Wolves Den. Miss it? Come Play!

Hey, everyone! I'm Tea Pan from Ultros, and I'm here to represent the Wolves' Den players from Ultros and Behemoth (Primal data centre). From looking at recent forum posts, some people seem to show interest in giving Wolves' Den another go. Coincidentally, our PvP group recently began hosting Wolves' Den events on a weekly basis again, and in fact, we have some video footage of a few games that we played on Friday night for anyone who's interested:

• Youtube
• Twitch

Enjoy :D

We used to do this regularly during patch 2.3, but unfortunately, several of our key players had to take their leave from the game. Some of us, however, have returned to Eorzea and are ready to hit up the den again. We typically play on Friday nights at 8:00pm PST (preparation period at 7:30pm PST), and we organize our events through group chat on Skype (no voice; no need to be shy okbb). The game format is set at item level sync 80 with mixed teams (random), semi-premades, or light party, depending on player availability and interests.

Furthermore, we're currently looking into creating a PvP website, where there will be scheduled events and private leaderboards (both individual and team ratings). By recording results after each game, we hope to design some sort of personal matchmaking system to better organize teams for balance. We happily welcome new and experienced players, solo or larger groups, and even 'premade vs premade' challenges. If anyone is interested in trying out Wolves' Den again, please feel free to let us know.

Sounds Awesome! How can I sign up?

You sure have a lot of criticism about how much work it's going to take considering you're not doing a single bit of it. I am not sure why you can't see this is something we are trying to positively build on, but it's quite unhelpful to jump on here and start trying to pick it apart when we actually have a great deal of experience making it work.

Hold onto whatever cynicism you have but bear in mind we are trying to bring people together here, not come up with more reasons to abandon wolves den. SE has done a near perfect job of destroying wolves den and doing everything they can to keep it down, so our first step is rekindling and cultivating that interest all over again. That's the point of TPTG's thread and anything that obscures its purpose only prevents us from restoring den to where it should be.

I agree, the current Wolves' Den matchmaking system sucks. We work around it though. What we do is calculate the average ranks between teams and try to close the gap as much as possible while taking player experience into consideration. Last time we had 32 games with breaks in between in a span of four hours. That was cross-server too, so it's not too bad. Just let us know if you want in and we'll take care of the rest!

About the only way to get in. Is build up a party of 8, split it and que for light at the same time. Even then it takes 5 minutes to que. But it's the only way to get the weekly bonus. I'd be nice if se did double xp 1 day a week for every different mode. Just something to focus the masses and help que times.

Well, getting players matched up isn't a problem at all, and actually, we've hosted several of these events in the past on a regular basis (cross-server, too). We're just looking for more people who are interested in participating so that we can further expand our current PvP community. It would be exciting to gather a lot of players from different servers for a tournament, as well. The Japanese Wolves Den community on Gaia seem to host monthly tournaments between premade teams which is shown on their website, titled Wolves Cup. On their website, there are rules, information on game format, as well as guidelines for setting up on the day of the event. To many people, this may seem like a lot of effort, but for a game mode that we commonly enjoy so much, I think it's more than worthwhile. This sort of event, however, is a long way away for our current community to make possible, but it would be exciting to have in the near future with a bit of effort.

Regarding privately hosted matches in Wolves Den, it's likely that some players may not be comfortable with immediately jumping on a boat with complete strangers and forming mixed teams with them. If that's so, then we could perhaps host some cross-server premade vs premade games first and slowly have people ease into Wolves Den. That way, they will be able to play on the same teams as their friends, regardless of their Grand Company (a common Frontlines complaint). From my experience in Frontlines, I notice that there are several PvP enthusiasts in large linkshells from different servers who queue up together. I really hope that we can get some of those people together and play some organized Wolves Den matches, outside of the regularly disputed chaos of Frontlines. I'm sure that would be a nice change of pace for many players.

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Originally Posted by kisada

stuff

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Still interested. These forums don't have PM's do they?

This would be really cool. How often do you run?

Wolves Den regulars vs non-regulars (Frontline players) would be a slaughterhouse because the same players are just going to keep winning. The chance of non-regulars winning is practically zero, but it would still be hilarious to see. It’s too bad that the people who cry for Wolves Den are the same people who complain about Frontlines but are also too afraid to actually play Wolves Den. I don’t blame them, since it would be so one-sided anyway. Eventually, the non-regulars would just ragequit.

