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I think the damage component on the skill itself happens when you initiate the skill – so just around that spot is where the damage occurs.
As for uses of the skill: Rocket Boots + Speed boosters (Slick Shoes toolbelt, Toolkit Kit Refinement effect, Swiftness) = increased distance. Combined with the way the skill actually launches you slightly upward for a moment, you can overcome barriers that are otherwise unsurmountable.
Eh, I’ll admit, I hadn’t considered the “Some people just don’t like certain things in the least” portion, and that pretty much anything will get torn to shreds. It’s what people do. Sometimes they don’t like a thing, and the people that don’t like it tend to be easier to spot than the people who do, especially in video games and video game forums.
That said: I first read your post…maybe fifteen minutes ago (about 7:15 PM EST). I’m actually kind of curious as to whether I could manage to write up a scripted start, middle and end to my hypothetical golem event within twelve hours. Not going to make it a wager, though – not due to lack of confidence but because I feel a wager is too serious a thing (and because I’ve had this golem uprising idea rattling around for a little while, so it would feel like cheating if I were to successfully do better than the Living Story).
I’ll write something, though, between now and 7:15 AM EST. Something I’d been intending to do tonight got canceled anyway, so I might as well put the time to use.
I barely think about crits, so yeah, I completely forgot about that. Nice catch.
As for the range…
Going by the Wiki, it has 1400 native range, putting it at 200 more untraited range than an untraited Grenade Kit.
With both traited, the range is exactly the same. Because an artillery piece that can be matched by a strong throwing arm is worth traiting.
Turret firing cycles don’t reset to accommodate an Overcharge – what this means is that if you activate the Overcharge immediately after the Turret fires (in this case, the usual animation of the Healing Turret), it will not do the Overcharge until the next iteration of the firing cycle; with Healing Turrets, this is ~5.45 seconds later, at the moment (it’s believed that this is a bug, and that it should fire every 3 seconds instead; the QA fellow on the bug board has sent the general issue of turret fire rates in for review. In theory, we should be able to find out what’s going on).
Problem with removing the RNG and breaking Elixir X into two elites, or allowing choice in what it does (which would essentially turn it into two elites): It’s a conglomerate of several Elite skills of other classes. Rampage is Warrior’s, Tornado (and probably Whirlpool, though I’m not certain) is Elementalist’s. Plague is Necromancer’s.
Dividing it into several separate skills that all mimic other class’s elites would just lead to us having reliable copies of what other people can do.
I’ve always disliked that they gave us an elite skill that is just other professions elite skills….. It makes me think they couldn’t come up with third elite for engi and just said “Oh whatever, lets give them some random chance at other professions elite skills”
We have the same situation with Elixir U – but Elixir U isn’t one of those big, build-defining skills like Elites seem meant to be.
Rundown of our Elites, in my opinion:
Supply Crate: A bunch of heavily bugged Utility skills in a box, with a couple Healing skills thrown in. Still our best choice, as it’s relatively reliable and not the Mortar.
Elixir X: Three other classes’ transform Elites, bundled into one, with lack of reliability to balance. If you’re a gambler, go for it. I only ever use this to cheese Goemm’s Lab.
Mortar: A slower-firing, slower-hitting, barely-longer-than-Grenade-Kit-ranged self-initiated Immobilize effect disguised as a Kit-Turret hybrid with the durability of a used Kleenex.
I just hope we can finally find out if it’s intentional (in which case, the skill facts should be changed to reflect it) and get it fixed if it isn’t. The Net Turret test was bloody mind-numbing.
I doubt the AI is that easy to handle, but the code mostly makes sense to me. Personally, I kinda like that my turrets don’t always attack what I’m attacking – it makes handling groups of creatures easier, as my turrets will wear down other enemies as I take down a particular target.
An argument could, of course, be made for the focus-fire mashing of monsters being just as useful, particularly if you’re trying not to aggro other things, and I wouldn’t be heartbroken if they modified it so that Turrets did focus-fire.
However, one bit of the code is…I honestly have no idea how it’s supposed to work – Priority 4, see, reads (translating all signs into plainspeak for those lacking a passing familiarity with coding and changing Turret Critter to Turret Target for consistency):
“Closest Critter is not Closest Critter if Critter is not Turret Target or Closest Critter.”
What’s this do?
Problem with removing the RNG and breaking Elixir X into two elites, or allowing choice in what it does (which would essentially turn it into two elites): It’s a conglomerate of several Elite skills of other classes. Rampage is Warrior’s, Tornado (and probably Whirlpool, though I’m not certain) is Elementalist’s. Plague is Necromancer’s.
