Official Suggestion Thread - Final (April) BWE

[Sausaletus Rex]

Another BWE, another thread to direct your suggestions on the game to ANet. However, a bit of difference this time around. There will be some strict and rather harshly enforced rules to make sure that your ideas are head. Disobey them at your peril.

THE RULES:

• You get one post.
  Period, end of discussion. You can post in this thread one and only one time. If you have anything else to say or add you can edit your post with the button on the right hand corner of that post. No replies, no discussion, just post your ideas and move on. Any posts beyond your first one will be merged or deleted as the situation warrants.
• Discussion belongs in a new thread.
  If you want to reply to another person's suggestions or think a particular idea merits more talk, make a thread in our suggestions forum, the Sardelac Sanitarium. There you can carry on with whatever talk and postings you want.
• The more detailed the better.
  Posting to say "I want more armor options" is all well and good but the more details you provide the better. Why do you want more armor options? What does adding more armor options to the game add to it? Explain yourself and detail your suggestion as much as possible.

[Gaile Gray]

While you're having fun in the BWE, you may form suggestions for a cool new idea for Guild Wars. Remember, we will be rolling out new content with our Live Team updates, and of course there are those exciting new chapters to consider.

So don't be shy, share your thoughts, during or after the current Beta Weekend Event! Thanks much.

[Alex Weekes]

If you have feedback, we'd love to read it. This month there are new zones to explore and lots of nice new features as detailed in the Fansite Friday.

What did you like? What needs improving? How can we improve it? Remember - the more detail, the better!

[Burodsx]

*I want to put gold in my Vault, no point in my Gold being stuck on a character if I plan to delete them. Also more Vault space, there's just way too many items in the game to have so little space. (Crafting materials, Dyes, Runes especially)

*Account based storage of pets. Would be very nice to own every pet in the game. Would need to have a restriction on limiting the usage of pets to the appropiate level of the player. (Ie: Can't have a lvl 4 player and lvl 20 pet)

*See Elythor's Post about Pet/Henchmen Attack modes <-- Great idea

*Death Penality can be difficult to get rid of. Sometimes I don't get a reduction in DP until after my group has killed 5 monsters, which is really difficult to handle since most missions/quests get harder after a certain point. I'm not exactly sure how DP recovery works entirely, but it just seems to me that recovering from it is almost Impossible unless you're early in the game fighting lvl 4 monsters.

*Combine Salvage and Identification Kits to go past their normal capacity. (Ie: 2 salvage kits of 25 uses makes 1 salvage kit of 50 uses)

*Need a better way to find a team in towns, "Searching for Team Chat"?

*Would like to see a Vault in PreSearing. Since there are no decent crafters located in PreSearing, being able to transfer a half decent Weapon/Sheild would be nice to allow people to go through PreSearing easier after they have already been through it once with a previous character.

*(Some) Item Prices still need serious revamping. For example: In PreSearing a FOCUS that adds +3 energy costs 100 gold... That's insane!

*Cleanse the Quest log after the player has left PreSearing.

*Account Based Map with Town Travel based on Character.
This would just be nice for those who like to explore the map to the fullest and not have to waste time doing it on all their characters. As long as traveling between towns is based on characters only. The town could perhaps appear as a Grey Circle if it has yet to be accessed by the current character.

*More Character Slots (Figure I might as well ask)

*Better organization at the crafters. Perhaps grouping items by sets or by item type. (Ie: Full armor set as in Wander Pants, Shoes, etc.) Maybe even make new tabs at the crafter for specifically organizing the equipment.

[WolfpackEE]

• Save state of the chat filters so that I don't have to turn off things like emotes every time I start the game
• Provide stats such as total equipped armor
• Make Team Players names a different color than blue so that they are easy to pick out in a crowd
• While the Trade chat filter is nice, there still needs to be a true auction house type implementation. I'd like to post items for sell then get back to playing the game rather than standing in the city barking WTB and WTS
• Give us the ability to delete quests out of the quest log. I have pre-searing quests that need to be taken out since I've left that area.

[Tur713]

So far no suggestions yet. Just enjoying the game! I'll edit my post when I see what I can suggest. Just wanted to say good job you guys!

