Guild Wars 2

Malchior.5732:

Dungeons: 5-man group content

Raids: 10-man group content

All that changed was that they actually tried to make more interesting bosses and it’s 10 people instead of 5, which has arguably allowed more variety of classes to be used.

The Queen’s Gauntlet is a nice example of a challenge, but it’s not group content.

Regardless, the point isn’t that Raids are the only way to make a challenge, it’s just one of the few things in the game that is actually designed to be a challenge and one of the only things that will hopefully allow better PvE players to differentiate themselves by letting them show off their legendary armor that wasn’t bought with gold (this assumes they make the next wings much harder and impossible to beat without all 10 people trying; I.e. no more selling).

Randomguy.1283 didn’t mention groups at all in his post, only that “EVERYTHING in this game except for raids is designed for casuals.” I also specifically mentioned challenging dungeons, so I’m not sure why you feel the need to mention groups either.

He also makes the assumption that raids are the only method, the “ONE Thing” by which challenging content can be delivered, and assumes that anyone who is anti-raid is also anti-challenge, which isn’t the case.

randomguy.1283:

Can the players who want to actually be challenged have ONE thing to ourselves? ONE thing? Raids are literally the only reason I still play this game, can I not be able to enjoy it? The content is focused on content for elite players? You’ve got to be kittening kidding me, EVERYTHING in this game except for raids is designed for casuals. Please, shut up.

I’m not saying I agree or disagree with you, but challenging content and raids are not mutually exclusive. You can have content that presents a challenge without it being in the form of a 10-player raid. There could easily be challenging dungeons or even solo encounters; in fact, the Queen’s Gauntlet (especially Liadri) is a great example of that. It’s even timed and “instanced” like raids, but takes the form of single player content instead.

Do not assume that the only way you can be challenged is via raids.

I don’t have any exhaustive list of feedback yet (still testing things), but I do want to echo two points being made repeatedly in this thread that are already very apparent;

Rocket Charge (Hammer #3)’s leap feels unpredictable and clunky, and ineffective as a gap closer. I’ve also had a few close calls where one of the jumps will place me near a ledge. Considering how much verticality there is in Verdant Brink, this seems like an issue. I would love to see it function like Savage Leap, Leap of Faith, etc.; just a straight-forward leap attack. It just doesn’t feel very satisfying (though it looks neat, I suppose).

Second, as others have said, Gyros are wildly ineffective due to their slow movement and pokey AI. I feel like they should remain locked on the Engineer, similar to how Rock Barrier (Elementalist Earth Attunement Scepter #2) functions; they should just hover slightly behind you, making the engineer the center of their field / area of effect. With so much emphasis on swiftness and supers speed in the Scrapper line, this issue is compounded greatly. As they exist now, I cannot see any of them getting much use outside of PvE encounters where you don’t move much (which should be most fights, but we all know what stacking is).

I’m loving a lot about the Scrapper and I’m seeing a ton of synergy with other traits, but it’s not quite there yet. CLOSE though, assuming the Gyro pathing issue can be resolved.

A similar issue was present in the last BWE with the Reaper Shroud #2 skill, and they’ve since changed it to move towards the targeted enemy. I feel Weakening Charge (Thief Staff #2) is in a similar position, but it’s amplified by how much the Daredevil is built to be dodging around everywhere. I definitely agree that it would benefit from moving towards the player’s target.

No comment on Revenant skills, haven’t dug into them much yet, but if the behavior is the same that might be a change worth making too.

Fantastic idea, it’d be cool if he had his own event chain somewhere in the jungle, exploring a trap-filled ruin since that seems to be his specialty.

Further examples and thoughts on the Guild Campaign concept:

1. A Campaign modeled on the Urban Battleground fractal where the objective is to essentially replay the Charr invasion of Ascalon. The large raid content is focused on taking cities (Ascalon City, Surmia, Rin), smaller raids on individual villages, fortresses and keeps, smaller 5-player groups on weakening smaller objectives.

• Remember that these are not dynamic events but play out more like dungeon paths!

2. A Campaign set up like a traditional “Big dungeon” raid would play out like the city of Moria from the Lord of the Rings; a sprawling, labyrinth of caverns, chambers, and mines that takes several days to cross. 5-player groups can unlock new routes, find hidden caches of weapons that the raids can use to their advantage, or even make the whole campaign harder (but more rewarding) by stirring up the enemies. It might actually be really cool to have a guild campaign that had the objective of just advancing forward until you reach an exit, with players picking different routes.

3. The potential for asymmetric gameplay is possible; a 10-player raid through a heavily-defended valley is made easier by a 5-player group clearing the enemy out from defensive positions above. These don’t have to occur simultaneously, but in theory they could, meaning that the number of players who can participate in a campaign is much more fluid; in this example we have essentially created a “15-player raid” even though technically no such construct exists. This means that, if there are enough objectives a raid could extend to the player cap for the entire map. For example, if 25-players is the largest group for which content is created, but there are four 25-player encounters in the campaign, they could theoretically all be occurring at the same time for what is essentially a 100-player raid.

• Using the above example, having both the 10-player “Valley” Raid and the 5-player “Cliffside” encounter run simultaneously would be the most efficient method. Because campaigns are envisioned as open maps with isolated routes rather than tightly instanced sections, the 5-player group could utilize siege to rain arrows down into the valley while the 10-player group is running through it, making this “15-player raid” the optimal route while still remaining optional.

4. The dynamics of the map can change based on the different group content. For example, a large 25-player group completes an encounter, which in addition to creating new encounters for them to complete unlocks a small 5-player objective that unlocks a waypoint. In theory, smaller groups could constantly nip at the heels of the larger ones to add lots of support options.

• This works both ways! A 5-player group runs through a small path and randomly triggers an event like the Troll in Ascalon Catacombs. The wall the troll comes through could then lead to a new raid where players must wipe out a hidden troll den. This optional content would never have been discovered without the smaller group’s efforts.

5. I like the idea that Campaigns have no set time restriction. In theory, a guild could have a campaign running for months, taking down a chunk of content a week at a time.

Still poking at this idea, any feedback thus far?

So this is a very rough, very early stab at a concept a few guildmates and I are working on, but I though it would be useful to post it and get some feedback.
—-
Proposal Overview
“Guild Campaigns”

Goal of Proposal
Create large zones with multiple objectives for a variety of group sizes without stringent limits on time and organization.

Proposal Functionality
Traditional raids are essentially “bigger dungeons.” A specific number of players go in together, fight bosses and leave. Progress is either lost or preserved for a period of time when players are not inside the raid.

Our proposal is to create large, instanced maps that are persistent over a long period of time (perhaps indefinitely) and contain a large number of objectives intended for a variety of group sizes. These objectives can be completed separately and even simultaneously, but all contribute towards the overall goal.

To present a familiar example, the Pact effort to take the Temple of Balthazar in Straits of Devastation is a three-pronged approach that each operate independently and require different tactics and group sizes, but all feed into the main meta event to retake the temple. All three approaches do not necessarily have to be completed to advance, though it does help tremendously.

A theoretical Campaign of this scenario would give players a global objective (“Retake the Temple”), but in place of open world Dynamic Events would have a more structured, group-oriented approach.

For example, a 5-player group enters the campaign map on Monday and starts a dungeon-like encounter to clear a route for supplies to be delivered to the southern front. When the 10-player raid starts later that day, they can chose from several different encounters, but decide that since there are supplies already delivered to the south, they’ll push through the “Lasciate Gate” raid.

On Tuesday another 5-player group enters and fnds that since the southern route was advanced the previous day, they now have access to an Orrian Reliquary that will give a map-wide buff if completed.

On Wednesday night, the big 25-player raid enters to find that instead of the direct approach to the temple, they can take an alternative route through the Lasciate Gate, and they have all of these valuable relic buffs activated to boot.

The campaign continues until the Temple is retaken; perhaps the route through the Lasciate Gate was too difficult or the push towards the temple needed more artillery. 5-player content continues to complete smaller objectives, which compliments or unlocks new 10-player content, which in turn gives the large 25-player groups more options. The large 25-player group can all log in Monday, however, and recapture the Temple if they’re good enough, but a more diverse experience (different routes with different bosses, different tactics, rewards, etc.) is achieved by having smaller groups work on the campaign as well.

Associated Risks
If a ton of development resources are being spent on large scale dynamic content, it might just be better to spend them on open-world content that all players can enjoy.

Being more open-ended, players who want a linear raid (“Kill boss, clear trash, kill boss, clear trash, kill boss, done”) may be disappointed.

Larger guilds may still consider 25-player encounters to be too small, though it is possible that multiple large-scale encounters could feed into much larger, world-boss style fights.

Some thoughts to consider as we dig into this CDI that I thought were worth sharing;

• Not everyone has a large guild. Creating raids in which hundreds of players are required is not an option as it excludes guilds that maybe have 10 to 20 members. I do not believe that extremely small guilds (1 to 5 members) should be able to raid, in the same way that they cannot execute most Guild Missions. However, setting the bar at “Mega-Organized Events” for enormous guilds only is a mistake and goes against the “accessibility and strengths of existing GW2 core functionality.”

• Not everyone has a small guild either. Some guilds actually have hundreds of active members. One of the worst parts of managing a guild in Traditional MMOs is the drama (infighting, politics, favoritism) that springs up around deciding who gets into a raid. Smaller raid sizes, such as one built around 10 players for example, is easier to wrangle because there can be multiple raids running simultaneously (it is, essentially, two dungeon groups).

To address the two points above, ideally raids should scale based on the number of players present or should come in a variety of different size options. Guild Missions are an excellent model here because with very few exceptions there are no hard limits on who can participate.

