Guild Wars 2

I personally run Guardian, with Staff and Greatsword, though I also sometimes switch the GS for Sword/Shield. Works quite well, and with a good build, has Tankiness (armor), Damage (skills/aoe), and Support (shouts, symbols, books).

The only people who whine about zerging, are those who are not zerging. I personally LOVE huge battles between masses of players.

Does it suck if you get ran over by a zerg? Sure. It sucks if you’re walking down the freeway and get hit by a bus, too. Same concept. If you are constantly being ran over, then you’re just in the wrong place. The more players in the zerg, the fewer players they have -elsewhere- on the map. It’s the cornerstone of playing while outmanned. “Go where the enemy isn’t”.

It seems you are complaining mostly because you are fighting while outnumbered, and the “evil zerg” takes your territory. However, defending a tower or keep is easy, if you have it properly upgraded and sieged.

If your tower/keep is paper with no siege, it’s easily taken, even WITHOUT a zerg.
If your tower/keep is fully upgraded and sieged, it’s hard to take, even WITH a zerg.

So the response we’ll get now is: “But but but… we can’t upgrade because the zerg keeps taking everything!” Well, then that’s a coverage problem. That is your server community’s problem. It is NOT ArenaNet’s problem. Rally your player base and get them into WvW. If your server’s population is not interested in WvW, then that’s a situation you’re just going to have to live with, or transfer to a server with a WvW community you’re satisfied with.

===

So let’s look at it from another perspective.

Let’s say YOU are the one who has overwhelming numbers. Forget about rewards, you’re just here to fight, and you have 3x the number of people as your enemy. You go to attack their tower, because you want to capture that territory for the glory of your server. It’s paper walls, paper gate, and no siege. It’s an easy target.

Yet, by the OP’s logic, there’s no reward for taking the tower. OK, fine. Your group isn’t here for money, they still want to take it. Why? Because it’s there. That’s the whole point of WvW. So you attack. However, ArenaNet has implemented the Anti-Zerging-Update and your very large, and amazingly coordinated force of people you spent countless hours training…cannot take the tower.

“What? We have 60 people and we can’t take the tower! WTH ArenaNet???”
Aaaaaand the players ragequit. That’s right, there’s no point to playing WvW anymore, because number of players doesn’t mean kitten.

===

What’s the moral of the story?

If you cannot field a large enough force to defend the structure, it SHOULD fall to superior/overwhelming numbers. To do anything else would be plain silly.

The same people who complain about zergs busting their towers would be the same people that would complain that they had 3x the number of people on the map, and they still couldn’t bust the tower.

TL:DR – If your server doesn’t have coverage, or doesn’t have numbers of WvW players, you only have 2 choices. Get more people, or go to a server that does. Sorry, but that’s what WvW is. Don’t like it? go play PvE where everything’s scaled for you. War is war, and it’s never fair.

This thread hurts my brain. -=sigh=- Going to bow out now. Attempting to bring civil discussion to the masses is an exercise in futility.

I will tell you that in CERN on Tarnished Coast, we do not do this. Generally, our WvW commanders and groups allow anyone to follow us. Most of the other guilds on TC are the same way when running as a group. Some guilds will request players not follow them in certain circumstances (GvG, Guild Training, Hardcore Raiding, etc) but it’s more an exception than the rule on our server.

Re: Rally Bots – If someone is a rally bot, then teach them how NOT to be. Better players helps the server, and the community. My own personal opinion.

Re: Guilds running w/o followers: If a guild wants to run without followers, that’s fine. There’s absolutely no reason to be jerks about it though, assuming that players also respect the guild’s wishes not to be followed. That said, not stopping to res players (unless there’s a highly pressing matter that needs attended to) does send a rather rude message.

I don’t know what Piken’s community is like, but I agree it’s a subject you should post on the server’s own forums for discussion. I can tell you that on TC, such behavior by a guild would be quite frowned upon by the general populace, especially if they were using insults. Our server has a reputation for being ‘polite’, and it’s a reputation we like having.

Anyway, I don’t have anything in particular to add, other than to say that it is by no means every server or guild where this happens. Highly unusual in fact.

Isaiah Cartwright.8569:

Commander Visibility
… (insert all items here) …

I would say you have it down accurately, and all of this looks like very positive improvements.

Question 1 (Squad member colors): I would call this very important. We Commanders need to know who’s actively following as part of the Squad, and who’s just wandered up temporarily.

