Blatant attempt to gouge as much real world cash/in-game gold from the consumer as possible. Perfect example is outfit prices being set at 700 gems, which isn’t divisible by 400, meaning you have to spring for the 800 gems. It’s the same crap Microsoft pulled with its Microsoft points on Xbox Live, which they’ve since retired.
Discounting gem store items will screw people over, because it will put people in situations like I’m currently in, where I’m sitting at 240 gems. Those 40 gems are completely useless. Additionally, people who want to convert gems to gold are put in a situation where they screw themselves out of having a useable amount of gems in the event they want to purchase something evenly from the gem store.
Ridiculous.
While we’re at it, hasn’t it been long enough now that we can release some of the HoM skins back and obtainable in another way?
They made it pretty clear that those would always remain exclusive to the HoM.
I’m sorry, but this profession loot system is a stupid idea. There’s no need for it at all, and all it can accomplish is unfairly distributing salvage materials based on people’s classes. This is a big deal, especially with difficult-to-obtain midlevel tailoring materials like cotton and linen where the primary source comes from salvaging while leveling; materials that are incredibly important not only to tailoring, but leatherworking and armorsmithing as well.
The game already showers you with greens and blues throughout normal play. I’ve leveled 6 characters to 80 and did so entirely on drops in the open world. I never once bought gear from karma vendors, off the TP, or from merchants; all of which are options for players that do feel the need to be constantly upgrading their gear as they level. Adjusting drop rates for profession-related gear is completely unnecessary.
There is absolutely nothing constructive about this thread. At least the people who cared enough to voice their criticism have given ArenaNet feedback to reflect on for how they can improve, whether it was all warranted or not.
Is it really that difficult to make them toggleable like shoulders, gloves, helms, and backpieces? If they’re worried about players not recognizing what kit an engie is using in pvp, just force them always on there. Back near release there was a bug where if you swapped kits quickly enough, you’d get your kit skills without displaying the hobosack. Was very disappointed when they fixed that.
Shrike, thank you for taking the time to put all that feedback together. I agree 100% with just about every point you made. This last release, I found myself unexpectedly reacting with revulsion when my character referred to the biconics as his group, and the Pale Tree agreed that we would go on to accomplish many great feats together. The single most enjoyable moment in the release was when Rytlock shot Rox down and referred to me as someone he can actually rely on, as he was the only character that felt even close to being on my level. The biconics are fine characters by themselves, but I just really find myself not wanting to associate with them like this. I don’t want to play the babysitter, and the “Scooby Doo Gang” effect really harms my ability to take the story as seriously as I’d like to.
The points about Job-o-Tron were good, but that’s where my opinion diverges a little. I think recurring characters that do have an ongoing relationship with the PC can add a lot to the story along with peripheral characters like him, but it needs to be the right characters. Not the biconics. There’s already a cast of interesting, competent, and far more appropriate characters to use. Logan, Rytlock, Caithe, Countess Anise, the individual Order members from the personal stories like the Master of Whispers and Almorra Soulkeeper, and a number of other characters featured in the personal stories that don’t come off as comic relief and are far more interesting and appropriate to foster ongoing interactions with the PC are available. With the unique dialogues they’ve shown themselves to be capable of, they could even allow us freedom to interact with them in ways appropriate to our characters and to allow us to actually shape those relationships ourselves rather than being told, “these guys are your best friends” whether we like it or not.
I’d really like to see the story evolve, but I think as long as we’re saddled so heavily with the biconics, it’s going to be held back.
Also, for those saying that it wasn’t some EPIC quest or something, you obviously weren’t paying attention to Rytlock. They were all fragmented and scattered when a couple of people broke it. That doesn’t immediately mean that each one is in a secret cave behind some guardian, it just means that they ended up buried or lost somewhere (like how we found them).
I mean, in all honesty, how likely would it be if someone found a shard piece and immediately said “A shard of the ancient crown of Ascalon! I must hide it behind 20 different traps and a boss”!"
They probably just saw a broken fragment of a crown and dismissed it as garbage. Hence why we find them buried or in rubble since they were considered junk.
No, I’m pretty sure most people were paying attention. People aren’t taking issue with the hunt to find them not matching up with Rytlock’s dialogue. We’re taking issue with just how lame the hunt itself was. Trying to assign such plot importance to something that involves hopping to a couple waypoints, possibly doing an event you’ve likely already done multiple times before, and then looting a pile of rubble is just a huge buzzkill. This crown is supposed to be the missing piece in an enormously important plot hook to the world of Tyria involving the Foefire, Ascalon, Sohothin and Magdaer. And that’s how they resolve it. With no buildup aside from Rytlock’s “oh, by the way, I found out about this broken crown,” and a 10-15 minute romp through areas we’ve already explored doing events we’ve already done time and time again.
From both a storytelling and a gameplay perspective, it was completely and utterly unsatisfying in every possible way.
This was definitely a low point in an already unfortunately lackluster release. Hunting down and acquiring an artifact on the same level as Magdaer and Sohothin seems like it should be important enough to have very well been its own release with multiple story instances involving learning of each piece’s whereabouts as well as acquiring them.
Alternatively, another way to handle it which would have been much better would be scrapping the “four pieces” idea and leaving it whole, with the addition of a new Ascalonian Catacombs dungeon path involving retrieving it.
The sudden introduction of a very powerful human artifact tied so deeply with Sohothin, Magdaer, and the Foefire, and then immediately trivializing it through its implementation, was very disappointing.
