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WildStar: Carbine to Address Low-Pop Servers
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
A thread on the WildStar forum that expressed concern over low population servers has been addressed by Stephan Frost. Frost has Tweeted that the team is working on a solution to the issue.
@GuildUMBRA @tonyrey @Pappylicious @WildStar we are working on some tech regarding that issue. You should hear about it soon.
— Stephan Frost (@StephanFrost) August 25, 2014
See this WildStar forum thread to participate in the discussion.
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Comments
You mean the instance matcher and BG queues aren't already cross-server?
This game was honestly a slightly more Charming, but oddly less interesting SWTOR to me, hell im suprised it wasnt made with the hero engine with how linear and boring the gameplay and combat was.
And to those assuming im just saying this as a nasty quip, I had a podcast for both SWTOR and Wildstar pre-release, albeit both of them were short lived. During each podcast I stressed to show my support for each game when the initial announcement's rolled out, and slowly there after, lost the will to put that much effort into each game after seeing more of the gameplay mechanics.
The major different between the two, SWTOR I played on release only because I had put so much energy into it and played it just to have fun with the game and satisfy my love for Star Wars. I made a Sith Lord named "Darth Tubbo" and made the fattest, most ugly looking Sith ever, and had him shagging every chick he came across in the galaxy, and you know what? Even though I didnt fully enjoy the game it was fun for a couple weeks.
Now with Wildstar I tried a similar avenue, by making a tubby Chua Mercenary. I thought the animations were great, I didnt mind the art style, thought it was charming and even some of the dialouge had a spark of originality. BUT GOOD GOD IS THISGAME BORING!
Seriously if you have to start your game off with level 1-4 being nothing but cutscene after cutscene, handheld combat sequence after handheld combat sequence, you arent just catering to linear-themepark gamers, your catering to the lowest common denominator of people that had literally never played a video game before.
It wasnt even like I was being told how to play an MMO, its like they assumed I didnt know how to click the mouse or type on the keyboard, and thats ultimately the problem when you start dumbing down games to the extreme.
And no obviously I never made it to the end game raids, but you know what, If I spend 10 hours with a game and it doesnt get interesting, im not going to invest another 50-100 just to make it so.
If theres one thing I would change about this current gen, its this. Put some damn grouping in the first few levels, make people interact for one mission or two at least, if they dont like it, too damn bad, they will get over it, and at least they will see what they like or dislike abou group dynamics instead of assuming or reading about it.
Seriously everyone goes on about why they dont like grouping in games especially at low levels, and guess what? Most havent had the chance to try it this generation. Only the jaded older MMO players who went from hardcore to casual can say that and im sorry, they arent the authority on the matter, there needs to be some differentiation between each game and not the same damn carbon copy with less balls each go-around.
[mod edit]
Server merges won't do much for WS in it's current state. They need immediate actions in order to keep players from leaving and, equally important, bring new people in.
I think you're barking up the wrong tree, buddy.
Go around these forums and start counting how many of those "WoW fanbots" go around mocking other games for their population issues. Now go around and count the SWG fans, and the general "All MMO's must be sandboxes or DIE" crowd and see which group winds up bigger.
I have yet to see a WoW player show up and go "Haha! Another one bites the dust."
The spiteful ones are always going "Hah, that's what they get for making a WoW clone, and not a sandbox".
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
Fundamentally there's three main issues that's likely causing the decreasing population.
1) Accessibility to raiding (i.e. the gating via attunement and number of players needed). The attunement limits the raiding pool, which in turn makes it difficult to get the number of players needed.
2) The attunement impact on adventures and dungeons. Turning them into a challenge mode, with it being difficult to hold a group together. This screws over casuals.
3) People expect to see others in a MMO, so as player numbers reduce it has a cascading effect.
They are already changing the attunement process, but are being too slow to implement. Which leaves the population size being the key area they need to address. So doing something with the servers (at this stage) is a high priority, as they won't attract new players when they don't see anyone else.
Agreed. It's almost always the bitter SWG vets or sandbox enthusiasts who start being nasty when a themepark game shows signs of population issues. WoW players rarely show up to mock anything, probably because they're too busy playing and enjoying WoW.
AN' DERE AIN'T NO SUCH FING AS ENUFF DAKKA, YA GROT! Enuff'z more than ya got an' less than too much an' there ain't no such fing as too much dakka. Say dere is, and me Squiggoff'z eatin' tonight!
