Title: Only One Server for Us/Europe?

Good evening,

I wanted to share my thoughts on tonight's announcement about having just one server for the US and one for Europe. Let’s be clear: this will not be enough, even if you have doubled the capacity. The zones themselves haven’t been expanded, and such a large population will inevitably lead to crashes, long queues, and an unplayable experience due to overpopulation. A second server will likely need to be opened later in the evening, but by then, the damage will already be done.

I’ve seen a company handle this situation before – Amazon, to name names – and it ended in disaster. This kind of approach splits guilds: some players will want to switch servers to avoid the chaos and play properly, while others will refuse to move, creating unnecessary tension and division.

Please, I urge you to start with at least two servers from the beginning to avoid frustrating your players and customers.

Thank you for your understanding.

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FreeLunchFelon

People are scared of competition?

Chuck Zitto

^ I was so excited about tomarrow and I literly dont even want to log in now. Im just gonna wait for the cluster F to finish and atleast one or more servers to come out. Such an awful move.

onewingedangelo1

FreeLunchFelon wrote: »

People are scared of competition?

It's got nothing to do with that. The physical game world is too small for that many people. Look at the launch of Once Human. They did the same thing. Creating new servers once existing ones filled up. All it did was segment friend groups and guilds and create ghost towns.

Phase two's main focus is node progression and this will harm the server more than help it. This whole thing just seems like they didn't get the people participating in the pop up tests these last three days and are using the 'launch' of phase two to get the data they need.

All we can do now is hope that they get their data and then reset all servers to a fresh wipe status so we can test node progression properly.

Imanek

Not necessarily.

But keep in mind that you're going from a growing population spread across 4 servers to just one, with the same number of starting zones. The result? Struggles in open dungeons, difficulties farming resources, and overcrowding in every single activity.

I can understand that, in the long run, with the size of the servers, we might end up with 1 or 2 mega-servers and a more dispersed population. But right now? It’s way too soon.

The servers were fairly balanced: a PvP-focused project on Lotheria, calmer servers elsewhere... Closing two servers and dividing the remaining population could have been a reasonable compromise. But now, what are we going to get? Chaos! And yes, I know, some people love that. The same zerg guilds that destroy servers before leaving and letting the games die behind them.

And I’ll say it now: they’ll realize the problems this will cause and end up reopening a second server in a panic. The result? It will hurt guilds that have prepared themselves and split the community, just like Amazon Game Studios’ disastrous management. Honestly, I wouldn’t even be surprised if the person behind this idea came from their staff...

I’ll end with this:
For people who work and have real-life obligations, maybe they’re looking for something other than constant competition. They just want to play a game to relax. But apparently, that concept seems hard to grasp—for some developers and some players alike.

Azherae

Oh yay, netcode tests from East to West coast US.

For some people, technically EU to West Coast.

I'm only being slightly sarcastic here.

If possible I'd like to know where exactly the server is, but I understand if they don't want to be clear about it, so I'll just have someone do the trace if necessary (I doubt it, it's Cloudflare after all).

zintair

I don’t personally think this is the best idea. I can’t speak for EU but there should at least be two US servers. Can’t test if there is lag and crashes and rubberbanding.

Imnotkio

They clearly have information and objectives that we are not privy to. Let them cook. Let them make mistakes, let them learn. Intrepid should never make or revert decisions based on the uninformed public outrage

bloodprophet

Imanek wrote: »

Good evening,

I wanted to share my thoughts on tonight's announcement about having just one server for the US and one for Europe. Let’s be clear: this will not be enough, even if you have doubled the capacity. The zones themselves haven’t been expanded, and such a large population will inevitably lead to crashes, long queues, and an unplayable experience due to overpopulation. A second server will likely need to be opened later in the evening, but by then, the damage will already be done.

I’ve seen a company handle this situation before – Amazon, to name names – and it ended in disaster. This kind of approach splits guilds: some players will want to switch servers to avoid the chaos and play properly, while others will refuse to move, creating unnecessary tension and division.

Please, I urge you to start with at least two servers from the beginning to avoid frustrating your players and customers.

Thank you for your understanding.

How many people are projected to log in on server launch tomorrow?

Harlow

For new players starting tomorrow, this will be a bad first impression. I don't understand how lessons learned by other game studios pulling this stunt just seem to be memory-holed.

Veeshan

How long will i have to wait before the inevitability of the 2nd US server launching :P

Even if there no queues then you lhave the issue of 0 mob spots and no resources on the map :P
there a cap on the node citizens too of 300 last i looked and only 8 nodes so are most people not even gonna be a citizen? :P 64 freeholds (Maybe a bit more if dessert freeholds get added too) too and 6K+ people

bloodprophet

Isn't this coming in tomorrow?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdav0as54mU

Steapper

This decision of starting with only one US and one EU server raises many concerns.

First, there is only one start zone, and it will be obviously overcrowded. This problem won't be solved by the server meshing technology. It will be difficult for the players to find mobs, especially named mobs, and to complete quests. This will have a very negative impact on those players joining Vera for the very first time.

