Why put all this effort into the trailers – not just the living world release trailers, but even that anniversary Heroes’ Edition trailer – which are indeed epic… then have less than epic cinematics in-game…
Been starting to feel like ArenaNet’s caring more for marketing than the quality of the game. Well, I guess that’s no surprise from a business perspective. sigh
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
Mechanics to be able to have a cheaper means of travel and a way to play with friends immediately.
Nothing more to it.
@Erukk: Asura Gates cost money in lore. Same as waypoints. Shud even outright stated during Dragon Bash that the people coming through those gates meant money for her because they’re using the gates.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
Short version for why I linked: She didn’t graduate the full college courses, but specialized coursework that only proved she had what it takes to do the full college coursework. She didn’t see Eternal Alchemy (most likely) as she was merely placed in a sensory deprivation device (basically, she hallucinated). Her superiority complex she always had expanded greatly because of said hallucinations.
I think Scarlet has strong potential to be an interesting character given this interview. Anet’s just doing a kitten poor job of portraying her properly.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
IMO we can’t defeat dragons.
Glint was very wise. Still, she preferred to hide other races before dragons. She could say: “Together, you can defeat them” but she didn’t do that. Why?
Because the ancient races weren’t together. The mursaat nearly wiped out the Seer race, and then fled into the Mists. It was basically just jotun, dwarves, and forgotten remaining. With all magic sealed away within the Bloodstone.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
To tell you the truth after a whole year of “not necessarely boring but so random and out of nowhere” I start to lose faith in this game with sadness…
It’s not really random.
First four months were Flame and Frost. May was reprecussions of F&F. Then we had Dragon Bash – the return of a GW1 festival – in June. In July we had the reprecussions of Dragon Bash. Then we had Queen’s Jubilee – in-game explanasion of celebrating the game’s release anniversary. Then we had SAB/Tequatl.
Only the last one is really all that random.
And let’s be honest – if they want to make a living story, then there needs to be a feel of randomness. Look at the real world. You don’t have one event going on with no other events that are unrelated occurring in the same country – you got multiple events happening that are unrelated. That’s what the living story should be. The issue is that the Living World is not random enough; and that we’re getting just the bare bones of a plot development with each update because anet wants to “pace things out” (how about instead of pacing things out, you use those creative juices to make more plots?).
People say it’s random. But it isn’t. At all.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
It should be noted that while “everyone can use magic” but “not everyone does use magic” – there are people with a specific magical proficiency. For example, right outside the Grove you will find an NPC who’s crying – talking to her reveals she wants to train to be an elementalist, but her mentor suggests becoming a thief because she’s more skilled in that profession’s abilities.
One way to look at it would be to view “magic” to be akin to the word “art” – anyone can do it, but certain people have talents in certain fields of art. A good sketcher may not be good at painting, for example; or for a wider field example, a good writer may not be good at drawing and vice versa. In a similar manner, those proficient with mesmer abilities may not have good skills in that of necromancy or elementalism.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
If you look at how ArenaNet portrays Scarlet after an interview with TowerTalk, she’s actually far more interesting than the game comes close to portaying – or the short story, which makes her a Villain Sue.
When it comes to Scarlet, the problem is Anet’s “pacing” – they say they have a story, which they want to tell “in the future” – issue is, we get next to no story now. We’re getting bare bones of a story with each update thus far, Tequatl and SAB moreso than any other update. An Orrian Chicken appears to have more meat on its bone than the most fleshed out stories of the so-called Living World.
Another issue is that the “Living World” is not a living world. And no, it’s not a “random story” like some have begun to say either. It’s a progressional story of Scarlet. It’s focusing 95% on Scarlet, her actions, and her actions’ repercussions (which 100% deals with Ellen Kiel for some reason). A living world would be affecting the whole world, bit by bit. Tequatl was the first chance at making it a living world, but they gave us just the marrows of the story’s bones. “But there’s more!” Bobby Stein claims… doesn’t matter, if we don’t get to see it.
TO ARENANET: If we don’t see the story, it doesn’t matter how much of it you guys have upcoming. You don’t satisfy us now, you’ll lose us. I truly truly hope you take all these complaint threads, the sheer amount of which having expanded greatly since August – and on the story at that, whereas before it was mainly on mechanics – to heart. Because things need to change.
You can tell us there’s a story behind Tequatl’s update. But it honestly doesn’t matter if we don’t see it. And if we, the players, go through months with next to no story additions, with most of the content being achievement grinding (face it, most of the LS achievements are grinding – do x y times, go do old content under z conditions; that’s grind).
Motives are important and Scarlet has one but it is not a great one. She means to get us to fight the Dragons? We already are. Or the inquest? Same! Nightmare? Yea done! So after she can rule or influence? I do not see why she is needed at all or how my character would care what she is doing next. As far as I can tell she is nuts and there is no reason to it, so if the villain is evil but a crazy evil then how do we stop her?
From my understanding, she’s basically trying to change how the universe functions. How the fate of the universe deems we should act.
Yeah, she’s that full of herself.
But she is unique in this, among GW villains, at least. She’s seen a hallucination and believed it to be how the universe functions, and the fate and purpose of the sylvari race. And now she’s working to change that, because she doesn’t like how it is. The issue to me is that her actions during Queen’s Jubilee… weren’t shown to us in game to be unrelated to her master plans. It took an interview for such to be known.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
Biggest issue Anet’s having with the LS is that they’re giving too little story in the game. Listen to this interview – I dunno about you, but Scarlet not only is no longer a Villain Sue that the short story made her to be, but she’s somewhat interesting. You’ll find out that she didn’t see the Eternal Alchemy, but rather went through a sensory deprivation device (aka, had no sight, hearing, smell, taste, or feeling – nada, nothing). Scarlet doesn’t come off to me as being “super evil” but rather “super dangerous” (a big difference).
