Guild Wars 2

DaShi.1368:

Scarlet is not that bad of a villain. She’s a fairly common archetype that you’ll find in many stories. Don’t take her appearance in the LS so personal.

It’s not that she’s merely a bad or poorly written villain but rather that her story destroys the lore of Guild Wars 1 and the devs/writers don’t seem to care.

We still haven’t seen Scarlet’s other alliances:
The Frozen Alliance
The Blistering Alliance
The Branded Alliance
The Aquatic Alliance
The Jade Alliance
The Vertebrate Alliance
The Invertebrate Alliance
The He-Man Woman Haters Club

And last, but not least…
The Allied Alliance of Allies and Alliances for the Betterment of Tyria’s Allied Alliances and Allies.

Kiel = Like
Evon = Oven

It was a deliberate testing of subliminal ruse by ArenaNet. They never had any intention of creating the Abaddon fractal. They were only interested in controlling the minds of the playerbase. It worked extremely well.

-11/10 because Scarlet.

Yes, I went to negative eleven.

Delvoire.8930:

This game is called… Guild Wars……..

yes, they want people to join guilds.

The ‘Guild Wars’ had nothing to do with what you think of as a ‘Player Guild’.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/The_Guild_Wars

Stop talking about the ‘free’ updates as if those are a boon to the game. Those ‘free’ updates have destroyed everything I have found fun about this game. The game was brilliant until those ‘free’ updates.

KorKor.9452:

OMNIBUS.2913:

You have my vote. down with kiel :] and bring me abbadon awesomeness.
in b4 scarlet would be in abbadon fractal. If she was it would be the end of gw2. Cause it would confirm to the community that anet is kittened!

You need to go read that one thread where the new head story writer talks about reworking GW lore for GW2 in mass.

Yeah, she claims to be a fan of the lore but then she destroys it completely with one fell swoop of her pen. I don’t understand. I really don’t.

Hey, I got an idea. Let’s hire Dean Koontz! Couldn’t be any worse, right?

I’ll do the job and you don’t even have to pay me. Consider it ‘pro bono’. It would be my privilege.

Trixie.7614:

Scarlet is actually Santa Claus and will gift us with infinite dredge and harpy fractals.

I hope Scarlet doesn’t give us Harpies. That doesn’t sound like a very nice gift. Not at all.

It’s a giant bug zapper. In the next LS chapter, we will be invaded by the Yars. Scarlet will teleport them here and they will have their revenge on us all.

I’m not going to participate in any content that is even remotely related to Scarlet Briar. I’m done with that character.

An Error Prevented Saving:

Flood Control: Please wait 300 seconds between posts!

When was this implemented and why? Can ArenaNet not afford forum bandwidth any longer? Should we go back to mailing letters by parcel post and have them typeset into newspapers? I’ve never had this message pop up before today. It is infuriating.

That was just weird and disturbing, ArenaNet. What is going on inside your heads?

Mark Katzbach.9084:

Thanks for the report. We’re looking into it right now.

You should have been ‘looking into it’ a month ago. By the time you release the buggy content, it’s too late to fix it…..with the two-week, temporary aspect and all. You are upsetting the playerbase and damaging the reputation of your game with your lack of due diligence.

When was the last time an ArenaNet employee actually stayed after hours to work without pay? I do it all the time and I’m also in the gaming industry. If you really love the game you’ve created, you should value it above your meager wages.

Ema.4953:

BobbyStein.2315:

Quarktastic.1027:

I don’t think even the writers know who E is.

Actually, we do.

Is Mr. E and your Herald from the personal story related or are they two independent mysterious figures?

He’s not going to answer that.

Could you guys cool it on Cantha, please? I do believe the devs have gotten the message by now. No point in repeatedly asking for a statement by ArenaNet every 10 posts. They will put Cantha in the game if and when they so desire.

Azure Prower.8701:

People go where the coin is.

Up the coinage for events. Then the karma train returns to Orr again instead of a champ train.

There must always be a train.

Down around the corner
A half a mile from here
You see them zerg trains runnin’
And you watch them disappear
Without loot
Where would you be now

Who?

Sorry. I’ve only been playing since January. I haven’t a clue as to whom you are referring.

