Hey! Where Did Everyone Go?

[TheMaxpower]

As time goes by, the population on my server gets smaller and smaller. When it is difficult to find people to run with, I simply don't play.


SSG - Please merge serves so there are a sufficient amount of people to run with. Or at least allow us to merge servers for you, by allowing us to transfer servers free of charge and allowing us to bring all our stuff with us.


Time to think long term and prolong the game as much as possible.

[SpartanKiller13]

As time goes by, the population on my server gets smaller and smaller. When it is difficult to find people to run with, I simply don't play.

Time to think long term and prolong the game as much as possible.

What server/timeframe are you on? If Wayfinder, there's your problem. If odd hours compared to server peak times, that's also an issue.

Cannith is busier than ever, and growing (although it's the current default server).

[HastyPudding]

What server/timeframe are you on? If Wayfinder, there's your problem. If odd hours compared to server peak times, that's also an issue.

Cannith is busier than ever, and growing (although it's the current default server).

Cannith has been the default for far too long. Give another server a chance....

[Epicstorms]

There are always people that claim their server is better, or assume you're in the wrong timezone for your server, etc etc.

Fact is, population is declining (which is normal) over time.
Compared to years ago, the population is really low. Yes that's for every server.

The devs really should do something about this someday.

I also occasionally just stop playing as soloing is boring or I can't find a proper group for higher reaper or whatnot.

[ComicRelief]

"Dormammu, I've come to bargain."
;)

[TedSandyman]

As time goes by, the population on my server gets smaller and smaller. When it is difficult to find people to run with, I simply don't play.


SSG - Please merge serves so there are a sufficient amount of people to run with. Or at least allow us to merge servers for you, by allowing us to transfer servers free of charge and allowing us to bring all our stuff with us.


Time to think long term and prolong the game as much as possible.

Move to a different server.

[Hobgoblin]

"Dormammu, I've come to bargain."
;)

End this! You will never win.
No. But I can lose. Again. And again. And again. And again, forever. That makes you my prisoner.

[AbyssalMage]

As time goes by, the population on my server gets smaller and smaller. When it is difficult to find people to run with, I simply don't play.


SSG - Please merge serves so there are a sufficient amount of people to run with. Or at least allow us to merge servers for you, by allowing us to transfer servers free of charge and allowing us to bring all our stuff with us.


Time to think long term and prolong the game as much as possible.
(A) It is summer time (At least in the Northern Hemisphere) so A LOT of players are doing things with family. Don't expect to "See people back" until late September (When college starts back up).

(B) Turbine/SSG have been draining the player base with their releases. My guess is they were hoping to "Infuse" the player base with people "eager to return" like every other expansion/update. IMO I think (A, above) was a major factor in why that didn't happen. People were planning vacations and trips. I suspect that we will see some "eager to return" players in late September but by then most of the "sheen" of Sharn will have been lost and the returns will be much lower. Players are going to remember why they left in the first place.

(C) Long term, merging the servers will not solve the problem; it just delays the inevitable. There needs to be a complete change in philosophy. DDO's success was blazing their own path and doing what "couldn't be done." Then they started mimicking other MMO producers and find themselves with depleting players (and the summer doesn't make it any easier).

[PsychoBlonde]

I'd love to know where people are getting their population numbers from. Your "feelings" are not numbers.

If you actually look at the Who list on Thelanis, the place is booming. People have simply migrated away from posting LFM's. So while there are a HUGE number of people logged in, there are very few LFM's posted.

[Yamani]

(A) It is summer time (At least in the Northern Hemisphere) so A LOT of players are doing things with family. Don't expect to "See people back" until late September (When college starts back up).

(B) Turbine/SSG have been draining the player base with their releases. My guess is they were hoping to "Infuse" the player base with people "eager to return" like every other expansion/update. IMO I think (A, above) was a major factor in why that didn't happen. People were planning vacations and trips. I suspect that we will see some "eager to return" players in late September but by then most of the "sheen" of Sharn will have been lost and the returns will be much lower. Players are going to remember why they left in the first place.

(C) Long term, merging the servers will not solve the problem; it just delays the inevitable. There needs to be a complete change in philosophy. DDO's success was blazing their own path and doing what "couldn't be done." Then they started mimicking other MMO producers and find themselves with depleting players (and the summer doesn't make it any easier).

