Guild Wars 2

What do you think about event notification in one corner of your screen . I dont think about boss schedule but about events all over tyria . It will bring back players to all zones . Every player will see different active event so it wont be massive zerg event but players will recieve some special rewards for beeing every day hero .

The screen acreage is already clogged up enough as it is. We do not need more useless crap closing in on us. Also, this would never happen in a world where footwork is required to explore and find said events.

There are ~1500 events in the world. If even only one quarter were active at one time that would be 375 event notifications. Seems like an awful lot of text on the screen.

As an alternative, they could have the boss schedule available in an in game menu, perhaps tucked inside the hero panel somewhere or something. Doing something for every little event in the game would simply not be feasible, but it makes sense for the global events.

Right now, if you want to look up the boss spawn time schedule, you need to refer to a page on the wiki, which is slightly cumbersome and not obvious to newer players. If you could just open up a certain menu in game that would display an event timer reference, it would be a lot more convenient. It also means you don’t have to clog up the screen with more things.

This could potentially lead to other features, such as setting an in game reminder about when a certain global event is nearing its activation time (i.e. 10-15 minutes prior), so that you could be busy doing WvW, PvP, or PvE stuff and not accidentally forget to attend the event you wanted to.

I’ve known various other MMOs to include such a feature (i.e. Neverwinter has a little window you can open and close for the schedule), and it would fit well with the set event schedule they have established here. I think it perhaps wouldn’t have worked prior to megaservers, but I think this would be a good companion feature now that they’ve set the fixed schedules.

Definitely more of a QOL/convenience thing though.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

There are ~1500 events in the world. If even only one quarter were active at one time that would be 375 event notifications. Seems like an awful lot of text on the screen.

I dont wanna add all events just one DIFFERENT notification for every player which will help spread people equally on all events . Thank this events which are already dead will have second life and people who level dont have to solo events because no one is there

Only if they redesign the megaboss events (ie Tequila, Shatterer, temples, etc) to occur after each other. So that every hour or so you get the notification that oh, Tequila has landed. Then next hour that Grenth is open for attack. Etc and so on.

This is extremely unlikely to happen however. Having them all pop up would be bad.

TBH I am more in favor of a better dynamic map instead of having event notification, passivly notifying you that something is going on in the zone when you look at it and highligt nearest waypoint to that event (passivly meaning you have to look at the map, the event wont obnoxiously poke you in the eye with a GUI element every time it occur).

VOLTCIEAGE.3029:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

There are ~1500 events in the world. If even only one quarter were active at one time that would be 375 event notifications. Seems like an awful lot of text on the screen.

I dont wanna add all events just one DIFFERENT notification for every player which will help spread people equally on all events . Thank this events which are already dead will have second life and people who level dont have to solo events because no one is there

So, just a random event somewhere in the world for each player? Something like what happens now, except that now they are limited to the area the player is in?

I’d be more interested in seeing the events for the map I’m on, as orange circles on the map for ongoing events and orange dots for events that can be triggered.

Right now there are orange circles, but you need to be close and the orange icons above NPCs head, you have to actually be there to see them. I would like these to be viewable map wide.

Having notifications appearing and disappearing on my UI for maps I’m not on, that would cost me more silver to travel to than I would gain by doing them, would be annoying. It’s not likely people would use this system to waypoint then run to random map’s events.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

VOLTCIEAGE.3029:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

There are ~1500 events in the world. If even only one quarter were active at one time that would be 375 event notifications. Seems like an awful lot of text on the screen.

I dont wanna add all events just one DIFFERENT notification for every player which will help spread people equally on all events . Thank this events which are already dead will have second life and people who level dont have to solo events because no one is there

So, just a random event somewhere in the world for each player? Something like what happens now, except that now they are limited to the area the player is in?

no group of players get notification about event in tyria it can be even defending statue in ascalon , you can just decide "ok ill go and help " and recieve extra rewards for doing this event or just ignore it, minimize it and wont see event tracker at all , like living story you will see only small green bar on you screen .

