura Week is almost here! |
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Member
(09-10-2011, 01:04 AM)
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#1120
i dont know if these videos have been posted but i like them, i got them from guildwars2 guru member named imperfect block he seems to know how to play so its entertaining watching him play he said he has a guardian one coming also.
http://youtu.be/I_TDMoOCyHQ http://youtu.be/mRlFViMpewI and i belive this one has been posted too but man i love it! http://youtu.be/Stfx0Lk0qQ4 also i feel that this game should be getting more attention, every gaming podcast that i have heard they barely mention it and it bugs me lol |
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Member
(09-12-2011, 10:19 PM)
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#1121
http://www.arena.net/blog/matt-barrett-on-asura-design
Asura, the little goblin-y, flappy-eared tinkerer creatures… They make magic machines, right? They’re tinkerers, yes, but also intuitively powerful masters of the elemental energies surrounding them in the caverns of their native sub-Tyrian world. The talents of the asura carried their civilization through ages of harmonious existence beneath the lands of Tyria. When the destroyers forced them to the surface, their truly exotic technology and traditions flooded out and changed the world. The asura represent a force of explosive change, cutting traditions and forcing adaptation. With no investment in the heritage of the world above, they impose their will without restraint. They apply their technology in ways never before dreamed within their rock warrens, let alone in the lands of sun. Their essence can be summarized thus: Nobody is prepared for the asura except the asura. The little people themselves were conceived originally as scrawny, creepy, Gollum-like, gnome-y creatures, with pointy red hats, arcane mutterings, and pale skin. They were to be mischievous, dwelling on the fringes of society, scavenging mysterious artifacts of their advanced neighbors. This was my first crack at the asura (below), before they’d been given a larger part of the story. Note the idol he wears as a pendant. Their role in the story changed, however, and demanded that their appearance reflect a deeper complexity. The asura were to be underestimated by the first sun-siders to encounter them. For this new role, the asura needed to be at least a little sympathetic, or even cute, but not too cute. They needed to give the impression that condescension would be imprudent. Thus, they gained their present feline-reptilian-alien aspect. This next asura design (below) was headed in the right direction, but it’s really pretty creepy. It’s got an alien look, but it’s not even slightly cute, nor does it suggest anything resembling ambition. Physically, asura are mostly unintimidating, with scrawny shoulders, pencil necks, short legs—all hands and feet and noggin. At first glance, one might see a childlike individual, with wide-set eyes, a round head, and stumpy legs that waddle-run in the most adorable way. However, look any longer and one will see the disdainful, scheming eyes, the unsympathetic reptilian mouth, generally sophisticated gremlin-like bearing…and the five-meter-tall stone golem standing behind him. You don’t want to call the asura cute unless you also want to see how hard that golem can clamp your throat while a mad-genius gremlin hisses insults into your eyes from between pointed reptilian teeth. This asura design (below) popped out one morning- the first thing I drew that day, and I knew I’d nailed it. This would be the Ur-Asura. Now that you’ve seen some of the concept art behind the design of the asura, I thought you might like to watch how I draw these little guys. We’ve put together a video that shows the creation of a piece of asura concept art in Photoshop in real time, narrated by yours truly. Take a look! Here’s our final piece of asura concept art (below). That round head is full of ambitious, feverishly analytical brain. This is an entire race of mad scientists hell-bent on world domination, and designing their material culture is as daunting and subtle as a finger on a missile switch. That’s the subject for my next post… |
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Member
(09-12-2011, 10:20 PM)
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#1122
http://www.arena.net/blog/mr-sparkle...e-of-the-asura
Here’s the story behind the story: Fans have seen a lot of concept art. This is a concept story, written three years ago, when we were exploring what the Guild Wars 2 characters were like. Many of those concept stories are no longer applicable, but this one – about an asura artificer and his sylvari assistant – has hung on. There is just one change we made: Originally, the asura’s name was Gixx—he was going to be the iconic asura, before we replaced him with Zojja—but we took that name for the leader of the Durmand Priory. Short of that name change, the story stands as written in 2008. Why is this tale important? It tells the hidden history of Mr. Sparkles. This character will pop up again later in our tale—but that’s a story for another day… “Flummox, are you awake?” said Sareb. “Do I look awake?” said the asura, popping open one eye. The male sylvari watched the artificer sternly, as if suspecting a trap. At last he nodded. “Yes.” “Then I must be awake.” Flummox let out a deep, frustrated sigh. “Why aren’t we moving?” “There’s a problem.” “The wagon is not moving, it is cold outside, and you’ve awoken me from my nap,” said Flummox, propping himself up on his elbows, one eye still closed in desperate hope. “I can guess there is some form of problem. Now tell me, my young sylvari, what is the problem?” “Jotun,” said Sareb, his breath steaming in the chill air. Flummox opened his other eye and looked at his assistant. “Jotun. Well, then, you were right to awake me,” he