Guild Wars 2

BobbyStein.2315:

Thalador.4218:

BobbyStein.2315:

The best is yet to come.

So more massacres, mayhem, and destruction in your words. Why is that since the start of this Living World (although I may risk saying that there were signs of this in the vanilla game as well) the only way you guys seem to be able to drive the story forward is through mass killings and calamities (that often draw parallels with real life modern attacks on innocents)?

Remember this picture attached to the Story Journal reveal page? I can’t decide whether it’s hilarious, ridiculous, or outrageously imbecile and depressing that it’s a spot-on summary of your entire storytelling to date…

What sort of stories would you like to see?

Some the best story bits in the main story came from the investigations and things like the bit in Scarlets House. They just needed to be a bit more substantial rather than “press F to find out more”. Puzzle solving perhaps, following clues without a big green star over the item.

In terms of other stories, I want side stories going on around the world. We still really haven’t seen a true Living World yet. Its still essentially just a standard storyline, just opened up to wider number of people and split into chunks. The rest of the world just seems to shut down. We have centaur wars, charr/human conflicts and pacts outside Ebonhawke. Perhaps every couple of Months our Order could send us somewhere to investigate something. Maybe lore, or spy on a faction, invesitagte an artifact, investigate news of new dragon incursions in the Brand or Shiverpeaks. This is what i expected the Living World would be, but we haven’t really broken new ground here yet.

Maybe whilst telling the main story, we could have side stories of other things going on in the world. Even if its just a series of new DE’s we could play through.

In terms of the main story…big improvement this time. There was lots of it (always a good sign!!!), throwbacks to existing lore (another good sign!!!!), a great mix of action/dialogue and some excellent dialogue (well in Taimi mainly). And please don’t go back to cutscenes. They added nothing for me. What you have now works imo.

Anarchy Online celebrated its 13th birthday this week. It was very much the world builder with dialogue only ever written, even when the tech improved. It is still better due to quality of writing than speech would probably ever give it. Did it need branching storylines? No, the strength of the world and the characters overcame that need.

TSW uses massive production resources to generate NPC speech and interaction. Its a fantastic experience, but content in terms of new maps have been churned out very slowly as a result. It did however, rightfully not give your character a voice. I dont think your character should ever be given a voice, since it is impossible for a dev to envision how you as the player “hear” your toon. I know in my head my Guardian does NOT sound like how he talks.

Personally I prefer the direction Anet is going with dialogue and interaction now than it did at the start of the game. I’m quite happy with the largely voiceless aspect or the “observer” style of my characters. It’s the world around me I care about.

Ok thanks. Bizarre implementation, but least i know now.

Cheers!

How do u get them started? Im halfway through the story and all are locked

There is a section for “regional achievements”. That suggests multiple maps on the way. But I suspect drip fed

There’s improvement, that is plain to see. Lots of hard work has gone into this.

- I fully agree, the zone is FAR too small. Massively under par for 1 new zone in terms of size. The feeling of exploration is gone for me in this zone. The jumping at the start felt awkward and out of place. Really needed to in it’s own park to one side really for those who don’t want anything to do with jumping puzzle stuff.

- it looks beautiful and the ffects are excellent. If the zone had size and weight it would be the best zone in the game.

- The music is excellent. Not having Jeremy Soule hasn’t affected the score, in fact I’d argue it has improved.

- The story is much better and with substanbce.

- However, once again the NPC’s are being deliberately ignorant in order to delay parts of the plot. Why is no one talking about the dragon roar? why is none mentioning a dragon in Maguuma? Why is no one tying a dragon and the jungle corruption together? If I was an adventurer…these would be major conversation points. ALso, was there meant to be a cutscene zoning in? It was a bit weird zoning in suddenly goign straight to the Zephyrite story with no lead in at all. Bug maybe?

- the journal is excellent. Neat and and natural to the rest of the game/UI

- Lots of big bugs (all reported mind you as I find them).

Overall impressed, but some frustrations mitigated the excitement of a new zone

Where there is no jumping stuff though, first impressions really strong. Sandstorm effects, sinking sand, little caves in the valleys. All really good for the ambience.

Same. Its very pretty and I like the idea of implementing the crystals into a normal map, but if you aren’t into jps or very good at them, it is somewhat frustrating right now. I had hoped for a more open map, maybe with hearts etc. Right now…im dying from falling off things a lot.

