Guild Wars 2

Hah, my topic got merged in here, making a bit of a mess.

Anyway, I’d like to inquire about an updated scaling system going together with these changes. Right now, the open world is a walk in a park for a single player. Even champions are big punching bags, if one activates a single brain cell responsible for dodging.

With more players around it’ll get even more brainless. Unless the scaling starts to work properly, actually providing some challenge for bigger groups.

So it’s basically a server merge without calling it one, pretty much like WoW did it. Except this is taking it a step further and linking all servers in a region, instead of two or three with each other. I guess it comes down to what you find more important, low level zones not being dead or server community. In most cases you can’t have both, no matter how magical your algorithm might be. Which is another part I’m uncomfortable with, I don’t really like the idea of some algorithm “aggregating data” about me and determining where I’m supposed to be playing. I made that choice myself when I picked a server.

lnguy.5127:

Hyperionkhv.1978:

The megaserver system means you won’t encounter overflow maps anymore.

And how we will make organised raids for Wurms? No overflow means no taxi to same map?

Read the entire article please. Here’s a direct quote, " you can still party with a friend by right-clicking on their name and then select to join them in their version of the map"

So, basically, it’s all overflow all the time. There’s no “servers” you just get overflow. I don’t see how their algorithm works. If a map is full, you go to another map. If a map’s not full, you go to that map. What choice does the algorithm make? If two maps are half full, so you can join your friends automatically on one map, what’s the point of this whole system? I assume anet’s going to tell us that the maps are load balanced so that there’s the same number of people on every instance, more or less (to a certain point. Perhaps each map fills up to a similar low number, like 50, and then starts sending new people that port in, if the algorithm feels that there’s no need for them to be there.) And that you get sent to people from your guild/party/home server (what’s that mean, now?)

Well, they are testing this only in cities, starter zones, and PvP lobby. From there our constructive feedback/criticism and suggestions will change how the system will work when they release it to the rest of the game.

So it’s all not doom and gloom for a few of the people (yet). I emphasize constructive.

Lambent.6375:

Being in the same guild seems to be considered as a top priority when sorting people, so I’m more worried about several guilds attempting to do the same mission at once.

Example: What happens when two guilds have the same Guild challenge, and they get sorted into the same server? Not sure what happens, because this has never occurred on any guild missions I’ve been on, but wouldn’t the megaservers greatly increase the chance of this happening?

I am worried about just the opposite. We have teamed with other guilds that pulled the same mission or rush and did it together. Both guilds get credit for participating in the activity even if only one pops it. If the guild events get instanced, as might be announced tomorrow, then we wouldn’t be able to do that. Our small guild would then find success a good bit more difficult.

Then again, I might be worried for nothing.

This is just a server merge in a slightly different form.

Anyway, I wonder how this will affect things like guilds overflowing zones on purpose in order to do world events.

Also, what about dungeon open/close statuses? Currently, you can find an open dungeon by guesting.

phys.7689:

what exactly is your issue with randoms.
this is not to start an argument, its more like tell me exactly why you think most randoms dont work
is it mostly communication?
is it gear?
is it that they dont listen even when communicated?
Is it that what is required is above and beyond the average players skill set?

Mostly i think this problem needs to be solved, but i think first we have to understand the problems.

*A large amount of them arent willing to communicate by getting onto teamspeak (which 9/10 times people dont have problems letting randoms on it), because “i dont have a mic”

*They assume we’re being frivolous when we say to do specific things at specific times, such as the abom at Amber and kegs at Cobalt (screw you keg achievement noobs)

*They dont understand the necessity behind the phrase “stack on the commander tag now,” phase 2 wurm WILL charge the one person not stacked in the right spot, leave the event “zone” leash and go invulnerable for the remaining time

*They dont comprehend the tactics necessary for the fight, even AFTER they’ve been explained multiple times, not only extensively BEFORE the spawn, but during the fight, both teamspeak and /say

*They’re there for no other reason than to troll that given guild by doing everything wrong, apparently some people are offended by big guilds doing this stuff

