I think people will actually like Classic (i.e., layering forever)

WoW Classic WoW Classic General Discussion
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The primary reason for layering is to prevent dead realms when the supposed population bubble bursts. :right_anger_bubble:

Simple idea: Load up layered realms over their capacity at launch and bank on most players leaving after a few weeks, then merge all the layers together and you’re left with nice, happy, reasonably populated realms. Easy. :sunglasses: :+1:

But here’s something to think about: What if this doesn’t happen? What if people actually, you know, like the game? Imagine that. :thinking:

One month in, populations are holding steady. Some are even going up. Ion got on camera and promised everyone we’d be turning this stuff off by now. This isn’t good. :grimacing:

What will they do? Can the servers handle the overpopulated loads without layering? Do they push back the sunset date for layering? Do they open new realms and offer transfers (only to later realize they got the timing wrong and they end up with the dead realm mess they were hoping to avoid)? Questions, questions.

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:face_with_raised_eyebrow: :exploding_head: :clap: :eyes: We’ll see

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No the primary reason for layering is to allow the starting zones to be playable at launch. That’s why it will be only for a few weeks and it should be only for the zones 1-20

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If this happens they will probably add more servers to accommodate the players.

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This is incorrect. Stop spreading misinformation.

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Blizzard has a very simple solution for this.

Remove layers
Open more servers.
Offer transfers off high pop servers.
Institute ques.

Problem fixes itself.

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You are correct, no one knows how popular Classic is going to be and whether or not there will be a population swoon shortly after startup.

Blizzard is taking a shot at predicting the future and is trying to plan a graceful way to deal with it. If they guess wrong, then they will have to alter their plan. Meanwhile, we don’t accomplish anything by worrying about it.

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force thousands of players to transfer off their realm or make them sit in hours of queue… or just keep using the layers that people seem to be fine with. hmm

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Or they’ll bungle this so badly they’ll have to keep layering on the megaservers that people inevitably gravitate towards, long after phase 1 ends. And I’m sure there would be and endless litany of “how could we have anticipated this amazing success we’re so glad people enjoy classic therefore with a heavy heart layering for x more units of time blah blah blah”.

The only alternative in a worst case scenario is server fracturing - the reverse of server merging.

They couldn’t be this bidoofy, though. I don’t want to believe that. So I’m sure they’ll resort to population caps to keep people from dogpiling on two or three servers. That’s fine. Queues are fine. WoW became the greatest mmo in the history of the genre with massive queues antagonizing people into underpopulated servers.

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That’s the solutions Blizzard has put on the table. Won’t get used because it’s a fact that the populations will drop.

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This would be the solution without layering since they’re not opening with a hundred servers.

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Incorrect.

Layering applies to the whole world, and people will start hitting level 60 in about 1.5 weeks, so its effect goes far beyond 1-20 zones.

If they wanted a solution for starting zones, they would have stuck with sharding. Layering is primarily for the population bubble, and secondarily for the starting zones.

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first off, that’s an opinion.

and even if the population does drop, that just opens more space on the primary servers for people to reroll to play with everybody else

they are, they’re just calling them layers and binding you to a dynamic amount instead of just 1

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I hope they keep layering forever on all zones, there will never be any population problems with this system in place. Only benefits.

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It’s not an opinion, it’s a proven and trackable fact, Blizzard knows this and must plan accordingly.

In the event that one or two servers do not drop as far as expected, they have a plan. As I mentioned before.

To deny the population drop it wishful thinking at best.

Classic is not a new game. It’s a museum piece. New player and nw player retention will be battle. Blizzard stating they are good with 10’s of players shows they are not in it for pulling new players. They are in it to recover their IP.

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Which is the beauty of the system and the point of why Layering is good. Without layering the only way to kill queues is to open more realms, creating a good chance of dead realms later.

Planning for the majority of players to immediately fall in love with a 15 year old game, just because those of us on the forums are passionate about it, is planning for a fantasy which will fail.

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You’re not the slightest bit concerned with all the layering bugs and exploits? I personally don’t consider the ability to phase to a different layer so easily to be very engaging or fair.

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Warstorm, as you read what is sure to be a depressing thread, just keep in mind that one of the reasons you’re going to get a lot of venom on the forums for bringing this up, is that there are some retailers who are mortified of this outcome, because it would conceivably shift development focus back to old-school philosophies. They’re scared.

Don’t misconstrue this is one of those skru u retail babbies12!! garbage posts. There are quite a few of them who would welcome a return to form. Just keep this business in mind when you struggle to grasp how some of them could be skeptical in the face of overwhelming interest.

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I am. And if people would stop demanding an impossible demand, we could start focusing on discussing those fixes, instead of “NO LAYERS OR I QUIT!” nonsense.

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no, it’s not. with all the variables that are at play they have an educated guess at best. releasing a game to the world isn’t a closed test in a vacuum with exactly the same outcome every single time you run the test.

layering doesn’t solve queues, and depending on how many layers they allow per realm could even kill most servers starting on day 1.

better solutions have been constantly suggested that account for either outcome, i know you’ve seen them so if you’re still on it’s either layering or not layering you must be trolling