User:House Of Furyan/My Suggestion Page/Guild Wars 2

'''These are my general ideas and thoughts about what I'd like to see in Guild Wars 2, if other users wish to comment please use the discussion page instead of editing the main page with comments. I'm still experimenting with the ideas so if you find holes there are holes.'''

Character Creation
Give the player more flexibility in character creations. More options to personalize our characters so there's more of a chance we won't meet the exact same character running around.

Selectable Body Types
Give the player the options of having more choices over their character body type. Warriors not just muscular bulky dudes, could have certain degrees like 'cadet' body type could be a slimmer not so muscular type with varies degrees above that to the standard Guild Wars body (arms like an oak tree)

Selectable Voice
Allow the player to select from varies voice types for their in-game cinematics. This could give another level of uniqueness to the player's character so all the guys don't sound the same - etc.

Face / Eyes / Hair, Hair Colour
I believe when making a character you should have access to the complete library of that races hair and hair colours letting you find one that goes with your character. This might be limited if the head of the character is too big or too small ( a warrior might have a bigger head than a Elementalist for example)

Professions / Races
In my opinion, given the fact that players have had access to 10 human professions for some time now, I strongly urge ANET when doing the professions for the human race to not remove any of them, we've had them for a while now and there's no good reason for any of them not be there.

With the introduction of new races there is a lot of room to move in regards to their professions. Perhaps all professions could have the core types but variations between them.

Example an Asuran warrior might ride on the back of a golem. Though its cute to see asurans in GWEN armed with a shield and sword they just remind me of Yoda in Star Wars fighting the Count. They could wear them like armour even.

Additional forms for Norn could represent the core classes. The Bear the Warrior, Wolf just seems like a ranger type to me, and Raven is for one of the casters. Any chance of new animal forms, like a snake or something.

I'd like there to be some exclusive primaries and new ones added. Humans (for example) could have Dervish ( as I wouldn't see the asuran, norn or charr worshipping the 6 Gods), Norn could have an exclusive primary form which other races can't use as a secondary etc. I don't think all races should have all the same professions as thats just copy and pasting.

'This table shows the Professions I'd like to see for each race. Below I'll add a justification later.'


 * {| style="margin:0.25em; border:1px solid #000; text-align:center;" cellpadding="5" rules="all"

! Type || ||  ||  ||  ||  ||  ||  ||  ||  ||  || A Unique
 * - style="background: #ADA;"
 * - style="background: #EEE;"
 * Human || Yes || Yes || Yes || Yes || Yes || Yes || Yes || Yes || Yes || Yes ||
 * - style="background: #DDD;"
 * Charr || Yes || Yes || Yes || Yes || Yes || Yes || Maybe || Maybe || Maybe || No || Yes
 * - style="background: #EEE;"
 * Norn || Yes || Yes || Yes || Yes || Yes || Yes || Maybe || Maybe || Maybe || No || Yes
 * - style="background: #DDD;"
 * Asuran|| Yes || Yes || Yes || Yes || Yes || Yes || Maybe || Maybe || Maybe || No || Yes
 * - style="background: #EEE;"
 * Sylvari || Yes || Yes || Yes || Yes || Yes || Yes || Maybe || Maybe || Maybe || No || Yes


 * }

Additional Options on Creation Screens
Features I'd like to see added. Would be nice but not really necessary if more choices for the basics is added. Anyway:

Combat Styles
A toggle that can change the animations and styles of players characters in combat - can be explained as in different kind of combat art; though sword swings would be of the same speed there would be a light/medium/heavy style. Just another aspect to give more uniqueness to someone's character. Example a player could decide to choose a style more influenced by that of a samurai allowing more variations of the warriors out there etc

This kind of style system might affect Attack Rates of like-styled weapons. A 'heavy' style warrior might benefit more with a Brute Sword (using it at a default attack rate) than a light or medium style warrior using the same weapon (who might have a slower attack rate and benefit from a slimmer sword like Forgotten Sword ). Lighter styles might have weapons with faster attack rates with a slightly lower damage rating or less Armor_penetration, where the heavy style weapons would have a slower attack rate but more damage. Heavy weapons could be two handed.

The various weapons sub-types animations would be unique, yet a heavy warrior using a light style weapon would still swing it as if it was a heavy, showing that the warrior is using a weapon its not really familiar with. Lighter style weapons would have faster attack rates and have more classy style attacks.

Skills would still function the same way in the calculations: lights, mediums or heavies would be able to use the same skill, like Power Attack but its appearance would be different based on the style.

Character Bios
Some people like to create character history for their characters, its a fun little option to be able to have. In another online game I know the history of the character can effect the basis stats of a newly created character, but for Guild Wars 2 an option like this can just be for fun.


 * Parent History - who they were.
 * Individual Stats - birth date, personality type etc
 * Unique events like your birth - like you were born during a dragon attack on your village. What you did as a teen etc

Guild Wars Character Transferring
A few people are asking or suggesting ideas to transfer their Guild Wars character to Guild Wars 2. Currently, unless Anet was to program mechanics into the game that would allow a level 20 character to transfer its not possible, that way. People seems ok with 'killing' their characters experience in Guild Wars, making it impossible to play that character in Guild Wars, although that's not really necessary.

