Guild Wars 2

Ronah.2869:

Nadesh.7953:

Ronah.2869:

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

Making aside for one moment that it would be hard to balance, i would like to see a multi-class system.

Ofc, there should be some restrictions.

1. If one could have all the classes (2 actives and the others selectables from a list) then maybe the primary class should always be the same (the original one) and the secondary would change among the others. This way make an alt would still worth.

2. If one can only pick one secondary class, then the system should allow to change which one is the primary and which one is the secondary.

Other restrictions could be that one could use the lightest armor of both active classes. For example, if one is a Mesmer-Warrior, then would use cloth armor.

Also, one wouldnt be able to use the elite skills of the secondary class, and maybe not even the last row of the Utility skills.

The benefits could be to be able to use all the weapons of both classes. Combined weapon skills (if that is implemented). Access to the traits of both classes (ofc with the same amount of points to distribute: 70): but if one of the trait lines give, for example, power and condition duration, then the power and condition duration of another line (primary or secondary class) wont count for a stat increase.

I think the trait part would be hard to balance: maybe all repeated effects shouldnt apply.

They don’t need to balance anything. They take the profession profile and fit it on your character. So If I am a warrior and at one point in time I want to be an elementalist, I won’t have to switch characters, but put that profession on
All my stats will be reset as for an ele and i should add points in different traits.
To make it less hustle, the builds will be saved like in GW1.

Of course, if they want to make different skills then this is another story which will fill up the vertical progression better then the Horizontal

So, once again, this profession learning will not make the character more powerful but it will give you the choice of having multiple professions available for one character

For this mechanic not to be against buying character slots, there can be a similar priced item in the gem store to unlock a new profession on your character
So buying a new character slot or a new profession for the same character will cost the same and will not make A-Nets profits go lower

This will solve the problem with those who don’t want to level up alts but want to play more professions. It is an optional QOL mechanic because leanign a new profession means unlocking all the skill, traits etc.
No worry, you won\t see an elementalist wearing heavy armor because becoming an elementalist will bring with it all the requirements for that profession.

Ah! sorry, i misunderstand your idea, i thought you were talking about hybrid classes (be, for example, a warrior and a mesmer at the same time).

I played a game once that had something like what you suggest, were named Incarnations. Wasnt the same but close. The characters shared things like the amount of bag slots, and other things that wouldnt apply for this game.

1. If in the transformation the character is replaced (when i said this i mean that you can pick the gender and race of the secondary character) for a new one, then, dont need to do anything else than talk with the NPC to change (or other way to change).

2. If the character is the same and only change the class, then they could add a tag for the secondary class equipment, and any empty slot is automatically filled when change if the other class have something equiped there. Ofc, both must be able to equip that specific item.

The adventages of an “incarnation” system would be to share bags and the items would be bound to all the “incarnations” instead of just one character.

Swagger.1459:

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.

For the love of the Six, please no.

I can’t see how adding more buttons to press would add anything to the game.

Nike.2631:

Maybe a “CDI Contest”, where instead of limiting things to a first, second, and third place winner, every player who suggests a Rune that is adopted into the game would get a set of 6 or 12 of them as the prize. With players sometimes wondering what the benefits of contributing to a CDI are, maybe a little in-game loot would inspire them

Why stop at runes?

• Skills
• Traits
• Armour and Weapon Sets
• DE’s
• Fractals
• World Boss revamps

It’d certainly give me something to do on the quiet days in work :P

TheDaiBish.9735:

Swagger.1459:

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.

For the love of the Six, please no.

I can’t see how adding more buttons to press would add anything to the game.

I don’t think you’ll have to worry about this.
F12 is a dedicated/default Anet log out button, always has been, always will be.
F11 or F10 is also the dedicated/default options menu button.

More button’s isn’t always a good thing. That’s the Guild Wars way-of-doing-things.

Arantheal.7396:

- Increase of skill power by usage.

It’s vertical progression and I disagree. Level up skills make that people can’t switch to other skills because they aren’t trained. Look at the weapon skill unlock, it’s very easy.
Also it will make down leveled players more powerfull than low level players more than currently.

@ people who want more skills (me included): Currently professions have about 70 skills (here: Guardian, included underwater skills). To develop that number of skills the devs needed literally years…

… and then guys come along and demand 40 new skills per profession. Seriously? How can this be feasible in any way? I’d love 40 new skills per profession, but I think more realistic would be a new weapon (3-5 skills) per profession and maybe 1-5 utility skills… and I assume this takes quite a while to design and balance.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

@ people who want more skills (me included): Currently professions have about 70 skills (here: Guardian, included underwater skills). To develop that number of skills the devs needed literally years…

… and then guys come along and demand 40 new skills per profession. Seriously? How can this be feasible in any way? I’d love 40 new skills per profession, but I think more realistic would be a new weapon (3-5 skills) per profession and maybe 1-5 utility skills… and I assume this takes quite a while to design and balance.

Firstly, I don’t think the devs spent that many years on the skills for professions alone. I’d have wagered the people who developed the skills also done the environmental weapons, and traits as well, maybe even the runes and sigils too.

Secondly, I don’t think anyone who wants new skills (myself included) is expecting them straight away. If they are, then they’re just being a tad silly.

Morrigan.2809:

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

Morrigan.2809:

I can’t see your system adding anything to be honest

… it is a system that grows your character and makes it more unique and gives you varied and interesting ways to play that character- to differentiate from your other characters and from those around you so that everyone does not end up the same or every class end up playing the same.

