Guild Wars 2

Throughout the current 24-hour matches, World vs World players of all backgrounds have run into a number of issues that are negatively impacting our enjoyment of the game. I’d like to take a moment of your time and discuss some of the systematic problems with WvW and discuss some of the proposed solutions on the forums and offer some solutions that I hope are fair to players of all regions and play styles.

There are a number of major issues that have been repeated by many avid WvW players – excessively long queue times, population imbalances, and “off-peak” server imbalances. All of these issues are complex and interrelated.

WvW Queue Times
I believe that WvW queues are based on three major factors:
1. Total Server Population
2. Time of Day
3. Current Performance
A server like Henge of Denravi, which has high population throughout many times zones and is currently dominant in its matches, experiences massive queue times. Other servers experience long queues only during primetime, or only when the match starts and the score is “close” and queues taper off as a server’s score falls behind. It is assumed that simply increasing player caps is a non-starter due to technical limitations, so we have to be more creative with our solutions.

Overflow Maps
The obvious issues with overflow servers are twofold: First, if the map counts for score, it provides a massive snowballing advantage to high population servers – and overflow maps could easily become ghost towns after the high population server caps it all – not fun for either side. On the flipside an overflow that counts for nothing is against the spirit of WvW and is little more than a giant sPvP lobby.

My proposed solution is to make an overflow map or maps that activate when there are a certain number of people in the queue for WvW. Instead of directly providing points however, capturable objectives in this map instead will send dolyaks through a portal that spawns dolyaks in certain areas of Borderlands and/or EB. These objectives can use similar mechanics to ones currently in WvW, or perhaps a new one that is more forgiving of population imbalances. In this system, controlling the overflow will provide more of a limited supply pool to map, but it is balanced by the fact that players on the main WvW map can still intercept these convoys. This idea could be extended to any type of buff or boost that can be generated in the overflow, as long as the enemy team in the main map can reasonably counteract it in some fashion. Thus fighting in the overflow is meaningful, yet it does not create too much of an imbalance.

Overflow maps could also have versions of jumping puzzles, small tournament arenas, or other challenges that award supply or siege blueprints to players, to make their time in the overflow feel worthwhile. Another concept is that objectives in the overflow could allow players to spawn in a cave or another hidden area on the main map – which could be destroyed by the enemy team if found out.

Time of Day
There is a disturbing sentiment around this and other forums about so called ‘late night’ capping. As Mike Ferguson pointed out, Guild Wars 2 is a 24-hour, international game, and people playing at any time of day have as much of a right to play as fight for their server as any other. The real issue is these nighttime complaints are just a symptom of server population – just not when a majority of the players are online. In effect this is the opposite problem of queues – how can we even up the game and make it fair and fun for all players when a server is outnumbered?

The current outnumbered buff is laughable and pointless, as a server that is significantly outnumbered just is not going to be able to hold territory. Straight stat buffs to outnumbered servers are an option, yet it does not solve the issue of an outnumbered server being unable to effectively spread its forces, and flat stat buffs can quickly snowball into one-shotting, nearly unkillable foes, and other undesirable edge cases. I have a combination of ideas that together, might allow outnumbered servers still put up a decent fight.

NPC Reinforcements
There’s going to be some pushback about further involvement of NPCs in a primarily PvP game mode – fighting against NPCs is largely a chore that involves little actual skill from players. Unfortunately I can’t think of many other solutions that could help an outnumbered server fight back in a meaningful way. NPC support could be implemented in a variety of ways:

Stat, Number, and Respawn rate of guards at towers, keeps, and camps could be increased for outnumbered servers. While these are little more than a speedbump, they could buy the critical extra time needed for a small group to respond to attacks. Outnumbered players could possibly also hire reinforcements (perhaps for a badge cost) from their spawn that follow the player around. With a reasonable cap on the recharge time and number of these allowed per map, it could enable a smaller group to project force more easily. Simple global cost/time reducers on keep upgrades or supply costs is also an option.

What I don’t want is independent NPC forces or sieges – these just feel cheap and don’t really add anything to the WvW experience. Any NPC reinforcement should be accompanied by a player.

The main issue with outnumbered players is that while they might be able to hold a single point against a much larger force, they aren’t able to branch out and keep other points. Hopefully NPC reinforcements could help smaller groups of players match up without causes the imbalances that flat stat buffs do.

