Guild Wars 2

I don’t see how bringing the old maps would help. I’m on a T1 server and prior to HoT coming out the BL’s were a ghost town. People seem to migrate to EB now because that’s where Commanders go. I have a feeling they can’t be bothered to learn the new maps.

I agree there are some issue with the new BL, Lag, the silly PvE content, auto upgrades although that’s not a huge issue I personally like it. But seriously if the old maps were dead bringing them back won’t do much.

Anet needs to bring more of an incentive to actually go to the WvW maps. Maybe make specific skins and rewards only catered to WvW or better gear. There should be away to work on masterys in WvW but at a slower rate then PvE. Things like that.

But bring back the old maps…hells nooose

So you are saying T1 was a special case where old BL never got queued and only EB was popular even if down in T5 with a much lower population home BL was often queued and even sometimes ennemy BL (see here a server that can’t queue the 4 maps at the same time). I also know that T2 server had 4 map queued and from what I heard T1 population and T2 is basically the same.

Sorry if I have trouble believing that… (Unless you are playing on a different time zone than what your server region is, then on that case I would believe that this is simply normal. People tend to prefer to merge on a single map during those low population time zone in order to get some fights).

I do aree that simply bringing back the old map would not solve all the problems. I think some changes from the HoT expension should be kept, some could be tweaked, but some simply needs to be removed. Feel free to discuss on what you think about the changes and which should be kept and how to implement them.

List of changes that I like

(1) The new sentry detection system is great. It mades sentry more useful and allows players to not lose time going where the ennemy is not (it goes well with point 2). This new sentry was also suposed to kill yaks and get people to go flip the sentries… sadly… yaks are useless so on that part it failed to hit the mark.

(2) The map calls when a structure is taken by X server is also great. It might only be a solo roamer, but it will still improve the information network. This combined with a sentry that scouted a group of players earlier allows you to walk directly to where you think the group will be in the next few seconds.

(3) I like the fact that lord HP scales up with the number of players. It gives people a better response time to gather enough folks to get a good fight instead of getting structures flipped without a good brawl in the lord room.

Here is a list of things that needs a little tweak before being things that I would like.

(1) Auto upgrades seems awesome on paper… But I think simply making it so upgrades are forced to be in a specific order would of solved the troll problem. Make it so yaks count! Yaks are useless now. Also, waypoint on T0 keep makes WvW lose its touch. I remember when we did map calls on every map to get our people to defend our T3 keep with a waypoint. Those were fun fights in the lord room. Now? Keep flips and it doesn’t matter since we will grab it back while gaining access to the only upgrade which truly did matters as a welcome gift. Also, removing Bay and Hills waypoint on the new map just bring less fights (less incentive to actually go defend it since it will never get a waypoint).

(2) The new event in the Desert bordeland map. This event seems great and all. But I still think that a big area with a cap point could of been a better choice than to kill those PVE monsters. Imagine a large cap where there is a timer ticking down for every second your server control the point. I feel like it would be more appropriate for a players vs players environnement. King of the hills kind of tournament would of been amazing I think. Atleast the event as it is is not so fun, it’s just that those Dinos don’t really belong to WvW if you ask me (my opinion, sorry if some people love those Dinos XD). A king of the hill tournament could of been one big platform or up to 3 big platform where each platform control gives you -1 second on the total timer. Once it reachs 0 the canon is yours.

Things that I truly do not like

(1) The non players automated things in the Desert borderland map. I’m talking about those slow turrets, those flame turrets, those winds turrets and those earth walls. They are annoying more than anything. As to replace those things, I would simply take them off and get the blessing of the element when near that area (no more need to actually go and click the shrine to get the move speed boost). I would also take back the combat boost that those elemental buffs gives, environement should not give such a potent stats boost which vary depending on the region you are playing on (same with the imune to burning in fire keep). Also, invisible zergs is simply a bad concept, but I got no idea how to replace that buff without imbalacing the fights (need help finding a solution so I can edit that part later on). Finally, since earth keep have 2 automated things, (turrets and walls). I would simply give them a detector (like a sentry would if it spotted an ennemy) all over the keep so it can detect any hiding ennemies inside that keep and in the close periphery of that keep.

