Population

[Calindor]

Originally Posted by Fishy McFish

I agree it would be a horrible idea to force people to play the other side just to try to fix balancing issues. We've already have a fix for that. It's the Baldur who will try to contain one side from being overpowered and taking over the abyss. Based on the other thread asking age/faction its about 60% Elyos/40% Asmo(just from this forum) which actually isn't too bad.

Individual servers will differ, you are not forcing anyone to choose a race, you are forcing them to choose a server.

Please explain to me why some random person who just bought the game and has no friends currently playing, decides to roll elyos. What does it matter to him which server he plays on? He chooses 1 server and it says there are too many asmo on this server, so he picks another...whats the difference to him? he's never played before the so server he's on wont make a difference...and like i said earlier, if you have friends on a certain server, they can refer you to be allowed to play.

It beats ending up on servers like WoW where online there will be like 3000 horde and 500 alliance...Also lets not forget there wont be arenas and stuff where you participate with other servers..it will all be in the open world, and having equal numbers for that imo is important..In a game like L2 you make your own factions, so balancing numbers is up to politics...WoW has arena's and BG's that will allow you to participate with people from other servers, so its not as important.

The balaur are there to balance...but a one sided server will end up being a non-stop ally with 1 side only. If there are 5000 elyos on and 1000 asmo, the balaur will almost always being heling the asmo...and that will just get boring. Numbers arent as important for balancing, if they are even it still depends on the clans and stuff formed up and how good they are.

[Celestin]

Because I believe individuals have rights?

Besides, why implement something so complicated and clunky, restrictive and useless in the first place?

[Kattrina]

Yeah, the only thing I can say to that is that people don't usually do much individual server research before they choose. If I go out and buy the game at my local GameStop or whatever, I'm going to open it, install it, jump on any ol' server and make myself a character I like rather than do the research before I play.

It's like reading the instruction manual before turning the thing on. Who really does that? I turn it on, screw up, and then use the instruction manual to get out of the hole I dug myself in.

[Isley]

Originally Posted by Kattrina

Yeah, the only thing I can say to that is that people don't usually do much individual server research before they choose. If I go out and buy the game at my local GameStop or whatever, I'm going to open it, install it, jump on any ol' server and make myself a character I like rather than do the research before I play.

It's like reading the instruction manual before turning the thing on. Who really does that? I turn it on, screw up, and then use the instruction manual to get out of the hole I dug myself in.

I read all manuals! Even the people at stores think I'm crazy...

[Otium]

I totally disagree with the class/race limitation idea. You have to understand that each player that buys the game is equal. Your experience or number of friends cannot have any influence on the individual himself. You're a NCsoft client and nothing more. And like all the other clients who purchased and monthly pay to play, you can pick the side you to fight for, the server where you want to make friends, and the class you want to roll.

We all know that sooner or later a certain server will be more popular than others, and that population will somehow concentrate around a competitive environment of that main server. Still, I keep standing my ground while talking about this, and everyone has the right to choose what they really want to do in Aion, whether he has friends inside or not. You cannot treat new comers like that. In fact, you should try to appeal them to this new experience, because after all, that's what will make Aion popular...

[Chaos_Theory]

I could care less about all of these features. For faction it would be cool to see the population percentages. If this does get implemented, by a third party or w/e, I at least get to see what class to roll so I can join the FOTM.

[Calindor]

Call the police! Im not allowed to play an over populated race on a server to prevent unbalancing unless I have friends on it!

Originally Posted by Celestin

Because I believe individuals have rights?

That has to be one of the most rediculous and foolish responses I have EVER seen on a message board.

[Otium]

Originally Posted by Calindor

Call the police! Im not allowed to play an over populated race on a server to prevent unbalancing unless I have friends on it!

That has to be one of the most rediculous and foolish responses I have EVER seen on a message board.

You're being quite selfish here. You asked for people's opinions and you're getting them. Try to respect it...

[Calindor]

Originally Posted by Otium

I totally disagree with the class/race limitation idea. You have to understand that each player that buys the game is equal. Your experience or number of friends cannot have any influence on the individual himself. You're a NCsoft client and nothing more. And like all the other clients who purchased and monthly pay to play, you can pick the side you to fight for, the server where you want to make friends, and the class you want to roll.

We all know that sooner or later a certain server will be more popular than others, and that population will somehow concentrate around a competitive environment of that main server. Still, I keep standing my ground while talking about this, and everyone has the right to choose what they really want to do in Aion, whether he has friends inside or not. You cannot treat new comers like that. In fact, you should try to appeal them to this new experience, because after all, that's what will make Aion popular...

I understand what you are saying, but I still dont see how any new player would have preference to one server over another...If you just picked up a game and we're starting from scratch why would you care what server you play on.

When you start on WoW, most people pick the server that says "Recommended" or one that their friends tell them to start on...Well what if you created your character's race and appearance, then after that it gave you a recommended server based on the populations of each server.

