Guild Wars 2

Indifferent on the different cut scene as a whole.

What I found silly and borderline dumb was some of the dialogue. Faron, or whatever his name, is reached out to jenna. Jenna disappears because she was being protected countess anise utilizing mesmer clones. Faron says something stupid like “Oh I shall save you my queen, have no fear!”… and “Oh I did not expect this, gee golly”. He falls and dies.

I have three issues with this: Either you tried to make Faron’s dialogue comedic on purpose to fit his character…but subsequently his joke is less tragic now because of the comedy. Or this was a genuine attempt at a serious tragedy. I didnt like the sequence with Faron.

The second issue is: I think I listed to the whole scene, and I don’t think anyone cared that faron fell to his death because countess anise used a mesmer clone. If I were logan I would be like “Seriously? What are you thinking? Faron is dead. We need to communicate better? What am i going to tell his family? what is wrong with you people that you couldnt tell me? Faron would not have reached out for Jenna, and he’d still be alive today!” Instead Logan was just annoyed that he wasnt included in the plan to conceal Jenna. Not that Faron was dead, but because he wasn’t included. Like, he wasn’t picked for kickball or something.

The last issue, is why did jenna continue to use Watchwork things to protect her after one malfunctioned because of scarlet? Uh, hint: Don’t do that, scarlet can control them.

Those are the only issues I had

cesmode.4257:

What I found silly and borderline dumb was some of the dialogue. Faron, or whatever his name, is reached out to jenna.

The gown should have tipped him off that there was magic in the air.

BobbyStein.2315:

SquirrelKing.8964:

I would like to add that I do not have a low spec machine. I have a core-i7 processor with a radeon 7950 HD and 16gb of ram. My fps was over 40 for the duration of the cutscene. I don’t think it is anything wrong on my end.

What was your latency?

You really need to check youside and I mean that sincerely. I get a constant warning only with your game thakittens (why you are filtering a everyday grammar word such as it I do not know) running my CPU at 100%, your graphic and loading screen have been loading slower and slower as this game has progressed and I have ran higher end games then this and don’t have any issues.

I did not have any of these issues when I first played Gw2 but as updates came, I notice these problems surfacing.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

If Anise is willing to create an illusion to protect the Queen, that same protection can be extended to all the attendees. In my personal story, Anise has displayed a very powerful ability where she can create multiple clones of herself. Given that she also have the talent to create an illusion of the Queen, she can easily create illusions of the guests since she knows fully that an attack is more than likely to happen.

There is, you know, the whole issue of faking the entire thing without anyone noticing and giving it away. I mean you can’t just approach people who really would have been there with this idea, because for all you know anyone in that crowd could go yapping about it, or actually be one of the people you’re trying to protect everyone from. Instead you’d have to invite only people you could be absolutely sure were trustworthy (and real, nor under any sort of magical mind control or whatever) and fake the rest, making it look like an actual event taking place to anyone else. So ‘people’ need to arrive there, sit through the speech, leave and whatever else, without anyone noticing where they came from or went. This means basically the whole thing is no longer open to the public and the point of having a speech at all is… questionable, at best.

And what about the emissaries? If it’s hard to be sure of people in your own city and military, good luck making certain this lot are genuine – but you’d have to find a way of keeping them out of it overtly rather than faking their attendance, because real people are going to notice if word gets out they attended some speech and they’re left thinking ‘I must have drank more than I thought’. Even if their finding out was delayed long enough that the event itself had happened already, it could have problematic effects on diplomatic relations with the nations they represented, which itself isn’t exactly in the best interests of Kryta in general.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

If she’s not sure, then why even bother creating an illusion of the Queen?

Is this a serious question? The whole point of precautions is that they can help if something goes wrong. You don’t wear safety glasses only when you know you’ll be blinded by flying splinters of metal that day, or (hopefully) buckle your seatbelt only if you know you’re going to be in a car crash. Having taken the precaution and nothing going wrong is just a far better outcome than not taking it the one time something does go wrong. In this case, the attack taking place was why we found out it was an illusion at all – if it hadn’t happened, as far as most people would know, it was just the queen giving a speech.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

If the information was shared with Seraph or a small number of trustworthy personnel, they could’ve setup a trap or a better evacuation plan.

