Questions abt Customization & Story choices!

Hello! I am a rather new player and I'm still trying to complete Living World season 2, slowly making my way towards the expansions, which I've already bought.1) So of course I have a long way ahead of me, and I was wondering if the multiple choice aspect in dialogs is no longer used in the expansions and Living World?

Stuff like choosing a reply that increases charisma, Ferocity & Dignity. [i don't care about increasing any of these, I just like being able to give a different, more in-character reply]Or also choosing between 3 different missions?I'm just curious because I liked that aspect of the personal story and since so far in the LWs2 there doesn't seem to be any of that I'd like to know if it'll stay that way or if it's incorporated back in the future.

2) The other thing I'm wondering abt is how often we get new exclusive faces & hairstyles? Do they come together? are all races updated or just one at a time? etc, I'm curious on how that process works!

@anonei.2714 said:Hello! I am a rather new player and I'm still trying to complete Living World season 2, slowly making my way towards the expansions, which I've already bought.1) So of course I have a long way ahead of me, and I was wondering if the multiple choice aspect in dialogs is no longer used in the expansions and Living World?

Stuff like choosing a reply that increases charisma, Ferocity & Dignity. [i don't care about increasing any of these, I just like being able to give a different, more in-character reply]Or also choosing between 3 different missions?I'm just curious because I liked that aspect of the personal story and since so far in the LWs2 there doesn't seem to be any of that I'd like to know if it'll stay that way or if it's incorporated back in the future.

2) The other thing I'm wondering abt is how often we get new exclusive faces & hairstyles? Do they come together? are all races updated or just one at a time? etc, I'm curious on how that process works!

1) Those only affect your level 10 and level 20 story arcs. Starting at level 30 you do your racial order story then from level 40 on all races have the same story arcs.

2) The faces and hairstyles sometimes come out as often as every few months, or sometimes every year. They generally make 3-6 hairstyles per race but the eye and hair colors are for everyone. These are only accessible through a Self-Style Hair Kit or Total Makeover Kit.

@"anonei.2714" said:1) So of course I have a long way ahead of me, and I was wondering if the multiple choice aspect in dialogs is no longer used in the expansions and Living World?Multiple choice matters sometimes, but (as can be expected with MMOs versus single player games), the choices won't matter all that much. Everyone has to reach the next step mostly at the same pace, regardless of their choices.

Different parts of the game make a bigger deal of those choices. For example, the PoF story offers three choices very early in the story. Your choice affects a small amount of local dialogue, some decorations you see, and which of three collections that character will be able to progress. In the epilogue, you are again offered options, in this case three similar choices three times in the same instance... but it appears only to have a brief impact on what happens after.

Stuff like choosing a reply that increases charisma, Ferocity & Dignity. [i don't care about increasing any of these, I just like being able to give a different, more in-character reply]This system was dropped entirely from the game (for a variety of reasons). There remain a few remnants of it, which very, very rarely have an impact on dialogue.

I'm just curious because I liked that aspect of the personal story and since so far in the LWs2 there doesn't seem to be any of that I'd like to know if it'll stay that way or if it's incorporated back in the future.LS2 shied away from it the most, because that was very close to the removal of the "Personality" mechanic. Since then, ANet's included some more possibilities (see above). Sometimes you get distinctions based on race or class, rather than dialogue choices.

2) The other thing I'm wondering abt is how often we get new exclusive faces & hairstyles? Do they come together? are all races updated or just one at a time? etc, I'm curious on how that process works!First, there's no pattern. They update the makeover kit options when they do, based on some sort of art team design priorities that aren't ever explained to us. (Probably for good reasons.)

Second, we always get all races updated at the same time with a single exception in the game's history:

When PoF was being developed, they decided the African-themed continent required a new set of artwork for Humans (the only friendly race we meet there). ANet discussed internally the two possibilities: don't release it, because they didn't have anything new for charr|asura|norn|sylvari OR make the new artwork available, even though it meant humans got updates but not the others. They decided it was better to give us something rather than nothing.

In contrast, even though the LS2/HoT storyline is heavily involved with the sylvari, it didn't require any new artwork (for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that the plot covered the sylvari already familiar to us, not a group in a party of Tyria isolated from us for hundreds of years).

@moonstarmac.4603 said:1) Those only affect your level 10 and level 20 story arcs. Starting at level 30 you do your racial order story then from level 40 on all races have the same story arcs.

2) The faces and hairstyles sometimes come out as often as every few months, or sometimes every year. They generally make 3-6 hairstyles per race but the eye and hair colors are for everyone. These are only accessible through a Self-Style Hair Kit or Total Makeover Kit.

1)!! Thank you so much! Yeah I think my favorite story parts are those two levels, though I believe it's mostly because we get to learn more about your character's race.

2) Oooh! so it's more of a surprise , that's good! and they release hair and eye color for all races at the same time then, as a separate thing, that's good to know, thank you!

@"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:Multiple choice matters sometimes, but (as can be expected with MMOs versus single player games), the choices won't matter all that much. Everyone has to reach the next step mostly at the same pace, regardless of their choices.

Different parts of the game make a bigger deal of those choices. For example, the PoF story offers three choices very early in the story. Your choice affects a small amount of local dialogue, some decorations you see, and which of three collections that character will be able to progress. In the epilogue, you are again offered options, in this case three similar choices three times in the same instance... but it appears only to have a brief impact on what happens after.

This system was dropped entirely from the game (for a variety of reasons). There remain a few remnants of it, which very, very rarely have an impact on dialogue.

