Vyr.9387

My sylvari mechanist Áshaíra is able to use her tool belt skills. Nobody else. Tried women of every other race, and even a sylvari girl on a different account. Also tried: - changing keybinds ([gaming] mouse, keyboard) - different trait(line) combinations (including a fully reset one) - swapping weapon (rifle - mace, shield)/gear sets (including a fully naked one) - recalling the mech - various game modes (works in OW, Fractals, WvW, but NOT in PvP) - relogging - unequipping Jade Bot Core + dyeing the whole gear Electro Pink CDs are separate. Traits seem to be working with the cheaters correctly. The fourth tool belt skill (corresponding with Recall Mech/Crash Down) doesn't trigger, the rest - including the elite one, even though that particular key doesn't even exist on a Mechanist - does. The fourth tool belt skill slot also replaces Depth Charges completely while underwater, rendering the mech skill unusable even when the third utility slot is empty. The tool belt skills also don't go off when the mech's skills are used through a mouse click. The character's fairly new - created 20 days back, according to /age. All the others are much older, the closest one being up and running for 85 days.

As everybody's saying; even though the 98% figure might sound like a horrible exaggeration. I reckon it's off only by roughly 2%. The sheer amount of stuff that can be done in the open world is honestly bananas, and it's not just blatantly copy-pasted escort quests or reskinned mobs, either. If there's one thing roaming the Tyrian landscape lacks, however, it's challenging combat, but that's both relatively subjective, and can be "cheated" by simply doing [Group] events alone. Right 'till You get acquainted with one Lord Hizen. Shouldn't be necessary, but never hurts to keep options in mind. So let the wanderlust take You wherever it feels like. It'll all ultimately come down solely to what You Yourself enjoy doing, and limitations - for better or worse - are very rarely the name of the game around these parts.

It does, as it's unfortunately designed to do. But the more You learn about the game, the more the options to cheat the system become apparent, be it through simple things like using characters as mules for overflowing items or understanding the little kinks of this particular world, e. g. "Trophy" items being mostly good solely for vendors or throwing away, but everything should always get a Wiki check (available from within the game itself as well, using the /wiki [item name; works even when linked via Shift+LMB] chat command) to be sure. True, no snowflake is ever responsible for the avalanche alone, but doing nothing lying back in the comfortable chains of the black-and-white perspective guarantees failure, and, considering a person is only ever able to control their own actions, conversely stepping up from the rows even when you're seemingly alone against the whole world of wayward and misguided silent souls is exactly how impossible change is achieved. Because if enough people do what cgx is proposing here - NOT bowing down to this nonsense, no matter how much you want that story chapter or weapon skin or whatever - ANet can either sit idly and then scratch their heads when NCSoft pull the plug, or they start asking "Oi, guys, Y U NO buy stuves enimor?" beforehand, since it should never be "we against them". They're the artists we love the work of. We shouldn't want them to drop dead. However, if they don't - or can't - listen to anything but raw cash when they cross the line, money's the easiest most difficult thing to yell with, especially knowing how quickly can our alchemical machinery (get) turn(ed) against us. But life didn't emerge to slowly fade into the void again. If there's one thing every living being craves by default, it's survival, regardless of circumstances. And precisely in the face of adversity we should remind the world - and perhaps, first and foremost, ourselves - that we are, indeed, alive.

