Guild Wars 2

I seem to recall a post from a dev stating that this current living story event would draw together all the strands of the living story. Has it? I think not, at least not sufficiently.

My first major beef with this update is the number of times you freakin’ kill Scarlet. She pops up on the successful conclusion of an invasion to have her kitten handed to her. She also pops up three times in the Funhouse instance, and each time her HP falls to zero but she doesn’t die.

I just… I can’t accept that after all these “killings” she’s not actually, y’know… dead. Why is she not? Why does she keep coming back for more? More importantly… HOW does she keep coming back for more? Did I miss something?

Onto my second problem. Flame and Frost, the Molten Alliance. I am yet to find any information on how she may have coerced the Flame Legion and Dredge into forming an alliance, and why they are prepared to fight for her during these invasions. In addition… where has the Molten Alliance been since we last saw them?

Third issue. I am still unclear about where the Aetherblades and Steam Creatures came from. The Asura Infinity Ball Personal Story choice makes the Steam Creatures out to be linked somehow with that player character, or at least Shodd? I suppose they might be incidental. And the Aetherblades? Who set them up? Where do they hide? How are the “steam portals” created and what’s on the other side?

Fourthly, these invasions. If you fail, nothing happens. Nothing. Nada. Why no consequences? Surely if your attempts to stop her invasion fail, her minions should have successfully infiltrated that zone? Apparently they don’t care about it all that much once they got their foot in the door. It’s very easy to take one look at these events and think “wow, these are great”… but… there’s no consequences for failing. “kitten kitten you get less rewards, newb!”. Yes. I meant story driven consequences.

The story this time, ArenaNet, seems sloppy to me. Everything seems too convenient. I will certainly be glad when this farmfest of an event is over, and that is all it apparently is.

Just to lighten the mood of this thread… Clockwork creatures – very nicely done. I love their animations, especially the big guys who start out on all fours. I also like the mechanics of fighting Scarlett in the Funhouse, when you’re solo running it. The impressiveness of it, however, does not make up for what I see as a lack of story details. I also understand that you love your mystery and intrigue and maybe you’re trying to eek it out longer but sometimes I can’t help but think it drags on too long. After all this time I find myself really tiring of Aetherblades and really want to see the back of them.

Dragons, please.

Patch has been out for two days. Give it time padawan.

No one knows yet how Scarlet have formed stuff and made Alliances, it has not been told yet, but it probably will soon.

Direksone.3867:

Patch has been out for two days. Give it time padawan.

Given other patches haven’t really updated anything other than bug fixes between the fortnightly updates, I don’t see this going anywhere else.

As Scarlet is a “personal nemesis” I reckon she’ll be popping up here and there for years to come. One of those people you “just can’t pin down” (except y’know, when you kill her over and over in events).

I was expecting far more of a conclusion than we got, and I’m feeling a bit disappointed.

Seeing as they did this update quite abruptly and as a surprise, whose to say not another will take place next week, giving some of those answers? I always try not to get too hyped up (expect the worst, pray for the best is something I take to heart for pretty much anything in life). Also I think you will be in a better position to judge after this content has passed. We can all actually draw conclusions from what has happened, give proper feedback to ANet and they can learn from it.

I doubt it was abrupt, or a surprise to them. Did Mike O’brien gather the design team the day before the Queen’s Speech was due to be released to say:

“Guys, change of plan… you have one day to design and implement the all new Clockwork Chaos event, sorry about trolling you all with the Queen’s Speech”.

Queen’s Speech always was a setup, it’s usual Anet theatrics… which I really like, until they don’t deliver on story content as they really haven’t this time. “A different place to farm” is pretty much all it is.

Yes, but did we know about it? No. That’s why it’s a surprise to us. I, and many, actually enjoy the massive events. The only thing that I dislike is that there’s no consequence when it fails (a good thing would’ve been the Dynamic event system that Rift has, when you fail, villages get overrun etc. etc. and you have to free everything again). But then again, this is something new and something they can learn from.

