Guild Wars 2

Horizontal Progression? good.
My vote goes to Prestige Classes:

magician > mage > archmage

a system that allows players to truly craft the character as they want it to be. I see this as ultimate end game content…

Hello, I’d like to post my suggestion about Orders. I don’t have time to read all topic so I’m sorry if such suggestion was posted before. Also sorry for bad english.

I guess when character joins Orders (I will refere to Vigil later in post, because this is my order on my main character) it should have some impact on the player and the world. My examples:

When someone join order he/she starts with „new joiner” rank. At the beginning, player get mail that he join new recruits in Vigils Keep. Now the story begins.

Player could trigger some events depending on his rank in the order. At the beginning as new joiner, he could help to gather supplies, help fixing old armors and weapons, cleaning Almorras boots, fight Skritts in basement (ex. they try to stole supplies/shinies). For each such event player gets exp, maybe karma and let’s name it „Duty Points”. It wouldn’t be currency, but it would show your progress in your rank. Example to go from Rank 1 to Rank 2 you have to get 50 duty points. To prevent people to reach maximum rank in 1 day, for example first 5 order events in day rewards you with „X” duty points. Other people from your order can help you and they are also rewarded for events and getting duty points.

When you reach higher rank, you get more interesting missions. For example quests in rank 1-5 takes please near Vigil Keep and if rank goes higher, the place when you do missions is expanding (ex. You were cleaning boot, better rank you escort someone from Vigil Keep to Lions Arch, fight back Zhaitan minions in swamps in Gendarran Fields etc). Finally when you reach ex. Rank 10, Almorra send you to Ebonhawk to help Vigil fighting separatists and so on. It is also fine way to introduce some story of area you are in and also you can form a bond with NPCs if you help them and fighting with them for longer time than 1-3 personal story missions.

Higher rank missions can get you better reward (ex. material to craft ascended items).

As I said before, player can trigger some events on the same place talking with npc, or take some item from npc, go to spot, use item (ex. throw purse of money downstairs and skritts go out from their hideout to get some shinies).

The ranking up system gives your benefits, like unlocking achievements, titles, unlock some NPCs with special receips only for your order, so you can craft unique reward. Maybe some special consumables, minis, skins, etc.

Part II below in next post:

In Order Panel ( like guild panel) you can see your progress, avaiable missions, and also order can sshow you notification about world events like „Tequatls is going rampage! Vigil, our time is now!”. It would encourage players to join world events, and also, it can gives opportunity to add more achievements. Ex. You can get trophy from tequatl and give it to Almorra, so you then get special title that you represented your order fighting the dragons. Later you can see for example Tequatl tooth/scale in her office.

This system can also be influenced by living world – good option for foreshadowing. Example, Vigil discover secret new camp of Aetherblades – go destroy them. Order of Whisperers are spying Atherblades and forcing them to talk about their plans. Priory would like to try to use new magical weapon and discover something about „Do not touch” things. At the end of mission everyone get some info/foreshadowing about future living story, ex. Scarlets plan for new alliance.

Reaching the highest rank should be very diffcult, take some time and it should not be influenced by item shop. Rank of player should be seen by the other people (ex. ranking board or somethig like this) and to be able to unlock the rarest, the best looking skins, maybe crafting material to ascended/legendary items, or event it would give you opportunity to find a better solution to find precursor (scavanger hunt?).

It’ would be good idea to add separate order chat window for players, so it would be easier to gather people together for order missions, help others reaching higher rank, etc.

Well, this is my suggestion, I give many examples how I would see system like this. To sum up benefits:

-more achievements, rewards, unique skins, etc
-sense of progression (ranking system) and gives prestige (hard to get titles, skins, rank itself, etc).
-option to foreshadow living story and maybe see it differently from the order perspective.
-new dynamic events
-new story hidden in events, players can form a bound with NPCs, to feel that they are part of the world, NPCs to react differently depends on your rank, etc.
-way to introduce some story of the areas and races live there and their conflicts.

And one of the most important thing, you can feel as part of community, like in guild. Some players have problem with joining guild and playing with the other people (lack of time, then one day you find out you are kicked or noone is active in guild). This way there is always a group of people waiting for you, sharing the same goals and having fun.

1. GW skill template system, giving players the option to save and switch builds/trait sets. It could also lead to the separation between PvE and WvW builds/equip/trait sets like between PvE and sPvP. It was your own game, so it shouldn’t be so difficult to use it on GW2 too.

2. Guild management/features improvements: as a guild officer I find it’s kind of frustrating the guild management system you choose. It still lacks for a feature telling you how long a player has been online/offline; we still lack for guildhalls: you could add a guild limited instance in every main city, in which guild members could find merchants hired by the guild, the Guild Custom Arena, and much more features unlockable with influence and guild merits.

3. Commander improvements: we don’t need a blue spot on someone’s head. We need bigger squads, clearer minimap targets/orders, better player/supply check, subsquads and a cross-commander system to help coordinate different squads. And of course a clearer commander symbol, because even the red ctrl+T target symbol is way more easier to see than commander’s blue spot.

AikunFelcis.7258:

…snip…

I really like the idea of player started, order specific, events. It will give players something to do (at a time of their choosing) and something to progress towards. The events could scale, like normal events, and I like the idea of players from the same order gaining order points to help them level up their rank. You could even gain new skills that can assist you in the order events.

This would be a step up from the factions system in GW1, where you would gain new skills that would improve as your rank got higher.

videoboy.4162:

@ Chrispy It wouldn’t let me quote and answer you too, due to length

It actually has been written up that way several times, in multiple threads. As for for negatives, they’re all assumptions on your part.

Your #3 is horizontal because it adds another layer to gameplay (a collection system), without increasing the stats of the characters.

#4/#5 could still require transmutation stones to withdraw skins and place them on their character. All these items were dirt cheap before Essences of Luck were released, driving up their prices. It’s questionable to say that a Skin Locker would kill the Economy.

And #6 is totally made up situations. You don’t know how the Locker would function and stats haven’t really even been suggested as included in the skin locker. Seeing as how not everyone in this game of millions of players crafts, there would still be a demand for people to craft more than one thing.

I’m not mad that you disagree, I’m disappointed that you pretended not to understand the idea and began knocking on it, just because someone else pointed out very obvious technical flaws in one of your ideas. There isn’t a point in doing that and several people have enjoyed your other ideas.

This is pretty much what I was going to post in response as well. The proposed issues are certainly possible issues, but they’ve all already been addressed in several ways several times throughout this thread. Including, in my case at least, by referencing the cosmetics system in another game that also financially survives largely based on it’s in game cash store (which cosmetics make up a large part of). By having a working and well implemented cosmetics system, you’re actually encouraging everyone to spend more time and money (both in game and real world) on anything in the game that makes use of it.

@AikunFelcis:
I like some aspects of your idea, here a few questions:

1.) Are you aware that anyone can join in high-rank events (like the battle in Ebonhawke) once a event is triggered by a high rank member? It’s certainly a good thing, but it must feel weird since you have those higher rank battles and then go back to low rank activities like killing rats in the basement.

2.) You wrote: “other people from your order can help you”. Does this mean that now non-order players can’t join in those events? Confused.