• Not everyone wants them to be instanced, so do not treat this as a foregone conclusion. Organizational tools for large-scale events should not be built around the notion that they are private or exclusive and that players can be kicked out. For example, Tequatl groups organize by all loading into a map at once in order to secure as many spots as possible for themselves. Instead of allowing that group to have a private area in which they can kick players out (exclusive), the tools should be built to make moving as a group easier (inclusive).

• We already have dungeons and we already have World Bosses. Raids should not just be “Bigger Dungeons” or “Private World Bosses”, but something meaningfully distinct (even if, at the end of the day, it looks like a hybrid of those two). How are Raids going to be something distinctly “Guild Wars 2” and not a regurgitation of the same gameplay constructs that have been seen a dozen times before? How will Guild Wars 2 “do raiding right” where so many others have failed or been mediocre?

• Keep the current Progression system in mind as you think on your ideas. It may be tempting to transplant gear progression systems from other raid-centric MMOs into Guild Wars 2, but this goes against the current endgame which many players (many of whom will not participate in this CDI!) enjoy and do not want to see changed. Currently, players can return after several months or even years away from the game and not be behind all of their friends.

• Keep the community AS A WHOLE in mind, with special attention to how player habits change over time. While you may have thoroughly enjoyed staying up until 3am trying to beat that raid boss when you were in middle school, please consider how incompatible that type of gameplay is with a lifestyle in which employment, families and non-gaming hobbies figure prominently. Many players automatically assume they want “hardcore raiding like in the old days” without realizing that a decade or more has passed and that despite wanting to indulge in that experience again, it may not be realistic to do so (and it can have dire consequences for developers who work under such assumptions; see Wildstar).
  • Raids should probably take longer than a dungeon, but not excessively so (remember, not everyone has hours to spend gaming!)
  • Raids should not require an excessive amount of preparation (Attunements, buffs, etc.)
  • Raids should occur when it is convenient for the individual; time locks and such should not dictate when a player can raid. (Not everyone has a regular work schedule!)

Feel free to disagree with any of these particular points, strongly if you must, but please keep them in mind just the same. The perspective, needs and lifestyles of others needs to be considered as you make your way through this CDI.

Thanks for reading, have a great CDI everyone. I’ll probably start tinkering with some ideas soon, even though raids were never really my thing (though the games in which I raided were all fundamentally flawed, so that may be why).

Gaile Gray.6029:

So please keep your thoughts coming on the new system. Feel free to make suggestions but please, keeping them constructive would be very much appreciated.

The initial UI addresses all of the bullet points you listed. However, when you mouse over “Get Gold” and “Get Gems,” they light up but cannot be clicked. Perhaps they can tuck in a “Buy Custom Amount” option when these area clicked, so that players who want to buy an exact number of gems / gold can do so, but it allows the less confusing interface to remain the ‘default’.

This is not a deal breaker for me, but I would appreciate more precise control if at all possible. I understand the frustration of having an item cost 250 gems and not being able to exchange that exact amount.

I decided before I dug into my Top 3 priorities that I’d re-read the entire thread to get a general sense of everyone’s opinions and make my choices based on what’s important for housing in general, rather than spout off three reasons that support my personal views. I’m sure everyone is well aware that the Official Forums make up a very small (and disproportionately vocal) part of the player base, so I was specifically on the look out for posts that might have been lost in the shuffle; the quiet, unassuming comments that represent a view that the general noise of the Official Forums drowns out.

That seems like a lot of setup for what is essentially a pretty predictable and dull Top 3, but these really are my top priorities when it comes to Guild Halls. That they’ve been mentioned before simply means that they’re worth repeating.

1. Functionality / Purpose
If there is no reason to visit a guild hall, then it is simply a geegaw, a pointless ornament you unlock, admire once and then never bother with again. It is essential that Guild Halls have a practical purpose that justifies the investment of time and resources spent by both the developers to implement them and the players to unlock them. They cannot be purely cosmetic and they cannot be elaborate trophies. There need to be reasons for players to not just visit the guild hall (to pick up a quick buff or something, for example) but utilize it in some way. Some activity or function must be present that players want to stop and spend a moment doing on a regular basis (but not so vital that they feel it is mandatory!).

2. Social Elements
This CDI has repeatedly stressed how important it is that Guild Halls not take players out of the game world, allowing them to create private spaces (not necessarily instanced!). However, I don’t feel that’s enough; the mechanics behind guild halls must be designed with an eye towards community interaction. Putting Guild Halls into neighborhoods that share a common space means those guilds are interacting together. Having ways in which guilds work with the community at large to the benefit of both is important. Inviting non-members into their hall should be something guilds want to do, not just to show off but because there are gameplay elements that promote social interaction instead of isolation. Without digging into specific suggestions, all I can say is that the worst possible outcome for Guild Halls, from a social standpoint, is that only guild members care about them.

3. Customization
Guilds are diverse, so their Halls should be as well. Simply having a singular structure, or even a small variety of structures, will likely not be sufficient enough. Some have suggested that guild halls be built brick-by-brick, Minecraft-style, though that seems fairly implausible. My own suggestion of modular rooms that are fit together may be too ambitious as well. But it is essential that players have the tools to give the hall a personal touch beyond their guild symbol displayed on some banners. This extends inside as well; there must be a variety of furniture and decorative elements that can be freely placed within the hall to allow guilds a way to make their Guild Halls unique.

Final Thoughts

• Thanks for a great CDI folks (both developers and players). There were far fewer unpleasant people than I expected given that these are the Official Forums, and most of the discussion was forward-thinking with very little of the ugly Armchair Game Designer-type commentary (i.e. “My idea is the best ever, I deserve the credit, let’s talk about that instead”). I do not have high hopes for the Raid and GvG CDIs as the communities that are built up around those two activities have a lot more baggage than Housing-type people, but we’ll see.

• There are a few things that would have been worth including into my Top 3, except that I consider them to be no-brainers. And yet I’m going to mention them anyways!
  • Instance vs. Open World, because that’s going to be a technical hurdle first and a design hurdle second. However it shakes out, the pitfalls will be addressed and this CDI has provided enough suggestions on how to do so.
  • Guild Halls must be a platform from which additional content can spring, like Fractals / Missions / etc. I’m fairly sure there is a huge sign somewhere in ArenaNet HQ that says this.
  • Concerns about small guilds being able to participate have been addressed quite thoroughly, to the point that I don’t feel the need to point it out as part of the Top 3. I’m confident that the discussion we’ve had was unnecessary (though important to the CDI as a whole), as one thing ArenaNet is fantastic at is ensuring content is inclusionary to as many play styles as possible.

• A big thanks to VodCom.6924 for wading through and summarizing things.

Baltzenger.2467:

The way I see it, who gets the plot shouldn’t be based on this idea of prestige, that’s why I say it shouldn’t be quantified.
I would rather have a crossover system that linkes GH further with other mechanics of the game.

Some possible things that I would like to see:
- Winners of a sPvP tournament getting a plot on the heart of the mists to put their Guild Hall.
- WvW related feats that allow you to have your Guild Hall on a certain tactical location.
- Raid like content that will allow a guild to have an specific plot in the world to put their GH.

All with decay systems, based on each type of feat required to conquer this plots.

I don’t see GH as an isolated system at all, therefore, I don’t agree with having it’s “endgame” be tied only to what this particular system offers.

Did you read any of the posts relevant to the suggestion you’re talking about? It kind of seems like you haven’t. Start here, then here (part 1 and part 2). All of these were not only linked right at the top of the post you guys are quoting, but I also summarized them as well.

Based on your post, the question of “who gets the plot” isn’t determined by who has the best guild hall at all. For example, you suggest that the “Winners of an sPVP tournament get a plot on the heart of the mists to put their Guild Hall”, and that performance in WvW and “Raid-like content” similarly determines who gets specific plots for just those game types. You close by saying that you “don’t see GH as an isolated system.”

Your suggestion doesn’t factor the guild halls themselves into the equation at all. You’ve instead taken Guild Halls and turned them into a new tier of reward for pre-existing gameplay platforms. The “Heart of the Mists” plot is basically a giant sPVP trophy, for sPVP players only. Sure, you can make it look cool and you have the convenience of having whatever amenities guild halls feature available in that space, but how is it anything more than an elaborate banner that says “This guild is good at sPVP?”

The whole point of the Prestige concept is to pull threads from all of the various game modes (Dungeons, WvW, sPVP, PvE, Crafting, etc.) and weave them into a unified system (not isolated, as you describe) to create something that’s potentially more rewarding for guilds.

The answer to “who gets the Guild Hall plot?” should be “whoever has the best Guild Hall,” and the prestige suggestion is one approach towards that.

Gobble D Goop.4081:

I had an idea over the weekend. . .

The posts I linked to at the top of my post are describing exactly the same kind of mechanic you’ve outlined here, except that in place of the open world they are placed into plots in Lion’s Arch (I feel the Open World should be left open). Prestige is merely the metric on which guilds are ranked, both overall & by league, (more on that in a second or you can read my post way back on page one).

Baltzenger.2467:

If we come up with a good system for determining who gets to have his guild on this spots, and for how long, and how to compete for it, we can now have two layers of prestige around GH . . .

All addressed in my previous post;
Who gets to have their guild in the open world?
The neighborhood with the highest Prestige score in each League (leagues are set up so that no one is excluded purely for their size and activity level).

How long?
I gave a figure of one week, though that’s completely flexible.

How do we complete?

• Collect furnishings with high Prestige value.
• Work with your neighbors (remember, this is a community-driven contest, not just individual guilds).
• Spring for special events (See the “Floating Tangents” part of my post).
• Play together as a guild; “points can be awarded for successful completion of Guild Missions, WvW claims and successful dungeon / PVP matches done as a guild.”

Additionally, I also suggested some form of “Upvote” system, though I’m still working out the details on how that would work.

Baltzenger.2467:

Btw, I don’t completely agree with Retro’s idea of prestige, to me it shouldn’t be quantified at all, but a concept that serves as a result of getting difficult things.

