Guild Wars 2

As a member of Disciples of OMEN (silver general) currently on Dark Haven, I feel that WVW is at a critical point where people(and almost I) are leaving the game because of Arena Net’s lack of a since of connection to the game mode WVW, in a server that was pushing up the ranks before the linking we found many guilds moving to DH including ourselves coming from a dead server of Sanctum of Rall and was in hope that we found a new home in DH to only find that many guilds were toxic, and fair-weather to only move servers when things got tough, and blame it all on a smaller server that were end the end the larger population because of the 7 guilds that could not work together. Yes, our match-up was not correctly set because we pushed hard the last few weeks before re-linking. As OMEN sat by and watched every other guild disband or leave to the point we should no longer be a host server yet we still are(?). Our guild is self-sustaining in that we have our own TS and group up when we want and have fun, and take it serious when we want while trying to stay out of the drama that was the Dark Haven server. Yes the server IS dead; but as a guild we are hesitant to leave due to the chance that the game of fair-weather will strike again or ANET will subject us to more inadequate changes. We want to rebrand our server by inviting Commanders, Players and guilds that want a permeant home without room for fair-weathers, we want to work together, and be a community. It is time for Dark haven to be reborn or for our guild to grow to be a part of where ever it takes us as I think this relinking system should not be all end all here are my personal thoughts on fixing WVW.

First split PVE and WVW servers, reset to target population, let people choose their added server, once a server is to the target number: block more from going in, allow free transfers for one week or for people to be with their guild-IE guild moves, if they want to be with missing guild members, they go to a server that can fit them all. After the week, Individual people can move (gems) but will not guarantee whole guilds moving unless population is open enough. Open up servers as total population grows /is met , show available numbers of people that can move to a WVW server so guilds that want to move can only go to a smaller server that needs guilds/ people and also think about once a year free move to individuals to reset populations in WVW due to people not playing/ WVW inactivity. Also let people that don’t want to play WVW have to choose a server but have it available if they do. Let new members choose their WVW server at level 70 so that they might find there guild before that to know which to choose.

RESET GLICKO with the new servers.

The random times of lag even with low population times still blow my mind .

TAGS in WVW so guilds can run invisible with a in squad tag, if the populations are high enough, there will be a PUG tag on the map that anyone can follow, there is never a problem when guilds run with no tag at all, it is a problem when a guild runs a tag and tell people no they cannot join the group, also make them bigger, higher and easier to see for the squad members, it should not fall behind enemy red tags on the map including person markers.

Make guilds more of a commitment in the game, there is no need for 5 guilds if you choose a guild that does it all or one PVE and WVW, but 5? Make it 2 or 3 at most, and to the people that want 5 and some want more, how about getting your guilds to join together instead of just adding another.

FIX POLLS I am happy that you want to make us feel like we have a say, but have meaningful polls that are not LOADED questions would be nice about more information. Give us more information to make a choice, and on not of the lesser of two things we don’t want, it feels like the presidential race. Get veteran WVW players to be on a council to talk with you about options or Ideas, most people that love this game as much as I would do it for free.

Lastly, play your game, I know it is hard work doing work all day on this, but maybe it should be a part of your work day, to play the game. I feel like DEVS are so disconnected from this game mode. WVW should be end game content for players that want to be on a team and be competitive. Server communities can no longer exist in these match ups, large populations fluxes are making myself and many people that have played this game for years not want to play.

So please do not tell me now that resetting servers will break up communities because as I see it now the only community I have left is my guild. As for names of TS etc. use them in your new server, just purge everyone and reset it.

As a member with every class level 80 and almost a second set the same, a guild officer, and a part of this community, I hope things will change, If not the game will be done for me. I didn’t write this to complain, I want to help my guild, community and the game before it is too late for this game mode.

So this post is about my guild in a dying server, how I would like to see things change for wvw, and why I am about to give up on GW2, tell me what you think, and if these are good changes or not? THAT IS YOU TOO ANET!

