Curse

Billiard · Feb 10, 2007, 07:46 PM // 19:46

Canthan New Year

Well now that the event has been announced and described officially, I guess I had better put up an article covering what we learned about it at ArenaNet!

Colin is the main dev behind the Canthan New Year, and as seems pretty obvious now, it follows the tradition of the Chinese New Year. It is slated to start next week, so I figured I would provide whatever additional insights I learned during my trip now.

Colin said there would be some events in Tyria and Elona, but the majority of things would take place in Canthna. This event seems to be in response to a lot of player discussion concerning lack of Canthan events, even though we have had some in the past.

Colin also mentioned that there would be new NPCs, new quests, and a lot of other new things to do. Most of these are mentioned in more detail in ArenaNet's recent announcements, and really wed didn't get much information about them. We were afforded the chance to try one of the new missions though - Rollerbeetle Racing.

Rollerbeetle Racing

First off I thought these beetles were native to Elona, but probably I just missed them in Cantha since I just blew through Factions a couple of times before going back to focus on PvP again.

Anyway, they had six workstations set-up for us to use (I sat out the first round and watched, then swapped in for the next). We started at what looked kind of like the Random Arena staging area. Each of us were on a warrior that was called something like "Competitor X" where "X" was a number from 1 to 6. We then had to select enter mission and wait for the other people to join in and the timer to count down for the mission start.

We were then ported to the starting line for the race and transformed in to rollerbeetles with different colored shells. Each of us was in a starting gate like you see in horse racing - kind of like a stall with a front gate. We also had a new set of skills, though a lot of them had these weird temporary icons.

The mission timer counted down and at zero the gate opened and we could start moving. To move you used the WASD keys, though probably the arrow keys would work as well. You slowly built up momentum and sped up going downhill and slowed down going uphill. If you crashed into another rollerbeetle you could get stalled altogether, and would have to rebuild your momentum again. It took a while to get used to the controls and follow the track, while also trying to use skills on the other racers. The track had a lot of turns and switchbacks, so every once in a while you might get caught on a corner or edge of a bridge if you were not careful. If that happened you'd get stalled and have to back up and try to get your momentum going again.

The race itself only took a couple of minutes to complete, and at the end if you are not the winner, you die and get transported back to the staging area to try again if you like. There seemed to be only room for six racers at a time, and the mission didn't start until you had six people join in.

Rollerbeetle Skills

Here are the skill descriptions they gave us afterward, since we were too busy racing to also take notes on them:

Ram: You and target touched roller beetle are knocked down.

Harden Shell: For X second(s), you move extremely fast.

Super Rollerbeetle: For X second(s), you move extremely fast, and cannot be knocked down.

Rollerbeetle Echo: For X second(s), this skill is replaced with the next Skill you use. Rollerbeetle Echo acts as this Skill for 30 seconds.

Distracting Lunge: All of the target touched Rollerbeetle's skills are disabled for X second(s).

Rollerbeetle Blast: Target rollerbeetle is knocked down.

Spit Rocks: Spit rocks at target Rollerbeetle, if they hit that Rollerbeetle is knocked down.

I think it will take a couple of runs in order to figure the best uses for each skill. We only did a couple of runs so I don't think we did a very good job racing or using the skills on ourselves or the other racers.

Prizes

One more thing that Colin mentioned was that there would be an in game prize for the top 50 people based on winning times in the Rollerbeetle Race. I think they said it would be a special mini-pet. If only 50 people ever get these they I imagine they will be quite rare and valuable!

Silly Warrior · Feb 10, 2007, 09:34 PM // 21:34

Nice article, great job!

Great job once again Billard!

tortugan · Feb 10, 2007, 10:25 PM // 22:25

I bet the mini-pet will be a beetle:P

Eroth · Feb 10, 2007, 10:54 PM // 22:54

wonder if this should become a permanent part of GW. It'd be awsome racing Moa Birds. Or the national pet of elon too. It sucks I won't be here....

