Guess someone rubbed the magic lamp

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by CatsPaws, Jun 6, 2019.

  1. Aurastrider Augur

    As far as the mergers go I really hope they reconsider the concept of merging smaller servers with larger servers. It will put the players from the smaller server at a severe disadvantage from an economic standpoint. I think a more reasonable approach would be to merge multiple smaller servers together if their goal is a much larger population. Instead of merging just two small pop servers together merge three into one if that's what's needed to reach their population goal. I still have my reservations about mergers especially the technical end of things. I really don't want to log in one day to find half my toons and my neighborhood gone because they botched the merger and now I need to provide an extensive character and inventory list just to regain what I lost in a virtual natural disaster.
  2. IblisTheMage Augur

    I hope they merge AB with a US hosted server.
  3. forbes77 Elder

    i think that's silly idea.
  4. NeverPayForLag Augur

    oh man, I never hope that AB gets a server merge again. The last time they did that, a whole guild with a bunch of rude US kids invaded Norrath and killstealing and insults was a standard until they removed the whole guild to another server.

    I don't want to have that crap again. I love AB as it is. It is enough that we have a premiere killstealer and wellknown rude botter at moment - thinking about a possible horde of it - and on top of that alts with an X at the end of the name - the ones who got that are ghosts I never played since... no offense meant but ... I don't even want to think about all the toons who are mere mules under level 10... repacking all items and/or leveling all toons up beyond level 10 so that the items don't get deleted... gosh... really?... no thanks!
    forbes77 likes this.
  5. Paerza New Member

    There are two problems and both have a very obvious solution:
    1) low population servers: make task/raid instancing cross-server possible and make a good group search tool where you can queue or make your own cross server groups. Everyone gets -of Servername- appended to their name while in the instance or the tool to solve naming conflicts. E.g. Lagollas of Zek can group with Lagollas of Fironia Vie. There, problem solved for the short and the long term. Open world you stay on your own server.
    2) no influx of new blood. Basically people give up after smooth sailing to 70. Just give some faster options to get within 5 levels of max. For example heroic boost for those who want to skip it or a high (10x) xp multiplier for level that works a bit like the AA multiplier: the further from max, the higher the bonus for level-xp (should not work for aa xp). The multiplier decreases the closer to max lvl. It should only kick in at like 80 or 85, before that is fast enough. This way you attract fresh blood: they dont need to box (group cross server) and they dont need to pay for pl (there are official options).

    There, two issues solved!
  6. forbes77 Elder

    sounds like a headache to the dev team.
  7. IblisTheMage Augur

    My arguments are:
    - same tech setup as other servers -> fewer tech isses. Chat service has been semi-out of order for a long time, log in and zone times are quite bad on AB.
    - ability to group w. people in different time zones
    - better support vs. for example botters.
  8. Yinla Ye Ol' Dragon

    I don't think being merged with another server will fix some of the issues you are seeing. If this was 2 years ago when we were having all the server issues which lasted 9 months, then I would have agreed with you. But since then the server has been more stable than a lot of the US servers. That is just looking at the many server issues other servers have posted on the boards, AB has been running pretty smooth recently and as far as I can remember there has only been 1 time when AB has been down and other servers have been up, while Xegony and other US servers have had a heap of problem over the last year or so with lag, crashes, etc.

    I also recall when I moved from BB to AB the ping and zone times went down, while tech has improved over the last 10 years since I moved over, I'd expect to see the reverse if we were to merge with a US server.
  9. IblisTheMage Augur

    But... do you have a functioning connection to the chat server? Mine drops after a while, more or less every time I log on.

    It takes more than 10 min to log in 6 toons...
  10. code-zero Augur

    I don't know about AB but on the live US servers I have characters on I have that happen regularly on every single one of them
    IblisTheMage likes this.
  11. BlueberryWerewolf Augur

    I was running three toons on AB over the last few weeks and didn't seem to have any issues. My ping was like 30ms higher than on Mangler, but also over wifi and not on my wired desktop, so probably a factor. Loading times didn't seem to be appreciably different.
  12. Corwyhn Lionheart Guild Leader, Lions of the Heart

    I think they should merge small servers with large servers. I think what makes the large servers healthy is something you are not going to get by simply merging two smaller servers. You can merge a couple small servers and you will end up right back where you started soon enough. You need to merge small servers with those servers that have that something extra that makes them the large servers.

