Homestead Doors are going to turn off new players, and ruin the open world that Arenanet has spent years creating.

[Pyre.2467]

I know the title might sound a little over the top, but I genuinely think they are going to be extremely detrimental to the experience of Guild Wars 2.   

The New Player Experience 

Imagine you are a new player to Guild Wars 2. 
You've just spent time creating your character, and you are now ready to bring your Human female into Tyria. You do the tutorial mission and are now fully prepared for a new adventure in a new world. 
Then you load into Queensdale for the first time and the only thing you see is doors. Dozens and dozens of doors.  And we all know this will happen.

First of all, there NEEDS to be a series of options for these, and either #1 or #2 should be the default:  
- Hide all Homestead Doors.
- Only show Homestead Doors of party members. 
- Show all Homestead Doors

Failing to do so is 100% going to cause new players to either have a terrible first impression of Guild Wars 2, or make them stop playing entirely.  

Problems with Trolling/Performance  

Another issue that is easily foreseeable if there are not 'hide options' is the issue of performance issues, and trolls amongst the playerbase.  

From what ARENANET showed off, doors are rendered for everyone, including those not in your party. 
What is going to happen in every single meta event, expansion zones, and starter areas? They're going to be flooded with doors. 

Trolling also comes up. 
ANET showed off a way to hide doors, but it seems wholly inadequate. 

You have to first click the door, then click the "turn off" button. That's all well and good if you have 1 or 2 doors to deal with, but what are you meant to do when there are 30+ doors? 
Do I now have to block 30 people? Do I now have to click 60 times? 

Again, please give us an option to turn off all doors, or turn off the doors of those not in our party. 

The Open World

This is a quick one, but one I feel is important.  

Doors are going to look awful. That's it. 
I'm having a hard time thinking of anything that could make a beautifully crafted landscape look worse than putting random doors all over it.

Guild Wars 2 has a very well-earned reputation of having a magnificent open world, and the addition of these doors is going to ruin it. 

____________________________________________________________________

That's enough of my soapbox. All my worries and issues can be solved with the addition of a simple "Hide Doors" option. Please add it ANET. 
And while you're at it, an option to disable mastery hints pop-ups would also be appreciated.

Edited August 3 by Pyre.2467
Accidentally hit post early.

[Markus.6415]

I don't think it will utterly ruin everything. Your headcanon might have gone a bit too wild

[Futa.4375]

I was going to post about this. The door system wasn't needed in the first place, except to sell overpriced and useless door skins I guess.

We need an option to hide all doors, the same way we still need an option to hide and mute minis and particularly jade bots.

[Poobah.6254]

I think you're being kinda hysterical and over-exaggerating as is the way on the internet but I do think that a "Hide doors" ui option would be good QoL.

[Dean Calaway.9718]

1 hour ago, Pyre.2467 said:

an option to disable mastery hints pop-ups would also be appreciated.

So players can turn it off and then complain they don't understand something that was explained in them.

Ever since I've seen a guy on Reddit complaining about his low DPS while full kitted in stat select gear... with no stats selected... I'm pretty sure the game needs more YOU'RE DOING THIS WRONG messages, not less.

[Kelly.7019]

apparently not anymore then that aviation troll box thing. You can turn doors off just like that box, though i guess you have to learn how to first. It's simple but you'd be surprised how many people don't know how to.

[Kelly.7019]

1 hour ago, Futa.4375 said:

I was going to post about this. The door system wasn't needed in the first place, except to sell overpriced and useless door skins I guess.

We need an option to hide all doors, the same way we still need an option to hide and mute minis and particularly jade bots.

i agree. ah yea this sounds like anet.

[Randulf.7614]

I've obviously missed something. We generate doors in open world for our homestead that persist and can be seen by others?

That cannot be right surely? Visual clutter is one of the highest feedback ever on the forums. I can't believe they'd ignore that again and add more forms of it

Edited August 3 by Randulf.7614

[Quench.7091]

They might limit the number of doors allowed in an area. They do this for certain objects that we can interact with. Siege weapons, feasts, etc. It wouldn't surprise me if they placed such a limitation upon doors.

Edit: Now that I think about it, are there any interactive objects that players place that don't do this?

Edited August 3 by Quench.7091

[Parasite.5389]

i'd assume the doors despawn once playets enter the homestead, so it's not a huge problem

[Manasa Devi.7958]

I'm assuming there will be an option to NOT leave a door behind at all? (I haven't seen the livestream and don't intend to.) I don’t want to be dealing with party requests all the time. I don't see a good reason for these doors at all.

[Linken.6345]

1 hour ago, Parasite.5389 said:

i'd assume the doors despawn once playets enter the homestead, so it's not a huge problem

Only if a full party of 5 it seems.

