Opinions Wanted: NA Population - SPEAK!

[ragafury]

I'm EU based but I play sometimes NA, like yesterday. Some weeks ago and so on. So not on a regular basis.

Think it's mixed. Some days SC pop ok/fast. Some days not. RvR is really AAO Heavy sometimes but I guess it will shift at some point, like it always does.

Most problematic in my opinion is that there's almost never an open warband, only small groups. This leads to many lost keeps because 4 grps not really supporting each other besides scout reports and are not really able to challenge a warband in the open field. All grps are not even in the zone simultaneously because they take SC pops etc.

Side effect is ofc that players with a worse infrastructure (no guild, no huge friends list, no open warband) will leave the game or switch sides because they have the impression that this game has nothing to offer / is really boring / they get farmed / they never win etc.


Tl;Dr no open WB to contest the other realm, only 6 man's looking for tank and heal, SC pop can go from ok to 30 minutes no pop. RvR problem is homemade cause pug players favour the better organized side / lead; result: pop imbalance mixed with technical and timezone issues mentioned above.

Can't and will not add more to this topic, just my 2 cent on it.

[Zaxxond]

I didn't read the thread but all i can say is:

-Most of NA players are easymoders.
-NA population can afford to bring warband both destro and order side.
-Sadly Destro NA switched to order for farming empty zones.

Spoiler:

[freshour]

I can definitely agree that there is usually not an NA destro WB out and about unless the order zerg (usually over the last 3-4 months, sometimes it is different) is on the keep and someone is brave enough to invite a random person, they misclick and accept the invite, and he can swap the party to open WB before the solo roaming WE leaves. Later he will spam in every channel KEEP DEFENSE, get like 12-15 people to join, the few 6 mans show up, wipe the entire keep defense, Avocetti and Company will either come back and wipe the defense, or wait in keep (because it is not fun to work an entire zone to get pummeled by 4-5 six man groups so who can blame him) - destro logs or swaps back over and then BOOM problem returns.

Hmmm maybe I need to start warbands on my DD DoK... Maybe then I will finally have a place in the world!!!!

/s aside - these are some great insights into what is going on. Just wish more people who play that have given up on posting on the forums would share their insight.

[dansari]

I think it was the 2h chosen nerf /s

Honestly it's probably just a vicious cycle since after the DDOS + the grindiness of orvr. Order NA seems to have been less impacted by the DDOS slump, and normally it's the Fatal wb + one or two six mans vs 1-2 six mans every night. Personally our guild has recruited heavily in the past month and is working with several new players. The population decrease has hit us less because of this (the statement that was made by someone else wherein players will stick around if they feel like they're having fun/are actively playing/being rewarded for their time rings true).

So, a combination of not wanting to be the first person on the dance floor, per se, where orvr is inactive and takes far too long for most schedules, and probably the feeling of not having been rewarded for your time (97.6% of pug warbands) is the majority of the issue.

Solutions to this would probably be part dev driven and part player driven. If I knew that I could lock a zone in two hours, I would play more orvr instead of my guild queueing for scenarios in between orvr. Pushing people to orvr would come from dev-driven incentives (through increased currency and/or rr etc.) and player-driven initiatives like the events Bitterstone or CNTK does. With more people in orvr, you have more action (more action is all people really want.. which is why instanced scs are popular), and with more action comes less downtime, more rewards, etc.

So, maybe NA needs to set up a dedicated night where we commit to orvr. Someone from each side would commit to starting a wb made up of alliance/guild + randos and we just make orvr as active as we can.

[freshour]

Yeah I think that the community needs to do it, but after being on destro for so long in the NA time zone... We don't have a lot of people that like playing in more than a 6 man. Nearly every single person I have met on destro side in the NA bracket talks about their roaming 6 mans on live that slaughtered people.

If you suggest a WB, they all shrug, sigh, gasp, grunt, make an excuse to leave, or just say no lol. When I was on order NA it was like, soooo should we make a WB? Oh! NM there is already two pug warbands going.