I, for one, am happy to be on this journey with ArenaNet that’s taking place, trying new things, going against the grain and learning from it. The potential of this game is immense and seeing as no LS has had the 8 weeks development time they will have in about a month, I am very optimistic.

It would probably be better if some of these are left a mystery. If they attempt to explain it, it will probably be disappointing and even more sloppily done.

They said they would bring together all the Living Story elements, they didn’t say they would explain it all.

Knowing that Scarlet is the one behind the Molten Alliance, as well as the Aetherblades, is a step up from what we had before (arguably an obvious step but even so). Finding out how she did it will probably come in the next chapter.

Danikat.8537:

Finding out how she did it will probably come sometime around 2016

Fixed that for you!

Incidentally I’ve no problem with the events for what their purpose is: Making shedloads of cash. There seems to be zero integrity to them story-wise.

Sarie.1630:

Danikat.8537:

Finding out how she did it will probably come sometime around 2016

Fixed that for you!

Incidentally I’ve no problem with the events for what their purpose is: Making shedloads of cash. There seems to be zero integrity to them story-wise.

I think you’re only hurting yourself here by drawing conclusions so early. Perhaps they do and that question will be answered soon enough. You don’t know, stop making assumptions. It will, in my opinion, only make the experience all the more sour.

Direksone.3867:

I think you’re only hurting yourself here by drawing conclusions so early. Perhaps they do and that question will be answered soon enough. You don’t know, stop making assumptions. It will, in my opinion, only make the experience all the more sour.

I read that and hear: “Go sit quietly in a corner and wait for them to get it right”.

No.

Haha fine. You’ll only spoil your experience.

Slow story telling speed is only one of my complaints anyway. At the moment it’s like reading one line of a novel every 2 weeks.

Sarie.1630:

Slow story telling speed is only one of my complaints anyway. At the moment it’s like reading one line of a novel every 2 weeks.

That I do agree with, though the LS instance of the closing ceremony was a lot better than previous ones imo, it’s still quite lackluster. Though I haven’t been to her funhouse yet so there’s probably more there as well. You have to realize though that the teams haven’t had 8 weeks, which they will have in the future, to make this content. Already making that cinematic takes a lot of work apparently as they had to change and cut some stuff from it. Right now every team has about a month to make all this stuff, whereas in the future it will be 8 weeks. I hope that it will also increase the amount of story put into the game. The short stories are fun as well that are put on the website, but I feel they should do more as well. Like with Evons short story you got to know him a bit more, but I would’ve liked a couple more of those to really get to know him. But I guess that will happen in due time.

Sarie.1630:

Direksone.3867:

I think you’re only hurting yourself here by drawing conclusions so early. Perhaps they do and that question will be answered soon enough. You don’t know, stop making assumptions. It will, in my opinion, only make the experience all the more sour.

I read that and hear: “Go sit quietly in a corner and wait for them to get it right”.

No.

You do know they’ll never get it “right” by the standards of everyone in the game? I mean, every time they try to put something in people say they want, there’s 400 threads about why it sucks and the game is going to die.

“I just… I can’t accept that after all these “killings” she’s not actually, y’know… dead. Why is she not? Why does she keep coming back for more? More importantly… HOW does she keep coming back for more? Did I miss something?”

Probably did miss something, she has personal teleportation devices like Kudu it seems. (By the way, that’s another person who it was completely satisfying to take down . . . finally.) I also anticipated the goal is not to outright kill her but to beat her into submission so she could be questioned. Like Mai Trin.

“Onto my second problem. Flame and Frost, the Molten Alliance. I am yet to find any information on how she may have coerced the Flame Legion and Dredge into forming an alliance, and why they are prepared to fight for her during these invasions. In addition… where has the Molten Alliance been since we last saw them?”

Apparently the Molten Alliance went underground. Literally, as the case may be. As for how she coerced them? Is it as important to know HOW as to know that she DID? And that for some reason there’s still a group of them loose somewhere hiding and still developing weapons?

