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A thread For those that actually enjoyed the latest episode (spoilers inside).


blackheartgary.8605

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Hello.I wanted to start this particular thread for 2 reasons.First, for the past 8 years, I have watched a pattern that I strongly feel needs to be changed up a bit. An episode/expansion/content drop occurs, and Feedback is given. The Feedback is visibly negative for the most part in the forums, severely debated about on livestreams, and People voice their disdain (or joy) until the next content drops. Lather Rinse Repeat.

Second, as someone who Genuinely has a love for the story, lore, and the overall game itself, I also know that I am not alone, and I truly feel that there has got to be others out there that are willing to voice what they actually enjoy about what is being delivered by the Game developers.

I'd actually Like to hear the opinions of those that enjoyed the latest episode in the Icebrood Saga, and what you enjoyed about it.Yes, I am serious.Here, I'll go first:The voice acting was fantastic. Adding the voice acting to previous encounters prior to this episode was very welcoming, although to understand what was going on in the story itself, I truly didn't need to hear the voices. It did add to the ambience, and added meat and emphasis at just the right moments. Kudos to the Voice Actors for stepping up, remaining safe, and delivering stellar performances.The Usage of EOTN and the Crystal Bloom (minions of aurene???) as a staging area and response team for the Destroyer attacks was both familiar and new at the same time. GW1 fans remember how the Eye of The North was used as the heroes would venture out seeking allies and prepping for their fight against the Great Destroyer. GW2 players remember how Fort Trinity was used as a staging area in the battle against Zhaitan. Utilizing EOTN as a staging area that all races of Tyria could converge upon and respond to the various assaults that Primordus' minions deliver works well with the story, and utilizing the asura gate there to enter each instance, similar to the strike missions, is both very convenient and lore-friendly.I will be honest here... I was taken aback a bit from this idea of us working alongside the Icebrood. Side by side with Ryland. Aurene agreeing with Jormag, albeit reluctantly. After being convinced since the beginning of the Icebrood Saga that Jormag was the bad guy, Ryland had turned on us, Bangar was the unwitting victim of Jormag's influence, only to hear from "the voice of jormag" that no... Jormag wasn't that bad... the real bad dragon was Primordus and we have to join forces to beat him?
That, IMHO, is good storytelling.

When it comes to the combat and the response missions, I found it to be a little bit of a breath of fresh air. It wasn't too difficult, nor was it too easy. Using the open world as separate instances reminded me a LOT of the Nightmare Tower, Lion's Arch, etc. the instances weren't some special room with a giant circle that we only get to utilize to whack a boss; they genuinely gave a feel that the destroyers are attacking all of tyria, not just a super secret arena somewhere. the locations were real, and the combat itself did not feel rushed.The combat felt fluid to the story rather than being the entire story. If i am entering an instance of the Living World and my sole purpose of that instance is to poke a stick at a bad guy, then the substance isn't going to keep me there long enough. However, having the combat be a part of the overall telling of the story gives the story itself a little more horsepower.The champs at the end of each instance did not disappoint me. Was i expecting some uber hard boss battle? no. I go into Living world episodes without expectations because i want to be surprised. The champs were just the right amount of difficulty and, as stated above, added to the story rather than dominated the story.

Replaying the missions makes sense in this episode. It's Primordus. The Big Guy. From a lore perspective, realistically I would not expect us to just clear Metrica Province and be done with it... the destroyers will likely come back the moment we leave that area. That's what minions do... they just keep going. The incentive... is to prevent the Destroyers from... Destroying??? I know... it sounds far-fetched. People want rewards. People want shiny things to say they did the things. The rewards for this Episode are there... and IMHO they only enhance the telling of the story, rather than being the sole reason for playing. Of course we want our super powered shiny weapons that can... well... do the same thing as the other 50 super-powered shiny weapons do. From a Story perspective, however... the Crystal Bloom... heck, all of Tyria, is joining forces to defend against a pretty BIG dragon and some pretty nasty minions. Primordus could very well eat Tyria. It only makes sense to have blacksmiths, etc creating things for the fight against Primordus. Again... it enhances the story, rather than being the sole purpose for playing.Overall, The episode IMHO is very well written and very well delivered. I am Thankful for the efforts of all involved in making this episode and i can't wait to see what happens next.

