[2020] Living World Season 4: "Long Live the Lich!" devs here – ask us anything!

almost 6 years ago - /u/mikezadorojny - Direct link

Hey everyone!

Today we are here to celebrate with you the latest episode of Living World Season 4, "Long Live the Lich!” With this release players are able to go behind enemy lines with their forces and assault Joko's stronghold in the Domain of Kourna. You can now accelerate to new speeds with your own Roller Beetle mount and craft Verdarach, the new Legendary Warhorn that summons the spirits of the dead to attack your foes. Journey into the Deepstone Fractal, an ancient dwarven dungeon containing a dark secret. Mistlock Instabilities now randomize daily instead of weekly.

Now that the major blocking issues have been addressed, we are here to continue our normal tradition, with members of the development team will be joining me to celebrate the release with all of you. Thank you for joining us and we sincerely hope you enjoy the latest episode, "Long Live the Lich.”

Here's who will be here with us today:

Living World Team – Linsey Murdock, Jessica Price, Alina Chadwick, Nicholas Hernandez, Peter Fries, Alex Kain, Connor Fallon, Ester Sauter

Cinematics Team - Jason Byfield, Greg Bekken

Mounts Team - Matt Lambdin

Systems Design Team - Andrew McLeod

Current Activities Team – Joe Kimmes

Fractals Team – Jason Reynolds, Benjamin Arnold

VO Team – Eve Eschenbacher

Communications Team - Gaile Gray

Marketing Team – Lis Cardy, Mike Silbowitz, Julius Ekeroma

As always here are our ground rules: We're here to chat with you about the new release and content related to the new season of Living World. We will not be discussing or revealing future items that may be in development. And remember that not all of your fellow players may have been able to finish the episode in time for this AMA so please use spoiler tags appropriately.

For those of you that need more time to digest this release before asking questions, or for those who may have follow-up questions, we will be hosting a Forum Chat starting immediately after this Celebration. You can post your comments, questions, and feedback through Thursday, July 5th on the Official Guild Wars 2 forums where, over the next couple of weeks, a few devs from the episode team will be there to answer questions for you.

Thank you everyone for your support and for continuing to make Guild Wars 2 a wonderful place for both new and veteran players to call home.

Edit: Members of the team are starting to filter back to their regular responsibilities now. Some questions will still get answers, but expect the reaction time to be much slower. Thank you everyone for coming out and continuing to support us.

External link →

almost 6 years ago - /u/anet_lis - Direct link

Originally posted by Artumes

Which is your favourite Quaggan?

Aleepeep

almost 6 years ago - /u/ANET_Laevateinn - Direct link

Originally posted by holymonkseal

Can we get some lore about other gen2 legendaries like Verdarach has?

Response to the piece of Verdarach lore was really positive! I'd like to do similar for upcoming legendaries, and if there's interest we could see about adding it for other existing legendaries.

I'd like to have that sort of thing findable in game though, so it's a balancing act to not add too much workload onto the legendaries.

almost 6 years ago - /u/AnetAlina - Direct link

Originally posted by Artumes

Which is your favourite Quaggan?

Shooshadoo

almost 6 years ago - /u/ANET_Laevateinn - Direct link

Originally posted by lostsanityreturned

Do you plan on doing more in engine cutscenes like the last one? (It was amazing and looked a lot better than the prerendered ones imo)

Are there any plans to put in a break bar tutorial into the game, if no, why not?

I'm investigating what we'd need to do solid tutorials for things like the break bar. Don't expect it in the immediate future, since it's still in the design phase and a quality tutorial will need voice acting and a lot of testing to make sure it actually teaches the skill, but it's on the radar.

Edit: And if you've got any other things you think really need tutorials, such as bundle items or combo skills, feel free to mention it and I'll make sure they're considered.

almost 6 years ago - /u/AnetAlina - Direct link

Originally posted by DemethValknut

Why don't you consider making story instances, repeatable, instanced PVE content ( i wont call them dungeon but it's the spirit).

Ep 3 last's instance is basically already that, just allow me to make it again and again for loots and fun, you put =so much time and effort behind them !

If I am understanding your question correctly, you already can. Once you complete the episode you can open your story journal and re-start it. In the second play-through all instances appear on the map as purple stars. Go to your instance of choice and play as many times as you like.

almost 6 years ago - /u/anet_jason - Direct link

Originally posted by lokikaraoke

Hi guys! Thanks for doing this AMA. I guess this is a Jason/Ben question related to Fractals and Raids.

I have over 5000 hours in this game as do a bunch of my friends and guildmates. We've definitely gotten our money's worth! But over the past year or so, we've been playing this game a lot less. It's not that we don't want to play, but it feels like the pace of content releases for grizzled vets like us has been lacking.

We're all okay with repeating content, we WANT to repeat content, but the pace of raid and fractal releases just isn't working for us. We've gradually gone from playing 3-4 hours/day to playing a couple hours a few times a week. It's getting harder and harder to keep people engaged in our raid statics. Guild and raid recruiting has slowed significantly.

Do you have any good news for those of us who desperately want to have more organized, instanced content to play? Do you think the current pace is representative of what we can expect moving forward?

Edit: well this blew up. Since there's a reasonable chance I'll be on the WoodenPotatoes 57 minute AMA summary I'd like to say hi to my guild and make sure to click the bell on this video so you don't miss any great content!

We absolutely have content for you on the way. Obviously I can't commit to when, but I can say that the next raid is essentially done, and only waiting for late-stage development assets, like VO for example.

almost 6 years ago - /u/anet_mattp - Direct link

Originally posted by DoctoredMonocle

Hello dev team!

I really enjoyed the Beetle collection and the addition of the new mount, but looking forward I'm slightly worried about Petey.

Are there any plans to implement Petey either in previous maps (races in vanilla GW2, you know you want to!) or looking forward will he still be part of our gameplay (kind of like Jackal portals being nifty short cuts)?

Given the episodic nature of LW, I'm scared that he'll be used only for Kourma and we won't see the need for Petey any more.

Thanks!

Glad you're enjoying it! Petey will not be forgotten as we go forward in the rest of the season.

almost 6 years ago - /u/anet_lis - Direct link

Originally posted by SystemSound

Dont know if any of you can answer this, but, why Living World soundtrack is not on Spotify? Both expansions and core game are but not LS...

Hey there! The PoF and HoT soundtracks are on Spotify via the aggregator we use for our album releases. Living World and other music that isn’t bundled into an album can be found on our soundcloud (https://m.soundcloud.com/arenanet)

almost 6 years ago - /u/mikezadorojny - Direct link

Originally posted by apostles

Would you be able to shed some light on the issues that happened during the patch (and pre-release)? Always interesting to hear about what happened from a dev perspective.

What happened, how it was fixed, when did you realize it was code red, etc

Absolutely. When we announced that we were initially delaying the episode, enough of the content was not stable enough or polished enough for us to feel comfortable releasing it. When we felt we were in a good enough spot, we gave marketing the thumbs up to release the trailer. Internally we were excited and we were building momentum for the release.

Fast forward to the morning of the patch, initial runs through the episode by internal QA before we distributed the build and external players looked good, but quickly started crashing in a way that we didn't see in our development or staging environments. When the map would crash it took down every instance or map running on that server. To protect the rest of the game we isolated all of the new instances to specific servers which contained the crashes, but blocked everyone from getting into the new map. The rest of the day we were investigating the crash reports which gave us completely bogus data and was a red herring to the server issues. It took us some time to realize that as we've been increasing the size of content inside instances the way we've been calculating the required resources on the server was no longer accurate enough to predict performance. The system to protect us was actually making an assumption that the development team hadn't considered.

Once we knew what the problem was we rolled out new servers around the world that night to make sure we could stabilize the game in such a way that people could make it through the story and into the new map. We've made some changes on the content side to help with the issue but continue to investigate the core problem and other anomalies we saw in the reports that should prevent this issue from happening in the future.

almost 6 years ago - /u/ANET_Laevateinn - Direct link

Originally posted by DoctoredMonocle

Hello dev team!

I really enjoyed the Beetle collection and the addition of the new mount, but looking forward I'm slightly worried about Petey.

Are there any plans to implement Petey either in previous maps (races in vanilla GW2, you know you want to!) or looking forward will he still be part of our gameplay (kind of like Jackal portals being nifty short cuts)?