Scaling Point System
The current scoring system is broken and its snowballing effect quickly leads to loss of morale and blowouts. A match is close for the first several hours, a server pulls ahead and morale starts to drop as people log off or get tired. It snowballs into a huge lead for the winning server. Even if the other servers could fight back in their primetime, they wouldn’t be able to overcome the point gap. This is detrimental to all players, as the winning server has capped everything and has nothing to do but spawncamp, and the losing servers see there’s no hope and don’t bother playing. This is unhealthy for the long-term success of WvW. I don’t believe longer tick times or longer matches will solve this problem, as the same core issues are still there and will just play out over a longer period of time. It might take three days for a server to have an overwhelming lead instead of hours, but you’ll have the same effect in the long run.

To solve this I propose two mechanics – first a points system with diminishing returns as you control more of the map. For example, the first 300 potential points would provide full value, the next tier of 300-500 half, and 500+ a quarter. These are just example numbers but it would it would reduce the point differential of a server that is clearly far ahead, allowing others to catch up and keep them in and playing the game. This alone won’t be enough however, as a dominating server is still dominating if its earning 400 points to 0 for the other servers.

The scoring system also needs a comeback mechanic in place to encourage losing servers to fight even when far behind. Servers that are a certain percentage behind its competitors could have a scaling buff to point generation as long as they are ‘out of reach’ for a potential win. This would have to be carefully balanced however to discourage edge case tactics where an outscored server could game the system. It could make for some very exciting matches where a server ‘goes for the gold’ in the waning hours or days of the match. The main point of this, though, is when you log on and see you’re 30,000 points behind, to give you a reason to play.

This ties into my next point, which is the current global buff rewards for winning WvW are fundamentally flawed. Instead of applying to the current match, a server’s gained buffed at the end of the match should apply for all of next week’s matches. This gives a reason for a server that perhaps can’t win a match a reason to play and earn points for the next go round. Also players that have earned a victory and the buffs granted can have an opportunity to enjoy them for a week.

TL;DR:

In summary, some proposed solutions to current WvW issues:

Overflow maps that don’t count for score, yet provide tangible benefits for the main maps that still can be disrupted by enemy players, providing a reason to play on these maps without causing imbalances.

Outnumbered servers obtain carefully-balanced NPC reinforcements, that allow them to project force and match up better against larger numbers of players.

Scaling point system that introduces diminishing returns and a “comeback” mechanic, which limits the snowball effect of a dominating server and creates a real possibility for a server to catch up in score.

I welcome any and all constructive feedback on this, and I’m eager to hear about any other proposed solutions to solving the WvW issues at large.

Sorry but I think a lot of people are jumping the gun here.

I prefer to wait and see how well the ranking system works in putting servers with a strong off-peak presence or higher populations against each other.

I assume by population you mean the average population participation rates for WvWvW. (Quite a few servers have large overall populations but lesser WvWvW participation ratios and vice versa)

Anyway we are just now finishing with daily cycles and will soon start weekly cycles after which we will get 2 week cycles.

There will never be perfect balance in a 24/7 game but if there are still mad
imbalances after the 2 week cycle starts then I would say let the discussion begin.

Not saying that these concerns are not valid as I think they are and potentially adjustments might have to be made in the long run. However, I think we need give the system time before coming up with solutions to problems that may not exist once the system has enough metrics to work with.

TL:DR
I’m not going to judge a a system before it has had time to gather the necessary metrics to work as intended. Thus I’m going to practice the difficult task of being patient

I agree with Sureshot. These 24 hour runs are painful at times, a lot because they are only 24 hours. The real prizes that the server gets is by accumulation of the bonuses, and we have not been able to see that fully because of the short matches. Wile I know that it sucks to see that end score, there is no prize at the end except for bragging rights. Getting the ranking system down should solve the ‘night capping’ problem by grouping the servers that have more people on at all times together. I would rather see a solution to the problem of not seeing people when large groups face off. If you can’t see your opponent to kill them or can’t see your group to heal them that is what will ultimately turn people off.

Here’s an idea: Outmanned servers can summon the Fire Elemental from Metrica Province to fight for them