The screenshots above kind of show otherwise, but ok. Laggy sure, 800 people in one area will create lag.
An outlier circumstance where 800 players TRIED to coordinate and be on the same layer, yet it looks like two full raids fighting. I am currently in Ironforge at peak time with a queue of 8k on Fairbanks and see about 10-15 people in the common area of IF. What will this look like as people drop off steadily?
Auction house has 3 people standing inside.
Edit: I decided that I'd take a walk around my Megaserver with a massive queue and show my perspective of Classic in hopes that we can find some common ground. Made an imugr account just for you @Selexin.
This is my server on day 2 of Classic, with a current queue of 11k players after Blizz has upped the initial layer amount. This is the heart of commerce for the Alliance side - Ironforge during peak play time.
https://imgur.com/gallery/YnfgGCi
Blizz also mentioned that trade hubs may be treated differently than layers and based on the quantity of hops I have seen while entering cities AND the mass issues players had with disconnects on day one while entering cities, this would indicate that the cities themselves may have fewer layers than the continents themselves. Either way - this is the result of layering.
I have just been enjoying playing Classic in a vibrant and full world with my friends, guildies and randoms.
Does this look like a vibrant thriving world filled with players? Our perspectives are different. This is my point of view, literally.
Bro have you considered that maybe not a lot of people are in IF atm because the vast majority of people who are bothering to play during the launch week are all out power leveling? They definitely mentioned that layering works differently in the capitol cities anyways so it should be more crowded than the rest. But honestly who is sitting through 2 hour queues to go fuck off in IF? Normally the crowd of people in the capitol cities are afk or max level characters fucking off. Everyone currently in game is power leveling. All that said, I have yet to see an empty Darnassus on Grobbulus, and thats not even a city that is normally crowded.
Bro have you considered that maybe not a lot of people are in IF atm because the vast majority of people who are bothering to play during the launch week are all out power leveling?
I have considered that. But I have also realized that it doesnt matter because IF is a hub that offers a ton of quests, has a flightpath, has the tram, has weapon training, professions, class trainers, an auction house and that even if EVERYONE was power leveling (the majority are not), the city would still be bustling with players. How do I know this? 3 ways. I played retail vanilla. I have played on private servers for years with 6-12k players and major cities are swarmed with people for the first few days. ALSO, I have /who'd ironforge on my server and there are a lot of people in Ironforge but they are all phantoms.
If you see that picture of Ironforge on a Megaserver, on day 2 of launch and you cant identify any issues, you obviously did not play vanilla retail NOR have you played on any successful private server. That vacancy, is unacceptable and will get worse with time as less players logon as we saw during the beta and the stress tests. These layers are not working dynamically. They are not filling. They are not naturally squishing. And if THIS is a layer on day 2, which is behaving the SAME as on beta and stress tests, why would you assume that this will get better as less people log in?
BUT, none of that matters. We dont need to guestimate how layering will work in the future, because the guesswork is over. We are ingame and its awful. We can see that its awful. We dont need to bicker and argue about what could or may happen. We can see layering in its final state and it is awful for all of the reasons that many of us predicted it would be when it was announced.
Stfuppercut WTF is wrong with your server? Why is IF empty? What have you done to forsake the Blizzard Gods?!? My layering experience is NOT like this hahahah. There are players fucking everywhere! I can't even kill Kreenig Snarlsnout, maybe we need more layers?!?!
Maybe Blizzard made a special layer just for you.... hahahha.
When I get home from work I'll take some screenshots of Orgimmar/Xroads for you.
Personally, on my server which is one of the few with no queue I think, I also noticed this. On day one in Mulgore I saw a lot of people. On day 2, while travelling through Mulgore, I saw no one. And using the who functionality it should have been swarming with players... It really depends on your luck: I logged in with my dwarf and went to Goldshire and there were a shitton of people there. I think layering is a necessary evil but of course it has its downsides
Biomasse I love that shot of the two factions lined up on both sides of the field, that's amazing!
Stfuppercut WTF is wrong with your server? Why is IF empty?
