190 replies to this topic

[Reina Takayama]

Necros Stalker, on 30 October 2013 - 09:32 AM, said:

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I really like your thinking that's the kind of stuff that Anet never covers in the actual game (or maybe we will after we get more investigation done), but they always have more extensive background info in the web stories they post, which players are begging for them to be put into game whether as interact books in a library or collected in an instance like home instance or something with achievements to read stories or if its all NPCs telling stuff or cinematics etc

I honestly didn't think of Krait's situation as desperate because they are such annoying brats in game xD They too have their own religion and beliefs and agenda etc

I do believe we eventually push towards the real game lore of dragons and so on. The personal story was about that, there would be no way Anet abandons that. I think they're just taking their sweet time and making a big slow clunky development of seemingly unrelated things but they will all make sense one day.....

I have hopes I think we're hitting Forest Dragon for sure though. If we're proven wrong then oops, but Scarlet is sylvari and her big dream thing was related with pale tree and Trees and nightmare court which is in maguuma area which also relates to Dragon corruption or currently uncertain corruption.... If they put scarlet and the nightmare court in so many reoccuring things then i think we're moving that way, unless they have a significant sea dragon character, other than all the races being pushed away by dragons (this happens to everybody everywhere anyway)

Please give us new dragons...

I actually dont like the jungle tho so I wish we were getting Crystal Desert and Tengu + Cantha LOL

[Noctis]

I actually really hope they see the light and save the dragons for an expansion or an expansion equivalent content wise. You can't really get a dragon story going without a massive narrative comparable to the original Personal Story plus the massive amounts of content trough out the over world and dungeons.  

Furthermore I'd rather see the Zaizhan fight fixed - read totally redesigned - before they even touch any other dragon.


But realistically I doubt we'll see any new zones or grand story lines that would get us back to the dragons in a long time. As the lead writer has stated any new idea takes 4 months to get from concept to actual development and they haven't yet decided on any dragon involvement in near future. So at the very least it will take half a year witch would be the most optimistic forecast. I think it will take them at least one more year to finally get it into their heads that we need a proper expansion for that kind of stuff.  

So however optimistic and enthusiastic you feel I can pretty much guarantee that we won't be getting any dragons or any real big fully populated and consistent with already build game world (as opposed to Southsun and Zephyr thing) zones for another year. Maybe something sub par in like 8 months from now we get another Zephyr thingie that doesn't mean anything in the long run. But more than that - don't count on it.

What I really wish they admitted right now is that two weeks big update schedule was a mistake and they want to make the changes more gradual. Doubtfully that they will though.

[UltraEM]

There should be a space elder dragon from the alternate steampunk dimension that is a sentient machine that shoots lazers and stuff

[Reina Takayama]

Noctis, on 31 October 2013 - 11:17 AM, said:

So however optimistic and enthusiastic you feel I can pretty much guarantee that we won't be getting any dragons or any real big fully populated and consistent with already build game world (as opposed to Southsun and Zephyr thing) zones for another year. Maybe something sub par in like 8 months from now we get another Zephyr thingie that doesn't mean anything in the long run. But more than that - don't count on it.

What I really wish they admitted right now is that two weeks big update schedule was a mistake and they want to make the changes more gradual. Doubtfully that they will though.

Haha, yeah, actually my optimism is for a year XD I have hopes that there will be content in a year or two years time that will seem like we've reached some core lore content again, and a hope that when we look back at it, some of the nonsensical updates actually make more sense

They do need to make the zhaitan fight more work but the model design of zhaitan was pretty cool

[Fritanga]

So some on Reddit have found Rox and Brahm randomly show up during the demolition events in Kessex Hills. This marks the first time we see both the Rox/Brahm team and the Marjory/Lady Kasameer team in one place! Maybe now we are seeing a convergence of these characters. The only one really missing from this matchup is Ellen Kiel and Evon Gnashblade?

[Reisa]

Hmmm, maybe if the Pale Tree and/or Sylvari are the minions of the Jungle dragon...

