Guild Wars 2

In medieval times, large empires used signal towers placed at strategic locations within their empire’s large expanse of land to provide early warnings against any enemy incursions. When a soldier in the tower spots an enemy from far, he would light a bonfire and the smoke would be seen by other towers down the line and they would start lighting their bonfires too all the way back to the main garrison to alert the commander.

Would it be viable to have such signal/scout towers in WvW? If yes,

• Where should they be positioned? Somewhere away from the main roads so enemies have to detour a distance to take it?
• How strong should the structure be should an enemy force try to take it? And if they do take it, the enemy will not be allowed to hold the structure unless they leave players stationed in it. Allied players can still re-occupy the tower without having to force their way in if there are no enemies stationed in it.
• Should it provide a wider field of vision to the player that is stationed in the tower?
• Should there be a limit to the number of players allowed into the tower?
• Should we remove cross borderlands team-chat and make this option available only to the scouts that are stationed in these towers?

Um, sure it would be lovely to place it in PvE places for theme and such but…look at in pure game play.

Why would you need a specific tower for “early warning” in the current game mode? People can literally just type in map/team chat. Especially consider that it requires someone to be in the signal tower anyway…again just say it in map chat if you’re in the area.

From a technical perspective, I do believe there are some caps on rendering distances so it could only extend vision so far anyhow. Not to mention none of the current maps are designed for the inclusion of another objective which would require even more work. All for a mechanic that is easily rectified with map/team chat? Not worth it in my opinion.

Chinchilla.1785:

Um, sure it would be lovely to place it in PvE places for theme and such but…look at in pure game play.

Why would you need a specific tower for “early warning” in the current game mode? People can literally just type in map/team chat. Especially consider that it requires someone to be in the signal tower anyway…again just say it in map chat if you’re in the area.

From a technical perspective, I do believe there are some caps on rendering distances so it could only extend vision so far anyhow. Not to mention none of the current maps are designed for the inclusion of another objective which would require even more work. All for a mechanic that is easily rectified with map/team chat? Not worth it in my opinion.

I was thinking of removing team chat and giving that option only to the scout in the tower.

EremiteAngel.9765:

Chinchilla.1785:

Um, sure it would be lovely to place it in PvE places for theme and such but…look at in pure game play.

Why would you need a specific tower for “early warning” in the current game mode? People can literally just type in map/team chat. Especially consider that it requires someone to be in the signal tower anyway…again just say it in map chat if you’re in the area.

From a technical perspective, I do believe there are some caps on rendering distances so it could only extend vision so far anyhow. Not to mention none of the current maps are designed for the inclusion of another objective which would require even more work. All for a mechanic that is easily rectified with map/team chat? Not worth it in my opinion.

I was thinking of removing team chat and giving that option only to the scout in the tower.

I saw. However it was under “if yes,” and I am against it regardless.

Even still that isn’t really something ANET will do considering they just handed out team chat to the masses. How bad will it be if they suddenly remove not only team chat but map chat included? Even still it’d be a mute point due to voice over ips like community discord. I suppose ANET could ban people for 3rd party programs after clumping VOIPs into the definition. Again, not something they’d consider.

Why make it harder to communicate in the name of historical parallels? Thematically, it’s cool, but why wreak havoc on current gameplay for that?

Watchtower/sentry markers not enuff for lazy scouting?

ANet could always make it so you could purchase those Sentry Turrets from EotM and drop them in the Mist War. With EotM not eligible to earn pips, I predict a massive slump in the population there, so allowing players to buy those consumable items and use them in the main WvW maps might give them just that little bit of incentive to re-visit EotM from time to time.

EremiteAngel.9765:

In medieval times, large empires used signal towers placed at strategic locations within their empire’s large expanse of land to provide early warnings against any enemy incursions. When a soldier in the tower spots an enemy from far, he would light a bonfire and the smoke would be seen by other towers down the line and they would start lighting their bonfires too all the way back to the main garrison to alert the commander.

Would it be viable to have such signal/scout towers in WvW? If yes,

• Where should they be positioned? Somewhere away from the main roads so enemies have to detour a distance to take it?
• How strong should the structure be should an enemy force try to take it? And if they do take it, the enemy will not be allowed to hold the structure unless they leave players stationed in it. Allied players can still re-occupy the tower without having to force their way in if there are no enemies stationed in it.
• Should it provide a wider field of vision to the player that is stationed in the tower?
• Should there be a limit to the number of players allowed into the tower?
• Should we remove cross borderlands team-chat and make this option available only to the scouts that are stationed in these towers?

The impossibility to use /t or /m is meh, even if I understand the logic.

That said, the idea is interesting, and here’re some mechanics ideas.

• I see it as a deployable siege weapon, an expensive one, deploying the tower.
• It wouldn’t take too much room if it’s designed like an asura console on the ground, with a levitating platform (the same as in earth shrines)
• Only one player could go in it, like a golem. While inside, the player is “invulnerable” till the tower is destroyed (and then the player just pops out, with part of his health removed)
• The tower provides a wider field of vision, and a farther detection range.
• Skill 1 would be a ranged AoE thing that places enemies within radius under the “marked” status (like sentries or watchtowers) for 2 mn
• WvW rank points would allow for the radius to be bigger, and for the skill 1 to also reveal stealth enemies (and mark them), for less health loss when the tower is destroyed, or mark also applies vulnerability thing.

Something like this could be an interesting addition for scouts.

Should also make running players consume endurance at a rate of 100 per 60sec forcing them to utilize walk. Everytime a player reaches 0 endurance they should have an unremovable cripple placed on them for 60sec.

How about magnified scopes? Same usage as tricks and traps, using 5 ~10 supply for players to see farther and mark an enemy player or objective up to max 3 targets, and those marked targets will be highlighted for allies on map for brief time.