Guild Wars 2

So in NA where I now play (after some 7 months in EU) we will have two leagues of 12 servers. Only three of those servers have any real ability (at this time at least, before stacking occurs in a serious manner) of achieving anything.

We all know numbers and coverage will win, so instead of merging servers (which would be a nightmare and isn’t required) why not have alliances of servers for the WvWvW leagues instead?

As an example (not entirely thought out as you can see, just floating an idea):

Tier 1 and probably Tier 2 – no change
Tier 3 and Tier 4 some servers are merged, only for WvWvW and during the season.

Or…

Rank 4 allianced with rank 12
Rang 5 allianced with rank 11
…and so on

Depending on the numbers and coverage (Anet has the figures) it might mean two servers or three servers are banded together by Anet to make an alliance server.

I know it isn’t perfect but what is the point of rank 1 playing rank 6 and rank 12 in a matchup? Where is the fun for that for any server? This isn’t the EPL where even the bottom placed team can beat Man Utd on a good day, the disparities are FAR FAR larger than that.

Yes it means that servers will have to work together, probably won’t have joint comms or communication already setup BUT… is that any worse than simply not being able to compete?

I personally think that this is a great idea, especially for servers like Gandara and Aurora Glade, we’re extremely similar servers who get terrible matchups, also, it would revolutionise the whole WvW principal.

Agreed with OP. Let’s be honest around The “Gold” NA league.

The top three servers are set already. No other server will beat them.
TC is 4th. That is pretty much a given.
DB and FA will fight for 5 and 6.
7-13. They will just be taking a beating most weeks from one of or more than one of the top 6.

I used to play on Aurora Glade, it is a pretty good example of how it really isn’t “fight for your servers pride”. Not that AG doesn’t have server pride, but one week we had a dozen or so good WvW guilds and the next week we had 3 or 4 left. The matchups when I was on AG were often terrible.

I don’t see why the same thing couldn’t work in the EU servers. Although the merging would probably have to be based around country/language as well as position? Mind you I dread the thought of one massive German server – think of all that siege!

I have just had a terrifying thought, what if VS and RS had an alliance? VS would field the numbers and RS would camp in the towers and spam with superior arrow carts. Btw, we do have server pride, some may call it stubborness, but I call it extreme fighting spirit.

This is a great idea! Keep it simple, base it on sever population so that actual match-ups are against evenly populated armies. End of story.

I proposed such a system a long time ago. Or even an alternation to make matchups be 2v2 with rotating allies and enemy teams to create variety. It would be sooo much easier to balance matchups if you could add 2 teams together on both sides, to equalize out things like coverage and population.

But as 2 v 2 would require map redesign, this idea of simply adding together two servers to contribute toward the same team (color) in each matchup is even easier.

I really like this idea. It wouldn’t help with 24/7 coverage most likely but at least it would help with the numbers and at least prime time would be more evenly matched and much more entertaining. I suspect Devon et al though are thinking that the leagues will be a way to pull the ones who never play or rarely play WvW in to that part of the game. I don’t think it will work though.

Just look at the NA matchup between 2, 4 and 8 servers this week – SoR have been ticking 400-500 pretty much consistently.

Come to think of it, when they changed to random matchups didn’t we end up on odd servers with other servers? I can’t believe it would be hard to do from a technical standpoint either, just reconfig what servers are on what shards (or whatever tech they use).

great idea. alliance of heroes vs evil empire

Wait for it… RANDOM PLOT TWIST, All the oceanic & EU guilds xfer to SoS and just hold everything all day and night.

Banzie.5248:

Wait for it… RANDOM PLOT TWIST, All the oceanic & EU guilds xfer to SoS and just hold everything all day and night.

Top tier already has oceanic and EU coverage sewn up though.

