why are zones emty?

[Sl@da^]

Hi, so i tried this mmo with tons of active players by google search, but where they are? Game feels like ghost town. Zones are emty, maybe 3-5 players, capital cities are emty. Its really not mmo like game. Can someone explain why Gw 2 is like single player game?

[DarkSlayer197]

Originally posted by Darzai:

Originally posted by ah_puch:

lmao. map currencies, having to the same boring heart 50 times over and over again. strike mission coins. do 100 boring strikes = get one armor piece. grind for gold to buy gems, heh. at least that way the game gets 0$ from me, and frankly they don't deserve a cent with how mediocre they made this game over the years.

What is so special about that armour? Does the set have stats you need for your build?
I mean, if it is just for a cosmetic reason, then that is not a necessary grind.

I've never repeated heart missions for items that were needed for my build. Events yes for sa specific armour set, but not hearts.

Only special armor that requires map currencies I can currently think of are the Blade Armor set only because it is stat selectable (minus the chest piece). But if that were the case, it requires no hearts, and it takes about 30min of your time to get yourself a set.

Hearts that have armor specifically? Can't really think of any. I mean, EoD has a few, but are mainly cosmetic. Exotic armor is cheap to craft and cheap to buy from the TP.

Strike armor is also rather easy to acquire, however are mainly sought after for cosmetic reasons. Only armor set that are truly grindy to get are the Envoy armor set (Raid Armor set), Triumphant Hero's set (WvW Armor set), and Glorious Armor Set (PvP Armor set). All three of which are Legendary Armor.

[Darzai]

Originally posted by ah_puch:

Originally posted by Darzai:

What is so special about that armour? Does the set have stats you need for your build?
I mean, if it is just for a cosmetic reason, then that is not a necessary grind.

I've never repeated heart missions for items that were needed for my build. Events yes for sa specific armour set, but not hearts.

Strike mission coins for ascendant armor and weapon boxes. Are you asking why ascendant armor is better than exotic or something else?

Map currencies and heart farming are for buying ascendant jewelery and the skyscale grind.

That has to be very specific jewelry pieces then. I remember getting most from a vendor in LA. The rest was from hearts in one of the seasons maps. Which was quite fast actually.

As for Ascended sets. I can only think of sets from HoT and PoF for specific builds. But you do events for them, not grind hearts as far as I can recall. Most often they also have slightly less optimal alternatives that are more easy to obtain.

Most people craft ascended, because I think most builds still use common sets like berserker.

Personally I hate grinds and avoid them in any MMORPG. This is also why I don't bother with the Skyscale mount or Legendary weapons (or dailies for the most part).

If it comes to GW2, the only annoying thing for me was crafting to get ascended. I hate the convoluted crafting system with the long cooldowns. But fortunately it was manageable because of how convenient the inventory works.

[mysaga]

In the end, if you don't like to do the grind, think about doing something different. I also don't like grinding, but I still managed to get the skyscale, some ascended stuff and that one legendary for doing season of the dragons achievements. If you don't "hyperfocus" on grinding and just do a little bit and maybe not even every day if you don't feel like it and just do the stuff that is fun to you, you don't burn yourself out that fast.

But the grind issue is a bit offtopic. Back to "why zones might look empty": I don't get that often, but if it looks empty, some of the listed reasons may apply:
- You are playing at odd times.
-- As there are to regions, make sure you are playing in the correct region, otherwise your "normal times" may just be the odd times for the other region.
- The "mega server" architecture GW2 uses means that map instances are dynamically created whenever a map population crosses certain thresholds. These thresholds are different for every map.
-- You are playing on a newly created or closing map instance.
-- You are playing on a map, that has a low max player capacity that make the zone look empty (unfortunetelly especially possible for the end of dragons maps - afaik the limit is about 70 people for these maps)
- In general most maps of GW2 are great, but still there are some maps that are more likely to be populated than others.
-- The map you are on is not part of any daily achievements and does not contain meta events or world bosses.
-- The map isn't features in any story missions, side stories or popular achievement hunts, therefor usually negleted during leveling.
-- As for the cities: The city in question is not very popular. Divinitiy Reach and Lions Arch are probably the most populated cities, Eye of the North and Arborstone are other popular player hubs. This is due to their position on the maps and the services available within them. But although the Grove, Rata Sum or the Black Citadel might not be as popular, I haven't seen them empty.