What about putting a notification in a chat window. Have it set for close like on the mini or for the map you are on. You could also have it so it is Tyria wide for those interested in all the events. This way it is out of the way but can still be seen if one chooses to want it. I don’t know how hard it would be to program in but have it so they check which area they want to have events notified in the window like you can choose which notifications you get in the chat as is.

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

I definitely agree that in-game world boss availability messaging is something that should be implemented and it’s something we would like to do.

One thing I’ve always enjoyed about map completion is the abundance of things to do in any order I wish. Events could sort of have this nature if we showed them map-wide. But even telling players about events that are across a single map can be tricky business depending on the nature of that event. A number of events can be completed well within the time that it would take to travel to it from even the nearest waypoint. Yet a good argument for showing them anyway would be a map such as Dry Top or the Crown Pavilion, wherein you might care about the state of the events even if you don’t plan on participating in them.

Do you think that showing all of these events makes the map feel cluttered? Would it make finding the information you care about more difficult?

lol! I remember when this was asked for in beta, and Anet was adamant it was an awful idea. Turns out players made their own timers so Anet belatedly follow.

World boss events should be shown, as should any event tied to a trait aquisition, any group event also.

Minor events should not generally be shown all the time, maybe an option to show on map if you want to.

I may be wrong, but if I remember correctly you already dismissed the idea of showing events from others maps, so we are just talking about events in the current map and bosses on schedule, right?
Also with megaserver probably it isn’t possible anymore to show events not on schedule.

Btw, I’m for a better visibility for events, if you feel there are too many events just tone down the circles, make them semi-transparent and enlighten them when you place the cursor over them.

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

Do you think that showing all of these events makes the map feel cluttered? Would it make finding the information you care about more difficult?

I think that depends on the customization of the UI. Something this game lacks at the moment. For some it would only add to the already existing clutter for some it would be useful.

When we had the event API working those that wanted it went out to look for it. Some only cared about the world bosses and got one of those timers. Some cared about all the events and looked for one of those timers.

I think that work should be focused on enabling the event API system again so players can choose the looks/amount of information available to them. Obviously it can not be run based upon your home server. Perhaps something with OATH can be used to detect what shard you are on and what events are on that shard to enable the API again. That way the community can determine what would be useful for them and make things based up on that.

Maybe there could be two additional tabs added to the Hero panel – Map Events and Boss Events.
Map Events would offer an overview of the events based on the current map, with an option to toggle an alert for their start. It would probably come as an on-screen message (like the ones that appear when there are updates to download, basically).
Boss Events could be similar, but limited to bosses and over all the maps. Maybe there could be also some info about the rewards.
Anyway, when toggled, in addition of the on-screen message on activation, the particular event could appear in a tab on the top right (alike to how achievements you’re following are displayed) along with a countdown to the activation, where available (since many of those follow a time table).

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

I definitely agree that in-game world boss availability messaging is something that should be implemented and it’s something we would like to do.

I’ve posted about it earlier during the implementation of the megaserver system when talking about populating low-level maps, but it got merged into the megathread:

Lishtenbird.2814:

