Guild Wars 2

ElysianEternity.6215:

Edit: Man that’s some delicious looking waffles. ;D

Yeah, screw living story. Just start sending us those waffles.

Peter has made this thread… incredibly entertaining to read. Also Mmm Bloodstone Waffles. Gah that joke is the best i laughed so hard when my friend linked me the recipe for that.

Oh So yummy sounding =D You guys deserve it on those release days for all your hard work! =D

“We don’t like muffins around here. We want no muffins, no toast, no teacakes, no buns, baps, baguettes or bagels, no croissants, no crumpets, no pancakes, no potato cakes and no hot-cross buns and definitely no kitten flapjacks.”

“Aah, so you’re a waffle man.”

PeterFries.1057:

Our team’s producers make waffles for the whole studio on release day. Today’s were gingerbread, with optional chocolate chips, pecans, and various creams.

soooooo waffles every release day?
… you dont happen to have a job opening in New Zealand do you? :P

but in reply to konig and co
yea the massive lore dump was awesome and ld love to get more ( maybe some short stories from the travels of characters in both games? i really love hearing about characters and being like “oh so thats what they were up to”

kind of off topic but kinda not
what if for every season or every chapter we “find” or are given or w/e an item or book that has lore in it or attached to it whenever we view it except it lives in our home instance.
kind of like the zepherite sanctum but permanent and it dosnt clog up ur inv
it would also give a really nice asthetic feel to it that makes it your own
you can go in and view all your “trophies of adventure”

Yeah, in the interest of being on topic, what the first few second season living story chapters truly excelled at was driving a straight narrative, and a lot of that involved regular group meetups to talk about what we learned. You know what would have been awesome to have at the end of this last chapter would have been if we accompanied Marjory to the Priory and we went back to the library to do a little more investigating and found a book that had those symbols and spelled out clearly what they were. Even if there were only like 3-4 new books there to discover, it would have been a callback and a way to sort of wrap up the chapter instead of ending it.

Maybe I’ve just binge-watched Buffy on Netflix too much lately, but they do a really good job at the “big bad” long term stories, and it always involves exposition that comes from library and throwing around ideas in a big group after the action ends.

PeterFries.1057:

Iason Evan.3806:

It just needs to be tighter during the meat of the rising action and tension and body of the story for it to work as a complete thing.

Got it. Tighter meat.

By the end of Season 3…

PeterFries.1057:

Our team’s producers make waffles for the whole studio on release day. Today’s were gingerbread, with optional chocolate chips, pecans, and various creams.

Mr. Fries – if you have extra waffles could you please share them with Mr. O’Dell? He has been working really hard these past few weeks.

wwwes.1398:

Yeah, in the interest of being on topic, what the first few second season living story chapters truly excelled at was driving a straight narrative, and a lot of that involved regular group meetups to talk about what we learned. You know what would have been awesome to have at the end of this last chapter would have been if we accompanied Marjory to the Priory and we went back to the library to do a little more investigating and found a book that had those symbols and spelled out clearly what they were. Even if there were only like 3-4 new books there to discover, it would have been a callback and a way to sort of wrap up the chapter instead of ending it.

Maybe I’ve just binge-watched Buffy on Netflix too much lately, but they do a really good job at the “big bad” long term stories, and it always involves exposition that comes from library and throwing around ideas in a big group after the action ends.

There is no such thing as watching too much Buffy

Peter,

Can you describe the limitations on text displays in game? Does this limit the availability of lorebooks in game that include long chapters for those interested in such things? Is it more complex than simply making a string file? This has always bugged me. I know that with the dynamic event system, Anet has striven to go away from quests with walls of text; but Im curious why this simple solution isnt added in?

PeterFries.1057:

Iason Evan.3806:

It just needs to be tighter during the meat of the rising action and tension and body of the story for it to work as a complete thing.

Got it. Tighter meat.

Hah. Sadly, it seems like Elysian’s suggestion is the only serious one when you’ve written it like that. :P

Paradox.1380:

Peter has made this thread… incredibly entertaining to read. Also Mmm Bloodstone Waffles. Gah that joke is the best i laughed so hard when my friend linked me the recipe for that.

Recipe? I feel I’m missing something here.

wwwes.1398:

Maybe I’ve just binge-watched Buffy on Netflix too much lately, but they do a really good job at the “big bad” long term stories, and it always involves exposition that comes from library and throwing around ideas in a big group after the action ends.

