Guild Wars 2

@ Anet

First of all thank you very much for posting this, I think the community needed to see it from someone at Anet for it to sink in just how ridiculous the population differences are.

There is a big issue that needs addressing in order for the community to be able to hopefully straiten this out (its doubtful it will really work, but I do know lots of guilds are currently willing to move).

Guild upgrades not transferring when you transfer servers. This is stopping a LOT of guilds from moving. And guilds are what we need moving, not just individual players. Guilds can jump start things for a server like Kaineng, and there are definitely guilds out there looking at moving to servers like it if they wouldn’t lose everything they’ve worked for so far.

Ilke.7231:

piratess.3105:

Personally, an overflow WvW is just a band aid. You want to play with the team in actual.

How about not an overflow server but additional maps? I don´t see why Arenanet should be limited to four WvW-Maps per matchup.

Larger maps or more people per map would be preferable but I see that that is technically difficult. But simply adding more zones to fight in shouldn´t be a problem. Arenanet could even clone one of their existing PvE-maps, thats better than nothing. Add a few keeps, towers and camps.

Open and close those extra-maps as needed.

That´s surely nothing that can be done in days but maybe in weeks.

In a medium to long deadline, I also think that this is the way to do it, but it needs a lot of more time to develop. One/Parts of these maps, could have underwater combat, imbued jumping puzzles for faster access, etc. With the current amount of people i believe that adding 3 more maps should be perfect (total of 7) (middle maps between home server and EB), although some portals should be added to Lion’s Arch too…

In a short time solution and as someone has already said:
- Allow free transfers only to empty servers.
- Rewards new players to go to empty servers (with some bonus).
- Display queue timer and place on the queue to play.
- Maintain the slot for the player that was dc to enter without enter again in the queue.
- Increase a tiny bit the maximum player cap.

Jacky Nipper.3846:

Raptor.9863:

Jacky Nipper.3846:

Raptor.9863:

Jacky Nipper.3846:

Raptor.9863:

Jacky Nipper.3846:

Raptor.9863:

Ok I get it, you don’t know what you’re talking about.

Its nothing personal against you or anybody, stop commenting my posts with crap.

Don’t post crap and you will not get a “crap” response.

Nothing personal.

I dont get what you dont understand on statement that solo ppl joining WvW maps ruining it for those who want to play it seriously.

You don’t get it because you do not understand that they paid the same as you did and have just as much of a right to the product as you or I do. If you can not fathom this then we should probably just agree to disagree.

Nobody is refusing here anybody their rights, Anet is trying to solve problem with queing WvW maps which is ruining the experience from the game to the most of us. Your right ends just at the point others begins FYI.

So your solution is to make it better for one portion of the player base at the expense of the other? That in itself is ruining the experience for most of the players. FYI casual players are where the money is at in mmos. It took me a while to realize it. To ruin further ruin the experience of one group of players just to accomadate another group is wrong who paid for the same service is wrong. To cater to a minority customer base at the expense of treating the majority of customers like second rate shoppers is just bad business. There’s really no point in even discussing this any further because ANet is a business, and as a business they will NEVER do something like what you suggest.

You would have better luck by pressing ANet to let guild upgrades transfer and then swap to a lower queue server. We had an extremely large guild swap to our low pop server the other day and they are loving the instant queues (at least that’s what I heard).

No absolutely not, thats what i was afraid from begining, you totaly dont understand whats going on…just throwing one replay after another…
You were right there in one thing, the community will not manner itself its needed to be manipulated somehow and since there exist such thing as EULA etc which you agreed and the limits on the maps, and there are no written rules how queues work ATM we would consider everyplayer to have right to join the WvW, solutions is smt like the posts above overflow or extra maps or map where ppl who have absolutely no interest to be doing some usefull stuff, just what they want, or simply try to learn how it all works (like hotjoin in sPvP). But the dedicated players wants their organized groups/guilds to meet each other and compete for REAL, they might get something on maps where they meet other organized forces.

my god you really believe that crap dont you?

