An observation about NA primetime(ish)

[Momekic]

First, I want to say awesome jobs to the devs for getting this game going to where it is today, and that the following is an observation (not a complaint) from my perspective on the recent state of the game, for the time frame that I play in.

Recently, the past few nights have seemed dead in T4 NA primetime, from 8pm to 10pm eastern (for me).

I don't know if its Order lacking people, or Destro lacking people, but tonight I got 1 que pop in an hour and a half. There was no RvR action. Last night, the RvR was Order and Destro sitting around dueling by a BO, waiting for an SC to pop.

I know there were some changes recently, and it seems ever since those changes things have died down, where as prior to the changes SCs were popping and RvR was active. I don't know the cause, it just has been this way for the past few nights, when in the past on similar nights it was very active.

I do que solo, because I have to leave at random times due to my kids/wife, and I wouldn't want to do that to a 6 man premade. I also don't know if these recent changes have made the game a blast for 6v6 groups, but for some of us that like to RvR and do pug (i know, a dirty word) scenerios, the game has died down to very little or no action (in the NA timeframe I mentioned before), and the game seemed more active prior to the recent changes.

I'm not usually one to post much, and this isn't a complaint, but I wanted to bring this up because I didn't see it posted yet. I am just bringing it up to see if others feel the same, or if you, the devs, have noticed this.

[PCD999]

As someone in TN I know it's not normal to play MMOs and multiplayer games at our "primetime hours" and experience low populations, but the fact of the matter is that the NA population just really isn't there from what I've seen. I've been playing for around a year, and feel like the NA-primetime took a steep dive after the DDOS attacks that it just hasn't quite recovered from yet, but that could very well just be in my head I suppose; I can't say I have any evidence to back that up, just a few semi-reliable observations and anecdotes from other players, so maybe I'm totally wrong.

Either way I personally don't bother playing unless it's midday to late afternoon EST, since as you said, it's a lot harder to find fights. Sometimes I'll do some mindless profession work and AFK in Altdorf/IC, but I can't say I find that very enjoyable. But I think that it might be a vicious cycle, as some NA players may see the player counter and say "screw it" (like me).

I think your problems are ones a lot of NA players have, but it's simply a population issue that really just needs more time to get better. The latency issues NA players were facing months back have been really improved on, and as the server develops further content-wise I'm sure we'll see more NA players eventually.

[Jaycub]

In order for RvR to function properly there needs to be a lot of people playing, DDOS hurt the population but in particular NA lost enough people to make taking keeps virtually impossible.

A single decent 6 man can stop a PUG warband from taking a keep easily at the moment. So RvR essentially dies unless a side can scrape together ~2 warbands and a single wipe spells the end of RvR for the night until the Russians log on.

RvR is being worked on, and the devs acknowledged that attacking sucks right now so just strap in and hopefully with some good patches that enable attackers to have more tools against defenders or such we will see a better NA. Also the more population EU time gets the more spill over NA will get as well.

This also means new players coming to the server in NA just see how dead it is atm and aren't really encouraged to continue playing.


It will get better, just gonna take time. There isn't really anything specifically the devs could do to improve NA besides possibly making getting to t4 easier to consolidate what little population we do have in t4.

[TenTonHammer]

Im sorry what?


NA primetime....and you guys define it at 8pm to 10pm EST?

come on dude im CST but still, that 7-9 pm, you cant seriously expect soo many people to be on that late, espically on a private server that has its population split over 4 tiers

we have work n school and stuff

[PCD999]

Well yeah man, I don't know how other people live their lives but working 8-4 sets it up so I do 2-3 hours of housework or dinner prep, then I just chill out from 7-11, go to bed, rinse and repeat, same thing every day, existential dread about the futility of perpetuating a seemingly pointless cycle that only ends in death, yadda-yadda-yadda and so on. Y'know. Normal stuff.

Joking aside I always figured those hours to be the norm, and not really "late" until 11:00+ for people with jobs.

[dur3al]

Would be nice if we somehow manage to drag one NA warband-sized guild into this game. Then they can start flipping zones and farming RP which will drag pugs on their side to tag along, easy rewards will bring more people. And on the other side some guilds will try to fight this warband while farming aao, which is good for everyone.

What happened with Fatal? They used to have a warband taking zones at NA prime-time.

[navis]

I get solid SC pops in those times. It's 11 pm eastern and have several...

.. however weeknights is usually slower than tonight is.

[Gerv]

1. They used to run but they got sick of players changing sides after on wipe to the keep
2. They got sick of all the scenario premades not playing in RvR at all until the keep siege is declared and then ruining everything on the defending side.
3. I think the lack of knowledge on how to tank the keep lord at the time was a problem too.

Train Wreck used too as well, but the lack of progression in gear (I believe) was one of the issues, Ski might come in here and comment what the other reasons are. It seems the most are on order side, I don't know any large guilds that exist on destruction side.

I know we don't RvR because the lack of knowledge of how to tank the keep lord from PuGs (I have made a thread and spread in the /t4 channel but you can't play people's characters for them) after we wipe or push all the destruction back really kills us. As well as a lack of gear progression and tough times for attacking.

[catholicism198]

I've never noticed that much lag....but as others have said ddos--- school-- work-- disconnects- etc.- other reasons are: the new WoW expansion- and removing renown from BOs etc. <--that really upset a lot of people

Keep takes...there just aren't enough people at that time to take it. You essentially have 12ish attacking the keep and 12ish defending the keep- it's doable in t2, but in t4 the doors do not go down as quickly and then you have to take on the keep lord does way too much dmg for a warband with only 2-3 healers. (that's not even taking into account the several BWs spamming AEs.)

This also means new players coming to the server in NA just see how dead it is atm and aren't really encouraged to continue playing.

It will get better, just gonna take time.

It can't/won't get better if they keep leaving when they see how 'dead' it is. No amount of time will change that.

-

Weren't/aren't you in one of those scenarios premades Gerv?

[ChewMeat]

im from NA and downloading the game atm so don't worry ! im coming man to save the population problem