Guesting and Overflow [merged]
Easy way to find out. Remove chest rewards for guests on world events. They can get it on their own servers. They can still come over and play 99.9% of the other content with friends. This (I think) would put this to rest if its a guest issue or not.
My experience with this has been horrible. Playing a Jade Quarry a heavy pop server already, BUT we never got overflow for world events, now we are and the lag. So in the past couple days I guested over to some light servers and guess what.. No lag, no overflow. Everyone is just putting 2 and 2 together as this started happening after guesting on every world event (at least on our server).
Anet just needs to fix this. I for one ticket this every time I encounter it. I see it as blocking a PVE event.
What proof do you have that it is players guesting and not just a heavy population of your home world players?
His proof is his experience on his server. He clearly said that he has never had overflow and lag for the big world events on JQ but right after guesting was implemented there was lag and overflow.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlation_does_not_imply_causation
I saw a post I think in the other overflow post that people are guesting heavily because they can get the chests on all their 80 characters. You could do this on your home server and wait for the timers.. but of course they said they did not have time for that so they guest so that they can get the chests on 6 characters as quickly as possible.
Easy way to find out. Remove chest rewards for guests on world events. They can get it on their own servers. They can still come over and play 99.9% of the other content with friends. This (I think) would put this to rest if its a guest issue or not.
My experience with this has been horrible. Playing a Jade Quarry a heavy pop server already, BUT we never got overflow for world events, now we are and the lag. So in the past couple days I guested over to some light servers and guess what.. No lag, no overflow. Everyone is just putting 2 and 2 together as this started happening after guesting on every world event (at least on our server).
Anet just needs to fix this. I for one ticket this every time I encounter it. I see it as blocking a PVE event.
What proof do you have that it is players guesting and not just a heavy population of your home world players?
His proof is his experience on his server. He clearly said that he has never had overflow and lag for the big world events on JQ but right after guesting was implemented there was lag and overflow.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlation_does_not_imply_causation
Cool you can post about logical fallacies just like every other person on the internet. I don’t understand why Miggz can’t come to a conclusion based on personal experience without being called out for not having 100% proof but it’s ok for the other guy to say it’s not guesting that’s the issue without any proof at all.
^Tosha. I’m not on the biggest servers and we now have overflow as well. I am assuming until directed better that the issue is also players that are coming out of Fractals and Dungeons and some maybe even coming back to the game all because the loot drops in the open world are now better. Which that in itself can create overflows. Guesting can also exacerbate (I love when I can fit that word in a convo) that as well, but I’m thinking on my server that isn’t the case.
To educate myself. What is the big deal/difference if you do it in your home server or in overflow? Leaving out the obvious, you didn’t do it on your home server, but what else is different? For all the complaining there must be something more. So far I haven’t noticed no real difference playing in either. I get proper credit, same loot etc.
This may not all have to do with guesting either. I’m on a server that isn’t one that is well known here where people flock to and we now have overflows on standard zones. What looks to have happened, is we are now seeing how many people were pent up in fractals for several months because of better loot there, now they see better loot in the open world and the turtle boys are now back outside again, so those players are now in zones vs fractal instances. Boom overflow.
There is no doubt a large base of players will go where the best loot can be had with minimal time. The next Anet trick is to figure out how to balance the perception that loot/time is equal in all phases of the game. Then at that time you can see what content people like vs another. Every mmo struggles with this, even 5+ years in.
The difference is that if you’re in overflow, you don’t know the timer for the event and are “forced” to play as though you’re not just farming that event. End result: You can’t just get a relatively huge reward for 5 minutes of well-timed participation.
I strongly agree that this isn’t a guesting issue. I gave a lengthy explanation of my views in a previous post.
“It is the stupidest children who are the most childish
and the stupidest grown-ups who are the most grown-up.”
- C. S. Lewis
and the stupidest grown-ups who are the most grown-up.”
- C. S. Lewis
The difference is that if you’re in overflow, you don’t know the timer for the event and are “forced” to play as though you’re not just farming that event. End result: You can’t just get a relatively huge reward for 5 minutes of well-timed participation.
Thank you, that does explain it and why I didn’t see a problem. Semi-exploitive stuff, goes back to a segment of players were loot/min is critical, just critical to their gaming fun. I know my timers, I sit down perhaps one time in the evening, all reset for me, things happen when they happen.
Got it, I just hope I’m stupid and those that make this a big deal but the same efforts into real life, because they should be very successful.
The only difference I can see is the timing of the events and that people get upset if they’ve arrived before the spawn window only to be knocked into overflow with a different timer. I’m sure it won’t be long before the timer websites add the overflows on to their count.
