How exactly are servers going to work........one mega server or split into many like CoH?
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Fri, 10/04/2013 - 23:38
#1
Servers...
One mega-server with different shards, as necessary. A similar system to how Champions Online operates.
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I kind of hope the way DCUO has it. 2 mega servers. 1 PVP and 1 PVE. I never was a fan of too many servers mainly cause then you might have gotten into that one server that just seems full every hour or you end up on that server that is always empty. least with a mega server you'll always see people. And keeps the community closer together.
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Owner and Big Sister of the Justice Girls -Champions Online-City of Titans-
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I very much hope that there is some sort of dedicated RP server. Virtue was great for me because I could just assume everyone was role-playing by default and could do it openly. I find games that don't have RP servers tend to have fairly dead or 'hidden' RP communities, and it's a pretty make-or-break deal with a lot of my old CoH buddies.
I am not a clever man.
Although there is just one server, I believe the needs of RPers are being thought of by the developers.
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The Titan Legacy - Defender of the Inner Flame
Since I bailed on CO fairly quickly, here's a silly question.
Are the "shards" permanent or are they adaptive depending on the population size? IE.. is it "ok.. shard alpha is getting full, fire up shard beta"? I understand that the multiple servers diluted the population, but it also gave each server a... "personality" that I think added greatly to CoH's appeal and feel.
The shards are not permanent. It's like when Atlas Park got too full, and there was Atlas Park 1, 2 or 3.
Ohh I love that type of stuff. It helps out a lot when multiple people are doing the same mission as you.
As long as there is an easy way to join your teammates in a different shard (assuming it is not full), I am more than ok with this.
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I never set anything on fire accidentally!
The Titan Legacy - Defender of the Inner Flame
I really am concerned about the use of "shards" from a roleplayer's perspective, because every game I've ever played that has a single-server model with shards has had very little zone RP to speak of.
What I liked about Virtue was, as I said before, the fact that no matter where I was, I could assume everyone was in character without having to necessarily check every bio in the area. I wasn't in any real danger of being the only one RPing in a random PUG. Unless there's some way to ensure that I'm only going to bump into other RPers while playing the game... I really can't see this game holding much interest beyond the first couple months, and that worries me. The thing that always kept me (and most others I know) coming back to CoH was the idea of throwing new character concepts out into the world to RP.
Virtue was the second biggest server, to my knowledge, and the one of only two servers that consistently hit red dots. It would seem somewhat odd to me, from a development standpoint, if they didn't have some way to accommodate that same experience in the new game. And no, just putting in specific RP zones wouldn't be the same. Still, I have faith that there is something in the works, since it WAS such a huge part of CoH for a good many people.
I am not a clever man.
So 3 actual mega servers. RP, PVE, PVP. Then least ya had a larger chance that the shard you were in was in fact an RP shard since it was on the RP server.
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Owner and Big Sister of the Justice Girls -Champions Online-City of Titans-
Forum Breaker
Leader of the Ellysyn Dark Ensemble
I understand where you're coming from, but the fact is, there is going to be just one server, that's not changing and the game is being built from that idea. There is something else that CoT has going for it though, and that is a lot of people who want RP in their Supper powered MMO. And rest assured the devs know this. Raise your concerns of course and offer suggestions. Perhaps there can be baked in some tools that will make the single/sharded server RP work here.
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I never set anything on fire accidentally!
The Titan Legacy - Defender of the Inner Flame
The common way shards are handled is that you're in a random one, and to play with friends you have to be "pulled" into their shard buy joining teamleader and such. This is a mess during events where people have to pull eachother into the shard with the event.
I'm no techie here, but what if we could manually jump into a specific shard through a dropdown menu with a list of all active shards? Or even better, why not have some shards stay online permanently with specific names? In that way RP'rs could dedicate a shard for RP, PvP'er another one for PvP etc.
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Lets leave that for phase 2 or 3. We dont know how well the lag and such will be yet.
I like the idea of one server as CoT will likely be - at least initially - a MMO with a more select population and it'll make it easier to find a team. It does seem like mega-server games don't tend to lend themselves to RP but I always assumed that had more to do with a higher instance of griefers on a one-server system. Heck, griefers were even a problem in Atlas Park on Virtue at times.
Find a way to deal with those who would go out of their way to spoil someone else's good time and RP will happen, mega-server or not.
Shards in CO & STO behave exactly like you suggest. As long as there's more than two active you can select from a list of active shards in which there's room. Which presents a problem if there's a permanent dedicated shard. Depending on the capacity, it could be easily filled with griefers and a few dozen of their friends in a sort of denial of service attack.
