FRESH Classic Server Launch with No Transfers! No Layering! and a Population Cap!

[Feramynd-moon-guard]

@Kaivax

New Realms

Another solution would be to open new realms. Nowadays, a World of Warcraft realm isn’t limited by hardware as it would have been in the past. We could open one or five or ten new realms in each region if we believed that players would move to them from the overpopulated realms. However, the data we have suggests that wouldn’t happen.

In part, that’s because there’s sufficient space on the currently existing realms for all of the players who want to play. The social bonds that players make in game causes them to stick with the realm they’re on. We don’t believe that making more realms available would change that.

In light of the many concerns facing the WoW community at large I though it a good idea to open a thread for discussion concerning:
Server Overpopulation, Layering Exploits, Faction Imbalance (on PvP servers) even TBC Launch concerns *if they go that route.

NEW REALMS
Many players (even max lvl 60 geared players) I think would be interested in a hand full of FRESH Classic server launches. HOW should something like this be done? Some things I think that could be implemented with out much time or money investment from Bliz is to:

1. Set a hard cap maximum for that server and do not ‘expand it’ for popularity

2. NEVER allow transfers. (ESPECIALLY never unregulated mass free transfers)

3. Have a schedule for content release with specific dates (customize this for options; slow release (Naxx in 2 years) vs fast pace content release (Naxx in 1 year)) The more casual gamers with less time I think will appreciate this as an option.

4. No Layering (if you must layer for the first 36 hours have max of 2 layers and exponential increase cool downs between layer hops)

5. Set in Stone “this server will not be going through the TBC portal” vs “this* server will be progressing into a TBC server (after Naxx Content release)”

6. Faction specific que times for PvP server balance (avoid 99% servers assuming the ‘ideal’ is no worse than 40/60 % split as ‘balanced’)

I could list more ideas but for the sake of simplicity I’ll stop there.

Many have a ‘love hate’ relationship with Blizzard and even Wow in general but I do want to thank the developers for such an incredible game and for all the effort they put into making this a great flash back to the past experience. We are going through some ‘growing pains’ as a community and I appreciate that the higher ups in Activision are listening to the player base. The FRESH server launch idea is not the end all but it is a chance to offer the player base a bit of meat.

I think this will go a long way in showing empathy that mass server population transfers as a method of last resort may not have been the best solution to our ‘crowded server’ problem. Servers should grow organically with as little intervention from developers as possible; and I think that setting up solid rules BEFORE people invest time money effort blood sweat and tears into building an online home is the BEST way to establish long term synergy between Blizzard and their die hard player base.

Thank you for your consideration,
Fera

*Assuming the release of TBC
(We will have to deal with this problem anyway including ‘ghost town servers’ if large populations leave Classic for TBC. Better to deal with this NOW while we’re fixing the server population concerns. Be Proactive and not Reactive)

[Infernie-earthfury]

I think having FRESH servers is a good idea, but how can they customize a server like that?

[Frosto-faerlina]

@Feramynd-moon-guard

Many players (even max lvl 60 geared players) I think would be interested in a hand full of FRESH Classic server launches.

I think there are many things appealing about fresh servers.

I also like the points you’ve laid out, but even if it was as simple as fresh servers a the same patch level that we currently have, and no transfers available for the initial 3 months, it would serve the same purpose, and require less development resources.

[Feramynd-moon-guard]

@Frosto-faerlina

even if it was as simple as fresh servers a the same patch level that we currently have, and no transfers available for the initial 3 months, it would serve the same purpose

What are your thoughts about layering and faction balance for Fresh servers?

[Frosto-faerlina]

With regards to layering, it’s a good question. We’ve seen layering return to some realms, to help alleviate queue times, which could potentially be managed without layering, if the population cap was set at a number that would mitigate queues for that cap as a concurrent population (which may lead to smaller servers, and possibly much smaller servers over time, but who knows?).

Without layering, we would likely have a lot of congestion early on in starting areas. I could live with this, as well as the negative forum posts that may result

With regards to faction balance, it isn’t a narrative I buy into, so I don’t personally think it matters for such an endeavor. It would obviously require time and resources to develop, if it were to be implemented. However, I am not advocating against such a thing, and perhaps a fresh server would be a suitable place to experiment with something like this.

[Nopainnogain-mankrik]

Can they suck all the bots to their own server so the rest of us don’t have to deal with them? Yeah wishful thinking I know but it’s worth axing about

[Infernie-earthfury]

@Frosto-faerlina

perhaps a fresh server would be a suitable place to experiment with something like this.

^ that! Haha

[Ascind-deviate-delight]

On private servers Fresh servers ensured the death of pre-existing ones. We’re still months away from AQ, doing it now would be blasphemous. New servers aren’t a bad idea, but fresh ones are a different story.

It would be a good idea once content has been released/ we progress to TBC. However starting a fresh server anytime soon puts a huge fracture in the game unless put at the current patch.

At this point new servers wouldn’t be awful, but completely fresh ones could be disastrous.

