Official Suggestions Thread - March BWE

This BWE seemed to move GW much closer to a polished game. I found very few things I didn't like, and there are only a few I would really like.

1. Account Wide Storage: I've heard that this will be in by release, but this is something I've wanted in GW for a long time. It doesn't need to be massive, but I would like a place to put items to be saved for guild members who aren't online at the time, crafting matierials for other characters, and a place to put stuff so I don't have to ask someone to mule for me. This would clear up alot of my inventory and I wouldn't always get the "Your inventory is full" message when I want to keep everythign in my inventory.

2. More Character Slots: Simply, 4 is not enough. I have four characters they I want to play and have had to ignore 2 other primary classes since I don't have enouhg room for them. Also, with the option of PvP characters using skills/runes/upgrades you have unlocked I would like an extra slot to use for a PvP char. I would settle for 5 slots, but 6 or 7 would be even better.

3. Variety in Arenas: The new Coastal Arena is great, but it seems to be a copy of the Gladiator's Arena. I'd like to see this one changed to 6v6 and have another Arena where you choose your own team of 4 (like a mini tombs but arena style).

Before I get fully into the topic, let me say that this was my first beta weekend, and the game environment left me in a state of amazement. It was down to the last 10 minutes, my party had just reached the place where you cannot cross the bridge, and we had all been gawking in wonder at the scenery. GW artists and artisans stand straight and proud, I salute you. These are no mere “graphics”; this world is a work of art. I kept finding places that I wanted to visit for real. I WANTED to go there.
Anyway, it felt like an awesome SF movie where you are stranded on an alien planet that is about be destroyed by an asteroid or something. We knew we were about to die and we said our goodbyes (trying not to sniffle audibly or say "I love you, man" too many times) exploring and battling the enemy to the very last moment when we knew we would be obliterated instantly in a shock wave we would not even feel coming. I was just reaching for the keys to tell my loyal friend Baptiste thanks for watching our backs when the world came to an end.
Somewhere, somehow a world really had come to an end. It was sad. Too late for final thanks to those who had fought at our side.
I have been playing computer games since they were at a resolution of 240X180 (the artistic equivalent of stick figures) and you got color only if you had a spare color TV. I am 40 years old and have never, ... ever, had a game environment draw me into this kind of immersion. Guild Wars is now the standard to compare all others against, and no one can yet compare. Thanks.
OK back to business, [Bonefoot Lightarrow takes a deep breath], Here are my thoughts on gameplay, bugs, and features:
1. I had failed to skill a pet REZ (duh, I thought I would have a chance to prepare before battle, silly me. Why would I expect Army training before being thrust into battle?) and ended up mapping out to town. The message said to logout and back in so I did. Then, no amount of rezzes would bring the cat back, and after a few zones it disappeared completely. I was a naked ranger without the cat, and I died more often because of it. Need some way to regain the pet or my character is crippled. People were whispering behind my back. ;~)
2. In one quest we found a refugee, but lost him during a battle. Disappeared. Never did find him again.
3. That’s all for bugs and impressions. Now to suggestions. Finding groups in GW is a lot easier than in some online games. Going solo isn’t much of an option. But please find a way to signal LFG without having to shout it over and over again. Some people sit there quietly waiting for someone to tell them what to do, and it would help for experienced players to be able to find them. I suggest a text command or button that changes your name color. With a single key press you would then be able to see all the LFGs in the area as a special color.
4. Also, in the group staging areas please place more unique objects. “Group forming over by the tree”, no wait, there are 2 trees. “Group forming over by the blue tent”, no wait, both freakin’ tents are blue. “Over by the signpost”, dang it, there are two signposts! “Over by the obelisk”. Over by the fountain. Over by any one of the unmistakably unique objects or features in the area--please.
5. During character creation I thought the male Ranger looked too much like a woman, but in the game he was totally cool. People kept asking me “where did you get that armor!” All I could say was, “Ranger garb.” Please don’t mess too much with a good thing. Options are good, but the Stryder-type Ranger look is great. (This is not a complaint, of course, but I had to throw in the compliment)
6. I never did PvP where you get to see all skills, so sorry if this is there already, but I would like at least ONE Ranger group buff skill. Like to contribute to the group in some way. Every class should have at least 1 group buff skill available.
7. Got tired of dropping something to free a slot with a full inventory, then picking up an item, then dropping it, then picking up my original item again just so I can allow someone else to loot an item. Simple Rt. Click on the loot on the ground could toggle “reserved” to “open for all”. Otherwise I like the division system.
8. At the same time, 1 exception, the loot-free timer was a bummer. My first and only Ascalon Armor drop was up on a path far out of reach. 8 or 10 minutes later we finally got around there and somebody grabbed it, I didn’t want to make a stink but I would have preferred that it stay reserved for me for whenever I could get to it.
9. Hey, sitting does work for visual AWK, but doesn’t tell a remote whisperer what’s up. They think you are ignoring them. Please fix. I'd rather not have to log out every time the phone rings just to be polite.
10. Ready-flag button is needed before mission as others have said. Add my vote: yes.
11. Pet naming, please do. Name color or text [Pet] denotes pet from player to avoid confusion.
12. While logged in but not playing, continue any and all downloads until completely done rather than waiting to zone. Very irritating to play with a dial-up member. You can’t fix transfer rates, but you can do everything possible to allow a player to dial in all night every night until they synchronize every possible file. Updates happen, but if the computer is sitting there idle—use it. Also, what’s up with this decompressing business? My laptop is marginal on specs but I still have Gigs available. Recommend a “decompress all files” button at logon screen to optionally avoid the delay of decompress at zone time.
13. I vote “Yes” to a Friend-Online message. Also, a block-friend-online-message option per-user to hinder stalkers. Don't people know we really don't look like our characters? Geeze.
14. I personally like the “identify” kit, but think you should have to use a skill point or complete a quest to enable the know-how. Identified items should be worth significantly more than their non-identified counterparts. Same goes for multiple levels of dyeing, salvaging, and multiple levels of crafting. Nobody should know these things by default. Earn it, Quest it, or Buy it.
