Guild Wars 2

Tohnren.5603:

BobbyStein.2315:

Malkavian.4516:

BobbyStein.2315:

I just wanted to provide an update since it’s been a while.

• We are currently working to restore the Greatest Fear storyline to the live game. I can’t provide a release date at this point.
• In addition to restoring the Personal Story steps to their original order we’re making some minor improvements where possible (e.g. recording new VO or updating certain conversations, etc.).

We’ll provide additional details closer to release. Thanks much for your patience.

That’s all well and good. Nice to know you are getting down to fixing it. Now, that just leaves the issue on characters who have been through the botched PS. Will you by some chance, make it replayable like you did with the Living Story? Because if I have to grind my charr character just to see the fixed version, that’s just bullcrap. :/

The Personal Story was never designed to be replayable on a single character, so making a change like that would involve a lot of revision (updating and testing hundreds of story steps). It’s simply out of scope.

The updated story steps will start with A Light in the Darkness.

This is just unacceptable, though. You’re telling me that I’ve ruined my chances of ever experiencing the full personal story and having a correct and complete story journal for my main character because I didn’t think to research whether or not personal story arcs were just incompetently REMOVED from the game before I continued my story? This is your fault, not mine. But I am the one getting punished.

If you can’t reset stories to the greatest fear, I would even accept a full personal story reset to biography and do the work of getting my character back up to that part of the story. I’d also even pay for such a service in the gemstore. I’ll wait for HoT for it too. Just give me SOME option other than rerolling my main. Please.

I feel your pain there. But still the game prior to the Living Story updates wasn’t designed to be replayable to begin with with the branching instances and all that jazz. I personally would gladly reroll my character for a fresh start. But the issue lies in me having to double the grind just to get the gold I need to re-gear my character, which can burn me out even more. If they can provide the replacement gear (by just simply looking at the gear the character has and providing identical copies of it) and stuff for it, at the very least the levelling process will be less tedious to do.

So, Mr. Stein. Any word on the progress of the personal story fix?

BobbyStein.2315:

This is good advice. While I don’t have a firm release date to share just yet, I do recommend that you wait until the Personal Story is restored (with minor improvements) before playing into chapter 6.

I’ll be making a post in the next couple of weeks that will give more details on what changes the update will include.

Edit: Also, thanks for playing. Looking forward to seeing the videos. Are you playing on NA or EU servers?

From this thread: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/lore/Recently-started-lore-focused-let-s-play/first#post4868746

Thank you for this thread. It is important for me because I couldn’t understand how such great RP game could have so different style in higher level zones.

I wish it would be possible to choose this RP path of personal story.

BobbyStein.2315:

My advice to people who are interested in playing the restored Personal Story (which will include the Greatest Fear steps, original chapter 8 ordering, and various minor text and VO updates) is to not complete A Light in the Darkness (in chapter 6). That way you’ll be able to play the restored content in its entirety when it goes live.

We’re currently discussing release dates and will share that information when we’re able. Thanks again for all your great suggestions and patience.

I certainly hope that there will be an option for those who have passed this point to restore & replay the corrected story. I bought GW2 at launch, but spent most of my time exploring low level content and creating characters until taking a break from the game for a year or two. I had no idea that the personal story changed during that time period.

I came back to the game in December and leveled my main to 80. I played through the personal story until just past the Battle for Fort Trinity. At the point of A Light in the Darkness, the story got buggy and bad and confusing. So, I stopped right at the point where I’d stepped on an airship ramp, ended up at a beach, and had to kill some pirate ghosts. The personal story had become so unsatisfying at that point, I stopped doing anything with it.

Although I have alts that I can hold off on the personal story in order to play through, it’s sad to know that my main might not be able to complete a coherent and corrected story simply because I’ve gone a few steps too far.

Is this something that you expect to ultimately be rolled into the delayed patch, or are the dates too far apart to justify it?

BobbyStein.2315:

Malkavian.4516:

So, Mr. Stein. Any word on the progress of the personal story fix?

I’m working on the messaging and am working out some design issues on a few details. I should have more info to post before the end of the month. Thanks for your patience.

Fair enough. Though some elaboration on what you said would be welcome.

I have a character who finished ‘Steel Tide’ (last one of Vigil tank storyline).
In launch-time storyline order, ‘Against the Corruption’ should be the next storyline.
Currently, however, It says ‘Victory or Death’ is next one.
It looks I missed from ‘Against the Corruption’ to ‘the Source of Orr.’

After patch, which one will be the next storyline, ‘Against the Corruption’ or ‘Victory or Death’?

