Guild Wars 2

Are you talking about the alleged Mordremoth-sylvari connection? Because that really has nothing to do with “they’re both plants”, especially given we don’t know if Mordremoth even is a plant.

Posting screencaps, as requested (this might take me a bit to figure out).

FlamingFoxx.1305:

Those are just a couple of members of the orders though. We haven’t seen anyone higher up and we haven’t had any word from the heads of the orders. They’re also only trying to get the citizens out, they haven’t been seen trying to stop Scarlet or fight her.

You could say the same thing about us. The dialogue in the camps says that the Vigil, at least, will be part of the assault once the evacuation phase is complete.

So the toxic krait can’t go home, the molten flame legion need to win to go home, and the molten dredge are in it for the glory of the moletariat. You ducked the nightmare Court, which suggests we’ll find that out in a future release. The Aetherblades were stated back in October to be in it for the loot, and the Inquest doesn’t actually appear to be in it anymore.

And just like that, all my apprehension and negativity over this alliance issue is resolved. Thank you, Angel!

Just don’t do it in their corner, or you won’t need to cry for long. : P

The yellow is her glove, I think. It matches the color of her coat.

It’s supposed to be Taimi- it has four digits and is next to her bow.

I dunno, Turma always seemed to have a kind of bloodthirsty vibe to her. I don’t know that she’d want the seat, and even if she did she’d need a ship and money. I suppose Magnus could sponsor her too, but to my knowledge there’s no particularly close tie between them.

(Zommoros for Council! We’ve certainly fed him enough mats to build a ship, and maybe a crew too)

Kalavier.1097:

If Peter is MIA/dead, and the council holds a vote on next member (Which I believe is how it was stated, the Evon vs Kiel election was purely for trade agreement and whoever won that got the seat), I don’t see Evon getting in easily or smoothly.

Kiel and Magnus likely aren’t going to be fans of him with the bashing, and Shud may hold a grudge at his closing the gate in her face and several civilian’s faces.

While that is true, he was the only other person really in the running during the last vacancy, and we haven’t seen any other citizens come to the fore of the Lion’s Arch community since then. Unless they pull a new character out of the blue (sadly not outside the realm of possibility), Evon is really the only choice.

Bubbles? Is that you?

And even if they are still benefiting from the shards, they aren’t still benefiting from the alliance. It’s not like Scarlet’s paying them a consistent salary of obelisk pieces.

Blurk.6231:

Well everywhere where normal Krait are, there are Obelisk Shards, so it seems like the whole Krait race is benefitting from the alliance.

*benefited. That’s all in the past now.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

@Aaron: what if we back it into the corner, and it goes cursing us in an ancient language (ala Dragonspawn’s speaking in Edge of Destiny)? Or if it’s just talking to itself. :P

Right after posting that I actually stopped and thought about them talking to each other. I think it would be really pretty cool if that happened and then we couldn’t understand these words literally going over our heads… and really pretty lame if we could.

I, for one, would actually be disappointed if they spoke. It kind of goes against what they’ve set the dragons up to be, these towering eldritch abominations with no concern for mortal life. It would feel out of place for one of these things to acknowledge and then try to communicate with my character, or really any character.

Jelle.4623:

But Koss… always wins…
But yeah, or General Whatshername who teached Varesh about Abaddon. I bet she would know a couple of nice magic tricks.

Edit: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/General_Kahyet
Funny how it says ‘Elonian Gods’ instead of Human Gods.

Well, what sort of leader would Varesh be if she weren’t taught the ways of the Stone Face? :P

FlamingFoxx.1305:

I fail to see how a reanimated Koss = win… I hate Koss. Why not reanimate Varesh Ossa or something ridiculous? I wonder if Margonites can be reanimated? I mean they weren’t really fleshy beings anymore, but who knows?

