Guild Wars 2

Ronah.2869:

Sociopolitical Diversification

Guild Halls

- Guild Halls should be accessible through an UI icon similar to PvP, WvW, TP, etc.

- Getting back to the place in the open world where you were should be done through the same UI icon
(Note: The same Ion should be found in |G| window for those who want to accesses it from there)

- The guild hall UI Icon will be available only if the character represents the guild (guild-less characters won’t have that button in their UI)

- Guild Halls should be instanced zones or various architecture

- Guild Halls zones should evolve in time depending on the guild influence, merits, points etc accumulated totally by it.
( I am not a fan of donating because this will force guilds on arguing of what is more important: banners or guild donations?. It should be automatically evolved once you get to certain amount of points similar to the achievement system: you unlock things the more you gather and it should count the total amount w/o extracting the usages of influence points

- Statues:
I would like to have a place in the Guild Hall where I could see Statues of the characters that have done the most for the guild, calculating the influence earned
it will be a sort of the Top 10 Players list only we can see statues of the last character the player has played.
The Statues will be updated every time the players logs off with the respective character he has been on and the Top 10 will be updated every week counting the activity of the last week (This will give the possibility that new guild members can be in Top 10 if they played more then old guild members)

Also regarding the statues, there should be one permanent statue of the Guild Founder so every one will know who is the founder of the guild.

- Trophies. These are items that can be displayed in some palce in the Guild Hall and they are earned by playing guild activities. They are like Guild Ranks and if we compare it with the WvW ranks, we can see a rabbit, a dolyack, etc

- Guild Halls should contain all services available in the game bank, crafting, merchants, etc.

- You should be able to receive a temporary guild invite to any number of guilds to be able to visit their Guild Hall. The invite will be shown in the Guild Window under the current guilds in a guest category

Housing

- I like Open World housing and not instanced based. I like to see player cities evolving. Zones like WvW maps only called sectors which can be accessed through UI icon
- the UI icon is available to every character
- the player houses will be account bound and it will reflect the players activity through all his/her characters
( the houses will have racial rooms in it and they will vary in aria depending on how many characters of that specific race the account has.)
expl.
if an account has 1 character of each race, the house will have 5 rooms of similar aria decorated in racial style.
if an account has 1 character the house will have 5 rooms but only one will be decorated because the account has 5 default character slots
if an account has more then 5 characters then the racial rooms will be larger depending on what race has more characters. NOTE: for each character slot added to the account over the default 5, the house aria will grow with 10 % meaning that if an account will have 64 character the house will be 640% larger

- players will buy a house space and a house model. When the existing land will be finished, A-Net would release a new similar zone. So the player city will have Sector 1,2,3,4 …. 100,… etc
Later, they can add new house models which can be purchased from a cash shop item called "House make over kit "

Some Awesome ideas in here Ronah!

Chris

Malchior.5042:

Thanks Chris! Good to know it’s on the radar, perhaps even being worked on as we speak

. (-:

Chris

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Malchior.5042:

Shongaqu.5279:

Malchior.5042:

Hero Recognition based on Order choice, Player Housing, Guild Halls, etc…that could branch into further Diversification and Performance through new skills, events, challenges, etc…

So based on the above mix of Chris’ original categories, I’d say Hero Recognition/Sociopolitical development could set a solid framework for the different skills, events, and challenges that we’re all eager to see as well.

Are you thinking PvE skills like we saw in GW1? or something else? new weaopns based on faction even?

example faction system with necro that has attained mid rank

• Great Sword for Vigil
• Scythe for Order of Whispers
• Chakra Guides for Priory
  all three would be melee AOE type weapons but do differnt things GS is power based, Scythe is Siphon based, CG is conditon based. depending on what weapon you want to be trained in you chose a faction to gain rep with. Ultimalty you can unlock all of them. Add token buffs like the Kiel/Evon ones to WvW for your faction so everyon can work towards it regardles of game type. Make them unlocked in SPvP for free.

Just sort of going down a rabbit hole with this…

For GW 2, I don’t think PvE skills would be a bad thing. WvW has their specific skills through rank upgrades. PvE should get similar. It’s very important; however, that said new skills are not imbalanced against the existing skills, and even more important that new, difficult, challenging content is introduced that could be alleviated partially by the use of new PvE skills.

The bold is going to be the difficult part. Players have blown expectations out of the water with stacking, combos, killing Lupicus in seconds, etc…If Arenanet truly wants to create challenge, they will essentially have to kill the existing builds or curb their power down to make any new content feel challenging enough.

I wouldn’t do this through nerfs to any existing skills, but instead, I would give all new bosses in metas or dungeons an “armored” buff (non-strippable) that reduced critical damage by a flat percent. This would greatly reduce the current strength of Berserkers, but still be possible to keep that strength high if players could stack Vulnerability. (the existing % debuff).

Some good points here. I would however disagree about challenge.

I think since launch we have introduced some challenging content for example, Fractals, the Gauntlet, Kite City, and Teq. I love the fact that challenge can come from many different areas and I agree with your point that GW2 does indeed have a high skill ceiling. The challenge for us is not to make the ceiling higher but to work within it and use all of the variables within it to create new challenges.

