Mikuchan.7261

The expansion is out in a few days.

The living story has a solid team with a nice release schedule.

That's all well and good, but after a few months with all the sand, that gets everywhere, we'll need a nice place to lean back and relax.

I'm talking about the Super Adventure Box of course!

Some questions to get the thread going:

What is your best memory from SAB?

What do you like the most about the blocky world?

What do you hope to see in the future areas?

For me, SAB is a nice change of pace and a world where nothing is too stupid to be done.

When it first came out, me and my friend sat in voice chat and laughed at each other as we failed.

Especially so when tribulation mode came out, although then the sweet sweet saltiness came as well.

Very much so when random bamboo spikes come out of the stupidest place.

It's very unique and offers a very unique experience.

And that's what makes it fun for me.

As for the poll, I'd hope it'd show ANet that it's worth spending time on the future areas and finish this "side story" once and for all, because it's something we want, and it would probably be nice for ANet to have it done and finished and removed from the table.

Now, the thread may seem a bit early, as SAB is scheduled for April. But it takes time to develop, and I only hope it's not too late to show support for a world 3 and forward.

Steel Series Rival 300 is my current mouse.

It feels good in my hand and I like it and it's customization options.

Set speed and acceleration curves and customize what buttons do.

It has pretty shiny LEDs that you can customize patterns for depending on which game you play or which "mode" the mouse is in.

Set different options depending on which game or program and it'll switch automatically.

I assume though that most gaming mice have features like this nowadays, so Steel Series is probably not alone.

But when picking a mouse, I think it's best to go to a physical store and feel them out.

Check which fits best in your hand and which has a good weight for you.

(Then of course you don't have to buy it in the physical store, but can order it online if you so prefer).

I forgot to mention, but the functionality to generate avatars for the characters is already there.

They do it for the thumbnails in the character select screen.

Given that those don't seem to come out when requesting character info from the API as far as I remember, they're probably done so client side.

Of course I don't know the extent of work it'd take to modify that to spit out avatars on request for the forum.

But it can most certainly be done.

Edit (some text removed, below added):

I've come to understand that the forum used is Vanilla Forums.

They do have functionality to provide avatar images via SSO according to their feature list.

So that might be a way to implement the system if you then set the avatar via the ANet account.

Alternatively if the forums have some other way of setting avatars from ANet's side or if the feature can otherwise be requested.

Crafting a statue of a certain person probably wouldn't work due to how the item system work and how the placement storage work and such.

But a statue plinth that you then edit, like a sign, to get a statue of a player could probably work.

It would need some UI updates to make players selectable and it would probably have to be restricted to guild members only for the sake of mechanics.

But it could be a pretty neat idea.

It seems that the view counter ticks up for every time you reload the thread.

Doesn't seem to matter when you viewed it the last time.

I'm not sure if this is a "bug" or if it's even a "problem", but I found it a bit wonky since it can really screw with the view counter in cases.

Figured I'd mention it anyways.

I suppose the view counter is there to give some form of information, which in this case would be inaccurate.

I stumbled on it when making a thread and I went in and out to check some things and the view counter went up with 1 for each of my visits.

It would probably be better if there was some form of timeout for when your visit will give another view counter increase.

Cookies for that?

The "problem" is that it can be done by mistake.

If you have the intention to screw around, you can always find a way.

Edit: There, 200 views, just to demonstrate.

**The forum avatars are currently very non-personal** and you really have to look at the name to recognize who is writing a post.

Not necessarily a big problem, but it's a bit boring.

It can be understandable if ANet doesn't want to host avatars that people upload. It can be a security risk and it can be messy and it can lead to them not getting the visual theme they want on the forum and other things.

But I have a suggestion for a solution.

**An avatar generator** would be a nice solution to all this.

It that takes the current equipment and style of a character you pick from your account.

It poses it and generates an image file out of it that is used on the forum.

At a start, to get the system rolling faster, it could be a standard pose. As time goes on, more poses could be added to the system for more variation.

**The generator could update the avatar automatically** as a settable option for more flavor once a day or so, if equipment or style has changed.

This could happen at a time when the servers are less busy and not in as much use anyways or as part of server maintenance.

For some, it could be preferred to have more consistent avatars, to recognize them more easily.

But it'd be the same character unless the user swaps to another one, so it'd still be fairly consistent.

Users can swap avatars whenever they want anyways (potentially with some restriction to put less strain on the servers), so I feel it wouldn't be a problem if you leave it as an option for those that want it.

**The current non-personal avatars** would still be an option if you don't want to use your character.

And I'm sure ANet would add more of those as well.

