Official Suggestions Thread -- February BWE

I must not have pressed "submit new thread" when I made this two nights ago. Here it is, the official, sure to be read, we're listening to you and making the game better thread where you can put all your great ideas for Guild Wars. This is for suggestions more than feedback or bugs. How would you make Guild Wars better? What appeals to you? What could be improved with your input?

Come on, let's hear from you!

Well, I'll chime in, just to get the ball rolling.

The customizable UI is awesome, but the district menu and party window don't stay where you put them. I'm still advocating that transparency be added to the array of customization options. It'd be great to be able to see through the UI.

The new area is awesome, too. When you go to the academy, the warning about not being able to come back should be more concise and bold. I didn't have a problem with it, but some people did. The cutscene at the end of the academy should be a little more dramatic, IMO, but I assume your working on things like that anyway.

I think all my other suggestions are covered in this weeks FF, so I'll wait and see what you've addressed on those issues next BWE.

The party window can't be changed.
Would be great with colouring of the ui.
Per character ui saves.
The options and menu button emerges.
Someone removed the "target next item" command in control center, give it back.

Remake the chat window. Make so we can filter out some text in diffrent tabs. Only guild messages in the guild tab, only tells in tell...

% counter of how much quests and exploration on the map I've done. Lots of stats! You have started with /age and /deaths, keep it up, add a page with stats in the ui somewhere.

Sorting of skills in the skill window and skill buying window. Death magic first, blood magic second, and so forth. Easier to choose skills this way.

And a big bug you still haven't fixed, been since e3. I k now this is a suggestion thread, but. Falling through stairs, bridges, and sometimes even the floor! Been doing /bug on every event for this. I've seen it happen, it has happened to me, other people talks about it.

Names for all the diffrent zones on the map.
Notes on map and maybe even a "notepad".
Lots and lots of emotes, I really like playing around with them.
Arcade games.
Things to throw alot of gold on that has no effect on pvp or pve.

In my humble opinion, nothing is easier than having skills arranged in the alphabetical order (and [D]eath comes after [B]lood).

As for emotes, I don't know: I keep seeing people overusing them with no particular reason and adding more wouldn't keep them from spamming the chat with "Player starts dancing" and "Player laughs".

I second LordFu. I would also like to be able to go back somehow and explore more of the new area (if I missed it the first time).

UI is great. Kind of bare, but you addressed that is FF#33. I also like the bar that pops up when you cast a skill.

Remove the bag system. The original pane system was fine, and you went and "fixed" something that wasn't broken, making it horrible. No idea why you added the grind needed for storage, thought it was supposed to be minimum grind.

The new starting area is a joke. Looks real nice, plays real boring. I haven't seen one non-pver like it. You basically took an action intro in E3 and turned it into a coma inducing bore-a-thon over the months. Not only that, oh no theres more, just like the bag system, you copied all of WoW's fun filled gameplay elements:

-Over 56 years of running needed in the new area
-No skill is needed, you just need to run a lot, talk to a lot of npc's
-Quest's require no skill, just need to spend 34 years figuring out where to go
-You start off with nothing. Why. How many good movies start off with nothing? None. Good games and good movies alike start off with you already in a progressing story. E3 did that (kinda), this does not. No one cares about being young or the past. I'd much rather be like E3, I spawn with all my skills, some stats to alloc, and in the middle of a battle. You can add some "...you've been seperated from your batallion..." story, auto-give a temp quest to "...find your squad...", then let the player bash, wreck, maul, shoot, and plow his way through it. Then after an hour of fun filled action, you can teach players the few thing's they wont learn by themselves. In E3, I learned how to play after killing a few monsters. I am also not a rocket scientist. The new approach is geared towards mentally weak goldfish, you're assuming everyone who's going to play the game is going to be an idiot, and they need some butterfly+bunnyrabbit area to introduce them. Meanwhile the rest of us are alienated and bored to tears. You couldn't pay me to play in that area, I can't stress enough how terriblly boring it is.
I understand you worked long and hard on this new area, but you guy's missed the bullseye on this one, infact, you really didn't even hit the dartboard.

Missions hould have more monsters. Although my memory isn't the greatest, E3 you usually fought against 4-6 monsters at once. These new missions have groups of either 2-3 monsters, and it's just not fun...everyone killing the same guy. Battles should be larger, 8-12 monsters of different types, so there's actually a strategy in it.