Chris

Also note I do agree that we need to continue to balance some build paradigms. Specifically support and crit. We have been working extensively on this toward the end of 2013 and will continue to do so.

Chris.

Malchior.5042:

Shongaqu.5279:

Malchior.5042:

Hero Recognition based on Order choice, Player Housing, Guild Halls, etc…that could branch into further Diversification and Performance through new skills, events, challenges, etc…

So based on the above mix of Chris’ original categories, I’d say Hero Recognition/Sociopolitical development could set a solid framework for the different skills, events, and challenges that we’re all eager to see as well.

Are you thinking PvE skills like we saw in GW1? or something else? new weaopns based on faction even?

example faction system with necro that has attained mid rank

• Great Sword for Vigil
• Scythe for Order of Whispers
• Chakra Guides for Priory
  all three would be melee AOE type weapons but do differnt things GS is power based, Scythe is Siphon based, CG is conditon based. depending on what weapon you want to be trained in you chose a faction to gain rep with. Ultimalty you can unlock all of them. Add token buffs like the Kiel/Evon ones to WvW for your faction so everyon can work towards it regardles of game type. Make them unlocked in SPvP for free.

Just sort of going down a rabbit hole with this…

For GW 2, I don’t think PvE skills would be a bad thing. WvW has their specific skills through rank upgrades. PvE should get similar. It’s very important; however, that said new skills are not imbalanced against the existing skills, and even more important that new, difficult, challenging content is introduced that could be alleviated partially by the use of new PvE skills.

The bold is going to be the difficult part. Players have blown expectations out of the water with stacking, combos, killing Lupicus in seconds, etc…If Arenanet truly wants to create challenge, they will essentially have to kill the existing builds or curb their power down to make any new content feel challenging enough.

I wouldn’t do this through nerfs to any existing skills, but instead, I would give all new bosses in metas or dungeons an “armored” buff (non-strippable) that reduced critical damage by a flat percent. This would greatly reduce the current strength of Berserkers, but still be possible to keep that strength high if players could stack Vulnerability. (the existing % debuff).

Some good points here. I would however disagree about challenge.

I think since launch we have introduced some challenging content for example, Fractals, the Gauntlet, Kite City, and Teq. I love the fact that challenge can come from many different areas and I agree with your point that GW2 does indeed have a high skill ceiling. The challenge for us is not to make the ceiling higher but to work within it and use all of the variables within it to create new challenges.

Chris

VOLKON.1290:

Sytherek.7689:

Role diversification.

I’m not that interested in player housing; it has no actual gameplay.

Role diversification adds to gameplay.

I disagree. Halls and Homes can add quite a bit to game play by giving people specific goals to work for. People may be drawn to areas hey normally don’t frequent for needed materials both mundane and exotic. Events could be created that tie into this as well. So to say is has no actual game play… I think the actual game play it provides could become quite extensive.

Agreed. It could also lead to new gameplay opportunities such as events, tasks, adventures and much more.

Chris

VOLKON.1290:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

VOLKON.1290:

-snip-

I love reading your ideas, but they make my head hurt sometimes. XD

There is the possibility of offering too many options to players too. Devs have to balance between underwhelming and overwhelming, and having huge varieties of ‘what if’ options could potentially be extremely overwhelming.

I’d rather be overwhelmed than underwhelmed. If overwhelmed, you can always catch your breath and get caught up.

Overwhelmed during the ‘Casting of the Net’ phase is awesome because we as a group will help to refine and reduce the ideas.

Chris

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

My number one would be “Zone Progression” / “Order Progression”

Something that gives players a purpose to explore the zones.

• A lot of people miss quests, my main guess why this is the case is: they miss stories. Dynamic Events are cyclical in nature, so those stories have no real end – climax if you want. Time to give your writers something more to do and let them design unique events.
• even the most simple idea could make people exited. Today I leveled in Kessex Hills when I saw a bear walking alongside a skritt. Awesome I thought… until I found out that I can’t interact with that npc at all; it’s just a guild mission boss. Why not spawn such rare characters (dozen of them, but rare spawns) in the open world, give them a loottable and a few interesting dialogue-options or even a small event associated.

Fill the existing maps with tons of things to do. I mean: tons and tons of things. And may these be just little things… the world has to feel more alive.

…and then combine this with progression. The more people find, the more they unlock. And the more they can unlock for others (in the sense of triggering new events).

summary: progression in specific zones via a huge variety of things to do (something for everyone – fighters, explorers, collectors, lore-lovers, treasure hunters,…………

People should have some goals for each of the zones. Not for the world in general (Legendary – mats from everywhere). Zelda reference: the Master Sword is in the Lost Woods, not everywhere in Hyrule.

This idea makes me excited, it could also tie into nearly every Horizontal Progression idea that has been put forward in this CDI.

It is just a good global ongoing goal to have, and one I think we have been doing but dependent on priorities could do a lot more of, especially from the point of view of using/evolving the Map Completion Meta Game system.

