Guild Chat - Episode 113
Guild Chat - Episode 113
- Title
- Echovald Wilds Map Tour
- Host
- Rubi Bayer
- Guests
- Ali Buntemeyer
Morgan Lockhart
Kirk Williford - Date
- November 12, 2021
- Official video
- YouTube
The 113th episode of Guild Chat aired on November 12, 2021.
Transcription[edit]
Introduction [11:30][edit]
Rubi Bayer Hi Tyria. Happy Friday and welcome to Guild Chat. I'm your host Rubi and for those of you in the audience who thought my tattoos were all gone, you are mistaken. I am very slowly getting rid of them but they are really hanging in there. Extra life last weekend was super interesting thanks to all of you who participated so we are loving the reactions that we've seen from all of you to our Echovald Wilds video that we shared with you earlier this week and it's got us really excited to show you even more in our Echovald Wilds map tour today. Uh, two quick things before we get - before we get started and jump in. Uh, this is a work in progress we're taking you behind the scenes into a development environment with us so you're going to see some things that look like a work in progress maybe some temporary text or some unfinished icons that kind of thing. We also don't want to spoil everything for you so we've hidden a lot from you to let you discover it in February once End of Dragons launches so if things look a little bit quiet here and there maybe look a little bit empty it's because we have shoved them all under a blanket so you can't see them quite yet. With that said, let's jump right in and meet our first two developer guests starting with Morgan. Hi.
Morgan Lockhart Hello! Thank you for that lovely introduction Rubi. I am Morgan Lockhart and i am a senior writer here at Arenanet and i am the writer on Echovald Wilds.
Rubi: Thank you. Kirk.
Kirk Williford Hello, I'm Kirk Williford. I'm a senior game designer at Arenanet and I am a content team lead on End of Dragons.
Rubi: Awesome. Alright, so, Kirk where are we starting today?
Kirk: Sure, so we're actually starting in an area of the Echovald Wilds called Lake Lutgardis. This is an area that is reminiscent of a certain name from Guild Wars 1 that is house Lutgardis of the Kurzick. You'll see it's a very very tall, very you know, big forest. It's just a ton of vines, lots of verticality here. It's a beautiful space. And we're starting here because we're going to take a tour on our skiff here. We're going to our first location that we're looking at, like from Lutgardis.
Rubi: So beautiful.
Kirk: It really is, yeah. Especially, that shot underwater there. (Laughter). So what we're doing is you know, in these forests, there's this big tree trunks and some of them have some stuff in it you can discover. This particular one is a giant tree trunk that so happen to have a big village in it called Mori Village. And what you will quickly notice once we get in here is that there are quite a few of the Tengu in here.
Rubi: Wait you're stuck.
Kirk: Oh I'm stuck. Development environment.
Rubi: You know what, while you're trying to get out of your skiff, I'm going to mention there are a whole lot of Tengu, that is not a hint at playable Tengu, playable Tengu are not a thing in End of Dragons. But there're questions about why there're so many here so Morgan can address that.
Morgan: Yes, thank you Rubi. Anybody who's familiar with the story of Tengu in Guild Wars knows that they used to live in many parts of Cantha, in Kaineng, in Shing Jea and that unfortunately when the Ministry of Purity took power, they drove them out along with the rest of the other non-humans from the area. Many Tengu fled Cantha completely. We've met some of them in the domains of the winds in the Auric Basin. However, some of them did manage manage to stay in Cantha. A group known as the Kestrels led other Tengu to Echovald and taught them how to blend in with their environment, how to live off the land and to invade the Ministry of Purity's forces. And so there have remained Tengu in Cantha and when the Ministry of Purity fell, those Tengu were able to step out of hiding and establish Mori Village which is their largest permanent settlement in Echovald. Some of them are in other places. There is going to be Tengu in other parts of Cantha as well, but those who just were really excited to live in Echovald and stay in Echovald, decided to found Mori Village. But they remain pretty distrustful of outsiders. They have obviously had a lot of bad experiences so they don't immediately welcome the player with open arms. They're not aggressive but they're distrustful which you can kind of understand why they would be.
Rubi: Sure.
Kirk: Yeah, one of my favorite things about Mori Village you know, the Tengu in Echovald, the Tengu in general is the art team has done an incredible job of developing a unique look for them that is different from the Tengu in the rest of Tyria right. You will- In this area alone right, the Tengu here have their own sense of architecture, their own style that really makes it feel unique to Cantha and in doing so as well, some of the Tengu themselves look different right. They're not going to be the same looking Tengus which you will see in the rest of Tyria. We got this lovely curious-looking youngster.
Rubi: I love him. He's so fluffy.
Morgan: He's so fluffy!
Kirk: Yeah does this look like the face of mercy to you?
Rubi: This does look like the face of mercy to me. I love him. I love his whole beak.
Morgan: He's my favorite. I'm not supposed to have favorites but he's my favorite.
Rubi: And do you- I was like I'm shameless about this.
Morgan: Oh yes.
Kirk: So you know, Mori Village in Guild Wars 2 in Echovald Wilds is one of our renown hearts for the map. And in this one you know, something you are doing as you are exploring the area is trying to earn the trust of the Kestrels and Tengu that are here because they know you are an outsiders. Why are you here you know? Why are you doing what you are doing here? Why are you messing with these curious youngsters who look like they're going to you know just wreck your day. At the same time, they're interested in you right. They don't see you innately as a threat but they are suspicious. So you do what can to really establish yourself and say "Hey, I'm not a threat to you" right. We're here for a specific purpose. And you know, you'll be able to kind of discover some of the history there and learn about the Tengu, learn about what is happening in Mori Village. You know, all kinds of fun stuff like that as you explore the area. There's another wonderful new Tengu look that we've got.
