Guild Wars 2

smashie.3074:

I have come up with another problem of the server merge:-

Before the server merge (and when we chose to enter a lower tier server so as to match OUR computer specifications), the individual server could accommodate to our needs (r.e. see first post for more detail)and computer specifications so we could both still enjoy WvW…
Now since the server merge, it has only created another problem amongst other problems as I have stated.

This is a good point as well – when we first started playing the game, I was playing on a laptop with (no joke) 2 gigs of memory, and in a futile effort to find a way to allow me to try out the game, we picked the server with the lowest population at the time: FC. I’m still playing on the same laptop, though now I’ve fortunately upgraded to 8 gigs, but even with more memory, my laptop really can’t handle the high populations that have come with the merge, and it’s make it incredibly difficult for me to play at all. Every time I’ve run in WvW, I’ve been getting around 4 FPS, which is pretty much unplayable, not to mention frequent crashes – which then force me to queue for the map I was already in. These are problems that I rarely experienced on FC with our smaller groups, and even if I did occasionally crash, getting back on to continue playing wasn’t an issue.

Seen a couple of these threads now, just a couple opinions of my own. Everyone deserves to play the game they want the way they want, but people have to keep some things in mind.

The wvw section is meant to be server vs server vs server. It was meant to have maps populated, to only see 3-5 people on those huge maps is kind of a waste, in the early days of wvw queues lasted more than just reset night. There is room for all types of play styles, defender, roamer, havoc, zerg, blob, but it’s up to the player to make it happen.

Right now in T4 you mostly will find a queue at reset for a few hours, that is perfectly acceptable to me because it’s the start of a new match and players are excited and come out for it. They know they will get good fights and enjoy themselves, but it’s pretty much always been like that for reset night. The rest of the week the queues exist in ebg but not a long wait time, sometimes on a bl in prime, really T4 is not that different from the mid tiers before HoT. Once Alpine returns it should also help make the roaming experience better.

The server linking is really no different than a bunch of guilds moving onto your server, which many servers have experienced at this point. There’s nothing you can do about it other than greet them, be nice, and try to work together, in a few months they may even leave, in this case they will for sure when they unlink in 3 months.

As for the linking of servers that have big NA numbers, it can’t really be helped, since there really isn’t a lot of sea/ocx player around other than the high tiers, a lot of them had stacked on SoS and JQ. It’s going to be difficult to balance most tiers around those players in the mid to lower tiers, since mostly north americans play on the north american servers, probably won’t matter much who’s linked as most of NA prime zones will now be stacked anyways.

Yes every server has their own identity which they have built through in game and out with forums and teamspeak, the server name is part of that identity sure, but at the end of the day that community in and out of the game is what it’s all about. All Anet did was provide a place to build that community and gave you a name for it. If that server/community really wants to stick together you can even call a certain map or two out to be the one to hang out for the matchup. It’s really up to the players to keep that identity going before and after the linking.

It sucks that T8 got thrown into T1 I’m sure, since players stayed in T8 for a reason. Maybe they should unlink T1 and T8 and leave those two as single server matchups, if players want to zerg all day long move to T1 like they already had been, if they just want smaller fights and less hectic action and queues, move to T8.

Xenesis.6389:

Seen a couple of these threads now, just a couple opinions of my own. Everyone deserves to play the game they want the way they want, but people have to keep some things in mind.

The wvw section is meant to be server vs server vs server. It was meant to have maps populated, to only see 3-5 people on those huge maps is kind of a waste, in the early days of wvw queues lasted more than just reset night. There is room for all types of play styles, defender, roamer, havoc, zerg, blob, but it’s up to the player to make it happen.

Right now in T4 you mostly will find a queue at reset for a few hours, that is perfectly acceptable to me because it’s the start of a new match and players are excited and come out for it. They know they will get good fights and enjoy themselves, but it’s pretty much always been like that for reset night. The rest of the week the queues exist in ebg but not a long wait time, sometimes on a bl in prime, really T4 is not that different from the mid tiers before HoT. Once Alpine returns it should also help make the roaming experience better.

The server linking is really no different than a bunch of guilds moving onto your server, which many servers have experienced at this point. There’s nothing you can do about it other than greet them, be nice, and try to work together, in a few months they may even leave, in this case they will for sure when they unlink in 3 months.

As for the linking of servers that have big NA numbers, it can’t really be helped, since there really isn’t a lot of sea/ocx player around other than the high tiers, a lot of them had stacked on SoS and JQ. It’s going to be difficult to balance most tiers around those players in the mid to lower tiers, since mostly north americans play on the north american servers, probably won’t matter much who’s linked as most of NA prime zones will now be stacked anyways.

Yes every server has their own identity which they have built through in game and out with forums and teamspeak, the server name is part of that identity sure, but at the end of the day that community in and out of the game is what it’s all about. All Anet did was provide a place to build that community and gave you a name for it. If that server/community really wants to stick together you can even call a certain map or two out to be the one to hang out for the matchup. It’s really up to the players to keep that identity going before and after the linking.

It sucks that T8 got thrown into T1 I’m sure, since players stayed in T8 for a reason. Maybe they should unlink T1 and T8 and leave those two as single server matchups, if players want to zerg all day long move to T1 like they already had been, if they just want smaller fights and less hectic action and queues, move to T8.

Thank you for posting.

I absolutely agree with you that WvW’s intended person is server vs server vs server.
And I absolutely agree with you that it is a waste of a server if (although probably exaggerated, I get your point) very few people play WvW on those servers.

As pointed out in my first post, I would typically imagine servers like these to be in tier 7-tier 8.
With that in mind, I actually would agree with a merge of some sort, of servers in tiers 7-8, if those servers wishes (highlighting here, a lack of communication about these server merges).

However, the server I am only representing is Ferguson’s Crossing. Ferguson’s Crossing’s population, culture, community is VASTLY different to what one can only imagine in tier 7/8. Other posters on this thread, both good and bad, will hopefully be representing similar servers in a similar situation as Ferguson’s Crossing, all voicing their concern/appreciation about this server merge.

Furthermore, as pointed out by yourself, you have also highlighted basically the COVERAGE problem in WvW. Simply merging ALL the servers as they are now, even though it may change in 3 months time more or less, is not a good way to go about this. Not to mention that the change itself simply causes another sort of instability to servers on all levels.

What I would argue in this situation is simply to do this change gradually, instead of a sudden merge, with more communication and awareness of the population, culture and community of each WvW server. Whilst I am also eager for vast improvements in WvW, I don’t think this is the way to go…as already it has impacted our lives (my gf and I), many in my server, and many people who’s posted against this.

Xenesis.6389:

It sucks that T8 got thrown into T1 I’m sure, since players stayed in T8 for a reason. Maybe they should unlink T1 and T8 and leave those two as single server matchups, if players want to zerg all day long move to T1 like they already had been, if they just want smaller fights and less hectic action and queues, move to T8.

I have to comment on this. Yea, for some of the lower tiered players, this wvw change doesn’t go over well. But for others, it is an extremely exciting change.

My home server, Kaineng, is rated quite low in the tier structure, and we got paired with TC. Before this pairing, wvw had pretty much become very slow, if not completely empty a lot of the time. We had maybe 3-4 people(myself included) in our 140 person guild who loved to wvw. A couple of our wvw’ers had left or quit, I had transferred with one account to a higher tiered server for more wvw action, etc.