Given the episodic nature of LW, I'm scared that he'll be used only for Kourma and we won't see the need for Petey any more.

Thanks!

I would definitely like to add rollerbeetle-tuned races in Core Tyria. There could always be some kind of disaster stopping it, and I want to take the time to get it right, but it's very much on the table.

almost 6 years ago - /u/mikezadorojny - Direct link

Originally posted by endelon

Are there any plans to finish Gandara based on player disappointment/feedback ?

We've made a couple changes already to the Meta to better reward players for their efforts and are continuing to talk about different options regarding the map as a whole moving forward. Sadly I don't have anything concrete that I can announce at this time.

almost 6 years ago - /u/Anet_AndrewM - Direct link

Originally posted by Charrikayu

Has there been any consideration about adding an "accessory wardrobe" to the current wardrobe list? Guild Wars 2 has dozens, if not hundreds of absolutely beautiful trinkets which ultimately serve no purpose by virtue of being too low level or having the wrong stats for a particular build. This system would have several major advantages:

Practical applications such as transmuting Aurora (or the eventual legendary ring) for players who wish to have a legendary accessory but not the cosmetic effect, as well as differentiating accessories of the same type, such as two rings from the same living story chapter or raid which have different selected stats.

Content applications, as it would incentivize replaying old story, dungeons, open-world, and other things which contain trinket appearances unique to them for unlocking.

Personal applications for those of us that like customization, and although many accessories have no outward appearance, many hold sentimental value such as Order badges, racial items, GW1 callbacks, and Heart keepsakes.

Considering there now exists a gathering tool wardrobe, and that backpacks can already be transmuted, the idea doesn't seem too farfetched and would add another dimension to a game that thrives on customization.

Due to how the wardrobe works, it's extremely unlikely that accessories will be added. In the long term, I'd like to have a solution for the legendary accessories (turning off the effects if you don't want them, and ways to acquire additional accessories for alts), but it probably won't be through the wardrobe system.

almost 6 years ago - /u/ANET_Laevateinn - Direct link

Originally posted by seboot

I'm probably not going to get an answer but I'm still trying, any plans for a Joko combat tonic / proper Joko outfit ? How am I supposed to properly praise him :D

I don't know if there are plans, but I will take note of your request!

almost 6 years ago - /u/anet_mattp - Direct link

Originally posted by holymonkseal

This beetle collection was great. Can we hope for more core-tyria collections with new living stories? Also, more only core-tyria collections? And maybe some only orr related?

It is exceptionally likely that you'll see collections in the future take you back to core tyria maps. As for core-tyria-only collections, it's possible (I'd even say likely) that we would make some, but probably not as part of a Living World episode.

almost 6 years ago - /u/Anet_Greg - Direct link

Originally posted by nononsenseresponse

The final cutscene was spectacular - well done cinematics team! How long does it usually take to go from story board to finish for such a cutscene? What was the most challenging part of the cutscene to get right?

The cinematics can vary greatly depending on scope, but usually they take us anywhere between 3-6 months from storyboard to finish. The Joko one in particular took us a bit to get right with newly implementing mocap and was closer to the 6 month time frame.

Having the pc in the cinematic provides an extra challenges for us, and was one of the more difficult things about that cinematic.

almost 6 years ago - /u/anet_lis - Direct link

Originally posted by RandommUser

Matt Lambdin

Is the beetle adventure boost resets gonna get fixed? Is the endurance regen something you think might get changed?

Cinematics team

Why are some of the "movies" so heavily processed instead of using the in-game settings?

Marketing team

Why was there no interviews, articles, etc. for this release?

Who might fit

Why is there no adventure to using the 2nd instance mechanics? I feel like that could make for an interesting one to speedrun

I’m trying really hard to find a way to answer the Marketing team question in a way that isn’t obnoxiously pedantic, but the short answer is that there were articles etc around the episode, whether or not they felt like the sort of coverage that one might find personally interesting.
That said, we’re always looking for new and different ways to promote episodes before or after they’re live and I’m all ears on suggestions for content that folks personally find appealing. Whether or not we can act on all that feedback is, of course, another matter.

almost 6 years ago - /u/ANET_Laevateinn - Direct link

Originally posted by Kantoku83

The fractal endgame currency sink was fantastic. Can we get something similar for luck? Even after maxing out our account magic find, we still get luck from dailies, festivals and salvaging gear with nothing worth using them on.

This has unfortunately been low priority, since there are a lot of players who don't have their Luck maxed, but I agree, the system needs something to use your excess Luck for.

almost 6 years ago - /u/anet_mattp - Direct link

Originally posted by Something_Memorable

FTT turrets: were these intended to ever be used elsewhere other than just the new map? Having such awesome abilities - would be great to take these elsewhere given that to keep them running require the new map’s pseudo-turret-currency (thus helping a bit with the replayability/motivation to play problem)

They were designed to be part of this map exclusively. They had a little more integration in the story early on, but some of that was lost. We had started discussing allowing them in other maps, but at the point the discussion happened it was too late to do it with the amount of testing we deemed needed for such a change. That said, we are discussing the possibility of loosening the restriction in the future.

almost 6 years ago - /u/AnetAlina - Direct link

Originally posted by [deleted]

As it stands, a lot of of the space in Lost Precipice is unused. The art assets are gorgeous, but they aren't ideal for decorating either. A lot are out of reach from waypoint, and there's just... nothing there.

Has there ever been consideration what to do with this empty space in guild halls?

Was Lost Precipice always a guild hall, or were the "unused" sections of it once intended for something else, like a normal map?

Lost Precipice was always a guild hall. I don’t know exactly which space you are referring too, however there is definitely way more space in the original two guild halls than was strictly necessary. Part of this space was to give us room for future unknown features. Part of it was for stretch goals that we ended up not having time for. And part of it, I’m sure, was just the map designer having fun.

almost 6 years ago - /u/anet_jason - Direct link

Originally posted by Heartsure

Quite a few questions, will appreciate if any are answered:

Any plans to do something about the LFG and Dailies sections bloating with each additional map? Maybe just how the achievement panel works in general and things getting really long (story journal section, etc. . . .)

Will raids ever be a non-living world release? I'm not really asking about specific dates here, but moreso whether you're considering just releasing a raid when it's ready instead of holding for an episode release.

Are fractal reworks still a thing? Any info on this would be much appreciated.

I can at least answer #3:

Fractal reworks are still a thing for us, absolutely. For minor tweaks, we do them as there is time, then find a suitable window to bundle them up for shipping. The larger reworks take more time and effort to design and then get through the approvals process. Ben is working on a redesign for a couple fractals that need to be brought up to current standards right now, actually.

almost 6 years ago - /u/mikezadorojny - Direct link

Originally posted by manumotate

Hello Mike and Team,

You said in the forums that you guys had some opportunities to make some adjustments on how to approach developing each episode that will help hit your quality standards more consistently. Do you have any insight on what are those new adjustments?

Do you guys plan on making adjustments to the Gandarra Meta event? the biggest issue i have with this event is that we are unable to fully explore the city.

On the 1st episode of LS3, we got some information on how the team were structured for the next expansion, is it possible to give us similar information on how is ANet structured ?

Thanks!

1) A lot of what we were doing was to change how we were developing content and when we were syncing with the teams at large. The stories that we are telling are complicated enough that when you span across multiple teams that are all in flight at the same time in different parts of the production process, it meant that sometimes things were getting missed, or we had to course correct on things fairly late in development and it was painful for teams to adjust. This episode specifically lost time due to these types of corrections that forced us to look at the scope of the episode. When teams review their content with leads and directors has also changed to allow the team better visibility in to how their work is progressing and how their content lines up with the teams before and after them.

B) There are discussions happening about changes we can make, nothing that I can announce yet. Part of the reason why you can't explore the entire city was because of the time necessary to art out the entire fortress. When (not if) players figure out how to break out of the map, you'll see that much of it is lightly placed props but not nearly detailed enough for players to run though.

3) Not at this time, sorry!

almost 6 years ago - /u/mikezadorojny - Direct link

Originally posted by CaesarBritannicus

What was the main technical change which delayed the episode? Was it relating to mounts, the cutscene, or something else entirely?

