It would be cool if they changed the “Release” page on their website, and renamed it as “Consortium News”
I don’t mean this as an insult, but I think its an undeniable fact that both the consortium and our beloved GW2 advertising staff love to spread a little propaganda; which, isn’t necessarily true, creating a lot of hype about something that turns out to be small, or promising one thing then delivering another. Now I don’t mean to say that we haven’t received amazing releases and great content over the course of playing, just that as the consortium, their staff seems to enjoy stretching the truth. Its almost as if the consortium was constructed as a parallel to embody their team spirit. At any rate, I thought this added a nice little twist to the game, keep up the hard work GWC.
I wish this game had actual boat trips. None of the “click on the captain and you’re there” stuff, actual boat rides with Dynamic Events occurring (sea creature attacks, pirate attacks, etc).
I don’t, boat rides were the worst part of the games that had them…
Except games in which sailing and fighting on boats was a major factor if not the focus of the game. But it would be too much of an overhaul to do so with GW2
I think they patched the condi-damage thing, it certainly wasn’t intended. Well, I must be a very stupid being then if everyone thinks this was an easy encounter the first time, haha. This is roughly how I experienced the battle:
1.) Testing the mine-detector on the mines in the entrance. Using the same symbol turns the mines green and using the wrong symbol makes them explode. Aha.
2.) Tried to turn the mines green, ran by and then when Canach was near them tried to manually explode them by using a different symbol. Fail.
3.) Tried to kite him over the red mines. A while. Fail.
4.) Tried to punch him with skill 5 into the mines. Fail.
5.) Tried to get him by manually exploding the red mines again. Fail.
6.) I think I’ve tried every single thing you could do. fail.
7.) Turned the mines green and kited him over the mines. Success. -> WTF, didn’t I try this before (probably not).
Now I feel stupid how everyone says this was an easy encounter. It was a challenge for me.
Its funny how the simplistic things can be the hardest to find. Like certain vistas, you spend an hour searching for them with no luck, then look online to find it was one of the easiest ones in the game. That you thought it would be complicated and thus looked in all the wrong places. Ah~ good times, lol
I wouldn’t expect too much, this reminds me of the bonfires we got in F&F. Why would the cutscene-team do something in one instance on the island instead of the whole island? I could be wrong though.
Ah, I don’t know. From what I was reading in the patch notices and advertisement, in the instance you destroy contracts while the karka queen is rampaging outside. That really seems like something that they would show. But then again, this is GW2 propaganda team we’re talking about, they’re as bad as the consortium.
Makes sense the boats are gone. The Consortium have “trapped” the refugees there to work and with the Asura gate being the only way on or off the island, they have full control who has access to it (obviously not including us players). This way the refugees can’t leave without Consortium permission, which they’ll never get.. at least so far anyway.
Not really, a luxury cruise is much more preferred to walking through a portal, its part of the whole island experience. Furthermore In a short story ArenaNet depicted just that, both settler/refugees and vacationing nobles walking down the ships gang plank to enter the island. And even if the influx of refugees drops (either because all the refugees have found a place to settle down, or got wise to the dangers of the island) there would still be ignorant resort guest cheated by the consortium propaganda. (Funny… I’m starting to relate the consortium to the GW2 advertising staff…) If you have tried to board the ships via lionsarch, it still allows you to do so. It just doesn’t let you get off at the ships in SSC… which isn’t very realistic by any means. Nor for that matter does it allow you to return via ship. And as for the settlers boarding the ship to escape, they could just as easily bomb rush the portal…. which takes a lot less knowledge skill and manpower.
Interesting… However, I’m only giving constructive criticism, albeit harsh criticism at that. But in that regard, how am I to highly rate material that is so sporadic and discombobulated, that it would fail to publish a child’s book? If Guild Wars 2 offers us with quality content, they will receive tremendously accommodating feedback. As it is, they should be satisfied that we are so rough with them, as a little rough love stirs improvement.
1. Harsh criticism? Try constructive criticism. It’s better.
2. That is your opinion. I happen to really enjoy what Arenanet brings to the table. I have liked all of their material so far, except maybe that crabtacular achievement.
