If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Well, some consider it broken for faction balance - but can they suggest an alternative to current sharding?
That would:
A. Solve their problem.
B. Not negatively impact others.
C. Not create new problem.
Here’s a summary of a few suggestions I’ve already seen, and some of their downsides.
Solution: Remove WM sharding and bring back pvp servers.
Problem: Less controllable zone faction balance versus sharding. On WM shards, players currently experience sometimes outnumbered, sometimes outnumberer, sometimes about even. With old pvp servers, your faction could permanently be one of those. Fluctuating lfg groups and player distribution complicate balance for both WM and old pvp servers. The way WM is set up, is partly because players complained about pvp servers. Will be interesting to see reaction to wpvp in Classic WoW.
Solution: Increase the amount that faction balance is enforced in a zone at all times.
Problem: Increase in players appearing and disappearing. Player distribution and lfg still affects faction balance.
Solution: Force faction balance in each individual area of a zone at all times, removing issue of player distribution affecting faction balance.
Problem: Increase in players appearing and disappearing.
Solution: Disable lfg in wm, which is a big contributor to faction imbalance in a zone.
Problem: Decreased ability to counter outnumberer in a fight, or complete wpvp objectives when outnumbered. Would also have to disable WoW Communities, and all other methods of cross realm grouping in WM. Might as well prevent all grouping except with members of same shard. Can’t WM with friends.
Solution: Disable raids in wm.
Problem: As you saw with AOO quest, parties in combination are effectively a raid anyway, therefore disabling raids would not fix balance. Many enjoy raids, and ‘fixing’ for solo players is a negative impact for social players. It is a multiplayer game after all.
Solution: Put raids together in dedicated raid shards.
Problem: Increase in players appearing and disappearing. Also, raids can be any number up to 40, do they all get re-sharded, 6 raid v 40 raid? Or only 6v6, 40v40… imagine the players appearing and disappearing issue with that system. Numbers in raid can fluctuate a lot and frequently… imagine.
Any other suggestions for shard issue fixes? It’s easy to suggest and all ideas are good to discuss. But downsides are usually easy to spot. That’s why zone sharding is the way it is now, it’s a least worst solution.
To guarantee faction balance, this is my suggestion:
- Change WM sharding from being based on zone, to subzone and special areas like bosses.
- Increase the effect of the balancing, forcing 50/50 in the subzone at all times.
- Auto kick and shunt out group members to maintain that 50/50 balance.
The amount of players appearing and disappearing would likely be enormous and constant. But you’d have guaranteed 50/50 balance at all times in every location. Nah, leave WM as is, it ain’t broke if you look at the alternatives!