Guild Chat - Episode 34

The following is an unofficial, player-written transcript of the episode. The accuracy of this transcription has not been verified by ArenaNet.
The 34th episode of Guild Chat aired on March 5, 2016.
"Host Rubi Bayer is joined by guests Crystal Reid and Bobby Stein to discuss storytelling in Guild Wars 2 raids, focusing on the second wing of the first raid coming on March 8th."
Transcription[edit]

Note: The text below hasn't yet been converted from raw subtitle text into pretty print
hi everybody welcome back to Guild chat
and happy Friday I'm your host Ruby and
I'm here with Crystal and Bobby sloos
time is almost here I'm almost POS days
I'm almost positive that's not what
we're calling it though we have another
name for this raid right now what do we
call it Bobby do it do
it do it slur you know this could have
worked out brilliantly what do we call
it Bobby and you just roll into the name
oh salvation pass or SLO no SL theur I
messed it up it's fine all right turn
off the cameras we're going in again
started
ruined we didn't rehearse enough all
right so I know we didn't I just I just
like when you know Bobby made a funny
noise I was rolling with it Mark don't
actually turn off the cameras I didn't
do the the thing try it again slosa
thank you I don't ask for much you guys
so salvation pass is coming on Tuesday
and we're going to have a little more
chat about it today I want to talk about
narrative in this raid because the thing
is we have like this we've been talking
a lot about this fun boss and what's
traditionally a serious business type of
encounter and I wanted to start by
talking about how you balance that as I
mean how do you tell that story about
why this makes sense from a narrative
perspective sure well um you know for
starters we know that the Forsaken
Thicket raid is in multiple parts right
we know that there's a start and an end
point right salvation passes in the
middle so
um you know any any opportunity that we
get
to
uh showcase the story in a way that is
um impactful visual um is tied to the
gam play uh we want to take that but
also most of forsaken think it is pretty
dark and in fact after you resolve your
differences with
slosa it immediately kind of goes back
to the tone that everybody is used to so
this is just a kind of moment where
you're going to encounter this thing and
be like H you know okay in fact there's
a lot of dialogue surrounding that that
when you come upon this thing uh you're
trying to assess the situation let's
just say and then uh so it's one of
those rare moments where we get to break
up all
the seriousness to maybe have a little
bit of uh levity but it trust me in the
grand scheme of everything it is very
small bit I say this as I'm laughing he
says well it turns out that is this is a
game and we're allowed to have fun
it's a thing that Crystal told me and I
I feel like it's probably okay to have a
little levity here and there I love fun
I know I like it yeah so um you
know I think if everything was serious
all the time and it was depressing
drudgery then okay if that's the the the
mood or the tone or the game that we're
trying to make sure there's there's
games that do that very well we I think
are a little bit more like where we have
an opportunity to maybe break it up a
little bit uh this is kind of a chance
to have a fun little moment yeah and it
does tie into the story so it's not like
just some random thing yeah um and yeah
so I'm looking forward to see what what
people think spear Veil is a little dark
yeah you know like pris packed guys got
kidnapped you find this crazy Soul
Beast yeah so as far as
this insane gigantic sloth that we
haven't seen before I mean the the
background on that is that magic has
gone insane because we killed murder
moth so honestly yall brought
this loots shut up because this is like
the best answer I have shut up I want to
loot I mean this is stuff that we've uh
I mean in hot spoilers okay
um that's supposed to come before very
beginning so this will now we're title
no you know you get to the end of the
story and things happen you see things
right and this is kind of The Logical uh
extension of that right so and as you go
in and you're exploring forsaken Thicket
if if you're paying attention to the
things that are there you're reading the
things you're picking up on uh stuff
that other characters are saying it all
starts to paint a picture and what's
really neat is we can like we know where
the story is going and where it's going
to end within the raids and
um because of that we can try and set up
some Mysteries answer some questions on
the way um and also seed some things
that you know take place a little bit
farther right to to kind of introduce a
little bit of a hint so I mean some of
the some of the hints that we did in uh
spirit
Veil actually uh are touched upon and
shown in uh Salvation pass so we've
ruined it by making you call it the
other thing now well it's like that and
and because you know we know all the the
releases and the pipeline and all the
things that we can and cannot say
sometimes you have to kind of check
