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Server Populations
sardonica
Member UncommonPosts: 9
Just finished up my welcome back 5 days and felt very lonely , sometimes the only one listed for hours at a time in my particular area, so did a little survey of the 2 servers on which I have characters. This was done at about 7:05-7:12 PM EST today.
Levels Firefoot Meneldor
1-15 83 64
16-25 81 56
26-35 76 63
36-45 76 58
46-55 58 69
56-60 59 76
61-63 87 89
64 15 32
65 129 176
Totals 664 683
Quite a difference in distribution for about the same populations.
Comments
The Who is only region wide. That is only the totals for the zone you were in.
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"Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
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How are you?" -Me
It is easily possible to see all players not just your current region with the who command if you delete the region in the social panel. If there's 100 players, then narrow down the search by classes and levels, and sum it all up.
This method however, doesn't count annonymous and monster players which might be additional 10-20% of the population.
REALITY CHECK
try to join the globalLff channel , its usermade and on my server there is almost all times chatter and groups going on.
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AC2,AO,D&L,Lotro,VsoH,SWG,Uo,HGL,Drunners,CoH,GW,Potbs,PWI
Eq2,Dofus,WoW,WWIIO,Ryzom,Planetside,EvE,TR,DDO,RFonline,FOM,VC,..etc blabla
also hobbies....staring at loadingbars
Yes, please go to Brandywine, a server that is already having stress-related issues due to over pop.
My server is perfectly populated -- just enough peeps to make it feel alive and to find groups, and not enough to make the server squirrel keel over.
Also, I would point out that since LOTRO is a casual-friendly game, any real-time server accounting is going to give you a lowish figure. If it were a hardcore game with a low pop, then I'd be worried.
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Currently Playing: LOTRO; DDO
Played: AC2, AO, Auto Assault, CoX, DAoC, DDO, Earth&Beyond, EQ1, EQ2, EVE, Fallen Earth, Jumpgate, Roma Victor, Second Life, SWG, V:SoH, WoW, World War II Online.
Games I'm watching: Infinity: The Quest for Earth, Force of Arms.
Find the Truth: http://www.factcheck.org/
Im in Snowbourn and although there arent thousands of people tripping over themselves, I find it to be nicely populated. Almost every time I look for a group, I get one.
If you stand VERY still, and close your eyes, after a minute you can actually FEEL the universe revolving around PvP.
At first I was going to disagree with the differences as the numbers were minimal imo from one server to the next except for the level 64 difference in the two servers, a little excel work though proved the OP right, there is a huge difference in level distribution between the two servers:
Levels Firefoot Meneldor Percent Difference (Firefoot standard)
1-15 83 64 22.89156627
16-25 81 56 30.86419753
26-35 76 63 17.10526316
36-45 76 58 23.68421053
46-55 58 69 -18.96551724
56-60 59 76 -28.81355932
61-63 87 89 -2.298850575
64 15 32 -113.3333333
65 129 176 -36.43410853
Total 664 683 -2.861445783
But definitely play on a more populated server is the only suggestion I can make. The big E has people on at all odd hours. Benefits of being on an unofficial Oceanic/European server ;-).
I did similar checks in EQ2 and FFXI all the time and the trend shows games are losing subs and the entire genre is at a standstill.
I had numbers of 600-800 for EQ2 and i just did a Pandy check for FFXI it had 865.Games need to have around 3000 "IF" it is a new game because all the players will be around each other.As games get older you need a much larger total because the players will be spread out all over hells acres.The average server capacity is usually around 5k,imo you need that 5k total when games are 2+ years old.this is because 3k of those will be end game level and only 2k if your lucky will be amongst the gaming community ,not a bunch of afk people hanging out.
As we get new potential gamers,they do not really know how to get involved with an MMORPG community,but they do understand Facebook and Twitter,this is where all these new potential gamers are hanging out.The one game that did grab any new gamers was CODMW2,it was mass marketed,even had tons of TV commercials,so new people could identify with it.I also believe most NEW gamers start out with a console,so again the good PC MMORPG's will miss the boat.
When Microsoft pulls the plug on Ensemble studios ,you know there is a curbing trend happening.We may never again see a BOLD effort like Vanguard or EQ2 back in the day.I think we are for the next long while see a bunch of cheaply generated games based on 1/2 niche ideas.Expect servers to be near max for the first month or two then die off rapidly over the next few months,another obvious trend we have seen in games.
So this is not a trend relegated to LOTR it is all over in all the games.We need some brilliant Producer/developer top come up with such a great idea that it will attract a massive unflux of NEW gamers into the MMORPG genre,instead of the game hopping of a few million we see now in games.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Meneldor is one of the lowest pop servers. I started a new character on Landroval. Or you can try Brandywine.
That is also the issue. The OP is playing on 2 of the lower pop servers which means most people are at end game now. This greatly contributes to the ghost town feeling.
Elendilmir has a rather healthy population as well. Outside of those three though it does start to get pretty sparse on some other servers.