I agree, an Elementalist shouldn’t feel like a Ranger but an highly developed unique Elementalist imho.

thank you-
I play my different classes because I enjoy the different mechanics.
That is something I would very much like to develop in- the unique mechanics of each class

Thank God there were no people like you when they made GW1 because we wouldn’t see GW1 at all. There, no one cared so much of a warrior being an elementalist and so on
Besides that, the elementalist warrior was wearing heavy armor

There are also other MMOs out there having the same system and they don’t think it is not good.

My main character in GW1 was an elementalist, but whenever I needed to farm the items for the traveler i used full ritualist build. The same happened to my necro character. he was always a ritualist when playing with other people.

Sp yea, this system will bring new development to the characters even if you two are not able to figure it out yet

Ronah.2869:

Morrigan.2809:

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

Morrigan.2809:

I can’t see your system adding anything to be honest

… it is a system that grows your character and makes it more unique and gives you varied and interesting ways to play that character- to differentiate from your other characters and from those around you so that everyone does not end up the same or every class end up playing the same.

I agree, an Elementalist shouldn’t feel like a Ranger but an highly developed unique Elementalist imho.

thank you-
I play my different classes because I enjoy the different mechanics.
That is something I would very much like to develop in- the unique mechanics of each class

Thank God there were no people like you when they made GW1 because we wouldn’t see GW1 at all. There, no one cared so much of a warrior being an elementalist and so on
Besides that, the elementalist warrior was wearing heavy armor

I would love to know why you specifically make assumptions about me?

So I do not want to play a warrior/ele or a thief mesmer or whatever in GW2?

I have played multi classes in other games- I don’t think it fits here simply because the professions as they are, cover most archetypes.
that makes it pretty hard to add new professions in and of itself.

Instead of a mishmash of this and that profession just for the sake of having sub-classes or something new to play with- I would like to see Anet expand on and deepen the archetypes we have now- and add some of the missing links.
Make the classes deeper and give us more unique options to play with.

Remove the current inbalance between Exotic gear and the boring & harder to acquire Ascended gear.

This can be done two ways.

Give the ascended gear the same stats as exotic gear, this option is not really cool for the people who crafted ascended gear.

The other option is to make some kind of Mystic Forge recipe that gives exotic gear the same stats without the infusion slots.

exactly what Morrigan says, giving each professions new weapons would make professions even more unique. You want a Warrior/Elementalist? Give the Elementalist a mainhand sword (+ offhand sword). Now you have a sword wielding Elementalist (= Battlemage) who has very unique new sword skills instead of having a warrior/ele who has warrior sword skills.

What I can imagine happening: adding new utility skills for specific professions, which have a certain flair. Combining it with one of Nike’s suggestions: a battlemaster who still knows certain fighting techniques from the old days teaches the players his skills (requirement: certain tasks / challenges to unlock).

Example: Warriors and Elementalists can unlock a utility skill called “XY” which shares the characteristics of warrior skills and elementalist skills.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

exactly what Morrigan says, giving each professions new weapons would make professions even more unique. You want a Warrior/Elementalist? Give the Elementalist a mainhand sword (+ offhand sword). Now you have a sword wielding Elementalist (= Battlemage) who has very unique new sword skills instead of having a warrior/ele who has warrior sword skills.

No, I want a warrior with a scepter and dagger summoning minions

In GW1 you could wiled any weapon you wanted. There was no calss or level restriction. In return you got the possibility to change your 2nd profession and be whatever you wanted.

I have not had the chance to read the entire thread (having been away over the holidays), but I just wanted to add in one quick comment regarding horizontal progression and particularly cosmetic systems. Having played a number of MMOs over the years, I have to say that the cosmetic system in Lord of the Rings Online is still about the best one I’ve come across. Basically, the ‘look’ of your gear and the actual, stat-bearing armour pieces you wear are entirely separate, with a number of slots for sets of cosmetic armour. You can even wear armour types cosmetically which your class can’t equip in-game – for example, my minstrel has a Halloween costume of heavy armour (which makes her look like Captain America), even though she can only equip light armour for stat purposes.

This system allows the player to easily swap between, say, a set of heavy plate in a dungeon and a dressy robe during festivals, and means that winning a new piece of armour which is an upgrade, but ugly, does not require a full cosmetic rework. Additional slots are purchased via microtransactions. The cosmetic items are disabled in the PvP zone so that other players can still see at a glance what armour type a combatant is actually wearing. There is also a wardrobe function which allows for quick access and sharing of non-soulbound items between alts; this can also be expanded via microtransaction.

My suspicion is that transmutation crystals are one of Guild Wars 2’s biggest-selling gem store items, so they may not want to jeopardise sales by implementing something along those lines. However, adding in multiple cosmetic slots (like the town clothes but usable in combat as well) would potentially encourage people to buy more skins and crystals, as well as the slots themselves, and to still change things regularly to suit the seasons, change of taste, roleplaying, etc. I feel it would allow for more flexibility for players in terms of choosing looks, without making the prospect of getting new or better gear actually a negative due to cost or appearance. Combining a multi-slot cosmetic system like LOTRO’s with GW2’s intricate dyeing system would produce something really phenomenal, IMO.