"I don't think you understand the gravity of your situation."
AS far as servers go. how man character slots are going to be available to each player? I have tons of alts and hope there will be a large number of characters slots. If there will be a single server architecture my only fear is I will be limited to just a few characters. If there is another discussion thread on this subject please direct me there...
Thanks!!!
Did someone say what's the deal with servers?
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So... the current gameplan is to have the ability to 'tag' yourself as PvP or RP or whatever, and be put into the appropriate version of the map at any time? Because if so, this should allow for RPers to interact with the whole world and each other freely, without forcing them together with non-RPers and visa versa. If so, this seems like a worthwhile solution to the whole issue. It allows us to potentially play together without forcing people of alternate play-styles together if they don't want to.
Definitely a neat idea, and it does validate my hopes.
I am not a clever man.
I hope they will use the Champion Online system every character has unique serial number.
But more then one person with the same name is allowed.
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I doubt they even know the internals of how it will be stored yet... do you really want it to be a number in particular (or could it be something else unique, like "charactername@globalname")?
Yeah, that is their stated intention (for example, see http://cityoftitans.com/comment/19298#comment-19298). I think that is kind of unavoidable if we are going with the one server model.
Global: @Second Chances
SG: Fusion Force
"And it's not what I wanted
Oh no, it's not what I planned
See it's not where I thought I'd be
It's just where I am"
From what I've read that is indeed going to be the case with CoT.
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But Virtue wasn't a dedicated RP server and CoH didn't have an RP server. Virtue was an unofficial RP server, but RP happened on other servers, and there were plenty of people who played on Virtue who didn't RP, hated RP, but played on Virtue due to it having a high population.
Then add into it, what's the point of having a named RP server, if no one is going about GMing?
Don't know about you, but I don't care much to see "Hi! I'm Luke Skywalker! Jedi Knight!" or "Hi! I'm PvPPWNHEALORZ! How goes it?" when I RP :p
[i] {Re: Anakin building C3PO out of spare parts for free}[/i]
What I wanna know is where he got the language databases for the over six million forms of communication. Building a droid doesn't look too hard, based on evidence. Populating that droid with knowledge that is likely exceedingly expensive is not a walk in the park.
[i] -- Eric The Read[/i]
alt.binaries.warez.protocol-droids.c3
This also explains what tempted him to his first steps toward the "dark side."
It's only a very short step from that to Palpatine seeing a post along the lines of: "CA|\| NE1 0N Th]5 BB0ARD T3Ll M3 H0w 2 GeT KeWL S]Th P0WeRZ!?!?!?!??!?"
The rest is, well, a couple more overly-hyped ILM graphics demos.
[i] -- henke[/i]
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Just because you typically have a GM in PnP games doesn't mean you must have a GM present to roleplay in general.
As far as MMOs go whenever I've seen a "dedicated RP" server it usually means they want you to "stay in character" by default regardless of what you're doing. Whether you're chatting in a social club or shouting orders in a dungeon everything you say is supposed to be in character because otherwise it would "break the mood". For what it's worth some people want that kind of strict level of "realism" in their games.
As you say Virtue was the unofficial CoH RP server, again for what that was worth. If CoT does allow flags to set yourself as "RP" or "PvP" and the like then those people who want strict in character roleplay can find each other more easily without any false assumptions that "everyone" on the server wants to play that way.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
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Union was the EU unofficial RP server (just so you know), and there were several groups that I am aware of, that had their own plotlines going. We also had the "Unionverse", which was a common "expanded universe" for all who were on the server to use.
I played on Union and was not a member of any of the RP groups there, but that is because I tend to find it harder to RP in computer games (for one reason or another). But which ever server I am on, I flick between IC/OOC stuff as and when needed.
Also, I find that the community is *generally* nicer on an RP server than a normal PvE server (please note: This could be because I generally stay to the EU servers as well...)
While I am in/run an RP SG, I too can usually run between IC and OOC. I had checked into the "Unionverse" but personally, didn't care to much for it. It seemed a little to one sided. Like a group got together and said "this player's character is all that and a bag of chips."
I am curious if anyone knows of an MMO that actually enforced the RP on their RP server. TOR went about saying they did, but didn't. "Oh, who's to say that's not IC calling that Chiss some form of Smurf, maybe a smurf means something different in the SW universe. Oh, but that RL offensive name, yeah, totally means the same thing."
One of the reasons I think CoH was right in not having an actual RP server. It's hard to moderate, costs resources to moderate, and if they make a judgment on the RP, it might cost them players.
Best to leave any ideas of specific servers (though isn't CoT going with one mega server) outside of PvP/PvE, left on the cutting room floor.