Then the wvw change happened. Since then, I have seen people in our guild who rarely wvw’ed express their excitement over wvw, and how they’re really enjoying it. People who were never very interested in it before now having a blast in it. Server identity hasn’t even been mentioned(most of us felt anyways that server identity was lost with the megaserver)….people are just having a blast in wvw, myself included. And people have also returned because of the wvw change.

So while some may bemoan the lower tiered to higher tiered pairings, there are also others who cheer those pairings.

I am frankly very excited at the direction that wvw is now taking. Anet seems to actually be showing some real interest in improving it. Keep it up, Anet!

smashie.3074:

I have come up with another problem of the server merge:-

Computer Specifications

Due to the population increases in WvW, there is obviously more zergs around to fight.
Recently, when I commanded, with my darling playing beside me, we were fighting zerg after zerg after zerg.
As this repeated throughout the night, my gf noted that her laptop was getting hotter and hotter…to the point it overheated and the laptop completely shut off.

This isn’t the first time it’s happened amongst huge zergs, as we’ve noticed it before when she tried to join in with Dragon Stand and her laptop couldn’t handle the zergs. I have thus, bought her an external fan, which have worked wonders but the recent WvW server merge have now also created this problem.

Now, we personally can’t afford a new laptop/pc and, I can only imagine that not many people in the WvW community will simply get up and buy new gear to play GW2. Furthermore, it feels a bit like a slap in the face to those people who have invested in GW2 (time, gold, gems or money) for such a long time, or even a short time, to find out that they have to upgrade. I can only imagine how it feels to those people bought a minimum spec. laptop/pc just to play GW2.

Before the server merge (and when we chose to enter a lower tier server so as to match OUR computer specifications), the individual server could accommodate to our needs (r.e. see first post for more detail)and computer specifications so we could both still enjoy WvW…
Now since the server merge, it has only created another problem amongst other problems as I have stated.

Unless you have spent some serious money on an actual gaming laptop, it is just silly to expect a laptop to run this mmorpg well. I have a lower end Toshiba laptop myself, with an amd A8 cpu and a decent radeon mobile integrated gpu…..frankly, I am surprised it even runs the game. I use it occasionally for the game…..I turn the graphics all the way down, and it does pretty good…..and yea, it gets pretty hot. But I don’t expect much better from it for gaming. If you have a sub $1k laptop, I wouldn’t expect much from it in the way of running this game. If it runs the game, and you can do medium graphics on it, then you’re doing pretty good for that price point.

Complaining to Anet that your laptop can’t run the game very well isn’t really a very high priority topic for them, imo. You have problems with large zergs in the new pairings on that laptop, and can’t go to more abandoned wvw where the laptop did ok…..so what did you do when you participated in large boss mob battles in pve on that laptop?

And as for your comment on how horrible it must be for people with min spec pcs/laptops……..keep in mind that these sorts of games are never created for minimum spec pcs/laptops. If you want the game to run nicely, you have to have some decent hardware, especially if the game evolves and improves over the years.

Now, if you would like to see the game engine get improved to dx11/12 and run with a higher priority on the gpu, rather than the cpu, I would be in complete agreement. But that still wouldn’t help my laptop much……would just make the game run a lot better on my higher end desktop.

smashie.3074:

Furthermore, as pointed out by yourself, you have also highlighted basically the COVERAGE problem in WvW. Simply merging ALL the servers as they are now, even though it may change in 3 months time more or less, is not a good way to go about this. Not to mention that the change itself simply causes another sort of instability to servers on all levels.

What I would argue in this situation is simply to do this change gradually, instead of a sudden merge, with more communication and awareness of the population, culture and community of each WvW server. Whilst I am also eager for vast improvements in WvW, I don’t think this is the way to go…as already it has impacted our lives (my gf and I), many in my server, and many people who’s posted against this.

I actually see the server links as the temporary solution to increase population for all servers, obviously good and bad affects of this. It’s the easiest thing for them to try out rather than outright merging servers, which I’m sure a hell of a lot more people would have a problem with. For now they had to start somewhere, simply folding servers into links near each other combined was the best area for them to start. If they have access to actual population detail for all time zones maybe they can take that finer detail into consideration of future links and provide better coverage for all servers.

The long term change I can see them going to is eotm megaserver into 3 alliances type deal, but I expect that would require a lot of work to change the entire wvw section for. Let’s face it, wvw has been slowly dying since year 1, it died a lot faster after HoT launched, it needed a kick for the revival to start, and the links did it.

Even then coverage will always be a problem, eotm still has it’s fair share of it, there is no hard cap on the minimum amount of players that show up every minute of the day for a competitive game mode. Not like sports teams which show up every time with even roster to compete with each other. So it’s going to be uneven.

Anet has no control over where anyone plays unless players really want to them to start hard filtering players onto certain servers. The only other thing they can control is the scoring system, they can make it better for lower population or odd coverage servers to continue to compete in a matchup beyond the first night, ideas such as bonus points on outnumbered maps, or catchup point mechanics on the last day.

Also I’d like to mention I play on Ehmry Bay, I was away from the game for the last 4 months until the linking brought me back. I have noticed that Ehmry has been losing players since HoT came out, we also had quite a lot of guilds that came and left in the last year. We still have our pillar guilds around, and a few regulars, but since the linking we’ve now also lost our name in the shuffle, and I feel a little lost being surrounded with many more HoD players carrying the HoD tag on my head. I have had fun for the most part, but I do feel that sense of loss from the linking, but just have to try and make do and get the best out of the situation.

Xenesis.6389:

I actually see the server links as the temporary solution to increase population for all servers, obviously good and bad affects of this. It’s the easiest thing for them to try out rather than outright merging servers, which I’m sure a hell of a lot more people would have a problem with. For now they had to start somewhere, simply folding servers into links near each other combined was the best area for them to start. If they have access to actual population detail for all time zones maybe they can take that finer detail into consideration of future links and provide better coverage for all servers.

The long term change I can see them going to is eotm megaserver into 3 alliances type deal, but I expect that would require a lot of work to change the entire wvw section for. Let’s face it, wvw has been slowly dying since year 1, it died a lot faster after HoT launched, it needed a kick for the revival to start, and the links did it.

Even then coverage will always be a problem, eotm still has it’s fair share of it, there is no hard cap on the minimum amount of players that show up every minute of the day for a competitive game mode. Not like sports teams which show up every time with even roster to compete with each other. So it’s going to be uneven.

Anet has no control over where anyone plays unless players really want to them to start hard filtering players onto certain servers. The only other thing they can control is the scoring system, they can make it better for lower population or odd coverage servers to continue to compete in a matchup beyond the first night, ideas such as bonus points on outnumbered maps, or catchup point mechanics on the last day.

Also I’d like to mention I play on Ehmry Bay, I was away from the game for the last 4 months until the linking brought me back. I have noticed that Ehmry has been losing players since HoT came out, we also had quite a lot of guilds that came and left in the last year. We still have our pillar guilds around, and a few regulars, but since the linking we’ve now also lost our name in the shuffle, and I feel a little lost being surrounded with many more HoD players carrying the HoD tag on my head. I have had fun for the most part, but I do feel that sense of loss from the linking, but just have to try and make do and get the best out of the situation.

Very well said.

What if they kept the server link. But both servers matches stayed active. And players from both servers could join whichever map they wanted in either match.

