Server selection at release?

More of a question for Intrepid staff, but curious how others do it also. A group of 3 of us have pretty much played most MMORPGs the first day of release since EQ in 1999, and the question has always been on day 1, which server do we make our chars on at initial logon? How can Intrepid help 'newbies' figure out which server may fit their playstyle/goals?

Some logon screen information will share info on populations such as 'high', 'med', 'low', or 'roleplaying server', etc... Is Intrepid thinking of any other additional info to help guide new players on a server which may be more appropriate for them?

So for my small team, we usually pick races/classes in advance, trying to plan our trinity group coverage, and then when we can finally get to a login screen after first day crash/wait issues, the first person logs in and tells the other guys which server he was able to login on, and the others go to that server for login. Sometimes the server is great, other times we wish we were on another server, but after time investment it is too late to change unless server transfers are offered, which is rare.

Can anything be done to make initial server choice more successful rather than guessing or waiting for first open server?

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Ludullu

There're no different types of servers for Ashes https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Server_types

And afaik it's industry standard to have "low/mid/high population" indicators during the server choice stage of login.

The only way for you to "pick the right server" is to get involved with the game's community before release and see what's their plan for servers is. There'll be community-designated RP servers, streamer servers "pve" servers and "pvp" servers, but Intrepid have nothing to do with that.

unknownsystemerror

All server types are the same. One in each of the 3 initial regions of NA, EU, and OCE/SEA will be labeled Headstart, because those will have been turned on 48 hours before the others, but the node system will have been disabled during that time. There will be a way to register your guild on a specific server and "lock in" availability for you and your friends. Details have yet to be released.

Dygz

I don't think much can be done if you're jumping in immediately.
Might be able to attempt something like designated RP server based on Alpha and Beta players, but...
That's no guarantee brand new players won't pile on to that server oblivious to the plan for it to be a designated RP server.

Best you can do is try to pick a server based on the people you played with before launch... and hope it works as well as you intended.

Depraved

i hope we get to see all the server pings before making a choice ;3

unknownsystemerror

@Dygz Player designated RP servers true. But Intrepid will have no official difference or labeling beyond the HS 3 that have been talked about.

Dygz

Thanks for making that more clear than my poor attempt to do so.

Veeshan

NiKr wrote: »

There're no different types of servers for Ashes https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Server_types

And afaik it's industry standard to have "low/mid/high population" indicators during the server choice stage of login.

The only way for you to "pick the right server" is to get involved with the game's community before release and see what's their plan for servers is. There'll be community-designated RP servers, streamer servers "pve" servers and "pvp" servers, but Intrepid have nothing to do with that.

Low/Mid/High? you mean Full/Full/Full/Full all with queues :P

Veeshan

unknownsystemerror wrote: »

All server types are the same. One in each of the 3 initial regions of NA, EU, and OCE/SEA will be labeled Headstart, because those will have been turned on 48 hours before the others, but the node system will have been disabled during that time. There will be a way to register your guild on a specific server and "lock in" availability for you and your friends. Details have yet to be released.

i do wonder how much one can progress with only R0 nodes since the world levels up as nodes level up maybe there onlye be lvl 20 mobs max in the world for first 48 hrs till nodes get turned on :P lol

Sweatycup

There is currently no known way to tell and this is the most annoying thing to me for this game. I plan to just blindly play the game alone for a few months to a year while i get a feel for said, *Crosses fingers* server and if it does not fit with my ideals try another server. Yes i may temporarily fall in through many guilds but nothing serious to get a feel for the server. Unfortunately Steven does not want to allow server transfers if/till later down the road because he thinks housing and property you own will interfere make it difficult.. you want to transfer, screw those guys maybe just reimburse them or don't at all. So if you are like me realize you may need to abandon your character you spent lots of time on and dump it for a new server. I have suggested they release or make available server stats with different statistics to help people choose a tad bit better. This won't help you when the servers startup but later down the line when data builds. We can argue that you should all do research about different guilds but until you play with a guild as a group it is all he say she say nothing more. As well we cannot know how many/what the servers will be called yet so hard to say who will end up where. Only option right this instance is just try to get in with multiple guilds and keep an eye on them. Not the best way about a thing i suppose but what other choices do you have?

Kilion

That is probably one of my greatest concern as well. Ultimately much of the fun we will have with Ashes will depend on the server population. However, with servers all being the same in type there is no real preselection to be done as of now.

My guess: A lot of the things regarding server information etc will come down to the experiences of players and the data + feedback collected by Intrepid during Alpha 2, though obviously there are some things they could definitely do to make the launch be smoother.

But before that I think seems worth pointing out that we as player should try and organize ourselves

My hopes (NOT expectations) would be:
- A list of servers in the region
- the possibility to register ones account for one server only a week prior to launch ("statement of intent" so to speak)
- the opportunity to upload a character previosly designed in the character creator
- for those who have purchased this option: Name reservation
- An indicator for how full a server is, like a bar or 10 crystals that light up one by one as registration numbers approaches the 50'000 number

With that being said and to my point of players organizing themselves before launch, I think it would be enough to know how many servers there are per region. I could get my guild together and we could just say that at launch we pick the 5th server in the list and just run with that.
Ultimately I think Ashes will see a fait amount of server migration as players will try to get on servers where the broader sentiment is more aligned with theirs than on the server they originally picked. In that way, we will automatically get more PvE-ish or more PvP-ish servers to some degree. Servers will probably get their own reputation after some time of that I am sure. For me personally all that really matters is to avoid servers with big streamers and their zergs.

