Guild Wars 2

Just to clarify you are talking about when in stealth the Life Steal skill is hitting you with damage correct?

I believe Life Steal skill is a channeling and they will finish their duration when you enter stealth to reduce the damage from them you will want to block or evade.

Wasbunny.6531:

Thanks pixiedancer, unfortunately that’s kind of what I expected. I heard someone say that only Divinity’s Reach in NA is testing the new algorithm to try to give the home server more priority.

I still see every other city a chaotic mess of trolling / skill spamming that I very rarely saw on TC before. DR seems to be the exception right now as I don’t see any difference.

So I’m hoping ArenaNet has found the sweet spot with the weighting/prioritizing of home servers with DR (NA) and after some verification and more testing implement it for the rest.

Keep in mind though that for the other cities even Tarnished Coast’s population may not be enough to keep the shard full to the point that the algorithm decides that it does not need to dump more people there. So you may still have other servers joining you.

Remember: Report those that break the Rules of Conduct then block them.
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/legal/guild-wars-2-rules-of-conduct/

Nube one one seven.7039:

I just logged back on for five minutes, to see if the new megaservers were any more tolerable after a couple of days. Needless to say, I`m now waiting on final confirmation from Anet on whether or not I need to cut my losses, and uninstall the game. I honestly enjoyed the game before the “update”, but now, now I can`t be on for five minutes without gritting my teeth. I Honestly would revert to the game prior to this update, wardrobe system and all, if it meant I could ACTAULLY CHOOSE WHO I PLAY WITH. One way or another, this`ll be over for me when Anet finally decides to comment on it, either it`ll get fixed, or it`ll be just one more customer they`ll lose.

EDIT: typos

They are working on it. You will need to use Google Translate to translate the dev post.

https://forum-de.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Megaserver-System-Die-Konsequenzen/page/15#post374779

Im Mudbone.1437:

GW1 did it the CORRECT WAY using districts that could be manually switched to.

They have already stated that they thought about districts. However that may not be the best idea for this game.

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

hchadw.1097:

Is there a reason why the District system wasnt adopted from guildwars 1 and used for the instances in GW2 map zones instead of the original overflow idea.

Guild Wars 1 is a very different game both in design and implementation. That’s all I can really say here.

There is a big downside to them implementing districts that a lot of people may not have thought of. I will not go into them here likely for the same reason that the dev said “That’s all I can really say here.”

I will say this however. There is a reason why they limited guesting to two times in a 24 hour period. For that same reason we can not have districts. Unless they find some other way to effectively do the same limitations. But then would you really want to switch districts if you were limited to how many times you could do it?

Hystery.8415:

kuscheldrow.6415:

They are still monitoring the Megaserver and keeping an eye on map population. They are tewaking the algorythm and are still on it to keep the feeling of a ‘home-comunity’, especially in cities.

Well, easy. No need to tweaking an algorythm or whatsoever. They remove cities from megaserver and the problem is solved.

I’ve the feeling Anet always seeks the most complicated path to solve the simplest problem.

Except the best solutions are not always the best ones.

(This comment does not necessarily reflect my views on if cities should or should not be part of the MegaServer System I am honestly still undecided on that matter. I just felt that comment was needed. )

I can confirm that guesting will effect the shard you get put on. I have tested it myself.

But that is not what this thread is about.

I do agree however that they need to get the MegaServer situation figured out before they release the new living story.

They have already stated that they thought about districts. However that may not be the best idea for this game.

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

hchadw.1097:

Is there a reason why the District system wasnt adopted from guildwars 1 and used for the instances in GW2 map zones instead of the original overflow idea.

Guild Wars 1 is a very different game both in design and implementation. That’s all I can really say here.

There is a big downside to them implementing districts that a lot of people may not have thought of. Other community sites have discussed the downside and it is a big one. I will not go into them here for the same reason that the dev said “That’s all I can really say here.”

I will say this however. There is a reason why they limited guesting to two times in a 24 hour period. For that same reason we can not have districts.

This thread was not opened to discuss MegaServers from what I understand. I thought the thread for that would be the following:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Game-Updates-Guild-World-Events-Megaservers-WvW/

I don’t think we will get any news for a update until next week.

I think they may thinking about going back to the 2nt Tuesday of every month patch for content to tie us over then release a expansion every once in a while. I honestly don’t think they know yet what direction they want to take. I am sure it is highly debated.

AlexEBT.7240:

anzenketh.3759:

If the system was working 100% as described in the blog post and had a 100% success rate could you live with it?

If not why?

Because it can’t work as advertised from a conceptual level. Nobody seems to understand that the stated goal of the megaserver system was to put as many players as possible in as few map instances as possible and this makes it very easy to cap thus not allowing people to join up or create population imbalances thus splitting up servers and groups of players.

Also nobody asks where the system will get the new players from to fill these shards with, aka ppl from all the other servers ripped from their communities to fill the shards.