said, and slid off his makeshift bed of large pillows and blankets. It was cold in the wagon. It was colder outside the wagon, and Flummox’s breath steamed around him like smoke from a chimney. Their small caravan, six wagons in all, was immobile, the yaks huffing and stomping in the thin mountain air. They were in a steep vale, and large ominous shapes loomed at the head of the valley. “Never did like the Shiverpeaks,” muttered Flummox. He fished out a tablet and small chunk of charcoal. He wrote down a list of items and handed it to Sareb. “Check the other wagons, and see if you can get the items on this list. We’ll need them to get the apparatus operational.” “The apparatus?” Sareb smiled knowingly and added, “You mean Mr. Sparkles?” In a moment of weakness, Flummox had let the sylvari name his latest invention, and was now unsure if the sylvari had chosen the name out of innocence or amusement. “Yeah,” he said through gritted teeth, “I mean…Mr. Sparkles.” Sareb began checking with the other wagon drivers while Flummox stomped forward in his fur-lined boots. He met the caravan leader about halfway to the front, flanked by the train’s only two guards—suspicious, nervous humans from Kryta. The caravan leader was human as well. He had warm buttery skin and was sweating the way humans do when they are nervous, regardless of the temperature. The human began, “We have a problem—” “We have jotun,” answered Flummox, “I know. Since when is that a problem?” “They are making demands,” burbled the human, “and we are not in any real position to refuse them.” Flummox made a mental census of the caravan: his own wagon being driven by Sareb, two wagonloads of shoes from Ascalon with disinterested drivers, a furtive rare-commodities trader with what looked like a stone coffin in the bed of his wagon, a refugee family fleeing the charr about two centuries too late, and the caravan master’s own wagon, complete with his accountant and two guards. Flummox weighed the relative intelligence of the various members of his involuntary company and sighed. This group would feel threatened by a band of voracious rabbits, so the lesser giants of the Shiverpeaks would definitely be a bad thing. “Is your accountant around?” he asked. “He’s being bandaged up,” said the human. “The jotun leader tried to eat him.” “Which is why you’re not talking to the jotun yourself, I suppose,” said Flummox. The human made soft, bubbly noises and Flummox sighed, then stomped around him and headed for the jotun. The jotun was a huge, corpulent beast, its heavy belt hanging over a woven belt, holding up a leather kilt of unknown provenance. It was lesser kin to the giants, and it towered over its surroundings, the muscles beneath its ruddy flesh bunching and spasming in the cold. It was generally humanoid, but its face was an abomination, a twisting of facial features dominated by a sharp-toothed, drooling, underslung jaw. Flummox stomped up to the beast. Behind the jotun, in the swirling snow beyond the end of the steep valley, he could see large shadowy shapes, hunched over. Other jotun, kin or merely minions, trying to be sneaky. “Who you?” said the jotun, its voice reminding Flummox of slush at the bottom of a mixer. “The new negotiator,” said Flummox. “I understand you ate the last one.” The jotun blinked at him and sounded almost hurt, “Only a little. We want toll.” “I’ll stay out of arm’s reach, if you don’t mind,” said Flummox. “What do you want? Food? Gold? Paper lanterns?” “Wagons,” slurred the giantkin. “Everything?” said Flummox, his revulsion only partly theatrical. “You don’t understand how highway robbery works. If you take everything, there isn’t anything for the next band of sentient-eating jotun to demand.” The jotun stood there, his lower jaw opening and closing in what passed for jotun thought. “Toll. Leave wagons. You can go.” “And what keeps us from turning around, with our wagons, and sending back a couple divisions of Ebonhawke’s finest to clear the road?” The jotun nodded enthusiastically, jiggling its entire body. “Think of that. Brother and his band on other end of valley.” Flummox did not turn around, so honest was the jotun’s statement. Obviously the Norn campaigns against the creatures were weeding out all the stupider ones. “We’ll give you a wagon,” he said simply. “The refugees will have to ride with the boots.” “All,” said the jotun. “Two,” said Flummox, “and we’ll throw in a cargo of boots as well. You can have two wagons.” “All,” said the jotun, stronger, “or all die.” Without the wagons we all die anyway thought Flummox. “It will take me a while to convince the others,” he said, trying to looking nervous. “Humans are a persnickety lot. I can’t expect them to cave in without a long night of talking.” The jotun made a jiggling nod, “You give us wagons tomorrow morning. Or all die.” And with that, the great beast turned and disappeared among the snow-shrouded mounds that concealed other jotun. Flummox let his breath out slowly and turned back to the caravan. The nervous human in charge touched the tips of his fingers together nervously and said, “Well?” “It wants us to give up the wagons. All of them,” said the asura. “We can’t do that,” wailed the human. “I know,” said Flummox, “but I told him it would take all night for me to convince you to go along with the deal.” The human got a slack-jawed look that afflicted so many of his race when dealing with asura. “You mean you surrendered?” he finally managed to spit out. “No,” said Flummox, irritated, “I bought us time from now until daybreak. Sareb! You gather up the material?” Sareb manifested at Flummox’s side. “Leather from the shoes was easy. Some chemicals from the caravan’s medicine stores, human blood from the wounded accountant’s bandages, an iron pot from the refugees, grave dirt— How did you know the rare-goods dealer had grave dirt?” “The rare-goods dealer screams ’necromancer.’ He is moving a crypt out of Ascalon, likely purchased from charr tomb raiders. I’d be surprised if he didn’t have a couple asura skeletons and shrunken sylvari heads packed away somewhere on that wagon.” Sareb visibly shuddered, and Flummox added, “Not that we need them for this.” But the addition did not seem to make the sylvari feel better. “And the last item?” Flummox asked. “There is a…problem,” said Sareb. Flummox cocked his head, “Another problem?” “She is unwilling to give it up,” said Sareb. “And you said?” Flummox raised an eyebrow. “I was stern and forceful, as you have suggested in the past,” said Sareb proudly. Then he shrugged, “No luck.” Flummox let out a sigh that seemed larger than himself. “Oh, for Vekk’s sake,” he said, and padded off toward the refugees. The refugee in question was young—at least Flummox assumed she was young because of her slender form and smooth skin. Within the Eternal Alchemy, humans had the greatest range of variations on the basic theme. It was as if their gods had not settled on their final form, and kept changing their minds. Shows what happens when you do things by committee. It was hard to believe that the sweating caravan leader and this frail, almost sylvari-looking thing were members of the same species. She was seated at the back of her wagon, lost in thought. Held against her, tight in her hand, was a bag hanging from a tether around her graceful throat. Flummox moved into her field of vision (had she been looking at anything) and began without preamble. “I understand you want to kill us all,” he said. The human blinked in the way humans do when their brains start functioning again. “Pardon?” she said. “In case you have not noticed,” said Flummox, “we are not moving. We are not moving because we have been set upon by jotun bandits who want to take everything we have, including your wagon, and leave us stranded in the snow. I know of a way by which we can defeat these giants, but I need certain key materials from the others of this caravan. That includes the item you are carrying around in that bag. You don’t want to provide it, so I must assume you want me and everyone else dead. So, tell me: What did we do to earn your eternal ire?” The human blinked again, and said, “You know about the cameo?” “Everyone in the caravan knows about it, since you take it out every night by the campfire and sigh over it for five minutes, seven at most, before putting it back in its bag,” said Flummox, holding out a hand. “I need it, give it here.” “Why?” she asked, the muscles in her hand tightening around the bag. Flummox used his talking-to-humans voice. “You no give me, jotun smash us. Understand?” The human hesitated for a moment, and Flummox let his features soften. “I understand. It probably holds dear memories of your lost home. But I have to point out that if the jotun kill us all—which is their plan, I believe, even if we give them the wagons—then all our memories will be lost. Yours is a sacrifice, but a smaller one in the bigger picture.” Flummox managed to smile in what he thought was a warm and engaging manner. It must have worked, for the young human opened the bag and produced a cameo, an ivory carving of a lovely woman wearing older fashions, set against a circular block of black jet. “My mother…” she began. Flummox nodded. “I understand, and I appreciate your sacrifice. It will not be for naught, and I shall have my assistant protect it with his life!” And, not waiting for her to respond, Flummox spun on his heels and padded back to his wagon. *** The pair, both the asura and sylvari, worked through the night. The shoe drivers provided a lantern, and Flummox insisted that no one bother them. Now the other members of the caravan watched in the distance while the asura prepared a noxious mixture that glowed green from the iron pot. Flummox rendered the shoes in the iron pot, added the bloody bandages and the caravan’s medicine, and reduced the whole mass to a thick, sticky syrup. He pulled the pot from the heat and poured it out on a board, like taffy, while Sareb refilled the pot with oil from Flummox’s own stores. The sylvari knew the asura’s way, and quickly and quietly set about his assigned tasks with a minimum of comment. Flummox mixed the grave dirt into the syrup and formed small lumpy balls, which he then dropped in the hot oil. The balls sizzled and crackled, but after a few moments, they bobbed to the surface, shrunken now, their sides smooth and crystalline. Sareb let out a low whistle. “Instant gemstones,” he said. Flummox let out a grunt. “Don’t be too pleased; these are as brittle as spun sugar. It’s a kludge, a jury-rig, a lash-up—repurposing design elements for features they were not created for. I can milk three, maybe four, minutes of energy out of these before they go. I hope it is enough.” He fished out the rough crystals and strode over to the inert form of the apparatus, of Mr. Sparkles, still sprawled out in the back of his wagon. With a chisel he began gouging the soft iron seals around the main enchantment emitter and slid the crystals into the jagged holes, packing them in place with the remainder of the damp grave dirt. “There,” said Flummox, “it should work. Maybe. Don’t stand too close to it when you start it up, though.” Sareb looked at the device, approvingly. “What about the jewelry?” “The what?” said Flummox. “The cameo you got from the human girl,” said the sylvari assistant. “Ah, yes!” said the asura, patting his pockets and producing the ivory carving set against jet. He pressed it into Sareb’s hand, “Here you go. Hold on to it, and guard it with your life!” “But if you didn’t need it,” said Sareb, “why did we take it?” “Because,” Flummox looked up at the sylvari, “even if this works, it is going to screw up the ethanators something fierce, and probably fry out the abjuration circuits. That’s in addition to the damage done to the device already, which required this miserable trip