Guild Wars 2

Wanted to throw in my own experience with this over on SoR. Really, really irritating bug to encounter, since I usually don’t mind the water combat. At first I thought it might be lag, but after seeing it with the NPCs as well as myself, and seeing it consistently occur, I realized it had to be a bug.

Didn’t report it immediately as I thought maybe I just needed to restart the client and try again, haven’t tried it again though as I haven’t felt too up to playing though. (Encountering it really put a dampener on my already shaky interest in playing.)

Eluveitie.1290:

I agree. This redeemed my view of her as character, but the bitter taste of what we already saw and experienced is there. It would’ve been a much better strategy to release this story beforehand the update.

All in all, this is really interesting and the implications it could have in the world are gigantic. I hope the next chapters live up to this.

This has honestly been the biggest problem with these Living Story updates from what I’ve seen from my following of it recently. Anything worthwhile to ground their events with any context or substance has been tucked away in these posts that, I’m fairly certain, most people never get around to seeing. Most, I suspect, go to the update notes/page and maybe the guide post, then update their client (or vice versa) and go to the designated spot and carry on their way…With little understanding of why any of it’s happening or what more there is to it.

mingnonchan.2851:

It is interesting. And it does give me a theory that the Pale Tree might have some sort of connection with the Eternal Alchemy, or even be part of it.

Everything is a part of the Eternal Alchemy. The Eternal Alchemy is an epistemological notion that all is capable of being understood and manipulated at some level.

Lucky.9421:

She saw the universe! And it made her want to…kill people?

Been done. Also lame.

PS – The writing is alright at micro level. Nice job there. Typo in the second paragraph though.

You’re missing the forest for the trees, admittedly the presentation of the trees isn’t helping matters (in-game, this teensy bit of backstory, etc.). Seeing the universe hasn’t made her want to kill people, it’s seemingly devalued them to the point where their deaths are seen as fairly inconsequential to the larger systems at play that she wants to manipulate. Which frankly, isn’t too inaccurate of an assessment for systems based people like her, considering that the actions of some individuals in influential positions may seem psychotic or thoroughly lacking in empathy to those focused on the small scale systems like perhaps you or I, whereas they fail to see it because they can see the full breadth of their actions and see where the benefits outweigh the costs.

In short, killing people is irrelevant to her goals, it’s a means to an end that appears to be to rewrite the systems from scratch on her own terms. At least, that’s the gist I get from it.

The in-game embodiment of this pursuit, however, is completely silly and somewhat contrary to this suggested vision, from my understanding of how it’s being played out.

I agree that they shouldn’t be handed out retroactively, but I think it’d be a nice little thing for those who have maybe at least one elite armor set in the Hall of Monuments. Maybe if you get three then you get all of them, as a fairer way of handling it? The reason I suggest this is mainly because of the fact that these are all, as they say, legacy armors, and the existing armor sets that were provided, while nice, didn’t really appeal to any of that silly nostalgia of the original GW1 players.

(As a sidenote, calling it silly isn’t meant as a criticism of the GW1 players, just the sense of nostalgia in general.)

My suspicion is roughly this:

TL;DR: Grand High Sovereign may not have invented Infinity Ball, instead went with steam creatures as invention, mistook our reality’s Infinity Ball experiments as being indicative of a differing possibility realization (occurring in what he/she believes to be his/her reality’s past, not in an alternate reality) overwriting his/her reality (which he/she believes to be his/her reality’s future) due to steam creature disappearances, resulting in an attempt to halt its proceeding by killing us.

However, the established Conclave may still believe his/her notions regarding it (voiced to them or in discovered research notes, who knows) were accurate, thus the possible explanation of the steam creatures appearing in Lornar’s Pass (experimental gates/portals?).

How this may connect to the Aetherblades I’m uncertain.

Let’s analyze the framework of Tyria.

Tyria exists in a realm where the multiverse is real, and the Mists connects every existing reality, past, present, and future, including alternate realities. The Rift, at the heart of this multiverse, connects to every reality and world imaginable, and is a requisite point of travel for everything that should pass through the Mists.

Considering this, we shouldn’t follow the course of the steam creatures as though they emerge from an array of similar realities in which they are realized along the same lines. That is to say, assuming that they only emerge from realities we know of would be a mistake, such as those involving the Infinity Ball storyline.

This is somewhat emphasized by your own player character:

Any Sufficiently Advanced Science

Shodd: That was unbelievable, unprecedented! We made history and saw the future, all at once.
<Character name>: Empirically, it shows an alternate version of reality, not the future. And based on those mechanical monstrosities, a reality we’re better off without.

Beta Test

Shodd: Well, there’s no denying we got results. But if that’s the future, I don’t want to live there.
<Character name>:It was A future, not THE future. In terms of quantum arcanics, we accessed other possibilities…but the connection was extremely unstable.

This is only compounded by the fact that while your other self insists the steam creatures are his/her creation, there’s a trail of hints that suggest this may only occur on a very shaky basis:

Let’s look at the circumstances that must arise for your other self’s reality to emerge:
1. Zojja must exist, and she must be left behind.
2. The steam-based technology that is utilized in the steam creatures must be invented.*
~3.~ This one is much, much iffier to pin down, but it may be that the final nail in the coffin to the Conclave Reality, as I’ll call it, is the requirement of possibility elimination.

It seems odd that they might not announce it, but they may be running some stress tests prior to tomorrow and leading up to the weekend trial players to ensure the combination of culling removal and an influx of some curious players goes smoothly. Just speculation on my end though, as I haven’t tried logging in and checking how it is for myself today.

Vahkris.6847:

Gmr Leon.1846:

Hey everyone, thought I’d bring this to your attention. A redditor by the name of Plagiarised is going to begin trying to transcribe all the ambient dialog in GW2 (kind of crazy but yeaah…) and could use some help on the project. The first area he intends to go after is the Royal Palace area in Divinity’s Reach.

Here’s the link to the thread for those interested: I will try to record all the NPC conversations and Mr. Plagiarised needs your help.

If you’re up for it, he provides instructions on what sort of submissions are desired. Honestly, I think this would be of great benefit to the lore community, as well as the wiki community, so I’d encourage you to try and log the conversations you find where possible, however you find easiest/productive/whatever. I’m sure he’d appreciate any and all help on the matter.

Has anyone gone through and captured ambient dialogue from this new release? I believe there are new ones around the city related to the jubilee, and I believe they’re going to change again once the release lands tomorrow.

Not to my knowledge. There’s not a ton of it in the Crown Pavilion I think, so you (or someone else up for it, I might even go after it) could probably screenshot the majority of it in maybe 20 to 30 minutes. Most of the areas developed prerelease take about an hour or so to ensure you catch it all from good angles, in my experience.