Vaknar

NiKr wrote: »

There're no different types of servers for Ashes https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Server_types

And afaik it's industry standard to have "low/mid/high population" indicators during the server choice stage of login.

The only way for you to "pick the right server" is to get involved with the game's community before release and see what's their plan for servers is. There'll be community-designated RP servers, streamer servers "pve" servers and "pvp" servers, but Intrepid have nothing to do with that.

Nice wiki drop 😏👍

darthaden

Veeshan wrote: »

NiKr wrote: »

There're no different types of servers for Ashes https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Server_types

And afaik it's industry standard to have "low/mid/high population" indicators during the server choice stage of login.

The only way for you to "pick the right server" is to get involved with the game's community before release and see what's their plan for servers is. There'll be community-designated RP servers, streamer servers "pve" servers and "pvp" servers, but Intrepid have nothing to do with that.

Low/Mid/High? you mean Full/Full/Full/Full all with queues :P

My hope is they make backup servers for each full server at launch. For example sake we'll just call a server Vera. When Vera gets full open up a server called Vera 2. After the initial launch rush dies down in like a week merge Vera 2 with Vera. This way queue times aren't ridiculously long but you still have guaranteed access at some point to your chosen server. Bonus points if they could make Vera 2 node progression based on the activity of Vera so the world will recognizable when transferring servers.

Ludullu

darthaden wrote: »

Bonus points if they could make Vera 2 node progression based on the activity of Vera so the world will recognizable when transferring servers.

So an entire server-worth of people would have 0 agency over what is happening around them in the game for, potentially, weeks? Seems like a swell idea

darthaden

NiKr wrote: »

darthaden wrote: »

Bonus points if they could make Vera 2 node progression based on the activity of Vera so the world will recognizable when transferring servers.

So an entire server-worth of people would have 0 agency over what is happening around them in the game for, potentially, weeks? Seems like a swell idea

Ideal no, but it beats the hell out of waiting in queue 12 hours on launch and what would be the point of building a temporary overflow server up?

Ludullu

darthaden wrote: »

Ideal no, but it beats the hell out of waiting in queue 12 hours on launch and what would be the point of building a temporary overflow server up?

I queues are 12h, then there's more than one server-worth of people waiting, which means you'd need more than 1 backup server, which means you're fucking over even more people.

This would ruin the first impressions for majority of players. The game is advertised as "influence the world with your actions", yet majority of people won't be able to do it for, at least, a week of their initial gameplay.

I'd simply just let the queues die out on their own with time. Those who're interested in the game itself and not the rat race of the release will just come back later when it's easier to login. Those want the rat race would either stick it out and prevail or would leave the game, just as they would've left it after the first part of the race was over.

My "ideally" idea has been "siege servers after a short tutorial". But I'm not sure how hard that would be on Intrepid's servers. What I had in mind is spinning up as many "the whole server is just the siege location" mini-instances as needed and have players just have fun while they wait in the queue. These sieges would just be running as a sort of lobby, with people constantly coming in and out.

In other words, have the "siege mode" that Steven promised years ago, but for the queue people. They'll have something fun to do while they wait, they'll get to know the game in the process and immediately experience the best pvp content in the game, just in its basic form (cause I'm not suggesting giving people max lvls or any of that shit).

If this is doable w/o absolutely crashing the servers - I think this is one of the best, if not the best, ideas for the release queue issues.

Jamation

I have to agree with Nik that creating a temporary server is not a viable solution. You ask what the point of building up a temporary server would be, but that's the problem - there isn't one. However, players actions naturally build up their surroundings. Killing mobs gives a node experience to level up, same with gathering or other day to day actions. I would rather wait in a 12 hour queue than realize that everything I did meant nothing. You wouldn't be able to claim land, vote for the mayor, or do anything world related. You literally would only be leveling your character because even items and currency would come into question on whether they should be transfered.

A lot of games, which I can deal with since it's temporary, usually just make servers "instanced" instead of creating a whole new server. It reduces congestion in areas while still keeping everyone on the same world. Once natural scattering and drop off happens the instance mechanic is dropped and everyone can see each other without work arounds.

But I 100% would rather wait in long queues at launch/expansion days than have to deal with server merges or underpopulated servers. There's nothing that kills the vibe of a game faster than it appearing to be dying, which merges and low player count tend to do.

I mean the best solution would just be to not have queues

Ludullu

Jamation wrote: »

You wouldn't be able to claim land, vote for the mayor, or do anything world related. You literally would only be leveling your character because even items and currency would come into question on whether they should be transfered.

Oh, I also forgot to mention. What about all the items that will be farmed on both sides. The game is about limited supply of mats, because it creates soft friction between players.

Having 1+ additional servers with additional mats would destroy the economy of the main server once people get merged into it.

So, just more issues with that idea.

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