Guild Wars 2

1- Skin Locker
This feature is probably the most recurring request in this topic, and I wholeheartedly agree. I know that the game is using transmutation stones as a monetization scheme, and having a skin locker where you can freely swap your skins sort of undoes what transmutation stones are for. However, if you wish to reward players with cosmetic rewards, you can’t put cosmetic customization behind the gem store. This is probably not an easy thing to balance for the developers, and I bet it’d be subject to long debates between monetization team and content creators, but I think that a deal that allow a skin locker (or a similar feature) to exist is very important for this game.

2- More Armor and Weapon Skins
And not just from the gem store! I made a very long post about this topic about that in the old topic before it was officially about the vertical progression so instead of repeating myself, I’ll just post the link here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Vertical/page/16#post3375158

If that’s too costly, I agree with the idea to make slight variations for armors, and I especially like the idea of making “elite” version of old sets like in Guild Wars 1, which would be improved, more “epic” versions of classic sets. I can’t imagine this taking as long as a completely new set to make because you already have 10 base sets.

3- Improved Personal Story
This one would most likely have to wait for an expansion, but I’d like to have a personal story with more interesting choices. (Mostly moral ones, which are the fun choices to make in RPGs.) And also one where my character’s personality (charm/dignity/ferocity) plays a part, and is rewarded later. For example, there could be different armor sets for the 3 personality types. Like, for example, if you have a ferocity “soldier” profession, you would look like a hulking juggernaut. That would be awesome.

So, a little inspiration just hit me. Obviously a lot of people want other weapons on other classes(pistol main hand on a warrior or a greatsword on.. well everything really lol) and as a player who main’s a necro, I know there are quite a bit of weapons I’d like to use.

I want to assume the deep dark secret reason we cannot use everything on every class is specifically because they want to have their options open for later for adding more skills(which I literally only just clued into that). That’s fine, but here’s some ideas for the necro at least:

For Greatsword: Lets start this off with the big bad greatsword. Perhaps we could see some form of blocking feature in it, or maybe the 5th skill could summon that fleshreaver for a short duration of burst damage slightly on par with hundred blades. You could even root the necro down and make it a channel skill while it does damage. idk, this was the first thing that came to mind.

Another thing was sort of a slam to the ground and doing varying amounts of damage directly in front of you while playing some effect(either grasping hands or spectral bits of earth raising up) but make the damage be stronger at the farthest point and weakest when up close and personal.

Sword: This game was supposed to break the mold when it came to the mmo series, and while its different, it tends to seem to be the same in some parts. A light armor class such as the necromancer has access to daggers, scepter, staff, focus, warhorn and an axe. That last one seems to be the only ‘mold-breaker’ for the class.. though not by much. Why not give him a sword or two and see where that goes?

Maybe he could have a parry attack similar to warrior that doesn’t do a hefty amount of damage but applies some decent condition stacks? ‘Necrotic Reversal’ even be its name lol. Maybe it could have a skill that adds torment and fear. idk, just throwing suggestions out there.

Shield: Maybe this doesn’t actually block anything. Perhaps the necro does some animation that creates a bubble similar to the toxic alliance shield bubble, but not as potent. A necromancer that’s spent his or her time taking out those Toxic Alliance fella’s should probably know how to do something similar to there attacks by now. lol

Idk, just throwing some idea’s out there, Wouldn’t mind someone to bounce them off and build upon them with so I hope it sparks some other necromancer to join in this fun!

Edit: I got bored and made an image in paint really quick to show the possible terror one could bestow upon thy enemies as a necro with a greatsword, and added it to this post.

Based off my main’s look.

Sidebar:

A possible improvement to Unshakeable and Defiance

Each control ability, successful or not removes one stack and at 0 stacks you are allowed a single unimpeded control before the NPCs refills their Defiance – this remains unchanged. The change is rather than having stacks of Defiance completely negate Control Effects and rendering the entire role nearly meaningless in crucial PvE encounters, each stack of Defiance provides minus-15% control effect duration reduction. This would mean characters with extremely developed control abilities would begin being able to momentarily stun/interrupt the NPC at 13 stacks (195% duration reduction). Normal stuns would start to have some impact at 6 stacks (90% duration reduction) and that impact would increase over the next few CC abilities until the NPC is reduced to 0 stacks of defiance, is struck one more time for the full effect and then returns to its most resistant state.

The gradual decline in resistance (rather than the current binary state) not only makes control more meaningful in general, it also specifically acknowledges the focus and opportunity costs paid to deliver higher duration CC effects. “Control builds” become tangibly better because they can make their effects work several stacks earlier than less focused characters for whom Control is a more tertiary ability. Retaining the count-down aspect allows all characters with control effects to contribute to ‘chipping away’ the target’s defenses.