3. Let players know what is happening in the game and where it is happening!

• Would developers like to know why many people cosplay in hub cities and not play the game? The answer is simple: they don’t know what to do. Yes, they can go do a dungeon, but they may need a party and it gonna be long and unrewarding if they’re bad at it; they may go do a personal story step, but it’s unrewarding and so single playerish that it’s boring (and at some points it’s over anyway). They will not go explore because you have to walk through half a map to even stumble upon an event, and the one you stumble upon will most likely be unsoloable – and not worth the time anyway. In other words: this is a multi-player game, yet there are little means provided to us to “multi-play” as a whole server, and doubly so for players in small friend-only guilds (who are unable to read guild chats of larger social guilds they may join).
• Solution 1: make all major events always displayed on the whole world map. You open the map – you see one of the Balthazar chains being done – you hop on, contribute, everyone wins. If the map is hardcapped, just overlay it with some kind of red tint and make the event icons disappear.
• Solution 2: make a world event tracker similar to map/local event trackers. At any moment in time you can push the “Active world events: 7/50” button and see a list of events all over the world. It can be a UI button, an event tab in top-right corner, an “event fairy” summonable NPC, an inventory “asuran broadcasting stone” – whatever it takes to tell people what they can do.
• Solution 3: make a /world chat channel so that people can interact with others and write “We’re alone at Grenth pre, come help or it gonna fail!”, or “Tequatl turret defense set up, need DPS people!” without leaving the map (and risking their slot/losing progress from a contested waypoint) and wasting time cycling through cities.

I still think that showing all events in maps like Escape from LA and Dry Top which require group effort would’ve made life better for the majority of players, effectively eliminating the need to ask “Any events?” and the need to copy-paste over and over again something like this.

To avoid the possible clutter, there’s a simple solution: display only “events in range” on the minimap, but display all events on the map [M]. Or give players an option in the settings where they can choose event notification range for both maps.

For world bosses, as the megaserver system has been implemented anyway, an event fairy might be a better suggestion.

Could add the champ symbol like the commander symbols that is they are on the mini map edges and you can move the mini map around to see what is happening on the map you currently are on.

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

I definitely agree that in-game world boss availability messaging is something that should be implemented and it’s something we would like to do.

One thing I’ve always enjoyed about map completion is the abundance of things to do in any order I wish. Events could sort of have this nature if we showed them map-wide. But even telling players about events that are across a single map can be tricky business depending on the nature of that event. A number of events can be completed well within the time that it would take to travel to it from even the nearest waypoint. Yet a good argument for showing them anyway would be a map such as Dry Top or the Crown Pavilion, wherein you might care about the state of the events even if you don’t plan on participating in them.

Do you think that showing all of these events makes the map feel cluttered? Would it make finding the information you care about more difficult?

As somebody who played RIFT a while after its release, i’m all for showing all events that happen at least on the current Map.
Of course the best would always to have options, so give us a checkbox for showing them all or just what is showed actual.

One reason why people don’t do a map’s regular (non Big Boss) events is how hard it is to find them. You have to roam around, hoping to run into an orange circle or get a notification. That much down time, looking for something to do is boring. Previous to the Megaservers I used an app that would tell me events A, B and C are up. I could waypoint or run to them and do them. The Megaservers killed that app and I’m doing a lot fewer events now.

If you could look at the big map and see, for that map, orange circles for ongoing events or orange dots for NPCs who can give you an event then it’s obvious what that map is offering for you to do. Without some sort of long range notification system the maps appear barren of stuff to do. If you want to get the daily events or farm karma it’s much easier to run the Champ train in Frostgorge or EOTM rather than go to some map and wander around hoping to find something.

It would be amazing to have the boss icon show up in the world map and could be limited to champions or higher. I would love more options to the UI like this that could be toggled on or off and then people can choose what to run.

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

Do you think that showing all of these events makes the map feel cluttered? Would it make finding the information you care about more difficult?

For the mini-map, I would find it cluttered to see all events in the instance. I would also find it cluttered to include a list underneath the standard personal story/nearest event list.

Instead, I wonder if ANet can follow in the footsteps of gw2state.com and similar sites by creating a two-tier event overlay to go on the primary map.

• First tier: toggle on the event overlay on or off (default).
• Second tier: choose options for which events to display, for example:
  • Champion events.
  • Meta events.
  • Events active for more than 20 minutes.
  • Trait-unlocking events.

I suppose ANet could also add an option for display a list of upcoming timed events in the zone.

Regardless of the details, I would hope ANet would avoid a one-size-fits-all approach.

