Curse

Vangor · May 17, 2005, 04:59 PM // 16:59

A few of these have perhaps been discussed, I'm going to provide a few details from my aspect at the very least, but it is sort of designed as enveloping for as much as possible with a bunch of agreements or disagreements for numerous aspects.

Henchmen -

*Further control of henchmen through map clicking, simple way, they remain until you summon em basically, and will only attack when you choose a target after making a map note, can reset each time to not hinder yourself. (still means henchmen are essentially stupid, so grouping can be a must, but, I tire of their randomness getting me killed when I just want them to sit back)
*Programming when it is obvious the team is dieing, not to resurrect people into the middle of this, I see too many archer henchmen who will bring my healer back, who attempts to resurrect another person immediately, dies soon after, as does the other who may attempt a signet or res of their own, meaning an extra, wasted 15%. (this is probably a difficult one to figure out, but base it around say, you have 75% losses, the enemy hasn't gotten 50%, resurrecting in exploration is useless, keep this going on in cooperative however)
*Skill use through selecting henchmen, allows you to outfit yourself with a buff before hand, or get skills like charge going when you feel they are necessary, though Henchmen will still play much the same. (they are pretty good with it, though I would like to burn charge just as we run past a group of stupid enemies, not half a minute before we reach em)
*"Pinging" henchmen for statistics, such as telling the team your energy level responds with theirs, or death penalty will give theirs, really the only two instances I can see needing this. Note that in the case of groups comprised of a few henchmen, have delays on this so if people are comparing and noting, henchmen don't spam the channel each and every time. (obviously can't gather data from them, would feel if it is necessary to know the energy level of teammates in this way, it is necessary to know that of henchmen too)

Storage -

*Per character slots, an extra, or actually to balance it against the current, replacement, row of 5, the rest remains shared, however, this means people who play multiple characters still cannot horde as well but may save a few choice items necessary per character. (kind of like having bags, sure you can switch items into main storage all the time, but it is more difficult)
*50g access fee to per character slots, access fee based on account level, aka 80, for transactions only, meaning items that are in the storage are similar to customization, bound to that character, if another pulls it out, it costs say 50% of account level. Not sure about gold costs, a low but exponential percentage perhaps, or just nothing. (burdens people using other characters as storage, obviously this was unintended by ArenaNET, those of us who may change one or two items won't have to worry much)
*Storage Tab whenever in storage towns, I hate accidentally closing this in town and needing to run back to get it open again, since it can stay with us all throughout, why not just have the ability to reopen anywhere in town. (Xunlai Agents are still necessary for activating per character slots, as well as transactions, and are still known meeting places)

Kits -

*Combine kits, it is easy to accidentally use another kit and thus prolonge another's holding of a slot, and I bring two kits of each type everywhere, just would be nice to combine them. (helpful in those off cases, can't see how I have to explain it)
*Selection menus for what you are salvaging, I really get sick of filling up my bags with runes or upgrades during missions, and I'd rather be able to stack up steel or other useful crafting materials, and even selected upgrades, who wants a poisoner's axe haft when you can get a 30hp fortitude. (randomized amounts so people can't be too choosy, obviously regular salvage kits can't get rare crafting materials or upgrades, and unidentifieds will not reveal runes or upgrades of course)
*Identification telling what it can salvage into, means we don't have to salvage it just to see, though may be useless with a cancel tab on the last suggestion (yeah there are lists on like gwonline, but would be nice not to alt+tab when I might want to know, or for those who don't know, and information that is out there and accessible, should be placed in games)
*Better rarity and yield with identification, as it stands, identifying most items is useless, alot of em you do are still useless and does nothing, this would put a second use to it and mean that a person may want to identify their common titan armor to get more steel ingots, or a better chance. (I've wasted it on purples and golds actually who offer nothing for salvage items, would be nice to know it wasn't put to waste, plus, items you want to salvage into useful components would be put more to use instead of luck)