They were considered fleshy by games mechanics, and their corpses were exploitable… hm…

The Fractals are great and all, but they suffer from a couple of major setbacks- we have yet to see one do anything more than tease a story, and due to the nature of the fractals we can never be sure that what we’re seeing is even close to something that happened. Some doors do indeed need to be opened, but the Fractals are not the key for the job.

A bonus mission pack would be awesome- the first thing since launch I’d actually consider spending real-world money on.

Jelle.4623:

Are they? I’m almost sure that they were said to be the crew of the Humble. And the greetings (if any) they gave wasn’t anything special, at least not that I noticed. I remembered the Second Mate’s line because I found it odd that a Pact soldier said something like that.

… huh. You’re right, they do say the Humble during that instance, but then they showed up flying the Glory during the dungeon. That’s… odd.

Jelle.4623:

The Humble(?) actually, the Glory of Tyria was still being build/worked on in that mission.

And I don’t know, the captain and first mate didn’t have any pirate greetings although they were talking in ‘pirate’-like English.

I know it was, but they were its crew. The crew of the first ship in Arah never showed up in the personal story.

Did the other two give you any greeting at all? It might just be that theirs didn’t trigger.

Jelle.4623:

Well, there is this Pact second mate of an airship who shouts ‘why join the military when you can become a pirate!’ so I wonder if maybe the aetherblade faction started to take form before Zhaitans dead and that Scarlet just ‘enhanced’ the faction. (It’s late, I can’t think of a better word for it)

I don’t remember his name but he is in Fort Trinity (I saw him in the instance version, when you collect your reward for slaying the sovereign eye, the last mission before the kill Zhaitan part)

I think it’s because that particular crew actually had been pirates who just signed on to avenge their losses to the risen. That particular line is just a generic pirate greeting.

You could still be right about some of an airship’s crew going rogue, but it wouldn’t have been that crew, seeing as they were helming the Glory of Tyria.

I don’t mind if Evon comes out ahead in this, just so long as he does it by helping the city. To be honest I anticipate that he’ll get Peter’s seat on the Council… which would be disappointing, but might be for the best.

There’s also the bit about, you know, Evon actively stirring up malcontent in the refugee camps. Going as he was, he could have started a riot, one that would benefit no one but his public image. Conscription was really the only way to stop him without driving him out or declaring him a criminal. He ought to be thankful it came to this.

I agree with that last bit. I don’t think it’s really a break in character for them to cooperate to get the shards, but once they have them there’s no reason to stay on with her alliance, especially since her first plan literally collapsed out from under them.

Scarlet, I know for a fact, has not been officially assigned a cycle. Awakening in full sunlight would rule out Night, and maybe Dawn, but either Noon or Dusk are possible. both would fit her character too- Dusk sylvari are intellectual and studious, and noon sylvari are direct and would generally seek knowledge to solve a problem rather than for its own sake. I wouldn’t be surprised if she awoke sometime during the transition between the two cycles, really.

Trahearne, I don’t believe, has a stated cycle either- though it might be buried in a personal story step I haven’t done. I would assume Dusk. He really doesn’t fit Dawn, since he was stated to be a loner by habit and preference up until the creation of the Pact.

Shiren.9532:

can someone point to me the discussion about ley lines and Elder Dragon magic seeping back into the world (or being absorbed by them)?

http://esprits-dorr.fr/node/261. For the sake of this discussion, I think this is the part you’re looking for:

“Magic is the lifeblood of Tyria. The entire world is infused with it, and it flows through everything via ley lines that criss-cross the planet.
The natural role of the dragons is to keep this magic balanced. From time to time, in the long history of the world, the dragons have awoken and begun to draw the world’s magic into themselves, reducing the level of magic flowing through the ley lines.

When the dragons have consumed enough and thus reduced the world to a low level of magic, they go back to sleep. From then on, the magic leaks from them, back into the world at a reasonable rate. Eventually, it builds up in the world again, and the dragons awaken again to tip the teeter-totter back in the other direction. "

Shiren.9532:

Are all of the Captain’s Council still alive? I’ve found a few of them outside of LA but are some of them missing?