Killing off Trahearne would be great. It could open the doors for a storyline in which the Pact falls apart and the fight against the dragons becomes focused on the different nations working together rather than the orders.
Bonus if he gets corrupted like Scarlet and Aerin and we get to put him down ourselves. I’ll be the first to say that the hate surrounding Trahearne isn’t so much his fault as a character and it is more a failing of the personal story itself, but the two have become so heavily associated there really isn’t any escaping the stigma anymore.
What do you mean, “What are they doing here?” They’re here for the same reason you are. They enjoy the game, they have fun playing it. And just because the game is lacking in “hardcore” content at the moment doesn’t mean that ArenaNet didn’t intend for this game to appeal to hardcore players. ArenaNet originally aimed for the Explorable dungeons to be hardcore and clearly didn’t anticipate just how quickly players would tear through them. Adding in difficult achievements is actually a very small step in the right direction. The game still needs a slew of legitimately difficult content.
I’m not seeing “everyone else” being disgruntled by ArenaNet finally adding in challenging achievements and rewards associated with them. But if you’re right and this really will be alienating all those people you say, I’m sure they’ll be flooding into the thread agreeing with you soon enough.
As far as missing your point, I don’t think I did. You said you’re worried about having to choose between “having fun” or “getting the thing you want” which implies the two are mutually exclusive. You also alluded to being upset at the idea of other people getting rewarded for skilled play if you’re unable or unwilling to put in the effort to get the rewards yourself. You’re worried about “exclusionary achievements,” and yet you’ve fully admitted in the thread that you’re the one doing the excluding through your own attitude. How is this ArenaNet’s issue? I’m still not seeing why they should pander to you over someone who wants to be rewarded for actually achieving something in the game, outside of your baseless assumption over how many people share your attitude.
I think a reasonable amount of effort is reasonable. I think an unreasonable amount of effort is unreasonable. So far, the living world content has been mostly reasonable effort equals reasonable reward, I’m certainly not advocating that they make anything easier. My concern comes from their comments about making things “more challenging."
And there’s a major portion of the player base that feels that there are no rewards in this game that require a reasonable amount of effort, and everything up until now has been unreasonably easy. Luckily, it sounds like ArenaNet is finally doing something to address this.
If the game requires something of you to earn a reward that you’re not interested in doing, or you feel you’re unable to do, then just don’t do it. If you want the reward badly enough to put in some persistence for it, go for it.
Right, that is exactly the sort of choice I don’t want to have to make. “Have fun” OR “get the thing I want,” having to choose shouldn’t be necessary.
The fact that you don’t think you can have fun unless you’re getting every reward handed to you with minimal effort is the core of the issue, I think.
If they were to attempt this, ArenaNet and GW2 wouldn’t survive the backlash.
Thankfully, everyone in this thread (including the OP) knows this suggestion isn’t going to happen.
I don’t care about completing them, I do care, however, if completing them is require to unlock loot, achievements, and titles. Basically, if the task itself is something that interests me to do, then fine. If the task itself doesn’t interest me at all, but there is no particular reason to do it beyond “it is there,” then fine. If, however, I have no interest in the task, BUT some really cool rewards are attached to completing it, then I might feel compelled to try.
It’s like with the Triple Trouble encounter, it’s challenging content, that’s fine, but it also offers a bunch of unique rewards, and that is not cool given how difficult it is to find a map that can make it possible. Think about other content though, like when NuTeq came out and people were competing for the best speed-run times. That offered no additional reward over just completing it, and yet people still had fun with the challenge. I’m all for the game setting challenging goals for people, so long as they don’t offer incentives that would cause people who have no interest in that challenge to miss out.
I think we can at least agree though, that if these additional challenges do not offer any rewards beyond the occasionally AP or two, then it won’t be a big deal.
Since you will have all the time you want this time arround to finish everything (instead of a 2week period) it’s ok even if it’s something harder than usual.
Time is not a factor. Time has nothing to do with anything, it’s a skill/luck-check, not a time-check. It doesn’t matter whether they give two weeks to complete it or two decades, if the hassle needed to complete it is not fun, it’s not fun.
So you’re saying you basically want every title, armor, weapon, and any other possible reward in the game handed to you with little to no effort? That kind of goes against the entire concept of a reward, and your idea of “I don’t think there should be medals if not everyone can get them” is a just another way of saying “if I can’t get it, no one can.” Selfishness like that isn’t going to garner you much sympathy, and it’s an attitude you should have left behind back on the playground. If the game requires something of you to earn a reward that you’re not interested in doing, or you feel you’re unable to do, then just don’t do it. If you want the reward badly enough to put in some persistence for it, go for it.
Otherwise, tough luck. As they said on the livestream, giving more opportunities for a core part of their player base to have personal, skill-based reward systems is something GW2 needs. It’s healthier for the game as a whole.
Very excited for the new journal system. I think restructuring the way the living story is delivered will be a huge boon for the game in a number of ways, and I’ll be crossing my fingers for the inclusion of season 1 and the ability to replay personal story missions (along with trying out alternate paths that you didn’t select the first time, even if they don’t save to your character).
I have a question about the story steps that are going to be added with each release. So far, things have been kind of inconsistent with regards to living story instances being things that you can do with friends, or are purely single player. Are things going to be any more consistent from here on out? It would be really great if the living story steps are more in line with the personal story, where everything can be done either alone or with friends.
Thanks for the confirmation of his survival, agamedivine! If there was only one person who made it out, I wanted it to be him.
