Hello, Just curious, and I'd like to hear from the Dev's when able. It just seems as though many live servers are dead..why not merge? Granted I don't know the logistics and whatnot, but why isn't it possible to merge all live servers into 3 or 4 servers? Seems as though it would benefit most in my opinion. People that are on dead servers would be able to actually play without paying to transfer. I guess maybe just waiting for people to pay to transfer is a way to get money, but doesn't seem like a way to "please the masses" if you will. Also it seems like it would be less maintenance for DBG in the long run to deal with 3 or 4 servers instead of how many there are now. I'd say it seems like that TLP has taken over. I don't think that's fair. I think a massive live server merge would get everyone on a few servers that would help the current population get re-invigorated with new blood. I know personally that I pay for 6 accounts and I'd like to think that I help DBG in that way. However, if TLP is the way moving forward I'd rather not take part in it. I look at server populations on the DBG site and it just seems like some mergers could happen. Just my thoughts.
Simple forum search in Veteran's Lounge has 59 hits for 'server merge' since August 30, 2017. Post by Roxxlyy on Nov 14, 2017 says nothing in the pipeline (although reserves the right, yadda yadda yadda): https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/server-merging.245157/#post-3600383 I don't think the Devs owe you a response...but here's mine. I'm on Xegony, like you. I know who the pita people are on the server. I know the ones that will steal nameds, run over you in areas you are xping in, and really don't seem to care that anyone else is on the server. Luckily the number of those people are low enough to where you can generally find a place to work on current content (or at least pop into an instance for some loot/xp). If you want to go back to play in old content (like finding PoP bosses for the Artisan's Prize or having a run through Vex Thal), you can...if you put in some, but not a ridiculous, amount of work. There are annoying people in general chat, but not so many that questions cannot be asked/answered without having to have half the server on your ignore list. Merging Xegony with another similar population server is just going to hurt my chances to do what I want on the server. I'd rather just stick with what we have. Doesn't mean I don't welcome new folks to our server...happy to have returning/new folks start playing. But Xegony (like all the other Live servers) has it's own identity, flow, je ne sais quoi about it. I've been through 2 server mergers (well, 3 actually) that have definitely changed the character of the server I'm on, and not for the better. Everyone always talks about how having more people will bring this utopia of people getting groups, particularly at low levels. I never saw any evidence of this happening in previous merges. And now with almost everyone running some sort of box support and/or being part of an active raiding guild, you will just have more people fighting for finite resources...while still ignoring the folks that everyone talks about helping. And yes, I know the last few expansions have had pick zones...but for most zones, those pick zone spinoff numbers are higher than they should be and you generally will get frustrated/force to work a poor spot before a new pick pops. Remember the guy who permacamped the 40-slot bag named in HH Seb...across 4 picks...tell me that's not going to happen even more on a higher population server. As far as your TLP rant...I'm not sure what to say. I'll agree that more resources go toward TLP than I like...but I don't play on those. There seem to be a number of folks who do, but the numbers (and more importantly money) breakdown is something I don't know, can't know, so I don't worry about. This last expansion experience has been poor...but it has been getting better (more in the fixing the bugs they introduced to older content than fixing current). Oddly enough, I'm in the best in-game financial shape I've ever been (even after being on the cutting edge of PoR bows) due to the RoS tradeskill stuff. Honestly, I think your post is more selfish that you let on. You've just started (or at least just started inviting other players) a guild that's trying to grow and I bet you are wishing there were more players you could gobble up to start raiding/guild eventing more than you can right now because most of the players that want to be in a guild 100+ are in one (well, and were not kicked out of guilds for being pitas). Don't have a problem with you wanting to improve your guild...but I do think you should be more upfront rather than claim the "mystical powers for all" in a server merge...which I have never seen.