Personally, a transfer like that would not be a realistic idea, but a transfer of sorts could be done. Anet have already said that names are reversed which is nice, you could have your name return but could be done better, and since the Hall Of Monuments are the requirement (thus far) for this it seems undeveloped (once again thus far). So, I thought I'd branch out on that name reservation thing.

A Guild Wars mechanic would be added, that relates to the Guild Wars 2 game, allowing a sort of transfer, more your essence than your characters physical form. Characters in Guild Wars could, for example, take a quest where their character dies. This quest would be scripted to either make the character unplayable to the player (not sure how this would work but hey, I'm not a programmer.) or if after Guild Wars 2's integration is announced that you can still work on a linked Hall of Monuments you could just be returned to an outpost. A nice cinematic could be played where the Six Gods or a Prophet have some dialogue relating to your need in Guild Wars 2. When Guild Wars 2 starts the bridging mechanic would be there. So when you type in your Guild Wars character name it would register that it can be transferred, or you're given the option to start a completely fresh character.

What would follow would be to have the character creation mechanic split (yes, its possible so don't say its not). After accepting your name a cinematic would play where you, in a celestial form or spirit form 'awaken' or are awoken by followers of the gods or the prophet. Some dialogue would be exchanged, the character could have fragmented memories show up, showing points from Guild Wars: hearing voices, seeing images, etc. This could be scripted to take in account the original profession into consideration or origin as well to give more of a unique experience. After that point say a 'dragon' attacks on your location or you get to run around in spirit form for a while, the character creation screen / profession chooser (if still in Guild Wars 2) would begin where all the cosmetic features of your character are put together. Once all are accepted another unique cinematic would begin where your essence is morphed into the new form you just selected. More dialogue could be added, encouraging you along your path explaining the slumber has weakened you etc. And away we go.

Its not a full character transfer but additional scripting and dialogue along the way could give another view of the Guild Wars 2 events, from the eyes of a returning character. Yes, its not a full transfer, its more just the name. Yes, it would involve a lot of work. Yet, it would still be a fun way of continue the story of your character outside of the original game's environment. There are many possibilities to possible story arcs, character conflicts etc.

Such a thing is possible, the mechanics could be added (they have already announced linking so no one can say something like this can't be done). Anet could very well do this and maybe add legacy weapons etc. If this is done, players don't need to do it, as the Guild Wars community so often says "its there, but you don't have to do it.". It would be a nice option, and we love options.

AI


For the most part I don't have that many complaints when it comes to the AI, sometimes their stance annoys me, like Devona runs off into a group when I didn't call it, or monks can't seem to recognize Minion's health degeneration or the fact they're out of combat. A general rethink of the AI structure would be nice, teaching them how to correctly use spells.

Example They should maintain beneficial skills like Balthazar's Spirit. Monks stop using protective spells like Protective Spirit on minions outside of combat suffering from their natural health degeneration. AI monks equip with non-direct party heals like Heal Party and LoD will use them to heal the party even though allies are outside of their aggro zone.

Another way to improve the game-play for individual players would be to introduce a system that they can program themselves. an Override System. This could, if scripted right, help the player show/force the AI unforeseen or un-scripted ways of doing things that they wouldn't normally do.

Teaching AI a Style - Override System
Not sure how to example this but those familiar with Final Fantasy 12's gambit system will understand the basics of this. AI can be giving instructions to use specific skills in specific situations where the AI might decide is not the best choice of actions.

Example I've noticed my monks in Guild Wars, who are equip with the party spell 'Extinguish' do not seem to use this effective condition removing spell when 4 or less AI/Players are affected by conditions(s). You could give an order that tell the AI if a minimum of 4 party members are affected by condition(s) use the spell.

Orders would take priority over the companion's AI structure, though it would not stop them from going about their jobs normally. Bring in a game mechanic that would give the player the ability to assign commands to his/her AI companion (s), taking the Heroes of Guild Wars and expanding upon that. Introducing a system that the player can set specific orders or objectives for the AI where the player sees it fit to do so. A player could:


 * Order an AI to not use certain spells on another ally
 * Use a skill chain - like casting Protective Spirit and then Shielding Hands on a single ally one after the other.

This system would be toggled off and on so players who don't want to sit around assigning orders to their AI could just let the AI run with its pre-programmed judgement. The layout would be simple, or have an advanced options with more options and conditions the player could program into their AI. Templates could be saved, just like skill templates, for ease of use and sharing between players.

Free Will
Free Will is your Ai companion's standard processes, what they do without you having to tell them. This could be toggled on or off, yet by doing so could pose problems for the player, the AI would only follow orders if its Free Will was disabled and might negatively affect your game-play but might benefit in areas where you don't need your companion near you.

Free Will would function within the Priorities systems so that if, for example, a high priority order required a skill that wasn't charged yet, the AI doesn't stand around like a twit waiting for it to recharge. The AI would logically think it through The skill required isn't ready, use another one. The AI could even identify what kind of skill the order requires and try and find one like it. Options might be able to be programmed so the player can assign a secondary if the primary skill isn't available or this could be determined by a linked order, a Priority 1 / Priority 2 set. If the AI can completed the order due to disabled skills, recharging skills or other conditions it would go on to the order below, if no orders can be completed Free Will would allow the AI to follow normal AI coding so it remains useful. Once conditions are met the AI would then follow orders in order of priority.

