Guild Wars 2

BobbyStein.2315:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Also x2, for when you get to The Secret of Southsun, you include the recorded but never used Faren judging the fancy cat competition.

It’s on the list!

Let’s be honest here – I’d almost forgo HoT to see how Chauncey was cheated of the title.

BobbyStein.2315:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Also x2, for when you get to The Secret of Southsun, you include the recorded but never used Faren judging the fancy cat competition.

It’s on the list!

Solely for the purpose of pre-release critical analysis, can we by any chance see what this list is?

PeterFries.1057:

BobbyStein.2315:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Also x2, for when you get to The Secret of Southsun, you include the recorded but never used Faren judging the fancy cat competition.

It’s on the list!

(gasps in shock)

Oh, hey, my favorite Anet writer pops up here.

Any chance you can feature some extra dying quaggans with the ToN content. That sounds like a proper alteration of S1 for improvement reasons. Come on, you know you want to.

You can even write Drooburt in there, giving him a reason for being out in the desert.

“Foo, got high on Toxic Pollen. Woke up in Prosperity. Was one cooOOool ride though. Got any spare change? Quaggan is thirsty.”

BrunoBRS.5178:

Tipper.6973:

Oh, one more thing — Who is this Mordremoth, anyway? The game still hasn’t told me.

and it won’t. even if you were following it in chronological order since launch. they just start using the name at some point and assume the player is in on the out-of-game datamining.

Yeah that was kinda funny.

kajidourden.1264:

So I’m still working on my personal story but this has me wondering….what will happen once I finish it? Will I basically be stuck picking up at a point that makes no sense like the OP here? If that’s the case i’ll just skip the story entirely once I hit the cap.
P.S. My account is only two months old, max, so I wouldn’t have this exact problem.

Not at all. You’d have to unlock S2 first with gems, then you get to be stuck picking up at a point that makes no sense (maybe not as badly as OP since he started at the final episode).

But S1 is pretty easy to summarize: there was this Sylvari call Scarlet who gathered a hodgepodge army (Nightmare Court + Krait, Pirates and Inquest, Flame Legion and Dredge). Initially we fought these individual factions but eventually we discovered Scarlet was behind it all. Eventually Scarlet attacked Lion’s Arch and destroyed it in hopes of awakening a sleeping Elder Dragon (you can watch the ending of S1 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdfHTmcK11U).
Along the way you pick up a rag tag group of… friends?… who help you out. Braham and Rox joins during the fight against the Molten Alliance (Flame Legion and Dredge team-up) and Majory and Kasmeer help investigate the assassination of one of the Lion’s Arch captains (which was a plot by the Aetherblades, the inquest and pirate team-up), and Taimi shows up during the fight against Scarlet proper.
So basically at the start of S2 Scarlet is dead, Lion’s Arch destroyed and you hear rumblings of something going on in the west (in the Maguuma Wastes).

A quick google searched turned up the following playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWlcIGXrHRQxugVaQPiGh4tvUSeCcRuQA I haven’t watched it yet (so I can’t speak towards the quality) but it seems fairly complete.

Oorjuwa.1682:

Anet really must focus on S1 before anything else, its a big turn off for new and returning players who missed it…at least I think so, specially now with a new expansion is coming out it only gets more and more confusing. It Just makes sense that S1 comes before S2 and specifically before all expansions.

Maybe after HoT? Mind you one would have hoped for before HoT, but I guess they only have so much development resources to go around.

deSade.9437:

Tipper.6973:

This game has THE WORST story telling I have ever seen.

Yep.
You’ll get used to it.

It’s not that bad :P

Donari.5237:

Suggestion: Have a cinematic recap of Season One to explain the story, and a PS page in the Hero Panel that summarizes the events that happened in LS1.

You’d think something like this would be relatively easy to do, but these sort of suggestions have been around since S2 started (and actually before).

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Perhaps sending cookies would help the process? Or other sweets, perhaps?

Even if it’s just a 1-10 man (or women) team! As long as we know it’s happening in some way shape or form.
Please!

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Solely for the purpose of pre-release critical analysis, can we by any chance see what this list is?

+1!

This thread gives me happy tinglies.

