Layer Hopping - Please Put Limits

[Katerina-mannoroth]

Probably, yes, but that means there’s 3x as much loot instead of 10x.

That’s still rather dramatic

But at 3x the population it should mostly balance out.

[Katerina-mannoroth]

ah but I see it differently. BOttlenecking a starting zone was not an issue in vanilla. It is an issue classic is creating due to its popularity. There were never that many people swarming servers all at once because people trickled in bit by bit. Even the original launch only had around 8-10 people in my starting zone on my server in the valley of trials.

I think I spent around 5 minutes on the boars and each other quests in vanilla on day 1, but when I did the beta, I spent over an hour on boars.

I remember a couple dozen people being present in Northshire Abbey when I rolled this character on Day 1, many were afk, but they were there all the same. I also remember mob spawns being rather sparse while in Northshire, probably because many of us had no clue what we were doing, and killing the wrong mobs for the quests we were on.

[Katerina-mannoroth]

Plus I don’t really understand how a server can “Layer” itself X times and still run smoothly if its near its player cap. Because now it has to process so many more actions on each layer. Might as well just have another server… right?

The “Realm Server” itself is a software abstraction on top of the hardware at this point, the Server is capable of handling far more than an individual layer is likely to normally present. Moore’s law has had 149 months to work on things since TBC released, that’s ~8.27 periods of 18 months. Given that Vanilla ran for nearly 2 years(24 months) prior to that, that means computing power has roughly doubled 9 times if you use the 18 month number, since Vanilla went live. If you use the 2 year number instead, it’s still doubled 7 times since Vanilla went live in 2004.

That means a current server system potentially has at least 128 times (2^7) the processing power of a system from 2004 for about the same cost. Sadly, processing power != network throughput. But it does provide the means for how 1 piece of hardware is playing host to multiple “realms”/“Layers” worth of people when you’re dealing with Vanilla population limits.

But going back to that network throughput side, you end up with N^2(“N squared”) raising havoc with both their network infrastructure, and player internet connections.

Even if the servers themselves can handle 2,000 players in the same spot doing things, that doesn’t mean the end-user’s system(/internet connection) can do the same. They’re probably not on a Gigabit internet connection. (I know many in here probably are, but most aren’t)

My theory is that if Layering works, they’ll replace use it in Retail in some places too.

I’m suspecting much the same thing, that they have intentions to either deploy the tech in Retail, or they have another (unannounced) project that they’ve decided could make use of such tech. If not both. Otherwise it IS a lot of time and manpower being used to do something that will only be used for a couple of months and never be seen again.

Given how much even retail players complain about sharding, transitioning to more use of layering within Retail instead is certainly one way to mollify a lot of customers. Then the BfA team “simply” has to work out the logistics of how Sharding would interact with Layering, but that’s outside the scope of Classic.

However, that also could explain some of the stuff that people were seeing happen during some of the stress testing.

Tbh the ONLY solution I see is… there is no solution. Blizzard just has to say “without a doubt, we will 100% remove layering after 10 days.”

And given time, many of us on here could you a list longer than your arm of reasons why they might end up having to go back on such a statement because of factors outside their control. Which is why they’re not promising anything.

[Bricklethumb-anvilmar]

Good points

[Celessi-turalyon]

I believe 3 per server is going to be the max.

Probably, yes, but that means there’s 3x as much loot instead of 10x.

That’s still rather dramatic

No, there’s actually not. 3 layers of 3,000 people each killing and looting mobs is identical to 9,000 people killing and looting mobs on one layer. Same with farming ore and herbs.

It seriously does not make a difference