Hello, I used to be play guild wars around 4 months ago, but sadly now I have retired because I just got extremely bored with this game. After creating 5 level 20 characters and participating in almost every run and mission in the game, I quickly began to lose interest seeing as everything I did seemed to be a case of Deja Vu.
I think some of the reasons why this game became bland could be:
the auto targeting system
regulation of range
repetitive attacks
linear mission formats
(Warning: If you don't have the time to read a 4 page essay, scroll down to the @@@ for the gist of my suggestions.)
Basically, anything I do in Guild Wars is revolved around a single strategy. Get someone to tank all the monsters and have everyone else just nuke them. Where is the fun in that? Guild Wars claims to balance out all the classes, but it is always warriors in the front lines, and if you can't deal AoE damage, you are rejected from the common cookie-cutter parties. (Assassins, Dervishes, Mesmers, etc.)
What happened to actual strategy? What happened to flanking, dividing group party members, and basically any tactical thinking? What happened to skill? In PvP and PvE, it was basically who can press what buttons the fastest, or who can interrupt the most, or any other kind of linear or boring tasks to kill an opponent. There was almost literally no complexity in battles.
What I would love to see happen to Guild Wars is:
1.) Abolishment of the Automatic Targeting System and Range capabilities.
Wouldn't it be great for players to actually involve some skill in this game? There are so many lovely features and strategies that can be developed by this implementation. Just imagine Rangers being able to scope with their bows and sniping enemies from beyond the range limitations, casters having much more flexibility casting their spells being able to predict where enemies are going, and a whole bunch of new things. Kiting would actually mean something to the game, where as if you tried to kite a spell, it will still hit you no matter what the hell you did. Warrior's wont just randomly use an attack and then automatically run up to you and hit you. Instead, they would actually have to think to inflict damage on their opponent. The shadow-stepping of assassins would be an insanely deadly tool, seeing as being sneaky would actually mean something now, rather than before that if you targeted the assassin, shadow-stepping meant jack **** because they would get hit no matter what. Now, you can actually switch between first person view or third person view, depending on which will fit the scenario best.
Auto-targeting and range limitations for healing and enchantments would still exist. However, for hexes and other offensive spells, they would ALL have a general AoE effect. The caster would actually have to aim it at people now and can choose to shoot in areas that would maximize their damage, hitting in places that would affect multiple targets.
And because of the lack of range limitations, sniping would also be implemented into the game. Capturing high ground would actually mean something, and casters or rangers can optimize their unique characteristic of... well, range. The moment they can see an enemy, they can hit it. How awesome is that? It just depends on how well you can aim.
2.) Casting/Attacking while moving.
One of the most retarded features that I've experienced in Guid Wars is that whenever you try to cast something, you would be paralyzed for the time being that you are casting, allowing anyone to just bash on you. Kiting can be utilized to its full potential with this new feature and would grant squishies much more defensive mechanisms. Additionally, because it would be just stupid to run straight at someone who can attack while kiting you, you're going to have to think of new ways to get to them, whether its ambushing, flanking, or any other clever methods you can think of.
3.) Active Defensive Mechanisms
You know how blocking and missing were all based on probability? What if you were able to actively initiate skills and and spells that were instantaneous, but would only last long enough to deflect attacks? Vulnerability of classes would no longer be an issue, and players would constantly have to keep their guard up. However, in order to not overpower this feature, miss and blocks should reduce the damage, say by 50-75%, rather than completely negating it. This would also lead to the downfall of the so called "warrior tank and everyone nuke" strategy. These active defensive skills would require no recharge time, but still have a cost of 5 energy, so it's hard to continuously spam or else you would just be wasting energy.
4.) New Map Layouts in General
The basic layout of the game just forces you into one linear path: from point A to point B. I don't know about you, but this is incredibly dull. The only mission I can think of at the moment which allows you to go through different paths for different results is the Nahpui Quarters Mission. Where is the sense of exploration, variety, and vastness? I swear, every mission I do with all of my characters was the same thing, over and over and freaking over again. Everything was a giant cess pool of repetition and lack of originality. Why not create missions where you can divide your group to explore different corners of the map? Why is it everything you do, you always have to be in a tight ball of 8 people? There is NO COMPLEXITY to Guild Wars Missions. All you can do is go down one linear path everyone is forced to follow. There has to be some variety to this game, because everyone is always going down the same boring road. If you just strictly followed the missions and primary quests, you would only cover less that 1/4th of that continent. The other 75% has completely no use to the game or the storyline. If you didn't intentionally go out of your way to some outposts and cities, You would never, ever, encounter them in your Guild Wars life.
