Just take the worst case scenario…layering until phase 1 ends.
If it ends before that then it’s icing on the cake.
If not…then you won’t be disappointed/frustrated and play with that in mind.
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Then maybe people should have been a little less vocal about their sharding hate. Blizzard listened to the specific issues, and fixed what they could.
When they announced layering, my first thought was “I can see exactly which complaints they’re trying to address”.
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Nonsense - go read the blue post from last November. They called in “**realm sharding.” They had this plan in the works for a long time.
Here is the post:
"As you’ve noticed, the Classic Demo does have realm sharding. This is to let as many people as possible experience it without technical issues such as server capacity or spawn density getting in the way.
Longer term, we know how crucial it is to the Classic experience for you to see your friends when you walk into Stormwind or when you’re helping them on a quest you’ve already completed. And there should only ever be one Kazzak on a realm, no matter how many people are waiting for him to spawn.
We’re still looking at how we can best deliver an authentic Classic experience at launch, and in the weeks and months that follow - both in terms of gameplay and community. You won’t see phasing (which is tied to specific quests that don’t exist in Classic) or cross-realm zones (which combine multiple realms together) in Classic. However, realm sharding is one of the best tools we have to keep realms stable when hundreds of players are swarming the same initial few zones and killing the same few mobs (like they will be at the launch of Classic). 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."
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Link? I’d never seen that term in regular use until the media summit. What you quoted below does not contain the word layer anywhere.
Also, sharding panic started well before the presentation. It just gained momentum when there was a video.
Still, the wording “layer sharding” doesn’t exist. Realm sharding is the full name for normal Retail sharding.
Promises have been broken before. However, I do believe them. First few weeks can mean anything though. I believe there was an interview where they said end of phase one at the latest.
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eyyyyyyyy that’s my OG sharding thread back from blizzcon!
The references to end of Phase 1 that I found weren’t talking about letting it extend that far. They were referring to the fact that in Phase 2, layering won’t affect World Bosses, because it’ll have already been removed before then.
Either way, it doesn’t really matter. People won’t trust them until they follow through. The bigger issue is people don’t want it at all.
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Layering is their new term for bigger shards…continent wide shards.
You’re nitpicking on semantics now. Layering is sharding.
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Correct - they called it “realm sharding.” Point is - this was their plan since Nov. 2018 and it hasn’t changed.
The scope of how they were going to implement it has changed from the first few zones to the entire world.
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I am aware.
And the point being that they had not discussed layering anywhere until the media summit, after months of screaming about realm sharding. So its an easy common-sense connection to say that layering was intended to solve the issues raised by people about sharding, primarily the visual effect of disappearing. They’re going to have “multi-instance separation” (to avoid trigger words) on the server regardless of what method is used. That’s coming from on high. They changed from starter zone realm sharding, to continental layering, in order to mitigate those complaints that they could.
They still work together as a team though. Which is why it makes a lot of sense why Ion in one statement said that he’d promised to have it removed in the “first couple of weeks”, only to leave an out in case of the situation it might not be possible to remove it by then, by giving another guarantee which essentially allows them to buy more extra time by saying it will be gone by P2.
The other devs of the team only said it will be gone by P2 for sure, without guaranteeing it will be gone in a few weeks like Ion.
So if things don’t go Ion’s initial estimation and promise that it will be removed by the first week, the rest of the team is not gonna get the same hate as he will, because they said only that it will be removed by P2, essentially shielding them a bit from the community’s potential backlash if they manage to turn it off by P2.
Of course i could be off here, and they just didn’t all align in their communication.
Either way i hope if they do put it in, you’re gonna be right on the few weeks part. Cause as things stand, it doesn’t look that way to me with all the info and Blizzard punctuality history we have on hand.
Your claim doesn’t hold up. There was no layering in the Demo, yet there was Retail sharding and they called it realm sharding.
What? Here is the quote again:
You won’t see phasing (which is tied to specific quests that don’t exist in Classic) or cross-realm zones (which combine multiple realms together) in Classic. However, realm sharding is one of the best tools we have to keep realms stable when hundreds of players are swarming the same initial few zones and killing the same few mobs (like they will be at the launch of Classic).
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More likely, they all knew it would be gone by Phase 2, because of the world bosses and Ion’s previous statements, but only Ion could promise it would be gone within a couple of weeks, because he’s the one making the decision.
No-one else was willing to pre-empt his decision.
This refers to what they do in Retail and they call it realm sharding. This is not talking about layering because they don’t use layering in Retail.
No - in retail they use cross-realm zones (which combine multiple realms together).
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Uh, they use sharding extensively in Retail. That’s where it was developed…
They also use CRZ and Phasing. Some people have trouble telling the difference.
I’ve already stated ages ago that if we have sharding after my first sub month expires, I’m out. Layering is just as disruptive, and I’m holding myself to my promise.
You guys can debate the lifespan of layering all you want, but you have no idea and I doubt even Blizzard does.
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