Guild Wars 2

I’ve heard numerous people comment/complain about how unreasonable it is to be able to get the Commander status by just forking over 100g. They say this for three reasons: 1.) there are few who really want to spend 100g on a simple title. Its not that big of a deal. 2.) for those who WOULD want commander status, 100g is quite a bit. 3.) What does money have to do with gaining a title (for that matter when has it ever in any game?)

So me and my brother were brain-storming this issue today and heres what we came up with:

The Commander Title needs to be gotten in a manner that really establishes that role, especially in a role playing context. There would be four components that the player would have to accomplish to gain this (like any other high-level component in this game)

1.) There are 4 battle grounds in the WvWvW instances. Each with its own components for map completion. Have upon each completion a token or medal given to the player. Once all 4 tokens are collected specific to each zone, they must take them to the mystic forge and create a new item intended for the final creation. This would fulfill the “Exploration Component” of the commander status, because every good commander needs to know the lay of the land.

2.) This next step fills what would be considered the “Tactical Component”. The Player must be involved in a number of successful sieges or points held on the map. It would have to be a significant amount to create a reasonable experience base for the commander. This would be awarded as a completed achievement just like any other daily/monthly chest that pops up in the bottom right.

3.) This step would be the “Battle Component”. Pretty simple. 250 badges. Now i know that these can be gotten from certain puzzle chests in the zones, so maybe a different idea would have to implemented, or just keep it that way because who hasn’t had to fight their way to those chests anyways?

4.) This would be the “Financial component” lol. Make the player still have to pay somewhere between 25-50 gold for a particular token. Since we would already be doing quite a bit of work for this, 100g seems a bit too much at this point.

So at this point the player would now have (what i’ve decided to call them) a Battle Honor, Tactical Honor, Exploration Honor and Financial Honor. The player can now take them to the Mystic Forge, drop them in, and receive their shiny new Commander Book (or perhaps they can be given to a certain person instead of having to go through the forge).

Some side ideas that we also had about the commander position:

A separate chat line that only commanders can access. When the commander types something in, anyone on that team sees it but will see it in a different color, so as to differentiate the commanders orders from the other player’s complaints

Also, perhaps a potential weapon that the commander could have, or a battle flag that they can equip or drop that when with a group they can drop/use and it gives them boons to help in the siege.

Thoughts? Disagreements? Would love to hear your ideas!

This idea was really well fleshed out, I wouldn’t mind if this was implemented at all.

No, commander title is a good money sink and like you said all it is is a title. It’s entire point is to make it easier to get people to follow you. No where does it say “this guy is a good strategist” it just says “I spent 100g and want to command” It’s fine as is.

The commander title is nothing more than a little emphasis on group organizing. The problem is how the title currently works. The system needs to be reworked. People are getting too jealous or elitist and therefor it’s causing conflict with community organizing.

The problem won’t be how it’s obtained, but instead how it works.

We need a system that’s similar to guilds. Except instead of having indefinite groups of people, we have organizers (commanders) who form groups that are meant to last for large scaled events and nothing more. This should include both PvE and WvW.

I salute your effort!

For now, I just want an option to turn off the commander icon on my map as I have no reason to know whether someone is a comannder in PvE.

If commanders become too prevalent in WvW, a temporary solution may be a simple voting system. Each battlefield has a limited # of commander slots per side. Whenever a commander enters the map and actually wants to command, she can negotiate with an existing commander directly to take over a slot, if all slots are filled. Whether a slot is open already or open through agreement, all faction players on the map vote whether to accept that commander, and a simple majority decides. The same goes for kicking a commander. If, say a fifth to a third of players want to kick a commander, his status comes up for a vote and if the majority agrees, his status is rescinded until he leaves WvW. It’ll be like voting someone out of a party.

The long term solution is a more organized command structure based on player reputation and stat tracking. It requires much more detail than I can provide right now.

Leadership is a position of responsibility; its prestige is a byproduct. Anyone going for it for the prestige first has no business commanding anyway. As for any kind of monetary requirement… I think those that spend a lot to build siege weapons for their side should maybe get a title as Master Engineer and perhaps receive a discount on siege blue-prints. I don’t see what wealth has to do with commanding a fighting force. The idea is kinda scary, actually.

Honestly, I dont know about any other server but on mine we have a certain number of commanders that are recognized as actual leaders and I have at times donated to a good leader of a group if he hasnt got his commander icon yet. Of course there people who just bought it for kicks but mostly these people are shunned in the WvW community and instead walk around in PVE showing off. All we need in my opinion is a way to shut them off in PVE, but Im not fussed about it either way.

I agree, would up the WvW requirements though.

As it is there are commander zergs on my server and frankly is quite annoying.

I agree that a Commander title should be achieved through skill and experience and not through purchase. Maybe they can add a new title “Grand Commander” in the future so the people that currently purchased their Commander title don’t complain.

I agree that being able to fork out 100G doesn’t necessarily mean you are a good commander.
Completion of the map and Badges of honour sound like a good way to obtain the title. A please give people the option to hide the symbol on their map!

At the OP, /signed … but with some refinements.

Could even add in further Commander titles such as a ‘’Knight Commander’’ with even harder/more acheievments to obtain – with possibly an armour (much like the guild armour).

i want to add an idea to the OP, make the commanders glow when you see them. That way they look cooler than just a dinky blue chevron above their head.

for those of you who think that 100g is worthwhile, you obviously haven’t played under a handful of the commanders on Stormbluff. Some of the are absolute hacks. They cant lead if it cost them their lives, they lead us all to a slaughter, over and over and over again.

Creating a system that make someone have to actually work for this status, and work for in a way that actually says “im experienced in WvW”, not “i farmed a bunch of crap and now im important!”.