From my understanding it tries to place you in instances with either friends or people who selected the same preferences as you. On paper that would be ok (though IMO isolated servers would still be better).
The problem is they've also already explained that they open more instances as previous ones fill up... filled up means they can't add more people. I don't see how this system will work as it will inevitably end up unable to place people together due to capacity restrictions.
If an instance has a cap of 100 players and the first instance fills up with 75 group players, 20 roleplayers and 5 soloers a new instance would be opened... another 50 soloers log in on the new instance. So where would it place the next group player that logs in? If the first instance is full then it would have to place him with the soloers which means he's completely cut off from the players he needs to be with.
The only way to deal with that would be to forcibly move players between instances like auto-balancing in an FPS. That would NOT be popular in an MMO.
I really just don't see how this will work without fragmenting the community even more.
if that is true then that indeed "sucks".
Sometimes I think developers are too caught up in "being developers". I suppose it makes some sense as they want to push the boundaries of what they do bit as in other types of "art" where the creators seek to do this, inevitably they just lose people or lose sight of why they were doing it to begin with.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
Whats the difference if you have players you cant see on another server or in another instance?
I find a strong sense of selective outrage in some posts on these forums. Sorry to burst that little bubble you have or crack that shell around your precious ego but a game that features servers with others you cant see or communicate with is the exact same thing as having players you cant see or communicate with while in a seperate instance of a zone.
There is a major difference that you would have seen already if you'd read the thread.
Ten isolated servers mean ten isolated communities; that means you will regularly be playing with the same people and will get to know the community on your server. Individuals will develop repuations within that community (good and bad) and players will be more likely to form friendships with those they encounter regularly.
Ten instances on one mega-server leads to something very different; those people are switching around all over the place which essentially means it's one HUGE community ten times the size of the isolated server example. This means that you very rarely encounter a player more than once due to there being ten possible different versions of the same place. This means that individuals cannot build a reputation for themselves because they just get lost in the crowd.
This also leads to one of the most endemic problems of the WoW-era MMO community: a lack of consequence for anti-social behaviour. WoW's dungeon finder (which combines many servers into one pool) makes it inconsequential to troll whereas the isolated server example would see such a person develop a bad rep and ultimately shunned by the community unless they started playing nice.
There is a VERY distinct difference between servers and instances, because instances are designed to be easy to move between and that means there is no persistence in the community. Persistence is one of the concepts the MMO genre is built on, so yeah I'd say it's a big deal when a mechanic removes it.
they've already said it will put you with people you've played with before. so if you select the RP mega-server pocket you will always be thrown into the RP mega-server pocket with other just like you. but you also have the choice to play with others who aren't in that pocket.
From my understanding it tries to place you in instances with either friends or people who selected the same preferences as you. On paper that would be ok (though IMO isolated servers would still be better).
The problem is they've also already explained that they open more instances as previous ones fill up... filled up means they can't add more people. I don't see how this system will work as it will inevitably end up unable to place people together due to capacity restrictions.
If an instance has a cap of 100 players and the first instance fills up with 75 group players, 20 roleplayers and 5 soloers a new instance would be opened... another 50 soloers log in on the new instance. So where would it place the next group player that logs in? If the first instance is full then it would have to place him with the soloers which means he's completely cut off from the players he needs to be with.
The only way to deal with that would be to forcibly move players between instances like auto-balancing in an FPS. That would NOT be popular in an MMO.
I really just don't see how this will work without fragmenting the community even more.
Let's say your friend plays in instance 1 which is full and can't accept any more players for the time being. You want to play with your friend but you can't join instance 1 so you join instance 2. Your friend sees your problem so he changes instance 1 to instance 2. Now you can play. This mechanic btw is not really new in MMO games as it's been used in quite a few already (RoM, TERA, Aion) and it's called channels. Just this time used more intensively affecting all zones at once instead of one.
Advantage - you really can play with your friends. Just tell them in what world instance you are. You want to log into full instance? You end up in a queue with a choice: wait or switch to different instance (still same character).
I admit that i do not like that sort of server design one bit.
There is one advantage and really imo ONLY one to the users and that is yo ucan move from shard to shard to get a certain boss for yourself or find harvesting nodes.
It makes for a bad community design becuase one thing i have found in my gaming years is after awhile you take notice of the same players passing you by.Having a ton of shards,you tend to see different people all the time and never become familiar with your community.It is like your community changes from day to day,never the same.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
I admit that i do not like that sort of server design one bit.