Well, you have to quantify it because there needs to be a score; otherwise there’s no competition amongst guilds for those plots in the Open World. Besides, the Prestige mechanic I suggested is absolutely about getting difficult things. (See the section on Guild Commissions).

Gobble D Goop.4081:

This number would be increased through various means (possibly in a similar way that influence is increased).

Please see the discussion on the last page between Devata & I on why using an influence-like mechanic would be a bad idea for anything but the absolute basic features of Guild Halls (here’s my last post on the matter that would probably act as a sufficient summary; https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Guilds-Guild-Halls/page/26#post4476633)

Gobble D Goop.4081:

As for increasing the prestige value, that could go up by doing things together as a guild (running dungeons, fighting bosses, WvW objectives, etc) Retro even listed some specific missions for obtaining furniture. This could also be used to gain prestige.

Prestige, as I envisioned it, represents the Guild Hall’s level of luxury & comfort. That’s why it’s based on the quality of the furnishings you unlock. You can generate extra Prestige each week by doing those kind of things you’ve listed, but the largest chunk needs to come from furnishings. The reason is simple; they’re permanent & guild-bound, so progression is always moving forward & never diminishes even if people stop playing. You also can’t compensate for a lack of furnishings by just running a bunch of stuff as a guild; that’s one way to get furnishings, but it’s not a replacement.

Conski Deshan.2057:

Question on this how would you address quantity vs quality? how would a skilled 50 man guild compete with an unskilled 500 man guild? If I get you that it’s just an ever increasing number.

Already addressed on page one when this proposal was first submitted; “Guilds would be grouped into “leagues” based on size, overall neighborhood quality, etc.” I’m not entirely sure that it needs to be based on guild size because that can rapidly change (small guilds recruit, large guilds splinter) or be misrepresented (large guilds with 500 members may only have 50-100 that could be called ‘active’). I suggested “neighborhood quality” (That is, Prestige, though I hadn’t given it that name yet) because even a small guild that is ultra-dedicated should be able to break out of the “Bronze League” & fight larger guilds who maybe aren’t as concerned with their Guild Hall.

Gobble D Goop.4081:

I dont see this working without some form of upkeep.

Upkeep was discussed to death a few pages back, you guys are reading this thread, right?

Upkeep is antithetical to the design & business model of Guild Wars 2 which allows players to play at their own pace, taking breaks for weeks or even years in some instances, without having to pay a subscription or constantly play to “Keep up with the Jonses” as they would in other MMOs with loot treadmills & such.

timmyf.1490:

I’m okay with private rooms in guild halls, but those should be designed for guild officers or certain ranks, not for individuals. Guild Halls should not be a poor man’s player housing.

Because of the way guild halls pretty much have to work to keep them from being insane grinds and to allow smaller guilds access, private banking guilds pretty much would be player housing. I don’t think there’s any way around it because some guilds are literally two or three people. While I don’t believe guild halls should be built specifically for those tiny guilds, we also can’t fairly set arbitrary limits on how many people qualifies as a ‘guild’.

Brown Fang Thump.9482:

For those who are concerned that their personal achievements aren’t celebrated in a guild hall or that that they don’t want to be subject to the choices of a single guild leader, I have to say “A guild, being an organization of many people, lead by a small sampling of those people, is meant to be a team, not a representation of any single team member.” If you feel that your personal achievements are more important than those of your guild as a whole or you don’t want to follow your guild’s leadership, you should leave that guild. It may even be the case that being part of any guild is not really your thing and that’s okay too.

Guild halls should bring people together. They can’t do that by providing monuments to individualism. They do it by offering and promoting group achievements. Guild leaders do impose their own points of view, because sharing vision towards a common goal is what leaders do. If you don’t want to opt into that dynamic, it is easy enough to opt out.

Or, you know, take a page from Nike.2631’s post and allow for “private rooms” or my suggestion would be to allow guild masters to set permissions for specific rooms so that regular members can edit some areas but not all of them.

In fact, that’s another benefit of furniture being “Guild Bound” in my earlier suggestion; you can let anybody edit the hall and not have to worry that they’re going to steal your furniture. Didn’t consider that, but… yay.

Gobble D Goop.4081:

i really like this idea. this should be they way they implement furniture. i would add one thing though. there should be ascended and legendary furniture as well. ascended could be assembled from parts found via a large scavenger hunt/crafting excursion (see Maudrey for example). Legendary furniture would be created with lots of mats and possibly even a precursor furniture piece (might not be as rare as weapon precursors). Imagine crafting a “Gift of Chair” or something like that. Maybe throw in the precursor chair piece, the Gift of Chair, a stack of ectos, and some other random thing to make a shiny “Glow in the Dark Armchair” or something like that.

Yep, furniture at a higher than exotic level was in my notes but I was already fighting the character limit and wasn’t sure how I wanted to approach it. It would need to be really cool and unique; not just a bigger statue or fancier chair but something insanely awesome. I don’t even know how they’d do it, but some kind of Legendary Statue where you drop a blank pedestal and then have your guild mates stand on it. Then when you’re ready you can activate it and it creates a statue of everyone that you can drop in your guild hall. Maybe Ascended statues would be similar, just be for single characters. /shrug

But yeah, lots of potential there, I just didn’t want to jump into it and complicate the post further. Gotta keep it simple… or die trying

Continued from above….

Guild Commissions
I initially toyed with the idea of Guild “Achievements”, but I’m not sure that’s particularly interesting or useful. The core idea that I wanted to get across is that, in addition to getting all of these furnishings from all over the world, there are very specific tasks you can undertake to get very specific, unique things that you want. The goal is to really push your guild to work together in a collaborative way that is also repeatable and isn’t necessarily something you have to do in real time. Thus, Guild Commissions. These are special tasks that guild members can perform to pick up the coolest, most Prestigious furnishings.

Commissions are assigned by the guild master (or any rank that has permission), and several can be active at once. They are essentially want-ads; “somebody go out and do this task and we get this cool thing.” They could range from the mundane (“donate 500 copper ore”) to more challenging endeavors (“Complete Ascalon Catacombs as a guild, without any player being defeated”). Each Commission has a unique reward, so if your guild is after an epic Tequatl statue for the lobby, you can assign your guild the task of, say, defeating Tequatl under a given time limit while part of a guild group. The best furnishings come from Commissions, and ideally there wouldn’t be any unlock required to start assigning them. As an added incentive to visit the hall itself, Commissions could be viewed and tracked at a special ‘wanted board’.

A few notes on Furnishings
One idea I was tinkering with is being able to destroy furniture you don’t want to generate influence. If you find your guild inventory is loaded with 500 wooden chairs, you could scrap them for an influx of influence. This might cause issues with the economy (a guild could buy a ton of cheap furniture and recycle it as Influence). I was also thinking that players could duplicate furnishings in exchange for influence, but I’m not sure I want that either. Thought I’d share, maybe somebody can run with it because the single-use furniture items could potentially be slow if you want a lot of the same items, but because furnishings are tied to your Prestige score being able to duplicate items too easily is asking for imbalance.

I’m sure folks will ask “If furnishings are 1-to-1, what if I want my chair back?” My line of thought is that they are treated as consumables, like the “Guild Discoveries” you get from BL chests. Once you donate them, they’re in the guild inventory and cannot be removed. That’s why the best stuff is unlocked via Commissions; the greens and blues are just like… well, greens and blues

Floating Tangents
A few ideas I’ve had in my notes / outline;

• An “Upvote” system where players visit a guild hall and sign a guestbook has been suggested a few times already. Adapting that concept here, more visitors = more prestige. I was trying to think of a way to have randomized ‘tours’ where players would volunteer to take a tour of a set number of halls and pick their favorite. I like the idea of going from Guild Hall to Guild hall trick-or-treating (as Nike.2631 suggested) or having a “Pub Crawl” where players sign up and then partake in something like a big drunken footrace between guild halls. I’ll work on this idea as getting folks to visit your hall is going to be essential to the experience.

• I have not covered how Prestige affects the “Common Area” that the guild neighborhoods share; I’m thinking that certain rewards are unlocked at certain thresholds (i.e. “8000 Prestige – The guilds vote between different upgrades like hedgerows, cobblestone roads, etc.”). I’ll continue to work on this as well, suggestions are always welcome.

• One of the ways in which guilds could gain additional Prestige beyond the value of their furnishings is throwing social events via Commissions. For example, putting out a bunch of tables with stat-boosting food (guildies donate a variety of food items) would give you bonus Prestige. Building a jumping puzzle (again, as Nike.2631 suggested) or throwing a concert (A mini-game similar to Choir Bells?) are ideas that came up as well. The idea is to make your guild hall the happening place to be via Commissions, and the more random folks wander in and partake of your festivities. The trick, of course, is how to get them in, but… that’s another post when I have the time.

Thanks for reading, looking forward to any feedback you guys may have. Feel free to ask if something isn’t explained clearly, chances are I didn’t mean the worst case scenario you think I did, it’s just that I’m limited by the 5001 character limit.

This is a follow up to my previous posts, located here and here.

Here’s a quick Summary:

• Guilds are grouped into small neighborhood instances which share a common space that they all develop by working together.
• Neighborhoods compete with each other each week to have a copy of their neighborhood copied into the open world for everyone to see and enjoy.
• Guilds buy themed “Content Packs” to unlock modular room types, basic furnishings, etc. in any order they choose, using Influence.

Prestige
The manner in which Neighborhoods develop their common area and compete with each other is through “Prestige.” This is not a currency, but a value; each Guild Hall has an individual Prestige score, and the neighborhood’s score is simply the sum of all halls located there. Think of it as a rating of how awesome your Guild Hall is; the more cool stuff you throw in there, the higher your hall’s score.

