Guild Wars 2

A decade ago, there was a game called Planetside. As a Scifi FPS-MMO-RPG. It was quite a unique game at the time (not to mention a mouthful to pronounce), and there are as many opinions about it as there are people, I’m sure. So, what does an ancient game like that have in common with a Fantasy MMO-RPG a decade later?

The concept of in-game commanders directing their servers in large scale PvP warfare.

Lets look at how this ancient game Planetside did Commanders…
*Command was ranked based, from 0-5
*Command EXP was earned by leading groups and squads, and successfully capturing territory while doing so
*Each Command Rank unlocked new abilities that helped you lead. For example, Rank 1 unlocked the ability to see nearby friendly players on your World Map for a brief time
*Each rank actually meant something. For example Rank 5’s had a special private channel to discuss tactics, and could Broadcast important global messages to their team.

Now lets look at how GW2 does commanders….
*Buy your commander tag for 100g
*Turn your tag on, and people will zerg up and follow you around

Seems sort of lacking, especially compared to a decade old game with a far more complex system.

Now, I’m not one to complain without some sort of end-game, so here’s how I think the Commander Mechanic can be made more Appropriate, Relevant, and most importantly, Fun, all without upsetting the current game balance.

Command Mastery – Requires the purchase of a Commander tag.

Rank 1: Allows the equipping of the Commander Tag in WvW zones. Without this, the commander tag can only be equipped in PvE zones.

Rank 2: Allows access to the special commander /com chat channel, to discuss WvW tactics. This channel functions much like a guild channel and can be used regardless of your location.

Rank 3: Allows the Commander to broadcast to his servers entire WvW population (all 3 BL’s and EB) using the /wvw channel. His Commander icon appears next to his name in /map and /wvw.

Rank 4: Allows the Commander to “Ping” on the WvW map, so that everyone on his server can see it. The commanders and name and tag are displayed next to the ping, and “blocking/ignoring” a commander will hide their pings, to prevent abuse. Pings will remain visible for 10 seconds.

Rank 5: Allows the Commander to “Draw” on the WvW map, so that everyone on his server can see it. The commanders name and tag are displayed next to the lineart, and “blocking/ignoring” a commander will hide their lineart, to prevent abuse. Lines drawn by the commander will persist for 3 minutes.

Additional Features
The Commander Guide Vendor also now sells Tag Dyes, which cost 1000 Badges each. Additional colors include: White, Black, Red, Pink, Yellow, Gold, Silver, Green, Orange, Purple, Navy. Your tag color also determines your Ping color, and Lineart color when using Command Mastery abilities 4 and 5.

edit: dang typos

THUMBS UP

/15 char

Dand.8231:

Command Mastery – Requires the purchase of a Commander tag.

Rank 1: Allows the equipping of the Commander Tag in WvW zones. Without this, the commander tag can only be equipped in PvE zones.

Rank 2: Allows access to the special commander /com chat channel, to discuss WvW tactics. This channel functions much like a guild channel and can be used regardless of your location.

Rank 3: Allows the Commander to broadcast to his servers entire WvW population (all 3 BL’s and EB) using the /wvw channel. His Commander icon appears next to his name in /map and /wvw.

Rank 4: Allows the Commander to “Ping” on the WvW map, so that everyone on his server can see it. The commanders and name and tag are displayed next to the ping, and “blocking/ignoring” a commander will hide their pings, to prevent abuse. Pings will remain visible for 10 seconds.

Rank 5: Allows the Commander to “Draw” on the WvW map, so that everyone on his server can see it. The commanders name and tag are displayed next to the lineart, and “blocking/ignoring” a commander will hide their lineart, to prevent abuse. Lines drawn by the commander will persist for 3 minutes.

Additional Features
The Commander Guide Vendor also now sells Tag Dyes, which cost 1000 Badges each. Additional colors include: White, Black, Red, Pink, Yellow, Gold, Silver, Green, Orange, Purple, Navy. Your tag color also determines your Ping color, and Lineart color when using Command Mastery abilities 4 and 5.

edit: dang typos

1. Love the Dye idea – This should be added already IMHO
2. The cost should not be 100G then, But this change will anger most if not all existing commanders
3. What determines the Rank? another EXP bar (No!), average recorded activity in WvW (more plausible?), lets have rank’s diminish based on attendance/activity and failures. Based on 14 or 31 days. Maybe Ranks reset when WvW resets? WvW Dynamic Living Content – Be the Players!

Once you have the tag, it remains Blue in WvW but can be dyed for PvE. But you can have it ‘on’ once you buy the tag.

Rank1 – Able to /chat with custom channels (set permissions and enable other players to join) total of 3 chat channels. Be able to show your Commander Dye Color. Channels drop when you log out to character select after 5mins.

Rank2 – Able to Ping on the Mini Map, Comment on the World Map(Lines/marks stay a max of 5mins)

Rank3 – Broadcast to server population in Tag Color Dye. Includes ability to Link WayPoints. One broadcast every 10 minutes.

I think this would be more sane and doable!

I think it should be left as 100 Gold, simply because it’s been a year, you cant make such a drastic change without kitten ing someone off.

Think about it…. ANet changes the cost, and everyone that already bought the tag for 100G gets kitten ed at them….. Or ANet refunds the gold for all commanders on every server, dumping around 500.000 Gold into the economy in a single day, causing all sorts of market absurdities and thereby kitten ing everyone off.

It’s lose/lose.

Anyway…

I meant for it to be another WvW Mastery Skill, much like the siege mastery skills that exist.

That may sound silly, because you’d be giving up skill points, but if you think about it, it really does make sense…

Rank 1 would be cheap, as most rank 1’s are. A few stray points and you’ve got back the basic functionality, which is the Tag-Zerg we have currently. For those who are happy with that, the change is of little consequence.

And the higher ranked abilities add powerful tools to help direct your server, and increase effectiveness. They’ll have a direct impact on the performance of your team, not unlike siege. And that is what justifies them having a cost.

I already see far to many blue dots… I don’t need to see their pinging and painting as well….

Relevant picture is relevant. Lets make it not relevant by using OP’s idea.

Zacchary.6183:

Relevant picture is relevant. Lets make it not relevant by using OP’s idea.

Haha, I love that picture.
Also, bump!

Yep. More prestige for good commanders like me ^^
In my perspective, it will help filling out the crap commanders who ruin overall performance & the new abilities are suggested long long LONG ago.

I’m with the OP.