**This way everybody wins.**

ANet gets safe avatars and get to control the visuals of the forum and users get custom avatars, look unique and the forum becomes more personal and homey.

It could give more of a feel that the characters from the game come to the forum to have a discussion as well.

You get the star from "map completion" (100% vistas, pois, etc). Not from opening up every area ("exploring" I guess that's called?).

There's no reason outside of self fulfillment to opening every area (the second time).

But if you still want to do it, I think it's probably easiest to look at the maps, especially the corners, and if a map isn't completely square (rectangular) then compare it to the map on the wiki and check if there's something there and how to access it. Don't forget mountain caves in the middle of the maps either. Keep in mind that caves don't show as explored on the map unless you are inside of them.

And for doing it on future characters, always open up a map entirely before going to the next one so that you don't miss anything and have to go back and search.

For map completion, you see on the map (M) what you're missing. It'll say in the legend.

If you hover your mouse over the items in the legend, the missing items on the current map of that type will flash.

If you hover your mouse over an area's name, you'll see your progress in that area.

Although I've not used it, there should also be an arrow that points you in the direction of the nearest map completion item that you've not visited and that should be toggleable in the options menu if I recall right.

Achievements (Hero panel (H) -> achievements tab) are another thing and are account wide.

Per-character achievements aren't a thing, so you can't complete an achievement with "one character", it's the account that completes them.

It could be interesting to see how much a specific character on the account have progressed a certain achievement though.

However I don't think the extra required database space and development time really justifies the little added functionality for me at least.

> @Jekkt.6045 said:

> i have said this before: turn all passives that activate certain skills or effects into special action key skills. you drop below 50% hp on your warrior? press special action key to activate endure pain. makes everything more skillful and actually lets you decide when you want to use those traits.

A good thought, but what about when you have multiple effects that trigger on such situations? Special Action Hotkey is only 1 and can't handle all of them.

Yeah, I have one tab almost only books and letters, then another one with tonics and toys and such.

Also Polla, which I have no idea what to do with.

Perhaps a relic display case would be neat as well, heh.

> @"Inculpatus cedo.9234" said:

> Huh! When I mouse-over it, it says it is taking me to the Guild Wars site page, not Guild Wars 2 site page.

>

> Very odd.

That's odd.

I could have sworn I used the GW2 one.

Replying to it gives the link for GW1 though, as does clicking it.

It could be some (very) weird bug, but I guess it's more likely I'm remembering wrong.

I could also have sworn that I tested it and didn't get an external link warning to the GW2 page because it's the same domain or something.

I did the font and color stuff afterwards and I tried to format the link with paragraphs and stuff so it might have gotten removed in the process I suppose.

> @"Mikuchan.7261" said:

> » show previous quotes

> This is sorta exploitable and should be fixed I think.

> The link doesn't lead to quotes, it leads to the guild wars 2 page.

Perhaps filter it out somehow or make it another color, font, size or something so that it stands out more.

There are larger spaces between the lines around the real one, yes, but I think this is a bit too similar and could easily pass if you just eye through and want to know what someone said, not thinking much about it.

The reason that this is a problem while normal links don't necessarily are is that this is a forum feature that should inherently be trusted. For links, people should know to always check where they lead and if you click a link, you know you click a link and you're prepared for it.

Now, there is the feature to tell people they're leaving the domain, but that doesn't necessarily help if you don't think about it but just click past it because you want to see those quotes. You didn't click a link after all, so there should be no problem.

Also, I'm not sure if this intended or not?

But it's totally possible.

There is a technical issue with making the currently existing armors and outfits "gender neutral" and that is that the 3d model for the armor is modeled after the character.

If you would put female version of an armor on a male character, it would have boobs.

Now I don't mind men with boobs, but it doesn't necessarily look like it makes much sense.

The waist would also clip massively.

On the other hand, putting a male armor on a female character would not have boobs, and probably not the rigging necessary to weight it for having boobs.

There are of course other issues as well, but this one is would be enough to, sadly, break the idea I feel.

Some of it can be fixed with changing rigging weights in the model, potentially even automatically, but it wouldn't change the basic shape of the model.

Not saying it'd be impossible, but there's a ton of armors and all of them have a male and female version for 3 races. All those have to be altered for the opposite gender.

Probably not where they should focus their workload.

For future armors it could absolutely be a thing, but for existing armors, they'd have to all be revised.

> @MithranArkanere.8957 said:

> Why not putting everything into a single "Toys & Tools" box?

>

> It could be another tab in the bank. Whenever you get any kind of tool, gizmo, toy or everlasting tonic bound to a character or the account, it would get unlocked there, and you'd be able to go the the bank and take out copies of it.