Would have preferred to have the jumping stuff off to one side, or have it ina diff zone rather than kick S2 off with something less accessible for players like myself.

Story is much improved though. Mobs frustrating to fight, but in a good way – ie not a rollover

When you zone from Brisban to Dry Top after the instance in Brisban, is there meant to be a story cutscene? I was instantly presented with a crashed zephyrite ship and chaos and the zephyrite story, which I hadn’t seen the trailer on the website, would have made no sense whatsoever.

It too ages for the loading screen to go away, so could something have played whilst it loaded?

JLHiggs.6258:

I will be honest, I don’t troll the WvW forums with much regularity, but I spend quite a bit of time on the discussions catering more to PvE.

I imagine, thinking even about what they’ve released in terms of fractals, dungeon paths, season one instanced content and zone changes that they can produce more than 1 map a year in PvE.

I would expect so too and I expect a larger team perhaps on a set of maps too. ALso, there is the theory the unreleased zones may have been worked on prior to release. Or at least some framework.

All speculation mind you…we will find out tomorrow what we are going to get!

Hobo-Tron..

He snuck in one nigh and became…Explodo-tron!!!!

JLHiggs.6258:

Zietlogik.6208:

2.)Anet have said that it takes them roughly 1-year to create a single map…good luck hoping for 5.

I would love a citation for this claim.

It was somewhere in the wvw subforum, not long ago back if my memory serves me. There was a discussion about EOTM and how players wanted more maps, but why a regular number of maps isn’t viable (ie one a year)

I have a feeling it was geared to wvw and the length of time had a much to do with balancing as design, but you’d have to trawl through a few pages of dev tracker to find the whole convo.

The conclusion I came to was that any forthcoming zones simply wont have any underwater content associated with them. Maguuma looks to be pretty arid and dry, so there is a high chance of no lakes or rivers etc. They may have thought of the crystal desert beyond that, which also will have no water areas.

They simply may not be wasting artwork development time on them, which even if true, would still be a big shame.

Yeah..it’s not really a baby dragon anymore.

They’re gonna need a bigger boat…

This right here could be your new pet…
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Tyrannus

Rouven.7409:

Questions: Was this mode timed in GW1? What happened at disconnect?

You burst into tears

Sounds like a great way to kick off the new season. Count me in

Vol.7601:

Randulf.7614:

I squirt the pistol at every sylvari. I imagine the must appreciate it them being plants and all….

and I presume Charr don’t appreciate it, them being cats and all..

Hmmm…haven’t tried. But, I will. In the name of science you understand….

I squirt the pistol at every sylvari. I imagine the must appreciate it them being plants and all….

I am only a fan of your third suggestion. In fact vanquishing with scaled up rewards would be a solution (as suggested elsehwre on the forums) for the countering of speed runs and encourage people to play the dungeons to their design.

Just to support what has been said, you do get the rare Pact Weapons as a reward in the same way some of the GW1 campaigns gave exclusive weapons. It’s not always obvious when you get the token where to go, but the advice/links above show you where to go.

Personally I think it should have been exotic level, but there you go.

Wings of Dwayna is pretty large

A fair point. The smoke effects cause a lot of chugging for myself nd others. Hopefully the sandstorm wont be as bad

Wonder if this means the last year of the bazaar…

Have to say..great teaser trailer. Can’t wait!

Being discussed in the pvp forum
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/They-Just-Announced-a-LAN/first#post4141341

I genuinely thought it did – I know it does for the collection upgrades. Might be a good suggestion for the Black Lion subforum. Likely this will get lost in general.

I genuinely hope that isn’t true, although it really does indicate the case. UW exploration is top notch in this game and although combat isn’t where it should be, annexing it isn’t the solution to this.

The only other thing I can think is that artwork for models is time consuming, so the least used weapons (UW) are cut out to speed up development time.

Erukk.1408:

Zok.4956:

Randulf.7614:

It is not accurate to compare a tv series and a game story – they work in two entirely different ways. To even try and emulate a TV series in a game is utter folly. Season 1 proved that.

Yes, they work in different ways. But they can have similarities. Like storytelling. A TV series can have a good storytelling and a computer game can have a good storytelling.

Greetings.

I think it has to deal more with the writing and how the storyline is set up. The LS can emulate a season of a television show, but it can’t be written in the same way. The pacing of the season’s story arc would be completely different between the two genres, and I think that was part of the problem with s1 of the LS.

