[SC] Server Merges in Seafight

I was curious about how server merges would work so I was browsing through seafight forums and I want to make people aware of the situation. There are pros and cons with the soft merge just like there are pros and cons with every other update. Also note that gameplay based on what seafight players have said has drastically changed.

Pros

1. Lots of players to chat with.
2. More BP(Battle Points) whatever that is. Based on context clues it probably has to do with Pvp.
3. More PvP
4. More people buying elite ammo with $$
5. More maps, levels, and raids(idk what those are)
6. Reduced server maintenance cost.

Cons

1. HUGE increase in the bot population! All the bots from many servers just coming to one megaserver isn't enough to account for the increase. Seems like the megaserver has pressurized people to bot more.
2. Very hard to make pearls which I'm guessing is analogous to uridium because people get cannoned down immediately and can't collect them.
3. Lots of people quit especially low and medium boats because it's too hard to play.
4. People are not able to restock ammo with in game methods so once the first wave of intense pvp runs out people will be out of ammo and be forced to buy ammo or people might give up on pvp and once again can make ammo. We'll have to wait and see.
5. Minor lags and bugs
6. Difficulty locking a selected target because it's so crowded.
7. More autolockers, cheaters, etc because of increased pvp.
8. Guild islands which are probably analogous to CBS dismantled during merge.

Note some pros and cons are really subjective. Increased cheats and bots may be a pro for those scum players. More people being forced to buy ammo is Pro for BG but con for everyone else. More pvp may not be good for lower players. Also the maps, levels, etc being created seems purely out of necessity due to overcrowding. People might lose their jobs because BP wants to cut server costs.

http://www.bigpoint.com/seafight/board/threads/global-server-merge-coming.159047/page-21 Anyways I want to know what you guys think and add any information you know.

 

So in essence the crowding could create an environment similar to GE1/2, GA1/2, and the test server (when everyone knows its open). This is something that can be good or bad at first and then, depending on the player, flip flop. For those of us that play US/GB servers, it can be a pro or con in the beginning. The biggest being the level of PVP action. For upper level players, having more people to PVP with will be a plus as they can work more on those kind of missions. However, for the 1-16 level player, this can hold them up from getting things done or playing at all. More players in the map means new players having a harder time leveling up due to danger levels, and equipment in the auction becoming more expensive due to more competition for the same items.

Lag can be more of an issue as there will be more activity within the map, meaning more processing to be done on your computer, so no streaming music while playing. LOL Also, the whole illegal activities thing you mentioned would just be more centralized.

 

What I think what could be good is that dev team before merging servers should make two type of the servers depends on the total power of the player. For example Global Europe Recruit Server and Global Europe Veteran Server (I'm using Global Europa for example). New registered player will start playing on Recruit server, the Veteran server will be locked, To join veteran server player will have to hit proper player power, and to gain high power is to purchase better equipment, so Veteran will be unlocked after hitting 10k power; Full Elite. Obviously after reaching Veteran Server he will not be available to join Recruit, may be only if he lose the equipment after been hacked or something... There will be no difference between those two servers, same maps, same aliens may be on recruit they will be weaker. In my opinion good idea but will take lots of work to do it...

 

This will do the game no harm.

The only thing Bigpoint need to take into consideration are noobs, i think they need to try and do more to help them if they do server merges.

 

Its going to look good in the beginning, lots of PvPs & action. The server will be crowded (over crowded in many instances).

But once you run out of ammo/ uri, the real problem will start. Cos of intense population getting uridium will be really hard. No more solo cubes, expect 4-5 ppl on the same cube, even doing other NPC will be difficult cos many players will be hunting. Even boxing & palla will be hard due to many players hunting in those maps.

Not to forget about the rankings, many players gonna loose their rank overnight. And many will keep loosing it with time.
(And its serious, you may not care about your rank but many players have actually spent a lot of real money for their rank)

So basically, only the Wallet Warriors (those who never need to rely on NPC/boxing/palla for progressing in the game and can keep on buying uridium every week) can enjoy PvPs.
And those who're Free players or can't afford to purely* play with money, are going to suffer. And literally suffer a lot. Things will be really hard for them.
Imagine 5 - 10 enemies in your map hunting 80 - 90% of the time. And in those 20 - 10% time, your map is over crowded with people trying to compete for resources.

