This may have threads already but I am concerned about queues and access during peak time for the initial launch of SoD. In the past this has been addressed by adding more servers.
If anyone at Blizzard is reading this, might I suggest we move to a megaserver model for SoD. I believe having deep layering and the community universally connected is far better than adding realms that will eventually require merging.
One of the best things about classic is seeing Stormwind and Ironforge packed full of people, perhaps the layering can bias a full world and only “layer” when absolutely necessary.
In addition, older games have had drop down menus in the UI to pick which layer to play in. This could be useful for questing or other content. For example /pick in EverQuest is commonly used in popular zones during Progression servers. It works well, I’m sure Holly can comment on this system. If she hasn’t already.
It may be this idea is already being discussed internally, if so then count this post as a vote for megaserver. I am super excited to play but would love for Blizzard to catch a W by having everyone who wants to play SoD able to do so and play in a packed world with their friends. Not being separated by legacy technical solutions.
I like the idea to manually switch layers. It is a bit annoying and immersion-breaking to see chat requests for invites to hop layers. Perhaps a 10-minute cooldown would be appropriate.
I can’t comment on being able to manually layer hop but they did say they “upgraded” the servers to allow more players on one server so it looks like SoD is going to get a minimal amount of servers and the mega server dream will be reality.
I do kinda thing that the retail solutions of servers and war mode are ultimately the right path forward. I too fondly remember the small communities of servers past and while I’ve never been on PvP, I absolutely respect that experience and what it brings to the table.
Unfortunately the general player base kind of doesn’t allow either of those to flourish. Servers quickly migrate to either dead or mega, and PvP servers quickly become single-faction experiences that are ultimately PvP servers anyway.
War Mode just lets those who actually want a PvP experience opt into it, diminishing the pressure to faction transfer or reroll as your faction loses on a server. And whatever server scaling technology Blizzard wants to use would let everybody effectively be on the same server. I don’t think these things will happen for SoD, but I think they are ultimately the only viable choices.
With that said, I wonder if there’s a way to keep that community feeling alive. You can have everybody connected to the same server, for example, but perhaps you can start associating groups of players based on region and communities. A while back I read and article on how CS:GO does (or did) something that would try to make it so that you recognized people when you joined random matchmaking servers in an effort to community build. I wonder if something like that could be achieved here, grouping players as data by some criteria to keep that sense of community and familiarity.
This is correct. The guild I will be playing SoD with does not want to have any open world PvP but look forward to participating in bg’s and the Ashenvale events. I would think 6 servers would be ideal:
West and East Coast PvP and PvE. One RP-PvP and on RP.
I think server identity should mean something in Vanilla realms. Layers are terrible and I hope they keep them to a bare minimum. A design that promotes even more layers is not one I’d support.
By the way I’m not sure how they think layers and the new ashenvale pvp is going to work. They said they changed Wintergrasp into an instancesd cross-realm bg because open world pvp isn’t compatible with layers.
From what they’ve said and how they’ve worded it we are getting less servers and more layers.
I wonder if they found a way to lock a certain layer if there are world events going on. Because yeah since the wPvP even is based on how many players from each faction there are in a zone it would be pretty easy for one to over power the other by just layering into the event.
Time will tell I guess and we will Discover , what their plans are.
If it’s done like Hardcore servers I won’t last long. There’s FAR too many layers there. The world is dead. At least Horde DP.
I want the world packed. Players being encouraged to group is a good thing. The enhanced dynamic respawns do the job well enough already. We don’t need these ridiculous levels of layers. Maybe on day one, but I hope eventually there’s none. Just like Ion promised four years ago that they’d be gone forever after the first few weeks of Classic.
, what their plans are.