“However, I’m only giving constructive criticism, albeit harsh criticism at that.” -Mia. Its interesting how you quoted this exact sentence but failed to release that the very word you suggest I inhibit was already implored in that very same sentence.
Let’s go over the definition of constructive criticism, shall we? A critique in which one breaks everything down to show, not only whats wrong with something, but to suggest how to improve or fix it. As for harsh, that’s an adjective that describes the overly negative nature in which someone presents an issue. I admit that I was overly negative, but that is simply because the issue in which i’m regarding, (the story aspect of living story) has little to be positive about. Thus while constructive, my criticism is also harsh. Problem?
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Yes, it proves that there is a story. However, I must ask, if you develop a character over several bits, and all are relevant, exactly how much “recap” is necessary to make sure complaints don’t appear on the forums? How much is necessary before the developers have to expect players to go onto the official wiki and read up on past events, because recaps getting longer and longer?
The complainers will skip the lore regardless, though, even if it’s in-game. You know how I know? Because you’re doing it now.
How much of a recap you ask? Enough to know what they’re talking about, enough to understand who it is that’s causing this trouble and how… I’m not asking for much. Two or three chat boxes, or a simple cut scene would suffice.
Here’s an example. Part one with Levi after we collect samples:
Levi- Thanks, after your hard work I’ve been able to trace the crazed behavior pattern to a drug induced in these wildflowers.
Player- Can we neutralize it?
Levi- Not yet, but we may be able to trace it. This poison leaves a residue and if we just follow its trail…
Player- We’ll teach that warmonger to mess with the peace! (tough response) I believe in you levi, inform me when you find more (love response) We can put an end to this madness (noble response)
Part two after update. A mail will inform you that they traced the residue back to this cavern. Enter instance and talk to Keil:
Keil- I’m glad you’re here, that blasted Sylvari retreated deep inside this recess, only I cant risk to send my men past these mines. Why cant prisoners stay behind bars?
Character- Who?
Keil- Canach, the instigator of the Karka aggression on Lionsarch. Only this time it seems it was intended.
This would effectively connect the game-play(collecting samples) to the problem (karka attacks), the problem to the location(the cave), the location to the villain(Canach), and the villain to his background(lost shores). Those two simple dialogues I suggested, would fill all the plot holes.
And as for complainers skipping the lore regardless, I am one of these so called complainers and my only issue is the way in which they present the lore. Do you seriously think I would care enough to type paragraphs about how weak the story was if I would ignore the lore anyways? Obviously I quite enjoy lore, but the lore about the story in which we are living, should exist in the game so we can live it. Its a very simple rule of story telling; show, don’t tell.
You noted that there were some events/npc’s who release these details… but I and many others have been running all over Southsun and have never uncovered them. They should be presented more strongly, at key points of the story, not just flung out randomly, where one may or may not witness them.
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@Marcus. To address your points in their given order:
1. Some people found this boss easy while others hard, but whether or not it forced you to use your brain is an entirely different story. You can easily exploit this boss by using weapons/attacks that deal conditional damage, and come out victorious with little to no trouble. The only class that was set up to fail against this boss was the ranger… believe me, I know, I had to do the bloody battle two dozen times just to get the achievement. And in what part of the mines programming do you have to use intellect, it tells you exactly what to do and when to do it. The only skill required is luck and a dab hand with a keyboard to avoid explosions.
2. I may have been wrong about this point. There is supposed to be one more instance released on the fourth that may have cut scenes (here’s hoping)… however that still doesn’t excuse their lack of story content in this current release. I agree it is unlikely that a permanent event chain boss will be given a cut scene.
3. The team that did the open world content was amazing, I have seen no complaints nor have any of my own. They provided great farming and adequately presented the living story’s affect on the open world.
4. Crab-toss… eh, if you love PVP you love crab-toss, if not, its just a pain. Don’t get me wrong there were some groups willing to cooperate towards achievements, which made a really unique player friendly experience… and then there were the others. I’m uncertain whether they were obsessed with playing the game how it was intended, enjoyed making it hard for those who wished to obtain achievements, or simply loved its brutal keep away mechanics, but crab-toss with the wrong group was no fun at all.
5. That would certainly be much more interesting then what they have released thus far.
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I sincerely doubt that most farmers spend all their time farming simply because they like running in circles killing the same mobs in endless repetition.