The only instances that I think people are getting pulled from their server communities to fill shards is when they are on a High Population server like Tarnished Coast or during the Boss Events even then I think the system is trying to find the best second option for you. Tarnished Coast went into overflows in some of the main cities BEFORE megaserver.

So the system can work to a point. I do not feel the idea was to create as few shards as possible. I think the idea behind it was to get rid of the wasteland and the feeling that no-one is around. That does not require to stuff as many people as possible. I also don’t think it was purely about the money.

See the following quote for my justification.

linuxotaku.4731:

Vol.7601:

I’m starting to dig the speculation that megaservers were never really about populating lower level areas and having people to play with.

It was about shutting down servers and saving a ton of money.

So instead of it being a feature, it was a cost-saving measure.

There are what, <= 50 maps, and <= 60 worlds? The product is only 300 — assuming each map is held by a single server, it seems likely that this takes on the order of 300 machines — and the actual hardware savings will be less, as some would still be used. Assume we could save 50% — that seems a generous estimate once you include overflows. (I’d guess it’s more like 25%, but it’s possible that they were wasting more server resources on unpopulated worlds.)

The cost of running machines is IIRC roughly equivalent to the capital costs over their lifetime … the cost of machines should probably be on the order of $5k/each (could be more or less). So — very rough ballpark — I’d assume that they’d save ~ $1.5m over ~2-3y (assuming amortization over that timeframe) — say about $500k / year. The run rate for the gem store is more than that — I don’t think they’d have a business justification for this unless they thought it would ultimately be popular.

However all that is irrelevant to my question. If it was possible to work as described 100% of the time. Even 99% of the time. Or even 95% of the time(that may actually be possible). Could you live with it? If not Why?

RuneCrimson.7380:

We only get 4 points now only 4 How is that +400 stat points. They went from giving us 1 point for every level or so to 4 points every 6-30 levels I fail to see how its the same. It made the stats weaker…we can no longer actually fill up one trait line and such. I am not even the only one that has seen the change effecting characters alot of my friends that play say the same thing including my wife who has always told me not to go on and on about things in the game. Yet she is going on and on about it too…saying it has made her characters weaker too. It has literally made it to hard to play…..god forbid going into the level 80 area’s and trying to play them now.

This thread is about sPvP you confused me there for a second. In sPvP you have all your traits(except the new grandmaster) unlocked though the PvP build system(I think new accounts have some restrictions however I can not remember what they are) .

You may want to give your feedback in the following thread.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Game-Updates-Traits

Hystery.8415:

Isaac.6041:

Megaserver is here to stay imo the reason why they have been mostly silent is PR dept taking sweet time to craft delicate responses to very angry customers. The business decision was made and to make an about-face on megaserver now would be sending too many mixed signals. So therefore, let’s all learn to live in the new state of megaserver bliss and happiness…

I don’t want to learn to live in this new state. If I do, Anet will say ‘You see, you can get used to it, so we won’t do anything about it’. There is NO WAY I’ll learn to live with that.

If the system was working 100% as described in the blog post and had a 100% success rate could you live with it?

If not why?

Gehirn.8796:

I hope there is something around the corner

It is possible. Maybe they are getting ready for some permanent new areas. Maybe that is why they needed the MegaServer so the reset of the game does not turn into a wasteland while everyone plays the new areas.

ninetales.5208:

I think many people won’t give negative opinions in a public map chat, including myself, because the people that like it are more vocal and likely to troll you for it. A forum is a place where people can write longer explanations as to why they dislike an aspect of the game and can actually discuss it at length.

I think a lot of people will not give positive feedback on the forums when they came just to give their opinion on a hot topic and they are told that they are wrong and then they feel that they have to defend their opinion. An opinion is just that one persons point of view from the experiences they have.

Also no I am not speaking to anyone directly. I am quoting to give my comment context.

Personally I find that the player base has a mixed opinion of the MegaServers. Some hate it (especially those on higher population servers, In large guilds, On servers in Europe to where they can get mixed with the other language servers.) Some people like it (Commonly low population servers or people who like to level. Including new players.) Some people are indifferent(I think a lot of those think it is a good idea but don’t think the configuration is perfect) and are giving ArneaNet time to fix the algorithm or provide tools to help alleviate the downfalls of the MegaServer.

Depending on what group you are in will shape how you feel, (and how you think other people feel) about the MegaServer.

My point of view is somewhere between indifferent and liking it.

Nick.6972:

Server communities? I don’t care for them, I have my guild, that’s my community.

I think a lot of people are in this camp. But then there are others that were part of a larger community. Those communities were hit hard.

I think that cities currently are too populated. I like the idea of a single player hub like Lion’s Arch that the server community could go to. They could have that single hub reserved for that server.

I think that with cities they should be mainly reserved for servers except when the average population of a city reaches a specific threshold then throw that player in with the least populated shard. Reason for this is I see the argument of being in a populated city. However….. I also see the argument of a population being so big that it kicks people on your server onto another shard.