[Synthos]

Someone had the idea that mabey each person could have there own personal "home" instance. Where you can store extra items or a place to trade between your pets! I also thought mabey it would be nice if you could choose the environment/ location of your home like in the mountains or in the jungle. Or mabey your home can change when enter new areas, starting out from an Ascalon home to a Mountain home to a Lions arch home. Right now it feels like your lost, wandering around without a home. And having one would make the game feel allot more warm and inviting.

I think that party members that are out of range and are off your map, like if they run ahead, when you click on there name there should be an a Arrow on your compass should appear to tell you where they are, Like with waypoints.

I think the Male elementalist Bow fireing animation really needs work, I cant even use my E/Ra combination because it looks so bad, Would you please work on it a bit so it looks better?

Great work on the Female ranger dance btw

Okay a few more while im at it.

Frostgate is a much better name then Groobles Gulch. Its a huge gate with frost on it, what the heck is a grooble?

Can you possibly make weapon switching more efficient while attacking, You have to click off or click again on the enemy to change the weapon, it should just chage. Thankyou

Great job with the vault, nice

[bouncingsoulx]

don't know what this was said but...

a way to delete quests that you are supposed to do... so they are not in your list

how come after you do the academy mission your like in the middle of nowhere and it's hard to find where ascalon is... and if u don't find it ur like for lack of better terms screwed because thoes monsters are hard

Network Time Limit Expired What the Heck is that... i was playing then that comes up i have to re-login and all of my progress is LOST!!!

i really hope that was a glitch because if it always does that how can u get anywhere!!!

i think there should be alot more arrows to places like cities without missions there is no idea by anyone where to go...

There should be an easier way to get parties together... like a random party which trys to put you with a group of people like... warrior, mage, and such

maybe make ping and line colors on the map certain colors for each team member so you know who is doing what... some times u have some jerk just doing stuff and well it's not what u want to be following while the leader is trying to point things out

[Elythor]

I have posted this already over by The Pet Corner thread.

Suggestion for Pet/Hench AI mode:

Aggressive - attack closest target of opportunity in range of master's radar. But prioritized master's called target.

Normal - attack prioritized to: 1) master's called target 2) enemies attacking master 3) enemies attacking itself

Defensive/Passive - only attacks when pet itself comes under attack, or when master called a target

And then these 3 modes can be hot keyed to a button to cycle through the different modes.

Party Members Class
It'd be great if I the Party Member list on the right hand side of the screen also show the respective classes of your members. This will come in extra handy in pick-up groups so one glance at your member list would let you know quickly what characters there are in your party. Especially good for Monk characters to prioritize who to heal first.

Another useful point is if my party's Monk calls out for help, I will then be able to quickly see her name and identify her as our monk...so we'll go rush and save her.

(note: I'll add more suggestions as BWE goes on.)

[JjK]

that spell sound is hella annoying.
Make pet names *name* rather than, pet - name

gold used to have a meaning in the last beta, now everything is back to 1 gold. put it back, pelase.

make just one mmorpg classic map. one place, monters, and lots of people...fighting...

A guild battle viewer, just like if you died in a party, you can view your team.
So others from your guild can watch the battle, when there is no room.

[uriel99]

*change the territory-related account system*

Limit the places we can reach depending on our location is not a god idea, it takes away a large part of the social aspect of the game. If there is really a need for that, then make it so we can still access other area's zones, the place we are should only define default zone, and not be a limit to what we can reach. I mean, I will start in some random european zone, ok. But if I feel like playing in an american zone, then it should be possible. International zones are not as good, for they imply an agreement to meet there, and no fortuitous meeting.


*create a world-wide chat and a shopping channel* [Edit: some of it has been done already, thanks ]

As of today, the OOC chat is limited to the zone we are in. Wich means no way to reach the crowd when solo hunting. Zone chat, or private chat, is that all we get? A worldwide OOC, that could be seen anywhere by everyone would be a nice idea, when looking for help about a quest, or just to talk with people from another area (yep, that is nother solution for the territory accounts too...).

Another good thing would be a shopping dedicated channel. Thre's always someone trying to sell or buy something, wich may get annoying for those who don't want to buy or sell anything. A dedicated channel that can be activated and disactivated in option menu would limit the amount of unwanted advertising (as most people would probably use it, not all, of course, there are always people not to respect such things), and sellers / buyers would still have a nice way to advertise their stuff.