To maintain the feel of a less populous lower tier match, map capacity would be halved (or whatever capacity Anet deemed good) on the lower tier maps.

So for example you’d have a BG/YB/DB match with the current T1 style of play. And you’d have a ET/AR/SoR match with the former T8 style of play enforced by the smaller map cap.

It would give the people on lower tier servers the option of playing in a high population situation. And people from high tiers could try out low pop play.

But I’m wondering if that would satisfy the people who desire low population style play? And would it satisfy the feeling of server pride?

I love it, finally some people to play with again!

Videles.6759:

I love it, finally some people to play with again!

I couldn’t agree more with you!

LordOtto, GZ on being in T1 and enjoying it. The OP was simply saying they did not enjoy that playstyle and never attacked anyone to get their point across (which may not be shared by all, but is shared by many in lower tiers).

Continue with your ques and large nonstop zerg battles to your hearts content, but don’t attack someone because their idea of fun isn’t the same as yours.

It is kind of interesting that it seems most of these posts are about the linking of BG and ET the WINNING servers in T1. The queue times aren’t bad. If you are unwilling to go fight in the borderlands for 15-20 mins while you wait for EB then really it’s your choice to wait. Borderlands are almost always open and queues only during prime time are around 15-20 mins for EB. You cant just look at the number and see 35 in queue and start complaining, people are always shuffling out or map jumping. This sounds like a disguised but well written " Boo Hoo “, I WANT MY TOY NOW”, thread. This is how it was before wvw started dying off people. Remember yr 1 anyone? Also, unless Anet just removes the linking all together then you are going to face similar situations no matter what. There is also the option to transfer to one of the low ranked realms for only 500 gems, but like I said it’ll be pretty much the same.

There is also plenty of roaming aka small scale battles going on as long as you are aware of enemy movements which are easy to track if you are in TS or even watch the chat/map. That’s just a L2p issue.

Crazy.6029:

It is kind of interesting that it seems most of these posts are about the linking of BG and ET the WINNING servers in T1. The queue times aren’t bad. If you are unwilling to go fight in the borderlands for 15-20 mins while you wait for EB then really it’s your choice to wait. Borderlands are almost always open and queues only during prime time are around 15-20 mins for EB. You cant just look at the number and see 35 in queue and start complaining, people are always shuffling out or map jumping. This sounds like a disguised but well written " Boo Hoo “, I WANT MY TOY NOW”, thread. This is how it was before wvw started dying off people. Remember yr 1 anyone? Also, unless Anet just removes the linking all together then you are going to face similar situations no matter what. There is also the option to transfer to one of the low ranked realms for only 500 gems, but like I said it’ll be pretty much the same.

Not to mention what the queues were like on the upper tiers during the wvw tourney…..now those were huge eb queues! That was when I first tried a transfer to tier 1, and man did it take some getting used to those long wait queues(especially since I came from a tier 8 server) But even during that, you could usually get into a bl without a huge wait. (And there was always something to do in pve or on eotm while you were waiting)

Teon.5168:

smashie.3074:

I have come up with another problem of the server merge:-

Computer Specifications

Due to the population increases in WvW, there is obviously more zergs around to fight.
Recently, when I commanded, with my darling playing beside me, we were fighting zerg after zerg after zerg.
As this repeated throughout the night, my gf noted that her laptop was getting hotter and hotter…to the point it overheated and the laptop completely shut off.

This isn’t the first time it’s happened amongst huge zergs, as we’ve noticed it before when she tried to join in with Dragon Stand and her laptop couldn’t handle the zergs. I have thus, bought her an external fan, which have worked wonders but the recent WvW server merge have now also created this problem.

Now, we personally can’t afford a new laptop/pc and, I can only imagine that not many people in the WvW community will simply get up and buy new gear to play GW2. Furthermore, it feels a bit like a slap in the face to those people who have invested in GW2 (time, gold, gems or money) for such a long time, or even a short time, to find out that they have to upgrade. I can only imagine how it feels to those people bought a minimum spec. laptop/pc just to play GW2.

Before the server merge (and when we chose to enter a lower tier server so as to match OUR computer specifications), the individual server could accommodate to our needs (r.e. see first post for more detail)and computer specifications so we could both still enjoy WvW…
Now since the server merge, it has only created another problem amongst other problems as I have stated.

Unless you have spent some serious money on an actual gaming laptop, it is just silly to expect a laptop to run this mmorpg well. I have a lower end Toshiba laptop myself, with an amd A8 cpu and a decent radeon mobile integrated gpu…..frankly, I am surprised it even runs the game. I use it occasionally for the game…..I turn the graphics all the way down, and it does pretty good…..and yea, it gets pretty hot. But I don’t expect much better from it for gaming. If you have a sub $1k laptop, I wouldn’t expect much from it in the way of running this game. If it runs the game, and you can do medium graphics on it, then you’re doing pretty good for that price point.

Complaining to Anet that your laptop can’t run the game very well isn’t really a very high priority topic for them, imo. You have problems with large zergs in the new pairings on that laptop, and can’t go to more abandoned wvw where the laptop did ok…..so what did you do when you participated in large boss mob battles in pve on that laptop?

And as for your comment on how horrible it must be for people with min spec pcs/laptops……..keep in mind that these sorts of games are never created for minimum spec pcs/laptops. If you want the game to run nicely, you have to have some decent hardware, especially if the game evolves and improves over the years.

Now, if you would like to see the game engine get improved to dx11/12 and run with a higher priority on the gpu, rather than the cpu, I would be in complete agreement. But that still wouldn’t help my laptop much……would just make the game run a lot better on my higher end desktop.

Hello, thanks for posting.

I’m afraid I feel that I need to clarify my point just that bit further.

The point I was getting across is that before the server merge, we had one, rarely two small-medium sized (i.e. ~20ish zergs), which appeared in tiers 5/6, and were suitable for my gf’s laptop. Her laptop was fairly market priced in the region of £500+ a year ago and yet it was only suitable for those sort of sizes.

To answer your question about the PVE, what she would do before I got the fan, was simply not play it.

In the eyes of every consumer, when each and every one of us have paid and invested in the game, particularly when you HAVE and thought you could continue to enjoy every aspect of it, it’s certainly fairly upsetting when your favourite game suddenly moved to a project where suddenly, you can’t play or enjoy the game to its fullest.

Of course, I could ask you what we should do instead?
Accept the situation and simply not enjoy WvW as we could before?
Or save up enough for a brand new laptop/computer to enjoy the game as we had before?

Personally, I don’t think those questions are acceptable or should even be asked simply because of this server merge. Those sort of questions shouldn’t really pop up, particularly not for players who’ve invested into this game. Simply the investment alone, should be enough for Anet to be aware that the game should be able to accommodate the computer specs of all levels of consumers of this game.

Certainly, it could actually infringe on some advertising issues if the minimum specs the game is offering can’t actually run it, but I’m diverging and have no wish to continue further with this point.

As I’m aware many of you reading this thread for the first time may not read every post.

So I’d like to reiterate a few points:-

The server merge is probably good for the very lowest tiers i.e. 7 & 8.
In these servers, it’s likely that the population is very low. The WvW community of those servers may actually accept a loss of identity, culture & community to enjoy a better WvW experience and have fun with larger zergs.

My thread is about servers like FC, who have their own unique identities, culture and community.
My gf and I, many FC players who we’ve talked to, some posters here have already voiced concerns that this merge isn’t right for us.

