I’m a guy that loves large scale combat and loves RTS games,games like Planetside 2 and Battlefield, etc. I thought that getting memories of battle would be fun, because I would enjoy the large scale combat that guild wars has to offer. However…
In current WvW, you are rewarded for:
-Avoiding drawn out battles
-Cheesing enemy fortifications by placing siege equipment right by the walls
-following the biggest zerg and doing nothing to help maintain supply lines
And that’s just the start of it. When a big fight does happen, It feels more like goku vs vegeta in a kamehameha tug of war than an epic battle. As one blob reaches critical mass, it just pushes back the other as everyone fights a running battle between two points of interest, and the whole thing last no more than a couple of minutes. If you happen to be lucky enough to be part of a castle siege in which one force decides to actually, you know, set up some equipment from afar and assault the castle, it’s fun but good luck getting more WXP than just abandoning the castle and joining a zerg on a different map. And again the whole thing is over in a matter of minutes.
How I would improve it:
-First of all, do not penalize players for dying by giving warscore, and resetting the amount of WXP they get. This will go part of the way to encouraging players not to give ground and prolonging fights. but we need more.
-Always give full credit for killing players, and double the amount of WXP to 120 for such a kill. I get the feeling Anet wants players to care more about objectives than fighting, and while this sounds good on paper, the result is boring and rewards boring play.
-Add siege camps (buildable, movable respawn points) the game, and don’t penalize players for dying by making them run long distances. If we want to make engagements last, we need players back in the fight as soon as possible. Guild wars is fast paced and slowing things down with current mechanics doesn’t suit it. We also want players to not give ground so easily and make fights feel more like fights and less like running tugs of war. If players know they can respawn close by after fifteen seconds, they will more readily stand and fight.
-Put minimum distances on siege weapons with proximity to fortifications
-Add multiple capture zones to large castles, and possibly smaller ones too. Taking the castle needs to have the majority of the the zones be held, which will contribute to an overall progress bar visible by everyone either in the battle or looking at it on the world map (provided you belong to one of the factions in the battle) holding more of a majority of zones will make capture be faster. This will also serve to break up battles and help reduce the current feeling headbutting feeling of large fights.
I would like to thank you for reading this far and welcome feedback. I would ask not to get caught up in exact numbers like amounts of WXP, but instead critique what you think are fundamental flaws, or show your support if you just wholeheartedly agree. As it stands, it is a huge chore for me to log into WvW and make progress towards reward tracks, and there needs to be some mechanical changes.