It's about time someone did this really... I really like the idea of the questionaire that sorts players into phases based on play preference rather then *just* nationality (though I am sure you will be able to set your preference there as well).
It could even serve to balance the fatal (IMO) broken design of 'no group gouping' solo play as at least group preferred PvEers, for example, will be able to be in a space with others that think more or less the same.
Thoughts?
Sounds interesting.
Any info as to how they are going to categorize 'playstyle'? If there's any flaw to this approach, it would be in how they decide to categorize these things. If they make these distinctions too much, I can definitely see people getting confused / just picking w/e server and ignoring the distinction alltogether. There's also the potential issue of popular playstyles being more attractive, simply because they have more people.
Still, I like this idea. Interested to see how it plays out.
Originally posted by ShakyMo To elaborate, this game sounded cool to Mebest rpg series ever - tes,meets best mmo ever - daoc.
This mega server BS, It flies in the face of both games, it reminds me of say tsw.
Again.. this doesn't really expand on why you find giving players filters to find a server appropriate to their play style or general personality/ culture a bad thing.
It's about time someone did this really... I really like the idea of the questionaire that sorts players into phases based on play preference rather then *just* nationality (though I am sure you will be able to set your preference there as well).
It could even serve to balance the fatal (IMO) broken design of 'no group gouping' solo play as at least group preferred PvEers, for example, will be able to be in a space with others that think more or less the same.
Thoughts?
Sounds interesting.
Any info as to how they are going to categorize 'playstyle'? If there's any flaw to this approach, it would be in how they decide to categorize these things. If they make these distinctions too much, I can definitely see people getting confused / just picking w/e server and ignoring the distinction alltogether. There's also the potential issue of popular playstyles being more attractive, simply because they have more people.
Still, I like this idea. Interested to see how it plays out.
As far as I understand it will just be a questionaire, so probably just a checklist with options such as; PvE, PvP, Age 13+, Age 20+, Casual, Grouping, Solo, or whatever.
I would guess you could check multiple boxes and just get filtered that way. I don't pretend to be an expert though or know the details of what they intend
when I read the title, that is exactly what went through my mind.
It's about time multi-shard MMOs started assigning the servers by something relevant and not just region.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein "Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
No one considers the possibility that everyone does the following?
"Hmm, ages +21, more mature people, check! RP'ers? They used to be mature in WoW, Check! PvP? I don't want to be excluded from PvP, check! Group? I like grouping to instances, check! Solo? Yes I want to play solo from time to time, check!, English speaking people? I know no English, but its better than playing with Russians, Check! Wait a second, I'll just check them all, except for +13 years olds, I dont want to play with kids" - anonymous, 15, Brazil.
No one considers the possibility that everyone does the following?
"Hmm, ages +21, more mature people, check! RP'ers? They used to be mature in WoW, Check! PvP? I don't want to be excluded from PvP, check! Group? I like grouping to instances, check! Solo? Yes I want to play solo from time to time, check!, English speaking people? I know no English, but its better than playing with Russians, Check! Wait a second, I'll just check them all, except for +13 years olds, I dont want to play with kids" - anonymous, 15, Brazil.
Wouldnt matter, it would just create multiple phases of the same options and try and pair you with people in your friends list and guild rather than just playstyle
It's about time someone did this really... I really like the idea of the questionaire that sorts players into phases based on play preference rather then *just* nationality (though I am sure you will be able to set your preference there as well).
It could even serve to balance the fatal (IMO) broken design of 'no group gouping' solo play as at least group preferred PvEers, for example, will be able to be in a space with others that think more or less the same.
Thoughts?
Fail. Why? RP does NOT stand for Rapid Progress or Rocket Propelled, it stands for RolePlay. Yet how many players roll a character on a role server with not just no intention to RP but a desire to ridicule RP every chance they get?
If people can't even select servers for their play preference when there are two choice, why do you think they will when there are more choices?
It is an intresting idea but there are to many people who join a server NOT to find mind liked players but to grieve or who feel that they should be able to play on any server and fuck any rules, written down or not.
In the Netherlands there is an experiment on a far grander scale, housing itself has for this test been divided in color codes, 1 for people that just want quiet, other for those who prefer a social active environment, other for noisy active and another.