Chris

Louveepine.7630:

It’s ugly to ask us that…

Chris Whiteside preference # 3 in my version.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/3407529

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

Sorry )-: but it will prove to be super useful though I think Louveepine.

Chris

TheDaiBish.9735:

How specific are you looking for when we’re choosing our one?

Would ‘Expanding Ascended Gear’ count as one, for example, even though this could include:

• Giving different play modes the chance to Ascend Exotics (granted, this is Vertical) to not force people into crafting.
• Giving players the chance to unlock stats and upgrades on a single set of armour in a way unique to that play-mode.

Absolutely as long as the macro level design also included information about the more micro level of design you included in your post.

Chris

Shongaqu.5279:

Sociopolitical Diverification! Adding more ways for players to invest their characters in the world of Tyria is always welcome.

I am curious what sort of rough cost difference there is between implementing open world housing vs instanced housing.
I really like the idea of open world housing, but I am curious if everyone else feels it would add to their investment in Tyria?

Hi Shongaqu,

The cost difference between open and instanced housing is mainly on the technical side which in turn has a HUGE amount of design Considerations/Ramifications.

Hope this helps,

Chris

jheryn.8390:

If I had to pick one of my three I posted before, it would be:

New Permanent Zones.

New zones would give us more JP’s, events, new creatures, and terrain to explore. Many people would like to see old GW1 areas opened up and I would agree with that 100%.

Note it doesn’t have to be from the original list that the poster (you) generated. It could be from anyone’s.

Chris

Sirendor.1394:

Do devs have stealthbumps too? o-O

Hehe (-:

Hi All,

Happy New Year! Thanks for being so patient with me. Regarding other dev’s posting during this period it is unlikely as it is the holiday period and I don’t expect them to emulate my behavior.

Note this CDI will only end when we are happy for it to do so ( and by we I mean all of us).

I am up to date with all the posts, thanks for all hard work, ideation, and discussion.

We are in the process of pulling the net in now and so I am going to ask you all to do something very difficult now (As in you won’t feel comfortable doing it). Previously I asked you to name your top three ideas. You did, and then everyone discussed them which led to a refocusing of many of your ideas and the birth of some new ones.

What I would like us to do is pick ONE idea that you would hold above all others as it relates to the community as a whole. Note I to found this very difficult but my one is blow. Also note I consider Wardrobe to be QOL, however any Wardrobe ideas that are Systemic or build on existing mechanics can be included.

Please also understand this is not a vote that leads to development, this is part of the ideation process. I would recommend looking at ideas that are built on existing systems or mechanics within the game. This is a nice to have however. Many have mentioned giving info on the relative weight of each idea that is put forward, we should do this after this phase but to be honest (having given it a lot of thought) I wouldn’t want to see this weighting get in the way of great ideas.

Remember at the end of the day we are not going to give details on what is in dev or what we plan to build. We will talk about what we like however and thus knowing details about Feature Cost is interesting to know but should not be something that inadvertently hampers the CDI or your ideas.

My original three were:

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

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

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

And my top one is:

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

The other two were extremely close but I feel this one would have the best bang for buck for the community.

Finally note we are working on horizontal progression, with many of ideas (some of which may even be in this thread), so I can’t stress enough that this exercise is about further ideation focus refinement. Not a dev list.

Chris

Link to various summaries collated by Lost Witch:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Summaries/first#post3442156

Chris

The Lost Witch.7601:

Sirendor.1394:

Very nice. Hope this helps the developers in doing something.

I hope so too!

(Stealthbump)

Bump.

Chris

Happy New Year All!

Chris

Happy New Year All!

Chris

Morrigan.2809:

Happy holidays Chris and everyone at Anet.

Thank you very much for your input and for giving us a CDI in the first place- your investment and your passion for the game makes me look to the future with great excitement because I think something truly unique can come from it.

All the best wishes to you and the team

oh and a small qol thingy- can we have a slot for mini pets?

have a nice time with your families!

You to Morrigan and thanks to everyone for their contribution. 2014 is going to be amazing.

Chris

Malchior.5042:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

Happy New Year @Chris, other devs who read this and you guys! I haven’t seen such a dedication to a game from any other company so far, it doesn’t feel that Guild Wars is only a job for you, but your passion as well.

I’m not sure if others at Anet feel like you do, I have to say thank you for being this link to you guys. I’m looking forward to the following discussion about our brainstorming. All the best to you and your family.

<Big Hugs> to you Marcus and to all the fellow Collaborators. Thanks for being part of this initiative and making GW2 the very best it can be.

And in answer to your question the guys and girls at work are just as passionate as me if not more (-:

Chris

P.S: I crafted my first piece of Ascended on Live yesterday!

Weapon or armor?

Weapon, Greatsword, Tonn’s, Transmuted to Greatsaw……incoming PVT Flame (-:

Chris

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

Happy New Year @Chris, other devs who read this and you guys! I haven’t seen such a dedication to a game from any other company so far, it doesn’t feel that Guild Wars is only a job for you, but your passion as well.

