Cross-Realm Zones Update

[chaud]

Cross-Realm Zones Update

As promised, we wanted to give you all an update on what we’ve been working on with regards to the cross-realm zone feature. Just to recap, cross-realm zones are meant to improve the leveling experience by increasing the amount of people in the same zone together, while also allowing you to quest with your Real ID or BattleTag friends. It’s a complex feature, and there are still some technical issues that we’re continuing to work to address. We’re committed to further refining the system so that it provides the best possible gameplay experience.

This is an update on the technical issues we’ve been working on and some of the progress we’ve made.

Time Zone Jumps

Right now we have a three-hour time zone differential limit on which realms can be mixed together. This is intended to reduce day/night jumps from occurring when crossing CRZ zones, as well as time zone jumps that may cause world events to end earlier than intended. We agree that the day/night jump can be jarring, and planning for last minute turn-ins for events can be difficult and frustrating.

We’re still discussing how to best approach this situation. One of the ideas being floated around is potentially changing how regional time zones work on a very fundamental level. It’s a change we’ve been discussing for quite a while, and perhaps the CRZ system provides the catalyst to go ahead and make it. We’ll keep you updated as we consider the best solution.

CRZ Transition Lag and Performance

There are still some tech-related quirks that are being hashed out, including framerate hitching when crossing into a CRZ zone, reports of performance issues, and resource nodes/NPCs/players disappearing. We’re still investigating each specific cause and working to smooth these types of issues out.

We also continue to see some reports that people are being dismounted when crossing borders. Single-player mounts should not being doing this, so please post any details in the Bug Report forum if it continues happening. There are technical limitations preventing multi-passenger mounts from holding separate characters when crossing a zone boundary. Unfortunately, this isn’t something that we can quickly or easily fix.

Despite a few lingering technical issues, we’re happy with how CRZ is populating the leveling areas with other players, and helping to once again foster MMO social experiences in the 1-85 content. The process for tuning CRZ is of course one that’s ongoing, and we’re committed to continuing to work on it and iron out any remaining issues as quickly as possible. If you do have bugs to report, please provide details and the reproduction steps (if possible) on the Bug Report forum. Providing detailed information helps tremendously, and when possible, add your report to a relevant thread before creating your own.

Thank you again for your feedback. We’re continuing to monitor reports and we’ll provide updates as they become available.

Reference: This is an update to the initial thread discussing how Cross-Realm Zones work.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Good to see they are not bowing to player pressure to remove CRZ.

[Dreamchaser]

Just take them out Blizz. No-one likes them. They have been nothing but a pain in the a$$.

[Z-Man]

cross-realm zones are meant to improve the leveling experience by increasing the amount of people in the same zone together

I'm not quite sure Blizzard understands what "improve" means. Giving us a wider variety of mounts used by players from other servers to cover up mailboxes is not an "improvement". Dalaran lags almost as bad as Stormrage now that there's a few dozen servers worth of players stacked up in there now.

[Wolfie of Medivh]

Just take them out Blizz. No-one likes them. They have been nothing but a pain in the a$$.

Please don't. I like seeing other players while leveling.

[Squirreludecker]

Good to see they are not bowing to player pressure to remove CRZ.

i sure hope that was sarcasm

[Deleted]

Just take them out Blizz. No-one likes them. They have been nothing but a pain in the a$$.

Yes, especially on PvP Realms. Massive Ganking since CRZ.

[thecatsorcerer]

I like cross realm zones, more people to gank

[Synche]

Just take them out Blizz. No-one likes them. They have been nothing but a pain in the a$$.

Except it is pretty much the best feature implemented in any MMO... I bet you are one of those who thinks CRZ players steal "your" nodes...

[Squirreludecker]

Please don't. I like seeing other players while leveling.

your wants are not more important than my wants. or the wants of the majority of the playerbase.

[Deleted]

Just take them out Blizz. No-one likes them. They have been nothing but a pain in the a$$.

I love the cross-realm zones, and I know many others who do also.

[Mikaelo]

It's too bad there's nothing left in the 1-85 content that really provides any reason to group. By and large, people group with those they already know, so all CRZ does for those not grouped is provide unwanted (on PvE anyways) competition. I'm just glad my Monk is now in Pandaria so the performance glitches will stop annoying me for now unless I go pet hunting.

[Zhaine]

the only thing I found annoying was trying to do golden lotus dailies with a friend, only to find out since the quests are different on each server we can't do them together because the mobs he needs don't appear on my server.

Also killing world bosses cross realm should make you eligible for loot because trying to find Galleon on my server is annoying (Obviously it should still only be lootable once a week

[Peacemoon]

Blizzard is either living in denial or are completely out of touch with the player base on this one.

Also this is WORLD of Warcraft. A MMO which once prided itself on the persistent and immersive world it created for players to experience.

I'm sorry, but I am not the only one who finds the whole "framerate hitching when crossing into a CRZ zone", " technical limitations preventing multi-passenger mounts from holding separate characters when crossing a zone boundary" and "resource nodes/NPCs/players disappearing" more than just a little JARRING. This undermines the entire experience you aim to create and to think of it as just a few "tech-related quirks" is a gross understatement.

[Deleted]

CRZ would work awesome in Guild Wars 2 where you actually WORK TOGETHER.

In this game every other player out there is your enemy while questing and will always be as long as "tagging" will work. It is a horrible, horrible thing, tagging.

Just my two cents but I do believe a lot of players agree.

[Eren Jaeger]

Dislike it very much; I am glad I don't have to deal with it in MoP at the moment.

[Alhoon]

Good to see they are not bowing to player pressure to remove CRZ.

This, million times this. Can't wait for MoP zones to be included in CRZ after they fix the technical issues.

[Tamagotchi]

Yes, especially on PvP Realms. Massive Ganking since CRZ.

And it's great! This is a game about a war between noble alliance and dreadful horde, they kill each other, you know? Great step towards the heart and soul of warcraft. Less farming, more pvp!

[Editos]

Because getting ganked over and over again would improve my leveling experience yeah..
i feel like forced to leveling trought dungeons from 15 to 85

[markdall]

People who like CRZ: Why do you like it? I think I'll make a poll.