I agree with the capitals part…but what does that matter? At launch and the following weeks the capitals should be barren anyway, unless people are there to rp. There’s nothing really to do in them besides training professions and levels.
Gotta remember they are selling a product. As much as people liked the big rush, server meltdowns, login drama, small time rollbacks, etc that happened on private servers, blizzard will definitely try and limit any showstopping issues a consumer might face and sharding (unfortunately) seems like the easiest way they could do it.
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Its really going to depend on how they do the sharding in northshire abbey.
If its like 20 people per shard then ya elwynn forest is going to be crammed and while issues wont be nearly as bad it will still be terrible.
But if they do shards of say 60 then elwynn can stabilize with the slower trickle and people can spread out better.
So basically if they shard northshire well then they wont need to shard elwynn at all. Obviously wtv they do, we need more clarification.
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Which when levelling, is actually a major part of the game. Not to mention selling your stuff on the AH, going to the bank to put away crafting mats you can’t use yet, trading with others, mages selling water, people finding groups for dungeons…
The idea that a city will be barren is unrealistic in the Vanilla world. This isn’t Retail where skills are automatic and you can open your Guild Bank or your Bank in the field.
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Which you have to do every 2 levels, and there’s fewer servers and fewer places to do it.
Like I said, it should be 200+, at least 400 in the zone before a shard. We want the competition for mobs still, but without the queues that prevent the tourists from getting it out of their system.
I understand both of these points of view and I agree it shouldn’t be there. But the point I was making, out of all the zones for launch the sharding could decimate, cities are the least of my concern. People are in and then out, and not being able to see everyone in a city is a lot less of a concern then lets say…seeing everyone in a questing area when you’re trying to group up with people.
People are completely clueless as to what kind of addons are available nowadays. Having an LFD implemented into the game is not at all a big deal.
Take a look:
https://i.imgur.com/JlZyG22.png
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Cities are where community really happens. Individuals meet in the field or in dungeons. Guilds recruit in the cities. People relay the bad behavior of others in the city. People find groups for those dungeons in the city.
The cities are where the game really feels alive, because they are the most congested part of the game at pretty much any time after the first hour. The moment people get out of Elwynn or Dun Morogh, they’re going to be sent into the city to do the cross city quest. (Stormpike’s Delivery or whatever). Durotar recruits go to Orgrimmar. Mulgore recruits go to TB and then around the same time as arriving in the Barrens, they get sent to Orgrimmar.
The cities are going to be full with people because that’s where people are going to set their hearth. The only people who will be powering along and never hitting the cities, are the ones who aren’t really doing it for the community (or not yet at least).
I think temporary sharding would not be as big of deal if they gave us a hard rule when it would end. It seemed like from Blizzcon you could not get a consistent answer from Blizzard. One person says starting zone. Next person says couple of weeks. Next person says “high traffic”. I don’t want sharding. But I can live with it if it is used only for the starting zone. The servers need to be able to handle massive world pvp.
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I understand all of this, as you can make an argument for any zone with this exact same stamp and how bad sharding will effect it. I’m just saying that for the first week/month/however long they have sharding on for, cities shouldn’t be an issue. I only say this because most of the game is going to be played out in the world while questing.
I’m not saying it’s ok to shard cities, I’m just saying out of all the other possibilities, cities are the least of my worries. Yes, I understand it will zone me out of seeing a lot of people and that sucks, that’s why everyone hates sharding. But if I was waiting by an elite quest in redridge for example and I couldn’t see anyone near me because of sharding when there is really like 10 people there, that would be a MUCH bigger issue.
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Its a combination of all those things:
We understand that, and I understand completely, that sharding is antithetical to a cohesive Classic community, where you’re competing over limited resources. When Lord Kazzak is up, and guilds are racing to defeat him, there needs to be only one Lord Kazzak. When you’re trying to get, you’re trying to lock down the Thorium veins that spawn in limited sections of the world, you should be competing over limited resources. That said, the first few weeks when everybody is packed into Valley of Trials, when everyone is packed into Elwynn, we think we can use sharding there in a limited, time limited, way to solve the initial launch day load problems, while making sure that in the long run as server communities solidify, there’s a healthy population, and a single world for everyone to live in.
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"…On the other end of the spectrum though, there’s stuff that’s been added to the UI API since then, that allows for the creation of addons that communicate with each other and can be used to create social networks within the game.
We’re actually kind of suspicious of these and skeptical about the possibility of addons reproducing some of the functionality that we deliberately removed from Classic that we feel could be harmful to the authentic experience. And we know that once its out there saying “Just don’t use it if you don’t want it” isn’t good enough, because it will start to become part of the fabric.
And so, we may be restricting some of those new things as well. We’re likely going to find some middle ground that combines the old and the new here, with a goal towards making sure that the vast majority of addons people know and expect, function with the goal of authentic experience…" -Blizzcon 2018 panel
My takeaway from this is that those kinds of automating addons will be broken, somehow.
Changing LFD into anything other than the innkeeper thing would be grossly inauthentic. This includes allowing addons to do it.
That’s why you need to ignore what people say and just listen to what Ion actually said.
That said, the first few weeks when everybody is packed into Valley of Trials, when everyone is packed into Elwynn, we think we can use sharding there in a limited, time limited, way to solve the initial launch day load problems
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I don’t believe anything out of Ion’s mouth. He has a history of demonstrable lies. As for the first explanation you quoted, even the quote itself contradicts itself. First it appears that sharding will be ubiquitous but they will find a way to only 1 Kazzak and at the same time they say only the starting zone. Ugggh this is one item I really want a good blue post to cover.
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I agree with you. Anyone who posts about listening to Ion has never actually listened to Ion.
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The problem is that the justification you’re using for allowing sharding in cities, doesn’t go away, and isn’t caused by Tourists. That argument isn’t time limited, or used to restrict a tiny part of a given character’s experience.
You ask any Alliance player what the area they know the best is, and they’ll (mostly) say Ironforge.
You ask any Horde player what the area they know the best is, and they’ll (mostly) say Orgrimmar.
The arguments for sharding in a limited fashion don’t apply to cities, using your own statement. They don’t need sharding because no-one will be there initially. However, that argument regularly gets made for sharding post-launch. And in that situation its severely detrimental to the server. Cities don’t need sharding early on, and we don’t want any sharding after the initial launch bulge. So don’t even enable the sharding for Cities, or make any case for enabling it.
No it doesn’t. That’s a complete mischaracterisation. It says they know that the world needs to be a single cohesive whole, with farming limited resources and Kazzak as examples of why.
“That said”
they realise that at launch they have some specific challenges to work through where sharding in a limited form may be the best way forward.
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You and I are reading the same thing, and pulling out two different meanings. You can type this over and over, but your interpretation is not what was said. There is nothing in the first statement that limits the use of sharding. The only limit is on the resources.
If it turned out you were correct, I would be happy. Thus, I hope you are correct. But they gave a descriptive example of a situation that would not prevent the use of sharding.
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I’m not using a justification to allow anything. And I’m not sure if you’re suggesting I was saying it’s okay to use permanently or not? I think you’re confused about what I’m actually saying.
I’m saying that sharding does suck, yes, but given their plan to only use it for launch, the cities are not on my radar as on of the ‘worst possible places to shard at launch’. I’m not saying it’s okay to shard it, I’m just saying it’s not that bad compared to other zones, for launch specifically.
Okay you are REALLY making up an argument that doesn’t exist here my friend I am not talking about any sharding post launch or anything even close to that manner.
There’s nothing more to discuss here because you are clearly way off base on what I was saying.