The second episode of Living World Season 4, “A Bug in the System,” is now live!

[Svifnymr]

So, nearly a week and no post. So, here's one!

I love the new zone, it's nice to finally have a place to run around in without mob density/ cc making every step a chore. Nice scenery, nice mix of things. Seems they wanted to make sure you used your skimmer mount though!

Story was good. I like the new Charr, and the Inquest were fun. There's still some issues with long instances, but not as bad.

There's the two big fights that follow the same style as usual, which I hate. Lots of overlapping fields in the middle of a light show, silly grab item/ click area stuff. They all go on much longer than they need to. There was also those silly fights on the docks, got knocked off once and had to wander half the field away (in combat, can't mount) to return to the spot.

Zone events, I only did a few. Both races have that odd lag where the race starts, but if you move right away you don't get credit for the first post.


It's odd, one of the main issues with Mesmer has always been that NPC's easily focus fire on the player rather than clones. For a time after PoF started, there were plenty of methods to break target lock and avoid some damage with Mirage, but one of these patches seems to have killed that, so all the bad guys were focusing on me. Especially irritating in mass battles with lots of NPC allies, and I end up with huge groups on my ass.

[Rogalicus]

Map itself seemed too samey for me. I really hope at least third episode won't be in Elona, because I'm already tired of it. I would've prefered season 3 format with more visual variety. Also map is pretty small.

Story part wasn't bad, but wasn't that good either. Speculations about scarab plague I've read before episode completely spoiled the only real intrigue of the story. I didn't play Nightfall, so I didn't know who Lonai was anyway and that probably killed the only emotional moment too. Other than that, it's pretty standard Inquest stuff, though a little bit darker this time, because of all Unit 731 allusions.

[Svifnymr]

I liked the environment, though yeah they all start feeling samey since we need to account for mounts/ gliding everywhere.

The Lonai fight would have been cool if shorter and with less special effects. Maybe I'm just getting old and tired of the tedium, since no one else seems to mind.

I did love the style of stuff, had a bit of Halo-Flood feel to it. The music also seemed pretty good.

The puzzles were fairly dumb though, same with the sneaky bits, just time wasters. I guess that's the nature of MMO's though, consume time to keep folks involved.

[PACOX]

I liked the map, especially a lot more than episode one which looks nice but I feel like the only stuff to bother doing are the two metas. Really liked the story because I like Inquest stuff but its also great from a technical/mechanics point with (without going into details) the various fights/objectives you must conquer. The final fight has a ton of style if anything else. The only thing I don't like is the new mastery apart from it being able to be used outside of the living story map.

[Svifnymr]

I really liked the final battle in theme, but I'd much rather shorter battles. I feel like once you demonstrate that you understand the mechanic ("oh, use the energy thing to cause the heart of the golem to pop out") that repeating it too much is just tedium, not "challenge". Especially in the story, where there's no penalty for dying other than irritation.

I didn't like Ep1 map at all, myself.

[Deleted]

Played both episodes over the weekend.
I liked the 1st one.

but the 2nd one was rather "meh"... i was never a fan of the inquest and that didn't change with them being the main thing in this episode...

[Svifnymr]

Inquest are okay, though they get away with too much. Them being in conflict with the Awakened is nice enough. I did like the Charr though, nice to see something different with a core race.

First episode didn't do much for me, the action was meh, and the new zone was so-so.

I do have an issue with the Awakened being so common/ easy to make or whatever. It's another case of getting away with too much, IMO. If everyone can be converted into a minion of Joko, why haven't they been? I assume there's some cost to Awakening, but why we haven't gone after that, I don't know. The gate attacks between episodes were neat enough, but him having unlimited gates is also just stupid. Granted, Scarlet did too, but I thought it was a common complaint that she had too many unidentified power sources for a consistent plot.

[bigsuirlife]

any news about the new episode?

[Rogalicus]

any news about the new episode?

Probably end of May/beginning of June. Considering that they're reworking underwater skills, it might mean that new map (Gandara?) has something big in water.

[PACOX]

Probably end of May/beginning of June. Considering that they're reworking underwater skills, it might mean that new map (Gandara?) has something big in water.

I think the underwater rework might have something to do with the next xpac or episode after the one coming up. The next episode seems too just in case something bad happens.

[Flarelaine]

Other than that, it's pretty standard Inquest stuff, though a little bit darker this time, because of all Unit 731 allusions.

Inquest always had Unit 731 morals to begin with. Consider their experiments on Sylvari Firstborn.

[Rogalicus]

I think the underwater rework might have something to do with the next xpac or episode after the one coming up. The next episode seems too just in case something bad happens.

Well, yeah, it might be related to Bubbles/Cantha expansion, but timing seems too good.

Inquest always had Unit 731 morals to begin with. Consider their experiments on Sylvari Firstborn.

Back in LWS2? That was just ordinary Rata Sum krewe, not Inquest.

[Flarelaine]

Back in LWS2? That was just ordinary Rata Sum krewe, not Inquest.

Maybe... but that location is an Inquest facility in the non-instanced world. (Having said that, asura in general seem to be nonchalant towards experimenting on other creatures.)

[Rogalicus]

Maybe... but that location is an Inquest facility in the non-instanced world. (Having said that, asura in general seem to be nonchalant towards experimenting on other creatures.)

Well, times change. And it certainly was just an ordinary krewe.
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Emissary_Vorpp

[PACOX]

Maybe... but that location is an Inquest facility in the non-instanced world. (Having said that, asura in general seem to be nonchalant towards experimenting on other creatures.)

They also experimented on skritt. Would probably experiment on humans too if they couod get away with it.