It should be noted that we actually haven’t seen anything about Scarlet’s plans and intentions – the Queen’s Jubilee was an act of a whim. We don’t know why she was after the Captain’s Council, why she made the Molten Alliance, or why she’s now using the steam creatures (so in a way, what we’ve seen of her, herself, is her just doing things for the lulz).
Not to say this “lack of reveal” is a good thing… it really isn’t. At all. We’ve spent too much time on her with knowing… nothing really. Nine months now, and all we have is a face and some background. And promises of more.
And those promises are beginning to look empty. After all, if nine months pass and all we got is a name and face, how long will it be until we have some true meat on the bones called the “Living World”’s story?
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
Only issue i have with silvers are that there is no way to tell them apart from the normal bunch. With veterans and champs at least it says so at the start of their name. I wonder how many times i have gone after what looks like a ordinary mob at Taco and found myself wondering why it is not dropping, only to glance at the image and seeing the silver border.
It doesn’t always say Veteran or Champion at the beginning of names. For generically named foes, yes. But not for all uniquely named ones.
Either way, the problem you mention is easy to remedy by creating an official non-development title for them (such as Elite or Lieutenant like the player base uses).
Yes Redscope that’s exactly what I meant. Champions and veterans are unnamed mobs. I want to see more unique named bosses with unique skills in world events. Hopefully some that we saw in dungeons before, so we are better prepared for them. We will be fighting these named bosses alongside the main world boss.
“Let’s make the currently unique mobs not so unique” is how I am understanding you at the moment.
I’d love more unique mobs, especially for world boss events, but I do not want them just taken out of dungeon fights.
Why? Dungeon bosses are designed and balanced around dungeons – around 5 players, and only five players. A Giganticus Lupicus fight will not be the same in the open world as in Arah even if you have a GL added per 5 players in the area. It just won’t be the same at all.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
“Does me beard look short to you? I think that nasty wife o’ mine cut it while I was sleeping.”
“My youngest daughter was killed in a raid by the Summit a few months ago…”
“I’ve a hankering for some o’ Grenda’s hearty stew.” (Grenda is a feminine name)
“Now now. I’m busy. Wife says our barrel of grog is empty…” http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Dwarven_Soldier (and other Prophecies generic NPCs)
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
One thing you’re missing, Buddhakeks, was that around the time of the Ranger’s release (or maybe it was Engineer’s), it was said that the Ranger delved more into magic over the past 250 years.
The only magic rangers used in GW1 were those spirits – which indeed seem more related to the Ritualists’ magic than anything else, calling upon spirits and the such (though as opposed to Ritualists who use spirits attuned to emotions, rangers use spirits attuned to nature).
However, in GW2 their magic certainly feels more akin to that of an Elementalist than Ritualist, given how their skills – for example, the new version of Healing Spring – deals more with the elements than not, and in the same manner as well.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
@Erukk: who says the Elder Dragons’ roles are natural? Because all I got from Angel McCoy is “they consume magikittenil there’s none left, then they hibernate during which they expel magikittenil the world’s saturated with it, where they wake again to consume it” – the Elder Dragons, from this, are indeed a cycle. But a self-replenishing one.
Remove the Elder Dragons, and magic is constant. That’s how I see the interview. Of course, it wouldn’t be so if the Elder Dragons radiate less magic than they consume, and consume the same amount each rise (meaning that there is a constant increase in the world’s magic, but the Elder Dragons hasten that increase while hibernating, perhaps so they can rise sooner – given SoS, I don’t think the Elder Dragons ever have intention of going back to sleep).
@phaneo: I think it’s supposed to be weeks/days before the personal story began. It certainly wasn’t before the asura surfaced, given how it happened due to asura – possibly due to Inquest, which is even younger than the race’s surfacing.
But it’s definitely recent as in, happened in 1325 AE.
@Gandarel: Honestly, I don’t read Angel’s interview as the Elder Dragons actions being “for the greater good”. And if that is indeed what Angel meant, then it contradicts the personality of all Elder Dragon minions, as well as Kralkatorrik’s own mental thoughts as portrayed in Edge of Destiny.
I don’t see the Elder Dragons as a “natural part of the world” but rather themselves using the natural part of the world to their benefit – they consume magic, regardless of form, but because there’s so many of them, they cannot remain active in the world so they consume magic, hibernate and release to rise sooner than they would otherwise, and then rise again.
Everything about the Elder Dragons and their minions’ personalities tell us “they are not good guys” (doesn’t mean they’re ‘evil’ per se, but they’re not good), nor do I get the impression that they hold any intention of going back to sleep once they had their full.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
After all, we don’t currently have any precedent of a sylvari from the tree we know having had the bud severed long before they were ready and carried off into the wild blue yonder.
Nor do we know that’s the case with Malyck, technically speaking.
We don’t know how long the time is between when a sylvari “leaves the dream” and is born. IIRC, the buds sylvari are born from drop from tree branches… so if the same happened to Malyck’s bud, but it happened to get swept up in a river, then there’d be nothing abnormal of his birth.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
Not sure if this has already been posted but…
you know how Grenth was able to “ascend” to godhood when he defeated Dhuum, and Dhuum’s spot as a death god was vacant?
What if Zhaitan’s title as the “elder dragon of death” is still there, and can be, like, claimed by another dragon? Namely Tequatl? What if Tequatl was like Zhaitan’s legacy?
Unlike the Claw of Jormug or The Shatterer, Tequatl is not a title, but the name of dragon itself.
I’m just posting this because I don’t think the name Zhaitan itself is an actual title, and I believe that Zhaitan is gone for good. I think that what Tequatl may be taking over is the “death dragon elder” esque title, like Grenth did to become a death god. Grenth didn’t change his name to Dhuum, but he did take on the title as god of death.
Difference is that godhood is determined by the indestructible magic they wield. Upon death, that magic goes rampant and must be immediately absorbed by a new vessel. Dragons function differently.
