Server merges for cost effectivization and population increase.

[Storfan 24]

I never thought I'd be posting a suggestion such as this but for the sake of the survival or Anathema (and by extention the other servers) I will do so anyways. I'm guessing the cost of maintaining 4 servers instead of 2 should be roughly double, and splitting up patching and development I propose we merge both PvP servers together and Both PvE servers together, consiquently advancing time-line progress of the newer realms and giving all servers an overall higher population of 5-8k at peak times.

 

Pros:

+ higher populations of 5-8k on each realm. (Old Nostalrius only started to lag at 10k+).

+ Half the maintenence cost

+ Faster finish of AQ war effort (and Zeth'kur not having to wait 1.5 years for AQ).

+ No split development/patchning, streamlining the process and maintencence of the servers.

+ More world PvP (for those that enjoy that).

+ Uniting the community instead of the shattered one we have now with 4 servers.

+ Probably missed something

 

Cons:

- Possible lag if population explode past 10k

- Makes open world farming harder (can be alleviated with dynamic respawn).

- Probably missed something here aswell.

- Will put players of  lesser progressed realms at a disadvantage with gearing for a period until they can catch up.

 

TLDR: The gains will be vastly greater than the losses.

EDIT: Spelling and formatting.

Edited March 14, 2017 by Storfan

[SaintPaul 1]

I thought Darrowshire was the only PvE server?

Edited March 14, 2017 by SaintPaul

[Haestingas 30]

Merging Elysium and zk makes sense since they are both on the same timeline. Keep the rest the way it is IMO, and that still reduces server cost by 25℅

[smokeit 26]

ZK is such a nice small cozy realm, everyone knows eachother at this point, if your name is shamed, people will remember you. We got plenty of filled guilds running alot of raids, lvl 60 pvp is healthy, plenty of dungeons etc being run. Don't poison our realm with 8k+ randoms :( .. Maybe if the server doesn't get paid, but so far, keep it seperate imo.

[Storfan 24]

33 minutes ago, SaintPaul said:

I thought Darrowshire was the only PvE server?

I believe both Darrowshire and Elysium is PvE, I might be wrong ofcourse. Personally I only play on Anathema.

18 minutes ago, Haestingas said:

Merging Elysium and zk makes sense since they are both on the same timeline. Keep the rest the way it is IMO, and that still reduces server cost by 25℅

You either merge a PvE with a PvE server which will be highly unpopular among both populations for obvious reasons, or you merge two servers of the same kind but in different states of progress with also will be unpopular for other reasons (although I think the second option is the lesser evil).

11 minutes ago, smokeit said:

ZK is such a nice small cozy realm, everyone knows eachother at this point, if your name is shamed, people will remember you. We got plenty of filled guilds running alot of raids, lvl 60 pvp is healthy, plenty of dungeons etc being run. Don't poison our realm with 8k+ randoms :( .. Maybe if the server doesn't get paid, but so far, keep it seperate imo.

I realise this and you probably got alot of people agreeing with you. Likewise I also see people complaining about the low population. Either way, in the end it may be necessary for economic reasons.

[Stormhart 12]

Elysium is a PvP realm.

[TheDruidCode 28]

Elysium is PvP. Only Zeth and Elysium should be merged, if any. Some people might like it, some won't. No problem as I see it but I like overpopulation. A lot of people don't. But one server less to maintain and pay for.

[Zappa 7]

In the beginning of the hype there were too many players so 4 realms absolutely made sense.

Now it´s the time to reconsider the possibility of merging realms in terms of server cost reduction and a higher playerbase per realm.

[Storfan 24]

17 minutes ago, Stormhart said:

Elysium is a PvP realm.

 

15 minutes ago, TheDruidCode said:

Elysium is PvP. Only Zeth and Elysium should be merged, if any. Some people might like it, some won't. No problem as I see it but I like overpopulation. A lot of people don't. But one server less to maintain and pay for.

Alright, thanks for clarifying! And yes that would indeed be a solution in the right direction. If you want to keep population imbalance in check between servers you'd want to merge Anathema and Zeth'Kur but then we're back to the issue of massive gap in content.

[Kelgoroth 1]

I doubt that merging Elysium and Zeth'Kur would halve the costs. I think one super big realm needs more ressources to run than one small realm, right? Also I could imagine that the whole process of merging and later on the big peaks of players can bring lots of complications. Personally I would like measures to balance the population of the realms out. At least a little.

[Storfan 24]

2 minutes ago, Kelgoroth said:

I doubt that merging Elysium and Zeth'Kur would halve the costs. I think one super big realm needs more ressources to run than one small realm, right? Also I could imagine that the whole process of merging and later on the big peaks of players can bring lots of complications. Personally I would like measures to balance the population of the realms out. At least a little.

