Guild Wars 2

Kilo.2539:

I was there for this… essentially [RF] “Decent guild” stacked outside of inner on the northern supply hut and condi trashed the lord while the main zerg of 40-50 breached west inner.

By the time the main k-train breached the lord was dead and all they had to do was kill the 10 hopeless defenders.

If being able to kill the lord before you breach wasn’t bad enough, on top of that, if a poor soul got within epi range of that lord – INSTANT death, serious, no exaggeration INSTANT, LIKE RIGHT AWAY DEAD.

GG Anet..

The really sad part of that is the fact that the Lord is supposed to be a benefit to your team, however, in this example he is a straight up liability that actually benefits the attacker.

I’m not sure why epi is so defended. Give it a strict limit on how many condis it can copy and move on.

Doing this will only lead to the mode dying even faster. It will result in a massive balance issue across tons of servers that will take months to correct.

Plus notice he asks for guilds to join the server with him rather than asking them to join servers that compete with him for better coverage. So what’s the goal? Tier climb until you’re bored then pick the next server to destroy?

Encourage competition not stacking all the good guilds in one place. I swear, do we ever learn our lessons?

My solution would be for the claiming guild to have the option to “authorize” specific guilds they trust to have tactivator access. For example:. Uncheck public use. Check box for “Trusted Guilds” and type in the tag:. FoC, VII, and WOLF.

Reasonable safety and security while keeping usage available to hopefully enough people that it stays useful.

Ironically my guild found more even numbered guild V guild fights in T4 than in any other tier. It felt like the culture down there was a lot of small guilds wanting to go out for a raid night and that lead to lots of 10v10 or 15v15 fights. It was awesome and we loved it.

Each time we are bumped up the culture changes as higher means more people which means guilds adapted to run bigger to compensate. The guild groups are then groups of 20 or 30 and often run with a partner guild as backup. That leaves the smaller group scrambling to grow to be competitive and you’re forced to try and find a partner guild of your own.

This inevitably leads to a blob fight. Personally I had far far more fun and varied action in T4 NA than any other tier. Period.

This is why I wonder if the issue is less on populations and more on cultures and timezones.

Jeknar.6184:

Population refused to balance itself in the past. Why would them do it now? Doing hard merges will just recreate the stale enviroment we had prior the links.

The Links are bad? Honestly, no. They made WvW much more lively than it was to least for 12, maybe 18 servers (Not even counting EU). The server shuffling after two months also bring some varierity to this extreme stale gamemode, somenthing that many servers haven’t seen IN YEARS.
The issue still lies on glicko not allowing servers to move around faster when they clearly do not belong to a tier. The quadserver fiasco could have been averted if CD had moved before everyone on DH and SF said “kitten this kitten” and left the server or quit the game entirely. Will a rating reset solve the population imbalance? Clearly not. But at least it will break the staleness of the gamemode and people won’t feel like “oh kitten , this boring matchup again” and just stop playing.

We can agree to disagree. Linking to me removed server community in favor of personal community, damaged overall teamwork, and divided more than it brought together. It has also brought uncertainty and removed a lot of player choice in having a stable and fun gaming environment. You may be in small pop one week then in massive t1 blobs the next. In a game people will choose the style they enjoy and try to stay with that.

I submit that even if glicko had moved CD away from you earlier, DH would have landed with another server just as bad and the same would have occurred, anyway. Just like your situation with SBI. Glicko can’t do its job without decent links established already. If we MUST keep links, the least we can do is really focus on relinking again in a fast frequency until we find a sweet spot, THEN let the rotations and changing begin with an occasional reassessment. That part we can agree on, I hope

Just thought I would remind us all that WE the “community” voted for linking. We created this mess and knew what we were asking for when it was voted in. A small number of us warned and warned about the long term issues but were ignored.

I won’t pin this on ANet. We have only ourselves to blame. This just proves that even when we are given what we want we still complain.

The way to fix the tiers for now is to relink and monitor the matchup. If all are balanced then we are good, if they aren’t, then relink again and again every other week until it is as close as we can get and then leave it be.

The alternative is to accept that population balance is one thing, but skill balance is another. I can have 50v50 or 20v20, and still have one side totally decimate the other. At that point what am I to do? The population is equal but skill level is borked! In the past guilds would migrate to tiers where they fought those of equal skill level. With links that is far far more difficult so we are getting an issue with skill balance that cant be corrected by the player base anymore.

This problem is very complex and will take more than just shuffling servers around. My best advice in this alternative is to merge populations so at least each tier has some activity based on high medium and low population and let that stabilize. Then allow the player base to correct the rest on our own. If we refuse to do that then its our own fault for throwing the sand out of the sandbox and destroying what we love. We can’t always point the finger at the Devs. They create the world, but we bring it to life.

