Guild Wars 2

Just want to say thanks for actually making my character feel important in the dialogue between myself and the Living Story characters. Giving orders and having characters ask me what to do is a good step in the right direction.

It’s A LOT better than, “Yeah. Great. Go on. Will do.”

Being from the Priory, and having a line mentioning my name being important was also good. It’s a small detail, but it’s a huge improvement. Obviously my character speaking would be the ultimate result, but I understand why that’s not always possible (both budgetary and currently technically).

Hope it continues!

I was about to post the same thing. That small little line mentioning I’m from the order is really great.

I was never really bothered by it before, but I’ll say that it’s an improvement for sure. Definitely feel more like part of the group and not just a bystander.

I agree, the dialogue has improved for our characters, it feels as though we are contributing and have opinions. Unfortunately we have not had much interaction with the various characters this time nor was it as entertaining as the story area in the previous update.

Living Story has been very hit and miss, when they do one thing well something else seems to suffer. The Origin of Madness really did have the worst player character dialogue possible.

`Go on.´

I just came here to say great job.
I was really surprised when the np’c referred to my character as a person- and actually wanted my input.
It made me feel like I was part of the story in a way that had been very lacking.

you guys are getting better with each update- Kudo’s to the team

Seconding (or fourthing, whatever), I was pleasantly surprised to have the group listen to and engage my character directly. Just shows that Anet can create likeable characters and tell a story without stealing our spotlight. Keep up the good work folks.

First we’re giving the title of Commander from the Story.
Now our characters are repeating themselves?

Oh God… it’s happening again!

I was (just) surprised that my character meant anything in a huge MMO and even gave orders. Not that it’s a really bad thing, but once again after the personal story you become THE hero in a fight which requires hundreds of people, and it’s a bit confusing.

And yeah, “Go on” was perfectly fine by me. It simply… feels natural in a videogame with limited space for dialogues, and it even saves time on reading the differently phrased “go ons”.

:)

Just been through the story instance in The Dead End. It was great.

Poor Rox.

Naetell.3815:

Just been through the story instance in The Dead End. It was great.

Poor Rox.

I know! When it comes to charr, I’ve only ever wanted to give Tybalt a hug. Rox now has the dubious honour of joining him! Although I’m still spooked by her eyes (I think she’s sneaking more than a wee dram every now and then).

Honestly, the voicing is not all that good. The last patch, Marjory showed little to no emotion when trying to calm down Kasmeer. It was rather droll and anti-climatic. It was a little bit better this patch, but still was quite dry.

I’m playing a charr, I only wish that I have a line in saying that Rox could join my warband (, but also mentioning that I know that she’s already set on joining the Stone warband.

My poor Reeva and the rest of my warband recruited in my PS, sitting away in Black Citadel when I’ve already killed Zhaitan.

BobbyStein.2315:

Heh. The “Go on.” string used in last month’s release is what we call a “master linked” string. Essentially, the conversation keeps referencing the same text guid to save on text and localization word count. Every month we have a fixed budget, and if changes to any content (like a conversation) come after our lockdown deadline, we have to solve the issue using master linked text.

In other words, while it’s funny that the convo kept saying “Go on” with every transition, it was due to a combination of a tight deadline and limited word count and not a stylistic choice.

Not gonna say that the budget is going to get even worse when people demand their money back from a reskin, (jk, you get to keep the money, we just get gems.), or that giving an extra week would extend not only extend the deadline and help fix the bugs from the EotM release, but I’m definitely thinking it.

BobbyStein.2315:

Aedelric.1287:

I agree, the dialogue has improved for our characters, it feels as though we are contributing and have opinions. Unfortunately we have not had much interaction with the various characters this time nor was it as entertaining as the story area in the previous update.

Living Story has been very hit and miss, when they do one thing well something else seems to suffer. The Origin of Madness really did have the worst player character dialogue possible.

`Go on.´

Heh. The “Go on.” string used in last month’s release is what we call a “master linked” string. Essentially, the conversation keeps referencing the same text guid to save on text and localization word count. Every month we have a fixed budget, and if changes to any content (like a conversation) come after our lockdown deadline, we have to solve the issue using master linked text.