End Sidebar.

1. More/Craftable Town Clothes
2. Further Order quests/achievements
3. Dyable Weapons

1) Add meaning to existing Personality System
(Charm = Foes less aggressive; Dignity = Foes like they are now; Ferocity = Even yellow and white foes are attacking)
2) Racial Titles
+ Prestigous title like GWAMM
3) Order Specific Events

Sytherek.7689:

Sirendor.1394:

Magnus Heartseeker.7958:

1. Legendary Armor SKINS and Legendary Dyes – Have a way to earn this and make it very difficult. Once you earn this and unlock it, it saves to your account in the same spot as your Zenith skins. As for dyes, make dyes account bound, not character bound.

With all due respect… legendaries are probably for <5% of the GW2 population, because of their insane cost. They are considered, by the majority, as a horrible grind and an item that shows not the professed skill of a player, but his grinding activities. I’m sure if the developers come up with legendary armour/legendary dyes… it will end up costing 2000 gold too. In that perspective… they would be a huge letdown, as the legendary weapons are.

Also, consider that there are people like me who have no interest in legendaries at all. The lack of interest is due to ubiquitous skins, boring acquisition, and no interest in bragging. I’ve talked to quite a few players who don’t care about legendaries. And I don’t see something silly (unicorn arrows?) as progression.

Also, legendaries progress to the same small number of limited points.

I want progression that makes my character stand out, rather than “progression” that makes me like everyone else.

Exactly. You express my thoughts better than I can

Margareeta.3461:

2) Add meaning to existing Personality System
(Charm = Foes less aggressive; Dignity = Foes like they are now; Ferocity = Even yellow and white foes are attacking)

Shouldn’t yellow and white mobs be scared from a ferocious character and run away?

One particular thing I loved about GW1 was the fact that enemies patrolled the area in groups, so you had to watch out for strong patrols to make it through the zone alive. There is one of these patrols (with a champion leader) in one of the north-eastern crystal zones and I really like that…

… have some enemy groups which are really strong and make weaker players want to avoid an encounter at any cost. Areas which hold powerful secrets but are guarded by strong foes. Currently you just run by any encounter with ease.

Sirendor.1394:

Sytherek.7689:

Sirendor.1394:

Magnus Heartseeker.7958:

1. Legendary Armor SKINS and Legendary Dyes – Have a way to earn this and make it very difficult. Once you earn this and unlock it, it saves to your account in the same spot as your Zenith skins. As for dyes, make dyes account bound, not character bound.

With all due respect… legendaries are probably for <5% of the GW2 population, because of their insane cost. They are considered, by the majority, as a horrible grind and an item that shows not the professed skill of a player, but his grinding activities. I’m sure if the developers come up with legendary armour/legendary dyes… it will end up costing 2000 gold too. In that perspective… they would be a huge letdown, as the legendary weapons are.

Also, consider that there are people like me who have no interest in legendaries at all. The lack of interest is due to ubiquitous skins, boring acquisition, and no interest in bragging. I’ve talked to quite a few players who don’t care about legendaries. And I don’t see something silly (unicorn arrows?) as progression.

Also, legendaries progress to the same small number of limited points.

I want progression that makes my character stand out, rather than “progression” that makes me like everyone else.

Exactly. You express my thoughts better than I can

legendaries are probably the least entertaining feature of the game just because is ultra-grindy, ultra-expensive and ultra-time_consuming thats why many people dont bother with it, but still they look awesome and i would personally like to see this kind of progression and the way to aquire them will be nice to be similar to the Fractal backpiece.

Magnus Heartseeker.7958:

1. Legendary Armor SKINS and Legendary Dyes – Have a way to earn this and make it very difficult. Once you earn this and unlock it, it saves to your account in the same spot as your Zenith skins. As for dyes, make dyes account bound, not character bound.

They could add a “Skin Wardrobe”, not only to add the skins we collect or buy with gems but also to store the unlockable reward skins we get with the achievement points.

They could also add more unlocable reward skins with achievement points. For example, they could add a new category for legendary weapons, and each achievement could unlock a new legendary skin for that legendary weapon. They could also unlock new visual effects for those weapons.

And could be skins unlocked by reputation with an Order, race, city, etc.

1. Weapon Skills

One would think that fighters that use one weapon become better with time and develop new and personal techniques. After we unlock the attacks of each weapon, there is no more progression there. I think more weapon skills would let us to have a more personal style of combat.

