Layering: Few Weeks or Phase 1

[Brockthorn-malygos (Brockthorn)]

Alpha also included “friends and family” so not necessarily a developer running around.

[Laeric-wyrmrest-accord]

Hmm, maybe.

Still, I’m certain the CRZ is just so the devs can switch it on to interact with players and test things without having to level all-new characters. I doubt it’ll make it to live, they already promised it wouldn’t be in Classic.

[Brockthorn-malygos (Brockthorn)]

in a big company the developers don’t test. There are separate testing departments that test and they don’t do it on public beta servers because they run tools that log.

Could have just been an alpha player whose character got moved to the beta forums.

[Laeric-wyrmrest-accord]

It is possible that Blizzard DOES test, especially since they’re more hyped about Classic than BFA.

[Brockthorn-malygos (Brockthorn)]

I’m sure they do as they are a big corp.
But there are testing departments and they have their own internal builds which can be patched on the fly, run in debug mode and have automated tools for testing and logging.

[Laeric-wyrmrest-accord]

Hmmm. Interesting.

Maybe you’re right then, but I don’t know what they’re doing keeping Alpha up alongside Beta and CRZ’ing the two if it’s not the devs…

[Ziryus-doomhammer (Ziryus)]

in a big company the developers don’t test. There are separate testing departments that test and they don’t do it on public beta servers because they run tools that log.

Could have just been an alpha player whose character got moved to the beta forums.

They certainly have internal test environments but I guarantee you at least some devs do go into the same beta region as all of the rest of us plebs.

It’s entirely possible one was testing a bug report and jumping between the internal realm and beta.

[Kerg-scarlet-crusade]

90% by week 4 actually. I’m expecting a massive turnout from all the retail players to ‘poke their head in’, maybe 2-4 million, dropping down to maybe 400k a month after launch, then slowly starting to creep back up as others come back to the game, and stabilising around maybe 500k-750k.

If I’m wrong great, but the point still stands that Blizzard did not say “By the end of Phase 1” as the goal for removing layering. Ion promised a few weeks, and in lieu of anything else, that’s where we’ll expect it.

After playing the stress test, and then possibly caving in and playing on a private server the last 4 days because I didn’t get a beta invite, I think the retention is going to be much higher than most anticipate. If I were, possibly hypothetically, playing on a private server the last 4 days, I may be having the time of my life. The game is actually more fun than I remembered it, and I remembered it being pretty damn fun, and it is incredibly addictive and difficult to log off. I always want to play just one more hour…

It’s like heroine. The atmosphere and music is awesome, and the reward system is very, very well-designed. Tons of people who have never played it are going to get hooked, IMO. Just like us old veterans did the first time around.

[Rebooted-agamaggan]

I just want to know where that cool dude I met when I was lvl 6 went to, does he still play, what shard is he on, will I ever see him again

[Laeric-wyrmrest-accord]

Look… I know what people’s opinions of streamers are on this forum… but seriously, give Kevin Jordan a shot. He’s the former lead class designer on Vanilla WoW.

[Jorwala-area-52]

I just want to know where that cool dude I met when I was lvl 6 went to, does he still play, what shard is he on, will I ever see him again

Give it a few weeks ( months? , phase 2-3? ) when they remove shardi-- I mean Layering from Classic.

[Rebooted-agamaggan]

few months, wow, they just killed the spirit of community

[Jorwala-area-52]

The way layering works now, if you log out long enough or log to another toon ( this is how you swap layers on your own ), that player you randomly quested with, you may not see him for a good long while ( even if he’s still actively playing in the same zone as you ).

[Rebooted-agamaggan]

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

As someone quoted above ^^ this is contrary to layering and why no one trust them

[Brockthorn-malygos (Brockthorn)]

Kerg…join the club along with 14K other folks that were playing along with you

First I was like “just til level 5 to see if I want to play classic”
Then it was…“let me get to level 10 and see Auberdine again”.
And before you know it I was level 41 and had several alts past level 10.
And then I wanted to try the Horde side.

[Jorwala-area-52]

This is what will happen if Layering goes through as is.

https://www.twitch.tv/cdewx/clip/SpicyCoyTurtleBrokeBack?

Layering will ruin everyone’s experience.

[Rebooted-agamaggan]

Oh I know, im all for sharding 1-10ish, but this layering crap needs to go asap, like before the beta is even over

lesser of the 2 evils

[Brockthorn-malygos (Brockthorn)]

I’ve already stated that I’m not subbing up until layering is gone.
I left in Legion because that sharding crap got to me with all the disappearing and reappearing.

[Eloraell-moon-guard]

Catching up after mowing the lawn.

Why would there be 10 times the number of players that Nostalrius had as a stable player base ?

Because the vast majority of Blizzard’s customers would reply “Huh? Who?” to your statement, while returning for Classic. And then add in every single retail player.

https://www.twitch.tv/moo_uk/clip/BloodyModernSowLeeroyJenkins?

I hope not but there are instances of CRZ in beta already.

… that’s a Developer. They’re CRZ’d in as they choose.

You see a character from -ClassicAlpha realm

Which is the Developer realm.

Alpha also included “friends and family” so not necessarily a developer running around.

The FnF invites have been moved to Beta realms.

in a big company the developers don’t test.

Blizzard’s Devs have been running around the world constantly both playing and acting as GM’s. Omar Gonzales in his oversized human model for example. The Classic team is not large.

I think the retention is going to be much higher than most anticipate.

While I hope so, you’re still someone in the “likely to play anyway” category. There’s a large range of people for various reasons like shard subs, nostalgic but don’t have the time, or simply never tried it 15 years ago, who will come and go pretty quickly.

Tons of people who have never played it are going to get hooked, IMO. Just like us old veterans did the first time around.

I agree, but I think more likely those people will come over time with word of mouth, just like Vanilla, rather than be part of the massive initial wave returning to the game.

Kevin Jordan a shot.

He doesn’t count as a streamer, as he has an informed opinion.

lesser of the 2 evils

For months, people were decrying sharding as the greater of all evils. Layering solves some of the complaints people were having, but the current implementation still has bugs.

I’ve already stated that I’m not subbing up until layering is gone.

See you on September 27th! Let me know if you need any bags.

[Switzy-stormreaver (Switzy)]

I just don’t like merging. At all.

I value my character names and not seeing a tight-knight community change into something much much worse overnight too much.

Layering is literally a feature that merges entire realm populations, but with sharding/CRZ elements before the merges. How can you support layering but be against server merges?