In the last few weeks i notice people talking about "shards" Only in a few other MMos i heard of shards. When did this term become relevant in WoW?
Isnt a shard a server? Is it the new wave of forum warriors using this term? Can we just back to calling them realms and servers.
Kabuki theatre my friend. Kabuki theatre.
I sharted...
Shards have been in the game since Vanilla WoW. They're a warlock resource that has been changed, tweaked, removed and re-added over the past 11 years.
08/06/2016 08:50 AMPosted by BrassmûnkyIn the last few weeks i notice people talking about "shards" Only in a few other MMos i heard of shards. When did this term become relevant in WoW?
Isnt a shard a server? Is it the new wave of forum warriors using this term? Can we just back to calling them realms and servers.
No as it is zone phasing added in to crz's so the term realms has almost, to an extent, become immaterial.
This is how I understand sharding to be, areas in zones phased based on local population to improve server performance...
I thought Shards were the way to determine servers in FFXIV?
08/06/2016 09:27 AMPosted by KrokenI thought Shards were the way to determine servers in FFXIV?
Servers and shards have a similar meaning, but they are not exactly the same thing, and the meanings of both have changed slightly as technology has evolved. The term was originally used to describe different servers in Ultima Online. It filtered down to other MMO's over the years. The original meaning of the term was different copies of the world, because there were too many players for one copy (note: this does not necessarily mean different physical servers). Also, FFXIV's term for server is "world", and it does not have any sharding/CRZ functionality at this time.
In the past few years it's come to mean something slightly different. When Elder Scrolls Online came out, they used something they called "megaserver". This is really just a marketing term, but the way that game is set up, your character doesn't have a home server, it is just placed wherever it is needed depending on population. Additional instances (called "shards" there) of zones are created and destroyed on demand as population changes. ESO DOES have different servers, but they are invisible to the player and connected together in a cluster. WOW is slowly moving to this same model, but it's in stages because the game wasn't originally designed that way.
When WOW first introduced cross realm zones, it was a pretty ugly hack, and it just put people on different servers in the same zone. Actual sharding, where copies of zones can be created on demand, and which server you are on is meaningless except for selecting your character, didn't come until 7.0. WOW pretty much works the way ESO does now, except that your character still has a "home" server and can only trade/join guilds with other people on that server. So yes, shards are different from servers. A highly populated server will have more shards (shared via CRZ of course) than a low populated server. It still basically means what it did in UO...multiple copies of the game world when there are too many players in one place.
Give it another couple expansions. First we will have "cross realm guilds". Then eventually they are just going to drop the server names altogether and make it exactly like ESO. The reason that the terms server and shard have changed and blurred together over the years is because of clustering technology. It was in its infancy in UO's time, but today clustering is MUCH more advanced and MUCH more common.
To put it simply:
A cross realm zone is a zone shared by multiple servers.
A shard is a separate instance of that zone.
For example, if 300 players are in Nagrand, the game might make 2 instances of the zone (called shards) and place 150 players in each.
A cross realm zone is a zone shared by multiple servers.
A shard is a separate instance of that zone.
For example, if 300 players are in Nagrand, the game might make 2 instances of the zone (called shards) and place 150 players in each.
Sharding is also a term used to describe the disenchanting process.
I don't know
be nice if like many other games you could actually CHOSE the "shard" you are a part of and switch to one where your friends are
because the blizzard method isnt working out so well.
because the blizzard method isnt working out so well.
08/06/2016 10:20 AMPosted by AriesmetFor example, if 300 players are in Nagrand, the game might make 2 instances of the zone (called shards) and place 150 players in each.
Like a horcrux.
1 Like
Was totally expecting this thread to be about explosive diarrhea...
10/16/2016 05:35 PMPosted by Kestrìlbe nice if like many other games you could actually CHOSE the "shard" you are a part of and switch to one where your friends are
because the blizzard method isnt working out so well.
You don't like being grouped with your friend and not be able to see or interact with them outside party chat even though they are suppose to be standing right next to you?
/boggle
10/16/2016 05:46 PMPosted by Markus10/16/2016 05:35 PMPosted by Kestrìlbe nice if like many other games you could actually CHOSE the "shard" you are a part of and switch to one where your friends are
because the blizzard method isnt working out so well.
You don't like being grouped with your friend and not be able to see or interact with them outside party chat even though they are suppose to be standing right next to you?
/boggle
and yet - you still can't trade or sell something to that person that you see in that "shard". I think the point is, either crap, or get off the pot, Blizz.
boggle that.
08/06/2016 10:20 AMPosted by AriesmetTo put it simply:
A cross realm zone is a zone shared by multiple servers.
A shard is a separate instance of that zone.
For example, if 300 players are in Nagrand, the game might make 2 instances of the zone (called shards) and place 150 players in each.
Actually, it can be much smaller than a zone. It's also done around world bosses to ensure there are enough players available to kill it.
I often see a half dozen players suddenly phase into existence the moment a world boss respawns.
Also, mobs that were chasing me usually disappear as I approach a WB fight in progress, because I was pulled into a different instance of the event.
I dunno if this has anything to do with anything but lately I've had situations where I enter an area and there are people running all over the place questing. I progress to the next chain of a quest in the same zone and everyone is gone. If we were all on the first stage of the quests, where'd they go all of a sudden?
11/07/2016 08:59 PMPosted by EingarI dunno if this has anything to do with anything but lately I've had situations where I enter an area and there are people running all over the place questing. I progress to the next chain of a quest in the same zone and everyone is gone. If we were all on the first stage of the quests, where'd they go all of a sudden?
Blizzard may have the technology, but they dont know how to use it.
you can be right next to someone who is grouped and they suddenly disappear because they change to a different shard or instance. other games have used this technology safely and with more skill. I think Blizz should approach them for coding advice.
It would be pretty cool if once realms are completely gone, they gave you a title with your realm name in it. For instance mine could be something like, Jacola of Thunderhorn, just to remember all the good and bad times we had on our realms.
08/06/2016 10:20 AMPosted by AriesmetTo put it simply:
A cross realm zone is a zone shared by multiple servers.
A shard is a separate instance of that zone.
For example, if 300 players are in Nagrand, the game might make 2 instances of the zone (called shards) and place 150 players in each.
Thank you for explaining this as i was wondering why de'ing an item (also called sharding) would have any negative affect on an RP server.