Rubi: They all look so good.
Kirk: Yeah, they really do. Should we start heading north?
Morgan: Yeah, let's.
Rubi: Let's see what else is here.
Morgan: See some more of Echovald.
Kirk: All right, so I'm gonna hop on.
Rubi: Morgan and I could just yell about the fluffy tengu some more.
Morgan: Just. just park in front of the fluffy tengu for an hour.
Kirk: Yeah, so I'm gonna hop on.
Morgan: Sorry
Kirk: An awesome Canthan raptor, raptor here.
Rubi: Yeah.
Kirk: And head off north.
Rubi: And see what else we have.
Kirk: Yeah, so.
Rubi: Where are we heading now?
Kirk: We're gonna head into a little bit more of the wild part of the Echovald Wilds and uh you'll, we'll start immediately coming across some, some angry folks.
Rubi: Ow.
Kirk: Yeah.
Morgan: Yep, here we have one of our gang members. Our two primary antagonistic factions here in Echovald are two gangs known as the Speakers and the Jade Brotherhood and they are both opposed ideologically to each other and also vying for control of the same resources of the same territory and unfortunately causing a lot of problems for the the villagers of Echovald. Extorting them for money, for food, for resources and also villagers are constantly getting caught in the crossfires of their gang warfare and, and are collateral damage and so the player is going to be helping the locals with these gang threats. You know, sort of undermining the schemes of these gangs and also protecting the locals from them.
Kirk: For sure and yeah as Morgan was saying. Right, like there's a lot of these gangs to deal with in this area, but there's also a lot of wildlife too. Right, you got to remember that this is called Echovald Wilds. There's a lot of you know different things to expect in this map compared to uh a map like Shing Jea which you know you might have seen a couple weeks ago. Right um a lot of wildlife like the Kirin. These ones are not very happy with me right now so i'm gonna kind of keep my distance, but you know the gangs in particular right that's a recurring uh group of enemies both of these these two gangs. Here's some more speakers who are not very happy with me. They seem to like using these amazing looking spirits, which is so amazing that they're going to kill me someday.
Rubi: Kirk, why is everyone here angry with you?
Kirk: Listen, they're.
Morgan: They're getting an outsider.
Kirk: Yeah, I'm an outsider. I don't, I don't belong.
Morgan: Trying to mess up all their things.
Rubi: They want your raptor.
Morgan: Obviously.
Rubi: This is some fierce looking raptor.
Kirk: Yeah, i mean. That is something worth noting you know as we continue further north here as when you get to Echovald Wilds. You'll, you will have acquired if you haven't yet you know your your mount, your raptor and your uh springer mounts and so Echovald Wilds is really a good map to take advantage of some of that. You know I've mentioned it before, but the verticality of this map. You know, it really brings to life how tall and how grand this forest is um you know and in doing so you're able to explore and learn find some really cool discoverable things um. Some, most of which we're not going to be showing for obvious reasons, very spoilery reasons.
Rubi: Spoilers.
Kirk: Um, but you know yours, you also come across you know villages scattered around the way. um This is one that you know again development environment. We don't want to spoil a bunch of stuff, so we did hide a lot of stuff, but there's so much content in this map to discover um, but in this one you know each of these, these villages have their own sense of history right and some of the stuff that you uh will come across as you, you visit them and learn more about the people.
Morgan: Yeah, because we don't just have tengu out here. Um the, the Echovald Wilds was a role that equaled forest in general was historically the home of the Kurzicks. Uh we have kurzick's descendants here, we have Luxon descendants here. The Kurzicks do not own Echovald anymore. The ministry of purity defeated the Great Houses and it hasn't returned to their ownership, but many of them feel a kinship to it as their historical home, but others. Everybody's here just kind of for their own reasons, you know i joke sometimes that it's our Alaska and that anybody who doesn't feel like they fit in with mainstream society for whatever reason. Maybe they distrust the expansion of jade tech. As you run around this map, you might notice there is not actually a lot of jade tech here and that's because a lot of people here don't trust it and so that's one of many reasons other people just kind of marched to the beat of their own drum. You know, i was telling these guys the other day about one of my favorite little stories, which is this this guy who moved out to Echovald, because he really loves snakes and you're not allowed to own snakes as pets in Kaineng and so he's out here, because if he, if he didn't live out here he'd have to release his five beautiful sons he's not willing to do that and so the map's just full of all these things. You know there's people out here, because of history, because of opinions, because of their own quirks and there's just so many people to meet and get to know.
Rubi: This seems, this seems like the in-game equivalent of I want to keep chickens in the city.
Morgan: Oh yes and i mean i will never, i will not confirm nor deny where the inspiration for this man came from, but fresh eggs are an amazing thing.
Rubi: They're extremely good. So um we did mention that we have hidden a lot of things. Um Kirk sure did make a choice here to unhide part of it. Surely, did you do down there?
