Guild Wars 2

coglin.1867:

Neglect? Like all of the changes coming up in the expansion?

All the changes that have many of the biggest guilds and commanders shopping for other games already, not to mention the updates will be completely anti roamer?
SO they will essentially run off major wvw guilds and the roamers and havocs with one update and being anti new player due to account binding wvw seige pt settings like you need flame mastery on a warrior not an Ele but it is going to apply to them all the same? Great… sounds wonderful. I really just do not want to see all these guilds leave over this and am hoping Anet really understands what is happening here.

SO I come into game in the morning yesterday when .. people are talking about possibly leaving GW2 in Primary map TS channels… come back later at 7 pm different people different time zone.. people are talking about leaving GW2 and sharing different game links for ideas. That isn’t what is supposed to be happening when a game announces an update.

The update sounds very linear and like EoTM like.. that is why they are already looking for new games. Choke holds to access map sounds like kill box it so no one can pass. Truth is, Defense as it is isn’t difficult, it is easier to defend than to cap. The REASON they do not defend on EoTM is they do not take the map seriously and use it to Ktrain the Level farm. Trying to force people to play a map type they do not care to play does not make them play it, it makes them look for a new game. What players that are shopping for other games now want to hear is in the update?

1) A real GVG system that supports larger battles, like at least 20 vs 20 and 40 vs 40, preferably support for higher numbers with many maps to choose from. Guild wars needs actual guild wars, not some skirmishes. It is sad that you can actually have guild wars in many other games but not in Guild Wars.

2)Rewarding players for defense= GIVE THEM XP, A CHEST AND LOOT FOR DEFENDING. They want the same rewards for capping to make it worth their time. They don’t defend because they get chests and XP for K training, not because it was hard to do, in fact defending is boring because it is so easy to do. It is terribly easy to do and you need far less people to defend a tower or a keep than you need to take it already. Sounds like Anet completely missed the point on this. You can defend a tower/ keep against 10-20 people with just one or two people as it is if you know what you are doing. Making it easier to defend just means making it more boring and less unpredictable. It is better not knowing where your enemy is going to atack or what and can be attacked from all sides not " have to go this direction only because the cliffs create linear tunnels or chokepoints created due to landscape" Why even play when it is predictable? Predictable is boring.

3)Most of what people wanted in wvw updates was to repair broken mechanics, fix exploits and hacks, get rid of zoom hackers once and for all.. They want what needed to be repaired to finally be repaired. Outside of that, adding new seige, things like guild golems, adding new toys for people to play with in wvw and adding better battlefield maps similar to EBG where targets can be attacked from any direction unpredictably in any order raising the level of game play rather than making a predictable choke point kill box that means you know the fight is going to be there, and you know exactly how to defend it.. * yawn* Being able to do the unpredictable and use creative commanding in the game is what the players want, not have their hands held for attacking and defending.

4)Making combat more exciting in wvw means being able to have tools and resources to utilize for creative commanding, using portal bombs to come up behind an enemy for example, adds additional level of excitement and entertainment for a battle that would otherwise be lacking if it did not exist, what many of the veteran wvw players want is more tools like that to use in battle to make the actual battle more entertaining, not adding pve content or making the landscape where people die from falling more often than they do at another players hands. They want more action and less time getting to it and to be able to have tools available to use to make it interesting and fun. This can be new types of seige, weapons, skills that work different than what currently exists.

From everything we have heard thus far, this update isn’t doing that at all. that is why people are looking at other games now because they feel as though no one listened to what they wanted. Wvw players ALSo need better loot, because they spend a ton on seige and influence to play wvw and do not make enough to support that in wvw alone. Wvw should be self sustaining and should not have to go pve to enjoy it.

Menaka.5092:

PariahX.6970:

Can’t we just say instead “for another layer of WvW gameplay consider joining your community voice chat”.

This sounds like a way more sensible approach to get people on the community

How is that sensible when it costs you keeps/ matches? Scoring for the other team is in no way sensible..
One 2 second call on commander chat in Teamspeak, can bring MANY people from PVP, PVE and other maps to save the keep that would not otherwise be there.

Menaka.5092:

lil devils x.6071:

It is not possible to type everything in Map chat that needs to be said, not to mention commanders refusing to do so because of spies from other servers. They really do not want everything typed in map chat because the spies see it too.

What prevents “spies” from joining TS as well?

I realize it’s impossible to command by typing during a fight, but this sounds like a silly excuse and borderline paranoia

Having admins on the server that keep up with the info and block people accordingly, and having a list of spies kept on forums so they can be aware. In T1 it isn’t " paranoia" it is just how the game is played.

Menaka.5092:

lil devils x.6071:

The Number one thing a newcomer to wvw needs to know…

You bring up some valid points, but this video series is not about WvW in general, it’s intended as a quick introduction to fighting in WvW for newcomers that may be disoriented about what’s going on.

As you point out, voice comms are fundamental for organized groups, but we made these videos thinking about new players that may have never joined the community TS (if the server they are playing on has one). The objective is to make these players a little more self-sustaining, so even if they don’t join TS they can carry their own weight during the fights

We think it’s a more inclusive approach and in the end it’ll prove more effective than scaring away people, shouting at them because they are not on TS

Of course “I” don’t shout at them to get on Teamspeak.. I say " please join us on _ Ts channel to hear what is needed, when and where…" so they understand why we are asking them to get on TS. However, Trying to command or play without portal bombs, water, veils… isn’t really even playing the same game as everyone else, it is just going through the motions and missing most of what is happening.

