VOICES
different battle voices would be nice, I understand the cut scene voices cant change as that’s a lot of unnecessary work but why cant you earn or buy different voices for when you are actually fighting. I hate that my two female characters have the exact same voice, I want my evil character to have an evil voice, my battle hardy warrior to sound nails, my noble guardian to use holy expressions etc.

I really feel like this is a simple yet beneficial idea, earn voices. Of course other characters would hear these voices. It’s just a whole new level of customisation.

(if you need an excuse for why they are different voices in cutscenes then just make the earned voices, ‘voice crystals’ made by asurans to modify a persons voice or some other sci-fi jargon excuse)

DYE AND RECIPE
I also really feel that recipes and dyes should be account shared, not individually character bound. It is incredibly frustrating to have certain recipes on one character who doesn’t know that craft skill whilst another does but needs the recipe. I realise this isn’t an easy mistake to make but at same time I don’t want to have to hold onto recipes forever and when i’m constantly making new characters its hard to plan what should go where. I genuinely feel that this sort of limiting is very bad for the game as I never feel like im earning these things and im constantly second guessing who I give them to.

COMMANDER TAG
add a vote system or some kind of system whereupon commander tags can be given different colours depending on how good a commander someone is. I say vote system because a wvw map of people could be working under a commander the thought was very skilled and deserved a higher tag so they vote for them and this way commander tag is not only just a purchasable label but something you earn up tiers once you purchase so people can know you are actually good at your job.

Patrikan Habaton.2548:

VOLKON.1290:

Patrikan Habaton.2548:

This Thread used to start with a post about Progression and fractal reset. It used to have been said by Chris that he will answer this question back in 2013 over and over again. But it seems to have been forgotten in 2014 wich is just a shame.
so once more:

Any update on fractal reset?

Look up a few posts to Chris’ remarks.

I missed that shame on me.

It happens. This just isn’t the right CDI for Fractal discussions, that’s all. You’ll have your moment soon enough.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

@Chris

Looks good, don’t see anything to correct on it.

I’ll be working up something for the “subclass CDI” whenever it comes out. Any idea on what the next one is so I can start studying?

I think we should discuss that in the CDI Process Evolution Phase 2 which will start on Wednesday 22nd. Among other things we need to chat about what topics to discuss in the next CDIs and how to go about choosing them. I would personally like to have a week long PVE CDI on Fractals next (Running in conjunction with a PvP and WvW CDI) but we should discuss it as a group first.

Chris

Yes, Please!!

Romo.3709:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

@Chris

Looks good, don’t see anything to correct on it.

I’ll be working up something for the “subclass CDI” whenever it comes out. Any idea on what the next one is so I can start studying?

I think we should discuss that in the CDI Process Evolution Phase 2 which will start on Wednesday 22nd. Among other things we need to chat about what topics to discuss in the next CDIs and how to go about choosing them. I would personally like to have a week long PVE CDI on Fractals next (Running in conjunction with a PvP and WvW CDI) but we should discuss it as a group first.

Chris

Yes, Please!!

Hoorah!

Thanks, Chris.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

@Chris

Looks good, don’t see anything to correct on it.

I’ll be working up something for the “subclass CDI” whenever it comes out. Any idea on what the next one is so I can start studying?

I think we should discuss that in the CDI Process Evolution Phase 2 which will start on Wednesday 22nd. Among other things we need to chat about what topics to discuss in the next CDIs and how to go about choosing them. I would personally like to have a week long PVE CDI on Fractals next (Running in conjunction with a PvP and WvW CDI) but we should discuss it as a group first.

Chris

On all those topics, I have no knowledge (PvP), limited knowledge (Fractals), or only amateur knowledge (WvW) so I’ll likely be quiet in whatever topic we wind up doing

See you on the 22nd for the discussion then, though. I’m off to go work some other ideas up.

Awesome, see you then Tobias. And I am pretty sure that any CDI member at this point would be a benefit to any CDI topic moving forward.

Chris

Hello Chris.

I want to play a game.

Count the developer posts in the dungeon forums in the last 5 months.

Muhahahahahaha.

So in all seriousness, we could use some feedback. It’s great that you are willing to discuss fractals, but could we possibly include all dungeons in this discussion? Along with possibly the discussion of new/upcoming dungeons?

Chris Whiteside.6102:

— Role Diversification: ‘Grail Quest’ (Personal rights of passage) style adventures through the open world (testing the player in combat, discovery, and puzzle solving) which others can engage in once the activities are activated which could reward the Hero with New skills/traits, new weapons, access to inaccessible existing weapons, and infusions.

Pardon me for asking this again, but by “New Weapons” do you mean “New Weapon Skills” or “New Weapon Types”? Because…

I think New Weapons Types should be available from the start, and not after completing a challenge.
I mean, if Halberds are suddenly added to the game, I’d like to try them immediately. Also, I would expect new weapons to be easily available to low-level characters.

Thank you for reading.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

The Reward and Associated Journey

— Sociopolitical Diversification: Player housing (Customizable from rewards gained in the open world), Guild Halls (Customizable from mass play rewards) and Map Wide Meta events unlocked through Order progression (Leading to both individual and group rewards such as titles and skins)

Player housing: if are outside of cities, could be events of enemies trying to attack the place and the player/s must defend it.

