Talk:Skritt

Yay for pages with very little information! Cress Arvein 04:00, 13 February 2010 (UTC)

Yay for very little information being out! Only so much we can do until the game, or more information that isn't focused on the elder dragons and the playable races (as that is the only info we've pretty much gotten since the Movement). Only elder dragon I want to hear about now, is the Deep Sea Dragon - and I only want to see the history of asura and norn, if we get anything on the playable races. -- Konig/talk 06:50, 13 February 2010 (UTC)

I don't know why, but it seems like it would be fun to be a part of this race. I'm very sorry if I sound like I'm spamming the site with all my comments, but I do honestly have a question about this: Has ANet ever hinted to having dwarves (or in this case, Skritts) being playable in future additions? I mean, it WOULD be fun to be a delving race. :3 75.90.149.4 01:37, 22 April 2010 (UTC)

These guys are kinda a civilised and evolved race according to this little information. I mean, from the Phoenix clip, we hear them talking, and in the interview, they tell us that these "rats" actually got their own city. I don't know if anyone want to add some of the stuff said by Colin but I'm not messing with editing pages ;) --Huginn 18:15, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

I though they were in Ascalon too, the Charr have them as a character sympathy option.--AdventurerPotatoe - 21:49, 13 August 2010 (UTC)

Scritt are just about everywhere, I'd guess, from the description given by the Arena employees whenever they come up. They seem to want to spread. --Sy 01:11, 6 April 2011 (UTC)

group intelligence

I hope they will be able to implement the group intelligence thing in the game and how they would do that. Ie if you fight with 10 Skritt they have more skills or something than just a few skritt would have.Jnew 13:19, 6 April 2011 (UTC)

I would expect rather a dumbing of the AI as you reduce their numbers. For instance, if you're clearly overpowering, they could retreat but if you chase them and thin their numbers, they'll stop retreating and attack. Or if there are 25 raiding supplies and you kill 20 of them, the other 5 will stop raiding and blindly attack. -- Konig/talk 18:36, 6 April 2011 (UTC)

Just a thought, but their "increased numbers=increased strength" + rat like appearance seems very reminiscient of Cranium Rats (Planescape: Torment/AD&D). EDIT: Then again, rats getting way stronger as numbers increase seems to be a recurring theme in fantasy worlds... Aqua (T|C) 01:54, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

And in real life. Have you ever been chased by a pack of 50 rabid rats?...Neither have I, but I imagine it would be scary as hell. --Riddle 02:45, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

I suspect they will get extra skills when they are more. Their intelligence is based on that they can figure out more things when they are more, and therefore it's not a numeric value changed in each of them, but extra abilities that are possible when they are together. MithTalk 15:45, 16 April 2011 (UTC)

D&D's Planescape (and its Cranium Rats) is the brain child of Jeff Grubb when he worked for TSR (D&D publishers) so finding similar creatures in GW2 (Skritts) at a time when he was in charge of world building (with Ree Soesbee) is not surprising.

Language

It's implied that they speak a "common" language as they are able to communicate with the other races, however after reading the article on them (in the blog) it would seem they also speak their own language. I couldn't help but be reminded about the language of prairie dog's which, in a single "chirp" gives multiple descriptions of a predator (or other things presumably). I wonder if it is a similar method to which the skritt communicate amongst themselves, or if it's hyper fast "common" language 174.17.5.167 17:41, 8 April 2011 (UTC)

I think it's less of having their own language and more of just talking really really fast that it just sounds like chirps (and even a buzz, as stated in the blog, when many group up and talk). -- Konig/talk 19:14, 8 April 2011 (UTC)

from the blog, "...they can discuss their surroundings in amazingly swift, almost ultrasonic chirrups and chitters..." and then later, "Skritt also occasionally get over-excited and repeat themselves to make sure the “slow-witted not-skritt” actually understand them." So to me, that says they have their own language, and then they speak a common language as well, or those that communicate with them have a understanding of the Skritt language. Still, it's not clearly state :( 174.17.5.167 22:09, 8 April 2011 (UTC)

We heard the Skritt talk during the Thief video for cluster shot. 198.150.95.254 22:23, 8 April 2011 (UTC)

I'm curious, what do you think talking VERY FAST will sound like? I'd guess chirps and critters. Especially if it were high pitched (e.g., ultrasonic). -- Konig/talk 22:58, 8 April 2011 (UTC)

Really fast speech sounds more like a drone than chirps, as the distinction between individual words gets harder to perceive for those unused to it. Check out YouTube videos of high-school and college policy debate for some examples. ~Ekko (talk) 20:08, 1 August 2011 (UTC)

Gollum?

They way Skritt speak just screams Gollum to me. It's not just the "shinies", the whole dialogue with Skritt is littered with sound bits used by Gollum in the movies. Kinda like the minions in Overlord.212.100.56.69 18:35, 20 September 2012 (UTC)

A few issues from various points in the article

Physiology: "whose appearance is reminiscent of rats and bats." In what way are they similar to bats? The shape of their face is similar to some bats but the rest of their bodies bear no resemblance to bats. It seems very odd to include it when 'humanoid rats' would be a perfectly adequate description. (Unless this is actually a reference to their method of communication - bats use true ultrasound to navigate by echolocation, but they also communicate in high pitched chirrups. But if that's the case then it should be clarified as at the moment the reference to bats is specifically regarding their appearance.

"The skritt are capable of rapidly multiplying—female skritt may give birth to litters approximately three to five times in their lives." The second half of this sentence isn't really helpful without more information. In particular how many skritt in an average litter and how long are their lives? A human is quite capable of giving birth more than 5 times in her life and having multiple births but (even removing the bias of considering humans 'normal' and all other animals deviations from that) we don't consider the human reproductive rate to be exceptionally high.

Culture: "They plan little and their tactics rarely extend to exploiting an opening when they see one." I went ahead and changed this to 'rarely extend BEYOND exploiting..." as it makes more sense this way. It's hard to imagine tactics simpler than exploiting an opportunity as and when you see it and that is a perfect example of what the skritt do most of the time - they see something they want (relatively) unguarded and they take it.

"Skritt living conditions reflect their lazy nature. The only farms they run are those which require an absolute minimum of work to maintain," I don't think lazy is the right word for it. Skritt usually come across as quite energetic and many events involving them feature them running 1/2 way across the map and fighting other races to acquire 'shinys' and sometimes building quite elaborate constructs from them. I think their inability to maintain long-term projects like a farm are more to do with their short attention span. Individuals and small groups would be unable to follow the steps required or even remember where they had gotten to the day before and larger groups are more likely to be interested in more exciting projects. Danikat (talk) 11:58, 6 May 2014 (UTC)

@point 1: Based on the image, small hairy bodies, long arms with claws at the end, enormous ears. I can't say that there is not a resemblance to bats personally, but then its open to interpretation. Whatever you're happy with is fine.

@point 3: good edit

the other two points I can't comment on because i don't do lore. -Chieftain Alex 12:39, 6 May 2014 (UTC)

I think I've got a partial answer to the second point. Forager Rascko outside Skrittsburg says his mate just gave birth to her first litter: "Four sons, five daughters, and one I not so sure about. That one my favourite." Danikat (talk) 13:01, 6 May 2014 (UTC)