Kirk: Yeah and we'll swim. Thank goodness for dev commands. Um anyway so this is one of the events that you'll come across in the Echovald Wilds as as was mentioned before. These gangs right, they mean business. They, they don't like you, but they also do not like each other. um so you know their goal here is to wrestle as much control of the Echovald Wilds as they can and the map is pretty much kind of centered around that conflict right and how, how the region is dealing with it and so in this case you know we got an area that has a lovely portal over there. That goes to a map uh to be, to be determined. Um that has been closed, because it's under attack right. Both of these two gangs are here trying to take control of it and so we've got you know them fighting each other. We've got somem some friendly you know Ministry of Security folks here and then here's me with my, my, my dev cheats not dying and getting wrecked by these guys.
Rubi: I just thought you were hanging onto that one last hp.
Kirk: It's a, it's a very unique skill to be able to sit at just one hp for as long as i can.
Morgan: Kirk's specialty.
Kirk: Absolutely.
Rubi: Dev superpower.
Kirk: Nice special move.
Rubi: So we will at some point in the future. We will take you through that waypoint or through that portal, but can we take a peek at the jade statues, because they are gorgeous.
Kirk: Let's do that. I'm going to go invisible for a little bit, so they don't you know continue to try to take my lunch, but.
Rubi: They have object permanent issues permanence issues, so you are fine, but the map all of the set pieces are so beautiful.
Kirk: Yeah, they really are the the art team of End of Dragons has done such an amazing job of creating just beautiful looking environments and you know props to go in them and fill them all out, right. Um something that constantly blows my, me away every time I look at it is you know comparing Echovald Wilds to a map like Shing Jea that we saw a couple weeks ago right. These are two completely different biomes.
Rubi: Yeah.
Kirk: They look nothing like each other and that is, that you know that, that is something that we want to do. It was important to us when we approached Cantha, because they're very different regions, right. That's something that's really cool about Cantha is, it has so many different looking areas to it, but it presents a really uh interesting and unique challenge, not just you know for the entire team art design and everybody. So we want to make these areas look different, feel different um you know and I'm really really excited to really you know be able to share this with folks, uh when they're able to explore themselves.
Morgan: Gosh, I can't wait.
Rubi: Yeah, but you know even even within this map. There are different looking areas uh. There's a, there's an area. Is it further north?
Kirk: It is, so I'm going to you know continue on here.
Rubi: Take yourself onward.
Kirk: Yeah, I'm going to go not be invisible at that point and you two have fun. We're going to keep going here.
Rubi: You guys fight each other. They're just very angry, all the time.
Morgan: If they stop fighting each other, maybe they'd actually succeed in fighting us, but they don't.
Rubi: He's getting away.
Kirk: So here we are at the Qinkai basin sector. um again This you know something worth mentioning is uh we've, we've purposefully hidden quite a bit of content that takes place in these maps to prevent spoilers. Um so you know one thing about Qinkai basin and Mount Qinkai or if anyone is familiar with it. It's a something from Guild Wars 1. It's a region of Cantha that's right to the western, I guess it's east. I'm good at directions. Eastish of the Echovald Forest. Um it's a beautiful mountain range, that uh borders the the entire forest um and we wanted to have a little bit of that inside of Echovald wilds. So we've uh another one of those villages like Morgan was talking about was Qinkai village here. So this is a beautiful location that you know. Morgan, you want to talk about a little bit?
Morgan: Oh sure yeah. So this is a fishing village and I think one of the things that's interesting to note about Qinkai is that both tengu and human are here living side by side. All the peoples of Echovald even though they come from a lot of different backgrounds they have they put those differences aside, those historical differences. They have much bigger problems than each other. Everybody's just kind of trying to live their life. So you're going to find tengu living together with luxons and kurzicks and there's gonna be some people, you know, like that still have some of those historical grudges but it's like an individual basis. They don't-
Rubi: Sure
Morgan: they aren't, you know as groups, they're not each other at each other's throats anymore. They're, you know, they're generally all getting along because they have bigger problems. They have these gangs that are stealing all their lunch money and their real money.
Rubi: That's cannon now.
Kirk: They're very into the lunch money I assure you. Yeah you know um it's really exciting to be able to explore the history of the area you know and kind of what happened to the kurzicks and luxons once the ministry of purity came in and took their lunch money. There's a lot of lunch money taking.
Morgan: Yeah.
Rubi: We need, so we need we're going to need some kind of content about the lunch money being stolen.
Kirk: Can you tell it's almost lunch time?
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Note: The text below was auto-transcribed and not reviewed. It could be that text appears for the wrong speaker. |
Rubi: Yeah, Kirk is hungry.
Kirk: Yeah, but you know, this is again just one of one of quite a few little outposts that you'll discover as you move around. Echo of old wild. We're gonna take a detour around these very ominous looking enemies because we're gonna head to Aspen with gulp. Which you know.
Rubi: When we were. Well, how many familiar names?
Kirk: It is a familiar name. Yeah, this is another one that when we were kind of plotting out where where we wanted to go with Echo Falls and Guild Wars two, you know, 4 Aspen would came up and four. Aspen was a location in Guild Wars, one that, you know, it was a luxin PV PV E If you will environment. Whereas if you are kurzick, you're defending an area from Lux and attackers and their siege Turtle Armada. And if you are not, if you are a a Luxan, you are the one escorting those those siege turtles in order to. Do bad things and destroy all of the architecture that lay inside of that facility going ahead and go invisible again because these are very ominous looking creatures here, yeah.