There wasn't one issue, it was many. We were still making balance changes to the mount, the cutscenes were still being polished, we had game breaking bugs in instances and in some of the events, and as a whole the team felt that the content wasn't good enough to ship.

almost 6 years ago - /u/ANET_Laevateinn - Direct link

Originally posted by TJPoobah

Specifically designed beetle racetrack with ramps for jumps and corners for drifting (along with the standard race event with checkpoints and such) when?

Not immediately, though this is something I want as much as you do. I want to make sure we do it right though - I love seeing all of the player-created race courses in the meantime!

almost 6 years ago - /u/Anet_Greg - Direct link

Originally posted by BunnyisCthulhu

I'm just posting that the final cutscene for the episode was amazingly done, I really loved the animation in it. Great work, guys! :)

Thanks it means a lot to see the fans enjoying the cinematics so much! A lot of work was put into them!

almost 6 years ago - /u/ANET_Laevateinn - Direct link

Originally posted by holymonkseal

In this episode we had nice CC mechanic at the last boss. It seemed that you wanted to incentivise players to... learn about that if they hadn't already.

So my question is - have you guys thought about adding CC tutorials in lower level maps? Like clams from draconic mons heart, ie.

I answered a similar question at the link below, but the short version is yes, it's something that's on my mind but no solid work has happened yet.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/8vm8jv/living_world_season_4_long_live_the_lich_devs/e1ohew9/

almost 6 years ago - /u/anet_joelh - Direct link

Originally posted by tryhardarchitect

Kudos to the success of the beetle mount, it truely feels awesome to use, and the collections felt very rewarding! My only question is, what was the intent of the charge time when you first mount the beetle? It feels a bit awkward to wait around for 15 seconds in order to zoom around.

One of the design requirements I was given for the beetle was that it not displace other mounts for everyday short distance travel needs. Short of cutting the top speed of the beetle, which I considered a non-viable solution, starting the mount in a state where it couldn't immediately boost was the best compromise. The zero to full charge time was tuned to be about right for the delay between successive boosts, and from internal testing with stakeholders it was decided that it was also the correct delay before boosting after mounting up. Now that the mount has been live for a bit and players have had time to use it extensively, I've been comparing player experiences with our own internal notes. While I can't promise anything, it's possible there are some ways to soften the pain points of using the beetle while still keeping the other mounts desirable.

almost 6 years ago - /u/anet_joelh - Direct link

Originally posted by iPenguin_

Are there any plans to address concerns with the new Beetle mount regarding how it's endurance bar starts empty instead of full unlike the other mounts? It's a bit of a pain to say, want to smash through a wall, mount up on your beetle, and then have to wait roughly 10 seconds for that bar to fill.

Regarding the wall smashing specifically, it is currently planned to add this behavior to the engage skill as well.

almost 6 years ago - /u/anet_lis - Direct link

Originally posted by LissGin

With the new mount having been released and new mount skins eventually being released for it my question is as follows: If a beetle skin comes for a preexisting bundle (wintersday or Halloween for example) will people that already own that bundle unlock it at release; or will they have to buy the bundle again or maybe even buy it as a standalone skin?

Since the launch of the roller beetle, we’ve seen some players asking whether we’ll update previously-released mount skin packs, such as the Branded Mounts Pack or the recently released Awakened Mounts Pack, to include roller beetle skins. We will not be retroactively adding the roller beetle to previously released mount packs, but we will provide options for roller beetle skins in the Gem Store and will provide details in the future.

almost 6 years ago - /u/anet_jason - Direct link

Originally posted by inkthedink

Do you guys / gals at Anet have a cadence of sorts like you do for fractals?

Raids and Fractals are the same team working on two different products. Our cadence is currently integrated with Living World episode releases. You'll see the next raid before the next fractal, as that is how we have staggered development.

almost 6 years ago - /u/ANET_Laevateinn - Direct link

Originally posted by korarex

Once, a person in gw2 map chat told he's game dev of ArenaNet and everyone asked a lot of questions.

I still have got just one question since I'm not even sure if it was really a dev, not a fake.

I'm not into reddit, communities or questions.

Right now, I've finally got a chance to know the truth. Please, feed me with long term promises at least.

So my only question is:

"Will I ever get a chance to play as a tengu?"

Because gw2 and wiki info are not enough at all.

I wish one day I will be finally able to play as a "bird-person" in my favourite game - in Guild Wars 2.

(Or at least in any other good game in this world?)

Thanks for the best game ever. Wish you all the best, dear ArenaNet <3

Adding new playable races is a huge task, and one I can in no way even begin to hint at. Within the domain of things I could add to my suggestion list (which is probably years-long already), would you settle for a Tengu combat tonic?

almost 6 years ago - /u/ANET_Laevateinn - Direct link

Originally posted by wobbleone

beetle racing is amazing, any chance we could see racing system build up around them, be it festival or something similair to adventures but with multiple people?

Answered a bit at the link below; short version it's on the table.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/8vm8jv/living_world_season_4_long_live_the_lich_devs/e1oi6r4/

almost 6 years ago - /u/anet_mattp - Direct link

Originally posted by MechaSandstar

How can you build content around a mount you can't guarantee people will have?

By not making it a hard requirement. We wouldn't have central-line content depending on having a roller beetle, but there can be extra things you can do and find, or different ways to experience things.

almost 6 years ago - /u/anet_lis - Direct link

Originally posted by gahata

You didn't answer why, and Soundcould doesn't provide an option to either download commonly used file formats (these are very good quality downloads, but very impractical) and it doesn't fulfill the role of Spotify

I apologize for not being clearer: the why is because we use our aggregator service to distribute to Spotify, and we use that service specifically for songs that are packaged as albums, as with the HoT and PoF OSTs.

almost 6 years ago - /u/AnetAlina - Direct link

Originally posted by Atelia

I'm very curious about game development as a career- if you don't mind me asking, why did you decide to become game developers?

(I know this is an AMA about the latest episode and might not be the right place to ask this question- if there's a better place, or a place where some devs have talked about this, please let me know!)

It’s mostly my mother’s fault to be honest. When I was young I told her I wanted to learn to program and she, thinking I would have more fun that way, got me a book on game development in Java. I’ve been making games ever since.

almost 6 years ago - /u/Anet_Greg - Direct link

Originally posted by DemethValknut

Oh by the way, the trailer for ep3 was everything I was waiting for a lw trailer. You've got it !

I agree, /u/ANET_Byfield has been killing it!

almost 6 years ago - /u/anet_jason - Direct link

Originally posted by D_i_v_o_r_u_s

If Raid Releases are obviously getting delayed, can the community at least get Information about it? The worst thing for the Raid-comunity (especially at the moment) is that there isn't a single bit of information as to why this happens. Also, if you make a priomise and realise that you can't hold it, could you just admit it and not find some excuses?

Raids and Fractals are currently one team developing two different products. That said, raids haven't being delayed at all. In fact, the next raid is essentially done, we're only waiting on externally delivered assets, such as VO.

I mentioned R/F being one team because we are currently attached to Living World episodes, so development has been staggered to evenly disperse the content across Season 4 releases.

almost 6 years ago - /u/ANET_Laevateinn - Direct link

Originally posted by rilgebat

Given that GW2 is increasingly featuring content that is in essence a resurrection of conventional quests rather unwieldly packed into the achievement system; has there been any consideration towards reintroducing a dedicated quest system/log?

I feel that the positive reception the Caladbolg "Current Event" received is a good indication that this kind of content is still in demand, and still relevant. At least when done well that is, mundane fetch/kill quests are still quite rightly replaced wholesale by Dynamic Events. Well done quests would slot in perfectly in the current gaps between existing systems (i.e. DEvents, Hearts and Instances) in GW2.

I can't speak to adding new quest systems, but I'm glad you enjoyed Caladbolg! I'd like to make more sidequests like it, but keep in mind that they are a significant time investment to do well.

almost 6 years ago - /u/mikezadorojny - Direct link

Originally posted by FirePosition

Alright, strap yourselves in cause this is a long one. I have some general questions regarding difficulty in the main story (and in some way open world). It’s a wall of text, sorry, been sitting on these questions for a while and am always asleep when the AMA is posted. Answer what you can, don’t answer what you can’t (or don’t want).

