Guild Wars 2

Hi

me and two friends are currently playing on a medium population server and it’s getting pretty deserted in some parts of the world now, making leveling and playing in general not that fun.

So we consider switching servers. Some are at “High” and others show as “Full”.

What does “Full” in this context mean? Is there a login queue or anything? Can you even transfer to those servers or are they locked for new people?

The full servers are locked to new people. GW2 doesn’t go by how many people are on, but the amount of people that has their home server set to that given server.

Searias.9601:

The full servers are locked to new people. GW2 doesn’t go by how many people are on, but the amount of people that has their home server set to that given server.

If this were true then the full servers would say full all the time, which is not the case at all. In reality, the status of a server changes throughout the day based on how many people are playing at that time. My server is high in the morning and full in the evening. You can wait until a full server becomes high and then move during that time. Also, due to the overflow servers there is no queue to get into the server even when full (except WvW).

Thanks both of you.

How long are WvW queues on your server then, Fellthar?

Also, are overflow servers happening in later zones too, or is it limited only to the first few? I know they can happen of course, I just never saw one after the 15-25 zone on my server, so curious if they still happen in the endgame zones on High or Full servers.

Overflow can happen anywhere of course, it just usually doesn’t anymore because the population is very spread out. I see an overflow in Lion’s Arch every evening at some point though. I’m only level 65 right now, so I can’t speak for the endgame zones, but I know the zones around my level are very populated throughout the day with people everywhere but not enough to trigger the overflow usually.

As for WvW queues, Eternal Battlegrounds takes about 1-2 hours to get into, longer on a Friday or Saturday evening, and often the queues to the borderlands are quite short if you pick the right one. I’m on Fort Aspenwood so we are not a top PVP server or anything, but we aren’t bad either.

"If this were true then the full servers would say full all the time, which is not the case at all. In reality, the status of a server changes throughout the day based on how many people are playing at that time"

This is because server transfers are still free as of this moment and people routinely jump servers to play with friends, or looking for one that hasn’t a particular skill point or NPC bugged or crashed. There are people constantly moving between servers and that’s why you see some of them flipping from HIGH to FULL, and vice versa.

Spaceman.1063:

“If this were true then the full servers would say full all the time, which is not the case at all. In reality, the status of a server changes throughout the day based on how many people are playing at that time”

This is because server transfers are still free as of this moment and people routinely jump servers to play with friends, or looking for one that hasn’t a particular skill point or NPC bugged or crashed. There are people constantly moving between servers and that’s why you see some of them flipping from HIGH to FULL, and vice versa.

The servers all say medium or high in the morning… so if it was due to transfers where are those accounts going in the morning? In the evening a majority of servers say full.

I cannot see how this can be based on total accounts. It makes no sense based on what actually occurs with the server status.

Edit: If it was based on total accounts with that realm assigned as their home, then in the morning at least some servers would say full, which is not the case. You can’t seriously think that in the morning the population spreads out that thin, and then in the evening it all clumps up, especially with a 24 hour cooldown on server transfers.

I don’t think you realize that there isn’t one single "morning" for the entire planet.

I don’t think you realize that whether it is morning or not doesn’t change what I said at all.

Would it be satisfactory if I referred to the time of day that corresponds to my morning as “the time of day that the servers (in NA) are all medium or high” rather than morning? It still doesn’t change anything.

And what time would that be so I can see it? Because at no point in time that I play GW2 I’ve ever seen all servers on "medium", excluding the first minutes of the 3-day headstart.

At the time of writing this post, it’s 4:30 UTC, which makes it, say, from 4 to 6 in the morning for pretty much most of the Europe. Yet as of this moment, majority of EU servers is either HIGH or FULL. So, do all Europeans play in the early morning / deep night?

You can check after the next major patch rollout and subsequent servers restart, that they don’t magically go to EMPTY, but stay at HIGH or FULL as they were.

I said high or medium for all servers in NA. We can agree to disagree and if you wish to pursue this further feel free, but I think this conversation has run its course.

Yes, I perfectly understood that, and addressed it with a most appropriate example given the particular time at hand.

You, on the other hand, didn’t even bother answering my question, nor clearly realized any of the points I already made, so considering your lack of reading comprehension, I agree we can call this discussion over.

Additionally, as for the OP’s concern:

Being interested if that other person’s claim bears any truth, or if something really changed on how server population is being reported, I’ve snapped servers status at two distinct times, yesterday at 8 PM PDT, and another now at 8 AM PDT. The results are literally identical, with all but two particular servers being either HIGH of FULL.

So I think that pretty much concludes the case.

Searias.9601:

The full servers are locked to new people. GW2 doesn’t go by how many people are on, but the amount of people that has their home server set to that given server.

Why do people without knowing something for as fact just make up things like these and post it ?

To Spaceman:

Your insults reveal your nature.

Regardless, trying to instigate me into a continued battle on this subject won’t work. I’m not discussing this subject or anything else with you further, regardless of how demeaning your comments are from here forth. Consider yourself essentially ignored.

To anyone else:

Does anyone have an actual ArenaNet response on whether the server status is based on total population or currently logged on population? I am genuinely curious and it would clear this matter up immediately, as well as be very informative. Thanks!

As far as i know it is based on server load. Any MMO that i have played (quite a few) used this because it is simply the most logical and effective measure.

The fact on whether or not one could log in would/could be based on both a pop cap and the current load but which one is being used to portray the servers status i have no idea but imo it is most likely server load.

Searias.9601:

The full servers are locked to new people. GW2 doesn’t go by how many people are on, but the amount of people that has their home server set to that given server.

LOL, that’s silly, explain why the server status changes throughout the day?

Teknobug.3782:

Searias.9601:

The full servers are locked to new people. GW2 doesn’t go by how many people are on, but the amount of people that has their home server set to that given server.

LOL, that’s silly, explain why the server status changes throughout the day?

He made it up.