The continental map is freaking huge. Include at least 75% in the main storyline for goodness sake. Instead, 75% of it is actually completely left out. Sad. Make it so that each new town you visit, they all have a unique gear or armor that is only exclusive to that location, something to motivate exploration. This game is incredibly dull after you beat it, because everything you see is so repetitive. Implement random spawning of creatures, so it is impossible to predict what you will encounter. Change the maps around so that there are dozens of ways to finish the mission, with all of them being equally long to complete.
The environment you have to work with is just really sad. No matter how you look at it, It's all one form of an embellished valley. You have very frustrating barriers that won't let you utilize your creativity to its full potential. For example, in the Mountain missions, all you could do is go straight ahead in a set path. I was expecting to be able access areas of high altitudes such as the side of cliffs or on high slopes above certain battles. What do I get? Just a single path in white snow with the mountains being the BARRIERS of the map. So I think to myself, "Wow. This is just the same as the Ascalon Missions, except for a change in background." ArenaNet implemented the depth perception of high and low altitudes so well. Too bad they never gave us a chance to use it to its highest potential.
5.) Skills Slots
Eight skills at a time is barely enough to completely enjoy this game. I would suggest completely abandoning the 8 skill inventory, and be able to have access to all your skills at any given time. From my experience in Guild Wars, around the time I started playing with my Elementalist, I only acquired a total of 15 skills! Basically in PvE, you were required as an Elementalist to have Meteor Storm, Searings Flames, and Glowing Gaze in order to be accepted into a party. How pathetically superficial can this game get? I want to have access to all my skills, so that I can have a huge arsenal with so much variety that the same attacks won't be used 200 times in a single mission. It would also force the lazy players to reconsider using the cookie cutter skills, and actually spend their time acquiring skills other than the main ones they use for the entire game.
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As a recap, let's review what should be implemented to make this game more interesting:
-Abolishing automatic lock on targeting (excluding heals, enchantments, and shouts)
-Sniping and Far range capabilities
-Casting and Attacking while moving
-Active Defense Skills
-Unique Map Layouts
-A more comprehensive storyline
-Incentive to actually explore Guild Wars
-Random Spawning of monsters whenever you enter the map
-Allowing people to change their skill slots OUTSIDE of towns
as a bonus:
-Attacks that hit in the back does critical damage, so that flanking behind enemies would be much more effective, retreating opponents would take more damage, and players/monsters that are stupid enough to just rush past melee players would succumb quickly.
What would be the result of all of these new features? Personally, I would think that it would lead to extinction of cookie cutter builds, the use of multiple creative strategies, a more complex and non-repetitive storyline, the inability to predict exactly when enemies show up and what types they are, the use of every single class in a party, the ability to use all your skills to their full potential, and ultimately a much more fun Guild Wars that would always maintain its vibrant spirit of surprises.
most of the things you just said all things that will make pve completely nothing, where is the stratigy in moving while attacking, or changing skills outside town....
also, this doesn't extingt cooky cutter builds, this leads to more cooky cutter builds.
far range attacks will unballance pvp, and we all know what happens when that happens(hint SR hint)
what i'm trying to say is, it sounds all fine but you must know that it's about stratigy, not "i'm the best becouse i can run better".
Capturing high ground would actually mean something, and casters or rangers can optimize their unique characteristic of... well, range.
Actually with LOS skills (Line of Sight skills) higher ground already means more range. With non-LoS skills, logically you do not have more range... Also how big would the AoE all skills will acquire be? At adjacent it's not terribly useful and will just mean that all los skills and attacks miss if used at range. Already it's hard to hit with a longbow at max range if your opponent has any skill at kiting in the current game. This is not obvious in PvE as of course the opponents don't kite. In high-end PvP though, it's quite obvious...
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-Attacks that hit in the back does critical damage,
Already implemented, hitting someone while moving/from behind increases your crit rate.
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Casting and Attacking while moving
This really rubs all my realism radars. Besides random stabbings etcetera, do you think that fighters used to be able to seriously attack somebody while moving? Not to mention casting a spell which requires a lot of concentration.
