Merge servers already

[selthun]

I've been playing for 14 years and every time I login I can't find groups unless I'm playing at peak hours. Playing solo sucks. There are rarely any groups in the morning or late at night. I also don't want to transfer servers and don't say I should play during peak hours. I do not care or have "server pride". I just want to play the game with people. Yes I have a guild, level 200, and they're great, but they also aren't on when I play. there are groups up on different servers at different hours and I feel like if you merged them then that would solve alot of problems. Most people play this game for the love of DND and for the people they play with. If we can merge servers and foster that with players from other servers then I think that would maintain longevity for current players and allow new players more grouping options.

[Gljosh]

I enjoy the game the most when playing with others. I have accepted the fact that when I play more than likely I will play solo. I have seen many posts related to Merging Servers, but the technological concerns seem to make this a very difficult task to complete.
Now some have mentioned a way of running quests "across" servers, so people from other servers can run the same quest instance.
That might be the best path forward, if practical.

[Aelonwy]

They discussed megaservers on the most recent Weekly Wednesday with Severlin... apparently the current servers just could not handle it.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1208164886

Check out time stamp 33:30.

I know its not quite the same thing.

[selthun]

I enjoy the game the most when playing with others. I have accepted the fact that when I play more than likely I will play solo. I have seen many posts related to Merging Servers, but the technological concerns seem to make this a very difficult task to complete.
Now some have mentioned a way of running quests "across" servers, so people from other servers can run the same quest instance.
That might be the best path forward, if practical.

they've merged servers before. multiple times.

[selthun]

They discussed megaservers on the most recent Weekly Wednesday with Severlin... apparently the current servers just could not handle it.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1208164886

Check out time stamp 33:30.

I know its not quite the same thing.

then spend money on new servers. god knows i spend enough on the game to pay for them.

[Phoenicis]

I've been playing for 14 years and every time I login I can't find groups unless I'm playing at peak hours. Playing solo sucks. There are rarely any groups in the morning or late at night. I also don't want to transfer servers and don't say I should play during peak hours. I do not care or have "server pride". I just want to play the game with people. Yes I have a guild, level 200, and they're great, but they also aren't on when I play. there are groups up on different servers at different hours and I feel like if you merged them then that would solve alot of problems. Most people play this game for the love of DND and for the people they play with. If we can merge servers and foster that with players from other servers then I think that would maintain longevity for current players and allow new players more grouping options.

Ignoring ALL the Astral Shard/number of characters/name/guild issues involved in shoving the entire player base onto a single server.

Lag would (probably) get phenominally worse. Take the complaints we get now when an event (Mabar, Crystal Cove, any of the others) start up and draw players back.

Now multiply that lag by however many servers they shove into one.

Hard Pass.

Until they FIX the lag, all of it, Megaservers needs to be put in long term deep freeze.

[wax_on_wax_off]

I too feel like half the time I log in I can't be bothered to join the 1 group in my level range doing a quest I've already done or haven't flagged for yet. So I just log out again and play something else or watch Netflix.

How about we all just choose a server and go there? Residents of whatever server that is can offer welcoming gifts and who cares about the relative power loss when we leave some characters behind if we all end up in the same place able to actually have a bit more fun?

[Wizard1406]

They discussed megaservers on the most recent Weekly Wednesday with Severlin... apparently the current servers just could not handle it.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1208164886

Check out time stamp 33:30.

I know its not quite the same thing.

Hmm do they have weaker servers than 11 years ago? Because when DDO unlimited was new, a single server probably had more players than all servers combined now.

Ignoring ALL the Astral Shard/number of characters/name/guild issues involved in shoving the entire player base onto a single server.

Lag would (probably) get phenominally worse. Take the complaints we get now when an event (Mabar, Crystal Cove, any of the others) start up and draw players back.

Now multiply that lag by however many servers they shove into one.

Hard Pass.

Until they FIX the lag, all of it, Megaservers needs to be put in long term deep freeze.

