Feedback: Official Living World Season 4 Episode 2 Feedback [May contain spoilers]

[notebene.3190]

I like how everything gives currency too. Even the smallest events, like dancing.

[Timmychem.9743]

In light of the new "Difluorite Crystal" nodes in Sandswept Isles, I couldn't help but relay a story...

Gai Anja Deux, an Asura Guardian, fits the bill of a curious, technologically savvy, intellectually stimulated commander in Guild Wars 2. Gai Anja knows a thing or two about chemistry, having been trained as a chemist from far away land "Iowa," so she was naturally intrigued by the newest mining node she found in Sandswept Isles. She slowly approached the node, having noticed the new symbol on the map, and was excited to find something new in this previously undiscovered island in Dajkah.

To her surprise, and in a very typical Asuran fashion, she balked to her friends that "difluorite" is not possibly named correctly. Her friends laughed, reminding Gai Anja Deux that the Crystal Desert does not follow the rules of physics found on Earth, to which Gai Anja Deux responded,

"Oh yeah? Then why can I find cabbage, lentils, platinum, gold, hard wood, etc. in this other worldly place?"
She raised a good point we have not been able to fully refute.

So, Gai Anja pulled out her chemistry books from undergraduate and graduate school. She used some ley energy to power her ancient "laptop" and also performed some searching for such as substance in the land of Google. Aside from locating a book chapter online that (erroneously) referred to a polymeric membrane with a "calcium difluorite" backbone, she was unable to locate any sensible explanation for "difluorite" (except that in the Italian language, di fluorite appears to mean "of flourine" or "of fluoride" in English).

Like a mini Taimi, Gai Anja Deux decided to tell her guild members all about the element fluorine. She told them its position on the period table of elements, that in its stable form it exists as the diatomic molecule F2 (also called "fluorine," which is a gas), which is two fluroine atoms covalently (shared electrons) bonded. While "di" prefix indicates two in the realm of chemistry (hence, difluoride would be an acceptable name), the -ite suffix is reserved for polyatomic anions which contain oxygen like nitrite (NO2-), sulfite (SO3[2-]), and hypochlorite (ClO-). She continues babbling about how it is possible for a molecule of fluorine to bond with oxygen, as in oxygen fluoride (F2O), however since this compound is not an ion (neutral charged), it would never be named "fluorite."

There is a mineral called fluorite (or fluorspar), which is a common name for calcium difluoride (CaF2). If this mineral were to dissolve in solution, it would form two ions: calcium ion (Ca[2+]) and two fluorine ions (F-). In this example, the di- prefix indicates two fluorine ions;

"yet notice, the ending is -ide, not -ite! There is no oxygen! In conclusion, difluorite, as a name, cannot possibly be correct! How can we know the power of a substance that defies the laws of physics and chemistry? Ooh, maybe that's it! Maybe difluorite is a previously unknown material, which is why it is not known on earth? Interesting, I will send some golems to investigate further...or some bookahs just made a typo!?"

Just like when Taimi rattles on about something, Gai Anja Deux's friends had a hard time hiding their groaning, yawning, and general disdain as Gai Anja Deux rambled on...and on...everytime she sees a node, it's the same old story again...

Gai Anja Deux also said,

"since fluorite mineral is deep green, not pale teal as shown on the Sandswept Isles map, the name of the newly found substance should be corrected. I recommend either "Fluorite Crystals" (if they were modeled after the mineral fluorite) with their icon a deeper green color, or more correct to chemical nomenclature, 'Calcium Difluoride Crystals.' Difluorite is just plain wrong."

So, there you go. This is a true story. Gai Anja Deux insisted on keeping real names in this story to protect the innocent laud the Eternal Alchemy. Anet, help us! We can't take much more chemistry lecturing!

As I was typing this story, Gai Anja Deux yelled at me for the formatting of the ions in this post. Apparently, the implementation of "Markdown" in this forum does not support either F~2 or F2 (we wonder why they would!) Of course, she is annoyed, but I insisted that the story would not lose its point, even with improperly formatted elemental and molecular formulae.

[Felipe.1807]

@"Sathgirus.1204" said:

• ...Did we just accept two Inquest members into our guild, like that? They're Inquest members - Taimi only knew them before they turned. What are their motives? Why are we trusting them?

SUGGESTIONS:

• A more consistent personality for the Commander would be wonderful.

