Why do we have to do realm mergers anyways?

Why can't we just let low pop realms be low pop realms?

Is it just the cost of hosting the realm that is the problem? Like not enough people to pay for running it?

Or the users themselves? I could see some people actually enjoying a low pop realm, shrug.

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Halae

The issue is that Ashes is designed with a specific minimum setup. if you don't have a minimum number of people on a server, you can't have metropolises. You can't have the highest level content that comes from metros. The node network stagnates at low levels, or centralizes in a specific part of Verra which inevitably collapses the system structure in the rest of the server.

AoC is special because it specifically requires a minimum number of players to actually work on a given server, not just a maximum like most MMOs have.

Apok

low pop servers get really boring, usually when that happens a majority of players want a merge. this happened in new world. people flocked to the game to check it out, a lot of people left because of issues and the group I was with ended up taking every territory. there was no PvP cause there ended up being no competition for us

Noaani

Xeeg wrote: »

Why can't we just let low pop realms be low pop realms?

Is it just the cost of hosting the realm that is the problem? Like not enough people to pay for running it?

Or the users themselves? I could see some people actually enjoying a low pop realm, shrug.

The problem with this is that low population servers break the game.

Running caravans is supposed to be a risk. That risk doesn't exist if there aren't any players to attack you. Same with naval content.

Building a metropolis up is supposed to take a lot of players, a low population realm may not be able to maintain even a single metropolis- let alone multiple as the game is designed to have.

Gaining corruption from killing a green only matters if there is someone there to attack you while you are corrupt.

Basically, a low population server would play as a totally different - broken - game.

Venacier

They could make a world event on low pop servers...where the world starts to fall away...get smaller. Unless enough ppl get together to stop it, via difficult quest lines.
This would make oceans shrink...the land mass shrink, until the low pop isn't as much a problem.
Just a thought.
It would suck to merge realms, and everybody losses everything they had land/homes, etc.
I believe the low pop would merge with a high pop. Does this mean the low pop has to fight as a homeless to get land in a high population server? Is it a wipe, and everybody has to start fresh...wow wouldn't that suck for the high pop server...you didn't do anything wrong. Realm is running great...then bam...little guy wants a house...so sorry...WIPE time

Xeeg

Noaani wrote: »

Basically, a low population server would play as a totally different - broken - game.

So if a server starts to go to lower pop, let's say 500 active users, would intrepid force them to merge with another server even if they didnt want to?

Taleof2Cities

Xeeg wrote: »

So if a server starts to go to lower pop, let's say 500 active users, would intrepid force them to merge with another server even if they didnt want to?

What is it exactly that excites you about a low-pop server, Xeeg?

Is it the possibility of farming resources or doing questing without being bothered?

Because that's not the spirit of Ashes of Creation.

Risk versus reward means you are a daring adventurer and you occasionally like to foster meaningful conflict.

Xeeg

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

Xeeg wrote: »

So if a server starts to go to lower pop, let's say 500 active users, would intrepid force them to merge with another server even if they didnt want to?

What is it exactly that excites you about a low-pop server, Xeeg?

Is it the possibility of farming resources or doing questing without being bothered?

Because that's not the spirit of Ashes of Creation.

Risk versus reward means you are a daring adventurer and you occasionally like to foster meaningful conflict.

I'm not saying that I want to play on a low pop. I'm just asking that if people enjoy it, would intrepid force them to merge anyways?

Taleof2Cities

Xeeg wrote: »

I'm not saying that I want to play on a low pop. I'm just asking that if people enjoy it, would intrepid force them to merge anyways?

You're waffling now ... why would you post a thread in the Forums about it if you have no interest in playing on low pop?

Regardless, most players and (most importantly) the devs aren't interested for the reasons already explained in the replies.

Low population means the server will struggle to do the basic events that are core to Ashes gameplay: node upgrades, caravans, raids, elite quest unlocks, and so on ...

Halae

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

Xeeg wrote: »

So if a server starts to go to lower pop, let's say 500 active users, would intrepid force them to merge with another server even if they didnt want to?

What is it exactly that excites you about a low-pop server, Xeeg?

Is it the possibility of farming resources or doing questing without being bothered?

Because that's not the spirit of Ashes of Creation.

Risk versus reward means you are a daring adventurer and you occasionally like to foster meaningful conflict.

Important note here; your stuff would be extremely limited on a low-pop server. Node size is determined by the people contributing to the node. Node Size determines what resources are available in its zone of influence, what dungeons are available, what other polities you're interacting with. Metropoli are the only places the highest end of auction house and university are located.

If you have a low population, you may not be able to hit high level nodes, which would cripple basically everything. You'd have fewer dungeons available, you'd have worse resources available, you wouldn't be able to master profession skills due to the inaccessibility of universities, your economy would be a shadow, the resources you gather would rarely go to anything because the weaker economy means that players can't expect to actually get the resources they need, everything would be lower level since node strength determines monster spawns, some quests only open up at certain node levels, and probably some things I'm missing.