I looked at this the other day as well after Konig mentioned it, and it seems there are two systems in play, the ones holding the Queen’s Gauntlet arenas up, as well as the ones holding the entire Crown Pavilion up. I suspect the reasoning behind this system may have something to do with the sheer depth of the chasm that formed after whatever happened to the arts district (whether it was a sinkhole or something else).

Unless I looked at it the wrong way, that’s how it seemed to be.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

I’m not going to argue the nature of the Mists with you Konig, you have studied it way more than I have. And Gmr Leon also agrees with you. So that’s two lore experts agreeing on the same thing.

But on the point about Tyria having space, that is where I disagree with you. And technically, space is not “nothing”. It’s a lack of air, for sure. But there’s more than that obviously. I just find it hard to believe that since the people of Tyria witness planets, moons and stars, that for some reason they would not have space. It seems like the writers were going for a familiar model of a solar system.

Frankly, I don’t agree with him entirely on the space matter either. I think he doesn’t even necessarily think that it possesses one characteristic over another, for that matter, mostly it seems he’s just trying to maintain the null position. That is, we have no information one way or another as to the nature of extraterrestrial affairs besides the Mists, so to assume that the the universe/reality/dimension Tyria occupies has a space as we know it outside itself would be a mistake.

On that point, I can agree, we cannot properly speculate on the nature of outer space in Tyria’s universensionality-thing given that we lack any in-game sources that suggest what it may be like. At most, we know that air, aether/ether, and the Mists are present as near-invisible aspects of space (at least one of which seeming to exist as the multiversal-base), but to what extent the first two stretch beyond Tyria into the space surrounding it and between it and the other worlds in Tyria’s own universensionality-thing, as well as how it may behave out there, we simply do not know.

…We really need a good term for single-fragment universe-dimensional-realities. Closest word that comes to mind is brane, but that may be a bit too theoretical physicsy for everyone else.

I think it’s mistaken to call the Mists an alternate reality. Personally, I’d mostly call it the base medium of reality for all worlds/dimensions. This is an apt explanation for how it interacts with all things, it may be the table upon which every universe, dimension, and reality rests. At the very core, the very center of the table, lays the Rift, which acts as the nexus for all these different universes, dimensions, and realities.

Every time we visited the gods’ realms, the Realm of Torment, and so on, we may very well have traveled to another universe or reality entirely, but it needn’t be that the Mists was its universe that they occupied. If anything, the Mists seems best understood as another word for the multiverse.

The reason so many suggest their dead family members go there is probably because while they may like to think they went to a better place, be it Eternal Paradise, the Underworld for judgment (rather than straight to its bad areas), Hall of Spirits, Sky Above the Sky, or the Great Forge, they’re not so certain of the deceased’s character to cast judgment.

Aaron Ansari.1604:

Blocked as in not occurring. In the specific examples I can remember, one of the participating NPCs would move across the building to talk to another on a regular basis (every five minutes), and then simply stop- the moving NPC stays on the other side of the room, and no dialogue occurs.

Ah, that’s good to keep in mind. I thought that might be a possibility, but I didn’t run into any examples of it as far as I could tell. Hopefully it’s not too common of an occurrence. If it is though, that’s why it’s good to have multiple people gathering the info, since certainly one of them would have to be working.

Kirschwasser.3972:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Humorously I was going to do this a few months back. Had already started it even. Then I got banned from GW2W.

Luckily, I got screenshots of the NPC lines (at least some) around the Great Collapse still from before they got removed from the game. Go go historical lines!

Anyways, I personally will look into helping out when/where I can though I got “my” own project to work on (hopefully it will debut soon) – one I’m working on with most of the [Lore] guild. And this project will most certainly be of benefit to my guild’s project!

I realize the answer might end up a bit biased but…

What’d you do to get banned from GW2W?

>_> Konig, if you see this, could you please respond in PM instead (in case you haven’t already), so we might avoid taking this off topic? I could respond for you, but that’d likely lead to what I’ve already indicated I’d like to avoid.

GSSBlunaspike.4153:

Dramen Maidria.1034:

Diablo 3 sold copies based off of the franchise history (hence the huge amount in just a few days), using it in this sense is a very poor argument.

Are you aware that GW2 did the same?

How many of you can honestly watch that preview they put out for china and think “yeah that’s the game I play”. I can’t, I wish I could play that game.

Also why is d3 not an mmo? Was it massive? Yes. Was it multiplayer? Yes. Was it Online? Yes. The only reason they could make that claim they made is because they included so many qualifiers.

D3 supports up to 4 players. how does anyone consider that ‘massively multiplayer’?

Dungeons and pvp only support a few players…that doesn’t mean gw2 isn’t an mmo.

fabiane.6027:

+1 for all the inputs. I am always supporting the good ideas.

=D Thanks! And I’m glad to see the other users’ suggestions directed at this as well.

Justdeifyme.9387:

NO, I DON’T WANT A FOOD-TREADMILL!

Are you saying you don’t want donuts? Because that’s what I’m hearing, and, wait, which type of donuts? I’m okay with glazed, maybe some with frosting, but in general, wait a second, treadmill? I thought you said hamster wheel, which are clearly the worst type of donuts in the world.

Well, okay, if I were a robot, I might like them, but they’d need more silicon or circuitry lining them.

You know, if you don’t like a treadmill, you mustn’t like toast either. I think you might just toast it too long, or maybe you don’t use butter or jam on it? That might help with over-toasting, I think. However, personally, I wouldn’t want it too crunchy, and I don’t think I’d like it as crunchmush either. Considering that, you really might want a new toaster or something.

Trust me on this, finding the right toaster is like finding the right partner, bliss when it happens, a gritty mess when it doesn’t and nobody I know likes gritty messes unless it’s their fetish. In which case, I’m okay with that, as long as everyone’s into it and nobody gets hurt. Anyway, that’s beside the point, you might have device relationship issues to tend to, so I’d get right on that.

Better now than when you and your android partner can’t come to terms. (Don’t tell it you learned from your toaster days though, it might find that terribly insulting. Tell it something more sophisticated, like learning to program your VCR clock or reseating RAM.)

Tashanin.2041:

Thank you all again, for your continued responses.

After reading the responses and talking it over, we’ve come to the following review of GW2

1. Although staying on the move is fun; we really enjoyed it in The Secret World. This game feels like it relies on it way too much as a balancing mechanic for large over-the-top attacks.

2. The registration of “big attacks” although telegraphed, are often times to subtle and is easily lost in the overall battle. Both Tera and The Secret World seem to do better than this game in our opinion. (We both run 27" 2560×1440 monitors, so we should be able to see stuff)

3. There is a strong reliance on being “a rogue” vs. being “a hero” in our opinion. For us that’s not an enjoyable play style us. Personally, I like the trading blows feeling of a tank. My wife likes the raining hell on mobs. We don’t get that same feeling with this game.

