Yes Mark even commented on Twitter a couple of weeks ago that they have the ability to do dynamic spawns. He was doing a stream i think.
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I was on classic realm 3. I first logged in at around 5:40PM EST. I started as NE warrior.
At the start, it was super packed and I struggled to even find players who werent already in a group or groups that had extra room. After 8 minutes of only tagging 4 young thistle boards, i decided to skip balance of nature part 1 for now. Instead I did woodland protector and most people had no idea about the third grell spawn area which was very nice and i surprisingly had that all to myself. The first 2 spawn areas were completely packed.
I then started grinding on thistle boars and mangy nightsabers to just get some progression. After hitting lvl 3 I rotated back south and now found less packed spawns and could spin up a group for balance of nature part 1. The rest of the shadowglen area was pretty smooth sailing. I faced competition for spiders, but never had to wait very long to find a new mob to tag.
At around 6:20ish, the lag started and interacting with anything was pretty slow. At 7:00 I took a break and returned at 7:45. Again, it was fairly crowded but i really didnt face much competition and it was smooth sailing with no lag. I completed shadowglen at 1h25m when I can very reliably complete it at 45m.
Moving to Dolanaar, it was less packed than I expected. Timerlings didnt look crowded, but the spawns for seeds were definitely being competed on. For zenns bidding i faced no competition outside of the spawn areas around Zenn, which i never really bother with anyway. I was alone when doing ferocitas, twisted hatred, and was mostly alone for relics of awakening. At this point it was 9PM and winding down. Darkshore actually had 0 players when I arrived, while Loch had 65 and Westfall had 68, however teldrassil still had 120 players when I moved over to darkshore.
Overall, this felt WAY too empty. My 1-5 experience felt about what I expected and had no complaints besides the lag. But my 6-10 experience was as if i was playing on a very low pop server, and my 10+ experience was that I was the only player. Now I did start late and take a 40 minute break so my times are a bit off.
I played within the first 3 hours of the night plus some more. I picked a low pop server to start with and it wasn’t “as” crowded. When they were all shutdown to force people to one or two of the servers for a better test, it definitely was crowded. Definitely launch day of WoW experience at the starter zone, not being able to complete quests in a quick fashion, but the community was having fun with jokes. Only experienced lag once which delayed NPC/Loot interactions, but once a forced reboot happened on the server I never experienced it again.
I managed to get a head a little bit and go on to the next zone, definitely less crowded until an hour later when players caught up, then it was difficult to complete some of the kill count quests. Again met some people and had fun running around waiting for the spawns to happen.
Overall stable, and felt pretty nostalgic! I plan to continue playing for the full time frame of the test, would love to play beta!
Thanks for the opportunity to live a little bit of my late teen memories!
–Zurgash
Test 3 server. I got on asap and was able to get ahead of the wave. It seemed king of empty at first but when the server message for shut down of some servers happened it seemed like there was a lot more people in starter zones that felt more realistic for a release. People grouping up, or fighting for mobs, it felt very realistic.
I was doing an Orc Rogue so this was on valley of trials. I also later after level 10 went to the undead starter zone to look at that starter area and do the quests there and it also seemed after that like 4 hours still people bustling in and seemed realistic.
So overall at the very beginning it seemed lower before shutting down of servers but after that it felt great. I think a lot of people may have stopped after 6 or were just slow because when I got out of valley of trials I had very limited fighting over enemies to do by like an 80% cut or more which overall doesn’t sound bad because I mean there are two areas you can go to after valley of trials and others may be out exploring.
There was one point he lag was horrendous which I found was fine. It was a stress test and understandable. It went away at some point after a server restart I assume maybe more layers got added and it went away.
Realm 15, 0600 PDT.
I returned to play this AM. The starting zone, Deathknell, remains crowded but the competition for mobs is less pressured. I enjoyed the crowds and the tension as we all tried to mark quest mobs last night, but of course progress was slow. It felt proper for start up though.
This morning things are progressing well. There is still contention for mobs, but I progress well enough. Play is smooth. I have not experienced any of the stalls and sluggishness that some have mentioned.
When looting mobs, occasionally I have been getting doubles of the trash vendor loot. Happened frequently last night, I haven’t seen it happen today. I don’t recall if this was normal vanilla behavior or not.