The point I’m getting at is that, comparing BG & ET (most common theme here), and comparing it to DH & FC merge, is like comparing apples and oranges.

Servers that have appeared on this thread, such as ET & Kaineng, WERE amongst the lowest servers. The merge for these guys, were probably the best news they’ve heard ever since the perception of WvW dying has begun.

However, I’m appealing for tier 4-6 servers, servers who enjoyed WvW but are on the lower side of the population, to show their concern that a server merge/link that encompasses all these servers, is not so great.

To those arguing that we should accept queues etc. simply isn’t acceptable. My gf and I, many in FC, and some who have posted on this thread, moved from a server and strived to stay away from servers that had even the possibility of a queue and chose to go to a lower server. Anyway I won’t go to this further because I have written about all of this on the first post.

They should have left T1/2 alone at least for NA the pop if fine. They should’ve merged the lower tiered servers together so that it would possibly put everyone on a level playing field population wise.

smashie.3074:

To answer your question about the PVE, what she would do before I got the fan, was simply not play it.

In the eyes of every consumer, when each and every one of us have paid and invested in the game, particularly when you HAVE and thought you could continue to enjoy every aspect of it, it’s certainly fairly upsetting when your favourite game suddenly moved to a project where suddenly, you can’t play or enjoy the game to its fullest.

Of course, I could ask you what we should do instead?
Accept the situation and simply not enjoy WvW as we could before?
Or save up enough for a brand new laptop/computer to enjoy the game as we had before?

Personally, I don’t think those questions are acceptable or should even be asked simply because of this server merge. Those sort of questions shouldn’t really pop up, particularly not for players who’ve invested into this game. Simply the investment alone, should be enough for Anet to be aware that the game should be able to accommodate the computer specs of all levels of consumers of this game.

This is why all mmorpgs include in their EULA, the line “game play may change at any time”.

I truly understand the points that you’re trying to make, but that is just not the way it is in the world of online gaming. I remember when I first started playing online games decades ago, how I could barely manage to play them due to the hardware I was playing them on. But I kept trying to make do until I could afford to upgrade. When a game states “minimum specs” for hardware, that is truly the minimum specs….sometimes you can still play with something even below what they state, but don’t expect something that is even slightly playable most of the time. That’s why they also include a “recommended specs” statement. And even then, that is usually not what is needed to play the game at the highest, most graphically pleasing levels.

Just because you pay for the game(it is not an “investment”, as you’ll rarely get any sort of monetary return for that purchase….good grief, it is a game purchase!) doesn’t mean you get any sort of guarantee on it. I have bought plenty of games, where after a month or two of playing, I have gone…“meh”, or “bleh” and never played it again. Purchase price gone. Oh well, that is what happens with some games.

This whole “investment” attitude smacks of some sort of entitlement you expect. Guess what? It doesn’t work that way. Never has and never will.

So your choices?

1. You already stated the first one on the pve boss mob battles. If your gf’s laptop truly couldn’t even handle pve boss mob battles on the lowest graphic settings, then she shouldn’t expect much of anything from any sort of wvw mode with hardware that low end.

2. Turn ALL the graphic options to the lowest possible setting – “best performance”(if you haven’t already) on the laptop and hope for the best. Also, be sure you’re running the 64 bit GW2 client.

3. Get a better laptop with a higher end, faster cpu, and decent gpu. My laptop cost less than $500 and it can do wvw blob battles and pve boss mob battles(mind you, on the lowest graphic settings)

Sorry, but that is just the way it is. Again, video games are NOT investments. They are entertainment, period. As long as you continue to have some sort of “investment” mentality with a video game, you’ll never be happy with that game, especially if that game evolves over time.

But, in spite of all the above that I typed……your stated mentality of the game being some sort of “investment” and that any sort of queue is simply unacceptable to you, has pretty much explained to me all I need to know about the viewpoint behind your original post.

Best of luck to you in any game that you might purchase and play.

I was under the impression that Dark Haven was very welcoming to Ferguson’s Crossing. sorry to hear that does not seem to the case for you.

As for personal feuds, I think it would be neigh impossible for Anet to follow, and track all the inter-guild disputes and personal disagreements, much less be able to calculate any kind of server-linking based upon those issues.

I think no matter how nice some fc and dh people are, we will always be us and them. I was in a squad with all dh people today, one fc person who was in their guild, I think invited me to squad. I was placed in a party by myself. there were a total of 9 people in the squad. there may have been a good reason for this, I don’t know. I just know I felt like an outsider. they finally moved me into a full party when the fc player asked me to treb as a distraction so they could attack garrison.

to be fair, I have been in fc majority squads where they put a dh person in a party by themselves. It will be a long hard struggle for me at least if anet makes linking permanent. Now that the Alpine bl is back, I am eager to go back to just having FC server stand alone and see how we do. I am not sure what the answer is but I don’t think linking is it.

Ultimately, we’re all rehashing the same issue. PPT as a scoring system, needs to GO AWAY. It needed to go away 3 years ago, it needs to go away now. Even further on point, Anet needs to exert the effort to make something better to replace it. No, not “fix it,” not “patch it,” not “adjust it.”

Sit down. Come up with something new. Test it. Test it some more. Beta weekend it for a month so the players can find all the creative exploits. Test it AGAIN. And once you finally think you’ve got it, then REPLACE PPT.

These are problems they were informed about years ago. Both the world stacking, and coverage issues; among others. Anet’s response was to sell out to the money they made off the server transfers; and basically give the rest of the WvW community the middle finger. Only when WvW seemed ready to die, irreparably, on several non world stacking servers, did they suddenly start to “care.”

Good. They should care. They should have cared a long time ago. WvW is a separate game mode. It’s not PvE, it’s not organized PvP. The irony of ALL of this is that back in GW1, Alliance v Alliance was one of the favored game modes among pvpers. People liked the chaos and large scale battles. I would say it’s beyond me why Anet discarded this readily available clue that they should care about WvW; but I covered that. NCsoft made them sell out for the money.

So, again; if Anet is going to think about, maybe, daring to try to fix things that could have been fixed years ago; start by getting rid of PPT.

KDXX.9520:

Ultimately, we’re all rehashing the same issue. PPT as a scoring system, needs to GO AWAY. It needed to go away 3 years ago, it needs to go away now. Even further on point, Anet needs to exert the effort to make something better to replace it. No, not “fix it,” not “patch it,” not “adjust it.”

Sit down. Come up with something new. Test it. Test it some more. Beta weekend it for a month so the players can find all the creative exploits. Test it AGAIN. And once you finally think you’ve got it, then REPLACE PPT.

These are problems they were informed about years ago. Both the world stacking, and coverage issues; among others. Anet’s response was to sell out to the money they made off the server transfers; and basically give the rest of the WvW community the middle finger. Only when WvW seemed ready to die, irreparably, on several non world stacking servers, did they suddenly start to “care.”

Good. They should care. They should have cared a long time ago. WvW is a separate game mode. It’s not PvE, it’s not organized PvP. The irony of ALL of this is that back in GW1, Alliance v Alliance was one of the favored game modes among pvpers. People liked the chaos and large scale battles. I would say it’s beyond me why Anet discarded this readily available clue that they should care about WvW; but I covered that. NCsoft made them sell out for the money.

So, again; if Anet is going to think about, maybe, daring to try to fix things that could have been fixed years ago; start by getting rid of PPT.

