User talk:Linsey Murdock/Suggestions2

Caster Weapons

This is something that many of us in the community hve felt the need for since the beginning; you'll find posts about it even before Factions came out: We need "caster" items for more professions.

There needs to be a weapon keyed to ranger beastmastery. Currently if you're a beastmaster, you have no weapon to use yourself, since your points will be spread between expertise, beast mastery and wilderness survival. The same is true of a trapper. Why can't we have a ranger staff or wand? The wand could even be called a "whip" with some (probably hefty) artistry.

Possibly even more importantly than for beast mastery, an assassin needs caster weapons for deadly arts. I'm currently trying to use a build that focuses on that attribute, with some in elementalist earth (also half range spells), with the rest in shadow arts for survival. This leaves nothing for dagger mastery to have a weapon at all (not that I'd even want to be in melee range!)

The paragon also suffers severely from the problem if you want to make a non-spear-mastery build (leadership+motivation+command...). I'm not familiar enough with dervishes to speak about them.

What would this achieve? First and foremost, it would give these characters something to do while skills recharge -- wand. Secondly, these characters would then (finally) get their missing chance to +1 to that skill attribute while activating, and their missing chance to cast and recharge faster. It would help to make the game more fair those who like to use alternate builds, which is time and time again admitted in your developer notes as one of your top goals.

What are the chances we'll ever see anything to resolve this problem? --Emkyooess 03:15, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

Caster spears are a good alternative to the builds you mentioned, and as for staves, only their damage is affected by their attribute. It might be a good thing to keep in mind for GW2 though. 145.94.74.23 12:42, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

"Caster spears"? You say that like it's something that already exists.--136.142.214.19 15:40, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

"Caster Spears" are simply spears with a +20% enchantment and a +5 energy mod. It's the same thing as a caster sword/axe, but it's ranged, so other then skin spears are liked so you can attack as well if need-be. -- KonigDesTodes 16:32, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

They still lack the chance for "Aptitude not Attitude", "Master of My Domain", "Forget Me Not" for Deadly Arts. They still lack actual damage to apply, because not having the minimum attribute on any weapon makes you do like 5 damage. --136.142.214.19 18:40, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

Maybe just those attributes don't need those kinds of mods and aren't balanced with them in mind, only devs know. Just like hexes don't 'lack' a +20% longer duration mod. Not that I'm against adding new things, it's exactly opposite - more variety is better, entirely new weapons would be something great, after all those years of just boring 'more of the same'. --Yawg 00:02, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

Having a spear on a ranger also makes you look cool, even if it deals no damage. That's why I suggested it. I know it's not perfect, but it is a good alternative to Anet having to spend a month or more making new items and changing droprates. 145.94.74.23 10:05, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

Maybe making a spear with beast mastery req and adding a focus with beast mastery req. They don't even need new skins, just grab rangerish ones from other professions. 58.106.157.199 12:46, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

No, spears as they are now, but with a Beast Mastery requirement, would allow the ranger to deal too much damage. 145.94.74.23 13:17, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

Maybe what we need is just one new type of weapon, a wand who's damage is only tied to your level. It's max would be less than the max for regular r9 wands (for balance), and any attribute-dependent mod would be tied to the inherent headgear bonus. -- Alaris 15:50, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

We have. It's called a staff without meeting the requirement. You get all the nice bonusses, but the damage is weakened to that of a starter wand. Seriously, why bother? We have solutions in GW. Yes, they're not perfect, but they work. Why should time be wasted on this, when it will either create exploits or be left unused? And your pet is your weapon anyway. 145.94.74.23 08:44, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

I am aware of this request and that it has come up on occasion for some time. However, caster weapons (staff, wand, focus) are spread quite thin as it is and we do not have the resources needed to add new classes of weapons and the animations that come with them. As such, there are no plans at this time to broaden the range of weapons available to each class. - Linsey talk 20:22, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Holiday blues

I know it's probably on the late side, but I'd like to make a request for the Wintersday quests. Specifically for the solo quests where you get the Snowball Arena skill bar. Can we please have some other skill for necromancers rather than Holiday Blues? It's an instant game over for solo quests. More than once I've accidentally used this skill while a fair bit of the way into the dungeon (I'll deny that I was under the effects of egg nog) causing an instant sacrifice of the quest. Even an empty skill slot would be preferable in these instances. --Nkuvu 15:20, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

I was thinking about that too, I never use my necromancers in the snowball fight quests because of this. It's all too easy if you're are not paying too much attention to you keyboard to activate Holiday blues, especially when you have to pay complete attention to the screen during the bonus parts of the quest. Plus it makes necromancers the worst class since every other one has an extra skill while the necromancers have an auto lose button. Maybe(for the solo quests only) it can simply be just be a life steal spell(you could split the spell as a PvE and PvP version).(marsc 17:48, 14 December 2008 (UTC))

