Curse

I Will Heal You Ally · Mar 29, 2007, 11:29 AM // 11:29

Well if they can't add more maps and stuff they should at least shorten the duration of one map... I hate current days when Grenz is ALWAYS on = no faction for Luxon and no fun on our side since we lose there a lot. And I asume Kurzicks lose in Keys too so a frequent AB map change would be nice

bungusmaximus · Mar 29, 2007, 11:34 AM // 11:34

Hehe giving players the opportunity to form their own 12 ppl team would piss a lot of people off IMO. It's sexy but you can't replace the current AB format with it because it would kill PvP for casual players. No casual PvP = no fresh blood in TA, HA or GvG but just the same old vets all over again. What I would like is having the choice between the two. As for the maps, theres 5 maps and only one is properly balanced. If theres anything wrong with AB it's that IMO, no fun starting a game with a 75% loss probability.

-Loki- · Mar 29, 2007, 12:18 PM // 12:18

Quote:

What could they be missing?

A decent playerbase.

bungusmaximus · Mar 29, 2007, 12:34 PM // 12:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by -Loki-

A decent playerbase.

There's plenty of PvP formats with a decent player base already, go there if you want a challenge.
Besides, AB is lots of fun if you bring 4 decent players yourself, it really makes a big difference. Why whine about AB being a scrub-fest and do nothing about it? Besides, good players don't get any satisfaction from the woefully imbalanced maps in AB. Guru would be full of whine threads if one of the maps in HA would be like grenth's frontier or Kaanai canyon.

lyra_song · Mar 29, 2007, 02:57 PM // 14:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by bungusmaximus

Hehe giving players the opportunity to form their own 12 ppl team would piss a lot of people off IMO. It's sexy but you can't replace the current AB format with it because it would kill PvP for casual players. No casual PvP = no fresh blood in TA, HA or GvG but just the same old vets all over again. What I would like is having the choice between the two. As for the maps, theres 5 maps and only one is properly balanced. If theres anything wrong with AB it's that IMO, no fun starting a game with a 75% loss probability.

Not replace.

Add.

Team AB (make a full team of 12 yourself)

RA AB (What we have now)

As for map balance, im thinking the Team mode to have increasingly difficult maps for you the more wins in a row you have.

1st Battle - Saltspray
2nd Battle - Etnaran or Grenz
3rd battle - Kaanai or Ancestral

If you lose a battle, and your team hasnt changed, you can re-enter and enter a battle with YOUR advantage.

erk · Mar 30, 2007, 12:06 AM // 00:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by lyra_song

All AB needs is a full 12-team mode, and it will be properly envigorated into a REAL pvp format.

Probably not a 12v12 team, but the ability to select two other parties of 4 as allies would achieve that but also leave it open to play the current way.

I think there should be 7 maps, two additional maps that go either side of Saltspray so their are not as deep into either territory, I notice it's much harder to get in when the maps are swung away from Saltspray. I play Kurzick and Luxon so I have seen both points of view often.

Also an AB ladder that shows the current faction for say the top 100 Alliances, would be a no brainer to add as the current totals for each alliance/guild are already calculated, just need somewhere for it to be sorted and displayed. Even a web page would do which updates every few hours, doesn't need to have a game code mod.

Sujoy · Mar 30, 2007, 02:33 AM // 02:33

When a guild only takes you because of your potential factions per day count, you might as well be considered a bot.

I hate the point of using Factions to own a town, because good healthy guilds will never get to receive that title, because they're activities don't revolve only around 24/7 ABing.

Now that being said, in the true words of Gildan Bladeborn :

See, I've always viewed guilds as a mechanism for communication and collaboration, not as something I can join to kick my personal status up a notch or two. I can understand leaving an alliance that never gets anything done and barely communicates, but leaving because we can't point out which town we control (in a campaign that the bulk of us aren't even playing) seems rather shallow.

If you're part of that regime, no wonder you hate AB.

zelic · Mar 30, 2007, 02:51 AM // 02:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by lyra_song

Not replace.

Add.

Team AB (make a full team of 12 yourself)

RA AB (What we have now)

As for map balance, im thinking the Team mode to have increasingly difficult maps for you the more wins in a row you have.