Peter the Lost is MIA, but all the others are accounted for.

Maybe it’s just me, but it doesn’t really sound like Scarlet’s threatening them. Leveraging the service that only she can provide, sure, and if you want to toss a term with negative connotations in you could call that blackmail. But the implied “or else” is “or else I won’t help you”, not “or else I will harm you”.

I, personally, feel the lore and story of games are essential to my enjoyment. I play for the same reason that I read, or write- i want to get out of my world for a bit and into another. To me it seems like the people who don’t value the world must be masochists to put up with the grinding and the zerging without even the payoff of enjoying the context. I’m more happy sitting in the middle of a city for hours at a time soaking up the ambient dialogue than I am spending half an hour running the latest and shiniest content with a group.

That said, and it has been mentioned before, there’s a difference between lore and story, especially in an MMORPG. I understand you putting them together, because they are inextricably intertwined, and damage to one will hurt the other. But lore is what gives the player room and a structure to find their own niche in the world; story is what gives them cause to leave that niche and interact. And I think it’s in part because of how uncompelling the Living Story has felt that I’ve been so reluctant to leave my shell and let other players in on my experience of Tyria. I think that’s what Jski meant when he was talking about us insular GW1 players- it felt like a kick in the teeth when I logged in to this patch and (erroneously, I do admit) concluded that I had to stay with the group to get through the content, and I attribute that feeling to the setup that Lion’s Arch is just the grinding in between the story bits in the camp. To the Living World teams’ collective credit, they have gotten much better since the dark days of Sky Pirates of Tyria and the Bazaar of the Four Winds, and I am very interested in Season 2… but I think it’s a kitten shame that I can’t muster enthusiasm for the grand climax next week, and I regret that some of that early bad storytelling has not only put me and many others in this state of apathy, but it has also violated the lore that has been tiding me by until another good story comes around.

@Angel I too appreciate the time you took to chime in, but I think your explanation highlights one of the problems with the delivery, one that I haven’t really seen addressed yet. I’m sure you and the rest of the people involved in the content do sit down and reason that stuff out, figure out between yourselves how it would make sense, and how it could make sense, for things to change in Tyria… but that doesn’t reach the players. We’re just presented with the fact that things have changed, often without any word as to why, let alone a satisfactory explanation. I do get the fact that some things have to be kept close to your chest, in case you want to do some big reveal with them later, but surely you see that it needs be balanced against the pitfalls of this kind of damage control, months after the first impressions have seeded bitterness?

FlamingFoxx.1305:

Aaron Ansari.1604:

I get the vibe that Heal-o-Tron is more likely to be caught up in whatever treachery Evon is plotting than it is to actually help. It would fit with the way that its character seems to exist solely to go through bad things for cheap laughs.

But there is a dialogue between Evon and Heal-o-Tron and Evon does not seem particularly interested in helping him out, nor do they appear to have any prior knowledge of one another (in a meeting sense, because H-o-T had to know to go to Evon to try and buy things).

That’s what I mean. Evon was taking a hardline “no payment, no service” approach, and then out of the blue “but the Captain’s Council might [object to your alleged dealings with Scarlet]. Hmmmm. Maybe we can come to some kind of arrangement.”

I get the vibe that Heal-o-Tron is more likely to be caught up in whatever treachery Evon is plotting than it is to actually help. It would fit with the way that its character seems to exist solely to go through bad things for cheap laughs.

Dean Calaway.9718:

Actually in one of the camps, Lorna’s Pass if I’m not mistaken, some NPCs mentioned that when the wind changes they’ll make their move.

That’s talking about what we’re doing now- ducking in while the miasma is thinner, and running away when it gets too thick. We’ll presumably need a more solid counter to actually take and hold the city.

