Many of the suggestions on this board have been for new character classes, but there has hardly been any suggestions for other aspects of the game (apart from complete expansion sets). As I mainly play WoW for the PvP aspect of the game, it’s logical for me to come up with a new battleground, rather than coming up with new dungeons or raids.
Every expansion, new battleground show their faces. At first, in vanilla, we had Alterac Valley, Arathi Basin and Warsong Gulch. With TBC came Eye of the Storm, which roughly could be considered a mix of Arathi Basin and Warsong Gulch. The Lich King came, and brought us Strand of the Ancients, and Isle of Conquest. The second would appear to be pretty much a mix of Arathi Basin and Alterac Valley. In Cataclysm, we received two ‘new’ battlegrounds. We got Twin Peaks, and the Battle for Gilneas. These two are pretty much reskins of two of the original battlegrounds, Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin, respectively.
In essence, we have four battlegrounds with truly original objectives: Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin, Alterac Valley and Strand of the Ancients.
It’s time for a new, original, battleground.
I would like to present to you:
Why Silithus? I personally like battlegrounds that are based on a place in Azeroth. I never liked Eye of the Storm, Isle of Conquest and Strand of the Ancients, solely because they feel out of place for me, like they’re not a true part of Warcraft lore. I always felt like Isle of Conquest was created without any thought.
Silithus has always been a world PvP zone, but it’s feeling awkwardly empty right now. You only need 19 quests to receive the questing achievement, to give you an idea how empty such a big zone is. Adding in a battleground could give the zone more flavor.
Also, the zone comes with the ‘Silithyst’ ore, which could be used as part of the objective, as I’ll explain below.
What would the battleground look like?
The battleground would be shaped somewhat like an oval or a rectangle, much like Warsong Gulch. Both the Alliance and the Horde have built a base at one of the sides – the Alliance at the top of the map, the Horde at the bottom.
Most of the battleground will have the same kind of terrain as Silithus, only one of the side will be stylized like Un’Goro Crater. At the Un’Goro side of the map, harvestable wood can be found. At the other side of the map, Silithyst ore can be gathered. At both sides, a limited amount of nodes can be found.
Quick mock-up of the map.
What are the objectives of Silithyst Quarry?
The main objective of this battleground is a big wink to the original Warcraft games. Gathering resources, creating an army and destroy your opponent. But hold your horses, people, you will not control this army. We have enough battlegrounds featuring vehicles, and it takes the PvP out of PvP in my opinion. You’re not the siege tank, destroying everything in his path – no, you’re the peon gathering resources.
So, how do you play?
Both sides have to gather wood from the Un’Goro area, and Silithyst ore from the Silithyst area. Everyone is able to carry one resource at a time. Upon handing it in, the resource count for the resource handed in will increase by 50. When your faction’s resource count reaches 200 wood and 200 ore, a catapult will be built. These catapults will fire at the other faction’s base, slowly destroying it.
Where is the PvP part, you ask? As both sides are aiming for the same resources, you’ll bump into the other faction quite a lot. Much like in Silithus, when you kill someone who’s carrying Silithyst or wood, the resource will be dropped on the floor, and can be picked up by everyone else. It can be a tactic not to gather yourself, but wait for the other faction, and steal the resource they were carrying.
The catapults your faction creates cannot be controlled, they just fire in a set time. They can, however be destroyed by the opposing faction, trying to save their own base. That, however, can be a risky maneuver as the graveyard is very close to the catapults of the defending faction. A maximum of five catapults can be up at once.
Winning this battleground is achieved by balancing offense, defense and gathering resources. The faction destroying the other faction’s first, will be declared the winner.
Why would the Horde and Alliance decide to battle here?
Let me put out a quote directly from the Orcs’ introduction video:Much could be said for the Alliance, who have same issues, and are in dire need of new resources.With Durotar’s natural resources nearly depleted, Garrosh seeks to take whatever his people need to survive, regardless of who stands in his way.
Silithus Quarry is strategically located, near precious ore that can be used for vehicles and structures, while still near a tropical forest, where loads of wood could be harvested.
Q & A (or statements and replies, for that matter):
Q. This idea sucks.
A. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but please, elaborate why you think it’s a bad idea.
Q. You suck.
A. Thank you.
Q. What factions will winning give reputation to?
A. There will be two new factions, representing the Horde’s and Alliance’s gathering forces.
Q. This looks too much like …
A. If you mean that this idea is too close to other people’s ideas, let me tell you that most of the ideas in this thread come from my personal head. Also, to quote Gsusnme in the Warden thread:
I have nothing to GAIN from "stealing" an idea, as I am not getting paid for this, it's simply for fun and the whole "What-If" factor.
I would like to give credit to someone for giving me the base of this idea, but unfortunately, I forgot his name. It was some German guy, who posted his idea for a Warcraft-based battleground on the old official forums. I did, however, tweak all of it to fit my vision - his idea was very different from this one.
Q. What would appear at the top of your screen?
A. Probably the current state of the bases, and the resources gathered. The amount of active catapults could be seen on your map.