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Guild Wars 2 |OT3| Two Week Updates, One Box, Zero Subscriptions
- Thread starter Retro
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Not feeling this patch either. Its pretty apparent that anet wants to take this game in a different direction than I want. I'm bored as fuck on my guardian because lolpassives all up in this bitch and the 10th won't help.
I also do not like the dungeons. Way too long for me.
Complistic
Member
Its all new to me. I missed it all last year.
I literally cannot believe that these two things happened. I saw it today.
That's what I thought too. Suddenly glad Kiel won. My god.
It's not impossible, you don't need the shields. I admit it's useful for discovery, but we had the same thing happen. So we went in and got our shields back
I mean, I wouldn't have minded Scarlet so much if she weren't the only thing going on at the moment. She's crazy. We get it. But she can't keep the entire Living Story afloat.
Man, all the theorycrafting about what the new fractal could contain had me so excited. Especially the ones thinking they'd finally reveal either the two last dragons, something about the humans original home or another dragon minion or something.
Man, all the theorycrafting about what the new fractal could contain had me so excited. Especially the ones thinking they'd finally reveal either the two last dragons, something about the humans original home or another dragon minion or something.
Instead, they're tying Scarlet into the whole dragon debacle? I hope not!
Boss Doggie
all my loli wolf companions are so moe
Wait, what did maryscarlet/scarletsue do to the race lore? became the faolin's new hubbub?
Ugggggggggh
They really need to revert the changes to iWarden. Shit doesn't work half the time or it just plain goes zooming off in some random direction lol.
And after doing some more fractals last night, yea no way am I bothering with them until they fix their buggy crap. The Mist Instabilities are a nice idea but boy oh boy do they just flat-out bug a LOT of levels. One of them increases dmg from flanking attacks, which basically makes certain levels impossible. Another gives random boons to enemies, which can constantly trigger certain sequences of boss battles lol. Another is just flat-out stupid: it decreases your critical chance, which means you get to spend even more time whittling down an HP bar. The ONLY ones I've encountered so far I don't mind are the increased condition duration and the Mossman randomly attacking you.
They need to remove ALL of the Instabilities that don't apply TO you(aka: any of them that reduce something you do). I'm fine taking increased dmg(assuming it scales correctly); I'm not fine having dps decreased dramatically(I literally went from ~60% crit to 28%).
They really need to revert the changes to iWarden. Shit doesn't work half the time or it just plain goes zooming off in some random direction lol.
And after doing some more fractals last night, yea no way am I bothering with them until they fix their buggy crap. The Mist Instabilities are a nice idea but boy oh boy do they just flat-out bug a LOT of levels. One of them increases dmg from flanking attacks, which basically makes certain levels impossible. Another gives random boons to enemies, which can constantly trigger certain sequences of boss battles lol. Another is just flat-out stupid: it decreases your critical chance, which means you get to spend even more time whittling down an HP bar. The ONLY ones I've encountered so far I don't mind are the increased condition duration and the Mossman randomly attacking you.
They need to remove ALL of the Instabilities that don't apply TO you(aka: any of them that reduce something you do). I'm fine taking increased dmg(assuming it scales correctly); I'm not fine having dps decreased dramatically(I literally went from ~60% crit to 28%).
Kos Luftar
Member
Find out next year what really happens!
Anyone notice the electrical dildos sticking out of the ground in different areas? They just say don't touch and if you do, you get knocked back.
shysaursoft
Member
I like Scarlet, and what's been going on so far. I wasn't sold on her initially, but she's grown on me, and I'm enjoying them stringing her through all the LS stuff, even if it is just a giant retcon. But then, I don't take GW2's story very seriously, so perhaps that's why I can take her in stride. She's a cartoon villain for a cartoon plot. (As long as you ignore http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Short_Story:_What_Scarlet_Saw because otherwise it gets quite serious) I'm fine with that, and it feels like they're getting better at this as they go.
Plus, I feel Tara Strong is slowly warming into the role.
I especially liked the little 'whoa' they give you right at the end of Thaumanova, when you're back at the hub, and Dessa forgets who Kiel is, which ties into the nature of the Fractals. That was neat.
Plus, I feel Tara Strong is slowly warming into the role.
I especially liked the little 'whoa' they give you right at the end of Thaumanova, when you're back at the hub, and Dessa forgets who Kiel is, which ties into the nature of the Fractals. That was neat.
I can see it taking two, but I think it'd be impossible to solo with those triggers.