I find you need to use a bit of strategy when using Holiday Blues. Yes it sucks for PVE solos but in the right situation (ie, no win situation almost dead) it works well for PVP. I play my necromancer almost too much and its just a matter of training yourself to pay more attention than your opponent. Katherinezoltin 18:25, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

Just to clarify -- I'm not asking for this skill to be re-worked/removed for the Snowball Arena. It makes sense there. Just for the solo quests. --Nkuvu 18:33, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

Also: I don't want to give the impression that I think this is a huge deal. I can certainly take another character through the quests, avoiding the whole issue of Holiday Blues entirely. But it would be nice to re-work for those people who only have necromancers (what? it could happen). --Nkuvu 18:46, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

LOL, I never used a necro before in snowball arenas, but reading this truly made me laugh out loud. :D I do have to agree though; it seems like in a solo quest at least, the function should be changed to maybe only sacrifice %50 health, while also halving or quartering the damage and degen duration times. Still, the image of a player nearing the end of the quest accidentally using this skill and failing the quest is priceless.--209.194.208.116 20:34, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

These are all very good points and I did read them before Wintersday but in all honesty, I just did not have time to make the changes needed. I made a post-it note to look at the issue before the next Wintersday though. - Linsey talk 20:51, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Update of the 12th

Guard down ! I only have good things to say !
For the first time I sense that there is a fair chance to get a counter to almost everything, wich bring back players skills back on track. We did, and continue to experience some strange connections behaviour in AB (whole teams missing, stuck in a map after the battle ended, or even that time where there were no kurzicks at all...) but the fact that I now never wait to enter battle compensate that. So now comes the time for me to focus and try not dieing when telling you: cong... congrat...hugh...c..arrrgh congratulations. Serge Yseron 00:38, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

I noticed for the last few days an increased number of whole teams missing, whole teams leaving, people disconnecting on purpose etc. Have you experts come to the same conclusion or should we get dishonnor point when we want to shorten a 12 vs 4 alliance battle ? Would it be possible to allow players to join an existing session so that we always experience a 12 vs 12 situation ? Yseron - 86.209.65.18 14:07, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

There is no way we can make it so that players can join an existing game. That is persistence technology and Guild Wars does not have it. - Linsey talk 22:45, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Force Item Drop Hotkey

I don't think there is a hotkey to force heroes to drop item bundles. I think there should be so we can have the Rit heroes drop Protective was Kaolai or Destructive was Glaive on demand:D--Warherox 09:45, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

While no hotkey exists for heroes to drop items (I think we should work on a hotkey for ourselves first, not that either is neeed), when heroes hold items the target button on their interface becomes a "drop item" button. Allowing you to control your heroes with dropping items, it just takes up room. -- KonigDesTodes 10:12, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Well, there is a hotkey to force ourselves to drop items. Just select your weapon, and you'll drop whatever you're carrying. As for heroes, a hotkey would be nice, but I could live without it.--Pyron Sy 18:09, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

I made a post-it note to look into it. No promises! - Linsey talk 23:53, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Next Big Update Subject

Looking at the top of the page it seems like there were plenty of small suggestions for the next update but nothing mentioning th updates main goal (for example, rebalancing title grind, bringing more elites into play etc.). I figured there probably isn't a plan yet, so a topic for suggesting a subject for the update might be nice as a source of inspiration (this means other contributors can post their ideas here too).

I'll freely admit that I'm a PvP oriented player, and with the last two (?) major updates being PvE focused I'd like to see a PvP direction next. In brief there are 3 kinds of update I'd love to see done:
1) Extending the Sealed Deck format into Guild Wars. Preferably make it available globally, PvE and PvP, but keep it's functional focus primarily on GvG.
2) Revamping the 4/5* major disliked professions to make them popular as well as make them more accurately reward skillful play. *These are Assassin, Dervish, Paragon, Ritualist and Necromancer. IIRC, you're a member of the Spearmen which is a HA oriented guild (?) so you probably know enough PvP players to know why these classes are greeted with such a negative attitude. Rewriting certain mechanics (like dagger chains and weapon spells) would be absolutely awesome, but I think you could get pretty far just rewriting key skills.
3) Expand the Skirmish option to allow for greater customization and flexibility. I'd give a summary of the idea, but Tiyuri made a far better suggestion out of this on GWO once. I'd advise glancing at the pictures in this link, http://guildwars.incgamers.com/showthread.php?t=457650 , for a general idea.
There is only one other subject I'd love to see tackled which would be rewarding Guild play in PvE. Currently, playing with your guild is very much a social choice which means only the guilds where the members naturally socialize actively play together. The lack of in-game incentives to play with a Guild rather than just friends or even pugs deters from the social feeling most MMOs do have. 'Simple' suggestions would be Guild titles, collectors or quests though I don't actually have any clue whether those are programmable. Akirai Annuvil 18:33, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

the other thing they need to fix is the armor unlocking system. mainly because how it works now with rp and pvp toons it dost promote the hole reason for having a pvp toon and that's so you can remake it quickly. 75.165.101.64 01:20, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