Ronah.2869:

No I want a warrior with a scepter and dagger summoning minions

Then give the warrior the new weapon scepter which has a dark-theme (summoning minions) and a dagger. Taught by a “deathknight” themed npc (A necro-warrior) who survived the old days of GW1.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

Ronah.2869:

No I want a warrior with a scepter and dagger summoning minions

Then give the warrior the new weapon scepter which has a dark-theme (summoning minions) and a dagger.

Or simply don’t tie the look of armour to the rating (light / medium / heavy) / have different advantages to different armours, and then have a Necro with heavy armour look.

Laurelinde has some good points about the transmutation system, I also like TheDaiBish’s suggestion. This would greatly improve the variety of armor you can wear on your character so people would have much more to work towards to.

Also people would buy much more costumes in the gem store.

Is it really that important to recognize a profession by the armor it’s wearing? I saw some warrior running around with the new grenth-hood skin from the gemstore… it looks really cool and it already destroys the possibility to recognize the profession of that player.

I am not gonna waste my time explaining that a dark knight and a warrior necromancer are the same things but if you guys prefer different names to the same system, have it your way. I really don’t care

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

Is it really that important to recognize a profession by the armor it’s wearing?

Well, since armour isn’t profession specific anyway, I can’t see why it would be.

Laurelinde.4395:

My suspicion is that transmutation crystals are one of Guild Wars 2’s biggest-selling gem store items, so they may not want to jeopardise sales by implementing something along those lines.

What about if they changed the functionality of the Trans stones?

From merging two pieces of gear, allowing you to choose certain aspects (skin, stats and upgrade) to extracting the skin on that piece of gear without destroying it? Then add functionality to the Master + Mystic Salvage kits to extract the skin, while destroying the item.

My new No.1:

A skin-system like LotRO where players can put in any armor in the “costume slot”.

To make money with this system Anet could
-) charge gems for each “costume slot” – not accountbound but souldbound.
-) charge gems for every time you want to put a non-profession armor in the costume slot

Hmm… horizontal progression + costume slots + lore + new weapons…

Imagine:

• every zone has zone progression
• there are “old cross profession npcs” in the zones (e.g. a Warrior/Elementalist npc is located in Timberline Falls)
• these NPCs allow to unlock a costume slot of a specific armor combination (e.g. a Warrior/Elementalist npc allows Elementalists to put heavy armor in the costume slot / wear heavy armor; and also allows Warriors to use light armor as well)
• in order to make this available to your character, you have to progress in that zone (zoneprogression) which includes certain tasks from that NPC.
• the pinnacle of each of those npcs progression would be a new weapon for certain professions (Ele – mainhand sword)

in short:
Example: A warrior/ele npc unlocks a heavy armor costume slot for eles and (further down the progression road) unlocks a new weapon (sword) for eles.

Each withdraw of a skin (which has been stored by the use of a transmutation stone = gems) costs karma.

to further develop this idea:

• give each npc a certain set of armor which fits his profession/combination.
• you can purchase this armor set (e.g. a Warrior/Ele has a Battlemage armorset – skin/costume only)
• it’s a high tier zone-progression reward which costs a lot of karma

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

Hmm… horizontal progression + costume slots + lore + new weapons…

Imagine:

• every zone has zone progression

I mentioned something similar to this in the Living Story thread. Instead of ‘living story’, if arenanet’s aim is to accomplishing a living world, then some sort of zone progression so that we are completing currently existing dynamic events in all zones as a server. Lets face it, aside from a small % of people that enjoy going back to zones, they are largely empty in the sense that you might have 5-10 people on a map at a time, including levelers. Not very living. Give people reason to go back to zones to complete events, both for the server progression and for character horizontal progression.

zones in general need a much higher variety of things to do imho. Look at the success of WoW’s timeless isle, there’s so much to do there… things for everyone.

http://www.wowhead.com/news=219459/timeless-isle-guide-coins-achievements-maps-rares-and-more
http://www.icy-veins.com/timeless-isle-wow

@ the Devs:

After seeing now, that the thread has quickly turned now into a disccusion around only everybodies Top 3 suggestions and Chris self saying, what is at the moment his personal own Top 3, I ask myself here…
Should I still make further with my Summaries? I’ve made so far Summaries from Page 1-8.

Already within these 8 pages are tons of people, which suggested again and again x times the same things, more or less in the same context very often.

I’d like to know now, if this CDI discussion here now focusses already now more only onto the Top 3 discussion, or if people want to see more summaries of the missing pages?
Because basically we have made together already so many great suggestions, that I think, all this stuff together could hold the Devs busy like until 2016 or longer xD
—-

With Chris having told us his current Top 3 I think this thread has now shifted into a direction, where people don’t care anymore, if more summaries are made. People are now focused on these 3 things, because everybody looks now only on these 3 topics where Chris has mostly his eyes on at the moment, to the point, that people make also directly disappointed conclusions, that thigns they have suggested won’t find their ways into the game, only because Chris hasn’t mentioned them in his Top 3.
—-

Honestly, I already also think, this thread has grown already again too big. I want to say – again. I think it is very important for futurous CDI’s that the managment of them gets better in keeping the threads as compact as possible, because it makes it very hard to keep everythign overvieweable, the larger the thread gets.

To come to an end, I my self naturally want to let you devs also know my own personal Top 3 of this thread’s suggestions:

1) Sub Classes
2) Housing/Reuse of Hall of Monuments
3) New Weapons and Class Specific interactive “Tools”

New Weapons like Great Axes, Halberds/Lances, Whips, Claws, Flails, Quarterstaffs, Crossbows

Class Specific Tools (Idea based on the Wild Arms Games)
Thiefs for example could get Basic Tools like: Grappling Hooks, Throwing Stars and Stealth Manteaus. Each Sub Class then again could add a Sub Class specific 4th Tool.