There is no way of knowing that. Even if they’d been aware (or guessed) she would make use of portals, we were only able to be sent through one after research conducted by Vorpp… which became possible in the first place because they had by then started using them all over the place, and we were able to gather the data he needed. Prior to the attack that would have been much less widely available, if at all, and I doubt if anyone Anise could have been sure was trustworthy at the time knew enough about that sort of thing to conduct the research. If they don’t even know how to use one, I seriously doubt they just have the ability to slam the door behind Scarlet et al once they arrive. Even now, during invasions, we aren’t directly shutting down portals, merely killing stuff coming through until the portal (or whatever generates it) runs out of energy.

Also weren’t they trying to enact an evacuation right about when everyone got annihilated? Again it’s something that should have (and seemingly was) in place simply for the sake of caution – but in hindsight, it probably would have been safer overall if everyone just scattered and fled randomly.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Losing control of a watchknight during the opening ceremony should’ve shattered all suspicions and actions should have been taken to insure that no further watchknight can be controlled. If that cannot be insured, then they should have decommissioned all watchknights due to risk of losing control and endangering the public. Isn’t public safety should have been first and foremost?

But nothing happened between the opening and the closing ceremony except for the kakameme plan of creating an illusion of the Queen.

We don’t know that, either. It’s entirely possible they did address (or attempt to address) flaws in the technology (or magic, or whatever) that made the first time possible. Note that initially she took control of them as they were – the second time she not only took control of them but physically changed them into different things. Whatever they may have done to secure the watchknights after she first showed up could have been addressing a totally different method of compromising them, or she may simply have undone it with whatever she used to alter their physical forms.

Another thing… I’ve killed enough Branded, Risen, Icebrood, and Foefire ghosts in this game to wonder whether watchwork knights were actually more vulnerable than a living army to being controlled at all, or just happened to be the target this time because Scarlet knows more about Asuran magical pseudo-tech than cursing or corrupting living things. From our perspective it might seem they’re more risk than a conventional army, but we don’t live in a world where some guy stabbing the ground with a sword can turn a nation into crazy blue ghosts, either.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Really? “beyond their reasonable ability?”

How hard is it to decommission all defected unsecured watchknights? (etc.)

Bear in mind also that these are not the extent of the forces she controls. If nothing watchwork had been present, deploying forces there via portals would still have given her a significant advantage even if she had sent solely Aetherblades and Molten Alliance. At this point it’s also highly likely she’s well able to build her own, given her understanding of them and the fact that they’re showing up all over Tyria (I mean just how many spares were sitting in DR anyway?). Depending on whether steam creatures are a separate development or some future derivative of watchknights (and if they are, modifying watchknights in our present and her past to be more secure from her could be entirely futile) she may also have sent those in as well. Taking them over instead of sending in her own versions, or steam creatures, may well have been little more than her dramatic way of showing she still could take them over.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

This is what I’m taking about. Why is this being done now and not right after the initial indication that the watchknights are at risk of being controlled by the enemy? This only shows that these NPCs are made incompetent so that there’s something for us to do.

Have you done these missions? The things he needs us to do in order to get through that portal seem very unlikely to have been possible earlier. We’re progressing in the research now because the things are being deployed all over the surface of the continent, and as a result the machines and the portals are much more widely available to study in the first place.

LameFox.6349:

~snip~
This means basically the whole thing is no longer open to the public and the point of having a speech at all is… questionable, at best.

And what about the emissaries?
~snip~
Even if their finding out was delayed long enough that the event itself had happened already, it could have problematic effects on diplomatic relations with the nations they represented, which itself isn’t exactly in the best interests of Kryta in general.

So it’s perfectly ok to have a fake Queen make a fake speech to these emissaries? This is one of the issue I pointed out in my initial post, the Queen shows a cowardly behavior instead of showing that she’s willing to face the danger personally. It’s not something a leader of a nation should do.

Imagine if the President of the US sent a look-a-like to make a speech in a foreign country then found out that it’s just a hoax. Talk about problem in foreign relations.

Is this a serious question? The whole point of precautions is that they can help if something goes wrong.
~snip~
In this case, the attack taking place was why we found out it was an illusion at all – if it hadn’t happened, as far as most people would know, it was just the queen giving a speech.

