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Guild Wars 2 |OT3| Two Week Updates, One Box, Zero Subscriptions

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R

Retro

Member
3 New Items in the Gem Store:
Metallurgic Dye Kit - 125 gems each or 5 for 500 gems.
Contain 6 new dyes among the pool of 25 dyes. Preview here: http://imgur.com/a/YxeIr

Basic Ore Node Pack - 800 gems.
Places copper, silver, and gold nodes in your home instance. Mined once per day per account. Give you 3x copper, silver and gold ores.

Metabolic Primer - 150 gems each, 5/550 gems or 25 for 2625 gems.
Once consumed, any food eaten while the primer is active will have at least the same duration as the remaining metabolic primer time. The primer lasts for 12 hrs and does not stack. The timer does not tick if you are on a different character/logged off and it doesn’t not work on potions, sharpening stones etc (i.e. only foods).

OaeSDIJ.jpg
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R

Retro

Member
Origins of Madness Revealed
MMORPG.com said:
Beginning with “Origins of Madness,” Guild Wars 2 players will once again find themselves fighting against the forces of arch-villain Scarlet Briar. The sinister sylvari engineer has worked behind the scenes throughout 2013, wreaking havoc through her minions and clockwork creations. Her exact motivations remain a mystery, for now.

As players will see in the “Origins of Madness” teaser video, Scarlet will unleash a brand-new mechanical monstrosity on the living world of Tyria: the Twisted Marionette! A gigantic robotic weapon of mass destruction, the Twisted Marionette can only be stopped by a concerted effort on the part of players.

That’s not the only threat awaiting players, as the teaser video reveals. Scarlet’s machinations have unearthed something ancient and angry in Bloodtide Coast. The Great Jungle Wurm is a huge multi-headed creature so powerful that only an army of players can challenge it. (source)
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Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhrVVkHmwt4

Giant Watchwork Robot dangling from a UFO, Jungle Wurm appears to be leaving Caledon for Bloodtide Coast?

scarcsujw.jpg


Mecha-Scarlet ahoy. I hope Robert Smith, Sidney Poitier and Leonard Maltin show up to save the day.
That was actually the first episode of South Park I ever saw.
 
R

Retro

Member
Exclusive news from Massively:
The end is near! After a brief period of peace and quiet, Guild Wars 2's update cadence will begin again, and ArenaNet has no plans to ease Tyria gently back into the groove. Next week brings the first of four releases, which will culminate in the end of GW2's Scarlet Briar story arc.

Massively was invited to sit down with Colin Johanson and Meelad Sedat to discuss the teaser trailer for the upcoming release, Origin of Madness. While we can't reveal too many of the secrets we've learned about Tyria's future (we wouldn't want to spoil any big surprises), we're pleased to bring you an exclusive peek at some of the content you'll find in the January 21st release. Read on to check it out!

Helminthophobia
By now most of Tyria has become aware of the mysterious probes recently erected in almost every area of the world. Adventurers are great at ignoring warning labels in favor of examining brightly lit objects, so we're willing to bet that most of you also touched them and received a sharp, painful correction. After climbing slowly to your feet, picking debris out of unmentionable places, and recovering your dignity, you may have wondered exactly what those probes are for.

While you won't find out the answer quite yet, you will find out what happens when a bunch of heavy objects pound the ground over and over again: Sedat made the apt comparison to earthworms being disturbed by stomping on wet ground. Following in the footsteps of the revamped Tequatl encounter, this release will introduce a brand-new, permanent world boss in the form of an ancient, polycephalous jungle wurm that lives beneath Bloodtide Coast. As the story begins, players will join up with the Durmand Priory to investigate the probes and the wurm; unfortunately, the creature's underground structure is so huge that it spans the entire zone, and unlike earthworms, jungle wurms have teeth.

