Guild Wars 2

I wonder if we can get a refund on the infinite coin?

Finally, one patch with no meta achievements.

Everything flowed really well with the current story, no extra fluff/grind achievements.

The story alone was reward enough for me. Thank you!

You already have the personality system built into the game, with 10 different personalities available.

We can see the impact of those in a few dialogues already, but are you planning of making a bigger use of it?

We’re back! It’s been over a year now, since we’ve done our exploration event.

And since then, 6 new explorable maps were added.

We’re going to be hosting our exploration event every Thursday at 9PM EST (NA).
A friend and I will be covering lore of the maps as we go through them, so even if you do have full map exploration, you’re welcome to join us for the lore part of our tour.

The schedule is listed below, it might change, but will be announced in advance.

2 weeks vacation

Small 2 weeks Break

Holiday Break

We will do all the POI, Waypoints, Vista, Skill points. We will stop to do hearts if there’s an event to make it go faster, if not they will be skip (they add too much time).

Meeting location: Will be posted in this thread each week

Meeting Time: 8:55pm (EST), 1:55am (Server time)

Event Start: 9pm(EST), 2:00am(server time)

We have a Discord Server , we will be using it to talk about the lore and story of the area, and organizing the event

Look for Edgar Tamer, you can join my squad by typing /squadjoin Edgar Tamer

I’ll have my commander tag up, so if you don’t see me, send me a whisper. That way, I can ferry you to my map instance.

I’d just like to thank the Team of this Month’s update.

Placing the story instance at the start of the event was a great idea.
It’s a nice way to explain what happened to the great collapse and putting everything in context.

Even more, you guys did a great job on the story of that instance. The characters really felt like they had personality, and the events happening during the opening ceremony were pretty interesting. It ended with some questions left unanswered, that we will hopefully know more about in two weeks.

Who’s the mysterious figure, is this Scarlet? Does Countess Anise have an hidden agenda?

So thanks again for this focus on the story, and I hope this is the quality of things to come lore wise. The pacing was great, and there’s just enough content to “tune in next time” to know what happens next.

BobbyStein.2315:

Shanaeri Rynale.6897:

Looking over the LS season 2 blurb I spotted this “Past episodes will be available for purchase for 200 gems”

Does this mean if we want to reply any LS content we need to pay for it in gems? Is it an unlock a chapter forever fee for every account or is it character bound? If we pay for a chapter can we team with people who haven’t?

Personally, not sure how I feel about this move. To me it seems to step over the ‘morality line’ and move GW2 to a payment model I don’t really like..

Hmm

If you log in during the release window of an episode (e.g. two weeks) you unlock the episode for your account. You can replay it as many times as you want for free. If you miss the release window and you want to play an episode that you didn’t unlock, you can purchase it.

It’s a lot like watching television in that you can watch (and record) an episode for free when it airs. If you miss it, you can buy the episode off iTunes later. Does that make sense?

Will we be able to buy the “DVD” season at a later date? :P

It’s Ho Ho Tron

mercury ranique.2170:

So I do think that the living story should be rewarding/interesting for people regardless off playtime, but it should not only serve the people with less time but also those with enough time.

*My suggestion would be to add more rewards. *

That right there, is my major gripe with the Living story. It’s called living story not living rewards.

Why is everyone so focused on rewards, when the game isn’t gear based. I’d like a bigger focus on Story more than rewards. If you’re just doing the achievements for the rewards, and not really enjoying the story. What’s the point?

Let’s go back to dragon bash, following the living story granted us a book, which we could replay the cinematic of our first meeting with Majory Delaqua. Now that’s a nice reward for a Living Story. It’s actually tied to the story. A Useless mini that gets stored in my collection? A Back item, I have so many back item skins that I don’t even know what to do with them anymore.

Why not reward us with more lore, instead of more fluff.

No Toypocalypse for me this year.

This is an horrible change. All activities should be switch to party joins…

Seems like nowadays people are only playing for Achievements and rewards.

