Guys calm down! (No Sharding thread)

11/02/2018 03:39 PMPosted by Lore
As you've noticed, the Classic Demo does have realm sharding. This is to let as many people as possible experience it without technical issues such as server capacity or spawn density getting in the way.

Longer term, we know how crucial it is to the Classic experience for you to see your friends when you walk into Stormwind or when you’re helping them on a quest you’ve already completed. And there should only ever be one Kazzak on a realm, no matter how many people are waiting for him to spawn.

We’re still looking at how we can best deliver an authentic Classic experience at launch, and in the weeks and months that follow - both in terms of gameplay and community. You won’t see phasing (which is tied to specific quests that don't exist in Classic) or cross-realm zones (which combine multiple realms together) in Classic. However, realm sharding is one of the best tools we have to keep realms stable when hundreds of players are swarming the same initial few zones and killing the same few mobs (like they will be at the launch of Classic). To that end, we do believe that some form of sharding may be helpful, especially in those early days. But we recognize that a cohesive world is critical to WoW Classic and are committed to bringing that to you.


A terrible day when lore is saying "you think you don't want it but you do"
11/02/2018 03:39 PMPosted by Lore
As you've noticed, the Classic Demo does have realm sharding. This is to let as many people as possible experience it without technical issues such as server capacity or spawn density getting in the way.

Longer term, we know how crucial it is to the Classic experience for you to see your friends when you walk into Stormwind or when you’re helping them on a quest you’ve already completed. And there should only ever be one Kazzak on a realm, no matter how many people are waiting for him to spawn.

We’re still looking at how we can best deliver an authentic Classic experience at launch, and in the weeks and months that follow - both in terms of gameplay and community. You won’t see phasing (which is tied to specific quests that don't exist in Classic) or cross-realm zones (which combine multiple realms together) in Classic. However, realm sharding is one of the best tools we have to keep realms stable when hundreds of players are swarming the same initial few zones and killing the same few mobs (like they will be at the launch of Classic). To that end, we do believe that some form of sharding may be helpful, especially in those early days. But we recognize that a cohesive world is critical to WoW Classic and are committed to bringing that to you.

Lore...

I understand your point. It is very valid especially for the opening days.

But I must make a very serious request. Leave it in for the first week or so maybe... but after that it must go.

We do not care if we have server latency issues. If we bring 40 people to fight 40 people in a planned all out war and suddenly we get sharded away it will absolutely ruin the game for everyone.

I hate the sharding system but I understand the concern for the launch. But after that it NEEDS to not be a thing. I am letting you know now. As someone who plays on a server that did planned fights between horde and alliance guilds we cannot do that anymore in current game due to sharding... This will singlehandedly ruin classic wpvp.
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Blizz: *implements sharding so the game won't pants itself*
Players: Blizz wtffffff I WANT MY SERVERS DOOOOOWN

Forum Mod Edit: This post has been edited by a moderator due to language. https://us.battle.net/forums/en/code-of-conduct/
11/02/2018 03:46 PMPosted by Nakadashi
11/02/2018 03:39 PMPosted by Lore
However, realm sharding is one of the best tools we have to keep realms stable when hundreds of players are swarming the same initial few zones and killing the same few mobs (like they will be at the launch of Classic). To that end, we do believe that some form of sharding may be helpful, especially in those early days. But we recognize that a cohesive world is critical to WoW Classic and are committed to bringing that to you.

I dunno, Lore. I happen to want an absolutely chaotic mess when I start.


I get the feeling that sharding will be less about 'making a smooth experience' and more about keeping the damn servers online under load
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11/02/2018 03:50 PMPosted by Darknesself
This is what I feel is the right decision temporarily. It's best for the health of the game in both the short term and long term.

Adding un-necessary servers to deal with the initial rush, then have all of the spectators quit shortly after, leads to dead servers, A.K.A. no community. I hope they don't listen to all these so-called 'purists' who are willing to actually ruin the game in the long term.


Yeah, this is backlash over a temporary solution for the long term health by people who haven't thought about this at all, and are only thinking about "No Changes".

These will also be the people complaining about not being able to log in and server crashes and not being able to get anything done if Sharding is removed. A completely ignorable group of people.

Im against many things Blizzard has done, but this and increased foliage definitely isnt one of them.
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Maybe instead of sharding Bizz could implement early access for anyone who had an active account during vanilla ? Let those people start a week or two earlier .
11/02/2018 03:39 PMPosted by Lore
However, realm sharding is one of the best tools we have to keep realms stable when hundreds of players are swarming the same initial few zones and killing the same few mobs (like they will be at the launch of Classic). To that end, we do believe that some form of sharding may be helpful, especially in those early days.