I'm not an expert on AI coding but this kind of system should be able to be pulled off to a relatively high degree.

Order Priorities
Simplified Example of Layout of an individual order



A simple easy to follow layout would make it an uncomplicated approach for novices. I'll try and photoshop a better one later

Example You give your monk companion the order to protect the melee ally but another order will make it abandon this to a certain extent when the other monks in the party are receiving excessive damage.

In text form


 *  If Ally (name) Health <= 75% use (spell) when available / Set Priority 2 - this makes sure the AI keeps that ally up above 75% health as long as Priorities above that order don't require it to abandon if.


 * If (Ally (monk) Health <= 40%) &&  If (Ally (name) Health >= 65% ) use (spell) when available / Set Priority 1    -as this order has the higher priority it would force the companion to concentrate on that Ally until the second part of the order is met.

Doing this kind of thing would also allow the player to 'give orders' to those under him just as a more experienced leader of a group gives orders to individual players. Would also allow, giving that I've been told Guild Wars 2 will have a single AI following you around, players who can keep themselves alive for a while without the direct aid of a monk to tell their monk to focus more on defending themselves or allies than the player up until a certain point.

This system can allow players to move their companion out of range of attacks completely and still be able to use spells like party heals or party enchantments that don't require anything (not line of sight or to be in spell range). Currently - in Guild Wars - spells like LoD and Party Heal don't require the monk to be in aggro range but its the AI of the Hero that prevents them from using these kinds of indirect spells effectively.


 * LoD for example won't be used by a monk when allies/players aren't in their spell range.

With this override system it would force your AI to actually be helpful in these kinds of situations without impacting too much on the game. This system would also benefit mission critical objectives, such as keeping an ally alive for the purposes of the quest. The monk can be ordered to give the ally the higher priority for healing.

The Override System would enable the player to get the AI to think in ways that are not generally followed.

Example A Nerco is heavily conditioned (intentionally so he/she can use plague touch) but has the conditions are removed by a monk.

The Player could either not equip a conditional removal spells on their monk or could instruct the AI to ignore conditions on the player where there removal would affect their play style. Priority could instead be given to use Hp healing spells. Access to the companion's skill would still be there, like the Heroes in Guild Wars, so the player can also micromanage if they wanted condition removal for some reason.

ADDITIONAL

In the above example there could be a order condition where if out of combat they could cast conditional removal. There would be in-combat and out-of-combat conditions.

Skill Chaining
A simple concept really. An additional section of the override system would allow the player to set the AI to use skills in a specific sequence. As players come up with unusual and not-foreseen ways to use skills this system would enable the AI of the game to be able to do things that weren't original programmed into the AI and how it uses certain skills.

This could also take advantage of the AI's natural faster response times as a player will never be able to react as fast as the AI.

Example A player uses a build in an unexpected way that the AI wouldn't follow for certain reasons, but has proven to be effective for that player in the past. The player could set the Override System to mimic the way he/she would use skills and in what order, possibly even having orders that react to things like being knocked down or interrupts that the AI can use if skill chains were broken.


 * Players could also use this when using a new character with a profession they are not familiar with, setting their AI to use skill sequences they themselves use.

Override Command Hotkeys
The numerical keypads on keyboard could be used as the hotkeys for assigned orders and skill chains. There could only be 9 available hotkeys or more (you could hold down the enter key and a number key for additional commands.

Summary of Override System
The system would basically let the player script out situations for there hero with very basic commands, yet if this came to bothersome this system could simply be ignored.

Players could, for want of a better term, teach the AI to adapt. This system could also (not sure how exactly as I'm not a programming person) work for ANET in future updates to their AI. Anet would be able to see how the AI of the game is used and how players are adapting their AI to their styles, making them more than what they were originally programmed to follow. This way ANET would be allowing the players to experiment and could benefit the game without ANET employees having to do absolutely everything and could give the players a sense of community between them and ANET through collaborations that could follow.

AI pinging Skills
One thing I dislike about Guild Wars is when you add an AI (henchman) or have AI added to your party as a quest, you never know what skills they have. You can have a general idea by watching them but this can be distracting. In Guild Wars 2, they could have a command you can type like ""/allyping (name)"" and that ally in your party will ping their build and stance status so players can see just what kind of ally they have with them. Granted there is the wiki but those kinds of things require people to fill it out (having correct information) this way players wouldn't have to go away from gameplay to find out. Simply type the command and boom, done.

AI response to Player title ranks
In certain missions, like with Kormir in The Diggings mission, you find that she's set to attack and will attack anyone in her range, but it would be a nice function if the player could 'reason' or 'pull rank' with an AI to change their stance. This would give more functionality to PvE titles that relate to organizations.

Example The player is going into an area with allies from the same organization. They are set to attack and are causing problems, player can put on their title track and click for a menu on the characters or type a command, the AI would respond either by not listening (due to the player not being of a high enough rank) and staying on attack or switch to guard or defense, this could be determined by either the AI or player depending on their response.


 * Granted this might change the dynamic of missions and quests but since Guild Wars 2 will be different who knows what else they'll throw at us.

