I’d also like to know WHEN people are playing. I’ve never seen as few as CharJC and rarely as few as Timmyf. It might be as simple as mega works ok for peeps off-peak. It is a disaster to me NA prime as I simply can’t do what I like to do and how I like to it anymore.
If we only had choices of what type of Mega low/med/high pop we wanted to play in, maybe that would be ok. I do not enjoy map complete now as it is either stupid easy or I am waiting for mobs to spawn…
I’ve seen nothing but toxic chat outside of Vigil Keep. When I was doing hearts on my new thief in Queensdale and there were nothing but insults. When I was trying to do some map completion on Malchor’s Leap, people were angry over the defend events as they were looking for trait unlocks. It’s my personal policy to simply not play with people when any drama ensues.
Chat hasn’t always been pleasant of course, but it seems to me that the atmosphere has gotten a lot more hostile with the megaservers. :S Overcrowding perhaps? But in any case, I’ve only seen the negative effects.
Exactly, too many people with no option to play in a less populated version of the map. Mapping straights was stupid easy. Maybe some like that, but not me. Anyone can do all of pve mapping solo – get an ash legion spy kit to get past those champs for the communes…. I’d rather do that at times and then opt-in for world bosses (though there are too many for those too).
Either way, right now I feel I am competing against other people for the kills then playing with them.
Not sure if this has been posted before or not, but is friends list at all considered in the megaserver choosing? if it isn’t, could that be implemented in some way?
They can’t even get people from the same party into the same instance. Friend’s list? Forget it.
Actually, that is a bit of an exaggeration and doesnt really help. We need to make the argument without hyperbole or exaggeration – which way too often buries legitimate conversations on these forums.
It is more likely to resonate and produce change (rather than burying the issue under criticism for the sole sake of criticism).
The vast majority of the time, parties are kept together. The issue is with larger groups, most notably guilds trying to do missions or other things together, but friends as well.
Again, we direly need a way to get to the map our friends/guildees are on without having to drop/party/drop/party for taxis. It is very frustrating and time consuming – taking away from us having fun.
But again, let’s make the argument based on fact and try not to resort to exaggeration. That doesn’t help anyone.
I’ve seen it happen. It is not hyperbole or exaggeration….. Just because it works some of the time does not mean it is working.
why care about server identity in WvW? Get off my server please.
Was meant as return identity somewhere in pve to give meaning to server in wvw, not remove it from wvw. From a Pvx point of view, it doesn’t’ make sense otherwise. Minimally a server only hub like la, but I don’t like mega anywhere tbh….
This really stinks for militia servers like ours. We of course have a dedicated group that live in wvw, but call to arms were very common pre mega.
If a Huge push or defensive stand was needed, map chat LA. Many would respond for the immediate need and happily go back to pve until the next call to arms.
Without any sort of server identity in pve, why care about server identity in wvw (from a pvxer point of view).
I’d love to know how you can be sure a player is a bot.
Its very easy to recognise bots once you know what to look for.
They have certain behavoral patterns. The most common ones are:
- Never playing with any ally
- Not resurrecting NPCs or players
- Running away from Champions the instant they come in range
- Attacking invulnerable or obstructed mobs indefinitely
- Not jumping over obsticles or getting stuck
- Running bearbow Ranger or minion Necro
These are just a few of the obvious signs. Of course, you don’t report someone based upon just a few of these signs, you only report when you see them all. Otherwise, you risk tagging perfectly good players as bots.
Furthermore, ANet has 100% ability to verify bots, because bots will always execute actions in a certain way, for example they will not try to complete heart quests, and all of their chat (which is logged) will come off as either spam or nonsense.
There’s little risk of a legit player getting banned even if you accidentally report them because ANet carefully verifies the information beforehand.
But you still shouldn’t report unless you are absolutely sure.
I’d be curious to know how many times I have been reported(I have only 1 character IGN is: Mudbones[LaZy]) as being a bot(so, if you see that name and tag i’m not a bot) because I fit at least 50% of the criteria that you mentioned for being a bot.