*They bring other randoms into the overflow stealing (yes, stealing) that room from non-randoms who know how to do the fight, and WANTED to do the fight, due to the timing of raids some days, we do have 200+ people wanting to do wurm, and 10-20 randoms “sneaking” in does not help

*They assume strongly asking for them to follow what the commanders say is being “elitist” and think it means they need to go “be a rebel and not do what they say cuz it leet” and do something stupid enough to fail the event

Pick any or all of the above. Gear has very little to do with it. You arent asked to wear zerker the whole fight (it’s a bad choice for phase 1) or are required to change into zerker for phase 2 (you can if you want to or have it). Now, if you’re wearing severely underleveled, or underquality (blues at 80? GG) gear, then it has an impact.
First and foremost, it’s communication. That’s why teamspeak is strongly asked for. By the time they type out something yelling at some noob standing in the middle of nowhere, it’s too late.
That’s how unforgiving the three-headed wurm is. Anet MADE the event so difficult it requires conditions on the part of players doing the event that are perceived as elitist, but are in fact only able to give a CHANCE at victory. Teq can take several mistakes and still be beaten.

Conncept.7638:

Lankybrit.4598:

Naz.2607:

FrozenStarRo.7240:

How would harvest nodes be affected by this change? Because I’ve still got lots of deldrimors to make and piles of iron and platinum to collect. I don’t mind going to a map to find the nodes once, but I’d hate to come back with another character 30 seconds later to find I’m in an entirely different instance of the same map.

^^ This is huge for me

Why’s this an issue?

Aren’t node maps the same on all servers?

And, if you come back after 30 seconds on a different character, couldn’t the only outcome possibly be positive, having mode nodes not gathered (if on a different map). There couldn’t possibly be less, just the same, or more.

No, every server reset the nodes are randomly placed per-server based on a group of potential spawn locations. Under the current system you could come back to a map with a different character and mine all the same nodes. Where as under this new system you could come back and it would be full of new nodes, but in completely different places, because they aren’t tied to your server anymore.

OK. Thanks for the explanation. IMHO, that’s sort of a exploit, and not actually playing the game. So, I welcome the change.

Yay! This is the best news since ever. Goodbye to overflows, no more 2 hour waiting to get to the wurm ^^. Maybe I’ll finally get those achis.

I’ve been through my share of MMOs, and generally when a game comes out and says, “We’re making one big server for all of our players to occupy!” it translates to, “Our game’s population is dwindling and we’re consolidating servers to save costs and artificially improve the live of the game.”

I know for a fact that GW2’s population isn’t dwindling, but the idea of a megaserver and what it’s generally meant for most games who go that route is that it leaves a source taste in the eyes of those who are merely a passerby or are watching the game in hopes that it succeeds/fails. I get that it’s meant to improve the life of certain maps that are otherwise deserted due to a lack of content, but I’d like to hear the thought behind it and get a better sense of what’s going on technically. It doesn’t seem very well-communicated at the current moment.

1. Are servers being consolidated?
2. How will this affect maps that have multiple overflows all the time, and will server pride still be a thing?
3. What’s the general goal behind the Megaserver system and what, on a technical level, is it meant to achieve?

These are more questions directly involving the devs, but I’d also like to hear some community opinions on the matter. After seeing SWTOR do a “megaserver” (consolidate the population to save the game), it has me worried about the life of the game despite the seemingly booming population as of late.

cough
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/archive/suggestions/PvE-should-be-1-single-server-overflows/first#post2844656
cough

This is literally one of the best and smartest features Anet could add, heres why. People have suggested underflow servers for a long time and im glad were getting a solution to the same problem.

One thing a lot of games suffer from when adding new content, especially zones, is that it separates out the community, making people split, and usually not evenly. If this game got a new continent immediately, on most servers it wouldn’t be surprising to see two or 3 new zones very globbed up and like 8 or 9 with only 5 people in them. This way, this is much less likely to happen.