1st Battle - Saltspray
2nd Battle - Etnaran or Grenz
3rd battle - Kaanai or Ancestral

If you lose a battle, and your team hasnt changed, you can re-enter and enter a battle with YOUR advantage.

Also, For the more consecutive wins you get, your Kurzick/Luxon Faction gain doubles. However that would mean increasing the Faction Cap limit. 10k limit with a few consec can be filled very quickly.

samcobra · Mar 30, 2007, 04:04 AM // 04:04

By the way, the problem with Alliance Battle is that its basically a bunch of PvE scrubs who tab around till they find a group, and go in there with their PvE dolyak signet, mending, riposte builds and their stupid other builds and actually get encouraged because the opponents are also pve scrubs that behave just like AI mobs, including aggro patterns, etc. If there was actually organized 12v12 party groups, with people on vent, etc. AB would become a potential for an actual PvP form. My idea is to have an Alliance Vs. Alliance ladder where you can only form teams from your alliance, and pit them in large AB-style maps against other teams that were similarly formed in a comptitive arena. Also, shrine bonuses should be universal, especially those stupid ward shrines. They're pretty useless as is and are only capped for the point values. And btw, 12 person spike would OWN so hardcore. However, AB point values encourage split, so I think the game mechanics would be quite interesting.

Shuuda · Mar 30, 2007, 10:49 PM // 22:49

Things to make AB better:

1: Add more even maps, makes it fair, but I think saltspray isn't that good.
2: Make the border effect things more drasically, maybe if your a Kurzick in Luxon territory, you get attacked by Luxon mobs, and the other way around if your luxon. And have big parties in the capitial if your side is doing very well in the war, and more.

Div · Mar 31, 2007, 12:38 PM // 12:38

AB is a lot more fun when playing with people you know. If you go with random groups, it can get boring very fast, especially after you've farmed like 50k for the day...

The Daemon Warrior · Apr 02, 2007, 05:57 PM // 17:57

I like AB, for some reason i prefer playing on maps that favor the Kuzicks rather than Luxon though (mez luxon) :O
But anyway i think AB is fine as it is though that idea of Sunspears vs. Kournans was really cool as well

(gives some more variation if ur bored with the Luxon vs. Kuzick battles)

Quote:

I don't have any hopes for it happening with GW1, but I'm really hoping that they make world battles really large scale

Read in an interview that they are gonna make a World vs. World PvP battle in GW2. From what they said u could play with hundred(s?) people at the same time, so that would be awsome

3 or 4 leavers won't mind that much either that way

jon0592 · Apr 26, 2007, 12:43 AM // 00:43

For the last few weeks I have tried and tried to get all 12 kurzicks and all 12 luxons to meet at one point at one time to have an ACTUAL alliance battle. But, it's never happened...

Because of lore, this is impossible but it would be nice to have some NF-style AB maps. Maybe fighting in the Kodash Bazar? Gandara?

P.S. Alliance Battle is REALLY boring when its Grenz. I hate that place because its simply so dark...and gothic... unlike the bright Beach and Keys!

Shendaar · Apr 26, 2007, 07:49 PM // 19:49

I think all the maps should be fair. I wouldn't mind if it was always Saltspray, atleast winning actually means that you really did do better than the other team.

Syntonic · Apr 27, 2007, 08:02 PM // 20:02

I think it's fairly obvious which side -really- won on an unbalanced map normally. There are plenty times our side won a map that's favoured for us but I recognized we would have lost on any other map that wasn't stacked in our favour. In short, I'd rather keep the unbalanced maps but rather seek changes that would address differing pvp skill levels so the imbalances wouldn't be so huge. I don't think the meta should become a 12 man spike/gimmick scrubfest though. It's hard to say simply that having wide open spaces and plenty of shrines will counter this if people were allowed to choose the teams they enter with.

In the short term though, I'd support quicker map changes before pushing for more drastic changes. I would like some way of knowing the other teams you enter with were halfway decent somehow though without being able to specifically choose them. I don't expect people to ever consider AB too seriously till changes are made; even I have a hard time ABing as much as I do.

b-M-d · May 03, 2007, 02:34 PM // 14:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Corinthian

I agree, the grouping was the worst mistake ever.