Player housing could be great if there was an open world wvw.

Guild Halls: the same as the player housing, could be a guild event to defend the guild halls. Also, could be a guild airship and guild events related to it: kill dragons or pirate airships, etc.

Order Events: the order dailies and monthlies rewards could also let us unlock skills (the skills should be the same for all orders, that way the players arnt restricted when pick an order), emotes, new hair styles (could be unlocked but needed to hair tool to change it), and tattoos/fur patterns for all the races.

— Role Diversification: ‘Grail Quest’ (Personal rights of passage) style adventures through the open world (testing the player in combat, discovery, and puzzle solving) which others can engage in once the activities are activated which could reward the Hero with New skills/traits, new weapons, access to inaccessible existing weapons, and infusions.

Champion’s Duels: It would be like the “Queen’s Champions” from the “Queen’s Jubilee”. And would be part of the daily missions.

This champions could be of all kinds (charr, ogers, trolls, bats, etc) and the Orders would send us to defeat them. They can be blocking bridges or roads, or attacking a village, etc. When we defeat them, some surrender and others must be killed. The victory not complete that daily mission but also give a chest or another reward.

Master’s Duels: They could also add a master that teach you a new skill if you beat them in a fight similar to the Belcher’s Bluff’s challenges but with attacks, block, evade, etc.

Arena of Death: A big Coliseum in which players fight to death but they use environmental weapons like in Southsun Survival.

It start with an obstacle race between players. This race would have parts of the floor that fall (like in Skyhammer), rocks that roll over the racetrack, and other traps that can be activated by other players. Could be also environmental weapons and buffs the players can pick to stop others.

When players finish the race (if they finish it) there is a room with environmental weapons to select. The ones that end first have preference to pick the ones they want, and the last ones just get what is left. After that, the door open and all the players (even the ones that died in the race or didnt finish it) are teleported to the arena with the weapons they have.

The fight starts and the last one alive wins. Each dead player leave a health box as one of the only ways of recover life during the fight. The arena would have siege weapons around the players can use to attack others, but those weapons arnt easy to reach and the players must carry the ammo to load them.

The fight would have a few extra weapons than the ones we can find at the southsun survival. One of those would be the shields: the shields can be used alone or with 1H weapons. The players also can get armor which reduce the damage for some time. Both items can be obtained at the arena and the room before start the fight.

Unlike in the southsun survival players dont lose hp over time and the damage is a little lower to prevent them to die too fast.

Global Rule Proposal governing the above:
- QOL: More customization options regarding our armor and weapons. (Things that came up in this regard were: pattern dyes, texture options (other types of wood and different metal polishes), customizeable features like long sleeves vs short sleeves, emblem design.

I think they could add tattoos/fur patterns unlocked given when we earn a title. Each title would have a special one which appears when we activate that title. The display of the patter could be turned on/off in case someone want to show the title but not the pattern. This could be also done with emblem designs for armors and shields.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

@Chris

Looks good, don’t see anything to correct on it.

I’ll be working up something for the “subclass CDI” whenever it comes out. Any idea on what the next one is so I can start studying?

I think we should discuss that in the CDI Process Evolution Phase 2 which will start on Wednesday 22nd. Among other things we need to chat about what topics to discuss in the next CDIs and how to go about choosing them. I would personally like to have a week long PVE CDI on Fractals next (Running in conjunction with a PvP and WvW CDI) but we should discuss it as a group first.

Chris

Hurray for fractals! I´m all ears.

Chris-

I very much understand your desire to have the community write the proposal. I have an alternate suggestion, though it is one that may require more work and time before it can be used:

Create a site where people can submit proposals or ideas and +1/upvote/whatever those ideas.

It should be separate from the forums, but we could link to our ideas from here during discussion. Over time, it will be easy to find the most popular ideas.

In this sense, we are all proposal writers and editors, and no individual will have more power or more voice than any other. I think this is especially important because, I assume, there are many who would be interested in providing guidance but may feel uncomfortable speaking up here.

Ideally, this system would be tied to our name.#### logins to ensure nobody is rigging the votes with multiple accounts and allowing us to contribute without signing up for anything else. (As a software guy, I know this piece may be difficult to accomplish.)

Anyway, food for thought.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Here is the proposal I believe we are making, please discuss and let me know if anything should be added or removed. Note many of us have read the thread internally and thus there has already been valuable impact.

Our Horizontal Progression Proposal

The Reward and Associated Journey

- QOL: More customization options regarding our armor and weapons. (Things that came up in this regard were: pattern dyes, texture options (other types of wood and different metal polishes), customizeable features like long sleeves vs short sleeves, emblem design.

I know my topic doesn’t quite fit to this quote, but it reminded me strongly of something that has been in the air for so very long. I myself would wish a system that allowed you to save your build, your item compostion or even both at once. this could be either saved as a code on your local machine or like a dropdown menu in your character screen, where you could add your favourite builds.
i could even imagine a system where the number of builds/item compostions you could save was limited but could be expanded by spending a few gems.

