Showing Posts For Stramatus.5219:

2-3 months between LS3 Chapters

in Living World

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

Wow? 2-3 months between chapters? I mean what kind of content are we looking at for each chapter here?

It seems like all ANET does is push PvP trying to do eSports and tournaments, etc. all the time, and EVERYTHING seems to always take a back seat to it. Sick of it.

If true, this is majorly disappointing and this is why this game is 3 years old, woops I’m sorry, 4 years old and feels like it’s progressing at a molasses pace compared to GW1.

Honestly was hyped for Season 3, but if true, this is majorly disappointing and now not sure I care anymore. This once glorious franchise just has gone down the tube in my mind.

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

Did HoT ruin GW2?

in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

I found HoT to be a ton of fun, and overall enjoyed it. But at the same time, it left a really bad taste in my mouth for a few reasons.

1. After 3 long years of ANET experimenting with releasing content, it was half an expansion at best for $50. Considering GW2 was 3 years old at the time it released, it felt to me like it didn’t have the same sort of scope a GW1 campaign/expansion would have had and to me that was a huge disappointment. 3 years in Tyria and only 4 new PvE maps, plus some raids and guild halls (which should have existed from the beginning, but I digress) just didn’t feel like what I would be used to in an actual expansion.

2. Story – Let’s be honest here, the story was incredibly rushed through with HoT with hardly any chance to go into detail about many of the things we should have gone into. One of my biggest complaints on this front was after Season 2 we saw the bandits retreat into the jungle, and then….nothing in HoT (raids aside). I’m not in a position to be able to raid, so that’s content I’m unlikely to see. At least it looks like they are addressing the White Mantle/bandits in Season 3. What about how Rytlock became a revenant? Caithe? A broader more in depth story like, again, what I would have expected out of a GW1 campaign would have been welcome. But yeah, the scope of the story felt like a living story season then akin to an actual expansion. Season 1 with Scarlett and then Season 2 spent 3 long years setting up Mordremoth and then HoT released and the story was a blip.

3. Grind – Since GW1, ANET’s supposed mission was to eliminate grind. Since Nightfall, I’d say they’ve pretty much failed at that. HoT was a grindfest.

4. Promised Content that never came – You all know what I am talking about here. ANET promised things as part of the expansion and indeed a selling point of the expansion, though “it will come later”, and then of course they later said “never mind, too hard”.

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

(edited by Stramatus.5219)

ArenaNet dying from inside??

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

As a software build and release engineer that has worked in both small and gigantic enterprise environments, some of those technically aimed Glassdoor reviews hit very close to home with my own experience of leaving a very (needlessly) chaotic, always on the verge of a crisis, lack of good direction, scope, any release planning that was actually feasible, resources type environment/company to save my mental health and personal life. The kind of place that drives you into the ground causing burnout and wants you to still be a happy little yes-man drone/robot.

Honestly, I find this very telling. Many reviews echo my own experience with that type of work environment.

Hmm…guess these reviews struck a nerve lol.

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

(edited by Stramatus.5219)

S3, Expansion 2, and Your Idea for both

in Living World

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

LS3 will deal with the Mursaat. It will be revealed that the Asura were a slave race of the Mursaat.

Mursaat

Rata Sum

1000% confirmed theory.1

Seeing The White Mantle showing up, them and the Mursaat and the Isle of Janthir would be fun.

If….some kitten questions are finally answered like the Scepter of Orr, etc.

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

If you could have a custom title...

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

Legendary Defender of Ascalon

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

Untradable weapon skins

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

@Sarah

I get what you are trying to say, but you have to understand how this is as a player.

I never get anything good out of black lion chests. Ever. For years. I’m absolutely done trying, and I sure as hell am not wasting anymore money to gamble for more useless merchant summoners.

I know people that always get something good when they open black lion chests.

The RNG game is crazy.

But now you have effectively reduced people’s options for getting these items. In the past, I could go ahead and buy a weapon off the Trading Post, or friends that have amazing RNG might offer to get me a weapon with a ticket. The point was that those were the options you had. You HAD options.

Now you have taken that away and the ONLY way to get this so called “special” set is through gambling with the RNG game that has NEVER gotten me anything worth the money paid.

There’s no reason to make this set special except for ANET to hope more people begrudgingly buy keys with real money and try the RNG game to get one. There is NOTHING special about this set.

