Pros/Cons Alliances Beta night

[KeyOrion.9506]

Ok.  Several issues popped up immediately.

1: On reset night, we entered into the maps,  played for a few minutes and then were immediately kicked out, and then had to re-que.

2:  After being kicked out and requed...you would be qued for a #...and then after a few minutes, the Que would show a growth, pushing that # higher, making you wait longer in que.  It's like people were cutting in front of you while you were waiting in line.

3: Some people were complaining of the lag...but besides the lag...skill bars were Inaccessible.  I'm not talking about, pushing the button and skills not activating.  I'm saying the skill bar was nothing more than a picture Icon, where you were NOT even allowed to click on to access and activate.  You could hover over the icon, but the skill icons themselves were inaccessible.

4: NPC's were killed, like a Quartermaster or Veteran Supervisor.  Then they were ressed.  They would then run back to their original position...and then auto-die as soon as they got back to their original position.  There were no conditions on the NPC, nor were there any enemy nearby.

 

Onwards, the only LARGE complaint I would have, had to deal more with the security measures used by Guild Wars players on their Discord channels.  The Guild Wars API keys were pretty much useless for a large portion of players who did not share the specific Server registration with the group you got hooked up with.  For example say the API Key shows that you are Jade Quarry player, you could not talk in a Discord whose Verify bot only recognized Sanctum of Rall players, or Devona Rest players.  And on reset night, there was nobody checking their Waiting Room for players that were sent Discord channels, which a number of players couldn't access anyways.  That I know is a Discord problem and a personal problem with the Guilds/Alliances.  However if there is an API Key being created by Anet, then it's a problem securing access to communications protocol for allied teamplay.  I'm sure it's great for large guilds, and large alliances. For solos and pugs, this is a brick wall.  "Well they can always join that guild...."  You need a better solution for solo's and pugs that don't want to join ten seperate guilds if they're not feeling any connection to those guilds in the first place.

Edited December 4, 2021 by KeyOrion.9506

[Dawdler.8521]

This isnt so much "pros" or "cons", half of it is issues and bugs that has little to with the actual alliance matchup system and the other half a discord related problem that will eventually do have a better system - the actual alliances that arent in the beta. I wouldnt expect the API to work properly anyway this time.

[SweetPotato.7456]

I play sea/ocx timezone on TC, usually there are no tag during those time, but there are roamers. 

Now Alliance - there are 0 players on all borderlands only some on EBG. 
 

Why ???? 

[Farout.8207]

The biggest con for me is losing any kind of server identity. Maybe I'm in the minority but I actually enjoy being on my server and the people that are on it are a huge reason why. No matter what is done in advance people are going to be split up from  people they like playing with. I honestly think Alliances will end up hurting the game mode in the long run.

Edited December 5, 2021 by Farout.8207

[Telgum.6071]

6 minutes ago, Farout.8207 said:

The biggest con for me is losing any kind of server identity. Maybe I'm in the minority but I actually enjoy being on my server and the people that are on it are a huge reason why. Not matter what is done in advance people are going to be split up from  people they like playing with. I honestly think Alliances will end up hurting the game mode in the long run.

There are guilds organizing community alliances. 

Edited December 4, 2021 by Telgum.6071
Typo

[Ben K.6238]

My server lost whatever identity it had years ago, so that's not a concern to me.

 

The numbers might work out to be more balanced - it was weird not actually being outnumbered in SEA primetime for once - but it's ultimately still the same game. Alliances aren't a meaningful change to me yet.

[KeyOrion.9506]

On 12/3/2021 at 9:55 PM, Dawdler.8521 said:

This isnt so much "pros" or "cons", half of it is issues and bugs that has little to with the actual alliance matchup system and the other half a discord related problem that will eventually do have a better system - the actual alliances that arent in the beta. I wouldnt expect the API to work properly anyway this time.

The first four points were glitches/bugs.  The last paragraph was an issue with Communications with the large and allied Guilds that use Communications Protocol, who don't want to communicate or have an open tag, or decide to go around on hidden tag, or have a private discord for any and all battles.  The issue with alliances now, is this problem will now be compounded ten-fold.  Whether this is good or bad, i'm seeing this lack of open communication as a large problem.  And it seems to be rooted in some sense of ego.  If you don't want pugs, that's your problem. IF you don't want scout calls, again that's your problem.  You want to keep chatter down during combat, that's your problem.  But if your gonna do private tag or hidden tag, i don't need to be part of that.  You want to put up a brick wall and say "You can't play unless you have this specific class, build, this armor set, these sigils, these runes, and anything else or we are going to burn you at the stake."  Yah, i'm gonna see that as one big con.  What can we do about this communication blockage?  Open tag, non hidden, be a little bit more open to team criticism. 

 

For example: Every time your Driver and his team gets smashed to bits, and the Driver goes, "Ok, what's going on, what happened to you all"...then the team speaks up about condi's took them down, or CC's took them down, or they got lost because the Driver was moving so fast and not being really explicit with directions.....

