Don't be scared of layering

WoW Classic WoW Classic General Discussion
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Layering isn’t meant to be a feature of classic WoW. It has been stated many times in interviews, Layering is just to get through the initial burst of players. It could last only a day or it could unfortunately be a week+ We will not know and they don’t know perfectly the amount of time on their end to guess. As a company they can’t professionally say exactly how long it will be.

The beta and stress tests allowed them to test their new technology. I believe they have a better estimate on how long they may need it but until the game is launched, they can not fully calculate the volume of stress on the servers. Maybe they will be just fine and they can remove it quick but its better safe than sorry.

If it happens to be longer than expected you can either level an alt when layering is removed or you can wait to play until you hear it is removed. Either way you will get your classic vanilla experience! :smiley:

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But if they can’t be scared of layering, they’ll run out of things to panic over, and if they can’t panic, they can’t feel important.

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It will be longer than this my friend…the steady stream of people rushing in to play classic and create new toons will last awhile. To think everyone is getting in and playing on day 1, especially with Blizzard’s history of launch debacles, would be naive. I’m sure people will be flooding in for weeks, much like a new game. Some people won’t get to play until the weekend, some people taking their time off the next weeks to avoid launch issues, some people just not playing until they think layering will be removed, but when it’s not, coming in anyway at some point, etc etc etc.

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This won’t be anywhere near as high as the initial few weeks though, and normal realm population management will handle it.

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We can hope!

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I stand by this comment I made:

Vanilla will grow, at least in the first year. But there will also be a big crash right after launch as all the “want to confirm I’m not missing something” players who enjoy Retail poke their head in then leave.

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More importantly I’m sure, if people run out of things to complain about then you’ll run out of things to smugly chastise them about.

Also nice false framing there with terms like scared and panic. Nobody is scared of it, we just don’t like or want it.

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I agree with you on this, I just feel like any launch you’ll see a massive push on launch, but also a steady stream of people that will require layering for at least a few weeks. I don’t think it’ll be gone in a day or a week like many people assume really because not everyone that wants to play is going to be playing on launch day, or even a week after that. Heck, people probably won’t have even heard of this before launch and come back.

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I’m terrified of layering, and no amount of “It’s not that bad posts” is ever going to change that. I’ve spent hours upon hours thinking about the subject, and I’ve experienced its implications in the stress tests. And it was awful. Not bad. No a little annoying. AWFUL.

The thing is I’m not 100% against it in some capacity. My problem is that, according to Ion, the layer caps aren’t done for server stability. It’s done for player convenience. And that’s applying Current WoW mentality to Classic. You’re catering to this ‘Go Go Go, must level as quickly and efficiently as possible’ philosophy. It sends a terrible message, and players will come to expect and rely on that design.

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Thing is, Blizzard isn’t hyping this. Yes, there’s streamers, but that’s all died back down now too. They aren’t emailing every old WoW player to get them to come back, they aren’t doing ad campaigns on websites or even TV.

The bulge at the front is going to be the currently subbed players, plus the hardcore devotees. After that, people will trickle back as old friends reach out to them, or they hear about the game coming back through word of mouth etc. All of those are manageable because they’re spread out over time, and normal realm management will handle it. If it grows, they add servers etc.

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No. It isn’t. And its not for stability. It’s done to ensure that people get a 3k realm experience, while shuffling all those temporary players through faster.

The biggest winner from Layering, is the real players who are actually going to be around for two years or more, being able to play on Day One. Layering is not catering to the tourists, its catering to the diehards.

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I think it’s going to be more than a trickle for a multitude of reasons including those I’ve said above, but I guess we’ll see :slight_smile:

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I wonder how many posters on the forums are on some sort of psychotropic medication, I bet the percentage is staggering. It is a temporary feature of a videogame, calm down.

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I’m new to this whole RCR thing. Did I do it right?

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It’s amazing how a often a temporary solution becomes permenant. Or how often we are just straight lied to. Like in the case of the punishment systems, where they said it was reviewed, trying to spin it as the system having human oversight. However, extensive player testing has proved that punishment is automated and humans don’t come into the equation until appealing.

So, excuse me for not trusting Blizzard when they’ve repeatedly made poor decisions, and said one thing to mislead us while doing another. They just don’t have the credibility for it anymore, they have to earn it back.

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The good news is you don’t have to play it if you’re upset about it.

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You are correct. I intend to give it a try and see if it’s bad or not. Maybe they’ll fix the really bad bugs with it before lauch and I’ll have a good time. If I don’t, I’ll just quit again like I did when they announced Worgens. I only came back because Classic gives me a wolf and panda-free experience.

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Im pretty sure layering wont be removed.

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The only reason I can see for NOT removing layering is if Classic just blows the doors off and becomes the default game.

And no matter how much a fan of vanilla I am, I don’t see this happening. And honestly, don’t want it happening.

Logically, though, even if Classic DOES go through the roof they’ll add more servers and STILL remove layering “at some point”.

As I’ve said before, too, it will take weeks for us to really meet enough interesting people for layering to become a problem. You log in and you’ll see - say - 50 people around you. The chances of you logging back in (with or without layering) six hours later and finding the same 50 people there - just ain’t happenin.

Granted, I don’t know exactly how layering works. I’ve paid very little attention to it. But - I would expect that friend lists work across layers, right? So if you meet someone you really like, can’t you talk to them through your friend list? Can’t you invite them to a group and play with them? I don’t really understand the Phobos and Deimos.

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I think your definition of diehard differs from mine. No amount of login queue or starter bottlenecks will keep diehards away, in my opinion. Just as I don’t think layering will keep diehards away. But it most certaintly was not implemented specifically to cater to diehards, again, in my opinion.

:cactus: