Solution for the PB timers

[Corona Lisa]

Hey,

the goals are that everyone can play on whatever server he wants and at the same time enable meaningful RvR for all players.

The idea is to split the map in 3 timezone regions. Each of those regions has a fixed PB timer (6 hours). This means that every player can play and experience PBs in the zone best suited for him, only depending on when he has some spare time to play.

No more griefing, no more night- and morningflips.

I intentionally used straight lines, so it is easy to understand and to notice even for new players.

 

Of course there are some negative things:

• Netherlands will be completely in the Asian time zone.
• limited targets to attack, not so much variety
• resource and regional bonus inbalance for some timezones

 

I think every solution to this topic has drawbacks, there is no perfect solution. But these negative points here are minor compared to other ideas (like split the server or just leave it how it is).

 

Constructive input is welcome.

[Guest]

I believe when the admin posted his initial thoughts about it it was split into 4 parts with Western Europe and Eastern Europe/Russia getting an area each, which made a bit more sense since splitting it into 3 parts seems quite strange when the populations aren't even remotely close to 1/3 splits across the board.

[Corona Lisa]

9 minutes ago, Aegir said:

I believe when the admin posted his initial thoughts about it it was split into 4 parts with Western Europe and Eastern Europe/Russia getting an area each, which made a bit more sense since splitting it into 3 parts seems quite strange when the populations aren't even remotely close to 1/3 splits across the board.

We have 18 hours for PBs per day, and you cant divide 18 by 4. That means it can either be 3 regions or 6.

5 minutes ago, Intrepido said:

This idea would only lead to disaster. A  BIG no.

I only see more negative things than positive.

Explain pls. What is your solution?

Edited March 1, 2017 by JonSnowLetsGo

[Powderhorn]

I wonder if timezones are the way to go.  I'm not sure if there is a better way to do it, but, perhaps instead of straight lines, allowing people to "choose their timezone" on a modified Lord Protector setup?

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, JonSnowLetsGo said:

We have 18 hours for PBs per day, and you cant divide 18 by 4. That means it can either be 3 regions or 6.

Seems like a very minor problem that could easily be circumvented by either not dealing with full hours, using freed up time around maintenance (since hostility is being removed, making the extra 2 hours pointless), expanding/contracting timezone slots, moving or alternating the maintenance time, X minute buffer slots inbetween each timezone shift e.t.c. 

[Corona Lisa]

11 minutes ago, Powderhorn said:

I wonder if timezones are the way to go.  I'm not sure if there is a better way to do it, but, perhaps instead of straight lines, allowing people to "choose their timezone" on a modified Lord Protector setup?

Not sure if I understand that correctly. Doesnt it just mean that most EU players have to attack at their nighttime and US players can only attack in the middle of the day?

7 minutes ago, Aegir said:

Seems like a very minor problem that could easily be circumvented by either not dealing with full hours, using freed up time around maintenance (since hostility is being removed, making the extra 2 hours pointless), expanding/contracting timezone slots, moving or alternating the maintenance time, X minute buffer slots inbetween each timezone shift e.t.c. 

I wanted to keep it simple, thats why I only used full hours and the existing time window. It can be adjusted ofc like the lines, its just an idea.

Edited March 1, 2017 by JonSnowLetsGo

[Powderhorn]

16 minutes ago, JonSnowLetsGo said:

Not sure if I understand that correctly. Doesnt it just mean that most EU players have to attack at their nighttime and US players can only attack in the middle of the day?

I wanted to keep it simple, thats why I only used full hours and the existing time window. It can be adjusted ofc like the lines, its just an idea.

Basically allowing for your timezone windows for port battles to be selected by players on capturing a territory.  So, let's say the Dutch capture... North Carolina.  They could choose what time it can be attacked.  Instead of the 2 hour windows as the old Lord Protector setup, 6 hour windows might be better.

[Guest sruPL]

Spliting like that is a bad time, if you really wanna push this idea, make a 6 split with lines down & up and left & right and make zones rotate each day (once EU, once Asian, once US)

Edited March 1, 2017 by sruPL

[Christendom]

I kinda like this.  Basically if you want to attack something over an hour sail away, you're going to have to go out of your comfort zone and attack during your non-prime time.  The US just can't go sail down to Santa Domingo and flip it at 2am and the Danes can't flip Wilmington at 11am on a monday.  This map would presumably screw up the Dutch and French though, so maybe something other than Asian time.  

A caveat about this, if the US sails down to Haiti and flips a port at EU prime time and wins, that port should be put on whatever timezone the attacking side chooses.  Similar to the lord protector.  It doesn't make sense if you have 30 people staying up late for night ops, win a port and then have that port flipped back by the other side during your off hours.  

