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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.
My take on multiple servers and why I think it is a grave mistake as opposed to one huge server.
SirArrr
Member
Greetings friends.As long time EU mmo player of many games my opinion may be somewhat biased but I decided to give my take on the multiple servers vs 1 big mega server.I've played many mmos like most you probably, and I have been on both sides, in games like Wow, Runescape and EVE online, albion online.Lets see why I may like locking players behind regions and countries(multiple servers) and why I prefer one megaserver instead:
Why I may like multiple servers:
-Less que time
-Less stress on the server due to overload in contested areas
-Smooth client experience for users due to good ping and closer location of the server.
Why I love one big megaserver:
-I don't mind waiting 5hours que time if I'm guranteed to get in at some point and have loads of fun.
-Servers being overloarded or various spots of interest laging is not an issue for me as long as I'm able to move and perform basic stuff and have fun.With todays technology AOC should be able to accomplish good performance, after all they said they have unique networking.The big downside is it will be much more expensive to maintain and operate, but it will help players feel much more integrated into the game because there will be tons of opportunities for interactions.If you're able to keep your players immersed all the time you're guranteed to have bigger profits in the long run.Spliting people into different servers is detrimental to that point.
-I have friends in EU east and EU west as well as many in the USA, now if the servers are split there's no way for us to interact unless there is no restriction on where you can make your account and even then I have to favor one friend over the other which is unacceptable for me.
-Sometimes I get back home from nightshift from work and I want to play the game but I'm actually in the USA time zone at that point and none of my guildies are online.Even if I find people to play with there's no gurantee I will meet them again.Having one mega server guarantees me that even if some of my friends are not online others will be.
-In the end people will always choose to go to the most populated server because people=fun, more people=more fun.Having one big server will mean the developers will not need to deal with servers merging and transfers.
-Now people will say if the server is located in USA it will favor usa people, but take a look at the game Albion online for example which also has only 1 server and its USA based at Washington D.C. if they can do it there is no reason AOC shoulldn't be able to do the same.Both eu and usa people can play with eu peeps having just a bit more ping.
-A compromise of some sorts will be Runescape style servers where players can go to a server of their choosing at any given time that will also work for me even though its far from ideal.
In conclusion you can look back and see how many games have failed because of the multiple servers and because they had to constantly merge and transfer servers which is a big hassle for devs and players.Having all your players in one spot should not be difficult in the age of limitless technology and is a recipe for fun and success.Plus its every mmo player's wet dream to fight hordes of other players once in a while.
By limiting the size of fights you're placing barrier on what's possible in the game.Is a mega server hard to acomplish sure.Is it going to be very expensive compared to multiple servers no doubt.But look at how many years games like EVE online managed to milk $ from their players thanks to that unique idea.If its working there and in other games that means its possible and if you put both the options on the table the more fun one is always going to be the one big server.Because I as a player I don't care about gfx or how the game does performance wise(as long as I'm not stuck watching pictures for hours instead of gameplay), even if the performance is not top notch, I only care about playing with other people and having the most fun possible.
Why I may like multiple servers:
-Less que time
-Less stress on the server due to overload in contested areas
-Smooth client experience for users due to good ping and closer location of the server.
Why I love one big megaserver:
-I don't mind waiting 5hours que time if I'm guranteed to get in at some point and have loads of fun.
-Servers being overloarded or various spots of interest laging is not an issue for me as long as I'm able to move and perform basic stuff and have fun.With todays technology AOC should be able to accomplish good performance, after all they said they have unique networking.The big downside is it will be much more expensive to maintain and operate, but it will help players feel much more integrated into the game because there will be tons of opportunities for interactions.If you're able to keep your players immersed all the time you're guranteed to have bigger profits in the long run.Spliting people into different servers is detrimental to that point.
-I have friends in EU east and EU west as well as many in the USA, now if the servers are split there's no way for us to interact unless there is no restriction on where you can make your account and even then I have to favor one friend over the other which is unacceptable for me.
-Sometimes I get back home from nightshift from work and I want to play the game but I'm actually in the USA time zone at that point and none of my guildies are online.Even if I find people to play with there's no gurantee I will meet them again.Having one mega server guarantees me that even if some of my friends are not online others will be.
-In the end people will always choose to go to the most populated server because people=fun, more people=more fun.Having one big server will mean the developers will not need to deal with servers merging and transfers.
-Now people will say if the server is located in USA it will favor usa people, but take a look at the game Albion online for example which also has only 1 server and its USA based at Washington D.C. if they can do it there is no reason AOC shoulldn't be able to do the same.Both eu and usa people can play with eu peeps having just a bit more ping.
