Guild Wars 2

FogLeg.9354:

um, you know, I doubt Tier 1 servers will notice anything after merge. The last tiers are so completely empty, even adding whole server from last tiers won’t make any difference for top servers. It WILL be big deal for those players who have stayed on those empty servers, pretty much whole WvW as they know it will be gone.

Yup, it will be a nightmare for a lot of them. Hopefully Anet doesn’t jack up transfer prices or lock them because they’ll end up making people quit.

Puck.9612:

FogLeg.9354:

um, you know, I doubt Tier 1 servers will notice anything after merge. The last tiers are so completely empty, even adding whole server from last tiers won’t make any difference for top servers. It WILL be big deal for those players who have stayed on those empty servers, pretty much whole WvW as they know it will be gone.

Yup, it will be a nightmare for a lot of them. Hopefully Anet doesn’t jack up transfer prices or lock them because they’ll end up making people quit.

I think most of us in T8 would really appreciate seeing some life in WvW again. I have never experienced T1 style play (closest we got was getting destroyed by a T2 while in T3) so I am excited for the opportunity to see it.

MaximillianVonSchatten.6278:

Puck.9612:

FogLeg.9354:

um, you know, I doubt Tier 1 servers will notice anything after merge. The last tiers are so completely empty, even adding whole server from last tiers won’t make any difference for top servers. It WILL be big deal for those players who have stayed on those empty servers, pretty much whole WvW as they know it will be gone.

Yup, it will be a nightmare for a lot of them. Hopefully Anet doesn’t jack up transfer prices or lock them because they’ll end up making people quit.

I think most of us in T8 would really appreciate seeing some life in WvW again. I have never experienced T1 style play (closest we got was getting destroyed by a T2 while in T3) so I am excited for the opportunity to see it.

I’ve been in both. Both ends of the spectrum suck. T8 prime time Is actually a lot more fun than T1 at any time of the day (at least it was a few months ago). Solo roaming is kitten near non existent, small groups spend more time ducking blobs than fighting, and large scale is boring kitten pirate ship.
If merges end up happening I’d recommend going T3-5 before being stuck in that kitten show.

FogLeg.9354:

um, you know, I doubt Tier 1 servers will notice anything after merge. The last tiers are so completely empty, even adding whole server from last tiers won’t make any difference for top servers. It WILL be big deal for those players who have stayed on those empty servers, pretty much whole WvW as they know it will be gone.

yea I agree I’m on IOJ we have about 40 or so regulars. Not sure how we would be welcomed on a new server. I don’t see waiting in huge Que’s to play.

If Anet fixed the problem with a pipeline for new players to experience WVW,better loot, and the old BL’s back we could probably rebuild the server population on our own.

It’s not much more players in tiers 8 and 9 of EU while I have been in those. And even then, while 40 players may sound like a lot, most of them only join WvW for 1 hour or so in prime time, so it is really-really empty for 23 hours.

Fact 1) Anet never gives wvw players what they want.
Fact 2) Many of the changes in the leaked patch notes are what wvw players want.

Therefore, the patch notes must be a hoax

FogLeg.9354:

It’s not much more players in tiers 8 and 9 of EU while I have been in those. And even then, while 40 players may sound like a lot, most of them only join WvW for 1 hour or so in prime time, so it is really-really empty for 23 hours.

T1 servers don’t have many queues any more.

Osu.6307:

Fact 1) Anet never gives wvw players what they want.
Fact 2) Many of the changes in the leaked patch notes are what wvw players want.

Therefore, the patch notes must be a hoax

It is known.

if its true that first tier will merge with last tier, i think it makes sense for people to transfer on the cheap to the last tier now so that they get to join 1st tier next week.

Straegen.2938:

The “server” concept is out dated (…)

Yep.
I’m not convinced of the legitimacy of the “leaked” notes, but if they’re true, it’s not a good solution. As someone who primarily plays during the off hours wasteland of OCX and SEA, I’m a bit worried. A static system like the current server structure will never be able to properly accommodate a 24-hour gamemode like WvW due the massive difference in population across timezones.

I can find little to no information on what will be dropping in a few days for WvW changes other than the occasional cryptic comment from TylerB on reddit about “beta testing” for rewards and population.

So we know something is coming, and they are holding off on reintroduction of the alpine bl until this “beta testing” is completed and feedback received.

I’d sure like to know at least if my server is disappearing in 4 days.

