Guild Wars 2

Lol unfortunately the megaserver won’t apply to Iron Marches yet. But perhaps we will find workarounds (using the areas that are megaserver-enabled as a sort of party forming platform for the areas that are not yet enabled).

Far too long of a thread to read.. but I wonder how it’s going to affect those of us who do orichalcum runs. It sounds like there’s going to be no way to ever have the same amount again. That’s gonna hurt the incomes of people who don’t want to dungeon run all day long.

Shanaeri Rynale.6897:

In one fell swoop Anet have got rid of one of my largest issues with the game…

Thank you and give the guys who did this a payrise…

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/introducing-the-megaserver-system/

It will also negate the need for server merges due to low population and help the overflow issues in a single stroke. It’s pretty much how things should have been designed from the start but better late than never

So kittening happy at this. I hated the server system and felt it was a step backwards in tech terms from GW1. There’s still the EU/US divide to breach but this is a quantum leap from where we were.

A great day for us both Shanaeri, it has been one of my biggest issues from the start as well. In fact, I posted in one of your first threads about this too (Features from Gw1 Missing in Gw2) back in September 2012. I am now much more optimistic about the future of Gw2 after seeing this change.

If you’re in a zerg in a PvE event with lots of mobs, you generally spam 1. The reason being is that the mobs die so fast that it’s pointless to use a different skill. Mainly because skills 2-5 are more powerful and have a higher delay time before activation and the mobs die before the skill goes off.

In boss fights a lot of people spam 1 out of laziness, but there’s nothing there to stop people from doing other skills.

We are so getting news about guild influence and WvW bonuses for PvE within the next 2 days!

Lankybrit.4598:

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.

I’m fine with it except the added time and difficulty may drive certain already ridiculously priced high-tier crafting materials even higher, and that is the last thing most casual players can handle right now.

Ah, thank you Anthony.

I see from the blog the implications the mega server has for event timers has yet to be addressed.

On SOS server various guilds coordinate events to try do as many events within the shortest timeframe possible. All instances of the same map aren’t all going to be completing/succeeding at prerequisite events.

I hope this does not signal a return of having guild members having to wait on maps for events to begin and notifying the rest to join and a mad rush of grouping/joining parties so we all can reach an event.

Wasbunny.6531:

• Hardcore (enjoys speed run dungeons using any means necessary for instance)

(that’s more like grindcore, imo. :P)

The only problem i have with these is that an empty map (that ofcourse isnt fully empty) is more enjoyable. I feel like the MEGA server sounds like the more people the better. But I know from Underworld that right now world bosses are FUN to do, rather than auto attack madness zergy.

Sometimes it’s even fun to try with only a very small amount of people, just for the challenge. (Surely that will be a minority, but still)

I feel like now there is no choice at all, you either massively zerg the events, or you..don’t.

I already thought zerging the events was such a bad mentality (People always whining “not enough people” annoys the crap out of me. Either try your best or cry in a corner far away from the event if it’s too tough) I feel like this might become worse, because this massive amount of numbers will be there, like all the time.

I would’ve preferred more quality, than prefer more numbers of people, simply because more is better.

I feel my framerate dropping already.

Frizz, my sentiments exactly. Finding a challenge in the open world will become a challenge all in itself. Eg. there’ll always be 15 or more players on the Nageling Giant, no toying around with him with a hastily assembled team…

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.

I play often in the daytime due to being retired (yes, you can be jealous) and I hardly ever encounter other players to be able to take down champions, once in a blue moon I’m able to team up with someone or even 2 people to take down a champion (outside Queensreach that is) on my travels so any system that gives me better populated maps is a win in my book. Once in the last 7 days I encountered a champion fight with 3 others, thats it, once.

Zergs during the day on weekdays? I should be so lucky.

Regarding Asmodeus/FrizzFreston: I agree and I think ArenaNet should:

1. Consider scaling back the amount of players allowed in each zone (to preserve difficulty…though this wouldn’t be effective if they decide to zerg up anyway).

or

2. Finally work on properly scaling content up for larger quantities of players. So that “zerging it down” isn’t the best and favorite solution on the minds of the majority of Gw2 players.

Megaserver huh…well if it wasn’t obvious before that this update was in direct competition to the release of ESO, it is now.