I love the Spitzer.

Orr could have turned out very differently.

BobbyStein.2315:

daimasei.4091:

Why kill her?

When Anet finally decide to finish all this nonsense, put her in a cage and allow players throw rotten eggs at her.

I smell a mini-game idea.

Whack-A-Dole® ?

panzer.6034:

People kitten when the don’t fix what’s already there. Apparently, people kitten when the DO fix what’s already there.

Lesson: People kitten.

In the year of our Roasters®, 1978, the All-Great, All-Knowing and All-Powerful Kenny Rogers™ bestowed a tiny morsel of his infinite and glorious wisdom upon the world when he sang the lyrics “Every hand’s a winner and every hand’s a loser. The best that you can hope for is to die in your sleep.”

Zanthrax.6538:

Romo.3709:

I got SUPER excited when I saw the trailer, then I read the info page about the release… Not so excited anymore…

What do you dislike about the information?

There’s nothing in that release for solo players. I don’t group and have never set foot in a fractal nor dungeon. So, yeah, another two weeks of nothing.

wookiee.4631:

Elbegast.6970:

Snip

Sorry, I don’t get it what you’re referencing here.

OtakuDFifty.2965:

Two words: Mecha Zhaitan

AWESOME!

Also, I’m starting to think Scarlet won’t be wrapping up before next year. My idea that the arc would be over real soon kind of hinged on the assumption that the Nightmares releases would actually be significant in the story, which they really aren’t. So, I imagine it’ll be February or March before we finally say good-bye to her and hello to whatever is next. Or maybe they’ll cram the finale into January. Who knows.

SCARLET BRIAR: Can you hear them, Pale Tree? All these people who’ve lived in terror of you and your judgement? All these people whose ancestors devoted themselves, sacrificed themselves, to grow you. Can you hear them singing? Oh, you like to think you’re a beloved franchise cross-over. But you’re not. You’re just a plot parasite, eaten out with jealousy and envy and living off the storylines of others. You feed on them. On the rose-tinted memory of love and loss and birth and death and joy and sorrow. So, come on, then. Take mine. Take my memories. But I hope you’ve got a big appetite, because I have lived a long life* and I have seen a few things.

I walked away from the last great Mists War. I marked the pruning of the Firstborns. I saw the birth of your Sylvari and I watched as forests shriveled up, moment by moment, until nothing remained. No flora. No fauna. Just me. I walked in mazes where the laws of physics were devised by the mind of a Mad King. I’ve watched servers freeze and video cards burn. I’ve seen things you wouldn’t believe. I have lost things you will never understand. And I know things. Story arcs that must never be told. Plot lines that must never be explained. Knowledge that will make forum trolls blaze! So come on, then! Take it! Take it all, baby! Have it! You have it all!

Retroactive Continuity*

Azure Prower.8701:

Mr. E = Mystery.

It’s a pun on words. Don’t take it literally.

Mr. E = Edward Nigma

We just need something for the TARDIS to lock onto. Anyone have a leaf or a piece of tuber, acquired from Scarlet during one of her daringly poofy raids? We could then get the full story behind this most vile and devious of villains.

This may seem a bit off-topic but I believe it could tie in well with living story rewards…

Is it at all possible to rework the ‘Dye Interface’ and the achievement chest reward skins into more of an all-in-one ‘Appearance Interface’? It would also be nice to do away with one-time use skins and add (unlock) all weapon/armor skins to the above-stated appearance interface for use as many times as you wish.

P.S. Weapon Dyes. ; )
Good day.

BobbyStein.2315:

Fozzik.1742:

You went from a system with branches, success/failure states, localized stories and depth, and noticeable effects (even if temporary) on the surrounding areas that were somewhat controllable by the actions of players…to a system where you add 1-off semi-random events that have no story and just pop and disappear in the same fixed locations (sounds like Rift, instead of GW2).

Things happening by the direction of the developers (like plopping a big ugly tower in one of the prettiest areas of the game, having us run a dungeon, then making it disappear) is not the same as allowing things to change based on player interaction with the story/world. It just feels forced and artificial. We know each living story release is predetermined and the story just plays out. The TV analogy may be a little too apt…we’re watching stories now instead of taking part in them and to some extent directing their outcome.

