Guild Wars on the Sea.

With each expansion A.net will likely bring about a new kind of PvP as well as complete PvE content. There are alot of realy interesting ways for PvP to expand, and I thought of one more, Brace Yourselves, Naval Warfare.

In Guild Wars, the actual "Guild Wars" or GvG takes place in Guild Halls, so far at least. If A.net made an expansion involving sea fairing exploration, as well as Guild owned Ships, and Guild "Naval" Wars, then we would have an entirely new way to combat.....

Well anyhow, this is how I envision it. You have to buy a Ship, just like buying a Guild Hall, from your Guild Hall you can see your ship, and at the bottom of your party tab you could select from either Land Warfare (regular GvG), or Board your ship for Naval Warfare and exploration.

When on a ship, you can move around on the deck, one player would have to grab the helm, and in turn he would become immobile, and his movements would steer the ship. Other players would either sit around, man one of the four cannons (2 on each side), or use new skills which grant special effects wile on the boat. Up to 8 players in your guild can participate on an excurtion.

Anyhow, when you locate an enemy ship the first thing you can do is start firing on it with the cannons, the cannons would have doulbe the range of normal actions, allowing you to fire at them from a distance. This would deal damage to the enemies aboard the ship, and perhaps the ship itself. Next you can move along side the enemy and board it, there would be special ropes along each side of the ship, allowing you to swing across onto the enemy ship. You can also line a plank so you can walk accross to the enemy ship, but it is a narrow path allowing for only 2 or 3 units to stand side by side, allowing for player blocking. Rangers and casters would be able to reach some targets from their end of the ship, but at some point you will have to board in order to attack enemy crew. Basicly, you have a Guild Lord on the ship like a normal Guild battle, and you have to kill him to win.

As for the ships taking damage, there would be skills from different classes that can repair the ship, make it go faster, protect the ship, and perhaps even ram other ships. When the ship takes damage it goes slower, allowing enemies to catch up with her, so if your trying to run or trying to catch up damaging the enemy ship helps. Elementist could use water magic to make the ship go faster, Ritualist could cast rituals which repair the ship, classes like monk could cast barriers to protect the ship. They could make warrior skills which allow them to Steer the ship into ramming, and Rangers could have a rope skill which allows him to hoist sails (minor speed increase) and board enemy ships when your close enough.

Basicly it is a GvG with more complexity, to make it more fun, alliances could form with a ship from up to 3 guilds, and fight Group Warfare, trying to surround enemy ships to take them down fast, trying to corner off enemies. With a large sea space to hide, maybe even dock ship to remove DP, or defend a home base, and try and keep enemies from bombarding your port before you can destroy theirs.

With this they would also have to add swimming. If you swing off the ship with no enemy beside you, or if your on the plank and you get hit by knockdown skills, or if your in mid swing and someone hits you with an interrupt, fall into the water. Some jobs could have skills that work wile swiming, having multipurpose skills for naval warfare is a good idea, since making the boat go faster doens't help any wile your fighting. For instance, the elementist water skill that allows him to make the boat go a little faster, makes him go alot faster wile swiming, Assassin can have a skill that automaticly teleports him back to his boat. Along side your boat are ropes you can use to draw yourself back onto your boat, but you can't use the enemies, unless your a ranger, and you use your roping skill to get onto an enemy boat from the water. They could also make it where certain armors impare your swimming, forcing you to get a seafairing armor, or get a special kind of "infusion" which makes your armor float.

Aside from GvG combat, Guilds could take their ship to unique locations or missions only reachable by ship. Wile on the sea you can fight NPC enemy ships, reach special locations on the sea, like Lyssa's Island, which would be like UW. You could also reach new towns which afterward would be accessible through map selector. At some of these new towns you could buy special armor that resembles pirate, sailor, or marine outfits, like Sea versions of 15K armor. You could even come across Sea Monsters and have to fight a big battle to earn some nice loot or materials.