15. Speaking of earning things, I’ve seen more whine on forums than at an Italian restaurant. For those who say “I played all weekend long and didn’t unlock every skill and didn't get the best armor”, I have this advice: Buy a different game, type in the cheat code for GOD-Mode and proceed to feed your whining mouth a bottle of baby mush because NCSoft is already spoon-feeding you more than you deserve and what—can I hear the audience say, “what”?—good is a game where you reach every goal in a couple of weekends of play? Work for it, man. When you get that armor or that skill you should be dang proud of it and [Shout] to all of your [Friends] or your Guild members and say, “hey look what I got!” Yes, the goal is that all characters are relatively similar in power levels but have some respect for what you earn, dude. I would have personally fought for making e-v-e-r-y s-i-n-g-l-e skill a quest reward if I had been on the design crew. Better yet, make it a choice of ONE of several skill rewards. Do the quest a second time to get a second choice of reward. Obviously, PvE is different from PvP but there have to be some goals for future play. Otherwise how soon will the other game elements fail to be enough to bring you back every chance you get to play? Longer time players are rewarded with options rather than power, that’s the concept. Me? I would give you a gold star point for the quest and still make you pay big bucks for the skill at a trainer. Cheap armor, cheap skill=cheap thrill, no lasting satisfaction. Quest it, buy it, EARN it.
16. Other whines: I had some lag but not a killer and I am way out on rural DSL with high latency. Either some players got a bad service provider or were on an overloaded game server. I played all day, all weekend, and most of the nights with only a handful of real lag-moments and none bad enough to complain about. Just a data point here, no prob. (though I did get bumped off unexpectedly a few times, did you have some server crashes?)
17. Big-number low-level mobs provided some of the most challenging and exhilarating fights all weekend. Stop whining about the difficulty. That’s what REZ is for and learning how to play without dying. Swarms get the heart pumping. Nothing like making a comeback from half your party dead to kicking butt and taking loot in the end. Woo-Hoo!
18. Also, zero-XP is a bummer. I say give us 1 experience point per kill, minimum. Nobody in their right mind is going to slay 9,600 level 1 Mobs in an insane attempt at leveling (and if they do I s’pose they deserve a level). Throw us a bone, here. It’s all about reward. Even if the bone is old and moldy. 
19. Stop those idiot lemon salesmen. If I hear, “CRUSHING HMR 4-6 Dmg JUST 30GP SOMEBODY F***ING BUY SOMEFROM ME 4 I SH**ING CR**M MYSELF I AM SO PISSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!” I should be able to click the name of the offensive Id10t and filter their butt out of my game experience. Let me build a personal offender filter list that would also gray their character name out in the common areas to make sure I don’t accidentally invite them on a mission. Also, make it an option to announce and/or participate in auction talk or tune it out. Anyone who auctions outside of the rules or outside of the marketplace is pure SPAM and should expect to get filtered. In my book they get one chance. Don’t mess up my game, man. Also, in a future rev you could have a SPAMMER option that players could choose that would filter out the top people who have been filtered by other players. I know the real world is full of low self esteem, misplaced anger, and otherwise maladjusted individuals, but the real world has many controls and this world should have them, too. We should have community consensus action, teach them that they have to behave to have full rights in any world. Here’s an idea: disable player trade windows outside of trading zones. Second Idea: Implement some kind of Role-player mode that is stricter on behavior than for non-role-players. I'm a role player, myself. Nuf sed.
20. Pets: Holy Moly do I have a lot to say here. Sorry for the length (20?), but I think I have a relevant position to express. More control over pets? What—Is—Your—Point? Geeze. The skill is called “Charm”, not “Mind Control”. You whiners. A large feline, no matter how smitten or charmed it is, is STILL A BEAST, MR. BEASTMASTER. It is a living creature that I think reacts admirably well to your lead. You target a creature, the cat targets the same creature. It acts as your living shield just because you convinced it that your sorry butt is worth protecting and if you want to carry a dead-meat-shield become some other class, for crud sake the Ranger is not for you. Have some respect for the critter.
T-h-e c-a-t i-s n-o-t a r-o-b-o-t.
In fact, I propose an expansion to the Pets concept.
a. Allow for different pets with different attributes and skills of their own. Such as a bear that acts as a tank but is slow to react, the cat who is well-balanced, or the flying snake that spits poison to temporarily blind opponents and do other DOT poison effects but has low melee damage. (gotta love it, I would pick the flying snake).
b. Allow Rangers to train their pets. Give simple commands, yell, or scratch them behind the ear at appropriate times to provide positive or negative reinforcement at the right behaviors in certain situations. Even teach them tricks. Attention to detail and training skills here would give those who want to precisely control an animal the ability to do so, and those who prefer to respect the individuality of the creature to do so. Of course, some animals are more trainable than others, (hint, hint). Perhaps what you really want is a Doberman Pinscher or Labrador Retriever; who has a little less melee damage but is very trainable.
c. Give pets to some other classes, but with non-melee abilities. Examples: The Mesmer who learns the skill of falconry could have a bird pet that extends their scouting range (see wider area map) but does no fighting. And get this! The thought has me LOL’ing at the keyboard here.  Imagine a cute chick (female Elementalist) with a Toy Poodle bounding into battle! The poodle is tougher than you might think, having the ability (agility) to avoid most melee attacks (except for the Giant “stomp” which they might be susceptible to), but who has the particular ankle-biting ability to cripple enemy monsters and keep them from running (as in the “pin-down” ranger skill) and is particularly effective in tripping the enemy so that they fall at times. I love it! I can just see the little fluffy white poodle growling and snapping at the ankles of an earth elemental and causing it no end of distraction. Too funny. Too, too, funny. Or, an Elementalist could have, um, let’s see, an elemental as pet? The Elemental would have some minor skill-casting ability, sit on their shoulder like a parrot or a little devil’s advocate, and naturally enhance the effect of spells of their particular domain (Earth, Air, Fire, or Water, naturally, as a + to the elemental skill realm of choice).
d. And finally, please, please, as in #11, let us name the pets. A single name would fit with the standard social convention but would NOT require uniqueness within the game (could take on the last name of the player, or just put a number after any dupe names within a group).
OK. Um, I stretched #20 out as far as I could. I’m done now, more or less. I agree with some PvP suggestions given on various forums but have not played that yet so can’t take a side. The “Fame” concept certainly has some merit in the PvE environment as a role-playing element. NPCs could react differently to characters with high fame, or offer additional quests, lower prices, better trades, etc. (or quests could start seeking YOU out.) Also, [certain] other online games are now relatively obsolete, but the “Find” feature of NPCs in other games would be in keeping with the GW “take away the pain” concepts. I have to draw a map by hand and label it with names and collectors or I can hardly ever find anybody.