Could Anet be setting up Scarlett as a dragon lieutenant we would actually give a fudge about killing?

[Noctis]

Fritanga, on 02 November 2013 - 10:48 PM, said:

The only one really missing from this matchup is Ellen Kiel and Evon Gnashblade?

No. I really hope they leave the whole election thing alone. It's done - one won the other lost. Now they have their jobs to do and not disturb us.

The idea of Trio and Duo teaming up seems pretty cool.

[Fritanga]

The way I see it with this last release is that we are most certainly heading in two possible directions. Both of which excite me!

Option 1: The Crystal Desert-
Many are thinking we are heading to the Crystal Desert through the door next to Ebonhawk. With this last Krait-centric update, we see the Krait Obelisk shards increasing in frequency of appearances in Mount Maelstrom and Sparkfly Fen. The Durmond Priory NPC who you talk with about the Obelisks also mentions that they share many magical properties similar to the Bloodstones. This would imply that the Krait want to build these obelisks somewhere near where there is a great deal of magic (in the same way that the Elder Dragons roost in places with high magic). The place which holds the most being Orr. The more I read about the Krait and their lore, the more it points to the Scavenger's Causeway and the straight of water north of it (and south of Mount Maelstrom). This area is a fantastic precursor to Elona (as its at the mouth of the Elon River), and could even provide the the first glimpses of a cleansed Orr (something which many players have been wanting badly). Personally, I would love to get a zone to the south like that because potentially we could get the Scavenger's Causeway, Cleansed Orr, and then get introduced to the Crystal Desert via the same way we got it in GW1, The Amnoon Oasis. Additionally, there has been much discussion that "The Forgotten" are actually ancestors of the Krait. The Forgotten structures and teleporters in GW1 all look very Obelisk-like in nature. Not to mention that in Lore, the Crystal Desert was originally the Crystal Sea and the forgotten its inhabitants. Are the forgotten Krait? Take Augry Rock as an example. Sort of looks like the bottom of a giant Krait Obelisk in this image:

Option 2: Maguuma Wastes-
I have said before that I think we might be heading in this direction. I still feel pretty strongly that this is the path we are heading. Many things point this way. Devs have said that there is more to Scarlet and why she is doing the things which she is doing. For one, I would love to throw a wrench into everything by making her working with the Mursaat (or possibly going in the same direction as the Mursaat did). When you really think about it, she is gathering up all the groups with their own agendas. The groups who really don't want anything to do with this whole Dragon mumbo-jumbo (just as the Mursaat were) and taking them in a westward direction. Since the Krait lost their Orb (in the personal story where we take it from them) they are pretty much defenseless against the dragons and would be pretty desperate to find a way. We have seen Scarlet dealing with portals to other places already, perhaps she is working on the same technology to put her groups out of phase with reality (like the Mursaat did when the dragons rose the first time). This would also explain why nobody has gotten the Sons of Svannir into an alliance either (since they worship a dragon).

Just because speculation is fun, I think that there can be a lot of great stuff in both places. One option I would love to consider is that Fort Vandal in Brisban Wildlands has an Asura Gate in it. Nobody really knows where it goes (since it doesn't go anywhere yet. Thanks Map breakers!) but imagine if it takes you to Brisban Wildlands only out of phase with reality. On top of Skrittsburg is a huge krait obelisk and the area is just full of Aetherblades, Molten Alliance, Krait, and Nightmare Court. It would be a way to introduce a new zone without having to actually introduce a new zone. It could have some massive lore-based reasoning as well since this is the type of thing the Mursaat did.

[Reina Takayama]

yeah I do strongly believe the forgotten are the krait prophets that "ascended"

on the other hand yeah WP contends that there is just so much map development and in progress planned pieces in Brisban that seem to have been ditched before release which might support that w should see maguuma wastes earliest among other "supportive clues". I'm planning on checking brisban out cuz I haven't been ther enough

[Fritanga]

Reina Takayama, on 03 November 2013 - 05:07 PM, said:

on the other hand yeah WP contends that there is just so much map development and in progress planned pieces in Brisban that seem to have been ditched before release which might support that w should see maguuma wastes earliest among other "supportive clues". I'm planning on checking brisban out cuz I haven't been ther enough

Yeah, I mentioned the Aethervolt Labs in Brisban in the comment section on one of his videos and the Aether/Ether differences that he has been running with lately about his feelings about pushing west rather than south. Either way, I am excited about where we will go!

