Guild Wars 2

thanks for the heads up

I couldn’t skip the “song” so I closed it. My brain is thanking me…

Cliff notes:
-So no new maps in the near future
-1 week cycles for matches will continue
-Culling is being worked on
-We have talked about population issues but don’t design for it
-Paid transfers at some point in the future, but transfers are not that big of an issue
-Progression/rewards in Feb patch
-Live scoring no time soon (via website)
-Nothing major till feb patch.
-No UI changes (raid tools etc.)
-No changes to commander system

Did I miss anything?

Urrid.4593:

I couldn’t skip the “song” so I closed it. My brain is thanking me…

You can fast forward in the audio version of the interview.

kanikani.2430:

Cliff notes:
-So no new maps in the near future
-1 week cycles for matches will continue
-Culling is being worked on
-We have talked about population issues but don’t design for it
-Paid transfers at some point in the future, but transfers are not that big of an issue
-Progression/rewards in Feb patch
-Live scoring no time soon (via website)
-Nothing major till feb patch.
-No UI changes (raid tools etc.)
-No changes to commander system

Did I miss anything?

That’s all very depressing news.

Well, that sucks. Was just talking with guildies how useful it would be to give commanders/squad leaders something like raid warning. It’s hard to ignore the large orange text on your screen. C’mon, Feb.

Personally I felt after listening to the interview that the devs are somewhat out of touch with the game and its players. Specially the part when they were talking about the rewards for going to WvW. What they said was true 4 months ago, but I would say it is not true now. Server pride… but then they say transfers has no impact… tell that to one of the servers now dead.

Overall pretty disappointing interview for me personally.

Niim.9260:

Personally I felt after listening to the interview that the devs are somewhat out of touch with the game and its players. Specially the part when they were talking about the rewards for going to WvW. What they said was true 4 months ago, but I would say it is not true now. Server pride… but then they say transfers has no impact… tell that to one of the servers now dead.

Overall pretty disappointing interview for me personally.

Funny. Here is the one aspect of the game that people loved in Beta, still has a large following and participation, and could be awesome with some improvements, but these guys are just out of touch with what pvp is and why people do it.

I didn’t expect them to give much thought to wvw. So i’d say that come feb you will see a massive exodus of wvw players from this game. defiantly terrible news for us. but again, expected from play nc who never could seem to get that their real focus should be on making players happy… not themselves.

Seems like they made an MMO around an E-sport rather than making an E-sport from part of their MMO.

When I first heard about WvW I thought it was going to be what everyone was hoping AV was going to be in WoW. Instead it is more like what AV actually was just takes longer to get anywhere.

Then again at least AV had a point, reason and reward for playing it.

So basically they’re allowing what should be perhaps the driving force in people coming back at endgame to die on the vine.

How many times have we heard that culling is being looked at, its obviously just an extremely poor design that I doubt whether can be fixed now.

Stale matchups – what on earth is the problem with revising how matchups are determined, perhaps the winner goes up and the loser goes down, at least then there’s variety.

New maps are needed, maps that allow greater tactical variety to come into play.

Character progression is coming but probably too late.

Well if this interview really reflect what’s in Dev’s plan for Feb, then we’re screwed.

They really need to get their focus on WvW or else we’re going to lose big chunk of players from this game. February is too late but at least there is a milestone for people to wait for something new. Anet need to start listen to the community more. Even the breakout event siege placement are just pure lol

What Anet need to focus on (Dont wait for February, earlier the better)
***Better reward and Rank progression in WvW (Comparable rate to PvE/SPvP/Dungeon please, We need reward,gold,fame,rank,and profit. WvW is NOT a gold sink! It is a end game!)
**New better maps for WvW (Nobody like copy/paste for borderlands…)
*How to deal with Culling issue (Come on, we want to see enemy before getting kill do we?)
*UI for commanders like raid squad/supply info show etc (How do u expect me and all the people to stand close to each other and have me to type /supplyinfo everytime i wanna check supply??? UI is needed!)

kanikani.2430:

Cliff notes:
-So no new maps in the near future
-1 week cycles for matches will continue
-Culling is being worked on
-We have talked about population issues but don’t design for it
-Paid transfers at some point in the future, but transfers are not that big of an issue
-Progression/rewards in Feb patch
-Live scoring no time soon (via website)
-Nothing major till feb patch.
-No UI changes (raid tools etc.)
-No changes to commander system

Did I miss anything?

rally sad news, i now honestly think they dont care about wvw at all.
how difficult can it be for live updates, currently we have a 3rd party user driven website that can manage it, this really shows the lack of interest shown towards wvw.

