Would anyone else like to be able to toggle off unlocked skills?

First off hi everyone, I'm new here but have been playing the game since last December. I've been away for a long while, though, and only recently have come back. I'm a little distressed about the change in skill vendors, though. Personally it'd do wonders for the replay value of the PvE game for me if I could simply hide previously unlocked skills (that is, skills unlocked by previous characters) at skill vendors. It seems like it ought to be a simple thing to do, would anyone else be interested?

Understand, since there seems to be some confusion, that I'm talking about an option in the interface or options menu for a given account that would allow you to hide unlocked skills at skill vendors, that's all. The default for this would be "off," which is to say everything would be just like it is now. Those of us that preferred the old skill vendor system could turn this option on and have the effect of the game before the change, the rest of you wouldn't be affected at all.

Why would you want this?

Are you talking about not seeing the skills at the traders that say Unlocked?

It's also really simple to look behind the skill name and see whether there's " (Unlocked)" behind it or not. Lazy bum.

I'm not lazy, I lack willpower.

Yup, that's it exactly. Maybe it's just a personal pet peeve and doesn't bother anyone else, but making those skills readily available kind of kills replay value in the PvE game for me. It's part of why I stopped playing awhile back, really.

I proposed this last year but nobody backed it. Needless to say it is a good idea if you actually plan on unlocking all skills on primary profession skill list.

What people fail to get is, when you hit the end and go to guy with all the nonelite skills, it is a pain to count the ones you actually need. (not buy, count)

The reason nobody backed you in your proposal, is because this was added at comunities request.

Originally, you didn't have access to skills you unlocked except you went to the right NPC. This made it extremly inconvenient to hunt for skills. In addition, with using PvE to unlock skills it was very annoying to buy an unlocked skill, wasting money and skill-points (skill points were much much scarcer back then).

So, having the (Unlocked) is a very welcome and well received change to the original system.

That's fine but of course what I'm proposing here wouldn't impact players that want to play that way at all. I'd just like the option, in my own game, to deny myself the option of buying those unlocked skills. Something as simple as a toggle that hid them from view would readily get the job done. It costs the players that wanted this change in functionality nothing, and it gives those of us that miss the old system the option of playing the old way.

But If I started a new job, deleted that character and pick it up latter, I would still want access to buy skills I've already unlocked, or my hero's have unlocked.

I love the fact it tells me if it's unlocked or not when I'm focused on trying to unlock stuff.

That's nice, I don't. I personally find that it limits the replayability of the game for me. Fortunately the idea of an option that would allow those unlocked skills to be hidden would in no way affect you, since you simply wouldn't turn it on. That way people that like the new system (like you) and those that like the old system (like me) can live in harmony.

Hell, while I'm spouting wishes it'd be nice if there was a way to "reset" an account and wipe everything on it that's been unlocked, but that's probably just wishful thinking.

horrible idea

Why? If you didn't like the old system you could just leave the proposed option off in your game (which would be the default anyway) and nothing would change.

Having played a bit of Nightfall now I'd also like to suggest a similar function for hero skill lists. At a minimum distinguish between skills I've legitimately unlocked for a hero and those that are available because they're unlocked on my account. Skill homogeneity between characters is an unpleasant black spot on an otherwise great game, please give those of us that feel this way the option of playing with distinct skill sets for each character/hero party.

I think he wants to hide skills he already owns. (Not already unlocked)
They may seem to be the same thing for him...

Maybe we're having a terminology problem here. You go to a skill merchant, and look at the available skills. There will be some available hat would be available at that merchant to any player, and then there will be many skills with (unlocked) next to them, which are skills that have been unlocked by other characters on your account. To put it simply, I don't want to see those. I don't want my characters to have access to skills they haven't earned access to. Just because I have a level 20 warrior with virtually every non-elite warrior skill in the game that doesn't mean I want my level 6 E/W to have access to all those warrior skills as well. Is that more clear?

Now I understand that, for reasons I can't fathom, many people like it the way it is. All I'm proposing is that I have the option not be able to buy skills unlocked by my other characters.

How about a different color? Skills that the trader doesn't normally sell show up in... say... blue. The (unlocked) thing stays, but if you want to get your skills progressively, you wouldn't buy the blue ones... so basically, "white" text would indicate anyone can get it at that skill guy and if it says "(unlocked)" next to it, that means you unlocked it already. "blue" text means that the skill guy doesn't normally sell it and blue text ALWAYS has "(unlocked)" next to it, obviously.

I can see a few uses for this, for example, if your friend gets GW and asks you what skills to buy at Kaineg Center, you can name him the best white skills since he wont have anything unlocked and the white skills are what anybody can get.

That'd help but I still think the ideal solution for me (and others who agree with me that this is a problem) is simply to have a toggle in the option menu that would cause those skills that wouldn't normally be available at a skill vendor not to be displayed at all. As I mention a couple of posts ago if it caused skills that wouldn't normally be available ot your heroes not to be displayed as well that'd be ideal.

The idea here is to be able to play a class a second (or third, or fourth) time as though you were playing it for the first.

Because players like to make useful builds. With the few starter skills you can't do a thing.

GW is a game of builds, choices, setup, etc. It's not designed as a linear leveling game. Players value the ability to have the widest possible range of skills, rather than the completely useless one given during starter quests.

In addition, very few even bother looking at PvE from leveling perspective. It's about completing missions at masters, exploring areas, capturing elite skills, and last, but not least, unlocking skills.

What you want is highly contradictory with most others' expectations and desires of how to play GW, where the choice of skills and build setups determine the outcome. And PvE quickly loses apeal, so apart from titles, leveling simply doesn't apeal to anyone. There's plenty that would want all pvp unlocked skills available for them from start.

That's fine but it's not the way I want to play and I know there are others like me that preferred the game before the change. The happy thing is that those of us that want to re-earn skills with new characters and those that want to build supercharacters from all available skills at the start can live in easy harmony, all we need is a simple checkbox. Since this thread is filled, primarily, with people being confused about what I'm talking about and me trying to clarify I've started a new thread for my actual proposal. It would impact players like you not at all, and would give players like me exactly what we want. What could be better?

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...php?t=10088386