[Ab]Not only is it the summer but also the week of the 4th of July.

[TedSandyman]

A sever merge doesn't have to be complicated. Trying to completely automate it would cause problems but it doesn't have to be as complicated as some make out.

Designate server X as the server that is getting shut down and server Y as the destination server. Inform all of the players on server X that they have to move and give everyone a free account move to server Y.

If you are a guild leader, the guild will follow you wherever you move to. No one else will stay in you guild. Simply inform your guild of your impending move and make sure to inform the guildies that they can rejoin on the new server once their account is moved. If the name is already taken on the new serve you will have to change the name of the guild. It sucks. But you will have to get over it. If your character name is taken, append a _2 to the end as they did for the European server a while back.

You may possibly be allowed to stay on server X, but no new accounts will be allowed on server X. Or server X will be shutdown after some appropriate time to give everyone a chance to log in and transfer.

The developers may be forced to keep the server running or at least save the user data, so that people logging in a year from now will be informed of the situation and will be given the opportunity to move. People logging into the server will be told what to do to get their accounts activated on server Y.

[Yamani]

A sever merge doesn't have to be complicated. Trying to completely automate it would cause problems but it doesn't have to be as complicated as some make out.

Designate server X as the server that is getting shut down and server Y as the destination server. Inform all of the players on server X that they have to move and give everyone a free account move to server Y.

If you are a guild leader, the guild will follow you wherever you move to. No one else will stay in you guild. Simply inform your guild of your impending move and make sure to inform the guildies that they can rejoin on the new server once their account is moved. If the name is already taken on the new serve you will have to change the name of the guild. It sucks. But you will have to get over it. If your character name is taken, append a _2 to the end as they did for the European server a while back.

You may possibly be allowed to stay on server X, but no new accounts will be allowed on server X. Or server X will be shutdown after some appropriate time to give everyone a chance to log in and transfer.

The developers may be forced to keep the server running or at least save the user data, so that people logging in a year from now will be informed of the situation and will be given the opportunity to move. People logging into the server will be told what to do to get their accounts activated on server Y.

Here is a list of things that don't transfer:
Your Friends list
Your /Ignore list
Your Guild name, level, airship, amenities, membership ranks, or other guild-related benefits. You will appear in the new world guildless.
Items in your True Reincarnation Cache
Items bid on or posted to the Auction Houses
In-game mail
Shared Account Bank and Crafting Storage items
Your Astral Shard balance
Your Creature Companion Stable

Thinking something is easy, might not actually be the case just cause you think it is. To merge servers it would cause massive losses to the players on the server that is shutting down. While also causing an influx of players on a server that probably cant handle said amount of players. Which also doesn't fix the core issue of players grouping with others.

[Thrudh]

Where did everyone go?

I don't know about everyone, but I was out riding my jetski at the lake last weekend.

I'll be back more when winter comes around.

[Propane]

Summer time --> firepits (cleaning up trees downed by storms), yard work, etc... my playing time is about 1/2 in the summer...

[Sho-sa]

G-land, EST, late afternoon to evening; mid-week through Saturday. NEVER more than five people on in my level range, 9-12, for those nights. Based off the Who List.

Just adding some numbers to the conversation.

No, a server merge is not the answer as SSG cannot handle that and we would lose the game.

What we need is better marketing and customer retention.

Maybe time to rename the default server?

To be fair, I don't play as much as I used to. Too many friends don't play at all anymore, way too much player split with Heroic/Epic and 13 difficulty levels.

[Gemini-Dragon357]

A sever merge doesn't have to be complicated. Trying to completely automate it would cause problems but it doesn't have to be as complicated as some make out.

If it was easy they would have merged the servers already. They automated character transfer awhile back and a bunch of things don’t transfer over. There is obviously a huge issue on their end merging/moving non-character server specific things. I’m sure they know it is in their longterm interest to merge servers. Awhile back I remember reading on the forums that they tried to contact people who were involved with the server merge in 2007, I guess looking for advice, but it didn’t pan out.

Also, some people are really attached to their character and guild name. They wouldn’t be very happy with a -1 or being forced to change it.

[Zeleron]

G-land, EST, late afternoon to evening; mid-week through Saturday. NEVER more than five people on in my level range, 9-12, for those nights. Based off the Who List.

Just adding some numbers to the conversation.

No, a server merge is not the answer as SSG cannot handle that and we would lose the game.