I’m at the point now where I could easily outfit myself with ascended gear, but I’m just not. I just want to wait for ArenaNet to wake up and start adding viable methods of obtaining ascended gear through completion of actual content rather than the absolute mess of an ascended crafting system or complete reliance on RNG.
There is zero incentive to upgrade when they’ve already expressed desire to change the meta with regards to berserker gear and certain stat combinations. It’s too costly for what it is, and as has been screamed from the rooftops a million times already, it goes completely against the philosophy ArenaNet once touted about best-in-slot gear.
There’s never really a guaranteed time that they last. There have been other releases where the achievements were only available until the next release as well. You should always operate under the assumption that the achievements are only available until the next release, even if that isn’t always the case.
I’m very impressed as well. The cinematic was fantastic, and the look of the destroyed Lion’s Arch is great. Big fan of the burning bridges in particular, the effects really work nicely. Love the chaotic feel of it. For now it’s a lot of fun, although I’m sure I won’t be doing it constantly by the time the next update approaches. As far as rewards go, the new backpiece is cool for those that enjoy that kind of style, but I’m not really into that kind of aesthetic. Otherwise, it doesn’t seem like there’s really much to work for outside of getting all the achievements and possibly the potions from the lost heirloom collection, although 250 heirlooms seems a bit steep for something so simple.
Overall, I think it’s a great release. I also wanted to mention how great the refugee camp and revamped Vigil Keep came out. Feels like a totally different area, and I love that the Keep is more opened up now. Makes it way more impressive. Looking forward to going back and spending some time soaking in the ambient dialogue and talking with the NPCs.
I also have leftovers that I was planning to use today. We had been told that Scarlet’s Lair would remain, and I was under the impression that this included the chests you can find inside them.
All npc dialogue IS canon, whether it is seen by other people or not. That is why I said anything related to the romance have to be put into instances, since that sets clear ownership of who’s story is being told at the moment. In the open world, with no player having ownership over the story, that story is open to everyone.
So if the love interest acknowledges multiple people in the open world, s/he isn’t breaking the player’s canon. It is putting in place the canon that the LI is dating multiple people. The players might not be able to see it, but they can still turn to one another and ask, “Are you getting the romance dialogue too?”
Alright, let me give you a specific example of why that way of thinking doesn’t work with how the story is told in GW2. Remember the task we had of hunting down heirlooms that were left behind by the refugees during Flame and Frost? When you speak to the refugees for the first time, they lament the loss of a certain item they had to leave behind when fleeing. Every player gets this dialogue, right? So let’s say I hunt down their heirloom and return it to them, and you don’t. For me, that NPC is grateful to my character for hunting it down, and in my story, they’ve gotten their item back. Now, let’s say you talk to that same NPC right after I hand over the item. You’ll still get the dialogue indicating they still need the heirloom. Why? Because what goes on in my story has no impact whatsoever with the story in yours. Our canons are completely separate. And keep in mind, this isn’t instanced. This is out in the open world. For me, that character is grateful for my help in retrieving the heirloom and the story will continue for me with him having received it and remembering that I helped him. For you, he was sadly unable to get his heirloom back. Same character, two completely different dialogues and outcomes for two different players. Neither is more valid than the other, because the story itself is unique to each player. Every player does have ownership of the story, even in the open world. What you’re not factoring in is that there is an overarching story and a personalized story of the player within that overarching story.
The exact same thing would apply to romances, no instancing required.
So let’s say me, you, Bill and John did a mission together in the game. You have to remember that by lore that never happened. It couldn’t happen. Else the lore won’t make sense. The players playing together is PURELY a game play mechanic.
Well that’s not entirely true. The mission did happen, the story just doesn’t take you, Bill, and John into account when I did it. Likewise, when you did it, Bill, John, and I weren’t taken into account. But yes, the players playing together is a gameplay mechanic rather than a part of the story.
I read the story differently. I believe that all the players actually exist in the same universe at the same time. Because no one player can be THE main charater, NONE of us can be the main character. Because we cannot all date Anise at the SAME time, NONE of us can ever be dating Anise. In fact we cannot date any NPC unless they are randomly generated.
If you read the story that way though, both the entire personal story and the living story completely fall apart. Let’s switch up your wording to another story-related development: Because we cannot all be the Commander of the Pact at the same time, none of us can be the Commander of the Pact? We already know this is untrue, because the game explicitly tells us that we’re the Commander of the Pact. We also know that there’s only one Commander of the Pact. The only way that’s possible is if the story doesn’t take other players into account. The way you’re reading it, that means everything we witness isn’t actually happening and that you don’t matter as a player. That’s definitely not what ArenaNet wants to convey.
On a sidenote, I like your Charr’s character name.
The same applies to Bioware’s games as well. Each player is playing in their own little alternate universe, and no one player’s actions ever effect the others. That’s very easy to pull off since theirs is a single player game, but it would be much more difficult to do with MMOs. The multiplayer aspect allows for greater chances of breaking each player’s canon.
As CHIPS said, if a group of people are all romancing the same person, and they all talk to him/her at once in the open world, what does s/he do? If s/he only acknowledges one person, that will be breaking everyone else’s canon. If s/he acknowledges everyone, that wouldn’t break the player’s canon, but it would make it so that the love interest is in relationship with multiple people at once. And if s/her doesn’t acknowledge no one at all, that is a huge snub towards the player, and it wouldn’t make sense if you are in a relationship with someone.
The only way they could make it somehow work, is if they put everything in personal instances, tie it to only the PS, and have no open world interaction at all.
