What about the Australian/US playerbase?

[Bach]

So if as you say there's potential for 350-500 US players, if you'd chuck the Aussies on top of that (assuming that they'd prefer a ~6 hour time difference to the US over the ~10 hour time difference to the EU) you'd have a decent-sized server going. Then the devs would just have to migrate the server location to Hawaii, set the hostility generation/RvR blocker to prohibit EU primetimes, provide a one-off free transfer + nation selection, and presto!

The global server experiment has already gone on long enough, the last time it worked fine was in spring, ever since then it's been players defecting to pirates to fight vacuums, sitting behind timer iron curtains or stacking allied nations while wondering why there's no RvR left.

Not exactly. With the Euro players on the same server there is over a 1000 players available on the weekends and it's a lot of fun. On pvp1 there is a sort of stratification of players by time zone. Most players tend to gravitate to the nation closest to real life home it seems. Most of the Spanish, French, Swede, Dane and half the Brits/Pirates are all Euro Time. Most all of the USA and later time zone players tend to be on the USA, Brit and Pirate teams. So early in the US time zone we can concentrate our play in the East Indies to take advantage of the 600 man pop. Later in the day we simply shift to the western carribean and the US zone 200 are more concentrated into just three locations making the action still on the high side even with the lower pop.

On pvp2 we would be looking at a dedicated USA zone server and even if we got all 500 there they would be divided up by 8 equal time zone nations effectively holding the PvP action down due to dispersion that isn't seen on pvp1. So the action on pvp2 would only climb slightly. Meanwhile the pvp1 action in USA time zones for late night Euro players would go to near zero. So effectively we would destroy late night pvp1 action for just a slight increase in pvp2 action.

If you goto one server the stratification effect will be watered down a little but still hold. So then you still get 600+ man action euro time weekdays and bump to 500 man action USA time weekdays. This would also curb euro dominance of the server. Then on the weekend you get 1200+ man full 8 nation participation action that would be unmatched in the current route the game is going.

Until we actually overload a server and create log in ques we should try to get everyone on one server.

Edited October 31, 2016 by Bach

[JollyRoger1516]

Quite honestly I stillthink slowing the hostility down by quite a bit more would allow for a better integration of all timezones - British nation in thsi example would be able to generate its hostility over several timezones in roughly equal measures while other nations with their EU main playerbase would go for big chunks every day untilt eh max is reached. Surely this would allow all palyers to see some activity instead of just cutting out part of teh playerbase from main content!

 

I would also not stand against a merged server - it would also give other nations a big chance of trying to build up a population of different timezones as they failed to do so so far!

Edited October 31, 2016 by JollyRoger1516

[Mrdoomed]

Until we actually overload a server and create log in ques we should try to get everyone on one server.

Then what ? 1 player plays on the new server , then 2,4 maybe 100 in a year?

I dont think the game will be successful enough to worry about it but on the off chance it does grow what is the plan?

Force people off thier full server with thier friends or to have a server with 3 people on it?

Considering you are probably the most vocal against pvp2 now and it still has 200 in prime time(with a patch that killed pvp) and you still wish to see it shutndown because of low population.

Just curious of how they would restart a new server? Thoughts?

[Bach]

Then what ? 1 player plays on the new server , then 2,4 maybe 100 in a year?

I dont think the game will be successful enough to worry about it but on the off chance it does grow what is the plan?

Force people off thier full server with thier friends or to have a server with 3 people on it?

Considering you are probably the most vocal against pvp2 now and it still has 200 in prime time(with a patch that killed pvp) and you still wish to see it shutndown because of low population.

Just curious of how they would restart a new server? Thoughts?

The plan would be simple.

First find a server capable of good ping for everyone including the Australians.

Get this up and running before official release.

At release, if we see excessive additional player we add temp servers as needed.

After a few months the population should naturally start dropping till it reaches those perpetually fond of the genre and play. So then we start collapsing any temp servers back into the proven good ping main server.

During this time Doomed will be experiencing pirating with 1000+ players trying to move cargo on the same server. Including Euro players that often make those attempts in US prime time before they go to bed. It's not that I have anything against pvp2. I have as much gear there as France as I do in pvp1 as pirate. It's just so much more fun pirating on pvp1 than trying to PB on pvp2. I really think that if we can get all the USA zone onto one server with the Euro pop we all win.

[Guest]

Not exactly. With the Euro players on the same server there is over a 1000 players available on the weekends and it's a lot of fun. On pvp1 there is a sort of stratification of players by time zone. Most players tend to gravitate to the nation closest to real life home it seems. Most of the Spanish, French, Swede, Dane and half the Brits/Pirates are all Euro Time. Most all of the USA and later time zone players tend to be on the USA, Brit and Pirate teams. So early in the US time zone we can concentrate our play in the East Indies to take advantage of the 600 man pop. Later in the day we simply shift to the western carribean and the US zone 200 are more concentrated into just three locations making the action still on the high side even with the lower pop.

