I love racial mentions in eod!

[Blue D Phoenix.7260]

As a sylvari female, I came across two racial mentions which was fun to hear cause it made it more real. Than HoT where sylvari should be feared cause of modermoth corruption, especially during first act. 

 

Anyone came across similar incidents?

Here's some expamles, 

During first boat ride, the boat man asked if I eat sunlight, lol. 

And some npc in echowild, mentioned me as "plant lady". 

[Opal.9324]

If you're a charr, the boat man says something about having pet cats.

[windyweather.1238]

I did part of story yesterday and lots of HP/MP stuff. I recall in a story segment being referred to as "Asura" . Hummm those references add to the voice acting. Lots of voice acting. Which is great. But doesn't all the voice dialog seem pretty "Colloquial" to you? It seems unusually informal and full of modern jargon references. Sort of trashes the immersion for me. I appreciate that there is a lot of it, but wish it was more in keeping with a foreign place and time and less like 90210 High School. Or is there a better way to characterize it? Donno. Which is exactly what I've heard folks say in the voice dialog.

[GativideoVHS.4978]

Taimi At one point in the story says "she has beautiful fur, look at the commander's fur" (im charr) lol

Also I love sarcastic comments from both my character and the NPCS

[DoctorOverlord.8620]

I noticed the race-specific dialog as well, it's a terrific touch!  I've been comparing the dialogs with my guildmates who have different races than my main.  It reminds me of the Olmakhan village where the NPCs had specific-race reactions.   The responses of our characters are great 🙂  

[Harak.8397]

Besides the boat man mentioning cats to my Charr and someone on NK's docks saying he'd never seen one ( charr ) I can't think of anything else.

[Farohna.6247]

The boat man telling me he has three cats and me suggesting he not finish that sentence was pretty amusing.  Have also heard a Canthan talking to a Charr asking if they're a cat and being informed to please not call them a cat lol.  I like the references, nice touch.

[Drarnor Kunoram.5180]

The racial mentions are fantastic, but I love how there are other little bits of dialogue that only occour if you do something specific.

 

For example, when I drove my skiff to New Kaineng in the story, I accidentally missed the instance entrance and hit the map border, which broke my skiff.  The NPC riding with me (can't recall her name, Emporer's advisor) immedietly drops a comment about "When I said I liked being close to the water, I didn't mean this."

 

Then much later on in the story, Detective Rama gives me crap about dropping her in the water!

Edited March 4, 2022 by Drarnor Kunoram.5180

[GativideoVHS.4978]

Ok i just found a another one. When my character Find A baby room in Joon's mansion My character, Charr, says  " she has a puppy?" And TaImi says "Hmmm yes...you mean a son?"  PUP Lmao love Charrs

[Rasimir.6239]

Not race specific, but try being creative on the form you fill out for your travel permit. Rama has some interesting stuff to say about that a bit later in the story 😉 .

 

The first individual line I noticed was when talking to Kasmeer at the end of the Cantha intro instance, and asking her how she found us so quickly. Her answer went something like "well, Empress Ihn asking Queen Jenna if she knew something about a Charr, an Asura, and a dragon crash-landing on a Canthan beach was kind of a giveaway".

 

I laughed out loud at the fisherman and his three cats, especially the awkward pauses in that conversation 😉 . I'm also guilty of dropping Navan in the water on the way to Kaineng (it was an accident, really!), and Rama referencing that incident much later on was nice to hear, too.

[Doctor Hide.6345]

Well, I started the story on my Asura, so more will come I am sure. But when you get thrown in the jail. The jailers ask "What are those things" basically and commenting on the teeth. lolz

[Amanda Whitemoon.6173]

but still they missed stuff, like if you use the personal story to say your a canthan human, they dont mention it, and aurene if you bring the fish has no other line for being a sylvari about the lifespan, althrough we dont even know if sylvari have a lifespan.

 

would be funny if for a sylvari Aurene would be named "Cousin Aurene"

[Danikat.8537]

I really like these details too. It makes the dialogue seem a bit more organic and real. As well as races there's sometimes bits where certain professions get different dialogue or options. During Season 2 my norn engineer had a whole extra conversation with Taimi about Scarlet's steam creatures.

I've only played EoD on a human character so far so I haven't seen many. The fisherman giving you a ride asked if my character had any 'carrot bread' which is apparently an old Tyrian recipe, and one of the random NPCs you can meet in Kaineng was going on about how her family is originally from Tyria.

There was also a point where Marjory was complaining about a posh bit of Kaineng and compared it to Manor Hill in the Salma District, and my character (human noble background) joking said "Hey I resent that". I'm curious about whether human commoners and 'street rats' get a different version of that, but it will be a while before I play through it on my weaver, who is my only other human character.
 

On 3/2/2022 at 5:37 AM, windyweather.1238 said:

I did part of story yesterday and lots of HP/MP stuff. I recall in a story segment being referred to as "Asura" . Hummm those references add to the voice acting. Lots of voice acting. Which is great. But doesn't all the voice dialog seem pretty "Colloquial" to you? It seems unusually informal and full of modern jargon references. Sort of trashes the immersion for me. I appreciate that there is a lot of it, but wish it was more in keeping with a foreign place and time and less like 90210 High School. Or is there a better way to characterize it? Donno. Which is exactly what I've heard folks say in the voice dialog.