A precaution will have the Queen in a protective barrier, just like the “Pope-mobile.” Perpetrating a hoax to your important dignitaries while you’re tucked in safe somewhere and the dignitaries are in danger is not a precaution. That’s cowardice at it’s best and the leadership of the Queen in now questionable.

There is no way of knowing that. Even if they’d been aware (or guessed) she would make use of portals, we were only able to be sent through one after research conducted by Vorpp… which became possible in the first place because they had by then started using them all over the place, and we were able to gather the data he needed. Prior to the attack that would have been much less widely available, if at all, and I doubt if anyone Anise could have been sure was trustworthy at the time knew enough about that sort of thing to conduct the research. If they don’t even know how to use one, I seriously doubt they just have the ability to slam the door behind Scarlet et al once they arrive. Even now, during invasions, we aren’t directly shutting down portals, merely killing stuff coming through until the portal (or whatever generates it) runs out of energy.

He’s another NPC made incompetent just so we can play the hero. He knows so much about Scarlet’s work yet know nothing about her work at the same time. That’s just dumb.

Also weren’t they trying to enact an evacuation right about when everyone got annihilated? Again it’s something that should have (and seemingly was) in place simply for the sake of caution – but in hindsight, it probably would have been safer overall if everyone just scattered and fled randomly.

Shutting down the watchknights would have prevented a lot of people from dying.

LameFox.6349:

We don’t know that, either. It’s entirely possible they did address (or attempt to address) flaws in the technology (or magic, or whatever) that made the first time possible. Note that initially she took control of them as they were – the second time she not only took control of them but physically changed them into different things. Whatever they may have done to secure the watchknights after she first showed up could have been addressing a totally different method of compromising them, or she may simply have undone it with whatever she used to alter their physical forms.

You simply do not continue to use an item or product that has been tampered with or known to be unsecured. That’s just common sense, which is lacking in this cinematic. Once you identified that the item or product is defected, you need to issue a massive recall…unless of course you simply just don’t care — which seems to be the case of the Queen.

Another thing… I~snip~
rom our perspective it might seem they’re more risk than a conventional army, but we don’t live in a world where some guy stabbing the ground with a sword can turn a nation into crazy blue ghosts, either.

That’s is why it is a test of character. Knowing fully well that the watchknight is at risk and can easily be manipulated by Scarlet that they simply ignore that fact and continue to use them anyway simply screams, “How stupid can you get?!”

Will you honestly continue to use your computer knowing that a bad guy can simply hack your security system and internal computer system and gain control of it while you’re online? Of course not. That is common sense. As a safety precaution, you either unplug the computer or take it offline. You try to secure it because if you cannot secure it, you’re not going to be able to get online with that computer ever again.

~snip~At this point it’s also highly likely she’s well able to build her own, given her understanding of them and the fact that they’re showing up all over Tyria (I mean just how many spares were sitting in DR anyway?). Depending on whether steam creatures are a separate development or some future derivative of watchknights (and if they are, modifying watchknights in our present and her past to be more secure from her could be entirely futile) she may also have sent those in as well. Taking them over instead of sending in her own versions, or steam creatures, may well have been little more than her dramatic way of showing she still could take them over.

I’m sure that it takes a long time to tamper with the watchknight and by shutting them down would have delayed her and gave the Asura time to properly secure them — but like I said, no effort was conducted to secure the watchknight.

Have you done these missions? The things he needs us to do in order to get through that portal seem very unlikely to have been possible earlier. We’re progressing in the research now because the things are being deployed all over the surface of the continent, and as a result the machines and the portals are much more widely available to study in the first place.

Do you honestly buy this pathetic excuse? Asura spies on each other, sabotage each other, and steal from each other. Hearing that an Asura is slowly progressing in research is laughable. This is another attempt to make an NPC incompetent so that we can have something to do.

So, ok, Scarlet is a super genius Sylvari, more the reason to spy, sabotage, and steal from her. Having that much credential and nobody is paying attention is very unlikely in the Asuran culture.

