Guild Wars 2

Would have been nice to have some kind of examples of rewards/achievements (even if they were proxy/demo ones).

The way I read it is that you don’t get access to the achievement till you completed that story step, which then means that you have to (potentially) keep replaying that mission over and over to get the achievements. This makes it sound like the different things you could do in the Bonus Missions from the BMP in GW1 (Discovery Mode).
As for rewards, does it mean that once we unlock the reward, each character can get it (kind of like the zenith/radiant/hellfire AP skins) or are the rewards still one per account (like all the minis/back skins that we’ve gotten, before FotFW vendor anyways)?

This sounds like it can be a good change but will have to wait and see if they can make good on what they’re saying.

There also appears to be a thread in general discussion

They just had to monetize story as well, didn’t they?

Other than that, I like the changes. I might actually check LS season 2 after all.

Theres also the discussion in the Living Story forum (that was started earlier)

Khorrax.2108:

They just had to monetize story as well, didn’t they?

Other than that, I like the changes. I might actually check LS season 2 after all.

To be fair it is rather unlikely that most people will be so busy so that they can’t login for 10 seconds once every two weeks.

And the price is so low that it doesn’t really matter much anyway.
You can get the gold for it within a couple of days without much trouble.

Too little too late.

Tonnes of people stopped playing/took a break (before/during season 1), they came back and there was no new content since it was all stupid temporary garbage, and they uninstalled and never came back.

They lost trust/faith in the companies ability to evolve the game, even if they somehow hear about this, they aren’t going to come back at all.

Couldn’t care any less, still haven’t finished personal story beyond level 30 or something two years after the launch (6 characters all 80).
The lore just isn’t that good in my opinion.
But hey, I guess it’s a great tool for those who enjoy the story,

The achievements will be much more difficult to complete than those traditionally found in Season 1, and are intended to be challenging achievements for skilled players to overcome.

Best statement since a long time. I really hope this will be true!

This is an elegant solution that I think could possibly constitute one of the biggest changes to the game yet.

Like Vol above, I do wonder about the bigger world encounters (like the marionette and scarlett invasion events in LA) and hope they continue to add as many of those as possible. I would hate to see that aspect of the game hurt in any way.

I think this new system also fits well with the megaserver. Ideally, they can simply filter all of the players replaying a particular story step into the same version of the map (I know Im making an assumption here, but it just feels like the way they are going). This could even give guilds/large groups looking for “raid” experiences with things like the Marionette a way to do so.

And I really love the idea of giving new players a way to experience old content, even if they just bought the game. Hopefully, they can add most, if not all, of Season One to the system at some point.

Tentatively hyped dampened by anets awful track record.

Brutal Arts.6307:

Tentatively hyped dampened by anets awful track record.

This too.

How many game breaking bugs do you think it will launch with?

So these episodes are like missions that we pay for if we missed it. But if someone never played a season’s specific episode in the first place, it’ll sort of be like a bonus mission…

A bonus… mission… pack?

Khorrax.2108:

They just had to monetize story as well, didn’t they?

Other than that, I like the changes. I might actually check LS season 2 after all.

People who don’t log in once every 2 weeks to download the story are not spending gems anyhow. This is probably just going to tag the games that go on a 2 week vaca and can run a few dungeons to get the 20-30g to unlock it without spending money.

Jordo.5913:

the only thing i see that kind of rubs me the wrong way is having to pay 200 gems to get the content if you missed it…for instance when I go on vacation this summer…if this content falls in the 2 weeks i’m gone, im screwed

In the Season 1 if you went to vacation and you missed the update, well … then you’ll have no way to play it ever, now you just need to pay about 20g to be able to play it anytime you want, sounds really fair imo.
Also you can use the gems you get from 5k/10k/15k … AP chests, you get 400 gems each.

THANK YOU! This is exactly what I’ve been hoping you’d do. I love the idea that I can go back and play through old episodes and not worry about my schedule getting in the way of completing achievements within 2 weeks. I’m sure I can log in just once to unlock an episode during the two week period. And even if not, 200 gems once or twice is hardly going to break the in-game bank.

I am very excited. This is so big step in the right direction.

Vol.7601:

For example, let’s take the Marionette release. It’s definitely in the top 5 best releases for Anet.

If Anet were to come up with a similar type of fight for L2, like fighting a champion of Mordremoth, how could this play with journals?

My concern is Anet will sidestep this type of content entirely and move towards smaller scale encounters.