Just listened to the whole thing. There were some nice things said like how they will not do 2 week matches and that they are aware we do not like PvE in WvW so they will be hesitant to include more of that in the future.

Overall, the interview was a huge disappointment. They really are out of touch. In the discussion about population, they said their design plan is to tweak the game so that there will be so many players they would have to add new servers. This is such and unrealistic solution to the big problem of server transfers.

Their hint for the Feb patch is that it will address player progression. When asked about actual new content like maps, they say they need to prioritize and that it takes time to make those. It seems they can’t even find the time to make a website for live updates. What exactly are they working on then that’s supposed to be a big deal in Feb?

This is tragic news. So now the decision isn’t really about changing servers; it’s about changing games.

Thank you so much for cluing me into that song!

Colin colin colin. Should have let this one slide under the radar mate.

It takes over 6 months to make a WvW map, why would we expect a new map anytime soon.

WvW in its current state works, yes it needs tweaks around the edges, culling fixes, and the patching of a few exploits, but overall the mechanics of WvW are very solid right now.

It needs better rewards, maybe some progression, and feb would be about right for that.

While we would like to have everything NOW, devlopment takes time.

Geez, this alone is going to kill off WvW, players need something to hope for there and you’re just telling us we aren’t important enough in the ’grand scheme of things’. From what I see most players playing are in WvW most of the time., this is going to change if players don’t get some news soon about how ANet plans to fix what is quickly becoming a farcicle aspect of the game (stop these free transfers!!! how they can say they have little or no impact suggests they are completely out of touch!!!).

I agree with Pinkus, ANet should have kept their mouth shut at this point as it’s NOT good news at all...

I dont see anywhere in that interview that anet said we wernt important, you are just infering that, probably falsely.

I’m enjoying WvW, so I’m not really seeing this doomsday thing that some of you appear to have seen in the video.
replays Respawn Maybe ad nauseum

hmm, I smell Troll.

Read between the lines, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that’s exactly what they are saying. Yes might be an inference, but an incorrect one... I doubt it.

Outta interest how much of the population do people actually think play wvw, excluding people doing monthlys and map completion I would prolley put it at about 10% of the population at most. While the wait is frustrateing I can sorta understand them working on other parts of the game.

Pixel, in your opinion are the mechanics of WvW broken right now?

Note I am talking mechanics, which has nothing to do with culling, server transfers etc.

I think the mechanics of the format are solid. And what needs work on are the things that arnt mechanics, like culling, server transfers, perhaps scoring adjustments to make PvD less valueable.

Flic.6938:

Outta interest how much of the population do people actually think play wvw, excluding people doing monthlys and map completion I would prolley put it at about 10% of the population at most. While the wait is frustrateing I can sorta understand them working on other parts of the game.

While this is true, but some is wrong. In my guild that has at least 100 players actively, says 60. Almost all of them is maxed level. 45 of them is doing Dungeon, 10 of them WvW, 5 of them SPvP. And when i asked those 45 players why dont they WvW, They said because well it’s fun but THERE IS NO REWARD, thus no point to play, WvW is waste of time, i better go dungeon for more gold.

It doesnt mean WvW isnt important because not so many players play it at a time. If there is a proper reward in WvW, WvW will be one of your endgame for GW2 for sure.

Tajz.9826:

well it’s fun but THERE IS NO REWARD, thus no point to play, WvW is waste of time, i better go dungeon for more gold.

I’m sad to hear that the act of playing the game isn’t fun for them. That seems to be a common problem.

At this point in time the mechanics are very basic & simplistic. WvW is simply a numbers game, cap this for points then cap it back the next day for more points. it needs a lot more inside this engine to make WvW enticing. The mechanics for this low level entertainment might be relatively solid but it needs a LOT more objective-wise.

Granted the Culling & server transfers are major issues that we can & will have to live with till they find a solution. This new Breakout event to me seems like a poorly thought out bandaid fix and it wasn’t executed very well by ANets devs.

You asked if I thought the base mechanics were broken? The base mechanics resemble that of a push-bike in comparison to what it should be, and whilst the mechanics of cap this then recap it tomorrow is working it is also becoming really stale for a majority of players and needs to be addressed (which I’m not confident of them doing that on the basis of that interview). I understand the time constraints of making new maps etc, that’s not what I’m talking about. Some additional mechanics to make WvW more challenging than ’join the zerg for points in a hurry’ needs implementing and soon. Personally I would hate to see any more players opt out of WvW for either Pve or a new game, but unless they change their tact we could all be sitting on dead servers...