I thought we were told that this would be a Classic version "warts and all". I would believe that one of those warts would be fighting over resources, mobs, lootables etc.
On a side note, I have seen people saying that the demo feels like the player damage outputs are severely overtuned for what they should be at this level. Is the tuning something that will be addressed to make it a harder gameplay experience or are plans to keep things as we see them in the demo?
If he's saying just using it for the launch, fine. If there is sharding in this game for any longer than the initial launch then Im out.
Oh boy.
Blizzard, thanks for getting everyone hyped up for nothing. I was looking forward to playing Classic WoW once more, but it will be dead on arrival. Wish I could refund my Blizzcon Virtual Ticket at this point. Good job Blizzard, you had one job and you messed it up. Like usual.
11/02/2018 03:51 PMPosted by Turd
11/02/2018 03:48 PMPosted by Pwigg
...
Sharding is literally just spill over so that things remain stable. Its a completely fine and obvious solution. Private Servers also did this AS WELL

no they didnt lol i played on nost when it launched the starting areas were !@#$ing packed to the point of people grouping to try and kill mobs 6 levels above them outside it and their was a huge login queue.


No they didn't on Northdale either. Starting ones were packed with a mile long line of gnomes/dwarfs waiting on the toolbox respawn in the troll village.
Server didn't crash either.
Dynamic respawn was turned on instead and that helped a lot.
Northdale had upwards of 15K online with no crashing.
No sharding. Period. I don’t know why it’s so hard for blizzard to understand that.

Would that make certain zones a laggy mess? Of course. But that’s part of the experience.

Vanilla means Vanilla.
In a perfect world, we could have "some form of sharding" for launch to make sure we're all not waiting an hour for one mob in Death Knell to spawn. I would not mind that.

But we do not live in a perfect world, and I do not trust Blizzard to take such an approach after all I have seen over the years. I would rather have no sharding in any way shape or form than to trust Blizzard to delicately use modern tools to improve our experience without sacrificing any of the authenticity.
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11/02/2018 03:55 PMPosted by Pwigg
Yeah, this is backlash over a temporary solution for the long term health by people who haven't thought about this at all, and are only thinking about "No Changes".

He literally said in his post that sharding will be in the game 100%. Forever remember Classic 2018.
11/02/2018 03:55 PMPosted by Automute
I get the feeling that sharding will be less about 'making a smooth experience' and more about keeping the damn servers online under load

Yeah. It's not unexpected. It sucks, but it's not unexpected.
They just don't get it.
...

Experience in 2018 = Constantly crashing and not actually playing.

Does no one here remember all of the RAGE on these forums every expansion with terrible launches?

Either way, Blizzard loses, however sharding for the first couple days(at least in the starting zones) will produce a more stable community for the classic servers in the long term., with no sharding afterwards. Even if there's no sharding, the forums will be flooded with people complaining how they can't play, how classic launch is awful, etc. .

No sharding at launch will cause issues with server population in the long term, which is a much more greater hit to your classic 'experience' than actually being able to play and not constantly crashing.


pservers had up to 15K online and starting zones were swamped.
But you know what..the server stayed up !!!!

The issue was spawn rates and pserver team turned on dynamic spawning which helped a lot.

Not crashes but a few disconnects and no queues.

Hardware today can handle that. 15K were online the day Northdale launched..single server.


Northdale was a beautiful wreck, so much fun getting in that first day. I just wish they could recreate that. I got to play through Lights Hope for free and if Blizzard just copied and pasted that experience and made me play $15 a month for it, i'd do it since it'd be authentic Blizzard servers.
While I didn't come across much overcrowding in retail vanilla, I enjoyed the experience of packed starting zones during the launch of a private server. It encouraged you to group up, look for out-of-the-way mobs to grind, get some xp exploring and grabbing flight points, or try your luck running to another starting zone. It immediately taught you to see more than just the handful of quests in front of you.

Yes, if you're somebody who desperately needs to feel like they're progressing and not "wasting time," sharding would be great for you. So would the latest expansion, where you are guaranteed frictionless leveling all the way to the cap. Hooray!
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Wow. What a joke.

"I can't believe no one likes our lettuce flavored oreos that they all said they hated during testing..."

Blizzard is literally doing the opposite of what keeps a company successful.
sorry, !@#$ that. I'm out if sharding is in the game