Why arent people playing on Desert?

[Virdo.1540]

We have seen this over the last couple of months, that nobody to very few players play on desert at all. Why is it like that? Do people level there slower?

[BeepBoopBop.5403]

Too big, too much verticality, too many gotchas (a lot less now though). I'd rather have 3 alpines back any day. No idea why the community voted to keep desert BL at all. When we had all 3 desert BLs my guild didn't even WvW for 6 months.

[Turkeyspit.3965]

I'm afraid of pocket raptors.

and smokescales

and gravity

 

The only reason anyone should go there is to cap Fire keep so you can be a flame doggo (https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Inferno_Hound).

[Infusion.7149]

I've played on desert BL since the prerelease on the client that connects to the test server. There's one thing that has held true since its inception: people get lost and the incidence of death to fall damage is higher than any other map.

 

Before they removed the laser event lagfest and added the eagle, hay bales, and ramps it was even more of a maze.

[Justine.6351]

Nobody plays there because nobody else plays there. So some people play there because nobody else is there and makes for easy dailies. But because some people go there for dailies there will be people that go there to find and kill those players but also because they can reflip stuff for their dailies as well. It's complicated and not.

[aspirine.6852]

It is all too big. The map, the structures. Some of the structures are horrible to fight in also.

[Za Shaloc.3908]

I honestly really love it as a map to roam on, but yeah, it is just rarely ever populated enough to spend time on. It is a shame because I do enjoy it. Mounts make it a lot more tolerable. It's always nice for an easy daily tower cap though.

[Sir Alric.5078]

> @"BeepBoopBop.5403" said:

> Too big, too much verticality, too many gotchas (a lot less now though). I'd rather have 3 alpines back any day. No idea why the community voted to keep desert BL at all. When we had all 3 desert BLs my guild didn't even WvW for 6 months.

 

Aren't you bored of running in circles in the same map after seven years? I am (although it's six years for me), and i don't think i'm the only one. I believe that's why the community voted to keep desert. At least there is one map that is different. Anet should remove one of the two alpine borderlands left and replace it with a completely new map, imo. At least then we would have four different maps to play in.

[BeepBoopBop.5403]

> @"Sir Alric.5078" said:

> > @"BeepBoopBop.5403" said:

> > Too big, too much verticality, too many gotchas (a lot less now though). I'd rather have 3 alpines back any day. No idea why the community voted to keep desert BL at all. When we had all 3 desert BLs my guild didn't even WvW for 6 months.

>

> Aren't you bored of running in circles in the same map after seven years? I am (although it's six years for me), and i don't think i'm the only one. I believe that's why the community voted to keep desert. At least there is one map that is different. Anet should remove one of the two alpine borderlands left and replace it with a completely new map, imo. At least then we would have four different maps to play in.

 

Yeah because the original desert BL launch went so well lol. Not like they had to roll it back because the community was tired of all the tricks and gimmicks on the original map. /s

 

Idc if a map has been around for years, if it works it works. Do LoL players complain about summoner's rift? Maybe but at least it's balanced. I don't trust ANET to replace alpine BL ever again. They should however do something about EBG, it is far too small of a map for mounts.

[Clownmug.8357]

Some possible reasons:

* Older version with barricades, fire turrets, air turrets, rock walls, and mega laser event left a negative impression.

* Home defenders are spread out more making the map seem empty when tags aren't around.

* Distance between objectives makes it harder for the typical EB pug commander to make last minute saves.

* Distance between objectives removes ability to sit behind walls and freely treb a nearby keep or tower without risk.

* Some players never bother to learn the map, then whine about how long it takes to get anywhere.

* Champion npcs put up enough fight to remind some players they're playing a casual pvp game mode.

* Lots of potential falling deaths for players that would prefer a flat featureless plain to tryhard on.

[Cuks.8241]

I like desert BL if nothing else for some change of scenery.

Flat grounds are super boring and exploitation of the terrain is always cool.

Could it be a little smaller and easier to navigate? Maybe but in truth the distances and consequently response times seems just fine to me.

Not being able to treb from behind the walls is a plus to me.

Falling to death a problem? Sorry but any pvp player should be able to not fall of a random cliff.

[Dawdler.8521]

> @"Cuks.8241" said:

> Falling to death a problem? Sorry but any pvp player should be able to not fall of a random cliff.

Happened 3 times today. The last time revived a ranger but to be honest I just felt sorry for him downing so it was an act of solidarity.

[Sonork.2916]

I like roaming on the desert BL the most. Easier to find small amount of people to fight without getting as many added players wandering by. Also once you learn the layout it's the most interesting place to run around.

[XenesisII.1540]

Too much sand.

Too dull.

Who here likes desert themes? I don't.

Too much random vegetation about the size of your foot that stops you from moving, even having plants in the middle of well beaten pathways, I put a thread up to ask them to clean it up and they never did. https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/One-Annoyance-about-the-Desert-Borderland

Even random places where top of the stairs will stop you from moving with mount, check fire keep ramp to 2nd floor(smc 3rd fl ramp as well), or the side stairs in the fire lords room which was designed with two different sized stairs(I hope fire lord fired those builders after cause they did a terribad job with his keep!).

Too big, even the keeps are twice the size than they should be, and no one bothers to put up siege since it would be a pain to go around to refresh.

Too much mini capture places like shrines that serve little to no useful purpose, that one roamer can go around to quickly capture.

Structures too far apart, no connection so no real urgency to defend other than a way pointed keep.

In the beginning they had too much pve crap to deal with, players were fighting the map more than other players, everyone ran to ebg instead.

Even the way points were originally in the south towers, not the side keeps(making those worthless), and they couldn't get those to run right as enemies would be able to port into a tower they didn't own.

