North America 'Supercluster' inc tomorrow

[Slipmat]

Elrar has posted that from tomorrow, Wednesday the 24th of October, all the North American shards will be merged into one supercluster Wargroup, the same as us Europeans got in July

For the IT "experts" that "contribute" here now and then about Rift servers "dying" or never showing "full" i've bolded a relevant sentence

North American Server Structure Update

Hail Ascended,

The servers of Storm Legion have arrived early! Since the beginning of the year we’ve been making constant advancements in our server technology as we worked to bring all of the shards closer together. Starting with European servers in July, we began our plans to have everyone in each region play on a single wargroup. Now we’re able to start the next leap forward – further focusing on removing the barriers between shards.

The advancements we’ve made this year have effectively doubled the capacity of the individual servers allowing more of you to play together than ever before while reducing the total number of shards we need to support RIFT’s active population.

What this means for you – we can now support all of our North American players on a single wargroup, further reducing queue times for dungeons and PvP while bringing the community even closer together.

This change is currently scheduled to occur this Wednesday, October 24. Here’s what the new mega-wargroup for North America will look like:

Deepwood
Faeblight (RP)
Greybriar
Laethys (Oceanic)
Seastone (PvP)
Shatterbone
Threesprings
Wolfsbane


Briarcliff, Byriel, Deepstrike, Gnarlwood, Greenscale, Keenblade, Millrush, and Silkweb will be converted to trial-only shards – everyone currently on these shards will be able to take advantage of the Free Character Transfers to find yourself a new home or meet up with guild mates. You can find full instructions on how to transfer your characters & guilds here: Trion Support Center - Character Transfers

Sub-forums for the new trial shards will be archived for your reference.

With this massive increase in server capacity it will be easier than ever to enjoy RIFT to the fullest. We’ll be ready for anything as you and your friends storm our shores with the release of our first expansion – we can’t wait!

Source: http://forums.riftgame.com/official-...re-update.html

[DeltrusDisc]

lol who plays Rift? I thought that game died in its first month!

Nah, jk jk, this is awesome! And hell yeah, Derpwood WILL RUIN YOU ALL!!!! And shiiiiit, doubling server capacities? Damn. This should also make conquest interesting, they'll have to make it so that there are multiple Conquests happening at once... >_>

[Puremallace]

Is this a good idea to get rid of those other shards like 3 weeks out from a major expansion? There are going to be severely heavy queue's to log in

[DeltrusDisc]

Is this a good idea to get rid of those other shards like 3 weeks out from a major expansion? There are going to be severely heavy queue's to log in

Somehow I doubt it. Those servers are pretty dead as I understand it.

[brett8722]

How does cleaning up code to allow for more PIMs to consolidate servers in an effort to save operational cost not equate to slow death?

[Antipathy]

How does cleaning up code to allow for more PIMs to consolidate servers in an effort to save operational cost not equate to slow death?

When you launch an expansion and 11 patches after 18 months of being live.

most subscribers thank them for and encourage them to consolidate servers - and we like it even more that they don't charge us a transfer fee.

In my book, the question is "how does not creating content for your playerbase in X months not equate to a slow death".

[Tarien]

How does cleaning up code to allow for more PIMs to consolidate servers in an effort to save operational cost not equate to slow death?

It's the same amount of hardware

---------- Post added 2012-10-23 at 02:09 PM ----------

In my book, the question is "how does not creating content for your playerbase in X months not equate to a slow death".

Well one thing RIFT can say for sure is that it never lost 3million customers...

[Fencers]

Basically mergers.

I think more MMOs need to trim the excess servers. Eventually MMOs should all have 1 server like Eve, DCUO or GW1.

[gonterf]

If they found a way to implement something akin to CRZ that would be even morevawesome - low level zone events galore! The shards already feel crowded at times, I dread to think what sl launch will be like with multiple shards in one. I'm imagining multiple raid groups doing zone events and so much graphical chugginess on my computer I'll have to do instances just to level :P

[RoninaThorstone]

Eventually MMOs should all have 1 server like Eve, DCUO or GW1.

Yes.

Please.

[Puremallace]

In my book, the question is "how does not creating content for your player base in X months not equate to a slow death".

It is not the content release schedule although releasing some of it bugged has backed up that bullshit Blizzard arguement of time = quality.

Trions worst enemy has been Trion plain and simple. Warriors changes are a perfect example. In the period of 3 weeks here they have gutted 51 champ, they are about to gut 51 Riftblade, and BETA has our best dps at 60 having a shield and board.

In WoW you could go 6 months with a viable build before they changed it on you. In Rift you go maybe a month or so before you have to completely redo your macros and rotations.

They need to stop jerking us around. We had viable builds and stability for the last 3 months and now it is gone. We are back on the roller coaster and if Trion thinks returning players have the patience for this they are very wrong.

I am personally recommending noone play Warrior and role Mage for atleast the first 3 months of the expansion. The class is in shambles right now with little or no direction on what they are trying to do. We went from having several viable builds that could AoE and ST to having everything separated now and just being a complete mess.

[notorious98]

Somehow I doubt it. Those servers are pretty dead as I understand it.

Yep. Just transferred from Keenblade to Deepwood and Keenblade was a ghost town. Very rarely did I ever see anybody doing Zone Events or did I encounter another soul while leveling or doing any dailies. This is a great idea. I can't see how the servers wouldn't be able to handle the few people who transfer.

[mightyquinn]

Good to see. I just hope there isn't lag now in raids. And puremallace.. 38 paragon pretty much lasted all of HK. ~8-9 months and 51champ was top for about 4-5 months so no warriors aren't respecing as often as you say.