World of Warcraft has 200+ freaking servers, would it really matter to you if they said Horde are over populated on this server, choose another...you have 199 other choices.

Personally I would rather my server be balanced...If i started playing WoW and found out the horde outnumbered the ally 2:1, i would be dissapointed regardless of what side I was on and try find a better balanced server.

[Otium]

Recommending a different server to a certain person is one thing. Oblying that same person to follow a different way from the one he wants, is wrong imo.

The player must always have the possibility to choose. Although I get your point about race unstability, NCsoft created a 3rd race (Belrum or wtv) to prevent such thing. Let's see how the system will work...

[Calindor]

But still...why would a new player *want* to play on a certain server unless they had friends or someone they know in it?

And the Balaur are there to help balance the server, and add an unpredicatble suprise element of PvPvE...if the Elyos are outnumbering the Asmo 10:1 on a certain server, it will still be unbalanced, and the Balaur will be predictable.

[Otium]

Originally Posted by Calindor

But still...why would a new player *want* to play on a certain server unless they had friends or someone they know in it?

And the Balaur are there to help balance the server, and add an unpredicatble suprise element of PvPvE...if the Elyos are outnumbering the Asmo 10:1 on a certain server, it will still be unbalanced, and the Balaur will be predictable.

It's their wish, you can't judge it. They paid. Period.

Elyos won't ever outnumber 10:1. You're exaggerating and I believe both factions will be somehow balanced even without any intervention.

[Calindor]

10:1 is an exageration, but I have played on a WoW server where the difference was 10:3...but even still that isnt very noticable just because of the way WoW is.

In Aion with faction based sieges, pvp points being farmed in the open abyss and that feature we heard of where if one side farms a certain mob more than the other, they will eventually get new/stronger mobs in that area for them which will drop better materials/loot the other side will not have available, or if one side mines a certain area more, they will get better minerals the other side does not have...Balancing will be extremely important, about 100 times more so than WoW. In WoW open world pvp almost means nothing, you go in instances which have nothing to do with the other faction, and you participate in BG with people from other servers, so a balanced server is almost irrelevant.

If i could hear a reason other than "the server has a cool name" of why you should be able to further unbalance it when you first start out it would help me to understand.

[Kattrina]

Well, perhaps "forcing" servers is a little bit too much. And, even if it's what you agree with, it's obvious that many people disagree. What do you think would be another valuable solution that might be more agreeable, Mr. Calindor?

I agree with you, that this could become a problem. You're right, that if the Elyos outnumber the Asmodians 10:3 on a certain server, or the other way around, that it won't be fun for the side that's severely outnumbers, and will not be fun for the side that has no challenge in their victories, and spend all of their "PvP" time fighting NPC Balaur.

However, it's best, for an issue like this to perhaps bring up multiple solutions. If your first isn't received well by everyone, make one that is. I mean, that's why it's a discussion thread right? To throw ideas back and forth from person to person and talk it through? Right...? Anyone....?

Anyways, perhaps server transfers will be enough. I really didn't like FFXI's system where they forced you on a server based on population, and then made you pay money to get your friends on the same server as you. Especially for these pre-release guilds, that'd be a nightmare.

However, NCSoft can attempt to correct the problem through a voluntary method. If the server is populated 10:3, then the overpopulated race won't be having any fun, and the under populated race won't be having any fun. So, offer the overpopulated race a free server transfer to one where there's less population. I imagine the big guilds would be happy to go together if there was a promise they'd be able to keep their guild whole. This would make it more challenging for them and better for the server they left behind.

Also, making a server suggestion based on race, I think, is a great idea. So, it doesn't force you, but after you choose your race first, and the game will make an automatic suggestion about what server they'd like you in. I dunno, just throwing out ideas.

[Kentaro]

This would be a nice feature though it'll probably turn into something WoW based "Hmm more Elyos than Asmodians, well I don't want to have a rough time leveling and in the abyss, I'll just join Elyos" *500 more people do the exact same*

I admit some players will migrate towards the less population, but most gamers this day and age don't want to have a major challenge, and still want to be able to think their 1337 when they fight someone 5v1.

Though my brothers, friends, and I are joining asmodians because we assume they will be the less populated race, and we always love a challenge.

Originally Posted by Calindor

Individual servers will differ, you are not forcing anyone to choose a race, you are forcing them to choose a server.

Please explain to me why some random person who just bought the game and has no friends currently playing, decides to roll elyos. What does it matter to him which server he plays on? He chooses 1 server and it says there are too many asmo on this server, so he picks another...whats the difference to him? he's never played before the so server he's on wont make a difference...and like i said earlier, if you have friends on a certain server, they can refer you to be allowed to play.

Isn't this pointless? I thought Aion wasn't going to have a list of servers, but rather a US/EU server and a Korea Server, and maybe one US and one EU server. And I doubt if your from EU you want to play on a Korean or US server, but rather a EU server. Just because they bought the game and doesn't care which server they play on doesn't mean they can dictatorship their choice, because I picked my server on WoW based on the name I was fond of, not which it suggested.