Fansite Friday/Warcry

Fansite:  Warcry - Guild Wars

Date:  2 July 2004

Number:  4

Q&A
Question: There wasn't much of a variety of weapons in the E3 for everyone event; A few swords, hammers, and bows. Will there be other weapons such as polearms, daggers, and other exotic weapons in the future?

Answer: Oh, heavens -- you only seen the tip of the iceberg! Warriors do not live by swords and hammers alone, and rest assured that you'll see a lot more of many sorts of items once Guild Wars is released. Specifically will we see polearms and daggers? Well, to be honest, we don't know yet. The skill sets for the professions are still being designed. If it's right for a certain profession to have such a weapon, you can count on it being in there. Hmmm… "What weapons work best for each profession" sounds like a good idea for a fan poll, doesn't it?

It's interesting how the process of item and armour additions takes place. During development, we start with a single choice for each profession. The objective is to get something up and running, and then iterate, iterate, and iterate again. In the early days, we often had items that had different attributes but looked exactly the same. For instance, in the builds back in early 2003, chain mail and plate mail shared the same graphic, yet had very different properties. This sharing of art is all part of the design process, as is the use of simple placeholder images. It allows us to have something in place while we work on incorporating the different appearances and attributes into the game.

To give you an idea of how fluid the changes are, and how frequent, about an hour ago I went into the game to check something on one of my characters. Imagine my surprise to see that my Ranger/Monk's armour had changed! I've had that particular character for 22 months now. In that time, her hair and armour have changed at least a half-dozen times each, and her facial features, even her skin tones, have been upgraded several times as well.

In terms of weaponry, what you saw during the E3 for Everyone Event was very preliminary. You might have seen only three or four swords. You might not have seen some profession-specific items at all. (For instance, I am sure that the Necromancer, Elementalist, and Mesmer will not all use the same wand or staff-like item that they shared in the demo.) Items that are suitable for a certain profession will be given to those characters as time passes, and the list of items in a certain class - such as weapons or armour - will expand greatly as we get closer to release.

Question: You mentioned that you would be developing the game in 'chapters' which are expansions upon your previous chapters. How often will these chapters be published, how much will it cost, and will you have to travel to an electronics store to buy a box or can you just download them from a secure login location?

Answer: Chapters of Guild Wars will come out about every six to nine months. The price hasn't been set, but they will be priced comparably to other games. As you have read before, unlike the usual expansion packs that have a nominal amount of content, the Guild Wars chapters will be very deep in content. I fully expect to see new professions, new spells, new missions, new monsters, new regions, and more. And here's a tidbit I think is really interesting about acquiring the next chapter: During the process of playing a chapter of Guild Wars, you will be receiving seamless downloads of the content that forms the upcoming chapter. On the day that the next chapter goes live, it will simply be a matter of "flipping a switch" for you to head into the new chapter. No driving to the store, no shipping fees or haunting the mailbox waiting for the package to arrive, and best of all, no huge download to access the new chapter.

Question: Will each new area have its own solo/party area where they can see some of the creatures before they move onto the missions, or will some areas just consist of group missions?

Answer: Well, let's review the types of areas in Guild Wars: You may recall the town of Khylo from the E3 for Everyone Demo Event. There will be several towns like Khylo, and these will be where you hang out to chat or to conduct business such as shopping or upgrading armour. Then there are outposts, where the business at hand is heading into the playing fields. People in outposts are usually getting ready to go on a quest with their party or guild, or they may make up smaller groups looking for additional party members, or individuals seeking a party for that mission. So the outpost is where you go to get into the action, either with your group or alone. Then, there are the instanced missions themselves, which come in two types: player-versus-monster and player-versus-player. And lastly, you have the areas that were formerly limited to solo play but which, due to player feedback, have been expanded to allow parties. These hunting grounds offer a lot of variability; some are suitable for soloing, others are best suited for a party. The minimum party size is decided by the player, that is, none of them strictly require you to party at all. So if you feel like wiping the toothy smiles off the faces of a few Undead on your own, you're good to go. If you want a little help, you can hook up with a few friends.

And yes, as far as I know, each region, such as Ascalon or Kryta, will have its share of hunting grounds. Therefore, the answer to the question of previewing some of the creatures is that you will be able to get a sneak peek by visiting the hunting grounds before you tackle the missions. But be aware, not all the creatures that live in a region will be found in the hunting grounds. For some missions, there are specific special creatures that simply won't appear outside of that single map. Rotscale, the bone dragon, is one such creature. If you search the entire wealth of hunting grounds in the Ascalon region, you'll never meet a creature like Rotscale, for he was special to the Stone Summit quest. I suspect we'll be seeing a few of that sort of extraordinary adversary in other regions, too.

Thanks, Warcry, for the opportunity to share a bit more about Guild Wars!