Feedback: Whisper in the Dark

[ZDragon.3046]

> @"Ashantara.8731" said:

> > @"ZDragon.3046" said:

> > Why did we have to take a chopper in the Black Citadel

>

> I agree that this did not make much sense, but I suppose the devs thought it more convenient for players this way?

 

now that you point this out i gues it would help for players who didnt unlock bound by blood.... but still i mean its very odd.

 

>

> > Who gave Almorra back the communicator to make the initial call?

>

> That wasn't Almorra. It was Jormag taking control of her body (like we saw her doing with the fraenir) in order to make that call. Which means the Svanir who chased after her must have been in Olar's group (although we only ever saw him and Torrin in those flashbacks). Or perhaps there is a cooperation going on between the Svanir and Bengar? Someone buried her after all, and everyone assumes it was Bengar, out of respect for her.

 

So as i said who gave her the communicator she stated several times before what would have been her death in the flash backs that their communicators were taken. and she was alive at this point. IF she was dead when she made the call it means some one either brought it back for her to use or that her dead body walked all the way back to the lil fort to make the call then to the cave.

 

This is the issue the fact that we now know it was not Almorra who made the call but Jormag presumably using her body after she died but her means of communication was taken before she die????? Whut...

 

 

 

[Jimbru.6014]

Another thing I liked: there was something about the graphical look of the new zone that was familiar, but I couldn't place it. I remembered last night. When "Saving Private Ryan" was filmed, they removed the filter coating from the camera lenses, changed shutter speeds and some other cinematography things, to make the resulting end images darker and more raw. The new map has the same sort of effect, at least to my eyes.

[Ashantara.8731]

> @"ZDragon.3046" said:

> > @"Ashantara.8731" said:

> > > @"ZDragon.3046" said:

> > > Who gave Almorra back the communicator to make the initial call?

> > That wasn't Almorra. It was Jormag taking control of her body (like we saw her doing with the fraenir) in order to make that call. Which means the Svanir who chased after her must have been in Olar's group (although we only ever saw him and Torrin in those flashbacks). Or perhaps there is a cooperation going on between the Svanir and Bengar? Someone buried her after all, and everyone assumes it was Bengar, out of respect for her.

>

> So as i said who gave her the communicator she stated several times before what would have been her death in the flash backs that their communicators were taken. and she was alive at this point. IF she was dead when she made the call it means some one either brought it back for her to use or that her dead body walked all the way back to the lil fort to make the call then to the cave.

 

Patience is a virtue. ;) My guess is that the Svanir and Bangar's group work together. Bangar made some sort of agreement with them and/or Jormag, of course completely being played by Jormag but noch realizing it (yet). Or Bangar ran into the Svanir, who had chased Almorra into the cave and killed her, but since they are allies now didn't attack them but instead asked to be allowed to bury her out of respect for her?

 

You might have noticed that the entrance to Darkrime Delves was caved in and now blocked by bolders. Perhaps Bangar and his group continued on and created the cave-in so that no one could follow them? Who knows, many exciting possibilities that we will likely learn more about in the next episode. :)

[Jackson.9307]

> @"Fueki.4753" said:

> > @"Jackson.9307" said:

> > Many new skins to collect with this release.

> Where are the "many" skins?

> Do you mean only that ONE weapon set that comes in coloured and uncoloured and the Boneskinner backpack?

> A weapon set that isn't even close to the visual standards of gem shop sets AND is missing aquatic weapons.

> Or are there other skins that I missed?

 

You can unlock the following:

 

- 16 Boreal weapon skins which have very lore friendly designs. Visual standards are very subjective however I will speak from an objective point of view by addressing texture quality and model topology, which I think is pretty good and on par with current releases and better than most core/old weapons. I will say though that the sword is a flipped dagger, which is a shame.

 

- Each of those Boreal weapon skins has a polished variant, so you have a choice to go with the old rusted look, or the furbished look. I personally prefer the rusted versions.

 

- Boneskinner backpack. One of the better looking backpacks in my opinion by far.