Difficulty progression question: What’s your stance on difficulty progression in regards to expansions and living world? Is the idea that the game becomes harder in chronological order (PS, LWS1/2, HoT, etc.) or are you in favor of “resetting” the difficulty per expansion, as to make it more accessible to newer players (ie. so people who buy PoF instead of HoT wouldn’t instantly be overwhelmed). If the latter, does that mean the living word building up to the expansion is more difficult (because part of expansion) or easier (leading up to new expansion, depending on story).

Death in personal instance question: As it is now, whenever you die in an encounter, it isn’t (usually) reset. This makes it possible for people to die and respawn until the boss dies of exhaustion (this made Bloodstone Caudecus winnable for some people). This also does not make death punishing at all, since nothing is lost. Do you think this is an issue of any sort? I personally prefer to be punished for my mistakes but I understand why others won’t feel the same way. If you feel it’s an issue, is a fix on the radar? If you don’t feel it’s an issue, are there ideas to make it punishing ie for an achievement?

Git gud? question: There have been a few complaints of people who find newer content too hard, or rather, don’t want it to get harder because they don’t want to be excluded out of the experience. What’s your stance on this? Do you want the main story to be accessible by everyone at the cost of keeping things not too difficult (through mechanics and deaths and the like), or do you think players should gradually “git gud” since the game goes more and more towards an end, similar in a single player game, and that players just need to improve in order to reach and beat the eventual final boss?

Challenge Mote question: This ties in somewhat with the previous question. Challenge Motes were a relatively big thing in LWS2 but disappeared after that, with the exception of Hearts and Minds. Are there any ideas of bringing them back? My personal preference (probably a bitch to implement) is to have challenge motes on at least the final instances of each chapter which would provide a challenge to people who want it so that the people who just want the experience can just ignore it. For this, the mote would preferably be available right from the start (again, probably a bitch to code). I remember there being a challenge mote in the Glint’s Lair instance in LWS2, but it was only available on replay and had no achievement, so I wonder how many people actually used it. Basically, tl;dr: Challenge mote, yay or nay?

Bonus: Scaling: I started playing the PS with my brother and was surprised that the instance scaled with the number of players in it. Although I haven’t played the newer releases yet, I don’t think this is the case there. Is there an idea for this to return or is it just not worth the effort?

Again, sorry for the wall. I have a problem with walls of text.

1) Generally we try to make the golden path story approachable by majority of our player base. I think we generally try to approach content more like your latter suggestion, instead of the former. Ideally achievements could be used to add challenge to an encounter and not block players from experiencing the story.

2) This is tied to the previous answer. If we do scale an encounter towards the harder side, we know that death doesn't reset an encounter which can be extremely punishing. Again, we can always put in achievements for "don't dying" or "don't get hit by X" instead to give that challenge without blocking players from experiencing the content.

3) The skill variance in our players can be quite large. If you know your profession really well, and how it combos with others, you can output something like 5x the damage and sustainability that an average player could.

4) I'm a fan of challenge motes in story instances but it does at scope to a release. I would love to see more of these in the future for players who want additional challenge. We create a lot of instance specific encounters that I would love to have players engage more with. Motes add more testing, and more time for iterative balance, so the teams have to weigh those costs.

Bonus: This should be automatic, so if it's not doing that now, that sounds like a bug!

Thanks!

almost 6 years ago - /u/Anet_AndrewM - Direct link

Originally posted by Charrikayu

Could you explain why the wardrobe system works for backpacks, themselves an accessory, but not other types like amulets, earrings, and rings? Or is it merely a matter of volume and the wardrobe currently can't contain the number of available trinket skins?

The wardrobe doesn't actually track items, but rather the art that they reference. Backpacks are in the wardrobe, because they have a model, while other accessories don't. Aurora, along with the various jewels and infusions with visual effects are set up in a different way that doesn't interface with the wardrobe

almost 6 years ago - /u/anet_lis - Direct link

Originally posted by gahata

Could you package the LS soundtracks as albums with the last episode of the season, or release an "episode EP" with every episode? Honestly I listen a lot to both HoT and PoF soundtrack, but I never really touch any of the LS pieces (that I love), because it's insanely impractical for me to do so

I really appreciate hearing that feedback and it’s something we’ll explore.

almost 6 years ago - /u/ANET_Laevateinn - Direct link

Originally posted by Atelia

I'm very curious about game development as a career- if you don't mind me asking, why did you decide to become game developers?

(I know this is an AMA about the latest episode and might not be the right place to ask this question- if there's a better place, or a place where some devs have talked about this, please let me know!)

I think there was an article in Nintendo Power a long time ago talking about game-dev education and careers - that was the moment I realized that making video games was an actual job you could have.

almost 6 years ago - /u/ANET_Laevateinn - Direct link

Originally posted by MindSecurity

Mounts Team Matt Lambdin

Is it possible, and if so, can you guys please add the "checkpoint" mechanics into Guild Halls so we can make courses in there?

I'm not Matt, but the way the mount races work is complicated and frequently course-specific under the hood, so it's potentially not possible. That said, this is a really cool idea and I'll keep it in mind, maybe there's some clever workaround for it.

almost 6 years ago - /u/Anet_Greg - Direct link

Originally posted by InternetKillTV

Hey Cinematics Team!!

I've shouted a lot about the quality of the cinematics this patch, in particular that final one. I think they were truly exceptional. Often cinematics in the game now are pre-rendered and come in a lower resolution, like the one in the second instance. It's a shame considering the quality of the in-game assets are actually so high so seeing you guys execute a cinematic playing in engine with such excellent uses of camera, sound, framing, animation, and mo-cap was so exciting to me. It is by far my biggest standout of Guild Wars 2's storytelling up to now.

So my question to you - aside from raving about the sheer quality of that last cinematic - is whether this shift in technology and quality for the cinematics is something we can expect to see going. Now that you've cracked the in-engine camera systems and live rendering for cinematics are those low quality pre-rendered cutscenes a thing of the past?

Thanks for the love! In-engine cinematics pose unique challenges that can make them very time consuming. We’re always evaluating the best way to tell stories, and what the best use of our time is. There will most likely always be pre-rendered cinematics though.

almost 6 years ago - /u/anet_jason - Direct link

Originally posted by RUBIK1376

That said, raids haven't being delayed at all.

So the current pace of 2 bosses + events every 10 months is the new norm forever?

I'd like to see that cadence improved as well, and it is something we are actively being discussed internally. You're not the only one that wants to get new raid wings out the door more regularly ;)

almost 6 years ago - /u/anet_jason - Direct link

Originally posted by RUBIK1376

Is it possible to give priority to new fractal development over fractal reworks? Reworks are nowhere near as exciting and can make existing fractals unenjoyable (molten boss haha)

New fractals are absolutely prioritized above reworks.

almost 6 years ago - /u/JessicaLPrice777 - Direct link

Originally posted by Hrafhildr

So back to boring Kralkatorrik? :'(

Kralk is a difficult antagonist to write for, definitely.

A natural disaster isn't a terribly compelling villain, which is why disaster movies tend to focus on tension in the relationships between people trying to survive them.

almost 6 years ago - /u/Anet_Greg - Direct link

Originally posted by Rainpumpkin7266

About trailer and final instance

Those shots were created only for the trailer.

almost 6 years ago - /u/JessicaLPrice777 - Direct link

Originally posted by Tomser555

Different person but thank you for this lengthy insight into the story, the meaning behind it and how it came to be. Its always really nice to read the thinking process behind the writing.

Thank you!

almost 6 years ago - /u/anet_mattp - Direct link

Originally posted by wheadna

Given that Petey is a product in some sense of the scarab plague, does this mean that all rollerbeetles in GW1 are actually descendents of scarabs that emerged from the first plague?

Gorrik engineered Petey from what he was able to find, and his interpretations of what a roller beetle should be. He used elements from the scarab plague. Similar to Jurassic Park and the scientists "filling in the gaps" with frog DNA. In the end we don't know any more or less about GW1 beetles than we did before.

almost 6 years ago - /u/JessicaLPrice777 - Direct link

Originally posted by notameatheadmaybe

I might be wrong and I know you're not involved in VO work personally, but maybe you can shed some light on it, and if not, that's fine too. :)

I feel like all the VAs for the PC/Commander seem to have slightly differing take on most lines. Not every, but most. Is it because (possibly) due to what the particular voice artist's take on it, or is it something planned and baked into the scripts?

Edit: grammar.

