I Feel Pretty, Oh So Pretty!

I crafted that top! So pretty.

A heroine needs to look fabulous while saving the world, so this post is about the dye system. If any of you have read my other blogs, you'll know I enjoy dressing up my toons. If any of you know me in real life, you'll know that's a bit at odds with my true self! I have zero fashion sense in the really-real world, and I actually dislike shopping for clothes, unlike most women I know. But somehow I get in a game and I've just GOT to have the nicest outfits in the prettiest colours. My inner girl coming through, I guess.  :)

Anyway, the GW2 Beta team gave everyone 2000 Gems to buy stuff in the cash shop. Of course, I went straight to the costume section! They had some neat things to buy, like a chef's outfit, a top hat, a pirate costume etc., but I opted for the 3-packs of random dyes. Yes, I said random. I was a bit thrown off by that at first, but I always try to be open-minded.

I bought 11 packs of 3 = 33 dyes. The item description says you will get 2 common dyes and one uncommon. I clicked to open them one-by-one and a massive variety of colours started unlocking my dye screen. Out of the 33, I did get one duplicate, which is what I was concerned about when I saw it was random.

Almost immediately, I trotted over to the Trading House (the name for the auction system) to see if they could be sold to other players. Yup! Good to go! So no worries about duplicates, there is a way to make some money off of them.

Some folks would insist that it's better to be able to choose exactly which colours you want to buy with real money, but my theory is this: certain colours are going to be more in demand than others, so by making it random, when you get that special colour it's not only a thrill, but also a lucrative money-making opportunity for you! But yeah, part of me also agrees with the cynical folks who say randomizing the dyes is being greedy by forcing players to buy more dye packs to hopefully get lucky. A full cash shop/commerce discussion is for another post, I think!

However, just to let you know, if  you don't want to buy dyes, you can cultivate them. I didn't get around to doing that, but apparently Colorful Dye Seeds drop from mobs, you take them to a dude in your home town, and he grows them for you. After 24 hours, you pick up your dye. Check out GW2 Guru for a discussion.

Okay, so on to the clothes! You can see at the top of this post how this outfit turned out in the end. (I neglected to take a picture of the pieces before I dyed them, whoops.)

I crafted the top using my Tailoring skill (more later), and the rest were drops, including my fancy la-dee-dah mask.
This picture to the right is the outfit using only one dye colour. I think it's great how you can still see the textures and patterns of the clothes when using only one colour. The dye doesn't just wash everything out and make you monochromatic: it adjusts to the fabric and texture of the clothing. Awesome!



GW2 Dye Screen



The dye screen is shown here. See the little dropper about middle of the screen, above the gear? That's on your Hero page all the time. At any moment, no matter where you are, you can open your Hero page and click the dropper and transform your clothes into a glorious array of new colours. Feeling blue cuz you lost a fight. Presto! Your outfit now matches your mood! Heading to a party at Ye Olde Grubby Taverne? Clickety-click, you are ravishing in red!

Gosh, just looking at the screenshots, I'm a bit overwhelmed trying to condense it all into words. I guess, if you're playing the game, you've hopefully figured this out. Let's just say it's this simple: pick a colour, pick a piece of clothing, pick a sub-portion of that clothing in the little box and click to see what happens. Repeat!

There are some neat features to the dye system. You can right click any colour and it will go to the top as a Favorite. You can sort by Set, Material or Hue, although you can see in beta, someone's a little confused as to what a purple hue is! (Don't worry, I put in some feedback.) There's an Undo button, as well as a Remove Dye button, which will revert the piece back to its original GW2-given colour.







Spiral's Townclothes



I have so much more to write about but I'm going to stop this post for now cuz it's getting a bit long. But I can say I'm totally impressed by the dye system and spent many happy minutes clicking away on colours.

Oh one more thing...maybe you're the kinda person who is all business and wants their fighting gear to be fierce and imposing. Don't worry. You can still dress up. There is also a whole set of Town Clothes to play with as well. My oh my, a vain toon's delight! These clothes can't be worn in combat, but they're perfect for prancing about in Divinity's Reach or meeting that special feline-someone in Black Citadel. (Geez, I haven't even started with Charr costumes on Mousekin.)

So much to look forward to in the next beta weekend. Plus questing, exploring, crafting, leveling, skill points...happy days ahead!

Note: GW2 has said that dye unlocks will be account-wide but they weren't that way in beta. I'm hoping that's just an oversight and will be corrected when the game is released.

Beta Screenshots for You

Played till 5:30 am. Went to sleep happy but wishing I could stay up longer. Only posting quick screens for you, faithful readers, as I eat my peanut butter oatmeal, make a mocha latte and head back into Tyria! Hope to see you there!

Creating Mousekin, my Charr Guardian



Spiral viewing Divinity's Reach
Remember to look up from combat every now and then and see how pretty this game is.
And this is not even on high graphics settings. :)



Spiral, human Ele, tossing lightning into an event!

Vixyn, Norn female, in starting zone.

