OokamiKawaii.1750

No, you really dont. Splitting up players into DLCs, expansions or gamemodes has been and will always be the death of multiplayer games. In the case of GW2, people say that the game is ded already on this forum due to low population and you're saying we need to go lower? Ugh. I never said to split them up. I said ask them their playstyle.As in, person x likes to roam, and probably do that for the 8 weeks of the matches. So don't put them with all the other roamers, put them on a world where they complement the other players. WvW is a mixture of playstyles. To have a world do well you need all types. But we need to make incentives to do certain activities.And honestly it is better to get a person's idea of what and when they will play from them directly, instead of trying to make a program to figure it out from old data.

Population balance is good, but also need playstyle balance.WvW at the moment has PPT and KDR/fight types. It sucks when your group wants fights but you only matched up against 2 servers that focus on PPT and run at open field fights. Some guilds only care about fights because it the main rewards you get from WvW. I know there pip chests and reward track rewards, but you get those by time and not by play in WvW. PPT players get rewards from tower/keep lords but that really insignificant, especially if they defending PPT instead of claiming. Where KDR/fight play might reward more loot/bags. In the end, currently fights give the "only" real reward outside of how much time played.So either mixing both players into a world evenly or separating worlds as 2 type of WvW gametypes. Either way you might need to ask players what type of playstyle they prefer. Maybe can add a 4th map to WvW, with limited objectives and more fields for fights. Maybe take the DAoC idea of relics as the objective. Each sides has 3 places to hold a relic and match starts with each holding 1 relic. Can take enemies relics and have to escort them to home objectives to gain a buff. Relics even carried marked on map so sides can head to them for KDR/fights. This map has increased WvW score for enemy kills to contribute to world score. I do believe that rewards are indeed needed for WvW. And how those rewards are gained changed as well. As I just mentioned with world/playstyle balance in my paragraph before. For PPT players maybe add in reward bags like the tower/keep lord loot for successfully defending. I know some players don't care if a low tier objective is flipped. As it not worth it since there no reward for PPT and end of skirmish and match. Or they only defend t3 objectives and even then might not if they are attacking an enemy objective. So need to incentivise defending and winning skirmishes and matches. Leave the pip/reward tracks as we are used to them. Add in rewards for Skirmishes and Matches, what you get depends what place your world got in the skirmish and for the match at the end of the week.Since Skirmishes are 2 hours long they might have rewards in line as PvP daily tournaments (gold, mystic coins, cosmetic item [dye or something else], potions of WvW reward, and something else to replace qualifying points)Match rewards can be more in line with the PvP monthly tournaments (high amount of gold, lots of mystic coins, Large potions of WvW reward, cosmetic item [pet box or something], ascended item box, etc).Since we already have participation for reward track and pips, we can use them to dish out rewards for skirmishes and matches.For skirmish rewards can be lvl 5 or 6 participation at end of the skirmish.For match rewards could be finished gold pip chests that week (like how wood division is). For KDR/fights, some classes need change to how their skills help fights. Main thing at the moment is the dps classes get tons of bags, while support players barely get any. We need to incentivise people to play the supports. It shouldn't be on leaders or players to "tip" or send gold to scouts and support (like a hiring bonus).I play a support mesmer, my focus pull is crucial to bombing and getting downs in fights, yet if my teammates bomb is good I will get no credit for those I pulled as i will have no chance to tag those enemies (resulting in no loot bags for me but tons for the dps). Firebrands for healing and buffing is the same, that they hardly get anything. There probably lots more to change how we "tag" enemies, but current meta fights I'm used to firebrand and mesmer issues. I also believe participation needs to be changed in one way. That if you die due to a player that it resets your time decay. Meaning a death does not generate more participation, but if outnumbered/roaming that failing to claim a camp or something doesnt penalize you with decay.example: Im green trying to take a blue camp. Red comes and kills me and claims the camp (now RI for 5 minutes). I now have 2 minutes to gain participation, but no objective close for me to try for before I start decaying participation. So since I was out and doing WvW activities, I should not be penalized with decay.This is important to note that only to deaths by enemy players count. If die to npc at a camp/tower etc wont count (so players don't just suicide to stop decay) I think instead of making it so "old play data" determines things that you can have a survey at the start of each 8 weeks.This surve can ask many things of the player to help determine match ups.Things like: what guild want to play with in WvW (0-5 options)If they like PPT or fights (or both)What days they most likely to play WvW for the upcoming 8 weeks (add random option besides the 7 days, and maybe other options)What times during the days likely to play (add random option besides the 24 hours, and maybe other options)maybe other thingsWriting a program to determine where people are placed but using old data makes it hard for if something in that players life changes.Like went from a rotating day/hour schedule to a set 9-5 job. Or retiring and have many more hours can play. Or changed jobs and now instead of playing in NA prime hours they playing off hours and the worlds created for that match up either dead at those hours or who knows. Adding a survey to that program can help a lot. As instead of just relying on old data you asking for what the player thinks they can do/play in the upcoming weeks. Helping balance for what they want to do.Like currently my server lost a link and now we don't have coverage. There times in NA prime hours that we are getting the outnumbered buff. These nights as a fight guild we might be getting steamrolled and so we log early since it is frustrating. Asking the player what they like to do in WvW can be crucial, and these "objectives" for their play style and time can change over the months. So asking us what we want is better then relying on old data.