Guild Wars 2

There really are not so many commanders on a field so as to make colors more than just helpful. I suppose it helps when saying “Follow blue or Follow Yellow” and that is helpful, but not really critical or that impactful.

I see this as more of a quality of life feature vs something that will create new strategies etc.

Thankyou so much for the change <3 Anet!

Bombsaway.7198:

There really are not so many commanders on a field so as to make colors more than just helpful. I suppose it helps when saying “Follow blue or Follow Yellow” and that is helpful, but not really critical or that impactful.

I see this as more of a quality of life feature vs something that will create new strategies etc.

• In WvW, typically people limit the map to 1-2 to make it easier to coordinate; that can change now.
• In PvE, there are often multiple commanders in the map for different meta events taking place. This will enable new strategies to develop.
• And, of course, in PvE, there are plenty of vanity plates, too. This will make the map more colorful, but won’t do anything to address the issue that anyone who plays long enough (and wants a tag) can get it.

So, actually, this change is more than a quality of life change, even if it’s not going to completely change the game.

SleepingDragon.1596:

As for Anet doing that buy now for 100g to save 200g and not care about the ones who bought multiple tags, the best thing for them to make it fair for all is implement a 300g price tag all around for changing from soul bound to account bound. Those with 3 tags gets merged into 1 new account bound version. Those with more than 3 tags gets a refund of 100g each. Those who got 1-2 tags needs to fork over that 100-200g to upgrade it to account bound. Personally I see that as being the fairest option.

I must say, this seems practical and fair. That way no one is denied their current purchases while spending the gold rewards with the benefit! Nice idea! Really like it! +1

Although I appreciate the job that Anet has done to get these coloured Tags in game which will be of “some” use by all means, and new colours is a good start. But i was hoping for something a little more of use to actually commanding and structuring your zerg. Something that would truly be a big change (a very helpful one) for us WvW (and PvE partly) dwellers.

Taken from a previous post i done with a diagram of what i was really hoping for, or something at least similar.

1. Tags with squad limits and various prices respectively, and each colour having a unique use instead of a fashion parade.

Gold Tag: Small strike team Captain upto 10 people (2 parties)
Red Tag: Squad commander, upto 30 people consists of upto 3 strike teams (6 parties)
Blue Tag: Main map General/Commander Consists of upto 3 Squads (18 parties)+1 2nd in command.
Green Tag: Guild groups, can consist of the same amount as a Blue Main map commander, but only applicable/visible to member of the Guild you are currently representing.
Colored tags are purchasable NOT earned through rank, earning individual colours through rank, will put off people wanting to take up being/learning to be a commander and turn things into a popularity contest.

2. Commander alert system.

3. Improved Supply info/range.

4. Account Bound.

5. Secrecy Chat Channel: for commanders only, which will be able to contact commanders on different maps in order to call for short term back up.

6. Chat Suppression: Not removed completely or it WILL get abused/trolled, but improved alot. although doing the above i mentioned with the tags and squads should eliminate excessive use of other channels apart from squad etc.

7. Ability to make tag invisible to select groups.

kitten thats a long post, gonna split it up

Example of Tag acquisition (not just a gold payment)

Each tag comes with a commanders log, where they have to capture x amount of structures and having to complete these events with atleast 70% of their squad on map.
Once commanders log is complete (hence gaining leadership experience, from small scale to large scale) upon handing in their completed log they are then eligible to purchase next rank.

Example:

Gold – Captain
35g – 10 players max – strike team
Must achieve the following to be eligible to purchase next rank
35hrs minimum, commanding at least 70% of their squad completing the following objectives:
capture 70 supply camps and 70 ruins Or 70 supply camps and 70 mercenary camps.

