Simple enough question: will the gradual removal of layering lead to higher queues, or are the two not correlated in any way?
I’m currently on a high pop server and considering a transfer, but I don’t understand the dynamics of layering and its impact on queues.
Not correlated. Layering just spreads people out. Keeping 10k people out of the same zone at the same time
Are population limits (which result in queues once reached) and layering forcibly tied together? No.
Does/will Blizzard likely adjust them in relation to one another? Yeah.
Arbitrary numbers here, but if the game world can support 2500 players comfortably (not from a technical stand point, but from a “not overcrowding questing area” standpoint), and you have 3 layers… you can set a population limit for the server of about 7500 and queue everyone past 7500. If you decide to remove a layer, you would want to also lower the population limit to 5000 as well. You wouldn’t HAVE to, but you probably should.
It’s not necessarily that simple/cut and dry in practice, but that’s where the two will likely relate. It seems like Blizzard is slowly reducing the population cap as the actual player population is slowly returning towards expected normals (unconfirmed). This would make sense to keep the server on a trend towards what they feel is a reasonable population cap for a layer-free server.
TLDR: Yes I expect that Blizzard is (or will) be slowly lowering population caps per-server until it gets close to a value where they can turn layering off. Ideally, just in time for Phase 2 where they plan to turn off layering.
It will impact queues. Zones/The world are balanced to hold a desired X amount of people. Currently Blizzard circumvents queues without breaking world balance by allowing a much larger number than X to enter the game but spreading them through different layers so that each layer can be close to X and remain on a healthy population per zone.
As layering is removed this can no longer be done as effectively and Blizzard either lowers the cap of players before queues start to assure a number close to X remains or they allow zones to be overpopulated by 5-7 times X (estimated number of layers by the community, not a real number from Blizzard).
Imagine STV or any other congested zone with 5-7 times more people, I doubt Blizzard would go for option B.
Removing layers will indirectly increase queues because they will lower server caps at the same time.
They have a rough number of people they want in an instance of Azeroth at a time. Layers duplicate instances of Azeroth. As layers leave, less people will be allowed on the realm.
Incorrect. See other replies.
You don’t understand the main reason layering was implemented which was to reduce queues while assuring that when people “lose interest” servers can still be at “max” capacity and feel alive.
Yes allowing questing on launch was something layering could “help with” as well but it wasn’t the main reason Blizzard introduced it otherwise it would have been gone a week in.
There are some posts in this thread explaining how layering does correlate to smaller queues which I would suggest reading.
Edit: In reply to a replier, not OP.