Actually, the grouping isn't bad, its just that lots of groups get split up and so on, I think they should mix up the types of battle, just like in RA, changing what you need to do to win, like when you have to get more kills than the other team, or by elimination, aside from the normal AB with caps and so on...That would make ab VERY fun, groups or no groups

Riotgear · May 03, 2007, 02:51 PM // 14:51

How can AB be "flopping" when one of the biggest complaints about it is being unable to start a game due to overloaded servers?

All they really need to do is let players select the other two teams they join with. Formats can not be competitive when the good players are forced to group with retards. When complete quality control over a team's players is possible, then player quality will improve fast.

The only problem is that Anet seems quite intent on letting Cantha simply die. Not to say Aspenwood's viable, but it's been the same glitchy POS map since launch. Hero Battles have much less potential as a viable format than AB, yet are getting significantly more attention to push Nightfall sales.

Div · May 10, 2007, 01:02 PM // 13:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Riotgear

How can AB be "flopping" when one of the biggest complaints about it is being unable to start a game due to overloaded servers?

All they really need to do is let players select the other two teams they join with. Formats can not be competitive when the good players are forced to group with retards. When complete quality control over a team's players is possible, then player quality will improve fast.

The only problem is that Anet seems quite intent on letting Cantha simply die. Not to say Aspenwood's viable, but it's been the same glitchy POS map since launch. Hero Battles have much less potential as a viable format than AB, yet are getting significantly more attention to push Nightfall sales.

Anet plans to keep AB a noobfest filled with wammos running around with healing hands and deadly riposte. Go elsewhere if you're looking for serious pvp, AB is meant for pvers to get a "taste" of pvp and for experienced pvp'ers to have some fun killing mindless people. I'm not too worried about having a bad player quality base, since AB wasn't designed to have a high level of competition anyways.

And I thought there aren't battles because 80% of the alliances are kurzick? Every time I go into kurzick side I see like 10 groups, and about 2 groups in luxon side waiting to enter.

Blame the Monks · May 10, 2007, 01:17 PM // 13:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by holymasamune

And I thought there aren't battles because 80% of the alliances are kurzick? Every time I go into kurzick side I see like 10 groups, and about 2 groups in luxon side waiting to enter.

That's correct. The full servers crap is misinformation that has been corrected hundreds of times.

Quote:

Originally Posted by holymasamune

AB is meant for pvers to get a "taste" of pvp and for experienced pvp'ers to have some fun killing mindless people. I'm not too worried about having a bad player quality base, since AB wasn't designed to have a high level of competition anyways.

But it could have been. It could have been the offensive, frag fest alternative to HA's defensive, holding spike. Not having to worry about res or DP could have created a really fun offensive arena. Imagine how awesome it would be to fight with 12 guildmates in a free flowing, splittable, offensive map? AB certainly had a lot more potential than HvH or RA.

But by creating random parties, they basically made it so one good team couldn't ensure a win. By making it so winning was based on luck (who randomly appears on your team and how dumb they are) as much as skill, they reduced the incentive to try hard. This further increased the attraction to farmers and retards, because they more they play the more they win, despite their flaws, just due to dumb luck.

And that's what screwed over AB -- winning isn't based on skill.

JoeKnowMo · May 10, 2007, 10:46 PM // 22:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blame the Monks

Imagine how awesome it would be to fight with 12 guildmates in a free flowing, splittable, offensive map? AB certainly had a lot more potential than HvH or RA.

I'm all for an AB mode for GvG in addition to the current (random) AB mode. It would be fun to observe good guilds/alliances on an AB map.

However, I don't want to see the current AB system changed. Sure, it's random and chaotic and often noobish. But it's one of two casual pvp arenas left along with FA. RA is not so casual anymore thanks to glad points, sync entering, and leave if no monk/guildies/friends.

Last thing I want to see in an AB is a recognizable guild tag. Leave the AB to us scrubs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by holymasamune

Every time I go into kurzick side I see like 10 groups, and about 2 groups in luxon side waiting to enter.

You check on the Kurz side and then get an invite to a Lux alliance so you can check on the Lux side each time you do this?

I'm a lux and there's always enough of us to get a game going. Could be the times I play. The wait gets a little long once we get up to 3 districts on the lux side.