Man In Zero G.8312:

Yamsandjams.3267:

Man In Zero G.8312:

I loved it – but as I’ve said elsewhere, having NPCs refer to Divinity’s Reach as “DR” is extremely immersion breaking. Scarlet might as well have said “LOL” instead of laughing.

Otherwise, I found it fantastic.

Is it really that immersion breaking? Throughout history, people have always come up with shortened or slang versions of names, places, people, &c.

Do you find it odd that people refer to Los Angeles as “LA” all the time? You probably don’t because the abbreviation is used so commonly. It’s the same thing with Divinity’s Reach as “DR”. If anything, I’d say it enhances the immersion because it’s something that the people of such a city might do.

It is immersion breaking, yes. In all of the first game, no NPC ever referred to Lion’s Arch as “LA”. Or Droknar’s Forge as “Droks”. Or any of the other abbreviations the players used – and until the living story, nobody did it in GW2 either. They certainly didn’t in the personal story that I can recall. It sounds like an editing mistake – like it was shorthanded while writing but nobody remembered to fix it before it was sent on to the voice actors – it makes the whole thing jarring, it sounds out of place for the NPCs to suddenly start using player slang.
But hey, that’s just my opinion, man.

The only reason why it bothers me is that it makes it come across as though the New Krytan stand-ins for the letters "d’ and “r” are named.. “d” and “r.” I mean, you could say that the language already sounds just like English, but.. man, I dunno. It just strikes me as odd for some reason.

Aside from not really caring for a lot of the story elements (at all), the cut scenes themselves seem to be improving, and especially over the old side-face ones. There were certainly issues during the speech, with Jenna’s weird unrealistic animations and Scarlet being as immobile as a statue, but it’s a learning process and these are baby steps in the right direction. The painterly scenes were nice, though it would be better if the models were properly animated during these scenes. It would also be great if the player was animated and brought into it as well, because it’s beginning to feel as though, since the end of my personal story, that my character is just regarded as some grunt. Not important enough to talk to the “grown ups” and only called on when heads need bashing.

A cinematic of my character commanding Scarlet to stop her nonsense and her response would have gone a long way to pulling people in and endearing them more to what’s going on, for example.

But yeah. GW1’s cinematics weren’t great, but at least the characters were mobile and slightly expressive (though certainly not through their faces..), and if GW2 can at least get a bit past that level with its in-game cinematics (not the movie file ones) it would be fantastic.

Traveller.7496:

Well make that time longer, then! It’s your own decision to squeeze these events out every two weeks! I’m sure players will be more than happy to wait a bit longer to get polished and not rushed content.

I hate to post twice in a row but ouch. I do QA work for another game, and if someone told the lead writer that it’s his decision to push out new maps and classes, for example.. Uh. Well, suffice to say that isn’t how it works.
Though I have seen people tell one of the game artists to stop working on new aesthetic content until some bugs in the gameplay were fixed, lol.

Public service announcement: writers are only responsible for writing and artists for art, 99.9% of the time.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

So it’s perfectly ok to have a fake Queen make a fake speech to these emissaries? This is one of the issue I pointed out in my initial post, the Queen shows a cowardly behavior instead of showing that she’s willing to face the danger personally. It’s not something a leader of a nation should do.

Imagine if the President of the US sent a look-a-like to make a speech in a foreign country then found out that it’s just a hoax. Talk about problem in foreign relations.

Using an illusion doesn’t make it a ‘fake speech’. They could create a mock-up speech as well, but… why bother, when it’s not sensitive information.

As far as danger goes – she’s the most high profile target present, so in using an illusion rather than overt protection like some sort of shield (assuming such a thing would even have worked) she leaves killing ‘her’ a viable goal in the eyes of enemies, potentially drawing them out and wasting their efforts instead of redirecting them to less important but more easily accessible people. It may even have worked, except they probably didn’t expect the random from before had access to an army they could drop through portals.

And are you really suggesting the leader of a nation – whose role is like… leading… not fighting – should risk her life, usefulness, and potentially the stability of the nation for no other gain than to prove she’s okay with that risk?

Sir Vincent III.1286:

A precaution will have the Queen in a protective barrier, just like the “Pope-mobile.” Perpetrating a hoax to your important dignitaries while you’re tucked in safe somewhere and the dignitaries are in danger is not a precaution. That’s cowardice at it’s best and the leadership of the Queen in now questionable.