Gw2 is one step away from going back to the GW1 system (except with a persistent world)

I would like to see them go 1 step further and add districts, throw out the RNG of getting with the people you want, make pve organization possible across servers. Having a higher CHANCE of being with the people you want is great, but it should be a certainty.

Good change overall, looking forward to hearing about their changes to world boss spawn.

Questions:

1. If the map you wanna get in is full – will you be able to QUEUE UP for it? (like we do in WvW now)
2. How does it affect event timers? Will I be able to TRACK MAP STATUS like we do now (events etc)
3. General question: will I be able to SWITCH MAPS freely? Any interface for that?

Problem is that some of us are on low-populated servers for a reason.
So, why not let the players choose instead of forcing the “multiplayer” thing on us?
If there are to be several map copies anyway, it seems reasonable to let players see which ones are highly populated and which are empty. Than choose what they prefer. Map selected by the megaserver system could display as a suggestion only.

Becka Williams.4978:

lordkrall.7241:

Becka Williams.4978:

Why wait two days, post the blogs now? What’s the point of coming here and saying “Oh, your concerns will be addressed soon. We’re not going to post the blogs now. But soon.” What is it with anet and their fear of “spoilers”?

Because it is easier to take feedback and give correct information when releasing less information?

If they had released 3 days worth of blogs right now, people would most likely miss quite a bit of the information, and then whine about missing said information.

I think coming on and saying “yeah, we’ll be addressing your concerns later.” is kind of…not helpful.

Its communication and sharing of excitement. I don’t see anything wrong with this, sometimes we need to talk to more than just the computer.

People have been asking for mega server for years in pretty much a lot of MMOs. It is something that all MMOs should do for PvE at the very least, it creates a better playing environment for everyone regardless of play times. If anything, something like this could bring even more people into the game because they know they can have a better chance to be able play with other people despite the time of day they play.

As to your questions.

1. no idea
2 and 3 are answered in the article.

1. There are two more blog posts in the series. While we can wait and see, the true answer will depend on WvW. Mega-server will limit the impact of being on a given server for PvE, but afaik WvW will still be world-based. As long as a server can muster enough WvW population to matter in their match-up, I doubt servers will close.
2. The way I read it, overflows will be eliminated in one sense, but in another all maps will either be overflows or at least will share one characteristic with overflows. People from multiple servers could be in any given map depending on a host of factors. As to server pride — that is generated by the efforts of people on the servers. I suspect if there is enough interest in “server pride,” people will game the new system to foster it — much as people gamed the overflow system to do Teq.
3. I believe the primary goal is to implement an “underflow” system, such as has been suggested numerous times on these boards. The system, as I read it, will only generate new maps of a given zone if the population gets too high. Players in different zones will more likely see other players, reducing the complaints about “empty” zones. Since such complaints are bad for publicity, reducing them seems like a win for the developer as well as players who prefer seeing others more often.
4. Empty zones are an issue in most MMO’s as the game matures. Even players in the “elephant in the room” game face zones where they hardly see anyone. However, in most games, there are not many things to do that require others. Gw2 was designed to have more zone events that call for more people than those other games, where questing is often a solitary play-style.
5. I think that WvW consolidation would be a truer indicator of game population decline than the mega-server concept, for the reasons alluded to above.

Read question. Are they increasing the all around total player cap per map? or just making it so you’re 225% more likely to see another person while wandering by increasing the general player frame, but not map cap?

I’m a bit confused about this statement: “we’re making it easier to play with your friends on every PvE map”. You state that it will become easier to end up on the same map copy as your friends, but your friends (as in Friend List) aren’t mentioned as one of the determining weights for map copy selection. So I’m either forced to party up with friends (which would result in a limit of max. 4 friends) or to get everyone to join the same Guild or Home World (which aren’t very realistic options either). So could you add Friends as one of the determining weight as well?

Furthermore this system wouldn’t be such a huge step back for many coordinated groups that take on world bosses if you would add Alliances to the game or at least an option to add befriended Guilds as one of the determining weights for map copy selection as well (but Alliances would be a lot easier and better for many different reasons as well).