This patch and the one before it added A LOT of story to the game. I’m glad some of us enjoy the story more than the rewards.

I started translating the billboard with reddit users.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-YlTjbBO1B7u2RwFeEkkq7s0ao0kq7-r5I0Sr092kbQ/edit?usp=sharing

Iason Evan.3806:

How much area does the water in this game cover in the playable portions of the map? How viable would it be to get rid of the water(Bubbles is thirsty and drinks it all) and add Guild Halls to those portions of the map?

The underwater area are just amazing looking. Please don’t do this.

SEcond update without a wallpaper…

ANET, you’re getting lazy!

These wallpapers are ususally the background of the guild website, and my work computer… You’re missing out on free advertisement

I hope this is a sign of what they can do for future release.

In terms of content/Story for it, we got the end of the tower with a super cinematic.

All the NPCs at Thunder ridge camp got new dialog.
There’s also tons of added “idle” chatter.
Braham and Rox meeting with Marjory and Kasmeer. The two Quaggans in love. Kasmeer being naked.

On top of that most Quaggans you’ll find on the map are now homeless, and their text points to that too.

Black Haven (PoI) got a consortium npc, saying that we better watch out for when they take over the BLTC, there’s also a guard there to take care of the refugees, and that Quaggan looking for a way out of Kessex hill.

The DO NOT TOUCH towers have been renamed mysterious probes. So yeah, this is the kind of update I want. Tons of stories, tying what just happened, and what might happen next. This is how these Living story updates should work, make us want more, make us want to know what’s coming next. Give us stuff to speculate about.

Thanks Anet, for a great update!

To that end, we’re introducing a completely new browser engine into the game.

Could this mean they could build an interface so we could get in-game access to the wiki?

And even more interesting, could we get lore books through that interface? We’ve seen the writers saying that they’re limited by the dialog UI for the stories they can add in the game. But if they can get an interface for somethings like books, so that when we go to the Priory Library we could read an entire book by scrolling and not clicking to see the next two lines, that could be pretty amazing, no?

Someone will be getting Coal this year.

The Living story, as I see it, is use to make the “time” of the game move forward.

Because when the game launched, everything was stuck at Time “X”, when the living story hits a zone, that time moves forward… but not for everyone. So new NPCs are living on the new timeline “Y”, but older NPCs are still on timeline “X”.

So tyria as a world, has multiple timelines co-existing together in the same world.

Mind Blown

2016-03-17 Wayfarer Foothills – [&BHQBAAA=] Horncall Waypoint

Edit:
Adding a video of our run
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEKvWAllMwU

2016-03-03 Queensdale – [&BO8AAAA=] Shaemoor Waypoint

Edit:
Adding a video of our run
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5JzP5re1is

+1 for Reaper’s rumble

Wasn’t there a grawl camp too where the refugees used to be?

cesmode.4257:

Edgar Doiron.2804:

mercury ranique.2170:

So I do think that the living story should be rewarding/interesting for people regardless off playtime, but it should not only serve the people with less time but also those with enough time.

*My suggestion would be to add more rewards. *

Why not reward us with more lore, instead of more fluff.

And more interesting dynamic events, which leads to traditional content updates vs 2-week living story updates…it is all connected. In my opinion, Arenanet cannot look at Living Story without considering permanant content that we are all asking for(in the form of zones, new DEs, etc), because all require certain dev time and cost. All connected.

But I agree, more lore, more story, more interesting content. Less grind, less achievement grind, less zerg, less rewards.

Playing a fun game that I enjoy spending my free time is reward enough and should be reward enough for anyone.

Yep, I do think more could be done with Dynamic events, unless this is the maximum extent of their potential?

Here’s a couple of ideas.

Exploring a new map (Crystal Desert), no man has been in there for ages. It’s about time we go in there, but before doing so, we know we’ll need to build camps and such on the other side.. and it’s a desert, so there’s not really any wood or ore around.

