Armaggedon's coming!

I have an itch to expand our Battleground options.  I think battlegrounds are best, both for size and availability to the average gamer.  Here’s what would be required, and the way I would love them to play out.

Ingredients:

Required:

• A minimum of two new battlegrounds
• A new level of flight training
• New battleground specific mounts/vehicles
• NPC targets

Aerial combat

This idea spawned from the joy I get from flying into the Caverns of Time and my desire to race my carpet in there… Which really has nothing to do with combat, but I think CoT would make a great battleground.

The basic premise is Horde v. Alliance mounted aerial combat. There are a couple of phases to it though...

Phase one: Earning your wings.
This is the painful stage. In this phase you use flying mounts in a manner similar to those in WoLK.

You have a pet bar, you use the stock standard abilities, but they have been scaled back a bit, so that the damage done and taken related to the toon in control.

When you run out of health, down you go… Mounts don’t have health per se, but you are using their offensive or defensive abilities.

Once you have managed a certain number of flights, kills, wins etc you earn your wings and your new level of flying skill.

Phase 2: Air Captain

Once you have earned your wings, things change dramatically.

Now, when you are on your flying mount, you have full use of your own class specific abilities.

As you are mounted, you aren’t moving as such, so you are not limited to instant cast abilities, 3 second fireballs are perfectly viable, assuming your opponent stays in range for 3 seconds.

So where the added level of difficulty comes in here is “casting” from a mobile unit, at targets mounted on mobile units, which are likely to leave your range or go out of LoS at any moment.

Can you maintain range and LoS with your target, while ducking and weaving from your opponents attacks?

Can your healer maintain healing range of your aerial strike force while dodging incoming attacks?

NPC objectives
How about we throw in a bit of “destroy stationary targets” as well.  Maybe you are meant to be destroying a town via some bombs, maybe you need to take out the anti-aircraft turrets to reduce the incoming flak?

Let’s also introduce a new multi-toon flying mount. A bomber. The pilot is also the bomber, their objective being to take down the ground objectives. At their side is another player. Maybe a healer to keep the bomber in the air, maybe a dps to remove opposition aerial threats.

You choose, your faster personal “fighter” mount, or the slower, battleground supplied bomber.

Personally I see Gnomeaggedon scooting about on my flying carpet launching fireballs to hurt and frostbolts to slow.

Sea combat

I love a dose of battleships, and that area where you are bombing the ships from the Zeppelin really inspires me for more.

So here’s my idea. 40 v 40 battleground with a choice of vehicles.

• Battleships: 10 man, heavily armored, heavily armed, but slower ships.
• Patrol boats: 5 man faster but less armored and armed boats.
• Bombers: similar to the zeppelins, with fixed flight paths.
• Kamikaze mounts. Single use death machines (imagine yourself strapped to a skyrocket).

Ship bound combat

Combat can either be conducted via the “ship” mounted weapons, or via class specific skills.

When water vehicles are in range, the grappling hook skill can be used to come along side and board the opposition boat. The opposition have 20 seconds to destroy the grappling hooks before boarding will commence. However multiple grappling hooks may be launched at a time.

When boarding occurs, hand to hand combat commences. On top of the single deck in the case of Patrol boats, above and below deck in the case of battleships.

Keep it, Break it, Fix it

More for me

When the crew of a ship is defeated, this ship now changes possession to the opposition. If they choose to use it, they now have an additional warship.

Scuttle it

Optionally they may scuttle the ship, a process that takes 3 minutes to complete.

If the ship isn’t scuttled, then it can be taken back.

However, damage that occurs to the ships also effects their usefulness. Some of the attacks (ship or player) are targetable. Sails, guns, rudder are specifically targetable, thus it is possible to incapacitate opposition ships.

Bring an Engineer, or two

Damage sustained to the ships can be repaired, but only by engineers. Gnomes have an advantage with defenses/propulsion, Goblins with armaments.

Death from above

While your troops are battling it out on the water, some of your troops have the option of taking to the sky

Bombs Away

Join the Zeppelin crew and drop rain fiery doom from above in the form of bombs.

These Zeppelins have a defined flight path you can’t change.

These are AoE attacks and don’t target specific parts of the enemies ships.  They will of course damage the toons manning the ships as well as weakening the armor and arms on the ship in a more general fashion.

Occasionally the opposing Zeppelins will cross paths, which raises a new opportunity for death and destruction…

• Use your class skills against the opposition forces manning the Zeppelin.
• Board the opposition Zeppelin and clear out the enemy (don’t miss the jump)
• Use the enemies Zeppelin as an additional platform to launch bombs from.
• Lurk in wait below decks for the enemy to board their Zeppelin and take them out from behind.

Don’t worry about the neutral Goblin Captains, they don’t care who is dropping bombs, they just get paid to guide the Zeppelins through the sky.

Kamikaze

Enemy eluding your Zeppelin’s flight path?

Don’t worry take direct, if drastic action.

You are the bomb!

Strap yourself to a harpoon and launch yourself at the enemy before you explode.  It’s possible to guide the harpoon to some extent, but you will want to make sure you are pointing in the correct general direction before you launch that harpoon… you don’t want your death to be in wasted…

The Sky and the Seas are the limit!

What do you think?

Remember only 1 more days to get your Blogday gifts to me… (but I will give you until Sunday 21st… 3 days in total!)

Gnomer and Out!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

http://gnomeaggedon.net/2009/06/18/pvp-combat-modes-i-would-like-to-see/