I dig it, and see the concern. But here’s the really depressing thing: maybe there is no good solution. It seems like at the end we’re left either with layer-hopping exploits, or you make resources universal (which is a smoking hot cloud of crap, for anyone who’s ever had a node disappear right from under them). Back in my Vanilla days (uphill, snow, etc.), part of the fun was contested Rich Thoriums in Burning Steppes. Finding an Arcane Crystal is great; finding an Arcane Crystal after you murdered an opposing factioneer to take the node was even better.
I’m in favor of whatever system lets me have more o’ that.
If you don’t have a static amount of layers you will need to create layers if too many people want to play. Then you will also need to destroy layers as population dips.
As an example.
Say you have 2 Layers. Layer 1 is full, Layer 2 is losing players (for example during the night) until only 5 players remain online in it. It’s about to be empty.
At this point, Layer 1 would either have to phase over these last 5 players to it’s world, flexibly increasing it’s size to accommodate them, so they don’t end up in an empty place.
Or, those 5 players would remain on Layer 2, staying in an awfully lonely world. (but could also cash in on it because they could help players from Layer 1, by porting them to their layer so quests are easier, gathering resources are ripe for picking, etc. Oh the possibilities. )
Meaning, with the way they currently work, people will have to be phased in and out if they play during a time where the population is declining, such as evening time.
Or, if on the other hand, it’s increasing by a lot, making the layers adjust dynamically, as they are set out to do, creating a phased moment for players.
These are fair points. I also neglected to mention another nuclear option: no layering. Scrap the whole thing and just deal with the boom. “Every single server is at 2hr queues!” Cool, add another five or so.
I realize this has the drawback of people quitting, and the servers becoming anemic, but I think it fits into your 60% loss projection as well. I still think layering is being done to hedge their prediction of a mean/average population influx on Classic, while still letting them have the benefit of record-breaking or, dare I say, Vanilla-esque subs for any amount of time (I described this in another thread).
The thing that has me concerned is the eventual switching off of the layering. That tells me they are prepared for a huge population die-off. Being a corporation with profit margins, loss projections, etc., something tells me this is a very informed, analytical, and researched prediction on their end.
This is inevitable and planned. They’ve been talking about how there will be lots of tourists (their term) in Classic, as a way of setting up shareholder expectations. Not sure if you remember but Nintendo’s share price spiked when Pokemon Go came out, and Nintendo had to issue a statement saying they weren’t financially involved. Blizzard has already set up its shareholders to know “There will be a massive spike, and then it will drop again. Expect this. Do not panic.”
I feel you, my guy. Back in Vanilla, everyone knew everyone else on the server. You’d get into some WPvP and be like, “Crap, we just smoked [Person]. They’re gonna get [Guild] out here to mix it up.” Also, “Man, [Person] is a such a goofball. Don’t group with them anymore.” And lastly, “This new guy, [Person], seems awfully familiar. I bet [Person] re-rolled…”
I’ve told this story before, but I’m not sure if you’ve heard it…
I used to be on Ravenholdt. Back when Blizzard was doing their connected realms thing (basically their way of merging without actually merging so names and such could be kept), Ravenholdt got merged with Twisting Nether.
Now, I don’t want to say the community got WORSE, because as far as I know it didn’t… but it definitely changed. I noticed a nigh-instant change in energy that reminded me of high-pop realms and why I’d wanted to move to a low-pop one in the first place.
Irony is, today, Ravenholdt is well and truly dead. Not even connected realms saved it.
I was on Thunderlord for the longest. I don’t know if it ever merged (I eventually followed some IRL friends to another server when my guild imploded, and so on and so on to about five different “home” servers over my WoW career), but I definitely know what it was like the night before cross-realm LFG, and the night after if that’s near the same.
From what I recall, Thunderlord was medium-ish to low-ish population. Common courtesy was actually… common. People would mind themselves for fear of pissing off decent tanks, healers, or even entire guilds. It was kinda refreshing. After X-LFG, I ran into so many dodos it was a complete culture shock.
If layering has anything to do with this kind of community poison, then I say damn the torpedoes- full speed ahead! No layering.
I’ve always regarded layering and sharding as necessary evils – a point of contention I often get demonized for around here.
I stand by this belief. I’d rather have layering for a few weeks than server merges that could end up inconveniencing people majorly and still do nothing to save the server in the long run.
At least they laid out their exact plans and gave us more or less a deadline for its deactivation; that’s more than they did when they were discussing sharding.
I do not like sharding, at all. It’s one of those pervasive things that can really harsh your mellow during a late-night play session. Granted, I haven’t played since Legion-ish (I think I technically subbed during BfA to see if I’d get smitten again, but I quickly grew tired of the scaled zones for leveling new toons- whenever that went into effect?). But running around trying to farm things, only to have nodes vanish upon approach, reappear when you went to move on, and then vanish again–for seemingly no conceivable or discernible reason–was just very grating and artificial to me. Reminded me I was playing a video game, and all that.
Layering isn’t supposed to do that. If that’s happening, then they clearly have some bugs to work out. Or, layering just isn’t active in the beta and sharding is.
Don’t misunderstand- I’ll still play, even with layering. I enjoyed the game that much in its early phases that it’s worth another shot (and I have missed it). But if it turns out to be a camel’s back looking for a straw, I worry about layering being that straw.
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