[Suggestion] Invisible Commander Tag

[Galmac.4680]

Just an idea for some QoL:

As I run around in the world of Tyria, often with small groups, it would be nice to have the abilities of a commander (with all the marking), but with my commander tag invisible to others on the map. I don't want to have unknown players approaching to see what we are doing, just run around the world, tag several objects and do stuff.

So it would be nice to set the commander tag invisible to people outside the squad.

[Tanner Blackfeather.6509]

I'd love this!

[Dawdler.8521]

Start squad -> invite people -> leave squad -> have them invite you to the squad.

 

There is your invisible squad. We have had this discussion in WvW soooooo many times and the reasoning is simple - you want squad commander features, be a commander. Being visible is a requirement to using the features. Its a simple matter of having the cake or eating it. You cant have both.

[Galmac.4680]

But you can't do the markings then!

[akenoyuki.8210]

Oooooo.... I'd like this idea to be true

I don't want people to gather around me for no reason since I'm not doing any event, things will feel awkward because people will gather and asking you what am I doing, Sure we have the "Allow people to join" to be set to "No", but people will still gather nonetheless.

[MachineManXX.9746]

> @akenoyuki.8210 said:

> Oooooo.... I'd like this idea to be true

> I don't want people to gather around me for no reason since I'm not doing any event, things will feel awkward because people will gather and asking you what am I doing, Sure we have the "Allow people to join" to be set to "No", but people will still gather nonetheless.

 

Then why even have your commander tag on?

[Shirlias.8104]

> @MachineManXX.9746 said:

> > @akenoyuki.8210 said:

> > Oooooo.... I'd like this idea to be true

> > I don't want people to gather around me for no reason since I'm not doing any event, things will feel awkward because people will gather and asking you what am I doing, Sure we have the "Allow people to join" to be set to "No", but people will still gather nonetheless.

>

> Then why even have your commander tag on?

 

Really.

[Archranis.2375]

> @Galmac.4680 said (presumably about the commander leaving and then rejoining the squad):

> But you can't do the markings then!

 

If a lieutenant retains their status after the commander leaves (I'm not sure about this), you could make someone a lieutenant before leaving/rejoining the squad (or have another commander make you a lieutenant and then they could leave/rejoin). According to the wiki (https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Commander#Lieutenants), lieutenants can place marks.

[Neural.1824]

Yes please. I would love to do either an invisible commander tag, or have the option in squad to make the tag visible to squad only.

[Tanner Blackfeather.6509]

> @MachineManXX.9746 said:

> > @akenoyuki.8210 said:

> > Oooooo.... I'd like this idea to be true

> > I don't want people to gather around me for no reason since I'm not doing any event, things will feel awkward because people will gather and asking you what am I doing, Sure we have the "Allow people to join" to be set to "No", but people will still gather nonetheless.

>

> Then why even have your commander tag on?

 

To get Commander functionality like placing markers.

[Danikat.8537]

A lot of people use commander tags/squads in PvE maps for things like guild missions, player-created events, or helping groups through things like jumping puzzles.

 

In all those cases it's completely pointless for strangers to show up expecting a big event they can join in on, because they're going to be disappointed. But it happens, because some people have this auto-pilot thing where they see a commander tag and run over to join in with whatever they imagine might be happening.

 

An invisible commander tag, or one only visible to people already in the squad, would be a great solution.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

[As of six month's ago](https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/wuv/Can-we-have-something-Private-Tag/6554291 "As of six month's ago"), ANet was still against hiding commander tags

 

> @"McKenna Berdrow.2759"

> ...we try to avoid adding features that can be used to exclude players.

 

(This was written in the context of WvW, but it's hard to imagine ANet applying a different philosophy in PvE.)

[notebene.3190]

> @Danikat.8537 said:

> A lot of people use commander tags/squads in PvE maps for things like guild missions, player-created events, or helping groups through things like jumping puzzles.

>

> In all those cases it's completely pointless for strangers to show up expecting a big event they can join in on, because they're going to be disappointed. But it happens, because some people have this auto-pilot thing where they see a commander tag and run over to join in with whatever they imagine might be happening.

>

> An invisible commander tag, or one only visible to people already in the squad, would be a great solution.

 

Other than jumping puzzles, which lots of people could benefit from, the examples are seem hand picked. It's for all those other things "not" listed where it might be beneficial for someone to swing by in the hopes of getting something done they were hoping to do. If they show up and it's a marriage, the only person who is out anything is "the stranger". If it's killing a champ or getting a hero point done or a tough event, well they get to help participate in open world content.

[BlaqueFyre.5678]

> @MachineManXX.9746 said:

> > @akenoyuki.8210 said:

> > Oooooo.... I'd like this idea to be true

> > I don't want people to gather around me for no reason since I'm not doing any event, things will feel awkward because people will gather and asking you what am I doing, Sure we have the "Allow people to join" to be set to "No", but people will still gather nonetheless.

>

> Then why even have your commander tag on?

 

For the functionality of the tag, pretty simple concept.

 

[Danikat.8537]

> @notebene.3190 said:

> > @Danikat.8537 said:

> > A lot of people use commander tags/squads in PvE maps for things like guild missions, player-created events, or helping groups through things like jumping puzzles.