yourself that you don't say the wrong
thing it is an ongoing it's an ongoing
thing for all of us having to okay put
your brain in internal versus external
mode and inside yeah voice we already
started planning yes what I'm going to
be working on after this so like
sometimes you have to wait you have to
pause and process like okay salvation
pass yes but you know you did you did
get me thinking now we were talking
about telling you know telling the story
and little pieces that make sense and we
talked about this before um Spirit Veil
now I'm doing it before Spirit Veil you
and I talked about this on the show in
that there are all of these little bits
and pieces placed around the environment
that are also telling the story and
you've done that in Salvation past too
right yeah it's it it's seems to be well
received I think it's something we'll
continue to do where it makes sense and
it's been a really amazing part ship
with the design and art and audio folks
all working on this I mean it's not
there's a lot of work that kind of goes
into putting these things and they're
they're impactful you know it's just a
small thing that if you care about it
you can find it it really does round it
out but we also want to be respectful
for the players who are more concerned
with what's going on around them so
that's why we you know through line
story everything you need to know all
the cool optional stuff we put there for
you to get at your own pace and then
that just kind of makes it feel a bit
more you know rounded out yeah and it's
not the thing that I really like about
this and the fact that you've put this
in there is that I'm I'm not the type of
player that will go in there and I'm not
going to go in and I'm going to raid
week after week after week after week
I'm sorry
I'm casual I am I am I will put it on a
t-shirt I will put it on a T-shirt and I
will wear that t-shirt all the time
casual um but I will go in there and I
will do it at least once I will do the
actual rate at least once and then I
will go back in and I will enjoy the
content over and over because there is
so much more in there it's not just this
one fight that you do and you're done
and there's nothing else to do but go
back in there and do that same thing
repeatedly and I appreciate that there's
a lot more in there should you choose to
go in there and appreciate it and
experience it if you don't care about
that kind of thing and you prefer to
just go in there and do the raid then
you can still do that and you're not
losing anything by doing that I feel
like I don't know and again filthy
casual which is you guys it's a good
thing they're missing out they don't
know I mean it's a loaded term really I
it really is and a lot of my a lot of my
guild wars St friends and I we jokingly
call ourselves that and we use it we say
it as a fun term I mean I me it's just
it's not really just so binary that you
can break down player types into like
you know hardcore casual it's really not
that like I only have time to raid maybe
like 2 to three hours per week that's it
am I casual I don't know my eternal
title says I'm not but you know that's
just my time play that I have or the
time I have available to play um other
people have tons of time to play um so
it's it's more just like put yourself in
whatever category you think you belong
in and then don't let someone else like
Define you as being part of a category
that think you're part of as long as
having fun that it doesn't really matter
at all anyways exactly I don't know
that's a whole different conversation
but we're allowed to tangent sometimes
one of the things that I absolutely love
about gaming is watching all of the
different ways that people enjoy the
same content so to me that's that's the
beauty of it I think it's fun yeah I
like it
um raid Spirit
Veil I want all I can want to say is
sloth theur salvation pass it's all we
can talk about as well it is um well we
can talk a little bit so actually
touching on your point from before about
the the stuff um not the movie it's
awesome um oh my
gosh it was one of the movie never mind
anyway um tangents again yeah so this is
why I like you guys the cool thing too
is once uh you get a chance to explore a
little bit more of um salvation pass
there's a lot of like there's some
directed stuff we used achievements in
the first uh raid wi that that guided
you along to find some things right this
way people knew that it was there we
gave them hints on where it was and then
it was like hey go find it so we do some
of that in here there's some that were
in achievement will guide you but some
of it is actually just out there um so
there's a lot of uh Little Secrets
interactive things
um characters let's just say things that
you can encounter if you go and explore
um that that will all kind of characters
I named again the most important part
wait a minute I didn't know that you
there characters in there that you named
again yeah
yes I I'm not great at I mean can we
know one can you tell us one oh God you
want to know the one no I can't talk
about that name that name is the names