That’s what I mean by a culture thing. Some people in TS make it a delight and can lead to loads of laughs even when the game sucks. A bad TS just ruins the overall experience and leaves you asking yourself why you are even bothering with this mess. It’s why I’m not too keen on this constant TS fluctuation and have chosen to nurture my own personal community of guilds and submit that server community is a dead idea destroyed by people’s desire to ignore people in favor of trying to manipulate gameplay.

The issue is 4 servers and 4 Ts. If someone wants to bother with getting verified on 4 different TS just for this matchup then I applaud their tenacity, I suppose. Myself I’m not bothering. Each community is using their own when their commanders run. ET commanders advertise our TS and I’ve seen a few advertise CD TS. However, it feels that the whole unity of the army is nonexistent. Why should I bother with CD TS if I’m an ET native? ETs can support up to 75ish and virtually everyone can verify. I’m sure CD TS is fine, but I just have no motivation to flip from server to server when all the people I know and care about already use ETs.

Worrying about spies is stupid and a waste of time. They are like doors….all locks will be broken with tools and time enough as a few minutes on YouTube will verify. Any Joe can make a free account and join your server to get on your TS and there is no way to know any better. Everybody should be welcome in each other’s TS with a small verify security that is fast and easy.

In my opinion, this is less an issue with spies and paranoia as it is an issue with growing community apathy caused by linking and there being no good way to consolidate without sacrificing part of your own server culture and comfort. For Guilds it is no big deal…..but as a pug expect to be getting familiar with tons of TS channels and flipping from server to server trying to figure out where the people are.

Just remember 80%….you voted for this nonsense. Let’s hope you can figure out how to deal with it.

In the meantime ET TS is always available and will be offered in squad and map chats when appropriate and I’m sure other servers will do the same. We are all comrades in arms for now, and while I’m lazy that doesn’t mean everyone else will be

apharma.3741:

Roadbull.3457:

apharma.3741:

Dinas Dragonbane.2978:

Dawdler.8521:

TorquedSoul.8097:

It seems that Anet has decided that blob wars is WvW. That is their choice.

I thought we overwhelmingly decided that with the majority approval of more populated worlds via the link.

Either way, the idea that blobs win wars is false. They may win a few fights but coverage wins wars. A 70 man blob will keep chasing 30+20+20 all around a border, never holding anything for long. If the other enemy decide to field 30+20+20 too, GG having your 70 man blob try to control 6 decently large forces.

The “problem” is that we the players have decided 3 things:
1) More than one commander is taboo, unless its a guild.
2) Guilds fight their own battles, even if they are 20 vs 50.
3) Pugs fight pugs, even if they are 20 vs 50, except in the cases where guilds grudgingly accept to step off their high piediestal for a moment and assist the peasants.

This behaviour lead to pretty much everyone seeking security in numbers.

So yeah. Actually, we decided that WvW is blob wars.

This is also very true as well. It makes me recall the earliest days of WvW with NO commander tags and people using only map/team chat to communicate. Was it chaotic? Yes it was! Allies and enemies were nearly everywhere but never in huge massive numbers and fights broke out nearly everywhere. Commanders tags once people got used to what they were helped teach people to group up in massive numbers. Enter map, look for tag…where the old days was enter map, talk in chat to find out what’s going on, move accordingly.

Yeah those good old days at the bottom of bronze tier before we got linked, maybe a few months ago =D

Sad to see it being blob wars but not every server is without shame. Gunners Hold while outnumbering us most of the time generally sticks to blogging EB and guilds in the borders. Sucks to be outnumbered by them but I’d rather fight them than the map blob for each map national servers we keep getting.

The crazy thing is that EB should be the worst map to blob on. Since you need to defend while also attacking 2 other sides. It really encouraged several groups vs one blob which would form for a reinforced keep or castle. Borders encourage more blobbing because the attacking force is more interested in busting down super hardened objectives.

If we want blobbing to decrease we need PPT to matter again so there is a reason to split up and cover more ground and we need siege to stop being designed to keep out a 50 man blob with 10-15 people.

Stuff needs to be lost sometimes. Not be ktrained per se, but be capturable with a reasonable amount of effort. Siege is a boost to your groups defense but it can’t be the only defense.

Ever played an RTS against a super turtle? It is long and super boring. Don’t make GW2 that way. Encourage activity and playing for objectives and the game grows in meaning and keeps you hooked. Otherwise you may as well rename the mode to “MMO Team Death match” and realize that in no TDM game is it wise to go alone.

