Agreed, I like this direction (and hope we get more complicated puzzle opportunities in the future but understand the need to not go overboard). You guys are getting really close to providing rapid fire quality work with a unified arc (Scarlet still needs some work but pretty much every other character from the latest incarnation of jobtron to the more mainline NPCs are good).
The ending cutscene made me laugh a bit— I was expecting the primary stalk to shrivel and the tower to collapse. Instead, we got the catastrophic explosion typical of action movies. =P
The chatter around the camp afterwards is probably one of my favorite touches in a long while— Bloomanoo and Peneloopee, frankly, stands out more in my mind than Kasmeer and Marjory, but probably out of how kind of disturbing they sound… But we’ve also got Katterwik, a golem that loves its master, more of Braham’s bumbling around, and all sorts of little things.
All of those conversations and scenes in the post-release camp were done entirely by our writing team this time around.
Well, well… looks like they can write interesting dialogues when it doesn’t involve scarlet. I also really enjoyed moving around listening to all the conversations especially the one where Braham/Rox meets up with Kasmeer/Marjory. Although Marjory comes across a bit nasty pointing out that it was Braham and Rox that let Scarlet escape. I could understand it if they had previously met but for first time introductions finger pointing isn’t going to help you become friends in a hurry.
It says a lot about Marjory’s personality – not very nice.
So you were the one who made the cinematic pan over the camp and the destroyed tower, right after the final cutscene? I must say, that i loved that part! It really reminded me of the cutscenes back in Guild Wars 1! I’d love to see more of those!
Thank you for all the hard work you put into the game! I’m really looking forward to seeing the last couple of patches in the season, and what you come up with for Season 2! You’ve really improved over the year, and it’s been a really fun experience to watch the patches get better and better, every time!
I also want to chime in and say that I really liked a lot of what you guys did with this release. The puzzle was an awesome change of pace and it was actually fun figuring out the solutions, even if they were pretty simple. And a small touch, I liked that you guys did that panning cinematic around Marjory, Kasmeer, AND our characters when you first talk to Marjory. It was a small thing, but it was inclusive to us, which is something I’ve felt the living story (and even the personal story) hasn’t been. Usually I feel like I’m just along for the ride, and the story hardly acknowledges our contributions. This release, steps were definitely taken in the right direction to rectify that (although there’s still a ways to go). The cutscene at the end of the tower exploding was also, as everyone has already noted, completely awesome. Easily the best cutscene you guys have produced.
And finally, I wanted to mention that you guys did a great job with the dialogue, both ambient and direct interaction, at the camp in Kessex. I spent a good 30 minutes just hanging around there listening to the ambient dialogue and exploring all the conversations. I particularly liked how some conversations you could have would affect others. For example, when I first talked to one of the characters, she asked me if I had heard anything about the fate of a particular skritt inside the tower. The exit dialogue option was “I’ll ask around,” and I specifically thought to myself “Yeah, not like it’ll affect anything.” But I was wrong. Another character did know the fate of that skritt, and I was able to go back to relay that information to the original character. It might not have affected anything (although in the future it would be amazing if this kind of dialogue interaction carried over between releases) but it made everything feel more substantial and fleshed out.
This release has given me a bit more hope for the living story model. Good work guys, I hope we continue to see improvements like those I mentioned.
Thanks for the comments, Cliff.
I was very pleased with how the puzzles eventually turned out. They started off being quite complicated and even esoteric, but as I was implementing them I really began to see the flaw in that design. Namely, that someone coming into the game during this release, who hadn’t played the previous releases would have NO idea or context for some of the solutions. So although you can still see the skeleton of the plans I laid out for those puzzles, in the end I erred on the side of making them as accessible as possible, so they’re simple, but hopefully capture the flavor of those prior releases.
The camera pan including the player character was most certainly a deliberate decision, and will be something that, at the very least, I will continue to advocate for. But I had a lot of fun creating some of the in-game camera sequences during this release, so I hope to be able to do more cinematics in a hands-on fashion.