• More detailed supply info that’s always up. (Increased radius)
• Ability to create sub roles within a squad.
• Current squad tools are rarely used.
• Seems to be some debates on buffs to followers, but there is a lot of good examples of ways to do that.
• Squad size needs to be increased.
• Ability to group up parties or other commanders to form different squad organization.
• Improved chat suppression for commanders
• Commander announcements (yellow text across the screen)

These are all very good. I have bolded the ones that are critical.

Question 2 (Commander Events):
This is an excellent idea, especially if they can be very short-term objectives. This could even apply to “battles” where “orange swords” show up for enemies, it becomes a full blown map event for allies.

Idea: Commander in an “Orange Swords” fight would get the orange shield NPC icon floating over their head. This means in a big fight, the Commander would be far more visible than normal, yet keeps the non-obtrusive and scaleable commander icon we have now. Best of both worlds?

Idea: Control-Clicking (targetting) could then be used as the mechanic for the Commander to issue Event Objectives as orders. Stacking, Building, attacking, defending, moving to a location, etc, are just some of these.

Note: Other potential tactical orders are needed if such a system is implemented. Players need ways to VISUALLY tell where to go, with commanders being able to deploy them instantly, even while fighting (like ground-targetable skills throwing down a “Rally Banner”, for instance). This is the key to success of such a system, or any kind of commander-triggered event.

Commander Gating
I personally found the gate to be enough to make me gain experience, before I bought the tag. I had to earn the Gold, and I did not take donations to do so. Even in today’s GW2 economy, 100G is NOT a small sum of money. Sure someone might be able to have people give them money… but that means they have a network of supporters anyway – sounds Commander-worthy to me. If they earned the money themselves, then that should be enough of a gate to keep those not dedicated to the idea of being a commander from buying it.

However, you could add additional ways of getting the tag. Badges of Honor comes to mind. Laurels as well. Since almost all of the currency/wxp/etc that could be used for gating are going to be Account Bound, it only makes sense that Commander Tag also be account bound…. otherwise what’s the point of the Gate in the first place?

Re: Guild Gating for commanders: I personally think the benefit does not outweigh the risk, better to have the above gates adjusted for balance, but on the whole leave it alone. The only -real- gate for commander numbers that will every be truly effective, is community support. A commander will either gain respect and a following, or they will not. No need to add artificial means beyond ensuring a basic level of dedication to the idea of being a leader. In this context, the 100G is just a token ‘cost’ for the ‘privilege’ (ie: burden) of being a Commander. Besides, Commanders often sink tons of their own resources and money into their day-to-day activities anyway. No need to burden them further.

Keeping it ‘selfless’, where they only ‘reward’ for commanding is the server/group’s benefit, is in my opinion the best Gate to commander limits you can have.

Question
4) What did I miss on this list

I think that’s pretty much it, I’ve included my additions above. I think you’ve got a very good grasp on what the players are looking for – so I would think this CDI has been largely productive and useful.

So glad this thread is back on topic!

So here’s my suggestions for a more fleshed-out Squad UI.

- Squad members show a different color dots in the Map/minimap

- Mass Invite Function in Radius (cooldown timer to prevent spam)

- F5 – F9 keys used to keybind specific Commander commands W/ ground targeting and visible Flags/Icons/Symbols/Effects. “Stop”, “Go”, “Attack”, “Defend”, “Rally Here”

- Squad UI System: Total Players, Total Supply, Disband Button, Mass Invite Button. Squad members are displayed as mini-map style Dots for each player in the Squad UI window.

These are laid out in a grid of boxes, with up to 5 Dots per box (max normal party size). Parties that join the Squad get put into their own separate box by default. Individuals just get filled in from top to bottom. Mouse hovering over a player dot shows name.

Clicking on the dot allows a small dropdown with options. These options would be the following: “Form Party” (lets Individuals in the box party each other instantly), “Move” (Moves dots around inside the Squad UI), “Kick”, “Promote Captain”, “Promote Lieutenant”, “Demote”, etc.

In combat, These dots would either morph color (Such as Green→yellow→red, grey for downed, black for dead) with player’s Health status. That lets the Commander see his squad’s combat status in real time.

This dot system also saves space and allows MASSIVE amounts of people in a very compact Squad UI, and allows re-sizing and re-shaping the Squad UI window without disrupting the functionality.