Don’t get me wrong, all in all I like the new system, but there is also room for improvement already. I mean this would be ultimate occasion to remove the split between EU and NA servers if you want people to enjoy a full map copy during off-hours for their timezone as well

Yenrah.8532:

Problem is that some of us are on low-populated servers for a reason.
So, why not let the players choose instead of forcing the “multiplayer” thing on us?
If there are to be several map copies anyway, it seems reasonable to let players see which ones are highly populated and which are empty. Than choose what they prefer. Map selected by the megaserver system could display as a suggestion only.

Umm, this is a multiplayer game. Perhaps you should switch to e.g. Skyrim if that is a problem for you.

In a game with a variety of leveling options (Birthday Scrolls, PvE, sPvP, WvW, Crafting, or technically even Black Lion Key buying) the lower level PvE zones become ghost towns. This leads to the misconception that the game is ‘dead’ or ‘dying’ when in fact it’s just a result of the game having a higher level community who can afford to craft through levels or even just, because of birthday rewards, their alts skip those areas.

The Mega Server allows them to combine these zones so that lower level players can still find one another. It’s basically the reverse of an overflow, funneling players together and splitting them by server/guild/language ties when necessary.

I’ve been wanting them to do this for some time. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a free to play weekend shortly after it is released.

I am so excited for this new mega server system. I always believed that having separating players by servers was always a bad idea and created more problems that any advantages that segregation of players might have wasn’t worth it. This should make for a better playing environment in all zones no matter the time of day. Thank you Anet for doing this.

I’m a little worried about what it will do to server communities, honestly. Some servers, such as TC, are known for having an awesome and friendly playerbase. Others, such as the server I transferred from a while back, have terrible and unfriendly communities. I really hope the megaserver calculations put more weight into home server and guilds than other things.

Granted, this is going to be a much-coveted change for low pop servers, but I don’t see much benefit to the higher pop ones. Some world bosses are already lagfests with 30-50+ people at them…I’m not looking forward to seeing even MORE people stacking together.

And I know some may criticize me for bringing this up, but the Frostgorge champs already get melted with just 20-30 people doing them. Add another 50 onto that and they’ll be more of a joke than they already are.

Sakri.7234:

Yenrah.8532:

Problem is that some of us are on low-populated servers for a reason.
So, why not let the players choose instead of forcing the “multiplayer” thing on us?
If there are to be several map copies anyway, it seems reasonable to let players see which ones are highly populated and which are empty. Than choose what they prefer. Map selected by the megaserver system could display as a suggestion only.

Umm, this is a multiplayer game. Perhaps you should switch to e.g. Skyrim if that is a problem for you.

The fact that it is an mmo should not be a reason to punish the players who prefer playing alone. Till now there always was a choice of server or less popular map. I don’t see why should it be removed completely.

Yenrah.8532:

Sakri.7234:

Yenrah.8532:

Problem is that some of us are on low-populated servers for a reason.
So, why not let the players choose instead of forcing the “multiplayer” thing on us?
If there are to be several map copies anyway, it seems reasonable to let players see which ones are highly populated and which are empty. Than choose what they prefer. Map selected by the megaserver system could display as a suggestion only.

Umm, this is a multiplayer game. Perhaps you should switch to e.g. Skyrim if that is a problem for you.

The fact that it is an mmo should not be a reason to punish the players who prefer playing alone. Till now there always was a choice of choosing server or less popular map. I don’t see why should it be removed completely.

I honestly can’t see any reason why it’s better to be on your own versus having other players around you in GW2. They’ve made it so that everything is better with more players. Maybe you can enlighten me.

skullmount.1758:

Take the wurm for example. One random can entirely mess up the whole attempt (cobalt specifically on first phase, and any of the three on the second).