One thing you guys should know is that this next update will probably not be as big as last month's. I mean, Wintersday itself is huge and she probably has new ideas for that which she needs to throw in. Also, next month marks the first Chinese New Year to take place late January since the Canthan New Year's creation so the Canthan New Year will probably be ahead of most years we have had it. Good for us, rush time for her. So Im not expecting a huge overhall until Febuary/March time at the earliest. Sure small things might be updated and yes, I know those two events are almost like pressing an "On" button to Anet about now but if she wants to add anything (like the small changes they made for Halloween), she will have to put aside other stuff. This is the big GW Holiday season, and most updates dont show around then. Katherinezoltin 22:47, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

So I shouldn't hold my breathe for the HoM update this year? *sighs. continues to leave GW uninstalled* --118.93.62.162 18:20, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

So that means I get all your candy canes, right? I would install just for wintersday. ^^" Katherinezoltin 07:43, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

If people really uninstall just because of one thing, I feel sorry for their mentality. There are many things in GW that should keep people playing. Wintersday is just one of them (especially this one with Daniel Frozenwind's event). I understand taking a break except when the monthly updates and events roll in now-a-days, but to uninstall it unless you get one, specific, update is a tad strange. Don't ya think? -- KonigDesTodes 11:48, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

Well, I will admit that what we do in each build is planned out months in advance. I knew I was going to be doing that title build from the first week as Live Team designer. It's just a matter of getting the resources needed for each task and then prioritizing what needs to happen as soon as possible and what can wait a little while. The full detailed design isn't done that far in advance, but I have a pretty decent idea in my head of what I want to do just needs to be put on paper. I know exactly what is going to be in the April build, I have a decent idea of what is in the next build after that and a pretty darn good idea of what will be in the third build. I've been thinking about doing the thing I am working on now since August of last year. So, small ideas and suggestions are cool, but for bigger projects they will generally have to be put on the bottom of the queue.

When I first started on Live Team, I had some pretty cool conversations about Sealed Deck play being expanded throughout the game. Having been a huge Magic goob for a long time (drafts 4 times a week, midnight madness every pre-release in Boston, constructed play for hours a day, etc), I am a big fan of Sealed in GW. It's one of my guild's favorite pastimes and we have run leagues up at the office. I think that expanding the format with full support in PvP and PvE would be a BIG project but I think it would be a fun one to take on. I don't know, there definitely isn't time for it any time soon, but we'll see...

Yes I am in 치 The Spearmen 치 which was once a pretty big HA guild. We have also done our fair share of GvG and other PvP formats. So I know a bit about PvP in Guild Wars. Man though, completely revamping 4 to 5 whole classes scares the ever loving crap out of me. I just don't know if I am willing to take something like that on. Yeesh makes my skin crawl a little bit just thinking about it right now. Blegh.

I have checked out those proposals for expanding the Skirmish option before. It's pretty awesome, I'll admit it but I have no idea if that is the kind of thing we could do. I think it would be something to take up with Joe. I'll pass it along to him. - Linsey talk 05:18, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Weekend Event Request

Can we get this sort of weekend event repeated in the near future: Triple Key/Lockpick drops AND double your luck points -- 27 August 2008 ? I'd be even more thrilled with a double Treasure Hunter point weekend but, that idea is likely out in left field lol! 24.188.207.20 01:53, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

I'd rather just have triple treasure hunter points. TH takes 200+ hours of boring running, so if I can get that reduced, that'd be sweet. -- Alaris 02:59, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

Triple treasure hunter points would be epic. Could easily blow several hundred plat on that. Gigantic gold sink. Though not as large as it would be over time, so I guess that doesn't matter. Kelvin Greyheart 05:46, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

Oh, I'd love a triple treasure hunter weekend... But, please on a weekend when I'm home :p --Lady Rhonwyn 09:58, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

Since you asked for it when you are home, the laws of the universe dictate that it cannot happen then, if it happens at all. While I personally would like a treasure hunter triple or even double point weekend, I doubt that that will happen. On second thought that would save... well... a lot of money, which I am guessing they don't want to do. Kelvin Greyheart 15:47, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