Rogue > Key Ring
Saboteur > EMP Grenades
Infiltrator > Trap Disabling Kit

These 3 things would improve alot of Role Diversification and Housing would add alot of Social Aspects into the Game.

All I want to ask is, whatever you do, think of what is FUN to keep people coming back, not what is most habit-inducing. Don’t start getting all too crazy with the grind and the reward schedules all over again. As far as I’m concerned this game is fun because of things like fun combat skills (gw2 is great at this), Dynamic Events and recent living story (because of the actual change in the world) and not all the “progression”/reward/currency/gear clutter added in the last year and half (boooring). So for the love of god, focus on that. But as far as Horizontal progression goes:

TOP 3

• New weapons and skills for each class
  They should be the same level of power. Don’t add power creep like in GW1. Add variety and FUN. Anything with fun animations and leaps and spins, please. The system has to be consistent. Can’t have a run of the mill skill costing 1/ 5/10 skill points while a similar one costs 30. Lacks coherence.

• Unlockable cosmetic gear loadouts (or outfit tabs) – maybe even for actual gear
  LOTRO and Rift have this, and additional tabs are unlockable from the gemstore. But in GW2 , in addition to the store, you could actually acquire this spending karma, for instance. If you’re acquiring it by playing, it becomes horizontal progression

• Save slots for builds unlocked with skillpoints
  You should be able to save entire trait and skill sets and switch freely (out of combat). So people keeps leveling past 80 and using those skillpoints. It’s part QOL, part horizontal progression. To feel like you’re getting increasingly flexible with a class is really fun.

OTHER GOOD IDEAS

• Unlockable emotes

• Taxidermy and other furniture for houses and guild halls
  Boss and creature heads on your wall. Achievement furniture. Other collectible furniture from mobs, events, holidays etc. LOTRO is a good example of this. This stuff is not strictly progression, but any collectibility and displaying of achievements gives this sort of progression feel.

• Title progression (no stats)
  This is especially good in WvW. People want to be able to show off what they’re good at and they will play for it more eagerly than for stats. Titles associated with orders, the pact, each zone…

• Unlimited-withdraw skin wardrobe
  It should still use stones or karma to STORE skins and expand the storage, but be always FREE to withdraw.

BAD IDEAS

• Withdrawing copied skins from wardrobe at some sort of fee
  The FUN of collecting skins comes from knowing you’re going to be able to constantly change and experiment with them. If you want something to be collectible, you have to OWN it, not renting it every time you’re changing looks. It’s just redundant, it’s going to end up being as annoying like it is right now: people eventually get turned off and stop collecting skins, because they’re not fun and are restricted.

• Subclassing

There is subclassing already in the form of builds. Just polish each build and make them more EVIDENT to every player.

Laurelinde.4395:

I have not had the chance to read the entire thread
….snip, cut, slash, gash, stab, etc….

thank you for proving a point I made earlier in this thread.

My Top 3 would be:

1) New missions to expand personal story and lore (missions for the Orders, etc).

2) Housing and related additions to crafting and loot systems

3) Influence system to allow Guilds to directly control/influence specific areas/outposts in PvE. For instance, allow Guilds to control outposts conquered during events and build/repair defenses against assault from PvE mobs (e.g., by intentionally triggering new chain of events), set new merchants, build crafting areas, grant PvE bonuses to players in the area etc. This would require a revamp of some events chain, for example in Harathi Hinterlands.

Stuff from other games that would work well and in keeping with the horizontal theme:

1.) LOTRO’s Wardrobe system. Turbine has been copying you guys at ArenaNet for a while now and that is a good thing. You guys should copy this. Only good things can come from it.

2.) Neverwinter let’s you swap out skills on the fly out of combat. It’s grand. You guys talked about this a long time ago with the traits and it was a major draw for me. What point is there to having switchable stats on ascended/legendary weapons if we have to buy the trait respecs or go to a town to do so? At that point, I can just store weapons that go with those builds in my storage, I would be in town anyway.

3.) Guild Wars 1 let us save build templates. Taking a step back from your previous game isn’t a good idea to me. In fact, I would call it the antithesis of iteration.

4.) Star Wars Galaxies Housing system. No system was ever better for housing. You could use any item and put it anywhere. Garbage became decoration when you put it in interesting patterns to make things. Google some of the stuff people came up with using mundane items. Really solid stuff.

Swagger.1459:

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.

Thanks for replying!

My super awesome ideas are mostly about building a strong core foundation for the rest of these other future horizontal progression suggestions. You’ll be thanking me later for my tremendous contribution to this thread, so I’ll do the preemptive standard reply now… You’re welcome!

No. This is another one of these “I take parts from my favourite kind of game and put it elsewhere.”
We don’t need another whack-a-mole MMO. Guild Wars has always been about less buttons, and I thoroughly enjoy that. Trust me; I’ve been there in other games; 42buttons hotkeyed. It wasn’t fun.

Your suggestion also forces things into slots which only furthers the narrowing down of choice and selection. At times, I even think the dedicated healing button is too much enforcement, and more often than not I wished my elite slot could also house regular skills.