I can't remember if Anet have said anything about this but I've seen some authors explain using modern English in a high fantasy setting by saying of course the characters wouldn't really be speaking English at all so the dialogue is being 'translated' and it makes more sense to translate it into the version of English the readers use than an older one.

It also avoids the need to explain when words and phrasing have changed over time or break the style to accommodate the audience. There's obvious issues, like the book I'm currently reading talking about "Indian Vikings" in the Peruvian jungle (not alternate history fiction, just very out-dated wording for indigenous people with a reputation for attacking Spanish settlers) and phrases like "it was all rather queer and a gay time was had by all" but there's more subtle things which can be harder to handle, like Akane's unprofessional indifference towards the player character - that wouldn't have come through as clearly if the game was using an older version of English, even if it was written to be informal by the standards of whatever period was chosen.

(That's the other problem - the game is not set on Earth and Tyria's history doesn't match Earth's so there's no obvious time period or version of English to match it to. Having everyone going around saying "Doth thou knowest wherefore art mine cat?" would be just as out of place as "Heh, anyone seen a cat 'round here? Answers to Mr. Floof?")

[Ziegrif.5964]

Apparently the ancient Norn in Joons mansion is a shopping list.

[Desh.7028]

On 3/2/2022 at 6:37 AM, windyweather.1238 said:

But doesn't all the voice dialog seem pretty "Colloquial" to you?

 

There are some hits and misses. Rytlock swearing was a hit, Yao actually saying "SOL" would be weird even in real life.

Akane is clearly meant to be a humorous character.

 

Some Joon stuff was quite something though "humble jade trader for a father" and pretending not to have to apologize for anything (like being wrong and confrontational, her hubris and really poor judge of character when hiring the Aetherblades) by deflecting and listing things she thinks she shouldn't have to apologize for. She got away with quite a bit.

 

1 hour ago, Danikat.8537 said:

The fisherman giving you a ride asked if my character had any 'carrot bread' which is apparently an old Tyrian recipe, and one of the random NPCs you can meet in Kaineng was going on about how her family is originally from Tyria.

 

He's a virtually living stereotype. It set a good tone for Humans and Sylvari at least who respond calmly and are helpful. I don't know Charr or Asura interactions yet but with Norn he asks a really harmless question and the Norn Commander chooses to interpret it in the worst way possible for the response. Not yet sure how I feel about the choice to have such a difference, especially when out of the three the only one who'd have an objective reason to give backlash is Sylvari even if the average Norn being harsher and more direct than the average Human makes some sense.

The conversations should be on the wiki at some point.

 

Non-human characters being real strangers in Chanta was an important part of the history of Cantha itself. I'm really happy they touched on that. One exception is a bit of an oversight though (and a spoiler): 

Spoiler

Nevan gives the commander a device to shroud their face (and just that as she specifically states) and thus their identity. So in some cases you're now a Canthan with a weirdy woody and leafy body or 4 heads too short with absurd limb proportions or 4 heads too tall. Won't even go into how a Charr with an average Canthan face might look like.

 

[Danikat.8537]

2 minutes ago, Desh.7028 said:

 

Non-human characters being real strangers in Chanta was an important part of the history of Cantha itself. I'm really happy they touched on that. One exception is a bit of an oversight though (and a spoiler): 

  Reveal hidden contents

Nevan gives the commander a device to shroud their face (and just that as she specifically states) and thus their identity. So in some cases you're now a Canthan with a weirdy woody and leafy body or 4 heads too short with absurd limb proportions or 4 heads too tall. Won't even go into how a Charr with an average Canthan face might look like.

 

 

Spoiler

My interpretation is that made it impossible for them to identify you individually, not that it was a complete disguise. So they'd still know you were a charr/asura/sylvari/norn/non-Canthan human but they wouldn't realise you're the specific individual they're looking for and even if they were stopping all Tyrians for questioning you could just say you know nothing about it.

I'm not sure if it ever even comes up though, the only NPCs I had any dealing with on my way down to Echovald were the Jade Brotherhood, who didn't care who I was, they were attacking everyone, and I haven't gotten far enough yet to know if the disguise comes up again, so I haven't seen how the NPCs react to it.

 

[Desh.7028]

6 minutes ago, Danikat.8537 said:

 

  Hide contents

My interpretation is that made it impossible for them to identify you individually, not that it was a complete disguise. So they'd still know you were a charr/asura/sylvari/norn/non-Canthan human but they wouldn't realise you're the specific individual they're looking for and even if they were stopping all Tyrians for questioning you could just say you know nothing about it.

I'm not sure if it ever even comes up though, the only NPCs I had any dealing with on my way down to Echovald were the Jade Brotherhood, who didn't care who I was, they were attacking everyone, and I haven't gotten far enough yet to know if the disguise comes up again, so I haven't seen how the NPCs react to it.

 

Spoiler

I understand that logic but it has flaws. Considering how Canthans do things it is safe to assume that if they're looking for a Norn commander they'd stop and inspect everyone who's suspiciously tall and of the right sex just to make sure. There's more here to underline my point but you have to get to that point first.

And it would work when you look around in Kaineng, they'd had to check on like three people and you'd be found.

The disguise in total is a really small thing, I just look at it logically on instinct.