By the way, coercing the dredge to ally isn’t hard. The Inquest did it for peanuts (outdated weaponry).

“Third issue. I am still unclear about where the Aetherblades and Steam Creatures came from.”

Two different questions, one of which we have no answer to at all. The Aetherblades? Apparently they appropriated some smaller Pact airships and adapted a very “hit and run” type of tactic. Why are they together? Where did they come from? How do so many work together?

For the riches. Didn’t you get they were pirates the first time they were introduced? Captain Mai Trin was angling for a seat at Lion’s Arch. (And probably Scarlet was too, until that failed so hard it bounced.) Promise people glory and riches and you will always get takers if you look like you can follow up on it. Scarlet does, and I’d place it as highly probable they now follow her out of fear instead of greed.

“Fourthly, these invasions. If you fail, nothing happens. Nothing. Nada. Why no consequences? "

Because the invasions aren’t as important as what she’s doing elsewhere. That’s what I’m reading into it. Also, the invasions shut down a zone pretty thoroughly for 45 minutes, so in technical terms it’s probably better that if the event fails (i.e. you don’t clear all the way to Scarlet Briar and then kill her) . . . and it DOES more often than it doesn’t . . . there’d be a ton of zones accumulating problems in them which would pretty much never get solved.

“Yes. I meant story driven consequences.”

Because it’s been just over 24 hours since it started and lasting effects probably won’t be left until the next team’s release after this is out.

Thank you Tobi. I’m gonna call you Tobi. ’Cause I like you.

Direksone.3867:

Thank you Tobi. I’m gonna call you Tobi. ’Cause I like you.

Completely conjecture and pulled out of . . . I mean, fabricated based on what little we have so far.

Probably one of the better strengths of a story with few details being dropped rapidly is seeing what other minds come up with to fill the gaps. I mean, George Lucas made a killing off licensing his work out to do that

Which is also one of the greatest weaknesses of a story where a lot of details aren’t available: when they get filled it can sometimes be obvious there wasn’t any continuity with an original "plan’ despite what anyone says about it.

. . . anyway, who else is looking forward to hearing Moto explain how he came up with the SAB in great excruciating detail?

Its obvious that Scarlet is Abaddon in disguise. Or at least a minion of his.

Well part of the problem is that you never actually kill her. She keeps escaping. Whether it’s in the dungeon or the open world, she becomes invulnerable and laughs as she disappears (escapes to come back later).

There’s only one important question I have…
While Scarlet was busy going to all three Asuran colleges, making shady deals with the Molten Alliance and the Aetherblade Pirates, and generally becoming a psychotic, stereotypical supervillain…

joshua valentine.2593:

There’s only one important question I have…
While Scarlet was busy going to all three Asuran colleges, making shady deals with the Molten Alliance and the Aetherblade Pirates, and generally becoming a psychotic, stereotypical supervillain…

Show Spoiler

hide spoiler

Where the hell did she get the time to make not one, but TWO Quips?

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Direksone.3867:

Thank you Tobi. I’m gonna call you Tobi. ’Cause I like you.

Completely conjecture and pulled out of . . . I mean, fabricated based on what little we have so far.

Probably one of the better strengths of a story with few details being dropped rapidly is seeing what other minds come up with to fill the gaps. I mean, George Lucas made a killing off licensing his work out to do that

Which is also one of the greatest weaknesses of a story where a lot of details aren’t available: when they get filled it can sometimes be obvious there wasn’t any continuity with an original "plan’ despite what anyone says about it.

. . . anyway, who else is looking forward to hearing Moto explain how he came up with the SAB in great excruciating detail?

Tobi is one of the main villains in the Naruto series. His power allows him to phase through material objects. If Scarlet has a similar ability then that would explain why she is able to constantly elude death.

zeromius.1604:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Direksone.3867:

Thank you Tobi. I’m gonna call you Tobi. ’Cause I like you.

Completely conjecture and pulled out of . . . I mean, fabricated based on what little we have so far.