Sounds to me more like cgx is standing against the F2P monetization nonsense on principle, not that they don't get there are ways to bypass it. That's a commendable stance, and, given it holds up as time goes by, the singular direct way how to force any capitalistic entity to listen. As for the solution, I'd suggest taking the 4k Gems offer - supporting the studio for their work - but making use of what Healix already mentioned: every 5000 Achievement Points rewarding you with 400 Gems, which should be very little of an issue before You get to the last missing episode, unless You really dislike achievements. Meaning You've made Your voice heard, and ANet losing money on that last episode exactly thanks to the abusive schemes they're employing, willing or not. Unfortunately, the monetization being as exploitative as in any other F2P game, there'll be a plethora of other purposefully invented problems rearing its hideous heads in a matter of seconds: (trash) loot stacking up, items requiring deep Wiki dives to determine their purpose, too little bank and storage space for all the crafting materials you wouldn't know how to use yet... the usual. At least Tyrians aren't that keen on gachas... yet. Also, if abusive developer behavior really goes against Your grain, never buy any Build "Templates", Build Storage, or Equipment Storage. Long story short: once upon a time we had a beautiful add-on made by a passionate player named DeltaConnected, who agreed to discontinue their development of the add-on if ANet ever made an official version. ANet did make an official version, but then cut it in three, put a prize tag on each of them, and butchered its functionality, so it doesn't come close to even what's in the original GW. They also made a forum thread before the official release of the "Templates" to "get feedback" from players, who, obviously, tore it down. That thread got almost completely ignored and, after the release, deleted altogether. Then they made another, clean feedback thread after the release, most likely hoping for the new players to weather the storm, and, although there were more positive voices in that one, this crowning abomination got pummeled to the ground regardless. But the GW2 players being what they are, the vast majority of them very quickly forgot about the entire fiasco right when the next disco ball piece of gear hit the Gem Store. I, for one, salute Your determination to stand by Your view points. Hell knows the world could use many more people able to keep their backs straight.

Mods are a grand thing because they're made by passionate people for other passionate people, which no company can even fathom to ever come close to, be it in workforce or, many times, said passion, too. The choices in the poll are a bit too invasive, aren't they? What I envision would be what I'd loved in WoW - the malleability of the UI. Dug up some ancient sshots for illustration: here's the default layout (the only option of the vanilla UI was turning on or off the additional hotbars - the top row) and here's a very tamely modded one. As you can see, there's a Grid add-on to see the entire raid (customizable to show the amount of absorbs, incoming healing, DoTs... literally everything needed including the tiles acting like a targeting said person), a CD tracker I can't quite recall the name of, the bread-and-butter of raiding at the time - Deadly Boss Mods - contributing the timers and alerts for fight mechanics, automatic callouts (like you see Shadowned in the chat proclaiming "Malleable Goo on me!") for targeted spells, and a bunch of other stuff, and the hotbars looking very different - and transparent unless moused over - while being able to be put literally anywhere thanks to Bartender. But virtually every aspect of the UI could be customized, from the (mini-)map (starting at simple visual tweaks done by SexyMap to things as extensive as Carbonite, which was more or mostly less what Blish does in GW2) to bags, browsing the game's item database, chat turned into Messenger with stored conversations, personalized windows for whispers... You can just browse CurseForge and salivate over the sheer amount of things there, not to talk about their functionality. There have never been any gameplay changes, though, as the majority of the poll's options seems to be suggesting. Which is a pretty ridiculous proposition to start with for a multiplayer game of MMO proportions, and should definitely stay within the offline realms. As for the cash-in question: I voted yes, because everybody profits from people enjoying the game, if indirectly. SHIKASHI. In case EA.net rises from its slumber in another cycle of devouring greed as it's been the case with the Build "Templates" - which is not even a kitten anymore, but a full-grown feline apex predator - there should be no mercy. People deserve more than this nonsense, even if they don't know any better.

Different strokes for different folks, as the saying tends to go. Can't blame Benie too much, either, considering it requires the smallest off-hand line from Gorrik or Taimi mentioning some contrived magical impairment, cleaning the storytellers' hands in a grand total of six seconds. But yeah, it should certainly flow both ways - reminiscent of Raven's questions in his Bjora sanctum. Speaking of which, wonder if the most elegant lore-friendly solution wouldn't be simply switching the functionality - so the bird mainly flies and the dragon rules the skies.

