Feedback:User/Guild Wars 3 perhaps/Palisades in WvWvW
Palisades in WvWvW | |
|---|---|
| User | Guild Wars 3 perhaps |
| Categories | Player vs. Player Mechanics |
Go here to see a list of my other GW2 suggestions and discussion contributions.
This suggestion goes hand-in-hand with my previous suggestion, Alternative Scoring in WvWvW. It is part of a series which explores ways in which the depth of play, strategy, and tactics can be increased in WvWvW.
I'm suggesting the addition of wooden palisades to WvWvW. These could be constructed by players in the same way the current siege weapons are constructed; they buy blueprints and gather supply.
Each palisade would be relatively small; just high and wide enough to cover a single Norn or an arrow cart, at most. However, multiple palisades could be constructed side-by-side to form a wall of any shape the builder wishes.
The palisades would have a multitude of uses:
- They could bolster existing walls and defenses of the towers and keeps.
- They could add some minor defense to the currently defenseless resource camps.
- They could be used to create several makeshift walls-within-walls or a maze to slow an enemy advance.
- They could be used to provide some defense to a siege weapon built out in the open rather than behind the walls of a tower or keep.
- They could be used to block a choke point, forcing an enemy to have to destroy the palisade before continuing their advance. The players/team that build such blockades must be careful; the palisades will block their movement, as well.
- They could be built to provide cover to players in the field assaulting a tower or keep or otherwise engaging other players in combat.
- They could be used to create a makeshift command post that provides some cover for field commanders.
- An Engineer could build four walls in a square with a slight gap for a "door", set up a healing turret inside, and now there's an aid station that provides some cover for the wounded.
I don't know the hitpoints of the walls of a tower or keep. However, the palisades should have considerably less than that amount; they're makeshift structures, quickly assembled for moderate defense where none exists. Furthermore, they will protect against direct fire from weapon skills, utility skills, arrow carts, balista, and cannons. However, they will be less effective against the ballistic trajectories of catapults, mortars, and trebuchets whose projectiles can be fired over the palisade and practically useless against boiling oil poured down from atop a wall. It may even be the case that they can be set on fire. The trade-off is they are cheap and quick to build.
Since trebuchets require 100 supply to build, I feel palisades should require considerably less; 5 or 10 supply, for example. This would permit a single player to construct one or two palisade walls before needing to gather more supply (since players can carry 10 supply at a time); a reasonable amount.
Lastly, as a means to prevent griefers from building palisades to intentionally block their own teammates from accessing certain points or have free ingress/egress through an area (blockading a tower or keep portal, for example), palisades can be picked up and moved to a new location by anyone on the team that built them. While moving a palisade, a player's movement is slowed and their skill bar is locked out.
This will add additional strategic and tactical options to WvWvW.
Thank you for reading.
Guild Wars 3 perhaps 23:51, 2 July 2012 (UTC)
Update[edit]
To prevent griefers from blockading specific locations - preventing other players access to those points - simply add a restriction on where palisades can be built. For example, no palisade can be built within a certain radius of a portal granting access to towers and keeps or no palisade can be built in such a manner as to block access to or from an Asura Portal. I'm sure there already exist such limiters for the siege weapons in the game; no one is permitted to build an arrow cart blocking a portal, for example. Simply apply the same code to the palisades.
Of course, where we run into a problem is - since palisades can be built side-by-side - what happens if a griefer builds far enough away from a restricted zone that they are permitted to build their palisade. They then construct a contiguous wall encircling the point in question, effectively blocking it. For example, an Asura Portal may not permit palisades within 20 feet of it. However, this wouldn't stop a griefer from building an encircling palisade wall with a radius of 30 feet all the way around the portal; now it is blocked off. Of course, palisades aren't that strong; players could blast through the encircling wall without too much effort. Still, it could become an annoyance; some means of countering this would need to be developed.
I do make a distinction between the behavior described above and proper strategic use of palisades for blockading an enemy. For example, building palisades on a bridge to deny the enemy ease of movement I consider to be a completely legitimate use of this mechanic. One could argue the same logic would apply to blockading a tower or keep portal. The distinction, though, is with the blockading of the bridge, players are not prevented from getting to the other side; they just have to take an alternate - and likely, longer - route to get there.. Blockading a tower or keep portal, on the other hand, cuts players off from the only means of gaining access to that tower or keep; this use of the palisade would be completely inappropriate.
In practice, I don't see it being a real serious problem since palisades are modular and relatively weak; one or two shots from a trebuchet should be able to destroy every palisade within its AoE, for example. Destroying a single palisade unit to blow a hole in a wall won't take anywhere near the time or effort required to take down a gate or wall of a tower or keep. However, a determined griefer or group of griefers with OCD could build enough layers of walls to either entrap players coming through a portal or block players from gaining access to the portal. It is this kind of poor sportsmanship that I'm identifying as a potential problem to which we would need a solution. How does ArenaNet plan to deal with someone who would use Arrow Carts or some other siege weapon built side-by-side to form an effective barrier? Whatever solution they have for that abuse may apply to the palisade walls, as well.
Thank you for reading.
Guild Wars 3 perhaps 22:13, 16 July 2012 (UTC)