Except when one person goes up to talk to said NPC, no other players can see the conversation. The conversation is only witnessed by the player talking to the NPC. No canon is being broken, because as far as the other players are concerned from a story perspective, no one is talking to the NPC. There’s no canon to break outside of your own. The other players do not exist from a story perspective. The story is still told as if it were a singleplayer game, but the game is made to allow for hundreds of players to be playing it together.
I agree, there’d be a problem if a player goes up to an NPC, the NPC proclaims their love for the player in /say chat, and then another player comes along and the NPC says the same thing to them. But that’s not how it works.
You brought up Bioware games, so let me ask a question. Hypothetically, if there was a multiplayer mode in Mass Effect where you could do missions with other players, and it also let you bring your NPC squadmates, would that all of a sudden be breaking canon because in the other players’ games, they have their own relationships with those squadmates? Keep in mind that you would be portrayed as your Shepard to yourself, while the other players would just have helmets on as they aren’t relevant to your story. Your squadmates would never refer to them as "Shepard’ nor would they even acknowledge their existence during the mission. Meanwhile for those other players, you would be the helmeted one, they would see themselves as Shepard, and the squadmates would only acknowledge them. I would argue that this has no effect on breaking canon, and that it’s the same concept.
I’m pretty certain they don’t. BUT, there was one thing I forgot about in my earlier post.
There are a few “normal” mobs that hang out near the batteries (normal Krait, Risen that normally spawn in the area etc.), and these enemies WILL drop loot. Unfortunately it can become rather difficult to tell which enemies are which, but due to the sheer number of players mobbing the batteries, usually these normal enemies get massacred before you can even get credit for tagging them.
It’s true that some normal mobs likely get mixed in, but I get far too many drops when defending both the turrets from the mobs that spawn every 1:30, as well as the mobs that spawn during the battery phases for it to be only from potential normal spawns mixed in. Especially because I continually get drops throughout the phase, even after the normal mobs would have been killed and waiting to respawn.
The problem is me, you, Bill and John all exist in the same universe at the same time. Remember the time the 4 of us did Twilight Arbor together? This won’t be possible unless we all exist.
So if all 4 of us fall in love with Countess Anise at the same time, this universe won’t make any sense. How can 4 adventurers, who can team up with each other in the same timeline and location, be dating the same woman at the same time?
The same thing goes for Lord Faren, Agent Ihan and Crusader Hiroki.
If there is a “one partner at a time” rule, the situation is even worst. That means an older player have an “advantage” in dating Countess Anise. A new player have no chance at Countess Anise because she is already taken.
Random NPC is the only way to go, if we want NPC romance in MMORPG.
But you’re making a problem where one doesn’t exist. The story doesn’t account for other player characters. That’s why all of us are Trahearne’s right-hand man, the Commander of the Pact. For you, it’s only your character who’s the Commander. For me, it’s only mine. Hell, even having multiple characters on the same account completing the personal story doesn’t make sense by your logic. If one player were to pursue a romance with an NPC, it wouldn’t mean that character is “taken.” It would have no relevance to any other player, because from a story perspective, no other player characters exist.
I think a true autoloot option would be handy, but with regards to Tequatl, you can rest easy. All of the mobs that spawn during his fight do not drop loot (to prevent players from just farming Champs instead of fighting Tequatl).
This isn’t true. The champs don’t drop loot, yes, but all of the other mobs do.
Why not Orr then? Though personally I think if Mystic Toilet would be put in every city along with Mist Portals, and Fractals, then we could have 5 hubs instead of one. I think it might be nice and give new players good image, where they enter racial capital for the first time, and see a bustling city. On the other hand it could have opposite effect of dispersing the population…
If they put everything in all the racial capitals… Then hopefully they’ll add a decent LFG feature.
The best part of Lion’s Arch was being able to find a group for Fractals and such.
They added an LFG feature a while ago. Bring up your contact list and click on the Looking For Group tab. You can advertise your party or look for a party under a number of categories.
Canach is part of the asuran PS now? I only remember going to Garenhoff with my asura to free Professor Gorr.
Someone should update the wiki then.
No, Canach has nothing to do with the Asura PS. There’s just a part in one of the Asura personal story missions that takes place in Garenhoff, which the OP remembered from the living story release where we went to the same town while investigating the karka crisis.
I think the idea of getting more use out of the home cities was more player speculation than anything ArenaNet was actually trying to go for. I do think it would have been nice to get people to use their home cities more in the wake of LA’s destruction, but I also understand the reasoning for still wanting a central hub.
Even without the karka, I have to imagine making the central hub city of Tyria out on an island in the middle of the ocean where the only method of traveling there is by asura gate or taking a seafaring vessel would be a very poor decision from an in-world perspective.
The terrain of the island itself isn’t conducive to building a large city, either.
@Cliff
I can count how many times I have missed out on loot bags on one hand. And that’s because I died a split second before the enemy did. (In which case, in my mind, I died first. Why should I get loot from that?)
Normally? I don’t miss loot with the AoE option. I have mine keyed to the C key on my keyboard. Which is right below the movement keys… It takes less then a half-second to press that button… A lot less then that actually. (No, I haven’t bothered timing it…)
Now, I’m not an expert here, but I honestly don’t think that the micro-second spent tapping a button is going to cost you anything.
Let me give a more specific PvE example, then. In the Tequatl fight during the battery phases, you typically leave about 20 seconds early to prepare to burn Tequatl down when he lands. Very often on the run back towards where he lands, I’m still getting plenty of EXP popups informing me that many of the enemies I was killing at the batteries and megalaser have been killed. There’s no way of knowing which enemies they were, where they were, or if they dropped anything. A true autoloot function would prevent missing any of the many potential drops I’ve missed out on on my many Tequatl runs.
