Guild Wars 2

300g per color seems completely reasonable. An item like this should be expensive, otherwise every joker ends up with it.

…and 300g is a drop in a the bucket for large WvW guilds. I have more than 300g in my account now, and I’m in a tiny RP guild. It’s really not much if you prioritize it, it’s only an obscene pay-wall if it wasn’t that important to you in the first place (which means you shouldn’t have it).

Ilthuain.5634:

300g per color seems completely reasonable. An item like this should be expensive, otherwise every joker ends up with it.

…and 300g is a drop in a the bucket for large WvW guilds. I have more than 300g in my account now, and I’m in a tiny RP guild. It’s really not much if you prioritize it, it’s only an obscene pay-wall if it wasn’t that important to you in the first place (which means you shouldn’t have it).

My point is this:
Change the thoeretical initial cost to 500 or even 1000. The ability to change color for the purpose of coordination should not be subject to purchasing different colors. To get all colors, one must spend an estimated 1500g (I say estimated because I have seen no confirmation of the number of colors available). You may have 300g in your wallet, but I have never had that much at one time. The bottom line is, I feel, the way it’s structured is a tone-deaf money grab.

Of course, we can agree to disagree.

Ilthuain.5634:

300g per color seems completely reasonable. An item like this should be expensive, otherwise every joker ends up with it.

…and 300g is a drop in a the bucket for large WvW guilds. I have more than 300g in my account now, and I’m in a tiny RP guild. It’s really not much if you prioritize it, it’s only an obscene pay-wall if it wasn’t that important to you in the first place (which means you shouldn’t have it).

Most “large WvW guilds” would rather spend that money though on siege and food, where it is much more effective. Most of those guilds already coordinate through mumble/TS. In the end, I doubt very much that many WvW groups will end up using this. We already have so much to spend gold on for WvW, with such little income from it, 300g PER COLOR is insane. The WvW community asked for this almost immediately when the game came out, to help coordinate, and hopefully for more commander functionality and squad functionality. Having 300g per color means, to coordinate effectively either all the guild groups have to coordinate colors, or people need to get multiple colors. Now we’re not just talking about 300g, but ~1000g. On top of that, there is NO added benefit, besides being account bound. They haven’t touched the squad or commander system in any other way that the WvW community has been asking for for years. So, to many of us, after having no new content for a LONG time, seeing them do this just shows how little they actually think about the WvW experience.

Don’t think this will EVER get full real use in WvW. It will most likely be a vanity item for PvE folks (hey, look how many colors I have…I’m LOADED!). Heck, spending the 300g on the new anti-siege traps would be more worth it..that many traps and you’d be able to perma-anti-siege trap during every engagement!!

It is too much for just one person to get and that is a good thing there no true way to keep “bad players” from getting a tag but its better to have groups of ppl pooling together there gold to make there driver have a tag.

A tag is not made for a person to have for look nor is it for everyone to get its something that is inhalator made for groups. The very ideal of having a tag means you want others to see where you are and to a point to have them come to you to help and or work with you.

All of this complaining about it coasting 300G is coming from a very bad point of view that “I need a tag” and not “We need a tag.” 300G to one person is a lot to a group it is nothing.

I can’t say I’m originating this idea, but it bears repeating.

People are treating commander tags as prestige items, when they’re more important tools, and in fact required tools for WvW (and helpful for a few specific pve cases).

The problem is that it’s actively harmful for too many people to have active commander tags, it confuses players and causes coordination problems.

In short, the reason it’s expensive is to EXPLICITLY keep people from having them unless they really really need them for their intended function… i.e. leading and organizing zonewide content.

Edit: Which I now see is essentially what the guy above me was saying. I agree with him!

Adding a statistics based way without paying with gold to get it would also help weed out unwanted tags acquisition. Current tag owners could unlock colors through tasks..

The point of a commander tag is to point players to someone who wants to form a group. One great example of such groups are….oh, I don’t know…GUILDS!!! It is meant to provide Guild Leaders and higher ranking officers the ability to lead groups efficiently. And you know how they can get these tags? Oh I don’t know…..GUILD VAULTS, where they store items as well as GOLD. Its not meant for individual use. Its not just a badge of glory for yourself. Its a tool. And the addition of the colors is to just differentiate the groups. Makes it much easier and faster to just point out who is who by looking at the color quickly than to scroll with the mouse and find out the name of the character

300g is reasonable. I’d be okay if it were even higher. The last thing this game needs is more terrible commanders.

