Guild Wars 2

So.. my guild bought today Commander Compedium (or whatever its called) for 100g. Every one thought that this will be some kind of big party where u can see all members on the map (that was the point of buying it for us) and other cool stuff. What we got?

Commander is not raid goup, or party group.. I dont got idea WHAT ITS. You dont see any people on the map when ur in squad (u see only commander ofc), special marks on the map dont work.

We spent 100g and we recive:
1. Squad chat, where every1 in squad can write in it.
2. Commander sign on the map.

The end.

ArenaNet - PLEASE REDESIGN COMMANDER IN GUILD WARS 2!
1. Make a list of players who are in squad (I dont need HP, buffs, icons... JUST NAMES)
2. Let players see on the map where every one from squad is (like in party) - this is very important for every guild. Guild need to see if somone is not following orders etc.
3. Fix commander map markers.

3 basic things to make commander worth!

This should also be something account bound after spending such a large amount on one item instead of a single character.

If we are also making pie in the sky requests, the ability to have sub groups out of the 50 and assignable by the commander or somebody else authorized in the squad to move people around in sub groups. The Commander at least should be able to see everybody in his squad upon the world vs world map to coordinate and better organize an attacking or defending force.

Wait you literally only get an icon on the map? No raid group with party dots on the map? So basically its worse than a normal group. What the…

There are no raids currently. Only 5 man groups. Commander icon, is just that, an Icon.

The way public groups work in Rift would be perfect for WvW.

Arenanet has to understand that players and guilds have different play styles and different ideas of what “FUN” means. Our guild for example likes being mobile, hitting targets behind enemy lines and ambushing players trying to reinforce objectives. There is simply no in game grouping mechanics to do this when we have over 5 people. If our guild has 15-20 people running together we have 2 options.

- Use 3 to 4 separate groups running beside each other.
- Use the commander and squad system.

Using the group system – Having 3-4 separate groups means we can’t see other group icons on the map, nor do we have a dedicated chat channel. You can use guild chat to talk, but what if everyone in the guild are NOT doing WvW or you have some people not in your guild? You flood the guild chat with spam and ruin it for other people. You can use a 3rd party voice program, but not everyone may have it installed or be able to speak, you still can’t see where other group members are. You can create a “New” guild and have everyone switch to it for WvW. I want my primary guild to gain WvW influence, not have it go to a temporary guild because we have no way to group 6-25 people.

Commander and Squad – As far as I know you still can’t make Squads private… It’s hard to be effective when you plan for 20 people and it balloons to over a 100 people. If your trying to organize a large campaign, then having a commander where everyone can join is fine. If your trying to form a specialized squad with clear objectives it’s pretty much impossible when you can’t control who is in it or the number of people in it.

To add to the post.

- Commander need the ability to make Squads Public/Private.
- Squad members should have unique icon colors visible to everyone in the squad.
- Notification when someone successfully joins a squad.
- List or command showing all current people in a squad.

Most importantly, they need to add a Warband/Raid grouping system for 20-25 players. Medium sized raid system showing simple health bars for everyone in the raid as well as unique colored icons to find each other on the map. Sometimes you have more than a group or don’t want an army following your guild commander around, you just want to group with guild members and friends.

Arenanet has totally disregarded that guilds may want to form groups larger than 5 members.

Squads should be inbuilt as the next step up from party.
You should know who’s in the squad and where they are.

Squad Commanders should see the attack/defend icons of the other largest squads on the map.

Squad Commander needs to be able to call targets, that’s why we got it…unfortunately it doesn’t work that way.

can someone explain to me why achieving “COMMANDER” is by spending gold?

why not unlock WvW achievements?
why not by having X amount of people sign for you to become a commander?

Why not all of the above + X amount of Karma + X amount of gold?

Its a WvW thing, if you haven’t done 500 events in WvW and have 2000 kills, then why should we believe you know what you talking about?

being commander now means you are
1) a very good farmer well done
2) Daddy credit card
3) your a Trading post camping freak

How any of the above got anything to do with WvW?

