I warn you all, firstly, this post MAY end up becoming fairly large, I'll supply a bullet'd tl;dr version at the end. This is ALSO a work in process. I'll also discuss my reasoning and go through several areas.
*Firstly, in my, and many persons opinion, aesthetics. Aesthetics are extremely important to anyone that enjoys RPGs. Sometimes they may not realize this, but subconsciously, you feel "better" about your character, the "better" he looks, even if you aren't a spectacular player.
Guild Wars itself, in my opinion, lacks in this area. Character models feel skinny, flimsy, and being anchored to the ground(Something else I'll get to) doesn't help.
My first suggestion, would be to give people a WIDE variety of armor looks. So I'm level 1 wearing a loincloth. It dosen't have to be boring because I'm starting out. Make that loincloth impressive, make it fit well on the characters model. If he's a mage, give it glowing runes, if he's a warrior, have it blood stained and menacing looking.
My second suggestion under aesthetics is, availability and customization. I feel that guild wars 2 needs unprecedented, never before seen levels of customization. Lets pretend I'm a fresh level 40 (Im just picking a random number for maximum level) I have some neat gear, nothing too fancy. There's no reason that it can't look impressive and tailored towards what the person WANTS their character to be.
A lesson to be learned from WoW in this regard: In WoW you had people fresh at the max level wearing a boring sea green hood, with a yellow robe and tattered amices that didn't match. Yuck.
If Anet can make a superior playstyle and combat system, they have no excuse to not make an aesthetically pleasing game as well.
Let me choose how to look. If my elementalist/sorcerer/mage (Whatever GW2 will have) Loves to focus on casting frost/ice spells, let his armor reflect that. Give me the ability to add frozen spikes on my clothes, let water vapor hover around me. If I'm a necromancer, let random black shadowy faces float out of my body, etc.
Something I think that would really help people get into the game more and FEEL "cool" would be this level of aesthetics. I don't think its unreasonable to create a system which allows for this.
Okay, you get the idea with gear/clothes.
Animations. Some animations in Guild Wars are rather yawn. Others fit well.
This is another big thing aesthetically. If I'm going to potentially spend a year or more playing a character, his action animations had better feel impressive. A big bulking warrior with clinking steel and a mighty warhammer dripping with blood swings it and it looks like he's scratching his ass, there's problems.
Casters should get relative animations that fit their class, as should melee. An assassin should appear to be delivering decisive stabs not wildly flinging his arms. (They don't now, I'm just saying)
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The "feel"
Guild wars for all its excellent fun has one glaring fault. It feels clunky. When rubber banding was a larger issue, it made the game really un-fun. Freedom of movement needs to be a huge priority in the next installation. No more feeling like we are bumper cars. (I realize in the GW 2 wiki they mention a Z axis, which is an excellent start)
I don't care how stupid it looks. Let people jump up and down having a conniption fit if they want to. if it means I can feel like my character is an extension of myself, and its comfortable to play, so be it. '
A persistant world, with the exception of private areas, be it dungeons, battle areas, guild cities, is a must-have. The days of instancing are over. I don't care how you people get the money to make it happen, it must.
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Progression:
I think the fast leveling cap is very important. However I think there should be 3 Seperate levels. A basic leveling system like 1->20, think of it as an extended training time to familiarize players, and a chance for them to taste the other possibilities.
Level type 2 would be a strictly PVE level. Make this level un-capped. There are people out there who enjoy just gaining those levels.
Level type 3 would be strictly PVP, again, make this un-capped, there are people who hate killing mobs and leveling, and just want to crush skulls.
Gear as a factor:
Gear, in my opinion, is one of the most touchy subjects out there in regards to RPGs. MMO or Otherwise.
My opinion is this, I think its absolutely retarded someone can, in some games, merely sit long enough, gear out, then go beat up people in PVP just because of the color of their armors title. No.
Gear should work in an intuitive and fresh manner. The gear should award you points that let you change its looks, more impressive, more adorned, let collecting a set of gear award you a title regarding to the armor, If a necromancer happens to aquire his dream set, for arguments sake, is called Plagueweaver's Embrace, let it unlock a title where your name would become "Tommy the Plaguebringer" etc. (My thoughts on gear are not yet complete, saving some space here, and to remind myself)
Gear should, in a sense, work similar to how it does now, but I really think that allowing gear to determine encounters is just laziness from the developer. Which brings me to my next point.
Skill. Talent, Ability, Teamwork, etc etc.
That should be any encounters determining bottom line. PVP is unpredictable. There's no reason PVE can't be either. Hopping online to look up a strategy should be a thing of the past. An unpredictable PVE might sound harsh, but look at it this way, wouldn't leveling an alt be much more interesting if ascalon, scenery aside, wasn't the same each time?
Titles are an excellent start. Some are unreasonable, some are pointless, others still are tied to strange logic, but whatever, they need to stay. There should be a plethora of them as well.
Cliche, but achievements. Achivements are a nice playstyle neutral way to progress. Have them award Alternative Spending Points(Which are, in affect, similar to extra skill ups in current GW, name is also very placeholder)
This is all for today, I'll be updating again tomorrow where I left off.
No tl;dr yet. Sorry.
R