I think you’re right about the fractals and dungeons as well- Suddenly everyone is in the open world instead of 5 people to an instance because it’s max gold for min time and all the sparkles on the unique weapons takes a lot of rendering. I wouldn’t mind so much if people who wanted only the meta events actually helped with the tirgger events in the window. Like the behemoth- he won’t visit until he’s had his brew and watched his oakheart friend die, but people won’t start the events, they just stand there going “Has he spawned yet?” “have I missed him?” “Who’s altered the timer?” and tear chunks out of anyone that disagrees.
Meta events are meant to bring the community together, but at the moment, it really only brings them together in a mass of invisible bodies with not even a “Nice Job,” “Good fight,” in sight.
Edit- already answered
Easy way to find out. Remove chest rewards for guests on world events. They can get it on their own servers. They can still come over and play 99.9% of the other content with friends. This (I think) would put this to rest if its a guest issue or not.
My experience with this has been horrible. Playing a Jade Quarry a heavy pop server already, BUT we never got overflow for world events, now we are and the lag. So in the past couple days I guested over to some light servers and guess what.. No lag, no overflow. Everyone is just putting 2 and 2 together as this started happening after guesting on every world event (at least on our server).
Anet just needs to fix this. I for one ticket this every time I encounter it. I see it as blocking a PVE event.
What proof do you have that it is players guesting and not just a heavy population of your home world players?
His proof is his experience on his server. He clearly said that he has never had overflow and lag for the big world events on JQ but right after guesting was implemented there was lag and overflow.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlation_does_not_imply_causation
Cool you can post about logical fallacies just like every other person on the internet. I don’t understand why Miggz can’t come to a conclusion based on personal experience without being called out for not having 100% proof but it’s ok for the other guy to say it’s not guesting that’s the issue without any proof at all.
Where did I say that the other guys conclusion was right? Please, point it out in my posts in this thread, I’ve made a couple.
I think the most obvious and best solution to the problem is for people who wish to participate in world events to simply SHOW UP EARLIER. The zones where these events occur are not full 24/7. They only fill up right before or during the big fights. Show up to the zone 15-20 minutes before the window and do some other dynamic events while you wait. If you are just zone hopping around to all the boss fights as they start to farm boss chests yourself, I have little sympathy. If you had gotten in, then some other chest hopper would have ended up in overflow. And until I see evidence from ANet with actual data to the contrary, I am inclined to think that this problem has absolutely nothing to do with guesting and that the maps are filling up with people from your own server.
For the first time this week i have had to use the guesting feature. Why? because Desolation is totally unplayable now because every map with a boss you just get put into overflow.
I do not want to guest at all i just want to play my game hop over to the boss when its time and go back to do what i want to do with my guildies.
I do not know what the long term answer to this is but i think short term guesting should be stopped so we can get some accurate feedback as to how busy these events actually are on a particular server.
I’m sorry but guesting onto my server Desolation its crazy the world is aleady packed with just Desolation peeps.
When i get put into an overflow on my homeworld and there’s people talking in non-english languages they all must be guesting as i have never experienced this before.
Loot for all i totally agree with but surely common sense says we must be allowed to play on our own homeworlds with our friend and guilds
Thank you
I think the most obvious and best solution to the problem is for people who wish to participate in world events to simply SHOW UP EARLIER. The zones where these events occur are not full 24/7. They only fill up right before or during the big fights. Show up to the zone 15-20 minutes before the window and do some other dynamic events while you wait. If you are just zone hopping around to all the boss fights as they start to farm boss chests yourself, I have little sympathy. If you had gotten in, then some other chest hopper would have ended up in overflow. And until I see evidence from ANet with actual data to the contrary, I am inclined to think that this problem has absolutely nothing to do with guesting and that the maps are filling up with people from your own server.
It’s obvious that you aren’t on a high population server. 15-20 minutes before an event is no longer good enough. Try to get into queensdale for shadow behemoth 15 minutes before the window on JQ…good luck! try to get into shatterer in that time too. This isn’t an amusement park. We shouldn’t have to wait on hour long lines just to go on the ride.
For the first time this week i have had to use the guesting feature. Why? because Desolation is totally unplayable now because every map with a boss you just get put into overflow.
I do not want to guest at all i just want to play my game hop over to the boss when its time and go back to do what i want to do with my guildies.
I do not know what the long term answer to this is but i think short term guesting should be stopped so we can get some accurate feedback as to how busy these events actually are on a particular server.
I’m sorry but guesting onto my server Desolation its crazy the world is aleady packed with just Desolation peeps.
When i get put into an overflow on my homeworld and there’s people talking in non-english languages they all must be guesting as i have never experienced this before.
Loot for all i totally agree with but surely common sense says we must be allowed to play on our own homeworlds with our friend and guilds
Thank you
Naw, overflow has always been multi-language, never server-specific. So you can’t really judge the “guesting problem” by who is on the overflow server.