GG – done with real money on the gemstore if this is how ANET is going to operate. If I want to gamble and lose with my money, I’ll go to a casino. And I don’t like casinos.

Buying something like a glider is one thing. Buying a chance at a weapon is something else entirely, and NOT ok with all other options to get it now removed. With my RNG luck, it’d be $50+ before I got a ticket or enough scraps for it. This is just plain unethical.

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

(edited by Stramatus.5219)

Biggest fear of next expansion?

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

My biggest fear is that they will charge as much as they did with HoT for yet another half an expansion, then wait a year for living story which will then take a multi month break between episodes 4 and 5 like S2 did, and then continually slog on in this slow pace.

My fear is completely unresolved plots, new plots that don’t go anywhere, or worse yet, “that was episode 8, or expansion 2, find out what happens………next year!”. This isn’t a kitten TV show, I’m sick of it.

I’m sorry, but 1/2 an expansion after the game turned 3 years old was ridiculous. I don’t want another.

Guess my GW1 is showing. GW2 has driven this once great franchise into the ground.

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

SAB is back! [Merged]

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

Considering its a single portal in Rata Sum, it never made sense to me why it wasn’t permanent content, with the new bits to it being new levels.

Honestly, with the drought of content, it would be foolish to not leave it in place.

Not to mention the Infinite Restart Coin….Milking the $$$ for people that bought that and then had to wait several years to use it again.

I think the content drought is ending.

I sincerely hope so.

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

SAB is back! [Merged]

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

If they made SAB permanent Anet would probably have to spend some time adjusting the rewards again to not make it a total skin farm that most complete in a month or two. I’d rather Anet focus more on LS3 and improving the expansion they sold. I think SAB fans are a highly vocal minority and it would be a waste of developers resources to accommodate that.

Yeah, there’s something to be said for that aspect of it too, for sure.

But still, world 1 and 2 have existed for years. I really don’t know how that takes away development resources???

Whether you leave them permanent or not makes no impact on development resources. If it turn into a Festival with new content every year, then that is where the development goes. Existing content already exists…Why take it away? It’s a game within a game like the other mini games that exist in the game. Granted bigger, but its more that then it is a festival.

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

(edited by Stramatus.5219)

SAB is back! [Merged]

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

Considering its a single portal in Rata Sum, it never made sense to me why it wasn’t permanent content, with the new bits to it being new levels.

Honestly, with the drought of content, it would be foolish to not leave it in place.

Not to mention the Infinite Restart Coin….Milking the $$$ for people that bought that and then had to wait several years to use it again.

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

Upcoming changes in Spring Quarterly Update

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

Why not do the borderland maps on a rotation? I agree that for balance and fairness reasons, all 3 servers need the same maps, but I don’t see why you have to scrap them entirely (to be fair, I’ve not played the desert maps much since they came out to know what the problems are). I mostly finished the HOT story (full expansion my butt) and then got bored. But definitely fond memories of the alpine maps.

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

Upcoming changes in Spring Quarterly Update

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

So basically no new content of any measure? Cool.

It’s funny how ANET said they couldn’t manage GW1 the way it was (so they made GW2). Pretty evident that GW2 is far worse on that front.

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

Liked the ready up, name still doesn't fit.

in Guardian

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

I liked what I saw for the new skills, weapon, and virtue changes.

But the name “Dragonhunter” just doesn’t at all fit the heart of what a Guardian is. And if its supposed to be a high concept name, that almost seems like a joke.

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

"DragonHunter" name feedback [merged]

in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

I have to say. I liked what I saw for the skills and the virtues.

But I just hate this name “Dragonhunter”. I’ve pretty much played my Guardian exclusively since the game came out. The name “Dragonhunter” just feels wrong and doesn’t fit at all. I heard ANET’s explanation of the name, but it just doesn’t feel like a Guardian with a name like that.

I guess in the end, what’s in a name? But I still wish they would have picked something truer to the heart of the profession.

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

Guardian --> Paragon <3

in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

Never played a Paragon much in GW1. But I always liked the concept of the class.

As a Guardian main, I am really intrigued by this image they released. Looking forward to seeing them detail it out.

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

New Race

in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

Why the need for a new race really?

From a story perspective, they’ve only really focused on Sylvari so far and we still have Norn, and Asura. Not to mention there’s a lot to do on the Human and Charr front.