3.) Quests in Vigil Keep. Did you read my post about Anets reasons why they didn’t add quests? It would feel the same to everyone who has joined the order. How would you adress this?

4.) I like the idea of npcs who send you to different regions of the world to complete certain events. Just wanted to emphasize this, I love it. It gives more direction to specific content other than having players find things by themselves all the time. Hearts are too static imho, you do your stuff in the heart-location and that’s it. Events can lead players to new locations. Chains of events.

Quests may feel static, but why not have Quest-npcs who wander around in the world? Find them and they send you to new locations. Once he sent you away a new event related to the quest might trigger and stays active for a limited time at the target location.

@AikonFelcis II:
Those NPCs who give you direction (like Almorra in your example) could rotate orders, so that if feels less like a quest but rather than a guide to direct you to action.

At 5:00 Almorra sends you to Tequatl, he might spawn soon. (yay, no Dragontimer needed). 15min later Almorra sends a few of their troops towards a Metaevent in zone XY. Help the soldiers and get Duty points for each resurrected or buffed Vigil-member / assisted kills.

Give Almorra 40+ different tasks which rotate randomly / as the Meta-events begin.

If I were to post three suggestions for horizontal character progression in Guild Wars 2, they would be these:

1. Ability to collect equipment skins in PvE lockers, including town clothing and one-time skins from Living Story achievements

2. Improve interaction with the three Orders, for examply by building up faction with them to be used as currency for cosmetic rewards, or other such systems that invite players to spend time with their Order.

3. Redesign of the home instances to reflect a character’s achievements
(i.e. not just improve the Personal Story impact, but also giving customisability like in the GW1 Hall of Monuments. An example could be displaying banners or NPCs in the instance that depend on the title worn by the character upon entering the instance.)

Those are the suggestions I would give. Oh wait, I think I just did.

Chrispy.5641:

videoboy.4162:

@Chrispy
Your idea is a very good one. I like it very much, it just isn’t in my personal Top 3.

Skin Locker and Housing, although, no one’s been able to explain very well how that’s related to Horizontal Progression in any way. Once someone makes a post that explains it then I’ll be a believer, but until then, its Weapon skills and Order/Faction Missions/Reputation. (This comment isn’t directed at you specifically, I just don’t see the point yet in either a skin locker or housing)

The skin locker one I can agree with I’m not overly fussed on it other than for living world meta’s people have unlocked.
As for your comments on housing I’ll address that later in the post.

Chrispy.5641:

Skin Locker and Housing, although, no one’s been able to explain very well how that’s related to Horizontal Progression in any way. Once someone makes a post that explains it then I’ll be a believer, but until then, its Weapon skills and Order/Faction Missions/Reputation. (This comment isn’t directed at you specifically, I just don’t see the point yet in either a skin locker or housing)

Firstly how would order missions effect all players? , as many may want to ignore them and have nothing to do with them. Exactly the same as housing.

Secondly if your progress is for all players it’s not progress it’s a requirement. Horizontal progression is about differentiation of your players and that means exclusion, some people won’t do x some can’t do y but will do z that’s what makes them different.

Housing I think housing is great for Horizontal progression, linked with other things.
Firstly it can be handled two ways:
1. everyone gets a house, that’s the base level so everyone feels they gained something.

2. The house is a progression in itself those with the money/achievement points/skill get a house. It’s placed as a reward for say completing something this could be
Easy: personal story
Medium: Personal story + 200g to buy the plot then you can build it up
Hard: Personal story + 200g + 5k AP
The idea in this method is that people have to work actively for it, they don’t just farm gold and get the house, they have to play actively.

Then the progression part: with armor +weapon + title you’re limited to showing off 9-10 (2h/1h) different items/ achievements at one time. With a house done right there’s no limit you can show off everything you have done.

Are you a creative person? designing the house to match your tastes may be your reward your amazing house is how you progressed.

Are you a master crafter? Hunting down the rare recipes for a particular item that only a few people can make for the house is your progression? Unlock a workshop/ upgrades to your house.

A collector? Fill your house to the brim with weapons,armors and statues. showing off all of this is how you progress. Unlock fancier cabinets/ racks the more of a collection you have.

A skilled player/hunter? The trophy’s that will be acquirable off certain bosses, or through certain achievements are how you show your progression. Unlock a creature for your house maybe?

PVPer? Rank trophy’s for each new rank range you enter, Trophy’s for tournaments you win. Maybe a Trophy for win streaks etc. or special unlocks, ie a dueling ring for your house after completing x.

WvW? Similar do x trophies like the season 1 achievements, then challenge trophies for say capping a tower with less than 5 players or the like. Progress could also unlock an old orb of power for your house or depending on how housing is implemented one of the keep towers as an upgrade.

Dungeon master? themed items/upgrades from both full completions and some buy-able with dungeon tokens.

Fractal Master? themed items again, maybe a private portal so you don’t have to go to La? each of the challenge achievements could award some item.

Complete these new order quests/challenges people want? It can award stuff for the house as well, with no loss to the other content, it only adds.

Don’t like any of the above? then you don’t have to do anything with your house.

Complain because other people wanted it but you don’t gain from it , or it’s not your cup of tea? Grow up everything is not going to appeal to everyone.

The house is more about the visualization of your progress to yourself and to those you know, depending on implementation it’s growth and expansion can be progress in itself. Showing off to passers by can still be done with weapons and armors but most of the time you won’t get a second glance.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

@AikunFelcis:
I like some aspects of your idea, here a few questions:

1.) Are you aware that anyone can join in high-rank events (like the battle in Ebonhawke) once a event is triggered by a high rank member? It’s certainly a good thing, but it must feel weird since you have those higher rank battles and then go back to low rank activities like killing rats in the basement.

2.) You wrote: “other people from your order can help you”. Does this mean that now non-order players can’t join in those events? Confused.

3.) Quests in Vigil Keep. Did you read my post about Anets reasons why they didn’t add quests? It would feel the same to everyone who has joined the order. How would you adress this?

4.) I like the idea of npcs who send you to different regions of the world to complete certain events. Just wanted to emphasize this, I love it. It gives more direction to specific content other than having players find things by themselves all the time. Hearts are too static imho, you do your stuff in the heart-location and that’s it. Events can lead players to new locations. Chains of events.

Quests may feel static, but why not have Quest-npcs who wander around in the world? Find them and they send you to new locations. Once he sent you away a new event related to the quest might trigger and stays active for a limited time at the target location.

1. I am aware that proper mechanic for this should be found. Maybe if you joined higher rank mission to help someone, you get more “Duty Points”, but there still should be some limitation so people won’t get the highest rank in a week, it should be a long term goal.

2.I imagine every people can join event, but only people from the same order get “Duty Points”.

3.I didn’t read all thread, sorry for this. Well, I guess that people start always in the same position – ex/ chosing your race (human: always divinity’s reach, you will follow certain storyline ex. noble and no parents). So still there are finite options to take. So If you are newbie it is quite normal that you get some minor things to do and everyone first start from zero to later become hero in the end. For each rank you can add many events, and noone should be able to trigger same event all day. Adding additional events depending on living world, season, etc is also an idea, or Anet can rotate events sometimes. All events in this game are repetitive, excluding living story and Karka one-time event, so I really don’t see the problem.