Thanks for reading,
Bonefoot Lightarrow~Ranger/Elementalist 4 life

Just to clear some things up for you,

1. There are two skills to resurrect your animal companion, one being Revive Animal (resurrects your own and other's companion), the other being Comfort Animal (heals your companion and revives if dead).

4. Rather than indicating a physical location, it is easier to ask people to request an invite from the party leader if they want to join. In mission staging areas they will have a group indicator above their heads, in cities people can hold down ctrl to look for the party leader to request participation.

6. Nature Rituals are exclusive to rangers and usually benefit everyone in the group (but those in the opposite team as well). There are currently fourteen different nature rituals, so there's no need to worry rangers lack group buffs.

20. Control over pets isn't as awkward as you think. I'm sure you've heard of 'dogs', you can teach them to 'sit', 'stay', 'roll over', 'fetch', 'attack', and if you're lucky 'stop barfing on the carpet'. Animals are not brainless. A large feline might not be interested in doing what you tell it to do, but it sure as heck won't charge in at a pack of twenty-odd hulking undead monsters, rather fleeing to the safest place it can find. It's not a question of realism, it's a question of simple game mechanics - pets tend to get entire teams killed (similar to warrior henchmen), and people would appreciate some way to prevent this from happening short of not bringing the pet/warrior henchman. Guild Wars is all about the question "Is what I'm currently doing fun?", and I can assure you that apologizing to your team for the third time in two hours because your beloved little furball brought home sixteen very upset monsters instead of a dead mouse is not.

Hi,

This is my first suggestion and 2nd post, not quite sure how seriously the suggestions are acknowledged here, but regardless I want to put an effort to help improve the "only" game I'm going to be playing in my free time once its released.

First and foremost I would like to stress on more drops for items like Runes, wands, staves & unqiues which if possbile should be directly proportional to amount of time a person has played a certain map or killed certain monsters or by some other mathematical criteria. Infact I'm bored with excessive # of drops for bows, hammers, swords and alike. It would be better if there was euqal number of chances for each of those items and every profession could benefit from drops. For eg, I tried to get Runes for Ele from Monsters following the Salvae item guide and after spending 4 hour doing same map over 6 times(killing Charr monsters, over 30 per level) I was unsucessfull to get a single decent drop and times when they did drop salvagable item, they never gave any Runes. I would rather kill 20 Rift wardens (lvl28) just to get a Rune then waste 4 hours and end up unsuccesfull. So much for the exclaiming that this game wont require hours of playing to be a better player. Although most players who are in pvp, killing it, had 14 or higher in their respective specilization, which is by improving there respective skill levels using rare runes which unfortunately I never get to see.
Also master armour prices were extreamly high this BWE 1500gp per piece of armour was outrageously high to say the least (add crafting material to it and you're just being extravagant). I hope that area of costs is subjected to a second thought especially for people who arent keen traders on Lions arch and dont wish to spend excessive time trying to sell there loot for obnoxiously high price.
I mean both those above things totally contradict what I read on most of GW related websites, that basically this game would not require players to play for infinite # of hours but rather how skillfully they choose & execute w/e litltle skillz they enter with, in a game. It would be only fair to say on behalf of all moderate gamers that dropping system needs some improvemnt, especially to reduce all that trade spamming etc(no teamwork there, meh!!).

Thanks, lovely game, TeamWork Ownz!!

Second beta weekend for me. and I was very happy with this build. More gold for kills, better economy on items, and actually able to get things like better armor and boots ect... that seemed completely unattainable when we were only getting 1 gold per kill no matter what it was...

