I'm not a big forum user, but I thought that this would be the best opportunity to get some ideas out to Anet before GW2 comes around.
Get in the game.
There's something about the perspective in GW that never really made me feel like I was "in" the game. I always felt like I was "above" my characters in GW... more akin to an RTS or the like. Other games I've played like WoW, Fable, etc. make me feel like I'm actually in the world sometimes, even though the camera view is still behind the character. Maybe its the height of the camera off the ground, the distance away from the character, the angle... I don't know, but its just one of those things that really bothers me and would be great if it could be addressed.
- Players should be able to move "anywhere"
I know it was mentioned that characters would be given the ability to jump/etc, but I'd like to request that characters be allowed to go ANYWHERE in the game. One of my biggest disappointments in GW was the inability to see what was on the other side of a mountain range, or to simply slide a little way down a hill to get to a chest that would take me an extra 10 minutes to reach by taking the "path" around to it.
- Too much “text” on screen
One of the things I find most distracting about entering a town is the amount of text/numbers/blah that gets spammed across my screen (not just in the chat window, but the stuff above character's heads, names, etc). I really like the fact that I have to hold down a button to see certain labels in the game – can we get that option for every textual item?
Attacks/spells targeted at a location.
Imagine a hoard of demons charging your party. Instead of having to wait until the enemy is within "range" before you can fire your arrow, you could time the enemy's approach and fire a volley the instant they are within your range, giving you an extra hit against them before they reach you. Now that's the kind skill I'd like to see nurtured in an MMO. Or consider how useful it would be to target a Meteor Shower at your party's location just as the leader calls a retreat to help cover your party's escape! Or what if your guild just wanted to throw up some Firestorms for the new year? Please remove the requirement to have a target before a skill can be used!
Enemies don't "spawn", they arrive.
I believe Perfect eluded to something similar in a prior post, but I wanted to throw in my two bits. Spawning enemies promotes farming (i.e. you simply wait for them to appear again and again) and it's not very realistic (yes, I realize this is a fantasy game, but boars materializing out of thin air is dorky). A more realistic solution to spawning would be the inclusion of several locations in each zone that enemies can "arrive" from. From those spawn points, groups of enemies can travel to the locations that they are commonly found in (or even travel randomly to different locations).
For example, your party slays a large group of Hill Giants in the mountains northwest of Kryta. In a common persistent world MMO, the hill giants would simply materialize out of thin air several minutes after they were killed - either falling prey once again to the group that just killed them or totally surprising the next group of players that were simply exploring (and likely ruining their day if they were unprepared). A better solution would be to have the hill giants exit from a cave several leagues away and return to their common zone.
Players would learn that if they ventured too near that cave (or several others in the area) that hill giants often come pouring out. To prevent players from camping and farming those spawn points the enemy should send out forces to balance that of the players, or that are immediately aggro to the farmer(s). If folks are over-farming the Hill Giants, the Lord of the Hill Giants should send out an army to protect his underlings (and put the boot down on any farmers in the area). Farming problem solved + exciting new quest for high-level raid parties to undertake (i.e. clear the mountains of the recent overwhelming Hill Giant problem).
- Enemies should be more unique.
There's nothing that takes the realism out of the game like an army of clone trolls coming after you. Put a slight random height difference on enemies when they spawn – maybe even minor color differences?
Rare weapons/items should be rare.
If every player in the game has Urgoz's Longbow, it's not really that unique, is it? Named items should be one-of-a-kind (or drastically rare), however, high-level items with skins similar to the named items could still be available (having a named item would simply be a special treat).
- Renowned weapons.
As players progress through levels, their weapons could take on unique abilities that cannot be attained any other way. For example, Jeni the ranger makes it a point to interrupt/shutdown all monks/spell casters in any enemy groups that her party encounters. Her old Ascalon longbow begins to "learn" from her tactics and after enough successful interrupts, gains the "Magebane" attribute that increases dazed duration by 10%. Additionally, she becomes so notorious (high level, titles, etc) at her particular skill set, that her bow becomes known as "The Silencer" and is renown throughout the land.
Some time later, Jeni and her party kill a an elite boss which drops a bow that, in most regards, is better than "The Silencer"... now she has a choice to make. Keep her tried-and-true bow, or go for the new one? Imagine how freakin awesome it would be if “The Silencer” dropped for another ranger several weeks later because Jeni discarded/donated it to the game?
