Guild Wars 2

I moved my GW2 folder to my new SSD and tried to launch.

Received an error of missing DLL because I hadn’t installed Direct X on this SSD. I fixed this issue, but then a new error caused a crash.

The crash occurs when trying to start the launcher, before even arriving at the login prompt.

Scrolling all the way down in the details, I get the following error logs:

—> Error Logs <—
Failed to open GFE XML: 2
Failed to create THIRDPARTYSOFTWAREREADME.txt(4)

I’ve seen multiple threads stating that GW2 migration should be a simple cut/paste, so I’m not sure why this is an issue. Any help is appreciated, thanks!

Zaxares.5419:

My only fear is that these Mastery points are limited in such a way that we have to choose between either being more potent in battle, or getting deeper looks at lore. I don’t think ANet will go down this path, but you never know.

There’s some design space for both. Language mastery can be simply a tool for lore-focused players to gather more information about the world, but it can also be so much more.

Imagine a massive group encounter fighting alongside allied ‘foreign’ NPCs. These NPCs call out directions (verbal telegraphs) that only language-empowered players can understand, which they can then translate for the other players, empowering the group as a whole.

I think there is a ton of room to make language mastery useful in a variety of contexts.

I usually have my master volume all the way off. For the first time in about 2 months, I wanted to turn the sound up. When I did, nothing happened. Any thoughts as to why this is? Audio works correctly for other programs, etc.

Thanks

Release pages for Season 1 Living World from Twilight Assault or older seem to be loading strangely. It seems to be a mix of formatting issues and occasional broken images.

I absolutely love this! I see that sales are off the table. However, maybe you could post the primary document that you used to produce the work (if such a document exists) for us to admire

Thanks for articulating your thoughts clearly.

I think the issue is that you’re interpreting each episode’s timeframe as essentially day-for-day. But in reality, with ‘shows’ like this (think Law & Order, or Game of Thrones), a single episode can span a few hours or a few days/weeks. Because of this, two sequential episodes could add up to a single day, or a few days, or a month. Ultimately, as long as a year’s worth of events feels reasonable for a year, then it essentially works.

Ultimately, I think your interpretation is a bit more granular than what the devs intended. They design it to be more flexible, as we often see in TV shows.

In Episode 1 (Cornered), you can use the crystals during the last fight and reach the Master of Peace on the ledge. If you interact with him, he says something like “May Melandru guide you” (something like that).

This seemed a little strange/specific to me. Do you think this has any significance for the future? Why Melandru over any other god (why mention a god at all)?

versidia.4520:

I didn’t know about this:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/lore/lore/Breachmaker/first#post4262653
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/lore/lore/The-most-mysterious-drawing-in-Scarlet-s-Lair
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/lore/lore/The-most-mysterious-drawing-in-Scarlet-s-Lair/first#post3540863

Yeah, I was really deep in speculation mode when I drew that diagram. I don’t think it works the way I wanted it to. As well, that was before we has confirmation that the steam creatures were Scarlet’s creation. The theories behind that diagram hinged on steam creatures being an unintentional side effect of her invasions (which doesn’t seem to be the case now).

Vexander.9850:

Stooperdale.3560:

After we saw mordrem at Concordia our character asked why the mordrem were there, and there was a plausible reason. After we saw mordrem at Salma our character asked why the mordrem were there, and there was a plausible reason. So why are the mordrem in the Iron Marches and why has our character stopped asking the question?

The Mordrem are following the Leylines and seeking out sources of magic. The Brand is probably a major source of magic for Mordremoth. Seems fairly straightforward.

Also, there was a caravan carrying magical artifacts (again).

This video has some good information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctpT-z5FTmM

It talks about the Lornarr from the fractals, but you get a lot of info on Lornar (’s Pass) as well.

The path linking the Dry Top hub and COE/Crystal Desert is interesting. Consider the Dry Top hub and the ways that the leyline magic levitates the rocks in the immediate area. Then consider other places in Maguuma/Tarnished Coast where rocks are floating (Goemm’s Lab, Morgan’s Spiral). The path on your map between COE and the leyline hub passes directly through these locations.

versidia.4520:

Here is another video from the one who gave me the idea for the thread:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dH8gIRF6HQ4
The previous video is linked in the first post.

