Solution to fix the population imbalance

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Posted by: Engelsstaub.4356

Engelsstaub.4356

There is one thing which has not been updated since the megaserver thing.

It is the cost of server transfers. It’s still based on the overall population which includes players who do only PvE. With Megaserver servers prectically exist only in WvW so there is no point.

A good example: Aurora Glade
The server is just in the middle of the silver league having quite a nice, but relatively small WvW community. It costs 1.8k gems to move to Aurora Glade which is nearly as much as the top gold league servers – SFR and Desolation, which cost 2.4k. Because of that it is extremely hard to attract new guilds to AG.

Why it cost so much? Aurora Glade has one of the biggest PvE communities. Those people hardly ever appear in WvW.

My proposition is to base the cost of transfers on the outcome of the last season. Why this?
- it is a good measure of the strength of a server in WvW
- season rewards are a good thing to counter the urge to drop in ranks purposefully in order to become cheaper to bring more players

(edited by Engelsstaub.4356)

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Posted by: keenlam.4753

keenlam.4753

Hi guys, I made a separate thread to share my ideas regarding fixing WvW population imbalance in this thread.
Please check it out and share your thoughts.

Basically its about a Loyalty Ranking System to promote players to stick with their servers through both ups and downs as well as buffing up Outnumbered greatly so that people would move to low-tier servers and establish there for either greater personal rewards or trying out different fighting tactics other than zerging.

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Posted by: neven.3785

neven.3785

Although i am probably reiterating points previously made, i will state my opinions on this.

1. Population on servers should only be represented through WvWvW population.

to achieve this, anet needs to be logging time based WXP gains on accounts. Weekly WxP gain can determine if a player is PvX or WvWvW based, a pvx player to wvw balance should be 2:1 imo.

2. The biggest issue is time zone imbalance, So have the overall wxp gains for the realm seperated into timezones, TC forum defines them as this:

OCEANIC 4 hours
AEST | 6:00 PM – 10:00 PM Canberra
SGT | 4:00 PM – 8:00 PM Singapore
PDT | 1:00 AM – 5:00 AM Los Angeles
EDT | 4:00 AM – 8:00 AM New York
UTC | 8:00 AM – 12:00 PM London

EARLY SEA 4 hours
AEST | 10:00 PM – 2:00 AM Canberra
SGT | 8:00 PM – 12:00 AM Singapore
PDT | 5:00 AM – 9:00 AM Los Angeles
EDT | 8:00 AM – 12:00 PM New York
UTC | 12:00 PM – 4:00 PM London

LATE SEA 3 hours
AEST | 2:00 AM – 5:00 AM Canberra
SGT | 12:00 AM – 3:00 AM Singapore
PDT | 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM Los Angeles
EDT | 12:00 PM – 3:00 PM New York
UTC | 4:00 PM – 7:00 PM London

EU 3 hours
AEST | 5:00 AM – 8:00 AM Canberra
SGT | 3:00 AM – 6:00 AM Singapore
PDT | 12:00 PM – 3:00 PM Los Angeles
EDT | 3:00 PM – 6:00 PM New York
UTC | 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM London

LATE EU 2 hours
AEST | 8:00 AM – 10:00 AM Canberra
SGT | 6:00 AM – 8:00 AM Singapore
PDT | 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM Los Angeles
EDT | 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM New York
UTC | 10:00 PM – 12:00 AM London

EARLY NA 3 hours
AEST | 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM Canberra
SGT | 8:00 AM – 11:00 AM Singapore
PDT | 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM Los Angeles
EDT | 8:00 PM – 11:00 PM New York
UTC | 12:00 AM – 3:00 AM London

LATE NA 5 hours
AEST | 1:00 PM – 6:00 PM Canberra
SGT | 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM Singapore
PDT | 8:00 PM – 1:00 AM Los Angeles
EDT | 11:00 PM – 4:00 AM New York
UTC | 3:00 AM – 8:00 AM London

So figure out what the WXP gains are for these time zones server wide, then normalize them to a weekly basis and see how they reflect to queue length on maps. You can judge what is full and what is not from that point on for those time zones. SEA and OCX players greatly imbalance servers, so these zones status will be tricky to figure out the thresholds for what is full and what isn’t depending on tiers. The biggest reason for normalizing week long, black outs cant be organized to cheat the system to get guilds in

3. A player should be flagged with what time zone they play in for the majority of their wxp gain, and only see that time zone reflected in the server listing for transfers.

4. Remove tier 8 worlds, force them to transfer up, or merge them into the third tier of servers. Reason for this is it will create a highly competititve middle tiers to help entice fighting guilds back down from tier 1 that is overstacked. If this is still not enough to address lack of population, remove the bottom two tiers, with the t8 merging into going tier 3, and tier 7 merging into tier 4. During this period, reduce cost to transfer to tier 5 and 6 so those few who just like to roam empty maps can transfer there after the mergers. DO NOT MAKE IT FREE, half the gem cost should do it.

5. Tournies should match up against EU counterparts, theres plenty of people playing from across the pond on either side, Have Home BLs run on servers in their region, and EBG alternating between the continents every two weeks to normalize lag delays, tournies within region cause the lower tiers to be drained to stack the already full servers.

TL;DR summary
Log wxp gain statistics, and use them to base servers full status. players accts flagged to time zones, and kill off servers.