    But that is just a personal opinion.
    NeverPayForLag likes this.
  13. BlueberryWerewolf Augur


    It's an interesting idea.

    It is probably indisputable that there is a feedback effect on a higher population server and a chicken/egg situation for the cause. What makes Xegony successful? It is certainly not something intrinsic to the server itself. It is the same as other Live servers. Does the higher population breed a lasting community, or has it simply been lucky with having lower attrition?

    Does it have lower attrition because of its community?

    Does simply having lower attrition by chance result in continued lower attrition? I doubt many if any servers have seen a general increase in population, but I would be interested to know if any had.

    Where am I going with this? I don't know. Just musing I guess.
  14. Aurastrider Augur



    I just think of human nature and history when I think of this. Basically a larger more dominant society is going to consume a smaller weaker one. The smaller server players, guilds and so forth will never be the same. Their tribes (guilds) will be poached to death, their businesses (traders) will be undercut due to supply issues compared to the larger supplies from the dominant society, and socially they will be the outcasts who have to prove themselves to the larger more dominant class. If they merged 3 smaller servers together everyone would be on a level playing field making it easier for everyone to assimilate into this new melting pot and they should have roughly the same numbers as merging a larger and smaller server together.
    Yinla and code-zero like this.
  15. BlueberryWerewolf Augur

    It doesn't seem likely to me you will have less poaching and market disruption by merging more servers together.
  16. Aurastrider Augur



    You should probably look at world history then. I cant think of a situation where a larger more dominant society consumes a smaller one and does not mostly control it. On the other hand smaller nations have joined together and initially there is some skepticism and maybe even some turmoil amongst the different factions but eventually they merge together and eventually become one if they are to be successful.

    Merging smaller servers will still have poaching but to a smaller degree. It will probably be the people that are not really all that satisfied with their current situation or don't feel welcome with their current society so they cross over initially. Hopefully after the dust settles and the community starts to come together alliances and mergers will be formed and it will feel less like be consumed and more like collaboration.

    From an economics standpoint it will be significantly fairer as smaller economies will usually have less overall plat and items from the start. A larger society by default is going to have a controlling interest in the economy with a significantly higher percentage of the servers wealth. They can use that wealth to control the market on all items. Also the larger society will be the one that has set the tempo for pricing things from the start. What might cost 1000pp on a smaller server might be 10000pp on the larger due to inflation. The larger population server will gobble up all the items, reset the prices to the higher price and the lower populated server with less wealth now cant afford things without going broke. Your low pop servers plat will literally be worth less once the merger happens. It wont take nearly as big of a hit merging servers with similar sizes because their economies should be roughly equal.
  17. Corwyhn Lionheart Guild Leader, Lions of the Heart

    Not a valid analogy at all. We aren't too different societies we are talking about servers who have that something extra that make the successful and large servers and servers that might be missing that extra something.

    I just think you are getting way to melodramatic here with talk of outcasts and such.

    Traders undercut? No one will get undercut they will be all drawing from the same resources.
  18. Corwyhn Lionheart Guild Leader, Lions of the Heart

    Well my feelings is that there were things about Xegony that kept it from going down the low population road. I mean no offence to low population servers but there is a saying about reinforcing success and not reinforcing failures.
    BlueberryWerewolf likes this.
  19. Aurastrider Augur



    Human nature is human nature. It has nothing to do with being melodramatic and everything to do with reality. The biggest difference here is you are coming from the perspective of the larger nation and I am coming from the perspective of the smaller one. I would much rather merge with one that is more equal to my server than one that is significantly more dominant.

    As far as traders go see my above post and maybe you will understand. Imagine if the US consumed Mexico. On day one everything in Mexico costs the same as it does in the US. Sure their will be more resources but do you think the people in Mexico will realistically be able to afford anything? Over time they will accumulate wealth and eventually be able to afford stuff but initially they will be the poorest class in this new society and at a severe disadvantage. The smaller server will be Mexico in this situation.
  20. BlueberryWerewolf Augur

    I don't think this analogy works very well.

    Some people will probably see their guilds consumed in either situation.