[Feramynd-moon-guard]

@Frosto-faerlina

Without layering, we would likely have a lot of congestion early on in starting areas. I could live with this, as well as the negative forum posts that may result

The idea of layering in the first place was for a ‘smooth’ launch experience. (and I think that even with layering it was still an issue of dynamic respawn rates. I remember standing on a spawn point for the first 30 min just to get ANY kind of kill for exp.) It’s par for the course; but if there is a server cap, then when they remove layering, that still won’t be an issue. I do like the idea that we push server populations to the MAX they can hold for the sake of long lasting servers that dwindle over time for stability (and more justification for expending resources to keep a server up) but there should be a buffer included in this number with the expectation that friends of friends would want to join later.

Over all I think less servers is better but having options to go to a ‘big’ server vs ‘small town’ server is still very appealing to me

[Frosto-faerlina]

@Ascind-deviate-delight

On private servers Fresh servers ensured the death of pre-existing ones.

The number of overall players of Classic seems to be orders of magnitude larger than private server populations.

A fresh server, or a handful of fresh servers with some experimentation around faction balance, or even other things might not make much of a difference to the current server populations.

But yeah, I don’t know. It might have massive effects… I suspect it could potentially add to the overall population of Classic as well, as some people who didn’t have the time to play when it launched and do now with the current situation, but feel they are too late, could start fresh as well.

[Feramynd-moon-guard]

@Ascind-deviate-delight

New servers aren’t a bad idea, but fresh ones are a different story.

In one of the pinned blizzard posts Kaivax has already stated that:

@Kaivax

However, the data we have suggests that wouldn’t happen.

In part, that’s because there’s sufficient space on the currently existing realms for all of the players who want to play.

So just opening more servers at current phase is what they are doing already… and it’s screwing things up for those servers who had a ‘balanced’ PvP experience.

@Ascind-deviate-delight

On private servers Fresh servers ensured the death of pre-existing ones. We’re still months away from AQ, doing it now would be blasphemous.

The reason that existing servers would not die is because they have LOADS of players who just got rank 14 and have invested over 120 days /played. they are too invested in their current trek to AQ and beyond. Fresh would only leach away disgruntled or behind the curve players FROM ALL OVER to have a second go at Classic.

[Frosto-faerlina]

@Feramynd-moon-guard

In one of the pinned blizzard posts Kaivax has already stated that:

I noticed the wording there…

@Frosto-faerlina

I suppose that data is based on the low population realms, and not on new realms without the ability to transfer. Is there any data that suggests that sort of thing wouldn’t be of any benefit?

@Feramynd-moon-guard

Fresh would only leach away disgruntled or behind the curve players FROM ALL OVER to have a second go at Classic.

I suspect fresh servers would be pretty popular, though I don’t think the majority or anywhere near would jump at the chance to grind levels, mounts and gear from scratch

[Feramynd-moon-guard]

@Frosto-faerlina

I suspect fresh servers would be pretty popular, though I don’t think the majority or anywhere near would jump at the chance to grind levels, mounts and gear from scratch

Right! and that’s my point, we wouldn’t need very many Fresh servers and I think it would go a long way to alleviate concerns of all the server mixing that is happening on all of these overpopulated realms.

Also people do not want to change. Most of the guilds that have worked hard to carve their name into the landscape of their server will not be hurt by a handful of Fresh Classic servers.

[Malipho-kelthuzad]

I support a FRESH server!

Only two things I disagree with:

1. The faction specific queue idea,
2. release phases because I think they should stop

[Feramynd-moon-guard]

@Malipho-kelthuzad

Only two things I disagree with:

1. The faction specific queue idea,

Faction specific que is ‘an’ idea of how to avoid 99% Horde PvP servers. What are your thoughts on what to do (if anything) to foster a healthy 50/50 faction balance specifically for PvP servers?

[Malipho-kelthuzad]

That pop balance doesnt matter and that BGs suck? Call me old fashioned.

Seriously, I think pop balance is extremely overrated if the density stays low.

Very seriously: Classic BGs completely and absolutely suck and hardly anyone would play, except for the overhyped rep gear.

Edit: and Blizzard will never ever directly gate basic player choice, and if they intentionally gated access to an existing character, theyd face consequences both in the space, and perhaps breach their implied contract on commercial grounds.

[Infernie-earthfury]

@Malipho-kelthuzad

and if they intentionally gated access to an existing character, theyd face consequences both in the space, and perhaps breach their implied contract on commercial grounds.

O.o woah! That seems pretty harsh

[Malipho-kelthuzad]

Well…yeah lol. Its not a threat from me, personally. Its the crap they have to think about from others, though, in offering subscription pricing, EULA be damned. Sorry that was my world for a long, time.

[Feramynd-moon-guard]

@Malipho-kelthuzad

pop balance is extremely overrated if the density stays low.

I think you make a great point pairing those two ideas together. On lower population servers the Horde/Alliance ratio of active players doesn’t matter nearly as much.

[Soljin-arugal]

FRESH servers are a private server meme.
Not a snowball’s chance in hell is Blizz going to attempt to run different batchs of servers running different patch’s at the same time.