Guild Wars 2

Another good one from reddit user: Tyragon

Personally I think Outnumbered and Borderland Bloodlust should be replaced with eachother.
It makes more sense that you’d want a stat bonus to make up for being too few instead of getting more goodies. And to me, it makes more sense to work towards getting Bloodlust as a bonus, cause it would increase all the goodies people get.

There’s a lot of good chatter on the reddit thread (http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2hgnqg/what_if_outnumbered_meant_siege_costs_50_to/) too. I see a few of you cross posting (thanks!)

I think we all agree Outnumbered and Announcements both present some solid ideas. The Quick Squad Commander menu (much like the current LFG tool) present ways for us to interact also helps.

I like one theme I’m hearing on both sides: WvWvW should be the ultimate game mode; the thing we all in the community are proud of. PvE announcements get us there.

Funny enough, a lot of this already exists: LFG, Squads, Commander Orders, World Bonuses, WvWvW Dialog Box are all incarnations of what we have. What is missing is more awareness and simplicity in using these tools. I don’t know what analytics ANet has, but I presume they’re underutilized on low pop servers? I can’t speak for high population.

Thanks everyone. Hopefully someone at ArenaNet read this and found it useful too

I like the idea that WVW (or AVA if it comes to that) should be the ultimate battle, where a lot is lost (1 gold per guild cata!) and a lot can be gained (Hamster.4861 has some great ideas there)

:D

Theftwind.8976:

BooDuh.2841:

That is such a good thread title Mr Swift. Ok, lemme think on the rest of your post now …

Lol I was wondering when he was going to get to the part where we eat enemy babies.

Fixed ;P

Hi everyone! I’m a commander on Henge of Denravi, NA, who has been playing since release in WvW. I’m also a former game developer (Activision) and animator myself, so I’ve bit of an insight into game development. I’m really excited to see John Corpening actively thinking what WvW can become. Thinking about competitive sports (and the recent Alliances idea) I’ve a few thoughts:

• Include PVE hourly or major updates

In Guild Wars 1 we occasionally had an update “North America has Defeated Europe” or something to that affect. I really enjoyed this as it gave the PVErs an exact connection with what was happening in Guild Wars. Occasionally those updates would include “Your World has increased X” because of some sort of win.

I imagine in Guild Wars 2, PVErs could see an update such as:
“Your World has lost half of it’s Borderlands, Consider joining the fight!”
or
“Your World has just captured and held Stonemist Castle! Hold it for an hour to increase your vitality!”

Some sort of update that encourages an actual living world. That your actions, or inaction to help defend your Borderlands, could lead to different results in PVE. Of course these would be just above minor advancements – we wouldn’t want to severly overpower someone. Gaining 5% vitality or 10% more gold from holding your own BL or SC seems significant enough to encourage you to join.

• Outnumbered should do one thing only: Half Supplies needed to build Siege

At the moment Outnumbered is a fundamentally useless attribute (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Outnumbered) given to the smaller side.
More experience won’t help, since as a low level you will not be able to gain any from the blobs destroying you. World Experience won’t help for the same reason; and if you’re coming to WvW to mine/farm you probably would fair better off in PVE (no chance of immediate death.) Magic Find is completely useless in WVW – not because finding great items is bad, but because the point of WVW is competition, not finding loot.

I propose Outnumbered has one feature only: Siege cost 50% to build. A team of 5 players with two Guild Catapults (that’s 5 players, one party, or 50 supplies total) can wreck havoc on a well fortified Borderland. Two Superior Flamerams, 50 supplies total, would also be a frustrating thorn in the side of an Outnumbering force.

• Quick Squad/Commander Menu on the Top Right of your screen

Squads, in PUG worlds like ours, are vastly underutilized. If a player joined World vs World and there was a quick list of Commanders on the top right, with the option to easily join their squad, then I think we would solve two major problems: What to do in WVW when you first join, and how to build up your Zerg/Squad to run plays.

Of course there would need to be limits, maybe only 5 Commanders can be present at once, maybe a scroll wheel to choose Commanders, maybe just an option to hide the dialog box much like we can hide Dailies. All things to think about.