That the “dedicated” players should get preference? How do you tell if people are dedicated? who decides? and what gives you the right to assume you, who paid exactly the same as me for the game, should dictate how I play?

The shear arrogance is amazing.

MikeFerguson.8921:

Ideally, we would see some people move from worlds with extreme queue times to worlds that need additional people and start building up active wvw communities there as well. Having more worlds with heavily active populations in WvW will be a very good thing for the long term health of the game, and spreading out the population will help reduce the queue times on the worlds with the longest queues.

Give us accurates statistics, and I think we will have 10 times more players queuing that available slot during prime time. (all worlds included and summed)

WvW is not a secondary activity, most of players are here for, so I hope for the future of this game, Anet will work on it.

I wonder if they are looking a little deeper than just a “population” issue with queues. The way I see it is the vast majority of people don’t want to switch to a team that is losing because…well they are losing. In WvW if you are on a team that can’t take any ground, that is constantly beaten back…what do you have to show for it? Nothing. You gain little xp, and you have skyrocketing repair costs.

WvW is an optional experience in this game…so for a losing team there is no incentive for those people to keep playing. Right now they can literally change servers to winning teams but even once that ends they could always just not play. THe way I see it…the winning servers will always continue to win while the losing servers just get worse and worse since there is nothing to keep the “majority” (casual players) in WvW, since all they get is a net financial loss for being on the losing team.

This news is kind of honest, but won’t fix at all the current situation. As said earlier, the thing is that people continues to leave low/medium servers to go on winning servers. As I’m french, it’s an evidence on our servers. As exemple, Jade Sea keeps losing people who are moving for Vizunah, because players just doesn’t want to lose, even if it means more waiting in the WvW queues.

If the situation doesn’t change quickly, and I guess there is multiples ways to encourage guilds or players to move on lowers pop servers like listed on other posts, we won’t be able to join properly WvW without excessive waiting still a bunch of people move away from GW2.

Shutting down free transfers on heavily populated servers would be a start. Not sure why it’s still an option, especially when you want to spread the population. HoD had no queues to mild queues the first few days, then it blew up because free transfers were allowed. Yes, broken queue system is a problem, but allowing transfers to heavily populated servers just compounds that problem.

Main source of frustration: joining for one queue, not knowing which one is shortest.

Solution: “Join any WvW-Battleground” option

It’s very simple. We can imagine eternal battleground has the biggest queue. But if all 3 borderlands have queues, we don’t know where we could go first. Implement this with group joining and a lot of stress and needless frustration would go away.

Igjarjuk.8931:

Main source of frustration: joining for one queue, not knowing which one is shortest.

Solution: “Join any WvW-Battleground” option

It’s very simple. We can imagine eternal battleground has the biggest queue. But if all 3 borderlands have queues, we don’t know where we could go first. Implement this with group joining and a lot of stress and needless frustration would go away.

True, should be an option to join any you choose (to meet friends/guild) and a join all button that just puts you in the first free slot if your solo.

If you want populations to stabilize then stop allowing transfers. At this point people are pretty settled, or don’t see the point of moving when everyone can just transfer again. Take away free transfers and you will see everything normalize.

Also the entire system of when you transfer servers you can’t join WvW needs to be implemented. It’s being abused at the moment and you’re not going to see much in wvw change if you don’t put in a cool down.

piratess.3105:

Ilke.7231:

How about not an overflow server but additional maps? I don´t see why Arenanet should be limited to four WvW-Maps per matchup.

That is a solid approach, although I am not aware of what Anet hardware is capable of. Additional maps might not work considering the point system and how it works per tick – it would throw that off completely. Increasing map size would probably have the same issue – depending on the objectives added of course.

Increasing the capacity of those maps is an option, however, people already complain about zergs, and imo, I see large objectives such as keeps and garrisons being taken fairly quickly as it is.

I am not one to sit here and presume to know what is best. I just know that I am one of those people who love WvW, love to PvP and hate the queues as much as the next person.