It seems that his second ley line matches the vines.

Hey, thanks for posting my videos. I’m glad they made an impression on some people. I’ve been thinking about it lately, as well. I think I had some decent ideas, but it remains to be seen exactly how leylines can affect the overlying earth.

One of the primary arguments that I used to support those paths (imgur link here: http://imgur.com/a/Ncu12) is the idea of realm-breaching. With the blinking in/out at Thaumanova/Chaos Crystal Cavern/Toxal Bog, I argued that the leylines might facilitate the traversing of space, including cross-realm travel. I highlight Aurora’s Remains, the Shadow Behemoth, etc. in the video. I purposely left out Ascalonian ghosts, thinking that there’s just no way that they could be involved in this cross realm breaching — Ascalon is just too big. But now with the Dragon’s Reach trailer showing Rytlock and talking about ghosts, I’m wondering if there really is something special there. Still just speculation until tomorrow

Make your voice heard! Tracking player opinions throughout Season 2. More participants = more impact! Chance to win 50g for each survey throughout season 2.

Fill out survey for a chance to win 50g!

Hi folks,

We as players have a lot of opinions about Guild Wars 2, both positive and negative. One of the most effective ways to legitimize and convey these opinions to Arenanet (and the GW2 community at large) is to survey a lot of players, and look at what sort of patterns and relationships are in the data.

I know that surveys are occasionally posted here, but the key difference with this project is that I am tracking players’ opinions across the entire season, during each episode. This gives the survey a lot of power, as we can rule out issues that emerge when surveying different people each time.

Each episode patch will have its own qualities based on Arenanet’s design decisions. With a large sample of players submitting their opinions for each episode, we can correlate the experience of players to specific aspects of the content. Uncovering these relationships will lend credence to (or possibly refute) the more anecdotal perspectives typically expressed on Reddit and the forums.

The link posted here is for the pre-season survey to get a sense of how you play GW2. Then during season 2, you will be invited to come back and answer a brief survey about the most recent content patch.

Each survey you participate in will enter you into a drawing for 50 gold! So, for each episode of season 2, you could win 50g. And all it takes is filling out a very short survey every ~2 weeks!

If you have any questions, I’m happy to answer them here, or through PM. You can also email me at GW2stat@gmail.com

Fill out survey for a chance to win 50g!

Harper.4173:

Who exactly is stopping you from forming your own " no stacking " party and going at the content that way?
Nobody.

Listen to yourself.

Sorry, I don’t mean to hijack the thread, but since we’re requesting hairstyles —

I was really excited when I saw that some races got ‘wrapped’ styles with leather/cloth straps in the hair. I would love to see a style like that for human females. I love the idea of a rugged war veteran look. I have the eye patch, and I think the wrapped hair styles would fit really well.

oops, sorry folks. I incorrectly said lich form. Thanks, you answered my question!

This is an extremely simple question, but I couldn’t find the answer anywhere.

What happens when you’re in Lich Form Death Shroud mode and your Life Force reaches zero? Do you go back to the health you were at when you initiated? Or back to some percentage of max health?

Thanks in advance!

Aside from some of the more obvious stuff, more information about druids and their past. More info about what happened to them, and if there are any ties to the current world.

Jelle.4623:

Is that ambient dialogue or dialogue that shows up just after the event?
Because when I talk to her she says no such thing

I’m not sure, but it may be based on which Order you belong to.

Warlord.9074:

Really I think Scarlet is Omads puppet. And Omad is controlling her. That seems more plausible. Cuz my Asura opened up a clue that said that he cheated in the contests that we were in together. As part of my own personal story i got a different clue than everyone else. He used his device to break into her head.

(But he’s dead)

CureForLiving.5360:

Yeah I’m constantly afraid they’ll pull the ‘no she was really good all along’ card. That’s just a twist for the sake of a twist, and at times can require plain retcon.

Well, they’ve already kind of shown that. She was influenced/corrupted/possessed and converted into Scarlet. We do have in-game evidence that she still has some ‘good’ aspects to her.

