Hi everyone, just to avoid “polluting” other topics with my humble opinion, I’m creating my own feedback topic, feel free to discuss my decisions
General
Overall, the map is gorgeous, this verticality is sure a plus. I liked the idea of guild claim (yet I was unable to claim anything, nor use the tactics because they weren’t public). There are a few bugs to fix and twists to make before having it better, but in the end I enjoyed the design of the map… And a bit less its mechanics.
Pros
- Verticality. At last the end of major blobs! They will mazybe finally learn how to play in smaller groups
- Non-rally on non-vet NPCs. Again, it’s a plus, especially in the oasis.
- Destructible walls on map. Just to be a bit quicker, and to prevent some people from attacking structures from the wrong angle!
- Keeps structure. This allow many ways to defend a door/wall, without having your siege weapons destroyed by blobs…
- Shrines. These advantages are really interesting gameplay-wise, I liked them (well not that much when I was used to the Air keep bonuses and tried to jump from too high in Fire keep T_T)
- Sentries. At last they are useful
- Superior siege skins. They all look good (except the ram, which seems cheaper).
- Auto-upgrade. This is really a good idea, people don’t have to think “which one is more important right now?” However…
Cons
- Similar structures. I really despise the fact towers and keep don’t visually upgrade, that’s really a shame, looks way too much like EotM.
- Waypoints. Oh god those useless waypoints on spawn towers. It’s really sad (and a bit stupid) not to be able to have waypoints in the keeps you own (not talking about Emergency WP, which would “waste” a slot just to be able to port). low-population servers can’t take the liberty of leaving people in structures, and running from spawn to a keep will take to long. It’ll become EotM “Oh they wanna take that tower? Too far, we’ll take it back in 5 minutes”…
- Attacking more a trend. I’m afraid borderlands will turn into EotM, where flipping structures is more important than defending one. However, I can’t be sure about this one…
- Disorganized test. Not really a con because it was a stress test, everyone was FFA, so we couldn’t really test strategies etc.
- Unusable siege weapons. Couldn’t use the new siege weapon, what a pity.
- “Closed” borderlands. I could only try one BL out of the three, so since very few people where on it, I couldn’t visit everything.
- “Marked” for too long. The debuff seemed to last a bit too long IMHO, especially when the enemy/I was far enough from the structure.
Conclusion
My opinion sure isn’t objective because I was with people who were playing the way they liked (which isn’t a criticism), so I’m not sure how the whole thing will go during a “real” game with my servers/guildmates. What I am sure, however, is that, even if the map is well designed, the lack of visible upgrades is really a killer, and the really “stupid” use of waypoints will for sure turn this map in the new EotM. At first I was excited, now I’m worried it will kill the fun of WvW as we know it. Please ANet, just don’t make it a karma-train railroad.
Son of Elonia.