Cross Realm Battlegrounds

[Sigillite]

Cross realm bgs are a GREAT IDEA thank you

[Dannyp921]

[...]

Didn't read. Discouraged by wall of AI text.

But I recommend you read the entire thread again for some clarification.

That wasn't written by AI...It has clean paragraphs, each with its own point/idea, so it's not a wall of incomprehensible text.

If I misunderstood parts of their post, then I apologize, but I still stand by putting my thoughts out there, because I know a lot of other folks here, presumably mostly PvP-server players, are very skeptical to anything cross-faction. We fear this could be a start of a slippery slope hurting faction-uniqueness, putting convenience over anything else. I think the concerns from my post still matter as a general principles, and as feedback for how the system develops from here.

[Twisted6]

If it's not the DDoS taking the server down it's your untested vibe code

[Sqweellex]

We are pleased to announce the release of Cross Realm Battlegrounds on OctoWoW!

While there are some trade offs when considering implementing CRBGs, we are confident that this feature will have a positive impact on the server's PvP health long term. The technology behind this implementation also enables future features that we have already begun working on.

Please keep in mind, that our server is still intentionally in a Beta state. Systems are subject to change and these systems are not set in stone. We value community feedback heavily.

With all of that in mind, please find the details of our CRBG implementation below;
• Only N'Zoth and Y'Shaarj share battlegrounds
• Cross faction will be enabled for cross realm battlegrounds, but only N'Zoth players will be able to be assigned to the opposite faction
• AV has not been, and is still not cross faction on any realm
• BG's will now no longer shutdown when a realm restart happens, and the shard will allow for matches to conclude regardless of the origin realms online status
• Trading is not allowed at all between cross realm players (Subject to change)
• Players from the other realm show a short realm tag after their name so names never collide
• You can report a player from inside a cross realm battleground by right-clicking them or using the scoreboard

Could I find out when https://octotimers.com will be fixed so that it shows the actual current Battleground (BG) of the day? I submitted a request about 2–3 weeks ago, but I haven’t received a response. Right now, the emissaries for a specific BG are active in the cities, and the honor bonus is being awarded for that BG, but the timer is showing something completely different.

[Judgersj]

This is disgusting. Cross‑faction battles on a PvP server? Are you out of your mind? This is no longer a PvP server. This is some kind of perversion. I think we’ll be saying goodbye if you keep cross‑faction battles on the PvP server. This kind of trash is definitely not for me.

[Joeblack]

I spoke with many players on Y'shaarj, and while it's still an anecdotal evidence, each one I spoke to said that they don't like cross faction, and picked this realm because it disables it.

small sample poll from pvp realm discord

[Dannyp921]

I spoke with many players on Y'shaarj, and while it's still an anecdotal evidence, each one I spoke to said that they don't like cross faction, and picked this realm because it disables it.

small sample poll from pvp realm discord

On which Discord-server was that? I know of only two OctoWoW Discord-servers, but haven't found that poll.

[Berdal]

That wasn't written by AI...It has clean paragraphs, each with its own point/idea, so it's not a wall of incomprehensible text.

I stand corrected and I apologize.

Does this mean cross-faction BGs for players on the PvP-server as well? If so I really don't like it. Some of us play on private servers to get away from the immersion-breaking cross-faction stuff that Blizzard has become so obsessed with in recent years, and specifically play on PvP-servers to preserve that Alliance versus Horde feeling. Faction identity and flavor is important (which entails keeping Paladins and Shamans separate at all times), and cross-faction dilutes that.

Furthermore, faction-based queues are somewhat self-regulating. When one faction is much more active than the other, the less popular faction gets faster queues, which gives people an incentive to roll that faction. I picked Alliance for exactly that reason, as Horde is typically more popular on PvP-servers. With cross-faction BGs, queue times become the same for everyone, so that incentive disappears. Horde-players on the PvP-server will no longer have that reason to create Alliance characters, which removes a main mechanism keeping the delicate faction balance there in check.

I played on Turtle's Tel Abim server, which didn't have this system, and it worked out fine, in my opinion. They made it so BGs could start even with very few players, which fits a low-population server and worked out fine. 3v3 WSGs happened all the time. Even with only 200 active players, at least a handful will still be spamming BGs. If for some reason too few Alliance on the PvP-server queue up for BGs, I'd try to find incentives for them to do so, instead of implementing a system with huge ramifications which most likely can't be removed now (Pandora's Box problem).

In addition, the devs here previously mentioned separate balancing for the PvE- and PvP-servers, as they are playerbases with different priorities and needs. With this system, this won't happen, as we cannot mix players from the PvP-realm with PvP-centric balance changes, together with PvE-balanced PvE-players. The alternative would be changes that only activates outside BGs, but that would feel incredibly "gamey" and immersion-breaking in contrast to the world-focus that was Turtle WoW's vision. I fear this change will make unique PvP-centric updates on the PvP-server much less likely now...

