Brand New Gaerlan

[.Kid.]

I think we should have a new role-play part with Gaerlan and Elysa Strathelar. Example such as Gaerlan disappearing from his Citadel, killing people in towns again (maybe with those buruns too?) and Elysa "trying" to defend the towns. Or bring back Asheron and Bael! Something interesting. Or another PK dungeon! Those were great!


Something fun!

[Mestivious]

I missed the whole Bael story line and would love to see one come back that I can be a part of!

[Cerulia]

Personally I'd be happier to leave main characters in the past... I loved Martine for example, but if he came back I don't think it'd be all that good, he had a great story arc with a good end. It's the same with BZ...

Just remember, sequels are almost never as good as the original... And how disappointed would you be if BZ2 turned out like the Matrix sequels?

That said, there are still plenty of characters who could legitimately appear - Asheron, Elysa, Antius, Nuhmudira (I'm still sure we'll be seeing more of her soon), Aerbax (Him too! How long does a transformation into an evil shadow creature take anyway?)...

I can understand why you'd be itching for some really strong characters to appear... I do feel the Renegades are fairly weak as a nemesis. But then that's part of why I'm sure we'll be seeing someone stronger appearing soon ^_^

[.Kid.]

Yep.

All the stories right now bore me. I want some live-op events, they were awesome. Maybe Turbine would get some more subscribers by making live-ops each month? (Not a negitive towards Turbine)

[Daz'ar Tae]

Live ops every month would be a bit of overkill, I think. Not to mention it wouldn't be as special of an event as it is now. Players would come to expect it. It's more like a very pleseant surprise that is extremely fun to interact with when it does happen.

[Cerulia]

Afraid I agree with Daz here too... If they do several live ops a month, they're just far less interesting. The only reason live ops are so special now is because they're so rare... If Asheron were hanging out with Ulgrim in Baishi's pub every weekend, it'd sort of lose the magic ^_~

As I said, I think the last two storyarcs have been a little less interesting, but that's not because of a lack of live ops... In the olthoi arc we had the huge end arc event (Which was very fun, to be fair ^_^), there was the landscape invasion, Asheron's island, the olthoi hunts with elysa and antius, probably others I've forgotten... Then this arc there've been town invasions, and I'm guessing other things I just didn't know about because of lack of play time this year...

I think the real reason these arcs haven't been so good is just a lack of character. BZ, Martine and to a lesser extent Gaerlan were interesting, they were good characters on their own completely independant of what they did in game. The Virindi and Olthoi were credible as a threat (Well, not so much the virindi), but they just didn't have any real characters, there was no arch-villain, no nemesis, and for me that made them less interesting as enemies.

The Renegades... Well, they just don't really have the best of times. They're not all that threatening since apparently their only purpose is to pop up somewhere, get absolutely thrashed, and run away shaking their fists. They've had Dryreach under seige for nearly 5 years, and they still haven't managed to get in despite the fact that Dryreach's standing army consisted of a few beggers up till this month. Niarltah and Muldavius just aren't interesting characters either, because all we see of them is either them saying how soundly they've just been beaten by us, or planning some cunning scheme that we'll defeat immediately. There's just no threat, and that doesn't make a good enemy.

All that's pretty harsh, so I should point out that I was just focusing on the bad parts here... Obviously there've been a lot of good points too, all the lore about the burun has been very interesting, the last couple of months of the olthoi arc were great, the side plot about nuhmudira was really good as well (See, she's an interesting character!), everything Aerbax and Ler Rhan have been up to has been really good (Characters again), and I'm sure the end of the burun story arc will be both surprising and well done. It's not so much that the story arcs have been badly done, just the bad guys that've been used are kind of limiting. And of course the dev team's been focused on a lot of behind the scenes changes like the treasure rebalance, and sprucing up starter towns to attract newer players.

Finally, I'd say wait and see... The last months of a storyarc are virtually guaranteed live events ^_^

[MaddyFF]

There are many othe rlore characters that have never made an appearance that they could bring into storylines without using the same ones again.

*waits for Ben Ten to show up*

[Admon Faye]

Cerulia - Just remember, sequels are almost never as good as the original... And how disappointed would you be if BZ2 turned out like the Matrix sequels?

I don't know, I thought the 3rd Matrix movie was decent.
The 2nd one though - Ugh!

[.Kid.]

I just say, make another live-ops event by:

*Making a new character

*Returning Bael or Gaerlan (a storyline like "Gaerlan's Escape")

*Adding something new also


I don't really care how many they make but I just wanna see atleast 1 more approach in a story-line. Besides PK'ing, I enjoy being involved in the live-op story-lines.

[Renegade Knight]

*cough* Are we forgetting the ancient evil which lies within the planet? The Dark Master who is trapped within the ley lines? Now they're a villian...he/she created BZ...and the shadows...or maybe one of The Old Ones wakes up from the swamps...which fits out storyline right now, the falatacot trying to wake em up maybe.

[Uzi-El]

A long time ago, the Devs said the Great Master getting out = Game Over.

There's no way we'd be able to stand against it (or probably a Witch God, for that matter), so there's little point in using them as villains. They'd probably be a royal pain to implement anyway.