What we need is better marketing and customer retention.

Maybe time to rename the default server?

To be fair, I don't play as much as I used to. Too many friends don't play at all anymore, way too much player split with Heroic/Epic and 13 difficulty levels.

Make sure you have all the classes at the top selected, and your who list fully populated.

[Maldorin]

Here is a list of things that don't transfer:
Your Friends list
Your /Ignore list
Your Guild name, level, airship, amenities, membership ranks, or other guild-related benefits. You will appear in the new world guildless.
Items in your True Reincarnation Cache
Items bid on or posted to the Auction Houses
In-game mail
Shared Account Bank and Crafting Storage items
Your Astral Shard balance
Your Creature Companion Stable

Thinking something is easy, might not actually be the case just cause you think it is. To merge servers it would cause massive losses to the players on the server that is shutting down. While also causing an influx of players on a server that probably cant handle said amount of players. Which also doesn't fix the core issue of players grouping with others.

Don't care
Don't care
Devs could take care of a lot of this with some compensation and coupons given to guild leaders. Guild could quickly reform.
TR cache has to be emptied every TR not really a big deal
Don't bid on anything. Don't post anything. For like 3 days
Check your mail
Coupons for Max inventory bags for every character transferring. Coupons for shared bank storage on new server.
Spend before moving (convert into items of value and place in inventory)
Don't care

Is it inconvenient? Yes. Is it impossible? Of course not.

I guess it just depends on what side of the merger issue you fall on. I used to care, now I don't. I'd be fine if they designated a server as the "primary" one. I only play 2 characters now. Easy to transfer.

I say this as someone having transferred from Orien to Cannith to Ghallanda back to Cannith. I don't see a merger in principle as much different at all.

Other than potentially lag I cannot understand how it can be seen than anything other than good for the game to have more people able to group together.

Every level cap increase, every new TR incentive (like new races), every difficulty addition (I'm looking at you reaper) fractures the player base. Then there's flagging. Content owned.

I'm in a big guild. It's still often times not easy to group. People are scattered across 30 levels and fewer people want to play alts now.

But merge or not merge I don't care anymore. I'll just play with my very small group of friends until the game dies. I think mergers would have been better had they happened years ago

[HungarianRhapsody]

A sever merge doesn't have to be complicated.

This is the most incorrect statement that has been written on the Forums this entire year.

[SiliconScout]

... If you actually look at the Who list on Thelanis, the place is booming. People have simply migrated away from posting LFM's. So while there are a HUGE number of people logged in, there are very few LFM's posted.I could not disagree with this statement more and I mean that literally with the exception of people migrating away from LFM's. Though I would say that there were probably the same number of people in the private channels / discords it's just that with the population decline they have gone from a minority to a majority.

Seriously, when is the last time, outside of an event, that you or any of us saw more than one instance of an area? When's the last time you saw more than 3? I remember in late 2000's up to right around when MOTU dropped there would ROUTINELY be 3+ instances of the marketplace, sometimes as many as 9. The harbour, same thing. Hell there would be 50 - 100 people in the Lobster alone most nights, with a third or more of them being RPers (a dead breed for a long time alas). In fact I remember often having to change instances to meet up with guildies for a run. I mean, this literally happened daily back then.

And when you think about it, instanced public areas has nothing to do with LFM traffic, at all, it is purely about how many bodies are on the server. I pretty much play on Thelanis exclusively, always have. If by Huge number you mean 500 (which would be a **** good day in T-land) you and I have VERY different meanings of that word. I would say most days Thelanis has, at best, about 300-400 players online spread over 30 levels and dozens of areas. This isn't a feeling it's counting the WHO panel. Right this moment that number is 348 and I would say it "feels" average.

Even if they all showed up in the market place it would maybe be enough to open a second instance. Frankly, these are NOT huge numbers. Maybe multiply them by 10 and you get a "Huge" number, maybe though I would argue you probably need to multiply it by 100 to be truly huge. I don't know that DDO ever had 30,000+ players on at one time, certainly never on a single server at once. Even at the simple 3,500 number though I doubt there are that many people playing DDO at one time outside of weekends on all servers combined, and maybe not even then.