No. Really, no. This would be detrimental to the game.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

… and then guys come along and demand 40 new skills per profession. Seriously? How can this be feasible in any way? I’d love 40 new skills per profession, but I think more realistic would be a new weapon (3-5 skills) per profession and maybe 1-5 utility skills… and I assume this takes quite a while to design and balance.

If I would take the time to sit down and just design alternate Weapon skills for ranger weapons only, I’d be done in roughly 2 hours. I didn’t grab my proposition of mostly inverting weapon skills out of nowhere.

Ronah.2869:

No, I want a warrior with a scepter and dagger summoning minions

Why? By Lyssa, why? Not only has this NOTHING to do with the Warrior theme, it also isn’t quite fitting the guardian theme. I bet you just want “cool-looking” plate armor in a dark themed style summoning and casting darkly-themed stuff? I’m not even sorry to say it but; wrong game. Stuff like that exists in abundance elsewhere.

Ronah.2869:

In GW1 you could wiled any weapon you wanted. There was no calss or level restriction. In return you got the possibility to change your 2nd profession and be whatever you wanted.

That is wrong. Without a sword, you could not use sword skills. Without a Dagger, you could not use dagger skills. The efficiency of said skills also depended on your weapon attribute. A Warrior with a caster-set was “abused” to become an “Obsi-tank” which was nothing but stuffing lots of elementalist skills in the bar. There have been more feasible obsi tanks, but that wasn’t for the nobrain player.
And this is also why secondary classes went away with GW2; now every profession feels like it is doing their thing. I don’t need to be required to go for a secondary class to IMPROVE what my main class should be doing in the first place.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

Then give the warrior the new weapon scepter which has a dark-theme (summoning minions) and a dagger. Taught by a “deathknight” themed npc (A necro-warrior) who survived the old days of GW1.

Again, people, don’t you realize that you are wanting and suggesting things which are going to strangle future expansion of the game? We have 8 professions by now. Such a thing COULD become it’s own profession. And it should, quite frankly, instead of violating the theme and style of existing classes.

titles + build combined progression

• you choose a certain build (e.g. 30 points in the beastmaster traitline adds “Beastmaster” next to your name in the hero window
• if you complete events / get wxp / complete dungeons / … while having this build active, you progress towards a new title:
• “Beastmaster Adept” – “Beastmaster Hero” – “Beastmaster Champion”

Change the build and you’ll progress in an other build-specific title.

Updating the tally. Includes new votes up to Marcus Greythorne.6843 before this post:

Weapon Skills 47
Quests/Order Missions 38
Homes 37
PvE Skin Locker 31
New Skills 30
Faction Reputation/Titles 30
Guild Halls 24
Character Customization 22
Armor+Weapon Skins (non-gem-store) 22
Personality System 19
Hard Mode/Elite Missions 12
Lore 11
Legendary Dye 7
Mini Slot/Improvements 7
Dyeable Weapons 6
Sub-Classes 5
Mounts 3
Skinning Modularity 3
Legendary Skins 2
Monster Arena 2
Fishing 2
Dungeon Achievements 2
Keep Engineers in Mind 2
Town Clothes 1
Modular World 1

These are the perhaps-not-so-horizontal ideas that people still would like to see:

Stat Swapping 8
More Account-Binding vs Soul-Binding 4
Permanent Content 4
Build Template Saving 4
Costume Slots 3
Progressive Items 2
Rewards for Consistency 1
PvP Balancing 1
Fractal Reset Compensation 1

Khunvyel.3972:

Again, people, don’t you realize that you are wanting and suggesting things which are going to strangle future expansion of the game? We have 8 professions by now. Such a thing COULD become it’s own profession. And it should, quite frankly, instead of violating the theme and style of existing classes.

Anet once stated in an earlier interview, that it’s more likely to add more weapons to current professions than adding another profession. I like this decision because this means I don’t have to level up another character but instead get more depth to my current characters.

I’m going to look for the source for you.
Edit: source: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Weapons-before-Professions/first#post2426745

something interesting I found when looking for another source:

why there are no quests in GW2:

Why did we get rid of quests? We got rid of quests because it forced the world to not change. Every new player that comes into the game has to do the same quests in the same order. How do you try to do that and have the sense that a player’s actions can change the world? Sure my actions can change the world to a certain degree, but not in the sense of ever changing a quest or the circumstances that are causing a quest-giver to say they need your help. So we thought that the kind of content that you release into the world needs to be the opposite of that. It can’t be something that when players run out of things to do we give them more challenges that they need to grind out to do and that add another 100 hours to the game. It just doesn’t work. If you want to be able to have players impacting the world around them, not just progressing and leaving the old stuff behind, then all of your content needs to be about impacting the world." source: http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=32955&storypage=2

relevant because players suggested Order-quests

AlanaTheStrange.1463:

These are the perhaps-not-so-horizontal ideas that people still would like to see:

Stat Swapping 8

Eh, I’d argue that stat-swapping, if implemented in such a way that you unlock the stats instead of just being granted them, is a form of Horizontal Progression in the sense it’s broadening your options.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

something interesting I found when looking for another source:

why there are no quests in GW2:

Why did we get rid of quests? We got rid of quests because it forced the world to not change. Every new player that comes into the game has to do the same quests in the same order. How do you try to do that and have the sense that a player’s actions can change the world? Sure my actions can change the world to a certain degree, but not in the sense of ever changing a quest or the circumstances that are causing a quest-giver to say they need your help. So we thought that the kind of content that you release into the world needs to be the opposite of that. It can’t be something that when players run out of things to do we give them more challenges that they need to grind out to do and that add another 100 hours to the game. It just doesn’t work. If you want to be able to have players impacting the world around them, not just progressing and leaving the old stuff behind, then all of your content needs to be about impacting the world." source: http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=32955&storypage=2

relevant because players suggested Order-quests

Well, I think that the reason people were asking for Order quests is because they want to progress their characters and not the world. Horizontal progression.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

something interesting I found when looking for another source:

why there are no quests in GW2:

Why did we get rid of quests? We got rid of quests because it forced the world to not change. Every new player that comes into the game has to do the same quests in the same order. How do you try to do that and have the sense that a player’s actions can change the world? Sure my actions can change the world to a certain degree, but not in the sense of ever changing a quest or the circumstances that are causing a quest-giver to say they need your help. So we thought that the kind of content that you release into the world needs to be the opposite of that. It can’t be something that when players run out of things to do we give them more challenges that they need to grind out to do and that add another 100 hours to the game. It just doesn’t work. If you want to be able to have players impacting the world around them, not just progressing and leaving the old stuff behind, then all of your content needs to be about impacting the world." source: http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=32955&storypage=2

relevant because players suggested Order-quests

Personally, I think quests in the traditional sense could be used specifically for personal progression.

While it generally doesn’t make sense to have ‘kill 10 of these’ quests (unless you have to prove yourself or something), having a quest to, say, gather parts for a weapon skin unique to your profession, or unlock a crafting recipe, isn’t all that immersion breaking, since it makes sense that that quest would be repeated by many people.

I want to emphasize this:

Anet

It can’t be something that when players run out of things to do we give them more challenges that they need to grind out to do and that add another 100 hours to the game.

It’s pretty clear that Anet is against some of our ideas here.

At one stage Anet had the plan to integrate tons of new events in already existing zones. Because of poor player feedback (?) this idea was somehow scrapped.

I think it would have worked out quite well, if players would see a purpose going to the zones in the first place. Either the purpose is events which are so fun, that you love to return to that zone just for these events, or decent rewards. The nature of dynamic events – dynamic = not always there – makes it really difficult to visit specific events though, so I guess you need just a better reward system or a MUCH higher density of new events.

I just want to actually get the horizontal progression we were promised instead of the horrible vertical power grind bs we got instead. Weapons and armour out dated because of ascended grind. Endless wxp grind. Insane legendary grind. Awful enforced crafting grinds with colossal gold farming needed for resources.

Return to the horizontal promises we bought this game (books gems etc) based on. 2 decades of mmo experience and gw2 is now one of the worst offenders for grind with all the ascended crap. I honestly preferred raiding schedules, in previous mmo’s, it was less work and far more enjoyable and didn’t force you to do so many areas of the game you might dislike.

P.S. It should be possible to gear for wvw by doing wvw, without big disadvantages, unavailable slots, stat penalties, or 50x longer timeframes. Fix it.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

something interesting I found when looking for another source:

why there are no quests in GW2:

Why did we get rid of quests? We got rid of quests because it forced the world to not change. Every new player that comes into the game has to do the same quests in the same order. How do you try to do that and have the sense that a player’s actions can change the world? Sure my actions can change the world to a certain degree, but not in the sense of ever changing a quest or the circumstances that are causing a quest-giver to say they need your help. So we thought that the kind of content that you release into the world needs to be the opposite of that. It can’t be something that when players run out of things to do we give them more challenges that they need to grind out to do and that add another 100 hours to the game. It just doesn’t work. If you want to be able to have players impacting the world around them, not just progressing and leaving the old stuff behind, then all of your content needs to be about impacting the world." source: http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=32955&storypage=2

relevant because players suggested Order-quests

Funny enough with traditional quest I get more the feeling of making a change then with the dynamic events. At least with a quest I can really complete it. Beside that they send me all over the world in a real adventure and I get to learn the NPC’s and there stories and a quest can give a unique reward.

With the dynamic events it’s just one event I can do. It does not send me all over the world and I don’t get the interaction with NPC’s I would have with traditional quest. But worse is that a few min later it happens again. So it feels pointless, like it does not make a change at all. Plus the fact that it happens multiple times and so I can do it multiple times also means I can’t get a unique reward from it.

Dynamic events would be a nice addition to quest but they can’t take it’s full place and part is because they do feel pointless because you can’t really complete them as they keep spawning again. So exactly the opposite of what was the idea.

And why that is relevant.

Mainly because the traditional quests send you all over the world. They help you to explore the world, learn the npc’s (and there stories) and get unique rewards. Those thinks are a form of horizontal progression while at the same time helping your vertical level progression.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

Anet once stated in an earlier interview, that it’s more likely to add more weapons to current professions than adding another profession. I like this decision because this means I don’t have to level up another character but instead get more depth to my current characters.

I’m going to look for the source for you.
Edit: source: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Weapons-before-Professions/first#post2426745

Oh don’t worry, I remember this. I reply to you that if they add weapons, then they are going to fit the theme of the profession more than anything else. The Warrior has currently the biggest ar…se…nal (( seriously, forum admins, do your homework of censored words, this is ridiculous)) of smashies right now, so if anything, it is going to be other professions who are getting more weapons unlocked first. Also, by saying “new weapons” it doesn’t necessarily mean “previously locked weapons accessible.” I could totally think of new weapons finding their way into the game, let’s say, while the Warrior gets a Greataxe and a Crossbow, other professions get more than two weapons added/unlocked, while Engineer and Elementalist might only get one, due to their inherent profession nature.