That said though, their magic doesn’t just up and vanish. So if the dragon minions can absorb Zhaitan’s magic for itself…
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
Raven, it was stated from the beginning that world bosses would be Guild Wars 2’s version of raid content (I like how you said that Anet said they won’t do raid content, because raid content is world bosses :P).
That “raid” content was to be always and solely in open world. It just wasn’t properly balanced for good raid content since Anet had no basis to go off of other than internal testing and convention demos (which are not only with brand new experiences, but limited in number of people). Now they have a basis for player capabilities, they’re putting it to the test with Tequatl.
Expect The Shatterer, Claw of Jormag, temples (?), Megadestroyer, Karka Queen, Ulgoth, and other mid-and-high level zone bosses to be made like this.
Shadow Behemoth and other low-level world bosses will likely remain easier, as an introduction into it. I expect Claw of Jormag and Karka Queen to be the toughest open world bosses in the game until we get a new permanent zone (there isn’t any “world boss” level foe in Cursed Shore or Malchor’s Leap that isn’t tied to a dungeon or temple to really dictate becoming wtf hard like Tequatl).
TL;DR
Tequatl is raid content. All raid content will be open world. World Bosses will be Tequatl-like in the future (how long into the future? Anyone’s guess atm). Don’t expect any form of instance to go beyond 5 players.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
I’ve seen someone make mention of this in the LS forum, but I have never seen this in the game.
I’m going to request a source before I believe this claim. Or at least a location so that I can find the source.
As Narcemus said, all other evidence and records state that the Elder Dragons’ last rise – the only one given any details other than “the jotun knew of the rises before the last” – ended with the Seers creating the bloodstone which put the Elder Dragons to sleep via starvation. And this comes from the Priory at the very end of the personal story, so unless this “undoubtedly defeated” bit comes from the living story (which has had nothing to do with ED until Tequatl), then the Priory from Arah explorable are more likely to be trusted.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
They keep saying they haven’t forgotten but that they want to “pace things out” – issue is that they’re putting in too much “content” (by which I mean achievement grind) with too little “storytelling” (the instances) which have too little in-game depth (80% of what we know of Scarlet comes out of game from two sources – the short story and an interview which manages to turn Scarlet into a non-Villain Sue). This in turns means they’re pacing things out too much, give us too little story content to be satisfied, and pushes the time in which we’ll get to the other story elements even further back.
Expect Scarlet’s plot to be over in 2025. SAB’s plot to be over in late 2016, and Tequatl’s plot to be over in 2028. Next new plot will initiate in 2020 and end in 2060 when the world ends (it won’t be concluded).
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
The only thing is remember is, that (afaik) the Pact offensive (as ref in that screenshot) does continue post-Zhaitan in Orr. It could be construed from that message that becuase of the offesnive and defeating zhaitan teq has eveolved. But, again as stated, it’s unclear.
not quite, after the defeat of Zhiatain, it is no longer an offensive, but rather an occupation. An offensive is an invasion, but that stage has passed, the troops that remain in orr, are simply on clean up duty, which can hardly be called an offensive.
Arah explorable is after zhaitan’s death, and that certainly isn’t just a clean up
Technically it is. There are still threats, but the Pact has established permanent bases in Orr, they’ve eliminated the Elder Dragon. It’s now an occupation by definition. And what the Pact is doing – per the final personal story cinematic – is wiping out the remaining Risen since they (as one would expect) don’t simply drop dead with Zhaitan’s defeat.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
Silver (elite) rank mobs I find interesting because previously they only were in dungeons, but now the game developers are bringing them out into the open world. I feel that they are a good balance balance between a veteran and a champ which has a lot of hp.
While I’m well aware that the silver ranked mobs are being brought out a bit, I meant to do that more.
Also, about them only being in dungeons before – not entirely true. There are a few in Fireheart Rise that have always been in the open world. Those Godforged enemies in one of the bigger bases you cannot capture there.
And I agree they’re a good inbetween balance. They give a challenge that a single person can overcome but with time, while not providing bags like champions. So replacing a few champs with the silvers is something I wish was done when the champ bags were released.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
I will be frank and say that veterans and champions are boring. Why are they boring? Because they are exactly the same as the normal mobs, only with increases health and damage.
You forgot that veterans and champions have more attacks as well (not many, but still more). Depending on the foe, that is (the basic ones like Shades don’t).
So what happens when there are 45 players? The game should summon a Lupi at Teq’s location.
Remember Lupi, that giant mob in Arah? Yup him.
When there are 50 players, 2 Lupi will be spawned next to Teq. When there are 100 players, 12 Lupi will be spawned. etc. Every 5 new players gets involved, a Lupi is spawned.
Aka, instead of bringing in champs, bring in legendaries.
That’s how I read it.
Rather than that, I’d instead prefer to see veterans and champions getting revamped, and silver mobs being introduced before champs do.
Make veterans and champions – even non-event-scaling ones – more interesting. Increase their number of attacks, give them more unique AI, new animated attacks, etc. Make them distinctly different than regular foes. That’s all that a legendary is compared to champions anyways – a regular foe (or sometimes uniquely skinned but oftenly using the frame of other NPCs) with more attacks.
Then remove the no-drops from the event-scaling champions like Claw of Jormag, and instead start spawning silvers as the base with scaling up to champions eventually (so that a lot of players are needed to get a few champions).
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
1. Molten Alliance- Who was behind it all? Why did the MA just fall off the map? Why did they form an alliance between one another. Why did they attack those settlements.
2. Southsun- What happened to Canach. What will the consortium do with Southsun. How does this have any impact on the rest of the world and the overall story?
3. Zypherites- Was the only connection simply the election? What is this thing they’re rumored to be hiding? Where have they gone?
4. Dargon Bash- Most questions were actually answered in this. It would seem Scarlet was behind the alliance between Aetherblade and Pirates. They seemed to want to install a person in the council. Seemed like a pretty solid event. Just the questions about Majory and her backstory are left unanswered.