in the first place.” “So, you need the cameo?” questioned the sylvari, frowning slightly, seeing where this was going. “So we have some ready money when we reach Lion’s Arch,” said Flummox. “So you lied,” said Sareb, looking at the cameo in the same sad way the human girl looked at it. “A small deception for the greater good,” said Flummox. “You should try it sometime. In the meantime, keep hold of it! I want to be able to tell the human that I no longer have it and tell the truth.” Sareb’s slender fingers closed around the cameo. “I will keep it safe,” he said flatly. The pair continued their work through the night, and with the morning’s dawn, a haggard Flummox stomped out to meet the jotun leader. The jotun had obviously spent the previous evening discussing the proper way to make an asura aperitif, and the lead jotun was practically salivating. “So,” said the jotun, “you give us wagons?” “We have spent the evening in discussions and determined that it would not be in our best interests to acquiesce to your demands at the present time,” said Flummox. “Whah?” said the giant. “No,” translated the asura, “we want to keep our wagons.” The jotun smiled, a terrible thing to see in a creature with such a prodigious lower jaw. “Then you all die,” he said, “starting with negotiator.” Flummox took a step back and smiled, speaking quickly. “I thought as much, so I have resigned as negotiator. My replacement should be along—” He checked the chronometer hanging from his belt and hoped that Sareb had gotten the damned thing started up correctly. “Right about now.” The golem heaved itself from among the wagons, rearing itself vertically to its full height, as tall as the jotun itself. Lightning crackled around its joints, and slender bolts played along its riveted hide. The apparatus was headless, but a single cyclopean eye dominated its chest, surrounded by small homemade gems that were already starting to smoke white-hot and steam in the cold air. The golem towered behind Flummox and raised both hands to the sky. A mighty band of lightning surged between the golem’s articulated paws, and the thunder rolled back down through the valley. Far away, there was another roar, a distant avalanche responding to the challenge. “Meet the new negotiator,” said Flummox. “We call him Mr. Sparkles.” *** “I am sorry about your golem,” said the caravan master. Flummox shrugged, “The apparatus did its job, which is all one can ask of a good tool.” Actually, the golem had exceeded all expectations, laying the jotun leader down with a single lightning-powered blow, then wading into a collection of its compatriots and detonating only when five of them were all trying to bring it down. The remainder of the jotun bandits disappeared into the falling snow, howling in despair. “We salvaged what we could,” added the caravan master, and held out a small bag, “and took up a collection to help you with repairs.” Flummox managed a smile, even though the coins within wouldn’t even pop for a secondhand ethanator. He would probably have to sell Mr. Sparkles to some younger golemancer. “It was my pleasure. But if it is all the same to you, I have been up all night saving our lives. I think I will now sleep for the rest of our trip.” The human was more than happy to agree, and started bellowing for the wagons to move out. Sareb was putting the last recognizable remains of Mr. Sparkles into the wagon, piling blankets and pillows over it. “We got most of it,” he said, “and while the upper armatures probably blew into the Sea of Sorrows, we did salvage the main housing. It probably can be saved and rebuilt.” “Good,” said Flummox wearily, hauling himself up to his blankets and pillows among the sharded metal. “I am going to sleep for a couple days. Only wake me if it is something important. Really important. More important than jotun.” “Of course,” said Sareb. “You did the right thing, you know, using Mr. Sparkles.” “I always do the right thing. You should know that by now,” said Flummox, suddenly slapping his pockets. “The cameo. Ah! I gave it to you—you can give it back now.” Sareb looked at Flummox blankly. “Since we didn’t need it after all, I returned it to the young lady. She was very appreciative.” “You what?” said Flummox. “You assured me you would keep it safe!” “It is safe with the girl,” said the sylvari. “I could think of no place safer.” Flummox looked at his assistant for a long, stern moment, then managed a small smile and nodded. “So you lied.” Sareb returned the smile. “A small deception for the greater good,” he said. “You should try it sometime.” |
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Banned
(09-12-2011, 10:28 PM)
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#1123
so uh there's a Charr plushie
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Member
(09-13-2011, 06:39 PM)
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#1124
http://www.arena.net/blog/ambition-o...nvironment-art
When the asura make things, it’s not as much an exercise of craft or dexterity as it is an act of will—ambition made manifest in stone and metal. Every asuran artifact bears the imprint of their ancient masters of elemental energies. Blind adherents to ancient traditions, however, they are not: if something can be done better, they’re on it yesterday. Our designs for asuran architecture draw heavily from ancient Hindu temples: massive stone columns, intricate, masterful carvings, and a sense of being inside a mountain. I have a particular fascination with architectural spaces that are defined by massive forms, and this plays in perfectly with the asuran penchant for flexing their mastery of stone. As well as carving it, they imbue stone with (or coax out of latency) a vital energy to do their bidding—be that a battling golem, an energy-multiplying pyramid, or a floating drink coaster. Most of my environment concepts start out like this piece (below) – dozens of thumbnail drawings feeling out relationships of light, space, atmosphere, mass, and such. They can be digital or traditional, but digital suited the subtleties of this asura golem factory better.  