I’m not sure if others at Anet feel like you do, I have to say thank you for being this link to you guys. I’m looking forward to the following discussion about our brainstorming. All the best to you and your family.

Moshari.8570:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Hi All,

Quick update. I will be afk for 2 days for family celebrations.

Let’s continue to here the communities top 3 lists and discuss ideas and then on the 1st Jan we can put some proposals together and dive into the specifics.

Chris

Have a Happy new year!

Happy New Year Moshari and a Happy New Year to you all!

Chris

Hi All,

Quick update. I will be afk for 2 days for family celebrations.

Let’s continue to here the communities top 3 lists and discuss ideas and then on the 1st Jan we can put some proposals together and dive into the specifics.

Chris

EnerG.2571:

I hope I am still on time for my top 3:

1. Upgradable items (weapons and armor); think fractalcapacitor 3 stage back item. Now think volcanus, stage 1; to make it ascended, stage 2; red linen cloth on handle, stage 3: get a shiny firy meteor on the swords hild.

The same 3 stages with for example the fractal gs (shiny effect at stage 3, the blue linen vandels at stage 2 and ascended at stage 1)

I could go all day with these ideas. As well as armor this would be a
really pretty and awesome addition.

2. Legendary dyes and being able to use a “brush” to really get your own Unique color scheme on armor and if possible on items as well..

3. Swithcing to a second, trait and armor set without using more inventory space.

Chris, I hope you could take a serious look at at least my number 1. It would be a really awesome implementation.

Hope you had a lovely few days off, almost off to the new year!

Kind regards,

Mesmatiks

Yep still plenty of time for top 3 posts.

Chris

Khunvyel.3972:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

The topic will be open until at least Jan 6th and probably longer.
The next CDI topic will be a CDI process evolution thread.
The CDI will carry for as long as it is valuable to GW2.
I am able to weight relative feature cost for us when it is appropriate to do so in the thread.
Chris

First off, thank you for the blazing fast answer, this further reinforces the feeling that you guys are actually keeping watch over this constantly and should serve as a healthy reminder to anyone of; “even if devs don’t reply to you, it doesn’t mean they haven’t read it.”

The two bolded things are very intriguing to me. If the CDI is going to continue for the coming months, as it seems, and perhaps years (perhaps not in the current abundance) then I am extra curious to know if we would be getting any estimate of “okay, we’re working on this now” or if we are getting our surprise patch along the way

It is also really great to know that you mentioned yourself as being the one who has enough weight to start getting the things mentioned rolling.To me, this is about the most valuable piece of information posted.
It proves someone who sits on a power lever is interacting with us actively, and not just someone who is “proposing things”.
Please do not take this as a hidden insult, I meant none. You know, even though your title is “Studio Design Director” – and titles can be fancy at that – it was no direct indication of how much decision power you have.

But with this very statement of yours, the future for GW2 just got a lot brighter
Cheers, Mr. Whiteside. I guess I’ll be digging up the pages of notes which have been accumulated in the past months to get more active, because now is the time again where I get the feeling that things can get done, finally.

Thanks for your reply.

To be clear:

I am able to weight relative feature cost for us when it is appropriate to do so in the thread.

This sentence refers to the fact that I am able to give you rough weighting estimates on how expensive a feature is in terms of relationships to other features. The CDI is absolutely not about going into scheduling details or any info that would be subject to change during the development of the game.

I just want to make that clear. This said I also want to make it clear that the CDI has a huge impact on the game through evolution of design philosophy and information from the community.

Finally there was huge impact from the community prior to the CDI as we always read this forum and many others.

I hope this helps in terms of a little more info. Ultimately the team makes decisions based on the info they have and the CDI provides very valuable info.

Chris

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

We are getting close to the formulate section of the thread now and you will see more opinion and metric based discussion from me and everyone else.

Chris

This really gets me excited Chris, I think we need a bit more direction from you devs what works and doesn’t work for you in order to develop good ideas together.

Honestly I think everyone is doing great. This has been the most professional CDI thus far.

Chris

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

So without a reply from a dev on the idea of zone progression, I try to evolve this idea since I think it is against the design decision of an ever changing world.

Zone progression might be too static. It’s always the same. Maybe it would be more in Anets spirit to make this zone progression more dynamic and bind it to factions on the world, who move around.

Think of it like this: There are small parties of npcs who represent a faction and move around in the world (It’s a bit like Nicolas the Traveller). Possible tasks in order to progress:

A group of Kodan advanced to snowden drifts

• a Kodan scout is missing – try to find him in (Jumping Puzzle xy)
• 15 members of the group tried to help local folks (15 different standard events in that zone have Kodan). Find them, help them and lead them back to the group.
• A Kodan scientist looks for critters to find out if there are signs of corruption. Find and collect 15 different critters.
• The camp needs supply from local surroundings, find and gather 25 wood/ore/herbs from that zone.
• A Kodan wants to trade his rare (random rare or exotic+) items with you, but he want’s an other rare item in return. It’s a rare artifact which only drops from certain mobs in that area. Find such an artifact and you might choose one of three rare (+) items in return (all of them have a Kodan-theme).
• Visit 6 Kodan scouts. They watch over half of the vistas on the map. Find them.

