The way the latest poll was written is disappointing:
It channels us to choose the Desert Borderlands whether we like them or not. I, for one, do not. If I do not use the poll, I do not get my voice through.
It lists no notable improvements to the maps or the gameplay within WvW itself.
Guild Wars 2 is chiefly a PvE game. It is a lore-lover’s paradise, and entering WvW on the Alpine maps, one does feel alienated from Tyria, save for the hints in the structures, and entering the playerbase, one realises WvW is a different game altogether, another world, apart from Tyria and GW2 altogether.
I cannot but help feel the Developers may resent this. It’s as if the WvW map was thrown in to keep the multiplayer PvP’ers, and proprietors of GW2 happy by showing an active player population through keeping a place open for massive PvPers.
A game, a painting, a book is your baby as a creator. It is your work, your sweat, blood and tears.
But once you let it out there, it is ours. The whole world’s.
We take it, and find new ways to play with it the way you could not have imagined.
I see the way some players use the skillsets they have been given, and am baffled at the things they come up with. These are not software hacks. They are using what exactly they have been given.
This is part of the human intellect. We have imagination and innovation, even if we are at the receiving end of a completed product.
I am sorry I wrote so harshly before, but the Alpine Borderlands are “home”, and I am afraid to lose them. I do not want Desert Borderlands back, in any way. The poll posted forced us to include them in our choices, and this goes against my choice while allowing for everyone else’s. The mere mention of the DBL was a refusal on part of the Game Devs to see that they were unpopular.
Why?
The Desert Borderlands, albeit a fond throwback to The Crystal Desert of Tyria’s lore in the Dev’s minds, to the WvW players, were too unappealing in their tiered terrain, their almost-PvE-quest-zone-but-no-missions-here ..emptiness? How shall I put this?
The giant keep looks like it could have so many things to do in it, but we can’t build any Asura siege gadgetry. (We do have Asura technology active: the emergency WP is a Devsend. THANK YOU. Abusable and abused, but very useful, nonetheless). I also don’t appreciate having to fall splat on my face before reaching the Mystic Fountain, or the external gate. Winding paths, again.
I am assuming the Desert Borderlands were brought to bring WvW into sync with Tyria’s Living World.
That is why its structure is tiered, layered, and, like the Maguuma Jungle, it is impossible to navigate on an open map unless you know the terrain like the back of your hand.
This works for guerilla combat, small groups hunting each other.
This goes against a game’s desire to attract and keep as many players as possible:
Big Zergs stay away. The DBL map is simply not navigable. So they stay in EBG. If isolating Zergs was the point, then you have made it quite clearly.
There was no-one to run with on the Borderlands unless on schedule, with a guild.
We capped forever and there was no-one to stop us. Yay for the server score!
And thanks for toning down the NPCs aggro in the DBL. They were interrupting our movement for no (server-score/individual score) contributory reason.
The trouble is, if you make people run forever without anything to do in between, things get dull.
The ‘thing to do’ in WvW is fight other players, most of whom were, during the time the DBL were set up, in the Eternal Battlegrounds, an Alpine-style setting.
When the Alpine Borderlands returned, we all knew the real competition for world rank had begun.
When the Alpine maps returned, there was a rush of players coming back. We never had queues like this when the DBLs were up.
I only lag when there is a massive player population present, and I NEVER lagged on DBL.
Proof enough?
You want WvW to be in sync with the Living World of Tyria, GREAT. I would LOVE to see Living World Season 3, and how you come up with a WvW for THAT. No, not a revamped DBL. Another place. Isn’t Tyria big and varied enough to choose from?
Just remember that, unlike the PvE maps of Tyria The Beautiful, we must come up with other things to keep us occupied group PvP-wise instead of NPCs, terrain complications and puzzle quests.
Yes, WvW is another game, precisely for this reason: it is massive, open, multiplayer PvP and maps made for it must cater to this core aspect of it.
I said ‘we’. That means us. We your people, Guild Wars 2, and your crew.
I am sincerely grateful for the introduced contribution/dungeon rank benefits to individuals, for the high-speed Dolyak deliveries, the WvW Guild Mission possibilities, and, above all, the return of the Alpine maps, which are on the verge of being taken away from us again.
I now ask that GROUP effort is also rewarded.