It is no great effort for the asura to make anything they want out of stone and energy, hence their lavishly ornamented and levitated urban infrastructure. The ornamentation is also part of the magic, being a kind of inscribed incantation that imbues the objects with their absolute obedience to the asura’s will. It’s almost as though they built their world out of giant, magical computer chips—every motif performs a role in the channeling of vital energy. (Don’t try to figure out any patterns, though—this is stagecraft, after all.) Once I’ve gotten familiar with the world I want to explore, I’ll start doodling designs for specific props. I’ve got stacks and stacks of pages like these asura lab columns (below) – it’s most of what I do. It doesn’t look good on tee-shirts, but it’s very important.  In terms of the role of decorative motifs, asuran tools and machines are little different from their architecture, though they are more dynamically energetic, with a shift in material distribution to accommodate this perception. Asura are mad scientists, so I’ve made sure there are plenty of classically archetypal forms among their artifacts. Electricity, or some magic very like it, figures heavily in their technology, so I draw from shapes seen in electrical substations, stacked insulators, Tesla coils, Van de Graaff generators, early particle accelerators, Jacob’s ladders—basically anything you’d see in a Frankenstein-type movie from the 1950s. I do work in color, mostly during the beginning of an area’s development as we’re establishing motifs and palettes and such. After that’s set, it’s much more economical to explore designs in grayscale. Sometimes, though, I just want to play with colors regardless, like in this asura piece (below).  I want their intentions to be clear: mere tinkering goblins, they are not. The asura are mad with ambition to harness the power of the planet, and they have all the best tools with which to do it. When you play as an asura, I want you to feel the asura’s indomitable sense of destiny, with the world at your feet and the power of Tyria’s deepest, primordial rock at your command. |
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Member
(09-13-2011, 10:53 PM)
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#1125
http://www.arena.net/blog/hey-bookah...upid-questions
The asura are known throughout Tyria for their analytical approach to life and the pragmatic way they handle problems. Who is better suited to dispensing doses of wisdom to the cranially challenged than an asura advice columnist? Dear Hey Bookah, As an engineer, I enjoy tinkering with gadgets and gear, like my new Lemonade Turret. The trouble is, my lemonade ends up tasting like gunpowder and machine oil. What am I doing wrong? Signed, Arid in Ascalon Hey Arid Bookah! You’re doing nothing wrong! Only the small-minded and pedantic would insist that rotary-delivered lemonade taste like previous, outmoded versions! Turn your mind to proper marketing, I say! You don’t have a lemonade turret; you have fresh, lemon-scented ammunition! Brilliant! When life gives you lemons, shoot them back at life at high velocity. Dear Hey Bookah, I’m a handsome young human warrior who has fallen in love with a cute girl, but she only wants to love me for my mind. How can I convince her that my muscles are as cool as my brain? Signed, Lonely in Lion’s Arch Hey Lonely Bookah! You poor, poor, doomed thing. In any battle between brains and muscle, brains will be the ultimate victor. You may be good for lifting heavy objects, but she will ultimately throw you over for the first genius that can calculate the differential vector of a curve that comes her way. Take heart, though. If she wants you for your mind, she can’t be that smart to start with. Dear Hey Bookah, Grawl keep eating all my cabbage crops! I didn’t know they even liked cabbage. What can I do to keep these things out of my yard? Sincerely, Hungry in Hoelbrak Hey Hungry Bookah! I’d recommend scattering land mines randomly throughout the field and mounting automatic flame protectors with motion-sensitive hair triggers at all corners. Then spray the remains with a virulent plague virus. Oh, you want to eat the cabbages yourself? Do I have to think of everything? Dear Hey Bookah, I’m a human elementalist who runs with a couple of Blood Legion charr warriors. These big tough charr always complain whenever I attune to water – they say they don’t need the healing and that the humidity makes their hair frizzy. What can I say to convince these charr that water magic is good for them? Signed, Exasperated Elementalist Hey Exasperated Bookah! What is this “runs with” nonsense? Charr are larger than you are, and therefore dumber (this is a proven fact – this is why asura are shorter than you, and far, far smarter). You should not be “running with” the Blood Legion. You should be driving them before you, more terrified of your mystic spray bottle than of any foe they face. If that doesn’t work, I know where you can get a Lemonade Turret for cheap. |
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Member
(09-15-2011, 02:39 AM)
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#1126
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Member
(09-15-2011, 03:21 AM)
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#1127
Originally Posted by Jira:
i have also just started liking the sylvari...at first i thought they were lame but i have grown to like them after seeing alot of videos |
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Member
(09-15-2011, 05:02 PM)
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#1128
They have updated their page on the Asura, at the bottom you can see an amazing video of the Asuran capitol city.
