Guild Wars 2

See attached screenshot.

I mean, I don’t mind a Commander running around in PvE out in the world, especially with the Guild Missions going around and stuff where the Commander features could actually be useful outside of WvW; but a bunch of them hanging around in Lion’s Arch? Instead of loitering around Lion’s Arch, couldn’t they be out in the world actually doing well … Commander stuff?

Just one was bearable in LA … but as you can see on that snapshot, there are SEVEN Commanders! What are they exactly “commanding” in Lion’s Arch anyway? A very dubious plot perhaps?

I suppose I could join one of their “squads” just so I could see only one Commander icon, but why is joining a complete stranger’s squad a workaround for that? Honestly, it would be nice if there was an option to disable the display of Commanders in select locations; or display only certain Commanders like those from your representing guild. Just a couple ideas there.

That was most likely after a WvW shutdown. Perhaps before the patch today?
There’s no reason why there would be that many there (especially in an overflow) unless they were kicked out of WvW. Which did happen today.

Only 7?

10.
Hanging in LA as snowmen

12 in a BL
Non-commanders need not apply.

Got another screenshot of 14 commanders in a BL.. I wonder if there is a limit?

Yeah, but to be fair.
Commander is probably too easy to get for jsut a minor 100G.
With already 7 months in it’s obvious that alot of people got it by now.
On udnerworld (EU) i’ve seen 20 commanders at once at best in Lion Arch. That wasn’t when WvW was down.

I personally think i wouldn’t mind some sort of limitation on the amount of commanders in a specific area. your entire mini map gets filled up every now and then. Not saying to remove any of their functionality just the icon display can get a lot worse in a couple of months.

It’s a possibility; But if you get booted out of WvW due to a reset, wouldn’t you end up in front of the WvW portals and not in the northern trade section of LA? That’s assuming the reset is very recent.

Also, I believe the scores reset about 5 hours ago. I highly doubt WvW cue times are five hours long assuming these Commanders are waiting for a WvW cue to pop up. I think the longest cue time I got was about an hour, maybe two.

At the time of this posting, I see six Commanders in this overflow.

Ari Kagura.9182:

It’s a possibility; But if you get booted out of WvW due to a reset, wouldn’t you end up in front of the WvW portals and not in the northern trade section of LA? That’s assuming the reset is very recent.

Also, I believe the scores reset about 5 hours ago. I highly doubt WvW cue times are five hours long assuming these Commanders are waiting for a WvW cue to pop up. I think the longest cue time I got was about an hour, maybe two.

At the time of this posting, I see six Commanders in this overflow.

Oh. I had assumed you took the screenshot earlier today.

LilMcGinley.3890:

12 in a BL
Non-commanders need not apply.

Got another screenshot of 14 commanders in a BL.. I wonder if there is a limit?

I honestly would like to know what Tier this was on. This seems to be like an extreme case of the Yo-Dawg Syndrome.

ANET should seriously consider making the commander icon displayable ONLY in WvW!

Im Mudbone.1437:

ANET should seriously consider making the commander icon displayable ONLY in WvW!

I’m not sure if I totally agree with this one, only because they can be great when doing the Guild Missions or other guild-related events out in the PvE world. If anything, the Commander icon should be disabled in major cities, which the icon itself serves very little practical use.

Ari Kagura.9182:

Im Mudbone.1437:

ANET should seriously consider making the commander icon displayable ONLY in WvW!

I’m not sure if I totally agree with this one, only because they can be great when doing the Guild Missions or other guild-related events out in the PvE world. If anything, the Commander icon should be disabled in major cities, which the icon itself serves very little practical use.

I agree, then in WvW and GM areas.

We had just as many in our LA today waiting for WvW to reset.

We use it as a place to gather and plan where each guild is going and to have fun.

I don’t see the purpose of this post.

I dont understand why it would bother you tho…

Ari Kagura.9182:

LilMcGinley.3890:

12 in a BL
Non-commanders need not apply.