Free server transfers could go a long way to rectifying the populations, but a server merge is probably the "best" option. That said, working with Data all day, I can tell you that the prospect of merging all this server data is an absolute bear of a mountain and almost guaranteed to go wrong. Given the history I would guess that each server has its own completely separate database which means a lot of the "unique" identifiers and keys are going to no longer be unique and it's not the sort of problem you can get around with a couple of sprocks and some complicated data views. You are going to need to merge the data.

Honestly I believe the best idea would be to create a new server and merge several other servers into that one. You get the advantage of being able to run that offline several times until you feel you have it right and then you just giver, knowing there WILL be issues. But how you handle guilds is going to be a bear because you will have people that paid "shards" for guild ships and amenities on multiple servers who will feel "ripped off", etc, etc, etc ad nauseum. I expect that if they hadn't virtualized the servers and each of them were physical boxes we would have seen them shutter the doors and windows quite some time ago.

Long and short of it is server merges are an absolute nuclear last resort option and populations are down, way down but seem to be stabilizing somewhat, albeit they are doing so at very low levels.

It sucks but there you have it.

[HungarianRhapsody]

We wouldn't need server merges if we could play together. It would probably be easier to put the home server name as an attachment to everyone's name as a new feature and then just let people play quests across servers. Everything is already instanced and if it isn't already on virtual machines, then it should be, so this wouldn't be impossible. It might be hard, but it at least wouldn't be harder than trying to merge servers.

[Sho-sa]

Make sure you have all the classes at the top selected, and your who list fully populated.

Yes, (sigh) thank you for the advice....

been playing this game for a couple of years now. ;-)

[Chai]

(C) Long term, merging the servers will not solve the problem; it just delays the inevitable. There needs to be a complete change in philosophy. DDO's success was blazing their own path and doing what "couldn't be done." Then they started mimicking other MMO producers and find themselves with depleting players (and the summer doesn't make it any easier).

Pretty much this right here.

They need to mimic a completely different subset of MMO producers. The ones who halt their vertical progression to one system and begin horizontal progression in other systems.

In these threads over the years we've seen alot of pre-supposed "seasonal" reasons for why the servers havent seen re-population.

Spring - Its nice out and everyone's outside curing their cabin fever, on spring break, not sitting in their house playing games. They will be back in the summer.
Summer - Its super nice out and people are busy with yard work, on vacation, traveling, they will be back in the fall.
Fall - People are back to school, churning out that new fiscal year at work, getting those last rays before winter, when they will all be back on DDO.
Winter - People are too busy with the holidays....
/rinse, repeat.

[Chai]

We wouldn't need server merges if we could play together. It would probably be easier to put the home server name as an attachment to everyone's name as a new feature and then just let people play quests across servers. Everything is already instanced and if it isn't already on virtual machines, then it should be, so this wouldn't be impossible. It might be hard, but it at least wouldn't be harder than trying to merge servers.

This is what they should implement in an instanced game like DDO.

Make it so players can choose to expose their server name or not, and have it below the guild name. Server Name is part of the ID in the DB so no confusion between characters exists.

SameCharacterName
<hilarious almost ban-able guild name>
(of ServerName)

[Jerevth]

I've never seen DDO advertised.
I found it because I was in the mood for D&D and had no one to play tabletop.

Is there a reason DDO doesn't advertise or am I just missing the adverts?

[Nebless]

I've never seen DDO advertised.
I found it because I was in the mood for D&D and had no one to play tabletop.

Is there a reason DDO doesn't advertise or am I just missing the adverts?

With the exception of when it was first released there really hasn't been ANY support for the game. I think I remember here and there a couple of print ad's but that's been about it. Now it was repeatability talked about & played on 'The Big Bang Theory' but if you didn't watch the show ......

It does get coverage on MMORPG.com when new stuff comes out, but most comments from new people over on the Steam forums come down to 'I didn't know this game existed / still exists / I thought it was already closed'.

TV commerical's I get would be expensive, and with so many channel's where would you put them? Print ad's in gamer magazine's might be cheaper, but with SSG being small I doubt if it's in the budget.

[Jerevth]

I was thinking along the lines of advertising on specific web-comics that run along these lines: Goblins, Giant in the playground, Girl Genius, etc.
Advertising there is cheap, relatively, and hits some of the target audience. I'm sure there are contemporary comics in other nations that would also welcome the advertising.

Who reads print anymore? Dragon Magazine lost most of it's appeal to me... thirty years ago...? Oh my God, I'm old.

