Official Suggestions Thread -- February BWE

[Mumblyfish]

Okee-day, time to whinge about the missions. This is going to be spoilerific, so if any of you lovely people didn't get as far as Lion's Arch, just skip this.

Guild Wars' story seems brilliantly scripted, but it's just so terribly acted out. Even the most dramatic moments (Rurik being banished from Ascalon, Rurik's death) are instantly forgettable because the dialogue is ruined by almost static NPCs and wilfully crap directing. My biggest complaint is the lack of animation during these scenes. NPC actors have two states: Running and standing. Most of the time, you're just reading the dialogue while you watch a static scene of the actors breathing in and breathing out. Exhilirating. The actors need emotions, not necessarily complex facial animations, but certainly different stances. Anything but standing still. When Rurik gets banished, how does he feel? Is he boiling with rage, is he on the brink of tears? Buggery if I know, he just stands there. There shouldn't be a single cutscene where we have to endure the dull idle animation. Rant over.

The camps/outposts where players prep up for missions could certainly do with being more alive. Like the cutscenes, the environment is beautiful but it's ruined because the players usually stand still, and the few NPCs that are there just stay in that bloody idle animation. You know all those soldiers of Ascalon and those Refugees that are supposedly following Rurik and your party? Why can't you toss them in? Have a few Ascalon Rangers fletching their arrows by the camp, have some of the Warriors practicing against each other, have some Refugees praying, drinking, anything to add a little liveliness to the place. And what about when Rurik died, and the refugees fled with the party? At the camp before the next mission, where are all the downtrodden refugees saddened by their Prince's death? No mention is given to the Prince after that point. Why? He's a great hero of Ascalon, the players are Ascalons, make us proud that we fought alongside Rurik, don't let us ever forget his death.

And lastly, speaking of his death, it's a little mundane for Ascalon's crown prince, isn't it? He's standing there, oh look a tree falls on him. Hardly a hero's exit. Give him a final hurrah, let him save the party before being executed. I think the boy deserves that much.

Other than that, I love the direction this game has taken. I really like the new ID system, the new inventory system is leagues ahead of what it once was, and the prices for everything seem spot-on. Keep it up!

[BlackArrow]

Originally Posted by Lamaros

This is the same for any piece of equipment. I suppose a solution would be to allow someone ot make a piece of equipment in stages, first the base design, then choose from the modifiers. To make it reasonable you'd have to make it noticably more expensive than the standard 'pre-set' sets. I'd go for that though.

I guess you could have a unarorned piece of armor/clothing which costs a set amout of gold, then you choose the modifier which costs the same as a full pre-set piece of armor with the same stats, +10%.

The warrior armor is unique in that each armor set has a helmet with it, as well as separate helmets for the +1 attributes. All the other classes choose from 1 with higher armor and no attribute boost, or slightly lower armor and boosts an attribute. The warrior chooses between 5 (approximatly) beautiful helmets that have high armor or between 5 version of the captains helm that have slightly lower armor and boost to attributes.

[IceBlade]

I would like a system that alerts you of guild members or friends signing in and out.

A soft, but audible sound alert when receiving a whisper, or as per the suggestion above (when a guildie or friend signs in or out) would be nice.

I don't like the new 'premature ending' in GvGs - one time my guild (Defiant Destiny) won a guild battle in a record time of 3 minutes and 13 seconds against a group of 4, but we did not get the win for it.

I'd like the assist function to not disappear until the caller switches targets, or the target is dead. Reduces need of spamming every 5 seconds to keep targets up for our wars.

I'd personally like to see the KOTH style maps in Tombs to be changed to 'hold the middle the longest'. I'm tired of people ninja-ing the middle at the last two minutes, PARTICULARLY in the finals.

An away tag - even as simple as {AFK} - next to player name would be very nice to have. Set to AFK when Guild Wars is minimized, or the player types /afk, or is inactive for 5 minutes. Also an alert when you whisper such a player would be nice.

Sorry if I have repeated any suggestions - I'll add more when I think of them.

