Official Suggestions Thread -- February BWE

[The Punisher]

The most important improvement of all for Guild Wars is improving the server stability until release because I experiences some lag during the BWE, and I expect that a lot more will show up once the game release. So ArenaNet plz put that on the top of your list.

[Makarei]

Follow up, with madsouls surgestion: All classes should get XP for skills they use, yes including healing. since it is a prime ability monk player do. tho the XP should be based on how well there character was able to (in this case) heal/revive a dead player, since monks use healing often perhaps a little xp would be earned. I guess it all depends if healing amounts are random or not? if they were, if your monk heals alittle hp to the targeted player then they would recive little xp. the more hp replemished on targeted player would incase the over all amount of xp the monk would earn. same goes for revive, if the monk revives a player on example: 10hp then they would recive little xp. chances on reviving a player on full hp are slim but offer the most xp for the monk. On this topic, rangers should also gain alittle hp every time they revive or heal there pet. maybe not as much as a monk would earn through player healing.

The way i see skills/abilities is the more you use them the more experiance you gain from them. including gaining little xp, or serious xp based on the preformance of the skill/ability used.

Here is another 2 questions.. 1) when guildwars is released, will there be more then on server to take the presure off the first one? some people have mentioned in other posts somewhere that the game will most likely lag due to the whole world joining the game. so my question is basically what i just said above. 2) I know beta weekends only take place on the weekend, but considering after this upcomming beta weekend that there will only be one more before the release of the game. Is there any chance that the last beta weekend be extended from example 14th of april to the 17th of april as mentioned on the guildwars site. i only surggest this because it may prove useful for players and arenanet to find/nut out bugs in the recent code you add for players to test on the last beta weekend before your major launch of the game. Not to mention if you decide to use peoples ideas/surggestion from this thread. And i dont see how this could hurt in anyway since all beta accounts get reseted. At least it can assure you that most bugs will be fix upon release..

I would add this to my list of notes on page 6 but i doubt anyone overlooks the previous pages.

[John Thomas]

Originally Posted by Makarei

1) when guildwars is released, will there be more then on server to take the presure off the first one? some people have mentioned in other posts somewhere that the game will most likely lag due to the whole world joining the game. so my question is basically what i just said above.

I beleive, and folks can correct me if I'm wrong, but I could swear I read that GW is on multiple servers networked together...As for lag, I never experienced any and only got dropped once...not bad for three days play.

As for a suggestion...

I was thinking about the name of the forum and it occurred to me "What about an in-game Guru of sorts?" An NPC (some cranky old codger with a wry sense of humor and long white beard) that for a little gold will give out information. In some other RPGs there always seems to be a guy willing to tell you a secret for a favor, gold, special item, etc. He could be the in-game version of the players manual that usually ships with a game and can answer FAQs for noobs about history, skills and armor and such, but then charge a gp for more pressing info, like the location of the best crafters in the area. Maybe even give a player some cryptic foreshadowing of things to come in Olde Ascelon. "Secondary profession, my child, trust me...NEVER leave home without it."

[tubocass]

Originally Posted by Imbalanced

An option to turn the Guild Hall into a "deathmatch" arena, where everyone can just attack eachother. Not only can this create some funny, time killing situations, i think it's also convenient to test out new skills against different armors, etc. You should just be allowed to change skills like in town, though.

That is an absolutely brilliant idea, just make sure you can't get XP from it.

[Xerro Leingod]

Yea it took me a full day to download GW, I left the internet on all night and went to sleep.

As for loading missions i'm always the last guy to arrive....30mins later and in some cases everyone is dead. not fun.

Also I was beta testings this game RYL (risk your life): path of the emperor, It took me 3 full days to DL ut it was worth it, I also like the combat system in there, you have to hold the mouse down to attack, gives it a more hands on feel when fighting. Also in the game you can JUMP by pressing space bar.

