Guild Wars 2

There are a few seemingly server-side optimizations in WvW that are very annoying:

- AoEs affect only up to 5 people. Makes AoE spells and buffs feel very weak in groups.
Fix: AoE spells should affect everybody.

- The WvW matches are small (up to a few hundred people, compared to thousands on the server). Also resulting in huge queues.
Fix: Allow everybody in; make outnumbered worlds significantly more powerful (structures and players). The current buff is a joke.

- Enemy PCs not loading timely in WvW. If somebody is within range of my spells, but they have not loaded yet on my screen, it becomes very annoying quickly, and happens often when there are a lot of people fighting.
Fix: Increase distance at which PCs load. Make sure enemy PCs are loaded first, if needed.

Have I missed something? Let me know. Thanks.

Easier said than done.

They WANT to do what you are asking, but realistically implementing it is not possible.

1 keeps AoE from being a ridiculously dominating force in WvW, so the 5-target limit should stay.

2. They can’t just increase map population counts without making the servers unstable. Server stability is really networking 101, so I dunno why anyone would ever suggest that. Outnumbered would be fine if each world was capped at participation to a third of what the map’s max pop is, i.e., if a map has a max player capacity of 600, then allow only 200 people from each server and no more so other people from outnumbered servers trying to join aren’t being met with a queue message.

3. This sounds more like a computer issue, as I’ve never had a problem with player character loading distance in WvW. Go into your graphics settings and boost both Environment and LOD to at least “High”. If you can’t do that, replace that toaster you’re playing on.

Regarding implementation – it is certainly doable on a larger scale, it’s just that they don’t have it yet. I am saying it’s a good direction for future work and solves a lot of problems at the root.

Regarding AoE – an upper total damage cap might be balanced for offensive AoE. Perhaps some buffs should just not stack defensively.

Regarding population cap – of course an outnumbered world should never have a queue.

Regarding loading PCs – I have everything on max on a very beefy system, but I will have a look. Again I have mostly seen this in very large fights when more enemy players join the battle.

I would add WvW overflow servers :P So you can play there while waiting on queue. It would just group up people from different servers on the 3 different teams. Just to go bash skulls. When your queue is up, you can go to your server, or even stay there if the fight is fun.

No score on that overflow, just gory skull bashing and combat.

Kal.2376:

I would add WvW overflow servers :P So you can play there while waiting on queue. It would just group up people from different servers on the 3 different teams. Just to go bash skulls. When your queue is up, you can go to your server, or even stay there if the fight is fun.

No score on that overflow, just gory skull bashing and combat.

This would make sense for guild groups too, if guild groups can go to the same overflow and have a queue pop for them simultaneously.

They might have to boost the defense rewards for that, as without a point system there might not be a lot of incentive to defend. Siege and upgrade costs would also have to be reduced, perhaps.
I think the problem with a overflow WvW might be balancing?

DusK.3849:

3. This sounds more like a computer issue, as I’ve never had a problem with player character loading distance in WvW. Go into your graphics settings and boost both Environment and LOD to at least “High”. If you can’t do that, replace that toaster you’re playing on.

This will not help, the issue was actually addressed here by the devs:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/wuvwuv/The-real-problem-here-is-invisible-enemies-Give-their-algorithms-time-to-match-servers-properly/183838

AoE should stay the same no question.

If you remember Failhammer Bright Wizards and Sorcerers overlapped AoEs and it was ridiculous

AoE only being five targets was implemented somewhere around BW2.
Specifically to stop the massive dominance of AoE in WvW.

World map player limits are good for actual competition. I know you just want to AoE nuke everyone while massively outnumbering them, but some of us want something approaching a fair fight in PvP. Perhaps your playstyle favours certain dynamic events in Orr?

Third one is good, but is probably constrained by a combination of the Minimum System Specs and their server bandwidth. ie: They’re throwing out player details to stupid numbers of clients, so they prune the least important ones to maintain quality for the rest. Though it would be nice if they gave some indication that a zerg is headed your way. Maybe a single large dustcoud for a group of more than 10 players who are being graphicly culled?

AoE should absolutely NOT be changed. Holy crap that would break the balance. Every class has an AoE of some kind, it would just be mass death if 50+ people could hit everyone at the same time. Would make WvW terrible IMO