AyumeiKitsune.8256:

I have no idea what to do in WvW or what your even suppose to do XD! I was trying to lvl and I got lvl 80 instantly walking into WvW. Im in Devonas Rest so not sure if we are populated or anything. But I am thinking when the new expansion comes out servers will be populated again!

This thread for newcomers might help you:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/WvW-lessons-for-newcomers/first#post4739135

It is doubtful that the low pop servers will become populated even with the expansion, as when people return that haven’t played in while, they usually transfer to where their guild is instead, and usually that is the populated servers anyhow, thus just increasing the higher tier servers, still leaving the lower ones ghost towns. I started out on DR, but have no desire to return to that mess of a server.. it has too many issues and there is a reason it imploded and went down to the bottom tiers.

When the expansion comes out, the game will get a boost, but then it usually dies off pretty fast. HOPEFULLY they will advertise this expansion heavily on not just on gaming sites, and bring in new blood, as most of those returning probably will not stay long.

The only way a reset would work is if they say had a meteorite hit all the servers, made fewer new ones and made everyone choose from those forcing everyone into more populated servers. However, if people could not get their entire guilds on servers, they would be rightfully infuriated.

Hamster.4861:

lil devils x.6071:

Lord Kuru.3685:

lil devils x.6071:

This was the first thing I was told when I came to Tier 1, I asked why I was 33 in que and it took under 2 min to get in and they told me it was because they allow more people on the map in Tier 1.

Perhaps a 30 man guild group decided to map hop. In the lower tiers this generally won’t happen because pugs are the main fighting forces there and they don’t move from map to map as efficiently.

No, because we had ques on DR that lasted forever, when we didn’t have as many people on the map as we did on JQ.. Hell on DR we didn’t even have 100 people playing wvw at the time on ALL maps and we had a que…

That was why I have been shocked at how fast the ques go on JQ, for everyone, not just me. We can get our Guild on map NP even with a que due to how fast it moves.

We had more trouble getting guild on map on DR than we ever have on JQ. which is sad.

DR was an even fatter bandwagon than HoD was during S2. Ya’ll were stacked as high as the T2 servers are now, and EVERYONE wanted to come out and rofl on all the servers who could do literally nothing to stop the tide of map queues. Either way – the queues are shorter on T1 for you because they’re extremely organized, and not doing a push week. Their community has organized themselves to reduce queues, which comes from having a stable community for a long period of time, which you would not have had on DR.

Either way, T3 is still incredibly borked. It’s ooftastic.

Hey! I miss you guys on IOJ <3! IOJ had a great community too, You should come JQ because it is terribly painful to be on IOJ, and the people are nice here too. LOL

T3 is broken, and it doesn’t look like they will solve it any time soon. We would have stayed on IOJ if we actually had a team to play with, but there just was no way to compete with it that unbalanced.

JQ IS very organized, we also had server meetings on DR though and figured out which map and when guilds would be there, but I still see more people than I did on DR or IOJ. DR had ups and downs and still had odd ques, as soon as I arrived on JQ though they told me T1 was allowed more people, and it looks like it when you see them on map.

Svarty.8019:

Devon.8306:

I appreciate that you are interested in finding out more of what will be in the new map, but we didn’t show anything about it in the trailer that could lead you to the conclusions here. We’ll be talking about it a lot more and showing it off soon. At the least I’d hope you can reserve judgement until then.

Sure, I can reserve judgment, but I’ll just mention that WvW players I’ve spoken to don’t seem to want any fancy new mechanics (unless they are intended to solve the problems we currently have). That’s why, when we hear about Earth and Molten keeps we get sceptical about the new content being gimmicky like EotM.

On another note I’ll just state that we heard from devs in the past how difficult and lengthy a process it was to make a new map and yet when they do get created they are far more complex than the playerbase either requires or desires.

As a word of advice, without trying to sound patronising,
give us plain(ish) landscapes and let us make the gameplay!

I agree, most wvw players want nothing to do with EoTM, it’s landscape, its PVE Nonsense.. That is why no one takes EoTM seriously and pretty much treat it like a PVE leveling zone instead of actual gameplay.
Give us plainish landscapes and let us make the gameplay.. just give us more toys to do with with.

Crius.5487:

“Guild Wars” has more to do with the back story of the game and not warring between player created guilds.

Yes, a GvG game mode which allows guilds to fight other guilds regardless of which server either are on would allow guilds to transfer to the server they want to be on instead of transferring just to fight a specific guild on a specific server.

However, trying to forcibly balance the WvW population would only drive people away from the game. There is not viable solution to the population issue. Instead we need some sort of handicap system better than the current Outnumbered buff so a lesser populated server can still compete regardless of numbers.

There is no way to make a handicap system effective enough to counter having Oceanic and Sea coverage on a server and there being none on another. I see only 2 real solutions either destroy the lower tier servers by meteorite and give them a free pass to the server of their choice of the remaining servers, or 2) destroy all the servers and make everyone choose between the new ones.

Crius.5487:

Johje Holan.4607:

Instead of stacking all the serious WvW people on one or two servers we need to spread them out. There’s probably enough of a WvW population left for “big battle” servers.

Not a solution either. Guilds often transfer to X server so they can fight against Y guild on Z server. This is why T2 NA is currently booming with GvG guilds. If my guild group of 20 can one push a group of 40-50 casuals the fights become dull. We aren’t going to one push an experienced guild group with an equal number composition which makes for a much more enjoyable fight.

