Guild Wars 2

Anet has announced free transfers again.
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/preseason-sale-world-transfers/

However, there is a BIG problem. These transfers are based on SERVER population, not WvW population.

Here is some current data:
Rank 11 Borlis Pass (high pop, 800 gems)
Rank 15 Kaineng (high pop, 800 gems)
Rank 18 Henge of Denravi (high pop, 800 gems)
Rank 22 Gate of Madness (very high pop, 1800 gems)
Rank 23 Anvil Rock (very high pop, 1800 gems)

Anyone else see a problem here?

Want to win the league? Just stack HoD for cheap and win bronze league…

Anet, if there is still time, please change the transfer prices to be based on world rank.

From http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/473/view/forums/thread/397784/page/1

Copied here for this discussion

Devon Carter

drwhom

3) Recently free transfers returned for low pop servers and were discounted to medium ones. Why are transfer costs dictated by total server pop and not WvW pop or rank? The guesting system means nobody should have to transfer for any reason but WvW. It seems silly that it costs the same to transfer to GoM as it does to SoR. Will we see more aggressive attempts in the future to address the population imbalances between servers?

3) Hopefully yes, but nothing is determined right now. When we have more to say, we will do so. We would like to be a bit more aggressive about this, but need to make technical changes to be able to do so.

I think that its weird that like a week ago half of the NA high pop servers randomly went to Very High right before this sale started

Ya, this was posted last week when they first announced it. It’s a big problem for low ranked server’s unfortunately they don’t seem care and it doesn’t look like they are going to change anything about how their transfer costs work.

Just once it would be awesome if they listened to their community, whether we are the minority or not, we really are trying to help balance out the current participation issues for WvW.

Don’t ge me wrong I’m sure BP and other could use some incoming bodies, but, it would probably be better to work from the bottom up.

All transfers to tier 1 are free because they will pay the transfer fee for you. Makes transfer fees based on either rank or world population irrelevant… for purposes of balancing servers anyway.

The obvious problem is there are no medium servers.

IMO allow any player to log into any PvE server any time. Then uncouple the transfer price from the general population. Instead use a formula (any negative result would be 0) such as

((24 – Rank) * 100) + (10 * (PlayerTransfers – PlayersLeft))

So if you were the 12th player to transfer to AR and they had 5 players transfer off it would be:

((24 – 24) * 100) + (10 * (12 – 5)) = 70 gems

My server BP with the same transfers:

((24 – 11) * 100) + (10 * (12 – 5)) = 1370 gems

JQ with the same transfers:

((24 – 2) * 100) + (10 * (12 – 5)) = 2270 gems

Hm, I’m just wondering that if there is an excessive use of transfers, wouldn’t that make the current WvW server rankings inaccurate? Is anything done to prevent this?

The pain of paying the full price 48 hrs earlier, 1000 gems down the tubes.

Transfer prices should be changed based on world rank. I don’t get why it’s so hard to understand that would be for the best.

Or it should just be limited to every 30, 60 or 90 days, Surely that would make life difficult for anyone wanting to exploit WvW?

So they half listen to the players by modifying transfer costs.

And the other half, the main half of the change, completely ignored all ideas by the players, and went down some stupid money grubbing tangent that solves nothing, if not makes things worse.

GW2 is all about the gem $tore. The day of developers being passionate about their work and games, is long gone.

it should be reverse #1 t1 have reduced costs as if you want small man servers, there is tons, as about 75% of servers must be ghost towns.

if you want full on 24/7 combat though- there is no server so t1 does need more transfers seeing as its the most competitive wvw in game

. regardless of size or zergs now, many t1 servers suffer from coverage gap and actually are still in desperate need of guilds at times, like JQ.

I don’t think I have been any more disgusted or disappointed in Anet than when I saw this announcement. The fact that they would do this as if it were a favor to the playerbase, or somehow good for the game, is just insulting to anyone that actually cares about the state of the game. Some of us were already thinking that Season One was an attempt to get gem sales from transfers, at the cost of destroying what little integrity the Leagues might have. This sale on transfers just proves it.

After all the troubles transfers have caused WvW over the past year, there is no way anyone could make this move with good intentions. This is like opening up a professional sports draft halfway through the playoffs. The current ranks, and therefore league placements, are going to mean absolutely nothing. Server matchups are bad enough right now without stupid decisions like this throwing them into complete chaos.

And the whole idea of free transfers to medium population servers is a joke, at least for North America. There aren’t any lower than high, so the only way for anyone to get a free transfer is if this sale causes a mass exodus from one of the high population servers. Any population shifts that large would only serve to create further imbalance in the upcoming wvw season.

This is a big problem. Not so much with the “medium” servers. There only are a few left. But there are servers “very high” at lower end of the WvW ranking and servers “high” at the top.

This only gets players from weaker servers to move to stronger servers(for wins and rewards).

I strongly suggest to delay the start of the Leagues until this is fixed. Or at least make it free vor everyone so some guilds can transfer to “very high” without having to pay that huge amount just to go to some weak WvW server with a lot of registerd accounts that don’t play WvW(or don’t play at all).

The way it is designed it is based on the amount of accounts that selected a world as home world and with newer players coming to the game in the future we might get “very high” everywhere which makes it cost a ton of money. Of course ArenaNet want the money.

But it’s not good for the game. Should be top priority to changes this.

Its borked. Just give up. There is no solution under the fundamental design of the game. WvW needs a total overhaul.

Its because transfers are not just for WvW (in Anet’s eyes).

I keep saying they should just break the link between WvW and PvE. Keep your 24 PvE servers but create a new system of maybe 18 WvW servers with different names.

2 separate transfer options, one for PvE based on total pop and one for WvW based on rank. 2 leagues of 9. No empty servers.

The servers are already separate anyway from PvE

Solstice.1097:

Its because transfers are not just for WvW (in Anet’s eyes).

I keep saying they should just break the link between WvW and PvE. Keep your 24 PvE servers but create a new system of maybe 18 WvW servers with different names.

2 separate transfer options, one for PvE based on total pop and one for WvW based on rank. 2 leagues of 9. No empty servers.

The servers are already separate anyway from PvE

Yes I think your right. Our accounts should directly link to our PvE and WvW separate.

We should log into a Mist type location for WvW and have a portal entrance like we have at spawn points.. A gate for each boarder land. There should be sense of community there. We could do training and tactics.

PvE should take you automatically to Lions arch on login.