I will never understand why they don't merge some of the lesser populated ones. All they're doing is hurting themselves, but Turbine has made it rather apparent they simply won't consider it.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
Maybe I (OP) did just pick the 2 lowest pop servers & times of day out there. But even by now, they're the only actual (believable) numbers I've seen. Also the omission of anonymous and monster players is noted. Don't forget also that this survey was done during "welcome back" time so my numbers could even be overstated.
I took one of my creeps into the Ettinmoors on Meneldor Sunday night from about 8-10 PM and we couldn't quite fill 2 full groups of 6, and there was no organization to speak of. During the whole time I only saw 1-2 freeps, which is not to say there couldn't have been a few more elsewhere.
I have 5 chars on Meneldor since I stopped playing a year and a half ago out of boredom, all level 50 and heavily invested by now in GM, Rep, gold, etc. and even inherited leadership of a deserted Kin. Starting over on Firefoot, I raised the other two (original) classes to lev 35+ during the free weeks (for the horses). The idea of starting over on yet another server is out of the question for now. Hopefully though new players will have some guidance on the issue.
Consolidating servers would be perceived as a death knoll, so doubt we'll see that any time soon. Too bad the owners don't have the budget to advertise on TV like a certain other, but that's another topic I guess.
The thing is that if you compare the difference in population on the servers between one like Brandywine to one such as Winfola it's ridiculous to the point that it does make a difference in a player's perception of the game. A lot by now that are going to come back to this game know this by now so they know which ones to go to if they plan on getting into the game again.
But don't take my word for it. Wait for the next free trial period they have and see for yourself. There are a few servers in this game that are bustling with players and then there are some others that unless you're playing with friends, search for fellow players ahead of time, or are simply lucky when you start playing you're going to have a rough go at it when it comes to finding other players.
I always try to warn new players if I see them asking or talk to them while playing another game and the subject of LotR comes up to roll on either Brandywine, Landroval, or Elendilmir if they plan on playing Rings. Stay the hell away from the other servers.
It sucks but with this game it's just how it is. Great game and for the most part Turbine does an outstanding job with the game but this has always been an area they've struggled in least in my opinion.
Bad pr aside if they would have merged a few of the servers really hurting with players I think the level of players that wouldn't have quit would have outweighed that negativity. Hell, I played the game at launch and that was the reason I quit because my server turned into a ghost town. Came back later on starting fresh on a different server and the experience was like night and day since I chose one with a healthy population and finding groups wasn't like pulling teeth any more.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
Outside of those three though it does start to get pretty sparse on some other servers.
Don't make sweeping statements like that.
I play on Arkenstone, one of the supposedly low-population server, and I had no problem finding groups sooner or later. The kin community is also thriving. Did you ever try playing on these servers? I suppose not, or you and Thanatos465 wouldn't spit outright generalizations.
Outside of those three though it does start to get pretty sparse on some other servers.
Don't make sweeping statements like that.
I play on Arkenstone, one of the supposedly low-population server, and I had no problem finding groups sooner or later. The kin community is also thriving. Did you ever try playing on these servers? I suppose not, or you and Thanatos465 wouldn't spit outright generalizations.
Yeah, I have. It was the reason I quit the first time because I made a bad server choice. You can believe what you want but it won't change how things really are with server populations in this game.
It's not like this is some new revelation. It's been talked about over and over again amongst players and is one of the reasons Turbine has revamped some of the content making events that were group required into solo material.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
I've been playing on Meneldor since I joined the game back in june and I never had the feeling the server had such a low population. It's impossible to find how many players are on the server, since there is so many areas, instances, skirmish... They don't stick in the major towns or quest hubs all day afk, if that the case this game should be called lord of the ring offline.
The only thing that matter is that I managed to lvl a warden to lvl 60 and a mini to lvl 45 without any problems for finding grp when I needed, thanks to Glff mainly and other peoples alt
I am actually considering re rolling on another server because Brandywine is so jam packed all day and night. I think the casualness of this game breeds alt making and it shows up in all level ranges having a healthy population.
I beleive the two servers listed in the OP are the recommended servers and thus can see why if they are that sparse. Never the less I have only been playing the game for less than a month now and for it being as old as it ism on the second expansion, I am very surprised at the volume of players being so healthy.
Perhaps there is a balance issue where more recent servers never got a base or something but the most populated servers are well known and people still roll their first chars there. I never feel alone. Brandywine is very bustling at least.
the who command doesn't show the anonymous either.
there's a lot of those.
Lotro has alot of lifers too. They can go days or weeks without logging in.
That's true, typically I put most of my gaming time into an MMO if I have an active subscription with it, to get the most out of my money. Thanks to the lifetime though, I play LotRO sparingly as if it were any other game.
Playing - FFXIV, ESO
Played - FFXI, WoW, Lineage 2, Guild Wars, Aion, SWToR, LotRO, GW2, TERA, Rift, ArcheAge, TSW