The only way I could see it being solo'd is by a Mesmer, using portals to get from near the switch to the force-field instantly and then back out in time to get the two main switches. The only way we were able to do it is that I was able to break the immobilize and hit the main switches before the time expired.
We also bugged it, possibly; I only had to put in a single cooling rod.
Anyways, that last fight was really, really really good, and even IF Scarlet shows up and does a thing and disappears again, the story instance itself is really fun and the fights are good. The developers nailed everything except the story.
Spehornoob
Member
So I know people aren't fans of the story right now, but playing the game itself has just gotten better and better, I think. The bosses in the reactor were a lot of fun. Once they move past the Scarlet storyline (and they will finish it out, I don't think they'll cut it off early), hopefully they'll move onto another, more interesting one. Maybe a lead-up to the next Elder Dragon?
LiveSpartan235
Neo Member
A dev on twitch said theres nothing they can about the scarlet arc its already been set in stone and the end of the arc is already finished so we gotta stick it out or go do something else until it end. We also tried to get him to to tell us when the arc ends he only said March is a very reasonable guess. He also admittedhe wasnt particularly fond of scarlet either.
Edit: The dev also mentioned that the LS after the scarlet arc will be shorter in scope so they and we dont run into the problem the scarlet arc has.
Edit: The dev also mentioned that the LS after the scarlet arc will be shorter in scope so they and we dont run into the problem the scarlet arc has.
Spehornoob
Member
Scarlet is about to start the final phase of her plan, when suddenly Kralkatorrik shows up and eats her, burps, and flies to Cantha.
This scene is immediately followed by an expansion announcement containing the phrase "Scarlet's dead and you get to go to Cantha. Happy, fuckers?"
Go on...
Better storytelling than we've seen so far. At least it goes somewhere.
Spehornoob
Member
I'm actually still of the opinion they should have held off on the Dragon Bash until they had an expansion announcement:
Dragon Bash in Lion's Arch
Primordus or Kralk crash the party
Trahearne dies violently and potentially soils himself
Dragon Wrecks the place, including the Tengu's area
Dragon Flies to Cantha
Tengu realize the need to ally with other races
Expansion announcement with Cantha and Tengu added when it hits.
Anyway, I just hope the main plot of GW2, the dragon plot, is added to sometime soon. Even if the PS wasn't great, it has a cool concept behind it and it'd be a shame to shove that aside for much longer.
Dragon Bash in Lion's Arch
Primordus or Kralk crash the party
Trahearne dies violently and potentially soils himself
Dragon Wrecks the place, including the Tengu's area
Dragon Flies to Cantha
Tengu realize the need to ally with other races
Expansion announcement with Cantha and Tengu added when it hits.
Anyway, I just hope the main plot of GW2, the dragon plot, is added to sometime soon. Even if the PS wasn't great, it has a cool concept behind it and it'd be a shame to shove that aside for much longer.
Spehornoob
Member
That's the problem. The living story is an awesome idea, but ANet needs to USE it. Bring in a Dragon, kill someone off (Logan, please), do something that drives us to care.
I mean, I come back from a few months off and nothing has moved anywhere, storywise. It's a shame. The game itself has gotten so much better though, I feel, and it was already great.
Principate
Saint Titanfall
Thing is the whole thing is kinda rock and a hard place, everything is temporary, so if some one returns and something important happens they miss it, and Imagine most of the important stuff is left for expansions. The should really make everything follow able, in a an easy to way e.g have have a dungeon or an instance of some sort that essentially does a mini version of each major event and either make a relatively important straight up continuation or focus or on more personal story stuff.
But really they wrote themselves into a whole with the general plotline of gw2. It's basically goes there's these seemingly unlikable dragons to defeat, defeat them, Once the dragons have proven defeat able all sense of tension is loss, so it's now oh 3 more or something to defeat great, should be easy now we've killed one. After the first game the story's lost or sense of real urgency.
A story like Vindictus (the last mmo type game I played), was much more compelling in seeing where the story was going and each content update continued and progressed this story because the whole thing was far less generic despite having dragons in it as well, probably helped most of it wasn't voiced so bad voice work didn't hinder the story, but the game was much more character focused and well darker, I was far more interested in how that story would evolve than I ever was with gw2's (apart from some of the Charr's personal story that was damn good).
Some of gw2 personal was kind of like this but joined up into a much more generic overarching story. The most interesting parts of gw2 lore right now are the messed up going on in the other continents than the dragons themselves Palawa Joko Ruling Elona, tyrannical emperor in Cantha
The overaching story of gw2 shouldn't just be Dragons want to destroy the world stop them, gw1's story was more interesting than that. They should spend the living story exploring why Dragons did the shit they did and the dragons themselves, not villain of the week,
Vigilant Walrus
Member
are anyone here playing with the Mac Beta client? if so, how does it run on your machine!?