None of you make any sense. All he’s said is “population beta”. There’s nothing to beta test when you talk about a server merge because it is just a one-and-done moving of accounts around in a database, a technology they already have. Please think more clearly next time.

Chaba.5410:

None of you make any sense. All he’s said is “population beta”. There’s nothing to beta test when you talk about a server merge because it is just a one-and-done moving of accounts around in a database, a technology they already have. Please think more clearly next time.

^That.

Merging of servers will not fix any issues with population balance, players will still be able to transfer to the best servers and stack it.
Do you really think this is their solution on which they have worked over 1 year? They could merge of servers long time ago…

Also here are few dev comments from last AMA:

WvW has been a very complicated system. We are changing some of the core architectural components. It will allow us to implement some of the changes Tyler outlined, and also provide us a foundation for more flexibility moving forward.

The WvW team’s current top priority is fixing population imbalance. It’s a really hard technical problem. It has taken us a long time to ship a solution, so it’s been a long time since we’ve shipped significant updates, and of course that hurts.

Feel free to step in anytime anet…….it’s what professionals do.

EremiteAngel.9765:

When is it happening?

It already happened. It is called the megaserver

Chaba.5410:

None of you make any sense. All he’s said is “population beta”. There’s nothing to beta test when you talk about a server merge because it is just a one-and-done moving of accounts around in a database, a technology they already have. Please think more clearly next time.

Because as I see it, it’s a Server Pairing. As in, it’s the Alliance of two Worlds in a WvW match. Basically, instead of WvWvW it’ll be W²vW²vW² or W²x3 There wouldn’t be any transferring of actual accounts taking place. This way it preserves each Worlds community. Also, it allows for match variety each week as the pairing will change based on performance and population.

At least that’s my hope for a more intelligent system. If it were a one and done merging, that would be…. well… an uninspired outcome.

I hope not. That doesn’t address stacking at all.

DeWolfe.2174:

Chaba.5410:

None of you make any sense. All he’s said is “population beta”. There’s nothing to beta test when you talk about a server merge because it is just a one-and-done moving of accounts around in a database, a technology they already have. Please think more clearly next time.

Because as I see it, it’s a Server Pairing. As in, it’s the Alliance of two Worlds in a WvW match. Basically, instead of WvWvW it’ll be W²vW²vW² or W²x3 There wouldn’t be any transferring of actual accounts taking place. This way it preserves each Worlds community. Also, it allows for match variety each week as the pairing will change based on performance and population.

At least that’s my hope for a more intelligent system. If it were a one and done merging, that would be…. well… an uninspired outcome.

To me even that sort of alliance system isn’t enough because the bottom worlds have very few players and its still not flexible in terms of population disparities. I doubt anything would change for the top 2 tiers.

Chaba.5410:

I hope not. That doesn’t address stacking at all.

A server alliance mode would address stacking somewhat since a mid tier + a high tier could be paired to take on a stacked server + empty server

MaximillianVonSchatten.6278:

Chaba.5410:

I hope not. That doesn’t address stacking at all.

A server alliance mode would address stacking somewhat since a mid tier + a high tier could be paired to take on a stacked server + empty server

And then people commence stacking specific favorable high and mid tier servers.

Chaba.5410:

MaximillianVonSchatten.6278:

Chaba.5410:

I hope not. That doesn’t address stacking at all.

A server alliance mode would address stacking somewhat since a mid tier + a high tier could be paired to take on a stacked server + empty server

And then people commence stacking specific favorable high and mid tier servers.

Exactly this. It would just encourage “Stack harder!”. The system needs to be more dynamic, to adjust itself somehow.

For example to make a “group” of servers to match a certain amount of manpower (based on metrics). So that even a T1 server can’t stand alone, and most groups will consist of 3+ servers.

This gives the minimum amount of flexibility needed that if 1 server is stacked crazy high, it hits the server cap, and can still be outnumbered by 3+ other servers.

The disadvantage is obvious, your server would be matched up with random 3-4 other servers, and that makes communication pretty hard, and would likely end up with each server doing “their own thing”.

Quick, transfer to Mag while it’s still cheap!

joneirikb.7506:

That doesn’t address stacking at all.

It addresses population imbalance to a point. Map caps are still the ultimate balancing mechanism in a match.

only way to really stop stacking is to remove the incentive to stack. no glicko, no tiers, just 4 random matchups each week with a small bonus for winning the week is one way…

Too bad anet’s attempt to address the issue were cut off at the knee before it ever went live…..