I saw a guild thief in GvG mode. whats that do? anything yet? I'm hoping this means we may have a guild treasury or armory in the future to mule things between characters. it seems that was the most requested thing from the previous beta weekend...

I also saw what looked like a map frame in the ice Island guild. So I picked that one for ours right away. (since that was one of my suggestions previous )

Something that came up this weekend was why not have a guild arena, so you can battle with your guild members as practice? The current arenas are nice but you can not seem to pick your teams... its just random. if there was a guild arena then you could go in with whom you wanted to practice for battles against each other.

Also The Guild battles are very interesting... But I had a hard time issuing challenges. I had to do the random one all the time. is there a way to make guilds be listed on a challenge board or something? Like the friends list. We wanted to play with some of our friends many times but could not figure out how to fight their guild directly. even when they were in their guild hall waiting for it. Is it by the leader of the guild or the guild name? I guess that is something they have to work on more...

And I still wish we could form a party in the guild and then choose where to go as a party, so the group stays together. its such a pain trying to find everyone again once we meet in guild. If it wasn't for teamspeak this would be very difficult, its lots harder with just text or guild chat to coordinate.

As to pets. once they level up some they get much more manageable. they don't just charge into a large group and bring em back to you. in fact I have been able to get them to act as a distraction many times to run past large groups. Also them more they level up the more the stay closer to you. If your attacked they attack the thing attacking you instead of attacking your target. Mine was a level 17 Playful lynx, and it was very good for later battles... The level 7 Stalker however was a pain in the butt most of the time. I came within 2 slim Bars of charming the bear this time... I was a level 8 ranger with all my attribute points on animal skill... I'm gonna get one next beta I absolutely have too... I also saw one guy with what looked like a small lizard as a pet... what was that? I got to find that one too...

Ingram of Haz

Uniques are uniques for a reason which is that they are not dropped often .
I just can't imagine a rare item being dropped 9 times out of 10. As for staves/wands, I see them dropped a lot of times, of all tastes and colours.

Last BWE the armour price was 150 gold. This time ArenaNet multiplied the ammount of gold by 10 hence nothing has changed. I had 88 gold at the end of the last BWE which was automatically increased to 880 at the beginning of this weekend. 1500 gold is not hard at all to gather.

If you drake-hunt, for example, you are very likely to find 150 gold rare items along with lots and lots of gold and other trinkets.

You are not suggesting making every single item dropped by monsters an artifact, do you?

I like to add more, since all my weapon and gold transfers between Characters was only possible with the help of my guild members(who sometimes are hard to get hold of) who temporarily kept my belongings after which I had to sign out and get them back after I logged in with my other character, it would be better if these transfer of items within own characters was possible in a much simpler way. Not like it cant be done, so why not just make it simple for what you already earned as gold etc in another build to be shared with future characters.

THanks

i thought of a clever idea with the pet control system...
Maybe have it where the more beast mastery you have the better controlled your pet is... so as you pump it up it might unlock options where you have trianed your pet to sit, attack, stay and so forth... and with higher beast mastery the more likely they are going to do what you say... just thought that would be neat

This is something I thought of last night. DO NOT automatically skip it for whining about levels (because I believe completely in the level cap). Anyways this is what I was thinking.

How about giving a near infinite amount of DUMMY levels.. i.e. a player can reach levels 21-1000 but he DOES NOT benefit from it (i.e. no more attribute/skill points). The way I understand it most people just want to be recognized for the amount of time they put into the game (and this will help with the loaners that don't wish to be a part of a guild or gain popularity only through PvP). You could even give members a different colored or shade of baldric/sash (that does nothing) but will signify that that character has played for a long time and is due a little respect.

Downside: ARENAnet will have to make it VERY clear that these are dummy levels (maybe pop up box signifying that level 20 IS the end). This is just a thought let me know what you think of it people... I really like the baldric idea.

Lansing Kai Don

Haha, yeah, I want /hug and /panic too!

Dragonne - that's a great idea about the intro popups, I think. Not everyone has played an MMORPG.. this game will have new and experienced players of all ages. My younger sister just pre-ordered the game and has never played an MMORPG before (except that she would sometimes level my low level characters on FFXI) and found herself a little confused when playing Guild Wars. I had to explain a lot of things to her.

Not sure they would do this because they have said time and time again that reward is based on skill not time played. A reward for playing alot should be an awesome win-loss record. Maybe they should have individual stats showing wins and losses. Thus if you play alot, you'll have alot more wins and losses under your belt.

There are many other games out there that reward time spend playing by levels. I'd rather ArenaNet set themselves apart by the system they have now instead of being a EQ/WoW/(put your fave MMO here) clone

Ranger pets are bad enough in PVP, without even the very basic commands they're completely worthless (not that they aren't fun to have around).

I don't expect A-net to do anything about pets until well after retail though, this has been suggested numerous times since E3


Also, some small changes that would go a long way to make gameplay more informative and organized :

Ability to Control-click on a target without calling it, or just an option to completely turn off target calling.
Ability to permanently bring up a list of enemy names, as if you were holding CTRL.
Separate targetting for enemies and teammates, like in WoW.
Show what debuffs/conditions your teammates have on an enemy, again like in WoW.

