any news about the new episode?

[keenedge.9675]

@Hannelore.8153 said:I'm not sure how you could expect them to do it without slowing it down. They're still under pandemic restrictions and for over half a year couldn't even go into the studio, and everything they do still has to be done with significant precautions.

They told us DIRECTLY that they sent work from home kits to the voice actors.

[Vavume.8065]

@Hannelore.8153 said:

@LucianTheAngelic.7054 said:

@Hannelore.8153 said:They already said why its taking longer on their social media. They're bringing back voice acting, but its not the same capacity they had before due to safety restrictions, so its going to take some time to voice two eps and make a new one too.

Source please? I read they were planning on re-adding voice acting in stages but don’t recall them saying anything about slowing down the cadence to do it

I'm not sure how you could expect them to do it without slowing it down. They're still under pandemic restrictions and for over half a year couldn't even go into the studio, and everything they do still has to be done with significant precautions.

I could go into a long post about it here but voice acting requires dozens of recordings for one single line. The effort explodes exponentially due to having multiple languages and then multiple races on top of that, so even though each episode many only play about a hundred voiced lines to the player, literally thousands of lines have to recorded to deliver that experience.

That's why they rely on text-based dialogue so much ever since LS2.

He asked for your source not your opinion...

[Jilora.9524]

Best next shot nov 10th 17th 24th area. Right after Halloween event and before wintersday. If not then we looking at next year

[coso.9173]

seems weird to me that we've consistently gotten new episodes every 2 months for all the saga, and now many of you are claiming this one will take 4-5 months o.O

[Jilora.9524]

@coso.9173 said:seems weird to me that we've consistently gotten new episodes every 2 months for all the saga, and now many of you are claiming this one will take 4-5 months o.O

Fractal counted as new content and replaced that cadence I bet so yeah pretty easy to deduct timing when you subtract the 3 week festivals and they weren't going to release a fractal and next week a new episode type thing so not so weird

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Well, Visions of the Past wasn't exactly an 'episode'. Though, it was connected to the story, in a way.What we've received was a 'release' every month. One month, a festival; the other month something else.

[coso.9173]

@Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:Well, Visions of the Past wasn't exactly an 'episode'. Though, it was connected to the story, in a way.What we've received was a 'release' every month. One month, a festival; the other month something else.

well yeah, it wasn¿t an episode per se, but was part of the same story, the fractal now isn't part of the same story so i'm not counting on it. but if we only counts the story episodes it's been pretty consistent every 2 months, so if now it would be 5 months or so, It would be really bad news IMO.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

I don't know where you would get 5 months.
It's likely to be November (4 months) or at a stretch January (6 months). (Even months are Festivals.)
It would not be 5 months because December is Wintersday.

[coso.9173]

@Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:I don't know where you would get 5 months.

It's likely to be November (4 months) or at a stretch January (6 months). (Even months are Festivals.)

It would not be 5 months because December is Wintersday.

4-6, I said 5 as an average between the minimum and maximum.

[Randulf.7614]

It's possible there is a mid Season break. Regardless of my feelings towards Drizzlewood (at least the awful north side), there is still plenty to do in the map and it needs extended to time to stay relevant

[coso.9173]

@Randulf.7614 said:It's possible there is a mid Season break. Regardless of my feelings towards Drizzlewood (at least the awful north side), there is still plenty to do in the map and it needs extended to time to stay relevant

if it's a mid season break, I could stomach it better indeed. and yeah i'v still a lot of things to do (hell Im still finishing the achievements in bjora's 2 by now) I just want the story to continue because I enjoy it a lot.

[Randulf.7614]

@coso.9173 said:

@Randulf.7614 said:It's possible there is a mid Season break. Regardless of my feelings towards Drizzlewood (at least the awful north side), there is still plenty to do in the map and it needs extended to time to stay relevant

if it's a mid season break, I could stomach it better indeed. and yeah i'v still a lot of things to do (hell Im still finishing the achievements in bjora's 2 by now) I just want the story to continue because I enjoy it a lot.

