Guild Wars 2

Nike.2631:

I want a 1-5 player roflstomp ROMP though her secret base. And the most important thing of all?

I don’t want to see Scarlet at all. If she’s always out building alliances, then kitten she can be out wining and dining her new harpies-&-skritt team-up or whatever. I want to burn her whole base to the ground and do racial dances in the ashes.

This guy right here, my bookah!
+1 I too wouldn’t mind seeing this.

gidorah.4960:

can you do something as big and dynamic as the balthazar event chain over multiple maps temporarily for the living story. does the cadence allow the proper testing to prevent bugs that would be needed because it sounds like thats what people want temple of balthazar like chain but over multiple maps that doesnt reset as often or at all and progresses a story.

This is something I’m curious about as well. It seems that all DEs, even some chained ones, are all in small bubbles of influence that don’t interact outside of the Map they are on. Shadow Behemoth in Queensdale doesn’t affect Gendarran which doesn’t affect the Hinterlands.

Now I could be wrong, but what if we had a couple of cross map arcs in the DE system that did such a thing?

Queensdale Centaurs are getting their forces wrecked, so the Harathi Hinterlands centaurs get word of such a failing on their front and decide to reinforce it.
That would allow players in the Hinterlands some missions they could do to stop the reinforcements from making a push to Queensdale.

If the players push hard enough to take out the Overlord then Centaur activity throughout Gendarran, Queensdale, and Hinterlands drops thus allowing Bandits or whoever else is on the map a chance to take some land for themselves.

More of the races stabbing each other in the back.
I want the Svanir to move into Charr territory, laying waste to things because the Molten ticked them off and Jormagg told them to consume Flame Legion.

I want the Hylek to begin taking shots at the Asura because some ancient evil tied to an ancient White Mantel artifact gave them delusions of power.

I want to see a group of Bandits lead attacks into Sylvari holdings because a Nightmare Court nobility paid them to lead the charge against Pale Tree’s children and thus giving them trauma. If the Humans die, well less of that race for the Court to deal with later.

I want to see a former Molten Shaman bow before an evil guild that is forming because someone found armor associated with Saul D’Alessio thinks he/she can take down Destiny’s Edge and their precious Pact Commander (the player) in order to fulfill a prophecy they believe.

I want to see multiple factions vying for power and prestige, not just simple lower races I cull for trophies and loot drops.

I want Tyria in thrown into the flames of war and my hero to put his hand into the fire and pull it out.

The concept of Scarlet, a villain who uses others and their technology to reach her goals, sounds appealing.
Scarlet, the character we have, is mostly an excuse to patchwork together alliance because….well we need to kill hybrids in small dungeons.

They could have given her one, maybe two groups she formed and been a pain in our sides. The main problem I have with her is every “mysterious force” or “shadowy evil” can be explained as “Scarlet needs something from these guys.”

ANet wants her to be our personal nemesis, fine I get that. The problem is she’s turning into a boring boogeyman. I still want a nemesis, that one person who I’ll want to kill off because they tweaked me the wrong way.
The Risen Commander who taunts me because of Forgal’s death is a better (short term) nemesis.

So I do like the idea of her, but not what I’m getting right now.
She should have kicked off two alliances, scared the Queen during her own celebration then sat back a few updates and let the lesser races take a swing at it on their own.

However I’m stuck with the fact that every alliance, every upcoming power, and every looming evil has her in the immediate background.
So I’m still going through to see when this ends and when ANet can give me more than one nemesis, when they can give me proper power blocs that I can attack and crush.

Agreed, if she could just let some other races have the spotlight without her I’d be pleased.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Hi,

Just to be clear by epic i am referring to more mature (in some instances), more meaningful, more relevant. Please forgive me for the use of that word it seems to have derailed the conversation somewhat.

Chris

Well having the Krait, an established xenophobic zealot malevolent faction, rising up to attack us is a decent idea to moving in the more mature scale of game.