- Allow Commanders/CPTs/LTs to Minimap Draw & Ping to their squad (ONLY) like in GW1 !!! This was SUPER USEFUL for all kinds of tactical and communication purposes. Keeping it limited to just Tagged individuals capable of drawing/pining will automatically reduce spam, and since only the Squad members will see it, there’s no reason to use it to spam since everyone will leave your squad if you’re a draw-spammer, and Cpts/Lts that draw-spam can be demoted and have that ability removed.

I for one do not care what the rewards are. I fought for the glory and honor of my Server – and I am proud of that accomplishment, because I like to think I did that.

Plus, I’ve made 90g profit, and a stack of 200 skill points as of today, just playing WvW and nothing else (no PvE at all, save guild missions). That’s AFTER repairs, buying some exotics on TP, buying consumables, buying SIEGE and MATS for siege, crafting sup siege, etc.

If you aren’t making money in WvW, you aren’t doing it right.

The rewards are just a bit of icing on the cake, and won’t bother me whatever they are, big or small. WvW is it’s own reward, for it’s fun factor, at least for me. The rewards just make it a bit sweeter.

I fight for the fun of it. I get lots more rewards than that for regular WvW activities.

I personally think the joke’s on the achievement hunters. Perfectly named thread name, so +1 for that, LOL.

DevonCarver.5370:

Implementing a system that is in other games, older games or not, that is not in our game at all is a very time consuming project. … Which isn’t a reason not to do it, but is a factor in determining when we would want to do those things.

DevonCarver.5370:

A summary of the last few pages:

1) It seems to be consensus that a system allowing commander unlocks for WXP wouldn’t be a good move.

2) A lot of people are interested in a sub-commander or lieutenant system of some sort. One that would allow for greater coordination and delegation.

3) There seems to be a general divide between people proposing a system far more complex than the current commander system and people who just want the system to have more clarity.
…
One thing that is coming up with some frequency is the idea of separating PvE commanders from WvW ones. It’s our goal to not have diverging systems like that. We’d rather build one system that can work for both areas of the game for the sake of clarity.
…
I don’t think we’d want to focus the commander on the guild system. …
Maybe if you are in guild only mode on your tag you have some additional tools?
…
Would the commander system be functional enough with more markers, guild only tags, less suppression, better supplyinfo, and possibly additional marker shapes?

This seems really clear to me.

Seriously, what more could the community ask for from Devs? He’s being QUITE clear here about what messages they’ve gotten from us, based on all the feedback from everyone so far. They also make it pretty clear about their intentions, what things they are not keen on, and what things they want more input about.

Now, maybe that isnt your personal message to them, but they hear things based on what is said, and how many people are saying the same things. 10 people saying the same thing is more powerful than 1 person with that “really awesome idea”. If it truly is awesome, 10 more people will repeat it. That’s how they tell what to listen to, and what not to.

I thought that was common sense.

Anyway, Just answer the questions, and stop asking for things they said they can’t/won’t/don’t-want-to do. They are open to ideas, but be realistic, and don’t take anything said here as if they are promising to do it simply because you asked for it.

They will do what they can, when they can, assuming it’s possible to do with the resources they have, and good for the game/company/player-base as a whole.

I want to personally thank ANet as a whole for being as responsive as they are to the players. You cannot please everyone all the time – but ANet listens a lot more than any other company I’ve seen. They always have.

Luvpie.8350, I looked at the links in your signature. I see your post here, and in other threads.

Sorry to say, but it very much appears that you want the game to change to fit your play style and what you want, rather than You changing your play style to fit the game. All MMOs go through changes, in cycles. Either you like it or don’t. In the end, they change to fit what most players want. Either that or the game dies off. I guarantee ANet doesnt want the game to die, so they will do what it takes to make the most players happy.

Rather than starting threads or making posts that just complain, why not offer constructive ideas on what would work better? That will give you a much better chance of being listened to by the Devs. Otherwise it’s just a person on a forum venting. Not really anything to be paid attention to.

Cactus.2710:

I do believe that some of the devs at Anet want to hear what we think, but I’ve seen nothing to indicate that the ones responsible for WvW actually intend to do anything about it. Anyway, I’ll drop out of this altogether until I see something more positive from ANet. Let’s get back together in three months and compare notes, OK? In the meantime, carry on the good fight.

What you want is a promise of a timeline. They cant give that, because their bosses haven’t approved it yet. This is a company, and like any company, there’s a decision making process that they themselves do not control. Stop asking for what they cannot promise, because…well… they can’t. It’s not their job to do so. They gather the info, send it up. It is considered, maybe tweaked, decided on, then approved. Then work begins, that work takes a certain time, then it is rolled out.

