Guild Wars 2

Ok, this may seem odd, but I’m being asked for evidence that blackout events ever happened to allow guilds to migrate to full servers. Can anyone help me out here please?

What are blackout events?

thiagoperne.7340:

What are blackout events?

Eh, sorry… you know, when you have a full server have a crapload of people log off at once in order to allow guilds to migrate there by dropping the server status from ‘full’ to ‘very high’.

Are you asking if they actually happen? Yes, they do.

Yes they do 15 chars

For some reason people do that yes, it doens’t actually work tho. The server status is based on how many people are registered on the server, not how many people there are online at the same time. A dev said this once, which is somewhere here on the forums.

MartyPartys.9187:

For some reason people do that yes, it doens’t actually work tho. The server status is based on how many people are registered on the server, not how many people there are online at the same time. A dev said this once, which is somewhere here on the forums.

That can’t be right either. Its free to play game so what happens to all the accounts when people stop playing? Say 500 people on JQ stop playing, there accounts stay on JQ so the server never drops from full… So once a server hits full status it can only die from there? I know for a fact that the server population on JQ and BG drop from full to very high almost everyday, not for very long but it happens. If the registered amount is what make a server full then they can never drop from full unless people transfer out…

Accounts are probably listed as active or inactive. For example players that don’t log in for a month would be listed as inactive. Could cause a status to change this way.

If the 4 servers affected by this could just have their server pop increased, we wouldn’t need to do such things It hasn’t happened since January when free transfers closed.

MartyPartys.9187:

Accounts are probably listed as active or inactive. For example players that don’t log in for a month would be listed as inactive. Could cause a status to change this way.

That doesn’t really explain why servers go from full to very high within a 24h. Then do it the next day, the day after.

I’ve seen BG go from full to very high when I’ve guested, same with the other full servers.

I promoted them greatly on JQ the week before paid transfers started. Was doing a couple of them per day. Even on the top of every hour at one point. And yes, they seemed to work.

Or if the top servers stopped trying to make everyone transfer/bandwagon/stack to them than this wouldn’t be a problem either

Proposal to the top servers. Harass the PvE’rs to leave your server. You don’t need them anyway. I kid, I kid.

Zikory.6871:

MartyPartys.9187:

For some reason people do that yes, it doens’t actually work tho. The server status is based on how many people are registered on the server, not how many people there are online at the same time. A dev said this once, which is somewhere here on the forums.

That can’t be right either. Its free to play game so what happens to all the accounts when people stop playing? Say 500 people on JQ stop playing, there accounts stay on JQ so the server never drops from full… So once a server hits full status it can only die from there? I know for a fact that the server population on JQ and BG drop from full to very high almost everyday, not for very long but it happens. If the registered amount is what make a server full then they can never drop from full unless people transfer out…

Im pretty sure marty’s right, i just recently xfered to a bottom tier server, i checked the population status at 4am, and it’s still very high, so i still had to pay the 1800gems. I can’t remember the status of any of the full servers though.

Bones.5762:

Zikory.6871:

MartyPartys.9187:

For some reason people do that yes, it doens’t actually work tho. The server status is based on how many people are registered on the server, not how many people there are online at the same time. A dev said this once, which is somewhere here on the forums.

That can’t be right either. Its free to play game so what happens to all the accounts when people stop playing? Say 500 people on JQ stop playing, there accounts stay on JQ so the server never drops from full… So once a server hits full status it can only die from there? I know for a fact that the server population on JQ and BG drop from full to very high almost everyday, not for very long but it happens. If the registered amount is what make a server full then they can never drop from full unless people transfer out…

Im pretty sure marty’s right, i just recently xfered to a bottom tier server, i checked the population status at 4am, and it’s still very high, so i still had to pay the 1800gems. I can’t remember the status of any of the full servers though.

There is definitely more to it than we know. Right now, the 4 servers that are full are full during Oceanic. But there is a much smaller percentage of players on during Oceanic than what there is during NA. There is no way that the only thing used to calculate server pop is how many people are logged on at a time. Also, Im fairly sure Anet might tinker with this from time to time. But yes, Ive seen multiple servers do blackouts.

Yeah in my opinion, it’s based on some kind of weighted average that uses both accounts that have a server set as their “home” server and the login activity of those accounts. Sometimes that average drops to whatever the number is below the line that separates “Full” and “Very High” status. This could explain why Blackgate drops to Very High almost every day.

I personally do not believe blackouts work anymore, in terms of forcibly dropping server status. However, I do believe that blackouts can effect server status at some point in the future in how they might affect the weighted average calculation.

dunnberry.2964:

Or if the top servers stopped trying to make everyone transfer/bandwagon/stack to them than this wouldn’t be a problem either

On JQ, we’re just replacing the personnel whom transferred off. Nothing wrong with that, right? How we’re still at “full” now is a question I have for the dev’s.