I still like to think that the Krytan bits of Guild Wars 1 are preserved in those secret files of the Shining Blade, and that those with access- Anise, and maybe Jennah- remember our contributions. But, of course, that’s not something they’d just randomly start a discussion about with a modern day hero, and I’m ok with that.

The part that kind of irks me is that our EotN companions- Jora, Pyre, Gwen, even Vekk- are remembered and even sort of revered by their respective cultures, but the player character only existed in common knowledge as an obscure figure for scholars to debate about. It would have been nice to see, say, some small monument in the Ascalonian Settlement that pulls a name from GW1 if accounts have been linked.

If you go talk to the Priory scholars at the Marionette wreckage, they will tell you point-blank that it’s doubtful that Scarlet created the steam creatures, and much more likely that she reverse-engineered their workings.

In any event, the way I see it is this- the clockworks were said to be a “second draft”. I think Scarlet ran into some hindrance with amassing an army of steam creatures (not enough of them? Some difficulty creating more due to the organic bits? Maybe opposition from whatever force is currently controlling them?), and while she was mulling it over the watchknights came to her attention- something able to fill the same roll without whatever drawback she was snagged on. In that sense, it was part of her (revised) plan. But what we were told, specifically, was that the attack on the Jubilee was just a mad whim. She almost certainly could have acquired the watchknights without making a public production of it and then holing up in the Queen’s fancy new monument for x amount of time.

So in short I think that the watchknights were to fill a role that was always in the plan but originally supposed to be filled by something else, and that the specific means of acquiring them- a terrorist attack to counter the Queen’s intended political statement- was chosen at a whim.

Because he had known Ellen for years, and we’re just adventures who breeze through every once in a while? Because it was Ellen’s initiative that got us to do the heavy lifting, and that is precisely the kind of quality you’re looking for in a member of a ruling council? Because Ellen has worked hard all her life for the good of the city, and we pule like spoiled brats if we aren’t paid every time we lift a finger? Because we’re already second in command of the organization that invented the airship? Because only King Solomon would suggest cutting an airship into five parts? Take your pick.

Sigh…

“<Character name>,

The Aetherblade scoundrels have a base inside Lion’s Arch! I need deputies for a raid on their hideout. Consider yourself deputized. Head to the base of the waterfall at Diverse Ledges as soon as you can.

—Lionguard Inspector Ellen Kiel"

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dragon_Bash_mail

You were an acting deputy of the Lionguard. Why you accepted the role is your own business, but while raiding that base that was the part you were playing.

Chrispy.5641:

Aaron Ansari.1604:

Chrispy.5641:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

However, I do not see any hypocrisy in her lines – nor any contradiction. Kiel did not commandeer the Aetherblade ship for herself. Magnus did, and then gave it to Kiel. For all Kiel (or us, for that matter) know, Magnus worked out a deal with the Pact behind the scenes.

Which is yet another inconsistency. Maybe Magnus held the Pact at gunpoint, knowing they were weakened after fighting an Elder Dragon, and wouldn’t argue about losing one of their airships to the future reindeer….I mean…political games.

How is that an inconsistency? First off, as has been mentioned before, that airship might not even belong to the Pact. However, even if it did, they literally have dozens of them, and no real immediate need or even use for more. Seeing as their whole ideal is bringing the military forces of Tyria together, why in the name of all Six Gods do you insist that they should fight over, or even begrudge, their closest non-order military allies keeping a single airship that they recovered at their own risk?

You mean, at Our Own Risk.

We were there on behalf of, and therefore as agents of, the Lionguard.

Chrispy.5641:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

However, I do not see any hypocrisy in her lines – nor any contradiction. Kiel did not commandeer the Aetherblade ship for herself. Magnus did, and then gave it to Kiel. For all Kiel (or us, for that matter) know, Magnus worked out a deal with the Pact behind the scenes.