My guild faithfully stands behind me and deals with the queues in hopes of getting in. I think if they saw that they were 120 in line, they would wait. If they saw they were 450 in line, they might go off and sPvP, which I would prefer than hearing the lament of fight starved guildies

I’m curious, exactly how long are the queues usually on HoD? And are all the Borderlands subject to queues as well on that server or generally only Eternal Battlegrounds?

It depends. If WvW resets and you are ready to queue as soon as WvW goes live, you get in. After that, during the week prime time, 4-6 hours is not uncommon. ( please remember there is that bug that Anet mentioned )

Weekends it gets worse. I have had guys sitting in queue for 6-8 hours. This is just what my guild experiences, not sure what others on HoD have to say about queues and I am not about to assume to speak for them.

Amulrei.4973:

There are three problems with that. Firstly, there is no incentive to do so. Titan Alliance could pack its bags, move to a low population server (do any still exist?) but why should we have to? We took great efforts to keep our inital server selection low key to try and at least slow the tidal wave of people wanting to storm our server and from what I have seen, most of the other major alliances were the same…. .

…Finally, there is the server community of a whole. While I would think it is safe to say a good many people are on HoD to ride on the coat-tails of Titan and the other WvW guilds there, just as many, if not more, put in their fair share on the field and have earned the respect of our alliance even if they are not directly part of it. Many of these “Militia” as some of our guilds have taken to calling them have been working with our alliance since launch and to suddenly turn our backs on them while heading to greener pastures has been a point of objection with many of the guild members in our alliance……

The whole of this post is spot on. Thank you for posting it Titan Alliance. I quoted the most pressing points imo.

Many of us chose HoD at BWE1. We were surprised to be joined by the Titan Alliance, but community building has been happening ever since. Community is supposed to be one of the most important facets of the game. All those suggesting that TA just move on breaks the community that we have been working on since launch! Even if those in at the ‘beginning’ coordinated and moved, is it really fair to ask us to? When the server transfers have remained open long after the time which allowed people to join their friends? Why should those of us that chose this world at launch and immediately started upgrading and working together have to give that up? Why should we have to abandon the world we helped build up?

Please lock down new accounts and transfers to the highest populated servers immediately.

Please stop free transfers. Please do this even if guesting is not yet going to be available.

Please fix the queuing bug.

I’m not going to write up a lengthy response, as Amulrei already hit all the main points IN THIS POST. Give it a read, if you haven’t.

I will say that while we’re speaking on Anet forums, and hopefully have their attention, that we really need one of two things:

1. An incentive for players to move to lower population servers, rather than the winning servers.

OR

2. CLOSE SERVER TRANSFERS for free.

At the present, most players using the server transfer options are doing so to hop onto the winning servers, exacerbating the issue. There is no reason to add more players to HoD, for example, as we already get 4-6 hour queues within 5 minutes of the server resets. The option shouldn’t even be on the table.

I really do not see the issue if ANet have overflow server technology working to a reasonable degree to cope with the supply/demand issues on the normal world servers, that the same cannot be applied to WvW.

How can it be a problem to keep setting up additional borderland maps, if the demand for places in borderland maps exceeds the available space? The number of points available to each server is the same, and each contributes to a points total that measures relative performance. The total number of points earned is irrelevant when determining first second and third in a two week match.

If the population of overflow borderland maps goes below a set threshold, then the map can be closed down and/or players be given the option to queue for the next available map, so the overflow maps can increase/decrease in line with demand.

As I understand it, this would not prevent people queueing for eternal battlegrounds, which probably should not be cloned for overflow purposes, to keep the capture and holding of Stonemist as a VP multiplier. Obviously a larger number of overflow borderlands would reduce it’s current value, so maybe the value of Stonemist could be increased pro-rata to the number of borderland maps active at any one time.

Just my 2c.

Thanks @ Mike for the information.
Anyway I’d like to add my experience. I’m one that currently isn’t weighting much on W3 queues, as long as i can play only during the evening and for not so long so I generally don’t queue for W3 because I don’t know how long I’ll be waiting.

It would be useless for me queueing at 21.30 then entering at 23.30 and leaving at midnight when I usually go to bed.