There is one advantage and really imo ONLY one to the users and that is yo ucan move from shard to shard to get a certain boss for yourself or find harvesting nodes.
It makes for a bad community design becuase one thing i have found in my gaming years is after awhile you take notice of the same players passing you by.Having a ton of shards,you tend to see different people all the time and never become familiar with your community.It is like your community changes from day to day,never the same.
we don't enough about how it will in teso yet. for all we know each mega-server pocket holds 10,000 people. a lot of people seem to be assuming that each "shard" or "pocket" only holds a few hundred.
Whats the difference if you have players you cant see on another server or in another instance?
I find a strong sense of selective outrage in some posts on these forums. Sorry to burst that little bubble you have or crack that shell around your precious ego but a game that features servers with others you cant see or communicate with is the exact same thing as having players you cant see or communicate with while in a seperate instance of a zone.
There is a major difference that you would have seen already if you'd read the thread.
Ten isolated servers mean ten isolated communities; that means you will regularly be playing with the same people and will get to know the community on your server. Individuals will develop repuations within that community (good and bad) and players will be more likely to form friendships with those they encounter regularly.
Ten instances on one mega-server leads to something very different; those people are switching around all over the place which essentially means it's one HUGE community ten times the size of the isolated server example. This means that you very rarely encounter a player more than once due to there being ten possible different versions of the same place. This means that individuals cannot build a reputation for themselves because they just get lost in the crowd.
This also leads to one of the most endemic problems of the WoW-era MMO community: a lack of consequence for anti-social behaviour. WoW's dungeon finder (which combines many servers into one pool) makes it inconsequential to troll whereas the isolated server example would see such a person develop a bad rep and ultimately shunned by the community unless they started playing nice.
There is a VERY distinct difference between servers and instances, because instances are designed to be easy to move between and that means there is no persistence in the community. Persistence is one of the concepts the MMO genre is built on, so yeah I'd say it's a big deal when a mechanic removes it.
What if each separate instance of this mega server is actually the size of a normal server? Instead of holding 100 people it can hold 2k+ people? Then any argument you have is null and void.
Sandbox means open world, non-linear gaming PERIOD!
Subscription Gaming, especially MMO gaming is a Cash grab bigger then the most P2W cash shop!
Bring Back Exploration and lengthy progression times. RPG's have always been about the Journey not the destination!!!
@ OP : Please explain how this is worse than all the "invisible players" being on a completely separate server that one of you would have to pay to be switched to?
I mean seriously? This solves the problem of realizing an acquaintance also plays your fav. MMO, but on a different server. Ah well, that sucks.
For the slow among you, ESO won't have that problem. So please, tell me what the actual problem is.....
Sir I cant believe someone has to explain the difference to you. Just stop and THINK about it for 10 mins before you post.
Whats the difference if you have players you cant see on another server or in another instance?
I find a strong sense of selective outrage in some posts on these forums. Sorry to burst that little bubble you have or crack that shell around your precious ego but a game that features servers with others you cant see or communicate with is the exact same thing as having players you cant see or communicate with while in a seperate instance of a zone.
There is a major difference that you would have seen already if you'd read the thread.
Ten isolated servers mean ten isolated communities; that means you will regularly be playing with the same people and will get to know the community on your server. Individuals will develop repuations within that community (good and bad) and players will be more likely to form friendships with those they encounter regularly.
Ten instances on one mega-server leads to something very different; those people are switching around all over the place which essentially means it's one HUGE community ten times the size of the isolated server example. This means that you very rarely encounter a player more than once due to there being ten possible different versions of the same place. This means that individuals cannot build a reputation for themselves because they just get lost in the crowd.
This also leads to one of the most endemic problems of the WoW-era MMO community: a lack of consequence for anti-social behaviour. WoW's dungeon finder (which combines many servers into one pool) makes it inconsequential to troll whereas the isolated server example would see such a person develop a bad rep and ultimately shunned by the community unless they started playing nice.
There is a VERY distinct difference between servers and instances, because instances are designed to be easy to move between and that means there is no persistence in the community. Persistence is one of the concepts the MMO genre is built on, so yeah I'd say it's a big deal when a mechanic removes it.
What if each separate instance of this mega server is actually the size of a normal server? Instead of holding 100 people it can hold 2k+ people? Then any argument you have is null and void.
Not really, the instances are not persistant worlds like isolated servers. The instances open and close as necessary, and the world can be in a different state from instance to instance meaning there is no persistance from the view of the player.
If each instance held as many people as you suggest then that would only make it worse; with that many players hopping between instances you really would never see the same person twice...
