Guild Wars 2

It has probably been discussed already, but I don’t see why it’s purchased for a 100 gold, and not achieved through wvwvw achievements, (and possibly some kind of rep system?)

An experienced player isn’t necessary a good leader because of it, but this way it would atleast take some dedication, rather than gold farming.

Or, as some other games with territory wars enabled, where people vote for who should be commander, I recall it causing conflicts between guilds on the same side though..

I don’t know, opinions?

I like the system. Typically, someone isn’t going to spend that kind of money for an icon unless they have a good idea of what they’re doing (there are always exceptions).

What I really like is when a guild contributes towards getting one of their leaders a Commander’s Compendium.

There’s no rule saying you have to do what a particular commander wants. If a commander gets a reputation for being an idiot, people will catch on pretty quickly.

Edit: When a commander makes a mistake (which all commanders do…they’re human) I like to joke that they should be required to pass a test on top of the fee. You could have questions like “I just got my entire zerg wiped, what should I do now?” A: Blame it on the idiot players on my server

Exception #1: Daish, good thing he quit

The system doesn’t need to change, player perceptions toward the icon need to change. The blue icon is a map location marker, a blip on the radar, not much more, and I don’t think it was intended to be by the developer.

Speaking from my own experience, buying a Commander icon can be a giant headache because of the many tears from same-team Commanders and other players who just can’t stand that you might attract other players to your icon.

The icon should be viewed as an optional location on the battlefield where you’ll find at least one player to battle alongside.

Same-team Commanders who are taking an objective or have strategy on a whole other part of the map shouldn’t expect that another Commander should drop what they’re doing and go, or suffer bathing in the tears of their guild over PM, insisting that the other Commander turn off his icon because plans and location don’t jive.

Also, if a group wipes, don’t blame a Commander. Get up and try again. It’s like wiping in a dungeon; you wipe, repair, and hoof it back out onto the field for vengeance.

Neves.2905:

Speaking from my own experience, buying a Commander icon can be a giant headache…

It’s usually that way when the commander with an icon is a headache and they refuse to see it.

I suggest a 6 year class and a severe final exam on becoming a commander.

Until then smart people will know who to follow or not to regardless.QQ post is irrelevant.

100 Gold is pretty steep, but I don’t know what a good alternative that keeps oodles of players from getting the title easily would be.
I’d like to see a junior version of the Commander title with squad functionality but where the “commander icon” is only visible to people in the squad. There are some good leaders out there who don’t have Commander icons, but it’s hard to focus people without the blue triangle.

I was just about to suggest a change to commander title which allows people to “Vote” for or against commanders, a number which would be shown when hovering over the Commander icon on map. This would allow Bad commanders to be voted down and good commanders to be voted up, while still allowing anyone to become a commander. Of course this could be abused by guilds voting up for their commanders, but eventually poor tactics from said commander would cause the score to diminish, the same could be said of trolls who would vote down just to satisfy their prepubescent sense of humor. I do however think this would be a step in the right direction, and would qualify as the “Rep system” that OP asked about.

It is just a very unlikely pie-in-the-sky dream of mine, but I’d love it if the commanders were a weekly elected position. It would cost say.. 10 gold to run and only true level 80s could vote (no mass low level alts voting). There would only be say.. 15 positions available and it would be wise for servers to ensure that they had round the clock commanders coverage. Positions would be based on previous performance, and all the guild drama would add some extra fun. Anyone who has played Rising Force Online’s RvRvR should know what I’m talking about.

Making the commander icon cost gold makes perfect sense when you consider ANet’s motivations. First, they want the commander icon to be used in PvE as well as WvW (Not Just for WvW section). That naturally eliminates any WvW specific currency, like Badges of Honor or WvW achievements. Second, they want it to have a high cost so that there are few commanders but they want to mitigate that by making the currency for it shared. If the currency is shared people can pool some together to “elect” a commander, which is exactly what currently happens with big guilds. This also eliminates Karma or any Soul/Account Bound currency since they cannot be shared.

So what currencies exist in both WvW and PvE that can be shared between many players? The answers are Gold and Influence. And since you can trade gold for Influence, they may as well skip the middle man and have it cost Gold.

If you don’t like this or want it to change, the first thing you should be asking for is a split between WvW and PvE commanders.

Guys, I hate to break it to you, it’s just an icon. Look: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Commander

Neves.2905:

Guys, I hate to break it to you, it’s just an icon. Look: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Commander

Yes but with that icon comes the power to control all noobies on the map who have no other idea of what to do except “follow the blue arrow” which allows them to learn basic tactics (if the commander isn’t completely incompetent)(see my above post for fix).

