For the first time since they’ve been released today we have a personal incentive to go out and take borderlands bloodlust ruins! There’s a new daily achievement for sitting for a few minutes taking five of them! Since there’s never been any reason to bother with them before, I moseyed on over to one of the colored squares and sat in it. And waited.
And waited. And watched the lil’ bar fill up as I sat there and waited. And that’s when it hit me: the borderlands ruins are an absolute insult to the game. The mechanic is boring and completely devoid of personal incentive because you don’t even get any event completion rewards for capturing them. Thinking back to what used to be, I want the 9 million krait and the lake back! Here’s why:
1. The system with the quaggan weather nodes was, if nothing else, active and engaging. To build them you had to hunt up pearls or actually play the game by killing krait. Once built, enemy nodes were a point of interest for passing zergs, camp raiding parties, and really anyone else in the area who wanted some reward for doing something in WvW
2. The center island mechanic was interesting because it gave purpose going through the middle of the map and involved killing stuff. Plus, depending on your build, not everyone could solo the dozens of krait that lurked about the place.
3. It’s a total pain going crossing the middle of borderlands now with 5 giant nothings that serve no purpose for a solo player because you might as well follow around your zerg and get oodles of loot, wxp and all that other good stuff.
The solution? Heck, no one has the perfect answer. But in my genuine opinion, a system combining what was lost and the new ruins mechanic would be a step in the direction. Instead of wasting your life standing in squares watching a bar fill with color, why not the goal of each ruin be to construct some structure of importance, kind of like the weather nodes. Except players would actively have to either spend supply, or perhaps kill nearby PvE mobs (earth elementals?) to get supplies they could use to help construct these things. It’s active, engaging, has you doing something related to playing the game, and ideally should reward the player upon successfully “capturing” the ruins by building the structure.
Say then the goal for enemies is to destroy the structure. Zerg or divide and conquer? And if players had to make a choice of hey, do we spend our supply now or hunt nearby monsters to gather supplies (maybe not even inventory items like pearls but bundles) to build it? And unlike the weather node system, worlds shouldn’t lose control over a ruin after having a structure destroyed, but a capture circle should come up which, as long as a defender stayed in it, would remain in control over the world that built it. If only enemies are in the circle within seconds control of the point is lost and a neutral structural foundation is spawned for the attackers to get to work on. Just my own idea that would bring more engaging, active gameplay than what we have now.
If nothing else, the ruins mechanic is boring, pointless and disappointing in every way possible. I love this game and I’m going to keep playing WvW for a long time to come, which is why I want a better experience than what we’re being given now. Thing is, as it stands there’s more reason than ever to stay in Eternal Battlegrounds for fun and goodies.
Thoughts?
(edited by Mal.1670)