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Posted by: LaReclusa.3527

LaReclusa.3527

I really have to disagree with those time zones.
NA has 8 hours
EU has 5
SEA has 7
OCX has 4
How is that at all fair? Every time zone has the same 24 hours, same “evening” to play as their prime..it should be 24/4 which is 6 hours each divided early and late with 3 hours each.
FOR EXAMPLE: Yes, places like the USA have 4 time zones for “NA”. Go by Pacific then as the “main” time zone..or a middle one like Central or Mountain. Eastern is early NA, Pacific is late NA
You could pose the argument we’re on NA servers, should have the most people in that time zone. True, but the most people in the time zone also work, so the majority cannot get on for those extra hours except weekends which is family time for many people except the (later) evening, which is prime time.

Flag time zones and when WXP is gained by all means, but if it’s based by those time zones, I completely disagree.
I know that is not the main point of your post, and I halfways apologize for tearing it a part a bit, but it does serve a significance if that is the schedule you want times based off of.

I disagree with merging servers. Why can’t the T1 servers be dispersed to the lower tiers? Server pride is something I know TC is about, do you not think those who DO go out WvW’ing in lower tiers have that too? It’s still their home server they fight for.

Why not make it free? If you want people to move, they will for free. Half price will get some, but still cause casual or “once or twice a week” players to still have to grind in time they don’t have for the game outside of life. It splits guilds if part move and some don’t.
I’m not a fan of servers buying others either which is what that would encourage for those who can’t grind for any amount of gems.

Yes we have megaservers now, but the server population still counts towards PvE players home to servers. You can and did make a post from the WvW player side, but it’s invalid if you disregard PvErs and want them to rework how the population is soley based on WvW.

Any word on the upcoming alliances rumored about that will also help server population balance especially in WvW playing with more people against new people??

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Posted by: Acidcors.4296

Acidcors.4296

I agree with everyone above who said that unbalance in WvW is a major issue and should be quickly fixed before the next mmorpg with working WvW appears and all those people go quiet within a day.

On that day, you’ll have like 10 people left on T1 maps, then you have to deal with that problem but then its too late so better working it over now.

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Posted by: storiessave.3807

storiessave.3807

Why not make it free? If you want people to move, they will for free.

Because then you cause situations like HoD in Season 2. Free transfers are the worst thing you can do to a server.

Yes we have megaservers now, but the server population still counts towards PvE players home to servers. You can and did make a post from the WvW player side, but it’s invalid if you disregard PvErs and want them to rework how the population is soley based on WvW.

The only reason to transfer servers now is WvW. There is no point in transferring to your guild’s “main” server for PvE, because every guild perk is universal across every server, and the megaserver means there is no difference in servers for PvE. The only population that matters for transferring is WvW, so PvErs shouldn’t be included in that.

Tarnished Coast

Catorii | Lustre Delacroix | Catorii Desmarais | Synalie

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Posted by: Pinkamena Diane Pie.8054

Pinkamena Diane Pie.8054

Someone just posted that Tier 1 is for GvG.

So there’s one issue. Actually add a GvG mode!
Adding a small arena in OS and telling people to go there isnt GvG. Guild still need to be on that matchup to play against each other!

These GvGers are taking up player spots in WvW ruining the game and making queues longer than they should be!

The WvW Forum Poster Formerly Known As Omaris Mortuus Est

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Posted by: Blaeys.3102

Blaeys.3102

The video that TeamBattleAxe linked regarding battlegroups seems to be the most popular option. It wouldnt require breaking servers apart, it would retain server identity/pride, it would (most likely) completely eliminate queues and it would (most likely) ensure players could find engaging combat in WvW 24/7. To top it off, it really seems like it would be simple to implement (using the existing guesting mechanics). The only real change would have to be to how the score is shown.

Most importantly, it would set Guild Wars 2 up for the future in WvW the same way megaservers did in PVE. Lulls in player populations (or booms for that matter) would have almost no impact on WvW game play (with that many options, players could easily find engaging gameplay in WvW at 1/10th or 10 times the numbers we have there now).

I think many of us (especially those not in T1) would love to see that model in place prior to any future WvW seasons.

NOTE: Another advantage I thought of after posting – it would make server selection for new players a non-issue/easier process (something that most MMOs really cant achieve – it would set the GW2 NPE apart from others). The only reason a player would ever have for needing to transfer servers would be if they found a guild in PVE they loved playing with and wanted to make sure they were always in the same WvW battlegroup.

(edited by Blaeys.3102)

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Posted by: Paladin.1279

Paladin.1279

I think they should close the six lowest population servers and have them free transfer to servers 7-18 and then you have three tiers with six worlds each. “Community” will stay the same because megaserver killed off PvE “community” already and since the closing servers can all transfer to same new server they will maintain their “WvW” community. Nuff said.

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Posted by: Latency.3907

Latency.3907

  1. very easy to fix is to fix the World Population calculations. The current calculations on the transfer screen for world populations for each server is not useful to allow people to help self balance out wvw.

Please change the value so it is better approximation of the active wvw population in different worlds. It should be dynamic and customized on a INDIVIDUAL basis showing them the average population of the world during their historical play times. Of course this customization would only kick in for player with sufficient wvw history.

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Posted by: Xanderis.2369

Xanderis.2369

Just a thought,, maybe its been mentioned. WvW is 3 servers fighting each other. Sounds like DaoC. So why do we have 4 wvw maps and Eotm. Each server has a homeland to defend and others to take.

As some people have said they may not have the coverage to play all maps. If by chance you take out eternal battlegrounds and Eotm. Then you will have people to defend home and people to take the other servers stuff.