Got another screenshot of 14 commanders in a BL.. I wonder if there is a limit?

I honestly would like to know what Tier this was on. This seems to be like an extreme case of the Yo-Dawg Syndrome.

Tier 1. When we were on SoS, we had FoE and Agg commanders just hop to an outmanned BL, throw up our tags and started taking stuff. We took hills with 15 people, 12 commanders

gillius.2856:

I dont understand why it would bother you tho…

Really? It’s not occurring to you how this might be frustrating for someone trying to use the radar/map to spot a specific icon, especially a new player?

Because I remember when I wasted 20 minutes trying to locate the trade broker (whose icon was buried under commander icons) the first time I went to Lion’s Arch.

It’s annoying when looking for your PvE team-mate(little blue dot on map) at a place you don’t remember to meet for an event is one good reason.

Vinny.6924:

We had just as many in our LA today waiting for WvW to reset.

We use it as a place to gather and plan where each guild is going and to have fun.

I don’t see the purpose of this post.

I can understand when Commanders are waiting for WvW to reset. That makes sense to me.

What doesn’t make sense is when there are so many Commanders in LA long after the reset. I thought it might have been them waiting on a queue time, but then I remembered that it was just more than 5 hours past the reset … queue time can’t possibly be that long, can it?

They bought it – they have the right to turn it on or off when they wanted to.. They are not violating any of the game’s rules..

Why the rant?

They could be having a meeting for all you know..

It may be an issue having the minimap fill up with the icons, but making them visible only in WvW isn’t the solution. I don’t do WvW often at all. The only thing I do use the commander tag for is for organizing temple runs and other large-scale PvE when I want people in the map to gravitate towards whatever’s going on since I play during off hours. For example:
-I’m running around in Hrathi
-The events start to push into the centaur main encampment
-I call it out in map chat; nobody shows up
-I enable the commander tag; a few people show up, enough to do the final event

There are other uses for it outside of WvW, although that certainly is the main point of it. Also organizing teams to escort NPCs for certain temple chains, etc.

knives.6345:

They bought it – they have the right to turn it on or off when they wanted to.. They are not violating any of the game’s rules..

Why the rant?

They could be having a meeting for all you know..

It’s true that they bought it with their money. I get that part. I’m not ranting about that. Actually, it’s more like a concern than it is a rant. If it was a rant, then my post would be full of “kitten” after every third word.

As I mentioned before, I didn’t mind when it was just one commander in LA; and I do see suitable uses for it in PvE such as the recently introduced Guild Missions. In fact, I know my guild, which primarily does PvE content, uses commanders to help rally guild members to key locations for bounties and group events, especially when it comes to the Temple events in Orr.

But when you have a bunch of Commanders in a general non-combat area, it does get somewhat annoying. If there really was a meeting of some sorts, even if it’s an RP session (which I doubt since it’s on an Overflow), wouldn’t the head of the meeting say “Meet at my location.”

Again, I don’t see a practical application for the Commander icon when in a major city. In most cases, if the gathering of guild members would take place in a city, almost always, a general location would do (eg. “Meet us near the dungeon vendors.” or “the Asura gates” or “the Lion statue” etc etc).

Ari Kagura.9182:

knives.6345:

They bought it – they have the right to turn it on or off when they wanted to.. They are not violating any of the game’s rules..

Why the rant?

They could be having a meeting for all you know..

It’s true that they bought it with their money. I get that part. I’m not ranting about that. Actually, it’s more like a concern than it is a rant. If it was a rant, then my post would be full of “kitten” after every third word.

As I mentioned before, I didn’t mind when it was just one commander in LA; and I do see suitable uses for it in PvE such as the recently introduced Guild Missions. In fact, I know my guild, which primarily does PvE content, uses commanders to help rally guild members to key locations for bounties and group events, especially when it comes to the Temple events in Orr.

