Feedback:User/Guild Wars 3 perhaps/Escort the Sapper in WvWvW

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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.


This is a suggestion to add an "Escort-the-X" mission as a means of scoring war points in WvWvW. This is referred to by different names in various games; escort duty, payload, defend the X, etc.


Each team in WvWvW will have one totem in their borderlands which are present at the very beginning of a 2-week WvWvW match. These may or may not add points to the owning team's war score every 5 minutes just like a captured resource camp, tower, or keep. The difference being they don't have to be captured; they are owned by the team in whose territory they exist and can not be captured by an opposing team.


However, they can be destroyed. In so doing, they will deprive the owning team of the points the totem was generating (if this option is added) and they will score points for the team that manages to destroy the totem. Since these totems are of the Mists and protected by powerful magics, they can't be destroyed by just anyone; that's where the Asura Sapper comes in.


The Asura Sapper will be a NPC who is present in a team's home base. Actually, there will be two of them; one each for attacking the two opposing teams' totems.


Talking to either NPC will reveal the background story of the totems and his or her request that the player assist the Sappers in destroying them. The Sappers will explain that - having made an extensive study of the Mists - they've devised a means for destroying the totems using a special bomb or device created by them. The drawback is the bomb or device is very unstable (it is Asura technology, afterall). It must be charged up prior to departing the home base and the charge will only last a certain amount of time. If the totem is not reached before this time limit runs out, the bomb or device is rendered inert and the Sappers must return to the home base to build another one.


If, on the other hand, the bomb or device is delivered to the totem before the charge expires, it detonates, destroying the totem. A successful completion of the mission scores war points for the team that blew up the totem (and deprives the opposing team of the points they were receiving from the totem if this option is added).


Players who speak to the Sappers are given an option to join the krewe. Krewe members are granted access to the temporary waypoints the Sappers periodically construct along their path to the totems. As the Sapper builds a new waypoint, the previous one is removed from the map. These waypoints last only for as long as the charge on the bomb or device lasts; they dissipate when the bomb or device loses its charge or the target totem is destroyed. These temporary waypoints permit defeated players participating in this mission to rapidly return to a point near the Sapper to continue their escort duty. This saves them from having to run all the way back from one of the permanent - but more distant - waypoints; which would waste precious time.


The Sapper himself or herself, along with their bomb or device, is immune to damage by virtue of a special forcefield they've constructed which draws upon the energies of the Mists (sorry, won't work back in Tyria). However, they need the players' assistance to push the cart in which the bomb or device is being transported. Yes, that's right; the players are serving as nothing more than pack animals for the Asura Sappers. What else would you expect from an Asura? Why didn't they bring servitor golems to do the heavy lifting, you ask? Asura Sappers can't be bothered by such trivial questions; there's totems to blow up! Get to it!!!


Naturally, the opposing team will want to stop the bomb or device from reaching its totem. This will lead to a running fire fight across the WvWvW map as the teams race against the clock. Any player from either side can jump into or out of this mission/dynamic event at any time.


Some of the mechanics listed out:


  • This mission would reset at periodic intervals. If an opposing team's totem is intact, it could be set so that every hour the Asura Sapper will have completed the construction of a new bomb or device and be ready for another escort by the players who wish to participate.


  • If a totem is destroyed, the Asura Sapper may do a little dance over the smoldering wreckage before using a personal teleporter to zap back to the home base.


  • If the bomb or device is not delivered to a totem before its charge runs out, the Asura Sapper will throw the now-useless device on the ground, stomp around in circles yelling about how much time and effort it takes to build a bomb or device (peppered with plenty of Asura technobabble), and then - with a look of disgust at the escorting players - teleport back to the home base.


  • A totem which has been destroyed can either be rebuilt by the owning team (using supply and/or gathered resources; perhaps some that are rather rare, even) or will naturally regenerate within a certain period of time; maybe an hour.


  • The path the Asura Sapper takes will vary each time. This prevents the opposing side from knowing the route from past experience and setting up defenses and ambushes in advance. Now, this doesn't necessarily mean the path is randomized every time (if that proves too difficult to program and/or to guarantee that the Sapper will be able to accurately path to the desired destination). It may be the case that there are five (plus or minus) set paths that the Asura Sapper can choose from in an effort to reach a totem. The Sapper will randomly choose one of these paths each time they set out on a mission.


If the set-path-option is chosen, then the devs should design the paths to have multiple intersections, convergences, and divergences with each other. If each path was wholly unique with no intersections or convergences, it would be very easy for an enemy player to discern which path the Sapper will take based on previous experience and observing whether the Sapper turns left or right (for example) as they exit their home base. Then we're back to the enemy building defenses and ambushes in advance, again. By making the paths intersect and converge, there won't be any way for an enemy to predict with 100% certainty which path the Sapper will take. They may be able to narrow it down to two or three of the five paths, but they won't be able to refine their guess any further based on observation of the Sapper's initial direction alone.