I find it silly that when im following a commander on our homeland and he gets called to help EB commander, So off goes our little zerg leaving our homeland outmanned for maybe 5-10mins. Which is long enough for someone to take a tower or bay/hills maybe even a stab at garrison.

But mainly my thoughts are,, why do we have the WvW maps the way they are. I would get rid of EB and EotM, get those people into defending your homeland or taking someones.

just my thoughts.

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Posted by: Piteous.4165

Piteous.4165

I think ANET should take 3-5 people from each server, let the server decide who, and have some meetings with these and figure out what can be done, because some of these ideas here are just down right scary and will ruin wvw.

Blackgate
Stay frosty! Keep it tight!

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Posted by: Arghore.8340

Arghore.8340

likely some if not all of this feedback has already been mentioned, but 24 pages is so long to check and +1 that I will just formulate my concerns instead, I hope you will understand…

In regards to the latest suggestion by the Dev. as a single person guild player in WvW I would like to ask where I will fit in, in a WvW governed by ‘Alliances’. And on that note, where and how will new players fit in that are in a Role Playing or PvE guild, and like to remain in that guild and represent it, but do WvW on times when they are alone or just feel like doing so… And there are likely a lot of these players around… Currently we just join our world server, and contribute, in a separate alliance WvW only the hardcore WvW guilds will likely want to form an alliance, and this will create an entirely different imbalance entirely. They will likely also force players to join their guild and put a 100% rep. requirement along side it, I been asked to join several times, and so far I haven’t met a guild that doesn’t have that as a rule (the more hardcore, the more silly the rules get).

So an alliance system will bunch up the most hardcore WvW guilds in a single world server (as per Dev suggestion), and the problem is back where it started, only now it is even worse!


glad I took the time to see what the dev’s have posted in this thread, the post below doesn’t belong here but in the scoring thread Though I do think that a different scoring system might well be able to solve a big part of the unfairness that population and coverage currently bring to WvW that is why I will leave the post in tact :

Though I do encourage the discussion on the topic, because when imbalance turns into a predominant feeling of being ‘unfair’ it zaps all the fun out of it. I do not think limiting the amount of people per map is the way to go about this…

There are way more elaborate ways to ‘balance’ the scoring system to make it feel more fair. For example, using relative scoring based upon the population present.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/wuv/wuv/Combatting-Coverage-relative-scoring/first#post4328942

Seeing this ‘unfair’ topic seems to come back every 2 forum pages I do hope ANet will do something to make WvW more fair… anything done will likely not fix the problem entirely, and perfect balance is a system where all servers end in a tie (aka. there needs to be imbalance somewhere to tip the scales), but doing nothing isn’t an option either, because it ruins the fun, and with that the format, and as such it either chases people away towards higher ranking servers, or even worse, to another game…

We are peace, we are war. We are how we treat each other and nothing more…
25 okt 2014 – PinkDay in LA

(edited by Arghore.8340)

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Posted by: Dredlore.1672

Dredlore.1672

Lets identify the correct problem before we attempt a fix? On Darkhaven for instance population has not been an issue. Rather the issue has been percnt% of the server population that plays WvW.
When the PVE folks decided to show up for the achievements… Darkhaven was waffle stomping our opponents, but as soon as the achieve requirements were met the PVE players went back to running fractals (or whatever) and Darkhaven was left with a few core WvW players to hold the line. So server population alone is not the entire issue.
I do think that some of the suggestions on this topic have merit. Iike the idea of tiered caps… but what happens when a large number of players from one server LEAVE wvw? Is a proportionate amount of players from the other servers booted to reach a new lower player cap? It would have to work both ways.
I think that Anet should do a few things..
Increase the requirements to gain WvW achievements
*Have *participation requirements
to gain world bonuses ( I see no reason that players who do nothing to earn world bonuses should get them)

  • Add a small wvw gauge (monitor) icon which is always visible on the main screen which shows how your server is doing…maybe based on score…maybe based on number of players in wvw.. or based on both. Gauge would be green, yellow, or red based on how your server is doing at the time. Green=good, Red=bad
  • Implement some kind of cap system as suggested above… but ensure that its friendly to incremental increases an decreases in wvw population.

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Posted by: Blaeys.3102

Blaeys.3102

I think they should close the six lowest population servers and have them free transfer to servers 7-18 and then you have three tiers with six worlds each. “Community” will stay the same because megaserver killed off PvE “community” already and since the closing servers can all transfer to same new server they will maintain their “WvW” community. Nuff said.

If this approach were to be considered, I think that, instead of closing the lowest six, it would be easier (and more impactful/useful) to close the top three (more potential servers to choose from; no “full” servers remaining). That would go much further toward spreading out the wvw population.

That said, I think closing any server is a very bad idea. The battlegroup idea fixes the problem nicely without breaking apart communities (and yes, communities do exist on the lower tier servers -very tight communities because most arent based around transfers onto the server; theyve been there together since launch).

(edited by Blaeys.3102)

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Posted by: Shpongle.6025

Shpongle.6025

it’s real simple, just give free transfer to people on low pop servers to med pop servers, and then give free transfers again next time it happens

Are you Shpongled?

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Posted by: Pinkamena Diane Pie.8054

Pinkamena Diane Pie.8054

New solution: Kick everyone from all servers. Allow people to rejoin but this time CONTROL how many people from each timezone can join a server!

