Layering Cannot Go Live on RP Servers Period

[Heidene-kelthuzad]

none of that is a reasonable opinion

And that’s just like, your opinion, man. Feel free to actually complain about my opinion on how layering will affect RP realms if it gets implemented. Appreciate the engagement!

If you don’t mind me asking, do you play on RP servers, or have played there by the way? If so, did you roleplay? Wondering where you’re coming from on this.

[Vitolri-moon-guard]

What Blizzard would do here, is to change the games lore base for the entire time layering is present, by changing the whole worlds dynamics, effectively having everyone adhere to that new story and atmosphere in Azeroth.

It’s not unheard of for RP servers to have large scale, player driven RP plots. For the sake of layering, maybe something is going messy in the Caverns of Time, and all this Layering, is them fixing the inconsistencies caused by that alteration. Talking to someone and they disappeared? Maybe you weren’t supposed to be talking to them that day. Find the next thing on. Did they show back up(by swapping layers one way or another)? Maybe now IC you were supposed to see them. Take layering and make it something FUN to play with, rather then being upset with it. I know it’s lame and unfortunate that we have to deal with it, but it’s better that than dealing with a dead realm in a couple months and having to pay your way onto a more populated realm.

Choosing layering in terms of RP realms means they are willing to impact the worlds authenticity heavily, and even more so on RP realms by altering the game world to this extent.
It’s not necessary. And unlike non RP realms, this decision will leave players even more so disappointed that their experience on their specifically chosen RP realm is not an immersive one that makes sense within the world and the lore.

See above for the resolution to this. But it is necessary. Layering sucks. I know that, you know that, the rest of the playerbase knows it, and Blizz knows it. That’s why it’s temporary. It’s being done to ensure that there’s longevity in playability across all servers. That few, if any, become ghost towns. It’s short term, and something you can play around and have fun with. Find that silver lining, and grab a positive out of the air

[Purj-bleeding-hollow (Purj)]

I doubt RP servers will even fill an entire layer, so don’t worry about it.

[Mickymoo-black-dragonflight]

Wondering where you’re coming from on this.

Well, I’ll reply to the only relevant thing you said. Layering prevents empty servers by creating simulated ones on top of the existing ones during the opening surge.

However, layering has a threshold. So if your chosen server does not reach that population quota, you’re server doesn’t create any layers.

Thats it. I’m confused as to why you are for server crashes and login queues, which are bad things, if that threshold was reached on a server without layering.

[Heidene-kelthuzad]

I do appreciate you took the time to explain layering to me, however i’m already aware of how it works!
I’ve been very active in threads about layering, discussing it, but i figured discussing how layering works and what it does technically isn’t much of a subject in this thread, but rather it’s about how RP realms and RP/ers specifically will be affected by the new features effects in case it finds itself in the game.

I’d go into my opinions on the general technical/game design side about layering anytime in the other active threads, but i don’t feel like it’s needed to spread that particular discussion into this RP focused thread as well while the other ones are active.
If RP isn’t a big thing for you, i get your frustration. But for me it’s something really cool and special in WoW, just as it is for the OP, and layering does have particular effects on the RP world that change it up, which i’m trying to explain here how that looks like from an RP’ers perspective.

[Manzo-argent-dawn (Manzo)]

So your argument that is because its 2019, Blizzard cannot due in 2019 what they easily did in 2004? RP realms were never the highest of pop servers and I think the longest que I ever had, EVER was maybe 30 minutes. So I think we can all suck up a 30 minute que now and then to ensure the world stays persistent without people up and vanishing before our eyes

No, what they’re saying is that non-roleplayers will go to RP realms specifically because they do not have layering. Layering needs to be on no realms or on all realms equally.

We saw what occurred with Retail with Project 60 - thousands of players all rolling on the same RP realm because it had sharding disabled (because of RP events being disrupted - see the Tournament of Ages), instead of on a normal or PvP non-RP realm.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/hnewman/2017/08/12/tournament-of-ages-draws-thousands-to-world-of-warcraft-role-playing/#2f4a9e60626c

https://twitter.com/WarcraftDevs/status/894627400465604608

And yes, Project 60 specifically chose RP realms because sharding was disabled at that time.

Crashing servers, disrupting the actual RP playerbase. Essentially, it destroys the community on the RP realm into what is effectively a non-RP realm with the amount of harassment and griefing that this brought.

