Daniel Erickson interview on PC Gamer

[Clymene]

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/05/23/th...adaptive-gear/

Most of it was stuff already known. This is the part I found interesting.

PCG: Will they be cross-server at launch? Is that planned for the future?

DE: They will not be cross-server as we are coming up on a huge move to servers with massively higher population caps than we have today.

Are we all moving to The Fatman? I'm kidding but I wonder if this means we are getting consolidated down to handful of severs. I think it would be great, more people, more fun.

[Glorious Leader]

It''s good to hear they are apparently looking at consolidation. Fuck the negative PR IMO Address the problem correctly.

[ringthree]

Finally. Also the way they are presenting it, they might avoid the PR hit with some mumbo-jumbo about new innovative servers.

BTW the player cap on FFXI (a game that just hit 10 years) was 6000 active players online, and it had players on it from all over the world (no regional servers).

Just to give you some perspective.

[Arlee]

FFXI (a game that just hit 10 years)

Sorry to be off topic but... has it seriously been that long??? That is just crazy...

[Derah]

Sorry to be off topic but... has it seriously been that long??? That is just crazy...

Time flies doesn't it? :P It seems like it was yesterday when I played Oblivion for the first time. Turns out, its been 8 years since then.

[ati87]

half a solution that won't fix anything (and yes their are things needed to be fixed)

Fact is no mater how large the population is you won't form groups fast with just your own server because of raw numbers.

WoW had 11 million plus players before LFG 10 times that of SWTOR and pugging was never a fast way to get a group together except if you where a tank.

[ringthree]

Sorry to be off topic but... has it seriously been that long??? That is just crazy...

Yep, I think the 10th anniversary was actually this month. That is from the JP launch, which was about a year before the NA launch, but since the servers were always integrated those servers have been available for 10 years.

It's a game from a different era. You couldn't be casual and do much of anything in that game. Other neat things about it include equipment switching and macros were a main part of the skill factor (as opposed to many different spells), the servers were up for months at a time (no weekly maintenance) because the end-game for a long time was open world spawns on 24 or 48-72 hour timers, and you had to do everything in a group including leveling, which was just pulling mobs to your camp and killing them for hours on end.

Sometimes, I miss the good old days, but that is usually only after I have been hit on the head.

[Decan]

Are we all moving to The Fatman? I'm kidding but I wonder if this means we are getting consolidated down to handful of severs. I think it would be great, more people, more fun.

my guess is that they will cut it down from the 220 or so servers they currently have to 70-100 servers.

[Coldpro]

Sorry to be off topic but... has it seriously been that long??? That is just crazy...

EverQuest is 13 now, and it feels like I just started yesterday (Started in 2k2)

Yep, I think the 10th anniversary was actually this month. That is from the JP launch, which was about a year before the NA launch, but since the servers were always integrated those servers have been available for 10 years.

It's a game from a different era. You couldn't be casual and do much of anything in that game. Other neat things about it include equipment switching and macros were a main part of the skill factor (as opposed to many different spells), the servers were up for months at a time (no weekly maintenance) because the end-game for a long time was open world spawns on 24 or 48-72 hour timers, and you had to do everything in a group including leveling, which was just pulling mobs to your camp and killing them for hours on end.

Sometimes, I miss the good old days, but that is usually only after I have been hit on the head.

hah, exactly like EQ but with fancier graphics and a different combat system :P

[ringthree]

EverQuest is 13 now, and it feels like I just started yesterday (Started in 2k2)




hah, exactly like EQ but with fancier graphics and a different combat system :P

FFXI was like Generation 1.5 of MMO's.

[Alvito]

my guess is that they will cut it down from the 220 or so servers they currently have to 70-100 servers.

Even that is a lot of servers. It is good they are taking their lumps and fixing or trying to fix this. I have to wonder about the lack of forecasting they did on some of these types of issues or why they were so adamant it wasn't a problem for so long. Part of me feels like they are taking a hose to a house that already burnt down but hopefully I am wrong.

[Odegon]

What does massively higher population cap means? Are they increasing pop cap from 4k to 5k, 10k, 100k? Any ideas about this?

[Alvito]

What does massively higher population cap means? Are they increasing pop cap from 4k to 5k, 10k, 100k? Any ideas about this?

Without some sort of merging it doesn't really matter. The Clevland Browns stadium holds over 50k ppl that doesn't mean they are filling the seats though. The server cap stopped being the issue months ago. Outside of Harbinger, Fatman and maybe 3 or 4 other servers nobody has seen a queue even for a few minutes in months. Even those that did havent since the first week or so of 1.2.

[Deleted]

Perks for bonus series quests

Huh? That's not in the coming soon bit.

[Deleted]

half a solution that won't fix anything (and yes their are things needed to be fixed)

Fact is no mater how large the population is you won't form groups fast with just your own server because of raw numbers.

WoW had 11 million plus players before LFG 10 times that of SWTOR and pugging was never a fast way to get a group together except if you where a tank.

It's not so much about being faster than conventional group forming, but about being able to do something else while the group is formed. That will be a huge improvement. The current situation is "stay on fleet if you want to do a flashpoint" and that sucks compared to WoW, for example.

[Deleted]

Warhammer Online. I know I say it over and over again but this is some major deja vu if you experienced this before. They'll start merging into "super servers", then more, then more, cutting out the different ruelsets (RP and PvP), until we end up with two English servers, one German and one French.

[spaace]

SO off topic.... but damn, I do miss FFXI..... I think it truly was the last time I enjoyed the crap out of a mmo for long periods of time.... (I wish I rememberd how/why I quit.... It couldn't just be because my ps2 died...)

[Profyrion]

Fact is no mater how large the population is you won't form groups fast with just your own server because of raw numbers.

I love when people make this claim with absolutely nothing to back it up.

You can't possibly know that. You're guessing, poorly, because you don't really understand how it works. Stop it.

[ringthree]

SO off topic.... but damn, I do miss FFXI..... I think it truly was the last time I enjoyed the crap out of a mmo for long periods of time.... (I wish I rememberd how/why I quit.... It couldn't just be because my ps2 died...)

You quit because of the horrible grind (I see people complain about grinds in modern MMO's and just laugh at them), the complete ignorance of SE to create a playable game, the .0001% drop rates, the time sink in getting anything done.

You miss it because of the immense personal investment into your character, and the amazing successful moments are incredibly memorable. I quit basically right before the 99 level cap raise (so about a year ago) and I had about 8 jobs capped with end-game gear. I poured my heart and soul into that game for years. I loved playing it especially because of the tight-knit nature of LS's, but in the end it probably wasn't good for me.

The experience of FFXI kind of gives you a good perspective on the general whinyness of MMO players today. They don't even know the definition of hardcore.

Sorry for continuing to be off topic.

[Deleted]

Warhammer Online. I know I say it over and over again but this is some major deja vu if you experienced this before. They'll start merging into "super servers", then more, then more, cutting out the different ruelsets (RP and PvP), until we end up with two English servers, one German and one French.

...and one idiot server for idiots like u :P

Infracted