 

- Dragonrender helmet. Really cool looking helmet especially if you play Heavy armor toons.

 

- Raven Eye Scepter. Lore friendly design, has nice Raven particles and this particular skin is on par with gem store skins in my opinion.

 

- Now to address your comparison to gem store weapons: I was comparing to other releases within the same category aka Living World releases. The only other maps that I can think of from the top of my head with extensive skin collections are Dragonfall and the mistshard/blossoming armors collection, Jahai buffs and elegy/requiem and thunderpeak weapons. I dont remember extensive skin collecting from season 2 or 3 maps apart from ascended backpack skins here and there. So taking that into account, yes, I do think it is quite a bit of skins and I do find what is offered appealing.

 

Regarding gemstore weapons, I consider it a different category so I dont use that as a comparison basis. However Anet provides a way to acquire said "premium" weapon skins if so desired via gold. They are very easy to get, with expensive ones going up to 200-300ish gold unless you want to opt for chaos weapons which imo are ugly and are just a basic mesh with emissive tuned up to over 9000. Most of the gem store weapons I purchase in the tp are in the 50-100 gold range and you can make 50 gold with 3-7 daily and rec fractal runs depending on the tier you run. And if you really want some quality weapons (custom aura, footfalls, extra animations, more particles etc.) make a legendary. Legendaries imo are still some of the the best looking weapons in the game, gemstore or not.

[Linken.6345]

> @"Tyncale.1629" said:

> I think this is the most meager offering we have had in terms of LW episodes till this date.

> Locking reward chests behind a Mastery: that is really grasping at straws for content. The new Combat buffs are gimmicky and extremely situational. You have to fight one type of mobs to get a certain buff (30 stacks) then quickly have to find some mobs of the opposing type in order to at least get some use out of this buff and special skill: exept that it all does not make much difference. The buff ticks down pretty fast too and the timer only slowly goes up with each new kill of the right type of the mob, so you feel a constant stress of keeping that timer up through killing one type of mob and then looking for the other type of mob to get some benefit.

>

> Or you can do as I do and not care AT ALL about the buff anymore. Exept that you need it for the chests!!!! So still stress. I had finished those CHampions up in the North, right by the time my Buffs ran out: could not loot any of the chests. Go back to another area to get 30 stacks then go back? Nah, why bother. The area closes off soon after anyway so.

>

> I think the system could be hugely improved by simply making the buffs last for at least half an hour if not more. An hour is better.

 

You dont need the buff for the chest mate just have mastery trained.

[Tyncale.1629]

> @"Linken.6345" said:

 

> You dont need the buff for the chest mate just have mastery trained.

 

Thanks, that would make things better. Still think they should extend the buff to 30 minutes, that way I could see some use for it in the open world.

 

I still find it a redundant mechanic. "Before you can max your DPS and survivability in this zone, jump through some hoops". And the sad thing is, either way it *still* isn't the difference between life or death, because that would be pretty casual unfriendly. So you can basically ignore the mechanic if you want to. Which is wasted game design.

 

I guess it will make Strike Missions with a small squad possible and somewhat challenging. Public Missions however will still be hit and miss, depending on what you end up with in the cave. This mechanic will not change that,

[ZDragon.3046]

> @"Ashantara.8731" said:

> > @"ZDragon.3046" said:

> > > @"Ashantara.8731" said:

> > > > @"ZDragon.3046" said:

> > > > Who gave Almorra back the communicator to make the initial call?

> > > That wasn't Almorra. It was Jormag taking control of her body (like we saw her doing with the fraenir) in order to make that call. Which means the Svanir who chased after her must have been in Olar's group (although we only ever saw him and Torrin in those flashbacks). Or perhaps there is a cooperation going on between the Svanir and Bengar? Someone buried her after all, and everyone assumes it was Bengar, out of respect for her.

> >

> > So as i said who gave her the communicator she stated several times before what would have been her death in the flash backs that their communicators were taken. and she was alive at this point. IF she was dead when she made the call it means some one either brought it back for her to use or that her dead body walked all the way back to the lil fort to make the call then to the cave.