City Functions -

*Auction House, indeed this has been said many times, obviously almost everyone wants it, however, this is not the same as say, WoW, or Bazaar. The Auction House is a single city, all districts NPC who tags your items as up for auction, people can then browse by materials, name, requirement type/limit, and then contact you directly about purchasing. Price suggestions are allowed, but these are not direct buy outs or auctions, instead, a person has to be active in order to sell it just as with current trade. Specialized auction trade screens are activated, which is plausible across districts to simplify matters, and just normal trade happens and items are exchanged. (removes the fear of having people who are farming and throwing items onto auction house then leaving to rake in money, reduces trade spam, increases trade traffic, and really benefits everyone)
*Identify NPCs, a few skill trainers are not listed as skill trainers, the crafters in Ascalon are instead armor in Droknar's Forge, weapons in one town may mean customization while another it may mean actually purchasing them. Call them all armor for armor crafting, call them all skills for skill trainers, crafters are now weapon crafters, weapons are now customizations. (streamlines it, a few people have asked if the armor guys in Droknar's were just regular crafters, I've skimmed over a few skill trainers not noting em, some have asked if there are skill trainers in like Henge)
*Storage into Amnoon Oasis, and more NPCs in a few places I'm sure are missing em, like Dye Traders, Material Merchants, so on, Storage is the big one for the Oasis, whatever else doesn't have the essentials,a nd no I don't mean Armor, should get it. (helps people out, being in Amnoon and having to go elsewhere for storage then back is stupid, and I'm guessing a few towns have their own holes, small villages are left up to the winds though)

Arena Functions -

*Active Groups, many of the team arenas where groups are chosen do not have people properly forming, many do not seem to notice, and it would be nice to show all active groups, in the form done now with leader name and number, so people can easily attempt to join, especially cross district. (means we have more PvP, a thing which ArenaNET wants to have I know)
*Arena scoping, good for first timers to properly load the map before hand, as for some this can be notoriously long, though also a few do not know many of the conditions of the map or even its general layout, and could be just a little feature to explore it in an instanced area then head back out. (helps the laggers, helps the team of laggers, helps the newbies, helps the team of newbies, no loss, same functionality as normal arenas, just without enemies, so people can understand where the relic is, what happens when the hero does, that lava slows you, that you can't stand on the ice, so on)
*Note, there is more to Arenas in another post I'll do which I believe is more important to it all to not be brushed over like this.