NO TROLLS PLEASE

I agree about separating PvE and WvW servers, and see that as the most effective way to solve some of the more severe issues affecting the game mode.
The way I think would work well is:

• Keep current servers as PvE servers. Server communities ( websites and teamspeak) can stay in tact and they can all decide what WvW server they want to go to and still guest on servers as they currently do for PvE. Players will never be without a PvE server. PvE communities will not even be affected by this.

• To play WvW you select a WvW server in addition to your PvE server, so WvW players will have 2 servers.

• Every so often ( 2 months, 3 months or whatever magic number that works) Anet creates new WvW servers according to the number of active WvW players in the game. More WvW players = more servers. Less WvW players = less WvW servers.

• When Anet creates a new WvW server, WvW players will choose their new server for that time period ( until a new one is created).

• Anet shows the population cap per server and the current population for that server on the server selection screen so players and guilds will know if their guild will fit on that server ahead of time to help prevent too many players trying to get on one server at once and prevent separating guilds, friends and family. Players need to know ahead of time what the server population will be like and if they can bring their friends there, so it is important to show the current population and the population cap to prevent confusion. Most games let you see this information and it is really odd this one does not.

• If a player is not active in WvW for 2 weeks, they are disconnected from their WvW server and will have to reselect a WvW server when they want to play WvW. This will prevent black outs that allow for server stacking. They will still have their PvE server and if there is still space available on their old server when they want to play, they can rejoin. What the level of activity to be required to be considered " active" is something that would have to be determined and should be discussed.

• They should remove farming nodes, dailies, and gift of battle reward track and/or vendor from WvW. Place a vendor in the Heart of the Mists for that and allow players to earn currencies for that through dungeons, wvw and PvP so they can play the way they enjoy and not have to " farm" any game mode they don’t actually want to play to do so. This will allow for more accurate WvW population and allow players to get in to WvW servers that actually want to play the game mode.

• To compensate for the lack of dailies and farming nodes rewards, LOOT from PK without the use of siege should be increased significantly. Remove useless items from WvW loot all together. Encouraging players to come together to fight instead of farm.

• Give one free transfer per player every server reset period, just in case a player is unhappy where they chose to go and feel they made a mistake or would like to move.

As far as the polls go, I still think emailing them the way they did the surveys they used to create this game and the ones they sent out after HoT to only certian players would be the best method and only email them to past and present WvW players with high enough rank and Dolyak kills ( no Dolyaks in EotM showing they did not just farm their WvW levels outside of WvW) to s ensure they are an actual WvW player, and not just someone with very limited knowledge of the game mode).

I think it is important to include past players as well as present equally, or they will never be able to resolve the issues that made them leave. IF we want the game to grow, we need to fix the problems that are running off players in addition to the ones the current players want addressed.

I do wish you luck with your guild. I know it can be rough when decisions are made that impact your guild and server negatively, as I have been through the same when so many did not even want to play this game at all due to what HoT did to WvW. I hope it doesn’t come to trying to round up everyone on various games they run off to try and bring them back like I have had to do.

There was a post earlier from TylerB asking if WvW players were interested in having many small-population shards that could create smaller “building blocks” for the devs to link together. Everyone was pretty negative about the idea because no one wants to be essentially solo on a server. It kills recruiting. Don’t you think splitting the population between WvW and PvE servers then would also be bad for recruiting? You’re talking about splitting off guilds into smaller WvW servers essentially.

Chaba.5410:

There was a post earlier from TylerB asking if WvW players were interested in having many small-population shards that could create smaller “building blocks” for the devs to link together. Everyone was pretty negative about the idea because no one wants to be essentially solo on a server. It kills recruiting. Don’t you think splitting the population between WvW and PvE servers then would also be bad for recruiting? You’re talking about splitting off guilds into smaller WvW servers essentially.

Yes I am saying split them , and no recruiting would be the same as it is now, if not better getting new players under 70, willing to learn would be able to to choose our wvw server at 70, if space is available, if there isnt we select people from our wvw server that are guildless . recuiting is just as tough now, at least this way if your server needs bodies, you can recruit from any PVE mega server with people new to the game. I dont get how you would end up solo on a server? doing this would alow you to be with your guild, and balance the population.

