HoT had a beta test server as did pre-launch GW2. Living World doesn’t nor would you expect one to exist for small DLC updates like those. They do have a testing pool though which I think is in house.
I would prob find this quite useful myself
I’m not much of an artist
I’d seriously ditch the modesty, because all 4 are beyond outstanding, especially the first and 3D/Tron style one.
Amazing!
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Anet are keen to keep game modes separate and it’s not a widely popular suggestion amongst the community. WvW largely deals with map wide pvp and encroaching it into the space of pvers would likely prove incredibly unpopular (as it it has everytime this is suggested)
I have no issue with duels or pvp, but they need to be kept to their assigned game mode where they belong.
Potentially they might need 3 servers as well to fill, for wvw purposes.
Its def a performance and tech issue as seen by Gailes previous quote. Given the advice to people about how to cope on low spec PCs there is clearly limits on the cap.
It doesnt mean they wont ever up the cap, but it is clearly a difficult obstacle to overcome.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Guild-Hall-Decoration-Increase/first
I put the tiredness down to over-working. I think in an earlier episode it’s stated she’s doing just that.
Knowing her lab and work could be found out at any time was likely the main reason for her working so hard and fast, alongside knowing that the Dragon threat has been increasing rapidly lately.
I doubt there is anything more than that tbh, although I think the blighting fluid angle has some basis and may factor in at some point.
They raised it to 2k last year from a lower cap, but they said at the time it was unlikely to raise again anytime soon as it is a problem from a tech point of view. I also vaguely remember saying it would potentially impact the minimum specs of the game.
Wiki says you feed a grumble cake to your tiny chromatic ooze to get it?
The cake itself is easy enough to get I think. I;m sure I’ve had it from elsewhere than the 2 bosses
If it was a game wide issue, then it would be being reported en masse. More likely, it is something more localised affecting your client or connection. If you log a support ticket, they might be able to trace the issue via crash reports etc. In the off chance it is an issue their end, it’ll also help identify that,
The latest map is of an exquisite design. I would never use a youtube video (or a guide) to spoil it for me. I think the only youtube vid I recall using in S3 was the Ember Bay JP.
Others might, each to their own, but the new map never felt complicated enough to me to warrant a guide. Certainly nowhere near as complex as Tangled Depths was.
Believable worlds need to show technological progression – this is one area GW2 gets right, even if it isn’t always used the right way (Scarlet…Taimi..)
Well lazarus’ return and the whole white mantle return was out of the blue when we first started with raids. If the writers want the can re introduce the Mursaat.
I’m not sure it was that out of the blue. The WHite Mantle were introduced to be aligned with bandits long ago at launch. Then they started seeding bandits sniffing around the Maguuma Wastes, with letters around the fort leading into SW indicating a mysterious higher ups. It was also long suspected Caudecus was aligned with the White Mantle too.
Where there are White Mantle, introducing the Mursaat is fairly natural from there. Lazarus was the next logical step based on GW1 events. So I’d say that particular procession of events was fairly natural (and pretty well told imo)…right up until the inexplicable reveal..
So, it wasn’t heavy handed, but the slight signs were there. It does feel though they only introduced the Mursaat just to keep people happy though, with no real intention to use them again or properly. Certainly the White Mantle arc feels fully closed.
Some part of it certainly raised due to Primordus burrowings. It could just be the chimney part, but I don’t fully recall the in game dialogue to clarify sadly.
All options will be fully available and speccable on the fly. Elites were deliberately designed not to be all usable at the same time, since the are meant to twist how the core profession is played.
The only problem or barrier is the lack of a proper build saver which seems overdue now.
Some of Draconis Mon was stated at one point to be further underground and surfaced when Primordus burrowed underneath and pushed it up. That may or may not have been prior to visiting Ember Bay.
I think the main reason for Ember Bay were the energy readings showing massive seismic disturbance, which grows almost breaking point while we were there.
It was also prob easier to set up a research camp on the Ember Bay island, as opposed to Draconis which is harder to reach and potentially existence unknown by Taimi’s crewe.
One thing to bear in mind with new areas is that despite what the overmap shows, much of Ring of Fire is now underwater since GW1 times due to the upheaval of (I think) Zhaitan. The overmap is out of date and misleading in places.
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I will note that this mission would have been WAY more fun, across the board, if we’d had access to Bloodstone gliding powers.
Seriously. And not just this fight, but other situations as well. The gliding skills are among the best things from this LS season, and it’s a shame to see them dropped like a hot potato after the first episode.
But… Episode 4?
Very true, but only at one specific map point. It wasn’t map wide
That would be an expac question. Might be worth holding onto it until they formally announce the expac and can freely nswer questions
I remember the quote and it is one I still disagree with 3-4 years on, since they are different mediums (plus I’ve plenty of other issues with GoT storytelling, but that’s by-the-by).