Resurrection Skills
I'd like to see some special kind of resurrection skills for non-monk professions. Could follow the same rule as the Resurrection Signet where they require the morale boost. These skills would run off the attributes, like Fire Magic or Death magic for example and have variations within via the level of that attribute.

Adding resurrection spells to all professions does make you question 'why'd you need to go monk secondary', so to not unbalance things unique primary or secondary attribute resurrections spells might function in the same way as the standard signet. Spells like my suggestion Unholy Resurrection could function as more of a minion resurrect due to conditions.

Necromancer
Necromancers doesn't take much explaining when it comes to adding a resurrection skills. Minion Masters can exploit corpses to bring up minions but there isn't any kind of unholy resurrections, that I'd like to see. Not in sense of the ally follows the Necro around like a zombie but would be tainted, benefits may come from this but also disadvantages.

Advantage


 * Ally would also be dead so DP wouldn't increase if they died.


 * Considering the ally would be 'undead' they could also benefit from Death Magic spells like Blood of the Master.


 * Be undead, may be able to pass areas living creatures might not be able to reach.

Disadvantages


 * Might die when the Nerco dies.


 * Could get a health reduction from monk spells


 * Could even well die if out of the radar range of the summoning necro.

Unholy Resurrection
Additional
 * This could be worked to be a Nerco equal to Resurrect.


 * If the morale boost recharge is kept this skill or its effect could be modified to give a benefit, like no DP if they die or steal health on hit


 * Unholy Taint would appear as a unremovable skill on the ally


 * Since target is 'summoned' back to life, would be considered undead and benefit from the Death magic skills the nercomancer may have, like Blood of the Master and Order of the Undead, since healing from monks is less beneficial the Nercomancer's healing abilities would be a fun way of mixing things up.


 * If this was made reusable as more of a minion master style spell, the ally could also die if the Nerco dies, as is not the standard 'minion' ally wouldn't going wild but without the bond there would simply die.  Think of it like a necro version of Unyielding Aura but requires the Necro to die before breaking the link.  Unholy Taint couldn't be stripped.

Unholy Taint

Additional

This effect is uneffected by any attempts to remove it.

A visual effect could show the player darkened, as if they've been exploited.

Even though undead the player would still also benefit from drop loots and still take a share of the gold.

This effect has limitless range, player could move out of radar range of the Necro and still remain functional.

Healing reduction would follow the Necro's death magic level.

Signet of Soul Transference
Additional


 * This signet would function differently than with the death magic spell, as its seen as a 'cleaner' version, not such an unholy resurrection.

Elementalist
I'm having a bit of difficulty coming up with resurrection spells for Elementalists. One I thought I'd see in Guild Wars would be a phoenix spell, you know, rising from the ashes etc, but no. Like Signet of Transference for the Necros, maybe a resurrection spell linked to Energy Storage, the whole giving of energy but that just seems like a copy of the Signet, but then again, how many skills does Guild Wars have that are copies or near copies?

Phoenix Rebirth
Additional


 * The amount of health and energy the resurrected person gets is related to the amount lost by the caster. If the caster don't lose 25 energy (not having that much) the resurrected member's health is based on the amount last times the variation.


 * The minimum a target ally can have when ressed is 1HP and 1 energy based on the maximum health, whether this would not work due to health deductions from runes etc (death looping) I'm not sure but could be made to be a minimum regardless of armour set up

Dervish
Dervish to me have always seemed like a holy warrior so coming up with a spell for them isn't too much of a push when you take into account their primary Mysticism. It seems strange that you don't get one.

Faithful Resurrect
Additional


 * A simple resurrection spell for Dervish, linked this spell to the primary as it makes more sense to use Mysticism than any of the other attributes. Seems more godly.


 * Would fall more in line with resurrect if kept as a reusable spells for Dervish.


 * If is kept as reusable without the boost energy could have its casting time increased to match Resurrect and a slightly higher energy requirement to, although linked to the primary, make Resurrect style spells still look attractive.


 * Added a percentage to the health the resurrected would receive but initially didn't have it.

Weapons and Items
Bring in some accessories like necklaces and rings, building upon the minor accessories made available in GWEN.

Anet, as it creates everything in the game, should have a set value, or variable (thinking like with runes etc) value to everything. With the current system players determine the value of un-valued items in Guild Wars and there's no reason for that to be the case. Taking control of prices away from the players would stop many scams and dishonest trading.

Traders
Everything in game should have a trader, either that functions as a buyer / seller or just one of those. Rarer weapons, mods and items should not follow the way Guild Wars handle it, values should not be determined by players.

Weapons (greens, gold and unique skins) would function like the rune trader and dye trader, so if there is a fair amount around prices would be low and if there weren't so many around prices up.

Mini-pets
Mini-pets, since they can't really have a trader should have an automatic value. A white could be within a threshold 5-10K determining on it skin, purples twice that, golds maybe 4 times that. Once again, Anet should determine its value and not the player.

Xunlai Credit
Currently within Guild Wars, in terms of gold trading, its limited to 100K. Players now will advertise 100K plus 20 ectos for example. I think gold should be the trading standard regardless of amount, not a variable item, since their value can change from day to day. If Anet continues to limit the player to 100K transactions and especially if they continue to let players determine value, I would propose the introduction of Xunlai Credits.

