Fansite Friday/Cold Front

Fansite: Guild Wars Cold Front

Date: 19 November 2004

Number: 22

url: http://gw.coldfront.net/index.php/content/view/173/

Q&A

Question: Currently the only guild vs guild map implemented is coastal guilds. Are there any plans to add more of these map types and if so, what will be the format? ie Capture the Flag, King of Hill.

Answer: One of the major focuses of Guild Wars is, of course, guild-versus-guild battle. Tournament is great, and Arena is terrific. But for some people, there's nothing better than personally smiting that other guild they've come to know and no greater achievement than toppling the mighty. The current guild-versus-guild map is called Guild Battle, and I believe it is with that map that we will release the first chapter of Guild Wars. In Guild Battle, you can issue challenges to other guilds from within your guild hall. If they accept, a map is instanced for the combatants where each team starts in its guild hall and the team still standing at the end is the victor. The interesting thing is that guild-versus-guild combat will evolve greatly over time even on the Guild Battle map. As you upgrade your guild hall, and as your opponents upgrade theirs, the map upon which you play will change in many significant ways. This will allow an expanding number of evolving and more complex strategies and a greater depth of play as time progresses.

Question: What kind of guild features can we expect to see implemented in the future? Will improvements to guildhalls, guild banks, or other benefits of being guilded be implemented?

Answer: Well, first of all, for the fashion-conscious amongst us, the guild cape is hard to beat! If no other guild benefit existed, looking good in town is a real plus! Ok, seriously, guild hall improvements are an integral part of the game. As you can see from the answer to the previous question, not only will guild hall improvements provide aesthetic upgrades, but they can impart genuine tactical and strategic advantages as well.

Last I checked it was my understanding that there would be some system of shared storage for guilds. It's not in the game yet, but I believe it will be implemented in the game at some point. The sharing of gold is most probably another question altogether and will be examined as we get closer to release.

Question: Is there any system planned with which to log the damage performed in pvp fights. Additionally, will there be any way to tell what kind of skills your opponents are using against you?

Answer: Well, at present there are a couple of means to see what skills are being used against you:

• First of all, there's the upper left-hand icon bar, where you get the icon for every buff, debuff, or spell cast upon you. If you run your mouse over those icons, you get a readout with the name and a brief description of the spell.
• Secondly, for each selected opponent, directly below the name and health bar of a selected monster, boss monster or player, a tiny icon appears with the name of the spell or skill being used.

However, I believe you are asking if there will be a means to learn more specific and broader information from 8 or 16 or even more opponents on the battlefield. And I assume you are inquiring about a method that will provide the information in the here and now, and not after the battle is over, when it might be obtained via other methods.

There are probably many ways to provide broader, combat-wide skill and casting information. Two that come to mind are:

• A spell log, as you mentioned, would function like a chat log. This log would have information scroll up such as "Louise casts 100 Blades and you take 24 damage" and "Fred has healed you for 70 health points." One challenge with such a system is the rapid pace of combat in Guild Wars. With the layering of spells and skills, and the number of players, a scrolling skill/spell log would certainly roll up at a very fast speed.

• Another way to track skills and spells might be to have icons appear over everyone's head as he or she casts a spell or engages a skill. The challenge with that, of course, would be keeping the screen clear, readable and attractive while still providing you the information you seek.

I asked James Phinney about the matter of in-game information today, and he said that it is our desire to make more information available to players in combat, but that a final decision had not been made on how that would be accomplished. We're inviting our alpha testers, and those participating during our Beta Weekend Events, to share their suggestions and comments on valuable additions to the game. Certainly this is an area in which we will be listening closely to the needs that players and guilds express to us.

Thanks, Coldfront, for the support of Guild Wars and for hosting this week's Fansite Friday interview!