People who absolutely enjoy fighting are going to go to where the fights are.

Though if they actually implemented structured GVG properly, you wouldn’t have to change servers to GVG whoever you wanted, you could fight them all making it much more fun for everyone ( though it STILL makes no sense why " guild wars" doesn’t have GUILD WARS).
I think we should stack all the wvw on a few servers though, just add more maps to be able to support the population.

Junkpile.7439:

You can go train in jumping puzzles so you know how to jump in expansion.

I know how to jump.. the issue is when I call for people to come save hills on our BL, and they said they would rather be set on fire than go to that map you see there is a problem with the map itself.. If people quit the game over a map, and refuse to play on it there is a problem with the map.
People play wvw to fight other players, not play Mario. We can play Mario all we want in obsidian sanctum already.

Lord Kuru.3685:

lil devils x.6071:

This was the first thing I was told when I came to Tier 1, I asked why I was 33 in que and it took under 2 min to get in and they told me it was because they allow more people on the map in Tier 1.

Perhaps a 30 man guild group decided to map hop. In the lower tiers this generally won’t happen because pugs are the main fighting forces there and they don’t move from map to map as efficiently.

No, because we had ques on DR that lasted forever, when we didn’t have as many people on the map as we did on JQ.. Hell on DR we didn’t even have 100 people playing wvw at the time on ALL maps and we had a que…

That was why I have been shocked at how fast the ques go on JQ, for everyone, not just me. We can get our Guild on map NP even with a que due to how fast it moves.

We had more trouble getting guild on map on DR than we ever have on JQ. which is sad.

Aggrostemma.1703:

Playing WvW on the borderlands is a kind of sandbox. We don’t need huge changes but even the smallest adjustment can alter the game experience. I want more “events” like the Sneak Attack… Make more ANET!

Like:
Frozen Dollies: dolyaks cannot move without swiftness or a fire field layed under them.
Fog of War: ranged siege equipment has 50% reduced range and damage.
The living wood: gates have retaliation.
Revenge of the dolyak: Dolyaks give 5 stack of might and fury to allies in 1200 radius.
Diplomacy: every mercenary camp now adds a Siegerazor to their forces.
Marker’s Trap: activating this trap shows an icon on the minimap with the number of the enemies triggering it for 30 seconds.

And so on… These are little things but they can contribute to the WvW feeling very well… ANET does not even have to balance it since every event would last like 2 weeks or so. I think I don’t need big changes every 6 month… but some spice would be awesome…

My 2 coppers

You are really focusing on those yaks.. LOL
Cant you already bind yaks? Most servers do not even have enough people escorting yaks to be able to do that, so I am not sure focusing on slowing yaks when getting supply into keeps is already hard enough as it is since anyone can gank a yak easily even when it is guarded. HAHA

Some servers do not even have enough people on them to kill siegie as it is. LOL

I would rather them add ways to fight players and really not have to fight NPC’s at all.. Most PVE players dont come to wvw to actually play it, they just come to K train and do dailies.

PariahX.6970:

getting kind of sick of the “GET ON TEAMSPEAK” screams in WvW all the time. There are plenty of people who will never be in community voice chat for whatever reason (that they are not required to justify to anyone either) and the game is still perfectly playable and enjoyable for them so don’t treat them like lepers . Discounting those members of your community gets you nothing and completely alienating them might lose you some talented resources. Can’t we just say instead “for another layer of WvW gameplay consider joining your community voice chat”.

Not really, considering 99% of the calls are made in Teamspeak, so you cannot play well with the server to win without voice chat for competitive pvp. When you cost your server the match because you refuse to work with them, that doesn’t make for being a good teammate.

It is not possible to type everything in Map chat that needs to be said, not to mention commanders refusing to do so because of spies from other servers. They really do not want everything typed in map chat because the spies see it too.

Playing without voice chat is like being the kid who scores for the opposing team.
People do not have to talk to listen to command, however, not talking also means you cannot scream " 50 BG INC @ 6 oclock!!" and save everyone’s hide either.

Victory.2879:

“navigate treacherous heights”

If it’s anything like a JP, or has too many ‘fear them all off the edge’ mechanics, people won’t play on it after the initial rush.

Rewarding defending sounds good in theory, but will wait to see if that actually works in practice- if they mean the reward is 1% extra magic find for your server whilst you hold that tower, there is no incentive for you to hold it in wvw- you’re stuck in the tower getting nothing?

They need to give equivalent rewards for defending as you gain from capping, and not some lame useless reward. Players need personal rewards as well, give them loots and XP!!

I agree 100% on the Landscape of the map. If it is a fall/ jump map people will rage quit the game rather than play it.That is part of why no one takes EoTM seriously and only go there for fast leveling.

The only way to solve it is to give the lower tiers an eviction notice and a free transfer to the higher server of their choice and cap the transfer limits to not throw it too far off balance then shut the lower tiers down tbh.

Would be awesome if they could add maps and raise the population limit where you can have massive battles like on Eve online… Eve is all on one server and people fight for zones and resources. I know that isn’t going to happen here, but they might be able to raise population for the servers if they add more maps to play on for wvw.

Server loyalty only goes so far.. just have the story line destroy the low servers…countries get destroyed in reality.. it can happen on a game too. XD

Of course you could destroy all the servers.. and make new ones and people have to choose. HAHA

timmyf.1490:

We don’t need to know the number to know whether it’s different for T1 vs T2 vs T3 etc.