The WvW Forum Poster Formerly Known As Omaris Mortuus Est

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Posted by: deWord.3182

deWord.3182

As Cuddlepie.8109 mentioned in his post population in wvw and the ledership of the community are closely linked. Having the numbers is part of the meta of wvw (or politics if you like).
So if youre lacking coveridge then why not buy transfers for a guild or two. Lacking scouts? Pay them per hour. I’m shure you get the picture. Spam youtube with promotinal materail, spam the recrutment threads.

The point is, that youre community has the resources to do this.

But what can ANet do to help us in that regard?

Guild tax for one. Shure it could be abused and some guilds would fall apart. But having a weekly colection of gold just isnt efficent in larger guilds. And is annonying at best in smaller ones.

Sorting out the world recrutment thread.
Just look at the titles. Usually just guild tags and some text. What about server/continent for easier serching.

*other ingame communinty managment tools (heigher then guild level).
idk. Server Chat or something.

Any ways its late and my brains half asleep ^^

I hope this made some sence.

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Posted by: Rombus.2910

Rombus.2910

Need to put a zerg destroyer dragon on the WvW map. 50 + gets it’s attention. Zergs will now run the risk of loosing 20 to 30 if they bunch up. This will encourage a better tactic than just zerg mauling everyting in rotation.

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Posted by: Tarkus.4109

Tarkus.4109

Need to put a zerg destroyer dragon on the WvW map.

No

Retired OCX Pugmander and Guild driver [Tarkus, Vaelle]

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Posted by: yanniell.1236

yanniell.1236

In all seriousness, just merge the kitten servers. Of all the solutions proposed on this thread, it’s the fastest and more realistic.

Let’s just use Occam’s razor. Sometimes the simplest explanations are the best.

[HUE]

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Posted by: Rombus.2910

Rombus.2910

You are assuming kitten server players want to WvW.

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Posted by: DeWolfe.2174

DeWolfe.2174

How about something really simple, first remove the server capacity limits. Next, have a free transfer week and let the players work it out. Also, uncork the waiting period restriction on when you can enter WvW. These restrictions and limitations are stifling players capacity to fix this themselves. There has to be a post season shuffle and there has to be one REAL SOON!!! I don’t think the Dev’s realize how salty players are right now.

I’d imagine if transferring was unrestricted plenty of guilds would have fun bouncing around just to GvG for the week. Which isn’t this what the game is for, to enjoy playing???

btw.. for trying to get enough players to fill 24 worlds, that’s not likely to happen until Gw3. Just face the facts, it’s time to scale back on how far we’re being divided.

[AwM] of Jade Quarry.

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Posted by: Arantheal.7396

Arantheal.7396

gonna repost my last post from this thread since it’s topic-related:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/wuv/wuv/Server-merge-for-low-populated-servers/first#post4485416

I’m from the same server as filovirus – RoS.
Why does RoS complain about the current situation?
Because we have exactly 2 types of MU’s:
1. Being matched against millers/RoF, which results in only prime being playable, everything else is a blobb-fest to downgrade everything we have.
2. Being matched against the rest of bronze, which results in steamrolling against them and 100% PPT, sometimes even during prime.
And both is boring.
Do I personally want to be merged with other servers?
Nope.
>but why anon, it would be the perfect solution.
No it wouldn’t. Why? Because the servers have really different Identities. Blacktide for example is the unofficial polish EU Server. Would I like polish mapchat-spam? Would they like english mapchat-spam? Then we have guilds that were accused of hacking, most hated for it and suddenly they are sitting in the same boat?! There is no better way to alienate a community but to merge it with another, incompatible one.
My solution: Delete WvW or keep it that way and simply offer new game-modes.
Not even kidding. This game-mode is so utterly broken and imbalanced that it is actually a slap in the face to create competitive seasons based on it. Plus we have a mega-server anyways, destroying the identity of the previous servers most effectively already.
So, since we got rid of the old WvW-Server-System, a-net could focus on delivering competitive battlegrounds.
F.E.:
- 20 vs 20 matches on a small map with 3 towers and 2 keeps, accessible for random groups or as GvG invitation. After 2h the match is over and the winner gets a reward-chest for the whole group, while the loser at least gets some WvW-xp and karma as well.
-EB, accessible in EotM style. Participants choose a color / get assigned with a color automatically and randomly, and get dropped on a random instance of the map.
-The Old borderlands, re-designed as Guild-property with customizable and upgradeable citadel, the whole map can be purchased with influence for the guild and leaders (everybody with the correct guild-rights) has the option to sign the whole map up in a global list of accessible “guild-borderlands” for allowing random players on the map, that queued up themselves on the list. Once assigned, it must stay open for 6h until it can be closed again. Delete the Siege-timer for this borderland, also give them the option to invite other guilds specifically to organize private, “uphill” GvG’s. to prevent the spam of thousands of inactive maps, let guilds pay a monthly fee, be it influence, merits or gold.
-For competitive Seasons, don’t use the old 24/7 model anymore, but allow guilds / signed up teams of people to participate in a 20v20 tournament, going 2 per match, swiss style. The tournament of legends was awesome, so stick to what you can a-net: small-scale, highly polished content.
Ty
(and yes, I know my ideas are work-heavy and we will most likely never see them, but maybe a friendly mod could forward them to a project manager for consideration anyways.)

Engineer is love, Engineer is life.

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Posted by: DeWolfe.2174

DeWolfe.2174

20v20

I don’t WvW to play with small numbers. I play the game for large scale combat. You basically just asked for WvW to be replaced with GvG. No thank you to that!

[AwM] of Jade Quarry.