A new playable race is unnecessary.

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

This Beta Portal is a freaking sham....

in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

Eh…its a little frustrating when certain people I know got more than 1. Others have farmed the heck out of Silverwastes and gotten nothing.

Its frustrating, but really what can they do about that?

That is the nature of RNG. I think it would have been better to just have it drop around randomly in the whole world instead of limiting it to the two maps. As it is I am now completely sick of the Silverwastes. Oh and still no date for expansion? Terrific…

It was a good idea for beta drops, but way to suck the life out of a couple of fun maps for people who by nature don’t grind farm.

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

(edited by Stramatus.5219)

Why not just call us "Commander"?

in Living World

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

I think it might be confusing to call someone “Commander” when there is the Commander rank in the game. It seems that the team chose more generic terms to avoid confusion with actual game-achieved attainments.

Living Story and WvW…

I don’t see how the two would cross and remotely cause this kind of confusion?

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

New tone in Heart of Thorns

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

Looks like they’re adding racial tension. Hope that’s dark enough…

My Ascalonian Human say hello to you Charr and Charr loving ANET.

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

[SPOILERS] Season 2 Finale [merged]

in Living World

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this update and it set up for what is to come quite perfectly. Not to mention a lot of implications lore/race wise in not jsut the story, but the very well done ending cinematics as well.

I feel like my idea that Living World would be a bridge between Personal Story and the next big expansion or expansion-esque release seems almost validated at this point. My only complaint is the 2 1/2 years for that bridge to be formed.

Frankly I have not been this positively excited since before this game released.

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

How satisfied are you with GW2 progress?

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

Frankly I’m not satisfied.

My biggest gripe is that Living Story has progressed, in terms of content release and story, at such a molasses pace versus GW1, that for at least myself as a GW1 veteran, its agonizing. Like watching a plant grow.

Combine that with the fact that we never really knew ANET’s plans for the future in the 2 1/2 years since the game released and that they largely kept experimenting with content releases and content delivery, it feels like the base game hasn’t progressed all the much. Don’t get me wrong, things have been added, but for a 2 1/2 year old game, we really ought to be a lot further along than we are.

In light of the new speculation around PAX and the leaked trademark, I am really hoping we have major expansion level changes, additions, content, etc. incoming. This game desperately needs it.

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

Your personal favorite & least favorite class

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

Favorite: Guardian

I found the guardian from both a lore and mechanic perspective to fit my style of roleplay as well as gameplay almost perfectly. Traditionally, I’ve always enjoyed Paladin type classes in MMO’s, and the guardian is the closest thing to that.

Least Favorite: Elementalist

I just don’t go for caster classes in MMO’s for the most part. EverQuest was probably the one exception to that, but in both GW1 and GW2, casters just never really fit my playstyle and I never really enjoyed them. I can tolerate playing a necro and mesmer here and there, but just didn’t like the ele whatsoever.

Most Disappointing: Warrior

Coming from 6 years as a warrior main in GW1 (and easily my favorite profession from GW1), I found the GW2 warrior to be drastically different and disappointing to play by comparison and could not get into it.

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

The point of Season 2?

in Lore

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

Have to say that in light of more recent events/news, I more cautiously optimistic about the direction of this game than I have been in a long time.

Hoping my idea that Living Story would serve as the “in-between”, bridge content between major releases is validated.

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

The Dumbing Down of Human Cultures in GW2

in Lore

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

Edit: So apparently the “Human” section is now just an archive you can’t post anything new in there anymore. Who’s bright idea was that? =\

Anyway…

So this is something that has irked me for quite a while now since the game released as a primarily 99% of the time human player and GW1 veteran. And I really am having a hard time coming to terms with this at the moment, more so now then before.

There is a particular personal story instance within the “Missing Sister” plotline where Logan asks if you are Ascalonian (and proud of it), Krytan (save the queen blah blah), Canthan, or Elonian. As a GW1 veteran and someone who has made my main characters descendants of my GW1 main character, I am naturally an Ascalonian and chose that path.

And that is the last time the game gives me any choice into defining who I am as a human. Or lends any credence to the choice in gameplay or development of the player character.