Guildless roamers versus gvg elitists. Make it happen anet, we want to play with the cool kids and take their ball

RodOfDeath.5247:

Guildless roamers versus gvg elitists. Make it happen anet, we want to play with the cool kids and take their ball

you would still be able you join any server, having a guild or not guilds would have to move if all there guild members could not fit on the server, not individuals, and WVW elitists? I do not consider my guild that, we take players new to the game, all the way to tags, it is just about people willing to learn and enjoy the game mode.

Chaba.5410:

There was a post earlier from TylerB asking if WvW players were interested in having many small-population shards that could create smaller “building blocks” for the devs to link together. Everyone was pretty negative about the idea because no one wants to be essentially solo on a server. It kills recruiting. Don’t you think splitting the population between WvW and PvE servers then would also be bad for recruiting? You’re talking about splitting off guilds into smaller WvW servers essentially.

With the Current WvW population you would actually have less WvW servers, not more. No one said the population cap for each server had to be low. The problem with having too many servers is not enough support for that server.

What was negative about the proposal was creating MORE smaller WvW servers with lower population caps. That is bad because it puts more burden on the few. I am suggesting they keep the higher population cap, with my proposal, however, it would be active population only and they create fewer servers to match the active population instead of link servers to bulk them up. Overstacked servers would not be able to fit on to a normally capped server. The only reason they do so currently is due to the ability to blackout to stack. This eliminates that entirely.

EDIT: In addition THIS helps recruiting from PvE servers. If someone has never played WvW or not played WvW within 2 weeks, they would not have selected a WvW server and WvW players from WvW servers can recruit players from ANY PvE server. The PvE players can then just select the WvW that their new guild that just recruited them is on. It ALSO helps because they have one free transfer, so if they have played WvW or selected a WvW server not knowing anyone at the time and meet players from another server they want to play with or join their guild, they can move more easily without it costing them a fortune. This would make recruiting for WvW easier than it currently is, and keep the WvW population counts active.

RodOfDeath.5247:

Guildless roamers versus gvg elitists. Make it happen anet, we want to play with the cool kids and take their ball

What I suggested is great for roamers and guilds. You can see how the population on a server is before you join it and can join whatever WvW server you want. I am not saying it is restricted to guilds in any way. I am not seeing why you think this is for elitists at all. Re-read my bullet points, nothing is limited just for guilds.

In addition, this would allow players ( guilds and roamers) to have a better variety of WvW players to fight with an against when they reset servers every so often everything gets thrown back into the mixer making it much less stale than it currently is.

lil devils x.6071:

Chaba.5410:

There was a post earlier from TylerB asking if WvW players were interested in having many small-population shards that could create smaller “building blocks” for the devs to link together. Everyone was pretty negative about the idea because no one wants to be essentially solo on a server. It kills recruiting. Don’t you think splitting the population between WvW and PvE servers then would also be bad for recruiting? You’re talking about splitting off guilds into smaller WvW servers essentially.

With the Current WvW population you would actually have less WvW servers, not more. No one said the population cap for each server had to be low. The problem with having too many servers is not enough support for that server.

What was negative about the proposal was creating MORE smaller WvW servers with lower population caps. That is bad because it puts more burden on the few. I am suggesting they keep the higher population cap, with my proposal, however, it would be active population only and they create fewer servers to match the active population instead of link servers to bulk them up. Overstacked servers would not be able to fit on to a normally capped server. The only reason they do so currently is due to the ability to blackout to stack. This eliminates that entirely.

EDIT: In addition THIS helps recruiting from PvE servers. If someone has never played WvW/ not played WvW within 2 weeks, they would not have selected a WvW server and WvW players from WvW servers can recruit players from ANY PvE server. The PvE players can then just select the WvW that their new guild that just recruited them is on. It ALSO helps because they have one free transfer, so if they have played WvW or selected a WvW server not knowing anyone at the time and meet players from another server they want to play with or join their guild, they can move more easily without it costing them a fortune. This would make recruiting fro WvW easier than it currently is, and keep the WvW population counts active.

