Guild Wars 2

First, I really hope there is a feature pack in 2016. If so, these are some great quality of life improvements I’d like to see happen:

The 2016 Feature Pack!

Revamp the LFG system.
The LFG window was a nice little addition when it came out but it never felt like it was fully completed and it is no longer compatible with today’s game. The first issue to address is the initial list of categories players have to choose from. I propose the following:

Categories – Subcategories (if needed)

Open World – Meta Events, Living World, General Gameplay
Raids – (A sub-category for each raid as new ones are introduced)
Fractals – scale 1-20, scale 21-50, scale 51-75, scale 76-100
Dungeons – (A sub-category for each dungeon)
Guild Recruitment – Looking for Players, Looking for Guild
Personal Story
Player vs. Player
World vs. World

Now that we have some more categories that players need there are a few other issues to address:
1. The UI needs to be updated to show what type of group the listing is for: Party, Raid, or Squad.
2. Commanders of Raids and Squads shall also be able to post on the LFG window.
3. Remove the Refresh button. It should be shown in real-time.
4. The LFG system needs to be more prominently positioned for players. It’s tucked away inside of a sub-set of your Friends list area. Not everyone goes shuffling through there. Make another menu icon for it at the top and make it a large Magnifying Glass or
something.

Revamp the Mega-Server system.
The mega-server system went a long way to solve a lot of map population issues that low-pop servers had. But as the game has evolved, the mega-server system has not. While it still works fine for general gameplay, it does not work well with map-wide events like some world bosses and the HoT metas. The following issues can arise quite frequently with the HoT metas:

1. Players often start out on dead maps. They must use the LFG system to taxi into a competitive map. Those in the know already begrudgingly go through this routine daily but to newer players and players who are tight on time, playing the LFG game every single time they want to play gets old really fast.
2. Maps do not hold a spot for players who are disconnected.
3. Maps that are low in population start the 1 hour closing timer and will then close even if it becomes populated again.
4. Players that are prompted to swap to a more populated map and choose to do so are then stripped of their progress.

I propose the following improvements:
1. Bring back the instance selectors from Guild Wars 1. Down by the mini-map have a dropdown menu that players can open and select from all of the instances of that map that they wish to travel to. Next to the name of each instance, have a simple population indicator. Overall have it display something like this: [Auric Basin: 1 FULL], [Auric Basin: 2 HIGH], [Auric Basin: 3 LOW]. Players can then choose the instance that best matches how they want to play the game (HIGH maps for the meta, LOW maps if they want to be left alone).
2. Maps must reserve spots for players who are disconnected (say 2 minutes). This reserved slot cannot be overridden by players trying to taxi their friends in. The spot will be counted as FULL for the duration until the player returns or the time runs out (then anyone can fill that slot). Spots are not reserved for players who purposely map travel somewhere else and then try to come back. This is only for log offs (disconnects).
3. To fix the closing maps issue, either lock the maps so that more players cannot arrive to a doomed map, or make it so the map closure timer stops if the map becomes populated again.
4. Players swapping between instances of the same map should always keep their map progress. Especially if it was the game itself that prompted them to move!

Create a Build Saver
This is one that kind of speaks for itself. Similar to the one in Guild Wars 1, make a menu that will save the players’ current Skills, Traits, and Gear setup and allow them to reload that setup whenever they are not in combat. Players should be able to save as many builds as they want and exchange builds with other friends/players just like in GW1.

Revamp the Dailies
The dailies have grown very stale and repetitive. More choices are always better and choices that players can accomplish naturally are better than choices that drag players around. The 3 dailies for 10 AP thing can stay. And the chest for each daily (even after the 3) is a good idea too. But we need more choices than 4 for each game mode and they need to be better choices.

PvE
Daily Gatherer: Gather 30 items from [Region] (Any ore, tree, plant from a random designated region)
Daily Activity: (Same as now)
Daily Fractal: Complete any 1 Fractal (the special daily fractals category can remain as is)
Daily Dungeon: Complete any 1 Dungeon
Daily Mystic Forger: (Same as now)
Daily Vista Viewer: (Same as now)
Daily Events: Complete 5 events from [Region] (a random designated region)
Daily World Boss: (Same as now but include HoT meta bosses)
Daily Crafter: Craft 10 items
Daily Jumping Puzzle: Complete 1 jumping puzzle
Daily Slayer: Kill 50 creatures from [Region]
Daily Champion: Kill 1 champion from [Region]
Daily Salvager: Salvage 10 items
Daily Dodger: Dodge 10 attacks

[Region] choices should include the new HoT zones.

The WvW dailies seem like they already cover most of what WvW has to offer. I don’t player PvP so someone else might have better ideas for new dailies there.

Miscellaneous
Here are a couple of other little things I’d like to see:
1. All old Town Clothes Tonics replaced with real outfits (free to those who have them)
2. More emotes! Bored, Guitar, Flute, Violin, Drum…

I do hope this comes as due fixes and not a feature pack. Good suggestions tho.
On Partecipation thing I’d expand that and I’d keep it regardless of map instance switching, disconnect or fast LA port and back: there’s a decay system in place if you do not partecipate, just make it faster and keep the partecipation whatever happens.
This + revamped LFG (i’d add at least region subtabs in the open world) + spot for disconnects would wipe clean 90% of the complaints.

;-)

For the raid lfg… If it ever happens…. I’d prefer just per wing. Some people just farm the shards and don’t care which boss. But that’s just me.

Nice ideas. Really helpful, but not too complicated. I suspect the mega-server is way more complicated than most of us imagine, but a new LFG system would make things a bit easier until we get a long-term solution. I wouldn’t have considered changing the daily system, but I really like your ideas. I’d like to see jumping puzzles on the list, and HoT options.

I’m not a serious PvP’er, but it is a bit annoying that things like daily point capture can’t be achieved if you’re playing stronghold. But of course, if you threw stronghold-only options on the list the people who dislike stronghold would complain. Maybe these could be either/or dailies like the class winners. Daily point capture/supply spender, for example.