It's pretty clear where you guys drew inspiration for the customizable interface from, now you just have to go the whole way =p

Hence my reason for dummy levels. But ANY form will do, the W/L record is a great idea, but what about those for purely PvE? How about an hours spent playing stat or enemies beaten? And I agree wholeheartedly with you, this is a game apart and the last thing I wanted was my thought to make people think I wanted more levels (nowhere further than the truth), just an idea to give those that love to PvE a lil more recognition... since I'd say a good portion of th game is PvE'ers.

maybe you could find a way to make the microphone chat free or at least incorperated into the collectors, I feel that there should be a drop system on items that are not wanted, maybe a drop blog above below item, I thought the system was really well built, nice job fellas, beautiful game, if you guys were thinking about putting out an editor so kids could submit new quests out there or something? Well, dig the game, hope you fellas have a great day and hope the quality of the game sells. Just thought I'd drop my mind, thanx for your time,
Jimi

In PvP, it's possible for a situation to arise where neither team can win; simplest example being three on each side are dead, and a warrior and ranger remain, neither with resurrects, both with heals (troll unguent and healing signet), the ranger has pin down, the warrior has no speed effects. The ranger runs away (around the circular edge of the arena) and pins down, with occasional other shots, preventing the warrior getting more than a hit or two in. The warrior chases and does his best to get a bit of damage in, using the healing signet where necessary. There is no way to break this deadlock other than someone giving up. It seems very poor form for the winner to be whoever is willing to endure the tedium for longer, which is currently how it works.

Possible solutions would be:

Solution 1. Prevent all healing effects (including natural regeneration) after a certain time limit. Potentially an unfair disadvantage to healing types, but a nice global solution - there is no way any battle could ever be perpetual with this effect in play. A ranger with a speed-enhancer or pin down versus an unspeeded warrior wins, under this condition, which I think is the correct result. This also has the advantage of probably being quite easy to implement.

Solution 2. After a time limit, gradually decrease the speed of anyone running away from all opponents. I could argue a case for this being the right result (that if you're running away then you really should be the one to lose the fight), and it has the advantage of discouraging those annoying "run for the hills" types that are quite common at the end of PvP battles. Solution 1 would encourage fast characters to flee and wait out the time limit then do ranged damage; this one discourages waiting out the time limit since there would never be an advantage to be gained by it.

Solution 3. After the time limit, gradually decrease the size of the arena, either by shrinking it or by slamming new barriers into place (barriers could be made of unkillable spirits). If there isn't a circle to run around, a runner can no longer keep on escaping damage.

Solution 4. Institute natural energy degeneration after the time limit. This would tend to be the opposite of solution 1, probably unfairly favouring healers instead of unfairly disadvantaging them - I think that's worse, since there's already a pretty strong bias towards healers in teams.

I think my favourite of these is solution 2, being the most elegant from a player perspective, and the most likely to avoid unpleasant side-effects of encouraging annoying behaviour. It disadvantages ranger-types a little, which is a shame since I quite like playing rangers, but I've never been one to keep running away beyond the ten minute mark either (in the 4v4 arena) - so such a change wouldn't negatively affect anyone who isn't being a jerk, really.

Or how about a draw? Instead of disadvantaging those players whose role isn't to physically attack but rather hit and run attacks?

It's annoying in PvP when that happens.

One time, our whole team survived (Mo/Ele, Rng/Mes, War/Mo, Ele/Mo) and we were fighting a single War/Mo who kept healing himself, but didnt' have any crazy damage. The four of us were just attacking, and none of us were getting hurt -- I was the Divine Healer monk and I didn't even need to heal because the War/Mo we were fighting couldn't hurt our team members.. and we were hurting him, but not enough to kill him. He didn't even run, he just stood in one place.

That went on for maybe five minutes. Longest battle, ever.

I agree with having a "DRAW" or something of that sort. There was no point to this battle really, he was surviving but couldn't damage any of the four of us. And we just didn't have enough damage (and he had too much healing going on) so we couldn't kill him. Somehow we may have interrupted his spell though and eventually killed him off.

Ah yes, I meant to mention that. The problem I see with a draw is that if it just occurs of its own accord at a time limit, someone might be just about to win and that'd be really annoying to have it declared a draw. If instead a draw has to be agreed, we'd end up with the same jerks saying "no, I'm staying until you give up" even though they have no chance of winning properly.

A combination might work though - offer a draw, and if it's refused then institute the slowdown on running away for any side that refused the draw.

I like it! Give them an option to end it honorably and if they refuse. Then initiate a slow down.

Lansing Kai Don

Instead of trading areas, why not just allow more chat filters. to filter out specific words the players wants filtered out. abit like a filter you use with emails, but with guildwars. you add key words and then tell the filter if it starts with <example word> filter that message.

So players can then add words/symbols/numbers like WTS, WTB, WTT, etc. and those messages wont appear in the players chat area. even / can filter out that annoying comment it tells you when someone is doing something emotion wise.

but giving the players full control over a filter would be good, because people can update it as they see fit in regards to what they dont want shown in there chat boxes.

Thinking more about it, I see flaws with that too - what if it's the chaser that refuses the draw? The situation becomes perpetual again.

Perhaps just declaring a draw at a time limit is the best solution in its simplicity, annoying though it might potentially be. Or, perhaps a bit less annoying, declaring victory to whoever has most team members alive (if either), least death penalty if survivors are equal, or least health lost at the time limit if those are both equal, and a draw only if all the tests still come out equal. That's clearly better than declaring a draw in examples like the one someone else gave of a whole party of 4 not quite being able to finish off a particularly tough monk.

