Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
ESO Adding Overflow Servers For Launch!
Abardomas
Member Posts: 159
"And just to be fully prepared, we are adding overflow servers in the event we get even more players on day one than we are now forecasting. If player demand overwhelms our planned capacity and a queue has to be formed, we will offer waiting players the option to begin playing right away on an overflow server. The overflow server is meant to be a temporary place where you can begin your adventure as you normally would gain experience, items, achievements, etc. The character you create and everything gained as you temporarily play on an overflow server will transfer back with you when you log in the next time on the main megaserver. While youll still be able to group on the overflow servers, other social features like PvP or access to your friends list and guild will be unavailable during that play session - but we want to offer this option to allow players to get into the game quickly, create a character and start to enjoy ESO without delay. This way, you can log in and play, and when the queue shrinks, you can switch to the megaserver and continue to play with the character you created."
Just out on the official site.
Comments
Matt has also addressed other player concerns such as: added player collision with NPCs, which means your character will no longer be able to run through NPC enemies. This is a frequently requested feature that we think succeeds in making melee combat more visceral and exciting.
See the full article Here
Sounds more like they weren't prepared still for the numbers of people, they should of planned above what was expected and beyond if they thought the game was going to do well, since that extra planned wouldn't be wasted but taken up by new players later on.
Technobabble
Super mega server. Set your phasing to stunning.
Highly unlikely that people who don't treat posting in internet forums like a second job will even care.
Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall free me.
A server with TWO hamsters lol
That's because the name mega server is really a misnomer. It's really just a bunch of regular servers that have the ability to communicate with each other seemlessly. It's not actually one big server. So, if they have underestimated the demand at launch, they'll add regular servers as overflow until more servers can be full integrated into the mega server setup to meet the demand.
This is what i don't understand, we have been doing 'stress test' weekends for them and they should have more than a rough idea how many servers they need and then know to add more than currently necessary so they don't have the 'overflow' problem or queue
It is quite possible that preorder sales are outpacing their expectations and may continue to do so with the launch two weeks away. Yes, they have stress tested the servers. But the sales may be outpacing the number of folks which participated in the test. If that's the case, than they have a backup plan.
I don't see the harm in that.
They should have already figured in pre-order sales, expected sales before launch, on launch day and for x time after, then exceeded that figure to make sure launch day and hopefully the first month was fine for at least being able to get on the server, queue
Any un-used server capacity at launch, would eventually be used up and extra servers needed to having more than expected for launch isn't wasting money unless your expecting to loose customers
There are different approaches.
If it was simply a case of integrating more servers however I feel that that could be completed between now and launch.
What I wonder is have they hit a limit in the control and communication software. A limit identified by the testing which cannot be overcome pre-launch.
It seems to me that adding another server to the megaserver pool still means the backend infrastructure like the database and storage system has to support the additional capacity where adding a overflow server pool could sit on a completely different backend infrastructure that transfers your character data over when you move. In a lot of ways overflow servers would be easier to standup and could even be geographically separated since they have very minimal connections to the megaserver pool.
Regardless I would take a overfill server over sitting in a queue for hours on end any day.
Really good news currently doing the Russian Archeage testing some peeps in the first week were on a queue for over 4 hours !!
Much better now though,but if the server goes tits up ESO might suffer from Vanguard Syndrome or worse still be labeled along side such crimes against humanity like Dark and Light.
*shudder*
I think that's why they have been expanding the tests to push what they have now, so they know. It's a pretty smart approach. While you mention other games, one that stands out to me was Rift. While the game itself was solid, there were 90-140 minute queues right after launch. That's pretty unacceptable.
Interested to see how ESO works it, with the "mega server", you don't have to worry about having a ton of servers early on, and then having dead servers 31 days after launch, and thinking about consolidating.
Every MMO has beta weekends and stress tests before launch. Every MMO is then met with severely overburdened servers on launch, despite whatever estimates were forecast during the stress tests.
It's usually a double edged sword. If a game adds dozens of extra traditional servers to accommodate the heavy launch crowd, that phase may go smoothly, but then they'll have to reduce the number of servers through several mergers a few months after launch as the population inevitably thins out (and this IS inevitable), which can have several negative effects, not the least of which is the psychological effect it has on the community, the implication being the game is doing poorly and losing large numbers of players.
With this "mega server" setup and this forewarning, however, it seems Zenimax has, for the most part, covered its bases. Hopefully they truly will have enough server capacity to accommodate the full launch crowd. And then when the population levels out a bit after launch, it won't look like they're executing panic server merges over a severe population decrease. Instead, they will simply be returning players to their "normal" server network. It's the same kind of concept, but with a much more positive spin.
And perception is everything.
And what exactly happens when there are duplicate names made on the temporary server?
And how long will people have to stay on the temporary server and wait until the megaserver can allow their added population?
l wouldnt think they would tolerate being there much past level 10.
Maybe they could push the temp server as being more PvE friendly
It's pretty easy to verify names against a central database to make sure they are unique so I don't see that happening.
The only downside of being on the overflow server will be you can't group up with your friends on the main server. Once you transfer to the main server you will be able to group up with anyone else on the main server. Other than that it's really going to be the same experience except no PVP which is going to lead to all kinds of whining come launch week I'm sure.
A server with TWO hamsters lol
lmao