March? So faaaar. But thanks! Something to look forward to.
Just curious, would all of you rather have the living world bi-weekly content--or bigger(more permanent) content updates that happened every month or so?
Often finding myself struggling with this. One the one had the living world is fun and makes things feel fresh often. But it also makes a lot of player(myself included) compelled to play even when they may not care to because the content may be removed after a period of time. Though on the other hand I remember World of Warcraft having all this content/areas that were completely useless and barren. Like when I was playing when Cata came out, I skipped WotLK(on release) and there was literally no one in Northrend--and I played on a high pop server.Also, I know FF XIV hasn't had a content patch yet really and half the Facebook page posts for that game are proclaiming it "dead". Despite everyone I know that was playing it really like the game.
I'm sure this has been discussed by you folks a lot, but after reading this it got me thinking more about how the content in GW2 is distributed.
Often finding myself struggling with this. One the one had the living world is fun and makes things feel fresh often. But it also makes a lot of player(myself included) compelled to play even when they may not care to because the content may be removed after a period of time. Though on the other hand I remember World of Warcraft having all this content/areas that were completely useless and barren. Like when I was playing when Cata came out, I skipped WotLK(on release) and there was literally no one in Northrend--and I played on a high pop server.Also, I know FF XIV hasn't had a content patch yet really and half the Facebook page posts for that game are proclaiming it "dead". Despite everyone I know that was playing it really like the game.
I'm sure this has been discussed by you folks a lot, but after reading this it got me thinking more about how the content in GW2 is distributed.
I love this kind of stuff:
Gonna be hosting another Fractal Clinic this Saturday at 4:00PM EST if anyone is interested cause the first one fell through. I got the hang of a few of the new/changed fractals yesterday so anyone feeling intimidated or whatever, this is a great chance to get your feet wet. All Fractal levels welcome (we'll ensure that as many people attending as possible advance a level).
I won't be able to take part in much of the EotM test today (5-9pm EST) but I will be poking my head in at the beginning.
I don't think I could really enjoy a pure-fantasy RPG as much. I like that we get reactor explosions in the same universe as dwarves and dragons.
Gonna be hosting another Fractal Clinic this Saturday at 4:00PM EST if anyone is interested cause the first one fell through. I got the hang of a few of the new/changed fractals yesterday so anyone feeling intimidated or whatever, this is a great chance to get your feet wet. All Fractal levels welcome (we'll ensure that as many people attending as possible advance a level).
I won't be able to take part in much of the EotM test today (5-9pm EST) but I will be poking my head in at the beginning.
hahaahaaha
I love the comments about them really not being similar(yea right) and the discussion on how long it will take to actually make some skins(why didn't they do that in the first place?).
Seriously, how do you need feedback to realize that they are incredibly similar(aka: exactly the same except for the fire)? Boggles the mind.
So silly. They really should get rid of the medium/heavy sets as well, as they aren't anything special either.
Weltall Zero
Member
Definitely 100% monthly, permanent updates. Hell, either of them is a plus; the biweekly rate is a bit exhausting for me to keep up when factoring work, friends, house stuff and other games. I love being able to take my leave of GW2 anytime I want, and having all the content in the intervening period available for me as I return would be great.
Which probably is the entire reason why it's temporary; they want people to keep playing constantly, which I understand and respect.
Spehornoob
Member
I'd like a mix of both. Use the living story (though maybe space them out a bit more), but lead into something bigger or at least keep some of the content. Even though the story was over, there was no reason, in my opinion, for the Molten Facility to go away. Stuff like that.
Just to clarify, I'm okay with certain skins and that being temporary rewards. I just think when you make something major like a new dungeon or Champion Boss, it's a waste to rid the game of it after a month,
From a personal scheduling point of view, I prefer monthly updates to biweekly. Biweekly updates do encourage concurrency though.
As for the link you posted, it's a rehash of ideas over the past year, but it's a nicely done rehash. I'm just glad I read it from right to left (which turned out to be the intended order of reading) on a whim.
Monthly, easily. The bi-weekly so far has seemed like something to keep people playing. I actually quite liked the flame and frost patches, where there was one big update, and then it "progressed" slowly.
It was weird being gone for a week, and not being here on update day. I've never missed one before. Oh well, back to Mega Posting.