Gulesave.5073:

Quick notes on animals:

1. Mounts. Have you been inside that classroom-like chamber inside the Priory headquarters? Imagine that nonsense, but with animals instead of desks. As for horses, they did exist, but as far as we know they went extinct prior to GW1. Their presence in concept art for the current era is probably a simple mistake. And given the world’s advancement, riding a mount would be seen as archaic, used more for recreation than actual travel.
2. Pets. Pet acquisition is a fitting, (if late), topic for this thread. However, as this CDI is about progression, I recommend that further discussion of any perceived problems with current mechanics or balance would do better in the Ranger subforum.

Well the horizontal progression part of it (different types, way to catch them.. it has all been said before) fits very well into the CDI. The current mechanics or balance does indeed not fit into this CDI and should indeed do better in the Ranger sub forum.

Chris – You forgot Polymock.

I had a list compiled of RP elements talked about in this thread. Pets being one of them, another being the way or acquiring items like ‘fun items’, mini’s, dyes, mounts, recipe’s and so on. Another element went into fun crafts and the last went into NPC interaction for exploration and acquiring things.

I did try to put that down as a proposal around RP elements as all of these elements had been talked about in this thread before.

Maybe it’s because of my lacking skill of setting up a proposal but what happened in stead is that the person interested in pets went on to talk about that, the person interested in fun-crafts went to talk about that and so on. But as this thread is ending I think it’s important to now make a complete proposal for that whole RP part of HP in stead of going into the details again.

Here you can find me trying to set up the proposal: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/64#post3495708

Here I define the ‘dynamic catching of pets’ a little better: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/64#post3496209

We can put links in a proposal so devs can also read the details back. But it’s time that this gets packed into a good proposal. So we can move on. Devs will always be able to come back here to see more details.

Chrispy.5641:

Gulesave.5073:

1. Pets. Pet acquisition is a fitting, (if late), topic for this thread. However, as this CDI is about progression, I recommend that further discussion of any perceived problems with current mechanics or balance would do better in the Ranger subforum.

I’m working on/starting a thread with a focus on Ranger pets, that I will be specifically posting in the Ranger Forum Early Tomorrow Morning. In it so far are details that cover the following:::

• Horizontal Progression (pet aquisition and looks, skill selection among pets)
• Vertical Progression (pet stat scaling with Rare to Exotic and Ascended gear)
• Pet AI stuffs…. (Not my expertise, but its pet related)
• Pet Skills/ Shouts/ Signet/ Trait balance and suggestions (what works, what doesn;t, what could be done in the future, etc.)

If Ranger Players agree with everything, then I will post all the balance related stuff in the subforum that handles it, and the rest of the proposal in a future CDI thread. The problem is that many Rangers have just stopped posting and caring because of the lack of red in the Ranger subforums, so there wont be many replies there unless it a “I hate Anet” Thread (which it won’t be!) . personally, I see that as an utterly Lame excuse to stop caring, and I will be creating that thread tomorrow even if one person replies.

I am posting this here so that way anyone who is interested in Rangers, by even the smallest amount, to go there tomorrow and read that thread. Even if you Hate Rangers and everything they stand for, go read that thread tomorrow anyways!

I think you should split up the horizontal progression part from the rest. That has now also been discussed in this CDI where it belongs imho. But it’s such a different element that it will attract completely different players.

It’s combat VS more RP elements of the game. Might both be about pets but from a game-play viewpoint it could not be much further away.

Hi Chris, could you comment on this? It would be very helpful ^^

J Eberle.9312:

Hello Chris.

…

So in all seriousness, we could use some feedback. It’s great that you are willing to discuss fractals, but could we possibly include all dungeons in this discussion? Along with possibly the discussion of new/upcoming dungeons?

Chris Whiteside.6102:

VOLKON.1290:

I’m going to toss a new idea in here even though the proposal is already out there because… well, because I just thought of it… sorry Chris. It may seem a little strange (and feels a little strange to me to be honest) but it feels like a potential horizontal progression path…

Right now with the Living Story we’re seeing a changing of the guard as far as the heroes of Tyria go. Destiny’s Edge is settled back into non-guild, non-adventurer life with some influence and we’re seeing the latest quintet of Braham, Rox, Marjory, Kasmeer and soon the new Asura who seems about to become significant as well. To me, this could be the beginning of a new guild similar to Destiny’s Edge. I think that I think it would be interesting if, through the Living Story, players could also become a part of that guild and somehow through their actions and accomplishments in the LS progress along a path to possible rewards, unlocks, etc.

Conceptually it’s still a bit vague, I just thought of it, but possibly there could be skills or traits unlocked, unique weapon or armor skins, minipets, items to display in a housing environment (guild emblem or crest for example), etc.

It’s a fledgling idea, but there you go.

Yep this is a really cool idea. Something we have been thinking about and something I am unable to comment on.

Feel free to explore it among yourselves though.

