[deleted]
One way story development changed from HoT to PoF was that in HoT, we started with a stable list of locations we wanted to visit, in the order we wanted to visit them. For PoF, we gave ourselves a lot more leeway to pick and choose the places we would go to support the story as it unfolded. And it's not like there was a shortage of awesome places to consider in the desert region...
[deleted]
Re: moments during story development when we had to rework stuff, we actually were re-working the story constantly to the point we were giving ourselves anxiety attacks. Spoiler So to answer your question more directly, the last six months were full of "aw crap, we need to redo/address/change this moment" XD
What was the weirdest bug that happened during development?
First off, there were many bugs that fit the bill of weird, and oftentimes funny (don't know if you had the chance to check out the mounts blooper reel from the Mounts Guild Chat).
One of my personal favorites was when I was playing Spellbreaker and I happened to mount up when the Bladestorm animation was still finishing. My character was permanently stuck in the sweeping animation he was making with the dagger, only without the dagger! This animation continued while mounted, and wouldn't go away even when I used a dev kill command on myself (in which case, I was a dead body, still animating the sweeping dagger attack from the waist up). Pretty funny stuff :)
What made you decide to somewhat "sneak in" the gryphon mount into the expansion instead of straight up announcing it? Is it the potential flak from the playerbase that made you do it like this?
"What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well."
We announced a lot in advance, but we held back some things to preserve that sense of discovery on release day.
Mo
The storytelling has greatly improved with PoF. What (narrative) techniques did you look at to make those improvements? My assumption is that the lower amount of (main) allies helped a lot to develop better characters.
A smaller cast of characters definitely helped--it allowed us to spend more time with fewer characters and have more and more meaningful interactions with the folks in your party.
We also looked at how we were using Cinematics and decided that the more we could keep the player in control (via in game action instead of a cutscene), the stronger the player's narrative experience would be.
[deleted]
I'm very glad to hear it, thank you :)
Do you have any plans on implementing additional weapons for core classes without the requirement of an elite spec?
It’s likely that we won’t be adding new weapons to core professions (baseline). Elite specializations allow us to implement weapons with more direct themes and flavor, and ensure a more modular (within the elite spec) way to balance weapons.
Edit: (Thought spoiler season was over >.>)
I would have been glad to see it too T_T I might have cried when I played The Way Forward :x
Who made the weather effects? They are really amazing! From the heat/haze effect to the rain showers in the Elon Riverlands; can we see these effects added to core Tyria maps? Running around old maps during a rain shower would be great.
It was something we've always wanted to do but didn't have time before. We wanted to add them into this expansion to give areas more moods from just day/night. You'll notice the rainstorm from the south of Riverlands will be on at the same time as the one in the north of Desolation too!
Crystal desert team/story team: As a GW1 vet, I want to say thank you for the whole expansion. Its been amazing to revisit some of my favorite places in tyria, and to finally deal with plot threads established about a decade ago now. What were your favorite places to revisit and why?
I was lead and mission designer for GW1, laying out the world. So returning to the Crystal Desert was really nostalgic. I enjoyed revisiting Augury Rock and the Trials of Ascension, missions remember designing. I put in the kids playing Ascension to help tell that GW1 story.
And finding a place to put the Flame Seeker Prophecies. The original text was written over a dozen years ago during Prophecies development. It's changed but to finally get it in game was cool.
Who is your favorite hero and why is it Palawa Joko?
Praise Joko
Mounts team -
Thanks for making the mounts drive like dump trucks, the entire feel is great, like we're actually mounted. How do you feel having mounts affects Central Tyria aka map completion?
The Zephyrite movement system is quite fun, seems like it took some effort to develop, but is limited to three places. I thought it was limited to these to minimize taking shortcuts in other maps, but mounts open up similar ways to travel. Did you play with using the Aspect movement system in more of the game (additional maps, as a Zepherite mount, or in the next xpac)?
I can't really touch on the zephyite skills as I wasn't part of that team, but having mounts usable everywhere in the open world was the plan from the start. We knew that with such a big addition to movement and exploration, it would feel bad if it was limited to just a few areas. It would feel like we gave you this great toy then took it away from you whenever you played elsewhere. We hope it'll encourage a lot of people to go back and play areas they have played before to see it with a fresh pair of eyes. Maybe even seen some map complete speed runs. xD
Hey, I love you all and all of your work, thanks for everything! I still remember the wonder I felt 3-4 years ago when my mum (a secretary at the time for you guys, IIRC) showed me the game, and I feel like in the long run, GW2 has lived up to everything I dreamed and more. The new Scourge spec makes me really feel like I'm a Commander, or perhaps a tactician, sitting in the backline and pushing out barrier and conditions to help my allies in battle, and Deadeye really feels like the heavy-hitting sniper I always knew it could be.
So, I guess since this is an AMA I should ask you guys questions - and here are mine:
During development, did you ever get an idea while playing the game that found it's way into the game? For instance, "Oh, but what if X did Y," or "Hey, wouldn't this be a really cool thing to see in GW2?"
And then secondly, what was the absolutely flat out coolest thing that was either planned, or in development but ultimately had to be cut?
...
To respond to your last question: Amnoon was a lot larger initially but had to be downsized due to performance and to add more content to the other parts of the map. The noble quarter for example hadn't been devastated by a sandstorm!
Who is your favorite hero and why is it Palawa Joko?
Mine's the Command... no, it's Joko
Is there any plans to open servers so friends can play together? Many people have returned to the game and have found themselves unable to play WvW together because they are on different servers. A lot of the servers have been closed since the WvW patch 4 months ago.
We weekly monitor world populations and adjust them as WvW players move around.
I mean seriously, how do you lose a city?
You see, there comes a time in every architect's life when they roll a 1...
I love the Amnoon Casino. I hope we see this type of content more times :D.
Thank you for this amazing expansion. Great story, great graphics, great events and meta events... You really did a great job <3.
Stay away from the high-stakes roulette...it's rigged.
How often do you praise joko?
A praise a day keeps the Kralk away!
Is there a specific reason for the inconsistent health of wvw walls/gates (e.g Veloka&Ogrewatch wooden walls have more health than any other tower on EB)?
We recently did a pass on all the walls and they should all be the same health. If you have found a specific wall that is different then report it using "/bug" in game please :)
Do you know anything about a lost city located somewhere in the Riverlands?
I mean seriously, how do you lose a city?
devtrackers.gg