Now, as for what we the players want, that’s what this is about. Info gathering. Talk to the players, get a reaction. Maybe get some good ideas. It’s brainstorming, the very first stage, not final cut update development that you seem to be looking for.

I for one am content they even ask us. Many game companies don’t even bother to ask the players anything. You get what you get, and you will like it. ANet is making an effort, you just might not see the fruits of that effort for a few weeks or months.

TL;DR: You expect too much (promises), too soon (now). Learn to be patient, and good things will happen.

Discussion is useful. Good ideas prosper. Bad ones tend to be left behind to die. Natural order of the universe. I embrace it.

Cactus.2710:

Certainly the CDI on population imbalance was totally pointless, for pretty much the same reasons. Absolutely nothing … not even a summary of key items to explore … has come of it.

Let’s keep this On-Topic to Commander System, please. Complaints about other areas of the game belong in those topics, not here. Thanks

Svarty.8019:

chestonu.8059:

- Text Suppression for Commander: Say chat is most heavily used because it pops over the commander’s head. It needs to be at least 2x or 3x the current volume that is allowed. Keep the limit, but make it bigger for those tagged up. That’s all. Let testing or a ‘trial period’ of real observation sort out how much is enough/too much.
[..]

- Optional Waypoints: Even if you cannot change how waypoints work now, at least make them Key-Bindable and accessible to/from the Minimap so they can be placed while moving. Show them on the minimap (on the edge if out of range), just like the Commander Tag, so people can head there. That’s it. No more needed. Let the community figure out what it means._

I have to say “Please No” to these particular suggestions. I think these would mean most people will buy tags for extra powers.

100G is a steep price to pay just to spam say chat (where people could just go away from you, and also /ignore you). Also, waypoints…same thing. This is clearly not the problem you think it is. Also, please note the big italicized —Optional-- moniker next to waypoints.

Whereas anyone who has commanded for any length of time knows that Chat suppression for Commanders is a major problem. I simply cannot text-command. I get suppressed in about 3 minutes, if I’m being careful. 30 seconds if it’s an urgent situation.

Ever been a Militia Commander, with only a handful of your group on voice, and suppressed in the middle of a big battle? Yeah. Big problem. Biiiig problem. Big. Problem.
(PS: Just in case it doesn’t have enough emphasis. Big problem. Yeah.)

Comprissent.3856:

chestonu.8059:

Chris.3290:

If Ark’s goal was to get a lot of kills and CNB+Rooster’s goal was to keep garri, then they both won.
Sorry if that outcome is a little too Disney for everyone, but it’s the truth.

Same story in EBG. We were farming TC as they came out of spawn for a while there.

Well, Yes. You did. Some. Truthfully, you didn’t end up killing most of us, except for the Spawn Party we had going just to keep you there, while our main group retook our stuff.

This after we painted EBG completely green all day long (Tee Hee, Chuu and I had fun putting green banners on everything.)

We fully expected the 2v1, where Mag and SoS teamed up to simultaneously alternate trebbing and push our keep. This is not a whine, mind you. I thought it was an EPIC good time fighting you all! With 6 trebs total firing on our keep, it was definitely a full on Siege Warfare, and I found it great fun. I was telling our people on the TC Mumble that this is what WvW all about. 2v1 happens. Getting pushed to your Spawn happens. After we pasted you earlier in the day, we fully expected to get hit hard as the OCX came online, and that’s fine! We had to deal with our territory being wiped daily for the past few weeks, so it’s good to keep the skills sharp.

P.S.: I dont sit behind ACs. (Lies, I do, but only for tower defense) What I like to do is treb the open-field zergs. Yep, that was me. I like the challenge of trying to adjust my aim & power to hit the zerg as you guys run around.

So hey, y’all got some bags – and we got good fights. It was a little messy with the coordination between our attack group and our spawn defense group – but hey, it’s not like we LET you farm our spawn endlessly. 2 hours later, our 1/3rd was ours again.

I honestly thought yesterday was the most fun we’ve had all week!

You’re going to cry 2v1 when last night you took ALL of cern+stun+pink, and sat at the south outer gate of bay, holding us out and let SoS cap it from us

o k

Wow, you didn’t read that post at all. LOL.

I enjoyed the 2v1. I thought it was FUN. No sarcasm at all, I mean it. In fact, Kudos to both SoS and Mag for a well-executed campaign – regardless whether you meant to coordinate with each other or not.

Next time, learn to accept the compliment for what it is.