> >

> > In all those cases it's completely pointless for strangers to show up expecting a big event they can join in on, because they're going to be disappointed. But it happens, because some people have this auto-pilot thing where they see a commander tag and run over to join in with whatever they imagine might be happening.

> >

> > An invisible commander tag, or one only visible to people already in the squad, would be a great solution.

>

> Other than jumping puzzles, which lots of people could benefit from, the examples are seem hand picked. It's for all those other things "not" listed where it might be beneficial for someone to swing by in the hopes of getting something done they were hoping to do. If they show up and it's a marriage, the only person who is out anything is "the stranger". If it's killing a champ or getting a hero point done or a tough event, well they get to help participate in open world content.

 

I'm not sure what you're getting at here, or what you mean by "the examples seem hand picked". If the squad is doing open-world content then yes of course other people can, and probably will, join in - with or without a commander tag.

 

But when they're using a tag for something other people can't join in on it gets awkward. It's not just the strangers who show up who end up losing out - the commander (and therefore the whole squad) has to stop what they're doing to explain that no there's not an event chain starting soon, or anything else the stranger can participate in, just...whatever they were doing. (Or ignore the stranger, who is likely running and jumping around the group - either because they think they're killing time waiting for an event or because they're trying to get someone to answer their questions about what's going on.)

 

On a bad day the stranger gets angry that they were mislead by the tag and decides to lecture the group on their personal definition of when and how to use a commander tag. And then once it's all settled the next stranger shows up and it starts over again.

 

For an extreme example take Pink Day in LA. It's a very long, player created and run event in the game's main city. In previous years I've spent literally hours doing little more than explaining in chat what's happening, why, how it works, why we're using commander tags etc. over and over to different people who show up after the previous explanation or weren't paying attention to chat at the time. In that case it's fine - the whole point of the event is to attract as much attention as possible. But doing the same when you just want to get on and play with your little group of friends gets frustrating.

[drunkenpilot.9837]

To add to what Danikat has stated (all good points, by the way), if you are commanding a small squad of players doing a list of objectives that spread across multiple maps and you're map hopping a lot, you'll often find yourself in a map with an active meta event happening. Other commanders sometimes get angry by this and will whisper you (or yell in map chat, riling up the rest of their followers) telling you to tag down. Even if there isn't anger coming from another commander, often you'll get random players who will start to follow your tag thinking that you're doing the map meta when in reality you're there for something totally unrelated.

 

That sort of thing happens often. You don't even need to be map hopping as a commander to encounter it, if you're doing something like a jumping puzzle and you tag up to show others where to go, another commander on the map will sometimes get salty and "order" you to tag down. It certainly doesn't happen *all* the time, but it's often enough that it would be useful to be able to hide your commander tag while still allowing for full commander functionality.

[xikira.3264]

This subject has been brought up many times in the wvw thread. Each and every time Anet shot it down with the same response. They will not add an invisible tag because guild wars is about inclusion not exclusion. As nice and handy as it may be I don't see anet allowing it sadly.

[zealex.9410]

Could the marks be base for every onepls? Or at least the "leader of a 5 man party" while in an instance and the commander while in a raid. While open world idk all can use it.

[Spurnshadow.3678]

This has been asked for a thousand times. No avail. But we get catmander tags! Yay! No one asked for that.

[Nagiil.1230]

yes, please!

[akenoyuki.8210]

> @MachineManXX.9746 said:

> > @akenoyuki.8210 said:

> > Oooooo.... I'd like this idea to be true

> > I don't want people to gather around me for no reason since I'm not doing any event, things will feel awkward because people will gather and asking you what am I doing, Sure we have the "Allow people to join" to be set to "No", but people will still gather nonetheless.

>

> Then why even have your commander tag on?

 

Sometimes I tag for a public event, let's take Tequatl world boss for example, if people come and join, that is good.

 

But sometimes, I want to use the tag marking feature while on a squad with my guildies / friends to guide them here and that, and it will be pointless for people to come since there is no event whatsoever on my tag place, this will only waste their time right?

After that, they will ask like what you ask "Why do you use commander tag then?"

 

Sure, I can just answer "Sorry, I'm trying to guide my friend through stuff in here"

But again, isn't it great if we have invisible tag with mark feature to not waste people time?

 

I hope you get my point, I'm sorry if it's unclear before :)

[Tenrai Senshi.2017]

I'd like this as well. Sometimes myself or a guildy will tag up just to do guild stuff and to accommodate more players in the group (which you need a squad for if you have more than five players obviously). I'd be happier if I didn't bother other players by making them think an event or something is happening at my location, just because I'm trying to do some random stuff with guildies.

[Galmac.4680]

The implementation shouldn't be that difficult, one checkbox in the squad popup for the commander, a flag in the internal model class and an if()-block in the renderer. Would be very nice. Seems that I'm not the only one who wishes for such a feature :)

[Midnight.7526]

I hate to say it, but you knew what you were getting when you paid the 300 gold.

[Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582]

Instead of requiring a tag to form a squad and then want that tag to be invisible, why not just allow people to form squads without a tag at all, just like a regular party, except bigger?