Wasn’t she actually in a position much more similar to them than her illusion was? If anyone should really be offended at her right now it’s probably Faren. As for a pope-mobile… for all we know, pope-mobile vs crazy person with personal army may even be a somewhat accurate measure of how that would have turned out. You can believe they could have built a barrier impervious to attack and portals, but that information isn’t given to us as far as I’ve seen.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

He’s another NPC made incompetent just so we can play the hero. He knows so much about Scarlet’s work yet know nothing about her work at the same time. That’s just dumb.

I can’t even tell if this is sarcasm or what anymore… we made some observations and brought him some crystals and he created a working portal device on the pavement in DR. If anything they made him seem like a freaking MacGyver of reverse engineering.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Shutting down the watchknights would have prevented a lot of people from dying.

From watchknight-related injuries (maybe). That still doesn’t tell us if they addressed the initial issue with them, or could reasonably have had any idea someone could hand-wave them into a whole other form.

Egon Vidar.9125:

Traveller.7496:

Well make that time longer, then! It’s your own decision to squeeze these events out every two weeks! I’m sure players will be more than happy to wait a bit longer to get polished and not rushed content.

I hate to post twice in a row but ouch. I do QA work for another game, and if someone told the lead writer that it’s his decision to push out new maps and classes, for example.. Uh. Well, suffice to say that isn’t how it works.
Though I have seen people tell one of the game artists to stop working on new aesthetic content until some bugs in the gameplay were fixed, lol.

Public service announcement: writers are only responsible for writing and artists for art, 99.9% of the time.

I don’t know if you were being sarcastic or not, but “your” in this case obviously refers to whole of ANet instead of Bobby Stein.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

You simply do not continue to use an item or product that has been tampered with or known to be unsecured. That’s just common sense, which is lacking in this cinematic. Once you identified that the item or product is defected, you need to issue a massive recall…unless of course you simply just don’t care — which seems to be the case of the Queen.

If anything we were put at risk play-fighting these things immediately after the first time. As far as I know there’s never been any indication what went on with the ones used for actual security purposes between then and the speech, nor was it clarified whether the same means was used twice (or why, if that were the case, one time involved taking control of them in their usual state and the other involved drastic changes to everything about them). Unless you have this information and I simply failed to notice it when it became available, you’re basically filling in the gaps in such a way that you give yourself something to complain about.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

That’s is why it is a test of character. Knowing fully well that the watchknight is at risk and can easily be manipulated by Scarlet that they simply ignore that fact and continue to use them anyway simply screams, “How stupid can you get?!”

Will you honestly continue to use your computer knowing that a bad guy can simply hack your security system and internal computer system and gain control of it while you’re online? Of course not. That is common sense. As a safety precaution, you either unplug the computer or take it offline. You try to secure it because if you cannot secure it, you’re not going to be able to get online with that computer ever again.

Yes, I try to secure it, but I’m under no illusion that this means it’s impervious, and I don’t unplug the ethernet cable because I can’t make it perfectly uncompromisingly secure – because there’s not yet been any indication that, after I’ve set it up this way, anyone has compromised it.

You assume that they haven’t likewise made changes since the first time the watchknights were compromised, but so far I haven’t seen any evidence one way or another in-game. We know that they were compromised again, and that there were significant observable differences between what happened the 1st and 2nd times, but we don’t yet know why it was different or whether any attempts were made in the mean time to secure them.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

I’m sure that it takes a long time to tamper with the watchknight and by shutting them down would have delayed her and gave the Asura time to properly secure them — but like I said, no effort was conducted to secure the watchknight.

Based on what? How do you even know she had any interaction with the ones at the speech before she took control of them – or any of the ones she ever took control of, for that matter?

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Do you honestly buy this pathetic excuse? Asura spies on each other, sabotage each other, and steal from each other. Hearing that an Asura is slowly progressing in research is laughable. This is another attempt to make an NPC incompetent so that we can have something to do.

So, ok, Scarlet is a super genius Sylvari, more the reason to spy, sabotage, and steal from her. Having that much credential and nobody is paying attention is very unlikely in the Asuran culture.