I’m going to post this again, because it got lost in the 10 pages of posts. However, it’s still extremely relevant, given what @Devon has said about the goals of this initiative..

Before adding any new awesome functionality or change gating to the tag, first fix what makes being a commander aggravating. Annoying the player is the worst thing you can do in a game, and fixing that should take priority over changing anything else currently in place. That means systems that are clunky, hard to use, or just plain NOT used because they are too hard or obscure to access.

Quick, Easy fixes that we Commanders need ASAP:

- Text Suppression for Commander: Say chat is most heavily used because it pops over the commander’s head. It needs to be at least 2x or 3x the current volume that is allowed. Keep the limit, but make it bigger for those tagged up. That’s all. Let testing or a ‘trial period’ of real observation sort out how much is enough/too much.

- SUPPLY INFO: Increase radius – it’s a MUST. 1200, 1500, 3000, whatever. Just more than it is now. Make it Bindable to a hotkey! That’s all that’s needed. Very little or no UI needed. Just not having to type the command every few minutes – that’s aggravating.

- Commander Tag Colors: No need to make this hard/complicated. Tag up, Choose a color. That’s it. Keep them simple, too. Red, Green, Blue, Gold, Purple, etc. Let each server community decide for themselves what this means and how to use it.

- Optional Waypoints: Even if you cannot change how waypoints work now, at least make them Key-Bindable and accessible to/from the Minimap so they can be placed while moving. Show them on the minimap (on the edge if out of range), just like the Commander Tag, so people can head there. That’s it. No more needed. Let the community figure out what it means.

Doing these few things well is enough for commanders to do the things they want to do to achieve their goals, and lets servers/guilds/communities be creative at how they do things. It also buys Anet time to make bigger changes in the future if they choose to…. and even if they don’t, we still have something an order of magnitude better than we had.

“Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.” – General George S. Patton

Chris.3290:

If Ark’s goal was to get a lot of kills and CNB+Rooster’s goal was to keep garri, then they both won.
Sorry if that outcome is a little too Disney for everyone, but it’s the truth.

Same story in EBG. We were farming TC as they came out of spawn for a while there.

Well, Yes. You did. Some. Truthfully, you didn’t end up killing most of us, except for the Spawn Party we had going just to keep you there, while our main group retook our stuff.

This after we painted EBG completely green all day long (Tee Hee, Chuu and I had fun putting green banners on everything.)

We fully expected the 2v1, where Mag and SoS teamed up to simultaneously alternate trebbing and push our keep. This is not a whine, mind you. I thought it was an EPIC good time fighting you all! With 6 trebs total firing on our keep, it was definitely a full on Siege Warfare, and I found it great fun. I was telling our people on the TC Mumble that this is what WvW all about. 2v1 happens. Getting pushed to your Spawn happens. After we pasted you earlier in the day, we fully expected to get hit hard as the OCX came online, and that’s fine! We had to deal with our territory being wiped daily for the past few weeks, so it’s good to keep the skills sharp.

P.S.: I dont sit behind ACs. (Lies, I do, but only for tower defense) What I like to do is treb the open-field zergs. Yep, that was me. I like the challenge of trying to adjust my aim & power to hit the zerg as you guys run around.

So hey, y’all got some bags – and we got good fights. It was a little messy with the coordination between our attack group and our spawn defense group – but hey, it’s not like we LET you farm our spawn endlessly. 2 hours later, our 1/3rd was ours again.

I honestly thought yesterday was the most fun we’ve had all week!

DevonCarver.5370:

Okay, so before we get too far into this discussion, here is something else to think about:
Would you rather see us make some number of small improvements in the short term and larger changes long term or just tear the whole thing down and start from scratch?

To be a bit more specific, we could probably do something like multicolor markers without too much work, although it is not a given, but that would likely be the extent of things for a long period of time.

Let me prioritize things

Things We Need Right Now:

- Color-Changeable Commander Tags.
– Bigger/Easier-to-see/Re-sizable Commander Tags.
– Text Suppression threshold greatly increased.
– Greatly Increased radius for SupplyInfo command.

These all should be quite easy to implement very quickly within the current system, and easily translate to new systems later.

All the other items can be built later, but this stuff right here is absolutely necessary to solve major problems we are currently having.

