Guild Wars 2

With the initial influx of players having plowed through the main world most zones have been left behind, which is only natural. Sure, there may be a very large number of players in the Gendarran Fields, for example, but they are across a dozen realms, each fending for themselves. If only those lonely souls could pool their talents just like their predecessors have during the initial launch.

What if those lost in these barren zones cross paths on a sort of shared “overflow” server? An overflow of many shards? Could it even work?

Needless to say, much of the magic that made the dynamic nature of these leveling zones such a blast is gone when attempting to solo. You know the deal, seasoned adventurers all go to whatever zone the big events happen and have no reason to keep the entirety of Tyria homogeneously saturated on even the most heavily packed servers.

I’m not at all technically savvy of the server architecture behind this game, but I had just entertained the idea of a reverse-overflow server (underflow server?) and I thought I’d share simply because I’m curious of how badly the whole thing would fall apart. :P

Thoughts?

I have experienced these dead zones as well – but you can still complete the events and so on in them, as events scale.

I saw someone else talking about the idea of “underflow” servers for dead areas.

If the technology is possible I think it’d be an amazing idea that would really be a boon for future mmos.

Attrition is natural.. Finding a way to accommodate it would be a very good time investment is think.

I don’t go to the low level zones much myself anymore, but when I do, it’d be really neat if they were lively like they once were. Very cool idea if it is possible.

Just to be clear, I’m not concerned about solo-ability as I find the scaling works very well for the most part, but this game is SO much more fun when every stupid little thing I stumble across is epic.

Just sayin’.

Kyran Foxfire.4139:

Just to be clear, I’m not concerned about solo-ability as I find the scaling works very well for the most part, but this game is SO much more fun when every stupid little thing I stumble across is epic.

Just sayin’.

I think your point is valid.

From a purely business perspective, I don’t see why a game company wouldn’t want to tackle this issue. I mean, if for no other reason, certainly they want newer players to the game to get hooked from the grest epic events that those of us did who have been here since launch.

I’d think keeping new customers entertained would be a big priority. I know there is no subscription, but the longer people are on game the more likely, I’m sure, they are to send money on the cash shop.

Anywho, having a thriving underflow server seems like it’d go a long way in doing just that.

im ok with the amount of player now.
its kind of more realistic than seeing hundred of players running around like at a THEMEPARK!

with only some players here and there, it creates nice events with only a few players participating.

all in all, im more of a “social” type player, so instanced content is cooler for me.
open world feels more like a single player game so might as well not be too many peeps there.

sometimes its epic.
i was doing frostgorge map, solo, then when i arrived at the dungeon gate, 2 people standing there. i said in looking forward to do this dungeon story mode, they said “us too, actually we were missing one person”, so i ended up finishing my evening with a dungeon run.

all in all, i mix and match my gametime.
-some solo map explore
-some standing in LA looking for dungeon group (random dungeon most of the time, i dont like grinding, so i take the first opportunity and stack up dungeon token as it goes, i have like a bunch of all dungeons now!
-some wvwvw when the guildies feel like it

so really, game is diverse depending on my mood.

I’ve been suggesting that too.

It’s very simple and a technology that is already present and used in the game, except it’s only used to deal with overpopulation and not with underpopulation – so there is no excuse not to use it for this.
Simply allow people to join a map shared between all servers just like we do with overflow – and the whole underpop problem is automatically resolved to its root.

I wish Anet forwarded this to the coders and discussed it intensely – I hope they don’t believe the game can live the long run without such a feature.
You chose the server-based system which come with the flaw of creating underpopulation issues, you have a solution in your hand, use it.

They do check the forums regularly so maybe they are seeing the suggestion I’ve had a few devs comment on suggestion threads. All ya can do is hope they stop by!

Played a game a while back called Horizons (Istaria)… what I liked about it is that mobs could come in and destroy a town or area…and install spawn points etc… it was up to the world to gather together to stop it and then to rebuild… so if you lost that vendor you would have to rebuild the town to get it back etc…. something could be done here that is similar… zones could be attacked…or taken over by whatever… and if we the players did nothing to counter it…that zone/area/vendor/etc would be lost until we took it back and rebuilt it…. different game etc… but good thought… could be implemented in most non-pvp MMOs

This has been suggested multiple times.

People really need to search before starting threads.

Red Falcon.8257:

It’s very simple and a technology that is already present and used in the game, except it’s only used to deal with overpopulation and not with underpopulation – so there is no excuse not to use it for this.

It’s one thing overflow the population on one server to another, it’s another thing to put a bunch of servers onto a new one. Given that we have WvW it’s safe to say at least that much is possible, but it’s a dramatically different set up. That’s why I’m not sure.

If it has been brought up before, it seems nobody came across any technical hurdles that would be involved. Oh well, this game is much more fun when the wilderness’ population is more than ‘realistic.’ Right now it plays a bit more like every other MMO and I hate the genre…