Zinger314 · Feb 10, 2007, 11:51 PM // 23:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eroth

wonder if this should become a permanent part of GW. It'd be awsome racing Moa Birds. Or the national pet of elon too. It sucks I won't be here....

ArenaNet has said that holyday event would not become permanent because "it would make it un-eventful."

I always hate that excuse.

Wtf Its A Monk · Feb 10, 2007, 11:57 PM // 23:57

i think he means the idea of the race not the event as a whole and i honestly think that there is a chance that they could keep this race feature

stuntharley · Feb 11, 2007, 12:09 AM // 00:09

Hrm seems interesting, love to try this out. But isn't it passed the 26th? :S!

Feathermoore Rep · Feb 11, 2007, 12:11 AM // 00:11

I hope they decided to keep the race in. maybe turn it into like a pvp arena challenge mission.

And do you know if there will be a scoreboard to see the fastest times? I'm assuming so, but it never hurts to ask.

HKSdivision · Feb 11, 2007, 01:06 AM // 01:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by stuntharley

Hrm seems interesting, love to try this out. But isn't it passed the 26th? :S!

Yes, it's passed Jan 26th but I'm guessing that date is when he went to preview it but the race is going to be on February 16th along with the event.

Billiard · Feb 11, 2007, 01:35 AM // 01:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by HKSdivision

Yes, it's passed Jan 26th but I'm guessing that date is when he went to preview it but the race is going to be on February 16th along with the event.

Yes that was the date of the preview. Gaile had said it would be good for us to kind of space our articles out some, but I wanted people to still know when the information was actually presented to us.

Also I do think the mini-pet is a beetle, but I could be mis-remembering.

Anyway the racing part really is pretty cool, and I could see incorporating other sorts of races as well down the road.

Neo Nugget · Feb 11, 2007, 03:29 AM // 03:29

any word on if gamer points are awarded?and if so how many per win.or a 2nd , 3rd place(which would be cool)

Eroth · Feb 11, 2007, 04:59 AM // 04:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wtf Its A Monk

i think he means the idea of the race not the event as a whole and i honestly think that there is a chance that they could keep this race feature

Yea. I could give crap about the Event itself *gasp from crowd* all I really want is the racing feature. I mean zooming down a track in Elonia, then heading into Tyria for the Grand Prix. It'd be fricken awsome. Maybe it should be something like the gvg rankings so that the people really good at body blocking and running to places will be able to show thier talents.

Guild Wars Guy · Feb 11, 2007, 07:15 AM // 07:15

sounds fun now where do the swords and the stabbing and the death come in *glavin!*

Makkert · Feb 11, 2007, 08:08 AM // 08:08

sounds like a good laugh. i'll check it out next week.

sevendash · Feb 11, 2007, 08:10 AM // 08:10

If they do have mini-beetles, I will be working my Canthan behind off to get one. Being a beetle has to be the funnest idea I've ever heard!

jon0592 · Feb 11, 2007, 02:19 PM // 14:19

I really really REALLY hope the event will be held in Kaineng Center.

mistress ravenclaw · Feb 11, 2007, 02:34 PM // 14:34

Great Job I am actually excited to take part in this event

smee again · Feb 11, 2007, 02:47 PM // 14:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by jon0592

I really really REALLY hope the event will be held in Kaineng Center.

It will probably be held in shing jea, since thats the center of festivities
I'm so looking forward to this

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eroth

It'd be awsome racing Moa Birds.

I would like that also

Devo The Great · Feb 11, 2007, 02:49 PM // 14:49

Is there any hats?

**cosyfiep** · Feb 11, 2007, 04:14 PM // 16:14

hm, mini pet beetle, that would be a great idea-----but hope thats NOT the prize since I want one and there is no way on my slow computer/connection that I would get to be in the top say 10,000.....

was hoping they were going to save that for one of this years bday gifts. but oh well.....guess I could sell my mini varesh