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[speculist-rinthi]

In writing a fighting scene how many sentences need to be it is always said it needs to have a variety of how long? Technical jargon better be ditched, or sometimes needs to be written? Is there any advice on how to do this, I still trying to get an idea of how to write fighting scenes? from tournaments, corridor battles (narrow and wide), room battles, field battles, war battles, or even hit-and-run battles?

So, there are multiple questions here, but some of these are going to be kind of quick.

How many sentences do you need? Enough, but no more. You need to be able to communicate to the reader what's happening in the fight. Or, at least, be able to communicate what your PoV character experiences from the fight. The more you add to it, the longer it will take your average reader to read the scene, and (to an extent) the slower they will perceive the fight.

This creates an awkward situation for a writer. If you have some, “really cool visual,” but you can't convey that quickly and efficiently, it might need to go. Especially if it's the kind of thing you'd see in a film, or comic, but that your character wouldn't be directly aware of. For example, a character isn't going to know that a blade narrowly missed their head, shaving off several locks of hair in the process, because they're probably not looking in the direction of their hair when it happens, and they're probably not going to feel it. In attempting to completely articulate that moment, you're going to slow down the fight.

Now, there is an application for this. The better a character's reflexes (really, the faster they are at processing information, which isn't technically reflexes), the more ability they'll have to actually perceive these kinds of moments as they happen, and the slow the fight will be, for them.

Technical jargon is characterization. A character who doesn't know how to fight, and has no prior aptitude for violence, probably won't have a particularly extensive vocabulary for violence. So, if that's you PoV for a fight, they don't know what they're seeing, and they might not have a vocabulary that extends much beyond hitting, punching, and kicking. This applies both to the attacks they can (intentionally) make, and what they can see and understand when other characters are attacking.

A character who is a combat veteran, with extensive training will have a much wider range of options open to them, and also a much greater capacity to accurately articulate the violence they see. They're likely to use and recognize things like stances, parries, restraints, holds, and throws.

This can lead to a specific situation that's counter-intuitive (at least in comparison to what I said at the beginning), but also very real. An inexperienced fighter, can find themselves quickly losing to a skilled opponent without really being able to understand what just happened to them. In this specific case, accurately communicating the details to the audience can be to the detriment.

So, this is all for limited narration. If you're using omniscient narration, then you'll need to make decisions on how to describe the combat. This is one situation where it's really difficult to avoid characterizing your narrator. Though, this should help make that characterization a conscious choice, rather than an accident.

Beyond that, asking about the different venues, that's a little to vague to really give any coherent answer beyond simply pointing to the earlier paragraphs. For example, when you're looking at armies clashing in a massive battle, the PoV is still the most important factor to assessing how it should be written. A general, commanding the troops from a hill behind the front lines is going to be far more interested in the overall strategic state of the battle. They'll be directing troops, trying to get orders through, watching the enemy, and trying to anticipate what they'll do. A soldier down in the melee will have a radically different experience. They may not even have the tactical background to fully appreciate the way the battle is progressing, beyond simply that there are still people trying to kill them, and they're preemptively returning the favor.

At a grander scale, a footsoldier in a war might not even have the frame of reference to really understand the state of the world beyond the scope of their orders and the battles they find themselves in. They may know who they are fighting, but, not really understand why. And, if they encounter enemy forces unexpectedly, they may have no idea what that really means for the war as a whole, where a general or commander would likely be able to understand and explain how that happened. In fact, a diplomat or spy, with extensive experience from before the war, may have entirely different understandings for how and why the enemy is maneuvering than even a general would.

Again, violence, whether it's on a personal, or a mass scale, is a venue for characterization. Who your characters are will dictate how they perceive, understand, and interact with the world around them. There isn't one way that a fight in a corridor will occur, because there isn't one kind of person who will walk into a corridor with violent intent.

If it sounds like I'm thinking of Glen Cook's Black Company novels, I am. I'm also thinking of Sandy Mitchell's Caiaphas Cain novels, and a few other stray examples.

Ultimately, this is all about characterization of your narrator, regardless whether that narrator is also a character in the story or not.