[BoBoDaClown]

I'd love to know where people are getting their population numbers from. Your "feelings" are not numbers.

If you actually look at the Who list on Thelanis, the place is booming. People have simply migrated away from posting LFM's. So while there are a HUGE number of people logged in, there are very few LFM's posted.

A lot of the time I'm on (Thelanis), the numbers are 60-80. Pretty grim.

[BigErkyKid]

A lot of the time I'm on (Thelanis), the numbers are 60-80. Pretty grim.

As a reference:

I recently came back, and my guild is down to close to single digits of active characters.

Outside of the very prime time (UTC evenings), there are 1-4 LFMs up.

At some point I looked at the WHO tab and there were around 4-5 people at level 18 (which tends to be, I would say, one of the most held levels to go 18-20 then TR).

My impression is that concurrency fluctuates between 50-300 on most servers; in my opinion this is not enough for a MMO.

[Tyrande]

Hey! Where Did Everyone Go?

Vacation overseas... to see exotic animals, etc.

[BigErkyKid]

Argonessen, right now: 142 players.

[Kutalp]

That seems to be, somehow , right.

Less number of players seem to gather at the Stormreach marketplace and Eveningstar town center. I give it to summer time but also players exploring Sharn, Forgotten realms, Ravenloft, Eberron, Greyhawk , Reaper settings (at the same time?)... with small parties of real life friends (?) untill they feel bored and give a break to game...

https://i.giphy.com/media/6zil23qO46Iak/200.webp

[Kaboom2112]

Just move to Ghallanda

[cdbd3rd]

I don't know about everyone, but I was out riding my jetski at the lake last weekend.....

So that was YOU scaring all the fish!!!!

:p

Don't need merger. Just Global chat.

It works for LOTRO, it would work here.

[scipiojedi]

Where did everyone go?

Getting married in 6 weeks leaves less time for play, but I did get the fiancee in the game (she thinks the dragonborn are cute) so it's a longterm win for ddo, just less active now.

[vms4ever]

Don't need merger. Just Global chat.

It works for LOTRO, it would work here.


For some values of "work". Biggest problem is the opportunity for a single rude person to reach and out and annoy a vastly increased number of people. ("You can't make me not post spoilers in world chat. I'm just going to keep posting spoilers.", pro-/anti-vaccination spamfest, "GOAT", etc)

World Chat without active moderation is non-optimal.

[cdbd3rd]

For some values of "work". Biggest problem is the opportunity for a single rude person to reach and out and annoy a vastly increased number of people. ("You can't make me not post spoilers in world chat. I'm just going to keep posting spoilers.", pro-/anti-vaccination spamfest, "GOAT", etc)

World Chat without active moderation is non-optimal.

Oh, yeah, an occasional <person> tries getting all annoying or offensive. Global chat means that many more people either Ignore the person and they find themselves only talking to themselves, or that many more people report a truly offensive person and they just sorta disappear.

[Epicstorms]

I could not disagree with this statement more and I mean that literally with the exception of people migrating away from LFM's. Though I would say that there were probably the same number of people in the private channels / discords it's just that with the population decline they have gone from a minority to a majority.

Seriously, when is the last time, outside of an event, that you or any of us saw more than one instance of an area? When's the last time you saw more than 3? I remember in late 2000's up to right around when MOTU dropped there would ROUTINELY be 3+ instances of the marketplace, sometimes as many as 9. The harbour, same thing. Hell there would be 50 - 100 people in the Lobster alone most nights, with a third or more of them being RPers (a dead breed for a long time alas). In fact I remember often having to change instances to meet up with guildies for a run. I mean, this literally happened daily back then.

And when you think about it, instanced public areas has nothing to do with LFM traffic, at all, it is purely about how many bodies are on the server. I pretty much play on Thelanis exclusively, always have. If by Huge number you mean 500 (which would be a **** good day in T-land) you and I have VERY different meanings of that word. I would say most days Thelanis has, at best, about 300-400 players online spread over 30 levels and dozens of areas. This isn't a feeling it's counting the WHO panel. Right this moment that number is 348 and I would say it "feels" average.

Even if they all showed up in the market place it would maybe be enough to open a second instance. Frankly, these are NOT huge numbers. Maybe multiply them by 10 and you get a "Huge" number, maybe though I would argue you probably need to multiply it by 100 to be truly huge. I don't know that DDO ever had 30,000+ players on at one time, certainly never on a single server at once. Even at the simple 3,500 number though I doubt there are that many people playing DDO at one time outside of weekends on all servers combined, and maybe not even then.