Not to mention, the writing for games, especially MMOs, needs to be a bit broader than TV. As much as people love Westeros, we can’t actually explore it. Our PoV is entirely tied down to whoever we’re following at the time. In games, the player has a chance to explore and investigate the world, and we can talk to the npcs in the surrounding area to get additional info and depth.

That last paragraph is spot on imo. I think they have made a start with that, but I think they don’t encourage people to investigate and explore enough. Much of the background story can be found if you just talk to seemingly innocuous npcs, but players aren’t cognizant of this and thus increases frustration towards the story.

Cantha;
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Merged-The-Cantha-Thread/first

Elona; Unknown, unlikely on the horizon though. There is a lot to be done in Tyria (continental), so maybe in a few years.

There is a good chance of neither though, since everyone would flock there and leave Tyria desolate. Unlike GW1, this is open world and I cant see the devs wanting to leave an entire continent abandoned.

CrashTestAuto.9108:

Randulf.7614:

It’s not a small and easy fix – they already stated a year ago retrospective titling can’t be done

Not sure that’s still true. If they can make a meta achievement that recognises the individual ones, then they just award the title for getting that.

Though if they new this years ago, why didn’t they just introduce the titles then???

No idea. Partly I think as with Liadri they didn’t think to add one or forgot. Hence the repeat achievement this festival for ppl to get it, rather than retro add it to people. If they were able to now retro titles…then Liadri would have been retro added w/o the need for this.

They may have undervalued peoples opinions on titles. WHich explains why there are so few.

Dice Dragon.4326:

not gonna lie, this is a small and easy fix that would go a long way to pleasing players. I love jump puzzles too. gj finishing them all, wvw ones 2 scary.

It’s not a small and easy fix – they already stated a year ago retrospective titling can’t be done

PattyCakeChamp.5268:

Teyrul.7804:

You should also get a title when you finish all slayer achievements, weapon master achievement, etc.

I wonder if anyone has shield master yet….

I’m not far off on my Warr (with a guardian alt who also uses shield)

Ignoring the fact that the OP didn’t actually compare GW2 to GoT (a point a couple of people overlooked completely in their post), GW2 is a different medium. It is not accurate to compare a tv series and a game story – they work in two entirely different ways. To even try and emulate a TV series in a game is utter folly. Season 1 proved that.

In my eyes, in order to work, the game needs to concentrate less on living up to a marketing tool of “Living Story”. It is just a gimmick they are fitting the story to.
Small chunks of spoon fed story are frustrating and annnoying to the community. The story needs to be accessible from the word go, not necessarily all of it..but maybe a quarter or a third. Something substantial.

Murmurings indicate Season 2 will address these issues in large. MMO stories are notoriously poor (TSW aside), but I have hopes GW2 writers can turn it around and make something unique and great at the same time.

p.s. Yes the Sharpe series is excellent

What has gone in game easily balances what went into the gem store, to be honest outweighs it in my eyes. Which is quite the achievement with 2 week schedule and how much longer in game content takes to design and produce vs gem store content. I’m not going to list the in game content additions – this has been done to death and proven conclusively on these forums enough times now.

The real issue in in game content comes down to the;
- quality (which is endlessly debatable and entirely subjective)
- the temporary nature.

The latter we are assured are fixed.

Remember things like EOTM and wardrobe took 9 months to a year by the devs own admittance to make. To produce more content along these lines in a timely manner is inconceivable. Gem store items however, are quick to make and can’t be compared by numbers to in game content. The scales are different.

To put things into another example; TSW released its first new zone. The production and quality were exceptional. 2 years after launch… just some extra quests and 1 new zone. All of high quality. Lotro is churning out content as quickly as possible. The standard is deteriorating from its once lofty platform of MMO excellence. Both churn out online store content at a rapid rate.

Equilibrium between gem store and in game not really an issue since we by and large have it. And since the gem store store essentially funds the game…lets not go down the road of nerfing it unduly.

Antara.3189:

My basketball playing is comparable to Michael Jordans,

yeah in my own fantasy world.

I still laugh when this game is compared to Game of Thrones. I think they have two things going for them in that comparison:

1. Fantasy World
2. Factions..

The story of the living world isn’t even in the same solar system of GoT. Just no.

The OP didn’t compare it quality wise to GoT. That was very clear from what they wrote.