Also victory conditions could be introduced more effectively this way.  Say if 90% of the regions in a zone have timers set outside of it's native time the map resets or something like that.

[Corona Lisa]

6 hours ago, Powderhorn said:

Basically allowing for your timezone windows for port battles to be selected by players on capturing a territory.  So, let's say the Dutch capture... North Carolina.  They could choose what time it can be attacked.  Instead of the 2 hour windows as the old Lord Protector setup, 6 hour windows might be better.

But then they would just set it to 11 to 17 server time or something, which is impossible to attack for US players. Same problems like the old protector.

2 hours ago, Louis Garneray said:

I'm against  2 servers... it doesn't make sense... just look at our 2 servers right now.

And your solution is?

2 hours ago, Christendom said:

A caveat about this, if the US sails down to Haiti and flips a port at EU prime time and wins, that port should be put on whatever timezone the attacking side chooses.  Similar to the lord protector.  It doesn't make sense if you have 30 people staying up late for night ops, win a port and then have that port flipped back by the other side during your off hours.  

But it doesnt fix the problem, every PB would just be set to the worst possible time for the other alliance.

[Christendom]

3 minutes ago, JonSnowLetsGo said:

But then they would just set it to 11 to 17 server time or something, which is impossible to attack for US players. Same problems like the old protector.

And your solution is?

But it doesnt fix the problem, every PB would just be set to the worst possible time for the other alliance.

Then don't lose the territory the first time

[Teutonic]

I would prefer a split server over this, so no. Personally I find the current system to be just "fine", and sometimes the Asian/EU community pops a port battle at a time I can't play, I don't make a big deal about it because it's a global server with people all over the place.

I'll take the Lord Protector System with hostility mechanic for 1 please.

[Anolytic]

I've been thinking about this suggestion too, and there are some interesting aspects to it. However the mechanic would have to be more complicated than just splitting the server into 3 time-zone regions. From the map in the OP, what would happen is that the US and the GB would divide the northern 1/3 of the map between themselves, and after that American time zones players would have nothing more to do. The Aussies in GB would capture all of the southern 1/3 regions and then have nothing more to do. And the rest of us would be fighting over the last 1/3 of the map. You might as well just cut out 2/3rds of the map and  introduce a server wide PB window.

46 minutes ago, Christendom said:

Then don't lose the territory the first time

That just returns us back to the Lord Protector days when Britain would zerg the smaller nations during EU primetime to capture empty ports, and then set early morning defence windows to avoid having to defend anything. 

The game needs more dynamic conquest, with regions frequently shifting hands and being recaptured, not less. For US and GB there would be no consequences, but for the Eastern Alliance, loosing any region would be fatal as a region lost could never be recaptured.

Edited March 1, 2017 by Anolytic

[Christendom]

36 minutes ago, Anolytic said:

I've been thinking about this suggestion too, and there are some interesting aspects to it. However the mechanic would have to be more complicated than just splitting the server into 3 time-zone regions. From the map in the OP, what would happen is that the US and the GB would divide the northern 1/3 of the map between themselves, and after that American time zones players would have nothing more to do. The Aussies in GB would capture all of the southern 1/3 regions and then have nothing more to do. And the rest of us would be fighting over the last 1/3 of the map. You might as well just cut out 2/3rds of the map and  introduce a server wide PB window.

That just returns us back to the Lord Protector days when Britain would zerg the smaller nations during EU primetime to capture empty ports, and then set early morning defence windows to avoid having to defend anything. 

The game needs more dynamic conquest, with regions frequently shifting hands and being recaptured, not less. For US and GB there would be no consequences, but for the Eastern Alliance, loosing any region would be fatal as a region lost could never be recaptured.

The key would be that you could defend your port initially at your chosen time.  Instead of our current system where the Attacking side dictates when.  

If you're going to organize a non prime time flip of another region and successfully take it you deserve the right to determine when it can be attacked.  For example the US going down to Santa Domingo and wins.  If the timer goes back to EU time they will never hold it so what's the point.  

Also look past the current alliance makeup, it might not be GB and US forever.  It'd be a shame for a good idea to not be taken into consideration because of politics.  

[Corona Lisa]

55 minutes ago, Anolytic said:

I've been thinking about this suggestion too, and there are some interesting aspects to it. However the mechanic would have to be more complicated than just splitting the server into 3 time-zone regions. From the map in the OP, what would happen is that the US and the GB would divide the northern 1/3 of the map between themselves, and after that American time zones players would have nothing more to do. The Aussies in GB would capture all of the southern 1/3 regions and then have nothing more to do. And the rest of us would be fighting over the last 1/3 of the map. You might as well just cut out 2/3rds of the map and  introduce a server wide PB window.