Ok this one is a HUGE please.

Have an option to not download the opening cinematic. I spent 3 hours downloading the first night for BWE and that was per machine! I was at a house with not the greatest connection but better than dial-up... I feel sorry for those with dial-up. Or maybe download after downloading the game so we can still watch it but not HAVE to watch it.

Lansing Kai Don

Some sort of autocompleting on names of people to whisper to, and/or a combo-box effect, would be nice - similar to what Internet Explorer does when you type in the address bar. People you've whispered to most recently should get top auto-completion priority, followed by people in your friend-list, followed by people in the area (and district) you're currently in and maybe also people from your most recent PvP battle. A lot of the time, after a PvP I want to send a message to someone I was teamed with but can only remember the beginning of their name. Also a high autocomplete priority to whoever you've got targeted at time of changing focus to the whisper box.

somebody mentioned the first part before, but I'll add to it because I think it's VERY important...

1. give the pet an offense/ defense toggle (offense- attack master's target....defense - attack anything attacking monster)

leave the death penalty alone..it's your problem you brought the animal you should incur its cost..but give that one measure of control)

as a PvE player..I've gotten into absurdly dangerous situations that should not have been because my little friend went traipsing off when I wanted a more tactical approach to battle.

2. Retreat/Regroup(?)-- more or less same as the pet but meant for the henchmen in PvE.... same problem as pet...I refuse to take elementalist because he's psycho (lemme at 'em).....and sometimes the others have a tendency to want to stand and die rather than pulling back to re-try a more flexible approach.....

I don't want a grand change ..just a little one...the quests were hard yes but most enjoyable.. even running solo with henchmen. I just think those two things would make all the difference to me and probably others who play like me (afterall... you're the group leader.. in a multi- player group ..if you're smart you will listen the one who leads by experience....it would seem feasible that a solo in a party of henchmen should be able to have that one option to say "umm guys...this isn't gonna be pretty..let's step back a sec and take a better look before we aren't the ones doing the stepping"


other than those two things...I can't say there is anything I don't like...

P.S. - the missions are hard yes..but use your head..you'll figure it out..gungho doesn't work in this game....intelligence is your best weapon...use it wisely

This runs sort of in tandum to the idea of an auction house, but what about someone in town that specialized in merely selling dyes? I mean I enjoy the thrill of finding it out adventuring, but its so rare, and in town people charge an arm and a leg for it sometimes when its really not worth THAT much. At that point I'd rather be dealing with an NPC who could make it for me.

this may have already been mentioned but 8 pages is too many to read. I think they should add a NPC that scrambles your skills... like sorta a random build creator but you can do it at any time and multiple times. It may not be used too much but some people may use it once and awhile when feeling a bit bored.

i liked this bwe a lot the olny things that i can say is please change the money back add hookers to the tents and add a F-U gesture then e game would be perfect for me atleast.

they have one in lions arch

As said previously in this thread (8 pages, ouch) I really want
Intra Guild Battle
(not just an gladiator arena where you can fight other teams but an actual intra guild battle)
During this beta I discoverd the new Coastal Arena which is inacessible to the PvP Chars. It was so empty that i thought that if all my guild came here, we could fight each other (4vs4)...

... and it worked ! it was the best time i had since the WPE. The guild chat was flooded before, during and after the fights. For once, it was fun even if we lose the fights.

oh >_> well see I never got there, Okay! disregard.

I've read some of the suggestions in this thread and I won't quote too many of em (actually i won't quote any at all), but i just wanted to add a couple things I'd like to see.

1. Gamepad Support: I'm a console game at heart and only recently started playing PC games of this nature. I've played Diablo II and Age of Empires, along with other strategy PC games. I've also gotten a chance to play a bit of Star Wars: Galaxies, City of Heros, and Final Fantasy Online. CoH and FFXI both have support for game pads and that made it alot easier for me. I'm sure there are other console gamers/pc owners out there that would like this implimented into GW. I for one, think that i will be giving FFXI up for good once GW comes out just cause it definately more of my type of game (good work ArenaNet).

2. Futher Choices in Character Customization: most of what is already in the character creation is pretty good already. I'd just like to see maybe a few more faces and some that actually look like african american ones. in addition, i'd like to see the addition of tattoos for other jobs other than monks. not in the initial creation phase, but maybe later on. I'd love to have my warrior/monk covered in tribals if possible. also, i'd like to be able to choose eye color if possible. Body scale would be nice, as far as making your character lean and mean or fat and emposing. Not that i don't like the way warriors look already, i'd just like to make mine lean, like myself, and I'm sure others would agree.

3. Weapon naming: this one just popped in my head right now cause i know i've seen some movies and read books in which weapons had names. this is more of like a customization feature for your own equipment.

4. Weapons sheeved: i dont know if i spelled that right but i hope some of you understood it. since i've played ffxi, i'd like to see a character animation in which your character actually pulls out his or her weapon, be it a hammer from off of their back, or a sword from their side, right before they attack a target. that's just basically another visual thing, rather than a technical thing, although i'm sure alot would have to go into implementing that.