At the start it could be only a change of effects without a visual effect change, later new animations for the new moves could be added or not.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/13#post3415882
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/15#post3421492

2. Order Quests

Daily Quests: would be a simple system in which the Orders send us to do specific events (could be events that are alredy there, for easier implementation), kill bosses, do dungeons and mini-dungeons.

Monthly: the monthly ones would be more like a mix of living story and personal story. Giving a specific mission and let us pick which strategy we follow (each order give a strategy we must pick, like in the personal story).

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/9#post3413426
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/13#post3415811
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/15#post3421467

3. Repeatable Hearts

This was a great idea and could be linked to the order quests, daily quests, and/or a reputation sistem which each map, region, city, race, etc.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/13#post3415829

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

Margareeta.3461:

2) Add meaning to existing Personality System
(Charm = Foes less aggressive; Dignity = Foes like they are now; Ferocity = Even yellow and white foes are attacking)

Shouldn’t yellow and white mobs be scared from a ferocious character and run away?

From a realistic point of view, you are right, but if we consider that a ferocious character gathers the adversity of others towards him then animals are attacking him and not running away

Quoting again. Adding more fluff is still just fluff, expanding new ideas on broken system keeps the broken system. Just look at the 8 (!) new healing skill how hard to balance it out and deliver it to be meaningful (check in the necro forum, you would love the outrage it caused).

Shanaeri Rynale.6897:

Personally, I think moving towards a pure HP model is going to be more difficult than some people imagine. Not without significant rework in the combat, skills and content systems.

For sure adding things like wardrobes, new skins and revamping rewards can help but ultimately people like to feel their character has evolved and moved on. Not just been able to wear prettier and shinier stuff.

This is where the weakness of GW2 becomes ever more apparent(certainly in PvE) where DPS is king and support and control are very much also rans.

Adding new skills, and methods of capture is indeed a great idea. However these skill are going to need to be useful if they are to move beyond the gotta get em all phase.

If they are DPS skills, people will expect them to be more powerful, if they are support/control skills people are going to expect them to be worth taking over the DPS meta.

All of which, unless content Is going to be trivialised even more will mean that content and encounters will need to be re-worked to ensure these new skills (especially support and control ones) are actually useful.

Basically, unless PvE is re-worked new skills are a temporary fix. An accelerant in the cycle of buff, nerf and power creep.

The other issue is that of build diversity and failure scenario’s. Thanks to a restricted skill set and focus on DPS there are only a few build for each class that are actually worth taking.

This issue is further compounded by the fact that stats are now linked to gear. If the current meta’s are changed to make others more worthwhile then all of those who ground for thousands of hours for ascended items are going to be furious and upset.

In order for build diversity to become available then really stats should be separated from gear(or at least have stats swappable) as really I don’t see an alternative.

There also needs to be a sense of jeopardy. Outside of a very few encounters it is impossible to fail content in a meaningful way. Fail a temple event, so what? either wait or hop to a server that has it open. Personal stories and dungeons are impossible to fail, only run out of time or money.

You can’t drive horizontal progression in a very largely fail free game., as nothing matters, nothing is at stake.

As to how to fix these issues. Then I would suggest:
Short term
+ Introduce more social stuff. Wardrobes, guild halls, more stuff that allows the community to do stuff together(and if we are being really radical take a long hard look at your back end server structure. It really does hold so many things back) – *Community drives longevity and fun, not content grind. *
+ Allow dynamic stat swapping on ascended items too. It would give a horizontal progression meaning to why they are there, and facilitate more build diversity.
+ Go back and play GW1. Look how that did content and horizontal progression. particularly skill capping, the UW and FoW areas. Basically look what worked there and do that

Long term:
+ Rework content to make support and control aspects needed
+ Introduce real consequences for failure in dungeons and instances.
+ Allow a degree of profession blurring. where you can use weapons and skills from other professions(Heck maybe ascension still works in the crystal desert and the reward for ascending is being able to utilise more weapons)

Basically. I feel the pve meta is stale, adding more of the same skills and content wont fix it. It feels to me as though GW2 needs to become GW2 2.0 to really evolve and move on. Every and anything is else is just treading water.

A whole chapter of GW1 was scrapped because it highlighted issues that were unsolvable in a GW1 context. It was a courageous decision and from it GW2 was born.

I feel now is the time to be courageous again if GW2 is to move beyond the trivial and temporary.

Three things I would like to be able to do would be:

More weapon skill bars. I definitely agree with wanting to keep it simple and keeping the weapon skills locked. There however is a lot of room here. You can create new weapons, add existing ones to a proffesion that doesn’t have it yet or just add the choice between two different skill bars for the same weapon.

Hunting for new skills. I’m not sure how much of an overhaul this would be but for pve this would be the most interesting way to get new skills and a way to say: “look, I beat that guy”. To just keep leveling up and spend tons of skill points on a new skill is not fun and doesn’t even feel worth it to me.