Not looking for reactions or flames, just my opinion...
I’ve been a dedicated GW player (we played the Alpha & Beta tests for GW1) all I want is for this game to succeed and to meet & play with or against as many of the players as I can. So ANet PLEASE listen to your player-base, we only want whats best for the game.

All these problems I am going to list have to addressed if Anet even wants to consider giving WvW a surviving a chance in a few months.

Anet needs to redo the rewarding system.
Too many people that contribute to the actually winning of the matches aren’t rewarded.

1. If you revive an ally that has been killed while a tower is under attack, it doesn’t count towards the defend event.
2. If you run supplies from a camp to a tower while it isn’t being attacked to repair, you aren’t rewarded.
3. f you are the trebuchet manner who’s been working to take down that fortified wall and not there for the actual attack, you are not rewarded.
4. If you are the scout keeper on Bay while Hill is being attacked to make sure that no surprise retaliation is imminent you get no reward while everyone else gets 1/5th of a level, 1.5k karma and 10 silver.

As I placed in the suggestion forum, tower and keep captures rewards should be map wide, and I’ve also listed some reasons why it wouldn’t be a broken mechanic.

1. You can be a spy with 12 gold and literally put a supply cap on any borderland. Yes it’s a hefty price but it is currently being abused in some of the matches,
2. People taking supplies from a tower or keep that is so desperately trying to inch into the last upgrade is never completed (mostly pugs do this) even when everyone is telling that person to stop, 1 person can really ruin it for everyone.
3. Downed State is a major problem in wvw, because securing kills is being harder and harder, just bringing someone to 0 hp doesn’t bring any sort of reward, this brings out the game of number vs number, being outmanned 2 to 3 is not 50% harder of a fight, but easily 3 or 4 times, it rises up exponentially.
4. Towers and Keeps are being upgraded less and less because people are less inclined to upgrade them cause they get no personal reward out of it, spend 5 gold upgrading smc, only to wake up to find it gone.
5. Bad tutorial system, the tutorial explains towers and keeps, but it doesn’t explain siege weapons, what they do, the function and importance of SUPPLIES (The kitten blood of wvw, 10 supply is worth a player in offensive and defensive values) if you are running without supplies you are really half the man power you can be.
6. The buying system is punishing to committed wvw players and commanders. You make the exotic equips only purchasable through badges which is fair, but the most effective way to gain badges is through jumping puzzles not actual WvW action. Buying siege weapons is only possible through gold which WvW is less than stellar to provide and badges, which forces a player to hold off on their exotics. It has been suggested numerous times to bring in a third currency system, through points from defending, capturing points or karma, but our voices are rarely heard.
7. Stealth is the worst mechanic that is in open WvW combat, if a thief wants to kill a dolyak, it is going down, unless you get about 5 people to escort dolyak that takes 5 minutes to walk from point A to point B. There is no system to counter it and the oppposing end is helpless to stop them from doing what the want even if they are freaken 2 feet away form the stealth user.
8. Guard upgrades sucks more donkey nuts than the kitten ground that it lays upon. They are absolute trash, two people will always be able to take out all the guards without much trouble. Lord’s room never gets more guards from the upgrade which is really a flawed designed in my opinion. The Lord never benefits from the guard upgrade as well.
9. What the hell is the point of the outfitter upgrade? no one uses it. Siegemaster makes a bit of sense I suppose, but something like a merchant that sells Ash Legion Spy Kits or Hero’s Elixir (4 second invulnerability) or Nourishment material would make far more sense and be an actual useful upgrade.
10. Glitching through door or wall exploits.

Should we actually change the magnitude of the reward per person? no
But we should be changing the reward system, but right now its terrible.
It only encourages non-commited wvw players to zerging an not defending or repairing.

I not much data but atm I dont care anymore,
gunnars hold is almost emply in www, of course they said moving not a bigger issue… for them yes, its not
culling… thats technical, mabye to the curent technology is not possibile, who knows

I think they lie and both play only thiefs, probably they have all 8 slots filled with thiefs toons

I waith for march games to release then good bye Anet and the clueless devs :p

<3

domaspiragas.9810:

kanikani.2430:

Cliff notes:
-So no new maps in the near future
-1 week cycles for matches will continue
-Culling is being worked on
-We have talked about population issues but don’t design for it
-Paid transfers at some point in the future, but transfers are not that big of an issue
-Progression/rewards in Feb patch
-Live scoring no time soon (via website)
-Nothing major till feb patch.
-No UI changes (raid tools etc.)
-No changes to commander system

Did I miss anything?