[Taywei]

Screw the logic of the storyline. I mean, Lady Aerfalle herself has probably revived and died thousands of times by now and Aerfalle is still fun. (same with olthoi queen)

I really want to be able to redo the BZ event. My character was actually there but I was on vacation and my friend was playing as him so I missed out on it. :mad:

It doesn't have to be a live event. Maybe just an activation like the queens quest and maybe limit it to 1/per month or something of that sort.

[Cerulia]

It's not even so much the logic of the storyline, it's just...

Well, look at this thread. BZ was so big, so popular that even 4(?) years after his storyarc, people still want to see him again. If he was turned into a quest with a one month timer, what's special about that? He's just an olthoi queen with different graphics.

If he kept appearing as a live event, well, you're right that it would totally mess up the storyline (Which some people do care about), and not only that but it would also take away the 'special-ness' of him. Do you really want to hear someone say, ever, "Oh, it's just BZ again..." or "Yeah BZ's in heb but I think I'll just sell this loot".

The thing that makes you want BZ back is that he was in a great storyline, and he's gone. If you bring him back, then sure it's exciting at first, but I think it'd just ruin him overall.

That's all just my opinion of course ^_^

Oh, and by the way, don't think I wouldn't love to see BZ as well... I joined about a week after he stopped walking around the world, so I never got to see him either. But I'm happy to settle with hearing the stories from people who were around and seeing him on Shadowclaim.


Actually, that was meant to be the end of the post, but it made me think, they could do Shadowclaim as a yearly thing! That'd let people see the old villains again, and if it was just for a few weeks once a year people would probably stay interested in it (I remember at the end of Shadowclaim people were getting a little bored... In fact, people were saying things like "Yeah BZ's in heb but I think I'll just sell this loot"). And it wouldn't mess up the story because 'Whatever happens on Shadowclaim, stays on Shadowclaim'. We'd just have to put up with a month or two of content-light patches so the devs could play around on there (Sort of a holiday for them too!)

[Xen]

Hrm, I yet to see/hear "proper" explanation as to why BZ currently appears during thunderstorm on the Norther skies.

And no "celestial butterfingers" doesn't cut it.

Yes, I understand perfectly that in "reality" it was mistake etc etc, but I do think Turbine as mmoRPG developers should really work on providing "in lore" explanation to events like that. Doesn't have to be in-game lore, I would be happy with a decent story posted on the website here.

Unfortunately we seem to see a lot of 1984ish "Oceania is at was with Eastasia. Oceania was always at war with Eastasia, Eurasia is our ally." ==> "Oceania is at war with Eurasia, Oceania was always at wat with Eurasia ..." takes on the history, e.g. no lore expalanation provided for a change to major quests like Frore or Aerlithe, no expalanation for Lifestones and portal moves during town reorganisation etc.. Why is Candeth Lifestone is old style lifestone anyway??

[Cerulia]

Ooh, I don't know, they're ususally pretty good about giving explanations for changes, even if sometimes they're a little weak - It's obviously hard to explain mechanics and balance changes in a game way, but there was a little while when everything was due to 'Advances made by the Arcanum, working with Asheron'. It's a good question about Candeth's lifestone, although I suppose it was built after Nuhmudira had stopped giving us much help, so maybe somehow Asheron stimulated it to grow rather than it being one of Nuhmudira's ones...

I agree that the town updates are a big change to not be explained, although how could you explain them really? I suppose that the Arcanum, working closely with Asheron... No wait! ^_~

One thing I don't agree with is the 1984ish explanations you suggested... I can't think of any change where they've tried to say in game 'It has always been like this'. There's always either an explanation or just no mention of it whatsoever...

Actually... one thing I would like to know is, why does BZ appear in the Northern skies, when he was imprisoned to the South? I probably just missed something ^_^

[Uzi-El]

Yes, I understand perfectly that in "reality" it was mistake etc etc, but I do think Turbine as mmoRPG developers should really work on providing "in lore" explanation to events like that.

It's not an event. It's a glitch. A goof. A flub. Just like the gender-switching NPCs, or Larry the Bunny Master's permanent vacation, or the butterflies flying backwards for a month. They're all inconsequential errors that don't affect gameplay, let alone the storyline, and they should be given inconsequential attention. Turbine would be better off spending time coming up with new storylines or working on existing ones than wasting so much effort and energy explaining away ridiculous little things.

Frore

Don't get me started on Frore...

Aerlithe

Aerfalle started mucking around with some type of ancient power in order to make herself stronger. Giving the Sacrificial Dagger to the ghost NPC in the Keep allows her to muck with said power and return Aerfalle to her old self.

Lifestones and portal moves during town reorganisation etc

Whatever caused us to cast Self spells more quickly somehow empowered Archmage Shoyannen. She used her new abilities to create new lifestones and move the portal routes around the cities.

Why is Candeth Lifestone is old style lifestone anyway??

Probably because Nuhmie is on the outs with the Council, so they didn't want to give her any attention or credit by basing all the new LSes on her design.

[Protes]

The original post/request sounds like it would be more ideal for the Vanguard testing server rather than the "live" game worlds.


no lore expalanation provided for a change to major quests like Frore or Aerlithe, no expalanation for Lifestones and portal moves during town reorganisation etc.. Why is Candeth Lifestone is old style lifestone anyway??

All of these were explained in the lore. Besides from what Uzi stated, Frore update was mentioned in The Maddness of Men event teaser (Jan '04).


I don't think game "bugs" should be explained in the lore; it's temporary and none of them are intended to be a part of the game.