Lots of weekends either save time, money, or even generate money or trade items. So I don't see that as a reason why not. -- Alaris 16:19, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

Then i want double/triple gold dorps too, I already got treasure max I want some goldies for wisdom^^ Death Sligher 16:45, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

Kelvin, I know (just by that rule) that the Canthan New Year Event will be the weekend I'll be gone... So, an unlucky/lucky/TH double point weekend would be in a weekend I'm home :p --Lady Rhonwyn 15:06, 8 January 2009 (UTC)

Alaris, the main reason I doubt that it would happen because of money is because if you are going to get these tittles you have already committed a large amount of money to doing so. I can think of nothing else that would let me save close to half a million in just one weekend of somewhat casual farming (if you can consider farming casual). Yes triple drop weekends can make the farmers a ton of money, but that is just money moving around. Same with most stuff in drop weekends. A triple treasure/wisdom weekend makes a stack of lockpicks 3 stacks of lockpicks. I could buy 480,000 gold in lockpicks (just 400) and grind away at that for a long time. I would get just shy of 1,400,000 out of it not including the fact that my title would probably go up increasing my % chance of retention and furthering my mileage to a possible 1.5 million. That would require me to grind nonstop, but there are people that would do it. It simply saves so much money that the people who want to max this would have spent anyways. Kelvin Greyheart 16:08, 8 January 2009 (UTC)

I should mention that I would love this, just that (see above) I don't think it will happen. Kelvin Greyheart 16:11, 8 January 2009 (UTC)

Kelvin... all good arguments. However, please consider that (1) it would take 73 hours of non-stop chest running to max the title at triple TH points, which frankly, is impossible for a human being to cram in a weekend, (2) lockpick prices won't be affected by this, rather, only progress on the titles will be affected, and (3) treasure hunter is a painfully boring and long title to max. People going for treasure hunter are poor players anyway, so who cares if they save some gold? -- Alaris 17:17, 8 January 2009 (UTC)

I'll disagree on this one. Treasure hunter may be long, but it's only boring if you make it boring by running chests. If you fight, vanquish, or just basically play the game either in hard mode or in normal mode areas where chests count for this title, then it's not so bad at all. Besides the excitement of what will come out of a chest is fun.--24.92.116.83 02:10, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

(RI) Would you clarify what you mean by poor players? Poor monetarily, or poorly skilled? I cannot conceive myself maxing these anytime soon if at all. However I hardly call pulling 100,000 in a week of casual play poor. I am certainly not the most skilled player, but I am far from a poor one. The fact is there are only a few more things left for me to actually do on my derv, and after that its just a grindfest. I know several people in similar positions as well. I've been working on my other characters more lately, and could easily conceive getting 3 and 4 leg guardians before I probably quit for good sometime around June. With the income from HM stuff I can easily finance a massive expenditure on picks. I have pretty much everything I've ever wanted ranging from a good 20 sets of elite armors, to assorted weapons ranging from perfect but common to several tormented items. There are a lot of people in similar situations, and as I previously mentioned I know several of them. Chest running, even in HM isn't very hard at all, especially now that you can do it on whatever character so you don't need to do it on say, a necro if thats your main. A group of 5 of us could casually farm for 20 hours while doing other things, like chatting in a vent, and watching TV in one weekend. 6 hours a day is a lot, but since we can do it while were doing something like watching TV reruns its not that excessive. I never said that it would be possible to max these in one weekend, only that it would give people in this situation a tremendous financial boost when they already have more money than they really need. Kelvin Greyheart 20:45, 8 January 2009 (UTC)

I'm one such player. I need 5 more titles for GWAMM before moving on to more casual playing on other professions and I've decided that lcuky, unlucky and TH will be three of those titles. I'd gladly grind away on TH for a triple point weekend all weekend long for the TH points and rely on the upcoming ring games to give me the handful of lucky and unlucky points I need (while watching streaming netflix movies to fend off boredom). Given my current TH rank, I'd only need about 16 hours of grinding. 24.188.207.20 02:52, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

@24.188: I meant poor monetarily. Most of those I know who go for such titles as TH, Luck, Drunk, Sweet etc already have maxed many titles. In fact, they usually need 3 or 4 of those to make GWAMM. These are skilled players. The estimated cost for maxing Treasure Hunter using discount lockpicks *and* taking into consideration luck and TH bonuses to retain rates is 5000k or 5,000,000g. You will probably gain back 200g*10000 = 2,000,000g from selling items you get from those, leaving you with a cost of 3,000,000g. Having Legendary Vanquisher, MotN, and Legendary Guardian myself, the gold I gained while doing all this is dwarfed compared to those costs. Players hoping to max TH have to be dedicated or highly skilled runners, on top of dedicated chest runners. If you ran chests 50 hours in a weekend, you would save about 50% on lockpicks at triple points. But then again, if you did that, you would deserve it. You will also not progress much on luck or wisdom. -- Alaris 03:07, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

" In fact, they usually need 3 or 4 of those to make GWAMM. These are skilled players." Titles do not make one anymore skilled than one without. That's a generalization 118.92.180.68 03:19, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

No, but when someone has both Legendary Guardian, Vanquisher and Master of the North, you know he has a general clue on how to play PvE. 145.94.74.23 11:33, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

Ahhhh... no. Sorry.

