Guild Wars 2

Ok I see some talk in various threads on zone population but there only small sections of what the main poster is talking about.

So here is a thread we can make 1 kinda consolidated thread about zone population.

I’m finding in PvE allot of zones while not totally empty are low population even though the server states its full.

I notice this in Sea of Sorrows as I have been to a few zones especially in Shiverpeaks and Plains of Ashford I was pretty much just doing most of the zone myself hardly running anyone.

Some areas like skill points, veterans and event bosses I was waiting 20+ minutes for another player to show up so I could get those done.

As a Elementalist I know I can’t take on a event as a single person or allot of the skill points due to the fact I don’t do enough damage even with mistfire wolf and Glyph of elementals summoned and they automatically heal negating any damage I try to do.

Some times Ive been dead and just waited around seeing who comes past for 20+ minutes even in towns and outposts in zones even next to the heart guy.

Luckily I haven’t had a kick timeout yet as If i did I would definitely screenshot it just to show how low some zone populations are even when your in a main area.

As allot of this game relies on other people this is a major drawback as some times I feel I’m in my own instance just like gw1.

Also I feel I may have waited too long before doing areas which has been due to sleeping and how I have been feeling the last month, because now everyone that would have been doing those zones along with me like the first few zones have now moved on.

Other players I have spoken to in game also feel the same way that certain zones are getting low on people like hoelbrak.

Also another thing thats not really good is player migration in zones.

By player migration I mean a zone can have 100 people in it but everyone is all at the same place of the map.

Plans of Ashford’s dungeon AC is one place and Harathi Hinterlands at KOL chain is another place.

In these areas when I did the zones I only saw people at either the AC entrance for a good 12 hour or so straight when I was doing the map or zerging at KOL doing the quest chain loop over and over which was 90% of the zones population for 3-5 or so hours when I did the map.

Also in Plains of Ashford all I saw in the map chat for 12 hours straight was:
‘LF1M AC Explorable’ when you can memorise that from map chat as it was pretty much said over and over thousands of times its pretty sad.

I know players are going to go where they feel like they are achieving something and where other players are and not populate the zones that are either not in there interest or where no-one else is.

I can probably say that most full servers are the same with maps so one way is why not allow individual zone areas to be outsources or merged like overflow does in population instead of specific servers that way the zones can balance there populations.

So if you developers have ideas how to fix the low population zones or any feedback on this.

I know it was said wait till the population has spread out and by now it should have spread out but what I’m hearing is people just get to 80 then stay at Straights of Devastation in the zerg.

So if you all want to talk about low population in zones and servers please do so in this thread and don’t derail it so it goes offtopic and gets closed.

Well I have to ask since you are on sea of sorrows what are your normal playtimes? SoS has a very large AU population and most of them will be most active during the time when you will most likely be sleeping (that is if you are in the states) I will agree that many lower zones are lightly populated, but that could be a reason for such an extreme scarcity.

I’m in Crystal Desert and after from where I began, Queensdale, every place seems pretty desolate. It was fun running and playing with players for DE’s or just seeing someone there was pretty nice.
Kessex Hill dropped a whole lot, but I still see people here and there, especially at the chain events then the next place. Now I’m level 30 at Gendarran Fields. It’s like dead, just dead. I guess the Risen ate people in the 1st way to town and took em’ by the swamp because I barely see a soul in sight. There was 3 people for a chain event we couldn’t finish underwater, I couldn’t beat the Warmaster whatever skill point alone. One chain with those 2 Bombardier Centuars thing, 4 people there, me and 1 person to stop pirates somewhere, one more even can’t remember the name only 3 people were there. The map thing is in dead silence. I seen 1 person after about…4-6 hours of gameplay in that area and I think he meant to talk elsewhere or pressed the button on accident because he only said, “L”. Lol.

Re

I can probably say that most full servers are the same ….

I am not finding the same thing as you.

Sorrows Furnace is quite busy especially on the 1-25 level areas and the 65-80 areas, so you can’t probably make the same assumption about all other servers. I worked my mid 30’s Necro up to lvl 43 yesterday and my server was busy in multiple zones. Not release busy but people everywhere.

