Server Queue Transparency

Learning from Archeage: Unchained being an absolute mess upon launch I have a proposition for the AoC dev team.

In the weeks leading up to the release of the final MMORPG, post an interactive poll on which players can declare which servers they intend to play on.
By showing players what the server capacities are and the number of people intending to play on each server, players can naturally distribute themselves among the servers in such a way that keeps friends and guilds together.
Allow players to change their declared intent so that if one server looks like it will be too full a guild can make the decision to change their intended server before launch.
Theoretically, by players distributing themselves in this way before launch, we can avoid outrageous queues, character creation locks, players getting separated from friends/guilds, and keep the servers naturally balanced in population from the start..

I would also limit each user to be able to declare their intent for their primary character, because if you allow users to declare multiple characters guilds can maliciously work together to make a server more full than it really will be in order to reduce competition on the server.

Please let me know what you think!

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ilisfet

I think this can be a good idea if account locking decisions is effectively implemented. However, it may be moot since half the point of APOC is to stress test the servers so they can handle this kind of load day 1.

Rem_

Aha.. well I'd like to see the servers stressed after almost a year of backend rework. I don't think there's even been 100 player matches yet in the new release of the br !

blazebot7000

Either way, I assume that Intrepid is going have multiple servers running the game. If they do, they will need some way to balance player populations between them, and I think the way that I proposed is better than the standard method of locking character creation on populated servers to force people to make characters on unpopulated ones.

Noaani

I'm confused as to what the tirle of this thread has to do with the bidy of the OP, as neither a queue nor transparency were mentioned.

That said, the problem with this is that unless it is required, most people simply won't declare.

Having a system where guilds can reserve character slots for 48 hours so they are all able to play on the same server has merit though.

grisu

I think it's a good suggestion. It won't as mentioned get everyone involved but I think it will help draw a picture of the general landscape.
I can't remember a single mmo launch that did not have a "which server did you and your guild choose" thread.
It may or may not help if, let's say, they release the server list together with this aforementioned poll. As long as you can change your vote I think it wouldn't hurt.

T Elf

I remember with a few launches where guilds would declare where they were going, only to change at the last minute. I'm not sure this will be any different.

blazebot7000

There are a few things about my idea that I believe make it better than the typical forum-style declarations of intent.

First, this allows players to see approximate server loads at a glance. This is much less effort than scrolling through long threads and trying to piece together the exact same information.

Second, at least in my experience, the devs never actually post what the server capacity is. Doing so and showing players approximately how many spots are left on a server/seeing just how overloaded a server is gives fantastic transparency to players who will inevitably cry out and demand refunds since they weren't able to get on the server they wanted. It will also help them make the decision to wait for their desired server to depopulate or to simply choose another server.

To Noaani's point, I do not think allowing guilds to reserve any number of spots on a server is a good way to go. It's easy enough for a guild leader to post a poll link to discord and have their players look at it/fill it out. But to give them the power to just declare X number of spots for themselves could easily lead to malicious efforts by people to depopulate a server at launch time for their own gain.

To T Elf's point, the reason guilds change last minute is because they panic thinking that their server will be overcrowded and they want to keep their guild together. Hopefully the poll helps ease their panic and they will be less inclined to change servers last minute. And if they did, they would have the option of changing their intention poll vote to reflect the change.

The point of this system is simply to facilitate what players already naturally want to do, and what the devs really want players to do, and that is to spread themselves out evenly among all servers while keeping social groups intact.

blazebot7000

Now this is a very shitty converted Facebook poll, but maybe it gives at least a little bit of an idea of what I'm talking about.

https://imgur.com/a/pfuo7cQ

leamese

i really like the idea and Intrepid should look into it

Noaani

blazebot7000 wrote: »

could easily lead to malicious efforts by people to depopulate a server at launch time for their own gain.

Literally any suggestion along these lines could lead to this - with one exception.

Tie accounts to the server they have declared on, without the option to change declaration.

If you are not forcing it, you will end up with the above issue.

grisu

You don't have to be that drastic, this is why I suggested using the launch name list of the servers as a basis. Ususally those lists come a month or earlier before the launch. So people have time to pendle themselves in with the trends and changes of the community.