Limit the world chest to 1 per day per character regardless of server. Boom, solved because people won’t go guest to kill a world boss if they get no loot for it. This makes it so people only guest to play with their friends on other servers and not doing it just for the loot.
I’m pretty sure they already did that. It was possible for like a day or two and then they took it out.
Yet that seems to be the best solution.
Uhm what? The current situation seems to be the best solution for the current problem? Clearly it ain’t.
Easy way to find out. Remove chest rewards for guests on world events. They can get it on their own servers. They can still come over and play 99.9% of the other content with friends. This (I think) would put this to rest if its a guest issue or not.
My experience with this has been horrible. Playing a Jade Quarry a heavy pop server already, BUT we never got overflow for world events, now we are and the lag. So in the past couple days I guested over to some light servers and guess what.. No lag, no overflow. Everyone is just putting 2 and 2 together as this started happening after guesting on every world event (at least on our server).
Anet just needs to fix this. I for one ticket this every time I encounter it. I see it as blocking a PVE event.
What proof do you have that it is players guesting and not just a heavy population of your home world players?
His proof is his experience on his server. He clearly said that he has never had overflow and lag for the big world events on JQ but right after guesting was implemented there was lag and overflow.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlation_does_not_imply_causation
Cool you can post about logical fallacies just like every other person on the internet. I don’t understand why Miggz can’t come to a conclusion based on personal experience without being called out for not having 100% proof but it’s ok for the other guy to say it’s not guesting that’s the issue without any proof at all.
I’m not making a claim with no basis, I’m pointing out the flaws in someone else’s claim.
If i say the evil dragon Zhaitan is responsible for stopping people from participating in the events, I should have to support my claim for it to be valid.
…and while it only requires one piece of proof to prove something wrong…
You must continually defend a theory with proof before it becomes law.
So far, I have seen nothing posted by anyone, in regards to guesting and overflows, that would suggest that guesting is the culprit for overflows at world events moreso than just heavy home-world population.
They upped the rewards from the chests, as a result more people attend the event.
When you have a lot of people in one place at the same time, you get an overflow server.
Where/when does guesting enter in to this equation?
If you ask me, people are just a little too eager to point the blame at someone else for not being able to camp a dragon timer.
You mean right after they gave people a reason to do the world events?
Are you telling me you never get an overflow in Lion’s Arch?
…and if you do get an overflow are you telling me that people are guesting to loiter around in town?
When 300 people all want to do an event, it creates an overflow, guests or not.
The new interest in the world event is the culprit, not the guesting.
I almost guarantee the overflow servers are not due to players guesting, and it is just a much higher population of home-world players attending these events.
It’s nice to see this point made…
Before the fix that meant you could do some events more than once, I could certainly understand the instinct to assume guesting was a big part of the issue here. But as it stands I have no clue what evidence there is that guesting is a significant factor in the forcing of overflows at these events.
I do not want to guest at all i just want to play my game hop over to the boss when its time and go back to do what i want to do with my guildies.
And so do thousands of other people on your server. And they all go to the same zone as you around the same time, because (like you) they checked the dragon timer website, and that’s more than the zone allows. So if you don’t go to the zone way before the event starts, you end up in the overflow. Nothing to do with guesting I bet.
Hey if Martin is still here watching I have a question. Would it be possible to sync the dragon events across ALL the servers? That way you don’t get guests hopping servers to complete them on their alts. Which seems to be the main problem right now
80 ele
Yaks Bend
Yaks Bend
I’m not making a claim with no basis
……….
They upped the rewards from the chests, as a result more people attend the event.
When you have a lot of people in one place at the same time, you get an overflow server.
Where/when does guesting enter in to this equation?
You have just as much “proof” that better loot is the culprit as people who say guesting is the culprit…yet all the people who say that it’s guesting are inherently wrong for some reason in your eyes.
It also baffles me how you can question where guesting enters this equation…You’re right…giving people free roam to go into any server they want, at any time, to get their world chests totally has no effect what so ever. It’s not like there is this timer website that shows the timers for all servers that people can use to see which server they could get their world chest the quickest on. It’s not like people want an easier time and guest to higher pop servers for world chest events because they know more people will be there. Yeah you’re right, these things don’t fit into the equation at all.
Why cant we just give priority to the players from the server and when an overflow situation arises kick guests into OF and allow the true residents the spots on the server. As they are here to “play with friends” and not exploit a loot issue (oh no..) i’m sure they will be more than happy to play with friends in that OF while the true residents of the server can go about their daily routine. There is nothing more frustrating than waypointing into an OF when you have limited play time.. PLEASE anet get this shambles sorted asap.
I’d really like to see some official data: how many players use the guesting system to farm dragons? I don’t see a lot of em on the forums (or maybe they don’t dare to speak up :p), and in my not-so-small guild I don’t know anyone who does it.