You seem to be against the idea of a true autoloot option. Do you have any actual arguments as to why this would be a bad thing?
I would argue that while it has certain personal aspects to it, the living story isn’t personal though. It’s about Tyria, not the player in the end. The LS doesn’t stop for the player, or wait for him or her to catch up before advancing. It goes on with or without him.
The devs have been doing a better job with integrating the player into the LS, and making it feel more personal to them, but that only for the people doing it. What about the people that have taken a break from the game? How it is “personal” to them? They have no idea what is going on, since the storyline has moved on without them, and they can feel totally lost at times.
That’s because the story isn’t about them, it’s about Tyria and the events that are happening in it. The player may play a role in said events, and they may even play a large role in them, but they aren’t necessary for the LS to progress. And if the game automatically assumes the player did events and actions they might have missed? Well… that’s about the biggest definition of an UNpersonal Story there is, since we wouldn’t even be needed for it anymore.
As I said before, the personal story and the living story’s main difference is method of delivery. In a way, you can look at the personal story as Season 0 of the living story. However, it shipped with the game rather than being implemented through updates, and was focused on instances rather than open world events. It still became the story of Tyria and the fight against the Elder Dragons, and like the living story, it doesn’t actually require player participation for its events to occur. As an example, even if a player never does the personal story, the Pact still gets formed and sets up a beachhead in Orr, because if you go there that’s exactly what’s going on. Someone can buy the game today, having never done the personal story, and the story dictates that Zhaitan was killed over a year ago. It may be called the “Personal Story” but it was never all that personal, especially after Claw Island.
The players cannot fall in love or befriend those important NPCs. That is too story altering to be allowed.
Let’s say I married Queen Jennah.
You married Caithie.
My friend Bill married Scarlet.
My friend John also married Queen Jennah.Imagine the chaos in the story.
If these love or friends relationship are to exist, they must be done though randomly generated, randomly named NPCs. It would be similar to those mercenaries in Diablo 2.
http://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Mercenaries
It is not like GW1, where everyone befriended Mhenlo. Why? Because technically, me, you, Bill and John are all in the same team doing the same quest. So of course we all knows Mhenlo.
But which of us is Mhenlo’s lover? None. Mhenlo’s lover is Cynn, another NPC.
Hence, if you want a lover for your character, that NPC will be randomly generated.
Obviously your examples are off limits from a story perspective, as those NPCs are either already involved in romance stories with other important characters of Tyria or are villains. However, there are NPCs in the story that already exist, or can exist in the future, that could easily be given potential romance paths with the player character where it wouldn’t have any adverse affect on the overarching story. The examples I gave were Countess Anise and Lord Faren. Your examples would mess with the story, certainly, but what about them? What about some of the Order representatives from the personal story, like Agent Ihan or Crusader Hiroki? There are plenty of NPCs that already exist and plenty more that could/will be added in future living story installments. I think you’re going way overboard with the idea that every single player needs randomized NPCs strictly for the purposes of romance.
Seriosuly? You just press it once after battle or ocasionally during battle.
Autoloot does not require you to be standing over the loot – you can move around and leave the bags sitting there then hit the autoloot key to get them from a distance. You definitely don’t have to spam the key… You don’t need a complete keyless autoloot – that’s just lazy and stupid.
For the record, there are other RPGs and MMOs where whenever you kill an enemy, whatever loot they drop goes straight into your inventory. It’s not lazy or stupid. It’s a design decision, and one with a number of advantages. As the OP mentioned, it lets you keep your attention on the action. Additionally, it eliminates the risk of potentially missing out on drops. WvW makes it a bit easier since the loot appears on you, but how many times in PvE do you think you’ve missed drops in a particularly action heavy and movement intensive event? What about when you’ve killed a large group of enemies but die before you get a chance to loot them, and are forced to waypoint away? What if you missed a precursor drop in either scenario?
I think you could afford to take a minute to think a bit more about people’s suggestions before you respond negatively.
This point has been brought up a few times, and I agree. ArenaNet has mentioned on a number of occasions that this year they’re going to be reworking how the living story is delivered somehow, but we don’t have any details yet. I can only hope that means that they’re making as much of the story content permanent as possible, so that people who don’t play often can still catch up on what they’ve missed.
It’s pretty clear at this point that they’re grooming him to be one of the B-iconics. Honestly though, I hope I’m wrong. Considering what he did, it’d be a bit eye roll-inducing that he gets off so light. Worse yet, I probably won’t have any say in how my character interacts with him. We’ll see what happens.
i dont like how Taimi has this tension with Zoija. Zoija is the topmost asuran and the pre-fix of zerker gear, anyone who has problems with Zoija, has problems with me.
Maybe Zojja’s a bit humiliated by the fact that a child put together a golem from scratch that seems ten times more advanced than Mr. Sparkles, which she had to buy from someone else and modify. Asura seem like they can be seriously competitive, and Zojja doesn’t exactly have an easy personality.
Zhaitain was killed by thousands of players. Big Nose Ted blew the orphanage up thousands of times. The White Stag has been captured by the Nightmare Court thousands of times. There have been thousands of seconds-in-command for the Pact. And there have been thousands of Infinity Balls invented by asuran players. But romances is where you have a problem?
All those events happened in the Personal Story. Personal being the keyword, as canon wise, those actions only happened once, and it was towards or by the player. One player’s PS does not effect or ever conflict with another person’s PS because they are separate entities.