Actually I’ve played several RTS games and the way you counter super turtles is to put yourself at an early advantage by taking more resources and playing aggressively. Now sure map creeping is a problem in RTS but usually there are sniping mechanics you can employ to win.

Ever played supreme commander? Probably the best example of this there is. You can turtle really hard but turtle too hard and you seed map control, map control gives greater resources so the enemy can build either more units, bigger units or even go for a commander snipe to win.

Siege shouldn’t be the only defence but likewise we shouldn’t have teams so absurdly imbalanced where you have a map blob karma training 4 maps and the other two servers have barely enough people to defend their home border and keep in EB.

Still, I think education and getting people to work together would go a long way. Managed to hold bay in home last night against a 20-25 man group by making sure we had a ballista and 2 super ACs up and a few competent players. When they tried to treb our siege we stealth bombed it then got back quick enough to man the ballista again.

Oh yes..I agree you best a turtle by never letting them turtle up in the first place. However in WvW eventually you’re going to hit weak time or go to sleep and it will happen. Then you log in to a fortified keep with the entire wall lined with ACs, shield gens, trebs, and 30-40 angry defenders.

Now if you as a defender can stop 30 people with all that siege with only 10 what are the chances they will break in when you’re rocking equal numbers? That’s when havoc crews would punish turtling by capping your less defended stuff, but again….PPT is a dirty word, don’t ever suggest doing what I’m saying because you’ll be scorned for being anti-fights,. We are creating the problem due to a culture shift in the game.

I mean just tonight I had 30 guys respond to me banging on a paper door of garrison with the lucky 7 who made it on map. Funny the first few times it happens, but it doesn’t make it any less stupid. Folks just don’t want to split up because when you do all you find is either an overwhelming group who spams you over with 1111 or empty towers nobody gives a flip about.

apharma.3741:

Dinas Dragonbane.2978:

Dawdler.8521:

TorquedSoul.8097:

It seems that Anet has decided that blob wars is WvW. That is their choice.

I thought we overwhelmingly decided that with the majority approval of more populated worlds via the link.

Either way, the idea that blobs win wars is false. They may win a few fights but coverage wins wars. A 70 man blob will keep chasing 30+20+20 all around a border, never holding anything for long. If the other enemy decide to field 30+20+20 too, GG having your 70 man blob try to control 6 decently large forces.

The “problem” is that we the players have decided 3 things:
1) More than one commander is taboo, unless its a guild.
2) Guilds fight their own battles, even if they are 20 vs 50.
3) Pugs fight pugs, even if they are 20 vs 50, except in the cases where guilds grudgingly accept to step off their high piediestal for a moment and assist the peasants.

This behaviour lead to pretty much everyone seeking security in numbers.

So yeah. Actually, we decided that WvW is blob wars.

This is also very true as well. It makes me recall the earliest days of WvW with NO commander tags and people using only map/team chat to communicate. Was it chaotic? Yes it was! Allies and enemies were nearly everywhere but never in huge massive numbers and fights broke out nearly everywhere. Commanders tags once people got used to what they were helped teach people to group up in massive numbers. Enter map, look for tag…where the old days was enter map, talk in chat to find out what’s going on, move accordingly.

Yeah those good old days at the bottom of bronze tier before we got linked, maybe a few months ago =D

Sad to see it being blob wars but not every server is without shame. Gunners Hold while outnumbering us most of the time generally sticks to blogging EB and guilds in the borders. Sucks to be outnumbered by them but I’d rather fight them than the map blob for each map national servers we keep getting.

The crazy thing is that EB should be the worst map to blob on. Since you need to defend while also attacking 2 other sides. It really encouraged several groups vs one blob which would form for a reinforced keep or castle. Borders encourage more blobbing because the attacking force is more interested in busting down super hardened objectives.

If we want blobbing to decrease we need PPT to matter again so there is a reason to split up and cover more ground and we need siege to stop being designed to keep out a 50 man blob with 10-15 people.

Stuff needs to be lost sometimes. Not be ktrained per se, but be capturable with a reasonable amount of effort. Siege is a boost to your groups defense but it can’t be the only defense.

Ever played an RTS against a super turtle? It is long and super boring. Don’t make GW2 that way. Encourage activity and playing for objectives and the game grows in meaning and keeps you hooked. Otherwise you may as well rename the mode to “MMO Team Death match” and realize that in no TDM game is it wise to go alone.

The reason for the blobs is lack of leaders. Lots of leaders means lots of varying groups and teamwork. New players need to be taught and that takes time and leaders to do it. Though with the mergers the leaders have been cut in half or the mentality changed.