Red – Commander
75g – 30 players max – Guild Support group
Must achieve the following to be eligible to purchase next rank
75hrs minimum, commanding at least 70% of their squad completing the following objectives:
Capture 100 Towers and 100 Keeps and 100 supply camps

Blue – General
150g – 91 players max (includes his 2nd in Command) – battle field General
Must achieve the following to be eligible to purchase next rank
150hrs minimum, commanding at least 70% of their squad completing the following objectives:
Capture 250 towers and 250 keeps and 500 supply camps and 100 Stonemist castles and 250 Mercenary camps or 250 Ruins

Platinum – Legendary General of the [enter servers name]
300g
This rank has no extra abilities than a General (Blue tag), and is only for show as in recognition to the amount effort u have made in commanding your server, and the time taken in completing a generals log.

although I have just made up figures I hope you can see what my ideas are.
this idea not only makes use of small groups people trying to complete logs to promote themselves but also have large groups on map too for the other commanders to try and promote themselves too.

Where as ruins and mercenary camps are sometimes left alone and are not a massive necessity these ideas will bring them into the game more than they are.
People will now have incentive to fill up their squads as much as they can (or at least to 70%) even if your a General you still have incentive to push harder even if it means it wont affect your abilities at all its still an achievement.

PvE Commanders
could be done in a similar manner in regards to world bosses/events or tequatl with turret commanders etc (sry don’t know much about PvE lol) but just a suggestion.

A new UI window would probably be needed though, Something similar to the guild roster (could also be located there) with multiple party windows, with a drag and drop scenario, to organize parties and class composition. This would also fall in nicely with the Gold/Red/Blue Tag scenario.

Rank Structure of a Blue icon General, I have provided an img of how I would have liked it to work Image is in post above which u probably already seen, notice I have placed prices in regards to acquirement, Gold Icons are pretty cheap since they you need more of them and less people under your control. This would also encourage strike teams and roaming.

Obviously figures, colours and suggestions were not precisely accurate, but more towards putting the idea out there.

Hello.

To make it easy for everyone and anet I made an info-graphic about the upcoming commander changes. Enjoy!

TADA!: http://i.imgur.com/CHDEQub.jpg

Before reading the rest of my post, please check the graphic first as I will refer to it.

So, first I don’t really understand why the merged topic exists only in WvW section. I know that commanders are crucial to that part of the game but what about all of the ones commanding on Tequatls and Wurms?

I always thought that anet actually made the commander character bound for exactly this reason (check the graphic) but since the announcement I’m starting to think that it just turned out this way when they made the game. period.

Please do not call it a “system”. How can you call an icon above your head which gives you no useful things whatsoever except showing your position on map a system! I mean like.. really? Just to compare, anyone there in your office checked out “Battlefield 2” years ago? (I know, its an oldie…) That game had a commander SYSTEM.

For all of you saying “just join squad you won’t see other tags blah blah blah” Just woah, chill. Apparently you are one of those LA commanders and you never commanded with random people did you huh? Like they will listen yeah maybe 1% of them will.

I have 4 commander tags. Like many other people who actually use them for something. Will we be able to get a refund for 3 commander tags? You know… since all those people who are now rushing to buy one for only 100g will get a FREE upgrade? (Can you feel that rage if we won’t? I can see people leaving this game.)

OK, enough ranting! How about some SOLUTIONSSSSS…..

Everyone with 1 commander tag -> should still have character bound tag with only blue color (old system) with ability of purchasing the UPGRADE book for additional 200 gold to be enrolled into the new system. OR get a refund and no tag.
Everyone with 2 commander tags -> should still have character bound tag with only blue color (old system) with ability of purchasing the UPGRADE book for additional 100 gold to be enrolled into the new system. OR get a refund and no tag.
Everyone with 3 commander tags -> should be upgraded to the new system.
Everyone with 4 and more tags -> Should be able to get a refund for every next commander tag after the 3rd one. OR be acknowledged for all our hard work and get extra colors.

IF people with only one commander tag will get a full upgrade to the new system where some of us paid 300g and more and we wont be allowed to get a refund… well then. Nice way to treat your players anet! I mean really, kudos to you! You sound like reasonable people! I’d love to have friends like that. honest.

agenciq.8043:

I have 4 commander tags. Like many other people who actually use them for something. Will we be able to get a refund for 3 commander tags? You know… since all those people who are now rushing to buy one for only 100g will get a FREE upgrade? (Can you feel that rage if we won’t? I can see people leaving this game.)