But I doubt they’re just going to flip her into good in the end. We’ll probably see a flash of Ceara just before Scarlet dies.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/lore/lore/sylvari-servants-of-Mordremoth/first

The instance where you review each of Scarlet’s artifacts has been one of the most enjoyable and fulfilling pieces of lore content that we’ve had in a while (IMO). I would absolutely love to play through it again to really get more of those details.

Please consider making it repeatable!

I think that most people would prefer not to be required to WvW in any way just for map completion. However, a nice compromise, IMO, would be to have small achievements tied to certain things.

For example, if you reach the top of the Overgrown section, you get an achievement. It still contributes to the sense of being rewarded for exploration, but now a huge part of getting a legendary isn’t tied to it.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/lore/lore/Another-lesbian-relationship/first

I recently looked up the meanings for the names Ceara and Scarlet. I know that most people consider Ceara to translate to “Black.” But here’s some additional information:

Ceara — The name Ceara is a Gaelic baby name. In Gaelic the meaning of the name Ceara is: Spear.

People with this name have a deep inner need for quiet, and a desire to understand and analyze the world they live in, and to learn the deeper truths.

People with this name tend to initiate events, to be leaders rather than followers, with powerful personalities. They tend to be focused on specific goals, experience a wealth of creative new ideas, and have the ability to implement these ideas with efficiency and determination. They tend to be courageous and sometimes aggressive. As unique, creative individuals, they tend to resent authority, and are sometimes stubborn, proud, and impatient.

(Sounds familiar, no?)

source: http://www.sheknows.com/baby-names/name/ceara
===
From this same site, the meaning of Scarlet:

The name Scarlet is an English baby name. In English the meaning of the name Scarlet is: Red.

People with this name have a deep inner desire for a stable, loving family or community, and a need to work with others and to be appreciated.
for harmony and balance in their lives, and respond positively to beautiful things.
===

I’m not sure how the Scarlet meaning ties into our Scarlet, if at all.

Anyways, just wanted to share.

yeah, for a full set, it’s something like a 3-5g total ‘start-up cost’ to get the inscription recipe and each piece’s recipe.

Then each piece needs one Watchwork mechanism (?) that is made of 500 of the watchwork cogs.

If you buy that straight up it’s ~1.75g each for those.

I think it’s a really neat idea. I’m have mixed feelings about it, mainly because we simply haven’t heard anything remotely close to this in over a year, and it’s going to feel very rushed if they have to introduce AND wrap it up in 2 months.

Jaken.6801:

FlamingFoxx.1305:

I think that kind of decision is taking it too far. You end up with too many real world-like ethical questions…

People don’t want to think about the fact that if the game were real then all those evil NPC’s and random monster/animals that they’ve been killing have friends and family and had childhoods and dreams and aspirations and were victims of circumstance etc. etc. etc.

Basically I sincerely hope Arenanet doesn’t open up that kettle of fish. Kill her or don’t kill her, but whatever you do don’t put the decision in players hands.

This is a pretty good point.
Leaving the story on a cliffhanger like this for a week, just to find out that the majority of players would have just killed her off, eventually dooming Tyria, because their assessment of the whole situation was wrong and they let their emotion take is certainly a difficult thing wo work with.

Though i as going for exactly that direction as i posed the question. While on one hand it would be interesting to see how the majority of the players take the whole story, as it would have mostly played out at this point, and would allow them to personaly “close the chapter on Scarlet”, the real life implications you are bringing up are there.

While they a dark, these could be the things we wanted, as we talked about that our “actions” schould have consequences.
At this point in the story every player should have all information he needs to make a decision. Live with the crazy person to fight another day, or put an end to her ways and find your own solutions.

Sure, the real world is there somehow, but how many other “stories” are trying to show the “humanity” of people. That there is a reason they went that way, but just went overboard.
This is a topic that reaches back to the old myths, because in the end “everyone gets what he deserved”.

While this is a game, it still evokes emotions and desires.
On the other hand, this is PG and we would be no hero if we just kill off someone like this. even if the person deserved it.
The game is a “hero” simulator. It is leaning more to the “clean” side of things.
In the end my question was mostly hypothetical and based on the problem the LS had so far: The way it was delivered and how the average joe takes to the antagonist.

