Should opening up new regions also permit server population increases?

akabear

Logistics aside, a low population server is often not as enjoyable as one that is thriving with a large active community.

Should lands expand in future updates there is a likely associated increased population dispersement so was wondering if permitting regional limits but increasing overall limit might be a way to go.

Thoughts?

Noaani

Something would need to be done, but increasing the population limit is only any good if new players are coming in and staying.

I honestly have no idea how Intrepid could do major expansions in this game.

tautau

I'm pretty sure Noaani is right, we are getting the whole world, as far as size goes, at release. While there will be periodic 'expansions,' they will be expansions of game systems, not territory, I think. Other games expanded territory to keep the game fresh.

But AoC doesn't need to expand territory to keep the game fresh because every time a node levels up, we get new content. Every time a large node gets eliminated and the next node over levels up, the next node over is a different type and the dungeons will change, mobs will change. Every time the seasons change, mobs and dungeons will change differently than when the prior node controlled that territory. The world itself is ever changing.

What causes it to change? Us, the players. If we band together and take down a military node so the divine node next door grows (and it is up to us to make it grow), we get new content. If we establish new trade routes, different predominant religions, different species of pets, higher level bounty hunter guilds, different crafting professions, even different tavern recipes....the world changes and remixes differently. We level up a new type of metropolis, we get new content. We level up different combinations of metropoli, we get new content. Really quite brilliant.

Noaani

I think the most likely way for Intrepud to add new content to the game (they will need to add new content before long), would be to do one of three things.

Either increase the impact religion and costal organizations have in the game (make them influence content similar to how node type does), add new node types, or add new node tiers.

The only other thing I can see them doing is adding new land that falls outside of the node system, but I don't like the sound of that at all.

Nerror

Sure, if it makes sense to do so. With UE5, we can now have a bigger world, and if they decide to expand that world with actual node space people can move into, it makes sense to increase population.

Alternately they can expand the world with, for example, a corrupted area where no nodes can be placed, but one that is full of big nasty ancients to kill and fight over for loot and profit. In that case a population expansion is not necessary. It doesn't even have to be on Verra. It can be on a different plane of existence, where the Heroes of Verra portal in to smite the foes threatening Verra.

Noaani

Nerror wrote: »

Sure, if it makes sense to do so. With UE5, we can now have a bigger world, and if they decide to expand that world with actual node space people can move into, it makes sense to increase population.

Alternately they can expand the world with, for example, a corrupted area where no nodes can be placed, but one that is full of big nasty ancients to kill and fight over for loot and profit. In that case a population expansion is not necessary. It doesn't even have to be on Verra. It can be on a different plane of existence, where the Heroes of Verra portal in to smite the foes threatening Verra.

I could go for an expansion in to a corrupted area. That gives a plausible reason as to why players aren't building cities there.

Caww

They could always use the old tactic of "discovering" a way to reach a moon (how many do they have?).

I really hope they avoid the NW pitfall of opening a bunch of servers and then contracting them back down. I think the subscription model will help with that since no free account keys will flood the game/population (I hope).

McShave

It's difficult to talk about what Intrepid should do during expansions years before the game is even released. Who knows what server pop will be like, what an acceptable and optimal pop will be, or what the "expansions" will even bring.

Atama

Maybe instead of building outward, they build downward? Expand the Underrealm. Basically, dig down. We already know it's going to be a thing, going back to Kickstarter. It's the home of the Tulnar but it can also be a way to expand without changing the surface world.

I don't know how or even if the Underrealm should be subject to node changes. Maybe it's an opportunity to have a sort of static themepark? Or go the opposite route; have it routinely change in random ways (say it's an effect of Corruption), much as a Roguelike game will change on each playthrough (think of the Diablo games).

Just spitballing, a random Underrealm might be too difficult to do, but I still say that expanding down in some way should absolutely be an option if they want to make the world bigger.

Jahlon

No.

Because the original content is designed for a concurrent population of 10,000.

Unless you modify that original content, you shouldn't increase the concurrent pop cap.

Dygz

Divine Gateways could take us to new worlds.
I would prefer to see new content in the same old areas, though.

Might there be new content that would inspire us to leave our comfortable homes?

daveywavey

Maybe we take the fight to The Ancients, and use their own harbinger gateways against them!

Sylvanar

This is so far into the future...the game hasn't even released yet.

daveywavey

Sylvanar wrote: »

This is so far into the future...the game hasn't even released yet.

ALL ABOOOOOOAAAARD!!!