But then I honestly think that issue is only present on the Unofficial RP servers. So perhaps tweaking the system so that if the population is above a specific percentage that it then reserves the shard just for that server. The system may indeed be doing that. We don’t know as we don’t get a overflow warning anymore. I know I used to get one in LA in Tarnished Coast whenever I guested there.

Perhaps they could add a queuing system to where the system says. “I would have liked to place you on a different shard but it’s population is too full right now for me to do so would you like to queue up for that shard?” I would not however call it overflow.

Palador.2170:

Well, Living Story is supposed to match up between the West and the China version. So, we’re going to be basically waiting for them.

They have to get launched, stable, and fully going. Then, there’s the question of level. Most LS content was made for level 80, and I don’t see ANet changing on that. So, we need to give them some time to get some levels. Upscaling to 80 doesn’t really cut it, especially after the traits change.

It may be a while. I expect we’ll get something minor while we wait, like the Bazaar showing up again.

Something that they could do is release a new race with a new 1-15 zone. Who said that every living story content needs to be up-leveled. We are starting a new season with a new dragon later down the line.

That would put the living story with a possible landing between May 1 and May 15ish.

More information coming soonish. We can only guess.

Teofa Tsavo.9863:

Astraea.2981:

Ramiel.4931:

Am I the only one that feels like this is just a containment thread to keep the forums clean of all the complaints?

They don’t respond, they don’t care. I doubt they even read these threads.

Most likely the problems are here to stay and the usual answer applies, as always, “Deal with it!”.

You are definitely not alone in that feeling. This isn’t a feedback thread, it’s a quarantine zone.

Also, I’m unsure why everyone’s bought into their marketing buzzword. Server Merge is Server Merge, no matter what they want to call it. It’s just that the server they merged us all with was the kittening Overflow.

100% this. For all intents they have pulled off the largest Server merger in MMO history, to my knowledge, and avoided the bad press of doing so.

I can understand where you guys come from and why you think that but no I do not. It is a lot easier to read feedback in one thread then it is to find all feedback in all threads and combine it. They do not merge the other threads unless it is one or two posts as it would distroy the discussion.

VoiceOfUnreason.5976:

Wasbunny.6531:

So I just spent a couple hours in Divinity’s Reach (TC) to test the waters of the megaserver there. I have to say if it is in fact part of the megaserver now and they are trying out a more accurate sorting system prioritizing home servers it seems to be working.

I recognized most of the guild names, I saw no emote spamming/trolling, and map chat was well…very TC. Only one person was spamming spells but quickly got bored, and there’s always going to be that one anyway. Asked for a show of hands in /m for people from TC and a lot responded, no one said they weren’t.

If DR is any indication of how the megaserver will ultimately work we might not need a specific RP flag at all. The Grove on the other hand was a trollfest last night but I’ve been hearing only DR is giving server priority at the moment.

I can’t find any official word about DR being on the megaserver, so if anyone has a link it would be much appreciated.

Edit: Just logged out and back into DR and was so relieved to see the same people from TC still there, as well as three of my guildies (who weren’t there when I logged out). So this is actually very encouraging.

fingers crossed

I’ve still yet to find myself paired with a guild mate when I warp into a new zone. Not even once since the system was introduced. And I was in Divinity’s Reach last night during what some could consider “prime time” hours, and it was a verbal (so to speak) clusterkitten in map chat. It’s been said before, but I think that even if the Megaserver sorting metrics are functioning, it starts to fall apart when larger populations start to gather in a map. If you JUST spent a couple of hours, as in: at the time of your posting, then you’re looking at it during off-hours. So maybe that’s an accurate look at how ArenaNet WANTS the system to work, but things get shaken up fast around evening/night times.

I honestly think that is the case. The good news is the people that get into “MegaServer Overflow” will be paired up with other people on the same server that get put into “MegaServer Overflow”.

I was reading the MegaServer and RP thread. and I came across this. I felt it warranted further discussion on the thread that has to do with the MegaServers as a whole.

VoiceOfUnreason.5976:

Wasbunny.6531:

So I just spent a couple hours in Divinity’s Reach (TC) to test the waters of the megaserver there. I have to say if it is in fact part of the megaserver now and they are trying out a more accurate sorting system prioritizing home servers it seems to be working.

I recognized most of the guild names, I saw no emote spamming/trolling, and map chat was well…very TC. Only one person was spamming spells but quickly got bored, and there’s always going to be that one anyway. Asked for a show of hands in /m for people from TC and a lot responded, no one said they weren’t.

If DR is any indication of how the megaserver will ultimately work we might not need a specific RP flag at all. The Grove on the other hand was a trollfest last night but I’ve been hearing only DR is giving server priority at the moment.

I can’t find any official word about DR being on the megaserver, so if anyone has a link it would be much appreciated.

