Guild Wars 2

Mitha.7039:

An idea I had was the idea of Sylvari characters being randomly attacked while in non-Grove major cities (not major named characters, just random spawned enemies) meaning you have to stay on your toes and stick to the Grove… seems to make sense to me.

If this is the case, I hope my human PC will have the opportunity to help defend the Sylvari in question too!

I do wish in general we had more control over how forgiving our characters are toward the NPCs. My character would forgive Caithe, but she would also have forgiven Canach a long time ago and it feels strange every time the dialog forces her to give him a hard time.

It could be as simple as having a couple of different unvoiced dialog options to choose from so we could pick our tone.

I agree the scene was uncomfortable, but that was why I felt it was well done. I do wish the game had done a better job of setting up why Caithe was attracted to Faolain in the first place, because we never got to see any of the (I assume) positive things that drew them together, but I thought it was a pretty effective way of showing the relationship spiraling out of Caithe’s control.

Like many, though, I was displeased that my character was forced to give such a muted reply. Caithe might not have known how bad Faolain was, but by that point the PC definitely should, and the dialog not indicating that was bizarre.

I’ve been finding the lack of choice in dialog hugely immersion breaking. The fact that my player character has no choice but to rake Canach over the coals over and over even though he’s arguably no worse than half the characters we come across, or to justify to Braham why his mother abandoned him as if being a neglectful parent is a prerequisite of making a difference in the world, or this… every time it’s just a reminder that this is only a game and not a real world. In my mind I just ignore my PC’s dialog and imagine she said what I wanted her to say, but that kind of defeats the purpose a bit.

This problem could be fixed for me by just having more opportunities to choose my PC’s dialog myself. If the writers would give me a couple of options – even if they are unvoiced and were generic enough to yield the same response from the NPC – I’d feel more in control of my own character and thus more engaged.

(At the very least can the PC please stop bullying poor Canach? Seriously, he has more than atoned by this point.)

sigh I get changing the rewards for story completion for the future, but was it really necessary to change the level requirements on equipped items?

It was super uncool to log into a lower level character tonight and discover she was standing there in her bra and bare handed because her coat and gloves had abruptly out-leveled her. It was not a lot of fun to have to pay for a waypoint to a place where I could buy gear and then pay to replace items I’d already earned playing my story, especially since I was doing the walk of shame with a very obviously partially unclothed character.

Another character was no longer able to equip her active weapon and happened to be parked in a combat zone, which made replacing the gear even less fun.

Not a very happy player tonight. :-(

I found that with that last tooth, if you take any damage from enemies while you’re trying to interact with it, the game considers your action interrupted even if it doesn’t necessarily do a good job of showing that visually.

In your Hero pane (by pressing H) under the living story tab, you can track how many teeth you’ve found. If it doesn’t raise by one after you interact, it didn’t register.

I had to try the underwater one a couple of times to get it to interact without interrupting. It can help to clear the immediate area before you interact.

Paulytnz.7619:

There are certain areas in the game where I notice this to be REALLY bad. One good example is around the SW heart in the branded area in whatever map that is (shatterer map).

Hm, really? It’s in Blazeridge Steppes, and that’s exactly where I was when the issue I mentioned above happened. I didn’t realize it was a bug known to that area. Interesting.

Arkham Creed.7358:

Happened to me more than a few times during Scarlet’s invasions, so I can attest to that. Tell me, was the zone you were in particularly full? I have a theory that it is caused by server lag due to a large number of players, as it never happens to me in instances or less populated areas.

It was Blazeridge Steppes. I didn’t see a huge number of people, but there were probably more than usual because of Rox’s quest (which is what I was doing there myself.)

I do wonder if it was server load, though, because my server was doing Tequatl at the same time. I wasn’t in that zone because I didn’t feel like fighting him at that moment, but the server was probably still working pretty hard in general.

marnick.4305:

I haven’t had this bug since launch period. AFAIK it doesn’t exist anymore. You’re most likely doing something wrong.

Actually, this never happened to me until yesterday, and I got stuck in combat even after:

1.) Killing what was attacking me.

2.) Trying to key out of it.

3.) Killing random things.

4.) Running halfway across the zone. (Slowly.)

5.) Completing an event on the other side of the zone.

The only thing that fixed it was waypointing.

So yeah, definitely a bug, and not a squashed one. Like I said, this was less than 24 hours ago.

Shiren.9532:

Wouldn’t it make more sense for her to be researching the Shatterer then? That’s the dragon that is rampaging through charr territory..

But at this point the Shatterer isn’t doing anything different than usual.

If Tequatl has changed/“evolved” rapidly, finding out why would be time-sensitive, and the information gained could be relevant to fighting other dragon minions in the future, so it could affect Charr interests down the road and would certainly be of note to Destiny’s Edge.

When I join a group in that situation, one of the first things I say when we’re organizing is, “I’d really like to watch the cutscenes, does that work for you guys?”

90% of the time, they say yes. Most players seem to understand, especially when I’ve mentioned I’m doing the dungeon for the first time and I want to see the story.

On the odd occasion when the other players aren’t able to accommodate that, I just politely bow out of the group before the run starts. A group that can’t deal with me watching cutscenes is probably not going to be compatible in other ways anyway.

Knote.2904:

Obsidian.1328:

2. All Charr wanted to see Ascalon(ians) burn, not just the Flame Legion. That cop out is a creation of the current writers..

Copout?

It’s a new generation.

That’s as ridiculous as blaming this generation of white people for slavery.

Not really. It’s not blaming people for the past – it’s blaming people for their current attitudes about the past. If modern Charr society seemed to regret past atrocities and to have become more enlightened, that would be another matter… but I frankly don’t see a lot of evidence of that change in perspective having happened.

I’m interested in the direction this is headed.

For one thing, I’m really glad ANet hasn’t forgotten about the Pact. There had been so little about that outside of the personal story that I was afraid the original plotline had been quietly dropped. Good to hear the Pact is still active, even if mainly behind the scenes at this point.

I really hope we get to discover the reasons Tequatl has been gaining power after its master’s death. It’ll make me happy if that actually gets resolved.

Denial Of Service.5732:

to just fail it.

Sure, why not? It’s a game, not a second job – there should be room to try and fail.

anzenketh.3759:

That is why you work with the people on your server to when they do the guild event. Ask around I am sure you server has their own forums.

That’s one option, but honestly I don’t love the idea of having to join yet another forum and having to try to schedule a time to join an event.

I’m fine with guild missions existing, but in my opinion that’s not really a suitable method of delivering main living story content. Main content needs to be accessible for whoever wants to give it a shot.

If Tequatl needs a nerf to work as regular open world content, then so be it. I think the open world accessibility aspect is more important.

I think that if ANet is going to use living story as their primary plot vehicle going forward, they need to let things truly change, and if personal story becomes an artifact, so be it. If they tie their hands to avoid messing up the personal story continuity, living story will never be able to progress in ways that feel significant. It doesn’t make sense to hamper the primary storytelling method to preserve one they’re not really using anymore going forward.

I think if they’re going to stick with this living story thing, they need to be bold with it and pull no punches.

I would really excited to see a Living Story update that focused on one of the many unresolved plot points from the core game!

So yeah, I’d be all for a Caithe-focused plot. It’s nice to have new storylines sometimes, but not to the point where none of the old plot threads ever get picked up again.

Those of us in small guilds made up of players who have limited online time would like to play this content too, though!

Obsidian.1328:

2. All Charr wanted to see Ascalon(ians) burn, not just the Flame Legion. That cop out is a creation of the current writers.

Yeah, this. If one pays attention to Pyre Fierceshot’s ambient patter in GW1 (bearing in mind he was not even just a random Charr, but the leader of the rebellion against the Flame Legion, so he’s about as diametrically opposed to them as you can get) it’s pretty clear he has no disapproval of the Searing or the push against the human nations at all:

“My father was a great soldier. Without him, Ascalon would not be the smoldering ruin it is today. I will honor his memory.”

“Yes, mouse. Your people will retake their homeland… when they can eat ash and sleep in flame.”

“You will burn like Ascalon!”