This isn't like most MMOs, where the experience is fundamentally unchanged if you have a small number of players, because in those games quests, locales, monster spawns, and more are static. They don't change based on player input. Ashes requires a minimum input for things to be available, and that means a minimum number of players. Low pop servers literally just do not work in AoC

Xeeg

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

Xeeg wrote: »

I'm not saying that I want to play on a low pop. I'm just asking that if people enjoy it, would intrepid force them to merge anyways?

You're waffling now ... why would you post a thread in the Forums about it if you have no interest in playing on low pop?

It's more about the logic behind the server merger in the first place. Everyone hates the idea, so why are we doing it exactly?

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

Regardless, most players and (most importantly) the devs aren't interested for the reasons already explained in the replies.

OK, that is what i was asking about - "The Reason."

So it's not because hosting a low pop realm is expensive, and it's not because the users on that realm want it.

It's because intrepid has an ideological bias against low pop realms in their game and will force them to be merged with others.

Got it.

patrick68794

Halae wrote: »

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

Xeeg wrote: »

So if a server starts to go to lower pop, let's say 500 active users, would intrepid force them to merge with another server even if they didnt want to?

What is it exactly that excites you about a low-pop server, Xeeg?

Is it the possibility of farming resources or doing questing without being bothered?

Because that's not the spirit of Ashes of Creation.

Risk versus reward means you are a daring adventurer and you occasionally like to foster meaningful conflict.

Important note here; your stuff would be extremely limited on a low-pop server. Node size is determined by the people contributing to the node. Node Size determines what resources are available in its zone of influence, what dungeons are available, what other polities you're interacting with. Metropoli are the only places the highest end of auction house and university are located.

If you have a low population, you may not be able to hit high level nodes, which would cripple basically everything. You'd have fewer dungeons available, you'd have worse resources available, you wouldn't be able to master profession skills due to the inaccessibility of universities, your economy would be a shadow, the resources you gather would rarely go to anything because the weaker economy means that players can't expect to actually get the resources they need, everything would be lower level since node strength determines monster spawns, some quests only open up at certain node levels, and probably some things I'm missing.

This isn't like most MMOs, where the experience is fundamentally unchanged if you have a small number of players, because in those games quests, locales, monster spawns, and more are static. They don't change based on player input. Ashes requires a minimum input for things to be available, and that means a minimum number of players. Low pop servers literally just do not work in AoC

The problem with this approach is that it's just going to drive more players away from the game unless it's handled perfectly (which I don't think is actually possible honestly) because of how AoC is designed. If I have a guild that's spent a lot of time and effort on building up some nodes and other people stop playing on my realm to the point where it gets merged with another, what happens to the nodes my guild has been building up? Is there an attempt to merge them into the other realm? Or are they just gone? If they're gone, do we get compensated in some way?

A lot of people are going to quit if they get forcibly merged into another realm and they lose potentially months of work to something entirely outside of their control.

Texas

In my experience it is a wrong to think that the majority of people on low-pop servers prefer to be there. They are usually invested in their character and stuck. If your server is dying, your nodes are all going away anyway. It'll be especially bad in this game.

The was a thread a while back about "apocalypse" scenarios that either forced players into portals to another realm or would slowly destroy one continent on two servers so that servers could end up merging 50/50.

Xeeg

Texas wrote: »

In my experience it is a wrong to think that the majority of people on low-pop servers prefer to be there. They are usually invested in their character and stuck. If your server is dying, your nodes are all going away anyway. It'll be especially bad in this game.

Well yeah but in most games there isn't a realm history that you have helped shape and have some attachment towards. All the people wanting "PVE" servers could just join these low pop ones instead. Solves multiple problems just by leaving them alone and letting the realms survive.

If people want to join another server that is higher pop then start up a new character... Shrug

Noaani

Xeeg wrote: »

Noaani wrote: »

Basically, a low population server would play as a totally different - broken - game.

So if a server starts to go to lower pop, let's say 500 active users, would intrepid force them to merge with another server even if they didnt want to?

I would hope so.

Imagine starting the game on that server...

Dygz

Because maintaining servers costs money.

tautau

World corruption is a threat in AoC - a threat that must be countered by player action. I'm not talking player corruption here, but rather the events which cause creeping corruption that has the potential to take over the world of Verra.

It will take concentrated player response to prevent this from happening. If the server population is low, there could be insufficient player activity to prevent Verra from being overrun.

https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Corrupted_areas

Dygz

I would very much like to see a "Hell Realm" with maximum World Corruption.

Chicago

I'm just interested in what will happen when they actually sold " name reservations " in the cash shop, who will get to keep the name?

Dygz

I dunno that I'm expecting names to be completely unique.

Noaani

Chicago wrote: »

I'm just interested in what will happen when they actually sold " name reservations " in the cash shop, who will get to keep the name?

My expectation here is that the name reservations were for the games launch.

Once the game is launched and you have your name, Intrepid have made good on that.

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