• Quick Commander Commands

Something that corresponds to the current Squad commands. Maybe they are actual icons above your main attacks. It can get pretty tough to type “FALL BACK” or “ATTACK” while also trying to attack and coordinate yourself. The Squad tools are awesome, and the icon minimap stuff is handy, but again if no one near you is in your squad, or if you can’t type it out fast enough… well you’re dead.

• Dual Monitor support for your map

Seriously. Yes I run WVW with Millenium.org open in another window – but it can be late in showing you the latest information. An internal solution would be awesome.

• Bloodlust should Begin turned ON, not OFF

At no time have I ever seen Bloodlust completely captured before the world battles begin. Often it is after the fact, after everyone owns the map, or a large percentage, that someone chimes in on TeamSpeak “hey we should capture Bloodlust.” My thought: Start Major Bloodlust ON for the defending World, not OFF. This makes it more of an uphill battle for the incoming worlds. For those worlds who are constantly getting run over, this would be a great boon to them. Admittedly for those worlds currently dominating, this would only further solidify their strength.

Perhaps as a counter to this domination, Minor Bloodlust could begin at TWO captures, not three.

• Show off your World (now Alliance?) support in PVE

Thinking about the recent FIFA World Cup here, how many people showed off their pride for their side during the tournament? I think in PVE you should find a way to show off which World/Alliance you support. Wether it’s an actual banner, perhaps a back item, or even a color trail that could follow you. This is obviously a ton of work, but I feel would further reinforce the camaraderie and community Worlds currently have.

• When in doubt, eat the enemy children

Because so many of you read your 8th grade reading assignments… ;D

Alright, debate and comment away

Our guild, REV, is an evening & nightly HOD guild. We’d love to have your help dominate these other silly worlds

Message Seraph.6853 for an invite.

I’m sure they’re working on it

Admittedly World loyalty is something I am fond of. Megaserver makes it incredibly difficult for PVE to coordinate Wurm or whatever; so we formed a large “world” guild to mitigate that. Even then, a whole bunch of us are left out of the instance (I wish we could pick instances!)

In World vs World though, we have a dedicated TS for all of us to get on and work together. We build camaraderie over time and now we coordinate very well. Losing that would be frustrating to say the least.

AvAvA could be fun. Order of Whispers vs Priory vs Vigil was suggested on this relevant reddit thread:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/271n6y/how_would_you_change_wvw_now_that_megaserver/

How would you manage having the same people every season? One large TS could do it. Some of the larger guilds have their own TeamSpeak, but Henge has a world-specific TeamSpeak that helps us out pretty well. It makes it easy to give us one place to hop on and coordinate.

I imagine a “order of whispers” TS would spin up, and we could all hop on that alliance to fight off other alliances.

But what about instances? Would we combine ALL of North America into three alliances? Oceanic and Europe too? Man that sounds like a mess!

Though AvAvA makes more sense than WvWvW as worlds are… effectively, insignificant now. Hmm. Maybe Guilds can “join” worlds? o_O

Just curious. Had some fun debates last night talking about how Megaserver (we feel) eliminated the concept of worlds (unique partitions of Guild Wars 2’s community.)

Given that, how would you change WvW? Why would anyone pick a world in the first place? Maybe Worlds factor MORE since each WvW battle gives your world boosts. Or maybe worlds matter less and WvW will turn into something more Edge of the Mist like.

What do you all think?

All good points but I actually disagree.

A repeat customer is incredibly valuable as new customers are incredibly expensive to introduce into the system. You have to imagine the costs of getting a booth and large setup… and for what? To advertise an “old” game? In the hopes of maybe converting, oh let’s say 1% of all those 100k people in Boston?

That seems like a losing proposition. Of that 1% who will buy or otherwise re-log into their account, how many will actually become repeat customers? 1% of the 1%? I am just picking some low numbers here but my point is: A booth or place at PAX could be a money-loser for them.