“The Vizier destroyed his own country rather than fight us. That… is a compliment.”

Doesn’t exactly convey the impression that he was in intense disagreement with a minority of his fellow Charr, and he’s probably pretty representative of the opposing Charr faction.

Gabby.3205:

Sure, there could be some kind of vote again to decide who would keep Ascalon, but seeing how humans are popular and how such a big part of the player base simply hate charr, the charr would probably end up homeless (and that wouldn’t be fair IMO).

I also think this would stretch credibility too much story-wise. I mean, sure, we could vote – but the Charr are still going to be the Charr, and I can’t see them just going “Oh, okay” and meekly turning over Ascalon if the vote went against them.

The logical result would be the Charr getting angry and digging in, not going along with whatever the rest of Tyria decided. It would likely lead to renewed war, which would defeat the whole point of the treaty.

Having the players vote for an outcome that can’t really happen wouldn’t do much more than irritate the player base.

Charr and humans are both too invested in Ascalon at this point for either to just walk away, without the story turning completely nonsensical, in my opinion. So as I said above, I think the treaty is going to result in a shared land with the Charr still retaining the larger piece because of their greater numbers – essentially the situation with Ebonhawke/Fields of Ruin already but without the ongoing battle to hold onto it.

arachnopolis.5836:

Am elementalist LVL 11 and i cant kill doc
Any ideas?

When I did this with my Elementalist, I pulled Doc Howler to the door with me standing slightly outside the building; I stayed close enough to her that I didn’t draw her out but kept the doorway in between us, and dodged her attacks side to side so the edges of the doorway would block them.

I used fire attunement primarily and mainly threw AoE at her approximate area so I didn’t have to break cover enough to get a direct hit.

If you have a summon like an elemental, that can be a good distraction for her in a pinch, although she’ll take it down fast so don’t expect it to do much of your fighting for you.

If you’re playing a squishy class, I suggest using your heal as soon as you take any significant damage rather than saving it for when you get really low, because if you fail to dodge one of her volleys when your health is already down you probably won’t survive.

That worked for me, anyway. Your mileage may vary, but it may be worth a try.

Trahearne is the leader, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he has to be boots-on-the-ground for future missions. He can remain in Orr in an administrative capacity, and leave future campaigning to better-liked characters. It seemed like he mostly cared about Orr anyway, so I don’t think that would be out of character for him.

I actually think it would be fairly easy for Living Story to focus on a dragon. If there’s the same amount of build-up and prep work as there was with Zhaitan, they could dole out a few missions every couple of weeks, and it would occupy us for awhile.

Seagloom.1263:

Charr culture puts me off. Simple as that.

This is the main reason for me, too.

I do have alts of all races, so I’ve made a Charr, but she doesn’t get used that much, and the primary reason is that I’m just not very interested in playing the militaristic ethos. Nothing against people who like it, but it’s not my thing.

It’s residual feelings from GW1, also. I don’t think the Charr are inherently morally worse than other races (humans have committed plenty of atrocities too) but there’s an emotional difference between something I’ve just heard about as backstory and something I had a character live through. It’s not a rational thing and it doesn’t make Charr objectively bad, of course, but it makes me less want to play them.

I could probably get over this if I saw indications that a significant number of modern Charr regret what their ancestors did in the Searing, but there’s very little evidence of that, so it’s still off-putting to me in terms of throwing myself into playing a Charr.

I’m happy with my human main.

milton.1796:

Zhaitan is not dead he is PRESUMED dead…
Big difference.

I really hope Zhaitan is dead. I just wouldn’t see the story appeal of fighting the same monster again and again – and who is to say his death would stick the next time, either? It would make the whole thing seem pretty pointless if our efforts never had real, permanent consequences.

The method of Zhaitan’s defeat could have been better, but I’d rather see ANet take that feedback and make future Elder Dragon fights more epic, rather than have them retcon the personal story into irrelevance by bringing our first nemesis back.

I think the only possible way peace can work is if the humans and the Charr share Ascalon, since I don’t see either race giving it up completely. Conceding even small amounts of land they fought so long over to the opposing side will be hard enough.