Target & Location Hologram Flashers – Commanders should have the ability to flash a target location by clicking somewhere in the world they want people to go/be/see. Like some kind of hologram symbol that flashes down from the sky onto the ground pointing to the place clicked on the ground. Same for calling a target on an object, where there should be some kind of big flashy hologram target symbol that surrounds and points to the object targeted, easily distinguishing it no matter where you are nearby. YES, this should be Spammable, so that people can easily follow the Location and Target and to avoid Lag concerns. It should be BIG, easy to see, and unmistakable.

Nike.2631:

I had three idea from my limited understanding as a person who just follows commanders around . (I don’t own one myself)

Tag Colors: It would be nice if after you own a tag ‘basic’ blue tag you could spend, say, 20g, to buy an additional color. If you made 5 more colors (red, orange, yellow, green, purple) available, and did NOT arrange them in a hierarchy (all 5 colors be come accessible at the same time rather than an ordered series of purchases), commanders could differentiate themselves better while you still get a little gold sinking, and having the complete array of colors would cost as much as a second tag.

Earned Tags: It would be cool to have earned tags use a different shape. I’d like to see black ‘Shield’ and white ‘Sword’ tags that are earned by completing enough defensive (shield) or offensive (sword) WvWvW achievements. This would give you declared offensive and defensive commanders who likely know their stuff considering how they got that tag. I’d avoid granting specialized tag shapes just for WvW experience (partially because its an undifferentiated blob of all activities and partially because you can buy it with laurels without actually WvW’ing…)

Limited Visibility: It would be nice if the commander could set their tag to be “Map wide”, “Guild Wide” or “Party Wide”. This would allow commanders to still direct traffic for smaller, focused groups without cluttering the display and to allow them to act with discretion when there are concerns of spies for other servers on the map.

All 3 of these, for sure.

Now to add some of my own:

- Bigger Icon – Allow players to change the size of the commander icon in their own UI, so that they can make it easier for them to see in big fights. Letting the individual player control this means they set it however -they- like and need.

- Squad Panel – (where commanders can see ALL people in their squad, in a condensed list format) – An example would be SWTOR’s Ops screen. An additional idea would be to have a Squad Layer show up on the Minimap/Regular Map (yellow dots maybe?) that lets the commander see who’s in his squad, and who is just following him. Better squad management is a must, so it really needs it’s own GUI panel. NOTE: Each player in the panel should also have their Class icon and # of supply next to their name on the list. Totals for players, supply, and other quick stats would be at the top/bottom. Hovering over a player name could optionally give the commander the ability to see that player’s skill bar layout. This gives commanders an instant way to check their squad’s composition, and adjust their tactics accordingly.

- Suppression – MUCH HIGHER Suppression threshold for Commanders. We need this badly. Commanding a group in WvW is fast and hectic, posting quickly and repeatedly is necessary, and suppression causes major headaches for every commander I know. Please fix this.

- Draw and Ping – GW1 style Drawing and Pinging on Minimap!!! Commanders should be able to do this for their squad, or even for the whole map (if qualified). This was a feature in GW1 that did get a bit of abuse, but it was super useful in showing people what you wanted them to do.

- Magic Flare – Commanders can fire beam of bright energy into the sky that is visible from across the map to friendly players. Should be on a very long cooldown to prevent spam, maybe 2-5 minutes or something.

- Lieutenant Tag – Commanders should be able to designate Lieutenants who can then do limited things like /.Supplyinfo, and even lead split-off groups for split team tactics. OR, LT tags can be purchased for, say, 25-50 Gold, and then a Lieutenant can tag up on the map and lead by example, when a Commander is not present. Lieutenants can then ‘attach’ their tag to that of a Commander, when they join the squad. LT tags should also be able to have colors assigned, so that Commanders can keep them organized within their squad.

This is just the start of my ideas. I will post more as I come up with them.

I disagree, ionix.9054.

In my experience, the PvP aspect of a particular game is where the players who are really really passionate about the game will be. PVE is fun, until you complete it. Then you complete it again. And again. And again. However, these are players who will switch to other games when the next ‘latest thing’ comes along.

However, the PvP crowd are there because they really, truly love the game. They are the rabid fans who are more likely to put their money down for the things that make the experience more fun for them. It is the reason old multiplayer PvP style games (not just MMOs, but any game with PvP) usually still have followings, even years after the games have ‘died’. Its the reason FPS franchise games continue to do well, time after time after time.

I think Anet knows this, and they will respond.

“DO NOT TOUCH”

Me: … Okay. I need to go take that tower anyway. -=Shrug=- Onward!

In other words: Real WvWers don’t care.

None of this is a problem with the WvW format.

