Curse

Diplo · Oct 07, 2005, 11:48 AM // 11:48

As most of you know Necro's can create various "Wells" out of corpses. These currently consist of wells that help your party ('Well Of Power', 'Well Of Blood') and wells that hurt the enemy ('Well Of Profane', 'Well Of Suffering'). However, all these wells are coloured the same green colour and are only differentiated by a slightly different animation in their centre. Even worse this is the same for both wells cast by your own party and wells cast by enemies - they are all the same green colour. This makes it very difficult to quickly tell in the heat of battle whether you are standing in a well that helps you, heals you or does nothing to you. This is compounded by the fact that wells can overlap and you can have multiple conditions on yourself and party members.

So, what I suggest is this:

From your current point of view ALL wells that help you ('Power','Blood' cast by your party) will appear the current green colour and all wells that will hurt you ('Suffering', 'Profane' cast by enemy team) are coloured red. Likewise all wells that will do nothing for you directly (such as 'Well of Suffering' cast by a member of your party) will appear a neutral yellow to you. In other words, how you see a well's colour is relative to the effects it will have on you.

For example, if an enemy Necro casts 'Well Of Suffering' then his team will see it as a yellow colour but your party will see it as red. Likewise, if a party member on your team casts 'Well Of Power' then you will see it as a green colour and the enemy team will see it as a yellow colour. If the two wells overlap then (like a Ven diagram) they will appear orange were they intersect. This way you will have a very quick visual reference to what a well is doing for you and know whether to stand in it or get the hell out!

Align · Oct 07, 2005, 01:43 PM // 13:43

I don't think it's possible to have the same world object coloured differently for different teams, so I'd be happy with hurtin' wells being red. If its possible though, then sure. Maybe more deathly colours though, sickly yellow and dull red like coagulated blood.

bobrath · Oct 07, 2005, 03:49 PM // 15:49

Even just having different looks for different wells would be helpful. I think the notion of colorouing based on pos/neut/neg affects is open to too much interpretation. What's negative to me might not be negative to my teammate, dependin on builds.

Tailon · Oct 07, 2005, 03:59 PM // 15:59

/agree.

Wells should have different colors based on their function.

Diplo · Oct 07, 2005, 04:03 PM // 16:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by bobrath

I think the notion of colouring based on pos/neut/neg affects is open to too much interpretation. What's negative to me might not be negative to my teammate, dependin on builds.

I hear what you are saying but currently it's pretty clear-cut: "Well Of Suffering" and "Well Of Profane" are always going to be negative to all party members if cast by an enemy (unless for some reason you actually wish to loose health or be stripped of your enchantments - but even in that unlikely situation the colour would still help let you know what to expect, which is the point).

I guess a simpler system were each well is a different colour would help solve that but you would then still have the problem of not knowing whether a well was cast by your party or the enemies' party. Even if you just saw all wells cast by enemy as red and all cast by your team as green it would be a big improvement.

calamitykell · Oct 07, 2005, 05:46 PM // 17:46

/not signed.

Change the colors, and necro's won't bring any 'hex' wells anymore because people will just avoid the red area.

Warskull · Oct 07, 2005, 07:26 PM // 19:26

If it is possible to color harmful wells as red and helpful wells are green it would be useful. However that leave a gap for neutral wells. What color would your team's suffering or their Blood well be?

Possible another scheme is dual color wells. The well is the color of the team that cast it. If it is an offensive well it sparkles red, if it is defensive it sparkles green.

As for colored wells making suffering and profane useless, this simply isn't true. People still end up in the wells for various reasons (they are on key points or the monk your warrior wants to attack is standing in it.)

Kampfkeks · Oct 07, 2005, 07:45 PM // 19:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by calamitykell

/not signed.

Change the colors, and necro's won't bring any 'hex' wells anymore because people will just avoid the red area.

What is a GOOD thing in PVP. Crowd control will quite often win you a fierce toe to toe battle. It actually is a tactic of the more skilled PVPers to try and control the battlefield. Including the terrain.

Having said that... i like the idea of differently colored wells.

Xue Yi Liang · Oct 07, 2005, 08:21 PM // 20:21

here's a compromise - green and bluish green. It's not immediately obvious unless you look carefully.
I'd prefer that over a map dotted with red and green wells which would make it look like Christmas (and/or give me a headache).