I can’t see them living together any time soon, though, so for the foreseeable future my guess would be two parallel territories, with the Charr one likely being the larger since most humans have moved on and established lives in Kryta for several generations now.

I’m not really seeing the disconnect. I play on a laptop that’s a couple of years old, and the game’s performance is a lot better than I would have expected given my machine. The only times I’ve had significant lag were during Lost Shores (which I think was a learning experience for ANet,) the double boss fight at the end of the Molten Facility, and when local internet conditions cause it rather than the game itself.

I think I would believe that the things the races worship (gods, spirits, etc.) are probably objectively real because there has been evidence of their presence, but I can’t see myself worshiping any of them because everything that actually seems to get done around Tyria is accomplished by ordinary mortals. I would have respect for the principles which those beings represent, though.

Interesting question.

Forgal was my favorite.

I liked all the mentors, though.

My main issue with the group thing was that it suddenly wasn’t my character in the cutscenes because I wasn’t the party leader. It was unpleasantly jarring to go through the whole personal story, and then be merely a mute bystander when everything came to fruition.

The issue could have been easily avoided by simply splitting the lines between different characters instead of assigning them all to the party leader (i.e. whoever is in the Character One slot speaks the first line, Character Two speaks the second line, etc.)

As it was, that aspect was pretty disappointing to me.

unseenone.1463:

…and they all seem to have banter, even when there is death all around them…

I take it as a sign that the vast majority of Tyria’s population suffers from such massive PTSD that their grip on sanity at any given moment is tenuous.

Katz.5143:

You get a chest? I thought you only got one chest per tower ever? I’ve never gotten a chest at a tower more than once.

This is correct. It’s only once per tower. If the chest is open already, it’s because you opened it already.

If that’s the issue for the OP, it’s not that another player is grabbing the chest, it’s that if you repeat events for the same tower you only get the chest the first time. I assumed the OP was having trouble getting the chest initially, because yeah, it’s a one-time thing.

LumAnth.5124:

Should have been a choice of PS Characters;
Jennah
Tybalt
Seiran
Forgal
Anise
Riel Darkwater
Wynnet Fairhaired
….. you get my point. ..

I gotta be honest… minis of people in general freak me out. I don’t know why. I like minis that are creatures/animals/etc., but not tiny versions of sentient characters. Forgal is my favourite character, but the idea of a mini of him creeps me out.

I’m probably just a weirdo.

Completing the dungeon is how you do Victory or Death. The quest ends with you celebrating your triumph.

Yeah, autoclickers are not allowed for GW2. It would definitely be at your own risk. Personally it would not be worth it to me to use something like that.

I’ve never had a problem getting the chest from the overdue emissary quests.

Once you get credit for the event, the emissary is considered saved, and you’re able to run ahead. You don’t have to wait for him/her to reach the tower before you go up it. The gate will open as soon as the event is credited, so you should be able to proceed quickly to the top.

If you’re still having trouble, you may find it easier to get the chest after a queen’s champion quest or an Aetherblade attack quest instead. These roughly cycle, so if you don’t get the chest after the emissary quest, talking to the ballon pilot a few minutes later should get you one of the other versions.

Durzlla.6295:

Why does an arc need to be so short? Things are just starting to get interesting, especially since the first 4 months were F&F and picked up at a snails pace…

I don’t think it has to be short, necessarily… but if it isn’t, the writers going to increasingly run into the problem of players missing part of it when real life intervenes. If the plot is too much of an continuous arc, the story becomes increasingly incomprehensible to people who haven’t seen all of it.

Because living story segments don’t repeat, having a long arc means that the player could be put in a position of – to give the Factions example – missing everything from Vizunah Square to leaving Kaineng and still have the story have to make some kind of sense, or the player getting up to the last mission but never getting to confront Shiro and resolve the story, etc.

The stories have to be either shorter or episodic, because most players will miss at least one or a few segments over the course of, say, half a year or more.

CrashTestAuto.9108:

So, simple question. Would you have felt different about the birthday present if the mini had been Tybalt rather than Jennah? Has this whole affair stemmed not from lack of appreciation, but simply from Anet overestimating the popularity (or perhaps even underestimating the unpopularity) of one of its characters?