It is “get on my tag or you’re making us lose.”. Also the counter to blobs is to split and backcap so all they capture is lost while they are hard point stalled by siege defenders elsewhere. So they are forced to split or lose more than they gain.

This doesn’t work anymore because the general player culture now is “ppt is pointless” we want fights so that means winning and numbers makes winning easier and “siege is lame” and siege is also super too strong nearly demanding a blob to overcome on most fortified things.

We’ve all changed and those with a refined taste want more while others just want to log in and play. It’s just harder to make us all happy without options and space to do it.

There was an answer to blobbing getting old. It was called going down tiers where blobbing wasn’t as effective or necessary.

I still dislike this notion that someone should be forced to sacrifice the way they enjoy the game to better the “mass fights” crowd. What is a “mass fight” exactly? 40v40? 50v50? The game lags to death and skills sometimes stop firing and this is the “normal” state?

I fail to see it. If I prefer 20v20 and map mobility and coordination between maps then how am I making the game worse?

What is the point of epic fights of you are one of a blob of 40 and contributed barely anything? What about the community you grew to love and logged in just to hang out with? How many of those are gone or can’t even get on your map due to queues? I’ve been robbed of playing with the community I grew to love for 3 years several times due to queues.

It sucks to have half of your friends get go have fun while the rest are left out….

You can say you’re in this for the fights all you want, but I play to enjoy my guild and friends outside of the guild. The “fun” is gone and replaced with following mobs where you are a cog in the machine.

You all are reading what this guy ks saying but you aren’t hearing the heart of the words.

I’m slow to blame ANet on this one. This is all on the players. We screamed and whined for mergers and ANet came up with a way to let us test them temporarily. Granted it will never truly be back to normal since some couldn’t wait 3 months before stacking on some servers just to play with a host server. When we all knew the volatile nature of the situation.

We can’t throw ANet under the bus for listening to all the folks demanding that all us low tier folks stop hanging out in our empty dead servers and go get gentrified already.

We decide if we want this or not…..at least ANet gave us a vote with a 75% required majority. Do I like it? No, but we have only ourselves to blame. So there better not be one kitten peep out of anybody the first time this system screws you over. Take it and swallow it because remember….we asked for it.

I find myself shocked at just how many believe they are an authority on what WvW is or is supposed to be. I’ve seen WvW evolve over time and people form a refined taste for what they enjoy and what they don’t.

The tiers formed how they did naturally due to player choice. Some liked bigger blobs for epic feel and congregated together in the upper tiers. Fight guilds went to T2, people who wanted a balance of small and large went mid, and those who wanted medium to small went to lower.

Now choosing your own preference is gone. It’s map queue blob, big blob, or blobs on this map and empty on the others.
Also recall before you tell me that I still have a choice that my only open options are guest servers that could rotate me right back at any time forcing me to constantly pay a transfer tax everytime to readjust.
The idea that people in some tiers were miserable or misinformed is rediculous.

“Tyranny of the majority” IS a real and very dangerous thing. Never forget that.

What’s next? We tell Battlefield players that 64v64 should be the ONLY option and 32v32 is wrong and they are all ruining the 64v64 people’s fun by playing it?

Really?….

Xenesis.6389:

Roadbull.3457:

I mean…I don’t mean to harp here, but OF COURSE the majority of people are in favor of the linking. The majority of the game’s players are on the host servers who aren’t going to experience any of the community destroying / playstyle wrecking pain that comes with it.

The people stuck on the GUEST servers are eternally doomed to be switched and swapped at ANet’s whim with zero right or influence over when or how this happens even if they had chosen as a player to relocate at a COST prior.

The vote is currently sitting at:
Yes – 74.6%
No – 18.2%
Checking vote – 7.2%

It needs 75% to pass.

If you’re sitting on a lower population server and unhappy about this make sure you and others on your server who feel this way votes. The vote is so close that every vote matters.

If it does not go through then read Tyler’s post above, everything will go back to normal.

Yes, I agree.

This is exactly why I posted what I did. With luck some will read it and consider something he or she may not have realized had I not put it there. The game’s fate is in the hands of the players. While the linking is not the way I feel it should be done (due to the guest problem). I do feel that the reduction of the number of tiers is not necessarily a bad idea.

I wouldn’t care about instability if transfers were free, but the fact I need to spend time (getting gold) or spend real money to move servers makes the idea of being forcibly relocated after that money is spent absolutely unacceptable.

It’s like paying for room at a hotel and then being told “Oh, sorry, you can’t stay at THIS hotel, you need to go to the one down the street, instead.” I don’t think anybody would accept such a notion very openly.