5. Personal Space/Storage Space: going back to ffxi, i'd like to see something in the immediate future along the lines of a storage space for items and money you dont want to carry around with u, but dont want to get rid of either. sometime down the line i'd like to see some sort of room you can furnish and maybe have manaquins to display/store your unused armor. these can either be sold or given as reward for a quest/mission.

thought of something i havnt seen mentioned:

but now that you can make a pvp char custom instead of prebuilt... it'd be nice if you could save your custom build, not create it, but just save the layout.. so when you make a pvp player play it, you can delete it and then load one of your custom layouts, instead of resetting up the build... do yall know what i mean? just be neat and i dont think it'd take too much to implement this because since i only have 4 char slots, i only use one as pvp and just change it to what ever i want, but it'd be nice if i could just click a tab and it'd load one of my customs i made before... just a thought

I've seen a couple of posts on another forum on this subject, and I wanted to do more than 'I hate it, please get rid of it'. So please bear with me as I ellucidate and generally blither.

I have only one suggestion so far, from this beta. The Experience bar. I always turned it off right away, because it's large, annoying, and clutters up more of the viewing space than the old one did.

I would plead for the old one to come back- it was an excellent spot to put it, it was there if you needed it, if not, it was incredibly small and already came pre-attached to something. I know, someone's going to say "But you can move the new one around".

However, you can't shrink the new one. It's large, it's cumbersome, and if you want to know what level you are, are you need do is press the 'self-target' button, which is automatically set as F, which is right there beside D, right beside where most people will have their hand. Or you can open the Attribute window.

I don't need to know my level, and the fact that I can blithely close the XP bar and go about my day having fun indicates that I have never really cared about my XP-however, for those who do, you have this great big, hulking monstrosity (that does exactly the same job as the old one in exactly the same way, except that 1) It's larger, 2) It says what your level is) somewhere on the viewing area. The old bar was quite good at what it did, took up less room, and did the same job (without level info, which is easily enough gotten). That's efficiency. That's one less time I have to go in and fiddle around with the interface. (Because I kept the rest as is. It takes a lot to get me to mess around with the interface)

And that's it, really. Good work!

I'd like to see a /duel function.

My reasons are simple : dueling has always been a way to build personal prestige and test ideas against other players. There's also no 1v1 PvP arena. I like 1v1-ing some times.

Also, I'd like to see a function that allows for guilds or other groups of players to pick their adversaries. Pre-made matches are nice, but sometime you hafta kick the crap outta that special someone.

Hello, I just participated in this weekends beta event for the first time. I am a long time EVE-online player and this was a nice change of pace. I will continue to play eve until it dies or I die first. I am contemplating buying this game, I need to get out of my ship and play on land every now and then, with no monthly fee, this would be a great choice for me. I'll be sure and tell the other 12,000 eve players about this game. My main reason for bringing up EVE in your forums, is chat. Please, pleease, please look at EVE's chat system. Your chat is the worst part of the game, and if GW is supposed to be all about group efforts like EVE, then you need a multiple windowed chat system like EVE's. It's impossible to carry on a converstation with someone while everyone else is chatting in the same window, which by the way can't be scrolled up.

Anyway that's my suggestion. I also don't like not being able to leave the seared Ascalon, there is great fun to be had there for sure, but it's not a place I want to stay.

Thank You, and btw, congrats on a very bug free beta, very impressive!

hit the ~ key and you can scroll up

"Pinging"

I've had a problem with pick-up groups where there were people who impatiently "pinged" the map to get my attention. I found the sound unpleasant. I hope the rate can be limited to once every 1.5 ~ 2 seconds or at least enough so it doesn't create a loud echo. My ears and my sound card do not like it.

Outfitter

When trying to chat while at the outfitter, I have pressed enter several times wondering what was wrong and that resulted in losing a lot of items I would've found useful. It would be nice if the enter option to sell was removed and clicking sell or dragging and dropping items would allow me to sell items.

Specific Encounter

At the Gate of Krytas I found that the monster AI for that horde of undead at the end of the mission was a bit odd. When we ran into the valley without talking to Hablion, the undead would swarm towards the entrance of the valley. When we ran away, they'd all collect in a huge stack. A team member who was a mesmer couldn't resist throwing meteor at the stack, so she died. Afterwards, all the monsters all ran back to their posts, and they wouldn't swarm the valley entrance anymore leaving it to be easy pickings. Is there something wrong with this setup? I felt that the only way my group was able to beat the valley was by taking advantage of it.

Quests

I won't talk much about Activate all 3 because I believe this was just a joke or some incomplete idea that was left lying around. I found it was pretty funny when I got the quest without much of an explanation. The first one referred to returning for the reward from Compared to the last BWE, a few characters including Duke Barradin and Torin(?) who the NPCs referred to were not to be found. I am confused whether this was because of some failure to activate the characters or not, but I ended up having quests where I couldn't turn them in for any reward. Can there be some consistency between the quests I'm given and the NPCs that exist?

International District

The international district didn't receive much love. When I dropped by Lion's Arch in the international district the Dye Trader and another NPC were missing. It confused me when I switched over to the Home Districts and found the NPCs there. Is the International District going to be equivalent to the Home Districts on release? I think this was also why not very many people were seen in the non-PvP international districts.

Cutscenes

I like most of the cutscenes, but the ones where your character fly through mid-air or run through walls are kind of silly. Someone should sit down and write down all the strange things that happen in the cutscenes. I know people have seen the cutscenes several times and may not care anymore, but it is important to at least keep the scenes consistent.

NPC follow

NPCs don't like to follow anymore. I remember when I played the necromancer tutorial, I had to bring a scale from the swamp back to within range of Verata to have her (Gwen calls Verata her I think.) turn it into a bone minion. There's also the dwarf at the Frost Gates as well. He even says he'll go along with the group to unlock the gates.

