New server?

[revblack]

I just read the little bit if news on the mina page, and I got confused. Nevrax is launching another server?

* A new international shard will open with the Ring release. Please welcome "Cho" tomorrow! Its support language will be English and it will be bound to the English speaking community's forums.

I don't understand. Why would they start up a new server? The community on Arispotle isn't near big enough as it is. Perhaps it will be a North American server, like Windemeer (sp?) was? To improve performance for NA players?

It all seems so confusing. Anyone have any ideas what it might mean?

[rdfall]

they expect loads of new people with the Ring, that's why they open a new server, besides, the Arispotle population is good as it is imho, lol
I'm glad with this developpement, can't have too many newbies at the same time lol, a steady growth like we had recently is good enough

[iphdrunk]

I don't know what to think about this:

* it's good, shows Nevrax growth and balances a bit more the load, I pressume. I don't know the number of players a shard can manage, afaik, it was mentioned that in the order of thousands. Maybe with the new shard unification architecture things have changed?

* costs: it could be a good sign. Shard merge and CSR lay-off was a consequence of having to reduce costs. Maybe Nevrax is now in a position to get more employees will Themis GMs come back ?

* some players think Arispotle population "as is" is ok, some players would like the world being more populated.

* it still mixes NA and EE playerbase. Would it be a good opportunity to lead NA towards one and EE towards another, to ease event management, shape timezone differences, etc?

* will new players tend to pick the new shard? -- pioneers on their own shard -- with an effect of population getting "older" and "older"

* sharing the forums... other than tagging the bazaar posts with "Arispotle" or "Cho" or "available for trade at Ring scenario", why not?

[ajsuk]

dunno what to make of it either tbh...

Official responce on reasoning, please?

[truce1]

I was about to post the same thing. Im not sure this is a good thing.

[geezas]

Originally Posted by ajsuk

dunno what to make of it either tbh...

Official responce on reasoning, please?

seconded.


blabla 10 character limit etc...

[revblack]

Originally Posted by iphdrunk

* it's good, shows Nevrax growth and balances a bit more the load, I pressume. I don't know the number of players a shard can manage, afaik, it was mentioned that in the order of thousands. Maybe with the new shard unification architecture things have changed?

Isn't the French server easily able to handle it's larger population?

* costs: it could be a good sign. Shard merge and CSR lay-off was a consequence of having to reduce costs. Maybe Nevrax is now in a position to get more employees will Themis GMs come back ?

This does make it sound like Nevrax is in a better financial position atm. But they could be taking a financial risk with the new server, in hopes that the Ring does bring in enough players. If it doesn't, there might be a merge like before.

* some players think Arispotle population "as is" is ok, some players would like the world being more populated.

I think Arispotle could easily be more populated. It doesn't need to be packed, but more people is always a good thing.

* it still mixes NA and EE playerbase. Would it be a good opportunity to lead NA towards one and EE towards another, to ease event management, shape timezone differences, etc?

This is a nice idea, but since the past events are already going to be set by Nevrax, they players could just as easily help affect the future story on Arispotle. Time management for events would be a lot easier without the 5+ hr time difference (EST vs GMT).

* will new players tend to pick the new shard? -- pioneers on their own shard -- with an effect of population getting "older" and "older"

This could be a big factor in drawing a lot of new players to the new server. I for one would like it, as there would be a lot more people around the same level. Everyone would be more or less on par with everyone else. This would help newer crafters a lot, as there wouldn't be players with much higher skill and all the prime mats reality available to make better items. People wouldn't have mats all mapped out, Outposts would all be open for the taking, and there would be less probability of people simply getting handed all the best gear/cats/etc. without having to work for any of it.

There wouldn't be that "safety net" though, as there'd be no high lvl players to come bail people out. But that's where the excitement of exploring and doing things yourself can come in. Reminds me of when I played SWG at launch. No one knew how anything worked, so we were all learning as we went. It was extremely fun.

* sharing the forums... other than tagging the bazaar posts with "Arispotle" or "Cho" or "available for trade at Ring scenario", why not?

This seems like a moot point. Really only the bazaar forums would be affected. I'm not sure if Ring scenarios are cross-server, so those posts might have to be tagged as well.

Still wondering if this is truly a good idea though. Seems a tad risky, IMO.

[mrshad]

This bothers me, too.
Some sort of official explanation would be really good right now.

Are there plans to merge all of the servers?

[iphdrunk]

Originally Posted by revblack

This could be a big factor in drawing a lot of new players to the new server. I for one would like it, as there would be a lot more people around the same level. Everyone would be more or less on par with everyone else. This would help newer crafters a lot, as there wouldn't be players with much higher skill and all the prime mats reality available to make better items.

This seems to me the most plausible reason, unless Nevrax allows character transfer, but I don't think so. By giving Ryzom a "fresh start", considering the Ring within a wider a second (not fumbled) release, this could be a new opportunity. Player levels at the same ranges, enjoying the wide-Atys (not rushing to void and GoC with ready to use handed over gear), slowly discovering the Ring-points, etc. and basically the reasons you stated.

Yet we oldies may ask ourselves some questions (don't be cynic and think "Arispotle is dead, long live Cho :P, finally the 2 year paid beta is over, let's proceed with the after-beta wipe and proceed -- just kidding--). But do not anticipate things, there may be a valid good reason. I sign, could we get some insight on the reasoning behind this?

[ajsuk]

No transfers, asked already. ^^