If they ever decide to add light flirtation, suitable to the T game rating, to the future PS, I would be fine with that. As it would be in the Personal Story. The Living Story is more open world though, as it solely focuses on the changing events of Tyria and not the player’s actions. Sure, the player may take part in it, but he or she isn’t needed to progress it. That’s why the LS wouldn’t be a suitable place for any relationship content.
I’m not sure where you get that idea. The living story is effectively an extension of the personal story, the only difference is the method of delivery. Just because ArenaNet continues the story every two weeks doesn’t mean the intention from a story perspective is that each individual player is inconsequential. The story progresses under the assumption that the player participated and was instrumental in it. Marjory did just send us a letter telling us they couldn’t have put Scarlet’s motives together without us, after all. Besides, there’ve been plenty of living world releases with personal story-style instances. Just look at the instance in Lion’s Arch from Origins of Madness.
If ArenaNet were to implement the ability for our characters to become more intimate with other characters in the story, how would it have any negative impact on the way other players experience the living story? One player might pursue Lord Faren, another might pursue Countess Anise. The living story itself would be the same, but perhaps there would be differences in dialogue and certain story instances for these two players. I don’t see how it’s unsuitable, and ArenaNet has even expressed a desire in the past to allow for more choices on a personal level that give different players different experiences throughout the living story.
Hey guys, I just finished watching the livestream on Taimi and didn’t notice any topics up about it, so I thought I’d start one.
I just wanted to mention that I think Taimi’s had a really great introduction into the story, and is shaping up to be a great character. I really enjoyed the writing for her, and her voicework is great. The only thing that threw me off a bit about her introduction was that you have to do the marionette fight before the LA story instance, but there’s no guarantee you’ll actually encounter her in the fight depending on which lane you’re defending. If you do see her, her sudden presence in the marionette encounter is a little jarring in a sense that it kind of makes you feel like you missed something. I think it would have been ideal to have met her, at least in passing, in one of the earlier releases. If you don’t encounter her in the fight, the story instance seems a bit strange when Logan’s questioning her about being there, while the player could just be left thinking “She was?”
For the latest release, I think you guys did a great job with her and Braham in EotM. It was a lot of fun hanging out by them to hear their interactions, and I think she’s going to go a long way to make Braham (who’s been a little bit on the dull side, in my opinion) a lot more likeable and fun to be around. Despite the short time she’s been around, I think I’m enjoying her the most of all the B-iconics, and I’d say she’s probably one of the best characters you’ve introduced in the living story in general. I think adding an important child character is a big risk as far as likability goes, but you really hit a good balance of giving her enough asura snark to be fun while taking advantage of the fact that she is a child and using the strengths of that aspect of her as a character. The main character I play is a human, which would tend to be looked down upon by an asura; but the fact that she is a child makes it believable that she’s got the softer edge to her that lets her have a more genuine and equal friendship with my character and the other B-iconics.
Thanks for taking the time to do the livestream, I’m always interested in hearing more about the lore and storytelling aspects of the game.
We are at the beginning stages of overhauling our cinematic tools. It’s still very early on, so you wont see anything big for quite some time…In the meantime, you should see a gradual improvement in the quality of cut-scenes as the cinematic and writing team strengthen our collaboration efforts.
I should add that custom animations take up a substantial amount of dev resources that aren’t dedicated to cinematics.
The GW1 cinematics team was created for machinama and traditional 3D animation…whereas the GW2 team was built around animating concept art (motion graphics work)
The cinematics that you see in the personal story where 2 characters talk to each other on a stage-like environment have been…retired.
Cinematics/cut-scenes are an important part of our game. We are constantly striving to make them better and push the limits of our current tools in the process.
This is fantastic news. I agree, the personal story method of handling the cutscenes was always pretty weak. Very excited to see what you guys can do with the new tools. Will there ever be a blog post or anything down the line giving us some more details about how the new system will handle cutscenes? Maybe even before the first release that uses it so we can know to expect it.
The Molten Weapon Facilities were destroyed, yes, but not until they’d been in operation for several months. We’ve already determined from the dialogue with Marjory and Kasmeer that real time and game time are equivalent for the living story, as they mentioned the Molten Alliance being formed ‘a year ago’. There were several months between the first appearance of the Molten Alliance and the time we finally got into their facility to destroy it. That’s a decent-sized weapons stockpile.
…
And for the Krait, yeah, we foiled Scarlet’s plans at the Tower of Nightmares and killed their prophet. So why are they still following her? Well, she delivered them their prophet, the Toxic Hybrid, and.. we went and killed it. Don’t you think that maybe, just maybe, they want revenge now? I’m not sure what kind of world you’re living in where you’d think that the Krait would just shrug off the death of their prophet and give up, going back to what they were doing before. Scarlet provided them with something very important to their culture, and we took it away from them. If anything they should be even more fanatical as followers now. It’s a far cry from the complaining Dredge and Flame Legion captives from Flame and Frost, the Krait society would be going all-in for bloody vengeance against the heretics.
Just a couple points on these two. The weaponry developed by the molten facilities is irrelevant, because the dredge and the flame legion have no reason to be following her anymore at this point. Both dredge and flame legion NPCs at the end of Flame and Frost even expressed their anger that she tricked them and took advantage of them, and that the alliance was a mistake.
As for the krait, I think it’s far more likely that they would consider the Toxic Hybrid as a “false prophet” and be ready to tear Scarlet limb from limb for deceiving them. They’re fanatics; the idea that their prophet could be so easily defeated by our characters isn’t an idea I imagine they would even entertain.