Well like said so often, its a global server so everyone should have a place to fight for. If all players from one timezone decide to rather live in peace with each other instead of fighting then its their choice. I also think that the map is still big enough even after this split . And we are talking only about RvR here, so you can still do everything you normally do all over the map.

16 minutes ago, Christendom said:

Also look past the current alliance makeup, it might not be GB and US forever.  It'd be a shame for a good idea to not be taken into consideration because of politics.  

Everything should be taken into consideration to find the most healthy solution for all possible circumstances. Lord protector was tested and its flaws were shown, so no point in going back to that.

[Guest]

On 3/1/2017 at 11:20 PM, Christendom said:

The key would be that you could defend your port initially at your chosen time.  Instead of our current system where the Attacking side dictates when.  

If you're going to organize a non prime time flip of another region and successfully take it you deserve the right to determine when it can be attacked.  For example the US going down to Santa Domingo and wins.  If the timer goes back to EU time they will never hold it so what's the point.  

Also look past the current alliance makeup, it might not be GB and US forever.  It'd be a shame for a good idea to not be taken into consideration because of politics.  

Defender-determined times became an obsolete solution once alliances and shared PBs were introduced.

It hinges on that the staged attacking is uncomfortable, and thus the attacker "deserves" to set the timer to suit itself. But as in your Santo Domingo example, if it was the current case the US would stage the PB, send Brits/Dutch to take the port at a comfortable time for them, and then defend themselves. Before you know it every single port won is stacked solely for US defense in order to milk the 'tactical inconvenience' as much as possible, and so we're back to the same shit as usual.

There is no 'non-prime time flip' with such alliances in action. And a lasting solution shouldn't hinge on "hey it works as long as these guys don't buddy up", because that's how it currently is and obviously leaving it up to the players isn't working out.

[BallsOfSteel]

Wont work without a server reset. Sir Texas also thought the pve server guys coiuld be allowed to bring their players across to pvp1 and 2. I think that has merit.

[Koltes]

This problem will fix itself when game will be finished. Servers will be opened like WOT for various time zones

[OneEyedSnake]

PVP2 players arent like PVP1 players. Most everyone save for the danes are North American for time zone with every nation having some Aussies and Oceanic players. For instance, i am Dutch in game, but live in the US, this is the case for 98% of our nation, the other 2 live in the oceanic/aussie time zones. So essentially this would just force us to go US if we wanted to have regions around our capital port. Big no i am afraid. While this may be cool, it doesnt take into account the fact that not everyone in a nation in game is from that region in real life. 

[Corona Lisa]

2 minutes ago, Rickard said:

to my knowledge the Dutch do not live in asia !!!

Read the text, looking at the picture isnt enough.

[Corona Lisa]

Just now, Rickard said:

i dont see you giving a solution to that problem your just stating that it is a problem but that the dutch are the ones with the bad primetime.

i do have a solution other then yours........stop waisting your time arguing about nightflips and just take it like a man you cant always win accept that.

Thx for your insight.

[Teutonic]

On 3/4/2017 at 4:02 AM, OneEyedSnake said:

PVP2 players arent like PVP1 players. Most everyone save for the danes are North American for time zone with every nation having some Aussies and Oceanic players. For instance, i am Dutch in game, but live in the US, this is the case for 98% of our nation, the other 2 live in the oceanic/aussie time zones. So essentially this would just force us to go US if we wanted to have regions around our capital port. Big no i am afraid. While this may be cool, it doesnt take into account the fact that not everyone in a nation in game is from that region in real life. 

Also lately I've seen more players online on PvP2 then on PvP1 in the later US primetime.

I'd honestly prefer one big server with global timezones for all, and I would argue for it to be so...if the Devs decide on a 2 servers, one with EU primetime and the other with US primtetime I would want US players to stick around and continue playing...I think there would be some difficulty but overall it could work out in the end.

The current "problem" I have is that both servers have the same downtime - so a server that people would consider "US" has a port battle downtime that cuts into much of the western TZs for the US, really makes it difficult to give those folks something to look forward to at night when they constantly have to be on earlier then they may be able to.

[Duncan McFail]

Why have I not seen this. I thought you knew nothing Jon Snow.

[Ravern]

Noble effort, but lets just divert resources from development and create a total of 6 servers to cater for everyone.

US, EU, Asia, Aus, Global, PvE

This is so simple and fits into the Devs vision of splitting the community even more

[Corona Lisa]

42 minutes ago, Duncan McFail said:

Why have I not seen this. I thought you knew nothing Jon Snow.

Noone liked this idea. And I think its too late to implement it now, because it needs quite a bit of development time (for example rebalancing of all resources) and doesnt fit anymore with the way the game is going (no TP from freetown to freetown).

But yeah, I still think it would have been a good idea to split RvR and keep OW PvP on one server.