You say that like it’s a bad thing to watch a lot of Buffy (and Angel).

And yeah, those shows do have interesting long-term villains/rivals.

PeterFries.1057:

soboard.6974:

Can you describe the limitations on text displays in game? Does this limit the availability of lorebooks in game that include long chapters for those interested in such things? Is it more complex than simply making a string file? This has always bugged me. I know that with the dynamic event system, Anet has striven to go away from quests with walls of text; but Im curious why this simple solution isnt added in?

There currently isn’t UI implemented in the game to display something like a lore book. We have some places that we can display longer text strings, like those summaries in our recently-added Story Journal UI, but conversational text strings have to be kept within a certain length to account for things like German localization.

There’s not a lot that’s “simple” to implement in a game as complicated as an MMO like ours, unfortunately.

Lore books are something we’d like to see happen, but I can’t promise they are on the way soon or anything.

I’m sure I read/saw somewhere that they were originally implemented in an earlier version of the game back before beta? If I’m not wrong then wouldn’t there already be assets in place for such a system? If I am wrong then whoopsies.

PeterFries.1057:

soboard.6974:

Can you describe the limitations on text displays in game? Does this limit the availability of lorebooks in game that include long chapters for those interested in such things? Is it more complex than simply making a string file? This has always bugged me. I know that with the dynamic event system, Anet has striven to go away from quests with walls of text; but Im curious why this simple solution isnt added in?

There currently isn’t UI implemented in the game to display something like a lore book. We have some places that we can display longer text strings, like those summaries in our recently-added Story Journal UI, but conversational text strings have to be kept within a certain length to account for things like German localization.

There’s not a lot that’s “simple” to implement in a game as complicated as an MMO like ours, unfortunately.

Lore books are something we’d like to see happen, but I can’t promise they are on the way soon or anything.

Can you grab a UI designer and find out more about the challenge of doing this? I’m curious to know what the hidden complexities are about displaying a long text string as part of a ‘lore book’ style interface in Guild Wars 2, given that on paper it sounds like it’d be as easy as opening a window and drawing a string of text on it. Obviously it’s more complicated than that, but it’d be great to have a look ‘behind the scenes’ of GW2’s UI, as it were.

PeterFries.1057:

There currently isn’t UI implemented in the game to display something like a lore book. We have some places that we can display longer text strings, like those summaries in our recently-added Story Journal UI, but conversational text strings have to be kept within a certain length to account for things like German localization.

There’s not a lot that’s “simple” to implement in a game as complicated as an MMO like ours, unfortunately.

Lore books are something we’d like to see happen, but I can’t promise they are on the way soon or anything.

I am now picturing one of those odd superlong German words taking up the entire conversation box….

I can totally see that happening if you aren’t careful.

I’m a bit curious though: what was wrong with the original beta creature codex books’ system? They played a full-screen cinematic with cycling paragraphs of text (usually 3 from those we saw). They aren’t what people usually attribute to in-game readable books, being text-based repeating cinematics, but still I’m curious as to what was “wrong” with those creature codices.

What is it that prevents a different kind of conversational pop up box from, well, popping up? You can have interaction result in a large number of things, as well as item uses. So it’s rather curious.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

PeterFries.1057:

Iason Evan.3806:

It just needs to be tighter during the meat of the rising action and tension and body of the story for it to work as a complete thing.

Got it. Tighter meat.

Hah. Sadly, it seems like Elysian’s suggestion is the only serious one when you’ve written it like that. :P

Paradox.1380:

Peter has made this thread… incredibly entertaining to read. Also Mmm Bloodstone Waffles. Gah that joke is the best i laughed so hard when my friend linked me the recipe for that.

Recipe? I feel I’m missing something here.

wwwes.1398:

Maybe I’ve just binge-watched Buffy on Netflix too much lately, but they do a really good job at the “big bad” long term stories, and it always involves exposition that comes from library and throwing around ideas in a big group after the action ends.

You say that like it’s a bad thing to watch a lot of Buffy (and Angel).

And yeah, those shows do have interesting long-term villains/rivals.

Just to trow it out there i see peter here and i see allot of food talk. And konig dropt the recipe word. How about some new recipe ingame? Droobert style ^^. Plate of Quagan sushi or a feast of quagan sushi.

Just wanted to drop it here cheers.