Morgan: Yeah, yeah, we're getting more and more jade tag. Yeah, I mentioned earlier that most people in Ebal Wilds do not love J tech. However, the Jade Brotherhood are an exception. And but unlike everybody else, you know, the reason that they're out here with their J tech is because their J tech is a little bit more controversial. You know, maybe they weren't coming, but they blew up a building. It was never. It was never proven. But you know, they just tried to get away from Ministry of Security and, you know, and conduct their experiments. So they've set up out here in equivalent in one of these big, beautiful this is a big, beautiful lab. And what are they doing inside? Well, we're not going to tell you today. But it's it's probably fine. It's probably fine. They're just, I don't know.
Kirk: Probably fine you.
Morgan: It's yeah, yeah.
Kirk: Know it's it. They were just they. Have it heavily reinforced and defended. You know it's it's very fortified in this jade tech fortress for no reason.
Rubi: Developing lunch money. Stealing tech.
Morgan: Ohh money that's.
Kirk: That is exactly what they're doing.
Morgan: Yeah, technology to steal lunch money more effectively, more efficiently.
Kirk: You've heard it here first. Yeah, you know it's it's actually one of the the stuff that takes you around this area and what you can find inside of these areas and if you can manage to get in across all these very, very threatening looking enemy groups here, it's an incredible experience. It's one of my favorite in the map. Every time we play test it, you know the group comes away. Just like, oh, man, that was so cool. I love that the architecture is reminiscent of it was, you know, in Guild Wars one I still have flashbacks to. Either defending or attacking this area, I will not reveal my my, you know allegiance to which faction?
Morgan: Ohh man, actually I don't if. That was true.
Kirk: We don't talk about it anyway, but.
Rubi: And it just doesn't. Want to fight? With me, yeah.
Kirk: I I want to keep my lunch money. But you know it's it's still very reminiscent. The paths are similar to what you would expect, but at the same time they've been fortified and turned into the camp of new right. The Jade Brothers have set up shop here and they. And so once you get inside, there's a lot of surprises to find in there and it's just really, really fun and exciting every time. So I think we're going to head to the next location here, which Speaking of brotherhood and the jade brotherhood, shall we head towards one of the things and another renowned heart in the area actually. As you know, as as Morgan was saying before about the gangs, they are set up shop here, right? And they don't like each other. They don't like you, but. You as the commander, you want to know more about them, right? What do they do? Why are they? You're doing what they're doing. What are their goals? And in doing so, you're able to actually go into a a Recon mission of yourself and infiltrate. The outposts the the Jade Brotherhood headquarters. So we're going to take a look at that, actually. But in doing so, we have to get a disguise first, because if we just. You know, barge in there, it's going to be bad. Times for us.
Morgan: Yeah, thankfully we have a kestrel here to help us with that. So I mentioned those guys earlier, those are. Festivals, they they were founded in this effort to to get people to act evolved, to get the tango someplace safe and then to teach everybody to stay here, to evade the ministry, to blend in. And then so once the Ministry of Purity fell, the kestrels technically didn't have a purpose anymore. They decided to. Persist on and they become the peacekeeping force. Of equivalent and they still remain very good. At subterfuge, at. Stealth and and keeping their eyes open and basically keeping the pulse on everything that happens in Echols. And so one of the ways they're able to help you is with some of their illusion magic, and they offer the player a feminine appearance and masculine appearance, or also a non binary appearance because the kestrels. Are an inclusive Organism.
Kirk: Right, I love. It going to do this, this this again development environment. This is this, this hammer I have here and incredibly close to my heart. It's one of my favorites, you. Know so it is what it is I'm.
Rubi: Sure, you're going to lose it. Know where it?
Kirk: Well, where is it? Where else is the best place? To hide A. Weapon if it's hiding in plain sight.
Ali: It's it's a.
Rubi: I have concerns for your internal organs, yeah.
Kirk: It's not important. Who needs important, you know, internal organs. This is our. Wonderful. Our door guard. Here again, one of those very threatening looking jade guards, but they're at least for now on our side. Someone saw through the skies. Oh, so we're going to go in here. I'm going to go invisible real quickly, so I don't, you know, get discovered before I'm able to to show off some of this area to folks. But this is one of the. Most beautiful regions in this map, and I'm going to say that a lot and I'm going to, you know, just. Make it very. Clear our map artist Justin has done and an amazing job bringing this map to life and just show, you know, blending the old and new and the old and the old and the new, if you will, because there's the trees, there's the big four. But there's also these beautiful architectural elements, you know that have been built into them. And then on top of that, there's elements of these where, you know, the Jade Brother who have come in here and set up shop inside of this old cathedral looking building. Right. And these are an area in areas that you might not have seen in Guild Wars one. And so, you know, it's fun to discover new things and see kind of what what you can do in here and why are the gangs in here and what exactly is happening. Here, because you know, as you can see, there's a bunch of folks in here. That have eyeballs over their head. They're watching my every movement. They're very suspicious about the fact that I have a a hammer in my. Chest, they're just trying.
Morgan: That's not normal you. Know we we have technology.
Kirk: For that we do. They have technology for everything. They have jade tech ovens for.
Morgan: Makes perfect bread.
Rubi: What is it?
Morgan: Perfect. Crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside.
Rubi: It's delicious, really.
Morgan: It's the the. It's the promise of technology.
Kirk: It's getting really close to lunchtime. But yeah, right like you. I'm not gonna go into too much detail. Of what exactly you can do in here? There's tons of stuff to explore. It really takes advantage of the verticality. You know, all of the movement mechanics that you were able to do. Take my mounts and kind of. Climb up and explore and see what's going on.