Skyscales... aren't dragons in the usual sense of the word, even though they actually might be dragons lore-wise. And this association does them more harm than good, it seems. In practice, they're cats with wings. Physiologically - and assuming Tyria has the same general environmental conditions as our wondrous Gaia - a creature of that size most likely wouldn't be able to do either the terrestrial OR the aerial stunts we see skyscales perform due to the usual suspects as bone structure (birds usually have hollow bones to allow flight; ground-dwellers have them "solid") or aerodynamics (animals capable of "permanent" flight are relatively tiny when their wings are not taken into account, and their magnificent wingspans - or other ways they "cheat" physics - are of such note exactly because of that contrast, and skyscales theoretically don't have enough wings to be able to do as much as they already are doing to begin with). Now, we could go with the cheap "but magic". Which, without further understanding of its inner workings, can be refuted in the same manner. So let's not go with the cheap "but magic". Obviously, from the perspective of design, what you do not give is as important, if not more so, than what you do give, which is why we can have all these mounts that objectively suck at everything besides one particular thing and feel they're the best mounts in any game to date. They talk about it in the Guild Chat episode Freya linked - thanks for that, by the by - that the main idea of mounts isn't making the landscape irrelevant, but the interplay between the terrain and the player; mounts are an aspect of the game, not just less convenient, re-skinned waypoints. And that's a beautiful thing, because we need that contrast - we need limits, lest everything become a primordial soup of edge-less grey goo. I understood it, in the context of the thread, as Benie wanting an explanation for why basically resting on a wall would counter-intuitively be draining energy.

A wondrously exquisite utopia You've woven here, my eight-limbed friend. The single issue I myself have never been quite able to solve is incorporating the human condition into it. Because, as Hanlon's Razor cuts - never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity - all of these rules superimposed with the simplest principle of defending one's ego paint a very different picture. In such cases, would it be trolling as well? The intent cannot be known by anybody besides the author, meaning we're left solely to objective observations. Unfortunately, people internally contradict themselves all the time with the sole purpose of feeling good in the short term, and getting to the bottom of that requires a variable amount of psychological work depending on the severity and nature of the issue. Of course, it depends on the other commenters how much of their own lifetime they're going to dedicate to help a random person on the internet understand their demons, but it really feels infuriating to me, turning fellow (wo)men outcast without putting in any effort to improve their state of mind - not because it should be required, but because it's a cure rather than a band-aid. Plus, shunning people based on what they currently (don't) know merely preserves your own comfort, which seems about as short-sighted as the driving forces of ego. On the other hand, can't even a comment intended to offend be of use? I'm of the mind that insults don't exist - they're either false, and therefore inconsequential, or true, therefore descriptive (/wave @Forum Moderator.5021) - and as such, the value of a piece of information being shared should be judged purely on its own merit, regardless of whether it's being forwarded by a blonde girl or a wrinkled, bearded old man. Labeling somebody a troll and disregarding everything they say solely on that alone is, I dare say, even more detrimental to a conversation than having a couple people partake just to cause mischief, because humans are social creatures by nature. Very few of us - introverts included - are able to thrive alone, which means making somebody a laughing stock, especially of a large crowd, is more likely to break them than anything.