That’s all very depressing news.

And he wonders why it nevet made it to these forums…

These forums are starting to read more like the diablo 3 forums every day.

i was certainly hoping for a bit more for the big feb update that was brought up previously. perhaps we WILL see some more?

‘tis sad when you hear why people don’t play WvW is because of the rewards. too often people are rushing around, and just want rewards to justify their time spent, or money spent (i never will understand the “well, it was worth my $60” argument – no saying money is nothing, but are games and fun now solely determined by monetary value?), or effort spent. WvW i find is QUITE fun. perhaps i haven’t spent enough time in it to see all these problems, but i have noticed the population is dying down. i fear that increased rewards alone won’t fix the problem. the root is elsewhere. depending on how rewards are introduced, people will just play for the rewards, and we don’t want PvE “exploits” to come into WvW or speed farming WvW just for the rewards. people might just get rewards, and leave. leavin WvW in an even worse state – longer queue times for those who are genuinely interested in WvW and want to make a difference, people literally going in just for rewards and not giving a care about strategy, capping points, or even bother learning how to play WvW, etc etc to name a few.

just thinking out loud now.

akamon.2769:

i was certainly hoping for a bit more for the big feb update that was brought up previously. perhaps we WILL see some more?

‘tis sad when you hear why people don’t play WvW is because of the rewards. too often people are rushing around, and just want rewards to justify their time spent, or money spent (i never will understand the “well, it was worth my $60” argument – no saying money is nothing, but are games and fun now solely determined by monetary value?), or effort spent. WvW i find is QUITE fun. perhaps i haven’t spent enough time in it to see all these problems, but i have noticed the population is dying down. i fear that increased rewards alone won’t fix the problem. the root is elsewhere. depending on how rewards are introduced, people will just play for the rewards, and we don’t want PvE “exploits” to come into WvW or speed farming WvW just for the rewards. people might just get rewards, and leave. leavin WvW in an even worse state – longer queue times for those who are genuinely interested in WvW and want to make a difference, people literally going in just for rewards and not giving a care about strategy, capping points, or even bother learning how to play WvW, etc etc to name a few.

just thinking out loud now.

Reward come with queue time that’s for sure. I knew we dont want WvW to become another farming spot for gold where people just dont care anything but cap point farming. However Population dying isnt help either, we need reward to bring more people in. I dont wanna count on those new maps or new major overhaul because i knew it take efford/time to do it with Anet doesnt have at the moment. More reward is the only way that they can make it that easy within a week or two and that will boost our population in WvW up significantly.

Queue time isnt problem. If tier1 all full of queues, people move to tier2. EBG full, people go to other borderlands. and so on.

Alright, time to leave GW2. Been some fun while it lasted.

I expect them to do no more or less for WvW than they did for rangers with their ranger buffs.

@Tajz – you bring good up a very important issue as well. and i agree with that. we see some servers go completely dead in WvW and that just drives people further away from ever participating. so i’m not opposed to better rewards as i understand the importace of having people on the map for WvW to work at all.. i simply feel that the Devs need to be really deliberate about introducing new rewards or how to put a system in place that will attract more people, while at the same time, allow and actually keep people coming back to WvW. not simply for the rewards, but for the core WvW mechanics and gameplay itself.

i mentioned queue times, but i’d be more than willing to wait for a map to open up, knowing that it is full of people, contributing to their server and the game. : ))

[edit: typos]

-So no new maps in the near future
-1 week cycles for matches will continue
-Culling is being worked on
-We have talked about population issues but don’t design for it
-Paid transfers at some point in the future, but transfers are not that big of an issue
-Progression/rewards in Feb patch
-Live scoring no time soon (via website)
-Nothing major till feb patch.
-No UI changes (raid tools etc.)
-No changes to commander system

—> crowd: OMG I’M GONNA LEAVE, THEY SUCK,… BLAH
(I smell troll, those guys probably didn’t watch the clip)

for example:
-So no new maps in the near future —> perfectly fine explanation why this is the case
-1 week cycles for matches will continue —> no problem here, it works fine
-Culling is being worked on —> what more can you want?
-No UI changes (raid tools etc.) —> again, perfectly fine reply from Anet. You shouldn’t play the UI in GW2. (on a personal note: what would it be good for anyway, you can’t target friendly players and heal those, you can interact with anyone else on your server without a huge raid-window.)
-No changes to commander system —> they said that they would love to iterate on that “green system” but of course it takes time.

