Solving the Problem of Synching in Random Arena

The syncing makes it just way more fun.

If you can't handle 2 people who are just a bit more organised then the rest of the ra'ers, then you shouldent be in pvp at all. Unless they're on vent and running a 2 person spike, then I don't see what the problem is.

If athletic teams can't handle a player who shaves a few points every now and then, they shouldn't be playing the sport... is that the logic? D- answer.

As far as the snide "who cares" comments, RA is one of my favorite areas of GW. I'm a busy professional without the time to join an organized guild, do much gvg, or wait around in TA to form a team. The "hop right in" aspect of RA is appealing for this reason. And to take the snide question seriously, there are SIX districts in RA atm and it is early morning EST... are there six HA districts? TA? AB?... ever? Even during non doubled weekends, RA is usually 3-4 districts. That's -who cares-

It's Random Arenas, which means at some point you will randomly play against synced players. The system isn't broken, it's evolving into a broader aspect of what Random Arenas really is.

That's incorrect logic X89. The synchers are already bypassing what is supposed to be random.

Synching just allows half of a team to be coordinated. If I know my friend is running a monk, I'll just run some kind of damage support hybrid to help him out. It's an easy 3 glad points every time.

Random arenas is supposed to be random. That statement alone should explain why it needs to be fixed.

Its cool to beat synced teams, however the possibility to sync can easily be destroyed by what has been suggested. This does not even require more resources as suggested, only a bigger pool of players to be involved in the selection process. Syncing in a deserted area, means a 100% chance of succes. Syncing with a pool of at least 8 people (as much as is needed for 1 battle to occur) is near impossible. The chance the wannabe syncers end up in the same team are 6x10^-4 (0.0006, so 6 out of 10000 attempts you will succeed, calculated using a pool of 8 players that are randomly drawn without returning them to the pool ---> 1/8*1/7*1/6*1/5= 0.0006)

Yes very easy to implement, however the pool of 8 also makes it possible to sabotage fights, bigger pools, is more randomness.

Think of Synced teams as training for when you get to TA and have to fight fully planned 4 man teams...

Successfully syncing is basically luck, just like every other aspect of RA. I ended up fighting one of my allies just the other night... If a whole guild or alliance floods RA and hits the enter button, there's a chance theymay be paired up, there's a chance they may not, more often then not they aren't, when they are, it's a fun surprise.

Syncing is not a skill to use in fights like dodging arrows.
It's an exploitation of a flaw in the system, and thus must be ended.

True. Destroy RA sync. Add RA balanced party sistem: When you enter, you are paried with another teamates in a balanced party, not parties like 3 warriors and 1 necro, 2 sins 2 mesmers, etc.

Played 8 keys worth of RA last night and noticed little obvious synching. However, the couple of times when synching was highly likely, I was on a good random team and lost glads/faction because of it.

It got me thinking how much factions/glads honest players lose because of synch cheating, and without lots of hypotheticals, the answer is that a single synched team can deprive a boatload of honest players their reward for playing RA because their cheating is extended through ten rounds of play v different teams. A single synch team screws over lots of folks.

An analogy... imagine what the UB "debate" would be like if the drops in the high end areas were allocated based on efficiency in completing the mission (ala certain challenge missions), top score, etc., and UB groups began setting the pace and getting more of the drops. Just imagine the uproar.

RA is one of the most popular areas of GW based on the number of players there at any given time. It is a haven for the types of casual players, both skilled and noobish, who usually don't come and post on forums like this one. The interesting question is in a pvp environment where balance is scrupulously and frequently sought after in other areas, why would arenanet ignore balance in such a heavily populated pvp area?

And to preempt, I'm not really a glad point hound, synch cheating has cheesed me since 2005 before glads where Asian guild tags met in RA all but insured a three thumper one monk team.

Here's how to fix not only synching, but most of the other problems with RA:

Remove gladiator gains from it.

People won't be wasting their time trying to do lame stuff if they aren't getting points towards their precious titles. The idea of an almost completely random match providing a title is retarded in the first place.

This too.

Synching RA was prevalent pre glad for faction farming. Cheaters have always done things like getting run to droks or being run to cap an elite for arenas, even long ago.

I noticed less synching after the glad revamp and the implementation of dishonor. After the intro of the z-chest, I noticed synching rise again.

Guess I should have put /end sarcasm somewhere in there. Random Arenas as it stands is fine, the only problem is double weekends, when people who usually never ra, or do it occasionally, play in there for more then an hour at a time they either play against, or lose against, synced players, then come on guru and post threads on how/why it should be fixed.

To restate a valid point in this thread

Originally Posted by holymasamune
Who really cares?

^nuff said

Agreed. Double weekends are a terrible time to get any sort of data/concensus about the state of the game.
RA is a plague now. Way more noobs then normally.

I've brought up the issue of RA synch cheating before and Andrew Patrick said that he'd raise the issue at a community meeting and the problem would be addressed if it was deemed worthy of the time and resources to solve it.

There have been no resolutions as of yet which suggests that there probably never will be.

The 'vestibule' idea doesn't sound complicated or difficult to implement, though. So I'd /sign it.

If nothing is done about it then I think it's fair to assume that synching is allowed, despite being the abuse of an exploit. Can I go ahead and do it then?

there is always way to many n00bs in ra that dont brig rezs (only exception is if your healing) i find ra to be the most annoying thing in the game. i do think they need to fix it so people cant synch because people do it regardless of the weekend or not. and everyone saying oh no it shouldnt be fixed are probably people who are doing it. i for one just report them for leeching.

It's not called balanced arenas. Being able to play with random team parties and synergize with the abilities of your team mates is the entire point.

But I like this idea. /Signed for the OP.

In case you didn't get it the first time, let me elaborate.

Who really cares? It's RA.

People who play it do it for fun. I can't imagine anyone being serious over fighting one synched team every 50 matches. And if you're getting more than that, then welcome to random arenas, where your bad luck is random too.

Let me re-state that, in RA after 10 wins you get sent to TA anyway, so if you can't beat a team with 2 or 3 guys who synced you won't stand much chance of going very far anyway against groups that have 4 man builds... most RA teams get stomped at or before that point, so at worst you're out 3 glad points. If you want to form a real team and go on a longer streak, farm more glad points, head for TA and get a real group. The only reason anyone ever wins RA is because the other team is so malformed there's no way it can win, a real TA quality 4v4 rarely occurs.

Like they said, it's RA, who cares, it's luck of the draw who and what you get paired with, if you get with a buddy, great, if you get with a oath shot+Meteor shower R/E nuker or a Mo/W Frenzy hammer smiter tough tits. Only about half of all the sync attempts I make ever work, and those mostly if the zone is already near deserted and the afore mentioned 'fixes' wouldn't work(AB, Jade Quarry, Aspenwood ect).

Regardless of who cares, it's still broken and should be fixed. If we judged our attention on what the playerbase actually cared about, GvG would be down the drain. Wonder how much QQing we'd see then?