Guild Wars 2

Obsidian.1328:

Tobius

So just to be clear, Empire Divided, including this…

This text is not a work of fiction, but is based on historical fact as interpreted by the author. Historical facts have been revised based upon new information acquired by the author between 1022 AE and 1072 AE.

…is not to be taken as fact, but as a fallible opinion piece within the story?

Just trying to be clear here.

Again, they’ve been rather consistent with this. Anything which is written by, or talked about by NPCs and not developers is told from the perspective of the NPC and is likely to contain things either not 100% factual or possibly lacking crucial information which would change the conclusions.

This was covered a while ago, mostly as a way of band-aiding lore differentials between “what we initially released” and “what we expanded into”. Notably, Lieutenant Langmar didn’t exist at all until the Vanguard Quests were implemented, despite it being obvious she should be somewhere. Also recall how there was always reference to Five Gods instead of six until Nightfall was over. Then there’s the cleansing of records of one bratty little prince so it was never known for sure he existed at all . . . the expanded talk of Dhuum’s existence . . .

Obsidian.1328:

Tobias

/sigh

This is almost as much music to my ears as asura death cries. Exquisite.

• Yes, humans are made of meat. So are Charr btw, and apparently make great coats. You think humans are above eating Charr? Regardless, there was still inter-continental trade and communication going on after the Searing, as alluded to in An Empire Divided.

Yes, I think humans are above eating charr meat. I also think seeking intercontinental trade requires a port and trade route of some sort. Something Ascalon doesn’t have . . .

• Yes, there were more Charr around the zones than humans…they were a mob. There were also more Devourers and Grawl around. It would kind of suck for gameplay if the friendly npc’s outnumbered the mobs. Don’t confuse game mechanics with rpg mechanics.

Oh wait, you think I was talking overall about the number of enemies? Sheesh, you didn’t read carefully. There are implications of charr raiding groups sticking around, there are implications of a lot more charr when you travel north and start messing with Pyre’s rebellion.

That crowd cheering at the speech of the Fierce warband had to come from somewhere and they weren’t there when you walked through the mission. Figure it out – there’s more charr somewhere and more than there are defenders of Ascalon.

• As for the census, yes, you’re not supposed to take everything you see in the game as fact. ANet assumes a level of intelligence for its playerbase…perhaps too low here? For instance, there are 3 measly humans in the entire zone of Stingray Strand. Do you really think that’s supposed to be thought of as the actual population of that area? If you do, I can’t help you.

Extrapolating “the census existed” to “there are only three humans in Stingray Strand” is silly, don’t you think? The census existed, along with a fan work.

Counting the Fallen – “I almost said I was delighted, but one look at this list…so many lost. If we took a census today, the list wouldn’t be half this long.” Obviously Ascalon has been greatly reduced in population.

I’m sure you can see that. If you don’t, then I can’t help you either.

The point is, Ascalon was never supposed to have assumed to have lost the war until GW2 production begun. Why? Because it was over. ANet saw an opportunity to convert a beat-up human kingdom to a new playable race and they ran with it, nothing more. If not, then why did ANet bother writing this:
“And so we reach the present day[1072AE]. At the time of this writing, the kingdom of Ascalon is recovering from the conflict with the Charr and is establishing new treaties with the Krytans and Elonians.”

ANet didn’t write that, Loremaster Ermenred wrote it. They’ve been very careful to iterate over and over that just because an NPC says something as though it is fact, it’s not always true. Considering some of the stuff White Mantle members said before you hook up with the Shining Blade? Yeah.

“History never lies. historians, however . . . "

Tanith.5264:

The Black Citadel may well go nuts, but what will Gwen do when she sees us humans trading, working, playing, and fighting alongside the Charr?

The trailer was right. The world will burn.

xenon.3264:

even if u prefer doing this event as warrior i did sometimes with my ranger.
sword + horn /sword + axe is the proper setup for champion2

Call of the Wild Grant fury, might, and swiftness to yourself and nearby allies.
Whirling Defense Blocks projectiles while damaging nearby foes.

if u are not using these two skills for boss 2 fight you should stay outside . that’s it.

No. Just no.

Shortbow works as well for DPS and doesn’t have the much-hated knockback. Better damage output in the small arena too. I don’t like using Sword because the few times I have, invariably I wound up with mines under my feet and getting blown up.

Also I find my pet works well as a “lure” for the silly mines if it’s aggro’d and I recall it.

ppl hates ranger for a reason. even if i have a ranger too i do not like when ppl from party when i see them using boar + autoshot only in dungeon

This is one reason I kicked bears to the curb, aside from them just not being worth it to me.

Blade Syphon.4325:

Yes, every MMO has limited time world changing events, but these events usually run for several months, and are used sparingly.

Bloody Kithicor disproves this, as do all the other GM-run progression events going on in old EverQuest. They were one-time, unheralded events which started, ended, and never could be done again.