[Stylin]

Originally Posted by IceBlade

I'd personally like to see the KOTH style maps in Tombs to be changed to 'hold the middle the longest'. I'm tired of people ninja-ing the middle at the last two minutes, PARTICULARLY in the finals.

Beautiful. Thats my one wish. TWICE we lost HOH with 6 seconds left to go trying beyond belief to block the hero from getting to the middle. ;/

[Moon]

I didn't see these suggested yet:

I suggest you make the items the collectors ask you to collect show up in your quest log, along with who the collector is and where they are.

Also, have a way to remove quests. I'm now post-apocolypse and I still have a quest to take a cape to some kid who's probably dead by now.

When someone calls an assist, please keep that one active. Annoying to switch to somone to heal them, then I can't remember who we are supposed to be attacking so I have to tab through enemies until I find the one being hit.

Shortcut to cast spells on party members instead of defaulting to self-cast when you have an enemy targeted.

One thing I don't like is not being able to see what buffs/debuffs are on a target, maybe I'm just spoiled but I think it would be useful to see that someone in your party is poisoned, bleeding, and has 3 hexs on them, instead of just seeing a little down arrow.

I think someone already mentioned this, but can we not autoattack an enemy when we click them please?

That's all I encountered during my short play time. Biggest one is being able to heal party members without having to switch to them, shouldn't be too hard since party limit is hard-capped, maybe have a way to have an ally and an enemy targeted? Then any positive spells go to ally and any damaging spells go to enemy.

Oh and finally, is there a button to attack your target? I didn't find one, so whenever I 'T'd to a target I had to visually find them and click them in order to start attacking, which kind of negates the benefit of 'T'ing to them in the first place.

Awesome game

[Moon]

Originally Posted by kunt0r

The new starting area is a joke. Looks real nice, plays real boring. I haven't seen one non-pver like it. You basically took an action intro in E3 and turned it into a coma inducing bore-a-thon over the months. Not only that, oh no theres more, just like the bag system, you copied all of WoW's fun filled gameplay elements: <SNIP THE BIG QUOTE>

The starting area is fantastic! I loved nearly every foot of it.

First of all kunt0r, you can skip right past the opening area if you want to, run out, do your secondary profession quest, hop into the academy. So you aren't alienating anyone by ALLOWING people to play in the starting zone. Second there is no significant amount of running in any of the quests. You can instantly travel to any town by just using your map, I made extravagant use of that ability and never found myself thinking "oh no I have to walk all the way back to town to turn in the quest now." Thirdly, DO NOT TURN THIS GAME INTO A FPS WITH SPELLS, which is what it sounds like kunt0r wants you to do. This game is fairly unique in that it is a squad based combat game where you have to actually build up your character. Otherwise this game is tribes without jetpacks. kunt0r it sounds to me like you would rather be playing tribes or CS or planetside or something of that nature instead of this gem of a game.

Part, albeit a small part, of the awesomeness of this game is that not everyone has access to every ability, you have to build your character, you have to know what you are doing in PvE otherwise you will get beaten in PvP, it is an incredible mesh of the two sides, and I think Anet is onto something with it.

Not meant as a personal attack at you kunt0r but nearly everything you suggested goes against everything I like about this game lol.

[Fennica]

Suggestions:

• A confirmation window after pressing 'X' at the upper right corner. It's not nice to exit the game accidentally.
• More positions in PvE-teams – four is just too small for guild with 5+ members. Add a difficulty-factor when players increase their numbers that way: 1-4 players = normal difficulty, 5-8 = doubled difficulty (preferably double numbers of monsters), etc.
• Add a difficulty-bar on missions that have been completed. When player(s) go complete the mission again, they could increase the difficulty, to make it more challenging and fun.
• Permanent second-profession-trainer to easily accessible place, i.e. new Ascalon City.
• Enhanced visual-effects in devastating skills/attacks/spells, such as Meteor, Fireball and other area-effects. Meteor looks much like a bird’s dropping, not like something dangerous from above. Fire Storm is quite OK.
• Make a Skill Charm to get rid of the skill completely – to free a skill slot.
• Make the Captain Greywind’s village a travelable spot on the map.
• Add a simple unarmed attack.
• Add a PvP-arena with scalable number of players and teams. People could choose to play 2 vs 2, 7 vs 7 vs 7 and so on. These kinds of fights would not count as official Guild fights.
• Change identification to a service from NPC. Put various costs in it, i.e. good items cost more, basic items less.
• Poison is much like bleeding. Change poison to have lessened affect, when character does not move, attack nor use skills. After all, poison travels through veins and the more your blood flows, the faster you will suffer its effects.