Whats the difference if you have players you cant see on another server or in another instance?
I find a strong sense of selective outrage in some posts on these forums. Sorry to burst that little bubble you have or crack that shell around your precious ego but a game that features servers with others you cant see or communicate with is the exact same thing as having players you cant see or communicate with while in a seperate instance of a zone.
There is a major difference that you would have seen already if you'd read the thread.
Ten isolated servers mean ten isolated communities; that means you will regularly be playing with the same people and will get to know the community on your server. Individuals will develop repuations within that community (good and bad) and players will be more likely to form friendships with those they encounter regularly.
Ten instances on one mega-server leads to something very different; those people are switching around all over the place which essentially means it's one HUGE community ten times the size of the isolated server example. This means that you very rarely encounter a player more than once due to there being ten possible different versions of the same place. This means that individuals cannot build a reputation for themselves because they just get lost in the crowd.
This also leads to one of the most endemic problems of the WoW-era MMO community: a lack of consequence for anti-social behaviour. WoW's dungeon finder (which combines many servers into one pool) makes it inconsequential to troll whereas the isolated server example would see such a person develop a bad rep and ultimately shunned by the community unless they started playing nice.
There is a VERY distinct difference between servers and instances, because instances are designed to be easy to move between and that means there is no persistence in the community. Persistence is one of the concepts the MMO genre is built on, so yeah I'd say it's a big deal when a mechanic removes it.
What if each separate instance of this mega server is actually the size of a normal server? Instead of holding 100 people it can hold 2k+ people? Then any argument you have is null and void.
Not really, the instances are not persistant worlds like isolated servers. The instances open and close as necessary, and the world can be in a different state from instance to instance meaning there is no persistance from the view of the player.
If each instance held as many people as you suggest then that would only make it worse; with that many players hopping between instances you really would never see the same person twice...
why are so many people "hopping instances" ? if they want to be in the role players instance why would they swap out of it?
Are people really starting to defend this? Dear lord. The one title I had hoped people would break the marketing hype cancer with was this travesty of a 'mmo'.
Looks like it going to happen again, as it has done before, again, again, again and again.
Wow 7 pages worth of threads and no one mentions the obvious. Im not here to defend what they are doing, but there is a reason. It's called game programming. Have you ever in your life seen a seemless world that can support hundreds of thousands of players on one server? You could probably answer yes to that on one game, EVE. But heres where things go wrong, ENTITIES!!!!!! You can only have so many moving objects on a screen before the server load gets to high and eventually crashes. If anyone of you have ever read anything John Carmack has written, then you would see why it can't happen with todays technology. There isnt one server that could handle 10000+ players on top of NPC's and the like.
So the question really is, would you rather play a game that crashes constantly but looks amazing and you can play with everyone, or would you rather have smooth gameplay and no crashes and only play with a select few? Trust me on this, you will never see a one server seemless world anytime soon. Getting over this now will help you move on and maybe you can start enjoying what you have.
MMOs are more mainstream these days. Hell, I remember when Mythic were proud and did a server broadcast because they had 500 users online at one time in Dark age of Camelot.
It is in that light you need to be realistic about your servers. You need to accept the fact your game might attract MILLIONS of players now. You can either choose to entertain the instancing system or you need to set up more and more servers.
Sure, you lose a bit of immersion with the instancing systems but a "game breaker?" Not sure i'd call it that. Especially if each instance holds 2000 players. It becomes a mild annoyance when wanting to play with friends.
Frankly i'd rather see MMOs go with this type of architecture because inevitably you avoid the age old problem of server A which has lag, queues and 10,000 people vs server B which has 1000 players and is dead as a doornail, thus forcing even more onto server A.
I'm struggling to see how having 10 unique servers with a 2000 player cap vs one server with a 2000 player instance cap is in any way different.
It's not any different and is, in fact, much better. However, show me one game that has done this? Instead, we only have examples of games that limit 100-200 people per instance, such as SWTOR, AoC, STO and so on.
Wow 7 pages worth of threads and no one mentions the obvious. Im not here to defend what they are doing, but there is a reason. It's called game programming. Have you ever in your life seen a seemless world that can support hundreds of thousands of players on one server? You could probably answer yes to that on one game, EVE. But heres where things go wrong, ENTITIES!!!!!! You can only have so many moving objects on a screen before the server load gets to high and eventually crashes. If anyone of you have ever read anything John Carmack has written, then you would see why it can't happen with todays technology. There isnt one server that could handle 10000+ players on top of NPC's and the like.