So really a positive interview all in all. They are working on a lot of things in WvW and everyone who actually watched the clip should be able to get this.

I would just like to add a point about new maps. You didn’t seem to take that long to make the ‘Lost Shores’ map. How often is that used? Didn’t seem to have issues making all the holiday instances either, or the fractals dungeons.

If WvW is a small populations (which it is) do you think there are more people in BL maps at any given time then the ‘Lost Shores’? Why do you as devs have time/resources to create some dumb zone that no one uses, but none for a place that people actually inhabit 24/7?

On the other side I do want to thank Colin for posting this, I am glad to know the true intentions/what is coming for WvW. More information is better, even if it is bad news, because I can make informed choices now (like looking at other games). And I do appreciate the staff for doing the interview so at least I can know what your doing/thinking.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

So really a positive interview all in all. They are working on a lot of things in WvW and everyone who actually watched the clip should be able to get this.

Your joking right? It seems very out of touch and arrogant. They were laughing when discussing population issue.

So basically WvW will be well flushed out and fixed in 2-3 years time, no problem I am sure all the players will be waiting for this.

The reason people are mad is because they promised a ‘big’ update in Feb and everyone said oh wait till Feb they will fix all these problems. Then we basically come to find out they aren’t even thinking about starting to work on the issues that are important to the community.

Things that are important: Exploits, Hacks, Staleness of repeat matches, boring maps, lack of variety of siege, lack of variety of upgrades, rewards, broken mechanics, populations, transfers, zerging, night capping, pve issues, downed mechanics, rankings, commander issues, UI, and I am sure there are more.

Things they are working on: rewards, culling

Does anyone see how these lists don’t match?

kanikani.2430:

Then we basically come to find out they aren’t even thinking about starting to work on the issues that are important to me.

Fixed that for you. Sure, a lot of people have different things that are important to them, tons of people have a issue with rewards and culling (me included, and I’m kind of a positive person) – problems Anet adresses next.

Things that are important: -snip-

Things they are working on: rewards, culling

Does anyone see how these lists don’t match?

again, how can you claim to know what’s most important? A lot of players want WvW-rewards come on par with PvE-rewards. Anet stated (before the game was released) that you shouldn’t have to leave the WvW mode to play WvW. As it is at the moment you’ll get the best gear for WvW in PvE-zones and I’m very happy that they adress this. When WvWers get equal rewards for playing WvW, much more players will play this mode and aren’t forced to play content they don’t enjoy, PvE for example.

Culling is really gamebreaking, this needs to be adressed with top priority.

If you can’t see that this takes quite a lot of recources, then I don’t know what to respond anymore.

kanikani.2430:

I would just like to add a point about new maps. You didn’t seem to take that long to make the ‘Lost Shores’ map. How often is that used? Didn’t seem to have issues making all the holiday instances either, or the fractals dungeons.

If WvW is a small populations (which it is) do you think there are more people in BL maps at any given time then the ‘Lost Shores’? Why do you as devs have time/resources to create some dumb zone that no one uses, but none for a place that people actually inhabit 24/7?

On the other side I do want to thank Colin for posting this, I am glad to know the true intentions/what is coming for WvW. More information is better, even if it is bad news, because I can make informed choices now (like looking at other games). And I do appreciate the staff for doing the interview so at least I can know what your doing/thinking.

Are you seriously equating the time it takes to make a pve map as equivilant to a pvp map.

There is a LOT more that goes into a WvW map than just blotting a bunch of stuff around.

You have to have a carful consideration of balance, you must make sure your siege design for the map pans out (do you think that all those treb locations weve been using are all entirely organic?) They might be able to spit out a map in two months time, but it wont be nearly balanced. It will take them quite a bit of time with iteration as they figure out all the correct distances and make those time consuming corrections until the map is just right.

Its not like a pve map where you dont have balance concerns to consider. On top of this Lost Shores is not a big map, I would say its roughly 1/6th the size of EB.

So far the above issues arnt mechanics issues as well. Anet is patching our issues one at a time, I think its probably not as fast as a lot of you would like. If you need to take a break from the game do so, doesnt cost you a cent. You can come back in feburary and check out the changes.

