Guild Wars 2

My problem is simple. The solution may not be. Before the beta, many of the peeps in my guild transferred to another server. Some of us did not because we did not, at that time, have the gems to do so. That server is now artificially “full,” so now that we do have the gems to transfer, we cannot. Well, we can transfer to the linked server, but we don’t particularly want to pay for a transfer every time anet decides to switch the server links around. Not sure how to resolve this (the reason anet has for making these servers “full” is valid), but current situation is untenable. It’s just not right.

I appreciate anet trying different things to make the game better; I’d rather them try and fail than not try at all. Hopefully, they’ll try something that successfully resolves this issue.

I go back to GW1 every now and then. On the one hand, I miss a lot of things about GW1 (the armor, the story, heroes, being able to directly trade with another player, the variety of pvp, being able to save and load builds onto my characters and their heroes, etc.); on the other, I soon get frustrated that I can’t jump or dodge, as well as with the slower pace. And no gliding. If they combined the best parts of GW1 with the best parts of GW2, they’d have an unbeatable game.

If they ever released another expansion to GW1, though, I’d go back in a heartbeat.

Tough choice, but my one would be: Player/Guild housing.

What I would love to see housing with:

• Different layouts
• Expandable (adding additional floors/basement, etc.)
• A huge array of furniture sets (tied to race, order, class, existing weapons sets, holidays, etc.; see Animal Crossing)
• Different floors and wall papers the correspond to the furniture sets (see Animal Crossing)
• Different skins for the exterior of the house (see Parallel Kingdom)
• Bank Access (potentially access to other types of npc vendors as well)
• Instant, free, travel access in the same manner the HoM is accessed
• Trophy displays (possibly heads/claws/horns of impressive critter kills or trophies for significant achievements or both)
• A furniture/exterior skin locker.

All of these could be earned in multiple ways: karma vendors from hearts, npc merchants that appear after certain dynamic events, random drops, crafting (add carpenter and/or upholsterer to the crafting choices), meta achievement completion, etc.

While open world housing would be cool, I would be content with instanced housing. If a party of people are visiting, whose house is visited could be determined by the party leader as in the HoM in GW1.

If we want to get carried away, we could add a customizable garden to the grounds…

Note: This was my thinking on player housing, but guild housing could operate on a similar basis but, perhaps, requiring guild involvement to acquire the items.

Nike.2631:

TheDaiBish.9735:

The Lost Witch.7601:

I bet the ‘limited’ amount of skins isn’t due to a lack of ideas. And coming up with concept design is probably not even a burden! Modeling them for the game, dealing with clipping issues, stuff like that… that’s probably the burdensome part.

I’d say this is all the more reason to allow players to design and submit models, as opposed to concept art, since players aren’t under the same time constraints as the devs.

I can draw at a fair level above stick-figures, but 3D-modeling is right out .

A CDI with the ANet artists is something I would like to see, but I think part of it will be lost to clash over how little diversity there is in Medium armor silhouettes compared to the other two categories. I get it that it ‘exists to provide long-range identification for PvP and WvW’, but the same argument existed in SWtoR and vast majority of players DON’T CARE. The benefits just do not offset the frustration of not being able to express your identity.

Rather than strict silhouette -> profession identity, if I should be that worried about being able to identify what is coming at me at a glance, give me an option check-box to append a profession icon to their name-plate. That’s even clearer messaging than “oh, they’re in a trenchcoat, must be an adventurer profession…”

Those players concerned with armor as identification in pvp and wvw can always turn their Character Model Quality to “Lowest” for easy identification, perhaps increasing their frame rate at the same time.

ArtemusHunter.9521:

Would this be a part of Horizontal Progression? :

Various GW1 styled maps(like JQ, FA and Codex) being revamped for GW2.

For JQ you could make the juggernauts and turtles have champ level health or between champ and vet, and the camps and mines could just be how they were in gw1, but with gw2 npc’s(hopefully with aggressive AI).

And then FQ could be the same in a sense, with the main guy at the end of it having champ level health. You could even make the npc’s ghosts or have it sort of fractal related(by that I mean having the area for JQ broken and floating in ..space?.. like the maw fractal).

