Curse

Loviatar · Feb 24, 2006, 07:52 PM // 19:52

Quote:

But really even with faction you still wouldn't unlock the skills that aren't coreskills

if you have a link to an official announcement that PVP characters cant unlock any skill for a PVP only character i would like to know so i can give out accurate info.

not only will i change the stickie here i will thank you for the updated info that i missed

Lasareth · Feb 24, 2006, 08:10 PM // 20:10

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...6&postcount=15

This post was made by Alex Weekes in another topic recently. It's still up in the air, guys, so hold your breath and hope for the best

Katari · Feb 24, 2006, 09:22 PM // 21:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Loviatar

the world with everything in it to do along with the characters to do it with are the game to me

Right. So then, by that logic, if you couldn't play through the game with all the chars, you'd be getting less game. I'm honstly confused, since you seem to flipflop sides on a whim, do you really have a side in this or not?

The fact that a.net is silent so far dosn't bother me overly much. Of course they know the detalis ahead of time, so what? Any gamming company knows the details ahead of time... they don't make up the details at the moment of the press release. A.Net has at least told us when the info will be released, and thats more than other companies have done.

As for that post by Alex, if anything, that could confirm that we will indeed get more than one slot upon merging. He straight out says it isn't a fact, and denies the claim that we will get one slot upon merging. As skeptical some of you are, I certainly trust A.Net not to openly lie to or misslead players.

Loviatar · Feb 24, 2006, 09:54 PM // 21:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by Katari

Right. So then, by that logic, if you couldn't play through the game with all the chars, you'd be getting less game. I'm honstly confused, since you seem to flipflop sides on a whim, do you really have a side in this or not?

.

no flipping at all.

my position has always been that i want as many slots as i can get but like the game enough that i will accept the number i get.

if i get 1 slot for each new profession (2 slots) i will not have to choose between deleting an older character to try a new one.

that is and has been my position the whole time.

i simply think (in my opinion) that anything above 2 has already been taken off the table and the choice is between 1 and 2 and not 2 and 3 or 4.

if we were going to get at least 2 but maybe more they would have said at least 1 for each new profession and MAYBE a pvp/x slot but we are not sure on that yet.

Renegade ++RIP++ · Feb 24, 2006, 10:12 PM // 22:12

from the faq:

A group of "core skills" will be available in each campaign to ensure balance

this means that you will only have access to these core skills, and won't be able to unlock any other skills that aren't considered coreskills or skills from the new chapter. Since if you would be able to unlock these through faction while not having bought the coresponding chapter they could have just called it skills...

This is common analytical deduction...

Oh and an example of another expansion that is considered to be standalone:
Half-Life 2: Episode 1 (episode 2 is also in production and will offer the same)

The Great Al · Feb 24, 2006, 10:53 PM // 22:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by TGgold

Oh, you were one of the people who was never happy with what we got to begin with. My answer: buy 2 accounts.
That's what I had to do. That's what a lot of people do. How do you think ANET can keep up producing games if you *only* had to buy once to have *everything*. It's not smart from a market standpoint. I'm just glad that we have the game at all ^_^

And the PvE is ridiculously easy anyways, so why would you want to have to use low leveled characters? Does it increase the story value to you? I mean, I can see how most will just form lvl20 groups for early missions, but that's not a real loss in my opinion. It's just reducing grind :P

letting ANet get away with giving us 1 new slot, and making us buy 2 accounts, is basically like having to buy NHL 2006 twice, because they only give us half the teams with each box...how many people would do that?

My Sweet Revenga · Feb 25, 2006, 12:51 PM // 12:51

It's funny. I'm kinda bored right now. Haven't played GW in a week. Now, this wouldn't be a problem if anet had given us 6 char slots instead of just 4

Would take me at least 2 months to get the last 2 professions up to lvl20 snuffness and play them to death.....

So I've stated I want 4 slots. Well if there's a compromise to be made, I'm willing to accept 3 slots...... anything less and I think I'll just stick with Oblivion......

Guardian of the Light · Feb 26, 2006, 06:07 AM // 06:07

Well since you get 4 slots if you install it as a stand-alone I think you should get 4 extra slots if you expand another account. Anet its kind of simple.

Amount of slots you get in Stand-alone = Amount of slots you get added if you get it expanded.

Don't know we have to debate about it......