I disagree with you. I believe farmers spend their time farming because they enjoy getting those rewards. MMOs have been built on the foundation that the only requirement for getting rewards is time, not skill or intelligence or knowledge; that’s a relic from the pay to play games in which the goal was to keep people playing longer, but that’s what MMO players got used to. As a result, what those players seek are mindless, easy and repetitive activities that will give them their “fix” (be it a +1 to some random stats – which they call “progression” – or some kind of unique item or just more in-game money), without worrying if the process of earning said “fix” is fun or not.
Skinner’s rat, human edition.
It works. It sells. In fact, it sells millions, as WoW has shown us. Developers have been trying to get a slice of the WoW pie for years now. More disturbingly, those players who think being a Skinner’s rat actually equals playing a game have associated this kind of lifestyle to MMOs. That’s what they expect when a new MMO is released, that is what they demand from a MMO developer, and that’s what they ultimately want, to the detriment of everything else.
Thus, that’s what MMOs are. Players who want something else don’t even bother to try MMOs anymore, and the few who do soon find themselves swimming in a sea of rats. Unfortunatelly for game developers, there aren’t enough people in the world willing to accept this kind of “game” in order to keep multiple MMOs afloat, hence the failure of MMO after MMO – is there anything still pay to play other than WoW? Even Rift is going free to play.
There is no salvation for MMORPGs because the MMORPG players are the core of the issue right now. Until the genre dies and its style of “play” is gone, so it can have a rebirth, I doubt very much we will see any MMO being and keeping itself as more than “Grinding 101”.
Players DO wish to obtain these rewards -as indeed even I would love a legendary, an exotic, cultural, dungeon, and temple armor set, and a mountain of gold per character- but that doesn’t mean they love or desire the method of procuring them. So if developers change the method, but maintain the rewards, players would have no problem. In fact, many would be enthused… a good story and rewards?! How can you complain?
I for one have always hated farming, its the most boring factor in gaming aside from leveling… which brings me to another point, if players love grinding so much, then why did they take away level grinding? Its the same concept; in one you’re farming for gold and in the other for a level, both are grueling and tedious months of wasted time and effort. So why did they take it away? The answer is simple, players get sick of it and quit. Then its on to the next game until that too becomes monotonous.
And lets be honest, by name alone, shouldn’t a legendary weapon come with a legend? To have a history and mystery, one that you have to complete a challenging and complex lengthy story plot, or even uncover a hidden area with an outrageous puzzle to obtain, and not be something you simply create? For example, there could be a sword from a great hero that died in a world cataclysmic battle long past. Then after death, his possessions were stored in a secret tomb that was later uncovered and used by ignorant bandits as a hide out. They ransacked some of the lesser weapons making them a formidable force, but could never uncover the innermost chamber lost to history. Then, as the player you either have to fight through them in your exploration to find the chamber, or perhaps kill a bandit who finds the weapon, using it to usurp power and growing ever more ruthless, on the verge of being possessed by the weapon.
At any rate we have deviated extremely far off topic.
/philosophical soap box to try to better humanity through the internet….maybe a lost cause.
MMOs are not good games. They are not meant to be good games, most of the time. GW2 was trying to be one, but the issue is now out of a developer’s hands – those who are left playing MMOs are those who don’t want a good game, rather those who want a grind.
This is obvious in Southsun. Good storytelling, interesting dynamic events, a deep change to the world? No, 200% Magic Find and some unique looking items if you do some achievements, plus the good old RNG boxes. That’s what ArenaNet gave its community because that’s what the GW2 community wanted – you can easily see how the most played aspects of the game are those that this community grinds and farms. Fractals, CoF path 1, farming events in Orr, farming the dragon events? That’s where you will see the highest concentration of players.
A sane developer give its players what they want. The GW2 community has made very clear that they want loot and grind, not a good game.
While this is true for many players, it can most certainly be attributed to the fact that after completing story, dungeons, and map, there is nothing left to do but grind for gold, weapons, armor, and legendarys. I sincerely doubt that most farmers spend all their time farming simply because they like running in circles killing the same mobs in endless repetition. It is boring, but they do it regardless because there is nothing else to do but collect profits until they’ve finally had enough and quit the game. On the other hand, if we are provided with quality content, I truly believe the band wagon would jump on it.
