My Little Toybox of Ideas

[Pawlegance.7012]

The announcement of the new expansion lit a fire in me. It rekindled my passion for this game and I get a lot of ideas for this game. This thread is about some of them which I've been toying with.

 

**Captures Nodes and Graphs**

GW2 is heavily based on capture nodes. They are used in all formats, pve, spvp and wvw. However there is no interplay between them. They just sit there acting as a task, an objective. I propose to integrate them into graphs on some maps or sections of a map. Players (and monsters) are guided by the graph's edges which results in moving and shifting frontlines. Some nodes must be captured to advance, some act as side-objectives aside the frontline. Capture nodes could then be classified and fortified according to their importance to the push. One or more capture nodes act as winning condtion(s). This adds tension and climax to a campaign.

 

**Underwater Combat**

Underwater combat feels disconnected from the main game. Players rarely spend their time underwater and if they do, their skill bar, skill rotation etc change dramatically when entering it. This alienates players and renders some content void. Since line of sight and breaking los play an integral part in the game and movement feels so different from the rest of the game, there are a couple of changes and additions which could "save" this content.

-Add water currents. When players move inside a current they move like on land. Water currents intersect each other which makes it possible to traverse most of a water body like a land map but limited by the web of currents. Players can leave a current with a press of a button and automatically enter one when they swim inside.

-Add obstacles to water currents. Like on land, these obstacles can be used to move around and change positions during combat.

-Enable regular weapons for underwater. Add underwater weapons to the regular arsenal.

-Change all area of effect shapes to 3 dimensional shapes. No circles, but spheres, cubes etc.

 

**Messy Combat**

GW2 doesn't know what it wants to be. RPG or shooter. Is it fast or slow paced? I'd argue vanilla was slow paced, with every expac it got faster. With the introduction of mounts and availability of increased movement and increased attack speed buffs, the world got smaller and combat ever faster. Invulnerability got even more import at the same time damage output increased dramatically. The way to go is to stun and kill the target, leaving little room for counter play. You are not allowed to give your opponent some space, because they are quick to recover. This is similar to modern shooters which quick self-healing capabilties for players out of combat. Decision making is reduced to do-or-die. On the other hand, there are bunker builds which draw out fights, fighting bunkers feels boring and unrewarding, bunkers feel out of place. There is no middle ground, only extremes.

 

I'd argue, that combat in GW2 actually wants to be more tactical. In order to make it feel more tactical, I propose to slow down recovery times and turn invulnerability into damage mitigation. Dodge feels like a low skill-high reward escape. Of course you need to time it right to escape danger, but it negates all danger. Instead I would like to promote the repositioning aspect of dodge. In Unreal Tournament dodge is used both offensively and defensively, in LoL same story. In both games quick movement is used to make plays and counter plays. In GW2 it is just used defensively. If dodge should be used to reposition yourself, skill ceiling increases and it plays more tactically. Additionally, invulnerability and movement speed led to numerous aoe skills. If aoe skills were reduced in size and number GW2 becomes more readable and clarity improves.

 

In GW2, players are quick to recover from damage. This makes it easier to recover from mistakes and improves flow, but reduces downtime from fights and reduces viable plays. This is the reason why GW2 only promotes one position in combat and one way: in your opponent's face. There is no poking, no softening up. Become a death ball and roll over the opposition. There is no war of attrition. In GW1, fights depend on the energy of monks in your team, in mobas and rpgs, fights depend on your health bar, in GW2, fights depend on time. You must be quick to kill. I'd love if we could follow the way mobas and rpgs do it. Make health your biggest resource, and costly for you alone to get it back. This change could also improve the trinity of damage, support and control.

 

 

 

I hope some of these ideas make sense to you.

[artcreator.4859]

I like the underwater content idea,

 

I'm a little unsure of what you mean by the currents, but the underwater content does need an update. New underwater obstacles to hide behind would help a lot.

 

I like the idea of underwater weapons and regular weps being the same, as it would help a lot of players bridge the gap, and letting us use the underwater weps on land. But I'm unsure of how they'd make the AoE work, because they'd be no way for them to land anywhere in space underwater. Maybe if they make the AoE's automatically hit the enemy your targeting on.