Morgan: Yeah, the designer for this area had so much fun. There's just, I mean, the jade brotherhood are full of schemes and you get. To mess with all of them.
Kirk: Yeah, for sure.
Morgan: They're scheming bunch.
Kirk: We're going to just kind of quickly sneak out of here before we get too much attention. They didn't see a thing, but if we did get caught, we'd have to deal with our lovely, yeah, face the raft.
Morgan: You have to face her. Wrath, because after all, Kirk the jade Brotherhood has a 0 tolerance policy for corporate espionage.
Rubi: OK.
Morgan: They are not welcoming to Moss brains, tree squatters, or corporate hacks.
Rubi: You were terrifyingly good.
Kirk: Yeah, she is a very firm. Yet you know.
Morgan: Ohh, but from the kind. Of bully, right? She's very polite, but.
Kirk: Don't get on. Her bad side, yeah. So we're going to, you know, speak with our kestrel friend over. Here again, to lose our disguise.
Rubi: So let's take a quick pause. We're going to meet one more of our dev guests stick around. We'll be right back. More of echo of all Wilds to show you.
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Note: The next part is manually transcribed and reviewed |
Intermission [33:40][edit]
Kurzick Cemetery [35:35][edit]
Rubi: Welcome back! We are going to continue our tour of Echovald Wilds and I want to take a second and say thank you and welcome to Ali for joining us.
Ali Buntemeyer: Hey guys, I'm Ali B. I'm a senior game designer here at Arenanet and I was responsible for a lot of the Echovald meta and various other events that you see here through Echovald Wilds.
Rubi: All right, well, what do we got to see next?
Ali:' So I think we are headed to the Kurzick cemetery, Kirk, right?
Kirk: That's right, yeah.
Ali: And then we kind of like to talk about back in GW1 you had all of these people that you knew and, kind of with the time that happened between Guild Wars 1 and Guild Wars 2, what happened to these people? Well, some of them have passed on and now have their descendants in the area and so now you can kind of come visit tombstones that may have some recognizable names.
Rubi: Yay!
Kirk: Indeed, so yeah, one of the the cool things about this area, and Morgan wastalking about it a bit earlier, is the history that's here, right. There's so much history, not just of what's in Guild Wars 2 and what you could discover there, and what has happened between when you were there in Guild Wars 1. But also what came after in Guild Wars 1 when the player character left Cantha, right before the Ministry of Purity came and conquered the Kurzicks and the Luxons. What happened here, right? And something that we're able to tell those kinds of stories through elements in the map and one of these being the cemetery here.
Ali: Well, and I think we see some familiar faces that, well, familiar faces in relative terms, familiar names that are on grave sites. I think that says Countess, doesn't it?
Kirk: It does say Countess
Rubi: She leveled up.
Ali: Super level up.
Kirk: Very much so. Yeah, so this is, it's a small little addition here that tells a bit of a story that was really exciting, you know, working out some of the details here. Countess Danika zu Heltzer, you know, Danika zu Heltzer was a popular character in Guild Wars 1 when you were in Cantha and she was one of the the Kurzick members of House zu Heltzer, right, and it turns out over the course of time when the player character left Cantha, she became countess of House zu Heltzer and so you might be able to learn more about that. I might be able to read her gravestone here and and learn more.
Ali: Yeah, absolutely. Well, and I think what's really important here too is we kind of wanted to write a love letter to those people who were familiar with Guild Wars 1, right, but then still with people who are like me who haven't played Guild Wars 1, I know, I know. I can hear the chat from here.
Rubi: No, you're fine.
Ali: I can hear it. I can hear it. What do you mean? Go play that game. So we wanted to make sure that people who hadn't necessarily been someone who played a lot of Guild Wars 1, or knows a lot of the lore that we have a lot of, kind of winks and nods that you can look at and go, "oh hey, I wonder who that is. I wonder who they were before." And you can use our Wiki or, you know, go play Guild Wars 1 and kind of enjoy where those names and those people came from. But one of the big pieces about House zu Heltzer and Echovald Wilds is we really wanted to make sure that when you were coming back to Cantha, it felt like you were coming back to Cantha and not just some completely new area. But I think there's also a lot to be said too in that regard.
Kirk: Absolutely, right, yeah. Just as a quick reminder again, you know, this is a good place to remind folks that we are hiding a lot of content in the map just because there's so many spoilers that could be found in here.
Rubi: Yeah, are you two, like, as we're running around, how much are you two seeing the things that aren't being shown right now? I can't wait.
Ali: Oh, so much. Oh yeah, like, oh, that's, that's not there.
Kirk: Giggling internally a lot.
Ali: Yeah, a lot of steeple fingers, a lot of steeple fingers.
Kirk:: Yes.
Ali: Yes, good. But the other thing we have too is we have various people who are around this area. Right like this is the cranky caretaker who's kind of grumpy about having to deal with the gangs and us and everything else.
Kirk: Yeah the cranky caretaker who just, you know, he's just kind of sitting here by fire; he's not very happy about his job; he doesn't even have any kind of tent or anything. He's just like, poor guy. He has to deal with all this gang warfare going around messing up his cemetery it's all the stuff that's happening lately, you know. Has to deal with all these dang tourists that keep coming through.
Ali: That's a, that's an awesome segue.
Kirk: Thank you Ali.