Simply speaking, a credit is an item that represents 100K. A player could obtain one by approaching a Xunlai Representative and exchanging 100K for one Xunlai Credit. These items would be unable to be deleted or dropped (if possible) so you'd have to either trade them to a player or cash them in with the Xunlai representative. They could be stored and stacked (or unstackable) in storage.

Quests
Quests are broad and can encompasses so much but I'd like to see quests that involve the history of prior events between Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2. Content is always a must for any story, and I think developing a large section of lore that the player can experience would be awesome. this can link between addition mission packs that ANET can publish later or through content of each campaign

AI / Ally / Henchmen
We've all seen them, and I'm guessing they'll be in Guild Wars 2 as well in some way: Henches, the AI players, those who fill our parties when we've been up for 12 hours straight and the rest of the world has gone to sleep. But, how much do we know about them? How about introducing some content about them, maybe giving the player some quests that you can get do with a particular henchman along side (if in Guild Wars 2) where we learn about them and have some fun or challenging content added.

Skill Advice
Not everyone is a build expert, or is given good advice on builds by random people they start talking to or guildies. I would like to see some kind of advice system used by the Skill Trainers. Perhaps the skill trainer could offer some advice after the player's purchase of skills.

Example:


 * Player has rocked up and purchased Protective Spirit and the advice could be "to use that skill in conjunction with Shielding Hand" or something along those lines.

Yes, there is Wiki to give that sort of advice but I know I didn't even now Wiki existed until a few months into it, and I know people who've been playing longer and didn't know.

Introduction of Day and Night
Bring in a system where the players can experience day and night within outposts, towns and explorable areas. System would run on a real time clock system or an in-game Tyrian time system.

Night time would obviously darken outposts and explorable areas so NPCs, even players, could equip lanterns and in the case of NPCs light burners etc. Could also bring another level of gameplay - night fighting where targetting can't be automatically achieved by using the C or TAB button, enemies and allies could only be targetted when within the players aggro zone (them coming into sight). This could be overcome by varying degrees, such as torches or light emitting weapons / focus items, possibly also spells.


 * Races might have a bonus or advantage - Charr might have a larger -visual range, allowing them, at night, to target creatures outside of a Humans aggro zone

Night (dark shaded areas and dungeons) could also give benefits to NPCs/enemies so, even though not too much of an advantage, animals and creatures of the night (dungeons) would achieve slightly better results - making quests that require night or a dark dungeon more challenging.

Day/Night could just purely be for show but would be better than what we get into Guild Wars at the moment.

Introduction of Weather
Though possibly of no mechanic difference to gameplay each region / explorable area (including outposts) could experience varying degrees of weather, based upon their area. Outposts and explorable areas near forests or jungles could experience higher chances of rain or mists. Deserts could experience heat effects or dust storms.


 * In Guild Wars there are areas where their are weather effects, yet these effects only seem to be for a small part of the area, I believe that was a nice start by having the entire area been able to experience random weather would be nice.

Introduction of Seasons
Kind of an advanced feature of the weather system, that would impact gameplay in terms of quests. Introducing seasons could allow for seasonal quests, similar to events that happen in seasonal times for Guild Wars (Christmas, Halloween etc). Seasons could see changes in weather, day light savings and possibly the migrations of animals. Doing this could allow quests specific to that season or move around NPCs for additional quests by also a cosmetic change to some outposts. Example would be


 * A dye trader, the father, goes on holiday to some fishing hole and son takes over, replacing that NPC and giving the son the job. The father could also be seen staying at a hut appearing to fish at a fishing hole.

Seasons could also allow the NPCs to change in appearance depending on the environment effect. So in winter they'd be wrapping up warm (just give them a disguise) or on days close to season game events (Christmas) they get festive and change their appearance to Santa or elves or something.

Social Areas
Several things I'd like to see is main cities; the large population centres to be set out differently, taking advantage of their larger worldspace.

Place the spawning points near to the entrances rather than the centre of town and create social areas that are not littered with spawning points.


 * A thing I have noticed is the social aspect of townships, Shing Jea being one of them, where players who chat to each other start breaking away from the central area where all the spawn points are and sit apart from the general groups. Creating more indepth city spaces with recreational areas or areas with gardens, fountains and the likes would split apart the clustered nature of the towns.  Slower connection players can lag quite a bit zoning into places like Kamadan, but not so much with Kodash Bazaar.   Spreading areas out (larger city's have their spaces used more effectively) and adding more decorations/plants can go along way.
 * Social (talkative players) often stay in cities a while, but mixing up areas would encourage players to move about the worldspace.
 * A lot of players stand around towns chatting, using emotes and doing non-questing / grinding aspects of Guild Wars, the social aspect. I think enhancing that kind of 'gameplay' or aspect of the game would be nice.

NPCs
Livening up the towns would also be nice. Generic NPCs, not related to traders could be scripted with various tasks they have to do in certain an order or random. Their conversations can be scripted for various responses to players, or to comment even (might have a wise-crack for players if the district is getting filled "why don't you go off and ... do something". Random conversations or moods expressed when you click on them and interact.  Install a sense of life into them.  This basically is just scripting.