Nicholas S Lin.6187:

There is not a single marker at all for Devona anywhere in Tyria. She was a daughter and soldier of Rin born into a warrior’s family who’s father was a member of Ascalon’s Chosen – Adelbern’s guild. She would never end her days anywhere but in Ascalon. It is there that she would have instructed her friends to bury her or to spread her ashes in the ruins of Rin or in the foothills nearest it.

There’s not a single marker at all for Hayda either, or Saidra, or Olias. There’s none for Lady Althea. There’s no grave for Captain Langmar.

The full measure of her fame would depend on which version of Lore you accept. The current or the version I’ve suggested. At the very least she would have been famous in Ebonhawke, since those that know the stories of Gwen and Keiran Thackeray also know those of Devona.

Devona was not part of the detachment which was sent to Ebonhawke to reinforce it, nor did she die defending it like the Thackerays did. It’s a large unknown where she wound up, and I’m not even sure if we know where Eve or Aidan wound up.

So why no marker for Devona?

Because it’s unknown where she and her companions wound up after the Thackeray marriage.

Obsidian.1328:

Lol, carnivores is your reason? I say, good sir, you simply must come up with something better. You’re gettin a lot of points for originality and creativity though. At any rate, Ascalon doesn’t exist in a vacuum, there’s still trade going on. Probably much to your disbelief, because of some of your answers here, the Ascalonians didn’t just lay down and wait to die after the Searing.

No, you’re just deflecting my points without reading them now, while I’m trying to explain the stuff which all points to “Ascalon wasn’t going to survive much longer than it did”.

- The charr are carnivores, so not being able to plant and tend crops isn’t as important as getting a herd of something somewhere. Also, they sorta kinda tended to eat what they killed from what I heard. Strange fact, humans are made of meat.

- The lands lacked the capacity for humans to start work for necessary food, especially with charr raiding. Which we know was still going on (as an excuse for there to still be charr present after the campaign and titan quest chain). We know many of the farms near Duke Barradin’s Estate were burned completely and unable to offer workable land right away. We know Ashford was just plain gone.

- There were more charr than humans, as could be evidenced by a headcount of the charr just walking around in many of the areas. Not to mention it’s clear there were whole groups in the north, enough for there to be an actual revolution started against the Flame Legion shaman caste. (This revolution is probably why they didn’t go back immediately.) So either there’s more based on the fact you have several dozen in one area of Ascalon, or there’s more based on the impressions you can have when going north with the Ebon Vanguard (whose sole tactic against the charr in the north is raiding style warfare due to there being more charr than humans).

- We know there’s no trade because the Shiverpeaks were in a civil war keeping the humans from trading with the dwarves (who needed the supplies and were losing to the Stone Summit before we came to kill Dagnar Stonepate). And Kryta was incredibly busy with that minor, tiny little undead issue, followed by the White Mantle . . . basically, we know they didn’t have trading partners who could do more than smuggle in a little at a time. Probably what Nicholas was doing most of the time he was moving around, but it can’t be assumed . . . only alluded to.

[quote[
If you really think that census truly reflects the actual, intended population of GW Ascalon you need a realsies check. Very little of what you see in that game, or this one, or 95% of any mmo for that matter, is supposed to be a realistic expression. Too bad all those houses in Kaineng City are all walled off and no one can get to them…everyone has to sleep on the streets! The nerve of that Emperor!! Suspension of disbelief…learn it.
[/quote]

Oooh, oooh I thought I wasn’t allowed to play that card! The census as not a simple headcount we had to do as a character, it was something we had to recover as part of a quest and has been looked over.

And I find it just . . . hilarious . . . I bring up the census and suddenly we’re not supposed to be taking things all that accurate when it’s shown in the game. Which was half my point about how many charr versus Ascalonian humans there were, and most of my point about how they couldn’t function at all.

Your last part is sarcasm.

Funny you think that, but who am I to argue? Clearly you know me well enough to judge.

TheBlackLeech.9360:

Sorry… I will always prefer any one of the other 7 professions over ranger when doing anything as a group. Usually the people defending pve ranger have yet to play the other classes up to 80, or are generally terrible at the game and are using terrible builds on all their characters.

There is nothing a ranger can do that another class cannot do better.

Yes, but I find:

- I can’t manage playing a Thief well enough to feel like I’m doing it right.

- Warrior gets boring and I’m convinced by not using a greatsword I’m never going to “be useful”.

- I cannot, and never have, been able to stand playing an Elementalist or Necromancer.

- Mesmers have a lot of weird gimmicks in either game, and I don’t feel right using them. I like them, but I recognize I can’t use one to the best I can.

- I haven’t really tried Engineer but then I hear that’s even worse than Ranger as far as group content goes.

- Playing my Guardian makes me pine for my old Smite Monk. Ray of Judgement was awesome and I miss it.

zenleto.6179:

I’m more interested in the Guardian fight. My money is on Braham.

(Loading appropriate Logan joke . . .)

“Braham would win because Logan would just run away to save the queen.”

There, now that’s done.

I think Marjory has led a life where she will take what she can when she can if she feels the need. Doesn’t matter who with. Kasmeer I’m not convinced about. I’m pretty sure I didn’t know about her background before this Story. I think she has different relationship needs.

