Elva.6372

> @"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:

> > @"zombyturtle.5980" said:

> > While i appreciate the effort that goes into the VO for the commander, and enjoy how to brings the story more to life, i really think it limits the game more than its worth.

> >

> > The main argument against branching dialogue and new playable races has both been the sheer cost of the voice acting that would be needed to cover all the new lines. Dont get me wrong, I know there are other problems but the upfront cost of the voice acting seems to be the unsolvable problem that comes up whenever 2 of my would be favorite features are discussed. I wish the commander would shut up so we can have more variety in our play styles. :#

> >

>

> That's not the only argument. It's just one of the easiest to explain & understand.

> * The _Player Character_ can't have too much agency _in an MMO_. Because it has to be played by _everyone_.

> * Branching dialogue is expensive to write, because it means fitting the dialogue into the context of the global story arc and to flow within each episode.

> * It's expensive because it's more writing and any writing has to be translated into 4 other languages.

> * It's a poor use of resources if there aren't consequences to the branches, because the benefits are otherwise too short-lived. And introducing consequences means preparing, brainstorming, writing, and rewriting multiple scenarios.

> * And yeah, sure, in the current scenario, someone would have to read the lines, which means additional time in the sound studio and additional coordination.

>

> So removing the voice over would reduce one of the big costs, but not address any of the other complexities, while at the same time diminishing another part of the player experience.

>

> I'm not saying it can't theoretically be managed. I'm saying that it's an expensive design choice. Personally, I'm just as glad that there's little branching: I'd much prefer to see more stories released more often, than fewer stories with a handful of alternative dialogues during playthrough.

Yes, this topic is near and dear to my gamer heart and I think you have spelled it out very clearly.

> @"Ashen.2907" said:

> > @"Elva.6372" said:

> > **You can't visit the same well each time in order to have an "impactful story".**

> > If you over do it too many times - that's a failing - not an accomplishment in story writing.

> >

> >

> > Impact is great in measured doses - maintaining sustainable interest is far better.

> >

>

> Agreed

>

> Unfortunately Taimi is that well...visited time and again.

Yes, an illustrative example of failing - yanking the same chain over and over.

**You can't visit the same well each time in order to have an "impactful story".**

If you over do it too many times - that's a failing - not an accomplishment in story writing.

Impact is great in measured doses - maintaining sustainable interest is far better.

> @"Dawdler.8521" said:

> > @"Elva.6372" said:

> > with roles largely blurred

>

> Are they blurred?

>

> I mean when was the last time you saw a 50 man zerg consisting of berserker firebrands, minstrel scourges, soldier weavers and cleric spellbreakers supported by the gank groups of dire deadeyes and apothecary mirages?

Yeah, this was covered up the thread:

> The first is that they can be hard to balance, especially for inexperienced designers. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that players will take the most powerful set of skills available, leading to a lot of "flavor of the month" setups.

>

> Because of this problem, characters are not diverse, despite a system that should allow for a wide variety of abilities. A skill-based system with some refinements, such as opposition skills that cannot be taken together, could solve some of these well-known issues.

And yes blurred - as in every profession is getting a little bit of everything but it still comes down to flavor of the month based on DPS or buffing DPS.

>However, while many current trinity-free MMOs offer a fascinating selection of class abilities, it seems that in practice all players focus on one thing: doing damage. Any deviation from either doing lots of damage or enabling others to do lots of damage is frowned upon by the general playerbase. [-Why MMOs Should Keep the Trinity](http://www.mmogames.com/gamearticles/mmos-should-keep-the-trinity/ "-Why MMOs Should Keep the Trinity")

By neutering the power of the trinity, _active and involved player to player cooperation_ as part of the game is reduced to near non-existent levels with everyone mostly doing their own thing in **most** game modes. There had been the early attempt to shift cooperation into _combo field_ interactions but that has mostly been relegated to a passive "nice when it happens" type of thing.

GW2's problem is a social gaming one - with roles largely blurred, with the "jack of all trades" approach the game play loses distinction as players team together.

It's a jumble - unless you know your teammates intimately - there's simply no framework to build solid team-play upon or even basic expectations. **Purpose**

For myself, this is why I rarely group and mostly solo -the game is too open ended for its own good.

Games need rules, and games need roles.

Purpose is important, anything that makes it bland isn't good for fun or engagement.


Like mounts, GW2 doesn't need housing.

/jk

I think ANet is going to push the Home instance in that direction. It would be the obvious method of getting custom housing into the game.

In order of enjoyment**^** for open world PvE from most to least::

1. Holosmith

2. Core (turret)

3. Scrapper

Holo is a great break from engineer clunkiness, an grating aspect to the profession that plagues a class archetype that I otherwise truly love. Core, Condition engineer is disappointing at present, but Core Power/Precision Turret builds can be quite fun and highly versatile in roaming about the open world. Scrapper, has some strong points, but boring game-play and lack of overall versatility and survivability that the Holosmith does not.