I didn't mean it in any antagonistic way - actually think we agree on pretty much everything when it comes to how things currently stand. What I'm saying is that if we wanted to tackle the underlying issues we'd probably have to change a lot more than tutorial presentation. If you make a new character and go through the leveling process the classical way Stabzero said they're choosing, you'll get a pop-up each level, some of which include a "this exists" line with a bit more info on mouse-over (or whatever it is). What you do with said info the core game leaves completely up to your own discretion. Can't say exactly how many people simply pass on it, but judging by all the screams and tears coming out of Verdant Brink the count is bound to be decent. During the 2-80 journey, the vast majority of stuff dies to random button presses. A champion murders you solely through the damage output you simply can't outheal at that point, but those are [Group] events, so unless they're trivialized by a zerg of people already doing it, you learn to stay away. Rinse and repeat, and in a couple of hours you're at 80 with absolutely no comprehension of what's happening or why it's happening or why is that guy riding a giant plushie turtle. By always choosing the path of least resistance, as the 'verse is keen on doing, this entire journey teaches you only as much as you want to learn, which, for people who don't derive some degree of delight from acquire knowledge, means next to nothing. The system is static because it doesn't care, doesn't entice you to move. Like a manual worker with a title of "teacher" who comes into the classroom, reads a couple of pages the curriculum demands out loud, gives all the students a couple of likewise-dictated exercises, and leaves, pretending to have taught anybody anything. Conversely, the best approach the Neo-ANet have already got relatively well-fleshed out in this very game: End of Dragons. The story takes you almost immediately through a training course with all the basic mechanics, which is then utilized shortly after to get into the Aetherblade hideout when disabling the hardlight barrier through combo fields, and breaking Ivan's Defiance to cause him to start taking damage again. The player can then immediately see the cause and effect - that there's a tangible advantage to using the tools the game provides. Optimally, there would also be all the focus-catching shenanigans like pausing the fight to explain a particular mechanic or introduce people to meta things like build or weapon swapping by breaking the fourth wall in other ways, but, considering even the end credits look like the finishing touches of a primary school project missing a deadline, perhaps it just can't be done. And I'm honestly starting to despise this excuse. But yeah, a good tutorial already exists. The sole problem is that it's in the third expansion, not at level 1(-80) where it belongs. Again, the issue isn't the gradual nature - can't imagine many people learning by devouring six terabytes of data in seven seconds and immediately understanding every connection to the point of 42 - but the lack of necessity to use the knowledge. You Yourself said that a vital part of gradual learning is practice, and leaving that completely up to people always runs the risk of only catching the eye of those who'd already be ready to open the Wiki for everything they don't understand, anyway. Thus, the forced roadblocks are necessary to transform a theoretical piece of information into an action the player is capable and comfortable using when needed. Doesn't mean it has to be done with a whip, but that's why video games are such a powerful medium, and not making use of all it has to offer falls primarily on the developers' heads. Yeah, read You the first time around, too 😄 And I see where You're coming from - can't expect somebody to run if they're not aware they have legs - but I'm talking about the effects of the core experience('s teachings) being so vastly different to what happens at the endgame that it's actively detrimental to learn from, as the majority of things you get used to fly out of the window right in the first expansion (or even already in the revamped parts of S1).

Browsing through the models, I'm pretty sure the trend of Tyrian "daggers" being oversized and/or fantasy-stereotyped to oblivion isn't any recent addition. Which, in a sense, is a good thing for the hopeful few who dare wish for a blade of cold, austere beauty. When it comes exactly to Aurene's weapons, the irony that the item in the sword slot looks more like a proper dagger than the reverse-gripped cutlass of a dagger is not lost upon me. But it also illustrates unreasonably well that the main point of a Tyrian weapon design is the HIDDEN, permanently pulsing Blindness included within the vast majority of (legendary) weapons, because ANet are apparently steadfast proponents of the most important spec of a PC rig being the amount of RGB lights. And, of course, random spikes - best if pointed at the wielder, naturally - and hooks and... whatever this atrocity is supposed to be. Which, all in all, means the larger the vessel, the more nonsense that can be attached with it not looking quite ridiculous enough to be considered a mall ninja weapon. I'd also like to propose a charity collection, in the aforementioned spirit of Christmas, for the person(s) responsible for creating the anchor points of characters gripping the weapons. All donated $23,99 would be used to buy said person(s) a frying pan alongside a Wiki article on torque provided free of charge to aid them in figuring out where a tool should optimally be held to not look like a toddler brandishing a cream-covered spatula. (Much more egregious when it comes to swords due to the size, but many beautiful daggers get the longer end of the hand-stick as well.) Thus, here's another voice in favor of quiet, sublime edges.

Two sides to every coin, though, right? Can't tell exactly why I thought of Manowar after reading the OP, but both Die for Metal and Warriors of the World are anthems of camaraderie and standing strong in the face of opposition, themes quite fitting when reading a suggestion of a fellow Wonderland connoisseur with the general consensus seemingly being that both Halloween's Clock Tower and the Lich Queen Alice's Adventures are too difficult. And it's been a while since I last had any inspiration to as little as cast a glance the way of writing poetry. So it wasn't meant as anything malicious. More of a river nourishing the land - not out of necessity, but because it's its nature to flow. Well, from my experience, metalheads are about as human as everybody else. But I also used Eminem's lyrics in this post, so You can freely exclude me to keep the stats clean!