-A compromise of some sorts will be Runescape style servers where players can go to a server of their choosing at any given time that will also work for me even though its far from ideal.
In conclusion you can look back and see how many games have failed because of the multiple servers and because they had to constantly merge and transfer servers which is a big hassle for devs and players.Having all your players in one spot should not be difficult in the age of limitless technology and is a recipe for fun and success.Plus its every mmo player's wet dream to fight hordes of other players once in a while.
By limiting the size of fights you're placing barrier on what's possible in the game.Is a mega server hard to acomplish sure.Is it going to be very expensive compared to multiple servers no doubt.But look at how many years games like EVE online managed to milk $ from their players thanks to that unique idea.If its working there and in other games that means its possible and if you put both the options on the table the more fun one is always going to be the one big server.Because I as a player I don't care about gfx or how the game does performance wise(as long as I'm not stuck watching pictures for hours instead of gameplay), even if the performance is not top notch, I only care about playing with other people and having the most fun possible.
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Comments
Here's my reasons for disliking megaservers:
I don't want to play a laggy game.
EVE has to literally slow down time to support its fights and even then it's laggy as fuck afaik. Albion is an isometric game with simplistic graphics and also has no body collision. And even then, from a quick search of mass pvp, it doesn't seem that there's been some "thousands vs thousands" battles there.
Ashes will have body collision, it will have more effects on the screen and it has a limited world size that is not designed to house millions of people. The game doesn't work with megaservers.
Oh don't get me wrong.I also don't want to play super laggy game.It took EVE several years of developement before they were even able to have battles of 2000 players and not letting the server crash nonstop.In albion nowadays as a player there I can tell you that 600-700man fights run very smoothly sure its not unreal engine, buts is good achievement.I'm mainly optimistic that with the new quantum server technology we now have more things will be possible than before.If you think something cannot work than you simply have not found the technology to do so and as someone who has seen a working quantum pc I can tell you that if you think something is impossible think again.Even at my country they are projecting that an average person will be able to buy quantum pc in just a few years.It should be much easier for a big company to get one server now.So even with these gfx it will be no issue to have a mega server on one.
With smaller servers, you absolutely will run in to the same players day after day - on a mega server in a game with a million or more players, you are likely to not run in to them much at all.
As such, on smaller servers, your reputation matters. If you are known as a dick, you will have a hard time, people wont want to group with you, invite you to guilds, or even trade with you.
This absolutely does inform player behavior.
The whole game's design is built around every server being unique and your reputation on that server being important (as Noaani pointed out). If Intrepid decide to change their design direction so drastically that the game fits a megaserver population - they'll have more problems than NW did. Alpha stage or not, the game has been in development for ~5 years. Changing it that much would take another 5 years and would also lose them most of their current followers, who chose to follow exactly because of its design.
On runescape you have the freedom to jump to NA or Aussie servers.I'd like to have that freedom at the very least, because like I said my friends are all over the world and it would really suck If I would have to choose region and stick to it forever.Back when I was playing star wars galaxies I had more fun playing with my usa friends than the people in my own region.
I don't mind the servers being unique but it would certainly be a dissapointment to me if If I can never check out the other servers or show others what I have achieved on mine.I agree that's it too late to change the game too much but that does not mean that it cannot be drastically improved for good.As for patience it is a virtue. I'm 40 but I would not mind waiting 5 more years for the perfect mmo.Look at star citizen haha.
2. Because of #1, you cannot transfer between servers with a single toon. You can create multiple characters on each server
3. Here: https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Servers
The game will operate with a "prime time" window, and this is when things like sieges and wars will take place - and likely other things as well. If you opt to play in a region with a "prime time" that doesnt match when you are usually online, then you will simply miss out on those aspects of the game.
People Sukc
Right.
Group 1 speaks (German French Spanish or so.)
Group 2 joins the chat flaming the people for not talking english and trieng to tell them not to talk in global.
Group 1 gets bigger and they spam their language flaming english guys.
end of the result.
Fight Fight Fight Mass reportes and people who dont play together.
EU has to many Languages and there are to many players Not able to speak english or they dont want to. the result will always be the same.
Me and You maybe dont have a problem with english. but many others have.
and 2nd of all.
i doubt you are fine with 5h queue EVERY day Before you are able to play.
noone would be fine. first week because hype. totally understandable. but 2-3 month of 5h queue = dead game.