Edit: Just logged out and back into DR and was so relieved to see the same people from TC still there, as well as three of my guildies (who weren’t there when I logged out). So this is actually very encouraging.

fingers crossed

I’ve still yet to find myself paired with a guild mate when I warp into a new zone. Not even once since the system was introduced. And I was in Divinity’s Reach last night during what some could consider “prime time” hours, and it was a verbal (so to speak) clusterkitten in map chat. It’s been said before, but I think that even if the Megaserver sorting metrics are functioning, it starts to fall apart when larger populations start to gather in a map. If you JUST spent a couple of hours, as in: at the time of your posting, then you’re looking at it during off-hours. So maybe that’s an accurate look at how ArenaNet WANTS the system to work, but things get shaken up fast around evening/night times.

TL;DR the system is working as designed and as expected by players. Except…… During prime time hours on High Population maps maps on Vary High to Full populated servers and during World Boss events or times of a large influx of players on a particular map. The system is then throwing the members onto a new shard splitting up the players just like the overflow system. Only better then overflow as the system tries to find you the next best shard according to it’s calculation instead of throwing you on something random.

So really the largest problem as I see is in situations like above how would you improve getting a large group of players together with each other in a efficient matter that does not take 5-10 minutes.

What other items should the MegaServer take into calculation. When should it decide that a semi-filled shard would not be the best place to put a group. I think it should take the Guild and if it is running a Guild Event and if a bunch of players are in a squad into account. (That would require actual use of the squad function however.)

ParagonFury.2617:

So I finally got GW2 working again (some weird start-up crash) but I was wondering; what would be a decent High Pop. server for the Americas? Preferably one that is close to EST timezone to keep time sort of accurate? (Rather not have it be night time when I’m playing during my day off for instance)

I just realized you brought up a old thread. In PvE it does not matter as much anymore due to the MegaServer. Instead of Servers having maps Servers are part of a criteria to place you into a shard(instance) of a map that is used region wide. This system was put in place so people like you can still enjoy the game in less populated maps.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/introducing-the-megaserver-system/

The rest of my comment on your old post.

ParagonFury.2617:

The end-game seems a little unclear too; from what I’ve seen in the trailers and releases, it looks mostly like Zerging World Bosses, rather than anything structured.

This is where Guild Wars 2 differs greatly from WoW. With Wow you have raiding. Guild Wars 2 is what you make of it be it sPvP,WvW, Achievement hunting, Going for ascended, Going for a legendary, Fractals, Dungon running, starting another character, Map completion. To have a good endgame experance in Guild Wars 2 PvE you need to make some goals for your character and work towards them.

Also your hall of monument items can be obtained as many times as you wish for no extra cost. The wardrobe actually makes this easier now.

I thought that was what the bank was for? Waypoint to a bank. Drop the armor off in the bank. Switch characters. Grab the armor. Done.

I can see the desire for bags to contain the items that are account bound and it’s a pure convenience request however as it is not something that you would do extremely frequently.

Convenience improvements are great items for the gem store. There bank access Gem Store items for that.

lordkrall.7241:

cesmode.4257:

Speaking of guesting…

Guesting was put in place so that players can test the waters of another server without transferring, or play on a server with their friends from another, or to simply complete some content.

Now that its all one server, am I correct in assuming that guesting has completely gone away? Since its one server, who cares about guesting anymore? Was that wasted development time, money, effort? Seems arenanet loves to tinker with crap on live servers for a while before realizing the error of their ways.

Guesting effects (or at least should) which MegaServer you end up on. So it is still relevant.

As for “wasted development time, money and effort”, wouldn’t that basically mean that they should never ever in any way or for ever evolve or change anything in the game? Since that would mean they “wasted” all those stuff when they made the original version of the thing, right?

Guesting does effect the system I have tested this by going to Tarnished Coast to do some investigation on how I see it effecting roleplay so I can speak semi-informed on the matter. I found no problem at all finding what I was looking for. I found 3 separate instances of role play. One player even came up to me and I assumed was trying to start a role play session with me. Sadly…. I have had bad experiences with roleplay in the past so I did not feel comfortable participating.

I feel like the idea was good the design was good(A better way to ferry players would be useful. Perhaps make the Join in feature more accessible I don’t think a lot of people would think without knowing or someone telling them to right click on a profile to join their instance.). The configuration could use some improvement. The expectations of the players I think were rather high. The result is a lot of players being rather upset.

Theridon.6249:

I just want dragonite.

Temple defense pays nothing if you win.

It would be nice if defense pays the same as re-capture. However the other world bosses would likely be better suited for that.

As for the traits. You have to beat the NPC specified for that trait. Not win the event. If what some players are saying is correct those NPC’s may also spawn during the defense event.

I have also twice re-captured Balthazar Temple on megaserver. You may just have to wait a while and do some of the other events around orr. The players doing the defending will not likely be there forever.

Leamas.5803:

No word on this yet? I had hoped yesterday’s patch would resolve it.

It is a complicated issue with no easy or fast fix. Known bug.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/community/api/skins-json-and-skin-details-json/first#post3924868

It would break the game severely.