I have quite a lot of concerns.

Will guesting be disabled? If yes, some things will become much harder. Daily 4x event in kryta/maguuma, ascalon is good example. Desolation players spam every map and every event super fast, with barely chance to tag it, to then go on long respawn cooldown. That’s why I prefer guesting other servers to get the events more easely done. If event cooldowns stay the same, rather then MORE player activity in maps, there will be less individual activity because everything will always be speedcleared. Not cool when you are looking for specific events.

Tag wars 2 concerns. Atm if a map is empty, you farm the mobs, and done, nobody intrudes you or steals loot. With a few players (that i now sometimes meet), the taggin still aint a problem. However with megablobs on every map, this advantage will be quickly gone. If anything it will make ‘exploring/farming’ less fun. Though I admit it’s good for bigger events (Group events rarely get done).

Toning down server capacity. We all know money is important. So with the Eso (maybe) surge and Ncsoft being a big money pusher (if not for them we would have expansion pack already, we all know it), I suspect you want to retire some servers, and leave the remaining ones ‘into the megaserver project’. Overall, the server will be smaller and will have to handle much more ppl, that sometimes now already lag with 225% less people (well not exactly but i mean before the increase of 225% in people). This will be a decrease in stability for players.

Loading times. ‘the server has to look a lot more, wich server he has to load you into, then load you into map that has more players then before’. Both things increase load times from own experience. LA was bad enough as it is, and maps are gonna be filled 2x as much or even more then before. Sometimes (for instance daily), i’m switching maps often, and i don’t want the server to delay my load time. Even with SSD, my load time went from 5-10 secs, to 10-20 secs. (The real empty maps are the only exceptions that still load as fast as before). I truly hope this is not the case.

Less access to special events. With less servers to guest onto, or have have control to know wich instance you go into, it will be much harder to get access to special events with 30 min – 3 hour respawn timers. Even more so, repeating them by guesting, will seemingly be deleted.

For wvw i only see problem with Eotm. Green (overgrowth) is always winning by HUGe margin there. It must be stopped. I hope this has been though for toroughly because, any mistakes may kitten a lot of players off. I hope you leave EB/BL’s/Obisian sanctum out of it. Messing with it has to much negative side effects on wvw.

Guild influence. With different maps being merged, wich server do i go onto, to get in the guild to GET influence? I mean if i do action on deso, it doens’t give influence on vizunah square and vice versa. But you will merge vizunah /deso (will no, different language, but lets say for sec they do) into one map. How will the mess with influence. Like atm i have no guild, but I’d like to be able to take advantage of the guild buffs. But for that, I must know on wich server to look for a guild, so we can both play together, and get influence together.

For ‘6 minute to knightfall achievements’ (i hope you know what i mean, you made it yourself anet, in case you sadly don’t: superior hard achieve, that must be superior team worked for to get, most overflow instances are to lazy to get it), you must guest to the best overflow/server to even remotely have a chance. With the ‘random factor’ of wich world you get thrown into, increased again, the control the player has to go where he wants to (cause he knows better chance there to get AP) is decrease dramatically. It’s my fear, that achievements like this will become even more of a drag already. And please don’t go for the ‘lets remove the feature rather then the bug’ approach. Don’t remove this kind of AP, because it, makes it unnecessary to fix the problem I just listed. Give is some kind of control.

And a lot more worries to be honest.

Effective scaling would solve my problems, but not the loners’. And I sympathize with those, as the deserved satisfaction after killing some fatties in the open world is a really great feeling. Even if the Queensdale train managed to do 3 rounds in the meantime.

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

village idiot.1436:

I see from the blog the implications the mega server has for event timers has yet to be addressed.

We will be addressing this in part 2/3. Sorry for the delay, I’m guessing it was decided that each portion of this announcement was big enough to deserve it’s own news day. Given the volume of posts in this thread, it might be for the best.

A volume primarily caused by players waiting for answers coming tomorrow and Friday. Putting the remaining info out today also would have given more time to round up and answer questions before the weekend.

Loving the announcements so far, info feels overly drawn out right now though

(p.s I appreciate it isn’t your decision on the info timing)

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.

