Guild Wars 2

Good Afternoon

I am currently on SOS server and we have experienced some very odd behavior with regards to map queues lately, specifically, on our BL (SOS BL maps). This has been going on intermittently for quite a few weeks now during NA prime time hours ( I do not know if other timezones experience this or not) but it is a bit difficult to pin down.

I will give 2 examples of what is happening.

1st please understand that the vast majority of us are on TS and / or use c-coms so we know pretty much immediately when a guild or group of people running under a commander hops into the map. Also, because we have multiple scouts, it is largely impossible to hide a group of 25-40 people for multiple hours at a time, which is what would be needed for the que to work correctly.

Latest example is from yesterday but as I stated, it happens intermittently, for periods of time lasting around an hour or so for quite some time now, then things go back to normal. So here goes, from last night:

We had 2 groups, 2 commanders running around + independant scouts/roamers. Main group was 22-36 on main tag, the 2nd group was 3-5 people on havoc tag at any given time (groups size varies as people go resupply, afk for a drink, etc., but those are the actual maximum sizes as counted at restacks which we specifically did to keep track of this). Add to that about 5 scouts/roamers cruising back and forth between objectives and doing their thing. Yet our map was qued with some people reporting double digit que positions in TS.

This happens most notably and most often, but not always, when we face full map ques from both opposition servers simultaneously (TC and FA). As many of us are veteran players and communicate with players on those respective servers we have indeed confirmed this to be so.

The 2nd thing that happens, is when we go to enter our BL via the WVWVW interface, it says that the map is qued. For example, last time this happened to me it said there is a 23 person que for the BL. So I qued up and entered map instantly. Again, since I am on TS I was able to confirm that there was no large group movement between maps and no one has left it recently and the group on the map was in fact around 30ish total scouts included. This also happens intermittently, although not sure about its circumstances when it occurs.

There is something really wonky going on with the SOS BL map ques, not sure about timezones other then NA and other servers, but this definitely needs a look. I have experienced similar issues on another server long ago around tournament 1 and tournament 2 which was as bad as having 15 players on map and it becoming qued, but those were supposed to be fixed and have been as far as I know there were no recurrences since then.

My own thoughts lead me to believe that this has something to do with the recent changes to map que size, for some reason when the other 2 servers que our BL it feels as if they have their new que sizes while ours gets substracted instead of added. Or alternatively, the total numbers of players allowed from all 3 factions somehow becomes bugged and is actually lower then the sum of all 3 allowed map ques. So if the other 2 servers fill those spots 1st, then that would make a lower que size for us. Which also makes sense because as soon as a large guild group or map que from either 1 of the opponent servers thins out or leaves, our own que comes back to normal. But this is of course just a guess on my part based on observation.

A-net guys, if you can, please look into this.

Thanks

TL;DR: Map queue shows 23 but allows player in instantly.

Chaba.5410:

TL;DR: Map queue shows 23 but allows player in instantly.

TL;DR2: 40 peeps max on map but its qued and no one can get it while facing confirmed double map ques from opponent servers.

You missed the primary, the secondary which you pointed out may or may not be related to it, perhaps via some sort of bug / delay in counting / determining que position and wether to let someone in or not ?

I understand its quite a read, cause I tried to provide lots of concrete info regarding buggy behavior and you got lost in it, but it’d be nice if you corrected your TL;DR.

I’ve seen both situations in T1. Occasionally the map has a large queue, but you go to queue up and it insta-pops. Other times you get the entire group(of course there are always a few out doing their own thing) in one spot for a keep take or keep defense, and the most you see is 30-ish.

The second situation seems like it could be afkers or people running a second group, but when you respawn there are no players in citadel afk, and there are no other swords; white or orange, on the map anywhere.

So yeah it does seem a little wonky right now for whatever reason.

Commonly know as a fake queue, it happens when borderzergs jump queued borders too rapidly. Usually fixes itself after a short while.

I often had the feeling there is something wrong with how many people of each server can actually play the map. Would be nice if a dev could look into this.

Concerning queues I’ve noticed another bug recently. My partner (who was sitting next to me) and I queued up for a map. I was 3 positions ahead of him, as I queued up about 1 minute before him. Then we noticed he catched up and then even passed me. He went on the map 4 positions before me.

