NCSOFT & Server Population Management

[Amanda Hugnkiss]

As the this game grows I was wondering how NCSOFT is going manage server populations. Being because with MMO's, every major update adds more land mass which in turn thins out the population (less likely to run into someone) And we all know that the key stone of any MMO is Player Interaction.

We have seen the effects of this type of thing in NCSOFTS Lineage 2, The server population roughly stayed the same and the land mass got larger and larger, not to mention addition of more servers (most of which were low population aka "dead" servers). You could go from 1-75 in that game without seeing a soul (excluding town of course).

I was thinking to keep this issue to its minimal effects, there would have to be only a select few servers and only an addition of a new server if all the others have hit the cap.

Also I think it would be nice if we had Server connection numbers (eg 2011/5000) along with the "Light, Medium, Heavy" in the server selection menu to give players a better idea of where people are and how many.

This is definately something to keep in mind when producing major updates which add land mass. People per "Acre" I guess you could call it.

Whats everyone's thought's on this? Does NCsoft have any plans to keep servers populated? Should they merge dead servers if it ever comes down to it? No one likes to play alone.

[Fiend]

It sounds like Aion won't feel as barren as some games do even if the server population isn't near the cap since the PvPvE in the abyss will cause players to congregate around the 'castles' that are the main PvP objectives. Plus the rift system will be placing players in enemy territory and chances are more than one person will want to jump in when a rift opens, so players will end up seeing each other as a result of the PvP dynamics in the game as opposed to only seeing people when you form a party and jump into an instance together.

But merging servers that have seen a significant drop in active players would be helpful down the road. If two older servers never see more than 1/3 the max player load, why not merge them into one reasonably active server?

[StrongArm]

It would probably be smarter for NcSoft to not have many servers, expand the land more and after the population is reaching its max capacity then create more servers so we wont have the problem of not having enough player in a server. They should expand the capacity and make more land so that each server can hold more than needed for a more expansive community and more people can join.

[TonZu69]

they use channel as in guildwars

[Kaldur]

NCSoft is definitely end up managing every server's population, unless, there are not enough players, although I doubt that.

[Xander]

Originally Posted by TonZu69

they use channel as in guildwars

really? Do we know this for certain, and what restrictions are there? Guild Wars only recently greatly reduced the restrictions on channels.

[Ayase]

I believe it's standard practice to create new servers only when needed, it's not in our interest to have any nearly-empty servers out there.

As for the channeling thing, I tried to explain it in another thread some time ago:

Originally Posted by myself

As jamein mentioned, this is just something that has been tested for the first zone of playing. It easily gets crowded when a lot of new players gets into the game at the same time upon release/beta, so adding a few different channels in these zones is a way to get to terms with the initial player rush. I'm sure that most would appreciate any efforts to make your first, few impressions of Aion smoother. It's not something that is considered for areas beyond that, and it does not change how servers work in any other way. Aion is still designed as a game taking place in one, singleton world (well, per server).

[Taerr]

cool, official response, i think the channel thing is a good idea for the beginner area

and i don't see empty servers for aion as a problem imo,

[Calindor]

L2's population was on a steady decline since open beta and release, it never increased after that point. The reason you dont see anyone is because they are all high level, and if they arent they bot their way too it...or have some pro way of levelling 1-70 in < 1 week.

Try go to FoG, Varka, Ketra, HS, IT or a catacomb without running into parties of people

[Kazi]

Doubt this will ever be a problem since its a pvp based game and as stated earlier the Abyss is going to be the main focus so i dont think we have to worry about it.

[Kaldur]

Ermm Kazi, PVP (or RvR) is not the base of this game, It's one of its focal points but PvE wil also play huge role, specially in helping you out leveling your Character.

[Sabre]

Yeah how do you think people will level lol? 1-50 in the Abyss? Nonono! Very PvE based as well

[Kaldur]

In the Abyss they'll probably delevel to -50

[Mark]

Except there's no deleveling.

[Vinan]

Can someone clear up this a litttle more for me. I am thinking this. Will players be able to join just 1 main server then spread out their server info. To other servers so they can still be in the same game world. Without being on seperate server worlds or will we just be on seperate gaming worlds with a limited population on each.