That leaves the aetherblades (an armada of pirates working under threat of death from a single sylvari? No.), the twisted watchwork enemies (just how many did Jennah have made?), and the Nightmare Court splinter faction (no actual reason given for their participation that I know of).
The only two I can find logic in at this point is the watchwork enemies, because it’s not unreasonable to assume she reverse engineered them and started production of her own, and the Nightmare Court. And that’s just because we don’t know why they’re working for her in the first place, so we don’t necessarily have reason to believe they’d ditch her at this point.
Why are Scarlet's allies still following her
in Battle for Lion’s Arch - Aftermath
Posted by: Cliff.8679
This isn’t a novel with every detail written out for you to see. It’s a video game storyline. Just sit back and enjoy it. It’s what I do.
I think we’d be doing ourselves a disservice to lower our standards just because “it’s a video game storyline.” The entire Scarlet arc has been filled to the brim with irrational, implausible, and ill-conceived plot threads. It’s important to point these out, because it can hopefully help the writing team improve future story content. If you’ve been enjoying it, great; if you think this is good, then I imagine you would enjoy future storylines with improved writing even more.
The problem, it seems, is that ArenaNet had a story they wanted to tell for this arc that would lead to the emergence of the next elder dragon. They wanted to have this character, Scarlet, be this great villain that orchestrates her own bad guy version of the Pact to take it on. Unfortunately, they didn’t spend as much time as they should have in actually making sure everything fit together in a believable and logical way.
Barring any major, shocking reveals that fit all the puzzle pieces together in these last two updates, I’m not seeing my opinion changing that overall this was a very poorly conceived storyline with regards to believability. The amount of “what ifs” being thrown around in this thread alone as an attempt to make sense of Scarlet’s allies should be a big red flag considering we’re already at the end of the story.
I will say that ANET did miss the mark in understanding the communities love and high standards for the lore and their unforgiving nature for mistakes.
I’ve seen what the pay off is. Spoilers and all………
I can PM you what that is if you’d like, or if you know already we can discuss it. I’d love to hear your take on it and how that factors into the Scarlet plot holes and what not.
I have heard some of the general spoilers, but I haven’t specifically looked into them. I don’t know all the details surrounding it, but ultimately I know that Mordremoth is the one messing with her, and somehow she gets killed in the end, although I don't know what the circumstances are. Presumably by our characters.. I’d be happy to take the conversation to PMs to talk about that bit of info, but I do still want to allow myself the fun of witnessing all the specifics firsthand during the actual updates.
Why are Scarlet's allies still following her
in Battle for Lion’s Arch - Aftermath
Posted by: Cliff.8679
This isn’t a novel with every detail written out for you to see. It’s a video game storyline. Just sit back and enjoy it. It’s what I do.
I think we’d be doing ourselves a disservice to lower our standards just because “it’s a video game storyline.” The entire Scarlet arc has been filled to the brim with irrational, implausible, and ill-conceived plot threads. It’s important to point these out, because it can hopefully help the writing team improve future story content. If you’ve been enjoying it, great; if you think this is good, then I imagine you would enjoy future storylines with improved writing even more.
The problem, it seems, is that ArenaNet had a story they wanted to tell for this arc that would lead to the emergence of the next elder dragon. They wanted to have this character, Scarlet, be this great villain that orchestrates her own bad guy version of the Pact to take it on. Unfortunately, they didn’t spend as much time as they should have in actually making sure everything fit together in a believable and logical way.
Barring any major, shocking reveals that fit all the puzzle pieces together in these last two updates, I’m not seeing my opinion changing that overall this was a very poorly conceived storyline with regards to believability. The amount of “what ifs” being thrown around in this thread alone as an attempt to make sense of Scarlet’s allies should be a big red flag considering we’re already at the end of the story.
Personally I think a CDI on the BLT would be good to do at some point.
Chris
Honestly, the sooner the better. We’re coming off of two major gem shop-related scandals that were pretty close to one another, and the issues behind them are such common sense that it’s worrying that the two products in question even saw the light of day in the first place.
(edited by Cliff.8679)
Why are Scarlet's allies still following her
in Battle for Lion’s Arch - Aftermath
Posted by: Cliff.8679
Quick lore point – the Flame Legion have already had three attempts at gods for the charr that we know of – titans, destroyers, and Baelfire. If that’s what they’re hoping to get out of the alliance, that would be the fourth.
As for the aetherblades, the only motivation we’ve been given is that “they like living” according to Scarlet, implying that she’ll kill them if they don’t follow her.
That’s the common interpretation, but is it what’s actually going on? Sure, Scarlet shows a marked disregard for the welfare of her minions, but they could be working for her despite that rather than [/i]because[/i] of it. What if Scarlet has revealed a threat that she believes she’s working against to them, and they’re working for Scarlet because, however callous she may be, it still gives better odds than if the cataclysm she claims to be working to prevent happens?
Note that this does not, in any way, mean that Scarlet is actually working for good, any more than the mursaat. It just means that the Aetherblades and others working for Scarlet because “they like living” might be doing so because they believe Scarlet will protect them from some other threat, not because Scarlet will kill them if they don’t.
It’s possible, but it still seems pretty silly that they would side with her over the Pact, who’ve already proven they can take down an Elder Dragon and can do so without threat of slaughtering their subordinates. It also doesn’t help that it’s hard to believe the aetherblades couldn’t just gang up on her and take her out. She relies entirely on manipulating various alliances to work for her. Her being so intimidating as to cow an entire armada of sky pirates into loyalty under threat of death is a difficult sell.