THEY CAN'T KEEP UP, LET 'EM CRY THROUGH JUMPING PUZZLES WE WILL FLY! Skipped my fracs tonight like "I will never go back to pugs alive" 'Cuz I need jumping in my life just like a [fast] guy needs to grind So I vaulted through the Reach's streets right for the sound of crumbling and tears, YEEEEEEEAH! Slid by some canes bearing no fear and some charrming gal slashed me a /cheer! She landed lithe upon a 'flake goaded me over, grinned "Gods ain't gon' catch ya, mate" "Hah; ain't gon' fall," I told her dodge-lept past her worn platform and as her paws lost balance the games were truly on! Winds howled JUMP YOUR ROLLS UP HIGH WATCH SKRITTS' SNOWBALLS DEMONSTRATE ANet Hitbox causing /map flame CAUSING /MAP FLAME! THEY CAN'T KEEP UP, LET 'EM CRY THROUGH GINGERBREAD ROUTE WE WILL FLY! 'Nuff said, right? As such... JUMPERS EVERYWHERE GET YOUR FEET UP IN THE AIR WE'RE GLORIOUS, GLORIOUS PARKOUR FOLK LIKE CENTAURS EATING DUST YOUR SLOTH'S A THING OF PAST WE'RE GLORIOUS, GLORIOUS PARKOUR FOLK

That's considering the issue in an environment of vacuum, simply because although there might not be a learning wiggler, there most certainly is the game (= entertainment = focus) one, which is among the main reasons for suggesting an in-game tutorial in the first place - and why most countries' school systems fall flat on their faces - meaning you don't get stolen from learning a new thing by a newer thing, but by wanting to have more fun. And that's always fighting uphill with a negative incline due to the shortsightedness of human nature. I know. My point is that using such a static learning system in a game focused on frankly absurd amounts of flexibility seems like teaching people to play the game had been at best an afterthought. Then again, GW2 was a very different beast at launch from what I've learned over the years, so perhaps this, too, is a ripple caused by the Ancient Code's mic drop. Which makes me wonder about that topic from a while back about unrealistic features worth skipping an expansion for, and if a proper update to the framework wouldn't be worth passing on even two.

As I've said, I agree with the point, but, come to think of it, is there any gradual introduction in core Tyria to begin with? My memory sucks, and nowadays I obviously tend to blaze through 1-80 exactly because I've seen it a thousand times, but all I can think of is that leveling pop-up window with tooltips containing a brief description of some in-game features. Otherwise, the tutorial boss does nothing, all the open world champions have 2-3 abilities and maybe an irrelevant Defiance bar, and the only time it's outright required to use some "advanced" technique is the chest in starter zones guarded by a circular AoE which wouldn't be able to teach people dodging even if it were dropping legendary pants. The skills and traits are kind of a weird topic. And, I think, another thing core Tyria teaches new players contrary to the structure of the end-game. At 80, one of the most praised qualities of GW2's combat is being able to make a build on a mob-to-mob basis - if you can be bothered - without the game throwing some artificial 50g fees at you for a respec. A lot of trash? Shadow Flare into Collateral Damage! A legendary bounty coming up but there's nobody to play with at 4 AM? Channel the inner High Zen state with a completely new build in a second and JUST DO IT! But before that, you pick Assassin's Signet for that raw Power boost, but then come upon a cave full of veteran hyleks and want to switch to Roll for Initiative because you just can't burst all of them down before they burst you, and the game gives you a middle finger due to a lack of HPs - literally the exact opposite of the flexibility you're in some situations even expected to be capable of. Wonder if the go-to suggestion at this point shouldn't be precisely "you HAVE to boost your first character because this game's only proper tutorial is hidden behind the third expansion". At least 'till ANet improve the actual one people start with.