Zahld.4956:

Adding a statistics based way without paying with gold to get it would also help weed out unwanted tags acquisition. Current tag owners could unlock colors through tasks..

I’d argue the high price also encourages collaberation and working together.

Windsagio.1340:

Zahld.4956:

Adding a statistics based way without paying with gold to get it would also help weed out unwanted tags acquisition. Current tag owners could unlock colors through tasks..

I’d argue the high price also encourages collaberation and working together.

In other words: Guild Funding the tags for their leaders and capable officers.

I don’t think it’s in ANET’s best interest to “police” who deserves a commander tag and who doesn’t. The high cost has merits. If you have 300g, I would believe that you’re enough of a veteran to get it.

Gating the additional colors at an addition 300g, however, is a bit much. I feel like it should be 300g for the first tag, and 50g for each additional. It’s still a hefty money sink (makes people think twice before purchasing), but maintains a suitable price point for how much value each additional color gives you.

i have no idea why anyone anywhere is associating how much gold you have earned with how qualified you are to lead a zerg.

Gold can be bought in this game for real money
gold is earned fastest through skilled TP play which has NOTHING to do with leading anyone
gold is earned at a moderately fast rate through mindless farming.

gold has nothing to do with how qualified you are to lead.

phys.7689:

i have no idea why anyone anywhere is associating how much gold you have earned with how qualified you are to lead a zerg.

Gold can be bought in this game for real money
gold is earned fastest through skilled TP play which has NOTHING to do with leading anyone
gold is earned at a moderately fast rate through mindless farming.

gold has nothing to do with how qualified you are to lead.

But if the price is high having ppl pool money into a single person for there tag is. In fact its the best qualification for being a leader having ppl willing to work for you and with you.

Don’t worry everyone. Someone from Anet will respond soon, just like they responded to the Trait thread… oh wait.

I think 300 Gold +Badges is right to get a Blue tag .. then make each color at 100 Gold + Badges.. to get a colored one the blue one is required.. .. so if you want a yellow tag it will cost 400 Gold + twice the badges for someone who currently do not have a Tag at all.

for example if there is 5 colors available including blue .. it cost 700 Gold and 1 250 Badges to get them all …. i think its fair that way

Upon reflection, and consideration of points made in this thread, I am going to retract my point that 300g is appropriate for a commander tag.

I think that there should be separate tags for PvE and WvW. PvE tags costing 300g seems appropriate (I still think that color switching at will should be inherent to the tag at no additional cost). I think that WvW commander tags should have only a WvW specific currency cost.

Ilthuain.5634:

300g per color seems completely reasonable. An item like this should be expensive, otherwise every joker ends up with it.

…and 300g is a drop in a the bucket for large WvW guilds. I have more than 300g in my account now, and I’m in a tiny RP guild. It’s really not much if you prioritize it, it’s only an obscene pay-wall if it wasn’t that important to you in the first place (which means you shouldn’t have it).

Why do people like you exist?

I heartily support the change of Commander tags to account bound. I’m considering picking one up now before the change goes live. (It helps that Blue is my favourite colour. )

I do agree that 300g is rather steep for new colours though. I have no idea how bad the “issue” of wealthy players with too much gold and nothing to spend it on is, but I’d prefer to see the following implementation:

- Existing Commanders get Blue colour by default. For every additional Commander tag they had on their account, they get a new free colour unlocked.
- New Commanders pay 300g OR 100g + 5000 Badges of Honor for a Commander tag. They can pick what starting colour they want for their tag. Additional colours cost 100g OR 50g + 250 Badges of Honor.

There’s only two colors now. Blue and tarnished.

Anyone showing up on a battlefield with another color is going to have an immediate credibility issue with WvW players.

unicorngirl.1487:

Why do people like you exist?

We contribute to the rich tapestry known as life.

Wanderer.3248:

There’s only two colors now. Blue and tarnished.

Anyone showing up on a battlefield with another color is going to have an immediate credibility issue with WvW players.

So silly. Do current commanders have mad cred because they purchased their tag for less gold?

Commander Wolfknocker: “Bay attackers on red”
RealMMOPlayer: “Never! I refuse to fall in line with a craven who gave an excess of in-game currency to the abomination known as PayNet! Thy credibility has been dashed, oh great pretender!”

Really guys, going bananas over every little thing you don’t like doesn’t contribute to your cause.

Buying it with gold could be an alternate way of getting it, but not the only way to get it, is what i’m saying.

Zahld.4956:

Buying it with gold could be an alternate way of getting it, but not the only way to get it, is what i’m saying.