are all spoilers oh okay are Bas
spoilers or not so I think they're all
spoilers maybe the next stream we'll
talk about them okay yes please but yeah
the I'm sorry no no it's cool I like
when Crystal named things yeah no she
she does she that's the thing I think
the the designers are really great at
coming up with cool fun things right and
if it doesn't work then you know then I
got to go in and be a jerk and change
things a little bit to make them work
but I mean I think I think that worked
out well in the first one and in this
one so and then uh there's like little
little uh little tribute in there to
some some folks
um people you know they'll find it I'll
I'll just say that this is hard you guys
we're almost there and it's so hard not
to just be able to tell you everything
oh here's something cool though uh
similar to whoa let me tell you similar
to the way your character and the first
Wing would go and just comment on things
uh naturally um yeah we did more of that
and tried to push it a little bit
farther so um your character will react
to certain things you know sometimes it
will give you a little bit more plot
information other times it'll just be
reacting to something that's going on um
the other thing is and yeah we we can
talk about this so we're trying
something really uh interesting with the
concept of you and your party going in
and doing this so in the first raid uh
Wing we
did every player had an opportunity to
speak at a given point in time and in
this one what we're we're taking it a
step farther so one character might
comment on something or react to
something that's happening and another
character in the party will respond to
it so we're actually able to bounce back
and forth between characters to kind of
have them engaging in a conversation
together um and we even have a fail safe
in there that if everybody rolls you
know a human male or whatever and they
have the same voice then we have a
fallback scene
where you know they're saying what every
you know what needs to be said but it's
one person rather than bouncing back and
forth so yeah um if you want to have
some fun um you know go with everybody
uh rolling the same you know race and
gender and you'll hear one version of
dialogue it and it's not everywhere it's
just in this one specific spot but uh
but yeah uh something we tried and it
worked so we're happy about it and we're
actually looking at doing more of it uh
in other content so it's cool there are
a couple of different versions too
aren't there if you go in with different
races or if you go in over and over
you're going to get different dialogues
yep yeah yeah we again this is this is
the idea of respecting the players and
knowing what the content is about you
know it's been really educational for me
working with this team because it's not
content that I'm super familiar with
with just in terms of like what what are
raids supposed to do what what like know
your audience right like what what
corner of the uh game playing Community
is this meant to Target and how are they
going to play it right we know they're
going to be playing this a lot you know
would it it take something like 30 some
odd hours for some some guilds or some
people to go through and play it so
you're going to be hitting the same
monsters and dying a lot and going past
a lot of things so we just try and find
little ways that either hey we don't
want you to hear the same thing all the
time so either we're just not going to
play it as much much or we'll have a
variety of things that you could say and
it's just every once in a while you hear
a different line kind of come in so that
was a really interesting Next Step that
I loved because I know everybody you
guys were all really happy when hot
launched and the player characters were
talking in the world yeah out in the
world and the player characters were
just voiced and this is a neat Evolution
to watch where okay now we're talking to
each other as part of this as part of
this content part of this progression as
far as I know this is the only place in
the game where this happens and it we
kind of gave uh Rob who's an audio one
of our audio programmers
here like I came down into the audio
room I was like guys guys I have this
great idea and you know they're all like
what you know and hey is it possible and
you know Kenan who's been fantastic
working with uh you know Keenan and Drew
especially but um you know well I think
if we do it this way we can you know and
they kind of work through it in their
heads and then we could hear Rob from
the other room he's like what are you
guys doing you know CU like constantly
like trying to you know push it a little
too hard or break it and do weird things
and he was just like please don't abuse
this because you know it has to work a
certain way and you know and anyway long
story short you know with between what
they had done and what some of the
designers were able to do and some of
the programmers were were able to kind
of you know get this system to work a
bit better and um you know in future
content you know some of the stuff that
like like the the screenplay for a
