Guild Wars 2

Well lately I haven’t been feeling well so I’ve been spending quite a bit of time spectating in hotjoin rather then actually queing and playing. I like to see how other people play different classes and things like that.

The major issue I’ve noticed is how so many game I see people trying to stack a team.

As I spectate I see people doing things like:

• Swapping teams after the game starts.
• Leaving the losing team to Spectator to wait for an opportunity to join the winning team once someone else leaves or joins.
• And the most cancerous of all: Those who will not join the outnumbered/losing team and sit there in Spectator spamming the join button of the other.

To make it more clear I’ll illustrate an example of the last bullet point. The match is about to begin with 10+ in spectator, couple people join in the game making it 2(blue)v3(red). using colors just to simplify the example For whatever reason, now none of the others will join. Match starts and goes on 2v3 for quite some time… Someone else enters the server and just clicks join random or w/e. 3v3 right? nope. The spectators were spamming join on the team who had 3 in the 2v3 so now its 4v3 still advantage red.

The process will repeat and then it will be 5v4.. Usually bullet points 1 and/or 2 will also happen during all of this just making it worse and possibly end up in 5v3’s(pretty common). By the time the server becomes 5v5 IF it even does, there is a 100-200+ point gap between the teams.

I always thought it was rage-quitters mostly causing these scenarios, but that hasn’t been the case from my recent experiences watching these matches.

My solution:

• Add a team join queue. Pretty simple.. U click join red and if its already 2v2 then you just get put into a queue. When someone queues into blue, then you both enter the game making it 3v3. * You need to make this queue visible so people can see whats going on.
• If you join into a team you cannot join the opposite team until the match is over.
• If someone leaves an already even match (4v4 for example) and makes it a 4v3 and there are no spectators to replace with. Then I don’t know maybe someone has an idea.
• “Play now” should prioritize finding 2v3 3v4 etc , and automatically assigning that person to the specific team to make the match even.

I had some more ideas that I now forgot once I started typing.. Hopefully you guys have more ideas or counter points to my suggestions.

edit- Adding bullet points as I remember my other ideas lol.

• Reduce the number of servers, there are too many.

Friends or guilds also stack teams, as well as level stacking since high level players usually gravitate to the side with other players of their calibre. Because of this, one side is going to be much more aggressive than the other and easy dominate them on the field (even leading to spawn camping). This then leads to the players trying to stack one team since they would rather be with them than against in the current game as well as any games after since they quickly realize the better players in the room. This happens in many of my games when I go in hot joins between ques. I’ll hit random at the beginning of a match and players will try to stack my team as I’m 80, usually other occasional 80s or anything close. Of course no one wants to join the opposite team and it will be a while before a match even starts because no one is even on the opposing team yet to start it. This has always been happening since I’ve played pvp in beta and to be honest I really just see it as just hot join and not a huge deal but I can defiately see how it can be a real issue to some as getting rolled by much higher calibre players all on one team can ruin the game mode and pvp in general.
The poor match making system is an issue and definately needs to be addressed as it’s also hurting the solo ques as well especially now with the new influx of many pve oriented players.
As for your ideas, I absolutely agree that players shouldn’t be able to swap teams mid game. This shouldn’t have been allowed possible since the start.

It’s hotjoin, who cares?

hide all the player names

hide the blue vs red scores for spectators

would that help?

SaintSnow.6593:

… as well as level stacking since high level players usually gravitate to the side with other players of their calibre. …

I think it’s more like newbies don’t want to be face-rolled by a more skilled player :-P

As for me I take it as a challenge to face a more skilled player. It makes me a better player for it and makes me feel good when I beat them.

The OP has some very good points to address uneven teams/team swap abuse in hotjoin. Players who have joined a hotjoin match should not be allowed to team-swap. This completely defeats the purpose of the auto-balancing mechanism. Players who have joined a team should also not be allowed to go back to spectator mode.