And GW2’s W3 was one of the main selling point for me. I’m enjoying its PvE and i’ll be trying some sPvP, but W3 is high on my want list.

So, my personal suggestions (i second most things already said) about this issue.

First, allow us to see queue lengths (and maybe average time – it will be inaccurate, but at least introduce it, so we may understand in which map we could get in quicker). We could at least try to balance a bit the different queues. This is probably the “easiest” and quickest thing to do.

Regarding population, i feel your current numbers are underestimating the real number of people interested in W3. I think you will have to add some more servers (you just announced that GW2 reached 2M sales, good for you, but do you think that these people won’t queue for W3?).

Regarding Guild transfer, a couple ideas here:

• tell us which servers are underpopulated by giving some statistics (avg. queue time and avg. W3 population)
• incentive the transfer to those server giving something both for players and for guilds (and remember there are alliances of hundreds of players out there).

As incentive, it can be a transfer of all or part of the guild influence and upgrades, or increase the speed of upgrades on the new server for a limited periodo of time (but increase it really much, such as 50x on first day, 10x on subsequent 2, 5x on subsequent 3, 2x on subsequent 5 and then back to normal).

Regarding people flocking to winning worlds, this is inevitable, but I would’t block transfers neither selection as home world for the new players that will come.

And regarding the overflow tecnology, that’s something that should stay out of W3.

Mike, thanks for letting us all know you guys are concerned, just as we are. I highly suggest reading Amulrei’s post, as that shares my feelings on this subject to a “T”.

It’s taken way too long, to begin to, address this issue. The guild we started has fallen apart because we can’t get into WvWvW. We even transferred to a lower pop server.

The lack of dev communication, I find, is rather rude. But on a positive note, I hope you can fix this quickly now that you have admitted it’s a major problem.

Intigo’s post hit the points that I wanted to, and I support it. Some information about the current state of queues and WvW to inform your choice and presence in the queue would be invaluable. I’d also really like a “Join first available” for WvW, because I want to do it more than I care about which zone of WvW I am in.

I’m ready to transfer my guild to a lower population world, but I am concerned that it will become a high queue world shortly thereafter. Thanks for posting the rankings, so I at least know which are viable transfer candidates.

You can’t have instances in territory control PvP. Overflow doesn’t work. It just become another map that needs to be maintained. Most server populations can’t really populate the 4 maps they have now.

Please allow us to see overall queue sizes and our own position in queue for all WvW maps.

I’m assuming you guys are still reading the posts here and are taking suggestions and reading concerns and criticisms. First, let me tell you that WvW is awesome. Secondly let me tell you that you guys royally screwed up increasing world population caps amidst huge WvW queue problems. What sense did it make to increase the world caps and cram more people in per server (and thus increasing those world’s queue times) vs. locking down specific worlds and only allowing new characters to be made on lower populated worlds? Free transfers have remained open for far too long and only exacerbated this issue.

Here are the steps you need to take to begin to rectify this issue:

1. Lock down free transfers immediately to high population servers. Their server queue times are already outrageous and adding more fuel to the fire isn’t going to help.

2. Increase the gem cost of transfers. As it stands it is way too easy to obtain this amount of gems through gold and while locking down free transfers will help, the barrier to entry is still too low.

3. Offer incentives to guilds and players to transfer from their overpopulated server to lower populated servers. Right now guilds are not interested in transferring, primarily because of their potentially lost upgrades. You need to play this smart: tier the incentives based on the size of the guild, to ensure that it stays relevant and enticing no matter the size.

- Guild leader gets a Tome of Influence corresponding to the guilds’ size. This will ensure they are able to quickly get their most crucial/important upgrades back and not punished for fixing an issue Anet made worse. This item can be gotten through the Black Lion company after a transfer.

A. Guilds ranging from 10-25 members are eligible for a 75k tome.
B. Guilds ranging from 25-50 members are eligible for a 150k tome.
C. Guilds ranging from 50-100 members are eligible for a 200k tome etc.

These are base #s that can be adjusted to your metrics.

