Sharding for RP realms is atrocious, and we specifically got Blizzard to disable it for RP realms so that events like the Tournament of Ages could take place. Because we tried to do events like ToA with sharding in place, and while some people saw crowds and player run stalls, others saw a completely empty Tournament ground.
It has NOTHING to do with faction imbalance. Period. If you’ve got 200 alliance and 200 horde in a single space, shards aren’t going to neatly divide that up to it’s 50 of each per shard. That’s not how sharding functions. Instead you’ll get completely uneven numbers depending on who logged in and got into that shard first. So if 75 Alliance logged on, followed by 25 horde, they’re all in one shard. Then it might be 60 Alliance and 40 horde for the next one etc etc.
Sharding doesn’t function the way you think it functions.
The only reason sharding was implemented, was to address server performance, because it was annoying to try to play new content and have to deal with extreme lag, or being unable to find mobs to kill/quest items to loot because there were hundreds of players swarming around trying to get everything done as fast as possible.
Blizzard saw these complaints (which would pop up every time Blizzard released new patch content or a new expansion) and implemented the sharding system. Once a zone reached a certain number of players the server would create a new shard, and any new players would go into the new shard, and this would continue until no new players entered the zone. It gave absolutely no consideration to which faction players were a part of.
Again, I am aware of how sharding works. Note that nothing I said disputed your assertions. The same system responsible for moving people into different shards when a given area is too full is also responsible for allowing the co-mingling of people from different servers in those same areas.
Initially, when they were working on allowing cross-realm interactions and subsequently found themselves needing to add proper sharding, Moon Guard and other RP realms began crying because they didn’t want to be mixed in with people from other realms. Now nearly every RP server has a faction imbalance so severe that one or the other is utterly helpless.
So, to consolidate: I am saying they need to mix all the RP realms together like they originally intended to, ignore the players crying about it, and allow the sharding system they implemented to keep lag from being an issue. If this means some people are unable to see/participate in events, so be it.
Clearly not, because you keep repeating the same wrong things and acting as if it’s accurate.
Sharding has nothing to do with faction imbalance. Nothing, zip, nada, zilch, zero.
Sharding was never implemented for that purpose, and it isn’t balanced around that purpose.
No, they didn’t. What we asked for, quite clearly, was an end to sharding (which is NOT cross realm zones technology) so that we could run big player run events like the Tournament of Ages. Blizzard specifically killed sharding on RP realms during a Tournament of Ages because of the outcry we made when our event was getting screwed up by the server tech.
We have faction imbalances because that’s literally how all servers work. Groups of people congregate together. Alliance players realized that Moon Guard was the place to be, while Horde players chose Wyrmrest Accord. Now there are dedicated Horde RP groups on Moon Guard attempting to change that, which is great, but the faction imbalance has NOTHING to do with sharding or cross realm zone tech.
Except at no point have I said sharding and faction balance/imbalance are connected? Not sure why you’re so determined to counter a point that was never made, but alright I guess.
Now, the above aside (again), I’m not sure where you got the idea the initial outcry came from sharding splitting people up, because that wasn’t it. That is a different issue to the one I am referencing when noting the very loud public outcry from players on RP servers expressing their dissatisfaction with having been mixed in with those from other RP servers. They cited their “communities” as being the reason for this.
Anyway, the point I am making is this: the servers would have been healthier if they’d remained mixed with the others. This should not have been undone. It should have remained. Sharding should also have remained, because areas of heavy traffic on said servers (Stormwind, for example) have more than a few major issues sharding could take care of easily.
That’s literally been what you’ve stated multiple times, and your reason for wanting sharding removed is about ‘faction imbalance’.
This is you saying sharding allowed people to see other players whose faction is dead on their server of choice.
This is you saying sharding can fix the faction imbalance (it can’t).
This is you saying that we didn’t want to get mixed with people of other realms (which is cross realm tech, not sharding) and now every RP server has a faction imbalance…
Literally every post you’ve made in reply to me has highlighted that you believe sharding impacts faction balance.