So the question really is, would you rather play a game that crashes constantly but looks amazing and you can play with everyone, or would you rather have smooth gameplay and no crashes and only play with a select few? Trust me on this, you will never see a one server seemless world anytime soon. Getting over this now will help you move on and maybe you can start enjoying what you have.
How about option 3 where the game doesn't look amazing, but passable, yet in return allows me to play with thousands of people?
Are people really starting to defend this? Dear lord. The one title I had hoped people would break the marketing hype cancer with was this travesty of a 'mmo'.
Looks like it going to happen again, as it has done before, again, again, again and again.
Yep, reminds me of GW2's community. They'll defend every feature to death, shout down even fans that criticize, and then a few weeks after release, those same fanbois will trash the game. Just like GW2.
So basically this dude has an issue with idea and that's cool he'll play another game if he can't get over it. What i do like about it that kind of blows all the issues with it up is, no server transfers, no server mergers, groups and guilds can all be in the same shard who gives a crap about anyone else.
Wow 7 pages worth of threads and no one mentions the obvious. Im not here to defend what they are doing, but there is a reason. It's called game programming. Have you ever in your life seen a seemless world that can support hundreds of thousands of players on one server? You could probably answer yes to that on one game, EVE. But heres where things go wrong, ENTITIES!!!!!! You can only have so many moving objects on a screen before the server load gets to high and eventually crashes. If anyone of you have ever read anything John Carmack has written, then you would see why it can't happen with todays technology. There isnt one server that could handle 10000+ players on top of NPC's and the like.
So the question really is, would you rather play a game that crashes constantly but looks amazing and you can play with everyone, or would you rather have smooth gameplay and no crashes and only play with a select few? Trust me on this, you will never see a one server seemless world anytime soon. Getting over this now will help you move on and maybe you can start enjoying what you have.
How about option 3 where the game doesn't look amazing, but passable, yet in return allows me to play with thousands of people?
Its not the graphics that stops developers from building a seemless world with thousands of players, its the moving objects and server load. It could look like minecraft and still crash. Its the moving objects. People will never get that part of game development. Those same people need to just get over the fact that it will not happen. Not with this game, not with the next big game. There all built off what they can handle server wise. Trust me when i say this, the hardest part about making a game isnt the game itself. The hardest part is getting it took work over a network with the intention of supporting thousands of players. And this is why you will continue to get phasing/instancing. Now if someone really wants to help out, start using some of that free time to develop a server of that caliber.
Wow 7 pages worth of threads and no one mentions the obvious. Im not here to defend what they are doing, but there is a reason. It's called game programming. Have you ever in your life seen a seemless world that can support hundreds of thousands of players on one server? You could probably answer yes to that on one game, EVE. But heres where things go wrong, ENTITIES!!!!!! You can only have so many moving objects on a screen before the server load gets to high and eventually crashes. If anyone of you have ever read anything John Carmack has written, then you would see why it can't happen with todays technology. There isnt one server that could handle 10000+ players on top of NPC's and the like.
So the question really is, would you rather play a game that crashes constantly but looks amazing and you can play with everyone, or would you rather have smooth gameplay and no crashes and only play with a select few? Trust me on this, you will never see a one server seemless world anytime soon. Getting over this now will help you move on and maybe you can start enjoying what you have.
How about option 3 where the game doesn't look amazing, but passable, yet in return allows me to play with thousands of people?
Its not the graphics that stops developers from building a seemless world with thousands of players, its the moving objects and server load. It could look like minecraft and still crash. Its the moving objects. People will never get that part of game development. Those same people need to just get over the fact that it will not happen. Not with this game, not with the next big game. There all built off what they can handle server wise. Trust me when i say this, the hardest part about making a game isnt the game itself. The hardest part is getting it took work over a network with the intention of supporting thousands of players. And this is why you will continue to get phasing/instancing. Now if someone really wants to help out, start using some of that free time to develop a server of that caliber.
Yea, majority of players won't understand hardware limitations. If companies could have everyone on one server, they would've done it already, especially considering the cost effectiveness.
"For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast, And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed: And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill, And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!" ~Lord George Gordon Byron
Originally posted by Pocahinha lol damn these developers keep making instanced games and have the nerve to call them mmorpgs... An instanced game with 1 server and multiple copyes of the zones is NOT an mmorpg.
That is according to you.
Show me where in the definition of an MMORPG that it states there can be no instances?