As for codex, Idk, never played too much but I know some people liked it a lot. threw it in there for those people.

Great idea! I would love to see JQ and FA; for that matter, I’d love to see AB. Was kind of hoping to see them released with Cantha maps (I know, hope springs eternal).

Chrispy.5641:

adubb.2453:

Earendil Starsailor.4675:

Donari.5237:

I’m not sure how I feel about mix and match, other than wanting it to be equal, none of this “heavy gets it all” stuff.

However, given the mesh issues, a solution would be to design skins that look like other weights but are designated for specific ones. We’ve seen that can be done with dragon bash helms, grenth hoods, and so on. The Aether light chest on men looks like a heavy vest.

That fits right in with all our requests for more and more and more skins.

That would be an easy way to address to at least partly address this. If some of the new skins were universal, like the dragon bash helms you mentioned. The game is invested in the three armor classes. The question is: did the developers make that investment just for the armor’s defense rating or for that as well as aesthetics?

Isaiah actually replied to my original post about mixing and matching armor sets and giving you a choice between types of armor for all classes. First of all, without a major rework of how armor is rendered, you quite literally can’t mix and match armor types. It simply doesn’t work. Secondly, he mentioned that giving all classes the ability to switch between all armor types runs the risk of diluting the purpose of having separate classes altogether.

Compromise
What if the choice was purely aesthetic? No stat buffs whatsoever, you could just wear whatever the heck you wanted to, as long as all your armor pieces were the same type.

Or Perhaps….
What if the bonuses were kept to a minimum? Or perhaps the pros/cons of each armor set were specific to each class. For example, a Guardian wearing heavy armor gets the best boost to armor, wearing Medium armor gives a 5% boost to movement speed but 5% less armor, and wearing Light armor increases healing power by 5% and movement speed by 5% but has 10% less armor then Heavy. And it could be different for every class. Instead of specific stats it could be certain class specific boosts. This would still keep each class distinct, but also opening up even more build flexibility and aesthetic choice.

It would have to be different for every class, because its not just the armor that keeps every class different. Every class has different Hp values as well, which I am guessing were balanced against (probably the warrior) and all the possible abilities, healing, and damage that each class has access to. Pretty much everything about a given class has to be kept in mind when giving them different armor types so it would stay balanced, and not for example, make a Necromancer in Heavy Armor freaking near impossible to kill and keep all his damage amount the same.

Personally, I don’t see the point in forcing different classes to wear different armor types. It seems like more of a vestigial remaint of earlier MMO’s (and further back into early RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons) where every class had a specific Archtype that related to defense, dps, or healing. Since any class can fill any role in this game, different armor types are pointless.

There are some things that would have to be addressed though. For one thing, everyone’s possible armor sets just got tripled, which is good, but it can be bad. In Dungeons for example, you would have a dungeon group requiring Rangers to wear Heavy Armor so they can last longer in melee and make their support skills more useful. But, every Ranger has a set of Medium armor, why should they be required to buy two whole new sets of armor just to please a bunch of Dungeon runners?

If we enabled the ability to wear different armor types (heavy, medium, light), I think it would either have to be just the skin (e.g. heavy armor would still behave like light armor for a mesmer while looking like heavy armor) or just the skin with as in my example but with some minor buffs/debuffs (e.g. a warrior wearing medium armor gets a slight increase in running speed but has the medium armor’s lower defense rating). I don’t think it would be a good idea to increase defense ratings.

adubb.2453:

Isaiah actually replied to my original post about mixing and matching armor sets and giving you a choice between types of armor for all classes. First of all, without a major rework of how armor is rendered, you quite literally can’t mix and match armor types. It simply doesn’t work. Secondly, he mentioned that giving all classes the ability to switch between all armor types runs the risk of diluting the purpose of having separate classes altogether.

Compromise
What if the choice was purely aesthetic? No stat buffs whatsoever, you could just wear whatever the heck you wanted to, as long as all your armor pieces were the same type.