But when you have a bunch of Commanders in a general non-combat area, it does get somewhat annoying. If there really was a meeting of some sorts, even if it’s an RP session (which I doubt since it’s on an Overflow), wouldn’t the head of the meeting say “Meet at my location.”

Again, I don’t see a practical application for the Commander icon when in a major city. In most cases, if the gathering of guild members would take place in a city, almost always, a general location would do (eg. “Meet us near the dungeon vendors.” or “the Asura gates” or “the Lion statue” etc etc).

Question we need to ask is, why are you annoyed?

Do they make you lag? Do they block your oh-so-awesome view? Do they spam?

I mean, if you get annoyed simply because they have a commander hat on – no offense, sounds like you envy them or is bitter on them for some sort..

I could be wrong – I just don’t get why you get annoyed over something like that.

I don’t envy them— at some point, I’ll eventually get my own if the need arises for one but I don’t find myself using the commander features at this time since my guild has suitable commanders right now.

The annoyance would primarily be because they’re just so many of them. Again, I don’t mind one or two, but any more than that and I’m left scratching my head and bringing up the concern of “Commander Spam” on the minimap. The further questions are just silly and frivolous, and serves nothing more to incite rage. And honestly it takes a lot more to get me mad about something.

Instead, I posted this thread to bring up a concern, which is different from a rant. The issue would be that with so many Commanders on the mini-map, it just becomes more of an annoyance if anything. I’d say that if you want to show off in being a Commander, then go out and actually command something! Kill invaders, take camps, recapture temples, and behead those guild bounties. Actually put that 100g book to good use!

Ari Kagura.9182:

I don’t envy them— at some point, I’ll eventually get my own if the need arises for one but I don’t find myself using the commander features at this time since my guild has suitable commanders right now.

The annoyance would primarily be because they’re just so many of them. Again, I don’t mind one or two, but any more than that and I’m left scratching my head and bringing up the concern of “Commander Spam” on the minimap. The further questions are just silly and frivolous, and serves nothing more to incite rage. And honestly it takes a lot more to get me mad about something.

Instead, I posted this thread to bring up a concern, which is different from a rant. The issue would be that with so many Commanders on the mini-map, it just becomes more of an annoyance if anything. I’d say that if you want to show off in being a Commander, then go out and actually command something! Kill invaders, take camps, recapture temples, and behead those guild bounties. Actually put that 100g book to good use!

Ok. I still don’t get what you are annoyed at – I mean, there are more people spamming in chat than the total commander hats worn – but yeah, it’s how you feel…

knives.6345:

Ari Kagura.9182:

I don’t envy them— at some point, I’ll eventually get my own if the need arises for one but I don’t find myself using the commander features at this time since my guild has suitable commanders right now.

The annoyance would primarily be because they’re just so many of them. Again, I don’t mind one or two, but any more than that and I’m left scratching my head and bringing up the concern of “Commander Spam” on the minimap. The further questions are just silly and frivolous, and serves nothing more to incite rage. And honestly it takes a lot more to get me mad about something.

Instead, I posted this thread to bring up a concern, which is different from a rant. The issue would be that with so many Commanders on the mini-map, it just becomes more of an annoyance if anything. I’d say that if you want to show off in being a Commander, then go out and actually command something! Kill invaders, take camps, recapture temples, and behead those guild bounties. Actually put that 100g book to good use!

Ok. I still don’t get what you are annoyed at – I mean, there are more people spamming in chat than the total commander hats worn – but yeah, it’s how you feel…

At least chat could be filtered using the appropriate settings. I have tabs set up to show only Guild chat, only Party chat, and so on. Commander icons? I just have to deal with them until a feature could be implemented to filter out some or all of their presence when I’m not interested in them.

There were nine (9!) at Shadow Behemoth yesterday…..

They need an option for players not to see the commander icons. Every one is happy. Problem solved. Anet hire me.

The commander icon should only be visible to the squad members as only the squad members are affected by the commander and the only thing the commander can really do is add special waypoints to the map for his/her squad that only the squad members can see.