I also very much like the idea to unlock stat combinations for my gear. Maybe not ascended, but just legendary and add legendary armor to the game. The goal here would be to give the player (that will have to have worked for getting this option) more freedom. More freedom means the player can mix up his/her game to keep it interesting and fun.

Page 7 Summary

General & QoL Improvements
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/7#post3411322 – Upgrade Equipment to Ascendent Quality
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/7#post3411971 – Reforging of Equipment Stats
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/7#post3412024 – Travel to Towns for free
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/7#post3412037 – Unlock new Skills also with Gold

Cosmetical Improvements
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/7#post3411299 – Epic Dyes
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/7#post3411729 – Move Stats from Back Items to an other Equipment

Gameplay Improvements
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/7#post3411385 Add Bonus when playing as Party
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/7#post3411729 – Redesign Agony/ Remove Agony Resistance

Housing and Home Instance Improvements
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/7#post3411815 – Changeable Home Instance Towns, Neighborhoods
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/7#post3412024 – Bond with your chosen Faction
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/7#post3412024 – HI Dynamic Events

New Features and reimplemented GW1 Features
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/7#post3411334 – Unique Skill Point Challenges
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/7#post3411717 – Dungeon Boss Arena

Dungeon Improvements
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/7#post3411478 – Improved Rewards, when Side Quests are fulfilled

Crafting Improvements
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/7#post3411523 – Oil/Sharpening Stone Feasts

Horizontal WvW Improvements
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/7#post3411729 – WvW Special Runes/Sigils

Reward & Loot Improvements
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/7#post3411345 – Racial Tonics
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/7#post3411437 – Improve T6 Mat/Lodestone Droprate

i remember you guys talking about endgame horizontal progression before maybe look at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIExN1GZK_Q
that lasted what 2 months? how long will anything from this cdi last? before you nerf it and promote gold farming for “economic reasons”

given the treatment of the vertical component of this discussion where inconvenient commonly discussed points were flat out ignored, and the most common dev posts were a variation of “im really busy with the holidays will read/reply later” its clear this will be marginalized with a token feature and “we listened to your feedback” when you introduce more unpopular changes.

many of the proposals in this thread have been discussed again and again over the last year
and you guys are always reading the forum’s right?, so its not like its new information, you have not taken action so far, we should believe you will now why exactly? your track record isn’t exactly good at this point, its not even average.

at this point i think this has degenerated into a PR exercise and you wont actually do anything substantial, so im no longer interested in taking you through game design basics you should already know.

Shunsui Jiraiya.9103:

1. Player Housing / Improvement to home instance.
“The place to show progress”
Lots of interesting NPC’s, mementos, visually recognizable progress, QOL etc…

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/7#post3412024

2. More “earnable” character customization.
“Manga teaches us to never fight people that glow or shout louder than you”
Animations (Stance, walk, emote, skill etc…), More skins (Preferably ones that “Ascend” to look more flashy), Titles with effects (Like map complete star) etc…

3. Faction Based Reputation
Several idea’s have been bounded around about dedicating to a cause, either the current three or preferably adding race factions (Skrit, Kodan etc…). Rewards around titles, skins, emotes etc… Also top 1000 / 100 / 10 contributions give elite rewards.
This can tie into my two suggestions above as its more of a vehicle than a destination.

Just wanted to add some timescales, feasibility and general breakdown to my above three choices.

Short Term: 1 – 3 months

A. Use existing home instance, locker and storage expansion functions.
Add Weapon Skin locker / Wardrobe to home instance. Stored items generate a “Skin” that is reusable. Storage space purchased via Gems.

B. Use existing home instance, faction NPC’s and represent function.
Add the three faction representatives to the home stance to sell “Representation Buttons” (like the Keil vs Evon ones). Representing allows building of faction reputation.
Give existing faction members free buttons but allow non members to purchase them. Use existing faction rewards + Gemstore style boosters for Karma, Xp, Mf ect..

Medium Term: 3 – 9 months

A. Create further faction NPC’s to add to the above. Build new skins and titles.
Create title effects such as the wold completion star.

B. Work on tiered items to add further glow’s, detail, color / effects etc… (ala Fractal Back)

Long Term: 9 – 18 months

A. Design Player Housing. Create Reward System and Customization System. Build lots of Styles and Content. Design home instance DE’s.

