Guild Wars 2

I’m getting this as well, completely unplayable lag and is definitely not anything else as I’ve tested other software and reinstalled

OMG this is actually incredible and insane. I would fail that JP so hard… Well done!

I am really looking forward to this event too! Always loved Halloween in Guild Wars from the very beginning. I do have a question though…

Will Fred Tatasciore be back with new lines for us? I hope so. He is an amazing Thorne.

Also, Loved the last community showcase Gaile; you guys were so much fun! I’ve marked the next one in my calendar already!

Rylen.2147:

Well we went out with a party! In my server we had a bunch of boxes-o-fun, banners, and loads of fireworks! At the end we all jumped off the edge on our gliders, it was really cool!

Here are some screens of it!

Fun! I started that dance party and never expected it to turn into a thing haha
also, Chrono Moa streamed the whole thing too http://www.twitch.tv/esm1th

I saw this and noticed there has been zero discussion on this. WTH? I thought people would foam at the mouth for something like this haha. I love the name. Shakespearian maybe? or maybe something to do with controlling weather? (even more than ele’s already do) Maybe the elite is some kind of hurricane.

Funny you bring this up now. Over the last few weeks I’ve been in the process of making a hacked version of the Dungeon World/Apocolypse World system to support GW2 and playtesting parts of it with some friends of mine. I’m big into practical game design and iteration (I’ve done plenty of game jams) and I love Vincent Bakers engine.
I’m definitely interested in seeing what would be a good way to approach GW2 as a brand new system and have had some thought on it. Shifting the focus a bit away from combat is a must.
I would be happy to share and collaborate.

Your redesign is epic man! Any game company would be lucky to have you lead their UX team.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

I am fairly sure that if Episode 7 included that 4th seed location, people wouldn’t be impatient.

QFT

Although not so much impatient as annoyed

Elrey.5472:

• (open thread, could be closed easily with another update BUT you put 6 weeks of waiting in between, people will forget about episode 7 details when the episode 8 kicks in…)

This is easily the most jarring thing for me with this entire season so far. Ending that arc when it did felt cheap. It’s like reading 3/4 through a book to find the last quarter missing.

I have similar thoughts to Elrey. To many open narrative threads and not closing enough of them fast enough. Its overwhelming and very easy to forget a particular thread was opened previously when you try and continue it. For example: “E”

• “E” was last casually mentioned at the party and before that in a mail at the beginning of the season. This thread has been open how long now? A year and a half? I’m not saying reveal all now but even if there was at least progress here with “E” it would feel better.

That is one example there are many others. Some are just poorly paced like Marjory and Belinda. When this arc was addressed it seemed to come out of nowhere and interrupt the current flow of the story.

Episodes
- Now I did find the first couple of episodes quite well delivered (barring the sudden Mordremoth knowledge) until we had to start bouncing around Tyria to make the summit happen. There was too many viewpoint changes too quickly. Things like Braham’s arc felt like throw away’s.
- With the exception of ghost Belinda, Episodes 5 & 6 were good. Caithe is a slight issue here though. Some foreshadowing of her “betrayal” might have been good somewhere in Episodes 1-4. And I already addressed my major issue with Episode 7.

Other
On the plus side, Canach was a great character to stick in here but I think he needs more time on the screen, so to speak. Using an engaging character like that can be a double edged sword. Too much of him and he can take over the story, too little and he becomes filler or annoying even.

Now, as for the Biconics; They seem to be having a lot less impact in this latter half of the season which I think is unfortunate. Its hard to point out specifics here but they are just less involved than they were in Episodes 1-4. Now it could simply be that the story arc requires it to get to whatever ending they have in mind.

Finale
Arcs I think need to be tied up at the end of this season IMHO:
1. Mordremoth - Either his location or his plan or something very significant anyway, needs to be world shattering at this point. Lots of promises made that need to be fulfilled here
2. The Egg - Its now intricately tied with Mordremoth and the Sylvari so needs to tie in nicely without more mystery
3. Caithe - We need to know exactly what she was doing and why by the end of the season, nuff said.
4. Scarlet, the Ley Lines, Omadd’s Machine and the vision - Again, tied to Mordremoth and the egg, so should meet with that arc at the end. Ogden and “The Map of the All” already hint at connections here. Needs to be resolved. (See theory on Baby dragon in egg becoming Elder Dragon through Zaitan’s power)

So 4 Major threads this season, all related to one another, and IMO should all resolve together as closely as possible for the best climax. Lots of nice theories around on how they might do this which is why I love this community

Ty for LWS2, looking forward to Jan 13th

I just experienced this and it’s a pretty bad experience when you only have a few hours a week to play

Screenshot to show how obnoxious people are about it too. Fix it Anet, please.