By the way can you also fix Trahearne acting like a short sighted little kid in “Against the Corruption”? If you walk just a tiny bit ahead of him he becomes lost and confused and don’t know where to go until you walk back. I am pretty sure he wasn’t like this before the reordering.

murderofcrow.6109:

Just to be clear, up to what chapter can I safely complete with regards to the future fix? I completed Part VI: Suspicious Activity, next instance will begin The Battle of Claw Island.

You want to stop BEFORE A Light in the Darkness.

So it’s best to stop after the racial sympathy.

BobbyStein.2315:

Malkavian.4516:

So, Mr. Stein. Any word on the progress of the personal story fix?

I’m working on the messaging and am working out some design issues on a few details. I should have more info to post before the end of the month. Thanks for your patience.

Thanks for the update.

triggerhappy.3871:

I have a character who finished ‘Steel Tide’ (last one of Vigil tank storyline).
In launch-time storyline order, ‘Against the Corruption’ should be the next storyline.
Currently, however, It says ‘Victory or Death’ is next one.
It looks I missed from ‘Against the Corruption’ to ‘the Source of Orr.’

After patch, which one will be the next storyline, ‘Against the Corruption’ or ‘Victory or Death’?

Based on how things happened and forum posts, it looks like you’re stuck with Victory or Death because you already began Victory or Death.

You’ll have to do a new character to experience the changes.

That’s what I did basically. I made use of the time I had just levelling my engineer to 80 and probably just doing the first half of map completion along with gearing him with celestials.

Unfortunately, I thought it was safe to CHOOSE my fear, as long as I didn’t go beyond that. So my latest character did Light in the Darkness before stopping. (A couple of months before this thread existed.) I really hope there’s some wiggle room on that. If not, I’m going to have to think about re-rolling the character, but I’d really rather avoid that and the loss of all his exotic gear and such.

(Bump)

Am at level 80 with another toon and the reordering/butchering of the Personal Story is just unbearable. After doing PS with many other toons long before this, the story now makes no sense. It took me a second to realize “Wait…were did that mission go?”

Are they ever going to fix this? I know it doesn’t necessarily change the game itself or your toon, but…it’s very distracting and jarring for us who have played the original PS.

They are definitely fixing it, for sure. Sad that it’s been like 6-7 months since this mistake happened.

I still don’t know why they actually did it, can someone explain the reasoning to me? I do find the new “you can do almost everything from the airshipdock in fort trinity” thing comfortable, but I still don’t understand why they had to cut out an entire storyarc, and mixed up the quests afterwards, I mean, they make no sense at all now, you fight alongside the Largosgirl a few missions an suddenly Trahearn is like “hey, I need to introduce you to someone!” it just doesn’t make any sense to me why you would ever mash up the timeline in that way. Has there ever been any explainaition given what they trief to achive through this?

Recent returning player here and just learning about this problem.

I’m just about to finish the PS after deciding to just start fresh last week and experience everything all over again. I knew something was way off from what I remembered before… If I knew it was screwed up towards the end I wouldn’t have gone beyond the critical point where I’d end up losing parts of the story.

I wish this issue has more visibility rather than be hidden away in the forums which I and many other players don’t frequent. This is really unfortunate for the recent influx of new/returning players from the discount sale and HoT hype who never did or will ever get the chance to play the PS in its ideal state, especially if they like lore and such.

I really hope my character’s journal at the very least will be updated to reflect it faithfully.

BobbyStein.2315:

BrettM.9062:

Unfortunately, I thought it was safe to CHOOSE my fear, as long as I didn’t go beyond that. So my latest character did Light in the Darkness before stopping. (A couple of months before this thread existed.) I really hope there’s some wiggle room on that. If not, I’m going to have to think about re-rolling the character, but I’d really rather avoid that and the loss of all his exotic gear and such.

It is safe to choose your greatest fear in A Light in the Darkness. If you’ve completed that story step it just means that you won’t see the update to that particular step, but you’ll be able to play the My Greatest Fear bits when they go live (as long as you don’t complete Forging the Pact).

I have a forum post that’s just about ready to go with all the major details and player scenarios. It’s going through review now and will hopefully go live by the end of the month.

May Kormir bless you! Thank you, thank you, thank you for that clarification. I feel MUCH better now. Eventually I’ll have a new character that will see the updates to Light in the Darkness. I’m happy knowing that this one will still get the whole arc.

Edit: Regarding what SteelVictim said, perhaps that forum post should be a blog post. Get the news out to a wider audience who may not be familiar with the issue. Stop them before they go too far!