Kasmeer is still not as tragic as my favorite mesmer lady from GW1. If we ever reach the same level as Gwen “the Goremonger” Thackeray for how much stuff a character has to endure, you then have no argument from me there was “too much” heaped on them for the sake of drama.

That said, I still want to find some extreme necromantic magic capable of bringing her back . . . mostly to watch the Black Citadel go nuts on hearing the news.

Obsidian.1328:

Aaaaand the Charr settled there right after the Foefire. Nice argument.

And like I said, the land was incredibly hostile and in the time of King Adelbern it simply was not supporting plant life that well at all. Charr don’t need plants for food, humans however do.

Seriously, I don’t get how you’re not grasping this. Ascalon after the Searing through the time of the War in Kryta was simply not going to sustain farming and the pressure on Ascalon was keeping them from doing any sort of agriculture. I do wonder sometimes where they got their food from even for that long.

( Of course, this is a video game so they don’t need to eat or drink, or anything else. All they need to stand there and say “we’re barely hanging on!” over and over until the servers go down. Pheh . . . )

Also, you’re assuming there are endless Charr reinforcements, so I guess I get to do the same thing and claim there are thousands of Ascalons somewhere off the map ready to fight. /rollseyes

Endless? No. More than there were Ascalonian people? Yes. We had a census taken which sort of proved it.

I’d still stay with my fists, as should anyone who’s defending their home. Really dude? You need to go drink some deer blood.

If we’re talking about my house then you had better not presume fists are all I have, hm? I was not talking about my house though, I was talking about fighting where I don’t have an advantage. If need be, find a place where you can make one.

Besides, honestly, the first thing I’d do in a home invasion is, of course, kill myself. Wrap a laundry line around my neck and jump out a window. Or trip down the stairs carrying a glass vase.

Obsidian.1328:

It was burned, not gone. Where did it go? If the Charr wanted it so bad and didn’t mind living there, the humans certainly could too. You’re reaching.

But . . . the charr weren’t living there, they were living in the north and fighting in Ascalon. And even getting beaten into a standstill once, there was still a disparity in strength between humans of Ascalon and the charr war machine.

But honestly, your post seems to suggest one thing: if you think you might lose, it’s ok to turn tail and run. Let me know what State you live in so I’ll know which one surrenders first if we ever get invaded.

Good luck with that.

But you’re really mistaking “turning tail and running” for “realizing you’ve brought fists to a knife fight, and have gone home to get your gun”.

BrunoBRS.5178:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Yes, I’d like to see Zojja again too.

. . . my sights need aligning.

and anti-reflex lenses. why do you think she always has those shiny goggles on her head?

We all know the goggles do nothing.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

It’s not even really a case of storytelling, but life in general – which is why it goes into storytelling so much. People without a reason to get up and be motivated just aren’t going to get up and do something fantastic. There’s really two general scenarios to give a character to get them into a good plot:
1) You give them some motivation in their background. Most cases can be classified as “tragic” because tragedy is the most motivating – for both doing good or bad. The only alternative would be to give the person a normal life and they meet someone who becomes their hero (which seems to be what Taimi’s going to be – with Scarlet being a “fallen idol” and Braham replacing her).
2) Force the character into the plot. A character, for no reason of their own, is forced into going with the flow (so to speak) and have to choice in the matter.

There’s one other trigger: The sense you can do more for the world and others by not standing by and doing nothing when you think you can fix it. It’s the thing which drives inventors who develop things purely to help others. (See: Norman Borlaug)

People can do extraordinary things without being subjected to complete misery themselves. They may need to be moved to action, but it is through the suffering of others rather than their own troubles.

Obsidian.1328:

So…you wouldn’t have stayed to fight at Thunderhead Keep, Battle for LA, or Dzagonur Bastion? How are those any different?

Because we won those fights, and there was no winning at Gandara, and only a temporary reprieve for Ascalon after Stormcaller was blown and the charr left weaker than normal.

The battle for Thunderhead Keep, notably, was not a losing battle since infusion rendered the Mursaat less dangerous than before. Ditto for Battle of Lion’s Arch – that one was more a matter of throwing back the waves with what little defenders could be put to the front.

Dzagohur Bastion we even had the unlikely allies of the Order of Whispers show up to help, so it was less a losing battle and more a matter of holding things together until a counterstrike could be launched.

But as noted in a prior post – Ascalon was already burned and gone. It’s only just now recovering in places. Seriously.

Kumu Honua.2751:

If todays gamer was given Everquest (The first one) they would kill themselves trying to find quests…

Hey, remember how the Fiery Avenger quest was always in the game, but nobody ever found it? Only once we “found it” it turned out to require travel to a zone which hadn’t existed at launch? Or how about quests which mysteriously stopped working at a certain point because the wrong phrase was highlighted for a trigger or was not marked at all?

It’s worth noting there are no problems with what I’ve seen of the marionette fight not explaining things adequately. There’s even a glowing orange “I’m facing THIS way” for the one Warden you need to hit from behind or flanks, “stunned by mines” on the one which you need to kite through mines . . .