We really wanted to like this game. It’s beautiful, we really liked the music and the world. The story line was compelling and well laid out. We just can’t get past the frustration of the combat system.

All in all, this isn’t the game for us. There are plenty of others out there. FFXIV, Wildstar, etc. that I’m hopeful they will be a better experience.

We may try this game again, after it’s had a chance to balance itself out a bit more and mature.

1. You don’t actually have to stay on the move that much. It helps a lot, but some well-timed dodges and good uses of your heal skill (6) can easily account for not moving that much. I’m not that great at this game, yet I manage to get by with a few dodges and running to the side a little. Nothing much more intense than, say, The Secret World from my minimal experience with it. Also, if you’re playing guardian, try a mace/focus, mace/shield, or sword/focus, sword/shield setup. Either the focus or the shield should help give you some extra defense, if you use their skills at the right times.

Not sure if you’re aware, but the last two skills (4 and 5) are your offhand, i.e. focus/shield/torch.

2. Eh, can’t disagree too much there, sometimes they are a bit too subtle to me too.

3. Have either of you touched the personal story at all? The open world is mostly where you play the rogue or adventurer, whichever you will, whereas the personal story is where you play more of the hero type. Also, both of you should be able to play those roles using the professions you’ve picked, for sure.

Do either of you know anything at all about traits? These are kind of like tweaking your attributes in other games, but with more additional effects. For example, every profession has the same basic attributes, toughness, vitality, precision, and power. Precision improves the odds of hitting criticals, power improves direct damage, vitality is your health, and toughness is your defense. All of these may be boosted by equipment, but it helps even more to adjust your traits to boost them.

For the guardian.
Zeal=power.
Radiance=precision.
Valor=toughness.
Honor=vitality.

Profession-specific attribute line:
Virtues=virtue recharge rate.

For the elementalist.
Fire Magic=power.
Air Magic=precision.
Earth Magic=toughness.
Water Magic=vitality.

Profession-specific attribute line:
Arcana=attunement recharge rate.

Setting up the right traits can really help you out in terms of providing some passive bonuses while also giving you some conditional bonuses that you can trigger yourself by doing certain things, which differ from profession to profession and trait to trait. I would say using certain skills, but if I’m not mistaken, I think some may trigger on weapon swapping.

Edit: Also, I haven’t seen anyone mention this one yet, but if you encounter a [Group Event] and it’s just the two of you, try it for a little bit, and if you think you’re just overwhelmed or outnumbered, don’t feel too bad. Those events are, I think, meant for at least 3 or more players to complete. Once you get a bit better, you might be able to duo some of them though.

Actually Scourge, Pyre did not use the model on the right. For the charr, there were about four different models, I think. You had the charr Fire Callers/Wardkeepers, Ash Storms/Chaots, Axe Fiends/Bladestorms/etc., and then finally Stalkers.

Pyre used a modified Stalker model.

Current charr models mostly followed up on Pyre’s designs with some tweaks here and there.

Blocked, as in, stopped from occurring? Or just getting hidden by the NPCs behind terrain/in the way of the other dialogue?

Excellent, that makes it much easier to get what I was after than I had initially thought might end up being the case. Thanks!

Looked into the armor a bit more out of trying to figure out if I had any skin/look preference. I think I’ve mostly sorted out my concerns and issues (aside from the limitation of stats to certain skins/pieces of armor sets), and I’m only wondering now:

Does all of the temple armor look the same? Like, say I get pieces from Mortal Armor of Grenth and Armageddon Armor of Balthazar, do they share the same skin, and will fit the same outfit? It appears that this is the case from the wiki, but it calls it Armageddon Armor, which leaves me uncertain.

Thanks again for all the input guys.

Hey guys, an update. Plagiarised and I have completed the Eastern and Western Commons of Divinity’s Reach, now moving on to the Ossan Quarter and Rurikton if you’re interested in helping.

Some good tips about this:
The static NPCs’ ambient dialogue seems to occur on a 2 to 3 minute cycle, varying according to their pool of lines.

What this means:
If you stand around for at least that amount of time and the NPCs don’t say anything, chances are they don’t have any ambient dialogue to them.

I haven’t timed the patrolling NPCs cycles, so I can’t really say how long is good to wait for them. I should also note that I don’t know whether this timer applies in the open world or not. I suspect it may, but due to the dynamic events and triggers involved, it may be even easier to miss certain aspects of it.

Celestina.2894:

Tower Guard.5263:

Celestina.2894:

For some reason the thread reminded me of this…….

The Gundam and DBZ love child, still need to watch that one.

It’s a match made in heaven, really.

I’ve gotta back this up. It’s the Gundam that got me into Gundam, and…I don’t regret it in the least. (Plus look at those two, strong woman alongside strong man, can it get any better? The answer is yes, in the form of even more of that Gundam series. Aand now I’m going to see if Netflix has it. Thanks for the reminder Celestina!)

Seras.5702:

Gmr Leon.1846:

~snip~

I don’t see gear acquisition as annoyingly inconvenient. They can’t just hand out top tier gear to you without you earning it. The nice thing about dungeons is that you can run them pre-80. You can run Ascalonian Catacombs or Caudecus Manor before you’re lvl 40. Run them here and there as you level and by the time you hit 80 you’d have enough tokens for a full gear-set.

If you want the easy way, you can buy whatever you want from the TP. That’s convenient. But I always feel that earning something offers a greater sense of fulfillment.

And I don’t understand you druthers with respect to transmutation stones. Acquiring gear from many different methods is handy. Being able to make them look the way you want is even more convenient. I feel like your stance on gear acquisition and on x-mute stones are in opposition. Many people prefer the look of a lvl 20 looking armor piece; x-mute stones let them have that look with exotic stats. Nothing wrong with that. It keeps the entire population from looking identical.

Sorry for the longwinded post. Here’s the TL;DR of it: I am okay with multiple methods of acquisition. What I dislike is the absence of a central armory type area (or just areas, even, I guess) where I can speak to the NPCs (either after hitting 80 or completing personal story), and get any armor skin with any stat set I would like through whichever currency. [E.g. see cultural armorsmiths and dungeon vendors, these are almost perfect.]

My resistance to transmutation stones is that I feel the divided stat set distribution across armors was a design decision negatively influenced by the inclusion of microtransactions.

Don’t get your hopes up too too much guys. That’s what made the unpleasant people that still lurk about these forums. We don’t need more of them. =O

On that note…I’m somewhat hopeful too. Aetherblades assault Kryta, suddenly out of nowhere, tengu support squads! “But why?” “The sky belongs to the tengu! They sully it with their dishonorable attacks!” “…How did you learn to fly?” ~supersketchyspeculationtime~ “We caught some Zephyrites landing in our Dominion, and upon speaking with them, we learned they held no aggressive intent. We then inquired about their form of flight, to restore our people to their rightful home, and they taught us. Until recently, we have kept it secret to avoid conflict with the other nations, but as our traders reported pirates from the sky, we could no longer stand to remain hidden.”