Lady Lozza · Feb 26, 2006, 09:00 AM // 09:00

The problem is that if we don't get at least 2 slots (pref 3) buying factions simply will not be worth it. Or rather, buying factions "as an add on" will not be worth it. I honestly doubt that anyone will be worse off have two seperate accounts even though we will lack the skills of one package or the other. The simple fact is that if we only get one new character slot - thinking we don't want to delete any of our current 4 characters - we will only in effect be getting one slot with which to play the whole game because the characters we bring across from Tyria will not - I believe - have access to the "entire" pve campaign the way a created factions character will. Assuming things are roughly in the same proportions and Prophecies, we will have 7/3 (2.33333) gaming time (pve), as opposed to 12/3 (4) gaming time (pve) from a stand-alone account. By giving us two character slots our gaming time is bumped up to 11/3 (3.6666666) nearly but not quite that of a stand-alone. I can live with this because it is not like we will not have any advantages over those who have only factions. Ideally I would like 3, call the extra gaming time a loyalty reward.

96TSi · Feb 26, 2006, 11:28 AM // 11:28

if we paid full price for the expansion and we add it to our existing account, they would be saving money as long as they gave us 3 or less character slots.

making people pay full price for a game and when people merge it, it gives less of what standalone guys get is excellent business thinking. say they give 3 extra slots, what the missing slot is for is saving bandwidth so they can let people "travel by boat" to each world map. take away one more of those slots and they can keep their free of subscription game on faster servers and keep the updates streaming. so boo-freaking-hoo if they only give us 1 more slot if we merge it with our existing account. its their way to cut corners and save money for updates etc so the game dont turn into <insert crappy game here>.

i would be happy if it was just 1 more slot.

.02

Gli · Feb 26, 2006, 12:04 PM // 12:04

Faulty reasoning.

If anything, enticing people to not join their accounts will increase their bandwith use. Having two separate accounts, you can log on both accounts at the same time and take up double your usual bandwidth.

96TSi · Feb 26, 2006, 12:18 PM // 12:18

hardly faulty reasoning. not sure if you realize it there but you just gave another reason why they should cut some corners and save money by giving less player slots.

i highly doubt GW/ANET is in business to fail. just like wallmart, do you think they paid 40$ for the matching towel and face rag that they are selling to you? no, not only are they making money they are making up for their overhead by marking up what they buy lol

Gli · Feb 26, 2006, 12:32 PM // 12:32

I have a nagging suspicion that you don't know the meaning of the word 'bandwidth'.

Renegade ++RIP++ · Feb 26, 2006, 12:44 PM // 12:44

96TSi, whats the faulty logic? Where is loging on with 2 seperate accounts less bandwithintensive then combining both and only being able to play on one account therefore reducing their costs?

Seeing as there is no difference in price between the standalone feature or the combinational feature you can consider that in both the markup has already been factored in. And as has been evidenced before it will be even more expesnive for them to not offer 4 slots.

In any case, no business is in the market for failing, but bad marketing decissions will have an influence. One of these bad decissions might be not listening to what many of their customer base wants or considers a breaking issue. Check out many of the polls and you will see that characterslots is one of the main beefs for most players. So if they want to keep selling their product to customers then they will need to keep it fair for all as well one time buters as return buyers. I would feel taken advantag eof if anet would give first time bueyers 4 slots while I would have been happy with anything less but 4. Not to mention that in any product you have to add an inbcentive to buy future products. Many products do so by adding features that make this product less balanced or more fun. This si something that Anet can't do since it would ruin their balanceobjective. So one of the ways they could do so is by adding the feature of combining their accounts/keys giving them the same advantages as standalone buyers but with 1 added benefit. That would be the way to make your entire fanbase happy, not by shortdoing some of them. Not to mention that it will in turn once more make people interested in buying previous chapters or future chapters and keep the money flowing in. By capturing new people that will then but previous chapters to have the full feel of this GW- sensation

coolsti · Feb 26, 2006, 12:55 PM // 12:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by Loviatar

play fair now.

i was addressing the price issue because he seemed to have the idea that a merged account would be somehow cheaper which is not the case.

indeed he seems to think of it as an expansion at a greatly reduced price as from this quote

This is basically what I am waiting to find out. I would expect that the price of an "upgrade" giving my old characters access to the new areas plus only one extra character slot should be at a much lower price than purchasing a "full" new factions, giving me access only to factions but with 4 character slots.

I think Anet got themselves into a bit of a sticky situation here, and should carefully consider their business plan. Buying two "full" games, chapters 1 and chapters 2 and having 8 slots but no interaction is basically for most of us who intend to have both chapters not thing we would be interested in using our gaming money for. Its not an option for me, I wouldn't be interested in it.

