Why not make Freedom and Virtue VIP too?
By
Acemace,
Posted on: 2011-07-09 09:37 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
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May I point out that not everyone has a top of the line PC, so many players (not all, and maybe not even a majority, but more than enough to dispute "rarely") actually do suffer performance issues when server load increases due to a higher number of players online at the same time.|
Originally Posted by Doc_Scorpion
Again, rarely if ever true on Freedom.
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Just something to consider.
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Yes you may.|
Originally Posted by Ironblade
oo! oo! Can I be the Duke of New York? A#1!!!
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And/or unfair to those specific servers (as per your third point).|
Originally Posted by Zwillinger
A few points
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Count me as someone who definitely wants my home server (Virtue) to welcome new and old players, free, premium, re-subbing and/or bumming from their parents!!
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To be honest I was surprised when Server transfers were introduced and you were allowed to transfer to Freedom! If anything there should be an incentive to spread the load imo
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Interesting theory:
Freedom is going to have a population explosion when CoH:Freedom goes live.
Why?
A LOT of new people are going to be under the false impression that since the game is called CoH Freedom, and there is a server also called Freedom, the server called Freedom is the server they are supposed to play on.
Many people new to the game may not even realize that they CAN play on other servers, since they will probably use up their 2 slots on Freedom and be unable to make any characters anywhere else, thus reinforcing their impression that they can only play on that one server.
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Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison See, it's gems like these that make me check Claws' post history every once in a while to make sure I haven't missed anything good lately. |
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I can see a lot of benefit with rebalancing the Free servers once the VIP server goes live. Maybe restricting the ability to transfer characters to the most populated for a while or create new toons there. Maybe even offering incentives to make new chars and SGs on low pop servers... for example, teams of 4 or more get a 10% XP bonus for the duration of that team on a server for a month... then switch it to a new server... |
Originally Posted by Feycat
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not posting this because I fear the freebies, and I'm not posting this because I don't feel like moving my characters to the Freem server, or whatnot.
I'm posting this because, every night, Freedom and Virtue have three red bubbles through most of the evening. It seems to me that driving traffic to the other servers would be a lot more beneficial to the game than bogging down the two most already-populated servers with a lot more people. Because, and you can check the forums of just about any game, F2P or not, the first post most new people make is "what server has the most people, so I can play there?" Those servers already have issues dealing with the lag (not all the time, certainly) and places like WW, train stations, RWZ and Oro are already crowded and lagtastic. I know that the devs have repeatedly said they value and are going to be protective of the interests of people who are already playing and paying (and have been) - why not preserve the interests of what is probably your largest chunk of customers by preserving those two servers? It would keep the "culture" of both servers intact, prevent them from becoming completely overloaded every night, and would have the added benefit of helping the population grow on some of the smaller servers. Thoughts? |
that's just an idea but yes I like how you're thinking
Thelonious Monk
Yeah, making Freedom and Virtue VIP would screw me over as I plan on reactivating my second account which would be Premium, but definitely not VIP. All my toons are on Freedom or Virtue.
Either create a new VIP server or just forget the whole idea. I totally disagree with taking a normal server and making it VIP only.
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I've played a few MMO's that when I first logged in would "recommend" a server to me, and if I didn't have any friends telling me where to go I would always take the recommended server. Maybe Paragon could recommend servers based on population.
Side note I also don't like the idea on restrictions on Freedom or Virtue. Yes, new players may gravitate to those servers initially, but even in a worse case situation the queuing system should take care of it over a little time. I may like high populated servers, but they aren't worth even 2 minutes of queue in my world. It would make me move to a different server.
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The kind that makes things happen
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And then there are those of us who keep asking "WTH just happened!"
Its actually pretty simple what the devs hope to see here...
Freedom and virtue should completely lagg out in such a way that people are leaving the servers for the more stable ones. Building a better spread out community!
To start with... if you are a new player and you pick a first server to play on... dont pick the one that is already red!
So.. if you are for instance a rp-er and virtue becomes unplayable for you it is time to consider a move to UNION!
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I really don't think they need to do anything. The server queues which would pop up IF Virtue/Freedom get overloaded would be incentive enough for newbies to make alts on the less stressed servers.
As Memphis Bill suggested, I don't agree AT ALL that it's guaranteed that everyone will gravitate towards freedom and virtue.
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Raises hand !!
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Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
May I point out that not everyone has a top of the line PC, so many players (not all, and maybe not even a majority, but more than enough to dispute "rarely") actually do suffer performance issues when server load increases due to a higher number of players online at the same time.