5. Queen’s Jubilee- Why did scarlet want to assassinate the queen of all people? Why not the grove? What did Scarlett see that made her go insane? What does the Pale Tree think of all this? Where did Scarlet go?
6. Rising of tequatl- Why? Why everything? This part of the story seems insanely random.
1. Scarlet, as was revealed in the Queen’s Jubilee/CLockwork Chaos. They were planning to assault Black Citadel and Hoelbrak (there are some items added to FL and dredge camps throughout the affected zones, some of which expand dredge/FL culture, some expand the point of the alliance, and some expand the goals of the alliance – if you talked to the prisoners in Rox’s final instance, you’d also learn that the dredge was in it because they needed fire magic for their tech and their moletariate were wanting moar power (implying it was Shukov who was the one who associated with Scarlet and the FL; given he and his generals were also making dangerous alliances (Inquest) and after fire magic (destroyers)), while FLame Legion were in it because they needed tech and were intending to subjugate the dredge after all was said and done).
2. He got arrested, or do you mean why his appearance changed (he was being hunted and sylvri appearances can change based on their state of mind and lifestyle). Consortium will continue to try to make a profit or at least come out even, as they always do. It closed up the Lost Shores and Flame and Frost storylines, while it opened up the Dragon Bash storyline.
3. The main purpose was to close off the Dragon Bash storyline, but the Zephyrites’ presence was made to expand upon GW1 lore – specifically the Brotherhood of the Dragon (what happened to it and all – humans took over for the dwarves and eventually went to the skies). Glint’s corpse (possibly her babies). To the sky where they always live except when they come down to trade.
4. Kinda got your order wrong – I guess this was meant to be question 3? :P But Marjory’s story is supposedly to be expanded later. This was just her introduction. But we did learn a bit about her background from the short story.
5. In an interview it was revealed that Scarlet’s actions at the Queen’s Jubilee was, quite literally, done on a whim. It’s not part of her master plan or anything, she just saw an opportunity and took it. What she saw was a hallunication – the machine didn’t connect her to the Eternal Alchemy, per se, but was a sensory deprivation device; and can you imagine losing all sight, hearing, smelling, taste, and feeling? That makes people go insane. And Ceara aka Scarlet Briar is no exception.
What the Pale Tree thinks and where Scarlet escaped to after is likely to be expanded upon.
6. And what’s wrong with random? It isn’t a Living World if it doesn’t expand upon the story of the world.
IMO, what’s wrong with the living story isn’t that it’s “random” like people are starting to claim (it isn’t). It’s that it’s not random enough. A living world would mean that the whole world progresses at the same time. This means old things go away, new things come in, and it happens everywhere. But thus far this so-called “living world” with the exception of SAB and Tequatl Rising and the first three updates that happened in ’12 has only affected Scarlet and her plot and the things that her plot affects (refugees, election, etc.).
I think that that woman (she doesn’t look like Caithe, to me) shown has a name beginning with “T” and the second word is “Arrival” (i.e. “Tuatha’s Arrival”).
look at the forehead – that’s the pattern on Caithe’s forehead. She’s also wielding daggers, which Caithe is known for, has white hair like Caithe, and she – at least to me – gives this “thief/necromancer” kind of vibe with her clothing.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
I really don’t think we need more token systems. Look at how many already exist. Do you expect the wallet to be expanded more… or for your bank inventory to fill up beyond belief?
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
Huge failure.. Whats the point of living story if only 1% of the players get to defeat it?
Save all the challenging stuff for raids or dungeons where it belongs.
You seem to misunderstand something…
There is no living world requirement to kill Tequatl, just to track him and face him. If you’ve completed the 5 achievements and talked to Narru, then congratulations! You beat this update’s living world requirements.
Secondly, this IS raid content. GW2-style. Just a step up from the guild missions, but open to everyone.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
@JayMack: That body of water is just the “end of the world” effect for Arah – since every map has only one level of water, that’s just the bottom of it. Technically, Arah story is made of 2 maps – the first being shared with explorable, the seoncd being the “above the sky” map – the latter is not above the first, mechanically, due to that shared body of water, but is likely placed adjacent to it.
@CHIPS: Magic cannot be destroyed, as far as we know, true… but Zhaitan’s body isn’t destroyed. He’s just killed. Take Glint’s corpse per the Trek of the Zephyrites short story for example. Her corpse is just a magical sponge.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
The way I understood the mail mentioning the “current invasion” was that, despite Zhaitan being defeated, there were still hordes of Risen roaming about. The invasion couldn’t just end right after Zhaitan and be called a success. As far as we know it’s still on-going for the sake of thoroughness.
The way I understand it is that it would no longer be an invasion after Zhaitan’s defeat. The Pact is now occupying Orr, so they’re no longer invading it, but they’re still combating the ‘natives’.
Now, if with Tequatl Rising we would begin a LW plotline moving to a revamped, 2nd battle against Zhaitan that makes absolutely certain that he is down for good this time…
Adding a fourth path to Arah (follow Ogden!) to investigate and study Zhaitan’s corpse, while stealthly improving the story mode fight?
Yeah, I’d like that.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
@OP: Magic in Tyria is treated as natural. Aside from what Erukk has said (though some things are off from what we were told in the interview), there’s the ranger profession to consider – though it’s not in-game anywhere, the lore behind the profession is that over the past 250 years rangers had stepped back from technology, which led them to delving into magic in nature in order to keep up.
So it isn’t a “nature vs technology” case, but rather “nature consuming vs technology and nature” case, since the Elder Dragons are beaten by technology, or rather magitech.