http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/races/asura/ |
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Member
(09-16-2011, 03:33 AM)
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#1129
http://www.arena.net/blog/heron-prio...ting-the-asura
My name is Heron Prior, and I’m the animation team lead for Guild Wars 2. Today, I’m going to talk a bit about the asura and explain some of the thinking and processes that went into bringing this character to life. Although they posed some unique challenges, the asura ended up being one of the animation team’s favorite races to work on, and we’re excited for players to get a closer look. The Asuran Challenge Guild Wars has always had a very distinctive art style. The world Art Director Daniel Dociu and his team have created is fantastic and idealized, yet at its core there has always been a strong foundation in realism. As animators, part of our job is making sure the motion of the characters fits within that larger vision. It’s not always easy: game characters are required to do ludicrous, often impossible things as a matter of course, but wherever we can, we still try to retain some semblance of plausibility. With this in mind, we realized the asura were going to present some difficulties. For the asura, these challenges broke down into two basic categories: game mechanics and presentation. Fortunately, the answers to one question tended to drive the other, and it all came together more or less organically. Tiny Acrobats: Game Mechanics Given their size, it would have been easy to limit asura to magic and ranged classes, and that’s probably what most other games would have done. But in GW2, race has no bearing on your choice of profession. That means the asura not only need to be able to fight, but to hold their own against even the largest melee fighters. There were other considerations we had to take into account for gameplay reasons. All playable races have to have absolute parity—meaning they must run at the same speed, jump the same height, and strike enemies from the same range. From this, we knew that the asuran running movement would need to be mostly airborne, with their feet touching the ground for only a frame or two with each step. Likewise, asuran jumping and dodging would need to look very exaggerated. These requirements led us toward a more acrobatic, gravity-defying style, and influenced many of our decisions when it came to giving the race its personality. Big Personality: Presentation We had shown asura previously, in Eye of the North, but in very limited form. All of that would need to be redone, and nothing was set in stone. So the next question we needed to answer was: who were the asura, and what sort of personality did we want to build into their movements? At the most basic level, asura fill the “little guy” archetype of fantasy gaming, but that’s pretty boring from an animation perspective. Fortunately, our writers have been very busy and very creative when it comes to the asura. From previous titles, background lore, and even novels, we know the asura are highly intellectual and often arrogant —a race of engineers, scientists, and mad geniuses, utterly convinced of their own superiority. These qualities gave the animators much more to work with, but still left several different possibilities. Luckily, all these considerations took a back seat to the asura’s one, true defining characteristic: “Just because the asura take themselves seriously doesn’t mean everyone else does.…” they look completely ridiculous. If we hadn’t already known from the gameplay considerations, just looking at a lineup of the playable races would have told us there was no way the asura could be presented in any kind of realistic fashion. Given that this was already a break from the rest of the Guild Wars characters, my advice to the animators was just to go for it. Anyone who was going to choose an asura as his character was probably onboard already. With the more cartoony nature of the asura in mind, one of the animators added some basic squash-and-stretch controllers. “Squash and stretch” is one of the foundational animation principles every animator learns in school, yet one we’re seldom able to use in games. In the case of the asura, it adds a looseness and fluidity to the actual shape of their bodies, which helps to accent things like jumping and landing. Another key to the asura’s presentation happened early on, when several animators starting giving them an awkward, clumsy feel. This is a bit of sticking point with some players, but it achieves a couple of things we wanted to do. The asura aren’t just short–they have the proportions of two-year-olds. Their awkwardness emphasizes that connection, allowing us to make them endearing rather than just arrogant. Just because the asura take themselves seriously doesn’t mean everyone else does. In the end, the combination of gameplay requirements and presentation choices led us to a sort of acrobatic-yet-clumsy character. This seems like a contradiction at first, but I think it worked. When I look at an asura—particularly one with the larger weapons—I see a character setting events in motion that are larger than himself, or unleashing forces almost beyond his control. If he were less arrogant, maybe he’d hesitate or hold back, but that just doesn’t seem like the asuran way. Take a look at this short video clip for some examples of how the asura move in Guild Wars 2. Take One for a Spin Characters like the asura are fun to animate, and I think that shows through in the work everyone did. Being able to play around with the more cartoony elements was a nice change for the animators, and allowed them to push things in ways they usually aren’t able. Some players will undoubtedly scowl and grumble that the asura have been reduced to comic relief and the race has been ruined. Instead, we feel we’ve brought to the forefront something that was always at the core of their collective personality. These are the smack-talking creators of the “Genius-Operated Living Enchanted Manifestations” after all. So, set aside your preconceptions and take an asura for a spin. We think you’ll come to love the little guys as much as we do. |
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Member
(09-17-2011, 01:46 AM)
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#1132
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Member
(09-20-2011, 05:24 PM)
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#1133
http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/19/gu...a-battle-suit/