- Less skill/particle effects covering up the screen.
- A co-op RPG feel to the game by playing with a few select friends or randoms instead of having a massive amount of players around you. To me it’s more social with less people.
- Higher opportunity for more engaging combat.
- Enemies die too easily already even with just one or two players, add more players and it’s an insult. Worse, they’re making the game even easier (can’t find the quote for that right now)
- Higher frame rates.
- Faster loading screens (I’ll take the 15 sec loading screens instead of 2 min+ thank you very much!)
- Don’t have to see other player’s poor sense of fashion (dumb stuff like quaggan hats or glowing armor).

The biggest reason for me by far is the co-op feel and more tactical combat.

Hopefully by having my home server as a low population world will still leave me in low populated maps with the new changes. I wouldn’t mind having a few extra people, I just don’t want it to be like launch where you could barely tag any enemies before they died.

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

I’ve definitely simplified the way it actually works with the above description. A more accurate way of putting it would be to say that when you travel/log-in to a map, the game finds the best instance to put you in at that time. But the game won’t remove you from a map forcibly and put you in another.

But once a map on your server gets into an “underflow” state where players are getting moved/merged with another server, how would you ever get out of that state? If my server has no players on Iron Marches and I load that map, it will move me to a merged copy with other servers. If another player from my server then loads into Iron Marches, there’s still no players on my server’s copy because I got moved to a mega-server copy. Next player after him loads… same thing. I’m guessing eventually the load balancer says “Oh hey, there’s 50 people from Server X on the merged copy of Iron Marches now so I’ll let subsequent players from Server X load into their home copy of that map.” But then the next player who loads in will load into an empty map (and probably come to the forums to rant about how the mega-server system is totally messed up because his map was still dead).

I know I’m probably treading closely to asking for the recipe for your secret sauce. I’m just curious how this would work.

That’s actually a huge relief I’m not the only one with the difficulty gripes. I do not play games to watch some numbers grow, I play them to… Play. o_O

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.

I’m sorry, but I can’t help but notice how many people are saying things like “I don’t see why that’s a problem”, “There is nothing wrong with this” or simply things that boil down to “I’m right, you’re wrong”. Basically, whether or not you agree with other people’s issues is not really relevant here. What’s relevant is that a whole lot of people have various problems with this and whether you understand them or not does not change the fact that they are there.

I think that while reading and posting in this thread, we could all do with taking a step back and properly try to empathise with other people’s concerns rather than to outright say that you just don’t get it, because I believe that does more harm than good. A minority’s opinion is far too easily overwhelmed and forgotten about if enough people say, “What are you talking about? There’s no problem here.”

I apologise if I come off as aggressive, I just don’t think it’s productive to question people’s concerns like this just because you don’t agree with them or understand them. With an example like the one above, one can easily come up with several reasons even if you don’t agree with them, like:
-They prefer to play alone because of the quiet.
-They don’t have time to commit to multiplayer activity.
-They want the challenge of facing the game alone.
-They’re just a lonewolf kind of person.

People have very different priorities and therefore very different problems, and there is no guarantee that you (as in everyone including myself) will understand them even if they explain. That’s it.

All I can say is Mega Server = Brilliant!

Fixing an age old problem of low population in low level zones (and other areas eventually) by sharing them across servers!

I just astounded by how many things you guys are getting right for this update.

Can’t wait! Thanks again for all your hard work.

Rock on!

- Kismet
Leader, Ring of Destiny
Join us: http://www.kismetbp.com
12 years of teamwork, fun & laughter!

Aquila.5142:

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.

I’m sorry, but I can’t help but notice how many people are saying things like “I don’t see why that’s a problem”, “There is nothing wrong with this” or simply things that boil down to “I’m right, you’re wrong”. Basically, whether or not you agree with other people’s issues is not really relevant here. What’s relevant is that a whole lot of people have various problems with this and whether you understand them or not does not change the fact that they are there.

I think that while reading and posting in this thread, we could all do with taking a step back and properly try to empathise with other people’s concerns rather than to outright say that you just don’t get it, because I believe that does more harm than good. A minority’s opinion is far too easily overwhelmed and forgotten about if enough people say, “What are you talking about? There’s no problem here.”