future release we're kind of pretty far
into it right and a lot of the writing
requests that have been coming in lately
is like how can we make this cool for if
you're rolling a certain profession or
if you're a certain race or you know can
we add more variety to this so if you're
going to keep replaying it you'll hear
other lines come in and that kind of
thing so we're just trying to it's a
really cool system and we're trying to
play with it and it's kind of an
interesting narrative challenge to be
like how do you take this game play
System right and and do things in
service of the game play or just in
service of of the player not getting
bored or wearing out from hearing the
same line a million times so it's it's
it's been really liberating I think for
us um you know as content creators to
kind of stretch out a little bit and do
more of the kinds of things that we want
that really play to the medium
strengths So speaking of things not
being static and things keeping players
interesting so you don't see the same
thing over and over you telling me about
some of the NPC interactions and even
the environment changing when you first
go in before you complete the raid and
then Crystal can speak to this you
complete the raid the bug there was yeah
this was a good example so there is some
stuff there are some mechanics in the
final boss we won't talk about
those and uh Bobby and I had a lot of
discussions about how we tell this
narrative story in Salvation p
and I um I said what if we do this in
this other area and he goes oh and then
I'm like and then you know it's not
going to make any sense at all and
you'll see it and you'll be like what
and actually we went into a review and
Lindsay Murdoch who who's our live lead
she she saw it happen she goes did it
just is that a bug and I just went or is
it and she's like oh and so we we
progressed through it and then when we
got to the end she goes
oh that was really cool so like we knew
it was sort of it was like an accidental
test case but like she had the exact
reaction that we were trying to get out
of players uh and it worked we won I
can't say what it is no it's okay yeah
it's super cool yeah and it's just and
and I think it was like wow if if if a
player is going to be thinking this or
saying this do we have something to
where their their character could
support that emotion right like what
would that character say at that moment
again your player reacts your player's
like go hold on something's not right
here yeah so we tried to just do more of
that where we can you know it's uh we do
it a little bit around the game for it's
like you know when you discover a POI
your character might say something or
whatever right um but I think we're a
lot more specific and I think that's one
of the things that's really cool about
the raids it's a very specific scenario
it's a contained area you know we can
art it the way that we want the uh the
play spaces are very specific for what
design needs to do and then we can be
like you know what other cool stuff can
we put in there to make it neat and this
was just a really awesome thing where
it's
like you're seeing a glimpse of the
let's just say the power or ability of
of this raid wing of something you will
encounter later so we're we're trying to
do a uh we're just trying to seed things
a lot you know spread them out and this
way when you when you find something in
even the first Wing it's like huh I
wonder what that means is that about
something here or is that about
something later and same thing in here
it's like huh what was that oh I get ity
yeah yeah that payoff at the end is
always is always good when you see
something and it makes you wonder and it
sticks in the back of your head and then
you get this you get this great answer
at the end and everything makes sense in
retrospect yeah and there it feels good
there's a very like uh you know there
there there's a known number of things
that can happen in here right and
what you know a raid is going to have
usually a bit less dialogue than a story
instance where everybody's talking and
it's very very much you know either
about the characters or plot driven
where and you know this is obviously
sorry you know plot driven a bit but um
but pretty much we have to be very
deliberate about the things that the
characters say in there because we don't
want a lot of throwaway things that
everything kind of has to either let you
know what things around you mean or how
this ties into advancing the story or
just something about the characters
around you there's not a lot of fluff so
it really kind of warmed my heart
watching other uh people try and analyze
things in the first raid wi and and and
pay attention and just break down like a
line that would just come out of a boss
when they're fighting or whatever uh
like everything actually meant something
you know so it was cool I mean you know
there's always the little you they'll
say something nasty or hurtful when
they're trying to kill you but and
there's definitely some of that right
but a lot of the other things and this