So, developers, this is what I’ve gathered from other players; the perfect recipe to a successful living story:
1. start off with the issue, chat boxes are fine and can be simple at first. Of course we wont have the solution to the mystery right out the gate.
2. Thicken the plot with an instance or two.
3.As the plot thickens, -and the plot should thicken, no more of this ’here’s the problem’, ’here’s the conclusion’-, make the chat boxes more detailed and regular in occurrence. Don’t just have the Asura make us run off and collect samples without returning to hear her conclusion. Or even better, elaborate with cut scenes!
4. throw in a meta event somewhere mid to ending plot… this pleases farmers and shows the affect of living story on the world map.
5. finish with a bang the best way you know how; a dungeon. Have the npc’s partake in the battle!!!!
6. Closure and or transition; optional
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I wish this game had actual boat trips. None of the “click on the captain and you’re there” stuff, actual boat rides with Dynamic Events occurring (sea creature attacks, pirate attacks, etc).
That would be too much of a dynamic expansion.
But I understand they cannot because of the time frames the teams work with. Personally I’d take seeing new content less often to just see them be able to complete the premise they want to get across.
Absolutely. I respect the devs for the content we got and I’m sure you are right. Releasing stuff in this short intervalls hurts the game imho because the devs have to hurry + there isn’t enough time to include polishing (e.g. cutscenes, storytelling, etc.).
A new release each month is totally ok, a lot of people need more time to complete the new content anyway. The ones who complete it in a day burn through each of the new stuff in hours anyway. There’s no way to please those.
The people responsible for those timeframes should really ask themselves: is this worth it, since it might seem like a step back (we had good cutscenes in F&F e.g.).
Exactly, if they cannot produce quality material in this time frame, then expand the release date. Id much rather wait a month for an amazing detailed -albeit short story- than receive these half-kitten releases every other week or so. But honestly, its not as if funding manpower or even deadlines are an issue, as the developers have claimed to be devoted to living story, so much more than they are to the main plot.
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I fully agree, but don’t forget: there are a lot of enemies on Southsun Cove, the fact that the battles with those happen outside the story-instance doesn’t really matter. Anet put the time they could have spent in a dungeon into open world content with a new meta-event which we will see next week.
A meta-event is all well and good, but I wonder if it will live up to expectations; these story instances certainly didn’t, as there was no story to speak of.
I’d loved to see Kiel participating in the boss battle though since it was her “prey” which she hunted down, not ours. I have no idea why we as players had to deal with Canach. I also enjoyed the npc-heroes dialogues between Braham and Rox quite a lot. Kiel and Canach had no character-development I was aware of… if might have happened in some event I missed / or in the blogposts.
Now that would have made it a story instance. If Kiel would have joined us in the battle, if there was a cut scene when we entered, or at least before we fought Canach. Instead its no more than a boss battle on a sub-map, which as much story as one would obtain fighting a champion karka on the main map; location is all that has changed.
You keep suggesting we wait for the Queen Karka, but if we don’t see as much as a single cut scene from her battle -which I believe to be the end of this entire chapter- they might as well change the name from ‘living story’ to ‘temporary event chain achievements,’ because that’s all we’re getting. Doesn’t sound very pleasant to say? Well its just as pleasant to receive.
In comparison, all the good points in Braham/Rox’s instance helped to further the story, and yet these points were not implemented in the SSC instance. I can’t see this as anything other than a drop in quality.
That was my main point about SSC instance, as to whether it was easy or hard, is inconsequential; my beef is with the story, or lack thereof.
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I agree, it was a nice realistic touch. I mean, if we are not to use the boats, what is the point of them still being there? Other maps have 3~6 entrances, so I don’t see why they’d disable the boats. Well, its nothing more than an aesthetic really, but that’s 9/10ths of salesmanship.
Sorry…..next time I’ll complain more
what a contradiction… I think I’m going to do something sensible and log off already, lol
Lol, when you said, “I hope that more people can express themselves the way Mia just did,” an image flashed through my eyes.
“Hi, I’m Mia, and I’m a game-a-holic,” -Mia.
“Hi Mia~” -other players sitting in a circle.