In the personal story, you make quite a few decisions like this. Where you have to save one group and let the other die. It’s handled quite lightly (which is something that I found very annoying), but it’s there.

In Scarlet’s current state, I would kill her.

But I think it would be interesting to see players’ reactions if this entity’s influence was somehow purged from Scarlet, and leaving us with the original Ceara (or something like that). Or if we started seeing explicit signs of ‘Ceara’ while Scarlet is dying. I think that would be amazing — if we decide to kill her, and her innocent side (if such a thing still exists) calls out for mercy.

Xukavi.4320:

MatthewMedina.5419:

It was definitely part of the Nightmare Tower team’s plan that we would return to that map and show the progression of the cleanup efforts. I can’t say what the timetable is for that, as it’s mostly an environment art task, but I’ll try my best to keep it in the discussion when we’re talking about future content releases. :-)

That’s good to hear. Maybe something like showing the progress as some stuff gets rebuilt in the time between the living story season 1 and 2, where at the start of season 2 (or some time during it) the zone gets somewhat rebuilt. It could even happen over multiple phases, so first update will show that they’re starting to rebuild (could even be through some events where players help NPCs gather items or rebuild some stuff). Second phase could show some parts completed in a different patch and the NPCs moving to a new part to rebuild.

It would be cool to see Charr/Asura team up to produce a water purification system. And then there could be renown hearts or DEs that revolve around protecting/maintaining the system. I think there’s something similar to this in Ascalon.

The point is that we are trying to keep the water clean for the new huge Quaggan city! Anet please.

Sorry, but I genuinely don’t understand the point of this post or what you’re trying to discuss.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Jaken.6801:

While Scarlet is seeing doom and destruction, humanity suddenly starts to celebrate.
This might have annoyed her, since she is seeing the destruction at the horizon and taking it easy, even with Zaithans defeat (if PS is to be included), is not what the world should do.

So she attacks, shows how dangerous she is and begins her silly invasions (which under these aspects start to make sense).
She basicly got everyone in red alert with this action.

Issue with your theory is here. We’ve already got confirmation that Scarlet attacked the Jubilee on a whim because of Jennah’s own speech about being tested. Basically, Scarlet went “you were tested? Oh, well, not by me you haven’t! -attacks-”

TBH though, I don’t like nor believe the whole “anti-hero trying to fight a great evil” theory of Scarlet. It would just diminish her character. I would much prefer an “anti-villain who’s out to ‘save’ her race by removing the Dream and Nightmare” or something of the like. Something more interesting than “I’m evil because!” but not something that would turn her into a ‘good guy’ because… she isn’t. She just isn’t.

Psynch.4087:

The Priory Scholar Ela (in the L.A. recap instance) makes a big deal about Scarlet collecting alliances that compose the 4 major elements related to elementalists. I haven’t heard anyone try to tie this aspect into their frameworks.

How does this fit in?

Ela spouts out a bunch of player theories as Priory scholar’s theories while recapping Scarlet’s actions. I wouldn’t put weight onto anything new she says, truth be told. I mean, what does the dredge in their technology really have to do with earth? Flame Legion have fire magic. Aetherblades use air magitech. Toxic Alliance use water and plant magic. Dredge? They’re just living underground. It seems too far fetched to be a plot element, no pun intended, but perfect as just another player theory put in-game.

But if the elements did have something to do with things, then I’d imagine that it revolves around being power sources. Fire, lightning, water… these are all capable of being used as power. Earth? Materials – ores. That’s my guess.

Now here’s something that really has been forgotten:

Azurite. Does it play into things? It was introduced as a newly discovered mineral that must be melted down to be harvested but is highly magically conductive once done so.

Given the similarities between the azurite caverns in F&F and the chaos crystal caverns, I considered that they might have similar properties. Of course, there’s nothing explicit that hints at this. But given Scarlet’s massive portals and the frequency of these invasions, the tech behind that needs a lot of crystals for tuning (if we assume that she’s utilizing the same portal fundamentals as asuran tech).

This would also account for the huge magic reserves that she has for much of her other activities like the marionette going on right now.

Well, the big question is why the collection of elements is important.