[Parasite.5389]

11 minutes ago, Linken.6345 said:

Only if a full party of 5 it seems.

where has that been shown? the livestream only had 3 people, you can't possibly know that

Edit: if you rewatch the livestream, only the instance owner get the option to enter the homestead from their door, other party member will only get the option to join the party, or hide the door,
party member will then either join them in the homestead from the Party join timer if they're in the same map, or by right-clicking the homestead owners portrait and picking the "join in homestead" option.
once the homestead owner has entered the homestead, theres no reason for the door to persist

Edited August 3 by Parasite.5389

[Linken.6345]

34 minutes ago, Parasite.5389 said:

where has that been shown? the livestream only had 3 people, you can't possibly know that

Edit: if you rewatch the livestream, only the instance owner get the option to enter the homestead from their door, other party member will only get the option to join the party, or hide the door,
party member will then either join them in the homestead from the Party join timer if they're in the same map, or by right-clicking the homestead owners portrait and picking the "join in homestead" option.
once the homestead owner has entered the homestead, theres no reason for the door to persist

Yea looks like I remember the blogpost abit selective.

I cut this part off at the ,

so thought people could ask to join as long as the instance was not full

Q: Can friends visit my homestead?

A: Yes, you can invite your party members to your homestead via your conjured doorway. Players who are not in a party can use the door to request a party invitation from the door owner, and the owner interacting with the door will initiate the instance-transfer countdown.

[Ashantara.8731]

13 hours ago, Pyre.2467 said:

- Only show Homestead Doors of party members. 

I think this would be the ideal solution.

[Gop.8713]

I agree the way it was described seemed a little worrisome to me, but I am prepared to see how it works out over the first few weeks before I fly into a full blown panic over it . . .

[illuminati.8453]

I feel the Home Portal stone is now useless with these doors.  I wish they would do something with it, like being able to set a 'home' to some location and being able to use it that way.  That would certainly sell more home portal stones.

[Zebulous.2934]

25 minutes ago, illuminati.8453 said:

I feel the Home Portal stone is now useless with these doors.  I wish they would do something with it, like being able to set a 'home' to some location and being able to use it that way.  That would certainly sell more home portal stones.

I mostly use it as a free teleport to Divinities reach.  and if I am doing that, I may as well stop and gather at my home instance.  I may not gather there in the future, but I will still want that teleport.

[Zebulous.2934]

I assume people will be covering treasure chests with their doors and simply not walking inside.  Trolls gonna troll.

[quake.9023]

bad idea. set by default if you are not in the party, you cant see the door!!!!!!! this is important. 

[Derdhal.6908]

Those were my thoughts watching the streaming, too. I totally agree with the "show just your own/show just party members/show all" option.

[Manpag.6421]

27 minutes ago, Derdhal.6908 said:

Those were my thoughts watching the streaming, too. I totally agree with the "show just your own/show just party members/show all" option.

If their purpose is to allow people to ask to join a party to go to their homestead, something which the party owner controls anyway, then do they even need to be seen while in a party? Their purpose is basically to advertise to people not in your party.

If they were hidden while in a party by default, then the trolling potential goes down because most people in metas etc will be in a squad anyway.

[Teknomancer.4895]

On 8/3/2024 at 5:25 AM, Pyre.2467 said:

Doors are going to look awful. That's it. 
I'm having a hard time thinking of anything that could make a beautifully crafted landscape look worse than putting random doors all over it.

Presumably it will be rather like Halloween doors to the Mad Realm, which are designed to stand out. Let's also hope player doors don't appear on public minimaps; only being shown on the instance owner's if at all. Yes the one they showed wouldn't look too out of place in a lot of areas, but put up that leafy green thing in Orr, the Desolation, etc., and it will stick out like a sore thumb. And no mention in the video about whether the doors will be stackable, or whether NPCs and other interactable elements will have an exclusion zone around them preventing door placement within X units of crafting stations/bank/chests/etc.

23 hours ago, Randulf.7614 said:

Visual clutter is one of the highest feedback ever on the forums. I can't believe they'd ignore that again and add more forms of it

Of course you can believe it, it's their standard approach. 😉

[Ashantara.8731]

13 hours ago, illuminati.8453 said:

I feel the Home Portal stone is now useless with these doors.  I wish they would do something with it, like being able to set a 'home' to some location and being able to use it that way.  That would certainly sell more home portal stones.

Great idea!

Also, add the Homestead to its selection options so we can port there directly without having to summon a door.

13 hours ago, Zebulous.2934 said:

I assume people will be covering treasure chests with their doors and simply not walking inside.  Trolls gonna troll.

Oof, I didn't consider this. Oh no, what an awful prospect...

Edited August 4 by Ashantara.8731

[Sobx.1758]

13 hours ago, Zebulous.2934 said:

I assume people will be covering treasure chests with their doors and simply not walking inside.  Trolls gonna troll.

5 minutes ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

Oof, I didn't consider this. Oh no, what an awful prospect...

After watching the first few minutes of the vod, I'm pretty sure there's a popup window on door interaction with an option to hide it.