Put a dynamic event (gatherer) at the Desert Gate, there you’ll see pack dolyacks, builders crafters, all waiting for The Pact (or another group) to get ready and head to the crystal desert. They need 2 million wood, and 2 million Ore (any type will do). Each server has this progress bar, some can complete them quicker than others. Once they’re filled, the gates open, triggering the next event, until they reach the first camp. (Make a pause, so every server can catch up) at the camp you get some new stuff to do, and explore, until we’re ready to push forward some more (new update).

So just an example, make it so that once the Ressources are ready, the first group there are actually beating the trail, but pack dolyaks, crafters, builders will keep periodically spawning at the gate, and needs to be escorted to the first base camp, because they still need those ressources… So even if you miss that first run, you’re still doing it over and over until the next patch comes out.

So an event like this would last a couple of days/week depending on how good/willing the server is at dumping ressources in it.

This is just an idea, I’m not sure if the event system is acutally able to handle stuff like this.

2016-02-25 Plains of Ashford – [&BIABAAA=] Smokestead Waypoint

Edit:
Adding the video of our night

I usually update the background of my guild site with the upcoming patch wallpaper.. and there’s none this week!

Here’s one missed opportunity for the balloons and the escort events around them.

They could have given a little bit of backgrounds to the characters you were escorting.
Like while we wait between attacks, they could tell you why they were going to DR.

But i’m just nitpicking here.

2016-03-10 Metrica Province – [&BEAAAAA=] Soren Draa Waypoint

Edit:
Adding a video of our run
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dib2Pa2Voi0

Queen’s Speech
Queen’s soiree
Queen’s spy

Updated the main post to reflect the change in schedule due to DDOS attacks on the server last week.

This week we’re re-doing Harathi Hinterlands

Season 2 – Exploration Event
I’m going through every map with my newly created guardian, going over map exploration and Lore every week.

Week       Date               Map                   Level             
----------    ----------     ----------------------     --------------
                                                                  
1       2014-04-16     Metrica Province            1-15           
2       2014-04-23     Caledon Forest               1-15           
3       2014-04-30     Queensdale                    1-17           
4       2014-05-07     Wayfarer Foothills          1-15           
5       2014-05-14     Plains of Ashford            1-15           
6       2014-05-21     Brisban Wildland            15-25           
7       2014-06-04     Kessex Hills                   15-25           
8       2014-06-11     Snowden Drifts             15-25           
9       2014-06-18     Diessa Plateau             15-25           
10      2014-06-25     Gendarran Fields           25-35           
11      2014-07-02     Lornar's Pass              25-40           
12      2014-07-09     Fields of Ruins            30-40           
13      2014-07-16     Harathi Hinterlands        35-45 [canceled]
13      2014-07-23     Harathi Hinterlands        35-45           
14      2014-07-30     Dredgehaunt Cliffs         40-50           
15      2014-08-06     Blazeridge Steppes         40-50           
16      2014-08-13     Bloodtide Coast            kitten           
17      2014-08-20     Iron Marches               50-60 [canceled]
17      2014-08-27     Iron Marches               50-60           
18      2014-09-03     Timberline Falls           50-60           
19      2014-09-10     Sparkfly Fen               55-65 [canceled]
19      2014-09-17     Sparkfly Fen               55-65           
20      2014-09-24     Fireheart Rise             60-70           
21      2014-10-01     Mount Maelstrom            60-70           
22      2014-10-08     Straits of Devestation     70-75           
23      2014-10-15     Frostgorge Sound           70-80           
24      2014-10-22     Malchor's Leap             75-80           
25      2014-10-29     Cursed Shore                  80           

Meeting location: Will be in comments every week
Meeting Time: 8:55pm (EDT), 12:55am (Server time)
Event Start: 9pm(EDT), 1am(server time)
Server: Sorrow’s Furnace (NA)

Look for Edgar Guard, I’ll have my commander tag up.
You can join squad by typing /squadjoin Edgar Guard
All the lore will be told through squad chat.