Guess how many people who LOVE working with powertools all night long choose "noisy" neighbour hood?
Right... 0.
It is a very intresting idea but people are difficult to herd. Especially of their own free will.
some of you are reading too much into this. this is their 'solution' to launch day troubles. they want people to end up on the same shard as their friends if they choose to. nothing is going to work perfectly but they are trying to make it as easy as possible for people to play with who they want. it's not meant to be an asshat filter. if you don't want to play with asshats don't play mmo's. because unfortunately a lot of asshats play mmo's and don't give a f**k about your expereince.
I just hate instancing in mmos. The problems this will bring
1 hard to find your friends 2 the messing about you have to do when you group and gave to switch to the sane shard 3 pvp will be pointless, losing on your shard, live to one where your winning 4 because there's only one mega server, they will have to allow cross factioning, again making pvp pointless 5 they don't have to bother about performance as much as they can always spawn more shards if the game can't cope with many players - example Swtor 6 it destroys the persistent world feel of the tes games 7 it destroys the persistent world feel of the other game they were hoping to pull fans of, daoc. 8 it doesn't let them have alternative rule sets, if they just had normal servers they could have gone core / ffa / coop just like daoc, the latter two offering a more tes like "whole world" experience for pure pvpers or pure pveers respectively.
The only advantages it gives in my opinion are 1 easier launch day 2 lots easier to spin future server merges as their won't be any, they just make less shards.
Originally posted by ShakyMo I just hate instancing in mmos. The problems this will bring
1 hard to find your friends 2 the messing about you have to do when you group and gave to switch to the sane shard 3 pvp will be pointless, losing on your shard, live to one where your winning 4 because there's only one mega server, they will have to allow cross factioning, again making pvp pointless 5 they don't have to bother about performance as much as they can always spawn more shards if the game can't cope with many players - example Swtor 6 it destroys the persistent world feel of the tes games 7 it destroys the persistent world feel of the other game they were hoping to pull fans of, daoc. 8 it doesn't let them have alternative rule sets, if they just had normal servers they could have gone core / ffa / coop just like daoc, the latter two offering a more tes like "whole world" experience for pure pvpers or pure pveers respectively.
It's a really really stupid decision.
1 the mega server is so you can find your friends more easily
2 you will be on the same shard as your friends, wont have to switch shard
3 no details on how AvA is exactly going to work yet
4-5 no comment
6 how? it's just like choosing a server in any other mmo
7 no details on how AvA will work yet
8 pvp is only in cyrodill, also, do the devs want a bunch of rulesets?
Being able to play in an environment with others interested in RP, grouping, and pvp, would be great.
BTW I posted the idea of instance flags a couple times here, where people are filtered into specific instances based on character flags (lfg, pvp, rp etc). I don't know if this is the same idea, but I hope so. It's a way to make instanced areas massive and manageable, and give everyone the community type they are looking for.
I once dreamed up a system that phased players into different instances of the same area based on playstyle and preferences...
People who liked to PvP would be far more likely to encounter players of an opposing alignment in the wilds, those who prefered grouping would find other adventurers on their trails, the solo player would see the world mostly to themselves when not in cities/towns...
but with the % chance of a "curveball" encounter - like something out of your preference zone to try and foster new experiences etc.
Would be really hard to implement though.
The solo PvE player having the random curveball encounter with a hostile pro-PvP player would be difficult to justify as anything other than system-enforced griefing lol.
You'd have to do an initial entry survey (perhaps using variation of Bartle test) and then adapt phasing preferences based on playstyle.
You could tie it to acheivements or something - figuring out what acheivements players gravitate towards would help define play style some what, but for people that try and get as many if not all acheivements would be a mixed bag.
Still, it's an interesting idea.
The idea of single-world servers and such is largely going away - multi-sharded/phased game worlds is really the next step IMO.
SO much of your play experience can depend on the luck of getting on the right/wrong server.
I'd like to see pairings made more intelligently.
But would it be voluntary flagging or involuntary data analysis??
I could see situations where PvPers would only "flag" themselves as a someone who prefers PvP when they have the deck stacked in their favor - or use the system to grief PvE'ers somehow.