[Firax]

1. Guild Storage! That has been promised to us time and again. Start it out pretty large, like 7X the size of a backpack. (This is for everyone in the guild, after all) and allow for purchase of extra storage. The trick here is to make the extra a bonus, not a must, like it is for the character inventory ATM. Then, allow officers to "tag" items as only being able to be taken by officers, and guild leaders can "tag" items as only take able by them, or officers.

2. Account storage. What happened to this promise?

3. Trash the new inventory system. It sucks. It's a pain. It reduced the fun I had while playing new characters 100 fold. A backpack isn't enough storage. Give us back the old huge inventory, and allow for us to expand that with purchasable expanders.

4. Love the new starting area, but more explanation for newbies is a must however. I love the new quest system.

5. More PvP options, because after awhile only 4 different maps gets dull. Also, allow for a special "End Game" arena which allows us to set up battles on maps we select, against opponents we select. Although also give it matchmaker in addition.

I think everything else I want has already been said. Thanks for reading!

~Firax

[Sphynx]

Originally Posted by DEATH AT THE DOOR

If I am not mistaken, you can press Shift+Print Scrn

EDIT: Ice'DBear is right. Shift+Print Scrn makes a screenshot without the interface whereas CTRL+Shift+H removes all the interface untill you press the sequence again.

Ok, a sugestion based on this knowlage:
Show ALL the controls (even the non-customisable ones, if there must be such things) in the control setup section (where you can change keys).
When I was wanting to take screenshots, I looked there - PRINTSCEEN was the key assigned to taking a sceenshot, but there was no mention of using shift with it.

Originally Posted by Dragonne

5) The inventory system is ok, we just need to be able to have ALL 4 item storage containers openable at one time. It's cleaner than it was, but at least with the previous floating windows all of the containers could be viewed at once.

IF one opens them using the hotkeys, and doesnt have the 'i' window open, they all open separatly.

[Uthar]

Originally Posted by Firax

5. More PvP options, because after awhile only 4 different maps gets dull. Also, allow for a special "End Game" arena which allows us to set up battles on maps we select, against opponents we select. Although also give it matchmaker in addition.

~Firax

The maps issue has already been brought up, and in the most recent Fansite Friday, Gaile said next BWE we will see a greater concentration on PvP. And on GvG, too. But I'd like to be able to choose maps, too.

[Rellok]

1. Make a button to automatically select the closest enemy. If *TAB* already does this at it's first push, good, if not, that would be a good solution, have Tab cycle by how far they are away from you.

2. Old A was BEAUTIFUL, and fun, however there are a few issues that I have with it. There are a LOT of quests to do, and some of them didn't seem to link together all that well. I was playing a War/Nec, and after finishing the first Nec mission, I was directed to the Blood lady for my second, and then back to the first lady who had nothing new to add, I have heard you could get BiP somehow in the Nec questing, but it didn't seem to work too well to me. Maybe a Quest line for Profession training, like Warrior Training, and Necromancer training, so that you can make sure you get all the available training.

3. Quest directing. The little green arrow telling you where to go is great, but if you have multiple quests in your list, you should be able to select the quest you want to work on, and the green arrow should follow that (I didn't think it worked that way this weekend).

4. It was very easy to be level 7 before heading through to seared Ascalon. That seems a bit overpowered for the quests to be accomplished. Is there some quest limiting in Ascalon if you get there at a higher level? I was duoing with one other player and one monk Henchmen (I was lvl5, he was 7) and we pretty much moped up on the whole taking back the wall mission.
This may be unavoidable to some extent but the experience per level could probably be changed around just a bit to make it more difficult to get to level 7 with all that stuff to do. Say levels 1-3 are about the same so that people can hurry along if they want, and then levels 4-7 take the same experience that level 6 (or 7) takes. That way it takes a long time to get to level 5 with the experience you earn in that starter area, even if you are doing all the quests and since you earn more experience with the quests in the seared ascalon it balances out quickly.