Chris

That idea is just… wow. Instead of us watching the story unfold, we take part in it. Become one of the heroes rather than another Trahearne’s sidekick. Maybe it would be more of a episodic personal story missions.
The choices would be well… not as important as they were (which in a way they really weren’t). We could party up with our friends and “watch” another episode of Living Story by taking a part in how it unfolds. It wouldn’t just create the story more interesting, but it would have us sitting on the edge waiting for another “episode of our favorite show”.
I like how you do Open World stuff, but to be honest I’m more excited about how the story unfolds and how we affect it or take part in it. With the new content announced yesterday I was a little underwhelmed with the idea of World Bosses being a major focus on the update. I mean those are fun and challenging, but I don’t feel like I’m being a part of the Living Story at all. It makes you feel more of a drop in a sea of water. That your character doesn’t really matter as much when it come to full out zerg content where you have to rely on a group to complete the content to receive any kind of recognition for a character.It doesn’t have the feeling of us being heroes of Tyria, but more of a soldiers in an army of Tyrians.
Don’t give up on instances as you guys mentioned many times over. They’re what make us feel like heroes, not a huge zergs of random characters depending on a group and about 10-20% people that are there to troll or are afk. At the same time in order to complete these numerous amount of people is needed. Those things don’t scale to 3-4 people, limiting the accessibility.

Romo.3709:

That idea is just… wow. Instead of us watching the story unfold, we take part in it. Become one of the heroes rather than another Trahearne’s sidekick.

I’m not Traherne’s sidekick, he’s my sidekick. I let him ‘lead’, but ‘suggest’ courses of action for him to take so he doesn’t mess it up, and I get to go adventure in Orr taking care of things.

Don’t need a throne to be in charge, after all.

Don’t give up on instances as you guys mentioned many times over. They’re what make us feel like heroes, not a huge zergs of random characters depending on a group and about 10-20% people that are there to troll or are afk.

What makes me feel like a hero is picking up the people off the ground who either didn’t dodge in time or misjudged how much punishment they could take. That and the one time some random person and I snuck a tower in WvW.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

What makes me feel like a hero is picking up the people off the ground who either didn’t dodge in time or misjudged how much punishment they could take. That and the one time some random person and I snuck a tower in WvW.

Exactly my point. You definitely don’t feel like hero when there is 50 people around where 20 of them is dead. You feel like you’re a soldier on duty. Nothing more, nothing less.

I’m going to throw a final post in this monstrosity before it’s closed forever. I’m glad to see the latest proposal is worded in a way to include the Orders as mechanisms for delivering meta-events. I do hope, however, that these events are flavored in a way that captures the personality of the Order they’re tied to (large scale battles for the Vigil, etc). And with that, I’m out. See you all next CDI.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

darkace.8925:

I’m going to throw a final post in this monstrosity before it’s closed forever. I’m glad to see the latest proposal is worded in a way to include the Orders as mechanisms for delivering meta-events. I do hope, however, that these events are flavored in a way that captures the personality of the Order they’re tied to (large scale battles for the Vigil, etc). And with that, I’m out. See you all next CDI.

Please note items in a CDI proposal are not a promise of inclusion in GW2.

Chris

I know. My post was “if it’s done, I hope it’s done in this way”, not “I fully expect to see this in game”. Apologies if that wasn’t clear.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

darkace.8925:

I’m going to throw a final post in this monstrosity before it’s closed forever. I’m glad to see the latest proposal is worded in a way to include the Orders as mechanisms for delivering meta-events. I do hope, however, that these events are flavored in a way that captures the personality of the Order they’re tied to (large scale battles for the Vigil, etc). And with that, I’m out. See you all next CDI.

Please note items in a CDI proposal are not a promise of inclusion in GW2.

Chris

I was also wondering since apparently the team members are following the CDI (at least in general) what do you do with the said proposal?
I mean it’s not a promise list or a wish list. Is it more of a discussion list? And if so, how much discussion do you guys bring to the table? Is every member prepared with some kind of basic background information about the topic before the discussion starts? Or do you guys sit down and bring it up and brainstorm? If that’s the case, isn’t more detailed proposal needed to show what has been discussed and how it was met with others responses?
I’m not questioning you guys or saying that you do not follow CDI, I’m just interested who’s the proposal for and how does the whole thing work.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Hi Romo,

This video answers a lot of your questions as long as you have the time to spare (-:

http://www.guildwars2hub.com/features/interviews/exclusive-video-interview-chris-whiteside-cdis

Chris

Thanks Chris!
Gonna listen to it once I get home from work. My headphones here are not as powerful as I’d like them to be. xD

Romo.3709:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

What makes me feel like a hero is picking up the people off the ground who either didn’t dodge in time or misjudged how much punishment they could take. That and the one time some random person and I snuck a tower in WvW.

Exactly my point. You definitely don’t feel like hero when there is 50 people around where 20 of them is dead. You feel like you’re a soldier on duty. Nothing more, nothing less.

I’m of the opinion any soldier good enough to both do his/her duty and keep people alive around them is a hero.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Romo.3709:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

What makes me feel like a hero is picking up the people off the ground who either didn’t dodge in time or misjudged how much punishment they could take. That and the one time some random person and I snuck a tower in WvW.

Exactly my point. You definitely don’t feel like hero when there is 50 people around where 20 of them is dead. You feel like you’re a soldier on duty. Nothing more, nothing less.

I’m of the opinion any soldier good enough to both do his/her duty and keep people alive around them is a hero.