Talon Silverwing on tengu lands…

Technically, the multiverse always was confirmed, right from the very start. Way back into the Rift lore.

Lord Odran

Over the years, Lord Odran learned to use the Rift to travel across the multiverse.

At any rate, I don’t disagree.

LadyRhonwyn.2501:

You should have done that in Old Piken Ruins!

And you’re not alone. Whenever I come across a landmark of 250 years old, I always remember the fun I had back then.

New Player Event Detected. GW1 Veterans’ Reunion Communion with Ancestors. “Selling Althea’s Ashes in Piken Square Ruins.”

This time with the hilariously morbid twist of charr selling her ashes! =P

Vayne.8563:

Gmr Leon.1846:

>_> So…Nothing to say about the meatier parts of my post? Just gonna react defensively out of apathy? Okay then, if that makes sense and is fun for you. I’m not gonna say I understand it, but I am gonna say you have a strange sense of fun.

I didn’t say anything about the meatier part of your post, because I have no comment on it, as odd as that might sound. You found an interview, you made some comments. I haven’t gone and read the interview, because I’m pressed for time, so I commented on the stuff I did have time for.

Not sure why you feel you have to make something of that.

Mostly because it was more relevant to the OP’s topic than reacting to one critique and request for info.

Nuka Cola.8520:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Nuka Cola.8520:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Nuka Cola.8520:

Pretty much this and only thing. MMO standards when it comes to story are as low as it gets in the gaming industry.

I’ve seen worse genres for story. Heck, there was once a time when story was not at all important to the game; I should know, I lived through it. I really don’t quite know WHEN it was decided in the west to focus on story in games . . .

I have a hard time calling the writing worse than GW1 though. I think the personal story is, actually, a smidge better than Prophecies (from Pre-Searing to Hell’s Precipice; the post-campaign material is much improved) . . . in that while you can see a lot coming, it’s not quite feeling like four stories strung together at the ends to make a whole. It feels weak, but it does feel like one story.

Which genre has worst story telling? The only i could think of is sports games lol which have no story at all.

First Person Shooters have had consistently terrible storylines with a few exceptions. As a runnerup, Roguelikes, for which a storyline just gets in the way of “kick in the door and kill stuff for the loot”.

lol fps’s in general have waaaaay better story telling unless ‘fps’ title is CS to you. Just look at the latest such as Bioshock Infinite, Metro LL and so on. When was the last time an mmo had a story worth having a conversation with your buds? Never.

Only since post-‘98 man. Before Half-Life, you’d be hard pressed to find many FPS games that tried to have a story. You could argue Doom, but it’s really kinda weak about that. Same with Disruptor, for that matter. I’m sure there are more that others could think of, but stories in FPS are only a very recent trend in gaming.

As to MMOs with story, I can’t speak effectively for it since I missed out on it, but as I understand it, Everquest 1 (maybe 2 as well) had some decent backstory going for it. Not sure of the in-game story though. World of Warcraft also had a story that some spoke about with each other (many of the more well-versed with the original Warcraft story taking much issue with it, for that matter).

Of course, much of the discussion mostly remained with those that played the game, but that still qualifies as a “conversation with your buds,” I think.

Vayne.8563:

Gmr Leon.1846:

Snip

hide spoiler

Then provide them? That aside, do you actually expect me to believe the, “I have experience in the field,” line on the Internet? Come now, there’s no need of that here, especially since I’d have to have been born a moment ago to believe it. There’s no denying you can say how a thing’s done, you can talk about it all day long. That won’t make your statements accurate unless they’re of your own work, since they won’t exactly fit others’, and it’s those small differences that can alter the end results.

Also, to my knowledge, there actually was a separation between writing teams on the personal story and the regional/ambient dialogue. Check out this article that I, honestly, only incidentally ran into while checking some other stuff, it’s an interview with Bobby Stein. What’s a bit curious is that it seemingly conflicts a little with an earlier interview where he talks about having worked on the conversational cinematics, but I suspect it means he helped on them, while the majority of the team he heads worked on the ambient dialogue.

That would help readily explain the discrepancies in quality. Bobby’s team stole the decent writers leaving the other writing teams, let’s just say, a bit frayed. =P

Edit: I’d also heavily advise anyone interested in the development of the living story and what’s to come to read that interview. It really helped to revitalize my interests and hopes for where the game may be headed. Mr. Stein does a very good job at acknowledging the existing issues they face with the living story, while pointing out they do have a decent tracking system planned that should help to alleviate some of the problems with it.

First of all, I don’t care whether you believe me or not. It’s not relevant to me. I’m talking from experience and if people don’t believe me that’s cool. They don’t have to.

>_> So…Nothing to say about the meatier parts of my post? Just gonna react defensively out of apathy? Okay then, if that makes sense and is fun for you. I’m not gonna say I understand it, but I am gonna say you have a strange sense of fun.

Tai Kratos.3247:

And in reference to the whole Vayne debate over the way in which content is written, I think that how the content is written is irrelevant. I’m not really directing blame on the writers only, because anything they write is due to a trickle down effect of what needs writing. But I’m just pointing out that something has to change in the whole process – no matter where the error lies – to fix this issue.

Pretty much agree here. If the interview I linked is any indication, hopefully we’ll be seeing some changes towards that relatively soon.

Vayne.8563:

Gmr Leon.1846:

The problem isn’t the writing, it’s the way that the writing is implemented…We can’t honestly say how they’re doing things at ArenaNet without being a part of the company. I’d advise against trying to assert that any one way is exactly how they’re doing it.

For all we know, it’s an even balance, where at times one takes priority over the others, like the story takes a backseat to some of the mini-games, while the design takes a backseat to some of the cutscenes, and so on. Ignoring all that, I think Tai understood, and was just honing in on the details. The design guys might very well tell them how it should be written to fit within gameplay, but that doesn’t excuse the content of it being of low quality.

I’ve read/seen interviews with the writing team. And I have experience from inside the field as well. I can say how it’s done. And logically writers wouldn’t write this stuff if they weren’t forced to…because the same team writes regional dialogue and personal story dialogue. I’m not sure how else you’d account for the discrepancy.

Then provide them? That aside, do you actually expect me to believe the, “I have experience in the field,” line on the Internet? Come now, there’s no need of that here, especially since I’d have to have been born a moment ago to believe it. There’s no denying you can say how a thing’s done, you can talk about it all day long. That won’t make your statements accurate unless they’re of your own work, since they won’t exactly fit others’, and it’s those small differences that can alter the end results.