If you don’t see me around, send me a whisper, you might be on a different map instance.

http://i.imgur.com/xVCWPXI.png

nsleep.7839:

Legendary Insights; Amalgamated Gemstones; Reclaimed Metal Plates; Blade Shards.

Maybe Bloodstone Rubies and Petrified Wood too?

/signed

Kind of sucks that this event was directed at the new players, probably to show what they can do with events a as live content. And it went live so broken.

Let’s hope it’s going to be extended by a day or so to compensate the broken event rewards.

I had plan a server gathering for the events tonight with our wvw guild, so let’s hope it’s fixed by then.

Are the Actual time of last post coming in with the April 15th Last Logged in in guild menu patch?

What I really liked before, was that when a patch came out, the image of the next patch would come out.

Checking that image name, we would get two letters in it, which we could use to speculate about the upcoming content.

That, was one of my favorite part of the new patch day, speculating about the next patch, and the week after, the page would go up, previewing that content, and we could see how far from it we were, and speculate on more factual stuff.

Now they just release the name and video, which kills all that community speculation

:(

ColinJohanson.2394:

So a fun question to ask to help direct the conversation a bit: What aspects of your favorite television shows would you think would be cool to see reflected in a game medium?

Alright, time to get back to Colin’s Question.

My example will be LOST, i’m sure most of you heard of it.

LOST to me was two things.

First, it was an awesome TV show, with an intriguing plot, and each episode we learned a bit more about the island, but each episode also brought more questions.

LOST wasn’t just a TV show. Between episodes, I would talk with friends about the current episode, speculate on different theories and listen to podcast which brought even more questions and theories.

So for me, there was LOST the TV show, and LOST the Meta(discussing about it from week to week).

The living story does touch the Meta part a lot(not always, more later), but as a “Show” it’s still lacking a lot on the answer questions and bring some new ones(although i liked what was done in the Blood & Madness patch witht he veiled tower)

So on the Meta part of the Living story (outside the game), the way you’re currently set up right now with your updates twice a week.

Week 1

• Get update +patch notes
• See upcoming feature
  

        _This is really nice, especially when you put the Letters of the next update in the file name_

So during the first week, I’m enjoying the new content, and speculating on reddit, the forums, and with friends about the next patch. I’m also listening to podcast and other video blogs online about such speculation.

Week 2

• Get to see what the upcoming feature is
• Get a short trailer

By this time, I’m done the last update, and I’m doing my regular GW2 stuff, WVW, dungeons and such. I don’t mind that I completed it in a week, because that means I actually have time to do other stuff. So now, we can see if all our speculations were right, talk more about what we saw in the short trailer, and at the features that are coming.

Week 3
Now that upcoming content is moved to the Now Playing part, and we repeat.

I’m loving this cycle for this, it’s that exact same feeling I had when watching Lost.

Now as for the story, I think we need to work more on Answering questions before giving us even more Questions.

Why are the aetherblades so scared of scarlet? What did she do to create the molten alliance?

Blood and Madness did a nice thing with showing a glimpse of the next content update in game, Tower of Nightmares did answer how she got the kraits under her command (telling them she had/could get an obelisk), and I think that’s the direction we need to take.

Like I said in an earlier post, instead of using Achievements as filler, why not use part of it to expand the story? The 24 krait obelisk shard that we need to find, why isn’t there some Krait lore snippits associated with each one we transcribed?

I do think you’re heading on the right path though… and no more dates in the preview image, give us back our two letters hint!

khani.4786:

Edgar Doiron.2804:

khani.4786:

This is the max size they offer, I’ll let you resize to fit your screen….hope you like one of these. >.>

Mind doing that first one (Falling) without the Fractured on top, but the GW2 icon still there?

Don’t mind at all!

thanks!

http://ford.shivtr.com/

Why haven’t you release a wallpaper for this update?

Evan Lesh.3295:

Sizer.5632:

I didnt see it in the screenshot there, but is it also going to be possible to see timestamps in seconds as well as minutes? That would make it all perfect.