BobbyStein.2315:

Here’s what I think happened in your case:

Bobby,

just an FYI. I had something similar happen to me as the OP, but I didn’t start playing until April. I purchased season 2 and then, when I finished the personal story, ch 8 was active instead of ch 1, as it should have been.

Tipper.6973:

Except, nothing makes sense.

That’s what happens when you skip LS season 1 and most of season 2 and go straight to the 8th chapter of season 2 lol

I believe that Bog Otter on one of his vids suggested an in game cutscene that explains what happens in Season 1 of the Living World. You know, an introduction of all of the characters and whatnot, so people don’t feel completely lost until you guys get the time you need to re implement it into the game as replayable content.

Something so that new players won’t feel so lost. I know if I was a new player I would probably not have any interest in HoT knowing I have missed out on so much story content and not wanting to go to great lengths to research it all online.

Just a thought, I think that would be very doable in the short term.

Does the bug also explain why — after finishing the personal story and then Livng World Season 2 — Chapter 5 (Echoes of the Past) continues to appear as unfinished (Achievements locked)?
I’m currently hesitating to do the same mistake (kill/solo Zaithan and then finish LW2) on any of my alts, because of this.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Most of the main story was told in instances – in fact, only The Lost Shores, Tequatl Rising, and Escape from Lion’s Arch lacked instances out of all 25-or-so releases.

Been watching lets plays of S1, and yeah.
At the very least Rox and Braham story can be added as is (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGV7R0wYNXg, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NowrCrxmEcw), the Dragon Bash Story (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNLH9xI3Tps) and with that you’ve basically introduced 4/5 of the biconics. Taimi is a bit more difficult since she’s tied into the Marionette. But at the very least these instances (with a indication that they might change, expand or be updated it eventually) would provide new character with at least some idea of who these random people you’re hanging around with are.
Scarlet would be a bit more difficult, the Queens Pavillion story instances can also be used mostly just as while things like the Tower, Marionette, and Escape from LA have some story in the open world, and might need some tweaking to make it more solo-able.

xlion.3065:

Does the bug also explain why — after finishing the personal story and then Livng World Season 2 — Chapter 5 (Echoes of the Past) continues to appear as unfinished (Achievements locked)?
I’m currently hesitating to do the same mistake (kill/solo Zaithan and then finish LW2) on any of my alts, because of this.

Most likely what happened was that you did not finish Echoes of the Past, but got close to finishing. Hidden Arcana might not have triggered as finished.

Furthermore, if you were doing achievements and reactivated it then deactivated it without once more completing the entire thing in order from start to finish, it will list it as ongoing/unfinished.

CureForLiving.5360:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Most of the main story was told in instances – in fact, only The Lost Shores, Tequatl Rising, and Escape from Lion’s Arch lacked instances out of all 25-or-so releases.

Been watching lets plays of S1, and yeah.
At the very least Rox and Braham story can be added as is (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGV7R0wYNXg, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NowrCrxmEcw), the Dragon Bash Story (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNLH9xI3Tps) and with that you’ve basically introduced 4/5 of the biconics. Taimi is a bit more difficult since she’s tied into the Marionette. But at the very least these instances (with a indication that they might change, expand or be updated it eventually) would provide new character with at least some idea of who these random people you’re hanging around with are.
Scarlet would be a bit more difficult, the Queens Pavillion story instances can also be used mostly just as while things like the Tower, Marionette, and Escape from LA have some story in the open world, and might need some tweaking to make it more solo-able.

For Taimi: The Origins of Madness was told not only with the Marionette, but an instance in LA afterwards (and then the Scarlet’s Lair instance which is still there, unchanged except for the chests).

Queen’s Jubilee/Clockwork Chaos was actually told in 3 instances, 3 open world NPC dialogues, and 1 achievement set. Two of the three open world NPCs remain there to this day. Vorpp is the NPC that’s disappeared from the open world, so either placing him back in DR permanently or making a short instance for him would work there, or better yet adding his open world dialogue to the end of the Closing Ceremony instance, then the only thing left would be the achievement set (Vorpp’s Assistant), which requires really just a single invasion instance.