The rest of the game, I am treated as a Krytan, my dialogue makes me sound like a Krytan, and I really have no choice in the matter. In fact, the richness, and diversity that existed within the human cultures from GW1 just seems so ridiculously dumbed down and absent in GW2. We have been replaced with a generic human culture that is supposedly “all human cultures” in refuge in Kryta, but in reality we are some generic Human culture now labeled as Krytans no matter what.

As an Ascalonian character I differ from Krytans in many ways. I do not recognize the queen as the human authority in the same way that the game wants me to. I feel very differently about the Charr/Human conflict, Ebonhawke, the Separatists, Charr in general, Ascalon, etc. And you know what…it would be ok if the game started out and said all humans are Krytans. But that story instance and the choice I made says gave me the choice. It’s there. So where is the rest of it?

So the game let’s me say I’m an Ascalonian, but I sure as heck can’t play like one.

/end rant.

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

The point of Season 2?

in Lore

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

without significant evolution of the game and LS hardly evolves the world in a meaningful way.

This. Living Story as a content delivery system was a nice experiment, but in my mind a failed one as its much too slow in content updates, coupled with the fact that PvP, WvW, Features, Story and Holidays are all part of the same “Living” story release model and as such all these parts take breaks for each other and its quite irking as a player because we end up with all these long arbitrary breaks. Not only that, but with how Season 2 has progressed, compared to when it started, it feels aimless at this point with far too many sub-plot points that in some cases are filling entire episodes that while fun end up not really advancing anything in any meaningful way. Episode 7 feels like a prime example of this. That was fun to see flashbacks and get to understand Caithe’s past a bit better, but what did this do to advance the overall narrative and plot of Season 2? Nothing.

Frankly I am at a point where this game is now 2 1/2 years old and what do we really have to show for it in terms of story and world evolution? If Living Story was truly supposed to replace expansions, then it has failed. If an expansion is planned and in the works for next year, then ANET needs to say so soon. Otherwise it just feels like we are going nowhere slowly with nothing to show or tell me otherwise. At the end of 2013 we were told to fasten our seat belts too, and now I am having some of the same sort of frustrations I had then. Yes the story is remarkably better, but overall what have we gained in a year’s time and where are we going? Too slow, too aimless, too many subplots at this point for Living Story style to really deliver.

Edit:

No offense, but you (ArenaNet) has been effectively telling us this since Flame and Frost.

I’ve yet the need to “fasten my seat belt”. There’s been ups, but never nearly as grand as you (ArenaNet) make them out to be.

Sometimes I wonder if you (ArenaNet) are playing a different game from us (the players).

Frankly, I wholeheartedly agree with this.

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

(edited by Stramatus.5219)

Living Story on break again?

in Living World

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

Oh dear… LS2 chapter 8 is coming out next month…
Whatever will we do…
/sarcasm

You know, from the fevered rage that is plastered on these forums, I would have thought people would have /wanted/ the LS to stop. :p

My own jaded cynicism towards the internet aside… this all seems pretty simple to me.

Holidays take precedence. Living story chapters can happen at anytime, but one can not postpone Christmas.
As such, instead of pulling players in two directions with an annual event and a LS release, it was decided to postpone the LS release.

What part of that is so difficult for some people to understand?

Except that in the first time in GW history, Halloween was a carbon copy of last year with nothing new. I am expecting the same with Wintersday and we still have these ridiculous breaks. LS is a horrible content delivery system for story that should be made into a properly and fully developed expansion.

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

(edited by Stramatus.5219)

Has Living Story failed?

in Living World

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

Living Story can be a good thing between expension. Small story updates with some stuff in the gem store, it’s make the world living. But LS can’t replace an expension.

If the goal of LS was to replace it then LS has failed.

-1 here for Living Story. It just doesn’t satisfy in the same way that Factions or Nightfall did for GW1.

My feelings exactly.

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

(edited by Stramatus.5219)

Am I the only person who liked Seeds?

in Living World

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

I liked it, I just don’t feel like it advanced the overall story that much and now we have another break… =\

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

Is "Living Story" interesting?

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

I think for me, my biggest issue is with how content is delivered. Living Story has been a horrible content delivery system. Why do I say this?

I’ve enjoyed Season 2 so far, though some episodes are far and above better than others. Frankly I found episodes 6 and 7 to be pretty “meh” whereas episodes like 1, 4, and 5 were quite good and fun in my opinion.

So my biggest issue is this. I’m sick and tired of these long breaks in the middle of the season. The really long break between episodes 4 and 5, not to mention the shorter, but still long break between episodes 7 and 8. Its frustrating.