PS Thanks for addressing this — I think a lot of players have been hoping for something like this for a while.

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

I definitely agree that in-game world boss availability messaging is something that should be implemented and it’s something we would like to do.

One thing I’ve always enjoyed about map completion is the abundance of things to do in any order I wish. Events could sort of have this nature if we showed them map-wide. But even telling players about events that are across a single map can be tricky business depending on the nature of that event. A number of events can be completed well within the time that it would take to travel to it from even the nearest waypoint. Yet a good argument for showing them anyway would be a map such as Dry Top or the Crown Pavilion, wherein you might care about the state of the events even if you don’t plan on participating in them.

Do you think that showing all of these events makes the map feel cluttered? Would it make finding the information you care about more difficult?

what if holding, say, control (or any other key you find appropriate) with the map open displayed all events on the map, but without holding that extra key, the map stays as is (i.e. showing only nearby events)? that way the map UI remains clean, but when you want a feed on events going on, you can just hold a button to see them all, and once you let go of it, the map goes back to normal.

In areas like Dry Top where map-wide event completion leads to rewards, (merchant tiers,) having the events on the mini map would be brilliant. Just the small event icon without the AOE ring would be fine.

This would be great if you could have control over how much information and what kind of information is displayed in it.

when is the Marjory’s Dagger coming back to the trading post i would like to invest some gems into it?

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

Do you think that showing all of these events makes the map feel cluttered? Would it make finding the information you care about more difficult?

I am already annoyed by the buggy events which does this so making all of them behave this way would be horrible.

The buggy events(just the notification as far as I know, the event run fine otherwise) I can thing of are in wayfarer foothills. They are in the lower half of the map but you get the stuff like the shield icon even when you are standing all the way at the svanir dome. There is also one in dredgehaunt cliffs and one in diessa plateau.

There is rarely ever I good reason to travel(either running or using a WP) to the other side of a map just for an event. The only exception might be world bosses but those usually get mentioned in map chat anyway.

There could be a ‘tracker’ panel in which you enable the events you want to see when they are up. Open tracker, click Tequatl, the icon pops 5 min before the event starts.
Things like completed dungeon paths and daily bosses could also appear in the tracker, with a column that has a green check mark for those things already completed.

As for map-wide event visibility, I would recycle scouts.
Once you’ve done all hearts linked to a scout, they become useless. And scouts in maps without hearts just repeat the same thing.

So they should get a dialog option. You talk to them, and you get two options: Debriefing and Reports.
“Debriefing” tells the usual dialog and disappears from the dialog options once the map has been completed, while “Report” shows the map with all active events, and gives you options for a small “Scout Intel” buff that will keep events icons in the map for some time (there could be several options, e.g.: 15min, 30 min, 1hour, 2hours, remove buff) regardless of distance, although the event circles will not appear until you are close enough.
Maps without scouts like Southsun would get some scouts too.
And their icons would stay visible, so you can always find the closest scout to check for events.

how about an event notification toggle… sort of like the achievement one in the top right? then you could turn it off if you’re working on something else. otherwise it could be a nuisance.

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

Do you think that showing all of these events makes the map feel cluttered? Would it make finding the information you care about more difficult?

That would have to be tested and adjusted.

There are two possibilities I think, one would be allowing to select individual (world)events to follow and display on the map, similar to selecting dailies to watch.

The other would be an additional tab on the top together with functions like the BLT, PvP or WvW.
Basically a “what is going on in tyria”. Current events running, up coming events and perhaps a brief summary of what else is going on in Tyria, where the Living Story is atm or festivals that are running/cycling.

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

I definitely agree that in-game world boss availability messaging is something that should be implemented and it’s something we would like to do.

One thing I’ve always enjoyed about map completion is the abundance of things to do in any order I wish. Events could sort of have this nature if we showed them map-wide. But even telling players about events that are across a single map can be tricky business depending on the nature of that event. A number of events can be completed well within the time that it would take to travel to it from even the nearest waypoint. Yet a good argument for showing them anyway would be a map such as Dry Top or the Crown Pavilion, wherein you might care about the state of the events even if you don’t plan on participating in them.