Liston.9708:

only way to really stop stacking is to remove the incentive to stack. no glicko, no tiers, just 4 random matchups each week with a small bonus for winning the week is one way…

Glicko is the system designed to match opponents with similar strenght. Randomly throwing every server into any match means most matches end up with one server totally dominating or being completely overrun. Not only would it mean there are not interesting matches but also there would not be any reason to win them.

But yes, I do agree with this – “only way to really stop stacking is to remove the incentive to stack”. I just do not think more randomness is good way to go forward.

FogLeg.9354:

Glicko is the system designed to match opponents with similar strenght. Randomly throwing every server into any match means most matches end up with one server totally dominating or being completely overrun. Not only would it mean there are not interesting matches but also there would not be any reason to win them.

What do you mean, we all know that Vabbi would completely own Kodash if matched against them. Look at the score, Vabbi #1 PPT king!

kitten glicko, we dont need that kitten!!!

FogLeg.9354:

Glicko is the system designed to match opponents with similar strenght. Randomly throwing every server into any match means most matches end up with one server totally dominating or being completely overrun. Not only would it mean there are not interesting matches but also there would not be any reason to win them.

But yes, I do agree with this – “only way to really stop stacking is to remove the incentive to stack”. I just do not think more randomness is good way to go forward.

from my PoV,
random matches will destroy ppt and tiers
and again lets be honest, glicko in wvw measures coverage not skill nor strength

It’s pretty funny to see the matches being manipulated so badly due to a rumor(?)

Norbe.7630:

random matches will destroy ppt and tiers
and again lets be honest, glicko in wvw measures coverage not skill nor strength

It is not Glicko that makes matches won or lost mostly by having small groups take empty maps when enemy is not around. This is problem with scoring and how points are awarded. Glicko just looks at the several servers, and attempts to put servers with nearly same population/coverage/strength into same match. While also pushing in small bit of randomness for a chance to go one match up or down so you do not always end up fighting same servers forever.

If you consider winning a match actual goal then coverage IS your server strength. There are very few servers which manage to bring someone online for 24 hours, on every 4 maps (sorry I do not play in tier 1 so I do not know if any server does that anymore). For most servers there are timezones when they get overrun by other servers and then there are usually times when they manage to gather more players. For example some servers are doing great at weekends and have basically no WvW players during the week.

ill be straight forward to my definition of strength
-strength is to be able to capture or defend an objective with equal or lesser than the opposing team defending or capturing it.

then the skill
-skill is when a world can out maneuver an opposing team whether by deploying roamers to counter ppt and scouting enemy movements on the map or pure skill in zerg vs zerg mode, timing when to cast a skill or to hold in position, prediction on what the enemy zerg will do and react

then the coverage
do i have to explain what this is?
-this is called a tier
-this is called population
-this is called glicko 2.0

now back to topic about server merging
-if the coverage/population would be equal on all worlds
then the measurement of glicko 2.0 will now be based on strength and skill
and not the current which is purely coverage based and disregards strength and skills of players on a world

PS: and i hope they add points too from successful defense not just offense (correct me here if im wrong on this one)

Only the Bottom 2 tiers would really need any server merging. Now which servers would merge with which would be the issue. We’d want a decent balance of WvW population.
It could be that two of the tier 8 servers would need to be combined with the 3rd place Tier 7, where as the remaining tier 8 server gets combined with the 2nd place. But again, they would have to run the numbers to make sure it doesn’t over populate and utterly giving once again one server overwhelming #s compared to the other 2.

As far as people seeing a server merger as ruining an existing server, IMHO, all this would really do is create opportunities for new friends and relationships. This wouldn’t be tearing any guilds or existing friendships apart as they would all be moving together. The only thing that would change would be the server name.

As far as ideas of merging low tier with top tier etc etc etc. Well, bottom tier does not share the same tactics as top tier. Top tier could possibly view the newcomers as a hindrance to their established WvW tactics. New tagged up commanders would have little to no respect or following. They would probably be relegated to large roaming groups responsible for grabbing and defending camps and the occasional tower.

Any server merging that happens, needs to keep the current cohesion as close as possible.

As far as server transfers, lets just keep that out of the equation altogether.

I’m thinking there won’t be a merge at all, just a battle group of 2 or more servers working as one. The alliances may not even be fixed.

Advantage of this method is that people who do love their ‘server’ are still fighting for theiR server, but as part of a bigger war….