Muffins 3 there will be multiple INSTANCES of cyrodil depending on how many are playing 6 its not like choosing a server, they spawn multiple INSTANCES of each zone depending on how many people want to play there. The stuff about whether you like rp or whatever is used as a guide for which instance to sort you into, if there's hardly anyone else with your preferences you get banged in with the closest matches, if theres loads of people with your preferences you will be spread across several INSTANCES 6 & 7 both tes and daoc are fully persistent worlds that feature zero INSTANCING.
Originally posted by ShakyMo Muffins 3 there will be multiple INSTANCES of cyrodil depending on how many are playing 6 its not like choosing a server, they spawn multiple INSTANCES of each zone depending on how many people want to play there. The stuff about whether you like rp or whatever is used as a guide for which instance to sort you into, if there's hardly anyone else with your preferences you get banged in with the closest matches, if theres loads of people with your preferences you will be spread across several INSTANCES 6 & 7 both tes and daoc are fully persistent worlds that feature zero INSTANCING.
Cyrodil will work differently tho, you will be assigned a "campaign" which you can change but it with limitations to prevent campaign hopping, also the campaigns are locked to your toon so that if you log onto an alt of a different faction you wont be allowed into the same campaign as your main or guildmates that are on a rival faction
"Brian Wheeler (BW): When you sign up for the military in real life, you get assigned to a campaign and that campaign has a duration. It seemed to make sense to give people that same militaristic comprehension of how PvP in Cyrodiil would work in a mega server. There will be a campaign that you sign up for individually or as a guild. For as long as you go into Cyrodiil, you are going into that version of Cyrodiil and that campaign. You can always go help out your buddies in their campaign if they need help, but there is a bit of a restriction on that. We don’t want players to hop back and forth frequently to help out friends. We don’t want to have a situation where it’s like “OK, everybody flood this campaign tonight”. We have restrictions on that so that the campaign doesn’t get flooded and overloaded, also we want you to feel like while it is a megaserver, this is your home and your community. I want to play with these people that I see in this campaign all the time."
and
"TF: Again on the megaserver, your faction choice becomes a bit less rigid then it might be in a multi-server game. How is that going to be handled? Especially with regard to if you want to make an alt someday?
MF: Yeah, so your different characters can be in different alliances, but since your character is tied to a campaign for PvP, we obviously can’t have everyone in the entire game in a single PvP battlefield. We are going to have multiple campaigns running which are multiple versions of our PvP battleground. Your character is tied to an alliance in a campaign, so you can have a character in another alliance, but in a different campaign.
TF: So you will be taking measures to restrict people from joining the same campaign on multiple factions?
PS: Absolutely, when you sign up for a campaign, your guild will be associated with a certain campaign as well. You won’t be able to have a character from one alliance in the same campaign as an alt in a different alliance. We don’t want you to stack the deck so to speak."
If any of those options are missing for me to filter instances, I'm out.
--All ERP, all the time. Teen g.i.r.l.s welcome! We have sparkly vamps!
--The little cave in the woods, home of Pedobear.
--Ganker-B-Gone. All PvP damaged applied directly to attacker. Perma-death, account deletion.
--My Sparkle Pony Playhouse.
--Papa John's Twice As Slow As EQ--full-on grinding only, no quest content. Level up only by stabbing a fork in your own eye repeatedly, 6 xp each.
--Rose Colored Paradise--level up by talking about your way-back-when gaming, when u wuz hardc0re yo.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
Originally posted by ShakyMo I still think these megaservers are a solution to a marketing problem "spinning server merges",rather than a solution to a gaming problem.
I can see gaming solutions tbh, looking for group should be a lot easier due to everyone being in the same place, will also lessen the d-bag issues you tend to get with cross server lfg as you have a very real chance of seing that person again rather than knowing theres a server "wall" between you
No doubt that the main reason is to avoid launch issues and the inevitable bad press server merges cause but there is some benafits to the gamer aswell
Comments
well... the game will cater to many play styles... I am not sure you have understood the concept being discussed fully here?
If you have, maybe clarify what offends you so heavily about allowing like minded people to find each other?
Sounds interesting.
Any info as to how they are going to categorize 'playstyle'? If there's any flaw to this approach, it would be in how they decide to categorize these things. If they make these distinctions too much, I can definitely see people getting confused / just picking w/e server and ignoring the distinction alltogether. There's also the potential issue of popular playstyles being more attractive, simply because they have more people.