As a veteran GW1 and GW2 player, I get holiday updates and why they don’t do story updates during them. I totally get that. But this is the point where I’m continually wishing more and more for an expansion of larger and grander scale then these small updates every couple of weeks that they then take breaks for all the time to do WvW tournaments (which a lot of us would not even be interested in), PvP tournaments (same as WvW), and holiday events. If I play GW1, I could do Wintersday stuff and then when I am done, go back to playing a campaign. Now in GW2, I have nothing else to do but Wintersday stuff until the next episode releases.

I think I am at the point where I just don’t believe in the Living Story as a content delivery system anymore, not that I ever embraced it to begin with. For a 2 1/2 year old game, its too slow (because they are using it for everything, pve, pvp, features, wvw) and everything waits on everything else hence these long breaks between certain types of updates. I feel like we should be so much farther along then we are.

I get that development time is a point here. I’d argue that Episode 5, after the long 2-3 month break has been the best update in Season 2 so far with its story/lore richness and how it advanced how it setup the rest of the story and how it was going to progress. By comparison, episode 6 was extremely short and overall “meh” and the last episode was all flashbacks, but in my mind didn’t really advance the story that much and now we have to wait till January. At this point I’d rather just have ANET devote a good amount of time to develop a full on expansion to the same quality and richness of episode 5.

I don’t know. I have a love/hate relationship with GW2 at this point. Pretty much always have. I only have love for GW1…

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

Leveling was fun

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

I’ve given up on leveling my lower level alts since the September update. This level gated nonsense just ruined it for me and I get pretty upset while playing my alts pretty quickly.

All this crap in the name of “new players”. What? Do we need to remind them to breath too?

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

Expansion is coming!

in Living World

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

Or Rytlock met the human gods and was blinded.

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

New Narrative Director at ANet

in Living World

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Stramatus.5219

All I can say is Bravo. This is exactly what GW2 needed and needs to continue to do. Whereas the story in the game has alrgely been shallow and forgettable when compared to the legacy left behind in GW1, Season 2 and especially episode 5 live up to that legacy and add depth and a connection to the rich lore that previously did not exist in the 2 1/2 years GW2 has been live.

Thank you.

And +1 for an actual book UI.

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

Rytlock: My Journey Has Only Just Begun

in Living World

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Stramatus.5219

Kormir was actually blinded. One of Abaddon’s demons ate her eyes.

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

The amount of positivity for this patch

in Living World

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

Too be fair, a lot of the past negativity towards the story was well warranted. The personal story and living “story” season 1 (yes I quote story when referring to season 1), was shallow, felt disconnected from the GW universe as a whole and was a huge disappointment when compared to the legacy left behind by GW1.

Season 2 started to break that trend, and episode 5 raised the bar to a new level that is honoring the GW legacy in my mind.

There is a reason there is a lot of positive sentiment now. This is what we always wanted out of GW2 story when it came out 2 1/2 years ago. Depth and a connection to the rich lore that makes up the GW universe. ANET is finally waking up and delivering. Well done.

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

[Speculation] Rylock herald of a new class?

in Living World

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

Yeah, there’s a lot referencing ritualists. Would be interesting if something like that happened, but seems a bit odd to me since it is a Canthan class and we are no where near Cantha currently.

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

[Spoilers][Speculations] The voice ...

in Living World

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

99% sure it was glint saying that. after all ,the zepherites almost worship glint, and it was heavily speculated that glint gave them one of her eggs since they first appeared.

Glint had a voice in GW1 that was distinctly female and did not at all sound like the voice in the hologram. Unless the voice was distorted, I really don’t think its Glint.

Glin’t baby from EOTN all grown up maybe?

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

I am Beyond Impressed... Speechless

in Living World

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

People that know me know I have been extremely critical of how ANET has handled existing lore and story in Guild Wars 2 since it went live in 2012. Primarily the absolute debacle that was living “story” season 1, and let’s be honest, Personal Story as well. To me both lacked depth, feeling shallow and felt disconnected from the rich lore that existed in the Guild Wars universe as established by GW1.

Season 2 started off well in breaking that trend, and episode 5 just brought it up to a whole new level. It’s like ANET thought “Oh yeah, remember GW1?” and then built a lore rich story episode around the old lore that still tied into what we are doing today in a way that added so much interest and depth to the story. I really felt like I was back in the true world of Tyria as it was meant to be again. Episode 5 really took me back.