I really loved the way the stories played out around you with certain DE chains, especially in some of the early maps. I loved the way a player could see different outcomes and discover new story through their actions. I like the story instances included with some living story releases…the ones that actually have the story play out through actions and dialogue and involve the player…but again, it’s no longer in any way alterable by ME. Also, those story instances are seemingly a very small part of the recent releases. Most of what we get is the other stuff…the random event spawns and loot farms we run around in a circle.

I would not mind at all if the pace of releases slowed, and we saw the original promise of GW2 better realized through expansion of the DE system and the explorable world…more maps with hearts, DEs, vistas, jumping puzzles, the whole fairy tale. More branches and story and depth to existing DEs… and a system to track DEs and their completion so we can experience it all. Give us reasons to wander and explore and take our time…to experience the story at our own pace, not some arbitrary schedule.

Continue our personal story… bring back a character or two thought dead. Let us push on to new challenges. Give us some continuity that feels personal and keeps us going.

So you’d like the game to react to you on a more personal level, such that people, places, etc. respond differently depending on your accomplishments, decisions, and so on?

I know I would. I remember the first time going back to Korriban, in SWTOR, after finishing my character’s storyline. The Imperial Guard bowed to me when I walked through the hallway. It may seem like a small thing but the feeling I got from that was immensely rewarding.

502 – Web server received an invalid response while acting as a gateway or proxy server.

There is a problem with the page you are looking for, and it cannot be displayed. When the Web server (while acting as a gateway or proxy) contacted the upstream content server, it received an invalid response from the content server.

Is there even a tech team for the website on payroll? These errors are happening every other day and no one seems to be addressing the problem on ArenaNet’s end. I’m doing my job by posting this. Do your job now. Thank you from a very disgruntled customer.

Nike.2631:

Elbegast.6970:

For the Player-Generated Dynamic Events, for example:

Okay, lets say I own a farm and have saved enough grateful NPCs around the world to hire some farm hands. How would my goods get to market?

From a drop-down menu or from a quick chat with my Farm Boss NPC, I send out some pack Dolyaks to carry my goods to town. This would start a scripted dynamic event. Other players could jump right in and help guard my caravan. If the goods make it to town, I get gold and the players get a standard reward of karma, xp, gold, random chest, etc. If the event fails, they get a little xp and I lose my goods to bandits.

This right here is GOOD STUFF. It’s almost entirely composed of parts we have and can see in the game right now.

Although, I think to keep from confusing people, you may want to call them “Player-triggered Events”. Just so readers know the Devs have to do all the set-up, but control over their use and activation is then in player hands.

’ P layer I nitiated E vents’ ; D

But in seriousness, they could scale with the number of defensive players to include champion mob spawns. If I were a bandit and saw a large entourage guarding a simple goods caravan, I would probably call in some backup in anticipation of a valuable haul.

And on a side note, trophies could be utilized, graphically, as decoration for player owned properties rather than being relegated to simple vendor trash. I would love to tell a troll that I’m going to turn his rib cage into a coffee table.

Seras.5702:

Elbegast.6970:

For a Living World, we need:
Seasons
Better Weather Effects
Dark Nights (no, not Christian Bale)

• yes to the above *

Purchasable Real Estate
Player Owned Shops
Player Owned Farms (for Livestock and Produce)
Fishing, Hunting & Farming Professions

• no to the above. this isn’t The Sims or an RTS *

Player-Generated Dynamic Events

• explain *

For the Player-Generated Dynamic Events, for example:

Okay, lets say I own a farm and have saved enough grateful NPCs around the world to hire some farm hands. How would my goods get to market?

From a drop-down menu or from a quick chat with my Farm Boss NPC, I send out some pack Dolyaks to carry my goods to town. This would start a scripted dynamic event. Other players could jump right in and help guard my caravan. If the goods make it to town, I get gold and the players get a standard reward of karma, xp, gold, random chest, etc. If the event fails, they get a little xp and I lose my goods to bandits.

I’m no fan of the SIMS but a living world has far more to do than simply running around killing things over and over again. Some people enjoy farming. Some people enjoy fishing. And I know many people who would be content to sit and play ‘Big Game Hunter’ for months on end.