1. Make WvW titles displayable inside Tyria, upon the player’s choice.
2. Translate WvW Score Advancement into Guild Ranking Rewards: Make WvW PPT and fight scores count among the guilds of a server, not just between servers. May push players to be more active. Please, please, pretty please. This will be very unfair to active small guilds made up of strong and effective roaming players, so let there be equal reward for effort spent.
a. How do we calculate this?
b. How do we prevent cheating?
a. How do we calculate this? Individual kill count+cap count+build count+repair count per player per guild. Total shows guild’s effectiveness. Keep/Garrison capture’s bonus points raise this higher.
A player will add or subtract from a guild’s score by entering, playing or lazing/leaving.
Also, the higher the percentage of WvW-active players in a guild, the higher that guild’s score.
Still, to be fair to small and strong guilds, there should be a special category for roamer guilds, say 5-20 people maximum. Call it the Havoc Squad category, for example.
For the Havoc Squad category, make the rewards rich and noticeable, by others in the game, wherever they are. Enable the award name to be a visible title. Same awarding system to bigger guilds.
The maps:
3. Double the size, then ZONE the Alpine maps.
What do I mean by zoning?
The map gets divided into areas, as it does in Central Tyria. When we go from one area to the other on the central Tyria’s map, the name of that area appears. Great. Now, we use that sensor trigger for other things:
This should alert the enemy as to where we are. This will make for more fights, which is what most WvW players look for. It will also end espionage and sabotage, or at least lessen them, methinks.
Group movement alerts to be EARNED BY THE SERVER by capping a certain number of locations and/or making a certain number of kills within a given amount of time.
Group movement map transition stealth to be EARNED BY A SQUAD by capping a certain number of locations, and/or making a certain number of kills within a given amount of time.
Individual movement: Scouts: The hidden heroes, the patient ones of WvW. Create a special state for some individual players. Unofficially, we call them ‘Scouts’ on WvW. Scouts stay in keeps
Let people who have a Scout tag have free access to all the map without the combat requirement, higher speed and more vulnerability in terms of health and power than the average player.Scout status should be granted to individuals. No more than one scout per CAPTURED tower on any given map per SERVER. Scout tag/status disappears when the Scout joins a squad or party, switches guilds, logs off, disconnects, stays still for more than 5 minutes, and, above all, is more than sight’s distance from any given structure in the open ground for over 2 minutes. A Scout must be constantly mobile, agile, alert.
Now this is a hard one:
Enlarge the Alpine maps, but-
Let accessing an area be a combat-earned privilege. Accessing, not just capture.This will hitch movement for players, except for Scouts.
You cannot move from one area of the map to the next unless you capture the main structure in the zone you are passing through. (Zerg runners will hate me for this, or not, depending on their evaluation of PPT rewards for their server. But if the Guild/Server rewards I suggest are implemented, they will probably cap then hit, as well).
Let accessing an area by capping its main building grant the following boons:
Speed of movement
Increased power.
Let attackers trying to cap an area gain 1 extra dodge.
4. One of the oldest combat-games of the world involve a trophy or prize being taken from one team to the other. Buzkashi of the Afghans is one, and football that we play worldwide started as a free-for-all. Any group ball game is the same, only without open combat.
This is different in that aspect:
Create a prize, make it a Champion’s Banner, and set preconditions at who has the privilege of carrying it to begin with.
It could be that we escort a Champion of Ancient Tyria after earning their trust by capturing enough of the maps, both EBG and Alpine, instead of an object, or merely borrowing their strength as you have done in PvP.
I think of the magnificent Turai Ossa as I write, but I am sure the Ascalonian structures of the Alpine Borderlands tells another tale, and will bring other heroes to the fore. Yes, don’t think I haven’t noticed. I know every nook and cranny of that map, and love them all. The Obsidian Sanctum is a favourite, though it is sadly neglected and its history baffling.
The Prize/Trophy we must protect or keep could remain as a testimony to the rank and season it was claimed by a particular server or guild. I am thinking of the unchanging Dolyak prize statue in our Alpine maps, thanks for the inspiration, Anet!
All the above should count towards individual, guild, and server rank, with appropriate titles and rewards, both in-combat and in Tyria.
Preventing cheating: You can’t hack Time.
Make the rewards obtainable after one month, or better, an entire season, of active participation within that guild.
Building or repairing:
The only time this score should count towards rewards is when building or repairing a siege weapon or structure within 5 minutes of the most recent downing of its Lord. Preventive reparation rewarded within sight range of an approaching enemy until a gate or wall is down.
If anyone cuts their way into those numbers by software manipulation, put their head on the block.
From Shadow unto Light is born the Narvedui
While softly walks the Tharnadai
(edited by Asumir.1978)