I think this would be an awsome way for A.net to expand Guild activities and gameplay, as well as include this kind of content in several new missions. With High Seas exploration, players can enjoy searching the seas for new locations, trying to fight enemy hoards, or navigate treacherous passages, reaching totaly new continents and numberous islands along the way.

I give credit to my sister who inspired this idea, I was thinking about how much I would hate a Pirate "Class", and although the name Pirate just doesn't ring any bells with me, the idea of naval warfare with ships came to mind and I thought it was a great opportunity. If they did make naval warfare in an expansion then they realy don't need to add a class with it, but it wouldn't hurt to have a new class, expecially one which had to do with high seas combat, I would call it a mariner though. All of the jobs would need sea fairing adaptations and naval support or attack skills to make a fair addition, but it wouldn't hurt if one was made for it.

Reminds me of a Mod for Battlefield 1942, called Pirates. But yeah I like it... A lot of stuff could be added to GW, I try not to post too often about it though.

The game is CALLED GUILD WARS not NAVAL WARS. There probably is a game called that, so go buy that instead.

That also would get rid of necessity of a variety of classes in the "Naval War" and character level, stat pts etc wouldnt matter because you'd be shooting at ships...

Oh and by the way, the new games ARENT expansions.

Based on that, who said the guilds fought on land? Maybe they had planes? Maybe the guilds are actually cults in the future.

Saying that because its called Guild Wars it cant have ships is a very bad reason.

On the other hand...I dont really think that its that nessicary. Sure we have boat travel and stuff, but I dont think naval battles fit in too well.

New class: Pirates anyone? :P

A pirate is nothing without the sea, so suggesting a pirate class without naval warfare is kind of like suggesting a pilot without planes.....

As a side not, a guild is a group of people, in no way does that seclude it to land combat. Sure Naval Combat would make the game better, enrich the gameplay, be fun, add more activities for guilds to do together, make a very interesting "chapter", and perhaps make room for a "pirate" like class, although I did say I would rather such a class be called a Mariner. But don't worry, there is an option for players who don't want the game to have anything new outside of what is already in the game, don't buy the next expansion.

As for "they arn't Expansions", that is just a term technicality which everyone recognizes. Since you wanted to bring up the individuality of each game, I would like to point out that the cost of an entirely new game should introduce completely new elements of gameplay into each, since it isn't just an "expansion".

Nice idea for an expansion

-Most people wouldn't want cannons, but balista, catapults, and elementalists would do just fine in sinking the enemy ship.
-No in battle repairs. Make the ship like the guild lord and if you sink it or capture it you win.
-Escape should be an option.
-Instead of a pirate class, make an Earl Flynnesque swashbuckler class.
-Add arenas where you are swimming or underwater which might effect combat, weapon ranges, and elemental damage.
-Add ship vs fort where one guild's ship would have to attack a guild hall on land or on a coast if that guild didn't have a ship or doesn't want to use it.
-Some ships could be manned by NPCs in the beginning and the leader of the party could give them commands about what to do.

to me it sounds alot like puzzle pirates.... i dont know if any of you have played it but that is what it sounds like to me. i dont think it is an entirely bad idea i just dont know how well it would fit into guildwars. but i am glad to see people popping out new ideas about what could happen in game.

Well theoretically this could simply be a Modded, larger version of the Snowball Arena Game.

somehow I just think warrior in full plat armor would sink...

Anyhow... moving ship.... eeek.. To my knowledge, the few game that have the moving ships.. LineageII and WoW.. all have some problem with it... (clipping issue, where character would "fall" out of the ship) Not to say it could be fix...

Ship battle sounds fun, and I do want a expansion around ships, sailing, the sea, island hopping, giant sea monster, and new land. So yes, I want a sea battle.

However... I think placing one person in charge of the helm (which in effect might control the whole fate of your team) isn't such good idea.... I would go with a automatic driving system.. if possible... (run on tracks)

Well, guess your sister is a better game idea developer than you.. hahaha
(next thing you know, we will all be battling on flying dragons....)

I would support this only if I was allowed to pillage my enemies' booty with my mizzenmast.

