PVE only feature map selection

[neoteo.3975]

I have a feeling players could gain enjoyment if the way players are spread in maps was different. What if the player distribution on PVE areas would not be according to WVW servers but just by the amount of players. Meaning when a player joins a map, regardless of what server he is in, he is placed in the most populated instance of that map, only when that map is full, any player who attempts to join will go to the second instance on the list, and so on and so on. For those who played gw1 this was how it worked, and it was great.

This could only be better if we would also have a drop down menu of all existing instances and we could jump from on to others as we do in gw1. With the limitations required to avoid exploits on meta and world events, same as we have now.

Why do i feel this is needed? Happens many times i login to the game, my map is empty, i play and while and get the message to jump to another map, i do that and the next map is a little bit more populated, after a while it's time for the meta, i join the meta group in lfg, jump map again, and that map is super populated. Makes me think, why did i login to an empty map, if there are maps with lots of people? Imagine those players who don't even join meta groups, they think the game is dead.

I am near sure something needs to be done, change how people are creating empty instances. Just put everyone on the same instances.

Thank you

[Tyncale.1629]

Are PvE maps populated according to WvW server affiliation? I thought that was history with the new mega server.

[neoteo.3975]

Anet could better clarify how it works, my story is my experience on daily basis. It feels like there are too many empty instances of the same maps, i need to jump 2 or 3 times to reach the map where people are. This could be solved.

[neoteo.3975]

@Tyncale.1629 said:Are PvE maps populated according to WvW server affiliation? I thought that was history with the new mega server.

Mega server means we can play with any player, but doesn't place every player on the same instance by default.

[Cyninja.2954]

@"neoteo.3975" said:I have a feeling players could gain enjoyment if the way players are spread in maps was different. What if the player distribution on PVE areas would not be according to WVW servers but just by the amount of players. Meaning when a player joins a map, regardless of what server he is in, he is placed in the most populated instance of that map, only when that map is full, any player who attempts to join will go to the second instance on the list, and so on and so on. For those who played gw1 this was how it worked, and it was great.

This could only be better if we would also have a drop down menu of all existing instances and we could jump from on to others as we do in gw1. With the limitations required to avoid exploits on meta and world events, same as we have now.

Why do i feel this is needed? Happens many times i login to the game, my map is empty, i play and while and get the message to jump to another map, i do that and the next map is a little bit more populated, after a while it's time for the meta, i join the meta group in lfg, jump map again, and that map is super populated. Makes me think, why did i login to an empty map, if there are maps with lots of people? Imagine those players who don't even join meta groups, they think the game is dead.

I am near sure something needs to be done, change how people are creating empty instances. Just put everyone on the same instances.

Thank you

I have some news for you, it already is since 2014:https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/introducing-the-megaserver-system/

PVE map placement has NOTHING to do with which server you are for WvW on besides regional restrictions.

[neoteo.3975]

@Cyninja.2954 said:

@"neoteo.3975" said:I have a feeling players could gain enjoyment if the way players are spread in maps was different. What if the player distribution on PVE areas would not be according to WVW servers but just by the amount of players. Meaning when a player joins a map, regardless of what server he is in, he is placed in the most populated instance of that map, only when that map is full, any player who attempts to join will go to the second instance on the list, and so on and so on. For those who played gw1 this was how it worked, and it was great.

This could only be better if we would also have a drop down menu of all existing instances and we could jump from on to others as we do in gw1. With the limitations required to avoid exploits on meta and world events, same as we have now.

Why do i feel this is needed? Happens many times i login to the game, my map is empty, i play and while and get the message to jump to another map, i do that and the next map is a little bit more populated, after a while it's time for the meta, i join the meta group in lfg, jump map again, and that map is super populated. Makes me think, why did i login to an empty map, if there are maps with lots of people? Imagine those players who don't even join meta groups, they think the game is dead.

I am near sure something needs to be done, change how people are creating empty instances. Just put everyone on the same instances.

Thank you

I have some news for you, it already is since 2014:

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

PVE map placement has NOTHING to do with which server you are for WvW on besides regional restrictions.

So how do you explain that you log in to empty maps when there are other maps with more players? Something not working.

Edit: thank you for that link?