I started on Realm 3 around 4:30 PM central time.
It was certainly crowded, but I wouldn’t say it was too crowded. When grouped, the starting quests were mostly smooth and as expected.
The crowd was less dense in the second zone, but still there. Groups were easy to find and tagging mobs while not in a group was somewhat difficult. I think that’s the sweet spot for Classic.
This may have had something to do with some pretty intense server lag that popped up at one point, but after a short time of playing the drop rate seemed to be totally borked for me while trying to collect Scorpid Worker Tails. I was in a full group and after about 20 minutes of killing Scorpids, my groupmates were all in the 6-8 of 10 range and I was at 0. VERY few of the group’s kills were dropping any lootable pieces at all for me, and the few that did drop yielded only non-quest items. After logging off for about an hour and then coming back, I finished the quest solo in about 5 minutes. Every Scorpid was dropping at least something with a solid 80% of them dropping the quest item. That hiccup was the only issue I had in my 4ish hours of play.
I played on Classic 12 last night from around 9 p.m. to midnight EST. Rolled a Human Warrior so I started in Northshire. In Northshire proper there were many other players around, to the point that quest mobs were hard to tag. It didn’t seem like the zone was overloaded to the point of any noticeable lag though. Client performance was fine even on ultra settings, combat felt smooth, and I didn’t notice any issues running around and doing things.
I will say that I don’t think the crowding is an issue as far as just playing the game. In fact I’d rather see it overrun. I liked that grouping up for quests became a thing really quickly and I was inviting or getting invites everywhere I quested. It’s also fine that striking out and just finding a spot to grind mobs for a while is a better alternative to following the early quests when it is crowded.
I was a bit surprised actually considering it this is an unrestricted stress test and that there were only two PvE realms up that I didn’t see more players. Those who were there were crowded within the pretty tiny area around the chapel, but once you left that immediate area I saw hardly anyone. Walked to Goldshire and Stormwind and rode the tram to Ironforge and saw barely anyone. From that standpoint the game world actually felt really empty, and based on streams I watched of the earlier stress tests I expected it to be much more overrun.
I guess some of this is the timing on a mid-week school / work night, and maybe awareness of the test is limited. But I had expected to see realms bursting at the seams given the level of interest in Classic that has been shown from prior streams of it and the population of the Classic reddit. I didn’t feel like it was nearly as packed as I would expect, and it definitely did not feel overloaded. I’m not sure if this is an artifact of how the layering caps were set, or something else, or if I just didn’t figure out where the crowds were gathering.
I’ll be interested to see if the world feels more alive tonight and Friday as more people become aware and as those who started Wednesday get to level up a bit.
EDIT: I also played for about an hour early morning, from around 6:30 to 7:30 a.m., still on Classic 12, and was able to finish up quests in Northshire and Goldshire without much waiting for spawns. I still was able to group up randomly with folks in the mine, which was nice.
Realm 3
For the first two hours there was lag issues with looting, turning in quests, and selling junk. Also disconnects when there were 100 people in the zone, maybe every 5-10 minutes. Questing was difficult without a group, but about what I expected for a launch day. I waited about an hour and tried again. After the initial rush there was maybe 20-25 people in the starting zone doing quests.
Realm 2
I decided to switch over to realm 2 since it was listed as low pop, the NE starting zone was around 100 people fighting over mobs, but I did not notice any loot, quest, or selling junk lag.
Overall I would say that what I experienced would be what I would expect for launch day. There will be an initial rush and it will be difficult to tag a mob, but the starting zones will die down in a few hours.
The only reason I would say it was “too crowded” was because of all of us trying to kill the same 30 mobs for 3 quests but at the same time that was part of the fun of it.
Realm 12 - seemed okay for appearance sake, never made it out of the starting area due to lack of mobs to kill - hehe, lots of people in the starting area. Actually, I never killed a single mob to get my quests done, never got a chance to do it. Oh well, this is how it was in Classic to start with.
I was on realm 13 when the test started. It wasn’t too crowded, but there were enough people around that I didn’t feel alone in the world. It was about as perfect as it could get in regards to a massive MMO launch.