>

> It could even extend to lore books.

I feel that they're a separate type of item and that they're used in separate ways and thus deserve separate functionality.

But I wouldn't mind a single inventory for all of them, that would also be good enough.

As for the books, I definitely want a similar book case, but there was already a thread about it and I didn't want to encroach on it.

For the toys, I can agree with having it in the bank since you normally buy them from the gem store and it could impact the number of sales negatively, but that's still a bit of too much hassle for something that's "just for entertainment". I still think it would, all in all, impact the sales positively even with them being account wide and globally available because I have a hard time imagining people buying multiple toys to keep on different characters except in rare cases. Though I'm not the one with numbers, ANet are.

For the tonics, I absolutely think they should be globally available. But honestly, a bank tab just for getting them out of the way so that I can still keep them would be better than nothing. But it wouldn't make them useful.

The point with making the inventory for them globally available and account wide is that it makes the items more "useful".

Since they're only for entertainment, they are "useless clutter" in the inventory when you're farming or waiting for raids or whatever you do.

But then you want to play around while waiting... But your stuff is at the bank... And that's too far away, so you just go to youtube while waiting instead.

So the boxes would potentially increase the social interactions ingame if they could be accessed anywhere.

And it would likely increase sales of toys.

I guess I should have named it differently, with "tools" I don't mean gathering tools like pick, axe and sickle.

Those aren't part of it.

What I mean is silverwaste shovels, zinn devices, dry top keys and so on.

But even so, there is the game impact of it.

I suggest, as the title says, the implementation of a tonic box, toy box and tool box that are account wide and globally accessible.

This would improve the value and usability of tonics and toys and it would make it easier to access tools when swapping characters.

**Toys and tonics**

Right now I feel like buying a toy or tonic doesn't give anything that helps you get through the game's content, it's only for entertainment.

When it takes up inventory slots and is a hassle to bank and unbank to use it on different characters and especially so if it's a toy that costs gems, that's sort of like punishing the player for having items that "don't really do anything" and thus discouraging it.

**Tools**

I know, there should be a balance between having to use inventory space, so that you should be restricted, and quality of life.

But I feel that especially with tonics and toys, this should not be a thing.

The Tool box can be up for discussion, since tools have actual utility use, but it'd be nice if they were included as well, because they're cluttering and it's a hassle.

**Account inventory slots**

Account inventory slots is a defense for not implementing the tool box, but I don't think they're a defense for the toy or tonic box for the reasons stated above.

.

.

**Definitions and implementation suggestion:**

**Tonic box:**

The tonic box is a storage for tonics, working similar to the finisher storage, but you trigger the tonics directly out of the storage.

Make endless tonics actually endless, you can always un-trigger them with the un-transform skill anyways, so a duration is not needed.

Tonics with charges could also have a function to recast them when they end, but that's not as important.

**Toy box**

Could be implemented similar to the Tonic box.

"Toys" are toyboxes, birthday shooters, carpets, kites, etc.

Alternatively there could be secondary, infinite, account wide inventory limited to only storing toys and allowing the player to use them out of that inventory.

Alternatively again, if it's important that toys have to be carried non-account-wide-ly for the sake of the economy, there could be a bank tab with an infinite inventory for toys only.

**Tool box**

Could be implemented similar to the Tonic box.

"Tools" are items you use to "unlock" or "reveal" things, be it silverwaste shovels or zinn devices.

It's mostly a hassle to have to bank and unbank them if you want to swap character, and they take up a lot of inventory space.

But for tools, as stated, it's understandable since it has utility use and is part of "the actual game" so to say.

Yep, suggested the bookcase idea on the old forums and I probably wasn't the first or the only one doing so.

My bank is full of books...

I don't recall if there's an item type for books, but it should be easy enough to just make an infinite inventory size "bank" that restricts item types to just books and restricts numbers to one of each to avoid some potential exploits.

Or alternatively just make a wardrobe style unlocking system for the books and have the functionality to use them from the "wardrobe".

I feel that a player counter could be useful, in conjunction with a system to jump between instances similar to GW1.

But I don't think a list of player names have any practical use outside of spamming.

If you want to recruit people, you can just use map chat.

If they don't listen, then obviously they're not interested in the first place anyways.

The laurel cat tonic is only **5 minutes**, it's even worse.

So when you've taken your time to find the cat you want, you only have 5 mins with it.

I would suggest that for multi-skin tonics, **use the unused utility skills to let the user cycle through the skins** back and forth (in addition to actually making it endless).

It's endless with infinite uses anyways, so it would just save the trouble of having to re-tonic to search.