5. PvP battle to end pristine Ascalon. It was amazingly fun, and I loved it. However, being farily pessimistic, I can see how after the first few weeks, it will be difficult to actually be playing that PvP mission with/against actual other human opponents. I just don't see THAT many people heading through there in a constant stream all of the time. This weekend in the game I played where I was already teamed up with another guy, we ended up with a henchman to fill the game we were in. And this weekend TONS of people were playing the new area. I love the idea, maybe setting times or something where you can actually play a PVP? I dunno. It sure was fun though.

I loved the game this weekend, I got about 10 hours in total (I know not too much, but I don't have TONS of time to spare). I had a great time with everything, and as many others have said (and I said at the Jan BWE), it certainly seems like a releasable game. Congratulations for what all of your hardwork has produced, Devs, and Alphas. Thank you all.

Matt

[xfaqtar]

This was my first BWE so instead of comparison I offer a true noob pov.


1. The starting area is designed nicely but the content is lacking. IMO a starting area should be built for lowest common denominator and this area expected some beginning knowledge or comparison. I would say make a starting option of level 5 or so without this area and make this area much more explanatory with quests that force discovery of new areas, more decriptive skill introductions and easily reachable basic trainers with systemic explainations. There is no control introduction or developmental control introduction. There is no explaination of the crafting system and what the modifiers on the equiptment mean.

2. The starting area has 3 levels of mobs with a few lv 4-5 intermingled randomly and they only get more difficult by the linkage and the numbers increasing not by skill or level. This gives no chance to learn a play style or the use and need of particular skills. Quests and mobs should be more directive by level and skill i.e. next level quest forces discovery of newer area with higher mobs with relevant skills and slightly better drops. I was disapointed to run for hours to reach the bottom corners of map to find there was no need or reason for this discovery. There was a lot of creativity in some of the areas and their terrain this is wasted on the lack of need for these areas.

3. Storyline needs much more integration. I had no idea why I was there as a character and furthermore no idea where to go and what to do except for a brief order from a nearby guy with a green mark. The academy had no explanation, so, I got that I was moving to a new level but no idea what it was and when I should do it, just that once iI did there was no turning back. I waited until level 7 not knowing and then was extremely disappointed to find that I could have been spending my time there and not in the starting area bored for so long.

4. The transitional cinematic was nice but left me more confused, there was no expliantion of what was happening and why. Then when I was dumped in the new area, once again there was no direction or help for what to do and where to go except a couple of briefly unexplained quests from an NPC that wasn't visible from my physical starting position. The quests I did quickly being level 7 and they led to nothing, I had no explinations or no story to follow. I then tried to go to the wall and it said I should get better armor which, as I addressed before, would have been nice to understand said system in starting area so I could have saved mats or known what I was going to need.

5. I had no idea about the attributes screen and being able to spend my points in attributes and couldnt figure out why I was getting my butt kicked by mobs that were half my level. I found the screen by accident through the very undescriptive menu. A help system or once again some type of NPC or quests that would explain these systems would be appreciated. I had no idea how to change the available skills on my action bar until i finally figured out that you could only do it in towns. I very much respect this design aspect and its tactical reasoning but, again, there was no explination of how this worked and maybe why. Then when I got to the seared Ascalan the only reason I found the skill; trainer was by seeing a bunch of PC's satnding around in an area and i finally found trainer to click on. Then the sreen told me to buy but gave me no idea how many i was going to get to buy because, once again, there was no discription of the system and the attributes screen which I figured out had the skill points listed.