4. Thanks. I agree with your ideas.

Now I got another idea: what if order events could trigger public events? I mean, if Members of Vigil are fighting branded creatures for a long time, and, let’s say, there could be progress bar for order progress in certain zone, if the bar is filled, then the public event is triggered (ex. Shatterer is mad that braded creatures loses to Vigil, so he would attack Ebonhawk). Etc. This would be ‘living’ world.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

@AikonFelcis II:
Those NPCs who give you direction (like Almorra in your example) could rotate orders, so that if feels less like a quest but rather than a guide to direct you to action.

At 5:00 Almorra sends you to Tequatl, he might spawn soon. (yay, no Dragontimer needed). 15min later Almorra sends a few of their troops towards a Metaevent in zone XY. Help the soldiers and get Duty points for each resurrected or buffed Vigil-member / assisted kills.

Give Almorra 40+ different tasks which rotate randomly / as the Meta-events begin.

These are also great ideas. We will see if someone from Anet would like to comment Orders system idea.

1. Build Diversity. New Skills, access to new weapons, and maybe some mechanics changes (like an enemy auto-attack to make toughness/armor more worthwhile, and the removal of minimum range on some attacks.)

Perhaps a degree of defiant “piercing” which varies with the skill. (ex. some control skills can make it through multiple defiant stacks, but will still reduce the defiant buff by 1.)

Finally, a dash of single target healing and the ability to save a second build. This can be taken a step further to include a second set of armor.

2. Cosmetics. Weapon/Armor skin wardrobe. Acquisition of armor/weapons places a copy of the skin in the wardrobe.

3. Guilds. More bounties, challenges, and puzzles. GvG. Guild Hall with lots of upgrade potential (resource nodes, crafting stations, bank, etc.) Additional uses for commendations. Guild dungeons and bosses (rewarding commendations and other standard fare.)

Bonus: Underflow and/or some sort of (optional) invasion type message letting you know a world boss/temple is up, or is ready to be brought up.

There is a group of 5-6 Asura gates being built in Lions Arch (opposite side of the main platform from the current Asura gates)…these were one of the first things I saw when I was a new player in Lions arch…and it got me REALLY excited for GW2….since it looked like the goal was to open those gates eventually (maybe one at a time) to lead to new areas, new things to explore, new things to do. It showed progress in a forward direction from the start (they wouldn’t have to shoe-horn in additional gates, they were already being built!)…

Those poor workers have been hammering on those for over a year now! (I’m Just saying, if I was one of those workers, I would be getting a little frustrated with the lack of anything tangible to show for my efforts).

Conski Deshan.2057:

2. The house is a progression in itself those with the money/achievement points/skill get a house. It’s placed as a reward for say completing something this could be
Easy: personal story
Medium: Personal story + 200g to buy the plot then you can build it up
Hard: Personal story + 200g + 5k AP
The idea in this method is that people have to work actively for it, they don’t just farm gold and get the house, they have to play actively.

Nothing should require gold to do. That is my biggest complaint right now about GW2 is that it seems EVERYTHING requires gold…and this only encourages gold farming…by just “playing the game” I never amassed more than 200 gold in an entire year of GW2. I didn’t get above that number until I actively began farming for gold…I HATE THAT!

Instead of 200G, it should be a personal quest, or perhaps get a certain amount of materials (500 each of all woods for example). That way, if people want to farm gold to buy the materials, Okay…but if you don’t want to farm gold, then you have another option as well.

Someone else said earlier, Horizontal progression should be all about options…it should allow multiple ways to do everything, that way players never feel like they have to do a single thing to accomplish a goal.

Horizontal pve progression by new permanent zones, with flagging, keying, quests, drops, and faction builds to open more difficult parts of each zones. You don’t build power across al zones at once but individual zones as you chose to. (can bin the whole temporary living story content as far as I am concerned, it’s always in danger of being gone before I can complete it, so now I never bother)

Horizontal gear progression by: A new equipment slot for special resists, expands on click to display, multiple tabs each with 10 * 10 i.e. (100) slots. Each zone tab allows you to collect resistance and immunity to various boss and area special mechanics, abilities, drains, dots, charms, repeating stuns etc. Special skins and effects for unlocking deeper into whichever zone. Vanity looks combined with individual zone survival power progression.

Wvw horizontal progression: make it very very quick to get minimum setup like applied fortitude and guard leech, and one FULL set of ascended gear for one character to do a role, then make it progressively more like the current nightmare to gear up extra roles and characters.

Refocus story on dragons not random villains of the month, space pirates, clockwork robots and whatever.

Chrispy.5641:

(5) Currently Legendaries being able to Switch stats is what makes them so rare and exclusive items. It is currently beyond Endgame. It is the the end of the endgame. Are you really trying to suggest that we stomp all over Legendaries and allow anyone to do that from the start (and no, I don’t own a legendary)

Legendary weapons are not special.

They are a cosmetic item for the player to show off, nothing more. They do not deserve special treatment. Their owners are not a higher class of citizen with more rights and privileges. What makes them rare and exclusive is the obscene amount of money (and only money if you use the TP) required to obtain the item, and the unique aura, footprint, or skill effects that come with them.

Everyone would benefit from the ability to “absorb” stat combinations onto ascended gear. The only exception would be someone who has a legendary for every single usable weapon for every single one of their characters, and quite frankly, and even they would benefit from the swapping on armor and trinkets.

If one requires other people to be worse off in order to feel like they have accomplished something, they will never find peace. If we have to make the game worse and reduce quality of life in order for a few people to pat themselves on the back and think they are special, then we squander any chance of progress.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Hi All,

Quick update. I will be afk for 2 days for family celebrations.

Let’s continue to here the communities top 3 lists and discuss ideas and then on the 1st Jan we can put some proposals together and dive into the specifics.

Chris

Have a Happy new year!

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Hi All,

Quick update. I will be afk for 2 days for family celebrations.

Let’s continue to here the communities top 3 lists and discuss ideas and then on the 1st Jan we can put some proposals together and dive into the specifics.

Chris

1
http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Main_Page

2
http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Powers
http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Archetypes
http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Primary_Power_Sets
http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Secondary_Power_Sets
http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Power_Pool
http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Epic_Power_Pool
http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Patron_Power_Pool
http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Power_Respecification
http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Power_Customization
http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Incarnate_System
http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Enhancements http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Enhancement_Sets
http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Inspirations

3
http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/The_Players%27_Guide_to_the_Cities/User_Interface
http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Power_tray

My top 3 is:

1. Order Specific Events (Vigil, Priory and Whisper)
2. Racial Titles
+ Prestigous title like GWAMM2
3. Add meaning to existing Personality System (Charm, Dignity and Ferocity)

I would like to say too:
If there is coming new skins to the game (weapons or armors), I hope they are not hiding behind of Back Lion Claim Tickets.

There should be skins what are available from one or some NPC’s, and they could cost Karma points, game gold or Laurels.

Moshari.8570:

Conski Deshan.2057:

2. The house is a progression in itself those with the money/achievement points/skill get a house. It’s placed as a reward for say completing something this could be
Easy: personal story
Medium: Personal story + 200g to buy the plot then you can build it up
Hard: Personal story + 200g + 5k AP
The idea in this method is that people have to work actively for it, they don’t just farm gold and get the house, they have to play actively.