The OP’s complaints are purely failings within their server’s community to organize, train, and bring new players into WvW. If your players do not play as a team, then you cannot expect to reap success in a game type that is designed specifically to promote teamwork.

In other words, it’s not the game’s fault, it’s the fault of the people in WvW not playing as a team.

Instead of everyone expecting WvW to be made fair to accomodate -them-, maybe each server needs to take time to sit down with their server/guild leadership and ask… “What can we do better?”

Thank you, DivineBeing.2086 – TC has indeed been working hard to achieve what we have. We have -not- recruited new guilds, in fact we lost some. Yet for the grumbling, we dug deep, and decided to redouble our efforts to recruit new WvW players from within our server’s population, and train those that participate to help them be more effective.

I would say our efforts are paying off. I think the key is to do what you can with what you have, and set realistic, incremental goals.

Merlin Dyfed Avalon.5046:

Dale Rojo.7485:

zoombi.1498:

grats to buygate!

I gotta ask, bro…

I love this winner wins mentality, no matter how you get there.
when you are there pull out the smugness.

Go Murica! ^^

Troll statement. Leave America out of it. We enjoy a fair game as much as anyone. We enjoy -underdogs- who pull out amazing feats even more.

Do we like how things were stacked? I think the consensus is No. Did many servers fight on, even fight harder, because of it? Yes! So here’s to the underdogs, who fight hard to the bitter end. /.salute

NOTE: I’m ignoring the obvious flame/troll comments. Seriously guys. Enough is enough. Focus on the future.

Khayoss.2019:

- Cosmetic items to affect siege weaponry – possibly an item that makes all blueprints you throw down for 2 or 3 hours display guild emblem or follow guild color scheme.
- WvW only armor skins – purchase with gems + badges.
- WvW only finishers, love the idea above someone said your guild emblem on the flag.
- WvW specific food trays maybe? Food that reduces damage to guards/mercs and increases WEXP gain
- Siegerazer mini?
- Different colored commander icons or different commander icon emblems only usable in WvW… maybe even commander icon that is the guild emblem
- Weapon and armor skins that allow for guild emblem – more than just what’s purchasable through guild armorer… whole suit of armor.
- Upgrade assistant – a charge limited item that lets you browse current upgrades in progress for all structures on the current map as well as current supply levels, and queue new upgrades without being physically present in the structure.

There’s probably so much more… WvW could be a gold mine for them if they really wanted it to be.

We already have Guild Siege weapons. Buy them from the guild vendors in LA, using Guild Commendations. They’re actually REALLY good, and look cool.

The WvW food item recipes – that’s a good idea.

Siegerazer mini? I bet they already have this in the works. If not, they should!

Different Commander tag colors/symbols??? YES PLEASE!!! x10000 This would make multi-commander strategies WAY more useful in WvW, and would give lots of people a real REASON to tag up again.

Some of my own ideas for GEM upgrades:
– Commanders gain DRAWING ability on the minimap, like in GW1 – squad based
– Commanders gain PING ability on the minimap, like in GW1 – squad based
– Commanders gain higher SUPPRESSION threshold, for chat channels
– Guild-Claimed NPC cosmetic changes – Changes all NPCs into Charr, Quaggan, etc, wearing the guild emblem.
– Consumable Magic Flare, sends a pillar of blazing energy into the sky visible across the map, marking your current location.
– Consumable Siege Merchant, We have Black Lion and regular merchants, why not to buy siege
– LIEUTENANT TAG – (Commander Consumable. Lasts 1 hr? 3 hr?) A lesser tag that can be granted by a Commander to designate players in their squad as a Lieutenant, who can also check supply, and is visible on the map.
– SIEGE SHIELDS – (Commander Consumable.) Give the next siege item you deploy a mystical shield bubble, similar to that of Commander Siegerazer. 30-60min cooldown to prevent spam.

Just brainstorming, but these are things people would buy on a regular basis. Feel free to discuss!

I can assure you, if there -were- any CERN that were spectator killing during a GvG, our own commanders/leaders would be more harsh on those players than anyone on these forums could be. That kind of stuff doesn’t fly.

Spockime is probably right. They were probably trying to enforce the neutrality of those not involved in the GvG. In the off case that was not the case, I’m sure it’s already been dealt with.

- – -

On a side note – I am really enjoying this thread. It’s relatively civil and drama free, compared to the rest of the WvW forums. Thank you all for a -pleasant- GW2 forum experience. Kudos to all.

