I orginally posted this on the Guild Wars reddit but thought i’d post it here too!
Its just some suggestions for WvW without including the things that we already know will be fixed and the awesome extras on their way in March.
I’ll get the ball rolling with my own suggestions!
1) SCOUTING
The ability to ‘spot’ enemy groups when in vision, so that they are shown on the map. If an enemy zerg is seen then a skill to be able to alert your server of their presence would be great for not only for more depth to scouting but for strategic placement of battles. This skill could be handled with a cooldown so for example “Send warning raven” which shows the enemy for 10seconds on the map and has a cooldown of 30seconds, allowing zergs or groups to not constantly be spotted. It also means groups will have to be sneakier when travelling and with the culling fixes on their way would make ambushes and scouting an exciting experience.
Also removing crossed swords on default when battles begin and instead making it so that someone has to “spot” or “send for help” means that zergs can move unnoticed in some circumstances as long as no one gets a raven away. When sieges begin instead of them turning up on the map straight away as crossed swords, there could be an option to send a messenger raven from inside the keep or tower, which then makes “DEFEND MENDONS GAP” for example, pop up in the corner of the screen on other players huds. This helps with map chat getting too full up with people saying ‘defend this’ ‘come help here’, which some people ignore and makes a more official way of showing players where to help out, while enriching the job of scouting into an extremely valuable WvW area.
2) SQUADS
A squad menu on the map or a new integrated squad screen could allow players to see how many squads there currently are, how many players there are in each, who they can join and their tagged objective. For example there could be squad 1, squad 2, and so on. squad 1 may have a tagged objective of ‘attacking Quentin Lake’ but have 30 players there, whereas squad 2 may have ‘defending Stonemist’ and only have 10 players. You then know that squad 1 should be okay for now I should join squad 2 and help there, and can make informed decisions on where to go and who to help out, as soon as you log in. This would help newer players and more skilled players direct their armies, rather than unorganised servers running around like headless chickens. It also makes objectives more official than someone writing in chat ‘we should try this’ and breaks up single zergs into more tactical and manageable teams.
3) COMMANDERS
Although there is progression coming in the next patch we do not yet now what it will entail so here are some suggestions for commanders. Give them the ability to see all allied players on the map, allowing for greater tactical decision making. Also allow them to see the members of their squad and the other squads, so that commanders can work together in arranging their armies allowing for huge depth to battle tactics. Commanders can each draw one arrow on the map highlighted as squad 1,2 or 3, etc which tells the server where they are planning to hit an army/direct themselves/etc. This makes it easier for unorganised players to see whats happening and what is planned, so they can understand where they can help, where they should go etc. Also changing the look of commanders names in map chat would help too, as sometimes you don’t know who is and who isn’t a commander on quick glance.
4) PEACE ON WEEKLY RESET
This is my last suggestion and is more for the fun of WvW and keeping the competitive spirit and community going. At the start and end of the week on reset why not for 5 mins turn the whole map allied and allow everyone to talk in map chat. Then you can congratulate the server who won, have some competitive banter with the server you are about to play or have just beaten and just generally have a bit of fun in the chat before the next game starts and at the end of a long week of play. I can imagine it now, an epic battle between two rivals and the clock times out, everyone turns to allies and begins dancing in the castle, celebrating an awesome battle and a great fun week.
So there you go sorry it was so long and excuse my grammar I don’t usually write this amount, but GW2 has a big hold on me and i’d love to see WvW turn into the amazing experience I know it could be. I have very little coding and programming background so sadly I don’t know how hard some of these ideas would be to implement. Can’t hurt to suggest though! Would love to hear your suggestions and feedback and you never know some of the suggestions on this post may be, at some point implemented!