Nothing should require gold to do. That is my biggest complaint right now about GW2 is that it seems EVERYTHING requires gold…and this only encourages gold farming…by just “playing the game” I never amassed more than 200 gold in an entire year of GW2. I didn’t get above that number until I actively began farming for gold…I HATE THAT!

Instead of 200G, it should be a personal quest, or perhaps get a certain amount of materials (500 each of all woods for example). That way, if people want to farm gold to buy the materials, Okay…but if you don’t want to farm gold, then you have another option as well.

Someone else said earlier, Horizontal progression should be all about options…it should allow multiple ways to do everything, that way players never feel like they have to do a single thing to accomplish a goal.

Oh I Agree 100% on the gold thing, two of my other posts mention it. I just couldn’t think of a 3rd item to make the progression harder that people wouldn’t throw a complete fit at. I would suggest world completion but then people would whine about the Wvw maps and how it forces them.

As for the options, I’d like many goals but only one way to complete it. otherwise you end up with massive problems, I want to know you specifically did y to get your goal not that you picked the easiest from a selection of options.
You can’t do y you don’t get the reward.

Conski Deshan.2057:

Firstly how would order missions effect all players? , as many may want to ignore them and have nothing to do with them.

The same way that Legendary Weapons affect all players in the game. If a Player has a Legendary weapon, they will probably be showing it off in Lion’s Arch and anywhere else they play the game. As Legendary weapons are updated, player opinion has changed quite a bit on it over time.

Other Players can see this type of progress on other players. People who get special, exclusive, New, Order Armors and weapons will also be showing them off, and players opinions about it will change over time. Living World updates are the same.

With a House, that has a 99.9999% chance of being instanced if ever implemented, no other player except for you and your friends will ever see that house. Even if a public option is made, there are hundreds of thousands of players that would hit the private switch so no one can ever see the house.

That Progress is only for you, and for your friends to see. Using your quote from below, how is a player going to make themselves different and exclusive from other players if the other players will never see or care about your ‘exclusive’ home?

Conski Deshan.2057:

Secondly if your progress is for all players it’s not progress it’s a requirement. Horizontal progression is about differentiation of your players and that means exclusion, some people won’t do x some can’t do y but will do z that’s what makes them different.

How so? Do you feel obligated to do every single Living World Achievement right now, even though they are waved around infront of your face every two weeks? Do you feel obligated to spend 2000+ gold on a legendary because of the ability to switch stats, or are you just going to spend 1/40th of that on an ascended weapon, then buy another one with different stats as you need them.

draxynnic.3719:

Chrispy.5641:

draxynnic.3719:

To put this in context, in GW1 I was fairly control-happy – I used to comment that even when I wasn’t playing a mesmer, I thought like a mesmer. So if I’ve come to just stop bothering to bring most forms of control, what do you think the people who have always advocated that the best control is killing the target ASAP are doing?

I want to bring you to this paragraph. Its a very interesting paragraph, and tells us everything that is wrong with Guild Wars 2 right now, or atleast the combat design. Currently, the entire game is built around dealing as much DPS as is possible in the game.

This is my entire point. You seem to like stating arguments that imply that your opponent is somehow deficient, such as “you rely too much on DPS” – it’s not that I or anyone else relies too much on DPS. We rely on DPS exactly as much as is optimal for the game as it currently stands – which is “all of it”, since the other legs of the “soft trinity”, by and large, aren’t viable to use. (The “support” side has some good skills, but only in some professions, and control… well, we’re having that discussion…)

…and you haven’t been somehow implying that I’m deficient because I use alot of control in my builds? That’s been half of your argument so far to me. The other half is that you don’t use control because its not effective enough when its becoming increasingly obvious that you haven’t even tried a control heavy build. It works great in WvW, PvP, running around in PvE (and no, immobilize does not get in the way of my other control effects when fighting champions, another thing that you were all but assuming earlier). It needs some help in larger group events and way deep into the Fractals, but that in no way means that Control is a broken mechanic, or even a weak mechanic. People just choose not to use it.

Yuri.5810:

I’m not qualified to tell you if it’s easy or not, and honestly it’s not the point of the discussion. You’ve pointed out some concerns, i’ve adressed them in the way i think they should be adressed.

Just answering to someone who talked about what a “Super Easy Fix” It was.

Yuri.5810:

1) Because AN said that they don’t want us to farm and are actively trying to prevent us from farming. There are all the activities that you want and no endless repetition (aka farming) is needed. Do each dungeon every day, fractals, DEs, WvsW or sPvP. Plenty of things to do in this game, the point is if you enjoy playing the game without getting a shiny back.

Tried to get rid of farming, but failed as bad as that word’s definition will allow with the release of Ascended weapons, and then did the same thing with the release of ascended Armor. (Not that it was a bad thing, it just did nothing to help out the current farming trends in the game).

(continued on next post)

Yuri.5810:

2)Because they are something required if i want to pair some stat with a specific look. In a game where cosmetics are a good part of the endgame imho are a bad thing. Just my opinion, i’m not forcing it on anybody. To me they are like an item i have to buy to unlock the final stage of a game.

Again, required, or you just don’t want to spend the 14 gold currently required for 200 gems to buy 5 transmutation crystals?

Yuri.5810:

4)Again, they are not a bad thing themselves. They become a bad thing when in 16 months we had quite a few new armor sets and none of them can be obtained playing. The only new complete set that we can obtain playing is the ascended one.
The Ascended Armors to me are quite flat, while the one in the gem shops have little particle effects in some details. As far as i know, quite a few people agree with me about that.
The most negative people think that it’s a way to make you spend a lot to craft them and then spend some more to transmute them.

Someone else said that they want to expand the cash shop, in a way, because it will get players to spend even more money.

….here it is :::

Including, in my case at least, by referencing the cosmetics system in another game that also financially survives largely based on it’s in game cash store (which cosmetics make up a large part of). By having a working and well implemented cosmetics system, you’re actually encouraging everyone to spend more time and money (both in game and real world) on anything in the game that makes use of it.

Yuri.5810:

5)No, that is not the reason they are rare and exclusive. The massive farm behind them to get the T6 and the precursor (or the money to buy those items) is the thing that make them “rare and exclusive”. They were designed to be a long term skin goal in the first place, then they should have been “on par with the BiS item”, now they are the BiS item. There is not a single weapon that is on par with them, because they are each and every Ascended weapon of that kind stat-wise.
Back when exotics were the BiS, Legendaries were what they were meant to be and people still tried to get them first. Now they are not.

Shriketalon.1937:

Legendary weapons are not special.

They are a cosmetic item for the player to show off, nothing more. They do not deserve special treatment. Their owners are not a higher class of citizen with more rights and privileges. What makes them rare and exclusive is the obscene amount of money (and only money if you use the TP) required to obtain the item, and the unique aura, footprint, or skill effects that come with them.

Everyone would benefit from the ability to “absorb” stat combinations onto ascended gear. The only exception would be someone who has a legendary for every single usable weapon for every single one of their characters, and quite frankly, and even they would benefit from the swapping on armor and trinkets.

