Map Ping Icons

[Ben Phongluangtham.1065]

Hey folks!

In the PvP Discussions we had recently, one of the random QoL requests that came up was a change to the map ping icons. If you're not familiar, you can hold shift and left-click on the map or mini-map to ping one of 5 icons to your party. Because this is a game-wide feature, rather than a PvP one, I wanted to gather some additional information before I try to get new icons made.

How often is this system used? Would it be used more with different icons or do people like the current set of icons?

Current icons:

• Red Circle
• Green Checkmark
• Green Cross
• Red Checkbox
• Yellow Caution sign

Our current thought is to do the following:

• Red Circle (keep)
• Change Green Checkmark to a Sword (Signal to attack here)
• Change Green Cross to a Shield (Signal to defend here)
• Hand in a in a red circle crossed out (Signal to stay away)
• Yellow Caution sign (keep)

These are pretty competitive focused. Would you find these more useful than the current ones? If not, do you have ideas for a set of icons that would be more universally useful?

Let us know your thoughts!

[ReaverKane.7598]

Yeah, i commented this when they released. As it is, for pvp especially, it's just half-assed.You should attribute meaning to those pings, and have a system message saying WHO pinged.Because as it is it means nothing, even with new symbols."Oh someone on my team pinged that area... cool, i wish i could read minds to know who it was, and what he means by that."

IMO i'd use the following :

Red circle:[playername] is moving here.

Sword[playername] wants to attack here.

Shield[playername] wants to defend here

Yellow/green hand[playername] needs assistance.

Yellow caution sign[playername] is warning to be careful there.

Oh and if you could do hotkeys that ping a certain symbol on your location on the map... That'd be awesome.Also, if you can make the map icon for the player using the ping flash with the ping. That'd be perfect!

[witcher.3197]

To be honest I don't know how often it's used, because most of the time I probably miss it even if I regularly check the minimap. In GW1 the map pings had sound effects and I think GW2 needs that too, because otherwise noticing them comes down to pure chance.

If pinging also sent a message to the team chat that'd help a lot too, for example "player x wants to defend [objective nearest to where the ping went off]"

So in short the problem's not the options we have, but how easy they are to miss.

[Taelac.7036]

I think I'd be more likely to use them/respond appropriately with the proposed changes. I find that the system is currently underutilized and that matches that do use it tend to go better.

[Nilson.9865]

Show me how it looks like. How will you incline sword to the right or to the left side? Or will it be in horisontal or vertical position? Will this sword be thin(like rapier) or fat(like minecraft sword)? What colour will have shield incon "wave"? How about blue? When it comes to blue colour in GW2 first thing that comes in mind is Guardian. Thanks.

[Ben Phongluangtham.1065]

@"witcher.3197" said:To be honest I don't know how often it's used, because most of the time I probably miss it even if I regularly check the minimap. In GW1 the map pings had sound effects and I think GW2 needs that too, because otherwise noticing them comes down to pure chance.

If pinging also sent a message to the team chat that'd help a lot too, for example "player x wants to defend [objective nearest to where the ping went off]"

So in short the problem's not the options we have, but how easy they are to miss.

We like the idea of adding a message to team chat too. Though, that will require some additional code. We'll probably do something like change the icons and then try to do the chat changes later.

[Ayumi Spender.1082]

I'd rather have more personal checkpoints, thanks.The map ping I never saw a use for.I would like the minimum of 10 personal checkpoints to at least scatter across the map.

[Danikat.8537]

I actually had no idea this system existed until just now. I don't know if it's because I don't pay enough attention to the mini map while in parties, or if people I play with don't use it.

But I think for me it'd be much more useful if the icons stayed in place until cancelled, and appeared in the world too, like the squad markers commanders can use. Since there's only 4 of them and they're only visible to people in your party I doubt there would be an issue with people spamming them, and it'd make them much easier to see and therefore follow.

Edit: And in answer to the original question the proposed new symbols do sound more meaningful and therefore more useful than the existing ones. Although maybe just a red circle crossed out would be better than a hand inside a red circle crossed out. I think both would be interpreted the same way and I'm concerned that given the icons are quite small the 2nd one may be too detailed to make sense of. It could just look like a random pattern in a circle unless you look closely.

(Case in point: the number of people who call the armour repair symbol a broken heart because it's not clear it's a shield, in spite of the damaged armour symbol being a shield.)