Also, GoT isn’t in the same solar system as really decent fantasy writing (of which is almost impossible to find in this generation). It is well written/acted (tick per media form), but ultimately inconsequential and rather uninteresting soap opera.

Before anyone jumps on me for that comment… I’m not a fan of the GW2 season 1 story either, but I look forward to seeing the direction the go in this time around. Prophecies/Factions in GW1 were beyond woeful, but I enjoyed Nightfall and EOTN quite a lot, which shows they can learn lessons from previous story mistakes.

Imagine evryone at Teq or Wurm pulling out a mount while they wait. The server would likely be unable to cope with the load. I suspect that is another reason along with the superiority of wps (from a pure gameplay convenience pov) why we wont see mounts.

Roundabout.1752:

Randulf.7614:

Yes to the banker and hero’s band. Each toon gets one.

No, players who earned the Hero’s Band in GW1 get them the rest of us don’t but it’s still worth it if you do a lot of Keyruns or like collecting skins.

The heroes band was a free item with the deluxe edition – it certainly came with mine and unlocks on each new toon I make. Same with the banker golem. As a jewellery piece it also isn’t a skin. Sure you have the right item?

Yes to the banker and hero’s band. Each toon gets one.

This was suggested many times a while back and in principal, it sounds like a good idea. I am in favour of people being rewarded for doing a piece of content in full rather than skipping through it.

Whilst I dearly hope hard mode never ever sees light of day in GW2, the vanquisher way of thinking has merit inside instances

I have no objection at all about armour skins in the gem shop as long as;

- Some filter into the game. There needs to be a balance. Even if there are more in the gem store, we need a way of getting them as rewards. Like the dungeon sets.

- The pricing structure doesn’t change. The charging for individual pieces on a couple of recent sets meant that we were paying a lot more to get one set. That felt cheeky to me. By all means, charge for separate pieces, but not at inflated costs.

Doesn’t the bank express item from the gem store do this anyway in a roundabout way?

I’d normally have added the shield to my collection, but it’s far too small and there are better shields out there (Tower, the awesome dragin shield). I may have to get the spear. There are a real lack of decent UW weapon skins in this game and this one is actually bucks that trend.

I’d be tempted by the mace…but there are other maces I much prefer and use already. Swords I have no use for in this game so that’s out. The torch sounds tempting though – I’ll check that out again.

Ofc I’ll prob just end up buying the mini dolyak

The feature patch was full of things suggested by players incl;

- wardrobe
- megaserver (as a solution to a raised problem at least)
- account bound dyes
- acquisition of traits in a similar way to skill gains in GW1
- capping of daily ap
- permanent content (forthcoming)

And before the patch we also had the biggest suggestion of all implemented;

The death of Scarlet

That would be annoying. Im still saving for my 10,000 candy corns. I really hope this is an oversight.

Who is “all your fans”? I certainly thought it was better than average. I thought it was a decent first attempt at something new (well, new-ish). And the battle into LA had a pretty epic feel to it I thought.

Ofc they are going to mention it lots. It would be extremely bizarre for them not to. Loads of people complained there was no bridging of content. No rounding up or summary. This is their answer leading into season 2.

A major downside of S1 is that it left a really big number of loose ends. For those who didn’t enjoy S1 that means you are going to hear an awful lot of more of Scarlet and her war before all is said and done.

Blaeys.3102:

Lion’s Arch is not mostly repaired. The vendors and a mystic forge are back, but the city is still a complete mess – as it should be.

Cool, thank you for that. WIll teach me to over read into forum threads!

I can’t get into game atm..but really..? LA is already rebuilt?

Can someone poster a screenie..? I can’t seriously believe they would have missed such a massive opportunity to do something with..

You could go the extra mile and have a different armour set for daylight and so could switch to something matching.

It sounds silly…but it’s prob something I’d do…

Well, they likely have already read it – they state they read most threads, but rarely post due to time or tone of many threads. It’s likely any point will have been made already, although the impact will have been massively lessened by some of the posts in that thread.

That thread will never get any response, largely because it is exactly the kind of thread they have stated hundreds of times they will ignore. Many of those posts are crude and unconstructive and some are attacking devs. Getting a dev on board with discussion is only ever going to happen if the rules of conduct in posting threads is obeyed.

It is also a weekend and they are unlikely to see these forums until late Monday