Hahaha, funny idea. I can see the combined forum troll force of AG and server XY.

what a great idea! i would love to have alliances. there are servers out there that id love to team up with. some lower tier servers have a great spirit and an alliance with a t2,t3 server would be amazing.
i agree with the issue in na. sor/bg/jq will fight for gold and it will be between bg and sor. jq and tc are similar in coverage, then right after we got db and then us(fa).

the tiers are very screwed up atm:
as we have 2 monster servers and pretty much 4 tier 1 servers, 2 tier 2 servers, then like 4 tier 3 servers.

coverage wise it looks a little like this(sry only included servers i’ve fought over the past 6 months):

tier 1
sor and bg

tier 1.5:
jq and tc

tier 2
db

tier 2.5
fa

tier 3
sos
mag
cd
ebay

so alliances with a low tier server would be great. i would love to team up with some of the servers out there …or even have an alliance with an t6-8 server. that could spice things up!
tier 1 servers are pretty fine atm, but fa for example is stuch in the middle between t2 and t3. we are too strong for t3 and too weak to beat db or tc as both of them have a semi t1 coverage.
tier 3 servers and tier 4, t5 servers alliances, t2 with t7 and t8 servers. etc. all depending on coverage. anet could measure how many people each server has on during which timezones and create alliances like that to match tier 1 servers. or something like that. this would fix the already predictable outcome of the leagues and prevent mass transfers to top tier servers.

selan.8354:

what a great idea! i would love to have alliances. there are servers out there that id love to team up with. some lower tier servers have a great spirit and an alliance with a t2,t3 server would be amazing.
i agree with the issue in na. sor/bg/jq will fight for gold and it will be between bg and sor. jq and tc are similar in coverage, then right after we got db and then us(fa).

the tiers are very screwed up atm:
as we have 2 monster servers and pretty much 4 tier 1 servers, 2 tier 2 servers, then like 4 tier 3 servers.

coverage wise it looks a little like this(sry only included servers i’ve fought over the past 6 months):

tier 1
sor and bg

tier 1.5:
jq and tc

tier 2
db

tier 2.5
fa

tier 3
sos
mag

tier 4
Ehmry
Borlis
CD
SBI

so alliances with a low tier server would be great. i would love to team up with some of the servers out there …or even have an alliance with an t6-8 server. that could spice things up!
tier 1 servers are pretty fine atm, but fa for example is stuch in the middle between t2 and t3. we are too strong for t3 and too weak to beat db or tc as both of them have a semi t1 coverage.
tier 3 servers and tier 4, t5 servers alliances, t2 with t7 and t8 servers. etc. all depending on coverage. anet could measure how many people each server has on during which timezones and create alliances like that to match tier 1 servers. or something like that. this would fix the already predictable outcome of the leagues and prevent mass transfers to top tier servers.

Fixed it up for you =)

selan.8354:

what a great idea! i would love to have alliances. there are servers out there that id love to team up with. some lower tier servers have a great spirit and an alliance with a t2,t3 server would be amazing.
i agree with the issue in na. sor/bg/jq will fight for gold and it will be between bg and sor. jq and tc are similar in coverage, then right after we got db and then us(fa).

the tiers are very screwed up atm:
as we have 2 monster servers and pretty much 4 tier 1 servers, 2 tier 2 servers, then like 4 tier 3 servers.

coverage wise it looks a little like this(sry only included servers i’ve fought over the past 6 months):

tier 1
sor and bg

tier 1.5:
jq and tc

tier 2
db

tier 2.5
fa

tier 3
sos
mag

tier 4
Ehmry
CD
SBI
Borlis

so alliances with a low tier server would be great. i would love to team up with some of the servers out there …or even have an alliance with an t6-8 server. that could spice things up!
tier 1 servers are pretty fine atm, but fa for example is stuch in the middle between t2 and t3. we are too strong for t3 and too weak to beat db or tc as both of them have a semi t1 coverage.
tier 3 servers and tier 4, t5 servers alliances, t2 with t7 and t8 servers. etc. all depending on coverage. anet could measure how many people each server has on during which timezones and create alliances like that to match tier 1 servers. or something like that. this would fix the already predictable outcome of the leagues and prevent mass transfers to top tier servers.