Glad i am not the only one who saw this lol makes no sense at all for the Commander to care for this two characters, whats the diference between this two and all the other non hostile Inquest that we killed on our way?Other then they been old friends with Taimi, theres literal zero diference...we didnt even trusted Canach till HoT lol we acted really hostile towards him and now we are all "aww poor Inquest got turned into a golem, poor thing" we dont even know this characters lol the only thing we know is that they belong to the worst faction in the whole Tyria...bad writting is the only thing that i can say, really bad writing...how the hippie Charrs didnt wanted to skin then both alive for the things that they done to their people lol

[Alga.6498]

I just finished the story.I really love the map design, the Inquest theme and the Charr tribe! :)I really loved all the Inquest asuran stuff, so fun and really cool. Rata Primus and the Inquest are my favorite thing about Asuras now, they are so cool!Enjoyed the puzzle too, I love puzzles!I also loved the small detail about the racial gossip between two Charrs nearby the village, :)The story was smoothly, fun and challenging.
I have nothing to complain about, great job!

[Underdark.3726]

@"Felipe.1807" said:The episode was fun, but a few things I really desliked-Rox reaction to the charr tribe - She as someone who was born in a tradicional Charr sociaty didnt reacted the way I expect to find these ex-flame legion charrs that decided to turn into hippies...Rox as Tybalt is not the best examples of charrs that we have in game, so I dont expect her to be like Rytlock or something(He would probably say something on how they turned soft and weak...they were passive towards the Inquest till you get there), but to be like "Oh you guys dont have Warbands, Farhars, Legions, etc? Okay, whatever lol".She talks with a charr about farhars and how the families raises their own cubs.

[Marxx.5021]

Final boss fight makes makes GW2 mechanics meaningless. You don't need to dodge fields and you don't need to heal or avoid any attack. Just kill adds to get a special attack on main target. Better balance such a fight properly - don't spam endless fields and don't revive so that it makes sense to avoid attacks to win.

[Bugabuga.9721]

Can new mastery have useful cooldown instead of 150 seconds? That's a lot of pain and waiting to get extra achievement point and then forget about this "mastery" forever (given how useless it is -- you still get dismounted when hitting "poison" etc)

[Scary.8034]

I enjoyed this episode, and overall it maintains the quality standard that you have kept pushing over the years.

Story:

Enjoyed the stealth part, I think it was well designed, and also liekd theat you give us the choice to go stealth or just murder everyone.

I think the introduction of the Olmakhan was great, I enjoy druidic/shamanic vide so that was right my alley, the diolagues in that instance were good, that sad effigy whiel escorting the cubs made me go "What the fuck that's so cool" and the Fight against the golem was very enjoyable.

I have to say that, I don't really care about the character devellopment of Rox seemingly wanting to join the Olmakhan, but if she's going to be aronnd might as well have a goal for her.

The open world part of the story, once again was the weakest point, too many puzzles for my taste ( don't let that keep you from adding more in the future, but i'm just bad at them ), other people being around while we were supposedly sneaking around the base trying to shut down the defenses of the base made it kind of weird, I enjoyed the latter part of the puzzles though, just not a fan of the oen with the switches to open the doors, my brain just can't comprehend them, but the rest was cool.

The attack of the base with the airship was really awesome, and seeing all the madness happening around was really fun.

I think the Braham/Commander intereaction were good.

Lonai: I was really disapointed that basically, just like the herald of Balthazar in PoF story, her character is just there so we have something to fight that isn't Joko. Felt like she was going to be important as she was part of the Aurene vision from episode 1, but no just a throaway character, we find out her name and...she's dead.

The fight was really cool though, the teleporting around was great.

Blish: Didn't really understand the commander/Braham's reaction to finding out that he transfered his body into a Golem, sounds like a very Asuran thing to do.Good set up though after Taimi got reminded of her vulnerabilities following her capture by Joko.

Map:

As usual, the environement artist did a great job , it feels like a living breathing space, filled with a huge variation of wild life on one side, and in the middle you have the Inquest and the Awakened battling each other in that massive base, absolutly amazing.

There are some very fun hearts and events in this map, the Fishing was cool and fun, the find the right golem event also. Absolutly loved the magnetic hammer heart it is really fun and intuitive.

That NPC yelling at me for touching his cabbages made me laugh :smiley:

The Djinn figth before the fix was boring, after the fix it's still boring but just frustrating now as he spams chill and slow which makes the figth just tedious

You might have went a bit too overboard wiht the Wind effect on the Gather the storm event, meleeing can get a bit tedious, but not anywhere near the level of the Djinn so it's alright.