It IS possible that most of the problems are caused by native players. Hell, I didn’t look at the dragons before the update, now I have one alt on stand-by whenever a dragon is called in guildchat. And at launch and pre-launch, the starting areas were in constant overflow as well – and that was waaay before the guesting system.
So before I grab my torch and pitchfork to chase out the strangers who took our jobs, I want to know just how big of a problem they really are.
I would as well. I actually guested for the first time last night because I got put in overflow at every event on my server. If I wanted to do any of the chest events I had to guest or sit in the zone waiting at least an hour before, sometimes even then I was in overflow.
Hi everyone,
We are aware of the problems with guesting and overflows and the team is also aware of this. We have forwarded them several threads – which you might join and provide us with info as well – so they can analyze.
In the interest of keeping the forums organised and having all discussion focused in one single thread we are going to close this one.
Thanks for your understanding. Hope we can give you news soon.
Sounds like ANet sees the problems guesting is causing also. Hmmmm
This is becoming an increasingly ridiculous problem. Unable to participate in events on my home server either due to this issue.
Guesting is a good feature, and should not be removed. I’m not sure if this is a flat out bug where people are getting multiple chests on one toon by visiting different servers or whether they are just doing events on different servers with different toons to get multiple chests.
If it is people exploiting with one toon to get multiple chests, something should be done.
If it is people using alts to get multiple chests, this is an unfortunate side effect of guesting. Only solution I can think of in this case is to limit chests to one per account per day not per character.
It is ridiculous that casual gamers can’t participate in events because they are being forced into overflow thanks to the illegal aliens invading their server.
I’m not making a claim with no basis
……….
They upped the rewards from the chests, as a result more people attend the event.
When you have a lot of people in one place at the same time, you get an overflow server.
Where/when does guesting enter in to this equation?
You have just as much “proof” that better loot is the culprit as people who say guesting is the culprit…yet all the people who say that it’s guesting are inherently wrong for some reason in your eyes.
Are you trying to tell me that people all of a sudden players started camping these events in record numbers immediately after the loot from these events were increased for a reason other than the loot?
If you fail to make the logical connection, and continue to make an illogical leap from overflows to the game’s guesting ability, then you are clearly lacking in the comprehension department, my friend.
It also baffles me how you can question where guesting enters this equation…You’re right…giving people free roam to go into any server they want, at any time, to get their world chests totally has no effect what so ever. It’s not like there is this timer website that shows the timers for all servers that people can use to see which server they could get their world chest the quickest on. It’s not like people want an easier time and guest to higher pop servers for world chest events because they know more people will be there. Yeah you’re right, these things don’t fit into the equation at all.
I am right.
People are trying to get away from higher population…. not flock to it.
Even if what you say is true, and guesting is the sole cause of this (which I am confident it is not)
Guesting is not the underlying issue/cause of the headache.
It is the amount of people required to create an overflow server.
You will have the same underlying problem even if there are 0 guests present.
(hence the reference to Lion’s Arch overflow, an area where there isn’t anything happening)
When there are lots of people crammed into one area, an overflow is created.
This is true even when there are no guests present.
I firmly believe that if guesting didn’t exist, we would still be having this issue. People from our own servers are rushing the event because the rewards are so good. Guesting surely doesn’t help the situation, but it isn’t the main root cause.
Make the timers random and only allow chests on home servers. Problem solved.
P.S. This is really a great problem to have. A MMO with problems due to excessive players in an area is always preferred to problems with not having enough players IMHO.
Just make chests for all events which are subject to the ‘1 per day per character’ coding limitation, also unavailable to guesting characters.
It makes absolutely no sense that I can’t get a reward while adventuring on my home server with a friend or guildie when a boss appears in the area because I happened to have killed it this morning, but someone can surf servers alone with different characters cherry-picking dragon chests events to their heart’s content.
If guesting is meant to facilitate friends on different servers playing together, restricting the highly contested open world event chests will have negligable impact. They can still do dungeons, fractals, zone completions, achievement grinding, explorations, and everything else. All it would stop is leaping about from server to server when dragons are due to spawn.
If guesting isn’t causing the chest event overflows, then implementing this wouldn’t negatively effect anyone. The coding also should be viable (add a check for ‘guesting’ tag along with the ‘first chest of the day’ check)
giving people free roam to go into any server they want, at any time, to get their world chests totally has no effect what so ever. It’s not like there is this timer website that shows the timers for all servers that people can use to see which server they could get their world chest the quickest on.
This simply isn’t how it works.
Guesting is limited to 2 servers of your choice to which you are locked-in for 24 hours. Thus the most impact anyone can have is being present on two servers besides their own in the course of a day. You cannot just keep hopping servers to go to every event you want whenever it is up on any server. It’s self-limiting.