I won’t speak any more of the Scarlet interaction with them, I’ve done that quite a bit.
Maybe we, the players, need some no win scenarios in some releases.
For example:
Have the Inquest move into Hylek territory and start clearing the marsh. Show on a map how certain trees and water spots are just….gone. The Hylek themselves are willing to lay down spears temporarily to get some assistance while the Inquest are willing to pay (and not use us for experiments).

Depending on how a server’s players align with the groups we could see in future releases if there’s less marsh lands, or more Hylek in former Inquest territories, or just a spot on the map where both sides annihilated each other’s forces which allows others to take over.

That could use the map altering that we’ve seen in this recent update, the features of both SouthSun and Cutthroat Politics, and give way to other ideas for future releases.

kitten nic Touch.7960:

It’s clearly outworld. Tyria is in danger of losing their 10th tournament and the greatest warriors need to band together and defeat Shao Khan.

Moot-al Combat?

I’m not on a tier 1 server, but I’m constantly encountering people in PVE.
Now in Lion’s Arch I’ve seen quite a number of folks ask for help in WvW, but I guess we are a mostly PVE server at this point.

gamemaster.7154:

Asura pic

9/10
Would collaborate with krewe on dangerous hypothesis.

Thalador.4218:

Maybe I’m the most blasphemous person on this world (hell yeah), but I have no idea what Atlas tried to convey there – I’ve watched 2 separate episodes of Doctor Who, is all (didn’t grab my attention).

Someone would please care to elaborate? :/ I want to know and offer my congratulations. Heck, I still do that, ‘cause it’s very creepy and cosmically awesome.

Pretty much what Sindex said.
I was rewatching some DVR episodes of Who when typing it up.
Then I remembered one of the best episodes I’ve ever loved, the one Sindex talked about.

We constantly mock Logan’s running away to save Jennah, so I wanted to turn the purpose on its head.

The room 11 part was from a Matt Smith episode (the 11th Doctor) called The God Complex
People get locked in a hotel and eventually see their worst fears, the Doctor saw his but the audience never get a clue as to what he saw.

Since this thread was talking about hallucinations, with that come some fears, I decided both episodes would serve a purpose in my humor, raise Logan up a rung in the level of awesomeness, and it gave me a giggle in the process.

/bow
You are quite welcome.

A strange man in a suit of armor staring into room 11 and then walking away.
This man will fight us and defeat us. He will then stand over us and stare.

He never raised his voice. That was the worst thing. The fury of the Seraph. And then we discovered why. Why this man, who had fought with gods and demons, why he’d run away from us and hidden. He was being kind.

He wrapped Rytlock in unbreakable chains, forged in the heart of a dwarf star.
He tricked Eir into the event horizon of a collapsing Asura gate to be imprisoned there forever.

He still visits Zojja once a year every year. I wonder if one day he might forgive her, but there she is. Can you see? He trapped her inside a mirror, every mirror. If ever you look at your reflection and see something move behind you, just for a second, that’s her. That’s always her.

As for Caithe, she was suspended in time thanks to Jenna’s power. And this man, Logan Thackery, put her to work standing over the fields of Shaemoor, as their protector, as a scarecrow.

In hindsight I shouldn’t watch my Doctor Who episodes while being silly on these threads.

Derom.1205:

Second, there was this other “Mery Sue” running around ,called The Player, who was working against her.

To call the player a Mary Sue is just like complaining that a bucket of water got you wet.
Players are destined to win in MMOs, it is a fact of programming.
I have yet to see any online RPG that has a “losing path” where the player descends further down a less than successful path due to losing matches. In fact I would love to see such a thing because it would be interesting.

Single player games can do that type of thing because of easier programming, heck Wing Command is a great example of the hero losing.

Therefore this idea that the player is a Mary Sue is irrelevant. Fact is you will win unless you play some hardcore mode where you purposely delete your character if you lose a fight and reroll someone.