Lonewolf.5869:

can someone explain to me why achieving “COMMANDER” is by spending gold?

why not unlock WvW achievements?
why not by having X amount of people sign for you to become a commander?

Why not all of the above + X amount of Karma + X amount of gold?

Its a WvW thing, if you haven’t done 500 events in WvW and have 2000 kills, then why should we believe you know what you talking about?

being commander now means you are
1) a very good farmer well done
2) Daddy credit card
3) your a Trading post camping freak

How any of the above got anything to do with WvW?

+1 to this especially the player nomination i dont like the fact that ANYONE can be commander when its such a big responsibility last thing we need ais a troll with money to throw around taking advantage of this

Lonewolf.5869:

can someone explain to me why achieving “COMMANDER” is by spending gold?

Nope, I honestly can’t.

Lonewolf.5869:

Its a WvW thing, if you haven’t done 500 events in WvW and have 2000 kills, then why should we believe you know what you talking about?

Nope again. A player could be a fantastic leader but not completed events or amassed kills – they just aren’t the measurements of leadership.

Why should there be any requirement at all? Allow groups (raids) to be formed with no charge. With the added option of making them public or private. No need for on map icons for the commander, those in the group will know where the commander is.

The problem with the way it is now is everyone and there grandparents can have making it worthless. Second from what ive seen of those who have the commander thiing are not deserving or should have it. Basically if this were real life and we were in the military instead of having seasoned military leaders we have 12-15 year olds with no military training running a war. Do you see my point?

What i think ill be seeing a month from now if im still playing this is over 100 plus commanders and a lot of gold wasted on a meaningless item.

Ive seen “REAL” leadership in an mmo and it took that person a very long time to earn the respect of the community. What i see in this game is a bunch of kids who are blowing money to have a diamond on there head and not lead or help the community.

A real leader doesnt need a diamond above his head but i dont like the idea of people thinking b/c someone has a diamond on there head they should follow b/c its going to make the community leary of who to join a raid with? A noob with a diamond above his head or someone who doesnt have the diamond and can lead effectively

What the commander item should give is this

A working raid assist not this half bleep piece of crap one we have now a REAL raid assist window that shows the group who to target.

getting this item should be only for those worty of it. I.E community votes on who should have it.

agreed. there needs to be both better raid admin and higher requirements (proof of capability for leadership in wvw) for the commander pizzazz. otherwise, it is doing quite a bit more harm than good.

it’s just a game dudes …. who cares …. just play game. . .

you have a choice not to listen or ignore to w/e commander on ur map too. not a big deal …

I just want for Commanders to use custom icons, guild emblems would be nice.

They need special buffs and other stuff. With a very very long cooldown… but everyone could buy that book so not overpowered – should work only at the people in their squad and only in WvW. This would be interesting.

Ok, so at some point there might be a ton of commanders running around but eventually the cream will float to the top and people will know who is worth following and who isn’t.

My question is: Why I am forced to see Commander icons in PvE maps? if I am just soloing PvE? or worst, inside cities, a guy running with a 100 gold icon in the head, I don’t want to see that, only in WvW.

We seem to have two problems here:

• The way how a players earns the Commander position

I have to agree that the way how this position is earned isn’t quite reasonable and should be earned by activities related to WvW, not by money what doesn’t proofs anything about the knowledge of that person concerning WvW!

• The way how the Commander position works

If the above is really all what this Commander position brings to the table, it’s kind of a joke. I certainly would want to see my squad members on the map with an additional colour, I want to have a list of my members and informations like supply status in the squad… Whatever informations would help the Commander to coordinate a big group of players!

And a similar group function should be existing for the open PvE world, but that is another thing!

punny.9210:

it’s just a game dudes …. who cares …. just play game. . .

you have a choice not to listen or ignore to w/e commander on ur map too. not a big deal …

so what you’re telling me is that i should just go solo errythang because everyone wants to hang out with the blue diamond when it isn’t doing anything but treading water in the same spot for hours. riiiiiight. get off the pipe lol.