Why are Scarlet's allies still following her
in Battle for Lion’s Arch - Aftermath
Posted by: Cliff.8679
This question has been bothering me for a while now. I seem to recall the finale of Flame and Frost having dialogue in which both Flame Legion and Dredge NPCs expressed regret with regards to joining her and that they now realized that they had been tricked and taken advantage of.
So yeah, I’m not sure why the Molten Alliance is still even a thing. As for the aetherblades, the only motivation we’ve been given is that “they like living” according to Scarlet, implying that she’ll kill them if they don’t follow her. I’m not sure why the krait from the Toxic Alliance have any reason to stick around after the tower plot failed and they didn’t get their prophets, and I’m still not clear on how the Nightmare Court got involved in the first place.
A: Some of the Molten Alliance obviously remained intact and with Scarlet. As I said, the bulk probably shattered and split up, but a decent number remained intact/escaped with Scarlet.
B: She is still dangling the obelisk shards over their heads probably. Or more at least.
C: Nightmare court in Toxic Alliance are explicitly a splinter faction that sided with Scarlet.
Yeah, but all of those are pretty flimsy. We haven’t been told why a splinter faction of Nightmare Court sided with her. The krait still hanging around after the tower got decimated seems incredibly farfetched, and you would think their faith in her would be effectively zero after their spectacular defeat. As for the Molten Alliance, their motivation was to defeat the charr and the norn. That’s not even on the table anymore, so why would they stick around with Scarlet? Especially after the majority of them realized they’d been manipulated for her gain?
None of it really adds up, at least on the surface, and it’s one of the many reasons season one’s story has been a bitter pill to swallow.
Why are Scarlet's allies still following her
in Battle for Lion’s Arch - Aftermath
Posted by: Cliff.8679
This question has been bothering me for a while now. I seem to recall the finale of Flame and Frost having dialogue in which both Flame Legion and Dredge NPCs expressed regret with regards to joining her and that they now realized that they had been tricked and taken advantage of.
So yeah, I’m not sure why the Molten Alliance is still even a thing. As for the aetherblades, the only motivation we’ve been given is that “they like living” according to Scarlet, implying that she’ll kill them if they don’t follow her. I’m not sure why the krait from the Toxic Alliance have any reason to stick around after the tower plot failed and they didn’t get their prophets, and I’m still not clear on how the Nightmare Court got involved in the first place.
All of the ascended crafting drops are a problem. Dust, shards, and ore. Their drop rates shouldn’t be nerfed, but we need something to do with the excess aside from deleting them, and fast.
Unless ArenaNet can assure us that there won’t be any further use for them and that we can safely destroy them, which I don’t see happening, inventory space is going to become more and more of an issue for anyone who’s afraid of getting screwed over by destroying extra stacks.
Orpheal, cool it.
Right now, the thing people have to understand is that the current world map wasn’t designed with mounts in mind. If ArenaNet is ever going to implement mounts, it would have to be in a new region that’s designed with that intention. That being said, I’m not a fan of mounts unless they’re kept normalized and grounded in the setting; something most of the proponents of mounts seem to have little interest in. Ideally, mounts would never be anything more exotic than horses and dolyaks. The last thing I want to see is what’s happened with most other MMOs with mounts, where it becomes this escalating progression of more and more ridiculous creatures until people are jumping around on giant sparkling tortoises and see-through crocodiles, completely destroying any sense of a remotely immersive game world.
Between that and no mounts, I’ll take no mounts.
I’m really curious as to what your vision is for our characters’ relationships. Up to this point, we’ve really had no say in how our characters interact with the NPCs as far as building relationships go. The personal story dictated the way our characters felt about others, and this has continued into the living story with Braham, Rox, Marjory, Kasmeer, etc. Is there anything being done to expand this in the future?
I think it’s a question worth asking, especially now, considering the story hinting at Canach potentially joining up with Destiny’s Edge 2.0. I’ll be more than a little disappointed if my character happily teams up with a murderer and terrorist with no reservations, you know?
The Living Story seems better because while it has a group of NPCs involved in it they don’t take a lead role. It is your character taking the lead still.
That’s certainly what we’re trying to do. Over time, you should notice a shift in how the characters refer to you and how your role evolves.
I hope so. I appreciated the last instance in the Tower of Nightmares for the cutscene inclusion of the PC speaking with Marjory and Kasmeer, and I felt that was a good step forward. Although, keep in mind, it’s a bit alarming that a simple camera pan around my character conversing with two NPCs was actually notable as far as PC inclusion. That kind of thing should be the standard, something we don’t even notice.
But anyway, the story instance in Lion’s Arch most recently, I’ve felt has been yet another step back. When Rytlock asks Rox if she slayed Tequatl, and she just responds with an affirmative, I’m just like, “Uh…hello? Guys? Right here.”
On a somewhat unrelated note, what are your thoughts on our characters’ current position within the world as Commander of the Pact? Do you find that makes things more challenging, or easier from a writing perspective? For me, after everything sunk in, I was kind of disappointed with how that went down. I’m not even thrilled about being a member of one of the Orders. I think we’re at our best and have the most freedom available to us when we’re just playing that heroic adventurer who’s always in the right place at the right time. Sticking us in an Order, and even worse, Commander of the biggest multiracial organization in Tyria, seems like it’s severely limiting the believability of a lot of the story with what our characters are getting involved in now. I’m honestly hoping some kind of catastrophic event destroys the Pact and dumps us back down to adventurer status.