was really cool too and Crystal like did
its spot on I was so happy um in the
first raid Wing like as uh sabbatha is
kind of throwing her lieutenants out um
oh the little fights they have back yeah
the fights and and just like all this
stuff and a lot of that kind of came out
organically right we were talking about
okay you know you had this really great
idea for a fight and you know bringing
in other characters and we're like who
who could these characters actually be
and is there any tension between them
and you know and and just kind of the
the the the way a lot of that evolved
and it was just
like we we found a story point to
actually put within the fight and we
don't want to do it too much because
there's a lot going on but people really
but people grabbed on it saw that and
they wanted who is Knuckles and where
was he going to take you well we can't
talk about where he's taking you but we
can kind of talk a little bit about who
he is right um so uh again the names
were people
that people from my guild and um yeah so
we you know we kind of massage him up a
little bit make him a little more Tyrion
or whatever but then um you know we
decided to focus on another character
who might be more apt to be leaving
these uh notes around and you know if
you go through the first rawing a lot of
the areas where the notes are not all of
them but some of them uh there's a
crumpled note but then there's like you
know a beer bottle laying around it's
like was this guy in a smoke break or
whatever what's going on and a lot of
times we tried to place them in areas
where it would be like okay imagine uh
it somebody was here who placed it right
where they just you know goofing off or
whatever uh but the original intent was
that it was all going to be Knuckles um
everyone was like Knuckles journal what
you know who's this guy that's kind of
goofy whatever so we kind of backed off
it a little bit but and I don't know if
I even have access to any of the the
first drafts of some of the notes but
some of them were pretty funny and they
talked
about he was you know kind of whining
about where he got the nickname and you
know picking on them and stuff like that
so I mean that was the thing right it
was supposed to show that a little bit
of disent in the ranks and this is
somebody who wasn't really happy with
the way some of the other Bandits were
treating him or how they looked at him
the name came from you know the bandits
aren't very nice I don't understand no I
mean the idea was you know they got into
an argument you know they were picking
on each other or something and he he
tried to punch one of the other Bandits
and missed and smashed his knuckles into
you know like a wall and then he you
know he's walking around with a sore
hand everybody was like Hey Knuckles you
know that kind of thing poor Knuckles so
I'm sorry but a lot of that was kind of
either cut out or kind of moved around
so it's not as obvious so that that's
kind of the backstory that that we kind
of we playing with of so then when when
you realize he's trying to he realizes
in that fight that maybe things are not
going to go his way and if he's already
not really happy with the other Bandits
you'd be like H you
know take me with you guys you know that
kind of thing and doesn't work out that
way but knuckel has a hard life bad for
him Bobby's like I don't feel sorry for
him at all nope sorry no no sympathy for
Knuckles nope um do you want to talk
about how some of the other spaces in
the raid area have been filled
out oh right okay yeah this we can talk
about because it was something we cut
yeah uh so we had a little less time to
work on this uh because we had Jason and
I have split up on two different not
teams we're still working together since
right next to me uh but I'm working on
release 2 he's working on release 3 and
so we had a certain number of things
planned uh and very early on we were
scoping we're like we just we don't have
time to do this one thing it wasn't we
we didn't cut a huge boss or anything we
just didn't have time to do it so we cut
it but we had already had a layout for
the map and Tammy had already come in
and done like an art pass and so uh
Angel was around and she had some free
time uh and I said and she was going to
come out and help us out and do a few
things and I was like we have this whole
huge
area could you put something in here
like what would be in here what is the
story of this location um I mean it's
kind of uh it's a man-made is location
like it's not just a random burrow in
the jungle or anything and uh so she
came in and she wrote a little bit of a
story that goes in there uh and she you
know she populated it with all the
things that are part of this so we have
this area that you know it's not just a
dead area is actually alive with things
uh and she took it one step further
there was a lot of empty space in the
map um simply the map was just bigger
than what we actually needed for the
encounters yeah uh and then she's like
can I go put this thing down in this
location I'm like absolutely if you've
got time to go do that go for it and so