 

"NO, that's not the problem, this is the problem..." and lays every thing at YOUR feet.  You didn't have yoru cleanses on.  You didn't have your stability on.  You squirreled off.  Even if everyone is stacked in a dead heap at the foot of the driver., for some reason it was still all your fault.  That's a con.

And this is why when the Driver asks, "Ok, what happened to you all," and then they are greeted with dead silence.  It's because they know if they speak up, they will be shredded openly in chat or discord.  So your team remains silent.  And you will never get the criticism you obviously deserve, if you want to attempt to win your battles each time you get defeated.

Right now during this entire beta test for Alliances, I seen a complete lack of communication, snubbing, and quite a bit of disrespect to the pugs and solo's.  Again, i don't need to join a corp or group that's gonna expect all these smaller groups to fold into a Megacorporation that just gobbles up everything smaller than them.

 

Again.  Open tag.  Little bit more respect for those not part of your zerg.  A whole heaping bucket of  patience.  Maybe.  Just maybe you'll see a game performance improvement from everyone nearby.

Edited December 5, 2021 by KeyOrion.9506

[Xenesis.6389]

Didn't play last night, figured it would be a clustermuck and chose to skip it.

Played tonight, felt like day after relinks happened, but it was the same wvw, didn't run into any bugs, saw some of my current server team mates on enemy server, killed a few of them lol. Ran with a couple 10-15 man groups that were rocking bigger groups with stealth and portal bombs, had a good time fighting with them. Also saw usual fat map queue boon balling enemy blob in ebg, didn't stay for more than 10 mins in there.

Same ole same ole wvw to me. 🤷‍♂️

Edited December 5, 2021 by Xenesis.6389

[Ausar.9542]

8 hours ago, Farout.8207 said:

The biggest con for me is losing any kind of server identity. Maybe I'm in the minority but I actually enjoy being on my server and the people that are on it are a huge reason why. Not matter what is done in advance people are going to be split up from  people they like playing with. I honestly think Alliances will end up hurting the game mode in the long run.

And this is probably why Anet been so hesitant with adding the Alliance Feature. They probably did much testing and came to the same conclusion but was pressured to push forward with it in a beta format.

[Parthenos Polias.5683]

10 hours ago, Telgum.6071 said:

There are guilds organizing community alliances. 

Doesn't feel the same.

Fighting for your world with anyone from your world isn't the same thing than fighting with your community for a world you are not attached too.

It's the same difference between "protecting your land" and "being a mercenary for a foreign land"

[Xenesis.6389]

6 hours ago, Parthenos Polias.5683 said:

Doesn't feel the same.

Fighting for your world with anyone from your world isn't the same thing than fighting with your community for a world you are not attached too.

It's the same difference between "protecting your land" and "being a mercenary for a foreign land"

 

Neither does it feel the same after 5-10 guilds bandwagon off your server and leave it in ruins, you know, the cycle that's been happening for almost nine years now. You have the people who are die hards who stayed, but is there more than 500 of them in your time zone playing? Is community about the name or the poeple? Because those people could make a guild and call it the name of the server, and invite whomever they can to stick together. I know Maguuma already did this, who else?

[Danikat.8537]

Until this week I've only ever played WvW for Desolation. I've only been on another server for about an hour during the beta week when the HoM was only working on American servers (and transfers were free and unlimited). So for me the big positive has been finding out that WvW isn't that different to what I'm used to. I've still been able to find open squads to join, people have been answering questions, calling out objectives and mostly being civil to each other in map and team chat and while I did accidentally end up in a group that was just going in circles pointlessly farming another group I was able to find another one to join which was actually playing.

So far all the 'horror stories' I've heard about how awful WvW can be haven't happened, which was my big worry. The way some people talk about WvW it seemed like I'd gotten very lucky with my server and couldn't count on the same experience anywhere else (which is part of the reason I've never moved) and I was worried I was going to lose that with Alliances.

I know the full system isn't in yet so what we've got isn't really representative of what we will have, when guilds can join into Alliances and build bigger communities, but it's still made me less worried about what we're going to get.

So, shout out to Griffonfall for a good experience so far, even without a real community!

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

I think that is what is bugging people. While a lot of guilds bandwagon, there were still people who never left their original server (IOJ ❤️ you guys) . You wouldn't necessarily join the same guilds, but you played with the same people and knew their gameplay well enough that you could set each other up in fights without even needing voice coms.

Now said people are scattered to the winds.

[Stand The Wall.6987]

https://imgur.com/7RUFflg

[kamikharzeeh.8016]

On 12/5/2021 at 11:13 AM, Parthenos Polias.5683 said:

Doesn't feel the same.

Fighting for your world with anyone from your world isn't the same thing than fighting with your community for a world you are not attached too.