But there’s no story behind it. No feeling of playing a bigger part in the picture. The only story we have at the moment that our characters can tell is: “Yeah, I’ve been there when that happened”.
I’m not saying the World Bosses or zergs are a bad thing. But it’s not what makes me excited. It’s not something that glues me to the screen while going “Wonder what we can zerg this time around”. There is no cliffhangers, no bigger picture that been shown to us.
I’m trying to word it right not to omit the whole idea behind it, so I apologize if I’m not clear enough.
It’s like watching a tv show or a movie, when with every “episode” we are left with a cliffhanger. Something that not only makes us speculate on ideas, but also makes us extremely excited as to what we gonna see two weeks from now. What was that that we just seen, who was that person, why did she/he do it, is she/he gonna do it, why was this area shown to me, how is that part of a bigger picture, what’s gonna happen now that I know of XYZ.
Those are some of the questions we’re normally left off with at the end of every great movie. Having that somehow incorporated to the Living Story would make it much more exciting. But incorporate it in the game. The trailer on the site is fine I guess, but with a scene shown at the end of story instance or an item that drops from a creature that we killed but has no value of meaning to us till next patch where it’s revealed to be a bigger part of something else.
That’s what I would love to see in terms of Living Story.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

The level of detail is great the way it is. We read the posts and note micro suggestions in terms of the level of detail in rewards for example. This is why I don’t add specific reward types or skills in the proposal.

I see… I think .

Its more identification of topics and avenues of attack than their resolution.

Nike.2631:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

The level of detail is great the way it is. We read the posts and note micro suggestions in terms of the level of detail in rewards for example. This is why I don’t add specific reward types or skills in the proposal.

I see… I think .

Its more identification of topics and avenues of attack than their resolution.

Well, yes, from what I gather this is about the community and some developers getting on the forums and hashing out bullet points to discuss at a meeting “what out of this can we do realistically?” from what is there.

Nike.2631:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

The level of detail is great the way it is. We read the posts and note micro suggestions in terms of the level of detail in rewards for example. This is why I don’t add specific reward types or skills in the proposal.

I see… I think .

Its more identification of topics and avenues of attack than their resolution.

Bingo.

Excuse me, Chris, if I’m misunderstood or speaking out of place here.

It’s elements that Chris can say at the company roundtable “The community wants X.” The goal of the roundtable would be to first determine if X is both desirable and even possible by Arenanet – “Why do they want X, why do we want X?” From here, if X is seen as a great idea, the big question that will probably be discussed for weeks is “How to do/give/reward X?”

VOLKON.1290:

I’m going to toss a new idea in here even though the proposal is already out there because… well, because I just thought of it… sorry Chris. It may seem a little strange (and feels a little strange to me to be honest) but it feels like a potential horizontal progression path…

Right now with the Living Story we’re seeing a changing of the guard as far as the heroes of Tyria go. Destiny’s Edge is settled back into non-guild, non-adventurer life with some influence and we’re seeing the latest quintet of Braham, Rox, Marjory, Kasmeer and soon the new Asura who seems about to become significant as well. To me, this could be the beginning of a new guild similar to Destiny’s Edge. I think that I think it would be interesting if, through the Living Story, players could also become a part of that guild and somehow through their actions and accomplishments in the LS progress along a path to possible rewards, unlocks, etc.

Conceptually it’s still a bit vague, I just thought of it, but possibly there could be skills or traits unlocked, unique weapon or armor skins, minipets, items to display in a housing environment (guild emblem or crest for example), etc.

It’s a fledgling idea, but there you go.

[off-topic]
But what is players can also go for Scarlet’s site?
For a very long time I have had the feeling that the current living story was going towards factions because it’s making this big new faction licking a lot ‘enemies’ together.

In the personal story you might have had the feeling you could pick between two sides. In the Sylvary for example for the nightmare. However, eventually you never got to pick.

Now look at the story as it stands. We have already this big second faction and for example the nightmare belong to them. Some for the ‘bad guys’ from the other races.

The Tengu in LA talks about they having to pick a side.. So there are sides?

The only element still missing is giving the Scarlet faction a better name. In the Sylvari personal story they at least show that it’s more complicated then just saying the one is good and the other (nightmare) is bad.

In the living story for now the Scarlet group is just bad.

It could at the same time be a wink towards GW1 because factions is it’s second stand-alone campaign.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Devata.6589:

I had a list compiled of RP elements talked about in this thread. Pets being one of them, another being the way or acquiring items like ‘fun items’, mini’s, dyes, mounts, recipe’s and so on. Another element went into fun crafts and the last went into NPC interaction for exploration and acquiring things.

I did try to put that down as a proposal around RP elements as all of these elements had been talked about in this thread before.

Maybe it’s because of my lacking skill of setting up a proposal but what happened in stead is that the person interested in pets went on to talk about that, the person interested in fun-crafts went to talk about that and so on. But as this thread is ending I think it’s important to now make a complete proposal for that whole RP part of HP in stead of going into the details again.

Here you can find me trying to set up the proposal: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/64#post3495708

Here I define the ‘dynamic catching of pets’ a little better: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/64#post3496209

We can put links in a proposal so devs can also read the details back. But it’s time that this gets packed into a good proposal. So we can move on. Devs will always be able to come back here to see more details.

Thanks Devata.

Chris

Chris,

The proposal I said up, is that good enough for you or at least good enough for you to edited it yourself in a way it does fit in the proposal?