- Deposit of gold once their guild bank upgrade is returned. This needs to be relative to the size of the guild. Guilds could use this as they see fit, either to jumpstart their WvW progress or as per diem to their members for transferring with them. Once again, this item could be gotten through the Black Lion trading once a transfer happened.

- Offer a title. I don’t really go for this type of stuff, but more casual guilds with casual players are likely to. It doesn’t hurt right?

4. Include a WvW lockout upon transfer like you said you were going to do. I remember reading that upon transferring worlds, a 7 day lockout from WvW was going to be installed so as to discourage world hoppers. This needs to happen asap.

5. Fix the queue bug, allow us to see queue times and work faster. You guys are the ones who underestimated your WvW popularity (which should have been hard to do). You guys are the ones who have consistently increased World Caps w/o raising WvW caps. You guys are the ones who have kept free server transfers up and running 3+ weeks into the game. My guys are remarkable in the sense that while this issue is extremely discouraging, they keep logging on and waiting in queues and being great guild members. However, I can see attrition happening to guilds on a universal scale if you guys don’t move quickly. Waiting for hours is not fun. Logging on after a hard days work or classes and wanting to play with your guild but instead watching your allotted playtime slowly diminish while having nothing to show for it is not fun. Having 50 guys online raring to go in WvW but only able to get 9 or 15 in sucks and there isn’t any nicer way to say it.

Fix it and fix it fast.

Eclipse, I suggest that you just make the switch.

Making the switch now is much easier and less punishing the sooner you do it.

I do agree that you should be able to keep your influence, or get rewarded for doing so, but compared to long queue times it is a much smaller price to pay.
Plus when guesting is back in you can ‘guest’ back to your original server until you can get enough influence on your new server to use some of the guild benifits like guild armor.

Waiting for hours is not fun yes. But is keeping your influence really worth having less fun in a video game? Its a video game, I suggest you make the move, you will get the infuence back eventually. You now have a clear list of which servers have the lowest to zero queue times so you can move on your own very easily.

Angry Army switched to Devona’s and I hear they are having a huge blast. Kaineng desperatly needs a large guild to come in and bolster our numbers. We do hold our own (only on 1-2 maps currently, need more people to begin contesting the other borderlands) in primetime now but completly lack any numbers to do anything outside of prime.

I feel people need a short term solution now. Judging from the disappointment and frustration levels I see due to the WvW ques, sooner is better. Just some suggestions…

1) Make this thread a “Sticky”
2) Hopefully never make paid server transfers.
3) If not..stop free transfers.
4) Only allow free transfers on High Rated servers moving to Low or Medium Rated servers.

Stopping only the determined people from coming to High rated servers and allowing overpopulated servers to flow easily onto low and medium rated servers. This is something that can be done anytime.

And please… make the WvW que work based on time qued. Even if there is a long que, at least our guild can all que at the same time and get “pops” at roughly the same time.

Draygo.9473:

Eclipse, I suggest that you just make the switch.

Making the switch now is much easier and less punishing the sooner you do it.

I do agree that you should be able to keep your influence, or get rewarded for doing so, but compared to long queue times it is a much smaller price to pay.
Plus when guesting is back in you can ‘guest’ back to your original server until you can get enough influence on your new server to use some of the guild benifits like guild armor.

Waiting for hours is not fun yes. But is keeping your influence really worth having less fun in a video game? Its a video game, I suggest you make the move, you will get the infuence back eventually. You now have a clear list of which servers have the lowest to zero queue times so you can move on your own very easily.

Angry Army switched to Devona’s and I hear they are having a huge blast. Kaineng desperatly needs a large guild to come in and bolster our numbers. We do hold our own (only on 1-2 maps currently, need more people to begin contesting the other borderlands) in primetime now but completly lack any numbers to do anything outside of prime.

Actually some guild tagged SoS just moved there (Kaineng). They were rolling 20+ strong in EB early this morning capping everything, organized.

It’s true everyone on Devona’s has a BLAST in WvW. No queues (always 2 of the 4 maps open) and lots of organized groups during prime time. It’s tons of fun.