The primary source of Prestige is the furnishings that players add to their guild halls. A hall with fine-quality [Wooden chairs] can’t compete with a hall full of exotic [Ascalonian Thrones]! There are other means to increase your prestige that I am still working on, but here’s how furnishings would work;

Furnishings
Like equipment, furnishings come in tiers, from Fine to Masterwork to Rare to Exotic (or white, blue, green, yellow, orange). Better quality furniture and decor means a higher Prestige score. Furnishings purchased via Content Packs do not contribute to the hall’s Prestige, as they’re Basic quality and can be placed repeatedly without cost. They’re intended to be ‘freebie’ decoration items or objects that you would want lots of (like trees and windows). Very good for starting out or just filling a room up with neat stuff.

Items of Fine quality and above are single-use items; if you have one [Plush Chair] in your guild inventory, then you can place one [Plush Chair] in your guild hall. However, like gear, furnishings can be obtained in several different ways. A ghost in Diessa Plateau may drop a masterwork [Ascalonian Chair Piece] (collect 4 to complete a chair), while the exotic-quality [Ascalonian Throne] is a reward for running a guild group through AC without anyone being defeated (A guild “Commission”, more on those below).

Here’s a rough list of ways players might obtain non-basic furnishings;

• Completing dungeons as a guild
• Successful completion of guild missions
• Capturing and holding objectives in WvW
• Winning PVP Matches where the majority of the team are guild mates
• A special PVP Reward Track
• Completing Living Story chapters together
• Enemy drops, including world bosses
• Chests
• Produced by crafting professions
• Purchased with other currencies;
  • Dungeon Tokens
  • Commendations
  • Gold (including buying furniture from the Trading Post!)
  • Special event currencies (Holidays, etc.)

For example, if a guild group runs AC together, at the end a special pop-up would appear that allows them to pick from either an Ascalon-themed table, chair or painting (See attachment below). Remember, these are not unlocks but actual items (i.e. if you want multiple Exotic Ascalonian Chairs, you’ll need to run it repeatedly) that are placed into the guild hall’s inventory.

Alternatively, a player might spend a few Ascalonian Tears to unlock a Fine-quality Adelbern Statue for her guild. I might defeat Tequatl and unlock a trophy that can be displayed. You might ask your guild weaponsmiths to craft cool candelabras or your tailors to make carpets. You might defend a tower in World vs. World and unlock a large map of your Borderlands to display in your war room.

Remember!

• Influence is only used to unlock modular room templates (different sizes, shapes, styles) and basic furnishings. You cannot increase your prestige via Influence, you just get a wider variety of room types to place on your plot.
• Furnishings of Fine-quality or above increase your prestige and are obtained like regular loot, with higher quality items being tied to guild activities.

Continued below…

Devata.6589:

I posted that about 8,5 hour later so I figured I waited enough. I also don’t dismiss dismiss your suggestion. I only talked about the progression part.

Some of us have to sleep & work, man. It was midnight local time when I posted, just before bed.

Devata.6589:

Also the part of “you get it as you play” is not really true. In general if I would really want to get the most items I would like in this game the only option I would have would be to grind gold (or buy it with gems). Now for influence that would not be a problem for our guild, yes we would likely earn enough along the way in fact we did safe up influence just in case it would be needed for guild-halls. However for smaller guilds it would be grinding to get the influence they need but more importantly it would nod ad any incentive to really do stuff.

Again, that’s because of the way current guild progression works; there are expensive tiers of vertical unlocks with little or no choice on how you progress. There is no flaw with Influence itself, only in the way it is currently being used. A unified currency allows players to spend it on whatever option they like, whereas an approach without currency means the tasks you must perform to unlock something becomes much more specific.

In my mind, Guild Packs are cheap (let’s say in the range of 1000-5000 influence depending on how much is included) and merely the basic components of a guild hall (modular room templates, basic furnishings). The bigger part of Guild Halls (higher tier furnishings) are much more involved and function sort of like… “Guild Achievements”, though that particular word is so loaded I almost hesitate to use it.

Devata.6589:

Complete a dungeon, unlock blue-print X. . . . A wall (specific skin) or one of the many Halloween mask you can hang on the wall and so on that our guild can farm the Halloween dungeon for because those unlocks drop there.

See, we’re on the same page here, I’m using Influence as a ‘core’ currency so that guilds (regardless of size) can build the structure of their halls quickly and then upgrade them by playing together as a guild. I thought I was pretty clear on this in my previous post;

Retro.6831:

Progression should be based on expanding upon that basic core, rather than unlocking necessities. For instance, improving your guild hall should add more rooms, but these rooms do not function any different than the original ‘basic’ space. If a small guild wants to have a “crafting room”, it should not be tied to progression but instead decision.

. . .

+In other words, progression should be horizontal, not vertical. Progression gets you more & different, but not necessarily better. +

For example, say that my guild wants to have a large, two story room as the centerpiece of our guild hall. That room is part of a Content Pack, unlocked with influence at my discretion (i.e. it is not locked behind vertical tiers, I unlock it when I want it). However, if we decide we want to decorate it with Exotic-tier statues of King Adelbern, those are Furnishings which are unlocked by running AC explorable as a guild group. So when you say…

Devata.6589:

“I view Influence as very good at unlocking basic features” Yeah me to, just not for more specific things like unlocking things for your guild-hall, only to unlock your basics.

… we are on exactly the same page. I just haven’t had the time to read all 26 pages in real time, process the multitude of excellent suggestions, apply those thoughts and perspectives to my own ideas and write up a full explanation. If I’m going to use up my spare time (which I’d rather spend playing Guild Wars 2 than writing about it), I’d at least like it to be for something well thought out. That means you may have to have a little patience and wait for people to sleep, run errands and work, then get back into the thread, catch up on what people have been discussing and consider their opinions in shaping a suggestion.

Not everyone can dominate the thread 24/7 as you’ve been doing and honestly, I’m not inclined to rush the collaborative process (that is, reading what others are saying and allowing that to influence my suggestions before I make them) just for you.

Devata.6589:

To me that seems like building your hole guild-hall is based on that influence, and then some nice little gimmicks like furniture you would want to do in another way. Imho all that should unlock in the game and nothing of it should be a purchase.

Yeah, it really seems like you need to wait because you seem to be fixated entirely on Influence being included at all when I’ve repeatedly explained that only the basics are unlocked via influence, not the “hole guild-hall” as you put it.

Devata.6589:

I don’t think the progression as you see it is so great. It feels like yet another boring currency grind. As if we don’t already have way to many of those in GW2. In fact I see it as one of the big negatives in GW2.

And then you even add that putting stuff in the gem-store would be an option. But that does not add to the game that reduces. Buying it with money is not playing a game and grinding gold to buy it (what would make most sense because what guild-members is else going to pay it?) is again grind.

Not to mention that you will likely see that the part you buy from the gem-store is just a little better then the one you could get in the game.

No I would still prefer the blue-prints that are unlock-able in the game. That seems like a much more interesting way to go that also get guild-members stuff to do other then grind grind grind influence or some other currency.

Thats how I see it.

I specifically mentioned that there was more to my post coming, so you may have to take a wait-and-see approach before you rush to completely dismiss my suggestion.

That said, Influence is an existing currency that players understand and already generate through a variety of activities. I get that many in this thread think they can do better than Influence and consistently describe it as something players have to ‘grind grind grind’ to generate. However, like Daily Achievements, more often than not you are working towards completion just by naturally playing. Yes, you can consider Daily Achievements a grind if you log in and that’s all you focus on. In that regard, anything you have to do more than twice can be dismissed as ‘grindy’, from combat to gathering. But that’s not really true, is it?

Influence works because it’s a basic, universal currency that players generate for their guild simply by playing the game. The problem is that, with the exception of Merits for a few unlocks, it is currently the only method of guild progression, and it is strictly a vertical progression at that. The basic building blocks of guild halls, the “Content Packs” I mentioned, would be unlocked with Influence in any order the guild likes, picking only which ones they want to utilize. I have not mentioned furniture, amenities, etc., which would use more advanced methods (i.e. Blueprints) to unlock.

One of the notes for my follow-up post is that completing various activities as a guild (PVP, WvW, whatever) reduces the influence cost of related Content Packs. Guilds who want WvW-themed Content Packs on the cheap would WvW together, for example. This extends across all game types.

As I mentioned in my post, if the cost associated with upgrading the Guild Hall is aimed at low-end guilds (or even no upgrade costs at all) the end result is that large guilds will blow through the content much faster than the long development cost justifies.

More to Follow.

Baltzenger.2467:

Well, to be fair, most of what you just said have already been discussed, your proposal of horizontal progression in particular I remember well because I proposed it.

I was pretty clear in my post that I was sharing thoughts I had while catching up on the thread. If I mentioned it, it’s because while I was reading through I found a particular point worth reiterating or commenting on. I didn’t make it a point to jot down who laid claim to any particular idea first because it all starts to blur together after a hundred posts and that seems kind of… childish? After all, one of the points made in the first post is that this “is not a competition, either between yourselves or the developers in regard to one up man ship.” It’s all about the end result, not who said what first, yes?

Baltzenger.2467:

I’d watch better how you refer to other posts, because, well I personally haven’t made any “six huge posts at once” and I can understand that those tend to be harder to follow, but if you find “insufferable” or derailing a post (or posts) that happened many pages ago, I don’t see the purpose of bringing it up, specially while even the devs have stated how good this CDI has been, and how “unrestricted” people should feel about posting their ideas.
Let’s keep it cool.

Other than that, welcome to the thread, I like most of your approaches to the topics discussed, I’m waiting for the next part.

That particular comment was made semi-tongue-in-cheek to begin with, though I do feel that such posts have the same effect as trying to have a group conversation and having one person scream non-stop for 20 minutes. Yeah, there’s nothing wrong with it inherently, but it leaves no room for discussion, which is kind of the point of the CDIs. Anyways, I think you took it as more of an insult than it was meant, so I apologize if it upset you.

