Sharding and Ahn'qiraj-opening!

[Thunderball]

There is no point in even doing the event if they use sharding. On a side note tho - I've witnessed the event a couple of times after my time on retail and it was completely playable.

[Vilendor]

Sharding isn't the problem. The way they made sharding work is the problem. Instead of creating fix split instances and players existing in those, they make us constantly warp in and out of those instances based on the population of your surrounding space. So people, NPCs, mobs keep appearing/disappearing and you can't see more than a dozen people at once. That's just dumb and ruins everything.

I could live with fix 300-500 player split instances, but not with this abomination

[Chonar]

Reliving the AQ opening without (much) lag would actually be worth levelling a character n Classic for, to see it all over again.
I was there, young padawans. Tanking one of the Collosi as they rose from the Silithus hives. So massive their knockback, without exagerration, I was hurled across Un'goro to land in Tanaris.

Ah, my first experience of Flying in Azeroth. Good stuff.

[Tharkkun]

This. WPvP in Legion is still a laggy shit-show because their coding is so old. I really don't think WoW can handle a lot of players in one area until they update their infrastructure entirely from the ground up (new game). Which is probably why they don't ever have cool as fuck events like AQ anymore. Sadly it just doesn't work, even with sharding, which is really just a band-aid fix to the problem

It has nothing to do with outdated networking code or infrastructure. Blizzard is known as having one of the most sophisticated data centers on the planet.

The issue is they must use mainly TCP connections to keep people from exploiting networking code. Unlike first person shooters who use mainly UDP and prediction which is open to manipulation, WoW doesn't. MMO's in general don't. So if there's any latency between you and the servers your client is going to chug. The slideshow we see is our network cards processing the packets and the game client waiting to redraw the screen.

You find any MMO and toss 100+ people in a zone together and it will be a slideshow.

[Outofmana]

Another person who only uses his experience from 'back then'. You couldn't even walk in BRM with PCs of that day.

Today it's no problem and there isn't a need whatsoever to use sharding in AQ, and no reason to assume they will use it after saying it's for starting zones-only (which _is_ a good moment to use them for the game to be playable, which is not about lag, it's about having questmobs to kill). Don't forget there have been AQ openings on hugely populated servers in the pvt scene over the years, I don't see how it'll suddenly be a problem in classic.

Non-issue.

[Azezeil]

It has nothing to do with outdated networking code or infrastructure. Blizzard is known as having one of the most sophisticated data centers on the planet.

The issue is they must use mainly TCP connections to keep people from exploiting networking code. Unlike first person shooters who use mainly UDP and prediction which is open to manipulation, WoW doesn't. MMO's in general don't. So if there's any latency between you and the servers your client is going to chug. The slideshow we see is our network cards processing the packets and the game client waiting to redraw the screen.

You find any MMO and toss 100+ people in a zone together and it will be a slideshow.

This is very, very wrong. TCP does not prevent exploits and was not designed to. I suggest you research TCP/IP protocols more in-depth. Your NIC has nothing to do with MMOs running like a slide show either.


The AQ event can’t really be sharded, the monsters that spawn drop way to good of loot. The server would be flooded with Teebu’s and would dump the economy.

[Eucep]

This is very, very wrong. TCP does not prevent exploits and was not designed to. I suggest you research TCP/IP protocols more in-depth. Your NIC has nothing to do with MMOs running like a slide show either.


The AQ event can’t really be sharded, the monsters that spawn drop way to good of loot. The server would be flooded with Teebu’s and would dump the economy.

There was loot after the opening? O_o

Guess me not able to play wow due to the disconnects prevented me from even finding out.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

I am going to be honest I think shading has reduced performance in this game. I mean before I could see a 100 or 200 people on the screen and it would get a big laggy.. sure.. but now if you get that many the damn server is liable to crash. Let's face it. Sharding is a technology that is used to make a much more empty world of warcraft feel like it has more people running around in it. Not to increase stability. A bag of tricks used by a company that didn't want to actually merg servers because it takes away from micro transactions and gets bad press.

My Dell PC from 2002 or 2001 was able to run the AQ event in all its 10 or so frames per second and 200ms lag that felt like 600. I think my gaming rig from 2017 will be ok along with google fiber. So where Blizzards servers for many of the non-mega servers out there. I think if we just bump that up to 2010 standards we can pull it off. Let alone almost 2020 standards.