If you use the timers to find the next time an event is up and go guest to it, you can then return to that server, or do the same one more time, then return to either of the two prior servers.
If this were not the case, and you could simply follow the timers to the nearest event on whichever server you saw fit, in an unlimited manner, the premise would have more merit. Additionally, if guesting allowed you to loot the chests with the same character more than once per day, you’d have people continously bouncing back and forth between the same three servers all day long to keep reclaiming the loot. But neither of those scenarios is the actual one.
It’s almost like guesting is a scapegoat in this scenario. The real “problem” is that there are so many freaking people desiring the rewards from these events. Yes, the fact that you can track the timers of other servers and choose 2 of them to guest on is likely exacerbating this problem to some degree. But it’s either way too optimistic or pessimistic, depending on your outlook, to assume it’s the culprit.
(edited by Hawkian.6580)
I wish they would do something as I’m tired of the guests treating the native residents like kitten (no that isn’t backwards).
This is the logical conclusion of ArenaNet’s “you should never not want to see another player” design approach. The events are too easy and don’t scale in difficulty enough with added players. You can fiddle with how guesting works as much as you want, but as long as free stuff is being given out on a schedule, a ton of people are going to show up.
Kintari | Rintaki | Rin Taki | Kian Tir | Zahinn | Lith <<< Blackgate >>>
giving people free roam to go into any server they want, at any time, to get their world chests totally has no effect what so ever. It’s not like there is this timer website that shows the timers for all servers that people can use to see which server they could get their world chest the quickest on.
This simply isn’t how it works.
Guesting is limited to 2 servers of your choice to which are locked-in for 24 hours. Thus the most impact anyone can have is being present on two servers besides their own in the course of a day. You cannot just keep hopping servers to go to every event you want whenever it is up on any server. It’s self-limiting.
If you use the timers to find the next time an event is up and go guest to it, you can then return to that server, or do the same one more time, then return to either of the two prior servers.
If this were not the case, and you could simply follow the timers to the nearest event on whichever server you saw fit, in an unlimited manner, the premise would have more merit. Additionally, if guesting allowed you to loot the chests with the same character more than once per day, you’d have people continously bouncing back and forth between the same three servers all day long to keep reclaiming the loot. But neither of those scenarios is the actual one.
It’s almost like guesting is a scapegoat in this scenario. The real “problem” is that there are so many freaking people desiring the rewards from these events. Yes, the fact that you can track the timers of other servers and choose 2 of them to guest on is likely exacerbating this problem to some degree. But it’s either way too optimistic or pessimistic, depending on your outlook, to assume it’s the culprit.
I know that is how guesting works. But 2 servers a day is enough to make it a problem. That gives you 3 servers in total to work with to get world event chests. That is more than enough to pretty much hop around to get your chests easily.
Look, I’m not saying that increased loot rewards hasn’t contributed to the problem at all. Obviously it has. But when people deny that guesting has nothing to do with it, that is just plain wrong. I’m not saying you are denying it but some people have in this topic.
My biggest concern is that they combine guesting restrictions with this one chest per account. I might be wrong but that would be pretty bad for lower populated servers.
Look, I’m not saying that increased loot rewards hasn’t contributed to the problem at all. Obviously it has. But when people deny that guesting has nothing to do with it, that is just plain wrong.
Guesting has absolutely nothing to do with the amount of players required to create an overflow.
An overflow will still be created with 0 guests present.
Even if anet disabled guesting for a week, there would still be overflows at the world events… and I hope that they do exactly that to prove my point to all of the people complaining about guesting.
Don’t want loot changed from the way it is, thank-you.
Just kick guests automactically when space is required for players want to be on their home server.
Guesting is a nice feature and should remain.
The only real solution to this problem seems to be limiting these chest rewards to one per day per ACCOUNT and not character. A lot of people won’t like this, but this will remove the reason so many people are guesting.
And I am on one of the lowest population servers, Fergusen’s Crossing. I have been forced into overflow so much the last couple days it isn’t funny. And once I got put into overflow for Queensdale when the Shadow Behemeth wasn’t due for another hour. Really?! An hour early to an event on one of the lowest population servers and I still get overflow? There is definately a problem.
Look, I’m not saying that increased loot rewards hasn’t contributed to the problem at all. Obviously it has. But when people deny that guesting has nothing to do with it, that is just plain wrong.
An overflow will still be created with 0 guests present.
Even if anet disabled guesting for a week, there would still be overflows at the world events… and I hope that they do exactly that to prove my point to all of the people complaining about guesting.
Oh look, more statements with absolutely no proof yet called someone out for not having any proof earlier.
We’ll getting myself up to speed. There will be a fix coming in time and to me the loot/min’s won’t be happy with it. Obviously they didn’t want their games zones to be camped by timers, which is now happening. Perhaps they knew about this all along and putting everyone in a dungeon masked other issues.