Without wanting to play the devil’s advocate here, but I stopped believing in any earlier interviews as many of those became not really accountable any more, because since then and launch there was so much change, and we all remember the flak ArenaNet had to take from the players for “breaking promises in earlier statements.” I believe it when it goes live.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

I want to emphasize this:

Anet

It can’t be something that when players run out of things to do we give them more challenges that they need to grind out to do and that add another 100 hours to the game.

It’s pretty clear that Anet is against some of our ideas here.

It is pretty clear, that ArenaNet was against their OWN ideas. Or maybe it wasn’t ArenaNet who shafted them. °wink wink nudge nudge°

At any rate, not wanting to continue idle banter but putting something more constructive into the topic;

Mr. Whiteside, is there any estimate when this topic will be closed, which CDI is going to be next, how many are there still to come, and can you already mention what your plans are to inform us about the brainstorming you had in-house?
Is there any chance we can get related coders on board to answer the likelihood and difficulty of implementation to the highest ranked suggestions?

Thank you

Why did we get rid of quests? We got rid of quests because it forced the world to not change. Every new player that comes into the game has to do the same quests in the same order. How do you try to do that and have the sense that a player’s actions can change the world? Sure my actions can change the world to a certain degree, but not in the sense of ever changing a quest or the circumstances that are causing a quest-giver to say they need your help.

So instead of quests we have heart quests + Vistas, Pois and Skill points

I am unsure if I posted this already (been bouncing around the forums reading stuff…so much to read, its not even funny…now I know why its hard to take all the things that get posted) but my top 3 are:

LOTRO cosmetic adaptation- I know that sounds bad/weird but its already been mentioned: LOTRO had a great cosmetic system. It had slots independent of stats BUT still allowed you to see what armor you were wearing if you used the Equipment tab- and even then you could toggle of certain things like Hats, Gloves, Boots. Thats already half of a great cosmetic setup- ADD that to your dye system/transmutation system and you have an amazing cosmetic system. Also, if we transmute/salvage a weapon or piece of armor it would be really nice if a pop-up came and asked “Hey you, would you like to keep the skin of this item for later use?” or something similar because on occassion I find wep/armr skins that look fantastic that I either have to vendor trash or spend tons of my grinded gold in gem store for trans stone for. Not quite “fun” or “immersive” when you have to hit the store all the time to keep an item that you like.

Skill Selection Without Power Creep- I would love to see either A)current weapon sets get more skills you can choose from and you can swap them into your current set of 5 skills (so still 5 skills on bar) if you would need those for your build or something or more weapons. I already have a great idea for Thief-a rifle. For choice A the idea would be (Thief mainhand dagger, offhand nothing example) same auto attack (no way to replace that since its a bit weapon defining) but skill 2 could be either Heartseeker or a new skill that worked for condition thieves- range 600, kind of like Ranger’s axe 4? And then the player could choose either Heartseeker or this new skill depending on if they were burst built or condi….

And of course my thrice mentioned Race changing tonic. Allows you to use a full makeover kit that now includes the ability to swap races- be careful players, this will reset all of your racial skills and you will have to re-earn/buy them. Gem store price- 600?

And now I will stop spamming thread…with my random postage…..

Ronah.2869:

So instead of quests we have heart quests + Vistas, Pois and Skill points

In case you missed it: hearts were implemented as a guide to event-hubs since test-players had no idea where to go in the beginning. They were overwhelmed by the freedom of a dynamic world.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

something interesting I found when looking for another source:

why there are no quests in GW2:

Why did we get rid of quests? We got rid of quests because it forced the world to not change. Every new player that comes into the game has to do the same quests in the same order. How do you try to do that and have the sense that a player’s actions can change the world? Sure my actions can change the world to a certain degree, but not in the sense of ever changing a quest or the circumstances that are causing a quest-giver to say they need your help. So we thought that the kind of content that you release into the world needs to be the opposite of that. It can’t be something that when players run out of things to do we give them more challenges that they need to grind out to do and that add another 100 hours to the game. It just doesn’t work. If you want to be able to have players impacting the world around them, not just progressing and leaving the old stuff behind, then all of your content needs to be about impacting the world." source: http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=32955&storypage=2

relevant because players suggested Order-quests

There are various ways to implement Order questing outside of the sort of traditional questing few of us want to see. They could be linked into collecting items, reaching certain areas in the game, defeating certain monsters, reaching certain skill plateaus, reaching certain personality trait levels, speaking to certain NPCs, etc.

And besides, there’s nothing wrong with traditional questing anyway assuming it’s done well. Endless cycles of Kill X or Y quests are terrible, yes, but smartly designed quests even in a similar vein to that are not necessarily bad. Plus, they also provide a sense of actual progress far better than DEs that you complete only to have them restart themselves 10 minutes later. In short, the problem isn’t the traditional quest system by any means, it’s poorly designed use of an endless cycle of treadmill quests to pad out play time.