Cross server instances might be a better solution...what is making it not possible? Every quest is instanced and private, servers are virtual, why can't people from different servers be put in the same private instance?

I too feel like half the time I log in I can't be bothered to join the 1 group in my level range doing a quest I've already done or haven't flagged for yet. So I just log out again and play something else or watch Netflix.

Yep even with a low player number per server they can and should make it more worthwhile to play together. In your example, give full xp when in a group even if you have done quest before, make all quests red-boxable. Introduce teleport to group and autoquest sharing, increase power leveling and overlevel ranges, so more chances to have 1 or more suitable groups for your level.

[selthun]

They discussed megaservers on the most recent Weekly Wednesday with Severlin... apparently the current servers just could not handle it.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1208164886

Check out time stamp 33:30.

I know its not quite the same thing.

seems to be good enough for hardcore

[JOTMON]

Forget server merge.. its a mirage for the thirsty in a desert.

problems come with server merges... permanently lost toons, permanently lost accounts, permanently lost items, names taken by others. etc...
Server merge doesn't address Lag that still hounds players or clean the old baggage.


A clean new server with free character transfers.
implement solutions for guild ship copies/transfers, monster manual, favor, storage (like TR caches), ponies, pets, guild renown and any other shtuff current transfers don't move over.
and some treats like cosmetics to encourage transfer.


Then go ahead and merge all the old servers with the old residual baggage for those that may or may never return to the game.

[Seph1roth5]

I don't buy the whole "we want to fix lag before we think about merging servers" excuse. Hardcore sees piles of people coming from their home servers and it's never been any laggier than every other server.

All our stuff is just 0s and 1s, hire a copy/paste expert that can handle that, and some expert CS that can deal with anyone/thing that falls through the cracks.

Side/related note, been a week and still waiting to hear ANYthing from cs about my lost stat/skill tomes after my main char tr'd.

[dredre9987]

I've been playing for 14 years and every time I login I can't find groups unless I'm playing at peak hours. Playing solo sucks. There are rarely any groups in the morning or late at night. I also don't want to transfer servers and don't say I should play during peak hours. I do not care or have "server pride". I just want to play the game with people. Yes I have a guild, level 200, and they're great, but they also aren't on when I play. there are groups up on different servers at different hours and I feel like if you merged them then that would solve alot of problems. Most people play this game for the love of DND and for the people they play with. If we can merge servers and foster that with players from other servers then I think that would maintain longevity for current players and allow new players more grouping options.

They have already said multiple times that it cannot be done at this time.

[dredre9987]

I don't buy the whole "we want to fix lag before we think about merging servers" excuse. Hardcore sees piles of people coming from their home servers and it's never been any laggier than every other server.

All our stuff is just 0s and 1s, hire a copy/paste expert that can handle that, and some expert CS that can deal with anyone/thing that falls through the cracks.

Side/related note, been a week and still waiting to hear ANYthing from cs about my lost stat/skill tomes after my main char tr'd.

It is holiday season in the US, don't expect quick CS times.

[selthun]

Side/related note, been a week and still waiting to hear ANYthing from cs about my lost stat/skill tomes after my main char tr'd.

sads

[selthun]

They have already said multiple times that it cannot be done at this time.

why was it able to be done 3 times in the past? but not now? when there were more active players before.

[dredre9987]

why was it able to be done 3 times in the past? but not now? when there were more active players before.

Because there were way more servers. They brought it to the lowest amount they can handle for now. ( They are working towards 64bit servers next year sometime, maybe that helps alleviate the issues they have now )

[badm0f0]

I've been playing for 14 years and every time I login I can't find groups unless I'm playing at peak hours. Playing solo sucks. There are rarely any groups in the morning or late at night. I also don't want to transfer servers and don't say I should play during peak hours. I do not care or have "server pride". I just want to play the game with people. Yes I have a guild, level 200, and they're great, but they also aren't on when I play. there are groups up on different servers at different hours and I feel like if you merged them then that would solve alot of problems. Most people play this game for the love of DND and for the people they play with. If we can merge servers and foster that with players from other servers then I think that would maintain longevity for current players and allow new players more grouping options.

i feel your pain trying to get a group at the moment is very low and yes im in a guild lvl 200 etc same.,. but its a bonus buddy weekend 10 percent extra and i cant even get 1 person to group ..have done a total of 30 quests and have lfms up only on r1 and not 1 person ..wonder how many people are leaving per week in this game.

