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tera has server channels
sub channels for each server. you can switch whenever you please and be transported to another instance of the game world.
dealbreaker for me.
being a game that touts its "unique" political, guild war and pvp systems, it seems kinda odd to have server channels. examples:
-guild X declare war guild Y. WHATS THE POINT, they will just switch server.
-want to be the guild that always gets that world boss WELL TOO BAD, EVERYONE GETS THE WORLD BOSS (reminds me of pity certificates issued to poor performers in primary school).
channels are different to having multiple servers because in a server you play with the same people allowing reputation+ community+control/dominance to be established.
overall it just seems like tera engineers are not very good so they took the easy way out (feel free to correct me with proof if i am wrong, im just speculating based on what ive seen from other server channel games). they cannot build systems that can handle a load which 10 year olf games 10 years can. it sends out a negative message about overall quality of the game and what to expect in the future from the developer.
Comments
That design certainly beats having 100 servers at launch, only to be in need of mergers 2-3 months down the line. With this design you'll be able to serve the initial rush and have as many people as possible on one server. It's certainly a win win on my book.
Doesn't break realism anymore than having multiple servers, at least to me. It is the same concept as the standard servers just without the extended waiting period, and maybe the cost, it takes to change from server to server in most games.
how about pvp and guild war. how can u pvp a guild you have declared war against if the just switch servers?
The multiple channels are actually really awesome when you're fighting unique named world bosses with 30 min respawns.
you are being sarcastic right?
I would guess the "political zones" later in the game will have special rules for that, would make them pointless otherwise.
Anyways, if they dont have, it will fit nicely with bop proliferation and leveling speed changes
Flame on!
Lets assume for the sake of argument that channels are still present even after the population gets normalised after the initial rush.
Switching channels is instant and all it takes is one person to spot somebody to have the whole group next to him.
As for the world bosses, since you have two instances of the same zone, then you can theoretically have two world bosses.
Again all these are theoretical, until somebody confirms that in Korea the presence of channels is something common. From my experience, the starter island had 26 channels, the capital zero, the next area 8 and so on they were keep getting reduced the more the people kept levelling.
from what i understood, was the channels were only present in the lower lvl zone. and when the population spreads out they will be non-existant.
I've got the straight edge.
No, not at all. I was farming a world boss with a few guildmates in the last beta that had a 30 min respawn. 4 channels made it so we didn't have to wait long.
You just honestly seem like you're looking for a reason to hate the game. They added a timer for zone changing, it's like 5 seconds or something. If you're really engaged in a pvp situation such as gvg no one will get 5 seconds of standing still to just swap zones. Even if they do, what's to stop the attacking group from switching along with them?
In the beta it wasn't hard. There were only about 5 channels so you just find which one your enemies in, switch to it, and fight.
I agree it's not ideal...but it is much better than having 30 servers at launch then having to downgrade to 6 a couple of months later. Currently there is a 5 second countdown to switch channels so I'm hoping they will increaes the countdown in the future (the first beta didn't even have a countdown if I remember correctly so they are willing to change it up according to the players).
It's not instant anymore (or at least it wasn't in the last beta). Though by 5 seconds is still pretty fast and might be classified as instant.
doesnt the fact the there is multiple world bosses take away from their importance. on a pvp server it would ruin the whole competition and player interaction aspect which is what mmorpgs are about. if there are multiple instances of a world boss why would anyone fight over it?
5 second timer doesnt solve the problem and there is no way to know for sure which channel your enemy has switched to.
channels essentially instance the WHOLE game. that is a terrible direction for mmorpgs. we should be moving towards larger servers that can hold more people simulateously with fewer instances given advances in technology.
Yes, the current close beta is active in EU, but I'd rather wait at this point for the full game to play. I hate alts and I've levelled way too many already to see them erased when all this is over.
In any case, any MMO without channels to handle the initial rush is destined to either suffer from empty servers or be forced to merge them early, or both. There are other solutions to this issue of course. Rift is offering free transfers, so you can switch from your dying server to one of your choosing. GW2 is creating an instance of the whole server by creating an overfill server (or multiple), instead of creating instances of individual regions.
The Island of Dawn (starter island 1~10) has 10 channels at the moment (used to be uncapped) and there is no PvP there. Lumbertown is your next area and it has only 4 channels I believe. Areas beyond that have been reported as having less or no additional channels. It was pretty frustrating when you could switch channels, even on the run, instantly to avoid a death. They recently instituted a 5 second root/cast time to switching now and I imagine they will adjust it further if needed.
Lastly, "load" is subjective when talking about games over time, you and I both know this. There are videos with hundreds of people PvPing, the tech is not deficient, channels are intended to spread people out. In the places I have been ~17, the seperate channels have been a good thing since the environment is a closed in forest and since most people are in this level range right now.