Fair enough. I've disliked most of it so far, so I am in no rush for a continuation. I'd rather they spent longer to release when ready rather hit an arbitrary cadence anyway.

I don't think the community shares my sentiments on that last bit though

[Luthan.5236]

I think they need to slow down a bit. Recent episode got released not too long ago. And at some times of the year there are festivals. Now soon we have Halloween and I guess they might only do max 1 more episode this year. They also need to time their plan a bit with the upcoming expansion. (We don't know how many episodes there are planned until that expansion gets released.)

They might fit one in between Halloween and Wintersday. Then the next one after New Year/Lunar Day festival and before SAB.

Imo the fractal thing and the tournament thing for PvP is a good idea. (Since last time there had been stuff for WvW. And the fracals seem easy and it is good to get new players to start playing them and trying them out.)

Also: Steam release is upcoming. They might time the next episode with that one maybe?

[Shadowmoon.7986]

There are 3 dialogues left with Bangar. Once those are done, the next story episode should be coming soon. My guess mid November.

[Dark Red Killian.3946]

@Bast.7253 said:

@Mewcifer.5198 said:Last they spoke of their roadmap they said to expect something every month. But the things could be things like a new fractal or raid, a festival, or an episode. So this month is a fractal. Next month is a festival. I am guessing the next episode will be November at the soonest.

Best case I imagine Vision in November, Episode in January, festival, then next episode in March.

But without people frothing at the mouth I’m suggesting it may not be following that same trajectory based on the announcement of the expansion.

That once a month but was before the expansion was announced and they did say that after the latest episode things would be a bit different and more akin to season 1. What that means, who knows.

As to alliances, I don’t think they’ll make a huge difference either way, but it has been well over a year and a half hasn’t it? The armory I don’t think they’ve “scrapped” but I wouldn’t be surprised to see it as a feature included with the expansion as it also could have been planned before the expansion. May be part of their plan to get the expansion out sooner by pushing major features to it instead. They mentioned several months ago we would get more details, here we are and no word. So that’s why I’m making the assumption that the idea of it being released within the scope of this saga is “scrapped.”

Armory won’t be an expansion feature because it’s an update to an existing base game feature. It might get released around the same time, possibly, but not as a feature.

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

@Vavume.8065 said:

@Hannelore.8153 said:

@LucianTheAngelic.7054 said:

@Hannelore.8153 said:They already said why its taking longer on their social media. They're bringing back voice acting, but its not the same capacity they had before due to safety restrictions, so its going to take some time to voice two eps and make a new one too.

Source please? I read they were planning on re-adding voice acting in stages but don’t recall them saying anything about slowing down the cadence to do it

I'm not sure how you could expect them to do it without slowing it down. They're still under pandemic restrictions and for over half a year couldn't even go into the studio, and everything they do still has to be done with significant precautions.

I could go into a long post about it here but voice acting requires dozens of recordings for one single line. The effort explodes exponentially due to having multiple languages and then multiple races on top of that, so even though each episode many only play about a hundred voiced lines to the player, literally thousands of lines have to recorded to deliver that experience.

That's why they rely on text-based dialogue so much ever since LS2.

He asked for your source not your opinion...

I'm sure its just an "opinion" to have played the game since release and to know the workings of the development process, but okay. The reason people can't give reliable sources is ArenaNet doesn't have any, they reply here and there and all over the place with little tidbits of information, sometimes even in video streams, but have no concrete communication with the community.

I can't give you a source beyond "its just how they do things". And being sarcastic with me won't change that.

[LucianTheAngelic.7054]

@Hannelore.8153 said:

@Vavume.8065 said:

@Hannelore.8153 said:

@LucianTheAngelic.7054 said:

@Hannelore.8153 said:They already said why its taking longer on their social media. They're bringing back voice acting, but its not the same capacity they had before due to safety restrictions, so its going to take some time to voice two eps and make a new one too.

