Guild Wars 2

We’ve endured 3+ years of nameplate pollution over the heads of enemy players and it would be refreshing to see their format reduced in any way possible.

It could be as simple as changing the server names to their commonly known 2 or 3 letter versions (JQ for Jade Quarry, SoS for Sea of Sorrows, etc.). Maybe even an abbreviated WvW rank or a corresponding colored icon/badge.

Seeing over an enemy “TC X [GILD]” (with X representing a colored rank icon/badge) rather than “Tarnished Coast Platinum Assaulter [GILD]” blobbed amongst 50+ other variants would be a real treat.

Mousing over or targeting individual enemy players could still reveal the entire nameplate.

I’m sure most WvW’ers have been in massive blob vs blob brawls before and have likely noticed at some point that it’s very difficult to see anything left/right/beyond the front few rows of enemy players due to the red pollution constantly looming over their heads. Laying the assessment of enemy numbers aside, it can be of great detriment when determining positioning to be unable to see a large number of the character models, their actions, and their movements (especially in 3-way fights).

SMC 3-ways are a prime example but here’s just a sample to somewhat showcase the unchanged state of what I’m referring to (especially starting at the 0:22 mark):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFzG9I3-K0s

It has been requested before and it doesnt need to be trialed. Just add a UI tickbox option with “Abbreviated WvW nametags”. End of story, implementation done.

Dawdler.8521:

It has been requested before and it doesnt need to be trialed. Just add a UI tickbox option with “Abbreviated WvW nametags”. End of story, implementation done.

WTB c++ coder

I support this change along with UI tickbox option for traditionalists.

Catalin.5341:

Dawdler.8521:

It has been requested before and it doesnt need to be trialed. Just add a UI tickbox option with “Abbreviated WvW nametags”. End of story, implementation done.

WTB c++ coder

I dont have any for sale at the moment, sorry.

Also I question the need for a C++ coder as I doubt the composite tag string is hardcoded, the ingame UI probably pull the server name string from a data file. The options menu itself is most likely scripted.

But it doesnt matter. Point is its a fairly simple thing and Anet hasnt bothered adding this little QoL option, despite this exact suggestion popping up every now and then. Well at least they improved the downed state tags.

Yar, I bring this up each year and so I’m at it again. It’s a small change that would increase the quality of WvW in the aesthetics department without impacting the game’s overall functionality.

I can dream!

Give it time……they’ve got a crack team of programmers working on this daily thing right now. I would think around 2018 fall you’ll have your change.

Yeah it deffinetly needs an abbreviation of some type.

[GIT] AM Gold
Not
[GIT] Abbadons Mouth Gold Footman

To add to this, they should also give you the option to chose which rank you’re displaying. For this, it’s not really about the visual clutter as much as giving the players/commanders a potential way to mitigate some of the snipping and appealing to personal tastes in titles.

Ultimaistanza.4793:

To add to this, they should also give you the option to chose which rank you’re displaying. For this, it’s not really about the visual clutter as much as giving the players/commanders a potential way to mitigate some of the snipping and appealing to personal tastes in titles.

support this. My boyfriend won’t play his guardian in WvW at all anymore since he hit platinum, and that was one of his favorite classes. He doesn’t even command, except to rarely lead smaller groups, but if he plays as a platinum guardian, he’ll just get driver sniped all day.

Genavelle.9516:

Ultimaistanza.4793:

To add to this, they should also give you the option to chose which rank you’re displaying. For this, it’s not really about the visual clutter as much as giving the players/commanders a potential way to mitigate some of the snipping and appealing to personal tastes in titles.

support this. My boyfriend won’t play his guardian in WvW at all anymore since he hit platinum, and that was one of his favorite classes. He doesn’t even command, except to rarely lead smaller groups, but if he plays as a platinum guardian, he’ll just get driver sniped all day.

I know that feel myself but i try and look at the funny side, if i get pulled and snipped coz i’m on a big dopy norn guardian with Gold rank then that’s my comm safe to carry on farming the enemy, and i’ll usually get picked by blob coz you know, good guy blobs.

I’m also used a bomb refrence point “BOMB ON GROMITS CORPSE”.

Or symbols for each colour, and you see the full name of the server only once you select a character. It could then be outlined by rank of the player. None for a rookie, bronze for a bronze, a gold border for a gold rank, etc. (a nice echo to GW1 cape days).
If servers were turned into a faction system (e.g. greatly diminished number of “servers”), it would also become possible to make fully unique, recognizable symbols for each new faction.

Also reading great suggestions like those in this thread always makes me excited, then depressed.

Tossing in my support for shorter name tags, all of them… enemy, friendly, monster, etc.

Totally in support of this. The old nameplates without ranks displayed were much neater (“Darkhaven Invader”, “Sea of Sorrow Invader” etc.) and display-wise, it would make sense for each player’s wvw rank to be displayed below that nameplate, in place of titles. Or as a small badge/icon beside their name.

It totally blocks visibility when you’re in the thick of a zergy fight, and what’s worse is that some servers will have significantly longer names than others, which can create the perception of a larger zerg than there really is, which is an imbalancing issue. Especially if a player is running their game on lower settings where not all enemies’ models are shown (and therefore the nameplates are their gauge for the size of the opposing forces), it can seem unfair. And it is an issue, because a lot of blobbies run around with their giant backpacks for exactly the same reason: to make the group seem bigger and more intimidating.

I’d also be in favour of an ultra-minimalist nameplate for enemies, even replacing it with just an icon of their server’s colour. Bam, done, ultra-simple, aesthetically pleasing, all the info I need. Even better would be a simple icon denoting their rank, in their server’s colour. WTB.