And I’ve been here since page one. We can’t all be Devata

Nike.2631:

And Now a Word from the Other Half (or more)…
I’m going to play Devils Advocate for a moment. If you’re reading this thread you’ll probably hate me long before I’m done… But keep reading: there IS a punch line.

Actually, these are all great points that use very real, serious issues with Guild Halls as a springboard for further improving them.

One of the reasons Guild Wars 2 stands out from the MMO crowd is that it discards a lot of ‘MMO traditions’ in favor of systems that allow players to work together rather than against each other. Many of your points touch on that specific ideal; how do you make something ‘private’ and make it community-oriented or even community driven.

I like the point about trick-or-treating, though I envisioned “Pub Crawls” myself. I also like the progression you hint at; Guild Housing simply being the ‘tutorial’ for the tools that will eventually allow players to generate content like jumping puzzles and dungeons. This is something I intended to touch on in my next post, but I’d like to hear your approach.

Some thoughts I’ve put together over the last 15 or so pages;

On Smaller Guilds
I feel as though a good deal of the last dozen pages have been careening off topic, spinning our wheels over Alliances as a mechanism to address the demand that smaller guilds be able to progress at the same rate as larger ones. This concern with smaller guilds, while something we must certainly keep in mind, should not dictate the entire discussion.

In my opinion, to build the system with smaller guilds as the focus would diminish the investment made to develop guild halls, which will be a substantial undertaking. Yes, by focusing on larger guilds it may take a small guild a year (or more) to “complete” their guild hall, but at least large guilds will not blow through it in a weekend. By limiting guild halls so that smaller guilds are able to participate on the same level as large ones, there is a serious risk that the system will be far too shallow.

On Leveling the Field
Having said that, there are ways to level the playing field without making smaller guilds suffer. First, every guild should have a basic guild hall, so even the smallest 1-man banking guild can have access to the housing system.

Progression should be based on expanding upon that basic core, rather than unlocking necessities. For instance, improving your guild hall should add more rooms, but these rooms do not function any different than the original ‘basic’ space. If a small guild wants to have a “crafting room”, it should not be tied to progression but instead decision; you can have a crafting room or a practice arena. Yes, large guilds will have access to both, but large guilds also have a large number of players with a diverse set of interests, so having both simultaneously makes sense. Smaller guild can switch between the two if they so desire, or work towards maintaining both.

In other words, progression should be horizontal, not vertical. Progression gets you more & different, but not necessarily better.

On Progression
I’m going to assume that the scope of guild halls is such that the layout of the rooms can be modified but that brick-by-brick construction has too many potential complications to work within the context of Guild Wars 2. A guild hall is essentially a set of modular template rooms that players can move about their plot.

In my mind, this is best accomplished by replacing the existing vertical structure (“Architecture II, III, IV, etc.”) & having a large number of modular ‘content packs’. Think of them as Lego sets; they are purchased individually & built around a specific theme, but fit together with all of the other pieces. As you purchase one set, the cost of all others (either all sets or just sets within that specific theme) increases; choosing what features you want becomes part of the decision making process.

For example, say I have my “Starter” set that all guilds receive for free, which includes the plot, a few basic rooms & a few decorative / landscaping options (since you can edit the whole plot). I’m happy with the hall itself, but want a more elaborate outdoor space. So I would spend influence to unlock the “Landscaping” set, which would include a variety of features built around the outdoors. For example;

“Landscaping Set”

• New room templates that are built without solid walls that can be used as verandas, loggias, balconies or pergolas.
• A larger variety of plants & trees, as well as fountains & ponds.
• A small mini-game themed around the outdoors.

Packs can cover all sorts of different elements; a basement pack that unlocks an underground space & includes lots of ‘basement-themed’ rooms. A pack of rooms that include Daises (raised sections, like a stage), or different stairwell types, different ceiling elevations, rooms that have multiple floors (lofts), odd layouts (long halls), different roof styles, different window types. The cost changes based on how much is included; a large pack of different windows would be cheap whereas a large themed set with lots of components would be priced more.

There is no end to these modular packs, and precisely because they are modular, there is no vertical progression. It also means that Guild Halls become a new platform for content delivery; ArenaNet can add a few new Packs to the system at any time, in the same way they can add a new fractal, new guild missions & such.

(And yes, it also raises the potential for there to be certain Gem Store-only packs, though I will come to that later).

More to Follow
I’m working on another post that will delve into less guild-specific content, mode-specific unlocks & how this is all tied into my earlier post on Guild Neighborhoods & competitions. I don’t want to be one of those guys who fires off six huge posts at once; not only are they insufferable to read but they also drown out any potential discussion because there’s just so much to respond to.

First day off in a while, so I’ll be digging in and catching up shortly. My notes for this thread are about three handwritten pages so far.

VodCom.6924:

Feel free to check here if your suggestion has already be posted and catch up with other contributions.

I hate to be “That Guy”, but you skipped my post on page one, despite it being referenced about half a dozen times in this thread and not being a duplicate suggestion (neighborhoods are referenced, yes, but that’s maybe 1/3rd of my suggestion).

JonPeters.5630:

What current aspects of guilds would you change to integrate them more with guild halls? If you would change something, how would you change it to work more with a physical Guild Hall?

Since we’re just spit-balling here;

• There are many buffs that aren’t run just because they aren’t exceptionally useful. Those could be completely removed as something that has to be built and instead integrated as permanent buffs tied to a guild hall’s “Comfort Level.” For example, as the quality and quantity of furniture, trophies and amenities goes up, the guild hall becomes a more relaxing place to visit, providing players with a “Comfortable” buff that incorporates many of the existing, superfluous buffs. Obviously your internal data will show which of these guild buffs aren’t being utilized; those would be your prime candidates.

• Currently, Guild Banners are a consumable, though players aren’t able to enjoy their benefits unless they are in the immediate vicinity when dropped. Without changing that mechanic, when a Guild Banner has finished building, perhaps adding a copy of it that remains in the guild hall for a few hours would be more useful. I do not believe they need to be changed from a consumable, as this would remove them from being publicly accessible to all players (something I particularly enjoy seeing).

• Bounty and trek seem difficult to implement, but it’s certainly possible that a few guild challenges could be developed that take place entirely within the guild hall. Depending on how much players are able to edit the structure of the hall, rush and puzzle could be included as well, though I would prefer editable layouts over having hall-based missions.

• “Guild Weapons contract” would obviously unlock that vendor for the Guild Hall’s benefit.

• The various “Research” unlocks do not actually unlock anything themselves; they merely increase your level in a given upgrade type (Architecture, etc.). This would be a prime place to drop in free Guild Hall upgrades.

JonPeters.5630:

Do you mean some form of Guild Crafting? How would you expect that to work?

I think perhaps they meant that crafting could receive a shot in the arm with a ton of new housing-centric items like furniture.

But that reminded me; one of the more enjoyable features of Vanguard was gathering in teams to get enough granite for a guild hall. While I do not believe that game’s method would work the same here (for one, nodes were not instanced), something similar might. Off the top of my head, once a player hits a gathering node, a countdown starts; if another guild member hits that same node, it’s considered a “group gather” and some of that material is deposited into the guild’s Building Materials storage automatically.

It would essentially turn gathering material for your guild hall into a guild activity.

JonPeters.5630:

On the editing topic I’ve seen a few things listed.
. . .
Assuming everything has a cost:

What kind of thing would you be ok with static placement?

• NPCs, such as merchants, banks, trading post vendors, etc. There should be pre-established locations for these NPCs as they are unlocked that cannot be edited. Otherwise…
  • Players will move these NPCs to potentially inaccessible areas.
  • Visitors will have to search for wherever a guild has hidden them.
  • I’m actually in favor of NPCs being located outside of the guild hall lot, in a common area shared with other guilds in a neighborhood.
• External walls (should always appear at the edge of the property).

What kind of things do you think work fine with grid placement?

• Room Templates (modular rooms that come in various sizes and snap together).
• Daises, to prevent conflicts with doors. I would suggest they just be part of the modular room, but I feel like players should have more control over how they are placed.
• Carpets. Normally I would want free placement, but I have seen carpets used to create fake second floors, ramps, etc. and it tends to be kind of glitchy / ugly. Best to keep them locked to the floor.
• Water features, such as pools or ponds. They should be raised so their bottom is surface level, but I wonder about the water physics of an upside down pool.
• If “Training Arenas” are implemented, there must be boundaries in which the required mechanics (score keeping, damage enabled, teams, etc.) can function. A modular “Dueling” room would certainly work (and would open the door to non-PVP combat, such as a PVE “Danger Room”), but I like the idea of players using a grid to establish it so they can include multiple rooms to create more dynamic arenas.

What stuff would you want to have free placement?
Assuming that “Free Placement” means along all three axes:

• Furniture
  • Chairs, couches, tables, etc.
• Wall hangings
  • Paintings, Enemy trophies (mounted heads), banners, curtains.
  • Including windows, which aren’t actually transparent, I’ve noticed.
• Decorative Objects
  • Pillars, shelves, misc. decorative objects
• Landscaping
  • Fountains, trees, garden fixtures, etc.
• Crafting Stations

I’ll probably add more to this list, but that should about cover it.

JonPeters.5630:

I wanted to dig into the instanced vs non-instanced debate a bit. Here are 4 questions I’ll pose:

The “Benefits of Open World in a system where guild halls are instanced” is going to heavily reference my post earlier in this thread.

What do people see as the benefits of instanced?

• No Land Grabs
  • Fighting over the ‘best’ plots.
  • Reaching a point where there are no plots left.
• Privacy
  • Say / emote would not be widely visible for roleplayers.
  • Guild meetings / discussions cannot be overheard.
• Ease of navigation (Housing districts in other MMOs are huge zones filled with same-looking houses that are easy to get lost in).
• Upkeep fees less necessary.
• More varied locations (Guild Halls not be situated on ‘realistic’ terrain, but can be on islands, in the mists, airships, etc.)
• Larger area in which to work (the open world approach would require lots of halls to occupy a shared space).

