Ask WoW Insider: How would you design your own battleground?
by Barb Dybwad 
Jun 8th 2007 at 1:04PM
Welcome to this week's edition of Ask WoW Insider, where we publish one of your questions for readers to answer. Last week we scrutinized some Burning Crusade loot etiquette issues, and this week we'll be doing a little speculative PvP imagineering. Our question comes from Omegi from JETT, who poses the question: What if you could design your own battleground? What would you do different or better than what is currently in the game? Try to be as elaborate as possible and try to keep it within the realm of possibilities.Strap on your thinking caps and let us know what your dream battleground looks like. Also, don't forget to let us know your questions for next week -- send them to ask AT wowinsider DOT com.
Things to consider would be how many players, capture the flag, point based, objective based, types of mechanics allowed.
Filed under: PvP, Ask WoW Insider
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
rhys Jun 8th 2007 1:11PM
I think they should have a carnvers of time battleground, maybe the horde second invasion D-day style beach lands (see warcraft 2 intro)
Eckozealot Jun 8th 2007 1:20PM
I would make a 20v20, set in the STV jungle. You would have multiple objectives, and a flag. Make sure there are lots of trees and hanging vines and such to obscure vision. There would be a NPC trolls with a main leader that would have to be killed, and a flag that both sides would have to capture for bonus honor. The troll leader being killed would end the match with the winning side getting bonus honor for the flags they capped, and the losing side getting nothing for the flags.
ericcst Jun 8th 2007 1:38PM
Just an idea that would probably be a nightmare to implement, but I bet would be fun:
An assault type BG, with uneven teams. 20 people on the team assaulting a base, 10 people on the defending team. The defending team has access to flying mounts for bombing, turrets of sorts (catapults?), and goblin machines to jump in and control. The assaulting team has to capture/kill/destroy something within 10 minutes, or else the defending team wins.
aled Jun 8th 2007 1:47PM
The D-day idea sounds cool - but might be fun to have the attackers and defendes switch after the defenders fall - then the team that lasts the longist wins.
Be fun but might drag on a bit - Or have an esourt quest across a BG - Pref STV (people jusping aout form behind trees) team takes turns - you have to go to the other teams base and then free the boss - then escurt him - this whuld be fun - but till take a waile again.
Arawn Jun 8th 2007 3:00PM
Indoor battleground. No objective but to rack up the highest number of HK's before the time runs out.
PREMISE: Competing teams of Alliance and Horde forces followed rumors of lost wealth into a newly discovered level of Gnomeregan. One side tripped a booby trap, and both sides are now trapped in a deadly radioactive environment! Warlocks and mages on both sides are working desperately to teleport them out, but until then, each team has to survive the competition.
Mechanics: Each side is afflicted with a very small dot to reflect the deadly environment. You can find buffs around the zone that give you a temporary gnomish radiation shield.
Slayblaze Jun 8th 2007 1:52PM
I'd make an entire non-instanced zone that would auto-flag anyone who entered it (there would be multiple ways around the zone if you didn't want to pvp) with multiple control points to capture and hold. The more points controlled the more "honor-per-tick" you would earn, however for each point controlled that faction would get a stacking de-buff which lowers all stats by -1 per point controlled. This would give the faction with less control points a chance at regaining them, and also ensure a true back-and-forth gameplay.
This BG would never "end" and would go on infinitely. There would be several repeatable quests inside (like AV style) but they would respawn after several key objectives are met. There would also be flying mounts allowed and several points at which you could pick up bombs for air-to-ground, but also be special air-to-air weaponry for some nasty dogfights. More of these items woould be available depending which points were being controlled, with certain weapons only available when certain points were controlled.
Since this would be a never-ending battle, no one would ever have to wait in queue and you'd always be able to pop in for some quick action, or prolonged play if you'd prefer. After every hour of continual play there would be a automatic reward of 1 battle token which could be redeemed for pvp rewards like the current system.
Anyway, that would be my general idea.
