Guild Wars 2

A quick warning – This post will probably end up being quite long and as extensive as possible, al though while I consider myself a creative person, who can accurately kitten the implications of certain systems within a virtual world, I ill never claim to be as good as an actual developer in terms of knowing the technicalities behind MMOs, in terms of lore and mechanical systems like stat balance.

So with that out the way;

My idea is to drastically improve WvW horizontally and reduce stagnation over time.

TLDR version – Let the server as a whole contribute towards and choose upgrades to the servers own borderland. This would include cosmetic and tactical improvements, with choice, effect and balance in mind with the latter.

Long version –
THIS IS MAH CASTLE. YA?

The first system I am proposing would revolve around the existing ‘claiming towers, keeps and castle’ system.
To begin with (to make it fair for the whole server including those players that don’t play in guilds) a new vendor item would need to be implemented, called ‘Certificate of ownership’. Similar to the commander book, this would be a fairly expensive item (20-50 gold) that would grant players the ability to individually claim land within wvw. Once claimed, the banner image would be replaced by a portrait of the player. This would then, give that player access to cosmetic upgrades to the applicable control point. The upgrades would be tiered within a tree, upgrading one branch of the tree would lock the other branches out, so that each branch can dictate a visual style. Examples of these styles are below (examples are just uncreative placeholders);

Branch 1 – Human
Activate branch and style > Add moat + bridge > Add outhouses, more buildings outside walls > activate style for whole controlled area + human NPCs
Branch 2 – Charr
Branch 3 – Slyvari (obviously asura and norn could be branches as well)
Branch 4 – Dark fantasy (if more generic styles are required then a dark spiked look would be pretty awesome)
Branch 5 – Carebear fantasy (for all those running about with the rainbow shortbow xD)

Now once captured the point is reset back to its original state. This may seem harsh but it gives a true sense of ownership. For players and guilds, holding their own tower/keep/castle will begin to seem like something worthy of holding – rather than the cap battles we have right now. Once better general upgrades come into world vs world, youll begin to see guilds claiming caps and maintaining a defensive force so it remains theres. The cosmetic side of upgrades is purely to enhance this idea of ownership so the generic upgrades become more worthy of purchasing. Right now the big problem is noone really cares about whether the keep they just capped gets taken again, aslong as they have enough of a zerg to take it right back.

But anyways, on to the important stuff;

That might be your castle friend, BUT THIS IS OUR BORDERLANDS.

The next system interlinked with this idea is a little more complicated to implement. The idea is basically an upgradeable borderlands, however one that the whole server can contribute to. The system surrounding this could be up for debate, however at the minute I have chosen a method I think is most suitable.

This would require a few things initially;

- New type of supply, called Fortification Resources which can only be carried by the borderlands defending team.
- New nodes surrounding the maps supply camps (rich ones hidden by DE’s), that are limited in usage, not instanced as per normal nodes to each player, but shared among the server like traditional resource nodes. They can only be picked up when the appropriate supply camp is controlled.
- New chokepoints, walls and other tactical defences that can be built by players holding Fortification Resource, spread across each borderland. Not in EB. These spots are predetermined, with a building site at each one that players must apply Fortification Resources to.

So the idea here is for players to work together, collecting Fortification Resources, then choosing what parts of the map to upgrade with new chokepoints etc. The scope for this is pretty unlimited, bearing in mind that upgrading is extremely limited. This means servers need to choose between themselves what to upgrade and what to leave alone. Choice, effect and balanced gameplay.
The system would have a cap on the amount of the upgrades to be taken aswell. If theres 10 new buildable points, lets say the max you can have at one time is 5. Obviously each point is attackable and destroyable, so if a server has 5 upgrades up and one gets destroyed – they can relocate that upgrade to a different one or just rebuild it if desired. This would mean the map can include a slight abundance of Fort Resource, so attacking teams NEED to stop players from reaching it, while making the defending team more vulnerable in certain positions.
For a basic example see below;

Reinforced Wall A (500 fort resource)- Spanning between main garrison and bay
Reinforced Wall B (500 fort resource)- Spanning between main garrison and hills

Amount of upgrades available – 1
Amount of fort resource left in the map – 700

The above example would require a choice to be made about what upgrade to apply while relieving pressure on one side of the map (tacticians would put it on the side of the dominant force). Attackers would also have to hit camps and defend them to ensure defending players cannot control Fortification Resource in order to upgrade these points. Instantly you create a complicated yet fun scenario in which every team can gain distinct advantages over the other servers.

I personally think of this as a massive expansion to WvW meta game. One in which would add much neede variety to each matchups gameplay. With cosmetic customisation, the improvements within server identity would only strengthen the community around it.

Imagine a server in which there’s that guy who always controls the castle, worse yet he has picked the fantasy light style that makes it look like disneys magic kingdom. Upon learning of the matchup your 400 man WvW starts making plans to rid EB of him for good?

Imagine a top tier server that is well known for decent upgrade placement, while your own server is well known for supply camp defence, destorying most servers chances at even upgrading. The Wvw forum explodes with talk and predictions of how it will go?

Imagine knowing each server, not by there name nor there tier placement… But by certain tactical game-play and borderland control.

Imagine facing a server and genuinely feeling like your playing a new map in all 3 borderlands.

I hope you guys can imagine it as well as I do, and if not, Id love to hear you C&C. Im not shy to that sort of thing