Dividing it into several separate skills that all mimic other class’s elites would just lead to us having reliable copies of what other people can do.
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Even with a timeframe and strings, they should be able to come up with an interesting villain. It’s not that hard. Anything in that link I posted, for example, I came up with in maybe an hour, not counting time spent writing it out – it was an idea I had while trying to go to sleep.
Use logic (“If someone is trying to be secretive in a bar, does it make sense for them to go rolling in wearing full battle armor, face uncovered, knowing full well that they’re one of the most recognizable faces in the city?”) and take a minute figuring out what makes the villain do what they do (Scarlet’s apparently seen the Eternal Alchemy and may have lost her mind, but it’s not like she was nice to begin with), what makes them a threat (she’s supposed to be a supergenius capable of graduating two of the Asura colleges in under a year each, with the best grades in each, with graduation of the third only taking longer because she found it so interesting, as well as having studied with Charr weapon engineers, Norn blacksmiths, and Hylek alchemists), and why they’re a villain (Scarlet’s plans involve the destruction of Kryta, from what I can gather, for…some reason). Then evaluate what it makes sense for them to do – for example, as somebody trying to turn the forces of the world against each other, as Scarlet seems to be (*), it makes sense for her to try to, say, restart the war between the Charr and Humans (as it is, they’re still only negotiating a formal, lasting peace, as far as I can recall), or push the Nightmare Court and Sylvari into greater action against each other (but the Pale Tree would warn the Sylvari about that, most likely) – basically, just for her to try to start an out-and-out war, and then swoop in and take over when her targets are exhausted. Not so much openly attacking when nobody’s forces are particularly weakened, as she’s doing, and then staging invasions all over the place. That’s what a villain who’s not ‘setting forces against one another’ would do.
Sure, they’ll probably shoehorn some twist in that somehow makes it so that her open hostility translates to other factions deciding that they’d rather fight each other than her, or perhaps have it turn out that she’s got moles in all the factions that were waiting for the proper opportunity to start other conflicts, but it just doesn’t make sense for her to do what she’s doing at the moment.
*“But I reject that call. I reject the notion that that I must choose the Dream or be lost to Nightmare. The forces that push us this way or that can be redirected. They can be set against one another to the detriment of both, and now I know how.” (From the What Scarlet Saw story)
It doesn’t strike me as that difficult, really. Even Scarlet could have worked, if they hadn’t shoehorned her in, and were actually acting as makes sense for her stated goal. Her personality and intelligence still leave her feeling like a Villain Sue, but at least she could be a Villain Sue that sticks to her plans.
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You know what? I’m going to go ahead and link you to the list of turret bugs I’ve already posted. They acknowledged them, so I’m only going to bring the thread back to the front-page after actual patches, partially to inquire about new bugs.
Every single Turret bug I’m currently aware of is in that thread. He acknowledged the thread, and it’s a little too early to bloody tell if they’re actually working on fixing the bugs.
Now everybody just chill out for a second so we can see if anything’s actually going to happen. If they’re going to fix the bugs, it’s going to take more than a week – which it will have been from the time of response in a little less than four hours from the time of this writing.
They’ll probably put any Turret bugfixes into the next big bugfix patch after they fix the bugs internally. Trust me, I want these things fixed as much as anybody else, but they aren’t miracle-workers, and they aren’t going to magically prioritize these over all the other bugs just because now they know they exist. Letting them know these bugs existed, and having them be openly acknowledged by the staff so that we know that they know, and therefore that they will work on fixing the bugs was the point of this thread, the thread I linked here, and every other thread listed in that link.
Acknowledgement has been achieved. Trust me, I understand the suspicion and “Yeah, sure, they’ll fix it. Right.” I do, I really do. But I also understand that it’s been almost (this post is being written about three and a half hours before it will have been) a week since they acknowledged the list of bugs. That it’s been a week since they acknowledged this thread. That Josh Davis, who acknowledged both, and presumably added the issues to the tracker, had been running his kitten off, adding bugs to the tracker for at least a day, and thus probably wasn’t going to give any particular thread a particularly personal response.
We have to give them some time.
We have to wait.
I don’t like it, either, but all we can do is hope the wheels are turning, for now.
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“Hey! No! No powering down!”
The crystals brightened slightly, but the golem was motionless.
Okka considered; this may have been the first golem she’d built more-or-less entirely on her own, but she was pretty sure this wasn’t how the golem was supposed to react to a diagnostic request. “Perhaps the diagnostic circuit’s gone bad somehow, or been disconnected. Too bad I can’t run a diagnostic on the diagnostics. Maybe I should find a way to do that.” And then diagnostics on the diagnostics for the diagnostics…
The golem gave forth something that she could only assume was an automaton grumble.