Also, to my knowledge, there actually was a separation between writing teams on the personal story and the regional/ambient dialogue. Check out this article that I, honestly, only incidentally ran into while checking some other stuff, it’s an interview with Bobby Stein. What’s a bit curious is that it seemingly conflicts a little with an earlier interview where he talks about having worked on the conversational cinematics, but I suspect it means he helped on them, while the majority of the team he heads worked on the ambient dialogue.

That would help readily explain the discrepancies in quality. Bobby’s team stole the decent writers leaving the other writing teams, let’s just say, a bit frayed. =P

Edit: I’d also heavily advise anyone interested in the development of the living story and what’s to come to read that interview. It really helped to revitalize my interests and hopes for where the game may be headed. Mr. Stein does a very good job at acknowledging the existing issues they face with the living story, while pointing out they do have a decent tracking system planned that should help to alleviate some of the problems with it.

Vayne.8563:

Tai Kratos.3247:

Vayne.8563:

The problem isn’t the writing, it’s the way that the writing is implemented…

…For example, the writing in personal stories in this game is based on a game instance that is universal across all professions. We have to have this finished up in exactly 1 more story so we can move onto the next one. It has to contain this element and that element. It has to be over in this amount of time.

~snip~

So I tend to disagree with you, only because I know that they are capable of doing it right. Unfortunately, it’s rather rare, which is why I’ve had to cite the White Stag arc so many times in all of my posts.

EDIT:
“I’m obviously vocal about the writing being beyond terrible, but calling for someone to be fired is just wrong. People have families, mortgages. You don’t know the reason why it’s awful, just that it is. You don’t know that this person doesn’t have another valuable skillset to offer. Remember it’s a person you’re talking about. Someone’s relative. Someone’s friend. Someone’s Co-Worker that they like and eat lunch with.”

Thank you for being aware. I do feel that sometimes people get a little bit caught up in the whole roasting thing and need to focus on offering critique instead of just being critical.

Maybe I’m not being clear here. The writing is done by writers. The game design, including mission structure, was NOT being done by writers. The writers were given very specific task and told what to write. In that particular case, the only real way to fix it is to let the writers design the quests/missions which wasn’t done here.

I can tell this by how things are done. For example, once the game designers decided that the mentor character in your order has to die at level 30 at Claw Island, the writers have to make that death scene a death scene and within that context, they did okay.

The problem I have with is is that everywhere else I can just rez someone. Why can’t these characters be rezzed? Rezzing is part of the lore and the game. But I can’t rez specific people. That just gauls me.

Writers in games are given very specific things to write. They can’t write “more or longer”. They have a lot of write.

And the best writing often gets vetoed if it doesn’t fit the game designer’s needs. It’s just not so easy to blame the actual writing. The entire way the story was designed would need to be addressed.

We can’t honestly say how they’re doing things at ArenaNet without being a part of the company. I’d advise against trying to assert that any one way is exactly how they’re doing it.

For all we know, it’s an even balance, where at times one takes priority over the others, like the story takes a backseat to some of the mini-games, while the design takes a backseat to some of the cutscenes, and so on. Ignoring all that, I think Tai understood, and was just honing in on the details. The design guys might very well tell them how it should be written to fit within gameplay, but that doesn’t excuse the content of it being of low quality.

This is a symptom of a bigger problem that needs to be addressed:

Making the open world more enticing.

I have no solid ideas of how they should do this, but I’ve seen plenty of decent ones from altering the rewards from the events to my own chain/combo event completion to making area event completion produce tokens to be exchanged for a reward and so on. I’m hoping ArenaNet has noticed all of this discussion and is hard at work figuring out their own way of handling it, since they must realize having players concentrated in one area does not bode well for those newly arriving in the game.

Shagaz.6209:

I kinda get the feeling that story is only enjoyable for hardcore lore-diggers (people who buy all books, read every blogspot or interview about lore, talk to every npc etc.).

So far living story only proved to be as bad, but maybe queen’s speech will change something.

Tai Kratos.3247:

(…) and that they did not want the players to have to read a “wall of text” to understand the context. (…)

Really? Then they failed badly… story via emails and out-of-game walls of texts.

I’m one of those hardcore lore-digger types, and trust me, it’s not any better for us. At least, from those I’ve spoken with about it both early on and even now. If anything, it’s even more frustrating for us than for those who only want a passable story, not something that even makes them groan. If you’re groaning, you can imagine those invested in the lore are just tossing their hands up going, I’m done. That’s it. There’s nothing more that can redeem this story.

I left to play some other games for several months (not to mention other RL stuff) after they basically nuked my original area of interest in the game with the worst line ever from the Orrian King’s ghost, “Seek the source,” which was icing on the cake to the fact that the only character I might have any interest in was ditched. >_>

And an absolute yeaaah, on the last part. That’s what partially inspired the suggestion in my signature.

Lokki.1092:

It is possible the writing in video games is getting worse just like the reading level of recent best selling books have been going down, and for the same reasons. Just catering to the public.

…No. Just no. If we can have games like Bioshock and Bioshock Infinite, The Last of Us, The Walking Dead, Thomas Was Alone, and so on, we can’t cave to the idea that it’s getting worse. Yes, they are few (that come to my mind, I’m sure there are more yet still few relative to the volume of games being released), but that’s because video-games are still a young medium, and developers are still working out the best ways to tell a story.

We can have good writing in games, some of the backstories in GW even show this to a limited degree, but we need to maintain an expectation of it if we want to see it come around.

Unleashed.6195:

Lokki.1092:

Just to toss this out here… Guild wars was released in 2005 when the NAAL’s last statistical testing put the American public at a 8-9th grade reading comprehension level.

To be fair, even they admit that the lower scores have over representation by certain groups that are increasing in population % (ESL). I somehow doubt the game’s writing is any less ridiculous in languages other than English.

As for the decline in the quality of the writing between GW1 and GW2, I really don’t know how to explain it. They have set the bar so low, at least there is little chance of it getting worse. So long as they continue to allow cut scene skipping, I can at least enjoy the rest of the game and pretend the text doesn’t exist.

To be fair, even GW1’s campaign stories weren’t exactly the best. You could find way more interesting stuff from some of the quests. We almost have that in GW2, the events just need more polish and something to log their encounter to provide more depth to the event, so when you replay them you can have a better connection to what you’re doing. Not the best way of handling it, sure, but better than what we have now, I’d say.

Kirschwasser.3972:

I honestly and sincerely think the voice-acting makes things harder to take seriously, not necessarily because I believe it’s bad (not that I believe it’s good, either), but giving voices to things sometimes just strips something from it.

My two cents an’ all.

Honestly, with a MMO, with how much they already cost to make, they’d do much better to avoid investing in it. I feel like they feel they have to simply because people are so much more accustomed to it now, and/or want to play more than they want to read, so they went with it.

