A couple of things, the first might be beneficial for game play while the second is not so much, but might help to draw more creative types to the game.
Chat macros – by this I mean something similar to what another NC release, the soon-to-be-late City of Heroes, had. A player could type out a small piece of code to automatically post a string to chat, execute an emote or both, all at the press of a user-mapped button or the click of an icon, and give it a short name to identify it.
Personally, I’ve been in many a situation where I’ve found myself needing to say something quick, but not being able to type it out fast enough before it’s too late, even in a more shorthand format. For example, completing an event, only for everyone to disappear just as the next part of the chain is about to start. Try typing even “next event!” before everyone’s disappeared from [Say] range. >_<
Further examples being “Hold on, I’ll rez you!” when you stumble across a defeated player or “Someone go protect the south thingie!” during the Megadestroyer event chain and the like.
In PvP and WvW, it can be used to issue quick orders (again, try asking people for help to try and cap a point while you’re busy trying to stay alive) else, but this might be seen as an unfair advantage, so I can understand if everyone’s against it.
The other idea, again from CoH and extremely wishful thinking (I’m sure there are far more pressing priorities right now), is a demo recording system that records the goings on in your immediate area – camera, character positions and customisation, movement, skill execution and emotes etc – and stores them as a script in a text file that can be played back by the client even while offline.
You’re probably thinking
“What’s the point?”
“You can’t share it with everybody!”
“Why not just use FRAPS?”
I say “What if FRAPS fails the first time, or you accidentally disable it?” :P
As City used its own scripting code for demos, the demo file was easily (relatively) modifiable by users. For example, have you just recorded an epic fight, but the player camera doesn’t do it justice? Rewrite the camera co-ordinates and angles to place it somewhere more dramatic. It doesn’t stop there, either. It could enable the creation of machinima too. Not convinced? Look up the likes of “samuraiko” on YouTube, many of her vids expertly created using CoH ’s demo system.