Nah, time stamps haven’t changed. Would be an easy update to do later though.

how about saving the combat/chat log to a text file?

khani.4786:

This is the max size they offer, I’ll let you resize to fit your screen….hope you like one of these. >.>

Mind doing that first one (Falling) without the Fractured on top, but the GW2 icon still there?

Draygo.9473:

What I would like to see is anet take some steps to provide some fairness when considering wvw progression and pve progression in terms of gear.

Currently you have to capture more than 25 keeps to get the same dragonite as the pve player that does a single temple DE chain.

I understand that sometimes capping keeps is an easy task, and you can do it more than once a day, but the time requirement to get over 500 dragonite through wvw is simply far greater than the time requirement to get 500 dragonite through pve.

There is plenty of supply of bloodstone dust and emp shards are almost common enough (though could use a slight increase). The biggest roadblock to ascended armor for wvw players is the difficulty of obtaining dragonite.

I would suggest that anet look at a few numbers to fix it:
Average keep capture rate per person in wvw that solely attacks keeps (karma/wxp trains)
Average dragonite rate for players event hopping from dragonite granting event to another.
Additional sources of dragonite, as like a loot role on a player kill while defending an objective.

Or they could add them to the rank up chest? doesn’t need to be much, but still there.

For one, Robert isn’t there anymore

We’re celebrating the 2nd anniversary of our guild soon and I just thought it would be nice if Guild could create instances of Activity, for their own guild.

Make them an unlockable with influence, but give us the option of triggering Keg Brawl for the guild, or Sanctum Sprint, or..dare I say, Crab Toss?

I think it would add to the fun activities available as a guild.

2016-03-24 Caledon Forest 1-15

Event cancel, and pushed a week.

zhonnika.1784:

Proposal Overview
Eliminate ‘server vs server vs server’ and replace it with Green vs Blue vs Red, the same way EOTM works.

Goal of Proposal
Standardize coverage overall, allowing lower-tier and higher-tier servers to enjoy WvW combat, but on the borderlands as opposed to EOTM. Make WvW less about coverage winning overall, and more about teamwork and skill. At this point, I don’t see a way out of the constant arms race at the top as long as coverage determines a win. Making it not matter at all would help, at least in my opinion.

Proposal Functionality
Well, that’s just the thing. I don’t know how to get around the problem where EOTM is all overflows so can just reproduce itself infinitely to get everyone to play. This would essentially mean that all borderlands maps would have to act the same way — as an overflow with no ‘main’ instance. As a bonus, this would eliminate queue times. You would, as a player, just select green/blue/red/EB as an option, and go play.

Associated Risks
Eliminates the community feeling of fighting for your server. Also, I’m not sure this is a risk, but it sort of really devalues the upgrading of keeps/towers. Perhaps those could act the same as EOTM in that you’d only ever be able to use your home garrison WP — if you had it — and spawn, and could never put your own waypoint on Hills/Bay/EB keeps, unless that was your spawn side.

I like this. I’ve been enjoying the feeling of “fuller” maps in EOTM, being in a Lower Tier server, once the point gap gets two huge, the other teams quit, making wvw boring except on reset weekend.

in EOTM, the match is always fresh

How about coming down to the T8 servers with the underdogs. I’m leader of Forgeman Destroyers [FORD] in SF, and we’ve been trying hard to move up in the Tiers. Any help is welcome.

Michael Henninger.7451:

Do you have poutine?

https://goo.gl/photos/tWsMWLKg7ZoceufYA

ColinJohanson.2394:

What other systems would excite you that don’t fall into the “sitting in front of your keyboard” pressing buttons options? Keep in mind they need to be easy to learn so we can teach them to new players, accessible, and not overly complex/tedious, and hopefully not something with a path of least resistance that leads to degenerate game play.

How about a system like you guys just used in the Nightmare End LS. With the different objects we could interact with, where we had to use our brain instead of our brawn to figure the puzzle out.

You could make them tie in to the lore/story of a zone. Where answers are available by talking to NPCs or noticing stuff in the zone.