Why? Do you think more people should have alt-color commander tags? What’s the benefit of that?

If a WvW guild is strapped for cash, I don’t want them to be running 3 commander tags at once. Raising 300g is not a big deal for even a medium sized guild. I spent more than that on my wife’s precursor, and lord knows I spent more than that on other goofy stuff over the last couple years.

Many people can’t afford it. That’s fine. Should these people be able to get commander tags so they can look important or cool? If it’s expensive, fewer people will buy them just for laughs or to complete a collection, and that’s a Good Thing.

Ilthuain.5634:

Zahld.4956:

Buying it with gold could be an alternate way of getting it, but not the only way to get it, is what i’m saying.

Why? Do you think more people should have alt-color commander tags? What’s the benefit of that?

If a WvW guild is strapped for cash, I don’t want them to be running 3 commander tags at once. Raising 300g is not a big deal for even a medium sized guild. I spent more than that on my wife’s precursor, and lord knows I spent more than that on other goofy stuff over the last couple years.

Many people can’t afford it. That’s fine. Should these people be able to get commander tags so they can look important or cool? If it’s expensive, fewer people will buy them just for laughs or to complete a collection, and that’s a Good Thing.

Remind me again where money = ability to lead a group / scout / or defend objectives ?

The tags should be split between PvE and WvW. The jokers who want to pay 1500 gold for a rainbow can. Those of us who WvW can be satisfied by tying it to world rank / badges. Then anet can nerf the abomination known as EoTM and actually fix WvW so it has meaningful fights.

But that would require a WvW team that understood what the WvW players (not karma train EoTM babies) want.

While i think 300G is a bit much, i don’t think its particularly outrageous. What i do think though is that it’s a silly thing that a commander tag needs to be bought with “PvE” money, which isn’t really easily earned in WvW. There should be a way for WvW players to get it by doing WvW.

Im against the ‘limit tags to people experienced in WvW/PvP’. I have a tag – i saved up for quite a while to get the 100G for it – and i use it often. I’ve been at the lead of a gold Crown Pavilion multiple times using my tag, i’ve used it in Guild Missions, i’ve used it to lead trains. I’m really happy i have the tag. But im only Bunny rank in WvW. Commander tags shouldn’t be limited to those who’ve done alot of WvW because theres more uses for the tag than just WvW.
100G was a nice entry level – it prevents random people from getting tags easily, and thus prevents maps from getting spammed with tags continuously, and makes sure those ‘commanding’ have put in some effort to get there, while still allowing everyone access. The only problem here is that it’s hard to get gold in WvW, so it’d be nice if they were buyable with Badges of Honor or something similar.

About the colours, im divided. On one hand, 300G is alot, but on the other hand, a few more gold sinks in-game wouldn’t hurt – inflation is pretty bad right now. It is a bit silly to have to pay to be able to have other colours though, especially if it stops being just vanity and actually becomes useful.

I think it’s good because now, not every hobo can just buy commander just because of status or whatever reasons they have.
People have to be more serious about it and reconsider if they really want that commander tag.

Guilds that do a lot of wvw or organized pve content will be able to get the gold for their commanders pretty fast.

Limited commander tags could be given by guild leaders who have high enough guild requirements so the undeserving don’t get it. Anet can also slap in a gold requirement for a set of tags.

Basically something not permanent, so inactive commanders can get their “authority” revoked

Arcade Fire.4895:

300g is reasonable. I’d be okay if it were even higher. The last thing this game needs is more terrible commanders.

Because more gold means a better commander, not a farmer or tp baron showing off, right?

Windsagio.1340:

I can’t say I’m originating this idea, but it bears repeating.

People are treating commander tags as prestige items, when they’re more important tools, and in fact required tools for WvW (and helpful for a few specific pve cases).

The problem is that it’s actively harmful for too many people to have active commander tags, it confuses players and causes coordination problems.

In short, the reason it’s expensive is to EXPLICITLY keep people from having them unless they really really need them for their intended function… i.e. leading and organizing zonewide content.

Edit: Which I now see is essentially what the guy above me was saying. I agree with him!

If that’s the case then the gold acquisition is already going to be a fail to achieve that goal.

If they are purely about their intended function of leading and organising then the acquisition should be relying on that rather than on gold which ultimately anyone can acquire. Remember than once upon a time 100g was a lot of money in game and every other person still had the tag, at 300g every other person is still going to have the tag because gold has no correlation to organisation or leading, if it were about that making them a very top tier guild research would make more sense (but even then that’s only more sense, not great sense)

More then 1 topic on the cost of commander tags is too much!