Now granted that would be awesome as heck, but I’ve invested too much in mine at the moment.

Vekk.
Back in GW1 EoTN I loved that one of the first Asura was voiced by the guy who voices Brain. Since I loved Pinky and the Brain, his works, and he played a small super genius with no bedside manner, I loved the Asura naturally.

I was going to make one of every race, but I knew he was going to at least be the third I made (human first, Sylvari second). So out came Dante Dominus, my Domination Mesmer Asura who loves controlling your energy in the most efficient manner possible.

I’ve beaten you. You just don’t know it yet.

The Sylvari attractiveness is there, but falls short of Humans and Norn for me.
Now attitude wise I absolutely adore them.
Physically though I’m more interested in the non green versions because of the multitude of colors I can be given.

nethykins.7986:

@Timmyf, @Vick and @Atlas….(especially Atlas) I think you’re all right in your own way. All we can do is speculate, but in the meantime, it’s a pretty bum deal to hear that.

It certainly is, but all we can do as customers is list out why we like or not like something and either keep consuming or move on to something else.

A lot of this Collaboration sounds more like they want our opinion for the next arc since they have Scarlet going in a certain way.
Considering how this is their first attempt at creating an arc with a villain I’m just going to try and give as much feedback possible.

To ANet: It seems clear that what is needed when you make a villain (nemesis) isn’t so much the build up but the pay off. You guys are making a good game, a fun world, and you have so much lore to work from.
Build up, display, then expand, and finally resolve the arc of your villains or next big worlds shattering situation. The key is timing and pace, this one was a bit off, but hopefully with all this advice you’ll get it.

nethykins.7986:

I find such a disconnect with:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Regarding Cadence of release: This is not something we plan to change in terms of timing and I wanted to make that clear from the outset.

…And…

BobbyStein.2315:

That’s not my decision to make. That stated, feedback regarding the cadence is useful and constructive to others so I think it’s good for people to tell us how they feel about the release schedule.

You think our feedback on that is necessary, but there’s no point, because it’s ultimately futile?

Some companies like to have CYA situations where even if they can’t do anything about said scenario, it at least helps that it was documented.

Believe me, I’ve seen this and yes it is frustrating even on the business side of it.

Zaxares.5419:

For a moment I thought you were trying to make a human look like an Asura. I’m SO glad I was wrong.

I don’t know, a human version of Agent Batanga wouldn’t be too bad.

Jeff.4680:

What’s next? The Hoof-hop Alliance? (Centaurs and Hylek)

You have my +1 because I thought the same thing. Its still worth the giggle.

timmyf.1490:

I don’t necessarily like the idea of splitting zones, it was just an off-hand suggestion.

I still think that there should be new content, perhaps delivered in the form of an expansion, which opens up new territory once you’ve joined an Order. The story would blend in to the Personal Story without being Personal Story. You could have a unique cinematic or two to open it up and a few instances that explain why you’re in the new area.

Of course, as the world changes, your reasons for going to those areas might change, so those cinematics may need to be refreshed periodically.

Well I will say that anything which makes the Orders worthwhile is worth exploring.
I’m saddened by the fact that joining an order only means you can pick from this/that armor set when you break it all down. The missions in the PS were small, quick, and ultimately not really needed.

cesmode.4257:

Sadly, arenanet could script in a big nuclear bomb that is dropped from an Asura airship and level the area. Theres hardly any farming going on there, people only zone in every once in a while to complete a temple event and even thats rare on many servers. Other than to map complete, its borderline pointless to ever stop foot in Orr. Why run around Orr frustrate yourself with knockdowns, cripples, immobalize, etc when you can run around queensdale or kessex now, with ease.

This isn’t about the farming, but more about how to integrate a “locked” (in terms of story) zone with the Living Story.

timmyf.1490:

Ahh, but here we go then: maybe these zones are split based on whether you’ve killed the dragon or not! So new players get infested territory and have to clear it. I’m not sure if this is feasible without an “underflow” server or something, but it’s an option..