5. I could solo the entire game up until the point I stopped and for a game that is really about teaming this is disappointing. I accidentally found the area in Ascalan that was called, I believe, Northland. I figured out that this area holds much higher mobs and a need for partying to survive. There were no quests that I found to direct me there or to a party except the woman right outside the gate whom I ignored because I could just solo everything. There seems a need to force more of this cooperation by making it difficult to achieve, for exapmle, 1/2 the content in the area without teaming for an area like this. I made no social contacts and had no reason to, except to ask questions which no one wanted to respond too because I knew no one etc., a vicious cycle of anti-social behavior that is designed by the current game content. More inclusive content just makes sense in the format of this game otherwise it will be relegated to only those who have studied and looked forward to this game and not the genral gaming public who might enjoy the game if it leads them in the designed direction.

6. On a similar note when I did chose to go to the academy I was jsut thrown into a mission wiith no introduction of what to do or who I was with. I figured out it was team PvP when i saw names of PC's in other colored capes starting to attack. The funny part was because of the lack of direction in the game and subsequently my lack of understanding when to enter the academy I dominated a number of level 2-4 PC's being level 7. Then we just kept going and killing the mobs then we were just in the cinematic. I was so lost, and to tell you the truth left wanting more. I would have enjoyed a few more opportunities to battle in the academy against other lower level PC's in an introduction to the PvP environment.

I hope these suggestions help from a newer point of view. I liked a lot of the ideas and systems in the game the content just needs a lot of work to support these ideas and systems. Honestly had this not been a test that I was knowingly participating in I would have logged out after 15 minutes of confusing, never returned and probably told everyone I know about my poor experience. I would hate to see this happen with a game that has many promising ideas.

I look forward to the next BWE, if from what I read of past development procedure, there truly is at least an attempt to address some of these issues so I can enjoy the potential of this game some more. Until then Good Luck.

[Uthar]

Originally Posted by Rellok

1. Make a button to automatically select the closest enemy. If *TAB* already does this at it's first push, good, if not, that would be a good solution, have Tab cycle by how far they are away from you.

"C" would target the closest enemy, "F" would cycle through enemies, and I could swear "R" did something related to enemies, too, though I never used it, whatever it was.

[Morgant]

Originally Posted by Rellok

1. Make a button to automatically select the closest enemy. If *TAB* already does this at it's first push, good, if not, that would be a good solution, have Tab cycle by how far they are away from you.

Try hitting backslash. I use it constantly between called targets.

[Dayala]

Suggestion:
Make the pre-seared lands optional, after completing it once. It has been mentioned that the area is a 'soft landing' for new players. I am all for that. However, what happens when a player creates a second, or fourth or tenth character? After release, and we have played a character, gotten our 'soft landing', and know the battle system, will we still have to run around to get a secondary profession and level up to 3 to enter the Academy?

In my opinion, this game can (and does) appeal nicely to all types of players. Keep up that theme with the new area as well, please.

[Galatea]

Originally Posted by Moon

I suggest you make the items the collectors ask you to collect show up in your quest log, along with who the collector is and where they are.

Also, have a way to remove quests. I'm now post-apocolypse and I still have a quest to take a cape to some kid who's probably dead by now.

One thing I don't like is not being able to see what buffs/debuffs are on a target, maybe I'm just spoiled but I think it would be useful to see that someone in your party is poisoned, bleeding, and has 3 hexs on them, instead of just seeing a little down arrow.

Oh and finally, is there a button to attack your target? I didn't find one, so whenever I 'T'd to a target I had to visually find them and click them in order to start attacking, which kind of negates the benefit of 'T'ing to them in the first place.

Awesome game

I'm also for these.

Definitely need the collector's requests to show up SOMEWHERE, because there are just too many to keep track of, and also what area they are in. And removing quests should be an option too, since the tutorial area doesn't exist after doing the Academy.

Other suggestions that came to mind:

Party Window
I'd like more information regarding party members. In the party window, all the information that is available (from what I recall) only displays their name insides a healthbar. There should be an abbreviation for their classes and level next to their name, so for example "Galatea Nereid E/Me8" but for all the party members. Perhaps also designate the leader's name in a different color, so the party will know who has access to invites and starting missions, etc. There should be tiny icons next to the healthbars (or underneath) that show the hexes. And perhaps, double-clicking their name in the party window could toggle a little pop-up window that shows details as to what skills they are carrying, how much more experience points to their next level, whatever other info is necessary.

