Guild Wars 2

S2 started today, with rather tame update infos and a long time of hinting.

Lets get together and piece the new information together.

of course it goes into the Maguuma jungle and the vines indicate the awakening of Mordremoth.
However what else did you notice? (I just started it, so i am not that deep into it)

Belinda seems a bit more energetic since the last time we saw her.
I hope that we do not see her do soemthing stupid later in the story, just to impress her sister in some way or the other (btw. i want her sword)

Writing is good so far, though your “friends” do not talk much, only if the “bonus objective” says so. Please stop that. I do like some guidiance, but pushing it right into my face is a bit annoying (and i know there was a bit of complains about too much hidden stuff)

btw. i am a commoner and Belinda was normal around me, does her approach to you change if you are a noble? Kasmeer mentioned that she is shy around her, possibly because of her noble status.

The Living Story prompt said meet your “allies” (instead of “friends” like all the marketing has been saying) so personally I think we are off to a good start.

Jaken.6801:

btw. i am a commoner and Belinda was normal around me, does her approach to you change if you are a noble? Kasmeer mentioned that she is shy around her, possibly because of her noble status.

She does change her dialouge.

You can mention wanting to meet her family and she replies with “Maybe, it’s nothing personal but my mother is holding onto a very old grudge against nobles.”

After that she mentions that She (belinda) is fine with you, and Marjory had told her about you killing Zhaitan and being commander of the pact. You then reply with “I haven’t been actively commanding the Pact for some time now.” which is interesting, basically (to me) saying the commander went on vacation/leave, and then had to deal with Scarlet :P.

Yep, these dialogs were very cool. I liked them a lot.
Though the later one is a bit grinding on me.

After going through the main part of the story, here are my thoughts:

- good writing, though there is a lot of “tell” instead of “show” in the dialog. We get a lot of “examining” of stuff (wounds, pictures, etc…) and we can only say the “right” thing.
It is all straight forward and i often do not know why my character got to a certain conclusion, just because i as a player am not able to see or understand it.
It disconects me from my avatar who basicly goes on autopilot leaving me only to sit back and “enjoy” the show. Not so good for a game.
I know cutszenes are hard to make, but if there is such a expositional reveal, some focus shots would greatly help the whole atmosphere in the szene.

- E is prominent again, i like that and hope we get there at some point

- Llama

- So Scarlet played with steamcreatures before. If i interpret Taimis observation, then the head we found in the room is made by Scarlet herself, trying to recreate it.
The question is. Why does she do it? couriosity. I mean, what was Scarlets goal at the time. Her diary says she is happy to be an engineer now, which would make sense in terms of the steam creature, but there is all the other stuff about dragons and magical theories about the world. Did she at that point allready trying to understand the eternal alchemy, aka the machine called “everything”? How did she get there?

- Odgens book on dragons. I hope we finaly get him into the spotlight he deserves. All the time he is holed up under the priory, nothing more then a nod to the first game

- Riot Alice is in bar. Well, seems like they noticed the forum asking about her uninvolvement in DR the last season and now we know where she ended up.

- Begging Quaggans… It is called Dry Top, find some Wet Top next time…

- Blackmarket and smuggling … Hope they end up more a thread because thats their turf and nothing more, though i would not mind going high noon on a leader… i mean we have tumbleweeds and dusmites… i think the town certainly needs a clocktower

- The inquest… mhm… dunno. Everything is to obvious. Zephirite and possible dragon magic. Please let them be nothing more then a nuisance. We dealed with them a lot in two dungeons and several regions. I think no other got so much exposure so far, since all others stuck to their area, without making hidden bases all over the land.

- Overgrown enemies. Well now that is interesting. Appearently the awakening of Mordremoth causes these once calm creatures to overgrow and subsequently go out of control. Is it a chance to see overgrown Sylvari at one point? (btw. was a bit disapointed by the avatar of melandru. I really hoped for a Hulk-Sylvari form as a Elite, since they are plants and can grow… maybe we will sie it now)

- The pale tree is supposed to be the centre of the world. Even if we consider the fact that it a theory from a Sylvari, it would make the ideas of them basicly being the antibodies of the world much more plausible, considering their properties.
Scarlet was seing herself or something entining, strangeling the pale tree. This could have been herself or her “master” who is attacking it. She was controlled and subsequently a traitor to her kind.

- Dragon are magic sponges and do not consume magic. That was something we allready knew. More so to the point that we are able to use their magic when they are dormant.
However, this also allows for another theory, meaning that there is a way to use magic wrong and make it go away, consuming it till nothing is left.
It is like an enviromental message here now.
Imagine the dragons being a failsave for the world, who start consuming magic if it used up too fast for it to regenerate and while they are at it, they whipe out all who use it, resetting the world.
This plot has been done in several ways allready, but is something that just got into my head.

- I like the pump at the entrance to dry top. I wish the wheel had push effect, so we would not float on top of it

- Did we talk to Arise (Aeris, forgot the name) before?

- We need better explanation about the “soundless” and why is it handled as something like common knowledge? Wasn`t it a big deal in the Sylvari LS, or did i misunderstood it?

Thats all for now. Now i got to replay it, since i missed the holo -_-

Thanks to the holo, we can pretty much confirm that Scarlet invented the steam creatures herself, and that the Lornar’s invasion was her way of getting rid of unneeded prototypes. Interestingly, she also said she sent others to Brisban… does anyone know what that might be referring to?