I’m a big time SOLO FARMER running bearbow(my bear is excellent for soloing, I use my ranged black widow during events) in FGS and everywhere else, I even hop on trains I see running at the time for areas I go to for more lootz(not concerned with the coinage, just the mats from salvaging).
I would venture to say that 75% of reports on supposed bots are nothing more than people like me and only ties up dev resources on such reports when those resources could have been used to actually be working on the game. MORE POWER TO THE SERIOUS FARMER.
I will echo your last sentance; “you shouldn’t report unless you are ABSOLUTELY sure”.
Even you don’t take the EXACT same route with the same pauses and actions. Really pronounced when there are more than two, following the exact same footsteps.
There are some crashes you can ignore the error “box/message” for a minute or 2 before you really crash. Won’t work all the time, but keep playing and you might get the chest before the boot…….
I turn graphics way down and video card fan way up for teq/Karka. I don’t care as much about the other bosses so don’t bother (unless really laggy ).
Well dang, that blog post amounts to a pretty epic face slap.
Only if you don’t actually read it.
This -
“Our megaserver team will continue to monitor the performance of the technology on live and evaluate your feedback. We will continue to tweak and update the way the system works until it is providing even better megaservice!”
Is not a face slap.
That said, there are some things (most notably the ability to keep large guild groups together more reliably) that need to be implemented REALLY soon.
Let us right click anyone on our friends or guild list and “travel to XYZ zone” without having to be in 5-man parties. Shuffling parties in just takes way too much time and is really not fun.
If they really listened, they would have fixed the flaws BEFORE expanding it everywhere….
I believe many didn’t want to rollout so fast, but we’re told to do so by the people writing the checks…
Or find a server that wins every week -hod in silver NA wins every week so should be green for the rest of the season. Are there servers in eu that stacked with free xfers before seasons?
Ramon isn’t Dev, he’s German Community Manager
His post in few words for non German speakers (sorry for bad english, I’m no native speaker). Maybe later there will be an official english post.
He says A-Net is reading our feedback and they work on the Megaserver.
Chatfilter is only a temporary solution.
They consider feedback from large guilds and Server organisations, they don’t want to make organisation of big events impossible, but dont have a solution at this time.
They are looking what can be done for RP community, some changes in algorithm were done especially in towns, but isn’t finish yet.
Megaserver system wasn’t made to save Server costs, it only redistributes serverloads.
They’ll rework schedules for world bosses, especially Karka Queen, Tequatl and Worm, for getting a better time frame for EU.
They are watching the max. number of people on one map and will make adjustments if necessary.
Devs are working active to improve the Megaserver, and watch our feedback, so keep on posting, especially EU feedback because of the different languages problems. Keep on posting, we are listening.
It’s really, really great to read this and I truly hope we see fixes for these problems sooner rather than later, however I have to wonder why any company (MMO or otherwise) would knowingly introduce and roll out “broken” solutions to their servers. These problems were highlighted before the patch when they (and other problems introduced by the patch) should have been fixed before these changes hit the live servers. Even if (especially if) that means either delaying the entire patch or delaying certain features from it.
Other people have called for a public test realm and I really think this shows the benefits one could bring; all these problems that were apparently missed by ArenaNet would have been caught and highlighted before the changes went live. Also the simple knowledge that features I really wanted were on the test server in other games was enough for me. Sure it’d be a while before they arrive but now at least know they’re coming!
Because the people writing the checks told them they had to.
I’d like to revise and amend my remarks regarding difficulties imposed on large guilds by Megaserver.
Others have proposed solutions to the server community / identity, RP, and language issues. The following should not be incompatible with any of those ideas.
Problem
Because Megaserver is trying to keep instances as full as possible, a large guild that could max out an instance by itself will have a hard time getting together. Guilds have been trying to solve the problem themselves by using the party system to ferry people into one instance, but for popular content the instances become hard capped quickly. It’s also very inconvenient and time consuming.