Also, this channel could be worldwide too. As of today, when player1 is willing to sel la bow in ascalon district 1, and player2 is willing to buy a bow in ashford's abbey 4, they are both stuck. A worldwide channel would let them agree on a meeting location and let them conclude their trade faster and easier. This way, people wouldn't have to flood shop channel forever.

[Edit: OK I feel stupid now, between last beta and thiso ne, a trade channel has been added... Just noticed it. I don't remove those lines though, to show my approval about it ]

*Visual variety and apearance choice*

It's probably been asked a gazillion times already, but I'd like to have more choices in apearance... Not just more faces and hair styles. I'd like to chose the clothing style of my character, at least to start with. I'd like to, let's say, have a mesmer with the leather clothing of a necromancer and a ranger's face... It might be handy to easily identify a character by its look, but that leads some people to chose their class not on the way they want to play, but on the look. Look shouldn't be an issue, playing a necro/monk while looking like an elementalist should be allowed, IMHO.

Another funny thing to add would be a "fat factor". Yeah, chosing between a fat, average or skinny character would be funny. I'd like to see some short, fat monk around

* Character selection at login: more details please*

OK, so I type my password, and I see my 4 characters, all looking good and strong. Even that newb lvl 1 Necro looks good. Wait... I know I multiclassed him, but what was it already? I select him, and I see... His name. JUST his name. Of course, from his look I know he's a necromancer, but I can't seem to remember his second class, and there is nothing to display it. I have to actually play him to find out. See my point here? I don't think it would be too hard to add a line under the name that would say "lvl 1 N/Me" for instance

* Heal area is useless? O_o'*

OK, that's really a detail, but I find "heal area" really useless now. I think it used to heal only party members in range, but now it heals EVERYTHING in range. Including foes. Becomes useless in melee battle, this way. May still be of some use if the monk (or whatever class using monk as secondary profession) is next to a caster or ranger or whatever fighting (from a distance) a ranged foe... Let's say, I'm a monk with heal area, I'm standing next to a fellow elementalist casting fireballs at a charr ranger... OK, then maybe heal area will have some use. If I'm in ANY other situation, it becomes useless. Unless if you use it as an after-battle heal spell... I really can't think of a situation in wich healing foes as well as friends can come handy. I understand that this spell is really powerful and needs some counterweight, but not to a point you can only use it in very exeptional situations...

* Party of 2? why?? *

OK, so now, for lowbies, the maximum number of people in a party is 2. Hardly makes a party. I understand that this seem to increase as we level... But why is that? Can't lowbies / newbies have fun with more than a friend? I've read everywhere that Guild Wars was all about skills, be them skills aquired in game or player skills, but this just makes people want to level just to team with more. Heck, I was teamed with a friend, and another friend asked me to join. What did I say? "sorry mate, full party"... EVERYTHING in this game is clearly oriented to let people have a good fun even if they don't have much time to play or don't play often, and that is GREAT. Thumbs up and all. But that limit in party members is... Well, too low. If you want to start new characters with your friends, you can't. Unless if you have ONE friend at whole. Please... remove that.

* Am I that sneaky, or is it just that footsteps have no sound? *

Just a quick word about sounds. I ALWAYS play without music. I find it more immersive. Whatever. The game is pretty quiet, without music. There is no footstep sound when running around, the "ambiance" sounds are almost inexistant (well, better than in the beta 2 months ago, in wich you'd hear a waterfall from a mile away...), and only fights actually generate some sounds. That, and the ocasional XP reward from a quest, etc. That's not much, but the sounds of footsteps would add alot. With a variety if possible, I don't think my old ranger boots would produce the same sound on a dusty road and on the marble ground of the catacombs...


That's all. Beta is over, and the game will be out soon. If you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go camp the postman for my preorder delivery

[Siren]

Only suggestion for now, but more will follow, I think.

The Attribute Point Refund System. The first few BWEs, it worked fine, but now, it seems...clumsy and irrelevant.