It has been stated in the Angel McCoy interview that the Elder Dragons balance magic. Tyria’s ambient magic is always increasing, and if it reaches certain levels, it becomes dangerous too everyone by being extremely chaotic and uncontrollable. The Elder Dragons basically work as Tyria’s immune system to a degree. Once Tyria’s magic levels reach a dangerous degree, they wake up and start devouring magic. When it’s back to an acceptable level, or there is no magic to be found (incase of the Bloodstone), they slowly starve and go back to sleep.
Angel’s interview actually tells us that the world’s magic rises because of the Elder Dragons. While they sleep, they release magic into the world; while they are awake, they consume it. Think of it like sweating in your sleep, then waking up to drinking that sweat (yes, not the best of pictures, but it’s kind of like that from how the interview tells us).
If we kill the Elder Dragons then, theoretically, the world’s magic will remain constant.
Furthermore, there’s a few assumptions you make
It’s not said that a lot of magic = dangerous.
They actually consume to starvation every time from our understanding, so you’re making them out to be a lot kinder than they really are. Possible, but not likely.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
The Dream isn’t unique unto the Pale Tree. Other beings are able to access it – the White Stag, for example. And whatever the origin of the Nightmare is, possibly if it is sentient.
Furthermore, sylvari are far from the Pale Tree all the time, and only able to cut out the dream – which they are part of from birth – through a lot of meditation and concentrated will effort. I just don’t see the distance-upon-awakeing as being a (strong) factor in the matter. Especially since in Caithe’s story option it is shown that Malyck doesn’t have amnesia – he remembers everything; the amnesia was just speculated by the PC, Caithe, and Trahearne due to the no Dream experience (something unheard of prior even for Firstborn).
What IS interesting, when we put it under a microscope, is the question of why this mysterious Pale Tree would still be teaching Malyck to speak Krytan…
Well there’s only one spoken language in the continent, that’s common enough at least. Perhaps Malyck’s tree grew up learning this language and thus is the only language it knows (not Krytan, btw; that’s just the written alphabet).
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
I’m truly surprised such a big deal was made out of what Wooden Potatoes said… he’s not even a member of ArenaNet, so I fail to see why his words are so important. Yes, he makes good summaries (a lot of mistakes or lacking-of-details, sure, but good nonetheless), but it’s not like he’s a Word of God.
Yehs.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
Went and added Bobby’s comments to OP’s double post.
Not quite sure I like how Tequatl’s buff in power will end up tied to the rest of the “living world” since said “living world” is mainly focused on Scarlet.
This means that, for some reason or another, Scarlet is most likely to be why Tequatl got a buff. Which really ruins the lore potential Anet had for the Elder Dragons.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
The story component for the Tequatl Rising LW update primarily deals with helping Rox fight Tequatl and finding dragon minion clues. You can also interact with Warmaster Narru to get a few more details.
Narru will remain behind, though Rox will leave the area with the next Living World release.
No offense but that’s not really told well.
Narru’s the one who tells us to go face Tequatl, not Rox. We just “run into her” and us helping her seems to be limited to fighting Tequatl itself – not hunting for clues. There’s no story that I’ve seen whatsoever for why we’re hunting for dragon champ pieces in Blazeridge or Frostgorge.
I realize that, for a lot of people, the LW release stories don’t feel connected. They are, but we’re not always making that clear to players. It’s something we’re always looking to improve. That stated, we have deliberately held back some story details for pacing reasons. More dots will be connected in the coming months, so I will continue to encourage folks to let us know what they think with each release. We appreciate the feedback.
Personally, I don’t want the living world releases to all be interconnected. It makes me feel like “all the problems are caused by Scarlet” is going to be the main theme of things. Which is bland and depthless, IMO. Rather different than “Abaddon was behind everything” in GW1 because though he was the main antagonist behind the first three campaigns and behind 2 major demonic invasions (Tomb of the Primeval Kings and Dragon Festival 2006), he wasn’t behind everything – charr hated humans and he just took advantage; mursaat were fighting him in a “enemy (Abaddon) of my enemy (Chosen) is still my enemy” situation; Stone Summit unrelated; Naga, Warden, Kanaxai, pirates/gangs, and Dredge hostilities in Cantha only a side-effect at best; Joko unrelated (even enemies); etc.
With the LS, if it turns out that the SAB and Tequatl’s boost in power is somehow related to Scarlet, who’s behind or the cause of all other LS updates… that’s just going to be boring because she has her hands in everything literally when it comes to the LS and even some things before hand (as we “learn” post-defacto).
But most importantly, if everything was connected, it’s just a progressional story. That’s not a living world. It’s just a single story in a static world that’s given to us step by step and one step at a time only. To make a real living world you need things that aren’t connected happening, to show to us that the world isn’t really revolving around Scarlet like she believes it is.
To me, the feel of “randomness” is a good thing. But it would be better if these “random events” are happening simultaneously and not divided by actions of Scarlet.
Can you tell us at which point of the Personal Story is the Living Story taking place, Bobby?
It seems to be after the Pact was formed but before Zhaitan’s death right now. Is that so?
Yes, clarification on this and no “they happen at any time in each others’ timelines” like Angel gave in an interview with TowerTalk. That just makes things confusing.
The Living World outright confirms the Pact’s existence by now – has since the Airships. Is this before or after Zhaitan’s death.
And if before… are we really to believe it took over a year when in The Source of Orr, Occam says it’s been several weeks since he joined the Pact (thus Forging the Pact → The Source of Orr’s second instance = several weeks passage).
And if it’s after… why did Logan return to Queen Jennah’s side when he told his friends (Destiny’s Edge and the PC) that he wouldn’t until all dragons are killed? Furthermore, what’s the Pact up to exactly that we haven’t heard from?
The fact we have heard nothing from the Pact is why I say the so-called “living story” isn’t “random” or a “living world” because it’s just forgetting the rest of the world that it’s not focused on, and its focus is always on Scarlet’s actions and the reprecussions of such (exception being Shadow of the Mad King to Wintersday).