-Starke

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[speculist-rinthi]

Omg there's now a filter on the trading post to only show dyes you dont have unlocked!

And its apparently for armor/weapon skins too!

[speculist-rinthi]

anet :) you know what would be cool :)

If you gave us a bookshelf in our homesteads with every lore book we’ve picked up :)

[speculist-rinthi]

my girl so morally ambiguous idk if i should call her good girl or bad girl in bed

[speculist-rinthi]

[speculist-rinthi]

Me: Oh, silver, black and red themed weapons, this will go perfectly wit--- ANet: LET'S PUT A GIANT FUCKING SMOKE CLOUD ON IT

@guildwars2 pls

[speculist-rinthi]

Dreamwalkers

Been thinking about this concept for a while. What if there was a term for sylvari who spent a longer than average time in the Dream of Dreams? And that’s where this came from.

While most sylvari will awaken from the Dream after a few years, there are some who will remain for much longer. Sylvari who spend prolonged amounts of time within The Dream become known as Dreamwalkers.

Most Dreamwalkers are sylvari who have chosen to remain, actively delaying their awakening by ignoring the call through sheer willpower. Their reasons for doing so may vary. Some linger because they wish to learn more about the world by diving deeper into the Dream’s well of memories. Others need more time to decide who they are and what they want to be before they awaken. Some stay to explore their visions, trying to glean as much from them as they can. And some simply do not want to leave the safety of the Dream.

Dreamwalkers who have not prevented their own awakening are incredibly rare. It is unknown whether this is the intention of the The Dream and the Pale Tree, some unrevealed entity interfering with the awakening, or if it’s just a rare phenomenon. These sylvari can be stuck within the Dream for ages, waiting to finally feel the call to emerge into Tyria.

[speculist-rinthi]

you guys already know how partial i am to the guild wars 2 mount system but does this not make you smile so big. people so fond of roller beetles they make a guild dedicated to them and design their own tracks to race on and someone flying a griffon acts as an aerial drone to video record these events. also theres probably just some innate charm to watching a bunch of orbs hurtle along to initial d

[speculist-rinthi]

Kudo's a weird little batrat subterranean creechur and you can't change my mind

[speculist-rinthi]

im not interested in glory through combat anymore. i do not want to be a part of this shit.

[speculist-rinthi]

Homestead Essentials: Living in Janthir Wilds (link)

Text:

Greetings, Tyrians! Gather around the fire and settle in as we chat with Andrew Gray and Joel Eckert, two of the designers working to bring you one of the newest features in Guild Wars 2®: Janthir Wilds™. Today, they’ll conjure a magical doorway and take us on a tour of Homesteads.

With the launch just a few weeks away, we’re excited to answer some essential questions that will help you on your journey to turn a plot of land into a home. In the next few weeks, be sure to check out our social media channels for inspiring homestead designs, and join us soon for a livestream where we’ll explore Homesteads even further. For now, we’ll be covering some of the general Homesteads information that you’ll need to know.

Q: How do I get my homestead?

A: The story of Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds will introduce you to the plot of land that you will tend to and claim as your homestead.

Q: How do I access my homestead?

A: Once your homestead is unlocked, you’ll have access to a Summon Conjured Doorway Mastery skill. Any character on your account can conjure a doorway and simply step through into the homestead.

Q: Can friends visit my homestead?

A: Yes, you can invite your party members to your homestead via your conjured doorway. Players who are not in a party can use the door to request a party invitation from the door owner, and the owner interacting with the door will initiate the instance-transfer countdown. You can even give your visitors permission to help decorate your homestead!

Q: Can I return to my original location (the place I entered from) when I exit my homestead?

A: Yes, you’ll find a familiar instance exit button on the lower right of your screen that will return you to your previous location. This will even persist across sessions, so if you log out and log back in to your homestead to take advantage of the homestead’s resting bonus, upon logging back in, the instance exit button will return you to your last open-world location. This will not persist if you visit another instance, though.

Q: What can I unlock for my homestead?

A: As you progress your Homesteading Mastery, you’ll unlock more rooms within your homestead to decorate. You can also unlock improvements to your lumber mill, mine, and farm facilities. Because upgrades and spawns for your personal story home instance carry over to the homestead, you can also collect various gathering nodes, convenience features, and characters like the hungry cats.