she got some work done from the artist
and she added a few extra little things
so there's there's sort of a a path path
that you follow through salvation paths
I almost called it salvation Veil uh
there's sort of a path just mashing
stuff together now cut really to there's
sort of a path that you follow through
the map um but there's a lot more
opportunity to like go off the beaten
path compared to Spirit Veil Spirit Veil
is very linear you just you're always
going forward and it takes you to
through all the bosses and through all
the encounters uh but this one has a
much larger area that you can explore
around and there are things things in
this area yeah it's it's pretty neat um
lot lot of things in there and the other
the thing that that's pretty neat that
people should probably be aware of when
they're actually exploring is um the way
things will play out
um your first time through that area
will be different if you were to return
to that area after completing the raid
so um I mean you could just Breeze right
through and and kind of do all the
gameplay stuff and not really uh do much
of the interaction but if you do and
then you come back later there's a bit
of a WP up let's just say and then um
the other thing too was just pretty
funny is yeah Angel was a really big
help we you she really helped uh you
know kind of make things complete there
were some other stuff that we had talked
about that I was so happy that you were
able to put in and then I messed with it
oh yeah oh no CU I'm like you know I do
most of what I'm doing right is you know
writing dialogue working with the team
and and you know doing some editing and
and helping with the vo stuff and
everything but I'm really trying to
learn to do more implementation because
there's always a lot to do I want to
contribute more I also don't want to be
a pain in the butt and just constantly
ask for things right it's like I need
this thing right right so I'm I'm trying
right but it's it's not you know
necessarily super easy stuff and it was
funny um Crystal went and I just said
you know can you can you do this thing
and boom like did it in your sleep I
think and then I was like uh hm could
could can I move him around like okay
sure no problem and we had a really
informal chat in the hallway yeah sure
go ahead and I'm in there and I'm like
wrestling with like how do I get the
tool to do this thing and I'm just like
clicking buttons and breaking stuff
everywhere and I was like oh God finally
finally I figured it out right after
bugging I don't know too many people and
then I was like I felt all proud of
myself you know and then Chris one day
she goes I don't know who moved all this
stuff man but like you know so I went
and put it all back I was like no please
no so cleared it up I was like yeah I
apologize cuz I moved it and we have
like a very like crystal is very good
about being organized right so at the
very start of even the first Wing she's
like this is how I have my folder
structure this is how I have my stuff
named it's very easy it keeps it easy to
find stuff I said all right I like that
because a lot of people it's like the
wild west and you don't know where
they're tucking stuff it's like oh my
gosh it's like under the couch there's
content right so uh so of course I'm
moving this stuff around and I'm moving
it into new areas and I didn't rename or
move any of it right was just like it's
just whatever people figure it out she's
like why is it say it belongs to this
area when it's clearly in like four
other ones I was like I'm sorry no we
went back and so I showed him how to
like move it around to these new I
totally forgot since then by the way
sorry but that's okay and now his access
to those folders is removed yeah I I
shouldn't be touching things as much I
have good intentions but he's allowed to
touch the things just certain things
yeah I think uh a lot these folders but
not these folders a lot of what we are
doing on raids are allowing others to
contribute more to what we're doing um
so for example having narrative guys do
some of the like scripting hookup of
NPCs walking around because it's
relatively easy stuff it's not super
super complicated uh and you know they
get to put their name on things as well
uh I mean we're doing stuff like this
with uh Franco as well with when it
comes to effects where uh he wants to
learn how to do some more the little
hookups I'm like all right like I will
show you how we'll start at this level
and we'll start doing it like this and
once you've got a good grasp on that
we'll move up to the next thing uh and
it's all about like little processes
that allow us to just to go faster and
to be more efficient together yeah yeah
it's definitely it's like the
team uh what's been really great is it's
a smaller team it's a bit more
self-managed I guess uh we have a lot of
flexibility and freedom to do some
really neat things and yeah there's a
lot of that collaboration and yeah I
think it just when everybody feels a
little bit more empowered to to do cool
stuff and work together it's just great
you know and thank you for being patient