Its not so much randoms that I personally have a problem with, its the kitten time limits. Without the time limits (or even doubling some, teq/wurms anyways) would probably go a long way in making it more casual/randoms friendly.

is it mostly communication? – Yes, Anet has pretty much required us to use external communication tools since they are faster than typing
is it gear? – Not so much. I know my builds aren’t optimized.
is it that they dont listen even when communicated? – Kind of. When randoms are told several times by different people to do something specific and still don’t listen, yes it makes me not want to play with randoms.
Is it that what is required is above and beyond the average players skill set? – Not usually. Most of the times the mechanics aren’t hard to do, at least in my mind for the average player.

This is all for open world boss events, mind you. I’ve only ever done dungeons with pugs/randoms and have done all with not too many problems (except Arah, haven’t attempted that at all yet).

Nar.8327:

Advent Leader.1083:

Digressing, but when he means wurm try he possibly means a large, highly coordinated try where most of the participants have a strict set of conditions in play (voice chat, trait control geared and optimized, with food and nourishment, as well as attack pattern synced up).

Which is, currently, the only way the event actually gets completed. When an event is designed such that a small handful of people who don’t know what they are doing or don’t listen to instructions can muck it up, it becomes necessary to find ways to only allow people trusted not to be one of those into the encounter.

Pretty much how I feel, in different words (better explained). Most processes/loopholes/working solutions are all because players have had to due to Anet’s decisions on certain things.

so it sounds like possibly they could make Commanders get access to a one way voice commander channel. players could join this channel and they would be able to hear what the commander is advising(if the commander enables this). The commander used in this case, would probably not be so much the leader, as much as a communications leader, relaying the info to the ground troops.

time limits, hmmm i think time limits are good, when built to be more adaptive. For example i think the time limit in the marrionette event was really well thought out, it was influenced by the actions of the people. At the end of the day there is a maximum amount of time for the event, but its based more on what the group is doing and focusing on, as well as how many times the group failed.

I think having creative interactive changeable time limits like that may allieve some of the issues.

1 person failing the event, this is kinda bad, because its tricky, if you make the event so that people cant make mistakes, it loses its challenge, but if 1 person can fail a whole event thats a problem.

lot of things to think about

Coltz.5617:

Becka Williams.4978:

lordkrall.7241:

Becka Williams.4978:

Why wait two days, post the blogs now? What’s the point of coming here and saying “Oh, your concerns will be addressed soon. We’re not going to post the blogs now. But soon.” What is it with anet and their fear of “spoilers”?

Because it is easier to take feedback and give correct information when releasing less information?

If they had released 3 days worth of blogs right now, people would most likely miss quite a bit of the information, and then whine about missing said information.

I think coming on and saying “yeah, we’ll be addressing your concerns later.” is kind of…not helpful.

Its communication and sharing of excitement. I don’t see anything wrong with this, sometimes we need to talk to more than just the computer.

If you have information that addresses people’s concerns, why do you wait a day to release it?

Lankybrit.4598:

Yenrah.8532:

Sakri.7234:

Yenrah.8532:

Problem is that some of us are on low-populated servers for a reason.
So, why not let the players choose instead of forcing the “multiplayer” thing on us?
If there are to be several map copies anyway, it seems reasonable to let players see which ones are highly populated and which are empty. Than choose what they prefer. Map selected by the megaserver system could display as a suggestion only.

Umm, this is a multiplayer game. Perhaps you should switch to e.g. Skyrim if that is a problem for you.

The fact that it is an mmo should not be a reason to punish the players who prefer playing alone. Till now there always was a choice of choosing server or less popular map. I don’t see why should it be removed completely.

I honestly can’t see any reason why it’s better to be on your own versus having other players around you in GW2. They’ve made it so that everything is better with more players. Maybe you can enlighten me.

Everything is TOO EASY with more players.

Asmodeus.5782:

Lankybrit.4598:

Yenrah.8532:

Sakri.7234:

Yenrah.8532:

Problem is that some of us are on low-populated servers for a reason.
So, why not let the players choose instead of forcing the “multiplayer” thing on us?
If there are to be several map copies anyway, it seems reasonable to let players see which ones are highly populated and which are empty. Than choose what they prefer. Map selected by the megaserver system could display as a suggestion only.

Umm, this is a multiplayer game. Perhaps you should switch to e.g. Skyrim if that is a problem for you.

The fact that it is an mmo should not be a reason to punish the players who prefer playing alone. Till now there always was a choice of choosing server or less popular map. I don’t see why should it be removed completely.

I honestly can’t see any reason why it’s better to be on your own versus having other players around you in GW2. They’ve made it so that everything is better with more players. Maybe you can enlighten me.

Everything is TOO EASY with more players.

This.

Shoulda just switched to the district system but with the current server names as district names. That would have kept continuity with the current system but with pretty much all the benefits of this new megaserver system.

Except the primary benefit of this new system, which is Anet saves a lot of money by spawning fewer map instances. This is almost certainly the true reason behind all this. The rest is just spin.

Yenrah.8532:

The fact that it is an mmo should not be a reason to punish the players who prefer playing alone. Till now there always was a choice of server or less popular map. I don’t see why should it be removed completely.

Maybe not.
But the fact that it is an mmo means that they won’t cater the game around people that want to play a single-player game.

Lord Kuru.3685:

Except the primary benefit of this new system, which is Anet saves a lot of money by spawning fewer map instances. This is almost certainly the true reason behind all this. The rest is just spin.

The probably also earn less money with this change, seeing as it will be more or less unnecessary to transfer to a fuller server.

But I suppose that line of thought doesn’t works so well with the whole “ArenaNet is evil moneygrabbing baddies”.

Lord Kuru.3685:

Shoulda just switched to the district system but with the current server names as district names. That would have kept continuity with the current system but with pretty much all the benefits of this new megaserver system.

Except the primary benefit of this new system, which is Anet saves a lot of money by spawning fewer map instances. This is almost certainly the true reason behind all this. The rest is just spin.

Oh gawds, yes. To actually let people choose the population density. Unthinkable, is it.

DragonWhimsy.6489:

Question for the devs: Any chance this will work with daily activities? Because being in mini-games with my friends and guildies instead of it being totally random would be awesome.

+1 for this question. We currently (try to) get around this by having everyone join at the same time. It would be nicer to leverage this new system instead.

Becka Williams.4978:

Coltz.5617:

Becka Williams.4978:

lordkrall.7241:

Becka Williams.4978:

Why wait two days, post the blogs now? What’s the point of coming here and saying “Oh, your concerns will be addressed soon. We’re not going to post the blogs now. But soon.” What is it with anet and their fear of “spoilers”?

Because it is easier to take feedback and give correct information when releasing less information?

If they had released 3 days worth of blogs right now, people would most likely miss quite a bit of the information, and then whine about missing said information.

I think coming on and saying “yeah, we’ll be addressing your concerns later.” is kind of…not helpful.

Its communication and sharing of excitement. I don’t see anything wrong with this, sometimes we need to talk to more than just the computer.

If you have information that addresses people’s concerns, why do you wait a day to release it?

I made a thread asking this very thing and it got thrown into the trashcan.

I look at it as a return to Guild wars 1 server type. There was only one server for each geographic region. Overflows were sometimes created, but as far as I remember everyone was really on just one functional server within their region

lordkrall.7241:

Yenrah.8532:

The fact that it is an mmo should not be a reason to punish the players who prefer playing alone. Till now there always was a choice of server or less popular map. I don’t see why should it be removed completely.

Maybe not.
But the fact that it is an mmo means that they won’t cater the game around people that want to play a single-player game.

Well, then they should make this game interesting as a multiplayer experience. Currently group play is synonymous with ‘spam 1 and fight your seizures until the loot drops’. Solo/duo roaming, on the other hand, lets you plan your skills, dodge, you know, utilize the mechanics.

How is this going to affect people in my guild that are on other servers, but guesting to ours?

Asmodeus.5782:

lordkrall.7241:

Yenrah.8532:

The fact that it is an mmo should not be a reason to punish the players who prefer playing alone. Till now there always was a choice of server or less popular map. I don’t see why should it be removed completely.