Legendary Weapons are special to the people who spent hundreds more hours than us to get them. And they also cost more than it would cost to just buy every possible stat combination with Ascended weapons. It eats up alot of inventory space, but, it doesn’t make you any worse of a player because you have 15 weapons to their one. At that point, again, asking for switchable stats is just a matter of convenience than progression.

And it sounds like the point I made way, way, back a post or two ago was just proved with your comments. Legendary weapons, even though not everyone has them, it is obviously affecting just about every player in the game, their attitude towards it, etc. Housing isn’t going to have that effect on anyone other than the one player who built the house, and his friends.

edit : Totlly done with replying to 5 people until everyone lists their top 3’s, they are kind of getting buried in these posts.

Happy New Year @Chris, other devs who read this and you guys! I haven’t seen such a dedication to a game from any other company so far, it doesn’t feel that Guild Wars is only a job for you, but your passion as well.

I’m not sure if others at Anet feel like you do, I have to say thank you for being this link to you guys. I’m looking forward to the following discussion about our brainstorming. All the best to you and your family.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

Happy New Year @Chris, other devs who read this and you guys! I haven’t seen such a dedication to a game from any other company so far, it doesn’t feel that Guild Wars is only a job for you, but your passion as well.

I’m not sure if others at Anet feel like you do, I have to say thank you for being this link to you guys. I’m looking forward to the following discussion about our brainstorming. All the best to you and your family.

<Big Hugs> to you Marcus and to all the fellow Collaborators. Thanks for being part of this initiative and making GW2 the very best it can be.

And in answer to your question the guys and girls at work are just as passionate as me if not more (-:

Chris

P.S: I crafted my first piece of Ascended on Live yesterday!

Weapon or armor?

Chrispy.5641:

Legendary Weapons are special to the people who spent hundreds more hours than us to get them. And they also cost more than it would cost to just buy every possible stat combination with Ascended weapons. It eats up alot of inventory space, but, it doesn’t make you any worse of a player because you have 15 weapons to their one. At that point, again, asking for switchable stats is just a matter of convenience than progression.

And it sounds like the point I made way, way, back a post or two ago was just proved with your comments. Legendary weapons, even though not everyone has them, it is obviously affecting just about every player in the game, their attitude towards it, etc. Housing isn’t going to have that effect on anyone other than the one player who built the house, and his friends.

Convenience and progress are one and the same when we’re talking about extreme inconvenience choking horizontal progression.

Right now, the game expects you to construct a new ascended gear set every single time you want to switch roles and maintain best-in-slot effectiveness. It demands you choose between armoring up an alt and providing flexibility for your main. It makes vertical progression easier than horizontal progression, since a single new stat combination requires the same amount of resources as the grand transformation from one tier up to another.

We’re buried by inconvenience, and progress means chipping down those walls.

As for legendaries, yes, they are special to those who built them. That’s why they are so very, very shiny. They have glowing auras and mystical footsteps and other cool effects to show the world just how nifty they are. That is their benefit, and it is perfectly fine.

But what you aren’t recognizing is the difference between quality of life and prestige. Stat swapping is a quality of life issue. It means practical horizontal progression that provides realistic versatility, rather than thinking you should spend 36 days and thousands of materials every single time you want to use a different build. If other people have an improved quality of life, your quality of life is not diminished in any way, shape, or form. Prestige is different. Prestige is a way to show off and feel special, and that’s why legendaries have unique aesthetics. They look awesome and allow the player to feel proud of themselves without being mechanically superior to other items, preserving game balance while allowing that prestige to flourish.

Mechanical upgrades and improved quality of life should not be tied to prestige, because it holds the developers back from making a better game. Everyone will benefit if Ascended Gear can learn stat combinations and swap between them. It means every player in the game with ascended equipment (legendary owners included) gains more build flexibility and hauls less duplicate items around. It also means the developers can design content more freely, content in the knowledge that they can make direct damage less useful or require high survivability and not exclude people.

Quality of life improvements make the game better for everyone. End of story.

Chrispy.5641:

Conski Deshan.2057:

Firstly how would order missions effect all players? , as many may want to ignore them and have nothing to do with them.

The same way that Legendary Weapons affect all players in the game. If a Player has a Legendary weapon, they will probably be showing it off in Lion’s Arch and anywhere else they play the game. As Legendary weapons are updated, player opinion has changed quite a bit on it over time.

Other Players can see this type of progress on other players. People who get special, exclusive, New, Order Armors and weapons will also be showing them off, and players opinions about it will change over time. Living World updates are the same.

With a House, that has a 99.9999% chance of being instanced if ever implemented, no other player except for you and your friends will ever see that house. Even if a public option is made, there are hundreds of thousands of players that would hit the private switch so no one can ever see the house.

That Progress is only for you, and for your friends to see. Using your quote from below, how is a player going to make themselves different and exclusive from other players if the other players will never see or care about your ‘exclusive’ home?

Conski Deshan.2057:

Secondly if your progress is for all players it’s not progress it’s a requirement. Horizontal progression is about differentiation of your players and that means exclusion, some people won’t do x some can’t do y but will do z that’s what makes them different.

How so? Do you feel obligated to do every single Living World Achievement right now, even though they are waved around infront of your face every two weeks? Do you feel obligated to spend 2000+ gold on a legendary because of the ability to switch stats, or are you just going to spend 1/40th of that on an ascended weapon, then buy another one with different stats as you need them.

Yes a legendary is one way to show progress, I am suggesting housing as another in addition it is not an either or, How are you suggesting to show additional progress should a person already have their legendary and an armor set they like?

Plus there is the massive flaw at the moment with legendaries in that they can be obtained through gold. This means no matter how unlikely that a person could have bought it with gems, or that they just spent 100 hours farming gold on a champ farm which is no display of skill and should not be rewarded.
I like legendaries but the addition of housing would allow you to prove you actually did the work. You can’t buy anything for the house with gems (negating outside influence) and you personally have to get the achievement to get the item (limiting buying and limiting the amount of help you can get from guild mates)

Conski Deshan.2057:

Secondly if your progress is for all players it’s not progress it’s a requirement. Horizontal progression is about differentiation of your players and that means exclusion, some people won’t do x some can’t do y but will do z that’s what makes them different.

I may have phrased this badly, Essentially what I meant is if anyone can do it? how does it make you special, if everyone gets the exclusive armor because they are all able not will but, able to get the armor then how is it special?
People were physically unable to beat Queens gauntlet myself included that makes it an achievement because it was not a
“I think I’ll get this item, this item and that today” it was “Will I be able to beat this and get the item” There was risk and their was reward as a game should have.

Been reading up the summaries and I think this has been a productive discussion. Have said my piece and hope others have done the same. I look forward to whatever you guys decide to lay out for us with the new year.

And Happy New Year Chris, we all appreciate the work you are doing for your players, don’t let the naysayers get to you

Just to make my little brainstroming on the Synergy idea complete for the thief to provide a better understandable impression:

Thief synergizes with Engineer:

Thief gains: Explosive Rolls
Adds the Effect, that whenever you perform a Dodge Roll, you will place on the ground a Land Mine, that will explode if a foe moves onto it, dealing big AoE Damage, that will burn a foe and makes them very vulnerable for a long duration.