Spiral exploring hidden corners of a mill. Kitty was rolling on the bed, so cute!



Spiral in Divinity's Reach, beautiful noble gardens with moving planets.

 

Spiral in Divinity's Reach at night. Still gorgeous!
(The city, not Spiral. Well, okay, yeah, she's gorgeous too, thanks for noticing! Hee hee!)



Quick First Impressions

The fabulous Spiral is back!

Okay, game crashed so taking a quick break to give you my first impressions. They are both good and bad, of course!

Couldn't log into my pre-chosen server, Yak's Bend. It was listed as High volume, so after getting tired of hearing the first 7 notes of theme music over and over (duh-dah-dah-daaaah-dah-dah-duhh...) as I clicked and reclicked, I tried a new server. Voila! In I go to make a toon on Scavenger's Causeway.

Creating a character: spent way too much time on this, seeing as how they'll all be wiped once beta is done. But I can't help it!
Was disappointed there weren't body sliders.
Also no option for purple hair. :(
Can't have a tilted nose. Strange that I want one, isn't it?
Created Spiral (human), plus Mousekin (a Charr-kitty! so much fun to make!) and Vixyn (a Norn, basically tattooed human).

Got to choose neat toon story/background options. I won't spoil them all, but I will say Spiral regrets not following her dream of being a trapeze artiste!
There is an opening movie for your character that is kinda inspiring. "This is my story." Made me feel like I was starring in my own feature film. I liked it. But I found after watching the three different ones -- human, norn, charr -- that I felt the female attitudes were all kinda manly. I mean, can't I be pretty and an ass-kicking hero?

Gameplay was both familiar and confusing. Lots going on. Spell effects flying everywhere! New spells show up at the bottom as you unlock them. Heaven forbid you pick up and equip a new weapon...whole different set of spells come up!
No tutorial stuff, so you'd better know how to WASD.
Yay, jumping!!! JUMP JUMP JUMP! No longer will small inclines foil my attempts to conquer evil!
Bit of lag made the first group event kinda jumpy.
Cut scenes are stunning, but then if you walk near them again, the video repeats. Not sure how to skip those. Or maybe it was just cuz I failed the event the first time?

AWFUL neon-coloured outlines around characters when you mouse-over them. I went almost immediately to the beta forums to complain. Hate them. Want them gone.

I felt a bit overwhelmed learning the ropes but I'm sure I'll get more comfortable as I play more. Little things kinda threw me off. No mana?? WTF?? That's different. Where did my loot go? What are all the map symbols? That big red circle is my health, but what is endurance? Oh, for evading. Damn, I've got to manually dodge? Does tripping count?  ;)

The game style looks very similar to GW1. That might make legacy players happy. I'm not sure what it is about the landscape that makes it so familar. The flowers? Hmmm...it just feels like I'm back in GW1, which is a tad disappointing in a way because it's not so fresh and new as I was expecting. But I haven't traveled far yet, so we'll see.

But overall, I'm having fun! The quests are confusing, not as hold-your-hand as other MMOs. It's like...okay, now I've picked up a bucket of water, what do I do with it? Or...oh shit, bandits! I guess I will fight. You want to give me a reward now? Cool. Thanks much!  :)

Gotta get back. I'll write more later. I'm taking screenshots too, although my graphics aren't turned up high. Trying to beat the lagmonster.
See you in Tyria, my friends!

As the World Turns

Okay, so in preparation for this weekend's beta test (woot woot woot!!!! yippeee yippeee!! ...okay, okay, calm down, breathe), the GW2 Arena Net blog has released the names of the servers or "home- worlds" that we can choose from. Although there will be server transfers available in the game, for a fee of course, I am planning on picking a world and sticking to it! And I have decided to post my home-world selection here on my blog so that any of my followers can join me if they dare.

So drumroll please...I am choosing...hmmm...argh...I can't...okay...my home-world will be...
YAK'S BEND

Okay, it's done. Whew!
Why did I chose Yak's Bend? I dunno. I guess it just struck me as kinda silly. I like silly.  :)

So Excited I Can't Think of a Title

First public beta weekend is April 27-29.

Lion's Arch will be open for beta

YA YA YA! I'm so totally in! Poor second-place Rift is going to be crying in the corner while I'm off to flirt with my one true love. :)
My parents are actually planning to come down to my city that weekend for a visit. Luckily, my sister and her family live here too, because they're going to have to entertain the folks while I game SOLID all weekend. Maybe I should tell them I'm out of town? That will be kinda true. I'll be in Tyria!

Buy Buy Buy!!

I woke up this morning and it felt like Christmas!
I turned on my computer, clicked on the desktop shortcut to "Pre-Purchase Guild Wars 2", plugged in my info...and bought the game!! Woot!! UBER WOOT!! Wootity-woot-woot!!  :)

Now just to wait for the next beta weekend so I can play. Sooooo excited.

Meanwhile, I've been playing Rift on Deepwood shard. Having fun, but it's just a stop gap. Most of my guildies there are planning to hop over to GW2 when it's out so I'll have some friends to play with.