Lonewolf.5869:

can someone explain to me why achieving “COMMANDER” is by spending gold?

why not unlock WvW achievements?
why not by having X amount of people sign for you to become a commander?

Why not all of the above + X amount of Karma + X amount of gold?

Its a WvW thing, if you haven’t done 500 events in WvW and have 2000 kills, then why should we believe you know what you talking about?

being commander now means you are
1) a very good farmer well done
2) Daddy credit card
3) your a Trading post camping freak

How any of the above got anything to do with WvW?

I have to agree with this.
Anet should give a proper look at this.

Fugly.5287:

The way public groups work in Rift would be perfect for WvW.

totally agree

One thing about the “anybody can buy it” concern: every commander icon also has the player name of the commander when you mouse over it. Like “Commander Tacktix.” Those who are known by the map and trusted will be followed. Any has-too-much-money kiddie will find out that only a few mindless zombies will follow him instead of paying attention to those who are trusted.

The most funny part is that the OP has been warned for making so called “demand” and the response number 3 has been edited by the moderator.

No criticism allowed! Everything is perfect! We are ArenaNet!

A friendly advice: listen to the people. D3 already failed for not doing so.

You’d be amazed at how effective that little commander icon is at coordinating people who don’t even know one another.

It’s a mistake allowing people to buy this title, it should be tied down to achievements in game or linked to some sort of vote, why should people follow someone just because they bought the title???

So far my experience of people with the commander title are as follows:

1) The first person I saw with the commander title, did not talk in any of the chat channels, no communication what-so-ever or mention of tactics in use. He got everyone that was following that little blue dot wiped countless times, made horrible decisions repeatedly. When he finally did start using chat, it was too tell everyone else how stupid they were.

2) The Karma Train. This is where everyone follows the blue dot to farm Karma / XP from capturing objectives, they make no attempts to fight the enemy, they avoid contact with the enemy, do not defend anything and just zerg from keep, tower, supply camp farming Karma and they do it for hours on end.

I honestly think they should remove it altogether, as other people have said a real commander does not need that little blue dot on the map.

Bunnehboo.6025:

Lonewolf.5869:

can someone explain to me why achieving “COMMANDER” is by spending gold?

why not unlock WvW achievements?
why not by having X amount of people sign for you to become a commander?

Why not all of the above + X amount of Karma + X amount of gold?

Its a WvW thing, if you haven’t done 500 events in WvW and have 2000 kills, then why should we believe you know what you talking about?

being commander now means you are
1) a very good farmer well done
2) Daddy credit card
3) your a Trading post camping freak

How any of the above got anything to do with WvW?

+1 to this especially the player nomination i dont like the fact that ANYONE can be commander when its such a big responsibility last thing we need ais a troll with money to throw around taking advantage of this

We have a PvE hero on our server whose guild bought him the icon through farming.

The guy is absolutely terrible, and the problem is most of people mindlessly follow the blue icon. As a result, they get killed, or we lose valuable objectives because the guy is not a natural leader, and has no strategic sense.

Obviously, this will be less of a problem after a every Tom, kitten and Harry has the icon, or people wise up. Until then, it’s a significant annoyance.

QUICK SOLUTION – Add a warhammer style warband or Rift Raid grouping system for medium sized grouping of say 20 people. It functions like a regular party and cuts down on trying to use a commander and squad system for smaller scale grouping over 5 people.

People are trying to use the commander and squad system just to make a small force for multiple groups and it’s not designed for that. What the players WANT is some way to group with over 5 people but not lead a full army like the commander system.

A new grouping/raid system is needed to bridge this gap.

Currency sink = working as intended.