Due to such scenario (as OP correctly pointed out) many players will decide to bot or use illegal methods in order to survive/get uri. Thus, the no. of botters will increase dramatically.
Even the auto lockers & other cheats will also increase cos due to a lot of players, competition will be high. No doubt, some will try to cheat using unfair practices.

And its common sense that if you make things extremely tough like this, there is mainly two options left for players.
1) Quit / become inactive
2) Use bot / unfair practices

So eventually after couple of months, the server population will decrease rapidly. In "some" cases it may reach a balance point (like it is in some servers today). But at the cost of loosing so many players.

Whatever the case might be, in 5 - 10 months even if a "balance" point is achieved. The overall experiment will be a failure. Why?
Because even then, you loose so many players- BP loosing money.

 

Hello all..
ty xuhu99

...

without making it into just a MCC/UFE-player 'killing-zone heaven' GREEN-GREEN-GRASS .. is that what you mean...? In that scenario we will lose a lot before any possible future gains

This suggestion has potential, although it has been suggested before in one way or another...
We all want the game to catch up with todays demand and the consideration/development of these possibilities are down to DO and from past experience that can take a very long time... This re-population of the servers is of great urgency and we all have our own ideas, which is good for the discussion of course...

.Wagon. I have to agree with you, PSK~SUNDANCE and some of the 'cons' from xuhu99...
server merge has been suggested many times and I am sure that DO have done an assessment on this as there could be benefits..

There is a great risk and still banging my same drum MCCs and even solo UFEs would need to be reigned in if this idea could even imagine to fly.. Seems there are many issues as I know we have ppl from different points of view here in this thread

 

Yer, simply having a few maps for lower level players to shoot aliens, no boxes in these maps otherwise botters will box their noobs in there knowing they are safe, have this map open till the player reaches level 16.

 

For years now, people have been asking for server merges, but this is not the solution. That will bring the benefit of numbers while also having many negative effects on people. People that have multiple ships on different servers will have between 2-10 ships on 1 server. seeing this, most noobs will quit, or DO will take the accounts away. Now let me suggest a better solution.

My idea is somewhat like the UBA, but for clans and servers. For example the Clan UBA will be as follows:

~The top clans of each server battle each other for 2 weeks in a series of Clan vs Clan fights similar to TDM matches. When each server has only 1 clan remaining, the servers battle each other using their top clan. Say for example there is 48 servers in the competition, then is is just knockout. There will be 24 groups of 2 clans facing each other, like the JPA. Each clan will pick 15 of their best fighters for the competition Each player has 3 lives, and when they die they are out of the whole competition UNLESS their clan comes out victorious in the battle. When the first stage is over, there will be 24 clans remaining, therefore being 24 clans left over. They will do the same thing, this time only having 2 lives each. The next stage is only 1 life each. When it is narrowed down to only 3 clans it will be a 3-way fight, with only 1 life each. The last clan standing wins.
This competition could be held every 1-2 months.


~They could do the same thing, but this time not just clans, but entire servers. Say for example, they do a series of 1v1's until there are only 50 people on each server, then do battles with the other servers until only 1 server remains as the victor.

There would be rewards for the winning clans and servers too, so even the noobs would benefit too.

 

Not to forget about the rankings, many players gonna loose their rank overnight. And many will keep loosing it with time.
(And its serious, you may not care about your rank but many players have actually spent a lot of real money for their rank)

The people that spent money for rank will just spend more.

 

I think Dev team should make a global poll vote if users want merge servers and write down what will be good and bad side of merging servers if user vote for merge and they get 70% votes they should merge the servers if not they should look for more better solutions till they hit 70% or something like that... We all can spend years talking about it, we need action without action there is no reaction

 

i got an easy fix. remove ammo cost from uba. and remove rewards. boom. 24214512412 more ppl will start doing uba.
Don't know if it can be done but, a cross server map where for example a gb2 player can meet a player from any other server just for pvp. a really huge map. have a set amount of these maps and limit the player amount in them also. could do huge pvp battles anytime. and making uridium stays easy, just exit the map and return to your own server.

