Shadowlands - Funnelling

[schwarzkopf]

I'm a little concerned about the funnelling of ALL players into the same path in Shadowlands.

Looking back:

WoD : Split in two (Alliance/Horde)
Legion : Split in four (by picking your zones)
BfA : Split in two (Alliance/Horde hubs)

When was the last time that we all got shovelled into the same place ?

Was it BC ?

[enigma77]

With the server community shattering, cutting edge sharding technology it shouldn't be a problem.

[Kumorii]

What problems are you expecting?

As with every release I just expect server issues because everyone tries to log in on release day for a dead game. when you are in you will most likely encounter lag which always happens for the same reason as previous.

Actually getting things done in game? About 0 considering the tagging of enemies and sharding and what not.

[Nynax]

everyone tries to log in

for a dead game

hmmmm...is it dead or not?

snip

What @enigma77 said. Sharding technology has gotten really good, and you can look at the Classic launch as an example which actually went pretty well considering. Classic didn't even have the shared tagging that we do now.

Bigger issues happen in regards to quest progress and quest related phasing. WoD garrisons at launch is a perfect example of how a quest bug can completely shut down the ability to progress, but we should see fewer of those issues.

Honestly, because it's 2020 and people are assholes, the worst trouble will probably come from a DDOS attack on Blizzard servers right after launch. Cause people are assholes.

[rhorle]

It will magnify bottlenecks (like the guards in the intro to stormsong valley) but it shouldn't be that bad. They can create shards at will as well things can easily be adjusted during the initial release.

[Nyel]

This is even funnier when you see how laggy the servers are right now. Lags everywhere in the open world. I don't want to imagine how this will be in the Shadowlands in four weeks.

WoW has become very laggy after pre patch hit live servers and it is to this day.

[Grimbold21]

With the server community shattering, cutting edge sharding technology it shouldn't be a problem.

*naughty smirk*

[Brubear]

What problems are you expecting?

As with every release I just expect server issues because everyone tries to log in on release day for a dead game. when you are in you will most likely encounter lag which always happens for the same reason as previous.

Actually getting things done in game? About 0 considering the tagging of enemies and sharding and what not.

In addition to the lag/progression bottlenecks this can lead to, another issue that could arise is for anyone who levels in warmode. In WoD they both quested in different zones then started to quest in the same zones (though there were different progression paths), and Legion gave you plenty of options to the point that they weren't really concentrated together until Suramar/Broken Shore. BfA probably went too far with the entirely separate continents, but compare that to MoP or earlier where both factions followed the same quest progression path.

Some people might prefer this, but I imagine solo plays or those in regions with a faction imbalance would prefer the WoD/Legion/BfA flow.

[rhorle]

This is even funnier when you see how laggy the servers are right now. Lags everywhere in the open world. I don't want to imagine how this will be in the Shadowlands in four weeks. WoW has become very laggy after pre patch hit live servers and it is to this day.

I just leveled a character from 11 to 50 with little to no lag. It isn't a universal problem plaguing the game.

[huth]

I'm a little concerned about the funnelling of ALL players into the same path in Shadowlands.

Looking back:

WoD : Split in two (Alliance/Horde)
Legion : Split in four (by picking your zones)
BfA : Split in two (Alliance/Horde hubs)

When was the last time that we all got shovelled into the same place ?

Was it BC ?

You seem to be rather misremembering WoD. Everybody went through the same starting zone, which worked fine. We didn't really get problems until they all had to go into 1-person instanced scenarios.

Meanwhile, Legion split it into a lot more than just four. Or did you just immediately head to the leveling zones without getting your artifact first?

[cuafpr]

prob just adjust the number of shards to make up for it.

[irdsyd]

This is my experience on one of the levelling servers in beta after the servers were reset and everyone had to relevel. It was busy.

There weren't huge issues with bad overcrowding or lag that I noticed. In terms of things that were different with more players (that beta really hasn't properly tested) were

:- the escort quests (there's two of them) in the maw introduction are more likely to get very buggy and both you and all of the npcs get confused about who's with who
there's a few areas in the introduction where there's competition for mob spawns and the respawn rate is too slow (its too fast in some other areas)
there's a couple of areas in the temples in bastion (early part of levelling) that have a high concentration of mobs - these areas seem to be more prone to graphic glitches especially when there are more players
the first quests in maldraxxus where you have huge number of mobs can test graphics and performance - the sooner I get out of that area during the launch week the happier I will be because after that the levelling pathway isn't so strictly linear and from my beta experience things tended to be much calmer

[taishar68]

I too think the DDOS douchebags will be the biggest issue. As for the zones, one thing that will help break the logjam a little are the side quests; since the main story quests feature a different quest marker, some folks may choose to ignore the side stuff and that will help ease some of the bottle necking.

[schwarzkopf]

Classic didn't even have the shared tagging that we do now.

Classic funnelled people into 10 different areas at start though .

[TheVaryag]

I'm a little concerned about the funnelling of ALL players into the same path in Shadowlands.

Looking back:

WoD : Split in two (Alliance/Horde)
Legion : Split in four (by picking your zones)
BfA : Split in two (Alliance/Horde hubs)

When was the last time that we all got shovelled into the same place ?

Was it BC ?

Are you forgetting despite WoD being split Into two we had nay a WEEK of unplayable garbage gameplay? Badly functioning phasing tech and unbearable lag, so much so that blizz refunded all players at the time I think 5 sub days for It. Didn't happen in Legion or Bfa, besides. There's no reason to think funneling us into one area again like in Mists or TBC will hurt us. Not with today's modern tech phasing they got.

But then, wouldn't surprise me even with the minimally balanced content we'll be getting in Raid: Shadowlands.

[Hitei]

Classic funnelled people into 10 different areas at start though .

Where are you getting 10 different areas from?

[huth]

Where are you getting 10 different areas from?

3 starting areas for each faction and 4 different spots where the Goblin Mafia deposits people who know to much?

[schwarzkopf]

Are you forgetting despite WoD being split Into two we had nay a WEEK of unplayable garbage gameplay?

I played the first week of WoD without a hitch except for one which barely impacted me at all, not sure what you were doing wrong.

- - - Updated - - -

Where are you getting 10 different areas from?

Wasn't there 5 different races per faction ... might be 8 or 6, but certainly wasn't 1.

[beanman12345]

Sharding technology they introduced in I think WoD should hopefully fix any bottlenecks.

I remember back in MoP right near the starting point in the panda starting zone had that one item you had to click but could only do it one at a time then needed to wait a minute to respawn, and so people literally made a line in the game that was very long. As long as there isn't any of that nonsense, shouldn't be too much an issue.

[Shadowsgrace]

I'm a little concerned about the funnelling of ALL players into the same path in Shadowlands.

Looking back:

WoD : Split in two (Alliance/Horde)
Legion : Split in four (by picking your zones)
BfA : Split in two (Alliance/Horde hubs)

When was the last time that we all got shovelled into the same place ?

Was it BC ?

MoP, we were all in Jade Forest.