Then they must have realized how much that hurt their ability to tell a decent story, maybe, but it’s hard to say. The move to cyclical quests to keep the world interesting, which admittedly is pretty genius since it means the play-content doesn’t ever actually run out as is the case with the old quest model (finished all the quests? sorry, there’s…really nothing else out here for you…Uh…Raid? PvP? Will that work?), incidentally also cut their ability to tell some interesting stories.

Personally, I think that’s more prone to the fact that this is one of the first times it’s ever been done on such a large scale with a game, and as such, they were having some difficulty in balancing the show vs. tell factors of them. If you ask me, they may have leaned too heavily into the show aspect of it, basically resulting in the opposite of the personal story where they do so much telling.

Oh, as to games with good stories, besides TOR, there’s also The Secret World. It has its own issues, but some of the questlines are pretty fun and tell a good story simultaneously. The dialogue is also pretty enjoyable, all things considering with a MMO, and again, it’s spotty in places, but that seems to be the norm with games of this scale.

insanemaniac.2456:

crests are rare drops from 70-80 stuff. i usually get them from jormag chests or jump puzzles in high level areas. i suppose youll need those for jewelry. id just buy them off the trading post. but for armor, its usually a good idea to pick a rune set… a lot of runes offer nifty bonuses incomparable to stats.

you can also get a few sets (including rabid) from wvw armor vendors. skins dont matter. buy a piece for its stats, buy another piece for the skin, and transmute. dont worry about looks until you have the stats you want.

>_> That’s what I was worried about. I’m not fond of gambling with drop tables in hopes of getting what I’m after. The only solution then seems working with the trading post, which is kind of annoying only because I would like to get it on my own, but again, gambling with drop tables is just wasting time.

As to the skin part. See my post. I’m not willing to fund an aspect of the game that I feel may have negatively influenced the way equipment is distributed.

Seras.5702:

Acquiring Armor:

In Lion’s Arch there are a string of dungeon vendors that trade armor & weapons for dungeon tokens. Check em out and figure out which you’ll want. Then run that dungeon for tokens. This is the most economical way imo, because you’ll earn gold and drops from the dungeons, and not pay any gold for the armor.

You can hunt down the various karma vendors in Orr (at each temple once unlocked). Use the wiki to see what they each carry, as none of them has a full set of any stat set. This way is also cheap because it’s gold-free, but the selection is limited.

If you WvW you can use the badges earned there at the vendors near the asura gates in the Borderlands.

You can also pick up the Leatherworking and Huntsman crafts and make your own stuff. I’ll warn you though, that leveling these 2 up to 400 wil be costly. You’ll have a lot of mats in your bank if you’ve been gathering and not selling them, but you’ll absolutely need more than what you’ve got. Especially if you level both. It’ll cost you 10g+ per craft. Someone else would know better a more precise estimate.

Obviously, there’s the Trading Post to fall back on if you have the gold.

As for looks, you have quite a few options with the various dungeon vendors. But you can also use the lvl 80 transmutation crystals to change the appearance of any item.

=/ So no matter what, it’s kind of annoyingly inconvenient, but at least the dungeon possibility might be tolerable. I kind of came to that conclusion myself as I looked over the wiki, but I put it aside because I either didn’t like the skin or I was really hoping I might be overlooking the possibility of them being available with almost all stat sets.

After all this, I’m just more inclined to believe I simply need to sort out my traits and play better. This equipment stuff is simply obnoxious, which is why I typically try to avoid it in games like this.

Also, again, transmutation stones are invalid on personal principle. I think it may have negatively influenced the design of the equipment system making it as bothersome as it is.

Honestly, the flipflopping I would see as a good thing…If as you said, they actually provided some decent background for it aside from thinking the player will think in terms of semi-objective neutral perspective that doesn’t immediately assume they’re just bad guys. I remember reading the blog posts pre-release, and there was some decentish background to many that you encounter (I can’t recall if centaurs were in this mix and I’m pretty sure that bandits definitely weren’t), but as you said, that’s supposed to be visible in the world, not in walls of text that, now, are only inconveniently accessible.

However, the biggest mess is by far the personal story. As I’ve discussed with my guildmates very shortly after release, probably the biggest issue is the pacing. They too quickly go from one story arc to the next to the point that you barely make any real connections to any of the characters you encounter and when you finally hit a story arc that might seem to slow down and let that happen, like say the Orders arc (which as you demonstrate, is kind of qualitatively messy in its own right), they whaat?kill off your partner in crime for practically no good reason.

It’s even worse when considering certain early choices lead to deeper or shallower stories, making a player almost regret their choice, which should be avoided as much as possible when making multiple choices for a story.

I’ve been around the lore for years now, so I continue to trudge through it regardless, but I can easily see the ugly parts for what they are. I just try to make up for it by having fun smashing and blasting stuff while occasionally speculating on the areas that they (for good or bad) haven’t elaborated on.

This should probably be under the Lore section, but may as well answer.

There are books, as said, but they’re often very brief and don’t always provide much.
The majority of the lore is out in events and listening in to ambient dialogue. It’s a mixed bag like anything else.

The personal stories are along the same lines, really.

As in the past, it seems, much of the more interesting stuff you’ll find out in the world and in some of the explorer paths of dungeons, but it can be trying at times to find the really good stuff.

Honestly, if you’re into lore, this game is okay but sits on somewhat shaky ground. I’d be more inclined to advise looking into the Elder Scrolls series going from Morrowind onward, Dishonored, a bit of Fallout, and so on. They have much deeper backstories going for them, and sometimes even really decent humor that manages to fit in. Bioshock also fits in amongst them, albeit less so with the humor, and if you can tolerate space soap operas, Mass Effect is supposedly decent.

Not to rag on GW2’s lore too much, but it shows the constraints of trying to build a rich world on the foundations of an online game. The methods of presentation suffer from the need to develop so many other systems to provide players a variety of activities to engage in (PvE, crafting, trading, WvW, PvP, etc.). It’s kind of a shame considering there are some spots that really show potential.

Regarding the equipment stuff:
How/where am I to get some of it? (The wiki’s kind of a mess on this, since it looks like there are a variety of ways, but they all look obnoxiously tedious, glued to a certain skin, or leave me wondering.)
And if it’s a specific triple attribute set as some have been suggesting here, does that mean I’m stuck going with a certain skin (I will if I have to, since I’m not farming gold for gems or paying real money for a skinswap of all things) or will I have to just hope to get a crest?

On that note:
How on Tyria do you get crests? I scoured the wiki through the pages on it, and I didn’t find anything indicating where/how.

As far as I can tell, at least for the rabid set, it looks like karma merchants somewhere in Orr is where I’m supposed to get it, and then at that it’s an odd mixture of different skins. However, even considering the others, it looks much the same.

This equipment system is an absolute pain. =|

Ah, gotcha. I wasn’t expecting a GW1 reference and had recently encountered what I linked, so it was fresh in my mind.