Paying the same money to add the Chapter 2 areas, missions and quests to my existing chapter 1 does not sound particularly attractive either, if I in that manner only have the ability to play 1 of the 2 new character classes, now that I have owned chapter 1 for over a half year and put intensive effort into building up the 4 characters that I already have.

So I will wait and see. Perhaps I will be forced to be satisfied with Chatper 1 only until enough time goes by that the "upgrade" price drops to the level that I feel is worth it for giving me only one character slot.

96TSi · Feb 26, 2006, 01:00 PM // 13:00

Quote:

if we paid full price for the expansion and we add it to our existing account, they would be saving money as long as they gave us 3 or less character slots.

i think both of you cant read.. so i figured i would quote myself to clear things up

im not saying that keeping your accounts seperate will save them BW.

people will be merging their accounts so they can have more features on their characters they already have giving them 4 more slots would give them an advantage over the guys who only have 1

Renegade ++RIP++ · Feb 26, 2006, 01:07 PM // 13:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by 96TSi

i think both of you cant read.. so i figured i would quote myself to clear things up

im not saying that keeping your accounts seperate will save them BW.

people will be merging their accounts so they can have more features on their characters they already have giving them 4 more slots would give them an advantage over the guys who only have 1

Who will only have 1? Last time I checked it was universal knowledge that if you buy faction and install it standalone you will get 4 characterslots. But if you install it in combination with the previous chapter you will only get a minimum of 1 extra or 5 in total. We are statign that since faction hands out 4 characterslots to first time buyers, we return buyers deem it only fair to get 4 as well if we combine it with our previous chapter.

And if chapter 2 buyers ever buy chapter 1 they will get added 4 ad well if they combine it. It would only seem to be fair and rewarding of our repettetive business.

Lady Lozza · Feb 26, 2006, 01:09 PM // 13:09

Assuming that the PvE part of the game our Prophecies characters can play is roughly equal to that of the game from Droks - Hell, about 1/3 of the whole game, giving us only one character space is a rip-off, for us.

Each of 4 characters will get to play only 1/3 of the PvE game, meaning a total of 4/3.
One factions character wil get to play 3/3 of the PvE game, bringing the whole total to 7/3.

A player with factions seperate from their main account will get 12/3 total.

Therefore to make it viable for us they have to include at least 2 character spots.

Of course they could say that our factions characters get to venture in Tyria and therefore that should be enough, but honestly, who wants to play Prophecies all over again when most of us have already played it through AT LEAST 4 times?

ecerbus · Feb 26, 2006, 01:16 PM // 13:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by 96TSi
people will be merging their accounts so they can have more features on their characters they already have giving them 4 more slots would give them an advantage over the guys who only have 1

who is getting the the 1 extra slot?last i checked the standalone or "new people" get 4 slots while people who combine there accounts get 1 so anyway assuming you believe that people will be getting less slots for saving bandwidth(even though you probably dont understand exactly how there servers work, you sound like your just guessing) im guessing you think alot of people are gonna merge?
even though alot of people wont do this if it means 3 extra character slots,so in turn it will make there servers even more cramped. I know this has been said before so you are obviously the one that cant read

Quote:

Originally Posted by 96TSi
i think both of you cant read.. so i figured i would quote myself to clear things up

:EDIT: just refreshed and saw the new replies and realised Renegade ++RIP++ said almost the same thing :P

Lady Lozza · Feb 26, 2006, 01:59 PM // 13:59

Ok let's get things straighten out:

1) People who have no account will be getting 4 character slots.
2) Current players who enter the key into the key section will get AT LEAST 1 slot.
3) Current players will be able to keep prophecies and factions separate by creating a new account for factions with a different email address.
4) There are no plans to allow already registered acccounts merge.

Bandwidth is a physical property. Depending on the medium and provider this bandwidth is already set. GW is optimised for LIMITED bandwidth, telephone lines, 28k and 56k modems - this is why you can play GW on dialup, but you cannot play many other online games.
The costs associated with running a server are those of: 1) storage, and 2) data transfer.
Whether current users decided to keep factions and prophecies separate will NOT be an issue, because it simply will not be feasible for them to have BOTH accounts logged on at the same time. The only place these accounts will have in common is Battle Isles.
Storage is the ONLY cost associate issue at hand. Depending on the setup of their DBs, giving current players who "combine" factions and prophecies 4 extra slots may actually SAVE storage space.

The fact of the matter is that it is simply not economically advantageous for current players to have only ONE extra character slot (for a total of five) and we WILL be paying the same price as NEW PLAYERS.

In order to make it worth our while we need at least 2 slots. If Anet chooses not to give us those slots then I imagine that many players will think very carefully about "combining" their accounts.