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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Server transfers should be free (at least in language diverse regions) + servers need language tags
Freya
Member, Alpha Two
So, something that a lot of mmos fuck up in europe, is to properly tag their servers with languages, it leaves it to the communities to figure out who goes where and it makes it frustrating and awful having to realise after playing for a while, that on a server you are playing you will have nearly no interaction because very few if any people speak your language. this isnt always something that is obvious quickly or at the start, at launch of an mmo in particular, if they dont have enough servers with enough tags. i dont think there should be any language lock, but there should be a server for every language in at least europe so people know where to go to seek communication.
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As for your issue, I'm gonna need another solution, because I dont have any to give atm. Just know that selective freebies is not going to fly.
It worked for William Shatner.
Because you don’t allow server transfers.
I would assume a lot of stuff wouldn't transfer. Gear that requires unlocks not available on the server is another. Freehold placement, node citizenship, reputation, possibly even most of your mounts due to the stable system. I don't see a problem with it if it's strict in minimizing stuff not possible on the server transfering over. I would probably also only allow it once in a life time
Exactly.
if property is a concern they can disable that but keep the character level
But starting a new character and integrating into the server's community from the very start would not only flow smoother, but would also let other people to know you better.
I have to say, in decades of playing online games, I have never experienced this.
How can you not notice pretty quickly that nobody in chat is speaking your language? I'd say if you're that dense, you deserve the pain of a reroll.
Language tags are fine, sure. I don't see any harm in that. But allowing for free server transfers because gosh, after playing for 30 hours I just realized everyone was speaking German. Come on now.
Most US servers had predominately English and sometimes the predominant language switched during off-peak.
There is already a planned cap on numbers per server and those servers are globally / geographically divided, I see only destructive results by further dividing the community by language.
I think transfers could be free within the first month and/or 1 free transfer, thereafter have to pay.
This might be an issue the first month or so.
Seems like Communities might already be established to a decent degree by the end of Alpha 2.
And very likely to be solidified with server designation during Headstart.
As for language tags, I'd be ok with that in an informal way at least. Community-driven. As far as we know, we'll likely be getting server pre-registering before launch, a bit like SWTOR did. If a bunch of german guilds decide to go on the Bratwurst server, to a point where it's clear germans are going to be a majority, I'd be ok if Intrepid tags it as a german majority server, even if the official language is still english.
I would hate to end up on a server with a majority of non-english speakers myself. I am pretty sure most of us in the nordics feel the same. I mean, I am cool with playing with anyone in europe, just, use english please, for zone/node/general chat.
A week or two of effort is a drop in a bucket when it comes to an MMORPG.
Player reputation is important in AoC, because community is important in AoC. Server transfers (easy or not) give an out for players who ruin their reputation. It allows them to escape consequences, and that's a no go.
If there was a leading guild and people didn't band together to beat them, they would just leave. Players will always pick the easier option.
Substitute 'humans' for 'players'.
But to go back to the OP, there is no way that an official language on a server can be enforced. Sure, a SA server will likely have Spanish and Portuguese players in a majority, but they cannot kick off Polish, English or Bantu speakers.
Even if they listed a server as German, French or Korean, they cannot enforce it. Word will get around among Korean speakers that server 'Crow3' is friendly to them so there may be more Korean players there than on 'Janaos' server, but likely all servers will have many languages.
I had a character on L2 whose name, when translated to Mandarin, happened to mean 'Supreme Wife of Household' (totally without intention). When I ran by, some players would stand aside and bow, which puzzled me until it was explained to me.
Language tags - Could be a nice idea, but estimating number of players per language and then assigning the language tags to servers properly could be a hard thing to do right.
Btw, given that machine-translations have been getting better over the recent years, adding an in-game translation tool (powered by google or whatever) may help alleviate the language problem ...
Europe has 24 official languages and around 200 spoken languages across the continent. And I'm pretty sure the server for my language would end up almost empty since most people here are fine with communicating in english.
Some servers with language tags for the most common languages like german, french and spanish could be a good idea. I've seen that in other games.
It's so annoying to end up on a server where the majority doesn't speak english in the world/map chat.
Then the German and Spanish servers become the German/Spanish server.
That would make that server - like my grandmother - 'German-ish'.