Probably one of the better strengths of a story with few details being dropped rapidly is seeing what other minds come up with to fill the gaps. I mean, George Lucas made a killing off licensing his work out to do that

Which is also one of the greatest weaknesses of a story where a lot of details aren’t available: when they get filled it can sometimes be obvious there wasn’t any continuity with an original "plan’ despite what anyone says about it.

. . . anyway, who else is looking forward to hearing Moto explain how he came up with the SAB in great excruciating detail?

Tobi is one of the main villains in the Naruto series. His power allows him to phase through material objects. If Scarlet has a similar ability then that would explain why she is able to constantly elude death.

Or perhaps….just maybe….
Scarlet is also a Watchknight…..the first Watchknight, the Alpha Watchknight created by….??

Well she has a portal device to get away so that would explain how she gets away everytime(although not the invulnerability). Besides that i agree with everything you have stated and i do hope im just missing story content.

It would of been nice to go more in depth with what is going on and how all these groups got together. Although I don’t think scarlet is the brains of this operations and that might explain why we know nothing about what’s going on because scarlet herself is probably their to just cause havoc and mayhem not show you why these things are happening(maybe to distract us from something else).

Elbegast.6970:

zeromius.1604:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Direksone.3867:

Thank you Tobi. I’m gonna call you Tobi. ’Cause I like you.

Completely conjecture and pulled out of . . . I mean, fabricated based on what little we have so far.

Probably one of the better strengths of a story with few details being dropped rapidly is seeing what other minds come up with to fill the gaps. I mean, George Lucas made a killing off licensing his work out to do that

Which is also one of the greatest weaknesses of a story where a lot of details aren’t available: when they get filled it can sometimes be obvious there wasn’t any continuity with an original "plan’ despite what anyone says about it.

. . . anyway, who else is looking forward to hearing Moto explain how he came up with the SAB in great excruciating detail?

Tobi is one of the main villains in the Naruto series. His power allows him to phase through material objects. If Scarlet has a similar ability then that would explain why she is able to constantly elude death.

Or perhaps….just maybe….
Scarlet is also a Watchknight…..the first Watchknight, the Alpha Watchknight created by….??

SkyNet

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

joshua valentine.2593:

There’s only one important question I have…
While Scarlet was busy going to all three Asuran colleges, making shady deals with the Molten Alliance and the Aetherblade Pirates, and generally becoming a psychotic, stereotypical supervillain…

Show Spoiler

hide spoiler

Where the hell did she get the time to make not one, but TWO Quips?

Show Spoiler

hide spoiler

She stole the Precursors from the times I was doing the Mystic Toilet for attempted gain, naturally. What, you think it’s only Zommorros’ fault? The rest? Pirate. She stole that stuff through the Diminishing Returns. Yeah, that was actually Scarlet at work and you had no idea.

In that case she really is a personal nemesis.

When it comes to Scarlet I have my speculation about what is going on, with the bit of information of what we got from her “grand” introduction. First major thing is that she might have a separate “dream” from the others that follow the pale tree teachings or nightmare court ideology. Which reminds me I think caithe, the pale tree, and even faolain would have more insight on this character. She seems like the type of person who was soul searching to find oneself, and found out she did not belong in the end.

Continuing on with speculation. She supposedly saw the eternal alchemy in all it’s glory, which is another way to see how the universe works. Which could have been the root of her being psychotic. She probably could not comprehend such knowledge but was able to retain it at the cost of her sanity. Her true motivation for what’s going on is somewhat mysterious. Could she know that our fight against the dragons is a futile matter? Or perhaps that by us killing the dragons, we would create larger atrocities then what they could do with a combined effort? Perhaps she is being evil just to put everyone on the right track to do good? Nevertheless her motivations probably tied directly to what she can see in her mind. Abandoning her agricultural roots and becoming a technological prodigy.