I honeslty doubt this will help kiting much. Afterall what's he use of kiting when whether your moving or not the other will just hit you anyway with his attacks as both of you can be moving while attacking each other. You'll just evade each others attacks constantly by moving from left to right. Another problem would be GvG where the NPCs like the GUILD LORD would die quickly, causing an automatic win to the team who reached and spiked him first. Same for HA with the Ghostly Hero and everywhere with the Ghostly Priests.
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The continental map is freaking huge. Include at least 75% in the main storyline for goodness sake. Instead, 75% of it is actually completely left out. Sad. Make it so that each new town you visit, they all have a unique gear or armor that is only exclusive to that location, something to motivate exploration.
something which takes an incredible amount of work and money $$. There are limits to how much one team can do. For the rest, I actually like it that PvE's storyline is fairly short and simple. I play PvE for skills, to farm and to challenge myself. Logically the actual missions cannot do this as then they'd be too difficult for a casual player. So instead I roll with the punches, and make the game a bit more difficult for myself; try completing the game never using mroe than a 4-man team for example it'll take longer and you'll die a lot more often :-) Yet will have a lot of fun ^.^
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I was expecting to be able access areas of high altitudes such as the side of cliffs or on high slopes above certain battles. What do I get? Just a single path in white snow with the mountains being the BARRIERS of the map
The natural downfall of the instanced model. Pretty much the only worlds where this isn't the case are seamless world, but there too there are normally invisible barriers. A computer game is not a globe; a developer and a sponsor not an endless pit of money. Best to keep those things in mnd when making suggestions else they're just too unlikely to ever even hope for.
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What if you were able to actively initiate skills and and spells that were instantaneous, but would only last long enough to deflect attacks? Vulnerability of classes would no longer be an issue,
Ever heard of Stances? Try Distortion, it's nearly exactly what you describe (though Riposte seems accurate too). Also if no class has vulnerability anymore then there are just too many overpowered classes.
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This would also lead to the downfall of the so called "warrior tank and everyone nuke" strategy.
Yes as warrior tanks have no use anymore, possibly obliterating them from the PvE metagame...
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I would suggest completely abandoning the 8 skill inventory, and be able to have access to all your skills at any given time.
This is one of the key things of guild wars, and abolishing it pretty much leaves the entire game in wreckage. How can you honestly plead for having access to all Attunements, Wards, all of your secondary skills, all of your Elites and all of your other possibly remotely useful skills at the same time? This would create absolute and total insanity in all of PvE and PvP.
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Basically in PvE, you were required as an Elementalist to have Meteor Storm, Searings Flames, and Glowing Gaze in order to be accepted into a party.
Then don't use a silly PUG which only nukes. Start your own with open-minded people (rare but not too rare), play with friends, with guildies or even dare and convince the PuG you joine dto allw you in even if you're not a Fire nuker or MM!
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It would also force the lazy players to reconsider using the cookie cutter skills, and actually spend their time acquiring skills other than the main ones they use for the entire game.
And after they've got those skills they will immediately be overpowered and using even the most remote modicum of skill can easily solo all the missions and areas even if you increase the amount by 10 fold.
What you're asking for is a completely different game. If you want that, you gotta search on the market and buy it.
Last edited by Akirai Annuvil; 08-04-2007 at 11:44.
Sounds like you want to replace strategy with fps twitch skills. Manually firing arrows at targets? That is not what Guild Wars is about, and neither are your other suggestions (bar the ones that are already in the game...)