Even with the “sorting hat” features – it’s unclear if those have been added yet – Megaserver can never know ahead of time whether a member of such a guild is just there to solo, or if the rest of the guild will be on their way shortly. It can’t read minds. What we need is some way to tell it when we’re ready to be grouped together.
Proposal
Guild officers should be given a button that instructs Megaserver to begin a consolidation process. This would create a new instance of the officer’s current map and offer each guild member from other instances a ferry to the new guild instance. The guild instance should be exclusive to guild members for a short period of time – just long enough to accept the ferry and port in. After that, the guild instance joins Megaserver’s pool of available instances for anyone to join according to the whims of the sorting hat. Guild members who are late to the event would either be sorted in by the sorting hat or would have to ask to be ferried in by party, but the bulk of the guild would be united quickly and easily.
I would hope that if there has to be a price tag on accessing the guild-instance button it would be a one time cost. It can’t have a long cooldown or a high price tag per use or it would be useless.
In case the creation of extra instances really is a problem from a server cost standpoint, note that it’s likely a net gain of zero instances. By consolidating a guild onto their own instance, you vacate the other instances that probably would have become hard capped anyway.
I really like this idea. Still no server wide world boss tour as one, or easily finding temples to do – but a great start.
Was wandering, does trolling from other servers happen often or just during tourney times? I’ve personally seen three so far this week and have heard of many more. Wasting supply, meaningless upgrading of towers and keeps etc…..
Just thinking how sad its become that other realms feel the need to send trolls.
I doubt trolls are ‘sent’ – more likely immature peeps acting alone or with a handful of their immature friends. And yea, might be from your own server trying instigate……
They already did – it’s called mega server where you already are commingled.
Irelevent to WvW
Not for Pvx peeps that wvw. There is no server to fight for. There is no place for a general call to arms to help wvw. And it is coming to wvw eventually – either forced or natural attrition.
For world events it is not much different than the old overflow system, where you may or may not be able to join on an existing party. Granted, I’m on Blackgate, so world events were always crowded.
It is much different on YB. Yes we would hit OF at times, but not constantly as what happens now.
I’m surprised people are complaining about this. It seems to have accomplished exactly what they said they wanted – most maps now feel full of people.
Personally I’m all for it.
Your server must not have had server wide events like world boss or temple runs. Near impossible now with the people you “know” in an internet sort of way. You can do the bosses, just not easily with friends.
they already said that wasn’t going to happen. And if it did, then my only real reason for playing the game as much as I do now would be ruined.
They also said a slow rollout to pve to see how it goes. It didn’t go well in many people’s opinion, yet is now in all pve areas as of last night…. I think the decision makers may not be the designers….
There is no sense of community outside of wvw with mega server rollout. Why keep one only for wvw? It is going to happen, just a matter of when not if.
Ps-I’d rather not have the mega server, but it is what it is.
Servers don’t exist with mega server – no community left if you pve at all. And just how do recruit rally the troops for wvw when home cities aren’t even just your server……
I don’t see much difference between hod season 2 and FA season 1, the numbers overwhelmed everyone else in silver the entire season….. That said, there certainly aren’t 3 silver that could compete in gold, so sort of stuck with what we have. A limited free xfer to hod instead of unlimited would have helped, but unknown by how much.
I hope it is changed. A trait unlock from a 3 times a day boss spawn was not very well thought out. I unlocked a few chars at Karka. I have only done melandru once since – i will check that toon.
What you are seeing at vigil keep is the old overflow system. And it was constant OF on YB because of the patch. I ended up seeing way in more divinity reach than I ever have as peeps were using the black lion armorer. We resorted to shout outs at both locs for the trait unlock bosses.
slightly off topic, sorry I missed the shouts since i wasn’t lucky enough to be there at the time… U willing to post a list of the trait unlock bosses????
