Right now there are two types of tags on the map, party members and commanders, and I wish we had more options. As we start to do more guild activities, the existing marks on the map aren’t enough.
Firstly, I would like the ability to designate one party member as a “special” dot. If Alice, Bob, Carol. and Dan are in a party, and the plan is for Alice and Bob to do one thing while Carol and Dan do another, then Alice can flag Bob, Bob can flag Alice, Carol can flag Dan, and Dan can flag Carol. In this way, the each person can see where their partner is, and where the other pair is. When Alice finds what they are looking for, then Carol and Dan can switch the special mark to Alice, and everyone can converge on Alice.
I would envision this as art of the person context menu. If you mark one party member as special, then the one you had previously as special is no longer special.
Secondly, I would like the option to turn on map markers for guild members. Not only would this be good for helping to see where fellow guild member are when there is more than one party on the map, it would also be nice to see where guildies are running around in open world PvE. Nice for those of us in smaller guilds, anyway — if you’re ikitten00 man guild that might be way too much information.
I would envision this as a pair of controls, buried in the user interface options. One to “show guild members on the map”, and one to “allow other guild members to see my location”. Bob, who is in the same guild as Alice, would see Alice on his map only if he had turned on showing guild members and she had permitted herself to be shown. Meanwhile Eve, who is in the same guild but whom Alice has blocked, would not see Alice no matter what the other settings are, because Alice has the right not to be stalked by people she has blocked, even if they are in the same guild.
Thirdly, assuming the second is implemented, I would like the ability to designate one guild member as a “special” dot. In this way, Mike, who is is in another party from Alice but in the same guild, can also rapidly locate Alice on the map when she makes her big find.
I see this being implemented in the same way that designating a party member as special is, for consistency. Right click them in person or in the guild list to mark them.
Finally, I would like the ability to turn off display of commander tags on the map and minimap. I understand that they are useful in WvW, but I run into them most often in LA and fighting dragons. I think that commander should still get the mark over their heads so they can show off their tag if they are inclined. It’s still at least as big of a display as carrying around a legendary.
Again, I would envision “show commanders on map” to be an option buried in the user interface, defaulted to on, as it is currently.
In terms of who can use these abilities, I think that marking party members and turning off commander marks should be an inherent part of the UI. I think it would be good to make turning on guild map dots, and with it marking “special” dots, be an option for guilds to research, costing influence (but not merits). I say this because it’s mostly going to benefit guilds that run guild content, and the option to earn it is an interesting choice. At the same time, it shouldn’t be too expensive for tiny guilds, for whom extra merits would be prohibitive. Guild map dots would be very useful for guilds larger than 5 who like to do temple events and the like together. Tiny guilds are also more likely to use them for purely social reasons.