What do you mean “no one said”? I was responding to the OP’s suggestion to split PvE and WvW servers with regards to the previous post by TylerB where he suggested smaller capped servers, not your proposal, whatever it was. Splitting the total GW2 population into “PvE” and “WvW” servers means there’s an unnecessary barrier put between the PvE player to play WvW even casually. In effect, WvW servers would consist of so-called WvW players only and we’re already a small slice of the total population.

Chaba.5410:

lil devils x.6071:

Chaba.5410:

There was a post earlier from TylerB asking if WvW players were interested in having many small-population shards that could create smaller “building blocks” for the devs to link together. Everyone was pretty negative about the idea because no one wants to be essentially solo on a server. It kills recruiting. Don’t you think splitting the population between WvW and PvE servers then would also be bad for recruiting? You’re talking about splitting off guilds into smaller WvW servers essentially.

With the Current WvW population you would actually have less WvW servers, not more. No one said the population cap for each server had to be low. The problem with having too many servers is not enough support for that server.

What was negative about the proposal was creating MORE smaller WvW servers with lower population caps. That is bad because it puts more burden on the few. I am suggesting they keep the higher population cap, with my proposal, however, it would be active population only and they create fewer servers to match the active population instead of link servers to bulk them up. Overstacked servers would not be able to fit on to a normally capped server. The only reason they do so currently is due to the ability to blackout to stack. This eliminates that entirely.

EDIT: In addition THIS helps recruiting from PvE servers. If someone has never played WvW/ not played WvW within 2 weeks, they would not have selected a WvW server and WvW players from WvW servers can recruit players from ANY PvE server. The PvE players can then just select the WvW that their new guild that just recruited them is on. It ALSO helps because they have one free transfer, so if they have played WvW or selected a WvW server not knowing anyone at the time and meet players from another server they want to play with or join their guild, they can move more easily without it costing them a fortune. This would make recruiting fro WvW easier than it currently is, and keep the WvW population counts active.

What do you mean “no one said”? I was responding to the OP’s suggestion to split PvE and WvW servers with regards to the previous post by TylerB where he suggested smaller capped servers, not your proposal, whatever it was. Splitting the total GW2 population into “PvE” and “WvW” servers means there’s an unnecessary barrier put between the PvE player to play WvW even casually. In effect, WvW servers would consist of so-called WvW players only and we’re already a small slice of the total population.

Selecting your WvW server when you want to play WvW is not an unnecessary barrier. PvE players can play WvW casually however they wish. If they don’t want to play WvW for 2 weeks, for example under my proposal, they just select whatever server they want that has room available to play on. Casual players have it easy. It is no more difficult to select a WvW server than it is to select what map you want to play on. WvW servers would be more populated than they are currently, not less due to it only counting active WvW players, and you would no longer have severely uneven matchups.

WvW players would actually be able to recruit to increase WvW population easier since while they are in PvE, they can encourage players from any PvE server to come play with them and this makes it easier for them to do so.

EDIT: I still do not see where anyone said the population cap has to be low. Tyler B suggested that, in addition, Tyler B wanted it to be low and have them link servers that way.. That is why it was a horrible idea. People dont want linked against their will on tiny servers with no server support.

Selecting your WvW server when you want to play WvW is not an unnecessary barrier. PvE players can play WvW casually however they wish. If they don’t want to play WvW for 2 weeks, for example under my proposal, they just select whatever server they want that has room available to play on. Casual players have it easy. It is no more difficult to select a WvW server than it is to select what map you want to play on. WvW servers would be more populated than they are currently, not less due to it only counting active WvW players, and you would no longer have severely uneven matchups.

WvW players would actually be able to recruit to increase WvW population easier since while they are in PvE, they can encourage players from any PvE server to come play with them and this makes it easier for them to do so.