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Posted by: Svarty.8019

Svarty.8019

The game mode needs a rethink from the ground up.

  • Worlds are a poor idea to begin with,
  • Scores are a poor idea

I’d suggest making a persistent map where territory is the objective.

But it’s a whole other game.

Nobody at Anet loves WvW like Grouch loved PvP. That’s what we need, a WvW Grouch, but taller.

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Posted by: Dayra.7405

Dayra.7405

How about something really simple, first remove the server capacity limits. .

T1 still want more player?
Here is a better Way:

  1. Count how many People Play at primetime, determine how many Server would be needed to fit them with slight Queue.
  2. determine the Nummer of player-hours per Server and the mean and how much each Server deviate from that mean (e.g. ET -80%, BG +50%)
  3. Set the max Population to 110% of mean. (Full if above)
  4. delete the Server that deviate most from mean, the player get a free transfer.
  5. server that have 90%-110% pop are as today.
  6. server that have below 90% have double drops, exp, WEXP, karama
  7. server that have above 110% have half drops, exp, WEXP, karama
  8. set all transfer prices to 500.
Ceterum censeo SFR esse delendam!

(edited by Dayra.7405)

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Posted by: Krakah.3582

Krakah.3582

In all seriousness, just merge the kitten servers. Of all the solutions proposed on this thread, it’s the fastest and more realistic.

Let’s just use Occam’s razor. Sometimes the simplest explanations are the best.

Server merging doesn’t resolve the root participation problem. There are enough players on every server to fill WvW. It’s the lack of incentive to WvW in the first place for those that aren’t into PvP to begin with, not including fundamental game mode issues.

-KNT- BG

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Posted by: DeWolfe.2174

DeWolfe.2174

How about something really simple, first remove the server capacity limits. .

T1 still want more player?
Here is a better Way:

  1. Count how many People Play at primetime, determine how many Server would be needed to fit them with slight Queue.
  2. determine the Nummer of player-hours per Server and the mean and how much each Server deviate from that mean (e.g. ET -80%, BG +50%)
  3. Set the max Population to 110% of mean. (Full if above)
  4. delete the Server that deviate most from mean, the player get a free transfer.
  5. server that have 90%-110% pop are as today.
  6. server that have below 90% have double drops, exp, WEXP, karama
  7. server that have above 110% have half drops, exp, WEXP, karama
  8. set all transfer prices to 500.

Thank you putting so much thought into this. Instead of Anet taking weeks to figure out the math, how about something really simple, first remove the server capacity limits! And, I’m saying this should be done like, right now. Not waiting a few weeks or months to figure out the numbers or come up with new solutions or game modes. Let’s players move so we can shake up the matches on our own. This can be done fast! Considering how poor the turnout for S3 was, there should be a sense of urgency about this.

[AwM] of Jade Quarry.

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Posted by: DeWolfe.2174

DeWolfe.2174

Thank you Dev’s for such fast action! Every server is at “Very High” atm.

[AwM] of Jade Quarry.

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Posted by: Bonora.8790

Bonora.8790

With that you don’t fix the problem, you only hide the problem of the population unbalanced. And put more expensive the low population servers.

Héroes del karma [HERO]

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Posted by: urieldhynne.2743

urieldhynne.2743

Amazing move Anet! All servers in very high now! You get the point of this CDI! I am sure now you actually did read this thread!

I am going to invest my gems in Eredon Terrace or maybe Anvil Rock. Ty so much.

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Posted by: oscuro.9720

oscuro.9720

Hello! I am Oscuro of Kaineng. If you are on kaineng and frequent WvW, you probably know who I am. Kaineng is a low population server and I, and many of my fellow server mates, feel that way. Let me tell you the story of my time on GW 2 WvW!
When I started playing this game, I was in the server Black Gate. Black Gate was an awesome community and I had a great guild. I loved roaming on my thief and it was definitely a plus having some good zerg fights every so often. For the first months of the game, everything was great. Than, something came that ruined everything. One of the most damaging and fundamentally flawed aspects of the game…blobs.
Blobs completely changed the face if WvW T1 for the worse. So, one game changing week, we played Yaks Bend. Yaks Bend was not blogging, yet our blobs were slowed to a crawl by tactical siege placement and superior strategy. Being an avid roamer, I could respect what they did, it wasn’t much different than a 1vX, just on a larger scale. Some weeks passed and the blob got worse. Roaming became difficult on my older computer, and I couldn’t take it. I took a small break (1-2 weeks), and when I got back, my whole guild had transferred to ioj. So I decided to act. I transferred to Yaks Bend.
Yaks Bend was awesome. It had a great community and so many people were welcoming. However, the Blob was gaining fake for its unprecedented amount of badges, karma, and XP. Soon, small blobs began to appear in Yaks Bend. I saw the same thing repeating. Meanwhile, one of the friends I had originally began playing with way back in beta began playing and had transferred to Kaineng. He said it was great, the Blob was present but fairly contained. This was around the time Kaineng had been almost T1. I though about it but did not act. Eventually, events transpired in Yaks Bend that made me want to leave. Note that this is almost a month later. Kaineng had fallen a decent bit because of transfers. So, I talked my friend and he said that roaming in the lower end of the WvW spectrum was great. I saw my opprotunity and took it. Not once have I regretted it. There have been frustrating times. Like guilds transferring and taking many of our active players, but I like KAINENG. Not the servers we play, not winning, but I like the current people i play with. I like our lack of numbers and our teamwork we are developing.
If you want to see balanced matches and true roaming fun, look at places like Kaineng. Occasionally a higher population server comes along and smacks us around, and it is somewhat frustrating, but we still find ways to have fun. Think about 5 people holding a t2 tower from the Blob. It is fun, and it is what we have learned to do.
Let this serve as a message to all of you who say lower tier servers should merge so they put up a fight. IT IS NOT TRUE! We do put up a fight, only because we can outsmart people. We aren’t going to run a 7 man group into the Blob and give you free loot bags, no, we will kite you and slowly kill you for a long time until you get too frustrated to kill us. We don’t necessarily play to win all of the matchup, we play to win the fights we do fight. If you expect a lower tier server to field a Blob the same size as that of a higher population server, you are fooling yourself. AND if you are on a low tier server and want to have more people to zerg with, transfer or make full use of EOTM. But, don’t ever, EVER, suggest combining lower tier server, ESPECIALLY if you aren’t in one!