OK and which of you uppity people that read ogaming as well called my rant about the UI change ignorant, mean, and unpurposeful (this includes you Gaile,) and that new area is the LEAST n00b friendly area of the entire game because of the inability to go back and people missing their second profession. And I dont give 2 craps if all the monsters are lvl -1, they will -*&- you in groups of three if you are level 1.

And I don't give two #*%& for this kind of input, dearie.

Where's the suggestion in this post? You seem to say (1) I don't like this, (2) I don't like this, and (3) I don't care about this other thing. If you have a suggestion, make it. But your input is entirely unproductive and as such, deserves to be ignored.

As is yours.

1) bear capturing is evil, should be made easier or impossible
2) Getting to World of Warcrafty buying extra bags to hold stuff in
3) Nice putting the bags back into a single interface, but now its hard to use kits as you can't go across bags with them. Make kits and packs go across bags when you use them, ie: click to use kit, select bag, then use kit.
4) Despite the little green arrows showing where to go for quests, the area still isn't that friendly. People don't do all the quests and heck, don't even half the time do the secondary profession quest. Make it more n00bs friendly.
5) Argh money sink evil. 40 gold for a 5 use object but 10 gold for the ordinary salvage kit? why dont we just switch it to 10 gold for 5 use object 40 gold for 25 use object, make the expert one 50 or 60 then (or it could already be, I didnt look)
6) something i forget

Why hello.

I am your friendly neighbourhood adminman. If you cannot keep on post [suggestions], then I will be forced to use my big bad stick.

Ask THX or Spooky - it packs a whallop!

A suggestion- Make the Newe Olde Ascalon area a little more self-explanatory. Give explanations of Skill Points and what they do. I had to straighten out several people I grouped with in Seared Ascalon about what they did. The fact that I have spent more of this BWE answering such questions that any other previous BWE (And this is not because I've been an uncommunicative twit, but because there are more questions) says to me that the game itself is not doing a good job of answering the questions. The people I was straightening out, obviously, had just gotten the pre-order in time for this BWE, but there were still more veteran players asking questions about where to find this, or that or how they did such and such- I can't remember the questions exactly, but if the game's confusing to new people in its current form, then its obvious it needs to be changed a bit.

Another suggestion- while I realize the inventory is part of the team's vision, I would heartily recommend a change back to the old inventory style, where there were not moneysink bags to sink our money into. While I'm coping with just the backpack, I really preferred the ease of use that the old inventory offered. And that was one of the big selling points of the game. (Not the inventory, obviously, but the ease of use of the game, which the old inventory style was indicative of.)

Suggestion: Something about being able to go tripping lightly amongst the monsters over the hills and valleys of Olde Ascalon, like something out of The Sound of Music just didn't equate. I would suggest that monsters in Green Hills be more aggressive. The Bandits, I can see biding their time, but not the monsters. Portions of Green Hills should be a deathtrap to all but the most hardened, most smooth pairs of adventurers.

Suggestion: Put some women among the Ascalonian Settlers in the cutscenes with Rurik and the Dwarves! How are these people planning to carry on Ascalon?

Suggestion: Make it so that if players click on Rurik while he's standing still, that he will stand up and get a move on. I had to resort several times, to shouting at him with frequent verbal abuse.

That's all I think of at the moment. I may or may not come up with more.

Very good input. When you're close to a project, sometimes it's easy to forget that you have to step waaay back to get a look from the new person's perspective. If you were finding a lot of confused players, particularly those joining for the first time, we'll take a look at this in a major way.I'm not involved with the design in any way, but I understand the comments. I am personally taking a wait-and-see attitude, particularly since I know this is very much a work in progress. You can tell that just looking at the UI, and the team assures me this is so. I know we definitely need ways to require the spending of money, or else greatly reduce drops, in order to keep the economy viable in the long run. This, along with skill balancing, has to be one of the most challenging areas of game design. I'm interested to see how it sorts out myself.I'm not sure about this. The area is supposed to be a "soft landing" for new players. A "deathtrap" could disenchant a large number of players who look for a more gentle start. Your point is good, I'm just not sure if it will follow the purposes of the area. On the other hand, maybe a more-greatly increased edge would be a good thing, while going through the area.Didn't notice. Embarrassed I didn't notice. Duly noted. Well, that, or you have to run after him recklessly because he charges ahead. Methinks the royal family of Ascalon is just a shade inbred. But, I digress. Keep 'em coming, good comments.