with that no problem well we all
generally work pretty well together so
that probably helps too all right so
rawing 2 is coming on Tuesday yeah do
you need to have finished Spirit Veil to
do salvation pass no you can go directly
into salvation pass without having
completed Spirit Veil
the location is in the exact same spot
as Spirit Veil you walk up to the portal
when you're in a raid Squad you'll get
the little dialogue pop up and it'll say
salvation pass Spirit Veil backwards
sorry Spirit Veil salvation pass you'll
find they're both there and so you can
you can choose either or okay um do you
want to give a short synopsis of the
story up until now for those who haven't
done Spirit Veil sure can you give like
yeah like Bobby can yeah B come on it's
one of the few things I do um now so uh
the okay again spoilers if if people
haven't been paying attention but I
guess if they log in they get a mail
anyway right or something so um yeah so
the whole thing kind of starts off
timeline it's uh after the ending events
of hot um you you get word that there is
a packed uh actually I think it's like a
platoon that gets attacked but a squad
that actually gets kidnapped and taken
deeper in so uh you kind of show up
without a lot of information and you
kind of piece together the details from
finding Clues and interacting with
characters there's a lot of really
strange things a gigantic wall um these
crazy magical beings that you're
encountering that you've never seen
before and then you fight your way
through and encounter all kinds of stuff
there's angry ghosts there's a a river
of spirits there's um this really crazy
monster that seems to be formed from all
these spirits kind of latching onto each
other um and when you finally get to a
place where you can confront the the
boss of these uh Bandits you realize
that there's a lot more going on out
here than you thought you know you can
you can go and talk to some of the the
captives and then that takes you into uh
salvation Salvation pass where the story
kind of picks up you know between the
raid Wings there's a very small gap of
time we we're not specific about it but
I mean if you want to play them one
after the next it will feel immediate um
we had kind of played around with ideas
of trying to be like oh is it a couple
of days is it a week or whatever it
doesn't really matter it's just as long
as it feels like a story progression yes
you can play it out of order when all
three of them are alive you could go
straight to the very last one and we try
to you know SK uh you know have the
dialogue such that enough is inferred
through what characters are saying or
what your character is saying or
whatever information you need to know to
fill you in and we're kind of looking at
other ways to kind of clue people in but
it but yeah if you go straight to the
last one you're probably not going to
know some of the details that you would
and you might be like what are they
talking about but that's we want you to
be able to play the game the way that
you want so I think uh restricting that
and and gating all that would be I think
not cool for our players and then um we
do the same thing with living world if
if you uh own all the Living World
episodes from like say season 2 you can
play them in anywhere you want I mean
makes most sense in story-wise to do
them in order but if you wanted to go to
a particular location that's available
in a later episode you can do that you
know it's just to understand that it
might it might be a little little weird
story-wise but you know there little
hints that should keep uh catch up all
right can you give us any other spoilers
maybe not necessarily salvation path but
can you tell us anything else about next
Tuesday before we wrap up um I mean I
have a few more not stoer stoer story I
know what that isoo story spoiler it's a
story spoiler there's no more spoilers
okay uh a terrible sounding word it's
awful um
so we've read a lot of the feedback
based off the first rid release and
there's a few things we can talk about
they're they're not spoilers or anything
they're not revealing any mechanics
they're just quality of life changes
that we've made um so one of the big
things is and we've talked about this on
the Forum so people a lot of players
have probably missed that uh if you have
duplicate mini pets from the first
release I hope you didn't throw those
out because those are worth something
now you'll be able to trade them
in for stuff all the mini pets ever or
just the mini pets from Spirit Veil it
felt important to clarify that yes I've
got four gors ofal sitting in my bank
that are just collecting dust very
excited for Tuesday um that felt like a
humble brag maybe I'm just jealous no I
just wanted the extra stuff for it I
think I'm just jealous okay we can we
can carry your carry you to a Kill maybe
okay you know what you could yeah you
know how bad I am bring bring me along
please man like I told you I smashed I
smashed my this is quickly turning into
babysitting so I I had to I was helping
test something out yesterday at one
point Paul Ella literally had to lean