The only real hard things to do would be the Tower of Nightmares zone, Escape from Lion’s Arch zone, and Battle for Lion’s Arch zone. You’d have to take out a lot of stuff from it. But those can easily be brought back in full as guild missions, while the story taking a ‘limited version’ of them – still work to be done, but can be done for solo’d instances. Same with Twisted Marionette – as it was, could be brought as an instanced guild challenge, but for story could be altered so players only defend one lane and then fight one battery (scaled up to one person per lane when you bring buddies, or alternatively one person per battery while just one lane defense).

It’s all doable to be converted into solo instances. You just need the time to work on it. The difficulty all depends on how things are coded, which we players have no clue about – so while it may sound easy on paper, it may not be in practice. Even just copy/pasta old instances.

BobbyStein.2315:

thedrumchannell.2405:

This is exactly why LS1 should be unlock-able and purchasable like LS2.

I don’t disagree. We’ve stated before that we hope to one day rebuild LW Season 1, but we’re focused on HoT development right now.

This makes me sad because it means that rebuilding season 1 is not only not a priority but not even a certainty.

I know you do your best and there are always too many things to work on that some of them are going to be left out but from a storytelling point of view its really sad that this isn’t considered essential content.

A new player who comes into the game with HOT release (and I’ve seen more than a few around lately) is going to get the personal story → weird gap where a bunch of stuff happens that is never explained (not to mention introducing ALL the important subsequent characters) → season 2 → expansion. Its a very large hole that will create a weirdly disjointed experience at best and a horrible one at worst.

But I know that you know all this. I just hope someone with the authority to do so insists on this getting made. The game needs it.

I realize that I’m coming to this topic very late, but I still want to get my two cents in.

Point one, I think the season 1 material was a lot of fun. I realize it’d be a lot of work to reformat it into all-instanced material like season 2, but leaving it forever lost is simply unacceptable if the game is going to have a coherent narrative structure going forward, and considering the direction things were going at the end of season 2, it’s clear that the storytelling is relying on those events as a foundation.

Point two, I think there should be a short cinematic recap for each chapter of the Living Story, not just season 1, but each chapter full stop, available in the story journal.

Bear with me here: Especially if you plan to charge people money for the content, despite the season 1 stuff now being long lost, having a preview to show them what they’re missing out on will unquestionably drive their desire to unlock it all. And even for those of us who don’t plan to unlock it, having a recap of events and characters available in the game lets the narrative continue to flow forward.

It’s simple, really; when you click on a story chapter in the story journal, there’s an option to play the episode recap, and (if needed) an option to unlock the chapter.

That way, work on reformatting the season 1 material can happen at its own pace, and the players won’t be left wondering what the heck is going on.

I would say, however, that as it has taken this long, and been the source of this much toothgnashing on the part of the playerbase, Anet would be well advised to seriously consider how much they want to charge people for it. At this point, there are brand new players coming into the game who are being told that they missed a bunch of one-time-only events that they can’t even see in videos, and they will likely not be inclined to pay you a great deal to unlock content that honestly should have been available to them from the get-go.

One the format for Season 2 was determined and defined, season 1 should have been adapted to it immediately, not later; this was something that should have been done immediately on the completion of the new format.

Webba.3071:

BobbyStein.2315:

thedrumchannell.2405:

This is exactly why LS1 should be unlock-able and purchasable like LS2.

I don’t disagree. We’ve stated before that we hope to one day rebuild LW Season 1, but we’re focused on HoT development right now.

This makes me sad because it means that rebuilding season 1 is not only not a priority but not even a certainty.

I know you do your best and there are always too many things to work on that some of them are going to be left out but from a storytelling point of view its really sad that this isn’t considered essential content.

A new player who comes into the game with HOT release (and I’ve seen more than a few around lately) is going to get the personal story -> weird gap where a bunch of stuff happens that is never explained (not to mention introducing ALL the important subsequent characters) -> season 2 -> expansion. Its a very large hole that will create a weirdly disjointed experience at best and a horrible one at worst.

But I know that you know all this. I just hope someone with the authority to do so insists on this getting made. The game needs it.

I agree. Making sure the existing game is coherent, symmetrical, and cohesive should pretty much always be a very high priority. This is what caused all the trouble when the PS was switched around last year.

That being said, I would much rather them do it right than do it fast.