BobbyStein.2315:

BrettM.9062:

Unfortunately, I thought it was safe to CHOOSE my fear, as long as I didn’t go beyond that. So my latest character did Light in the Darkness before stopping. (A couple of months before this thread existed.) I really hope there’s some wiggle room on that. If not, I’m going to have to think about re-rolling the character, but I’d really rather avoid that and the loss of all his exotic gear and such.

It is safe to choose your greatest fear in A Light in the Darkness. If you’ve completed that story step it just means that you won’t see the update to that particular step, but you’ll be able to play the My Greatest Fear bits when they go live (as long as you don’t complete Forging the Pact).

I have a forum post that’s just about ready to go with all the major details and player scenarios. It’s going through review now and will hopefully go live by the end of the month.

Nice to hear.

Don’t forget the player scenario where a character is in the middle of their Greatest Fear Missions since before the September update, in fear of missing the last mission that’s after Battle of Fort Trinity.

I had already finished the story on 3 of my chars, and my other lvl 80 was already at the forgotten temple part. I was away for a while, and after coming back was more immersed on the LS2 than doing PS. So only now did i start doing my Necro’s Personal Story (the one that had already done up to The forgotten temple). So a guild mate was complaining, and i was like “everything seems to be the same still…”
So i went to the wiki. And Oh my god is the story messed up… Who Butchered the continuity that badly?
Please fix soon… I really like doing Personal Story on my chars… But from what i saw in the wiki you mangled it badly. So i don’t think i’ll be progressing any of my other character’s story any time soon… Which is a kitten shame, i tell you.

Just realized that Romke’s bit seems to be missing a bit of it- i could swear it started somewhere else, and why is my character not talking now?
I don’t get why did you feel you had to change what was without a doubt the best part of the game at launch… I feel like i lost one of my favorite parts of the game.

BobbyStein.2315:

BrettM.9062:

Unfortunately, I thought it was safe to CHOOSE my fear, as long as I didn’t go beyond that. So my latest character did Light in the Darkness before stopping. (A couple of months before this thread existed.) I really hope there’s some wiggle room on that. If not, I’m going to have to think about re-rolling the character, but I’d really rather avoid that and the loss of all his exotic gear and such.

It is safe to choose your greatest fear in A Light in the Darkness. If you’ve completed that story step it just means that you won’t see the update to that particular step, but you’ll be able to play the My Greatest Fear bits when they go live (as long as you don’t complete Forging the Pact).

I have a forum post that’s just about ready to go with all the major details and player scenarios. It’s going through review now and will hopefully go live by the end of the month.

I realise you probably have already found this when looking over the feature pack’s changes to the affected story, but just to be absolutely sure this doesn’t slip through: there are some dialogue lines that were made silent (ie lost their voice acting) in the later story steps as of the patch. Specifically, and I’m sorry I can’t be more specific (it’s hard to remember the details!):

• Some of Trahearne’s dialogue in the Battle of Fort Trinity that previously related to the greatest fear plot you had expeienced – I believe the affected dialogue was right at the end, before the completion of the step, but don’t quote me on that

• Some of the dialogue in the Romke’s Final Voyage step

And possibly some others that I’m not aware of. Just making absolutely sure you guys are able to completely clean up the issues.

Thanks very much for your openness on this issue. I think I can speak for all of us by saying that I’m very pleased that you’re going through and correcting these issues.

The Romke’ dialogue was only silent at the very beginning of the instance.

I might also point out that there are some parts of the Living Story where characters are supposed to say something but it just ends up being muted. But I don’t mind it as much as they are replayable.

Oh and one last thing. Dessa’s cinematic for the Fractals of the Mist is also muted.

I know they are fixing this but still….
I made the mistake to play through the revised story,
it was bad enough that they left a whole chapter out,
but at the point where they make you back track to
a previous story step after you’ve cleansed Orr I just couldn’t
stand it anymore.
I mean…did they ever play the story once before they did this?
Whaaawtf…etc etc.
Unbelievable that such s@!#t can come out as a product of a studio
like Anet.

Omg, If I knew I wouldn’t progress in my PS Will they really fix it?

They did say they are working on it as indicated on their forum posts. The issue lies in WHEN will we see these changes happen. And what is Anet going to do about players who have experienced the botched storyline?

Gaile Gray.6029:

I inquired about these concerns, and our narrative director shared the following:

Thank you so much for your comments. We realize that the changes that were made have impacted the personal story, and we are working to fix this. This requires a good deal of resources, so we do not have a set date for when these fixes will be implemented. We appreciate your patience and will update with more information as it becomes available.

thanks for responding. Just curious how much resources is it since they were already in game before? I get some to re implement it but its not like making new content.