I posted this on another thread about the poll, but I felt it was best to put it here, as well, because this is the actual thread…

I mean…I don’t mean to harp here, but OF COURSE the majority of people are in favor of the linking. The majority of the game’s players are on the host servers who aren’t going to experience any of the community destroying / playstyle wrecking pain that comes with it.

The people stuck on the GUEST servers are eternally doomed to be switched and swapped at ANet’s whim with zero right or influence over when or how this happens even if they had chosen as a player to relocate at a COST prior.

Does NOBODY see a problem with this? Simply because I’m on ET I get to be a second class citizen / unwitting mercenary who has no say in where I go and who I am paired with? Every few months I have to adjust to a whole new culture, a whole new teamspeak, a whole new group of server leaders, and always never be fully trusted.

Even with BG being very friendly folks. After all the time this linking has been in effect ET still has zero representatives on BG teamspeak to verify our own people. Wonder how nice it will be a year or so from now when I am keeping track of 4-5 different Teamspeak addresses. Why bother getting invested in the community if it will only change in a few months, right? What keeps people playing MMORPGS? Loot? Or PEOPLE?

Not to mention what if I’m a newbie on ET with no WvW guild? Well….better go find an ET guild, right? Since ET’s community will be completely wrecked by then after being absorbed so many times there may not even be any ET WvW guilds left, so you’ll be stuck switching guilds over…and over…and over as each switch happens. You want to talk about new player experiences, just imagine THIS mess.

The obvious answer would be for me to transfer to a HOST server, right? Guess what…they are all FULL because that is where all the player base already is, therefore, they are oblivious to the problem. I am actually 100% UNABLE to correct this issue myself because it has been made literally impossible for me to do so. No wait…I take that back. I can fix it as long as I’m willing to pay my transfer TAX every few months….

How would YOU feel if you spent 200 gold or $20 or more on a server transfer and then suddenly the next week your were linked with the server you just left? You would be LIVID. That is exactly what can and WILL happen to you if you vote yes to linking. It’s only a matter of time and I am pretty sure when it DOES happen ANet won’t be offering you any compensation in return.

As a player I should be able to choose the scale and playstyle that best suits what I want from the game. It’s what keeps me playing. When you remove that freedom from me then you lose me as a player. I can win every single week and still be completely miserable.

There is such a thing as “the tyranny of the majority,” and this is one time where it is 100% appropriate.

I mean…I don’t mean to harp here, but OF COURSE the majority of people are in favor of the linking. The majority of players are on the host servers who are NOT going to experience the pain I mentioned. The people stuck on the guest servers are eternally doomed to be switched and swapped at ANet’s whim with zero right or influence over when or how this happens even if they had chosen as a player to relocate at a COST prior.

Does NOBODY see a problem with this? Because I’m on ET I get to be a second class citizen who has no say in where I go and who I am paired with simply because I am on ET? NO…that is WRONG.

The obvious answer would be to transfer to a HOST server, but guess what…they are all full because that is where all the people already are, and thus they are oblivious to the problem. I am actually 100% UNABLE to correct this issue myself because it has been made literally impossible. No wait…I take that back. I can fix it as long as I’m willing to pay my transfer TAX every few months….

How would YOU feel if you spent 200 gold or $20 or more on a server transfer and then suddenly the next week your were linked with the server you just left? You would be LIVID. That is exactly what can and WILL happen to you if you vote yes to linking. It’s only a matter of time and I am pretty sure when it DOES happen ANet won’t be offering you any compensation in return.

There is such a thing as “the tyranny of the majority,” and this is one time where it is 100% appropriate.

All I can say…is please just remove it. My joy in this game is gone for WvW. It’s blob here….wander a map for 15 minutes looking for the map queue. Must play Hardcore 24/7…community destroyed and worse no good options.

Let’s say I get sick of T1 and go T4…okay…great. All the "HOST’ servers are full so my only options are the kitten servers who could be reswapped at any time. So I could spend $20 to switch to what I want as a player and then have that decision reverted and my money WASTED by a server switch I would have NO control over.

It IS NOT FAIR. DO NOT LINK. MERGE IT. At least then I can make a decision that won’t be screwed over later. A game is all about OPTIONS and freedom.

In FPS games you can choose 8v8, 16v16, 32v32, 64v64….there are always size options. In RTS you can do 1v1, 2v2, 4v4…there are size options. The merging removed the option to pick a scale you enjoyed and were comfortable with and left you no real way to relocate without spending gold/real money for something that could be taken away from you without you having any input.

It’s unfair and frankly is destroying the one thing that has kept me enjoying this game for 3 years.