I have a suggestion, why not after you kill Zaithan, you are presented with an option to see like a summary of what happened on LS1, like some cinematic with someone explaining the situation from the Secrets of Southsun cove until scarlet destroy LA.

Can confirm, this happens with every character on my account that completes the personal story.

It also happened to a friend who is getting into the game – she purchased LS2 before completing her PS. When her PS was done, it started her on LS2 Episode 8 and when I realized what was happening I had her leave the instance ASAP to avoid spoilers.

Also, I agree with others that getting LS1 into a LS2 type of purchasable package should be a high priority after HoT comes out. It really should have been a priority before that, but I can understand that there is only so much time in the day. However, now people coming back or getting into the game for the first time with HoT are going to be confused and disappointed.

I would happily purchase a LS1 package despite being there for most of it. Especially if you incentivized it with ascended trinkets and such, much the same as you did for LS2.

Hyble.4271:

Also, I agree with others that getting LS1 into a LS2 type of purchasable package should be a high priority after HoT comes out. It really should have been a priority before that, but I can understand that there is only so much time in the day. However, now people coming back or getting into the game for the first time with HoT are going to be confused and disappointed.

I wholeheartedly agree. I feel like I have two options:

1.) skip content, and do it out of order when it’s available, or
2.) delay going any further with the story until I can do the story in order.

I don’t really like either of those options. : /

paintpixie.7398:

Hyble.4271:

Also, I agree with others that getting LS1 into a LS2 type of purchasable package should be a high priority after HoT comes out. It really should have been a priority before that, but I can understand that there is only so much time in the day. However, now people coming back or getting into the game for the first time with HoT are going to be confused and disappointed.

I wholeheartedly agree. I feel like I have two options:

1.) skip content, and do it out of order when it’s available, or
2.) delay going any further with the story until I can do the story in order.

I don’t really like either of those options. : /

Well, Option #3 would be to read the lore summary for Season 1 and skip doing it.

Not ideal, but it’s what I’d recommend for now.

BobbyStein.2315:

thedrumchannell.2405:

This is exactly why LS1 should be unlock-able and purchasable like LS2.

I don’t disagree. We’ve stated before that we hope to one day rebuild LW Season 1, but we’re focused on HoT development right now.

Can I suggest using a plot primer ala Mass Effect 2/3 or Final Fantasy 13-2 as a stopgap measure for retelling the Living World Season 1 events. Maybe put in a Bard or Storyteller type NPC that will play a brief movie if you talk to them? Those were all effective, and I would imagine it would be a lot easier to implement than a complete restructure.

I just finished off the LWS2 content and I thought it was excellent, but it does need some sort of way to at least introduce the NPCs, as I had done some LWS1 stuff and still had no idea who the primary NPC characters were, other than Caithe.

To be fair, i played season 2 from chapter one and I still had no idea who all these people were. quite an abrupt transition from season 1 to 2 but I assume that is because I missed some content (only got back into the game a few months ago). I guess they are gunna put in some cutscene or something because it doesn’t exactly flow very well as is.

[Edit] I did not read the last post haha good to know its fixed! got 2 new friends who just started playing today and they love the idea of having a massive story to play through

BobbyStein.2315:

We adjusted the Story Journal behavior and also implemented a season 1 recap with today’s build. Basic details are in the update notes. Check it out and let us know what you think.
…

Thank you guys so much! Last week when I lastly played GW2 I came across both the bug and the fact that I was missing LS1. It’s great to get a good placeholder for LS1 until it is reworked (still looking forward to that though!). Coming back from holiday, I can finally watch this summary and get started with LS2. I was waiting until I could get a full understanding of LS1.

Bit of a lore junkie, would never start LS2 without first knowing what happened in LS1!
So thank you!

It seems to me that the Anet team are entirely focused on trying to sell heart of thorns to the exclusion of all else. Well I for one will not be buying HoT if they cannot be bothered to fix gw2 first.

After reading this I went and checked my game. I recently finished personal story and I too was confused where the story picked up. Sure enough I am on season 2 episode 8. It all makes sense now! And i do have ALL of season 2 UNLOCKED. It should have put me at episode 1 not 8. Happy I noticed this. I was in the durmand priory killing stuff and having no clue why. haha

If you finished the personal story without having activated episode 8 before hand, it should have placed you on the Season 1 recap as of last Tuesday, and then to Season 2 Episode 1.