Mission Functions -

*Active Groups, once again, cross district, helps create them faster, a few may have two and with the lack of people, can make getting an actual group together difficult with two teams of four in either of em. Plus, for larger ones, especially earlier ones, gets em going faster. It isn't ArenaNET's idea to get people taking henchmen all the time I'm sure. (same deal, helps people avoid that entire LFG phase, get into the action, an interact, so many people keep talking about how far they got with henchmen, it is because it can be an actual task to get a group)
*Staging, an alpha thought I guess I should say, some missions are long, with death awaiting you at the end except for skilled and knowledgable groups. I don't feel like clearing the City and the Keep for over an hour only to get to the siege once again, and I can see how many problems casual gamers have with this. It would basically divide it into the main points of each mission, groups who clear stages are able to access that one directly again, with penalties still active. Earliest stages still active on members must be handled, leaders have the option to activate earlier stages however if they choose to even if everyone has cleared it. Upon leaving the mission grounds, your record is cleared of the area unless you have completed it in full. (a few people voiced concern on it, I know I've gotten frustrated on parts, and I can't see a real down side to this, saving death penalties, not allowing people to bypass areas, and giving teams who really want to try it again that chance to get back at it without wasting so much time, a few may not really want this to happen for say the Ascension missions, understandable, but others, helpful).
*Disconnection and leaving, alot of players get annoyed at dieing once and just leave, essentially giving the players who remained less of a chance, and some do it because they are asses. Others, have to disconnect, or are forced to leave. A few options here, first, disconnection, you can be back at your point if you reconnect within five minutes. As well, asking to leave, I don't know a team that won't frown but not care when you absolutely must go, so let people vote on it, half or majority rules and a person leaves without problem. Those who just take off without asking, suffer penalties, such as gold loss for consecutive and constant times. Uncast votes will be given the benefit of the doubt towards agreement, since they don't care enough to not allow them to go. Disconnections can be voted on to allow em to leave if they do not return in five minutes, a few people don't know when they will be, understandable. Players recieve marks for unagreeable leaving, so people can choose to not invite them. As well, in teams of say 3, only 1 person must vote, in teams of 2 no one has to so that people can leave those lengthy remnants of lost pvp battles shame free. (penalizes the scourge who do decide to leave all the time, and makes people less likely to start it. The penalty isn't too severe, it grows as you do this more and more, so the few times it may hurt someone accidentally shouldn't be an inconvenience, excessive marks should be looked at)
*Majority Rules Cinematics, I get sick of doing infusion runs to help friends, or for my new pieces of armor, and seeing 7/8 want to skip it, I've seen it a hundred times, and really I'm not a fan of it though a few are pretty cool. Especially bad on Elona's Reach when you have those numbers. If majority wants to skip it, please let em skip it, a few people may think it sucks for the person who hasn't seen it, that will be solved, but also, it screws with more people more often. (the nagging problem of this will be fixed next, so I think it is good all around)
*Cinematics Revisited, any that you've passed by, forced to skip, or just thought were that cool, view them again in account management or something like that. Solves the above problem, and gives us those old memories which we may have forgotten or others have not seen. (solution, enough said)
*Fix Ring of Fire Bonuses...I can't say much more on it, the bonuses don't work at all, a few of the mission orders are incorrect as well. Just fix em for people who want to do bonuses for a challenge. (like I said, can't say much more)
*Further difficulties, revisit old locations with new challenges, double creatures, stronger, more bosses, especially played out through stages I can see a major prolonging of life. Think of how many people played nightmare and hell modes of Diablo, and think of the scarce few who can beat Ninja Gaiden no the ultra-hard mode, just bragging rights mostly, experience rates and drop rates should be lowered, or removed. Include time trials as well and things, I can see it working wonders. (little changes to the game like this really offer people alot more challenge without this feeling of work like the current game, if you're trudging along through Thunderhead Keep, it can get annoying, but you beat it, want to challenge yourselves to finish it an hour or less, with 1.5x the monsters, it isn't frustration that occurs even after being defeated so much 99% of the time)

Miscellaneous -

*Fix ignore, everyone wants it, do it, also notify people when they are attempting to invite someone currently on ignore. I have filled up numerous of my lists with childish people and those who really attempt to spam, just so I don't directly interact with em, I'll never remember their names, I'd like not to join with them I'm sure. (people want it, seems stupid to not have it since I've never been directly harassed by people anyway, it is all channel spam and stupidity)
*Teammate Energy Levels, just a small blue line representation for being able to judge an ally's energy level without them saying it directly in chat, I've heard elementalists ask for well of power and the like a few times over, or people have to request to sit because you may not know how much energy they have, simplifies matters. (another common want, and is obvious to the need)
*Map Notes, we all love em, allow people to send and recieve map notes, create their own, and type messages and titles for them. (can certainly be of some use, boss locations, encounters, so forth, give a limit on time so people can't spam em, just to be ahead of the curve)
*Camp instead of Log Out, I do get sick of logging back into another character, takes half a second, but seriously, a /camp or /select command really needs to go in, how there isn't one is beyond me. (common sense...)
*Quest selection and waypointing, give leaders the ability to select group quests to show people right where they are heading with a red arrow. (just a simple tool I think needs to be implemented)
*Skill Templates, a few find them necessary, and they wouldn't be the worst, just switches around skills while in town without having to go through the process yourself. Many times we have to make sure people have healing spells on, or get a few certain ones, would be nice if they could click and be done. (happens alot in Ring of Fire missions, asking elementalists to be water/air, or a ranger to put on winter, helpful to say the least)

Dubby has included numerous smaller changes I won't go into, hence why you might see many smaller pieces missing, won't go into em.

As well, going to post another topic soon enough on Arenas and PvP focus, so I haven't included em. Feel free to tack on a few suggestions here, but keep in mind, upsides and downsides, do not tell me you want to see tradeskills, say how you would like them implemented, the possible reprocussions and how we avoid them, why we even might need it.