The more gold you buy with gems the less gold you get.

The drop rate of the keys used to be a lot better before they added the black lion tickets. They needed to do that to keep the tickets rare. However people can key farm them though the level 10 storyline so …. most people don’t care.

The question is do you want to pay real money for random chance or do you want to spend 30 minutes for random chance of something.

I think they got Essence of luck about right with the ability to craft lower tiers into higher tiers. It would be nice if they did the same with Karma. The Orian Jewelry boxes are a pain to work with because of the karma that you get.

Phantom.8130:

How many of them have screenshots posted on their official forums of a developer taking advantage of those bugs, where that issue still isn’t resolved 6 months later?

My point is it will take as long as it takes. Rather then assume neglect assume it is a difficult problem to solve that they honestly do not have a best solution to fix it right now without the possibility of it causing more problems.

If you know a lot about the issue and have a idea on how to fix it try emailing the exploits at arena.net email address with your suggestion. Perhaps you thought of something that they have not.

Phantom.8130:

Now, about your last paragraph, all you need to do is take a look through the WvW section to see thing clearly. It doesn’t take a year and a half to fix any individual issue. When a developer is caught in a screenshot glitching through a gate in WvW, and 6 months pass and that gate is still glitched? That’s neglect, pure and simple. especially when that glitch was reported countless times by countless people, with videos explaining it in detail sent to them.

As a experiment go to any open source community bug reporting system. Look for reported bugs. Look how many there are. Look how many are unsolved. Look at how many are duplicates. Look at how many are filed incorrectly or are problems that do not even exist anymore. After doing that you can get a idea of why some issue may take 6 months or longer to get resolved. Especially if it is a complex issue that not a single person has no quick solution for.

mythil.9416:

anzenketh.3759:

To have the best chance of your feedback being heard and action being taken if it is needed may I suggest that you review the following thread.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/How-to-Give-Good-Feedback/

Not giving feedback in this matter may result to your voice not being heard as it was intended.

This was more expressing my, “feelings” I guess you could say.

I don’t think Anet is going to fix any of this or alter any of it. So shrugs

Your feeling are acknowledged and understood. A lot of people agree with you. If the community discusses the downsides and upsides to changes ArenaNet may indeed change their position in the future. They may not. If a change does happen it won’t happen right away. It may not even happen until the next feature patch or later. But they may eventually change their position. They have already changed some things that some of us thought they would never change. I am looking at you account bound dyes and Ascended Gear account bound. However due to the massive amount of feedback it would be best if they go to the relevant threads.

*Changes to daily achievements:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Only-10-Daily-Achivements/

*Changes to traits:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Game-Updates-Traits

*Changes to the waypoint systems due to MegaServers. I know for a fact that they don’t like the way the waypoint system is either but it is the best implementation they could think of at this time. They also feel that the Positives in their view on MegaServers overweight the downsides of waypointing twice. They want feedback on this :
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Game-Updates-Guild-World-Events-Megaservers-WvW

Phantom.8130:

The most valuable thing any company can get is feedback from their customers. Negative feedback is also far more important than positive feedback, because it shows the company the areas in which they need to improve. Better product, more customers, more money. If they ignore that negative feedback, or actively steer into the skid, the result is a bad product, with fewer and fewer customers wanting to buy it, less and less money every day, possibly ending in bankruptcy.

Yes however if that feedback is not delivered in a good way it is hard to prioritize and understand exactly what they poster is trying to say. If the majority of the post is filled with emotion the actual message is often lost and all someone reads is “I am upset about X”. When the player may be trying to get across is “This is why I am upset about X.” Even better feedback would be “This is what I am upset about X feature. Please implement Y instead. Here are the positives and negatives that I think my solution has.”

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/How-to-Give-Good-Feedback/

Skins take time to develop due to the multiple races that exist in the game.

To have the best chance of your feedback being heard and action being taken if it is needed may I suggest that you review the following thread.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/How-to-Give-Good-Feedback/

Not giving feedback in this matter may result to your voice not being heard as it was intended.

Problem is a lot of feedback that they get is not good feedback. Bad feedback, well about the only thing they can do with that is debate it internally if it is really a problem or if someone is just being emotional or unwilling to adapt to change and count the players.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/How-to-Give-Good-Feedback/

Also people who have positive feedback to not generally post as they are commonly met with contention. Not something that the poster was looking for. They just want to give a opinion not be told how wrong they are.

Im Mudbone.1437:

Hermes.7014:

Today I went to Blaxeridge Steppes to defeat Shatterer. It had to be there by that time according to schedule, but for some reason I ended up in a map where it wasn’t.
I thought megaserver was supposed to eliminate all the downsides of overflow but this doesn’t seem much different at all.

It happened there, but was already over, I have seen this talking to guildies who were doing Shatterer and found it doesn’t spawn at the same time across all instances of the Megaserver, so, IMO, no different than the overflow system, same demon just a different name given to it. For a TRUE MEGASERVER It would have to be one 1 server with one shard like that game I won’t name to keep this on-topic.