To me, it makes Scarlet seem less tied to a particular dragon. Based on what we know about dragon preferences (Primordus = rock/fire, etc), it wouldn’t make sense for someone to be under the influence of a dragon if they spend their time collecting and refining other elements.

That’s the part I’m trying to reconcile.

BrunoBRS.5178:

^ i don’t think anyone has a good idea about it. TBH, it sounded a bit silly to me.

I agree, but this is probably the most direct information that we have about the story so far and where it might go. This NPC was basically built to give players a sense of direction in terms of the storyline. To blatantly and explicitly point the elements out that way makes me think that it’s very important.

The Priory Scholar Ela (in the L.A. recap instance) makes a big deal about Scarlet collecting alliances that compose the 4 major elements related to elementalists. I haven’t heard anyone try to tie this aspect into their frameworks.

How does this fit in?

These players get an instant report + block from me.

Suggesting that people look at guides is okay. But abusing players for not being familiar with the fight is completely unacceptable, especially when it’s been around for less than a week.

BrunoBRS.5178:

i think it’s reasonable to speculate that one of her objectives is to reshape the world to her image. create her own systems distort existing ones, and so on. i mean, that’s what the short story makes her plan sound like.

but… anything beyond that is speculating on top of speculation, and that’s not productive

That’s an interesting point. I’m reminded of the Pale Tree’s quote: “she has confused knowledge, power, and authority so completely that, in her mind, they are indistinguishable.”

It’s not articulated perfectly, but it makes me think (based on your point) that Scarlet thinks she’s in charge of the changes, and is in control of all of this, when in reality, she’s under the control of someone else.

I’m curious as to your thoughts on this interpretation.

Steam creatures are incidental to Scarlet’s invasions. Scarlet has special, high-concentration portal magic. When she unleashed high a high dose of portal magic on a zone, she unleashes her clockwork beasts, and in doing so, occasionally breaches our reality with an alternative (as we saw with the infinity ball).

Given the massive amounts of magic necessary to deploy the marionette, I too am a bit surprised now that you mention it. This probably should have elicited some version of steam creatures.

First, I’ll just say that I really enjoyed the music for the big battle. Very cool.

One thing I’d like to leave some feedback about is the transitioning of tracks in the Lion’s Arch instance where we catch up with our NPC friends.

In this instance, the music goes from intense fighting to tranquil/sad. There were times when each was appropriate, but they occasionally missed the mark depending on the conversation at the time.

For example, I was listening to the Kasmeer/Jory exchange, and there was some kind of fight music happening. It was pretty immersion-breaking. It may have been a leftover from the Rox/Braham exchange? I’m not sure.

Just wanted to bring that up as something to keep an eye (ear) out for.

Thanks for the great work, it is appreciated!

i was trying for a while as well! I tossed it out after seeing that even the simple symbols account for 20+ of the total. I didn’t consider collapsing across orientation; but I immediately thing of W/M as the counter to that idea.

On top of the overwhelming variety of symbols, each line contains all unique characters. None of the symbols repeat in a given line.

And the lines don’t produce a longer passage. Each line would have to be its own message. We see this if we compare the two sides of the screen; the lines don’t always show up in the same order.

I think it might be an arbitrary collection. This is definitely something that I’m going to ask during the recap livestream after this season is over.

BrunoBRS.5178:

i really wish people would stop saying “leylines” every time something happens. it’s like nothing can be done without people assuming it’s tied to leylines.

First of all — the leylines are a HUGE part of the lore of Tyria, and are likely going to be the focus of a most of our future content releases, given their relationship to dragons.

we don’t even know if it’s like a physical thing like a riverbed.

I didn’t say anything like this, so…? We do know that their network is formed by channels; whether that takes on a physical form is not important here.

and of course the X will intersect thaumanova if you make it so it intersects at thaumanova. what’s to say that the X isn’t actually a bit further down, or you got it upside down?

Yes, of course the X on that diagram could mean anything if we don’t assume anything about the diagram. I’m saying that IF this diagram represents the leylines, then the X HAS to be the thaumanova reactor. This diagram is posted all over Scarlet’s lair and they’re all in this orientation.

So many good things about this instance, as others have said.

I think these are the paths of the leylines in Tyria (although likely not drawn to scale).

