Sea Battle... ground!

PVP Battlegrounds
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Hi! Want to discuss a battleground idea? I do! :slight_smile:
Here goes:

The Naval Battleground*
Two ships circling each other. One Horde (Zandalari?), one Alliance (Kul Tiran?). A team of players on each. Two cycling phases.

First up is the cannon phase: as the ships circle and bombard each other, they get closer. Eventually the ships connect and the boarding phase begins. After a time they detach, swim away and another cannon phase begins.

Phase 1: cannon phase
a) players work cannons underneath the deck to shoot their ammo at the enemy ship (at the right time and from the right side!)
b) players work the sails to evade enemy fire and catch their opponent faster
c) players put out any fires on their ship

Phase 2: boarding phase
a) players board the enemy ship by planks or swing over on ropes (ropes!)
b) atop the enemy deck players can set fire to enemy sails (easy to do, easy to put out)
c) players can push below the enemy deck to try to sabotage some of the opposing teamā€™s cannons (harder, but lasts an entire phase)
d) below deck, players can also steal their ammunition (even harder, but permament)
e) players need to prevent the enemy team from doing the same

The Naval Battleground* continues until one team manages to sink the enemy teamā€™s ship or one of the ships runs out of ammunition.

*ground not included

So, what do you think? :slight_smile:

2 Likes
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Blizzard dont care at all about pvp community. Years passed and 0 new battleground expect the rng Seething shore, and they listed in to the rated battleground maps XDā€¦

Why do you think they start to do anything now? The lfg is die out atm.

1 Like
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I like the boarding the boats part etc, novel but ā€˜couldā€™ be a lot of fun and interesting,

Not ā€˜on boardā€™ (sorry) with the initial phase, as its not massively PVP and is a bit too PVE vehicle-style. At least for my taste.

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Sorry but we already have vehicle vs player and cannon vs player and all that stuff.
We donā€™t really need boat vs player.

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I suppose the cannon phase does feel like a downtime phase (read: boring phase ;]). What do you think could make it more interesting?

Or if thereā€™s just the boarding phase - how could we prevent it from becoming a everyone-just-fights-in-one-spot situation? :smiley:

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Sorry for the slow reply!

Presuming itā€™s on some sort of reasonably urgent time limit, it could be that it is a requirement of each team to actual do the missions of sabotaging ammo, cannons and also implenting ship damage to sails/lifeboat/stealing enemy plans or maps etc.

Maybe combining some of the aspects that you were talking about in Phase 1?

If players fight at one area/resource it would be at the expense of others, so teams would have to split or face a loss from the more coordinated team. A bit like with Seething Shore?

If that makes sense.

We do need more BGs, I love them! Thereā€™s no reason why Blizz couldnā€™t do a ship vs ship, locked together by planks, ropes and grappling hooks, it could be amazing!

1 Like
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Both phases active at once then, pretty much?

It does sound more exciting - in this way itā€™s the players who decide when to board/retreat making the whole thing more dynamic and responsive. I like it :slight_smile:

Resources are usually what promotes doing objectives - one of the teams will eventually run out of their ammo. Once it ends, whichever ships had more hp left stays afloat, the other sinks. During the fight players need to both defend their ammo and fire it while constantly fighting.

So letā€™s sum up what we have so far:

Two ships stuck together. Two teams fighting on top and below both decks, firing cannons at the enemy. Each ship has a finite amount of hit points and ammo.

The ammo is a kind of timer and there is one per ship. The ammo timers ā€œtickā€ by either being fired or stolen. Stealing enemy ammo prevents them from firing it. You win by dealing more damage than youā€™ve sustained before either of the ammo ā€œtimersā€ runs out.

You deal damage through cannons and by assaulting objectives atop the enemy deck (burning sails, stealing plans, throwing the steering wheel overboard, drawing a mustache on the captainā€™s wifeā€™s portrait). Cannon fire uses up ammo but deals sustained, heavy damage. Setting fire to points on the enemy deck deals a small amount of ongoing damage that needs to be actively stopped.

Tactics?

You canā€™t just zerg the enemy ship, because while youā€™re there - so are they, and they can fire their cannons while fighting you. So you need to keep some people back home, working your own cannons.

Thereā€™s no point keeping everybody home, though, as there is a limited number of cannons. You need to man them all to keep the pressure on the enemy team, but once theyā€™re filled, the rest of the team needs to occupy themselves elsewhere. Some will chose to defend the ammo, some will steal enemy ammo. Some will harass the enemy deck forcing them to split up and put out fires upstairs, weakening their defense below deck where the ammo is. Some will have to prevent the enemy from doing the same.

How many players will each team commit to each key point?
Interesting balance challenge :exploding_head:

Sounds awesome to me!
But how do we make it BETTER!? :thinking:
Can it be cheesed? :cheese: How do we prevent that?

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man :rofl:

We just got a new BG after 5 yearsā€¦!! :joy::rofl:

Which means the next BG will come in 2024 :rofl::joy:

Dont even start to discuss ++new++ idea with Blizzard devā€¦

Imagine making millions of $$$ and in 10+ years of WOW pvp we only have 2 outdated epic Battleground with PS1 graphicsā€¦:crazy_face:

Do you really think they gonna listen to the forum and any ideas hereā€¦:rofl::joy:

Keep dreaming boys and :joy::joy: waiting :rofl::rofl:

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Love it, surprisingly.

Blizzard, do this. Do this right now.

1 Like
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We are such stuff
As dreams are made on :slight_smile:

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Consider discussing a new battleground idea on a battleground discussion forum? Pretty mad imo :rofl: :sunglasses:

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This is a fair point - we already had Strand of the Ancients and Blizzard decided to let it go in BFA. Reading the comments on Wowhead I found people disliked:

  • the fact there were two separate rounds,
  • complicated win conditions that lead to stalemates,
  • vehicle/cannon combat and carrying bombs

How do we tackle those concerns? :thinking:

Two separate rounds
Easy fix. We simply stick with one phase and let players move freely between ships! Next!

Complicated win conditions
When objectives get complicated people tend to just gather up in the center and brawl away, ignoring them. While true for at least a few other battlegrounds, this problem also has a solution - sudden death mechanics that prevent stalemates (like Warsong Gulch and Alterac Valley). In this case itā€™s the ammo ā€œtimersā€ that will eventually run out. Also if people zerg you can simply let them chase you into your base and win by firing cannons while defending and respawning closeby.

Vehicle/cannon combat and carrying bombs
More complicated to address, this being a ship battle. I think the cannons shouldnā€™t be vehicles, just something you click and it fires over time if you stand close to it for the duration. There needs to be a delay so one player canā€™t spam-fire them all alone. We canā€™t have players carry the ammo themselves to the cannon for that delay though, since people specifically disliked carrying bombs in Strand of the Ancients. Maybe an npc comes to load it and fire it, youā€™re just there to protect it? This way you can fight off the attackers while firing, which is the core idea. But it also still requires one person per cannon so itā€™s still a team effort.

What do you think?
Does the above solve the issues Strand of the Ancients suffered from? What would you change to make it better?

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