Guild Wars 2

Commander UI: A map/UI window that allows commanders to view all sub-commander’s locations and their nearby allies and enemies via map dots (same radius as normal player range) as well as placed siege of all types (icons for siege will be displayed on the map)

The commander UI will allow the commander to view any supply currently located in any server owned towers/keeps/camp/etc. on the UI screen. (Ex. Location Name – Supply:125)

Custom waypoint markers and path markers will be given to the commander and will be displayed on the map and mini-map of any sub-commanders, with an option to be displayed to all, or specific sub-commanders.

Some markers may include:
– Arrows for directional guidance
– “No Symbol” for halting movement to certain zones or areas, or localize movement
– Stars/Diamonds/Circles/Squares for team stacking/movement
– Unique siege icons to pinpoint locations for siege placement such as ballistae/trebuchets/catapults.
– Custom icons for hotspot identification or reinforcement routes.
– Shield icons for defense locations

Commanders will be able to also directly use the Draw feature on the Ui map and will be shown to all active/or specified sub-commanders.

A side-bar on the window will also display the number of sub-commanders/other commander locations on the other maps for WvW uses (ability to see how many sub-commanders are located in each borderlands + EB listed in the window)

Sub-commanders (current commander system): Current commanders will be now labeled as sub-commanders, with the ability to access and alter their commander icon to various shapes and colors to help keep themselves locatable among other sub-commanders (one may have a pink star, another may have a green circle)

The color chosen will also determine their chat name color when using a new commander chat (similar to Team chat) allowing players to identify specific commanders orders directly in chat. They will also have the ability to place custom waypoint markers that can be directly linked into chat for pinpoint team movement.

Commander: This will now be a position limited to 1 per map and have direct contact with all sub-commanders, view all members within sub-commanders squads as well as their supply counts, and access to a new custom UI (see above). The position will require a new pre-requisite to become a commander.

With the influx of gold into the economy, the numbers of commanders have risen considerably, as well as the confusion associated with new commanders in both WvW and PvE environments. Limiting the “high tier” commander to 1 per map, and having a new pre-requisite (maybe even a small test given by an NPC, that simply shows they are capable of commanding) would help alleviate the overall messiness of the current system.

I agree Zeitlogik that the commander and squad system could use more functionality.

DevonCarver.5370:

Ahmrill.7512:

I agree Zeitlogik that the commander and squad system could use more functionality.

As do I. We will address this system when we are able to completely revamp it and bringing it to the level it should be at.

you heard it here first mates! Expect commander UI changes in November! (2014)

DevonCarver.5370:

Ahmrill.7512:

I agree Zeitlogik that the commander and squad system could use more functionality.

As do I. We will address this system when we are able to completely revamp it and bringing it to the level it should be at.

I understand that completely revamping and doing it right will take time…. no issues there. I sincerely hope there is some way for guild or players to make private squads within the new system. It’s very difficult for our guild to play the way we enjoy without controlling the size and makeup of our force, that’s impossible with the current setup.

If there is a way to resolve the broken group UI in WvW a little sooner, we’d really appreciate it. We have to deal with that on a daily basis and it’s very frustrating…. it’s caused me to snap in game and on some threads in this forum.

DevonCarver.5370:

As do I. We will address this system when we are able to completely revamp it and bringing it to the level it should be at.

Then do it. You’re kind of in charge of this whole WvW thing right?

Fixing preexisting problems with gameplay should be of paramount importance to you.

DevonCarver.5370:

Ahmrill.7512:

I agree Zeitlogik that the commander and squad system could use more functionality.

As do I. We will address this system when we are able to completely revamp it and bringing it to the level it should be at.

Do it before you work on more masteries. Your playerbase would greatly appreciate you guys taking the initiative.

DevonCarver.5370:

Ahmrill.7512:

I agree Zeitlogik that the commander and squad system could use more functionality.

As do I. We will address this system when we are able to completely revamp it and bringing it to the level it should be at.

Noooooooo!

Sorry, Devon, but your answer means we get zero (repeat ‘zero’) relief from this problem until the full feature takes-a-long-time-to-develop solution comes along – and work on that won’t even start until it gets high enough up the to-do list.

How many of us will still be here by the time that gets rolled out?

Is there a reason why you can’t add something like different colored commander tags to help us out in the interim?

Think about the return on effort of such a small scale change, even a temporary one. Allowing color changes will more than double the sophistication of the tag system, with the corresponding benefits to play. It may only bring us up to the bronze age, but that’s still a heck of a lot better than leaving us stuck in the stone age.