In other words, while it’s funny that the convo kept saying “Go on” with every transition, it was due to a combination of a tight deadline and limited word count and not a stylistic choice.

I’m copying a post from another thread and bringing it here because it was off topic and this is the relevant place for it.

BrunoBRS.5178:

Shiren.9532:

BrunoBRS.5178:

i mean, short of introducing text recognition into the game, clicking the right dialogue choice is what we have.

In the Personal Story there is no “wrong” or “right” choice. You choose and it’s what happens. I understand the Living World has to have only one option because we all share it, but when that’s the case, being told I’m wrong and then being thanked in the end for figuring it out (by the people telling me I’m wrong), that feels like token involvement to me, especially when very little of the instance recognises that my character was present for all of those events.

well first, the personal story’s only real choices branched the story into a thousand mini-nodes that harmed more than did good.

for the sake of concise storytelling and keeping all players on the same page, the living story is linear.

i understand that you want more choice, but that instance was not the right place for it. the alternative is what, you get it wrong and then game over? just think of it as skipping the game over screen and jumping back into the gameplay when you get something wrong. and of course she thanked you. you got it right eventually.

I don’t want more choice and in my post that you quote I state that " I understand the Living World has to have only one option because we all share it" so I don’t expect it to branch like the Personal Story. I simply disagree that the choices acted to convincingly make me feel like I was involved or that the NPCs were following me. The way they corrected me made me feel like a child being guided by its parent doing their homework. I recognise they made an effort here but I didn’t find it convincing.

There are a couple things I think could improve this:

• Have more of the discussion reflect that as a player I was participating in these events. Kiel was the face of the Thaumanova report – why wasn’t I? I was there, I didn’t need Kiel’s report – as far as I know I told her what to write in it. It would have been nice to have my character explain these things to the NPCs (in that room I was the only person that was involved in every one of those events but the NPCs did all the talking).
• Instead of having Kiel and Marjory talking to each other and deciding things, have my character doing it. When Marjory and Kiel are sorting things out and then later on informing me of their decision, it feels like I’m just tagging along with what they say and decide. Let me bring the information to the Captain’s Council and suggest that we need to defend Lion’s Arch together, then have the NPCs agree to support me.

There are certain challenges I’m sure this kind of thing would face. Not all players participated in everything. I can see why the player isn’t the face of some of these events simply because, for some players it’s not the case, maybe it’s a simply case of writing two variables – one dialogue option for players that were there, one for players that weren’t. Some people might also resent scripted dialogue for their character that doesn’t represent them (but honestly, any level of involvement is going to have this problem). We also know they haven’t yet solved the tech problems with involving the player character in voiced scenes, so any involvement will be textual only.

I recognise that they’ve made an effort and it’s an improvement on before, but I’d like to see it go further (and I’m really looking forward to the players getting their voices back).

I liked the little story mode. Also yay for bringing up that I’m in the Priory~ now if only they’d make Order choices show off more/be more important. I love the Priory.

I wanted to say the Dead End instance was great. I liked all the NPC dialog and it was a very interesting mechanic to go around doing forensics on all of the items. Plus it was nice how the gameplay provided an enormous amount of background lore as well but did it in a much more entertaining way than just walls of text. Well done ArenaNet!

The OP makes a good point, the storyline dialog has done a good job making the player characters seem more than just errand boys (girls/cubs/pods whatever). It helps that the main story NPCs are not in positions of unearned authority over the players and ordering them around (while taking credit for everything the players do) but rather the NPCs are acting more like compatriots. It gives the current story more of a feel that the players is working with the NPCs rather than serving as replaceable minions for them.

I also liked the little touches like the door down the street from the Dead End that is now marked as Marjory’s and Kasmeer’s residence. I’m looking forward to seeing how the rest of the Living Story plays out.

I like the “instance” in the DR bar because it feels like I’m working with my allies, they remember me from our past interactions, and (most importantly) it feels like I’m leading the group.

One of the biggest let-downs of the personal story is playing second fiddle to Trahearne, despite all of our effort and accomplishments. With Destiny’s Edge v2.0, I feel like I’m Eir, rounding up these heroes and forging ahead with the plan.