Third time's the charm, as the saying goes: I am not saying it's some game-breaking issue. I'm saying the sentiment "your Ascended friends will just downscale and you can all play the same content together" has a very small impact because the game's much more complex than simply character stats, which I wanted to point out due to the vast majority of people pointing at it as if it made some difference outside of longer fights. It's like saying Apple products are overpriced: doesn't mean to imply they're bad, but you are paying extra just to have somebody else bite off the fruit of your labor. It certainly puts up a challenge, but the difficulty is so bananas - especially during the first few levels before the player's got all of their skills unlocked - that it's much more frustrating to play with overleveled people. Take, for instance, the amount of complaints from newbies when Queensdale events are one of the dailies. Suddenly there's a horde of flashing, flaming, flying big tops, rainbow spitting neon disco balls, and a mobile Jade Sea for good measure camping not just your events, scaling them up to oblivion, but already the spawn points of mobs as well, leaving the new guys and gals wondering "That was a weirdly peaceful escort quest." It's obviously the perfect storm because Queensdale is both a starting zone and of the most played race, but it illustrates the point - takes exactly one veteran friend to cause you to level up purely via exploration. Yes, the mechanics not being thrown into the player's face all at once is mostly preferable - although there certainly are people who like having all of the cards on the table, but then the Wiki exists - when it comes to processing information. Problem with core Tyria's lack of challenge is that said knowledge has nowhere to be used, staying for a long time in the realms of pure theory. And then OPE, THERE GOES GRAVITY with HoT's SNAP BACK TO REALITY, and it shows simply through virtually no long-time player ever claiming Maguuma's Heart is difficult, save for the HPs. It's almost always the whiplash from the core-to-HoT transition, since during the 1-80 tutorial there's no reason to utilize anything your character can do other than (pet) auto-attacks. It's like learning any other (physical) skill solely through books: you can spend your whole life reading about backflips and still end up breaking your neck on the first try.

Think You might've misunderstood that part. I wasn't saying the OP will become a nuisance to others by using the boost, but, because it's been - and is being; throughout the entire community - echoed that the downscaling system allows for overleveled players to enjoy low-level content with people of zone-corresponding levels, which is true solely while fighting champions and/or world bosses, simply debunking this common misconception. And that we most likely agree on, judging by what You said about deliberately staying Your hand when in such low-level zones.

Off the top of my head, Joko's proudly sporting a handlebar, charrs can literally have a section of their horns replaced by cogs, and I'm pretty sure the belly button part of the Winged chest piece isn't glued on either. The only mildly lore-breaking problem would be anybody voluntarily having shiny metals attached to their skin in a world where skritts exist.

Sure You didn't read my post too quickly? I'm not suggesting anything based on racial physiology - the obsession with symmetry is a Gaia-human thing to begin with, citing probable evolutionary benefits of easily recognizing the seemingly healthiest mate possible - and, although debatable, this being a thread solely about looks, one could assume - while taking the post's focus on "...slots for the visuals" into account - that I'm talking about a new slot more akin to outfits (an item without stats altering exclusively the aesthetic) or, if that can't be accomplished as yet another victim of the Code of the Ancient Dev'loper, a completely new item slot which wouldn't be used for any stat increase, but solely for displays of fashion. Could see it even as a Novelty-style bunch of permanently - or, rather, temporary-until-turned-off, persisting through log-outs - "tonics" which would make various piercings and/or other body modifications appear.

Preferably in the form of a brand new slot for the item - or utilize trinket slots for the visuals? - for actual customization with the added bonus of being able to monetize it, but even a life-long, 'til makeover kit do us part would doubtlessly add a lot of character to a design.