Idea is great and it would make a good expansion IF it's executed properly so there wouldn't be all clitching/clipping/buggering/stattering, and that it wouldn't feel dull.

I've seen so many games failing to do that. But if that idea would work then at least I would be enjoying full heartly

Guild Wars water polo anyone?

Dont see it happening, but a new smaller PvP arena, set on the deck of a large boat in the middle of the ocean would be pretty darn cool.

Ok, I tried to respond to this earlier, but accidentally erased my response.....

Cannons are already in Guild Wars, go to the screenshots for Factions and check out the giant land turtles with cannons mounted on them.....

Falling off the boat and swimming is actually part of the concept, there are ways to fall in or perhaps even jump in on purpose, than you have to climb back onboard you ship.

As for lag and it's effects on a moving plain. In order to ensure this doesn't become a problem, the players on a ship would need to have their location determined by a point on the ship, this way if you did lag, you would retain a spot on the ship rather then stand there wile the boat continues without you. This is one of those programming technicallities, but it isn't an unmatchable feat. Players movement on the boat would work the exact same way they would on something that isn't moving, the boat however would be moving on an open surface, they can nearly be programmed seperately, as to say, even though you see your boat moving around, the programmed reality is that the boat is a solid immobile piece mounted to the dock, and only the helmsman is actually on the sea moving about. Never mind if you don't understand that.

As for trusting the player at the helm, this is a feature which would be more enjoyable then frustrating. If you take the player off the helm your not realy exploring the sea and strategicly steering your ship in combat, if you take this away your basicly just fighting on a glorified carrosel, it isn't sea exploration. Depending on teammates is something you already have to deal with in GW, Monk is the primary example, there are roles in which someone will have to fill, and you will just have to hope he can do his job right. And since the primary use of Ships will be in Guilds, the person steering the ship your on is going to be a guild mate, so it isn't some stranger who is likely to screw around, you will have to trust him the same way you trust you monk to do his job. Tou wouldn't want to take away the monk job just because players can fail at their role.

Being able to mount on a ship and explore the sea looking for lost islands to fight on, overcoming the unfriendly denizens of the sea, and reaching glorious locations, is everything you asked for in your recent post, "Future Aim of GW". Teams of people you know having not just a new exhilerating PvP mode, but having a unique exploration and PvE opportunity to enjoy.

As for normal missions and gameplay available to people outside of Guilds, the missions which emplore Seafaring should probably be on automatic cruise, where the NPC takes you where you need to go. As you get toward the end of the game you could run into missions which introduce you to more and more involving parts of controling the ship, starting with manning the cannons, to eventually steering the ship. This way players would get a slow and easy education on how to use ship utilities properly, instead of harrasing eachother at the helm.

I dont see this happening as GvG. Maybe an area like the fort aspenwood or Jade Quarry or even Alliance battles in Factions. Could be something like that but i doubt GvG.

This sounds more like an additional PvP option... Im not sure whether it can be implemented. There are some loops to it. Like how and when does an enemy ship appear? Is it part of the "wait for enemy guild" thing?

This isn't a small add on to put in an update, if it is added it would be the better part of a whole expansion.

For GvG in the naval arena, it would be just like a GvG is now, you set up your team and wait til you get a matchup. The difference is you both start in your ship at a location in a GvG sea zone.

With Guild Sea Exploration you would be exploring the sea the same way you would explore a land location, you enter an instance, and the mobs are located at different places on the sea and islands. The big difference here is that many locations would not be towns you could teleport to, you would have to travel to them. Traders, Crafters, and other port towns would be on the sea. Only a few cities, and certain ship teleports would exsist as a way for your boat to travel to different sectors of the ocean, that way once you discover a new part of the ocean, you can pick up your exploration from that point/checkpoint.

This is an addition that far overshoots an added class or nifty function, I'm not implying this activity as part of factions, it would be a major waste.

I dont intend to become the ranting fool but.....