Yes, we talked to Aerin a few times, but he never gave off any bad vibes before. Linked to what the Master of Peace said, Aerin didn’t turn bad until after the Zephyrites left.

I think you’re mixing up Soundless and sylvari from another tree. Soundless are common knowledge, but they’re such a niche thing that they never (to my knowledge) got mentioned in the PS at all. They’re just Pale Tree sylvari that cut themselves off from the Dream. That said, that Soundless mantra is quite a bit more belligerent then how we’ve seen the Soundless before… I hope they aren’t setting up the group as a whole to be evil.

Now… can we talk for a minute about how there’s a multi-racial town out here that no one has heard about? If it was just human, sylvari, and asura, that would be one thing, but how did norn and charr end up there without Tyria as a whole ever knowing it existed?

Also, very nice touch putting in the GW1 style hylek hut, ANet. I appreciated it.

Master of Peace seems like a shady guy. I’m willing to bet he will end up a villain later on and we’ll have to fight him.

Aerin seems like a perfect scapegoat.

Also, if you really want to be technical, Aerin’s combat choice involves grenades and explosives. His role in the explosion of the Zeph ship is obvious.

But how about the executed NPC’s? They died by blade.

Master of Peace?

Actually, I think the Master of Peace is just following in Glint’s footsteps- a well meaning friend who is just too secretive for us to be comfortable with.

Aaron Ansari.1604:

Thanks to the holo, we can pretty much confirm that Scarlet invented the steam creatures herself, and that the Lornar’s invasion was her way of getting rid of unneeded prototypes. Interestingly, she also said she sent others to Brisban… does anyone know what that might be referring to?

For Brisban I know the personal story instance involved them, but I thought that was the alternate reality PC causing that. There are some steam creatures in Thaumanova (I believe) but there are creatures from all over Tyria there.

Honestly I was hoping for a much more interesting origin story for the steam creatures rather than shrugging it off as one of Scarlet’s discarded pet projects. Oh well, the tech theme wasn’t to my liking and at least now their origin story doesn’t compete with a story I do want told – like the Wizard Tower in Kessex.

Aside from clearing up lose threads through another “tell and not show” exposition dump featuring an asura, did anyone else wonder why all the focus on the steam creatures now? Maybe they just fit into Scarlet’s time line and it was just a part of her time in Prospect (to be fair, the journal covers her time with Omadd which was definitely in Rata Sum) but I was getting a Terminator vibe from the talk about self repairing almost evolving steam creatures. It seemed like they were laying the ground work for a steam creature army invasion to take place in the future. I hope I’m wrong (more high fantasy, less high technology).

Aaron Ansari.1604:

Now… can we talk for a minute about how there’s a multi-racial town out here that no one has heard about? If it was just human, sylvari, and asura, that would be one thing, but how did norn and charr end up there without Tyria as a whole ever knowing it existed?

It’s “subtle” but the town seems to be vaguely portrayed as a wild west type of town. It’s settled by outcasts (partly why Riot Alice is there). People who don’t fit in elsewhere or want to live outside of traditional law abiding areas go there. It’s not an official settlement for humans, sylvari or asura, it’s just people who didn’t fit in elsewhere. You can fanwank that the charr there are probably gladiums, they have no reason to stick with traditional charr society. As far as the norn goes (or other races really), it’s just generic “diversity and representation” quotas for the writing.

Norn = They wanted to go someplace exotic and unknown.

Hell, about the “General populace didn’t know about it.” Consider how when the Seraph FIRST learned of it, it was because they found some bandits trading in copper and such, and started tracking them. They had no idea how to get past that area until the vines smashed open a pass.

Jaken.6801:

I know cutszenes are hard to make, but if there is such a expositional reveal, some focus shots would greatly help the whole atmosphere in the szene.

Agreed, I think they could do a bit more with the cutscenes, especially in situations where all we do is stand and listen to people talk (might as well have a cutscene). Although technically cutscenes take control away from players, so the common rule of thumbs seems to be to keep them as short as possible. I’m not sure which way is better though.

Jaken.6801:

- Overgrown enemies. Well now that is interesting. Appearently the awakening of Mordremoth causes these once calm creatures to overgrow and subsequently go out of control. Is it a chance to see overgrown Sylvari at one point? (btw. was a bit disapointed by the avatar of melandru. I really hoped for a Hulk-Sylvari form as a Elite, since they are plants and can grow… maybe we will sie it now)

Or Overgrown is similar to Risen or Branded, simply the collective name of Mordy’s minions.

Jaken.6801:

- Dragon are magic sponges and do not consume magic. That was something we allready knew. More so to the point that we are able to use their magic when they are dormant.
However, this also allows for another theory, meaning that there is a way to use magic wrong and make it go away, consuming it till nothing is left.

What I took away from this is: why aren’t we using Zhaitan’s corpse as a giant magic battery.

Jaken.6801:

- We need better explanation about the “soundless” and why is it handled as something like common knowledge? Wasn`t it a big deal in the Sylvari LS, or did i misunderstood it?

In the Sylvari starting area you can meet the Soundless, talk to them, hear about their believes etc. Essentially this is one of the tricky parts about exposition, you want to carry across sufficient knowledge so that players aren’t left out but you don’t want it to feel like a lecture.

I got the feeling that the steam creatures were waiting for someone to invent them.

Scarlet seemed to be surprised at their intelligence and inventiveness.