Jante

Ugh, this is indeed more than a bit worrisome and has the potential to render playing/levelling on Nostalrius impossible not only in the first days and weeks, but also in the long run. If the developing team could find some time, it would be nice if they provided their plan (if there is any) for dealing with this kind of situation. Is it perhaps time to start thinking about a fourth server ?

I also think that a lot of people who declare themselves very eager to level from 1-60 all over again (a significant part-to-be of Elysium's population) will quit when they realise what this actually means and how much time it takes. My guess is that Elysium will be ahead in absolute numbers, but not that much, and only because of players that had missed the original Nostalrius train.

I guess whether or not you'll have time to catch up depends on whether or not Ahn'Qiraj 40 is coming within three months of Nostalrius (re-)release.

I usually listen to the radio or enjoy an audiobook while levelling up (I find it very easy to focus on the content since I'm levelling my priests completely mechanically by now), but I guess if you want to listen to music only there are two ways to go about it. The first is obviously the soft instrumental sword and bow epic soundtrack, RP-like stuff, something very much like the below: The second way is the deep house to mild techno spectrum. This will appeal more to the power-player, and should be something to keep you pumped but not distract your mind off the main action too much, something like: On which I must say: God I hate house - I prefer techno, but I've found people to prefer deep house for levelling overall.

Thank you everyone, what you are doing is massively appreciated, especially because it is done in a DIY and communal manner.

I am pretty sure this issue will be addressed - in principle, I see no reason why the old 'forgot password' function would not be able to work. It would be nice to get an official answer though, I am sure quite a few people are in the same position as you are.

Indeed, thank you so much guys.

My advice is to not sweat it. I think that the most important thing pertaining to this discussion is that even if things get completely uneven and one or the other server becomes unsatisfactory to play in because of issues that low population creates, then the developers will perform a merge, or open cross-server migration. It is not very hard to balance population across two or three servers, and frankly low population has mostly not been an issue in quality Vanilla projects.

Not much to comment on the technical side that hasn't been covered already - just dropping in to thank you very much for this guide. The effort you have put in it is significant, and I find most of the analysis' conclusions to be spot on, having levelled five priests to level 60 so far! Besides that, I find it very important to revitalise Vanilla's peripheral resources as the comeback draws nearer. They and the community around them played a very big role in making Vanilla what it was !

It is indeed utterly saddening to see how people can behave on the Internet. The mind hive is a scary thing - if you think streamers have it bad, then think of the actual people behind the Nostalrius/Elysium project at various points in time, such as Nostalrius' closure, the time between the comeback announcement INCLUDING the comeback announcement, and even today. I have always been awestruck by how people would just spit hatred on others behind an anonymous mask, but when this comes to regard people behind a free DIY project, then this condition rears its most grotesque face. I mean, even if the project proves to be an utter disaster (touch wood), what possible moral justification can one have for shitting on it and the people who provide it, when the latter people are doing so simply out of the goodness of their hearts, and sometimes even at a personal material and psychological cost? Sadly, I don't think that this will stop anytime soon, because it is a manifestation of a wider social issue: we find ourselves amidst an aberrantly individualistic society, where people operate under a consumer/competitor mentality: when found behind the anonymous mask and for lack of social or other punishment, they will just lash out to gain some superficial and momentary satisfaction, and they will demand from others as if these others were in their service. Unfortunately, this kind of consciousness runs deep and in an extremely penetrating manner. Not only that but it is also being promoted and advantaged, especially in the West, since it is perceived to boost human productivity. Bravo for the thread though, it creates initiative to think these things through and makes a necessary start to potentially changing them.