Nerf exploits.
I love the 55 build. It was one of the original exploits of the game, and to this day is still used by thousands of players to farm enemies that they normally wouldn't be able to handle on their own. But I'm fairly certain builds like that screw up the economy of the game. Why didn't Anet nerf this build a long time ago? Yes, some of the first folks to discover/use the build would have a slight advantage over those that didn't get to use it, but they wouldn't likely be able to ruin the economy of the game singlehandedly. Please nip these kinds of things in the bud before they get too out of hand.
Toys.
Make silly things like hats/minipets more convenient to use. Anet did a great job with the festival hat situation by allowing you to get the stupid things out of your inventory if you weren't using them. Minipets are really exciting for a lot of players, but if you have to use up an inventory spot, remember to take them out, etc, they become a nuisance. Let them be active permanently if the player chooses to have one. It would also be nice if they had some insignificant benefit (i.e. gives your character +1 hp, or +1 armor, etc)... nothing dramatic, but beneficial nonetheless.
Playable mobs.
I don't think this is an entirely new MMO concept, but what if, after attaining a certain level in the game (50+), you could occasionally “possess” an enemy related to your level (i.e. 50 level chars can possess 10th level mobs, 60 level chars can possess 20th level mobs, etc) instead of logging in as your character? You could do this if you needed a break from the usual grinding, or to explore an area from the eyes of the enemy (i.e. you wouldn't have to worry about aggro). You'd most likely get pwned by the first party that comes your way, but you could give them a run for their money by using a little more tactics than the regular AI would. Or you could attempt a raid on a town... with some of your other level 10 buddies...
Level cap thoughts
I generally like the idea that there would be no level cap in an MMO, but I think many people immediately assume that a 120 level character should be twice as tough as a level 60 character. How about, as levels increase, the benefit becomes exponentially less? There will always be some benefit, but it will almost not be worth attaining/grinding for (it will just be nice to get as it happens).
For example, say a player receives 25 extra health every level until they reach 20, giving them a total of 500. At level 21, they get another 12 health - pretty nice. At level 22, they receive 6 health, and so on. At levels on upward of 60, 100, etc, they may have to gain several dozen levels just to get a single health point. It's something to shoot for, but nothing that will unbalance the game (i.e. a level 60 char wont get owned by a level 120 char because there will only be a minor benefit for the 120 char).
- No limit on available attribute points
I think the maximum amount of points you can put into a category should still exist, but what if you could attain more than 120 skill points? This would allow characters to have even more variety in their skill arrangement/strategy without messing up the game play.
Take an existing level 20 GW monk for example. Assume all of her attribute points are put into Healing and Divine Favor. She'll have a few leftover points that don't really do her any good, since her skill bar is entirely filled with Healing and Divine Favor skills. Now imagine if a level 90 GW2 monk had 400 attribute points and he had the exact same skill setup as the GW monk. No big advantage yet. Let's say the GW2 monk, however, can also max out Protection Prayers and decides to swap out 2 of his healing skills with some prot skills... is that monk now "overpowered" as compared to the first, or does he just have more opportunity to become better with a varied skill set?
Round robin drops.
There is nothing more frustrating than doing ten DoA runs in a row and having one of your guild mates or some PuG bozo get every single gem that drops (think it doesn't happen? I have screen shots..). Is GW really set up to drop randomly? That's horrible! Please make GW2 have a "round robin" approach to good drops. If the first person in a group gets an ecto, then the next person should get the next ecto... same with good weapons/items/etc.
B



) I looked on the fansites to see how to do stuff. Then I found the word 'Farming' and since the original game I played had the skill Farming in it. I was extremely excited at the thought of a game I could do stuff in with better graphics and maybe a larger content for skills (orginally I thought 'skills' referred to what I am talking about now >.<). As for my suggestion... I wish for Guild Wars 2 to contain Skills/Professions such as fishing, cooking, woodcutting, etc. for those who don't enjoy too much of combat. Whether there is a low level cap or a limitless level cap for the Skills/Professions I would be extremely happy.
Sorry if this suggestion has already been put in.