Wow 7 pages worth of threads and no one mentions the obvious. Im not here to defend what they are doing, but there is a reason. It's called game programming. Have you ever in your life seen a seemless world that can support hundreds of thousands of players on one server? You could probably answer yes to that on one game, EVE. But heres where things go wrong, ENTITIES!!!!!! You can only have so many moving objects on a screen before the server load gets to high and eventually crashes. If anyone of you have ever read anything John Carmack has written, then you would see why it can't happen with todays technology. There isnt one server that could handle 10000+ players on top of NPC's and the like.
So the question really is, would you rather play a game that crashes constantly but looks amazing and you can play with everyone, or would you rather have smooth gameplay and no crashes and only play with a select few? Trust me on this, you will never see a one server seemless world anytime soon. Getting over this now will help you move on and maybe you can start enjoying what you have.
How about option 3 where the game doesn't look amazing, but passable, yet in return allows me to play with thousands of people?
Its not the graphics that stops developers from building a seemless world with thousands of players, its the moving objects and server load. It could look like minecraft and still crash. Its the moving objects. People will never get that part of game development. Those same people need to just get over the fact that it will not happen. Not with this game, not with the next big game. There all built off what they can handle server wise. Trust me when i say this, the hardest part about making a game isnt the game itself. The hardest part is getting it took work over a network with the intention of supporting thousands of players. And this is why you will continue to get phasing/instancing. Now if someone really wants to help out, start using some of that free time to develop a server of that caliber.
Yea, majority of players won't understand hardware limitations. If companies could have everyone on one server, they would've done it already, especially considering the cost effectiveness.
Well I'm certainly no expert, but explain how all the older games managed to do it? With an up-to-date machine (at the time), I didn't have a whole lot of trouble with lag in heavily populated areas in other games. Mytic used to show server populations for DAoC and I remember them being around 3k in its prime. That 3k was, of course, spread across all 3 realms. If you're going to say newer MMORPG's have more moving parts per area than older games, then let me rephrase my other post and say that I'd be fine with an MMO with just as much moving parts as the older games and Vanguard, a newer game, and not have multiple instances of the same zone. 100-200 people per map before it duplicates is really bad IMHO and that's all I've seen with modern MMORPG's that use the technology you're defending.
Wow 7 pages worth of threads and no one mentions the obvious. Im not here to defend what they are doing, but there is a reason. It's called game programming. Have you ever in your life seen a seemless world that can support hundreds of thousands of players on one server? You could probably answer yes to that on one game, EVE. But heres where things go wrong, ENTITIES!!!!!! You can only have so many moving objects on a screen before the server load gets to high and eventually crashes. If anyone of you have ever read anything John Carmack has written, then you would see why it can't happen with todays technology. There isnt one server that could handle 10000+ players on top of NPC's and the like.
So the question really is, would you rather play a game that crashes constantly but looks amazing and you can play with everyone, or would you rather have smooth gameplay and no crashes and only play with a select few? Trust me on this, you will never see a one server seemless world anytime soon. Getting over this now will help you move on and maybe you can start enjoying what you have.
How about option 3 where the game doesn't look amazing, but passable, yet in return allows me to play with thousands of people?
Its not the graphics that stops developers from building a seemless world with thousands of players, its the moving objects and server load. It could look like minecraft and still crash. Its the moving objects. People will never get that part of game development. Those same people need to just get over the fact that it will not happen. Not with this game, not with the next big game. There all built off what they can handle server wise. Trust me when i say this, the hardest part about making a game isnt the game itself. The hardest part is getting it took work over a network with the intention of supporting thousands of players. And this is why you will continue to get phasing/instancing. Now if someone really wants to help out, start using some of that free time to develop a server of that caliber.
Yea, majority of players won't understand hardware limitations. If companies could have everyone on one server, they would've done it already, especially considering the cost effectiveness.
Well I'm certainly no expert, but explain how all the older games managed to do it? With an up-to-date machine (at the time), I didn't have a whole lot of trouble with lag in heavily populated areas in other games. Mytic used to show server populations for DAoC and I remember them being around 3k in its prime. That 3k was, of course, spread across all 3 realms. If you're going to say newer MMORPG's have more moving parts per area than older games, then let me rephrase my other post and say that I'd be fine with an MMO with just as much moving parts as the older games and Vanguard, a newer game, and not have multiple instances of the same zone. 100-200 people per map before it duplicates is really bad IMHO and that's all I've seen with modern MMORPG's that use the technology you're defending.