Well, I don’t know about you, but for me he had the portal ready in just a few hours.

LameFox.6349:

Using an illusion doesn’t make it a ‘fake speech’. They could create a mock-up speech as well, but… why bother, when it’s not sensitive information.

It further show how poor her quality as a leader is. Whether the information is sensitive or not, the dignitaries did not sent an illusion in their place, knowing the danger, out of respect to the Queen, yet the Queen did not offer the same courtesy.

As far as danger goes – she’s the most high profile target present, so in using an illusion rather than overt protection like some sort of shield (assuming such a thing would even have worked) she leaves killing ‘her’ a viable goal in the eyes of enemies, potentially drawing them out and wasting their efforts instead of redirecting them to less important but more easily accessible people. It may even have worked, except they probably didn’t expect the random from before had access to an army they could drop through portals.

A protective shield would’ve worked, we’ve seen it many times.

And are you really suggesting the leader of a nation – whose role is like… leading… not fighting – should risk her life, usefulness, and potentially the stability of the nation for no other gain than to prove she’s okay with that risk?

Why do you think world leaders goes into a high risk countries? Or why the Pope goes around in public knowing the risk? The same reason and Jenna doesn’t have that qualities.

Wasn’t she actually in a position much more similar to them than her illusion was? If anyone should really be offended at her right now it’s probably Faren. As for a pope-mobile… for all we know, pope-mobile vs crazy person with personal army may even be a somewhat accurate measure of how that would have turned out. You can believe they could have built a barrier impervious to attack and portals, but that information isn’t given to us as far as I’ve seen.

That’s why it’s unfortunate that the NPCs turned out to be incompetent and incapable given with all their power.

I can’t even tell if this is sarcasm or what anymore… we made some observations and brought him some crystals and he created a working portal device on the pavement in DR. If anything they made him seem like a freaking MacGyver of reverse engineering.

Did you forget this?
Emissary Vorpp: Of course. I know of this Scarlet. She earned advanced engineering degrees at each of Rata Sum’s colleges in record time.

From watchknight-related injuries (maybe). That still doesn’t tell us if they addressed the initial issue with them, or could reasonably have had any idea someone could hand-wave them into a whole other form.

That’s not the point. When something is as defective as the watchknight, it is common sense to stop using them immediately for the sake of public safety, until they can make sure that such “hacking” is no longer possible.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

It further show how poor her quality as a leader is. Whether the information is sensitive or not, the dignitaries did not sent an illusion in their place, knowing the danger, out of respect to the Queen, yet the Queen did not offer the same courtesy.

Except you’re just making up the reason as you go. We don’t even know it occurred to them, or if the option was available to them, nevermind why they would’ve turned it down if it did and it was.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

A protective shield would’ve worked, we’ve seen it many times.

Well I guess it’s a good thing we’ve never seen protective shields fail then.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Why do you think world leaders goes into a high risk countries? Or why the Pope goes around in public knowing the risk? The same reason and Jenna doesn’t have that qualities.

To gain popularity, and because in reality their enemies have nothing even close to comparable to the army they’re surrounded by – nor the ability to portal right past it. That doesn’t necessarily make it a good idea, but if there’s an increase in hostile activity due to their visit, it’s unlikely to be them who dies as a result.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

That’s why it’s unfortunate that the NPCs turned out to be incompetent and incapable given with all their power.

You’re clearly so dead-set on believing this that, to be honest, I just don’t care anymore. Yes, everything is incompetent, it all should have gone according to plan and we should go home to our respective home instances and sleep off our hangovers. Perhaps the devs can put that in the next time.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Did you forget this?
Emissary Vorpp: Of course. I know of this Scarlet. She earned advanced engineering degrees at each of Rata Sum’s colleges in record time.

And so, naturally, he already has an intimate understanding of how anything she could design will work.

Oh wait, that would be completely ludicrous.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

That’s not the point. When something is as defective as the watchknight, it is common sense to stop using them immediately for the sake of public safety. Until they can make sure that such “hacking” is no longer possible.

‘No longer possible’ may simply not be a realistic goal under the circumstances, for watchknights, or people, or anything. There are numerous examples I’ve already given where sentient beings were corrupted by magic.