As the small guy on the block, you occassionally need to hire some muscle to get things done on time. The Asura of Guild Wars 2 are doing just that–except they’re building their muscle. The newly announced Asura Battle Suit racial skill will put the players in the husk of a golem, allowing you to feel as mighty as the Norn without losing that cute physique we’ve come to love. It’s only a matter of time until one of the tinkering Asura figure out how to mount some rockets launchers on those shoulders. We squeezed Guild Wars 2 game designer Jon Peters for all the extra info he’d give on these magical mech warriors. PCG: What kind of cool down will the battle suit skill have? Jon Peters: It’s unknown at this time, but it will be similar to other Elite skills. PCG: Can friends join you in the battle suit? JP: It’s designed for one player, but one person summons the battle suit, then anyone can interact with it to get into it and use it. PCG: What kinds of skills does the battle suit open up? JP: We haven’t finalized those skills yet, but you will be able to spin around, punch guys, etc. Cool stuff like that. PCG: Will non-asura be able to join you in the suit? JP: Yes, player characters of any race can use the battle suit, not just asura. PCG: Is the suit golem-like in nature? JP: While the suit is about golem-sized and shares some design elements, it definitely looks different than your standard unmanned golem. PCG: Will the battle suit be used by enemy asura? JP: Yes. Battle suits can be used by PCs, but enemy asura (such as the Inquest) would definitely have access to their own suits. PCG: Any chance of the asura battle suit being usable in PvP? JP: In World vs World vs World PvP, absolutely yes! In competitive PvP the battle suit will get banned from tournaments. |
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Member
(09-20-2011, 05:27 PM)
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#1134
http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/17/gu...floating-city/
Yesterday, NCsoft and ArenaNet released a metric ton of info on the egotistical race of mini-geniuses known as the Asura, one of the many playable races in Guild Wars 2. Earlier this week, we sat down with Game and Content Designers Jeff Grubb and Ree Soesbee to talk about the smallest sentient beings of Tyria. In part one of this two-part post, we gleam insight on the Asura capital city, Rata Sum, and the golems that act as the brawn to the Asuras’ brains. PCG: What led to the decision to make Rata Sum a levitating city, rather than returning them to their roots underground? Jeff Grubb: Well, one is a superiority thing. They’re above it, they’re basically showing off. But another reason is that Tyria is a very plastic landscape. The type of thing where land either sank beneath the waves, or rose up between the waves. Primordus, the one who drove them from their underground lairs, is still underground, they’re still dealing with that. The idea of the most defensible position is off the ground. And with that comes an implied portability. It’s not just Rata Sum—you go out into the Metrica province, which is right outside, and you’ll find floating buildings out there. You’ll find a lot of their structures have power stones under them to levitate so that, if need be, they can move them somewhere else. Could Rata Sum move? It would have to be a really big threat. It would have to be like a dragon champion taking up residence right on top of them. But the idea of, it’s a much more defendable position than on the ground. PCG: Are we going to see a lot of the subterranean roots of Rata Sum? Like underground elements specifically. Ree Soesbee: There’s an underground area of Rata Sum—Rata Sum has some deep clefts that you can stand at the top of and look down on and see golems and Asura working to clear the mines. JG: Asura are a spectrum, so there are Asura who feel that, when they were driven to the surface, they lost knowledge, and so there is stuff to be found down below. The old labs, the old cities, and some of our story gives an insight into that recovery of lost knowledge. This is one of the problems for the Asura: they’re a race of mad wizards who are all individualists, who are all going off and making individual discoveries, and then stuff gets lost. And some of Asura feel, we should be moving back in. We should be moving down below—if we can take care of the elder dragons. Once that’s taken care of, that’s one more area we can expand into. But we’ve lost stuff when we had to book it out of there. PCG: Will players get to experience the recovery of some of this lost knowledge? JG: Yeah. RS: We have dynamic events and so forth that will take you into the underground, but we’re not actually taking back the old Asura cities right now. They’re just far too dangerous. JG: It’s more likely to be something similar to Oola’s old labs. RS: Old labs and so forth. Individuals who have found things under there and are doing stuff with it that you have to investigate. PCG: Since Asura always want to be the best and brightest individuals, is this going to be reflected in the size of the city? Are we going to see a massive thing here, kind of a “we can build the biggest city” attitude? RS: I don’t know that it should be in any way correlated with the Asura that “bigger is better.” I just don’t think that’s the case. JG: We are short, you’re freakishly tall. RS: In their opinion, they have the best city of course. It has the most magic, it has floating things, it has brilliant lights, it has magnificent architecture, it has wonderful gardening, the works. The area around it is lovely—it has views, and it has exceptional laboratories, and I can say with 100 percent certainty that the Rata Sum laboratories are second to none in the world, and that’s the most important thing to them. JG: It’s also close to mass transit and schools. PCG: Well, speaking of mass transit, let’s talk about Asura Gates—are they going to be a method for traveling around the world, of getting from place to place? JG: Yes. In Eye of the North, they had of course built their central transit hub right over a strong source of arcane energy, which, by the way, turned out to be an elder dragon. And when the Great Destroyer arrived, they used that hub to spread through the underground and bring about the devastation. Now, the Asura has fixed that hub, but they are still using Asura Gates to transfer across the world. So there’s an Asura Gate in Divinity’s Reach, there’s an Asura Gate in Hoelbrak. So the end result of this means that, if you’re playing a Norn, and you want to play with your friend who’s an Asura, you can get to Rata Sum without too much problem. From a social aspect, it means that the Asura are infiltrating and investing much more in the other races. So there’ll be an Asura Gate in the Black Citadel. They have it away from everything else, they keep an eye on it, they’re very suspect of the whole idea that here’s one