What do you see as the benefits of open world guild halls?

• Less likely to create the impression of an uninhabited world.
  • Cities would still become less populated, but at least housing areas wouldn’t be.
• Creates sense of community by establishing relationships with other guilds.
• A more visible sense of accomplishment.
• Able to incorporate gameplay elements (Dynamic events, etc.) into the same space.
  • The “Housing Zone” need not be just for housing; things can happen in the city streets and common space between all of those guild halls.

How could we get the benefits of instanced guild halls in a system of open world guild halls?

• (Privacy) Chat / emote inside guild halls cannot extend beyond the lot size.
• (Land Grab) remove all sense of ‘land’; every housing plot is identical and exists apart from all others (Airships / Islands in the Mist)
• (Navigation) Simply ensure the housing zone’s terrain is varied enough, has highly visible landmarks and an abundance of waypoints.

How could we get the benefits of open world guild halls in a system where guild halls are instanced?

• (Depopulation) Limit the number of amenities available within guild halls so players have to leave them for some things.
• (Depopulation) Place the guild hall portals within cities, away from Waypoints, so that traveling into the instance at least forces players into visible areas.
• (Community) Multiple guilds inhabit the same instance (“neighborhoods”)
• (Visibility) Allow guild halls to be displayed within the non-instanced cities via a housing competition or other mechanic.

Nitross.6987:

I understand your reluctance on Upkeep cost and I would like to point out that I do not want them on the Hall itself or on the features like decorations or trophies or most structures.

However, I am proposing upkeep as a compromise to counter the problem of making the Halls too convenient and reducing the amount of players in public areas. For instance, Guilds can already buy portable Guild Crafting stations that they could repeatedly buy and deploy in their hall if its not an available feature; if you have that upgrade unlocked, you could use your hall to have one all the time by paying the cost of the stations as an upkeep.

In the event that the Guild Hall would be part of combat gameplay as I described above, another way to make it something you have to work on would be to have the combat features (defensive siege, guard barracks, walls, etc.) something you have to spend resources to rebuild. It would be a sort of “optional upkeep” since those would be at risk only if you use the hall for WvW for instance.

Also, if a feature like the PvE claiming I described is added, it could be made to be synced across Megaserver instances if it came with a recurring Influence cost to balance it and give a shot for another guild to claim it; I was thinking kinda like Guilds could have influence over cities in GW1 Factions…

That is what I meant when I said it needs to offer both permanent content (the hall itself) and have some “upkeep” costs (specific convenience features or combat upgrades).

I didn’t have any particular post in mind when I commented on the upkeep costs. I had refreshed the thread and noticed it was being discussed and thought I would share my opinion on the matter while it was still relevant rather than coming at it later when the thread had potentially moved on. My experience with Guild Wars 2 (being able to come and go as I please without worrying about a subscription fee, keeping up with the Jonses, etc.) is incompatible with my experiences with player housing in other games (most notably Vanguard).

That said, I do believe upkeep costs for guild amenities is reasonable. After all, there is an influence cost associated with maintaining guild buffs that’s essentially upkeep. Your particular usage of it is actually very good because it forces guilds to make decisions about what is important enough to keep running at all times, or saving up to afford something for a special event (such as Combat-oriented features during a WvW tournament).

The important part is that no permanent progress is lost due to an upkeep system. Things can be temporarily unavailable, but in my opinion it is essential that a player be able to log in weeks, months or years later and find that their guild hall hasn’t been erased.

Devata.6589:

About the taxes. I don’t think anybody really said they wanted taxes but it was mentioned as one of the ways (among others) to prevent guild-halls (if in the open world) to become ghost-houses when the guild would go inactive.

Donari.5237:

I continue to disagree with the need for upkeep. It essentially forces people to play (and in the above suggestion, to play repping a specific guild) or lose progress made while playing.

The 100% rep guilds are heavy handed enough now, imagine if keeping the GH depended on players repping.

+1 more vote for “No Upkeeps.”

Upkeep fees run completely counter to Guild Wars 2’s play style (horizontal progression) and subscription-free payment model. Players are able to pick up right where they left off months or even years later and not feel like they’ve been left behind. Having upkeep fees would essentially force players to play to maintain their guild hall, which is contrary to the rest of the game.

Of course, as Devata mentions, upkeep fees are designed for more open world housing systems, to prevent the large swaths of land required for that approach free of abandoned houses. If Guild Halls or instanced (or pseudo-instanced as in my proposal) there’s absolutely no need for them. I would argue that even if Prophet.6257’s idea of Guild “Zones” is implemented, having multiple, numbered copies of the zone would be more in line with Guild Wars 2’s design than an upkeep fee.

I’ve got a rough list of notes I’m making as I pick through this thread. I’m not 100% caught up yet, I’ll share it when I’m done. Awesome work in here so far though, guys.

Devata.6589:

Nice idea but how do you prevent the same guilds from always ‘winning’ (also once a few guilds are up frond it get harder and harder for other guilds to beat them.. like AP’s)? And would that not be unfair to smaller guilds?

Repeating winners is a problem, but I liken it to World vs. World; there are always servers that are at the top of each league that occasionally falter or are beaten. If it’s a problem, of course there can be mechanics such as a removing previous winners from the next few weeks’ competition.

As far as the smaller guilds, that’s why there are different “leagues”; smaller guilds aren’t pitted against large ones. It is definitely an issue, but that’s why we’re collaborating; to work together to find problems and polish the various ideas.

Devata.6589:

In addition to that automating a system with points might not give proper results. Maybe one guild / group of guilds should win because they have the best looking guild hall but don’t have nice fountains that give points or maybe they want dead grass because it fits better with there Halloween style neighborhood.

One of the ideas I bounced around was to include a voting system where players can go into random instances and “like” them in exchange for some sort of reward (tokens that can be exchanged for more housing goods, for example), so that there’s a constant drive for people to go around and promote things that look really cool.

However, that would unfairly favor large guilds and open things up to collusion. You also can’t have a rating system because players would be constantly down-voting other neighborhoods to try and improve their own odds.

Devata.6589:

The same system as you suggest here could also be done in a WvW map giving the option for a PvE and a more PvP / WvW approach.

In my suggestion I also talked about unlocking mini games when combined with your suggestion you might be able to unlock capture the flag, a game that those 4 guilds can play together, taking the flag from each other camp.

Right; the individual plots or even the entire neighborhood could theoretically appear anywhere, including in the middle of a WvW map as a type of fortress.

As far as mini-games go, I kind of envisioned those as the top-tier neighborhood amenities. Guilds could collaborate to set up, say, a Jousting Tournament one week, or set up a shooting gallery in their common area.

Proposal Overview
Guild Neighborhoods & Competitions

Goal of Proposal
One of the repeated concerns with housing systems is that they remove players from cities in favor of private, instanced areas. The goal of this proposal is to alleviate this to some degree.

Proposal Functionality
Due to the sheer number of guilds, it is impractical not to instance them. However, they do not need to be isolated from one another, nor do they all need to be instanced.

My proposal is that Guild Halls be grouped into neighborhoods where multiple guilds (4+) each have their own editable plots set around a central common area that cannot be directly modified (See first attachment). Those guilds then work together to upgrade their neighborhood, adding both aesthetic features (fountains, statues, landscaping) and gameplay features (special harvesting nodes, vendors, etc.) to the common area by popular vote / donation drives. A neighborhood of low quality would be a dimly lit area with dead grass and dirt roads, while a neighborhood with attentive residents would have lights and festive banners, musicians and entertainers, manicured gardens and elaborately paved streets.

A score is assigned to each neighborhood, based on the individual guild plots (quality and quantity of furniture, number of trophies, specialized services) and common area. Optionally, points can be awarded for successful completion of Guild Missions, WvW claims and successful dungeon / PVP matches done as a guild. Guilds would be grouped into “leagues” based on size, overall neighborhood quality, etc.

Within Lion’s Arch, several ‘blank’ neighborhoods would be placed around the city, all using the same template (See second attachment). Each week, the top-ranked neighborhood for each league is placed directly into the regular, persistent game world where all players can see it and take advantage of any amenities present (each blank neighborhood represents a different League). The portal leading into the private guild instances would be placed at the exact center of the neighborhood, creating an area where people gather to both take advantage of services present and to travel into their own neighborhood instances.

Associated Risks
- Requires the Megaserver system be abandoned inside cities or adjusted to compensate so players only encounter the neighborhood of guilds based on their home server.

- Requires some method of loading large chunks of instanced content into the persistent world (perhaps it requires a reloading of the zone to change).

- A system would need to be developed where guilds can migrate in and out of neighborhoods. For example, if an active guild is stuck in a neighborhood with several inactive ones.

kitten.9065:

Retro.6831:

“Samurai” doesn’t work for the same reason; adding Japanese swords to the game means the other Solider professions are likely to get them and can fill that role much easier. Likewise with Barbarian / Berserker: the Warrior already possesses a lot of that archetype’s trademarks

Just wanted to add that dismissing a “class” because the weapon can be used by another class fails to understand how GW skill system works.

1. a “japanese sword” is a 2 handed sword which already exist in game, so yeah, warriors would use them (and guardians and rangers and mesmers) since they already do…

2. The weapon itself means nothing as the skills are what the determine the play style. Warrior GS vs Mesmer GS are two completely different weapons (melee vs ranged) they basically just share a skin.

You misunderstand; a “Samurai” class is basically a “Warrior with Japanese flavor”; even if there is a unique mechanic present, the two are incredibly similar. You make a point of referencing how different Warrior and Mesmer versions of Greatsword function, but that’s because the Warrior (heavily armored non-magical melee-centric class) and Mesmer (lightly armored magical ranged-centric class) are different as well. Samurai is just too similar to Warrior, and I haven’t seen any posts in this thread that suggest how they could be made different (and at that point, is it even worth calling it “Samurai” anymore?).

