So I’ve been leveling in the new dragon zones and it’s been really fun! A lot more potential for some grounded RP stories too.
My only big issue right now is that I only see a maximum of 3 players in one area. It does feel a bit underwhelming when the world is empty on a launch day. This made me curious, is the sharding only affecting Moonguard this way or is this something happening across all servers?
I don’t disagree with the idea of sharding, I just hoped it wouldn’t be that extreme…
I had a similar experience leveling where It felt like each quest chain i was phased away from people and I only think this was done because of the insane lag they saw on the first few days, once i hit level 70 i started to see everyone even the lowbies questing where i felt I didn’t see anyone while leveling im not sure whats going on but i do agree its been inconsistent since launch and i hope it smooths out too!
Im guessing sharding to help the server load. MG is very a populous server of everyone was in the same place itd be a mess. Will likely go away in a couple weeks.
Blizzard has stated in the past that the start of the xpacs that the content will be shared at first to reduce the player load, and make game play easier while in the open world so that there is less competition for questing content.
I understand that sharding is important so that everyone can do quests adequately without it becoming a battle between players over who gets to do something first, which is why I said I don’t disagree with it. However I do feel like there needs to be a balance. Like not so many players that it becomes an issue, but more than 2-3 like it is currently.
I haven’t reached max level yet though, so looking forward to what Dotsuo said at least about it becoming less of an issue then. Still feel like questing would be more enjoyable without it feeling so empty.
Other than that I am having a blast though
It also is a matter of slower computers and internet connections. The less players in an area the more forgiving to slower computers and slower internet.
Sharding is really weird.
Keep trying to find friends with WM on, which already has less players, and we’re sharded.
Makes trying to actually scuffle with our friends and organize wPvP stuff a headache.
Yeah sharding is still enabled in DF zones AND Stormwind. I really hope they tone it down some soon. I’m okay with a tiny bit of lag if it means there are a few more people. Not suggesting they turn it off in DF zones yet, but Stormwind just feels so dead right now.
But on the other hand when sharding was turned off, the server almost collapsed and SW had the worst lag.
I think it should be time we spread out into other areas. Especially if they decide to turn it off. I dont want to feel like the server is going to collapse when im trying to sell stuff on the AH.
There was a bit of lag in the city immediately after they turned sharding off, not a huge deal if you’re not actively trying to kill mobs and loot them, and it was fine again by the time it went back on for launch. There was one hiccup where all the servers lagged into oblivion and went down, but I’m pretty sure that was ultimately due to a DDOS attack.
Either way, it was definitely worth the tradeoff of largescale walkup populated city RP being possible without convincing everyone as a whole to go elsewhere, hunting for a raid group, or crossing your fingers and hoping that the shard you landed in had at least a few other people. As more and more people get through the new content and are looking to pick up their RP where they left off, I’m hoping that legacy content sharding gets flipped off soon. It feels like only current DF content needs it at this point.
Waiting two minutes to grab items or gold in your mailbox isnt a little bit of lag. That’s a big problem and even at launch it was bad.
This is the thing though rp shouldnt rely on walkups. It should rely on improvising. Thats all roleplay is. And honestly theres other hub cities out there. Be adventurous. If all you’re doing is waiting arounf and waiting for rp to come to you then you’re doing something wrong.
And for some characters it doesn’t make sense to stay in SW. But we all sit in SW because we’re all too scared to improvise.
Not to say that you didn’t experience that, I’m sure you did. I didn’t, though, and outside of the PVE grind burst at the release of new content chilling in SW is pretty much what I do every night. At worst, I had some chat lag and failed chat messages when things were about to go down. Then again, I don’t check my mail a lot during the day - my AH alt is in a less populated city so that people don’t kill the auctioneers and there’s less ambient nonsense.
I mostly don’t? But I like to RP in a populated area to introduce randomness and potential new contacts into the mix. I love having a bunch of people around, watching them do their thing, as I do my thing, and the unexpected, unplanned interactions that can come about from stuff like that. I don’t know why Stormwind was settled on as ‘the place where people hang out’, probably because it’s the most convenient hub to get to other places through the Mage Tower, but I don’t see a real reason to go against the grain of it for my personal purposes either. It’s also great for people new to RP and new to the server, to mill around, get a feel for what people are up to, meet people and find the groups that they vibe with.
I’m willing to allow that RP is a very YMMV thing, I don’t look down on the hows and whys of what anyone prefers to get their RP done. World RP? Great! Guild RP? Spectacular! RP within a group of close contacts? I do it myself, most of the time, it’s awesome. But for the way I RP, and a lot of other people do, sharding needs to be off in legacy content and the major cities or we’re all just ping-pong-ing around in our isolated, sparsely populated little nodes and groups, and I largely like to have my characters hang out in the middle of the stewpot made up of a million bits of other people’s stuff.