While I’m all for incentivizing objective play, I think it needs to be done in ways that don’t just artificially inflate the numbers attached to the objectives themselves. It’s kind of a cop out to just make things tick for more and tick more often. This is especially true for the major fortifications such as Keeps, Garrisons, and the back and northern towers on EBG and the Alpine borders respectively. These fortifications are very critical to a servers strategies and mobility on a given map, and they will always have value as far as holding them is concerned. The servers that can’t hold these things will be at a severe disadvantage when paired against servers that dominate a particular timezone or matchup, because if an enemy server can suppress scoring through these fortifications, then you’ll see a buildup of snowballing scores.
The other way this turns out, is that the fights will be incredible. But for that to happen, the population balancing needs to come out of a ‘beta’ phase.
I’m concerned that a tick rotation this short will lead to runaway scenarios. With the “issue” of night-capping still being unresolved, servers that can hold a dominant presence over the two competitors in any time zone will create a much wider gap than they would now. If a server can tick 400+ for a few hours every day and still maintain a competitive ~33% of the total tick at all other times then that server would be untouchable.
To increase PPK would help if that server’s players were all keyboard turners pit against the top fight guilds this game has ever known, but servers that can tick like that are going to have massive populations that can just blob the fight groups down anyway. This then leads to morale issues, players getting bored, leaving, and more snowballing. This game mode is plagued with the volatility that is the human ego. The smallest changes can become massive problems if it leads to population imbalance (the core issue with scoring).
I can understand wanting to create a motivation to hold and, by extension, capture objectives. But I think the best way to go about doing this is to make the rewards more… well, rewarding. A negligible amount of karma and WXP for an objective capture is underwhelming. I can’t say myself where the sweet spot is as far as how much loot is “too much,” but even the reward tracks only ticking in accordance with the Score tick falls a little kitten
he fights that are held at these objectives are the exciting and memorable moments that everyone looks back on fondly. EBG is a good example of how an advancing force can apply pressure to a defender. Every camp and tower they take on an enemy’s territory can interact with and affect the keep. These towers are all important, and have a high priority in terms of maintaining a hold on them. In the new DBL, you see stale map states because towers are so isolated that capturing them does virtually nothing as far as a force’s map presence is concerned.
I think you would find more interest, and more satisfaction if these towers had more strategic value in terms of attacking the ultimate goal of an enemies garrison, and this would in turn add to the value of holding them for the home team. Ultimately leading to more fights, more bags, more happiness, and less Karma training.
In regards to objective trading with RI staying at 5 minutes while on a 5 minute tick rotation: Considering Event Rewards are a moot point, being solely a negligible amount of karma. the only considerations then are WXP and Champ Bags. The WXP at this point in the game is something that can be gained much faster in EoTM. And many people are at the point where they’re just tacking on world ranks with no where to spend their points. Champ Bags are a decent source of blues and greens, but they’re not an economy breaking thing considering it’s faster to do champion trains and Karma Training. Enough of these bags exist and can be farmed that shortening RI (even removing it entirely) will, and I say this with extreme confidence, NOT affect the game mode. The speed with which these things can be acquired else where turns the idea of objective trading into a moot point. To have objectives that can directly influence a force’s push toward their ultimate goal of Garrison or SMC is value enough for a server to defend them. To have things invulnerable to capture for an entire tick rotation will create a mentality of “Wait until RI is up so we can get it for the next tick.” People will wait around because this will be the most effective way of accruing points.
On top of this, the plans to increase the value of an objective based on its upgrade level will lead to an increase of objective defense further decreasing the sentiment and possibility of objective trading.
To keep up with the supposed increase in offensive behavior will you also increase the rate at which supply is generated? You’re putting an unnecessary rush on this game mode. If people need to attack something every 5 minutes, or optimally, probably every 2 and half, then the maps should be the size of a guild arena (exaggeration I know).
If points are calculated every 5 minutes, then people will be scrambling to get something done. Supply will need to be increased so that the increased amount of siege production can be sustained.
And you need to consider the economic ramifications! Siege is expensive and WvW produces next to no gold. This is a game mode where people are almost forced to spend real money in order to stay competitive with siege and food. I get that you guys are a business and view everything from a market standpoint but as soon as people realize this the backlash will be insane. This will induce panic and scare new players away from the game mode because it’s being carried out at such a furious pace.
It also needs to be pointed out the effect this will have on fighting. If a force is mounting an attacking, or hell, even if they’re just running to another objective on the other side of the huge freaking borderlands. These forces will be constantly redirected to defend. Or, every force will constantly patrol their third looking for an attack expecting one to come, and every map will be dead due to turtling and the fear of runaway scores on a freakishly fast tick rotation. If people are fighting and the third server decides to go for the quick ninja cap, then the force either chooses to run and port, wipe to the enemy for the faster respawn, or stay and fight and lose their objective. If RI and the Tick are not proportional to one another, then there is nothing healthy that can come of a shortened tick timer.
