Snowden drifts - I require some explanations here

[RagiNagi.1802]

Hi. After some time I am mapping again. Today I was doing Snowden Drifts and started wondering what is illustrated on the loading screen? Is there a story arc with Koda and humans? Also, what is that armor that the woman is wearing? Looks pretty good.

Also, there is a lvl 80 raven sitting behind an abandoned house. Any idea what is going on there? Is the bird part of some side quest?

Then I was in some Quaggan cave. And this, mind you, is totally making the game unplayable... It was snowing in the cave.

 

https://i.ibb.co/Fzp0BHB/gw050.jpg - loading screen

https://i.ibb.co/QQckcM0/gw054.jpg - lvl80 raven

https://i.ibb.co/FhWVXnD/gw051.jpg - snowing in the cave

 

 

Cheers.

[Randulf.7614]

I think it is a younger Eir with Kodans. I vaguely remember some connection made between them and her in one of the personal story instances

[RagiNagi.1802]

21 minutes ago, Demonhead.7584 said:

She's wearing an artistic render of Norn Cultural Heavy T3 Female armour (look at her legs/thigh area)

I can see the resemblance, maybe the closest we can get to it.

 

But if you look at it, the T3 cultural armor is much more open on lower back/sides/chest. And in game the legs have some cloth hanging down from the belt. On that loading screen it' s all tight.

26 minutes ago, Demonhead.7584 said:

 

It's for Nevermore the legendary staff

Ah, makes sense. Thanks!

 

29 minutes ago, Randulf.7614 said:

I think it is a younger Eir with Kodans. I vaguely remember some connection made between them and her in one of the personal story instances

hmm.. this could make sense. It just seemed like it could be a human, given that she is that much smaller than that Kodan.

[The Greyhawk.9107]

1 hour ago, RagiNagi.1802 said:

But if you look at it, the T3 cultural armor is much more open on lower back/sides/chest. And in game the legs have some cloth hanging down from the belt. On that loading screen it' s all tight.

Well it is Concept Art, its liable to be a little different.

[RagiNagi.1802]

7 minutes ago, The Greyhawk.9107 said:

Well it is Concept Art, its liable to be a little different.

I am not saying it is not.

But is that concept art that is showing on loading screens of finished game, giving flavour to the area? And I was just thinking that maybe there is a different armor, which is not Norn cultural T3, that is depicted on that image.

[The Greyhawk.9107]

6 minutes ago, RagiNagi.1802 said:

I am not saying it is not.

But is that concept art that is showing on loading screens of finished game, giving flavour to the area? And I was just thinking that maybe there is a different armor, which is not Norn cultural T3, that is depicted on that image.

That's not necessarily the case, from my understanding this art wasn't made just prior to release.  A lot of whats shown in some don't match up with what currently in game, like say the loading screen for Hoelbrek, those buildings in that art are pretty different from current Norn architecture.  Or the one for Dragon's Stand, that image of Mordremoth in it doesn't match the one we fight in game.

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

On 8/2/2021 at 8:17 AM, RagiNagi.1802 said:

hmm.. this could make sense. It just seemed like it could be a human, given that she is that much smaller than that Kodan.

IIRC, original designs for kodan were to have them be 12' tall, compared to the 7-9' tall norn. They got shrunk down to ~10' tall for the sake of animation speeds (because all NPCs move at the same rate, larger models typically mean very slow walk animations; makes giants look weird when they move, but not gamebreakingly so, but norn and kodan were shrunk to help reduce this immersive breaking aspect).

It's also just conceptual art so it's not gonna be fully accurate, even if it was used for loading screen - ArenaNet likes to reuse their concept art, even if it's no longer accurate to the current state of the game at launch, and turn these into loading screens and in-universe paintings.

But it is depicting a norn and kodan. I don't think there's any specific story for it or that it's meant to be a young Eir.

Edited August 8, 2021 by Konig Des Todes.2086