Learn from this ANET. This is exactly the kind of direction this game needed, and take it from an absolute GW1 nut that you are finally starting to live up to the legacy GW1 left behind. Keep going that way and GW2 has a bright future.

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

Music of Silverwastes

in Living World

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

I’m glad people are making the connection.

That’s even a question? :P

Anyway, well done ANET!

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

Music of Silverwastes

in Living World

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

Just to clarify here, the piece that plays in Glint’s Lair is indeed a new version of the original Guild Wars piece “Crystal Oasis”. It’s not really a remix, more of a “reimagining”. It’s mostly the same, but with a couple small changes to the orchestration/arrangement, and a slightly longer intro. Also, the orchestra is a live recording with a few light synth elements mixed in, whereas the original version is completely made up of virtual instruments.

The suggestion to redo it was designer and occasional composer Leif Chappelle’s. He thought it would tie in nicely to the area where Glint’s Lair was in the original Guild Wars, and I agreed with him. I’m glad people are making the connection.

Anywhere we can go to get this track?

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

Best Patch ever!

in Lore

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

If you take out the first instance, I would agree with you 100%.

But that first instance really puts a damper on me. Similar to the first instance of E4, and less so but also first instance of E3, it just felt jarring.

Yeah, it didn’t really feel like it fit.

The rest of the patch though was simply amazing. Felt like I was playing GW1 again.

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

I am Impressed ANET

in Living World

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

People that know me know I have been extremely critical of how ANET has handled existing lore and story in Guild Wars 2. Primarily the absolute debacle that was living “story” season 1, and let’s be honest, Personal Story as well. To me both lacked depth and felt disconnected from the rich lore that existed in the Guild Wars universe.

Season 2 started off well in breaking that trend, and episode 5 just brought it up to a whole new level.

Color me impressed. It’s like ANET thought “Oh yeah, remember GW1?” and then built a lore rich story episode around the old lore that still tied into what we are doing today in a way that added so much interest and depth to the story. I really felt like I was back in the true world of Tyria as it was meant to be again. Episode 5 really took me back.

I literally spent hours in the Durmand Priory.


And GLINT’S LAIR!!!!

ANET, well done. Keep it up.


Though I do expect to one day stand victorious with my people after we have retaken our homeland, see signature to see which homeland.

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

(edited by Stramatus.5219)

Music of Silverwastes

in Living World

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

The last story instance? It’s old GW1 track, Crystal Oasis

Yep, very much enjoyed this remix of Crystal Oasis.

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

My Greatest Fear Plotline

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

Wait. ANET removed story? I had no idea. The Setember patch has me completely disgusted with trying to level my alts in PvE/PS. I see I have even more reasons not to bother now. This was one of the more interesting paths in the PS in my opinion. What are you doing ANET???

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

(edited by Stramatus.5219)

So Anets's Chinese release promotions...

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

What is up with the baby bottle? haha

All part of the NPE. It explains a lot, really.

Haha. Spot on. Spot on. Next we need to give them oxygen masks because the new players will forget to breath.

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

I think we need Capes

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

This game not having capes because of the Charr is a travesty.

I would love having capes back.

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

anet's lack of transparency

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

Frankly this is where I am at with my thinking.

- GW2 ANET just isn’t my beloved GW1 ANET.

- GW2 2 years in is still at best a game that is being experimented with and is still missing massive amounts of content that should have been in place day 1. It is not really advancing in actual content/world/story at a rate that it should have been at 2 years in.

- Although I believe ANET has a long term multi-year plan with the game, they were/are so busy trying to re-invent the wheel of things they didn’t really need to re-invent and as such is constantly experimenting with everything they do release and how they release it.

- Living Story is still the grand experiment of content delivery and despite the remarkably good improvement in story/lore content of season 2 over the temporary, shallow, zerg-fest abomination that was living “story” season 1, the delivery of said content is still atrocious. I am absolutely perplexed at the very anti-climatic, all the steam in the story is now gone over 2 month break between episodes. And frankly this isn’t season 1, why not release the season as a small expansion pack?

- Because of their grandiose plans and ideas (for good or for worse) for the game, they have spread themselves out so thin that we don’t have things like the next SAB, an updated Halloween from last year, a level of new world, story content that would be consistent with what a 2 year old game should have.