I wonder which one will be harder to do. Implementing S1 episodes as journal chapters or as fractal levels. As a veteran player I’m willing to accept them as fractal levels more. Obviously both ways will be simplified of course especially for the journal. Most of the episodes were group content so fractals sounds good to me. Can’t wait to replay The Tower of Nightmares, The Battle of LA and few others.

So from a developing stand point which one will be easier?

I am also a returning old player and I just got introduced to the new Lions Arch at level 61, nice! I haven’t even finished my personal story line and lions arch has been built, destroyed and rebuilt… wow. I am just going to pretend that didn’t just happen… Let me just say this ArenaNet, I beg you, season 1, soon, please.

Etien.4601:

I wonder which one will be harder to do. Implementing S1 episodes as journal chapters or as fractal levels. As a veteran player I’m willing to accept them as fractal levels more. Obviously both ways will be simplified of course especially for the journal. Most of the episodes were group content so fractals sounds good to me. Can’t wait to replay The Tower of Nightmares, The Battle of LA and few others.

So from a developing stand point which one will be easier?

I’m betting fractals. Here’s why:

1. First off, you have 50, and soon 100, levels to create differing balance and difficulty, having to test each set of difficulty. You also have to rebalance for agony and instabilities. A lot more work than ’re-implementing for 1-5 players, no special mechanics unless adding a challenge mote.
2. A lot of Season 1 is already in instance format. It’s really only Kiel’s story stuff that isn’t, and then the three special zones of Tower of Nightmares, Lion’s Arch under attack, and Lion’s Arch enemy territory. So the format is there. The dialogue is there. It’s mostly a matter of reformatting existing things. With fractals, you have to add in Dessa’s interactions on top of everything above.
3. Locations exist for making it into S2’s format. Worst case scenario, they have to do the same as done with LA’s personal story steps, but the maps exist nonetheless. With turning them into fractals they’d have to recreate the locations and fit it within a pre-existing map that already has different obstacles (other fractals) in it. And if they include water, that’s even less room to have as water is a single level across a map.

So balance, location creation, and even scripting all differ much more as fractals.

Etien.4601:

I wonder which one will be harder to do. Implementing S1 episodes as journal chapters or as fractal levels. As a veteran player I’m willing to accept them as fractal levels more. Obviously both ways will be simplified of course especially for the journal. Most of the episodes were group content so fractals sounds good to me. Can’t wait to replay The Tower of Nightmares, The Battle of LA and few others.

Tower of Nightmares was really nice graphically, and an ok type of dungeon too. The battle of LA would probably be a little like the AScalon fractal. The real seller for me would be a marionette fractal, maybe an ending one like Maw or Mai Trin, that event was all kinds of awesome and well implemented.

Pretty much all episodes were cool. Remember the Aetherblades attack and the chase for Scarlet afterwards? Time was so essential there. Man, great times. Can’t wait to replay em all

Etien.4601:

I wonder which one will be harder to do. Implementing S1 episodes as journal chapters or as fractal levels. As a veteran player I’m willing to accept them as fractal levels more. Obviously both ways will be simplified of course especially for the journal. Most of the episodes were group content so fractals sounds good to me. Can’t wait to replay The Tower of Nightmares, The Battle of LA and few others.

I would be rather pleased if they re-introduced the Marionette fight as a boss for fractals – there are already 5 lanes that need to be defended, so part of the functionality is there.

Gah, I just want that Marionette fight to return; it was so much darn fun.

Appreciate the effort but at least mention something about season 1 remake? anything at all? I will keep waiting for season 1 but not actively playing the game, logging in for daily and occasionally supporting the game via gem store will do for now, its that much faith I have in returning season 1 and I hope I wont be disappointed.

Oorjuwa.1682:

Appreciate the effort but at least mention something about season 1 remake? anything at all? I will keep waiting for season 1 but not actively playing the game, logging in for daily and occasionally supporting the game via gem store will do for now, its that much faith I have in returning season 1 and I hope I wont be disappointed.