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
And yet I have seen quite a few people talking about how awesome Guild Wars: Beyond was, and it is quite likely that she was doing parts of that.
A friend of mine who went to PAX said she was told the folks working on the Living Story did War in Kryta.
Winds of Change and Hearts of the North was made primarily if not solely by the Live Team.
Honestly, War in Kryta was rather flat and ignored a lot of potential. It also felt like it made the White Mantle into what most GW2 villains are: “hurr hurr kill kitten destroy!”
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
Also found interesting that they mentioned ancient, would mean that, unlike The Shatterer and The Claw of Jormag, Tequatl is not recycled every time upon defeat by a new one.
I think it’s actually said that Tequatl isn’t killed with this update, but retreats.
Technically, we only see the Shatterer dying – the Claw of Jormag may retreat as well, as we never see what happens to the body after it “falls” into the water. Though we’re told there’s many Claws of Jormag, it’s never said it’s killed and its never shown either.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
Something’s gotten into Tequatl the Sunless. This ancient dragon, scourge of the Splintered Coast, has become more formidable than ever with an kitten nal of new attacks and lethal tricks at its disposal. To stop this rampaging beast, players will join forces with old friends and new allies in a desperate battle where failure is a very real option. Tequatl has risen, and it will take an army of players to bring it down!
Summary: Same as before, but something interesting to note – Tequatl’s called an ancient dragon.
I would say that Tyria/overworld (outside of your story) is allowed to progress in isolation to your story in exactly the same way your story progresses on without Tyria: zones are frozen in time (with Arah Exp being the only zone that is post-Zhaitan) from a personal story standpoint.
Sparkfly Fen is level 65-ish which means that it should be a representation of Tyria at the time of personal story 65. So Zhaitan does live, the only real difference is those players still doing their personal storyline now have a slightly different Sparkfly Fen.
Not to mention that I don’t remember anyone ever mentioning Tequatl specifically in the storyline. It’s an even surrounding it, but you can quite easily progress past Sparkfly Fen/65 without ever fighting Tequatl (just like the Temples and hundreds of other events).
Edit: This, obviously, isn’t stated by ANet but is an obvious corollary of their personal-story-paradox-consistency rule.
Here’s the problem…
As said in OP, we got told that The Lost Shores is post-Zhaitan. Obviously, Flame and Frost by mentioning Southsun Cove (as it was only discovered during The Lost Shores) is post-The Lost Shores. This means that all living story, if it doesn’t do time skips, should be post-Zhaitan.
Plus, by not having a definitive “this is when things happened” you get a mess of the event chronology. The Living Story breaks the zones’ “frozen in time” (which I myself originally believed until the living story updates) – or rather, has in the past (after all the Molten Alliance didn’t invade at the beginning of the personal storyline). And that just leaves people scratching their heads and going “okay, so what happened first?”
There is an enviroment dialogue of Warrmaster Narru taht says: “At least this locale is better than Southsun Cove” which would implicate that this is post Soutshun events…
I think that part can be read as Tequatl is rising in response too the pact invasion of Orr. So it can have happened in the past tense. If taken that way it can make sense.
Fair interpretation. But why now after Zhaitan’s supposed death if it is a response to the invasion?
No really, I saw that comming, when Angel said in that one TowerTalk episode that the LS isn’t set after the personal storyline. At this point I knew they said this just so they could screw the timeline with this update. It wasn’t even necessary, they could have just said that Tequatl became for an unkown reason more powerful, so the players could speculate if it absorbed some of Zhaitans powers after his death or whatever. This intentional vagueness is better than letting us belief the LS is completely post-Zhaitan and then suddenly not.
Yeah, just listened to that interview at long last today…
Leaves me confuzzled.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
If it were a peace-keeping mission, I wouldn’t really call it an “offensive.” But what really got me was how it feels like the letter talks about Zhaitan being alive in via the sentence about “Zhaitan’s lieutenant” – though it’s rather… unclear, it just gives me a “he lives” feel to it.
idk, maybe it’s just my interpretation there.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
The Harbinger demonstrates that the psychic link between “Trees” and and their offspring is affected by their spatial distance. In the same way it is possible that the same goes for Dragons.
Except all syvlari from the Pale Tree proves you wrong. As do the risen seen in Fireheart Rise during the personal story if you get it.
Think about the Six Dragons: What do they represent?
1) DSD: Water
2) Kralkatorik: Earth (crystal etc etc)
3) Jormag: Ice (frozen deserts and the forces that shape them (wind))
4) Primordus: Lava, fire and seismic activity within Tyria
5) Zaithan: Death and the afterlife of the soul
6) Mordremoth: Plants
Notice anything? Four of the six EDs are involved in inanimate forces of Nature and each can ultimately be said to be loosely associated with a natural force within Tyria. But Zaithan and Mordremoth are the only EDs directly affecting living beings.
In the GuildMag magazine that last came out, there was an interview with Scott, Jeff, and Ree. In it, Jeff made mention of what certain Elder Dragons can effect. He says:
“Some of them could affect life, some of them could affect inanimate objects, some of them could affect the elements, vegetation, water, you know they all had their some specialty but they also have some overlap”
“life” “inanimate objects” “the elements” “vegetation” “water”
Now, I’d like to disagree with your assessment of Kralkatorrik, Primordus, and Zhaitan.
Kralkatorrik and his Branded utilize earth, crystal, lightning, and fire. But he seems unable/unwilling to corrupt water and souls.
Primordus affects lava/fire and earth, but his “seismic activity” seems more of an after-effect of being underground and being large.
Zhaitan is less of death and more of rot/decay and “new life” – I say rot/decay because even fresh corpses, when corrupted and turned into a Risen, turn gray-skinned and rotten. And only his strongest minions affect the soul. With Captain Whiting from Sea of Sorrows novel among some Risen in Orr making mention of immortality and eternal life. His corruption feels more like a… “counteraction to dying,” I guess? Idk how to word it.