I would love to see them get rid of the ppt system and replace it with something along the lines of DaoC’s relic system in wvw/rvr. Now would be a great time to give that a try, since there is no wvw tourney going on. Anyways, I think it would be worth trying.

Some good posts on this thread.

The issues I have with Wvw post the Server linking…

Blob v Blob

I prefer small group combat (6-12) as opposed to larger roaming Blobs…less of this with new Server Linking and also now with old Alpine Maps back.
Blob combat forces build types and play style.

FPS Performance

I go from 60 to 15 or even 5 frames a sec when hit by huge Blobs.

Server Performance

WvW has been much worse PING wise for me since Linking.

Less Imperative to WvW

Before it was Server pride trying to get everyone together, communicate and Server pride rise through Tier or stay on current one, this is sooo much harder since Anet decided to link and lessen our identity and cohesion. Also it was nice being able to find a tier and Server population you LIKED, with people and play style you liked./

Summary

I guess Anet were trying to help out “dead/dying” lowest tier Servers (?) by this Linking, idk, anyways imho it was wrong way to go…maybe give lower tier Players Free option to Server change IF they wanted to.

As it stands I’m not happy at all with Linking.

I understand that some people will not enjoy the higher populations, but the reality is, it is the only way to legitimately fix the population balances, and that is, by trying to get everyone as close to “Cap” population in WvW as possible. If the Maps are Full, then everyone has even numbers, and it never ends up with a 5 vs 42 match up, which anyone on the mid and lower servers knows can happen.

So this was the way they could resolve the issue, by capping the maps. If you can think of another way to balance out the population to eliminate lop-sided match-ups, I am sure Anet would love to hear it.

But as it stands, the direction they took, was to try and fill the maps, so that everyone would have roughly the same number of people on the field. It does remove the issues of being overrun by a higher population server, which has been a major negative issue for WvW for a long time.

I fully understand that there will be issues of “us/them” in the game, after all, it was a link, not a merger, and maybe that will be for the best,so that they can mix things up a bit as time goes on and that it does not feel like a merger, but a rotating link.

Where, perhaps, next week, it can be Ferguson’s Crossing/Northern Shiverpeaks, facing Darkhaven/Sorrows Furnace or some such.

There is much the future might bring, and I for one, hope it is all good things.

The merger or world link to me is simply a quick band aid to solve the lack of population for sustain gameplay. it doesn’t solve the population imbalance issue.

in many mmos i have played, all mmo that go by the idea of setting “full” status via a very simple minded “max number” always fail to balance population. these mmo developers are mistaking that FPS, MOBA, RTS etc. servers or matchup of max players concept is applicable to a MMO context. however, reality is it is never applicable.

in fps server, we have forced balancing like what you see in spvp but you can’t apply force balancing to servers, people will QQ about it. thus, it is exactly because you can’t apply force balancing to servers, the only way to “force” balance is to control the intake.

however, the current flaw is that the intake is base on the “max players” concept which is only applicable to games that has forced balancing. anet need to get rid of that max players context by implementing a dynamic max players which analyze the highest and lowest server population’s disparity, then close off the highest server if that disparity grows. this will effectively prevent people from stacking on server while emptying the lowest server, this will also punish multiple guilds from the highest server in their attempt to stack on another top ranked server since the “highest” populated server is subjective.

STIHL.2489:

I understand that some people will not enjoy the higher populations, but the reality is, it is the only way to legitimately fix the population balances, and that is, by trying to get everyone as close to “Cap” population in WvW as possible. If the Maps are Full, then everyone has even numbers, and it never ends up with a 5 vs 42 match up, which anyone on the mid and lower servers knows can happen.

So this was the way they could resolve the issue, by capping the maps. If you can think of another way to balance out the population to eliminate lop-sided match-ups, I am sure Anet would love to hear it.

But as it stands, the direction they took, was to try and fill the maps, so that everyone would have roughly the same number of people on the field. It does remove the issues of being overrun by a higher population server, which has been a major negative issue for WvW for a long time.

I fully understand that there will be issues of “us/them” in the game, after all, it was a link, not a merger, and maybe that will be for the best,so that they can mix things up a bit as time goes on and that it does not feel like a merger, but a rotating link.

Where, perhaps, next week, it can be Ferguson’s Crossing/Northern Shiverpeaks, facing Darkhaven/Sorrows Furnace or some such.

There is much the future might bring, and I for one, hope it is all good things.

huh? they were all blowouts. there appeared to be little more than linking 1+ 24 / 2+ 23 / 3+22 etc… didn’t even account for the significant population shift before the patch and returning “sleeping” players that returned after the patch. No accommodation for coverage. There was no fix at all really since a good percentage of the people in the lower tiers liked that style of play. The only thing I see is saved $$ by leasing less servers / server space.

SkyShroud.2865:

The merger or world link to me is simply a quick band aid to solve the lack of population for sustain gameplay. it doesn’t solve the population imbalance issue.

in many mmos i have played, all mmo that go by the idea of setting “full” status via a very simple minded “max number” always fail to balance population. these mmo developers are mistaking that FPS, MOBA, RTS etc. servers or matchup of max players concept is applicable to a MMO context. however, reality is it is never applicable.

in fps server, we have forced balancing like what you see in spvp but you can’t apply force balancing to servers, people will QQ about it. thus, it is exactly because you can’t apply force balancing to servers, the only way to “force” balance is to control the intake.

however, the current flaw is that the intake is base on the “max players” concept which is only applicable to games that has forced balancing. anet need to get rid of that max players context by implementing a dynamic max players which analyze the highest and lowest server population’s disparity, then close off the highest server if that disparity grows. this will effectively prevent people from stacking on server while emptying the lowest server, this will also punish multiple guilds from the highest server in their attempt to stack on another top ranked server since the “highest” populated server is subjective.

This is a Great Idea, to get rid of que’s, where as each BL gets qued, they are allowed to grow in population at an even amount. In that venture, your idea works, however, with WvW, you still need a starting point which is where the problem is.

You can’t make it 1 player and then move up from there, as that would make for totally dead BL’s and quickly insane que’s, which would destroy WvW faster then any other system. WvW is not sPvP, it’s not meant for small bands of around 5 people to cap points and interact, it’s about World Combat, Large groups of people, perhaps, several large groups and various smaller groups all on the field, trying to out maneuver or out man their opponent.

Now WvW is supposed to be large scale combat, it’s not solo fights, and small 5 person teams, it’s large scale, So, there would need to be a starting point for this large scale team up before even the idea of a que could begin, Lets say, 20 people, (can’t even pop swords) before we begin that flux player population shift. In that case, you can still end up with 20 vs 1, which, to be honest, is not a fun match at all. Before the link, that was what was server imbalance wad for the lower tier servers, it was something like 15 vs 2. or 18 vs 6,

I’ve played in T1 and T6-2. The lower tiers I feel for because you guys have been allowed by ArenaNet to use WvW as a gate humping karma experience. I don’t want to hear we have small ops and focused battles. Maybe from time to time, but my experience in lower tiers showed a bunch of people who roamed from tower to tower and capped while there was no opposition in that time. Whoo fun, fun and in no way a modified PvP/Mass Combat game mode. Finally Anet is being true to the game mode. About time!!