Pros:
-More guild related fun, for a game called guild wars I always thought it was kinda guild lacking
-A farier way to battle muliple jobs stops people going too low level or wrong class
-would have good music (yo-ho-ho and so on)
-new classes (but please not pirates...my god the pirate stereotype is so bad)
-I want some funky naval clothes, somehting very british redcoat would be nice, and one of those fancy tri-corner hats
-Funnyman didnt post this idea

Cons:
-This sea would have to be DAM big, even thou it prob would be a new "expansion" game the idea of districts shoudl still be in there somewhere, even if its just the 7 seas (or how ever many GW seas there are)
-with all this PvP going on you'll prob get blitzed at low levels, there should be "international waters" border lines (kinda like the Kurzick/luxon thing) where PvP starts or ends

Some random things I thought of:

Falling off the ship? is it a simple matter of climbing back on or a Shiro banish kinda thing, where you have to fight your way back?

If this proposed "expansion" is very Guild focued, lets replace guildhalls with port towns, they could have the guild hall in the centre (for GvG persposes) but you should be able to wander around your town, sink more money into pointless stuff like banners and a town drunk to wander around mumbling - kinda like AoE 3 if you've ever played it

well thats my $0.57

Thanks for the props G..... (ok fell free to laugh).

Even though it is the "Open Sea" the sea can be broken up into several parts, which have to be accessed just like normal explorable areas, zoning. The sea can have alot more space because you don't need to program nearly so much landscape, you just have to program water 2 or 4 forms and then repeat it over large areas, and the enemies can be spread out a bit as well.

I didn't intend to introduce a MMO space where players can run into seperate Guilds sailing the sea, if it could be supported it would be a major adaptation to the game, adding a truely MMO element, but I don't expect this nor truely appreciate this. I intended for PvP on the Sea to be a optional battle mode available from your guild hall, it would be a second option under the exsisting guild battle option to allow you to participate in a Sea Arena against another Guild in a match not on the open sea.

It would be great to have PvP modes with a great deal of space and multiple teams trying to take over, almost like HoH on the Sea...... 4 Guild FFA.

I intended for reboarding the ship to be a simple task of swimming back to your ship and touching a Rope or lever on the side of the ship to hoist yourself up, basicly teleporting you back on the ship. It is a very simple task.... as long as the ship isn't moving..... 2 or 3 times faster than you.

I'm sorry I labeled you G, but I am not of the ilk who tells people they can't post something simular if I or someone else already has. I don't like when people post a PoS version of an idea when something better has already been made, but I think it is the Moderators fault for not highlighting such an expansive idea in the compilation Suggestions in this Forum. They could also merge minor topics of simularity to a more developed version of the same topic, but that often confuses people. It would be nice if Threads where attached to thread groups, so all threads of the same type would tied together. For example, if you tie all Samurai threads together, their links would all be together lined up in a row, the threads would be seperate, but the topics would be bundled together so links to all other major discussions on that topic would be readily available for comparison.

I really think the Moderators need to reorganize the Suggestion Compilation into groups including each major and developed topic seperated by topic and arranged by significance and probability. I am basicly the only other person who has started a Sea Farring thread, so I don't see how it is so wrong for one more person to make a thread, or even 4. After all, there are about 20 Auction House threads, and I have yet to read one that isn't disfunctional.

more on the ship part, as getting one for the guild...
the ship idea should play out like how our past countries did, buying them, fixing them, and making them/buying them... could go 2 ways as I see it
1. you have to buy one, and wait for it to be made, so if your guild has just lost their ship[if that's possable], you can't just jump right back into ship vs. ship
2. same as 1 but, your guild can make their own as well, it would cost maybe a little less[no labor fees, just parts], you can design it yourself[or use a feature that let's you choose what part goes where, in moderation, can't have the helm at the bow of the boat], it would take longer to make, but it could help fit your pvp plans

as for getting back on your ship, are we talking this world's kind of ships that would fit in gw time style, or some new kind? I could imagine teleports like the ones at quarry and aspenwood fitting in somewhere

I am thinking something like Pirates of Dark Water looking ships, of course many others, just like Guild Halls.