Obviously the person who started this thread did not realize the massive scale and effort put in by ANet to make a game that caters for everyone all over the world
the targeting system is actually a boon, it helps players without voice communication to coordinate attacks in pve and pvp on one target
the larger the world map, the more places there are for you to explore and actually the scenery is pretty enjoyable (especially before sundering ascalon), it ranges from the european medieval style design of medieval europe (ascalon after sundering) to the savannahs of elona
and by the way, based on basic dungeons and dragons rules and the fact that casting spells actually requires concentration (hence the skill concentration which helps prevent spells from being interrupted)
Imagine spell casting as the ele/monk/rit/necro/mesmer/paragon/dervish focusing on drawing upon the power of whatever god they worship or if they do not have a god, focus upon whatever dark energies they possess
It's not possible for a spellcaster to move while casting a spell due to the focus and concentration needed for him/her, therefore casting spells while moving isn't viable
I do agree on shooting while moving though, it seems possible, maybe add a certain chance to miss while doing it (an ele or ranger can fire off bolts while moving i guess even though their aim would not be as good, just like firing off an ak-47 while moving, the uncontrolled recoil would throw any sort of aim off balance)
Im not sure what u mean about active defense mechanisms, guild wars is a third person game, it's not like it's going to become Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion or something where you can actively block attacks
the ability to being ONLY 8 skills is the best part about guild wars it actually deviates from certain games such as WoW which allows you to bring everything you have learned into any battle, having only 8 skills lets you learn to consider what you need for certain purposes (such as not bringing resurrect or rebirth into pvp, the casting time is too long and any decent pvper would purposely interrupt you at 4-5 secs after you cast it, thus wasting your valuable time which you could use doing something else) in real life you cant drag around (a machine gun, a rifle, a pistol, a shotgun, a submachine gun and grenades(flashbangs blabla) which is stressed by games such as counterstrike and the recently released stalker (these games have a weapon limit which reflects the fact that a human cannot carry around too many stuff at one time), if you drag along so many stuff (such as all the 150 or more skills your character has learned) you would probably be hard pressed to call them at will anyway, so might as well focus on the 8 skills that you have brought to the mission or w/e you have entered
I agree with most people who have already posted. GW is a game where pretty much anyone can play. You have to be really bad not to be able to play this game well. GW is more about strategy than achieving the title of "Super lvl 10003587593 character" that can blow everyone to bits. The low cap level and restrictions to only 8 skills makes it challenging to put combinations together to make a working build. Long range sniping will completely dominate the field and the game would only have snipers. (This is not a fps.) Plus, for that capability, the game would have to be in first person. For your idea about having "vaster" playing fields, what would that bring you? Larger spaces in pvp would only lead to people running around actually trying to reach each other. In pve, it's called a mission for a reason. In missions, you know where you're going and what you have to do. There is no need to explore your way there. This is opposed to quests in which you have to find people or do something in a larger area.
In conclusion, I believe that none of your suggestions are good for GW for it destroys the whole gameplay and system that allows everyone to play equally. If you want to find what you're looking for, find an fps to suffice your ideas, don't complain about GW because it's not what you like. All games have flaws to certain people; you can't expect every game to be perfect.
I actually agree with the OP on the general idea...I did a similar thread earlier highlighting similar flaws and suggesting similar solutions...basically I think guildwars need to have more environmental interaction like being able to use physical features of the environment as well as more emphasis on player skill. what if you can push the log/rock to block a path, and more influence by the physical features of the terrain. Right now GW is just too reliant on builds and all this does is to make it very one dimensional and mundane because what most ppl do is copy the most powerful builds even though this is not the intended way of playing. Not to mention the influx of useless skills and the endless and vain attempt by Anet to balance them. with this system the professions will never truely be balanced and there will always be professions more powerful than the other (cookie cutter builds). and this makes the whole combat system quite boring.
More intuitive gameplay and intuitive strategy as well as more reliance on a player's skill rather than reliance on memorizing skills and builds would make this game alot more fun. Don't get me wrong I'm not talking about the total abolishment of the current system. But rather add on to it. But I find that when it comes to this kind of suggestion alot of the ppl (at least on this forum) are still stuck at thinking within the current GW system and seem to be very reluctant for change...yes you can say if you don't like the current GW system don't play GW play some other game...but the reality is that I like GW and it has so much potential to become even better and become a truely complete game... And I am indeed speaking for casual players. It is true that GW right now is casual player friendly...to a certian extent!... the casual player plays it the first time and likes it. but how do you keep these casual players? because after a while the casual player will get bored because the subsequent chapters are more or less the same thing...hardcore players will continue to memorize skills and come up with complicated builds and will be pleased. But casual players will just copy builds. And this is truely boring.
While the effort is good... the suggestions are very weak. Show a clear understanding that you do not know the basic game-play mechanic of GW (and what make them fun)
I would say possibly turn some of it into suggestion for GW2, but would never apply it to GW1.
(also Hellgate London might be the game for you)
With the environmental issue, if you've read the article in PC Gamer about GW2, then you'll learn that they are putting in environmental factors such as bruning trees, jumping, flying, swimming, etc. This is probably what you're currently looking for.
Agreeing with ActionJack, these suggestions are good for the sequal, but not the current game.
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