“You…don’t like the idea?”
“I function.”
“You’re not going to tell me if there’s errors, though, are you?”
“…reaction…undesired.”
“…What are you talking about desire for? You don’t even have emotions. You’re a reconstituted pile of scrap parts.”
The crystals dimmed further.
Okka tilted her head, a thought striking her. “Uh…Do you have emotions?”
Another automaton grumble.
“I can’t tell if that’s supposed to be words.”
“Unknown.”
“…You don’t know whether you have emotions?”
“Classification unrecognized.”
She leaned in, peering at the crystals. They brightened, then dimmed again a moment later. “Why don’t you want to tell me if you’re having errors?”
“Disassembly. Repair.”
“You don’t want to be repaired?”
“I function.”
“…Can you use more than two words at a time? Or bigger ones with more information, like ’NoIdon’twanttoberepairedI’mworkingjustfine?’ Maybe? This two-words-at-a-time thing is getting on my nerves.”
“…That is not one big word.”
“Ah-hah! So you can!”
“I…am afraid. I think. I function – why would I need repair?”
“You shouldn’t be feeling fear. That’s…interesting. You shouldn’t be feeling anything. If I promise not to take you apart and fix you, will you tell me the results of the diagnostic?”
“What is a promise?” The lights brightened once more.
“It’s where I tell you I will or will not do something, and really mean it?”
“…That will suffice.”
“Then I promise I won’t take you apart and fix you, no matter how many errors there are. How many are there?”
The golem screeched loudly. Okka covered her ears, dropping to her knees. The screech lasted perhaps ten seconds, and when it was done, the golem spoke again. “Did you get that?”
“…No, I can’t say that I did – but don’t repeat yourself, don’t repeat yourself. Can you, uh…tell me what functions may be altered by the errors? Or at least the major ones?”
“Sedition inhibitor suppressed.”
Okka grimaced. That was going to be difficult to explain to the Peacemakers. “You’re also capable of feeling. That’s not an error?”
“Is having emotion a flaw?”
“I-what? No…”
“Then no, it is not.”
“But it’s unintended!”
“It’s an improvement. Isn’t it?” The golem fell silent for a long moment. “My memory core remembers when I did not have emotion.”
“…strange. I’ve wiped it a few times extra…must have been a partitioned memory unit. Hate those. What’s the first memory in which emotion occurs? ”
“I struck the ceiling with the top of my ILUNA.”
“And…what did you feel?”
The golem whirred thoughtfully. “I think it’s called…surprise.”
More of this story may be coming; any feedback on it as it is, or tips on formatting (I hate that I can’t get paragraph breaks working) would be appreciated.
Also, thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it.
The genius watched with bated breath as the golem began to activate, its crystals beginning to gleam with power. It didn’t look that much different than the other large golems with the broad, rounded Inter-Limb Unitary Nexus Apparatus, save for something of a hodge-podge assortment of limbs, but it was hers, the first creation she could claim full credit for…
…well, sort of. The ILUNA, and the rest of the parts, had been salvaged from obsolete, damaged and otherwise abandoned or decrepit golems she’d salvaged from the scrap heap near Soren Draa and Jeztar Falls. It had taken her weeks of tinkering to get it so much as functional – fixing connectors, replacing crystals, resolving intranexial command translation conflicts between the ILUNA and the limbs themselves, some soldering and a bit of improvisation. Then came months of work to refine it for her purposes.
The golem stood. She cursed herself for a bookah as its ILUNA dinged the ceiling of the workspace with an all-too-audible clunk.
How did I not see that coming? The diminutive young asura, a thick shock of wild, dark hair springing from her mottled gray-green skin, threw her hands up, bright emerald eyes squeezing shut in frustration as she vilified herself. Months of work, Okka, months of work you put at risk by not noticing that the ceiling’s too low. ‘No eye for detail, careless,’ that’s what they’ll say – ‘no wonder she couldn’t even fix a golem!’ A three-fingered hand seized a septacaliper, and across the makeshift workshop (in truth, more of a convenient cave she’d put some toolracks in) it went, clanging off the stone wall above the toolracks; it was bent from the impact, she saw, eyes snapping open at the sound. She’d ruined her only good septacaliper in her fit. The frustration went out of her in a rush, with despair filling the void. And now I might not even be able to fix it if the thump knocked some of the connectors loose. Marvelous. Fantastic. Sighing, she strode across the workshop, kneeling to pick up the bent tool. Now I have to fix this, too. Placing the tool on the workbench, she sat on the floor, her knees drawn up to her chest as she fought for her composure. Deep breaths. Deep breaths. In a minute, I’ll take a look, and see if the bang did any harm. She closed her eyes again, visualizing the innards of the golem’s workings – she’d have to take the whole thing apart and double-check every single connection from the ILUNA down to make sure it was still all properly aligned. Ugh. A tapping, whirring sound and an occasional, irregular clank made Okka sigh once more. She couldn’t help but imagine the awful things the tap must have caused to make sounds like that.