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Posted by: Krakah.3582

Krakah.3582

Hello! I am Oscuro of Kaineng. If you are on kaineng and frequent WvW, you probably know who I am. Kaineng is a low population server and I, and many of my fellow server mates, feel that way. Let me tell you the story of my time on GW 2 WvW!
<filler>
But, don’t ever, EVER, suggest combining lower tier server, ESPECIALLY if you aren’t in one!

As of this time all NA servers are tagged as very high, BG the only exception marked as full. There are plenty of people on all tiers, the poor participation has everything to do with incentive and game mode appeal.

-KNT- BG

(edited by Krakah.3582)

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Posted by: Davey.7029

Davey.7029

If you like roaming and hate blobs, you don’t have to join one. That’s what we do in our guild most of the time: while most players follow the tag, we do our own thing and capture objectives on the other side of the map.

Yes, you can enjoy playing on a bottom server, but your experience will suffer because the game mode was designed for large-scale battles supporting hundreds of players at the same time.

And don’t tell me everyone is happy with the current state on WvW. I talked to and still talk to a lot of people who are disappointed about WvW in Bronze, and even though some have transfered so they could have a better WvW experience, some decided to stay. Not because they love playing outnumbered, being zerged down or regularly joining EB with nobody in it, but because of the friends they made in their guild and in their server.

What if that could be solved? What if Anet could come up with a system where you would still be able to play with your friends? That’s the obvious problem here, and I think the alliance and battlegroup suggestions would help.

(edited by Davey.7029)

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Posted by: style.6173

style.6173

A way to fix WvW is to accept that lot of player only play guild wars 2 get loot. So why not make WvW give as much loot as PvE.

So introduce WvW exclusive tracks similar to sPvP, but design in such a way that its progressives faster than getting WvW levels. Make the amount of loot and reward you get equivalent or greater than PvE. PvE will always have more players by virtue of certain players being afraid of any PvP, but a lot of people don’t do WvW because it rewards are terrible.

Nonononnononononononononono. Go to EOTM if you want that.

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Posted by: style.6173

style.6173

I really hope that ANET does not implement any sort of megaserver technology in WvW. That addition wrecked the sense of community on servers already. Game design 101… an MMO will only sustain if you build communities. Tearing them down is not smart.

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Posted by: style.6173

style.6173

Hey, guess the activity on this topics shows well how WvWers rly need a big change. Its impossible to have read all topics but ill risk putting in my 2 cents.

My idea would basically mean a complete overhaul of how WvW works. Fyi, im a former GW1 and GvG player and currently playing GW2 WvW (nothing else : P).

1. Fusion of maps between WvW and EOTM, keeping the 3 colour factions scheme. 1 Single map, EOTM style and not 3 separate like actual WvW;
2. Change reputation from Server to Guilds, meaning the end of servers as we know it in WvW. Guess ppl who didn’t play GW1 might be afraid of this but, from my experience, Guild rep is much stronger than any server rep. No gems from transfer ANET…er.
3. Track guilds activity (hour, points gained for your faction) and make a ladder with guild reputation in WvW (!!!), according to those periods.
4. The beginning of each matchup would see Guilds being assigned faction according to points gathered on, say, 3 different periods of the day (8h each), keeping the balance. ANET could make as many matchups as they like…so, solves the empty WvW server´s issue. This way, a 1 week matchup would be no problem at all.
5. Tracking guilds WvW activity would allow a good assignment to forthcoming matches (ANET responsibility) and, therefore, solve 2 big problems: Population imbalance (again, ANET can start as many matches as they want, say 15-20), and “Night capping” issues severely reduced. Also, PPT would be replaced by Kills, Stomps and Secure map points.
6. Introduce GvG Tournament Arena where Guilds could battle each other (10 Vs 10, 20Vs20) in elimination rounds, say, best out of 3 wins; and also introduce the Guild Challenge Banner (upg with merits and influence), that a guild can lay down on the ground and another can pick up and accept or not. That GvG would have a timelimit of 25 mins. Result would give reputation to winning guild and points for the winning faction side. This would need a thread of its own to develop more insight on it.
7. A concentration of more than 40 players in a 1200 area would give a full map alert and a debuff on that grp, renewed every 2 mins if it still stands. This is to reduce zerging and karma training and improve battle experience overall.
8. Make breaching towers and keeps easier but getting the cap much harder (ditch the golems and siege disabler ideas plz…).
9. Introduce “Ressurection Sickness” when a player rallies/ gets bannered: A player with this debuff (lasting like 2 mins) is truly dead if HP gets to 0 again, no downed state anymore. Meaning: every1 has a chance for 1 rally when downed and not continuously… This would allow samller, more tactical groups to fight bigger numbers more effectively = better fights for every1.

