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Steven Sharif did another AMA on Friday for Ashes of Creation. Everything in the AMA was really well done, and we got a lot of answers. One of the answers we got was on Server Merges and how that is going to be handled. I’m going to be honest I totally hated the answer they gave. I’m really worried that server merges are going to hurt the population more than it will help. With that said, Steven has invited feedback on the issue, so that’s what I did. I created this video to give feedback about why I think the plan is bad, and laid out a better plan which should be way more acceptable to the player base.
Please leave comments, feedback, suggestions on this one.
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00:00 – Video Start
00:15 – Jahlon Intro
02:13 – Steven Sharif talks server merges
05:40 – Jahlon Recaps plan
06:07 – Problems with the current plan
07:55 – Jahlon has a better plan
11:32 – Please leave your feedback
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Sounds like a good plan to me. Hard to balance it out since it's really no fault of their own.
Yeah I totally agree with you. Imagining myself in that situation I would rather merge my server with other dying servers than join a great one.
I really like this plan and I hope they watch this video. I'm glad there are guys like you who can put out this sort of info!
I'd definitely prefer the dying servers merging
Another way I could see working is allowing the dying server to choose which server they merge with. I mean this on an individual basis.
I still prefer the method you outlined, but at the very least I would prefer the choice of which server I, as an individual, merges with to be mine.
Your plan is what I was expecting them to do. Ashes world building is a big part of the game and transforming the death of the server into a story event that brings you into a fresh server where you can influence the world again, it's making a sad event into a wonderful opportunity. If there are some issues like gear not being repairable or people wanting to get back to where they were fast, there could be bonus on node leveling or things like that to allow for a somewhat faster development but i would let them decide depending on what would be transferred from one server to the other.
-Strongly agree, if they have the posibility to join two or more weak servers in a new one it would be the best option by far.
-Great idea about what players keeps the character names after the merge too. Maybe also factor account activity into it? Loosing your character name to a player that no longer plays the game feels bad too.
-What should they do if there is only one server below the threshold of the "weak server" mark? Merge it with the next server in population? Just wait?
Good vid! here is some feedback:
I think the ratio 10k to 15k at launch is OK, and I think you would lose more players if even less people can create a character – if you only allow let's say, 12k accounts on a server at launch that's 20% less people that won't play the game at launch week, and will probably refund and won't be back later since a MMORPG launch is so important – seems to me that having Less people able to play, does more harm than waiting in a 5k player queue that should take no more than 2 to 3 hours waiting.
As for the server merge thing, It does sound like a good (and better) plan to merge 2 dying servers into a new locked server – but I have a question, what if there is only 1 dying server in the region? let's say they only do 2 Servers for OCE or SEA, or some other regional server, and 1 is healthy and full, and the other one is low pop and dying, what would you do in that case? – In that cenario, I think intrepid's idea would be better, because your plan assumes that there will always be more than 1 dying server per region. Let me know your thoughts!
This!! I was a little shocked by the current plan Steven mentioned. I feel like owning property is devauled now that there's a chance you could lose it all just because you're on a "strong server". I understand you can lose property due to sieges, but at least you have a fighting chance to keep it.
Having a refresh start server for "weak" servers feels like a refugee story and I think they could build up on that. Personally I would prefer that over being shoved into a world that's already built.
+1 for the algorithm. This is the way.
People dont 'lose' their personal progression also, only the world assests are reset/refought. (e.g. your home location would be reset, but the assests you already own in your house would not be reset). Minor losses such as resources lost that are required for building the home would be an okay compromise to increase the health of the server.
Hey J, I like the idea! A comment on this system however. This requires two dying servers. If there isn’t two dying servers but just one, that server will continue to die and hemorrhage players without a solution for them. I feel like this could especially be a problem in regions with less servers than say NA. What are your thoughts?
I don't quite understand why players would need to change their character names after a merge in the first place? Aren't character names unique across all servers?
For statistics 🙂
I 100% agree, I think looking at the average active player base of weak servers and combining as many as you need to get into the target active player range, accounting for some loses, for a healthy server is much better plan. Those people will feel like they got a new lease on life and are more likely to be similar strength so they feel like a chance.
Adding a weak to a strong feels like you run the risk of alienating your good strong server population while the new people who were added to the server would feel like they are now frogs at the bottom of a well with no chance of closing the gap between them and the strong players.
They also need to consider what happens if I already have characters on both servers prior to the merge.