Which is yet another inconsistency. Maybe Magnus held the Pact at gunpoint, knowing they were weakened after fighting an Elder Dragon, and wouldn’t argue about losing one of their airships to the future reindeer….I mean…political games.

How is that an inconsistency? First off, as has been mentioned before, that airship might not even belong to the Pact. However, even if it did, they literally have dozens of them, and no real immediate need or even use for more. Seeing as their whole ideal is bringing the military forces of Tyria together, why in the name of all Six Gods do you insist that they should fight over, or even begrudge, their closest non-order military allies keeping a single airship that they recovered at their own risk?

FlamingFoxx.1305:

Should it possibly just be changed to “faithful follower of the Human Gods” then?

I think those scrolls are most likely an oversight… but just to avoid controversy, I did change it to that.

Wrong, as in it ruined her life unfairly. You can quibble about legality and morals, but that doesn’t make it suck any less for her, and seeing as wrong is a subjective term…

According to Heal-o-tron, " infection—appears—to—be—counteracted—by—subaether—harmonics—in—a—localized—energy—field." My guess? We’ll just salvage/copy whatever device Scarlet uses to generate such a field for her troops.

I really don’t want it to become a big plot point- given how utterly scanty and disjointed the storytelling was during this first half of the “big finale”, they’re going to have to give their focus entirely to the important bits to make up for it.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/lore/lore/Strange-object-on-the-Atlas

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

It’s the ministry guard that robbed her of everything, not the queen.

Strictly speaking, it wasn’t robbery. Legal seizure of a debtor’s material assets might still suck, but it isn’t criminal.

Kasmeer’s father wasn’t said to be directly responsible; it was more of a class warfare kind of deal- here’s a debtors prison full of commoners who likely got cheated or abused in some way by the upper class, and the Ministry Guard just tossed a noble into their midst. Cue predictable outcome.

Tybalt was a charr engineer before he joined the Order. Iron Legion, whose symbol is- surprise surprise- a cog. I think being a mechanist in a legion that uses the cog as a symbol of their technological supremacy is sufficient to explain his keepsake.

Oh, and on your third point- the Order assigned Tybalt to track down a missing noblewoman. Since Tybalt didn’t report in when he was supposed to, they didn’t know that pirates were in any way involved until after the fact. Their decision could not, therefor, be considered an indication of a supposed affinity for seagoing scallywags.

I looks like a close up on Frostgorge… really hard to tell from that angle though.

Giant graveyards are one thing, but having dozens of bodies thrown into one hole is another entirely, and it’s one of those things that we like to forget happens. So yeah, it’d probably up the rating.

moomooo.9357:

I’d like to point out that they want from a “firmly confident LS will be our way of introducing expansion level content” to a “we really don’t know how we’ll continue to provide expansive content” in the most recent interview with Colin.

I think if the masses continue to chant for an expansion, we’ll likely get one in the future. From then on, I’d see the LS as the content in between expansions, sort of like how MMO’s like WoW release new tiers of raids in between expansions.

Which is really interesting, because then we could get a whole season of story that directly leads into an expansions, as opposed to just having them pop up out of nowhere.

I really hope you’re right, and there is talk among the more optimistic portions of the community that sees most of the company being tied up in projects they can’t talk about as a sign that an expansion is in development. If that is the case, though, I really wish they’d tell us. We could use that kind of hype right now.

If they end up with an expansion or similar release format, I’d say pretty good. If they stick to the Living Story… well, I’m not holding my breath.

I find it irritating. Kiel was supposed to be the one member of the council willing to collaborate with us, and instead she’s the one member (other than the MIA Peter the Lost) who does not interact with us in any way.

Darkbattlemage.9612:

I think my confusing stems from Nightfall how Abaddon is still considered a God, despite losing portions of his power as well to the other gods. I remember reading that’s where Grenth inherited his power of water from.

Grenth presides over ice. Abaddon held on to water until he was destroyed, after which Lyssa appears to have taken it.