We asked them that too…they were tight lipped on it, couldn’t find anything anywhere on it probably have a gag order on it from the top from the sounds of the interview.

uberkingkong.8041:

morrolan.9608:

kefro.9312:

GW2 is the best at wvw in all mmo…

No its not, Dawdler has it right about ESO. The ESO design is clearly superior.

IF ESO does go F2P, I’ll most likely be one of those people that change games.
Very big fan of Elder Scrolls.

Wake up! We’re here!! We’ve reached MORROWIND!!!!! I’m sure they’ll let us go. Quiet here comes the guard!

You know games are good when you can easily recite stuff in the game. And someone talking to you about a game and you can visually picture it and play it in your head.

It has already been announced, ESO is going Buy to play, same model as GW2.

OP: I agree wvw is lacking updates, and the ideas such as falling/ jumping maps like EoTM will only anger people further rather than gain players. It has a lack of good battle maps, EBG is the only good wvw landscape they have currently. I have heard so many say they are leaving GW2 if WvW doesn’t get updates so I know you are not alone in this sentiment. WvW has been not only neglected but I think they fail to understand what wvw players actually want with the stuff they are implementing.
Players want to kill each other and want more ways and tools to do so. Players want to capture stuff and want more ways and tools to do so, and yea reward people for defending.

That is what the different types of WvW players want, and not to die from some lame falling death or by a giant worm instead of at the hands of another player or having to run around aimlessly not getting to do anything. More action and less time to get to it.. and keep the PvE in PvE pls. People who dont want players attacking them are not going to come here anyways.

100% agree that PVP and WVW should not have to do PVE to gain access to content that will affect WVW and PVP gameplay. I do hope they implement this the same they did other rewards not forcing people to play in a way they are not having fun. The point of playing games is to have fun, and for PVP players, PVE is not fun, so there is no point playing if you are not having fun.

style.6173:

@OP:

I hope you are right. Simple maps are better than more complex.

That said, ANET seems to believe that adding more gimmicks makes a good map. They also seem to think that most people want more defense. There are definitely those who like defense, but most people fall into 2 categories: 1. Looking for large scale fights. 2. Roamers. Let’s hope those 2 categories are happy with the new map.

I think if they added more player reward for defense, we could get more people to play defense. Some just want the quick Ktrain fix, and that would suit them well if they could receive that by defending targets too.

I see it as more groups though: 1) K trainers 2) Zerg fighters, 3) Gank squads, 4) Zerg PPT junkies, 5) Havoc( taking towers) 6) roamers doing frogs, camps ect.. 7) defenders and scouts. Our defenders and scouts group is where it is usually lacking.

joneirikb.7506:

lil devils x.6071:

joneirikb.7506:

That is so weird, because I’ve seen more of the opposite, that people like the borderlands, but don’t like EBG. Might just be a perspective thing. My own guild is a WvW roaming guild, and we stick to Borderlands 90% of the time, most of us find EBG pretty boring because you’re funneled into big fights all the time, and don’t have the space to run around behind groups or objectives effectively.

So I guess this is just a matter of perspective/opinion/taste. When people call EBG waypoint in mapchat, I don’t bother going there, I’ll go do something else on the Borderlands instead.

Why is that? I am in T1 and I still solo’d a T3 Ql from BG my second day here. I do roaming, defense, scouting and zerg, and you can do it all on EBG too.. Unless you are in one of the broke Tiers, that isn’t caused by map landscape though it is caused by a broken Tier system. I play on all maps, but I am also frequently the one making calls to save keeps and towers, and receiving responses from those I am calling to come help.

Hey we’ve taken down T3 keeps with a couple of people quite a few times. I personally wouldn’t be able to take down a T3 tower alone just yet, but with 2 it would work. And we’re currently in Tier 7 (Server listed in signature) and we keep bouncing back and forth between different matches where we are top, bottom and middle, so no complains there, we’re having a great time!

The reason is that EBG and BL are designed differently, for different people. Borderlands is more open, more paths, more distance between objectives, more alternative paths. It is easy to sneak around objects and groups to get to things behind them. And for people (like my guild) we enjoy this mode and the many “small fights” that happens this way, usually 5 or less players on each side.

Where EBG is designed to funnel players into specific paths, where all the objectives are stringed together like pearls on a string, this encourages players to group together as they encounter each others on the “paths”, and creates a more group fight mentality map. I don’t really enjoy that, since I like small fights, but others really enjoy it.

So it is a GREAT thing that the two maps are different, so people can play what they enjoy, and go to the playstyle that suits them. I am really looking forward to the new map and hoping that it will be different from both the existing maps, so we can have even more different ways to play this game. And just because their said that they will add “heights” to the game doesn’t mean it will be instant deaths like EotM, imagine lots of heights the like of keep walls, where you fall down, take 5% fall damage, and just been placed in a position out of combat where you have to run back. That could be very fun and tactical in combat. Fear 3-4 enemies off the edge, so you got 1-2 minutes before they can run back to turn the tide of the fight.

I hope we get a keep shaped like a Ziggurat, where we fight on the different “layers” upward, with breaking gates to access stairs to the next layer. All the fun with fear and knockback to split up fights, the lord on the top, being able to watch the attackers stream up through the layers coming at you etc.