I like your idea, but maybe a simpler solution for Intrepid would be to give the players on the dying server a free transfer to a select few servers where they can find one where their name isn't taken? This might help player retention since they will still feel like they have some control over the situation. It will also give them a chance to scout out their ideal server. Just a thought
I like the idea of merging the two servers wiping out everything on both servers. I also think if it's two servers the new server should be locked from new people joining it for a certain amount of time or until a metropolis is established maybe this will keep people from jumping into the "new" server.
They should make names region wide to avoid the name change problem
I like your idea better but I do have another option.
They could do a node war event at server merge. Of your guild owned a metropolis on the weaker server you get the right to invade a metropolis on the new server. If your guild wins you get control of the metropolis and the citizens from your old server get property rights. This has the obvious flaw of the metropolis not necessarily being in your preferred node but it's better then losing all opportunities on a server merge
I definitely like the idea of a world ending event preceding a server merge. I’ve only seen that sort of thing done on a PBP-RPG but it was fun to have a character who had experienced the end of a universe.
I really agree with this. Hope Steven sees it!
Server mergers are inevitable in MMORPGs. With that said, server mergers are more impactful in Ashes than in most MMORPGs.
I firmly believe that there's only one official launch, regardless of fresh start servers years down the road, so Intrepid must make sure that it'll be as smooth and enjoyable as possible, as well as capitalize as much as possible on that launch hype that will probably only happen once.
For that reason, I think that more servers and less queues are better than less servers and long queues, even if that means more server mergers months or years later. In my opinion, the ONLY reasonable way to do server mergers is to combine dying low pop servers into brand new clean slates like you said in the video. That's the best strategy, no questions asked. I also think that it's completely possible to make server mergers a fun experience. I'm not saying server mergers are a good thing, but Intrepid can find ways to "reward" the players from servers that will be merged together with interesting events and whatnot.
I think you're spot on all the way through. You have a better system in place for sure.
I did not even think about the name reservation part of this. You have some good ideas here.
If the possibility of not getting my name after merge. On day 1 I might go to each server and make a character with my name. Why wouldn't asmongold want to do that?
I do not like what Stephen outlined as his plan for server merges I’d like what you have proposed a lot better I don’t want to be one of those people on a dying server and have to lose everything just because the server I’m being merged into is healthier, that’s not my fault as a player and I shouldn’t be punished for it!
You hit the nail on the head with the name thing. Property I can reacquire, I can find new node, but losing name what can I do about that? I would probably be really demotiovated and close to quitting add to that what others said about being newcomer to already established server yeah not good.
Sadly this is almost an inevitably for any MMO and its basically impossible to get a solution to make everyone happy. That being said, I do think your option is the best case scenario as long as the "growing" phase of a new server is still enjoyable to play, reducing the feeling of grinding because you are having to rebuild nodes from scratch again.
I haven't put a lot of thought into it, but one additional piece I would add to your solution would be to enable some sort of temporary buffs for the new server to reduce the grinding aspects rebuilding nodes from scratch again. This will give a lot of flexibility for options to tweak while also not having to feel like you are doing the exact steps all over again to rebuild up a metropolis or city you were already established in.
My two cents off the top of my head but very excited this is already something being planned for and they are actually listening to feedback from people like you!
Love this plan you made. I actually think this as close to perfect as it can get.
Well your plan is better no doubt about that. There are few points i would like to make. First what will happen when there is only one weak server? Will this server die or how would you merge it with no-dying servers? I know its unlikely scenario but it could happened. Second and this might be just me being mostly PvE player for my MMO carreer – players who like to raid etc might have problems with starting from scratch with building a world…. if there is most of endgame raiding located around metropolis this plan will create many weeks or even month or two where there is no endgame raid for these players. It of course depends on how many ppl would just go away for month or two but i am afraid if there would be enough ppl for building the world but i guess we will have to wait and see how many ppl will abandon game when their server is gone.
Edit: One other thing that crossed my mind. Maybe they could offer ppl from other healthy servers a way to join this new server. For example your guild slowly dies, your friends stopped playing and you might be eager to join a new server but you dont wanna lose all your progression.
Heya, 100% agree with your better plan here.
With the server mergers, they should focus on making equality of opportunity and not fairness. I cant think of a way to make it fair, but giving everyone and equal new chance is possible, and I think your proposed method bridges that gap.
Man i much much much more like your ideal. great thinking