B. Design new skills / skill animations and general visual customization to tie into the new faction rewards.

Thanks for your time in reading

Page 8 Summary

General & QoL Improvements
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/8#post3412234 – Dungeon Stories Accountbound
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/8#post3412516 – Unsoulbinding Items
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/8#post3412539 – Convert Currencies
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/8#post3412607- Let us have our GW1 Minipets in GW2!!
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/8#post3412752 – Equipment Level raises together with Character Level

Crafting Improvements
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/8#post3412614 – Craftable Aqua Breathers with more Skins

Gameplay Improvements
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/8#post3412170 – Better Environmental Interactivities
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/8#post3412228 – Bring Back Energy Costs as Balance Parameter
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/8#post3412264 – Sturdiness – undestroyable Equipment
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/8#post3412539 – City Invasions
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/8#post3412614 – Add Underwater World Bosses, More Underwater Events, More diverse Underwater Enemies

Housing & Home Instance Improvements
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/8#post3412234 – Implement Crafting Tables

New Skill & Trait Improvements
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/8#post3412320 – Fuse Traits with Skills, similar to FF7’s Materia System
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/8#post3412614 – Make all skills useable under water

Achievement & Title Improvements
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/8#post3412516 – Make all WvW Titles better achieveable
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/8#post3412539 – Add also Weekly Achievements
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/8#post3412776 – Add Cartographer Titles again

Horizontal WvW Progression
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/8#post3412516 – Add alot more Skins for Badges, WvW Season Skins

New Features and reimplemented GW1 Features
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/8#post3412594 – PvE Rank System like in WvW, Visible Hurts like lost eyes, scars ect., More Weapon Slots for increased Swap Cooldowns
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/8#post3412626 – More use of the Sky, explorable floating islands/towns – example the floating Wizard Castle

Reward & Loot Improvements
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/8#post3412234 – Make Dungeon Rewards Accountbound

Shadow Blade.1324:

i remember you guys talking about endgame horizontal progression before maybe look at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIExN1GZK_Q
that lasted what 2 months? how long will anything from this cdi last? before you nerf it and promote gold farming for “economic reasons”

given the treatment of the vertical component of this discussion where inconvenient commonly discussed points were flat out ignored, and the most common dev posts were a variation of “im really busy with the holidays will read/reply later” its clear this will be marginalized with a token feature and “we listened to your feedback” when you introduce more unpopular changes.

many of the proposals in this thread have been discussed again and again over the last year
and you guys are always reading the forum’s right?, so its not like its new information, you have not taken action so far, we should believe you will now why exactly? your track record isn’t exactly good at this point, its not even average.

at this point i think this has degenerated into a PR exercise and you wont actually do anything substantial, so im no longer interested in taking you through game design basics you should already know.

Sadly this is how I see it at the moment. I do not feel this initiative is serious no matter how many times it is said to be taken serious. Simply because the actions do not reflect the words. Asking for a top 3 after 17 pages of ideas looks more like not wanting to go through it themselves and all that it accomplishes is rehashing the same old that has been talked about already without rhyme or reason.

Conner.4702:

Shadow Blade.1324:

i remember you guys talking about endgame horizontal progression before maybe look at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIExN1GZK_Q
that lasted what 2 months? how long will anything from this cdi last? before you nerf it and promote gold farming for “economic reasons”

given the treatment of the vertical component of this discussion where inconvenient commonly discussed points were flat out ignored, and the most common dev posts were a variation of “im really busy with the holidays will read/reply later” its clear this will be marginalized with a token feature and “we listened to your feedback” when you introduce more unpopular changes.

many of the proposals in this thread have been discussed again and again over the last year
and you guys are always reading the forum’s right?, so its not like its new information, you have not taken action so far, we should believe you will now why exactly? your track record isn’t exactly good at this point, its not even average.

at this point i think this has degenerated into a PR exercise and you wont actually do anything substantial, so im no longer interested in taking you through game design basics you should already know.

Sadly this is how I see it at the moment. I do not feel this initiative is serious no matter how many times it is said to be taken serious. Simply because the actions do not reflect the words. Asking for a top 3 after 17 pages of ideas looks more like not wanting to go through it themselves and all that it accomplishes is rehashing the same old that has been talked about already without rhyme or reason.

Anet people do have a job and life of their own. They can’t just spend 6 hours reading this thread (Which is how long it took me to read total from page 1 to page 20, and I skimmed past alot of it), and its not like the players have been reading the entire thread either, because every once in awhile, you see “I’m not sure if this has been posted before”, or “Didn’t read the Thread”

Edit : Was going to count everything up from the last few pages and post the results, but it looks like things have slowed down a little bit, so its not really necessary.