Second, if the server is full, people will have to wait for quite a long time before they can join their friends. May be the decision will be made to open a second server, but then some guild members will have already started to play on one server while the others will join the new one... what a mess. This is of course a huge source of frustration.

Many players willing to test the crafting system will also have a lot of difficulties finding the raw materials they need for their craft. They will be complaining about the resource nodes not spawning fast enough, and they won't have any other choice but to just stop crafting.

I'm not sure to understand why such a decision was made. But the risks are high that we have a very bad experience joining Vera.

Veeshan

I feel there trying to make all nodes hit citizen cap so they can see how fast thing progress with a full node of citizen since to many people complaining bout things requiring so much resources.

However that being said with current resource respawn times there gonna be no node to harvest due to perma harvested by everyone in such a small area (Also desert currently are very void of matierals there some but not many however i do feel we havant gotten the P2 desert yet :P)

I feel there to many people for 1 server though even with the player cap increase but maybe they know something we dont :P

CROW3

Hm… I think this is the difference in mindset between testing and playing. When you’re testing, realize that the conditions being tested may not be the ideal conditions that will be played. However, without testing the extremes, how do you expect Intrepid to calibrate the ideal?

So log in and embrace what happens, and provide as much feedback as you can. By testing over this period, you’re helping make the game at launch that much better.

MayhemTx

Agree with a couple peeps here; Even if the servers hold up, too damn crowded, not enough resources or mob spawns - Guessing day one will be such a cluster F unless this magic new server has way way more than seen in testing to date. Guessing that most will just end up waiting for a new server after cluster and being pissed for taking a day off of work for this. Who's the PM that did this risk assessments?

Hope I'm wrong; betting I'm right

lukedawuke

Imanek wrote: »

I’ll end with this:
For people who work and have real-life obligations, maybe they’re looking for something other than constant competition. They just want to play a game to relax. But apparently, that concept seems hard to grasp—for some developers and some players alike.

maybe those people need to accept there are games they cant play

Nerror

From a testing enjoyment perspective, as a player, I really don't like this 1 server thing.

From Intrepid's point of view, I kinda get it. They need to stress not just the servers and netcode and all that, but also the land management system and access to materials and all the social systems, etc.

What we saw in A1 was a huge drop-off in active players after a month, resulting in dead servers. We'll get a big drop-off in A2 as well, I am sure, once people have a max level character and they have experienced most of the current content in P2 they have access to.

I don't think overcrowding the server at P2 launch will alleviate this though. It'll just increase the amount and speed with which people will stop testing/playing, even if new content is regularly added every 6 weeks. If people get frustrated with overcrowding and a feeling of constant struggle to get xp/loot/materials in the first few days, they'll just stop.

Torke

je trouve dommage le serveur unique,
on va avoir du mal à faire des tests correctement, beaucoup d'Alpha testeur vont lâcher le jeu alors qu'ils auraient pu aider à l'avancement des tests, c'est dommage les playeurs toxique vont s'en mettre à cœur joie, on verra la P3.....

Imanek

Nerror wrote: »

What we saw in A1 was a huge drop-off in active players after a month, resulting in dead servers. We'll get a big drop-off in A2 as well, I am sure, once people have a max level character and they have experienced most of the current content in P2 they have access to.

Let’s not forget an important point: the servers started emptying a month in advance for a reason. During a Friday livestream, the wipe scheduled for December 20 was announced. What was left? Three weekends, meaning six days of gameplay, plus a free week.

With that ending in sight, three-quarters of the players decided to stop playing. On top of that, the release of two highly anticipated games, Po2 and Delta Force, didn’t help maintain a stable population on any server. But that doesn’t mean the game will be packed tonight.

To address others: I don’t need to be a developer to see the situation. Just look at guild recruitment, and you’ll notice the large number of massive guilds participating in the game’s alpha. I also experienced the release of the Aeterna server. Before the wipe, the server was packed, with players everywhere and hardly any space to play. Now, you’re taking the same map and multiplying the population by 5. The result? No chance of enjoying the game. It’s pure logic and math. Where do you plan to put 10,000 players in Riverlands, with nodes limited to 300 citizens if I understood correctly?

As for the desert zones, they’re barely out and still under development, with adjustments and camp additions underway. They’re simply not ready to handle a large crowd of players.

So yes, I’m complaining because I love Ashes of Creation. And when they make bad decisions—ones others have made before them—I’m going to speak up. And I’m telling you now: you’re making a big mistake. Be careful! I guarantee we’ll see a second server launched in a rush this weekend, which will fracture the guilds that have been organizing for weeks to create a world that reflects their vision.

Nerror

Imanek wrote: »

Nerror wrote: »

What we saw in A1 was a huge drop-off in active players after a month, resulting in dead servers. We'll get a big drop-off in A2 as well, I am sure, once people have a max level character and they have experienced most of the current content in P2 they have access to.

Let’s not forget an important point: the servers started emptying a month in advance for a reason. During a Friday livestream, the wipe scheduled for December 20 was announced. What was left? Three weekends, meaning six days of gameplay, plus a free week.

I actually mean A1, as in back in 2021. The drop-off happened long before the end of the test back then.

Anyway, the point still stands and I agree mostly. I don't think it's a good move on their part.

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