Maybe not.
But the fact that it is an mmo means that they won’t cater the game around people that want to play a single-player game.

Well, then they should make this game interesting as a multiplayer experience. Currently group play is synonymous with ‘spam 1 and fight your seizures until the loot drops’. Solo/duo roaming, on the other hand, lets you plan your skills, dodge, you know, utilize the mechanics.

And what does more people on the same map as you do to STOP you from doing that? Nothing.

Yenrah.8532:

Asmodeus.5782:

Lankybrit.4598:

Yenrah.8532:

Sakri.7234:

Yenrah.8532:

Problem is that some of us are on low-populated servers for a reason.
So, why not let the players choose instead of forcing the “multiplayer” thing on us?
If there are to be several map copies anyway, it seems reasonable to let players see which ones are highly populated and which are empty. Than choose what they prefer. Map selected by the megaserver system could display as a suggestion only.

Umm, this is a multiplayer game. Perhaps you should switch to e.g. Skyrim if that is a problem for you.

The fact that it is an mmo should not be a reason to punish the players who prefer playing alone. Till now there always was a choice of choosing server or less popular map. I don’t see why should it be removed completely.

I honestly can’t see any reason why it’s better to be on your own versus having other players around you in GW2. They’ve made it so that everything is better with more players. Maybe you can enlighten me.

Everything is TOO EASY with more players.

This.

I’ll back up this This.

And further, my first feeling when I read the blog ten minutes ago was that I’ll definitely be avoiding the 1-15 maps during prime time. Too many people! I don’t like crowds in real life. Queensdale can already get too much for me.

Having said that, this will please the people who need help and do like having loads of people around.

Aidan Savage.2078:

Asmodeus.5782:

lordkrall.7241:

Yenrah.8532:

The fact that it is an mmo should not be a reason to punish the players who prefer playing alone. Till now there always was a choice of server or less popular map. I don’t see why should it be removed completely.

Maybe not.
But the fact that it is an mmo means that they won’t cater the game around people that want to play a single-player game.

Well, then they should make this game interesting as a multiplayer experience. Currently group play is synonymous with ‘spam 1 and fight your seizures until the loot drops’. Solo/duo roaming, on the other hand, lets you plan your skills, dodge, you know, utilize the mechanics.

And what does more people on the same map as you do to STOP you from doing that? Nothing.

Except having absolutely no incentive to do so in the chaos? The boss targeting me once a month, if I ask nicely? The lightshow, obscuring absolutely all animations? The fact that the thing is over in 20-30 seconds? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, MATE.

4 people is enough to make any champion in the game a kindergarten task.

Asmodeus.5782:

Well, then they should make this game interesting as a multiplayer experience. Currently group play is synonymous with ‘spam 1 and fight your seizures until the loot drops’. Solo/duo roaming, on the other hand, lets you plan your skills, dodge, you know, utilize the mechanics.

I keep wondering about this.
People are always claiming that everything is spam 1, but I have played more or less daily since headstart and I have yet to find a situation that forces me to spam 1.

But I suppose that might have to do with the fact that I mostly do WvW.

Mega-servers address a big issue faced by all MMOs (or at least all MMOs with a progressive levelling system), that is a lack of players in the mid level areas. Sure you’d get a couple of people in the starting zones but the more they progress the more areas they have to explore and the more spread out they become. Usually players are funnelled together again in high level areas, or in the case of GW2 by living world events.
There’s a lot of contributing factors, usually MMOs have a fairly fixed core population and thus the longer the game goes on the less likely those players are to have low level characters, etc etc.

lordkrall.7241:

Asmodeus.5782:

Well, then they should make this game interesting as a multiplayer experience. Currently group play is synonymous with ‘spam 1 and fight your seizures until the loot drops’. Solo/duo roaming, on the other hand, lets you plan your skills, dodge, you know, utilize the mechanics.