>

> Patience is a virtue. ;) My guess is that the Svanir and Bangar's group work together. Bangar made some sort of agreement with them and/or Jormag, of course completely being played by Jormag but noch realizing it (yet). Or Bangar ran into the Svanir, who had chased Almorra into the cave and killed her, but since they are allies now didn't attack them but instead asked to be allowed to bury her out of respect for her?

 

I HAVE NONE...... I NEED TO KNOW lol

Despite being very annoyed by Almorra's death (really didnt want her to die) i still cant wait to see what happens next overall im not upset with the story my upsets mostly come from the fact that there was not more of it and that the map metas are lacking.

 

I understand that some of my plot hole points can still be answered as we go forward but dang if i dont desire to know now!

>

> You might have noticed that the entrance to Darkrime Delves was caved in and now blocked by bolders. Perhaps Bangar and his group continued on and created the cave-in so that no one could follow them? Who knows, many exciting possibilities that we will likely learn more about in the next episode. :)

 

I did notice that but at the same time perhaps it was already caved in i was thinking Bangar and his group would continue to the west. But your theory here is possible im not exactly sure where the Darkmine Delves lead to though. If it has no secondary exit it would not make sense to cave yourself inside.

 

 

[Poormany.4507]

Map was (as always) really well done and looks beautiful, but (again) had too little meaningful content to fill it.

 

Story was disappointing and completely predictable in almost every plot point in the episode to the point that it almost seemed like filler. I did like Jormag's interactions with the different characters in the open world event though.

 

Boneskinner was a huge letdown and I expected it to be a story boss, not a AOE spamfest that dies in a minute with no mechanics.

[Adul.1520]

As others have stated, the visual clutter is a huge turnoff in this episode. Playing on the new map is generally just an unpleasant audiovisual experience.

 

But more than that, I miss not just the content, but also the noticeable excitement across the playerbase, of having an expansion to look forward to. Living World has gotten stale at this point, and it just doesn't cut it anymore. I want something fresh and exciting, something I could sink my teeth into. Anet doubling down for bite-sized content chunks has made me not want to play the game anymore.

[Jimbru.6014]

As I have stated elsewhere, ANet is not Blizzard. Blizzard has over 5000 employees and the budget of a small country. ANet has 200-250ish people running on pocket change, relatively speaking. Anet simply does not have either the people or the budget to be constantly doing expansion-scale content like some people want. Even if all we get is one LS episode a quarter, people should be happy we're getting new content at all.

[Vinceman.4572]

> @"Jimbru.6014" said:

> As I have stated elsewhere, ANet is not Blizzard. Blizzard has over 5000 employees and the budget of a small country. ANet has 200-250ish people running on pocket change, relatively speaking. Anet simply does not have either the people or the budget to be constantly doing expansion-scale content like some people want. Even if all we get is one LS episode a quarter, people should be happy we're getting new content at all.

 

That's bs since there are company with the same or even less people shipping out content on a more regular base in both terms: quality and quantity. And even if you compare Arenanet to themselves you would notice that content delivery broke down tremendously.

I mean this episode hasn't just half the content compared to others in the past it has way less. So, let's imagine we get a 2nd episode in 2 months of the same quality there would be less to do in both than in every old episode.

[Greg.7086]

> @"Randulf.7614" said:

> Very disappointing

>

> One of the worst maps yet - just devoid of any real substance. It lacks storytelling, innovation, richness of lore. It's just four corners slightly different environs with a champ shoved in. I'm guessing the Kourna or Thunderhead map designers did this one. It has everything they got wrong too. Where are the big sprawling maps, rich in life, rich in world building PoF gave us? If we aren't getting expansions, we need expansion level maps at least. The gulf between this and what your map designers have produced in the past is enormous. You guys are better than this and have proved it and made a great strength from it, so why settle for such a low bar? This isn't even Core Map quality. I want big sprawling Tundras, glaciers, snowfields and mountains. Not a few paths, camps and empty caves. The tree area was fine, but the overall map layout just wasn't organic at all.