On pvp2 we would be looking at a dedicated USA zone server and even if we got all 500 there they would be divided up by 8 equal time zone nations effectively holding the PvP action down due to dispersion that isn't seen on pvp1. So the action on pvp2 would only climb slightly. Meanwhile the pvp1 action in USA time zones for late night Euro players would go to near zero. So effectively we would destroy late night pvp1 action for just a slight increase in pvp2 action.

If you goto one server the stratification effect will be watered down a little but still hold. So then you still get 600+ man action euro time weekdays and bump to 500 man action USA time weekdays. This would also curb euro dominance of the server. Then on the weekend you get 1200+ man full 8 nation participation action that would be unmatched in the current route the game is going.

Until we actually overload a server and create log in ques we should try to get everyone on one server.

 

Who's to say that the nations would become perfectly equally divided on PvP2? Just as they've flooded to the US/Brits (not sure about pirates anymore to be honest since they can't seem to defend at US times), so none of that dispersion would necessarily happen unless the players make it so - just as they currently are almost all in allied nations and then wonder why they can't get RvR fights - it's player-imposed.

 

If anything, the patch has made it far easier to find PvP with hostility hotspots flaring up and unique regional bonuses/resources providing an ample amount of traders to hunt or protect.

 

But sure, in terms of sheer playercount in OW, there's no real issue - the issue is RvR, and it currently sits without a solution.

 

Quite honestly I stillthink slowing the hostility down by quite a bit more would allow for a better integration of all timezones - British nation in thsi example would be able to generate its hostility over several timezones in roughly equal measures while other nations with their EU main playerbase would go for big chunks every day untilt eh max is reached. Surely this would allow all palyers to see some activity instead of just cutting out part of teh playerbase from main content!

 

I would also not stand against a merged server - it would also give other nations a big chance of trying to build up a population of different timezones as they failed to do so so far!

 

I find it hilarious that you were highly vocal about people's suggestions being about their own national advantage when it's painfully obvious where all of this would lead.

[Helbent]

It's been a balancing act trying to drive hostility to generate the best port battle times. (timing).

Last Thursday the US on PvP 1 hit 100% hostility at Grand Bahamas at something after 1am EST (so late Thursday night/early Friday morning) in the hopes of a PB Saturday @ 11pm-ish EST/10pm CST/8pmPST---trying for the best of all worlds for North American time zones). However when it hit 100% hostility there was no PB triggered. We ran another mission and also attacked an AI fleet (thinking that maybe the hostility had rounded up to 100% and just needed a small nudge). Still no PB (it was F11'd by multiple people). So we ended up with no Saturday PB for the US.

This is exactly the problem I have been trying to point out. This isn't a bug, it is working as intended per Admin. From 0247-0800 UTC, no PBs can be triggered. Period. That is a huge chunk of US prime time (and all of prime time for the west coast). You will get to 100 and then lose a chunk at reset and have to grind it back up and end up with some strange PB time if you can't get to 100 before 0247.

This isn't a population issue at all, and in fact having the "US" server would allow them to have 2 different server reset times to allow for EU/US prime time to be uninterrupted by these blackout windows.

[Mrdoomed]

The plan would be simple.

First find a server capable of good ping for everyone including the Australians.

Get this up and running before official release.

At release, if we see excessive additional player we add temp servers as needed.

After a few months the population should naturally start dropping till it reaches those perpetually fond of the genre and play. So then we start collapsing any temp servers back into the proven good ping main server.

During this time Doomed will be experiencing pirating with 1000+ players trying to move cargo on the same server. Including Euro players that often make those attempts in US prime time before they go to bed. It's not that I have anything against pvp2. I have as much gear there as France as I do in pvp1 as pirate. It's just so much more fun pirating on pvp1 than trying to PB on pvp2. I really think that if we can get all the USA zone onto one server with the Euro pop we all win.

That literally sounds exactly like what we have now only we are in alpha so we dont collapse the server. Im tired because of pain killers but i dont see a difference.

You are still going to have one server with a smaller population that needs to transfer back and forth.

On a very sad note if pirates are to be what it looks like they are going to be we shall be forced to play US instead. ..but still be pirates.

Edited October 31, 2016 by Mrdoomed

[Bach]

Who's to say that the nations would become perfectly equally divided on PvP2?.

I'm pretty sure the driving factors of the stratification are home origin and language. You don't really have this on pvp2. Back in February when the pop was so high it demanded additional servers we didn't see the stratification then either.

