Servers or dozens of instances?

[Farahl]

Don't think this has been asked yet from my brief glance through the Q&A threads...

How will the world be divided up? Will it be realms/servers as in WoW/FFXI/CoX or will it be done something akin to Tabula Rasa where there are 12 or so versions of each 'zone' that all users share and somewhat destroys the idea of an MMO?

It might be WAY too early to be asking this question and since the gameplay looks like it will be centered around the big pretty sprawling city the answer is probably going to be good old fashioned normal servers with instanced content for groups...But one has to make sure!

[jeaf7]

Ya...I was wondering the same.

[Ashgan]

I was in a way rather hoping for less instancing then CoH, sure theres tons and tons of other heroes around but... they are not around they are all in theyre own little instance.
Or at the very least if there was just as much out of instance stuff to do as there is in instance. And for god almighty please please find a way to make the levels a bit more random, eventualy everyone knows the maps by heart and knows exactly the few spots that have the important villain/item will be.
Also another gripe with instancing was who in the world designed those buildings the architecture was just so out of whack the textures made me feel like I was in a building but the path I was taking was like errrr why is there a door here agian.

[Aceldama]

I hope it's open-world.

I like to see the hundreds of other heroes doing their thing without having to join their team and run into a cave in some city of tomorrow.

Don't do away with instances: Make them unique and epic ala LotRO.

[Xerross]

Well with the steady decline of people in Cox (I only notice people come back on for Events, Double Exp). I hope they have only a few selections of server choices (that way no one is really playing on a more unpopulated server).

[Aceldama]

That's the #1 reason why I've stopped playing lately.

The Guardian server population is 163 at the moment.

[RandomCitizenX]

Due to the high amount of alts this game encourage, I cannot see one server with massive amount of instances working. It would be a logistic nightmare to make a work around. A small collection of persistent servers would be the most manageable.

[Xerross]

And my suggestion was not really for one 'Main' server, I am even using Tabula Rasa as an example (only server selections).

[RandomCitizenX]

To clarify I am also against instancing of city zones since I like a city which feels alive and active.

[Silverblade]

I think WoW has a pretty good balance of an open world and instancing. Make most of the world open (in WoWs case at launch, two zones) with a few instances for specific content.

My gripe with CoH was the numerous zones and instancing. Made the world feel really small.

My other wish would be that there would be just one server but that's unrealistic. So instead, why can't there be multiple servers but when you log in you could choose which server to play in? That would solve the problem of friends being able to play together without having to reroll or for guilds having to choose a specific server to play on. And if one server is overcrowded, you could just jump to a different one using the same character. I'm not a programmer but is this a coding issue?

[Aceldama]

I am a HUGE supporter of the single server idea.

Not only did all of the instancing make the City feel tiny, but the lack of players made it feel completely barren. I shouldn't see only one hero when I fly over a city allegedly full of them.

What do the WoW servers support? 20k players on each?

Why not do the same with only one or two servers and add more as the need arises. In this way, you can ensure that every server is slap full with players.

[sdc10]

well dont forget many people may be playing this game both on pc's and xbox, cramming all those people on to a few servers may definitley cause unwanted lag for some people

[Xiayose]

What do the WoW servers support? 20k players on each?

Why not do the same with only one or two servers and add more as the need arises. In this way, you can ensure that every server is slap full with players.


The number of servers they will have will probably be determined during the stress test phase of beta, where they will try and find out what the magic number is for server population. (most number of people to allow for easy grouping, good economy, but low enough to lessen server strain and network lag)

[chriz]

I don't mind instanced city zones (Atlas Park, Steel Canyon, etc), but I'm hoping for less emphasis on instancing for common missions. It really makes CoX feel more like a "game" and less like a "place."

I know it's mildly bad form to compare with WoW, but one thing that game has is a sense of playing in one large world (multiple servers notwithstanding).

[cruel_cynic]

I hope they only instance missions and let the world remain open in a single instance.

[Mulky]

I'd think they'd have something in which both pc and xbox 360 (reaching here I know) can join together. But if not I wonder what the 360 can handle in an open world.

[Nimbus]

I definitely want a sprawling city where everyone can hang when they are bored. I would really dislike it if they went the way of Hellgate London, where you have small little meet up areas and venture into level based areas.
Soooo, Im really crossing my fingers for an open city with very little load times.