107563-mmo-veteran-addresses-balancing-server-populations

== Content ==
			
After 15 years of playing MMO's there appears to be one solution for balancing server populations above all else....
 
Offer FREE transfers to low populated servers. Advertise each month the ONE server (PvP and PvE) that month that you have decided to offer free transfers to. Advertising could include things like "The gates of server _____ will be open for a limited time to FREE transfers." Then just photo shop in the Dark Portal. You can include in the transfer "easy to program" gifts for transferring to that server...such as the title "Reinforcement" or "Reserve" or "Savior" or whatever. This doesn't even require you to make pets or any other gifts that require a lot of time. Simply offer players that decide to transfer achievements and titles and most will jump at the chance. If an entire guild decides to transfer offer them a little something extra. This does NOT require a lot of time programming and you'd be surprised at what players will do for titles and achievements.
 
Once a player or guild transfers then put their transfer ability on cool down. Simple easy fix.	
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
After 15 years of playing MMO's there appears to be one solution for balancing server populations above all else....
 
Offer FREE transfers to low populated servers. Advertise each month the ONE server (PvP and PvE) that month that you have decided to offer free transfers to. Advertising could include things like "The gates of server _____ will be open for a limited time to FREE transfers." Then just photo shop in the Dark Portal. You can include in the transfer "easy to program" gifts for transferring to that server...such as the title "Reinforcement" or "Reserve" or "Savior" or whatever. This doesn't even require you to make pets or any other gifts that require a lot of time. Simply offer players that decide to transfer achievements and titles and most will jump at the chance. If an entire guild decides to transfer offer them a little something extra. This does NOT require a lot of time programming and you'd be surprised at what players will do for titles and achievements.
 
Once a player or guild transfers then put their transfer ability on cool down. Simple easy fix.
----
			I'm just glad we got an oceanic server so all oceanic players concentrate on that one server so no worries about it being a ghost server.	
----
			     I think the next time I invest in any MMO it will have some sort of 'cross realm' feature included at launch.	
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
     I think the next time I invest in any MMO it will have some sort of 'cross realm' feature included at launch.
----
			I would think  better solution is for the industry to adopt "server agnostic" shard tech where we don't actually know what physical server we are on and everyone is virtually on the same server a la Eve.  I hope one day we won't have to deal with actual servers.  Wish I had a solution on how to implement this for every game.  Hope springs eternal. ;)	
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
I would think  better solution is for the industry to adopt "server agnostic" shard tech where we don't actually know what physical server we are on and everyone is virtually on the same server a la Eve.  I hope one day we won't have to deal with actual servers.  Wish I had a solution on how to implement this for every game.  Hope springs eternal. ;)
----
			In GW 2 resources are treated as separate for each player seeing them.  Any number of people can harvest the 'same' tree.  That would solve the resource issue.  Over all I think Kytars idea would work nicely too. 	
----
			The problem with these kinds of transfers is that traditionally very few people take advantage of it. They don't want to move off their populated server where their friends are, to a low pop one. Guilds are established and competitive, they don't want to uproot everyone. They assume other people will do it. Then almost no one does.	
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
The problem with these kinds of transfers is that traditionally very few people take advantage of it. They don't want to move off their populated server where their friends are, to a low pop one. Guilds are established and competitive, they don't want to uproot everyone. They assume other people will do it. Then almost no one does.
----
			Consider the fact that Wildstar was designed to be a niche hardcore game. Even if a server has only 500 active hardcore players that would be more than enough to organize raiding, warplots and what not.	
----
			
From all my experience the servers must be as full as they can before everyone will start lagging.
If your server is designed for 5k players - your aim should be 5k players playing on it simultaneously. Queue up to 10 minutes is accepted and it gives players the feeling they play on heavy populated server. It gives up a feeling of importance. "We play on cool big populated server - it's great"
 
If server is dropping for a stable time, you should merge asap so noone would see difference.
 
At lauch all MMO servers are filled to the core, then player base starts thinning and merges must be done. It's normal - it's accepted.
You will have always crowded server and players will be happy.
 
Dead servers always promote leaving.	
----
			Players leave not because of low populated servers but because they don't like the game enough to stay.	
----
			im a 73 year MMO Veteran (exaggeration since it doesnt matter) and in my opinion on this matter, by the time they merge servers or come up with another way to fix the low pop servers, most people complaining about the issue could have rerolled a new toon on whatever high pop server they want and be 50 already.  just sayin :)	
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
After 15 years of playing MMO's there appears to be one solution for balancing server populations above all else....
 
Offer FREE transfers to low populated servers. Advertise each month the ONE server (PvP and PvE) that month that you have decided to offer free transfers to. Advertising could include things like "The gates of server _____ will be open for a limited time to FREE transfers." Then just photo shop in the Dark Portal. You can include in the transfer "easy to program" gifts for transferring to that server...such as the title "Reinforcement" or "Reserve" or "Savior" or whatever. This doesn't even require you to make pets or any other gifts that require a lot of time. Simply offer players that decide to transfer achievements and titles and most will jump at the chance. If an entire guild decides to transfer offer them a little something extra. This does NOT require a lot of time programming and you'd be surprised at what players will do for titles and achievements.
 
Once a player or guild transfers then put their transfer ability on cool down. Simple easy fix.
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
The problem with these kinds of transfers is that traditionally very few people take advantage of it. They don't want to move off their populated server where their friends are, to a low pop one. Guilds are established and competitive, they don't want to uproot everyone. They assume other people will do it. Then almost no one does.
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
 most people complaining about the issue could have rerolled a new toon on whatever high pop server they want and be 50 already.  just sayin :)
----
			
It strikes me as odd, and a bit disturbing, that the game literally launched just a few months ago and we're already talking about merges and transfers.  I'm assuming we're doing that because some servers are underpopulated?  Or is it the opposite problem?
 
