Suggestions to deter zerging in WvW
Are there other ways the zerg mentality can be deterred?
The way that WvW works at the moment, no.
They have some major overhauling to do, mainly with how commanders work in the field and how they communicate to the teams and squads.
read this:
Commander options too limited
Boardgames FTW:
HeroQuest, Talisman, Heroscape, Munchkin Quest
DungeonQuest, Dungeon Run etc…
HeroQuest, Talisman, Heroscape, Munchkin Quest
DungeonQuest, Dungeon Run etc…
Do what you can, nobody can stop zergs.
Nobody.
Zergs are not good for WvW. They trivialize the accomplishments of smaller sized groups and players in the zerg are left feeling their individual contributions to the zerg do not have a lot of weight to the success or failure of the zerg.
I see your point, even though this is not exactly true. I sometimes join up with the zerg, I can distinguish what part was my doing and what was not, and often I notice I have critically contributed to the success of the zerg which I can draw positive emotions from. Whereas failure I will usually just share with the zerg, when the negative emotion is lessened.
And the accomplishments of the smaller groups are never trivialized by having a larger group accomplish something else.
Supply Logistics Tax:
When the number of friendly players in close proximity reaches ‘zerg’ numbers, then start to remove supply from each member at an interval. The more people the more removed or at a higher frequency. For large zergs this would hopefully make it difficult to keep any supply more than a few minutes after looting a supply depot.
This would be understandable if we built siege out of cupcakes. However that supply is board and nails, iron, whatever. What do the people around you do to make that supply vanish? Now, we don’t want people to completely scatter around the map, not forming groups because they fear their supply will vanish. And yeah, try telling them they can have 4 other people around them safely.
Siege Maintenance Tax:
When the number of friendly players in close proximity reaches ‘zerg’ numbers, then nearby siege equipment would either revert back to a ‘building’ state and would require supply to get them functional, or they would take damage and eventually be destroyed and have to be rebuilt from scratch.
Good luck trying to defend a fort. Opponent can spread their numbers around the fort, while the defender is pretty much forced into smaller area. Therefore, the defender can’t keep their siege working and they all lose supply that they have very little in the first place.
The opponent then again can spread around the fort and just
a) Wait till the opponents siege is gone. This now happens automatically, you just need to keep running in circles. Then build a ram or two of your own and waltz in. The defender can’t even repair the door, as the keep is now out of supplies.
Or
b) Make few catapults further away, hitting that wall has never been easier, as opponent can’t do anything to repair it. They got no supply. Not to mention that you get huge advantage with the siege, whereas opponent can’t really build any counter siege. Since they’re defending.
Is the point here to make sieging a keep utterly ridiculous?
WvW Dynamic event scaling:
When the number of friendly players in close proximity reaches ‘zerg’ numbers and they are doing an offensive dynamic event without a matching enemy force, then scale up the PvE difficulty. This could be accomplished either by reducing damage to walls/gates, or by spawning NPC defenders. The larger the zerg the more frequently they spawn and with more annoying abilities (snare, fear, AoE, etc). The balance I’m thinking of is 10 person team would be able to take an undefended tower much more dramatically faster than a 50 person zerg.
Uhm… what? “For tabby’s sake! Stay away! Don’t help us! That will slow us down! Go away!”
Right. Lets add more antisocial aspects to the game.
Decrease zerg rewards:
When the number of friendly players in close proximity reaches ‘zerg’ numbers, then reduce badge drops and dynamic event rewards (karma, experience, and coin) for completing events. This shouldn’t be binary on/off but a gradient reduction depending on the number of people in the zerg.
People will not notice they’re getting less rewards, they will definately not draw the connection to having friends with them. This is, therefore, inefficient.
What are your thoughts on these suggestions? Are there other ways the zerg mentality can be deterred?
Zerg is a natural phenomenon, people want to group with other people. Sure, there are loners, but you don’t see them forming flocks.
Zerg is efficient on certain tasks, and inefficient on many others. It is how the people organize that matters. However, if they all want to go together, that should not be penalized. It’s how they want to play.
People who can argue often offer a good and meaningful conversation about the subject.
People who can’t tend to call the opponent troll, scream something utterly incomprehensible
and finally result to personal insults.
People who can’t tend to call the opponent troll, scream something utterly incomprehensible
and finally result to personal insults.
Zergging is a legit strategy,no problems there
Zergs cannot be stopped. They even added a commander npc to gather people and own a tower, 90% of the time it’s more than 20 people with the commander, some times even 50… note that the commander does a lot of damage, has a lot of HP and defense… gives you supply, gives you an army and gathers a zerg most of the time.
So… I believe zergs are intended by ANet. No, it’s not pretty, yes they do work.
Zergs are not good for WvW. They trivialize the accomplishments of smaller sized groups and players in the zerg are left feeling their individual contributions to the zerg do not have a lot of weight to the success or failure of the zerg.
I disagree. Some people like to follow a group — it’s arguably safer and it can be fun to be involved in a big group event.
Some people prefer focusing on targeted objectives and there’s a strong role for them, too. Zergs do not “trivialize” squad accomplishments. On the contrary, they show just how important teamwork is over sheer numbers — I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a tiny coordinated group fend off groups of disorganized defenders or take important objectives.
WvW can be improved in many ways, but I don’t think zerging is a problem in itself, so I can’t support any of the suggestions.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
Look at a “zerg” as an army, you don’t go into battle against your enemy with two people swinging their shiny weapons. You need a full-power-human-blood-thirsty army to rip some heads off. Else, good luck escaping their zerg.
Like this! http://youtu.be/dahUNuuAwfc
Oh boy, fun!
(edited by Yamiino.1827)