I think WPvP is something that has never been done right and also something that has absolutely huge potential in an MMO. By doing something right, I mean a simple compounding system where its complexity is something that comes from players.
Which brings me to Ashran or "Trashran." I think Ashran is probably the closest thing to good world pvp we have in WoW. Yeah, I said that right. The thing about Ashran is that it is rife with good ideas and poor execution, in my opinion. The idea of fighting along a road to conquest, taking enemy bases and random sort of events all around for bonuses- very cool idea.
My problems with Ashran: everything is very temporary. You win, but you don't really conquer anything. Just get bounced back and do it again in 10 minutes. There isn't any proper reason for geared people to do it. There is no obvious story reason for us to want to take over Ashran. Plus, it enforces faction balance which means that the Horde is out geared virtually always and the Alliance has infinitely long queues.
The first solution is gold. Make players able to take honor, and trade it for gold. Not the other way around. It doesn't have to be a TON of gold. What if 1000 honor was worth 100g? Would you pvp more to buy your sub? I think more people would.
The second answer, to me is simply as well. Queue too long? Why don't you go fight somewhere else? Somewhere with real strategic value? Are you outnumbered here? Why don't you go find a place unguarded and attack it? That's what a real war in Warcraft would look like.
So, my plan is this: make every single zone in the real world capturable. Use what we learn from other games. I think maybe small amounts of soldiers attacking in waves like in a moba would be cool. Players can just go around fighting anywhere. Compound victories into conquest and fight a real war. Actually conquer zones, whole zones. We could have rep for each zone or something, gold rewards, honor. Honor should be given the same as if in a BG, or more. Maybe killing an enemy NPC gives you 2 honor, players give you 10.
In this world, faction balance is not enforced. Be strategic about where you go. So, in my example, gold is substitute for honor-being that people would probably be doing pvp to get gold because it's easy to get honor gear and the mounts, anyway. Note also in my example that players and npc's give honor. And, unless an event makes something capturable, towns can only be captured if they border an enemy town (Ashran's road progression as a model, with moba elements).
It's something I put a lot of thought into that I think would make WoW a move interactive game. This sort of model can be dropped onto any zone, so the whole world becomes one, massive, epic world of pvp. Also, you have to opt into it and all pvp zones are cross-realm by default because many would be boring without it unless there is more people playing.
So, here is an example of one small part of a gigantic world of pvp:
Elwynn Forest: Model for WPvP
Alliance rep: Elwynn Forest?
Horde rep: Elwynn Invasion Force?
CAPTURABLE POINTS
-capital city zone: 10% honor buff for who holds it (SW)
-Eastvale Logging Camp (town): spawns npc minion
-east tower: increases all npc damage 10%
-Tower of Azora: increase guard attack 10%
-Brackwell Pumpkin Patch: increase npc health 10%
-Goldshire (town): spawns npc minion
-Maclure Vineyards & Stonefield Farm: +5% player health each
-Westbrook Garrison: +10% player defense
-Northshire: +10% healing
-west tower: +10% npc defense
EVENTS
Defias Rising!
The Defias faction is preparing an assault on Eastvale Logging Camp:
-conquer Stone Cairn Lake before they assault and gain a large gold reward
-stop the faction that controls ELC from stopping Defias to gain strategic advantage and a gold reward
-During this time SCL is populated by many elites, not advised to go alone
-If the timer is failed, a large army of Defias invades ELC
-After some time occupying ELC they disappear and it becomes contested/abandoned
Murlok Apocalypse!
Can only happen once every 2 hours.
Triggered by players bringing 50 fish of any type to neutral murlock.
The murloks of Elwynn are risen. A murlok army will invade Goldshire and occupy it until defeated.
-defeating the murlocks in Goldshire is claims Goldshire for whichever faction does it, regardless of minions nearby
-large gold reward and easy foothold for Horde in the zone
Conquer with Candles
The klebolds of the north cave have become their own faction with their own leader.
-kill enemy klebolds in the other mine for 15 candles and get them to the new klebold faction leader
-they are lootable from players by enemy players
-first faction to get the candles to the neutral klebolds will have that faction go to war for them
-the klebold faction will move as a group, taking bonus objectives for 30 minutes or until defeated
Hogger's Revenge
Can only happen once every 2 hours.
Triggered by players bringing 50 units of food to the new chiefton.
A new gnoll chiefton has taken over Hogger's stomping grounds and wants revenge for his old leader.
He will rally a small army of fellow gnolls and assault Westbrook Garrison and east tower.
-defeat this gnoll king and the invasion ends
-large gold reward for defeating it
-failure means that the gnoll take over and immediately vanish meaning the garrison is abandoned and contested
CITY BATTLE: Siege of Stormwind
Stormwind city is threatened when Goldshire & ELC is occupied by enemy faction.
During this time guards do no spawn as they normally do.
Each area of the city is capturable separately.
During siege, guards have limited respawn times.
Each occupied area spawns 10 guards that can respawn 5 times to defend the flag.
Each occupied area that borders an area of the other occupied faction spawns waves of 5 attacking guards that respawn 5 times each.
The counter of guards resets when an area changes hands.
Once the majority of the city is held by the invading faction for 20 minutes, only the castle will be contested.
That area must be captured and the leader defeated in 10 minutes or the city battle begins again (the invading faction starts owning it this time)
If the city battle is repelled by the defending faction owning the majority of districts at the end of 20 minutes.
If the leader killed and castle occupied, the entire zone belongs to the attacking faction. During this time it is treated as a capital city of that faction.
During that time also, that factions mages can teleport to it, auctions, vendors, banks, etc. even hearths belong to that faction and can be used.
However, Deeprun tram only operates when the same faction owns SW and IF. Ships to Teldrassil only work when SW and Darn are owned by the same faction.
* At this time, there is no plan to add new ships to replace the non working ones for Horde, same is the case for every other capturable town and city with a dock.
I hope this seems interesting to you guys.