Binjovi

I've only got 7 HoM points. If someone wanted to help me get a few more, that would be really cool of you. (You might even get a shiny new bag out of it too! =P) Because some of us were talking about replacing the music with our own playlists, here is the wiki article explaining how to go about doing it, and what file types the game will recognize. Have fun!

I'm Binjovi.2934 on Yak's Bend. Join the fun!

Try to get your hands on a Guardian, Warrior, Ranger or Thief. They may give you the different feel that you're looking for. Right now, you're playing two scholar professions where the most noticeable difference in how they deal damage (for now) is one specializes in condition damage (Necromancer) while the other primarily spikes/nukes (Elementalist). While it may, I don't think trying Engineer or Mesmer will help you shake that feeling of similarity quite like those other four will. I got to 33 over both weekend events. So essentially 5 days, give or take. Plus, it's not that difficult to level up in the game, and once you hit 30, that flat leveling curve seems to kick in. I did just about every DE I came across unless I was on my way to meet a friend, or really wanted to try something and didn't have the time. I also did a lot of crafting (over level 100 tailor), completed my available story (which seems to hand out a good deal of EXP), went exploring around the world (just the four available cities in the game will get you from level 1 to 7 by locating all the points of interest and waypoints), and gathered just about everything I came across (made a mint on the trading post). All of these things net you decent EXP and help you out in other ways as well. The crazy thing is, there's at least one guy with a level 65 (or so) character. Leveling isn't that hard when you just play the game. There are tons of things to do and you're making levels the whole way. Yeah, the trait options are there for perusing, and some may not seem like much the way they're described (and I hear there will be more and better ones coming hopefully next BWE), but they can actually change things pretty heavily. Don't forget that you're upping your attributes for each trait point you put in too. If the trait doesn't seem like much, the attribute increase certainly helps to give you some specialization. I also want to mention that elite skills are a blast. At least the two I got (Moa Morph and Time Warp) were. I'd recommend trying to hit 30 on a character for these alone, if you can. 30's also a nice spot to really start testing options because you actually have a lot at that point. Once you have options, it's easier to see how they affect your character's play style and specialization. So swap skills around, respec traits, switch out weapons. Hopefully the depth you're looking for will show itself a bit more prominently. Don't forget that you can also hop into the mists to temporarily unlock EVERYTHING for your character while you're there. So if you really want to play around with options, head on over and check it out next time.

It sounds to me like you've only played a few professions and only a few levels of each. I mean, there is plenty of room for specialization as you continue to progress to level 80 (Is that really considered a low level cap, or were you unaware that 80 is the max?). With the ability to customize and rearrange weapon sets, utility skills, attributes and traits, gear, sigils, and runes, you've got more than enough room to specialize in certain aspects and playstyles. I've played a Mesmer (level 33), Guardian (level 7), and a Ranger (level 9). The Guardian and Ranger feel the most similar right now due to the fact that they're still so low level, but even just swapping around weapons gives them a largely different feel. Even so, I've already found very distinct differences in how they go about creating certain effects, and how strong they are in the different aspects of control, support, and damage. By the end of the last stress test, my ranger was set to be all about spreading around conditions. The shortbow bleeds enemies when you're to the side or behind them, and can also put stacks of poison on the opponent (or opponents depending on range). On top of that, my sharpening stone utility allows me to apply bleed on my next 5 attacks, so even when my opponent faces me, I can keep the bleed on, and my pet devourer can be signaled to place down a field of poison that I can shoot through to continue stacking poison on my enemies. And this is with a level 9 Ranger with only one utility skill slot unlocked. It was also a way different feel and style of play from both my Mesmer and Guardian who really don't seem to have a lot in the way of conditioning enemies to that degree. If you don't like that aspect of it, that's perfectly fine, but there is really no way to make everyone's experience entirely unique. Yes, those other people running over that way may have done the same thing you just did, but even Guild Wars had that. As soon as you go into any outpost you're surrounded by people who very likely just did a mission or quest that you're about to go on, or that you just completed yourself. I actually feel like GW2 handles this even better than the original because dynamic events will behave differently as they chain from one to the next, or as they interact with other events. Not to mention meta events that seem to happen rarely and change huge chunks of the map. Due to how frequent or infrequent an event is set to be, or what actually triggers it, there may be events that only a small handful (relatively speaking) of people have ever experienced. Within two weekends and two stress tests, I've yet to see the shadow behemoth, nor have I experienced a good number of events in the other races' areas. Even the personal story is branched—and from the get-go—to give you a lot of variety in how the story will play out. My story was entirely different from the one my friend played through even though we were both playing human characters. Guild Wars 2 certainly has a few problems here and there, but I don't feel like this is one. Overall it sounds to me like this just isn't your kind of game. And that's totally acceptable. Just because a huge amount of people are getting way too over-hyped about the game doesn't mean it's going to conform to your sense of what "the perfect game" is. Or even what a good game is. In the end, though, no one is going to be able to sway you into liking it if you're problem with it is that it's an open world MMO.... because it is an open world MMO, and I doubt that's going to change anytime soon.