Or Perhaps….
What if the bonuses were kept to a minimum? Or perhaps the pros/cons of each armor set were specific to each class. For example, a Guardian wearing heavy armor gets the best boost to armor, wearing Medium armor gives a 5% boost to movement speed but 5% less armor, and wearing Light armor increases healing power by 5% and movement speed by 5% but has 10% less armor then Heavy. And it could be different for every class. Instead of specific stats it could be certain class specific boosts. This would still keep each class distinct, but also opening up even more build flexibility and aesthetic choice.

Yeah, I’m not a proponent of mixing armor. Really, being able to use the other armor skins from the different classes is not a big thing for me; however, I realize that this game is played by many different player types, and the more the game can cater to these different types (without watering down core content), the better it is for everyone. I do like your “perhaps.” If we can do it and still maintain or even increase the distinction between classes, that would be great.

Donari.5237:

I’m not sure how I feel about mix and match, other than wanting it to be equal, none of this “heavy gets it all” stuff.

However, given the mesh issues, a solution would be to design skins that look like other weights but are designated for specific ones. We’ve seen that can be done with dragon bash helms, grenth hoods, and so on. The Aether light chest on men looks like a heavy vest.

That fits right in with all our requests for more and more and more skins.

That would be an easy way to address to at least partly address this. If some of the new skins were universal, like the dragon bash helms you mentioned. The game is invested in the three armor classes. The question is: did the developers make that investment just for the armor’s defense rating or for that as well as aesthetics?

Guhracie.3419:

Chrispy.5641:

All professions All armor sets

Blah Blah Blah

You guys need to consider that visually, Medium armor doesn’t exactly mix very well with Light or Heavy armor (I blame the Trench Coats). All of them also sit differently on a character’s body to where they all overlap/underlap, and just plain look bad together. Way back before it was updated, you could preview any armor piece together with others, and it looked pretty bad in some cases.

In the vertical progression thread, Isaiah said something about how the mesh was actually so different that it would be impossible. That’s why mix and match of armor types shouldn’t be possible. Here’s my suggestion regarding armor types from earlier in the thread, linked to *adubb*’s idea from the vertical thread.

I like that idea. I’m thinking spvp would remain status quo. To clarify, are you saying, for example, that heavy armor would reduce movement speed for all classes or just for those who are not native heavy armor users?

Palador.2170:

I never played GW1, and until this thread never knew they did something like that.

And as long as the gem store price is reasonable (and I realize that “reasonable” varies from person to person), then I would have no problem with grabbing a gem card or two in order to pay for it.

You missed a great game. Not sure if I’m a fan or not of having followers/heroes/henchmen, but if they do add that, then using alts for that would be fantastic. In that case, I, too, would be willing to pay a reasonable amount for that.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

videoboy.4162:

Khunvyel.3972:

I let the flamesticks poke me into oblivion for saying;

“I’d rather have a top 3 list of things that could actually make it in the game with existing technology and not having to do crazy amounts of extra coding, than having a top 3 list of things people want in the game just so without any further thought.”

°bracing°

Maybe if Chris tells us his three things, that will give us an idea of where to direct the discussion?

Are you willing to share, Chris?

Hi Videoboy,

I am still thinking through all the ideas and suggestions so my list may change but currently it is:

— Role Diversification: New skills/traits, new weapons, access to inaccessible existing weapons, infusions and hybrid professions.

— Sociopolitical Diversification: Player housing, Guild Halls, and Faction Alliances leading to new game play opportunities, rewards and content.

— Hero Recognition: Unique Skins, Titles, Rewards, followers and NPC reactions/opportunities based on the players individual feats in the world of Tyria regardless of how he/she chooses to play the game.

Please note these are just my personal thoughts on what I think would be cool. I am also still thinking about the ideas presented in the thread and therefore like anyone else reserve the right to change my top three (-:

Chris

Nice synthesis!

@ Chrispy and TheDaiBish:

Nicely said. Having everyone list their top 3 ideas won’t result in only 3 ideas. It will, though, result in a condensed list of the overall top ideas, however many there may be.

And, Chrispy, thanks for the recap of the highly requested ideas on page 19; that was helpful!