Do you think that showing all of these events makes the map feel cluttered? Would it make finding the information you care about more difficult?

I think events should just remain discoverable. The map completion is sort of already check-boxy enough in my opinion.

I would love to have something in the notification board for world bosses and map icons for everything going on in the zone. I’d prefer if I were the one to decide “can I get there in time”, especially if the event completion percentage was also posted.
It would really help me participate and check a few tick marks on daily/monthly event achievements.

Bonus, it would keep me from camping the Junkyard for event credit (>_>") and would answer a lot of those “Train?” questions in map chat.

If it ends up being in chat, it shouldn’t be in map chat. It should have it’s own channel which you can check in out out of any channel to remove it if you don’t want to see it.

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

I definitely agree that in-game world boss availability messaging is something that should be implemented and it’s something we would like to do.

One thing I’ve always enjoyed about map completion is the abundance of things to do in any order I wish. Events could sort of have this nature if we showed them map-wide. But even telling players about events that are across a single map can be tricky business depending on the nature of that event. A number of events can be completed well within the time that it would take to travel to it from even the nearest waypoint. Yet a good argument for showing them anyway would be a map such as Dry Top or the Crown Pavilion, wherein you might care about the state of the events even if you don’t plan on participating in them.

Do you think that showing all of these events makes the map feel cluttered? Would it make finding the information you care about more difficult?

I don’t think it would make the map cluttered, especially if it was only used to show group events, the ones that normally take longer to do if there are less people or take huge mobs to get done anyway… like the Claw of Jormag for example.
But if it were literally every single event yes it probably could clog the map. But I think more so what we would like to see is not having the normal UI clogged anymore than it currently is. As moving around and resizing the UI is limited at the moment. Any chance we could pretty please have that more customisable too?

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

Do you think that showing all of these events makes the map feel cluttered? Would it make finding the information you care about more difficult?

Event announcements poping up on my screen is a bit annoying, IMO.
And if you decided to place active events on the corner of the screen (as in the personal story and achievements) it would be very clutering.

But, I do want a way to know when events are going on. I just want to be able to select what and when.

One way this could be done is to use the scouts already in game.
you could talk to certain scouts so they tell you later (mail or pop-up warn) when certain event or event chain is starting in his area.

This would make so that you need to explore the map first, before you can be told of that event, and would give a new use for scout npcs.
The downside would be the need of going to the scout to ask for a report and then going back when they tell you (double travel)
The report could be one-time-per-request or toogle mode.

Anyway… just ideas.

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

I definitely agree that in-game world boss availability messaging is something that should be implemented and it’s something we would like to do.

[…]

Do you think that showing all of these events makes the map feel cluttered? Would it make finding the information you care about more difficult?

(Preface: I am not a big fan of timed boss spawns/timed invasions anyways since they completely ruin the dynamic event promise of “a world that cares whether I am there” or not, but I won’t cry over spilled milk.)

I would advise against putting such notifications in the UI. You started the game with a very sound design philosophy of “playing the game, not the UI”. Hence I would recommend to use that principle for event notifications, too.

There are so many way you could use the gaming world to make us aware of distant events instead of just adding another loaded piece of UI. People could gossip about Bridgewatch Camp having fallen under centaur control in the Harathi Hinterlands. A merchant could report about dragon sightings in Blazeridge Steppes. A town crier could run through Lion’s Arch, screaming: “People, there are reports about a three-headed monstrosity attacking the Bloodtide Coast! Step forward an defend our southern borders!” Or, If you want to do something really awesome, then a big dragon could fly across adjacent maps (casting a big shadow don below) into the direction of Sparkfly Fen.