One of the major points of GW, as I've come to understand, is adaptibility, especially when it comes to combat. We have about six professions, each with roughly 50 skills/spells. Each profession has approximately five attributes, which each affect a different skill/spell type. We have a total of eight skill slots for our active bar, and can swap skills/spells from our larger master set in towns.

Now, I don't know about anyone else, but that really screams character versatility, in that with so many different combinations of skills available, the players are able to adapt to new situations.

In PvP, there have been a few times now that I've wanted to re-distribute my attribute points to test a new type of character--a variation on a Mesmer/Elementalist, Necro/Warrior, etc--but have been limited in what I could really do because of the Refund limit. With the limit of four characters per account, this really becomes a pain. I'm not suggesting increasing the amount of characters, but a re-evaluation of the merits and usefulness of the Refund system is a good idea, I think.

Ignoring the usefulness of NO limits on skill point refunds for PvP, it would also serve "new" characters incredibly well.

I started an Elementalist today and had put a reasonable (not extreme, just reasonable, mind) level of points into Fire magic, because the Ele gets Flare to start, and defending myself adequately is something I feel is important, lol. But then I visited Wizard's Folly and Foible's Fair to get Air magic and Domination magic (for my Mesmer sub-profession), and found myself between Iraq and a hard place (pardon the bad pun).

I wanted to invest points into Air magic and Domination, but I would have had to sacrifice precious Refund points to do so...and that limits options severely.

Maybe I'm just not seeing/understanding the reasoning behind the Refund system (maybe to cut down on skill/spell exploiting?), but it seems to me that the Refund limit is getting in the way of character development.

EDIT 1: I'm pretty sure my character is stuck in Ascalon Academy. I don't see any way for me to complete the short segment, because my only team mate exited out of the game after the short PvP portion, leaving me to solo the next part with my Necro/Mesmer combination.

After exiting the game, figuring that maybe it'll put me in a group, I found myself grouped with a NPC healer, who did little in the way of healing and I quickly was swarmed again, despite my best efforts to avoid such a situation.

It's very aggravating when players exit out (particularly after the intentional PvP "hiccup" of Ascalon Academy).

So, I have two suggestions I'd like to see implemented.

1) No Exit. In segments like Ascalon Academy, the human player is unable to exit the current instanced zone.

2) If No Exit is not integrated, then exiting the client and re-starting GW should place the player in a full(er) PC group.

EDIT 2: I was reading the thread and wanted to highlight a particular suggestion. My apologies as I've forgotten who originally suggested this idea, and also the person I'm quoting:

I'll echo interest in giving the non-fire elementalists an early helping hand. The same goes for all classes, though. Perhaps the first skill gift by the first trainer can come with an option for playstyle?
"You have done well in removing the skale from their river perch, but tell me, what elemental path interests you most?
> I wish to rain fire from the heavens to defeat my foes
> I desire to petrify my enemies in a frosty grip of ice
> Crushing my enemies with the colossal weight of earth is my vision
> I seek great winds and lighting, buffeting and tearing the flesh from my foes
> The elements are grand, but I hope to harness the visceral energies of magic directly."
The choice would provide them with a starting skill set and perhaps appropriate starter weapon. Some skills can exist in mutliple sets, of course, but every attribute should provide benefit to those who wish to raise it immediately.

That would be perfect.

EDIT 3: This deals solely with the Ascalon Academy segment after Pre-Searing Ascalon.

The score display. Could it be re-designed so that there won't be any confusion whatsoever as to which team has which amount of kills? Something as simple as a 2x2 table (Team-Kills), or even just labels. It got confusing at times keeping track of what team had what kills.

Perhaps labels like "Your Team" and "Opposing Team"? Also, and this is more or less purely cosmetic, could our kills be on the left, and the other team's kills be on the right? It's that whole Player 1-Player 2 thing.

[Pulpmill]

First, thanks for the changes in the chat channels. Much improved. I was able to clear out all the clutter and talk to my group with much less trouble. Also, the speech bubbles over the heads were very helpful, though why they only showed the first few words of a sentence I don't know.

This leads me to my suggestions. I think, in a game that is primarily focused on groups getting together and working together to fight monsters and other players, a lot more could be done to make communication, as well as finding and joining a group and keeping track of where they are, easier.

Here are my suggestions.