Also I feel like with the new expansion this issue is a huge issue that could easily get overlooked. With every expansion in mmo history tons of players who quit return and tons of new players try out the game b/c of all the hype. I could easily see both returning players and new ones playing the game and get to orr and be very confused about the stories bc of deaths of npc’s then they are back next story, and think this game is poorly done and quit, which would be a real shame since its actually an amazing game.

Read the thread a little further, Chrono. They are now working on fixing it and it is not being overlooked. While it is not “new content”, they are apparently planning to update some dialog and voice overs. A forum post explaining the changes and plans is expected in the near future.

The end of the month draws near. Any updates yet?

BobbyStein.2315:

Malkavian.4516:

The end of the month draws near. Any updates yet?

The messaging has been approved and edited. It’s now getting localized. The post should go live sometime on Tuesday if all goes well.

Cheers!

Thank you, Anet. I will happily spread the word to everyone I know that the story will be playable again.

BobbyStein.2315:

Bunnikk.2146:

Thank you, Anet. I will happily spread the word to everyone I know that the story will be playable again.

I just want to be clear that we haven’t announced a release date for the Personal Story Restoration content yet. We’re posting information on Tuesday.

This is great news!
I can’t wait for Tuesday to see the info regarding this!

Can’t wait to find out when Personal Story will be playable again.

BobbyStein.2315:

Bunnikk.2146:

Thank you, Anet. I will happily spread the word to everyone I know that the story will be playable again.

I just want to be clear that we haven’t announced a release date for the Personal Story Restoration content yet. We’re posting information on Tuesday.

Thanks for the clarification; I got too excited. I will hold off and continue to wait as patiently as possible.

Bunnikk.2146:

BobbyStein.2315:

Bunnikk.2146:

Thank you, Anet. I will happily spread the word to everyone I know that the story will be playable again.

I just want to be clear that we haven’t announced a release date for the Personal Story Restoration content yet. We’re posting information on Tuesday.

Thanks for the clarification; I got too excited. I will hold off and continue to wait as patiently as possible.

You can still let folks know that a fix is coming but without an ETA still, and that there’s information on said fix coming on Tuesday.

BobbyStein.2315:

Bunnikk.2146:

Thank you, Anet. I will happily spread the word to everyone I know that the story will be playable again.

I just want to be clear that we haven’t announced a release date for the Personal Story Restoration content yet. We’re posting information on Tuesday.

You tease!

Kidding aside, I’m very glad this change is being made. Thanks!

On Tuesday I’m going to be letting everyone know about the announcement.

Can’t wait for the story to be back in order. I’m excited to see the changes too but just getting to play the whole thing on my alts is going to be great.

Hello, I just returned to GW2 after my brother picked it up on the sale. I was helping him today on his personal story (level 70 arc) when he asked me what choice I picked for the locating of the center of Orr. It was at this point I released he had some how skipped 10 missions of the personal story and as such found myself here looking for an answer. I see that Tuesday there should be a fix to this, but does that mean that my brother has permanently missed out on a large section of the personal story or does he get to finish that part after he kills Zhiatan? I am very confused. He has already completed forging the pact so if I am reading this correctly he is screwed out of 1/8th of the personal story. Which I hope is not the case …

Also, side note the Personal story should start at level 1 and not level 10… This way it lines up correctly. In its current build your told at level 30 to meet with Eir in Ascalon catacombs, which takes place after the meeting in Lions arch but you don’t see the meeting until your level 40 quest chain. At worst you could bump this meeting down to the level 30 quest chain.

Aenaos.8160:

I know they are fixing this but still….
I made the mistake to play through the revised story,
it was bad enough that they left a whole chapter out,
but at the point where they make you back track to
a previous story step after you’ve cleansed Orr I just couldn’t
stand it anymore.
I mean…did they ever play the story once before they did this?
Whaaawtf…etc etc.
Unbelievable that such s@!#t can come out as a product of a studio
like Anet.

I finished my PS last weekend, just to see how it worked out withe the new order. And to be honest, I preferred the new order… The only thing that bothered me was some lines of various NPC’s that should be changed as they refer to elements that still need to be done. But with the new order, you try to cleanse Orr first and then start the journey to clean up the rest (aka Zhaitan).