This is my opinion as well, for the last few updates actually. Yes, the Nightmare Tower was another example of Scarlet showing up, uniting two completely random factions and then disappearing before anyone could stop her. But the tower was (and is) an incredible bit of gameplay that's fairly unique as well. Apart from Orr, there's nowhere with that level of enemy density, coerced group play and level of danger just getting around. It was a nice, meaty bite of gameplay, even if the story was tissue thin.
I feel like this update was the same; a new fractal, the return of some very popular content as fractals (by the way, anyone who didn't do Molten Facility / Aetherblade Retreat when they were originally released? Your opinions, I want them). A smattering of good changes across the board for everyone... good stuff, but the story is still kind of anorexic.
They were talking about February being big, so maybe Scarlet's last-ditch attack will be a big deal.
Well, Dragon Bash falls during the same time of the year as the Dragon Festival in GW1. I think the point was to have a holiday event during the summer and keep at least one tradition from GW1 alive.
The way I see it, the dragons are a force of nature that cannot be beat. You might as well try to fight a tornado or hurricane, and even if you could beat them, they'll just reemerge somewhere later and keep on messing things up. The problem is that forces of nature aren't very interesting villains.
Instead, I think the story of GW2 should be how the various factions face that storm; some seeking to draw from that power for their own nefarious needs, some turning isolationist, some trying to contain the damage, some potentially bent on letting it happen because it's viewed as fate or the world restoring balance. There's lots of storyhooks there; how would Palawa Joko react to the Risen? Do the Flame Legion view Primordius as a God? Do the Zephyrites honor the teachings of Glint to preserve the various races of Tyria, or do they remain aloft and preserve their knowledge instead? What does the presence of the Elder Dragons affect the faith of the Human Gods, who unknowingly built their Holy City over Zhaitan simply because they detected his magical power there. Aren't Gods supposed to be omniscient? Who knows how the dragons affect an isolationist nation like Cantha? What is the racial destiny of the Sylvari if not the defeat of the dragons?
Those would all be great hooks that take us to new places, but could also visit existing ones. The dragons are a constant threat, constantly in the background, and the game revolves around how the world reacts to that presence. The problem is, the dragons aren't really explained beyond Zhaitan; we don't even know the names of two of them (officially, at least), or if there are even more lurking in other corners of the world. We get the sense that Zhaitan was bent on consuming magic; are they awoken when too much magic is in use, to restore the balance between natural and magical?
I think that's why Scarlet has stuck around so long and worn out her welcome. Based on the story article, she's supposedly seen the inner workings of the universe. The developers obviously have a bigger story in mind, but they needed someone to pull back the curtain a little without seeming to come from nowhere. Her introduction could have been done much better, but at least after all these months it's kind of clear that Scarlet does know her shit, even if she's not very interesting.
Basically, we need a Hannibal Lecter cooped up somewhere so we can ask them questions and get back nuggets of info, but that person can't really be on our side or we get Trahearne instead. I hope this doesn't mean Scarlet survives, I think a lot of people would be upset if they didn't get a chance to off her.
I feel like the two week schedule is fantastic, but that it's sort of the same problem as GW1's expansion model: they can't maintain that pace for long if they want to have time to develop cool new things that take more time than is scheduled.
I think the ideal would be similar to the "Time capsule" image you linked, but instead of having a "Campaign season" and "Off Season", they should do it like a TV show; a set number of episodes every two weeks, then a mid-season break, then another clump of episodes. The idea of a seven-month long gap where nothing happens but tiny side stories and holidays is kind of off-putting.
I think they should focus on something like 3 months on, one month off. That way, they have some time to develop bigger things in the 'off' months. They should also make the end of each season add something like a new zone or something substantial that bridges the gap. For example, if Season 1 ends with the emergence of Jormag as the cliffhanger, then a zone should be revamped or added where there's lots of little hints and hooks that preview what's going to happen in Season 2 for us to explore and play around in.
This actually would work really well because it would give players 'down time' to explore the zone without feeling like they should be off doing the current living story.
This is my opinion as well, for the last few updates actually. Yes, the Nightmare Tower was another example of Scarlet showing up, uniting two completely random factions and then disappearing before anyone could stop her. But the tower was (and is) an incredible bit of gameplay that's fairly unique as well. Apart from Orr, there's nowhere with that level of enemy density, coerced group play and level of danger just getting around. It was a nice, meaty bite of gameplay, even if the story was tissue thin.
I feel like this update was the same; a new fractal, the return of some very popular content as fractals (by the way, anyone who didn't do Molten Facility / Aetherblade Retreat when they were originally released? Your opinions, I want them). A smattering of good changes across the board for everyone... good stuff, but the story is still kind of anorexic.
