Curse

mikkyld · Jul 19, 2007, 06:13 PM // 18:13

I have owned GW for about 16 months now and I really love it but there are a number of things which I believe need to be adjusted. To that end I want to provide you a list of annoyances with the game as it exists today, my thoughts on your vision for GW2, and a few suggestions which I think could make both GW1 and GW2 even better. Since I know of no other way to send you this input, I've chosen this route; hopefully you'll read it and find it useful:

Annoyances:
1) The biggest one for me, since I am a serious mouse clicker to both target and move - only rarely using the keyboard - is the difficulty in actually hitting the desired target. Even just trying to move will often result in me clicking on a party member. I do know how C and other keys work and do even use them, but most times the target I want is not the closest and taking time to cycle through foes can result in death when facing searing flames for example.

I have even often seen something I click on light up at the top of my screen yet watch as my character simply walks in that direction, not actually targeting anything.

By the way, I have found an issue when I do use the keyboard for movement purposes to avoid yet again clicking on a party member. Specifically the down arrow key works fine most times but in combat it will often turn my character around and march him in precisely the wrong direction. I lost a shot at indomitable survivor because of that and my shock at seeing him walk into the jaws of death. I was not a happy camper on that day.

2)In conjunction with #1 above is the difficulty in determining the distance to various enemies - many times it appears there is one large group when there are 2 and one is far in the distance and so clicking on the monk results in my character charging off into the distance. Not fun. Even when I know it is 2 groups it is virtually impossible in mid combat to determine which is which without wasting time moving to get a better angle.

These are the type of annoyances that don't go away and pile up much like marital woes which were never addressed until the whole framework comes crashing down. I do have a suggestion that seems like it is doable and which should resolve the bulk of these issues. Create an (E)nemy panel similar to the current (P)arty panel. Distant foes on the radar would be "greyed" out and it would become quite easy to pick and choose the appropriate target by clicking on it. I must admit I do not know the implications for PvP but if it does impact the game there, simply disable the menu for PvP; in PvE, such a concept would be pure gold.

And of course people who don't need or like the new E panel could simply deactivate it just as the P panel is.

3)Targeting Minions. I want to play a MM in the game but simply do not enjoy the inability to easily see and thus to target my minions. No, let me be more precise - I really hate the way it plays so much that I now refuse to play a MM leaving the task to heroes. That is effective enough for sure, but it is costing me enjoyable playing experience. Surely allowing minions to show up when holding left Alt - like every other person/thing similarly colored - can't be that detrimental to gameplay. Please?

4) Title Levels and acquisition: Some are unbelievably easy while others are even more difficult than those are easy. It seems like there should be similar effort required to acquire a max level title, yet wisdom and treasure hunter far exceed the effort needed for any other title I have pursued - which is all non-PvP related titles

One way to address that would be to allow identification of any item to add to wisdom title, since presumably such effort is similar - all items require a level of expertise to identify, no? Another way would be to have more levels of wisdom and treasure hunting with the highest level remaining where it is. Perhaps no one ever achieves the highest (though I am sure some will) but more people will move that way as the improvment in salvage and lockpick shows up. Great concept BTW - making titles have a gameplay impact - 2nd to the creation of heroes in my view.

The first two items I listed have the capacity to ultimately drive me away from the game; I already find my annoyance level with them much, much worse than it has been in the past. Only the fact that your game is so terrific has kept me around frankly. Fixing the third would add at least one more enjoyable element and thus keep me around longer even if the first 2 concerns are not addressed. The 4th is very minor but I find a lot of people talking about the disparity in the degree of difficulty from easy to hard titles. I cannot measure its importance.

I have a couple of suggestions not related to any complaint I have but which I think could add to enjoyable gameplay:

Allow any profession to be started from any continent. Surely there are assassins in other places than cantha? As a minimum, allow people to start a profession anywhere as long as they own its origin game. So a person who owns Prophecies and Factions could start as assassin in Tyria, for example.

Add at least one hero to each of factions and prophecies and allow them to be acquired even if nightfall isn't owned. For factions the obvious add is a ritualist since assassin is covered, while for prophecies, I'd add a hero which could be any core profession - at the choice of the player acquiring it. Even if you insist that owning nightfall is a prerequisite, I'd still suggest adding another hero in each place.

Then there is the guild hall, which is an incredibly expensive but not particularly useful place. I use it often for the easily accessible rune trader but the rest is just a waste - and there seems no good reason for that. Why, for example, cannot the skill trainer be used for any skill that particular character can acquire elsewhere? You already track where each character can reach on the map, so what is too complex about letting him buy skills from ember camp or kaineng when he can reach there? This is simply a matter of convenience of course, but seems simple.

Finally I want to address what has been officially announced about GW2 and my concerns with the proposed approaches:

Raising the level will surely please some people - specifically those who like WoW - which is likely your goal, with the attendant grinding. Make no mistake - no matter how often gaile gray says it won't be grinding, fact is that it will be. I'll use myself as an example. Because the cap is at 20 I have been able to play all professions and get a feel for them and what I like or don't like about each. If there were no cap, I'd still be playing just one character and never experienced wider ranging gameplay. For your information, I likely would have been gone after Factions had that been the case - unless I had heard in advance about the upcoming hero system, which I think is the best part of the game to date.

What I would do with a 100 cap is play the first character to 100 and only then - if I were not bored to tears with it - would I start a 2nd character. Perhaps you think the higher cap will steal you some WoW fans and I'd not argue with your expertise there, but I assure you you will lose some who consider it grinding IF ONLY BECAUSE OF HOW THEY PLAY/APPROACH THE GAME. People like me - I will not participate in GW 2 with much higher level.

I have no problem with your not allowing existing characters to port to a new world as I always thought that was an illogical thing to do if not in a space travel game of some sort. I like the thought behind monuments and would suggest that this be along the lines of family monuments. And only some things get passed along and all are based on past titles.

For example, we might know our ancestor was addicted to alcohol and sugar or was a valiant arena competitor but there would be no impact on us at all (except maybe an heirloom weapon or recipe for making alcohol?). While there would be an impact if our grandmaster mapper provided us his means for easily mapping (say seeing all chests on U map?). Or if he provided us his lucky rabbit's foot. Or if his wisdom in identifying treasure was codified and passed down. Just a thought.

Finally my most pressing concern with GW2 is the impact on GW1. I totally accept that you will do as you say and continue to support GW1 but I fear that people will either leave for GW2 or just leave no matter how much support you provide - unless you continue to design new expansions in the GW1 world, that is. Short of that - and maybe even with that - approach, I fear GW1 will not be long for the world after GW2 is issued.

That would be a shame because no other game has drawn me in as fully as GW. Even the cursing I do as I once again hit zhed instead of the ground next to my feet or go charging off to an enemy much more distant than I realized hasn't so far been able to stop my overall enjoyment of a fine product.

Perhaps you can tell I really like the game and really, really hope my thoughts can be considered and improvements made.

When I first wrote this a month ago and emailed it to Anet, my description of the effect it had on me was correct. Now with each passing day where I cannot click on the ground without hitting a party member or tell which enemy is near or far, my annoyance level with the game is growing rapidly. I won't likely buy GW2 unless it gets better and that will be very sad thing for me.

Thanks for listening

Faer · Jul 19, 2007, 10:31 PM // 22:31

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