Which means we’re back at the Pre/Post Searing Ascalon gambit I brought up earlier.
But then we’d need some option to allow players a way to go back in Pre Pact if they want.

Also are you tracking via end of Personal Story or Arah dungeon, because we know there are players who don’t dungeon. I’d hate to punish them. Then again we are punishing those who hate the Personal Story too lol.

Tobias Valin.5893:

That’s currently one of the biggest problems with the Living World; the inability of brand new players to experience the stories.

This guy right here, this post right here was what I wanted to say.
I kept rewriting my stuff about three times before giving up.

Short of Scarlet just finding a way to manipulate time via Myst and Eternal Alchemy voodoo, the Personal Story is going to hamstring the Living Story.
Shortening the PS just simply kills the whole urgency of “Kill Zhaitan” but keeping it means certain elements and plot points are no touchie.

Then what about elements of after effects? Will they have a pay expansion for a “clean” Orr?

Edit: I dunno why I’m putting down the word “Pay” maybe its because when I hear the term expansion that always comes to mind.

As much as I loathe the idea of purchasing a new expansion timmyf, the idea of a zone with no hearts wouldn’t be bad. If lessons were learned from SouthSun. (the word filter is on high today it seems)

The only other way I can see it is force the Personal Story so everyone is on equal footing when Anet makes something in the Living Story happen.

If they made the territory non hearts, they should at least indicate where big events are happening on map. Call them scout reports or something. Get a big red circle and the hover over text says something like “White Mantle historians are excavating a lost magical McGuffin, stop them” sort of like the Scarlet invasions. If stopped then certain other DEs are disabled. It would give ANet more fluidity with events, but we’re still stuck with the dilemma of Personal versus Living story.

Now if they scrap Personal altogether that would solve one problem, but bring about more.

BobbyStein.2315:

That’s among the many things we discussed doing, but we currently have technical limitations preventing us from making such a drastic change because it would break Personal Story dependencies. Until we have a system in place that separates the timelines of the Personal Story and Living World stories we are limited in the kinds of changes we can show in the open world.

So could ANet stop the Personal Story by level 20 or so?
Because the “Personal” part of the story is over by the time you pick an Order.
This could free you up in twisting the overarching story on its head somewhat.

I don’t make a suggestion like this lightly, in fact I don’t envy your job because its a tough one and I applaud any efforts you all are making in working with this.

At the moment it seems like GW2 is stuck between what it wants to do and where it was with GW1. You don’t want to keep old events around but still need them to build the narrative of the “present”. New players need to know about big Z and the Pact, but with that Personal Story your hands get tied when you want to do something extreme (like kill off Jenna or anyone high ranking).

The players get stuck, in theory, within two timelines: Pre and Post Pact. Would it be possible to borrow from GW1 and pull the Pre-Ascalon trick?
Have a self contained pocket where players Pre Pact (or even just Pre Personal lvl 20 story) play around in but can skip if they wish?

Eh…even that would cause a division in the player base and mechanically gums up more. I guess this is one of those moments where ANet needs to decide which is important: A fluid timeline or these crystalized moments?

Once again best of luck, if I can come up with anything that helps I’ll try.

Vayne.8563:

From what I read (and I’m not sure this was in game or not), she’s doing this because she wants to see if she destroys the existing structure what will replace it. It’s an experiment in her head.

So instead of undermining the political structures via manipulation of more worthier elements like Caudecus/a Svanir chief/anyone who was Baelfire’s second in command, she decides frontal attacks and strange hybrid alliances are the way to go?

Someone call up the Shadows or the Vorlons, because clearly she’s an amateur if this is her real reason. Personally I’m holding some hope for a better reason.

At best the Aetherblades were a worthy attempt. We already had the evil trinity alliance of Bandit/Inquest/Court in Sylvari/Asura territory. That much I can award praise to her.

