I wanted to add some feedback about the guild hall decoration system that was shown off on the livestream.
The guild hall decorations remind me very much of the system of Dimensions in the game Rift. I spent an extraordinary amount of time making little custom worlds in there, and it was the one main feature that I still miss, having left the game around 3 years ago.
https://youtu.be/7_RA1z666Mo
One thing I really hope that they have, or add, with the guild hall decorations that they had in Rift, was the ability to scale items. Not only will this make things better (after all, a norn will need a larger chair than asura), but it also lets players be far more creative with the decorations.
Lack of collision is also good, but I didn’t see it in the stream, in fact there was a lot of ‘cannot place this item due to collision’ going on.
A lot of the players that spent a lot of time creating things in Rift’s Dimensions used the act of sinking one item into another to make it look like something else. Anthropomorphic design was one of the many ways that people could really make their own dimension unique. A large urn, sunk into a stone block with part of a gate showing through suddenly can be turned into a bbq, and boxes can be sunk into a bookshelf making it look like storage, rather than a library (you can see a couple of the simple things below).
Breach chamber dimension empty: https://youtu.be/lLDLIdE3Yn4
Breach chamber dimension house: https://youtu.be/tAdylfCUyy8
Another thing that occurred to me was how the items were being moved. In Rift’s Dimensions, you could place an item, and then once it was put down, you had the ability to move and rotate the item in all directions. I don’t know if perhaps I just didn’t see the full extent of the moving abilities on the stream, but being able to raise an item with the tools, rather than having to build scaffolding was really useful. I mean, sure, having to build scaffolding creates some challenge, but quality of life when building means that can get tiresome when you just want something positioned exactly right.
Anyway, those are my thoughts on the guild decorations. I am really looking forward to seeing them in game, because, as I said, I spent so many joyful hours creating little worlds within worlds. Keep up the good work Anet.