Guild Wars 2

There are so many people getting Commander tags but it has occurred to me that many have no experience in that role. It is a just a bragging rights – ‘I have more money than you’ type of attitude. This is especially true for people who play WvW. Having an inexperienced commander is death in that part of the game. Well, I guess the same can be said for PvE where the Commander says ‘Stack’ and all the players that do die.

I would like to offer a suggestion. How about an ‘Honorary’ Commander title that you can buy and then one that is merit or rank based. This way there is no confusion and true ‘Commanders’ in WvW get their due.

All I have to say is: it’s their own fault for following an “inexperienced” commander.

dukefx.9730:

All I have to say is: it’s their own fault for following an “inexperienced” commander.

This

dukefx.9730:

All I have to say is: it’s their own fault for following an “inexperienced” commander.

^

If you spend enough time in WvW you can tell who is a competent commander or not. On SoR we have this kitten y commander who frequents EB and is there everyday. But no one follows him because everyone knows he’s terribad.

I’d like the commander tag to give you a large banner. This would replace your skills with ten commands like: Advance, Hold, Fall Back, On Me!, Disperse, etc.. The banner shown would change appearance based on what command you were giving, and be easily visible in large groups and possibly on the map too.

I’ve always thought that 1) there should be seperate PvE and WvW tags
2) Commander tags should be earned. I haven’t worked out all the details in my head for a good system, but it’s been brewing for a while.

I see lots of commander tags at dragon events and in LA, and I don’t recognize any of the names from WvW. So one day I asked. They said they had never set foot in WvW.

I bought mine for guild events and such, I only command with guildies and we’re always in vent. If a cmd is completely silent and doing his own thing, chances are he/she forgot it’s on, I do this ALL the time unfortunately.

I agree with Mel. There should be separate tags for PvE and WvW.

Beyond that, buying them isn’t so bad, because as one said, you can tell if they know what they’re doing as opposed to the “Hey, look at me!” tag. I would like to see some kind of requirement other than a bank account for them, though.

There should continue to be one commander tag that costs 100g and that you have to buy. Perhaps there can be an alternate way to buy it that costs 90g and a lot of BoH.

That one commander tag should have several options
1. Party commander – only appears to members of your party
2. Guild commander – only appears to members of your guild
3. Squad commander – only appears to members of your squad
4. Map commander – appears to all players on your map

Every time you put up your commander tag, you pick which one you want. Each type appears as a different color. This creates a situation where people can:
1. Easily keep track of a “leader” of their party (done now primarily by targeting)
2. Allow for large guild groups or allow guild members to see their guild leader easily during PvE events (e.g. finding a guild bounty on the map)
3. Allow for a beginning commander to have a group of people follow him/her and practice without having everyone on the map follow them/extect that they know exactly what they are doing
4. Allow more experienced commanders to take responsibility for leading the majority of the map

Obviously if someone with no experience wants to throw up the map commander tag they will be able to but as others have said, eventually people will stop following them. For those who want to work their way up to map commander, they are able to.

I just completely ignore commander tags now. They’ve become a symbol of wealth instead of a symbol of authority and experience. And they’re so commonplace now that I’m not surprised if I see 5 or 6 commander tags pop up during a champ farm or I usually see 10 to 15 tags in WvW all over the place.

I can’t even count the number of inexperienced commanders I’ve seen leading zergs away from important towers that need to be captured. I’m done with WvW until all the commanders get tired of repeatedly dying and quit the game.

Galtrix.7369:

I just completely ignore commander tags now. They’ve become a symbol of wealth instead of a symbol of authority and experience. And they’re so commonplace now that I’m not surprised if I see 5 or 6 commander tags pop up during a champ farm or I usually see 10 to 15 tags in WvW all over the place.

I can’t even count the number of inexperienced commanders I’ve seen leading zergs away from important towers that need to be captured. I’m done with WvW until all the commanders get tired of repeatedly dying and quit the game.