And, finally, you can unlock decorations through the handiworker discipline, which is a refined, account-wide crafting ability.

Q: Can we control where unlocked nodes spawn?

A: Things like resource nodes, cats, and chests are placed in predetermined areas to ensure they all function properly.

Q: Where do homestead decorations come from?

A: Handiworker is the new crafting discipline that will be used to create decorations. New decorations are unlocked via Mastery points spent in the Homesteading Mastery line.

Q: Tell me more about handiwork, the new personal version of guild scribing.

A: Handiwork functions very similarly to scribing, but it is designed and balanced for a single player to be able to craft things on their own. There is a material cost for each copy of a decoration that you craft, but the prices for personal decorations via handiworker crafting are significantly lower.

Q: Why is handiworker crafting part of a Mastery line and not leveled like other crafting disciplines?

A: Since your homestead is account bound, we also wanted your handiworker crafting discipline to be account bound. We also wanted to create a stronger synergy between the content of Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds and your homestead, so, rather than reaching higher levels of the crafting discipline by crafting more decorations inside your homestead, you’ll instead do so by playing the rest of the Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds content and earning regular experience points.

Q: How do I decorate my homestead?

A: A “Decorate” button on the heads-up display or the skill panel will activate decorating mode.

In this mode, players have access to various skills on the skill bar for placing new decorations, modifying already placed decorations, or removing decorations. Additionally, you can enter a flying mode that allows placement of items anywhere a player normally cannot reach.

We’ll be demonstrating homestead decoration live on Twitch this Friday, August 2, at noon PDT (UTC-7). Join us to catch the placement tools—which include a Toggle X-Ray Vision skill and flying mode—in action.

Q: How do the characters on my account interact with the homestead?

A: When you exit to the character selection screen while inside your homestead, the character you were playing will be visible in your homestead as an NPC while you play other characters. These NPC versions of your characters default to one of three predetermined locations in the homestead, based on whether they are soldiers who wear heavy armor, adventurers who wear medium armor, or scholars who wear light armor.

Soldiers are found around the main homestead structure and the entry area near the portal.

Adventurers are found on the far side of the river near the main homestead building, in a wilder area.

Scholars are found in and around a secluded cave away from the main homestead, which is perfect for concentrating.

If you approach any of these logged-out alternate characters, you can ask them to follow you and lead them elsewhere. When you’re ready for them to stay put again, you can ask them to stay, and they’ll stop following.

Q: Will all of the characters I leave in the homestead when I log out show up? Can I control which ones show up or disable them?

A: All characters left within the homestead when you log out will be visible when you’re playing other characters.

Q: Can we control the appearance and dyes of mounts in the stable? How are those chosen?

A: Mounts housed within the mount stable will have the same skin and dye settings used by the player character that is currently accessing the homestead. The skiff’s dye and skin are controlled by the same means.

Q: Will there be a livestream to show off Homesteads?

There will be a livestream! As we mentioned above, we’ll be showing off the design elements and finer details of the Homesteads feature on our Twitch channel, on August 2 at noon Pacific Time (UTC-7). We hope to see you there!

Prepurchasing any edition of Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds before the expansion launches will grant you the “Homesteader” title, the Whispering Serpents Pauldrons skin, and a box with your choice of one Serpent’s Wrath weapon skin.

Visit the official store page for full details on the items included in the Standard, Deluxe, and Ultimate editions.

[speculist-rinthi]

You know what I wish one of the ascended trinkets was?

A cuff like the one Macha wore in Sea of Sorrows.

She wore a turquoise bracelet around the top of one arm, a mark of her advancement in the asuran colleges—genius first grade.

[speculist-rinthi]

Lol my large and handsome pig didn’t find Anything of interest in your yard

[speculist-rinthi]

It has been a while but here we are for the long awaited part 3 of “Spotlight on the Commander of no fucks given” | Part 1 | Part 2 |

[speculist-rinthi]

[speculist-rinthi]

what

[speculist-rinthi]

So my dash did this when I opened tumblr and I couldn't stop laughing 😂