[neoteo.3975]

"you will simply arrive in a map and be assigned to the version of that map that makes the most sense for you as selected by the megaserver system we’ve developed"

What makes the most sense for me using what criteria? This is what we don't know.

[Tyncale.1629]

@neoteo.3975 said:

@Tyncale.1629 said:Are PvE maps populated according to WvW server affiliation? I thought that was history with the new mega server.

Mega server means we can play with any player, but doesn't place every player on the same instance by default.

I know, but the placement is just not linked to your WvW affiliation, like Cyninja just confirmed.

I guess placing someone from an almost totally empty map into an already busy map could pose some sort of problem. I have no idea what kind of algorithms they use for this. Choosing your instance would be cool, especially when you are on a bugged map, I am looking at you Field of Ruins/Ogre Wars.

[neoteo.3975]

@Tyncale.1629 said:

@neoteo.3975 said:

@Tyncale.1629 said:Are PvE maps populated according to WvW server affiliation? I thought that was history with the new mega server.

Mega server means we can play with any player, but doesn't place every player on the same instance by default.

I know, but the placement is just not linked to your WvW affiliation, like Cyninja just confirmed.

I guess placing someone from an almost totally empty map into an already busy map could pose some sort of problem. I have no idea what kind of algorithms they use for this. Choosing your instance would be cool, especially when you are on a bugged map, I am looking at you Field of Ruins/Ogre Wars.

Not sure what problems besides lag, if they use ping as a measurement to avoid lag, anyway players fight their way to the most busy instances, they should fix the algorithms that spread players, if what players want is to be on the same maps.

[maddoctor.2738]

@neoteo.3975 said:So how do you explain that you log in to empty maps when there are other maps with more players? Something not working.

A few reasons for that:a) The map instance you joined just finished a meta event and is now empty so you get the prompt that the map has few players.b) The map instance you joined has few players because the other instances are at their soft cap and all the players are there.

The game has two caps, a hard cap is when an instance is full and nobody can join anymore. And a soft cap which means nobody can join the map while loading/porting on their own, but they can still join the map instance if they are in a group with someone else that is there, for example joining through the LFG.

WVW servers play very little role anymore.

[maddoctor.2738]

@neoteo.3975 said:Not sure what problems besides lag, if they use ping as a measurement to avoid lag, anyway players fight their way to the most busy instances, they should fix the algorithms that spread players, if what players want is to be on the same maps.

The reason the cap exists is so guilds and squads can port their players to the same instance as they are. Imagine a map with 100 spots, if all 100 could be filled by anyone then playing together with people you want would be a game of chance. By having a soft cap at let's say 80 spots, it means 80 spots will be joined by anyone, but the last 20 will be filled by players in the same party or squad as some of the 80 spots. Meaning, easier to group with players, easier to play with your friends, easier to find populated maps using the LFG. All is working as intended.

[neoteo.3975]

@maddoctor.2738 said:

@neoteo.3975 said:Not sure what problems besides lag, if they use ping as a measurement to avoid lag, anyway players fight their way to the most busy instances, they should fix the algorithms that spread players, if what players want is to be on the same maps.

The reason the cap exists is so guilds and squads can port their players to the same instance as they are. Imagine a map with 100 spots, if all 100 could be filled by anyone then playing together with people you want would be a game of chance. By having a soft cap at let's say 80 spots, it means 80 spots will be joined by anyone, but the last 20 will be filled by players in the same party or squad as some of the 80 spots. Meaning, easier to group with players, easier to play with your friends, easier to find populated maps using the LFG. All is working as intended.

This is where the drop down menu with the available instances comes, for big guilds, squads etc be able to all jump to an empty instance and let the full instance for others. I mean the lfg feature and being able to jump to the commander already do a good job, i just see a place for improvement in the login placement and giving players the drop down menu like we have in gw1.

[maddoctor.2738]

@neoteo.3975 said:This is where the drop down menu with the available instances comes, for big guilds, squads etc be able to all jump to an empty instance and let the full instance for others. I mean the lfg feature and being able to jump to the commander already do a good job, i just see a place for improvement in the login placement and giving players the drop down menu like we have in gw1.

