Talk:Commander

If you turn on your Tag in sPvP you cannot turn it off again during the match? Is there another way of doing this?

At the moment there is no way to turn it off when you are in a match. --Dreanor (talk) 07:26, 10 May 2013 (UTC)

Typing /sqleave as a Commander disbands the squad (detags).

Commander Icon

If you become a commander and do not have a squad (your commander icon is not showing on the map), does the commander icon totally disappear or does it remain above your char so ppl around you can still see it? In short, it can be totally removed so no-one can tell you have it, right? Titan Crow 09:04, 10 August 2013 (UTC)

yep how it works is in the party window there is a create squad button and unless you have clicked that button the icon wont show up.- Zesbeer 09:28, 10 August 2013 (UTC)

Ready Check

Only a commander can initiate a ready check. Note that the ready check prompt will only appear as an option in the party menu once there are 2 or more members in the squad.

Benefits

I saw snow in WvW when it was sunny at my hometown. Someone told me it was because of weather at the Commander's RL home. This is amusing, if true. It also made me wonder - are there other, more practical benefits that come to a Commander? --Gold Recluse (talk) 11:51, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

How does a Commander get a Supply Camp to give out +5 supplies? --Gold Recluse (talk) 02:43, 17 July 2014 (UTC)

There's a guild buff for it. It's not limited to commanders. -- Dagger (talk) 15:33, 18 July 2014 (UTC)== Ideas ==

My suggestion is to have onscreen commands that pop up like those messages when capping a tower/keep/camp. These commands will help those that are focused on battle and building. I know I fell victim to battling only to see half of our zerg still fighting only to get wiped while the other half got away. In the heat of battle, you don’t always look at the mini map to see if the commander pin moved nor read the chat box. All they know was the last command which was attack so that’s what they did. By the time they see the commander ported or retreated, your forces are diminished. My solution gives the commander a nice way to communicate. The message appears on screen for a moment then fades.

To prevent spamming, put in control measures that allow the same command to appear X seconds/minutes. The command range also determines who can see the command based off the radius from the commander. A decent range is determined by testing of course.

Stack
Radius: 3000
Jump 3x consecutively to call out for a stack. If you are not in range (like at another camp), then clearly you don’t need a message to stack but the range needs to be wide enough to let others know you are ready for action. Like those selling stuff and not paying attention to chat or maybe they are chatting with guilds and can’t see the chat channel. The onscreen command helps with that.

Report
Radius: Map wide
Type /report so players across the map can give updates like zerg is moving towards N camp, golems hitting garrison, keep wall needs repair, etc.

Charge
Radius: 2000
When the commander is not in battle, then moves, the others will know to follow. The radius will be smaller since we are not engaged in battle. When the commander is no longer in combat, then moves again, the message will appear again.

Incoming
Radius: 2500
Type /inc so players are aware of enemies forces approaching. This helps when you told your force to build, knocking on a gate, or is already on siege and don’t have the best view.

Retreat
Radius: 4000
When the commander leaves a battle, others will know to follow. The commander must be a decent distance from a fight and continue running away from battle. This way the commander isn’t just moving out of combat just to make a skill change therefore a wider range is necessary. If you are out of that range, the message will appear and know to retreat.

Phoenixwil (talk) 22:51, 3 January 2014 (UTC)

if you want anet to read your ideas, why not copy the above and post at the official Support Forums? 75.37.18.245 23:09, 3 January 2014 (UTC)

Commander effect

Now that this page is about squad mechanics (as I believe it needs to be), is it appropriate to keep the effect infobox? There is already a page called Commander (effect), but it currently redirects here, and I'm not sure if it needs a separate page or not. --Idris (talk) 17:12, 12 September 2014 (UTC)

if I am not mistaken the buff dost exist anymore (at least I didn't see it on my bar when I was on yesterday.)- Zesbeer 17:52, 12 September 2014 (UTC)

Just checked: you're right, it's gone. Well, that simplifies things. --Idris (talk) 18:30, 12 September 2014 (UTC)

Feedback 2015/12/14

Some extra chat commands from https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3wsi3p/psa_how_to_broadcast_to_squad_quickly/cxys366

/squad,/d switch to entire squad broadcast

/subgroup,/sg switch to subgroup broadcast

/# where # is a subgroup number, switch to broadcasting to that subgroup

--198.84.237.21 23:24, 14 December 2015 (UTC)

split

@Mora what is your reasoning for the split tag?- Zesbeer 01:15, 1 February 2016 (UTC)

