Guild Wars 2

As https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Your-top-5-priorities-for-WvW-Overhaul/6031916 asked me:

Jayne.9251:

Dayra.7405:

Mine are

1. dynamic map capacity (less map for less player, more map for more player)

Just curious .. with this kind of “overflow” method, how would you guarantee you got onto the same map as guildies every time you played, or players you regularly WvW with who weren’t necessarily guilded?

Dynamic map capacity can mean a lot, especially it can be either done in current wvw or in an eotm-like new wvw, so here some simple ideas and an answer.
But other ways to get dynamic map capacity as possible as well. An important feature is probably that it is the system that decides how many maps exist, depending on how many users are playing (want to play), but it’s the user (and not a mega-server) who decides where he want to play.

dynamic map capacity in the current WvW

Lets for simplicity of the examples assume that each map fits 100 player per side (but you could reduce map-capacity for silver and bronze, such that they are still able to get all maps in prime-time):

If 2 of the 3 sides have less than 300 player in the match randomly freeze a map
If 2 of the 3 sides have less than 200 player in the match randomly freeze another map
If 2 of the 3 sides have less than 100 player in the match randomly freeze a third map
The last map stays open, but you can say if 2 of the 3 sides have less than 30 player in the match freeze the keeps.

Frozen means: lord, walls and gates of the objective become invulnerable and the tick-value of this objective is 0. Upgrades stop, supply is disabled and siege inside can neither be placed nor used. Not sure if doors and WPs should be locked or not.

If 2 of the 3 sides have queue on all open maps, unfreeze a randomly choosen map.

dynamic map capacity in a 3-sided WvW with alliances

I guess this is the scenario targeted by the question.
The answer is simple: by having a map-browser that shows which maps exist with all the infos currently available per WvW-map and how many people of your guild are on a map and how many % of your sides people belong to your alliance and by having a queue per map, where people of the largest alliance on this map have priority.

Ah, my own little flag-ship wish

Regarding managing overflows and multiple copies of a single map (both for a potential WvW usage, for EotM, and pve etc), I really wish they just went the way they did in GW1, where you had a menu bar that let you select which instance you wanted to go to. Instead of having people relying on "taxi people inn" as they do now in Pve, and probably would do in WvW as well if it was needed.

Also, in order to make this work properly with shutting down borderland maps, you need to move away from the "home map" system, and make some tweaks for teh BL maps to work like EBG or EotM, where it is a 3 way free for all, with home corners of hte map. Then you could close and open BL maps left and right without any problems.

+1 for Dynamic Map Capacity!

Still doesn’t answer the question.

So you’re saying you can play the map you want, but you have to queue?

What if you wait in queue and the map is deemed “frozen” by the time you get on?

How can you guarantee you play with the same people you want to play with?

Who’s to say a guild or group decides to game the maps and just afks until the players they want get on?

Why should any one group have priority over another? We all paid for the game.

Jayne.9251:

Still doesn’t answer the question.
So you’re saying you can play the map you want, but you have to

Yeah like today in WvW, much better than today in EotM.

Jayne.9251:

What if you wait in queue and the map is deemed “frozen” by the time you get on?

Weird situation, all queue for one map while the others are empty
I would say thats more a question for map design than about map-capacity as maps are only frozen, if the remaining capacity fits all people that want to play. and the question would be: Why does the company insist on many maps no one likes, while the map(s) people like are rare?

Jayne.9251:

How can you guarantee you play with the same people you want to play with?

Is there a gurantee today?

Jayne.9251:

Who’s to say a guild or group decides to game the maps and just afks until the players they want get on?

I’ve seen this in todays WvW, yes, but where do you see the relation to dynamic map capacity?

Jayne.9251:

Why should any one group have priority over another? We all paid for the game.

Because it makes sense to bring alliances together. Remember that we talk about a setting where each map exist likely in several copies. Less prio on one instance likely mean more prio on another.

Dayra.7405:

Jayne.9251:

How can you guarantee you play with the same people you want to play with?

Is there a gurantee today?

Perhaps I’m not explaining myself clearly, I’ll try again And yes there is a guarantee now — because the maps are static.

With dynamic maps, that operate similar to PVE maps, it’s reactive to population no?

So subsequently one map will be deemed “full” and players will be rerouted into other maps that aren’t “full.”

So you have several open “versions” of the map, how do you get on the same one as your guildie?

And it’s entirely plausible to queue for one map, only to zone in and find all the players have gone for the night because prime time is over — so you have to, guess what? requeue onto another map that’s now the “active” map in order to get any action. Feels like whack-a-mole and is going to result in a lot of rage on the forums.

Dayra.7405:

Jayne.9251:

Who’s to say a guild or group decides to game the maps and just afks until the players they want get on?

I’ve seen this in todays WvW, yes, but where do you see the relation to dynamic map capacity?

I know you’ve played WvW for a long time so I know you’re not being purposefully naive — but say Guild X and Guild Y want a map to themselves. They don’t want any other players on it. And they want that map exclusively 24/7. They will camp on the map and occupy the spot just so they can get their own bigger, more exclusive guild arena. The mechanics will be abused (I’m looking at youuuu Maguuuumaaa! )

Dayra.7405:

Jayne.9251:

Why should any one group have priority over another? We all paid for the game.

Because it makes sense to bring alliances together. Remember that we talk about a setting where each map exist likely in several copies. Less prio on one instance likely mean more prio on another.

So players that are unguilded are SOL? Even if they played a really important role to the WvW scene prior?

Nah, that’s a bad direction to take. Anything that is exclusive and not inclusive in an MMO leads to rot.

I know you’re trying to find solutions, but effectively what you’re presenting is a PVE solution for WvW. The two entities are nothing alike, and should remain that way.

You did not read my first post?

Player to map assignment should NOT be via mega-server as in PvE, but via a map browser where the player chooses the map INSTANCE he wants.

Jayne.9251:

So players that are unguilded are SOL? Even if they played a really important role to the WvW scene prior?

Alliance corresponds to todays server, not to todays guilds. So no, as no one can be without server today, or yes, people not on a server (in an alliance) could not go to wvw, should that become possible.

Jayne.9251:

I know you’ve played WvW for a long time so I know you’re not being purposefully naive — but say Guild X and Guild Y want a map to themselves. They don’t want any other players on it. And they want that map exclusively 24/7. They will camp on the map and occupy the spot just so they can get their own bigger, more exclusive guild arena. The mechanics will be abused (I’m looking at youuuu Maguuuumaaa! )

We are very speculative here as no one knows HOW ANet will do dynamic map capacity, SHOULD they do dynamic map capacity.

But lets assume 3-sided WvW with alliance and lets assume alliance are scored separately and your campers belong to the same alliance.

I would say: let them sit in spawn, it’s their alliance that get’s no score due to them. Advantage over today would be: let them block their instance of this map, and play on another instance of the same map, which isn’t possible today where every maps exist only once.

Can we just forget the alliance system was ever a thing?
For one since it doesn’t address the real problems why WvW is going downhill.
And two because in my opinion servers as they are now are the best option there is. Decreasing the amount of servers would be a good option too.