Guild Wars 2 PvP Blog Posts and Video Presentation

After giving us plenty of information on the Sylvari race they’ve introduced in Guild Wars 2, the folks at ArenaNet chose to showcase some of the game’s Player vs. Player with two blog posts, the first of which, “The Battle of Khylo“, describes a map that’s going to be showcased at GamesCom and PAX:

Choke points

There are many gates and narrow passages throughout the map. If you have a character with strong area-of-effect skills, try to catch multiple enemies in these choke points. It will increase your effectiveness and ensure you’re getting more bang for your buck.

Line of Sight

Try to hide from enemies by breaking the line of sight. You can use structures to your advantage by hiding behind them, and by staying behind walls when sneaking up on an enemy. This is particularly useful when you’re trying to assault a capture point: Instead of heading directly into the area, approach it stealthily and you may catch your enemy off guard.

Destructible objects

There are many buildings and props that can be blown up. The major props (buildings and massive water pipes) can only be destroyed with trebuchet shots, but smaller props, such as barrels and crates, can be blown up with player skills. Paths that were closed at the beginning of the game may open up through the course of a match, so always be on the lookout for new shortcuts.

Mobility Some skills will give you a boon called swiftness, which temporarily increases your base movement speed. Other skills allow you to leap forward, and these can be used to help you move quickly through the map.

The second dedicated to the making of the aforementioned map. Here’s a snippet on map design:

Hi, my name is Egan Hirvela, and I’m a level designer on Guild Wars 2. For several months, I have been tasked with laying out various prototype PvP maps and helping to come up with new game types for us to experiment with. My main responsibility is to make sure the PvP maps play well from a layout standpoint. Additionally, I make sure the maps aren’t too big or too small, that the distances between main objectives are spaced appropriately, and that the fighting areas accommodate the characters’ skill distances in the game. Lastly, I work closely with the system designers and environment artists to make sure the PvP maps are ready to be brought to life.

When making a new map, I usually start off with a paper map, generated from lots of discussions with other designers. Next, I’ll block out the map using our proprietary tool, focusing on base geometry and prop placement. At this stage, it’s crucial to establish where objectives are, how to get to them, and what terrain features players will need to contend with. After this, I’ll make a pass at putting down landmarks and texturing to help with navigation. Lastly, I do some rudimentary lighting to help give a sense of what the map might look and feel like after the environment artists work their magic. Throughout the entire layout process, all of us on the PvP design team test and retest the maps so that we can better improve upon how it will play. I find this method of level creation to be the optimal way of getting the best map layout possible.

Finally, Ten Ton Hammer offers a 13:18-long video presentation ArenaNet has screened at GamesCom. The footage is not of the highest video and audio quality, but it’s certainly very interesting.