Free server transfers could go a long way to rectifying the populations, but a server merge is probably the "best" option. That said, working with Data all day, I can tell you that the prospect of merging all this server data is an absolute bear of a mountain and almost guaranteed to go wrong. Given the history I would guess that each server has its own completely separate database which means a lot of the "unique" identifiers and keys are going to no longer be unique and it's not the sort of problem you can get around with a couple of sprocks and some complicated data views. You are going to need to merge the data.

Honestly I believe the best idea would be to create a new server and merge several other servers into that one. You get the advantage of being able to run that offline several times until you feel you have it right and then you just giver, knowing there WILL be issues. But how you handle guilds is going to be a bear because you will have people that paid "shards" for guild ships and amenities on multiple servers who will feel "ripped off", etc, etc, etc ad nauseum. I expect that if they hadn't virtualized the servers and each of them were physical boxes we would have seen them shutter the doors and windows quite some time ago.

Long and short of it is server merges are an absolute nuclear last resort option and populations are down, way down but seem to be stabilizing somewhat, albeit they are doing so at very low levels.

It sucks but there you have it.

This. Thanks for writing this, I was too lazy to do it.

[SiliconScout]

This. Thanks for writing this, I was too lazy to do it.No worries bud, just felt it had to be said with such a ridiculous claim of HUGE numbers.

[Aelonwy]

I also play on Thelanis, when I joined in Fall '09, there were regularly 3-5 instances of the harbor and marketplace pretty much any time I logged on. I remember the first Crystal Cove event having 20+ instances for the first three days maybe longer. The first Mabar also had over 20+ instances. Last year even with the revamp of Cove loot I don't recall seeing more than 3 instances even on the first day of the event. I rarely see more than 2 instances of either the harbor or marketplace anymore and usually its just one.

I don't know how many people are required before a new instance is opened but we don't seem to have enough for that to happen with any frequency. ...And that might be a good thing because the servers seem less stable than they were way back when... I mean I've taken part in Cordovan's anniversary Free-for-alls and it seems like each year it gets less and less reliable that people can even move properly without DC-inducing lag. I don't know what's going on behind the scenes in DDO but I remember in years past NOT having such issues with more people so... what in Shavarath is going on?

[Goalt]

They left. Sliently.

[SiliconScout]

They left. Sliently.By the thousands, yes they did. And that is all the more worrisome really. When the population just quietly slips away it's a lot harder to see the situation for what it truly is. Boiling Frog metaphor (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_frog) and all that.

[lyrecono]

I've never seen DDO advertised.
I found it because I was in the mood for D&D and had no one to play tabletop.

Is there a reason DDO doesn't advertise or am I just missing the adverts?
I wouldn't know, been using add blockers since they were homebrew.
I understand people in the US are used to magazines&commics with adds every other page, giant billboards every 100 feet, radio&television commercials every few minutes and posioned your own internet with endless spam&banners but i grew up outside of the US where this was less prominent. When the internet dawned and US based websites got overloaded with adds, we started to block them (partially due to infcted adds).
So some of us across the pond would never have known about ddo (or found the origional box in the bargain bin like i did)


I was thinking along the lines of advertising on specific web-comics that run along these lines: Goblins, Giant in the playground, Girl Genius, etc.
Advertising there is cheap, relatively, and hits some of the target audience. I'm sure there are contemporary comics in other nations that would also welcome the advertising.

Who reads print anymore? Dragon Magazine lost most of it's appeal to me... thirty years ago...? Oh my God, I'm old.
I don't think that would help, plenty of potential younger/newer players are tech savy enough to use add blockers.



So that was YOU scaring all the fish!!!!

:p

Don't need merger. Just Global chat.

It works for LOTRO, it would work here.
Ohhh heffle no!
It's a channel i would block on day 1, i already have plenty of public space spammers blocked.
You would get all the weirdo's spamming to sell kobold prayer beads (as they do now), because no one responds to them in trade channel


For some values of "work". Biggest problem is the opportunity for a single rude person to reach and out and annoy a vastly increased number of people. ("You can't make me not post spoilers in world chat. I'm just going to keep posting spoilers.", pro-/anti-vaccination spamfest, "GOAT", etc)

World Chat without active moderation is non-optimal.
Pretty much this!