Hmm, ran out of space. I wanted to add two points to the above post;

1. The Slayer is, amusingly, like a heavily armored version of Robert Downy Jr.‘s portrayal of “Sherlock Holmes”; they see every angle of the fight before it happens and finish their foe with ruthless efficiency. When facing a Slayer, the battle can be over before it even begins. They don’t just out-fight their opponents but out-think them.

2. The “Extra Weapon” skills were originally called “ kitten nal” skills, with the “Kitten” part there being a British slang term for the posterior. Heh. The idea is that the Slayer is a one man/woman army that carries more weapons than a sane person would probably ever need. Unlike Engineer weapon kits, you would use these extra weapons straight from the toolbar without equipping them. Others included a throwing Javelin and a small shield (“Buckler” that you could use to block attacks. There’s an old bit of Legend of Zelda art that shows Link with all of the gear he uses strapped to his back. That was kind of the idea there, an armor fighter with extra weapons tucked away.

Sorry for the double post, ran out of room.

One of the problems with a third Solider profession is that the two existing ones are already covering a lot of ground. Adding a “Lancer” profession wouldn’t work because adding non-aquatic spears and tridents means Warriors and Guardians would likely get them as well, so that archetype would be handled by the existing professions. “Samurai” doesn’t work for the same reason; adding Japanese swords to the game means the other Solider professions are likely to get them and can fill that role much easier. Likewise with Barbarian / Berserker: the Warrior already possesses a lot of that archetype’s trademarks.

In the same vein, a “Deathknight” feels like it would be stepping on both necromancers (“Evil Magic”) and Guardians (“Armored Magic users”). Likewise for “Steamknights” (engineer territory). There’s so little overlap with the existing professions that having some kind of “Warrior + other Profession” approach just won’t work. Look at the Mesmer, a profession unlike any other in MMOs. That’s that kind of approach we would need.

- It cannot be unique solely on the basis of a new weapon type.
- It will not borrow or overlap with any other profession’s theme or playstyle.
- It will need a unique mechanic that is substantially different from anything else in-game.

So, an actual suggestion?

“Slayer”
Archetype Keywords: Mastermind, Specialist, Tactician, Assassin, Sage, Debuffer
A soldier that combines rigid physical training with a lifelong pursuit of knowledge, the Slayer is an artist on the battlefield. Where a painter sees shapes and color, the Slayer sees openings and vulnerabilities, missteps and opportunities. Pit them against any foe and watch as strengths melt into weaknesses; to face a Slayer is to face both sharpened blade and mind working in perfect harmony.

Profession Mechanic: “Favored Enemy”
The Slayer’s profession mechanic is built around studying their target to learn their weaknesses. This is represented by a “Focus” gauge that fills as players use their F1 skill (which changes based on weapon choice) and various Utility skills. When the focus gauge is half full, the F2 skill unlocks, while players must wait until it is completely full to utilize the F3 skill. Note that Focus is not an energy type; it is not consumed by using skills.

These F2 and F3 skills change depending on what type of enemy is targeted, and are tailor made to inflict the most harm. For example, facing a magic-using enemy gives the Slayer skills that are built to disadvantage casters (such as a F2 Leap attack and an F3 interrupt). Facing a physical combatant would grant skills that keep them at range, such as an evasive strike and an immobilize.

F2 is always a damage or condition-inflicting ability and usually has a short cooldown.
F3 is always a control or defensive ability, such as immobilize, daze or block.

Weapon Selection:

• One Hand: Axe, Sword
• Off Hand: Axe, Sword, Pistol, Dagger, Torch
• Two Hand: Rifle, Shortbow
• Aquatic: Harpoon Gun, Spear

Skills:

• Extra Weapons: The Slayer is always prepared. Extra Weapon skills are just that; small weapons the Slayer keeps on his person for special situations. They function like reverse signets; instead of granting a passive effect that ends when activated, they grant a special passive effect only while the skill is on cooldown.
  • Example: “Sidearm” – Fire a shot that dazes and cripples from a backup pistol. While recharging, endurance regeneration is increased.

• Shouts: The Slayer’s shouts are all used to call out an enemy’s weak spot, giving all allies who attack that enemy a bonus. Shouts are also the primary utility skills for generating Focus.
  • Example: “No Mercy!” – Weaken the enemy and remove one boon. If already weakened, inflict x stacks of Torment.

• Predictions: Prediction skills work similar to the Guardian’s virtues; they can function as passive auras that affect the player and surrounding allies, or they can be activated to gain an immediate effect.
  • Example: “Do your Worst” – Grants x toughness to all nearby allies. Activate to gain retaliation and stability.

• Traps: The Slayer can use traps to help subdue their prey. Focus is generated by attacking enemies that are under the effect of a trap.
  • Example: “Flare Trap” – Set a trap that fires a blinding signal flare when triggered. Increases visibility of enemy within the area of effect, increasing the chance to critically hit them by x%.

• Assault: The Slayer has several specialized attacks used to disable or manipulate foes with their sheer lethality.
  • Example: “Blunt Force Trauma” – A powerful blow that knocks the target down for x seconds and inflicts x seconds of confusion.

Very nice, I’d love to see this implemented. The ability to click the crafting / Order / etc. to go straight to their tab means it’s even more likely players will discover them.

Great work.

lordkrall.7241:

Can someone please quote me the exact line that says that there will be no new dungeons?
Based on what I heard (and understood) they talk about changing stuffs on EXISTING dungeons. But as far as I heard there is not even a mentioning of NEW dungeons. So would love for someone to quote the exact line.

Exact Quote (minus a few ‘ums" and “uhs”):
“So Hardmode is definitely something we’re going to stay away from at this point. That being said, we’ve tossed around a lot of ideas for ways that we can improve the longevity of dungeons without doing major works like, the Twilight Arbor rework was a pretty serious amount of work, and that’s not something we necessarily want to commit to at this point for other dungeons. But that being said, Fractals are a really flexible system that allows us to hopefully add kind of smaller chunks of content without the entire amount of work it takes to redo a dungeon.

Hardmode, like I said, is not really something that we’re interested in, but at the same time you can look at some of the things that we’ve done with the Living World achievements in Season 2 where we have these kind of like ‘hey, do this crazy thing.’ That’s an avenue that’s at least open, I wouldn’t say that we’re currently building anything like that but we have that framework in place and it’s something that’s easy to understand.

Dungeons are an area that we’re always kind of… we feel like we want to make smaller changes to dungeons rather than larger ones, it’s an area that has a very kind of dedicated play group, but at the same time we’re looking at extending the life of all the areas of the game so it’s… we can only focus on so many things at once.

Right now, you know, what you’ve seen from dungeons is kind of the place that they’re gonna be at for a while, but like I said, there’s always… We’re always looking for kind of smaller changes that we can make, little tweaks that we can make to improve quality of life and that kind of thing in dungeons, so you may see some changes of that sort coming out in the near future as well."

It is also worth mentioning (even though the interviewer can’t be bothered to ask) that this interview is with Matt Wuerffel (head of the End Game Systems team, on the right) and Devon Carver (head of World versus World design team, on the left). Obviously we don’t know the exact organization of ArenaNet, but it stands to reason that the “WvW guy” wouldn’t be the person to ask about dungeons in the same way the screenwriter wouldn’t be the guy to ask about a film’s editing or photography. I can’t say what exact role Mr. Wuerffel has, obviously, but since he doesn’t provide any input he either doesn’t know or doesn’t wish to say.

Suggestions
(Apologies if they’ve been made already)

• No Transmutation cost when transmuting to a common (white) quality item. This would allow roleplayers to quickly change their appearance but would render them ineffective in any kind of combat situation.
  • Optionally, allow for two gear sets so players can quickly swap between two sets of gear or roleplayers can quickly swap between cosmetic and combat sets.
• Town Clothes should be wardrobe options rather than tonics. The point of town clothes is to mix and match various pieces and alter their coloring to obtain a desired look for aesthetic reasons, tonics allow for neither.
• Outfits should be tonics. If the developers want players to be in a single, all-in-one outfit, Tonics already do this, some even changing the players’ form entirely.
• Some skin items marked as consumable allow the player to apply that skin to an item for free, but adding it to the wardrobe (and thus, having an all-in-one place for selecting skins) essentially wastes this “Free” transmutation. Perhaps these items could give a free transmutation charge when added to the wardrobe?

Prize Tickets
The Black Lion Trading Company, through intermediaries and dummy corporations, has purchased a controlling interest in every Activity throughout Tyria. Players who engage in Crab Toss, Keg Brawl, Sanctum Sprint or Southsun Survival activities will now receive a single, unified currency called “Prize Tickets” upon participation.

Additionally, Evon Gnashblade’s legendary logistics team has set up Mina’s Target Shooting in Divinity’s Reach far ahead of schedule, and will soon have Belcher’s Bluff lounges established in every major city.

Prize Tickets can be used to purchase several new and exclusive activity-themed items;

• Kegmaul, the barrel-headed hammer.
• A Beer Stein Focus skin.
• Target Shoot-themed rifle and pistol skins.
• Southsun Survivor’s sword, longbow, shortbow and dagger skins.
• Activity-themed Minis and back items.
• Many more…

Additionally, unused holiday items (Candy Corn, Ugly Wool garments, Pieces of Zhaitaffy, etc.) can be exchanged in bulk for Prize Tickets.

Rumor has it Gnashblade is quietly investigating opportunities in illicit Moa Racing, underground Polymock leagues and may even be privately funding Moto’s research to produce a variety of simulated games of chance and skill!