more gate into our city, but there is an Asura Gate in the Black Citadel. PCG: How about these colleges that you mentioned? What’s their significance for Asura players? JG: If you’re playing a Charr, you choose a legion in your initial story. If you’re playing a Human, you choose a social class. If you’re an Asura, you choose your initial college. Each of the colleges has a different outlook on the universe, how they’re going to solve everything. The Asura believe in the eternal alchemy: that everything is a big machine, a big equation that can be solved, a big machine where everything interacts with everything else. How they approach it depends on their college. The College of Statics is more traditional, more conservative; those Asura who want to go in and find old knowledge that is lost tend to be of this college. This is where you’re going to find people who are looking for the ancient artifacts, etc. They tend to be more stable, they’re more structural—the floating castles and labs are a good example of their type of thinking. They’re still using magic inherently—that’s part and parcel of being an Asura—but they’re using it in a very stable fashion. The College of Dynamics is much more active. Much more energetic, much more explosive. They are experimenters. Their belief is to move everything forward. They are the ones who are building new creations. They are the ones who are coming up with radical new plans and if it does not necessarily work, the important thing is to what we learn from what we’ve done to move forward. An experiment where you learn is a good experiment even if it isn’t what you intended to learn. They are much more into energies, and devices. The College of Synergetics is much more theoretical. They’re a little more mystic. They’re dealing with primal building blocks. They’re saying, “What is magic? How far can you divide magic before it stops being magic? How does everything interact with everything else?” They’re very much about the spaces between the cogs. They’re about how different systems interact, they’re the ones who were looking at larger ecosystems, or interactive personal systems, or how the planets spin around the sun. An example I’ve been using has been, think of it as three branches of engineering: the school of statics is civil engineers, those of dynamics are chemical engineers, and those of synergetics are nuclear engineers, because they’re working with forces they cannot necessarily examine firsthand. PCG: Tell us more about golems. Are they still a major part of the Asura and Rata Sum? JG: Very much so, and there’s a wide variety of golems. The most traditional golem you see will be the big radio-type golem that you see in the demos right now. It looks like an old RKO radio, that’s what it reminds me of. But there are other types of golem forces they use as well. RS: And one thing that can be pointed out is that the Asura are very efficient in the use of golems. Where the Humans have the Seraph to protect Divinity’s Reach, and that’ll be a team of five or six guys going about and handling trouble, the Asura have one Asura who does the same job—but he has multiple golems who assist him in keeping down trouble and in handling problems in the city. And the peacemakers, who’re the city guards for the Asura, are really very efficient in their use of those golems, and how they bring that technology to bear for the benefit of the city. |
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Member
(09-23-2011, 07:43 AM)
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#1137
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Junior Member
(09-25-2011, 01:09 AM)
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#1138
Originally Posted by Jira:
 Too bad TB didn't switch his class skills, perhaps next time |
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Member
(09-25-2011, 01:12 AM)
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#1139
more blood fiend carnage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83_Ei14H6Ag |
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Member
(09-25-2011, 03:34 PM)
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#1140
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Member
(09-26-2011, 05:02 PM)
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#1146
52 min dev panel/gameplay vid from EuroGamer Expo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ul2lMUyyPfQ "Those wanting higher quality, we filmed this panel with a better camera in a static position and had the PA system micced up. We'll upload in the next couple of days." From a comment on reddit. I'll post that when it's up. |
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Member
(09-26-2011, 05:33 PM)
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#1148
Bit of new info from a Q&A
Is there an in-game mail system? @SnakesSnakes Yes, there is a little flashing symbol in the top left corner – looky here: One interesting piece of information which we gleaned from Martin was that when a new mail is received it is brought to you by carrier pigeon! Which I thought was pretty goddamn awesome. How has player to player trade been improved? @SnakesSnakes Colin told us about the marketplace. In the marketplace the player has the ability to not only buy and sell items like a traditional auction house, but also place “Wanted” ads in there stating which item they’d like and for what price. In this system a seller can activate the ad and the transaction will automatically occur with both items being removed from the two players inventories. Similarly, personal player to player trade can be done through the in-game mail system (see above question for details). Unfortunately, there is no face-to-face trade (ala GW1) in the game at launch. I do find it nice that you can trade from anywhere in the world and awesome that a pigeon will actually drop your mail off to you. |
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Member
(09-26-2011, 05:48 PM)
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#1149
Those TB vids have given me the urge to play this so bad, that PVE is perfect for me, rewards exploration, lots of random events, you can solo plenty of it or group without making a party etc...
Most of all: Exploration. I am still fond of WoW, but their queuing systems killed the idea of exploring that amazing world they built. On top of that the "look and feel" and excellent pricing model (premium entry point ensures quality, no subs ensures you won't "quit" but rather come and go as you please), just take my damn money! |
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Member
(09-27-2011, 01:09 AM)
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#1150
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