Did you mean Unsuspicious Rabbit?

(What’s up with this one?)

I wouldn’t say rabid rifle wouldn’t work…It just wouldn’t be incredibly effective dependent on what utility skills you might be using and if you’re relying heavily on its use over your utility skills’ use. It looks to me like, if I’m really digging my crits, and the damage of the rifle, my best bet might be to have a knight’s set for the toughness, precision, and power bonuses it would provide.

Although, preferably, a set with +condition duration in place of power might be better, if for nothing other than extending the duration of net shot’s immobilize. Then again, it looks like that might be where a sigil may come into play if you’re really wanting it (looking up the recipes though, that looks much too annoying to go for).

“Tick tock goes the clock
It’s almost time for time to stop
Something you all must understand
Your world is built on fog and sand

Is there a clocktower in Divinity’s Reach? Besides that, what some others have noted, maybe Watchknights going haywire some more or stopping altogether. On an off note, since this is the only thread I see discussing this, might mean swapping out Battle of Kyhlo for some other map over in PvP. It’d fit in with the last line fairly well.

If that’s not the case, then while I like the idea of it being related to the Mists and the world line seems to go with it…We should also remember what Kryta’s all about. Swamps and beaches. Kryta’s always been stuck amidst swamps and coasts. It’s fun to cast our gaze outward, but we should keep in mind that this part of the Living Story is focusing on events to do with Kryta.

You’re out of time, your jig is done
It’s time for Scarlet to have her fun
She has some hard lessons to teach
To the people of Divinity’s Reach

While this is out there and I don’t really expect it for the same reasons I don’t expect (or really want) the Infinity Ball storyline to have involvement here, I do see a slim possibility for Riot Alice to be involved. Red hair, anti-oligarchy, and so on. However, if the individual encountered in the Opening Ceremony of the Queen’s Jubilee is Scarlet, then that’s a quick nope.

Main reasons I thought of her were the lessons to teach part. Seemed like something Alice might want to do. The big question here is, is this just a fancy way of talking about attacking the populace or is there something more intended behind it, like trying to actually stir them to some realization. Very unclear about that.

So mark the date in permanent ink
The hour is later than you think
On the twentieth day she’ll start her games
And warm her hands over Kryta’s flames!"

The games part here is what throws me away from thinking there’s any major ideological realization bit going for the attacks. What’s more interesting to me here though is the word choice with the whole permanent ink part. I honestly think it’s just further emphasizing the other PR bits leading up to this event regarding the fact that this event will have permanent effect on the world.

Might be digging too much into it here, but he hour is later than you think line has me wondering if that’s straightforward, like they’re coming sooner than you think, or a jab at the populace, like things are worse out here than you realize. Which in itself would be a good shot at the nobility of Divinity’s Reach, but why they’d be trying to get them realizing that is beyond me. I’m betting on the obvious with most of these lines.

Rabid sounds pretty much like what I’ve constantly been hoping to drop whenever I do get armor drops. For the most part I’ve been running dual pistols because I like having a quick close-quarters go-to (blowtorch), since my utility skills have mostly been a mix of grenade kit (for AoE in many vs. one scenarios, which happen often in PvE), elixir gun (additional heal and condition removal after elixir h is used, also good vulnerability dealer and get out card), and elixir b (mostly for swiftness to get me around faster).

Also, sorry if I’m being dense, but what’s proc supposed to be short for? I get what you’re saying by the context, just not really what that’s even derived from.

Anywho, my basic build form has mainly been reliant on critical chance and damage, with a side of conditions (mostly a tossup between Inventions and Alchemy since I wasn’t sure which I preferred), regardless of if I swap to rifle or not, so it sounds like rabid would be the natural transition for me.

I didn’t want to mention that earlier because, as stated, I’m still experimenting and finding what I like, so I didn’t want responses that were reinforcing my existing playstyle. It’s funny to see that in a way though, it might work better to continue following it, just getting better equipment and readjusting my traits a bit.

Tyaen.5148:

Gmr Leon.1846:

PTV means next to nothing to me (I wasn’t playing as all these new shorthands emerged).

I’m just guessing, but: either Power or Precision and Toughness and Vitality?

Power Toughness Vitality

Thank you for the clarification. =)

Tyaen.5148:

Without knowing your build, it’s hard to say.

As far as WvW goes gear up in P/T/V.

If I had a specific build, I’d definitely have mentioned it, but I’m still trying to figure out what playstyle I prefer for my engineer. Also, recall how I said I was clueless about gear? PTV means next to nothing to me (I wasn’t playing as all these new shorthands emerged).

I’m just guessing, but: either Power or Precision and Toughness and Vitality?

(Sorry if that comes off as abrasive, it’s not meant to. It’s just one of those things where if cluelessness is mentioned, the last thing I’d hope for are shorthands. Fortunately I do know some of the others mentioned in other posts like cc since that’s more universal.)

Sylentir.8913:

Keep in mind that classes in this game have a lot of active defense, engineers moreso than most. Yes, we can get significant toughness/vitality and take a hit, but where we really get our survival from is defensive abilities.
We can have permanent vigor for maximum dodging potential.

waitwhat. what. That’s what vigor does? I have no idea how, having used Elixir H for this long, that I never read the tooltip about vigor, but somehow I managed to. This explains so much about why I always feel like I’m running out of dodges at the worst times ever (besides sometimes using them too much). I could’ve been making it restore tons of times faster all this time. =|

(actually now I do, it’s in the toss area, which I rarely do for myself, but still, combined with the other stuff mentioned here, explains so much)

Seras.5702:

The primary (and best) method for mitigating damage is to dodge it. It’s better than soaking it up with a large health pool or reducing it with high armor or being fancy trying to proc protection. Dodge = 0 damage taken. So…

Take Speedy Kits (VI) in Tools and Invigorating Speed (I) in Alchemy. You now have on-demand swiftness and vigor. Quickly swap into & out of a kit every 5 seconds or so. Takes practice and you’ll definitely not do it every 5 sec, but it’s an awesome combo.

See above, but this and the above just blew my mind.

Obscure One.4357:

Unfortunately gear plays a larger role in your overall build than the trait lines themselves. If toughness is what you’re after tryout an FT build like 20/20/0/20/10 until you get a better sense of direction with your build/playstyle. Traits should sit on Incendiary Powder, Enhance Performance, Fireforged Trigger, Juggernaut, Self-Regulating Defenses, Deadly Admixture, and Speedy Kits. Use a full set of “Rabid” prefix gear, and get as close to a full set of exotics as you can afford until you can buy it all. Runes and Sigils also play a large role, and I recommend Superior Runes of The Undead and Superior Sigil of Force for Flamethrower Engi’s on a budget. If you’re using dual Pistols or Pistol and Shield use the Force Sigil in one and Superior Sigil of Hydromancy in the other, again that’s if gold is a limitation. Make sure the weapons are also of the “Rabid” prefix variety.