Anemonity.1264:

Roadbull.3457:

Don’t worry BG, we know that we are welcome. BG never made us feel unwanted, although the only BGers I met were in EOTM. All of ET TS was basically locked out of WvW completely the moment the maps opened. The only ETers that you met were likely a very fortunate few.

Here is hoping our experience is different further into the week. Tonight felt kind of like everybody getting dressed up for a party, showing up, and then having the door slammed in our face =/

Understandable. A lot of us in BG are used to reset queues so people spam portal as soon as the scores reset to get into the map. it must be frustrating for you guys. Be assured it’s not our intention to log you out we just treated it as any reset and tried to get in ASAP.

But as other said queues aside from EB are generaly reset specific

Our rage and disappointment was justifiably thrown ANET’s direction for the queue situation and not you all. We were all prepared for some degree of Queue, but I don’t think anybody was prepared for just how long they would truly be.

Don’t worry BG, we know that we are welcome. BG never made us feel unwanted, although the only BGers I met were in EOTM. All of ET TS was basically locked out of WvW completely the moment the maps opened. The only ETers that you met were likely a very fortunate few.

Here is hoping our experience is different further into the week. Tonight felt kind of like everybody getting dressed up for a party, showing up, and then having the door slammed in our face =/

Hello all,

(the TLDR part providing some background before I get to the point)
I began my humble GW2 career on Eredon Terrace way back a few months after launch. Not early enough to get a fancy baseball cap, but early enough to have my three birthday boosters for my main character Simba Khan.

ET has been my home on GW2 for my entire time on GW2 minus 5-6 months I spent on NSP. There I had my own little GW2 journey starting off as a clueless pug, to roamer, to pugmander, and even eventually a highly respected community server leader and guild leader of Flames of Courage [FoC].

We always had coverage issues and thus never climbed very far, but we always focused on making sure that when we DID play, we had a blast doing it. We would host Server wide events such as class specific zergs like Necros, Engineers, Rangers, Rifle warriors, etc. We would also host themed nights like Ladies night with pop songs, drinking, wearing pink, sappy poetry reading, and bad karaoke. Our most successful event was a Mystery Night where every single guild on the server got together to solve a pre-made mystery made up by members of our community.

Long story short…I’ve had quite the journey with this server and the game’s history.
(end of the TLDR part)

Now…we fast forward to today and the Population Beta.
The folks here on ET knew that we were going to be a small fish in a big pond, so we all got together and made up a plan. We all wanted to play the game together like we always had, for better or for worse. We gathered up, we made our squads, had our plans, and were all ready to go in and face whatever.

Then WvW opened and before somebody could even say the map to join…every single map was queued. Each.and.every.one. Not a single person in TS got onto a map.

Now, while I understand that nobody wants empty maps, and nobody wants unbalanced BS matchups, either. ET wasn’t a “partner” with Blackgate tonight for reset because nobody actually made it in to participate..other than maybe 1-2 lucky souls. We were shut out immediately.

ANET, your goal was to provide servers with a way to keep their identity, but in this case you erased us from existence tonight. We were given nowhere to play and just threw our hands up and went into EOTM and spent our night there.

Now, this is long-winded, I know. However, I wanted to paint a picture of an EXPERIENCE that was had, not just log in and complain. Our experience was one of uncertain excitement that quickly evolved into complete disappointment and frustration.

I fully expect these queues to die down as the week goes on, but you always wanted reset to be like a big party and everybody was invited. Well tonight…everybody was invited….except us =/

What went wrong and how I believe we could better utilize the linked server feature:

1. Balanced Population/Coverage: A balanced matchup is a rare commodity because while you CAN affect population you can’t necessarily control skill level. However, Glicko’s job is to help by finding servers that generally can compete with one another based on performance. We want to see scores that are close, which is usually caused by all competing servers having a reasonably equal population/skill level across all times zones. This is where mergers can really help when one group gets way out of control. For example, merging a high NA prime population server with a high EU time zone population to increase its coverage and make it more competitive with another server with a similar coverage spread.

2. Battle sizes that fit OUR individual tastes. Not everybody will agree on what density of population activity is ideal. Personally I believe 20-30 man fights are perfect to keep things fun and epic while avoiding many of the dangers of “cheese.” The beauty of the old setup was that you really had options. The lower your tier the smaller the scale of the fighting that you would encounter until you found your particular taste. This allowed players to find that right server/tier for them and settle in.

This particular merger selection took the two most incompatible groups and forced them together. You took people who were used to small scale/rapid access and threw them in with people who like huge scale/wait your turn.

On your next pass in this Beta, I suggest that you attempt to link like-minded groups together.

