This is so much worse than before. The layers are totally dead now. So we went from full layers and broken Ashenvale to empty layers and no Ashenvale. I think we’d take the former.
4 Likes
yeah we gotta revert this asap, efficiently getting warsong/silverwing rep is impossible now. waiting 3+ hours between battles to potentially lose and only get 200 rep makes for a terrible player experience
Honestly at this point. Just put the thing on a timer so we can play. The delays are just terrible, and our server split isn’t as bad as some I reckon.
1 Like
Can we get a ‘quick flight’ [to Ashenvale] implemented if you’re lvl 25. I really don’t want to sit in Darnassus/Thunderbluff/Orgrimmar (though, Orgrimmar’s not a bad spot) while waiting on the timer.
…it really just ends up being a case of “meh, nvm”.
‘Quick Flight’: Talk to a city’s flight master for a special ride to Astranaar (Alliance) or Splintertree Post (Horde). Once you hit the edge of the city zone, you get the load screen for Kalimdor and land at the respective flight master.
I’m aware you have plenty of time to flight to Menethil Harbor/Booty Bay, and boat to Kalimdor (Alliance) or UC Zep to Org/Booty Bay, and Zep/Boat to Kalimdor.
The point is it’s a barrier. Every BG has an NPC in the city to talk to in order to queue up. I believe when WoW launched you had to travel to the BG Instance (Ashenvale, Arathi Highlands, Alterac Mountains) to queue up. This was changed to make it more likely for players to participate.
…Wintergrasp, an overworld PVP ‘lake’ also made use of a fast travel to get people to use it.
EDIT:
At the very least. You need to add an NPC in every city that acts like the Wintergrasp NPC. But instead of telling the time of the next battle, this NPC would tell the percentages. NovaWorldBuffs only tells you if someone with the addon is in Ashenvale.
Actually, no it isn’t fine. It is at the heart of the very problem you are trying to attempt to solve, but not by addressing why the problem is existing in the first place.
World PvP in WoW is ALWAYS going to have issues like these as long as you are adamant about always including two fundamental design flaws:
- Timed events
- PvE bosses
Both of these design options simply funnel players into an area and promote the zerg. Not only this, by constantly combining these you also promote the zergs bypassing PvP and simply rolling past each other on their way to the PvE objectives. This is the same design flaw that turned AV into the travesty that it is today.
It is maddening and saddening to see these two tenets constantly used in WoW, where other MMOs that had successful world/large scale PvP understood these will always spell the deathknell of such attempts.
I’m begging you, down on my knees begging you, to develop a world PvP zone where neither of these design flaws are present. This is Season of Discovery, a place for you guys to experiment with new things. And yet with PvP you have refused to deviate from the same old design that has failed in WoW for the past 20 years.
Honestly, you guys have NOTHING to lose from trying something different.
Please ask yourself what the goal of a world PvP zone actually is. From what I can see you seem to be designing for people to earn rep and honour. Why isn’t your basic design goal to promote PvP - that’s player vs player interaction?
You’ve done some great things in SoD. It has been great to see you try things, some of which have worked and some of which haven’t. Which makes it even more baffling why the PvP is so stagnant, unimaginative and is just repeating the mistakes of the past.
I’m no expert, but if I thought it would even be seen I would happily write a few thousand word design scope outlining, in specific detail, what I believe would be a successful world PvP zone that would create amazing memories, actually promote non-stop PvP and not cause the issues you are attempting to fix here.
Classic WoW is the best MMO. It’s why we’re all still here 20 years later. It could just be so, so much better if someone took some time to understand world PvP.
3 Likes
This event should be popping at MINIMUM every hour or it will be dead content. Imagine your battleground que took 1hour, you just wouldn’t even bother. Make the content both fun and rewarding, not one or the other lol.
6 Likes
I am so very glad the world now feels completely dead so that aggrend can be sure his pet event is “working”.
The layering change is pretty awful and should be reverted post haste, this stupid pvp event is not worth gutting the entire rest of the worlds population.
if anything make layers per zone and spin them up/down according to the current zone pop, other (much older and jankier) MMOs do it that way and it seems to work just fine.
1 Like
Its taking alot longer than two to three hours for a game, im on the fourth hour of waiting and this really isn’t fair to people who were taking their time and leveling. we now basically can only do one or two battles a day. we have to be much more vigilante to get our rep and its going to take a lot longer. people who rushed and got it got a huge advantage
2 Likes
That’s what you have battlegrounds for this was a world PVP event that is now gutted. World.
You already know exactly how to do these open world pvp events. Just think Wintergrasp. Very predictable that layering would cause these issues. Make Ashenvale instanced while the battle is on exactly as it works in Wintergrasp. Do this for STV please!
2 Likes
First I want to say SoD has been a blast overall, very exciting and fun to explore.
One question I have with the current layering system, as it seems new players are always allowed onto a layer.
Would it not make more sense, once a layer has reached “critical” capacity, to keep the players on that layer, and stop allowing new players to move to this layer.
This would result in a very stable and non jarring experience for those already playing the game. If players grouping were having trouble grouping together, they could easily change the party host in an attempt to move to another layer rather than crowding on one and disconnecting current players.
Love the transparency and appreciate the communication.
This effectively kills the event for anyone with a normal life and it turns the game into a waiting match for everyone else who are trying to grind the rewards. The pre-existing cadence was what made it fun, you could knock a big chunk of rep out whenever because it was always close to starting or in-progress. Tired of farming mats- flyby ashenvale!
I just invested 2 hours into a waiting match that gave me 600 rep and it was not fun. Everyone was upset in chat. The people who were grinding were even more angry than usual. The whole tone of ashvenale is angst and frustration now. I would prefer the buggy matches from earlier in this week to what the event is now anyday.
I can understand needing to smooth out the bugs but please figure out something else here. The event doesn’t feel fun or rewarding anymore.
5 Likes
Please revert this change, besides the occasional bug you could at least play the event before. it just took a whole hour to get to 10% progress on living flame EU
I think the event should be on at least once per hour, otherwise people are just going to go do something more rewarding with their time
Typical bliz, The hardcores farm a broken system to the top and fix it just in time for people catching up to fall futher behind.
4 Likes
Said it before and i will say it again…this entire event is flawed from the bottom up. Whoever came up with this clearly doesn’t play classic. In typical blizzard style every single “fix” makes it worse and brings new bugs, which then require another “fix” and the cycle repeats.
3 Likes
Its so sad, the dynamic layering was working so well to keep the server actually feeling alive and lively at all times.
Now its gutted because blizz cant figure out how to design a layering system that works per zone, and thinks their pvp event nobody will care about in a month or two is more important than the servers actually feeling alive.
Just trash multi-dollar company doing trash multi-dollar company things, as per usual i guess.
Its amazing how much better a server with even less layering feels, the layering change has been immediately noticeable and its completely terrible, revert this trash.
3 Likes
This problem wouldn’t be here if blizzard had not decided they are too cheap to pay for the correct amount of servers over implimenting layers.
4 Likes
Wintergrasp has zone layering that works. They tried using the players to test a new system and it failed then that aggrend guy talked alot of smack saying people were bad and couldn’t organize so he had to make a 3 page norhingburger post to to try and cover his behind. How does he have a job atill? Also, have the streamers he loves let him play with them yet?
2 Likes
Agreed, this change feels very bad.
1 Like
How about instead of ruining the layering they just delete the ashenvale pvp event because its a pile of hot garbage and they replace the guy who oversaw it as well as the comical alliance and streamer favoritism while trashing on the playerbase.
3 Likes