But, I would have liked it better if you killed Zhaitan first, and then ckeanse Orr by giving it that life injection. The cutscene of that story part is just awesome, but a bit wasted in its current position in the story order…

To be honest, the idea works great in paper but the problem is that there was no proper editing to be done. It’s practically switching 2 chapters around with no changes made to move the story along seamlessly. You were clearing out Orr the one moment and you beat the Eye of Zhaitan and the next thing you know, you meet another Eye as if you have never seen it before only to end with Trahearne telling you that it’s time to finally cleanse Orr, despite the fact that WE HAVE ALREADY DONE THAT!!!!!!

To counter that statement of killing Zhaitan first. I think the general idea is that by cleansing Orr first, you are crippling Zhaitan’s strength to a significant fraction making the final blow easier to pull off.

LadyRhonwyn.2501:

I finished my PS last weekend, just to see how it worked out withe the new order. And to be honest, I preferred the new order… The only thing that bothered me was some lines of various NPC’s that should be changed as they refer to elements that still need to be done. But with the new order, you try to cleanse Orr first and then start the journey to clean up the rest (aka Zhaitan).

But, I would have liked it better if you killed Zhaitan first, and then ckeanse Orr by giving it that life injection. The cutscene of that story part is just awesome, but a bit wasted in its current position in the story order…

So you preferred being airdropped across Orr – across dragon filled skies instead of being able to go to the location on foot. Because it makes more sense to have dragon filled skies be the main course for how you get places.

You prefer being able to go through a risen stronghold via airdrop to an underground cave system, just to later – if you chose the Durmand Priory’s plan – destroy that risen stronghold which was giving the Pact a tough time in the entire area, which includes blocking off the passages beyond the fort (note, the fort in question is the Temple of Melandru).

You prefer trying to remove corruption long before everything that could prevent the removal of corruption is dead; the reason why removing the land’s corruption was last before Zhaitan was because Zhaitan could re-corrupt it, but it was done before Zhaitan because it also weakened him significantly (something a lot of people miss – even before the reordering – was that killing the Mouth, crippling the incoming of corpses/creation of risen, taking the temples, and cleansing the land is what allowed us to even stand a chance against Zhaitan; people also missed that these were all things that Zhaitan could repair given time, as we see him with a new Mouth of Zhaitan in the Arah story dungeon – a stronger one, at that).

TBH, if you paid attention across all the fine points, the current story order makes zero sense, even if the dialogue and the Source of Orr’s NPCs got tweaked. They’re small issues, sure, but when you have a dozen small issues… it becomes a big issue.

So I’m going to respectfully disagree that the new order works besides dialogue.

The thing that bothers me most about the new order is that (depending on which choices you pick) you’ll be told an NPC you’ve never met has died, then meet them later, then witness their death. And not in any way that can be passed off as “everyone thought they were dead, then they miraculously reappeared”, you’re told in detail how it happened and that you were then, then it happens exactly as described.

That’s the most jarring to me. There’s no way to write that off as minor dialogue errors.

Not sure what sort of solution is going to be offered, but an in-game system letter after reaching the point of no return should have been sent out with a “under construction” message.

As is, I’m one of the new players to GW2 who is now well past the point of no return because I never knew it was an issue until today (just thought the story editing fit the $10 price I paid). A simple message could have prevented this for myself and others.

I am presently surprised at how much I am enjoying GW2 in general. I just hope basic quality control/project implementation collapses like this are the exception, rather than the norm.

Caen.1827:

I just hope basic quality control/project implementation collapses like this are the exception, rather than the norm.

Personal opinion, but it’s the norm in regards to the September 9th update that caused this problem, and the Living World – the former because it was just a disaster update for ~80% of the stuff IMHO where I don’t know what Anet was thinking, the latter because the Living World has bee pure experimentation for them, which results in some things being great, and a lot being not so great. Sadly, I feel that it is the storytelling that gets the short end of the stick.

Today is the day.

Yes last day of the month today so should be an update on this, unless they announce it with a game update, which looks to be happening tomorrow as nothing has been announced yet?

John.8507:

Yes last day of the month today so should be an update on this, unless they announce it with a game update, which looks to be happening tomorrow as nothing has been announced yet?

If you look a liiiiittle bit further up in this very thread it outright states that we will get information today.

Crap. So my Ranger and Ele will miss out on their Greatest Fear arcs since I accidentally completed Forging the Pact on them and thus got taken straight to the Battle of Fort Trinity. >.< That’s a great disappointment.

On the bright side, between my Mesmer, Warrior and Necro, they have all 3 greatest fears between them, so I can at least play the story steps through them.

Anyway, looking forward to some news about it in a few hours.

Ummmm, it’s now Wednesday. Was the news posted elsewhere?