swnny is talking about there being one stronghold map
That is correct.
"With each passing day?"
I never subscribed to the idea that there has to be X amounts of this or Y amounts of that, simply because fun is king. And if this ambitious new thing is not fun, then it doesn't matter how many maps you have?
I'll rather have 1 good map, than them wasting the resources on 3 or 5 maps that are mediocre. Stronghold sounds like a freakshow, and a lot more complicated than GvG. The fact that you're ordering A.I troops to capture points as well, raises some concerns, since A.I has been a tricky proposition in MMOs and online gaming in general.
Let me put it like this; If you have a great foundation, it's easier to add to it. If you have a bad foundation, but a lot of fluff (maps) it's easier for it never never recover because you didn't nail what you where going for.
I like this conservative stance, however I understand your frustration if you feel strongly about sPvP and that not enough focus on this expansion is placed in that direction. I am sure WvWers feel the same. ONLY ONE NEW BORDERLANDS?
This is always one of the pitfalls by having a game that cathers to a lot of different people. You can rarely, if every do enough when you pool your resources in every direction. Had GW2 only been a PvP game, it would have been a different story.
However, you might say that specializations and the new Class are content additions that will add more to sPvP.
What is most important now is that sPvP gets a really solid infastructure, and you can hope that this one map, will have a lot of variation. Destructable elements on the battleground, day/night cycle, maybe even some weather effects, to help spice up the visuals, but most importantly, it has to be that you get a gameplay foundation that is deep enough not to make the game play the same for every round. A flaw you see in a lot of online objective based FPS games - The chokepoints and paths for success are the same on the map, and thus the gameplay becomes repetitive because conflict/confrontation plays out the same places, at the same time, every time.
It takes a lot of planning and play testing to make something that can really play different for many many hours. 90% of multiplayer games don't have longevity because they don't take this into account. There is simply not enough stamina, no matter how cool the feature set or base gameplay is.
Stronghold is by far the most risky element in this expansion. It sounds really crazy, when you think about how A.I has been used so far in GW2. Some rudimentary changes are needed here to make this work.
Every passing day, when new interviews with bits of new information pop up. One spec per profession, one stronghold map, one wvw map, one region (few zones) and few new systems in place. I wouldn't be surprised if they say there will be only one guild hall at launch. So far, nothing that they couldn't release for free as feature/living world updates. And they have done so in the past. The EotM, the PvP reward tracks, the current traits (that are scrapped in HoT) even new PvE zone were added through the regular free updates.
For a paid expansion one would expect a bit more, especially after what Anet have done with the updates so far.
Back to stronghold. I will take quality over quantity every time, but waiting for 3 years, I want both quality and quantity. It was even before the game's release that Anet stated they are looking into other PvP gamemodes. In one of the first State of the Game episodes, Chap (ex-PvP lead designer I believe) said they are trying to bring Guild vs Guild back in Guild Wars 2. Now, 3 years of boring Conquest on the very same 4 launch maps (ok 3 were on launch and Temple was added shortly after) we finally get the long promised new game mode. With a single map. And for how things works around here, it will be a year or two before we see another map.
Check out the Fractals for example. They have solid fundamentals and works great. At first we were made to believe we will see new fractals added every so often. Well, how about no? Fractals were added November 2012. Then they added (recycled old content, which is more then fine, especially lore wise) 3 new fractals and 2 boss battles a year later on November 2013 and since then, nothing new on that front.
Same goes for WvW. Since launch, we have one new map and thats about it.
So, dont try to bring me the "better fundations means more and better content down the road" argument. It's logical, but in the case of GW2 it was proven fruitless.
Big applauds for Anet for trying different things and new ways of improving their game and for free. Really appreciated. But whichever side you look, it's aways lacking somewhere, in both quality and quantity.
I've being playing the game every day for an average of 4-5 hours since feb 2012, being through all the alphas, previews, beta, test weekends, launch, updates, feature packs etc, etc. And after the HoT announcement last weekend, now I'm more then sure that Anet either have insufficient resources/manpower. Or really, really bad management of said resources/manpower.
Just an example, the recently revamped sPvP server side mathmaking system, ready promt and map vote were developed by a single person. Took him almost a year and a half to get it into the live game and to this date is still considered a "beta" feature and there are adjustments to it made every day, by him alone. Can't name sources, thou... but if you are paying close attention to the PvP "scene" it's pretty obvious anyways.
I'm buying the expansion day-0, but so far i'm not expecting nothing more then the next feature pack ot of it.
