Nino...One of the upsides of VG.

[tad10]

Originally Posted by Zehn - Vhex

Wonder what the feasibility of just shutting down all extaneous servers and just having one pvp and one pve server. Now that the population is a bit more spread out, it sounds like a win-win situation.

It's not that spread out there are usually 2-3 high end spots that see a lot of traffic not to mention the major cities -- there's somewhere around 100k active subs -- even if the engine could handle that -- it would be insane in some places. I heard the 20k per server number bandied about once so taking that number we'd need a min of 5 PvE and 1 PvP server (AFAIK totall pvp pop for all pvp servers <20k). Probably 5 US PvE 1 Euro PvE and 1 US/Euro combined PvP would give us around 12-18k active accounts per server which would solve any pop probs -- that combined with some fixes on the movement front (teleporters or Kcxiv's suggestion -- I actually prefer both - limited telepoerts to all at least 3 on each continent - and give some additional ports to arcane casters and shaman) -- would fix most of the LFG issues. Heck throw in a better LFG for shits and giggles.

And I still think they need to add a EQ style newbie dungeon to make it easier for new players to meet each other.

* * *

Ravensign I agree. Better serious server surgery now then letting the patient bleed to death over time.

[Vinen]

Originally Posted by Ravensign

I think EQ2 was spot on when they did their server mergers. More Scott 4tw. MMO companies need to not be as afraid of merging or fooling around with server pops.

DAoC desparately needs to go down to 4 servers (10k people online at at peak / 2500 in a healthy pop)
WoW needs some of the ridiculously low pop servers to merge.
From what I am reading VG needs to get people clustered together ASAP.

Server merge doesn't have to = OMG teh game is dying weakness, in fact, like pruning a tree, could actually stimulate health.

I would fucking love a server merge. Targonor is fucking empty... like 7 or 8 level 50s If even now... last I checked there was 6... I haven't really payed attention much though recently.

[Bobleclair]

flamehammer is doing fine about population.

[Kodylan]

I like how the guy in the Silky Venom thread says no one knows who FoH or this site is, yet it gets the same traffic as Silky Venom.

[UnchainedAcolyte]

Originally Posted by kcxiv

Thats why they need better traveling in Thestra. Qalia is fine, your 5 minutes from everywhere if you bind in the right area's. Whenever i get asked to head to Thestra i kind of cringe. lol

For me the answer lies in adding a lot of folks as friends, adding quests as I do them rather than focus on one area, and form groups by encouraging people via regional chat to join up (or join them) whether the place is a "hot spot" or a lesser-known area. I've stumbled across several interesting little finds, and enjoy exploring them with a good group. I'm equally willing to travel.

However, it is disappointing that I cannot stay in one general region and thoroughly explore the place as intended due to a thinly-spread population. I wouldn't be wild about it, but I see few alternatives to a server merge to correct the problem.

Maybe I should just defect to Qalia?

EDIT: Florendyl is fine with population in general, especially in "hotspots" with known great quest loot and such (too many groups in those places during peak hours in my opinion - explore, people!). However, off-peak hours, especially for remote, lesser-known spots on Thestra during that time can be tough. Found a great group last night though at about 2AM PST - I was lucky.

[Wolfen]

Overcrowding was one of the best things EQ had going for it. I know that sounds nuts, but I think it's true. You had tons of people around, so finding a group was fairly easy. You had so much more interaction with other players. A community gets built that way. A MMO without a concentrated group of players is lifeless and the pull to join the "grand crusade" isn't there.

[Citten]

Originally Posted by Wolfen

Overcrowding was one of the best things EQ had going for it. I know that sounds nuts, but I think it's true. You had tons of people around, so finding a group was fairly easy. You had so much more interaction with other players. A community gets built that way. A MMO without a concentrated group of players is lifeless and the pull to join the "grand crusade" isn't there.

Couldn't agree more.

[Seths]

I agree

[The Hiram Key]

Originally Posted by Wolfen

Overcrowding was one of the best things EQ had going for it. I know that sounds nuts, but I think it's true. You had tons of people around, so finding a group was fairly easy. You had so much more interaction with other players. A community gets built that way. A MMO without a concentrated group of players is lifeless and the pull to join the "grand crusade" isn't there.

All that and he pretty much owns the PGT AND Random Images. In the immortal words of Mel Brooks.... " It's good to be the King !".

[Dashal]

Eh there are places in VG that always seem crowded to me. CIS, the Arena, Greystone. Always multiple groups and people spamming that they need 1 more Tank/DPS/CC/Healer. At least on Hilsbury thats the case. The phat lewtz draws people in.

Add a good LFG tool and make travel streamlined and they're in the right direction. If at that point they need a merge so be it, but I'd get the first two in and then look at it again before they did it.

[Reoen Doum]

The necessity to do QUESTS to advance faster makes it harder to get groups... Too much time is spent for quests... where is that rare monster you've been looking for? No where.. just do a quest, go here take that, no mystery. Do quests, leave when youre done, find a group for new quests (if you find people that needs that quest too!) ahhg... sorry if I'm starting to be off topic.

Vanguard is not as group friendly as EQ was in my opinion too... which is terribly sad, I was certain that Vanguard would have been alot more group friendly :/ The in-game community is lacking on New Targonor... cities feel empty :/ I'm all for server merges too, but I don't know if I'll continue playing the way things are... this game has so much potential... but damn

Domy
40 Sorcerer
New Targonor

[chackle]

Inter-continental teleporting in New T like there is in Khal is beyond way overdue. It's goddamn crazy travelling over that continent :\

[Andric d'Regor]

need more brokers - one in each adventuring hub.

getting a load to sell or needing new items and having to gate to city then a run back to adventuring area sucks and is just a total waste of time.

[redjunkopera]

Better yet just have brokers in each instance.

[Elsebet]

Originally Posted by chackle

Inter-continental teleporting in New T like there is in Khal is beyond way overdue. It's goddamn crazy travelling over that continent :\

This is especially true if you want to complete the Dargun's Tomb questline. Basically once I travelled there, I didn't want to leave until it was over due to the trek. Just to give you an idea about this quest, it involves a rare spawn called Toxil. People have reported killing his PH over 50 times before giving up. Others are lucky and get it much sooner. We had to kill it about 35 times (on a ~15 minute timer, only about 4 chances an hour) over the course of several days of playtime before he finally spawned. The shards also take a rather long time to drop, probably a 1:25 ratio of shard to kills, and you need 7. That took us a few days of multi-hour blocks of farming the ghosts for our entire group to get all of them, not as bad as Toxil though since the named down there can actually drop nice items.

Now, we did this with guildies. Can you imagine trying to field a pick-up group in a remote region of Thestra to do what could be a potential multi-day camp? Maybe it happened in EQ, but as the gunslinger says, the world has moved on. The entire time we were there we only saw 1 other guild group and perhaps 2 people actually in the zone looking for a group. 95% of the time we were there, we were the only ones in the chunk.

We started the quest, having to kill 100 gnolls, at level 35. We are now halfway through level 39 and are finally on the last step of the quest. We have discovered, after a frustrating wipe or two, that if multiple people are on the quest it can easily bug out and spawn multiple events which easily wipe your group. I have to say, Dargun's is the first experience in Vanguard where I feel like I just want it to be over. I won't feel that sense of accomplishment when I get the orange weapon, I will simply feel relief that I can get out of that place and do something else.