over to my screen touch my monitor and
go you need to go
there it was so bad it wasn't that bad
it was pretty bad we've we've played a
bunch of this stuff so we knew mostly
what we were doing it was I was like all
right it'll be fine just be cool just
follow the group just stay with the
group it'll be okay and then I hear in
my headset Crystal go okay Ruby's our
only healer and I
went no I put you on the spot I'm I'm
sorry no it was it was good to know but
because I was planning on being carried
and yeah yeah so yeah um so other things
um we've fixed a bunch of bugs from the
first release uh one of the things Jason
has been working really hard on is he
worked with one of our programmers who
does uh the AI stuff so there's been
improvements to how gors Fall's pathing
works sometimes he tends to like Snap
around like I'm following the toughness
tank no JK now following the toughness
tank again so that should be a lot
cleaner we played it internally and it
felt great sweet um what else did we do
um overall just improvements to a few
things there's there's a bunch of like
little tiny just that have gone in in
tweaks uh but overall nothing has really
changed mechanically um at this point in
time uh difficulty wise salvation pass
is going to be approximately on par with
Spirit Veil and uh I mean one of the big
reasons for that is yeah there's lots of
people out there they have they've
killed sabatha they've done the know up
draft course of all like they have
mastered these encounters I saw somebody
talk about a pantsless gor of all run
awesome I
in game but uh but lots of players still
haven't there are lots of players who
have killed the veil guardian and then
they got to goral I'm like we just can't
do this or they've killed gorseval and
they get to sabatha and now they're at
another wall there and this is a way for
you to say all right you know we've just
been like slamming our head against a
wall for a couple of months everyone's a
little tired we just want to break and
we want to get a kill because getting
kills is a big morale boost for your
team and so this is a way for you to go
all right let's just let's just not do
are maybe we'll get sabatha tonight but
we will probably just bang our heads
against let's go go do something new and
so it gives you an opportunity to do
something new so difficulty wise if you
can kill Veil Guardian you should be
able to kill
slosa um is actually weird because we
had asked all the testers we said you
know does this feel like it is
comparable in difficulty to Veil
guardian and a lot of them said we don't
know like he's different like but they
didn't Clearly say you know yes he's
easy or you know know he's way more
difficult so we really happy with that
answer that just he's different so um
that is another big reason why we're
allowing players to go directly into
salvation pass instead of having
completed super Veil first yeah that's
it's a lot less frustrating and that's
like you said it can be it can be a lot
of fun it can be a good change to do
something different and enjoy something
new yep yeah I have something um it's
very minor but it's kind of neat um so
the there's a character who
uh is
just there for convenience let's just
say in
um Spirit Veil who will soon have a name
and then in a future release we'll have
a bit of
importance in spirit Veil it's a
character that's in spirit Veil
currently okay that when you go in on
Tuesday will now have a name and then in
future releases will be actually let's
just say the things that they are good
at or they are skilled at will have a
uh a a bit of importance in what you're
doing that's all I'll say Okay teas I
don't even know what you're talking
about I'm as soon as you guys the second
this camera turns off Chris can be like
who are you talking about I'll tell you
later all right so we have well I have
one more thing and I don't know if you
guys saw um I don't know if you guys are
familiar with there's a Guild Wars 2
player who is a car tunist gears to
gnomes they make a lot they make a lot
of really cool Guild chat cartoons okay
that I'm crazy about and they brought to
my attention today that this is the
anniversary of scarlet Brier's
death right today today today is today
is the anniversary of scarlet Brier's
two years oh okay yeah yep and she set
all of these events into
motion yes it has been two years crazy
times yeah so anyway thank you for the
awesome cartoon I absolutely loved it
and thank you guys for scarlet Brer and
Scarlet thanks for nothing man that
great thanks for sending me that mail
and blowing me up yeah that was that was
not nice that was not okay but it is it
is fun to it well everybody learned
nobody's done it for a while but it was
a lot of fun to be like standing in
divinity's reach and be like oh my gosh
I got a present in my mail you should
totally open that I'm sure it'll be fine
so all right salvation pass update date
coming on Tuesday and we will see you
back on Guild chat next Friday thanks
guys bye thanks see you next week
Guild Chat - Episode 34

Transcription[edit]

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