PeterFries.1057:

[…] but conversational text strings have to be kept within a certain length to account for things like German localization.

There’s not a lot that’s “simple” to implement in a game as complicated as an MMO like ours, unfortunately.

Lore books are something we’d like to see happen, but I can’t promise they are on the way soon or anything.

I knew it would be our fault again! Germany: Ruining everybody’s experience since 1871!

1871? Please. The job isn’t being done properly until you get blamed for the Dark Ages.

Yes, for all the ling german words, that do not appear in common conversations and are usually a combination of words instead of one singular.

How about instead of post its, you go with a display, which scrolls through suggestions
(got nothing to add, most of the things have allready been said)

Well, maybe I do: Have a point.
Don`t make it to obscoure or to convoluted. Finish some stuff, before you introduce the next thing. If that doesn`t work, look for a different aproach.
Right now each plot feels loose and forced, instead of helping the mainplot.

draxynnic.3719:

1871? Please. The job isn’t being done properly until you get blamed for the Dark Ages.

Let’s be honest, the roman civilization never gave anything useful to the world… apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system and public health. I mean who ever used any of those things?

Jaken.6801:

Yes, for all the ling german words, that do not appear in common conversations and are usually a combination of words instead of one singular.

Hey we use words like Wanderlust, Leitmotiv and Waldeinsamkeit all the time! In every single conversation. We like to talk about the same 3 topics over and over again.

Fyi the German translation of GW2 is so horribad that I am playing the game in English instead. A good chunk of the game reads like someone used google translate and evened out 75% of the grammatical errors. <_>
Acceptable for the common German MMO player (we’re used to that kinda translations in games) but for writers and lorehounds this is spectral agony on top of 25 stacks of torment ;__;

As for UI:
Hmm, that’s tricky indeed! How about accessing the books opens an ingame-browser like the TP instead that leads to the entries?
Probably still a lot of effort, but at least from the tidbits I know it seems to circumvent the text-line problem.

Or maybe, make it a page like the HoM-page…?
Granted, having everything ingame would be more elegant but having the books themselves on webpages opens up more opportunities for graphics and long text.

We can rename it Peter Fries Interaction and Fun time, short PFIAF…. well it`s a work in progress.

Even if it is threadjacking, something like that is highly apreaciated and we will get back to nagging and critizising soon enough (the good kind, naturally)

At least it is constructive.

btw. how about an AMA?

No need to apologise Peter. This is the kind of dev and community interaction many have clamoured for. Cant have Gaile getting all the cookies now!

PeterFries.1057:

BuddhaKeks.4857:

I knew it would be our fault again! Germany: Ruining everybody’s experience since 1871!

Now, now. We <3 our German players. Nobody ruined anything; I just meant that each language has its own considerations that can affect our character display limits. Being concise is always a goal, anyway.

Oh don’t worry I was just joking around. I know it’s all the fault of the french, I mean come on, who else could it be? :P

PeterFries.1057:

Sorry. It’s being looked into right now, but I’m not a part of that process and there really isn’t anything to talk about yet.

I think folks just want an inside look on the current stance, not what’s being looked into. Though knowing it’s “being looked into” is nice.

Makes me wonder how high on the list that means it is, though.

PeterFries.1057:

Oh, one more thing: sorry for threadjacking this discussion so badly :/

Shhhhhhh, the mods will come and close it if you mention threadjacking!

BuddhaKeks.4857:

Show Spoiler

hide spoiler

Please don’t tell my french ex-girlfriend I said that, she punched me for lesser things x_x

I lul’d.

PeterFries.1057:

Merus.9475:

Can you grab a UI designer and find out more about the challenge of doing this?

Sorry. It’s being looked into right now, but I’m not a part of that process and there really isn’t anything to talk about yet.

BuddhaKeks.4857:

I knew it would be our fault again! Germany: Ruining everybody’s experience since 1871!

Now, now. We <3 our German players. Nobody ruined anything; I just meant that each language has its own considerations that can affect our character display limits. Being concise is always a goal, anyway.

When I started on the writing team a few years ago, my teammates suggested I try out Twitter because its 140 character format forces you to find ways to communicate things more succinctly.

Oh, one more thing: sorry for threadjacking this discussion so badly :/

i lol’ed at the “tight meat” thing with my name on it. i was however trying to give serious feedback in a constructive way and if all you can do is bring up the “tight meat” part, well, that’s disappointing. would have been nice to at least get a serious response to go with the laugh is all I am saying.