So in pvp2 everyone isn't going to join the USA and pirate team. Though statistically a disproportionate number should still appear it's not going to all divide into these two teams. On pvp1 it's multilingual. Many of the Spanish actually speak Spanish. The French speak French and many of the Swede and Danes German or Russian. This is a very TS requiring game. So naturally players tend to gravitate to teams with common language. So on pvp1 you see most English speakers in USA, Brit and Pirate. On pvp2 it's all mainly going to be English in every nation so it should divide more evenly.

That literally sounds exactly like what we have now only we are in alpha so we dont collapse the server. Im tired because of pain killers but i dont see a difference.

You are still going to have one server with a smaller population that needs to transfer back and forth.

On a very sad note if pirates are to be what it looks like they are going to be we shall be forced to play US instead. ..but still be pirates.

True, except the current main server doesn't have a good enough ping to collapse the Australians into. Edited October 31, 2016 by Bach

[JollyRoger1516]

I find it hilarious that you were highly vocal about people's suggestions being about their own national advantage when it's painfully obvious where all of this would lead.

That always goes both ways - currently other nations are highly profiting from teh Brits losing about 25% of their playerbase. A merger and full activity count might make it worse but again it would be highly advised for other nations to actually get some US/AUS players in their nations as it used to be when the game started (the reason they left your nations wasn't the ping!!!)

[Blackjack Morgan]

So am i, and i have.

Your point?

 

My point is that just because one lives in the US does not mean that they will have terrible ping. I thought that would be pretty obvious to gather from my post but hopefully that clears it up. You earlier implied that nobody from PvP2 would want to play on PvP1 due to bad ping and I'm simply saying I think that's a bunch of B.S.....is that clearer for you?

[Mrdoomed]

My point is that just because one lives in the US does not mean that they will have terrible ping. I thought that would be pretty obvious to gather from my post but hopefully that clears it up. You earlier implied that nobody from PvP2 would want to play on PvP1 due to bad ping and I'm simply saying I think that's a bunch of B.S.....is that clearer for you?

Well thanks i can finally understand what it felt like to be Hellen Kellers teacher.

[Helbent]

Not sure how this got derailed into a server merge thread, but just to update it looks like the blackout window was shifted to 0347-0900. That helps a little bit for the next week or so, but come the end of daylight savings we will be right back where we were last week

 

Although, to be fair to the devs without moving the server reset time I am honestly not sure how much closer they can make the window to the reset.

[Jeheil]

I have played on both US and Euro hosted servers, the ping is survivable from Australia, 300ms...the two HARD things you have to adapt to are boarding last 'click' and any form of raking (sail or stern) where you need to fire a little earlier than you would normally and occasionally this can make you look like an utter muppet as you shoot your entire broadside 2 cannon ball widths wide of the stern.

 

As for how many servers we should have...well I will have to wait till we 'go live'. I cannot imagine a large enough playerbase to have an Oceanic Server and to be honest...living in the only English speaking nation (not counting New Zealand....coz ya know...New Zealand...) in Asia I would still as I do with other games most likely play on Euro and US servers, coz MMO's for me are about your 'friends' and you 'clan'.

 

I personally would prefer the Dev's to adopt a 'World View' to their game design and look to create as much equitable content for a 24/7 360degree game.

 

As it stands now, Port Battles in our Prime Time (which has shutdown from 7pm !!) are non-existant and even if one did somehow get triggered it would likely be a 15 v 15 or some such. So I wake up early on the weekend like any good "mad" gamer would/should.

[Robbert Dole]

As someone in the US who has below average Internet (200 at best ~300 usually for US) and 6-800 on the euro server... in the event of this merger any word on refunds (if only partial) for those who will be utterly unable to play? I bought a game with a US based server, had I known that there was only an unacceptable euro server I certainly would not have purchased the game. (not even a good euro server where is it? Turkey?)

[Mrdoomed]

As someone in the US who has below average Internet (200 at best ~300 usually for US) and 6-800 on the euro server... in the event of this merger any word on refunds (if only partial) for those who will be utterly unable to play? I bought a game with a US based server, had I known that there was only an unacceptable euro server I certainly would not have purchased the game. (not even a good euro server where is it? Turkey?)

I would like to know this too but im guessing since it was EA that even moving servers to some place you cant use will protect them.

[Mrdoomed]

I am still a fan of merging the PVP1 server into the US PVP2 server.

If ping doesn't matter to all these EU players who say it doesn't, then place the server in the US, where the ping will be most average for everyone, from Asia/Pac-rim to the EU.

Exactly. Ping and time difference makes no difference so move them to pvp2. Its really the only fair thing to do.