As for the wurm fight, that’s kind of a lot of trial and error and people communicating the different things required to their “teams”.

Obsidian.1328:

Wuuuutt??

You think he could have conquered Kryta?? Lulz, never heard that one before. Not sure if serious.

If the Ebon Vanguard was not stationed in the North, and was used to march down to attack Kryta? Yes. I think they could have mopped through it all with our Player Characters being infused and leading the charge against the Mursaat who would have stomped the Shining Blade without our aid.

All this is predicated on the idea King Adelbern heard how rough things were in Kryta following the fulfillment of the Flameseeker Prophecies, and his hate for Kryta overrode his hate of the charr and stubbornness. However, such things are not in character for him, so it never would happen.

However, tweak his personality once his son’s death is brought to lay at his feet, word of his people in exile being treated harshly by Krytans? I do think it could be possible . . . maybe not probable . . . to get him to turn on Kryta for a round of Guild Wars, Post-Searing Edition.

But honestly, never heard so many peeps condone running away as the “right thing to do” instead of staying and fighting. Where’s everyone’s backbone?

“I think some charr went and took it out while I was running from a massive grouping on my first scouting expedition north of the Wall.”

Seriously, there was no chance of victory against the charr invasion after the Searing happened. There was only survival and making sure the legacy of the kingdom didn’t become a footnote in history almost less than Orr’s was for a time.

The only time I would have condoned staying and fighting was that first assault on Gandara when Varesh was right there and Dunkoro sounded for a retreat rather than just ending Abaddon’s lil prophet right there. Sure, we would have then gone out in a blaze of glory but I expect Nightfall would not have happened . . . for another hundred years.

Fafnir.5124:

AVM.5746:

I assume you’re gonna post some short story about her? I mean I’m surprised you just have her suddenly pops up outta nowhere during the Living World and (kinda) knows Braham without any back story. Cool that she rides on her golemn’s shoulder (It’d be even cooler and cuter if she rode on Braham’s).

When she was younger she probably did. She probly got into trouble and she probably cause Braham to get a concussion which is why he forgot her. Norn are know for their hard headedness after all.

Braham didn’t forget her. Taimi is running a game on Logan. It’s obvious in all her mannerisms she is blatantly being manipulative to get what she wants. Which is to “meet” Scarlet.

kylwilson.9137:

White girl with daddy issues. It’s just so…

O.C.

My friend, everyone has daddy issues and mommy issues. Everyone. Everyone does in writing, because frankly if they were perfectly in tune with their family it wouldn’t be interesting. Heck, even the family I can think of off the top of my hand where there weren’t “daddy and mommy issues” still had screwed up relationships between parents and son(s).

Boiling her character down to “white girl with daddy issues” is boiling Gwen down to “white girl with mommy issues”. It does a massive disservice to what’s actually in the character.

And this is not a complaint about the writing, if I was a writer I’d be glad that people have differing views on certain characters. This is in fact the best storytelling I’ve experienced in the game so far. Gives me that old nostalgic Guild Wars 1 feeling.

It’s exactly how I felt doing epilogues in the four storylines of GW1. Watching the characters interact with each other and you’re there to witness it and sometimes pick up on things. Cynn/Mhenlo were the most amusing, actually.

Kasmeer is just so contrived in terms of her personality.

It’s fiction, everything is contrived to the jaded people like us who know the cliches, tropes, and standard subversions of either. For all people like to throw A Song of Fire and Ice around as great writing, that story is contrived to make life difficult for anyone actually living there, if not just plain fatal for so much as an off comment someone overheard.

The problem is, we know it’s fiction, so we know it has to have been crafted by someone. So it automatically comes off as “contrived” because deep down our brains are picking for that loose thread to make it all look fake. It’s going to see Penn and Teller and knowing they’re not really doing half the illusions and tricks we see, but we deal with it anyway. It’s going to a movie with friends and laughing, cheering, enjoying it, and three steps out the door going “that movie was crap, why did I have a good time?”.

EDIT: A-net should take a few pointers from the writers of Funcom’s ‘The Secret World’. That is some impressive and engaging stuff.

Personally, I’d tell them to send someone to Maine and risk sanity to try to pick Stephen King’s brain for how to do writing on a time budget and still have it turn out less like crap.

Yes, I’d like to see Zojja again too.

. . . my sights need aligning.

Mungrul.9358:

So while it’s tempting to blame NCSoft and Nexon for the radical shift in design philosophy, I think it’s better to acknowledge that ArenaNet simply isn’t the same company that started the Guild Wars franchise.

I think you had a good point right up until this right here.

See, part of the problem is it is the same company. And I don’t doubt they really do want to fulfill their lofty goals. But as you said, the suggestion of circumstances lead to a bunch of younger developers involved who probably don’t yet have experience in why things are certain ways, they just assume it is so. Or, in a more positive light, they don’t mess with what works because they know it works.