TV can pack continuous, engaging story into a single 1 hour episode. In Season 3 we have 2 instances per episode which prob make up an hour, but due to gameplay, are restricted by how much story can be told. Which means it needs to get to the point quick and be punchy. So far, I don’t think it’s delivering that consistently enough and as you say, is going off in all directions.
Episode 4 for me got it spot on. Episode 1 was also another great example, but has been undone in Epsiode 5 now we know the reveal there was irrelevant and just a curveball for the sake of throwing in the Mursaat which players wanted to see.
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Further info above, but it isn’t positive for your question
The main issue for me is the episodic nature and I think that is what is hurting the story a lot. Whilst the Personal Story was poorly written, certainly from a dialogue point of view, being one large campaign meant it kept things together and quite simple. That meant despite the quality of writing, it was easy to follow what was the current story thread and for the main, players seem to have enjoyed it first time through. GW1 had the same – where the writing may have dropped, the continuous nature of the story meant we didn’t have to wait half a year for the quality to jump back up. Epsiodic writing needs to take this into account.
Whilst the quality of the dialogue and the writing has improved season upon season, the story itself is getting convoluted and the main narrative is now lost for S3. With so little being told in an episode, we are having to wait months and in some cases years for any sort of pay off to the myriad of threads and strands being thrust upon us.
S3 alone has brought in;
- Lazarus, who wasn’t Lazarus, but no real explanation or motivation as to why
- The White Mantle and Caudecus’ plans for to takeover Kryta
- Rise of Primordus
- Rise of Jormag
- E – a thread nearly 4 years old!!!!!!
- Kasmeer/Jory relationship
- Braham going off alone
- Breaking of Jormags tooth – a massively significant event worthy of its own arc, glossed over
- Taimi’s research and techno babble and how she seemingly can do what entire races, Orders and research teams have failed to do
- The fall and Rise of a God thrown in seemingly at random
- The sudden temporary defeat of 2 Elder Dragons
- Aurene and her training and whatever her significance may or may not be. (surely The Exalted can tell us?)
- The forming of the new Guild
- Rytlock’s story
That’s a lot for 5-6 episodes with only the White Mantle/Kryta being tied up rather neatly. We have too many central stories and narratives, rather than a single clear thread and neatly told side stories being wrapped up around them. If Balthazar and the Gods are the main story, that should have been built in earlier, rather than setting up Lazarus just so they can tick off Mursaat as “covered” then discarding him utterly for no reason and having every episode throw up a new plot thread, with only episode 4 showing any kind of pay off.
Anet need to realise they have the story all plotted out, but we only see the bits they hand us every 3 months and so it’s going to look a convoluted mess to some of us.
I’m probably being a bit harsh with the criticism, considering I have largely enjoyed S3, but that’s more down to the maps, the little bits of lore in the maps and the much improved game mechanics inside the story. I will also give credit to the dialogue, because that has continued to move forward in leaps and bounds from the days of the PS and S1.
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Teamwork!!
The only realistic weakness he had that we saw was how vulnerable he was after we took out his eyes and mouth. That significantly hurt his ability to draw on more magic to sustain him and was the (I believe stated?) reason why we could take him down so easily.
Whether that counts as a weakness is improbable, but I;m not sure the other Dragons had such clear vulnerabilities we could/can attack independently and have a noticeable effect.
In the dungeon subforum, there is a discussion and vote going on with a dev about fixing it
Any other reaction would have been poor writing.
I disagree. Who do you love more, your partner in life or some God you neither worship nor have shown much attachment to (as a Mesmer she is probably more fond of the likes of Lyssa)? I found it absolutely crazy that she left instead of accompanying Marjory to “hospital”.
It felt like there was a much graver issue at hand than merely being in shock. Maybe it has to do with her and Anise’s secret journey that we will probably learn more about in the next episode (I hope!).
I’m not a devout though. Worshippers of a God (Kasmeer is stated in the episode to be a faithful follower of all the Gods) react in ways those of us with no faith would think incomprehensible. And that’s exactly what Anet were trying to convey in that whole scene.
You only require the mastery for 100% map and achievements. It is not required to complete the story.
If you want to do the rest, I’m afraid you will need to start the episode 1 story since the entire mastery track will only unlock from a point in the story (all the rest after that shouldn’t be gated)
Why should it be beatable on the first try?
You… you’re saying that GW1 was great storytelling, but think Season 1 was beautiful?
Season 1’s storytelling was kitten compared to GW1 and Season 3.
LOLWUT!???