Honestly I don't think server mergers are going to fix anything. First the last server merger was a disaster and that was just a couple months ago. They have a lot of bugs to work out before they should ever consider doing another one. The idea that more players in one place will provide a more enjoyable experience is also a bit flawed. End game expansions are small so without more instancing and pick zones overcrowding and the same behaviors that plague the TLP servers where play nice principals would quickly go away as people would be fighting over camps due to a limited supply of content to kill. Also things like artisans prize would become nearly impossible for most to accomplish due to the extreme lockout timers on POP mobs and a limited number of old world camps required to farm specific items for its evolution. I still think the best long term solution is some form of cross server grouping/raiding. Have mechanics that don't allow for trades or items to be dropped onto the ground so DBG still gets profits from people doing cross server transfers to buy and sell things. Lastly those who are heavily invested in boxing due to the lack of groups over the years or convenience of an instance group and being able to afk at command due to RL will still be boxing most likely. Most of the boxers that fall into these categories wont suddenly be ditching all but one of their accounts just to start grouping again. I think the overall downside outweighs the potential upside of doing this. But that's just my personal opinion.
Your server likely is not doing bad if 2-3 guilds are doing modern content. (I'll call modern content T2 RoS - that ignores an unsustainable T1 win)
You don't need this. You just need people to be good people. I was in a raid tonight, that included people from the top 4 raid guilds on my server. People just need to get along. There are plenty of people. It's a social problem not a game mechanic or server problem.
This might not be a problem during prime time but for people that primarily play during non peak hours something like this could help a ton. It might also allow for late night raiding and such if players from multiple servers could come together and form an alliance. My primary playing time is during the middle of the night and even if everyone on my server who is not already on a raid lockout wanted to try and knock out a raid I doubt there would be enough players to attempt one let alone having enough tanks and healers to even make it viable.
If you want to raid at later hours you could go to the EU server. You could also organize a group of people interested in raidingbthat time slot and have them gather on a server of your choosing. I came to Xegony because there was a guild that raided the hours I needed, and was willing to put up with my $&@t.
Rather than screwing up server dynamics via a merge, you might look around to find something that fits your play time. Don't mess up the rest of us just because you are a special case.
You pretty naive if you think such a thing can be made, easily. I would say such a thing could easily cost the same as 1/4 of an expansion costs. And what would DBG get out of it? Nothing at all. What would they lose? All the income from doing server transfers.
You might need to do a little reading. Where did I say I was in favor of a server merger? Never once did I suggest this. In terms of me being a special case I guess anyone who does not play during peak hours is "special"? Allowing cross server grouping and raiding which from others accounts is something in other games would allow servers to maintain their server identity while allowing for more grouping and raiding opportunities. To me this is the best compromise to keep things intact while maybe solving some of the grouping issues in game people are claiming to have.
The last time they did a server merge (18th October 2017) they had a pretty major issues like chars not being deleted instead of transferred if there was a naming conflict. See below post for details https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq...ge-october-18-2017.244011/page-2#post-3594035
Your cost assumption is just that an assumption. This is a feature in other games. Maybe its not even possible in EQ but its an idea. Obviously if the cost/time to do such a thing don't make financial sense then its not even something of discussion. Since nobody in an official position has ever commented on this that I am aware of its still an idea that is better than nothing. In terms of server transfers I would imagine most of the people doing these are those doing cross server trades which if you read the part about not allowing trades or the ability to drop items via these cross server grouping instances DBG would still be making money via these.
Join AB? Anyone who seriously suggests joining that hot mess should not be giving any advise. Nothing against the players there but the server itself has been unstable for well over a year. The company itself has suggested people transfer off of it. How many of those people are raiding at midnight pst? Most of their raids are later in the morning or at least the one Euro raiding guild that was on my server would raid around 8-10am pst and they no longer raid last I heard due to low numbers at this time. As far as trying to gather the masses from multiple servers to merge onto one server for a late night raid force that is highly unlikely to ever happen. How many people are going to fork over real money to transfer for something that might fail only to pay to transfer back. If there was an established raid force during this time frame it might be more realistic.
Is there one established on any server other then AB? If not there’s only going to be one way to go about it. If I was only able to raid late nights I would fork over the cash to transfer. Assuming at least 30 other serious people where willing to actually raid. So I get where you are coming from.
