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Server lock out?
Spaceweed10
Member Posts: 625
http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/42862
This very interesting interview with Josh Drescher addresses server population imbalance, and how Mythic have tried to mitigate the problem.
In particular, Josh alludes to a server lock out if one side reaches it's optimum value. My question is thus:
Is this a good idea, and will it work?
It isn't something I've come across before, and it does raise my eyebrows. Does this mean you could fire up the game, and not actually be able to play because hairy assed Dorfs are running amok and none of the dark side have gotten out of bed yet?
Does that force you to have mutliple characters on different servers to guarantee a play session? What about folk who don't play regularly and only have the one char? He is gonna be pretty pissed if he bumps into a bottle neck and can't play on one of his few moments of free time..
Comments
I wouldl ike to know how exactly this is going to be handled, I can understand trying to balance out the server but i would be pissed if i logged in and couldnt play my character because the faction on my side got to big.
it would mena you could no make new destruaction characters on that server when the cap for that side is reached not that you can't log on to the existing chracter on there.
FOr example once say 1000 destruction characters are made on one server you can only make order chracters on there till 1000 cap on their side is reached.
I am guessing htat is how they are gonan do it,
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/197681/page/11#2263222
Same subject - different thread
Nothing says irony like spelling ideot wrong.
No , you will always be able to create a toon on whenever server , now lets say cap is 3000 player per faction . X server have 2500 order 3000 destruction , destruction player will have a Q to enter the server to maintain the cap while order will have none .
It CANT be a X number of char max because some ppl will make bunch of alt on random server and it would block other ppl who really want to lvl a toon to 40 .
Probably a limit on how many characters can be created on each side. The problem comes when the servers are close on one side and people start getting friends or a guild to come and they cant all make a character on the same server cause its at quota for that faction.
No , you will always be able to create a toon on whenever server , now lets say cap is 3000 player per faction . X server have 2500 order 3000 destruction , destruction player will have a Q to enter the server to maintain the cap while order will have none .
It CANT be a X number of char max because some ppl will make bunch of alt on random server and it would block other ppl who really want to lvl a toon to 40 .
The first paragraph is how I see it, and what Josh actually says.
IT WONT BE A LIMIT ON HOW MANY CHAR CAN BE CREATED ON A side . God start thinking for a sec guys , lets say someone has a friend and want to play with him but he cant cause char max is full?
THERE IS NO WAY EVER it will work like this . like im trying to say in my previous post . IT WILL BE A LIMIT ON HOW MANY X FACTION U CAN HAVE ON 1 SERVER AT 1 TIME .
Lets say cap is 3000 PLAYER ONLINE AT 1 TIME ( aka peak hour ) per faction .
Order had 2500 player online on the server while destruction have 3000 .
Destruction ppl will have to wait in a Q to get in while order wont . But you will ALWAYS be able to create toon on X side , the only dif is sometime you will have very long Q so ppl will end up re rolling other faction or other server so imo the game will balance itself .
Yes good clip.
All this still says to me ....get to max level fast !
Just makes the journey easier and a lot more fun.
Caveat Emptor
IT WONT BE A LIMIT ON HOW MANY CHAR CAN BE CREATED ON A side . God start thinking for a sec guys , lets say someone has a friend and want to play with him but he cant cause char max is full?
THERE IS NO WAY EVER it will work like this . like im trying to say in my previous post . IT WILL BE A LIMIT ON HOW MANY X FACTION U CAN HAVE ON 1 SERVER AT 1 TIME .
Lets say cap is 3000 PLAYER ONLINE AT 1 TIME ( aka peak hour ) per faction .
Order had 2500 player online on the server while destruction have 3000 .
Destruction ppl will have to wait in a Q to get in while order wont . But you will ALWAYS be able to create toon on X side , the only dif is sometime you will have very long Q so ppl will end up re rolling other faction or other server so imo the game will balance itself .
well going to have to make sure they get the level right - it will piss people off a lot if the cant get into their game on a regular basis.
Caveat Emptor
It probably means that you cannot start an account of characters in that server. Meaning that if you are from X server you cant hop to Y server to start a new set.
People that already have created characters can continue to do so because they are already counted as a member of the population of that server.
MMEEEEEHHHHH!!!
It is a bit of a worry this,I am in a guild and alot of the guys will start with the headstart,I am unsure if I will be there then,so I start 4 days after the CE goes live,ok ok I have no idea how quickly the server's will fill up or indeed what the population level will be but what if I cant join my guild?
This is just an example another could be that guilds could no longer advertise outside of there server for new member's as it may not be possible for them to join the server.
If someone had came up to me in 1980 when I was on my Atari 2600 and said we will be playing games with thousands of people at the same time.I guess my response would have been,"but I only have 2 joysticks"
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/235780/page/8
Yeah its a weird one for sure. game breaker probably not, but annoying most definitely.
TBH, if server pops are capped at 2500, well thats low imho. If you want a persistent world with persistent WAR, you surely want to really push the boundaries and go for thousands and thousands of potential players at any one point in time, not a poncey 2500...
I've just been playing DAoC with 1200 online, I've seen about 7 maybe 8 other PC's the entire 4 hours i've been playing.
MMO's - well if you want to be innovative in a fantasy MMO, well then try reach the kinda server numbers Eve does for example! 10,00 + would be ideal, but 50-60k per "server" would be great.
anyway, we'll just have to see what really happens with Live.
They get to do whatever they want they own you, your charachter and the server.
I hope they aim for as much balance as possible.
That said, I think the majority is aiming for Order at this time. It seems to be balancing itself out.
Most likely the cap will be something like 5-6k . PW weekend is another story , u had 2500 on prime and most of these were in t1 wich are the smallest zone in the game . Once ppl have lvl tough rank 40 cap will MUCH bigger since you need way more ppl to fill t4 zone than t1 .
I agree with you, and they have said a lot about scaling things. I preceive that once WAR starts to balance a few months down the line they might raise the Pop. max since people will be more scattered out throughout the tiers. At first when it launches to start off smaller and work towards bigger and better things.
So it seems.
A decent discussion which I've read in its entirety, but justifies my trepidation. If you have picked a side that is seriously outnumbered - not in total server numbers, but at that particular time you log in - you can't play that toon. Whether it is time based before you can log in, or the server dictates on a one out, one in basis isn't clear.
I find this subject disconcerting, and I seriously hope I don't find myself locked out of my server of choice.
Let's hope this is something that doesn't consistently rear its ugly head, because if it becomes an issue, it's a sure fire way of losing subscriptions...
Nothing was said about not making new characters if a server cap is reached. Caps are short term until folks log off.
I haven't been about to find it again but I THINK early numbers quoted were 5K (I assume per side).
If one side hits the cap, no more of the side can log in until some log out.
Also, when a side is at a population disadvantage/losing RvR, they will get bonuses to help them level in PvE.
If you are willing to server jump from a full server to a less populated one and roll new characters, they will give you 'benefits' (as yet unstated) to encourage seeding the new servers and lessening the pressure on the old ones.
All in all, unless you hit the 'busiest' server, I don't think folks will have too much to worry about.