If your server is as empty as you claim, change servers to a more populated one while it is still free.

While my Alt Elementalist is only mid 20’s. I have rarely had any problems doing skill points solo and I don’t use mistfire wolf or Glyph of elementals very much if at all. Then again when I start a skill point solo, one or more usually show up before I finish it.

Any time I seem to find content like that more difficult, it is usually my gear needs upgrading.

While I think the game could do more to help keep players spreadout throughout the entire map, a good global system (like the LFG feature in GW1) to inform players of what’s going/available and what folks are doing in different zones can go a long way… Though wp costs might inhibit the desire to jump around.

im on crystal desert as well. couldnt do events/sp in kessex or gendarran. saw a couple of people every once in a while.

I haven’t had any issues with people being around on my server (Borlis), even though it seems to have the reputation of being under-populated. It might just be that most people like to horde to a certain area, and stay there…whatever…who cares lol.

As for “map chat”, that’s not really a good way to determine area population. People could be avoiding it due to the fact that, regardless of what’s being said, there is always some immature kid waiting to troll. It’s like that on “Borlis”, anyway. I’ve run around with guildies that were blabbing up a storm while in LA, but, didn’t say a word while we were actually out in the field. I personally never talk, unless someone addresses me directly, or i’m bored. I found that singing the “Fresh Prince” theme song tends to get people talking (I’m NOT joking, I’m dead serious). Try doing that, and if nobody responds, the area is dead, if the sing BACK…they’re there…. just not talking lol

What build are you using on your ele.?. I use dual-daggers, and I have no problem doing enough damage to solo events. Even a couple of the “Champion” events….as long as I have enough room to move, and the “Champion” is a warrior, that is lol

Aurora Glade server, 3pm today, so not peak.
Region was Harathi Hinterlands (35-45), came across Kol Skullsmasher (big champ cyclops). Took us about 10 minutes via map chat to organise maybe 15 folks to take him down.
Given the time of day and the region level, I wouldnt say there is any kind of major population problem

Solution: Achievement/title: Legendary Defender of Queensdale (or other appropriate starting are) – Level to 80 without leaving this zone.

:D

Having to spend time to organize a party is one of the things Anet tried (and partially succeeded) to solve by DEs and Hearts instead of traditional questing.
I certainly hope having to organize a party to do DE’s won’t become the norm.

I’m rather liking the thinning down of population. Makes the contests for DE’s , Veteran’s etc…all that more interesting and exciting. Depending on your class (and build)…you can solo some of those veterans too if you are at level or even a bit below

helladoom.4317:

Having to spend time to organize a party is one of the things Anet tried (and partially succeeded) to solve by DEs and Hearts instead of traditional questing.
I certainly hope having to organize a party to do DE’s won’t become the norm.

I’d just go it alone and hope someone showed up to help, personally. Its not like you’re going to lose anything by trying. And someone almost always shows up…at least on TC anyway.

I’m on Crystal Desert as well and finding very few people in the lower zones. If this is not the case on other servers, then I’ll definitely make a transfer.

However, I think it’s just a question of time before most people are all in the level 80 zones; there will be no real reason to come back and play in the lower zones unless they start another alt. New people coming into the game will not be enough to create larger populations in lower zones.

So I think before long all servers will see the same results…. DE that are dead. The other day I came across a norn settlement in Lornar’s Pass that had been taken over by the branded. No one in sight. Eventually another player came along and we managed to defeat them and revive the norns. I’ve tried to do the skill point at Grenth’s Door but no one has come by and I haven’t been able to do it solo. I’m sure I’ll be able to find a group or do it solo eventually. The difference is that initially there were people everywhere and none of this was an issue. Lower zones are definitely not as much fun as they were with more people around.

Making DE replayable with bonus rewards might bring more people back to the lower areas.

i just go where the people are. sometimes I find a “dead” zone where I struggle to get things done. I just find another zone and there they all are! the next day the zone that was dead the first day might be full.

Or by finding the hoards of people and playing along with them you can sometimes convince others to join youfor events in a zone no ones in. Try finding the people and saying "hey, I need someone to help me with X – skill point in X-zone, anyone else need it? Usually you’ll find several people in the same boat as you.