[MoldyRiceFrenzy]

Originally Posted by Xerro Leingod

Yea it took me a full day to download GW, I left the internet on all night and went to sleep.

As for loading missions i'm always the last guy to arrive....30mins later and in some cases everyone is dead. not fun.

Also I was beta testings this game RYL (risk your life): path of the emperor, It took me 3 full days to DL ut it was worth it, I also like the combat system in there, you have to hold the mouse down to attack, gives it a more hands on feel when fighting. Also in the game you can JUMP by pressing space bar.

ya someone who actually ha the same thing as me. it took me day to download then when u go in a qyest ur the last one and they leave u die. Also im not really sure about this though. when the games comes out will it make us people download still everytime we get a quest. because itll be resally hard on us dialers taking along time to dial up just one tiny change

[Beelzebubba]

Originally Posted by Shaylith

1. DO NOT require players to go through PvP in the Academy to move on. Some of us hate PvP and want to be PvE ONLY. If you're going to do that, at least have Tydus warn us what it is.

I really did not like this either, but it was short enough that I was not too bothered by it. I have never liked PvP in games and have avoided quite a few games that focused too much on this aspect. I realize the game is called Guilld Wars for a reason, but the non PvP content is what I am playing this game for.

Originally Posted by Shaylith

2. 100 gp for bags? Price is...ok. But make bags available pre-Searing and able to be moved and sold to other people! Don't make them exclusive.

I liked the bag system a lot when it was first introduced. I may not be the best person to comment on this, since I am a bit picky about my inventory and like for crafting materials to be in one place, usable items like runes and dyes in another, weapons and armor in another, etc... But when I started this month and discovered that my bags were not available, and then discovered what I consider to be the OUTRAGEOUS prices to buy them, it really put me off. If I had my way they would all be available at the start of the game.

This would be a very long post if I replied to the rest of your comments, so let me just say that all the rest I agree with entirely.

The only other thing I really had much of a problem with was the Death Penalty thing for Ranger Skills. I refuse to use a skill if it punishes me for doing so, thus I was unable to use some of the skills I thought would be useful. This may just be me, but I've talked to other Rangers who already think the Ranger is weaker than it should be, and this just made most of them choose other professions. I still play a Ranger of some sort, but I just wish that the Death Penalty thing were removed. I'd prefer the skills be slightly weaker than to make my character weaker overall to use them.

[Beelzebubba]

Originally Posted by Rosie Woogs

I did try several times to ask questions over the chat, but most people are not interested in replying to such messages. A few good souls did respond, however

One of them may have been me. I too noticed a distinct lack of helpful replies to questions I asked. I understand that some of the questions people asked were just stupid, but even then I tried to answer every question I had an answer to.

Originally Posted by Rosie Woogs

The world map helps, a bit, but even on that, you can't clearly tell what is a road, a river, or a cliff range. I swear I covered all of the old Ascalon area, but never found the census, and never was able to complete the Scavenger quest.

I personally ran at least a dozen parties to the census. It took me so long to find it in November or December, can't remember which, that I decided to make it my personal mission to always show people where it was if I saw them asking. I believe the Scavenger quest was broken, since I attempted it exactly the same way I completed it in January, but could never get it to finish in February.

[Beelzebubba]

Originally Posted by thegriffgeeks

[*][color=blue]Pets attacking other "friendlies"[/color] Now that was completely annoying.

Having also played a Ranger primary, I found this extremely annoying as well. Especially when my party decided to run ahead while my stupid Lynx was attacking some non-hostile creature. There were several times I was forced to leave my pet behind and never saw him for the remainder of the mission.

Originally Posted by thegriffgeeks

[*]Thom wouldn't take his bear coat. (how rude!)

I believe I figured this one out. If you had any extra bear pelts in your inventory he would not take the coat. After I dropped the extras and returned to talk to him, he took it without a fuss.

