Server Merger Needed to Sustain Playerbase

[SonicTHI]

I switched from reunion to excelsior permanently months ago.
Lag being practically a non issue the population difference at any time makes it far easier to find groups for specific content. Even so off EU and NA prime time the population at those times is very low and besides DFB there isnt much group action. Switching servers just to find groups is a big hassle and is actually severely limited.

The problem of population is there - especially on the villain side and i dont see it getting better over time even if HC becomes the "official" server. In fact it will only get worse as people switch from low pop servers till only a few hardcore "namers" and soloers are left. This will have to be solved sooner or later and will involve solving naming as well.

I would prefer if all population would be merged into a megaserver like GW2. It solves scaling and the game already has a world map instancing system for overflow scenarios.
Unfortunately it seems that with the current population that would involve a major rework of the database server system or workarounds like database syncing etc. which would also take time and work.
As for naming it should honestly have been solved already with either unique identifiers (accountname, number/server suffix ie: Heroname#EX) or some integrated title system where characters could have the same name with different titles: The Amazing Heroname.

Another thing as said is the leader problem. Currently LFG is utterly useless and besides SBB i ve seen noone use it or have ever gotten a group with it. If i would prioritize something to alleviate the grouping issue it would be this.
Just adding a number of people queued for something would help people form groups. The group forming would also have to be redesigned to a first come first serve basis: group formation starts with 8, another person joins and they also get the prompt if not all have hit enter - until 8 players have done so and a group is formed. It would also help if you could swap characters and keep your spot in a group until a mission/tf starts. Another option would be for the lfg to only be an indicator and then anyone queued can hit form group (after min of players is reached), be handed the lead and people getting prompts to join.

 

Again - work and time. The simplest thing as is, is a server merge.

Edited January 20, 2020 by SonicTHI

[Lockpick]

On 1/15/2020 at 2:28 PM, Saborwrath1 said:

The gist of this post is that Torchbearer and Excelsior and should be merged or at least thought about in the coming months.

The meat is I am an old CoX gamer much like yourselves and I can tell you that Solo'ing is not for me. Waiting and broadcasting for a team is tedious and loses players, while recruitment will likely not happen unless some youtube persona takes interest, we can boost available teams using simple maths. 

Currently, even on the weekend, Excelsior tops out near 800 to 900 players. Some saturdays see it in the low 700s. This means basically there can only be 112, 8 man teams. or 180 effective 5 man teams.
The problem is this pool is randomly split across archetypes so you could have a tanker pool under 50 players, and honestly all this low population discourages soft support characters that cant solo easily.

Ive seen this game die once. Id rather not lose it a second time. Merging these servers would put the weekday pop back over 700, and the weekend pop towards 1100. This is game saving. Thats a player pool i can pick a team out of at any given time. Because I and i know most others love the social aspect of this game. It would be a shame to lose it due to a disjointed population.



 

/jranger

[EmmySky]

I dont think a server merge is called for.

 

I do think we need a solution to the name situation for switching servers or if someone is squatting (not using...maybe they already left but didn't delete).  Something like EmmySky@EmmySky or Sinnocence@EmmySky.  So if I took Sinnocence to Torch instead of Indom, I still have my name.  There is a global chat channel that uses your global instead of your local name, so maybe its a possibility.  Of course, that may use a lot of (lost the word...whatever it uses) to constantly reform a database.  I don't know how it works so I certainly can't find a solution, I just think it would be a good idea.

[Wintercat]

The funny thing is, even on live, just after release where there were queues to login and five instances of Atlas Park, people we calling for mergers. I'm on Reunion, and teams fill up fairly fast IF SOMEONE STARTS THEM.

Don't wait for an invite, start a team of your own.

[Snarky]

Okay. I saw someone post about “solving naming”.     Taps fingers on table.     Can anyone say anything that sounds vaguely like a plan on how to do this?   Because just saying “do this” does not mean there is a plan or that it is possible.  I could say the human race just needs to use a beam to directly tap the suns power.  Okay.  Sounds great. Universal unlimited power.   I am just sure someone might mention there is not only no current way to do it but that it seems like a perpetual motion machine story that is in effect impossible

[Lines]

7 minutes ago, Snarky said:

Okay. I saw someone post about “solving naming”.     Taps fingers on table.     Can anyone say anything that sounds vaguely like a plan on how to do this?   Because just saying “do this” does not mean there is a plan or that it is possible.  I could say the human race just needs to use a beam to directly tap the suns power.  Okay.  Sounds great. Universal unlimited power.   I am just sure someone might mention there is not only no current way to do it but that it seems like a perpetual motion machine story that is in effect impossible

I don't know if the current devs have any tricks up their sleeves, but historically this has been labelled impossible.