OK, enough ranting! How about some SOLUTIONSSSSS…..

Everyone with 1 commander tag -> should still have character bound tag with only blue color (old system) with ability of purchasing the UPGRADE book for additional 200 gold to be enrolled into the new system. OR get a refund and no tag.
Everyone with 2 commander tags -> should still have character bound tag with only blue color (old system) with ability of purchasing the UPGRADE book for additional 100 gold to be enrolled into the new system. OR get a refund and no tag.
Everyone with 3 commander tags -> should be upgraded to the new system.
Everyone with 4 and more tags -> Should be able to get a refund for every next commander tag after the 3rd one. OR be acknowledged for all our hard work and get extra colors.

IF people with only one commander tag will get a full upgrade to the new system where some of us paid 300g and more and we wont be allowed to get a refund… well then. Nice way to treat your players anet! I mean really, kudos to you! You sound like reasonable people! I’d love to have friends like that. honest.

Sounds fair to me. This way, we don’t punish the people who purchased the commander tags early and reward those who decides to get them after this announcement of such changes…

Twinny.9304:

Example of Tag acquisition (not just a gold payment)

Each tag comes with a commanders log, where they have to capture x amount of structures and having to complete these events with atleast 70% of their squad on map.
Once commanders log is complete (hence gaining leadership experience, from small scale to large scale) upon handing in their completed log they are then eligible to purchase next rank.

Example:

Gold – Captain
35g – 10 players max – strike team
Must achieve the following to be eligible to purchase next rank
35hrs minimum, commanding at least 70% of their squad completing the following objectives:
capture 70 supply camps and 70 ruins Or 70 supply camps and 70 mercenary camps.

Red – Commander
75g – 30 players max – Guild Support group
Must achieve the following to be eligible to purchase next rank
75hrs minimum, commanding at least 70% of their squad completing the following objectives:
Capture 100 Towers and 100 Keeps and 100 supply camps

Blue – General
150g – 91 players max (includes his 2nd in Command) – battle field General
Must achieve the following to be eligible to purchase next rank
150hrs minimum, commanding at least 70% of their squad completing the following objectives:
Capture 250 towers and 250 keeps and 500 supply camps and 100 Stonemist castles and 250 Mercenary camps or 250 Ruins

Platinum – Legendary General of the [enter servers name]
300g
This rank has no extra abilities than a General (Blue tag), and is only for show as in recognition to the amount effort u have made in commanding your server, and the time taken in completing a generals log.

although I have just made up figures I hope you can see what my ideas are.
this idea not only makes use of small groups people trying to complete logs to promote themselves but also have large groups on map too for the other commanders to try and promote themselves too.

Where as ruins and mercenary camps are sometimes left alone and are not a massive necessity these ideas will bring them into the game more than they are.
People will now have incentive to fill up their squads as much as they can (or at least to 70%) even if your a General you still have incentive to push harder even if it means it wont affect your abilities at all its still an achievement.

PvE Commanders
could be done in a similar manner in regards to world bosses/events or tequatl with turret commanders etc (sry don’t know much about PvE lol) but just a suggestion.

A new UI window would probably be needed though, Something similar to the guild roster (could also be located there) with multiple party windows, with a drag and drop scenario, to organize parties and class composition. This would also fall in nicely with the Gold/Red/Blue Tag scenario.

Rank Structure of a Blue icon General, I have provided an img of how I would have liked it to work Image is in post above which u probably already seen, notice I have placed prices in regards to acquirement, Gold Icons are pretty cheap since they you need more of them and less people under your control. This would also encourage strike teams and roaming.

Obviously figures, colours and suggestions were not precisely accurate, but more towards putting the idea out there.

I do not agree with 300 gold for any level or for any reason.

Mark Katzbach.9084:

Ragnar.4257:

Ragnar.4257:

Inb4 this was a calculated ‘leak’ so they can then ‘generously’ change the decision to show how ‘in touch’ they are with WvW players.