My top 3 are:

1. Player housing & Guild Halls, both insanely customizable, like Animal Crossing but more so.
2. New weapon skins unique to specific maps & new armor skins unique to specific crafting tiers (with a focus on the lower tiers). A locker to put them in would be nice as well.
3. Earned hats/masks that can be worn over the helmet (GW1 style) for weekly contests (See Parallel Kingdom) or for certain milestones reached (perhaps tied to achievements) or for completing certain events/achievements or some combination thereof.

I should note that there were quite a few other ideas I liked (Orders quests, fishing!, lore system, making personality/race matter, etc.)

Chris, you said, " feel free to discuss Horizontal Progression systems you have enjoyed in other games."

So, here are a couple:
1. The hats in Parallel Kingdom. Nike mentioned bragging rights. These are the epitome of that. More info here: http://guide.parallelkingdom.com/index.php/Category:Hats

2. The furniture sets in Animal Crossing. If we do player housing, this would be the way to go. Huge variety, some sets more rare than others, and it’s all cosmetic. Interestingly, Parallel Kingdom also has furniture sets, though not much in the way of variety and house skins that change the appearance of the outside of the house. Anyway, more info on Animal Crossing furniture here: http://accf.wikispaces.com/Furniture

Chrispy.5641:

Several Things….

- You could not craft Settler’s Armor until the December 10th update. Before that, you had to have very specific conditions met in order to buy them on Southsun. So, even before, when you had to do some difficult stuff to get it, it did not motivate anyone to go there, niche gear or not (besides the fact that the only gear in this game that isn’t niche, is Berserker’s, because that remains the only stat combination where you can get every single Exotic piece of equipment and upgrade for.)

- Once any of them are sellable on the Trading Post, the cost will drop. Having unique items for every area is something the game really needs (And something I am going to cover in a later post), but, it doesn’t change the fact that the prices will become nothing on the trading post after several months, so in terms of a hard mode, just adding special items to harder areas of the game isn’t going to get anyone moving very fast except for those that see a gold to be made.

- Didn’t matter that Ecto’s were only found in one or two areas. I still had access to them, and I never went to those zones for months/years at a time. They aren’t as exclusive ad you may think they were.

- Heh, some niche gear is more niche than others; Settlers is one that is not in any kind of demand. It’s not enough to be unique; it has to also be desirable.

- Yes, prices will drop. That goes without saying. However, what they drop down to will be determined by rarity and demand. It’s why Dusk sells for over 800 gold while Crystal Guardian sell for over 8 gold and Cobalt sells for over 2 gold. All three are in demand, but they are different levels of rarity. Items not in demand sell for less. And, as much as they drop, they do level out at some point. For years, Totem Axes sold for 4-5 plat. The point isn’t so much to get every single player out to a map to get an item so much as it is to get some players out to a map that was heretofore vacant.

- I wasn’t thinking that ecto was exclusive in the sense that only a few players had it. It dropped, though, almost exclusively in the UW (with some rare instances occurring elsewhere). And while you might not have been a frequent visitor to the Temple, many people were, which is the point. Everywhere there was something worth getting, there was a population of players, some larger, some smaller. Everywhere else was a ghost town, with the odd player playing through.

- It sounds like we’re mostly in agreement and are just quibbling around the edges. Which has been great. It’s been nice reading and participating in a thread where people can quibble without going overboard about it.

Nike.2631:

I don’t disagree. My point is more that the rewards should not in turn reduce the difficulty of that or future challenges. Hard mode should not invalidate its own hardness through vertical reward schemes .

I think for people who wanted to show their prowess was above the norm those two things worked quite well and that vein isn’t nearly played out yet. I’m entirely serious when I say bragging rights are the highest reward, and the game could do more to verify our accomplishments in ways others can see.

Parallel Kingdoms does a good job of this. For instance, they have weekly contests (same contests every week). The person who wins each contest gets a hat specific to that contest. The hats add nothing to you stat-wise, but everyone knows you won the contest. The contests involved things like most player kills, most monster kills, most leather collected, etc. See here for more info: http://guide.parallelkingdom.com/index.php/Category:Hats

Chrispy.5641:

And we gets these new rewards, of which all of could be bought on the Trading Post on day 1, if players really want it, meaning that only the 5 people that see a chance for profit will ever go to those empty zones for the new resource, weapon skin, etc. If you go the other route and make those new rewards soulbound, then you have the same kitten storm as you have with ascended gear right now.

