Being slightly addicted to WvWvW I have been thinking of a possible redesign and had posted the basic vision awhile back. Things have been turning over in my head and so I now post a more detailed version for disscusion purposes.
Currently we have 4 maps to play on so for simplicities sake let us say that each map can hold 250 people from each server for a total of 1000 players. The redesign has to take this number into consideration. I propose adding 4 more maps to the scenario and the setup would be as follows.
Map Setup
Homelands
Each server has a Homeland which would consist of a castle, towers and keeps much the way the Eternal Battlegrounds is currently set up. Each homeland would have its own theme and one would be plains/grasslands, another hills/forests and the third desert/oasis. There are no direct connections from one homeland to another.
Borderlands
Each Homeland would connect to three borderland maps. There will be a total of 4 of these maps so connections would be as follows;
A 1,2,4
B 1,2,3
C 2,3,4
All four Borderlands would have the same theme which would be foothills and low mountains/mountain passes with rivers and lakes. Each Borderland would have Keeps and Towers but they would be spaced far enough apart that you would not be able to attack one from another. You would have to use open ground siege. By doing it this way each server still has the initial 4 starting maps, the Homeland and 3 Borderland maps to spread out across.
Stonemist
In the center of all of this would lie another map called Stonemist. Being true to its name Stonemist would be a massive castle high in the mountains. Numerous twisting paths lead to this castle and bridges, valleys, ravines and gorges would provide choke points and places to place siege weapons in order to attack the castle. There would be 3 keeps, one for each server to call a base and several outpost towers.
Supply
Supply would be different then it is now. All supply would come from the Homelands maps. To be able to upgrade in the Borderlands one of the first things to do would be to build “Supply Lines” to each of the borderlands in much the same way as waypoints are built now and in fact would double as Waypoints once built. The supply lines in the borderlands therefore would take longer to build as homeland supply lines have to be built first which would funnel supply to the home castle and then to the borderlands. Once the Supply line/waypoint is built in a Borderland Keep the next in line to receive supply would be the Stonemist Keeps. Once that happens then the Stonemist map is opened for warfare but Stonemist cannot be captured/attacked until supply is present so people would be stripped of Supply when changing maps. PvDoor would not work, siege would have to be used to take down a door/gate wall.
So in the Homelands there would be many supply lines leading to the castle. There would be fewer in the Borderlands and only one from the Stonemist Keeps to Stonemist Castle. Protecting the towers/keeps with established supply lines would now be important if a server wishes to take Stonemist.
Attacking Enemy Homelands
Once a supply line has been established to a Borderland it would also open an Outpost in the enemy Homelands that it connects to. These Outposts would be similar to the Border Waypoints that currently exist except they would also have supply. Once supply is in these Outposts a server would be able to attack another Servers Homeland as again no Supply can be carried between maps. Supply rates from camps would be set so the demand for supply in the form of upgrades, supply lines to borderlands, supply lines to Stonemist and enemy Homelands all become critical. A percentage threshold of total supply at any tower/keep/castle would be set aside for moving up the line. The rest would be for upgrades/siege/etc.
So if a tower has a 1000 supply capacity 100 or 10% or 5% (this is where they would have to manipulate in order to maintain balance) would funnel forward leaving 900 for upgrades. Upgrading structures now becomes important as those upgrades allow for more supply capacity such as it is now.
Matches
Rather then the current setup the above system would spread people out over more maps which should lessen queue times. Since it would slow down rushes on reset night the matches could be extended to two weeks or even a month before a reset. On reset Servers would start on a different map. Map completions would be required in Homelands and Borderlands but not in Stonemist.
At any rate as I mentioned this has been brewing in my head for sometime now but I think it would make WvWvW alot more interesting.