cross realms

I think i posted this in the wrong channel my bad

So i know cross realms would not work due to every server being unique with their own nodes etc, but a problem/concern that i have is this:

Although it is amazing with a world size of 600 ish kms, with server sizes 8-10,000 and a safe bet of 20-30% of people hanging out in cities at all times, it would render most of the world empty, i know a lot of games have failed because of this where it almost becomes a single player game as you never run into anyone in the open world.

is there anything in place to assist with this issue?

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Vhaeyne

Not an issue. Unless you have goods to sell or process. There is nothing for you in the city. You can't que up into a instanced dungeon from the city. Everything worth having is in the open world, and needs to be fought over. There is no way to progress anything but crafting by staying in a city.

daveywavey

The game world wouldn't be able to function if everybody just stayed in the cities. You'll have to venture out in order to get anywhere with the game. Just relax, and let's see what happens. There's still plenty of testing time left, yet.

maouw

I imagine you form a party in a Tavern in the city, then your party ventures out together to the dungeon as travelling buddies.

Alternatively, everyone will just end up sitting outside a quest area they are interested in. Maybe those are the best places to open a Tavern (*hint*hint*)

grisu

One of the main draws of this world is that it's wild and empty of population. We are repopulating it and making our marks in spots that are of importance.
I don't have to be in a crowd 24/7 to validate that it's a good/alive game.

That's how I see the game based on what's been told over the years and my personal experience is that 90% of the population is in only 10% of the world map anyway, the max level places or cities. Why? Because it's by design, 90% of the map doesn't offer anything anymore to people after leveling through them and maybe some faction/reputation-trader they occasionally need.
No cross realm feature (hi wow) changes that, no cross realm light feature changes that (hi gw2 phasing bs).

Ashes won't make every spot in the world useful at all times, what they propose is to make some of it useful and give people a reason to be there and with time that reason will shift to another region.
If you choose to be in a place that currently has no reason to be useful to people, you are hunting for that next reason to make it useful. That's an adventure and has it's own value already attached to it, opportunity. For that you need big and "population empty" space to play around with.

On the topic of cross realm "inflating population artificially at the cost of server integrity":

Ashes in it's sold word form seems like it chokes us by taking away opportunities to connect. No world chats, no 1click instant grouping dungeon tps from other servers so it goes really fast. It seems like it makes it harder to connect, and it's true to some extend.
The thing about all of this is that it MAKES us WANT to connect. You group up once and have a good time together? You MAKE SURE you add them to the friend list. You had some funny banter while traveling to your destination together? You MAKE SURE you add them to the friend list and have some good jokes later on again because you WANT to play with them again.

This is what builds server communities, this is what holds people in a game together, this is what all the "easy access to everything but no personality"-mmos now a day lack.

akabear

I hope that distance plays well to allow clans and alliances to out of focus in one area, re-group, strengthen up and return stronger..

For others, to create their realm devoid of others and interruption

And for some, a heat of conflict at close quarters.

Jayma

I don't think in a mostly open world to have some empty space is a problem.
It 's even the contrary. It's let you space to explore, to avoid unwanted pvp, to have your secret farm spot (which will be secret only the time it doesn't level up to a noticeable level), to go to less popular dungeons.

If player interactions and frictions is a good thing. Sometimes you need space to avoid it too. To chill a bit.

And cross server only solve the impression of loniness on surface. You see stranger peoples doing things, you will probably never see them again, you will never interract with them again. Have a server with his history, his dramas even if it 's not the most active should be a thing.

tautau

As nodes level up, so do the mobs and dungeons in that area. Therefore, higher levels will come back to that node, or at least not leave.

Note also that there are nodes all over the map. There is no progression from low level areas to medium level areas to high level areas, there is a motivation to be all over the world.

So I think that the game designers already addressed this 'problem' and appear to have a workable solution.

Saedu

Cross realm makes sense for the instanced arenas (and they say on the wiki they may fo this). Outside that I would avoid it.

At some point they will probably have to merge low pop servers into other servers (due to natural attrition). That may be a bit tricky since the servers will be different. Perhaps the best way is to merge a small server into a medium one and use the medium ones version for everyone. Those coming from the small pop one may need some sort of compensation to help offset the loss of investment in their prior world (and probably a few months advance notice to prepare).

Oceiris

grisu wrote: »

Ashes in it's sold word form seems like it chokes us by taking away opportunities to connect. No world chats, no 1click instant grouping dungeon tps from other servers so it goes really fast. It seems like it makes it harder to connect, and it's true to some extend.
The thing about all of this is that it MAKES us WANT to connect. You group up once and have a good time together? You MAKE SURE you add them to the friend list. You had some funny banter while traveling to your destination together? You MAKE SURE you add them to the friend list and have some good jokes later on again because you WANT to play with them again.

This so much. It sums up exactly my thoughts as well. In a way it forces you to make connections with those you've had good encounters with in hopes to have good encounters again in the future, vs viewing everyone you see and play with as disposable players you will most likely never see or interact with again.

Dygz

Shuiyn wrote: »

Although it is amazing with a world size of 600 ish kms, with server sizes 8-10,000 and a safe bet of 20-30% of people hanging out in cities at all times, it would render most of the world empty, i know a lot of games have failed because of this where it almost becomes a single player game as you never run into anyone in the open world.

is there anything in place to assist with this issue?

I don't understand what you mean by never running into people in the open world.
Cities are part of the open world and we know where other players live - in open world housing and in freeholds.
Which means we also know where to find people who tend to be online the same times we are.

Also, since nodes are dynamic and there are caravans and castle sieges, there will be plenty of opportunities to encounter other players in the open world.

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