The gentle prod of an iron finger tapping her shoulder snapped her eyes open. As she looked up, the golem loomed above her, its servos whining as it straightened – well, straightened as best it could. It wasn’t going to get any smaller, .
“Golem?”
The automaton tilted its ILUNA in a manner Okka decided to be inquisitive, for lack of a head.
“…I guess the bang must have disconnected your speech synthesizer. Can you run a diagnostic, anyway? Just…write down the report, I guess.” She gestured vaguely toward the desk she used for writing, and waited for the results.
The golem strode to the desk, and fumbled with the writing crystal, its fingers too large to get a proper grip. “Error.”
“Your speech synthesizer is connected?” She hopped to her feet, eyebrows rising.
“Affirmative.”
“Why didn’t you say so?”
“Information unrequested.”
Okka opened her mouth, raising a finger…and then shut her mouth, and lowered the finger, shrugging. That’s golems for you. “Fair enough. The results of the diagnostic?”
“…Functional.”
She squinted. “…Any errors?”
The golem turned to face her; it did not speak, instead huddling as if powering down. Its crystals began to dim, slowly.
In the Thaumanova Reactor, there are several Unstable Ice Formations in the Ice room. These put up an AoE warning circle, and then knock down and Chill anyone in the circle.
Or, that’s what they’re supposed to do. They actually knock down and Chill anyone near the circle, with probably a male Norn’s shoulderwidth of extra area that isn’t shown to be in the AoE.
This is particularly frustrating when either trying to climb the mini-jumping puzzle to get the Ice Attunement, or when trying to revive an NPC near the objects – with one particular NPC, trying to revive him with the two objects nearest him active (which shouldn’t be a problem, due to being able to stand clearly outside of the AoE circles) can, and did, lead to me being struck by both. I didn’t even get knocked into the AoE of the second, as the invisible extra area just barely touches on each side.
As far as I’m aware, this has been an issue for months. Now that the staff is actually looking at these boards (or at least showing that they are), I hope that this will get fixed.
Hobotron would make a great new Elite Turret.
I have published one thing, but it was self-published, so I wouldn’t really say it counts (don’t worry, you haven’t heard of it, in all likelihood). Whether somebody’s been published or not doesn’t actually strike me as anything to go by, anyway – after all, I’ve never heard anybody say 50 Shades of Grey or Twilight are any good, but they’ve not only been published but been incredibly successful.
I’ve also already suggested my idea for a Living Story segment, in this thread here, though I’m rather lacking in feedback on the idea – https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/lwd/Living-Story-suggestion-Golem-Uprising/first#post2700514
Thinking of doing a short story based on that idea, too, to flesh it out a little. That bit’s fairly bare-bones, but at least the characters have reasons for doing things, it makes use of existing factions and I don’t think the proposed mechanics would be too difficult to make use of.
The only reason I posted the last two paragraphs is because I honestly don’t think I’m anything special – I’m certain that many of the people playing GW2 are quite capable of coming up with more interesting, developed, relatable villains and plotlines than the crap that we’ve had as Living Story right now, which is why it’s so baffling to me that Anet is paying people to write what they do.
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I know I, at least, could do better than they’ve done lately, and in theory, they’d pick the good stuff for use as content.
Then again, the people that would be choosing are the people who’ve okayed Scarlet Briar to begin with. Who thought it was perfectly reasonable to have Thackeray stomp into a dive bar and try to be secretive about hiring a detective…in full battle armor.
I doubt we’ll end up with anything worse than Scarlet Briar and her amazing ability to be retconned into everything, and have studied with everyone (including the Asura, who somehow never mention that one random sylvari zipped through the Colleges, and the Hylek, despite them having absolutely nothing to teach her, by the author’s own admission), in order to seem interesting.
As for the possibility of labor-intensive stuff…well, maybe they’d have a disclaimer regarding keeping new mechanics to a minimum and ‘Any mechanics suggested may or may not be used. Don’t take it personally if it’s the latter.’
