Guild Wars 2

Maybe just me, but wouldn’t just adding a toggle to hide your shoes/boots be easier? I mean, we can toggle our helmet, shoulders, and backpack, so instead of making a pair of invisible shoes, wouldn’t it of just been easier to add a toggle to hide them?

Or maybe it’s just a glitch. /shrug

Yeah, you really need to put something in the title like “NERF PETS!!!!” to get there attention and then trick them into fixing them.

Try saying something like, “It’s totally OP that rangers pets use their hard hitting skill passively. You should nerf those skills so they are now assigned to the rangers f3 button and he is forced to manually use it.”

For an immediate response make sure to post it in the PvP forum. Rangers nerfs that are requested there usually occur in less than 48 hours.

Curtis Johnson.8456:

Bonefield has a pretty good understanding here of why some mix and match is not easy at all. Some armor and clothing combinations are fundamentally not mixable, (for more than just clipping reasons)

I still do not see why you can’t keep the town clothes slots then just count those slots as a single “outfit”? They wouldn’t be mixing with anything else other than town clothes then so where would the problem be if you did this? Is the game really that badly designed where this is not possible?

A few people have had the right ideas. As someone mentioned earlier, there is no need for load of colors or shapes.

SHORT TERM FIX

1.

Gold Tag: Small strike team Captain upto 10 people (2 parties)

Red Tag: Squad commander, upto 30 people consists of upto 3 strike teams (6 parties)

Blue Tag: Main map General/Commander Consists of upto 3 Squads (18 parties)

Green Tag: Guild groups, can consist of the same amount as a Blue Main map commander, but only applicable/visible to member of the Guild you are currently representing.

Colored tags are purchasable NOT earned through rank, earning individual colors through rank, will put off people wanting to take up being/learning to be a commander and turn things into a popularity contest

2. Commander alert system.

3. Improved Supply info/range.

4. Account Bound.

5. Secrecy Chat Channel: for commanders only, which will be able to contact commanders on different maps in order to call for short term back up.

6. Chat Suppression: Not removed completely or it WILL get abused/trolled, but improved alot. although doing the above i mentioned with the tags and squads should eliminate excessive use of other channels apart from squad etc.

7. Ability to make tag invisible to select groups.

LONG TERM FIX

1. A new UI window: Something similar to the guild roster (could also be located there) with multiple party windows, with a drag and drop scenario, to organize parties and class composition. This would also fall in nicely with the Gold/Red/Blue Tag scenario I mentioned in point 1 of the short term fixes.
this is an essential long term goal since you introduced the AoE buffs prioritizing party members, and party organisation is the key to having a strong survivable force behind u.

2. Maybe I could have put this in short term fixes: able to do everything for for squad as u can do for your party, for example: Call targets (to focus damage), see every squad member on map (blue dots) etc etc.

*3. The ability to invite members to squad, AoE invite within range depending on your limit as per your color Tag.

4. Rank Structure of a Blue icon General I have provided an img of how I would like it to work, notice I have placed prices in regards to acquirement, Gold Icons are pretty cheap since they you need more of them and less people under your control. This would also encourage strike teams and roaming.

Isaiah Cartwright.8569:

Seems like people really enjoy answering questions so I’ll throw out a few more.

How big do you expect a squad to be?
What kind of content is a PvE commander most useful?
Is money a good enough gate for commander tags?

The size of a squad?
I think the cap should be 60 or 80. This size allows subunits 3-4 subunits with 20 players if needed.

Content for PvE commander?
I am thinking about Tequatl or certain guild missions where you have to organise/coordinate larger number of players to reach the goal. Also future large-group content with a high degree of coordination as prerequisite would require a commander.

Money as a gate?
I would prefer a kind of meta achievement or tiers of different meta achievements over sheer money as gate/qualification. Money or badges are not good gauges to qualify good commanders. It simply shows your ability to hoard enough currencies in a certain time. It is like buying a driving license with money without lectures and examination. Certain achievements to fulfill would teach the future commanders certain lectures about important aspects in WvW. But it is too late now. Too many people have already the blue sign.

Isaiah Cartwright.8569:

Seems like people really enjoy answering questions so I’ll throw out a few more.

How big do you expect a squad to be?
What kind of content is a PvE commander most useful?
Is money a good enough gate for commander tags?