 

Really? So its like saying, "Players never had any problem with LF4s, upgrades, Havocs, Hercules, probability, etc." According to your view, if BO3 is introduced in booty, still people will have no problem in spending more money to get them. And they will do it "happily".

Unless, a player who can spend $200 - 400 / week in this game regularly. Rest (paying users) will have problems.

Maybe personally you will not have any problem spending $300 - 600 for getting back your previous rank. But I believe a majority of the players will have severe problems and it'll not be fair at all.

Not everybody can afford to spend countless money on this game. I hope you understand that not everybody has the same privilege. Many players spend their hard earned money in this game. Ignoring them will cost you loosing them.


Regards

 

Well the money aspect won't be the problem, as they will still have it to spend and spend they will. The rank structure will be the same and what a player has will depend on the same thing; how much they have done and how many are in a company.

Badge........... Rank ..................Proportion

..............General ..................Max 1 per company
..............Basic General...........0.01% of company
..............Chief Colonel............0.1% of company
..............Colonel ..................0.5% of company
............. Basic Colonel ......... 1% of company
..............Chief Major............ 1.5% of company
..............Major ................... 2% of company
..............Basic Major ............2.5% of company
..............Chief Captain .........3% of company
..............Captain ................ 3.5% of company
..............Basic Captain ........ 4% of company
..............Chief Lieutenant .....4.5% of company
............. Lieutenant .............5% of company
..............Basic Lieutenant..... 6% of company
..............Chief Sergeant....... 7% of company
..............Sergeant ...............8% of company
...............Basic Sergeant ....... 9% of company
...............Chief Space Pilot .....10% of company
.................Space Pilot .............12.29% of company
.................Basic Space Pilot .....20% of company

Depending on the size after a merger, you could find that you have gone up or down. Its about the same as when entire clans switch company. You go up, you go down. But we are really getting excited about something that has yet to be announced, and is normally dismissed as "We are weighing options."

 

I have no idea where you get your figures from, I've been playing over 6 yrs and have never spent $400 in a month on this game. I'm UFE only because of the time and money I've spent on the game, but to think it costs $400 a week is absurd.

And rank is just something that kids think they deserve without having to earn it and adults that want it spend money for it. It means nothing more than bragging rights about how much money someone spent.

 

The easiest way to do it is to reset ranking system, well General give you no bonuses it's only a icon so I don't know why people are crying about...

 

You no something all us lot talking about this and pros and cons why dose bigpoint not tell us there points of not doing it i no the system was not meant to do that and thats all we get but why not says thats 1 of the reason also rank also this and also that where we can come up with ideas to fix the problem they may own the game but we keep it alive so our input is needed what do u think RICK...

 

Should reset all the ship equipment too, damage is just a number, who cares about it lol.

...

 

well when people spend 1000 of pounds to get it u would be the same

 

It seems that the last few posts have a theme...
I am not going to reply to any one post as I have agreement 'in part' with most of them but I dont feel I can agree 'in total' with any...

Money is where DO find the resources to build and develop the game... we all accept that I think.. but it is still a nominally 'FTP' game and the new players have the potential to become the new 'Generals' of the future when we are all 'laid to rest' or play another game for whatever reason...
We/the game has a major problem with the differential between the UFE and the sub FE+FE... This can been seen in the way certain players and certain clans, MCC or otherwise, war for purely the, so-called, honour and rank without and diplomatic need(which is why we have the War function in the first place)...
Without some restrictions this is going to kill the servers as we have them and also make a merger only a short term fix that makes the differential 'tween ship-haves and ship-have-nots even wider... DO are not stupid or blind I think...

What may have happened in 'seafight' and the pro's and con's mentioned, and those yet to have been said, may determine the future of the game, we are all so passionately discussing, if a 'Server Merge' is considered.. this Thread, and to my understanding of our discussion, is to define the different ways we perceive the problems and their possible solutions...

This is Speakers corner and as such we are permitted an opinion and to voice it but we are only the players and we have joined the game voluntarily...

I hope that our points of view are considered but ultimately we have to accept DO as the game controllers and that we have a choice!!

 

"we are only the players..."

You should had put "we are only the players..." Your highlighting is key and should not had been stopped.

Other than that, I agree with you fully.