đŸ‘„ Layering in Classic - Blizzard Responds on Reddit

WoW Classic WoW Classic General Discussion
21

My opinion is that inviting someone to your party when you are in a full layer will not kick someone else out suddenly, based on the AMA explanation. My suspicion is that they will stop people from coming into the layer through other means, like auto-assignment when logging in, and the attrition as people log out in other parts of the world will more than make up for party invites in one busy area.

22

I think I understand what’s going to happen.

Once layering is removed, the realm cap will drop dramatically to what they believe a single realm layer can support. Prior to phase 2, Blizzard will probably allow free, but heavily regulated transfers to low pop, or maybe even new servers. They’ll issue a similar warning to what they did for Herod - transfer or stare at even longer queues than what you had with layering.

You heard of a stat squish? Well, phase 2 will bring a population squish.

At least that what it sounds like to me.

23

They stated that it won’t always be the player being invited that changes layers. So if the person inviting is in a full layer, he will probably get moved instead.

24

They specifically said the transfer goes to the inviter’s layer:

25

That was the case in vanilla too. Sure, you could see the same people but doesn’t mean you will. With layering, seeing the same people IS still possible.

26

Yep, I read that wrong. For some reason I read shouldn’t.

2 Likes
27

Thanks for sharing what Blizzard said. They seem to be on top of it, and I think they’ve got a good system so far.

My only concern is how they will be able to reduce to a single layer by phase 2. If layering is going to mask the reality of overpopulation, prevent the need for queues, and make the experience smooth for everyone, the downside is that no one will have an incentive to ever leave.

Assuming that the big servers still have extremely high populations by that time, how will they incentivize players to [freely] transfer to other servers and spread out, if their experience isn’t negative? The only way I can see, would be to have queues from the beginning, but keep them at a point where they’re not crazy, but not totally convenient either. That way, players will always feel some degree of inconvenience until phase 2, and that will encourage them to transfer when the time comes to reduce to a single layer.

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28

More like the first few months. They’ve already moved the goals again from “the first few weeks” to “before phase 2”. We’ll see if they move them again once phase 2 rolls around and the populations are still too high.

1 Like
30

You wouldn’t see them if they were stuck in queue either. And you wouldn’t see ANYONE if you are the one stuck in queue.

31

How I understand it is when you log in, you’ll be put in your layer (if layering is needed at that time) and you won’t move out of that layer unless you group with someone who happens to be in a different layer.
I see it as “once you’re already in a layer, your impact on the world has been managed. new people logging in won’t have an effect on your layer; as the population fills another layer would kick in for even more people logging in, but your layer is still your layer”.

I do wonder, though
if two layers suddenly have a drop in population (i don’t know, maybe an earthquake or something kills access for a large number of people) would those layers be reduced to 1 layer?
I suppose it doesn’t really matter after phase 1, anyways.

32

I like that the Blizz devs see sharding as a problem that is detrimental to Classic WoW.

I dislike that sharding is being implemented at all. I feel with all the billions of dollars of resources available to Activision Blizzard, an alternative solution surely must have been available.

So I’ll wait until sharding is gone before playing. The upside to this is, provided sharding actually is eliminated, I’ll be able to choose the most populated servers after the initial rush.