Done.

Lil Puppy.5216:

The commander icon should only be visible to the squad members as only the squad members are affected by the commander and the only thing the commander can really do is add special waypoints to the map for his/her squad that only the squad members can see.

Done.

You realize that there’s far more value in a commander icon in WvW than just what it affords squads.
Especially since the icon is kind of what gets people to join a squad in the first place.

Like you said, in WvW, I’m simply affording the ability to use it for guild events too.
I don’t have my guild icon on the world map do I? If you’re going to make a squad, let people know, then you’ll get the people who want to be in a squad to follow you around instead of a mass zerg just following the shiny leader. There’s far more value in a leader that has a competent squad than one that just has people in a squad.

First time I saw one I though it was a GM, was one of the beta events and everyone was following during an event.

Anyway, I don’t really care, it’s just obnoxious in cities when it covers the NPC icons if you’re a new player or don’t frequent those cities much. Or figure out a different way to show the NPC and other map icons and the commander icon if they’re going to overlap.

All Anet as to do is code the icons priority so NPC icons overlap the commander icon instead.

shakes head this thread makes me sad. Those players and their blue icons, sometimes I just forget I have it on. I use the commander status in PvE all the time, as I lead the map in doing meta events and jumping puzzles. Some people would like it turned off for all PvE and deleted from the interface because it annoys them?

Sorry for being such an annoyance by talking in map chat and running around with a blue icon. I’ll try and keep the noise down, with all the people around me having fun together.

LilMcGinley.3890:

Only 7?

10.

12 in a BL

Got another screenshot of 14 commanders in a BL.. I wonder if there is a limit?

Ohmagawd I needed that laugh:

“IM LOST IN A SEA OF BLUE DORITOS!”

:D Thanks for that!

There were 10 commanders today at shadow behemoth. Actually none was them were showing the icon until one did then suddenly 9 more blue doritos appeared. I said this since beta events. I really don’t need to know where “Commander McLook At Me” is doing his PvE activities. Make it only visible for your squad members in PvE and visible for everyone in WvW. Or make it visible only for your guild members or friends.

when i need to afk i tend to do it in LA… if there happens to be a bunch of other commanders i might turn on mine for the hell of it

you know, im pretty sure it helps some people with name recognition in wvw. if they saw you sometime last week in LA theyll at least know you arent a new transfer in wvw… and thats about the only reason i ever turn it on in LA.

knives.6345:

They bought it – they have the right to turn it on or off when they wanted to.. They are not violating any of the game’s rules..

Why the rant?

They could be having a meeting for all you know..

I agree, they should be able to turn it on and off when they want.

However, we should be able to TURN IT OFF when we want. That is all that is needed, an option to NOT see it.

Lolpve commanders.

A lot of them are “Fashion Commanders” and only have it to look like they are important.

How many players with the Commander title actively run groups in WvW? 100%?

Not a chance.

Just wait, in like a year everyone will be a commander.

knives.6345:

They bought it – they have the right to turn it on or off when they wanted to.. They are not violating any of the game’s rules..

Why the rant?

Simply put, each player should be able to control what information is and isn’t displayed on their screen. And while players with the commander icon are free to display them whenever they want, I should have the option of choosing to not have their icon occupying space on my UI. You should not be able to force other players to view your clutter, especially across the map.

Eventually this will change, likely when nearly everyone has a commander icon and the minimap is rendered useless by icon clutter. It’s silly that we have to wait for that day when the functionality to opt out of seeing these icons should have been available to players from the beginning.

Actually it’s Anet’s UI. I want Anet to make it so I can’t see any other players on my screen, after all it’s my screen…oh, wait!

And I guess I understand the annoyance. I mean I get annoyed when people blow bubbles with gum inside their mouth and then pop it. But, seriously a thread about this?

The tag needs to be automatically forced disabled in non-combat zones.