Take for instance, people who cut their teeth playing D&D. A lot of them aren’t going to be able to immediately translate that over into, say, a World of Darkness game. Or something else like Nobilis. Sit the ones who are great at GMing D&D and tell them to make a game, they’re probably going to make something derived out of the D&D rules they know.

ArenaNet did GuildWars. And it was really successful to the point they thought ‘we can push this to a full-fledged MMO instead of this half-and-half thing’. And there were ideas for how to make things different, make it unique . . . which when it came time to play it instead of theorize it, didn’t work so well. Which meant a swerve right back to the comfortable choice people know: levels.

And levels exist for a reason, and it’s not solely to gate content. If you want to be very pedantic about it, there have been people who got to Cursed Shore (Gates of Arah) at incredibly unlikely levels. (I think the record was level 7?) I’ve seen people who were incredibly low messing around in events they shouldn’t be able to do because they could use the dodge mechanic to avoid damage or just get downed and picked up by people. Content can technically be experienced at nearly any level. Except 1, since the tutorial mission pumps you right to level 2.

They exist as:

- A rough estimate of power. Presumably, two level 57 Rangers will have the same potential for abilities, just have them in different places. So it’s understood when they balance a place for level 57 what should be possible. Note that the downscaling effectively makes this really dicey since a level 80 has access to all the trait points possible, and probably has a lot more skills (if not all of them) rather than the two dozen a level 57 might have.

- A “soft measure” of progress. People know there are 80 levels you can have, therefore by knowing they’ve hit level 40, they’re “halfway to maximum potential”. Rather than always just guessing if they’ve peaked or how close they are to it. It also allows people who want to to plan ahead to try to get the most effectiveness out of their growth.

- A rough estimate of how tough an enemy is. If you’re level 60, you’re going to have a different experience attacking a level 50 enemy than you do at level 40. By seeing that Risen Abomination is level 50, you know you’re either not ready, or very likely ready to take them on. (Note: Tequatl is an exception now, no matter what level his event is, you’re not going to cakewalk it.)

Escadin.9482:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

It’s that the people playing WoW would rather be playing WoW, where all their work has gone into it.

Do you think people playing WoW would rathe be playing WoW than a WoW sequel?

Everquest vs Everquest 2 says “yes”.

Oniyui.8279:

On top of the micro tools rangers have for pets, I also run a Jag. Drops unwanted aggro completely by going in stealth.

. . . I never considered that one. I generally run Black Widow and Wolf. The Wolf has a knockdown and the fear howl, the Black Widow can immobilize a target and stacks poison. All of which are more useful to me while doing solo-play than bear longevity, and most of those things are useful in group situations.

It’s not the hyena, which comes with free sidekick . . . or the one moa with the buff screech, but that’s okay.

Sunshine.4680:

levels are stupid and pointless, keeps people from trying out all classes/race combos because it’s so tedious.

Methinks you missed the mark. Levels aren’t stupid and pointless because of that – the (somewhat) tedious leveling process makes it difficult to draw people into trying new characters.

Again, and it’s been said here, not quite what went on with GW1. Though that had its own tedium (cough, skill unlocks, cough).

Frozencore.5017:

WoW Crowd CANNOT be please :P

It’s not that.

It’s that the people playing WoW would rather be playing WoW, where all their work has gone into it. This has been proven time and time again any time a new MMO comes out which is “Like WoW but X”. It’s just a known factor in video games in general – companies would rather back something trying to emulate something proven successful than try something different.

Hence a ton of GTA-like sandbox games of which Saint’s Row started out being. Until it found and lost it’s identity in going more over the top. Or God of War style third-person brawlers with the same atrocious camera. (Lords of Shadow, I’m looking at you.)

And that’s not even getting into things like the Mystery Dungeon games which span many many franchises and are bizarrely popular.

Gaebriel.3754:

I bet that: “Rangers, please put your pet on passive and avoid knockback attacks for this boss!” will get far better results than: “omg bow bear lol bad rngaer noob clas sux omg gtfo!!111”.

I’ve been saying that. “Rangers! Remember to micro your pets for the Wardens.” Seriously, rangers who micro manage their pets can get around many of the problems people have with them.

kylwilson.9137:

lordkrall.7241:

Kain Francois.4328:

I want Kasmeer to go. She’s too much of a barby doll-ditz. Kinda like a blank slate for anything other than… Bewbs.

Watch the conversations in the latest Lions Arch story instance.

And now she’s even more insufferable.

Details, man, details. What makes her so insufferable?

Personally, it’s Taimi I want to fling out of a trebuchet. Kasmeer can stay, she at least doesn’t scream “this is a risky ally”.

Obsidian.1328:

Lol, yeah and Rurik leaving cost him his life and Adelbern and Ascalon ended up winning the war anyway…GW2 notwithstanding. Man, I don’t get the bile caused by that scene. You don’t publicly tell the king he’s an idiot for wanting to stay and fight for his homeland, even if he is your dad. Besides, ANet even said they needed a story mechanism to get the PC over the Shiverpeaks and into Kryta. Think maybe you’re reading too much into it?