For a Living World, we need:
Seasons
Better Weather Effects
Dark Nights (no, not Christian Bale)
Purchasable Real Estate
Player Owned Shops
Player Owned Farms (for Livestock and Produce)
Fishing, Hunting & Farming Professions
Player-Generated Dynamic Events

For a Living Story, we need:
An In-Game Calendar that lists recurring festival events and distinguishes them apart from the Living Story releases.
Shorter story arcs, more zone-by-zone storytelling and less focus on larger player-funneling zerg events.

John Smith.4610:

Any changes to the economic systems of any kind will be in the patch notes. This was an error, there are no economic changes that are intentionally kept from patch notes.

Rule #1, John Smith.

$0.00usd after the initial purchase.

I don’t do cash shops.

The release cadence should be random. Add stuff when it’s ready rather than on a timetable. AND DON’T TELL US IN ADVANCE! Players should be surprised with new releases rather than anticipating them. When players expect content, their fallible, speculative brains ascribe all sorts of wondrous ideas to what little information they may have about the next release. Once the content goes live, they are inevitably let down.

An actual living world changes randomly and not in two week cycles. Some changes are big. Some changes are small. And the most catastrophic changes of all usually come without warning.

I was farming 10g per hour from the continuous spawn of bugged out mobs at Seraph Observer’s Waypoint in Brisban Wildlands. They drop small bags but they drop tons of them and the diminishing returns have no affect on their loot drops. You can get stacks upon stacks of chocolate and butter very easily at that camp.

Atlas.9704:

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.

You should. You really should. That was brilliant! Bravo!
hands Atlas a Jelly Baby

Berner.7289:

Anet is going to make the final instance 5v5 sPvP, except the hallucination debuff will make your opponents appear to be Nightmare Court, or Bandits, or Molten Alliance, etc. We’ll be tricked into playing sPvP and we won’t even know it.

I could be right … the foreshadowing was in the opening ToN instance.

I was thinking something very similar….make your group members appear as enemies and everyone ends up killing one another if they aren’t paying attention. It would be hilarious.

If the Centaur are smart, they will fall back until both the Human and Krait numbers dwindle and then launch their attack on both fronts.

I want to see player-driven dynamic events tied to player/guild housing/property….such as farms, for example.

Sell me a plot of land somewhere in the game. It could even be located inside a publicly accessible instance along with other players’ properties. Allow me to upgrade the property with buildings, NPCs, merchants, etc. Allow me to hire NPC farmhands to tend the crops while I’m out adventuring. You get the idea. Now for the fun part…

Allow me to send pack bulls or dolyaks out from my farm to sell my goods at market. Allow other players to guard my shipments as a dynamic event. If my goods reach the market, the helpful players would get a percentage of the profits, karma, experience, etc. and I would get gold. If they don’t make it to market, the event fails and they would only get some XP and I would lose the goods.

That was just an example.

For a living world to feel alive, there must be characters and players moving about all corners of the map. Player owned farms, shops, properties, etc would go a long way to giving players a reason to be out there.

We also need more crafting/gathering professions such as Hunting, Fishing, Farming and Mercantile.

A living world contains the extraordinary as well as the mundane. In the real world, not everyone runs around with a sword and shield or spouting magic from their fingertips. Rather than fighting elder dragons, I know players that would be content to sit at their virtual homes and tend their crops all day long.

Oh…and the living story currency is out of control. There is absolutely no reason to have more than one living story currency. Black Lion Claim Tickets would be my choice. Players could then save them up from release to release and buy items they may have missed, such as the Ancient Karka Shell, Flame & Frost Gloves or the Fervid Censer, for example.

BobbyStein.2315:

The first improvement to address this went live on 10/29. The special event UI now tells you where to go and in what order to experience the story bits.

Are you talking about the box on top right of the screen? If so, I can’t tell that it has changed at all. It’s not telling me anything except to fight the toxic alliance. It looks the same as before the 29th. We, as a community, still have to go to Dulfy to find out what is going on with this release and to find things like the Obelisk Shards.

As a matter of fact, I’ve already given up on Tower of Nightmares patch due to the cluelessness, confusion and the apparent grindy content. It’s rather sad as I’m only at 4/14 achievements.