Here is a hypothetical example…

ET has awesome NA prime but we lack late night and early morning coverage. Pair us with a server who generally struggles during NA but has more activity during times where we are lacking. This way both servers actually help one another and can create better competition for other servers with similar activity. That way we don’t get swallowed by the “host” and both linked servers actually learn to appreciate each other’s contributions.

The issue with this specific merger (I can’t speak for the other mergers at this time) is that ET doesn’t really offer BG anything other than increasing their queue numbers during NA.

Although the BG people that I have met (granted they were in EOTM) were welcoming and friendly, which I give them thanks for.

I’m going to stay optimistic because I do really see great potential here to make things better than they were. I’ll add an edit to this post later based on how things change throughout the week, but I wanted to make sure that you folks at ANET were given some constructive feedback for opening night

Sometimes the needs of many outweight the few – RIP Spock
Having a large number night cap on tiers with no response creates an artificial balance where the day is ktrained by one group and the night is ktrained by another and hours where actual combat occurs is minimalized and made irrelevant. It isn’t hard to see why many see this as a problem.

As someone who was part of a “whole server goes together” thing before. I wouldn’t recommend it. You’ll do it believing that you’ll all stick together and it will be great! The reality is that you all log in and play out of loyalty to one another. You know that you’re important and needed. Which is why you try so hard and support your friends. Those bonds took a long time to form.

Once you all leave to your new home you’ll find some guilds from your community do well while others will struggle and lose interest. It will become harder to maintain that feeling of community as people you knew form new relationships and grow farther apart as they merge into this new community creating something similar to what you had but undeniably different.

Will you and your friends be judged as a welcome addition or dead weight taking up a queue spot? Will the server leaders have YOUR community’s best interests in mind when discussing ideas and planning?

Not to mention the huge ripple effect caused throughout the tiers by such a large movement of players. What will happen in T7 and 8? What will happen in your new tier? Will you start a bandwagon? Will you overstack your new home? What reactions so happen in response?

Just….be very cautious. It may not turn out entirely as you think. ETs exodus wasn’t really planned…it…just happened due to frustrations that took a long time to finally come to a head.

Though while our new home was very welcoming and I harbor no ill feelings at all toward them, the fact remains…I saw our community fragment completely and turn into something totally foreign. We were all together…..but not really. I eventually went back to ET but the fact remains that what was done can never be undone. What once was…will likely never ever be again.

If you go this route. Do so with great great caution.

Hello OP,
I was a commander in Eredon Terrace for several years. I understand your frustration and wish you had logged into a better experience. Many players log into wvw and expect action 24/7 but really all tiers and servers have luls in the action even the big ones. Most ET players will be around really early morning or NA prime time.

ET is in a hard spot right now where many guilds left and because of this it is constantly out numbered. However, there are still guilds in your server fighting the good fight and need people like you that want to learn and grow and help them fight back against their oversized opponents.

While everyone may say “just leave” that isn’t always the answer. Your community still has really great people you just need to find them. ET will turn around, it always bounces back eventually. Look for TFOR or OTBH on your server TS and website.

If you try to reach out and still find that you just can’t enjoy the game then consider transfer. Just remember…bigger isn’t always better.

DR needs help? The tier you are in allows you to K-train with impunity all over ETs borders and you bail or wipe to anything equal number. Then when you have the blobs you ignore Ferg even during weak times and sit in second blaming numbers. Nobody else will go to DR if there are no actual fights and you are doing nothing to create them by asking people to stack you more and ignoring the other servers in your tier.

Again…part of the problem. Call for your tier in general and focus on making it fun and dynamic again and your server will grow as the fights for all servers get better.

This is just sad. “We need people!!!!”. No. You do not. You need competition so fighting in your server will actually be interesting for a change.

Devona’s Rest, who’s that again?

Oh that’s right……it’s that server that spends all of its time focusing empty borders on Eredon Terrace and soliciting people to stack them rather than attempting to balance out their match/tier. One week on ET is all it took for me to see how DR was part of the problem in T8 and not the solution.

I see nothing here of value other than a desperate bid for attention.

Random speculation. The egg isn’t an egg at all. It is a seed for a new Pale tree. That would explain a lot. Glint forsees the death of the tree so Glint gives a seed to the master of peace to protect until the time is right. The pale tree is wounded so the master goes on the move. Caithe sees the “egg” immediately recognizes it as a seed and snatches it.

Final missions we protect a budding blossom of a new pale tree while fighting off mordys minions intent on cutting it down before it can spawn a new enemy against him.