XD
Ah, I admit if you search the recesses of my forum history here, you will find naught but complaints. However, that is merely because I joined the forum rather recently, for the explicit purpose of expressing my dissatisfaction with F&F. The marketing campaign had us reigned in to this amazing living story, and then they send us out to fix sign post. I think its reasonable that I was less than cordial with this development. And then, and amazing thing happened, Braham and Rox’s instances, and the MA Dungeon; finally, the pace was picking up. It was not to last.
They had learned how to deliver a story, but in the very next chapter discarded everything they had underwent harsh criticism to create. Needless to say, I was once again forced to express my displeasure. After doing a little research I will agree with you that a story does exist, however they are failing to deliver it properly, and least they amend this hollow vessel, I cannot take pleasure in sailing on it. So in that regard how am I to express anything but criticism? They asked for our thoughts, and so I gave them mine; simply, I am not enjoying this so called ‘story’.
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I posted something in another thread about the story, of which there’s actually a good amount but since it’s not a direct narrative you kind of have to work it out unless someone spells it out for you. Basically a lot of the story here is based on the Lost Shores release back in November, where most of these characters were introduced.
1. How many players joined this game AFTER the Lost Shores event?
2. How LONG has it been SINCE the Lost Shores event?
Many players who were unable to attend Lost Shores would never know key pieces of the story without doing in-dept research, and doubtless, even many of those who did take part don’t remember all the details. In this you have only proved to us that the story does exist, that however does not excuse its lack of presentation. You shouldn’t have to scour the web to understand the story. A story, and especially and interactive one, should be shown, not told. But they don’t even tell us anything, we have to look it all up. At the very least a recap is expected, in chat boxes if nothing else.
Furthermore, while this tidbit of information does explain who Canach is, it still fails to link him to the current threat. Sure we know that the presence of his men enraged Karka in the past, but we have no idea how he did it this time, or even that it was he who was to blame for that matter.
And it is easy to fix. Just let us go back to the Asura in charge before showing us the instance on the map.
He would tell us what he discovered and that he traced it back to that cavern where Canach is.
Simple and effective. At that point we would learn about him and why we would have to stop him.
However this simple step is missing and we are just thrown at him, which leaves us to find clues about him outside the game in blogposts. these are nice, but i prefer my info in game.
Simple rule in interactive Storytelling: Show, dont tell.
Exactly! A simple cut scene there would have remedied everything: the perfect transition from ‘somethings wrong’ to ‘lets go get him’; the very core of the story and the piece that they left out, the ‘this is who did it, how, and why.’
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to be fair: I wouldn’t compare the story mission with a dungeon, but instead with a story mission in F&F like the Braham-Mission in Cragstead. We got a few new events and get a Meta-Event chain, don’t forget that. Plus a Minigame.
Yes, since this was an instance and not a dungeon, as they so claimed it would be, we should compare it to Braham/Rox mission. Okay, so lets start with good points about Braham/Rox instances:
-Braham and Rox spoke; chat boxes at the least, and even some voiced dialogue if I remember correctly. Not to mention; Cut Scenes! If not during the actual battle itself, at least at Holebrook and the Black Citadel.
-Braham and Rox’s input actually furthered the story, there was detail and content in what they spoke.
-There was a journey with assaulting enemies, not just one room with a boss
-Braham and Rox actually took part in the battle… fathom that!
On the other hand, even the good points about the SSC Instance can be taken in a bad light:
-Quick and Easy boss that less skilled players love… but on the other hand so quick and easy it becomes boring.
-Interesting use of mine mechanics… but so reliant on mine mechanics that it takes away any real skill from the player.
In comparison, all the good points in Braham/Rox’s instance helped to further the story, and yet these points were not implemented in the SSC instance. I can’t see this as anything other than a drop in quality.
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Interesting… However, I’m only giving constructive criticism, albeit harsh criticism at that. But in that regard, how am I to highly rate material that is so sporadic and discombobulated, that it would fail to publish a child’s book? If Guild Wars 2 offers us with quality content, they will receive tremendously accommodating feedback. As it is, they should be satisfied that we are so rough with them, as a little rough love stirs improvement.