[Ghos.1326]

I have my evade attached to this key, so using the shift key is a little troublesome. Maybe if the feature was swappable to put it on a hotkey, I would use it more.

[Ayumi Spender.1082]

Wait... I just checked in game.Hasn't this been out for quite a while now?I recall sometimes messing up and accidentally clicking on this and not the personal waypoint.

[Indecipherable.3621]

@Ben Phongluangtham.1065 said:

@"witcher.3197" said:To be honest I don't know how often it's used, because most of the time I probably miss it even if I regularly check the minimap. In GW1 the map pings had sound effects and I think GW2 needs that too, because otherwise noticing them comes down to pure chance.

If pinging also sent a message to the team chat that'd help a lot too, for example "player x wants to defend [objective nearest to where the ping went off]"

So in short the problem's not the options we have, but how easy they are to miss.

We like the idea of adding a message to team chat too. Though, that will require some additional code. We'll probably do something like change the icons and then try to do the chat changes later.

If you add anything make sure you can bind them to a keybind instead of having to move your mouse to the map and actually click there

[Svarty.8019]

Is there a bug where instead of pulling the minimap around, you end up pinging it? I'd hate that to result in random (and wrong) chatbox text.

[WARIORSCHARGEING.2637]

@Ben Phongluangtham.1065 said:

@"witcher.3197" said:To be honest I don't know how often it's used, because most of the time I probably miss it even if I regularly check the minimap. In GW1 the map pings had sound effects and I think GW2 needs that too, because otherwise noticing them comes down to pure chance.

If pinging also sent a message to the team chat that'd help a lot too, for example "player x wants to defend [objective nearest to where the ping went off]"

So in short the problem's not the options we have, but how easy they are to miss.

We like the idea of adding a message to team chat too. Though, that will require some additional code. We'll probably do something like change the icons and then try to do the chat changes later.

given you want to or are looking at it . how about this too since your their unlock the UI screen and also make it so you can see FPS with out the need of going to the options menu and put it right on the main screen . far as the other stuff goes might be good for others but would be nice tho if you made icons a little more bigger for people having a hard time to see even with the map at 100% zoom

[Donari.5237]

I don't PvP at all and I like these icon changes. Not that I ever see anything but the red circle used, and sometimes I can't make it stop pinging instead of letting me scroll the minimap, and having the ping last a little longer would be nice since as it stands someone has to be actively eyeballing that specific area of the map to see the ping -- but those are system design issues. In terms of icon design, I imagine your proposed new versions will be equally useful in PvE, more so than the current ones.

[DawnSketch.7105]

@Donari.5237 said:I don't PvP at all and I like these icon changes. Not that I ever see anything but the red circle used, and sometimes I can't make it stop pinging instead of letting me scroll the minimap, and having the ping last a little longer would be nice since as it stands someone has to be actively eyeballing that specific area of the map to see the ping -- but those are system design issues. In terms of icon design, I imagine your proposed new versions will be equally useful in PvE, more so than the current ones.

They are really useful for in world squad content & HP trains. ;;; > u >

[WARIORSCHARGEING.2637]

@DawnSketch.7105 said:

@Donari.5237 said:I don't PvP at all and I like these icon changes. Not that I ever see anything but the red circle used, and sometimes I can't make it stop pinging instead of letting me scroll the minimap, and having the ping last a little longer would be nice since as it stands someone has to be actively eyeballing that specific area of the map to see the ping -- but those are system design issues. In terms of icon design, I imagine your proposed new versions will be equally useful in PvE, more so than the current ones.

They are really useful for in world squad content & HP trains. ;;; > u >

anet killed hp trains and so forth a long time ago . please do not tell me people still try to do this foolishly ??? also this is where a lot of game lag is made in pve thanks to these so called world squad event things which anet should remove the rest of that from the game fully and make it no longer possable to have any world trains or hp trains at all . :# :# :# :#

[Ayumi Spender.1082]

@WARIORSCHARGEING.2637 said:

@DawnSketch.7105 said:

@Donari.5237 said:I don't PvP at all and I like these icon changes. Not that I ever see anything but the red circle used, and sometimes I can't make it stop pinging instead of letting me scroll the minimap, and having the ping last a little longer would be nice since as it stands someone has to be actively eyeballing that specific area of the map to see the ping -- but those are system design issues. In terms of icon design, I imagine your proposed new versions will be equally useful in PvE, more so than the current ones.