Conner.4702:

Shadow Blade.1324:

i remember you guys talking about endgame horizontal progression before maybe look at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIExN1GZK_Q
that lasted what 2 months? how long will anything from this cdi last? before you nerf it and promote gold farming for “economic reasons”

given the treatment of the vertical component of this discussion where inconvenient commonly discussed points were flat out ignored, and the most common dev posts were a variation of “im really busy with the holidays will read/reply later” its clear this will be marginalized with a token feature and “we listened to your feedback” when you introduce more unpopular changes.

many of the proposals in this thread have been discussed again and again over the last year
and you guys are always reading the forum’s right?, so its not like its new information, you have not taken action so far, we should believe you will now why exactly? your track record isn’t exactly good at this point, its not even average.

at this point i think this has degenerated into a PR exercise and you wont actually do anything substantial, so im no longer interested in taking you through game design basics you should already know.

Sadly this is how I see it at the moment. I do not feel this initiative is serious no matter how many times it is said to be taken serious. Simply because the actions do not reflect the words. Asking for a top 3 after 17 pages of ideas looks more like not wanting to go through it themselves and all that it accomplishes is rehashing the same old that has been talked about already without rhyme or reason.

Well, this took longer than I thought it would.

You’re neglecting the positives of them having us just list our top 3.

Firstly, it’s easier to total what the majority of the posters feel are the general key issues (not specific solutions), instead of attempting to do that with 17 pages worth of padded-out ideas.

Secondly, after doing this, they can then use this thread to look at the ideas for the top 3 (thanks to the generous people who have been summarising the thread), while weeding out the ideas that could work, can’t work, needs refining ect.

How about learning alll other professions but with some stats restrictions?

I know it is not too much alt friendly idea but for some reason people could experiment having multiple professions changeable only out of combat in PvE and only out of the zone in PvP/WvW

My top 3 selection is:

1) Order Specific Events + items
2) Racial Titles + Prestigous title like GWAMM
3) Add meaning to existing Personality System
(Charm, Dignity and Ferocity)

My top 3 are:

1. Player housing & Guild Halls, both insanely customizable, like Animal Crossing but more so.
2. New weapon skins unique to specific maps & new armor skins unique to specific crafting tiers (with a focus on the lower tiers). A locker to put them in would be nice as well.
3. Earned hats/masks that can be worn over the helmet (GW1 style) for weekly contests (See Parallel Kingdom) or for certain milestones reached (perhaps tied to achievements) or for completing certain events/achievements or some combination thereof.

I should note that there were quite a few other ideas I liked (Orders quests, fishing!, lore system, making personality/race matter, etc.)

@ Chrispy and TheDaiBish:

Nicely said. Having everyone list their top 3 ideas won’t result in only 3 ideas. It will, though, result in a condensed list of the overall top ideas, however many there may be.

And, Chrispy, thanks for the recap of the highly requested ideas on page 19; that was helpful!

indeed, check this link out i posted in regards to the skin lockers and achievements, went up before this thread and so far many positive posts.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Retroactive-Account-Wide-Rewards-Locker/first#post3404646

1. Swappable weapon skills and skills acquired through missions.

2. Guild halls, and player housing.

3. More uses for character personality.

I made a tally with numbers, but some things are grouped into other things. I tried my best to make “umbrella” categories (up to Zone.1275’s post):

Weapon Skills 34
Quests/Order Missions 33
Homes 28
New Skills 24
PvE Skin Locker 23
Faction Reputation/Titles 21
Character Customization 20
Guild Halls 19
Personality System 18
Armor Sets (non-gem-store) 16
Hard Mode/Elite Missions 10
Lore 9
Legendary Dye 6
Mini Slot/Improvements 6
Mounts 3
Skinning Modularity 3
Dyeable Weapons 3
Legendary Skins 2
Monster Arena 2
Fishing 2
Modular World 1
Dungeon Achievements 1
Sub-Classes 1
Town Clothes 1
———————————————————————————————————————-
Edit: There were a few additional things voted up, but they didn’t seem like horizontal ideas (I recall a few of them from the vertical thread) but here they are as well:

Stat Swapping 6
More Account-Binding vs Soul-Binding 4
Progressive Items 1
Rewards for Consistency 1
Permanent Content 1
PvP Balancing 1

Oh dear, Chris. You didn’t mention a skin locker or other skin management system. Perhaps that can be a swift change to your list?

Here are my clothes-horse necro’s bags, with all the different looks of boots and coats and skirts sorted out by type of garment and then from least to most coverage (those looking for Winged gloves and boots, they are on her to complement her Ascended coat/skirt). I also have over 4 bank tabs full of skins and dyes waiting for the right alt to receive them. Oh, how I’d rejoice to turn all that into a locker and free up the space for other things! I can’t even take her dungeoning because 20 free slots fill up too fast.

AlanaTheStrange.1463:

…List….