On a side-note, having small (nearly the same schedule as living story) yet meaningful implementations of updates would go a long way to appeasing the ever growing frustration among the playerbase.

-As someone has said, something simply like, being able to change your tag color, is small yet can have a very large impact.

-Something small like having personal waypoints visible from commanders would help quite a bit.

-Allowing players to on-the-fly create 5 man squads (even simply hitting a button and getting randomly grouping 5 players for starters) rather than party creation

-Something like allowing players to move supply manually from camps to towers/keeps would help kill off tower flipping and allow players to upgrade and maintain towers in a whole new way.

For me, this is the big ‘jam tomorrow’ topic.

It’s the one thing in the game that makes it almost impossible to organise the play.
It’s clear that Anet want to ‘redesign the concept’ and present the players with a custom built system designed to function along particular lines and according to a given model of warfare.
Well, that’s very nice – but it isn’t necessary, probably won’t work as expected and above all it’s too kitten slow!

Why not give us what we ask for? There’s a fairly broad consensus that a few simple changes would go a long way to creating a usable interface, one we could take and run with. Just a choice of colours would be a good start.

My point is that all the great games, like football, rugby, cricket weren’t ‘designed’. They grew out of the common desire of the players to make a fun game to play, with ad-hoc rules inserted and dropped as fancy took it.

Contiguous.1345:

For me, this is the big ‘jam tomorrow’ topic.

It’s the one thing in the game that makes it almost impossible to organise the play.
It’s clear that Anet want to ‘redesign the concept’ and present the players with a custom built system designed to function along particular lines and according to a given model of warfare.

It is very difficult to organize in GW2. We almost always have more than 5 people and don’t enjoy running in a massive zerg. We like a smaller roaming force that blocks players trying to reinforce an objective under attack. We also enjoy hitting objectives while the enemy zerg is tied up with our zerg and generally causing havoc.

Unless we have a private/guild in-game system to group more than 5 people that doesn’t involve creating separate 5-man groups and trying to run together…. it’s always going to feel difficult.

I’d be worried about 1 commander per map. How would that be decided, if for instance, 3 people are on the map with the same commander requirements? First come, first serve? And what would the requirements be to make it so that the people who are the “omni”-commanders are actually people interested/experienced in commanding?

DevonCarver.5370:

Ahmrill.7512:

I agree Zeitlogik that the commander and squad system could use more functionality.

As do I. We will address this system when we are able to completely revamp it and bringing it to the level it should be at.

I think many of us would have hoped with the amount of discussion and requests that a system would already be in the works. I will say I am disappointed that the system hasn’t yet been addressed, if I am reading your sentence correctly.

BlazeQ.1095:

I think many of us would have hoped with the amount of discussion and requests that a system would already be in the works. I will say I am disappointed that the system hasn’t yet been addressed, if I am reading your sentence correctly.

I feel the same way BlazeQ. Updated and functional grouping systems is the biggest priority for my guild and myself in WvW. It simply shouldn’t be this hard and frustrating to group and play with friends the way you enjoy.

Three things that really irritate me about being a Commander right now, and that is:

1. Commander Icon color is difficult to see if you’re BLUE.
2. /supplyinfo sucks, need to increase the range to like 300 yards and it should be an automatic feature with a small supplyinfo number at the top next to what we’re carrying.
3. Chat Suppression as a commander. Don’t know how many times i’ve been hindered from giving orders during defense and getting suppressed. Absolutely ridiculous!!!! The Chat Suppression is supposed to be used to keep gold sellers from panhandling, not to restrict gameplay.

Fixing these three things immediately will help a ton until they revamp it.

I dont like the subcommander/commander thing. Human nature at hand, it will be total chaos. People already paid 100 gold for the tittle, it makes them feel important and some people got it exclusively because of how “important” they sound and how people follow them. Some of us have never used it on WvW and use it exclusively in PvE (like me, have had it for 3 months and never used it once in WvW). Now you are taking away their importance and having to submit to someone else.

Here is where the real problem comes; you want only 1 supreme commander? How is it decided?;

Gold? Well, then people wil complain that they already spent 100 gold, thats a lot for many, you would only be giving an advantage to farmers and tp flippers, which I can bet you have near 0 WvW experience

WXP? Many people have alts, wxp isnt shared, this would be a good candidate, but it would have to be account bound, not souldbound, which would now bring the problem of having a random new guy who nobody knows commanding everyone, and that person would have to validate his name everytime.

Money (gems) GOes back to the people with a lot of $$ or time, neither usually have WvW experience and tend to have a big ego.

Popularity? People paying big guilds for “support”, people in big guilds themselves would have an advantage. Once again, neither is tied to WvW experience.