MSecorsky · Oct 07, 2005, 08:45 PM // 20:45

What would be nice is the color interactions of crossing wells.

Would be funny is wells contaminated each other... well of suffering and well of blood, if overlapping, result in the difference of the two regarding pips... and it covers the ranges of both wells in total.

Various overlapping wells could have interesting side effects, if the devs felt creative some day.

Xue Yi Liang · Oct 07, 2005, 09:43 PM // 21:43

L S D ...

Ventius Hozza · Oct 08, 2005, 04:43 PM // 16:43

Why not have the team colour on the well?

And i want wells visible on the map, i hate it when i use a well and cant find where it is

Schorny · Oct 08, 2005, 05:02 PM // 17:02

Same situations with wards.

The fun isyou need to be coordinated to know which wells are yours and which don't... You need to step in to find out.

I like the current system.

Taino · Oct 21, 2005, 06:02 PM // 18:02

How can I know before I get into a necro "well circle" (eg well of blood or well of profane) wether it is an ally well or an enemy/foe well?

Why are both the friends/ally well & the enemy/foe wells the same color green? Why not green circle for friend/ally & red circle for enemy/foe?

I have gone into a well green circle thinking it was a friend/ally one only to see my health bar turn pink because it was an enemy well circle.

We need to ask Guild Wars programmers to please change the enemy well circle to red.

JL_99 · Oct 21, 2005, 06:20 PM // 18:20

I don't really like this idea. To me, quickly figuring out which wells are which is just one more part of PvP strategy. Even though they're all currently the same color, it should raise a pretty big red flag with anyone to get out of the well when their health bar turns pink and starts degenning! I'd rather the wells stay how they are personally.

Darkest Dawn · Oct 21, 2005, 07:42 PM // 19:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tailon

/agree.

Wells should have different colors based on their function.

I too agree.

And as to the complaint that it's part of the stratagy to not let an opposing PvP team know -- I understand, however, it seems to cause more problems than it solves, IMHO.

Let's change 'em!!

DeanBB · Oct 21, 2005, 09:43 PM // 21:43

/signed

Goonter · Oct 21, 2005, 11:31 PM // 23:31

Most of this is copied and pasted, but I thought it related to the topic.

Im in high favor of a better interface for processing information quickly to improve your teams reactions in battle.
One of these types of improvements would be to include energy bars of teammembers.
But mostly, Im a little tired of guessing the AoE of skills.
Though there are studies that have been done, and perhaps with practice and experimentation with AoE skills, you could learn with some apptitude what the AoE effects are of some skills.
But instead of requiring the lay person to practice,practice,practice it would be nice if there was an easier, consistantly reliable way to understand the AoE of the skills you use.

My suggestion is this:

-In the form of a translucent circle for every attack AoE skill that you use there is an effect on your mini map. You can only see the AoE for the skills you use.
For attack or offensive spells/skills the effect would be red.
-In the case of spirits, the effects on the mini map will be showed to everyone.
For spirits the effect would be white.
-In the case of AoE heals it would show for your whole team.
For healing the effects would be blue.
(heal area only shows for only your team even though it can heal the other team)
-Traps layed by your team would show up as x with a circle around it visable by all of your teammates.
The x would be the trigger and the circle would be the AoE if it goes off.
-In the case of wards it would show to your team a yellow circle.

I thought about having wells in the mini map observational too, but then on second thought; due to thier offencive and defencive capablities, it seems better that they stay off the map.
In a way it seems very intentional by Anet that the wells are only noticable by closer obsevation. But if there is anyway bring wells into a balance between being easier to identify while not spelling out whats happening, that would be nice.
For my suggestion in this, I only ask that the skill symbols look more distigusable from each other. If I can look into my statues bar without hovering my mouse over the status to see that Im in standing in a particular Well - that, I think, would be suficant.

Ole Man Bourbon · Oct 22, 2005, 04:09 AM // 04:09

/not signed. I think the necro wells are so small that they are nearly useless as it is. . . if someone happens to wander into a negative well it's a miracle right now. I think the pink bar should be warning enough.

BTW, I think the wells should be about twice as big as they are, if not bigger, obviously.

glenn_rolfe · Oct 22, 2005, 06:41 AM // 06:41

same for ward of foes and melee as well