The "fresh server y/n?" discussion
Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2020 6:44 am
So this has come up a number of times since that one video caused the population to grow by 500%. People keep asking streamers about it, the question appears in the advice channel every now and then, and so on. I didn't want to make a poll, but I almost think the devs ought to do that. Anyway, discuss the matter here.
I can see both sides of the argument.
On one hand, a fresh server is a bit of a blow for those who have played for a long time. If a hypothetical new server ends up becoming way more popular, they may feel that their maxed-out characters are useless as the old server's population dwindles back down to a few hundred. These are the players who have sustained this project. If they hadn't been there, Lazy Peon's review probably wouldn't have been very positive and all those thousands of new players wouldn't have arrived. A fresh server might be seen as disrespectful to their months and years of progress.
On the other hand, this has now become a server where 20% of the playerbase is miles ahead of the thousands of new arrivals who don't stand a chance against these RR80 full BiS characters. In a PvP-based MMO, that's not great for player retention. A fresh server puts everyone on an even playing field, giving new players a chance to catch up without months of being the helpless punching bag of maxed-out veterans. In the private server scene, resets have always been popular--look at WoW's series of successors to Nostalrius, or the Project 1999 Everquest server which recently doubled its population with a fresh server. This is because when an MMORPG has been running for years, jumping in as a new player feels pretty awful, so a reset is a chance for everyone to keep up. Without this, numbers are likely to drop back down to some middle point between now and last month as newer players discover how far behind they are and give up.
There's also the matter of server logistics. Right now we're getting a lot of lag during primetime because the project had no chance to prepare for 3k+ players. Would adding a server help with that? Would it cost more? I assume RoR is hosted at some datacenter, so maybe a second server wouldn't even change the lag unless the devs pay for more space. I don't know what it might take to start a second server. We don't pay for this, so if it's an added expense, that may be an issue. I'd love to hear the devs weigh in on the sheer practicality of this.
I can see both sides of the argument.
On one hand, a fresh server is a bit of a blow for those who have played for a long time. If a hypothetical new server ends up becoming way more popular, they may feel that their maxed-out characters are useless as the old server's population dwindles back down to a few hundred. These are the players who have sustained this project. If they hadn't been there, Lazy Peon's review probably wouldn't have been very positive and all those thousands of new players wouldn't have arrived. A fresh server might be seen as disrespectful to their months and years of progress.
On the other hand, this has now become a server where 20% of the playerbase is miles ahead of the thousands of new arrivals who don't stand a chance against these RR80 full BiS characters. In a PvP-based MMO, that's not great for player retention. A fresh server puts everyone on an even playing field, giving new players a chance to catch up without months of being the helpless punching bag of maxed-out veterans. In the private server scene, resets have always been popular--look at WoW's series of successors to Nostalrius, or the Project 1999 Everquest server which recently doubled its population with a fresh server. This is because when an MMORPG has been running for years, jumping in as a new player feels pretty awful, so a reset is a chance for everyone to keep up. Without this, numbers are likely to drop back down to some middle point between now and last month as newer players discover how far behind they are and give up.
There's also the matter of server logistics. Right now we're getting a lot of lag during primetime because the project had no chance to prepare for 3k+ players. Would adding a server help with that? Would it cost more? I assume RoR is hosted at some datacenter, so maybe a second server wouldn't even change the lag unless the devs pay for more space. I don't know what it might take to start a second server. We don't pay for this, so if it's an added expense, that may be an issue. I'd love to hear the devs weigh in on the sheer practicality of this.