Be careful in choosing your server.

brihtwulf · March 2006

One thing that has become apparent on many servers is that some have a very low population. On most servers, if you don't play during peak times, you're going to have a hard time finding a group. And in a game where grouping is a necessity, this means you can't really play at all. Many servers have a "decent" population during latter evening hours (US EST), but during late nights/mornings/early afternoons, it can be downright impossible to find or form a group.

I have two possible recommendations for people playing during off-peak times. 1. Take a break from the game until the server populations level out and they decide about server merges, or 2. Start over from scratch on a new, high population server. For those who don't know, the high population servers are: Gallanda and Khyber. If you're experienceing the same problem I was and are willing to start over, these can be better options.

What I hope is that this is not some ominous sign of what appears to be a drastic outflow of players in the first month. When I logged in early in the month it seemed possible to find a group at any time of the day on my server. Now, I'm lucky to see 8-10 people in a tavern, 2 groups LFM, and maybe 5 players LFG (keep in mind this is for the entire server). And after seeing all the dissention on the DDO forums, it doesn't look very promising for the game's fans. I really enjoy the game, but I don't know if I'll be happy having to move over to a new server and repeat all the content I went through with my level 5 Paladin to start all over again...

Kien · March 2006

I play on a high population server. Even there, it can be hard to get into a pick-up group unless you're a cleric. Just a week ago it was easy - I guess the free play period is over, and the server populations have crashed across the board.

Anyway, I wanted to reply directly to Brihtwulf. If you are thinking about switching servers, do it now. If you think you've repeated a lot of content at your level, it's only going to get worst as you get higher level. My main is level 8 and I am sooooo sick of repeating the same quests over and over. I got stuck in the repeat cycle at level 5.

Shurijo · March 2006

I believe April 6th will be the last day of the free month for a lot of players. So another week or so and the forums will probably be quite different.

I really hope the game survives, but everyone in alpha/beta knew what would happen. I figure the devs knew, too. I think what they have is good, but it needs a lot more of it. But, I don't think a MMORPG can ever regain subscriber momentum after the launch, unless they plan on releasing an expansion or a major, major update.

brihtwulf · March 2006

I'm wondering if there will be this snowball effect everyone keeps talking about. They say that because the game is group oriented, when people begin pouring out it will make grouping much more difficult. That will in turn make many people quit the game, then making grouping even more difficult. If that cycle continues there will be no one left except for the real diehard fans of the game. DDO has a lot of good qualities, but my fear is that it will end up going the way of AC2...

smellyfed · March 2006

I play on a busy server, Sarlona, and I never have trouble grouping. If my LFG flag doesn't get me tells and invites right away, I'll check the list to see what groups are Looking for More and see if I can match up classes. If that's a no go, I'll look at who else is LFG and try to make a group.

Honestly, I don't think I've never spent more then 10 minutes looking for a group. It's actually kind of a problem because I have all these collectables that I need to run to various collectors, hither and yon, and I rarely have time to get it done.

I've played with all skill levels, some players are not as good as others. I honestly don't hear any complaining in game though - perhaps if I was grouped with a bunch of level 10s I would, but the other 5s I'm playing with often do have level 10s and I just don't hear them complaining or threatening to leave when their subscription runs out.

If the new content and additional level opportunites don't keep rolling in, DDO will be in trouble in a couple months. But I honestly think most players are going to give it a couple months before they yank their subscriptions. There's a lot of potential here and redoing these quests at higher and higher levels of difficulty becomes strangely addictive.

Ian_Hawkmoon · March 2006

IMO what will tell if there is trouble or not is if they start to consolidate servers. To me that would mean that they 1. overestimated the number of subscribers from the begining, or 2. They are losing more subscribers then they anticipated. Either way it is bad.

hadz · March 2006

Well looky at that...exactly what I predicted...

Small servers caps and no solo game-play...means...NO GAME!

This will definitely be a snowball effect, as people leave there'll be less chance of getting a group, leading to even more people leaving. Bye Bye DDO.

(I didn't buy it on release because of its lack of content, and because I thought this pop-decline would happen quite early, looks like it has, and I doubt I'll buy it at all now)

IceV2 · March 2006

I never have such problem. I have characters in Lhazaar (currently on of the servers with less population) and Thelanis. I never wait more than one minute to get into a group. I have weird play times and I never play on peak hours.

Odysses · March 2006

I have never had a problem finding a group within 5 minutes even at late hours when I mostly play. I'm not sure which servers are low pop but from my experience on thelanis pops are pretty high.