Engineer gains: Quick Change
Reduces the Cool Downs of Weapon Kits and lets the Engineer receive for some time Swiftness and Quickness when changign their Weapon Kits. Quickness will be also increased in duration by 20% for them now.
——

Thief synergizes with Elementalist

Thief gains: Shadow Flare
Whenever going into stealth or coming out of stealth, foes in your near will suffer on burning. Thiefs won’t suffer on burning, while in stealth and when they get burned outside of stealth, it will increase their power and their attacks will deal additional hits with some kind of shadow fire that lets hit foes suffer on Burning, that can’t be cured, until the thief uses the next time a stealth.

Elementalist gains: Shadow Attunement
While being synergized with a thief, the Elementalist will have access to a new 5th Elemental Attunement, the Element of Shadow, with that the Elementalist can attune to to use Shadow elemental Weapon Skills.
——

Thief synergizes with other Thief

Both Thiefs gain: Masters of Thievery
Increases for both Thiefs the Steal Slots by + 1, makes all Steal Item Skills 50% more powerful and makes Traits that have influence on Steals also 33% morepowerful.
Whenever also one of the synergized Thiefs steals something, will the other Thief get healed and loses 1 condition.
—-

So all Synergy Examples based on Thiefs complete for this general SUggestion.
All other Synergy Combinations would also have their unique Synergy Effects.
So if GW2 would have now for example 9 Classes, this would be 9*9 = 81 unique Snyergy Effects, that could enrich very much the overall Combat System of GW2.

But together with this Suggestion, I’d also suggest to increase the Max Party Size to 6, so that a party could have at any given time 3 different seperate Synergy Effects active in the Party. so that nobody will feel like being missing out something.

Synergy Effects could be changed then outside of Combat.

I really have a feeling that this discussion is leading to improve the game a big bit ^^
Happy new year Chris and all at ArenaNet, you are the best x)

Happy holidays Chris and everyone at Anet.

Thank you very much for your input and for giving us a CDI in the first place- your investment and your passion for the game makes me look to the future with great excitement because I think something truly unique can come from it.

All the best wishes to you and the team

oh and a small qol thingy- can we have a slot for mini pets?

have a nice time with your families!

Conski Deshan.2057:

….Super Mega Ultra Hyper Puffy Cut of Doooooom….

Let me ask you my original question. I reworded it a bit to be relevant to the current conversation. How is housing going to show off your progress to other players (not just yourself and friends) if it is instanced and 99.999% of all players will never see it or care about it (atleast everyone can see if you have a legendary or other skin)?

What you and others haven’t addressed yet is how a house is going to show everyone your progress in the game? Legendaries and other skins do that already. You can be lazy and say “add a new Title”, but, there’s got to be something more there than just a title.

Shriketalon.1937:

….Ultra Powerful Awesome Combo Sweep Snip of Awesomness!

Last question before I go and enjoy my holiday as well like everyone else is doing. Why is crafting different stat combinations as an endgame goal a bad thing? There’s Progression in that, and it is one of the many ways I’ve been playing through the endgame since a week after launch.

I’ve made 6 armor sets, and currently, I am working on a set of Shaman’s Armor. I am going to combine that with Settler’s Trinkets and see how that works on my character.

edit : and its not like that’s going to be a very effective armor set. It might not be. I just want to see what it does!

Why should that progression be eliminated for the sake of convenience for other players who probably wouldn’t have bothered to try that stat combination because they didn’t feel like spending the time or gold to get it? Why should my hard work in obtaining different Armor sets be eliminated for a player who spent the last year using only Berserker’s stats, and then suddenly he gets access to everything for no work?

Ronah.2869:

…Ultra Hyper Mega Super Duper Uber Snip!!!!!….

It was the fact that you just assumed that Anet doesn’t read this thread. They have been. They haven’t individually replied to everything, but, your comment assuming if they read the thread or not,…it wasn’t the first in this Thread, (and unfortunately wont be the last)

Chrispy.5641:

Let me ask you my original question. I reworded it a bit to be relevant to the current conversation. How is housing going to show off your progress to other players (not just yourself and friends) if it is instanced and 99.999% of all players will never see it or care about it (atleast everyone can see if you have a legendary or other skin)?

What you and others haven’t addressed yet is how a house is going to show everyone your progress in the game? Legendaries and other skins do that already. You can be lazy and say “add a new Title”, but, there’s got to be something more there than just a title.

we have different goals in mind with horizontal progression, In Gw1 if we wanted to show off we’d just take a party into the Hom, I remember people inviting others in all the time. I was thinking similar to that.
I am not competing with everyone I’m competing with my guild and friends, I want to be able to show off to them, I don’t care about some randomers opinion they may as well be a piece of scenery.

Legendaries, skins and titles exist for showing off to randomers and will be expanded over time, this is for a more detailed and complete showing off between people whos opinions matter to you. Your suggestion just adds more to this not a new way, you’d still be limited to the 9-10 different slots you can use to show off.

Now let’s get back to the actual CDI discussion we may have gone a bit off track.

Chrispy.5641:

Why should that progression be eliminated for the sake of convenience for other players who probably wouldn’t have bothered to try that stat combination because they didn’t feel like spending the time or gold to get it? Why should my hard work in obtaining different Armor sets be eliminated for a player who spent the last year using only Berserker’s stats, and then suddenly he gets access to everything for no work?

I agree with Chrispy on this, if you did’nt craft the other sets or earn them, then they should not be unlocked for you.

Orpheal.8263:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/23#post3431798

Synergy
Inter-profession Synergy is something that could be really exciting. It could also be really complex. It could work something like this:

Oh dear lord, please Anet, do whatever it takes and implement this feature.
Make it something, that is some kind of special feature that comes from forming a Party, so that players have an incentive to form a party…

This is by far oen of the best and most simple gameplay improvement ideas I#ve ever read so far, which is combat relevant, that would so significantly improve the whole combat feelign of the game and reward players for playing well togehter.

The basic idea remembers me actually of the game “Tales of Xillia”*, tham I’m actually also playing on PS3, which has basicalyl a very similar gameplay feature, where Characters share a synergy< with each other, that are linked with each other.

Linked Characters are also able to perform “Dual Combo Attacks”, if certain conditions are met first, that are especially devastating and look very epic in performance.

Maybe this could be something to combine with the basic idea of “Synergies”

Some more Synergy Ideas:

Thief synergizes with Mesmer

Thief gains : Shadow Clones
Whenever the Thief performs a dodge roll, he will create for very short time Shadow Clones, that will attack nearby foes, if they get killed, they will explode in smoke and blind foes.

Mesmer gains: Power Thievery
The Mesmer will confuse the target enemy and steal one of its skills.
That stolen skill will be set into cool down. The next time the Mesmer player presses the Auto Attack Button, the Mesmer will use the stolen Enemy Skill and gets 1 negative condition removed
——

Thief synergizes with Necromancer

Thief gains: Fearsome Blades
A synergy effect, that lets Thiefs deal Fear to foes, at a certain with internal cooldown chance when hittin critical

Necromancer gains: Gates to Death
The Necromancer receives for Death Shrowd a new 6th synergy related Skill. the Gates to Death. When using this, the Necromancer will create some Portals to the Underworld, letting some Shadows attack with Shadow Steps foes, that stand in their near. Those summoned Shadows will stay for only short time, as long the portals don’t get closed or the duration of the skill runs out first
—-

Continued at: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/24#post3432893

This is interesting. In a way, its similar to how GW1 was with how you could have a secondary profession, but also not because you still are only whatever profession you chose at creation.