Originally Posted by thegriffgeeks

[*]Even with henchmen, the enemy surrounds me (& usually killed me)

In my experience they immediately attacked my Monk, then turned to me. They would even run right past my warrior who was attacking them at the time to kill the Monk.

Originally Posted by thegriffgeeks

[*]That Res signet for free, never realized i could get it.

I got it, but cannot for the life of me remember where.

Originally Posted by thegriffgeeks

[*][color=blue]Losing my pet!!![/color] My pet would die, we'd get to the next town, my pet didn't come back every time. He did in the n00b world, but not in the academy world.

That's odd, I never had this happen to me.

[Beelzebubba]

Originally Posted by MoldyRiceFrenzy

hmm now that i think of it there are some weird quest things... like that girl in the begining of the game named gwen she would only follow u around and when u give her a flower she says thank you then when u give her another flute she gives u some stupid thing that i couldnt even figure out what to do with it....Id like to know what u even do with gwen and what the quest items she gives u does.

Umm... Maybe it was just me, but I distinctly remember Gwen healing me several times as she followed me around. Although, like you I never figured out what to do with the item she gives you. I did notice that the ocarina or flute showed up just outside of the Sanitarium, just lying there on the ground.

[cce]

#1 I really like having distinct bags to partition my goodies, they are
just way over priced -- use them as a teaching tool, perhaps require
you to have a crafter create one for you after you've collected N hides.

#2 More character customization... please! I'd like to play an old
woman not one of those plastic barbie dolls with perky 36D
breasts and 22" wastelines. To give you specifics:

My character is IxChel... http://www.epnp.org/assets/ixchel.gif
IxChel is post-menpause, double-chinned woman with a huge
snase, long twisted fingers, saggy milk things, a huge back porch,
and a bent back. She's typically found /w a snake headdress,
and big, ugly earrings.

#3 Continue to ballance out characters, this last build rangers are a bit
over-powerful, while I think the Beast Master, Death, and Smiting
lines could use a bit of tender care.

#4 All areas are "collaborative", if someone has a team with 2 people
in it, they should always show up with the "2" above them. Not
knowing who is starting a team is very difficult. Also, if someone
is available for a team, there should be another flag for them.

#5 Better monster targeting -- especially /w the keyboard. I'd like to have
a key that pops-up a list of monsters where I can use arrow keys to
scroll through the list (ideally use the same as the movement keys
as well, so that one doesn't have to move your hands), and then use
the ENTER key to choose your target and close the window.

#6 I'll 5th the idea that you should be able to target your team members,
for area attack spells. The goal of these spells is to cause the enemy
to move out of an area -- once the area is targeted and the spell
casting has started... that is where the destination of the spell should
go. It shouldn't be cast elsewhere if the monster has moved, and it
certainly shouldn't cancel if the monster died.

#7 The map in the lower-right hand corner is just way too small. I'm
half-blind and it should be much bigger if I want -- without requring
that the font sizes get bigger (I don't bother reading). Ideally, there
is a pane on the left with three constant things:
- the map
- your foes
- your friends
Transparent windows don't really help for me, they are too
distracting / hard-to-read.

#8 As a monk, I'd like a way to scroll through the list of team members
that are _near by_. Once I get situated, I don't want to be running
all over to try and get to a team member -- if they move outside of
my spell range, that is there fault.

a) some way to show which of the team mates are in 'heal' range
without running
b) a keyboard method for scrolling through members on the
team list (perhaps a selector that moves up and down)
c) more information about a team member's status, like how
much hp/total-hp they have (to help /w the various Endure Pain
spells)

#9 An 'auto-attack' method, where if you cast a spell on a foe, and don't
line-up another spell, it starts to attack with one's wand immediately
thereafter. Too often I cast a spell, and then 10 seconds later realize
that I'm not firing with my wand. ;(

#10 Keyboard controlling over the zoom. Everyonce and a while it zooms
me in, and I can't zoom back out without moving my hand over to
the mouse. By the time you take your hand off the keyboard to go
over to the mouse... you've lost 2 or more valueable seconds. In
general, the zoom should never change unless done explicitly by
the player.

