Guild Wars 2

In theory it should be simple, expanding the current zone limitations. Eventually I would hope that ANet would merge zones into a bigger one. For example, merge Queensdale with Kessex Hills, or even go further and make a North Kryta zone including: Queensdale, Kessex Hills, Gandarrian Fields and Harathi Hinterlands.

Now with this idea many would mention drawbacks. To me a draw back would be different levels of monster which could easily be adjusted by just placing Warning signs down the main road.

Since I’m no comp wiz I do not know if machinery is capable of handling higher limits of people, but this would definitely benefit all.

OR Add a Map Chat that’s spreading across neighbor zones. Although I prefer the first option.

What do you guys think?

Guesting is the fix.

Don’t know if it would make the place any less deserted as you still have the same number of people spread over the same space, only difference is they are in a map chat with you.

Anet needs to give people a reason to go out there again. Like making the maps repeatable and be able to be completed again every month or so for rewards.

What they really need is a way for players to generate content for each other. World pvp works in some games, though that usually requires people to be out in the world for other reasons.

People need something new and interesting to do in a zone they’ve long since completed. People also need some sort of incentive to get out there. Imagine for instance guilds being able to claim an outpost/waypoint, they could then make some upgrades to it, add some useful vendors/hiring more guards/etc. The guild could then get a cut of the coin spent on the waypoint/vendors. Maybe they could even offer people quests for particular materials they need, allowing people in the area to make some money off of the stuff they loot in the area. Of course losing the outpost to centaurs or undead or whatever would reset everything.

Omega Mayhem.7163:

Guesting is the fix.

Guesting is part of the problem.

Most of the emptier zones shouldn’t exist in the first place. For example; Sparkfly Fen, Mount Maelstrom and Brisban Wildlands are all essentially the same zone with very slight variations. The same applies across Shiverpeaks and Ascalon as well. There should have been way more distinction between zones, as well as an incentives to visit them.

The easiest fix for deserted areas in my mind is having ascended mats drop from DE’s. Prevent farming by making the type and amount you get completely RNG, too.

This basically hints at something that players have already suggested: “underflow” maps, where only one instance of the map exists for several servers combined, so the total amount of players that are actually playing on that map would increase.

just make something significant to do on those maps and people will flock on them…

Jahroots.6791:

Most of the emptier zones shouldn’t exist in the first place. For example; Sparkfly Fen, Mount Maelstrom and Brisban Wildlands are all essentially the same zone with very slight variations. The same applies across Shiverpeaks and Ascalon as well. There should have been way more distinction between zones, as well as an incentives to visit them.

They are similar because designers wanted to create natural looking changes to the environment.
Areas like Gendarran Fields start to get snowy as you go northeast at the foot of the Shiverpeaks, as does Diessa Plateau as you travel north from the Black Citadel. Wayfarer Foothills actually has a Temperate coniferous forest in it’s lowlands that becomes snowy as you enter the mountains and glaciers.
To me, this makes the landscape more alive.

The fix for deserted areas is addressed with Dailies, like “Veteran Krytan Killer”.
Want the daily? Go to a Krytan area and kill some Veterans. Low level players can do this in Queesdale. Higher level players can hit up Harathi Hinterlands or somewhere else in Kryta.
For those of us that like to get our own materials for crafting, they are tied to certain maps.
The maps aren’t boring or in need of tweaks. There is always a Living Story going on, usually tied with the newest armor, weapons and high end drops.
If everyone is doing that event, then who is in the zones playing?
Barely anyone
The Queens Gauntlet event zergs were crazy. Kessex Fields had no shortage of people during the Toxic Nightmare event.

They should just get rid of servers altogether for PvE. We don’t need them. They only hinder PvE. They should just have the zone and as it fills up, add a channel or whatever you wanna call it.

I can’t see them eliminating server splits completely for PvE. That would require a major rework of their core server architecture.

What would be perfectly feasible, however, would be to detect low map population and offer a temporary guest pass to that a version of that map on a random server where it is currently busy. When your home server gets into its more active cycle, you’ll be gently bumped back with a minute or so of warning. If you waypoint out to another map, you will be right back on your own server, (unless the other map is also underpopulated).

It’s important that the free guesting be optional, though. There a lot of reasons a person might want to stay on their own version, be it for timers, friends, or just enjoying the relative quiet.

This should be a lot easier to implement, and wouldn’t throw off any players who like the current split-up. It won’t even count against your daily guesting limit, since it’s only for one map for a limited time, and you can’t even control which server you go to.

Anet still not added a underflow system yet?

God knows how long ago I heard that simple fix and now theres multiple iterations of it, all being pretty easy pretty intelligent fixes to the problem. Anet I know your busy trying to make people like scarlet (or dislike her in the right way) but come the kitten on!

Fine. Lemme give you a shortcut. The guild wars 1 channel system was pretty much perfect. Copy & paste please.

• Obvously half joking, im sure theres good enough reasons to ignore this.

Panda Shepard.1248:

They should just get rid of servers altogether for PvE. We don’t need them. They only hinder PvE. They should just have the zone and as it fills up, add a channel or whatever you wanna call it.

Thats pretty much how Champions Online works. Just one server and x versions of every zone depending on how many people are there. I often wonder why they didn’t made the same here, since TP and Names and a loz of other thingy are global.
And then i remember that we have WvWvW .. that must be the reason why we still got different server i suspect.

Since the karma nerf, making renown hearts repeatable, say one every month or even once every 3 months would help get people back in to at least some of the zones as they go through farming karma. This is one of the main reasons the Queens champ trains has stuck around so long. It’s one of the only really effective ways in PvE for an 80 with map completion to farm karma. Long story quests that span multiple maps is another way to get people in different maps, but it would be less effective and only temporary. Adding more monthlies/dailies specifically aimed at getting people in to different areas would help too.