I think you as devs, writers, artists, QA etc. live in such a safe bubble of other creatives there at ArenaNet that it’s easy to lose perspective. minor plot mysteries shouldn’t take over a year to suss out. People leave the company and then stories change because maybe the writer that replaced the one that left has different places they want to take the story and then the playerbase misses out on something they were anticipating. It happened a lot in GW1, and because the precedent was set in that game, I fear it will happen here too.

The story has gotten better since last year, but there are other areas where quality and quantity have dropped off sharply.

On a less serious note: Wanna join my guild, Armor Made From Baby Quaggans [SOFT]? :P

Konig Des Todes.2086:

PeterFries.1057:

Sorry. It’s being looked into right now, but I’m not a part of that process and there really isn’t anything to talk about yet.

I think folks just want an inside look on the current stance, not what’s being looked into. Though knowing it’s “being looked into” is nice.

I didn’t even want that, I basically wanted one of the UI designers to come over and tell us what it’s like being a UI designer for GW2.

PeterFries.1057:

By all means, continue to direct your writing criticisms at me. It may not seem like it at times to you (bearing in mind that we’re working ahead), but are we doing our best to make course-corrections to address your concerns.

I wanted to bring this up for a while but I found out after the relevant thread got replaced by a new release.

At the end of The Dragon’s Reach part 2 the plot of Canache spying on the Pact for Anise was revealed. At the time I was concerned that, as a Pact Commander – or just a charr with more loyalty to Trahearne than Anise, I was going to be written as hearing that conversation and just ignore Canache’s presence within the Pact later on without mentioning he’s a spy.

After his next appearance (during the mission with Caithe) the player has some… aggressive dialogue I and many other players were annoyed with. I personally read the dialogue to be critical of Canache’s past (the events on Southsun) and unforgiving of him or unwilling to see his value in a more important fight (against Mordremoth).

In a Points of Interest episode you discussed this and said that the player’s dialogue was meant to reflect the Pact Commander’s attitude towards Canach, not only because he was our adversary on Southun, but because we know his “hidden”(?) motive to spy on an organisation we are loyal to.

As a player who a) wanted to see our PCs stay loyal to the Pact and not ignore Canach’s mission, and b) didn’t like the voice given to my PC when talking to Canach, I personally don’t feel like the intention came across well in-game. I wish my PC had specifically addressed him being sent to spy as opposed to talking to him all high and mighty. I didn’t feel like the dialogue represented my issues with knowing him to spy on the Pact but rather it came across as a moral judgement of his past behaviours.

The game might not be where I want it to be right now, but that’s a good thing. Going along the ride of this game makes everything so much better. Having the fun telling the newbies “In my days, you should actually craft in Spvp” or something along the line like “In my days Ac took hours to complete” or “Back in my days a precurser cost only 2gold!”.

Shiren.9532:

PeterFries.1057:

By all means, continue to direct your writing criticisms at me. It may not seem like it at times to you (bearing in mind that we’re working ahead), but are we doing our best to make course-corrections to address your concerns.

I wanted to bring this up for a while but I found out after the relevant thread got replaced by a new release.

At the end of The Dragon’s Reach part 2 the plot of Canache spying on the Pact for Anise was revealed. At the time I was concerned that, as a Pact Commander – or just a charr with more loyalty to Trahearne than Anise, I was going to be written as hearing that conversation and just ignore Canache’s presence within the Pact later on without mentioning he’s a spy.

After his next appearance (during the mission with Caithe) the player has some… aggressive dialogue I and many other players were annoyed with. I personally read the dialogue to be critical of Canache’s past (the events on Southsun) and unforgiving of him or unwilling to see his value in a more important fight (against Mordremoth).

In a Points of Interest episode you discussed this and said that the player’s dialogue was meant to reflect the Pact Commander’s attitude towards Canach, not only because he was our adversary on Southun, but because we know his “hidden”(?) motive to spy on an organisation we are loyal to.

As a player who a) wanted to see our PCs stay loyal to the Pact and not ignore Canach’s mission, and b) didn’t like the voice given to my PC when talking to Canach, I personally don’t feel like the intention came across well in-game. I wish my PC had specifically addressed him being sent to spy as opposed to talking to him all high and mighty. I didn’t feel like the dialogue represented my issues with knowing him to spy on the Pact but rather it came across as a moral judgement of his past behaviours.

