[PotBS] Server Consolidation

[Lorrac]

Originally Posted by Quineloe

Does it make the game better in any way?

Oh hell yeah, it does.

[Quineloe]

Originally Posted by Lorrac

Oh hell yeah, it does.

In what way does it make the game better?

[Lorrac]

Have you seen the big eve thread on this forum? you can only get that kind of thing with a one sharded design.

[Quineloe]

Originally Posted by Lorrac

Have you seen the big eve thread on this forum? you can only get that kind of thing with a one sharded design.

You still have yet to offer any concrete advantages of a single-realm setup.
Do you think WoW would be better if all players were on the same realm?

[Lorrac]

Actually I did, you just missed them.

That thread speaks of massive player interaction. There's no way you can have anything like that on shards. Not to mention single server is pretty much the only way to have an in-game economy sort-of-work. Also, it's sorta immune to the dead server affliction - sure you can pay and be transferred off but it kills the community (and costs money!).

It's just... better. Of course WoW is too damn big, but imho having shards serve 250k customers (just as the eve cluster does) would have similar effects. Oh well, maybe for wow2 =)

[Drakks]

Originally Posted by Quineloe

Is there something you do in any other MMO besides fighting all day? Your post lacks sense

The fighting in potbs was nuanced and different, which is fine. It was also really slow to me, and something I just didn't enjoy. Looking at their sub numbers, I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one who felt this way.

I have to agree with some of the sentiment I read here, I don't think potbs ever had the ability to stand alone as a game. It did feel like a snap-on component or expansion to something else.

[Twobit Whore]

Originally Posted by Quineloe

Do you think WoW would be better if all players were on the same realm?

PotBS is more like EVE in intent than WoW. Do you think EVE would be a better game on multiple servers?

A game with territory control as a key component needs as many people playing in the same space as possible. Furthermore I would say the community needs it simply because when everything is happening the same way to everyone at the same time it galvanizes them. Who cares if the French are in control on server A, you are on server B where the Spaniards dominate. It fragments everyone instead of binds them to an overall common goal. The out of game community of EVE is just as, if not more, entertaining as the in-game 'action'.

[Quineloe]

Originally Posted by Lorrac

Actually I did, you just missed them.

That thread speaks of massive player interaction. There's no way you can have anything like that on shards. Not to mention single server is pretty much the only way to have an in-game economy sort-of-work. Also, it's sorta immune to the dead server affliction - sure you can pay and be transferred off but it kills the community (and costs money!).

It's just... better. Of course WoW is too damn big, but imho having shards serve 250k customers (just as the eve cluster does) would have similar effects. Oh well, maybe for wow2 =)

You're claiming this to be true, not actually backing it up. Maybe the Eve universe is a little bit larger than the Caribbean?

There's player interaction on my server, there's a lot of economy. Two things you claim can't exist with multiple realms.

The thing is there are only so many port battles every day and they are capped at 24 players per side. a server with thousands of players per nation simply wouldn't work because most people would get to see a port battle once a month.

Who cares if the French are in control on server A, you are on server B where the Spaniards dominate

The people playing on the server care? Who cares if BOB dominates EVE through cheating? I don't because I don't play EVE. Same fucking thing.

I have to agree with some of the sentiment I read here, I don't think potbs ever had the ability to stand alone as a game. It did feel like a snap-on component or expansion to something else.

Well, too bad it does else it would have been shut down by now.

It was also really slow to me, and something I just didn't enjoy. Looking at their sub numbers, I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one who felt this way.

Oh come on, nobody expected this to be a multi-million sub WoW killer.
By design, this is not a game for MUST-PRESS-JUMP-WHILE-RUNNING retards. Just like varios Simulation games were not appealing to your average arcade player.

[Lorrac]

The thing is, it's a computer game. They can make the ocean and the land as large as they want, relative to the player.

By the way, several people in the thread have acknolewdged the backing of my reasonment. The proof the single shard model generates crapload of meaningful player interaction is in this very forum, a few threads away. Have a look.

