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Yes, I realize this is GW1 content and may not have much of anything to do with GW2, but this is the only place I could think of where people might give a kitten . Might, being the operative word.
Anyway, after a year and a few months of casually plugging away at it, I finally got it.
http://www.mejuba.com/albums/tasaunders/142456/8846403/show/original
I think there’s a HoM statue for this, yeah? Either way, next is getting Legendary Cartographer and max Lightbringer title.
I think Scarlet is a Villain Sue and that was entirely the point. She was meant to be a ridiculous, over the top and cliche villain. Not meant to be taken seriously and probably not the ‘nemesis’ we’ve been getting hinted at getting. Some part of me wonders if this sacrificial train of Sylvari villains to kill is the ANet Writing team’s effort to let us vent some of that Trahearne anger.
I don’t mind the Living Story. I don’t. Some parts of it have been more engaging than others but not terrible or game-breaking. The problem I think is two-fold: 1. IMO the community is ready to get back to killing dragons and the Living Story hasn’t really had much to do with that at all. 2. I think its time for a more substantial, serious villain. Personally, I feel a true villain, somebody we’ll love to hate and who outpaces the heroes of Tyria in both a meaningful and believable way is due.
Having said all that, I think it’d be kind of cool for ANet to give us a writing contest of some kind to decide the next villain in either the Living Story or possibly added to a dungeon or fractal.
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I hate jumping puzzles. I hate them in a way that makes me want to build an orbital particle weapon, launch it into space and shoot down every every jump puzzle in the game into a flat non-jump puzzle.
And you know, it feels darn good to say that. But that’s my taste. I prefer beating the crap out things and have it be challenging. I also liked the personal story, despite also believing that Trahearne should have been our second and not the other way around.
So, this is why I love the Queen’s Jubilee. I get to beat the snot out of things and feel pretty good about that. After the whole thing with Zephyr Sanctum and having the whole thing feel like a massive jump puzzle made to drive me into a psychotic rampage, I was pretty happy to have the opportunity to do some pretty gratifying smackdown that fell into a skillset I have. So I think the thing we have to take away from the Living Story is a little of this and a little of that.
Don’t like something? Don’t do it. It’s our responsibility as players to not kill ourselves trying to do content you don’t enjoy. Protest with not logging in to play or not participating in those events. I have to believe ANet has metrics to measure those sorts of things.
Oh and one other thing? I like the Living Story overall, but I didn’t buy this game to be welcome at Zephyr Sanctum. I bought it to put my toon’s boot on top of some jerk dragon’s head and take its lunch money. We really need to get back to that.
@Deimos Tel Arin: Yeah the first boss I beat pretty easily. But the rest of these jokers are a different story. Doing a lot better with my mesmer (using a combination of ‘zerker jewelry with Valkyrie armor and Runes of the Mesmer, Greatsword/Sword ’n Focus) than my heavily defensive and usually unkillable guardian. Still have a few more fights yet so we’ll see how those go.
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I’m sorry to say the whole Southsun Cove experience has been one disappointment after another and this latest addition was no exception. Thoughts below:
1. Canach and Sub-Director Null should have been either together in a soloable instance, or together in a group instance (preference for me would have been soloable). To introduce one NPC villain you have to defeat with a mechanic, then another with the exact same mechanic feels like a waste of time. One instance, give different fight mechanics for different villains. Make it interesting. Not repetitive, not gimmicky.
2. This content feels rushed and not up to the level of quality “Flame & Frost” was. I think that the May 14th patch and the May 28th patch should have been one patch, released together and given a little more love in the way of story-telling and transition. We go from events in “Flame & Frost” to Southsun and we’re not really given a solid connection. What I mean by that is, one or both of the NPC’s from “Flame & Frost” should have gone with the heroes to Southsun to check on things. This would have been a much better transition in than Lionguard whoever that we only know a little about, going to poke rabid monsters in Southsun.
3. Crab Toss: I thought this was fun, though not entertaining enough to hold my interest for more than a few rounds. I’m ‘OK’ at it, having gotten a lot of second and third places. I think the weapon variety could be a bit better but other than that, not an all together bad experience. Possibly the best part of Southsun to date.
4. Rewards: While the ‘Cthulhu Backpack’ was a great upgrade for my guardian, once I made it an ascended back piece, the stats for those not a bunker build are kind of worthless. Great for a skin if you have an ascended back item already, but there’s probably more people than not, that would have liked the chance to make a non-Fractal ascended back item that they could actually use. Similarly, I feel the same way about the other gear items added to the game. The mini is cute though.
Closing Thoughts: This latest batch of updates really needed a writer’s love. If you’re basing a game about the progression of a story through chapters (aka. The Living Story) you need to capture the imagination of those sinking their time and effort into following it. You’ve introduced some interesting characters with Eir’s son (whose name escapes me presently) and Rox and they should have come along to Southsun to check on the refugees they worked so kitten freeing. As a writer myself, I would kill for an opportunity to write a Living Story chapter so it makes me do the /headdesk every time a potentially awesome story like this gets turned into a Tyria B-Movie.
Looking forward to the next chapters and hopefully more from established characters.
Such an outdated score post… Here is some actual points.
PS: Oh look, we’re outmanned!
At almost 2:30am EST, depending on which borderland you’re in, anybody can be outnumbered. I’d shrug too.
I don’t need to look anything up to know what should be done with him. Feed him to Jormag at the beginning of whatever personal story episodes come next. Problem solved.
Cantha was my favorite GW1 region to work on. And I worked on every GW release. I know a lot of the dev team loved it and would love to revisit it. I kinda agree with critickitten about the negative aspect of tight corridors. Most of that came from hitting technological limits while trying to keep the epic quality of the concept art. I think we could do some really amazing things with those themes in our new engine. Certainly nothing is ruled out. I certainly encourage anyone to express your desire for a Cantha region in GW2 in a positive and friendly way. It could be years away, but it’s worth asking for.
Given what you guys did with Divinity’s Reach and the sense of urban sprawl, Cantha done with the same ideas in mind would be amazing. You could give the sense of overcrowded streets without having them be a navigational nightmare. As a player of both GW1 and GW2, I’m all for a return to Cantha, especially after the build-up left for us in Winds of Change. As a writer, this is also easily my favorite part of the Tyria story. How’s that for positive?