 

But damn if it wouldn't be the best change to ever come to CoH.

[Erydanus]

Consider reaching out to your old COH friends and let them know the game is up. Tell them what kind of experience you're having. I'm sure some of the people who came back initially were turned off by the servers being a bit unstable at the start - now they're silk smooth. Some who were interested may have held off, afraid they'd play a week and have the servers killed, traumatically. Let them know we have several servers, free transfers, all the good things going on.

 

 

[jubakumbi]

I realize it is very difficult for a lot of people to understand there are different thinking people in the world.

The simple fact is, not everyone that plays this game falls into the same narrow demographic.

Me pointing that out has nothing to do with trying to play devil's advocate and everything to do twith, like everyone else, simply expressing my opinion.

 

Trying to further pigeon-hole it into "Devil's Advocate" is, IMO, simply another veiled attack to try and de-legitimize my opinion. 🙂 

 

Trying force everyone onto the same server will not save the game, IMO.

If the only reason someone is playing a game is due to peer pressure from the rest of the playerbase, what's the point?

 

Encourage people to try and play COH because it's fun, rather than just thinking more = better.

If the reason someone plays a game is because there are more people, then they are just following the lemming herd, IMO, not playing a game based on its merits.

 

The people that want to play on a more populated server have the tools they need to do so.

How is forcing that on _everyone_ some brilliant solution?

 

IMO, the whole argument for these things has always just been extroverts that feel they need a people blanket around them to appease anxiety about having possibly chosen to play something, somewhere, that is somehow 'not popular enough', so they feel they have not made a bad choice.

Edited January 20, 2020 by jubakumbi

[Solarverse]

@jubakumbi Not what I meant by that, my man.  Like, not even close. It was simply a tongue in cheek comment showing that you often have a differing opinion that steps outside the box. I think you are just used to me getting in to it with you, this was not one of those times.

 

@VileTerror Sorry my post confused you...again.

[Snarky]

Save the game?   Looks around.  So my game was dead for years. Now i play every day with any TF or team rolling like a non-stop train. I put a list of 6 oddball TFs i needed for my badger. Knocked out 3 in 2 days just responded to LFG ads. Have been running endless Synapses this week or would prob have them all done. Zero organizing on my oart. Just going with the flow.
 

save the game?  My game has been saved. I am grateful for the 1337 geeks who have saved it and are working HARD to ensure we have a future.  
 

save the game?  Really?  I’m too old for this crap.  

Edited January 20, 2020 by Snarky

[golstat2003]

6 minutes ago, Snarky said:

Save the game?   Looks around.  So my game was dead for years. Now i play every day with any TF or team rolling like a non-stop train. I put a list of 6 oddball TFs i needed for my badger. Knocked out 3 in 2 days just responded to LFG ads. Have been running endless Synapses this week or would prob have them all done. Zero organizing on my oart. Just going with the flow.
 

save the game?  My game has been saved. I am grateful for the 1337 geeks who have saved it and are working HARD to ensure we have a future.  
 

save the game?  Really?  I’m too old for this crap.  

Pretty much this. Server merges are not needed and the game isn't dieing.

[siolfir]

3 hours ago, jubakumbi said:

I realize it is very difficult for a lot of people to understand there are different thinking people in the world.

No, people easily recognize that there are different thinking people in the world. The people that think differently are just wrong. 

 

sadly, a lot of people don't take this as a joke anymore and really think that way

[Tahliah]

On 1/15/2020 at 7:30 PM, MTeague said:

Same.  Although I will say, I get teams WAY FASTER, if I post in chat that I'm forming one, as opposed to waiting to see an LFG happening for what I want to do.

Same here.  I'm the world's worst team leader, so will start one for whatever I want/need at the time, do the recruiting, and then ask someone else to take the star.  There are ALWAYS takers, so it's a plan that works for people who are uncomfortable leading for whatever reason (shy, slow travel power, distracted, anxious, born followers as opposed to leaders, tired, drunk, whatever).  Just a "work around" idea that has worked great for me! 

[jubakumbi]

3 hours ago, Solarverse said:

@jubakumbi Not what I meant by that, my man.  Like, not even close. It was simply a tongue in cheek comment showing that you often have a differing opinion that steps outside the box. I think you are just used to me getting in to it with you, this was not one of those times.

 

That's why I smiled.

You know I poke back. 🙂