FogLeg.9354:

Now, after years of waiting, we have a chance to fix these problems. And you guys, instead of being happy too about the gamemode we all love so much, start to complain against any improvements. It just blows my mind. It really does. Just because you want something, everyone else has to suffer too. It’s just extremely selfish.

And on top of that all, you do not even propose any other solutions. You just complain that all the change is bad and try to lie about how everyone loved their dead servers. No, everyone hated it! Everyone suffered for a long time and many left in the end. Again, there are obviously small number of players used to empty server matches, but it does not make you more special then many more players who actually want to fight and want to have meaningful matches and want to see enemies more then once a week. What exactly do you wish Anet would do? Nothing? Just keep the system going on for many more years until there is only you and 2 more players left in whole WvW?

Spot on, thank you for that. Hit it on the head.

Krynn Bowlroaster.8429:

I’ve played in T1 and T6-2. The lower tiers I feel for because you guys have been allowed by ArenaNet to use WvW as a gate humping karma experience. I don’t want to hear we have small ops and focused battles. Maybe from time to time, but my experience in lower tiers showed a bunch of people who roamed from tower to tower and capped while there was no opposition in that time. Whoo fun, fun and in no way a modified PvP/Mass Combat game mode. Finally Anet is being true to the game mode. About time!!

Having played from Tier one to T5, I saw much more “gate humping karma experience” in T1 and T2, where the biggest blob rolls around capping things and the sides with the smaller blobs back cap or get rolled over. For all the talk about how this was to help the lower tiers, the most complaints I saw prior to the change in regard to fixing population balance were in the higher tiers. It seems much more like the smaller servers were sacrificed to try to fix the stacking happening in T1 and T2 and to a lesser extent in T3 and T4 than for the benefit of or to fix the lowest tiers.

If there was some intent to not reward empty play, there would be reduced points and rewards given to servers and players when their side had a numerical advantage. The linking is just a kluge to fill the maps.

Now everyone else has to suffer? Need I remind you that many if not all of the merged servers have lost a good portion of their population to the “fight tier” servers over the last few years. Most of the merged servers hit 24th or got extremely close. Some rebuilt or were working to rebuild, but ALL have suffered when their bigger “selfish” guilds jumped ship in the name of instant gratification. Those that didn’t jump ship weren’t the selfish ones! Many stayed in or around the tier because they liked it.

When exactly has BG/JQ/TC/YB and the 1 or 2 other stacked servers suffered? Servers/players from the “fight tiers” are who helped create the imbalance that the “selfish low tier players” are being forced to fix, and most of the higher tiers are of course loving the extra bodies, because they didn’t even have to pay for them.

Selfish players? The definition of that term is quite different in everyone’s mind. Personally, I consider players that have never stepped outside the comfort of kitten to be selfish, tiers and individuals that label all tiers below them dead because they don’t have a 4 map que are selfish in my book. Guilds and players transferring to a “dead” server to steal more of their pop for their actual home server, selfish! Bragging that because most of your new recruits appear to still playing and you can now slaughter the T1 server that you slaughtered a month ago is selfish! Labeling players that don’t prefer that playstyle for whatever reason and saying “everyone” is happy is selfish!

Improvements shouldn’t have had to have been made in the first place and definately not forced improvements, especially drastic tier changes on those that have already lost so much and continued where they were because they liked it. If a player got moved to another tier they actually enjoy, that’s great, but if they don’t enjoy it, it’s well within their right to say so and not be labeled by the very players that helped create and continued to harvest the problem.

Kirito.2195:

FogLeg.9354:

Now, after years of waiting, we have a chance to fix these problems. And you guys, instead of being happy too about the gamemode we all love so much, start to complain against any improvements. It just blows my mind. It really does. Just because you want something, everyone else has to suffer too. It’s just extremely selfish.

And on top of that all, you do not even propose any other solutions. You just complain that all the change is bad and try to lie about how everyone loved their dead servers. No, everyone hated it! Everyone suffered for a long time and many left in the end. Again, there are obviously small number of players used to empty server matches, but it does not make you more special then many more players who actually want to fight and want to have meaningful matches and want to see enemies more then once a week. What exactly do you wish Anet would do? Nothing? Just keep the system going on for many more years until there is only you and 2 more players left in whole WvW?

Spot on, thank you for that. Hit it on the head.

And have also come to realize that one of the reasons the OP liked low populated wvw areas was not necessarily due just to ‘community’ and such, but also due to the fact that his gf’s low end laptop can’t handle any sort of significant number of players in the game, even on the lowest graphical settings, and that he just won’t accept any sort of queues.

The OP states in his first post “As an inside joke…I am new to WvW after all”…….and that couldn’t be more obvious in some of his posts in this thread.

I have to also completely agree with Fogleg’s above post that you quoted.

FogLeg.9354:

I have seen these threads pop up several times now and they always bother me. I do not want to insult anyone if they try to explain their feelings but it basically boils down to this:

Most of these low population dead servers were not dead some time ago. People left, stopped playing or lost interest in WvW, and while some also like to jump between servers, many do not. I never have, and have no plans to transfer. And I know many players in my low population server who feel exactly same.

The problem is, the last tiers are not fun. It is not fun to be in the dead server and it is not fun to fight one either. WvW is about having enemies and when there is none, it stops being WvW. I understand that some people may like the emptiness and lack of enemies, and yet, I strongly feel that most players prefer actual fights, actual enemies instead of NPCs.

And while you are explaining here how much you enjoy being in dead server, try, even for a moment, to think about all those players who have quit the game because only reason to play – WvW is so stupidly boring they can’t be bothered anymore. I know many players trying this changed WvW right now after being away from the game, and many more just planning to return. Countless players have left the game because there is nothing to do in WvW, because scores do not matter, because winning or losing the match is same result.

Now, after years of waiting, we have a chance to fix these problems. And you guys, instead of being happy too about the gamemode we all love so much, start to complain against any improvements. It just blows my mind. It really does. Just because you want something, everyone else has to suffer too. It’s just extremely selfish.

And on top of that all, you do not even propose any other solutions. You just complain that all the change is bad and try to lie about how everyone loved their dead servers. No, everyone hated it! Everyone suffered for a long time and many left in the end. Again, there are obviously small number of players used to empty server matches, but it does not make you more special then many more players who actually want to fight and want to have meaningful matches and want to see enemies more then once a week. What exactly do you wish Anet would do? Nothing? Just keep the system going on for many more years until there is only you and 2 more players left in whole WvW?

Teon.5168:

Kirito.2195:

FogLeg.9354:

Now, after years of waiting, we have a chance to fix these problems. And you guys, instead of being happy too about the gamemode we all love so much, start to complain against any improvements. It just blows my mind. It really does. Just because you want something, everyone else has to suffer too. It’s just extremely selfish.

And on top of that all, you do not even propose any other solutions. You just complain that all the change is bad and try to lie about how everyone loved their dead servers. No, everyone hated it! Everyone suffered for a long time and many left in the end. Again, there are obviously small number of players used to empty server matches, but it does not make you more special then many more players who actually want to fight and want to have meaningful matches and want to see enemies more then once a week. What exactly do you wish Anet would do? Nothing? Just keep the system going on for many more years until there is only you and 2 more players left in whole WvW?

Spot on, thank you for that. Hit it on the head.

And have also come to realize that one of the reasons the OP liked low populated wvw areas was not necessarily due just to ‘community’ and such, but also due to the fact that his gf’s low end laptop can’t handle any sort of significant number of players in the game, even on the lowest graphical settings, and that he just won’t accept any sort of queues.

