Guild Wars 2

I just watched the new ready up episode, and it looks to me like the new SPvP map: stronghold, is just an escort mission at it’s core. The whole map seems to center around getting NPC’s to the enemy keep to take down their gates and kill their lord. Given that we do have to defend them against other players and try to kill the enemy’s NPC’s, it’s not quite too bad. But still…..it’s an escort mission…….

Maybe I’m wrong, I guess we will see on Tuesday.

#escports

Well, the “so greatest” esport game League of Legends is just that, an escort mission xD

An what’s wrong with that?

Did you expect naval battles of players mounting swimming kittens firing lasers from eyes and having …cannon… at rear?

Might be the beer, but you get the point.

I actually think that an escort mission would be a cool concept, as long as it doesn’t have 1 shot mechanics.

seems familiar … http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Fort_Aspenwood

yaye! gimme the rest 5 gamemodes too pls

I’ve always detested escort missions in games, frankly I’m surprised to see so many people who enjoy them.
As an avid dungeoner, I really don’t think the AI systems of this game are up to snuff to make this game mode fun. NPC’s get stuck, attack the wrong thing, and just plain behave in a manner that sucks all the fun out of whatever they are supposed to be making enjoyable.

At leat there is something besides conquest is it worse than co quest? We’ll know soon enough. At lest there will be something different to do pvp wise and that is a good thing…. Theatrically at least :P

I think I’d rather have relic running.

Rugby, Football (soccer), Gridiron, League- all escort missions. Teams of players trying to run a ball over the enemies line.

I mean, when you put it like that…

Ross Biddle.2367:

Rugby, Football (soccer), Gridiron, League- all escort missions. Teams of players trying to run a ball over the enemies line.

I mean, when you put it like that…

That’s real life, it’s not relevant here because you aren’t in a computer having to deal with AI’s.

Gern.2978:

I’ve always detested escort missions in games, frankly I’m surprised to see so many people who enjoy them.
As an avid dungeoner, I really don’t think the AI systems of this game are up to snuff to make this game mode fun. NPC’s get stuck, attack the wrong thing, and just plain behave in a manner that sucks all the fun out of whatever they are supposed to be making enjoyable.

But here AI is programmed is such way that it doesn’t have to react much. Once spawned, it charges untill it has to stop before some gate and doesn’t follow besides gate guards.

Gern.2978:

Ross Biddle.2367:

Rugby, Football (soccer), Gridiron, League- all escort missions. Teams of players trying to run a ball over the enemies line.

I mean, when you put it like that…

That’s real life, it’s not relevant here because you aren’t in a computer having to deal with AI’s.

Right, my bad. Purely virtual based analogy.

Counterstrike: Just a geometry exercise? You’re trying to direct bullets into your opponents head before they direct bullets into yours.

I mean, when you put it like that…

I can see that one part of the game-mode is an escort mission, but you have to also consider:

- The stronger NPC’s that need to be channeled every so often, which will be a big point of contestion.
- The treb that can be used, repaired and destroyed.
- The place where you get the “ressources” to spawn the NPC’s could have an interesting dynamic, where you could go gank the opposing team and guard your ressource-runners.
- Of course you’ll also have to run the ressources around and maybe protect the runners on the way.
- Also, there are NPC’s that can be killed afaik, even without necessarily having your NPC’s there.

It’s exactly what I’ve wanted from the start: Multiple ways to get an advantage depending on your teambuild and preferred playstyle. That’s what conquest could’ve been with more important and interesting secondary objectives and it’s closer to what the GvG-Mode was in GW1.

The only thing I’m a bit on the fence about is the fact that you need doorbreakers to do any dmg to the doors (afaik). I’d be okay if it was possible to at least do some dmg to the doors without NPC’s or to make it possible to get behind the doors and clear out more NPC’s before the door in front of them is actually killed (the room with the Guild-Lord in it should probably be an exception.)

Just give players a wide array of choices how they wanna play, on which things they focus etc.

So long as the npcs are limited in what they can do and are predictable, I don’t see a problem. Anet has made it a point to mention that this is the case whenever they explain Stronghold. I do dungeons as well and hate the dungeon npcs, but I am not worried about the ones here.

Ross Biddle.2367:

Gern.2978:

Ross Biddle.2367:

Rugby, Football (soccer), Gridiron, League- all escort missions. Teams of players trying to run a ball over the enemies line.