#11 More keyboard assistance; there just are some things that are a real
pain w/o the keyboard. There should be regular keys (ASDF) or
(HJKL) used for navigation instead of the arrow keys. On most
keyboards the arrow keys are out-of-the-way. Play some old-style
nethack like games to get the idea. In the same way, the Fn keys
are also too-far out of range, better to use SHIFT or CTRL
modifiers instead. For example:

HJKL - movement H (strife left), L (strife right), K (forward), J (reverse)
ASDF - turning AS (turn left), DF (turn right)
CTRL+HJLMASDF - move camera
SHIFT+HJKL - target team members
SHIFT+ASDF - target foes
QWER, YUIO: activate particular skill
SHIFT+QWER,YUIO: target particular team member by number

etc. Notice the trend -- only require regular A-Z plus SHIFT/CTRL.

#12 I know your target audience is 14 year old boys, but the woman
avatars don't have to look like bimbos. I mean, some of the guy
faces are down right, well, not pretty. I don't know one of the
girl faces that doesn't have anjela jo-lee pouty lips. And I find
all of the 36D breast exposure, well, innappropriate.

[BlackArrow]

Originally Posted by cce

#9 An 'auto-attack' method, where if you cast a spell on a foe, and don't
line-up another spell, it starts to attack with one's wand immediately
thereafter. Too often I cast a spell, and then 10 seconds later realize
that I'm not firing with my wand. ;(

To auto attack hit spacebar. Even if you use a skill your character should start attacking with the wand again(or bow, sword, etc).


The main thing I want to see right now is more customization. i don't mind all the characters looking pretty, but I'd like to be able to choose from more than 5 faces and more than 4 shades of one color for my hair color. More faces, hairstyles, hair colors, and even more control over body style.

[cce]

Originally Posted by BlackArrow

i don't mind all the characters looking pretty, but I'd like to be able to choose from more than 5 faces and more than 4 shades of one color for my hair color.

I do mind, I think all of the pretty faces make the world boring. But yea, more faces would be great... particularly ugly ones with no lips, missing eyebrows, and huge honkers! And different body styles would also be super... like no-breast-bent-back-huge-caboose body style.

Originally Posted by BlackArrow

To auto attack hit spacebar. Even if you use a skill your character should start attacking with the wand again(or bow, sword, etc).

I'm talking about the situation where you're attacking someone, cast a spell, and then you stop attacking. The problem with the space bar is that it stops the casting chain, so you have to dilligently wait till your spells are off before you tap it again. If you _were_ attacking the target before you started the spell, then you should resume attacking afterwards.

[BlackArrow]

I was pretty sure that you did keep auto attacking after your spell was cast. I'll have to test that out next weekend to see if I was just dreaming it.

[Beelzebubba]

Originally Posted by cce

#3 Continue to ballance out characters, this last build rangers are a bit over-powerful, while I think the Beast Master, Death, and Smiting lines could use a bit of tender care.

I'm not sure if you played a Ranger or not, I did, and they are underpowered if you ask me. The only Ranger that I would consider might fit the over-powerful bill is a Ranger/Elementalist, but other than that I think you're mistaken.

Originally Posted by cce

#8 As a monk, I'd like a way to scroll through the list of team members that are _near by_. Once I get situated, I don't want to be running all over to try and get to a team member -- if they move outside of my spell range, that is there fault.

Not to be rude, but a Monk that doesn't want to put in any effort is not very useful. The team is not always going be standing still in one place. Monsters move around and sometimes you have to chase one down.

Originally Posted by cce

#12 I know your target audience is 14 year old boys, but the woman avatars don't have to look like bimbos.

