Guild Wars 2

you’re feeling forever alone at the dredgehaunt cliffs? nobody there to raid the CoE entry?

well, here’s a suggestion that might change that and encourage players to spread around to the world of tyria!

“Natural Order System”
i thought about 2 different possibilities of this system:

Option 1.: if more and more areas reach a specific number of minimum players, a buff for the whole server pops up, giving magic find and/or karma and or other boosts.
example (one server – 3 areas – minimum players to activate buff – 10):

area 1: 3 players
area 2: 20 players
area 3: 7 players

since the minimum population of one area must be 10, only 1 stack of, let’s say, karma boost will be active for the whole server. (for example: +3% karma)

now let’s shift some numbers:

area 1: 10 players
area 2: 10 players
area 3: 10 players

now, the whole server would gain +9% karma.

this might encourage players to spread around more.

Option 2: give each area it’s own “Natural Order” buff, depending on the number of players on that area.
this value does increase after a certain population is reached, but decreases if too crowded.

example (buff activates at 10 players and shuts down at 30 players):
Area 1: 4 players (no buff)
Area 2: 15 players (buff active)
Area 3: 32 players (no buff)

no player is forced to join specific areas, that’s why the buff shouldn’t be too high.

what ’ya think?

Seems like an idea. I usually try to lead my guild into less populated areas, so it’d be nice to see other people more often. However, I am skeptical that it would work to the effect youre hoping. The starting areas (queensdale, caledon forest etc…) Would remain the most populous for two reasons:

A) because that’s where all the low level players hang out
B) people just want to to world bosses and champ trains in areas Like queensdale.

I think this would only increase situations of “oh look I’m being buffed. I wonder what thats from?”

Good concept though. Flawed, but good.

Lower population servers would feel left out and at a disadvantage. Same with people playing outside of prime time. Confusing.

I could imagine a system more on an individual basis. Similar to some mobs that haven’t been killed for a while you get more experience – if you haven’t been to a map in a while you get some benefit like that. Should be easily visible for you though – maybe on the large map or in your hero panel.

However this could also increase tension within groups – no I can’t help you there on that map, just been there yesterday (extreme example but people may still feel pressured).

It’s what we make out of it.

i know, it’s very flawed.
it’s just meant to give some inspiriration to game designers or pop out similiar ideas from the community, like Rouven’s.

it could and will be exploited probably, by large numbers of organized AFK’ers, for example.

sure, some events do need a redesign to be motivating on all areas.
joining a dolyak zerg-train at the cursed shore is boring but profitable…so naturally, alot people are playing on cursed shore, while there’s really no reason to raid centaurs on the gendarran fields, especially with low populations.

gold > fun.
sad truth.

Rouven.7409:

Lower population servers would feel left out and at a disadvantage. Same with people playing outside of prime time. Confusing.

would still work, if the server would recalculate in 1-2H intervals the minimum numbers of neccessary players on each area for the buff, depending on the current population.

there is no incentive, some one who is not farming for a legendary like my self wont care for the buff. Buff could be a good mediator if ANET adds incentive. For that reason, Karma gear (set in particular, sexy weapons), they make more world drops for the “luck”.

I personally think ANET need to add more gear into the game, distribute it (like zone sets, event sets, karma sets) and so on.

If you want to elicit large-scale behavioral changes, then individual players need to get a direct advantage from changes they can make by themselves. Under your proposed system, a large organized group of players could get an advantage, but an individual player isn’t going to gain any buffs by changing zones (except, under option #2, by joining a zone that happens to currently have the buff—which is the opposite of your apparent intent), so they have no incentive to move.

Tragedy of the commons.

This idea might make sense if each server had only 1 person controlling where all of the players are, but no individual player is going to think “I should go to a zone I don’t want to be in so people I don’t know might get a minor buff that they don’t really care about.”

Something like the WvW Outnumbered buff might achieve what you’re going for, but it could definitely lead to hate and griefing.

of course, such an idea (or a similiar one) should not force players to be in specific areas.

i want to read your ideas. also, feel free to make suggestions/fixes on my idea.
it’s kinda sad, that so many cool locations are basically dead.

Kind of a complicated fix, and unlikely to be implemented. I posted my idea here:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Empty-Zone-Dynamic-Event-Fix/first#post3248040