Chat Filters
We also need chat filters, which I think have been mentioned, but I'm just stressing it. Have an option box somewhere that allows you to check off if you want to have all the text displayed, or just guild and whisper only, etc.

Available Skills
I'm sorry, but eight just isn't enough. I'm an elementalist/mesmer, so I'm pretty much just casting away. I get bored using the same skills throughout the mission/game and want more variety. Sometimes I carry the Resurrection Signet which takes up one slot, leaving me with only seven for the rest of my skills. Most of the time, they're filled up mainly with Elemental Skills, and only a few Mesmer Skills, which irks me a bit because I feel I am not using my Secondary Profession to its fully potential. I also bought the skill (can't remember the name) that gives allies a 50% change to evade melee attacks, but I never have room to carry it because I need to keep my ultra damage spells as well as a life-restoring one. Even two extra slots (giving us 10) would be better, or a little tiny arrow button on the side of the bar of eight that will cycle through a new row (or expand the skill bar) to show another eight slots. They don't necessarily need hot keys to them.

Saving Skill Set-Ups
As mentioned here, maybe a way to save the skill set-ups (up to five or ten). So as an elementaist, I could make a whole set-up of just fire, then another set-up of just air.. so depending on the mission/mood I'm in, I can switch to these set-ups without having to individually place each skill in. Saves on time. Not anything big though.

Action/Text Macros
I don't know if this is already implemented in the game. I'm assuming, no. However, when I did the Academy mission, there was a person whose text said "I am now attacking <PlayerNameHere>!" with some other text, and it was repeated once or twice again. Even I don't type as fast as that text went on, and I type a good 100 or so words per minute. It'd be nice to have the macro buttons (so say if "1" is the hot key for my "Flare" spell, hitting "Alt+1" would do Flare and also include the text, "Casting Flare on <Target>!"

They may be annoying if over-used.. but overall, I think they'd be helpful.

Macros could be useful with other situations as well. For example, someone could set up a macro to call out for a heal or some assistance if being swarmed with enemies. Another, healers could set up macros to have skills associated with certain targets (example: individual party members). A chain of skills could also be set up (for example, hitting a macro would have my character cast "Phantom Pain" and right afterwards, "Conjure Phantasm")

[Dragonne]

For the suggestions about basic gameplay and character manipulation:

Everyone must understand one thing, there is no manual for the beta weekends. With the final game you will get a manual that explains things like attributes, skills, how to customize, salvaging, etc. All the basic elements should be in there, and not required in the game itself.

I do understand that many new players of GW come from FPS gaming backgrounds, and FPS games are 95% load and play and everything is pretty self explanatory. GW is much more complex than a FPS, and you might have to read a manual. It's OK. You'll have one.

Oh, and I totally second this suggestion from Moon:
Also, have a way to remove quests. I'm now post-apocolypse and I still have a quest to take a cape to some kid who's probably dead by now.

[Brett Kuntz]

Bring back the pane!

[Darkmane]

This was my first beta weekend. And now its over .. snif....

As a new comer to the game I hope you may value some of my input. First off- I'd like to take my hat off to you devs for a game that currently has my interest perked to the brim. I've been looking for a replacement for Dark Ages of Camelot and it seems I may have found it here. Your mixture of PvE and PvP is so far nothing short of totally awesome and I have recommended getting the pre-order package to all my old guilds/clans. I hope to see many of them play along with me. I am stunned at how much you were able to put into this game so far and I can see you are not even close to being done yet. That said--

I do tech support by trade and have beta tested a few other games so I tend to scribble things down that I find needed more clarity or that would have made my game-play more user friendly to the Newbie. (like me)

Background:

My first char was an elementalist. As I like mage type classes, I was able to follow my way through the quests that were laid out for me just fine.

It was confusing to me about the second class list. And the official web site made it sound like earth, wind, fire, and water elementalists were actually the secondary class type. Had I not played a similar game altogether, this class mix would have surely thrown me for a loop. I soon found myself clicking on every quest I could find because they gave such great exp. Which brings me to my first issue with the game.