I’m playing for story.
If the story element isn’t worth it I play for Home instanced rewards.
If there’s no HIR, I see what reward there is. Minis have priority over armor because I don’t have a lot of bank space for armor.
If none of that excites me I see if its just a challenge (see Teq release).
If I can’t do it solo or it requires a group and I can’t find a decent one then I’m simply going back to dungeons/crafting/leveling my lowbies.

That’s my flowchart for every release. With this current Tower release I’m doing this all for the skittence I have that its Champ train for my level 52 Charr Engineer again.

Kaiyanwan.8521:

She is a dragon champion. She is corrupted and therefore crazy and powerful.

Spoiled the plot, sorry…

Best theory so far, let’s see if they concur with it.
No. Seriously. I’m at the point that if she flat out answered “I wanted peanut butter toast, but Mother Tree said we only had bagels”. I would clap my hands, “woooo” in the air, and say “okay I’m ready for the next great evil to conquer!”

Vayne.8563:

She’s obviously a sociopath and she obviously wants to destroy things. And she managed to convince the dredge and the flame legion to work together? How? My guess is the manipulation of their self interests. She has the Nightmare Court working with the Krait. I can see how she accessed the Nightmare Court easily enough (they’d eat up what she’s doing), and if she did find these power crystals the krait consider holy…well, entire populations have gone to war for less than that.

I do agree Anet could make this stuff clearer, but Anet has a history of not making certain things clear. The idea is to let people talk about them, just like this. In fact, they even said this very thing in the Halloween developer live stream.

Vayne I understand she has possible sociopathic tendencies.
However that isn’t a goal, that isn’t an explanation as to why these alliances are coming out of left field.

Even Heath Ledger’s Joker had some goal, to show that folks are basically animals when you strip away their safety.
Even real life criminals have a reason though I can’t vouch for any of them being remotely tied to reality.
Charles Manson believed in a possible race war and his killings would help spur it on. He’s also nuttier than Skritt droppings, but at least we have some reason why he did it.

What has the game produced to show why she’s doing this?

Which leads me to my next point, yes Anet has a history of not making things clear.
To some degree that’s no excuse. That’s a failing/challenge that needs to be worked on.
Hopefully this Collaboration effort will be the start to that.

They could improve with this character, well actually not really because they are set on whatever path they are making for her. They can work on their communication problems with their next villain.

Also I can’t see the connection between having a company with communication issues leading to people talking. If anything when you present more about a character people talk more about them.

Hint about the villain, show some of their work, debut the villain, reveal part of their plan and some reasons why this is their plan, and discover more as you continue.
That will spur people into talking about how good a villain’s work is, not how confusing or “Mary Sue” (I hate that term) a person is.

Right now we’re still at hint and show, even with Clockwork I don’t even think we’ve gotten to “debut”.

Now I could be wrong with this next update and ANet pulls a miracle by giving some flipping clue as to why she’s going around grouping folks up like a nosy mother who wants grand kids. If it happens I’ll reevaluate my stance like I’ve done before (ardent Scarlet supporter, but now facepalming but still supportive).

Derom.1205:

Atlas.9704:

They had other villains, other obstacles, and that made the heroes all the better.

Yeah maybe it is a bit contrived to see that Scarlet is behind everything but there are actually many evil organisations in Tyria.

The player just destroyed or weakened all of them already.
….

There really wasn’t anything left after the Personel Story.
It’s more like Scarlet is now creating an Anti-Pact of the remnants of these organisations.

And you know I wouldn’t mind that type of explanation if they somehow put it in the story.
So far we are supposedly still just getting to know her motivations and after nearly a year that gets slow and irritating.

Now I’m one for positive thinking and to be fair ANet had the chance to give us a better glimpse of her motivations at Chaos Clockwork.
When she popped in she could have said something about us (the player) in enough generalized fashion to show we’ve been followed.