And as I already clearly stated, sharding ruins large RP events. We like our large server events on Moon Guard. I was one of many who pushed Blizzard to scrap sharding on RP realms so we could continue to host our large RP events (which raise a lot of money for charity on top of giving everyone on the realm something fun to do).
Don’t ask Blizzard to bring sharding back and ruin the experience we have on our realms, thanks.
ok well thats a bad take. maybe for horde, sure, to increase the population in their cities
but alliance stormwind on moon guard is the biggest RP hub in the game and sharding is preventing that RP from happening. the city has gone from lively and entertaining with RP in every little corner to a barren wasteland
theres no reason sharding should exist in stormwind on moon guard
Sharding would literally kill the RP scene on both WRA and MG, which it technically is. I haven’t been able to laze around SW or orgrimmar for the past week now since they reenabled it for launch which was fine, but they should undo it on RP servers again in SW/Orgrimmar. You keep claiming to be aware of what it is, but that’s clearly not the case…
I hate to see you keep doubling down on being confidently incorrect, but you’re confused, and people have tried to explain that you’re confused, but they haven’t explained why, so let’s give this a go.
“Sharding” (a.k.a. “phasing”) is when a ton of people are in one area, so the server breaks groups of people off into “shards” - duplicates of the area but on the same server - so you only see a handful of people around you at a time, even though there are technically a lot more people there. They’re off in their own instances of the area you’re standing in. A dozen mini-areas stacked on top of each other. Sharding makes you see less people at a time. A sharded Stormwind might have a few hundred people in it, but only a handful will be in your “shard”, in your version of that server’s Stormwind, making it look empty.
This makes it hard to walk up to people and interact with them, since even though you’re in Stormwind and they’re in Stormwind and you’re both on Moon Guard, you can’t see each other. You’re in alternate sealed-off ship-in-a-bottles.
You’re thinking of CRZ, cross-realm zones, where you share the space with people from other servers. Personally, I’d love to have CRZ with all the RP servers, I think that would be rad, but that’s an opinion that would get me set on fire in many circles
That hasn’t been turned on ever for the main hubs on RP servers, though. Only sharding (and some light CRZ in current-content zones), which is making Stormwind into dozens of fragmented Stormwinds with a few people at a time rattling around in them instead of a populated thriving RP hub.
No more sharding, I want my RP back and being able to see/visit all the events going in town instead of having to coordinate invites to a specific shard which doesn’t always work very well and basically forces everyone into just that shard without any outside people able to see or interact like a living, breathing world. Should’ve been week of launch only if Blizzard doesn’t want to shell out the proper money for good servers.
Please disable sharding already.
I came to an RP realm to RP with people.
I can’t RP with people if I can’t see them - Stormwind and Orgrimmar are empty, apart from maybe 5 people in the auction house.
This is ridiculous. There should be no sharding on RP realms, and still this same thing happens every expansion.
I don’t think that the load on the servers would be too much if they disabled sharding. It is no longer necessary after the initial launch and perhaps the first several days. 2 weeks into the expansion sharding has completely killed RP in the cities. It is depressing going to SW when there is usually well over a hundred people hanging out and seeing like, one lone person loitering and hoping that anyone will happen by.
Please remove the sharding for SW and Org on RP servers now that we’re 2 weeks post-launch. There have been complaints for days on WrA and MG about this and we’re starting to lose players because they think the RP is gone.
Agreed this is starting to become a real frustration. Usually it’s fixed within a day or so but there hasn’t been any sign of this being reverted this time around and that’s concerning.
Compared to the prepatch, there’s far, far less people just hanging out in Stormwind and Org waiting for stuff to happen. Everyone’s out doing their world quests and leveling and eyeballing each other in Valdrakken and such.
Therefore, there’s no need for sharding/phasing to still be on for legacy content and main cities on RP servers anymore. The handful of people knocking around in Stormwind don’t need to be separated from each other.
I hate that we have to to rabble for this every time for someone to remember to flip the switch. Don’t MAKE me break out another long-winded righteous rant about how roleplayers are the backbone of your regular subscribers, I’ll do it. I write long-winded nonsense for my primary hobby.