The point about Old Ascalon is true, that it is to be a soft landing- Some of the areas of Regent Valley, particularly with multiple Spiders, can be occasionally difficult, but apart from that there's not much challenge in Old Ascalon. Of course, here we run into the problem of what's challenging and to whom. I've had since E34E to hone my skills, so naturally I'd be craving a little more challenge. That said, 'deathtrap' was perhaps a bit strongly worded for what I was after. The monsters are there to fight if we want them.

And if not, there's plenty of tripping to do.

I figured the bags were a form of Economy Control- every game needs controls, and since drops have increased this time around, you need something into which to put all that burgeoning money. I'm glad to have voiced my concern, and I'll leave it at that.

I'm usually a lurker but I have some ideas that I think would greatly improve the game. That's not to say that the game is bad. I think I’m addicted. However, the one complaint I have and I seem to hear a lot of is the character creation is limited. It's as if there are 2-3 clones of yourself running around each area. Therefore my suggestion is to have race selection in the creation process. Some examples would be Human, Elves, and Dwarves... I know you are probably thinking that these races are used a lot and they are unoriginal, and that's true but so is having and several clones of yourself everywhere. If you are looking for an original feel, then create your own races. Just please make character creation more extensive. Race selection can also be more that just aesthetic, as in TES: Morrowind. Excluding the limited character creation elements, this is the best game I’ve played in a long time. Keep up the great work.

Another thing I'd like to see is a friendlt or practice battle in GvG. This would be great for testing strategies and builds, as well as training guild members who are not as skilled/experienced in PvP/GvG and don't want to be left out.

firstly, The new area looks very nice, and has some nice tutorial aspects.

One of the worst things about the place is that once you leave, you cannot come back. I dont know why it's very sad. I woudl prefer a very small tutorial area, then allowing us to explore this rather large and fun area (yes guys, I liked it, like the quests, etc) as much as we want. The fact you can leave at level 3 and probably should to "get on with game" probably means that all the great stuff here is missed by people, never to be seen. It seems a waste.

The main flaw with the tutorial of this place is tied in to the above. Things are not explained in enough depth, the place is way too large for a new player to be eased in to the game, and there are only general guides as to what you should be doing. You need to have VERY clear pointers. The tutorial should not give the player much say in what they do; they should be following orders and learning basic mechanics. The communication as it stands is not that great. I was all buggy at first and couldn't read everything in depth, consequently I was wandering around at level 7 not realising to leave the area I had to enter the academy (I got to Fort Ranik expecting a mission that kicked the plot in to gear... maybe the NPCs you talk to can remind you? you dont go back to Tydus(sp) after the first few quests). Other things I had trouble with were:

1. Finding the Fair.
2.Working out how to get more skills. The skill trainers should say "you have all the skills you are able to get" if I have them, not keep sending me back to the places I've been.
3. I thought some people who looked carefuly getting a FREE res signet was kinda unfair to those who missed it. Given the way costs for skills rise later in the game getting a skill you might use for free is really a reasonable boost. Likewise you shouldn't allow people to leave the area until they've gotten all their class skills, from all the trainers.

Explain the Salvage, Identify, Expert Salvage, Crafting, etc.. systems in DETAIL in the newbie area or when you first come in to contact with them. Please. I played in the WPE, and have been reading much about the game on sites like this, true new players would really be lost.

The quest log system is horrible. It should allow you to reaquire quest items if you drop them for space reasons (gogo horrible bag system), and it should sort them by area, list who the person is who gave it to you, who you have to turn it in to, and clearly explain what is required (i have a bear skin, but the quest needs more?), and when the quest is completed. Allow us to drop quests if we dont want them anymore (I have Old Ascalon quests in my log) Sorry for the comparison, but the WoW quest system has most of these points down to an art. The only thing GWars system has better is the lack of a cap on how many you can have (seemingly).

As for the quests themselves. While some are really nice and show how well it can be done (the follow up to the meser quest is great ) but the majority are simple standalone ones that yield xp. They give a certain ambience, but I would like to see more linked ones, more story ones. I liked the royalist revolution ones, but the motivation to do them seems to wane if it doesn't lead somewhere. (I might be wrong on some points here as I still have a few uncompleted ones and such)

What the NPCs tell you in quests, especialy series, should go in the log. Often someone will tell oyu something and you'll miss it or forget it and you're stuffed. You wont know what he said because it's not often echoed in the chat log (which is too small) or the quest log. Going back to the NPC will often give you no access to that information again.