Although Johanson didn't want to spoil too many of the fight's mechanics, he did hint that the wurm can regrow its multiple heads -- and will, if certain conditions for their destruction aren't met. Although you'll need only to participate in fighting the Great Jungle Wurm in order to progress the story, there are plenty of new rewards awaiting those who manage to defeat it. And since it's a permanent addition with a regular spawn timer, you and a hundred or so of your good friends can come back to face the wurm (and the wurm, and the other wurm) at any time.

Automatonophobia
The next leg of the story will lead players to Lornar's Pass, where something potentially even bigger is taking place. Scarlet is rallying all of her forces, and suspended by chains above the gathered clockwork horrors, Aetherblade pirates and Molten Alliance goons is an experimental superweapon: the stories-high Twisted Marionette.

The weapon's form -- a gigantic watchknight -- personifies Scarlet's opinion of Tyria: The five races are little more than insects beneath its feet, and like its mistress it takes little note of whom it mows down in passing. Players will have to band together and attempt to prevent Scarlet from performing periodic testing cycles; fail, and the inhabitants of the entire area will experience the marionette's destructive power firsthand. Unlike the Great Jungle Wurm, the Twisted Marionette won't be a permanent encounter -- Scarlet's only testing it, after all.

Why is Scarlet recalling her forces to Lornar's Pass? What use does she have for a giant watchknight? And what could possibly be holding up something that size? You'll have to do your own investigative legwork, gumshoe, 'cause our lips are zipped.

The Beginning of the End
If you can cut your way through Scarlet's horror show, you might find clues to help peel away some of the mystery surrounding her motivations. After months of her plots and plans -- and bouts of player frustration when she slipped away and left behind a growing pile of unanswered questions -- some of those answers are forthcoming in this release.

We asked Johanson and Sedat about the narrative impact of the four final chapters in Scarlet's story arc and what ArenaNet learned over the course of the past year that players will see reflected in the upcoming release. One of the most important things the developers learned, Johanson said, is the necessity of portraying crucial characterization inside GW2. While Scott McGough's short story, What Scarlet Saw, provides essential backstory for Scarlet, much of that information hasn't made it into the game itself. Johanson said that in retrospect, it would have been helpful to seed some of the information players will uncover soon throughout previous releases and give Scarlet an earlier, stronger foundation. Her motivation does go far beyond simply causing chaos for its own sake, and the truth will come to light before the end of the arc.

Johanson also confirmed that players will meet up with popular recurring characters Rox, Braham, Marjory, and Kasmeer in this update. A new character will also be joining them, and although his (or her) identity is still under wraps, we were told that the character is an Asura, has never appeared before in the story, and is a "very different sort of person." This will be welcome news for Asura fans who have missed their presence as major characters, so let imaginations run wild!

The feedback that ArenaNet has gotten from players has gone a long way toward shaping the upcoming releases, Johanson said, and will continue to do so. Players have asked for more content that changes the game world in permanent ways, and releases such as Bazaar of the Four Winds and Queen's Jubilee were especially successful in terms of participation. Big, lasting changes to zones, such as Kessex Hills following the destruction of the Nightmare Tower, reflect the growing scope of the story.

Johanson said that the living world is new territory; ArenaNet has been steadily learning what works --as well as what doesn't -- and smoothing out the implementation. He reiterated that the living world and expansion-style content are not mutually exclusive, and that although players may perceive the studio as concentrating on living world content in lieu of expansion content, there are teams working behind the scenes on other projects. Turnaround time for content implementation is around three or four months, sometimes longer, but feedback received in areas such as the living world collaborative development initiative thread will have a definite impact on future content.

According to Sedat, the final four chapters of Scarlet's story have been written in such a way that players who have missed previous living world content can jump right in. ArenaNet recently released a recap trailer and developer blog to provide all of the major plot points from past releases so that newcomers (or returning players) won't be lost as the first season of the living world story draws to a conclusion.

We'd like to thank Colin Joganson and Meelad Sedat very much for taking the time to chat with us! The next round of jungle wurm salad is on us -- provided, of course, that we aren't horribly devoured by it first. (source)
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marionette203wduyq.jpg


marionette20fight201bbuah.jpg
 
R

Retro

Member
KniveSmith said:
My first thought was: GW2 may have jumped the shark.