All of those conversations and scenes in the post-release camp were done entirely by our writing team this time around. A couple of us on the content design side were able to sit down with them and actually teach them how to do basic spawning and scripting, and with that base of knowledge they were able to populate the camp with all those interesting characters, which I think of as a huge win for the studio. It’s not that we’ve not had the capability in the past, it’s just that those kind of things usually end up low on the list of priorities for those of us who do the bulk of the content authoring, because although it’s really not hard to do, it’s also usually not that intense in terms of setup and scripting. When you are faced with the decision to fix a half dozen Pri.1 and Pri2 bugs or implement an NPC with conversation, the former will always take priority. So I would like to think that this is just the tip of the iceberg and that the bar will continue to be raised on content like this.
Milasta Gandil – Human Thief – 80
Agzea – Sylvari Engineer – 80
We, Team Reem [REEM] on Ruins of Surmia, want you! /w me in-game!
It’s not that we’ve not had the capability in the past, it’s just that those kind of things usually end up low on the list of priorities…
Speaking from the perspective of someone who’s usually disinterested in PVE, but still values the need for PVE in an MMORPG to cement the sense of immersion and exploration, I usually ignore the lore and narrative elements, especially in this game. However, as the exchange between the two quaggans at the camp was brought to some people’s attention in a Reddit thread, I decided to give it a look. I found myself surprised by it—finding it charming, funny, memorable. I thought it was time well spent as a player, sitting there, watching and listening to their conversation. Something like that won’t convert people like me to become hardcore PVE’ers, but it will invite more of us, and especially PVE’ers, to care and embrace the world you’ve created, a bit more than before.
So, hopefully, you won’t treat something like this as “low on the list of priorities,” because it’s elemental to crafting an MMORPG world the players can love.
I wanted to chime in and say that the quality of the cutscenes has greatly improved, and the dialogue this time around was the least excrement like to date. Please continue to improve.
You have gotten what you paid for, all that remains is biweekly gemshop pushing.
Just keep putting new dialog into the LS. This is currently my only reason to play this game anymore. And I played this patch many times more, than any of the last patches.
I would be very pleased, if you could also add dynamic events with stories attached to them. It would be like playing GW2 again.
All of those conversations and scenes in the post-release camp were done entirely by our writing team this time around. A couple of us on the content design side were able to sit down with them and actually teach them how to do basic spawning and scripting, and with that base of knowledge they were able to populate the camp with all those interesting characters, which I think of as a huge win for the studio. It’s not that we’ve not had the capability in the past, it’s just that those kind of things usually end up low on the list of priorities for those of us who do the bulk of the content authoring, because although it’s really not hard to do, it’s also usually not that intense in terms of setup and scripting. When you are faced with the decision to fix a half dozen Pri.1 and Pri2 bugs or implement an NPC with conversation, the former will always take priority. So I would like to think that this is just the tip of the iceberg and that the bar will continue to be raised on content like this.
Please continue with this! It makes an outstanding difference in making things truly feel like a living world.
I loved this patch too-
everything about it.
The instance was fun, the cut-scene was amazing and very satisfying.
I have actually repeated it a couple of times on various characters just because I like it so much.
The dialog back in camp is hilarious and in some cases very informative and even the achievements this time round was fun and easily completed while just doing the story- never becoming a grind.
great job!
I am very much looking forward to see what happens next
Kessex Hills looks amazing now with the tower parts and vines lying around, and I love that some of the bosses fell out of the tower and are crawling around the area. Great stuff.
I want to especially shout how much I love, love, love the camp dialogues/scenes. Party dialogue is always my favorite, as it can do so much for creating life and pushing character. Even the Norn who has written dialogue re: Scarlet’s mysterious time on Hoelbrak + the asura revealing the council’s plans to monitor/experiment on Sclaret were such breaths of fresh air. This is what I really wanted out of a living story — a reveal of the logic behind actions that seemingly come out of nowhere in these releases. That was a delight to find implemented. Thanks for that I just hope the wonderful workers at the wiki manage to get all the dialogue down before it disappears! I wish there was some log where I could revisit it all in-game.