Catacombs: I ran in to walls in one or two places here, never finding my way in to the middle. Can you get to the middle? Is there good stuff? Bosses? I really like the place, make people go there more! Maybe a mission?

Mission Goals, Bonus Goals: Is there a way to bring them up? Is there a log of the mission related chat with NPCs? There should be. I would consider a introduction mission too. The jump from newbie to the first mission is not fluid for a new player. (getting to the drake in the ice cave proves annoying if you miss the drawfs speech... a log showing this bonus mission talk and goal would help. the popup is good, but we need reminders.)

TIMERS! Spell cooldowns, spell information, hexes, enchantments, buffs, etc, PLASE PUT TIMER INFORMATION ON THEM ALL! No only in the skill selection area, but under the mouseover menues, and a visual display in combat too. I cant mention how many times I was looking for something like this. This also counts for adreniline. I don't have the time to look at my bar that closely in combat, I'd like to have a number telling me I had 5/7 adreniline for that skill as well as the fire. Idealy I'd like an option to show the energy cost, cooldown and current and required adreniline as numbers over the skill/spell icons. Perhaps you can aso greay out skills/spells when you dont have enoguh energy to cast them too!

Storage between accounts. I know something was said about a pooled storage space for the chars on one account, I cant wait for this to go in.

The Bag system is horrible! Why does this game need such a cruel money sink? Chances are by the time I have enoguh money to buy all those bags, I wont have this other rubbish (quest items, rubbish I collect to sell) clogging me up.

A mail system! I'd would really like to be able to mail things to my guild members when they're not around. Especialy considering I often salvage this stuff becuase of the limited bag space.

Skipping a second class? Surely you should not allow people the option to do this unless they are VERY certain, as some peope might not understand the full consequences. Force the selectino more.

Road signs: If they point in a direction, let that direction be along the road that leads there. If they are a sign right outside a place, dont make them directional. It can be confusing when trying to find a new area. I only noticed this in a few places.

Attacking: I think making attack default on clicking is a bit annoying. But maybe that's just me. I'd prefer the default just to be select and I think new players would find this easier too, but maybe I'm boased.

More when/if I remember it.

This is something I hope they address as well, but its probably just a lower priority right now. I do remember an interview where they said the only race for release will be human, but they were planning to bring in other races for the expansions. Having multiple races would definately help with varity.

Outside of that there needs to be more choices. Loads more hair styles and colors. I would like to see more control over your body shape outside of just how tall you are. Even the addition of a few different body types for each class would help.

Other than a characters physical appearance, the amount of different armor types and weapons would help a lot. Being able to mix and match armor pieces and still have them look good together would be fun. More special effects on weapons is always neat. A slight glow here, a little shiny-ness there. Maybe having weapons better refect their bonuses visually would be good. The Dragon Swords are great, but they can have cold damage while still being a flame. At least turn the flame blue when it does cold damage.

I would love to see this as well. We have the Energy needed for a spell displayed when you mouse over it on your toolbar, why not adrenaline, recharge time, and cast time? I'm mostly wanting adrenaline put in.

I'd rather they just add more options to hair, face, etc. Easier than making a whole new race. New body types probalby require new models made, which is just as much work as a new race or class, but if they can allow other options to character custimisation easily I'm all for it. Currently most of my characters are dark skinned, as that's the only way to stand out.

On that topic. The darker shades of skin look fine on some classes (my male warrior looks awesome), but on some, especialy some female ones, it looks rather odd (IMO).

As for the armor. I think it's reasonable that armor that is the same looks the same. Perhaps they can just put some non armor "dress clothes" into the game that you can wear around town too allow people to express themselves more. (not a high priority I'd say, given that they'd have to be made for each gender and class, and have no mission or pvp use)

My rare axe (+1 energy on hit!) looks pretty boring. I'd like to see some special effect placed on rare and blue weapons so that everyone else can see how awesome mine is. Maybe it glows red? Has some shine? Something spins around it?