6h sleep
8h work
5h queue
so even as someone who lives with his parents doing nothing productive in his live you would end up with only 5h gaming a day. and yea thats not much when you are someone who says its fine to play queue simulater for 5h because every casual already quitted the game at this point
THERE WON'T BE QUEUES - at least not at first; They are planning on manual grouping, at least for the launch of the game. Have personally see other games start with the same intention, but swap quickly. Won't be disappointed, if this ends up the case in AoC.
In the meantime, though, it's presently the plan that any groups heading for dungeons will be pre-assembled efforts.
We're not talking 2,000 players like New World here!
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People have mentioned some reasons already but in a game with player housing taking real space and where player collision is a thing, this simply cannot be done without large changes in the game's design.
As for runescape style server jumping, well it's actually impossible if each server develops the world different because nodes will not be the same. And if each channel is a copy of the main server, the development of the world will not be well reflected in any single channel. Also, with OWPvP, and the risk/reward systems set up like caravans, the ability to choose a more or less populated channel inherently breaks the systems. Risk vs reward only works and only feels good/fair if we all take the same risks.
I like small 2-3k servers, AT WORSE I can compromise to 5k because I want to know the players names. I want reputation to matter. Keeping track of more than 3k, 5k, let alone 8-10k just turned all players to walking NPC that i am not gonna care too much about unfortunately.
The game is designed with a range of players in it in mind. the "concurent players" but also the total players.
Because the game is designed around nodes and all systems around node end with "how many players for it" It could be as number needed to grow (more player => more node XP => need an amount of players activity to avoid getting from t6 to t5 or lower) or spot avaible (as freehold)
And now think also about population density...
because... mega server implies a simple thing : 2 players can be at the same place of the world, at the same time, but not seeing each other... This is how mmorpg with "mega server" can do it...
Imagine FFXIV if half of the whole european population was on "one" server ,without any kind of sharding or other kind of technology. imagine how over crowded limsa lominsa could be.
"so just use those technology" ? What about open world PvP ? and caravan ? you know this rival guild will do a caravan travel in 3 hours, you prepare with friends/guildmate, you are on the road the caravan will use and... oh shit !!! NOTHING
Could go on.
Without changing the game itself, you CAN'T have megaserver. it is not just a technology problem.
The game is designed around having X people spread on a world of a size of Y square meter. Megaserver don't allow it to work...
Here i spoke why Ashes of Creation can't go megaserver. people also gave already why they would prefer to not have megaserver. The fact that i will encounter the same players in the region of the world i will be, again and again, and it will creates reputation for people is one thing i love, and why i hate all megaserver. But here is personnal taste.
I agree with most but the end part.
The reputation factor isnt there on a 10k concurrent server. Let alone 50k registered to that server.
There is also the issue of - if the node system requires 10k to function, and having 50k players registered to that server as a fail safe to maintain 10k max pop - sooner or later that number will disappear from the game.
When does the lack of player numbers begin to crumble the node system? at 8k? 7k?5k?
Density is a whole discussion. I made a post awhile back mentioning, if the server is too small at 400km. but we didnt know how density would look like in 400km vs 1200km. but I will digress on that issue.
Ideally I think a server map, map density and node system should be aimed around 3-4k, max 5k concurrent.
I just fear this game may be "DEAD" (hyperbole) when we see the initial hype deflate and 30-70% of the playerbase leave within 6-12months. Either cause something shiny and new came out or AoC somehow fucked up big time that wasnt caught during the next few stages of testing. Seeing a 10k (50k) go to 6k concurrent (10k active accounts still playing, different timezones).
How will the remaining players react to seeing ppl leaving in waves. The forums, reddit post going - "LUL AoC Failed!", "U got scammed", "Scam game", "WoW>AoC lulz", "<Insert AAA company> MMO arrived, RIP AoC", yada yada yada.
I will still be here, but I hope the world, the density, the node systems, the core game still functions with a 5k pop.
I just dont like the current number, relying too much on fickle playerbase
Also about reputation : If ashes manage to have regionnal population (region = area of the world, not our IRL regions
I think the node system and the islands will chop the 10,000 players in to smaller islands and areas, perhaps of around 2,000 to 3,000 players each. That gives a nice population to build a reputation in. And if you don't like your region, you can jump to another island/region (think server) and you have the best of both worlds.
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I don't even know what to say... 99.99999999% of entire community will mind to wait a 5h que. This would be a death sentence to any game.
You really think a new player will mind waiting 2-4h just to install the game, only to be told they can't play for another couple of hours? Bad experience.