[Reina Takayama]

So I went and checked out Brisban myself this is the video where WP talks about it

To summarize + my own observations:

- Giant fortress guarded by Level 80 PURPLE Champion Bandits though we are scaled down

- Fortress inside, you can glitch in somewhere (i haven't been able to yet) will have a map zone portal that doesn't work that leads to a map WEST of Brisban

- Outside of this fort, it is full of INQUEST, NIGHTMARE COURT AND BANDITS. They are called the "triad".... Familiar right?? The alliance stuff? The only thing we haven't seen yet is Bandits, if the bandits show up we can be quite convinced we're moving closer to Brisban

- To the south of it, in the southwest corner of the zone, next to the skill point is a hidden path to a hidden valley, which has a event chain bringing you to this champion Demagogue. These are all ghosts and the enemy are White Mantle ghosts, while the allies are Shining Blade. Interesting that this is all gw1 stuff in this hidden area with no poi or indication to persuade people to venture there.

- On that note, the human personal story, has a part where the White Mantle is proven to still exist under the guise of bandits and seems to be the case from the rumors in Brisban and the organization and dominance of the bandit syndicate, So... is it possible that this bandit fortress and the map it is guarding will relate to White Mantle and onwards?

- Just to the south of the hidden area and the skill point is an area that is a fragment of the Thaumanova Reactor Explosion effect. It has chaos energy that flashes and keeps teleporting random creatures from all over Tyria. There's Earth Elemental, Spark, Polar Bear, Ice Drake, Fire Imp, Rock Dogs, lots of ambient creatures like cows, dogs, cats, mosquitos, spiders, etc etc and two large Giants, and this golem that is a start of an event. The golem says its from the reactor explosion and needs to eliminate Inquest, cuz the inquest sabotaged the Thaumanova reactor. Interesting, bc this is a tie in with Scarlet, the steam creatures, aetherblades from diff dimension, infinity ball personal story and dimensional rifts

- Middle North Brisban is a broken bridge with bandits, across this broken bridge is a map zone portal as well, that you cannot use possibly leading to a map north of brisban.

- To the southwest if you zoom out on ur brisban map, you see a large red brown circle that resembles something like Divinity's Reach if it was unexplored. I think someone glitched into this before and found a flat surface where a city would've likely been laid out.

- Lastly, WP mentions the original gw2 tyria map that is shown before the release of the game where there are little marks for important locations in the world. All except two are dungeons. One is henge of denravi which is in brisban, and another is Bloodstone Fen which is further off north west in Maguuma Wastes

Basically, the conclusion we get from this and the living story is that the Maguuma side of the story, along with the waking of the forest dragon, nightmare court, sylvari, pale tree etc, seems to be much further developed and some of it might have just been ditched so that they can make the release date. I recall anet staff saying how their release was a bit rushed they had to meet the date but there were still things they wanted to do. So we have the feeling that these living story updates are pushing us towards the maguuma direction. In any case i'm excited to get new maps...

[Noctis]

What I actually would like to happen is for Anet to introduce a truly diabolical villain that would try and succeed in taking the Aetherblades away from Scarlet or at least form a warring faction within the whole Scarlet Conglomerate of Alliances. It can even be a group of villains that would try to tear all those different alliances apart.

I'd imagine Faolain and White Mantle leaders do not really like what Scarlet is doing and how she pretty much grabbed all the power. It is more understandable for Inquest to be interested - because of Scarlets vast knowledge they would very much like to get - but they have limits on how long geniuses can follow some pompous salad. Flame Legion might view her as a god by this point, but there could be another Gaheron Baelfire or he himself one day be resurrected. Idk about the dredge though, they seem to be really direction less.