**^** enjoyment based on ease of play and flexibility in the tougher maps in HoT and PoF)

**/my2cents**

I love the steam skins for my human mesmer, also the torch isn't as harsh and glaring as the other skins can be. I really hated that on Soulbeast - the elite effects plus torch light was annoying during game-play. As for the mesmer Mirage - I don't consider there to be a lack of choices, but I guess if one hasn't unlocked that many skins yet, it may appears so.

Of course, there's no accounting for taste.

Maybe it's just me, but I see the Tyrian sun quite often. I guess I can't relate to this being questionable. Maybe it's based on graphic setting, post process etc?

I like Steam, but I am not sure what it brings to the table for ANet. ANet has the infrastructure already working and in place and obviously doesn't need a distribution platform which Steam and GOG excel at providing.

> @"Diviner.4517" said:

> See this is exactly what I'm talking about. It's fine if you simply complete events for the mechanics benefits (achievements, loot, leveling) but once you start paying attention to the stories they tell, you're often faced with questionable moral choices which would have been punishable by the same authors if they were made by one of the antagonists.

>

> Of course it doesn't help that there's (probably) numerous authors writing stories for all different areas of the game and they can't completely coordinate their narratives.

I like complexity and actual moral dilemmas but all too often and throughout the whole GW2 story telling in Hearts, Events and so on - we are subjected to a somewhat depraved sense of morality.

It's largely an anti-hero driven story in so many ways but not in a good way. The obvious focus is the the player character who is the prime mover and shaker and catalyst who participates in numerous questionable acts showing hardly any reflection or qualms. Apathy is the norm, occasionally punctuated by a belated worry or concern and then back to the apathetic morass. The blob rolls on, never taking any real shape or form.

I can only guess that this was the desired goal; destroy the "hero" by not giving any power via real heroic choices. Create a pleasant sociopath, a Dexter, if you will.

Ugh.

This wouldn't be so grating if our "hero" was more dynamic but from the get go and the personal story the "hero" is voiced in the presented dialog as a sappy, tepid goody-two-shoe which is in stark contrast to subsequent actions. More often than not rather shallow and lacking even hints at hidden depths, the player character is a cheer leader and an unsophisticated bumpkin bounding about the world.

_(I will concede that the Humans are especially overt in this area, the other races make some allowances for racial/cultural differences - which can be refreshing in what is otherwise a desert of player character development.)_

It makes it really rough to hang your own RPG hat on this type of character, you have to hold your nose and squeeze your eyes shut and punch through it.

In GW2, we don't don't even have the fun of being an evil character - just a morally rudderless blob. It's hard to to dress blobs up into something interesting.

This should not to be confused with morally ambiguous characters which can be a joy to watch and play. Our "hero" is deemed to be a universal hero, never truly questioned or required to explain actions and decisions. If ANet was going for morally ambiguous hero, I think they fell short.

What the player character says and how they say it in game could probably have addressed this failing, but instead we get a solid line delineating a stark Jekyll and Hyde disconnect between the player dialog and the rest of the world.

**All things have a right to grow. The blossom is brother to the weed.**

_Clearly not, such things are at the heart of strife._

> @"lokh.2695" said:

> Because the game doesn't need them.

I have a flashback to a forum topic about mounts for some reason.

Yeah, I discovered how F-gyro worked by accident quite some time after I got my Scrapper up and going. I like the ability but it didn't seem clear to me initially.

In real world history, firearms, cannons, swords, calvary and armor were used together in battles for centuries this ended after the **World War I** when technology finally surpassed the far older methods of butchery. (Both Douglas MacArthur and George S. Patton had calvary experience for example.)

In Tyria, magic allows all the different methods to work by equalizing their efficacy. It's a steampunk world, after all.

> @"mauried.5608" said:

> Thanks all.

> Pity they cant be repaired and used for some useful purpose.

>

Fort Salma, prior to Scarlet had been accessible and untouched as well, a nice little village really.

Wiki:

> Prior to Living World Season 2 the fort was completely accessible from both sides. After its destruction, the waypoint, merchants, and nearby vista were moved outside of the actual fort, and both of its previous entrances were closed. The fort can now be entered by traversing through the decimated ruins.

I just helped a druid spirit kill off a Hylek village so the Spirit could reside in his "husk".

> Upon arrival at the husk

> Amini Brute: Spirit, your time is over. This grove is home to us now. Leave, remain dead and never return.

> Arboreal Spirit: The Maguuma have loved this land long before your kind were spawned. Depart, and leave me with my husk.

> Amini Brute: Hylek, drive out this shadow. Break the tree. Fight!

>

> Event success

> Arboreal Spirit: Maguuma's druids will sleep in peace once more, and the wilderness shall still grow.

> Arboreal Spirit: Be at peace, kind souls. May the sun shine ever upon you for your deeds here today.

> @"PanBelacqua.9058" said:

> She was, originally, 1/12th of her entire race, and this secret not only separated her from her girlfriend, but forced her to kill her sister. As Wynne said, "If word got out, the world would see us as monsters."