I don't think I'll be moving from Yak's Bend on release, so I'd hope that the guild gets set up there. I don't see why we can't just use OverClocked ReMix as the guild name with OCR as the abbreviation. Also, don't forget that prepurchasers get a three day head start, meaning we'll get to play on the 25th.

Probably should have said something sooner, but Ship 2 seems to be where most of the english speaking community has been gathering. I'm playing a HUnewearl named Jovie in case anyone wants to run missions together.

Awesome, thanks! Yeah, if anyone knows more accurate dates for stuff, please chime in.

For now. I've still got some work to do on it, but most of the characters are present. I'd kind of like to get maybe something VGmix and/or ThaSauce-related in there.

I've got a quick little update on the last pic. This time it's in timeline mode. Click for history!

It's been a while! I've been working on this off and on ever since I finished the OCAD-Tan design. Everything is still just sketches and I've still got a few more characters I'd like to add to it, but for now I figured I'd go ahead and show off what I have. As usual, click the image for a (much) larger version. I wasn't sure if this was you asking me to draw her as a human, or if I should just do the reploid version, so I kinda did a hybrid. Hope that's cool. =P

The only thing about this statement that was even remotely interesting to me was the fact that we may finally be able to travel out across the whole of Tamriel. That's not enough for me to want to play it. I always felt the same as Eckerson though: I would love to have had support for another player or two to be able to play together, but the massively aspect is going to kill the feel of Elder Scrolls methinks. It will have an especially difficult time succeeding if they don't try and create a good, and unique experience. The game will be coming out during a time in which WoW, Tera, Guild Wars 2, The Secret World and SWTOR—among others—will be all the market can handle. If they don't make a really exciting experience that really sets itself apart from these powerhouses I feel like they're setting themselves up for failure.

Seeing as you only got to level 10, you didn't get to play around with the traits system, which is unlocked at level 11, and doesn't really get super interesting until you hit level 20. The game holds you back on a lot of customization so that at each level you're gaining some little thing more than just stat boosts (which, I'll admit, does get frustrating when you know what you want and just want to try it out). Then there's runes and sigils that provide a bit more. There are also many weapon choices for each profession, and most professions have the option of switching between two weapon sets mid-combat. More customization is always good, but I feel they've struck a pretty good balance here, and hopefully this will help get rid of a lot of issues the original had. The main reason they ditched the flexibility of the original Guild Wars is because it was a balancing nightmare. Any class could have any skill and so many unforeseen overpowered builds and loopholes were found by players. As soon as they tried to fix something, it would bring up some other OP combination, or make other previously viable builds obsolete. There was also the problem with certain builds that were just plain better than others—and I'm sure we'll see that crop up again eventually—which of course led to some elitism. Hopefully by limiting the pool of skills they'll be able to fix things without screwing everything else up and be better able to balance the game.