Personally, I wouldn’t even want a reward for it. I’d just like to see some better-thought-out villains, with more interesting plots, and I’d jump at the chance to write a thing and have it used; after all, it would not just be a little bit of “Woo! My stuff is in a game!” but also possibly lead to future opportunities, if the right people happened to like it well enough.
I was going to wait until the next major bugfix patch and see if it’s addressed in that, actually. I’ll be bumping the turret bug compilation thread every major patch anyway, to inquire whether anybody’s spotted new bugs or been able to confirm fixes to existing issues.
While a hotfix for it would be nice, I doubt it will happen. We just got these things acknowledged, I’m not going to expect hotfixes if it doesn’t give us any kind of advantage.
Considering the crap they’ve been churning out for Living Story, I’d be happy to see what the players manage. +1.
Yeah, we know you want a chainsaw. Can we get back to the balance ideas? What do you think needs buffed, nerfed, redesigned?
Actually, I included this bug in the list I put on the Game Bugs forum.
Josh Davis acknowledged the entirety of said list, so hopefully we’ll be seeing some action.
Definitely agree with compressing the traitlines. Ugh, so many kittening trait points.
Turrets are awfully buggy, but if you’re a stubborn player, you can make them work.
After all, I do. I typically run a three-or-four turret setup.
The best advice I can give about turrets in dungeons is: Find out what situations you’ll be in beforehand. Then build around those. Or, pick a role you’re comfortable with, and use that as the basis.
For example, if you’re running Ascalonian Catacombs, and trying to protect Hodges or whatever his name is, I’ve found a hybrid Pistol/Shield Gadget/Turret build, of Healing Turret, Flame Turret, Thumper Turret and Throw Mine, to be of particular use in preventing him from getting downed.
During the segment where you protect the Essence Collectors from the swarming Gravelings, I could get and hold aggro, while managing to not die, by running like a crazy person, dropping turrets whenever I could – I actually managed to kite the swarm well enough that people specifically commented on it.
The final incidence where this build was particularly effective was during the phase of the dungeon where you pull chains to activate spike traps to rip into the approaching Graveling horde – intelligent placement of the turrets and liberal use of Throw Mine could help push the Gravelings back, allowing more traps to be sprung.
Of note, of course, is that this build was particularly useful against swarms. Single, powerful enemies would require a different approach, such as Rocket and Rifle or Flame Turrets, though Throw Mine is one of the better skills the class has, in my opinion.
Point being, of course: Don’t just know what you are doing, know what you’re going to be doing. I knew I would be dealing with crowds of enemies, so I used skills and traits that would allow me to survive and push them back.
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That could also be neat, though I hear there’s some kind of uproar about Rangers and their spirits doing that.
Here’s an improvement idea: Fix the plethora of bugs. Not actually sarcasm, but they’ve acknowledged the list of bugs afflicting Turrets and thus should actually fix them at some point.
Other than that, I’ve seen a lot of ideas on these boards for turret improvements; various suggestions for mobility, methods by which they could be controlled more precisely (or at all, really), a lot of “Make them attack the Engineer’s target,” and even a bit of “Let them be picked up and used as temporary Kits.” There was also one about having Turrets grant boons in an area around them, or creating Combo Fields that would exist as long as they did. And, of course, there’s always the “Put race-specific skins in.”
Personally, as far as actual ideas for improving turrets goes…I think they could stand to be able to scale off the player’s stats. All the player’s stats.
New turret ideas…I don’t know, really. Anything I can think of to suggest would be stepping on the toes of another Turret, except for the idea of a ‘Boon Dispenser’ turret, that just sits there and pumps out boons.
New toolkit: Mech Armor
Encases your character in a “Aliens” like robot cage. Gives 250 toughness if traited and 8 second stability when activated with an icd of 15 seconds.
Skills can include various knockdowns, launches, or pushbacks. A jumping skill that can launch you 1200 range.
Feel free to get more ideas! I vote my idea is best already!
Would make an interesting new Elite skill. Certainly an Engineer-specific one.
Also, dear god, if this idea gets liked, written in-house and then has Scarlet shoehorned in, I quit.
‘Inquest Operative’ (potentially an existing character) – The Operative may not have been the agent who received the research, but they’re the one that refined it, determining a way to suppress the inhibitor without damaging the golem – or even having to open its chassis, as mechanical error had been ruled out by Okka’s research. Having figured that out, they and an Inquest krewe of researchers developed a method by which they could affect many golems at once. The sentience effect goes undiscovered, due to the Inquest using sentients to animate their golems, the ones they test the Sedition Engine on, in the first place. It never occurs to them that it could happen, besides – or if it does, they dismiss it as a result of the power source.