Also, you’re entirely wrong that Mordremoth and Zhaitan are the only ones affecting living beings. In fact, we don’t know what Mordremoth affects, it’s all speculative at this time. Saying he affects plants is based on very limited information.
Kralkatorrik twisted ogres, charr, humans, and dogs. Jormag’s twisted norn, trolls, and quaggan. Even Primordus is hinted to twist living beings (see above linked interview):
ArenaNet (Jeff Grubb) : We’ve shown that from the early Eye of the North, and when we designed the Elder Dragons we were looking at them having specialties where they could corrupt more than just one type of substance. Some of them could affect life, some of them could affect inanimate objects, some of them could affect the elements, vegetation, water, you know they all had their some specialty but they also have some overlap and I believe Primordus, ‘cause we had the troll, the Destroyer Trolls who basically were very molten but also very humanoid as well. So I do believe that Primordus can affect the living.
ArenaNet (Ree Soesbee) : But probably not easily.
ArenaNet (Jeff Grubb) : But not with the same animating force you see from Zhaitan, reanimating the dead of Orr.
ArenaNet (Ree Soesbee) : I think that it’s, perspective wise, it’s more like the troll or the grawl has a layer of rock over them. They turn a little bit elemental in –
ArenaNet (Jeff Grubb and Scott McGough) : Sort of like Jormag and the Sons of Svanir
ArenaNet (Scott McGough) : The icier the Sons of Svanir, the more corrupted they are. I would say that Primordus can-
ArenaNet (Ree Soesbee) : The rockier they are…
ArenaNet (Scott McGough) : Yeah.
ArenaNet (Jeff Grubb) : There are rules for the Elder Dragons but they’re not the same rules for every Elder Dragon.
ArenaNet (Ree Soesbee) : It’s kind of like he’s converting those living creatures into stone.
More importantly, Zaithan is the only ED that actually ENSLAVES sentient beings (when we say sentient beings we talk of higher life forms such as Charr, Humans, Asura etc etc).
Again: Kralkatorrik does this. Jormag does too, from time to time.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
Here, the poster brings up that Pale Tree = Dragon Champion theory, and gives decent reasoning as to why it probably isn’t true.
Wasn’t expecting my thread to be linked here.
There’s a lot that’s been seen since then too which further disprove the notion that sylvari=ED minions.
Husks are traded to the Inquest by the Nightmare Court in Sparkly Fen, for example.
But the main counters is:
Malyck’s uninfluenced by anything, but is not very dragon minion like.
Sylvari are immune to all dragon corruption (or rather, they cannot become minions – they die when touched by a dragon’s corruption). As Crucible of Eternity proves to us, dragon minions can be influenced by other dragons’ corruption.
Of course we are apt to refer to Zaithan as the model corrupter and so measure Sylvari “corruption” in light of this. But we shouldn;t see Zaithan as the model of Dragon corruption. in fact quite the opposite.
I’m not sure what you’re trying to get here.
It was told during “sylvari week” prior to release that sylvari are immune to all dragon corruption – that they die before becoming corrupted, when touched by it.
It’s why there’s never going to be an Icebrood Sylvari, or Branded Sylvari. It just cannot happen.
But Subject Alpha, Kudu, and Kudu’s Monster shows that normal beings can be influenced by multiple dragons – including what was originally a risen (Kudu’s Monster being a Risen Giant).
However, only one Sylvari has died so far according to lore – and that not by natural causes. He was slain.
Uh….
You need to pay a hell of a lot more attention. Rionnac was the first, not the only. I mean, what about all those Nightmare Courtiers? Terebirth Tree’s story? Seira? Tegwen? There’s a LOT of sylvari who die to risen.
Furthermore, Sylvari are plants, whereas Zaithan corrupts mammals, birds, reptiles etc etc anything with red blood that dies a natural death. Hence, Sylvari would not fall under Zaithan’s sway because they are not red-blooded creatures.
Go to central Sparkfly Fen. Go to Orr. You’ll find that Zhaitan’s influence reaches plants too.
He obviously fell prematurely from a Tree and was swept (as a pod) down a river that separated him geographically from his “Tree” such that it was no longer able to communicate with him. Hence, he has no more than his own memories to guide him. Thus, he is no more able to tell us where he came from than we are to tell him.
This is actually untrue. It’s just that he had no Dream of Dream experience, he had all of his memories and everything, and knew where his tree came from. Just never saw it.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
Dragon Hunting
The scavengers hunt seem to provide no lore. It’s just finding Tequatl’s teeth, Claw of Jormag’s scales, and The Shatterer’s crystals.
Update notes
Something’s gotten into Tequatl the Sunless. This ancient dragon, scourge of the Splintered Coast, has become more formidable than ever with an kitten nal of new attacks and lethal tricks at its disposal. To stop this rampaging beast, players will join forces with old friends and new allies in a desperate battle where failure is a very real option. Tequatl has risen, and it will take an army of players to bring it down!
Summary: Same as before, but something interesting to note – Tequatl’s called an ancient dragon.
Bobby Stein’s comments
The story component for the Tequatl Rising LW update primarily deals with helping Rox fight Tequatl and finding dragon minion clues. You can also interact with Warmaster Narru to get a few more details.
Tequatl becoming stronger (and Rox being present) are both tied into the overall LW story. More will be revealed later.
Overall Summary
This seems to be based during the assault on Orr, thus Tequatl was made stronger by Big Z – possibly to act as a diversion to the Pact’s forces, make them forced to focus elsewhere.
If it is post-Zhaitan then… why theorize that it’s due to the invasion on Orr without mentioning Zhaitan’s death (again – could be due to mail specialization)?
Rox is around in her evergoing quest to join Rytlock’s warband.
Nothing else.
“No Paradox” rule has been broken!