When it comes to the steam creatures I think she might have traveled to an alternate universe before. Or might have created the technology to do so. Her portal device in Gendarran Fields that look replicated from the steam creature tech fuels this idea. Which might explain her unlimited resources and help. Her persuasion techniques to get her lackeys probably stems from her promising wealth and power. She does treat them as a means to an end though.

Tobias, your post was so horribly formatted :p

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

For the riches. Didn’t you get they were pirates the first time they were introduced? Captain Mai Trin was angling for a seat at Lion’s Arch. (And probably Scarlet was too, until that failed so hard it bounced.) Promise people glory and riches and you will always get takers if you look like you can follow up on it. Scarlet does, and I’d place it as highly probable they now follow her out of fear instead of greed.

Thanks for the history lesson. Doesn’t explain anything I wanted to know though.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

“Fourthly, these invasions. If you fail, nothing happens. Nothing. Nada. Why no consequences? "

Because the invasions aren’t as important as what she’s doing elsewhere. That’s what I’m reading into it. Also, the invasions shut down a zone pretty thoroughly for 45 minutes, so in technical terms it’s probably better that if the event fails (i.e. you don’t clear all the way to Scarlet Briar and then kill her) . . . and it DOES more often than it doesn’t . . . there’d be a ton of zones accumulating problems in them which would pretty much never get solved.

“Yes. I meant story driven consequences.”

Because it’s been just over 24 hours since it started and lasting effects probably won’t be left until the next team’s release after this is out.

ArenaNet have already said the invasions will continue “at a reduced rate” after this event is over. No stop date has been uttered to my knowledge so, these go on forever I assume. So you really think that two weeks will make a difference? Ok, I guess we’ll wait and see who’s right. Just to say:

In b4 no real consequences.

Sarie.1630:

Tobias, your post was so horribly formatted :p

It happens when I forget to properly use quote tags. Whoops.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

For the riches. Didn’t you get they were pirates the first time they were introduced? Captain Mai Trin was angling for a seat at Lion’s Arch. (And probably Scarlet was too, until that failed so hard it bounced.) Promise people glory and riches and you will always get takers if you look like you can follow up on it. Scarlet does, and I’d place it as highly probable they now follow her out of fear instead of greed.

Thanks for the history lesson. Doesn’t explain anything I wanted to know though.

What did you want to know? I thought I’d left enough there to work with for an explanation short of getting an ANet writer here and threatening him/her with a moa feather.

- The Steam Creatures don’t have a good explanation yet other than in one instance of their involvement. (Infinity Ball story branch.) But it is clear they’re not just restricted to that, since they’re in Lornar’s Pass building . . . things.

- The Aetherblades are a pirate group. Their origin is of less importance (in my opinion) more than what they have and what they use it for.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

“Fourthly, these invasions. If you fail, nothing happens. Nothing. Nada. Why no consequences? "

Because the invasions aren’t as important as what she’s doing elsewhere. That’s what I’m reading into it. Also, the invasions shut down a zone pretty thoroughly for 45 minutes, so in technical terms it’s probably better that if the event fails (i.e. you don’t clear all the way to Scarlet Briar and then kill her) . . . and it DOES more often than it doesn’t . . . there’d be a ton of zones accumulating problems in them which would pretty much never get solved.

“Yes. I meant story driven consequences.”

Because it’s been just over 24 hours since it started and lasting effects probably won’t be left until the next team’s release after this is out.

ArenaNet have already said the invasions will continue “at a reduced rate” after this event is over. No stop date has been uttered to my knowledge so, these go on forever I assume. So you really think that two weeks will make a difference? Ok, I guess we’ll wait and see who’s right. Just to say:

In b4 no real consequences.

I don’t know what format the consequences will take, but I’m trusting something is going to follow from the events of this “Clockwork Chaos”.