Why is there no transparency? Because ANET still does not know how they are going to do things in the future. Its all still a grand experiment of coming up with new ways of doing things as well as negatively re-inventing the wheel of things that didn’t need it. Meanwhile, the playerbase, myself (a GW2 and GW1 veteran from 2005) included is become increasingly jaded and increasingly tired of playing a game that went live 2 years ago but might as well still be in beta.

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

(edited by Stramatus.5219)

Lets talk about the new Gem conversion [Merged]

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

Let me preface my post by saying I hardly ever converted gold to gems. My play style as well as amount of time to play lately is not conducive to sitting on hundreds of gold. Over a hundred, sure, hundreds? No. As such I have found the exchange rate of gold to gems to be absolutely ludicrously high and so I just don’t get gems that way.

That said. If I did, I would be just as upset as everyone else here.

I don’t see a good reason to pigeonhole all conversions into only those amounts. I keep seeing the excuse of “new players” being applied to every update that has degraded the gameplay and game as a whole for me. And it looks like this is no exception.

Suggestion:

Why not instead have those options as suggested “quick buy” options and still leave a field for custom amount conversions? Everyone I know who converts gems to gold does so a little bit at a time over a long period to accumulate to something they can then buy with. Buying at 75 gold a pop is frankly insulting to people who do that.

Not to mention that on the old system, you could convert to 400 gems if you wanted, but hey you could also convert to 43 if you wanted. Nobody or their style/needs were neglected.

So my suggestion is keep the new options as quick convert options and still have a field for custom conversions.

Everybody is a winner.

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

Race Concept: A Race to be Hated

in Living World

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

Eh the Charr are pretty much still Charr. They just have slightly different view on religion and gender equality. if they weren’t fighting flame legion, foefire ghosts and branded they’d probably be raiding ebonhawk right now. What you think a militant warrior race is just going to sit around all day?

Exactly, we cannot allow them to survive. Once we’ve defeated the Dragons they WILL turn on us – I say kill them now while we are able to! EXTERMINATE THEM!

Bingo. A race to hate? We have the charr.

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

New Narrative Director at ANet

in Living World

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

I agree entirely Shriketalon. The Living Story has been way too focused on the new races (Asura and Sylvari respectively), and the Norn and Human lore feel neglected because of it. In GW1 the human Gods were a big deal, and I hate, HATE, how they’ve been completely erased from the story. I want the humans to feel more important, and not just through Queen Jenna. I want human magic to feel more important, and their mystical knowledge to matter. I want the Norn to be more than just a bunch of boasting drunk comic relief characters.

Currently it feels as if everything in Tyria is dominated by Asura technology, and they seem to be always right.

Yes. Guild Wars 1 had so many rich human cultures. In GW2 we have now been degraded to one generic, human culture that has prevented any focus or exploration into the cultures from GW1.

Instead of Ascalonian or Canthan we are now mostly just Human. Which from a race perspective, sure, but from a cultural perspective have made us far less interesting and far more generic.

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

(edited by Stramatus.5219)

How about expansions?

in Living World

Posted by: Stramatus.5219

Stramatus.5219

Anet said they don’t want to go into expansions with GW2 like they did in GW1, one of the reasons being they feel they are “culturally insensitive” (Cantha=Asia Elona=African)

It’s all Kitten

Which is complete crap because Cantha and Elona both had very rich cultures and lore that contributed very positively to the Guild Wars universe. What exactly is “culturally insensitive”? Just because they were Asian and African themed? Just the fact that they aren’t the boring, generic human culture we have in GW2?

Yeah, I want an expansion too, or at least a better method of delivering the story content. ANET made the statement that LS would deliver an expansion pack’s worth of content, but I really don’t feel it has. And with Season 2, the idea of 2 weeks or 2 months between story updates is simply ridiculous. This isn’t Season 1 anymore and as a result that content delivery timeline just doesn’t work. Season 2 has been phenomenal in my opinion so far from a story perspective. But its far too slow for this type of content. The season 1 zerg fests, 2 weeks was fine sure, but not the story driven season 2.

Sir Helvidius | Sir Beregond | Proud Ascalonian Humans
“Remember The Searing. We never forget, and never forgive.” – Family Motto

(edited by Stramatus.5219)