It works simular to the way the Skarlet events and Taco works. There is a 15 minute window to where new shards can spawn the event. You likely made it after that time or landed on a shard to where he was already dead.

maddoctor.2738:

I’ll say it again, the best solution for the megaserver failure:

Private Overflows

A guild officer/leader can create a new instance of the map for their guild when they activate a boss like Teq/Wurm or a Guild Mission, fill up the map with their members, then open up the map to the public (I doubt many guilds can field 150 players) so the rest of the slots can get filled by randoms.

That way, you keep the open world, “open” for everyone, but allow guilds with loads of people to get all their members to participate in their own guild activities.

Although now the Megaserver failure isn’t so evident, once Living Story begins and simple zones begin to get filled by LS players, guild missions will be even harder to do. Anyone remember doing Bookworm during the Mari LS? A total nightmare, and that’s exactly what’s coming for us when the next LS begins.

Anet has to decide, are they going to keep the game only for pugs and randoms, or finally they are going to add some actual guild functionality in the game.

The idea was for them to go during low populated times. Get all their players that they want into the instance then trigger the event. That is why they are not allowed to trigger the event within a 3 hour window of the scheduled time.

I think there are better solutions that include more of the community then private overflows like the system recognizing that the players are doing a guild mission and put them on low populated shard.

Gearbox.2748:

vorir.7684:

I think the megaservers are great for this game and will help new players with the leveling process tremendously. If Anet wants to attract new players to the game, this is a great step. I can’t wait until the roll out is complete.

Thanks Anet!

Not really – There are so many players in the maps, that the monsters that you need to finish a heart quest is constantly cleaned. and you have to rush to get monsters tagged to finish the quests.. Players are angry shouting at each other, Camping spawn locations to get kills..—- exactly all that this game was supposed to not have compared to other MMO.
On every single map lvl-range 12-35 so far has had queensdale zerk like map runners. doing the champs… in the useless we swarm all and kill all type system.- New players will learn nothing except that is how the game is to be played. no skill needed. just mass zerg all. .
There is no enjoy the atmosphere of the world as you have tons of players bunny hopping throughout what you do.. Map chat is a horrible constant looping meme and troll fest.<
If you believe that leveling is some-kind of burden to get over with fast- then you are right- I want my new character to level up fast – to get away from that and hope to get to a zone without mega server in it.
I believe leveling should be about exploring the world. seeing events. trying out different tactics and builds to overcome obstacles.

This can be fixed with tweaking the system. The concept is still good. What server and map are you on? I have never run into this problem.

1) There really isn’t anything all that wrong with having low population on some maps (so long as there aren’t critical world events occurring there)

2) Any game that has ‘servers’ segregates the player base. Suddenly we are coming full circle and undoing all of that. The new system punishes those people who have taken the effort to create their own independent player communities and rewards those who have done nothing.

3) The system that anet created (free transfers for kitten ed near forever, then paid transfers with very little penalty) created this system. It is a mistake to underestimate the WvW community. All of the major server moves in this game have been based upon WvW. You need healthy WvW to have a healthy PvE community. Basically the first have of GW2 was (well, if you don’t transfer to a higher tier server then you are going to miss out). Now the direction is (all you higher tier people had your fun, now we are going to break up communities entirely just for the sake of correcting our earlier mistake)

4) Not entirely sure what you even mean by this, but I am pretty sure that anet is doing pretty well in the black and if they wanted to make a game just for the love of the game and cared about doing the right thing then they could.

You are free to disagree with me. I said according to your point of view. I would further state on your points.

1.) Except this is exactly not what players(by majority) want. They don’t want extremely low populated zones. They want to play with other players. They don’t want to feel like they are playing a 1 player game. Like they have to rush to 80 just to be with other players. There are also events that are happening in those zones. Events that tell a story. Events that players will attempt to complete(and likely fail) then get frustrated that there was no-one around to help them.

2.) How does the system as it was designed(If the system worked 100% as advertised.) split up self-created communities? If it worked 100% as designed I would argue that it actually allows others to meet members of that community making the community grow larger.

3.) Don’t disagree with you on the cause of the problem. However the fact still is there. Events on Tier 3 and bellow servers actually get completed. ArenaNet even stated that they wish they could have launched the game with MegaServers in place. It is launching in place in China.

4.) The point is it future proofs the game financially. Right now the game is relatively new for a MMO. It also allows more money to be saved for other items like paying other employees. ArenaNet is not a charity it is a business. Not realizing that ArenaNet may have done this partly for monetary saving reasons is ignoring the fact that it is a business.

Karuna.1357:

Explain to me one positive thing about megaservers

Depending on your point of view the following things are positive.