Hah! I see the BL as just the opposite and far more linear, and see EBG as much more open, how you can sneak off the outskirts of the map and run behind towers undetected, with many ways and paths to hit the towers . You can hit towers without even being seen from the trenches, and camps. I look at the BL as defensive maps, making it easy to watch the paths where players are forced to go since they cannot just run up the side of the cliff with easily watchable paths with properly placed scouts. The heights are defensive making it more difficult for the opposing team to make a move without being detected. Of course on T1, you have enough people to do that and that may be why you see it different.
If scouts were properly utilized , you could not make a move on a BL without being detected.

I did find this though:
“There are a couple of reasons why I have tried to avoid publically revealing our map population limit.
The thing I have really wanted to avoid is creating a situation where the discussion around WvW becomes focused on what the limit is set at. Population limits are an unfortunate fact of life with the current wvw design, so I really would like to keep people focused more on the gameplay elements that happen with the limits that are in place, instead of being focused on what the number is and arguing how it should be changed or removed.
I mentioned the number 500 as a possible population limit when we first started revealing WvW and honestly have regretted that ever since. I really shouldn’t have mentioned any numbers at all, because I only had some early tests to base that figure on. Soon after, we started full scale testing and it rapidly became clear that just because we could put that many people onto a map didn’t mean we should do it.” ~ Mike Ferguson
More of his interview on the subject here:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/196tgh/jeuxonlineinfo_made_an_interview_with_mike/

So that is why they wouldn’t answer us when we asked last time! XD

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

lil devils x.6071:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Map capacity is exactly the same for all tiers. The fact lower tiers aren’t reaching it very often does not mean the larger servers have larger capacity.

There is no way it is the same, I have played on multiple servers and we have done headcounts for the map while qued..
The lower tiers have worse ques than T1…

Unlikely at best. “Headcounts” on maps that size can only consist of the people willing to respond in chat. In higher tiers, those people are more likely to be concentrating on fights and objectives than taking attendance.

As for ques, I doubt you see ques at all except on reset night in the lower tiers. Everyone has horrid ques then.

This was the first thing I was told when I came to Tier 1, I asked why I was 33 in que and it took under 2 min to get in and they told me it was because they allow more people on the map in Tier 1. You do not need to do a headcount on Tier 1 to see the sheer number of people.

My first server was DR, and we had ques that took hours to get in and FAR less people on map. We didn’t even have that many playing all maps on wvw than they have on one map on JQ.. LOL

timmyf.1490:

lil devils x.6071:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Map capacity is exactly the same for all tiers. The fact lower tiers aren’t reaching it very often does not mean the larger servers have larger capacity.

There is no way it is the same, I have played on multiple servers and we have done headcounts for the map while qued..
The lower tiers have worse ques than T1…

This is one of the crazier theories I’ve heard. It would be a pretty simple confirmation from ArenaNet if once of them wants to poke their head in…?

We asked them before, they wouldn’t answer the population cap issue for us..

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Map capacity is exactly the same for all tiers. The fact lower tiers aren’t reaching it very often does not mean the larger servers have larger capacity.

There is no way it is the same, I have played on multiple servers and we have done headcounts for the map while qued..
The lower tiers have worse ques than T1…

Hmm.. here in Tier 1 wvw , rangers are considered a portable arrow cart, and are frequently called on by zerg commanders to take out cannons, oil, trebs and other targets that are not easily reached. They call on rangers directly in the zerg to serve their purpose. I have a ranger, but it is not my primary class, however, and have been asked to get my ranger since I do not usually play on it. I think you are mistaken about how they are utilized in wvw.

Having commanders that do not know how to utilize the classes is a lacking commander, not a an issue with the classes themselves. I wonder how OP it is going to be as a druid? LOL

Liston.9708:

@lil Devils – huh ? T1 allows more people on the maps? Please explain. Map capacity should be the same on all tiers. You must mean something else…..

No it is not the same on all tiers. They cannot have it the same on all tiers or it would be insanely unbalanced to the point some teams should not even bother to show up. LOL

Although, that is already happening even with them trying to help it. What they really should do is merge everyone into T1 and T2 and further raise the population cap for those servers instead.

Johje Holan.4607:

I personally like the BL’s better. I’ve never understood the complaint about the cliffs personally – just don’t jump off? But I know it is an issue for people because I’ve heard it on my server too. I’d be fine with them re-doing it and flattening it, but we all know that’s not going to happen.

This is what I understood from their description of the new map:

There will be a progression of assets to take. The tower guards the path to the keep. And location #X must be taken in order to take the next location, #Y, for example.

And that would be awesome. That is exactly the suggestion that many players were making.

As for the actual design and the verticality or flatness of it I don’t know. The part about navigating treacherous heights and blowing your enemies up with traps to the depths below did worry me though.

Actually that sounds really linear ;s. Not sure how I feel about linear, I prefer being able to do the unexpected. If they have to take x objective in order to do Y, no point in defending the back line, just stack everything on the front and kill box it making it near impossible to get past x.

they dont have to make it completely flat, but at least not so many pointless cliffs that you spend more time running aimlessly doing nothing than you do fighting. The pointless running around is not fun. Basically we need more action and less running to get to it.

joneirikb.7506:

That is so weird, because I’ve seen more of the opposite, that people like the borderlands, but don’t like EBG. Might just be a perspective thing. My own guild is a WvW roaming guild, and we stick to Borderlands 90% of the time, most of us find EBG pretty boring because you’re funneled into big fights all the time, and don’t have the space to run around behind groups or objectives effectively.