Still, I like this idea. Interested to see how it plays out.
This mega server BS, It flies in the face of both games, it reminds me of say tsw.
Again.. this doesn't really expand on why you find giving players filters to find a server appropriate to their play style or general personality/ culture a bad thing.
As far as I understand it will just be a questionaire, so probably just a checklist with options such as; PvE, PvP, Age 13+, Age 20+, Casual, Grouping, Solo, or whatever.
I would guess you could check multiple boxes and just get filtered that way. I don't pretend to be an expert though or know the details of what they intend
I believe many of you all need to think about this feature realistically.
Imagine the impact this feature will have on a game that has a small /Strinking population. It's a bad idea.
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
But Zenimax believes that the TES IP will bring them 20 billion lifetime subs so they're not anticipating any shrinkage, lol.
I make spreadsheets at work - I don't want to make them for the games I play.
A cold shower is coming...
when I read the title, that is exactly what went through my mind.
It's about time multi-shard MMOs started assigning the servers by something relevant and not just region.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
No one considers the possibility that everyone does the following?
"Hmm, ages +21, more mature people, check! RP'ers? They used to be mature in WoW, Check! PvP? I don't want to be excluded from PvP, check! Group? I like grouping to instances, check! Solo? Yes I want to play solo from time to time, check!, English speaking people? I know no English, but its better than playing with Russians, Check! Wait a second, I'll just check them all, except for +13 years olds, I dont want to play with kids" - anonymous, 15, Brazil.
Wouldnt matter, it would just create multiple phases of the same options and try and pair you with people in your friends list and guild rather than just playstyle
Fail. Why? RP does NOT stand for Rapid Progress or Rocket Propelled, it stands for RolePlay. Yet how many players roll a character on a role server with not just no intention to RP but a desire to ridicule RP every chance they get?
If people can't even select servers for their play preference when there are two choice, why do you think they will when there are more choices?
It is an intresting idea but there are to many people who join a server NOT to find mind liked players but to grieve or who feel that they should be able to play on any server and fuck any rules, written down or not.
In the Netherlands there is an experiment on a far grander scale, housing itself has for this test been divided in color codes, 1 for people that just want quiet, other for those who prefer a social active environment, other for noisy active and another.
Guess how many people who LOVE working with powertools all night long choose "noisy" neighbour hood?
Right... 0.
It is a very intresting idea but people are difficult to herd. Especially of their own free will.
The problems this will bring
1 hard to find your friends
2 the messing about you have to do when you group and gave to switch to the sane shard
3 pvp will be pointless, losing on your shard, live to one where your winning
4 because there's only one mega server, they will have to allow cross factioning, again making pvp pointless
5 they don't have to bother about performance as much as they can always spawn more shards if the game can't cope with many players - example Swtor
6 it destroys the persistent world feel of the tes games
7 it destroys the persistent world feel of the other game they were hoping to pull fans of, daoc.
8 it doesn't let them have alternative rule sets, if they just had normal servers they could have gone core / ffa / coop just like daoc, the latter two offering a more tes like "whole world" experience for pure pvpers or pure pveers respectively.
It's a really really stupid decision.
1 easier launch day
2 lots easier to spin future server merges as their won't be any, they just make less shards.
1 the mega server is so you can find your friends more easily
2 you will be on the same shard as your friends, wont have to switch shard
3 no details on how AvA is exactly going to work yet
4-5 no comment
6 how? it's just like choosing a server in any other mmo
7 no details on how AvA will work yet
8 pvp is only in cyrodill, also, do the devs want a bunch of rulesets?
Being able to play in an environment with others interested in RP, grouping, and pvp, would be great.
BTW I posted the idea of instance flags a couple times here, where people are filtered into specific instances based on character flags (lfg, pvp, rp etc). I don't know if this is the same idea, but I hope so. It's a way to make instanced areas massive and manageable, and give everyone the community type they are looking for.
I once dreamed up a system that phased players into different instances of the same area based on playstyle and preferences...
People who liked to PvP would be far more likely to encounter players of an opposing alignment in the wilds, those who prefered grouping would find other adventurers on their trails, the solo player would see the world mostly to themselves when not in cities/towns...
but with the % chance of a "curveball" encounter - like something out of your preference zone to try and foster new experiences etc.