I didn’t say Rurik handled it well. I said Adelbern flew off the handle real kitten that. And Prince Rurik had a stupid plan too, or at least one he should have seriously reconsidered on finding out the state of things in the Shiverpeaks with the Deldrimor Dwarves and Stone Summit.

Honestly, the longer I look back on Prophecies the more I want to go back in time and go “Hey, great great grandpa Tobias! Just let the titans have em all. Trust me, nothing gets better later on. May I suggest relocating to Cantha?”

The same designers who wrote EotN and GW2 wrote her line you’re referring to: “The hour of the storm is upon us, yet Adelbern still refuses to give me audience. Old fool would rather kill us all than accept help.” He would rather kill us all than accept help, sound familiar? Think maybe ANet is setting up the Foefire scenario?

At that point I’m not sure the Foefire was the only way that could be interpreted. King Adelbern was stubborn about remaining in Ascalon even when he could have done something far more disconcerting and just went over and conquered Kryta from the White Mantle and Shining Blade. He didn’t want to bend the knee to Krytans but heck, he could have just plowed them over at the end of the civil war and told the charr “sure, you can keep it for now, but I’ll be back for it”.

There were plenty of options which didn’t involve “sit in the ashes of Ascalon where we can’t get much food, the charr relentlessly hunt down anyone, and we can’t even get clean water”.

Come on Tobs, use yer noggin.

Using my head is what got me into this mess.

Bottom line, and realistically. Ascalon cannot be reclaimed as events stand now. The Foefire prevents anyone from holding territory around Ascalon City’s ruins, the charr are squatting on it with enough firepower to raze Orr if they wanted to, and then there’s the Dragonbrand.

. . . I still want my rug though. I’m going to go measure that Steelbane idiot, see if it would fit my living room.

azizul.8469:

well…

why do we have age in the first place ?

it is because God want us to have a gated content of our life….

And we learn new skills as we grow. Though breathing is OP and everyone starts with it.

Sirendor.1394:

Yes of course Tobias, was just throwing it in the discussion because I think it a good idea. I would have a lot more fun leveling up if I unlocked a new armour skin on every level I got, maybe a slight weapon change or a new skill unlock.

That way leveling would involve something new every time, and would not just be an endless repetition of “Kill this”, “Defend that”, “Gather these”. It would still be a bit of a grind, but would encourage me to do it nonetheless, weighing advantages against disadvantages.

I’d like that too, but those are three general building blocks of content. Anything can be reduced down into those three and one more: “Dialogue options”. Which can be unsatisfying quite a bit.

Honestly, the only game without leveling I found compelling enough to work on deeply was Monster Hunter. And that has so many other flaws I’d not recommend it as a complete template. Even Ultima 4 had leveling.

It’s been noted – GW2 “had plans” to do the same with leveling, but it wasn’t working out so they scrapped that notion.

A game “having plans” . . . is really not saying much, unfortunately. There are a lot of games which exist “having plans” for cool ideas. So few pull it off

Warkupo.1025:

So in conclusion; GW1 really wasn’t that great. Also it’s bonus missions are horrible.

It wasn’t that great, but it had its moments. Also, the Bonus Missions were okay but really required some work figuring them out. I did enjoy Gwen’s Story and Saul’s Story, but didn’t try the others.

siralius.9517:

Rhyse.8179:

siralius.9517:

First off, not going to read this novel.

If you’re too lazy to read, you’re too lazy to play the kind of game you’re asking for.

Yeah, maybe I should go pick up GW1.

You don’t need to get snarky when you basically said “too long, won’t read” in response to someone trying to disagree with you with more than a soundbyte. If you really won’t put the effort into reading opposing views, why should anyone who does disagree speak up?

Honestly, if you think games were “better” in past ages, you are mistaken. Most older games were grindy pieces of “buy this for $30 and stay busy for 10 hours”. Even the “classics” were short, criminally short by today’s yardsticks. For instance, with no codes and no glitches, it’s possible to beat Legend of Zelda in two and a half hours. (I’ve personally done it.) It’s impossible to beat several older games because they simply keep going.

If you want to reflect on old RPGs any more, consider this: Final Fantasy 1 and Dragon Quest 1 both were insanely grind-intensive. Outside of that, you had Wizardry, Ultima, and the Gold Box games which were incredibly difficult since . . . more often than not, you had no clue what you had to do or it was incredibly hard to follow through.

Roguelikes (another type of RPG) were incredibly unfair to people who didn’t have an encyclopekittennowledge of what things were. Platformers as we know them were full of cheap ways to drop you to your death, or otherwise instant-death spikes. There were no RTS or FPS games.

And if you really want to talk about “games were better back on the NES days” then I’ll leave you with one thing to make you think about how messed up it got:

Battletoads.

Obsidian.1328:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Obsidian.1328:

Take Evennia, one of the most important npc’s to the Proph campaign. Last known location Ascalon. Ever seen her mentioned anywhere in this game?

Nope. But then all she was known was to have gone missing after going to have an audience with King Adelbern. Who probably had her disappeared along with the White Mantle Ambassador.