This would also help bringing some of that lost “dynamic” back into that now statically scheduled world. Having just another “exclamation mark above an NPC’s head” (or whatever variant the UI feature you would end up using) is just the lamest way of doing it.

Erick Alastor.3917:

I may be wrong, but if I remember correctly you already dismissed the idea of showing events from others maps, so we are just talking about events in the current map and bosses on schedule, right?

This is also my understanding. For all other events, there is no definitive state anymore.

~MRA

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

I definitely agree that in-game world boss availability messaging is something that should be implemented and it’s something we would like to do.

One thing I’ve always enjoyed about map completion is the abundance of things to do in any order I wish. Events could sort of have this nature if we showed them map-wide. But even telling players about events that are across a single map can be tricky business depending on the nature of that event. A number of events can be completed well within the time that it would take to travel to it from even the nearest waypoint. Yet a good argument for showing them anyway would be a map such as Dry Top or the Crown Pavilion, wherein you might care about the state of the events even if you don’t plan on participating in them.

Do you think that showing all of these events makes the map feel cluttered? Would it make finding the information you care about more difficult?

I would love to be able to see events across the whole map. Sometime I zone in, think the whole place is dead, and then quit. If players knew what was going on, I think they would focus more. Perhaps a simple icon to indicate where an active event is would be a good solution. Once you get closer to the icon, it becomes a big orange circle, or whatever event indicators are normally associated with it. This would be especially useful in maps like Dry Top, that depend on how many events are completed within a limited time.

I also think it would be fantastic for there to be a boss timer in-game. I would love to fight more bosses, but I find myself averse to using third-party sites or applications to find out when they will be available (make it feel less like an adventure and more like a job). Let players really see how much there is to do! We might better notice when you add new events to existing zones too (whatever happened to that promise anyways?)

I think having visible map wide icons showing active events or events that can be activated would be especially helpful to new people. There was one thread a few days ago where the OP didn’t seem to know about events at all. He was complaining about how boring the game was and it seems that he was just doing hearts. If there was map wide icons appearing and disappearing this should be enough to pique their curiosity to check them out.

As to far away events ending before I get there, maybe so but I would prefer to have the choice of whether or not to try for it. If it’s really a concern then increase the area that orange circles can be seen, maybe to 1/3 of the map, and add event NPC icons to that area.

Yamsandjams.3267:

As an alternative, they could have the boss schedule available in an in game menu, perhaps tucked inside the hero panel somewhere or something. Doing something for every little event in the game would simply not be feasible, but it makes sense for the global events.

Right now, if you want to look up the boss spawn time schedule, you need to refer to a page on the wiki, which is slightly cumbersome and not obvious to newer players. If you could just open up a certain menu in game that would display an event timer reference, it would be a lot more convenient. It also means you don’t have to clog up the screen with more things.

This could potentially lead to other features, such as setting an in game reminder about when a certain global event is nearing its activation time (i.e. 10-15 minutes prior), so that you could be busy doing WvW, PvP, or PvE stuff and not accidentally forget to attend the event you wanted to.

I’ve known various other MMOs to include such a feature (i.e. Neverwinter has a little window you can open and close for the schedule), and it would fit well with the set event schedule they have established here. I think it perhaps wouldn’t have worked prior to megaservers, but I think this would be a good companion feature now that they’ve set the fixed schedules.

Definitely more of a QOL/convenience thing though.

This is a useful suggestion – model it after some of the old event timer overlays, place it in either a separate tab on the Hero page OR in a section of the social menu. Have the ability to sort by region/map or by event time (if predictive) or how long it’s already been running (if anet thinks “predictive” is too immersion-breaking).

EDIT: and I’d rather have NOTHING in the upper right hand corner at all, because it’s distracting as it is, BUT, you could steal the Achievement tracking feature (slect to track in upper right) for those who want it up on screen.

this really needs to go in, esp now boss events are not linked to chains (and how lame is that) and are just on timers and a rotation (living world? lol, scheduled events…..how far this game has fallen).