1. 80ish is estimated to be the biggest blob I’ve seen.
2. Community events like mining runs (daily at 7pm UK time this week starting from Paggas Waypoint – see you there!), raiding southsun Karka Queen, multiple-map epic exploration zergs, Scarlet Invasions, Living World events, etc etc.
3. Well, Badges of Honour make more sense, as you would have to have done some WvW before becoming a commander… but IMO it’s too late to change that now.

With the last 2 in mind, it may be wise to split the commander tag for PvE from the tag for WvW.

What should the commander system aim for?

• It should let people coordinate groups of different sizes on screen and reducing the effectiveness gap between using voice chat and not using it.
• It should give commanders tools to make their jobs easier, and ‘herd cats’.
• It should give commanders options to control the way they can show their emblem and who is in their squad.
• It should let a commander’s experience and career show.
• It should make joining a squad compelling.
• It should not be limited to a guild. Players should be able to join on the fly without representing another guild and become commanders without joining a guild or having some guild permission. But it should also let people in a guild set themselves as commanders for just their guild too.
• It should not require doing both WvW and PvE. If a player wants to be a PvE commander, they should have all their commander and progress their career without ever stepping in WvW, and vice-versa.

Isaiah Cartwright.8569:

[…]

How often do people actually join squads and use the features that are there? (4 different way point markers, /supplyinfo). What would make you join squads more?

• People would probably join squads more often if doing that wasn’t so obscure and there was some extra benefit from it.
  Right-click on the icon doesn’t work on the minimap, only in the world map. And the commander can’t send an AoE squad invite of sorts.
  Being in a squad or not is just the same when in a zerg. Something like a small 5% exp/coin/karma bonus for being in the squad (it’ll could show in an effect icon on the player can see) may help.
  Also, squads are too small. 30 join, and what about the other 20 also following you?

How much is spies a problem with commander system?

• I’ve seen people lying around defeated inside a location more often than anyone that one could say it’s a spy. But this is probably because Baruch Bay is a world with Spanish language and there’s no others with that language. So when someone doesn’t speak, or speak “google translator-ish” they are probably spies, and Baruch is kind of random, having many small guilds doing their thing, or several organized guild zergs that do not show emblems, so it’s hard to keep track of all of us.

Should the commander icon be shown above the commanders head to the commander?

• Not unless there’s an option to hide it from one’s own screen. There’s the effect icon already.

Should we allow a WvW upgrade to see enemy commanders (not on the map just on screen) ?

• No. They’ll become primary targets, and people would start doing silly things like having decoys showing a commander icon while the commander doesn’t. It’ll be a counter-productive mess.

Isaiah Cartwright.8569:

[…]
One of my fav quotes on simplistic design
“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction.” -Albert Einstein

Something simpler that does the same thing is often better.
But you won’t get a laser with a light bulb.
You won’t get a car with just one wheel.
You won’t get scissors with just one blade.
You won’t get a song with just one note.

When simple things are not enough for the task, there’s no other choice but increasing complexity.

If you integrate commander into the WXP system, players who use commander just to organize PvE are instantly left out.
If you integrate it with the guild system, it forces people to make guilds, or join guilds to command, even if they were doing perfectly fine without that, or equire some commander permission that they may not have in all their guilds.

Some sort of ranking lets players have some idea about a player’s experience. But
it’s not like you need a new “exp bar” for commander. Commander could have a rank calculated dynamically with already gathered data such as WvW and world boss achievements.

And it would not hurt to have other stats gathered for both the account and each character. Which could be used by players are reference, to keep character progress (e.g. dungeon paths done, creatures of each type killed, successful events… ), and by you to do things like calculating a commander rank.

DevonCarver.5370:

What if you still acquired the current tag by spending 100g, but you upgraded to new shapes via the WXP system?

I’m not sure I like the idea of a abilities and icon unlock system to be honest. To be a good commander all tools should be available to them. New commanders would be at a disadvantage, and I think it would be difficult to be able to level up after other commanders have the new toys, players would want to follow only the “experienced” commanders.

To be a commander is to be a leader, the tools that come with the commander tag should be bought with the 100g, to be a good commander is to build your reputation, not an xp bar.

In no particular order the current commander system could be vastly improved by simoultaneously adressing some serious issues with it.

1. your message has been supressed…. this needs to seriously lighten up for commanders. As it is we always have to have key team members type in chat due to message supression. Very bad.

2. different color tags – this would greatly improve command functions on the map.

3. squad player limit – needs to be raised significantly, up to 50 or even as high as 100 players.

