PVP Server Population Problems

[zzxx]

you guys have no clue what you are talking about. this server is more stable with 11k players right now then it was for example with 5-7k players on patch 1.4, stop crying and complain if you dont even have any idea what you are talking about, move to pve server or accept the fact that there might be some delay at peaktimes and its not even like its unplayable then unless you live somewhere in africa... kkthxbye

this ^^

[Badster]

Nobody said that. They are doin a great job! Its unbelievable how they managed to get a server with 10k ppl stabe. But everythin has its limits. As you can read in the "about us". The server is built to be stable and lagfree up to 10k players.
But we're now up to 25% beyond that, and of course that results in stability issues. That is a major problem one has to issue. Plus, there are many activites and Zones in the game that are not designed for that huge amount of players.
There are reasons why Blizzard kept their server populations below 5k at peak times. And this server has almost no peak times because of time zones. So there is no late night leveling or farming, when usually most of the people are at work or sleeping. Everytime is peaktime on Nostalrius. Thats in my opinion one of the biggest problems of the high population.
Besides Instanced activities (dungeons, raids, BGs) and the huge market this amount of players brings, there is no fun at all waiting 10 Minutes for a respawn at literally EVERY obective.

[Jeniwyn]

When the server had 7k online people were saying that the lag was ineviteble and asked for caps. People were saying that it was unfixable. Guess what. It wasn't. After that episode it seems unreasonable to belive this new: "12k is impossible to fix because ~insert exactly the same arguments again here~"

Sure. There probably is a final limit somewhere. But just because the server currently has issues we cannot assume that it is reached.

[Badster]

Sure, maybe they can manage to get it stable up to 20k or even higher. But that will make things only worse. WoWs economy is not built for so many players. They had to adjust (lower) respawn timers or implement phasing in questing areas. All that stuff isn't Blizzlike. A server with more than 10k active players isn't Blizzlike either. I came here, cause they promised this. They did a really great job so far. But this population issue is a growing downside, with every day.
Why not splitting the load on 2 simmilar servers (free character transfer)? Less work, plus they are adding a competition between the servers, like AQ opening event or Raiding progress? Who is first??

[Jeniwyn]

The economy works better the larger the base. So that argument we can toss.

They have already implemented dynamic spawns to compensate for population size. If the numbers aren't optimal they can likely adjust them easily at this point. Phasing seems vastly overkill to me. Only thing I'd say here is that at some point faster respawning of nodes will no longer seem reasonable and new nodes will likely be a better solution. Small issue in the grand scheme of things though.

That there is more crowding in the world is true. But I don't think I'm in the minority considering that a plus. The amount of charachters leveling doesn't seem to be a lot higher than when the server was newer. A lot of the people online now are after all lvl 60.

If they can get 20k online with a stable server I say go for it.

[Badster]

The economy works better the larger the base. So that argument we can toss.

Sorry, but this does not apply for wow. Resources are limited due to a maxed out number of spawns. But the growing need for those resources isn't. So i would not toss this arguement.

I also totally disagree with your opinion on crowding. How can be a absolutely crowded place be a plus? On this server, there is no place on azeroth anymore, where you are alone, getting in trouble cause the scourge is overwhelming you. No running away from packs of mobs you aggroed and cant handle.
Instead you have to klickspam your abbilities to geht the first hit on respawning questmobs. A big part of the Warcraft experience is going out alone, fightig your way through a cavern or ogre village, ore even group up so you dont get rekt. Players everywhere, enemies nowhere (except a bunch of horde kiddows thinking they rock cause they outnumber you).

[Jeniwyn]

Sorry, but this does not apply for wow. Resources are limited due to a maxed out number of spawns. But the growing need for those resources isn't. So i would not toss this arguement.

Dynamic. Spawns.

As for you not liking crowding. They did provide a server with a cap. This server has none. And the leveling is almost certainly at a local peak given the influx from the feenix vanilla shutdown. It will come down as those players reach 60 on their mains.

Also, group up when possible. (In before #chinesewontgroupwithme)

[Badster]

Either way, i think having 2 servers with a 6k population opens more room for everything:

You still have a quite high population, but still room for more without a lot of extra work.
You dont have to develop a new patch so the server gets stable up to 20k.
You add competition and room for more important projects.
You wont lose players, cause of lag or overpopulation.
And when player numbers are decreasing again, you can easily fusion both servers again.

From a davelopers perspective this makes way more sense.

[Jeniwyn]

Question 1, how do you split the server without the hideous concept of a queue?

[Badster]

Launching a new, empty server. Free charakter transfer to this server and adding a queue to the old one. Maybe temporary closing the old one for new players.

Even adding a login queue for a maxed out 7 or 8k players would make sense.