First off, I don’t watch PoI so I missed this.

Second off, the intention fell even more off when in E7, we’re still mean to Canach, but close by saying “oh, and say high to Anise for me” (regardless of race – seems weird for a charr). That came off to me as “my PC is a jerk to Canach and doesn’t care that Anise is spying, in fact, my PC likes Anise so he’ll just use this sylvari as a messenger to say high to my human bff”

Just don’t see any mistrust over Canach basically having “Hi, I’m Spy” hanging over his head, it all feels directed toward Canach’s past… And my PC being a relentless kitten wipe.

In any case, it`s not a good solution.

i would rather have the option to react like that, if I wittnessed the szene.

Like if I actually heard the part, then it will be unlocked later on. If not, i act the other way.

Mhm.. that could be a good thing for later. Rewarding players who stick around.

PeterFries.1057:

Xter.6271:

I really feel disheartened by this 6 week break now.

I hope I don’t sound unsympathetic to your plight, but as a content creator and dev, we could have a lot worse problems than our players being impatient to find out what happens next. If it helps, I am as impatient as you to have our next episode get released, and as hopeful as you that you will really like it.

By all means, continue to direct your writing criticisms at me. It may not seem like it at times to you (bearing in mind that we’re working ahead), but are we doing our best to make course-corrections to address your concerns.

I wish you (and all our fans) a great holiday season as well. Thank you for nearly two and a half years of your support, strong feelings, and constructive criticism. You guys are the best!

One other thing…

Stramatus.5219:

First, I want to high light this portion of Peter’s post, IMO, this points out that what we’ve been seeing up till now was already set in stone before Ms. Hoyer joined A.net and she had no effect on it what so ever, but that in the future, perhaps beginning with Ep. 8 more likely Season 3 we’ll begin to see what kind of input she’s had and the direction the LW is moving towards.

While it’s true that Leah joined us while we were well into developing our latest releases, I can assure you that she jumped right in and began giving us her input from the moment she arrived. She had plenty of positive effect on this part of our season and she’ll continue to help us improve our story delivery. Any of the parts you didn’t like were almost certainly my fault.

Thank you Peter and I don’t mean to sound like a downer. I understand how business works and unfortunately everyone thinks this works like McDonalds, place your order and get it a minute later. A lot of work and time goes into any business trade. I am very happy to see you taking suggestions and seeing you make notes of suggestions. The interaction is very great and this is what I and others in the community love.

Did you take part in Wintersday’s Warming Grawnk’s Heart? It was funny how the bloodstone food appeared for it. The only real thing I can complain about is that we couldn’t give the ornaments back to the orphans. I felt bad about keeping them.

And thank you for being a part of the Guild Wars franchise! Happy holidays to you and all Arenanet employees!

Sincerely,
Xter

PeterFries.1057:

Their orphanage will probably burn down soon anyway.

Merry Winters day kids
guess what Santa brought you this year?
…
FLAMES!
i got you all flames! and death!
now dont be greedy kids you will all get your presents…
courtesy of peter
its a Winters day miracle.

PeterFries.1057:

Xter.6271:

Did you take part in Wintersday’s Warming Grawnk’s Heart? It was funny how the bloodstone food appeared for it. The only real thing I can complain about is that we couldn’t give the ornaments back to the orphans. I felt bad about keeping them.

I believe that content was designed by Kevin Millard and written by Elan Stimmel. The orphans would have wanted you to keep those ornaments. Their orphanage will probably burn down soon anyway.

:-O the tree in my home instance is now a symbol of the orphans I let die??

PeterFries.1057:

Their orphanage will probably burn down soon anyway.

Nothing like the warmth of burning orphan(age)s to keep yourself cozy after a grawl-hit job.

Hohoho, merry Wintersday!

ElysianEternity.6215:

PeterFries.1057:

Their orphanage will probably burn down soon anyway.

Nothing like the warmth of burning orphan(age)s to keep yourself cozy after a grawl-hit job.

Hohoho, merry Wintersday!

That’s the spirit of the season! A merry Wintersday to all of you!

PeterFries.1057:

Xter.6271:

Did you take part in Wintersday’s Warming Grawnk’s Heart? It was funny how the bloodstone food appeared for it. The only real thing I can complain about is that we couldn’t give the ornaments back to the orphans. I felt bad about keeping them.

