Guild Wars 2

To illustrate my point, this is what just happened in Harathi Hinterlands while trying to get to the Modniir Ulgoth event (and not for the first time in a very similar fashion):

1. I did the first two pre events. The second event is going a bit slow since there are only three people present at those events including me.
2. During the second event the map closure message pops up. Since there seem hardly any active players around I accept after finishing the event… and land on a map where the first pre is not even done yet.
3. Repeat step 1, including the part with only 3 people doing the pres.
4. Sure enough during the second event there is that message again. Foolishly thinking it can’t get any worse I decide to volunteer after the event. At this point it is already 3:35 CEST. On a populated map it should be about time to begin the assault on Kingsgate Camp… but lo and behold: on this new map the first pre is not even finished. I found the exact same situation as on the two maps before.
5. I gave up on the Modniir Ulgoth event and went to Queensdale for the Behemoth instead. Wasted time and effort.

In my opinion especially the last jump is strong indication that the system is not doing what it is supposed to do. There is no chance that the 3rd map was more populated or as a matter of fact even existent before people like me were transfered there when not a single pre event is so much as halfway done a minimum of 5 minutes after they have begun.

My 2 theories about what might have happened:
1. Something is wrong with bottlenecks (or a similar bug to that effect), so that multiple almost empty maps are created if the first/active map is filling up too quickly. These maps are then closed in order of their creation instead of the other way round which would make far more sense regarding event progress.
2. The system decides that there are too few people on a given map but does not check if the more populated map(s) are far enough from capped to accomodate the players on the maps that are marked for closing. So, if you volunteer too late (for example after finishing an event instead of immediately) you do not get onto that more populated map but onto a newly created one… which would make no kittening sense at all. If that happens the system should just cancel the map closure instead of dumping the late volunteers on an even less populated map with no event progress at all.

Whatever the cause this needs fixing as it makes matters significantly worse for players on less populated maps compared to the time before the implementation of this system.

It’s hard to say because the map that gets chosen for you also takes into account if a guild member or friend is on one of the newer maps. However if this newer map is also less populated than it makes sense that it gets shut down even though you were just moved to it because of a guild member. This is just another possibility where the server may be working correctly but with unintended consequences.

There is more to this than that. On Monday, A few of us were mapping Mount Maelstrom on some alternate characters. We received the notice to leave the map I think 4 separate times… To clarify: The notice popped up, we ignored it (because we had just accepted to ‘volunteer’ not too long before), after a little while, it goes away, then pops up all over again, just like it’s the first time. Same thing, we choose later, see the little symbol in the lower right, after a while, it vanishes. Little while later, pops up, once again stating in 59mins 59 seconds this map will be closed, etc..

Not to mention I’ve moved a map before, only to have it tell me I have to move not even 30 seconds after having previously ‘volunteered’. I had it do this 3 times almost a week ago.

Both of these situations as well as the op’s are not working as intended.

If it is going to close a map, it should not be moving other people to that map unless it no longer intends to close it, upon which it should not up and decide once again to close it just a few mins later. One change of mind I could understand, why create a new one if one already exists.. but to do this back and forth makes very little sense. Also, afaik, it is still not taking into account friends when it puts you on a map (and if it was, the fact those in same guild also have each other on friends list should increase the ‘priority’ of them being together right?). I can definitely state that megaserver does not care to the extent is should whether you have guildies on a map or not, it puts you wherever it wants, nevermind that you may have 4 other guildies in a Lion’s Arch map. Additionally, I have seen 4 guildies end up in 4 different copies of the same map.. definitely not working correctly, worse when all in same party and that happens…)

Andraus.3874:

It’s hard to say because the map that gets chosen for you also takes into account if a guild member or friend is on one of the newer maps. However if this newer map is also less populated than it makes sense that it gets shut down even though you were just moved to it because of a guild member. This is just another possibility where the server may be working correctly but with unintended consequences.

This would indeed be a somewhat plausible explanation for the dodgy behaviour, but as for my latest run-in with these problems I can exclude it as a possible explanation. I was the only member online of the guild I represented at that time and of my other guilds or friendlist none were in Harathi Hinterlands.

Also, no version of the system working as intended would make it seem likely that a volunteer never gets transferred onto a map with equal or more progress of the pre events – Harathi is especially good for observing this effect because of its long event chain – as would be expected if the new map was indeed more populated than the previous one to begin with, but always onto maps with little to no event progress at all. Either I am very unlucky and the system magically finds maps for me with people who are so extremely lazy that they rather watch the countdown ticking down than send even a single person to do pre events or these are new maps.
And if the system creates new maps or favours newly created but equally empty maps it is certainly doing the opposite of what it is supposed to do.

Yep that does sound like a bug. I guess I personally have been pretty lucky in not getting this bug.