4. squad UI – commanders need a simple UI to add / remove people from it.

5. visibility or limited tag visibility – currently when we run guild groups for a plethora of obvious and previously stated reasons, we have to basically put a target over the commanders head. As a commander I would love to have an option to be visible only to mu guild, or only to my squad, or both at same time, and no one else on the map. This would also go a long long ways in dealing with spies. We havent had too many of those but a few, and in the current system it is very hard to bypass a spy.

6. merit based tags or customizations – these would be great, based of off players achievements within certain field, for example WvW, PvE, etc. perhaps different shapes, sizes ?

7. account bound commander tags – this would go a very long ways to help us out.

8. running tagless disables commander functions – closely related to point #5, at times we need to run tagless so as not to accidentally pull people from other commanders etc. When that happens, we have zero actual command functionality. It would be nice to at least have command functions available without a visible tag if nothing else is possible on this front.

Isaiah Cartwright.8569:

A lot of awesome ideas here are some questions I’ve been wondering about.

How often do people actually join squads and use the features that are there? (4 different way point markers, /supplyinfo). What would make you join squads more?

The markers take too long to set up and aren’t clear enough. I join them to not see other commanders that are nearby. Supplyinfo, and thanks for that, is not squad based. What would make me join squads more is maybe a commander bonus, seeing a sub-commander to follow incase the main one lags out/gets killed/gets pushed off a ledge.

Also, an easier way than having to try to click the right character, right click, join squad. Perhaps a small window that lists the commanders nearby, or in the map, and being able to join squad from there.

Isaiah Cartwright.8569:

How much is spies a problem with commander system?

HUGE – And I play on Bronze tier, I cannot imagine how big a problem it is in silver and gold. It’s very sad that we get countered non-stop while tagged, but all of a sudden, running tagless gets you almost no resistence and/or it arrives much to late. I suspect an actual hack may be at work when that happens.

Isaiah Cartwright.8569:

Should the commander icon be shown above the commanders head to the commander?

Why not, with the possibility to turn that off you can’t go wrong. But it would help avoid confusion, like sometimes thinking you’re not tagged when you are.

Isaiah Cartwright.8569:

Should we allow a WvW upgrade to see enemy commanders (not on the map just on screen) ?

Won’t that make commanders run tagless at every attack? I think it would be a terrible idea. It would be better to have a warning system instead of a WP that lets you know when an outer wall or gate is taken out or taken down to a certain threshhold (to prevent taps)

DevonCarver.5370:

The commander system provides recognizable guidance in WvW and in PvE for players to follow on the map.

The main issue I have with this is that you spend 100 gold on a recognizable dot.
Most of the people that have a badge don’t even know about the special order waypoints you can use on the map.

The current system doesn’t really support WvW fights. Like commands to people that are in squad but not on VOIP.

I have a commander tag and use it regularly out in WvW and for leading guild missions and scarlet invasions in PvE.

It would be great to have the option to change the color of the tag. This makes it very easy on both the main map and minimap to spot the commander you are looking for when there is more than 1 commander on the map. I have not seen more than 4 commanders in WvW on a single map usually and in PvE I typically see about that when doing invasions. Having 4-6 colors to choose from would be sufficient I believe and add a ton of utility.

In setting up a WvW guild run it is sometime burdensome for members to find my character in the group so they can click on me and then add to my squad. It would be great if like a party invite, commanders could easily select the people on screen and add them to their squad. The commanders seem to be more adept at the UI than the people running with them. I would be fine if some of the squad creation burden was transfered to the commander themself.

In terms of seeing the people around and amount of supply they carry, it would be beneficial to me if there was an optional UI widget where I could see the number of players in a 1200-1500 radius and the amount of supply they have and the UI would update in real time as people come in and out of the commander’s range and as supply is spent. This would make stacking supply checks a thing of the past.

Commander waypoints would be more useful if everyone on the map could see them even if they arent in the commander’s squad. It can still work that if you join a squad that you can only see the commander for whose squad you are in and only their waypoint. Right now I dont use waypoints as it takes too long to add people to your squad and there is relitively little value from having people in your squad right now as things are today.

Lastly, it would be nice to optionally see the people who are members your squad in a simple party UI type view (just by name and profession and not conditions/boons) where the commander and squad can see all the location dots on the main and mini-map. This would also give the commander the ability to kick people from their squad as well. This would be most help in the PvE type events where we are trying to guide guild members around to where we are at for bounties, but cant see where they are to help them. Right now when this happens the commander/leader drops party and picks up the newer player in their party to help and then we have to get everyone back into their former parties when everyone gets to the same location.

