The games flopping has nothing to do with layering at the start of the expansion. I’m not a fan of layering but everyone makes it seem like the world will end if it makes it in game. Its won’t. Its not optimal but its much better than the alternative. Which comes to the point: What do you think the alternative is to layering? Because if you think people will quit over layering, I promise people will also quit if they can’t kill anything for hours or even quest for hours or a day.
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The world won’t end but BfA is looking pretty dead, it’s not a stretch to think that poor decisions could kill WoW twice
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layering but you pick your layer once and can never hop and dead layers get merged is objectively better
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Poor decisions absolutely can. Layering or sharding at the start zones or for a week or two will NOT destroy the game. It will ensure the massive amount of people logging on at once in the same area can actually do something.
People aren’t going to quit because of layering, some just are not going to play until it is turned off. Some solutions
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Shard the non-contested zones to deal with the rush.
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Lock the layers until they merge them after the first few weeks.
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This was one of the ideas that I saw and liked, actually. So fair point.
I agree - the problem is it extends beyond the starting zones.
Layer hopping for nodes is less effective than you think and you need to keep supply up with demand if you want to keep the economy stable, to have 3 layers you have 3x as many people needing mats and 3x as many people competing over nodes on various layers.
Yes there will be different numbers of people on different layers but you just have someone ready to invite you to a new layer(you know they are a different layer and are willing to invite you at the drop of a hat) whenever you get ganked, then have to sit in that group and hope the new layer has a more favorable faction balance.
Dont take a group invite from someone in chat when in an area you just cleared or be ready for things coming back, its pretty obvious when you are jumping layers this is your own fault.
Ok. so layer hopping.
Agree
Now let’s get some things in to fix layer hopping.
Don’t toss the baby out with the bath water.
Except that by their nature layers need to be dynamic, otherwise you just end up with dead layers. Or worse a bunch of layers with say 25% capacity.
Right - then you merge them as needed.
Well if its only for the first week or two then a dead layer shouldn’t be a huge deal
So all the downsides of layering with none of the upsides, server merges are more disruptive and it is clear most people really do not like server mergers.
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The upside is that you play with and against the same pool of people during the layering phase.
Believe it or not I agree with you.
But number 2 needs a way for friends and guildmates to get on the same layer somehow. Only in the city? A debuff? If they can’t be on the same layer that will be a forum nightmare.
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Agree - at the character creation, you get to choose your layer. Guild, player names, and AH are shared across all layers until they merge.
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heh…I just logged into my server. Things are quite hopping there. I see lots of people running around. As for something being “dead”, BFA is a lively corpse.
You see!! I COMPLETELY agree with this!!!
I do!! ![:slight_smile:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/slight_smile.png?v=6" ":slight_smile:")
They’ve explained this repeatedly and, if you watch the videos, the developers’ faces really give a lot of what their expectations are.
For example, the last interview I watched on this they were explaining they would rather not have layers but they know players are not going to sit in queues for hours or even minutes. They’re right, you can read the forums here and you know that you wouldn’t personally do it every day either.
The second part they brought up was that layering isn’t just for the tourists. Yes, on launch, AQ, Naxx opening, etc. they expect a flood of looky-loos but the really big part of the “problem” is the player base they anticipate that will stay.
Think about it, you already know it and are probably part of it, but so many people are excited that not an insignificant number are going to actually take vacation time off from work to get ahead of the pack and get into the game as deeply as they can before going back to work and getting back on a “regular” play schedule. In the interview, the devs used players who are on Sunday through Saturday will eventually settle into their T/Th or M/W and some on the weekend patterns. Some people can play for 80 hours and some for 20 and some for much less. They have over a decade of player data telling them about this normal leveling off of players (even if the numbers stay the same, we’re discussing the simultaneous hammering of login servers, world servers, and then zone congestion). Then you add in the tourist phenomenon and it becomes very clear they see this as a reality and not a doomandgloom scenario.
In fact, the interview flat out asked them what they were going to do when the server pops eventually thin out so small that layering isn’t an issue (or that it creates its own issue) and the devs laughed. They laughed in a way that indicated that they hadn’t really thought about that as a likely possibility and also that the idea was preposterous anyway. Then the dev said, “that’s not going to happen.” and then reiterated that statement more forcefully (“come on, it’s really not going to happen…you know and we know the fans aren’t going to go away” kinda comment).
My interpretation is that no matter what else is true, the devs behind this aren’t anticipating anything close to failure or lackluster take-up by the community.
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Easy, treat the layers like servers, you pick it and are locked to it until it’s merged, like any server your friends can only play with you if they pick Layer #6 on Akama for exemple
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