I can tell you clearly didn’t play season 1, season 1 involved living story taking more than an hour to finish each chapter. Season 3 has been nothing but lazy story writing, it’s not bad, but it lacks more than 5 minutes of thought to actually put it together. They are spending far more time trying to figure out what achievements they can pack into a little map than they are telling an actual story. I miss the cutscene stories, the instanced areas, especially with the last 2 there has been like 2 instanced stories per, the rest is just some talking with Taimi over a radio in open world. Plus 3 months in between each story, really think you are confusing this game with something else.
An entire month (i think it was a month) was devoted to fixing signposts in Season 1. There was very little good storytelling in S1 and the overwhelming feedback at the time was this (there were obvious people who did like it though). S1 was long, drawn out and left huge gaping holes some of which have never been filled. The gameplay was where S1 got it right, not the story writing.
I really would not call out Konig though. His knowledge of the game, the lore, the story surpasses most players by a considerable margin…
I’m not sure one can find Season 3 Episodes in the Gem Store, but they are available for purchase via the Story Journal. Season 3 Episodes should appear in the Gem Store once the season is complete, as a bundle (and perhaps, at a discount much like the Season 2 bundle). Season 2 Episodes (as a bundle) can be found in the Gem Store (price will reflect any already-unlocked Episodes).
Good luck.
As stated above, apparently season 3 episodes are available in the gem store for players to catch up with
Can you remove the massive spoiler for casual forum users please?
On topic, I kinda liked it. He looks more ancient than he did before.
Could be out of the loop here but I don’t remember any devs claiming there will be an expansion after season 3. I know all the youtubers are saying it but I have yet to see an actual dev announce it. Personally I would like a season 4 before another expansion so it will be 2 seasons between expansions. This will also give them another year for testing and bug fixes. We dont need another expansion like HoT.
“We announced that today’s episode, Flashpoint, is the second-to-last episode of the season. Yes, that means what you think it means: there’s one more episode after this, and then straight to the expansion pack.
A lot of you have been wondering about the upcoming release cadence, given that last time around we took a long break from Living World releases to get Heart of Thorns out the door and then to support that expansion after release.
The good news is that this time around we have two separate fully-staffed teams that are both hitting on all cylinders. So our rough plan is to slot the expansion pack into the release cadence as if it were an episode: episode 5, then episode 6, then the expansion pack, then episode 1. But we’ll make some allowance for the fact that shipping an expansion pack is a big deal logistically and will probably take longer than the 2~3 months we normally allocate between episodes.
Mo”
https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/6904o8/flashpoint_reddit_ama_summary/
I would have no issue if they returned to the Abaddon fractal even though I didnt vote for it. Seems enough time has passed that we can forget about the whole voting deal thing now and move on.
Episodes/seasons are bought via the Gemstore. You can use gold – gems or your own money to but them.
The exception being if you logged in during the initial release period for an episode, then its already banked in your story journal for free (ie episode 5 of season 3 is free if you log in atm)
Nothing wrong with the idea, but the devs have outright confirmed there are no current plans for further legendary armour.
And the effect is you bore 95% of your players to death and they never bother repeating it. Nonsense.
Source for your data?
What your goal should be is to make it interesting for as large part of your playerbase as possible. Which I think they have.
Source for those numbers as well.
Anyway, I believe that my suggestion would be interesting for as large a part of the playerbase as possible. Those who aren’t looking for a challenge can just go through it normally, and those who do want a challenge can activate the challenge mote and receive one. How is that not everyone winning?
Anet wouldn’t win for starters, having to design at least 2 difficulty levels for each instance. That will extend the design time, the implementation time, the bug testing time, the wait time for players.
And guaranteed there will be some still unhappy it is either too hard or too easy.
It currently works as it is – they cannot 100% please everyone, so they have to go with what their vision for the game is. And it makes sense to make sure the more epic fights, feel epic and challenging.
To answer your question about season 2, it is the downloadable story prior to the HoT story. It does not come with the package you bought, you will have to buy it separately to play it. There was also a season 1 which set up season 2, but it was temporary content and no longer exists beyond a small video recap which will trigger when you finish the first story arc.
You didn’t? I haven’t met anyone who played the original tutorials without being downed their first time through. Those bosses hit like a truck if you aren’t used to dodging and their tells.
Let me be the first person you met!
I always remember it as a more intense fight than it actually is mind you..
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Since the expac wont be announced til after ep 6 and it follows a bit over 3 months from the episode, it doesn’t give much time for beta testing and resolving any feedback. I suspect they are doing everything in house instead.
If they do beta test, I expect maybe a short window like a weekend or two this time.
Badazar took them.
All hail Badazar!!!
A fight against such a being should absolutely carry the risk of failure, Anet have known since the failure in the Zhaitan instance, that players want more challenging content in story mode where it is appropriate (eg fighting Mordy, fighting this guy etc).