My point was merging 4 servers into 2 which (might) reduce it by half but as it turns out there are indeed many factors to consider such as PvE vs PvP, progressive time-line etc. Infact, it is possible that some, or even all the servers are ran on the same Hardware but different VMs which mean there would be no gain at all from a hardware-cost perspective, I guess only admins can answer that question. However, if all are run on the same hardware, we'd still gain some cohesion by a merge by uniting a fractured community, streamlining content release. After all, it's easier to develop, maintain and release patches for 2 servers instead of 4.

[Zappa 7]

5 minutes ago, Kelgoroth said:

I doubt that merging Elysium and Zeth'Kur would halve the costs. I think one super big realm needs more ressources to run than one small realm, right? Also I could imagine that the whole process of merging and later on the big peaks of players can bring lots of complications. Personally I would like measures to balance the population of the realms out. At least a little.

If you look at the population of Zeth'Kur and add it to Anathema or Elysium there wouldn´t be big peaks.

[Owondyah 8]

Storfan, you mostly post stuff I agree with but merges aren't gonna help.

We should be thankful for having such wide server choice. There is literally something for everyone here.

PvE, PvP with OVERpopulation, PvP with high population, PvP with blizzlike 2-2,5k population....

Maintenance costs could be lower, but not much.

Also overpopulation of 2 realms having like 9-10k people online would bring potential issues to gameplay.

Remember Nost? 2 seconds laggs, reduced field of vision, inventory and mailbox management lagg done INTENTIONALLY to enhance gameplay with reducing the stress on more important mechanics in game....

Anathema is down due to one guild being bunch of dickheads and not saying they are doing chargeback. 

Further more Anathema will probably end up being online by the end of the noon. 

This is something I don't blame staff for, but they should learn something from this.

Merges, however, could do more harm then use....

[Dralek 5]

Whether we think it is a good or bad idea, and are in favour of against it, matters little in the long run. Eventually the population of every realm will dwindle, and merges will be inevitable. That is just the fate of every game.

Personally I think ZK realm was simply a rushed response to deal with the extensive queu in Elysium, but once the hype went away (as it would inevitably happen), the realm would be empty.

To be completly fair, given that both realms are still kind of new, the hype of leveling might still be a thing, but eventually players will grow bored, raiders will only log for raid, etc.

Personally, I think Elysium and ZK should merge, given that both realms are pretty much on the same stage.

[Kelgoroth 1]

I am still new to the private server scene. Was there ever a sucessful merging of two servers?

Also in case they ever want to do that they should still wait. A lot of players get annoyed by that 'overpopulation' and there are probably still more than enough players for four Realms. Don't you agree?

[Dralek 5]

2 minutes ago, Kelgoroth said:

I am still new to the private server scene. Was there ever a sucessful merging of two servers?

Also in case they ever want to do that they should still wait. A lot of players get annoyed by that 'overpopulation' and there are probably still more than enough players for four Realms. Don't you agree?

Almost every merger that I've seen over the years, occurred when one or both realms had lost a huge chunk of their original population levels, so whether the merger was ineffective by the very nature of it or because of the circumstances of those communities, is hard to judge.

I've never seen a merger for economic reasons, so I can't really tell if its likely to suceed or not.

[Storfan 24]

1 hour ago, Zappa said:

If you look at the population of Zeth'Kur and add it to Anathema or Elysium there wouldn´t be big peaks.

Exactly my point. Anathema peaks around 5-7k these days and by addon Zeth you'd get a peak of 8k maybe.

1 hour ago, Owondyah said:

Storfan, you mostly post stuff I agree with but merges aren't gonna help.

We should be thankful for having such wide server choice. There is literally something for everyone here.

PvE, PvP with OVERpopulation, PvP with high population, PvP with blizzlike 2-2,5k population....

Maintenance costs could be lower, but not much.

Also overpopulation of 2 realms having like 9-10k people online would bring potential issues to gameplay.

Remember Nost? 2 seconds laggs, reduced field of vision, inventory and mailbox management lagg done INTENTIONALLY to enhance gameplay with reducing the stress on more important mechanics in game....

Anathema is down due to one guild being bunch of dickheads and not saying they are doing chargeback. 

Further more Anathema will probably end up being online by the end of the noon. 

This is something I don't blame staff for, but they should learn something from this.

Merges, however, could do more harm then use....

You raise many valid points. I would like to point out though that Nostalrius started to lag at around 10k but it only got "really bad" when it peaked around 15k and it was at this point that you really started to notice the delay to ingame windows/functions/services like mail and massive decrease in draw distance. As I have pointed out above; a merge between Anathema and for example Zeth'Kur would most likely end with peaking populations around 8k which is well bellow the limit where you get noticable lag.