Military style outposts would be nice to see indepth. Training grounds and that kind of thing, seeing NPCs with a routine going from training spot to training spot, then resting or chatting, then going about their routine. NPC skill trainers could be mobile within the town, standing at a set point doing one part of the day then moving to oversee combat training with some NPCs of various professions. Giving scripted fight sequences that the players could also watch and beginners could learn from.

Marketplaces
Currently the marketplace of the main towns are just NPCs standing around, liven it up by added stalls and shops, NPCs can be shown sitting, drinking and eating having a good old time. Install a sense of population and pace that you see in markets in RL. Maybe not too detail, could require a lot of programming or such but give the main centres a bit more life. If the transitional states like day and night, or seasons, are introduced NPCs could leave if it starts raining or hang around shaded areas. Night comes and the drunkiness starts. NPCs dance and do other stuff drunk people do. The odd bar room brawl... something.

Stalls that Buy/Sell the various alcoholic drinks available in the game, even if the price is like 1K for the nice stuff (or more) would be nice. Introduce different ales, like Charr Ale.

Stalls that Buy/Sell the various sweets for all the races.

Just give those areas a bit of life.

An Library or Archive
As a player I like the idea of having a library or archive (in-game) that the player can go to and read up about stuff within the game. I'd like to see some sort of archives or archivists popping up throughout the game with some new relevant information. This could extend to information on creatures and known pitfalls in that area - dangerous or unusually areas and the likes - so people can learn more about the areas.

Content it also a good thing. Information on foes is also nice. Knowing what type of damage hits a certain foe more than another is good.

Quests can also be linked to these kinds of thing, involving the player, like identifying new species of creatures that have emerged... players can be asked to use different weapons / spells against them to work out which is best etc.

PvE Arenas
Have areas in larger outposts or cities (where it applies) set up as areas for gladiatorial combat. Players could (either individually or in teams) pit themselves against groups of higher level creatures, groups going in difficulty as you progress. Kinda like aspects of PvP but you're doing it in a PvE environment.

Quests can also be linked where players can not access it until they're taken part in hunting parties to capture set creatures to show the Arena Master their skill in genuine and worth betting on.

Difficulty could be increased by rising the level of foes the individual or party is facing and/or by adding arena effects that decrease the player's HP, energy, attribute level or some such. Rewards based upon difficulty and effects upon you.

Emotes
Bring in more emotes, some that require titles, as is already in Guild Wars but some more generic, use around town style emotes.

Emotes

 * /brag  - related to the Players Kind of a Big Deal title track


 * /notfunny  - more of a 'Haha not funny' emote than a laughing emote


 * /ohdear  - a rubbing the forehead emote when someone says or does something stupid


 * /regret  - an emote that shows the player trying to talk their way out of saying something hurtful or in poor taste.


 * /hollywood  - over dramatic death emote


 * /passout  - player passes out and collaspes on the floor for a short time


 * /read  -  player either sits down and reads a book or stands an reads


 * /drink -  player appears to drink from a canteen

Conditional Emotes or Status Effected Emotes
Emotes could also be different depending on player states (On a sugar rush or drunk) or related to a title (as some are also with PvP titles.

Sugar Rush
Players can have an emote that they appear hyper active, looking around at everything sharply, going off in one direction a step, then stops and deciding to go another way. Someway to look hyper-active.

Drunk
Various emotes can be effected by this status. Suggested emotes:


 * /attention  Emote could so the body swinging around, trying to keep balance, maybe stumbling forward a bit then correcting.


 * /drink  Can have the player hold an ale bottle or mug to the lips and take a drink.


 * /dance  a drunken dance, need I say more?

PvE Title Track Emotes
Players with a high PvE title track, like Sunspear Title Track, can be in an outpost or area where there are NPC Sunspear Recruits and could call attention. If their track was high enough the NPC Recruits would stand at attention for a brief moment.

Additional Mechanics
Give more realism and fun to thing.


 * Give the player the ability to sheath/shoulder ones weapon, either by emote command or through idle animation so the player doesn't always have to have their weapon out in explorable areas.


 * Idle Animation - programme in idle animations or a sequence of emotes can play out if the player has gone afk, or is doing something like drinking. Go through states of boredom and maybe eventually sit them down.  AI allies or team-mates, however that works in Guild Wars 2, can perhaps have conversations if the player has become idle.

Combat
I'd like to see some sequences brought into the skills that involve the target (if possible). Say a new weapon for Guild Wars 2 is a Guan_dao and there's a skill that if it hits a moving target the animation plays that the target is stabbed with it, lifted off its feet and slabbed into the ground (going over the head of the skill user - like you see in weapon based arcade games). That may be over dramatic by would be nice to see some short of animations brought in:

Thrown
Currently we have knockdown and I'd like, more for a visual thing that anything else, Thrown to be included. Thrown would play an animation that knocks the target off their feet, taking them into the air a faction (possible depending on the power of the thrown effect) and then they land on their butt.

Basically it would taken Knockdown and add some air time. I would love to see a warrior armed with a giant hammer run into a group of backliners and one or two go flying after a huge hit :D You could also see it being used by Air Elementalists.

Stumble
A simple animation is played where the character stumbles back, for things like Shield Bash where the attack is blocked but you can envision the defender putting some force behind it. Stumble would function like knockdown but its visual effect would be different. Short duration Stumbles could have them simple stumble back where long duration ones could have them fall on their butts.