1 - add a LOOKING FOR TEAM button that puts your name on a list other players can search. The stops all the lft broadcasting and blind inviting. I don't know about you, but I feel embarrased asking characters that are standing around by the gate, "Do you want to team up? What level are you?" It is impossible to tell if they are on a team already, if they are talking with someone else. If they are high above you or far below you. But if you had a list that had all that information you would know what kind of character they were and that they were actively looking to team up. Much easier and more conveinient.

2 - When you join a team, everyone's quests should show up in a TEAM QUEST LOG, so that you can easily tell what quests the team has in common, and make a decision about which to do. I spent nearly an hour talking with my team mates in town trying to figure out what we were going to do and who had what quest.

3 - This has been said before, but the Quest Giver's name should be listed with the quest in the quest log. My team mates were asking me where I got some of my quests that I picked up during the last beta and I had to say I had no idea.

4 - Please make it so that when one member of a team goies into an instanced zone, he doesn't drag the rest of the party with him. Three times we said "Everybody ready? We're going into the Frontier" and went through, only to have a team mate who didn't chat much, run back into town and drag us with him because he hadn't finished a trade. That added another half hour onto messing around in town when we could have been adventuring.

5 - Put a halo around team members in town, or turn their names on permanantly instead of only turning on with a mouse-over. I kept losing track of my team-mates while we were trying to get everybody together, and since everybody in the game looks almost exactly the same, it was impossible to pick them out visually. Giving them a halo you can see through the landscape so you know where they are even when they're not in visual range wouldn't be a bad idea either.

6 - I mentioned this after the last BWE but here it is again. Add a audio cue when a team member enters something into the chat bar. A beep or a chirp will make it easier to know when a team member is talking amongst all the other chatter scrolling by in the chat window.

I know all of these features are possible because all of them already exist in City of Heroes. Sorry to mention the competition, but they have done an extremely good job making teaming and talking and knowing where your friends and team-mates are easy and simple.

I like the world of Guild Wars better then the world of City of Heroes. Sword and Sorcery is my thing. I would rather play here. But I also like community and comradeship and the feeling of sharing a grand adventure with my team-mates, and the current difficulties of joining or assembling a team and communicating with the members of that team get in the way of that all-for-one-one-for-all experience.

Thanks for your time.

[metalkobra]

alrighty, here comes my suggestions for new monsters, so here goes!


BOSS MONSTERS (GUILD BATTLES)
Name:Aurabird
strength:all hand weapons and magic
Weakness:arrows
Hi Defense:no hand weapons can attack him
Lo Defense:arrows and throwing spears
attributes:This birdlike creature lives at the top of high
mountains, very swift, and attacks with sonic booms from flapping
his wings, and also has an attack that shoots an aura beam in a
circle attacking all attackers.

400,000 HP all of the archers should get together with high strength
and defense, also needs to be fast and have a few necromancers
and healers.

Nameemon grawl
weakness: swords, hammers, axes, bows
defense: magic, bows and arrows
this is a grawl with black fur and huge claws, he has red glowing eyes and a gray patch on his chest, he can shoot his claws out at fast speeds like a bow and arrow, also has a swipe that does quite a bit of damage, take a good group of 20 warriors!

HP: 150,000 (dont forget a few healers and necromancers)

Name:HellaBella
strength:most magics,some hand weapons
Weakness:some hand weapons
Hi Defense:lighining/fire magic
Lo Defense:ice/water magic,hammers,swords,axes
attributes:This is the boss of the Bellowars! he looks just like
them, but takes longer to attack due to his enormous size and
attacks with HUGE comets, how he does this is he uses his
powerful snout to suck in as many boulders as he can, then raises
his body temperature to melt the boulders into a huge comet which
he then shoots straight up in the air, so run as far as you can
to not get destroyed!!!!! also watch out for his earthquake stomps!

600,000 HP attack with clans of 20-30 people mixed together.


Nameoomaclamp
Strength:all magic
Weakness:all close ranged weapons
Hi Defense:all magics and long ranged weapons
Lo Defense:close ranged weapons
attributes: This enemy is made of rock and pieces of steel, his arms
are shaped like lobster claws, and he is one tough enemy, very high HP
and high attack, close to being a god! (for very high levels)

HP: 650,000 attack in large guilds or groups of guilds together for lots of exp!