The commander mechanic is no longer required for squads, and squads are used in raids with/without commanders. So redirecting to a 300g mechanic that isn't required is misleading. —Mora 01:19, 1 February 2016 (UTC)

The vast majority of this page pertains only to Commanders including most of the abilities tied to squads. I don't think there should be a split, but it might be good to make a new page called Raid Squads that the raid page would link to instead of being redirected to the commander page, as Mora is correct in that you don't need a commander tag to create a Raid Squad. This new page would give the few details of raid squads and then point to the commander page for all the extra benefits that come with having a commander tag. Raid Squads however are just very limited versions of the original Squad—only allowing 10 people and missing features that are useful for raids (markers, ready check)—and Commanders are still required for the regular, non-limited squads and so should still be the destination for the squad page imo. If you do split it, the majority of the Squad page would be marked as 'Need Commander Tag'. The only reason I see for splitting up the commander page is if the wiki community feels putting Lieutenant as a sub part of the Commander page would be weird—though that is another 'Need Commander Tag' feature. 22:56, 1 February 2016 (UTC)

I do not have a commander tag, but I am interested in the Squad functionality, that exists close but also separate from Commanders. I've tried to come to this wiki to get information on different Squad UI features, and I believe the article gets confusing when trying to explain both subjects at once. So I vote to split. As an alternative solution, we could at least explain Squads better in this article, giving it its own title and have Squad functionality explained. Several features of a Squad exists even without commanders, sometimes the only difference is if only the commander can do something, or anyone in the squad. Right now I am gonna try to include the kick feature, and its icons, keeping the general structure that we have here, but it will be confusing within the context of the article. I hope it can be improved upon later --KillerRabbit (talk) 22:33, 23 October 2016 (UTC)

Been wanting to improve this article for a while, and got gifted a commander tag so I could research any missing info. But I am really struggling because having the Squad topic inside of the Commander article I believe makes it all very confusing. With the current state of the game, the Squad topic is much broader than Commander, so I think the first step is either doing this split or moving the page to Squad having subheaders for commander functionalities. My work in progress is here but I am not at all happy with it: User:KillerRabbit/sandbox/squad and User:KillerRabbit/sandbox/Commander. I am requesting comments on the split decision, so once we have consensus (either way) I would feel like I can move forward adding information here (and I'll feel like less of a failure for not improving this page after being gifted the commander tag to do such task). --KillerRabbit.1946 (talk) 19:48, 2 June 2017 (UTC)

I'm all for the split. Being a commander is one thing; a squad is another. With the updates to WvW pip rewards encouraging more commanders, I think now is a great time to clearly state what the two topics are on their own pages. G R E E N E R 19:59, 2 June 2017 (UTC)

Sounds good to me. They're part of the same article for historical reasons, not because that's necessarily a good way of doing it. Both features have grown a lot since the launch of the game. -- Dagger (talk) 02:31, 3 June 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for the comments! I feel much more confident in the consensus of the split now, and I've been working more on my sandbox, specially for how the Squad article would look like separated. I will soon start with the split, I'll try to find some info online on the bureaucracy of this. I think I should maybe start from creating Squad from a copy of the Commander article, maybe with a <-- WIP notice --> , and will immediately after that adapt the structure to something similar to what I've been working here. --KillerRabbit.1946 (talk) 13:30, 8 June 2017 (UTC)

Lieutenant

We should probably get a few words on the new lieutenant mechanic since that is now a thing. This is probably where people will come for that info. -Darqam (talk) 01:49, 19 March 2016 (UTC)

too late. They came, found nothing, and obtained information ^^. -Chieftain Alex 02:15, 19 March 2016 (UTC)

Lol yes, but the wiki still needs a few words on it I think. -Darqam (talk) 02:42, 19 March 2016 (UTC)

Absolutely. I haven't got a commander tag (only on stage), so i have two questions about it: 1) Do Lieutenants get some kind of taco-like symbol above their heads too, and 2) Is their character name prefixed with "Lieutenant" in the squad chat? -Chieftain Alex 14:49, 19 March 2016 (UTC)

There is no in game taco for lieutenants, but they do get a small icon in the squad UI. Their speech is not preceded by lieutenant. As for what they can do, it seems that reddit page covered about everything. I'm going to try and find the icon in a bit, I know I've seen it in the dat somewhere. -Darqam (talk) 15:40, 19 March 2016 (UTC)

Edit, easier than I thought it would be to remember. File:Squad UI commander.png and File:Squad UI lieutenant.png. These are the icons that appear inside the squad UI, beside the character's name in their little green box.

