Post by David CarsonPost by Simon NejmannIf the horde side becomes as outnumbered in the battlegrounds as they
are outside, there is no reason to go in there... Why rush into a
battle you can't win - especially when losing hands a price to your
opponent that makes them even harder to beat the next time.
They won't be, because the battlegrounds are instanced with
population
Post by David Carsoncontrol.
If there are 40 Horde wanting to fight, and 100 Alliance, then you'll
get one 40-vs-40 Battleground, and 60 miserable Alliance players
standing in a queue feeling sorry for themselves.
Just to clarify...
I moved my L45 Warlock over to the Test server, and while I've only
done the 10v10 Warsong Gulch Battleground a couple times, the OP
doesn't have much to worry about.
1) Although there are only two BG's at this time (Barrens 10v10, and
Alterac 40v40), each of those BG's has many simultaneous instances
running at once. The one on the Barrens/Ashenvale border had about a
dozen simultaneous instances for my level range (41-50) running when I
tried it. There WERE alot of Horde players just waiting to get in
though. I had to wait about 30 minutes before I got the summons. So
either there weren't enough Alliance online at the time, or the Server
has a finite limit on exactly how many instances it can spawn. I think
it's the latter, meaning that NOT EVERYONE on the whole server will be
in the Battlegrounds at once after they go live.
2) The BG's do wait until both sides have a full team. So any
serverwide population imbalance won't be seen within the BG's.
3) There *IS* a level limit of entering the Alterac BG. I couldn't get
in at L45, so I think it's limited to L51-60. The Barrens BG puts you
in with people your own level too, so it's not just getting ganked by
L60's.
SO...
To answer the OP's original question, Yes, the system is very fair even
on servers where the Horde is greatly outnumbered. Plus, depending on
how they configure server limits, *Both* sides will have to wait to get
into the Battlegrounds at peak times. The wait times will be a
reflection of the imbalance, so if your server has an Alliance/Horde
ratio of 1.5 to 1, then they'll have to wait 45 minutes instead of 30.
It's not as much of a "gift" as the Alliance are speculating from what
I could tell.
I don't think Splintertree will be effected by this any more or less
than Aastranar if players decide to just go pilliage and plunder while
they wait. I do think zones far away from the BG's in the same level
range (Stonetalon, Desolace, 1k Needles, etc) will actually get quieter
than they are now. For instance, there really won't be much need/desire
for the Horde to go raid Darkshire anymore just because it's an easy
target.
I think on PvE servers the Battlegrounds will very quickly replace
raiding towns as the main way to farm Honor. On PvP servers the level
60's now have tons of ways to spend their time besides
ganking/griefing. So far it looks like it's going to be really fun and
work out well.
My only complaint, which Blizzard even acknowledged as a problem, is
that it's *REALLY* hard to go into a BG with just your own guild. Two
or three friends who are already Teamed won't have any issues staying
together. But BG's aren't going to make it very easy to duke it out
with a specific enemy from the other faction for bragging rights. That
means that players are besically PvP'ing for their own Honor/CP, not
their guilds. And if you hate playing with any complete strangers,
you'll have to wait for them to address this.
Of course it also makes it really hard to "tweek" a 10v10 group with
exactly the right mix of perfect classes and levels. But I think this
is actually a good thing. If you could just dominate 10v10 with 4
Rogues, 2 Shamen, 2 Hunters and 2 Priests who were all the exact max
for the instance (30, 40, 50) it would re-create the problem with
certain classes not being welcome.