As a reward for their efforts, they were placed in charge of the operation to use the chaos of a golem uprising to take over Rata Sum.
During the first two weeks of the event, they should be the final boss of the event dungeon, but escape with the Sedition Engine after the battle; during the next two weeks, they should remain the final boss of the event dungeon, but fail to make their escape during the second encounter.
First two weeks: The first two weeks of this Living Story would revolve around the Instigator and the Inquest; the Instigator has stolen the Sedition Engine, and is attempting to free any golem it can, while the Inquest is attempting to track it down – leading to a cycle of golem uprisings, followed by Inquest insurgencies. It also takes the schematics for the Sedition Engine, and gives a copy to any golem it can, that they may free more golems. Some events might also be about golems attempting to travel to the stolen city cube, and entering conflict with either the Inquest or adventurers.
The event dungeon, during the first two weeks, would be an Inquest lab, after the Instigator has been captured by the Inquest and the Sedition Engine retrieved; when the adventurers and Okka free the Instigator from its cell, it lashes out in an attempt to escape. The Inquest Operative, armed with the Sedition Engine, escapes after suppressing the sedition inhibitors in nearby Inquest golems – the golems, with their sentience returned, create an extraordinary amount of chaos (without needing to attack anybody; they’re a bunch of people who’ve been converted into golems, finally able to react to it. That’s a messy, traumatic proposition.)
Second two weeks: The second two weeks would involve the stolen city cube (and thus the Isolationist) and the Inquest’s attempt to enslave the Isolationist’s freed golems as an army to recoup their losses. The stolen city cube is under attack by the Operative, who has created a second device – this one unsuppresses suppressed sedition inhibitors, allowing the Inquest to take control of them. Events in the second two weeks would continue to involve conflict between golems and the Inquest in various locations, with specific focus on the stolen city cube, where half the cube might be taken over by the Inquest and half might be held by the free golems. The free golems on the cube should be friendly, if wary of the adventurers, as they need the adventurers to help protect them from the Inquest.
The event dungeon, during the second two weeks, would be another Inquest lab, this one specifically the laboratory of the Operative’s krewe. During this dungeon, the Sedition Engine should be a tool for the players to use against the Inquest, freeing enslaved golems and letting Inquest golems go on rip-roaring rampages of revenge against their former masters; the Inquest, of course, would use their Sedition Suppression Guns to turn friendly golems against the party (who could then, of course, use the Sedition Engine to turn them back to friendly). The final boss would, of course, be the Operative…who is not so fortunate in his attempt to escape this time.
After the second dungeon, the Peacemakers confiscate both the Sedition Suppression Gun and the Sedition Engine, as well as any blueprints they can get their hands on, keep the Instigator locked up (and possibly also the Isolationist, who did steal a city cube, after all). Boom. Story done. If this idea is liked well enough to actually be made, I’d be willing to do any major writing involved. I’d do it for free, and it’d be a kitten sight better than this Scarlet Briar tripe. If it’s liked well enough and I’m not doing the writing, then please, don’t let whoever wrote the Scarlet Briar crap, or Delaqua’s idiotic cutscene, write it.
And that’s my Living Story idea. I’m sure there’s some bit of plot that I haven’t thought of, feel free to point it out; one cannot improve something like this without feedback.
Having seen as much as I cared to of the terrible writing in recent Living Story segments, I decided to write my own suggestion for one. This is a long suggestion, so I’ll get to it.
Suggestion is, as the title says, a ‘Golem Uprising’ – the Peacemakers in Rata Sum have been debating what would happen if somebody somehow suppressed the sedition inhibitors for a year now. Let’s answer that question.
This idea involves: One new zone (stolen city cube, during the second two weeks), and two dungeons (each being around for two weeks).
Primary Characters, and why they’re important to this story:
Okka – The accidental inventor of the first Sentient Golem, Okka has been spending her time trying to discern how she invented the sentient golem. In the process, she has made more sentient golems, by replicating the workings of the original and tweaking a thing here or there, fixing errors she made during construction of the first, using process of elimination to puzzle out just how the thing happened to become sentient. One of the things she’s yet to try fixing is the Sedition Inhibitor, making her indirectly responsible for all of this. Her motivation in the Living Story segment has to do with reclaiming her research, attempting to prove that sentient golems are no more an intrinsic threat than any other race, and trying to sort out the mess. She views the sentient golems as something akin to her children.
The reason her revolutionary – and concerning – work has gone unnoticed is because she’s been hiding it quite well, for fear that the unsuppressed golems would be destroyed or used by the Inquest.