Hopefully, I don’t let them down in the end and get someone killed
>.>
<.<

Yes, another job well done with the dialogue in these biweekly updates. I do wish the dialogue of this variety had made it into the personal story though as that is obviously more permanent. Even if well done it is still going into a black hole in a couple weeks most likely and that is kind of upsetting.

Speaking of great character dialogue in the past two updates – dear ANet, would it be possible to perhaps extract all the quips Taimi and Braham exchange in Edge of the Mists and say, put them on Soundcloud or something, like you did with some other dialogue bits? This player would be very, very happy if you did. Those are what I don’t want to lose once a new update is live.

Doggie.3184:

I liked the little story mode. Also yay for bringing up that I’m in the Priory~ now if only they’d make Order choices show off more/be more important. I love the Priory.

Yeah, agreed. I’ve not followed the LS much, but recently I find myself enjoying the content and dialogue between characters.
The priory bit was a nice touch.

BobbyStein.2315:

Heh. The “Go on.” string used in last month’s release is what we call a “master linked” string. Essentially, the conversation keeps referencing the same text guid to save on text and localization word count. Every month we have a fixed budget, and if changes to any content (like a conversation) come after our lockdown deadline, we have to solve the issue using master linked text.

In other words, while it’s funny that the convo kept saying “Go on” with every transition, it was due to a combination of a tight deadline and limited word count and not a stylistic choice.

Yeah, that was a bit weird, but it worked in context.
However the new one, where “i” as a player give actual input and “order” NPCs around feels weird as well… in a good way though.

It is just something we had not so much before. It was usually exposition and not being part of the team.
On the other hand it unfortunatly felt somehow out of left field and left a bad aftertaste in the sense that “my character” would have used different words or another tone.

While you cannot think for everyone and predict everyones choice of words we have an implemented character system with the honor, brute and charmer personality.
it would have been nice if these could be implemented, maybe a bit further depending on how much it was developed.

I know there is a deadline and it is a lot of work, but something like that would really elevate the way you tell the story to a much more personal level.

You did really great there, gon on and continue to improve

BobbyStein.2315:

Aedelric.1287:

I agree, the dialogue has improved for our characters, it feels as though we are contributing and have opinions. Unfortunately we have not had much interaction with the various characters this time nor was it as entertaining as the story area in the previous update.

Living Story has been very hit and miss, when they do one thing well something else seems to suffer. The Origin of Madness really did have the worst player character dialogue possible.

`Go on.´

Heh. The “Go on.” string used in last month’s release is what we call a “master linked” string. Essentially, the conversation keeps referencing the same text guid to save on text and localization word count. Every month we have a fixed budget, and if changes to any content (like a conversation) come after our lockdown deadline, we have to solve the issue using master linked text.

In other words, while it’s funny that the convo kept saying “Go on” with every transition, it was due to a combination of a tight deadline and limited word count and not a stylistic choice.

Is it really that much work to add a few lines? I wouldn’t have guessed that, but then again, I have no idea how things like this work on a technical scale – I can guess but I don’t know how you guys did it.

So that raises a question, how is dialogue saved in the game? I’m curious about how GW2 operates under the hood now.

OmaiGodman.2098:

Is it really that much work to add a few lines? I wouldn’t have guessed that, but then again, I have no idea how things like this work on a technical scale – I can guess but I don’t know how you guys did it.

It’s probably not that it’s a lot of work, it’s probably they had a time limit and that was the one thing they didn’t have time to go back and “punch up” before release.

That is a recurring sensation for GW2 and it’s a little disconcerting to see something and feel that there was this wonderful idea or this minor detail which could have been there . . . but there wasn’t a finishing polish put on it. It brings to question if ANet teams bite off more than they can chew routinely . . .

So that raises a question, how is dialogue saved in the game? I’m curious about how GW2 operates under the hood now.

I’m pretty sure I intuitively know how, just can’t explain it as I’m not a programmer. Probably text entries for dialogue boxes and “chat code” access strings for chatter dialogue, and there’s a ton of it required to make it in since this is primarily a RPG in basic form rather than, say, a voiceless game.

Want to really get blown away by a dev team? Look up NetHack and how they have thought of everything you can possibly do in the game and anticipated it somehow.

I was absolutely ecstatic I got to throw around my Priory status xD, even if it didn’t make a bit of difference lol