My top 5 wishes to make the game more fun

[MZad]

Guild wars is already 'fun' in many ways, but there are a few frustrating aspects that I would love to see ironed out to make the experience even more enjoyable.

1) Henchmen commands. Right now, you can command them to attack and that is all. 2 extra squad based commands would make using henchmen much less frustrating.

1a) Come here. - Henchmen stop what they are doing and attempt to return to your side, employing defensive/healing skills if need be. This would switch the henchmen into 'passive mode' where they do not attack back when attacked, and they would stay in this mode until given another order or designated target.

1b) Guard here - Henchmen stop where they are and do not move until given another order. They will aggresively defend themselves if attacked and once the threat is removed, return to guard mode.

2) A 'looking for group' interface. Right now I use henchmen as much as possible, simply because forming groups is a pain in the *** using the in-game tools. It's an online game and we should be encouraged to group with each other and form friendships and alliances, but the grouping system is awkward and frustrating. A simple 'looking for group' interface where you can list yourself as LFG (complete with language flags for your spoken languages) and that leaders can navigate and select to whisper and/or invite, would make the whole process much faster and less stressful.

3) A better trading system. Right now trading is far too time consuming. I can spend hours travelling from area to area, district to district peddling my wares, or I can simply trash the items, go out 'hunting' for the same amount of time and make more money gathering items to sell to NPC merchants. Player trading encourages player interaction and is a benefit to this kind of social online game. I have 2 suggestions, one as a 'quick fix' and a second as a longer term adjustment.

3a) Quick Fix - Remove the trade chat channel, add a marketplace area to Ascalon (Ascalon Market) where people who want to buy and/or sell know to go to for trading, which can be done via the local chat channel in that area. If the chat spam is too high, then make chat channels for item types (armor, weapons, upgrades, runes, materials/dye) and allow filtering by type.

3b) Long Term Fix - Some kind of fully supported merchant system. Possibilities include, allowing players to place items on sale and go into AFK merchant mode, EQ-style. Allow players to place items on sale with a minimum price and others to place bids with automatic wins, FFXI-style. Allow players to place items on sale with a time duration and bidding system, ebay-style. There are plenty of other options too.

4) More vault item storage. With only a single PvE character, the 20 vault slots simply isn't enough! I hate to think how people who play 3 or 4 characters handle it. I have been forced to use one of my PvE character slots as a 'bank mule' for storing vault overflow. Right now my vault has: 12 stacks of materials, 6 stacks of dye, gwen's thread and broken flute... bingo, all 20 slots filled up, so where do I keep items I want to trade, future upgrades, spare runes and so on? 20 slots vault storage for 4 characters just doesn't cut it.

5) A PvP spectator mode. OK, I'll admit it, I added this to make the list a round 5. I know that it is already on the list of future additions, but as a PvE player who is, quite frankly, wary and scared of PvP, I would love the ability to check it out 'safely' and see how it works by spectating on games, plus I'm pretty sure it would be great for GvG, to enable your guildmates to watch your matches. I want to add a 'hell yeah' to the addition of this feature.

MZad.

[Vicious Veratias]

great ideas. market house has been posted a lot, but i love the idea of filtering chat for different stuff like armor, etc... *bump* this definately needs to be reviewed by anet :happy34:

[Taxed]

2) A 'looking for group' interface. Right now I use henchmen as much as possible, simply because forming groups is a pain in the *** using the in-game tools. It's an online game and we should be encouraged to group with each other and form friendships and alliances, but the grouping system is awkward and frustrating. A simple 'looking for group' interface where you can list yourself as LFG (complete with language flags for your spoken languages) and that leaders can navigate and select to whisper and/or invite, would make the whole process much faster and less stressful.


MZad.

This interface needs to be able to select the quest (s) you are after, like by check box or something. Then the leader can simply find those who are looking for the same quest....

[MZad]

This interface needs to be able to select the quest (s) you are after, like by check box or something. Then the leader can simply find those who are looking for the same quest....

I thought of this, but decided on reflection it would add too much complication to the interface for a small benefit compared to the greater benefit of the overall system. I would rather they spent half the time and implemented it without that feature. It's possible to work around it, either by using the 'click to whisper' function to ask them beforehand what they are LFG for, or by discussing it after joining. I'm not saying it's not a good idea, it is, just that if it would hold back development, I would rather they released it without it first and added it at a later date.

