Was just having a conversation in Lion’s Arch about the lack of variety in GW2 tPvP and decided to write it on the forums for feedback and more input. I used to play a lot of GvG in GW1 and I have been disappointed with the lack of attention that tPvP has received relative to the great PvE content in this game. There are business reasons for this, and there are a multitude of logistical reasons for this, and perhaps some reasons I won’t know of or understand as a player. I get this, but I wanted to offer a suggestion for another tPvP mode.
Capture the Flag
The logic of the mode is simple. Find the flag, capture it and earn points. There are a few different implementations of this kind of logic, and I will go over each in turn and why I think some modes are better than others for Guild Wars 2.
Classic Capture
This mode is simple and familiar. Capture the flag at some point on the map and run it home to score a point. This is exactly what Aspect Arena was. This mode was fun, but actually isn’t all that different from Conquest in the eye of the player. The goal isn’t to PvP necessarily, but rather; the goal is to score points. Players are merely inconveniences, better avoided than taken head on. Akin to trash mobs in dungeons, we would rather skip fights to score points (or get loot
). This makes for an interesting and dynamic game, but the focus is on mobility and being able to outposition your opponent. There is some value and fun in this style of play, but a vital element of player incentive is missing, imo: incentive to go on the offensive and blow some people up. This could be solved with point weight balancing, but it is largely a min/max calculation of mutual exclusion: one way of playing the game will always yield more points – either running and scoring points or killing players.
King of the Hill
This mode is a bit less “capture the flag” and more “capture the node.” It is, technically, more appropriately called a King of the Hill mode. The idea is similar to the current Conquest set up with 3 nodes on a map, but the catch is only one of those nodes is active and available for capture at a given time. Holding this node scores points. After a certain amount of points scored or time elapsed (whichever one is sooner), the active node moves. This mode, I think, has a bit more of what I’m looking for. Because there is only one active node, teams are forced to engage and fight over it. Now, I know this isn’t completely new and novel, as teams right now do sometimes get into slugfests in Conquest, but a king of the hill mode would incentive players to build for it. Another twist on this mode could be that instead of having only one node active, have all three, but have one node be worth much more. This would have the same effect, because one node would be more valuable. The point is to force players to fight each other.
King of a Hill
This mode is a twist on the mode above, wherein the node in question is actually an object that you must hold for a certain amount of time. Once this time is up, it becomes the “hill” area that must be defended. This could be accomplished with some sort of buff mechanic that stacks over time. Here I’m thinking of something like the new LS2 achievement mechanic, where you acquire a “buff” that stacks itself to 25 and then spawns a hill. Once the hill area is spawned, you will be unable to move it. Should the defending team lose the node, a new “hill” object is spawned on the map shortly thereafter, and a new race for the mobile hill begins. This mode, however, would seem at outright to privilege defensive builds, and it may be that the capture mechanics for nodes would need some attention. I think, in this mode, a capture mechanic similar to the one found in Guild Wars would be better so that a single bunker guardian, for example, wouldn’t be able to block capture. In this way, it may be necessary (though I haven’t thought it out completely, so bare with me) that each member of the offensive team be worth x1.5 or x2 of what the defensive team would be worth in terms of capture contribution.
Control Points
This mode will be familiar to Team Fortress 2 players. Linear Conquest. Start off with 5 points on a map (or even more), and teams must secure points to move forward into enemy territory. I think 7 would be ideal, because it would allow for a “checkpoint” node on each side, but this can be tuned based on how difficult the points are to capture, etc. Push all the way to your enemy’s side to win. This way, there are no “points” to deal with. Again, this mode forces engagement.
Thoughts? Feedback? Suggestions? Tell me I’m bad?