I, personally, would prefer the necro/thief synergy to be called Grenth’s Gates just so if it was mentioned in chat, the acronym could be GG lol.

The only issue I’d have is where would it be placed? A necro has just F1 to deal with, so adding it to F2-4 is not an issue. Same goes with Thief. However, I would like to know how it would work for Engi’s and Ele’s considering they have F1-4 taken up already. Guardian wouldn’t be much of a change, they could simply dedicate F4 as a synergy button.

Ranger’s would have that issue too. I’m not entirely sure if Anet is down for adding another button to be pressed while in combat either.

hmm..

Edit: I feel stupid now that I reread what was said. Okay so it would be safe to assume that it would end up being a buff of some sort, and it would depend on which ever profession you are closest to – to an x-amount of range.

Although for other classes, I could see there being an additional button added(like guardian getting an f4 synergy skill).

Chrispy.5641:
Let me ask you my original question. I reworded it a bit to be relevant to the current conversation. How is housing going to show off your progress to other players (not just yourself and friends) if it is instanced and 99.999% of all players will never see it or care about it (atleast everyone can see if you have a legendary or other skin)?
What you and others haven’t addressed yet is how a house is going to show everyone your progress in the game? Legendaries and other skins do that already. You can be lazy and say “add a new Title”, but, there’s got to be something more there than just a title.

I think you miss the main point of housing , which is a place to call home- or more elaborately an emotional connection to the world that shows your accomplishments.

This can be instanced because it still stratifies those needs, but you can do so much more- obviously.

The best idea I have seen is instanced neighborhoods, like the story instance- it can be anywhere.

You enter an instance and you are in a place- people can make as much as the system allows of their houses. you have slayer trophies on the walls- you have mini pets running around, you have event nodes…

I really liked some of the ideas where you can add chests and challenges to your house- or hey, expand crafting and make a tp industry of crafted furniture and decorations.

Same with farming etc- make it a whole new industry.

It is horizontal progression and many, many people will spend some time in-game doing it because it is something else.
the most important thing is that is it yours- not some npc’s.

Chrispy.5641:

Shriketalon.1937:

….Ultra Powerful Awesome Combo Sweep Snip of Awesomness!

Last question before I go and enjoy my holiday as well like everyone else is doing. Why is crafting different stat combinations as an endgame goal a bad thing? There’s Progression in that, and it is one of the many ways I’ve been playing through the endgame since a week after launch.

I’ve made 6 armor sets, and currently, I am working on a set of Shaman’s Armor. I am going to combine that with Settler’s Trinkets and see how that works on my character.

edit : and its not like that’s going to be a very effective armor set. It might not be. I just want to see what it does!

That’s a very fair question.

Let me clarify one thing: I don’t think Ascended Gear should automatically gain every single stat combination out of the box. That would be a rather extreme leap. Instead, the way I picture it is that you unlock each combination through crafting/dungeons/WvW/etc, and your ascended gear can transform into anything you’ve learned.

You are absolutely correct that gaining new stat combinations is a good end game activity. The current problem is that each new combination is equally expensive to the transition from Exotic level gear to Ascended. Likewise, every new combination you make for one character is a suit of Ascended gear you could have given to an alt. This is an extremely inflexible system.

Vertical Progression should be like climbing a mountain. It should require tremendous effort, but when you haul yourself up to the peak of Everest, you are truly on top of the world. Horizontal Progression should be like a vast plain, allowing you to travel in every direction to expand where you like. But right now, Horizontal Progression is like twenty Everests, each one demanding the exact same effort.

By making each increment of horizontal stat progression easier as long as you have already achieved Ascended status, the game can be far more flexible and allow more experimentation.

Morrigan.2809:

Chrispy.5641:
Let me ask you my original question. I reworded it a bit to be relevant to the current conversation. How is housing going to show off your progress to other players (not just yourself and friends) if it is instanced and 99.999% of all players will never see it or care about it (atleast everyone can see if you have a legendary or other skin)?
What you and others haven’t addressed yet is how a house is going to show everyone your progress in the game? Legendaries and other skins do that already. You can be lazy and say “add a new Title”, but, there’s got to be something more there than just a title.

I think you miss the main point of housing , which is a place to call home- or more elaborately an emotional connection to the world that shows your accomplishments.

This can be instanced because it still stratifies those needs, but you can do so much more- obviously.

The best idea I have seen is instanced neighborhoods, like the story instance- it can be anywhere.

You enter an instance and you are in a place- people can make as much as the system allows of their houses. you have slayer trophies on the walls- you have mini pets running around, you have event nodes…

I really liked some of the ideas where you can add chests and challenges to your house- or hey, expand crafting and make a tp industry of crafted furniture and decorations.

Same with farming etc- make it a whole new industry.

It is horizontal progression and many, many people will spend some time in-game doing it because it is something else.
the most important thing is that is it yours- not some npc’s.

If housing in GW2 could be like FFXIV’s(which to my knowledge is the neighbourhood style housing – semi instanced), then it would be wonderful..

I mean, imagine creating your place where you call home and being next to your friends home in the same instance. You could visit their home(hopefully they would have the option to white-list if preferred) and see their accomplishments even if they aren’t online.

It would be like GW1’s HoM but semi-instanced. It would be awesome!

@Artemus:
The way how i see it fit, would be 50/50.
Synergies could work as both, either as a kind of additional F-Fuctions, where you should be more openminded, that anet isn’t limitatec to do everything only with F1 to F4)
Theres absolutely no problem with it by adding a F5 Option, as long you are synergized with a player class, that goves you a Snyergy Effect that adds more options, like for example I’d love to see Elementalists receivign as 5th option based on the snyergy with a Thief the ability to attune themself with the Element of Shadow to receive this way unique shadow elemental weapon skills, that an elementalist would never have in a normal way, without beign synergized with a Thief, which are the Masters of Shadows.
This Synergy could be basicalyl just explained by the Elementalist gettign inspired by the thiefs Mastery of Shadows to the point, that the Elementalists wants to try to attune him/herself also onto this kind of unusual natural element that is part of our life whever we go, where ever fire creates light, theres always shadow too.

In regard of what kind of exactly synergy effects each combination should receive in the end is naturally up to Anet and their Balancing teams again, but for me just alone counts the fact, that some kind of Synergy System together with the Max party Size increase to 6 players would massively improve the whole gameplay experience for GW2 and especially in relationship to the combat system, that would feel alot more dynamically, if the party could profitate from its unique class synergies that the party has chosen for the actual combat, or could chose to switch at any given time, while not being in combat to change maybe some synergy tactics before rushing into the next battle.

Its also something, that adds a very minor aspect of cross class mixing into the game, without ruining the game directly with implementing real cross class mixing for Game balance, like GW1 had it, just through providign class specific synergy effects when you link your own character together with a character of an other player .