Now after 1 week the group moves to a new zone, but the progression isn’t lost for you. All the above objectives stay exactly the same in the new zone: Find and do a jumping puzzle, find and do 15 unique events,… . If you follow the faction and help them in their endevors, you’ll progress and unlock new exiting faction-specific rewards.

Basically it’s dynamic quests.

No new content, instead Anet uses already existing content to experience it in a new form.

Hi Marcus,

I think the idea of zone progression is quite interesting. Please don’t think that just because an idea doesn’t get a reply from a dev that we don’t like it. The CDI is a collaborative initiative. Much of what I do is read and learn and formulate.

We are getting close to the formulate section of the thread now and you will see more opinion and metric based discussion from me and everyone else.

Personally I love seeing you guys brainstorm and discuss design, that in of itself is super useful to GW2 moving forward.

Chris

Khunvyel.3972:

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

Anet once stated in an earlier interview, that it’s more likely to add more weapons to current professions than adding another profession. I like this decision because this means I don’t have to level up another character but instead get more depth to my current characters.

I’m going to look for the source for you.
Edit: source: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Weapons-before-Professions/first#post2426745

Oh don’t worry, I remember this. I reply to you that if they add weapons, then they are going to fit the theme of the profession more than anything else. The Warrior has currently the biggest ar…se…nal (( seriously, forum admins, do your homework of censored words, this is ridiculous)) of smashies right now, so if anything, it is going to be other professions who are getting more weapons unlocked first. Also, by saying “new weapons” it doesn’t necessarily mean “previously locked weapons accessible.” I could totally think of new weapons finding their way into the game, let’s say, while the Warrior gets a Greataxe and a Crossbow, other professions get more than two weapons added/unlocked, while Engineer and Elementalist might only get one, due to their inherent profession nature.

Without wanting to play the devil’s advocate here, but I stopped believing in any earlier interviews as many of those became not really accountable any more, because since then and launch there was so much change, and we all remember the flak ArenaNet had to take from the players for “breaking promises in earlier statements.” I believe it when it goes live.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

I want to emphasize this:

Anet

It can’t be something that when players run out of things to do we give them more challenges that they need to grind out to do and that add another 100 hours to the game.

It’s pretty clear that Anet is against some of our ideas here.

It is pretty clear, that ArenaNet was against their OWN ideas. Or maybe it wasn’t ArenaNet who shafted them. °wink wink nudge nudge°

At any rate, not wanting to continue idle banter but putting something more constructive into the topic;

Mr. Whiteside, is there any estimate when this topic will be closed, which CDI is going to be next, how many are there still to come, and can you already mention what your plans are to inform us about the brainstorming you had in-house?
Is there any chance we can get related coders on board to answer the likelihood and difficulty of implementation to the highest ranked suggestions?

Thank you

Hi Khunvyel,

The topic will be open until at least Jan 6th and probably longer.

The next CDI topic will be a CDI process evolution thread.

The CDI will carry for as long as it is valuable to GW2.

I am able to weight relative feature cost for us when it is appropriate to do so in the thread.

Chris

Orpheal.8263:

@ the Devs:

After seeing now, that the thread has quickly turned now into a disccusion around only everybodies Top 3 suggestions and Chris self saying, what is at the moment his personal own Top 3, I ask myself here…
Should I still make further with my Summaries? I’ve made so far Summaries from Page 1-8.

Already within these 8 pages are tons of people, which suggested again and again x times the same things, more or less in the same context very often.

I’d like to know now, if this CDI discussion here now focusses already now more only onto the Top 3 discussion, or if people want to see more summaries of the missing pages?
Because basically we have made together already so many great suggestions, that I think, all this stuff together could hold the Devs busy like until 2016 or longer xD
—-

With Chris having told us his current Top 3 I think this thread has now shifted into a direction, where people don’t care anymore, if more summaries are made. People are now focused on these 3 things, because everybody looks now only on these 3 topics where Chris has mostly his eyes on at the moment, to the point, that people make also directly disappointed conclusions, that thigns they have suggested won’t find their ways into the game, only because Chris hasn’t mentioned them in his Top 3.
—-

Honestly, I already also think, this thread has grown already again too big. I want to say – again. I think it is very important for futurous CDI’s that the managment of them gets better in keeping the threads as compact as possible, because it makes it very hard to keep everythign overvieweable, the larger the thread gets.

To come to an end, I my self naturally want to let you devs also know my own personal Top 3 of this thread’s suggestions:

1) Sub Classes
2) Housing/Reuse of Hall of Monuments
3) New Weapons and Class Specific interactive “Tools”

New Weapons like Great Axes, Halberds/Lances, Whips, Claws, Flails, Quarterstaffs, Crossbows

Class Specific Tools (Idea based on the Wild Arms Games)
Thiefs for example could get Basic Tools like: Grappling Hooks, Throwing Stars and Stealth Manteaus. Each Sub Class then again could add a Sub Class specific 4th Tool.