Source please? I read they were planning on re-adding voice acting in stages but don’t recall them saying anything about slowing down the cadence to do it

I'm not sure how you could expect them to do it without slowing it down. They're still under pandemic restrictions and for over half a year couldn't even go into the studio, and everything they do still has to be done with significant precautions.

I could go into a long post about it here but voice acting requires dozens of recordings for one single line. The effort explodes exponentially due to having multiple languages and then multiple races on top of that, so even though each episode many only play about a hundred voiced lines to the player, literally thousands of lines have to recorded to deliver that experience.

That's why they rely on text-based dialogue so much ever since LS2.

He asked for your source not your opinion...

I'm sure its just an "opinion" to have played the game since release and to know the workings of the development process, but okay. The reason people can't give reliable sources is ArenaNet doesn't have any, they reply here and there and all over the place with little tidbits of information, sometimes even in video streams, but have no concrete communication with the community.

I can't give you a source beyond "its just how they do things". And being sarcastic with me won't change that.

Yes, to quote Vavume, I asked for a source, not an opinion. The only statement they made regarding the pandemic was that they were going to continue the previous release cadence WITHOUT voice acting because they were working from home. As far as I'm aware (and the reason I asked for a source) they never said "re-adding voice acting was going to further delay the future episodes."

I've also played since near release and understand the workings of their development process; not sure that qualifies either of us to make statements for them. And we also don't need misinformation spread labeled as fact based on conjecture/opinion

[Ashantara.8731]

@Mortifera.6138 said:There was no Prologue “within” the episode, so it was an epilogue to the saga.

Epilogue? You know that would mean the story arc is over - which it is not.

[mercury ranique.2170]

So far the schedule cadence has been an episode each two months, but with minor releases in between.

1 prologue2: bjora map first half3: bjora map second half4: inbetween episode visions of the past5: drizzlewood first half6: drizzlewood second half

So looking at this cadence the next release should be in November, and should be an In between release like visions of the past

BUT!!

Arenanet has always been struggling with the release cadence. They always evaluate between releases and it changes often. What has changed is that they icebrood saga was announced as the way to release new content (and they where not working on any expansion). But around the time of visions of the past they changed and announced end of dragons. So now they work on both an expansion and living world releases.

We can expect anything now and the rest of my post is pure speculation. I suspect the ice brood saga will focus purely on the living world and not the in between, but as things are more busy, I do not expect the next episode before January 2021. They are also working on the expansion and we have two festivals around the corner.

[coso.9173]

@mercury ranique.2170 said:So far the schedule cadence has been an episode each two months, but with minor releases in between.

1 prologue2: bjora map first half3: bjora map second half4: inbetween episode visions of the past5: drizzlewood first half6: drizzlewood second half

So looking at this cadence the next release should be in November, and should be an In between release like visions of the past

BUT!!

Arenanet has always been struggling with the release cadence. They always evaluate between releases and it changes often. What has changed is that they icebrood saga was announced as the way to release new content (and they where not working on any expansion). But around the time of visions of the past they changed and announced end of dragons. So now they work on both an expansion and living world releases.

We can expect anything now and the rest of my post is pure speculation. I suspect the ice brood saga will focus purely on the living world and not the in between, but as things are more busy, I do not expect the next episode before January 2021. They are also working on the expansion and we have two festivals around the corner.

these are the release dates of all episodes:

Episode DatesPrologue: Bound by Blood September 17, 2019 -Whisper in the Dark November 19, 2019Shadow in the Ice‎‎ January 28, 2020Visions of the Past: Steel and Fire March 17, 2020No Quarter May 26, 2020Jormag Rising July 28, 2020so next episode should have been at the end of september of beginning of october, but not november.

[Atomos.7593]

I would appreciate any news about the next episode at the moment. Even one as simple as "we are working hard on it and are making good progress" (maybe also a mention of the episode's name).

[Ayrilana.1396]

@"Mortifera.6138" said:We had an Epilogue, no more IbS episodes.

I'm sure you'll be relieved to know that the Icebrood Saga is indeed not over yet with today's announcement. They're referring to it as episode 5.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases/november-17-2020/