Equilibriator.8741:

VOICES
different battle voices would be nice, I understand the cut scene voices cant change as that’s a lot of unnecessary work but why cant you earn or buy different voices for when you are actually fighting. I hate that my two female characters have the exact same voice, I want my evil character to have an evil voice, my battle hardy warrior to sound nails, my noble guardian to use holy expressions etc.

This goes back to a suggestion I posted when the game was new, somewhat. It doesn’t specifically have to do with choosing voices, but it does with a character’s personality and vocals.

I would love to see a character’s vocalizations reflect the current personality. It felt very disconnected to me to play a woman with a “barbaric” personality, only for her to kindly say: “Thank you.” And “See you around!” or whatever when she interacted with NPCs. It was simply way too friendly to hear coming from someone whose selected responses were always aggressive or prone to threaten violence. It seems like when she interacted with an NPC, she might instead say: “Out of my way.” Or maybe a surly: “Thanks.” or even “Whatever.” after the exchange with the NPC is completed.

Dignified personalities could respond with something like: “I appreciate it.” or “This is a mutually beneficial exchange.” etc. I dunno.

Also, regarding different voices: I would love to see a pitch slider. I know this can get ridiculous, no one would be able to take a chipmunk sounding character seriously, but even if there’s a large restriction on the range we can choose from, it would allow us to keep the original voice/acting/story cut scenes while also allowing us to at least have a slightly differentiated voice.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

The Reward and Associated Journey

— Sociopolitical Diversification: Player housing (Customizable from rewards gained in the open world), Guild Halls (Customizable from mass play rewards) and Map Wide Meta events unlocked through Order progression (Leading to both individual and group rewards such as titles and skins)

Player housing rewards

2 ways to be obtained:

1 – by karma: karma is something of little use in the game and really could have more utility, the player could buy furniture for your home using karma, however many players have accumulated enough to spend ,to solve this ,the furniture should be a little expensive,
example :

chair: 300k of karma
wardrobe: 700k of karma

this is just an example, the most important is that the players get motivated to go make events around the world to gain karma and buy your furniture

1.1 – players should earn more karma for completing events around the world

1.2-repeating the same event should give less or no karma, thus encouraging the player looking for new events

1.3-the difference between medals (gold, silver, bronze) received for completing events should be more stringent

1.4 -Dungeons could give some special kind of furniture (like trophies), purchased by karma + dg tokens

2 – by craft: the furniture would be obtained by a new type of craft for furniture and would have qualities such as equipment (…. masterwok, exotic, ascended.)

2.1 – the recipes to make furniture should contain the materials usually used to craft (wood, steel, iron …) + special material for making furniture,
for example:
Table recipe: 10 soft wood plank+5 leather thin + Special material

2.2- The special crafting material for furniture should be obtained by event, dgs, fractals or purchased by karma

Hey Chris,

are there any plans to improve the binding to an order?
like in GW1 points for Luxons/ Kurzick for more titles/ more styles / more locations etc.?
- right now its just to get all archivements…
- after you got 3 chars, each order done, no meaning afterall

are there any plans to improve the “heroic-feeling”?
like in GW1, where the player was a main charachter – unlike in GW2, where Trahearne gots all the benefits.
even if a npc talks to me as " Commander " it doesnt feel right, just cause i cant choose the title ingame by myself.
- right now alot of players dont care about the story
- once done, its done. second char wont do it again.

are there any plans to improve the home-instance?
something like housing – guess space for a own house would be there.
- right now there is no need to go there besides the quests/ storyline.

are you looking into other games, like STO, SWToR or TSW e.g. just to see what they do right and wrong?
- right now it seems to me, that you dont.

greetings and sorry for my bad english.
- Jin Roh

Hey Chris, I know I am a bit late to the party here, but I do have a couple suggestions to keep the game healthy and entertaining via horizontal progression. A progression with no level increase, and no new tier of equipment beyond ascended yet can still be fun and rewarding to experience. The “easiest” method to keep expanding the game is to add character progression with your content.
1. New skills, or alternate animations: unlocked in a variety of ways
One thread in the forums right now is discussing new ways (aka gw1) to unlock skills. While I do not think this ideal for the upcoming patches, it would be fantastic for potential new zones. While adding new skills to the base 1-5 weapon bound attacks might not be feasible for balancing reasons, varying animations for weapon skills and new utilities could be a lot of fun to hunt down and acquire. Skills that can only be unlocked at 80 via new event chains, new dungeons, and new achievements could all flesh out the progression of “post 80” content without actually bumping the level cap and would be a welcome diversion for player with 300 skill points and 20 alts.
2. Additional weapons and movement skills
As you guys add content, new weapons and skills to accompany them are a natural evolution of the game. The trick is to properly add them so they have both utility and manage to maintain DPS as a weapon. For example, let’s say that you introduce a new zone at the bottom of the sea, and make it so players can walk on the seafloor with some “weighted boots”. Having your weapons and therefore skills change while underwater is a great way to make it a different and unique experience worth exploring. Even better is when your weapons have utility for exploration much like in Metroid and Zelda. If you make it so a Elementalist can make an ice bridge across a chasm, a Warrior can grapple across, and a Mesmer can portal, you have a fun little sense of group exploration. If new abilities add new ways to explore, its a major plus. Traversal is fun.
3. New Zones with new ways to get around
Now I have talked about potential new zones quite a bit, but I have yet to mention the Zephyr Sanctum. The Zephyr sanctum was an incredibly clever idea. it had new abilities that were ALL about traversal. Movement was the name of the game and it was really quite fun. With future zones I would hope that similar new methods of travel would be an option. Let’s say you make a zone, much like the zephyr sanctum, but high up in the sky. All classes in this zone would need to have new ways to navigate from blimp, to sanctum, to wizards tower, to mountain top etc. An elementalist could ride the wind, a engineer could use their rocket boots, a ranger could perch atop their immense griffon pet (etc.) and as a result this zone and only this zone would be given methods of flight. As such, there would be class specific new skills for both movement and attack. People would love it. As new zones are added, new methods of combat to match could be utilized in future dungeons, events, and stories. This also adds new gear sets to find and collect. When in the air, you want a set of exotics plus the new weapons to go with it. When under the sea, you will want a set built for your time under the waves. Each time you add a new zone, with new weapons and armors designed for flight, or swimming, or whatever you add a new but familiar grind to customize your toons. You don’t need a higher tier of gear, you just need more gear to obtain, more ways to obtain it, and new ways to use it.