The ‘X’ on the left has me thinking about the Thaumanova reactor being at the intersection of leylines. In the past, I’ve described ‘otherworldly’ events as being indicators of potential leyline activity. The idea is that leylines prime the area with magic; then when portal magic is used in those locations, we get a full breach into an alternate reality (underworld, steam, etc). So then these portals (and other similar events) should give us a sense of the leylines.

To that end, I’ve been recording the locations of steam creatures during Scarlet’s invasions. Their locations are not random (i.e. when they appear, it’s always in the same spots). They are also likely not meaningless, since ALL of their locations in Lornar’s Pass immediately surround the area of their ‘core’ portal.

First, I want to be clear — I am not connecting the steam creatures to Scarlet’s plan or anything like that. The steam creatures are simply an event that marks the breaching of our reality’s fabric. The steam creatures could have been an underworld portal, or something similar. These events are incidental to the invasions.

When I saw this diagram in Scarlet’s lair, I immediately thought of these steam creature locations, so I roughly reconstructed it to see if it could account for these breaches in reality (attached). Of course, I took some liberties in the scaling of the lines, since I really don’t expect her diagrams to be the appropriate scale.

This diagram (in the way that reconstructed it) accounts for essentially all of the steam locations, except for a couple.

ThiBash.5634:

Psynch.4087:

The portrait is of Omadd, Scarlet’s former mentor.

Then why does he wear Priory armor?

No idea, we don’t know much about him. He was the former headmaster of the college of synergetics. I would assume that he would be dressed in Asuran cultural armor, but being that he was a scholar, he might have been a member of the priory as well…?

ThiBash.5634:

There’s also a torn up portrait of Gixx in there, with 2 knives in the area where the eyes would be. Also, those documents with the notes on it are spiralling into a black center.

This may be farfetched but it somehow reminded me of Kormir…no eyes, secrets…and with the 2 fractal options (which would then both fit the living story)…what if this DOES have something to do with Kormir (and in extension, what happened to the human gods)?

The portrait is of Omadd, Scarlet’s former mentor.

I’ve been thinking about this combination as well. I’m just not sure at all how or why Scarlet is bringing those specific ones out.

Okhu.7948:

My theory is she’s tapping into the magical leylines to gather magical power to attract a dragon and get rid of its constant whispering in her head. My guess plant dragon, we’ll head to Meguuma wastes to confront it. Why Meguuma wastes? there have been bandits in Brisband working on a bridge leading there for a while now.

But in her journal she says she’s comfortable with it. So, it doesn’t seem like the purpose is to destroy it. Rather, it seems to have complete control over her, and she’s fine with it.

Here’s her map overlaid onto a full map of Tyria. (Don’t mind the other markings, I was looking at other things)

A bit of speculation — those arrows are all coming from locations (or supposed locations) of the remaining elder dragons. This is obviously a stretch.

Kralk in the crystal desert. Jormag in the Shiverpeaks. Primordus in the Maguuma Wastes, northwest of DR (speculated by many). And possibly Mordremoth in the Tarnished Coast.

Okay, a serious answer —

She is actually extremely savvy and persuasive. She can convince individuals and factions into helping her because she appeals to their own desires and desperation. For everyone else, she simply uses intimidation. We know both of these points to be true from in-game dialogue and the supplemental stories. Her money and resources come from the factions that she has convinced (or coerced) into helping her.

In terms of raw power for her devices, she has intimate knowledge of the Thaumanova reactor. The reactor is powered by refined chaos crystals from the chaos crystal cavern. The Molten Facility in Flame and Frost had us raiding a similar cavern between Wayfarer Foothills and Diessa Plateau. This Molten cavern had loads and loads of azurite crystals, which she could then use to supply immense amounts of power to her devices.

Put all these things together and you account for all of her resources.

cheshirefox.7026:

actively looking for scarlet’s lair

This pic is in the Straits of Devastation in the Bramble Pass region: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bramble_Pass

Hug the wall to the right of the zone-out and you’ll pass through some brush into a little cave. This has been here since launch and marks the sealed off location of the Bloodstone Caves (which housed a bloodstone in GW1).

We don’t know if the bloodstone is still there, but there’s nothing that indicates otherwise.