WTB late night/early morning guilds so we can climb the bracket.

SoS switched off of kaineng for a while, so they already had influence on that server.

THIS and THIS sum everything I could have ever said about this issue up. I have no idea how Anet underestimated how popular Wv3 would be when it , imo, was literally the most played thing in BWE’s along with the most hyped on forums such as guru. Wv3 is the end-game for a large majority of your customers and right now its pretty much unplayable for a large base of us.

Also Kaineng has no holdings right now at all in its current matchup. Though I did notice we have a better score today than we managed yesterday. Its improving a little but thanks to those that are switching.

I really think that adding extra WvW maps on a case-by-case basis per matchup is a good solution. These maps would persist until the end of the match, and be just as persistent as any other map…they would NOT be an overflow map shared between multiple servers…they would be just another map to fight for in the particular match-up.

After all, you already know which servers have long queue times and would be able to keep an “Eternal Battlegrounds 2” well populated. If the match up is with very heavily populated servers, then give them another map. If it is with servers that rarely have all zones full, then don’t give them another map.

Creslin.1758:

I really think that adding extra WvW maps on a case-by-case basis per matchup is a good solution. These maps would persist until the end of the match, and be just as persistent as any other map…they would NOT be an overflow map shared between multiple servers…they would be just another map to fight for in the particular match-up.

After all, you already know which servers have long queue times and would be able to keep an “Eternal Battlegrounds 2” well populated. If the match up is with very heavily populated servers, then give them another map. If it is with servers that rarely have all zones full, then don’t give them another map.

To add to this …

What about having the number of maps scale starting from just ONE (eternal) map? Reduce the number of available maps during slower WvWvW times. Save the whole “who owns what” (so don’t reset it to empty and destroy all the hard work put in) but basically just “gray out” the option to log in there, and funnel everyone down into however many maps are left running.

This fixes the “so many people want to WvWvW but we’re locked out, gimme’ more maps!” situation, as well as funnels off-peak players into a more competitive situation.

Currently, there are too many people wanting to play for 12 hours a day to accommodate on 4 maps, and for 12 hours a day so few players spread across 4 maps that servers with higher “off peak” populations can run rampant and capture everything while the other team cannot field the players to defend.

… if geography and ping times weren’t an issue I’d suggest just making it 2v2v2 .. and having each NA server married to a Euro server with opposing population peak times, so there were more maps available and a more even server population.

You can’t add more maps. It’s just not feasible.

SoulstitchMMO.1396:

You can’t add more maps. It’s just not feasible.

Why not? We’re not talking about designing a whole new map…just spinning up another instance of Eternal Battlegrounds for match-ups that need it.

Creslin.1758:

SoulstitchMMO.1396:

You can’t add more maps. It’s just not feasible.

Why not? We’re not talking about designing a whole new map…just spinning up another instance of Eternal Battlegrounds for match-ups that need it.

Because those maps generate points, and then must be maintained by maps. The queue time for most all servers is purely during prime time. What about the rest of the night/day? When it’s not prime time. Who is going to sit in there during the rest of the time?

HoD has queue times 24/7 with the exception of the past few days where no one even is bothering to play. That being said adding more maps is not a cure just like Soulstitch stated.

SoulstitchMMO.1396:

Creslin.1758:

SoulstitchMMO.1396:

You can’t add more maps. It’s just not feasible.

Why not? We’re not talking about designing a whole new map…just spinning up another instance of Eternal Battlegrounds for match-ups that need it.

Because those maps generate points, and then must be maintained by maps. The queue time for most all servers is purely during prime time. What about the rest of the night/day? When it’s not prime time. Who is going to sit in there during the rest of the time?

This same issue exists with no matter how many maps you have. And in reality, higher pop servers will naturally have more “off hours” players anyway when compared with lower pop servers, so I don’t see how the problem would be made any worse by adding another map.

Also…the poster that commented on my post had a good idea to deactivate the auxiliary maps during off hours so that things weren’t too spread out. I think this would work fairly well…deactivate the maps during off hours but leave them in the state they were in, and maybe have them generate 1/4 of the points in this time or something.

