Improvements to Compass/Radar

I noticed after playing cooperative missions for awhile that there is room for a few improvements to the Compass or Radar, however you want to term it.

-It would be nice to have arrows for your teammates if they, or you, stray too far away from the group and need to get back to them fast.
-If your party members could be represented by colors other than the default green on the radar, then that would be a bonus as well.

The only reason why I am mentioning this is because sometimes when you are paired with people who do not have a clue as to where they are going often become seperated from the main group and finding them after they walk off and do not return calls to return or requests of the current area they are in usually fail miserably. A system in which members of your party in towns and wilderness areas are distinguishable by a color system would be a nice addition to this otherwise very good game.

Oh yes that is missing.
Also, I would like to go to town via the map teleportal WITH my mates.

I'd appreciate it if parties didn't disband when people teleported.

Haven't you ever just needed to skip off to town for a minute to customize your new weapon between missions? Maybe you suddenly decide you want orange armor for some reason.

-shrug- Ah well.

I like the idea of having arrows (maybe blue ones to differ from the quest arrows) to show where your groupmates are. Though, if you're party member is, as in your example, running off, ignoring calls to come back, I doubt that arrows are going to help much.

I think the reason that you don't stay with your team is because of unlocking towns.

For instance, I can come back from Lions Arch and help out my guildmates doing something in Ascallon. They've never been to Lions Arch, heck, I don't think any of them have, as yet, gone to Yak's Bend. So in order for them to stay with me, I'd have to go to a town that they have unlocked, but there is no current way to tell who's been to what town.

Now that I have had time, here is a crude photoshop of what I am suggesting.

Players Pink, Black, Blue, and Purple are close by the main Green character and players Orange and Silver are off "exploring as scouts" or have become seperated from their group as indicated by the complementary arrows for each of their color. The Red indicators are still enemies and the green arrow is still a guide for completing missions.

I agree 100%. And about disbaning from your group when you use the map warp, I agree with that too! In fact there should be an option where you don't have to be town to leave the group. The outside area could refresh its self to maintain the same effect when you leave town on your own.

The reason why the warp to town and retain your party is not a feature is because it might allow people to unfairly gain cities into their teleport list. Say 1 person has the Yaks teleport but the other 3 in the party do not. All that person has to do is warp to Yaks and suddenly the other 3 have it too without any of the work to get there.

Johnnylange, the reason why this disband party while outside of town will not be implemented is due to the fact that items could possibly be duped this way. You are out PvE with your friends when a very rare item drops. The player assigned to pick it up does so then drops it, and so when everyone leaves party and the map stays the same for all of them, instead of 1 very good item, there are multiples of 4 or more on the loose.

I started this thread to try and gain support on a pretty easy modification to the game but many of you are bringing up things that would ultimately unbalance the game over time. It only takes a few extra seconds of whispering your party mates to meat up in District # then reparty and adventure some more.

Good point, I didn't think of those things! BTW like the mini map idea!

You shouldn't be able to leave a party mid-instance. First of all, it would promote people leaving groups, and second, what if you left a group, and happened to refresh at the spawn point of a boss mob?

Agree with the compass mod, just played a char to lvl 5 and found my mate/s lost in the map, and also have another suggestion:

What about a question to confirm entering a portal/town? There's been some times I've lost a killing just because a mate entered a portal. I know it is a minor flaw, but sometimes you just don't want to enter a town.

Exellent compass idea!

As for people getting unfair access to cities, well it is easely solved, just dont give the people in question teleport access to that particular city.
Or make it so you can only teleport to a city where all party members have access to.

I agree totally. The arrows are a great idea. I've gotten away from my group a number of times not knowing which direction they were in.

For people getting to towns without doing anywork, how about this, you have the current travel button that will make you leave the party if you use it, and next to it a "travel with party" button that will be grayed out if not everyone has been there before.

To fix the teleport problem why not just let that one person teleport. I'm sure say your full of items so you can teleport to a town. Then be able to go back into that zone and have a rejoin button that lets you rejoin the instance your party is in.

I really like the compass idea...

I like the party travel as well, jsut make it like master gunner says... only travel to towns all party members have visited.

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Example:

Player 1 has visited: Lions Arch, Yaks Bend, Ascalon City, Frontier Gate and Piken Square
Player 2 has visited: Yaks Bend, Ascalon City and piken Square and Frotier Gate
Player 3 has visited: Ascalon City, Piken Square and Yaks Bend

Then you can only travel to Yaks Bend, Ascalon City and Piken Square

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I'd also like to see a "Leave Party" feature outside of towns, i know that it could be used for duplicating, but cant they jsut refresh the map (either remove all items, or start that area over again).

I also very much like the compass idea. You definitely need an arrow or something showing where your teammates have ventured off.

I also like the idea of when a member warps to a town from outside, it should ask you if you want to join him/her. But just for people who have been there and have it on their map already. If not, then they can't warp to that location. The entire group has to warp to a location they all have. These are brilliant ideas for an already brilliant game.

Yeah, I second that. Good compass suggestions.

Also; teleporting should not break up your team, and zoning should not be forced. If 2 of my teammates want to head into the mountains, but I'm still upgrading my stuff, let them go, I'll catch up.

The 'instanced' outdoor areas work like districts, in a sense, so it wouldn't be difficult to alter the programming to just force you into the same 'instanced zone' as your team, whenever you're ready.

Those are the only two major flaws in an otherwise fantastic game. Teleporting and zoning should be more humane when in groups.