I am looking to get an accurate description of what shading is and how it works…
This post Might turn out into a debate if shading is worth it and what altrenative options are.
My guess is that sharding is the only option with this many servers and players on the go.
My thoughts are: let players jump from server to server free depending on player population online on that server at the moment
In my opinion, when I want to farm something in the open world no, every other time yes.
Or make it a permanent thing like FFXIV does.
Course, you might have the inevitable pushback when people who make toons on a low-pop server are complaining that off-worlders are coming in and stealing “their” hard-earned loot.
I am in agreeancy and share the same thoughts as you on this.
Following my idea of free realm switching. Players who are more into mining could switch to low population to have more freedom. Others would naturally choose higher pop.
it be good for farming stuff and if somthing brakes in your shard, like the kitty rock climbing wq
It’s horrible for farming old world stuff. I want rares to be up on my realm, which they are… problem is sharding forces every realm into like what? 5 or 6 shards on all US servers? Makes killing rares for example way more annoying. I’ll log in before work to check a rate, nope someone from another realm killed it. Great design!
Thats why its rare son. Cant have everything you want all of the time
Depends.
On RP servers it kills the immersion by thinning out cities.
On the Bug side, it’s been the cause of a lot of weird bugs for me just today alone. Engaged in an outdoor primal boss only to be sharded to a server where the boss isn’t up yet before I could finish killing the one on the previous shard no option to move shards is aweful
In the overall world in areas where there is heavy traffic it isn’t so bad, or on xpac/patch days when the 1 gate to get somewhere is overcrowded it is the only saving grace and the only real time Sharding comes in handy.
Sharding should be something you have a bit more control over. I’d rather not be sharded when doing world bosses or when I’m in a city for RP purposes. If I am sharded, I’d like more control over which shard I am put in (in FFXIV some zones put you in a shard of that area. Mainly new zones and during new content release times. You can click the Aether crystal / zone teleporter to change which shard of that instanced zone you’re in)
I RP myself. Theres is nothing more desolate and pop free than cities. On the “best” rp server wow has to offer, even on the highest population server im hard pressed to find someone RP ing.
RP aside,
Done with shards?
How about Each of the 50 some odd realms/ servers are free to switch to when you want. No more sharding, whats up is up whats down is down, wanna gather join a low pop realm, wana pvp or get social? Join a high pop.
Each log in, choose character first, then put them on the realm/server you want for that session