Name:Mephisto
Strength: close/long range magic
Weakness:swords,staves,axes,bows
Hi Defense:close/long range magic
Lo Defense:close/long range weapons
attributes: He is a demon from hell, looks like a reaper with horns and floats in the air,lots of magical power arises fromthis conjured being, attack with all your might!

HP: 250,000

REGULAR MONSTERS
Name:Floran
Strength: long range weapons
Weakness: close ranged weapons/fire magic
Hi Defense:bows
Lo Defense:swords,axes, (staves do no damage)
attributes: This is a plant demon similar to a venus flytrap, shoots
poison that has a lasting effect after the battle so you better hope
to have some resistance to poison!

Name:Metasteel
Strength:close/long range weapons
Weakness:water/fire magic
Hi Defense:swords,staves,axes,bows
Lo Defense:water or fire magic
attributes: This machine monster was crafted by a possessed smith
so its possible to do high damage with water and fire attacks seeing as
how steel rusts and melts.


Name:Bellowar
strength:all magics
Weakness:hammers only (oooh fun!)
Hi Defense:magic,swords,staves,axes,bows
Lo Defense:hammers!
attributes:This odd looking creature can be found on the fire
continent and it fires medium sized comets from its snout, has
the head of a brontosaur with the snout of an anteater, very
territorial and hostile, very strong, hope you have lots of HP!
and defense!

Name:Nomad
strength:all magics
Weakness:hand weapons
Hi Defense:all magics except fire
Lo Defense:swords,axes,staves,hammers,arrows
attributes:This is a member of a tribe found high in the mountains
they can attack in groups, so if you go near them, make sure
you have some support items and support from healers. *special
attack* when attacked with a fire spell its leather armor will
stay on fire, causing damage every 5 seconds. If a group is
attacked by fire, a healer can take off the fire or put it out
with a rain spell.
Well, those are my contributions for now , maybe ill think up some new things later hehe.

[Phoebe Girl]

Could areas on the map that we have been to (other than main cities) be marked with their name?

Perhaps there is a setting for this that I have not seen, but it would be nice to open your map and see the places you have been (regent valley, catacombs, etc).

Also, maybe a feature for the guards or collectors/outfitters to ask where a certain location is - say you are looking for Wizard's Folley. An outfitter or guard in the area around the Abbey would have an option for "Help me find..." or something similar with maybe 2 or 3 places nearby. Their help would not be very specific, but would be something to the extent of (in the example of trying to find Wizard's Folley) "Oh, just head north west of the Abbey, you can't miss it".

Other than those two small things, I am enjoying the game VERY much - great job guys!!

[Pinger]

Blocking Textures removal - annoying when you can't go one way over a small rock but have to take a detour Around it. More annoying if you are chasing something or worse being chased and manually moving and then find a texture that Looks like it can be crossed but it's a blocked area.

Pets & Death - Make the pets respawn with you or just remove them completely if you die. As it stands if a ranger is soloing and dies then he/she has a long boring battle Back to the pets corpse to revive it, casue as all the mobs have respawned.

keyboard/mouse control settings I'd like to be able to map certain keys to my mouse for combat etc but atm I can't

edit:

Quickbar - make it possible to add spells to your quickbar seeing it has limited slot for now when IN the country side or indoor quest zones, atm you cant unless you go back to a town city etc, right pain if you ask me.

But also one suggestion which I've seen elsewhere but not in this thread is increase the quickbar size for spells or have multiple quickbars which would help indirectly

[azunder]

Add a way for people to specify what their characters do. There should be a way to know if the monk your inviting is a smiter or a healer. Or, if the mesmer your inviting is an illusionary weaponry fighter or an antimage.

[Devil's Dictionary]

In my humble opinion, what Guild War lacks is--

* Sound/Music. I'd like to hear some environmental sounds, a bit of music, maybe even my own footsteps. When I was hunting in Lake County, I sometimes felt my speakers were turned off because I heard no sound except an occasional Graw arrow.

Now if ArenaNet already has music and sounds but decided not to make the beta-players download them, you can lynch me and burn my post .