I use the commander system for a “come here” identifier on map, a point of morale for the unorganized players on map to see someone is leading, and to do supply info.

What it should do – all of the above plus allow for management of the force you are leading. It should be a tool to support decisions the Commander is making.

Strength, composition, location, logistics status, health, sub leaders are all tactical information I manage through memory and voice communications when it should be provided through a simple heads up display. and allow me to make decisions without having to interact. My voice communication should be free for commands and reports.

Quick fix, long term fix, total wipe- I choose quick fix of up to five small items to increase functionality

1. Differentiate tags using colors- preferably guild emblem if guild emblem is implemented you can have 5 people in a guild tagged and the map knows it is them operating without needing Lieutenant tags.
2. Invisible / private / guild only tags – I do not tag up unless I have a substantial amount of people in teamspeak from my guild on me. I seek success as a team and that happens when I have my team / guild with me.
3. Display the location of my squad and any Lieutenants on mini and main map.
4. Change suppression threshold
5. Hide the commander from the buff bar.

Long term solutions needed
1. A user interface that displays my squad members by name, class and health bar . This directly supports decision making during skirmishes so I know the percentage and structure of my downed / remaining force.
2. squad leaders / sub commanders – I delegate tasks to small teams from the size of 2 to 15. Provide a way for me to segregate them, identify a leader among them and track them on any of the maps. I don’t have to waste time communicating if I can see with my own eyes

Include all of the short term recommendations as well.

I understand that some items like the pirates cannon or the witches broom will get transformed into tonics, but I don’t get why they also wants to transform the gw2 t-shirt and gw2 cap into tonics.

Realism? Well, you can already beat the enemy with a sugar hammer or use a sling instead of a short bow, so why not the t-shirts?

Is your argument, that all the wearable stuff can still be obtainable? F.e. you could still play through gw1 for the armor? Ok, well, then just include the gw2 promo t-shirt and cap into the heroic edition. That way it is still obtainable, still wearable in combat, and you might sell some heroic edition upgrades through the gem store as well.

I would like to join the chorus of those not particularily happy about yet another restriction being applied to a game that delivers visual skins collection as endgame.
I am a roleplayer, but even if i wasn’t i would still be struggling with the reasoning behind so many restrictions to our characters’ appearance.
Different armor classes restrictions (makes sense in pvp, but in pve? not so much), the whole “town clothes out of combat” fiasco etcetera….
Please, would it be so hard to implement something that has been proven as effective in other games such as Lotro?
A nice appearance tab where we can unlock and use all the skins in the game?
In a game where people go to battle using a rubber scimitar and a laser backpack, would it be so immersion breaking to be able to use all the skins i want?
Really?

pet f2’s absolutely need to be insta-cast. why? because the “cast time” is actually equivalent to the pet wobbling over to the target. if it takes it 3 seconds to reach the target, this is the bloody cast time. why do we need to have a SECOND cast time?

Josh Davis.6015:

Thanks for the lists, folks. Sent a bunch of these off to the team.

Cool thanks.

Considering Quality Assurance is your job, force them to play Ranger as a main character for a month. It shouldn’t take them long to fix everything.

many ideas were thrown to anet, and yet most of them fell to deaf ears……

Why bother defending and laying seige to begin with. Game favors offense, defense will only frustrate the hell outta ya.

Go hit someone , you will feel better.

New bug since the patch. When you try to use siege equipment in certain locations, usually on the ledge of a tower wall, it will give the error message in the title, and you cannot do anything from that point on. You cannot fire the siege, you cannot get off the siege, you cannot use any of your skills. You are just locked in place useless.

The only escape I know of is to waypoint or logout and in.

This has happened at least half a dozen times alone since the patch, it is very annoying and needs addressing quickly.

BrimstoneAshe.5043:

I dont think he meant a good thief can kill 6 people. I think he meant more a good thief can tie up 6 people. In this case, the thief didnt kill anyone, but he did distract them and pulled them off their course temporarily.

First he said a good thief could keep a group like his tied up for hours. Then he said a good thief could kill 5 or 6 if they don’t know how to handle thieves. Then, he gave his advice to deal with good thieves which was to “just move on.”