Had this conversation with quite a few others on disc across numerous servers, its the same everywhere. I'm certain there are outlier layers and im positive that if I fished long enough I could find a layer that looked a bit more active. Hell, I could run around the world and find a spot full of people if I looked hard enough, but the reality is that the world is empty in most circumstances. It feels bad and layering works exactly as many of us anticipated.
Created a brand new character to see if that would be any different, and as you can see - even starter zone still heavily populated. Not sure what you and your friends have done to deserve desolation, but it looks sad. Stfuppercut these are from 10 mins ago on Yojamba (Oceanic Server).
On Gandling the player numbers are massive. Even in the most remote parts of the barrens you won’t go 10 seconds without seeing another player. Around quest hubs and mob camps, it’s crazy. I’m starting to feel bad for the pigmen NE of crossroads.
Mu PvP experience so far has been with lvl 20 alliance getting players to hit them in ratchet and then running towards the guards. Almost fell for it myself once.
Personally, on my server which is one of the few with no queue I think, I also noticed this. On day one in Mulgore I saw a lot of people. On day 2, while travelling through Mulgore, I saw no one. And using the who functionality it should have been swarming with players... It really depends on your luck: I logged in with my dwarf and went to Goldshire and there were a shitton of people there. I think layering is a necessary evil but of course it has its downsides
Yea. This is exactly right. If you find pockets where the MAIN pack is, and 75% of the playerbase is, you'll find a populated area. But this is confined to very few areas on the map and is still relatively vacant from what we are used to without layering. As players spread out and as the median level increases, the areas will feel less and less populated - until layers are squished, which presents a whole host of new issues.
We saw this on stress tests and the beta, where by the 4th to 5th day, the world was relatively empty.
World PVP seems like the biggest victim of layering. What's the fun if only half, a third, a fourth, whatever amount of the players can see each other.
I wonder what that picture would look like if it was a flat server.
PREACH!
Best PvP racial alliance side for warriors
And here I thought you were a brother of the horde. For shame.
And here I thought you were a brother of the horde. For shame.
Not an RP'er =) , no real faction pride or anything; I play both. Usually simultaneously. Most recently I raided on Horde and Alliance on Northdale throughout the course of the server.
I was planning on maining an orc hunt but opted not to after seeing the current state of hunts leading up to launch. It will make a fun alt tho.
Personally, on my server which is one of the few with no queue I think, I also noticed this. On day one in Mulgore I saw a lot of people. On day 2, while travelling through Mulgore, I saw no one. And using the who functionality it should have been swarming with players... It really depends on your luck: I logged in with my dwarf and went to Goldshire and there were a shitton of people there. I think layering is a necessary evil but of course it has its downsides
Yea. This is exactly right. If you find pockets where the MAIN pack is, and 75% of the playerbase is, you'll find a populated area. But this is confined to very few areas on the map and is still relatively vacant from what we are used to without layering. As players spread out and as the median level increases, the areas will feel less and less populated - until layers are squished, which presents a whole host of new issues.
We saw this on stress tests and the beta, where by the 4th to 5th day, the world was relatively empty.
Yeah - I'm behind you guys by about 10-15 levels on average and am a little behind the main pack thanks to queues and just being a slow leveler in general. And I'm seeing the same thing - on launch day there were so many players in the starting zone at Teldrassil that players were stacked on top of each other everywhere. There was a pillar of night elves all standing on top of each other while people skipped cinematics en masse that looked like a column of spinning night elf ears. And for the first couple of hours things were lively. But even later that night it was starting to die down, and by Tuesday it was pretty dead. Still some players around me, but not many. Looking around yesterday, I would only see a person or two every few minutes.
I can see people talking in the chat channels, there is a guild chat full of people talking shit, so I know people are out there. So it's less lonely than it would have been otherwise, but it's still... kind of lonely for a server with a 12k person queue.
Feels bad man.
Pippina that sucks :sad:
Might be that these huge US servers have a plethora of layers to assist in so many people (the pack) being in one area.
Hope it gets better for you. I'm only level 17 but I see a lot of people all the time. It's not as busy as a private server at launch, but I think that's a good thing.
Did some RFC runs with my workmates last night which was great fun. Really looking forward to hitting some work PvP with my mates.