I like the idea of being able to earn a ship in several different manners, whether built, or bought or earned otherwise, but like the guild hall, you shouldn't have to buy new ones all the time. If the Viser can raise a sunken ship then the magic exsists, it just needs to get circulated, and if your ship gets blow to bits, it means you cast a 15 second cast time spell and wait for your ritualist to raise it again.

Come to think of this, it just came to mind, they could add a new condition called Drowning or Sufficating, and allow certain skills to inflict this status as well if the enemy is in the water, like a knockdown skill in the water causes drowning for a moment, and even some new water skills which drown enemies instead of freezing them.

The boats could range in styles greatly, the same way Guild Halls do, you could have a Ghost Ship look, or a Flag Ship look, or a Pirate Ship look.... or a Dark Waters ship look, or something like pontunes (Water Wolrd). Each ship can have a different lay out, different projectile weapons at different locations on the ship.

It would certainly be interesting. Guild halls could be expanded with a pier area.

P.S. Pirate of Dark Water was one of my fav shows as a kid.

i like the idea alot but the areas of pve and gvg would be sperate right? i don't want to run into like EVIL while looking for a new town

The game in whole is instanced based, the only shared areas are towns and cities, so it should work the same way as any other PvE or PvP instance, you either set sail into explorable areas with your guild, or you set sail into GvG combat.

P.S. Pirates of Dark Water is the only pirate show that was any good..... Well we can give a point or 2 to Jack Sparrow, only because hes always drunk.

Thought id bring this topic from the depths (pun intended) just to metion I have no idea what pirates of the dark water is.....

and alos, what would the scale of this thing all be then? so you sail round of a full sized ship looking for land...wouldnt it be kinda hard to spot?

Lol, ive been playing Pirates of the caribbean(the game, alternative title is sea dogs 2) a lot these days, and i was thinking the same... Although i have to say that I doubt it will ever be realised, its a good and fun idea.

Here are my suggestions for improving "naval guild wars":

-The new "continent" is actually a big sea area with little and big islands.
You can explore this "continent" by foot on land and boat on sea(Dûh).

-Outposts are islands with piers.

-The pve part of this game is exploring by boat, untill u find an island, where you can anker your boat and start exploring the islands.

The new guild battle mode, called sea battle requires 8 players, yet u cannot use skills on the boat untill u board the enemy ship. So at first u just spam your cannons, and your boats remaining hp determines the hp and energy each players start with when the boarding battle starts.

Thats all i can think off, gl with improving your idea, I'll be checking this thread a lot to see wot other people think^^

Ship control would be a toughy... you'd have to have 'targets'. The helm would have right and left targets so the helmsman can hit whichever one is needed.
The masts would be target, furl and unfurl... and an air ele can use some spells to boost the speed.
Sinking the enemy ship should be impossible, but damaging it until it's dead in the water would be a devastating tactic. Rangers and elementalists would be the stars of this naval combat, mesmers would play a very good roll (hello interrupting the helmsman?), and warriors and assassins would be the effective shock troops for when the ships are done circling each other trying to pick off kills to increase enemy DP before going in for the win.
Something like a floating bouey would be required to represent the flagstand. Someone would have to hit it (any kind of projectile) once (or five times) to gain the flag.

Falling into the water should kill you, honestly. Warriors wear 200 lb platemail for the love of God, it's unreasonable that they could be able to swim. And to make them the only ones to drown instantly would be unfair.

I love silvershocks ideas, expecially since I've mentioned them several times now, in dozens of threads besides this one as well. If you can only attack wile on the enemies boat, then how do you defend yourself if the enemy boards you ship?, board theirs and attack back?, read what I have come up with before adding weaker ideas.

I envisioned that when a person tolk the helm that their character became immobile, and their movements would then affect the ships movements instead of their own. There would be a "release helm" button just in the same way there is a drop item button when you have an item in your hand, and that would return you to normal movement and allow others to take control of the ship. I can see there being targets which have to be selected to raise and lower sails (or other movement apparatus on different ships) And places where certain skills can be used to improve ship movement.