>

> The visual noise is a huge turn off for the meta. It just detracts and gets in the way and doesn't add anything fun or creative as a mechanic. Ditch the ice border and the thickness of the blue bubble. That should never have passed QA. The meta isn't overly interesting and lacks the creativity you used to be known for as a company, but maybe the problem is I just can't SEE anything!!!!! You have years and years of feedback on visual noise, yet you choose to ignore it and pile it on each release. This has to stop. Either you are reading and utilising our feedback or you are not. At the moment it feels like the latter.

>

> The masteries are a mixed bag. A bit too "lets shove something in even though it isn't really needed" for the essence stuff. Very gimmicky, but the biggest issue is the constant reminder spamming my screen to train it. What do I even need the essence masteries for? The meta doesn't need it. The Bone Skinner didn't need it (nor did it have any real impact on the episode apart from a 2min quick fight out of nowhere). In fact apart from opening chests, I pretty did most of the stuff without it. HoT at least ensured you needed Masteries to progress. Now they're just achievement tick offs and nothing more.

>

> The story is unacceptably short and weirdly lacking in content. If you look at even the weaker LS episodes, the instances have been fairly substantial. This....this can't be all of epsiode one surely. That length of story can never happen again. The first instance was very good, but it it kinda trailed off after that. The last instance...that was just boring.

>

> The overall atmosphere was fine, but well below the potential it had to really reign in that sense of foreboding. The whispers work really well as did the shadowy figures in that awful last instance, but the Bone Skinner was an enormous let down and waste of potential given how it could have been utilised (see below point)

>

> I expected at least to be stalked by the Bone Skinner ala Resident Evil 3 throughout the episode

>

> Some good dialogue stringing things together and harking back to older events was a plus point.

>

> After the exceptional and amazing Prologue, this ranks as one of the worst ever LS releases so far. I'm hoping the Strike Missions salvage something, because we've gone backwards at speed here. Why is ti accepted practice to have different teams deliver wild variation in quality? There needs to be challenge to this internally

>

> I will give the final cutscene its due for setting up an intriguing plot line and there was some decent atmosphere even if it didn't really get going at all. But if we're only going to get drip fed like this from here on...I'm going to run out of interest fast.

>

> All the promise in the World cannot hold together a lack of delivery. And consistent and quality delivery is something you have struggled with for so long now, I fear it has left Anet altogether. I really want to be proved wrong on that point

>

> edit:

> Strike mission now tried. Big improvement on the last one. Much harder (yet to complete on two attempts so far and watching someone rage quite because we killed one first was amusing given it is new content). Really enjoyed it. Think this is a good balance - completable, but strong unity needed for gold

 

^^ Such an excellent summary: Could not agree more, or even write it so eloquently.

 

@"Randulf.7614

I like the way you comment since you give praise where praise is due, and constructive criticism where constructive criticism is due and when I read your post it feels like I am reading an independent review, without bias, and I think that is what we need, and Anet needs to read and take heed of. It's not particularly helpful for players or Anet for anyone to just say the new Episode is "Great" or "I hate it", but you write with a wisdom and intelligence that is refreshingly for the most part objective, not solely based on the subjective. Sadly for the most part, of the many Vets I have spoken to your sentiments are vastly echoed by the majority.

 

Some players would see that people are "moaning", "complaining" about the new episode and they cannot themselves see why ? Also a few responses during some heated discussions during the new Metas go something like "If you don't like it, leave the map then, and don't taint it for the rest of us": Well in my opinion every player has the freedom to explore the new map / episode and express their feelings as they wish good or bad. I know many long-standing Vet players, ofc have spent a few days on the new map "wishing, hoping, aspiring" for something good or "pigs-might-fly even something earth-shatteringly good" e.g. a map well worth repeat playability, quality content, challenging boss fights with dynamic mechanics: Well just anything apart from what we had delivered. So naturally many Vet players are annoyed and angered at this release.