The ambush mechanic for the bounties might need some tweaking, maybe lowering the chances of an ambush, but I don't find it as much of a bother as some people say it is. I think the ambush mechanic should have been: the bounty spanws, but so are the awakaned, and you would have to kill them before killing the bounty or they would steal it from you. That way it doesnt' feel like a waste of time, it just makes it harder and harder is always more fun in my book.

[Menadena.7482]

@Timmychem.9743 said:So, Gai Anja pulled out her chemistry books from undergraduate and graduate school.

I can MAYBE buy undergrad (although would think HS) but an asura having to study chemistry in graduate school? :)

[alaskasnowgirl.6047]

Please, PLEASE, make achievements less reliant on having a full party. I know that hypothetically we can beat that one golem in under 3 minutes alone, and hypothetically we can get stealth achievement alone (though requiring the puzzle to be solved on the first try is a bit much btw), but they are both sooooooo much easier with a party of 5. Even if this is an MMO, some of us prefer to play story alone, so having more easily soloable achievs would be amazing!

As far as overall feedback about the story episode - it was good (and the trailer was AMAZING! I hope for a full version of creepy fear not this night). I love the beautiful place in the mists we go with Lonai. I also love how Aurene is growing into her power and abilities more and more every day. And Taimi's interaction with Blish and his brother are definitely going to be interesting to watch where they lead.

Overall feedback about the map - I would love it if the map had a little more detail and finishing touches similar to the lighting of ember bay, the gorgeous scenery of bitterfrost frontier, or the dazzling terrain of bloodstone fen. I love being able to move around this map and istan fast on my mounts, but they feel needlessly big sometimes - like just running between points with very little detail between.

[Felipe.1807]

@Underdark.3726 said:

@"Felipe.1807" said:The episode was fun, but a few things I really desliked-Rox reaction to the charr tribe - She as someone who was born in a tradicional Charr sociaty didnt reacted the way I expect to find these ex-flame legion charrs that decided to turn into hippies...Rox as Tybalt is not the best examples of charrs that we have in game, so I dont expect her to be like Rytlock or something(He would probably say something on how they turned soft and weak...they were passive towards the Inquest till you get there), but to be like "Oh you guys dont have Warbands, Farhars, Legions, etc? Okay, whatever lol".She talks with a charr about farhars and how the families raises their own cubs.

I know that, I foloweed Rox and Braham on the vilage to hear all the conversations...still her reaction to a tribe who used to be menbers to the Flame Legion and have a culture that is basically 180º on the tradicional Chaar culture was really weak in my opinion.

[Menadena.7482]

@alaskasnowgirl.6047 said:Please, PLEASE, make achievements less reliant on having a full party

Yes, I used to prefer doing the stories solo but lately have thrown in the towel and do them with parties. I love having parties as an option if you find something too much a hurdle but the stories and achieves should always be solo friendly.

[Ramoth.5162]

Husband disconnected on the first part of the story, and I did on the second when we restarted. Not a great opening. Now my husband is going on solo. I no longer try them solo as I get tired of doing parts over and over when I die. It's just getting very disappointing when we can't function as a group because one gets booted.

[Keriana.9635]

Here are my thoughts:

Likes:

• Loved being able to get a 32-slot bag by doing quests and events in the area :)
• The new map looks great -- one of the best released for lw so far
• Liked that the npcs in the charr village make a reference to the pc's race. This makes it feel more personal.
• Liked how the story flowed together
• Liked the charr village
• Thought the new charr and asura party members were interesting
• It is always great to see Aurene helping out :)

Dislikes

• Braham -- I really dislike this character and am not sure why the pc would call him to help over other party members such as Canach or Rytlock
• No dialogue choices for the pc during the story -- I would like some more interactivity in the story, even if it is just to pick the pc's reactions in a few instances
• Not very keen on stealth missions

[Timmychem.9743]

@Menadena.7482 said:

@Timmychem.9743 said:So, Gai Anja pulled out her chemistry books from undergraduate and graduate school.

I can MAYBE buy undergrad (although would think HS) but an asura having to study chemistry in graduate school? :)

She said human graduate school was only to appease humans. Her superior degree from the College of Synergistics is apparently light years ahead of a trivial Ph.D. ;)

[Edelweiss.4261]

I'm a bit unsatisfied that, to start the collection for the next level of bandolier, you have to give up your current level. For me, I immediately replaced one of my bags with the bandolier, reorganized my bag to work with the bandolier's qualities, then went to start the collection. I then had to remove it and found myself with significantly less space than before I had received the bandolier. Why do this? Why not require it for the last step of the collection? You'd still have to unequip/equip it, but there'd be less time without the bag.