1 hour ago, Dralek said:

Whether we think it is a good or bad idea, and are in favour of against it, matters little in the long run. Eventually the population of every realm will dwindle, and merges will be inevitable. That is just the fate of every game.

Personally I think ZK realm was simply a rushed response to deal with the extensive queu in Elysium, but once the hype went away (as it would inevitably happen), the realm would be empty.

To be completly fair, given that both realms are still kind of new, the hype of leveling might still be a thing, but eventually players will grow bored, raiders will only log for raid, etc.

Personally, I think Elysium and ZK should merge, given that both realms are pretty much on the same stage.

You'll always have a flow and influx of new players though. People that has grown tired of retail wow and want to return to the glory days, or simply people who dont even know we exist as an alternative.

[Storfan 24]

30 minutes ago, Kelgoroth said:

I am still new to the private server scene. Was there ever a sucessful merging of two servers?

Also in case they ever want to do that they should still wait. A lot of players get annoyed by that 'overpopulation' and there are probably still more than enough players for four Realms. Don't you agree?

Back in 2012 they merged the Emerald dream server of feenix with another server I believe went under the name "Core"-something and it was a moderately successful merge at the time.

[Nymis 12]

Anyone against the Elysium - ZK merge at this point in the game is either trolling or has absolutely no idea what he/she is talking about.

Yes, it's a small and cozy community but that fuzzy feeling you get on the inside 

•  won't keep players from quitting the game for very long
•  won't make new players choose ZK over Elysium
•  won't solve the fact that there's not enough players to make a raiding group for MC if you're not already part of one 
•  won't make WPvP more interesting
•  won't make PvP more interesting 
•  won't make queuing up at hours where there's only 900 players online faster 

Edited March 14, 2017 by Nymis

[Mahtan 15]

8 minutes ago, Nymis said:

Anyone against the Elysium - ZK merge at this point in the game is either trolling or has absolutely no idea what he/she is talking about.

So... according to your arrogant opinion, Elysium Project are trolls themselves? You should contact Alexensual!

[Nymis 12]

6 minutes ago, Mahtan said:

So... according to your arrogant opinion, Elysium Project are trolls themselves? You should contact Alexensual!

According to my realistic opinion, Elysium Project should have a merge after the paid server sub expires if they intend on keeping whatever player-base will be left by then. Their last statement on the ZK population being healthy was posted a couple of weeks ago when we were still peaking 4-5k. Now we can barely top 2.6k on prime-time on weekends and the population keeps declining with every passing day.

And yes, as a person who has a max level character and runs one of the largest guilds on ZK, I think I know more about what it feels like to be playing there than someone who's busy all day fixing bugs, solving tickets, managing the community and so forth. 

EDIT: Or the scrubby level 20 casuals who like playing on a low pop server because they can gather herbs but have no idea what it's like to form a raiding team when you need 5-10% of the server's level 60 population of priests/shamans/druids to even consider doing MC guild runs. 

Edited March 14, 2017 by Nymis

[Mahtan 15]

I can not follow you.

I play Darrowshire horde and it is a huge realm. I play on a German Rp-PvE Realm in retail (Die Nachtwache) and it has 30 people online at 3am. WoW realms never had 10000 people online at the same time >.<

Darrowshire and ZethKur are much closer to retail vanilla than Elysium/Anathema.

I still think these big realms are cool, but I do not see a problem with normal sized realms.

btw Darrowshire Horde saw several new MC raiding guilds in the last weeks (Reformed, The Crew,...), I can not agree to your criticism here, too.

I doubt that a merge will reduce cost significantly, if you do not want queues. Elysium would produce more traffic and needed more bandwidth to compensate. It could be the case that they would also need stronger hardware. This is not really our decision, we have "no idea" at all :P

[Kelgoroth 1]

First of all Mahtan is right. You are way too arrogant Nymis. Even you have some valid points noone will take you serious.

Anyways in my opinion there are also other options to increase the population. For example make new players not able to create Characters on Elysium.

 

[Mahtan 15]

15 minutes ago, Nymis said:

EDIT: Or the scrubby level 20 casuals who like playing on a low pop server because they can gather herbs but have no idea what it's like to form a raiding team when you need 5-10% of the server's level 60 population of priests/shamans/druids to even consider doing MC guild runs. 

Casuals are the fundament of a healthy population. You should be more kind to that part of your community if you want people to play with you xD

[Nymis 12]

Just now, Mahtan said:

Casuals are the fundament of a healthy population. You should be more kind to that part of your community if you want people to play with you xD

I'm afraid that you are reading and hearing what you feel like I'm saying and not what I'm actually saying. 

I have nothing against casuals myself and I understand and agree with your point. However, if your two choices are to:

• piss off the casuals and please the veterans by merging Elysium and ZK
• piss off the veterans and please the casuals by keeping up the two realms separated 

Then if you want to keep people playing you should lean towards the first option.