In the current scope (or even in early times when I think of about) of Guild Wars Titles aren't a true representation of skill, just as how Arenanet's sales for Guild Wars isn't a true representation (not by one hell of a long shot) of how many actual players there are. Do you question whether someone got any runs from other player(s) to get this title, did the player work on this alone (H/H) or did they work with other people to get the title? Question: would a player who uses - themselves or is aided by - broken mechanics to get a title be considered skilled? Example: when Ursan was around people were getting massive amounts of titles due to its over-powered no-actual-skill related design. Couple that with the massive amounts of consumables - even just the overpowered Eye of the North consumables - does that make one skilled?

Just having a title doesn't actually mean anything, because isn't a true indication of anything bar that they have a title which can be brought, or the work could have been done by others or though dumbing the game difficulty beyond an 'easy level' through the massive amounts of consumables - which are F-ing ever increasing. Yeah, Arenanet, good call!

Titles = assumption that the player actually did it themselves. 118.92.180.68 20:38, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

Alaris, surely you have some other means of income that you find fun? The titles are tremendous in cost, but if taken in smaller chunks are certainly attainable within perspectives generally deemed reasonable. Maybe 5 manning a mission or something? I do things like that to unwind, and up the difficulty to make things fun. If I get money from other people to do it for them thats a bonus. Maybe they just don't feel like doing something, maybe they aren't skilled enough to do it. Whatever. Point is that I get far more than just the "rewards" for doing things like that.

Next, 118, I fail to see how working with real people are significantly different than H&Hing things. Both require their own understanding of people's or NPC's behavior. Both require some degree of organization. People are faster, if they are decent. Good teams can slash vanquishing times into ribbons because you can just keep rolling with massively superior damage, and more efficient skill usage/positioning, even without cons or pve skills in general, let alone incredibly broken things like the old Ursan. People relying on those things are not automatically bad, they may just want to speed things up (or in some cases be forced into that to even get a group (IE old Ursan)). However many would not be able to do things without the broken skills and bonuses.

Regardless, I have to agree that a title doesn't mean much if anything anymore. There are very few that actually require skill anymore. Prot/Guard can all be run, and I have done many of these runs. Vanq just takes time, and most areas can be run easily for the right price. When I was trying eternal grove in HM (without cons/ursan) I got an invite from a wammo. That alone made he hesitant to accept. When I asked for him to ping his build, he pinged something with sever, gash, mending and frenzy. I typed lol figuring it was a joke, but he was dead serious. I kicked him and he started flaming me, boasting about how he beat NF in HM with that build and got Guardian there. Obviously bought practically everything he's done, especially cause he was making stuff up when I asked him questions about a couple of missions there, showing little understanding of basic mechanics. Saw him there 3 days later looking for a run too.

Now lets get someone back on topic here shall we. Is there a way to implement this to speed up these titles without significantly decreasing the cost by upwards of a million in a weekend? I can think of one. Make chests openable several times by a person for a weekend. 2 or 3 openings would allow a huge cut in time, but not the cost. It would also encourage people to do it then to save time. Can anyone think of a reason why this would be bad. I am sure there are some, but at the moment I am not seeing any. Kelvin Greyheart 22:04, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

While I agree that there are shortcuts to everything, I always assume good faith instead of expecting the worst. I completed 80% of all Hard Mode things with heroes and henchmen (using my own builds), the rest with players except for 1 run (which I treated myself on for it being my last NF mission) and 1 Ursanway vanquish (just to experience it, wow, talk about overpowered). I think I may consider myself a pretty decent player because of that. However, seeing as I could do that, I assume that most people can do that too. So whoever has that title, has my respect until proven otherwise. Being a Wammo however, doesn't display a person's skill either. Bottom line: I agree that titles don't say it all, but they do say something, which at the least means that the player understands how shortcuts work; which can be useful in understanding how PvE works. 145.94.74.23 22:45, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

@118.92 - Titles are not the best indication of player skill, but they are the best communicable indication of player skill we have... that, and builds and general questionning. I'm willing to bet that there's a positive correlation between player skill and amount of titles maxed. The exceptions you gave do not make the rule.