Don't outright make it a one time decision, just let it run for the last month before your launch and lock it in a few days before the servers go life with the condition, "declaring a server locks you out of all other servers for a week." Or something.

Atama

I’d absolutely not contribute to a poll if it locked me in. What if the server ends up being over- or underpopulated? What if I opt for one server then some real life friends opt to play a different one, or I decide I want to join with a guild that’s on another server? I’m not risking any of that.

blazebot7000

noaani wrote: »

Tie accounts to the server they have declared on, without the option to change declaration.

I think we would want to tie accounts to poll so that we could limit people to declaring their intention only once per account they own. I would be against limiting a user's ability to change their declaration at anytime.

In the scenario where a guild wants to join an under-populated server during launch, how would they go about using poll changes to do that? If they all declare for one server and then change last second, they would just be jumping onto a more populated server, which I assume would be the opposite of what they want to do.

Azathoth

I don't think you should be allowed to reserve a server spot. I dont think a poll is necessary either, as guild forums will likely post their preferred servers. I do like the option of seeing what % full servers are before picking one though.

If it were an option to reserve a spot I think each account should only be allowed to reserve one spot.

If a guild has issue with their peeps being spread across multiple servers that only effects them, not other players. So somehow granting them the option to reserve more spots for future mates seems lame.

If a spot can be reserved it should lock you to that server. They should be options to switch though. Like if the server hits 96% or higher or if the server falls under 60% of the max. This way players could avoid the under/over pop issues.

Please note by %'s are examples to show a point, I have not looked into what would be 'optimal' or minimums required to make a sever worth it.

Noaani

blazebot7000 wrote: »

noaani wrote: »

Tie accounts to the server they have declared on, without the option to change declaration.

I think we would want to tie accounts to poll so that we could limit people to declaring their intention only once per account they own. I would be against limiting a user's ability to change their declaration at anytime.

In the scenario where a guild wants to join an under-populated server during launch, how would they go about using poll changes to do that? If they all declare for one server and then change last second, they would just be jumping onto a more populated server, which I assume would be the opposite of what they want to do.

Inter-guild co-operation is a thing.

As I've said, I like the idea of having a way to keep guilds on the same server at launch.

Thing is, if there is a chance that new character creation will be disabled on some servers in the days after launch, the only way to make this happen is to reserve character slots on those servers.

Anything just left to players will be abused in multiple different ways, unless there is some form of lock to it.

blazebot7000

noaani wrote: »

Inter-guild co-operation is a thing.

Yes, but please explain how any number of guilds working together could game this system. In general, people will make their declarations evenly spread among the servers. If people stick to those declarations you will have a clean launch. If people do not stick to those declarations, it's the people who do not stick to them that will be hurt the most, as they will be joining more populated servers. Only way I can think of people to game the system is if they WANT to join over-populated servers.

noaani wrote: »

Anything just left to players will be abused in multiple different ways, unless there is some form of lock to it.

I don't agree with that. A player will always try to do what is best for them individually or what is best for their guild. Since declaring your server properly is the most effective way to make sure the server you actually choose has a low queue and is less populated, that's what players will do.

If I am being stupid and there is an obvious way players/guilds could take advantage of this, please let me know.

Undead Canuck

Some people do get to reserve a spot. When you are pre-registering your character name, you have to choose the server. So they had better choose wisely!

https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Name_reservations

Noaani

blazebot7000 wrote: »

Yes, but please explain how any number of guilds working together could game this system. In general, people will make their declarations evenly spread among the servers. If people stick to those declarations you will have a clean launch. If people do not stick to those declarations, it's the people who do not stick to them that will be hurt the most, as they will be joining more populated servers. Only way I can think of people to game the system is if they WANT to join over-populated servers.

Not all guilds want to join low population servers.

Some guilds (PvE focused, as an example) may want lower population. Others (PvP focused) may want the highest population they can.

I seriously hope you can see how several of such guilds could attempt to work together to manipulate things to their liking.

blazebot7000 wrote: »

noaani wrote: »

Anything just left to players will be abused in multiple different ways, unless there is some form of lock to it.

I don't agree with that. A player will always try to do what is best for them individually or what is best for their guild.

Yes they will. And if what is best for them and/or their guild is abusing a system that has no safeguards in place to stop it being abused, then that is what they will do.

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