KarateKid.5648:

I’d rather have NOTHING in the upper right hand corner at all, because it’s distracting as it is, BUT, you could steal the Achievement tracking feature (select to track in upper right) for those who want it up on screen.

I’m not particularly bothered by the size of the tracker, but it would be nice to have more robust options in what we can track, and keeping it off the API would keep clutter down.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Instead, I wonder if ANet can follow in the footsteps of gw2state.com and similar sites by creating a two-tier event overlay to go on the primary map.

• First tier: toggle on the event overlay on or off (default).
• Second tier: choose options for which events to display, for example:
  • Champion events.
  • Meta events.
  • Events active for more than 20 minutes.
  • Trait-unlocking events.

I suppose ANet could also add an option for display a list of upcoming timed events in the zone.

I think the overlay on the map screen with selectable options would provide everyone with enough freedom to display the info they wanted without creating a massive clutter for folks that prefer fewer things shown. It also doesn’t affect the main screen, so it’s not like you’d be in the midst of a battle and have a bunch of notifications pop up, blocking your view. As was stated, the more options the better, but that they should be options is most important of all.

It all depends on the events.
As it is now, there’s Personal Story, Living Story, Achievements (Daily or Monthly), and Meta Events (zone specific) that use the space. If you add more, it will be more cluttered than it already it is.

There are many solutions that can be done though. The best one, would be, to let us customize which event UI’s we want to hide or show.

MRA.4758:

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

I definitely agree that in-game world boss availability messaging is something that should be implemented and it’s something we would like to do.

[…]

Do you think that showing all of these events makes the map feel cluttered? Would it make finding the information you care about more difficult?

(Preface: I am not a big fan of timed boss spawns/timed invasions anyways since they completely ruin the dynamic event promise of “a world that cares whether I am there” or not, but I won’t cry over spilled milk.)

I would advise against putting such notifications in the UI. You started the game with a very sound design philosophy of “playing the game, not the UI”. Hence I would recommend to use that principle for event notifications, too.

There are so many way you could use the gaming world to make us aware of distant events instead of just adding another loaded piece of UI. People could gossip about Bridgewatch Camp having fallen under centaur control in the Harathi Hinterlands. A merchant could report about dragon sightings in Blazeridge Steppes. A town crier could run through Lion’s Arch, screaming: “People, there are reports about a three-headed monstrosity attacking the Bloodtide Coast! Step forward an defend our southern borders!” Or, If you want to do something really awesome, then a big dragon could fly across adjacent maps (casting a big shadow don below) into the direction of Sparkfly Fen.

This would also help bringing some of that lost “dynamic” back into that now statically scheduled world. Having just another “exclamation mark above an NPC’s head” (or whatever variant the UI feature you would end up using) is just the lamest way of doing it.

Erick Alastor.3917:

I may be wrong, but if I remember correctly you already dismissed the idea of showing events from others maps, so we are just talking about events in the current map and bosses on schedule, right?

This is also my understanding. For all other events, there is no definitive state anymore.

~MRA

I love the idea of using the NPC’s to announce it, after all, it is their world being affected, rather than some “pop up” in UI as its suppsoed to be dynamic, this is GW2 not WoW where you do something and everything stays the same !!

A customizable boss spawn notification system would be nice. Options to include no notification(no extra UI element shown) or as many as the next three bosses to spawn.
The suggestion above to have a map with all the events in the map showing would be very nice. Again some people may not want to see this feature so it could be a feature that is off by default and only shown when the player selects to view it. Or if it’s not too much trouble to program, the ability to customize the radius of events that are shown on the map.

mojowalker.3798:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Instead, I wonder if ANet can follow in the footsteps of gw2state.com and similar sites by creating a two-tier event overlay to go on the primary map.

• First tier: toggle on the event overlay on or off (default).
• Second tier: choose options for which events to display, for example:
  • Champion events.
  • Meta events.
  • Events active for more than 20 minutes.
  • Trait-unlocking events.

