Players who enjoy or enjoyed Dark Age of Camelot’s realm vs. realm system will be overjoyed to learn of the “world vs. world” server battles that will be featured by Guild Wars 2. One of the best parts is that your character need not be level 80 to compete on an equal footing with others - the PC will automatically be boosted to 80 on the server.
According to systems designer Mike Ferguson on the ArenaNet Blog, ”We knew right away that we wanted three teams fighting against one another on a series of huge maps in the Mists (our world vs. world battleground) and that each team would be composed of an entire server full of players.”
Battles will involve battles of over 300 players spanning four maps in The Mists. There will be three “home” maps for each faction called “Borderlands”; factions on their own turf will have an advantage, of course. The central map where most of the conflict will take place is called The Eternal Battleground. “These are the largest maps we can make in Guild Wars 2, and we use as much space as we possibly can in order to accommodate over a hundred people from each server fighting on every map,” bragged Ferguson.
There are still player vs. environment battles to be had, even on a faction’s home turf. “When you first enter the Borderlands, you’ll notice several enormous keeps dotting the landscape,” stated Ferguson, who added, ”Taking a keep is no easy feat. Tough NPCs guard each keep, which are all surrounded by stout walls. You’ll have to make your way through sturdy gates before you even get a chance to try and defeat the lord protecting the keep.”
Players must come prepared, too, to take down a keep. ”You’ll have the ability to use siege weapons to tear through those walls and gates, but we’ll talk more about those in a bit. Once the keep lord is finally defeated, your force has to hold the keep for a short time before you claim it for your server. Once you capture a keep, all gates and walls are repaired, so don’t hold back your assaults in fear of damaging the structure. Tear down whatever you must to get inside.”
While these are difficult battles against purely AI defenders, players must do the same when trying to take an enemy’s keep with the added layer of having to deal with human enemies from the other faction to boot. To do that, gamers will the full array of seige weaponry to break a keep: Trebuchets, Arrow Carts, Catapults, Ballistae and Siege Golems.
Of course, these items don’t pop into existence. ”Resource camps create a universal resource called “supply,” and will periodically send out dolyak caravans that deliver supply to nearby allied towers and keeps. Supply can be used to build siege weapons, repair damaged walls, or purchase various upgrades… If there is no supply in the depot, you’ll need to escort a caravan so it can deliver more supply to the depot, or get some from a resource camp, since each camp regenerates supply over time.” Attacking players need the resources to build them and bring them to the siege, while defenders get their siege weaponry from caravans - which must be defended as well.
World vs. World battles are waged over the course of two full weeks, over which players accumulate a War Score. Players earn points by taking keeps, completing objectives, winning resources, and so on. ”At the end of each battle, every team is given a new ranking. Once a battle ends and team rankings are updated, servers are matched up based on their new ranking and a new battle commences. Downtime between these epic battles lasts only a few minutes—just long enough for us to tally the final scores, update the server rankings, and create new matches—so there’s almost always a battle for the Mists going on,” stated Ferguson.
Some objectives even include recruiting NPCs to help fight for you. ”For instance, you might help a group of ogres protect their camp against constant harpy assaults,” described Ferguson, ”In return, your new ogre allies will go rampaging toward the nearest enemy objective or send out patrols to help you hold on to your territory. These factions won’t fight for you indefinitely, but they can help turn the tide of battle, so you’d be wise to recruit their aid whenever possible!”
Finally, the World vs. World servers even include a Capture the Flag element with Orbs of Power. Each home map as well as The Eternal Battleground will have an Orb in a heavily guarded location called The Cradle of Power. These orbs grant bonuses to their owner, and are guarded by a world boss called The Keeper of the Orb. When players finally do wrest an Orb away from the Cradle, they only have a few minutes to place it on a friendly altar or it’ll teleport back to its original Cradle.
The Guild Wars 2 open beta begins in this Spring, and is expected to launch sometime later this year.