Say what

I’m just going to squash this rumor right now. Before the strong negative feedback received after the interview at gamescom, every intention was for each color to cost 300g. Pending QA, that version was ready to ship for the feature pack.

When the flood of feedback came in, there was a flurry of emails working out the best course of action, and in the end Zach and Tyler worked the weekend to make sure this change could be made on time for 9/9.

So, just double checking to make sure I’ve understood right….

A decision on a change like this can be taken via email, and the change itself can be implemented by 2 people working a weekend.

So how does that sit with what we’ve been told about how “time-consuming” and “complex” other minor changes are, and how they can’t be worked on because they’d take an entire development team weeks or months, which could be better spent elsewhere?

You can’t have it both ways.

Either changes like this take weeks to push through all the coding, testing and bureaucracy, in which case the sudden about-turn on the price is suspect. Or, these things can actually be done within a few days in response to community feedback, and the only reason we haven’t had this done in other areas is due to either dis-interest or pure bloody-minded stubbornness.

So which is it?

Because apparently changing the Yakslapper title from 1,000,000 to 10,000 is simply too much work, but changing 300g to 0g isn’t.

And to the various white-knights here: If people were always prepared to be content and settle with what they’ve got now, wxp would still be character bound, commander colours would still be 300g, OS would still be part of EB, queues would still be black-magic, seige would still randomly disappear, and humanity would still be living in caves.
I think the phrase you are looking for when talking to the people who don’t want to settle for 2nd best and who want to push for the full potential in something is “Thank You” not “entitlement”.

Ragnar.4257:

So, just double checking to make sure I’ve understood right….

A decision on a change like this can be taken via email, and the change itself can be implemented by 2 people working a weekend.

So how does that sit with what we’ve been told about how “time-consuming” and “complex” other minor changes are, and how they can’t be worked on because they’d take an entire development team weeks or months, which could be better spent elsewhere?

You can’t have it both ways.

Either changes like this take weeks to push through all the coding, testing and bureaucracy, in which case the sudden about-turn on the price is suspect. Or, these things can actually be done within a few days in response to community feedback, and the only reason we haven’t had this done in other areas is due to either dis-interest or pure bloody-minded stubbornness.

So which is it?

This guys deserves a medal for pointing that stuff out.

Anyhow! I made another info-graphic for all interested: http://i.imgur.com/s8atjxa.jpg

It is really sad to see how anet promotes all those CDI’s which many see only as a PR stunt and damage control for the upcoming feature patch where all those feedback topics like lets say… commander changes? are being ignored.

I would like to congratulate anet for literally pushing every 10 or 13 year old (figure of speech, nothing personal kids) to buying the commander tag since now they will also get all those fancy colours for 1/3 the price!

And I’d like to remind everyone that this is not about “Hey what can we do to turn the tags off in options?” Its about what to do so only the people that actually do SOMETHING with those tags to have them.

agenciq.8043:

Ragnar.4257:

So, just double checking to make sure I’ve understood right….

A decision on a change like this can be taken via email, and the change itself can be implemented by 2 people working a weekend.

So how does that sit with what we’ve been told about how “time-consuming” and “complex” other minor changes are, and how they can’t be worked on because they’d take an entire development team weeks or months, which could be better spent elsewhere?

You can’t have it both ways.

Either changes like this take weeks to push through all the coding, testing and bureaucracy, in which case the sudden about-turn on the price is suspect. Or, these things can actually be done within a few days in response to community feedback, and the only reason we haven’t had this done in other areas is due to either dis-interest or pure bloody-minded stubbornness.

So which is it?

This guys deserves a medal for pointing that stuff out.

Anyhow! I made another info-graphic for all interested: http://i.imgur.com/s8atjxa.jpg

It is really sad to see how anet promotes all those CDI’s which many see only as a PR stunt and damage control for the upcoming feature patch where all those feedback topics like lets say… commander changes? are being ignored.

I would like to congratulate anet for literally pushing every 10 or 13 year old (figure of speech, nothing personal kids) to buying the commander tag since now they will also get all those fancy colours for 1/3 the price!

And I’d like to remind everyone that this is not about “Hey what can we do to turn the tags off in options?” Its about what to do so only the people that actually do SOMETHING with those tags to have them.