Ty if u took the time to read all this!

Cheers, Bubba

Wow. You took a lot of time to write this. Unfortunately, I disagree with every point except for #6.

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Posted by: McWolfy.5924

McWolfy.5924

Players are not motivated to play wvw.
I think every servers have the population to fill wvw places but players dont want to play. 20-40 silver for a good food (half hour) and 10-30 silvers for oil/stone/chrystal what is 30-60 mins? Pay for upgrade?
I see they changed the drop rates (more exo but less less rares) but there is safer and faster money making methods. Dungeons are 10-20 minutes and make 1.5g+

Give us reason to play!

WSR→Piken→Deso→Piken→FSP→Deso
Just the WvW
R3200+

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Posted by: Abe Kleine.3568

Abe Kleine.3568

You guys beat me to it. After last week’s positive discussion on siege trolls I wanted to bring up the topic of population imbalance and ideas that you have on it.

There are a couple of ideas already going in this thread:

  • population caps
  • merge servers
  • Battle Groups

I’d like to join in this brainstorm with some questions on these. For merging servers, how do we determine who gets merged? Where would we merge them to? How do we maintain any sort of world pride or identity they have? How do we handle potentially merging with your mortal enemies?

For population caps, how do we deal with the longer queues on the worlds that can field enough people? If it is dynamic, would players be able to manipulate it? For example, our world is ahead so we all agree to not play WvW so the other worlds are capped down and can’t counter us.

For Battle Groups, Asglarek mentioned more details are on the way. I’d love to hear more.

I’m approaching this as a brainstorm. The topic is “Approaches to correcting overall population imbalance”. I know there is a related topic of 24 hour coverage but I’d like to keep that as a separate conversation for now.

Please keep this friendly, constructive and on topic. We had a really good discussion on the siege troll thread I’m hoping we can kick around some ideas and have another great discussion here. Feel free to add additional ideas that I didn’t list out but please make sure they are on topic.

Thanks,
John

Merge Servers, tada! no need for lower population caps or messing with anything like that. Planetside 2 has merged multiple servers and it has worked out for the better. It’s a good idea

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Posted by: Jareth.9065

Jareth.9065

only 2 solutions :

either MERGE SERVERS or REDUCE MAP CAP.

only those not tried by ANET yet.

Only 1 solution for me: MERGE SERVERS!!! Now with Megaserver system it’s only affects WvWvW.
And everyone can enjoy participating in WvW.

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Posted by: Shadow.3475

Shadow.3475

Jareth.9065 really funny, this time i am green then relog now blue and poff now red.

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Posted by: Jareth.9065

Jareth.9065

Hello! I am Oscuro of Kaineng. If you are on kaineng and frequent WvW, you probably know who I am. Kaineng is a low population server and I, and many of my fellow server mates, feel that way. Let me tell you the story of my time on GW 2 WvW!
When I started playing this game, I was in the server Black Gate. Black Gate was an awesome community and I had a great guild. I loved roaming on my thief and it was definitely a plus having some good zerg fights every so often. For the first months of the game, everything was great. Than, something came that ruined everything. One of the most damaging and fundamentally flawed aspects of the game…blobs.
Blobs completely changed the face if WvW T1 for the worse. So, one game changing week, we played Yaks Bend. Yaks Bend was not blogging, yet our blobs were slowed to a crawl by tactical siege placement and superior strategy. Being an avid roamer, I could respect what they did, it wasn’t much different than a 1vX, just on a larger scale. Some weeks passed and the blob got worse. Roaming became difficult on my older computer, and I couldn’t take it. I took a small break (1-2 weeks), and when I got back, my whole guild had transferred to ioj. So I decided to act. I transferred to Yaks Bend.
Yaks Bend was awesome. It had a great community and so many people were welcoming. However, the Blob was gaining fake for its unprecedented amount of badges, karma, and XP. Soon, small blobs began to appear in Yaks Bend. I saw the same thing repeating. Meanwhile, one of the friends I had originally began playing with way back in beta began playing and had transferred to Kaineng. He said it was great, the Blob was present but fairly contained. This was around the time Kaineng had been almost T1. I though about it but did not act. Eventually, events transpired in Yaks Bend that made me want to leave. Note that this is almost a month later. Kaineng had fallen a decent bit because of transfers. So, I talked my friend and he said that roaming in the lower end of the WvW spectrum was great. I saw my opprotunity and took it. Not once have I regretted it. There have been frustrating times. Like guilds transferring and taking many of our active players, but I like KAINENG. Not the servers we play, not winning, but I like the current people i play with. I like our lack of numbers and our teamwork we are developing.
If you want to see balanced matches and true roaming fun, look at places like Kaineng. Occasionally a higher population server comes along and smacks us around, and it is somewhat frustrating, but we still find ways to have fun. Think about 5 people holding a t2 tower from the Blob. It is fun, and it is what we have learned to do.
Let this serve as a message to all of you who say lower tier servers should merge so they put up a fight. IT IS NOT TRUE! We do put up a fight, only because we can outsmart people. We aren’t going to run a 7 man group into the Blob and give you free loot bags, no, we will kite you and slowly kill you for a long time until you get too frustrated to kill us. We don’t necessarily play to win all of the matchup, we play to win the fights we do fight. If you expect a lower tier server to field a Blob the same size as that of a higher population server, you are fooling yourself. AND if you are on a low tier server and want to have more people to zerg with, transfer or make full use of EOTM. But, don’t ever, EVER, suggest combining lower tier server, ESPECIALLY if you aren’t in one!