100-200 is bad. but, the worlds game developers have created are also heavily zoned and therefore smaller. smaller areas mean less people per area in order make sure it runs smoothly.
Wow 7 pages worth of threads and no one mentions the obvious. Im not here to defend what they are doing, but there is a reason. It's called game programming. Have you ever in your life seen a seemless world that can support hundreds of thousands of players on one server? You could probably answer yes to that on one game, EVE. But heres where things go wrong, ENTITIES!!!!!! You can only have so many moving objects on a screen before the server load gets to high and eventually crashes. If anyone of you have ever read anything John Carmack has written, then you would see why it can't happen with todays technology. There isnt one server that could handle 10000+ players on top of NPC's and the like.
So the question really is, would you rather play a game that crashes constantly but looks amazing and you can play with everyone, or would you rather have smooth gameplay and no crashes and only play with a select few? Trust me on this, you will never see a one server seemless world anytime soon. Getting over this now will help you move on and maybe you can start enjoying what you have.
Yes. DAOC, Darkfall, hell even at release Warhammer had some pretty high numbers in endgame RvR.
More recently, Planetside 2.
Please stop spouting what zenimax's staff has said as impossible or too hard. It's not, not by a long shot. Zenimax has been in damage control since day one, and will continue to spout utter lies as fact right up to release of the game.
Wow 7 pages worth of threads and no one mentions the obvious. Im not here to defend what they are doing, but there is a reason. It's called game programming. Have you ever in your life seen a seemless world that can support hundreds of thousands of players on one server? You could probably answer yes to that on one game, EVE. But heres where things go wrong, ENTITIES!!!!!! You can only have so many moving objects on a screen before the server load gets to high and eventually crashes. If anyone of you have ever read anything John Carmack has written, then you would see why it can't happen with todays technology. There isnt one server that could handle 10000+ players on top of NPC's and the like.
So the question really is, would you rather play a game that crashes constantly but looks amazing and you can play with everyone, or would you rather have smooth gameplay and no crashes and only play with a select few? Trust me on this, you will never see a one server seemless world anytime soon. Getting over this now will help you move on and maybe you can start enjoying what you have.
Yes. DAOC, Darkfall, hell even at release Warhammer had some pretty high numbers in endgame RvR.
More recently, Planetside 2.
Please stop spouting what zenimax's staff has said as impossible or too hard. It's not, not by a long shot. Zenimax has been in damage control since day one, and will continue to spout utter lies as fact right up to release of the game.
would you say that guild wars 2 is more technologically advanced than those titles? (generally curious as to your opinion, not attacking you) that game has some major culling issues. i never played DAoC but, did that game suffer any performance issues? im curious as to why a deccade later developers would seem to revert their stance on open worlds when tech. seems to have only gotten better.
Wow 7 pages worth of threads and no one mentions the obvious. Im not here to defend what they are doing, but there is a reason. It's called game programming. Have you ever in your life seen a seemless world that can support hundreds of thousands of players on one server? You could probably answer yes to that on one game, EVE. But heres where things go wrong, ENTITIES!!!!!! You can only have so many moving objects on a screen before the server load gets to high and eventually crashes. If anyone of you have ever read anything John Carmack has written, then you would see why it can't happen with todays technology. There isnt one server that could handle 10000+ players on top of NPC's and the like.
So the question really is, would you rather play a game that crashes constantly but looks amazing and you can play with everyone, or would you rather have smooth gameplay and no crashes and only play with a select few? Trust me on this, you will never see a one server seemless world anytime soon. Getting over this now will help you move on and maybe you can start enjoying what you have.
Yes. DAOC, Darkfall, hell even at release Warhammer had some pretty high numbers in endgame RvR.
More recently, Planetside 2.
Please stop spouting what zenimax's staff has said as impossible or too hard. It's not, not by a long shot. Zenimax has been in damage control since day one, and will continue to spout utter lies as fact right up to release of the game.
would you say that guild wars 2 is more technologically advanced than those titles? (generally curious as to your opinion, not attacking you) that game has some major culling issues. i never played DAoC but, did that game suffer any performance issues? im curious as to why a deccade later developers would seem to revert their stance on open worlds when tech. seems to have only gotten better.
No I wouldnt say gw2 is more 'advanced' than pretty much anything other than the hero engine. The gw2 engine is actually the gw 1 engine patched up, it was pretty average to begin with, so when you make software (and hardware for that matter) do things it wasnt originally designed for you get lag. An optimised non laggy engine needs to be written from the ground up with mutlicore and threaded support.