Nice List!

AlanaTheStrange.1463:

- List -

Really nice job indeed! That top 11 is a must!

I also like the Monster Arena idea…

Chris Whiteside.6102:

I certainly think that Wardrobe is a very important QOL improvement for Horizontal Progression if that makes sense?

Chris

I think it can or should be more than just a ‘QoL-Improvement’. Every MMO has or should have some kind of ‘core’, something outstanding compared to other MMOs, and that’s what GW2 is lacking right now. You maybe remember the GW2-Manifesto, where it was said that GW2 should have no grind; a lot of players interpreted this the way it used to be in GW1 – that BiS gear is something very easy to achieve. It turned out that this is not the case, or at least it’s not as easy as it was in GW1 (ascended didn’t really help in this topic).

Maybe this is the holy Guild Wars (2?) grail: That it’s all about collecting skins. You maybe remember how people farmed “Gate of Anguish”, and it was bascially only for skins (of course, some people farmed for gold, but they only obtained it by selling the skins to others). I’m sure you could do something like that again. To make collecting skins the ‘endgame’. That grind (in opposite to many other MMOs) means not to farm for better stats, but that grind (and sometimes non-grind-content too) mean to collect skins. What’s the very cool thing about it? It’s very casual friendly since hardcore players don’t have any kind of advantage in stats; they just “look better”.

So yeah, maybe it’s “just” a wardrobe, but I think you could go even further and make some kind of ‘unlock-system’ that allows the player to switch skins without wasting any inventory space or having to mind about stats.

AlanaTheStrange.1463:

Da List

As others have said already, thanks. An interesting twist on this list might also be to make a corresponding weighted list (1 point for 3rd, 2 for 2nd, 3 for 1st with the list arranged in point value order instead of just number of entries). Of course, I’m not sure that everyone/anyone put their list in order of priority/desire but it could be interesting none the less to see if that changed the results.

Dominus.2360:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

I certainly think that Wardrobe is a very important QOL improvement for Horizontal Progression if that makes sense?

Chris

I think it can or should be more than just a ‘QoL-Improvement’.

That’s an interesting perspective, and I can’t say that I disagree.

At the very least, GW2 does need a proper cosmetic system (if even for nothing other than storage, though more would obviously be better) because any appearance based goals put into the game at this point are tripped up right out of the gate by the lack of one. That’s why I personally put it forward as more of a sister goal to horizontal progression. Horizontal progression, regardless of the exact implementation, needs a cosmetic system if even some of the associated rewards/goals are going to be cosmetic based. But, I wasn’t really viewing the cosmetics as something of a goal of it’s own. Perhaps that could be a perfectly valid “end game” for GW2. It certainly does fit the originally stated goals that ANet put forward.

List Reflecting My Opinion of Importance:

1) Increased Character Ability Diversification: New weapons, swappable skills for existing weapons, new elite skills, new traits, and a sub-class/hybrid class system that affects the profession mechanic / 5 15 25 pt traits.

2) More diverse looks: Way to modify existing exotic to ascended, and a way to turn ascended quality items into legendary quality w/ an upgrade system that also modifies the appearance of the item slightly (like adds a colored glow). Weapon dyes, and legendary dyes.

3) More content: More maps to explore (like Cantha), more dragons to fight (story progression), Faction alliances, and Guild Halls.

1. Skins

2. Titles

3. Scavenger hunts

Chris Whiteside.6102:

videoboy.4162:

Khunvyel.3972:

I let the flamesticks poke me into oblivion for saying;

“I’d rather have a top 3 list of things that could actually make it in the game with existing technology and not having to do crazy amounts of extra coding, than having a top 3 list of things people want in the game just so without any further thought.”

°bracing°

Maybe if Chris tells us his three things, that will give us an idea of where to direct the discussion?

Are you willing to share, Chris?

Hi Videoboy,

I am still thinking through all the ideas and suggestions so my list may change but currently it is:

— Role Diversification: New skills/traits, new weapons, access to inaccessible existing weapons, infusions and hybrid professions.

— Sociopolitical Diversification: Player housing, Guild Halls, and Faction Alliances leading to new game play opportunities, rewards and content.

— Hero Recognition: Unique Skins, Titles, Rewards, followers and NPC reactions/opportunities based on the players individual feats in the world of Tyria regardless of how he/she chooses to play the game.

Please note these are just my personal thoughts on what I think would be cool. I am also still thinking about the ideas presented in the thread and therefore like anyone else reserve the right to change my top three (-:

Chris

Nice synthesis!

1- hire more people (like you did for ls development) to seriously work on professions and combat. one of those people hired should be familiar with coh so they can help guide you with developing much better character, ability, combat, cc, movement, progression, lots more stuff… systems.