The traits themselves show where to go. I know Lyssa, Grenth, and High Wizard at Arah are 3. (Ship of sorrows in straights of devastation is another)
What you are seeing at vigil keep is the old overflow system. And it was constant OF on YB because of the patch. I ended up seeing way in more divinity reach than I ever have as peeps were using the black lion armorer. We resorted to shout outs at both locs for the trait unlock bosses.
The free xfers would have been ok if they were a limited number of slots. Unlimited made silver a farce for who wins…. Oh well, still having fun, just not when we face the horde.
Seems to be a battle in silver for the 4/5/6 spots.
You guys have a good matchup with IoJ and NSP this week (I think NSP might pull it out, over IoJ).
Gotta say, YB has surprised me with how well they have performed this season so far. I wonder if we (SBI) will actually face you this season, or if we will just continue to swap in and out of the HoD/FA match.
I have sort of wondered that too. Week isn’t over yet, but not looking forward to hod/F A, if standings stay put.
The free xfers would have been ok if they were a limited number of slots. Unlimited made silver a farce for who wins…. Oh well, still having fun, just not when we face the horde.
Boy, just imagine how many servers might’ve gotten a bost after people jumped off of other servers when they realized their server was gonna get crappy rewards. We will find out after week 4.
But is week 4 too late? That leaves 3 weeks you can fight in actual wvw BLs while you spent 4 on the original server. I would think after this week is when you need to transfer.
Not on today, but this has happened to me/YB as well. In the past, I was assuming it was the map and all sides on that map had the same problem, but I don’t know that for sure.
SBI, while very strong season 1, didn’t have the influx that free transfers brought either (at least I don’t think so). While I don’t agree with many of the points the BP poster made, I do agree pre-determined outcomes are very blah. Maybe some like rolling over and pvdoor, but that is barely more fun than getting rolled from my pov.
It’s based on points. After week one, the winners all had 5 points, the second place had 3 points, and the losers all had 1 point. So the matchups based on points for week two were 5/5/5, 3/3/3, and 1/1/1, which seems to be the effect you were talking about. Next week it will be 10/8/8, 6/6/6, 4/4/2; not quite so even. After that there’s more uncertainty.
NA Silver should be (based on current scores):
HoD/FA/SBI
YB/NSP/IoJ
BP/CD/SoR
This is my understanding as well, by why doesn’t anet show the cumulative points somewhere? Easy to count up for 2 weeks, but who will remember 4 weeks in what all servers did every week….
1) Hordes of Denravi
2) FA
3) IOJ
4) SBI
5) YB
6) CD
7) NSP
8) BP
9) SOR
It will be interesting to see
A) how militia/pve responds once they have the meta and are not in a karma train match.
B) how many leave servers 6-9 in the next 2 weeks or so for a weapon skin.
WvW is inherently balanced. they said this before release. I think it’s unavoidable that people will band together and gang up on smaller guys. this is WvW. drama, and betrayal is part of the fun.
ive been on a a bad WvW server, and everyone moved including my entire guild. thats just the way it is. it’s utopia to suggest you could control it without restricting people from playing with their friends.
You can’t stop them from moving (nor should they have), but why was cost for server 1-12 the same? With 13-15 free? Maybe a scale where 1 was the most and each rank down was cheaper….. Then they could have had the free transfers (but limited) to fill in the bottom 3 slots of silver bronze. It still may have resulted in blowouts, but mass stack of hod was expected…..
The best way to combat hackers? Report them and stop arguing amongst yourselves over which server has more hackers.
Same can be said about poor winners/losers – the corpse dancers/emote spammers/smack talkers… Actions of some do not reflect the actions of an entire server….
Will be interesting if HoD actual do really well against FA. Will they attract even more transfers (HoD being only 1000 gems, and FA being 2400 gems) if people think they have the potential to win the league?
I wondered this myself for anyone not in 5th or above after 2-3 weeks. If you want the skin 6th won’t cut it…..
