I like the idea of the Warfronts, I love the amount of details they have for old Warcraft fans like myself. The Darkshore one is amazingly detailed.
But once you’ve done them a couple of times, they become a boring repetition. You essentially do the same things, and no matter how much you try to engage with the content, you will always get one item at the end.
How to make them more engaging and, in turn, more rewarding? I was thinking of some ways:
Add a personal score
Add a personal score for each player. You get points by doing stuff that contributes to the victory: killing elite enemies that lead the attack waves, killing the elite mini-bosses that guard each enemy base, participating in random events, spending resources to build/upgrade your base and equipment, and so on.
At the end of the Warfront, your score gives you a number of boxes that can contain some gold, crafting material, currency and even additional items.
Also, put a score board that you can check at the end, to see how you fared against others in your team. Some people like competition, and beating the score can also be a personal drive to do the Warfronts.
Randomize commanders
Make both your commander and the enemy commander be random, instead of being the same for the entire week. This not only makes the dialogue feel more diverse, instead of repeating the same banter every match, but also changes some of the mobs you fight with/against.
It’s a small cheap change, but at least it makes the Warfront feel more varied each match.
Events that change the flow
Warfronts are pretty straight-forward: you take your base, you upgrade your base, you conquer checkpoints towards the enemy base, you destroy their gate, you defeat the enemy leader.
What about random events that change that flow? Example:
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Rear attack: There’s a random chance that once per battleground your base will suffer a rear attack. Enemy special forces pour into your base, halting efforts to build/upgrade and threatening your commander, thus forcing players to react to that.
The types of troops could vary by enemy commander (for example, Muradin could send wildhammer gryphon riders and dark iron mole machines, Turalyon could send Lightforged troopes throught Lightforged beacons and warframes), each requiring different tactics. -
Elite Wave: When spawning an enemy attack wave, there’s a random chance of it being an elite troop (again, with type of mobs varying by enemy commander) that requires a lot of effort and team work to defeat. If not stopped, it can easily roflstomp your troops and take back checkpoints, even threatening to invade your base if not stopped in time.
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Hire Elite Troops: This is the opposite of the enemy elite troop. There’s now a special elite troop that people can contribute to hire once you have a fully upgraded Town Hall/Great Hall. What your troops is depends on your commander for that match. Once hired, the special troops allows the team to quickly advance and damage the enemy gates, making the Warfront shorter.
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Hire special attacks: Players can spend resources on the Barracks to gain a special attack (extra action button) that targets an area. The type of attack depends on your commander (Turalyon could give you Light’s Judgement, Muradin could allow you to call a Wildhammer lightning attack force, and so on). You can use it once, and then it has a slow cooldown. Also, the building itself that sells the attack has limited charges under CD, to avoid abuse. This could make dispatching normal troops faster, and coordinated use of this special attack could speed the match greatly.
Make the final fight more engaging
Currently, the final fight is just a long tank-and-spank event. Final bosses could be more like raid bosses, with phases and interesting mechanics, like using the terrain to their advantage. However, due to the random nature of Warfront matching, their attacks should be avoidable by personal skill, rather than group coordination.
The phases of this fight could also be random (like each boss having 6 potential phases, but only 3 happening per match), so the fight feels different each time.
So, what do you think?