But . . . I think the “real consequences” story or otherwise are going to follow from what Scarlet does after this is done rather than the invasions. Because it seems the invasions are less important to her than other matters. Or it will follow from what the protagonists (Queen Jennah, Countess Anise, Logan, Rox, Braham) do in the aftermath.

well im assuming there are many more things to be found out. i dont think scarlet is our personal nemisis cause it was clearly stated when we met them we would know them and scarlet no one has any recollection of meeting her. so on that point alone i think we will be getting more answers. if we dont then this was truly a terrible story that was haphazardly thrown together and i doubt anet could do anything with this ls story and id leave the game so fast especially when they hyped it so much and created this garbage and should go back to the drawing board

This wonderful guy explains my issues with this patch far more eloquently than I have:

I’m not surprised, though it depresses me greatly that so many players are happy to overlook badly implemented content when there is “great farming opportunities”. Most of the players I’ve spoken to about this say one of two things:

1. “Can’t you just be happy with the farming?”
2. “Omg y u so impatient why can’t you wait 2 weeks”

In response:

1. No.
2. THIS LIVING STORY CHAIN HAS BEEN RUNNING SINCE JANUARY AND WE STILL PRETTY MUCH ONLY KNOW THE NAMES OF SOME OF THE BADDIES.

I. Am. Getting. Bored.

I like stories. I like Guild Wars because of the story. This patch was super-hyped – not even really by the players this time – ArenaNet’s (usually cool) brand of intrigue and mystery was in full force. I am, of course, speaking of defacing the Queen’s Speech page, and sending out the poems/watches to fansites. They have not delivered sufficiently, for me, with regards to the story.

Sarie.1630:

Direksone.3867:

Patch has been out for two days. Give it time padawan.

Given other patches haven’t really updated anything other than bug fixes between the fortnightly updates, I don’t see this going anywhere else.

As Scarlet is a “personal nemesis” I reckon she’ll be popping up here and there for years to come. One of those people you “just can’t pin down” (except y’know, when you kill her over and over in events).

I was expecting far more of a conclusion than we got, and I’m feeling a bit disappointed.

I’ve yet to be in an event where Scarlet is killed. Just before death, she goes invulnerable and portals out. Apparently, she knows a lot about portals. I still think she was at the Thaumanova reactor when it blew up.

DarcShriek.5829:

I’ve yet to be in an event where Scarlet is killed. Just before death, she goes invulnerable and portals out. Apparently, she knows a lot about portals. I still think she was at the Thaumanova reactor when it blew up.

When you “Kill” Scarlet at the end of a zone’s meta chain she makes a comment about the mists not being ready for her, gives a dying chuckle, then the players can “Finish Her!”.

As far as I can see, she dies. Dies! Dies! Dies! Dies! Dies! Dies! (see what I did there?)

She does go invulnerable, you are right. From what I can see, this is just to give her time to chunter her dying words.

Sarie.1630:

2. “Omg y u so impatient why can’t you wait 2 weeks”

In response:

2. THIS LIVING STORY CHAIN HAS BEEN RUNNING SINCE JANUARY AND WE STILL PRETTY MUCH ONLY KNOW THE NAMES OF SOME OF THE BADDIES.

It also took a hiatus and side-trip for a while off into festivals (and yeah, I was annoyed at that too, I just would sigh and go “wait two weeks, it’ll be over…”) It also dragged like an anchor on the seabed for the first month or two while they worked crap out internally (so I understand) to get the two week cycle moving.

I get you’re running out of patience, or are out of it. I understand not everyone has the patience for writers playing coy with “the answers” (I’m a freaking LOST watcher, for crying out loud) so please don’t accuse me of not getting it.

However.

These last two updates in August have made me rather pleased, and not for the farming options. The Champion loot workover was a good concept (executed with questionable success), the removal of culling actually makes events look more full to me (oh hai SBI zerg! I c u nao!) and the invasion events are fun for me to take part in (if I can hit one).

The story is less consequential to me for a game (most times); if it’s enough to give a flavor to events I play through then I’m okay with it. I blame myself growing up with paper-thin story for the longest time in my games, even in my King’s Quest games. If we get something better in two weeks? Awesome. If not?

Meh, I got a decent game I could play for the game aspect rather than the story. It’ll join Pokemon on that level of entertainment for me.