Instead they’re focusing heavily on social ads (I’ve seen plenty) and internet ads. There is also a large push for their China release (that will rock the world over there!) As a business owner (I am one) you have to constantly weigh: what has the highest ROI? What has the highest risk? What’s my conversion rate?

Honestly, and this is pure conjecture, I feel ArenaNet (or NCSoft) has instead allocated their money into the game itself: new content. They are probably making enough money after a couple of years of doing this by making new content than they would with a large booth or any marketing push. Why? Us. The repeat customers who pay for things.

Silent the Gray, I think you’re right.

Coding a whole new system, back and frontend, building the UI, checking for bugs, measuring the load on server CPU, and a whole other assortment of issues will probably mean this system is a few ways away. Remember it took us a good amount of time until we had a decent LFG system. Maybe the two can mirror each other though.

The game design mechanics for a full Commander Achievement line will also be just as time consuming. Maybe with some analytics ArenaNet can see what the average player takes to get to 100 gold and then use that as a barometer for achievements. Eg: two months of playing, so, two months worth of achievements for the average player.

Those of us who play more, will get it sooner obviously.

Great replies all around everyone

I just read through Reddit and everyone seems to be saying the same things:

- Colors
- Rethink the use of Squads
- Earn the tags
- Limit visibility of the tag
- A system for finding squads

Exciting:D

Well there’s been quite a bit of discussion on this on the other forums and reddit Thanks for all your replies!

Lolyta.4582:

I totally support this, but you left one important thing out: Commanders should be able to toggle the visibility of their Dorito to “everybody,” “squad,” or GUILD so that when we don’t want the entire world to see the tag but need it for a guild activity, we can do that.

I like this idea a lot too. Visibility of the Commander tag is something a lot of people are saying in both discussions

I don’t want to double post too much, but I think a wider voice/thoughts is needed. I’ve made a post in /Suggestions about what I feel would be a better system for Commanders and earning the Commander badge.

You can find it here:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Dear-ArenaNet-let-s-rethink-Commanders/first#post3127680

That’s an interesting idea.

I do like the idea of people earning the tag still. I feel people who are solo players (no guilds) can also become great leaders (Aragorn anyone?) :P

mercury ranique – you’re saying something similar that I am hearing on Reddit:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1pn68y/dear_arenanet_lets_rethink_commanders/

A lot of people are in agreement that the 100g price tag is not a good system to buy Commander badges. They should be earned, much like Daily Laurels. I think a Commander Achievement Tree would be great. One for PvE and WvW? I could see this working too. In fact I think this is the best idea, because some people just want to do specialize in one or the other.

Ultimately the goal is to find effective Commanders and enhance their abilities

I also got some things wrong: 100g + a lot of the abilities already exist.

Keep the replies coming

As a proud commander on Henge of Denravi(NA) I have noticed a few things and wanted to post them up. Feel free to add your thoughts (or disagree) too!

First, my observation: PvE Commanders are incredibly useful for leading zergs (Kessex? Scarlet?) in large world events. It gives players (especially people just dropping in) a sense of direction and organization.

The problem? Map chat is a complete mess to understand what’s going on. Spamming directions and targets or just formations is frustrating when you are suppressed for talking too much (usually re-answering questions for newbies too!)

Solutions?
- Players should be able to Join Squad of Commanders. This is not a replacement for Parties! Instead a Commander’s squad (not capped at 50 please!) could:
- Have Commander called Targets (perhaps a different color than Party targets)
- See Minimap draw overs/clicks so the whole squad knows where to move
Utilize a special /squad /team chat for focusing on what’s going on
- When Joining a Squad they immediately receive a “Message from the Commander” so they know that this is a Defensive team, a frontal Zerg, or just general instructions
- Join Squads should also be more prominent. Most PvErs who are not familiar with WvW know how to join Squads. Also there is a general negative attitude towards joining squads ‘since they don’t do anything’
- The minimap dots could be Orange or some color to identify your Squad; or just Squad would be visible (Green) and Blue (your own party)

I think this could be useful in major bosses. I’ve noticed how TTS has wonderful organisation with multiple Commanders running Tequatl runs. People are announcing constantly what they’re doing and direction is much better. Still, I think we could save ourselves a lot of repeating and focus on the battle more.