A middle event while cool in concept, lagged the entire map instead, and they obviously couldn't fix it.

Barriers designed to delay players from areas, but condi did basically no damage to, and required zergs to get through in decent time... in a map designed to break up zergs...

There are many cliff areas where you can't even gauge if it's safe to drop, while on alpines you can almost instantly tell and there's many mid cliffs to help.

Whole of other garbage discussed over and over in the old forums.

[Solanum.6983]

Personally I find roaming it alone or in small groups amazing. Overall it looks so much better than the other maps and is much more entertaining to fight on than the same flat ground with the same structures and the same lords on the other maps. It can get a little stale. But on the other hand I think that's why people don't play on it, it's not as familiar and requires more effort for the same reward.

 

My only issue with it is the size, I don't mind it being big I actually like that about it but Warclaw is too slow and traversing the map is a pain.

[Teratus.2859]

People saying Desert is too big are pretty much expressing why I hated the original maps before the Warclaw XD

Sloooooooowwww getting around but Warclaw helps that a lot now.

 

I like the Desert map personally, spent a good few hours on it today until everyone left and we got outnumbered and couldn't get anything done anymore.

Im hoping a new map will come with the next expansion and there will finally be no duplicate maps..

Alpine gets very dull after a while which makes sense if you've been playing on it for seven years.. and it doesnt help when you want a change of scenery and it's just the same map with a different spawn point.

Canthan themed WvW map would be awesome to have with the next expansion and I hope Anet do this and finally make every WvW map unique.

[DemonSeed.3528]

> @"Virdo.1540" said:

> We have seen this over the last couple of months, that nobody to very few players play on desert at all. Why is it like that? Do people level there slower?

 

What server? I play multiple servers/tier/both region, and red bl gets quite a bit of action where I play. What timezone too?

[Kovu.7560]

Nobody wants this to be their home map because they're forced to defend it and defending it is more difficult due to how far the objectives are from each other.

Also, I've died to fall damage on this map in the past 6 years more than I've died to Yaks Bend players since the launch of the game. Nothing quite like trying to glide somewhere around air or fire keeps just to have them flip on you mid flight. That crap doesn't happen on the alpine maps.

 

That said, a change of scenery every once in a while _is_ nice, and as an _attacker_ hitting the keeps on this map is more advantageous due to the weird terrain than on alpine which is more straight forward.

 

~ Kovu

[aspirine.6852]

> @"Teratus.2859" said:

> People saying Desert is too big are pretty much expressing why I hated the original maps before the Warclaw XD

> Sloooooooowwww getting around but Warclaw helps that a lot now.

>

> I like the Desert map personally, spent a good few hours on it today until everyone left and we got outnumbered and couldn't get anything done anymore.

> Im hoping a new map will come with the next expansion and there will finally be no duplicate maps..

> Alpine gets very dull after a while which makes sense if you've been playing on it for seven years.. and it doesnt help when you want a change of scenery and it's just the same map with a different spawn point.

> Canthan themed WvW map would be awesome to have with the next expansion and I hope Anet do this and finally make every WvW map unique.

 

Cantha map (s) would be awesome if anet can keep the idea of the original maps in tact. I for one think that garri, bay and some extend hills are better objects to fight in. The desert maps dont have that epic lord room fight in them because it is just open space and for me that is boring. Fire keep being the worst and stoic very close. The map may look good but it was a big waste of time and effort imo.

[Threather.9354]

From the top of my mind:

 

The keep and tower lords are overly complex and decide fights

 

The distances are little too long making coordination and having control as single group hard

 

The garri has only 3 gates and all treb spots are terrible chokes compared to south and north towers on alpine

 

ACs are unreachable by most part

 

Keeps are so big that there is massive information lockout and no matter how good of a scout you are, it takes you forever to relocate to other place of attack

 

The tower gate design is annoying: locked from 3 sides, can't reach cannons while ramming, 2 oils to take down instead of 1, can't see other side of gate

 

There is no entrace to lord rooms that doesn't include chokes. Cant even clear enemy siege before pushing like on alpine

 

Once you're at lord room and solidified you position as attacker, defenders can just keep pouring in due to all pillars, walls and height differences that keep them safe.

 

Gliding: more cliffs, more anticlimax endings

 

Enemies don't like it either so they don't play it, why would I play on map without enemies?

[knite.1542]

Because it is a big empty wasteland. The entire middle section could basically be removed.

[CrimsonNeonite.1048]

The other night, we were inside and outside the air keep and it was just a pain to fight around with all the chokepoints and terrain or obstacles around, along with obvious skill lag.

[thepenmonster.3621]

I'm glad it's empty. It makes it easier to go get ranger pets.

[Notsoperky.4291]

The way the vote was phrased was 'vote to keep desert map or we'll never develop another map for wvw ever'.

Turns out they haven't developed another map anyway but we got stuck with desert...which is basically a spare pve map that was 'adapted' for wvw (when it first came out no flying when it's obvious to everyone it was a map designed for it)...

[kamikharzeeh.8016]

the thing is, usually it is the last map people go onto. it's rarely sufficient scouted, often barely by the server who owns it. it gets ppt'd well by the most blobby server always, through all EU tiers. similarities to all maps: spawntowers get stolen constantly, keep ninja actions also get missed to spot quite often.

 

i disagree, it's not worse to fight in RBL than in all others. the alpine borders have so many unwalkable hills and other potential deathtraps, people just know them way better bc they are older. and i do not even know the original desert border, it probably was worse and felt too large since no running kitty, so many people didn't go there. but outside of the no-tower-trebbing thing, it has barely difference from other maps.