[Wolfthorn-earthen-ring (Wolfthorn)]

So your argument that is because its 2019, Blizzard cannot due in 2019 what they easily did in 2004?

Activision Blizzard is not Blizzard.

[Traydrenna-wyrmrest-accord]

Yeah for RP servers I’d be down with turning it off. Or making layers not happen in Capitals at least.

[Kiyrin-ravenholdt (Kiyrin)]

breaks immersion, just like RP servers cannot have people named things that are not Rp

No, they do not. Blizzard hasn’t enforced anything beyond regular naming rules on RP servers for years now.

P.S. I anticipate I will play on either an RP or RP-PvP server and I say Layering can go live on RP servers. Period. What now?

[Qingling-cenarion-circle]

We begin by supposing that elsewhere in the universe there is a planet exactly like Earth in virtually all aspects, which we refer to as “Twin Earth”. (We should also suppose that the relevant surroundings are exactly the same as for Earth; it revolves around a star that appears to be exactly like our sun, and so on). On Twin Earth, there is a Twin equivalent of every person and thing here on Earth. The one difference between the two planets is that there is no water on Twin Earth. In its place there is a liquid that is superficially identical, but is chemically different, being composed not of H2O, but rather of some more complicated formula which we abbreviate as “XYZ”. The Twin Earthlings who refer to their language as “English” call XYZ “water”. Finally, we set the date of our thought experiment to be several centuries ago, when the residents of Earth and Twin Earth would have no means of knowing that the liquids they called “water” were H2O and XYZ respectively. The experience of people on Earth with water and that of those on Twin Earth with XYZ would be identical.

Now the question arises: when an Earthling (or Oscar for simplicity’s sake) and his twin on Twin Earth say ‘water’ do they mean the same thing?

Thank you, Hilary Putnam. I didn’t even know you played WoW.

[Hatchmarket-malganis]

calm down Karen…

stop making demands like you are entitled to them

[Nilacte-wyrmrest-accord]

Never received my voting package as a shareholder. I don’t think you - fully - understand the words you are using.

[Starbûck-caelestrasz (Starbûck)]

Proof blizzard will keep their word and turn it off pls?

Proof Blizzard will not keep their word and not turn it off pls?

[Fateweaver-misha (Fateweaver)]

Proof Blizzard will not keep their word and not turn it off pls?

Sharding on retail RP servers?

[Darkthurr-the-venture-co]

Proof Blizzard will not keep their word and not turn it off pls?

Sharding on retail RP servers?

Boom! Headshot.
Nice clean takedown man

[Rotduhr-wyrmrest-accord]

This thread alone is example enough for me as to why I play on RP servers and have a small community of friends in-game.

I support the OP, and the RP playerbase!

[Vitolri-moon-guard]

This thread alone is example enough for me as to why I play on RP servers and have a small community of friends in-game.

I support the OP, and the RP playerbase

Supporting the OPs idea would kill your servers much harder than layering. This post is an example of how entitlement blinds people of the actual consequences. You want no layering on your RP server? Expect it to be overflowing with non-RPers wanting a non-layered server, to the point where you’ll have multi-hour queues and relatively frequent server crashes. OR you can deal with a month or so of layering, where your small group can avoid it by staying grouped up during your sessions, and effectively overcome layering without issue.

Think about it.

[Starbûck-caelestrasz (Starbûck)]

They implied they werent going to use sharding on RP servers for retail?

[Heidene-kelthuzad]

To be clear, personally i want no layering on any server period. The fact that layering leads to a whole different set of additional issues on an RP realm just adds ontop of the reason it shouldn’t be in the game in the first place, because as you mentioned, if they only put no-layering on an RP realm, all sorts of non RPers will flock to that realm to avoid this system.

And it’s going to be a lot of people. I dare say the majority of actual players (not those who voice concerns etc outside of the game) is going to try to avoid layering when they see it’s effects on the game, and RP realms would take the hit for it.

[Vitolri-moon-guard]

To be clear, personally i want no layering on any server period.

It’s a necessary thing. And no amount of disagreeing will change that. If Blizzard decides to try to keep layering -permanently-, then that’s a time to be up in arms. Until then, it really is a ‘deal with it or wait’ situation.

Stability and playability early is the priority. After things settle, it’ll go away. A month of mild inconvenience in exchange for multiple years of stability and healthy population. It’s worth it tenfold in my books.