(Closing Ceremony begins and up pops the Rose haired menace.)
“Aaaaand that’s my cue. Hello, DR! My name is Scarlet, and I’ve come to play with you. Don’t panic…yet. I’ve been laughing my leaves off while your queen brays about “trials” and “endurance.”
“Oh I see we have a special guest in the audience! What was your pet name again dear? Slayer? Valiant? Hero? Savant? It doesn’t matter. You’ve done quite the number on local baddies in Tyria, thank you. I couldn’t have taken what I wanted from them without you meddling! Oh yes I’ve watched you and now YOU can watch ME. Here I’ll even give you a pet name: My little target.”
“It’s time to show how fragile human society is. To wit: these ‘watchknights’ you’re so proud of? Mine now.
I’ve also planted a few bombs around the city to keep things lively. Bet you can’t find them all!
Ta for now. See you soon! Oh, and I’ll be taking your queen with me. Hang on, Your Majesty. It’s going to be a wild ride. See you around Target. (Evil laughter)”

Now right there had we just a few more lines it would have given us something about her which would tease her motivations.
Her giving a “title”, much like we have generic ones from all the places we’ve saved, and mocking the process shows a personal touch.

However we didn’t and the closest is her talking about how we fumbled up her plans in later releases, which I’ll admit is good, but we still have little to no motivations on why she’s doing this stuff.

And that’s one of my problems. I’ve seen this in countless comics where the narrator blows hot air in the reader’s face about how “mysterrrrrioussss” and beyond human a certain character’s motivations are. Motivation is just a desire to do something (save/blow up something/someone for example). It’s poor storytelling if you don’t establish why someone is on the stage.

And even if we have broken the backs of these organizations, that’s just even more incentive for them to come back and start swinging or give other races/organizations a chance to make moves that will cement their ascent.

Give me a resurgence in Centaur uprisings with a warlord who thinks he’s better than the guy that was broken because of me. Give me Krait who think NOW is the time to slaughter the land creatures for their god without resorting to “Scarlet helps them”.
Give me Hylek who think that taking me down will prove the Sun shines through them more. I want bandits moving in on Inquest and Court territories after I’ve wrecked their couches. I liked the idea of Aetherblades because I thought it was due to my involvements!

Half the time I wonder if Scarlet’s supposedly half baked alliances are breaking because we come in at the 11th hour. Well if that’s the case I’ll take two weeks off so she can finally win something. Maybe then I’ll get some inkling as to why she’s doing things.

Now all this frustration you’re reading comes from a Scarlet supporter. I LOVE the idea that someone is wrecking stuff and I have to put them down, but her wrecking stuff “because she’s nutty” stopped being a valid reason after the Tower update.

Nutty people don’t convince Krait to work with folks they would have slaughtered two weeks ago.

And even nutty people have limitations on time and resources.

BobbyStein.2315:

Regarding GW1 lore in Living World and beyond, let’s just say we’re looking at all GW lore right now and picking out threads that we’d like to tie up. Ideas are welcome, as always.

I’ll post more tomorrow. Time to go home.

Here’s a gw1 thread I would love to see in GW2: Why did the gargoyles vanish?

Go. Sleep. You’ve listened to us quite a bit today.

gidorah.4960:

Atlas.9704:

I actually listed out every release and noted why I loved or didn’t love it, but you said pick one of each. I did the best I could. If you want a full breakdown just ask!

i am interested in your thoughts on the other releases

It is a lengthy post, I’ll await what the red banners say.
At the absolute minimum I could message you the thoughts.

inazuma.7021:

Thalador.4218:

Killing Scarlet is not enough now. She and all her dealings have to be made non-canon, or at least a bad dream from which the PC will soon wake in Fort Trinity after drinking TOOOO much on the victory celebration… but wait a minute…

What’s Marshal Trahearne doing in our bed??? O_O

This won’t end well…

And then Kormir walks in…

And trips over the bed because she’s blind.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Regarding Cadence of release: This is not something we plan to change in terms of timing and I wanted to make that clear from the outset…

How disappointing, but if that’s your mindset now there’s not much we can do to convince ANet that it is folly.

