Curse

Sky Oneas · Jul 01, 2005, 08:42 PM // 20:42

I am but a humble player of many in the community that plays Guild Wars and I have come to make a few suggestions and, I guess, comments.

I realize that many of my suggestions following this will be reiterations of suggestions made by previous folks. Having not the attention span to siphon through all 40+ pages in the suggestions forum of this fansite I have chosen to simply put down my thoughts. Perhaps my words will reinforce the old ideas and keep the topic fresh for at least a few minutes (at best.)

First of all I have to say, I enjoy playing Guild Wars and more importantly, I love exploring every possible inch of the world map and doing absolutely everything the game has to offer. I tip my hat off to all those who had a hand in making the game what it already is today.

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Now on that note I would like to segue into a few thoughts that I have had in my mind for quite some time:

Throughout the course of my play (I have yet to actually finish all the campaigns so I might sound a bit stupid for suggesting something that already exists in the game, and for that I apologize) I have noticed that there are some things lacking. They are but minor details that would enrich the gaming experience, really. The game itself is pretty solid.

First off there is a lack of weapon selection, not just among the various professions available in the game but simply in general. Yes, there are many types of swords and bows and staves, axes, hammers, etc. but other weapon types are oddly ... non-existent. Such as the class of pole arms which encompasses up many sub-types of weaponry. (Other types include small weapons like daggers) Of course you can get more exotic but the further you get down that road, the less sense it will make.

I fully realize there isn't yet a profession that would logically use such weapons (Other than perhaps the Monk, who resembles something more of an Asian martial artist. But that too I realize would not fit with their skills and utility in the game.) and I hope such an expansion in the weaponry library would follow an expansion in profession types later on. I also hope that perhaps later on characters can 'Dual Wield' certain weapons. That would make the game so much more awesome.

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Onto some thoughts about NPC Allies (including Pets) and Henchmen. Typically I see that I have only rudimentary 'control' over these characters, and yes I know they're controlled by AI but sometimes they just can't be left to their own devices. It would be nice if there was some functionality that let players give even simple commands to the NPCs, either to them as individuals or as a whole.

For example, targetting a character and asking for healing. Commands that could set tactics such as 'Hold Ground', 'Attack Nearest', 'Protect [Target]', basic stuff one would find in an Real Time Strategy for example. I don't expect it to be sophisticated, but I would like it if the NPCs didn't always rush in and like, die. (Yes, I know you can target enemies and focus fire on them with NPCs and stuff, but could be so much more!)

Perhaps you can even tie this into Party Leadership or perhaps make it a general skill available to everyone that gives them to ability to issue certain commands. That would be interesting. If not those then they can be a general set of commands anyone in the party can issue.

It sounds a little impractical to implement because of the fast-paced style of battle that is characteristic of Guild Wars, but there must be some way to make it work. Perhaps adding it as commands linked to certain keys or buttons that are optionally visible as part of the user interface. Something along those lines would be helpful and fine, I don't think it would be too much of an eyesore.

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Weapon Specialization

I think it's something that would be useful. Not just general weapon specialization like those available as attributes to Warriors and such, but specialization in certain, defined types of weapons, such as longswords, shortsword, longbows, moonbow, shortbows, you name it. Specialization could increase a character's efficiency in using such weapons by marginally increasing min/max damage or perhaps increase 'Rate of Fire' or some such minor advantage. This specialization could be worked into the character's attributes or made something seperate entirely. That's completely up in the air at this point.

This may well be out of the style of Guild Wars entirely but I just thought to throw that in there and leave it as an open idea to any takers.

Also, it'd be nice in-game if I could actually see a weapon's other statistics, especially when it comes to Bows, for I am a Ranger primarily. Things like Rate of Fire and Firing Arc, etc. can be said to be intuitive, and for the most part it is. But once you get into weapons like the Horn, Moon, Dead, or something that doesn't sound like the standard 'Long-, Composite-, Short- bow' it gets rather confusing and at times I wish it was just detailed out for me instead of making me have to try out each one to see which is best. It's rather hard for the eye to tell quickly as well.

I bet you could probably find out all these statistics at a community site such as this one, but as for being in-game and needing information quickly, that would be very, very nice for everyone.

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Armor and Crafting

It's cool that there are NPC crafters that create armor, but in Guild Wars, there seems to be no crafting available to the players themselves. If crafting is planned for later installments to Guild Wars I applaud the initiative. In fact if any of my ideas are already in the works or even already working and I just haven't figured it out, I am a happy guy.

Crafting itself could include a wide range of weapons and armor and perhaps miscellaneous things that are not exactly related to equipment (Who knows?) Perhaps even crafting custom Runes! Ha, okay that might be a little far-fetched and probably would be an unbalancing factor in the game, but it did sound pretty interesting in my head. Perhaps it could be something to be explored.

The availability of armor, much like the availability of weapons is rather limited, advanced and specialized armor too is quite limited. Rangers get, what? Just Druid Armor? I don't really have any specifics in mind, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for new armors to be available in later updates and expansions.

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Expanded Storage would also be nice, either that or expanded bags, I'm a hoarder by nature of my gaming and it is so very difficult to hoard things with so limited space. It brings to tear to my eye, really.

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Also it'd be nice if there was an option in the menu for a player to return to the Character Selection menu, making it easier to switch from character to character without logging out and relogging in. I send stuff to my other character (The 'Alt') via storage all the time (Mainly so I can use him as more storage since I hoard things) and it's just a little bit annoying to log out and back in again.

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And well, that's all I can think of at the moment, perhaps I'll add to the list of dema-- Er, suggestions later on if anything else comes to mind on my travels throughout Tyria.

Again I would like to thank the crew at ArenaNet for making an excellent game that is both fun and cost effective for the average Joe. I would also like to thank the guys at Guild Wars Guru for giving a guy like me an outlet to express his thoughts to both the Guild Wars Community and the Developers.

And Thank You All for taking the time to read through what, I imagine, must have been a painful list of things you have already read time and time again. I congratulate your patience, and even if my ideas are not implemented at all, (Due to their [unforeseen by me] impracticality and nature, probably) it is a welcome prospect that players can communicate with the developers in order to build a better game that everyone can enjoy.

Edit: Oh yes, I would also like to endorse the Role Playing idea put up in the Sticky thread. It is also one of my great passions, along with gaming of course, and it really is an attractive prospect.

May You Live Well And Prosper.