Tongku.5326:

We had 2 groups, 2 commanders running around + independant scouts/roamers. Main group was 22-36 on main tag, the 2nd group was 3-5 people on havoc tag at any given time (groups size varies as people go resupply, afk for a drink, etc., but those are the actual maximum sizes as counted at restacks which we specifically did to keep track of this). Add to that about 5 scouts/roamers cruising back and forth between objectives and doing their thing. Yet our map was qued with some people reporting double digit que positions in TS.

I’ve experienced this quite a lot on other servers as well.
A lot of people I know are under the impression that the queue system is bugged to all hell.

It would be nice if Anet would divulge exactly how the queue works but they’ve always been a bit shifty when talking about it (number cap etc..)

Tongku.5326:

Chaba.5410:

TL;DR: Map queue shows 23 but allows player in instantly.

TL;DR2: 40 peeps max on map but its qued and no one can get it while facing confirmed double map ques from opponent servers.

You missed the primary, the secondary which you pointed out may or may not be related to it, perhaps via some sort of bug / delay in counting / determining que position and wether to let someone in or not ?

I understand its quite a read, cause I tried to provide lots of concrete info regarding buggy behavior and you got lost in it, but it’d be nice if you corrected your TL;DR.

I just TLDR’d what stuck out as obvious bug. :/

When people say there is a queue and only 30 on tag and that proves its bugged, I usually ignore it TBH. It is really difficult to get a full accounting of how many are actually on map because so many people tend to think it is just themselves off doing something else. Might check for AFK-ers in the jumping puzzle though…

Chaba.5410:

Tongku.5326:

Chaba.5410:

TL;DR: Map queue shows 23 but allows player in instantly.

TL;DR2: 40 peeps max on map but its qued and no one can get it while facing confirmed double map ques from opponent servers.

You missed the primary, the secondary which you pointed out may or may not be related to it, perhaps via some sort of bug / delay in counting / determining que position and wether to let someone in or not ?

I understand its quite a read, cause I tried to provide lots of concrete info regarding buggy behavior and you got lost in it, but it’d be nice if you corrected your TL;DR.

I just TLDR’d what stuck out as obvious bug. :/

When people say there is a queue and only 30 on tag and that proves its bugged, I usually ignore it TBH. It is really difficult to get a full accounting of how many are actually on map because so many people tend to think it is just themselves off doing something else. Might check for AFK-ers in the jumping puzzle though…

Thing is, we checked, to my understanding, which may be incorrect, the old original que size was 60ish, while new is 70 or 80. That might be wrong though because we do not have official numbers from A-Net.

So if we total out main group + scouts + roamers etc and have 40-50 we still have room. There is usually 1-2 people AFK at spawn and another 1-2 at crafting stations. So given the most liberal upward estimates thats 55. And usually its actually much less then that, these are highest case scenarios for us when this occurs.

If the new map cap is 70-80 then we would need a group of 25-35 hiding somewhere on the map and actively evading all our scouts + running tagless + doing it on regular basis + doing so exactly when our opponents both que our map + doing it over prolonged period of many weeks during these instances. That is just simply not possible, too many coincidences and the numbers do not add up, especially multitude of times over such a long period of time. We would notice a group of that size as our roamers (myself included when I roam/scout) would pick up a group this size.

There is just no way you have a coordinated group of 25-35 running tagless for around 1 hour+ at a time so consistently in the back of the jumping puzzle. Only way I see this happening is if the other servers would have a troll account zergs formed up made of alt accounts on our side which I am pretty sure they don’t. You get the occasional troll or a perfectly legit multi account player here and there but not group this size hiding deep in the back of the BL JP.

So it it has to be bugged. I’m thinking the map cap calculations are going haywire, perhaps the total actual que size for all 3 servers is lower then the sum of individual map caps. I think that is the bug. So when the other 2 guys port in full map que groups, we get shafted being the last server to do so as our responders try to respond.

I might be a bit off on my numbers, since they’re largely guesses based on observations, except our counts when stacking, but not by too far.