We are born of the blood. Made men by the blood. Undone by the blood. Our eyes are yet to open. FEAR THE OLD BLOOD.
#IStandWithVic
Yea, I've been browsing these forums for a long time. For a game with MILLIONS of players, it's very VERY rare to see a WoW player post about WoW here. I guess they're all just chillin' in their natural habitat or something (which actually says good things about WoW). I don't see why they would have to anyways. I mean, WoW players KNOW their game is successful, so what need do they have to say "I told you so?" to anyone else? The exception being if the WoW bashing gets really bad, in which case some defenders might show up, but you can't really blame them for that IMHO since they weren't first to pull the trigger.
Most people who post hatred about games hate WoW in the first place. The WoW players, meanwhile, are... well, playing WoW.
They're too occupied with their Barrens chat to bother with this site.
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
Still technically counts as being busy "playing and enjoying WoW" in a way (if you believe socializing in an MMO = playing it). Chilling in Barrens chat is oftentimes hypothetically better than chilling in an actual barren chat or game, for example.
Yes they are. Actually you have the option to queue for ppl only from your server or cross server.
All Time Favorites: EQ1, WoW, EvE, GW1
Playing Now: WoW, ESO, GW2
Yeah, it's all good.
And a lot of them are busy making songs and videos about WoW, or Youtubing the ones others made. All the joking aside, WoW doesn't have such a bad community.
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
I unfortunately have to admit mega servers really are and should be the future for pretty much any MMO. It's the only way to reliably combat population issues and ensure the best experience possible for anyone who is playing. It's also good for developers because it avoids any perceived negative press from a server merger.
It also makes it much harder for a player to discern how the game is doing population wise. A player playing in phase 1 packed with players is not likely to notice that there's 10 less phases than there used to be. He just sees that his game is always lively.
I do wonder how public gatherings like RP events work on megaservers. ESO recently tweeted about some player events happening for everyone to show up at such and such place at a certain time. And I immediately thought "hmm... How is everyone going to be in the same phase?". One of these days I'll have to catch an event and see how it works.
That is not likely to be the problem, the problem is more likely to be lack of interest in what the game offers, and what it's major draws are. Think before you go off on a rant attempting to belittle an entire communities (WOW players) ability.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
I enjoyed the game and I especially enjoyed the difficulty. However, the # of people needed to raid is just something that I'm not interested in. I've done 40-man raiding in the past and I really detested it. The amount of coordination required just for communications really takes the fun out the social aspect of raiding. 20-man isn't a whole lot better so I've always enjoyed raiding more when I drew the line at 10-man. In a 10-man, I will get a chance to know everyone's playstyles and usually their personalities after a while. I knew Carbine was going to launch 20/40 and so I planned upfront to take a pass on raiding there until they lower the raid size. I want it to be as difficult just not as many people. Call me antisocial.
With people departing, I think fewer and few guilds are really going to have the numbers to raid and this is a shame. Utterly predictable but still a shame. Our guild has absorbed a few small guilds, picking up people who want to join a larger one to raid. I wish them all luck and I will probably return when some of those changes eventually happen.
I actually posted (though didn't create a thread) stating that it was my belief it would go F2P within six months. Though this was backed by an interview MMORPG did with them, where they said that the box price and subscription model is great for the first six months or so to get money back for server costs, and then going F2P is a good choice when that's done to acquire more people and have friends of friends come in to fill in space.
It's still my belief this game will make the transition at some point. Though this isn't something out of malice, but rather backed by their own view points way back when the game was in development.
With regards to their direct competitor ESO (the one they released closest to), I'm still not sure. While the general census is that the game isn't good, it still seems to have people playing (though that may be the megaserver at work) and updates coming along that address some of the hate. In time, it's possible it will recover whatever harm was done and stay strong as a P2P game.
Though I'm still thinking it will go B2P by the time it releases on consoles. That just seems like the smartest business move to make since console players are more akin to DLC and store purchases rather than monthly payments and renting games. Milk the PC players for all their worth, get feedback and then launch B2P on consoles with a large marketing campaign and watch the millions roll in.
Oops.
Well, that's embarrassing.
I hit "quote" instead of "edit" and edited the quote.