Lolz! Thank you for that, I sincerely laughed.

So many Adelbern haters…props to the ANet guy who turned him into a monster.

I hated Adelbern back when his reaction to Rurik going “Dad, we really should get out of this burned husk of a land” was “GTFO”.

I hated Adelbern when he basically let Evennia and Captain Langmar sit outside Ascalon City waiting and waiting and waiting for an audience next to a White Mantle Ambassador. (Yes, I do think Evennia was “disappeared” by either Adelbern or the Ambassador.)

I actually pitied Adelbern a little when he mistook Rytlock for his son and seemed all set to welcome him home. All too late, though. Then he swung right around to insane again and I sighed.

“You know what, I don’t think you get it, your majesty. The charr won. Even your attempt to deny them victory failed since all they do is use Foefire ghosts for practice drills. Your people are alive and well in places you exiled them to and you won’t even acknowledge them. So I’m gonna enjoy bashing you to discorporation with rocks.”

scerevisiae.1972:

IMO these are pretty on the money, though I’d add downed state/rally to the list of things that are a net detriment to the game.

Give reasons, please? I find it’s actually much more helpful to me . . . much like the addition of “down and dying” in D&D 3.5 and later, versus “0 HP and dead” of earlier.

I’ve seen blatantly nasty and outright adversarial threads get deleted quickly, mostly with a note in my PMs how a topic was moved to “trashcan”.

So if you want to start giving criticism, try to sound like there’s some substance to your thread rather than “you suck LOLOLOLOL” . . . and that it’s not one of two hundred threads, otherwise it’s a merged thread in the future.

Raine.1394:

It’s like, do we really need one more setting on the treadmill? Will that make the ride any better?

We have a treadmill?

Talyn.3295:

Every one is so spoiled on this whole Dye thing. If you recall in Guild Wars 1 you had to buy a set of dye for each piece of gear. You wanted to dye your Armor black? Well that will be six Black Dye. Want to dye it white, then go back to black? Well that will be six more black dye. Be thankful its “unlockable” at all and that you don’t need one Abyss dye for each piece of gear.

I remember when you didn’t have the option to dye your armor, you got stuck with that ugly purple piece of crap on your Everquest Cleric for ages.

And although it seems very rude or greedy to keep dyes character bound, remember the original concept was to get dye seeds, then time gate them at once per day through the home instance for each dye to be randomly selected and Account Bound if I recall.

I’ll take the Dye Trade over that concept . . .

As for the “Story Mode Lockout”, I wasn’t aware there was such a thing, because I’ve been through CoF Path 1 without doing the story mode for it. A couple times, in fact . . . so long as your leader is able to go in on Exploration Mode, I think you can get dragged along in. Unless that was patched.

Finally, “Unique” should be used more broadly so it is more familiar to players. As it stands, only Ascended rings/trinkets are “Unique”. If there were more things which were, at lower levels, I think it might be easier to understand for people. (Note: This is more a plea for interesting unique items at lower levels.)

Shiren.9532:

Do people watch Game of Thrones or the Walking Dead and complain that “underdeveloped and throwaway characters” keep getting killed? Part of what makes those worlds compelling is the fact that they do kill people – but their deaths are integral to the plot. They make sense in the world and they are believable conclusions to a character’s story. In GW2 at the end of the Personal Story, most of the deaths felt like they were written just so the story had someone to kill. Sacrificial Lambs.

Are you going to throw George R.R. “I kill your favorites because I can” Martin as a sign of deaths which have meaning? There aren’t deaths with meaning there, or bad things happening for a reason other than “it amused Joffery”. Ned Stark died because King Joffery needed to look like the Big Man, and the meaning sprung from what followed rather than what led to the act itself. Which is different than leading up to a death and forgetting about it. (I’m looking at you Lost and no you don’t get a pass for Libby.)

The world of Westeros is compelling because Mr. Martin takes the time to craft it with a sense of reality, a sense of having a foundation on which that world turns. Rather than “it exists to pull the plot threads I need pulled”. Similarly Middle-Earth, Barrayar, the world of the Elder Scrolls . . . (though I get less and less sure about that one as I learn more about it).

If Marjory or Kasmeer is going to die, I’m not interested so much in why as I am in what comes after. Do we get another Rurik, where he died in a sacrifice and people seem barely affected by it after? Or ‘worse’ the various sacrifices which took place in Raisu Palace on the way to stop Shiro, where it turns out none of them were really sacrificed at all?

You know, I’m almost inclined to spare Taimi because of her age. Then she starts talking about joining up with Scarlet and I feel it’s my duty to nip this briar in the bud before it starts.

Someone get me the Secret Catapult Plans and some supply to build it. I wonder if I can get a headshot on the marionette.

Ozzrel.9825:

The way the profession is designed pushes players towards the most ineffective playstyle. A new player that doesn’t know the game mechanic very well will not understand why using a longbow in group content is a bad idea.