[Brutalistik.6473]

I haven't gotten up to this chapter yet nor any in this expansion. I'm still in the heart of thorns because I want to complete that story first since I didn't play that expansion. However seeing spoilers I am not liking Braham attitude lately. He's really edgy like too much and I see Rox trying to calm that down. I hope she succeeds cause this Braham phase doesn't help his image. He can keep his edgy personality, but he has to put some of it on a chill pill. I am looking forward to seeing the development between Rox and Braham. d-(^.^)z

[Turin.6921]

Great map, good story, interesting bosses and meta events.

The only issue i had that a few of the achievements felt like an afterthought with some really problematic mechanics. The skritt test subject rescue for example has annoying jumps, the skritt does not reset if you die trying to get him out meaning that if you do die and want to try again you have to go pick him up and bring him all the way to the start of his initial position. Additionally since your survival is tied to the new mastery skill if you fail you have to sit around and and wait for the really long cooldown. It make the whole thing tedious.

[Emerz.5913]

I just finished the episode and loved almost everything about it!

Olmakhan and Charr LoreAs a charr main, I’ve always felt that the charr were left behind/forgotten in GW2. I’ve read almost all the charr lore from GW1 and loved all of it, the repression by the Flame Legion, the rebellion against them and liberation of female charr, how they set up their society... (Currently working my way up to EOTN!) However, in GW2 if you don’t complete the personal story and pay attention to the quests/voice lines in Ascalon, you won’t know much about the race. Adding the Olmakhan was the best thing I could hope for. The idea that all charr wanted to stay in the High Legions and live this highly militarized lifestyle was interesting, yet unrealistic. They’re a sentient and intelligent race; therefore, there must’ve been some charr out there that didn’t agree with the current social structure. Learning about the existence of the Olmakhan finally gave GW2 its own slice of charr lore. I love the fact that they live a simple and family-centered lifestyle and have subtle phylogenetic differences, the new face and different horns. You paid a lot of attention to how you created/presented this tribe and it’s much appreciated! I hope you will continue to expand GW2 lore, while keeping GW1 lore in mind.

Game MechanicsSome of my favorite parts of this LS episode involved just playing around with the different game mechanics. My friend and I really enjoyed the last fight with Lonai where we got sucked into different portals. The floating leyline-like mechanics and elevators (with an option to call them back down if you fall off) in the Inquest labs and the magnetic lab physics were also enjoyable and fun to discover.

StoryOverall, I thought the story was good. I liked how you introduced the Olmakhan with us saving Boticca. It was really exciting to randomly see a tribal-like charr in what we believed was a predominantly human region. The Olmakhan society was nice to learn about and I liked how they were dragged into the fight to protect themselves, despite being a seemingly peaceful nation. I don’t quite understand why Joko is suddenly killing the Inquest, as opposed to continuing whatever relationship they had before this. More explanation about Joko’s intentions would be great! Also Taimi and Blish’s reunion was nice and somewhat chilling as she mentioned being safe from “life’s frailties,” props for that. I like the overall direction that the story is headed (PoF was by far one the best expansions/games I’ve played and its story was an amazing mix of new and old lore) and can’t wait to see what comes next for LS season 4 episode 3.

Claw of the Khan-UrAlthough I loved the introduction of the Claw of the Khan-Ur as a legendary weapon, it was really disappointing that there wasn’t any lore behind why we got it during this LS episode. I’ve read Ghosts of Ascalon and know that the Claw is supposed to be residing in the War Council after we gave it to Smodur. Learning of the Claw’s existence as a legendary made me hope that perhaps something happened in the Black Citadel and the Claw was stolen or something along those lines, but there was nothing about it in the LS. Please think about adding more lore/story behind the legendaries/elite specializations you design. We love them and want to know more about them!

Great job overall. I haven’t had time play the new map meta and bounties, but I can’t wait to check them out!

[marelooke.9708]

Failing the entire "infiltrate quietly with golem" achievement because of one try at the puzzle is ridiculous, especially given how it doesn't even spawn guards. Giving it one try so you see what the hell you are supposed to be doing doesn't seem unreasonable to me. You're just promoting people to look up solutions without even trying to solve things themselves since just trying to figure things out gets you punished by having to do the entire instance over.

Well, I'll give this Episode another try in a few days I guess.