Marionette, Battle for LA – it seems to me the best parts of LS 1 were group events. But there are no group events in the personal story, for obvious reasons, so presumably there will be none in LS 2.

Well. so, season one will be covered by this sysmtem?

I don’t mind at all paying to be able to do the content that I missed.

Regardless of that, the change sound fantastic!!
I have high hopes for season 2!!!

Yay, new permanent content.

But but, now lets all hope that this new permanent content is high quality permanent content.

rincewind.9528:

Well. so, season one will be covered by this sysmtem?

I don’t mind at all paying to be able to do the content that I missed.

Regardless of that, the change sound fantastic!!
I have high hopes for season 2!!!

They hope to be able to include season 1 in this system eventually. It won’t be at the systems inception.

rincewind.9528:

Well. so, season one will be covered by this sysmtem?

I don’t mind at all paying to be able to do the content that I missed.

Regardless of that, the change sound fantastic!!
I have high hopes for season 2!!!

Season 1 isn’t covered, at least yet:

Also, because Season 1 of Living World was not built with the Journal in mind, it will not be available in the story Journal on initial launch when Season 2 begins. We do hope to add Season 1 to the Journal in the future.

From what I read in the new blogpost this seems like a really good solution to the Season 1 LS problem. At least people that log in once every 2 weeks can then play all the content whenever they want. Really good job on that. I’ll look forward to see what happens this summer.

A R W E N.6895:

Yay, new permanent content.

But but, now lets all hope that this new permanent content is high quality permanent content.

Yeah all the high quality content from previous living stories were all large scale. In fact, all releases were pretty much large scale…I can’t envision how that works with these journals.

Hmm .. not sure what i think about that. I was more in hope of new maps with permanent LS content.

This however looks as if we more or less get a Personal Story 2 instead, so all just some instaned stuff, since i don’t see that any temporary content in the actual open world could be made replayable.

I don’t mind the 200 gem fee for unlocking episodes you may have missed. It reminds me of the Bonus mission pack, which was a rather beloved addition to Guild Wars 1 that people played a lot because it gave out some nice weapon skins. (tengu skins for the win!)

I do wonder though if this means they’ll revisit the trophy rewards that you don’t actually get for completing personal story steps. They’re listed every now and then on certain entries (like Romke’s Horn, or the various order related items), they always seemed like a bit of an abandoned feature to me.

I don’t have high hopes that this will work very well for me… Currently if I go to my hero story panel it only recorded about half of my personal story. Even though i’ve completed all of it, if I attempt to scroll down past half way it freaks out and crashes my game… It has been this way since launch.

Hopefully the redesign fixes this or I won’t be able to earn those fancy achievements since I won’t be able to get to the replay button.

In principal I think it is a good idea, but Anet is pretty good at taking good ideas and crushing them into oblivion.

Yojimaru.4980:

I don’t mind the 200 gem fee for unlocking episodes you may have missed. It reminds me of the Bonus mission pack, which was a rather beloved addition to Guild Wars 1 that people played a lot because it gave out some nice weapon skins. (tengu skins for the win!)

True, and I think a GW2 BMP should be released in the future with a similar mechanic from the GW1 one, instanced mission with an ok challenge, to unlock skins (not APs, that would be kinda unfair imo).
I also bought it in GW1, and I used a lot my Undead Scythe, Charr Axe and Mursaat Bow.

I wonder if this is their idea of permanent content.

Vol.7601:

Yeah all the high quality content from previous living stories were all large scale. In fact, all releases were pretty much large scale…I can’t envision how that works with these journals.

I can envision a way – and really hope Im right (still to early to tell). Simply, everyone that is “replaying” a particular story step is filtered to the same map.

So, take the Marionette for example (I know it wont be in because its S1 but as an example) -

You decide you want to replay marionette (or play it for the first time). You go to Lornar’s Pass and hit the button in your story panel. You are then shifted to a server with everyone else wishing to do that content. If there aren’t enough people, you either turn to your guild, go to LA and advertise in map chat or use the group finder tool to fill out enough people to do the event.

Combined with the megaserver system, this system is (potentially) tailor made for large group encounters – which I agree are among the best releases from S1.

Of course, its just speculation at this point, but this early, everything is speculation.

Flytrap.8075:

I wonder if this is their idea of permanent content.

How is it not?

ZudetGambeous.9573:

I don’t have high hopes that this will work very well for me… Currently if I go to my hero story panel it only recorded about half of my personal story. Even though i’ve completed all of it, if I attempt to scroll down past half way it freaks out and crashes my game… It has been this way since launch.