Pretty sure the lore argument against the idea can be safely discarded, as that has never been a concern at any point to anything, from what is seen in the game all the way since launch. Thumbs up for the idea, though. Thrice so if I could take the characters into the field with me and finally be able to see the encounters. If there's one thing I always liked about Vindictus, besides the combat and the music, it's certainly the character selection screen - the appreciation of which might've started all the way back in Lineage 2, come to think of it; the round hall with the characters taking a couple of steps forward when selected - where all of your characters would occupy a tavern or sit around a fire in their camp like an actual group of mercenaries walking roughly the same path at that point in time. Guess I'd like the more organic selection screen to a greater extent than the home instance variant, since I'm very rarely there beyond daily gathering which tends to be preferred done quickly and painlessly, but even then it'd most certainly improve the overall appeal of the places. With some cap to the numbers, I guess. Don't wanna discourage people from getting more slots just because ~70 bonus NPCs (in all those three cases) so tightly packed together would make them get blinded by their own fashion choices. ...or maybe we could replicate them like six, seven times.

For how much everybody enjoys throwing shade at the open world - and mainly the core Tyrian one - it is, in a sense, its own game mode. There's, well, a world to explore and exactly in this game going off-road is almost as rewarding as in real life, with a plethora of secrets, jumping puzzles, "new" events veterans discover after a decade of playing... Goes both ways, naturally: if You happen to not be into this sort of thing, You won't get forced (much; Legendaries and achievs, mostly) to spend too long there. I'd say it's well worth enjoying the scenery and its many intricacies, taking your time with Tyria, not because it's necessarily needed, but because there's a lot of art the "optimal" mindset-fueled grind rather quickly rushes you away from. Now, here are the popularly perpetuated scams: #1: Gotta learn the game's mechanics! Core Tyria teaches you literal nothing, demands twice as little, and arguably even instills bad habits and utter ignorance in the face of all the colors GW2 offers, be it mechanical depth, deceptively difficult encounters, or the player's ability to overcome any and every obstacle. Then a player gets into the Heart of Maguuma and the navigation is too difficult, or victory isn't handed over for logging in, or they trip over the first pack of pocket raptors right into a complaint thread. And the game is horribly easy, especially if you already have extensive gaming experience, e.g. turning your rig on. But learning the game through 1-80 might, in truth, be doing more harm than good. #2: Downscaling means your OP friends won't ruin your newbie experience! This is complete trash because downscaling only affects stats and level, and even those are subject to a local cap, which everybody - except the literal new players - get put at, growing worse the lower the area's recommended level is. It also excludes all the unlocked traits, utility skills, runes, sigils, mounts, premium items, bags... pick your poison. So, if I show up in, say, Caledon, I'll be instantly murdering everything unless I deliberately strip down my character's gear, traits, and even then my Ascended pistol alone would most likely outperform twenty new guys' full level-adequate BiS gear. And, as a personal bonus meme: the community isn't as nice as their pedestals would lead one to believe. Keep Your own eyes open.

No idea what's silly here; this is peak comedy 🖤

That's completely irrelevant. If I can reach my feet, it's highly likely I might be able to reach both the knees and the thighs. If the purpose of the cinematic is showing that, then it's a painfully bad one. Which I'd still argue is not true in the slightest, as even the characters on screen constantly take more than half of the picture, with the focus being placed on them and their reactions. Added on top of everything I've said before. In other words, considering slavery was at one point widely accepted, it was completely alright because a lot of people stood behind it? Might be simple, but it sure ain't pretty. Fair enough, that's quite bananas. I asked for proof. You gave me one ^, but the first two are nothing more than "I had a life before it was cool". That's why I called it technically correct: yes, it's info the commander has at the character's creation but the player does not. Not that it takes more than one to put a dent only official statements and/or actions can repair into the entire concept, but the first two meant naught. Good point, forgot the time freeze. Guess the only semi-plausible way to bridge the gaps would be assuming the PC didn't get the entire Core World Completion before S1, and the threats were surfacing one by one, keeping them busy. But that's about as good an explanation as any, considering there's no real way to tell.