The OP states in his first post “As an inside joke…I am new to WvW after all”…….and that couldn’t be more obvious in some of his posts in this thread.

I have to also completely agree with Fogleg’s above post that you quoted.

At the moment, it feels like many of you are trying to discredit our post, simply because you’re using things that we’ve pointed out to conclude to your own satisfaction i.e. computer specifications = why we chose low level server and/or “inside joke:- I’m new to wvw” = I’m not actually an experienced WvW player.

Continue this debate in that way if you wish.

In my opinion, I would imagine that most people in the WvW community are sensible and know that, the points we’ve pointed out ARE valid and that many has already reinforced it.

Anyway, I’m just looking at the thread and responding now and there but I’m simply quite happy for the thread to have lasted this long, drawing some users who posts and discuss both sides of this debate.

Thanks all for posting.
I encourage people to voice their concerns still if the server link is a good idea/not a good idea.

I will be honest about my opinion of this server linking. I don’t deny that it is easier to find fights and start groups than it ever was before, but this comes at a bitter cost. In EB recently there was a person from the server we are linked with basically saying that the communities of smaller servers aren’t important and the people who are upset about this should just be quiet.

I will concede that this individual has the right to his/her own opinion, but it is one based on a lack of understanding many of the larger servers have of the cultures and communities that thrived in the smaller servers. The FC community was a big part of who we all are as players, and frankly anyone who disputes this has very little knowledge of this concept.

Many of the friendships born from the FC community became very long lasting, and several even developed into long term real life relationships. It is foolish to expect players from smaller communities that nurtured these kind of results to seamlessly merge with the larger servers that have a drastic different views about why we even play this game to begin with.

This being said, I cannot deny that the rise in population makes the gameplay more interesting, and Guild Wars at it’s core IS a game, but there are some minor changes to this system that would make it easier to accept what is going on.

It is obvious that the smaller servers are very attached to their identities as a server, and it is grossly offensive to be considered a +1 to some other server. If you really expect both servers to feel included in this system both servers should have a say into what this “merged” server is called, rather than having the smaller ones basically ignored.

When the merge first happened one of the guild leaders expressed that the ending result of all this was more players on DH. This upset a good number of us, and even now the game is divided between those who choose to see themselves on DH or the ones who see themselves on FC.

This whole problem is completely avoidable. Even a basic mash up between the server names would solve a lot of problems and make all of our lives a lot easier. Even if we do end up shifting to being paired with different servers for three months I’m fairly certain there are enough Arena Net employees with enough creativity to mix up pretty much any server combination into one name. Having players vote of different name options would be even better.

This may seem like a minor point, but out of all the issues this has caused I think this would be the easiest one to fix.

"Teon"

I now love being on Kaineng and having some real battles, fights, and an actual war to participate in as a player.

I for one don’t. While I think a lot of the changes they have done are good for the majority, I personally have finally been bored out of WvW. I haven’t even bothered to log in to check the return of Alpine (My favourite map in the entire game, all modes), just because logging into the Zerg doesn’t tempt me one bit.

I’m probably the minority, but my preferred play-style is gone. I’ll just go do something else for a while (BDO is pretty fun though).

This could be solved in a few different ways, I’ve voiced some ideas before, like either making a single "low pop tier" with 3 dedicated servers for this kind of playstyle. Or adding a single new map made for roaming/havoc/small groups, that punish zerging, with a much lower population limit, to add to each match.

Also yes, I do realize this is a Beta, and they are testing it to get feedback on what people like/dislike, and they might change or end this at any time and add something new. I’ll be waiting and watching.

+1 to OP.

@jonie – I enjoyed the patch for about 10 days. With the return of the ABL it dawned on me the new and improved wvw was really 2 year old wvw with a few QOL changes. Those changes were nice, but didn’t amount to much if spread over that 2 year time frame…. I will wait it out a bit too for real changes…

joneirikb.7506:

Teon”

I now love being on Kaineng and having some real battles, fights, and an actual war to participate in as a player.

I for one don’t. While I think a lot of the changes they have done are good for the majority, I personally have finally been bored out of WvW. I haven’t even bothered to log in to check the return of Alpine (My favourite map in the entire game, all modes), just because logging into the Zerg doesn’t tempt me one bit.

I’m probably the minority, but my preferred play-style is gone. I’ll just go do something else for a while (BDO is pretty fun though).

This could be solved in a few different ways, I’ve voiced some ideas before, like either making a single “low pop tier” with 3 dedicated servers for this kind of playstyle. Or adding a single new map made for roaming/havoc/small groups, that punish zerging, with a much lower population limit, to add to each match.

Also yes, I do realize this is a Beta, and they are testing it to get feedback on what people like/dislike, and they might change or end this at any time and add something new. I’ll be waiting and watching.

+1 to OP.

Havoc squads and smaller pugs still exist. I have been in some out there. Sure, there are lots of blob battles(I got into a hilariously fun one the other night), but the smaller groups still exist…..I see them all the time out there. The havoc squads work quite well when there is a huge blob battle going on……most everyone is involved in the blob battle, which allows the havoc squad to skirt the battle and take out supply camps, take ruins, etc., as noone is paying attention to anything but the blob.

But, best of luck to you! Like I said before, I know lots on Kaineng that love the wvw changes, but there are also others, such as yourself, that don’t like the changes.

They need to lock the low tier servers that got linked.

TallBarr.2184:

They need to lock the low tier servers that got linked.

Then what about the low tiered server players that actually like the wvw changes and pairings?

Another thing I really miss about FC before the linking is the map chat. We would joke, talk about where the enemy was, who needed help where etc. There wasn’t any toxic comments or if there were someone spoke up and said hey cut it out. Now map chat esp in EBG can get very toxic. You can’t do anything without someone making a critical comment. I have found myself getting defensive even when the comment was innocent because of the many comments that weren’t innocent. I just want a friendly place to play. PvE is not that place, PvP is definitely not that place so WvW was the last place where I could go, have fun without negativity from my team mates. I guess if the linking becomes permanent I will have to develop a tougher skin or turn map chat off which defeats the purpose of map chat.

joneirikb.7506:

Teon”

I now love being on Kaineng and having some real battles, fights, and an actual war to participate in as a player.

I for one don’t. While I think a lot of the changes they have done are good for the majority, I personally have finally been bored out of WvW. I haven’t even bothered to log in to check the return of Alpine (My favourite map in the entire game, all modes), just because logging into the Zerg doesn’t tempt me one bit.

I’m probably the minority, but my preferred play-style is gone. I’ll just go do something else for a while (BDO is pretty fun though).

This could be solved in a few different ways, I’ve voiced some ideas before, like either making a single “low pop tier” with 3 dedicated servers for this kind of playstyle. Or adding a single new map made for roaming/havoc/small groups, that punish zerging, with a much lower population limit, to add to each match.

Also yes, I do realize this is a Beta, and they are testing it to get feedback on what people like/dislike, and they might change or end this at any time and add something new. I’ll be waiting and watching.

+1 to OP.

Heartily seconded.

Also, per the original post, I suggest offering feedback on the World Linking Beta thread, and I hope we all continue to provide observations as the beta progresses. Don’t be discouraged, and let your voice be heard!