They were always a symbol of wealth. Players soon learn after playing long enough which commanders are worthy of it, which ones aren’t and which players are worthy of commander tags but who choose not to buy them. As for the suggestion is that the solution? I don’t think so. Here’s my counter-suggestion, which has in some form been made before:

Allow players the ability to select ANY player icon, not just commander tags, and set the icon color for that player to any selection of color they choose and/or allow them to choose from a selection of icons. One of these icon selections should be ‘hidden’ so that if you have a commander that you don’t like or choose not to follow, you can simply hide his pin from your own map. These settings should remain always as a player has set them until that player chooses to change them. This, of course, would only change how you see commander pins (and other player icons) so this gives each player the power now to ignore those pins they have no interest in following. This has the added bonus of letting you select your party leader to follow, or maybe a friend in an area where you are not partied together, etc.

It ‘could’ render the desire for someone to save 100g for a tag obsolete, but they’re rich anyway so who cares? lol j/k But it at least gives players that have heartburn with purchased commander tags a way to control how they see them.

It’s also not uncommon for people to buy these just for trackability/identification. Certain guild leaders do this in particular. It’s nothing about being able to command anything, just a blue icon above their head that says “here I am”.

In LA on my server on any given day, there are 10-20 commanders in LA, and I guarantee that less than a quarter of them have seen time in a ‘commanding’ role in WvW or leading a zerg in PvE. The rest are “bank commanders”.

An earned, red variant of the commander tag would be my suggestion, that way you know they have the trust of the players and they can actually ‘command’ a squad or group of players in a given situation. Someone that’s worth listening to instead of ‘do we trust this guy?’.

Valandil Dragonhart.2371:

It’s also not uncommon for people to buy these just for trackability/identification. Certain guild leaders do this in particular. It’s nothing about being able to command anything, just a blue icon above their head that says “here I am”.

In LA on my server on any given day, there are 10-20 commanders in LA, and I guarantee that less than a quarter of them have seen time in a ‘commanding’ role in WvW or leading a zerg in PvE. The rest are “bank commanders”.

An earned, red variant of the commander tag would be my suggestion, that way you know they have the trust of the players and they can actually ‘command’ a squad or group of players in a given situation. Someone that’s worth listening to instead of ‘do we trust this guy?’.

Earned commander tags sound great, but truly determining how someone gets an ‘earned’ commander tag is very subjective. Some have suggested purchasing with badges of honor, but that’s just another way of saving enough ‘pixels’ until you can afford it. Some have suggested using PvP or sPvP rankings as a gauge to getting a tag, but again that is just another way of saving up enough glory, plus it still doesn’t guarantee that the PvPer is any good at commanding as PvP is different from WvW. You could say; have people take a vote on it, but there are even issues there. For one, with player turnover with new players coming in and old players possibly leaving, people would have to constantly vote just to keep pins up in the game. Not only that, it may be difficult to always get a majority vote or for that matter entire guilds could choose to vote each other as commanders. Thought you saw pins overwhelming the map, you can kitten well be certain that a 500 member guild will think it funny as hell to make each other a commander and swarm as many maps as they can get into.

I really think the best answer here is to allow players the options to change how they see other player icons. Intelligent players will use this to filter out the good commanders from the bad, the good players from the bad, while allowing the rest of the lemmings to follow whomever they wish to their death.

CattivoUomo.7198:

I really think the best answer here is to allow players the options to change how they see other player icons. Intelligent players will use this to filter out the good commanders from the bad, the good players from the bad, while allowing the rest of the lemmings to follow whomever they wish to their death.

I agree.
I remember my friend saw a bad commander from the guild [ACE] being followed by his fellow guild members and decided that, “All members of [ace] are to be regarded as traitors trying to sabotage the server of Fort Aspenwood.”
I’d definitely change his commander symbol. I’m thinking it should be toggle-able between blue and black

I’m okay with there being no “earned” Commander tag, because that’s really subjective. If you want the extra functionality (leading a squad, counting nearby players) of a Commander tag, you can invest in it, and the price seems a good, general-purpose discouragement to anyone who doesn’t reeaaally want those features and doesn’t have a massive ego.

I think dukefx and Nev have got it right: You can tell which Commanders are the real deal and which are just showing off. I respect Commanders I see giving competent orders, feel neutral about ones that tag up mostly to mark mobs of people without any necessary commanding, and look down on those who are obviously just showing off.

I do wish there was a way to turn off viewing them on the mini-map, though. They’re occasionally useful, but most of the time, they’re just a blue triangle that gets in the way.