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Story was nice, if a bit short, but we'll see something more in 5 days and I'm really curious, since it's the first time I see something like this (never played ls1)I'm glad they used already existing maps for new instanced content, I've been asking that for years as a way to quickly have maps for story progress and development. I hope we'll see some more in the next update too, and add them to the portals.I like the interaction with Ryland and the frost legion, although I really think they could have had a better entrance for them, a short cinematic with them opening a portal in the middle of Rata sum for instance, would have been awesome.I DO wish they had added something in between the 3 missions, more story more dialogue or anything really to change the pace up a bit, now it's like BAM BAM BAM the end.I enjoyed it, and I'm waiting for the next part :)

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I enjoyed the VA and some of the teaser bits of story for what is to come. The dialogue between Taimi and Braham was well done and it was nice to see the Asura have their own agenda with Primordus and not care as much about any threat of Jormag or the Frost Legion. That was a welcome bit of story lore consistency that has been lacking for years

There was also a piece of music which felt very Canthan - to the point I almost feel like it slipped in by mistake or as a teaser to come. It's rare the sound team ever under deliver and they didn't this time

To be honest, i don't necs think we should be creating threads purely to praise or bash the episode. Episodic feedback threads should contain both types of feedback to help improve content going forward, but for now I'll leave it at the above so as not to drag this off course with everything I felt they got wrong

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I Enjoyed it as a Story Chapter even if it was pretty short and the whole suddenly trusting Jormag was a little questionable. The dialog was great. It was a nice way to acknowledge primordus beginning to wake up.It was nice to play once during the story but honestly I think that's where those instances should've stayed.

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I liked a lot the missions, well apart the HP sponges. Dialogues were nice with interesting bits in general.

I will just point something I don't hear a lot about: The loading screens arts are so beautiful, and it makes me regret not seeing animated dialogues with the hand drawn paint background like we had in personnal story. I miss them so much.

The story itself was cool and structured. (Expected more resistance from rata sum, they all got nuked like nothing. It clashes with the amount of npcs in metrica mission. Not enough npcs in story.)

I can't understand why all our allies are like "jormag good. Primordius bad." after being harassed by frost legion, killing svanirs in bjora... why the free useless smodur and almorra death then? God I m from the vigil. Just want a dagger in ryland throat right now. Is that opinion of our allies or the one from ANET? They hate primordius that much and want to avoid going underground?

So yup, as very cool overall but some questionnable moments.

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Even a 5 year old would make a more interesting story and all 3 missions are boring and repetitive with no form of difficulty and mechanicsthis update is an insult to the community and they absolutely do not deserve to be complimented with content like this ...this type of content for 4 updates, just OMG...And even an extension is no excuse for all of that. They only have to delay the release for a few months to finish this saga decently

GW1 fans remember how the Eye of The North was used as the heroes would venture out seeking allies and prepping for their fight against the Great Destroyer.

yes but please don't compare this mediocre content to gw eyes of the north which was a thousand times superior.And at least during gw 1, we had several types of destroyers that were much more stylish and impressive. We weren't fighting stupid crabs.

gw1: https://wiki.guildwars.com/images/1/12/Destroyer_of_Hope.jpghttps://wiki.guildwars.com/images/2/29/Destroyer_of_Flesh.jpghttps://wiki.guildwars.com/images/a/ac/Destroyer_of_Bones.jpghttps://wiki.guildwars.com/images/e/ec/Destroyer_of_Sinew.jpg

gw2: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/f/fe/Destroyer_Crab.jpghttps://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/0/05/Destroyer_Harpy.jpg

destroyers deserve so much better...

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The release is much better than people give credit for, imo. I have some definite issues with it, but as far as compelling world/character development goes, I am intrigued.

Taimi and Braham’s argument, Caithe and Ryland’s conversation, tension between Jory and Jhavi. And seeming strain on Jory and Kasmeer’s relationship?

On top of that, I really liked going to instances of old maps. I found the DRMs exciting for that reason, but I can certainly see how they’ll lose value overtime and become grindy and monotonous. I, for one, was getting extremely irritated by the constant knockdown effects from enemies, bosses, and the environment. That is pretty much the only aspect that makes the content “challenging.” I don’t need it be challenging personally, but I also don’t want to feel annoyed.

So, in all, I really enjoyed the episode. It took a good look at a few characters and showed us some new/interesting sides to them. I am pretty eager to see what’s going to happen next. If we get more character development and story, I don’t mind going to old maps. Every other mmo does it, and they can tell great stories if they take that route (like the big story patches FF14 does between expansions).