My second thought was: We're going to need Voltron.
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I feel ya' on the Shark Jumping. I'm kind of wondering where a giant robot like that would be built without anyone noticing, and why such a thing would ever be necessary. Is it to fight a dragon or other giant critter, Pacific Rim-style?

I just don't see how such a thing works in GW2's world, but... /shrug.
 
R

Retro

Member
If you're looking to do some Map Completion and aren't at work, we own a LOT in WvW right now (almost everything in EB and all of blue BG).

Anno said:
God I can't wait to sit down with some popcorn and read the official forums tonight.
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Yeah, it's gonna be baaaaaaaaaaad.

Trey said:
time to assemble the megazord.
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So what you're saying is, Rangers are getting buffed?
 
S

sackboy2197

Member
Will my computer handle such big robots on the screen? I fear for my FPS.

Honestly though, I'm pretty excited, this will be my first actual Living World event (except the Nightmare Ends, which was a single mission)
 
P

Proven

Member
Arkanius said:
What the heck did I just watch
This was her grand plan?

A Mecha Scarlet?
Oh boy...
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It's not her grand plan, but it's part of it. She's testing it, after all. We still don't know what it's actually for, and the purpose of the probes are still a mystery.
 
H

Hawkian

The Cryptarch's Bane
No issues with the Twisted Marionette working in GW2's world. It isn't even the first giant robot Tyria has encountered. -_-

As always, my feelings about the release will come down to the actual gameplay implications in practice. I think I'm most excited for another permanent, coordination-heavy world boss. Let's get SBI on that shit early!

Curious as to whether the lil' Wurm in Caledon is leaving as well.
Retro said:
wondering where a giant robot like that would be built without anyone noticing
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The So-Very-Secret Aetherblade base.

Also cool that there's an LS reason to go to Lornar's Pass.
 
R

Retro

Member
From a Eurogamer interview with Colin:
The original idea was to have four story teams making a month's worth of content each, to be released in fortnightly bumps, and whatever mechanical features were ready at that time could be rolled in and included. . .

"It's very distracting to players," observed Johanson. "It's almost a muddled message, where we put these releases out and we want them to be excited about the story, to follow the story, and we also want them to be excited about the features that are coming with it. And either one or the other tends to be the thing that people cling onto." And the other thing, people ignore.

"What we're going to do this year is we're actually separating the two of those out."

All the big mechanical features ArenaNet is working on will be held back for a bumper update presumably in the spring/summer.

"When [Living World Season One] ends [on 4th March], we're going to take a break for a little bit and then we're going to do one really big feature patch that is more akin to what people see from some of our [MMO] competitors," said Johanson, "where they bundle a lot of features together into a really big patch every now and then.

. . .

Johanson told me everything that will happen, and the four patches coming early this year - 21st January, 4th February, 18th February and 4th March - will bring about an end to excite even a bystander. Tyria really won't be the same after it, and what happens at the end will also set up Season Two.
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So it sounds like they're going to change from the Two week update cadence and shift to something more like television seasons in the UK: instead of 20-something episodes like the US, they usually shoot half a dozen episodes, take a break, shoot another half dozen, and so on.

Basically we'll have an update next Tuesday, then the 4th and 18th of February, then the 4th of March will end the Living Story "Season One". Then they'll take a break and at some point in the interim they will release a "Special" that focuses on big features rather than story content. That means during the break, when they're working on the content, there should be something big and new to play with while we wait for "Season Two" to get started.

The only question is, how long is the break?

(Aside: the tone of that interview is really passive-aggressive, like everything positive they mention, the next question frames it as a negative. They'll say "ArenaNet is doing fine, we're hiring and have 350 people!", and the interviewer's next question is "Oh, 350 people and all you can do is crap out Living Story updates that nobody likes?" Really trashy, which is why I'm not giving them the traffic).

