Guild Wars 2

After some careful deliberation and having read some other peoples posts about balancing issues (in relation to server population problems), it is my personal opinion that the best way to balance WvW would be to limit the amount of players that any server can field based upon the server that is currently fielding the least.

The teams will always be even between the 3 servers, buffs aren’t necessary for those doing poorly, queue time’s already suck.

This will only work if server transfers cost time or money, so the same guild can’t hop to another server and hold all the player slots (I know Crystal Desert has been doing that for Blackgate), in addition to some others that have been popping up on the forums).

Anyways, just my 2 cents.

I’d like to know where you got this mythical knowledge that CD has been using transfers to take up BG’s queue slots. Quite frankly the fight was fairly even until late last night when all of BG left at once. CD and BG had swapped back and forth holding 1 and 2 for the weekend with CD having a bit of a lead Sunday till about 11:30PM pacific time. Once that time rolled around what had been 2 forces pushing back and forth and not making much headway suddenly turned into CD nearly falling flat on their face when the opposing force as a whole packed up and left. There was no guild holding space in your queue, the few defenders we found had outmaned buff on them. It wasn’t oceanic’s coming in and doing night capping either as the whole map got capped hours before they were scheduled to show up for their shift.

THIS. I was thinking the exact same thing. People will not transfer and spread out as a result of being asked nicely. They have to be forced to behave. It’s amazing how A.net can be so hardcore about the economy and any sort of “item” exploits (temp ban is all the warning you get), while being such maidens about population problems in WvW.

If all populations are capped to the nearest multiple of 10 based on the lowest population server in the last 5 minute interval, players will be FORCED to move about.
There’s forced auto balancing in structured. Force it in WvW too.

The only problem like this is large guild may be force to break up to spread out.

Or you’ll still get some of the super-power servers because a guild will just plan to move over all at once to get on the lowest pop server.

The other issue is server pop != WvW pop. ET is (was?) relatively low pop but still have WvW queue times because they have a lot of PvPers.

And just because a server has a lot of people in WvW doesn’t mean they’re all PvPers. Some might just be going to check it out, some might be trying to get 100%.

So how, then, do you make sure the WvW populations are evenly distributed?

TheAltarBoy.3176:

The only problem like this is large guild may be force to break up to spread out.

Or you’ll still get some of the super-power servers because a guild will just plan to move over all at once to get on the lowest pop server.

The other issue is server pop != WvW pop. ET is (was?) relatively low pop but still have WvW queue times because they have a lot of PvPers.

And just because a server has a lot of people in WvW doesn’t mean they’re all PvPers. Some might just be going to check it out, some might be trying to get 100%.

So how, then, do you make sure the WvW populations are evenly distributed?

I believe I answered all of this in my previous post. Those servers who have oceanic players and can field a full WvW match 24/7 can be paired against other servers who can do the same (at some point I hope).

My idea was to limit the amount of players on the field, to whatever server has the fewest players on that map. IE: Gate of Madness can only field 15 people at 2 A.M., therefore, Crystal Desert / Blackgate can only have 15 (it’s just an example, don’t get your panties in a bunch). This way, teams will be fair, and the game is back to coordination and team work (as I perceived WvW is supposed to be). This will only work if server transfers are restricted in some manner, be it through payment or time (having wait X amount of time before transferring again). Queue times will always be a problem, I imagine someone is screaming about them in response as they read this.

I am not concerned with large guilds having to break up and spread out. If they have to split up and separate to less populated servers, then so be it. I imagine the lesser populated servers will welcome those extra people with open arms. Hopefully, populations will even out across all the servers.

People trying to 100% the map for achievements should be an insignificant factor, we will still have players from every server trying to PvE (my server is fond of killing the bloody Grub for some reason) or do the jump puzzle.

After having re-read my post(s), I had the thought that maybe that these servers who can field a 24/7 onslaught will eventually be paired against each other in the long run. And all this discussion is for naught, we seem to have forgotten that the game has only been out for a few weeks =D.