At the beginning of the Living Story content, ArenaNet stated they wanted to avoid their “living world” story from conflicting with the personal story. In doing so, they would never confirm or deny that the personal story’s events have occurred or do things that would conflict with the passage of the personal story at any point. This content update has broken that rule without a doubt, though it had been potentially-broken beforehand. And now I’m left without knowing what the timeline of events in the game exactly is…
A post by Matthew Medina stated that The Lost Shores was post-Zhaitan’s defeat, and in-game with Secret of Southsun objects were revealed that the island was only recently discovered, giving a heavy implication that it was left unknown for so long due to the risen’s heavy influence in the “Sea” of Sorrows. Granted this was out of game and thus potentially a “subject to be changed” thing no different than interviews and beta stuff (like gw.dat info).
Narru’s mail indicates that Tequatl Rising happens during the personal story, as the invasion of Orr is ongoing and Zhaitan is talked about as if alive.
Rox’s dialogue indicates that Tequatl Rising happens post-Flame and Frost.
Flame and Frost was definitely post-Lost Shores.
Interestingly, Rox fails to mention the Queen’s Jubilee. Makes me wonder if this is meant to take place before then but after F&F…
All of this makes an interesting note on the Aetherblades stealing Pact airships, implying that they stole those ships while the Pact was invading Orr… which seems unlikely IMO.
My Final View
Probably would have been better without Rox and without lore or story. Now I’m just confused on story order.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
The Vigil needs auxiliary soldiers for a high-priority, high-risk operation in Sparkfly Fen. According to our intelligence, Zhaitan’s lieutenant (designated Tequatl the Sunless) has begun to “evolve.” Its attacks are more elaborate, and its tactics are becoming advanced.
We don’t know if this has anything to do with the Pact’s offensive in Orr, but the situation requires investigation and, if necessary, confrontation. We require infantry to bolster our existing forces and protect our current entrenchment, including the Vigil Megalaser and its power batteries.
Come to Splintered Coast as soon as possible. The Vigil needs you.
- Warmaster Narru
Summary: Reports from the Vigil claim he’s gotten stronger, and Narru suspects it’s due to the current Pact invasion of Orr.
However, knowing ArenaNet it’s possible that the mail I got was geared towards my character being so far in the storyline (I first logged onto my ranger who was at Further into Orr at the time); sadly, it’s one letter per account (why do they go back and forth between per character and per account with these letters!?! It’s freaking annoying. I’ll take per character please, so I can see racial/order/PS progression differences) so I cannot check myself if it says something else for others.
Warmaster Narru(to)
I take it you are here as part of Operation Screaming Sky. Excellent, I’m Warmaster Narru, commanding officer. Mark my words, Zhaitan’s champion will not outfox us here.
-> What’s the operation?
: Vigil tacticians have noticed that Tequatl has been improving its battle strategies with every emergence. We’re here to see if there’s any truth to that analysis.
->-> And if that’s true?
:: If it is adapting, we’ll face a smarter, deadlier foe every time it emerges. What we determine here will chart the course of future dragon lieutenant conflicts.
->->->How are you going to take on Tequatl?
::: Infantry, support golems, technicians. The only non-regulation item is the megalaser cannon. It should put a hole in Tequatl, assuming we can properly deploy it.
->->->-> You think this cannon will help?
:::: Some asura have been testing this laser against Tequatl for a while. We’ve made a generous offer for the weapon. Now, we’re amplifying its power for the operation.
(note: Only documented important lines)
At least this locale is better than Southsun Cove.
Summary: Mainly same as the mail. Vigil have noticed Tequatl improve. But this time there’s no theorycrafting behind it on Narru’s behalf. However, one of Narru’s idle dialogues indicate it is at least post-The Lost Shores.
Rox
You! I remember you from that Molten Alliance hassle. Good to see you back on another mission. You here stalking Tequatl, too?
-> Maybe I am, why are you looking for Tequatl?
: Tribune Brimstone dispatched me here with one mission: locate and defeat Tequatl and bring back a chunk of the rotter to prove it.
->-> For what reason?
::It’s a test to get into the Stone warband. Kill the beast: bring back a trophy. I know, sounds more like a norn thing. Maybe all the time with Braham will pay off now.
->->-> Need a hand?
::: Hmm. The tribune never said anything about teaming up with others. Yeah, sure. Me, you, and Frostbite will crush Tequatl. If you want, you can help us track it.
->->->-> Yeah, count me in.
:::: That’s what I want to hear. Frostbite and I will be heading out shortly, so get ready. We ain’t stopping until Tequatl’s down and broken.
->Rox, how have you been?
: I can’t complain. A few months ago, I was tail-deep in snow with the Molten Alliance. Today, I’m humping through this stinky swamp. Ah, a soldier’s life is never boring.
X Nope, just passing through.
(didn’t put all repeat dialogue options or end dialogue lines)
Summary: Rytlock has decided to send Rox on yet another trial for qualification into the Stone warband (side note: I think he’s starting to use her as a gopher). This time the trial is hunting Tequatl.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
Parts of dragons was my first guess really. I just thought it was interesting how there were crystals in the corner of a map where the Shatterer doesn’t come close to visiting (or dying near).
And I was really, really sad that they basically said “Zhaitan wasn’t killed yet” and talk about invading Orr still.
As if the whole Living Story takes place sometime between Battle for Fort Trinity and The Source of Orr. Which basically redacts Matthew Medina’s statement that The Lost Shores takes place post-Zhaitan.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
They said a while back why this isn’t doable but i cant remember exactly why .
Ignoring any technical problems, there’s the issue that events are beaten at different rates and that events function on a “time since last completion” kind of timer.
If Servers A, B, and C get an event synced up once, they’ll still complete the event at different rates due to different number of players and different stats and skills of those players.
But anyways, @ OP: It was said that ArenaNet’s looking into making world bosses function like Scarlet’s Invasion for overflow creation, so overflows made within 10 minutes of a world boss popping up would get that world boss showing up.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