Orin GA said:
who do I msg about the gaf guild?
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The officer's names are in the first post, or you can post your name.#### or character name and we'll invite you that way. I believe Vyrance and Sophrelia were on when I logged.
 
S

shysaursoft

Member
I usually buy most QoL upgrades, but that 800 gem 3-ore pack feels a bit... meh. Do I really need Copper, Silver and Gold nodes in my Home Instance? They would go nicely with the Quartz and Candycorn, but still. If they were Rich nodes, I wouldn't think twice though.

Retro said:
(Aside: the tone of that interview is really passive-aggressive, like everything positive they mention, the next question frames it as a negative. They'll say "ArenaNet is doing fine, we're hiring and have 350 people!", and the interviewer's next question is "Oh, 350 people and all you can do is crap out Living Story updates that nobody likes?" Really trashy, which is why I'm not giving them the traffic).
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Glad I wasn't the only one thinking that while reading the interview. The whole article was framed as 'Oh, GW2, that irrelevant, not-WoW, nobody-cares-about MMO with the stuff and things nobody cares about".
 
H

Hawkian

The Cryptarch's Bane
Orin GA said:
who do I msg about the gaf guild?
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YOURSELF

Posting your character name or Account name in here will get it done. If no one has by the time I get home I'll add you personally.

Unrelated, worth the quick read, this is a lot of things that I feel, in a way that dominates a lot of my thinking about gaming. It's relevant to this thread inasmuch as you can see (mostly in its predecessors) contained within an occasional sample of exactly the kind of vitriol in question on display. I would be very interested to see a cogent rationale for "the other side," but I suppose this thread isn't the right place. Just posting in case people in here would be interested that didn't see it on the gaming side.
Miktar said:
I usually buy most QoL upgrades, but that 800 gem 3-ore pack feels a bit... meh. Do I really need Copper, Silver and Gold nodes in my Home Instance? They would go nicely with the Quartz and Candycorn, but still. If they were Rich nodes, I wouldn't think twice though.
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I'm considering it because between the lot, that's 75% of your daily gatherer from a visit to your home instance.
 
J

Jira

Member
Yay new update page day! Yes, I'm aware you all haven't seen me in some time but that's mainly due to work, no new updates since WD, and I've taken this time to play some other games. Really cool to see two world bosses coming in one update. So do we think that the whole wurm popping up in different places of the zone will be similar to the invasion mechanic and how that spread people out or do we think each place it pops out may be something unique for each part of the wurm? The giant marionette looks pretty cool, unsure what to think of it from a story perspective until we get more info. I wonder what the 5 platforms are for?

As for what Retro posted:

So it seems they're gonna move to Story/Story/Story/Story [FEATURES] Story/Story/Story/Story? I wonder if they're doing this so that they can put more of a focus on each and have all of them stand out more? It certainly feels like what they're doing is focusing on the story a lot more, then release a big features update to give us stuff to do during the downtime between "Seasons" and then start back up again.
 
K

Kos Luftar

Member
New Wurm is specifically in Bloodtide Coast.

The should do WvW Leagues during the breaks between story and features.

If the turn around and say scarlet did all this shit just so she could fight primordis on her own.

New Asura character showing up makes me think he is from the depths of tyria and has come to warn us of primordis.

Dragon most likely major part of season 2.
 
X

xenoflux2113

Member
Kos Luftar said:
New Wurm is specifically in Bloodtide Coast.

The should do WvW Leagues during the breaks between story and features.

If the turn around and say scarlet did all this shit just so she could fight primordis on her own.

New Asura character showing up makes me think he is from the depths of tyria and has come to warn us of primordis.

Dragon most likely major part of season 2.
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I really hope so.
 
oktarb

oktarb

Member
The mining node thing is interesting but don't see it as super useful. What i do like is that they are stepping over an invisible line - modification of your home instance.

I'm a whore for dyes so bye bye gems.
 
