Curse

JoDiamonds · May 17, 2006, 10:02 PM // 22:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Loch

Not to mention that number of ragequitters has dropped dramatically, in my experience.

Not that it's at all clear why that is true.

There were a ton of people (presumably) playing for free that weekend. Now it's "paying" players.
Players have more than three days of experience now, and the people continuing to play Alliance Battles are the ones that like them, not just everyone trying them out.
Players are encouraged to form 4-man groups, which might peer pressure some people into not dropping.
Players can't easily switch sides between Luxon and Kurzick anymore, making them perhaps feel more commited to not abandoning their side.

I've probably forgotten some things. But even between all of these, it's unclear that any one of them is necessarily having any influence or most of the influence. Personally, I think it's mostly that time has passed.

Effendi Westland · May 18, 2006, 08:04 AM // 08:04

/not signed

Much better this way, want to heal people outside your 4? squint your eyes

Warskull · May 20, 2006, 05:00 AM // 05:00

Having the other parties as allies on the bar would be superb. When people suggested that for balance and organization reasons the groups no longer be a massive cluster of 12 they didn't intend for the other 8 to be completely dropped off the window. The main reasons were for calling purposes and to limit heal party, aegis, and orders. If the other 8 appear as allies it simply makes keeping an eye on the rest of your team easier without bringing back any of the other problems. It would remain functionally the same.

Being able to enter with only 1 person was bad for alliance battles. The change has made a difference in the amount of rage quitters and the A/Mo tide. While you claim that people can randomly click on everyone to form pick-up groups there are some factors you to take into account. First of all while players these 4-man groups even randomly clicking they are likely to do some minimal level of filtering. They may try and get more desired class combinations before getting less desirable ones (such as E/W.) In addition they are also likely to avoid players being visably retarded in the chat window. If you look in the alliance districts you will often find some players stuck shouting "LFG" with some awful combination. While it doesn't force you to put together a good group it highly encourages players to put at least a minimal level of throught into their group. This combined with the new window also helps encourage some cooperation and communication between the group of four. Even if it is only "lets go left together when the match starts."

Random Arena already exists for completely random, low level play. An objective based game has a higher level of play than "Click enter to go in." In addition if you want larger battles with random teams you also have Fort Aspenwood and the Jade Quarry missions. You get a full team of 8 there without needing to do any organization.

Sacho · May 23, 2006, 05:00 PM // 17:00

Hmm....

As a monk, I find myself rarely staring at my teammate's health bars. Instead, I am constantly screening the map for opponents and watching *them*, then judging who might be their target. I only occasionaly give the health bars a glance to see if I've missed something.

That said, with such battlefield view I can see which *allies* are getting hit and respond accordingly. With one minor problem - it can be so HARD to click your ally when he's being mobbed. Often by the time I've managed to get a good angle to click an ally, he's dead.

IMO, the 4 player lookout helps you focus mainly on your team. Really, Alliance Battles as far as I've seen them are usually skirmishes of 4vs4, sometimes dropping to 1-2 vs1-2, or an occasional two groups smashing apart one. I never stay around big fights because it's rarely productive, unless you're holding almost all points and there's nothing else to do.

Also I suppose a list of all allies could cause alot of overheals and misdirection as monks rush to save one char, wasting their energy on him, as others die.

What I would like to see is a health bar similar to some rpg games under/over the names of allies. That way when you press alt you can gauge the situation quickly and react accordingly.

Echo Flanger · May 24, 2006, 01:06 PM // 13:06

I don't think there should be a 12 person sidebar. Personally I think that three 4-person sidebars (each seperated by a border line) would be cool. That way you could put, say, your teams sidebar on the right, the other 2 sidebars on left.... Also, chat should be All, Team (yours), and then another form of chat to the entire 12 person team. That'd be sweet.

Hoax · May 31, 2006, 11:04 AM // 11:04

the 12 ppl side bar needs to come back
the single person battle entrace is not good
if you can enter by yourselves it will just attract more afkers who leech faction
/signed

kazz · Jun 11, 2006, 08:06 PM // 20:06

/signed

One thing that anet could to to please everyone is to have a button or something on the party member box that toggles the other 8 party members. That way, as a monk i can heal everyone, and people who only want to see 4 names can hit a button and hide the other 8.

nomercy · Jun 11, 2006, 08:21 PM // 20:21

Amen.

/signed

Shikaoru · Jun 15, 2006, 12:30 AM // 00:30

totally
/signed

EternalTempest · Jun 15, 2006, 12:58 AM // 00:58

/Signed

But I would do it slightly diffferent
Have a "seperator" bar or space between each group of 4 to clearly instead of one list of "12".

ubermancer · Jun 15, 2006, 01:05 AM // 01:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Effendi Westland

/not signed

Much better this way, want to heal people outside your 4? squint your eyes

Awesome. Exactly what a monk, and a team in general, needs - a harder to use interface.

In light of the fact that I remember quite specifically an ANet representative saying that one of the things GW makes a point of is being able to know whos using what on you, what you have on you, and what your team is doing...

/signed, and
/double-signed