This thread seems a bit daft, tbh. OP, You realize, of course, that any MMO you've ever played that had multiple servers are like instances when compared to a Mega-server, right? Lets compare:
Traditional MMO: Multiple gameplay servers where the player Has to pick one to join, permenantly. Players can only play with people on the same server. Moving to another server is usually a premium service, costing real cash. Server merges usually resulting in player merges and forced name changes for some.
TESO Mega-Server concept: Probably multiple servers as far as hardware goes, but to the player one single server that everyone joins. Players can play with anyone who is playing the game, though i expect some communication is required between the parties to arrive in the same shard. Moving between the servers is now possible at-will, and appear to the player as selectable shards, and costs no real world cash to effect the change. A reduction to the requisite servers should be transparent to the player, with no forced name changes.
I don't see what all the fuss is about. This really is not that different that an MMO with multiple servers, except now you are not separated from those players by a 20 buck character transfer fee.
Now, if the auto-shard assignment cannot be overridden, then it's daft. Auto should auto-sort guild members to the same shards, etc.
Frank 'Spankybus' Mignone www.spankybus.com -3d Artist & Compositor -Writer -Professional Amature
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if that is true then that indeed "sucks".
Sometimes I think developers are too caught up in "being developers". I suppose it makes some sense as they want to push the boundaries of what they do bit as in other types of "art" where the creators seek to do this, inevitably they just lose people or lose sight of why they were doing it to begin with.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Let's say your friend plays in instance 1 which is full and can't accept any more players for the time being. You want to play with your friend but you can't join instance 1 so you join instance 2. Your friend sees your problem so he changes instance 1 to instance 2. Now you can play. This mechanic btw is not really new in MMO games as it's been used in quite a few already (RoM, TERA, Aion) and it's called channels. Just this time used more intensively affecting all zones at once instead of one.
Advantage - you really can play with your friends. Just tell them in what world instance you are. You want to log into full instance? You end up in a queue with a choice: wait or switch to different instance (still same character).
I admit that i do not like that sort of server design one bit.
There is one advantage and really imo ONLY one to the users and that is yo ucan move from shard to shard to get a certain boss for yourself or find harvesting nodes.
It makes for a bad community design becuase one thing i have found in my gaming years is after awhile you take notice of the same players passing you by.Having a ton of shards,you tend to see different people all the time and never become familiar with your community.It is like your community changes from day to day,never the same.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
we don't enough about how it will in teso yet. for all we know each mega-server pocket holds 10,000 people. a lot of people seem to be assuming that each "shard" or "pocket" only holds a few hundred.
What if each separate instance of this mega server is actually the size of a normal server? Instead of holding 100 people it can hold 2k+ people? Then any argument you have is null and void.
Sandbox means open world, non-linear gaming PERIOD!
Subscription Gaming, especially MMO gaming is a Cash grab bigger then the most P2W cash shop!
Bring Back Exploration and lengthy progression times. RPG's have always been about the Journey not the destination!!!
Sir I cant believe someone has to explain the difference to you. Just stop and THINK about it for 10 mins before you post.
Not really, the instances are not persistant worlds like isolated servers. The instances open and close as necessary, and the world can be in a different state from instance to instance meaning there is no persistance from the view of the player.
If each instance held as many people as you suggest then that would only make it worse; with that many players hopping between instances you really would never see the same person twice...
why are so many people "hopping instances" ? if they want to be in the role players instance why would they swap out of it?
Are people really starting to defend this? Dear lord. The one title I had hoped people would break the marketing hype cancer with was this travesty of a 'mmo'.
Looks like it going to happen again, as it has done before, again, again, again and again.
Wow 7 pages worth of threads and no one mentions the obvious. Im not here to defend what they are doing, but there is a reason. It's called game programming. Have you ever in your life seen a seemless world that can support hundreds of thousands of players on one server? You could probably answer yes to that on one game, EVE. But heres where things go wrong, ENTITIES!!!!!! You can only have so many moving objects on a screen before the server load gets to high and eventually crashes. If anyone of you have ever read anything John Carmack has written, then you would see why it can't happen with todays technology. There isnt one server that could handle 10000+ players on top of NPC's and the like.
So the question really is, would you rather play a game that crashes constantly but looks amazing and you can play with everyone, or would you rather have smooth gameplay and no crashes and only play with a select few? Trust me on this, you will never see a one server seemless world anytime soon. Getting over this now will help you move on and maybe you can start enjoying what you have.