Combat Animations
This ties in with my suggestion of Combat Styles but its animations can be used regardless of whether a combat style sub-system is implemented in the game or not. The animations can be used for specific sub-groups of weapons allowing variations in combat animations.

Combat Animation / Attacker - Defender interactions
This falls within the area of additional mechanics like Thrown and Stumble take but also adds the interaction part, basically combat animations that play out together.


 * An example of what I would like to see in interactions would be a warrior that has a shield blocking move uses it against another warrior charging in with a sword attack. The sword attack animation would play as would the defender's animation, the defender is shown bring his shield up, blocking the sword and swiping it to the side in one movement, this would leave the attacker in a vulnerable state and the animation on him or her would be to either that their side vulnerable against attack or their chest depending on what hand the attacker's sword is in. The attacker may suffer from stumble, for example, long enough for the defender to attack back. (the stumble animation may have the attacker stumble back and have their arm(s) out stretched a bit due to the force of the defense)


 * The defending warrior would then lead in with an attack, standard sword attack or otherwise, but the animation would be different as the situation is different than the standard 'standing there and hacking at each other' animations. The animation of the attack would depend on the situation, the attack could be a sword thrust to the chest instead of a swinging attack away.  Something like that, something you might see two sword fighters doing.

Death Animations
Either for cinematics or in-game animations, but there could be the chance your attack, if it kills, triggers an animation that would be unique. A warrior could stab through a foe then boot it off its blade. A dervish could slice the foe in half (maybe a bit much). A nerco could be seen doing a short 'stealing energy' style skill. These animations could be if there were no additional enemies in range, so they could be played out without players doing these kinds of things during the rush of a battle.

Personal Log
Often when playing I like to note things like down, stuff about the area, creatures and drops. Before I would just use a pen and paper but through why not incorporate a log book (looking of an editable version of the Hero's Handbook where you can keep notes. Data from the log would be stored in the Guild Wars directory perhaps in a basic text file.  Would make copying and pasting things to and fro from the web a lot easier

Hotkeys
A section for new commands I'd like to see brought into Guild Wars 2

Scatter
Scatter could be a nice hotkey command to have. Players could assign a command/button so that when pressed any AI under that player's command, either companion, henchmen (if in Guild Wars 2) or other allies in your party immediate break contact and scatter, such as what happens when AOE spells like firestorm or the likes hits the party. This way, if the player sees it coming, or the AI aren't responding fast enough for some reason the player can hit the key and the AI scatters earlier.

Select Called Target
A key could be selected so if someone in your party leader calls a target you press the button and it goes to that target

Dual Functionality
Still under development

I would like to see ways of mixing up the combat in Guild Wars 2. If you recall the opening video of Proph. Cynn bashing some nasties, she a fire ele is clearly holding a staff, a ranged type weapon, but is engaging in melee style combat. Bring something like that into Guild Wars 2. Those with ranged weapons are usually termed Squishy but not all players are set up to be defenceless in close combat, personally I'd like to see some monks armed with a close combat staff doing some damage.

To achieve this either the weapon's attribute can determine hit damage as per usual or, those with staffs etc who wish to mix it up in close combat can invest in an additional attribute like Staff Arts or something.

I would like to see either additional pre-programmed function or a new attribute linked to an actual secondary or dual-functionality weapon so close combat could be toggled by stance maybe? These weapons could still follow their damage type (dark, fire whatever is the damage type of the weapon).

Another feature would be to have weapon sub class an example I put up for a discussion was this:

''Assassin's could have two or so styles of dagger, throwable for short or long ranged attacks and melee style, as per usual. This way if an assassin can't execute its skill chains properly (like being interrupted) it can back away and hit at range without having to invest points in an additional attribute House Of Furyan 20:52, 1 February 2008 (UTC)''


 * This style of dagger might be able to function with certain skills the assassin would have equipped so it wouldn't poorly just be throwing low damage knives. This would bring in dual-functionality of the attribute rather than a new attribute.   Warriors could have throwable axes.

Better control of Minions
I was quite surprised about the lack of features for a Nerco running as a minion master, simply features that could have been added from the game's creation to allow for effective use of minions. Many players now leave the MM role to an AI hero, who can more effectively use the skills.

One of the most annoying thing I dislike about using my MM character is the difficulty to select minions during the heat of a battle. When we're standing around doing nothing there's no problem, but when they're moving about and you're concentrating on the fight scanning moving minions with your mouse becomes off-putting.

An additional feature for Guild Wars 2 for nercos (death magic) should be introduced, either an additional ally window that MMs can use, which could appear as the same standard party window in Guild Wars, easily understandable and has great ease of use, allowing players to more effectively use MM related spells that require them to target individual minions.

Another feature I would like for MMs is to have a flag option, just like for the party flag that is available in Guild Wars, so MMs can send their minions into battle without having to get too close to the action. An addition flag might be nice for the MM elite skill the Animated Flesh Golem.

World Time
Introduce a server time or world time to the game. Guild Wars players are spread out across the world and when events are on you always hear the same question being asked "When does it start?". Giving us a /time command that would give everyone a server time or ingame world time would solve this lack of understanding/calculations of timezone differences

Movement
Allow the player to either toggle a command or press a key that enables them to walk. I have constantly tried to make video clips for Guilds Wars but a general annoyance I've found is it I can't make my character walk, unless I enchant them or hex them, but then visual effects get in the way.