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Note: The text below was auto-transcribed and not reviewed. It could be that text appears for the wrong speaker. |
Ali: Nice job so. Another part of this area that we really are really excited to show you and I mean really, really is that how sue Helser. Is in effect. Is in effect, is. We're almost there, right?
Kirk: Yes. Yeah, you know if. You're familiar with Guild Wars one. If not, I encourage you to go play it. This is something from Guild Wars one that's dear to my heart. Well, that might have just convinced or revealed what side I'm on, I guess. But you know it is what it is.
Rubi: Dun Dun Dun.
Kirk: At this point. You know how seltzer it was, the capital of of the corsix, essentially. In Guild Wars one. You know the zoo shelters in general were the big, prominent member of the all of the kurzick houses, and you're able to return to this area and see what has happened right in in Guild Wars, in Guild Wars two and in in Ecole Wilds. Here it's been turned into a bit of an archaeological site, you know.
Ali: Well, and it's kind of a tourist attraction now too, isn't it?
Kirk: It sure is. So one of the fun things about how so how how seltzer and the equivalent Wilds in general is people not just tyrians, you know, the the commander is here in, in all, in any tyrians that came with them. The people who live in camp outside of this region are aware of what's happening here, right? They know it's.
Ali: Yeah, it's kind of crazy. And so a lot of times it becomes kind of a visiting tourist attraction where you're. Like, oh, I can go to house to help the ruins and go see some of these. Like museum, like ancient artifacts and kind. Of have a tour. And then maybe, maybe, just maybe we'll get a glimpse of the gangs kind of fighting each other. And that's really. Really exciting as a tourist.
Rubi: That's right, yeah. And really dangerous and they. They're here for it though, like they want. Their lunch money taken.
Kirk: Yeah, it's exciting to them to have their lunch money taken. I mean, you know, some people really like their their echo vault safaris.
Rubi: You guys in your lunch money? Kirk wants lunch.
Kirk: Brought from home. So one thing I want to know that, you know we've we've talked about the. Cool J tech. Waypoint in here.
Ali: Ohh yes yeah.
Kirk: This is one of my the small additions that that the writing team did that I'm really. Happy about everything that this helps just do is blank zoo heltzer that's just their thing. So instead of having how zeltzer waypoint, they just we went with Waypoint Zeltzer.
Rubi: I love that so much. I just it's those little touches and I laughed so hard. When I saw it.
Kirk: That's right. And.
Ali: The same and it's those things right that we talk about that's got that kind of a love letter to to our previous games. And I think that's so important for our fans too.
Kirk: And that's that really, you know, is echoed in the fact that the characters that like like we were, you know, mentioned before who live here, they are of kurzick and lux and descent.
Ali: Right. So you end up with characters who visually. Will represent that kind of. Heritage which you see here is that one of the tourist or tour people.
Kirk: Yeah, this is. This is a Historical Society. She's she's, of course the. Heritage, you know and. The people who live here. Yes, that everyone is aware of what happened to those those two, you know, groups of people earlier and and centuries ago in Guild Wars. Universe, but they still recognize their heritage and they celebrate it. And that's something that was really important to us when we were approaching building out this area. Just you know. For the world. Building up, you know, aspects of it, but also for just being able to tell cool, unique stories and showcase those cultures.
Ali: You know well and to our fans too, it will feel familiar. Rather than feeling completely different, which is super important, one of the things here that you can do as part of. An event is kind of. Look for various artifacts that the house who helps their historic Historical Society I guess would be the correct word, are looking for and those can be found in various pieces of rubble where you're looking for keys and sometimes those keys also lead to some nefarious.
Rubi: Right.
Ali: Creatures these keys are used to look at the different barriers that we have in this game or in this area. And so you would go in and use the key to get through the barrier, because otherwise it's a no good, very bad time.
Kirk: Yeah, it's you'll have a bad time if you try to mess with the relic without being able to break these awards. And that's, you know, the the kurzick. Relics that are left over in this area. You know, there's a lot to discover here, you know, not just in context of this particular event, but just what you can find and what that might lead to. You know, this particular event might lead to something that's really cool. I mean, it's really cool now. You know, the entire experience is really fun. One of our designers, Chloe, did an awesome job building out. This area absolutely. And just being able to to tell some history here, there's. Both old and. There's some stuff for new folks. Or some stuff for for. People who played it in the past, you know, but it doesn't feel foreign either.
Ali: Well, and I. Think you're not the. Only one looking for those artifacts either. There's a potential to run into the gangs.
Kirk: Yep, nothing saw me.
Ali: Who are looking?
Kirk: Here comes Jeff Daniels money.
Ali: We're also looking for ways to get to get. Those artifacts, and apparently your lunch money.
Kirk: So we're just going. To sneak out of there before you get too dangerous.
Ali: Here one of the great things about Guild Wars two now as well is in comparison to Guild Wars one you weren't able to really explore. And here, with our verticality, you can look at things like flying buttresses, any of the Gothic architecture like you can essentially explore the top of house you holtzer.
Kirk: Yeah, you know, that's one of those little things. That when we first. Started plotting out this map and. Kind of exploring it. It really hit us is. Like, whoa, this is kind of a new angle on things. Literally because we're up so high. Because you couldn't do that. In Guild Wars one right. You you could do slash jump, but that's not the same as a, you know, a Bunny hop and being able to really explore the full 3D environment of the area. And you know, again, this is something that our map artist Justin has just really done an incredible job building out. You know it it it feels like it's always been this way in the sense that, you know, you're able to explore and climb up those vines and get up really high up into those treetops. And there's tons of verticality in this map. You can, you know, just go crazy with and try to find new things hidden.
