How to get Battle Skiffs and Siege Turtle into WvW? share your ideas

[Knighthonor.4061]

Two big features in EoD was Skiffs and Siege Turtles.

Well whats some ways to get these added to the combat gameplay in WvW? 

Any ideas? You an Armchair developer, what would you do to get these features in WvW?

[kash.9213]

No need until WvW becomes at least flagged or opt-in open world pvp. 

[Spiral.3724]

If they made a new Canthan style map that had a lot of water, maybe battle skiffs could be a thing...but just on that map. 
People would probably hate it more than desert BL. 😄 

[TheGrimm.5624]

If brainstorming here is a 2 minutes pass at the idea.

For the Siege Turtle, add back into camps tiers II & III. Add two new tactics that can be added to camps. Siege Turtle & Turtle Army. Tier II would allow for a tactic to installed to deploy one single Siege Turtle similar to the how the Dune Roller works. Once activated it could be manned by two players for a fixed time, again like the Dune Roller, before vanishing. Cannons would be able to damage gates, walls and siege emplacements, some damage to players hit in the AoE but more a mobile siege. Range in the catapult range area, speed, the same as found for the Golems.

Tier III would have a longer cooldown on use but deploy 3 Siege Turtle for use with the same skills as the Tier II tactivator.

Note the players would have fixed (different) skills for both driver and gunner and would not gain from any of the PvE mount mastery skills to prevent issues. Now a follow up to this idea could also be to add a WvW mount mastery line like the Warclaw giving players options for unlocks and further use of WvW levels. 

Anyway a quick idea. Skiffs, have to ponder that one considering where the water is on the various maps.

[Gorani.7205]

I don't see a place for the Skiff right now, because outside of Alpine Bay, there is no big body of water to be used with skiffs.

I see a place for the Siege Turtle as a mount and have made posts about that in the past (which I can't retrieve, because forum search sucks). It was a concept of heavily modifying/replacing the existing PvE skills and would turn the turtle into a supply fed mobile siege platform that will need to be less effective that traditional siege blueprints. No jumping of course, only the gunner can shoot (so you need to people to shoot), ballistic shots & very short term defense bubbles could be tried. Everything linked to a new WvW Ability/mastery track, because we have so many extra points not spent right now.
Perhaps I can find that old post after an extensive search. I will link it here, I case of a success.

[asterix.9614]

I think it would work as a tactivator. Something that 2 people can use that can do aoe heals, tank damage, of course it will need to be faster and less clunkier, and would be useful when there are a low number of people defending. Just don't see it being a viable mount for everyone to use in the current maps. Unless of course there is going to be a new map with new mechanics the turtle mount can make use of. Doubt anet will ever put that much resources into wvw though 😞 look at the lazy copy paste alpine maps lol....

[Eekasqueak.7850]

Just add turtles to eotm since it's dead. 

[blp.3489]

If you wanted to minimize developer effort you could add them in an npc guard role.  There is an EOD map with a siege turtle nursery that has periodic attacks on it and has I think mature and juvenile siege turtle npcs that patrol the area and fight with the void mobs.  Taking it a step further, you could include a nursery on the map that, if fed with supplies or materials, raises npc siege turtles that can then be deployed to guard objectives.  That would add a strategic component found in many games where you invest resources and later get a payback.  If you invest heavily in producing siege turtles you can build up defenses at the objectives you own, hopefully to the point where they are actually resistant to, for example, a solo roamer.  If the nursery were placed outside of fortifications it would become another objective to be attacked and defended.  If you could build the nursery with supply you could place it in a fortification making that objective more valuable to defenders and attackers.  In that case, you could have it survive capture, so the attackers decide whether to destroy it if they aren't going to hold the objective, or make use of it to help hold the objective.

You could also have one or more "permanent" nurseries with the sides fighting for control of it and whoever holds it, maybe with an investment of supplies, gets an ongoing supply of siege turtles that can then be moved to defend objectives. It could also serve as a target for roamers, both to impede the production of turtles, and to attack the turtles being moved to objectives, which also provides a role for escorting them, along with strategic decisions on where to place them and how many to group together before moving them, etc.

Another angle would be as an anti-siege weapon where the slam and cannons are an effective weapon against siege weapons.  The slam attack in particular is suited to attacking siege weapons.  If the cannons could be used like a short range mortar they could be effective against siege built close to the walls.  The turtle could also serve as a "troop carrier" that could survive longer than a warclaw while keeping the driver/passenger safe.  As a defensive siege weapon they could play a role in sorties out of a fortified objective to attack attacking siege weapons.  If they can take a lot of damage but only really do serious damage against siege weapons they could be effective and fun, especially as a tool for a few defenders to delay a slightly larger number of attackers.  They could also serve as a sort of "mobile terrain feature" where players could maneuver around the turtle for cover from projectile weapons or melee attacks.