Guild Wars 2 and Eye of the North Expansion Info

General Intro Summary:
They are abandoning the Campaign format because it required them to reinvent GW completely for every chapter, and it began to feel ‘bloated’ to them. It’s also increased the tutorials and has created a barrier to new players entering the chapters. The Expansion increases the timeframe but allows them to do what they want to with the game, without worrying about new professions, or pre-lvl20 content. This is a new blueprint for a completely new game.

Expect a BETA for Guild Wars 2 in 2008.

Eye of the north is a HOLIDAY 2007 RELEASE and is catered to existing players. It will required that you own at least one of the previous campaigns and is not considered a standalone. This expansion will connect the Guild Wars 1 and Guild Wars 2 storylines. The developers listened to the community that 2 campaigns a year isn’t necessarily what people wanted, that many hadn’t finished a chapter before the new one was released.

A team will be assigned to support the current games with live content still expected.

Guild Wars Expansion: Eye of the North Summary

Will cost less then other chapters with no new professions. 40 new armor sets, 150 new skills (including 50 pve only), 10 new heroes.

“Extend character development beyond level 20″ ~James Phinney~

EOTN will link Guild Wars 1 and 2 storylines.

Underground complex of tunnels through all three ‘continents’ present thus far is revealed.

Three acts:

* Act 1 takes you through 18 underground dungeons to help the dwarves defend against ‘the fiery Destroyer’, eventually taking you to the Asura and Norns (races)
* Act 2 has three story arcs ranging from exploring the Norns, to the Charr homeland, to an Asura resistance of the Destroyer
* Act 3 pits you against the Great Destroyer

Far Shiverpeaks are Norn Lands, Charr homeland is north of ascalon, Asurans are near Maguuma, Tyrian catacombs stretch across the entire continent presumably

Guild Wars 2 Summary
There will be no option to migrate characters from Guild Wars 1 to Guild Wars 2. But you will be able to carry achievements forward through a Hall of Monuments. These are built via quests in Eye of the North and is only available in this chapter.

4 new Playable races:

* Sylvari
* Asuras
* Charr
* Norn

Hundreds of years later, in Tyria… sounds more of a race-reliant struggle.

Radical changes - overhauled environment and character control system, redefined PvP play and retooled NPC companion system.

Predominately open worlds, with instancing as a secondary feature in some areas (not positive on the interpretation). Hundreds of people in the same area, and choices that the population as a whole change the quest structure. PCG gave an example of choosing to rally against a dragon or not. Those that help, gain loot and xp. If the dragon isnt driven away, another ‘quest’ may trigger, leaving more options for the population. Very cool idea IMO.

I’ll just take the level cap stuff directly - “Events will also offer a way for players of different levels to keep interacting in the persistent world - which is crucial, since right now, ArenaNet is planning a very high [100-plus], or possibly no level cap”

Sidekicks simlar to CoH, allowing powers to seep from a high level character to a friendly lower level char.

‘Click to move’ will be abandoned in favor of a more freedom-rich control scheme, including ‘jumping, swimming, and sliding’

Destroyable environments?

Redefined PvP Summary

No real world limitations to servers. You pick a ‘world’, but can switch between the realms.
PvP World vs World combat sounds to be a massive scale capture the flag (AB style?) with no minimum or maximum party size. Big-ass raids that can supposedly take place for weeks on end. At the end, the ‘world’ will be reset, and it will start again it seems. More a casual version of PvP where you can pop in and out to perform various smaller tasks. Developers will reshuffle the teams into well-balanced match-ups every week or so.

GvG will still be present, as a more balanced form where everyone is on a level playing field.

Companions Summary

NPC’s such as heroes can join you (like a pet it sounds), and dont count towards your party. Not using this feature lets you be mroe powerful. Every player can bring a single companion on his adventure and won’t take up a slot.

I think I read somewhere in here that it will be mission-based, but I didn’t see it in my quick second-look.

Conclusion Summary
As of now, there will be no monthly fees, and no ‘campaigns’ for Guild Wars 2… mini-expansions, and expansions are hinted at.

As posted by Inde, Forum Admin

1) The article emphasizes, over and over again (to the point of absurdity!), that there will be no monthly fee, or hidden fees. They even talk about how no one believes them when they say it! There will *not* be a monthly fee for GW2.

2) Some people are seriously confusing GW:EN with GW2. For example, Gwen appears in GW:EN, not GW2. Gwen, by the way, is dressed in a green outfit with Mesmer overtones; I doubt she’s become a fire ele.

3) ANet states emphatically that they know some people will stay with GW1, and they will support GW1 past the opening of GW2. This includes the release of GW:EN *and* additional events and updates. So all the sackcloth-and-ashes stuff about GW1 “dying” is nonsense.

4) The new races will be NPCs in GW:EN and player characters in GW2. In GW2, they will have racial traits, so a Norn will be different from a Sylvari. No news about professions; my *GUESS* is they will revert to the original six classes in general. I’d prefer a classless system, but hey…

5) Instances have *not* gone away; however, the world will be persistent in some fashion. The article notes that ANet intends to avoid the kill camping/loot stealing problem, though it is unspecific as to how. At this juncture, I suspect ANet is still experimenting.

6) Richard Garriott’s recent “clarification” (see the front page of Guild Wars Guru) is, in fact, a reaction to the PCGamer article, wherein they attribute certain statements to him. Garriott has disavowed such statements, and I suspect a PCGamer reporter took something out of context. Garriott has always been a strong supporter of Guild Wars in the interviews he’s given.

As a programmer with some experience in the gaming field, I understand what ANet is doing. It may very well be that many of the features people are begging for CANNOT BE IMPLEMENTED in the current engine. Adding a Z-axis, for example, means a major rewrite of the engine and significant changes to game balance and design. It may sound easy to do “X”, but if you haven’t written 100k-line programs, you probably have no idea of the complexities involved.

I *STRONGLY* urge people to read the PCGamer article before wildly speculating and posting rants that have no basis in fact. Of course, the nay-sayers and doom-seekers will continue to see the negative in everything, so I’m probably wasting my time here…

via guildwarsguru.com