I have to say all this talk about warriors armor drowning them in the water is a bit narrow sighted, it is my understanding that when you step in lava you die instantly no matter what your wearing, but having heavy armor in water should kill? How about having heavy armor on ice should make the ice crack and you fall in the water. There can be exceptions for warriors armor, although a health reduction depending on your armors overall defense would be an interesting condition. 60 or less armor does no degen, and every 10 armor over 60 increases degen by 1 wile swimming in water. Assuming it kills anyone is weak and broken, as if some classes like assassin wouldn't glide through the water.

I like the idea of new skill slots for swiming/sailing and climbing/flying would be great for future chapters. Skill slots which can only be used in chapters with these new functions, and can only be equipped with skills that improve sailing and swimming, or climbing and flying, granting special statuses or effects wile in certain new situations. Multifunctional skills like this would be very useful for new gameplay in new skill slots would allow players to enhance these new areas without affecting normal builds due to lack of skill spaces, and since they can only be equip with skills pertaining to new terrains, or sailing, they don't affect normal combat gameplay.

Thanks again for the discussion, I love this idea and hope Anet decides to add something spectacular to the game in the future.

It would definitley be tough, but here's what I'm envisioning:

One or two characters has to man the ship in order to board the other ship. Maybe there could be cannons involved, but there would have to be a big drawback to using them so that they wouldn't be a easy way to win. There needs to be more to it than just taking one ship to another, I dunno, maybe making the ship hard to control or something. It's a good concept but it'd be hard to make it astonishingly new.

It would be astonishing with GW gameplay, GW is the best in its genre, and adding to GW is a feat.

They could use several interesting features which make sailing fun, one person steers, but doesn't have a view of where he is going, one person navigates the map which (could) be accessible only from the front of the ship, requiring one person to keep an eye out front and chart a heading, one or 2 people could be required to change the mast, raising and lowering the sails, or activating other propulsion devices, others can man cannons around the ship, there can be several on each side, perhaps different layouts on different ships, but with a limited number of teammates to man the cannons, they cannot use all of them at once.

Cannons could be disabled wile you ship is docked to another ship, forcing you to board the enemies ship. The ship can lose speed as it is hit with cannon fire making it harder to chase, or escape. You can be "defeated" if you lose your "Guild Captain" wile in GvG battles. In PvE instances the ship could be sunk, but also resurrected with certain skills. There are alot of ways to develope this, but it doesn't have to work this way.

My riding suggestion though is that we have some sort of Guild Based sea exploration, and that we be able to steer and navagate our own ships on the sea.

BK... did they brainwash you before they unbanned you?
just kidding
[EDIT]
Post made in: 2006
uhhhm never mind... still, his temper is pretty controlled in this tread.

I like it, a lot even.
The basics seem pretty cool, but what I rally like in it is the tough you put into the additionals, Lyssas island and seafarer armor, are nice, but profession specific abilities would make this really interesting.
A ghost ship/ ghost sailors that can't be hurt but will run the ship skill for rits, and ele skills that allow them to fire cannons with a spell instead of taking the time to do it manually for instance.

I in vision a lot of missions where an NPC steers the ship and you have to protect the <enter mission specifics here> aboard, if you succeed, you get into the next town. It would make sense out of the some times large jumps to get to the next area after missions, some of them baffle me even with what is in the the cut scene.

I like it and would love to see it added, /signed.
And I would definitely not object to a Caribbean themed expansion, but hope Anet will have the brains to make pirates as something any class can be, by equipping a lot of boat skills and getting a drunkard title, heck by winning a lot of naval GvG you could probably earn a buccaneer or marine title.
I agree a pirate class couldn't turn out too well.

Although, instead of a guild lord, why not destroy the helm of the ship? or the door to the powder room for instance.
And finally, some variations. Arabic type ships with triangular sails and ballistas on the front and rear deck that unlike cannons are able to aim and can launch harpoons with ropes into the enemy ship, but the ship wouldn't have cannons.(weather or not you can climb along ropes with harpoons I'll leave in the blank)
Another variation of ship would have another type of weapon, just to keep it diverse you know.

