Guild Wars 2

So I posted this in another thread but probably didn’t totally belong there. So trying with its own thread.

What I am trying to do with this is find new ideas to make it less frustrating for the low population times or servers and more challenging/fun for the high population ones.

Anyways, the first idea was when one server has less population then another at any given time they could have NPC’s come in and make up the difference. Say our server had 50 people fighting against one that has 100 on at the moment. you could have 50 NPC’s go in groups to do various objectives (even better if they could be controlled). Of course they would never be better then to have real players (NPC’s are dumb as we all know) but it would go a long way to make the game seem less empty and give a little help to the under manned server. Even if it just worked for harassing the other severs, and keeping them busy. On the flip side it would make it also less boring to be a winner so you would keep having stuff to do then wander around a empty won map.

Another idea would be when one server owns the entire map you could have an event happen to challenge them. Say a mass raid of ogres or guard rebellion or even better a Dragon descends and starts destroying stuff. Would help with those blowout matches making things easier to retake and just more stuff to do and more fun for everyone.

Or yet another idea, when a server owns nothing (or almost nothing, or no towers/keeps) on a map they have a special force summoned to wreak havoc.

These would of course take a lot of work and balance issue by the Devs, but I do see a lot of potential there. You could eventually go the rout of server upgrades on these abilities (so you could have some kind of server pride and progression) and you could let servers vote on what NPC groups would represent them. Anyways let me know what you all thing and please bring in more ideas.

I really like WvWvW but I don’t like seeing it go through what it currently is.

Another Idea would be to add more PvE goals. So when you kill the Veteran Wolf, you ‘enslave’ him and now he guards your supply or something. More PvE goals might work in bringing in more PvE players to help fill out the maps.

My server is dominating WvW right now… it’s bloody boring. Your ideas are fantastic! I would love to see small 5-man groups of Invader NPCs running around trying to cap supply camps. I would love to see a dragon land on top of Stonemist and start knocking down walls. I would love for the guards at the keeps to organize a rebellion that needs to be put down. That sounds like a lot of fun and would definitely help with the shut out matches, which in reality aren’t fun for anyone.

Thank you Fyren, lets keep the ideas coming. I also wouldn’t mind if they included somehow crafting in WvW. Like crafters could dedicate time or make things to improve guards armor or things like this. That also might get more PvE players involved in WvW. Also would be a way for a poor lower level person to contribute without having to fork out lots of silver for upgrades that get lost very quickly.

Those are some pretty cool ideas. I know nothing about how hard they are to implement, but they sure sound cool.

I guess the main issue many would disagree on is: WvW “Fun” vs. WvW to “Win”

To me, a completely imbalanced match is not all that much fun no matter which side you’re on. Others would disagree. I wouldn’t mind seeing a “handicap” system put in place. This could either be done once a week based on current standings, or maybe once every twelve hours within a match.

Basically, let’s say 10, 11, and 12 are matched. The low rank team (12) starts with a bonus — maybe +X% health, power. The middle team (11) gets nothing. The top rank (10) gets -X% health power. If done within a match, everyone would start at 0 and you would do it periodically based on score.

Same as handicaps work in many sports — it basically gives the less-skilled team a fighting chance to make it interesting. Ideally, I just want the matches to still be competitive on day 7 — not over on Day 1.

I agree, adding PvE during a world’s off-peak hours would help greatly. I hate it when I’m the only guy running around my borderlands, trying to avoid running into the enemy battalion taking all of our stuff. Even a group of four NPCs with a Veteran to “lead” them would make me feel less vulnerable.

And the fix doesn’t have to be extreme. While I’d love to see a random dragon challenge Kaineng for capturing everything while the other worlds are asleep, a roaming group of angry centaurs would do just as well.

It could also stop problems with huge roaming battalions stomping out random solo guys (like me) wandering about during the off-hours. If I saw an army approaching from the south, and a centaur stampede following me, I’d feel like I at least had a chance to escape.

It would make the game more fun, IMHO. Even when I’m trying avoid roaming armies, the world seems pretty empty when I play. Doing battle with a squad of enemy NPCs would help spice things up and keep things interesting. I love it when there are hundreds of people on and there is always something exciting happening, but most of the time, I seem to play during our off-hours.

That’s my two silvers… or coppers.

I agree xytale, some people are ultra focused on winning and they would probably not enjoy any of this. I’m not sure why they feel this way since there are no real benefits to ‘winning’ but to each is own. However, I do think they are the minority and having a few ‘win’ seems to be killing WvW as it is.

There would be another benefit to mixing a bit of PvE with WvW, which is what this idea essentially does. If done well you then expand the level 80 zones, which currently there are to few of. So when people got bored of Frostgorge or Cursed Shore they would have an additional 4 maps to play on with level 80 content. And this would be less work to impliment then adding 4 new content PvE zones I am sure.

And on the flip side for the PvP focused people. This would essentially make a small open world PvP area. Where you would have 4 maps where people could PvE or PvP in the same area. I know some really desired open world PvP.

Swap the Orb n Outmanned buff.

Orbs give you more magic, karma and experience, outmanned gives you + vit%

eg outmanned

3:2 is = 1 orb
2:1 = 2 orb,
5 to 2 or more is like 3 orbs

Pretty creative OP. I must admit I like the ideas you have presented. However, it’s not really correcting chronic population imbalances. So even inducing npcs or pve events would be limiting, and after awhile, boring for those who really want to pvp. After all, there is already pve out there in the world.

That being said, I would like to see some of these events in WvW regardless. We could look to examples like Aion, with its PvPvE type events. Overall, its not the players who control the npc’s, but rather, gain favor with or defeat groups of npcs. There is already an element similar to this in GW2 WvW, but the impact is minimal.

So, I guess what I have to add is the possibility of a group of NPCs (be they dragons or a humanoid race), that actually control some territory in the maps. Off the main path is a keep, with a lord, siege weapons, etc — except it is entirely computer controlled. Servers could have a choice how to interact with this force. For example, a high pop server could choose to simply decimate the npc force for perhaps a bit of karma and/or loot, while a low pop server may choose to work for them in exchange for resource gain or unique seige weapons.

I don’t know…just throwing something out there. I like the idea, but it needs to be optional and not a requirement for balance.