 

Look at 2019: What have "End-game players" had to keep them interested ? The usual festivals, meta-rush/world-boss rush (zerg press 1-1-1 farms), Ascended Food, Build Templates, New Gemstore items, Grothmar Valley (visually very nice, very nice events, massive AP grind, but little else in terms of longevity or repeatability after the 1st week playing). and now Whisper in The Dark following same poor direction.....looking at this list I'm sure many Vets would have preferred to scrap that entire lot and had maybe several new Raids, or WvW re-work, Fractals 101-105, or Re-work of all 8 Dungeons with harder bosses/mechanics for better rewards: I mean literally anything aimed at more challenging End-Game content.

 

I am fully aware that Gw2 does have a large player base of more casual players, younger-generation players, and for relatively new players the Gw2 2019 Calendar of events would be great, and I am not knocking this at all, and this is fine. But for long-standing players its a very sad situation, I feel they are being totally neglected by Anet (players that have devoted 1000's of gaming hours and large sums of money (yes their choice) on a game whose developers are no longer prioritising them as players.

 

(P.S. I am not a Vet player myself, having only played actively ~1.5 years, but I have lost countless in-game Vet friends due to them quitting for the reasons I have mentioned so I am more writing on their behalf than mine)

 

[Reverielle.3972]

> @"BunjiKugashira.9754" said:

> Overall I like the atmosphere of the new map. However the events feel repetitive really quickly. Kill this champ, clear that camp and the occasional collecting stuff event.

>

> 2. The trial: Why is it human-centric? The first trial is ok, but the second one contains a book about the time before humans came to Tyria. Why would the Asura care? Why would the Norn care? At this point it's just another old book that's obviously so bad no-one bothered making a copy of it. And the last trial about the queen and her son? The Norn don't have the concept of royalty. Neither do the Asura or Sylvari. The closest thing the Charr have to a king would be the khan-ur, however the title is not hereditary, so the comparison falls short. The trial being human-centric in this setting just makes no sense at all!

 

It was disappointing to say the least. The lore - and its usage - in this game is seemingly falling by the way side, badly.

 

[Eulefant.9624]

I found this episode better then average.

As seen below the cons are only minor.

 

**Pro**

 

1. **Short story**. i like short story before gaining access to map.

2. **Replay/remap** No locked POI. I generally tend never to return to maps with a POI locked behind some time-locked meta or other artificial way. So thumbs up for this is good. I can take this map into my to-do list for new (and old) 80s. Already sent 12+ characters to enjoy their skyscales.

3. **No DC's or real breaking bugs.** FPS was decent, never got below 15 fps even during height of meta. ( Multibox 9 fps but that is to be expected )

4. **Great ambiance** specially the forest area.

5. **Meta 20/20 possible** without silly "don't stand on red while wednessday throws snowballs at you during phase one and when circle flashes" type of achieves

6. **Solo friendly:** I ignored the raid/strike and still nicely got to 20/20

7. The **meta fight was self explicable**. Normally I have completely no idea what to do in pre's and stuff. I tend to start new ls a few hours after the bulk and it always looked to me I missed a week judging the scientific explanations in game chat about where other people are supposed to go. Less frustyclowns in chat = nicer gameplay

 

**Con**

 

1. The home instance 3 shards is a bit pale compared to the huge amount you get in map, 9 would be more decent, but I can live with it

2. The books beginning to fill bags and slots are crying for a "bookcase" wardrobe.

3. For people with no skyscale, beetle or even springer maps must be a bit hard, but then again I always advise those to start at start not at end :-)

4. The boneskinner issue, fortunately they fixed it after I got them done for all the achieves they were needed for :-) _

 

Overall I give it a **9/10 score** for my type of gameplay and casualness.

 

extra:

 

Good guide hint: https:// gw2fans.com

for a Dulfy like guide.

 

[hugo.4705]

:o :o :o everyone know there is an hidden achievment for doing what the whispers are asking? Nice surprise.

Liked the one tied to boneskinner tonic too. Nice.