Well, I do go to most of the recording sessions, so I can give you some insight.

It's both. We try to write slightly different variants of some lines to give them a flavor that's more in keeping with the PC's race--more technical vocab for asura, swearing by the gods for humans, etc.--and we also sometimes let the actor shape the take.

almost 6 years ago - /u/JessicaLPrice777 - Direct link

Originally posted by SelfieOfDorianGray

we needed Aurene to do something on her own initiative that wasn't done the way the Commander [...] would likely want it to go.

I think this may be where some people take issue with the ending, then. Because given the responses from NPCs and the Commander immediately after Joko dies - the jokes, the levity - it feels like the Commander is perfectly okay with the way it happened. Even if the Commander makes an off-hand remark of, "Was Joko right?", following that with a joke and a campy catchphrase from Braham sort of undoes whatever feeling of consequence may have been intended in what had started as a very serious and reflective moment.

Just food for thought, I guess.

The Commander's responses aren't joking. We had Braham respond in a way we thought would be authentic to Braham, which doesn't have much to do with the way the Commander responds.

almost 6 years ago - /u/JessicaLPrice777 - Direct link

Originally posted by ddcarvalho

Specially Aurene.

That was literally what everyone I'm sitting with said out loud after I made that comment. :-)

almost 6 years ago - /u/anet_jason - Direct link

Originally posted by W4lhalla

So with both teams now merged, can you give us a rough cadence on to how many Raid releases we can realistically expect? Like on average one every 5 months, 6 months etc?

The teams have been merged for well over a year now. While they've merged, the products have dedicated designers so that one of each is always in development.

I wish I could give you numbers on cadence, but I will say that the third raid wing for this season is already in early production.

almost 6 years ago - /u/anet_jason - Direct link

Originally posted by RUBIK1376

You said Ben is working on redesigns for a couple fractals and what I'm trying to say is that we just want him on new fractals not redesigns.

Ben is an agile guy, and fills his spare time well. There are design docs that are incomplete, but certainly in progress. New fractals are always top priority.

almost 6 years ago - /u/JessicaLPrice777 - Direct link

Originally posted by Chiorydax

Hey guys! Great work on making Joko an awesome villain. I was kind of "meh" about him until this update. Major props to the writing and cinematic teams for bringing this together!

Are there any active plans to dive deeper into some of the standing mysteries from previous/existing conflicts? (I'm personally thinking of Joko's true origins or what happened to Menzies; those are both things I'd love to see that could have been revealed but haven't yet.) Of course, I know you guys love a few good mysteries, so I wouldn't be too disappointed if they were left to the imagination.

I really enjoyed the new fractal and all the mechanics involved! How do you guys decide what aspects of the world to tackle with fractals next? Is it kind of "oh, this is neat, let's do this next" or is there more strategy behind it?

On the subject of Joko being an awesome villain, what challenges do you guys feel were the toughest to overcome when creating a good villain over the years? You've improved a ton since launch. What challenges are you still working toward mastering?

Braham is finally back on my good side. It's good to see his dumb charm returning. Not really a question, but I'm glad to see that situation turning around.

Also, in the last mission, the Beastmaster was able to escape Joko's Awakened imprisonment by praising the Commander's military prowess. I guess that's a win? It's interesting to see how different characters react to Joko's influence. Some seem totally brainwashed (until their dying moments) while others seem fully functional as their own personality. Any rhyme or reason to that?

"Are there any active plans to dive deeper into some of the standing mysteries from previous/existing conflicts? (I'm personally thinking of Joko's true origins or what happened to Menzies; those are both things I'd love to see that could have been revealed but haven't yet.) Of course, I know you guys love a few good mysteries, so I wouldn't be too disappointed if they were left to the imagination."

In this season, there's a particular storyline we're focusing on, so additional mysteries generally get addressed in bookdefs, side events, and so on.

"On the subject of Joko being an awesome villain, what challenges do you guys feel were the toughest to overcome when creating a good villain over the years? You've improved a ton since launch. What challenges are you still working toward mastering?"

It's hard to say, since the people that created a lot of these characters originally aren't the people working on them now. The interactive nature of game storytelling, and the need to always give the player agency, are certainly limiting in some senses, and freeing in others. But they do create challenges in doing some of the archetypes people are accustomed to from TV and movies.

"Braham is finally back on my good side. It's good to see his dumb charm returning. Not really a question, but I'm glad to see that situation turning around."

Deep down, he's a good boy. He's just young and very emotional.

"Also, in the last mission, the Beastmaster was able to escape Joko's Awakened imprisonment by praising the Commander's military prowess. I guess that's a win? It's interesting to see how different characters react to Joko's influence. Some seem totally brainwashed (until their dying moments) while others seem fully functional as their own personality. Any rhyme or reason to that?"

Yup. It's certainly EASIER to just give in, do what Joko's telling you to do, and let yourself kind of fall into being a mindless servant.

To maintain your own will and personality takes constant resistance. Some people can manage, some people can't.

almost 6 years ago - /u/JessicaLPrice777 - Direct link

Originally posted by TheCavis

Did Taimi know we were immune beforehand? Because she went from "don't worry, it only infects humans" to "run over there and squish them" very quickly, even though it wasn't established human characters were immune at that point.

The immediate threat was the same for everyone--not that they'd necessarily infest you, but that they'd EAT you. So they had to be stopped.

almost 6 years ago - /u/JessicaLPrice777 - Direct link

Originally posted by -Wonder-Bread-

This. Right here. Is an incredible f**king answer, holy hell. More of this, please! I love it!

That probably doesn't answer your actual question--the truth is I don't know why the decision to bring him back got made. (That isn't, by the way, intended to imply that I think it was the wrong decision or anything--just that I wasn't around when it was made.)

This part I am confused about. Is there not a single person left from the old team that could tell you such a thing? Or did the old team leave in such a way that they were not able to share this information with you? It seems a bit important to know the whys as a storyteller, especially when you're picking up from someone else's work and need to keep it consistent.

Yes and no. Sometimes people leave, and sometimes decisions get made for other reasons than storytelling.

almost 6 years ago - /u/JessicaLPrice777 - Direct link

Originally posted by SelfieOfDorianGray

I didn't say that the Commander's response was joking; I said that Braham's "Ka-Braham" (and, I would add, the immediate inclusion of jokes and comments of disgust from Taimi/Rox/etc.) were joking, and felt like a disservice to the moment. Further, I don't know if I necessarily agree that it feels 'authentically Braham', given that Braham has spent several episodes prior with a much more serious tone and seemed to be developing in that direction, but I'm sure everyone reads their interactions in a different way.

He responds to being uncomfortable with attempts at humor, just like a lot of real people.

almost 6 years ago - /u/JessicaLPrice777 - Direct link

Originally posted by void2258

On that topic, why is the intelligence of both dragons and the minions so varied? Zhaitan was basically himself a dumb beast, but his minions were sometimes smart and had whole sub-stories (mazdack, the eyes and mouths). Morde was highly intelligent and conversational, while most of his minions were mooks. Kralk is a silent Kaiju, but Glint and Vlast were talkers, while Aurene hasn't spoken yet (though that could be an age thing). Jormag is somehow communicative enough to have willing followers doing his bidding, while we have seen no sign of any intelligence whatsoever from either Primordus or his mobs. And we have no data on Steve.

Just what is up with the dragons intelligence?

Aurene is SUPER-young, and speaking in words is basically a second language to dragons.

Their intelligence doesn't look like ours.

almost 6 years ago - /u/PeterFries - Direct link

Originally posted by FirePosition

I have a lore question. Can Sylvari be Awakenend? They couldn't be Risen because it was technically conflicting corruptions (Risen vs Mordrem), but can they be risen from the dead and be controlled, either by Joko as Awakened or by another powerful Necromancer? Or, due to their plant-like substance, can they be "reanimated" by some sort of nature magic? Or a combination of both?

My take is that sylvari can be Awakened though obviously we didn't get to see that demonstrated. If you play a a sylvari main, you may notice that Joko threatens you with Awakening…

almost 6 years ago - /u/JessicaLPrice777 - Direct link

Originally posted by Thop207375

You’ve done a fantastic job

Thanks! I'm fortunate to be part of a fantastically talented team. :-)

almost 6 years ago - /u/JessicaLPrice777 - Direct link

Originally posted by questhere

There's a lot of speculation over if Joko is truly dead and whether we'll ever see him again. But it seems no one's asking the obvious questions.

