Guild Wars 2

As a new idea for PVP and possibly also large PVE events.. can commanders play from an RTS view? They lose control over their characters BUT, they can see all the players on their faction (say in WvW) from a top-down view.

They can then click on them and tell them to move to locations, and do certain tasks, attack certain targets.

This would appear as an ‘arrow’ like a quest on the individual player’s screens.

The benefit this would have is that it would greatly improve team coordination even with 20-30 man parties. The commander should be able to do box-selects just like in RTS games and organise things like flanks, distractions and far greater ‘strategy’ elements. (This would probably make GW2 the best large scale PVP game of any MMO).

(Ofcourse, the players themselves don’t have to follow the instructions given, and that’s part of being a leader and commanding an unruly army).

It would also help new players in WvW find what they’re supposed to do (instead of joining and just wandering around a deserted landscape looking for something to zerg).

Finally if this was implemented in Open world boss events, the boss events themselves could become a lot more complex requiring small groups to splinter from the main fight to do side-tasks parallel to the fight, or even timing things where to kill the boss you need to kill 4 things within 5 seconds of each other on 4 corners of the map coordinated by a single commander playing from an RTS view. (This will stop world bosses feeling like mindless zergs where u just target the big thing and roll your face on the skill buttons until loot falls out of the boss).

Wouldnt work.

The idea has been tried before (not in GW2) but in a game very prominent for this type of action Natural Selection/NS2.

Ultimately the commander role there, as it would be here is rendered fruitless due to the actions of the individual distorting any sense of battlefield coordination.

TexZero.7910:

Wouldnt work.

The idea has been tried before (not in GW2) but in a game very prominent for this type of action Natural Selection/NS2.

Ultimately the commander role there, as it would be here is rendered fruitless due to the actions of the individual distorting any sense of battlefield coordination.

I think NS2 failed for other reasons. Infact I think it only got to be as popular as it did due to this mechanic.

If battlefield coordination is distorted by having a commander, imagine how distorted it must be.. without one?

Surely you will have some commanders that don’t know what they are doing, but if being commander is ‘gated’ behind a high enough wall, and that commanders can be replaced/ousted by popular vote, then the system should work.

There’s just so many strategy options that open up with adding an RTS commander. Things like this group of 4 people… stand outside this keep and just apply ‘pressure’ while the main force takes the supply depots.

These are strategies that can almost never occur with everyone doing their own thing. And lets face it.. communication in WvW outside of a premade guild or something is non-existent basically.

These sort of player-player interaction elements are what MAKES MMO good and the lack of them is the number 1 complaint about modern MMOs.