Yeah, a shame, really. I can’t bring myself to login for the last two weeks. For me, as a player who’s only interested in WvW that interview confirms my concerns. WvW is clearly no priority for Anet, which – for me – puts the last nail in its coffin for now. Maybe somewhen in the future I might have another look, but until then i’ll be looking for greener pastures.

Tajz.9826:

And when i asked those 45 players why dont they WvW, They said because well it’s fun but THERE IS NO REWARD, thus no point to play, WvW is waste of time, i better go dungeon for more gold.

I really weep at the thought of the reaction of such players when, say, their 10 year old nephew asks them to play a round of this new board game he just got for [insert favorite gift-giving holiday here].

Do your guildies really never do anything just because it is fun? That’s sad.

~MRA

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

-Culling is being worked on —> what more can you want?

Well, obviously: – Culling is being worked on and will be resolved really, really soon

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

So really a positive interview all in all. They are working on a lot of things in WvW and everyone who actually watched the clip should be able to get this.

Beside that, I completely agree with your assessment.

~MRA

@Marcus Greythorne – visit the forums to see all the threads to see what is important. Some of those are not important to me at all. And culling is important to you, not the biggest priority for everyone and who knows if even fixable at this point. So far not so good on culling.

@Draygo – The maps are not balanced as it is, so no I do not think it takes much thought at all. Have you seen the BL maps, you really think they are balanced? Do you even play? The SE tower is very useful/well balanced right?

WvW is already dieing the populations are down mostly across the board. I have spoken to people on many servers who see this trend, and I know many hardcore players that have left. This kind of interview and attitude is what kills MMO’s that is just what it is. If you really think this is good enough see what happens to GW2 in the future. This interview confirms they wvw is very low priority.

At this point I would say WvW was not ready for release and 6 months in it still isn’t. You can still jump over walls into every tower/keep in the game in less then 5 min, seriously you are going to talk to me about balance and fine tuning.

Arcadio.6875:

Their hint for the Feb patch is that it will address player progression. When asked about actual new content like maps, they say they need to prioritize and that it takes time to make those. It seems they can’t even find the time to make a website for live updates. What exactly are they working on then that’s supposed to be a big deal in Feb?

I will now make a predication.

The “big WvW patch” in February will do the following:

- Ascended Items are now available from vendors in your home Borderlands! Each piece requires 2000 badges of honour.

kanikani.2430:

-Nothing major till feb patch.

I hope they realise that February is make-or-break for vast swathes of the WvW community.

Perhaps they are not interested in keeping custumers but more interested to get people to buy the game and play it for a month or two, it’s buy to play after all…

kanikani.2430:

@Marcus Greythorne – visit the forums to see all the threads to see what is important. Some of those are not important to me at all. And culling is important to you, not the biggest priority for everyone and who knows if even fixable at this point. So far not so good on culling.

@Draygo – The maps are not balanced as it is, so no I do not think it takes much thought at all. Have you seen the BL maps, you really think they are balanced? Do you even play? The SE tower is very useful/well balanced right?

WvW is already dieing the populations are down mostly across the board. I have spoken to people on many servers who see this trend, and I know many hardcore players that have left. This kind of interview and attitude is what kills MMO’s that is just what it is. If you really think this is good enough see what happens to GW2 in the future. This interview confirms they wvw is very low priority.

At this point I would say WvW was not ready for release and 6 months in it still isn’t. You can still jump over walls into every tower/keep in the game in less then 5 min, seriously you are going to talk to me about balance and fine tuning.

You can argue about population and such for all eternity, fact remains that they have the data and numbers that they can base their actions on, you only have subjective perception of players.

On balance….what are you smoking? Because i want whatever it is too. Balance people are speaking of is not perfect balance of every object on map. It about balance of non-symmetric maps. If they introduce 3 different BL maps, and one of them happens to be easier to defend on average than other 2, the team that has that map has big advantage over other 2. It has easier time holding it´s homeland, and therefore can direct more effort on other BLs. Single tower being easier than another has nothing to do with overall balance of the game mode.
Just take a look at EB. It´s asymmetric and as a result some teams have noticeable advantage over other 2 according to many anyhow. They propably spent a lot of time polishing, designing and polishing that map, and still it´s not balanced good enough for some of us. If you can´t see what happens if they just throw up 3 maps for borderlands there´s really no hleping you aguess.