[Fencers]

Trions worst enemy has been Trion plain and simple. Warriors changes are a perfect example. In the period of 3 weeks here they have gutted 51 champ, they are about to gut 51 Riftblade, and BETA has our best dps at 60 having a shield and board.

Might be one of the few times I agree with you on something. But definitely.

Trion always makes class changers too dramatic or just the wrong type of changes. Flat out.

[Puremallace]

Good to see. I just hope there isn't lag now in raids. And puremallace.. 38 paragon pretty much lasted all of HK. ~8-9 months and 51champ was top for about 4-5 months so no warriors aren't respecing as often as you say.

Paragon lasted roughly from 1.4 to 1.7, then champ took over along with several other viable builds. I am just really pissy about this Riftwalk nerf on the BETA that looks to be going to live.

They need to learn to use a scalpel and not a sledge hammer.

I predict extremely heavy queue's on Deepwood come SL release.

[Antipathy]

It is not the content release schedule although releasing some of it bugged has backed up that bullshit Blizzard arguement of time = quality.

Trions worst enemy has been Trion plain and simple. Warriors changes are a perfect example. In the period of 3 weeks here they have gutted 51 champ, they are about to gut 51 Riftblade, and BETA has our best dps at 60 having a shield and board.

In WoW you could go 6 months with a viable build before they changed it on you. In Rift you go maybe a month or so before you have to completely redo your macros and rotations.

They need to stop jerking us around. We had viable builds and stability for the last 3 months and now it is gone. We are back on the roller coaster and if Trion thinks returning players have the patience for this they are very wrong.

I am personally recommending noone play Warrior and role Mage for atleast the first 3 months of the expansion. The class is in shambles right now with little or no direction on what they are trying to do. We went from having several viable builds that could AoE and ST to having everything separated now and just being a complete mess.

Pure, the discourse on this issue has gotten tiresome. we've been through hotfix notes and I think the majority here vehemently disagree with the summary that "content was buggy or poor quality" and with good reason. When you have hotfixes that introduce raids and features (IA) etc, you can't sit there and say "OH LOOK LOTSA HOTFIXING GOING ON -ERGO BUGGY CRAP". In addition, this whole "Quality over Quantity" nonsense came about because a bunch of crybabies looked at Rift Setting the standards for what should be delivery and while weeping tears of sorrow decided to pat themselves on the head and say "we get better quality".

That myth was debunked when DS opened its floodgates and world leading guilds - let alone your average players - Exploited the hell out of it. More players testing content does not prevent mistakes from happening, and trion have never slouched in fixing broken things.

You are complaining now about a game that is changing in its entirety. yes, you will not understand/like or see the warrior/mage/cleric/rogue classes or get a feel for them fully at level 50 when the entire design principle has shifted to anticipated performance at level 60.

Yes, the game changes constantly. true that. that is what its target demographic demands and constantly asks for. several posters on the forum routinely propose game warping changes, let alone small fixes. Rift players would never accept delays in content delivery - and most can no longer settle for another MMO unless it proves that it justifies the sub with a rapid content cycle.

finally, you CANNOT keep saying Warrior or mages or whatever are broken. it is clear from the official forums that everyone is raving about the proposed changes, I don't play warr. but you can see from the Riftblade, Spellblade and Warlord sub forums that people are happy with the new mechanics. additionally, you can also see from posters on these very sub forums that changes to tanking are fantastic with the introduction of self/group heals.

I realize we will debate this to the death but seriously, There's only ever fire when there's smoke and you are the only warrior i've seen fanning any flames. everyone else is content to say "Tested this ability on Beta, please keep in mind it needs change or fix, ty Trion" and that's it.

[Slipmat]

It's quite simple, adapt or GTFO and go play Farmville...imagine if PC's or Phones never changed or got upgraded because nobody likes change and were happy with using the same thing year after year

I for one am loving the new Mage changes, my all time favourite build Necro/Lock got a nice boost, Harbinger is good fun on Beta, change is good, people were far too "comfortable" been spoonfed the same crap in other MMO's for years and accepting it as the norm

[Fencers]

The riftwalk thing isn't really that awesome. Its sort of a weird tactic to use a blink for pumping DPS anyway. Most RB damage should mechanically come from using the actual skill design in the RB tree itself; Frost Strike, Searing/Flame, RS and Burst management. Riftwalk is borderline between gimmick and broken in 1.11 now

Admittedly, I don't care about DPS roles though.

I sincerely hope Trion [Elrar if you are reading this...] up the attack power contribution on Recovery Posture and readjust BoEA & Way of the Sun. They simply don't keep up for sustainable healing or scale well. Recovery Posture in particular is awful.

Compared to the sustain granted to Harb/Chloro or Justicars-- it's sort unfair to Warriors. Heck, even Beast Master/Reaver out sustain RBs, Paras and Warlords.

I feel they should each be viable sustainability. Esp. since you can't overlap those 3 souls' tools for healing mitigation; Way of the Sun, BoEA and Recovery Posture. What's the point then?

[Slipmat]

You forget all the new talents and abilities are 'tuned' for level 60 builds and soul trees, some are underwhelming now at level 50, some seem unbalanced and so on...a few more weeks to when people get end cap at 60 and it'll all make sense .................................. hopefully

[Tarien]

BETA has our best dps at 60 having a shield and board.

Actually it's the best soloing spec is a tank one. Doesn't seem so crazy now does it? Try to keep your hysterical wailing factual will you.