Guild Wars 2

Hey there, everyone.

I’ve been thinking about ways to make scouting more easy to do for players.
Right now, it can be hard to quickly communicate what you’re seeing because of language barriers, because you’re being chased down or because one of many other reasons.
While using 3rd party VOIP programs does help, this excludes people like those who are deaf, those who are mute and those who can’t use VOIP for any other reason. Additionally, I am convinced that because it’s 3rd party software players shouldn’t be expected to use it. (I do always encourage using it, but I think expecting it from players who casually dive into WvW just isn’t right.)

What I came up with is a scouting tag. It should work similar to a commander tag, but:
-Its acquisition should be much easier/cheaper. Perhaps with badges, as it’s irrelevant for PvE unlike the commander tag.
-Only tagged-up commanders see tagged-up scouts (to avoid clutter on the map for other players)
-Scouts can place special map markers similar to commanders, but for group sizes instead. For example, a green-team scout would have: 1-5 blue, 1-5 red, 6-15 blue, 6-15 red, 16+ blue, 16+ red, blue siege, red siege.
-These markers should disappear automatically after 30 seconds or so.

I’d visualize these markers like the supply camp icons, but with the numbers instead of the tent image inside. Perhaps there could be a small arrow somewhere on the border of the icon which could be dragged to point in the direction the group is moving.

By limiting the number of icons a scout can place (or how often), you can avoid further map clutter.

The numbers I picked are just to help you visualize the example, but could probably use some extra thought. Perhaps an icon for ‘Havoc’, ‘Small zerg’ and ‘Large zerg’ would be better. Havoc could be used for groups that are taking out camps, small zerg for those strong enough to take down towers and large for those that pose a serious threat to keeps.

I also haven’t decided yet on how scouts could be rewarded for placing the (correct) map markers.
Battlefield 2 had a system where you could spot whatever you were aiming at. If you actually had an enemy in line of sight it’d be spotted on the map as vehicle/helicopter/troops with a corresponding icon on the map, otherwise as unidentified. Something like that could also be done as well: if you place the map marker on the right place it gives some WXP. However this would require a certain cooldown to avoid people spamming the markers to figure out the enemy location. I think Line of Sight is essential to avoid abuse.

There are probably a few problems I missed, so that’s why I’d like to hear your input.
What do you think?

I’d like the option to see the scouting tags myself. Keep me from running right into that force alone.

How bout make it an additional upgrade to a tower/keep. It expands your map so therefore you can see groups over a larger area.

What would be great is a keybind system that with one stroke, would give a prebuilt message, and then automatically would show your position in italics next to it.

In other words, something like team FPS games or modes like CTF would often use.

So you might hit a key and get:

TankyDude (Longview Tower): Attackers incoming at this position, please respond.

TankyDude (Green World Border): Large enemy force spotted here.

TankyDude (Astralhome Mill): Area clear of enemies.

You might have a dozen or half dozen fairly generic messages, but that at least could convey some basic info while you are in the middle of a combat, or moving, when you can’t stop and type something out longer or more detailed.