EDIT: I still do not see where anyone said the population cap has to be low. Tyler B suggested that, in addition, Tyler B wanted it to be low and have them link servers that way.. That is why it was a horrible idea. People dont want linked against their will on tiny servers with no server support.

I get your recruiting point, as it is also an underlying point of the failure of WvW guild missions, but the lack of, er, marketing and mechanic explanation is the greatest enemy of WvW for recruiting PvE players, not the server dispatch (especially with the high activity currently).

So free transfer every two weeks IF you don’t enter WvW? The only thing i think of when i see that is lots of COMPLETE organized WvWers guilds making a tacit decision of backing out of the game until they’re ready to xfer, potentially informing their friends and server partners and inviting them to join the mass exodus. Do you see where this is going? Why would you select a server that is AGAINST a stacked server?

The only “choose your server” that i can agree is a delayed one, maybe the game informing you of the potential benefits of joining a server (+%bonus outside of wvw and such), or not giving the bonus until you achieved a certain participation in WvW (not in terms of hours, don’t want no afking) or at the very least not making you choose server even before you create a character, because new guys obviously don’t know what’s involved in taking a server over another.

BordeL.1283:

Selecting your WvW server when you want to play WvW is not an unnecessary barrier. PvE players can play WvW casually however they wish. If they don’t want to play WvW for 2 weeks, for example under my proposal, they just select whatever server they want that has room available to play on. Casual players have it easy. It is no more difficult to select a WvW server than it is to select what map you want to play on. WvW servers would be more populated than they are currently, not less due to it only counting active WvW players, and you would no longer have severely uneven matchups.

WvW players would actually be able to recruit to increase WvW population easier since while they are in PvE, they can encourage players from any PvE server to come play with them and this makes it easier for them to do so.

EDIT: I still do not see where anyone said the population cap has to be low. Tyler B suggested that, in addition, Tyler B wanted it to be low and have them link servers that way.. That is why it was a horrible idea. People dont want linked against their will on tiny servers with no server support.

I get your recruiting point, as it is also an underlying point of the failure of WvW guild missions, but the lack of, er, marketing and mechanic explanation is the greatest enemy of WvW for recruiting PvE players, not the server dispatch (especially with the high activity currently).

So free transfer every two weeks IF you don’t enter WvW? The only thing i think of when i see that is lots of COMPLETE organized WvWers guilds making a tacit decision of backing out of the game until they’re ready to xfer, potentially informing their friends and server partners and inviting them to join the mass exodus. Do you see where this is going? Why would you select a server that is AGAINST a stacked server?

The only “choose your server” that i can agree is a delayed one, maybe the game informing you of the potential benefits of joining a server (+%bonus outside of wvw and such), or not giving the bonus until you achieved a certain participation in WvW (not in terms of hours, don’t want no afking) or at the very least not making you choose server even before you create a character, because new guys obviously don’t know what’s involved in taking a server over another.

Basing the number of WvW servers created though on Current active WvW numbers, there will only be enough WvW servers in the game for the amount of WvW players. So, if a large amount of population left WvW for 2 weeks, they would ONLY be able to fit onto another equally empty server, not one already filled with players to be overstacked.

Overstacking would be impossible because they could not fit on another server as easily as they one they left. If there are too many servers open at the time to allow them to, it would only stay that way for a short period until they reset worlds again and everyone has to choose again, so population could not remain unbalanced for an extended period of time as it currently does.

If you are a large group, you would WANT to select against a stacked server to get good fights since you are strong enough to combat that ( That is exactly what my guild did. When other guilds were stacking on BG, TC, YB and DB, we chose to go to an unstacked underdog at the time [Maguuma] for better fights and competition.)

Large groups don’t want to be put up against servers that don’t fight back because then you are bored and left to PvD instead of fight. It is the smaller groups and individuals that want to bandwagon to a winning server, not earn it themselves because they are not able to change their position by themselves and large groups can.

With the megaserver setup, servers mean nothing in PvE so no reason to have PvE and WvW servers.