It may even be the case that each time the Asura Sapper comes to an intersection between two or more of the set paths, they will choose a new path at random. For example, the Asura Sapper leaves the home base following the route of path #1. They come to an intersection where portions of path #1, path #4, and path #5 converge. Instead of automatically continuing down path #1, the Asura Sapper will randomly choose which path to continue down from the three available choices. Perhaps they choose path #4. A little further on, path #4 intersects with path #2 and path #5. The Asura Sapper will, again, randomly choose which path to take. By adding this mechanic, the devs can lay out set paths so as to avoid the potential difficulty of programming the Asura Sapper to take a truly random path to the totem. Meanwhile, there will still be a decent amount of randomness to the path the Asura Sapper chooses.


  • For the bomb or device to move forward requires that the escorting players be within adjacent or nearby proximity to the cart. It doesn't have to be the case that they are physically pushing the cart. Being Asura technology, the "cart" taps into the momentum of whatever the Sapper has imprinted it with to propel it forward. Carrying such a heavy load, it needs more momentum than a small Asura can provide to keep it in motion; thus the need for a party of large Bookahs.


The more players "pushing" the cart, the faster it will go. This gives them incentive to stay close to the cart and act as active escorts. Of course, it's all relative; the cart will still move very slowly in comparison to players' movement speed; even when the cart has reached its maximum velocity.


  • If there are no allied players within range of the cart, it stops its forward motion. The Asura Sapper also stops and waits - impatiently - for the players to return to pushing the cart; even while a fight rages around him or her. Protected as they are by their forcefields, the Sappers look upon the life-and-death combat over the cart's progress as a minor and distracting annoyance.


  • Attacking an Asura Sapper will result in them giggling or disdainfully dismissing the attacker(s). Statements such as, "Oh, stop! That tickles!!!", or, "Please...is that really the best you can do!?!?", or, "Ooooh...that last shot actually caused a 1% increase in forcefield energy consumption. Keep trying, sunshine!", will issue from the Asura.


  • Constructing siege weapons, palisade walls (per one of my previous suggestions), turrets, or any other obstacle in the path of the cart in an effort to slow or stop its progress will not work. The cart's forcefield will simply obliterate any object in its way. This focuses the mission on the players - both the defenders and the attackers - rather than on the cart or the Asura NPC. The defenders must keep the cart moving forward while avoiding defeat at the hands of the enemy; otherwise it will cost them precious time having to respawn, jump through a temporary waypoint, and run to catch up to the cart. The attackers must try to kill the cart's player escort; doing so is the only way to stop the forward progress of the cart.


  • At periodic intervals the Asura Sapper and cart will come to a stop; even in the presence of escorting players. The Sapper will then construct a new temporary waypoint which will take a few seconds to complete. A previously built waypoint will then dissipate. Alternately, it's all the same waypoint portal; the Sapper simply teleports it to their current location. When the mission ends - either through the destruction of the target totem or the charge on the bomb or device runs out (timer expires) - any temporary waypoint constructed by the Sapper will disappear.


  • Players participating in this event will see a timer counting down in the upper right corner of the screen where dynamic event progress is displayed.


It may be the case that at each interval where the Asura Sapper stops to construct a temporary waypoint, additional time is added to the countdown. This gives the escorts mini-goals to work towards while pushing the cart.


  • It may be a good idea to also show a little icon of the cart on the world map so players - both friend and foe - can rapidly locate it.


  • Not yet sure how to handle the situation with the attackers not having a similar waypoint mechanic as the cart's defenders. In other words, if the attackers don't have extra temporary waypoints of their own near to the location of the advancing cart, they will be forced to use the pre-existing permanent waypoints that are accessible to them. This may lead to a respawn at some great distance from the cart; a decided disadvantage for the attackers. Maybe the counter is the Asura Sappers on that team come out to assist the attackers by building temporary waypoints of their own. I'm certainly open to suggestions, though, of how best to solve this potential problem.


As with the other suggestions in this series, this is another means of adding a scoring mechanic to the WvWvW map that doesn't rely on zerg mobs assaulting gates ad nauseum in an effort to capture towers and keeps. It also gets the combat out of a static mode which revolves entirely around the location of the gates and, instead, makes it dynamic by forcing it to move across the map in a running fire-fight. This leads to the need for both sides to constantly adapt their strategy and tactics to the changing terrain, situation, and remaining time as compared to spamming their skills against a wooden gate for 10 minutes while standing relatively still.


Thank you for reading.


Guild Wars 3 perhaps 01:58, 3 July 2012 (UTC)

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