Guild Wars 2

i don’t know if this will even be read by a dev, but here’s hoping…

regarding the new maps… i don’t mind new. the new maps are visually interesting and beautiful, and have some cool mechanics… the biggest problem with them in my mind is… they’re BIG. they’re far too large for how complex and difficult to get around they are. it is, for all intents and purposes, impossible to respond to a southern tower or camp being attacked unless you happen to already be in the area. this leads to a huge “why the kitten bother?” feeling about WvW. why bother responding to those swords, we’ll never get there in time anyway. air keep in particular is a nightmare. i could have run from the north camp to the south camp on the old alpine BLs in the time it takes to run up and down all the stairs and back and forth and across all the bridges trying to get to the gates to attack air keep. it’s beautiful, but unless i’m running with a coordinated group i avoid that whole side of the map like the plague.

waypoints. WHY can’t we use all 3 if we own the keeps like on the alpine BLs??? this decision baffles me…it doesn’t make sense. if i own the keep, i should own the waypoint… AND it exacerbates the previously mentioned problem of lack of being able to get around the map with some modicum of urgency. it’s kind of cool that the waypoints are available immediately, but if given a choice between waiting for them to construct and getting all 3, or getting them instantly and only getting “mine” (earth on home BL, air when we enter the right side of the enemy BL, and fire when we enter the left)…. i would take the former. in a heartbeat.

the oasis event. i see a lot of people complain about the lag this generates… unfortunately, i have no idea. it works fine for me, so i can’t speak to that problem… but if it is generating lag for many people (and not just 1 or 2 where it might be a problem on their end) then something is indeed wrong somewhere and this event needs to be looked into. that aside… i kind of like this event and the potential behind it… it allows a solo or small group to either more easily attack an enemy BL, or retake their own… and if the populations were more even and the event wasn’t lagging some people, there would be an opportunity for enemy combatants to meet in the oasis and fight over the power cores… trying to either preserve their hold on the BL, or control the skysplitter and race to take the towers. it has potential to add fun… if it were easier to get to those fights in the first place. this goes back to points 1 and 2.

personally, i think the best option is a bit of a compromise. return the alpine BLs at least for now… while you rework the desert BLs to be smaller or easier to get around… (or both). preserve the currently existing upgrade mechanics. if the oasis event can be made to work properly without lagging people, add it to the center of the alpine BL while the rework is being done (otherwise just plug in something that used to be there… either the 5 rings for the buff, or the quaggans. not really important which one). change waypoints (on all FOUR battlegrounds) to constructed after a certain number of dolyak shipments , but accessible to whoever owns the keep once done (the way SMC is now).

i think that would reduce the hemorrhage of WvW players departing the game and give time to implement whatever WvW rework is being planned.

I agree completely about the waypoints and that run times have made it more difficult to defend. I do think that the overall power creep of siege has also had a negative impact on defense (or offense – looking at you shield generators). With guild buffs you have almost every player carrying 20 (or 25) supply and a group of 5 people can tear through a keep.

As for the compromise you suggest, we have been hearing from the devs that due to technical restrictions they cannot switch back to the old BL right now. We may not be happy with that, but it is what it is. The AMA suggested that they plan to update the Desert BL map (along the lines of your suggestions) while they try to work out the technical issues preventing switching BLs. After that, some time will be needed to update the Alpine BL to use the new mechanics released in the last few months. I agree that your proposed compromise sounds good, but it turns out to be impossible and Anet is following that general plan (just reordered a bit).

ahh. i havn’t been keeping up. i wasn’t aware there was a technical restriction against reinstating the alpine BLs at this time. i think if some way to get around the BL faster was implemented that would help a lot. heck... it may have been unintended, but i thought the bugged WP locations inside the bottom 2 towers when the new maps first went live was pretty funny and a great way to get to the bottom of the map fast. lol