I suppose ANet could also add an option for display a list of upcoming timed events in the zone.

I think the overlay on the map screen with selectable options would provide everyone with enough freedom to display the info they wanted without creating a massive clutter for folks that prefer fewer things shown. It also doesn’t affect the main screen, so it’s not like you’d be in the midst of a battle and have a bunch of notifications pop up, blocking your view. As was stated, the more options the better, but that they should be options is most important of all.

This option is also quite good but I think that people will take part only in boss events to get rare+dragonite ore and I wanted to add notification tracker to any event like killing alpha drake in bloodtide coast or killing fire shaman in plains of ashford , in this way people with high endgame gear will have motivation to participate in some low lvl chain event with leveling chars , all zones will have players doing events . But the biggest problem with that system is spreading players equally to avoid 30 players zerging alpha drake . And I think that in this system player should tp to area for free to bring more players or notification like "Hero ! players in bloodtide coast need your help (event name+description) click to tp " and you will tp for free to nearest wp and you will be in the same overflow . Helping player should get much more gold,karma or even special tokens similar to dung ones .
And second thing event visibility is also important , we should be able to open world map and see events in lets say our current zone .

Do you think that showing all of these events makes the map feel cluttered? Would it make finding the information you care about more difficult?

I have been asking for this SINCE LAUNCH.

Now in most cases I wouldn’t want to have the full event breakdown on the right side at all times, that would definitely get cluttered, but here’s what I would like to see ideally, in order of importance:

1. To be able to see ALL events within minimap range on the minimap. Some events currently don’t show up until you’re less than half a fully zoomed out minimap away.

2. To be able to see ALL events in the zone you’re in on the full scale map (m).

3. To be able to mouseover distant events on the map and see their orange completion bars, so you could watch how they are progressing (I understand this is likely a bit harder).

4. To be able to click on the orange circles on the maps to “pin” an event to your sidebar as if it were right next to you, even if it’s on the opposite side of the map. I again understand this is likely a bigger UI lift, but it’d be great.

Beside all that, we need to have a World Boss timer built into the UI, rather than having to rely on third party sites to know which world bosses are currently up.

All I want is a way to be able to track when temple events or Arah are up in Orr. They aren’t scheduled, so it’s incredibly difficult to know when they’re up.

At least maybe make it so there’s an NPC at the temple or a nearby waypoint that tells when the event last occurred, that way I have an idea of when to zone back in to see if the temple is uncontested and starting its event chain.

I would like to see a world boss timer in game, and any trait events. The rest I can live with out. Though it can be annoying when you get to an event just as it completes. So knowing how long an event is buy maybe a colour change of the event as it move to completion. Maybe be green orange and red?

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

I definitely agree that in-game world boss availability messaging is something that should be implemented and it’s something we would like to do.

One thing I’ve always enjoyed about map completion is the abundance of things to do in any order I wish. Events could sort of have this nature if we showed them map-wide. But even telling players about events that are across a single map can be tricky business depending on the nature of that event. A number of events can be completed well within the time that it would take to travel to it from even the nearest waypoint. Yet a good argument for showing them anyway would be a map such as Dry Top or the Crown Pavilion, wherein you might care about the state of the events even if you don’t plan on participating in them.

Do you think that showing all of these events makes the map feel cluttered? Would it make finding the information you care about more difficult?

You know….I posted this nearly 2 years ago….had to be at least September 2012.

There should be an App. Currently I can get world event notifications via some random webpage designed that uses the API info, sadly this got borked for Temples with the megaserver thing. However I would like something from in-house development, that I can rely on, that is stable. Sure you could put an Event Browser with countdown timer and waypoint links (that can be used to link in chat as well), along with timer chimes for alerting, etc., into the game. That would be fabulous. Yet I would also like an iOS/Android app that I ckittene with my device.