While they’re at it, they should just charge 1 Million gold for mystery boxes.
It’s a great gold sink for people who have too much faith in the developers.
There’s NO WAY I’m paying 1 Million gold for just an empty box.
….kitten

They should take inspiration from the EVE Online fleet interface, or the WoW raid interface circa WotLK.

When a commander enters WvW, I think all guild members (with the right rank ‘permission’?) who are in or subsequently enter WvW should be automatically added to the squad/platoon/whatever. Of course, kicking and inviting should still be allowed. That one overgroup should be subdivided into smaller groups (preferably with an assigned leader to each). That way, the commander can see all relevant info and actually command effectively.

Needing to ask that the commander be able to see the location of every member of the squad is just silly.

Some form of obvious larger grouping is really needed as people tend to run around in larger groups anyway. 5man parties are pointless most of the time. Squads sound like a good idea but seem useless in execution. It would make more sense to combine the functionality of parties and squads. Perhaps with the option of only guildmembers can join the squadparty. That way squadparties can cater for smaller groups or larger groups and people can see where their groups are at on the map.

Personally, I believe it should just be removed. All it seems to serve at the moment as kitten for those who have the gold, not the ones who earn and deserve it. Saw a situation the other night where someone with this tag was ‘leading’ a group of people who took back a couple of supply camps and towers on our map… then promptly moved onto another, leaving what we had gained to be easily retaken by the opposition. It just seems like an icon on the map for people to follow, but not necessarily for the benefit of the side

You guys do know that “Buying” a commander book is essentially about $500 US Dollars. If anyone actually spent real money on it I would be surprised. Most of the commanders I have seen on my server were chosen by their guild and the money donated by players within the guild. The commander Icon is definitely lacking in features, and is honestly not worth anywhere near 100g. What do you get from it?

• An icon so people (Including spys) can see where you are on the map
• A feature that allows you to see how much supply your squad members are carrying
• A feature that allows you to mark rally points, attack points, defence points on the map so members of your squad can see it.

That’s it. I definitely agree that it could use a lot more features. How commanders choose to use their features is completely up to them. Many self entitled players seem to think that the commanders are their to serve them, go where they want, and they follow them around expecting some magic event to happen. Hot tip, some commanders use it to coordinate guild only, some commanders use it when they want to attack an objective or defend something that they feel needs defending. Many commanders don’t have much experience (the game has only been out for 5 weeks).

I was asked today by some random person why I wasn’t using my commander feature. I wasn’t using it because I was running a 5 man group and didn’t want a zerg chasing my every move, I wanted to move with precision and without 2 giant orange swords over my head.

The majority of PuGs wont even join the squad, they’ll just follow the icon like mindless drones. Because of this, I tend to save it for guild specific events and occasionally turn it on when coordinating multiple attack strategies with other commanders.

It definitely needs to be an account wide feature and needs a lot more utility than it currently offers.

Only thing I’d like to see is the choice between different commander symbols so who can tell who it is on a map with multiple ones, or the option to show your guild logo instead.

Agreed, commanders could be great but as it is now, its nothing more but a fancy icon.

You’d need to be able to see your members, call targets and i also feel like you should be able to turn you Commander icon on or off, or set it to only Squad.

Why set it only to squad visibility? Simply because its a waste if everyone on the map follows the commander, when there could be lets say 3 zergs instead covering more ground

Elthurien.8356:

You guys do know that “Buying” a commander book is essentially about $500 US Dollars. snip

Or the use of a bot program….

So when I was making fun of those who waste money on that… it was true? I hope they felt bad about themselves (for those who spend real money)

Even with its limitations commander is still useful. My guild uses it to heard the zerg. Often our guild commander will only be runing with a single group of the 4 or so we field during primetime. The other 3 will either be on individual asignments hitting small targets or forming up for a larger concentrated strike. Meanwhile the commander drags the zerg along to either the major pushes or to where major reinforcements are needed. There is almost never a risk of him not haveing enough warm bodies thanks to the zerg tending to flock to that icon.