The problem with making the mini Tybalt is that he was only an important character in 1/3 of the Order storylines. For quite a few people, he was not our mentor, so a mini of him would seem kind of random. At least Jennah is actually tied to current events with the jubilee.

I’m pretty indifferent about the whole birthday mini situation, but at least the Jennah mini has a basis in context. I’m fine with things as they are. But then again, I don’t really care about minis regardless of what they’re of.

Katz.5143:

- When someone has to be gone for a week or two then they may miss something that has a unique reward or has content that they would love to have had access to earning.
That is ok if it is an occasional thing. I missed content in other games due to bad timing on traveling out of town. It was not a big deal. Why is it a big deal here? Because it is a feature of the game. The game is now designed to make sure you will miss one time content routinely.

It’s also a problem, in my opinion, because the storylines are ongoing. That means that:

1.) If you’re unable to play for even a fairly short time, you may come back and find you’ve missed something crucial in the plot – and you can never repeat it. That part of the story will simply be unavailable to you forever. Thus any given person may be playing a very fragmentary “campaign” that makes little sense because of the gaps, and may find it impossible to put together the broader narrative.

2.) You can have invested months in following the living story only to find that you’re missing the big reveals because it conflicts with real-life commitments. So essentially, you’re losing your narrative payoff because of things outside the game.

All this makes me less inclined to put in the effort of keeping up with the living story. I’m not quitting the game or anything, but it’s harder to see a reason to prioritize logging in for living story when something external at some point (for me, it’s a house move right now) is going to prevent you from seeing all of it anyway.

I don’t think the Sylvari were necessarily a bad idea. I actually think that if you trim down the concept, it’s a pretty neat storytelling device to include a brand new race eagerly exploring the world.

The problem is that the writers don’t seem to have thought through the downsides of that position. Sure, they’re curious and have strong intuition and lateral thinking, but in terms of knowledge and experience the Sylvari should be starting out at a disadvantage. That’s not to say that they could never catch up, but that there should be a challenge there. But the main Sylvari characters rarely demonstrate that. It all gets handwaved; for example, Trahearne becomes a general in a time of war with absolutely no experience and doesn’t make any major mistakes, Scarlet has conveniently studied under all the Asura colleges somehow, etc.

I like the concept of the Sylvari, and I think they could have made a strong contribution to the depth of the world of Tyria. I just wish that the writers had given them real downsides as well as real strengths, so they’d seem more balanced, instead of just excusing away their lack of experience with the world by having their stellar personal qualities make up for it. The Sylvari stories would be more interesting to me if the characters were actually noticeably impeded by what we’re told are their challenges.

For those familiar with the concept of the Informed Flaw, I think the Sylvari suffer rather badly from that and it makes them much less nuanced.

Direksone.3867:

Perhaps it will be expanded upon with a week? Two weeks? I think we should draw conclusions afterward, give proper feedback and Anet can learn from it. It’s a bit too soon to draw them imo.

I don’t agree. I think it’s actually a fair point to say, “As of right now, the story has not been entirely satisfying to me because it’s playing it too close to the vest with the reveals,” even before the story has completely finished.

Even if that opinion changes in response to the overall plot, a huge part of storytelling is not just the end summary but the pacing. If the pacing feels off to the player, that’s important feedback for the writing team to have.

If ANet is planning on episodic releases (which seems to be how they’re operating currently,) each individual episode needs to be somewhat satisfying, not just the story as a whole in retrospect. This is particularly the case if the storyline is going to be extended over weeks or months. If a lot of players aren’t feeling a connection to the ongoing narrative, the writers may need to rethink some things.

Just as a general note on Vorpp – I’m not sure if this is just me or not, but I’ve found that the communicator doesn’t work consistently in crowded areas. If I’m having trouble with it, moving to an area with fewer people (for example, stepping outside the walls of the Ascalonian Settlement) makes it work again. It took me awhile to figure that out.

Hope that helps if anyone else is having this issue!