They have problems whose solutions are diametrically opposed to each other. On one hand they are unable to render opposing forces during large scale battles resulting in fighting opponents that can be targeted yet not seen (In BW3 you could see them you just couldn’t do anything due to lag). On the other hand while increasing the number of players per map reduces queue size, it exasperates the former.

Thanks for that update Mike, its nice to hear something about the queues.

I have to say, for me personally, the current WvW situation has been a bittersweet experience for me, more on the bitter side. I loved DAoC. It was my heroin. I almost didn’t graduate because of it ;-). I was a RvR nut. Every MMO I played after that was just something to handle that ‘fix’ I needed to fulfill the memories of the awesomeness of DAoC’s RvR.

Then came GW2 and I heard about WvW. I played the betas. It was like a dream come true. Literally. I could not believe my fortune. My friends and guildies were just elated. That first BWE1 was a slice of heaven. I don’t remember the last time I was up for >24 hours. I was in the same happy place in GW2 WvW that I was in DAoC.

But these queues have really killed it for me and my buddies. The elation we felt for this game has been killed by 6 – 8 hour queues. I know some friends and guildies that have quit already, hoping they return of thing get fixed. If not, I will probably be another player leaving GW2. I just want WvW in all its glory.

I have 30-50 guild members that have given up on WvW, for the time being, because of the queues. We’re not transferring because not only do we have lots of influence invested, but also because we have many ties on our server to other players and guilds that are not our own.

The only way I see long term competitive WvW lasting and thriving is if there is a way for guilds and alliances to get their players on the maps they want when they want.

Another solution that I think needs to be added to the list is:
Allow 1/2 to 2/3rds of queue slots to be reserved on each map. These reservations would be:
- purchased with influence or badges of honor
- at least 24 hours in advance
- can be shared with friends/guild mates
- The cost is per hour and you can pick as many back to back time blocks as you want. Or the cost is per night for a set 2-6 hour time block.
- Only 1 reservation allowed at a time to allow for equal reservation opportunity
- Either: If someone doesn’t show up within 15 minutes their slot is forfeit, OR reservations simply go to the front of the queue for the next open spot.
This would allow my guild to pick 1-2 nights a week, days in advance, and reserve slots so that we can play together. It also allows others to do the same, and gives equal opportunity to all guilds and players that want to use the system.

IE – A large hardcore guild reserves 70 slots for tomorrow night. Until the end of their reserved time slots those players cannot reserve any more slots. This means that my guild gets 30 slots for the following night and a different guild gets the other 40 slots. The hardcore guild, after their night of fun wants to reserve more slots. They find that the soonest they can get all of their members a spot in the same map is 4 days away, OR they can split their forces on two maps the day before. They can choose.

For really large servers this could mean that you have to queue up 2 or more weeks in advance to get your large group in, but it means that you CAN do that. You can schedule it, and guarantee that your guild knows WHEN it can play together again next for sure. Alliances would probably want to rotate in, but they CAN do that. It’s much better than 10% of your guild mates getting in to fight that it is right now.

And lower pop servers wouldn’t even need to use the system which would encourage those with fewer ties to go where they can play more often.

Many of the other suggestions in this thread are good ones, but I don’t think they are complete. In re-cap I think we need:
- To stifle/stop band-wagon jumping to winning servers.
- To Fix the broken queues
- To Provide a visible queue so that people know how long they are waiting
- To Provide a way for guilds and alliances to queue up together, even if it isn’t nightly.

I wasnt able to get into wvw the the day of launch. I wasnt able to get into wvw the 2nd day until 12:35 am. On average i have a 1 hour to 4 plus hour wait to get into. my longest que was 6 hours to date.

Heres my question why is there even a que? I think people considering buying the game should be told this upfront. Had i know this que crap was gonna be like this i would not have bought the game.

As of know im taking a break and possibly uninstalling the game.

When im able to get into the wvw i will say its awesome fun pvp thats “when” im able to do it. Just sick and tired of this ridiculous queing crap.