That is basically an acknowledgement that the stealth and porting available to a thief is ridiculous in this game coming straight from the developers but they seem to be just perfectly fine with.

Official Anet stance on fighting good thieves: “Just move on, you aren’t going to kill them”

Brilliant.

Here is his advice on dealing with good thieves from the stream:

He says a good thief can kill 6 people who don’t know how to deal with them. He then gives his advice on how his small group deals with a good thief and the advice is basically “Just move on. You aren’t going to kill him.”

Brilliant. And that is coming from developers.

Go to the 22m30s mark.

I having more troubles figuring out was has changed as to opposed to what is missing.

I have no clue how this living story works and it appears to add nothing more than themed dynamic events, I have no clue where this story is or what its about… and every NPC is useless.

As mentioned in several developer posts and blogs on the site, Frost & Flame will be running down it’s course soon enough and many many many things will be removed in conjunction with it to make room for the next saga being made.

- Dynamic Events (Steam Vents, Village Raids, Portal Invasion) are being removed.
- Molten Facilities dungeon is being removed.
- Refugees and events related are being removed.

So I’m curious, with this ideal from A-Net wanting to make the events feel like it’s “Changing Tyria” I would like to know…. What -IS- staying? Besides the obvious ego-points that are achievements, what is staying in the world of Tyria forever to mark that the era of Frost & Flame has came and passed? Things like this shouldn’t be swept under a rug and forgotten, what will always be reminders for us?

lordkrall.7241:

So you basically want the living story to not be a living story but simply adding more and more and more and more and more stuff on top of each other?

Actually, yes. A ‘Living’ story implies growth in the overall amount of content. What’s truly needed is a combination of the temporary events, and actual, permanant content related to it.

At the very least, it would be nice to have Rox and Braham continue to exist as wandering NPCs in their home cities. Talking to them would provide the options to a) Get a synopsis of the whole Flame and Frost event, so players new to the game can learn about it long after the event), b) Get sent to a version of the Cragstead or Hatchery instances (with the content edited to show that this is a similar visit, not the initial one from the actual event—the idea is that this is yet another similar attack by leftovers from the event), and c) Get sent to a Molten Factory dungeon instance (again edited somewhat to explain that this is another Factory that had been found).
Given that all the code and assets already exist (the functions I’m thinking of were in the SAB, after all), this would be a great way to keep the content in the game.

After those months with the “living story” all that remains is the big hope for a normal big expansion for real money. The first month hat nothing, neither “living” nor “story” just some signs to hit. The second month had again big words from Colin but neither much “living” nor “story” as well. Running around and grind some here and there, but where was something worth calling “story” anyway?

The third month Rox and Braham appeared and some small instances (15 minutes of fun) and yes, some story as well. Finally there was hope for the system. We had perhaps an hour of joy – not the scale Colin never ceases to advertise loudly, but hey, it was the most near to those promises made by ArenaNet for the living story that far.

Now we have the fourth month of promises. “Never seen before challenge” … really, we fight country shaking dragons. Such a puny shaman is most definately not “never seen before”. The dungeon is fun, no doubt, but the story around it, those bits of story offered to us is shale, mediocre, name it.

After four months of “living story” I say: cease it, stop it, it’s not worth the time. Give us a real expansion with stuff to explore, story which is worth to read and hear, dungeons and more and we will gladly pay for it. Not this cheap stuff you guys offered since release. No Colin, it’s not great, unseen before or better than all other game out there. Most MMOs I played offered better stuff for free than this living story. Really.

I still love the game, but for all it had on release day. After that… I would not pay a cent for it. And yes I am still playing

Way back when Colin told us that to keep the game world feeling fresh, we would see a constant influx of new events across the game world, with the prediction that by the end of year one, we would have two to three times as many DEs in the world as we had at launch. Now, we are eight months in and not only has none of that materialized, but there are still events in game that have been broken since launch that have not been fixed or replaced.

It seems that this living story thing was what we got instead of a concentrated effort on DE development. I’m sorry, but the Living Story is just a big smoke and mirror show to try to mask how little actual content addition the game world has seen since launch!

Shelve the entire LS concept and get back to work on what was originally promised. GW2 has a massive, beautiful game world and level scaling allows players more and more access to that content as they level up. What holds the game back is the concentration of DEs being appropriate only in low level zones AND the staleness of a “living game world” where “dynamic events” have failed to evolve.

One small update per month didn’t make this story feel to alive. More like stale story.