Aside from that, Using Gambits like we did several months ago is also a valid way to increase the difficulty level (and lets people choose their own handicaps), but if there is no increase in rewards for the greater risk, then no one is going to care about it, which is why people don’t bother with the harder dungeon paths, and don’t go to Southsun over other level 80 areas. It doesn’t matter that Southsun is the only place to get Settler’s gear, because, you can buy it off the trading post for less than the time/gold investment you would be wasting to go there yourself.

People buy them from the TP because they are cheap. They are cheap because they drop in multiple places, many of which (the items, not the places) are farmed by the zerg in starting zones (read “Queensdale”). As for Settler’s gear, it’s niche gear and not in demand (and you can craft the armor and weapons).

Map specific items would bring more players to the map. It might not bring the whole zerg, but that seems like it’s a good thing. At this point, I’d rather go to a map with 10 people on it than one with zero. There doesn’t have to be one unique drop per map; in fact, several would be better. The UW in GW1 yielded ecto, eternal blades, Dhuum’s scythes, and mini Dhuums, all of which sold well in varying degrees. No wonder there were always people at the Temple forming groups.

Do we really need a Hard Mode in GW2? There are already some challenging maps, and they are empty. There are already some challenging paths in some of the dungeons, and nobody does them. GW2 just doesn’t seem as well suited to a HM experience as GW1 was. I do like the idea of using gambits. It’s voluntary, doesn’t affect anyone else, and you can tie a minor reward increase and maybe a title to it. If anything, the scaling could be adjusted a bit. Make champs a little easier when there’s only one or two people there and a little harder when the zerg is there.

As for dead maps, if we want people to go there, then there has to be some type of loot/reward that is unique to that particular map. In GW1, if you wanted ecto, you had to go to the UW. If you wanted a zodiac weapon, you had to go to the Deep or Urgoz. Totem Axe? To The Falls! It doesn’t have to be a weapon drop. It could be resources or a recipe for a unique armor skin to craft that drops randomly or a mini.

Thank you, Orpheal, for the page summaries; they’ve been helpful!

@Kain Francois:

Great list, as long as by RNG you don’t mean via black lion chests. I made a similar point in my post (rare, unique drops that are only available on a certain map). Love the idea of the underflow server.

Well, what kept me playing GW1 long after (years) I had completed the last mission on each continent was the unadulterated appeal to my completionist nature. Titles, minis, weapon skins, armor skins, elite skills, mission bonuses, etc. In GW2, though, titles and minis don’t have the same appeal they did in GW1, and there’s no room for weapon and armor skins. There are no missions and there’s no need to hunt down skills.

So, anything that appeals to innate desire to collect in people will greatly expand the horizontal progression of the game. Some suggestions:

• As already stated by a billion people (perhaps a few less), a pve locker for weapon/armor skins like the one in pvp would be dandy. It would set this completionsit on the path to contentment.
• Speaking of armor skins, it would be nice to add different (read “new”) armor skins to the crafter’s menu. Not adding new tiers, but variety to each tier. Preferably, these would be skins that would only be available by crafting. Make them via recipe rather than by discovery with the recipes available from npc’s after completing a certain event. By the way, if we’re going to give a weapon a cool/unusual name (e.g. “skritt herder”), could we give it a cool/unusual skin?
• Housing. It’s been mentioned already numerous times. But a house with a few knickknacks won’t do the trick. You need to channel Animal Crossing on this. Many different ways to change the look with collectible sets (including the music that’s played) would keep people busy for a while. Seems kind of silly, but play Animal Crossing for a bit, and you’ll see what I’m saying. Mix it up and make some items functional and others purely decorative. Increase interest further by having an immediate (and free) access to the house just like the HoM. And, yes, you’ll need a locker for this, too. Note: Guild houses could operate in a similar manner).
• More town clothes, costumes, hats, and masks to collect from many different venues (not just the TP). Even better if the hats/masks can be worn over the helmet. This is something Parallel Kingdoms does very well. GW2 could do it better.
• Something for the middle maps. Again, from GW1, unique weapon skins (and minis) that are rare drops that are only available on that map.
• First person camera view. I know. Bear with me. My main point is that much of what makes horizontal progression valuable is its appeal to the collector or completionist. Here’s the thing. There were quite a few of us that enjoyed collecting pictures of scenery (without our big heads in the way). Not to mention, some peeps liked to make movies and the like. If you’re worried about it affecting game play at all, for whatever reason, perhaps the skill bar could be disabled while in first person mode.