I mean, when you put it like that…

That’s real life, it’s not relevant here because you aren’t in a computer having to deal with AI’s.

Right, my bad. Purely virtual based analogy.

Counterstrike: Just a geometry exercise? You’re trying to direct bullets into your opponents head before they direct bullets into yours.

I mean, when you put it like that…

You’re missing the point. I don’t care about anything being reduced to it’s based element, I am complaining specifically about escort missions. They are almost always terrible in every game including GW2, because AI’s are always terrible and I am concerned about the Conquest map because it’s an escort mission.

Once again PvE has made its way into PvP. Courtyard is the only true PvP map in the game. So yes, an escort mission was all they could come up with for new content. How about 1v1 and 2v2 arenas? how about an actual gvg mechanic? since it is the name of the game. but since they couldn’t even get that right, i wouldn’t put any stock in them actually coming up with true pvp content.

I don’t think calling it an escort mission is really accurate, particularly since it compares it to escort missions in MMOs where the NPCs go yolo attacking random mobs. Here at least, they stick to their task.

Vinegaroon.4369:

Once again PvE has made its way into PvP. Courtyard is the only true PvP map in the game. So yes, an escort mission was all they could come up with for new content. How about 1v1 and 2v2 arenas? how about an actual gvg mechanic? since it is the name of the game. but since they couldn’t even get that right, i wouldn’t put any stock in them actually coming up with true pvp content.

Courtyard, the most boring gamemode ever. People say they want pure PvE, but that’s a misconception. PvE is the basis of everything in the game, so instead of going for 0% PvE, which ends up in zerg-fests like Courtyard, people should be saying “too much” PvE or “too little” PvE or “just right” PvE. For example, Skyhammer has too much PvE in terms of the mechanic being very overwhelming and dominating throughout the whole map and the disappearing plates auto-killing people. Courtyard has too little PvE, in which it has almost nothing except a bit of terrain, making it heavily in favor of blobbing together with your team in a semi-coordinated fashion, meaning that there’s no other strategy that doesn’t involve zerging, much like the current WvW borderlands map which also has too little PvE. The right amount of PvE is mechanics that aren’t shoved down your throat but are easy to swallow if you happen to take a bite. Khylo’s trebs, Forest’s beasts, etc. Easily usable mechanics that aren’t required to win, but can easily become a deciding factor if taken advantage of.

So, I really don’t trust what people who ask for no PvE say because what we want isn’t a “Pure” PvP experience, it’s an interesting one.

Vinegaroon.4369:

Once again PvE has made its way into PvP. Courtyard is the only true PvP map in the game. So yes, an escort mission was all they could come up with for new content. How about 1v1 and 2v2 arenas? how about an actual gvg mechanic? since it is the name of the game. but since they couldn’t even get that right, i wouldn’t put any stock in them actually coming up with true pvp content.

well, technically you’re right in some sense, thats a completely stupid argument though, because the sheer amount of NPC or environment you can interact with has no direct influence of the quality of PvP, it’s all about if it’s implemented well.

Look at MOBA’s, WC3, even GW1 GvG had tons of NPC’s and envorinment to interact with and those 3 examples offer absolutely amazing PvP.

In a smart PvP game that is at least somewhat strategic, you need to offer ppl a lot of stuff they can potentially do, this makes decisions, setting priorities and different playstyles and builds possible.

I really don’t care that much if I have to excort NPC’s or hold a point in conquest-style, if there are enough other things to do to make the game dynamic.

Like I’ve written before somewhere, I don’t think Conquest is necessarily bad, but the fact that the secondary objectives are too less important and uninteresting makes it a IMHO worse gamemode than what stronghold looks like atm (at first glance of course).

If you just want an arena-mode for 1v1 or 2v2 or whatever, GW2 is clearly not your game and you basically should’ve noticed that a looooong time ago. There are enough arena-brawlers but not enough stuff that reminds of GW1, with complicated and big maps that offer multiple objectives in an MMO-like setting.

The neat thing about gamemodes like stronghold are though, that you can choose your playstyle and your role to your strenghts and likes: if you like straightforward 1v1’s or 2v2’s, come up with a build that allows you to do that. If you like fighting NPC’s and using trebs, find a way to do that successfully. Smart gamemodes allow player to make choices like that. In an arena-brawler, there are no choices like that.