Guild Wars 2

Currently I find WvW close to unplayable due to the long queue times, rendering bugs (which seem to be a mix of bad netcode and actual rendering engine bugs – where players aren’t rendered at all until the game has loaded all their armour model textures, instead of simply being rendered with a default model and texture until the “correct” ones are loaded) and the huge casting delay (or, quite often, complete casting failure) whenever there are more than 20 or so players on-screen.

I also find it hard to care about WvW when all my “work” capturing a keep or building defences is likely to be undone within the next 6 hours or so, and then done again and undone again, over the course of a week or two.

So I would propose the creation of a third form of PvP in GW2:

Village vs. Village (vs. Village)

Basically, think of it as WvW on a single map (a smaller version of the Eternal Battlegrounds), with much smaller teams (ex., 15-25 players per “village”), and a much shorter duration (ex., 8-hour matches, ending sooner if any village controls >75% of the map). Each village could belong to a different server, but they would be paired randomly, and multiple teams from the same server could be in different instances of VvV. Alternatively, they could all be from the same server, or mixed. I really don’t think it’s relevant.

It would include all the WvW mechanics, the same siege weapons (possibly with slightly shorter range – and definitely with weaker walls and gates), maybe even a (smaller) jumping puzzle. It would basically be like a training ground for WvW. No resource nodes, to prevent abuse.

Due to the reduced number of players, rendering issues and lag should be less problematic, and the shorter duration would make people care more about what is actually happening at that moment.

It would probably reduce the number of players in WvW but, given the huge queues in some servers, I suspect this would be a good thing. It would also introduce a lot of new players to the WvW “game mode” in a smaller, faster, and more digestible format.

Anyone else think this would be a good idea?

Maybe the format could be tested as a mini-game (like the Lunatic Inquisition / Reaper’s Rumble) in the next seasonal event. If made permanent, it would also allow the developers to test ideas for WvW on a smaller, more iterative environment before applying them to the main WvW mode / maps.

VvV makes a cute face

Interesting idea. Technically it doesn’t even have to be servers versus each other, but a instead a mix of people from all over trying to work as a team to beat other random groups of people. Or it could even be your own server fighting each other.

Yes, the idea is that the server would launch a new instance of VvV as soon as there are 45 people queued (15 vs. 15 vs. 15). The next 30 people to join would be sent to the same instance (making it up to 25 vs. 25 vs. 25. The actual numbers would depend on the size of the maps, of course, but this is the general idea.

The server could try to keep people from the same server together (on the same team), but only if that didn’t have a significant impact on team balance or queue times. In fact, this being “Guild Wars”, I think it would make even more sense if the server tried to keep people from the same guild together, regardless of their server.

This is an interesting suggestion. i would like to try it.

Perhaps a mod can move it to spvp?

WvW, being made up of different maps, should easily be able to see more maps of different sizes and even playstyles added. A small/medium sized map with only a few holdings in certainly interesting… but as is having a map significantly larger than the current maps. Variation is key to keeping WvW less stale, so I welcome almost any addition as long as it doesn’t mess up the PvP.

Raap.9065:

WvW, being made up of different maps, should easily be able to see more maps of different sizes and even playstyles added.

Adding more zones to WvW wouldn’t really solve the issues with match length or population imbalance.

The idea is to create something that uses the same mechanics but is more balanced and “faster” by design (i.e., where people can actually play a match from start to finish in a couple of hours – or at most over the course of half a day or so).

It could even have an option (“guild village”) that would limit each team to members of a specific guild, and we could finally have some guild wars in Guild Wars.

I have a thought…maybe we could call it a “battleground” and have one keep in the middle of the map?

DAoC is calling you!

-Jeff

P.S. I’m very much in favor of this idea, in truth. One day resets, open up a new one the next day if the queues were long the day before (but if one side doesn’t have queues, no new instance), and let it count for points.

The “sides” would be dynamic. As soon as enough people were queued (ex., 45 people), that would create a new instance with 15 vs. 15 vs. 15 (or up to 25 vs. 25 vs. 25), preferentially grouped by guild – or by realm, but I think it would make sense to have this one grouped by guild, so we could have some actual guild wars in Guild Wars 2.

And match duration should also be dynamic. A maximum duration of X hours (I would suggest eight), but it would end sooner if one side managed to control more than a certain percentage of the map, or managed to score more than a certain number of points. A “typical” match should last something like 4 hours.

The idea is to create a game with the same basic mechanics as WvW but where people can join and play a full “match” in one sitting.

This would give the developers a place to test some ideas to be applied later to the “full scale” WvW, and would give new players a place to learn the fundamental WvW mechanics with faster feedback.