I’d say using a longbow in group content isn’t bad . . . recklessly using #4 is bad. The rest of it isn’t a problem so much.

When doing solo content while leveling, bearbow builds seem natural. You have the pet take hits for you, while you stand at safe range. This leads to another problem, you never learn how to dodge.

Bear does help, but it’s not as useful as doing one melee pet, one ranged pet. For those pesky “Reflects Projectiles” enemies. And while bears are tank-ish they’re not as useful as some of the ones with F2 skills which are of better use.

The problem is not with this specific encounter. It is not the lack of viable ranger build. It is the fact that the game fails to teach the players to play that profession properly.

Bolded this because it’s a problem but not one which can really be solved without some intrusive tutorials people who need it would skip anyway.

I’m figuring she did it elsewhere and is using her strange portal generators to move that framework there. As for how the lair went unnoticed under the Priory . . . they’ve been busy elsewhere, and it’s been made painfully obvious their interests are more in ancient knowledge rather than current knowledge. It’s the Order of Whispers who keep tabs on current events.

BondageBill.4021:

lordkrall.7241:

BondageBill.4021:

For example, how is it that the Order of Whispers haven’t infiltrated the Aetherblades in order to track their movements?

How do you know they haven’t?

It just so happens that I’m a pretty high ranking member of a certain secret organization, not to be named…

They ain’t told me nuttin’

They told me you were meddlesome, BondageBill, but you haven’t proven you can keep secrets yet. We’ll see next year.

Sarrs.4831:

You know what’d be funny? If Kasmeer thinks that Marjory’s interested in her, but Marjory doesn’t have any feelings for Kasmeer and just flirts because it’s fun. A hole might be poked into this theory by them cuddling on the beach, but still.

Or if Marjory cares about her more as a little sister, and Kasmeer has this ungodly strong crush on Marjory. It’s a love story all right . . .

. . . one-sided love story.

By the way, not saying I completely endorse this because finding them sitting next to each other in the harbor and Marjory just quietly listening to Kasmeer get emotional about this time of year reminds me of a good romantic story where they do actually get shown sharing even the sad moments so one doesn’t have to have it alone.

It’s definitely not living up to the “lesbians R hawt” image tried to be painted over this since that one comment. It is, in my opinion, being handled maturely even if it’s not important immediately to the story.

I’ll be trying it with my charr after work tomorrow because Rytlock should know me then. (Him being my character’s Tribune and all that.)

Charak.9761:

Rangers have the lowest dps of the 8 profession.

why are you even there on a ranger when its zerker content.

Because I don’t have anyone else up to 80, much less ready to go there? Because I haven’t actually had issues as a ranger (everyone else just has issues with me)?

Because if I’m doing everything I’m supposed to while the warrior charr next to me is dirtnapping, I’m technically doing more DPS than he is.

Neoheart.2750:

I main ranger and have personally seen a platform fail because of a ranger. 3 People downed, 1 trying to melee behind, bearbow longbowing the face at 0 range.

Was the warden you have to rear attack, just sayin.

I’ve personally see it fail because a warrior couldn’t/wouldn’t stop trying to res the one dead person as they were getting hammered by stuff and not actively attacking. Double fault – one for not waypointing on death, one for not being smart and letting themselves get nailed until death trying to res.

Honestly if the “Lane 2 boss” is the one you gotta lure into mines to get stunned and vulnerable to damage? I wonder how I got them on Lane 4. And despite me not having any bears out, I got told to “keep that bearbow crap out of the platforms”.

It’s the same as the hate when I played Magician back on old Everquest – everyone assumed if a train happened then it had to be my pet’s fault. Even if it was demonstrably a real bad pull. Even after the overhaul which gave Magicians the best pet control and some really potentially good pets.

It’s something you just learn to get over, or you let it fester and develop an innate self-loathing for always having the gall to pick a class which is going to stink.

Syrpharon.7491:

Gundam Wars 2… great…

Paging Heero Yuy, paging Heero Yuy. Your replacement for Logan Thackeray has been approved.

Obsidian.1328:

Take Evennia, one of the most important npc’s to the Proph campaign. Last known location Ascalon. Ever seen her mentioned anywhere in this game?

Nope. But then all she was known was to have gone missing after going to have an audience with King Adelbern. Who probably had her disappeared along with the White Mantle Ambassador.

Name.9625:

Are you sure that the asura would have told the humans how to disable that gate?
And if not, who says that they would be able to shut it down quickly enough.
In the books we learn that there are secret ways into the city of ebonhawke. And if the Ash legion would use them in stealth mode, they could get the gate under their control, even before the Iron and Blood Legions storm the rest of the city.

Want to disable the gate? Interrupt the power and then drop the cliff overhead onto it. while it’s down, tear it down at the other end and bury it.

I have no doubt if the humans of Ebonhawke realized they were losing and Divinity’s Reach was next, they’d do just such a thing before trying one last stand. And if the charr did start something like that, I also expect the asura would cut their gate travel privileges for abusing their technicians. And triple waypoint costs.

Then all the players playing charr would turn on the NPCs and it would be glorious.