Just something to consider. |
The hard things I can do--- The impossible just take a little bit longer.
If numbers are so much more important than a teammate who is fun to play with, forget about the game altogether and go play with a calculator instead. -Claws and Effect-
hmm... if you dont have a top-of-the-bill pc... and you now play on Freedom or Virtue...
I am afraid that you slowly need to check out how the community is on another server!
The only thing I am very curious about is how many other servers will hit red when F2P comes...
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Beginner - Encounter a renewed age for the Mook and the Family when Emile Marcone escapes from the Zig!
- Along Came a... Bug!? #528482
Average - A new race of aliens arrives on Earth. And Vanguard has you investigate them!
- The Court of the Blood Countess: The Rise of the Blood Countess #3805
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Infinity and Champion might. I don't think any of the others will. |
Originally Posted by Liz Bathory
The only thing I am very curious about is how many other servers will hit red when F2P comes...
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I do think we will see some others, like Pinnacle and Guardian, hitting yellow more frequently though.
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Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison See, it's gems like these that make me check Claws' post history every once in a while to make sure I haven't missed anything good lately. |
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As far as the CoH Freedom launch period goes, I'd wager that they will easily. I'd even go so far as gambling that that Freedom and Virtue will become inaccessible for most F2P players, i.e. de facto VIP servers thanks to "priority queuing", unless the devs are increasing server population thresholds after the Freedom stress tests. (Perhaps I'm being overly optimistic about the initial F2P rush, but we'll see how it all shakes down afterward.)
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Originally Posted by ClawsandEffect
Infinity and Champion might.
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To sum up:
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Ding ding ding!|
Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
New players don't know anything about the servers.
When I was a new player looking at the dots I saw green dots, yellow dots, and red dots. Green means A-Ok Yellow means caution & Red means danger. So today I'd be logging onto the green servers just like I did 7 years ago when I first started playing. |
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Originally Posted by ClawsandEffect
Interesting theory:
A LOT of new people are going to be under the false impression that since the game is called CoH Freedom, and there is a server also called Freedom, the server called Freedom is the server they are supposed to play on. |
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Originally Posted by CORE_NA
I've played a few MMO's that when I first logged in would "recommend" a server to me, and if I didn't have any friends telling me where to go I would always take the recommended server. Maybe Paragon could recommend servers based on population.
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Originally Posted by Aura_Familia
I really don't think they need to do anything. The server queues which would pop up IF Virtue/Freedom get overloaded would be incentive enough for newbies to make alts on the less stressed servers.
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--NT
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If I became a red name, I would be all "and what would you mere mortals like to entertain me with today, mu hu ha ha ha!" ~Arcanaville
Might not be a bad idea for the devs to put a key explaining the colors actually ON the server select screen. Heck, might not be a bad idea for it to pulse a couple times like a glowy, so the average newbie can easily see "HEY! THIS IS IMPORTANT!" And not just that "red is high load" but actually explain that it means possible wait times, and lower performance and all that.
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When I first started playing, with no specific preference I picked the server at the top of the list. Also, ever since the EU/NA merge Virtue and Freedom are now actually below the bottom of the visible list on my screen and I have to scroll to see them. I suspect a sizable percentage of new players will end up on the lower population servers initially simply because they aren't going to look carefully at the server list at all, and will just pick one either at random or near the top.
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Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
When I was a new player looking at the dots I saw green dots, yellow dots, and red dots.
Green means A-Ok Yellow means caution & Red means danger. So today I'd be logging onto the green servers just like I did 7 years ago when I first started playing. |
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Umm...no, just hell no. Freedom and Virtue are not the best of servers to begin with. I feel sorry for anyone who starts a toon there. My experience there has been nothing but kill stealers, incompetent players, and hardcore role players who intentionally gimp their builds as part of their role play. As soon as we get SG transfers I will be moving all my toons off that server.
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The main reason I would see, at this point, for any kind of exodus to a VIP server is to create a 'hassle-free' iTrial community.|
Originally Posted by Zwillinger
A few points
 which is just fine by us.We are not giving any sort of special incentive to playing on the VIP server, it's simply there as an option, if you so chose to exercise it . |
Once Freedom goes live, the potential population surge of those who can't/won't do Incarnate content will theoretically begin to fill up the typical League forming areas (RWZs/Pocket Ds (Cimeroras?) with the crowd magnitude of Atlas Park on the Freedom Server).
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So, basically, we need the equivalent of a VIP lounge for an iTrial launching zone. Perhaps it's time to restore the old Paragon Dance Party?