Do dragons poop? and how regular are they?

depends on their fiber intake

almost 6 years ago - /u/Anet_Greg - Direct link

Originally posted by Chiorydax

That makes me curious, by the way! Who did the motion capture for Joko? I remember people praising his/her flair even in the trailer for this update. Whoever it is, they're a ton of fun!

We had Richard Sloniker come in, but we've also used a few different people from within the studio (including Ben on the cinematics team).

almost 6 years ago - /u/anet_joelh - Direct link

Originally posted by JondorHoruku

What was your inspiration for the way roller beetles work, and were there any unforeseen difficulties in implementing the design (esp the ‘momentum’ aspects)?

The incredibly simplified and possibly fabricated history: The original design that was brainstormed before Path of Fire shipped was focused entirely around rolling down hills to gain speed, as inspired by the Guild Wars 1 beetle racing minigame (and other games, but we can pretend that it's all thanks to GW1). From there, we thought that launching off of ramps to gain sweet air like a motocross bike would be a lot of fun. Finally, someone put on some Eurobeat and then suddenly the next day the beetle could drift. Nobody is really sure how it happened.

Since you asked about difficulties, probably the two gnarliest bits were the terrain orientation of the collision body and the drift physics emulation. Regarding the latter, game physics is frequently lies built upon more lies, and the drift is certainly no exception. Getting the drift to feel more or less correct took a whole lot of fiddling with numbers and countless hours of drifting in circles and around various corners trying to get the results I wanted. Regarding the former, in order to accelerate down hills and decelerate up hills, the beetle's movement code understands the slope of the terrain it's currently on (as reported by the physics engine). However, it used to be the case that the collision body itself (which for the beetle looks like a stubby pencil point-down) would always remain level, regardless of slope. This meant that when going up steeper ramps, the edge of the collision body would grind on the terrain, slowing or stopping motion. To fix this, changes were made so that the beetle's collision could rotate to match the slope, and because this was brand new territory for our physics code it resulted in a lot of amusing/terrible bugs (falling through terrain used to be common, for example).

almost 6 years ago - /u/ANET_Laevateinn - Direct link

Originally posted by void2258

It's unfortunate that the nature of the achievement system makes everything single run. We did Caladbolg once per account and can never do it again because the system can't handle per-character segmenting (repetition can only be account wide). It would be nice if there were a way to do these kinds of things multiple times (although of course that would need reward adjustments as well unless you want to give us a free ascended on every character).

You can actually do the Caladbolg sequence on each character and earn their own Caladbolg! The collection-based steps use crafting instead of the collection on subsequent playthroughs, so it won't be quite as generous as the first time.

almost 6 years ago - /u/PeterFries - Direct link

Originally posted by Thop207375

I doubt you can probably answer this but is there still three teams associated with Living World?

There are multiple Living World teams that change personnel as needed to address our content plans.

almost 6 years ago - /u/PeterFries - Direct link

Originally posted by skarpak

do you tho?

Yes

almost 6 years ago - /u/anet_joelh - Direct link

Originally posted by Korruna

The Roller Beettle mount is awesome! I had a question though... I'm not sure if it's latency or not, but the penalty for the Big Air tricks seems to hit me even when I'm not hitting the button, or when I'm just trying to do a normal jump. Are there any plans to look at how this penalty works? It feels like it's too sensitive right now. I say this since the Roller Beetle already has many other penalties and the Big Air one currently makes the mount a lot less fun for me with how it currently works.

I personally haven't seen the trick functionality misfire, but I'll keep an eye out for any anomalies. Tricks have a minimum duration of 800 ms even if you let off of spacebar, so it's possible that you're overestimating how much air time you're getting, though this sounds like something different. It could also be that you're trying to jump when your beetle is already in the air but you think it's on the ground, which as an example can happen if you're trying to maximize air time by jumping off the top of a ramp but mistime it.

almost 6 years ago - /u/AnetAlina - Direct link

Originally posted by DeimosXid

Are any of these future unknown features still in the works, or has development on guild-related content completely stopped?

Wouldn't that make them future known features? ;)

almost 6 years ago - /u/ANET_Byfield - Direct link

Originally posted by JessicaLPrice777

Guys, you're reading WAY too much into "I can't talk about what we're doing next." There's no secret code underlying these answers, just, literally, I can't talk about what we're doing next.

https://media.giphy.com/media/l0IycI0rreFNQwmSQ/giphy.gif

almost 6 years ago - /u/ANET_Byfield - Direct link

Originally posted by Rainpumpkin7266

ah ok. Got to say, after the trailer "disaster" of Episode 1, trailers have been way better, with episode 3 trailer being an improvement to episode 2

The Ep. 1 trailer was a disaster?

almost 6 years ago - /u/ANET_Byfield - Direct link

Originally posted by greiton

have you ever seen another dev make something and just go how did they do that?

Pretty much a daily occurrence for me.

almost 6 years ago - /u/JessicaLPrice777 - Direct link

Originally posted by -Wonder-Bread-

Fair enough. I hope you are settling into your new position well. Joko's writing in particular was some of the best ever in the entire game. So major props to whoever wrote that.

Pretty much the entire narrative team. We handled it like a sitcom writers' room, and pretty much every line was the result of multiple people's riffing. :-)

almost 6 years ago - /u/anet_jason - Direct link

Originally posted by Kaneyren

Raids and Fractals are the same team working on two different products.

This seems pretty bad for two of the most important things keeping people playing in between Living World releases.

I disagree! I'm also way past AMA time, but I wanted to answer this.

The teams merged well over a year ago, and in that time it has allowed us to create more cohesive designs as there are more designers to bounce ideas off of. Siloing is essentially gone. We also have some pretty neat design processes that each of the raids and fractals, and their respective events, go through to facilitate rapid iteration.

To clarify further, while the teams may have merged, the designers are still dedicated to their respective products. For example, Eli is still the primary fractal designer, while Anthony and myself are dedicated to raid encounters. Ben is unique in that he floats between the two teams because of his unique skillset, but his heart is with fractals. He benefits everyone by creating new tech and quickly putting together complicated skill/scripts, but most of his time is spent creating the next cool fractal with Eli.

almost 6 years ago - /u/ANET_Byfield - Direct link

Originally posted by Rainpumpkin7266

Sry, forgot to add the ""

What I meant was that it was highly criticized because it didn't show many new content, which then led to people suggestions of how a good trailer could be (I tried to find the reddit threads about this, but didn't have sucess), which then led to a very high praised episode 2 trailer with the only thing being criticized being the fact it didn't say the name of the map)

Ah, got it. We've definitely been reading and listening to the player comments regarding what they'd like to see in a LW trailer and I'm glad it shows. As /u/anethogm is fond of saying, "Keep the feedback coming!"

almost 6 years ago - /u/anet_jason - Direct link

Originally posted by TehOwn

Is Crystal Reid still around? I loved her enthusiasm in earlier videos.

Edit: Also, I think people worry that "one team" means fewer people.

Crystal is a design manager now, so she doesn't do much implementation any more. However, she is one of the folks that sign off on design pitches and content gates, along with Z and myself. She's still involved, just not as directly :)

almost 6 years ago - /u/JessicaLPrice777 - Direct link

Originally posted by -Wonder-Bread-

It really was excellent and Nolan North's voice acting truly sold it. He has been by far my favorite voice actor ever since his work in Spec Ops: The Line. The man has incredible range.

Side question to you: How does one get hired on as a game writer? It is something I have always wanted to do and it doesn't seem like just being a writer is enough.

We usually hire people with film/tv screenwriting experience, but given that the job's different at every company, the requirements tend to be, too. I know that's not a terribly helpful answer, but the best advice I can give you is get experience in other mediums.

almost 6 years ago - /u/JessicaLPrice777 - Direct link

Originally posted by Varorson

Out of curiosity, how much harder is it to alter JUST the PC's voiced lines? Since you need different voice actors anyways, it would seem like such is easier than for altering NPCs to reflect the PC (and their choices), but how much more/less difficult would you say it is?

Very. Not necessarily hard, but expensive, both in terms of writer time and in terms of VO.

Right now we have to have each PC line recorded 10 times, but it's 10 different actors, so it's 1 variant per actor.