I believe that content was designed by Kevin Millard and written by Elan Stimmel. The orphans would have wanted you to keep those ornaments. Their orphanage will probably burn down soon anyway.

Hey, you all saw it! That orphanage attacked ME first!

PeterFries.1057:

Xter.6271:

Did you take part in Wintersday’s Warming Grawnk’s Heart? It was funny how the bloodstone food appeared for it. The only real thing I can complain about is that we couldn’t give the ornaments back to the orphans. I felt bad about keeping them.

I believe that content was designed by Kevin Millard and written by Elan Stimmel. The orphans would have wanted you to keep those ornaments. Their orphanage will probably burn down soon anyway.

Xter.6271:

Happy holidays to you and all Arenanet employees!

<3

Back at you!

Lol! I can see it now, Destroyers next Wintersday swarm from beneath the orphanage, set everything ablaze! Dwarves swarm into Divinty’s Reach and use the magic snowballs to fight the Destroyers and use candy cane shaped ice sculptures to put the fires out and cool the lava pits! Dwarves recruit our help to douse the flames and lava and save trapped orphans! After enough Destroyers and pits are toast, The Great Destroyer arises again to combat us.

And so began The Great Destroyer Snowball Wars!

Lol! I can see it now, Destroyers next Wintersday swarm from beneath the orphanage, set everything ablaze! Dwarves swarm into Divinty’s Reach and use the magic snowballs to fight the Destroyers and use candy cane shaped ice sculptures to put the fires out and cool the lava pits! Dwarves recruit our help to douse the flames and lava and save trapped orphans! After enough Destroyers and pits are toast, The Great Destroyer arises again to combat us.

And so began The Great Destroyer Snowball Wars!

hmm lets me see, yes, i can fap on this!

Well, today is the day of the finale.
Let`s see how it all ties up.

I am ready Mr. Fries. I got pitchforks and fire ready. Depending on the outcome, they might be used to roast marshmallows. Might…

Have to say that in light of more recent events/news, I more cautiously optimistic about the direction of this game than I have been in a long time.

Hoping my idea that Living Story would serve as the “in-between”, bridge content between major releases is validated.

Well, yeah… I am sorry, but you get the pitchfork and fire treadment.

I know what you are going for, setting things up for Heart of Thorns , whatever it is.

However for a season it is just disapointing. Basicly you only had one goal: The dark side of the Sylvari reveal
Thats it. Otherwise we got a lot of questions. Unanswered.

This is not a good season. There are no real conclusions. There are only questions. Cliffhanger. It even ended with one.
It`s like someone just said cut.

As I see it Season 2s only point was to set things up. In itself it is just too disjointed and is really missing some kind of identity.

We don`t even have a real antagonist, exept the Shadow of the Dragon who we defeat “alone” (scare away and then with the right tool and a little help from our friends?)

I somehow have to say it. I liked Season 1 more.

I am seeing season two along the lines of Iron Man 1-2, Thor, The Incredible Hulk and Captain America to the Heart of Thorns The Avengers.

lordkrall.7241:

I am seeing season two along the lines of Iron Man 1-2, Thor, The Incredible Hulk and Captain America to the Heart of Thorns The Avengers.

Which in itself all had a story which could stand alone, without any other material.
They posed questions and answered them.
The only things setting up more was the “hidden ending”.

The ony question there was: “how will the next adventure be”, as in “this adventure is concluded”.

Jaken.6801:

With Season 2 comming to an end and the conclusion pushed back to next year, there are these nagging questions on my mind:
- Will we get a conclusion at the end of S2, or is it only a setup for things to come?

Hate to tell you this, Sparky, but this story doesn’t conclude until six dragons are dead.

Sariel V.7024:

Jaken.6801:

With Season 2 comming to an end and the conclusion pushed back to next year, there are these nagging questions on my mind:
- Will we get a conclusion at the end of S2, or is it only a setup for things to come?

Hate to tell you this, Sparky, but this story doesn’t conclude until six dragons are dead.

ehm, yeah… I was rather talking about a conclusion to several plotpoints they bring up in the season.
You know wrapping up most questions, only taking few with to the next.
If any, every good season should stay on it`s own and feel satisfying at the end.

Gotta say, S2 did not. We didn`t even get a conclusion (calling the dead of the shadow of the dragon or the overdue attack on Mordremoth that is a bit of a stretch for me sadly… but that might be just me)