Camera movement


One of the aspect of Guild Wars that stops me from trying to make fan-film is the limitations of the camera. The target of the camera in 3rd person seems to be head, which can be a problem for framing a scene. Any additional feature for the camera would be to be able to shift this target point by holding down a hotkey(s). There could be two hotkeys, the target the source of the camera allowing the player to move the camera around the area with a higher level of control and allowing the creation of additional angles that can't currently be reached. Rotation of the camera could be added also, so players who enjoy making fan-film can do this (Dutch tilts and spinning.). A camera reset button, obviously, would be needed.


 * The camera target would be able to move along the Z axis within the height of the model. Currently is a stationary point from what I can see.


 * Currently the Source (camera) moves around the Z axis on all of its axis, x, y, and z. My proposal would be to let it also be able to rotate along the X or Y axis as well (even within a certain range, although a full 360 degree rotation could be useful.

A totally free-roaming camera, which I think ANET uses when making the in-game movies, would be nice.

A Camera Mode might be toggled to allow for multi-axis movement and by toggling it off the camera reverts to its pre-set default.

Sitting on Furniture -Additional animations
If possible within the engine bring in the ability to let the player sit on seats, crates, boxes, railings etc. Would be nice for cinematics, bosses on thrones getting up as the heroes are charging in and the such. Would also be nice sitting beside a fountain's edge or sitting on the edge of a waterfall looking out over some of the explorable areas. Would make screenshots and videos more dramatic.

Such objects could a selectable and by typing /sit the players walk over or snap in place and the animation plays, letting them sit on a rail or something.

Jumping is supposed to be added in Guild Wars 2, so I suppose high of this request can be achieved yet I hope cloth reacts in the correct manner.

Guild Hall Creation Tool
I enjoy playing games I can tinker with, but with Guild Wars, given its nature, I can't.  But one area where I think some kind of user mods might be nice would be in the creation of a Guild Hall Designer Tool. A tool could be introduced into the mechanics of the game, a basic construction kit so players can design personalised Guild Halls (denying access to ingame mechanics such as scripting, skill editing and the like).

A way of stopping players from creating areas that would put them at a complete advantage over an opposing team in GVG would be to have the Guild Hall in an area that doesn't allow the modification of the GVG playing environment.

Features:


 * Players can chosen from a small library of worldspaces and either place complete ANET guild Hall or can mix and match pieces to their hearts content.
 * Decorations, waterfalls and the likes can be added freely.
 * Time of Day, season or weather can be introduced.
 * Placing the marker for NPCs where they want, even naming the them and giving them unique areas.
 * Adding non-trader NPCs who walk around following a set path and might have dialogue windows the guild can programme.
 * Tapestries and flags would be introduced that bear the Guild cape design or generic designs.
 * Lighting control.

This tool could even allow, if granted access, the player to design their own areas (non-playable) that can be saved to their PC. This could let ANET see how players would redo cities or what they want to actually see in an area.

Security for a Construction Kit


 * The Kit would only be accessable through the Game, it would be a downloadable tool from the store maybe, and have a button you can select after the login screen. Given the nature of the game, building a construction kit into the engine would prevent people from being able to use a downloadable version to 'hack' the game and find exploits etc


 * Such a tool could have the more advanced options, like scripting and skills menus etc disabled or removed completely (a barebones version of what ANET uses to make the worlds) so what the player has access to is just the libraries of models, textures, terrians, blank or copies of current worldspaces (less all quest, environment scripting etc) that are in GW.DAT (Guild Wars reference)


 * Saved CS Kit files would be added to the GW.DAT or a similar style *.DAT file. Content, if ANET has a contest like design an area, could be sent directly to a server via a Send File option.

By giving people (modders) a construction kit it would allow those of us who like that kind of thing to be able to bring our ideas out into the public eye beyond stretches and writings. You never know, if something like this came about content added to the game might be more player created or inspired, I mean it happens now but this seems like a nice next step.

Guild Armour
REPRESENT!

Another feature for Guild Halls that might be nice is to have the leader be able to select a 'Guild Armour' the PvP players can 'buy' (free from the armorer) and PvE characters can buy once they reach the required level (so not to overpower the player). This armour could be a mixture of pieces or a pre-made full set. Given the difference in race and profession variations could be pick but its name would still be the same "Doombringer Hood", "Doombringer Helm" etc. It would be, in terms of Guild Wars, a 1k a piece set and follow the same rules of armour. Colour scheme could be preset or dyeable.


 * There could be a spot on the chest or shoulder where the Guild Insignia would be displayed for those who think the cape clashes with their outfit.

Additional Products
Given the fact that 250 years is supposed to have past between Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 I'd personally like to see mission packs released at a regular time (and at a cheap/cheaper price than the current mission pack) where the player can learn what happened to the heroes of Guild Wars or other interesting key events - witnessing Orr rising or an emerging dragon)  This could also service the player's desire for history, I'd personally like to know or see what the heroes of old got up to and other key story points, and if that includes the destruction of well loved cities - like Lions Arch or the death of a hero so be it.

These small projects would fill in the gaps for the history, fill in time between campaigns or expansions and keep players interested.