They were talking about February being big, so maybe Scarlet's last-ditch attack will be a big deal.
Well, Dragon Bash falls during the same time of the year as the Dragon Festival in GW1. I think the point was to have a holiday event during the summer and keep at least one tradition from GW1 alive.
The way I see it, the dragons are a force of nature that cannot be beat. You might as well try to fight a tornado or hurricane, and even if you could beat them, they'll just reemerge somewhere later and keep on messing things up. The problem is that forces of nature aren't very interesting villains.
Instead, I think the story of GW2 should be how the various factions face that storm; some seeking to draw from that power for their own nefarious needs, some turning isolationist, some trying to contain the damage, some potentially bent on letting it happen because it's viewed as fate or the world restoring balance. There's lots of storyhooks there; how would Palawa Joko react to the Risen? Do the Flame Legion view Primordius as a God? Do the Zephyrites honor the teachings of Glint to preserve the various races of Tyria, or do they remain aloft and preserve their knowledge instead? What does the presence of the Elder Dragons affect the faith of the Human Gods, who unknowingly built their Holy City over Zhaitan simply because they detected his magical power there. Aren't Gods supposed to be omniscient? Who knows how the dragons affect an isolationist nation like Cantha? What is the racial destiny of the Sylvari if not the defeat of the dragons?
Those would all be great hooks that take us to new places, but could also visit existing ones. The dragons are a constant threat, constantly in the background, and the game revolves around how the world reacts to that presence. The problem is, the dragons aren't really explained beyond Zhaitan; we don't even know the names of two of them (officially, at least), or if there are even more lurking in other corners of the world. We get the sense that Zhaitan was bent on consuming magic; are they awoken when too much magic is in use, to restore the balance between natural and magical?
I think that's why Scarlet has stuck around so long and worn out her welcome. Based on the story article, she's supposedly seen the inner workings of the universe. The developers obviously have a bigger story in mind, but they needed someone to pull back the curtain a little without seeming to come from nowhere. Her introduction could have been done much better, but at least after all these months it's kind of clear that Scarlet does know her shit, even if she's not very interesting.
Basically, we need a Hannibal Lecter cooped up somewhere so we can ask them questions and get back nuggets of info, but that person can't really be on our side or we get Trahearne instead. I hope this doesn't mean Scarlet survives, I think a lot of people would be upset if they didn't get a chance to off her.
I feel like the two week schedule is fantastic, but that it's sort of the same problem as GW1's expansion model: they can't maintain that pace for long if they want to have time to develop cool new things that take more time than is scheduled.
I think the ideal would be similar to the "Time capsule" image you linked, but instead of having a "Campaign season" and "Off Season", they should do it like a TV show; a set number of episodes every two weeks, then a mid-season break, then another clump of episodes. The idea of a seven-month long gap where nothing happens but tiny side stories and holidays is kind of off-putting.
I think they should focus on something like 3 months on, one month off. That way, they have some time to develop bigger things in the 'off' months. They should also make the end of each season add something like a new zone or something substantial that bridges the gap. For example, if Season 1 ends with the emergence of Jormag as the cliffhanger, then a zone should be revamped or added where there's lots of little hints and hooks that preview what's going to happen in Season 2 for us to explore and play around in.
This actually would work really well because it would give players 'down time' to explore the zone without feeling like they should be off doing the current living story.
This is my only real problem with the game as a whole. I feel like I can never get caught up with the progress because it changes so rapidly.
Like right now, I'm still really set on 100% world completion before anything else. So I've been missing basically all the living world stuff. Not to mention I can't devote nearly enough time to the game.
At least they acknowledge that they fucked up I guess. I love how they try to spin it so it makes it look unintentional - anyone who looked at it for more than 2 seconds would have realised that it looks virtually identical. The whole fix they've offered is a bit of a train wreck - there's going to be a lot of unhappy people for different reasons now.
Such lack of foresight and poor decision making - they should have seen this coming from a mile away. Now they've just created a mess for themselves that had little justification to exist in the first place.
Such lack of foresight and poor decision making - they should have seen this coming from a mile away. Now they've just created a mess for themselves that had little justification to exist in the first place.
Principate
Saint Titanfall
Come on man, give them a little of a pass, it was pretty obvious this was an lazy attempt at a quick buck and they knew exactly what they were doing but don't want to admit it, but hey at least they did something about it which is what I grateful for.
They could have easily said nope and ignored the problem like I've seen happen so many times in mmo's (especially f2p).
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