Fixed it up for you =)

selan.8354:

what a great idea! i would love to have alliances. there are servers out there that id love to team up with. some lower tier servers have a great spirit and an alliance with a t2,t3 server would be amazing.
i agree with the issue in na. sor/bg/jq will fight for gold and it will be between bg and sor. jq and tc are similar in coverage, then right after we got db and then us(fa).

the tiers are very screwed up atm:
as we have 2 monster servers and pretty much 4 tier 1 servers, 2 tier 2 servers, then like 4 tier 3 servers.

coverage wise it looks a little like this(sry only included servers i’ve fought over the past 6 months):

tier 1
sor and bg

tier 1.5:
jq and tc

tier 2
FA

tier 2.5
DB

tier 3
sos
mag

tier 4
Ehmry
CD
SBI
Borlis

so alliances with a low tier server would be great. i would love to team up with some of the servers out there …or even have an alliance with an t6-8 server. that could spice things up!
tier 1 servers are pretty fine atm, but fa for example is stuch in the middle between t2 and t3. we are too strong for t3 and too weak to beat db or tc as both of them have a semi t1 coverage.
tier 3 servers and tier 4, t5 servers alliances, t2 with t7 and t8 servers. etc. all depending on coverage. anet could measure how many people each server has on during which timezones and create alliances like that to match tier 1 servers. or something like that. this would fix the already predictable outcome of the leagues and prevent mass transfers to top tier servers.

Fixed it up for you =)

Common misconception, just apply a little bit of pressure on Dragonbrand and they crumble.

Le Rooster.8715:

selan.8354:

what a great idea! i would love to have alliances. there are servers out there that id love to team up with. some lower tier servers have a great spirit and an alliance with a t2,t3 server would be amazing.
i agree with the issue in na. sor/bg/jq will fight for gold and it will be between bg and sor. jq and tc are similar in coverage, then right after we got db and then us(fa).

the tiers are very screwed up atm:
as we have 2 monster servers and pretty much 4 tier 1 servers, 2 tier 2 servers, then like 4 tier 3 servers.

coverage wise it looks a little like this(sry only included servers i’ve fought over the past 6 months):

tier 1
sor and bg

tier 1.5:
jq and tc

tier 2
FA

tier 2.5
DB

tier 3
sos
mag

tier 4
Ehmry
CD
SBI
Borlis

so alliances with a low tier server would be great. i would love to team up with some of the servers out there …or even have an alliance with an t6-8 server. that could spice things up!
tier 1 servers are pretty fine atm, but fa for example is stuch in the middle between t2 and t3. we are too strong for t3 and too weak to beat db or tc as both of them have a semi t1 coverage.
tier 3 servers and tier 4, t5 servers alliances, t2 with t7 and t8 servers. etc. all depending on coverage. anet could measure how many people each server has on during which timezones and create alliances like that to match tier 1 servers. or something like that. this would fix the already predictable outcome of the leagues and prevent mass transfers to top tier servers.

Fixed it up for you =)

Common misconception, just apply a little bit of pressure on Dragonbrand and they crumble.

still db have a giant sea coverage, which is our weakest time slot. so db is still above fa. but db and fa are way closer than tc/fa

I’m sure Anet have stats on average numbers through different times of the day, would it be too much to ask to have alliances in some way taking in to account the numbers and the times they are playing?

Otherwise you might just as well start everyone from 0 ranking. By the time the league comes around everyone will have moved and most of the current rankings will be worthless. Simply forget the league idea and put in the achievements, I think that is mainly what this update is for anyway – I doubt most will lost sleep over a custom finished. This is WvW after all, not PVE.

Ntranced.7415:

I’m sure Anet have stats on average numbers through different times of the day, would it be too much to ask to have alliances in some way taking in to account the numbers and the times they are playing?

Otherwise you might just as well start everyone from 0 ranking. By the time the league comes around everyone will have moved and most of the current rankings will be worthless. Simply forget the league idea and put in the achievements, I think that is mainly what this update is for anyway – I doubt most will lost sleep over a custom finished. This is WvW after all, not PVE.

well, if they have all the numbers,why not try to implement alliances for the leagues. the leagues will be complete nonsense, because we all know the outcome of every match up.
having alliances, that balances the matchups for the league would actually make wvw competitive and bring fresh air. tier 1 servers are too stacked atm, so the only way out for all other tiers is balance population with alliances.

selan.8354:

Ntranced.7415:

I’m sure Anet have stats on average numbers through different times of the day, would it be too much to ask to have alliances in some way taking in to account the numbers and the times they are playing?