Ali: All that I was going to say and we know we knew that was coming in. So there are probably plenty of things to be. To be explored and discovered up in that upper canopy.
Kirk: Yeah, like you know what? Why is this path of wood here? It looks like there's some scaffolding here. What does it lead to? It is a mystery spoiler spoiler. Spoiler Clacks and sound. So something that, you know, all you mentioned when we were first welcoming you back on here was that you helped work on the echo of all meta.
Ali: I did, yeah. We can absolutely talk a little bit about the meta. So one of the things that we really wanted. Make sure in equivalent is that you get the feeling that these villagers man those two gangs are beating them up all of the time. They're extorting them. They're taking supplies. So they're just kind of living the best they can. And while the speakers and the jade brotherhood are fighting each other, there is essentially a fuse that is lit. To spark an all out war between them. That's kind of the core of what our meta is. And during that time the kestrels like Morgan mentioned earlier. There are looking at this opportunity going all right. The gangs are already hitting each other with as much desperation as they can. Why don't we go in and why don't we essentially destabilize both of them while they're busy with one another? And so the entire core of the meta is actually doing that. So you will visit various villages and you'll be sent on tasks. With different members of the Kestrels in order to do so, and one of those tasks happens to be in the ultra minds, again probably in familiar name. To you guys. And the mines are still around, although the amber inside is not as prevalent or not as valuable. I should say to the people of Cantha as it once was in comparison to jade, that it is now.
Kirk: Yeah, they definitely decided to take up Jade to their their empire, so to speak. OK.
Ali: And that's reflected too in all of the statues we have and a lot of the other maps as well.
Kirk: So you know, as Morgan was saying before, so these these villages that are are scattered all around the map, you know, they are regions that have unique history to each of them, right. Some some folks are some some of the villages, excuse me, are more lux and excited month and some are more curves excited I'm going. To go invisible, no. Yeah.
Rubi: They saw you.
Kirk: Leave me alone, speakers, but at the same time, right?
Ali: Yeah, these guys hit hard.
Kirk: Something that was really cool to see, you know, build when you're working on this alley was seeing the entire thing really feel like a big war zone, right? These gangs are at each other's.
Ali: Throats. Yeah, well, and. The desperation kind of like disseminates into chaos. Here we have you work with a kestrel named Stass, who is actually human. One of the things that's really important and something we really wanted to touch on is not only are the kestrels inclusive, which we try to do. For all of our game. But they also aren't just Tengu, right? They involve descendants of Kurzick's, descendants of Luxans, so you kind. Of really work. With a whole bunch of different people who have decided to become kind of the protectors. And peacekeepers of equal. And so with this particular event, you are helping staff kind of bust up the. Speaker supply line as it were. So you are gathering their bomb supplies that they have stashed in this village to try and kind of circumvent what they've been trying to do.
Kirk: Yeah, something that I'm. I'm really happy with with these. These villages too is when this is all happening, you know. And again, a lot of stuff has been hidden here because it is very spoiler town. That's something that's cool about this map is that, you know, it takes place a little bit later in the story. And so some. Things will be different, right? And so, you know, the the the world reacts to what has happened.
Ali: Absolutely well and you get, you get more of a feeling of desperation. The longer the meta goes on. So once you've, you know, kind of. Of finished up with all of those villages and their different things that you need to do, you kind of have this climactic moment that we won't be telling you about, that you have to come explore yourself here in echo fall. But please, rest assuredly that that Dev team and I worked real hard to make sure that that feels really good.
Kirk: Yeah, and seeing the, you know, the writing. Coming together for these two. Like Morgan has done an incredible job on working the absolutely the characteristics of all these villages, right you. Know the the. The the villages who are here, who live here. Call this this particular area home. They react to things happening, you know, they understand that they have their own sense of personality, but they're also in the middle of an area, adequately named the equivalent wild. And it is a very dangerous area.
Ali: Well, and it's that moment, too, of like, I'm living here with my family. And this is going on. What can I do and we? Kind of have the kestrels there as the like here. We're here to. Help and some of the villagers aren't. Really sure how that works. Like, are you actually? Here to help me. Am I going to have to pay? You now like that kind of. Interaction that you'll definitely.
Kirk: So you know, this is definitely it. It is a meta event. So when I go in, viz here, I'm not gonna have just one person. Trying to take my lunch. It's gonna be. No, it'll.
Ali: Be all of them, they.
Kirk: I'm gonna be on for quite a while.
Ali: Are definitely programmed to take all of your lunch.
Rubi: I'm concerned for you.
Kirk: Now, yeah, I am too. But something that's really cool about this particular meta, you know? And since the entire theme of of this map is kind of focused on the gang war and what's happening and how everyone is reacting to that right, you might have seen across the screen it would say, you know, a A so and so village is under attack. Right. That just is something that really double s down and reinforces the chaos.
Ali: Yeah, absolutely. Well and. I think too it's it's really important because you're essentially getting this urgency of ohh, it's not just the place I'm at. And so you're looking at your different, you know your different squads and your different groups and going, how do I have to split up like how do we as a group have to split up to make sure that we can protect all of these villages that are all? Falling under combat at the same time or falling under duress at the same time? Yeah, so it's it's a really interesting way to have the players. Pick and choose which villages they go to in. Order to save.