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Originally Posted by Ayerro

Wolves Den regulars vs non-regulars (Frontline players) would be a slaughterhouse because the same players are just going to keep winning. The chance of non-regulars winning is practically zero, but it would still be hilarious to see. It’s too bad that the people who cry for Wolves Den are the same people who complain about Frontlines but are also too afraid to actually play Wolves Den. I don’t blame them, since it would be so one-sided anyway. Eventually, the non-regulars would just ragequit.

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Yeah, you are right they should definite stay separated.

You really gotta stop, it's such bad manners to come in and try to hijack a thread like this. You make it sound like you're the only one who realizes den is in need of a complete overhaul. We actually all realize it but that isn't the scope of this thread. It's the point of all the other threads other people made though, including one you made very recently. I've probably made the most pointed and damning posts about SE and their approach to den, but you don't see me preaching. That doesn't belong here. Your wanting to get on your soap box doesn't belong here either and you're not helping the cause.

Again we're trying to build something here. Just because your history of attempts didn't lead anywhere doesn't mean it mirrors our experiences. We know what we're talking about and we know what we're doing.

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Originally Posted by DividedSky

Thats what 30s and 40s are for. Praticing with less skills and learning the mechanics of wolves den. All the restrictions, rank matching, specific jobs (tank/heal/rankged/melee) and separating everyone (matched, light party, i80 matched, i80 light party), i'm telling you, this is what is killing the den. It would be better if it were uneven and working than so fragmented and restricted that ques don't ever pop because no one has time to wait around 30 mins for a 2 min fight.

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False. The concept remains the same -- Non-regulars would consistently lose vs regulars therefore those who lose consistently would eventually ragequit. 30s and 40s cap doesn't change anything. Our group in particular has played over 2000 games in 30/40 alone and we know many others that have as well. 30/40s is not a viable solution and what with all the endgame and new PVP gear, there's no way 30/40s will stand a chance in existing again. Apart from the whining about "oh, but I don't get to use my PVP gear," which was prevalent right from the release of new gear, and the "well now I don't have all of my abilities, you would be dead otherwise," the concept of getting rekt remains the same.

We're not having an argument for what's killing Wolves' Den because it's a mentality thing and one that's not too hard to comprehend: When someone waits in a queue longer than 10 minutes to get dominated in a 1 minute match, over and over again, he or she will ragequit and in turn, be more reluctant to give future matches a chance, seeing at least -something- as unfair or unbalanced.

We have held premade vs premade events for the more experienced groups that are at an equal, or close to equal level. These events were great, however many of our key players have left the game so we are essentially trying to restart what we did in the past and presently, we have been doing events where all eight participants solo queue to randomize teams. We have several newcomers that are serious about learning and in those circumstances, we split up our teams in terms of player experience.

Let me clarify that we're not trying to bring back Wolves' Den for all of the FFXIV community, because we already know that attempts to sway people would be unfruitful. We're holding these events rather, for the people who are interested in playing at a more casual level where setting up things and planning ahead of time to attend these events require commitment, and not everyone is willing to "go the extra mile" to make something work. It's understandable, some people want to play Wolves' Den casually, but our events are for the ones who are at least a little more enthusiastic in seeing through the efforts of reviving Wolves' Den in a small community.

We're doing another Wolves Den Stream/record this Friday again too! Come join the fun!!!

How do you join so that you can PvP? I dont really care too much about watching. No one is explaining how to participate.

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Originally Posted by DividedSky

How do you join so that you can PvP?

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We have recently organized our events through Skype, but adding complete strangers to Skype may be a bit too personal for some people. In the past, we've used IRC. Although I'm not a fan of IRC, it may be a better chat client to use for now until our website is finished. The link is here: http://webchat.quakenet.org/?channels=ff14pvp

Feel free to log into this IRC with your username as "name_server" (i.e. Tea_Ultros). I will be idle for most of the time, but I will periodically check the chat to give further details to people who are interested. I also believe that IRC automatically logs you off after some time of inactivity, but I know that there is a way around that. I would have to look into it.

Finally, I would like to clarify that we are not currently trying to revive Wolves' Den "solo queues", as that would be nearly impossible to do on our own. We are merely looking to host our own events much like a free company or linkshell would. I apologize for any misunderstanding.