A Small (but not that brief) List of Ideas
Roughly in order of implementation complexity. I’m sure some of these have been around before; I’m describing them to illustrate content that could add depth to WvW in a way that appeals to players.
PvP rewards:
Killing players advances your current PvP reward track. The full reward is divided amongst allies in the area.
This could provide greater rewards for players who enjoy open-field PvP, particularly when outnumbered.
A point to consider: Should players hit by siege weapons contribute to rewards?
Siege warfare rewards:
The reward for capturing assets is multiplied by the tier of the asset when captured, and scaled again by the number of defenders fighting during the 15 minutes leading to its capture.
Defenders are rewarded every time a defense event concludes, scaled by the number of attackers.
This could be used to make capturing a well-defended asset at least as lucrative as flipping, karma training or nightcapping.
Scouting tools:
New siege equipment type: Radar Station
All enemy players and siege within line of sight of the station appear on the map. This has low HP and can be affected by siege disablers.
New trap: Tracker Darts
When triggered, all enemy players within 1200 units are visible on the map for 60 seconds.
These tools can provide alternative means of detecting enemy movement for defenders to gain more information about whether to respond – with counterplay options.
That is, radar stations have to be exposed to danger to provide the best field of view. Trackers can be countered by sending one player ahead of the zerg, making the threat appear far less significant.
Scout Mastery track:
Provides the ability to avoid detection by enemy players and return information on them while out of combat.
Rank 1: Scout Mode: Other players in 2000 range appear on the map for the whole server while you are not in combat. Your skill bar is disabled.
Your movement speed is restricted to normal (swiftness and other passive speed boosts have no effect).
Scout Mode is disabled in fortifications not owned by your server.
Rank 2: Your name is invisible while in scout mode (but you can still be targetted)
Rank 3: You can detect enemy commander tags
Rank 4: After remaining still for 5 seconds, you become invisible (but you can still be targetted)
Rank 5: You gain access to short-duration, long-cooldown invisibility and movement speed skills while in Scout Mode
This could promote stealth-based gameplay that provides some benefit to the server, but with enough restrictions that it cannot be abused in combat.
Points to consider: Would Rank 3’s bonus lead to tag spam? If it did, wouldn’t that make things harder for enemies as well? Are there any other bonuses that would be more appropriate?
Guild NPC defense:
Keeps and towers claimed by a guild can be set to receive automatic reinforcements when contested. A guild representative can select from several basic types, including standard WvW NPCs, or special types that the guild can unlock.
These reappear whenever the asset is contested, until they are killed or the asset is captured. Dead guild NPCs can be replaced using supply.
This could aid in making capturing assets from a guild more challenging. (Of course, it also gives unopposed karma trains more sources of loot bags.)
A point to consider: What if you could deploy one champion NPC that hunts down intruders within keeps only, resembling a hero from Stronghold?
NPC followers:
Players within a keep, tower or camp can spend their supply at a quartermaster to receive temporary allies, who follow the player around and actively support them while in the vicinity of that asset.
Followers effectively take the place of regular players, and begin to despawn if additional defenders arrive.
As a guideline, there may be no more than 5 players and mercenaries at a camp, 10 at a tower, and 15 at a keep.
Each player can only lead 4 mercenaries, each costing 5 supply to hire. A player can only hire new ones once per score tick (every 15 minutes).
Presently, very small groups are heavily restricted in how they can tackle larger groups of attackers. This allows them greater freedom to act without relying on siege alone, and could make outnumbered servers more competitive in defense.
Points to consider: In this model, hiring mercenaries would effectively prevent some or all of the next few players from receiving the same benefit. A ‘fair’ solution to this would be to distribute mercenaries amongst players roughly equally, assuming they’ve been hired. But suppose your guardian NPC disappeared in the middle of battle because someone hires their allocation of mercenaries? Additionally, what happens to despawned mercenaries if you lose the fort?