Deus Mortus Jun 8th 2007 2:07PM
An endless one, huge bg with constantly renewing goals, think an endless AV and even bigger, I want war, not some little conflicts, filled with hordes of NPC's, where you can play a hero on the frontlines, earn rep healing wounded or perhaps sneak around to sabotage the enemy. All while bombs are flying around your ears and the opposing side will be there trying to stop you.
Lighttech Jun 8th 2007 1:57PM
I'd like to see an Aldor/Scryer battleground, something like Alterac Valley, but something dynamic. I think something like ericcst suggested with an assaulting team and defensive team. Perhaps if the offensive team wins, the battleground will switch the sides to reflect that.
And even better Flying Mount (and epic flying mounts) rewards. Hippogryphs or giant spore bats for Aldor, Dragonhawks for Scryer. 50 marks for regular, 75 for epic.
Sylvina Jun 8th 2007 1:56PM
Two Pirate Ships connected by planks, with shark infested waters below and random little islands around the ship. The basic idea would be a rehash of a capture the node/flag, but the environment is what makes it unique.
Merus Jun 8th 2007 1:59PM
First to 40 points win, but you can only earn points if you're carrying the flag. Let's say 20v20.
Every time an enemy faction player dies, everyone who gets credit for the kill also gets a 5-minute 'pickup' buff. This stacks to 5, and when you've got a full stack you're allowed to pick up the flag. There's a tower in the middle of the battleground that, if captured by one side, will also give out one 'pickup' buff every minute.
If you've got the flag, you get considerably buffed and you earn a point for your side every time you're in range when an enemy faction player dies. If you make it to the enemy's flag spawn point, and their flag's still there, you earn 10 points for your side and lose the flag (and buffs). If you die, the flag returns to the spawn point, the opposing faction earns a point and everyone else alive on your faction gets a 'pickup' buff. (No need to return, no handing it around.)
I'm really interested to see what the dynamics of this is like.
Elixir Jun 8th 2007 2:07PM
I think maybe a tunnel fight. 15 vs 15 you a series of tunnels where you need to race through to get the famous "Mining Pickax of the Dwarven Arcaeologist" there would be tunnels that would have barriers that needed to be broken down, choke points in tunnels to hold off people regular Mobs in the tunnels that would be aggro ready for both sides. both teams must race in to the axe (only one in the instance) then escort it back to their start area while fending off the other faction and aggressive mobs. the axe would not be transferable and would fly back to the original spot if the "runner" was felled.
Ryan Jun 8th 2007 2:21PM
@5 Sounds like the RvR areas in Warhammer.
Peter Jun 8th 2007 2:26PM
I think a great battle groud could be made by taking the warcraft 3 RTS mod DotA and turning that into a battle ground in WoW.
The rest of this article assumes that you have played the DotA WC3 RTS Mod before. The twist being that instead of the real life players being the heros, the players are the creeps. The goal of the players is to support the hero as they battle their way into the enemies base. I'd imagine that blizzard could pull this off pretty easily since Alterac valley already has these large creatures that fight for you and in my mind could be easily adaped to be a hero similar to DotA.
In Alterac Valley these summoned creatures were a pain to summon and usually were kited or killed quickly. I think my idea for a battle ground would be different from Alterac because the hero would summon itself, and would be a much more central component in the game play of the battle ground. I also feel that if a map for the battle ground is setup similar to how the DotA map is this would help to reduce the effectiveness of kiting the hero as was common in Alterac.
Adam Jun 8th 2007 2:29PM
i remember hearing an idea of a battleground in which you mainly use your flying mounts but I forget where I heard it. Basically, each side has a captial ship (Horde has a Zeppelin, Alliance has a boat) and the goal is to destroy the other side's zepp/boat. The main twist is that when you mount up on your flying mount, a pet bar appears with basic flight attacks and you use those to attack the other ship and other players. There would also be islands (both floating and on the water) that you could land on to get buffs and fight with your regular abilities.
another very basic idea, is that if you look at most multiplayer games there's a few different types of matches. WoW already has capture the flag (wsg) and a sort of king of the hill (EotS, AB) but there's other things like assasination (a certain player on each side is marked as the leader/king and the goal is to kill the other side's king), or other ones
TyphoidTimmy Jun 8th 2007 2:32PM
If anything, Blizz should try and pull together some copies of some of the UT maps into WoW. The UT2004 Onslaught maps were some of the best constructed maps and would work phenomenally with capture the flags or base destruction type games.
No I am not saying direct lifts, but check out some of these overheads from the game and tell me if you would not love to see them...
http://www.planetunreal.com/ut2004/onslaughtmaps/
Rich Jun 8th 2007 2:38PM
They need a Deadball BG. Do small teams of 5v5 or even 10v10. In a pretty small instance, there is the "ball". Control it for 5 min to win. If you have the "ball" you can't sleath.
It would be short and brutal. And yes, it was my favorite thing do to in Halo. ;)
Gralcen Jun 8th 2007 2:40PM
Id like to see a BG with choosable factions, not Scryers or Aldor(Although that could work), but completely PvP factions - so you choose one and then you go and fight for their side and learn their language (so you can communicate with opposing factions members), but that you can only speak whilst in the BG. The BG would be a whole zone (Like AV) but with each faction having its own CITY. Objectives are varied, bombing runs on the city to kill the guards like halaa, however to take the city and bomb it you have to win a smaller scale battle in the middle - perhaps first to take out the city 'perimeter defense' i.e. bunkers/towers/catapult emplacements. Once this is met you get 30 minutes to bomb and take the city whilst the other team defends, man the walls and gates etc (actual gates not ones that are always open). The BG takes a maximum amount of players (a whole raid, or perhaps more).The first team to capture the city wins - to capture a city you have to take out all the guards and players. Not sure what to do with the players yet - perhaps when you die (and the last graveyard area in the city has been captured) you are sent to a prison camp of the other faction and are locked in a large arena cell, you can duel and muck around until the other team wins/fails and then you 'break' out and continue or end it. This means the max you’ll be waiting is like 5 minutes. Bit complicated but I just made it up as I went along and I think it sounds cool :D
Melanoma Jun 8th 2007 3:42PM
Anyone remember in Warcraft III where you needed to get Illidan's cart back to your end of the map?
Basically, it would be a long narrow battleground like AV with a ‘cart’ in the middle. You would need to have players near the cart in order to get it rolling to your end of the map. The cart would only travel along the road. It would the central point of conflict, but the fact that it is moving means the battlefield is also moving and players would need to change their tactics according to the changing terrain.
I could see setting up the terrain to have overlooks and choke points along the way. It could also have multiple graveyards along the road. One side could try to hold GYs giving the other side a longer run back to the cart. There could also be side quests like in AV. Maybe you could get a Pandaren Brewmaster on you side. Maybe you could complete a side quest to get a Kodo or Elekk to pull on your side to get the cart moving faster.
I don’t know if it would make a good BG, but it sounds good to me.
Nubsause Jun 8th 2007 3:10PM
I would like to see a battleground where the horde can use catapults and balistas and the alliance can use the steam tanks and cannons.
Where the people would use the machines and it portals your body to the starting and you take control of the machine (like the chess event in karazhan).
And each team would need to use these to destroy the enemys bases.
Each team would need to kill players and pick up resources to get the materials needed to craft another tank if theirs were destroyed.
Something like that would be fun. Dibs on the tank.
Slayblaze Jun 8th 2007 3:17PM
@16
That prisoner mechanic sounds just like the "Jailbreak" mod for Unreal Tournament (originated as a Quake 2 mod I believe) and that really would be awesome.
@14
Speaking of UT/Jailbreak...I too would love to see some UT Onslaught-inpsired PVP, I was thinking the exact same thing. But then PVP would be so popular that PVE and Raiding would die out altogether, which is why Blizz will never really improve PVP like we all know they could if they really wanted to.