[skoda.4619]

Strike mission is nice....But!

## Rewards

I'm wondering what's the incentive to keep doing it.

As far as i know from what you've mentioned the rewards for all bosses are the same, aka random drops of gear and mats to craft the new weapons.

Well it's only been 6 days and i've crafted them all, so what's the incentive to come back to the strike mission?

 

Unlike this strike mission Grothmar Valley one can drop Ebon Vanguard Shoulder box, which is worth a fair amount of money so that's a lot of peoples incentive to keep doing it.

 

This strike mission doesn't have anything like that, yes you can craft the weapons and sell them, but they're not worth much, because they're so easily attainable.

 

Rewards definitely need to be reworked, so people keep coming back to it.

I wouldn't want this new feature to be left behind when you see people aren't playing it.

 

## Strike Raid

Also, they could be a bit harder and possibly made into a raid.

If it's so hard to make new raids cause of the man power, why not make CM versions, add all 3 bosses into a raid wing, and give them some good rewards. That way you would have a nice stepping stone from strike missions into raids as people could learn the bosses before they enter into harder version of them in the raid.

And we would finally have more raid content, hopefully more often.

[Lamont.5973]

Overall I liked it. It is a nice creepy little story in a beautiful map with a nice creepy little side story. Probably not a high amount of replay-ability since I now have everything I am likely to want from the map except the perm boneskinner tonic (wasted a bunch of karma on tonics just before release). I love the new gh decoration and I am very please about the incremental awards on a couple of the achieves - that is a nice touch and they are pretty decent rewards.

[Randulf.7614]

> @"hugo.4705" said:

> :o :o :o everyone know there is an hidden achievment for doing what the whispers are asking? Nice surprise.

> Liked the one tied to boneskinner tonic too. Nice.

 

0 AP. Not sure what the point was really

[hugo.4705]

> @"Randulf.7614" said:

> > @"hugo.4705" said:

> > :o :o :o everyone know there is an hidden achievment for doing what the whispers are asking? Nice surprise.

> > Liked the one tied to boneskinner tonic too. Nice.

>

> 0 AP. Not sure what the point was really

 

Ahh the negativity. The rewards aren't the AP but the fact you got that Achievement which one was hidden so unknown. I like a lot those achievements. Because in a world of AP hunters, they still release things for explorers.

[Vinceman.4572]

> @"hugo.4705" said:

> > @"Randulf.7614" said:

> > > @"hugo.4705" said:

> > > :o :o :o everyone know there is an hidden achievment for doing what the whispers are asking? Nice surprise.

> > > Liked the one tied to boneskinner tonic too. Nice.

> >

> > 0 AP. Not sure what the point was really

>

> Ahh the negativity. The rewards aren't the AP but the fact you got that Achievement which one was hidden so unknown. I like a lot those achievements. Because in a world of AP hunters, they still release things for explorers.

 

AP hunters go to gw2efficiency and have the hidden achievements displayed there.

[hugo.4705]

> @"Vinceman.4572" said:

> > @"hugo.4705" said:

> > > @"Randulf.7614" said:

> > > > @"hugo.4705" said:

> > > > :o :o :o everyone know there is an hidden achievment for doing what the whispers are asking? Nice surprise.

> > > > Liked the one tied to boneskinner tonic too. Nice.

> > >

> > > 0 AP. Not sure what the point was really

> >

> > Ahh the negativity. The rewards aren't the AP but the fact you got that Achievement which one was hidden so unknown. I like a lot those achievements. Because in a world of AP hunters, they still release things for explorers.

>

> AP hunters go to gw2efficiency and have the hidden achievements displayed there.

 

Exactly, so they are aware if an achiev give you points or not. So again 0 AP are just for fun. Discovered them by myself not by spoiling myself with gw2efficiency. Btw why efficiency shows hidden achievs, it ruins the purpose....