Basis for server transfer would vanish, if i could just group/raid with any people on any server, thats lost income. Now if i group with 6 persons on 3 different servers, would i only be able to do missions or also kill outside missions. If only missions, then it would be worth nothing and i would really suck in grouping if i not able to get a group for it. If outside missions which IS where most things do happen, do i then kill on server A or B or C or the shared server? Lets say its the shared server. Lets say i wanna group in VP. We then go to say VP, then run and kill the 2 hours mobs, go to VT and kill raid mobs there. Disband i back on normal server and do same things. All stuff i should not be able to do. Or does the mobs vanish on my server when i kill them? If i myself can select which server i kill on, i just start a char on any server and i can rampage through any server i want. DBG gets absolutely nothing out of it, except expenses to develop things and i would put up a chase item that it would take less than 1 day after it was implemented for some people to find a way around the no drop on ground. Add to that FV would very likely be flodded with items. How? I make a deal with a FV person or 2 to participate in raids, and that person gets the leftover items to sell.
I doubt there are any raid forces at midnight pst save maybe something on one of the TLP servers but even that might be a stretch. Raids have been focused around a very specific time for as long as this game is old. The problem is this games population is getting older and yet those times have still stayed the same. I could argue that the raid part of an expansion should be an add on and those wanting to raid should have to pay extra for this. Since those who raid seem to have no problem with everyone paying for raid development yet they seem to think that everyone should fit into this ancient time frame where raids take place cross server raiding would at least give more opportunities for people who are paying for raid development to actually play this content. Those who are ok with the current system should be ok with paying more for raiding while those who don't raid should pay less. Until this happens any ideas that promotes more access to content that people are paying for should not be dismissed so quickly.
Like anything there are potential losses and gains. Potential gains would be player retention. If there are access to more grouping and in tern you have higher player retention you will have more profits. Maybe to be eligible for cross server stuff someone would have to be all access so they guarantee that only paying customers are utilizing this service. The bean counters would then have to determine potential projections and determine if the income from these retained players would be more than the possible loss of revenue from server transfers. In terms of how the design would work is something that would have to be discussed. I would be in favor of a blank server without merchants or just joining an instanced version of a specific zone. The grouping tool would list players looking to group and then once they form a group via the tool the leader would then pick an instance and they would be ported to the zone in. For open world content It would work just the same as now with pickzones so everyone using this tool could potentially be in a zone with other people. If a group disbands you would have xx amount of time to join another group before you are sent back to your server. Obviously these are just ideas and I would be open to anything that is an improvement to the game. Also note that outside of the potential benefits of maybe being able to raid this tool would not benefit me in any way in game. I seriously believe if we want to see another two decades of EQ we need to think bigger picture for player retention and the current model of spinning up TLP servers is only going to work for so long.
Xegony has one of the very highest server populations among all servers. I could almost see where the OP was coming from if he was on a low pop server. /boggle It sure had been a very long time since we had one of these posts though right?! Cazic certainly does not need a merger - no thanks!
Correction: The server/cluster itself is quite well and stable and all. Our problems are with the chat-system (probably the used software itself, but going by what they say their system-architecture) and anything related to THAT. Neither did "the company suggest" that people transfer off, but they offered a character-based free one-way transfer off to a certain server only (that has it's own issues). And that was more, i feel, to cover their legal behinds against charges than anything else - just so they can point to something and say "look, they have this alternative" when ofc the offered "alternative" isn't one in reality. Many don't care about those differences, but they're there...
Do you have reasonable zone/log in times now? I still suffer, but it might be just me... I was going to suggest merging AB into a US hosted server, to help us not being on seperate hardware compared to the rest. Getting a larger population would be an added bonus. I must say that in general, I am pro fewer, more populated servers, but I have no roadmap nor suggestion on how to get there. I do not believe server transfer to be a real income stream from DB, not compared to the benefit of a better customer experience. I think the cost of server transfers is to prevent Richards and rectums to jump from server to server.