@Unsigned - Running the chests is boring. However, farming or running people is fun, and that's how I get the gold. I'm about 50% done with Treasure Hunter, and I'll get it done... eventually. But just saying, I'd surely appreciate a triple TH weekend.

@Kelvin - I really don't think that cost should be an issue. The only ones that will benefit from it are those who (1) already have upwards of 1000000g stashed, (2) are willing to spend ridiculous amount of hours during the weekend, and (3) don't already have the title. While I don't fancy making the rich richer, I think it's enough of a boost for the common of GW mortals to be worth implementing, even at the cost. This is, of course, IMO. However, I think 3 opens per chest would be great too. That would cut down by 3x the time needed, yet keep the costs. -- Alaris 06:06, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

Alaris, neither do yours. There is no 'best' way of doing something in Guild Wars, only what we have available and what we have is 'for its own sake' at best. What you speak doesn't make the rule either as it relies on players being of sound mind enough to take titles, experience and builds into consideration. Titles aren't a good indication of skill, neither are players really as each has their own benchmarks to what makes a player skilled. They themselves could consider themselves skilled but aren't, there's no clear definable state to make the conclusion "You're skilled" so its more an of illusion, again for its own sake.

As for the weekends, to which is the topic I'm actually, personally, tired of all the double points weekends and wish something more original than them figuratively clicking a tick box to double the values for a weekend would come into play. The double weekends, or triple as someone suggested, trivialize the title as you're working on it in an environment outside of its original mechanic. 118.92.177.184 21:03, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

Oh, I like Kelvins idea for being able to open a chest more than once for a weekend! That seems like the best way of going about a nice treat. 24.188.207.20 06:23, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

John has already planned out the next four months worth of EWIS events. I'll talk to him a bit about the idea and do some thinking about it. We'll see... - Linsey talk 05:31, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Tonic sound effects in towns and outposts..

Can you please get rid of the sound effects made by people with the tonic forms such as the yeti in towns and outposts? I remember this was once done to mini pets. I found on several occasions I have been muting my computer when handing in quests, trading and merching because the sound effects are so loud and intrusive. Out of town they are fine - in the middle of a battle it's part of the atmosphere, but when I'm in town it really starts to bother me every time I hear the loud groans. If it were possible it would be cool to have an option to toggle that allowed you to stop the game from displaying tonic forms at all. BTW ty for the aura during festivals preventing large tonic uses from ruining the view during finales. 58.106.143.59 06:14, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

I have a related request: would you please consider increasing the volume of the bells on the jingle bear's collar? They're pretty hard to hear, and when all the other sound effects are active (at much, much higher volumes) it's just completely drowned out. I won't be mad if you don't change it though. But yes, most sound effects are very loud ingame, especially when compared to speech, music and background audio. I usually have them on 50% of the others. 145.94.74.23 11:36, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

Sound is sort of out of my realm, but I will pass this on. - Linsey talk 06:23, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Guild wars 1 and 2 tie-ins

I came up with an idea (I'm sure you've heard that quite a bit). As the time nears for the release of GW2, it would be fun to add an oracle NPC to GW 1 who would give clues about GW2 by predicting events which would happen in the future. The NPC could also give player specific predictions of things that may happen to that toon's decendants (in GW2) based on the contents of the hall of monuments for that player. Another fun idea would be to introduce a dwarven tavern (to either GW1 or GW2) in which NPCs could be discussing rumors of events going on in GW 1 or 2 or events which may occur in the future in GW2. It would also be a blast to be able to have bar fights with your guild-mates complete with breaking dishes, furniture etc.. So what do you think? --Neuro 20:31, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

It would be neat if we were able to do some GW2 tie-ins as we get closer to that games release. We'll see...

You ideas for bar fights etc are cool but aren't technically possible in Guild Wars. Maybe Guild Wars 2... - Linsey talk 06:23, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Asura Portal on the World Map

Dear Linsey,

the portal on the world map is a nifty tool to travel to Eye of the North. However, would you consider adding one to the Battle Isles? Because at the moment, it is a bit tricky to travel to Eye of the North from your Guild Hall with a team. The current solutions are travel via Lion's Arch (which has a smaller party size, so you need to reform your party afterwards), or via Kaineng Center and then through the portal, hoping that your entire team has Factions as well. I can't imagine this being too complex to implement, but if it is, then please disregard this comment, as it is not too important. It would just be very useful. Thank you for your time. 145.94.74.23 22:59, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

personally i think the hole traveling system needs an overall or at least a reworking. ideally i would hope to see the switch to a world map (ie combined all 4 maps into one big map. with multi layers of zoom and if you don't own one of the campaigns it just shows up as unexplored like how orr is always an unexpored area.)but i don't think that is going to happen for a number of reasons. but something i think that would fix a lot of the problems is to switch the little boat to be more of a folder system it would have 4 main categorizes Battle Islands, Tyria, Cantha, Elona and then smaller categorizes from there. then you click on one of the names and it would give you all the city's you have been to in that map so then you could go to anywhere extremely easily and with only one zoning. so then the hole i am in DOA i want to get to Calvon oh wait i have to zone to the mouth of torment then zone to KC then to calvon. but i do not think eather change will happen because it would be something useful and would make people less annoyed with the game. 75.165.113.53 23:52, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