Unknown · March 2006

Having no problem getting groups on Aundair and it's a lower population server but then I am playing many characters and if my level 7 doesn't get a group right away I switch to another and get right in. And I don't play during peak times either (mostly 7am-12pm cst).

Ian_Hawkmoon · March 2006

So IceV2, Odysses and jeddak... You are saying that there is no problem with server population and that it is easy to get a good group at anytime of the day? I just want to make sure what you are saying in my own mind.

Odysses · March 2006

I can't speak for anyone else, but in my experience it has been extremely easy to get a group. I am a few experience points from lvl 9 atm. I played a bit more during the intitial week and was up to lvl 6 pretty fast. I played with quite a few different groups on the Thelanis server. Most groups I was invited in (some with LFG on and a few with it turned off). Usually if I couldn't find an active group after a few minutes I made my own and recruited players. The only hard part I would find is when your looking to fill the last spot with a very specific class, sometimes you may have to wait 10 mins to get the right person in.

brihtwulf · March 2006

Well, we must be playing different games, because when I played on the Thelanis server during mornings and afternoons EST this week, there was next to no one looking for groups or looking for more in their group. When there are 5-6 people looking for groups and a few groups looking for members on the ENTIRE SERVER, and there are only a handful of players around in the taverns, that is not enough to get into a group. And for the people saying you can get into a group within 1 minute, the only way you're doing that is during the peak hours. I have waited for over half an hour on a few occasions trying to get a group, and that is WAY too long for a casual gamer. I don't need to waist my time waiting around to play the game.

I doubt if someone went on right now (11:00 AM EST) they would find more than a handful of people on the server, and the same amount of people I mentioned above. It's slightly better if you play a cleric (since they're needed for every group) but not everyone wants to play a cleric. Regardless, I have tested the player numbers on several occasions during the weekdays and found the situation only worsening.

Odysses · March 2006

I was in my office for about 20 mins today around 9:45 am PT and this is what came up on my searches.

10-14 people lfg in player search

8-11 diff groups looking for players various levels, deleras tomb, threnal ruins and some noobie quests in there.

450-500 people that popped up on the search, I just set my size window to 20 peeps and counted at the cut off name.

When I flagged lfg group I was invited within 30 seconds for a group. (I am a lvl 8 rank 4 rogue)

So someone that has knowledge of how typical player pops average out could give a rough estimate with the pop numbers i posted at the given time of day. I don't think alot of players are on at 9:45 am West coast. I also think Thelanis has avg pop numbers relative to the other servers since its listed in the middle of the launcher.

Ian_Hawkmoon · March 2006

Just to interject something here... It may be easier to get a group depending on what level you are...

I mean 10-14 people looking for a group doesn't seem like a whole lot of people considering that there are a lot of different quests to do. (OK, not a lot of quests, but quite a few)

As I said, maybe certail levels have a harder time finding a group, or maybe even the class you are has something to do with it.

porgie · April 2006

I'll be a guinea pig. I'll put my experiences as I level along as far as population goes.

Right now, I just left the training grounds, did the starting quests in the pub cellar. Got my first one over in the alley.
I'm on the Adar server.

Honest truth, just doing that I've already been asked to be in a group 4 times. I turned them all down because I was doing the beginning solo quests.

I don't know how people got my name, because I never put myself LFG even. Oh, well... more to come. I"ll check in at level 2. I'm a slow player though, so don't leave the light on. hehe.

porgie · April 2006

NEW UPDATE ---

I started playing earlier this afternoon. I did two quests. I also went into the pub 3 times to med up.

Questing...
On both quests I went with a group. I was asked to go on both. I intentionally left my first group on the first quest I did so so that I could see how long it took me to get another group.
First quest - about 3 minutes - 2 person group (not counting me)
Second quest - about the same - 3 man group (not counting me)
Both quests: All I did was hit the LFG button on the quest panel. I haven't quite figured out the rest of the LFG functions yet. Mostly because I haven't had to use them. I think I need to read the help manual on them anyways.

In The Pub People (these are from when I very first entered and counted. the # changed as I sat there, of course)...
1st visit - 8 people in pub (not counting me)
2nd visit - 12 people in pub (not counting me)
3rd visit - 19 people in pub (not counting me) People must be coming home from work!!! yippee.

This is in the zone you come to just after you get off the boat from the newbie zone.

More to come. So tune in often. Forgive my slow leveling though. I like to read the stuff as it goes by and look at the shiny things.

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