Squad without icon

This may sound like a silly question. Can you form a squad without having your commander icon displaying? The reason that I ask is that thanks to a stupid decision by ArenaNet my friends and I are losing out on gameplay.

From the inception of GW 1 there were always 8 of us, we played right through that, and eagerly awaited the release of GW 2. We were gutted to find out that the party size was decreased from 8 down to 5. I mean Why? just, why?

A lot of us work long hours, have family's and kids, but always find a few hours one night a week to make time and definitely get on for gaming night. The idea of one of us (our Guild leader) having a squad tab would stop the problem of us having to go out in 2 groups of 4, like we normally do.

However, (from our point of view) 300 gold is a lot to gamble if it won't benefit us. Also, we are all occasional players, and the commander tab tends to suggest a more veteran player who knows the game well and knows what they are doing. I can safely say that none of us fall into that category, and wouldn't want other players to assume we know what we are doing. (Google Post Turtle for an idea on what I mean).

Any advice anyone can give would be gratefully received. Stu (talk) 09:08, 13 April 2016 (UTC)

At the moment there is no way to form a squad without the use of a commander tag. It is however possible to form a squad with someone having a commander tag, and then have them leave (yes I'm aware of how impractical this is); you will then have a squad without a commander icon. If the idea of having a squad and no tag is what you want, that is the way to go. You can also have the commander re-invited to the squad without having him tag up, and voila, everyone is in squad without a tag displayed. -Darqam (talk) 15:13, 13 April 2016 (UTC)

@Darqam. Thanks a lot. It is a pain but if it works, I will take it. Many thanks :) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Sir Grockalot (talk • contribs) at 14:32, 14 April 2016 (UTC).

Bit belated, but anyone can create a 10-man raid squad just by clicking "Create" (and raid squad commanders only get the big floating dorito if they've bought a commander tag.) -- Dagger (talk) 21:40, 18 May 2016 (UTC)

Is there a way to show/hide the commander tag while still maintaining commander functionality?

Also, can you choose to hide only the tag above the character for example, but still have it display on the map/minimap, and vice versa?
Will placing an object marker above the commander change the map/minimap icon to that object marker too? --138.75.160.129 21:50, 15 May 2016 (UTC)

How do you transfer the commander tag to someone else in the squad?

How do you pass leadership of the squad to another member in the squad? Is there an easy way to quickly tell at a glance who has bought the commander tag> --175.142.35.221 19:04, 29 June 2016 (UTC)

The only 2 ways are you right click the user and appoint squad leader, or you leave and they volunteer. Either way there is a need for that person to have a tag; which there is no quick and easy way to have knowledge of. -Darqam (talk) 19:08, 29 June 2016 (UTC)

So I right click their icon in squad ui, and click "Appoint squad leader"? --175.142.35.221 19:14, 29 June 2016 (UTC)

Yeah, that will pass on your role as leader to them. You can also appoint them lieutenant regardless of if they have a tag or not. A lieutenant as virtually all the same powers as a commander. -Darqam (talk) 19:17, 29 June 2016 (UTC)

Squad tag color order

So... is there a reason why the tag order is as is? Presently:

To me it is a bit of an eye-sore; and would muuuuch rather see:

Any objections? The associated wording below it would also change to represent the new ordering. -Darqam (talk) 22:18, 23 August 2016 (UTC)

Why not go from the colors of the color wheel? Derp, I just started one color ahead of yours. It would look like this:

As for the current setup, it was created back when we had four colors, so I don't think anyone cared for the color order, but since we have more options now, might as well! —Ventriloquist 22:23, 23 August 2016 (UTC)

Vent... purple can't be first with that ordering... please. Have you ever even seen the EM spectrum? [1]... :p

Next you'll be telling me ultraviolet light has the same wavelength has radio signals... *sigh*. Well ok, going for the re-ordering. -Darqam (talk) 22:29, 23 August 2016 (UTC)

The newest update has included White/Pink/Pale Blue tag colors -- the article (and ordering) should be updated to reflect this The goddamn keywi (talk) 22:27, 11 July 2017 (UTC)

I have them uploaded User:Darqam/Dat_Icons there, in the 128x128. I don't have time to fix it up just yet, but will probably do so later today or tomorrow. -Darqam 22:31, 11 July 2017 (UTC)