I would personally love to see the four maps merged. Or at least Tyria/Elona and Cantha/Battle Isles. This would reduce a lot of spam in "Spamadan" and allows for more options to where people would go to sell things, like Droknar's Forge or Ascalon City once more. If the maps are put into 2 maps instead of one, the boats could lead to both Lion's Arch and Kamadan (even adding in Droknar's would make sense, as it is near water and a port is not too far). But either way, map change or no, I request that the Asura Gate icon next to Lion's Arch gets removed. There is absolutely no need for it. For one, if you can use that one icon, you can go to any location in Eye of the North, and for two, it blocks off so much area in Kryta around Lion's Arch that I cannot zoom in directly at Lion's Arch due to both the Asura Gate and the Boat icons. Neither suggestions are needed by any means, but it is highly annoying. -- Konig Des Todes 08:04, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

I'd settle for a couple of Guild Hall service NPCs personally. An Asura Gatekeeper and a Whispers Agent to shortcut to Boreal Station and Gate of Torment respectively, but at this point that would be a pipe dream. I understand the map system has some very deep rooted obstacles to further refinement that would take a major overhaul to change. These other posts suggesting one combined map look like they might be overlooking a certain problem: Imagine all the zooming in and out and scrolling just to navigate then imagine trying to do it on a 17" monitor. The Tyria map can still get me doing a false zoom-in from time to time and that's on a 26" wide screen display. -- WarBlade 11:33, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

What? im playing on a 17 inch wide screen and i have no trouble moving the mouse or zooming out and then zooming in it seems like something a 3 year old could grasp.... but with my ideal world map there would be 3 lvls of zoom the first would be the closest and would act like how it acts now at the closest level the second level would be just like how it is now 3 level you would see the entire world and important towns would show up. the other cool thing they could do is make it so your guild hall would show up in relation to where it would be in game ie Isle of Jade would show up in the jade sea, along with that you could see the other alliances guild halls show up on the map as well but that hole thing is a side idea.75.165.113.53 00:51, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Didn't they have the guild hall locations on various places before the Battle Isles came out? It would be nice to see that return for sure - same with the arenas that were closed (and for Factions/Nightfall, never made it). And I question the ability of a multi-layer zoom system, currently we have one click, zoom in, same button, zoom out. With 3 layers instead of 2, you'd either have cycle through zooms or make one button zoom in, the other zoom out - which would get tedious either way. That would be why I suggust merging two and two - the maps wouldn't be that big to demand a new zoom level but would still create less traffic into specific towns. Also, @ WarBlade, for the Tyrian map, it's not a 'wide screen' that is needed, but a 'tall screen.' The wider you have but not taller, the more black space on the ends you'll have. While making it a little smaller (or if at the same zoom level, just requiring scrolling), Tyria and Elona would be much wider as well, therefore making wider screens more viable. In other words, as it stands now, especially with the Tyrian map, taller screens not wider screens are more desired for best image. -- Konig Des Todes 18:44, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

One of my biggest problems is the Jade Quarry and Fort Aspenwood. If you are on a PvP character, the only way to get anywhere is to teleport to Great Temple and then to wherever you want to go. But I agree, a "World Map" kinda thing would be fantastic. What would also possibly work is for the FA and JQ to be places in the battle isles. AB also has this issue. ~~ frvwfr2 (talk · contributions) 18:53, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Konig: Re. the pre-Battle Isles Guild Hall, it was a fixed position on the Tyria map not far from the old D'Alessio Arena outpost. Re. Wide screen displays, I brought that up as a mention of my current lack of problem with scrolling. It is large enough that I don't have to vertically scroll on zoomed out GW maps and I remember what a pain this used to be on a 17". Combine the content of the GW continents and people will be scrolling constantly, or the map will be scaled down to the point where outpost icons collide. -- WarBlade 21:13, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Or they'd change it so you can use the scroll wheel on your mouse to zoom in more or less, just like on the U-map 24.188.207.20 01:52, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