HiddenNick.7206:

CureForLiving.5360:

Ok so you want dungeons then.
I fully agree that more dungeons would be desirable. However changing the story instances to make them more multiplayer friendly might not be the way to go. I think ANet should just implement a proper dungeon instead of attempting to provide us with dungeon-lite.

What I meant to suggest is adding hard more for some of the story instances. This hard more could use the same story/assets as the current version and coexist with it. The only difference would be that it requires group of 5 to complete because of different and a lot harder mobs.

I’m suggesting that because it seems that those story instances had taken a lot of effort to make. And they aren’t replayable and do not give any meaningful rewards or encourage group play. And as such does not add anything to the game other then few additional hours of story.

Sounds like you want them to implement a Hard mode just like they did in GW1. Like half way between Dungeon content difficulty and Living World Instances. So it would kinda be like Dungeon-lite as CureForLiving mentioned

No offense to Maclaine, as I love many of his other creations and I love a crap load of Hard Rock/Metal music, but (if the song in the video is the song in question) this is noise to my ears, putting it mildly

Half-Life 3 confirmed!!!!!

I would be behind this. Simple and effective.

In fact, even simply numbering overflows would solve some organization issues

My account also affected here *waves"

Brave Sir Ryan.1240:

I agree with others – given the situation it seems the sensible thing is to change the achieve to 11 or so. This will account for the bugs, while still making people work for it.

QFT

This is the quick fix that should be done here. As Josh said, trying to fix the core problem will take too much time. Reducing the requirement for the achievement is the way to go

Namica.2951:

hermescragsniper.2713:

Sieg.8439:

Por que no los dosss
Doesn’t sound like either/or options, both seem to fit to me.

Sure, why not.

Also just realized Scarlet and some of her back story reminds me a lot of Albedo from the Xenosaga series; a fantastic character and done very well. I do hope Anet can follow through with Scarlet like was done with Albedo. I disagree though that she’s a really bad character right now

I’m sorry, but how is Scarlet ANYTHING like Albedo aside from MAYBE being unhinged (which isn’t even confirmed, she could just be immature)?

Albedo has very clear and believable motivation: He is driven by love. He was a flawed person in life with rather noticeable anger problems. He became insane when he learned of the frailty of life and how he was powerless to stop it. He didn’t master things at a breakneck pace. He didn’t apparently have a masterful silver tongue. He had a difficult life and it showed up later in his life.

You can’t just take every character that has mental instability and go “Just like Scarlet!”, there is more to a character than whether or not they’re insane. This is especially true in this case where Scarlet herself may be perfectly sane, just self centered and immature.

It appears I have offended you with my opinion and you have made a number of false assumptions about me and what I said. I apologies for my lack of clarity and will refrain from doing so anymore in the future. I agree with most of your analysis.

Sieg.8439:

Por que no los dosss
Doesn’t sound like either/or options, both seem to fit to me.

Sure, why not.

Also just realized Scarlet and some of her back story reminds me a lot of Albedo from the Xenosaga series; a fantastic character and done very well. I do hope Anet can follow through with Scarlet like was done with Albedo. I disagree though that she’s a really bad character right now

Not Villain Sue, I think she fits more as a Straw Nihilist

It’s partially coming true! Keep the Steam Creatures coming in the living story! and make new models for them!

If the suspicious figure is Scarlet, then I’m calling that it’s Caithe from the alternate dimension (going by her appearance)

Is this meant to be repeatable? Is it a bug or working as intended? I would love to do it again as I didn’t get a good look at the stranger and missed a bit of it due to lag and being afk

Still not working guys! Where are the web programmers?!

Just something I’ve noticed with the speculation on this:

Jormag: Generally the obvious choice for the next dragon for various reasons as has been outlined by Konig and others.

Primordus: The Wild card dragon, Anet could bring him in at any time. I would bet they hold off on him for a long time though as Prim’s situation is a very useful tool for development

Kralk: Popular choice probably because of Edge of Destiny, Crystal Desert is potentially accessible and he’s crystally :P However, unlikely we will see this guy next seeing as he may not even be in the desert.

Bubbles: Another popular choice likely because he’s so mysterious. Also unlikely though as other dragons are so near

Mordy: Another potential wild card due to the fact we know so little but still less likely than most.

I would like to see Jormag and Mordy as next ones seen and fought but I want to kill bubble next to free up the oceans

I suggested something similar before. More Steam Creatures are a must, more varied models, abilities etc… Large dragon ones would definitely be cool but obviously more difficult to implement, but of course going down the Elder Dragon route is a stretch that may be too far.