Sounds like fun, use cannons, casters, rangers and paras to soften up the enemy, than close with grappling hooks for melee. Once ships are grappled together they cannot be separated unless the grapples are destroyed (120 armor and 1000 HP?)... At which point any warriors trapped on an enemy ship better hope their captain can keep his ship close enough for monks to heal him...

This doesn't sound like an expansion at all, it sounds like a brand new game. ArenaNet will never consider this either for GW1 or GW2. Interesting concept, but it just won't fit with the current game mechanics. (And I'm assuming with the tinkering they'll have done to make GW2 unique.) Err, I just realized this thread is at least a year old...so I'm not going to go further into detail here.

Necromancy has messy side effects. :P

This would be way too server intensive too.. They just wouldn't be able to have the servers or for it to be worth it for all of these mobile ships for all the fights going on... It'd be just like Battlefield 2142 if anyone knows how server intensive the Titans are on the Titan Maps.. It's insane usage...

Good concept, but I don't think it would fit.

Guild Wars meets Suikoden 4 XD

but somehow i like it, i like all ideas that increase and use the potential, the GW really has and which are all unused yet ...

stuff like widening the gameplay areas from only teresstrian scenarios also too on scenarios on the sea or underwater or even into the heavens by floating islands or so (Skys of Arcadia)

But for GW1 i think that is all impossible, this needs the new 3D- Engine of GW2 to realize a real 3D World, where the player can really explore everything, thel ands, the sea, the underwaters(underearth) and the heaven with including new races, which are special to these areas, which don't exist normally on the earthen ground, but live in the sea or i the sky on floating islands and so on ...

However, I've just had a little idea.. With the new swimming feature of Guild Wars 2.. People could possibly swim ashore and instead of the usual flag to capture for Morale Boost. Each guild team could race for a treasure chest on an island (which goes well with the whole idea of being able to control the ship, or the NPC could circle the island) and through a whole rocky/foresty area that spawns every 2-5 minutes or something and someone carries it back and when it is returned to your ship, you gain a 2% morale boost each time?

You'd obviously have to fight the other guild to get it if you both went for it.

I thought this was a good idea when I saw it last year in its original form.

Considering that in GW2 Lions Arch becomes a pirate town, it might actually be plausible, as far as the storyline is concerned, to have a sailing ship and maritime battles. Perhaps the entry mission to access Cantha or Elona in GW2 could be to use your sailing ship to break through the undead blockade.

Real-life Naval warfare is rather slow isn't it?

I like the sound of Guild Wars: Ohmaha Beach. The Defending guild hall and attackers come out of the boats with npcs :P

I like this idea but doubt it can be implemented in GW1. Mainly because we don't have swim, climb, or any of the other vital feats you need on a ship. Ship battle would have to be a mix of specialized skills(like the Snowball fighting skills) and then a Victory or Death style battle once the ships are in range to be boarded. In GW1 this would destabalized the metagame if it weren't implemented the right way. I'd have a bunch of trappers laying traps to delay boarders long enough for nukers to do their thing. My own boarders would include an Obby tank(to trigger any traps that might be waiting for me on the enemy vessal), another tank(any will do), and a mesmer(I forsee alot of 1 on 1 combat and mesmers can deal with pretty much any class). If this were implemented in GW2...I'd hope they have some sort of grapple feature for fighting. Grappling might be impractical for traditional PvP but would this sort of thing be PvPvE?

Random ship specific skills(badly worded cuz I don't template skills often):
Prepare Firepot 15e 3c 5r
Create a Firepot. When dropped it deals 50 fire damage to all adjacent foes and all nearby foes are set on fire for 3 seconds.

Repel Boarders 10e 3r
Stance
For 5 seconds, you block the next melee attack from a foe attempting to board your ship and that foe is knocked down for 2 seconds.

"Boarders Away!" 5e 10r
Shout
For 8 seconds, all other allies have +50 armor and move 25% faster when not aboard your ship.