[Annette.6278]

Hello, Gaile Gray!I finished Season 4 Episode 2 just right now and hurry to write my feedback. Guys did really a great job. Yes, they do it every time but in this case they did more. It started with Episode 1 and continued with Episode 2. Episodes are more interesting, complicated and with many fresh ideas and mechanics. :3I like that our heroes act more freely and on its own during a fight (plus one always is ready to revive me). I feel that they really do enough damage as me (tho sometimes some of them don't activate during some time :D). I feel that I'm a part of a party much more and don't just go with npc.I like this balance in dialogues - serious when it should be, nice and with humor in another time (especially Rytlock is my fovourite!). And the whole story with new information and heroes. Everything happen so fast!Fights became more harder and sometimes it's a bit boring because it takes much time (I mean fight with Inquest golem in the end in the village) and when I die again and again (fight with Captain) but it's ok we can handle it. New fight mecanics when you have to be quick as much as you can (I know that you use it in some fractals or raids) is very good! I feel that I'm the one with my revenant (my main was always a mesmer) because I fought so many times last time and I have to play using "blind printing method" because you have no time to look at keyboards or skill bar :DI like these new Olmakhan charrs tribe using magic and I wanna see Rytlock reaction on it! :) And how they live here in their village, their philosophy and these brave little cubs. And Sandawept Isles are fresh and reminds of Tyria! Full of life, colors and nice places.Huge Inquest lab is facinating. And that view from the roof! It was amazing. Lab has a proper atmosphere as you watching some movie. These awakened, broken staff, voices, specimens - really like a good thriller. I still think that last episodes even better that the Walking Dead ;) And, oh, thank you so much for the portals inside! I'm a big fan of the Portal game! And thanks for every task when we need to swith on our brain and solve it! Yes, it's not a common thing for the mmorpg but you do it in a right way and we need it!Thanks for nostalgia and this feeling that something big is happening - I caught this feeling on the airship in the end as I was on it when I fought with Zaithan, and those fights on places that we all know. And the last one was so beautiful! Somewhere in the Space.And one more thing. GW2 is a game but you teach us every time by sharing with us some wisdom about our reality through sutuations, tasks, words, characters that we meet here. When we see Blish the first time, yes, it surprised us. Then I thought that we should be ready because maybe one day human can contain his brain into the cyborg body or there are will be more people with biomechatronic body parts.But Aurene... grow up. I know that she is a dragon and it's not an easy task to make her look pretty nice but it looks like she lost her face and it shows no emotion, mimics, nothing. I can't feel her now. She had her big eyes and something that make her alive in the past.I think I wrote a bit much but I wanna mention music too! It's brilliant. It's right in time, it's authentic, it's new, it's just perfect.You give us new experience and yes, you know that it's important. Thanks a lot. <3

[lynspottery.6529]

Ok, I have a bone to pick with Anet about the new bounties....in the new area. Why on earth do almost all the bounties turn into ambushes? Today our guild did a bounty run through the new zone. We ended up having to repeat many of the bounties because....well, they turned into Ambushes which do not give you credit for the bounties. Its really ridiculous how these have been implemented.

Please fix this disparity. None of us mind having an ambush or two every once in a while, but 3 out of 5? This is a bit excessive. PLEASE FIX.

[lynspottery.6529]

@Marxx.5021 said:Final boss fight makes makes GW2 mechanics meaningless. You don't need to dodge fields and you don't need to heal or avoid any attack. Just kill adds to get a special attack on main target. Better balance such a fight properly - don't spam endless fields and don't revive so that it makes sense to avoid attacks to win.

Oh lordy, I am not looking forward to that. I do wish Anet would make those fights more balanced and actually soloable. I really do not like the constant downing and inability to avoid a good deal of aoe radicals. That just stinks.

[lynspottery.6529]

Ok, we just tried to redo the Champion Awakened Scavenger for the umpteenth time today, and every single time we got an ambush. As I said before, we were doing bounties for a guild run earlier today and ended up with 3 out of 5 bounties as ambushes. One of those was this Champ Awakened Scavenger which spawned an ambush every. single. time.

Same for tonight. We tried it twice and both times it was an ambush. This is ridiculous. .........Anet, you need to fix this.

[mbhalo.1547]

Best LS episode ArenaNet ever produced. Good writing. Good design. Good pacing.Map design, amount of detail, events and hearts - all top notch.Only downsides i can name are - very high chance of ambushes during bounties, progress blocking bug of eerie driftwood not respawning properly, xterminate achievement being somewhat buggy and a bit hectic final boss fight.