I’ll have to wander back into this thread in a little bit, but one quick comment I wanted to make;

DiogoSilva.7089:

But let me ask a third question: World immersion aside, how fun would it be to all players in GW2, if suddenly they had 24 (!!) new skills to try out, and 30 new skills (by including the racials they already had) buffed to become stronger?

Guhracie.3419:

And now… it’s time for my pet project: Engineers

You’re probably asking yourself, “But Guhracie, isn’t class-based discussion more in line with the vertical progression thread?”

• In part, yes. I think it’s shoddy to touch vertical progression without doing some much-needed maintenance on the professions first. And I believe that Engineers in particular have some severe disadvantages when it comes to vertical progression, but those disadvantages also extend to things like build diversity and cosmetic progression.

You two should get together and mix some of that delicious racial chocolate into the incredible engineer peanut butter. Remember that Engineers get a Tool Belt skill for racial abilities, so by removing the restriction on racial skills, Engineers would automatically gain access to 11 new Tool Belt options (12 if they’re Norn since they only have two racial utility skills.) Take a look at ’em here: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Tool_belt

That’s one heck of a Reese’s Cup you’d have there.

This appears to be an on-going thing, I’ve several friends who were eager to try the game but the sign up page no longer functions.

Karizee.8076:

The infographic was picked up by TIME

http://techland.time.com/2013/08/16/guild-wars-2-nabs-fastest-selling-western-mmo-crown-looks-east-for-more-records/

Congratulations!

Thanks. In case anyone was wondering, they asked permission to use it first. It’s also been on Guru (with the wrong credits), Massively, VG247 and a few others. I was really surprised, as we had originally made it just for our own forum.

Sanctus.8350:

Half of that stuff isn’t even accessible anymore, I see they left that part out.

Hello, I’m “@WillArmstrongIV”, the one who did the art and layout for the infographic, and both myself and @Omlech discussed what exactly should go on it.

I want to clarify that there was never any intent to mislead, as this was created to show what ArenaNet produced content-wise in their first year. Whether the content is available now or not is irrelevant; if it was something they made, we felt it merited inclusion because this was celebrating everything that happened over the span of the first year.

Also, to head off some questions that have been asked in various other places;

• The 5 dungeons are Molten Facility, Aetherblade Retreat, Canach’s Lair, Tixx’s Infinirarium and Ascent to Madness. We went back and forth on whether to count all of those, but in the end decided to use the wiki as our primary source, which lists them as dungeons. The wiki actually lists 6, but we felt Super Adventure Box was more of an “activity”, so that’s where it appears.

• The 58 new armor skins is counting individual pieces, as well as back items. We did it that way because not all armor skins are part of a set (Dragon Bash helm, Molten Facility Gauntlets, etc.).

• Yes, that totally is the guy from the cover of “Myst”! I wanted to work a falling guy in near the Jumping Puzzles section and remembered that particular imagery first, being a big fan of the game from when I was younger. There’s also a lot of other stuff tuck away in the silhouettes. My favorite is the castle on the WvW section.

arjeidi.2690:

0 Subscription Fees isn’t really a special note anymore lol. At this point I think more games have no-sub than do, and lets check opinions on F2P games as a whole. Buzzwords do get lots of attention though lol

The point of including the “0 Subscription Fees” was to end the “numerical theme” on a particularly strong note. It’s inclusion at the bottom was intended to drive home the point that “all of this new stuff was added for free”.

Some pretty significant Sea of Sorrows spoilers, I’ll just block out the whole thing;

I really think it’s somewhere to the West of Rata Sum, would love to have a dev chime in, or even Ree herself.

Edit: Thinking further, since the Sylvari have not awakened at the time of Sea of Sorrows, I suppose it’s possible Port Stalwart could be in Caledon Forest, and has just been retaken by the jungle by the time of the game.

The Dominion of Winds will have been established roughly around the events of the book, so I don’t think it’s that far north.

Zaxares.5419:

That would require cluttering up my inventory/bank space with 6+ suits of armor whose skins I like, but I don’t necessarily want to wear for all occasions. The armor wardrobe would allow me to wear what currently suits my mood (say, my CoF set), and if 3 months down the line, I decide I want to switch back to my AC set, I can just pay the Stones cost, instead of either re-crafting the armor from scratch, or lugging it around with me everywhere and taking up 6 valuable inventory slots.

Something else that no one has touched on in this thread yet; ArenaNet now seems to be on a blistering fast update cycle; the amount of armor and weapon skins is only going to continue to grow, and a lot of folks (myself included) have already maxed out their bank tabs and are onto private banking guilds. At some point, we’re just going to run out of space for things we want to buy.

So while it may be “allot of effort for a basic principle”, it’s something that a significant amount of players will eventually run into. Of course, they could always just give us more bank space, but I think the suggestions made in this thread are a much more elegant and functional approach.

Same issue here, and it makes zero sense; my character’s facial hair is the small goatee, which doesn’t even come close to clipping through the helm. I’m sure it will be fixed soon, and I’m glad to see there was already a thread for this and hopefully the devs are aware of the problem.

In regard to the comments about the game being Free to Play so we shouldn’t expect bug fixes, that’s a load of trash. The distribution and payment method of the game has no bearing on bug fixes. ArenaNet has fixed problems like this in the game before, and it’s only a matter of time before they fix this.

You are aware that they can have people working on more than one thing at a time and finding bugs does not mean content development grinds to a halt, right? Jumping into threads that are reporting an issue and telling folks to just pipe down and accept it because that’s just the supposed price of playing a F2P game helps no one. Is this your canned response to all bug report threads?

Edit: In response to Mercury’s latest post: What a nasty comment to make to someone who takes exception at your flippant (and frankly, naive) dismissal of his valid bug report. “It’s F2P, deal with it” is such a useless comment to make, and your comment about the OP’s lack of friends is just ugly and uncalled for.

Count me as +1 Friend of Kos Luftar, then.

I can definitely get behind this. I’m a bit of a dress-up geek and am anxiously awaiting additional town clothes / armor skins to be added each month. In other MMOs, I’ve had multiple bank slots for costume gear or vanity items, and the trend continues in Guild Wars 2 (I currently have a bank tab full of skins I want to keep, with town clothes and toys spilling out into another).

Anecdotally, I’ve never bought transmutation stones; if there’s something I want to transmute, I wait until I get enough free ones from dailies or the occasional BL Chest. I’m a huge costume/cosmetics fan, but I’d rather spend my gems on actual cosmetic stuff instead of gems to simply enable them. I may be an exception to the rule, but I generally have over 100 Transmutation stones (134 at the moment) and a respectable quantity of Crystals (sitting at 30).

A few people have dismissed this suggestion for not generating any ‘new money’, but I think they may actually be overlooking ways in which a Wardrobe function could be monetized;

• Additional Wardrobe storage
  The default wardrobe could be expanded with additional slots. LotrO gives you 20, with a maximum of 50; something similar could be done here. There could be multiple tabs as well; buying extra space on the “Weapon Wardrobe” tab would not expand the “Armor” tab, for example. There might also be tabs for Back Items and Costume Gear / Items.

• Wardrobe Access Express
  A summonable wardrobe NPC , similar to the Bank/Merchant/Trading Post express vendors.

• Ticket Exchange
  Items using a skin obtained via a Claim Ticket (Sclerite, Jade, Fused, etc.) could be deposited into a special exchange slot within the wardrobe and turned back into a ticket, allowing a different weapon skin to be purchased. This process would have a gem-based fee attached.

And, as the original poster mentioned, people who may be reluctant about buying cosmetic items from the store would be more inclined to make purchases with a wardrobe function.

Additionally, the wardrobe could be built to utilize transmutation stones as a currency rather than replacing them entirely. Depositing an item skin into the wardrobe could be free, but copying that item’s appearance could cost a Transmutation Stone (or Crystal if you’re copying to a level 80 item). If you wish to permanently transmute an item, the stones/crystals would continue to serve that function. This would not only retain the market for transmutation stones, but could increase it substantially.

- Will we be getting better tools to manage guilds? Being unable to see the last time a member logged in makes it difficult to remove inactive players to make room for new members.

- Are there any plans to make the Trait system less “Math-y” (i.e. +20% of x, Gain 50 y, reduces refresh of z, etc.) and focused more on traits that modify or add gameplay mechanics (i.e. “Reflect Missiles when blocking”, “Deal damage when stealing”)? What is your overall philosophy on traits; do you prefer mechanics over math?

- Can you tell us anything about the Mini Spooky, Southsun and Festive Trios that appear on GW2 Database?

- What feature (that you can talk about) are you most excited about in the coming months?

Add me as another person disappointed that the PVE and PVP chests eliminate your ability to get one or the other. I was just passing through the Mists on my way to LA and didn’t know I had shot myself in the foot. I’ve never done a round of sPVP in my entire time playing, and now I’m stuck with goofy Finishers I’ll never use and robbed of things I’ll actually use?

I realize some people aren’t getting ANY gift, and that sucks, but I feel this really should have been clarified somewhere. Very irritating, and I hope a fix or something is in the works for this.

- Well of Blood has been disabled for all male necromancers, and now has a 30 day recharge rate.

-Epidemic will no longer function against players located in Madagascar.

-Wave of Fear will now causes the necromancer to wave bye-bye to the cruel, cruel world. Can only be activated when below 10% health.

-Grasping Dead is now “Grasping at Straws”, which automatically creates forum posts with conspiratorial overtones, such as “Jon Peters hates us because he lost a loot roll to a Warlock in WoW” or “Necromancers are broke because ArenaNet is full of religious zealots who have it out for Harry Potter and Halloween.”

-Signet of Spite has been corrected, to now read “Signet of Sprite”, allowing the necromancer to enjoy the crisp, cool lemon-lime flavor of our newest sponsor.

-Doom has been changed to “Gloom” and now allows the necromancer to post hilarious fake patch notes in an effort to try hiding the feeling that he or she will forever be a sad, broken, miserable shell of a profession.