I guess the game isn’t dying after all, huh?
Look, I’m not saying that increased loot rewards hasn’t contributed to the problem at all. Obviously it has. But when people deny that guesting has nothing to do with it, that is just plain wrong.
An overflow will still be created with 0 guests present.
Even if anet disabled guesting for a week, there would still be overflows at the world events… and I hope that they do exactly that to prove my point to all of the people complaining about guesting.
Oh look, more statements with absolutely no proof yet called someone out for not having any proof earlier.
You can undermine what I say all you want, but if/when Anet disables guesting to try and fix this problem, and people still get overflows I’m going to come back to this thread and call you out.
Look, I’m not saying that increased loot rewards hasn’t contributed to the problem at all. Obviously it has. But when people deny that guesting has nothing to do with it, that is just plain wrong.
An overflow will still be created with 0 guests present.
Even if anet disabled guesting for a week, there would still be overflows at the world events… and I hope that they do exactly that to prove my point to all of the people complaining about guesting.
Oh look, more statements with absolutely no proof yet called someone out for not having any proof earlier.
You can undermine what I say all you want, but if/when Anet disables guesting to try and fix this problem, and people still get overflows I’m going to come back to this thread and call you out.
Go right ahead and I will take being called out like a man if we are wrong. But until then you should work on not being such a hypocrite.
Don’t want loot changed from the way it is, thank-you.
Just kick guests automactically when space is required for players want to be on their home server.
Only Anet knows if guesting is the problem. They haven’t stated details, have they? I hedge that guesting isn’t the biggest issue, because many if not most have been reporting overflows.
I do not know how simple or hard this would really be as i dont know what the code base they are using looks like, i am a software dev, but i cant imagine it would be very hard to prevent people from getting world boss chests on servers other than their home server as this information is readily available as you can see your home server is listed as such in the server selection screen. This problem is growing way out of control at this point. I am currently on crystal desert and in one day i was unable to participate in 6 world events due to the fact that i was kicked to the overflow for all of them. I should not have to resort to guesting to a low pop server just so that i can participate in an event. Watching chat at some events i have seen people talking about how they are getting 25-40 world boss chests a day by guesting to other servers and using multiple chars. This is infuriating i just want to be able to do the event on my own server and the current state of the guesting system is making this impossible
Calidorne – L80 Ranger – Commander
Let’s look at the actual problems here:
1. Being able to run the dragon chests on alts. This has always been possible since launch day. Clearly it has never caused an issue in the last 6 months. Not the core problem.
2. Guesting. Available for the previous two months. Overflow and lag problem didn’t exist in the previous 2 months. Not the core problem.
3. People exploiting and running multiple chests per character. This was possible since launch. People used to run the dragon chests 5-6 times a day before the patch, yet there was no lag or overflows. Not the core problem
4. Dragon loot increased. Immediate lag, overflow, crashing, disconnects and population problems.
Now that we know the facts, which one of these 4 things is the cause of overflow and lag problems. (hint: it isn’t 1, 2, or 3.)
As long as they isolate the good loot to small open world areas, they will be crowded, end of story.
You are both right and wrong here, Right in that giving easy access to good loot in open world areas will lead to loads of people going there. Wrong in that you are treating each in isolation and conclude that only the last thing added is to blame. Sure the easy fix would be to remove the increased loot, but it is also the right fix? Or is it just that adding loot was just a catalyst to revealing underlying problems with one or more of the other three?
I literally hate any person who is on Jade Quarry who is guesting recently because the droves of mindless sheep are running around like ants and ruining the actual server occupants ability to enjoy the events.
Come on. You are in the most populated server in the entire game. You honestly think that removing guests’ chest loot would do one smidgen of difference as to if chest events are overpopulated and pushed into overflow? Please. JQ has enough players to do that all by themselves, and then some.
Bark N Mad [Dii] ~ The Order of Dii Guild Officer ~ Jade Quarry
Only Anet knows if guesting is the problem. They haven’t stated details, have they? I hedge that guesting isn’t the biggest issue, because many if not most have been reporting overflows.
They have stated at least twice that they are investigating the guesting issue (in threads about overflows and events), so I assume there is something going on. I can’t find the threads for proof as all threads about this issue keep getting moved and or merged.
Edit: Found one https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/JQ-Tequatal-Finally-Crashed-Server/first#post1574582 “Together with all the reports of guesting causing massive lag issues on Meta events” If guests are causing lag, it would stand to reason they are also causing the overflow.
(edited by Fiddlestyx.9714)
Let’s do some simple math.
3 million players, 51 servers, boss that drops fat loot in zone that holds less than 500 people…..Guesting is not the issue here.
It would be ridiculous to suggest that guesting isn’t, at the very least, making the problem worse than it would otherwise be.