Rogue > Key Ring
Saboteur > EMP Grenades
Infiltrator > Trap Disabling Kit

These 3 things would improve alot of Role Diversification and Housing would add alot of Social Aspects into the Game.

Hi Orpheal,

First of all thanks for your hard work. Doing summaries is time consuming work and with the addition of the 3 priority focus I would suggest that you could stop. It is up to you however.

Chris

VOLKON.1290:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

videoboy.4162:

Khunvyel.3972:

I let the flamesticks poke me into oblivion for saying;

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

°bracing°

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

Are you willing to share, Chris?

Hi Videoboy,

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

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

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

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

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

Chris

Any thoughts on tinkering ? I think it could fit in the second nicely.

Yep I agree Tinkering would indeed work well for 2.

Chris

AlanaTheStrange.1463:

I made a tally with numbers, but some things are grouped into other things. I tried my best to make “umbrella” categories (up to Zone.1275’s post):

Weapon Skills 34
Quests/Order Missions 33
Homes 28
New Skills 24
PvE Skin Locker 23
Faction Reputation/Titles 21
Character Customization 20
Guild Halls 19
Personality System 18
Armor Sets (non-gem-store) 16
Hard Mode/Elite Missions 10
Lore 9
Legendary Dye 6
Mini Slot/Improvements 6
Mounts 3
Skinning Modularity 3
Dyeable Weapons 3
Legendary Skins 2
Monster Arena 2
Fishing 2
Modular World 1
Dungeon Achievements 1
Sub-Classes 1
Town Clothes 1
———————————————————————————————————————-
Edit: There were a few additional things voted up, but they didn’t seem like horizontal ideas (I recall a few of them from the vertical thread) but here they are as well:

Stat Swapping 6
More Account-Binding vs Soul-Binding 4
Progressive Items 1
Rewards for Consistency 1
Permanent Content 1
PvP Balancing 1

Many thanks Alana and Orpheal and everyone who has been supporting the thread.

Chris

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Morning/Afternoon All,

Lots of ideas and discussion. I think it would be useful now to list your top three favorite ideas with either a link to your favorite description of that idea in the thread or a single sentence description of your own.

Let’s start to refine the ideas, filter and reduce them down the core of what makes them great in your opinion.

Chris

Bump. Anymore top three lists folks?

Chris

StriderShinryu.6923:

Dominus.2360:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

I certainly think that Wardrobe is a very important QOL improvement for Horizontal Progression if that makes sense?

Chris

I think it can or should be more than just a ‘QoL-Improvement’.

That’s an interesting perspective, and I can’t say that I disagree.

At the very least, GW2 does need a proper cosmetic system (if even for nothing other than storage, though more would obviously be better) because any appearance based goals put into the game at this point are tripped up right out of the gate by the lack of one. That’s why I personally put it forward as more of a sister goal to horizontal progression. Horizontal progression, regardless of the exact implementation, needs a cosmetic system if even some of the associated rewards/goals are going to be cosmetic based. But, I wasn’t really viewing the cosmetics as something of a goal of it’s own. Perhaps that could be a perfectly valid “end game” for GW2. It certainly does fit the originally stated goals that ANet put forward.

Agreed I see it as supporting functionality to existing systems. This said it could be designed in such a way that it builds on the gameplay.

Chris

Dominus.2360:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

I certainly think that Wardrobe is a very important QOL improvement for Horizontal Progression if that makes sense?

Chris

I think it can or should be more than just a ‘QoL-Improvement’. Every MMO has or should have some kind of ‘core’, something outstanding compared to other MMOs, and that’s what GW2 is lacking right now. You maybe remember the GW2-Manifesto, where it was said that GW2 should have no grind; a lot of players interpreted this the way it used to be in GW1 – that BiS gear is something very easy to achieve. It turned out that this is not the case, or at least it’s not as easy as it was in GW1 (ascended didn’t really help in this topic).

Maybe this is the holy Guild Wars (2?) grail: That it’s all about collecting skins. You maybe remember how people farmed “Gate of Anguish”, and it was bascially only for skins (of course, some people farmed for gold, but they only obtained it by selling the skins to others). I’m sure you could do something like that again. To make collecting skins the ‘endgame’. That grind (in opposite to many other MMOs) means not to farm for better stats, but that grind (and sometimes non-grind-content too) mean to collect stats. What’s the very cool thing about it? It’s very casual friendly since hardcore players don’t have any kind of advantage in stats; they just “look better”.

So yeah, maybe it’s “just” a wardrobe, but I think you could go even further and make some kind of ‘unlock-system’ that allows the player to switch skins without wasting any inventory space or having to mind about stats.

Hi Dominus,

I don’t think the idea is ‘Just’ a Wardrobe. I think it is supporting functionality to an existing system (Skin Collection) that I would like to see expanded upon (Personal Opinion).

I think a lot of play could also come out of Wardrobe functionality. However I wanted to keep my list to 3 macro ideas and I believe Wardrobe would potentially compliment/support them.