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Originally Posted by Yogi_Bare
Once Freedom goes live, the potential population surge of those who can't/won't do Incarnate content will theoretically begin to fill up the typical League forming areas (RWZs/Pocket Ds (Cimeroras?) with the crowd magnitude of Atlas Park on the Freedom Server).
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I do not want the new and returning players shuffled off to the servers you feel they should be on, thank yo
I, for one, will be happy to see them. After all, I hear we will be able wear them like costume parts, and wield them like clubs. Too bad we can't ride them anymore - but people were abusing that.
:-)
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Just look at what's happening there now: just with the iTrial crowd (at peak times) there's getting to be so much going on at the RWZ-1s... that League forming moves to other instances of the RWZ and into Pocket D.|
Originally Posted by TrueGentleman
So, basically, we need the equivalent of a VIP lounge for an iTrial launching zone. Perhaps it's time to restore the old Paragon Dance Party?
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You bring in a bunch of people that aren't allowed access to the trials but that are still going to run RWZ content, Mothership Raids and the LGTF to build up their Merits and Vanguard Merits; its going to congest things up quite a bit and could initially push the iTrials right out of the RWZ and into Cimerora, Ouroboros? and Pocket D (being the only other co-op zones at the moment).
Similar thing could happen with Cimerora: people that aren't allowed access to VIP content going with the ITF and Wall farming to optimize 50s; plus those just running Cimeroran Arcs jamming up the chat channels and so forth.
Theoretically, at some point, Pocket D would soon be having the same issues as the RWZ does currently; especially once some of the Holiday Events kick off.
Then again; all of this influx (if any) may decide to avoid the Co-op zones and things would carry on as usual.
Other thing to consider is that free players not having access Incarnate play on the regular servers in addition to some potential moves to the VIP server by current players might create an 'Incarnate Server'.
Apparently, I play "City of Shakespeare"
*Arc #95278-Gathering the Four Winds -3 step arc; challenging - 5 Ratings/3 Stars (still working out the kinks)
*Arc #177826-Lights, Camera, Scream! - 3 step arc, camp horror; try out in 1st person POV - 35 Ratings/4 Stars
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To be fair, most of that problem would mostly resolve itself if the LFG tool were usable.|
Originally Posted by Yogi_Bare
Just look at what's happening there now: just with the iTrial crowd (at peak times) there's getting to be so much going on at the RWZ-1s... that League forming moves to other instances of the RWZ and into Pocket D.
You bring in a bunch of people that aren't allowed access to the trials but that are still going to run RWZ content, Mothership Raids and the LGTF to build up their Merits and Vanguard Merits; its going to congest things up quite a bit and could initially push the iTrials right out of the RWZ and into Cimerora, Ouroboros? and Pocket D (being the only other co-op zones at the moment). Similar thing could happen with Cimerora: people that aren't allowed access to VIP content going with the ITF and Wall farming to optimize 50s; plus those just running Cimeroran Arcs jamming up the chat channels and so forth. Theoretically, at some point, Pocket D would soon be having the same issues as the RWZ does currently; especially once some of the Holiday Events kick off. Then again; all of this influx (if any) may decide to avoid the Co-op zones and things would carry on as usual. Other thing to consider is that free players not having access Incarnate play on the regular servers in addition to some potential moves to the VIP server by current players might create an 'Incarnate Server'. |
I really just hope [perhaps foolishly] that it's reasonably possible for the devs to make the LFG tool usable while enjoying other content.
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Like it's been mentioned already, there's two reasons the capacity/lag/load issue is either nonexistent or can easily be made so;
First, I'd lay down ten to one odds that the game servers are virtualized. That means that hardware resources can be allocated dynamically from one server to another to compensate for increased or decreased load on any one of them. Judging by the comments in the admin channel during the Freedom stress-test, I suspect they are, or were, experimenting with load handling on the fly {scaling hardware alone, I'm sure, is only part of the problem}, rather than having to bring the servers offline first.
Second, even prior to that, there's already been a method of making sure a server doesn't exceed its functional capacity, even though I haven't seen it in action for years now. I'm talking, of course, about the queue. I'm sure that, should it come to it, it will be making a reappearance. It would also be possible to let the queue prioritize users according to their status {vreems > preems > freems}, thus allowing lower-priority players to utilize lower-load servers while preventing lockouts of paying customers. With the overall preference for higher-population servers, this will likely have the effect of non-vreems concentrating in one or two previously low-population servers, which may or may not be a bad thing overall.
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