What I'd really like to see happen is at the end of Toxic Alliance story arc we get a new male sylvari villain with a connection to Krait prophets (possibly the Forgotten). He would be as smart and powerful as Scarlet, but not like her. Scarlet is Chaotic Neutral - she mainly cares about herself, but she also rejects the world order as it is and wants to remake the world. Not destroy it, but remake it. Basically she's a crazy lunatic, but she sees her schemes as playing and having fun rather then intentionally hurting people.

This new character would have to be as close to a Complete Monster as possible for this game. A radical Nightmare Court offshoot group with their enjoyment of all things evil and monstrous Krait would be perfect backing for him. He can capture Scarlet (or/and some other important character) and torture her. He can lay waste to any city. He can feed his prisoners to the Krait. He will not display any redeeming qualities and only make us hate him. I would really like the story to take this kind of turn.

But I doubt they have guts to go this far.

Also if anyone doesn't get the terms.. TV Tropes is your friend.

[Reina Takayama]

Yeah like implied, Scarlet has something for each of these races/factions, that makes them essentially need to work with her. In this update we see how she might have an obelisk shard or something of religious power like that for the krait. However, we're not sure about the other factions right? I bet she does have something to kind of make them obey her. I doubt any of the factions are happy with her. Eventually she should be overthrown, of course that's what we would do. But we also don't know the extent of her power. she is some mad talented genius engineer and so on, with powers to move between dimensions apparently blah blah so how much power would they need to overthrow her, and can you really overthrow a maniacal visionary? I can imagine even if she loses her factions, it won't stop her lol she's just crazy enough and believes in her vision so much so that it wouldn't matter, she would do it somehow.

[Fritanga]

I really should take the time to draw shapes on maps. I have many map-related ideas about where we are going, where we have been, and whats on the map right now.

[Noctis]

So yeah, judging by what they put on the release page we'll get just a carbon copy of Aetherpath only maybe on a larger scale. And I have this eerily familiar feeling of deja vu: In this Tower there will be all members of Scarlets faction plus Toxic Alliance, but most importantly - no explanation as to what they are doing there just like invasions. I don't even. ..

[Fritanga]

I think with the tower alone, it leaves a lot of questions and feels like a Scarlet Cop-out. We will have to see when it is released what type of story comes into play with this.

[Reina Takayama]

I dont know but im much more optimistic, the tower really excites me, tho the lore might still be confusing. The tower seems to suggest rooms to explore and like basically a massive explorable place with verticality, jumping puzzle/maze style contraptions.... With a final instance where u fight to the top boss.. The ratio of explorable open world tower levels and spots to the dungeon instance is unknown.... i might be too optimistic though... im hoping for a large portion of cool explorable vertical content, i loved the bazaar of the four winds cuz of how high you can climb and it looked epic

In terms of lore, the most interesting thing is the mention of Bloodstone like similarities in the obelisk shards. This is sounds related to the original gw stuff and the races of the time. The forgotten plzzzz
?? the forgotten also were the few surviving races during the last elder dragon cycle so thats something to note if it has any relation

[Reina Takayama]

On the other hand, what is that creature behind scarlet in the center??

[Son Jei]

Reina Takayama, on 05 November 2013 - 12:54 PM, said:

On the other hand, what is that creature behind scarlet in the center??

Oh gawd its her BF O_O'

[Noctis]

The speculation around is that it is a Margonite, but I bet it's just another super mutant experiment of hers like the boss in Aetherpath.

The whole story will be this: Scarlet grew a giant toxic tree to conduct energies and blah blah blah scientific babble and now we have to battle it to stop the tower from spewing toxic stuff all over the place. Scarlet will joke around about how we always meddle in her projects, but its fine because she has so much fun watching us squirm. Yada yada yada, we defeat this new Scarlets champion and Tree stops spewing gas. Victory.

Oh, and don't forget! No explanation on anything whatsoever.