Kirk: Yeah, it's really cool too, because it it makes the entire thing feel global, right? You know, it's a it's a map. It's a map meta event that takes you around all of that global wild, you know. And so you're able to, you know, if you're doing the entire thing, you are able to also explore the map and learn the map as you're doing it. And it will take you to areas that look completely different from one another. As you know, each of those areas have different kind of cultures and personalities and all that good stuff.
Ali: And and on top of that, there's also the. What am I doing here during the meta? And that's certainly different depend. Going on, which gang has overtaken that village and? Which village it is?
Kirk: Right. Yeah, for sure. And then it all concludes with an epic.
Ali: Epic all out conclusion, conclusion and epic all.
Kirk: In yeah, conclusion. Spoiler class.
Ali: Out climax that you will see. When you come play.
Kirk: Our game indeed. Yeah, it's, it's awesome. I'm really excited that first time that we play it on live, you know, and I'm looking to see everyone's reactions.
Ali: Oh yeah, same.
Kirk: We just did a play test of. A few days ago and it was, you know, just it's always fun every time, and especially towards, you know, everything starting to come together, the arts in audio is coming in.
Ali: Yeah, the musics.
Kirk: You know, it's voices coming in. It's all coming together and it's wonderful.
Ali: Yeah, it's really awesome to be a game developer.
Kirk: That that sums it up well, yeah.
Ali: You get to see that finished product when it goes from being like something I've written on. Of age to actually a finished product and game where fans get to enjoy that, that's always been really rewarding.
Rubi: Yeah, now it's. A game, yeah.
Ali: Now it's a thing that my friends.
Rubi: Can go play. You guys, we're getting so close. We are in the home stretch.
Kirk: I know it's really exciting. It's it's one of my favorite times. Just as everything comes together and everyone starts like, you know, like, like Allie was saying starts, you know, feeling like it's it's a game, you know, this is a a fun experience that everyone has put a ton. Of time into.
Ali: Well, and it's a lot of heart and. Soul from the entire dev team. Too, which is always super important. We definitely take our work here super seriously and want to make sure that, like everything is kind of something our players would enjoy.
Rubi: Yeah, we are and we're just excited for you guys to get this into your hands. We are we are excited to bring it to you. So that is our show for today. That is our.
Ali: So, Kirk, where are you heading?
Rubi: We do have. No, no, no, no, no.
Kirk: But wait, there's more. I'm not gonna go through the portal in. Fact I looked over was just like no.
Ali: Kirk, what is that giant clothing that we're definitely not gonna talk about?
Morgan: It's it's a portal that goes.
Kirk: Somewhere, but it's been blocked off. You can see there's concrete behind it. You know, it's like bad things will happen if I go in there. And by bad things, I mean Ruby will come for my lunch. So, you know, we're just not going to. Go inside the portal.
Ali: Right. Did you have something happen to you? Or somebody took your lunch money, bro or.
Rubi: Were you just hungry?
Kirk: You know, it is what it is.
Rubi: You know what, though? I want people to eventually see what's behind.
Ali: That for I think I think. That might happen eventually, right?
Kirk: Yeah, we should. Yeah, that sounds like a really good idea. Know it's a. Really big entrance. It's really nice and grand.
Ali: It is, it's.
Rubi: OK, you guys are mean?
Ali: I know it's part of my job.
Kirk: Wonder what's to be in there, you know, like.
Ali: Be mean to be no, well, to tease.
Rubi: Would be like what is?
Ali: This what's gonna happen?
Kirk: Like House of alters.
Rubi: OK, You 2, behave yourselves.
Kirk: You know, there's this behavior.
Morgan: OK.
Rubi: So that is our echo wild wild echo, wild wild map tour. You guys have done.
Ali: To me, I'm not sorry.
Rubi: I honestly do I look sorry. Now we know you guys are eager to see more. We have so much more of end of Dragons. To show you coming up starting with next week, November 19th Friday, our Jade C Map tour, we are going to take you into the Jade CA lot like this. We're going to hide a lot of things. Things eventually, we're going to go through that portal. Kirk is just over there, like, smirking at this portal.
Ali: Yes, good, good.
Rubi: We're going to. Go through that portal, make sure you follow our channel so you don't miss any of the things that we have coming up next Friday's event is just the first of many Ender Dragons is launching in February of 2022. We are mid November everybody, we're we're so close. Oh oh man.
Morgan: Super home stretch.
Rubi: You can pre purchase right now though to get some cool bonuses for your account that you can use in game right now. Including the Shing Shing Jay Mosaic, Cape, the flame, serpent, weapon chest, and the prodigy of Shinji title, along with a lot of other goodies. So give that pre purchase in. And Speaking of pre purchase I have one more thing for you. If you haven't seen yet, we have partnered with DX Racer to bring you this awesome. End of Dragons DX Racer gaming chair.
Ali: I definitely have pre-ordered.
Rubi: I am in love with it. Honestly, this is this is such a cool detail and I know like the whole chair is amazing, but that massive embroidered and octagons logo on the back is incredible.
Ali: It's awesome. It's beautiful. I'm so excited for that to get to my house. Know you know. When it's gonna get to my house.
Rubi: Yes, that was good. I got you. So you can pre purchase this now it is available for pre purchase now until November 30th until the end of this. And it will come to you in early 2022. Sweet. Yeah. So that was our show today. Thank you all for joining us. Don't forget to come back next week and we will take you around. The jade scene. Thanks everybody.
Kirk: Later guys. Thanks everyone.