My only major concern is that everyone in the cast suddenly has amnesia and isn’t talking about the death of another elder dragon bringing about the end of the world. Surely one offhand comment about “the balance” being fake — by Jormag, of all beings — isn’t enough for our heroes to forego the theory the entire game has been built on the past several years? For me, it taints the otherwise excellent writing for this episode. I’m just... confused. And concerned.

I’ll have to give the chapter another go this weekend, as well as work on DRMs. Might be more fun with guildmates.

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@Randulf.7614 said:I enjoyed the VA and some of the teaser bits of story for what is to come. The dialogue between Taimi and Braham was well done and it was nice to see the Asura have their own agenda with Primordus and not care as much about any threat of Jormag or the Frost Legion. That was a welcome bit of story lore consistency that has been lacking for years

There was also a piece of music which felt very Canthan - to the point I almost feel like it slipped in by mistake or as a teaser to come. It's rare the sound team ever under deliver and they didn't this time

To be honest, i don't necs think we should be creating threads purely to praise or bash the episode. Episodic feedback threads should contain both types of feedback to help improve content going forward, but for now I'll leave it at the above so as not to drag this off course with everything I felt they got wrong

The asuran agenda was prob the highlight of the episode for me, world building for the race as well as actual good writting there that makes sense.

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Theres def some good stuff here but overall i think it was too small and it took to long to produce.

I really liked the worldbuilding and showing how diff races have diff agendas and aproach situations differently. The dialogue was solid as well to a surprising extend compaired to some of the older releases.

The reuse of old maps is really nice too, we have so many maps getting dusty and they could always use more content (sadly for me the drm are pretty boring so id prefer new events actually or even a strike set on a vanilla map. Its also worty considering that since hot is included in pof they should consider those maps too when they add new stuff.

In short if this update took 2 months like normal i wouldnt mind but it took almost double that and no mater what, for the time it took, its underwhelming.

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If I think about it as 1/4 of a normal release, then the short story is just fine - good even. I agree, good voice acting and well written (for a game!).

But, I do have an issue with the DRMs. They have switched from 10 player instances, in strike missions, to parties, but they didn't even think of a decent way to party up. Right now it feels like 2012 and people are shouting for party members in EoTM map chat, or playing the lottery of public instances! The missions were fine once but don't feel very repeatable, at least once you have got a proper party together and done the CMs. Repeating just for the RNG on the Volcanic Stormcaller weapon boxes does not feel good! I agree with those who don't understand why these could not have been actually in the world, like previous interim events, instead of instanced.

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Thanks to all of you for responding this way.While I did ask for posts about what you enjoyed in the episode, there were some posts here that ignored that option and chose to, as usual, condemn the patch in it's entirety.

Everyone has the right to express their opinion, good, bad, or indifferent. It is a human right, a human ability, and I will never condemn someone for having a different point of view.However, I would like to offer this little chestnut of advice:Before you begin setting the game on fire and condemning the developers of the game you play for not making the game you play the way you want it EXACTLY the way you want it...1: If you know how to make the game better, then do that instead. obtain the knowledge, get the job, and do the work.

  1. Do not assume that the way you want the game is the same as the way everyone wants the game to be. as it is shown above, there are people that actually enjoyed the very episode you are so quick to condemn.
  2. The developers of this game bust their butts every single day to deliver the best version of the game that they can. they do what they can when they can and i would like to think that their work does deserve some respect. we are playing the game they developed. it is not the other way around.
  3. As said 1000 times before... If you don't like the episode... don't play it. or at the very least, do not ruin it for those who do like it.

again... thanks.

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What I really liked about this episode was that that we went back to old places and like Rata Sum, which is really awesome. Also, the zones in the DRMs have an actual sense of danger instead of always thinking that they are untouchable places that you would find low level mobs in, as well as the dialogue with some Asura npcs who describe how Asura feel about Primordus to this day.I am excited to see what they bring next week.

Also @blackheartgary.8605 , people mistake their issue with the devs working on the game with the people managing the company. The devs do really great work. Look at the Vision's of the Past and Prologue episodes. Those were some of the best LS content I've played, with lots of achievs, good story, fun content, new armor/weapon skins.I do agree that people complain quite a lot, especially for unnecessary things, but constructive criticisms is needed. I would hate to see this game go to waste since it has so much potential.