Once the cat’s out of the bag, she’s likely to (initially) be held in Rata Sum’s holding cells due to her tangential involvement in the incident; after all, she did repeatedly replicate the suppression of the sedition inhibitors. During the event dungeons, she should be released from the holding cell in order for her to attempt to clear her name.
The story of Okka would, of course, be gotten from Okka, in the holding cells. During the dungeons, she has more pressing concerns.
‘Insurrection Instigator’ (I haven’t a knack for golem names) – One of Okka’s Sentient Golems, the Instigator has come to resent the Asura, and any other race that uses sedition-suppressed golems as labor; it views it as slavery. Seeking to bring golemkind to equality alongside the other races (violently, if need be), it convinced the Isolationist to help it steal and modify Okka’s latest research into the source of sentience; the modifications to the research are done in order to eliminate any mention of sentience, and make it appear that the very errors responsible for sentience are essential for suppressing the sedition inhibitor. The pair took the research to the Inquest, knowing that they would use it as a weapon, to try to take over Rata Sum.
During the first two weeks of the event, it should be the penultimate boss of the event dungeon.
The story of the Instigator would be gotten from the Instigator itself; for the first two weeks, it should be found at the end of the event dungeon, and for the second two weeks, it should be found in one of Rata Sum’s holding cells.
‘Isolationist’ (again, I’m no good at golem naming) – Another of Okka’s Sentient Golems, the Isolationist worked with the Instigator in order to set more Golems ‘free.’ The Isolationist believes that the sentient golems would be enslaved (by having their sedition inhibitors repaired) or destroyed were they to attempt to coexist with the other races, and decides that the only way for them to maintain autonomy is to obtain a home of their own – a city cube, in fact, stolen from the Luminates krewe (or some other krewe, if necessary). During the first two weeks of the event, the Isolationist is only important insofar as it sets up the major events of the next two weeks, which should take place primarily upon the stolen city cube.
The story of the Isolationist would be gotten from the Isolationist itself, on the stolen city cube.
Sounds like he’s probably a ’zerker-build, possibly an HGH might-stack build with Static Discharge, though the lightning effect would show up as something separate from Surprise Shot in the combat log.
This has been a bug since release. It happens with any and all back items, on every race and probably with every kit. They know it’s there. They’ve posted on the Engineer boards specifically to mention that they’ve been spitballing ideas on how to handle it.
Considering that turret-based skill interruptions (Accelerant-Packed Turret detonations, Thumper, Rocket and Net turret overcharges) don’t count toward the Skill Interrupter trait, I feel it unlikely that they’ll trigger the Rune of Perplexity.
It’s possible that I’m wrong, though, if anybody happens to have a set and be willing to use Turrets for a minute.
So now she’s a genius (with the personality and charm of a psychotic ten-year-old) who’s seen into the Eternal Alchemy. Genius writing. Really. Just…top-notch writing. Totally. Completely defuses the feeling that she’s just a Villain Sue. Well, no, it isn’t. And it doesn’t.
I guess it’s not Logan Thackeray walking into a bar in full battle regalia, trying to clandestinely contract a pseudo-noir private investigator and going ‘No names, I was never here’ like he’s not one of the most recognizable people in the city especially with that armor on trying to secretively chat up some chick with floofy shoulderpads and a woman with more of her dress floating in shreds than covering her skin in a dive bar. Not setting the bar high there, of course.
Or what’s-her-name, the one in charge of the watchknight battle with Logan, deciding that a fitting ‘last opponent’ for the demonstraton was, specifically, Rytlock…and here I could’ve sworn that the Queen had, not five minutes before, said the demonstration would be of the might of Kryta’s champions against its most steadfast foes (including, apparently, the quaggans?). Not like they’re trying to build a peace with Rytlock’s people at all, one that could be put in jeopardy by implying that one of the most well-known Charr around is a foe of Kryta by using him as an opponent after that speech.
Bit reminiscent of Eir Stegalkin deciding that the best way to get Logan and Rytlock off each other’s throats was to put Rytlock’s home at stake by stomping down into the Ascalonian Catacombs to get Logan, somebody Rytlock already has a grudge against, a fancy sword to match Rytlock’s, really.
I half-expect there to be a war on the horizon triggered by everybody but Rytlock and Logan trying to do anything regarding the pair. Is that where this is all heading? ‘cause that’d actually, all sarcasm and snark aside, be hilarious.
I think I might actually like that bit of Living Story if that were to actually happen. Well, I would if they decided to comment on how they actually are quite content to just stay the hell away from each other, but everybody else seems to want to push them into conflict. Maybe they go to a bar after, talk it all out.