I'll be rolling my characters on Yak's Bend. Probably a female human mesmer named Jovie or something. Look me up!

Yeah, the OCR community helps each other out in a multitude of ways. A perfect example is this very thread. From all my time here, the one thing that has really stuck with me is just how nice the community is. Many other communities/forums I've been in or around have their moments, sure, but I've yet to hang around any that are as consistently friendly and helpful as this one (sappy as that may sound).

I know. I was basically trying to say that, yes there may be times when no events are on, but the alternative is actually worse—or at least not any better—since there's a competition factor. Another thing to keep in mind is the instanced story missions, PvP, and WvWvW, all able to be done almost immediately after character creation. I don't think you'll be left wanting for something to do even on launch week.

There's also the event scaling to take into consideration. It may not work to a certain point, but as more people try to participate, the event begins throwing out more to do. Events will happen multiple times, too. I like to think of these events as pushing a minecart up a hill. Basically, you can push the event all the way up the hill (and the town will be saved) but eventually it'll fall back down the hill (the raiders come back) and the event chain will start over. The only time that an event will stop "for good" is when each part of the chain has been failed and no one goes to push it back (the cart rests at the bottom of the hill). They've mentioned that the time that it takes for the events to start back up after the chain is completed successfully will be ramped up significantly at launch; they'll slowly decrease it as people filter out into higher level areas. That's not to say there won't still be people twiddling their thumbs, but seeing how the demos worked, I think It'll work out well enough. I mean, the alternative isn't any better anyway. Most of these quest-based MMOs have so many people in the starter areas that you simply cannot make any headway on your quests. The enemies don't spawn fast enough.

Yeah, basically that. Being able to play with people and not feel bad for helping, or feeling in competition with others for kills will be utterly refreshing. Ad hoc grouping is such a brilliant idea.

Sylvari mesmer. Not certain on gender yet. Kind of depends on the options and what I'm feeling like at the time. If mesmer is miraculously not present, or I just don't like how it feels then ranger, guardian, or necromancer. Still, it's a tough choice. All the classes look like a blast so far. I found this on Guild Wars 2 Guru. Might be fun to play around with.

One of the awesome things about how they're handling guilds this time around is that you can be in multiple guilds. So we can have an OCR guild for us to all keep in touch with each other and people can still be a part of other guilds if they want. I want a guild for just me and my real life friends, but if there's an OCR guild count me in.

Thing is, it's pretty much guaranteed to be mesmer at this point. They've dropped so many hints and clues that basically point directly at it. Of course they could have changed their minds at some point. Still with the way GW2 is set up, there's a really good chance that the mesmer will be significantly different from it's original counterpart. And I think I'd rather have the mesmer than something new, honestly (not that I'd complain either way). I am really stoked for this game. It's so hard to wait for it at this point. I know that they're going into closed beta pretty soon (if they're not there already), so release will hopefully be just around the corner.

I totally agree here. I've been keeping an eye on GW2 for a while now and it's shaping up to be a pretty awesome game so far. It's kind of a shame though. I'm a big Star Wars fan but SWTOR isn't doing anything for me. I mean the story bits sound great, but anytime I take a look at the gameplay it just looks like stuff I've long grown tired of. I want to be interested—I should be interested—but I get nothing from it.

She'll be in there, but I've got to finish it first. =P

I seem to double-post a lot in this thread. I had the urge to pick back up one of the old OCR-tan WIPs that I had lying around and continue on with it. This is what I have so far: Click for bigness. I completely redid 2-tan, but I left the old one to show just how different (and improved I'd say) the new one is. I will be redoing 1 as a ranger in the green spot. The mage/wizard type will be covered by OCAD-tan in the purple area.

I haven't been able to listen to the rest of the album. I can't stop listening to this one.

There was a show on Cartoon Network called Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones? The titular character is number 97 and has been added to the spreadsheet along with number 160, the MSE-series "Mouse Droid" from Star Wars.