2- gw2 could use more ability and weapon buttons to press on the bar. I suggest something like this…
*#1-10 would be used for individual or multiple weapon skills.
*f1-f4 mechanics bar
*f5 heal skill
*f6 aoe/team heal skill
*f7-f10 utility skills
*f11 &f12 elite skills
*a 3rd weapon swap option would be great as well.

3- open test server. remove combat movement suppression and speed up running. increase camera zoom out. increase ranger damage across the board. option to stow ranger pets. mounts. more rewards and less grind. auto face to improve melee combat. loot goes directly to bag. normalize profession hp. reduce burst capabilities by a lot. redo stealth mechanics or give rangers access to thief stealth abilities. customizable ui. cut cool downs by half.

:)

Swagger, those are mechanics alterations. Whatever their merits, I think they more properly belong in Suggestions — this thread is for brainstorming ways to broaden our character experience through game play, as in, adding stuff that enriches game time but does not change power level.

Though I suppose asking for additional buttons to press might count. To that I’ll say I wouldn’t feel broadened, I’d feel cluttered. I love the simple but flexible design we have right now.

Donari.5237:

Swagger, those are mechanics alterations. Whatever their merits, I think they more properly belong in Suggestions — this thread is for brainstorming ways to broaden our character experience through game play, as in, adding stuff that enriches game time but does not change power level.

Though I suppose asking for additional buttons to press might count. To that I’ll say I wouldn’t feel broadened, I’d feel cluttered. I love the simple but flexible design we have right now.

Agreed. I don’t want more buttons, I want more skill/trait/build options!

So I did think of something that would help with customizing looks, and chances are it has already been said.

But how bout something like what Terraria does?

see, when equiping armor, you have two slots, one where the armor effects and stats actually work, the other just being a social slot, where its looks only.

[img]http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110706162543/terraria/images/f/fc/Social_Slot.png[/img]

see, equip is actual working armor, and social is just the way you look.

of course, implementing something like this would be the death of the crystals from the TP….

I think we’re probably at the point where we can move on to the next part of the discussion. We’ve got a good amount of “top 3” lists, and for anyone who’s been following the thread, it’s pretty clear which things people are most passionate about at the moment. The compiled list is also really helpful.

I do want to point out that a lot of the stuff that’s been mentioned in this thread isn’t actually horizontal progression, so let’s be careful to address them from a progression perspective. One of my top things was a wardrobe system, and as Chris said, it is more of a QOL thing by itself. When we take into consideration that acquiring cosmetics is the actual “progression” aspect, the real issue is that we need significant increases in the amount of armor sets and weapon sets introduced into the game that aren’t tied to the gem store. The wardrobe is something the game badly needs and will work in tandem with this, as well as allowing us as players more of a collection mindset for armor and weapons. Another similar thing is a revamp of how minipets currently work. Right now, it’s an awful system due to the “Deposit all collectibles” issue. And don’t get me started on using invisible bags to get around it, or special bags in general. We do need a way of easily and conveniently displaying any of our acquired minipets at any time, but that’s also a QOL thing. The progression itself comes from spurring on a desire to go out and collect more minipets, something people might be more inclined to do with a better minipet system.

Chris, is there much of a chance we can hear from other ArenaNet devs when we get into the discussions on some of the specific proposals? It’d be good to hear some thoughts from more members of the team, especially people that would potentially be directly involved with building this stuff. I know you guys tend to be very busy, but I think it’d be very beneficial.

Serophous.9085:

So I did think of something that would help with customizing looks, and chances are it has already been said.

But how bout something like what Terraria does?

see, when equiping armor, you have two slots, one where the armor effects and stats actually work, the other just being a social slot, where its looks only.

http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110706162543/terraria/images/f/fc/Social_Slot.png

see, equip is actual working armor, and social is just the way you look.

of course, implementing something like this would be the death of the crystals from the TP….

That’s basically what Lord of the Rings Online does, and it’s cash shop is still humming along nicely regardless because of 3 factors.

1.) There are cosmetic items that are purchased in the shop alone
2.) Extra storage space in their cosmetic storage system is purchasable in the shop
3.) Extra outfit tabs (basically groupings of armour/helm/gloves/etc.) are purchasable in the shop

Basically, a proper cosmetic system is not an impediment to monetization. In fact, by having a better cosmetic system, ANet could really be opening more doors up for monetization beyond just the crystal sales.

For a simpler, but less desirable to me anyway, application of cosmetics they could just use a version of the PvP storage locker that’s already in the game and keep the Trans stones as an item you have to use to strip the visual appearance from a newly found item in order to store it in the locker.