You’re in for a long wait. They’ve outright said they would like to eventually remake Season One for replayability but that they cannot do so while building HoT. So once HoT has settled into farm status and the elites are reasonably finalized and balanced, then they might have some attention to spare for Season One as a side project on top of deploying more HoT changes, tweaking guild halls, etc.

There’s nothing else for them to mention since they’ve said “we are not working on this right now.”

BobbyStein.2315:

Tipper.6973:

The thing that I don’t get, is why would they bother to give me the final chapter of Season 2? I didn’t even get the parts before it, just the ending. This makes literally zero sense to a player who doesn’t supplement the game with forums/wiki/youtube. It feels really bad.

Here’s what I think happened in your case:

• You logged into GW2 sometime between January 13 and January 27 (the date when episode 8 released and the end of the two week “free unlock” period)
• You completed your Personal Story six months later
• The content guide looked for the next available story in your Story Journal. Since you probably don’t have any other episodes from Season 2 unlocked it put you on Episode 8.

I’d need to see a screenshot to be absolutely sure, but that’s likely what happened.

The good: You got a free episode
The bad: You played that episode out of linear order and it confused you

We certainly can message this better in the game, so I’ll be having some conversations about how to change this behavior.

This is exactly what happened to me and I have to agree with OP. It’s the worst kind of storytelling you could’ve designed. Not to mention the idea that we now have to pay for something that would be free if we would accidentally be logged in for a second at the time those stories were fresh.
What was your idea and reasoning behind such pay gating otherwise free content? Please, correct me if I am wrong in my above assumptions, but current way of storytelling and chapter locking, leaves one completely uninterested in story itself.

symke.3105:

What was your idea and reasoning behind such pay gating otherwise free content?

The reasoning was to keep players interested in the game and to continue logging in.

Those that stuck with the game during Season 2’s release time frame were rewarded with having free access to that content forever. Those that were less interested in the game and did not log in missed out and have to pay a small fee (either with in-game currency or real world cash) to unlock it, or even just group with someone that has it unlocked.

Seems reasonable to me, but that is just my opinion.

Add to that that it is probably the worst, luckily not necessary to repeat grind when you try to unlocked the achievements that block not only one but two items and AP(jewelry and lumi) by offering lots of unskippable videos and runs that can virtually net you nothing, not even small loot. Makes me downright angry just to think about ls2.

Probably the worst implementation of a grind that I have ever seen in GW2 if you are not a fan of flawless dodging stuff.^^

Zalladi.4652:

symke.3105:

What was your idea and reasoning behind such pay gating otherwise free content?

The reasoning was to keep players interested in the game and to continue logging in.

Those that stuck with the game during Season 2’s release time frame were rewarded with having free access to that content forever. Those that were less interested in the game and did not log in missed out and have to pay a small fee (either with in-game currency or real world cash) to unlock it, or even just group with someone that has it unlocked.

Seems reasonable to me, but that is just my opinion.

I can understand the desire to make story more appealing or, like you said, players more interested in the game, but I fail to see how putting story behind pay gate is doing that.
Especially considering that same story was free for those that were simply logged in at the time it was “fresh”. Are players punished for not logging in every day?

The only result of such a design is that I am not more interested in the game or story. My interest is actually smaller due to such “we respect those that log in every day more than those that do not” philosophy.
Remember, this is(was) B2P game and there is(was) no reason to make players feel like they have to be in it every day in order get everything the game has to offer. Unless the only thing that governs the decision making process for GW2 is the thought that players should be “influenced” to play as much as they can, so cash shop would sell more. Is this the kind of game GW2 has turned into?

Zalladi.4652:

symke.3105:

What was your idea and reasoning behind such pay gating otherwise free content?

The reasoning was to keep players interested in the game and to continue logging in.

Those that stuck with the game during Season 2’s release time frame were rewarded with having free access to that content forever. Those that were less interested in the game and did not log in missed out and have to pay a small fee (either with in-game currency or real world cash) to unlock it, or even just group with someone that has it unlocked.

Seems reasonable to me, but that is just my opinion.

It’s not so much rewarding regular players, rather that the structure punishes players taking an absence, as well as new players. They now have to put in more effort to get on board the only narrative past the launch content. Such a focus on keeping players is not going to balance out the players who do leave with new/returning players filling the customer gap.