Hillierawrs.5834:

Agreed, commanders could be great but as it is now, its nothing more but a fancy icon.

You’d need to be able to see your members, call targets and i also feel like you should be able to turn you Commander icon on or off, or set it to only Squad.

Why set it only to squad visibility? Simply because its a waste if everyone on the map follows the commander, when there could be lets say 3 zergs instead covering more ground

Totally agree!

Ahmrill.7512:

Hillierawrs.5834:

Agreed, commanders could be great but as it is now, its nothing more but a fancy icon.

You’d need to be able to see your members, call targets and i also feel like you should be able to turn you Commander icon on or off, or set it to only Squad.

Why set it only to squad visibility? Simply because its a waste if everyone on the map follows the commander, when there could be lets say 3 zergs instead covering more ground

Totally agree!

So how many four month old threads on this topic do you plan to resurrect? I would have thought one would be sufficient but I count four so far.

well nothing has changed so all the old issues are still pretty relevant…

Cactus.2710:

So how many four month old threads on this topic do you plan to resurrect? I would have thought one would be sufficient but I count four so far.

Well obviously the issue is one I feel needs much improvement. I just did a search for “commander” and it brought up all these threads… to be honest I didn’t look at the dates. These are started by other people, I was just commenting on other people’s posts.

I do find it interesting that these are a lot of the same issues people have been unhappy with since release. I think we can all agree that improvements are needed.

Commanders:

They already track achievemnets in WvW so:

Commanders should have spent time in Wvw so once you cannot even buy the book until you reach 1,000 kills.

You cannot display the icon until you reach 1,000 kills AND capture 500 objectives.

Your allowed group size increases to 10 when you get the above PLUS defended sucessfully so many objectives.

And so on…they can use the currently tracked achievements to advance the Commander with added bonuses such as lower siege costs, higher supply inventory for those in the group, defense and attack bonuses, etc.

As the Commander completes more achievements then the color and design of the icon should change. So if I see a gold icon with 5 stars on the battlefield I know that Commander knows his business and is not a crafter that happened to have an extra 100 gold kicking around.

A five star Commander could be someone who has:

3,000 kills
1,000 captured objectives
1,000 defended objectives
1,000 yaks killed
1,000 yaks escorted
5,000 supply used for repairs
10,000 supply used for siege
Captured Stonemist 5 times
Defended Stonemist 20 times
1,000 Supply camps captured

So if I see someone with 5 gold stars I KNOW that he has done everything in WvW and is not just someone running in front of a zerg and THAT would be someone I would follow.

There is alot we all would like to see happen, but you will have to wait for March, possibly April, pretty sure no longer then May, but defeinately no longer then June, oh hell when is ESO coming out ? Anet will have the patch ready a week before then.

Pretty sure at this point Anet sold their souls to Bioware and its the SWtoR team now calling the shots.

There are about 15 topic about this every day.

1. Commander icon is NOT exclusive for WvW, it has plenty of other uses on PvE too.
2. Costs gold because that is the only common currency (well, before laurels anyway) between pvp and wvw
3. Yes, the title needs rework, and they have announced a couple of the things they plan to do. Give them time, this game is only around 6 months old.
4. If you still have issues with it, well, tough luck.

MrKnieves.4162:

There are about 15 topic about this every day.

I agree, lots of topics started by different people… but still nothing since BW1.

MrKnieves.4162:

1. Commander icon is NOT exclusive for WvW, it has plenty of other uses on PvE too.

Commander and squad system was designed primarily for WvW. The system has /squadinfo and /supplyinfo commands as well as attack and defend waypoint markers. If fact the only thing that can be used for PvE is a squad chat channel and a rally waypoint.

I know it’s only been out for 6 months, but IMO a free basic grouping system for more than 5 people should have been in at release.

insanemaniac.2456:

well nothing has changed so all the old issues are still pretty relevant…

Yes, still relevant and still no significant changes.