It would be really cool if you have the time to post your single favorite and least favorite and the reasons why for each. This would help a lot and I will share my learning with you etc. from the posts.

Well if we can’t convince you to change the cadence we can at least rate the current products that have been released.
My vote for “Best”
Flame and Frost (All four parts)
Individually they were weak, but together you created a story introducing two new characters and concluded it pretty well.
I’d go so far as to say if the Molten weren’t allied with Scarlet this would have still been good on its own.
Since you won’t change the cadence at least have a series of releases close enough to encaspulate the story being told.
The Prelude was boring, but eventually the players were given a great dungeon and good back and forth between Rox and Braham with the last one.

Here’s the least favorite:
Clockwork Chaos
Okay it is the big moment to take down Scarlet.
We’ve been pumped up to finally see this vicious villain.
And….her invasions practically do nothing when they win.
I did like how she took over the celebration and we had to fight her in order to win them back.
I did like how you used Faren and Hobo-tron for humor.
I did like the massive battles open world for the invasions.

I don’t care much for the fact I now have about 8 queen jennah minis and I can’t do anything with the surplus.
I don’t care anymore about the Scarlet invasions because even if she wins the map is just the same.
I don’t really remember why Scarlet went trolololo to the humans at that time.
Was she trying to test the Humans? Kill the Queen? Just there to steal the clockwork?
Is my confusion brought about because we actually stopped her from completing her plan?
Because if so I’ll gladly step back and let her win something just so I can see why she’s doing half this stuff in the first place.

Honorable mention to the recent one:

Tower of Nightmares
I have never found a release which excited me so much and yet bored me at the same time.
Exciting:
-New Skill! YES you can do such things!
-We have altered Kessex! Holy Six this is awesome and now it feels like the Living story is altering and growing things!
-My fave lady team up Kasmeer and Delaqua are starring this one. Good to see this because they needed another case.
-A big tower which looks like the Krait’s doing, Oh yes I’m so excited!
-The Krait, a minor villain in GW1 and GW2, looks like they might be making a power play!

Bored:
-Oh. Wait. It’s Scarlet’s doing huh? (Sighs) Okay let’s see how she managed to convince xenophobic sociopathic religious snakes to follow her.
Apparently we can’t have anyone try something on their own unless she’s behind it, and it looks like the next release isn’t looking good either since she’s on the preview thumbnail. What’s the big motivation for yet another alliance? Will she make a hybrid, leave holo clones of herself, and get away scott free once more? Because I’m predicting the next release to be that.

I actually listed out every release and noted why I loved or didn’t love it, but you said pick one of each. I did the best I could. If you want a full breakdown just ask!

Derom.1205:

So the only worthy opponent for a person like that it someone like Scarlet.
Similar to Superman’s and Lex Luther’s relationship. Both are extremly powerful, but in their own way.

It kinda makes sense i think.

And to some degree I can understand your viewpoint, but the one thing I loved about superheroes like Batman and Superman is we didn’t have to rely completely on the Joker or Luthor.

They had other villains, other obstacles, and that made the heroes all the better.
That is what I wanted with us and the Living World. I don’t care if she created the Molten or the Aetherblades, that’s fine. The problem I have is with every alliance or “evil shadow lurking” moment we have I can just spit out “Scarlet’s behind it” and I’m correct.

Taking this newest release as example, I would have been thrilled if it was just the Krait making this tower. Just them, on their own, somehow they used Mesmer magic to hide their progress and the humans weren’t paying attention because DR was attacked earlier thanks to Scarlet so they were on edge.

The veil drops, the tower shows up, and the Krait try to make a power play. Scarlet could have been a long distance factor (her shenanigans spooked the Humans and distracted them) but she wasn’t the primary instigator of this release.