After all that comes the second issue, how is it decided who is the supreme commander? You will have people fighting on who should it be, and if they dont get it they might as well just fool around or grief in order to make the other look bad.

You cant have a random person command people who already think of themselves as worthy enough. It wont work, sorry, human nature, heck, I admit if I ever where to pop my commander tag at WvW I better get ALL benefices since those 100 gold didnt come easy and are soulbound to a character I dont use anymore.

How could it work? As you unlock more WXP you can change your commander tag evolves, that way it is souldbound, people know who it is, everything is based on how much WvW experience you have and no unfairness for anyone.

I tend to follow commanders I know and that comes from getting to know the commander. In my experience the commanders seem to work together so there is in essence already a “commander/sub-commander” kind of thing going on. As for the commander interface I have read a number of threads on this. As a few have said it would be nice if ANET actually did something with that (actions speak louder than words here). I can’t speak personally because I have no desire to be a commander. But if I have read a lot about it, surely ANET has too.

Havidos.9328:

Three things that really irritate me about being a Commander right now, and that is:

1. Commander Icon color is difficult to see if you’re BLUE.
2. /supplyinfo sucks, need to increase the range to like 300 yards and it should be an automatic feature with a small supplyinfo number at the top next to what we’re carrying.
3. Chat Suppression as a commander. Don’t know how many times i’ve been hindered from giving orders during defense and getting suppressed. Absolutely ridiculous!!!! The Chat Suppression is supposed to be used to keep gold sellers from panhandling, not to restrict gameplay.

Fixing these three things immediately will help a ton until they revamp it.

This, this, and this. I couldn’t really care too much about the other things, new colours would be nice I suppose, being able to stand around drawing pictures on the map sounds a bit impractical, but yknow, sub-commanders eh I think that would easily be solved by just different colours, but these others, those are the main main things for Commanders I think.

I am suppressed not that often, however when it happens it does drastically change the fight, we go from winning to losing and deteriorating very fast, and I have to rely on others to communicate for me shud I be able to whisper them fast enough or party chat them. These are definitely the issues that are most important, those fixed and you won’t see me complaining about Commander system

They are too busy setting up league play for wvw to work on functionality that should have been in the game on release.

Let commanders make a group outside the 5man group that way they will always se were the other commanders is and then can have a commander channel to talk in.

Fortus.6175:

I dont like the subcommander/commander thing.
[…]

Sorry but you wrote a big post about nothing.
Make it so the second commander can follow the first one as a sub-commander. Done. Functions entirely on a voluntary basis.
On my server, there is enough camaraderie and cooperation that some commanders acknowledge that others are more experienced and leave the big zerg to the “main commander” that evening.

Shadow.3475:

Let commanders make a group outside the 5man group that way they will always se were the other commanders is and then can have a commander channel to talk in.

This can also be used to choose who gets the Commander spot. The UI will list all current commanders, and they can have their own channel to communicate, and a majority vote among commanders will determine who is the Primary commander.

Fortus.6175:

snip

If your server has people who want to screw another person over simply because they spent 100g and feel the need to be important….then they should not be the commander….just saying

Niim.9260:

They are too busy setting up league play for wvw to work on functionality that should have been in the game on release.

WvWvW esports!
:D

Niim.9260:

They are too busy setting up league play for wvw to work on functionality that should have been in the game on release.

Or to ensure that ascended mats are included in WvW on a basis equitable with PvE.

Niim.9260:

They are too busy setting up league play for wvw to work on functionality that should have been in the game on release.

Sad truth there. Grouping systems are an afterthought and should have been a priority at release.

DevonCarver.5370:

Ahmrill.7512:

I agree Zeitlogik that the commander and squad system could use more functionality.

As do I. We will address this system when we are able to completely revamp it and bringing it to the level it should be at.

Which wont be till in a few years, guys.

Since forums dont specify year, this thread could also have been bumped from the future meaning Devon doesnt actually say that until next month.

Nice necro, still up to date lol.

Every red icon on the front page is a necro, ez.

Faith…lost….a long time ago Q _Q

Zietlogik.6208:

Faith…lost….a long time ago Q _Q

A year to give a choice of colors on commander icons and nothing is done… You can do this in a few days, perhaps a few hours with an artist and a good programmer.

I’m bitter….

Even red necro’s aren’t funny anymore

omg, I popped into this section and saw like 4 red posts… alll necros….

Deleting my Necro character!!!!!

The good/interesting thing is that the mods are now simply deleting/closing red necro posts, so soon we’ll risk having no red posts left!