It's the same difference between "protecting your land" and "being a mercenary for a foreign land"

all u ppters and roleplayers have to do is to make the new alliance your new thingy that u can swear fealty to. should be easy enough, i feel.

 

people who want to stay together simply can by choosing the same alliance-guild.... is that really that hard to understand? if u guys for reasons won't manage that, it cannot be this important

 

Wvw resets weekly and stuff gets flipped anyways on absurd times (mid night 3am-8am morning some servers have app their primetime) ...

[Mabi black.1824]

let's start to understand what it means to no longer be part of your team / server ........ it takes a long time to build community .......... and going beyond this will be hard to digest for many of us.

I'm sorry but it's not as simple as someone says '' just join in an alliance '' you can't be so blind.

I am part of a small guild which in turn is now part of a small alliance ........ So what........ what do you solve......... we lose or win the game.

it's not my problem so much at the next reset I'm part of another team / server .......... that maybe in the meantime has lost some ally to me nice and taken other allies less nice to me ........

for sure we will all play more relaxed (positive aspect)........ because you win or lose games it doesn't matter anymore.

 

ERGO

 

balance is fundamental but do not underestimate the motivation and the sense of belonging to a team for a healthy competition game mode.

 

 

 

[kash.9213]

7 hours ago, kamikharzeeh.8016 said:

all u ppters and roleplayers have to do is to make the new alliance your new thingy that u can swear fealty to. should be easy enough, i feel.

 

people who want to stay together simply can by choosing the same alliance-guild.... is that really that hard to understand? if u guys for reasons won't manage that, it cannot be this important

 

Wvw resets weekly and stuff gets flipped anyways on absurd times (mid night 3am-8am morning some servers have app their primetime) ...

And if that new guild they've all pigeon holed themselves into implodes that's a really bad game experience for them that will be hard to do damage control on the way alliances will remove the foundation of WvW and basically turn into a big weekly LFG unless you're stuck in a cattle guild. That's also unrealistic and does nothing to form a community, it just gives control of all of their WvW time to a guild and alliance leader.

Not sure where you're getting ppters and roleplayers, that was kind of dumb but I get you were trying to be funny, you were just bad at it. 

 

[Stand The Wall.6987]

1 hour ago, kash.9213 said:

And if that new guild they've all pigeon holed themselves into implodes that's a really bad game experience for them

if they're not in an alliance.

[ASP.8093]

18 hours ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

I think that is what is bugging people. While a lot of guilds bandwagon, there were still people who never left their original server (IOJ ❤️ you guys) . You wouldn't necessarily join the same guilds, but you played with the same people and knew their gameplay well enough that you could set each other up in fights without even needing voice coms.

Now said people are scattered to the winds.

They will have ample opportunity to un-scatter themselves.

You don't have to like it, but, I'm begging you — actually work for this instead of sitting back and complaining about how the game is dying because you can't be bothered to ask your friends who you see every day to send you a dang alliance invite.

[kash.9213]

34 minutes ago, Stand The Wall.6987 said:

if they're not in an alliance.

You don't makes sense. If their guild and alliance implodes they're floating around hoping the algorithm places them with one or two people they know the next matchup. 

[Stand The Wall.6987]

36 minutes ago, kash.9213 said:

You don't makes sense. If their guild and alliance implodes they're floating around hoping the algorithm places them with one or two people they know the next matchup. 

i do make sense. i quoted you mentioning a guild only. if they were in an alliance, they would still have people to play with, and an alliance is a lot less likely to fail then an guild. whatever tho its all good.

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

1 hour ago, ASP.8093 said:

They will have ample opportunity to un-scatter themselves.

You don't have to like it, but, I'm begging you — actually work for this instead of sitting back and complaining about how the game is dying because you can't be bothered to ask your friends who you see every day to send you a dang alliance invite.

Oh my guild setup some contacts for when alliances actually happen. But that doesn't cover all of IoJ, and some people are in multiple guilds that may or may not form an alliance.

[ASP.8093]

7 hours ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

Oh my guild setup some contacts for when alliances actually happen. But that doesn't cover all of IoJ, and some people are in multiple guilds that may or may not form an alliance.

If you could create a single alliance that covered all of your old server perfectly that would defeat the whole purpose of alliances now, wouldn't it?

[Infusion.7149]

4 minutes ago, ASP.8093 said:

If you could create a single alliance that covered all of your old server perfectly that would defeat the whole purpose of alliances now, wouldn't it?

There's some unwanted people that nobody wants to deal with on every server.

[Counterakt.9106]

On 12/5/2021 at 12:32 AM, Ausar.9542 said:

And this is probably why Anet been so hesitant with adding the Alliance Feature. They probably did much testing and came to the same conclusion but was pressured to push forward with it in a beta format.

Good joke lol. Anet did mucho testing? They don't even have a separate server to test beta, which btw is more like pre-alpha.

Remember the hanging canons in smc? Devs literally just push changes into prod and call it a day.