An EotN portal on the Battle Isles might be doable, but I'm not sure. I do know that there is no way, no how we could merge the 4 world maps. EVER. Each map is a different World as far as code is concerned. It would be so huge of an overhaul that it would require most of our programming teams working on it at some point. Just not worth that. - Linsey talk 06:23, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Party Points at Merchant

Linsey - Would it be possible to add party points to the merchant in one of the campaigns? Currently alcohol and sweet points are being sold for 200g per point at merchants in Tyria and Cantha. The addition of some sort of party item being available for 200g per point would do a lot to bring down the cost of purchasing these from players and bring the Life of the Party title track in line with the Drunkard and Sweet Tooth title tracks price-wise. Currently in Kamadan I see eggnogs being sold for 90g each and snowman summoners being sold for 250g. Fruitcake usually sells for 120g or so. At the prices we are seeing right now, one could buy the sweet tooth party title twice over for the cost of purchasing enough party points from players. Though this may not seem as important economy wise as keeping ecto and gold farming in check, implementing a minor change such as this would go a long way towards reducing the temptation for title chasers to buy gold illegally. Shen 00:04, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

250 gold? I feel kinda bad now for buying 5 or 6 stacks of snowmen at prices ranging from 100-110 each. Though considering we will be getting fireworks soon (hopefully) the price per party point will plummet soon enough. On topic, adding them to the merchants would be nice. Kelvin Greyheart 03:12, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

As far as I know, all the items that award 1 point to one of those titles are easily available for 80-150 each.. look around! Buying from the merchant is hardly necessairy since there are enough of those items available every few months: -- Karasu (talk) 12:21, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Whoever was selling at 250g was probably a very patient person. Party points are worth 120-150g tops. Alcohol is cheaper because it's more trouble consuming it (you have to wait or map travel)... -- Alaris 15:57, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Also, the cost of all of the party/sweets/alcohol are down atm due to the recent end of wintersday, and the upcoming Canthan New Year celebrations that provide all of them, so currently there is a lot on the market. -- Wyn/talk 16:46, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

It's not buying them from the merchant that I want, it's the ability to. Making party points readily available year round from an infinite supply (the merch) for 200 a point would reduce the cost of them down to sweet point range because currently I see an average of 200g a point selling from players right now at this moment.. most are higher, some are 180 a point while sweet is currently going for about 130. The only two factors that are making party points much more expensive (and difficult to obtain for us title chasers who want to get GWAMM before GW2) is the fact that there is no ready supply of them year round (save for snowman cave farming) and the fact that there is no upper limit on what people can sell for, unlike booze and sweet which have a merch of 200. Right now people's greed is getting in the way of those of us who earn our gold legitimately and don't buy ectos, bots, or gold online and have stacks and stacks of currency and valuables lying around in storage waiting to be spent on a whim. Shen 19:05, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

I merely think it would be nice to buy a couple of crates of fireworks now and then from the merch. Other items would be nice too. Fireworks will be back with the canthan newyear so points will be dirt cheap then. Kelvin Greyheart 19:34, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

I must disagree here. People should realise that Party title isn't just a Sweet Tooth #2 but a different title. There are no Party items at merchants but there are other ways to get them, for example they will be Craftable during Canthan New Year festival. This is also the only consumable title that had a Double Points event and it might have another one in the future. It doesn't mean Sweet and Drunk titles also need a x2 effect - the items needed for those titles are much easier to come by. My vision of a Party title done right is having this title reward actual participation in big parties, with the use of a [Party Time!]-like effects (but with much shorter durations so it can't be max'ed in just one event), or by giving players some Party points directly for active participation in party events (instead of rewarding AFK'ing which is the current trend). A 30 seconds of x2 Party points would be a nice reward for completing all the dishes for the Celestial animal on top of the Firework Crates giveaway. Or it could be a different duration for different levels of completion. Or the doubling effect may affect just certain items connected with that special event, for example only fireworks get doubled points during Canthan New Year celebration, snowmen not. Oh, and a lag prevention idea: you don't have to give the effect to all players in the district at the very same time, you can try and give it to players individually over a period of time, instead of having everyone launch hundreds of fireworks at the same time.--Yawg 05:52, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Heh, I thought Sweet Tooth was "Easier Drunkard 2". 24.188.207.20 06:40, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

I am not likely to do this in the way you are thinking of. - Linsey talk 06:23, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

everlasting kuunavang tonic

hey linsey is there any chance you all will be doing a everlasting kuunavang tonic

Certainly not full sized. That would be beyond insane. Kelvin Greyheart 01:28, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

How about a Saltspray Dragon tonic then? They're basically mini-kuunavangs. 145.94.74.23 08:49, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Hmmm... I'm not sure... - Linsey talk 06:23, 10 February 2009 (UTC)