This would also promote to create for exampel alot more balanced group setups with many different classes in the party, so that the party itself would have as many as possible synergy tactics to choose from, which one the party uses, which kind of 3 synergy effects should be used at the moment.

And Parties would finally have some kind of feature, that makes them worth it to play the game as a party and not 100% alone (like I mostly did, except of dungeons)

Id prefer to play more together with other people in places, if i could gain while i play together with other some synergy effects, while being in the party and being linked to an other player, instead of keeping on playing mostly all of the content alone in no party without having any nice interstign benefits that could increase my fun in the game due to some cool new epic effects ect.

And the best thign is, itd also a very easy to implement and especialyl to expand idea, because anet could also add to the game in future not just only more new skills, traits ect. pp, they could add also new Class Synergy Effects, so that for example a combination of a Thief synergizing with an Elementalist could lead to the point, that both players could decide then out of a little drop down list which kind of Synergy Effect they want to gain exactly from the link with the other player.

If both players would have unlocked for example like 5 different Synergy Effects ,when beign linked together with profession X, then this would result simpyl in 5 different Snyergy Effects to choose from, once the Thief synergizes with an Elementalist and has completed the linkign with each other.completely.

Linking could also have several grades of power, so that so strogner the bondign is with the character you link with, so header does it become for foes to break this link, up to the point that the synergy between both can become so strogn, that it can#t be broken by a foe, unless the both players release their synergy link self with each other.

This would also be some nice horizontal progression, that simply shows, that you play realyl alot with someone and if you played like some weeks together with someone, then your synergy links are so solid, that they are unbreakable.

Reminds me also again a bit on the Soul Linker Class of ragnarok Online, which could also synergize itself with other players os that both profitated from the Soul Link, whats basically what we are suggestign here with the Synergy System.

more weapon skill, one more skill every slot for all weapon can be use to direct damage or conditioner;
more way to get ascendent item, other crafting or luck drop;
expanding lore…

ty for attention
happy holiday chris and arenanet team

Chrispy.5641:

With a House, that has a 99.9999% chance of being instanced if ever implemented, no other player except for you and your friends will ever see that house. Even if a public option is made, there are hundreds of thousands of players that would hit the private switch so no one can ever see the house.

That Progress is only for you, and for your friends to see. Using your quote from below, how is a player going to make themselves different and exclusive from other players if the other players will never see or care about your ‘exclusive’ home?

In real life, you do realize that we all live in instanced homes? But yet we still purchase items for ourselves, and display our own trophies there. I don’t wear a shirt that says “3rd place in my age group at the Burning Pine 5K”, but I do have a small trophy that I am very proud of earning on my desk, that only my family and coworkers ever see. So I don’t think that argument really holds a lot of water. There is a large segment of users who want to personalize their impact on the game – being able to visit a Monument Hall or whatever that shows what you did can bring out memories etc of those activities. It’s not all about showing off how elite you are: sometimes it’s about recalling the fun you had during that event.

And beyond just a trophy case, being able to craft furniture to go into your home instance can make a significant difference to the emotional involvement people have in the game (Ever hear of game called Minecraft?) I don’t do it myself, but I can definitely understand the motivation to spend hours working on things only a small group of people will ever see – because that small group includes themselves.

AikunFelcis.7258:

Hello, I’d like to post my suggestion about Orders. I don’t have time to read all topic so I’m sorry if such suggestion was posted before. Also sorry for bad english.

I guess when character joins Orders (I will refere to Vigil later in post, because this is my order on my main character) it should have some impact on the player and the world. My examples:

When someone join order he/she starts with „new joiner” rank. At the beginning, player get mail that he join new recruits in Vigils Keep. Now the story begins.

Player could trigger some events depending on his rank in the order. At the beginning as new joiner, he could help to gather supplies, help fixing old armors and weapons, cleaning Almorras boots, fight Skritts in basement (ex. they try to stole supplies/shinies). For each such event player gets exp, maybe karma and let’s name it „Duty Points”. It wouldn’t be currency, but it would show your progress in your rank. Example to go from Rank 1 to Rank 2 you have to get 50 duty points. To prevent people to reach maximum rank in 1 day, for example first 5 order events in day rewards you with „X” duty points. Other people from your order can help you and they are also rewarded for events and getting duty points.

When you reach higher rank, you get more interesting missions. For example quests in rank 1-5 takes please near Vigil Keep and if rank goes higher, the place when you do missions is expanding (ex. You were cleaning boot, better rank you escort someone from Vigil Keep to Lions Arch, fight back Zhaitan minions in swamps in Gendarran Fields etc). Finally when you reach ex. Rank 10, Almorra send you to Ebonhawk to help Vigil fighting separatists and so on. It is also fine way to introduce some story of area you are in and also you can form a bond with NPCs if you help them and fighting with them for longer time than 1-3 personal story missions.

Higher rank missions can get you better reward (ex. material to craft ascended items).

As I said before, player can trigger some events on the same place talking with npc, or take some item from npc, go to spot, use item (ex. throw purse of money downstairs and skritts go out from their hideout to get some shinies).

The ranking up system gives your benefits, like unlocking achievements, titles, unlock some NPCs with special receips only for your order, so you can craft unique reward. Maybe some special consumables, minis, skins, etc.

Part II below in next post:

Brilliant idea!

This is all what I want Anet to see.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvK8fua6O64

That is all.

New ideas i support:

1. order missions and personal story development (it gets less personal when you join order, totally apersonal after forging of pact)
2. skin locker
3. Those racial skills for all, but under the condition they don’t get any benefits/disadvantages based on tha map they’re used

Old stuff that needs fixes, no buts:

1. stacking in dungeons
2. game balance (traits, skills)
3. missing weapon skins (T1+T2 cultural asura, sylvari, sorrow’s embrace).
4. alternate skins for legendaries so each has a serious version and another one (be it serious or easter egg).

Ideas i’m not fond of:

• subclasses and branches – either differences between professions start to blur(2 proffesions on one character) or it kills flexibility (one of 3 paths to choose for a profession) based on what idea exactly means .

Happy New Year Chris.

Did I ever tell you what I brilliant idea I think the CDI is? Well it is, and whoever’s idea it was should get a raise, seriously.
You too should also get a raise, since you have been awesome these last pass months, even sharing your time over the holidays. That’s dedication.

Good on you mate.

Grevender.9235:

Horizontal Progression? good.
My vote goes to Prestige Classes:

magician > mage > archmage

a system that allows players to truly craft the character as they want it to be. I see this as ultimate end game content…

I’m not against crafting the character you want, but I think that can be accomplished without creating a whole new sub-class system. The trait system should be expanded or a new system built that allows choices that completely change things like weapon abilities. That way we won’t have the weapon sets that are a jumble of power, condition, CC, etc skills that basically provide abilities that are absolutely useless on some builds(Necro weapons are a big offender of this). This way a condition build could construct a weapon set that caters towards conditions/survival without having a pesky power ability just sitting there. They need to allow traits or a new system as well as sigils/runes to drastically alter the playstyle of classes. Balance would be hard but I think we can all agree that balance certainly isn’t that great currently so what would it matter?