So once again, speaking from my home on Kaineng, I don’t think Anet should scrap the linking concept (I do think that low population taken to an extreme is an issue), but instead unlink us from the top tier servers, who do not need the extra population. A re-linking that does not include T1 & 2 would bring more population on the low tiers, more diversity in playstyle, and more freedom to move and find the playstyle that pleases you (low tier players/guilds can always move up to T1 and 2 and often do so, but we need to be able to make this choice).

The final problem which remains is server identity of the ‘guest’ servers, and this needs to be addressed at all tiers and no matter which direction the beta takes.

Thanks for posting Smashie.

Nanesh
[Owls] Owl Legion
Kaineng

sionnach.5391:

Also, per the original post, I suggest offering feedback on the World Linking Beta thread, and I hope we all continue to provide observations as the beta progresses. Don’t be discouraged, and let your voice be heard!

So once again, speaking from my home on Kaineng, I don’t think Anet should scrap the linking concept (I do think that low population taken to an extreme is an issue), but instead unlink us from the top tier servers, who do not need the extra population. A re-linking that does not include T1 & 2 would bring more population on the low tiers, more diversity in playstyle, and more freedom to move and find the playstyle that pleases you (low tier players/guilds can always move up to T1 and 2 and often do so, but we need to be able to make this choice).

The final problem which remains is server identity of the ‘guest’ servers, and this needs to be addressed at all tiers and no matter which direction the beta takes.

Thanks for posting Smashie.

Nanesh
[Owls] Owl Legion
Kaineng

I am not sure if I posted it in this thread, or another, but yea, I do agree that tier 1 & 2 really don’t need to be grouped with anyone else, as their populations in wvw are just fine. Sure, the added pop and battles are fun, but it makes more sense to do something like(as someone else has already suggested)

tier 3 with tier 8
tier 4 with tier 7
tier 5 with tier 6

On the subject of ‘server identity’, am not sure how that could be accomplished. I had more server loyalty before the pve megaserver, but after that my loyalty was all about my guild(which was greater than my server loyalty was even before the megaserver).

I think the whole server identity and loyalty thing will be more up to those from that server. As you had mentioned in the past to me, Nanesh…..you were wanting to rebuild the Kaineng wvw presence after most of our main wvw guilds left. I admire that, and I think it will come down to something like that, from the actual wvw’ers on Kaineng to rebuild the server wvw identity, rather than something Anet might or might not be able to do. And it also comes down to the number of Kaineng wvw’ers that actually feel server identity is something important and something that needs to be preserved. As I said, for me it is all about my guild. At this point in time, server identity is not terribly important to me, and I am sure that I am not alone in that sort of thinking.
(That attitude probably comes from playing DaoC for many years, where eventually all the servers were put into megaserver sorts of arrangements, so guild pride and identity were the only important things left that had any meaning)

Even with the pairups, I don’t think it is an impossibility to have a server identity within that pairing, or other pairings. Either through server specific TS channels, or organized wvw raids, or whatever.

Possibly something simple that Anet could do would be to add a different color(or an added label that could be toggled on/off) to character names for those on the same server…..that would at least identify those from similar servers, and might help the server unity that you and others are seeking. Although something like that might also add to the potential divisiveness between servers, which would not be a good thing.

As I said before, my loyalty is with my guild, which is mostly Kaineng based(but we have members from other servers, too). I tend to jump around between groups out there in wvw, and am always looking for my fellow guildies that might also be out there.

I wish you the best of luck with the rebuilding of a Kaineng wvw identity, and hopefully I will see you out there soon, as I would love to join up with whatever group you might be running, if I can ever figure out what sort of build I want to run on my Rev out there…..lol.

I’m on BG, have been since transfers were free

For our server, and our fights, I haven’t noticed a change in them due to the presence of ET, or our opposing servers too much, at least during the times I play. I do however hear from guildies that they notice defensive siege being used and refreshed (a good thing, something we used to do, but have kind of forgotten it as time passed, and will do again during seasons).

Many of the larger forces are blobby, and for small group roamers and such, that is daunting, and I can understand the frustration of constantly getting run over by those groups.
I understand too, that many who are on lower pop servers moved to those servers to get away.

This is just a beta, a trial, for anet, and for players, to see if it’s something they’d want.

From the sounds of it, most lower pop servers don’t particularly enjoy it more than they did before (those ET who’ve run with us always seem to enjoy it enough, but maybe they too would still prefer their old ways).

So… remove the server merges, and make it cheaper for people to move around servers? Those who want to stay in low pop, can stay, those who want to move, but were wary of the cost, can do so more easily.

Though maybe give it another week or 2 before you guys put your votes in for sure.
Because if anet undoes server merges, I don’t think we’ll ever see it again.

(Also keep in, mind, the partnerships haven’t changed, so you haven’t had a chance to work with more than 1 server, as such, all of our experiences are limited to that)

STIHL.2489:

I understand that some people will not enjoy the higher populations, but the reality is, it is the only way to legitimately fix the population balances, and that is, by trying to get everyone as close to “Cap” population in WvW as possible. If the Maps are Full, then everyone has even numbers, and it never ends up with a 5 vs 42 match up, which anyone on the mid and lower servers knows can happen.

So this was the way they could resolve the issue, by capping the maps. If you can think of another way to balance out the population to eliminate lop-sided match-ups, I am sure Anet would love to hear it.

But as it stands, the direction they took, was to try and fill the maps, so that everyone would have roughly the same number of people on the field. It does remove the issues of being overrun by a higher population server, which has been a major negative issue for WvW for a long time.

I fully understand that there will be issues of “us/them” in the game, after all, it was a link, not a merger, and maybe that will be for the best,so that they can mix things up a bit as time goes on and that it does not feel like a merger, but a rotating link.

Where, perhaps, next week, it can be Ferguson’s Crossing/Northern Shiverpeaks, facing Darkhaven/Sorrows Furnace or some such.

There is much the future might bring, and I for one, hope it is all good things.

Completely agree.

If they ended the beta tonight and all servers were back, the majority still seems to favor more pop and fewer servers. It’s sad for those on servers that could ultimately be lost forever. So, moving forward, check the updated leaderboards and watch movement https://leaderboards.guildwars2.com/en/na/wvw

I heard this is a 3 month beta, I don’t know if that’s still true, but if it lasts longer and hosts become guests and guests become hosts, we do need to push for some way to honor the contributions of everyone fighting this joint battle.

This is also a good link:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Activity-for-the-week-of-2016-04-23

Looks like fight activity has increased by around 43% across the board, which is not surprising, imo. Will be interesting to see how it all plays out in the next few weeks.

Tyler Bearce.3427:

In the coming weeks we plan to hold more polls. Just like we are currently polling about the Reward Tracks and Participation beta, we’ll poll about the World Linking beta as well.

When you do a poll, please keep in mind that unsatsified players are more likely to show their complain than satisfied showing their satisfaction.

Tyler,
Thank you for giving this some attention. Just knowing that we are acknowledged is a huge step in the right direction. If the community votes to move towards merging, then while I may not like it, I can respect it as a community decision. It will at least provide the players an opportunity to provide tangible influence.

-Fates

I’m starting to feel protective about Tyler the same way I am about Gaile.

He’s actually taking the time to understand the community. He actually listens and tries his best to fix issues.

Remember this to buy him some goodwill and patience if things don’t go perfectly.

I can’t recall any time playing wvw when we’ve had someone like this.