Would be really hard to implement though.
The solo PvE player having the random curveball encounter with a hostile pro-PvP player would be difficult to justify as anything other than system-enforced griefing lol.
You'd have to do an initial entry survey (perhaps using variation of Bartle test) and then adapt phasing preferences based on playstyle.
You could tie it to acheivements or something - figuring out what acheivements players gravitate towards would help define play style some what, but for people that try and get as many if not all acheivements would be a mixed bag.
Still, it's an interesting idea.
The idea of single-world servers and such is largely going away - multi-sharded/phased game worlds is really the next step IMO.
SO much of your play experience can depend on the luck of getting on the right/wrong server.
I'd like to see pairings made more intelligently.
But would it be voluntary flagging or involuntary data analysis??
I could see situations where PvPers would only "flag" themselves as a someone who prefers PvP when they have the deck stacked in their favor - or use the system to grief PvE'ers somehow.
3 there will be multiple INSTANCES of cyrodil depending on how many are playing
6 its not like choosing a server, they spawn multiple INSTANCES of each zone depending on how many people want to play there. The stuff about whether you like rp or whatever is used as a guide for which instance to sort you into, if there's hardly anyone else with your preferences you get banged in with the closest matches, if theres loads of people with your preferences you will be spread across several INSTANCES
6 & 7 both tes and daoc are fully persistent worlds that feature zero INSTANCING.
Cyrodil will work differently tho, you will be assigned a "campaign" which you can change but it with limitations to prevent campaign hopping, also the campaigns are locked to your toon so that if you log onto an alt of a different faction you wont be allowed into the same campaign as your main or guildmates that are on a rival faction
"Brian Wheeler (BW): When you sign up for the military in real life, you get assigned to a campaign and that campaign has a duration. It seemed to make sense to give people that same militaristic comprehension of how PvP in Cyrodiil would work in a mega server. There will be a campaign that you sign up for individually or as a guild. For as long as you go into Cyrodiil, you are going into that version of Cyrodiil and that campaign. You can always go help out your buddies in their campaign if they need help, but there is a bit of a restriction on that. We don’t want players to hop back and forth frequently to help out friends. We don’t want to have a situation where it’s like “OK, everybody flood this campaign tonight”. We have restrictions on that so that the campaign doesn’t get flooded and overloaded, also we want you to feel like while it is a megaserver, this is your home and your community. I want to play with these people that I see in this campaign all the time."
and
"TF: Again on the megaserver, your faction choice becomes a bit less rigid then it might be in a multi-server game. How is that going to be handled? Especially with regard to if you want to make an alt someday?
MF: Yeah, so your different characters can be in different alliances, but since your character is tied to a campaign for PvP, we obviously can’t have everyone in the entire game in a single PvP battlefield. We are going to have multiple campaigns running which are multiple versions of our PvP battleground. Your character is tied to an alliance in a campaign, so you can have a character in another alliance, but in a different campaign.
TF: So you will be taking measures to restrict people from joining the same campaign on multiple factions?
PS: Absolutely, when you sign up for a campaign, your guild will be associated with a certain campaign as well. You won’t be able to have a character from one alliance in the same campaign as an alt in a different alliance. We don’t want you to stack the deck so to speak."
link and link
--All ERP, all the time. Teen g.i.r.l.s welcome! We have sparkly vamps!
--The little cave in the woods, home of Pedobear.
--Ganker-B-Gone. All PvP damaged applied directly to attacker. Perma-death, account deletion.
--My Sparkle Pony Playhouse.
--Papa John's Twice As Slow As EQ--full-on grinding only, no quest content. Level up only by stabbing a fork in your own eye repeatedly, 6 xp each.
--Rose Colored Paradise--level up by talking about your way-back-when gaming, when u wuz hardc0re yo.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
I can see gaming solutions tbh, looking for group should be a lot easier due to everyone being in the same place, will also lessen the d-bag issues you tend to get with cross server lfg as you have a very real chance of seing that person again rather than knowing theres a server "wall" between you
No doubt that the main reason is to avoid launch issues and the inevitable bad press server merges cause but there is some benafits to the gamer aswell