Once again I love the idea of a nemesis for the player. However I also love the fact this world has multiple factions vying for power/land/magic/etc and sometimes events take us by surprise because we were focused on something else.

We just aren’t getting that if Scarlet is behind everything.

Multiple human kingdoms vying for the long dead throne of the Orr empire.
It would take inspiration from the Succession Houses in Battletech/MechWarrior.

The Chronomancer from the GW Utopia concept art, that just looks so awesome.

And it looks like that’s the only way to get a compromise.
Either that or let some other guy throw a flag into them while I move on to more upright targets.

Problem is with the flags that you are stationary and thus cannot kite if needed.
Had the monsters doubled the HP I wouldn’t complain because I can juggle multiple enemies while moving around.

Nike.2631:

Scarlet is simply too slender of a branch to support all the burden you’re putting on the character. People aren’t buying it. If anything she’s the walking embodiment of what happens when you forget ‘less is more.’..

This post deserves my +1 because it is spot on with the problems I have with her right now.
If she had multiple lieutenants who worked with other races and took what was needed to further her plans, it wouldn’t have been so bad. They sort of did that with Dragon Bash, but those hopes were dashed.

Edgar Doiron.2804:

Hmm correct me If I’m wrong, but i’m pretty sure, either in idle talk or one of the NPCs at the camp said that there was rumours Scarlet got an Obelisk piece for the Krait.

That’s what he was alluding to.

timmyf.1490:

Yeah, I mean, why couldn’t they give the Krait some sort of reason, in-game, to work with the Nightmare Court? And tie it to Scarlet? You know, something like… Scarlet somehow can get the Krait some of their important religious artifacts. The Krait are xenophobic, but they are also religious, so maybe their religion can overcome their xenophobia?

Just spit-balling here…

To some degree their xenophobia is part of their religion.

Besides is it so bad to have a minor race try to make a power play without her interference?

Back to her alliances:
Her Aetherblades made more sense: Inquest like to use technology without that meaningless “ethics” and Pirates like loot.

Her Molten Alliance worked because both sides needed each other’s magic or tech, but they didn’t like each other really. The Flame Legion aren’t completely xenophobic like the Krait nor are the Dredge. Supremacists, no doubt, but Krait will just gut you as they see you. If you are lucky you might be held captive to be gutted later.

Grubs at a jumping puzzle, now I can’t stop laughing.

I’m glad they are giving a replay option, it is a good step.

I no longer care about Scarlet’s alliances and plans, assuming she has one.
I still care about the Living Story in the sense that I don’t want to pay for expansions.

Eurhetemec.9052:

Atlas.9704:

Next up I expect the Hylek and the Centaurs to make the Hoof Hop Alliance because…..reasons.

Surely the Destroyers and the Inquest – they’ve got about as much in common as the Nightmare Court and the Krait. At least the Hylek and Centaurs are both fairly normal living creatures with simple goals of conquest.

We already have Pirate/Inquest. So they are taken.
Now Destroyers and Skritt, that sounds like a potential mix up.

Should we call them the Burning Shinies?
Rock Rat Republic?
Fire Mouse Consortium?

I disagree, the release schedule is too quick but the story itself is too slow.
Once again Scarlet may be behind another alliance, but yet her motivations are not given to us. It has nearly been a year. Using the TV comparison this has gone well into Season One and yet the villain still doesn’t make sense.

If we happen to get some inkling as to why she’s doing this within the next few updates, without using the defense of “she’s insane”, I will once again reevaluate my stance.

Jeffrey Vaughn.1793:

Without giving anything away, I will say that the Kessex Hills you’ll see in November (and December, and next year…) is not the same as the one we had last week.

If that means we have a Kessex Hills that looks broken down and without trees, then good. Stuff like this is why I support the Living Story. I want maps changed through the months and years of gameplay.

Apparently the splinter elements of the Court are making their own Tree?