* Quest pointer. I'd like an option to be able to remove the small green arrow. I like to explore arround and I feel insulted when a green arrow pops-up and says "Do you know you are heading in the wrong direction, dude? Go here!". It might be nice in Pre-Seared Ascaron, but I dislike it.

[Zeal]

Party Members bar in right corner is allways reseted to it's shape after you enter a new area or go to some outpost. i use the bar in left lower corner and it's more width than height and it's very annoying that you allways have to change it's appearance when yoou enter a mission. SO if party member bar settings could be saved like other UI appearance. (sry about the bad english hope you understand.)

[Iain ap Cuilleain]

It's nice to see such serious interest in player feedback -- Thank you for what seems like it will be a wonderful game.

In the interests of brevity, I'll try to keep this in point form for easy addition:

*Minions are, unfortunately, still pretty worthless. They need the same sort of fix that pets just received, since immediate attacks against impossible odds by an over-eager minion adds up to a Health Sacrifice of 100% when soloing.

*The removal of shouted Calls for Beastmasters is, I think, an error. The Ranger's energy pool is a bit limited and a skill slot is taken up by Charm Animal already, so to make pet attacks an individual one-shot cast rather than a limited-duration ability seriously hampers a Ranger in PVE and makes Beastmastery worthless in PVP. With the Calls having an effect on all allied companions at least made the use of pets in PVP of potential worth, as one party member could be a Beastmaster/Trapper, the main penalty for each pet being the aforementioned loss of a skill slot to bring one along. No more. Pets are now a fashion statement.

First Edit

*Henchmen: These seem to be awfully low-level at the first availability -- the Monk kept trying to get herself killed, often successfully. If they are to remain at Level 3, can we at least have some way of knowing their skill set, in order to get an idea of what they're capable of and how best to defend them?

*Storage: While the Vaultkeeper is a welcome addition, it would be really nice to be able to buy bags in Ascalon City. The number of storage spaces will be a major limitation, so, unless this is your intent, please make additional space available early, since we often don't know what we might need that Gargoyle Skull for.

*Pre-Order Item: This ties into the storage issues. Since we can assume that the in-game item we receive will only be useful early on and will then be only a souvenir, will there be a means of deselecting its' existence, so as not to waste one of our valuable storage spaces by carrying around an item which we'll want to keep? Perhaps the items can be switched over to a 'decorative' mode, which would allow it to be carried as a non-functional piece of apparel in common areas, rather than in playable areas, the reverse of what happens to real weapons or foci.

Second Edit

*Skill Points/Signet of Capture: You can take care of both concepts by adding to, say, the 'Tithe for Ashford Abbey' quest, getting Brother Mehnlo to explain the skill point you've received, then suggesting that you use a Signet of Capture (which he'll give you) to use that skill point. He could direct you to trainers for your Primary/Secondary professions, who would say "Ah! I see you've obtained a SofC!" He'd then offer to send you to destroy a character who uses a skill from the profession he teaches. If you want that skill, you accept. If you aren't sure, you go to the trainer from your other profession, who makes the same offer, with a skill from her area of expertise. This way, you acquire one of the starting skills by discovering that the Signet of Capture exists, then learning how to use it.

*One More Pet Thing: Why not tie the pet's company to one of the actual skills needed to buff/protect them, rather than hinder us by requiring Charm Animal to be on the skill bar? Warriors don't need to occupy a skill slot with a weapon/damage modifier, which is what a pet really is. If we've added pet buffs/attacks to our skill bar, we've used slots that create more significant effects, but merely having a base pet is more like having a rune or bowstring on your weapon than having a usable skill. The use of pets as distractions is fine in PvE, but not in PvP, as things now stand -- this change might bring a few more pets to the Arena, and might force those who ignore them to revise their strategy.

*Necromancer Primary: Long casting times and a Primary Attribute/Skill Set that depends heavily on a plethora of corpses makes Nec primaries a very limited choice (some say useless) for PvP. Unless PvP maps will have some hostile bystanders to use as corpse providers, we may end up not seeing them in the Arena very much. No suggestions as to how to fix this, really, but thought you might want to ponder it, since it would be a shame to see such funky armour excluded from serious contention.


Oh, yes. And my Ranger wants a Bear.