Guild Wars 2

Coldviper.6794:

Even if they simply made the current ones more interesting I’d be happy. Maybe balance changes based on terrain. Like make adjustments so bay isn’t such a weak keep. Bring in other interesting aspects like the old orb, and maybe other various things. Give JP it’s own instance.

There’s so much they could do, but in all honesty, they really need to focus on a solution for ability lag and this would easily be the best current game for large scale PvP.

Well, they have said a few times that they are looking into possibly draining most of the big lake in the BLs to generate some usable space, and possibly a few other similar actions as well. In addition to fixing ability lag, though, they really need to extensively revamp the match system in WvW before I would award them any laurels for large scale PvP design. In almost every tier every week we know who’s going to win before the reset even pops.

Unless ANet can figure out how to make a handicap system work (and I think the odds of that are pretty slim), they are going to have to abandon the server vs server vs server concept for something that allows them to balance the matches. While looking for a different quote from Mike Ferguson I came across an interview he did quite a while ago where he was asked why ANet chose to set up matches by server. He stated that the decision for that was made by other devs FOUR YEARS ago while he was still on the content team and that he really didn’t know for sure why it was done that way. Everyone (including Mike) assumes it was done to promote a sense of server community, but there isn’t much point in promoting community in an activity if it makes that activity so disappointing and frustrating in the first place.

Vena.8436:

Sokar Rostau.7316:

1. Each server gets their own borderland that reflects that server’s name. Dragonbrand actually is in the Dragonbrand, Maguuma actually is in the Maguuma jungle. These are released over a period of eight months to cover the eight tiers.

While themes would be nice, the BLs need to remain identical in form because that is the only way to guarantee balance between them and for all sides on the home-field. If you were to just put an overlay on the map, a skin of sorts, then sure, but I wouldn’t open the can of worms of different maps; no one wants to be on the server with the most disadvantageous map and everyone will want to be on the servers with the most advantageous maps.

What I think you, and some others, are forgetting is how deceptively designed the borderland maps really are. The whole point of their design is to funnel the two opposing teams towards the map owner’s positions at the top of the map.

Each borderland can be divided vertically down the middle. Each half of the map may have varying terrain, but for all intents and purposes they are the same. Players are herded along specific routes to get to their destinations. You can call these choke-points if you really like, but what they really are are roads with a couple of side-streets. While there are open areas, the feeling of openness on the borderlands is really an illusion. Likewise, there is an illusion in EB that it is a very closed area when it is, in fact, the most open of all the maps.

Since the “design philosophy” of the borderlands is to herd enemies towards either side of garrison, largely along specific paths, any new maps will follow the same pattern for the same reason. There is no “most advantageous” map now and there’s no reason to think there would be in the future… unless they change the design philosophy.

In a sense, the borderlands are already urban maps. You could reskin the entire map to replace all the cliffs with buildings and simply pave over the gravel paths and the maps wouldn’t real play any differently. The change of scenery would be good, though.

Sokar Rostau.7316:

In a sense, the borderlands are already urban maps. You could reskin the entire map to replace all the cliffs with buildings and simply pave over the gravel paths and the maps wouldn’t real play any differently. The change of scenery would be good, though.

Lets not forget the border maps were designed with Orb play in mind. With that mechanic removed, the border map meta is lacking. Anet options are to either fix the meta with existing maps or replace the maps.

Replace the maps

3 identical maps? Come on, we need more variety than that. We need a real urban map with narrow streets, like that other guy’s “divinity’s breach” idea or something like that.

Or go with that unique borderland based on server name idea. SBI’s map looks like blood tide coast, SoS gets a bunch of islands and underwater combat, etc. except places we can’t get to yet like CD or IoJ would probably have to have the old, regular, boring BL map for now :/

Cactus.2710:

While looking for a different quote from Mike Ferguson I came across an interview he did quite a while ago where he was asked why ANet chose to set up matches by server. He stated that the decision for that was made by other devs FOUR YEARS ago while he was still on the content team and that he really didn’t know for sure why it was done that way. Everyone (including Mike) assumes it was done to promote a sense of server community, but there isn’t much point in promoting community in an activity if it makes that activity so disappointing and frustrating in the first place.

There was no point to doing it when allowing free transfers for months. By that stage server community had gone out the window.

If I remember correctly Colin posted somewhere that they aren’t looking to add new maps just yet because of the amount of work involved and are looking for other ways to add to wvw.

But the suggestions in this thread are incredible and I would love to see some of this implemented. Especially that one about Divinity’s Reach. Great idea! And already it is such a balanced map out of the box it’s perfect for an urban battle (just like the battle in ascalon) and would even complement the lore a lot more.

I find that the lore in wvw is very dissapointing. ESO does a great job explaining the ins and outs and whys about their wvw. I wish gw2 would do the same and give more meaning and lore to wvw.

Using the pve maps for wvw would be a fantastic way to do this and I would love to see that happen. Screw balance and give the worst balanced map to 1st place if you must. Wvw is already getting stale and this map variation would bring back so much more life to it.

They don’t really need to spend a lot of time to make the map balanced. Even if a map is not 100% balanced for all 3 servers, it is still ok, as long as each borderland uses the same map. The current borderland is not balanced 100% either since garrison can easily treb bay. But since each server has Bay as one of their home keeps in 1 of the borderland, it makes it ok.