I doubt they're target audience is that young. I have newphews and nieces that age, and very few of them care that much about sexy looking characters in their games. Most of them don't even like RPG's. I do agree that there needs to be more variety in the character looks. Not everyone looks like a model.

[Beelzebubba]

Originally Posted by BlackArrow

The main thing I want to see right now is more customization. i don't mind all the characters looking pretty, but I'd like to be able to choose from more than 5 faces and more than 4 shades of one color for my hair color. More faces, hairstyles, hair colors, and even more control over body style.

I think they should add more, but also open up all the faces and things for other classes to all the classes. I might want to play a punk rocking Ranger or something, in this case I could choose one of the Necro faces and hairstyles. It's something to think about anyway.

[cce]

Originally Posted by Beelzebubba

Not to be rude, but a Monk that doesn't want to put in any effort is not very useful. The team is not always going be standing still in one place. Monsters move around and sometimes you have to chase one down.

It'd a bit difficult to keep the location of 8 people in your head at all times. The issue happens when the health of one of your 7 team mates starts to drop a bit, you click on them and go to heal -- then your character starts running away from the main place you want to be, away from your wards and your valiant defender.

Bottom line is, if someone wants to wander off in a far off place away from everyone else, without first telling you about it, they can just die a slow horrible death. I'm not sacrificing the rest of the team to chase down a suicidal player. I'm only asking for a way to TAB through "local" team mates -- if I want to go running towards another team mate who is far-off in a distant land, I will glady do so -- but I don't want my avatar just running-off randomly on me.

Originally Posted by Beelzebubba

I'm not sure if you played a Ranger or not, I did, and they are underpowered if you ask me. The only Ranger that I would consider might fit the over-powerful bill is a Ranger/Elementalist, but other than that I think you're mistaken.

The ranger has two things going for it. First, the ranger's armour is as good as a warriors for many GvG matches. I only played a bit of PvP, but I got roasted by a fire elementalist... much of the damage done these days is elemental. I even went 1-1 with a warrior... who had one of those flaming swords. In both cases, the Ranger armour was far better than what I had. What's the kicker is that the Ranger armour gives you a bonus to energy that the warrior armour doesn't. And then, the ranger has expertise, cutting your skill cost by 50% on a regular basis... what a totally awesome skill. I agree with Beast mastery needs a bit of help; but the Ranger's armour and expertise is enough for any one to consider Ranger primary even if they want to be a mesmer, elementalist, or healer. If expertise isn't nerfed a bit, I'm playing a Ra/El.. for the better armour and so that the skills I'm using cost half as much -- 35-40 energy is just as good as 80 energy with Expertise.

[Kirbie]

hello,
Wow, this thread became so long that I'm not sure that my idea will be heard.
But I'll post it anyways...

==About new storage system==
I noticed that bags doesn't provide me with enough space to store items.
So I'm wondering how "instanced" dwelling area will work along with bags.
For example, 1 gamecopy has 1 dwelling area(like tent, house) where your character(s) will dwell. You can buy like closets, drawers, and totes to increase your storage room and decorate. This will make passing item to your different character extreamly efficient...for example
lets say my monk picked up a great sword for my warrior. I simply go to dwelling area, drop my sword in my tote. Log on as warrior this time, and pick up the sword left by monk from a tote, since all of my character will share the dwelling area.

==New battle idea==
I'm pretty sure that almost everyone here have played greatest SNES rpg game called "Chrono Trigger".
Very unique feature in that game is "combo" system, where simultaneous combination of magic/skill will unleash ultimate move. I think this will give more strategy taste in guildwars....and makes it unique comepare with other mmorpgs. So for example....
Lets say my party has monk, elementalist and a warrior. Monk cast holy strike to allie warrior, Elem casts lightning strike to allie warrior(I know these spells are suppose to cast on enemy). Then with warriors Final thrust and max adrenaline, it will unleash deadly move...lets call it Divine Lightning of Judgement. If warrior does not meet requirements, then monk and elem's spell will count as enchantment on warrior until warrior unleashs it. Enemy can counter it by using remove enchantment spell, before warrior uses it.