[Logwyn]

I bet 5 bucks they screw this up somehow and we'll have shards with like 3 people for this epic opening, raids that get split up, and other fun things!!!

[Azezeil]

There was loot after the opening? O_o

Guess me not able to play wow due to the disconnects prevented me from even finding out.

The large “raid bosses” that spawned had massively buffed drop rates for blues and epics. My server got multiple Teebu’s and countless other epic drops like Krol Blades and Dwarven Handcannons. It was a fantastic time, but if you start sharding that event you’re going to basically multiply those drops. So either they reduce drop rates, which would suck and not be true to classic, or we end up with tons of epic world drops flooding the market.

[Whiskra]

This is very, very wrong. TCP does not prevent exploits and was not designed to. I suggest you research TCP/IP protocols more in-depth. Your NIC has nothing to do with MMOs running like a slide show either.


The AQ event can’t really be sharded, the monsters that spawn drop way to good of loot. The server would be flooded with Teebu’s and would dump the economy.

The mobs are also a great source of early Brood of Nozdormu rep for those not raiding right away. The mobs should be contested.

[Eucep]

The large “raid bosses” that spawned had massively buffed drop rates for blues and epics. My server got multiple Teebu’s and countless other epic drops like Krol Blades and Dwarven Handcannons. It was a fantastic time, but if you start sharding that event you’re going to basically multiply those drops. So either they reduce drop rates, which would suck and not be true to classic, or we end up with tons of epic world drops flooding the market.

Though, that makes me wonder, if they had those droprates and they were 'as intended for non crashing server' then shard stability would produce the amount of blues and epics as intended?

But, for this sharding could be done differently. Rather then phases, it makes blocks, so a group attacking one up to 80 will be on a shard, but immediately that they defeated it, they would be put back. I'm like thinking how you get pulled into a fight in a game like final fantasy 7.

[Chonar]

Biggest problem I see is that the one wielding the Scepter will be in one shard... and hit the gong.
What about everyone not in the scepter-wielder's shard? Will the event just suddenly magically happen?

[huth]

Biggest problem I see is that the one wielding the Scepter will be in one shard... and hit the gong.
What about everyone not in the scepter-wielder's shard? Will the event just suddenly magically happen?

Yes. That's not really hard to pull off. There's also nothing "magic" about it... it would be done the same way it is done on a single shard, you just propagate the flag through all shards.

[Noxina]

Now, let me start with that I love the fact that we're getting Classic servers and I truly do hope they succeed. But there is no way it will be popular enough to crash the servers that far in.

Sharding will be used early, when there will be literally millions testing this out, then after a month that number will have dwindled down to some hundred thousand at most. By the time AQ gates open, only the ones who actually burn for Classic will be left, and that number isn't high enough to crash a server.

[Mormolyce]

They get shit for whatever they do.

Yeah I mean five minutes spent in this subforum is enough to prove that will definitely happen.

The only thing we all agree on is that we all disagree ferociously with each other.

- - - Updated - - -

I bet 5 bucks they screw this up somehow and we'll have shards with like 3 people for this epic opening, raids that get split up, and other fun things!!!

Isn't screwing it up part of the experience of the AQ opening?

[Roar-Powah]

I dislike... more like hate sharding and crz(reason why i quit live WoW). Sharding in Classic is bad, it splits up the community and if you don't like it go and play the shit fest that is BfA. Sharding/crz is very anti community and should've never been put into WoW, so sick of the small vocal group of people that fuck everything up for the rest of us.

[Logwyn]

Yeah I mean five minutes spent in this subforum is enough to prove that will definitely happen.

The only thing we all agree on is that we all disagree ferociously with each other.

- - - Updated - - -



Isn't screwing it up part of the experience of the AQ opening?

Very true point!

[Maudib]

They're already using it. It's called new server hardware and modern client. Anyone who gives them shit for that is a moron.

Well I'll be damned we agree on something!

Of course the infrastructure of today is so much more capable than 14 years ago. I would think they'd eve increase server cap for a while to facilitate.

[The Stormbringer]

Well I'll be damned we agree on something!

Of course the infrastructure of today is so much more capable than 14 years ago. I would think they'd eve increase server cap for a while to facilitate.

It happens once in a while! It just goes to show that even people who have strongly different opinions from each other will agree on some things. This is how compromise and cooperation work, after all!