Yes but dont forget that it is in WvW that the commander tag “gets a lot of the most support”.

Also the devs dont believe commander tags should be based on your character, but based on you, the commander. I mean that totally explains why since beta and for the last 2 years they have kept it character based, forcing commanders to buy a tag for each character.

As for the delayed CDI, if the devs thought players were gonna be hostile due to the delayed S2 rewards, how do they think players will be like after this featureless pack?! Alot of people are gonn abe unhappy, as well as asking why the above changes could be done in 2 days, as well as the fact that this quick turn-around from 300g for each colour to the single purchase, all it shows is that they have no idea of what they are doing!

agenciq.8043:

Ragnar.4257:

So, just double checking to make sure I’ve understood right….

A decision on a change like this can be taken via email, and the change itself can be implemented by 2 people working a weekend.

So how does that sit with what we’ve been told about how “time-consuming” and “complex” other minor changes are, and how they can’t be worked on because they’d take an entire development team weeks or months, which could be better spent elsewhere?

You can’t have it both ways.

Either changes like this take weeks to push through all the coding, testing and bureaucracy, in which case the sudden about-turn on the price is suspect. Or, these things can actually be done within a few days in response to community feedback, and the only reason we haven’t had this done in other areas is due to either dis-interest or pure bloody-minded stubbornness.

So which is it?

This guys deserves a medal for pointing that stuff out.

Anyhow! I made another info-graphic for all interested: http://i.imgur.com/s8atjxa.jpg

It is really sad to see how anet promotes all those CDI’s which many see only as a PR stunt and damage control for the upcoming feature patch where all those feedback topics like lets say… commander changes? are being ignored.

I would like to congratulate anet for literally pushing every 10 or 13 year old (figure of speech, nothing personal kids) to buying the commander tag since now they will also get all those fancy colours for 1/3 the price!

And I’d like to remind everyone that this is not about “Hey what can we do to turn the tags off in options?” Its about what to do so only the people that actually do SOMETHING with those tags to have them.

Commander tags have been kitten vanity items for a long time now. People just have a big incentive to buy them right now.

Mark Katzbach.9084:

At least one of your current characters needs to have consumed the commander book in order to unlock the account-wide feature.

Mr. Katzbach,

could you enlighten about what happens with a commander compendium bought before the upcoming update, but left unspent for reasons as not having settled on the choice character? Which feature will one of these “old books” unlock after 9/9?

Thank you.

Bazompora.2635:

Mark Katzbach.9084:

At least one of your current characters needs to have consumed the commander book in order to unlock the account-wide feature.

Mr. Katzbach,

could you enlighten about what happens with a commander compendium bought before the upcoming update, but left unspent for reasons as not having settled on the choice character? Which feature will one of these “old books” unlock after 9/9?

Thank you.

Old books will also become account bound as far as I know.

Substance E.4852:

Commander tags have been kitten vanity items for a long time now. People just have a big incentive to buy them right now.

Exactly, and problem that i see right now is multiply the number of trolls that had one commander tag (my fav LA commanders, how else we would find a bank?) by hm lets say 20-30? Since everyone just rushed to buy them not to mention account bound so said troll will be able to turn it on whenever.

Hm, if some changes were made over the weekend… we have 7 days till the patch, how about doing something that would actually help improve the situation and not make it worse.

A lot of people especially gw2 players forgot that buying a commander tag doesn’t magically make them a person fit to lead others, especially when they have no idea about how dodge even works in this game. Same way as installing photoshop won’t make me a graphic designer all of a sudden.

It’s sad to see how this game is designed. Gw2 gives ppl the ability to get almost anything in the game without any effort whatsoever hence “casual”. But something like commander tags shouldn’t be easy accessible because this actually can ruin the experience of other people playing the game.

One way to limit commander tag bloat is to turn them off after a few minutes if the commander does not have anyone (or maybe even more than one, if troll teams are a problem) in their squad. Yes, a commander could keep popping it back on, but it wouldn’t stay on if there weren’t people actually joining their squad to follow them.