[Wizard1406]

Pretty much any MMO that I've ever played had enough people to group up. I don't play tiny indie MMOs or "dead, on life support mode" MMOs, those could be dead with no grouping, but DDO is not like this and still gets regular content updates.


MMOs manage enough grouping action either trough level scaling, cross server instances, mega-server or server merges, or at least having big enough servers with dedicated time zones, so that you can pick one for your play time. In DDO all servers have heavy US evenings focus.

If a game has few groups below level cap, then at least grouping is going on at endgame. In DDO leveling is part of "endgame", so....and even lvl 30 groups can be sparse.



Even with an extremely low population it would be possible to always have groups going on at each level range: grouping way more xp than solo and any zone/quest giving good xp, as long as you're in a party (the more people the better). A Neverwinter Nights server I was on was like this.


A workaround until they figure out server merge/mega-server (if ever? :-/ ) could be:

Xp bonus at least +10% per member permanently; full xp as if one had bravery & first time (& no ransack), as long as at least one party member is eligible for those bonuses. If still too few groups, then increase xp bonus per member and ease up power-leveling and bravery/overlevel ranges. And all it would take is changing some numbers.

It would remove some one the most common causes for not considering a LFM:

- "groups only slow me down" -> maybe, but at some point xp bonus outweighs that and people will consider it
- "I already did this quest". -> you'd still get full xp
- "I'm a few levels too high / too low" -> see above


Does SSG not want this - because it gives more xp? (only if you do group up, solo xp rates remain the same)

I'd think people quitting or spend less money loses them more money than a few less xp pots sold due to faster xp rate

[dredre9987]

Pretty much any MMO that I've ever played had enough people to group up. I don't play tiny indie MMOs or "dead, on life support mode" MMOs, those could be dead with no grouping, but DDO is not like this and still gets regular content updates.


MMOs manage enough grouping action either trough level scaling, cross server instances, mega-server or server merges, or at least having big enough servers with dedicated time zones, so that you can pick one for your play time. In DDO all servers have heavy US evenings focus.

If a game has few groups below level cap, then at least grouping is going on at endgame. In DDO leveling is part of "endgame", so....and even lvl 30 groups can be sparse.



Even with an extremely low population it would be possible to always have groups going on at each level range: grouping way more xp than solo and any zone/quest giving good xp, as long as you're in a party (the more people the better). A Neverwinter Nights server I was on was like this.


A workaround until they figure out server merge/mega-server (if ever? :-/ ) could be:

Xp bonus at least +10% per member permanently; full xp as if one had bravery & first time (& no ransack), as long as at least one party member is eligible for those bonuses. If still too few groups, then increase xp bonus per member and ease up power-leveling and bravery/overlevel ranges. And all it would take is changing some numbers.

It would remove some one the most common causes for not considering a LFM:

- "groups only slow me down" -> maybe, but at some point xp bonus outweighs that and people will consider it
- "I already did this quest". -> you'd still get full xp
- "I'm a few levels too high / too low" -> see above


Does SSG not want this - because it gives more xp? (only if you do group up, solo xp rates remain the same)

I'd think people quitting or spend less money loses them more money than a few less xp pots sold due to faster xp rate

You can't do things to force people to play the way you want.

[Wizard1406]

I'm not forcing anyone to group up, but some barriers to grouping should be put down, if there are not enough players and no server merge yet.

If there is literally no one online interested in grouping in your level range after removing those that only solo or static groups maybe it's time to increase level range and have an alternative to the typical level up path.

Current level up path : Do all the good xp quests once and exactly once (few exceptions), and at the exact right level range, otherwise you waste bravery - this is not very pick-up group friendly with a low population.