Sometimes the people arent where you want them to be when you want them to be there. Sometimes you actually have to ask for help.

I don’t know Gunnar’s Hold seems pretty busy and I map jump a lot.
I have yet to come across a heart/ skill point/vista or DE that didn’t have at least a 3-4 of people there. In the lower lvls I have seen many many people.

The high lvl zones seems emptier to me tbh- or that just might be that people are chasing nodes/farming mobs/specific events and not really doing stuff

Normally you help each other complete the goal and then move on in different directions. At the next place you’ll see exactly the same people. It makes it cool because it always feels like hey there is that guy again.

@OP, I’m on Sea of Sorrows as well and I see the same thing in many zones. Since I played since headstart I felt how much fun it was having lots of players around every event. The overflow queue problem we had then pales in comparison to having deserted areas.

I tend to play late so I’m on during AU daytime hours. So our server shouldn’t be so deserted.

This is a problem which i really hope Anet fixes. They put in an overflow server system, but they also need an UNDERFLOW server system.

NinjaKnight.1340:

but they also need an UNDERFLOW server system.

Wow that is a fantastic idea!

Toss that over in the suggestions when you get a chance.

It doesn’t matter if a server is full, half way full or near empty. All the balancing in the world for player load won’t change how many players are choosing to go after dynamic event X at a given time. By design there is this variable outside of ArenaNets control (player choice of which events to tackle) that could make those events blocked/unavailable if not enough players are there to participate.

I consider that alone a bad design because it shifts it so for the game mechanics to function correctly a.) enough players must be in the given zone b.) those players in the zone most choose to go after the event.

More often than not I’m finding events are being avoided by players. Considering the importance of dynamic events to the game I really hope they fix this aspect.

Some ideas on how to fix.

1.) Improve event scaling so that most can be tackled by a single player. If the player is alone simply have NPC players appear and rush in to help to offset.

2.) Improve rewards for events so players will have incentive to go after them and so they don’t feel so grindy.

Everyone seems to be in spvp lol..
But I agreed with this, its tedious to try to find people for events..

@samtheguardian
You can fix the problem with an underflow server. In other words if you enter a zone where there are less than a certain number of players, you can choose to temporarily join a server with more. After a while this zone will actually start to feel populated even at the “unpopular” events.

@seraph I think I have suggested it in the past. Feel free to suggest it yourself.

Looks like some good discussions already.

Have to agree with underflow server I was thinking the same thing but described it different in first post.

At the moment im playing mt maelstrom and have done other areas in peak times from 5pm +8gmt to 2am and thats after work hours and on Fridays and Saturdays allot of gamers play till 2am so not a issue with the timezone of players.

But yea the zones and events don’t scale well and players are avoiding events as I saw in Harathi as I don’t start events knowing that I cant do them alone.

When I come up to a contested town/waypoint etc I just run in grab the point and run back out again and leave it contested as theirs no-one there and nothing I can do to take on waves of mobs solo.

Last night in mount maelstrom the volcano became active and destroyers appeared everywhere in a couple of main towns, I was dead in 5 seconds as well as the towns entire npc population I was next to the repair guy and waited for 20 mins for a rez I typed the whole first post up waiting for someone to rez as well as doing other things.

Time was only about 10 or 11PM Perth time so not that late.

As a Ele I run starves as I like to hold back but may have to try daggers etc.

I know zones aren’t dead dead as I always kinda see people in mt maelstrom etc but Plans of Ashford was different, when I do its always single people running round the map or just 2 people together.

When Gw2 opened there were people spread out everywhere in the first few zones doing soo much and that was brilliant and after Ashford (the Char starting area) I went to Queensdale and it was a pleasant change to be seeing groups of 4 or so people everywhere doing everything.

Was hoping that would flow into all zones like that but server upper caps and event rewards/ interest etc just isn’t there for people to spread out.

I know Anet said each month new content will be added around various zones to keep them active etc but I doubt they will start doing that for quite a long while or its something they won’t be able to do anyway due to how much there other workloads are.