I apologise if I come off as aggressive, I just don’t think it’s productive to question people’s concerns like this just because you don’t agree with them or understand them. With an example like the one above, one can easily come up with several reasons even if you don’t agree with them, like:
-They prefer to play alone because of the quiet.
-They don’t have time to commit to multiplayer activity.
-They want the challenge of facing the game alone.
-They’re just a lonewolf kind of person.

People have very different priorities and therefore very different problems, and there is no guarantee that you (as in everyone including myself) will understand them even if they explain. That’s it.

I asked people why they enjoyed Low Pop, because I couldn’t figure out why.

They did. It added content to the discussion. sheesh

I am concerned that this is going to cause a lot of friction.

If I guest on deso and say “what server is this”, they will reply that its deso.

With the new system, any map will be defined by its majority. So if a lot of, say, deso players are on a map, they may well see it as “deso” and non deso as the guests.

Now, that isn’t actually the case after this change, but it will still feel like that (just using deso as an example here as they get a lot of guest visitors).

This is a recipe for hostility regardless of what server we all come from as that identity is very strongly rooted within us (from pve firsts and wvw). Players are going to want to hang onto that as they need that sort of identity.

Take away “deso main” or “piken main” maps and you are going to end up with big groups of players all trying to recreate that and making others feel unwelcome (or vice versa where the smaller group becomes hostile and feels unwelcome).

While I have previously commented on the rp side of this….even without that issue, I have real reservations about what this will do to our identity and even loyalty towards gw2 itself.

Lankybrit.4598:

I asked people why they enjoyed Low Pop, because I couldn’t figure out why.

They did. It added content to the discussion. sheesh

Yeah, it wasn’t targetted at you specifically, though I did quote you. Sorry about that.

Well I can’t say I like this idea without some way of us choosing a particular version of a city map to visit. Hard enough to do RP events with overflows as is, without some algorithm deciding to randomly distribute players across a dozen different versions of divinities reach or any other map.

Edit:

I’d also like to know if people who paid for a transfer are getting a refund, I mean mega kitten move on Anets side to keep selling server transfers when they are doing away with servers.

I don’t know why the cities should be affected at all, tbh.

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.

It’s not the same. If you find the nodes once you can make your own more efficient route the 2nd time there than it would take you to rediscover all nodes location. Orr is the best example I can give you. Currently we rely on gw2nodes to get our daily orichalcum/ancients. The maps are quite large and finding nodes after resets or patch days always takes me 45-60min on average to track down and update locations to gw2nodes. And I harvest on more than one character. I don’t have the luxury of wandering about 4h a day, 1h a char, but once I know a route I can efficiently run all 4 in a little over 1h. Now imagine “megaserver” putting me in an entirely different Orr, with an entirely different layout for harvest nodes, when I log a character, just seconds after logging off the char I just used to track the nodes. It’s beyond frustrating.

Unless they can find a way to make harvest nodes more static across these different instances/dimensions, it’s going to bother to a lot of people who prefer gathering theirs mats instead of buying. The nodes already change at an alarming rate, see https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/crafting/What-is-going-on-with-Harvesting-Nodes

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

village idiot.1436:

I see from the blog the implications the mega server has for event timers has yet to be addressed.

We will be addressing this in part 2/3. Sorry for the delay, I’m guessing it was decided that each portion of this announcement was big enough to deserve it’s own news day. Given the volume of posts in this thread, it might be for the best.

I just want to know how it works with multi-map flags like the Corrupted Statues in Orr.

Do the three Orr maps just work in permanently affixed clusters or do I face the possibility of flipping a temple in one map, strolling across the border to the next map and finding the corresponding statues there still active?

I can’t believe there are so many people complaining about this change. It is the best thing to happen to GW2 since launch. Overflows were always a major pain in the down there. Now they will be gone, and you get a proper map to do world bosses with including Tequ and Wurm.

How do you figure that people who complain are interested in the mentioned zerg events in the slightest?

Cactus Brawler.7415:

I’d also like to know if people who paid for a transfer are getting a refund, I mean mega kitten move on Anets side to keep selling server transfers when they are doing away with servers.

To be fair the only real reason to transfer would be fore either WvW or for going to another region.
None which will be directly effected by these changes.

Sakri.7234:

I can’t believe there are so many people complaining about this change. It is the best thing to happen to GW2 since launch. Overflows were always a major pain in the down there. Now they will be gone, and you get a proper map to do world bosses with including Tequ and Wurm.

