Guild Wars 2

Night coverage is a problem in GW2 and all other games with RvR. GW2 came closer to solving population imbalances than its predecessors like Dark Age of Camelot by splitting population by server instead of by faction. Of course, that didn’t remove population imbalances entirely, but it’s a step in the right direction in my opinion. So, expanding on that, how would you feel about splitting each match into different time zones? Something like this:

1) Each matchup is split into n divisions. n is a reasonably low number like 2, 3 or 4.

2) Each division takes up a part of the day. For example, you could have a Night Division during 0.00-8.00, a Morning Division during 8.00-16.00 and a Day Division during 16.00-24.00.

3) Each division has its own map status (control point ownership, upgrades, siege equipment, etc.) that only changes when that division is active.

4) The division’s impact on the overall score of a server depends on how populated the division is. More popular divisions have higher score coefficients.

In GW2’s case, this solution could even be justified by lore regarding the Mists. You’d get a “The Mists are changing” message before a division changes and you’re transported to the new division.

Why do I think this would be a good solution? It would make night coverage less important while still letting people with ususual schedules influence the score. However, their influence would be less annoying for whose who play during prime time. It has the advantages of disabling capture point flipping during the night without many of its disadvantages.

This isn’t really a suggestion, as the concept is quite raw, but just an idea I had. I considered posting this in the Collaborative Development thread, but it’s not about population imbalances per say, so I didn’t. How would you feel if something like this was implemented?

awesome idea. would vote for 4 × 6 hour or even 6 × 4 hours (thinking of guild raids duration here) divisions instead of 3×8 though. post this in the collaborative dev asap plz. some people there are even talking about graphics and skill lag.. if this isnt a worthy contribution then i dont know what would be.

I think this idea is to the right direction.
It could fix all this nonsense about 100 people pvd all night

You can fix coverage problems by finding some way to reward defending more than attacking. If the few players on could hold onto a few objectives and get more points than the attackers who take a whole map things would even out.

I was opening this topic, ready to read another stupid idea, but… wow O.o

This actually is brilliant! I guess it’d take some more work on details (which we don’t even know about yet), but general idea is very good.

Atherakhia.4086:

You can fix coverage problems by finding some way to reward defending more than attacking. If the few players on could hold onto a few objectives and get more points than the attackers who take a whole map things would even out.

But attackers also can defend the whole map they capped. It still leaves “100vs10”, boring for both sides, and frustating for PPT players who play during prime time and know their work doesn’t matter anyway.

I like OP’s way of thinking, that would already help a lot.

@ Atherakhia: On that topic (saw it on another thread) someone had an interesting idea: Make objectives(camps, towers,..) give more points the more it is upgraded. That would already motivate some people to defend and upgreat stuff as well as escort dollies etc.
But as long as the population difference still exist, it will still be an advantage to the server with the highest pop…

My first post … wow what a silly idea.

I have been “MMO” gaming since Merdian 59, most people on this forum just did a Google search.

Having played DAOC I get your comment about servers being better than realms.

But this idea is like deep frying mars bars and coating them in crack cocaine … tasty and "zing " … but not a good idea. There is a logical gap between the proposition and the conclusion.

I have absolutely no interest in playing for 8 hours and being is 2,3 or 4 different versions of the “map”. In fact I will stop buying gems tomorrow if I am forced to contribute to any more than a single wvw unit per week.

glad its your first post, hopefully your last aswell.

do you know: argument?

although i like what dekou said, i think that Anet could not change anything in WvW mechanics that would include any of those good ideas.
first essentially wrong thing, in WvW, was separating servers by continents. all our effort (to try to change imbalance created by night capping) must be based on erasing the ‘continental’ line and try to persuade Anet to unify servers in World – World vs World league (not NA and Europe), only after that we might have basis for better matchups.

Obes.1820:

My first post … wow what a silly idea.

I have been “MMO” gaming since Merdian 59, most people on this forum just did a Google search.

Having played DAOC I get your comment about servers being better than realms.

But this idea is like deep frying mars bars and coating them in crack cocaine … tasty and "zing " … but not a good idea. There is a logical gap between the proposition and the conclusion.

I have absolutely no interest in playing for 8 hours and being is 2,3 or 4 different versions of the “map”. In fact I will stop buying gems tomorrow if I am forced to contribute to any more than a single wvw unit per week.

Agreed, the idea proposed is not a viable solution despite it being touted as a start. Coverage or lack of coverage will always exist, even on a Tier 1 server, and if is happening still on a Tier 1 server (despite the recent influx of guilds to those three NA Tier 1 servers) then it will happen in/on all the servers. It is a perpetual problem and will never be resolved/solved, in any measure taken. In other words, each server must play with the hand they are dealt.