Chris

Chrispy.5641:

AlanaTheStrange.1463:

…List….

Nice List!

Agreed. Super helpful.

Chris

Donari.5237:

Oh dear, Chris. You didn’t mention a skin locker or other skin management system. Perhaps that can be a swift change to your list?

Here are my clothes-horse necro’s bags, with all the different looks of boots and coats and skirts sorted out by type of garment and then from least to most coverage (those looking for Winged gloves and boots, they are on her to complement her Ascended coat/skirt). I also have over 4 bank tabs full of skins and dyes waiting for the right alt to receive them. Oh, how I’d rejoice to turn all that into a locker and free up the space for other things! I can’t even take her dungeoning because 20 free slots fill up too fast.

Hi Donari,

I certainly think that Wardrobe is a very important QOL improvement for Horizontal Progression if that makes sense?

Chris

Let’s give folks a little more time to post their top three. Once it’s clear we have the majority of the collaborators favorite ideas we can discuss the pros and cons of the ideas and also discuss (as requested) the ballpark ‘cost’ of each feature vs. the priority the group would attach to each.

Chris

Conner.4702:

Shadow Blade.1324:

i remember you guys talking about endgame horizontal progression before maybe look at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIExN1GZK_Q
that lasted what 2 months? how long will anything from this cdi last? before you nerf it and promote gold farming for “economic reasons”

given the treatment of the vertical component of this discussion where inconvenient commonly discussed points were flat out ignored, and the most common dev posts were a variation of “im really busy with the holidays will read/reply later” its clear this will be marginalized with a token feature and “we listened to your feedback” when you introduce more unpopular changes.

many of the proposals in this thread have been discussed again and again over the last year
and you guys are always reading the forum’s right?, so its not like its new information, you have not taken action so far, we should believe you will now why exactly? your track record isn’t exactly good at this point, its not even average.

at this point i think this has degenerated into a PR exercise and you wont actually do anything substantial, so im no longer interested in taking you through game design basics you should already know.

Sadly this is how I see it at the moment. I do not feel this initiative is serious no matter how many times it is said to be taken serious. Simply because the actions do not reflect the words. Asking for a top 3 after 17 pages of ideas looks more like not wanting to go through it themselves and all that it accomplishes is rehashing the same old that has been talked about already without rhyme or reason.

Hi Shadow Blade and Conner,

The fruits of everyone’s hard work have already begun to show through, specifically in regard to the first CDI- Living World. The return on investment will take time to present itself due to the nature of game development.

However if you don’t feel like the initiative adds any value then you don’t need to partake in it.

Chris

videoboy.4162:

Khunvyel.3972:

I let the flamesticks poke me into oblivion for saying;

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

°bracing°

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

Are you willing to share, Chris?

Hi Videoboy,

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

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

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

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

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

Chris

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Morning/Afternoon All,

Lots of ideas and discussion. I think it would be useful now to list your top three favorite ideas with either a link to your favorite description of that idea in the thread or a single sentence description of your own.

Let’s start to refine the ideas, filter and reduce them down the core of what makes them great in your opinion.

Chris

This is going really well. Let’s stay focused on this for a little longer so folks have time to respond before moving onto discussions around proposals.

Chris

Great start Magnus and Temariah.

Chris

Morning/Afternoon All,

Lots of ideas and discussion. I think it would be useful now to list your top three favorite ideas with either a link to your favorite description of that idea in the thread or a single sentence description of your own.

Let’s start to refine the ideas, filter and reduce them down the core of what makes them great in your opinion.

Chris

Romo.3709:

Chris, is there any update regarding fractals in general? Maybe suggestions that we can tune in on or possible balancing of dredge fractal? In general, anything at all?

Hi Romo,

As soon as there any updates we can discuss we will let the community know.

Maybe we could do a CDI on the Fractals next year?

Chris

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Thanks so much for all of your contribution, passion and support.

Chris

Malchior.5042:

Hahaha! You would show up just to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Chris!

Merry Christmas everyone, devs and players!

Merry Christmas (-:

Just got back from dinner.

Chris

Khunvyel.3972:

I’d like to give Mr. Whiteside best wishes and thanks for this initiative.
You Sir, have made people who haven’t been happy with the game literally come back and regain hope and faith into the game by the CDIs which have the community rolling.
You Sir, are the “missing link” that proves ArenaNet still cares for us and wants to get things progressing, together.
You Sir, should have a very well deserved Christmas celebration

We are all very anxious to see how and what is going to happen because of this collaboration. Merry Christmas, inhabitants of Tyria.

Thanks for your kind words and Merry Christmas!

Everyone at Arena cares for the community. I just happen to have little bit more time than most (-:

Chris

Merry Christmas to all those where it is Christmas Day!

Chris

Bezagron.7352:

Hi All
Just dropping in to say working on a summary post which will be up tonight (morning at the moment). Having Christmas with the family. Loving all the ideas, keep then coming guys & girls.

ps. Sorry wife said should give you all a Merry Christmas

Thanks Bezagron, Guhracie, Orpheal and many others for your help with the management of this great thread.