I’m with you but i have played WvW on my Borderlands map with only 3 more people plenty of time.
The merge is only for extremely low populated servers based on WvW participation.If Anet don’t merge these worlds. We’ll continue fight for our own and win some battles, loose more…. But we’ll know that we worth the prise of being victorious on the battlefield.
Blob is for no skilled players!

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Posted by: munkiman.3068

munkiman.3068

only 2 solutions :

either MERGE SERVERS or REDUCE MAP CAP.

only those not tried by ANET yet.

Only 1 solution for me: MERGE SERVERS!!! Now with Megaserver system it’s only affects WvWvW.
And everyone can enjoy participating in WvW.

I’d quit the game mode for sure then. The mode is stale. Proof of this is how much more healthy WvW is during tourney. A lot of people play for their communities.

[TAO] Founder/Owner and Administrator for the NSP Server Website

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Posted by: Jareth.9065

Jareth.9065

How i see the things:
The merge is only for extremely low populated!

“For merging servers, how do we determine who gets merged?”
-Weekly or Monthly WvW participation. The time zone doesn’t matter WvW is 24/7.

" Where would we merge them to?"
-Mayby to new server/world with name like “…….. Alliance” to mark the merged server.

“How do we maintain any sort of world pride or identity they have?”
-In our history have rises of alliances, why not here? Two ot Three small kingdoms in one. Take Florence for instance it was a separated “world” and now is part of Italy.

“How do we handle potentially merging with your mortal enemies?”
- “Enemy of my enemy is my friend!” and “Have your friends close, your enemies closer.”

(edited by Jareth.9065)

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Posted by: munkiman.3068

munkiman.3068

How i see the things:

“For merging servers, how do we determine who gets merged?”
-Weekly or Monthly WvW participation. The time zone doesn’t matter WvW is 24/7.

" Where would we merge them to?"
-Mayby to new server/world with name like “…….. Alliance” to mark the merged server.

“How do we maintain any sort of world pride or identity they have?”
-In our history have rises of alliances, why not here? Two ot Three small kingdoms in one. Take Florence for instance it was a separated “world” and now is part of Italy.

“How do we handle potentially merging with your mortal enemies?”
- “Enemy of my enemy is my friend!” and “Have your friends close, your enemies closer.”

It’s a temporary “fix” unless arena locks people into those alliances. I say “fix” since it’s not an issue to a lot of players. I have no desire to play in top tier servers, i like our WvW pop and most of our match-ups.

[TAO] Founder/Owner and Administrator for the NSP Server Website

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Posted by: Jareth.9065

Jareth.9065

How i see the things:

“For merging servers, how do we determine who gets merged?”
-Weekly or Monthly WvW participation. The time zone doesn’t matter WvW is 24/7.

" Where would we merge them to?"
-Mayby to new server/world with name like “…….. Alliance” to mark the merged server.

“How do we maintain any sort of world pride or identity they have?”
-In our history have rises of alliances, why not here? Two ot Three small kingdoms in one. Take Florence for instance it was a separated “world” and now is part of Italy.

“How do we handle potentially merging with your mortal enemies?”
- “Enemy of my enemy is my friend!” and “Have your friends close, your enemies closer.”

It’s a temporary “fix” unless arena locks people into those alliances. I say “fix” since it’s not an issue to a lot of players. I have no desire to play in top tier servers, i like our WvW pop and most of our match-ups.

I have no desire to play in top tier servers either. For me it’s fine to play in mid tier. I cant stand that in plenty of cases all day on the map have 5 – 8 ppl from my server…. and that’s not a joke.

Tell me what is your vision of the problem.

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Posted by: munkiman.3068

munkiman.3068

I have no desire to play in top tier servers either. For me it’s fine to play in mid tier. I cant stand that in plenty of cases all day on the map have 5 – 8 ppl from my server…. and that’s not a joke.

Tell me what is your vision of the problem.

The low numbers in WvW means the mode is stale, unrewarding and encourages certain tactics to be the most effective (i.e. blobbing round robin style). Until they address those issues, the mode will continue to lose players. You have lower participation in the top tiers too.

They should create some way to deal with hacking/cheating.
They should make defense equally as rewarding as offense.
They should remove PPT, in place of capture, defense and player deaths points.
They should cripple the downed state (lower health significantly).
They should make AoE siege scale, along with NPC’s during defense events against outnumbered. (determined buff)
They should force neutral states to objectives if not refreshed.

If they address those, you’d see tactics change, you’d have more interesting battles, more even match-ups, people would spread around more and not blob v blob all day long. You’d see servers winning not based mostly on participation, but on skill and strategy.

[TAO] Founder/Owner and Administrator for the NSP Server Website

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Posted by: Jareth.9065

Jareth.9065

munkiman.3068
I have to agree with you.
But still we have the problem with low populated servers and the numbers can determine the exit of 1 war…

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Posted by: munkiman.3068

munkiman.3068

munkiman.3068
I have to agree with you.
But still we have the problem with low populated servers and the numbers can determine the exit of 1 war…

Which is why i made the suggestions i made. If you start seeing smaller groups successfully defend against PvD blobs, earning the server points, numbers wouldn’t be nearly as successful. Even current mid-tier servers could battle top tier and have a good chance at success.

[TAO] Founder/Owner and Administrator for the NSP Server Website