1.) Higher population on low population maps. This is good because this is a MMO. A lot of people play MMO’s because they like to play with people around them. If they did not want to do that they would play a single player game.
2.) It allows ArenaNet to add new content to the game without the worry of segregating the playerbase. A server merge would not do this as the probability that X amount of people being on the map is a lot less with one server then with the entire playerbase.
3.) Events actually get completed. Today I ran a group event that I never even knew existed and I have been playing scene beta. The reason why events actually get completed is due to reason 1.
4.) It can save ArenaNet money on computing costs. This allows them them to pay the power bills a lot longer then one that is dependent on a server only structure. This also frees monetary resources to 2.

We are in the middle of a transitional period. The system may not be working 100% as designed. I don’t have the data so I can not say. I am sure ArenaNet is keeping track of the number of success and failures that the MegaServer puts someone on the correct map in accordance with what was advertised. They are also likely keeping track of multiple variables about why it may not. If you knew something about their culture and how they work you would know that the people who run their systems collect a lot of information. It is a vary data driven company.

If I were to guess I would say that the system is not quite working as expected. I say this because I have noticed that they are not going full steam ahead on pushing out maps that use the MegaServer that they were at the stop.

Also I personally think there is a issue with Large guilds and parties on higher populated servers trying to go onto a map that was historically for their server more populated. This is spiting up the players from their groups due to the map is reaching a threshold(Overflowing the rest of the players onto another map.).

This is not new however. We had to do this on the old system. We just had less of a likelihood of having to do so as the population was lower on the maps. I suspect that if those groups and guilds were to give the MegaServer a indication that they wanted a less populated area by guesting to a lower populated server that they would have more success.

• What I think is the real problem with MegaServers*
  I think the real problem is not necessarily the Megaserver. I think the real problem is that there is not a efficient way to move these large groups onto a particular map. As it currently stands players have to ferry other players into the correct instance in small chunks.

• Possible solution for Large group events and MegaServer*
  Perhaps something that they could do is add a join on squad leader function. This way before large events start players can join up in squads. They can all attempt to go to the same map. If the system fails they can just choose to all join on the squad leader similar to the way join on player feature works. If that map gets full the squad leader can leave and rejoin the map(Perhaps the system can even recognize that the quad leader did this and force the squad leader on a vary low populated shard.). Then all the players can just join on the squad leader taking the ferry on mass.

Also if I were to guess I would say all this week the team that is in charge of Megaservers have been going though the data and looking into where they can make adjustments. This takes time. They may not have.

Astralporing.1957:

Zok.4956:

anzenketh.3759:

Zok.4956

3.) Give players the choice, which “map/instanced” Version the Player wants to join,
as a drop-down list like:
#0, gendarran field, let the automatic decide (default)
#1 gendarran fields, 100 Players, language english
#2 gendarran fields, full
#3 gendarran fields, 10 Players, language german

etc…

The ArenaNet Developers have already commented that at the moment this is not possible.

Please give a link to an official post/website with this Information. Especially the “at the moment” part.

Thanks.

They actually didn’t say that. They said “this is not GW1 and works differently” – this doesn’t really mean it is impossible here.

Don’t disagree with you there. It is still possible. Anything is possible. However they basically said that the way shards are created is different from that of Guild Wars 1. Due to this it would be rather complicated to implement districts. It is not as simple as copying and pasting some code from a previous game.

Personally I would love to see districts.

Europe players will be glad today. Their language issue was fixed.

Added a chat option – enabled by default – that shows only the messages coming from players sharing your client’s text language.

Still there is still a mass communication issue for organized events. However that can be solved as a community.

Ahrim.9462:

Hello, not sure if I should ask here, but I’ve just started playing again after a 4-5 months break. Did they delete the Aviator sunglasses from the game? ‘Cause I can’t find them anywhere on my characters.

Visit the Black Lion ArmorSmith on the characters that had them equipped last.

Rose Solane.1027:

My frustration with the current implementation is partly because I don’t understand why they can’t get their algorithms working. I collect and analyse data for a living. With 20 months of data they should have more than enough to put people in the correct map instances. The fact that they can’t make me believe they do not have the full 20 months of data. Or they made the gap between the soft and hard cap much too small. Or they simply don’t know what they are doing

Thing is most of your time in PvE is solo play. Players just do not level in parties or guilds a lot.

They do have some data. That is how the system works as well as it does now. It was horrible at launch in overflows.

Curious what Server are you on? How many players are you trying to get on one map?

Tken.1986:

I propose:
Remove World Boss encounter changes, this way megaserver could really stay for good, and people won’t blindly complete pre-events and ultimately stop boss from being spawn.

I say they need to make it so that the pre-events should not start until it is time for the boss to spawn. This is likely a bug. I would report it as a bug.

Lishtenbird.2814:

Stefan, you might not be the right person to ask it, but…

Could you tell us if this problem (transmuted weapons receiving name from stats item and not skin item) is a temporary bug or an intended change? We, the aesthetics-driven people, are really saddened by this change and would appreciate any official news. Thanks!

