Talk: Game updates/20081211

All skill templates have been updated. I took care of some quick references starting around the midpoint, but they should be double-checked anyway. And of course the skill articles themselves will need to be checked for now-irrelevant notes. —Dr Ishmael 06:01, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

quotes removed[]

The following skills had the quotes removed from the skill names, but I can't stay up any later to move the articles/templates around.

—Dr Ishmael 07:15, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

It doesn't make sense, damn you![]

Stupid Anet, they keep changing the skill functions, which is fine, but now some of them don't match their names at all. "Incoming" is now essentially "Charge!" with health gain, or "Fall Back" w/o the conditional ending. So imo, it's more useless now, since "Fall Back" did just fine as a quick boost, and didn't take your elite. And "IJAFW" now gives you a move speed bonus? If Anet's gonna do this, they should at least change the names or make an effort to make the name match the function >_____________>--Darksyde 02:15, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

I think they did make an effort - in the dev notes, when they discuss the change to Aura of the Lich, they say they used the skill name as a starting point for the redesign. And Signet of Ghostly Might actually matches the name better now, since it doesn't affect the obviously non-ghostly minions anymore. Also, compare the number of redesigned skills whose effects don't match the name now to how many do still match the name.

However, I agree that when they redesign a skill so that it no longer fits the name, they should rename the skill. I seem to recall that a few Prophecies era skills got renamed in the first year, but I can't remember which skills they were. I think now they're afraid that changing the names would outrage a lot of players for some reason - in the dev notes, they say, "The only thing sacred is the skill name." I just don't see why, though: if you're going to completely change the skill's function, people are going to have to re-learn the skill anyway, so why not change the name? Give them a new function with a new name, instead of forcing them to unlearn the old function and re-associate the name with the new function. —Dr Ishmael

04:34, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

ESPECIALLY when you can't even use the name as a REFERENCE for what it does, because it doesn't do anything REMOTELY related to it's name (I'm looking at you, "It's just a flesh wound."!) --Gimmethegepgun 04:41, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

Here's another good laugh "Because Weaken Knees provided knockdown to a profession that did not normally have this ability, it was difficult to make it powerful enough to be useful without breaking inter-profession dynamics." KINDA LIKE DAZE ON CASTER PROFESSIONS!?!?!?!?--Darksyde 05:52, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

If they changed the name it would probably mean having to recap them. Take a look at combining faction over accounts. They couldn't do it the same way, they had to create a new faction and then add to it as the player logged in. So if they did change the name it would mean a bunch of problems with people that already had the titles for captures, and QQing from people having to pay to buy cap signets. At least that is the way I think it works.

Tenetke Mekko 07:08, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

No, it doesn't work that way. The game software refers to the skills by number (the Skill ID), and it would be as easy to change the name as it would be to add a translation. However, the wiki would be able to document the changes better if we were able to keep the pages for obsolete skills under their no-longer-used names. --◄mendel► 07:15, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

Such as Nonsensical Spear.

(T/C) 08:02, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

LoL, Nonsensical spear. They shoulda kept that name.--Darksyde 16:03, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Nonsensical Spear, and a few other EotN and Nightfall skills, had their names changed between the preview weekends and the official release, so that's not really the same. No Factions/Nightfall/EotN skills have had a name change after release, that I can remember.

Mendel's right, the skill names (and descriptions) are simply text strings stored in text files within gw.dat, there's no technical reason that they couldn't change the skill names. —Dr Ishmael

16:09, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

They should change "Incoming!" to "We're coming!" and "IJAFW" to "Less QQ, more pew pew"--Darksyde 01:32, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

I lol'd. Arshay Duskbrow 07:09, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

<Vili> random question, jpetrie
<jpetrie> ?
<Vili> theoretically, could ANet rename a skill without creating a new skill ID for it
<jpetrie> Just change the text?
<Vili> yeah
<jpetrie> I don't see a reason why not.
<Vili> there were some discussions about how ANet ought to rename skills whose names no longer reflect their functionality, such as "Incoming!"
<Galil> Well, that one's not *horribly* named :P
<Galil> If something's incoming you'd want to run like hell and get healed doing it
<jpetrie> Most content is internally referenced via an internal identifier -- so there is a text string in our content somewhere we call "SKILL_PARAGON_INCOMING_NAME" or something.
<jpetrie> (in actuality "PARAGON" is unlikely to be there since class names are finalized after some of these identifiers, so e.g., you never see RANGER but instead "NATURE.")
<jpetrie> But I digress.
<Galil> Actually, I doubt they have variables for each and every skill. I'm guessing they just load them all up from a database and reference it by ID in the code
<jpetrie> While it's possible some content responsible for controlling the skill may be tied to that SKILL_WHATEVER_BLAH identifier, the actual in-game text is not, and could in theory be freely changed.
<Galil> Not by typing the ID directly in the code that is, but I don't think they ever have to specify specific skills in code
<jpetrie> In practice, renaming skills may be confusing for players, and certainly incurrs a localization cost. Text changes in general are painful to make.
<Galil> I might be wrong of course, but having a variable for each and every skill would be horribly bad coding
<jpetrie> There isn't a single variable, no.
<Galil> Then I probably misunderstood
<jpetrie> There may be a single identifier, but there isn't a .cpp file floating around with 3,000 lines like:
<Galil> Yeah, that's what I thought you meant :P
<jpetrie> Skill g_Incoming; Skill g_HealingBreeze; Skill g_HealingSig; etc.
<Galil> That's not what I thought you meant
<jpetrie> All of that is in data/content someplace.
<Galil> I thought you meant a .cpp file with something like:
<Galil> #define SKILL_PARAGON_INCOMING  0xID
<Galil> Etc
<jpetrie> There are similar files, but they are machine-generated and aren't used for quite what you'd think.

I hope that answers the question. (T/C) 04:23, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Well i don't understand coding in the slightest bit(Well i kinda do, but not a whole lot), but yeah people who stop playing for awhile would likely be confused by skill name changes(as well as icons). So couldn't they put "Formerly Incoming" on "Less QQ, more pew pew" or a small tutorial that activates when someone opens their skillbar? Or hell, just keep the skills reasonable. And no, when someone says "Incoming" i don't want to run like hell, i want something to protect me. "Incoming!" is generally defensively said in military, and you just know people are going to be using the new version for offense in PvP. "Incoming" should be changed to a shout, elite version of Ballad of Restoration.--Darksyde 17:10, 17 December 2008 (UTC)