Guild Wars 2

Dear Anet,

I have played many games over the years, and I quite enjoy the WvWvW / RvRvR aspect… However, there is so much more that could enhance WvW… Here are a few things I would like both the Developers and the Playerbase to think about and consider…

::: NOTE ::: These are my thoughts and suggestions for WvW, with the upcoming changes to WvW with HoT, these changes would make for a more enhanced WvW.

1) and my most important/wanted suggestion) In WvW why can we players see an enemies name/title? Why must my enemies see a large red line of text for example, Henge of Denravi Bronze General [BfDA]… This “ability” to see enemy players names is very bad for the game… You give players all this beautifully created terrain which is great for ambushes / hiding, with one exception… You can see players around corners BECAUSE of the big red name! This needs to go… By hiding enemies names in WvW you bring tactics to a whole new level… This change would require the culling settings to be altered, only cull friendly players as their names can still be seen while all enemies will be visible (even if it is low models).

2) This follows up from #1. By hiding enemy names you now have a need for havoc squads and scout groups. This promotes teamwork and even “military-like” tactics. This would give smaller groups who spot larger zergs an advantage. To “see and not be seen” would allow the players to effectively cause havoc on larger zergs. Trenches / Valleys like those around some of the EBG towers / keeps and even in borderlands now become points of strategy controlled warfare… (For example: A group of enemies spot a lone player running, the small group decides to chase the enemy into a valley/gorge… However, the player running to the gorge actually has teammates hiding in the crevices/outcroppings naturally provided by the Environment team and they are not seen because there is no giant red label sticking through the walls…) The previous example could work on many levels as it is guerrilla tactics… Players would have to think before chasing an enemy.

3) Going off of point #2. Mesmers… Although I despise the class, this would make the role of “hiding and porting” easier and harder at the same time. It would actually require players to check cracks and crevices for enemies instead of looking for the enemies name tags sticking out.

4) how to get more players into WvW) The thought of fighting for your worlds land needs to be more profitable… Loot in (Lower) tiers for WvW is very scarce, bring loot up to par with that of sPvP and give players the ability to earn PvE (dungeon) rewards for WvW. Having unsalvageable armor is a horrible thing. Change WvW armor to allow salvaging but only return the upgrade items. This will make many WvW players ecstatic knowing that they will be able to get their runes back… Paying 8g and badges for gear is a great concept, but no one wants to put 100g worth of runes in this armor knowing they can never get them back. People will even buy Black Lion Salvage kits for this… (ALTERNATIVE) Make a WvW Armor Upgrade Extractor 6 Charges for 100 gems or something. You make money and players are happy that they can convert gold into gems and get their upgrades back, or they will buy gems and get it back. The current upgrade extractor costs more than 95% (speculation, #’s based on observations not actual values) of runes/sigils.

Thanks,

Otaur

EDIT: Formatting

Love it.

I’ve wanted to force off the huge names myself, to actually enable REAL STEALTH in the game, and not just this fancy "vanish magic" we currently got.

This would also get me so paranoid, I’d kitten my pants when a Yak walked up behind me.

While the removal of nametags would make it more immersive, there is still a huge problem that would arise. Asurans — They would get an enormous advantage from this. Without nametags they could hide pretty much anywhere. Small rock, no problem. A tree, no problem. Terrain goes upwards a bit, no problem.

After a change like this, pretty much every roamer would swap to Asuran because they could hide better.

Updates
Updates
Content Updates
Fixes
Updates.

Preferably more than once every 3 years.

So… you want to see no nameplates what so ever on all enemy players? Teamwork and tactics, LOLOL. Who are you kidding? Removing of nameplates from enemies wouldn’t create the need for more tactics or anything like that. It would just create a huge annoyance. All you would see would be random player models running around without being able to tell who the hell they are. It would only promote confusion and I am sure it would in fact discourage people from doing WvW. I am grateful people like you are not in charge of game design. If this game was only about “wouldn’t it be cool” ideas, no one would want to play it.

The art team is doing their job with the new map that’s certain. But from a WvW design perspective it seems we will be stuck once more with a copy paste of the same 3 maps and a boring PPT system with a broken server system.

They really need to update their stuff for 2015.

Natir.7364:

So… you want to see no nameplates what so ever on all enemy players? Teamwork and tactics, LOLOL. Who are you kidding? Removing of nameplates from enemies wouldn’t create the need for more tactics or anything like that. It would just create a huge annoyance. All you would see would be random player models running around without being able to tell who the hell they are. It would only promote confusion and I am sure it would in fact discourage people from doing WvW. I am grateful people like you are not in charge of game design. If this game was only about “wouldn’t it be cool” ideas, no one would want to play it.

Actually you would know it is an enemy because there would be no nameplate, whereas friendlies would have nameplates. The purpose of the changes would be to promote better gameplay. @Natir.7364, See below for an idea to better recognize enemies as well.

@Paavotar.3971 This can be easily remedied, while we all enjoy the looks of our characters and teammates, they could implement the same as they did with sPvP where all enemies models are human and the color of their team. This would help with identifying enemies and with performance. This would also help with the animation issue of asurans.

Just want to point out it is easier to count the name tags then actually players. You can do a ctrl-shift-h to hide everything in say crowded areas to see what its like. Provided some SS of both so here is a question. How many stacked near bank in first SS and also how many in second SS?

Can count a whole lot more with the name tags visible in the second SS.. Numbers are important in WvW IMO.

Nameplates are important. For me the main reason is that due to lag I’ve had to basically run my game on lowest settings while in WvW. If there are enough enemies around, the only thing I see are nameplates, since all the character models gets removed. If you remove nameplates, I’m basically blind. I am perfectly fine with not letting the enemy see your rank though

Firstly, I think nameplates are a poor idea and have always considered them a necessary evil. I remember posting something similar to the OP way back when about DAoC. I think the only way to get a MMO to work without them is to start it from the ground up. Sadly, that means it’s not going to be GW2.

Also, without nameplates, you can’t tell how big a zerg is when they all stand their characters inside one another (due to there being no collision detection).