Let’s look at an example. You’re a member of the Order of Whispers. You head to the Order HQ and speak to a high ranking member. They tell you that there’s a double agent in the organization currently operating in Hoelbrak but they don’t know more than that he’s been seen in the Bear lodge. You travel to Hoelbrak and, upon nearing the Bear lodge, you can enter a private instanced version of the lodge where you can speak to various NPCs. By reading their dialogues, you determine which is the double agent. Choose wrong and you have to survive a difficult ambush. Choose right and you finish the mission without combat, true Order of Whispers style. Very much a traditional quest, and not all that unlike some of those nasty traditional quests that have already taken root in the game throughout the whole Personal Story, and perfectly suited to the goal of what I’m guessing many players who support Order progress would want.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

something interesting I found when looking for another source:

why there are no quests in GW2:

Why did we get rid of quests? We got rid of quests because it forced the world to not change. Every new player that comes into the game has to do the same quests in the same order. How do you try to do that and have the sense that a player’s actions can change the world? Sure my actions can change the world to a certain degree, but not in the sense of ever changing a quest or the circumstances that are causing a quest-giver to say they need your help. So we thought that the kind of content that you release into the world needs to be the opposite of that. It can’t be something that when players run out of things to do we give them more challenges that they need to grind out to do and that add another 100 hours to the game. It just doesn’t work. If you want to be able to have players impacting the world around them, not just progressing and leaving the old stuff behind, then all of your content needs to be about impacting the world." source: http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=32955&storypage=2

relevant because players suggested Order-quests

I remember this-
this is why they went with Dynamic Events as the major bulk of the game because they saw it as a more dynamic system.
Imo DE’s are one of the best features of the game.

Hearts were only added very late in development because the test players didn’t know where to go for the Dymanic Events and also why they are not present in Orr.

but I think that the term or Order quests people use the word quest for want of a better term.

I would like to see Order progression for my character very much- I would really prefer if it is tied to an event chain and not some guy with an exclamation over his head.

We already have a very small example of where some npc’s in game have different dialogue option if you belong to the same Order as they do.

It would be awesome if after showing them the secret handshake- they tell you “ok we are having a little pow wow- senior operatives only, are you in?”
this can set of and event chain that can be quite short or very involved.

Let’s give folks a little more time to post their top three.

1) Player housing – I really want a place to call home, with my efforts in game having a significant cosmetic impact on my house through upgrading the basic house with additional rooms, bigger garden/park, towers, axillary buildings, etc. Being able to craft/purchase/earn furniture and put it into the house. Being able to earn special decorative or interactive items such as resource nodes, boosters etc, based on achievements and other accomplishments. Being able to display (mini)pets and achievements similar to HOM/Menagerie in GW1.

2) Much more ways to customize my character through additional skills (in particular through being able to have a pool of weapon skills to choose from), more runes/sigils/etc, maybe add dual-classing which I loved so much in GW1, pleaaase? Vanity customization as well, being able to unlock/collect skins and store them in skin wardrobe. Another tier of ascended dungeon gear?

3) Really being able to pick a side with factions in the game and work for the faction’s benefit. Each faction has unique rewards (titles, weapons, armor, house stuff). It should be possible to enrol with multiple factions, but of course if you spread out your efforts it will take a long time to reach a high tier with all of them. Meaningful choices through adding regular additional Living World content that is exclusively for people with high rank with a particular faction (if you have a high standing with the Seraph, you get other options in the living world story than if you have signed up with the Vigil). PVP content (or competitive PVE content – which side gets the most of X?) that pits the factions against eachother every once in a while, which should determine outcome of a Living World event. Also please allow us to join evil bad guy factions.

So without a reply from a dev on the idea of zone progression, I try to evolve this idea since I think it is against the design decision of an ever changing world.

Zone progression might be too static. It’s always the same. Maybe it would be more in Anets spirit to make this zone progression more dynamic and bind it to factions on the world, who move around.

Think of it like this: There are small parties of npcs who represent a faction and move around in the world (It’s a bit like Nicolas the Traveller). Possible tasks in order to progress:

A group of Kodan advanced to snowden drifts

• a Kodan scout is missing – try to find him in (Jumping Puzzle xy)
• 15 members of the group tried to help local folks (15 different standard events in that zone have Kodan). Find them, help them and lead them back to the group.
• A Kodan scientist looks for critters to find out if there are signs of corruption. Find and collect 15 different critters.
• The camp needs supply from local surroundings, find and gather 25 wood/ore/herbs from that zone.
• A Kodan wants to trade his rare (random rare or exotic+) items with you, but he want’s an other rare item in return. It’s a rare artifact which only drops from certain mobs in that area. Find such an artifact and you might choose one of three rare (+) items in return (all of them have a Kodan-theme).
• Visit 6 Kodan scouts. They watch over half of the vistas on the map. Find them.

Now after 1 week the group moves to a new zone, but the progression isn’t lost for you. All the above objectives stay exactly the same in the new zone: Find and do a jumping puzzle, find and do 15 unique events,… . If you follow the faction and help them in their endevors, you’ll progress and unlock new exiting faction-specific rewards.

Basically it’s dynamic quests.

No new content, instead Anet uses already existing content to experience it in a new form.

• Alts as followers

I like this idea a lot. That would be one of the most awesome things to ever hit mmos in decades and a great incentive for “alting” as horizontal progression.This is horizontal progression if you think player, not character. For every alt you level you unlock a new hero, the alt himself, and you could play with them. as a full group, in instanced areas, such as dungeons, like in GW1, but those heroes would be your own alts as npcs. I could even play those instances with little or no coin/item rewards (if that’s used as a measure against botted farming, for instance). But it would be still every bit as awesome.