If you have questions about TERA I highly suggest you post in it's forum. There are knowledgeable people there that can answer most questions. There's also the main site of course.
Edit: LOL, nm...
Just not worth my time anymore.
Have you ever played a game where there's 1 monster needed for a kill and 100+ people need that monster? Welcome to TERA. Thank you for the channel system. Is it really so much of a bother for you that there are other people killing the same mob as you but in a different channel. Or do you like other people taking monsters from you when you're trying to quest, essentially wasting your time? It's not like you don't see anyone else. I doubt you've played much of the game. The system works great.
But we do. The issue is not the server size but the landmass. A certain landmass can serve a certain amount of players. If you make it too large, your game becomes a barren desert, if you make it too small there are more players than mobs. Lets say that your landmass can serve 10.000 players and you got 100.000 players. You can either:
Create 10 servers and place 10.000 players in each
Create 2 servers and place 50.000 in each with channels to offer the extra landmass.
The advantages of the second system is that the servers will always be busy, will be less prone to become deserted than the first model and you have as much of your population in one spot as possible.
Or does mulitple world bosses just mean their can be 5 fights going on instead of 1? Or one guild that can wipe 5 groups? I'd argue it actually adds more PvP aspecs then it takes away in terms of world bosses.
I agree having a huge world to hold all the players would be awsome...but it's not a viable option right now. So it's really between having a ton of servers, or less servers with channels. Personally I think channels are the lesser of the two evils.
100%
Channeling is not a bad thing, nor is instancing, there are poor was to use these tools, and there are good ways to use them.
People are afraid of new things, even long after they have lost their new smell.
Well, people that have recently played SW:TOR can be wary of heavy instancing, but this is something completely different. We are not talking about instancing every second building, we're talking about instancing the whole zone, if needed. I see the needed part being true only during the launch of the game and perhaps during prime time.
For the record, I remember when Lineage 2 launched in EU/US. There were more people than foxes in that starter island.
Let's add to why the second option is even better...
When you enter a zone you are automatically added to the most popular channel that isn't at it's "full".
Chat is split between all the channels, so it doesn't break up the community.
Big cities are not channeled, everyone is in the same channel.
Regardless of multiple channels, world bosses will not be available at cap, believe me, they are down at all times, you want them you'll be fighting for them, channels do not hinder OWPvP.
I mean if you don't like the channels, especially for the reasons you stated, you haven't played the game passed the island of dawn. The 600 man battles that have gone on throughout the BETA phases on Valley of the Titans, or all the times I've killed off other guilds fighting world bosses with my guild would be a clear indicator of that.
so what you are saying is that the channel system is a compromise made to accomodate for poor game design ( small game world)?
they should just unlock channels for use as other channels fill up and keep only 1 channel open intially. this will prevent the whole server merge fiasco when the time comes without killing immersion and player interaction.
from what i have gathered it seems there is not enough things to do for everyone on a server so they have to crate multiple instanced of a server. this reaks of extremely linear and small game design. a game world should be big enough to accomodate all the people and there should be something to do for everyone without having to make instances. ofcourse some activities should be heavily contested like world bosses, open world dungeons etc... as this creates player interaction; guild disputes, wars, friendships and allieances etc
i can't beleive people are actually defending a system which is clearly taking mmorpgs in the wrong direction. why dont you tell the developers to make a bigger game world with a wider variety of quests rather than taking whatever crap they throw at you. it just sounds like the developers are either incompetent or lazy as they didnt spend time making a large enough game world with a large variety of things to do and instead they threw together a hack system to compensate for this. from what i am hearing tera seems like a game where everyone is funneled into doing the same activities.
See my post on the bottom of page 1 bishbosh. I explained a lot.
Also no Bishbosh, TERAs map is huge...
Also it's not about how many people the game can hold, it's about minimizing servers, even if the world successfully held a massive 50,000 people, but 2,000,000 people are playing, instead of having 40 servers, 8 with channels that hold 250,000 each is better and you only get added to flood channels when the main one is full. This will keep the servers much more alive.
someone said the number of channels decrease the higher level you get?
does this mean there are no server channels at endgame?
if so I might actually download the game for CBT4 and give it a try.
^ this and more. Currently the cap in CBT is 32. At 32 you have probably naviagated a total of 1/4 of the entire map. So over 1/2 the level cap and only 1/4 of the world seen? Pretty good to me.
No, it's not "poor design". The game works on so many levels during the leveling process (grind) it's insane. You obviously havn't played it that much.
I meant my post on the bottom of page 2 sorry.
Also... I don't know, but channels make the game better, not worse and I am a crazy PvPer, I was infamous every second of the BETAs.