I moved to realm 15 after the low pop servers were shut down. At first the Tauren starting area didn’t seem much different from realm 13. I felt that there were others always close by killing the same mobs, but I didn’t feel that I was having to compete for mobs as there were enough to go around. Then I made my way to do the Bristleback belt quest and I experience what many others have already stated. Tons of players around with few mobs spawning, and getting tagged as soon as they spawned.
As I said in another post, having been in all the stress tests up to and including this one, this one felt the most balanced and stable. I was playing on Classic Realm 3 (PVP) as a tauren druid, thus in Mulgore, and by the same name as my main on retail, Feralsoul. This happened last night around 1800 Mountain Standard Time, wherein I played until around 2130.
My feedback is that the amount of layering was about as perfect as it could be for that zone and there was a good balance of interaction - constantly seeing players and grouping with them - and creature population. There were enough mobs to kill for quests but plenty of other people leveling as well through the starting area of Camp Narache. It never felt like there were too many or too few players. If anything the threshold for number of players could have been increased very slightly and not upset anything for the most part.
By the time I reached Bloodhoof Village the majority of the population had been cut in half but there were still no shortage of players visibly out in the world doing quests. I grouped with two other druids and we went around through the gnoll camps and harpy nests, killed plenty of wolves, cougars, tallstriders, and swoops - poor drops led to lots of grinding but this is actually a good test I think for server balance because we were never short of quest mobs to kill - and still kept seeing other little ones or twos of players running around. While this was lower than both previous stress tests I had been in the balance was better, because I wasn’t standing around waiting for mobs to respawn. There was plenty of activity for groups and in General so the world was alive there too. Owing to this, I believe the second zone, at least for Mulgore in and around Bloodhoof Village could also marginally benefit from an increase in population.
Hypothetically, if things were left exactly as is, that tomorrow was launch and this is how it played, it would still be playable and fun. So that tells me that with even more people going to be present, this is probably close to right and really just needs, maybe, a ten percent or so increase at least for the tauren based on Classic Realm 3 (PVP).
Realm 15, 6PM Pacific.
Starting zone (Valley of Trials) was not too crowded for a launch day experience. Second zone was a mix. It felt a little empty (but not TOO empty) except for the quest areas, which felt crowded (but not TOO crowded).
In general, I felt it was crowded based on the availability of mobs, and I felt it was empty based on number of visible characters around me.
played from the time the servers went online till just now. both realms had a few too many people lol but after awhile it evened out on the second realm. enjoyed it. only thing i dont like about it is you know you only have so many hours to level to 15 so you feel pressured. i mean, gotta try dm before the test is over. ![:smiley:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/smiley.png?v=6" ":smiley:")
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p.s. who sells the enchanter recipe for minor wizard oil? not in the merchants inventory
I started playing on PvP realm 3 around 8:30pm CST as a human warrior. Northshire abbey had at least 10 or so players competing on a given quest, but the mob respawns felt sufficient to support that level of competition. However, when I left northshire, I couldn’t find enough boars to kill near stonefield farm and the other one to complete the quest, so I left for dun morogh.
The amount of players felt significantly lower, and more importantly, the respawns were abysmal, particularly the animals around kharanos and definitely north and surrounding brenwell village. Frequently the boars were the only mobs available, and the bears and snow leopards spawned simultaneously.
I’m reasonably sure that something is happening causing an entire area of mobs to respawn at the same time but remain vacant until that point. The same happened at the leper gnomes north of brenwell - no mobs were available and then the entire camp respawned simultaneously.
The main takeaways were that northshire felt very good on player density and maybe marginally slow on mob spawns, goldshire felt awful both on player density (too few) and mob respawns (too slow or non existent, particularly boars), and brenwell felt passable on player density and horrendous on mob respawns, typically with entire areas cleaned of mobs but then having the mobs all spawn simultaneously.
I know, I’m just saying it frickin sucks.
Which means I’m definitely not playing this crap at launch. There won’t be a boar in sight.
It felt like a launch to me. I like seeing lots of people around and competition for mobs is expected.
On PvP 3, I had around 50 ms throughout most of my testing time (I usually have about 15 on retail). There were a few spots of server lag (looting, etc.).
It did get hectic in Fargodeep Mine, and took a long time to complete the quests. That said, it’s what I would expect if it were a launch day. I probably would have moved on (I don’t mind grinding mobs, etc.), but I only needed one more gold dust… lol. That last one… yeah. Jasperlode was another story. Not many around and the whole place ended up respawning on me, lol.