But just taking humans as an example, you have 3 background choices, 3 "regrets" choices, and 6 gods you can worship. That's 54 variants. (I don't remember how many variants there are for non-humans, but I'll assume for the moment that human is average.)

So now instead just 10 racial/gender variants of a line, you have 540 variants. And that's not trying to take character class/profession into account.

And yes, I know that not every line would require different variants for a female street rat with a lost sister who worships Lyssa versus a male noble with unknown parents who worships Dwayna, but we don't have time to sort through that complexity when we're writing. Even determining when to do it versus when not to is a complex calculus. So generally, unless it's SUPER obvious--throwing in a variant for human characters who worship Balthazar when we're in a dialogue about Balthazar--we don't try other than racial variation.

almost 6 years ago - /u/JessicaLPrice777 - Direct link

Originally posted by glowinggoo

There must be a lot of stress coming from the story team rehaul, but I'd like to tell you that it really works. My friend and I LOVE LS4 and how it handles everybody's arcs (especially the Commander, it's perfect), so whatever team rehaul happened, you guys are doing great.

We were just talking about how LS4-3's story has so many things that we've wanted to see since HoT and that playing it felt like opening up your Christmas presents. Lots of 'did they really go there?' 'holy shit' and 'wow did they really say that'. We've been pretty invested in the Commander for sometime, and this just made them our favourite protagonist.

Which, you know, isn't really a thing I expected to be saying about GW2's MC back in early 2017, even if we've always liked the general arc they have.

(That said, I'll miss Joko. Oh well. As of this moment, I'll trust that whatever you've got in mind to replace him is going to be more engaging than he was.....which is a pretty tall order.)

That's great to hear! Thank you. :-)

almost 6 years ago - /u/JessicaLPrice777 - Direct link

Originally posted by Skelegro93

Was it intentional that the reality of Aurene growing up didn't immediately dawn on the commander and his friends? As everyone entered Joko's chamber they only commented on what Aurene was doing and not what it could mean. I think Braham and the commander did say something along the lines of "well she IS a dragon." I also really liked how Joko's magic just blasted out of him in a "he's done" sort of way.

Yeah, the Commander's not sure what it means for a dragon to be growing up, and they've also had a ton of other stuff on their mind for the last several episodes.

almost 6 years ago - /u/JessicaLPrice777 - Direct link

Originally posted by StepW

Thanks for the awesome reply :).

Although I'm also wondering from the perspective of actually choosing how the commander reacts to things. This is a bit of a tough question to phrase. Given that there are so many different possible characters playing the role of commander, does all of that customisation perhaps inhibit the writing team from giving the commander character too much... character?

To give an example from the latest story episode (minor spoilers ahead!), Joko goes on the whole "you're the villain" monologue. Hypothetically, this might have hit a soft spot or resonated significantly with the commander. Sufficiently portraying such emotions might be difficult, since different personalities or different races might respond differently to such a claim.

Like, say, a Blood Legion Charr with the "ferocity" background chosen might act aggressively towards such a claim, but a dawn-born Sylvari with the "charm" personality chosen might have let those words get to their head and develop insecurities about how they can get Tyria to trust them when a couple of years ago half of their race was allying with a dragon.

My point is that, from my perspective, the more personality the commander portrays in response to the story's happenings, the more likely they are to hit a coherence clash with their character (or with the player's view of their character). Covering all those possible backstories is absolutely not feasible and would get very messy very quickly, so there must be a balance to be struck between making the commander generic enough to fit under any possible backstory and interesting enough to actually be a compelling character. How does the writing team handle that balance?

We don't try to make the Commander a compelling character. And it's not just because of the different options.

Players have different expectations for when they're playing a single-player game with a pre-designed character (Jack in Bioshock, or Corvo in Dishonored) versus when it's a character that they have built themselves. They're more forgiving if the PC does or says something they wouldn't do or say, or don't agree with, in the former. In the latter, they often get furious at the disconnect.

So--and bear with me through this analogy, because it may sound strange at first--basically the Commander has to be a character like Bella Swan in Twilight.

I don't think Twilight was good writing. In fact, I think it's very BAD writing. Bella's not a character. She's a blank space.

Which was genius from a marketing perspective, because what the Twilight books offer their readers isn't the love story of Bella and Edward--it's the experience of being loved by Edward.

So Bella's this carefully crafted blank space with JUST enough personality to function, but all of her personality traits are chosen to not prevent the reader from inserting themselves into the space she holds in the story. She's a bit clumsy, just enough to be endearing but not enough to prevent her from actually doing anything the story needs her to do or the reader might want her to do. She's a little bit awkward, but just enough to be relatable and not enough to actually hinder her, and so on.

Essentially, we have to write the Commander the same way. They can have a bit of wry exasperation, a hint of impatience, a touch of "okay, I'm done fooling around with this crap and I'm going to take charge," but most of their lines have to be pretty devoid of too much personality, because if we give them too much personality, it might clash with how the player is imagining Their Commander.

So instead, we tell you who the Commander is through the other characters and how they interact with the PC. That way we can still suggest some character, without having the PC do or say anything that's going to make players go, "Hey! I wouldn't do that!"

(Obviously, on a macro level, the Commander still has to DO things, but the things that seem to bother players most aren't doing quest objectives or major story actions--it's the little things like responding in a way that the player thinks is too assholish, too weak, etc. It's the interpersonal stuff.)

So, it's a very fine line to walk, and possibly one of the hardest things we do--trying to make dialogue and character moments interesting when one of the main participants can only have very delicate sketches toward a personality and very measured reactions.

Mostly it's sleight of hand using the other characters to make you FEEL like the Commander's acting/reacting in ways that have a distinct personality while actually mostly letting you project that personality.

So, in short, it's a bit like writing horoscopes/personality test profiles.

almost 6 years ago - /u/JessicaLPrice777 - Direct link

Originally posted by Varorson

But just taking humans as an example, you have 3 background choices, 3 "regrets" choices, and 6 gods you can worship. That's 54 variants. (I don't remember how many variants there are for non-humans, but I'll assume for the moment that human is average.)

You misunderstood me!

I meant a variance focusing on per race/gender. So you'd still have only 10 recordings, but each recording would be a different line (or every other, where race matters and gender doesn't), rather than 10 recordings of the same line.

I understand full well that account for biography options, order, greatest fear, etc. would only expand the variances well beyond the initial setting. Though having more lines for such would be wonderful (for example, in Siezed instance, Faren talks about how there should be a "Krytan" present... why doesn't human Commanders - especially human nobles who've known Faren for ages - react to such / get a different reaction from Faren?), I can understand how such can be difficult to do.

(On an side, humans actually have the greatest variance as most other races only have 4 (norn, sylvari) or 5 (charr, asura) options whereas humans have 6!)

Sometimes we need a line to be exactly the way it's written--every word.

When we don't need that, we do race variants. (I don't think we've ever been in situation where we felt it would add anything to have a female norn say something differently from a male norn.)

almost 6 years ago - /u/PeterFries - Direct link

Originally posted by Gorden121

Does that mean there is absolutely no connection between the magic used to create risen and the magic used to create awakened? And if so doesn't that imply that the magic spectrum of the Elder Dragons is fully separate from the magic humans can use, potentially because of their connection to the human gods?

Does that mean there are at least two separate non-coupled magic systems in Tyria, one with connection to ley-line energy and one without?

Maybe? I have no idea, honestly.

almost 6 years ago - /u/PeterFries - Direct link

Originally posted by Tostitokid

Didn't you say the same thing about Bubbles?

Did I? Ooh, I hope I did.

almost 6 years ago - /u/PeterFries - Direct link

Originally posted by [deleted]

These sorts of silly answers make me laugh and brighten my day. Thanks for being you Peter. It's always fun to see you on guild chat because I know amongst the serious answers you won't pass up a chance to be light-hearted & have fun.

I mean, we make games here…

almost 6 years ago - /u/PeterFries - Direct link

Originally posted by Shinasti

I would like to note a tiny thing regarding this - the focus on the asura and science fantasy is, at least in my opinion, making the other races and more classical fantasy feel a bit out of place. In this episode, when Canach and the commander used seeds to create the twine walls I actually caught myself wondering why we weren't just using asura barriers or whatever phlebotinum they have this week. I had a somewhat similar experience replaying a few of the older story missions, but I can sort of put that away as times changing in Tyria.

I just want to point out that personally I too really miss the less explained, more mythical aspects of magic we used to have in vanilla and maybe they'll lose their place in this story if we don't spend a bit more time on them.

Your concern is noted.

almost 6 years ago - /u/PeterFries - Direct link

Originally posted by Charrikayu

Man, the response I could make to this would exceed the reddit character limit.

I guess the long short of it would be, do you find yourselves treating the narrative as a means to an end, or merely as an end itself? I'm someone who tends to think of narratives in terms of their social, cultural, and economic implications which is why I really loved the myth-fantasy of the first game and have a huge soft spot for simple things like saving Ronjok from the Kournan army, and think dystopian-Vabbi is the best idea the game has had since launch. Exploring the magitechnical implications of science fantasy in a world that relies on nature magic and has mid-industrial races seems more like an exercise in "cool stuff" than an attempt at worldbuilding, which probably explains why I've found myself at ends with most of GW2's narrative. If your primary concern is trying to do cool things and the emphasis on societies is second, it definitely changes the perspective/approach I have toward much of GW2's story.

Worldbuilding is the very least part of narrative. That's not to say that no thought goes into our fantasy franchise's cultures and environments, but that stuff is very much tertiary to our team's primary concern, which is to try to tell evocative stories using compelling characters. This living world season is about people dealing with grief and loss, about accepting responsibility for mistakes made and trying to course correct. Hopefully those are relatable human themes that resonate with players.

almost 6 years ago - /u/PeterFries - Direct link

Originally posted by Majigor

Tell us! Spill the beans!

I think/hope it's okay if I tell you that several teams have been fighting over who gets to finally take players inside the Wizard's Tower. No matter who loses, everyone wins!

almost 6 years ago - /u/PeterFries - Direct link

Originally posted by -Wonder-Bread-

A bit late to the party here, but I really want to know if we'll ever get more lore that is not specifically story related. For instance, there are other MMOs and RPGs that give you more story and lore via books or just random NPC dialog that just tells you more about the world... makes it feel more alive.

The new map and really all of the new LS maps so far feel somewhat lacking in that regard. They don't feel lived in and necessarily like actual places that people exist in.

We get some during the actual story, especially during the part with the farmers, but even that is just a one and done and I really do not feel it explored enough of what those people's lives are like.

I really love the world of Tyria! It's beautiful, expansive, just gorgeous in general. But this just feels like a major part that is lacking currently.

We always want to do more of this sort of thing. A someone who wrote content for the open world of the first three episodes of this season, I'm sorry to have disappointed you.

almost 6 years ago - /u/PeterFries - Direct link

Originally posted by foozlesprite

I'm thinking what BlueSakon said. Necro player character summons are pretty creative body part arrangements themselves, so I see no reason Joko couldn't have fun with corpse putty when he got bored.

Yes, this is your answer.

almost 6 years ago - /u/PeterFries - Direct link

Originally posted by RandommUser

How did she get to Kourna?

She either arrived through Blish's portal with other forces or aboard one of the corsair ships that made landfall to the south—whichever answer suggests she had more of an interesting journey trying to keep up with you and join you in your moment of triumph.

almost 6 years ago - /u/PeterFries - Direct link

Originally posted by SAlNTJUDE

Im not sure who to direct this question too but here it is,

thinking about distant future, given the precedent of HoT and PoF being isolated content, how do you guys plan on handling new maps where mounts cant be a requirement but can be used to possibly trivialize a lot of it?

whats the process of deciding what content stays unique to a zone/patch/expansion and what becomes "core"

From Path of Fire on, we've had to consider mounts and gliders when designing all new content.

almost 6 years ago - /u/PeterFries - Direct link

Originally posted by Taiaho

I think praising and adoring Joko as an Awakened is more of an effect of how you personally deal with the compulsion forced on you by the Awakening. Some recognize actively how they're being influenced/controlled and manage to discuss it in a differentiated manner, much like drug addicts who would like a way out, and some just dive into it and go full-praise mode. It probably has to do with the personal willpower and self-awareness of an inidividual, not with there being nuances to the severity of the Awakening process. But it's certainly an interesting question!

Working on Path of Fire, my conception of Joko's control over his Awakened was that he would (possibly grudgingly) give more autonomy and agency to officers with higher authority in his military and government. His warmarshals were able to express more individuality and decision-making not so much because he trusted them more but because they'd demonstrated greater loyalty and utility for his having done so.

almost 6 years ago - /u/PeterFries - Direct link

Originally posted by Varorson

Troopmarshal Ogun is the legendary bounty, while the Beastmarshal is fought in the storyline. Both can also be seen while scouting Kourna in Forearmed is Forewarned.

We don't know what happened to the Wurmmarshal, though.

Stay tuned!

almost 6 years ago - /u/PeterFries - Direct link

Originally posted by TryToBeNormal

Hello, I have some questions. I apologise if they have been asked before.

Story-wise, what exactly happens to the remnants of the Forged after Balthazar's defeat? I forget if it's ever explained anywhere what becomes of them but an army without a leader is still an army even if it's disorganised.

1a. I suppose the above question could also be applied to the Awakened as of the latest episode, presuming that Joko hasn't pulled some trick (which given the recording in the Loyalist Warrens, I feel like even if he has gone out he still has one final trick up his sleeve)

This feels like something I shouldn't ask, but how many players do fractals often in comparison to both how many players raid often and how many players don't do either?

I suppose this is also asking beyond what I should, but once it's finished, will Living World Season 4 have an associated Legendary Trinket equivalent to Aurora for Living World Season 3?

Thank you for the time and I apologise for myself and others. I understand that you put a lot of work into the content you make and it's often not as simple as we'd like to think. Here's to a smoother launch for LS4E4!

1 & 2 may yet be answered—stay tuned.

almost 6 years ago - /u/PeterFries - Direct link

Originally posted by Tivanshko

Is it possible that we get old untold stories (like what happened with the nightmare court and Malyck during HoT) within the scope of living Story releases ? I think that its not always necessary to use all 6 episodes to bridge 2 expansions. So why not use some releases to tell side stories?

Though we aren't working on that kind of one-off 'Tales of Tyria' currently, we've talked about it as a possibility someday.

In case it's not obvious, the problem with tying off Malyck's story in a satisfying way during Heart of Thorns was that the only players who would be familiar with that story would be the ones who rolled a sylvari and played one branch of three in act two of the sylvari personal story. We'd have to catch up the rest of the player population on who Malyck was before we could pick up his six year old arc, and that would have been a significant amount of time spent away from the main storyline.

almost 6 years ago - /u/PeterFries - Direct link

Originally posted by ReapEmAll

Now that Balthazar has been cast out and killed, who took over his role as the god of War, Fire, etc.? Did one of the other gods take it or was it usurped by Menzies? If it wasn’t Menzies, what happened to him and his Shadow Army? You really seem to be hinting at his death with The Fate of Menzies, but it’d be nice to have some confirmation. :)

That may remain an open mystery, since the gods have retreated into the Deep Mists and are more remote than ever. What do you think happened to him?

almost 6 years ago - /u/ANET_Byfield - Direct link

Originally posted by dixieflatcurve

I think cinematics use music volume slider, and many players have it on 50% or less, so the difference in volume levels can be staggering. It always bugged me too.

Ah, that would explain the VU discrepancy. I'll have a chat with our Audio team and see if it's a known issue.

almost 6 years ago - /u/JessicaLPrice777 - Direct link

Originally posted by talajian

Wait, so if I've been piecing together the delicate sketches of personality that you gave the Commander and have been enjoying that......does that mean I actually enjoy the Commander's character, what there is of it, or does that mean that your sleight of hand is working?

Both, probably.

almost 6 years ago - /u/JessicaLPrice777 - Direct link

Originally posted by Exfrus

I don't think we've ever been in situation where we felt it would add anything to have a female norn say something differently from a male norn.

If you dig through the norn personal arcs I believe there are a few instances where female norn and male norn have different dialogue and some of those are voiced. It's pretty much exclusively restricted to interactions with the Sons of Svanir because they have VIEWS on women. Same story with female charr and interactions with the Flame Legion for the same reason.

That makes sense, but neither of those things are plot points in this season, so. :-)

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