Hopefully the redesign fixes this or I won’t be able to earn those fancy achievements since I won’t be able to get to the replay button.

In principal I think it is a good idea, but Anet is pretty good at taking good ideas and crushing them into oblivion.

Sounds like you either have a problem with your computer or you need to repair the client….I"m leaning towards computer issue. I’ve never heard anyone having a similar issue.

TheDaiBish.9735:

Flytrap.8075:

I wonder if this is their idea of permanent content.

How is it not?

If the story modes that we’re going to be able to experience are in a similar vein to the Zhaitan fight, I couldn’t care less if we have permanent access to it.

It all depends on what kind of events they implement, but I’d really just prefer that they introduce new zones and such instead of story encounters that I’ll do once and then be done with forever.

khani.4786:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

I don’t have high hopes that this will work very well for me… Currently if I go to my hero story panel it only recorded about half of my personal story. Even though i’ve completed all of it, if I attempt to scroll down past half way it freaks out and crashes my game… It has been this way since launch.

Hopefully the redesign fixes this or I won’t be able to earn those fancy achievements since I won’t be able to get to the replay button.

In principal I think it is a good idea, but Anet is pretty good at taking good ideas and crushing them into oblivion.

Sounds like you either have a problem with your computer or you need to repair the client….I"m leaning towards computer issue. I’ve never heard anyone having a similar issue.

I can’t imagine a computer issue that would only affect one screen on one game. The game runs great other than the story panel. I haven’t actually tried opening it in about 4 months, they may have changed something and fixed it already, I will have to check when I get home.

More on topic, I think this is a step in the right direction, however I am unsure what this means about zones being altered and changed. Will the world still change or will we only see changes in the instances from the hero panel?

Khorrax.2108:

They just had to monetize story as well, didn’t they?

Other than that, I like the changes. I might actually check LS season 2 after all.

It seems to be their way of making a payed expansion without actually forcing everyone to pay.

It’s a potentially nice compromise really. Monetizing the story is not new, and honestly, people have been asking for a payed expansion for months now.

will that 200 gem price be per mission or per patch of the living story? (E.G. Queen’s jubilee with the 2 missions we had there, Blood and Madness update giving us 2 fights with the bloody prince)

I assume this does not include the Super Adventure Box (Would pay 800 gems for access always, in a heartbeat) would this be correct to assume?

Is their a ballpark idea to how many missions we should expect?

Will these missions be solo, or can you bring in friends to a mission if they do not have it?

If I think up more i’ll ask more.

Beldin.5498:

Hmm .. not sure what i think about that. I was more in hope of new maps with permanent LS content.

This however looks as if we more or less get a Personal Story 2 instead, so all just some instaned stuff, since i don’t see that any temporary content in the actual open world could be made replayable.

If you recall, the personal story lead you from zone to zone. There is nothing here that says this will not do the same.

The blog calls out the instances being replayable, yes. But it also calls out that there will be permemant open world changes too…

“Open world content additions to Living World updates will permanently expand or change the world of Tyria and will tie to the theme and story of the episode. This means you can play the open world content and the story content (if you’ve unlocked that episode) anytime you want, "

Which could easily cover adding new zones (expanding the world of Tyria)

Flytrap.8075:

TheDaiBish.9735:

Flytrap.8075:

I wonder if this is their idea of permanent content.

How is it not?

If the story modes that we’re going to be able to access are in a similar vein to the Zhaitan encounter, I couldn’t care less if we have permanent access to it.

It all depends on what kind of events they implement, but I’d really just prefer that they introduce new zones and such instead of story encounters that I’ll do once and then be done with forever.

id say odds are pretty good for a new zone on july 1st.

Flytrap.8075:

TheDaiBish.9735:

Flytrap.8075:

I wonder if this is their idea of permanent content.

How is it not?

If the story modes that we’re going to be able to access are in a similar vein to the Zhaitan encounter, I couldn’t care less if we have permanent access to it.

It all depends on what kind of events they implement, but I’d really just prefer that they introduce new zones and such instead of story encounters that I’ll do once and then be done with forever.

It doesn’t say anywhere though that this is all LS2 is going to be. In fact:

With this addition to the story Journal, content from Living World episodes will be a mix of new story steps and open world content.

TheDaiBish.9735:

It doesn’t say anywhere though that this is all LS2 is going to be.

I’m just not going to get my hopes up… ANet has a history of hyping releases that only end in disappointment.