Right. I would think that as this “Personal Nemesis” (Scarlet or whoever it is) seems to be interested in technology somewhat that the Steam Creatures might be of some interest. I also think Steam Fleshreavers and Steam Giant Spiders would be cool

I have an example of how I think some dialogue can be improved

Original

Thora Griffonbane: Hail, Hero! Are you here to take part in this year’s Great Hunt?
Character Name: Of course I am! Just tell me what needs to be done and stand clear.
Thora Griffonbane: Hunt down three of the wildest animals you can find and take trophies from your kills. Present only the finest to Ido the Tanner to prove your worth.
Thora Griffonbane: Whoever has the best trophies, and whose bravery is the greatest, will be invited to join the Great Hunt.
Thora Griffonbane: Knut Whitebear has said this season’s event will be one of the most dangerous, so be ready. I’ve even heard the renowed Eir Stegalkin might attend.
Character Name: I look forward to impressing them both—after I’ve earned my place in the hunt.

Modified

Thora Griffonbane: Hail! Taking part in the Great Hunt?
Character Name: Of course! Tell me what to do and stand clear.
Thora Griffonbane: Hunt down three of the wildest animals and take trophies. Present the finest to Ido the Tanner.
Thora Griffonbane: The trophies that prove the greatest bravery will join the Great Hunt.
Thora Griffonbane: Knut Whitebear has said this event will be the most dangerous, so be ready. I’ve heard Eir Stegalkin might attend.
Character Name: I’ll show them what I’m made of—once I’ve earned my place.

The modified version probably needs a few iterations but I think its better. I think dialogue should be more concise with the VO carrying more, kinda like Tybalts dialogue really.

The above example just has too much useless fluff, trying to pass on information in a forceful way or being too descriptive. In order for it to feel more natural it needs to avoid this. Avoiding this also allows for a Voice actor to give more personality to the character if the director allows. It must also be pointed out that both characters in this dialogue are stiff with seemingly the exact same stale personality.

This is all IMO btw, I’ve done a bit of writing so I have a little insight but I may be wrong

Crossplay.2067:

There’s one thing you have to remember about the Asura: Asuran architecture isn’t really Asuran. Their ancestors came across technology of an earlier race (possibly Mursaat) and they have been building upon that ever since. That’s why there are ruins that match Asuran architecture but are no where near Asuran habitats.

I have never heard this information before. I know Rata Sum is built on ruins discovered when the Asura were forced to the surface but they hardly used that as a basis for all their technology and architecture. Source?

Something just hit me earlier that I felt the need to suggest to Anet.
How about some more steam creatures and maybe get them involved in the living story? I’m quite desperate to see what your modelers can come up with given the possibilities. I would specifically request the following: Steam Karka, Steam Shark, Steam Giant, Steam Dragon, Steam (mossheart type creatures) and Steam (any of the major or minor races). Obviously some new lore would be needed (due to infinity ball story line) but I’m sure its possible.

Josh Foreman.8250:

Hm… sounds fun. Not sure how this could fit into our current plans, but I’ll think about it. I’m a HUGE fan of the original LoZ. It is THE game that made me realize what my career should be. I’m actually in the process of doing a personal remake of it with photographic art. I’ve been sculpting the creatures over the past several years as a hobby. You can check them out here:

http://scrybe.deviantart.com/gallery/

Holy crap I love the Tektite!

Leif posted a link to some of his personal stuff on reddit earlier too which is awesome: https://soundcloud.com/leif-chappelle/sets/chiptunes-13
Also, Maclaine mentioned something interesting too

Thanks for the kind words, folks. There will be a blog post coming out at soon giving a high level overview of what writing 8-bit music is all about. I’m also planning on something fun for musically inclined fans that I’ll post about later this week.

As a BIG 8-bit/chiptune fan, this is bloody amazing!!! Win all the way!

Emissary Vex.5690:

Wrong, Glint is proof that a dragon champion is not under direct control of the dragon and still has free will, thus the Pale Tree can choose to do good.

Check Arah Exploarable, Forgotten path. Glint was under control of Kralky and had no “free will” until the forgotten freed her

cesmode.4257:

So I ask, do you think these updates are a “make or break” for GW2? Do you think it will bring new players back to the game? Will it help the mid-level zones that suffer from lack of activity? Can you speculate what Arenanet’s solutions will be? Is it enough? If they falter here, do you think the game is going to plummet down hill?

IMO

cesmode.4257:

So I ask, do you think these updates are a “make or break” for GW2?

Neither really

cesmode.4257:

Do you think it will bring new players back to the game?

More than likely I would say

cesmode.4257:

Will it help the mid-level zones that suffer from lack of activity?

Yes but I also don’t think this is a big issue

cesmode.4257:

Can you speculate what Arenanet’s solutions will be? Is it enough? If they falter here, do you think the game is going to plummet down hill?

Not sure what their gonna do but maybe something along the lines of new events/quests which give good/unique rewards, treasure hunts, new mini stories to make things more interesting and maybe just improving overall mobs, events and hearts. I’m expecting something that will suprise me though!
Oh and no, the game wont plummet downhill.

I like to speculate but this thread may a tad dramatic with the “Will GW2 fail?!?” stuff