I run into new players all the time who literally just started the game (which I would expect, as new as Wildstar is).  Is there something that's causing these folks to bounce off and stop playing after a few weeks?  If so what it is it?  Let's go fix *that*.
 
That's not to say that I don't agree with some of the sentiments expressed in this thread, but population issues shouldn't happen for at least a couple of years yet.  If there are legitimate population issues going on, something else is wrong, and the transfer/merge bandaid won't help it.	
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
In GW 2 resources are treated as separate for each player seeing them.  Any number of people can harvest the 'same' tree.  That would solve the resource issue.  Over all I think Kytars idea would work nicely too. 
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
im a 73 year MMO Veteran (exaggeration since it doesnt matter) and in my opinion on this matter, by the time they merge servers or come up with another way to fix the low pop servers, most people complaining about the issue could have rerolled a new toon on whatever high pop server they want and be 50 already.  just sayin :)
----
			
Re-roll...ya ok...and lose 2 months of EP...back to square one...
 
Not an option imo.
 
They probably don't want to do merges b/c that means less people payin 20 bucks to get off dead realms; it's purely business.	
----
			
what if they did a large experience bonus for factions that are very low on target servers? It might not help with overall server balance across all servers, but it might help with faction balancing a bit that may in turn help even things out a bit. I notice that in some cases with a few servers as the exception that the "deadness" comes from servers with high population on one faction as opposed to the other.
 
Warhammer did this for a bit and it seemed to help even things a bit closer when the gap was larger than 20% between factions...	
----
			
Account wide amp/ability/las/attunement unlocks? Essentially you unlock them on one character and it applies to all others on your account? A simple solution?
 
All these time gates they put up does not encourage making alts or re-rolling at all.	
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
It strikes me as odd, and a bit disturbing, that the game literally launched just a few months ago and we're already talking about merges and transfers.  I'm assuming we're doing that because some servers are underpopulated?  Or is it the opposite problem?
 
I run into new players all the time who literally just started the game (which I would expect, as new as Wildstar is).  Is there something that's causing these folks to bounce off and stop playing after a few weeks?  If so what it is it?  Let's go fix *that*.
 
That's not to say that I don't agree with some of the sentiments expressed in this thread, but population issues shouldn't happen for at least a couple of years yet.  If there are legitimate population issues going on, something else is wrong, and the transfer/merge bandaid won't help it.
----
			... I don't think the answer is to open up free transfers TO the dead servers, Mr. MMO Vet.	
----
			
So Gorror, questions for you sir:
 
- What server are you on?
- What faction?
- What time zone are you playing in and when are you usually online?
- Is this peak time for your server or are you playing at odd times compared to most other people?
- Are you part of a guild, or primarily doing PUGs?
- Have you thought about setting up a tank or heal build for when you queue?
 
I'm not saying that there might not be some legitimate population issues but I think that there's some other factors that might be combining to make your experience so bad.  Some you can control, some you can't (trying to work a game around a RL work schedule is a royal pain, I know).
 
My point in calling you out on these things is that a general "this sucks" post has zero information in it that helps fix the problem.  It's far more useful if you come and say "my friends ran into the grind with elder gems and all bailed on the game" or "for some reason people seem to think engineers are broken and can't tank" or whatever.  So please give details.  Maybe there's something you can do differently that will help you (and that a lot of other folks can learn from - or, maybe there's something truly wrong that needs to be brought up specifically so it can get fixed.	
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
So Gorror, questions for you sir:
 
- What server are you on?
- What faction?
- What time zone are you playing in and when are you usually online?
- Is this peak time for your server or are you playing at odd times compared to most other people?
- Are you part of a guild, or primarily doing PUGs?
- Have you thought about setting up a tank or heal build for when you queue?
 
I'm not saying that there might not be some legitimate population issues but I think that there's some other factors that might be combining to make your experience so bad.  Some you can control, some you can't (trying to work a game around a RL work schedule is a royal pain, I know).
 
My point in calling you out on these things is that a general "this sucks" post has zero information in it that helps fix the problem.  It's far more useful if you come and say "my friends ran into the grind with elder gems and all bailed on the game" or "for some reason people seem to think engineers are broken and can't tank" or whatever.  So please give details.  Maybe there's something you can do differently that will help you (and that a lot of other folks can learn from - or, maybe there's something truly wrong that needs to be brought up specifically so it can get fixed.
----
			
Ok, so I just took a look at the Mikros server forum, and the guild recruitment subforum, and I have two observations:
 
1) It looks like recently a number of folks bailed from Mikros and moved to Stormtalon or elsewhere.  So I'm sure that's not helping you.
2) There do still seem to be a few guilds trying to recruit, so Mikros isn't quite dead yet.
 
I agree with you that a new influx of players would be a great thing for everyone.
 
In the meantime, definitely find a guild.  I'd wager you've got a bunch of people on Mikros (this is true on every server) who don't queue at all, and instead just group with their guildies and friends.	
----
			
Biggest problem with a server merge is that some people wont get to keep their character name.
Thats why its preferred for people to reroll or transfer.	
----
			For me, I am at the point where I don't even care any more.  I only log on now to check boom boxes, but even that is getting old.  On such a low pop server, can't seem to sell anything on the exchange these days.  I undercut someone early in the morning by 10 to 20 % only to find that early afternoon, 3 or 4 more have undercut me.  In June & early July a couple of gold undercut did the trick.  People in guild, some of them haven't been on in weeks, these were people who supposedly had "RL"  I log into WoW and see them over there.  I like the game, but I am not gonna be the last guy on.	
----