Smoke.8510:

Neves.2905:

Guys, I hate to break it to you, it’s just an icon. Look: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Commander

Yes but with that icon comes the power to control all noobies on the map who have no other idea of what to do except “follow the blue arrow” which allows them to learn basic tactics (if the commander isn’t completely incompetent)(see my above post for fix).

Control all noobies? LOL. ANet source please? That type of mindset is where reality and fantasy about the icon’s role diverge.

It’s terrible. No decent, skilled player has the money or (if they do) would buy this for 100 gold. As a result, we only have unskilled and clueless commanders.

shrewd.5319:

It’s terrible. No decent, skilled player has the money or (if they do) would buy this for 100 gold. As a result, we only have unskilled and clueless commanders.

Okay now this is just stupid. I’m wondering where you get the idea that anyone with gold is unskilled.

If someone is decent and skilled that doesn’t prevent them from buying a commander title.

This definitely needs to change. To earn commander, someone needs to have a certain number of WvW achievements AND pay 100 gold. That would make things much better.

And what achivements should it be?

Neves.2905:

Smoke.8510:

Neves.2905:

Guys, I hate to break it to you, it’s just an icon. Look: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Commander

Yes but with that icon comes the power to control all noobies on the map who have no other idea of what to do except “follow the blue arrow” which allows them to learn basic tactics (if the commander isn’t completely incompetent)(see my above post for fix).

Control all noobies? LOL. ANet source please? That type of mindset is where reality and fantasy about the icon’s role diverge.

And apparently you’re on the latter in your mindset.

Commander icons don’t just control all noobies. It controls everyone. The commander has the power to set the general strategy of the server. As a simple example, deciding which enemy server to focus on. A less simple example, if a commander sets a plan to take a tower, a good roamer would take the nearest supply camp, or scout the chokepoints that the enemy could flank from. But these good players wouldn’t know where they would do most good if there wasn’t a commander to point in the general direction. Only someone who doesn’t give a kitten about team strategy goes around taking random camps for points or look for 1vX fights, which isn’t bad in and of itself, but is overall nothing compared to what a good player can do with “just” a commander icon. A difficult example, good servers organize VoIP commander meetings to layout a server strategy for the WvW maps as a whole. Just because you don’t participate in the greater intricacies of team strategy doesn’t make the icon nothing more than a luxury as you word it out to seem.

Funny follow some commander who farm karkas and ask orders whole time

Hule.8794:

And what achivements should it be?

500 Total Objectives Capped, 250 Total Objectives Defended. Or an appropriate number; the reasons behind it being although it doesn’t ensure skill and strategy, it will definitely ensure time spend playing World Versus World, and that’s what you want a Commander to be, guaranteed at least some experience, and skill comes with that.

Therefore for Commander to be turned on in PvE = 100g, to enable it in WvW you must get those achievements also as a prerequisite. And before anyone suggests it, kills don’t come into it, killing doesn’t show your leadership skills, it shows you’re good at duelling and building your profession.

Personally, I never follow Commanders because it just promotes lame zerg play and I never feel like I accomplish anything in a zerg other than test my rig’s capabilities and risk getting wiped by an opposing mob thanks to culling.

The issue here is the attitude towards Commanders. For some reason, players seem to assume that you owe a Commander your attention and respect when in reality any one of us could buy enough gold from the TP and get our icon in the next 5 minutes. It doesn’t take anything to be a Commander other than a basic understanding of the game and that’s the truth. I don’t need a zerg to go take a supply camp, I’ll just run havoc in Bluevale, ninja their Bluebriar, and then treb their bay with 5 people instead.

allstick.1405:

I like the system. Typically, someone isn’t going to spend that kind of money for an icon unless they have a good idea of what they’re doing (there are always exceptions).

You’d be surprised. There are also guilds full of morons that like to help out their leader or anyone else get the commander tag so their guild has one, but they are awful at it.

It’s a shame. I bought my tag long ago, and haven’t commanded in ages because really bad commanders that never take off their tag started filling borderlands. One reason I transferred servers this weekend was because of my previous server having a lot of bad commanders filling the map, confusing the mindless pugs that we needed.

100g isn’t much nowadays.

Raven Paradox.1860:

allstick.1405:

I like the system. Typically, someone isn’t going to spend that kind of money for an icon unless they have a good idea of what they’re doing (there are always exceptions).

You’d be surprised. There are also guilds full of morons that like to help out their leader or anyone else get the commander tag so their guild has one, but they are awful at it.

