Since the Suggestion Subforums are locked, as I’ve just discovered, I guess I’ll post here under General GW2 Discussions. This would’ve been better off in the Suggestion Subforums. But… Oh well.
(1) Option to Disable Auto-Weapon Stow:
Sometimes I like to just keep my weapon out, when standing idle or running/walking to places. ATM, if I want to achieve the same effect I’d have to keep hitting a skill every 30 seconds. Pretty much not worth doing unless that’s all you care about, but would be nice if auto-stowing weapons became optional. If this was an option, I don’t know how anyone would disagree with this, because if a player doesn’t want that for their character, they can turn on the Auto-Stow, which is on by default anyway.
(2) Preview Instance:
A private instance in which you can access, wear and stand/run/walk around with any gear. I’d go so far as to suggest allow the player to wear any weight armor, light/medium/heavy, simply for the sake of allowing players to see how that armor looks like on their current character’s race/gender. However, do not allow for previewing mixed armor weights because that isn’t an option in the game currently; the idea would be nice, but I can see why people would complain about mixing up armor types. Also, it should obviously prevent you from previewing culturally specific armor that is outside your character’s race, since cross-cultural armor wearing isn’t an option in the game, currently.
If such a thing were to be implemented, inviting friends to come into the instance with you would be nice, if they wanted to see your outfit, but not necessarily the main point of this suggestion.
As for weapon previewing, it should probably be limited to what your current character’s class can wield. Although I can see a way to preview a weapon your class can’t wield —-if you wanted to preview it for reference, you can, but it would only have a basic auto-attack on it (or even allow a selection of weapon skills set from the various classes, like choosing Warrior, Guardian, Mesmer for the GS).
The point of this Preview Instance suggestion is to allow players to see how their characters look in real time, rather than a preview window that can sometimes look misleading or not even informative enough for a player to make a proper decision. Although, I think part of the reason why something like this hasn’t already been implemented is because ANET likes players to make “mistakes” or regrettable decisions in their armor/weapon customization so they can buy more Transmutation Crystals and the other various transmutation gem store items.
The ability to preview any armor and weapon (in real time) would be extremely helpful, especially if a player is still deciding on whether or not they want to craft/buy a legendary. There can also be an option to change the lighting type in the instance: Ascalon, Krytan, Maguuma Jungle, Shiverpeaks and Orr lighting, with both Day and Night alternatives. Of course, this instance is only for previewing in real time, so a player do not actually acquire these items, outside of the preview instance.
Ideally, from a player’s perspective this service should be free, and would become an extremely helpful tool. It should be an account-wide icon/button in the top left corner, where the Trading Post, Guild options are.
However, for the sake of implementation, I can see how ANET would like to generate gem sales from this. They could sell an ACCOUNT-WIDE upgrade for like 1000 gems to have that option appear in the top left corner. This would mean that all your characters are able to access the Preview Instance. This would provide further significance for allowing friends to join you in this instance, because it wouldn’t readily be available to everyone, only those that paid for it. And although I’d love to allow my friends to use this service as well, I can see how this would limit gem sales if a player can just ask a friend to go into his Preview Instance. Therefore I don’t think it should allow friends to preview items on their own characters, but only see your character wear stuff if the instance belongs to you.
Again though, previewing stuff is already free, although limited in its current state; you can’t even see dual wielding, or combat stance with weapons ATM. Ideally, if would be nice if this feature, if it ever happened, came free —but I am (personally) willing to pay an “acceptable” amount for it. This feature being a button in the top left corner, and not some account wide item that you have to keep transferring to alts.
EDIT: Obviously all dyes should be available in this Instance, since dyes are an essential part of customizing your outfit.
(edited by Regenesis.1798)