Guild Wars 2

So i have noticed that some basic siege and a few people manning it can thwart an attack pretty effectively in wvw, yet keeps and towers are routinely flipped with seemingly no effort by large groups of people (zergs). A lot of the time, these easily taken keeps have defenses built on them, but no personnel to man them. Why is this? The simple answer is: it’s deathly boring standing in a keep, waiting for an attack to occur, so nobody bothers to do it.

So what can we do to make defense a more pleasurable experience and actually get people in these towers? My suggestion is some kind of mini game. It doesn’t need to be complicated. Maybe some maintenance work around the tower/keep that yields some achievements or karma or something like that. Nothing huge, but something to do when the keep is not under immediate threat. Even a simple table and chairs with a checker board would do.

The simple fact of the matter is that by the time the “zerg” discovers a tower is under attack, it is too late to save it, and even if it isn’t, you have to get through the army standing at the door in order to get in and onto the defenses. There needs to be people already inside when the initial attack hits in order to make use of siege properly, but it’s just too boring at the moment.

My idea is a series of mini games or chores, do you guys have any ideas on how to make tower defense less mind numbingly boring?

I agree wholeheartedly I have been sitting in a tower for the last hour waiting for someone to attack. I cant leave since we worked hard to get it ready but I am so bored I my head is spinning. I would rather do sweep up dust around the the place then just stand here… watching.

It’s interesting you have thought of this. It is one of the things we have chatted about in my guild.

How can you reward defending or staying in a tower when there is no attack there. You would have to be careful so it does not reward those that would AFK. Your mini game idea is good. I thought of something that could be along the lines of “minding the fort” since that is what you are doing.

My thought was , if they could create ‘points’ in the fort that you as the PC would have to go interact with. They could be set points( like nodes that everyone can use) or they could appear randomly with in the structure. You would have to take your character there to interact with it. Kind of like ‘fixing’ the inside, although you are not really fixing /repairing. Just a way for the game to measure who is actually actively participating. ( I suppose another way, but I feel it would be adding to much , but you could take the crafting materials, and use them to give to the fort. Even gathered food items could be given to the NPCS there to ‘feed’ them) Again that is just to have the game recognize you are "minding’ the fort.

Also , since it’s defending, the gold/karma/exp rewards would , on first thought, be less then actually taking it. Since that could take people away from the offensive side. ( Again this would be for when there are no attackers, but when those that sit there keeping a eye on it) Full on attack and defend , sure the rewards could go back to normal.

I think they key would be to find that balance so that each aspect, attacking and defending, still feels worthwhile, but does not create something where everyone wants to only participate on the one side.

But for those that want to feel like they are staying IN the keep defending it , still can get rewards for it.

I have not been able to come up with a good idea for how someone who is a ‘scout’ could ‘scout’ and get rewards for it.

Maybe someone can take this idea and add to it , or see where some downfalls could be.

This is a good point, disneyrich. A bunch of afk players is no better than having nobody there at all. Not to mention the risk of being kicked off after a period of time for inactivity, and then being blocked by a queue when you try to rejoin. Certainly the people defending should be encouraged to actively play. I like your suggestion about interacting with npcs. Performing quests for guards, such as killing or gathering quest items from the surrounding beasts (which as far as I can tell currently serve no real purpose) could give the npc in question some kind of cosmetic or practical buff for a short period of time.

100% agree with these ideas. Simple as that. simple quests and npc interactions with some rewards to pass the time. i love it.