Rigel.3092:

Obes.1820:

My first post … wow what a silly idea.

I have been “MMO” gaming since Merdian 59, most people on this forum just did a Google search.

Having played DAOC I get your comment about servers being better than realms.

But this idea is like deep frying mars bars and coating them in crack cocaine … tasty and "zing " … but not a good idea. There is a logical gap between the proposition and the conclusion.

I have absolutely no interest in playing for 8 hours and being is 2,3 or 4 different versions of the “map”. In fact I will stop buying gems tomorrow if I am forced to contribute to any more than a single wvw unit per week.

Agreed, the idea proposed is not a viable solution despite it being touted as a start. Coverage or lack of coverage will always exist, even on a Tier 1 server, and if is happening still on a Tier 1 server (despite the recent influx of guilds to those three NA Tier 1 servers) then it will happen in/on all the servers. It is a perpetual problem and will never be resolved/solved, in any measure taken. In other words, each server must play with the hand they are dealt.

People play at different times and there’s nothing ANet can do about it. The idea isn’t supposed to fix coverage or the lack thereof, but minimize its negative effects.

This would be great for the people who play in your server’s prime time but it comes at the expense at everyone else.

For the opposing server players who are on in your non-prime time, their work and achievements suddenly mean less and do not get equal weight. That fundamentally does not seem right.

For players on your own server who can’t play in prime time, suddenly they become the bad guys if they log on and try to play in off hours since they are doing nothing put raising the opposing servers PPT ‘contribution coefficient’ by being in WvW.

I am not saying that population imbalances do not need to be addressed, I just do not think that ideas in the vein of freezing maps during certain times or penalizing servers with more players is going to be the answer.

Edit: actually not sure if I understand the OP. Is each division supposed to be entirely for PPT modifier?

Or is it a separate match (vs separate server)? So essentially there are 3 different matches each week (vs different servers), that are active at different times of the day.

First case I don’t really agree with – seems like the wrong way to do it. Second one I like. It would be perfect for combat although it would disturb continuity.

Matches are determined by the sum of all parts (all time zones), not the sum of one part (any one particular time zone). It illustrates that every server, despite having a prime time, has strengths and weaknesses and a part of those strengths and weaknesses are time zone coverages, or the lack of thereof. Having matches done by primetime time zones is ludicrous – again, matches are determined overall by the sum of all parts (all time zones of a particular server), not the sum of one part (any one particular time zone).

Actually, I wouldn’t pit a server against different servers for each division precisely because it would damage the server vs. server mentality and would probably be even more of a nightmare technically . It could make the matches more even and fun, however.

kaltastic.3146:

For the opposing server players who are on in your non-prime time, their work and achievements suddenly mean less and do not get equal weight. That fundamentally does not seem right.

Nope. While the point coefficient may seem punishing at first, each player means more during small matches, so it evens out.

I like it. You should post it in the Collaborative Development thread. It definitely belongs there since it addresses population imbalance.

I posted something similar before but my idea was to actually make different matches for each timezone rather than divisions. This way you would be matched up with servers of like population during your timezone.

For example, you are a server with strong NA and strong Ocn/Sea. In NA timezone you may be facing FA and Mag. But in Ocn/Sea timezone you might be facing SoS and FA because Mag has little Ocn/Sea.

Separation is not going to fix the pop imbalance. It might sound good with the clever wording but the problem is still going to be there. Infact – enemy servers that thrive in a particular time zone would be able to net even more points.

Also – your idea hurts guilds that would otherwise hold a keep for a whole weekend.

coverage imbalance can only be force-fixed by lowering the map cap.

azizul.8469:

coverage imbalance can only be force-fixed by lowering the map cap.

It’s an idea….but coverage time doesn’t have much to do with the map cap (Unless you’re suggesting the cap be less then 40). 3 guys in a keep are going to have a hard time guarding towers from a squad of 20-30 – everything on the map but that keep gets flipped. lowering the map cap won’t do much at 4 AM when most of the east coast is enjoying that good sleep.

RvR is hard to get perfect, many have made attempts some good some bad. Not playing 24/7 is the one flaw in the design and it’s not an simple easy fix. The fix needs to balance the fun factor/rewards/incentives and can’t exclude anyone. Cause the day you can’t play a game when you want to…you start doing something else and then someone isn’t making money and people lose jobs and the downwards spiral continues to earthquakes in the Caribbean.