This should have been looked into in beta and not live.

On a side note i would consider purchasing a vip pass in the store into the wvw if it were available at this point i wouldnt need it now rather then later.

Ive played a lot off mmo’s this is the first one where im p’o b/c i cant play it.

Xine – I cannot think of people wanting to have to sign their guilds up for a slot 2 weeks in advance.

The solutions are so much easier.

Close tfrs and lock servers to new players on any server where W3 queues reach 30minutes.

This forces people onto the low population servers. They can then start getting organised and enjoying W3 more.

The guilds on servers with high wait times would then consider moving if they are guaranteed that they won’t just find themselves in the same situation in a month or two.

The servers with high queues will lose guilds who tfr and also player attrition (those who have less time/lose interest). In a few weeks/months they will settle also to low queue times.

A big problem with this is how it impacts the social part of Guild Wars 2. As a Guild its impossible to plan events where you can play together with your guildmates and friends in WvW due to the queues keeping people apart.

hargrave, if all you want to do is wvw switch servers to a server with zero queue times.

Ale, switch servers to a server with no queue times if you want to run guild wvw events.

doesnt matter what server your on gonna be a que for wvw believe me ive moved around a lot to see and im sick of moving. A net needs to get there crap together with the ques.

Bull.5491:

Any plans on increasing the Wv3 player cap in light of the population cap increase on the servers?

I can see several technical reasons that could make increasing the population limit per map impossible. PvE maps get round that by making the overflow on a different physical server to the first one, but that isn’t an option when WvW only allows one instance of each map.

Adding more WvW maps should be much easier, if ANET can think of a theme for them. I’m thinking a map that is mostly underwater for two reasons:
– It will be very different from other maps.

- Lots of people don’t seem to like underwater combat. Meaning they won’t want to play this map. So lower queues there. As someone who likes underwater combat, this would be good for me.

There are limitations on server hardware, why should arenanet widen the queues and cause more issues on those maps with ghosting when people can just move to servers with no queues.

If you want to play the game, click the list on the top, transfer to one of the bottom 4.

And dont say it doesnt matter.

i can say it doesnt matter there is no such thing as a server without a que!! and even if it existed 9 out of 10 times it means nothing is going ob or no ones in that servers wvw b/c of it being a low server pop. Thats a pointless suggestion and not adressing the issue

1153.872 Northern Shiverpeaks
1082.319 Borlis Pass
1079.313 Ferguson’s Crossing
917.602 Devona’s Rest
639.897 Kaineng

All dont have queues.

So please check your facts before you dont say those servers do not exist, it does not reflect well on you.

ive been on 4 those and i was qued LOL thats a fact for you and when i did get in on those servers it was dead or 30vs5. Like i said thats not a solution either when i still have to QUE!

It’s a shame to read Guru today.

After hearing Mike/AN is looking to re-align servers by leaving it to the community itself to sort out server imbalances, there are 5 guilds publicly announcing they are moving – but not to low pop servers – they are moving to the top servers, ones that already have large queues.

These are just the ones announcing it on forums, how many are just doing it without telling anyone.

We are a few weeks in and at this rate the game is going to take a serious hit – people will stop playing if they have empty W3 and cannot be competitive/have fun – at the other end people will leave as they will not endure 3-6 hour queues.

ArenaNet has to sort this out – it will not be done by the community until they are confident AN has put in place things that will protect them if/when they make any choices to move.

Lock servers with queues of more than 30minutes.

All new players / guilds / tfrs coming to the game can then only go-to low pop servers, this will help them get people into W3 and start to make it more fun.

Guilds will start to tfr knowing they will not just find themselves with 3-6 hour queues again few weeks down the line if they choose to tfr.

The servers that maintain high queues will lose players to attrition and tfrs and in time their queues will come down to manageable levels.

But it needs AN to stop tfrs/lock servers – if you had done this a week after realease we would not be in this mess, and we would have all the servers sat at healthy populations….

If something is not done soon – well read about those already bored with the choice of empty W3 losing all the time / and those with up-to 6hour queues and tell me the future looks rosy.