Harsh but this is the system guilds have to work with. I’d have preferred there was a guild commander option that was only visible to the guild.

—
A lot of people are quick to judge, in T1 at least it’s very demanding and a lot of pressure to command, those that are out there everyday making your server be the best it can be in wvw are putting so much into this game.

100g is not much at this point in the game, if people think they can command better than everyone else, then step it up. Your server probably needs you.

Seren.6850:

Harsh but this is the system guilds have to work with. I’d have preferred there was a guild commander option that was only visible to the guild.

Exactly what’s needed. Or just a /private option that allows the commander to turn the pin icon off to anyone not currently in his/her squad.

A commander is bound to fail if he/she didn’t already lead before he bought that icon. In my server i remember one guy I’ve never seen in wvw asking in team chat if there is any commander, when answered by “do you see any icon?” he bought one on the spot. Needless to say ppl kept telling him what to do and where to go, but that shows that the icon isn’t that important, its the experience that really matters.

Therefore it has to be something that combines wvw achievements as well as the 100g, or whatever amount Anet decides on. I really wish the badge gets harder to get because it has lost its value. In fact, the only reason I bought mine is because I saw some clueless individuals leading ppl to their doom.

I think what many guilds are looking for is a private commander and squad system. A visual icon on the map, waypoints that multiple groups can see and a way for the commander do do a supply check. Sometimes people want to use this system for their guild without the expectations of leading the zone or their server.

The simplest solution is to have a commander icon for PvE and a separate icon for WvW.

shrewd.5319:

It’s terrible. No decent, skilled player has the money or (if they do) would buy this for 100 gold. As a result, we only have unskilled and clueless commanders.

It sounds like you need to move to a server with a stronger WvW community. I’d say in your case the commander pins only being used by idiots is a symptom of a bigger problem on your server.

^
Not everyone is as fortunate to be on a big WvW server, in my server the commander icon is important because we only have a few dedicated WvW guilds, we also need a commander to lead the “zerg”.

I made a topic about this a while ago, in my opinion it should be earned throught influence points so only the big WvW guilds provide you with commanders, it should also expire after a month or so.

Not because I can’t afford the gold for it.. I am an active WvW commander, I just think the current system is broken, having 100G doesn’t make you a good leader.

I don’t like the suggested “archievement” system because it will be too easy and in the long run EVERYONE will be a commander, expiring commander icon purchased with influence points all the way for me.

It’s just too static. Eventually I hope they release that every player and guild has different things they like to do and need a grouping system that’s flexible to meet those demands.

Commander and squad system is simply a one trick pony atm.

Flint.5620:

The defensive and causal commander seems to come around when things are slow or likes to group people to karma farm exc. These can be perceived as the ‘bad’ commanders because there goals are different. Now you can make an argument that’s not what a commander icon is for but it is still a reality in the game.

If people had the choice of a multi group system (aka Raid) or using the Commander, many guilds would use the Raid system. They often DO have specific goals they want to do, which does NOT include organizing and leading the server.

Until there is a viable in-game option for grouping multiple groups that doesn’t show the commander pin….. people are going to use the commander pin for everything. You either need a new grouping system or a way to turn off the commander pin so it’s only visible to those people in the squad.

shrewd.5319:

It’s terrible. No decent, skilled player has the money or (if they do) would buy this for 100 gold. As a result, we only have unskilled and clueless commanders.

That is the dumbest comment I have ever heard.

WvW can be a horrible mess and part of that relies in bad commanders. so yeah, this leadership achievement shouldn’t be sold.

I consider myself a clueless WvW player, I am like the noobies who follow the leader. I’m new for it. But in 10 days or less I can farm in PvE 100 G without cons and buy the commander icon.

I won’t do that but I am pretty sure many people did because there is an increased amount of bad commanders around, their attitudes are so childish and clumsy it even justifies how somebody spends 100 G in a title it has no ways to cope with, because you are a childish stupid player.

When you are a clueless WvW player like me and you notice the commander doing kitten, that means: you, the clueless player, can make better decisions than the commander, that is just… awful, because in fact you can do just less terrible decisions lol.
No wonder my world is constantly the loser.

Let’s not forget the commanders can administrate and waste all supplies in whatever they please which is, just one of the difficult situations you have to face to go against a stupid commander and its icon leading everybody to death and a Loser title inner in your consciousness. xD

AmIAnnoyingNow.2903:

The simplest solution is to have a commander icon for PvE and a separate icon for WvW.

Or just allow private squads and players can use it for everything, without all the pins annoying everyone else.