Sometimes brief attention to small details like this can pay off larger in pleasantries than things that require a lot of man hours creating and testing at the risk of strong resistance or rejection by the community.

It would be in good taste and bring in a fresh air to WvW that doesn’t require great culture change adjustments.

Just think, we could look back on these first 3 years and say, “Wow, can you believe we used to play like that?”

I would just like “BG Invader” or “YB Invader” in red and a health bar on enemies/friends.

No ranking displayed.

I still want to see boons, condis, stacks, signets, food, oil etc.

Pin sniping is really boring because it ends the fight early.

I’d rather just have each world get a different Emblem, and show just that emblem colored to their team’s color, next to just the word “Invader”. Something like the world completion badge, just slightly bigger and before the word instead after.

For example, Baruch Bay would have Stefan’s chain coif as an emblem, Isle of Janthir would have the Eye of Janthir as en Emblem, and so on.

There could even be “WvW” armors that show your world’s emblem, the same way Guild armors show your guild emblem.

Why just “Invader” next to the emblem? Because Invaders Must Die . That’s the sole purpose of their existence. It should be made very clear.

Then selecting the enemy would show the full nameplate, world name, guild name, titles, and the like in the ‘selected target’ UI element.

Genavelle.9516:

Ultimaistanza.4793:

To add to this, they should also give you the option to chose which rank you’re displaying. For this, it’s not really about the visual clutter as much as giving the players/commanders a potential way to mitigate some of the snipping and appealing to personal tastes in titles.

support this. My boyfriend won’t play his guardian in WvW at all anymore since he hit platinum, and that was one of his favorite classes. He doesn’t even command, except to rarely lead smaller groups, but if he plays as a platinum guardian, he’ll just get driver sniped all day.

Gets worse the higher you go… I’m high Mithril, on my way to Diamond now and not only do I get sniped a lot but I also get a good deal of hatemail, lol. I don’t even have to do anything in particular, I could just be a part of a zerg and get a random hate whisper, which is something that happened last night in fact.

Rank means nothing other than the amount of negative attention you get from your enemies, lol. I would be content with turning my rank off or being able to adjust what it’s displayed as if it were to be an option added to the game.

MithranArkanere.8957:

I’d rather just have each world get a different Emblem, and show just that emblem colored to their team’s color, next to just the word “Invader”. Something like the world completion badge, just slightly bigger and before the word instead after.

For example, Baruch Bay would have Stefan’s chain coif as an emblem, Isle of Janthir would have the Eye of Janthir as en Emblem, and so on.

There could even be “WvW” armors that show your world’s emblem, the same way Guild armors show your guild emblem.

Why just “Invader” next to the emblem? Because Invaders Must Die . That’s the sole purpose of their existence. It should be made very clear.

Then selecting the enemy would show the full nameplate, world name, guild name, titles, and the like in the ‘selected target’ UI element.

Like this take on it.

Also +1 respect for linking Prodigy!

But I love it when people say “Some DE guys at keep” (cause that’s the abbreviation, right?) When we’re against 2 German servers.
But honestly, yesterday I said: “WC ~15 BB, RI Lord ~1 min” Who’s going to understand this?
Anyway; The name plates never have been a problem for me, for whatever reason.

Genavelle.9516:

support this. My boyfriend won’t play his guardian in WvW at all anymore since he hit platinum, and that was one of his favorite classes.

Ranks are account shared since April 2014.

Edit: Posting seems to be a science for me today.

Or.. you could just turn off nametags in the options (and turn on enemy colours if you have troble seeing who is who.) Instead of requesting stuff when there are more pressing matters to fix.

aramanu.5612:

Or.. you could just turn off nametags in the options (and turn on enemy colours if you have troble seeing who is who.) Instead of requesting stuff when there are more pressing matters to fix.

Yeeaah, riiight…and you’ll see names of every animal around you all the time as well, no, thanks…We didn’t even have an option to turn of all enemy lables and keep visible only ally player lables.

Anyway…solution could be a small ground effect (mini red circles, like when you select a targer, but a bit smaller and transparent maybe).

aramanu.5612:

Or.. you could just turn off nametags in the options (and turn on enemy colours if you have troble seeing who is who.) Instead of requesting stuff when there are more pressing matters to fix.

This would do no favors when wanting to discern between guilds, or even between servers from a distance where colors aid very little. It’d be nice to keep all the unique armors visible for clashing without mono-green/-blue/-red models everywhere, all while enjoying a more minimalistic WvW UI.

And it’s not so much a matter of requesting a stuff above all current bugs, but rather a resuggestion of a relatively small, simple change that would yield a noticeably cleaner UI across all of WvW, as it is an aspect that all players will view constantly. The reality is that there is never a time where there aren’t things to fix, so discussing it now hurts nothing.

Ah, the old “Sea of Red” dilemma. I hated that especially when you target your commander with another “Red” circle that reduced the Blue tag to a pixel.

Yarrr, a commander tag easily gets lost in the sea of red, no matter its color, and even moreso with the red targeting reticle.

So many MMOs have clustered globby UI nameplates showing too much info at once across all players, especially dozens, if not hundreds, of enemies. Would be nice to see GW2 eventually take a move towards a cleaner looking WvW experience in such a way that won’t break the game or require lots of time developing. Sometimes it’s the little things…

Gold tier problems :P (scnr)

T’was a pleasant surprise to randomly log into the game today for the first time in nearly a year to find out the last patch finally addressed the WvW nameplates. Thank you Anet! Now you can have some of my money again.