Eastvale area seemed good. Not so much competition that you were at a standstill, but still plenty of people around. People were grouping up. It felt good.
Real Hogger! Yay. That area was pretty busy, but when I went to Westfall, it felt dead. I only got to Sentinel Hill to talk to Gryan before I had to log (last night, around 10 PST), but there was nobody around. Unexpected since I had just seen many people working their way there and I know I was a bit behind a few people that should have been there too (felt like CRZ).
If I DC’d (happened a couple times) my settings would reset. Sometimes, I didn’t see names over mobs.
Overall, it felt good. I made it to level 10 before I had to log off. Plan to test WSG today and real Moonbrook, hopefully. I do want to see how other toons feel and other servers feel, if I have time.
I just logged on for a second on realm 3 (to make sure I could) and Trade District was empty.
Sitting around not being able to complete quest because there are too many people in starting zone could turn alot of people off.
Tho im sure they are taking that into account, unlike what you seem to think.
They are not just stress testing the servers im sure.
Tons of test they can be doing.
DISCLAIMER: Due to my sleep and work schedule, I was unable to participate in the main stress test window. However I logged in once I was able to and I hope my feedback is helpful nonetheless.
I started up Classic only by 1:30 AM local time EST. In-game clock said 10:30 pm. I used the first character to pop up for trolls, a warrior, and used a randomly generated name. I had no issues whatsoever with character creation or logging into the world. I chose Realm 12, PVE.
Character was “Dastinoo,” troll warrior.
I immediately did “/who” and got exactly 50 results for “Durotar.” All subsequent checks gave me exactly 50 people; I assume this was the layer size at this time. There were perhaps a dozen players visible around me upon starting, right near the start area, either also standing there or passing through while turning in quests, buying/selling, or training.
Latency was 23 MS at first, seemed to stay right around there most of my next 45 minutes.
My first impression: some people around but didn’t feel crowded. There was certainly some competition for kills in terms of boars and scorpids. I could see it being frustrating for character types that don’t have a quick distance attack; as it was, I found a high vantage point, and would leap down and use a thrown weapon as soon as I saw a boar or scorpid pop up. As such I needed a little patience for respawns but had no real trouble scoring my kills and collecting quest items. I didn’t feel an immediate need to party up to get kills.
Had to log out after 45 minutes. Logged back in at 4:00 EST, 1:00 PST. Still a good number of players about, still at 50 when I typed /who, but felt like there was less competition for most kills at this point.
On the other hand, a good 15 players showed up simultaneously inside the cave to kill the heretic for his medallion. 5 of us partied up. Another party got him the first time he respawned, we got him the second… after spending a little time dancing there. ![:stuck_out_tongue:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/stuck_out_tongue.png?v=6" ":stuck_out_tongue:")
I experienced no lag on selling items or looting, or on interacting with NPCs. However, as soon as I left the Valley of Trials, a player near me started “moonwalking,” the two wolf riders who were nearby stopped walking, and after a minute or more everything suddenly caught up and started reacting again. My latency had shot up to 1262MS. This may have been because I was relying on shoddy hotel Wi-Fi, but the timing upon leaving the Valley seemed suspicious. Within 5-10 minutes when I looked again the latency had gone back down to 23MS.
Logged out at level 7 in Razor Hill’s Inn. The area around Sen’Jin village seemed completely empty of players at this point. It was 5:00 AM EST, 2:00 PST.
Logged into server… 3 I believe, PVP realm, around 5:45 AM local (2:45AM PST). Only 37 players online in the same Valley of Trials starter area when I typed /Who, even though on the realm list the realm was listed as “Full…?”
On the other hand as soon as I appeared in front of the first Questgiver NPC, I witnessed a player running by while phasing out of sight in front of me. I assume I must have been shifted to another layer as soon as I entered the realm.
In this situation, while there were some players around, I did not have any feeling of competition for kills. To be fair though, I was probably far behind most players that started earlier, and it was basically the dead of night for most of North America.
All in all, I felt it could have been more crowded, but my first overall impression was a positive one; some competition for kills, but nothing frustrating. Again, a character without a quick ranged attack to tag targets would likely be more frustrated. Will have to try that out.