They have simply gotten rid of the main servers and renamed the overflow to ‘MegaServer’. Don’t you understand that? THIS IS THE OVERFLOW SYSTEM. But now it’s worse as you will be on overflow 24/7.

Celtus.8456:

Regarding Asmodeus/FrizzFreston: I agree and I think ArenaNet should:

1. Consider scaling back the amount of players allowed in each zone (to preserve difficulty…though this wouldn’t be effective if they decide to zerg up anyway).

or

2. Finally work on properly scaling content up for larger quantities of players. So that “zerging it down” isn’t the best and favorite solution on the minds of the majority of Gw2 players.

1. will never be able to happen, though. As long as you can have near 80 people on a map, zerging will always be the only option.

They would need to instance or limit a player cap to ~ 40 max, to be able to consider balancing larger content properly. Strictly balanced for X players or Y players, making content fun and challenging.

The current “automatic scaling” based on # of players etc is just trash calculations that increase HP or activate a couple of additional mechanics. All of the effects of their auto-scaling are simply mitigated by the non trinity, combined with spam for loot.

i would like to proffer my feedback in the form of a smiley face

:D

I’m 99% expecting it to be buggy as hell, as with everything else in the feature patch, but after a week or so all that will be smoothed out. If it’s not buggy, then that’s even better!

Also,

With the launch of the April 2014 Feature Pack, we’ll be activating the megaserver system on our level 1–15 maps, main cities, and the PvP lobby. We’ll monitor and test the system to verify that everything works correctly. Later in 2014, we’ll activate our megaserver technology across the entire world of Tyria.

I hope this “later in 2014” is something like a month later at most, or 5 zones per LS patch or something like that. As I understand, the cities and the 1-15 zones will probably be under the biggest stress.

Hah, the question about the Orr statues is one of the best here. How will temple completion affect the global map system? :P

Not looking forward to this change AT ALL.
One of the things I enjoy about being on Tarnished Coast, is that I can walk up to any stranger and start speaking to them in character because just by the fact that we are both on this server, there is a chance (a good one from my tests) they are also a roleplayer.

I can make this assumption in any non-overflow map because I will only be encountering people who rolled on, transferred to, or knowingly are guesting on TC.

Now when Megaserver comes along, and I’m out in the open world, sure, I may be grouped with mainly TC people, but I do not have that certainty, that knowledge that everyone that I encounter is on TC, for a reason. Instead, I will always have that Overflow uncertainty.

You know what I do when I know I’m on an overflow map? I don’t RP.

Now Anet can probably defend by saying that well, RP is a community based thing, and that means it’s community’s problem to solve, and they never had to be, or promised to be, defenders of GW2 RP, but this is just going to be an ugly situation.

The RP community needs a degree of isolation to function. The certainty that exists from knowing you are on “the RP server” provides the encouragement to do so, without fear of rejection. In the Megaserver version of GW2, I don’t see RP dying, but I do see spontaneous, open world, between strangers and not set up between members of an established RP guild group, RP, being inhibited.

Consider this please, Anet.

YES! Anet thank you for this! I have been absent from GW2 since the Bi-weekly living story updates began as all the features and patches just seemed to be more of the things I either did not care for, or fixes that should have already been implimented.
But this is your first annoucement (yes I HAVE been keeping an eye on them) since then that has filled me with excitement for an upcoming patch.
The implications of what can be done with the Megaserver system in the future are staggering. Obviously things will start slowly but I once again have high hopes for this game because of this.
Anet please do not forget one of your original goal for GW2. A living breathing world that reacts to individual player choices.
I get accused of hating on your game all the time because of the critism I give it so i think it’s only fair I leave a post when I believe you are doing something right. Looking forward to this patch and the future it may bring.
For those of you interested in the potential this system has please check out this video made over a year ago on the subject (Be sure to start 17mins 49 secs as the video covers more):

http://youtu.be/XMEq4PAFmnI?t=17m49s

During events
it has previously been possible for you and people you have partied with to be placed in different Overflows, and when trying the “Join on Server” option it would fail because All the servers/overflows people were on happened to be full.

I’m concerned that this occurrence may become a MUCH bigger problem with the MegaServer switch,
where Anet is stuffing as many people as possible from all regional servers onto the same map.