Oh, yeah, an occasional <person> tries getting all annoying or offensive. Global chat means that many more people either Ignore the person and they find themselves only talking to themselves, or that many more people report a truly offensive person and they just sorta disappear.
Yeah, many channels have fallen flat like this


I also play on Thelanis, when I joined in Fall '09, there were regularly 3-5 instances of the harbor and marketplace pretty much any time I logged on. I remember the first Crystal Cove event having 20+ instances for the first three days maybe longer. The first Mabar also had over 20+ instances. Last year even with the revamp of Cove loot I don't recall seeing more than 3 instances even on the first day of the event. I rarely see more than 2 instances of either the harbor or marketplace anymore and usually its just one.

I don't know how many people are required before a new instance is opened but we don't seem to have enough for that to happen with any frequency. ...And that might be a good thing because the servers seem less stable than they were way back when... I mean I've taken part in Cordovan's anniversary Free-for-alls and it seems like each year it gets less and less reliable that people can even move properly without DC-inducing lag. I don't know what's going on behind the scenes in DDO but I remember in years past NOT having such issues with more people so... what in Shavarath is going on?
Yeah, people always forget how bad the infra structure is in ddo and can't handle that many people in 1 spot.


They left. Sliently.


By the thousands, yes they did. And that is all the more worrisome really. When the population just quietly slips away it's a lot harder to see the situation for what it truly is. Boiling Frog metaphor (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_frog) and all that.

Sadly they have left, sillently, one by one.
And not enough is done to stop this :(

[Maldorin]

I don't know how many people are required before a new instance is opened but we don't seem to have enough for that to happen with any frequency. ...And that might be a good thing because the servers seem less stable than they were way back when...

I fear sometimes the ultimate solution for past crippling lag was to let the population die down to eventually playable levels. ;)

[Tyrande]

[...]. what in Shavarath is going on?

Between 2009 and now, DDO has moved through at least 3 different data centers; and using cloud based computing for cost savings...

and of course, the executable size, its much larger and complex. We're at what? Update 43? 43 major updates, and 4 different expansions? Of course, even at the system level its different. We have a lot more races, classes, etc.; and we have the revamped trees; Epic levels and with HR, RR, ER, IR, LR.

Also, more fighting styles: dual crossbow style, dual knife backwards style, ninja style (with shuriken), warlock Eldritch Blast, etc.

I do not recall we had TRs prior to 2009... If I had stopped playing in 2009 and came back today, it would almost feel like a new game.

[Zavina]

Here is a list of things that don't transfer:
Your Friends list
Your /Ignore list
Your Guild name, level, airship, amenities, membership ranks, or other guild-related benefits. You will appear in the new world guildless.
Items in your True Reincarnation Cache
Items bid on or posted to the Auction Houses
In-game mail
Shared Account Bank and Crafting Storage items
Your Astral Shard balance
Your Creature Companion Stable

Thinking something is easy, might not actually be the case just cause you think it is. To merge servers it would cause massive losses to the players on the server that is shutting down. While also causing an influx of players on a server that probably cant handle said amount of players. Which also doesn't fix the core issue of players grouping with others.

Yeah i couldn't ever move from Orien based on that list. Having my own Kraken, and just upgraded to Crafting Storage VII (to give an idea of how crowded my storage is) today.

[TedSandyman]

G-land, EST, late afternoon to evening; mid-week through Saturday. NEVER more than five people on in my level range, 9-12, for those nights. Based off the Who List.

Just adding some numbers to the conversation.

No, a server merge is not the answer as SSG cannot handle that and we would lose the game.

What we need is better marketing and customer retention.

Maybe time to rename the default server?

To be fair, I don't play as much as I used to. Too many friends don't play at all anymore, way too much player split with Heroic/Epic and 13 difficulty levels.

I truthfully don't think any level of marketing will help at this point. That ship has sailed. If it had been handled correctly when the game was young, there would have been more players and it would have been better now, but mmo's are not where the cool kids are anymore.

Amazon may be able to pull it off but I doubt even they can. Hmmm. I just had a thought. I may start a new thread.

An easy server merge would simply be to shutdown one server and give the players on the server a free "Account Move" to a different server. They already do account moves (if you pay them), so it definitely wouldn't be the big headache that everyone points out.

