How does Realm size work? What makes a Realm go on status "High" or "Full"

[Gimlix]

Like is it the amount of people that have an active character on the Realm? Or is it the amount of people logged in as we speak?
And how many can be onl on a server before the queue pops up?

Any info on this at all?

[Hyrican]

no it is internal and relative to other servers general activity. it was made more dynamic a couple years ago. One big influence is the amount of players currently logged in compared to other servers. Another fixed factor with unknown value is used also before going from low to med and high

[Gimlix]

no it is internal and relative to other servers general activity. it was made more dynamic a couple years ago. One big influence is the amount of players currently logged in compared to other servers. Another fixed factor with unknown value is used also before going from low to med and high

But isn't it also basing around a server cap that is allowed inside the server and once it is reaching that amount is getting either high or full? Depending high it is?

[MoanaLisa]

But isn't it also basing around a server cap that is allowed inside the server and once it is reaching that amount is getting either high or full? Depending high it is?

Server caps are adjustable if not fully dynamic in nature. They don't change them all that often but they are not fixed. Hilarity ensued a few years ago when they raised the server caps on nearly all realms during a maintenance day prior to the release of a new expansion. Most realms dropped from whatever they were to categories that indicated low or medium. Of course there were many who started posting about the overnight rush to leave the game and how it proved that Blizzard was lying about how full their realms were, or alternately, that the game was truly dying.

Anyway server caps are not fixed and can be changed. So it seems that population levels are mostly related to accounts on a realm.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

Jesus, how many of these threads are you going to make

[Gimlix]

Server caps are adjustable if not fully dynamic in nature. They don't change them all that often but they are not fixed. Hilarity ensued a few years ago when they raised the server caps on nearly all realms during a maintenance day prior to the release of a new expansion. Most realms dropped from whatever they were to categories that indicated low or medium. Of course there were many who started posting about the overnight rush to leave the game and how it proved that Blizzard was lying about how full their realms were, or alternately, that the game was truly dying.

Anyway server caps are not fixed and can be changed. So it seems that population levels are mostly related to accounts on a realm.

Game has been dying since TBC according to haters anyways. Yet it still here as king! Anyways i just wondered how they work, they work different now too due connection right? so 3 servers might have medium but they are same "status" togheter if i am not mistaken?

[MoanaLisa]

Game has been dying since TBC according to haters anyways. Yet it still here as king! Anyways i just wondered how they work, they work different now too due connection right? so 3 servers might have medium but they are same "status" togheter if i am not mistaken?

It might make sense that connected servers might share their cap but I don't know that and have never seen that asked or answered.

[Gimlix]

It might make sense that connected servers might share their cap but I don't know that and have never seen that asked or answered.

Well if that isn't the case then WoW having like 50 EU realms on High/Full is very impressive.

[Edlarel]

Well if that isn't the case then WoW having like 50 EU realms on High/Full is very impressive.

Looking at why merged realms exist can give us a reasonable answer short of getting it directly from the Blues. Basically, they started merging servers when the population on the individual servers was consistently low. Therefore, when the servers were merged, suddenly the population on each spiked because it now accounted for the extra bodies that existed on the previous servers. The conclusion, then, is that each merged server indicates its current state (low, med, high, full) based on the total population on all connected/merged servers with it.

As an example, my main characters are on Perenolde-US. Over the last few years, we have merged with Cairne, Kargath, and Frostmane (and maybe one more). If you look at each of those servers, they say we're high population, but I see many more Frostmane characters running around Org/Oribos than I do the other three these days.

One thing I would like to see, at least until they finally merge everybody once and for all, is an indication of connected servers on the in game interface.

[Gimlix]

Looking at why merged realms exist can give us a reasonable answer short of getting it directly from the Blues. Basically, they started merging servers when the population on the individual servers was consistently low. Therefore, when the servers were merged, suddenly the population on each spiked because it now accounted for the extra bodies that existed on the previous servers. The conclusion, then, is that each merged server indicates its current state (low, med, high, full) based on the total population on all connected/merged servers with it.

As an example, my main characters are on Perenolde-US. Over the last few years, we have merged with Cairne, Kargath, and Frostmane (and maybe one more). If you look at each of those servers, they say we're high population, but I see many more Frostmane characters running around Org/Oribos than I do the other three these days.

One thing I would like to see, at least until they finally merge everybody once and for all, is an indication of connected servers on the in game interface.

That is what i wondered, So basically 1 high realm made 3 others high aswell?

[Edlarel]

That is what i wondered, So basically 1 high realm made 3 others high aswell?

Yes, it's about aesthetics. 1) They're connected, so their overall population is high regardless of which one you're actually logging into. And 2) it looks better when you log into the game and see 4 high population servers.

[Gimlix]

Yes, it's about aesthetics. 1) They're connected, so their overall population is high regardless of which one you're actually logging into. And 2) it looks better when you log into the game and see 4 high population servers.

Well that is obvious but is also obvious that WOW has like 600 realms on western side only while an usual game has like max 20-30 servers. So it is hard to compare.
That is why i think a merge will do WoW great. but that is me, people prefer connected realms instead.

[RobertMugabe]

If I am not mistaken they have changed these status indicators back in MoP. They are now indicators to show the population in relation to other realms and not how "full" they are. The tech is now so advanced with sharding and all that that the realms should never truly have a queue based on how many players are already logged into a specific realm. They can occur however (rarely) if too many people are trying to connect. So the login process can sometimes be a bottleneck, but not the actual world server, except for maybe RP realms (although I have never encountered this as an RP realm player)

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Well that is obvious but is also obvious that WOW has like 600 realms on western side only while an usual game has like max 20-30 servers. So it is hard to compare.
That is why i think a merge will do WoW great. but that is me, people prefer connected realms instead.

Yeah realms as a whole are an outdated concept and WoW's "server structure" doesn't rely on this system anymore (to my knowledge).
They're basically keeping realms only due to legacy reasons, such as people (and guilds) wanting to keep their names. IMO they should just add the ability for names to be longer and add have the possibility to add last names or whatever.