To me it doesn’t seem like there’s more conflict, just that the PC’s attention is more focused on it. It was going on in the background in GW1, but it’s foregrounded by living story.

I would agree with longer missions as long as, like in GW1, there was an option to reconnect within a certain window of time if you get disconnected.

Because GW2 does not have that feature, longer missions can be problematic because if your net drops for even a couple of seconds you can lose all the work you put into it up till that point.

If missions got longer, they would need to be supported with a reconnect option as in GW1, or it could become tremendously frustrating.

Zoria.1392:

Let the weapons come to you, or try to aggro one at a time. I’m not sure if they come automatically or not..

I had to aggro them one at a time. They would just keep circling until I did.

Xae Isareth.1364:

Oh dear, looks like we might see her again real soon….

Fortunately, Sylvari are immune to being corrupted by Zhaitan.

Sieran would simply have died, not become a Risen – although the other two mentors might have done.

Sil.4560:

Before I actually got a good chance to listen to female sylvari, I used to think they said, “Less violence, more violence.” I assumed they were all just crazy.

I heard it that way too, and I thought it was some kind of philosophical statement or zen koan.

Kovac.4372:

I know Scarlet is a sylvari but in a Tyria where the 5 races are pretty much equal why wouldn’t a sylvari be allowed to become a member of the Court?

There were Sylvari courtiers at Halloween, weren’t there?

I’m positive there were at least Charr and Asura, and the Asura at the very least probably wouldn’t have had contact with King Thorn during his lifetime either.

This is bringing back fond memories of Obey vs. Dismantle in GW1, and as such I love it because that was a fun marketing gimmick IMO.

It took me about two months to figure out that when the human female receives crippled condition she says “My leg!”

I thought she was saying “My league!” and I couldn’t figure out what the heck she was talking about. :P

Kestin.2368:

Without her, the power vacuum would probably be filled by someone who opposes the truce (most likely Caudecus), and that would have to be dealt with posthaste before the resumed war between the humans and the charr leads both races to withdraw from the effort against the dragons, crippling said effort significantly — almost certainly to the point where they cannot win, and from there it’s only a matter of time until the end of the world as we know it (and I don’t think anyone would feel fine).

I would think Wade Samuelsson of Ebonhawke would be a potential contender for the throne. He’s a duke, and he’s related to Doric’s bloodline too (the Ascalonian branch.) Since at the time of Doric the two nations were united under a single crown, Samuelsson could have a decent claim.

Whether he would want to and have the popular support to try is another matter, of course…

BrunoBRS.5178:

you’re the one relying on outdated information. it’s been less than a month since colin stated what’s in bold.

Cool, thanks for letting me know! Could you provide a link so I can read what he said?

DarcShriek.5829:

It’s too soon for any more Elder Dragons. It needs at least another year. IF you pulled out a dragon per year, then in five years you would have nothing left.

I’m actually okay with that. Five years from now, I’m pretty sure I’ll be ready to have moved past the Elder Dragon plotline. That’s a pretty long time to extend one story.

Presumably if/when that plotline reaches a conclusion, the story will progress in other directions. I’d rather see a resolution in a relatively natural period of time than have ANet eternally keep this plot on life support because they’re afraid to finish it.

For the most part, I really enjoy the choices in the personal story missions, but the choice at the end of “Going Undercover” seriously strained my suspension of disbelief.

Why exactly do I even have to decide this, when I am supposedly working with the Master Exemplar of the Shining Blade and the commander of the Seraph Guard? Between those two groups, that’s pretty much… like… all of the law enforcement in Divinity’s Reach, and I have the ear of the folks in charge. How is it that which direction the PC goes in means the other task goes undone?

Wouldn’t the local law enforcement have a major stake of their own in preventing a mass poisoning, regardless of what the PC feels like doing?

Alternatively, couldn’t Logan spare a couple of guards to go escort Quinn to safety – heck, even arrest him to keep him out of trouble for a few days?

For the most part I found the choices in missions well done, but this one just seems kind of… dumb. It doesn’t make sense to me why the PC would have to do these tasks personally for them to get done at all.

Does this make any kind of sense that I’m not seeing?