Almost every time someone gets auto-balanced to the losing team, they will swap back to the winning team within a few seconds. Or, the player will go into spectator mode, causing uneven teams and autobalance to trigger again — then they will go back to the winning team when someone else gets auto-swapped to the losing team.

I played a match yesterday where this happened over 10 times in the same match. This is unbelievably broken to the point where it’s not fun to play the game. I always volunteer when auto-balance pops up (since it grants the win-bonus even if you lose), but it’s not fun when it’s 3v5 and autobalance is constantly bouncing people around.

With Hotjoin being broken, SoloQ being full of trolls and ragequitters/constant 4v5s, the only game mode that currently works is TeamQ. No one likes it when I’m trying out new builds in TeamQ.

If you are just spectating, why don’t you just wait for people to try to stack and force switched and leave when someone leaves to force balance? Be dat anti-troll.

Flyphish.6398:

It’s hotjoin, who cares?

That’s usually my view on these issues but to some I guess they like hot joins.

Flyphish.6398:

It’s hotjoin, who cares?

It’s just soloQ, who cares? It’s just teamQ, who cares? It’s just living story, who cares? It’s just wvw, who cares?

Obviously its the people who play those modes who care!

Krittz.6013:

If you are just spectating, why don’t you just wait for people to try to stack and force switched and leave when someone leaves to force balance? Be dat anti-troll.

I actually do this sometimes, but it rarely helps.. As soon as I make the teams even, they just swap around again.

A great idea is the “play now gives priority to un-even number server 1v2,2v3,3v4…”

Also, the binding poeple to 1 team unless autobalance.

How will I be able to play with my friends in hotjoin in this new system?

runeblade.7514:

How will I be able to play with my friends in hotjoin in this new system?

The same way I do, ‘hey guys server 27 is 3/10’ and we all join server 27.

I like your ideas. The new server with the only option of 5 vs. 5 I feel are much worse than the old and sorely missed 8 vs. 8.

Most of the time I see 4 vs. 3, or worse as dank described. People will then also swap servers instead of waiting, leaving it nigh empty. It’s not fun to play a hotjoin map where all you do is run back and forth capping points, barely fighting anyone. I look for servers more than I play (or so it feels).

The point being that there needs to be measures taken so people will join without evaluating their winning chances before the game starts, and revert the decision to remove 8 vs. 8 for no explainable reason (by Anet). Even an 7 vs. 6 could be won AND you got to fight people doing so. There is a big difference in fighting 4 vs. 3 and 8 vs. 7, the latter still yielded more entertainment.

Sorry dank, but I have to add a “Anet, please make some of your numerous servers 8 vs. 8 again. We miss it. We had 8 vs. 8 and 5 vs. 5 before and it was loads more fun”.

NonToxic.9185:

runeblade.7514:

How will I be able to play with my friends in hotjoin in this new system?

The same way I do, ‘hey guys server 27 is 3/10’ and we all join server 27.

How will I get my friend to be in the same team as me?

You talk to them before the next fight starts that you’ll be join red, or blue. Granted it won’t be easy, at all, if you’re more than three people joining a 5 vs. 5.

dank.3680:

Flyphish.6398:

It’s hotjoin, who cares?

It’s just soloQ, who cares? It’s just teamQ, who cares? It’s just living story, who cares? It’s just wvw, who cares?

Obviously its the people who play those modes who care!

I feel your pain, I wish more people would help the losing side…human nature I guess. In any case, hotjoin is not a serious game mode. Hence the lack of care.

Good luck getting even teams in a mode where it’s so easy to stack.

runeblade.7514:

NonToxic.9185:

runeblade.7514:

How will I be able to play with my friends in hotjoin in this new system?

The same way I do, ‘hey guys server 27 is 3/10’ and we all join server 27.

How will I get my friend to be in the same team as me?

Join teamQ if you are deadset on being on the same team like you are meant to.

I mean tho 1 or 2 friends wouldn’t be hard to get on the same team.. You would just both queue to it..

Going to bump this topic since I keep seeing new ones on the subject.