Dash.7108:

Can there ever be a civilized thread about Blackgate… Congrats Blackgate, congrats FA, and congrats Henge of Denravi.

When servers no longer stack population, then yes. Those that do it will not receive the respect they otherwise would. Until that is rectified and stops for good, no chance. None.

I really don’t feel sorry for the OP at all. You are on the winning server, which by the way, paid people to move there and make your queue longer. Even if -you- didn’t do that personally, other people on your server did. I suggest you go to your own server’s forums/site/community and complain to -them- about what their activity has cost you.

Sucks for you, but that’s what you get – complain to those who caused it. I agree with other posters here. Anet warned you all about this. You did not listen.

I believe the popular quote that applies here is thus:
“A lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.”

I’m going to nominate Disco from TC. Purely on the aspect that following him is an absolute RIOT of a good time – no equal when it comes to the absolute fun factor. You will never laugh so much, and he has lots of skill and knowledge, very approachable, and never harsh with even the newest of players.

Close second would be Nightelight (sorry bro, the crappy Mic was the deciding factor :P ) . They are both very much the reason I went and got a tag myself, and decided to join CERN. Never once regretted the decision.

Peetee.9406:

No thanks.

I’m tired of trying to fight 60 with 35. All I get for my effort is repair bills.

TC is used to this. This happens to us all the time, every week, every day. We often log in, and have most if not all of our territory wiped. We see the outmanned buff several times per week. We fight on – and in fact, those present fight harder. Hey, when you have no armor repair bills, you have nothing to lose by being aggressive.

Whether you respect other servers or dislike them (I have my own personal biases as much as the next person), it’s important to recognize that the players themselves are what makes a server what it is – and those that fight even when the chips are down are to be commended.

Speaking for myself, at the end of the season, all I ever wanted for TC was for us to be seen as hard fighters, regardless of the odds. I think if nothing else, we’ve accomplished that. I know the players of TC certainly have a lot to be proud of themselves for.

Would we like to take 3rd this season? You bet. The difference is, for us, it’s never been about being the “top server”, it’s about the game itself, and the love of playing it and having fun. Good fights, good strategy, good friends and comrades in arms.

Win or lose – if you fought your hardest and had a load of fun doing it, what more is there in a video game?

@GaileGray – Welcome back, GG! We miss seeing you in Lion’s Arch! Old GW1 WPE player here, who has been with ArenaNet games since the very beginning!

Now down to business.

I am posting on behalf of my wife, who cannot log in for many days now. She also as a result cannot log into these forums.

Her ticket details are as follows:

ORIGINAL DATE: 09/01/2012 – Priority service requested
Ticket Number: 120902-002853
USERNAME: Nifrodel.6804
ORIGINAL SUBJECT: Unable to log in.

CURRENT SUBJECT: Log-In Blocked – Authentication E-Mails Not Received

Response from Austin, (Which my wife found, in her words “completely useless” and incensed her)

= = =
Hello,

Please try authenticating your email address at this time. If you need additional assistance, let us know.

Thanks,
Austin
NCsoft Account Support
= = =

Unfortunately, this response was not very helpful.

• She cannot receive authentication e-mails
• She has quadruple-checked her spam settings to ensure your emails are not blocked
• There are 2 possible e-mail addresses for this account (available in the ticket history). Please use the one matching her USERNAME – NOT THE OTHER ONE

We are unsure which e-mail address to check, though neither one receives any e-mails from your system. What we want is to have Authentication REMOVED from the account, so that she can log in. Then she can make changes to her password, e-mail address, etc – whatever is necessary to make sure this does not happen again, going forward.

= = =

Subsequent ticket information:

Date: 09/04/2012
Ticket: 120904-002896
Subj: Authentication email not received

Date: 09/03/2012
Ticket: 120903-007676
Subj: Hacked Account (possibility)

Please! We believe you’ve made a great game, but the Customer Service experience is ruining it for your players!

= = =

P.S. – I work as a Quality Control supervisor for a national callcenter internet helpdesk, which services over 70 different companies. I have a decade of experience in CS/Helpdesk, so I know the stress you guys are under! It is, as we say at my company, like ‘juggling monkeys’. I have also helped train literally hundreds of new reps/techs. It seems to me that you may need help training your new CS/HD staff. If you are looking for tips on how to streamline and get your staff through tickets faster and more efficiently, or how to work with your reps if they are having problems, PM ME! I am always available to help share my experience, both in how to work with customers, retain their loyalty, solve their issues quickly and efficiently, and still get through the mountainous queue.