Not sure of another way for them to do this. We couldn’t go by ranks as I have a friend that farms EOTM about 4-5 hours a day and is over rank 200…….you don’t want them leading. Rank can easily be associated with time over skill so just a different form of gold.

Having gold or lacking it says nothing about someone’s ability or inability to lead, the two are completely separate.

That said, I’m not getting into the direct cost of getting a tag I would just like to say that the ability to change the colour of your tag should not cost more, it should just be a basic part of the commander system.

People will want to change their tag colour (and should also be able to change the commander symbol) to make it easier to communicate with and organise players in both WvW and in PvE, those who are willing to devote time and effort to herding cats – I mean players – in this game should be thanked, it should not be reduced to a fashion accessory or status symbol. Charging people gold to “unlock” colours does nothing other than prolong confusion over which commander is which and possibly cause friction.

The ability to hide a given commander’s tag either for a day or forever would be a nice feature too.

Sampo.9678:

I think it’s good because now, not every hobo can just buy commander just because of status or whatever reasons they have.
People have to be more serious about it and reconsider if they really want that commander tag.

Guilds that do a lot of wvw or organized pve content will be able to get the gold for their commanders pretty fast.

Why do you even care who buys a tag ? You see soon enough if the comm is worth following or not,100G was a reasonable price,300g is Way over the top.Let me tell you,a Proper WvW commander Does not farm,Does not do dungeons,Does not do fractals,Does not pve,and Does not do world bosses because he spends all of his time in wvw.Then he has to buy the crap loads of sieges,is usually spending lots of money on upgrades,and he has to be stacked on food constantly which all together becomes pretty kitten expensive and makes it a near impossible task for a “Proper” wvw comm to buy that 300g tag..everyone that only plays wvw knows how hard it is to gain gold.

Im not talking about your average pve comm,the wrong people are being hurt by this ridiculous price.

I think it is important to point out that there are two facts which are currently being conflated:

1. Commander Tags will cost 300g
2. Colors will be purchased individually

At this time there is no reason to believe that each color will cost 300g. All we know is that a commander tag will cost 300g, and you will have to buy other colors individually. The price of colors for your tag has NOT been made public yet.

Can we save the outrage until we know for sure that things are outrageous?

grifflyman.8102:

justkoh.4073:

They’re trying to keep the tag relevant as a gold sink but the way they’re implementing it really sucks.

I’m concerned that this tactic will become more widespread. Community makes a request for some feature which should have been there all along, feature is added but A-net takes the opportunity to jack prices up to “modern day levels”.

Introducing First Person Camera Mode!! Only 500 gold!

Dueling! 20 gold per duel!

Protoavis.9107:

If that’s the case then the gold acquisition is already going to be a fail to achieve that goal.

If they are purely about their intended function of leading and organising then the acquisition should be relying on that rather than on gold which ultimately anyone can acquire. Remember than once upon a time 100g was a lot of money in game and every other person still had the tag, at 300g every other person is still going to have the tag because gold has no correlation to organisation or leading, if it were about that making them a very top tier guild research would make more sense (but even then that’s only more sense, not great sense)

To be honest, I think the forum crying proves it works. All the people who want the status item or who just have a bad case of pokemonitis are pretty upset because it’s an extreme expense for a mostly useless item.

It’s not ‘gold correlates to leadership ability’ but rather ‘gold is a disincentive and will keep frivolous purchases to a minimum.’

The vast majority of blue tag purchases were frivolous, I doubt anyone had any doubt of that. The colors are even less necessary than the base tag, which can still be bought at the current rate.

Things we now know as of a few minutes ago:

-They were going to charge 300g per color.
-They changed their minds due to the backlash.

Commanders will be able to switch between colors at no extra charge!

Only thing changing now is the price of commander’s compendium (raised to 300g+however many badges), tag being account-bound and 4 colors to choose from and change whenever for free. Existing commanders will get the other 3 colors for no extra charge

Are you kidding OP? kitten im so all over this…300g for a color?? Thats nothing. And if they come with many colors, a nice cover book and a fluffy bear ill go crazy and spend all my money on that…

….better than adding new dungeons, explorable areas, and all of that pve nonsense pffff…

Arcadio.6875:

… backlash.

Feedback. I wouldn’t use “backlash”, some people even mentioned they were going to buy several of the new tags at that price.

update on the matter, interesting for everyone:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/wuv/wuv/Commander-Tag-Changes-Feedback-merged/4313965