Otherwise you might just as well start everyone from 0 ranking. By the time the league comes around everyone will have moved and most of the current rankings will be worthless. Simply forget the league idea and put in the achievements, I think that is mainly what this update is for anyway – I doubt most will lost sleep over a custom finished. This is WvW after all, not PVE.

well, if they have all the numbers,why not try to implement alliances for the leagues. the leagues will be complete nonsense, because we all know the outcome of every match up.
having alliances, that balances the matchups for the league would actually make wvw competitive and bring fresh air. tier 1 servers are too stacked atm, so the only way out for all other tiers is balance population with alliances.

Exactly. But I imagine it might be too much like hard work, I fear the league is just a sticking plaster on WvW and a way of redressing the fact WvW players earn virtually no achievement points.

The devs view of WvW is far too narrow, they keep forcing it to be what their “vision” should be instead of what the players actually enjoy. It sucks all the fun out of it. Leagues will be meaningless unless it is fun and easy wins or getting roflstomped just isn’t fun.

Alliances could really make the whole thing fresh AND fun again, it is unlikely you would be allied with anyone you had been fighting recently in a normal matchup but even so – that might be fun too.

I think the problem is that if they start with leagues and rewards then we need to consider WvW a sport. If WvW is a sport (note I’m not using the term eSport which has a different connotation I’m referring more to actual sports).

I can’t think of any sports where it would be possible for one team to field 11 players and the other team fields 5. I also can’t think of any sport where it is possible for one team to play the game for (say) 90 minutes and the other team only plays for 30 minutes.

While it isn’t possible to entirely address all of these issues at least Alliances would go some way to making it more competitive (but most of all, as someone else pointed out) FUN.

yeah wvw with alliances would fix the stale matchups and bring quite some fun to wvw. please anet make this happen! this would fix the league problem.

but before that anet actually would need stable servers, make maps bigger, fix skill lag and balance.

I can’t think why they COULDN’T introduce Alliances, I guess they WOULDN’T because of some weird feeling that peoples server makes a difference. It certainly doesn’t in PVE (where you guest to do your PVE stuff and who cares what server you are on). Not sure why it should in WvW either – with transfers (free or paid) we are all used to playing with different people week in/week out. As long as your guild members are with you who cares right?

Not sure we should hope for bigger maps (isn’t that already stated as never going to happen?) and server improvements too soon though, I wouldn’t personally want to wait on those items for alliances.

selan.8354:

well, if they have all the numbers,why not try to implement alliances for the leagues. the leagues will be complete nonsense, because we all know the outcome of every match up.

having alliances, that balances the matchups for the league would actually make wvw competitive and bring fresh air. tier 1 servers are too stacked atm, so the only way out for all other tiers is balance population with alliances.

We might not know the outcome of every match up because people haven’t really been transferring to other servers seriously yet. I imagine there is a bit of saving up for the gems to do for some guilds and other guilds will be waiting to see where some guilds go to. No doubt it will all be very last minute.

I agree in principle though, unless 10 large NA guilds and 3 or 4 large EU/Sea guilds are planning on transferring to TC I doubt we will see much variation at all in NA.

The 2v2 would work best if u paired a na and eu server. Would give both side better coverage without creating a massive que at prime time. For the most part anyways

Ntranced.7415:

Banzie.5248:

Wait for it… RANDOM PLOT TWIST, All the oceanic & EU guilds xfer to SoS and just hold everything all day and night.

Top tier already has oceanic and EU coverage sewn up though.

We’d either pull even with or slightly ahead of TC, then our NA would still have only 30 people on TS.

People <T2 already consider us a troll server due to our existing Oceanic and EU coverage LOL

Valik Shin.9027:

The 2v2 would work best if u paired a na and eu server. Would give both side better coverage without creating a massive que at prime time. For the most part anyways

Agreed, but can you imagine the outcry from some players? Plus Anet probably don’t have the capacity either in the EU or NA datacenters to run all the WvW servers there.