4) Keep Defense is boring
4a) Physically getting in to a keep allows you to bind to that keep, giving that keep a waypoint which can be used upon death
4b) Waypointing to a keep costs supply in that keep
4c) Getting it to a keep requires a 3 second interruptable (with damage) cast time on the door of the keep.
Currently keep defense likely has you sitting on a piece of siege for hours, hoping that someone comes along, at which point you spam 1 or 3 for 10 minutes and either they die or they don’t.
Not having siege is even worse. Hardly any spells can be used to hit people on the ground due to the Z axis counting towards range, and jumping down is suicide against any competant or numerous zerg.
Allowing waypointing means that people can actually go out of the keep while still covering it for defense. Requiring supply highlights the importance of supply escorts. Requiring a cast time for entry means that sides actually need to coordinate attacks in order to allow entry, and the waypoint respawns means that such attempts can be made without forcing failure to require a boring 10 minutes walk back across the map.
5) Keep Offense is boring
5a) Add a new siege weapon that creates a barrier around an area which prevents projectiles from coming in and going out
5b) Make attacking with normal weapons do ZERO damage
5c) Allow Siege Weapons to be bought from any Keep
5d) Allow sieged keeps to sound a graphical alert on the map
5e) Firing siege weapons use the supply of the keep when within keep limits
5f) Dramatically reduce the damage siege weapons to do fully upgraded keeps
5g) Increase the amount of supply used to repair doors
5h) Increase the amount of damage siege weapons do to downgraded keeps (lack of supply)
5i) Larger keeps would allow entry by enemy forces to the lower levels if defending forces do not cover all entrances (something like a 30 second interuptable cast timer on the doors, after a keep has been under siege for 10 minutes already).
The new siege weapon forces defenders to leave their walls. Meaning that enemies actually need to engage with people on the ground. Keep Waypoints means that such small battles are not overly detrimental. Reinforcements can be called in via the map, and escorters can teleport back immediately. Getting people in to the keep will actually be challenging, and defending the door from entry will be viable.
Siege weapons can come from an Attack Dolyak that has been converted from a failed supply run, or from any nearby keep.
Attacking a well supplied keep will be an epic encounter, while attacking a downgraded keep will be substantially easier as a punishment to the owner for lack of resource management.
The new siege weapon requires communication so that allied siege can go out once the shield is let down, while enemy siege is still repelled.
6) Badges of Honor
6a) Remove Badges from Jumping Puzzles
6b) Remove loot bags and have badges act like a currency that is automatically added on a kill
7) Death State
7a) Remove finishing states, it encourages zerging and means outnumbered battles can never be truly won
7b) Black out the screen upon death and bring up the map so the person can choose where to respawn (base or their bound keep)
7c) Remove item damage completely from WvW maps, it frustrates people, instead just lower the amount of money received from objectives and kills
Conclusion: I believe, with these changes, that people can intuitivly know what to do at every moment of WvW, and be able to get there quickly and engage as soon as they arrive.
Defense will no longer be a chore which needs to be done. Escorts will no longer be a joke that no one does. Attacking will not be standing around meleeing a door while prepared people do all the work for you and they running up a ramp in order to get a reward.
Combat will be more constant and more understandable. Failure will be recoverable, and stronger teams will need to work harder in order to completely dominate.
The things people are rewarded for and the things that help the team will be brought far closer together, and no one will need to do boring things in order to help their side to victory. Fun and victory will be one and the same.
Loved that setup out there.