And we need a UI element that provides options for what tags we see and when we see them… that way if I only want to see a commander from my guild, I have that option. Or if I only want to see 2 commanders that I feel are worth a kitten in wvw, I can shut the others off and limit the amount of useless information on my minimap.

Simple fix:

Every time you change zones, it turns the commander icon off. Person can just turn it back on if they want.

Allows people to use it as it is intended in WvW, allows them to use it in PVE if they want to be a marker for whatever thing, but would prevent alot of the icon spam.

Eh, I don’t mind it that much. They spent 100 gold for it might as well wear it around like it’s 100 gold. Everyone knows that true commanders frequent WvW and actually know what they’re doing, if it shows. There’s no such thing as a PvE commander, that’s like calling yourself a firefighter space clown, last thing I need is someone managing a zerg in PvE completing events in 10 seconds.

I myself would have spent the 100 gold in more important things, but they have enough loose cash to throw around and it’s none of my business to tell them how to handle their money or their blue doritos.

Atleast the blue dorito is more noticable than freaking titles, remember Anet? One of the good reasons why GW1 stayed alive and had an economy? Nah, we don’t want GW2 being an exact copy of GW1 because of those pesky titles.

My opinion on the matter, by having those pins showing on the map, they are covering other icons that players may be looking for (crafting NPCs, etc.). The pins are an annoyance at times, especially in towns. I would like an option to disable pin display.

Commander should be a symbol of accomplishment in WvW, instead for 100g you get a meaningless map symbol. Either they should not appear in pve maps or the title should be based on WvW achievemnts. As it is now, any idiot with 100g can become a commander while people who actually do a lot of WvW and are good, but don’t have the gold to spend, are out of luck.

Though the original intent of the Commander tag is to lead squads of players around in WvW, I do see some practical uses in PvE. For those who believe that Commanders should only be utilized in WvW, I’m thinking it could work like this for Commander-like people in PvE and have exclusivity to their own guild members:

Officer-assigned Commanders: These Commanders would either be temporary or permanent and assigned by their guild leader or officers. They would only be visible on the minimap for any representing guild members. The idea behind these commanders would be to assist in guild missions and other guild-related activities, however, these guild-assigned Commanders could also invite non-guild members to their squad and they would be able to see these Guild-assigned Commanders. These commander icons could also be be different colors or shapes to make it easier to coordinate (eg. “All Engies, Mesmers, and Necros go to Green Commander, all others go to Red Commander.” and so on.)

As far as the mass amount of Commanders in boss areas, like Shadow Behemoth, perhaps they could be consolidated as one icon to help reduce UI-clutter. Here are some examples:

i think Anet should just triple the size of vendor icons. or an option to turn off all other players NOT in your party. save FPS, and possibly helps with navigating lion’s arch.

since there is not much player-player trade, the ability to hide all other players not in your party is a good idea. or create content that moves people from Lion’s Arch, and into the other city hubs. i think it is going to get worse when the LA room full of in-progress portals is completed. they should put WvW portals in all cities (i do not recall seeing those anywhere else)

Options are good, a little check mark in the legends options on the map to shut off commander icons, would not be a bad thing. I firmly believe in giving the player a choice. I am against just deleting commander icons all together, because it does not suit some peoples definition of a “real” commander.

For the record, I do World vs World as well, in fact have a 4 hour guild event today to lead as a commander.

I like playing with people, the commander icon in all aspects of the game allows me to do this in a larger scale, pointing out events, doing mini dungeons or jumping puzzles with random people on the map is fun for me.

My guild does large scale guild events, with multiple parties in PvE all the time, having ability be able to see where the commanders in each grouping helps give a general location to each party group. This also allows for others not in the guild to follow us and participate. I am sorry some see no value in this for the players base to have.

I see where these post against commanders is coming from, and options to filter commanders should be in the game. However any implementation to take away how some people have fun in the game is not an option to me, simply because others having fun on the map and chat, annoy a few people.

here goes 700g

Commanders… the walking advert for gold sellers everywhere!