Holy Strike(monk) + Lightning Strike (elem) + Final Thrust + max adrenaline = "Divine Lightning of Judgement"(by warrior)

Description of DLoJ = With legendary lightning sword bestowed from heaven, warrior strikes the enemy.

Effect of DLoJ = Target recieves critical damage, and enemies around target are knockdown and crippled. Warrior is invincible during cast time.

Obviously with cool animation too....like lightning from sky strikes warrior. Warrior grabs lighting sword. Jumps(any distance) and strikes any target(regardless of distance)

I think this will work nice if character has 1 extra skill slot dedicate "only" for combo. (8 skills + 1 dedicate combo skill = 9 skills)

This will surely increase team strategy and carefull crafting/planning of team combo slots.

These are just examples...so if it is too silly, anyones welcome to laugh lol

==New summon==
Everyone loves eye candy when it comes to game. When I play guildwars...I love battling...at the same time seeing all of magical fireworks
Anyone who knows "Golden Sun" for gameboy advance will know its summoning fireworks. Once creature is summoned, it will take enemies into diffenrent arena, deals brief damage, then leaves. And opponants are back to normal battle arena.
Creature may heal party members or temporarily boost party stats or before it leaves.
Obviously very fancy animation and fireworks are required...must be brief, but long enough time to wipe sweat off your palm, and thinking about next move
Every character will have summon creature according to primary profession. During the battle, only 1 creature can be summoned. Once summoned, allie members cannnot summon for 4-5 minutes(cool down since summon requires great concentration). To prevent summon abuse, we need to set conditions like requirement of 5 live members. Futuremore, summoner will take negative stats penalty until cool down time of 4-5 minutes are over. Summon has long cast time and can be interrupted by attack.
For reference, go here, download and watch summon video
http://www.planetnintendo.com/goldensun/media/videos/

anyways...these might be very silly stuff, but let me know your review of these ideas

Wow...long post
Hope it will help to make guildwars more fun and chanlleging.

p.s: adding replay option will be great(like starcraft and warcraft)...so that we can watch how we did after the intense battle.

[Tur713]

To say something against what I've been hearing is that I really enjoyed the PvP part of the academy. I just ran in, did my normal "rain fire down and then shoot fire balls" thing for attacking and In fact, I had no idea that it was PvP until afterward, which made the experience even more fun for me. This are just my opinion and I think we need to post some more counter opinions to what people have said so Arenanet gets the whole perspective of what the players want.

[Kirbie]

Sorry,
Just thought of another add-on idea
About bags and dwelling place...

Lets say your bag is filled during a middle of quest..
Rather than dropping off items to accommodate new item, there is a carrier option.
You pay like 5 golds to transfer few items in your bag to tote in your dwelling area

==New Trading System==
Trading gets simpler everyday....now you can trade in your dwelling area.
Pick your item(s), write a little message(like "I will only accept sword for this item(s)") pay carrier-man 10 gold deposit and send it away to auction NPC.
If you are satisfy with offer, you have 1 day to accept, and other party also has 1 day to accept. With complete transaction, you get 50% of deposite money back. (5 gold consume by auction NPC for service charge...well, they have to make money too right?). If transaction is not complete, well....you lose all deposit . Therefore you have to be serious when trying to trade.
You will receive up-to-date info by talking to auction NPC in any town.

What happens if you don't have 10 golds
Well...you can set up kiosk desk...which worths 2 gold(please don't tell me you don't even have 2 golds ).
Kiosk will display your item.
Complete transaction...you get 50%(1 gold) money back, since you will recycle the desk.
No transaction....2 golds are gone; because out of frustration(no one is interst at your item), you burn the desk.
Therefore you must be serious about trading.

If you don't have 2 golds....
there is always person to person trading.