So I guess this is just a matter of perspective/opinion/taste. When people call EBG waypoint in mapchat, I don’t bother going there, I’ll go do something else on the Borderlands instead.

Why is that? I am in T1 and I still solo’d a T3 Ql from BG my second day here. I do roaming, defense, scouting and zerg, and you can do it all on EBG too.. Unless you are in one of the broke Tiers, that isn’t caused by map landscape though it is caused by a broken Tier system. I play on all maps, but I am also frequently the one making calls to save keeps and towers, and receiving responses from those I am calling to come help.

Loosmaster.8263:

I miss you Devil, come home…lol

You should come to JQ!! You would love it here! It is so much fun, and the community is awesome!!

PS. Right now transfer costs are the same regardless of tier, so it is like transferring to JQ is on sale!

Andrew Clear.1750:

lil devils x.6071:

There is really no ’fix" for the lower tiers, and tbh, all the lower tier servers should be merged due to low population. If you want to actually have fun playing wvw transfer to T1.

JQ has an awesome community, people are genuinely nice, they don’t even usually spike so that everyone gets a chance, and commanders stop and rez people themselves. Less trolls and flaming here than any server I have been on thus far and are still highly competitive. People here come to play, are not afraid to take risks and have a fun while doing so. I thought it would just be all blobs before I came here, but it isn’t like that at all, even for roaming it is fun. I could still solo a T3 QL from BG the 2nd day I after I arrived, so T1 is still good for zerging and roaming, except here you have an actual team to play with that you don’t have in the lower tiers, and you don’t have whiny commanders yelling at people because they are not timing their skill calls instead of understanding what they have and how to utilize it properly.

They actually are creative with their commanding here, utilize all classes, and don’t complain about things that really do not matter.

Most of us on SBI are enjoying WvW in the lower tiers (or middle tiers, if you prefer). I doubt anyone is enjoying it in the t3 side (with the exception of k-trainers on the t2 reject of the week).

I do agree that some of the lower tiers servers should be shuttered, and only them offered free transfers to the server of their choice. Would they stack t1/t2 more? I don’t know, maybe, but I know I wouldn’t, because I do not like the queues on reset night.

The difference between ques on T1 and lower tiers though is T1 allows more players on the map, so the ques go REALLY fast. Reset night, JQ, was 33 in que , took me all of less than 2 min to get in EBG. I am rarely in que though.

Muusic.2967:

Since we’re Megaserver now how about they add the option for an Exile alignment. Renounce your server and join an Exile guild that is a wildcard in any WvW map

This would prevent the wannabe’s from flocking to the winning servers because most of the players who are hard core WvW could decide who they align themselves with.

Um no. They already have a problem with people with multiple accounts spying on wvw servers, that would just make that worse. They already have mega server wvw .. it is called EoTM and you see what has happened there due to it.

People only go to the EOTM to K train partly due to the map itself, as you cannot have a serious guild battle on a map like that. They get good fights on EGB due to people choosing that map over the BL maps. You have to look at why they choose the map in the first place, and why people will refuse to go to the BL map at all.

I make calls all the time and have people tell me they wont go to the BL because they hate the map, this isn’t even people in my guild, as we are a wvw only guild, and this is all we do, this is random people on the map when we make calls to save bay or hills, and at least on the server I am on now, people will actually come at all. On other servers, sometimes no one would show up and tell me it was because " I hate that map."
It is difficult to move around for newcomers, they cannot even find their way out of Gari and are screaming “I keep dying every time I try to leave Gari”. No one should have to ask how to move on a map.. that isn’t enhancing gameplay, or making the game more fun, no that is a defective map. What happens instead is they get mad, leave and don’t come back to the BL map or sometimes they don’t come back to wvw or Guild wars 2 at all. They get mad and leave instead, as is what happens in EoTM as well.

EOTM style map isn’t going to attract people, they are only attracted to EOTM for fast leveling, outside of that it would be a ghost town. People do not actually take EOTM seriously due to 1) Server mergers and 2) Stupid map.

The Number one thing a newcomer to wvw needs to know is to GET ON TEAMSPEAK and to REFRESH siege( click on the siege you do not have to fire it and it refreshes the timer so it does not disappear)oh yea do not repair walls that are being trebbed until the treb is down( because it just wastes all your supply and you cannot defend the keep), and GET ON TEAMSPEAK. You are not even playing the game unless you are on Teamspeak. TS is the difference between winning and losing, because with one call, you can bring people from PVE, EOTM, PVP, and other WVW maps to save a keep that you cannot by using map chat. You miss 99% of the commands and calls if you are not on TS with the other people in your server. There is no time in battle to type," might, empower, 3,2,1 go right, go left, dodge, dodge, drop portals here, veil, portal bomb and show up behind them, get the lights, light water, heavy water, condi clears" in enough time to have it actually work. Teamspeak is vital to being able to compete. If the commander isn’t making calls like that, they don’t know how to command. XD

Making proper wvw calls = How many enemies, what team they are on , what guild if a guild group, and what they are attacking and how urgent the situation is. For example:

" 25 BG NET JQBL gate 50% DO guild" means “25 Black Gate from the DO guild are attacking Jade Quarry Borderlands North East Tower, and the gate is at 50% health.”
It also helps to use the intel maps that use voice, if you google “gw2 wvw maps”, click the intel link, and put in your server and it will tell you all the proper names to call each tower/ camp ect when they are taken. This is a good map to keep up all the time because it tells you what is being taken and by what guild.