LS2 shied away from it the most, because that was very close to the removal of the "Personality" mechanic. Since then, ANet's included some more possibilities (see above). Sometimes you get distinctions based on race or class, rather than dialogue choices.

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First, there's no pattern. They update the makeover kit options when they do, based on some sort of art team design priorities that aren't ever explained to us. (Probably for good reasons.)

Second, we always get all races updated at the same time with a single exception in the game's history:

When PoF was being developed, they decided the African-themed continent required a new set of artwork for Humans (the only friendly race we meet there). ANet discussed internally the two possibilities: don't release it, because they didn't have anything new for charr|asura|norn|sylvari OR make the new artwork available, even though it meant humans got updates but not the others. They decided it was better to give us something rather than nothing.

In contrast, even though the LS2/HoT storyline is heavily involved with the sylvari, it didn't require any new artwork (for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that the plot covered the sylvari already familiar to us, not a group in a party of Tyria isolated from us for hundreds of years).

1) I'm glad there's still small choices here and there! What you've described sounds really exciting! And you were careful to not put spoilers thank you so much!As for the charisma/ferocity/dignity, that's a bit of a shame but not a big deal of course, I liked choosing what my character sounded like, but I guess after playing through the personal story I have a good idea anyway![AH! Yes I think I have noticed the distinctions based on race, I like those a whole lot! I'm glad there will be more added! I feel like I'd want to play them again so that I can see what they say for each race!]

2) So it really is a surprise for everyone then! that's awesome, and I'm really glad all races are updated at the same time.Ooohh! I had no idea those options had been added /after/ PoF! I think PoF had already been released when I got into the game, that's awesome that they made them non exclusive too, and it explains why Humans had so many options!! [And that explanation for why the Sylvari didn't get those options makes a lot of sense]

Thank you both so so much for replying and explaining these things to me! I'm looking forward to surprise look updates and to the small choices here and there through the story!

Welcome to Tyria, @anonei.2714 :) Sounds like your kind of place.

There are still choices in the Living Story and expansions but they're more subtle. They don't give you a whole new story arc or even a different instance. There's a few points where you can choose different ways to complete things and some where you get additional or different dialogue choices on certain characters, usually because of your race, profession or Order. But I'm not sure how many are noticeable if you don't do the story on multiple characters.

@moonstarmac.4603 said:1) Those only affect your level 10 and level 20 story arcs. Starting at level 30 you do your racial order story then from level 40 on all races have the same story arcs.

That's a bit of an over-simplification. There are still choices which affect your story right up to the end, they just don't make as much of a different as the ones you choose at character creation.

Which Order you choose to join has the biggest impact - that determines your level 40 story, the NPCs in the level 50 story, the level 60 story (except for 3 steps - The Battle of Claw Island, A Light in the Darkness and Retribution - which everyone does). The overall theme is similar - you help your Order with their own activities, somehow Orrian undead come into it, you realise you can't do it alone and set out to form the Pact - but the actual stories are completely different for each one. Your Order also continues to be referenced in dialogue throughout the game.

Other choices with major impacts on the story are which race you choose to recruit into the Pact - there's 5 total but each character has a choice of 3 depending on their race, what you tell the Pale Tree is your greatest fear and which Order's plan you choose to use when invading Orr. There's also at least 1 point in each chapter of the Personal Story where you make a choice which changes the next step. Again the overall story is similar but what you actually do can be completely different depending on the choices you make.

@"anonei.2714" said:Hello! I am a rather new player and I'm still trying to complete Living World season 2, slowly making my way towards the expansions, which I've already bought.1) So of course I have a long way ahead of me, and I was wondering if the multiple choice aspect in dialogs is no longer used in the expansions and Living World?

Stuff like choosing a reply that increases charisma, Ferocity & Dignity. [i don't care about increasing any of these, I just like being able to give a different, more in-character reply]Or also choosing between 3 different missions?I'm just curious because I liked that aspect of the personal story and since so far in the LWs2 there doesn't seem to be any of that I'd like to know if it'll stay that way or if it's incorporated back in the future.

2) The other thing I'm wondering abt is how often we get new exclusive faces & hairstyles? Do they come together? are all races updated or just one at a time? etc, I'm curious on how that process works!

1)Story branches were mostly present in Personal Story (up to Zaithan).You get some branches in HoT Story (first expansion) but they are encapsulated to that specific "episode" of the story, and don't have any overarching effects. Also you can replay the story and redo it with the other choice (which can also unlock some achievements).After HoT story everything went back to being linear. Which, except for one instance in "A Crack in the Ice", isn't detrimental to the story at all, and allows the writers to focus on the story proper without having to invent branches.

2) I don't think they've released faces in a long time. They do release some unique stuff for the total make-over kits and Hairstyle kits now and then, but more often than not they're hair and eye colors instead of faces and hairstyles. Faces and hair come out more rarely, i think in the last 5 years there were like 3-5 packets of each? Maybe?

Some digging later, and here's a quote from the wiki with past changes:

Additional appearance options have been added since release.February 26, 2013 game update introduced additional hair color and eye color options.October 1, 2013 game update introduced additional hairstyle options.December 10, 2013 game update introduced additional face options.March 18, 2014 game update introduced additional hairstyle options.May 20,2014 game update introduced additional face options.June 17, 2014 game update introduced additional hair color and eye color options.July 15, 2014 game update introduced additional hairstyle options.January 13, 2015 game update introduced additional hair and eye color options.August 1, 2017 game update introduced additional free hairstyle and face options for humans.