I am worried that DRMs won't be played much and that it could be a wasted concept. It is very fun story wise and combat wise, but farming it? I am not sure yet.

Anyways just to some it up, people just put their expectations too high I believe. I had to learn that in real life, because you will always just be disappointed with everything.

Oh- and I forgot, I completely love the new raptor skin. It is something I always wanted.

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@blackheartgary.8605 said:Thanks to all of you for responding this way.While I did ask for posts about what you enjoyed in the episode, there were some posts here that ignored that option and chose to, as usual, condemn the patch in it's entirety.

It's one of my main gripes with the forum.

A: I like thisB: I don't, neither should you, and here is why you are wrong for liking it.

A: I enjoyed thisB: I didn't so there is no possible way you could. Here is why your opinion on your own enjoyment is, not only invalid, but also wrong. .

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@blackheartgary.8605 said:

1: If you know how to make the game better, then do that instead. obtain the knowledge, get the job, and do the work.

Without severe criticism of the living story1 content, this game would never have changed. we would still be chaining the uninteresting events in the base game for 8 yearsThe negative reviews have served to steer guildwars 2 in the right direction. There is no need to become a developer to help arena change what is wrong.So yes 90% of people yell when the content seems to be getting as bad as it was back in the Scarlet days. There is no smoke without fire.

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It was great to get back into Central Tyria, and finally getting some time in Asura culture again. (So much charr and human for so long!) I haven't finished yet, but am enjoying it so far. The dragon response missions seem more like something I would want to replay than the strike missions were. (There almost always seems to be a lot more complaining than the product deserves. )

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@Sigmoid.7082 said:

@blackheartgary.8605 said:Thanks to all of you for responding this way.While I did ask for posts about what you
enjoyed
in the episode, there were some posts here that ignored that option and chose to,
as usual
, condemn the patch in it's entirety.

It's one of my main gripes with the forum.

A: I like thisB: I don't, neither should you, and here is why you are wrong for liking it.

A: I enjoyed thisB: I didn't so there is no possible way you could. Here is why your opinion on your own enjoyment is, not only invalid, but also wrong. .

You forgot the other way aroundC : I don't like itD : I like it and those who doesn't are wrong and should not play this game

:p

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As mentioned in the other thread, my expectations were overall low (assuming that a ton of work will be going towards the expansion and more and more developers will be joining that work effort), which probably helped in not being disappointed to begin with.

What I liked:

  • the addition of the VA for episodes 3 and 4. I had already completed the story 4-5 times, but always intended to replay it with VA 1nce more. The addition of the 2 achievements for replaying it caught me by surprise, I hadn't checked old episodes for new achievements, and was a nice touch.

  • I like the general idea of Dragon Response Missions and what the developers are trying to do and hope that once the masteries and releases are fleshed out the overall presentation feels better. Overall the game is now sporting a ton more possible easy group content. For players in active communities, this offers a nice segment and alternative in what to play.

  • also liked the direction the story is taking. Then again I don't expect Shakespeare quality of writing, and I'm sure some of this forums critics would take that apart too, so unless any of the characters go off in a completely weird direction, I'm good. The one thing I do enjoy here, at least that's how I feel, is that the constant threats we face are not in an expanding Dragonballesque style of growth. What I mean by that is: we are not moving to the next big entity trying to make things grander and bigger each time something is overcome (going from city, to country, to planet, to space, to beyond life type of threats). Imo that simply leads to nonsense stories and bs (all it takes is to look at where WoW has ended up story wise).

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@Randulf.7614 said:I enjoyed the VA and some of the teaser bits of story for what is to come. The dialogue between Taimi and Braham was well done and it was nice to see the Asura have their own agenda with Primordus and not care as much about any threat of Jormag or the Frost Legion. That was a welcome bit of story lore consistency that has been lacking for years

There was also a piece of music which felt very Canthan - to the point I almost feel like it slipped in by mistake or as a teaser to come. It's rare the sound team ever under deliver and they didn't this time

To be honest, i don't necs think we should be creating threads purely to praise or bash the episode. Episodic feedback threads should contain both types of feedback to help improve content going forward, but for now I'll leave it at the above so as not to drag this off course with everything I felt they got wrong

I must say that is is quite nice addition like Asura really hates Primordus and Norn Hates Jormag.If the position reversed for example Primordus offering aid to Destroy Jormag, I think Braham will accept the alliance as well, and Taimi's voice always funny to hear.

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