MZad.

[MZad]

great ideas. market house has been posted a lot, but i love the idea of filtering chat for different stuff like armor, etc... *bump* this definately needs to be reviewed by anet :happy34:

Thanks for the feedback!

MZad.

[Vicious Veratias]

NP, but i would like to add one thing for your #2

Wouldn't it be good if you were ingame and you could click the other character and look at HIS mission log and he could do the same and look at YOUR mission log? and then you guys could work out doing missions like helping him out if he's behind a bit or doing the same mission if you both have that mission. That would rock!

edit: by ingame i mean before "in-town" and "out-of-town" mission. When you see people with a symbol showing they need a group (LFG) that before u join him with otehrs in a group quest or w/e, you could look at his mission log, then while in-mission you can look at it still and the others. that'd be cool

[GoingIncognito]

Well thought out and intelligent post. I like your ideas, here's to hoping some devs actually come here to read up on what people are saying!

[OldPete]

An addition to the quest thing:
Each player gets this little star showing where is quest goal is, but so far he sees only his goal.
How about making the stars little numbers (1-4/6/8) showing the quest each players has selected?
Ok, could be a bit much with 8 players with 8 different quests, but if there is this quest selecting for partys too, then it would come down to a moderate level I guess.
Just an idea.

and, how about changing the quest-goal-marker so that it shows wether it is the real goal or just a sectorborder? How often was i frustrated when I reached the "goal" only to find out it was just there because the real goal was in the next sector.

[asdar]

I don't care a bit about any of the 3's but I agree with everything else.

I don't want to make it too hard and I'm flat out against having other people able to look at your quest logs without permission but a simple LFG flag would be a great addition. If they could have an LFG and LFM (mission) that's even better.

My 6) is a practice arena in Guild Houses.

As it is a guild house is just a roleplaying thing with no purpose except as a meeting hall. They could set it up any way they want, a big flat ring or just doors on the areas that exist. Make it seem real but no XP at the end. 4v4 and 8v8 options for sure on the practice arena.

I can see where they might have difficulty if they just left it open like a town but allowed fighting. That might take different coding but they could surely copy an arena instance easily for the houses.

[sly_1]

Good post. I especially agree with the henchmen commands, you could overcome most of the inadequacies of henchen with simple commands. I'd add this one:

6. Ad an "attack this target" command for henchmen that works like so: you click the henchman in the party window, the click "attack this target". The selected henchman, and ONLY the selected henchman will attack the target until either the henchman or target is dead. If the target dies, henchman returns to normal ai.

This would resolve the problem where 1 or 2 monsters get through your front line to the casters. Instead of having the entire party attack the monsters that made it through, thereby bringing the rest of the monsters closer to the ele's and monks, you could just send one or 2 henchies to do it while the rest of the party focuses on the main threat up front.

As for this:

5) A PvP spectator mode. OK, I'll admit it, I added this to make the list a round 5. I know that it is already on the list of future additions, but as a PvE player who is, quite frankly, wary and scared of PvP, I would love the ability to check it out 'safely' and see how it works by spectating on games, plus I'm pretty sure it would be great for GvG, to enable your guildmates to watch your matches. I want to add a 'hell yeah' to the addition of this feature.

I disagree. Why should some inexperienced guild get to benefit from observing the strategy, tactics, and teamwork of an experienced one? Shouldn't the inexperienced guilds have to cut their teeth actually PvP'ing to get experience?

Not that simply watching a GvG match will equal instant success in GvG, but at the very least something like this should be by invitation only.

As for "I'm afraid to PvP" take my word for it: It's no big deal. The worst thing that might happenis your team might lose (*gasp*) which costs you absolutely nothing. I mean, if you fail on a mission or get killed in PvE, it's not a big deal, right? It's even less of a deal in PvP because battles don't take 45 minutes like some missions can...

Just jump into a pickup 4v4 arena battle. It can be fun when you get a good group. If you lose don't give up, figure out why your getting beat and try something different. It can be fun and rewarding when you finally get a good group together who actually play smart and help one another out.