Some Feature Requests for WvW Open Tag Battles

I've been playing WvW for some time and I've got some feature requests that I believe could improve my experience and hopefully others might find these useful too. For open tags where the group is harder to organize, I believe some improvements are possible that can help with these. Maybe some of these improvements can help organized groups too.

I would be happy if players share their experience with the issues that I describe and how they solve these. I know there is a mod for changing the mouse cursor, if there are mods that might help with some of these, please share those. Ideally I feel these should be in-game features rather than mods. I tried to search for similar topics in the forum but couldn't find others. Please excuse me if similar topics has been raised in the past.

• 1. Highlight the commander tag iconMy issue: In the frenzy of battle, I sometimes lose sight of the commander's tag. For some reason the marker icon above the head of the commander would blend in all of the flashy spells and moving players. Usually putting a target marker on the commander would help a bit with this but still not enough and the target marker could be used for something else.Proposal: Put some effect on the icon like a border or something and draw it on top of all other objects on the playing field. Do some UX tests to figure out what could be a good way to highlight it.

• 2. Commander compassMy issue: Similar to the above, sometimes in intensive battles a might lose sight of the location of the commander relative to me, as I need to target certain objectives or face in a different direction. I think the map currently can show me the relative location of the commander, but I don't always have the time to look at the map or chat.Proposal: Draw a compass at the player's feet that shows the direction of the commanders on the map. This could be limited to the one you follow and only on WvW maps. Similar to the previous one, this should be visible through all the glitter of the skills and fields. Additionally you might indicate the direction that the commander is facing or the distance to him. Also an option might be to track the visual markers placed by the commander.

• 3. Announcer packs (including paid ones)My issue: In the heat of battle, it is hard to always keep track of the chat window. Thus, currently probably the most effective way of giving commands to a squad is through voice chat though the experience varies with different commanders. Unfortunately some commanders and some players don't want to join a voice char for various reasons. Even if the game provided a built in one, there would probably be players that ignore it. Running without a voice chat is possible, but I prefer it most of the time. Unfortunately, voice is not always ideal as the game is too intensive and speaking quickly is probably hard for some commanders, not to mention that (in Europe) people have accents and might not speak a common language.Proposal: Provide announcer commands that the commander and players (with some limitations) can issue. These commands would produce sound effects (e.g. spoken words, alarms, drums etc.) for the players in the area or the map to hear. These announcements should cover popular orders that commanders give as well as popular shouts that players give (e.g. stack on me, incoming...). For the sake of variety, you can sell different packs on the gem store. Pairing the existing commander markers with sounds might be a good option too.The sound effect could be limited to a squad or be global provided there is a mute option. Also having a separate volume controller would help. I know that certain skills produce sounds in game for others to hear but this is a bit too chaotic. Music instruments might be an option that is probably too hard to utilize.Sound shares some of the cons of voice. Thus in some cases the announcers might be better off as a visual signal rather than sound, but that probably needs more consideration.I don't see announcers as a replacement of voice chat, but as a complementary feature.

• 4. Highlight combo fieldsMy issue: The battle field is a mess of combo fields and damage circles and it is hard for me to see what a combo field is so I can finish the one that I need. Unless I am finishing my own combo field that is. The commander might coordinate this on the voice chat, but the field can still get polluted.Proposal: Provide an option that would draw the top most combo field with a certain fill color per the field type. Damage circles must still be visible on top. Maybe an option to specify the field types that you care about would help with the possible explosion of colors. Back in the day when GW2 was announced I thought these combos would be such a great feature, but I feel like those are underutilized in all game modes.

All of these seem like beginner issues that fade away with some practice.

1) You can target commander in your party and it's visible across whole map.

2) If you can't see the tag which is above all aoes, what makes you think that you'd see an indicator around your feet? Why would you need another aoe spam on your screen?

3) Announcer pack sounds as worthless as minimap pings and target signals. People who don't play on voice usually have game sounds muted as well because they are listening to something else. If that's not the case then there's no point of supporting people who don't want to support their team.

4) Combo fields are more than visible, but relying on them in a large fight is a huge waste of time and resources. The only classes that somewhat rely on fields are ele, engi and thief and they already have enough fields on their own so that's not an issue anyway.