On all the Home BL maps, they are called by NC= North camp, NWT= North west Tower, NWC= North west camp, then ther eis Gari, Bay and Hills. On EBG ( eternal battlegrounds) they call them by name, our keep = whatever keep you are in that week, SMC is stonemist castle, the camps and towers are called by name, or a shortened name such as Aldons, Mendons, Speldans, some are shortened such as QL= Quentin Lake, Jerris = Jerrifers Tower, Anz= Anzalias Tower, Camps can be shortened such as Dane and pango, and they frequently call Orange swords as “OJ’s”.

Hope that helps!

Harrada.8041:

Offair.2563:

Transfer or try to recruit guilds to your server seems to be the only solutions in this matter.

I’m not going to pretend I know the impact it would have, but what if they condensed the servers together so instead of having 24 worlds competing, they would, lets say 12.

It would send people into a rage.. however, it would greatly help the low server population issues. I think a better solution would be to give people an eviction notice with a free transfer option to any server of their choice, allowing them to choose their new server.

Honestly, from what I have seen anything below T2 is a waste of time even trying to play wvw now.

coglin.1867:

Ark Bladesteele.2943:

And, let’s face it, there will be a race to tank to T3 from all T2 servers just to ensure they don’t have to face anyone from T1. Mag tried to do this last tourney but wasn’t able to before they locked the leagues. Now that people know how it works, the race to tank as soon as the tourney is announced is likely going to be vicious.

This is the most uninformed thing I have ever heard. I don’t know what your talking about, but as of now, the T2 servers, as far as I hear from being on one, feel they can handle T1 just fine. Having transferred from a T1 server (JQ) to a T2 server in recent months, based on what I have seen, I am inclined to agree.

They are talking servers intentionally tanking prior to tourney( as they stated themselves on their own forums prior to the fall tourney) not mentioning any names out of consideration, but YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE.

Yes, this is a " thing" and it happens. I have been on a few servers so far and that is far from " out of the norm" prior to tourney because they want good positioning to do well. I think there may be one T2 server that could maintain in T1, but even then it would be rough on them due to T1 having a higher population cap, so you do not notice the higher numbers running as much there.

There is really no ’fix" for the lower tiers, and tbh, all the lower tier servers should be merged due to low population. If you want to actually have fun playing wvw transfer to T1.

JQ has an awesome community, people are genuinely nice, they don’t even usually spike so that everyone gets a chance, and commanders stop and rez people themselves. Less trolls and flaming here than any server I have been on thus far and are still highly competitive. People here come to play, are not afraid to take risks and have a fun while doing so. I thought it would just be all blobs before I came here, but it isn’t like that at all, even for roaming it is fun. I could still solo a T3 QL from BG the 2nd day I after I arrived, so T1 is still good for zerging and roaming, except here you have an actual team to play with that you don’t have in the lower tiers, and you don’t have whiny commanders yelling at people because they are not timing their skill calls instead of understanding what they have and how to utilize it properly.

They actually are creative with their commanding here, utilize all classes, and don’t complain about things that really do not matter.

Currently, in wvw people frequently refuse to go to the Home BL maps because they are so poorly designed, and not made how people would actually build. Instead, they do stupid things like make you go North to go South, East to go West and add cliffs for no purpose instead of a simplified map like EGB. People prefer EGB due to the actual landscape of the map and many consider the Home Borderlands maps to be broken due to the landscape and layout and refuse to play on them. If a map is running off players rather than attracting them there is something wrong with the map itself that needs to be corrected.

I was hoping they would redo the landscape of the Home Borderland maps all together, have less focus on PVE content in wvw ( we do not want worms, frogs, dredge, ogres, or centaurs ect.. we want to fight players) and instead allow for more elements that can be used in actual battle to be added ( more ways to fight and more tools to fight with). I am concerned about the actual landscape of the Expansion Map as someone was mentioning cliffs.. Hopefully there are less cliffs and a more simplified battlefield like EGB to fight with, so players can focus more on fighting other players rather than stupid things like die from falling off a cliff due to lag. Falling and running around aimlessly due to poor map design =\= enhanced gameplay or fun for most people and I have seen multiple people rage quit the game due to that as it is.

I do hope that this new BL is for actual fighting and the map is a good battlefield, because currently wvw only has one decent map and is in desperate need of more good maps. The BL maps we currently have are costing us players as it is.

Exactly what are you expecting to have wvw ranks show? Some of the players with the highest rank in wvw are some of the worst players and least skilled in regards to fighting other players, siege placement, tactics, understanding party mechanics and blast skills, ect. To put it bluntly, you can have a high wvw rank and be one of the worst wvw players I have ever seen.

Good wvw players can do all of the above and run in a zerg and know what to do in that zerg without even being told.

You get to know who is good and not good in your zerg by playing with them, not by seeing a tag on a stranger. As with anything else, you get to know the players and work with them and guide them to make a better team, you do not get a " just add water" team by looking at tags.

Being concerned about leveling your personal wvw rank is not the same as being concerned about winning, being a team player, being able to fight and focusing on ppt.. Those two concepts have nothing to do with one another.

Lowering the population cap is a terrible idea, as it is guilds cannot even get on a map due to ques, and all that will do is send guilds to other games rather than continue to play at all.