You see, I don’t go to 3rd party websites to learn about things that happen in-game. I expect everything to be explained in-game, on the official website or in patch notes.

Anfauglith.6715:

i did it with dulfy today. Visited all and got only 23/24 =/ On every krait Obelisk i did it once and then i rechecked it again and it showed “nothing more to learn”. Please fix this bug or atleast lower the needed obelisks for the achievement to 23 so People get it done even with the bug =/

…or toss a few extra obelisks around the maps. That would be the best choice as far as I’m concerned.

Conner.4702:

There is a very easy solution to prevent people from having to go over all of the obelisks again. Place more obelisks than needed around the world. Why the rigid use of 24 needed out of 24 available at all.

ArenaNet, listen to this player and do as he says. /\

If you do not, I will be forced to get all wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey on your in-office candy dispenser. Sonic screwdrivers are particularly useful for welding polymethyl methacrylate. I leave the choice to you, ArenaNet. Will you stick to your terrible design philosophy or are you willing to save the gummy bears? Bouncing here and there and everywhere. High adventure that’s beyond compare. You had best choose the gummy bears.

Shades.4572:

Elbegast.6970:

Mad King wouldn’t even play ‘Mad King Says’ when I was in LA. He just walked around telling jokes and then vanished. What are we supposed to do if his game won’t even start?

The Mad King walks around for a few minutes telling jokes, those are the treats. Then he disappears and door appear on the map that drop you into the cauldron and he randomly appears turning people into the Halloween tonic guys, his tricks. After that he will pop up and do Mad King Say. It’s on a timer ~45 minutes apart.

Well that’s just stupid. I don’t have time to stand in Laggy Arch waiting on buggy/unreliable scripted NPC encounters. I was told that it would occur on the hour, every hour.

dulfy.1493:

Ayrilana.1396:

dulfy.1493:

Sligh.2789:

The one getting missed is in MOunt Maelstrom. I almost skimmed right over it, the Dulfy notes are not clear. That is where it is.

http://i.imgur.com/2ushnEp.jpg

How is it not clear? I mentioned there are 4 shards at the top for Maelstrom. The first two rows contains shard 1-3 and the third row contains shard 4.

I even marked it as Krait Obelisk 1-3 and Krait Obelisk 4.

If it helps, I can include the 4th one in the map for 1-3 as well but I divided it up initially since the 4th location was discovered later and closer to another waypoint

Your notes are clear. It’s just that some people are relying on the image of the overall map with the locations rather than reading your entire guide.

Okay I have adjusted it now so all 4 locations are marked in 1 pic. Hopefully that will solve some issues

I only see 3 on that map. It states that there’s 4 but you only give the locations of 3. Where is the 4th?

Mad King wouldn’t even play ‘Mad King Says’ when I was in LA. He just walked around telling jokes and then vanished. What are we supposed to do if his game won’t even start?

Ken DeBoer.9268:

Hopefully with the great weapon skins and armor, they will see a lot of people buying gems, which will lead to “better”/more developed content in the future. I know the weapon skins got me to buy some gems this month, first time spending IRL money in a couple months.

I will never spend IRL cash on gems. I don’t support cash shops. If they want my money, they should release an expansion pack.

It’s definitely better than the 3 previous LS releases but still there’s…..Scarlet. Scarlet ruins the entire story for me. I can’t take her character seriously enough to get enveloped by the storyline. It’s very off-putting.

lordkrall.7241:

Nick.6972:

I no longer care about the Living Story updates, I really don’t.
I don’t care if I don’t get all achievements or minis.

Honestly, I’d rather wait 1-2 months and get no new content for 3-5 New Crystal Desert maps with new Dungeons and WELL WRITTEN story.

I still care. I like the story, it is quite interesting.

If you really think they can produce 3-5 complete new maps and dungeons in 1-2 months you are quite naive.

They spend four months+ on each bi-weekly release. If they went back to a single monthly release, they could double-up the teams and essentially get the equivalent of 8 months of work from each one. It’s still nowhere near long enough to constantly produce new maps but it would seem they could then add a little more meat to the living story’s bones.