(Workout Challenge: 4 push-ups each time you read the word "point".) If we're going to go hard technical, a line needs only two points: A-------B. Putting point C between the two makes it either be on line A-B, or making two lines: A-C and C-B. Putting point C anywhere else (except points A and B, 'cuz math isn't exactly keen on synonyms) will make up to three lines, depending on which other point is connected to it. Zooming in deep enough, taking into account there's only one perfect circle and we're currently not talking about Maynard, there's no such thing as a "curved" line either, because all of we perceive as curvature is simply miniscule straight lines between points. And even if we go with the tri-point lines, the "third" point would be our start at the Harvest Temple, no? That being said, I think You missed my point. Or we're looking at it from different viewpoints. "Range from 1 to 100" was an example of how pointless it is to list a lesser value when talking about extremes, because by saying "1-100" the value 72 is already being included. As far as I'm understanding Your perspective, You said Elona matters because it's a different part of the world, no matter its location, plus it works well enough with RL concerns, too, making it a win-win situation. The two ideas, I'd say, don't clash at any point, unless we're going for "how far" as the judging criterion, which should then, logically, ignore even Hoelbrak, since Grothmar is much further north, but Braham('s voice actor) is kinda of a big reel for the plot, judging by the commander's worry after the battle at the Harvest Temple. Map=Lined Northern-most mark is the Blood Keep, the next one's Hoelbrak, the third is Atholma, and the last one is the Harvest Temple. Technically not a straight line, but this amount of deviation from the HT-BT line is pretty tiny, especially considering that the desert region of Elona is represented in the cinematic by a mountain overlooking a large body of water. How exactly does the amount of its proponents increase the value of an argument? I'm not interested in technically correct answers. Proving my questions not being precise to the letter gets us nowhere. The player isn't controlling the commander from birth - except for the sylvari, but those guys cheat out quite a lot with the Dream - so saying "oh, but the commander knows the name of their nanny!" is a really useful "gotcha!" here. The S2 retcon clearly points at ANet admitting the original version made little sense or was some sort of an anomaly rather than intention and the confusion was warranted, and the commander wasn't supposed to be caught in flagrante studying forgotten lore behind the scenes. Can't deny it ultimately comes off as relatively heavy-handed, but it's certainly not a hint at the commander's secret second superhero life as a cabbage farmer. The commander is never MIA, they're always out there, doing the "gameplay" stuff, which involves as much of the world saving and character building as the instanced plot, if not even more. (Save for certain moments where the commander canonically couldn't do both things at once - like, say, the meta and the story in Dragonfall.) There's a bunch of times either the PC or one of the party members goes "heeey, long time no see!" to somebody re-appearing on the screen after a certain period, be it in voice or in regular written dialogues, meaning they're not all constantly together, or that only the main storyline counts for the canon passage of time. Translating gameplay into "real" scope of things always sucks, though. Distance, for example, is one of the usual suspects, to the effect of which I've probably heard most about the Brand in Ascalon taking several days to cross in the books, whereas in-game some classes can shoot through half of it with a single ability. So when the commander says "I'll meet you there" at one point, it could easily be days or even weeks in actual time before that happens. Which, honestly, can go both ways, I'd even say it speaks more in Your favor, because, although we might argue what is being done outside, within story instances the same game-lore zoom should hold true and we know exactly in what company the commander is, and far from everybody seems like a level-headed introvert to spend hours upon hours in silent contemplation. Sometimes, sure, but not throughout the whole ten years. Unless those instances are all precise when it comes to time. Some should be (attack on Caudecus' Manor in S3), others could be (anything involving exploration and/or traveling, like Elona, exactly thanks to mounts), the rest might even make things weird in such a case (mostly the Heart of Maguuma).

It's not canon, but it's a story built upon a framework we're discussing the shape of, which should be known the best to its creators. On the other hand, I've seen enough WP's lore videos to know that this might not (have) always be(en) the case with ANet writers, and anything can get changed by a new detail at any point, but I'm also not claiming what I'm saying is the Tyrian Theory of Everything. I'm working with the information I have, leading me to the ideas I'm proposing. The BtS story is basically a hypothetical example to illustrate the concept, and there's no logic behind attacking something HYPOTHETICAL for not being real, is there. Guess I need more field experience; will get back to these points.