Video games need to carry some risk of failure and it is not possible to design one encounter for all skills and builds – I don’t think any company could achieve such a lofty ambition given the sheer range of skill levels and builds imaginable.
That doesn’t mean we need a repeat of Caudecus at initial release, but bosses like this, Shadow of the Dragon and Mordy need to carry some risk of failure in order to learn and improve ourselves, but also to do justice to the very thing we were fighting. Having a low chance of being downed destroys the integrity of the boss and by association the story and the game.
This particular fight is well tuned mechanically, but where the improvements lie are in the clarity department – Taimi’s instructions are often confusing and the UI instructions are at times conflicting with what she says. The other problem being the targeting reticle is difficult to see amongst the flames. But, as a fight, this worked really well.
You have the Six Gods, and their last fallen god (Dhuum). You have Zintl and Ameyalli of the hylek, the Great Dwarf, Mellaggan, and finally Koda. At least 12 gods.
The human gods (including the fallen ones) all seem to be the same type of being, just like the Elder Dragons, despite their differences, inhabit a shared category. It isn’t clear if that’s true of the others you mention, or if they even exist as actual beings, rather than just sacralized concepts. Same for spirits of the wild, etc.
Also Mellaggan is a Quaggan nature goddess. I.e., Mel andru + Qu aggan . Even if the Quaggan insist otherwise, it’s most likely a (probably somewhat tongue-in-cheek) adoption by the Quaggan of a human deity, sort of like Badazar.
Plot twist..Badazar stole Balthazar’s Godhood
dun dun DAR!
I think we need to be mindful of not over dissecting things here. Neither of these dialogue segments were anything other than off the cuff playful remarks between characters who are friends as they are walking along, heading towards more serious things.
Thanks to the Reddit user (StepW) who compiled this for the rest of us
https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/6904o8/flashpoint_reddit_ama_summary/
According to the AMA, the expac will fit in the usual 3 month cycle, with the allowance of a small delay
That would put the expac around October/November
“We announced that today’s episode, Flashpoint, is the second-to-last episode of the season. Yes, that means what you think it means: there’s one more episode after this, and then straight to the expansion pack.
A lot of you have been wondering about the upcoming release cadence, given that last time around we took a long break from Living World releases to get Heart of Thorns out the door and then to support that expansion after release.
The good news is that this time around we have two separate fully-staffed teams that are both hitting on all cylinders. So our rough plan is to slot the expansion pack into the release cadence as if it were an episode: episode 5, then episode 6, then the expansion pack, then episode 1. But we’ll make some allowance for the fact that shipping an expansion pack is a big deal logistically and will probably take longer than the 2~3 months we normally allocate between episodes.
Mo”
Season 2 is unrelated to season 3. S2 simply sets up HoT. If you have played HoT, then you would need to start with episode 1 of season 3 for anything to make sense.
People still seem to do all the maps, so until the expansion, you should be fine to catch up
If you haven’t played HoT, the S2 is the place to start.
Map rewards have a chance to give out x10 of certain mats – t6, shiny baubles. As someone said, you just got lucky is all.
S1 was generally regarded by the community as the worst written story in the entire franchise, imo even worse than Factions which plenty of GW1 purists still cringe at today. I agree S1 was great in the way it change the world at times and some wonderful gameplay moments, but the story itself was just dire. One single sylvari engineer learnt pretty much everything there is to know, suddenly uniting several villainous factions and blew up LA with heavily advanced tech. Each “episode” barely had any story either and there are still unanswered questions from it which haven’t been tied up yet after all this time.
S2 saw an improvement and whilst HoT was bitterly disappointing due to its brevity and vast missing chunks, S3 has again been another improvement (one not without huge flaws mind you).
I remember Prophecies and Factions being rather poor, esp Prophecies which jumped around a lot to fit so much in. Nightfall and EOTN were where the jump to quality began. Where GW1 worked was because it was packaged as one big lump and you could judge it as a whole. What hurts GW2 the most, is the episodic nature – they are trying too hard to simulate TV storytelling with a blockbuster feel and that simply is the wrong medium for video games.
As for the gemstore fluff..well GW1 is hardly innocent in the wacky side of things, although I agree GW2 has lost its identity more because of it. However, it is irrelevant to the overall story.
His eyes aren’t red though. It’s the lighting from his flames reflecting around him. If he were bloodcrazed, they would be full on crimson and glowing.
Interesting..I didn’t note he had a beard. He looked more like the Lich when I watched the cutscene. Will have to replay on another toon.
Out of curiosity, are the two Wyverns the final fight? Done those yesterday, but wasn’t sure whether I missed something.
There are no wyverns in Season 3. Unless of course you are substituting wyverns for another word, in which case…yes it is the final fight.
I assume this also means Primordus may no longer have Zhaitan and Mordremoth magic since he has returned to “pre-awakening” levels?