Anyway, it’s been great reading all of the ideas. Looking forward to reading more and seeing some (many) of them implemented. Thank you for the opportunity to throw in my two cents.

@Allie Murdock: Could you make it so that falling deaths don’t count towards anything in Skyhammer? Would that be too complex of a change on your end? Sending a guy over the edge is reward enough; we don’t need any points for it…

And please add town clothes/costumes to that as well.

Just Trogdor, I have to say that I enjoy the champ farm in Queensdale, but I do see your point. This is what results, though, when gold is hard to come by, particularly for casual players. In Guild Wars 1, there were a zillion ways to earn gold. Perhaps instead of gutting the Queensdale champ farm, they should make equally palatable champ farms in all of the starting zones, thereby thinning the zerg a bit. Barring that, perhaps those of us in the zerg should start being a little more vocal about the fact that we share the map with people who are not in the zerg, and that their rights are equal to ours. In addition, I would also say that these champs should have more of a chance against large zergs. No doubt the zerg should win, and in a timely manner, but there should be downed people left and right. Often, I don’t see a single person get downed. When you’re fighting a champ, there should be an epic feel to it, even if your group is too big to fail…

TehPwnerer.7215:

Earendil Starsailor.4675:

Yeah, I figure that not everyone would want to do that, but it does give us some choice. Perhaps couple that with an inherent, subtle glow/particle/aura/etc. effect that you get by wearing the ring? Something that says “hero” without being obnoxious about it.

Devotion Aura! (GW1 style, obviously) but really this is a great idea I’d love to see this get more support.

If it ties back to GW1, so much the better. And I’m all for having an npc that hands them out to people who already chucked theirs.

I never really liked the sword (in terms of its shape). But the effect in GW1 was so cool, that I had to have one. I would love to see that effect reinstated on the GW2 fellblade. As it stands now, it looks like an old, semi-rusty sword with dust occasionally being blown off it. While we’re at it, I’d like to see a true IDS…

I like the idea; in fact, I suggested the same thing on one of the “what weapons would you like to see” posts on facebook (or maybe it was on the forums, I don’t recall now). By making it pole arms instead of halberds, you could get all kinds of cool skins (halberd, bill-guisarme, voulge, fauchard, poleaxe, glaive, and all the various combinations).

Badmoon, if it just you and a friend or 3, I’d suggest, like darkdomino did, using Skype, which you can download for free. Otherwise, Vent, TeamSpeak, or Mumble would be the way to go. Many guilds already have a server for one of those, and you would just need to download (the free) client.

I don’t see the need for mounts, but I wouldn’t mind cheaper/free waypoints and/or increased base movement speed. Even more than that, though, I would love a first person camera view like we had in GW1.

Yeah, I figure that not everyone would want to do that, but it does give us some choice. Perhaps couple that with an inherent, subtle glow/particle/aura/etc. effect that you get by wearing the ring? Something that says “hero” without being obnoxious about it.

I really like this idea. But I would also support making rings, accessories, etc. transmutable. It would be nice to at least be able to keep the icon image and the name while upgrading the stats via transmutation stones. For whatever reason, I can’t bring myself to toss it, but it’s just taking up inventory space.

The mind reads what it wants to read, I suppose. I read the patch notes and filed it away as “end of February” rather than “late February” (which is a bit vague for something like this in my opinion). It’s my fault for not reading quite carefully enough. Having said that, I think we can agree that patch notes are not quite the most ideal way of communicating something like this. I don’t think it’s too much to ask for an in-game email, preferably a week before the change was to take place. Most players don’t read the patch notes, and many that do just do a quick scan of them. Many don’t even make use of the forums or the wiki (too busy playing the game instead I would surmise). This is not an unknown phenomena, and it would have been nice if ANet had made use of a form of communication that would have reached everyone.