I've never claimed neither player interaction nor player-driven economy can't work on a multiple shard model. I just say, on a single shard they work better - in the case of economy, for example, the larger market size means there are way more production niches because the mass of players willing to buy a certain item is always big enough to be worth someone's time. On a game like wow or eq as a server matures and moves from expansion to expansion many products end up not worth making for the 5 guys who are willing to buy them.

The argument that it'd take months for people to participate in a port battle is a non-issue, if the game's designed for more players it has to be designed to accomodate them - just like EVE is.

[Composter]

Having been playing on Rackham since I merged, I have to say I really like the consolidated servers. The world feels a lot more alive now, and sailing into red zones is like jumping into a shark tank. The economy is much more vibrant, and there are a decent amount of port battles occuring.

With Kraken losing 2 1st, 2 2nd, and 1 3rd rate SOLs to the Spanish, the sense of "oh noes, SOLs ruin teh game" has really diminished. This seems to have made the higher end frigates and 4th rates a bit more desirable.

[Quineloe]

Originally Posted by Composter

Having been playing on Rackham since I merged, I have to say I really like the consolidated servers. The world feels a lot more alive now, and sailing into red zones is like jumping into a shark tank. The economy is much more vibrant, and there are a decent amount of port battles occuring.

With Kraken losing 2 1st, 2 2nd, and 1 3rd rate SOLs to the Spanish, the sense of "oh noes, SOLs ruin teh game" has really diminished. This seems to have made the higher end frigates and 4th rates a bit more desirable.

No, Kraken simply were fucking retards about this. The proper spot for writ ships is the center of the line, not the rear of it, especially not against an enemy fielding many frigates.

[Quineloe]

Game is dieing now. Death in a month or something.

This game relies on high player numbers in order to create endgame (port battles). Since these happen less and less often now, people refuse to log in.

second issue is the complete dominance in PVP that has emerged with the Pirate Hercules Frigate. Nationals do not have ships to compete with this ship, pirates control all PVP zones. Even less players logging in, more pirates quitting due to lack of targets.
Since changes are still weeks away (and those seem to buff pirates...), too many nationals will quit and when the pirates have nobody to sink anymore, they will quit as well. This isn't the type of game that slowly fades out, once the population is too low, pretty much everyone else will also quit.

[Agraza]

If the open beta thing was any indication, they were nowhere near ready when they released.

Are there any landmark features that should be perpetuated?

[Composter]

Originally Posted by Quineloe

Game is dieing now. Death in a month or something.

This game relies on high player numbers in order to create endgame (port battles). Since these happen less and less often now, people refuse to log in.

second issue is the complete dominance in PVP that has emerged with the Pirate Hercules Frigate. Nationals do not have ships to compete with this ship, pirates control all PVP zones. Even less players logging in, more pirates quitting due to lack of targets.
Since changes are still weeks away (and those seem to buff pirates...), too many nationals will quit and when the pirates have nobody to sink anymore, they will quit as well. This isn't the type of game that slowly fades out, once the population is too low, pretty much everyone else will also quit.

I actually have to agree with your assessment. There's a critical mass that this game has to have to continue, and with the ridiculous time cost of ships, I don't see it being sustainable right now.

Basically, they need to reduce the cost of bundles and give people a better way to grind cash than repeating missions. Yes, that will drive up inflation, but honestly, I think the game could use a little inflation at this point if it means easier expendable ships for PVP.

[Quineloe]

Originally Posted by Agraza

If the open beta thing was any indication, they were nowhere near ready when they released.

Are there any landmark features that should be perpetuated?

No, the game was perfectly ready for release. There is a working endgame content, ship combat is lots of fun and port battles are awesome.

The problem is that they fucked it up in so many ways since the release (and before) that no nobody wants to log in anymore.

If the game was set up in a way that allowed us to PVP all the time and easily get port battles going this game would be one of the best games right now. However, currently it's GRIND GRIND GRIND with a little bit of PVP when you can afford it after grinding enough.

The losers then lose the result of their hours of grinding and quit the game. I've never seen a game promoting ragequit over one death (or two deaths for that matter) like this one.