The API bug and the transmutation bug(if it is a bug) were unrelated. The API bug was patched last hotfix.

Karuna.1357:

anzenketh.3759:

Karuna.1357:

Megaservers have been nothing but a tremendous source of irritation so far. For one, they break up player communities: this has already been stated in numerous other posts so I won’t bother to list all the details here. Suffice to say, that communities are the strength of your player base. If you sever those then you shouldn’t be surprised if you start to see a drop-off in players.

Secondly, they are a huge irritation for guilds. During guild missions we are ending up with players on different servers and even bounties spawning on different servers . . . Why can’t we all just be on Tarnished Coast, like we are supposed to be, so we can work together? How are guild supposed to be able to organize any large-scale events together if the server system sends people all over the place?

Explain to me how any of this is a positive improvement for the game.

Try guesting to another server while doing guild missions. I honestly think Tarnished Coast PvE population is just too large for the soft caps causing the equivalent of overflows.

I also think it would be helpful for the developers if people that are experiencing routing issues give what server they have selected (Home Server or if they are guesting what server they are guesting on.) As well as what other criteria you think is met with the blog post.

We never once had this problem prior to the roll-out of megaservers, and we have been on Tarnished Coast for over 1 1/2 years now. We stationed our entire guild on TC for a reason — so we could perform large-scale events together (more than just WvW). The system isn’t working if we have to wait and ferry people over to the correct map just so we can proceed with our events.

Never said it was working. My idea about guesting is a experiment and a possible workaround. Please re-read my post.

BuD.7851:

Try guesting to another server while doing guild missions. I honestly think Tarnished Coast PvE population is just too large for the soft caps causing the equivalent of overflows.

Why should I HAVE to guest to another server to keep with guildies? I chose the server Im on for a reason, not to get separated by this megaserver…

You should not have too. I was not saying that you should have too. I was offering a possible workaround to a problem. Plus I am curious and can’t test it myself as I am not effected by the problem. Nor do I have the resources to test it myself.

Perhaps with enough information we can come to the conclusion and provide evidence to the developers that perhaps the Highest population servers should get their own dedicated shard for a lot of the maps. Especially the maps in the cities. They don’t even need to hard code that. They could do something as follows:

Take the average population of players for X server(including those guesting) going to Y map during a specific time period if average population is above Z dedicate a shard to that server. Only allow Party and Guild to override that dedication.

Cons:
Takes time to implement. Also makes things more complicated.

Does not solve issues for one-off community events.

Pro:
May further improve the MegaServer System so that it does not split up communities during large events.

Improves the chance of not getting split up during one-off community events.

This system is already in place if I recall it may need some tweaking due to the amount of players that are just in it for the run.

Karuna.1357:

Megaservers have been nothing but a tremendous source of irritation so far. For one, they break up player communities: this has already been stated in numerous other posts so I won’t bother to list all the details here. Suffice to say, that communities are the strength of your player base. If you sever those then you shouldn’t be surprised if you start to see a drop-off in players.

Secondly, they are a huge irritation for guilds. During guild missions we are ending up with players on different servers and even bounties spawning on different servers . . . Why can’t we all just be on Tarnished Coast, like we are supposed to be, so we can work together? How are guild supposed to be able to organize any large-scale events together if the server system sends people all over the place?

Explain to me how any of this is a positive improvement for the game.

Try guesting to another server while doing guild missions. I honestly think Tarnished Coast PvE population is just too large for the soft caps causing the equivalent of overflows.

I also think it would be helpful for the developers if people that are experiencing routing issues give what server they have selected (Home Server or if they are guesting what server they are guesting on.) As well as what other criteria you think is met with the blog post.

EDIT: It appears that people are misunderstanding my post about guesting to another server. I am not saying the system is not working as designed. If you notice they have halted pushing the MegaServer to more maps. My suggestion is something people can try as a workaround until the system starts working as designed.

I am honestly thinking that the reason why the role-players are not being able to meet up is due to Tarnished Coast is such a large population server that the “Same Server” rule is exceeding the soft population caps for the maps you are wanting to be on.

For science I wonder if those having issues guest onto a lower population server would have better luck meeting up with each other during their Multi-Guild RP events. My hypothesis is that they will get sorted correctly.

I have a suspicion that the routing priority and weight are as follows based upon some basic testing.

1.) Is the player in a party if so is there a map with that player in the same party. Add heavy weight score for that map.
2.) Determine if there are members of the players Home Server on the same map(if guesting use guesting server to determine that.) Add weight score to that map.
2.) Are their players of the same guild on the map. Add weight score to that map.

If the population hit soft cap route player to another shard. Have them use join in to join together.

Do not know exactly what information you are looking for and you have been gone a while so I shall give you some links.

For the living story:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Living_World_summary/Season_1

Side note: looks like some summary pages need some editing. Hopefully they improve the game so that we can get the summary in game and it not be left up to the wiki community to write the story as they may miss some items.

For game updates:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Game_updates