I keep wondering about this.
People are always claiming that everything is spam 1, but I have played more or less daily since headstart and I have yet to find a situation that forces me to spam 1.

But I suppose that might have to do with the fact that I mostly do WvW.

Well, this is a discussion about PvE, is it not?

Asmodeus.5782:

Aidan Savage.2078:

Asmodeus.5782:

lordkrall.7241:

Yenrah.8532:

The fact that it is an mmo should not be a reason to punish the players who prefer playing alone. Till now there always was a choice of server or less popular map. I don’t see why should it be removed completely.

Maybe not.
But the fact that it is an mmo means that they won’t cater the game around people that want to play a single-player game.

Well, then they should make this game interesting as a multiplayer experience. Currently group play is synonymous with ‘spam 1 and fight your seizures until the loot drops’. Solo/duo roaming, on the other hand, lets you plan your skills, dodge, you know, utilize the mechanics.

And what does more people on the same map as you do to STOP you from doing that? Nothing.

Except having absolutely no incentive to do so in the chaos? The boss targeting me once a month, if I ask nicely? The lightshow, obscuring absolutely all animations? The fact that the thing is over in 20-30 seconds? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, MATE.

4 people is enough to make any champion in the game a kindergarten task.

Leave the map, go to another champ, or stop fighting champs for a while. Do stuff somewhere else. You now, adapt.

lordkrall.7241:

Asmodeus.5782:

Well, then they should make this game interesting as a multiplayer experience. Currently group play is synonymous with ‘spam 1 and fight your seizures until the loot drops’. Solo/duo roaming, on the other hand, lets you plan your skills, dodge, you know, utilize the mechanics.

I keep wondering about this.
People are always claiming that everything is spam 1, but I have played more or less daily since headstart and I have yet to find a situation that forces me to spam 1.

But I suppose that might have to do with the fact that I mostly do WvW.

I’ve always wondered about this too and I think its just a “put down” way of saying the game is easy, particularly when there are more people needed for a mob or event than is really necessary. Which is what we might see with the Megaservers.

Asmodeus.5782:

Well, this is a discussion about PvE, is it not?

Ah, I must have done dungeons all wrong then.
Or the larger-scaled living story updates for that matter.

When would that merge happen?

If I’m wandering Iron Marches in server 1 and 10 people enter Iron Marches on server 2 would they be merged with my map or would I be merged with their map? If I get merged with theirs, would it happen on a waypoint or only if I leave the map completely and reenter?

I realize there are a lot of variables to take into account and this is likely an oversimplification. I’m just looking for an overall idea of how that merge would happen.

And thank you for the hard work. The feature sounds like a lot of work.

Aidan Savage.2078:

Asmodeus.5782:

Aidan Savage.2078:

Asmodeus.5782:

lordkrall.7241:

Yenrah.8532:

The fact that it is an mmo should not be a reason to punish the players who prefer playing alone. Till now there always was a choice of server or less popular map. I don’t see why should it be removed completely.

Maybe not.
But the fact that it is an mmo means that they won’t cater the game around people that want to play a single-player game.

Well, then they should make this game interesting as a multiplayer experience. Currently group play is synonymous with ‘spam 1 and fight your seizures until the loot drops’. Solo/duo roaming, on the other hand, lets you plan your skills, dodge, you know, utilize the mechanics.

And what does more people on the same map as you do to STOP you from doing that? Nothing.

Except having absolutely no incentive to do so in the chaos? The boss targeting me once a month, if I ask nicely? The lightshow, obscuring absolutely all animations? The fact that the thing is over in 20-30 seconds? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, MATE.

4 people is enough to make any champion in the game a kindergarten task.

Leave the map, go to another champ, or stop fighting champs for a while. Do stuff somewhere else. You now, adapt.

With all available maps becoming overcrowded, the best way to adapt might be to move my financial backing to some other product. I am so not going to run away from the bunch of champion farmers for the entirety of my precious free time.

As for the dungeons: these also become challenging after reducing the number of players to 3. Lupicus included.