Guild Wars 2

This topic came up on my server forum. I made the point that you are actually rewarded every three minutes both in karma and in coin and not a small amount either. The following event

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Repel_the_enemy_attackers

Rewards for defending as for taking a tower/keep/camp is rewarded only once.

What we are not rewarded enough for is placing/refreshing siege or escorting yacks and preparing for the oncoming war for a keep/tower/camp.

A servermate came up with the following idea:

Re-introduce something like the Orbs again. But this time they affect things people really care about. They need to effect the resources and rewards that players need or desire.

Example:
Possesion of zero orbs grants 1/10 experience/karma/gold gain in WvW.
Possesion of one orb grants normal experience/karma/gold gain in WvW.
Possesion of two orbs grants +50% experience/karma/gold gain in WvW.
Possesion of three orbs grants +100% experience/karma/gold gain in WvW.

This bonus/penalty would be modified by the number of objectives a side held (PPT essentially), as a rough reflection of total WvW population. This way if one side controlled 80% of the maps in WvW then their opponents wouldn’t be overly penalized for having fewer people.

So if side Z controlled zero orbs and 15% of the maps, their penalty could be adjusted upwards from 1/10 exp/karma/gold to normal rewards

And if side X controlled one orb and 20% of the maps their bonus could be adjusted upwards so it is greater than normal

And side Y with two orbs and 65% of the maps would have their bonus adjusted downwards to reflect their population dominance.

These numbers are all adjustable, they just need to take into account the rough population differences at any given time.

What I would like to see is additional reasons to capture something besides PPT and especially a reason to maintain something.

How would you increase the rewards for staying on a borderlands map to defend?

The Orbs are a flawed mechanic. It made a strong server stronger. Encouraged cheating to get the valuable bonus. And forced the focus of battles on 3 locations (where the orbs are).

And your bonuses would have players flocking to the strongest servers for those buffs, like vultures on a battlefield.

Esprit Dumort.3109:

The Orbs are a flawed mechanic. It made a strong server stronger. Encouraged cheating to get the valuable bonus. And forced the focus of battles on 3 locations (where the orbs are).

And your bonuses would have players flocking to the strongest servers for those buffs, like vultures on a battlefield.

I would disagree that having orbs increase rewards only would make a strong server stronger. Cheating would still happen as it does no matter what. I am also not stating that orbs are the solution. It was just a idea to get the juices flowing. How would you increase the rewards of defending.

anzenketh.3759:

I would disagree that having orbs increase rewards only would make a strong server stronger. Cheating would still happen as it does no matter what. I am also not stating that orbs are the solution. It was just a idea to get the juices flowing. How would you increase the rewards of defending.

I was reflecting on the previously implemented Orb mechanic, that provided stat bonuses. “Each Orb of Power granted the owning world a 5% boost to maximum HP and 50 bonus points to all stats.”

Rewarding defending is a tricky mechanic as shown by its lack of implementation by Anet. Reward WXP for staying in a tower, and you’d have afkers clogging the battlefield. Anet tried to encourage defenders to stay by delaying the indication of a contested area by 30s, giving the enemy a chance to setup their incursion and delaying immediate reinforcements for servers who had no defenders at the tower. It didn’t work.

Loot acquisition is primarily from killing players (and NPC’s to some degree). Tower defenders typically don’t see that kind of action very often.

I would start with increasing WXP rewarded for repairs. It takes 10s to repair a wall for 10 WXP, another minute to run back and forth to a camp, etc. Not exactly a high rate of WXP rewarded compared to a zerging player who could get 60 WXP in seconds from tagging an enemy.

Successful defenses award WXP, but a zerg rolling through to destroy the offensive gets it too.

I’ve thought a lot about it and I consider myself pretty creative, but can’t come up with a method to reward defenders without it causing massive abuse. It would likely require a major redesign of game mechanics to reward defenders without it breaking the game.