That's it for now.

Wha?
If you mean that there's only one town, play some more .
Yes, you may press the '~' (tilde) key or the small icon at the left to show the chat with a scroll-bar.

It may be called Guild Wars, but apparently they - the game owners and devs - realize that people like to solo and have been more than accomodating for the solo player.

From the Official Guild Wars site FAQ:
(bold emphasis mine)

What kind of game is Guild Wars?

Guild Wars is a competitive online role-playing game. Players can engage in cooperative group combat, in single player adventures, or in large head-to-head guild battles.

Do you have to be in a guild to play Guild Wars?

Not at all. Although there will be many positive aspects of belonging to a guild, there will be a number of ways to play as an individual and with groups, as well. Our unique system of allowing hireables in the form of "henchmen" will assure that you have the opportunity to play on your own when you choose, and the variety of explorable areas and cooperative missions, as well as player-versus-player and guild-versus-guild missions, assures that you can enjoy Guild Wars, no matter your playing style. Missions come in all sizes and difficulties and can be joined individually, as part of a one-time team or as a member of a full-fledged guild.

You guys treat partying up and joining guilds like some kind of religion. Some of these messages feel like increasing pressure to convert the unenlightened. I don't care for it. Especially since the solo aspect is what made me try the game in the first place.

I don't think they'll put too much attention on the solo aspects of the game - if that's what some fear. They're already marketing the game with solo, group, guild, PvP and PvE - I doubt they'll let any area languish in favor of others.

You like groups and guilds - fine. I like solo. It doesn't make me, or you, any better or worse than the other.

Ciarre

this is wat i put together
im not sure if theyve been said but its just meant to help make guild wars more enriching


---Day and night transitions (CRITICAL!!!)
:::::There should be a clock! or maybe a sun dial(to stay
with the theme?
:::::in my opinion the clock should have the correct time
(if it's 3:00 am in real life, then it's 3:00 am in the
game)
:::::there should be a moving sun and moon(s)... you could
maybe have a changing skybox that changes every hour or
so
:::::fires and such should go dim during the daytime

---Weather
:::::WIND(CRUCIAL)capes and such should act as if being
blown by wind(wind will have different speeds/direction
:::::storms:should be VERY elaborate;rain or snow will fall
and be affected by wind; lightning(flashes several
times per second to be realistic) and water could be
affected maybe?
:::::fog:not too much though; should be after short rains
:::::you should be able to see a storm coming(EX: dark
clouds forshadowing rain etc.)
---Swimming(CRITICAL!!!)
:::::allow swimming!
:::::when level up occurs, player can upgrade their swimming
ability to swim faster.
::::to keep people from going too far)when in deep waters,
player begins to struggle and lose health rapidly
:::::swimming in storm = death

---Emotes(not as critical but wanted)
:::::add a popup menu
:::::customization(let players choose which dance to do)
:::::add an auto emote(EX: when player types OMG, their
character, if not moving, acts excited;please = /beg;
lol = /laugh; etc.)
---Social(very much needed)
:::::add bars, taverns, pubs and such for those who just
like to dance and mingle.
:::::use medieval themed music like harps and such.
:::::soft music in between dance music
:::::dance music every so often
:::::add ability/emote to dance with other person

---Character
:::::add ability to customise size/color/type/etc.:
:eyes
:mouth
:nose
:nails
:tattoos
--other
:::::add a search function so people can type the name of
a person they are looking for and, if far away, the
location of that person is displayed and if close, like
in the same area, that person appears on radar and
emits a sort of glow.
:::::add the ability for guilds to buy extra cape type things.
these would include ones that go on ur arm(one corner
attached to ur wrist and one to ur elbow, a cape that
would hang down in front and back of ur groin like a
really long loincloth. capes that hang from ur hips(just
as long as loin cloth) one that you have on ur chest and
ur back(like those things runners wear w/ #'s on them)
and ones that would attach to ur outer knees.....
the pricing on such items could be based on wins or losses or i suggest making them as follows.......
1st cape----1,000g
2nd cape----10,000g
3rd cape-----30,000g
4th cape-----40,000g
5th cape-----50,000g
6th cape-----80,000g
::::::all of the capes would be ragdoll like their normal
counterparts and more capes = more of an experienced guild
:::::: players can choose not to wear certain cape parts but must wear at least one so as to advertise and promote their guild.


---Inventory

:::::i suggest adding some of the following slots for enchanted eqquipement and such
/////cape slots on ur arms legs torso groin back and hip
/////belt slot
/////glove slot
/////ear ring slots for enchanted earings and such
/////wrist slot for bracelets and such
/////finger slots(10) for rings( if people have shiny fingers,
you know they're rich)


---Also

::::: let people have the ability to use their gold on different hair styles and colors and even able to use dye on their hair or to add tattoos
and let them buy piercings
not the kinds used today but the kinds used by tribes and such


im sure i could say more but that awt to tie you over

and btw
i am a character/level designer in the making and was wondering if maybe later i could help you guys with designing the game or expansions
i am not asking for a job but im asking for the permission to take my own swing at experiencing that job before i go out and get one
i am 15 almost 16 and i ask for no pay
it might seem wierd of me but i really need some insight as to how i will fair in design.
i can provide concepts of just about anything
and like i said i won ask for money
but i want to help and to see how a game is put together and to see how my work can affect things.
please consider this and email me at:

[email protected]

i hope i have helped
i love your game
best of wishes
and good luck
"may the wind be on your backs"