Guild Wars 2

Hey all,
I was talking to a couple guild members about an idea that would be interesting to implement – Air Ship Battles!
What the idea is:
-Zeppelins battling in the sky with a pirate-esque feel to it. Cannons on either side, broadsides…etc.
-You can cripple and board enemy player ships or NPC ships patrolling the air and then battle each other on the decks of the ship! (This would help keep the odds even against different skills and play styles). The winners will receive the most loot and XP, while the defeated will get some XP and some loot.
-Ships can be crippled but un-boarded, the crippled ship would need to be taken in for repairs, while the attackers that won the battle will get some XP, but no loot. (This is to help implement strategy, while minimizing abuse/trolling).
-There could be approximate 3 to 4 ships. (the first being the “starter” ship, the last being the strongest and hardest to get). Players will need to build their first ship with in-game currency (such as karma or gold) and in-game materials (wood, iron, etc). To progress to the stronger ships, players would need higher-end materials and experience in sailing mastery, cannon mastery, and boarding mastery. (Boarding mastery would require winning in battles against players or NPCs on the decks of ships, More powerful cannon types and abilities will be unlocked as the players get higher in cannon mastery, sailing mastery would come from steering the ship, and sinking ships with broadsides, in combination with cannon and boarding mastery, hence sailing is the longer pool of XP to accumulate).
-There is a limit to capacity on the ships as far as crew goes (say: 20 players maximum on a level 4 ship). If there are ships with inadequate crews, then there will be a scaling implementation (like it WVW) to keep things balanced and fun.
-Players can buy ships with gems, but they need to be the appropriate XP level in the above listed masteries for each category of ship. (This is to keep pace with the different play styles of each GW2 player, and to minimize players buying out everything).
-Gems can be used to buy unique skins and sails (like guild sails, and say 3 unique skins designed by the devs for the hulls/appearance of the ship).
-This idea has been done before in other games obviously, but the GW2 devs could make this idea become and exciting and fun new addition to the game.

This really seems like it’s something that is much better in a game dedicated to it, which there is already some of.

In theory, airship battles can be cool.

In practice, I personally feel that Arah Story is a pretty strong argument against having any more airship battles in the game.

I’ve long advocated for vehicles, including ships, airships, and tanks, maybe subs.

I’m not so sure they should be player-owned though. It can get a bit ridiculous when EVERYBODY has their own. But I think for GW2, it would be better for them to be guild-owned, and acquired via Guild Panel upgrades. There could be a whole new section added for vehicles, each type with its own upgrade options. The ability to have a vehicle that other players can make use of, and in fact needs multiple people to fully operate ..it’s an awesome experience.

This game already has so many vehicles that are either stationary, or we can’t control. Such a tease! But what if we could have one to control? Whole new types of content and activities could be opened up for it. And if we were also allowed to use it for old content, that would be really refreshing for a lot of that too. And, more in-line with the OP, it would open up wonderful new options for WvW / GvG. Imagine using a galleon to siege a castle, or shooting down an enemy airship with a trebuchet and making everybody onboard fall to their unfortunate fate.

Being able to work as a team to operate some big powerful vessel is just such a different experience from the usual zerging. Even if what you hope to achieve is the same, it’s really nice to have options for different ways to achieve it, to have “tools” to come at it from another angle and serve a different role. It’s good for team work and the experience itself is just really cool. This stuff already exists in the lore and the world. It’s not like it would be unfitting, immersion-breaking, etc. Plus, being guild-owned, would just give more reason for guilds to actually matter. And the concept is just begging for a little Anet love.

Sorry but this change would need a major overhaul of the engine. At its current form GW2 engine does not support moving platforms.

I’ve lost count how many times I have seen people fall off the airships in Arah story mode. Was even worse at launch, most people were not even able to complete it.