Even if it was no more than a cut scene of Canach dancing with a Karka, that much alone would have brought a touch of life to this so called story.
There are multiple living world teams, each with assets from all departments. The initial scope for Canach’s instance was as it is now – we had a shorter time table to build things, so we just wanted to plan for a STORY boss fight (easier) and a multiplayer boss fight (harder). The designer accomplished what we planned to do with it, but we never really considered it a dungeon – that was just a bit of a marketing mistake that set unrealistic expectations as a result of calling it a dungeon on the heels of MF.
Once again, you call it a story boss fight, when it fails to adequately present any form of a story.
- Who is Canach, what is his involvement with the Consortium?
-You explained how Canach found out about Southsun, but not in game, where it should have been.
-Why does Canach want to help the refugees, how is he to help them by killing them all?
- From the website we can gather that hes a little insane, but why? And once again, this bit of information is in the wrong place.
-What are the plants we collected samples from, how is Canach using them?
-How did we trace the plants to Canach, or his lair for that matter?
-What is that robot doing there after we defeat Canach, why do we have to fight it?
-The consortium is at least pretending to be just, and as their only interested lies in profit, I cant fathom why they would risk everything with a preemptive strike against the lionguard.
-If they had not attacked the lionguard with that robot, then they would have appeared as victims of Canach, an organization to be protected and sympathized by the Lionguard, even if their business sense lacks high morals. So why ruin their standing?
When writing a story, you should ‘show’ your audience the events, not ‘tell’ them. But as it is, you’re not even telling us whats going on. If you continue to build a story with so many sinkholes, Southsun Cove is going to collapse like Divinities Reach and sink straight into the sea. And if we wanted an underwater adventure, we already have Orr.
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this is not the final event, i remember before the MF was released everyone hated F&F too.
same kitten, different story.
…It shouldn’t have to be the final event for things to start getting good, it shouldn’t have to be the final event before there is actually a hint of a story. People might say, ‘wait it out, the final event will make it worth it’, but that’s not much of a story if everything but the final event is trash.
I love this game, there has been a lot of great content, but Living Story, simply isn’t living up to its name.
The title of the thread is “Huge Step back from Molten Facilty”. Where the OP talks of his disappointment with SoS because it didn’t end with a bang like F&F did. I was just saying that it isn’t fair (But who gives a kitten about that) to compare the two (the two being Canach’s Lair and Molten Facilty) because they are totally different.
1) Molten Facility was, basically, the finale of the arc – taking down the facilities the alliance built. While Canach’s lair isn’t really the finale. I think Rob even posted somewhere on here there’s more to come next week.
2) Dungeon vs. Boss Encounter. I know we were all expecting another huge kitten dungeon, but content is content is content.
I totally get the point that the disappointment comes from it not being more story driven… But this thread is about comparing a dungeon to a boss fight.
And that’s the problem, that one is a boss fight when it should be a dungeon. We compare the two because the latter set standards; expectations, and arena net boasted about how things were only going to get better. But dropping from a dungeon to a boss fight is not an improvement by any means. A boss fight does nothing to further the plot, but an instance does; a dungeon does. In fact, the only part of F&F that successfully carried the story were just that, instances and a dungeon. So if the content is to improve, if the story is to grow in complexity, how are they to manage that by downgrading an instance to a simple boss fight? Do you see why we are comparing the two now? One is necessary, the other is pointless; we were promised better.
I have to say. I actually enjoyed the first patch of SoS way too much. SO much more to do on the island itself, more scavenger hunts and loot. The finale of F&F set the bar high and I felt as though SoS started to meet that expectation.
Granted the dungeon was short, not really story driven, and imo awkward.
It isn’t a dungeon at all… So we shouldn’t judge it as one…
They didn’t advertise it as a dungeon in the patch notes. I don’t want to have to go back and find all the prepatch hype where someone might have called it a dungeon, but it’s referred to as a “Boss Encounter” – which is fitting.So sure the boss might not be up to the Molten Facility precedent… But it shouldn’t be judged on the same scale. It was fed to us as a boss encounter… simply that. :/
“Hunt Down Canach
Join Kiel for a mission to capture the deadly, desperate Canach! In this all-new story DUNGEON, you’ll enter Canach’s Lair on a subterranean solo mission under the island. If you defeat the elusive sylvari you’ll unlock a challenging all-new group adventure!” https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases/may-28-2013/
At any rate, you’re missing the point, what we are dissatisfied in, is not the fact that they call it a dungeon, but that the story is all but nonexistent and that the instance fails to live up to previous instances… even personal story instances are of better quality difficulty and length.