Lastly, it's worth remembering that even when the original Vanilla WoW-devs added cross-realm battlegroups in 1.12 to fix queue times, they never made BGs cross-faction. Alliance vs Horde was treated as a core part of the game's identity, not something to trade away for convenience.

I agree with this wall of text. Especially the part about keeping PvP non-crossfaction because of immersion and the inherent significance of the Warcraft Universe.

The point about the self-regulating faction balance is also on-point.

I want to add that I strongly discourage and disagree with separating development and balancing efforts between realms. PvP and PvE balance can and should be common regardless of realm differences. PvP balance should not be omitted on N'Zoth, and PvE balance should not be omitted on Y'Shaarj.

[Knifewrench]

That wasn't written by AI...It has clean paragraphs, each with its own point/idea, so it's not a wall of incomprehensible text.

I stand corrected and I apologize.

Does this mean cross-faction BGs for players on the PvP-server as well? If so I really don't like it. Some of us play on private servers to get away from the immersion-breaking cross-faction stuff that Blizzard has become so obsessed with in recent years, and specifically play on PvP-servers to preserve that Alliance versus Horde feeling. Faction identity and flavor is important (which entails keeping Paladins and Shamans separate at all times), and cross-faction dilutes that.

Furthermore, faction-based queues are somewhat self-regulating. When one faction is much more active than the other, the less popular faction gets faster queues, which gives people an incentive to roll that faction. I picked Alliance for exactly that reason, as Horde is typically more popular on PvP-servers. With cross-faction BGs, queue times become the same for everyone, so that incentive disappears. Horde-players on the PvP-server will no longer have that reason to create Alliance characters, which removes a main mechanism keeping the delicate faction balance there in check.

I played on Turtle's Tel Abim server, which didn't have this system, and it worked out fine, in my opinion. They made it so BGs could start even with very few players, which fits a low-population server and worked out fine. 3v3 WSGs happened all the time. Even with only 200 active players, at least a handful will still be spamming BGs. If for some reason too few Alliance on the PvP-server queue up for BGs, I'd try to find incentives for them to do so, instead of implementing a system with huge ramifications which most likely can't be removed now (Pandora's Box problem).

In addition, the devs here previously mentioned separate balancing for the PvE- and PvP-servers, as they are playerbases with different priorities and needs. With this system, this won't happen, as we cannot mix players from the PvP-realm with PvP-centric balance changes, together with PvE-balanced PvE-players. The alternative would be changes that only activates outside BGs, but that would feel incredibly "gamey" and immersion-breaking in contrast to the world-focus that was Turtle WoW's vision. I fear this change will make unique PvP-centric updates on the PvP-server much less likely now...

Lastly, it's worth remembering that even when the original Vanilla WoW-devs added cross-realm battlegroups in 1.12 to fix queue times, they never made BGs cross-faction. Alliance vs Horde was treated as a core part of the game's identity, not something to trade away for convenience.

I agree with this wall of text. Especially the part about keeping PvP non-crossfaction because of immersion and the inherent significance of the Warcraft Universe.

The point about the self-regulating faction balance is also on-point.

I want to add that I strongly discourage and disagree with separating development and balancing efforts between realms. PvP and PvE balance can and should be common regardless of realm differences. PvP balance should not be omitted on N'Zoth, and PvE balance should not be omitted on Y'Shaarj.

But xfaction raiding is already a huge buff for pve server compared to pvp where pve is harder.

[Judgersj]

so we started playing octo because no bshit Xfaction pvp. and now we get bshit xfaction pvp. ty for once again proving u want the pvp server dead. and like i said before, told you ud shove it down our troath.

We made this change to relive the issues of people not even being able to make it into a BG in the first place on the PvP server. We are planning on allowing same realm queue for BG's in the near future

You can't make N'zoth players to be added to appropriate factions? Horde to the Horde and Alliance to Alliance?

I play on PvP server specifically to avoid cross faction stuff. Please consider adding this correction.

The main issue with this is that many players on N'Zoth queue BG's with friends on the other faction exclusively, and removing Xfaction would ruin this for hundreds of players.
What we do plan on is having the option to queue either same realm or cross realm in the future once we have tested the cross realm BG's enough. So please look at this as a temporary feature that is subject to change.

You’re worried that people on the PvP server can’t get into BG (that’s not true; I had no trouble getting into BG). At the same time, you want to make it so that players can choose between playing in cross‑server BG and playing in BG on the same server. This way, you’ll divide the already small online population on the PvP server, so that players who despise cross‑faction can only play BG on holidays. You’ll make it even less accessible to get into normal BG on the PvP server. Perhaps it’s completely inaccessible. I used to not believe that you deliberately want to kill the PvP server. But that’s exactly how it looks.