They are really useful for in world squad content & HP trains. ;;; > u >

anet killed hp trains and so forth a long time ago . please do not tell me people still try to do this foolishly ??? also this is where a lot of game lag is made in pve thanks to these so called world squad event things which anet should remove the rest of that from the game fully and make it no longer possable to have any world trains or hp trains at all . :# :# :# :#

I'm pretty sure most Hero Points can't be soloed on certain classes.

[Fluffball.8307]

@Ghos.1326 said:I have my evade attached to this key, so using the shift key is a little troublesome. Maybe if the feature was swappable to put it on a hotkey, I would use it more.

Ya I can't use it at all because it's one of my class action keys.

[StinVec.3621]

If they continue to only be placed via full map view, it doesn't matter much to me what they look like, but thank you for approaching players about ideas and feedback on changes to them. :)

If I could place them via mini-map, the proposed icon replacements in the OP sound fantastic to me.

• Make icons able to be placed via mini-map, then I'll actually use them.
• Allow other modifier keys to be used for these functions instead of being hard-coded to shift/alt/ctrl so we're not dodge-rolling, auto-running or using a skill (whatever we bound to those keys) while trying to place an icon or interact with the map/mini-map.

---

I'm not going to stop while in combat to open my full map to place one (I could die in that time) or stop while traveling to another location to open my full map to place one (and fall behind the group or cause others to also stop due to their following me).

As I noted above, Shift is also my jump key. If it were my dodge key instead (as others noted theirs are - mine is R-CTRL) or even another skill/action, not being able to rebind these hard-coded modifier keys causes issues with my character performing the bound action while attempting to perform these various map/mini-map interactions.

[Tanner Blackfeather.6509]

@StinVec.3621 said:If they continue to only be placed via full map view, it doesn't matter much to me what they look like, but thank you for approaching players about ideas and feedback on changes to them. :)

If I could place them via mini-map, the proposed icon replacements in the OP sound fantastic to me.

• Make icons able to be placed via mini-map, then I'll actually use them.

They are... They have been since they were introduced.

[StinVec.3621]

@Tanner Blackfeather.6509 said:

@StinVec.3621 said:If they continue to only be placed via full map view, it doesn't matter much to me what they look like, but thank you for approaching players about ideas and feedback on changes to them. :)

If I could place them via mini-map, the proposed icon replacements in the OP sound fantastic to me.

• Make icons able to be placed via mini-map, then I'll actually use them.

They are... They have been since they were introduced.

They never have been for me, not from day 1 release of this ability being implemented. Thank you for this information.

Perhaps because they have hard-coded the modifier keys (shift/alt/ctrl) to place icons and do other things, my having bound Shift, Alt and CTRL to other functions causes the key+click function on the mini-map to no longer work.

If this is the case, I don't understand why they allow us to bind functions to those modifier keys if doing so prevents the key+click function to work (like placing icons on the mini-map).

I guess this should just be marked off as a bug that has always been there and either not encountered by a single other person, or is not high enough on the To-Fix list to have gotten fixed.

As I am not going to rebind my Shift/Alt/CTRL key functions to other keys in order to get this key+click on the mini-map behavior to work properly, I will leave this thread now as its topic does not apply to me and will not as long as this function behaves in this manner.

Thanks again for informing me of this, Tanner. :)

[Yukio blaster.9082]

a hotkey for pings or at least one! asking for help, with a special sound and a massage in the chat like( playername: help me ) is necessity cos when you need help you can't ping cos if you do you are dead .

[Mikuchan.7261]

Not being anywhere near pro at either GW2 or HotS, I feel like Heroes of the Storm does this quite well.It's quite similar to what Reaver was talking about, but with hotkeys instead of click-drag.Maybe some pings could be hotkeyed and other pings could be click-drag.

[Urelementar.6120]

pings do not work for squads, would be nice if you could change that if you are working on it :) maybe only for subgroups, cause the commander and lieutenants already got markers

[Rayti.6531]

I remember that I used the map ping a lot in PvP when calling for help at a point or also in PvE while explaining something to guild mates - but that was way back when, when it only had the red circle symbol. Since the change where you have to select a symbol first before the ping appears I don't use it at all... To me the current implementation feels very clunky - so I'm glad that you are thinking about ways to improve the system.