Yes, the island events are fun… but once again that is irrelevant to this thread.
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Most lore in SSC was given through spoilers in achievements or in item descriptions and if you don’t read the blog you probably never heard of Canach’s involvement in the storyline. Moreover, the storytelling in the dungeons is also disapointing : we get only a couple of lines of dialog, Kiel doesn’t even bother joining us in the hunt (she’s like : “Canach is over there, go get him while I sit here watching this beautiful wall and waiting for you to return to get all the credit”) and the explorable version doesn’t provide a single bit of explanation of why this golem is here and what happens after.
I can’t agree more. Its undoubtedly a fatal flaw in this chapter that not only are you unable to experience the story, but you can only learn of its details if you hunt everywhere but in the actual story itself… and even then what you find lacks the substance to pull the story together. If they had placed just one cut scene, or even improved upon the NPC’s dialogue, the story would have improved ten fold.
The major flaw with this chapter’s living story was that it lacked the most essential factor in story telling; the story itself. In the first release we are given a mystery, the cause of the wildlife’s aggression, and in the second release we receive the conclusion, the defeat and sequential arrest of Canach… anyone else see something missing? The factors that contrived to us learning the truth, the solution that led to this conclusion, the details and plot build up… the core of the story was completely left out. One moment we have a problem and the next it’s solved, with not so much as a single cut scene to explain how, just a few dialogue boxes here and there with little to no audio. And while dialogue boxes are all well and good, there was no subsistence, no detail. The living story was simply one giant plot hole.
Sure you did release a couple of short stories on the website, but while they most certainly give a nice background to our characters, they fail to connect the problem to the solution. And more importantly, the living story should reside within the game, so that we may witness and interact with it, or at least hear it second hand from an npc; to be able to LIVE your living story. As it is now, we’re not even playing it.
This is a serious digression from Flame and the Frost, at the very least their instances and dungeon had cut scenes! It allowed us to view the story. But as it is, you can’t even call this over glorified boss fight an instance. There was a lot of hype from the developers about how exciting and deep this story would be. But to be honest, I’m greatly disappointed. You set higher standards with your previous work, we expect you to keep them.
(edited by Mia Lunarfang.5826)
Are we supposed to get some kind of reward on finishing all achievements in Live Story?
Finished mine and nothing…
you get rewards for completing many of the individual achievements (the key ones, like completing the instance with Roxy), but not a reward for completing all the achievements… but then, there are still more achievements to be added, when all are added, then perhaps there will be a reward for completing all.
Is there any way we could have some indication of content that is NOT hardcore, some level indications, and what casual players who enjoy doable but interesting content can play.
Seems everything is “challenging” (read: hardcore kin only). Been there, done that, nowadays I’d like to solo quest and occasionally join in on bosses and win most of the time…build up some charactors then try to find someone who will let me group with them as I get a reasonably outfitted charactor leveled up.
These new instances in the living story are NOT ‘hardcore’. I soloed them with my lvl 80 ranger. Don’t have a lvl 80? No problem, it scales you up to lvl 80. Essentially that means if your character is a lvl 5, when you walk into the instance you will become a lvl 80… though, your weapons armor and abilities would still be lvl 5, so probably not a good idea. I suppose you should still be a lvl 30+ before going in… and if its still hard at lvl 30, then bring a party, you should be able to complete the instances with moderate to easy difficulty.
I agree with loneknight. I like the slow burn it’s taking on. I don’t feel rushed, and I feel like it’s something slowly revealing itself over time. It allows people to discover it at their own pace as part of their normal travels in Tyria, not something they have to quickly rush out and “do”. So well done, I really like it. it gives us time to really wonder what is happening up north
I agree with this. I prefer this slow approach. I don’t want it be rushed. If it happens too quickly, it feels like we are forced to do it asap or we are going to miss it. Also there’s this mystery over what’s happening. I would understand people wanting this to be released quicker if it was a pay to play MMO but you are not losing any money while waiting for the next update in the living story.
