Guild Wars 2 releases more details about WvW restructuring

WvW restructuring had a tough time, but players are hoping it recovers for the next beta event.

Image via ArenaNet

After a failed World vs. World beta, the team at Guild Wars 2 took it as a learning experience while they try to fix things up and launch another beta date. Now they’ve provided players with the results of their findings and what to expect next.

Recommended Videos

In the last beta event, which was supposed to happen the same week as the second beta event for the elite specializations, the WvW aspect of the game was quickly removed almost as soon as it hit European servers.

Problems with the first Guild Wars 2 WvW beta

Almost immediately, the team started getting reports that players were being placed on the wrong teams. It turns out that the issue was stale data that hadn’t been updated before the player went into the server. This, coupled with other complaints about the UI not displaying the right team information caused so much chaos that the developers decided to take the restructured WvW servers offline and go back to the world linking format that players are used to.

Another issue occurred on the overflow map, Edge of the Mists. Since the player turnout was so high for the new beta, players flocked to Edge of the Mists to kill time while waiting in queues. A large number of resources were being used for these maps, and developers say it was “something like thirty times the norm.”

What happened with Edge of the Mists is that more instances were being created even though there was plenty of rooms in the existing instances. A third issue then cropped up with the logs, or record of events that occur in Guild Wars 2‘s systems. Errors were cropping up in these logs, which forced the team to figure out a way to move forward, and ultimately ended up putting a stop to the beta.

What’s next for Guild Wars 2 WvW restructuring?

The team behind WvW has come up with a list of ten must-fix bugs before they try another beta. Some progress has been made on those, but there is still a lot of work to be completed. The team is hoping to have the bugs fixed by Nov. 9, with a tentative date for the next beta being Nov. 12.

Included in the next beta will be some quality-of-life changes. The team has noted player complaints about the reward tracks taking too long to complete, especially when their team isn’t doing well, so skirmish pips will be increased. Also added to the new update is a +1 bonus skirmish pip for players with a WvW rank of 1-149. Existing rank pips will also increase by +1 depending on the rank players have achieved so far.

Participation has always been tough to gauge in WvW, but that is something the developers are also looking at. They plan on experimenting with removing incentives from unintended gameplay, and they are also removing the grace period for participation, which is granted by repairing structures in WvW. Outnumbered pips are also being removed, although the outnumbered pips will be staying.

Although the team has a goal of Nov. 9 to have all of these changes submitted, and aim to have another beta on Nov. 12 for the restructuring of WvW, things could change. Players have been waiting for this restructuring for many years now, so fans are hoping the next beta kicks off as scheduled.

Author
Jessica Scharnagle
Jessica has been an esports and gaming journalist for just over five years. She also teaches esports journalism at Rowan University. Follow her for all things gaming, @JessScharnagle on Twitter.