Anyhow, these are my ideas. They would require quite a bit of work admittedly, but they preserve the ability to keep our builds balanced and won’t bleed the community dry on a gear treadmill. I hope you can use them.

This is mostly a re-edit of the exiting proposal with a few bits folded in from my spotty memory. It is a test run not a completed sweep through the thread to make sure ideas have been heard. Go easy – I usually spend my time solving problems, not cataloguing them .

Horizontal Progression CDI: Our Proposal

PRINCIPLES
- Where possible new content should refresh and evolve the existing world.
- Players need multiple paths when pursuing mechanically significant rewards, respecting all major modes of play and play-styles within those modes (i.e. jump puzzles vs. combat).
- Secondary cosmetic rewards (titles, weapon skins, mini-pets, town cloths, furnishings) can be tied to unique feats to enhance the prestige to those feats. Primary cosmetic features (armor, faces, hairstyles) are not advised in this role. Example: The mini-Liadri the Concealing Dark specifically announces the player’s mastery of the Queen’s Guantlet.
- Be inclusive, respecting all in-games choices such as character race, profession, Personality, and Order. Example: if new Racial Dances are introduced, make sure all 5 races have a new dance to seek out.
- Consider Quality of Life improvements that communicate progress to the player, organize goal selection, and showcase the results of their effort. Example: The PvP Locker allow players to quickly review what they have, what they might still want, and enables them to flaunt what they have already accomplished.

REWARDS and THE JOURNEY

— Building Identity: Giving players more say in how the world of Tyria and their fellow players see them.

• Trophies & Recognition. Unique Skins, Ranger Pet Skins, Titles, Rewards, followers and NPC reactions/opportunities based on the player’s individual feats or the completion of major multi-stage tasks in the world of Tyria.
• Choice & Consequence. More NPC dialogue that responds to the player’s Personality, Race, or Profession. Alternate animations or utterances that convey Personality. May also unlock ‘shortcuts and side-paths’ with minor opportunities to simplify challenges or reap additional rewards based on these choices.
• Player Housing. Customizable personal spaces displaying ‘furnishings’. Furnishing can be acquired across a wide range of activities, including most existing currencies, but particular emphasis on Open World activities (critter drops, Event rewards)
• Guild Halls. Shared, large-scale spaces which can house personal furnishing and special guild-specific items. These items reflect success in mass-play activities or pooling huge amounts of currency beyond the means of most individual players.
• Order Progression. Strongly thematic rewards based on repeated service to the Order’s Goals, including titles, skins, lore, emotes, furnishings, utterances (“For the Vigil!”), and NPC dialogue. Order progression also allows players to unlock new large-scale events for themselves and others, reflecting the order’s interests & with flavorful rewards.
• Public Monuments. Permanent or rotating open world sites for recognition of players. Populated by server-specific competitive achievements like server firsts or potlatch-challenges.
• Personal Resources. Continuing growth of the Home neighborhoods as a ‘private garden’ of crafting nodes and possible cheap/fast travel hub.

— Role Diversification: Giving players more options when creating their build.

• Grail Quests. Personal rights of passage through open world adventures, testing the player in combat, discovery, and puzzle solving. Once activated by the player others can join in the activities for basic rewards, while the central Hero earns New skills/traits, previously locked weapons/new weapon skills, or new Ranger companions.
• Item upgrades review and expansion. Rebalancing unpopular Runes, Sigils, and Infusions to promote greater variety of builds. Introducing new upgrades as both specialized rewards and new crafting opportunities.

FOR FUTURE DISCUSSION

— Sub-classes will be discussed in a later CDI, timed for maximum advantage in light of currently ongoing Skill and Balance changes.
— Entirely new end-game activities like Polymock and their supporting progression systems.
— Fractals. where we are now, what can be improved, new shards to conquer, redressing inequities from the transition to the new scaling system.
— More personal customization options regarding armor and weapons. Includes pattern dyes, texture options (other types of wood and different metal polishes), customizable features like long sleeves vs. short sleeves, emblem design.

Devata.6589:

I think that are some important RP-elements for horizontal progression that also many casual players will love."