Well the GW1 works because it is a heavily instanced game, plus where you use that dropdown, there is no combat. Why would they add an extra step (or multiple ones) for squad/guilds to play together? Why ruin the game for those players to make it easier for a random to get ported to a full instance? Just use the LFG if you want a full instance, the placement system is fine as is. You are finding non-existing problems and proposing systems that would make the situation worse, not improve it.

[neoteo.3975]

@maddoctor.2738 said:

@neoteo.3975 said:This is where the drop down menu with the available instances comes, for big guilds, squads etc be able to all jump to an empty instance and let the full instance for others. I mean the lfg feature and being able to jump to the commander already do a good job, i just see a place for improvement in the login placement and giving players the drop down menu like we have in gw1.

Well the GW1 works because it is a heavily instanced game, plus where you use that dropdown, there is no combat. Why would they add an extra step (or multiple ones) for squad/guilds to play together? Why ruin the game for those players to make it easier for a random to get ported to a full instance? Just use the LFG if you want a full instance, the placement system is fine as is. You are finding non-existing problems and proposing systems that would make the situation worse, not improve it.

No idea what you are talking about, but I was expecting your type of reply, anyway I'm still grateful that you keep bumping my topic up, hopefully someone from Anet will see it. ?

[kharmin.7683]

How could you expect that type of reply and not understand what is being said?

[joneirikb.7506]

Took me a while to figure out what you where actually asking, but basically the drop down menu from gw1 to choose city instance. There are several ways to manipulating the Instance system anyways, using friend list, guild and party, so I don't see much point to it honestly.

If using it as in GW1 then it only affected cities anyways, in which case it doesn't really matter, unless you're trying to meet up with friends/guildies/party, in which case you already have an easy way to do it. Besides the system will generally try to put you in the same instance as those anyways, unless it's full.

I don't really see a point in adding it to the open world combat zones, since the game will try to compress people into the fewest number of instances anyways (and close them down when people been moved). For most maps/situations this will work pretty well most of the time, the most notorious exceptions are usually world bosses, when maps can get 3-4-5 extra instances due to hordes of players joining and leaving in a short period, which can create a chain reaction of maps closing as the system reacts to the quickly plummeting numbers, and you can be asked to join another map several times in a row. But a drop down instance chooser wouldn't really help there, as it just means the main map will be full anyways (people taxi in with the system mentioned earlier). And the maps would still be collapsing afterwards.

So literally the only purpose I can see for adding a instance selector would be if there are 2 map instances, to use it to go to the underpopulated one, if you want less people around you (Which I personally would totally use it for). Otherwise you're just requesting a manual way to do what the game already does automatically for you. As someone said, you're inventing a problem where none exist.

[neoteo.3975]

@joneirikb.7506 said:Took me a while to figure out what you where actually asking, but basically the drop down menu from gw1 to choose city instance. There are several ways to manipulating the Instance system anyways, using friend list, guild and party, so I don't see much point to it honestly.

If using it as in GW1 then it only affected cities anyways, in which case it doesn't really matter, unless you're trying to meet up with friends/guildies/party, in which case you already have an easy way to do it. Besides the system will generally try to put you in the same instance as those anyways, unless it's full.

I don't really see a point in adding it to the open world combat zones, since the game will try to compress people into the fewest number of instances anyways (and close them down when people been moved). For most maps/situations this will work pretty well most of the time, the most notorious exceptions are usually world bosses, when maps can get 3-4-5 extra instances due to hordes of players joining and leaving in a short period, which can create a chain reaction of maps closing as the system reacts to the quickly plummeting numbers, and you can be asked to join another map several times in a row. But a drop down instance chooser wouldn't really help there, as it just means the main map will be full anyways (people taxi in with the system mentioned earlier). And the maps would still be collapsing afterwards.

So literally the only purpose I can see for adding a instance selector would be if there are 2 map instances, to use it to go to the underpopulated one, if you want less people around you (Which I personally would totally use it for). Otherwise you're just requesting a manual way to do what the game already does automatically for you. As someone said, you're inventing a problem where none exist.

yes, a manual way to do what the game does automatically is exactly the way to say it.

LFG does the job is true, but adding the option to see the instance that have more players and be able to jump to it before joining a group is an improvement