Also be sure to use some consumables such as Saffron Bread and Quality Maintenance Oil, and though I encourage using the top tier versions, just go with whatever you feel you can afford. Once you get a handle on the overall build you’ll likely begin making changes to it to tailor it to your playstyle.

Hope that helps!

That definitely gives me a better sense of what’s what with the new nomenclature and the difference in function between runes and sigils. I remembered reading about the latter prior to release but once we hit off there was such a mishmash of it all with it growing rapidly obsolete that I chose to ignore it until I got closer to a stable position around the level cap. Seems to have worked out for the most part.

Thanks for all the replies so far. =)

Hey guys, I was venturing about Mount Maelstrom, trying to aid my fellow asuran krewes when I came across one in particular that caught my attention in Avernan Volatile along the Felsic Plains. They were gathering wind rider essence for what sounded like a prodigious project, so I contributed to it. Shortly thereafter though, I had to defend them against a giant wind rider and mere moments after defeating the creature, they promptly left.

While we asura aren’t known for our respect, and are very well known for our extremely jealous safeguarding of our research, I am inclined to believe that with their resources, they’ll completely lose what could be a great advancement for the asura to shove in the other races’ faces yet again. So I come to you, asura or not doesn’t matter, to request the information of their whereabouts.

I have no interest in their jealousy ruining the potential for me to integrate their designs into my golems. =P

TL;DR:
Wanted: The whereabouts of asura Rixt and Prinkt for the purpose of reclaiming their research for the greater asuran body of research (i.e. mine).

Edit: Anybody? Nobody? I can’t make flying VAL-A golems without this!

Any advice on what I should be doing differently? That is, should I put more into Inventions or Alchemy? Does it improve when you get armor appropriate to your level? I’m currently running with whatever I’ve looted from my enemies and appears to have better stats, but I still feel like maybe I’m taking too much damage, even when I try to dodge away.

I think maybe the worst part is that so many of the enemies run up and try to smash my face in. How do you guys handle the facesmashers? I tried rifle for a time, and I may have to again, as last time my rifle was way underlevel for my character and the areas I was in.

Which reminds me: I’m level 79 so I feel like I should be getting out of the squishy feeling at least a little by now, but I’m not sure how much of it is my build or my gear factoring into it. I’ve never really been one for carefully analyzing gear in games, so I’m guessing I’m still getting a bit of gearshock from the jump in its importance from playing GW1, except again, I have no idea how big of a deal it really is. When it comes to gear, I’m clueless, I just go with bigger numbers in defense and toughness when I come across it.

Thanks for any help, and sorry if this is the thousandth time this has come up.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

Aaron Ansari.1604:

Well, considering that the stars reflect dragonrise in the first place, I think it’s safe to bet that they don’t work the same way- that is, at least some of the stars in the Tyrian sky are not gigantic balls of gas burning some inconceivable distance away. We really don’t know anything about space in Tyria, but I doubt it’s similar to what we have in our reality.

I suppose in a mystical fantasy setting, we can do away with the science regarding actual stars, and see them as prophetic signs, I agree.

Do we know for a fact that the stars reflect the rise of dragons? Or is this just the opinion of an npc?

What’s curious is that some speculated there was a particularly notable and bright star in the aftermath of the Abaddon fight. It may be that any powerful magical entity may have their traces written in the stars. In fact, we even have a good source to back this up:

Bahltek

Normally, I require the aide of significant and cryptic incantations to predict the future, but I must be growing more powerful by the day. Even without them, I knew you were going to bother me.

Let me save us both the trouble… you want to know why I’m here, correct? Ah, how surprising.

I’m trying to view the stars for some investigations I am conducting. No, don’t ask any questions, I’ll tell you more without your pedantic babble. Hearing you stumble around trying to command the simplest spoken phraseology is simply too frustrating for me.

The gods can be seen in the heavens… to varying degrees. They’ve emblazoned their marks upon the firmament, and these marks are not constant. As per established parameters, I’m sure this is entirely comprehensible and beneficial knowledge to you. How very clever you are.

Regarding the major point of this topic, I hypothesized along the very lines of some of these posters ages ago, with my view being that in a world absent of dragons, if the core held some bits of the Mists or, magic, in its composition, this would be the wellspring of life on worlds throughout the Mists. Also, to protect the worlds from the ravages of the very same Mists that gave them life, this core may produce a protective field sheltering the worlds from the raw creative energies of the Mists and the demons that emerge from them. With all this in play, you might have hastened formation of life throughout the worlds varying on the amount of magical/Mists concentrations found in the world’s core, as a result of the very same magic radiating from it.

What’s interesting that I didn’t note during this early hypothesis was that this also coincides fairly well with the asuran aptitude for magic, as they would be closer to the world’s concentration of magic, should it prove true. Along an opposite line, I now have some sort of decent evidence for the notion of the greater magical field up higher with the aid of our friends the Zephyrites.

It’s all coming together. I hope. My hypothesis may yet become a proper theory.

christiniae.7834:

Wow finally! Four pages of arguing and you just now provide a link to the lore that Konig and Gmr Leon have written. I’ve never heard of those people or been to that site but I can never read enough lore so I will check it out.

When I googled gw lore WP came up and that’s how I discovered him. You can’t blame us for not knowing about people on a site buried somewhere in the internet.

To be fair, I did post my own links, but they may have been easy to miss since I tend to fancy them up a bit. As to the site buried on the internet bit…Those were honestly some of the more popular sites for GW1 back in the day before we had official forums, albeit Guru grew more popular closer to release as GWO declined in popularity.

Nevertheless, I would encourage you to use the Guru archives over my Central Archives. While the latter were the beginnings of the project, my interest waned and I failed to both properly reorganize them and thoroughly update them. Although it should be noted, with the decline of activity on GWO, there honestly wasn’t much to update to begin with.

John.1728:

Konig, what are you doing? Just stop. You have more than made your point.

Right? It’s the horrible return of quote wars, this time expanded to…Multiple posts! No forum or thread should have to suffer such horrific events. (To be clear: not sarcasm. Those things are an eyesore, and I’m not interested in the justifications behind it.)

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Levetty.1279:

Why should I as a human noble care about the pirates who are squatting on the mass grave of the old capitol of my country?

Personally, I still want Ascalon back. Without the creepy crazy king, if at all possible. Can we have a LS where we return the bones of Prince Rurik properly to Rin, only for the Black Citadel to get instantly vaporized by an asura gate explosion?

You really should go ahead and take it. I’m surprised the charr haven’t realized it by now, but the blasted plains are cursed to no end. First the Searing, then the Foefire, and now the Dragonbrand. Sheesh, if I were charr, I’d let you have it until the Branded took care of you for me…If that were a surefire solution, anyway.