BrettWeir

BrettWeir

Member
Ahhhhhhh! December 10th patch makes me want to redo all my toons armor/weapons (besides Floobit). And only 3 transmutation stones left?! UGH! #firstworldproblems
 
L

Lunar15

Member
Also, all of the wording anet has been using about future updates really implies that there is definitely "expansion-themed" content on the way. I phrase it like that because it probably will not be a traditional expansion, but they'll use that wording to promote it.

The team really just seems so back and forth on all decisions. There's definitely some backing down due to player frustration, but it also kind of sounds like there's a constant internal debate too. It kind of sounds like a toxic environment for development, but I certainly hope it's not that way.
 
L

Lunar15

Member
Kos Luftar said:
Wonder if this means that they will only do skill balance updates during the "Feature" updates.
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Quite frankly, it sounds like they're going to a more traditional Guild Wars 1 expansion calendar: One "expansion" a year that introduces new places and mechanics, and then the living story will mainly just be about story content.

They're doing this for marketing reasons (I think the current implementation of Living Story was way too hard to market) , not just fan feedback, but personally I think this is actually probably going to be more helpful in the long-run.
 
T

Taffer

Member
I hope the slower pace of balance tweaks means they can put more time into big changes, which may be a roundabout way of moaning about conditions versus structures.
Hint: it is.
 
R

Retro

Member
Lunar15 said:
The team really just seems so back and forth on all decisions. There's definitely some backing down due to player frustration, but it also kind of sounds like there's a constant internal debate too. It kind of sounds like a toxic environment for development, but I certainly hope it's not that way.
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I don't think I'm saying anything that shouldn't be said, but whenever I talk to the developers it sounds less 'toxic' and more 'eager but frustrated', in that there are all these things they want to do but the reality is that you can only do so much. Based on tweets and such, this last week was pretty crazy (even before the VIP nonsense leaked) and from the interview with Colin it sounds like right now China is a big goal for them. That's not really a surprise considering it's one of the most-demanded foreign games and launching there would basically double the number of players.

I would guess that If there's any kind of internal struggle, it would be between the developers and the marketing team; the game has all of these great things going on that should have been slam dunks marketing-wise (you think the two-week cadence would be a much-lauded selling point), but instead we get stuff like the awkward "MMO Migration" campaign.

I also say that because I assume you'd have to be up your own ass not to have plush Quaggans out a year ago.
 
W

Weltall Zero

Member
Lunar15 said:
The team really just seems so back and forth on all decisions. There's definitely some backing down due to player frustration, but it also kind of sounds like there's a constant internal debate too. It kind of sounds like a toxic environment for development, but I certainly hope it's not that way.
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How in the world does "internal debate" equal to "toxic environment? From my experience, the very most toxic environments are ones where people either don't care about the company or their work enough to put forward their opinions (or even enough to form opinions in the first place), or where only the opinions of a few individuals matter. The very fact that's there's room for debate at all is a sign of health, and the fact that nothing is set in stone and they learn from what they're doing (and yes, that sometimes means backtracking) is quite encouraging.

Also, I'm happy for the new schedule. Separating mechanics and story content in patches seems like a great idea, as, indeed, I could never focus on both of them at once. This should lead to a more relaxed pace, which is exactly what I asked for.
 
S

shysaursoft

Member
Weltall Zero said:
How in the world does "internal debate" equal to "toxic environment? From my experience, the very most toxic environments are ones where people either don't care about the company or their work enough to put forward their opinions (or even enough to form opinions in the first place), or where only the opinions of a few individuals matter. The very fact that's there's room for debate at all is a sign of health, and the fact that nothing is set in stone and they learn from what they're doing (and yes, that sometimes means backtracking) is quite encouraging.
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I will back this up. When I still worked in the office (as opposed to now where I work from home in another country, since I'm an "international correspondent"), we constantly argued, debated, and called each other names. And it was the most productive, healthiest work environment I ever experienced. That every single person could stand up and say "you're all being fuckwits, and here's why" kept everyone in balance - no single opinion didn't matter. We managed to save the magazine from a lot of bad situations this way. Everyone cared about the magazine, and it showed.

The six years I spent in that office, were six of the best of my entire life thus far.
 
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