[Steefy_92]

Pre-End Of Dragons, I would agree. But honestly, the game has players roaming around pretty much anywhere, now.

Some zones are less popular than others, like Iron Marches, not sure why people don't like world events there, but overall it's not empty just not crazy overpopulated.

The same could be said about FFXIV that hypothetically speaking has a bigger player base, but when you are roaming around AAR and AWA you don't see it and it's an eye sore, whereas in GW2 on some days, you see plenty of activity where you don't expect it (due to living world nature and overworld events - something that devs should focus on, much more to breath more life into Tyria core map. )

[Sychon]

I haven't seen an empty starter zone yet. Especially lately. Maybe you are playing at odd hours or on empty instances, as it has already been pointed out.

[shimsham29]

I started this game back in late Mach and I see other players all the time so no idea what the problem is with the OP. Big meta events/world bosses especially have dozens of people. Has to easily be over 50 in some of these and brings your pc to its knees. The hubs like Lion's Arch are always full of people as well.

[RudyTheNinja]

Originally posted by TheTool:

You may be in a empty shard. If you see the icon of a door on bottom right of screen, it will take you to same zone but populated shard.

Is there a way to manually jump shards?
Bout to update the game n jump back in

Last time I played, I remember this option rarely being available -like once actually- even tho there was no one in sight for many hearts upon many hours of questing n leveling
.. Then again, the new expansion hadn't come out yet

[dootee]

Originally posted by RudyTheNinja:

Is there a way to manually jump shards?
Bout to update the game n jump back in

If you join a party or a squad, for example through the lfg, you can right click other players in the party UI and move to their instance of the map you are currently in. This is especially usefull for joining big meta-events and world bosses.

[RudyTheNinja]

Originally posted by dootee:

Originally posted by RudyTheNinja:

Is there a way to manually jump shards?
Bout to update the game n jump back in

If you join a party or a squad, for example through the lfg, you can right click other players in the party UI and move to their instance of the map you are currently in. This is especially usefull for joining big meta-events and world bosses.

Ahh so then no but there are loopholes lol

I should probs make my own post for this, but is there a way to save my appearance n then load it for a new character?
Only lvl 18 n I've forgotten everything or what I was going for w my current setup (been awhile)

Or mayb a way to view the level up messages again? The ones that tell you what new thing unlocks for you to use
Those make the game do a v great job at teaching you the many options and features it has w/o dropping it on you all at once like BDO xD

[dootee]

Originally posted by RudyTheNinja:

I should probs make my own post for this, but is there a way to save my appearance n then load it for a new character?

I dont think so

Originally posted by RudyTheNinja:

Or mayb a way to view the level up messages again? The ones that tell you what new thing unlocks for you to use

Not that I know of, tho you can see what unlocks at what level on the wiki:
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Level_rewards

gw2 wiki is an amazing resource btw, and you can use chat command /wiki [something] to open wiki in your browser and search for specific things, works with shift-clicking items as well

[RudyTheNinja]

Originally posted by dootee:

Originally posted by RudyTheNinja:

I should probs make my own post for this, but is there a way to save my appearance n then load it for a new character?

I dont think so

Originally posted by RudyTheNinja:

Or mayb a way to view the level up messages again? The ones that tell you what new thing unlocks for you to use

Not that I know of, tho you can see what unlocks at what level on the wiki:
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Level_rewards

gw2 wiki is an amazing resource btw, and you can use chat command /wiki [something] to open wiki in your browser and search for specific things, works with shift-clicking items as well

Dang, just know I spent too much time on it lol
having to make the ultimate choice n sacrifice when I had to choose between two options xD

That wiki shortcut sounds helpful!
I remember another game that did that n would actually pop-up a small window of the item's wiki page

[Sychon]

Originally posted by DanteYoda:

Depends on the zones and timezones, lower unpopular races are dead.. popular races are fuller.

Also EoD was a mess which helped lower the population...

"Hello darkness my old friend..."

[Obbi]

This has to be a troll :D

Im in game right now, I'm leveling and i just met 20 people the past 10 min.

[Sychon]

Originally posted by DanteYoda:

Originally posted by Sychon:

"Hello darkness my old friend..."

Nothing i said there was inaccurate :cqlol:

It was and you know it. Stop it.

[Batil]

you must be in an empty shard. There's always a ton of players when i'm on.