I just find it sad. I’ve played the game for a year and ET has been stuck at the bottom of the barrel for that entire time.
Then finally after a year of torture we finally started to bounce back only for free transfers to sap all of our strength and leave us with bare bones. Fighting all day and spending entire weekends trying to keep the score up would always be proven meaningless as other servers would night cap everything and wipe out all gains and upgrades.

Add to that the servers who constantly attacked us while ignoring each other simply because “ET is more fun to fight,” leads to fun for everyone else but frustration for everyone except the most hardcore players.

The irony of it all, is that ET is full of awesome people who play the game for fun and seem to keep at it despite all the outnumbered nights, all the lost ground, and everything else. There are sometimes you can just sense this despair of “why bother?” when they watch all their hard work during the day be erased. However, somehow, those same people show up against the next day and play the game and have just as much fun as always.

My question is. Why does the community seem to hate ET? Recruitment threads get trolled, other servers/guilds throw a giant fits over attempts to improve morale like zerg fight videos to the point of harassing folks through whispers and holding grudges like ET isn’t allowed to win a fight because we’re supposed to be the ones who roll over and just die, and even our chance to escape last was foiled because we were focused on the week we had a chance to avoid it.

I’ll stay on ET until I quit this game, but I can never help but think that I’m just punishing myself and making it so I will Never have the experience that I should with the game because each time it feels like we’ll escape ANet just throws balance out the window right before season starts, we get owned, everyone leaves to join the winning servers, and we start all over from square one, again.

ET will never die because the folks that love it won’t let it, but jeez…Seasons have done nothing but bring my game experience complete MISERY every single time. If they disappeared never to return I wouldn’t shed a single tear about it.

Hadan.2841:

If ET didnt have such ego problems and the people listened to commanders maybe guilds would stick around. The community of ET fights with eachother and calls eachother out all the time in team chat. Why would you expect ppl to stick around a place like tht?

That’s a good question, and I honestly don’t know. Though I do wonder, why should 1-2 trolls cost the entire server an opportunity at a fun game mode? Cedrick never seems to have issues with trolls often, and if he does, he ignores them. Maybe that’s why so many respect him and listen to him.

It’s natural for people to lash out at the leadership if they’re frustrated, because they’re the easiest people to blame. I saw what happened that one night to Gilkin, and that person was a total jerk. Gilkin was doing AMAZING, but one person just wouldn’t shut up. It was sad when that one person ruined a good night under Gilkin’s leadership.

ArcturusWolf.1205:

I’m seriously losing faith in WvW’s balancing with this update, really.

Throwing us with SF and HoD is extremely questionable. Bottom of T8, with top of T8 and a T(6?). We on ET had the short end of the stick for quite a long time now, and they decided to rub salt into our wounds? If they wanted to cycle colours they could just do it inside each tier.

And then comes the issue of excessive rewards on Southsun. It’s draining our (already small) WvW presence to almost nothing. Four days in a row I’ve only been able to find two other people on the map. No talking, nothing. So we were forced to watch helplessly as HoD and SF zergs just rolled over everything we had that was fortified. Several gold down the sink in one sitting.

Is this what they intended for WvW? Just a glorified gold sink that no PvE’r will play since they are too interested in gold and legendaries.

I honestly believe that this is the real problem. I’ve only been playing WvW for maybe 3-4 months. I started playing for 3 reasons:
1. Map completion
2. Something new and different than slapping monsters all day
3. My guild was too small to do dungeons

I found myself playing it more and more, to the point of ignoring PvE entirely! I was awful and first and died so much I lost more money than I gained, but as I got better I suddenly discovered that this fast and dynamic game was not only fun but profitable too!
I was considering getting a commander tag and everything before. However, since the last few patches and about 2-3 weeks of match ups, I have noticed a few things…

1. My map completion is still not done and likely won’t happen for months because of match ups that make getting that last poi/vista impossible and the color switching refusing to give me green.
2. It just isn’t that profitable for me, anymore. The siege updates have slowed the game pace down significantly. What used to be a game with constant movement, action, and reward now seems to be more of a game of bang ones head against a wall of arrow carts where the only reasonable choice is to hang back with a treb since any other faster option means certain death.

There needs to be incentive for us to play, and I’m running out of reasons to care. It doesn’t help that ET keeps losing guild after guild while others keep gaining further enhancing the problem.

Yes, a dead Mesmer that we had to sit on for an entire boring hour. I mean, seeing all the talk of these epic battles going on in map chat was nothing compared to the excitement of standing around a corpse. It got so exciting, that I actually ported back to the citadel just so I could waste 15 badges on a stealth trap and run all the way back. ANet needs to just let me burn the zombie corpses.