Guild Wars 2

As an old Counter-Strike player, I would love to see some CS inspired sPvP modes. As it happens, Counter-Strike is one of the most popular and fun e-sport type games out there, so if it’s the goal of GW2 to become an e-sport, then it wouldn’t be a bad idea to be inspired by the old master. It’s also a hell of a lot of fun, and I believe it could work really well in a GW2 sPvP setting.

Here’s my suggestion for new sPvP modes. First the basics:

Two teams of five to eight players fight each other over x rounds or x minutes (should take about 10-15 minutes per match). During the match, the two teams have to complete objectives and kill enemy players in order to win as many rounds as possible. Each round ends when either one of the teams has completed their objective, or when all the players in one of the teams are dead. Players who are downed can be revived, but players who are stomped can’t. Instead, they have to wait until the start of the next round, making it important to keep everyone in your team alive.

Like the current GW2 sPvP modes, players are rewarded with points for killing enemy players (e.g. 5-15 points per kill) and completing objectives (e.g. 25 points). Unlike the current GW2 sPvP modes however, the teams have different objectives. Usually, one team has an offensive objective (destroy, kill…), whereas the other has a defensive objective (defend, rescue…). When half of the time or rounds have been played out (e.g. 5), the teams switch roles, so that the defenders become the attackers and vice versa. When the match ends, whichever team has won the most rounds wins the match.

Specific game types:

Bomb defuse

The objective of the offensive team is to destroy one of 2-3 targets on the map (e.g. supply depot, bridge, etc). At the start of each round, one player in the offensive team spawns carrying a bomb. This bomb must be taken to one of the locations and then be detonated so that the object is destroyed. If the bomb carrying player is killed, another player can pick up the bomb. If all players in the team are killed, or if time runs out, the defending team wins the round.

The objective of the defensive team is to either kill all the enemy players before they can detonate the bomb, or use some type of Asuran gismo to defuse the bomb once it has been planted. They can also win by simply defending the locations until time runs out. Each player in the defensive team can defuse the bomb.

Hostage rescue

The objective of the offensive team is to sneak or break into the enemy camp and rescue a number of (NPC) hostages. Once the hostages have been found and talked to, they will follow the players in the offensive team back to their camp where they will be safe. The offensive team will win if they manage to either kill all enemies (thus automatically rescuing all hostages), or rescue all of the remaining hostages. If no hostages are remaining (e.g. everyone has been killed), the team which kills all players in the other team wins the round. Hostages can be killed by players of either team, but this is discouraged as it will lead to negative points to that player as well as longer respawn time the next round.

The objective of the defensive team is to keep the other team from rescuing the hostages, either by killing everyone in the enemy team, or defending their hostages until time runs out.

Assassination

In this game mode, the objective of the offensive team is to assassinate a specific player in the enemy team (the VIP).

The objective of the defensive team is to protect the VIP either until all enemies are dead, or until time runs out. The VIP has no weapon skills or utilities, and must thus rely completely on the other players in the team.

In summary:

Each match consists of a number of rounds, and players only get one “life” per round. In other words, if a player gets stomped during the round, that player must wait until the start of the next round. Note that each round should only take a few minutes (2-5 min) so the actual wait until respawn is not necessarily long. However, this might still require a spectator mode to be in place, or else people might get bored. If done right however, having rounds instead of infinite respawn can be really fun, as it will facilitate team work and tactics over “mindless zerging”.

I have also suggested at least three new game types: bomb defuse (one team has to bomb one of 2-3 objects, the other team has to defend them), hostage rescue (one team has to rescue hostages, the other teams must defend them), assassination (one team has to kill the enemy VIP, the other team has to protect him or her). Each team will play each role once in a match. These three types can obviously be varied. For example, hostage rescue could easily become a “defend the caravan” type match, in which the objective of the offensive team is to kill a caravan of dolyaks, whereas the objective of the defending team is to defend the caravan.

I hope these ideas are appreciated. I welcome everyone to comment/discuss how they might be best implemented in a GW2 sPvP setting.

My last MMORPG, Warhammer Online: AoR had a plant the bomb mode which was surprisingly fun.

+1 on the bomb mode. Dunno about he others…