Guild Wars 2

There was a time you could actually hide but now you can’t because your character has their BIG RED NAME always within easy view of the enemy screen.

Intentional or an overdue unfixed-bug?

Something I always wished was possible but’ll probably never happen.

Doggie.3184:

Something I always wished was possible but’ll probably never happen.

It IS possible, a little more than 6 months ago your blaring character name wouldn’t pop up.

Then, unannounced, the change happened.

Lol, seeing the enemy with a big red set of words above their heads was one of the things that made WvW a huge joke to me from launch. I still think it’s a joke for several reason, but that’s a whole new topic

Yep, nothing like looking for that group that just ganked your teammate only to see some red nameplates sticking out from behind the corner of a wall as they lie secretly in wait for their next victim.

Found a mesmer hiding in Stonemist last night. Sitting there, in a very well hidden spot all the way up top. With a big red name plate giving him away.

McFly.2134:

Lol, seeing the enemy with a big red set of words above their heads was one of the things that made WvW a huge joke to me from launch. I still think it’s a joke for several reason, but that’s a whole new topic

It wasn’t at launch. This was an unannounced change a while back.

At first I thought it was a bug but now, don’t know.

Yeah, in terms of WvW I have always wanted to fight with subterfuge and sleight. When there’s a giant red “I AM HERE” tag on your head, it is absolutely impossible.

It’s a big map! Plus it needs more tactics and counters anyway, so being able to hide away in an area where an enemy is unsuspecting would make a world (pun) of difference to the game play.

In terms of scope, there still needs to be a method to identify friend from foe. I think there is a game-engine limitation which would easily allow enemies to be ‘tagged’ and shared with others, but perhaps something simply like a mouse-over a player will highlight them red for you.

Nova Stiker.8396:

Doggie.3184:

Something I always wished was possible but’ll probably never happen.

It IS possible, a little more than 6 months ago your blaring character name wouldn’t pop up.

Then, unannounced, the change happened.

not an unannounced change at all. They said that they were taking away the mechanism that prevented displaying all players in an area, due to the effect being exploited in WvW. I forget what it was called, but there was a whole series of posts about it for 3 months before they actually took it out.

Nova Stiker.8396:

McFly.2134:

Lol, seeing the enemy with a big red set of words above their heads was one of the things that made WvW a huge joke to me from launch. I still think it’s a joke for several reason, but that’s a whole new topic

It wasn’t at launch. This was an unannounced change a while back.

At first I thought it was a bug but now, don’t know.

I don’t know if your memory is accurate. I specifically remember in the very first week this game even came out, standing in WvW having a conversation with a guildmate. I remember (as does he) commenting on how idiotic it was that I can see an opponent’s “Dragonbrand Attacker” or whatever it said in red letters above his/her head. It eliminated absolutely any chance of hiding without the use of skills.

It’s a client option to see enemy names. You probably just had it off before. Also, server side culling was removed, which was hiding the names in certain circumstances before.

This game is too zergy to not have name templates. I could understand if the new map was already out and it was capped to about 20-30 players per side, but with 100+ people on each side you have no other way of differentiating them.

Edit: It is a bug, however, that since the culling update enemy names appear even with the relevant option turned off. But this only seems to occur in WvW. That update introduced about a few dozen different graphical bugs that have not been fixed. nor have the developers shown any intention of fixing them.

The only one I know they fixed for sure was NPC names always being shown in PvE.

Hannelore.8153:

It’s a client option to see enemy names. You probably just had it off before. Also, server side culling was removed, which was hiding the names in certain circumstances before.

This game is too zergy to not have name templates. I could understand if the new map was already out and it was capped to about 20-30 players per side, but with 100+ people on each side you have no other way of differentiating them.

Edit: It is a bug, however, that since the culling update enemy names appear even with the relevant option turned off. But this only seems to occur in WvW. That update introduced about a few dozen different graphical bugs that have not been fixed. nor have the developers shown any intention of fixing them.

The only one I know they fixed for sure was NPC names always being shown in PvE.

I don’t know. One of my fondest memories of Lord of the Rings Online PvMP was wandering around solo doing whatevs, seeing a zerg on the horizon and being like “KITTEN”, duck behind the trunk of a tree that is JUST big enough to cover the body, see the zerg come close yet divert away in another direction, step out and laugh triumphantly. That kind of thing is never even close to possible in GW2. LOTRO handled it fine without nameplates being on ALL the time. You just tab-targetted when you got close. GW2 could handle this in so many different ways. Heck, you can see people’s nameplates through walls and obstacles in GW2. Complete and utter joke.

WvW is mainly a battle between zergs. Zergs are a lot of people, and the reason why they did this nameplate thing was because of culling. Culling made characters invisible, because their models haven’t loaded, and because of the amount of players, the models took a really longtime before they loaded.

Some players barely knew what they got killed by because the zerg was invisible. The nameplates got added so you could see how many there actually were, and where they moved.

I take this nameplate thing over any “hiding behind trees 1vs1 battles”.