Clove Zolan – Bringers of Aggro [Oops] – Blackgate
Loved the puzzle part! Devs should definitely add more such parts, jumping puzzles are already amazing and people enjoy them.
What is more choices in future story expansions should be based on the same idea – violent or more stealthy option.
All of those conversations and scenes in the post-release camp were done entirely by our writing team this time around. A couple of us on the content design side were able to sit down with them and actually teach them how to do basic spawning and scripting, and with that base of knowledge they were able to populate the camp with all those interesting characters, which I think of as a huge win for the studio. It’s not that we’ve not had the capability in the past, it’s just that those kind of things usually end up low on the list of priorities for those of us who do the bulk of the content authoring, because although it’s really not hard to do, it’s also usually not that intense in terms of setup and scripting. When you are faced with the decision to fix a half dozen Pri.1 and Pri2 bugs or implement an NPC with conversation, the former will always take priority. So I would like to think that this is just the tip of the iceberg and that the bar will continue to be raised on content like this.
Matthew, Leif, and Theo, Witter, and others have been kind enough to devote some of their free cycles toward training the writers on scene and conversation scripting. Because of this partnership, we’re beginning to improve our methods of in-game storytelling. Expect more of these kinds of moments in the future.
All of those conversations and scenes in the post-release camp were done entirely by our writing team this time around. A couple of us on the content design side were able to sit down with them and actually teach them how to do basic spawning and scripting, and with that base of knowledge they were able to populate the camp with all those interesting characters, which I think of as a huge win for the studio. It’s not that we’ve not had the capability in the past, it’s just that those kind of things usually end up low on the list of priorities for those of us who do the bulk of the content authoring, because although it’s really not hard to do, it’s also usually not that intense in terms of setup and scripting. When you are faced with the decision to fix a half dozen Pri.1 and Pri2 bugs or implement an NPC with conversation, the former will always take priority. So I would like to think that this is just the tip of the iceberg and that the bar will continue to be raised on content like this.
Matthew, Leif, and Theo, Witter, and others have been kind enough to devote some of their free cycles toward training the writers on scene and conversation scripting. Because of this partnership, we’re beginning to improve our methods of in-game storytelling. Expect more of these kinds of moments in the future.
i literally logged in just to tell you how much i appreciate that, how much all those little tidbits of character interaction and exposure mean. it gives life and details to a story that felt a bit dry on that area. i sat there for a good hour, just taking in all the voiced dialogue, and then reading everything.
next step, teach the writing team to make basic quest scripting! that way they can add little lore-detailing sidequests (like what if we had had a tiny lil sidequest related to that skritt that died in the tower? just something dialogue/interaction/Press-F-here based) it doesn’t really need rewards, at least not any solid ones. just the little story bonus would be rewarding enough for most people. just tiny things that add life to minor characters.
of course, that would just be an amazing bonus. don’t want to sound ungrateful or greedy, you guys did a great job, but i figured i’d throw the suggestion too.
Matthew, Leif, and Theo, Witter, and others have been kind enough to devote some of their free cycles toward training the writers on scene and conversation scripting. Because of this partnership, we’re beginning to improve our methods of in-game storytelling. Expect more of these kinds of moments in the future.
It’s great that you guys seem to be constantly working on ways to improve the storytelling, and it’s nice to see that you’re picking up on the stuff we think worked well. I’m really hoping for some kind of season 1 postmortem thread where we can get you and your team’s opinions on what worked, what hasn’t, your take on certain aspects of community feed back (stuff you agree with, stuff you don’t agree with), and the big takeaways of what you guys plan to improve upon in the next season.
Kessex Hills looks amazing now with the tower parts and vines lying around, and I love that some of the bosses fell out of the tower and are crawling around the area. Great stuff.
Here here…. While I personally think there should be more wreckage for something of that size, at least the surrounding environment has been (appropriately) thoroughly trashed, and has been for a month or better now. Some thought was put into the development there.
