Cross Realm Battlegrounds

[Stinky]

Way to kill the PvP realm, good job

[Qrn]

For the PvP realm you have to make it cross server but NOT Xfaction - for everyone!

You will be very stupid to do anything else!

[Tourni]

Just disable cross realm entirely. This is getting out of hand. It was a great idea but it can't be done in a way that appeases everybody

[Dannyp921]

Another option (or a refinement of C?):

G.) Faction-preferring matchmaking with disguises (toggleable?):

1. One shared queue, so queue times stay low.
2. Matchmaking always tries to keep everyone on their own faction first, only moving N'Zoth players to the opposite faction if a match otherwise can't pop.
3. Moved players are shown/disguised as the faction they're playing for (similar to Blizzard's Mercenary Mode), so PvP-server players always see Alliance vs. Horde.
4. Mixed N'Zoth premades still work if the whole group joins whichever side needs players and is shown as that faction, so friends keep playing together.
5. Paladins and Shamans are moved to the opposite faction last, since a disguise can't really hide a faction-unique class.

This way, N'Zoth largely keeps what it has, the PvP-server keeps Alliance vs. Horde, and mixing becomes the exception rather than the rule, becoming even rarer if the population grows. It's essentially a priority system which resorts to "the necessary evil" only when necessary (a sort of "Graceful Degradation").

[Qrn]

The only way they can do it - PvE server gets both Xfaction and non Xfaction Xrealm BGs. The PvP server gets Xrealm but not Xfaction BGs

[Berdal]

We would love for cross faction to not exist or be necessary.

Turtle wow enabled it on the PvE realm, and thus forced any cross realm implementation to contend with it.

B.) Tell hundreds of players on an already fully cross faction server that they can no longer play battlegrounds with their friends

Of course if there is some other option that I am missing I would be curious to hear.

I don't see it as a big sacrifice to go back on Turtle's decision on crossfaction BGs. It would also serve to help self-regulate faction balance; incentivize picking lower pop faction for shorter queue times.

Alternatively, could have a middle-ground where some BGs are crossfaction, and others simply not. WSG is closely tied to the continent war on Eastern Kingdoms, located between contested Ashenvale and The Barrens. I'd argue that that would be a battleground that shouldn't support crossfaction.

Thus, only non-crossfaction BGs would have cross-realm enabled.

[Lecheechio]

From playing ingame during the restart hours of this update's release. I can testify, a very vocal minority hates this. The majority are just happy to have BGs even a 7am UK time.

A lot of people have mixed feelings about cross faction. I think the best idea I saw in this forum was make paladins and shamans faction exclusive and basically force the orb of illusion effect on players starting on the opposite faction to their own's side of the BG. If PvE players are in a party queue for the BG with a paladin or shaman they will be queued into the relative faction for that class. An error message would pop up saying you cannot enter a group queue with both shaman and paladin in the party.

I think the cases where friends of pala/shaman friends who want to queue together is lower than just a pure faction exclusive queue for cross realm. I also feel most PvE players would respect that design choice.

The vocal minority threatening to leave over this are just that, a small handful of drama queens. If the optimal solution which I put above was implemented they would go back to acting like they never said anything.

If it could also be seen as a temporary safety net solution until the populations increase I also think alot more people would have less to complain about.

It's like a vocal minority (which I am part of) hates double xp. But at the same time I'm not threatening to leave over it. And I accept the majority of the server either doesnt care or likes it.

[Hisvio]

Crossfaction battlegrounds are amazing!

Cross-realm battlegrounds are amazing!

All we want is for a game to pop when we feel like playing. Think of Counter-Strike: nobody stops to ask whether it's okay to play the terrorist side. You enjoy the game, so you play. It's the same here. It doesn't matter whether your night elf fights alongside an orc. Let's leave the faction purism behind; most of us don't care which race we are or who's on our side.

I've had such a friendly experience in the 10–19 bracket. Good people and good players, whether they're on my team or the other one. Honestly, twink PvP now feels as good as level 60 PvP, and you can skip the raid grind. Anyone can twink.

Roleplay has its place, just not in the battleground queue.

Thank you so much for adding cross-faction and cross-realm battlegrounds. Great job, Octo team!

[Redhotcc]

We would love for cross faction to not exist or be necessary.

Turtle wow enabled it on the PvE realm, and thus forced any cross realm implementation to contend with it.

Our options are simply to either;
A.) Ignore the cries of the PvP realm and never implement cross realm(we did consider this repeatedly)
B.) Tell hundreds of players on an already fully cross faction server that they can no longer play battlegrounds with their friends
C.) Force minimal cross faction for those on the PvP realm, upsetting those who don't want to have a human priest next to their orc warrior (understandable)
D.) Add a separate likely DoA "non-cross faction" queue for the PvP realm to opt out of cross realm/faction.
E.) Limit cross realm to AV only so that no cross faction is necessary, still leaving most of the PvP population issues on the table
F.) Limit cross realm to a single battleground that rotates regularly, so those not wanting the feature can avoid that battleground for a day/week

Of course if there is some other option that I am missing I would be curious to hear.

Right now we picked option C, and will be implementing option D SOONtm (next few days hopefully), but as stated, I suspect the vocal minority here who want to opt out of cross realm will be shocked to see the rest of the PvP server using it still for the lower queue times.

Option E is something we have talked about before as well, but leaves the same issue that option A does really.

Option F is something we wanted to do, but would have taken considerable additional development and we had to decide if it was worth delaying the feature entirely for. It will likely be explored more heavily in the subsequent weeks if there is still an interest. Although similar to option D, we have concerns that those yelling they will quit if they have to plan cross faction as not as populous as their voices may make them seem.

Not the hugest fan of how it has been implemented since crossfaction kinda defeats the whole point of the pvp server (but we also dont have access to both shamans/pallies in pve so its worst of both worlds) and generally feels awkward seeing orcs and shit fighting alongside alliance in PVP. But might be interesting to see how it plays out at least.

I wonder if (opt in) mercenary mode for Nzoth would be a bit better. Maybe make the people on opposite faction change skin (for example if a tauren druid from pve server joins alliance cuz he wants to play with his homies, he becomes a night elf druid). Or just force orb of deception effect on them. I suppose they would keep their racials though. So definitely not perfect.

Then lock shamans/paladins to their respective faction I suppose. otherwise not gonna lie may as well add alliance shamans/horde pallies. It makes more sense than cross faction bgs, which the entire point is horde vs alliance haha

Of course the balance of both shamans and paladins in pvp bgs will need to be carefully considered or else teams with too many of both those classes will be a nightmare to play against

[Friendlyfire]

This was voted on in an in-game poll. People crying about it now are a loud minority. No BGs popping for levelers and being in queue for 1–2+ hours at 60 is what tanked the PvP population. Now, people leveling can actually enjoy BGs, and you won't need your level 5 spies begging to queue for BGs.

If XRealm favoured N'zoth, it would be a problem, but it doesn't. It's actually insane that people would rather have you AFK in ORG/SW instead of playing the game. It's crazy.

Overall, it's a good change. It's not perfect, but it's the majority vs. the minority again. I'm sure they'll tune and change things further.