I think a simple solution would be if both servers are full, than Anet could provide the user that didn’t click “Join on Server” with a popup window asking if they would like to Join “Player X” on a server,
which the user can either click agree or reject, and everyone who clicks agree can be placed on a different server that will accommodate all of them.

FrozenStarRo.7240:

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.

It’s not the same. If you find the nodes once you can make your own more efficient route the 2nd time there than it would take you to rediscover all nodes location. Orr is the best example I can give you. Currently we rely on gw2nodes to get our daily orichalcum/ancients. The maps are quite large and finding nodes after resets or patch days always takes me 45-60min on average to track down and update locations to gw2nodes. And I harvest on more than one character. I don’t have the luxury of wandering about 4h a day, 1h a char, but once I know a route I can efficiently run all 4 in a little over 1h. Now imagine “megaserver” putting me in an entirely different Orr, with an entirely different layout for harvest nodes, when I log a character, just seconds after logging off the char I just used to track the nodes. It’s beyond frustrating.

Unless they can find a way to make harvest nodes more static across these different instances/dimensions, it’s going to bother to a lot of people who prefer gathering theirs mats instead of buying. The nodes already change at an alarming rate, see https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/crafting/What-is-going-on-with-Harvesting-Nodes

With fewer instances of each map there’ll be less chance maps will despawn (I’m guessing maps will still only despawn when every player leaves that map) — so nodes should stay in the same locations longer.

However if there’s no way to choose which “overflow” instance you map to — if there are more than one — you just might end up on a map you’re not familiar with.

How hard did anet have to think of a way to call server mergers something else?

The Meat Wagon.7194:

How hard did anet have to think of a way to call server mergers something else?

Was just writing “stop creating new topics for something like that”. but got an error because it got merged pretty fast.

And it is not server merging but more like an automatic guest function to servers with a higher player density when entering an area.

I find it difficult to understand that at just the moment we are losing people to the newest games on the block, you’re putting together a plan to remove the very reason I was planning on staying with Guildwars 2. My community.

I’m sorry Arenanet, the number one reason we play this game is because we have forged friendships on our server. These are not just WvW friendships, but span the entire game.

Now, you want to make it more difficult for us to stay with our friends. I’m sorry, I don’t like the idea in the least. There is no way I want to break up my friendships and end up forced to coexist with the very people who abandoned our server because they don’t like us.

Yeah, if this happens, I will be forced to find a game company that gives me what I need in a game. Camaraderie with the same special people I spend time with now.

crouze.3078:

The Meat Wagon.7194:

How hard did anet have to think of a way to call server mergers something else?

Was just writing “stop creating new topics for something like that”. but got an error because it got merged pretty fast.

And it is not server merging but more like an automatic guest function to servers with a higher player density when entering an area.

Sure it is. It is just PR.

daoteci.6924:

I find it difficult to understand that at just the moment we are losing people to the newest games on the block, you’re putting together a plan to remove the very reason I was planning on staying with Guildwars 2. My community.

I’m sorry Arenanet, the number one reason we play this game is because we have forged friendships on our server. These are not just WvW friendships, but span the entire game.

Now, you want to make it more difficult for us to stay with our friends. I’m sorry, I don’t like the idea in the least. There is no way I want to break up my friendships and end up forced to coexist with the very people who abandoned our server because they don’t like us.

Yeah, if this happens, I will be forced to find a game company that gives me what I need in a game. Camaraderie with the same special people I spend time with now.

There will be nothing that prevents you from interacting or play with your community.
I dont get your problem.

It’s not like they’ll move everyone from your guild/friend list permanently to your ignore list.

crouze.3078:

There will be nothing that prevents you from interacting or play with your community.
I dont get your problem.

It’s not like they’ll move everyone from your guild/friend list permanently to your ignore list.

Community isn’t just guild/friend list. Community is essentially everyone on your server, and that is being messed with.

Absolutely brilliant. Much applause to all!

Lothirieth.3408:

Far too long of a thread to read.. but I wonder how it’s going to affect those of us who do orichalcum runs. It sounds like there’s going to be no way to ever have the same amount again. That’s gonna hurt the incomes of people who don’t want to dungeon run all day long.

^^

No sir. I don’t like it.