Oops, I just added them before reading the talk page, sorry. I used your icons Darqam, which seem to be the 128x128 version used in the icon template. With them I updated that template and so I could easily add them next to the other small icons at the article intro. There are bigger icons (128 × 135) on a later section and I didn't add to those since I didn't have that version. Not sure it makes sense to have both versions of each ... I like the ones at the top better because they seem more part of the text, and the ones below seem just some files laying there. I had a plan to change that (to this) but never finished what I started u.u -- KillerRabbit 👯💬 00:00, 13 July 2017 (UTC)

Ok, so going through the icons in Photoshop, these are the hue values for each:

Red: 0
Orange: 30
Yellow: 52
Green: 113
Cyan: 179
Blue: 204
Purple: 289
Magenta: 314
White: -

So I put Magenta in its correct place on the page. -- Kazerniel (talk) 22:08, 17 July 2017 (UTC)

Loved you science approach Kazerniel, moved the smaller icons at the top to match this ordering too. Thanks! -- KillerRabbit 👯💬 23:22, 17 July 2017 (UTC)

I jest, I jest, good job. -- Dagger (talk) 02:44, 18 July 2017 (UTC)

KillerRabbit: Thanks, I didn't notice those 😅 -- Kazerniel (talk) 10:44, 18 July 2017 (UTC)

Unknown Squad Icon

Today during a Labyrinth squad, one of the members had an icon I hadn't seen before. It's not the commander or lieutenant icon, but something different. It's hard to explain in words, I uploaded the screenshot here, look at player 'Alca'. What I see is a yellow little triangle in the top left corner with a 'shoe' icon on top O_o I came to this wiki to try to get info on it and didn't find anything. Anyone has any idea what this might be? So we may document it? Thanks! --KillerRabbit (talk) 02:51, 23 October 2016 (UTC)

I believe that that symbol represents someone who has been suggested to be kicked by a lieutenant (I think). I'd have to check to confirm. -Darqam (talk) 03:28, 23 October 2016 (UTC)

Ok, so update. Thanks to some people in [Att], along with Tanetris, Purple, and Bianary, we figured out at least one way to do this.

1. Have a squad with a leader
2. Have said leader drop the squad
3. Anyone can suggest to kick anyone left.

-Darqam (talk) 03:57, 23 October 2016 (UTC)

More details. When you suggest a kick, you have the following icon over the player's UI slot: . If someone else suggests a kick you see instead. Note that the file names are kind of bad at the moment, but at least the icons are up. If anyone feels like adding this information; please go ahead because I can't think of how to tackle this. -Darqam (talk) 04:07, 23 October 2016 (UTC)

Wow this is great Darqam thanks! I never had a commander tag, or know anyone with it so I couldn't do the research. And you even found and uploaded the icons! As for how to include this in the article, I agree it's complex, in part because this is the Commander page, and this would be one of those Squad things, that although slightly different with Commander or not, is still a Squad feature. (I am one of those who agree the articles should be split, or at least have Squad as a bigger title). I'll try to think of a way to add this, and maybe it can be improved later, but at least the info will be there. Extra Info: I tried creating one of those no commander squads, and upon voting to kick someone, the one that voted sees a red cross on who they voted to kick, and others see the 'shoe' icon. --KillerRabbit (talk) 22:18, 23 October 2016 (UTC)

Well, I did ... something. Not happy with the result, the article is very Commander-centric (which makes sense, being the Commander article!), and there is little place to explain squad features that exist outside of the commander feature. Seeing this I voted for the split on the voting above. --KillerRabbit (talk) 22:51, 23 October 2016 (UTC)

Missing UI icon for non-HoT LTs

There's one more icon that's missing from the page, it's for lieutenants who don't have Heart of Thorns. udas 13:02, 28 May 2017 (UTC)

I just tried this out with a couple guildies. Both F2P and HoT members had the same lieutenant icon . Are you able to link to a screenshot of the icon? J.Tesla (talk) 13:20, 28 May 2017 (UTC)

Woops, I messed up. It is an icon that is given to scouts for Shared Participation. udas 13:45, 28 May 2017 (UTC)

Hey sorry for seeing this late, but if you could link to a screenshot we may try to find the right icon and upload it. Is it this one ? Thanks! --KillerRabbit.1946 (talk) 19:12, 2 June 2017 (UTC)

Yeah that's the one. udas 16:57, 8 June 2017 (UTC)

Feedback 2018/06/13

Should it be noted that the commander placement icons (alt 1-8 and shift alt 1-8) have a range of the minimap? Exceeding the range causes the point to release. ---- Magic Talk 02:30, 14 June 2018 (UTC)

I'm not sure what you are referring to (as I don't have a commander tag), but feel free to update the page. G R E E N E R 07:42, 14 June 2018 (UTC)