Whats wrong with forcing us to do it right away or miss it? The Lost Shores chain of events happened only once, and if you weren’t there, you were out of luck. I hadn’t even started playing yet, so ill never be able to experience it or obtain the rewards. Yet here these one time events are dragging on forever to make sure everyone and their mother gets to participate, to be honest, I feel cheated. Its unfair, that only some people got the chance to play Lost Shores, but they’ll slow down development and weaken the story just to allow everyone to play this living story, which is also supposed to be the same type of event. There’s nothing wrong with holding this event for no more than a day, a week tops, if people really want to play it, they’ll find the time. But that’s not even an issue here.
You stated that a faster approach would make it feel rushed, like you would have to complete it quickly or lose out, but even when they began the second stage, and then the second phase of the second stage even, you could still play and earn stage 1, so its not like giving us all the content for stage 2 at the beginning of the stage (rather than dispersing it in slug-pace phases) would cut down on the time allotted for us to complete it, they could still give us a month before introducing the next stage, or even allow us to continue doing previous stages as they are currently. Releasing two more items to find every two weeks or so, is just ridiculous, you can complete it in 5-10 minutes, then what? A little more speed here wont hurt anyone.
(edited by Mia Lunarfang.5826)
Oh, conversing with NPC is just 1-2 mins each time, & they are along the way while doing quick dailies, or in LA while taking short breaks in between fractals/WvW. Some of their dialogues help to make sense of the some changes/additions in Wayfarer’s/Dessa’s maps, especially the huge dredge-like fortresss/factory at the Wayfarer’s gateway to Dessa.
While I like a good mystery, picking up clues here and there, their dialogue hasn’t changed since they’ve been implemented over a week ago, thus we haven’t learned anything new. So far they’ve revealed two things, a vast attack is eminent, and lost shores will come back into use for future living story development. I admit at first the prospect of these two changes greatly excited me, but that’s long worn off in the wait. Speaking of which, those who spoke of this ‘Living’ Story as flowing at a natural pace, does ‘wait’ really equal ‘eminent’? And where’s the other four characters we were promised for this month? I want to hear their clues, complete their achievements, see the refugee camp develop before my eyes as I was promised. A ‘Living’ Story, implies that the story is flowing and moving like ‘Life’, but really the zero development, is closer in all aspects to ‘Death’, the Dead Story it should be.
I said I didn’t want to be rude, but I never mentioned not wanting to complain, and given everything that’s occurred, or rather, whats NOT occurred; I do. Simply, it is unprofessional to release half baked product, if they are not ready yet, they should wait. A few of you have claimed that the story is “naturally developing,” but this is not the case. You can talk to the heralds and the refugees but they give you little to nothing, it can hardly be called story telling, and then complete the boring and repetitive event in 15-30 minutes, which is unprecedentedly fast, and then nothing. For a week now there has been absolutely nothing, people slowly trickling in disappear as soon as they arrive, the camp is not developing and growing every day, the refugees have nothing new to say, the number is stuck at an eternal 7, there is zero story development. This is not ‘slow paced’ its dead, in real life a hundred things would have happened by now, and stories are supposed to reflect life.
When further phases of the event unlock, and the refugee area in Lion’s Arch grows in size, you will find new people to talk to who may also be missing items.
So I’d say most players are with me when I say the wait is rather annoying, the least you could do is inform us when the next phase will be unlocked so we’re not running back and forth with our heads cut off. We have real lives and cannot afford to be checking in twenty-four-seven to see if anything has changed. Or at least be free to enjoy the game without worrying about it. The progress is very daunting, and your slow pace makes the event boring. We quickly found two items… so now what do we do now? I know you have everything formatted and ready for release, so whats the hold up?
Sorry for being rude, the main point here is I would like to know WHEN the ‘further phases of the event unlock’. I don’t think that’s asking for much, after all, you informed us of the time details involving the Karka event, which by the way was of a much higher standard in quality, a fast paced event that allowed the players to get in on the action. Is it too much to asks for the continuance of your swift flowing story progression that captured us in the first place? You set a standard, keep it.
(edited by Mia Lunarfang.5826)