Can't for the life of me seem to get people to actually want to do the warbands. But mostly it is because the pug warband rewards are nothing compared to 6 man rewards. So people will do what gives them the best results. It sure does suck for the newer players though, I think they just go to order and get in on the warbands while destro just sits around and talks about the good ol days. I do love listening to a good story though.

[Darosh]

Yeah I think that the community needs to do it, but after being on destro for so long in the NA time zone... We don't have a lot of people that like playing in more than a 6 man. Nearly every single person I have met on destro side in the NA bracket talks about their roaming 6 mans on live that slaughtered people.

Remind them about the good old days that had four dedicated 6mans - each infamous on their own - run a warband and dominate entire zones ~ not just slaughter, but completely annihilate pugs.
If these 6mans you are talking about are worth their salt they'll be BiS, with little to no reason to go for shinies, so flipping zones and fighting glorious battles should be their priority anyways, if not only for the sake of some juicy RR ticks.
Appeal to their epeen and taunt them if need be, tell them that they only want to 6man to get zerged by pug WBs and be able to call the pugs scrubs for zerging.
If you run your 6man up to a pug wb, get five kills and subsequently stomped yourself... you sure have an opportunity to go about theorizing and boasting how many you could have gotten if you had RR100 (and ALL the shiny shinies), if things wouldn't have changed on RoR and if the pugs weren't zerging, yada yada yada.

E: Words, all the words. .-.

[lilsabin]

i am NA (canada east) ... i dont do RvR because of the ping thing and the reward for the time invested is not that much or enough IMHO at least . So i decided to go more SC focused , because it is more fast-paced (i dont waste time typing in chat and telling people wich side of wich keep we should attack or if someone want to repair a ballista) . While queuing for SC i decide to do PQ , BUT WAIT , I CANT DO NO **** PQ BECAUSE I HAVE TO KILL 75 MOBS TO MOVE TO NEXT STAGE AND IF I EVER SUCCEED TO LAST STAGE , I HAVE A ********** HERO TO FIGHT JUST TO OBTAIN A GOLD BAG...and then as someone said in a previous comment , i decide to go watch something while i wait for SC to pop and guess what , i miss it , and gotta wait **** 10 mins and i then realise again , **** , i need to cook , i need to study , i need to play overwatch and have sex before going to bed . THEN I **** LOG OFF

[lilsabin]

in 2008 this game didn't have much competition . TODAY , i only log in occasionally , because you know , there are lot s of other game accessible out there like LoL , heroes of the storm , overwatch , rift , WoW(private servers) , path of exile , ESO etc. So why should i WASTE my time on a half functioning game ?

[lilsabin]

getting to t4 too tedious. Dead lakes, slow pops, slow pve grinding since patch. Alt tab into a movie while you wait for a pop and then alt tab back to find you missed one and have quitter debuff. Go make dinner, look at time and see you have 1 hour before you need to sleep to wake up for work. Decide if you actually want to play/watch something else or sit around waiting for a pop. Alt-f4. Browse forum while watching movie.

^ this is a sad TRUTH

[dansari]

Yeah part of it is probably the versatility of a 6man squad as well.. you can always have action since you can queue for scs during orvr downtime. With the formation of a warband you are committing to orvr, which can include (frankly, very annoying) 6 minute BO locks (personally most of the time if a BO lock is over 2 minutes my group will just leave).. doesn't matter if we're running a 6man or 9-12. This will likely get better with the updated orvr campaign mechanics, it'll just take time to get there.

Then there's the mentality of other people that the game should be completely based on your solo ability (which can be arranged... Just make a SH or SW and you can solo PQ heroes). But the game isn't a solo game. Yes, it takes effort to get into a group and communicate with them, join a voice chat, be social, etc. And you don't have to do that all the time but that is what people do when they want to get rewards faster. (And it's an alpha, which is why it's unfinished).