Another way to limit commander tag bloat would be to limit the number of commander tags shown on a map to 5 determined by WvW rank in WvW and by achievement points in PvE. Or a softer version would be that once there are 5 commander tags up on a map, the only way you can turn on another is if you have a higher WvW rank or more achievement points, so that no commander tag that’s already one will be turned off. The number doesn’t have to necessarily be 5 and it may need to be a different number in WvW (where more than a few commanders on a map can cause problems) and PvE (where there are events that can justify 5 or more commanders on a map).

Berk.8561:

Another way to limit commander tag bloat would be to limit the number of commander tags shown on a map to 5 determined by WvW rank in WvW and by achievement points in PvE. Or a softer version would be that once there are 5 commander tags up on a map, the only way you can turn on another is if you have a higher WvW rank or more achievement points, so that no commander tag that’s already one will be turned off. The number doesn’t have to necessarily be 5 and it may need to be a different number in WvW (where more than a few commanders on a map can cause problems) and PvE (where there are events that can justify 5 or more commanders on a map).

This would be tricky as WvW rank doesn’t determinate if the person is fit to command the same as achievement points have nothing to do with player skill.

Since high WvW rank can be achieved just by running with your server zerg and pressing 1 on your guardian staff. Same as achievement points can be “farmed” by finishing dailies or participating in every new LS release.

It only determinate how much time said person spent on those activities.

agenciq.8043:

This would be tricky as WvW rank doesn’t determinate if the person is fit to command the same as achievement points have nothing to do with player skill.

True, but there is no reliable way to determine if a person is fit to command in the game. Beyond the fact that there is a certain amount of subjectivity as to what makes a person a good commander, any system implemented to rate or rank commanders based on skill could be gamed or manipulated. Given that, achievement points and WvW rank at least suggest the player has spent a lot of time in that game mode and has some familiarity with it.

Substance E.4852:

Old books will also become account bound as far as I know.

They already are. But they wouldn’t do something like making the currently existing compendia unusable, when the new compendia will be sold by trainers, would they?

Bazompora.2635:

Substance E.4852:

Old books will also become account bound as far as I know.

They already are. But they wouldn’t do something like making the currently existing compendia unusable, when the new compendia will be sold by trainers, would they?

I highly doubt it. Most likely they’ll grandfather in existing books like they will with existing tags. Usually when they do this kind of thing the code for the item is changed so it cascades to all of the items in game. I don’t think they would go through the extra trouble of making an entirely new item to stand in for compendiums, rendering existing books obsolete.

If the colored tags in any way help reduce the quantity of players in huge mega zergs then it’s o.k. with me.

Substance E.4852:

Bazompora.2635:

Substance E.4852:

Old books will also become account bound as far as I know.

They already are. But they wouldn’t do something like making the currently existing compendia unusable, when the new compendia will be sold by trainers, would they?

I highly doubt it. Most likely they’ll grandfather in existing books like they will with existing tags. Usually when they do this kind of thing the code for the item is changed so it cascades to all of the items in game. I don’t think they would go through the extra trouble of making an entirely new item to stand in for compendiums, rendering existing books obsolete.

Why not just use the book before the patch to be safe? It makes no difference what character you put it on because after the patch all your characters will become commanders – and have access to multiple colors.

Ive had a commander compendium for a while in my bank, I never knew which character I would need it on.

Do I have to use it before the 9th? Or can I just keep it there and activate it whenever? Will I miss out on anything by not activating it before the 9th?

Ocean.2548:

Ive had a commander compendium for a while in my bank, I never knew which character I would need it on.

Do I have to use it before the 9th? Or can I just keep it there and activate it whenever? Will I miss out on anything by not activating it before the 9th?

Impossible to say for certain. I don’t think you will as it’s more work to set it up that way but Anet loves to surprise us so it’s better to use it now. You will get it on every toon after the update with all the colors no matter which guy you use it on.

There’s probably no risk with waiting but there’s really no reason to either so the better bet is to just use it now.

Do you bet on black with a 100% chance to win or stick with red at a 99% chance?