Secondary class specific quests like the necromancer and warrior should say something other than (quest) next to them. Instead it should say something like (secondary class quest). This will let the newbies know that this is not just 'any' quest to click on and try to complete. I found myself ending up with warrior and necromancer quests to do still left in my quest log because I never completed them since I wanted to be secondary Mesmer. These have now carried over into the academy and I presume they are now just dead quests in my quest log.

I wanted to do every quest possible in the beginning part, but there really was no way to tell if I had done them all. Because the beginning 'story' can be played out by a solo individual, when all quests have been completed, when log in the next time you should get a system message stating something like: 'You have completed all quests for the training missions you may want to speak to 'Sir xx' to further your skills and join the Academy'

The transition from Ascalon to the ruins of Ascalon where I was simply thrown into a mission wher we all died because none of us knew what was going on was a bit of a headache. There should be some explanation of what is about to happen before it does.

After seeing the cut-scene into the future I must say was the first time I realized that this game really does have its own niche in MMORPG's. It was great, but as I read in some potst above, it needs to be more dramatic. To make it even better, the beginning cut scene could be re-played, with a few added elements:

It should show the streets of Ascalon filled with people making trades, people walking up/down the stairs hand in hand, children chasing dogs/cats. These should be shown in between the scenes of the charr getting ready to release their havok. There should be a scene of all the rocks (or whatever they threw at Ascalon being shown flying across the sky. The next scene should be all the people of Ascalon previously going about their day looking upward 'you see the icon of your character diving into a nearby building' and then --- the future unfolds.

I did not get very far into the game- I can tell by other player's comments and what I was able to see so far. I have only done like 3 or 4 missions after joining the academy. Which brings me to my next issue:

I had 31 or 32 attribute points to spend after joining the academy. I was also level 8. That’s right, I made it to lvl 8 without adding any points because I had no idea I was supposed to. When you gain your first level there should be an explanation of attribute points what they are for and what they do. Either a small 'hit next to continue' tutor on what they are all about. Or maybe just that little blue window that pops up that explains what they are for. This window should repeat itself when you log in to remind you .. until at least one point is placed into an attribute.

I must apologize I did not read all the threads before posting. So if there are any repeats, I guess you will know what you need to work on .. LOL.

I thoroughly enjoyed the travel interface, and the way the arrow in the compass changed depending on which quest I had selected. The arrow seemed to stop working once I left the beginning area. That was disappointing. I am sorry I do not have more in put at this time. Love the game so far .... 2 huge thumbs up IMO.

[Tobias Amon]

First BWE total noob POV.

I concur with and would like to re-iterate "xfaqtar"s post points 1,2,3,4 and 6

Other suggestions:

1. Targeting I see has already been mentioned rather profusely w/ mixed reviews. However, what I would like is a bar such as the (oh what was the name...current attributes? The one where an icon would pop up with what has been targed to you such as a hex or healing) that would pop up enemies within a certain radius (radius being defied per profession or current weapon/spell) so you could click on the icon of the enemy you'd like to target. I noticed when there were multiple enemies (dead and alive as well as items dropped) selecting just ONE target was quite difficult. Also via mouse selection, dead bodies should NOT be able to be selected. Something else that may help would to have a cursor change i.e. a weapon of sorts for an enemy and a hand for something that could be picked up.. the current single arrow for all is qute cumbersome.

2. Map
a. Notable Pins would be greatly appreciated by myself as well as others.
b. Would be nice if the full-screen map had a zoom/change for towns. It is quite easy for a noob (such as me) to get completely lost even within a town.
c. Should be able to travel by clicking within the minimap. left-click to travel and right-click to send flare (or whatever that red flashing signal was) or vice-versa.

3. Kudos on the customizable GUI it is SWEET. Would like to see some transparency sliders/settings and also window placement memory....get tired of dragging my inventory, skill and attribute windows to the center of the screen. Also the team window should remember where it was last placed as well.

4. Team window does not have enough information concerning teammates. Add info for current spells casting/current hexes and what not.

Thus ends my 1st post. Hope you're able to understand what I'm driving at (hard for me to remember exactly what everything was called) and that it helps in some way.

Love the game.....stellar job dev team!