(2) Fortified gate… Those are new and they are slow to take down. Also guild catapults got nerfed to the ground so breaking a fortified wall takes an army or will simply take forever if you are a roaming squad. But gate is now also fortified… So it just means more time raming or catapulting those objectives…which in the end me and my roaming friends just leave them be since it’s too much of a chore.

(3) The pathing of the map seems to be worse than what Alpine borderland offered. Zigzaging and going up and down makes the map that is slightly larger to feel like walking from point A to point B to take much more time than what it used to be on Alpine borderland. Or atleast it feels less straightfoward and more about dodging the ennemy than to engage them. Those keeps are just so vast with so many pathway. Keeping it simple is not always a bad thing.

(4) Reset on saturday morning… Bring back friday night reset. This night was crazy, even more than saturday night reset. Get back from work, install yourself and play with your friends on a friday night was amazing.
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Basically, I think a tweaked Alpine would be better. Alpine had its flaws, but people still loved that map after 3 years (sure they asked some fix there and there, but a total revamp of the map doesn’t seem to get us to a better place, fixed some problems only to make new ones arise)

phantom i like a lot what you saying a well written post. you things you like are the best thing about the new upgrades i think auto upgrade needs to go. the new event needs to go too i see no point in it put back the ruins. cut out a few long narrow runs seems like a maze sometimes at places and some of the keep i think are just too large i dont mind scaling of the lord that seems ok but sometimes getting to him is terrible and veterans everywhere in the roaming areas. the guards near the walls are alright but out in the middle of no where those vets need to go

Gotchaz.7865:

I don’t see how bringing the old maps would help. I’m on a T1 server and prior to HoT coming out the BL’s were a ghost town.

We’re on the same server. No they weren’t.

I am on YB and agree with Tiffany… they were not empty. We routinely went to the map because it was a great place to find skirmishes at various camps and at spawn points. Many guilds never went to EBG since fighting there is heavily puggish. Now pretty much everyone goes to EBG or doesn’t play.

At the very least players would go there if EBG was full. Now seems players shuttle off to EotM or run around trying to make money while EBG is q’d. The new map has been horrible for skirmishing and almost all of the bigger fighting done there is PvD.

Straegen.2938:

I am on YB and agree with Tiffany… they were not empty. We routinely went to the map because it was a great place to find skirmishes at various camps and at spawn points. Many guilds never went to EBG since fighting there is heavily puggish. Now pretty much everyone goes to EBG or doesn’t play.

At the very least players would go there if EBG was full. Now seems players shuttle off to EotM or run around trying to make money while EBG is q’d. The new map has been horrible for skirmishing and almost all of the bigger fighting done there is PvD.

yep, real fightings are happening in EB, the new BLs are mostly for k-train zergs that pretend to care about WvW by PvDing.

I have to agree with the OP.
You are deluding yourself if you think that bringing back the Alpine Borderlands map will fix all your problems.

What you need to understand is that even more people would leave if WvW is simply reverted to what it was.

The problems in WvW began long before new maps. They are tied up in Population and Scoring. Until they are addressed, and a new season introduced the problems in WvW will continue regardless of what maps you put in place.

I think at best the hope was that new maps would drive activity and to some extent they helped and hindered. They are to large for current populations. However alot of people find the change of pace enjoyable. I personally like them but can see that their size is giving a false sense of inactivity.

Nightshade.2570:

I have to agree with the OP.
You are deluding yourself if you think that bringing back the Alpine Borderlands map will fix all your problems.

What you need to understand is that even more people would leave if WvW is simply reverted to what it was.

“Fixing” WvW is a much larger conversation. Alpine maps would make it better than it is today which means they will help. There was enough content in the new Elites/Class as well as a few clever features to bring WvW players back into the game at least for a while. The Deserted map, guild and supply changes are the relative failures of ANet trying to improve WvW.

yeah, old map with new mechanic won’t help at all…

I have 8 players who wont play on the new map, but will play on EBG. They were fine playing on alpine. 3 are explicit about it, the other 5 just ninja log instantly.

He’s right the old maps will just discourage people even more about WvW.

I think the game mode as it is currently is just slowly dying and we will have to accept that and move on to Guild Halls gvgs or other games. Unless Anet want to revitalize the game mode with new mechanics, rewards and a new server system I don’t think there is any hope left.