Blizzard has yet to release the length of the 6 content phases and in which phases pvp will be added. Here is a my suggestion to both of these matters.
As we know the entirety of Vanilla lasted just over two years in total and with the last major patch arriving roughly 4 months before the end of it.
This gives us around 20 months to play with from the launch until the last content patch in Classic. And considering there are going to be 6 content phases in total and we how they are constructed basically of two original patches clumped together that would mean there should be around 3 months between each phase before the next is launched roughly speaking.
Now when it comes to PVP originally there was a period of time lasting almost exactly 2 months when the honor system was active but battlegrounds were not yet introduced. This can be called the era of the World PVP.
Now where does all of this lead us.
Well ultimately my timetable suggestion would be as follows to the six phases Blizzard has announced.
Phase 1: for 3 months
Phase 2: for 2 months honor system added
Phase 3: for 3 months battlegrounds added (BWL patch)
Phase 4: for 3 months (ZG patch)
Phase 5: for 6 months (AQ and 1.10 item changes and PVP item changes)
Phase 6: for eternity (Naxx patch)
As you might have noticed this would be only 17 months total from launch until Naxx is released. And even though it’s not quite the original timeframe it’s close enough and has enough time for players to experience the content and gear up for the next phase without stagnation settling in too bad because people are just waiting for the next phase. The reason why AQ phase is so long is because it was that long in the original game and because the war effort takes time before the raid itself even opens.
Also AQ itself back in the day was notoriously hard to fully clear and many guilds actually ran out of time and moved into Naxx before even fully clearing AQ before it.
Also considering that at this point the only thing yet to come is Naxxramas the phase can comfortably last longer as the guilds that survived the horrors of AQ prepare for the final push and the non raiders don’t really care because they already have all the content they’re going to get.
I’m still confused about sharding, like I remember raiding Stormwind back in the day, and besides a little lag with the massive amounts of spells and what not going down, there never seemed to be an issue.
Correct me if i’m wrong but wasn’t sharding introduced after all the cross realm server stuff became common place?
I see the argument for sharding on release, “see” not agree, but other than that, as long as population caps are closely related to what they were originally I’m hoping sharding won’t even be necessary.
Multithread support is a client side thing as server software is a totally different thing really.
But when it comes to servers yes it indeed seems that after they switched to cross realm and sharding that the servers have problems handling larger than expected loads. This is likely from the reason that each “shard” has a set amount of resources allocated to it and when people group up and force themselves into one shard those resources are not enough and that particular shard chokes up.
This is only a technical issue of course and allocating enough resources for a Classic realm is limited only by their desire to do so. But as they have said that sharding is only for the launch they basically have to allocate the realm server enough resources to run itself smoothly at peak hours anyway. And since the entire server is essentially one big “shard” it will always have the needed resources for the entirety of it no matter where the people inside of it happen to congregate.
I don’t like your timing for phases 1 and 2. The whole point of putting DM into Phase 2 is to not have that gear available for MC/Ony raiders at the jump. If you open DM up three months into it, most people will just be getting to 60; having DM there will have that gear to start MC, pretty much making it a pushover.
First phase should be six months at the very least.
Well six months is way too long for that phase as in the original timeline DM opened up 4 months after launch, so the argument can be made for 4 months. And I did think about this possibility but decided that having it at the three month mark is more reasonable.
Mainly because the hard core raiders will start MC and Ony at around 1 month from launch so they won’t have DM gear available for them.
And when the main population starts getting to level 60 DM will just come out or has been for a few weeks and will serve as a bit of a catch up dungeon for them.
All in all I would not mind having it at 4 months like it was back then because authenticity is always nice. But all in all I think this would mainly affect casuals anyway and I personally believe they will have it hard enough anyway.
For those wondering, here’s the Vanilla patch time frame (NA):
Launch: November 23, 2004
Patch 1.3 (DM, P2): March 7, 2005 (3 1/2 months)
Patch 1.4 (Honor, N/A): April 19, 2005 (5 months)
Patch 1.5 (BGs N/A): June 7, 2005 (6 1/2 months)
Patch 1.6 (BWL, P3): July 12, 2005 (7 1/2 months)
Patch 1.7 (ZG, P4): September 13, 2005 (9 1/2 months)
Patch 1.8 (Dragons, P4): October 10, 2005 (10 1/2 months)
Patch 1.9 (AQ, P5): January 3, 2006 (13 1/2 months)
Patch 1.11 (Naxx, P6): June 19, 2006 (19 months)
I think it makes sense to push out the first few phases faster. The war effort and AQ is the first significant obstacle that will take some time. OP’s timeline is fairly consistent with the original timeline. It might be easier to just simplify it as 3 months each for the first four phases and 6 months each for the last two phases.
This would be perfectly reasonable and some people would surely enjoy the longer world pvp period. Others would not ofcourse as they eagerly wait for BG:s
Then again the PVP unlocks could be entirely separate thing and happen independently from other content.
Hell if they really wanted they could have honor in even from the very beginning or 1 month after launch to really stretch it out before BG:s
Stage 1 lasting 6 months is nowhere near authentic and would lead to stagnancy.
Stage 2 agreed
Stage 3 BWL 3 months is enough because ZG which comes later is not a raid that replaces it but rather a raid that gives additional loot along with it.
Stage 4 ZG 3 months as stated earlier this lives alongside BWL and doesn’t replace it.
Stage 5 AQ agreed
does anyone remember when C’Thun was impossible to beat and was nerfed later on? that’s why a lot of guilds just moved on to NAXX, o boy. With all the adjustments being brought from now and understanding the mechanics of instances, I think the original time frame would be fine.
This is actually inaccurate but understandably so.
C’thun was practically impossible to beat initially because it was bugged and overtuned. But the fix to it came sometime during April 2006 and guilds started downing it soon after.
Then again Naxxramas launched in June 2006.
Thefore no guilds did not move to Naxx because it was impossible to beat at the time, they simply moved because C’thun was still very hard to beat and many guilds just did not feel like banging their heads at it because the early parts of Naxx were actually way easier than it.
I personally would like to see the time line something like:
Phase 2: starting around 3 months after launch.
Phase 2.5: (pvp honor system) 5 months after launch
Phase 3: 6-7 months after launch (maybe with the BGs, maybe 1 or 2 BGs is available in phase 2.5)
Phase 4: 9 months after launch
Phase 5: 13 months after launch
Phase 6: 18 months after launch
If Blizzard severs cant handle the populations, then their servers need to be replaced.
Sharding is not there because server lag is a real thing any more; its there because they want to give the player an easier time getting NPC’s and resources like tin nodes…
Considering the really basic level that the graphics are at because they’re from 2004; it’s not even a client PC lag issue either…
It’s 100% a quality of life BS argument. That is the only reason for people to ask for sharding.
Now days with the way servers are typically built, the only way you get latency issues is due to someone in never-never-land with a garbage internet connection causing your server to lag the hell out because its burning clock cycles just trying to keep that connection alive.
I DESPISE THIS BECAUSE ITS DUMB!
Blizzard you guys need to restrict connections to their most local server, and limit the number of attempts to keep that connection alive because the lag it causes server side is just not cool… sorry /end rant.
I just envisioned a fun lowbie horde raid formed, marching on Stormwind the first day upon release. What exactly happens when that raid crosses the Elowyn border?