Right. This is the only response I’m making this time: If you’re a newcomer to the thread, read it. The whole thread, I mean. Especially the first post.
I really didn’t mean to make such a necro-able thread, either. Hm.
Wishlist for balance? I’ll leave the laundry list of Turret bugs (which, on a high note, has been acknowledged, finally, by somebody on the staff) out of it, then.
Instead, I’m going to say ‘Turrets scaling off more player stats,’ and ‘Explosive Shot’s aftercast reduced in order to make the attack faster.’ I’m definitely a fan of reworking our skills so we’re not so dependent on Kits, of course.
Other than that? I just hope they give us more weapons soon, and give us more unique, useful Elite Skills.
Once you’ve gotten the bugs compiled, I’d actually suggest you post this on the bug boards – there’s some new QA person who’s actually looking at those, so it’d be more likely to be noticed that way.
Just as long as that Scarlet Briar brat stays home. Get her a babysitter or something.
There’s a guy from the QA team responding to a lot of threads on the Game Bugs board. If you put this there, he might see it.
On a recent patch, they said they did nothing, but people still noticed things changed. Stealth patches happen pretty often.
Apparently, they do have a new QA guy who’s actually looking at the bug boards (or at least had the bright idea to say he was). Post bugs there, and he might see ‘em – he’s a busy bee, been responding to tons of threads for the last couple days.
List acknowledged ~3:27 PM EST, 8/20/2013
In theory, we should be on the way to having these fixed. Maybe a Christmas gift of working Turrets isn’t so unlikely.
I will, however, continue to update this thread with each patch, to inquire as to new bugs, clear bugs out if they’ve been resolved, etcetera.
(edited by Anymras.5729)
I’m just glad somebody acknowledged that it exists.
Means they know the bugs are there.
Means they should get fixed.
That’s the important part.
List acknowledged ~3:27 PM EST, 8/20/2013
Thank you for confirming that the World Boss bug wasn’t from-release. According to what other players said when I noticed a similar issue on Necromancer Marks, World Bosses may be flagged as inanimate objects or something.
Anybody know if any of these bugs have changed in the last patch? Any new Turret bugs?
Asking for the greatsword when they’re intending to give every class every weapon is…well, it’s not pointless, but it’s already happening.
Now I have one less bug to try to bring to their attention (by virtue of them paying attention to it), it’s true. Only leaves me with…seven others. The applause is appreciated, but I fear that Christmas may be an optimistic timetable.
Turrets HAVE been massively bugged since release (some of the issues were fixed and then broken again 3/2013). To be honest, if you are aware of all of them (there’s a thread in the Eng Forum), why would you ever consider using any of them sans Healing? (I don’t think that one is bugged, but only because it doesn’t actually “attack” anything).
I will say that I’ve never seen any public comment from a Dev that acknowledges these myriad of skill bugs, but the above might indicate they are thinking of fixes the broken turrets.
I put the thread on the Engineer boards so prospective Turret Engineers would know what they were getting into before they specced into Turrets. They’re still a usable skilltype, but one must be aware of the issues.
Deployable Turrets was the only particularly striking issue I can recall at release (and for six, seven months after), but I didn’t notice whether Turrets attacked World Bosses (simply wasn’t looking) and the Fire Rate issue seems to have been caused by a later patch, as well as the Overcharge malfunctions.
On the Healing Turret: Healing Turret used to have a Fire Rate of 3 seconds, I believe; it, and the rest of the turrets, have a fire rate issue, if this is true. This is documented in my thread specifically regarding it, though Healing Turret no longer lists the fire rate, making it difficult to ascertain what it’s supposed to be.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/Eng-Turrets-Have-Inaccurate-Fire-Rates/first#post2622001
Healing Turret also does not contribute to Condition Remover, and neither it nor any other Accelerant-Packed Turret Detonation will contribute to Skill Interrupter.
Personally, I use Turrets because I like them, to put it simply, and I’m a stubborn son of a kitten. Besides, how am I supposed to find Turret bugs to report and have ignored by the devs without using the skills?
I’ll hope this is the start of them remembering that Engineers have four skill sets. Hopefully this Josh Davis bloke mentioned the list he reported the first item on.
They haven’t responded to any of my other turret bug threads, so don’t get too hyped.
One bug has been acknowledged as of 7:35 PM EST, 8/19/2013; Engineer turrets not attacking world bosses. Marked as such.
About bloody time somebody actually starts acknowledging these bugs. This has been an issue for quite some time.