News: 12hrs side-switch LWA

[Dead Man Flying]

Side balancing was handicapped by this change. The ebb and flow of folks signing in and out is a constant. The ability to change sides to help even up sides is once every 12 hours.

I doubt it was handicapped.  Plus, I think you're looking at things in snapshots rather than over the course of an evening.  With short side switching, you'll probably see two phenomena:  First, you'll almost always have one side with a major advantage.  Folks like a winner, and they hate getting ganged, so you'll have a large proportion of players hopping to the "winning" side and exacerbating the imbalance.  I suspect the number of people who hop to the largest side easily outweighs those trying to balance out the numbers.

Second, as the night wears on and people log in and out, the balance of power potentially shifts to another country.  Suddenly you see major imbalances emerge as that country has everyone flock to it in that time frame.  So a short side switch doesn't necessarily equate to balanced sides, but rather leads to greater side imbalances in the short term and wild fluctuations in numbers between sides in the medium term (over the course of a night).  That should be especially bad in a huge arena compared to smaller arenas.

Limiting side switching flattens out those fluctuations, at least in theory.

[pervert]

See rule #4

[Shuffler]

Playing the advocate here Shuffler.  I have not seen the large ENY's since the two arenas were combined.  So why do folks need to switch to even up sides that are more less balanced according to the low or no ENY numbers?   
Mind you a lot of us fly at all sorts of different times, and I typically fly 8-10 PM EDT during the week.

 

Way

To find a fight! Just because there is a low ENY does not mean there is a fight at hand. It is much more than just numbers. One side may have a lot of folks not fighting, or GVing, or bombing, etc. In that case if you are a fighter jock your out of luck. Same goes if your GVing and most on the other side are in fighters or bombers. In either case the ability to change sides in a reasonable time frame may mean fun or no fun. Due to the ebb and flow this can change many times in a 12 hour period.

There is no right or wrong here. It boils down to the point of keeping the majority happy one way or the other and keeping the playability of the game intact.

[Dead Man Flying]

You probably missed my thoughts on that it got rule 4 ed, it basically amounted to yeah Hitech I hear what your saying but I don't believe you, that you simply 'forgot' to add this when switching to one arena.

I've always found HTC to be pretty open and honest about their reasons for making changes.  If they found spying to be a huge problem, I suspect they'd announce they made a change for that very reason.  I'm not sure why they would want to hide their reasoning if spying was in fact the primary motivator.

[mechanic]

are you playing again levi?

[waystin2]

To find a fight! Just because there is a low ENY does not mean there is a fight at hand. It is much more than just numbers. One side may have a lot of folks not fighting, or GVing, or bombing, etc. In that case if you are a fighter jock your out of luck. Same goes if your GVing and most on the other side are in fighters or bombers. In either case the ability to change sides in a reasonable time frame may mean fun or no fun. Due to the ebb and flow this can change many times in a 12 hour period.

There is no right or wrong here. It boils down to the point of keeping the majority happy one way or the other and keeping the playability of the game intact.

Understood.  As an AH II ADHD sufferer I am jumping from a fighter, to a jabo, to buffs, to field guns, to GV's in rapid succession all night and action is never lacking for me.  I can appreciate that some players approach this game with a single method of combat in mind.

 

Way

[Dead Man Flying]

are you playing again levi?

Nah, I've been sucked into Rift these days with a side helping of Bioshock.

[Vinkman]

The change has nothing to do with preventing spying and everything to do with side-balancing.

I'm confused how keeping folks from switching sides, helps with side balance? This would assume that most people switch to the side with the MOST players. Isn't the oposite true?  

[Oldman731]

Nah, I've been sucked into Rift these days with a side helping of Bioshock.

....*sigh*.....such a waste.....

- oldman

[Saurdaukar]

Nah, I've been sucked into Rift these days.

Any good?

[Dead Man Flying]

I'm confused how keeping folks from switching sides, helps with side balance? This would assume that most people switch to the side with the MOST players. Isn't the oposite true?  

Yes, and I think that assumption is accurate.  Constant side imbalances cited in here even with the lower side switching time limit support that assumption.

[Dead Man Flying]

Any good?

It's alright.  I've been playing it far more casually than I did WoW, which is kind of funny since I've somehow wound up in hardcore guild that's clearing all of the current end game content.  It only takes them a night to do it though.

It's basically WoW even down to renamed talent choices (Retaliation instead of Revenge for warrior tanks, Incriminate instead of Misdirect for hunter types, etc).  The graphics are far superior and some of the boss fights have interesting mechanics.  The talent system is vastly superior to WoW.

[Vinkman]

Yes, and I think that assumption is accurate.  Constant side imbalances cited in here even with the lower side switching time limit support that assumption.

But wait. HiTech said when side imbalances were created due to folks swapping arenas, that the solution was to lower the time limit to correct the imbalance. If that was the solution then, why isn't a solution now? That would imply that folks weren't switching sides creating bigger imbalances, but just the opposite. no? 

[The Fugitive]

Because they are not switching arenas any more so the sides stay balanced better.

[Dead Man Flying]

But wait. HiTech said when side imbalances were created due to folks swapping arenas, that the solution was to lower the time limit to correct the imbalance. If that was the solution then, why isn't a solution now? That would imply that folks weren't switching sides creating bigger imbalances, but just the opposite. no?  

Look at what HiTech said:

the need arose to be able to change countries when you changed arenas.

That's the stated major rationale for why they went to one hour IMO.  The consequences of going to two arenas were massive side imbalances (likely due to the lower side switching limit necessary to accommodate two arenas).  In addition, it's very likely that players on the "losing" side were more likely to switch to a new arena, exacerbating side imbalances even more.  With one arena, you don't need to allow people to change countries when moving to a new arena; the rationale for allowing that no longer exists.