I mean, if you want to be simple let’s be simple. People are complaining that they can’t participate in events on their home server without being pushed to overflow. Meanwhile, there are people at those events on said home server who are guests. Those are spots being taken up, which means more home residents getting pushed to overflow, which means more people on here complaining about it.
That’s pretty simple.
Ok go get some air and read this.
Guesting adds very few to the boss fight. The reason you are in overflow is because ALOT of people are there. If guesting was off you would still get in overflow because you waited till the boss was up to teleport in. People who wait get the loot. People who don’t often don’t. Yes Guesting takes a few spots away but if your not willing to wait for it your not worthy of the spot.
Some of you are acting like it’s difficult to see the problem in action. It’s not. When you’re at an event and some of your friends are stuck in overflow, and you put forth the question in chat “how many of you here are guesting to this server/event?” and more than half of the people present respond “me” … it’s pretty obvious where a lot of the potential slots for full-time residents are going.
This isn’t rocket science. Instead of speculating here on the forum, start investigating out there in the game.
No it’s not difficult to see the problem, though for some it clearly is. It is NOT guesting. Get over that. The issue is the loot you get from these events that makes people go from boss event to boss event for a few rares. Disabling guesting would not make the problem go away. It won’t even make it that much less. Your massive overexaggeration of half the people saying me does not make it true that there are that many people guesting.
People will spread around again once the loot from other sources is on par with these chests. Until then have fun in overflow caused by your own server’s population. Guesting is just a scapegoat being used by those that don’t see the bigger picture.
Frankly, it’s not important that you understand what’s happening. Fortunately for all of us, the developers (I would hope) have the tools to track who is going where and can see where the problem plainly is.
Some of you are acting like loot from bosses is new. There has always been loot at these events. You could always get rare drops from the chests. More often than not I walked away from these events with at least one yellow item. It wasn’t guaranteed prior to the last patch, but it was pretty darn common. And despite that, sometimes I’d be at these events concerned there weren’t enough people present to complete them.
But now they’re packed (at any hour, it seems), with some players always stuck out in overflow, and a good number of the players present are from other servers. There’s a total of 24 servers out there for U.S. players.. even if just 2 players out of an entire server, from each server, descended upon a map of another single server, that’s fifty more people suddenly occupying the event. It doesn’t take much for guesting to make this situation bad quickly.
I do not know how simple or hard this would really be as i dont know what the code base they are using looks like, i am a software dev, but i cant imagine it would be very hard to prevent people from getting world boss chests on servers other than their home server as this information is readily available as you can see your home server is listed as such in the server selection screen. This problem is growing way out of control at this point. I am currently on crystal desert and in one day i was unable to participate in 6 world events due to the fact that i was kicked to the overflow for all of them. I should not have to resort to guesting to a low pop server just so that i can participate in an event. Watching chat at some events i have seen people talking about how they are getting 25-40 world boss chests a day by guesting to other servers and using multiple chars. This is infuriating i just want to be able to do the event on my own server and the current state of the guesting system is making this impossible
From what I understand, and correct me if I am wrong, but you only receive credit once per character per chest regardless of how many different servers you do the event on.
If you swap servers after completing an event on one character, do the same event on the same character on a different server, you will not get any additional rewards.
I think you are misinformed about how the guesting effects a player’s ability to earn rewards.
Also… opening that many chests is completely possible without even server swapping.
I have 7 characters.
I can use 7 of my characters at the shadow behemoth for 7 chests.
I can use 7 of my characters at tequatl for 7 chests.
I can use 7 of my characters at claw of jormag for 7 chests.
I can use 7 of my characters at the shatterer for 7 chests.
…you get the idea
That is 28 chests without needing to swap servers, and there are plenty of events left to do besides the handful that I mentioned.
Though doing that many world events seems a bit tedious.
I don’t even understand WHY someone would want to swap servers to do events to begin with, unless they were attempting to get away from massive amounts of server population…. or they were too impatient to wait for a particular event to pop on their home server. …but even then, why not just do a different event on your homeworld?
I’m not saying people don’t do it, because it is possible….. it just doesn’t make any sense
unless you want to maximize your loot each day by doing every single event on every single character you have.
These events have their own problems. In my opinion, the population caps on these maps need to be lowered because it’s pretty clear none of the servers seem capable of providing a quality experience when so many players are merging on a single event. I’d rather have a cool 10 – 20 man fight with an outdoor boss than the chaotic mess plaguing the game now.
I’m not suggesting a map only allow 20 players on it, but they need to add a larger window to these spawn timers to discourage camping and shut down nearby waypoints to these events whenever they begin, which will eliminate people quick-traveling in. That will cut down on the numbers participating in the battles a bit.