They already do account moves, just do the same process en masse. Have a good backup, in case things get lost. Move guilds according to the leader. Regroup on the other side. Rename things as needed. Give free name changes too, if you don't want the _1 on your name.

It wouldn't be a nightmare. Just inconvenient to some.

[Maldorin]

An easy server merge would simply be to shutdown one server and give the players on the server a free "Account Move" to a different server. They already do account moves (if you pay them), so it definitely wouldn't be the big headache that everyone points out.

They already do account moves, just do the same process en masse. Have a good backup, in case things get lost. Move guilds according to the leader. Regroup on the other side. Rename things as needed. Give free name changes too, if you don't want the _1 on your name.

It wouldn't be a nightmare. Just inconvenient to some.

This pretty much describes what a server merge is. And includes what people complain about most. Being forced to move and having to deal with same names, guild stuff, TR cache etc...

Me, I'd be fine if they just took a poll and all those against server merging...just delete those accounts. Simplest solution really. ;)

Just kidding...

[SiliconScout]

I truthfully don't think any level of marketing will help at this point. That ship has sailed. If it had been handled correctly when the game was young, there would have been more players and it would have been better now, but mmo's are not where the cool kids are anymore.

Amazon may be able to pull it off but I doubt even they can. Hmmm. I just had a thought. I may start a new thread.

An easy server merge would simply be to shutdown one server and give the players on the server a free "Account Move" to a different server. They already do account moves (if you pay them), so it definitely wouldn't be the big headache that everyone points out.

They already do account moves, just do the same process en masse. Have a good backup, in case things get lost. Move guilds according to the leader. Regroup on the other side. Rename things as needed. Give free name changes too, if you don't want the _1 on your name.

It wouldn't be a nightmare. Just inconvenient to some.Spoken like a guy who doesn't manage big production data stores if I ever heard it. The _1 at the end of the name is BY FAR the easy part.

Lets say you get moved. But you had a Big guild ship, all the amenities and it was all purchased with shards that you bought in the store. The current "Server move" model not only doesn't compensate you for that, indeed it leaves any shards you still had to spend behind as well. I am gonna guess if that was you then you'd have an issue.

The "Easy" fix is to transfer over all the shards you currently have AND payback the shard cost in the guild ship. But what if you have 2 toons, 10, 30 ,.... WHEN do you move those shards over. What if (as is in my case) 3 players contributed shards to the ship, even have a bunch in the shared guild bank ... how do you give those back equitably?

They can't really use the existing tool (which until fairly recently was a 100% manual process) to complete a server merge now without ripping off many of their players and giving them legitimate grievances. They paid actual cash for those goods, in some jurisdictions SSG could get sued.

I still maintain the actual best choice would be to create a completely new server and simply move entire accounts from 2 or more servers into it. You don't get a choice ALL your toons are moved over there, and so is your guild. It's by far the cleanest way to compete the job but it's also quite likely to be the most labour intensive it's also the one with lower risk of an issue but with a higher impact if there is one.

Could they do it, I think so, I know my team could do it ASSUMING the schema on all the servers is identical, which I would strongly expect it to be. The real question is does it make economic sense for them to do this. Given that their servers are virtualized I will guess there is little to no savings in hosting / hardware costs so you are hoping to regain the expense in either greater player sales OR new subs, and really it's both. As much as I would be OK with this, I just fail to see the ROI at this stage in the game unless we are talking going HARD and only having 1 or 2 servers total.

[Livmo]

.

If going to go big, go big. One world. Everyth9ing gets xfered to it.

I would have a massive fleet of airships to hoard treasure and over 700 toons on 1 world. I got 6 Livmos, 6 Bills, 6 Teds, 6 Excellents, 6 Adventures...(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3fx6TugN7g)

Every thing gets a free re-name and some special thing worth $$. Only $$, because I would not expect a thank you for your patience, because you can't play the game while this actually happens to be more than $50 US.

And of course afterwards, I would like to have player housing, airship wars/battles, trophy cases to display fully upgraded raid loot I don't use, spell component bags, potion bags, no TR cache, and beer on Sundays.

[Maldorin]

, and beer on Sundays.

And free beer on Sundays...

Because there's always room for improvement. ;)

[Andu_Indorin]

hey! Where did everyone go?

ffxiv?

[concavenator]

Mergmergmerg