How would random players entering a zone know who to join or why?
Maybe Commanders each have a set amount of colors they can pick for their shield – we’ll be able to differentiate immediately where people are running/doing
Maybe a mirror to the LFG system, called LFS where we see a Commander and a brief message of what they’re doing. This could be on a per map basis, or world basis; I honestly don’t know which would work better.

How does this help WvW commanders?
We usually have multiple Commanders running zerg or def; a system to differentiate them, get an immediate message, and a squad chat for just that team would help greatly

What about Parties?
Parties are still useful here – tight teams working together to watch over each other. The commander and their squad/team serves as a guide for the party. The party has the objective to support the commander’s mission/target, while at the same time watching over themselves, healing each other, being focused, whatever.

Is this complicating things?
Probably. Right now I feel Commanders are not being utilized to their full potential in PvE. I think some additions could really push their use to a better place. Again, these changes are useful for boss runs or for world events, not every day PvE

What if I don’t want to join a Commander?
Don’t

There will be too many Commanders running around! We need a system to elect and boot them! <Insert similar questions here>
I don’t think so. The 100 gold limit is out of the range for most casual players. Yes we’ll get the occasional kittenes but you know what? Just ignore them, block them, and don’t pay attention to their commands! Respected, well organised, Commanders will rise to the top.

We could even explore a whole Commander system. Perhaps their could be Commander Skills (Call Singular Target, Call Multiple Targets, Permanent Map dots, Navigation dots…) whatever. This could get complicated though. Rather than dealing with all these grand possibilities, I rather propose some (I think) easier changes.
My hope is that Commanders could provide a better way for people to organise. Let me know what you all think :D

TL;DR? Really? :P
Better Squad tools
Dedicated Squad chat
Commander auto message when you join Squad
LFG system for Squads

This was crossposted on Reddit too!
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1pn68y/dear_arenanet_lets_rethink_commanders/

Why? To fuel more discussion.

To me, World Population is only an issue for WvW. I’m a proud Henge (NA) WVWer and unforetunately we just cannot keep up with the larger population servers. Is this a bad thing?

no

I don’t think so as different tiers has matched us up better. I also feel that like in many competitive sports, there are other teams with more money, more backing, and therefore a greater advantage to winning (the NY Yankees versus the Tampabay Rays for example.) However, we do have Outnumbered that works in our favor.

I do feel that:
- Combining low population servers with each other could help (a sever for just 1-5% of the global population could combine with another; especially if larger servers represent 20%+ or more.)
- Tiers help (I believe, still figuring it out)
- Incentives to join lower populations could be useful (free to Transfer, I think this already exist?)

If a server is kicking kitten because they’re highly populated and just that good, who are we to knock them down for being good?

We just had a large 80 man attempt. Didn’t even get to first batteries :|

Henge of Denravi… 15 minutes… Any help we can get would be great

Updated, thanks for all the feedback

Updated Check out the list above!

Welcome to the Tequatl Server Support Group! We’re like AA, but for Teq!

Don’t give up! This is a shout out to all of us who are unable to beat Tequatl. Henge of Denravi (in my nightlies) has not been able get him past 80. At all. We usually have 20-30, though tonight we had up to (what seemed) like 100! Still, lack of respawning, no AOE, turrets not helping the zerg. Even when we were at our peak, we still were being overrun.

It’s tough.

Anyways, if your server needs help, add it in here. We can do this gals and guys, but let’s be honest with each other and say we need help.

Here’s the list:

Henge of Denravi (NA)
Drakkar-lake (EU)
Borlis Pass (NA)
Ring of Fire (EU)
Gate of Madness (NA)
Ring of Fire (EU)
Seafarer’s Rest (EU)
Gunnar’s Hold (EU)
Ruins of Surmia (EU)
Northern Shiverpeaks (NA)
Sorrow’s Furnace (NA)
Sea of Sorrows (NA)
Kaineng (NA)
Isle of Janthir (NA)

Random idea: if the server downs him everyone on the server should get the achievement.