As far as guesting, I feel a few things need to happen here:
- 1) There should be separate overflow queues, one for players native to the server and one for guests. And the native player’s queue to enter a map should always have priority over the guest’s queue. Only when there are no native players waiting to enter their home server’s map should the queue for guests advance.
- 2) There should be a limit placed on how many guests can occupy a particular map at any given time, with the majority of the overall occupancy slots being reserved for native players. To allow a situation where most of the occupancy slots on a map can potentially be used by players who are not even native to that server is ridiculous.
- 3) Players should not be allowed to guest to a particular server unless they’re currently grouped with a player who is actually a native of the server in question. The intention of the guest feature is to allow friends on different servers to play together. It was not meant to be a tool to help players farm more easily. If you’re not on the server as a guest of a friend, you don’t need to be there. This also ensures that any one native can not invite more than 4 other “guests” to his home server.
Sure, that could be inconvenient, but the person who shouldn’t be inconvenienced is me when all I want to do is something as basic and understandable as playing on my home server. As a resident I should never lose a spot to a guest.
Maybe that’s harsh, but people are abusing the guesting feature. The intention was to join up with friends on different servers, not hop to other servers to take advantage of event timers, etc.
Im sorry but in my opinion this ’’guesting’’ idea is garbage anyway..
Think about it a moment.
As far as i understand {and please correct me if im wrong} guesting is player A {me} going to a different server to play with player B { a friend } correct ?
Well if thats right, and i as player A want to play with my friends player B………. then WHY AM I NOT ON THE SAME BLOOMING SERVER AS MY FRIEND IN THE FIRST PLACE.
since as i understand it too. only north american servers can guest with north american servers.. and only euro servers can guest with other euro servers.. correct too ?
the whole idea ’’guesting’’ is fluff…. nothing more than that. and if you want to play with a friend… go get on a server together permanently.
And don’t make the excuse of ‘’oh it costs money to transfer servers’’ it was free for 6 months.
Anyway rant over apart from saying……….. ’’GET OFF MY LAWN YOU PESKY KIDS.! :P
Not guesting it’s an overpopulation issue. Especially on servers like JQ,BG,Desolation etc anything near the top 3 tiers. On BG we have overflows on Maw(event noone guests too). It’s pretty easy to see, but seems people like blaming all there problems on everyone else……
Im sorry but in my opinion this ’’guesting’’ idea is garbage anyway..
Think about it a moment.
As far as i understand {and please correct me if im wrong} guesting is player A {me} going to a different server to play with player B { a friend } correct ?
Well if thats right, and i as player A want to play with my friends player B………. then WHY AM I NOT ON THE SAME BLOOMING SERVER AS MY FRIEND IN THE FIRST PLACE.
since as i understand it too. only north american servers can guest with north american servers.. and only euro servers can guest with other euro servers.. correct too ?
the whole idea ’’guesting’’ is fluff…. nothing more than that. and if you want to play with a friend… go get on a server together permanently.
And don’t make the excuse of ‘’oh it costs money to transfer servers’’ it was free for 6 months.
Anyway rant over apart from saying……….. ’’GET OFF MY LAWN YOU PESKY KIDS.! :P
Considering u can buy a transfer with ingame gold, it kinda makes guesting pointless.
I’m up for tossing guesting.
Im sorry but in my opinion this ’’guesting’’ idea is garbage anyway..
Think about it a moment.
As far as i understand {and please correct me if im wrong} guesting is player A {me} going to a different server to play with player B { a friend } correct ?
Well if thats right, and i as player A want to play with my friends player B………. then WHY AM I NOT ON THE SAME BLOOMING SERVER AS MY FRIEND IN THE FIRST PLACE.
since as i understand it too. only north american servers can guest with north american servers.. and only euro servers can guest with other euro servers.. correct too ?
the whole idea ’’guesting’’ is fluff…. nothing more than that. and if you want to play with a friend… go get on a server together permanently.
And don’t make the excuse of ‘’oh it costs money to transfer servers’’ it was free for 6 months.
Anyway rant over apart from saying……….. ’’GET OFF MY LAWN YOU PESKY KIDS.! :P
Simple fact is, friends don’t always make it on the same server. I have friends who I appreciate being able to play with, but who also went to other servers because that’s where their work buddies/guild/interests went. I’m sure we all have circles of friends that don’t always include everyone elses’ circle of friends.
Or, sometimes you just make friends through other avenues well past launch. Understandably, neither is going to uproot and move, but that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t like to play together whenever the chance presents itself.
There’s nothing wrong with the guesting concept. It’s an awesome idea. But it’s being implemented in the simplest format, and the sad truth is players will take any mechanic and find a way to abuse it if they can.
something really needs to be done about this…I hope Anet is looking into it…I’m not a person that can sit around and wait 24/7 to get out of overflow and then miss the event i originally logged on to participate in.