And was thusly proven to be a monster by her murderous participation in all the events that resulted in the circumstance of Wynne's death. Caithe wasn't "forced" to do anything, she was weak in the worst way possible and it got people killed, not just Wynne but all those kind centaurs in their village.

It's like the asking for leniency to the killer who just murdered his parents by claiming he's an orphan!

Yes, have pity on Caithe, she's had all the other Sylvari to choose from and she settled on the most psychopathic one who dropped glaring hints of her malevolent soul left and right.

Caithe could easily have been one of my favorites but that was harshly tempered by her contemptible behavior in Living World Season 2 - especially in regards to Wynne and the peaceful centaurs. This didn't make her character more interesting to me, it made her character less believable and far more deplorable.

If Sylvari are the moral equivalent of babes in the woods, perhaps they shouldn't be armed with deadly weapons and just stick to the boughs of the Pale Tree.

> @"infrequentia.3465" said:

> > @"Elva.6372" said:

> > > @"derd.6413" said:

> > > Anet doesn't want race skills to be good so they'll never make them give passive stat boosts (aka make them signets)

> >

> > ANet, playing it safe, but boring.

> >

> > It's not impossible to have racial skills that are viable at 80 without wrecking the game, ANet just decided not to try. And my point is less about knocking ANet and more about why even bother to have the flavor skills in the first place? It's not very gratifying from the player's perspective and disappointing for players who like game-play and rpg elements to work together.

>

> its not about being safe

>

> its about making 1 race stronger then the other

How do you not think that doesn't mean playing it safe, should be fairly clear especially if you read the next sentence:

**It's not impossible to have racial skills that are viable at 80 without wrecking the game...**

It's no more difficult to create Profession skills that avoid "making" one Profession stronger than the other Professions than it is to have a racial specific skills and abilities. It's the same challenge.

> @"derd.6413" said:

> Anet doesn't want race skills to be good so they'll never make them give passive stat boosts (aka make them signets)

ANet, playing it safe, but boring.

It's not impossible to have racial skills that are viable at 80 without wrecking the game, ANet just decided not to try. And my point is less about knocking ANet and more about why even bother to have the flavor skills in the first place? It's not very gratifying from the player's perspective and disappointing for players who like game-play and rpg elements to work together.

After 14 characters, most of which are 80, I am more and more convinced that we have a muddled mess developing in regards to Professions and the Elite Specializations. I won't say it can't be improved or straightened out, but I get more concerned as the game continues to go in the current direction.

It's the "vision thing" - the Professions are becoming muddied and inconsistent and incoherent.

There was a reason why historically the RPG gaming genre relied on the time tested archetype system, ANet has pretty much dispensed with that and is now treading th proverbial shark infested waters of making it up as they go along. The same thing happened when the Trinity Roles were dispensed with, a brave move and **not** a complete and utter failure, but the Class System is becoming a jumbled pile that is worrisome when one ponders future Profession expansions.

> @"Mewcifer.5198" said:

> Oh man, that's some frustratingly annoying filtering if its those three letters. Reminds me of the time I couldn't name a pokemon Violet because the first 4 letters means something bad in french.

Yeah, well brought to you by the same people that moderate this forum, so /consistency !

> @"saloja.7920" said:

> I like the male Sylvari animations to the human male with the exception of the sheathed hovering daggers. For some reason it bothers me to no end, so human male for me.

>

> The male sylvari also has a really annoying *hnnggh* *huttgh* *hngyagh* sound when it jumps and you cannot disable those.

>

> Human male here and proud of it (can I say that?)!

The floaty dagger and pistols happen with skinny body types - some armors solve the issue though.

I'm currently leveling a Thief, I have 14 characters the bulk of which are 80. My Thief is only 55 atm but so far it's been a blast and I've died mainly to in game miscommunication with gravity.

BUT I won't really know how the Thief is until I get to Silverwastes and beyond and HoT and PoF. I highly suspect I will be just fine, the Thief so far reminds me of my Mesmer who thrives in the newer content open PvE landscape.

I most likely will settle on a Shortbow and Staff Daredevil - atm while leveling I am Shortbow and Pistol/Pistol.

If you don't stop moving the mobs can't hurt you.

> @"Selminus.1490" said:

> How are they this bad? I can run the game on max settings if I want but if I want to change zones, I have to go afk and mill around the house while I stare at a painting. What is up with this?

Umm, what kind of PC you have? I don't have an SSD but my loading screens are rarely more than 30-45 seconds and more often 10-20 seconds.

A seven year old Dell PC running Linux for the Win!

I despise Jumping puzzles but it's silly to ask for them to be removed from the game or in future expansions. I do however want ANet to be really careful that jumping puzzles don't start creeping into other content like Living World Stories. I've posted before on why I don't think making the solo story more difficult is a good thing for progressing the main story arc. Leave the difficulty curve to the open world mobs, boss fights and whatever passes for dungeon experiences.