[Vinceman.4572]

> @"hugo.4705" said:

> > @"Vinceman.4572" said:

> > > @"hugo.4705" said:

> > > > @"Randulf.7614" said:

> > > > > @"hugo.4705" said:

> > > > > :o :o :o everyone know there is an hidden achievment for doing what the whispers are asking? Nice surprise.

> > > > > Liked the one tied to boneskinner tonic too. Nice.

> > > >

> > > > 0 AP. Not sure what the point was really

> > >

> > > Ahh the negativity. The rewards aren't the AP but the fact you got that Achievement which one was hidden so unknown. I like a lot those achievements. Because in a world of AP hunters, they still release things for explorers.

> >

> > AP hunters go to gw2efficiency and have the hidden achievements displayed there.

>

> Exactly, so they are aware if an achiev give you points or not. So again 0 AP are just for fun. Discovered them by myself not by spoiling myself with gw2efficiency. Btw why efficiency shows hidden achievs, it ruins the purpose....

 

You're an exception. Most of the AP hunters are going straightforward for their APs and not trying or messing around.

[Randulf.7614]

> @"hugo.4705" said:

> > @"Randulf.7614" said:

> > > @"hugo.4705" said:

> > > :o :o :o everyone know there is an hidden achievment for doing what the whispers are asking? Nice surprise.

> > > Liked the one tied to boneskinner tonic too. Nice.

> >

> > 0 AP. Not sure what the point was really

>

> Ahh the negativity. The rewards aren't the AP but the fact you got that Achievement which one was hidden so unknown. I like a lot those achievements. Because in a world of AP hunters, they still release things for explorers.

 

No the rewards are the AP and the discovery. I'm happy enough to haven hidden, discoverable achievements, but I play for fun and to be rewarded for my time in equal measure. So yes it is negativity and I am happy to be labelled negative, but I have fed back many a time that I;d like both and the end to 0 and 1 point achievemnts

[Ashantara.8731]

> @"ZDragon.3046" said:

> I understand that some of my plot hole points can still be answered as we go forward but dang if i dont desire to know now!

 

Yeah, let's hope they keep the two-months cadence up, so we won't have to wait another 3-4 months! :)

 

> But your theory here is possible im not exactly sure where the Darkmine Delves lead to though. If it has no secondary exit it would not make sense to cave yourself inside.

 

I don't know whether there is an exit on the other side _now_, but here is all we know about the Darkrime Delves from the age of GW1:

https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Darkrime_Delves

 

I loved exploring there in GW1, so I hope to see it again in GW2. ;) If I remember correctly, it was this place (or maybe not, it's been ten years):

 


 


 

[Talan Ondar.4150]

So. I played the story now the third time. First i felt the same. Story to short, Map small an so on. But I believe i grasp the Saga idea. Now i feel: The story is excellent, like in prologue. We reached, we suffered and now we have to wait how we are manipulated in the future. There is a lot of uncertainess, but the Saga idea is clear in the last lines of the commander. For the near future we will stay here, look for a path through the mountains. I really felt the strike mission in Grothmar an excellent idea. I dont felt this story step finished. Because you have to check up if the Monster is still blocking your way. Now i feel similar. This story step let me feel to calm down after Almorras death and the offer from Jormag?. Now i explore the map, have a chat with NPCs that are on remote parts. Look for the ghosts and phantasms other player talk about. One of the reasons i love this game was the layers of story in the basic Zhaitan story. All so intertwined. Then in HoT and PoF the storytelling become shallow. One arc and not so much beside. For example still miss involvment of the Order of Whisper in Elona. But now i feel that the boneskinner looks NOW as an everyday monster maybe will be much more prominent in future episodes. The tie-in with the Kodan. And the BSkinner is so out of the loop with every other monster we met in game imo. What the Kodan do in this part of the world? One told about is village, but i havent seen one. Maybe he mean the Ruins in the Aberrant forest. So for me i look forward in the Icebrood saga. Shorter stories, yes, but told in hopefully shorter intervalls. Keeps me feeling to be in the story longer time. Thank you ANet to visit and live in this wonderfull and terrible Tyria :) PS sorry for my bad english. I am not an native speaker!