Proposal:
[…]
Make pet taming more dynamic and interesting so people can go into the world and find rare pets to collect and tame.
[…]

Please allow me to add one suggestion to the pet proposal:

Make ranger pets remember their name persistently (instead of resetting them to a generic term like “juvenile teacup pig” when swapping them out)

This may sound like just a small QoL improvement, but the fact that pets loose their names has been bugging me since release. Maybe this is merely a RP thing, but names give the pet character. This is not a mere “juvenile hyena” by my side, this is Chukk, a true friend, that is with me since the days when I was fighting ghosts in the ruins of Ascalon. For me, this is a very important part of a ranger’s horizontal progression.

Maybe I am crazy, but as a ranger, I care for each and every of my pets. And I don’t want to disrespect my pets by giving them a placeholder name. Hence, I do in fact have a handwritten list next to my PC of all the individual names I have given them, and I reenter the names whenever necessary. I’d like to make a plea to Anet to spare me from this tedious work and to allow us (RPish) rangers to give our unique profession mechanic a proper name that sticks with it.

~MRA

PS: As a comic relief, and although it is about a DnD sorcerer and not about a GW2 ranger, I want to link this web cartoon that depicts exactly the situation I want to avoid (tl;dr: 1st panel in 3rd row): http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0154.html

Equilibriator.8741:

VOICES
different battle voices would be nice, I understand the cut scene voices cant change as that’s a lot of unnecessary work but why cant you earn or buy different voices for when you are actually fighting.

Not sure if this has been posted before or not, but I quite like this idea as a reward possibility. I would love it if my Vigil oriented Guardian was able to have available various Vigil oriented vocal bits (maybe something like “Into battle!” when activating a speed boosting skill or “For the Vigil!” when activating a self targeted attack buff).

StriderShinryu.6923:

Not sure if this has been posted before or not, but I quite like this idea as a reward possibility. I would love it if my Vigil oriented Guardian was able to have available various Vigil oriented vocal bits (maybe something like “Into battle!” when activating a speed boosting skill or “For the Vigil!” when activating a self targeted attack buff).

I think the Devs call these “Utterances”. I’ve mentioned them in my attempt to re-summarize the thread from memory. If I haven’t hit the character cap I’ll also add it to Order Progression point.

summourn.4982:

Equilibriator.8741:

VOICES
different battle voices would be nice, I understand the cut scene voices cant change as that’s a lot of unnecessary work but why cant you earn or buy different voices for when you are actually fighting. I hate that my two female characters have the exact same voice, I want my evil character to have an evil voice, my battle hardy warrior to sound nails, my noble guardian to use holy expressions etc.

This goes back to a suggestion I posted when the game was new, somewhat. It doesn’t specifically have to do with choosing voices, but it does with a character’s personality and vocals.

I would love to see a character’s vocalizations reflect the current personality. It felt very disconnected to me to play a woman with a “barbaric” personality, only for her to kindly say: “Thank you.” And “See you around!” or whatever when she interacted with NPCs. It was simply way too friendly to hear coming from someone whose selected responses were always aggressive or prone to threaten violence. It seems like when she interacted with an NPC, she might instead say: “Out of my way.” Or maybe a surly: “Thanks.” or even “Whatever.” after the exchange with the NPC is completed.

Dignified personalities could respond with something like: “I appreciate it.” or “This is a mutually beneficial exchange.” etc. I dunno.

Also, regarding different voices: I would love to see a pitch slider. I know this can get ridiculous, no one would be able to take a chipmunk sounding character seriously, but even if there’s a large restriction on the range we can choose from, it would allow us to keep the original voice/acting/story cut scenes while also allowing us to at least have a slightly differentiated voice.

All of this is good but . . .

How are you going to pay for the voice actors to sit in the booth and record an extra hundred hours of minor pleasantries . . . or an extra thousand to revoice the whole of the game in different inflections? Voice actors don’t come cheap

This is why I really think voicing in video games is such a limiting factor for the narrative, it’s one of those trade-offs you have to decide on before you start work.

Oh man, just trying to do that gave me a list of things to bring up in the Evolution thread. Not least of which is if you set a designated scribe, starting the Proposal early and adding to it as a living document looks about 41 times easier than going back and combing through the behemoth for bullet points after it’s grown to monstrous proportions .

Nike.2631:

Oh man, just trying to do that gave me a list of things to bring up in the Evolution thread. Not least of which is if you set a designated scribe, stating the Proposal early and adding to it as a living document looks about 41 times easier than going back and combing through the behemoth for bullet points after it’s grown to monstrous proportions .

Don’t worry, I’m sure it’s well worth the effort if any of this actually gets utilized.

Have a Spicy Pumpkin Cookie.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Don’t worry, I’m sure it’s well worth the effort if any of this actually gets utilized.

Ug. ((shakes out hands, rolls head around stretching neck))

I hope so.

Have a Spicy Pumpkin Cookie.

By chance, I just had one of those this morning in real life so the taste is fresh in my mind. MMMmmmm! Yummeh.

Nike.2631:

Player Housing. Customizable personal spaces displaying ‘furnishings’. Furnishing can be acquired across a wide range of activities, including most existing currencies, but particular emphasis on Open World activities (critter drops, Event rewards)

No love for a furniture-making craft?