If they really want to solve the wvw issues and keep it competitive, they need to change the mechanics of it. They very well could make portals you enter into to join sides and keep the sides balanced until the population is full to start a game, rather than using servers at all and have the games run daily in shorter periods. Honestly the way this is set up, you do not need a whole week to see who is going to win, usually you know pretty quickly who is going to win and the rest of the week is spent running up the score rather than providing a competitive environment. The current mechanics are terribly broken, and the only way to resolve them as far as I can see is to change the server vs server aspect and instead create new factions, shorter games, and allow players to choose a side before the game starts. Otherwise we are just going to continue the " transfer to the top tiers" game, top tiers get bored of fighting the same people, they leave game all together and allow more to transfer to the top tiers until the game dies due to the population transferring up then leaving.

zoejo.2317:

So, does anyone who says the game is dying/losing players/failing financially, have any reliable source? Some official numbers?
Is it really all speculation?

I have no idea how they are doing financially, however, losing numbers and interest is easy.
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/guildwars2.com

Or compared to other games for example:
http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=guild%20wars%202%2C%20world%20of%20warcraft%2C%20minecraft%2C%20%2Fm%2F04n3w2r&cmpt=q

Rpgtabbycat.5869:

I dislike the Living Story and wish they’d do away with it and give us real content instead. My cash isn’t going to change their mind about that so I see no reason to buy gems. They’ve already gotten enough of my money.

I have had this game since it came out ( it was pre-ordered) and haven’t even started “my story”.. I really detest stuff like that in a game and consider " my story" what I actually do in game and how I interact with other players. I don’t like things pre-scripted for me and would rather I decide what I do.

But then again, I am just now trying really hard to play it and do not plan on doing any of the story nonsense. My game has been collecting dust since it came out due to the first time picking it up and being so frustrated with the broken camera and figuring that if I let it sit a while they would fix the camera in time. My friends and family have been pressuring me to play this with them instead of the other games I play, and I had really hoped they would have fixed by now, but I guess we would have to wait for GW3 for that?

I was a HUGE fan of GW1 and Arena Net, did the surveys for this game, helped promote it tremendously and have nothing but good things to say about them, however, I am having an extremely hard time really enjoying this game due to a few things that honestly give me so much of a headache when I play that I have to actually do other things to wind down from playing this game. I am supposed to be playing this to wind down and have fun, but I am not finding that to be the case.

How can they save the game? I am not sure, but I can give my perspective on my experience thus far. I WANT to play this game with friends and family, so I have motivation to really try to enjoy it in spite of how the game itself makes me feel.

1) The first big thing that actually made me leave the game after the first time I played: The camera. No first person, very limited options, camera doesn’t move with you and you cannot even see what you are shooting at if you get next to a wall or under a tree.

That alone made me walk away after the first day. I am sure it ran off many others as well. Many games have options with the camera, and to be having to focus more on the camera than what is going on in the game feels like a chore rather than enjoyment of any kind.

2) Jumping puzzles/ vistas. The single worst Idea I have ever seen implemented in a game. Fine, If you like jumping puzzles, great, please do not tie them into everyone’s completion. Make them a separate activity that one can choose to partake in and be rewarded individually without tying it in so that in order to complete your map you have to do this utterly pointless nonsense. Regretfully, I was diagnosed with 2 types of arthritis in high school and the physical pain I have endured while trying to complete those stupid vistas has been immense enough to make me have to walk away from the game for a while. The views are great, the jumping parkour nonsense makes me want to punch someone in the nose for putting it in the game.

3) This may be unpopular with some but I like the gem store and actually would like to see more items I am interested in put in it. I am not a fan of the steam punk/ western clothing style for my favorite class (ranger), I actually am completely repulsed by that style and have been trying to find something better, but I do not like any of the styles available and would like to see something I actually enjoy.

I know, I know… It is just cosmetic so I try to look past it, but the problem is of course, they MAKE me look at my character when I play ( no 1st person) so I have to look at something I think looks terrible. I prefer the elementalist armor, but you do not play a character for the armor, you play them for their abilities. I would like more options for my armor. I loved elementalist GW1 armor, but hate looking at my character on GW2.

I already felt my character creation customization options were lacking, I like to do my characters makeup the way I do my own makeup, but they did not even have makeup options. I was surprised to see no lipstick, blush, eye shadow or anything offered in character creation as there were no shaders.

4.) Add options to turn off spell special effects. Even on lowest settings it is extremely irritating. Combined with the bad camera you cant see what you are doing when people are casting all over the place.

Sometimes less is more, and this is one of those times. It is bad enough that someone with epilepsy could not play due to them, but even for people who do not it gives us a such a headache it makes me not want to be in an area where anyone is going to be using them, which eliminates most of the game for me. Special effects are supposed to enhance game play, not run people off from it. Even games that came out 15 years ago had options to turn off special effects, this one should as well.

5. Broken events. Most poison events are ghost towns because no one likes doing poison battles. Events no one is doing should be fixed. Whatever mechanics are driving people off from events should be examined and corrected. If no one is doing something, there is a reason for it and it should be repaired.

6.) I would like to see expansions. I know many do not like having to buy more content, but in order to gain much more content, I am willing to pay for it. You also gain new players when releasing expansions as more become aware of the game due to the press from new releases. Without releasing new heavily promoted content, a game is often seen as " old" rather than seen as the current game to play.

I am not sure if that helps " save" the game, but it is my perspective on some of the things that would help improve the number of people logged in.