Large caps lead to the problem of stacking and coverage gaps. While painful, the “small server” concept of Tyler’s is actually workable. Tyler could put together small server slices to even out coverage and population.

I wonder if free transfers were available (of course T1 servers would have to be “full”), the WvW population would voluntarily de-stack themselves. It’s the only solution unless Anet decides to force de-stack. I don’t think either will happen; leaving us right where we started.

atticus.5284:

With the megaserver setup, servers mean nothing in PvE so no reason to have PvE and WvW servers.

They actually do. You can guest to another server for PvE and play with different players and it puts you on different maps. Players have built up communities with teamspeak servers paid for a year or more in advance ( One server I am on just paid over $1000 for keeping that up). They have websites and community wide events. for those heavily involved in their community these things are very important. Keeping current servers as PvE servers allows that to continue unbothered by WvW changes and allows for all players to keep their default server and that community.

Large caps lead to the problem of stacking and coverage gaps. While painful, the “small server” concept of Tyler’s is actually workable. Tyler could put together small server slices to even out coverage and population.

The ideal is a happy medium, not too small to prevent 24 hour coverage and much community support to share expenses and not too large that it allows one server to have a ton of players and another to have none. Having developers choose who plays together instead of players is what is a bad idea. Players who hate YB players, for example, would rather transfer off their server than be forced to play along side them. Couples that just got a divorce would rather quit the game than be forced to play on the same server together. These are actual human beings we are talking about here, not game pieces. BG’s population being over inflated when PvE players com in is too large, though most other servers would not be considered as such. Currently, there are probably only enough players on NA servers to have a total of 6 to 9 servers open and they are spread too thin.

I wonder if free transfers were available (of course T1 servers would have to be “full”), the WvW population would voluntarily de-stack themselves. It’s the only solution unless Anet decides to force de-stack. I don’t think either will happen; leaving us right where we started.

No, they will not voluntarily destack themselves, BG cannot be destacked so easily due to their overwhelming PvE population. When BG PvE decides to WvW, for example, it is not even possible for any server to compete with those numbers. With all of the past players from the past 4 years that have accounts logged out on servers, if those players come back for events it is ridiculously imbalanced. Separating those servers and removing players from the WvW population after 2 weeks of inactivity would prevent that from happening. If they wanted to play WvW, they would have to select a lower populated WvW server when they return to do so helping the underdogs, not the servers stacked with WvW players instead.

Currently, players want to move up, not down, and if they want to play on other servers, they can use an alt account to do so. That way they can always still play on their " full " server as well when they want. They get their cake and get to eat it too. It is easier to play on an alt on another server than to get an account back on a full server, so they do what is easier.

atticus.5284:

Large caps lead to the problem of stacking and coverage gaps. While painful, the “small server” concept of Tyler’s is actually workable. Tyler could put together small server slices to even out coverage and population.

Since beta several people have been asking for a Guild Alliance system stating the complete imbalance of the server system. Yet so many on the forums drone on and on about “community” and “server pride” often in the same breath about how unfair the population problem is.

Long ago ANet should have forced population balance over “community” and the entire archaic server mentality. No server system has ever existed in an MMO that doesn’t have these problems.

Straegen.2938:

atticus.5284:

Large caps lead to the problem of stacking and coverage gaps. While painful, the “small server” concept of Tyler’s is actually workable. Tyler could put together small server slices to even out coverage and population.

Since beta several people have been asking for a Guild Alliance system stating the complete imbalance of the server system. Yet so many on the forums drone on and on about “community” and “server pride” often in the same breath about how unfair the population problem is.

Long ago ANet should have forced population balance over “community” and the entire archaic server mentality. No server system has ever existed in an MMO that doesn’t have these problems.

I think it would be better to add another game mode than try to change it to an alliance system due to that leaving out individuals and small guilds. Having a large scale arena would be better I think than even an alliance system. They could have keeps and such if they wanted as a map option, like they do for spvp and for individuals they could even have a " roamer or dueler" map option where they don’t have to worry about being road kill and set up a LFG option to get those players together to do so.