It feels like they took something that was easy to understand and complicated it 10 times…also feels improvised.

Also related to achievement difficulty. How will they overcome the big problem that already exists now for some achievements? I mean achievements that kinda need more then 1 ppl to finish and u can’t find anyone willing to help because once finished players kinda don’t want to hear about it again.

I love the fact that the missions now have achievements tied to it. Difficult achievements you probably won’t finish on your first try. AWESOME!! Replay the mission until you’ve mastered it, exactly what I was missing until now from the achievement-system.

THANK YOU ANET!

Flytrap.8075:

TheDaiBish.9735:

It doesn’t say anywhere though that this is all LS2 is going to be.

I’m just not going to get my hopes up… ANet has a history of hyping releases that only end in disappointment.

Hype, hmmm. If they do not release any more information than now they will be accused of massive hype.

I think the clever thing about this implementation as well is that they should be able to track how much any particular piece of LS content is being replayed, giving them a very easy indication of the most popular content.

BobbyStein.2315:

Malchior.5042:

skullmount.1758:

Hmm, so if LS is going to be using the green star like the PS, what happens to those of us who haven’t completed the PS? Do we just select that in the story panel and it basically hides the PS one/step?

Going from what Colin described, that seems to be the case.

Colin Johanson

To go along with this change, we’re modifying the story Journal in your character’s Hero Panel so it will track all of your character’s story steps. From that panel, characters who are level 80 will be able to select between playing their personal story and the Living World story. For the Living World story, you’ll be able to select which unlocked episode you’d like to play. Characters under level 80 will be able to see the available episodes, but will not be able to play them until they reach level 80. Think of the Living World story as the constantly expanding continuation of your character’s storyline once they reach level 80.

Once you hit level 80 you can switch between your Personal Story and your unlocked episodes of Season 2.

The question I have is, will be able to replay all content from a living story step or just select instanced small group story stuff?

Most notably, if a large world event like the Scarlett invasion or marionette is part of a story step, will those events be replayable alongside the other stuff or are there technical/gameplay issues making that unrealistic?

I see value in the system regardless, but am very curious/interested about this one aspect.

I’m hopeful so long as these additions achievements are actual skilled play and not one shot mechanics

Blaeys.3102:

BobbyStein.2315:

Malchior.5042:

skullmount.1758:

Hmm, so if LS is going to be using the green star like the PS, what happens to those of us who haven’t completed the PS? Do we just select that in the story panel and it basically hides the PS one/step?

Going from what Colin described, that seems to be the case.

Colin Johanson

To go along with this change, we’re modifying the story Journal in your character’s Hero Panel so it will track all of your character’s story steps. From that panel, characters who are level 80 will be able to select between playing their personal story and the Living World story. For the Living World story, you’ll be able to select which unlocked episode you’d like to play. Characters under level 80 will be able to see the available episodes, but will not be able to play them until they reach level 80. Think of the Living World story as the constantly expanding continuation of your character’s storyline once they reach level 80.

Once you hit level 80 you can switch between your Personal Story and your unlocked episodes of Season 2.

The question I have is, will be able to replay all content from a living story step or just select instanced small group story stuff?

Most notably, if a large world event like the Scarlett invasion or marionette is part of a story step, will those events be replayable alongside the other stuff or are there technical/gameplay issues making that unrealistic?

I see value in the system regardless, but am very curious/interested about this one aspect.

No. As mentioned above, they’ve separated Story content from Openworld Content(although they’re tied to each other). You’ll get the Dungeons+Conversation Instances we could do with a party, but not the Open World content like the Battle of Lions Arch or ToN. However, withtin ToN, we had the mini-dungeon with the Toxic Krait Prophet, or the one with the puzzles before it blew up. I believe the latter instances will be available.

Excellent idea, looking forward to the implementation.

First, this looks awesome. I look forward to actually trying it out in game.

Second, please read the actual article before posting.

So probably events like the Marionette will not be playable and only story instances will be. Which is fine because it makes sense. (Season one will not be out yet, but it’s an example).

But this is a great opportunity to add events like the Marionette to Guild missions.

What they could do is break the Story Journal into two parts. One where a single player has access to story instances, and another where guilds can access the large scale event fights that a single player could not do.

So maybe they can try something like this.

Really hate to be negative about it, but there’s nothing here I find even remotely interesting.

All of the story parts of this game – Living, Personal and Dungeon – have been largely bland, tedious and unrewarding.

Hoping this is somehow linked to a new area at very least.