Guild capes: The grey bit at the top, please make that different/gone/custimisable, as it really doesn't suit certain designs.
I wouldn't mind seeing more diversity in the cape shpapes either. Basicly all that changes now is the hem, if you could allow some too be thinner, shorter, etc that would be great too. Just noticable differences, not things that can only be seen from close up. (the guild cape options are otherwise pretty good, even if the tool to make this is buggy at the moment)

Trade system needs a lot of user friendliness impelemented. Trade house, trade channel, whatever. Something. (in the works, right?)

Random non suggestion: Whoever writes Ruriks emote lines is great "Victory or Martyrdom!" Suits him to a tee! Awesome!

Back on the tutorial subject:

My elementalist yawned through Old Ascalon while my warrior had trouble being awesome (It was still reasonable easy, but nowhere near equivalent) right up until he got a decent weapon, and really wasn't fantistic untill my rare quite a while later. Granted it's the problem of playing a item based class, but maybe you can make the newbie weapons for warriors and rangers (? didn't play one) a bit buffer?

I just did 4vs4 random team pvp for my first time.
We went up to around 30-35 wins in a row, but we don't know exactly how many wins we got. Could you add a counter, please? I had too much fun to count them.

Well, I was a newcomer to Guild Wars, and the Feb BWE was my first play of the game. I must say I am impressed, and am looking forward to the next one. So, I thought I'd give my impressions.

Character creation was, of course, the first thing I saw. I was a bit worried I was going to be stuck with a female elementalist due to the random model they show when typing in your name. Also, I think the name really should be the last step of the process; I'm the sort of person that will create the character, then name them accordingly. For some reason I just didn't feel right doing the name first. Also, some more variation in look is a good idea, but since it is only a Beta that didn't concern me too much (although it was funny when the friend I was teamed with run off chasing someone he thought was me ). I really liked the ability to rotate around the character though (always good to see what the character looks like from behind).

Next I got to see the landscapes; very, very nice. Took plenty of "snapshots" to show the folks at "home" Was a lot of fun exploring, just to see what I could find. That is one of the things I love doing in a game; every now and then I like to take time off from fighting and go for a wander. This is probably the only reason I didn't have problems finding the towns.

I found the quest system to be nice, but I agree with the earlier comments about more "linked" quests. I also thought it was a bit wierd though that the quest "arrows" dissapeared after the Academy; I wasn't prepared for that. Also I had problems figuring out that you had to go back to Tidus (sp?) and go through the academy to continue on. An idea might be for Lord Darrin (or some of the other major NPCs) to drop hints to go back there. Also it might be nice to get some nice armour/weapons or even the belt pouch via a quest; maybe as a reward for joining the army or for passing your first profession test (just an idea). Also, it would be nice if the collectors would give clues on where to find the items they are after.

Combat: Well combat is combat :P Was pretty much standard fare. I liked the boxes that popped up with hints, the only thing I found difficult was that I was so busy with casting prep spells, etc that I managed to see them just as they dissappeared. Maybe they should be permanent until closed by the user (or have an option to set them that way). This made it a bit tricky to figure out how some spells/skills worked. Apart from that, combat was done well.

The skill system: I liked it. A bit more of an explanation of the secondary profession could have been useful. I found it a bit harsh that I couldn't use skills that weren't on the skillbar, but I guess it will just take some time getting used to. Also, I found the skill bar a bit constrictive; there were times I wanted to change my "skill set" but was too far from a town and too close to my destination to do so. Maybe there could be a combat and non-combat toolbar; each one shows up at the appropriate time.

Inventory, crafting, etc: I really like not having to spend points or time building up crafting skills. As for how the inventory system works, I didn't mind it, although it may have been a bit small (but only by about 5 or 10 slots). Buying extra bags and belts to increase space is cool by me, although I like that I could get them by the "collector quests" as well. As I said earlier though, might be nice to get the belt pouch by a quest, I'm sure many people missed the collector who was trading for them. One other thing that annoyed me slightly after going through the academy; turns out I could have used those hides I could have collected for but didn't bother. It's only a minor annoyance since I will probably start a new character so I can pick up on the things I missed (I really hope that the "account storage" thing is implemented).

Anyways, these are my impressions of the game. Overall, I am happy I have pre-ordered the game, although I am a little upset I had to pre-order through another store since EB didn't have any idea about the game (for the record I am in Australia). Means I'm gonna miss out on the pre-order bow Sorry for the long post, but I thought it's better to have too much info than not enough

Thanks for the chance to have my say! Good to see a company that cares about the players. Keep up the good work.