Chris

Swagger.1459:

devs,

this thread seems all over the place. there are a bunch of suggestions about content and qol features that don’t have anything to do with progressing our characters, so could you please clarify what you mean by “horizontal progression”?

thanks!

Hi Swagger,

Nearly every post in this thread is about Horizontal character progression and personally I am really enjoying the ideation and brainstorming phase.

I haven’t been able to contribute in this thread because of family engagements (Wife’s Birthday, Preparation for Christmas Day etc). I intend to discuss my personal favorite ideas on the 27th.

We have plenty of time on the thread and it seems that most everyone are enjoying themselves and I am sure we will see some more focused proposals soon.

Chris

Orpheal.8263:

Part 2:

Cosmetical Progression – Legendary Equipment, Skill Skins, Finishers, Weapon Dying
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/first#post3406043 – Cultural Armors for Mystic Force Recipes, Fractal Armor Set
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/first#post3406099 – More Armor Customization, Ability to turn one sided Armor patterns at Arms/Shoulders as example into a synchron version that has the pattern of the design on both sides
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/first#post3406159 – More Achievement Skins
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/first#post3406216 – Make Dyes accountbound again
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/first#post3406221 – Visually upgradable tiers of Equipment/Equipment Refining
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/first#post3406233 Make dyes in general more accessible, including the Gem Store Dyes
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/first#post3406371 – Add ascendent Dungeon/Cultural Armors
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/first#post3406399 – Upgrade cultural Armors with particle effects, Implement also a Pact Armor Set
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/first#post3406459 – Add Class specific Armor Sets

PvP Horizontal Progression
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/first#post3406139 – direct Rank Emote Chat Commands through numbering them

WvW Horizontal Progression
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/first#post3406355 – Different colored Commander Tags

Crafting Progression
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/first#post3406181 – Costume Crafting
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/first#post3406237 – Dismantling of Crafted Items into all the smaller parts, real individual unique player named crafted items, Non RNG based Item Fusion

New Features and reimplemented ones from GW1
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/first#post3406216 – Reimplement/rework the Hall of Monuments for GW2
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/first#post3406223 – Add a kind of Minipet-Pokemon that basically already exists in Lions Arch
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/first#post3406278 – Reimplement Dungeon Books
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/first#post3406371 – Add a Faction based Reputation System
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/first#post3406459 – Add more Search Functions to the TP

General Technical Improvements
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/first#post3406233 More technical Support for various Mods, that can improve significantly the game experience visually as like mechanically
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/first#post3406459 – General Fixing of Clipping Issues, be it for armors, tails, hair, or whatever

General Gameplay Improvements
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/first#post3406278 – Fix Downscaling for all Low Level Areas, Make World Exploration resetable for repeatable rewards, More map wide Events similar to Scarlets Invasion
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/first#post3406329 – Make all Skills for all Gameplay Modes seperate
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/first#post3406492 – Redesign/Revamp of Runes and Sigil-System

Reward and Loot Improvements
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/first#post3406278 – Make unique Minipets dropable for all the specific regions
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/first#post3406331 – Retroactive Rewards

Thanks Orpheal.

Chris

Bezagron.7352:

Horizontal progression page summary
Lets me know if you think I’ve missed something

Character progression

New Build: This includes;

• New weapons
• New skills including expansion of weapons skills
• New traits
• New stat combinations
• Sub-classes https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/2#post3406543
• New runes and sigils (ThanksTeckos.1305 missed that and I even have a post talking about then https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/6#post3410128)

Cosmetics: This include;

• PvE skin locker. Similar to the sPvP locker https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/first#post3406328
• Mini pets. Slots to place mini pets in so they don’t just go to collection and a game that involves mini pets. https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/first#post3406223
• Customising home instance – One main aspect requested is customising player housing where we can build and decorate the house (Thanks Donari.5237 missed that with home instance and player housing)
• An in game Hall of Monuments for GW2 to display achievements in game. https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/first#post3406216
• New skins. Armour / weapons / back items
• More emotes
• Alternate animations – another collection.
• New dyes.
• Weapon dyes – ability to dye weapons
• Some type of armour customisation. https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/first#post3406099
• Item progression. The fractal capacitor was used as an example
• Item enhancement. This could fall under item progression but the example used involved the flamekissed incident. The idea was to be able to enhance the human cultural armour so it could have the flamekissed skin.

Content

• Vanquishing. Example was another mode in dungeons were you have to vanquish all the monsters in the dungeon. https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/first#post3406082
  Another good post on Dungeon vanquishing https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/2#post3406646
• PvE map vanquishing https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/3#post3407867
• PvE arena https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/2#post3406767
• Challenge missions https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/2#post3406960
• Crafting – Jaken has writing a interesting write up regarding crafting https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/2#post3407102
• Faction progression – Faction missions, armour, skills, emotes
• Order progression – Order missions, armour, skills, emotes
• Further personal story progression
  *Guild progression – adding guild halls

World development

• Louveepine write some great ideas of developing exploration https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/3#post3407529

Awesome work Bezagron.

Summary bump.

Chris