Player count / Servers

[kevincurry115]

Im just curious, I see servers that max pop at around 30 - 40, Why have so many servers, why not just condense into 2 or 3 and have more players all together ?

[Glacier Peak]

We don't want to. 

[Lunar Ronin]

With free shard transfers, if we wanted to play on Excelsior or Everlasting, we already would be there.

[Lyte Stryke]

Some folks like a quieter server and knowing many of the other players, or at least recognizing them. In particular I prefer that the general chat, help and LFG messages aren't screaming past.  As a personal preference you can choose your shards, you can even shard hop. You can invite other players to join you on a shard. Point is, the thing you want- higher population- can be found elsewhere.  Go there.  But please don't try to change the shard(s).  There is NO reason to consolidate them.

[Lunar Ronin]

41 minutes ago, Lyte Stryke said:

Some folks like a quieter server and knowing many of the other players, or at least recognizing them. In particular I prefer that the general chat, help and LFG messages aren't screaming past.  As a personal preference you can choose your shards, you can even shard hop. You can invite other players to join you on a shard. Point is, the thing you want- higher population- can be found elsewhere.  Go there.  But please don't try to change the shard(s).  There is NO reason to consolidate them.

 

You don't have to worry about shards consolidating.  It's been pointed out by developers many times over the past few years that it will never happen, for various reasons.  Just every once in a while (especially on the City of Heroes sub-Reddit), someone who thinks that everyone should be playing on Excelsior or Everlasting despite their preferences brings it up.

[Seed22]

58 minutes ago, kevincurry115 said:

Im just curious, I see servers that max pop at around 30 - 40, Why have so many servers, why not just condense into 2 or 3 and have more players all together ?

Hoah boy, well..

 

If you condense the servers it doesnt change the cost. I assume they have a set amount of uh...server, I guess. So even if it were 7 or 2, it'd cost the same. Having multiple servers doesn't hurt.

[BasiliskXVIII]

Plus, since the game doesn't handle duplicate names per server, consolidating means that of the people who share names between the servers, one or the other is going to lose it. Somehow I doubt that'll go over well.

[macskull]

At the end of the day the only extra cost incurred with extra servers is having Reunion on separate hardware. The team has already said that if the financial situation ever requires it the closest thing they'd ever do to a server merge would be to move Reunion to the same hardware they're running everything else on. As far as population goes... eh, I don't particularly want to play on a server where there isn't a large enough population to just hop on and do whatever I want at most times of the day, but some people enjoy quieter servers so they're not hurting anything.

[Snarky]

[Skyhawke]

[Snarky]

wow  what a novel concept...

[lemming]

There do seem to be some topics that need a pinned FAQ to say "This has been discussed a few times before, here's why we haven't done it"

[Octogoat]

33 minutes ago, Snarky said:

wow  what a novel concept...

He had to make it. Prometheus just handed it to me.

[Techwright]

8 hours ago, kevincurry115 said:

Im just curious, I see servers that max pop at around 30 - 40, Why have so many servers, why not just condense into 2 or 3 and have more players all together ?

 

In addition to all the explanatory comments, I'd note that our most recent server, Victory, was merged in, having been its own identity for a while.  Part of that process was respecting those who already played on Victory before the merger.

 

Besides, the low-population servers serve an important role:  they're the only hope I have of getting my characters through the content in the PvP zones without getting thoroughly and repeatedly thrashed.  😅

[Scarlet Shocker]

9 hours ago, Octogoat said:

He had to make it. Prometheus just handed it to me.

 

Is that a euphemism?

[Ironblade]

On 6/1/2025 at 2:25 PM, kevincurry115 said:

Im just curious, I see servers that max pop at around 30 - 40, Why have so many servers, why not just condense into 2 or 3 and have more players all together ?

 

Quite simply, there is no benefit.  Trust me on this.  You may think there are obvious benefits, but there aren't.

 

Regarding the one 'benefit' you mention - "have more players all together" - the players on the less populated servers DON'T WANT TO BE ALL TOGETHER.

[Glacier Peak]

3 minutes ago, Ironblade said:

the players on the less populated servers DON'T WANT TO BE ALL TOGETHER.

Every time I enter Ouroboros on Indomitable, I smile 😄

[Water]

On 6/1/2025 at 7:25 PM, kevincurry115 said:

Im just curious, I see servers that max pop at around 30 - 40, Why have so many servers, why not just condense into 2 or 3 and have more players all together ?

 

Thank God you got here...

 

[lemming]

Hmm, looks like Victory still doesn't get a live-graph

[Glacier Peak]

1 hour ago, lemming said:

Hmm, looks like Victory still doesn't get a live-graph

Could've swore @macskull asked for that data when Victory went live. 

Edited June 7 by Glacier Peak

[lemming]

4 hours ago, Glacier Peak said:

Could've swore @macskull asked for that data when Victory went live. 

It's been asked before and I could swear I saw it, but maybe it was just the status

[GM Crumpet]

Victory was created by Michiyo at the same time as Homecoming. There were many versions of the game made at that time like Thunderspy, Cake and Rebirth. Michiyo was friends with some of the original Homecoming creators and started helping out, then became part of the core team and Victory kept going as a separate thing, albeit with mostly HC architecture. It had the same updates as HC and after a while was mostly the same with a few tweaks to help the low population of die hard players. Eventually running it alone became too much for Michiyo so it was folded in as the 6th shard. Cost-wise it's not adding any extra as we have the capacity, and some people actually like having a quiet shard to play solo on. It also meant the Victory players didn't lose their game and progress because of Michiyo having to close it down.

[Scarlet Shocker]

I actually think we have the right number of shards and there's populations to suit all tastes.

 

Excelsior is great if teaming is your thing and you want to get something done rapidly and Everlasting meets the needs of our RP community.

 

But the low pop servers have great advantages too. It seems to me that if superheroes existed in a real world setting they'd be few and far between - they would be the last bastion of law and order in a world where it failed and where most who had powers would use their power to serve their own ends regardless of the law. So to become special (ie a player character) would leave you up against the odds. It would literally be a couple of you at best against very powerful enemies and that's where the real feeling of heroism comes from (or supervillainy if that gets your vessel buoyant.

 

As things stand we can meet most players requirements as a community and even if some shards don't meet your needs personally you have no requirement to play on them, just do your thing where you wanna do it and don't fret about anyone else.

[Mopery]

Variety is the spice of life, and the spice, of course, must flow.

[Octogoat]

1 hour ago, Mopery said:

Variety is the spice of life, and the spice, of course, must flow.

Muad'dib!