It's not any different and is, in fact, much better. However, show me one game that has done this? Instead, we only have examples of games that limit 100-200 people per instance, such as SWTOR, AoC, STO and so on.
How about option 3 where the game doesn't look amazing, but passable, yet in return allows me to play with thousands of people?
Yep, reminds me of GW2's community. They'll defend every feature to death, shout down even fans that criticize, and then a few weeks after release, those same fanbois will trash the game. Just like GW2.
So basically this dude has an issue with idea and that's cool he'll play another game if he can't get over it. What i do like about it that kind of blows all the issues with it up is, no server transfers, no server mergers, groups and guilds can all be in the same shard who gives a crap about anyone else.
Peace
Lascer
Its not the graphics that stops developers from building a seemless world with thousands of players, its the moving objects and server load. It could look like minecraft and still crash. Its the moving objects. People will never get that part of game development. Those same people need to just get over the fact that it will not happen. Not with this game, not with the next big game. There all built off what they can handle server wise. Trust me when i say this, the hardest part about making a game isnt the game itself. The hardest part is getting it took work over a network with the intention of supporting thousands of players. And this is why you will continue to get phasing/instancing. Now if someone really wants to help out, start using some of that free time to develop a server of that caliber.
Yea, majority of players won't understand hardware limitations. If companies could have everyone on one server, they would've done it already, especially considering the cost effectiveness.
"For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed:
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!"
~Lord George Gordon Byron
That is according to you.
Show me where in the definition of an MMORPG that it states there can be no instances?
No, it was entirely down to the WvW. In every other aspect of the game they intend to make it super easy to group with people cross server.
he must have forgotten about overflow and guesting.
Well I'm certainly no expert, but explain how all the older games managed to do it? With an up-to-date machine (at the time), I didn't have a whole lot of trouble with lag in heavily populated areas in other games. Mytic used to show server populations for DAoC and I remember them being around 3k in its prime. That 3k was, of course, spread across all 3 realms. If you're going to say newer MMORPG's have more moving parts per area than older games, then let me rephrase my other post and say that I'd be fine with an MMO with just as much moving parts as the older games and Vanguard, a newer game, and not have multiple instances of the same zone. 100-200 people per map before it duplicates is really bad IMHO and that's all I've seen with modern MMORPG's that use the technology you're defending.
100-200 is bad. but, the worlds game developers have created are also heavily zoned and therefore smaller. smaller areas mean less people per area in order make sure it runs smoothly.
Yes. DAOC, Darkfall, hell even at release Warhammer had some pretty high numbers in endgame RvR.
More recently, Planetside 2.
Please stop spouting what zenimax's staff has said as impossible or too hard. It's not, not by a long shot. Zenimax has been in damage control since day one, and will continue to spout utter lies as fact right up to release of the game.
would you say that guild wars 2 is more technologically advanced than those titles? (generally curious as to your opinion, not attacking you) that game has some major culling issues. i never played DAoC but, did that game suffer any performance issues? im curious as to why a deccade later developers would seem to revert their stance on open worlds when tech. seems to have only gotten better.
No I wouldnt say gw2 is more 'advanced' than pretty much anything other than the hero engine. The gw2 engine is actually the gw 1 engine patched up, it was pretty average to begin with, so when you make software (and hardware for that matter) do things it wasnt originally designed for you get lag. An optimised non laggy engine needs to be written from the ground up with mutlicore and threaded support.
This thread seems a bit daft, tbh. OP, You realize, of course, that any MMO you've ever played that had multiple servers are like instances when compared to a Mega-server, right? Lets compare:
Traditional MMO: Multiple gameplay servers where the player Has to pick one to join, permenantly. Players can only play with people on the same server. Moving to another server is usually a premium service, costing real cash. Server merges usually resulting in player merges and forced name changes for some.
TESO Mega-Server concept: Probably multiple servers as far as hardware goes, but to the player one single server that everyone joins. Players can play with anyone who is playing the game, though i expect some communication is required between the parties to arrive in the same shard. Moving between the servers is now possible at-will, and appear to the player as selectable shards, and costs no real world cash to effect the change. A reduction to the requisite servers should be transparent to the player, with no forced name changes.
I don't see what all the fuss is about. This really is not that different that an MMO with multiple servers, except now you are not separated from those players by a 20 buck character transfer fee.
Now, if the auto-shard assignment cannot be overridden, then it's daft. Auto should auto-sort guild members to the same shards, etc.
Frank 'Spankybus' Mignone
www.spankybus.com
-3d Artist & Compositor
-Writer
-Professional Amature