V
Vyrquenox
Guest
Where's billy goat gruff when you need him.
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Shard consolidation
- Thread starter drinkbeerallday
- Start date
- Watchers 2
R
Revenant2
Guest
High population shards vs. low population shards (and the considerations of shard consolidation) bring up some odd things, when you look really close at it.
The big population shards have positive things about them, such as the big economy, and on the Tram side there's lots of people to do peerless and other activities with. But, on shards with populations like that, the available housing space doesn't support the population perfectly. It's hard to place in tram or fel and big plots are for sale by players at inflated prices which are indicative of the mismatch.
The housing situation that exists now on, say, Atlantic, is way better than we had it in like 2000. Today's mismatch doesn't compare with the hell we had back then, but on the larger population shards housing space is IMO scarcer than would be ideal.
Low population shards have open housing spots and that alone can make them appealing. A downside is that so much less is happening in terms of people just getting together and doing stuff.
Even though I do a lot of Felucca stuff, I don't know exactly how the high-population Felucca champ spawn scene works out in all of this, how it's affected, and so on. The housing situation is mirrored within Tram and Fel, however.
I consider the creation of the troublesome housing market for a consolidated shard to be a downside to doing that. There are other serious issues, such as, which version of Luna gets kept? One could re-build this new shard to incorporate 2 lunas (rename/recolor one), and well... there are ways to deal with the lost real estate on the one shard but they are all very involved and labor intensive on the dev side. Right now the shards are, on a basic server and client level, identical, except for various GM-added items and so on. Changing it so that shards were fundamentally different is significant.
It's kinda easier to just leave low population servers up and running than to really, seriously deal with the complexities of keeping people happy during a shard consolidation.
The big population shards have positive things about them, such as the big economy, and on the Tram side there's lots of people to do peerless and other activities with. But, on shards with populations like that, the available housing space doesn't support the population perfectly. It's hard to place in tram or fel and big plots are for sale by players at inflated prices which are indicative of the mismatch.
The housing situation that exists now on, say, Atlantic, is way better than we had it in like 2000. Today's mismatch doesn't compare with the hell we had back then, but on the larger population shards housing space is IMO scarcer than would be ideal.
Low population shards have open housing spots and that alone can make them appealing. A downside is that so much less is happening in terms of people just getting together and doing stuff.
Even though I do a lot of Felucca stuff, I don't know exactly how the high-population Felucca champ spawn scene works out in all of this, how it's affected, and so on. The housing situation is mirrored within Tram and Fel, however.
I consider the creation of the troublesome housing market for a consolidated shard to be a downside to doing that. There are other serious issues, such as, which version of Luna gets kept? One could re-build this new shard to incorporate 2 lunas (rename/recolor one), and well... there are ways to deal with the lost real estate on the one shard but they are all very involved and labor intensive on the dev side. Right now the shards are, on a basic server and client level, identical, except for various GM-added items and so on. Changing it so that shards were fundamentally different is significant.
It's kinda easier to just leave low population servers up and running than to really, seriously deal with the complexities of keeping people happy during a shard consolidation.
G
Gwendar-SP
Guest
BULL, BULL, BULL. After not being able to get a house easily and dealing with the monster LAG caused by a large population it was either move to a low pop shard or quit UO.
C
Connor_Graham
Guest
This is a carry over from an earlier conversation. If you'd seen it, you'd understand that I was being EXTREMELY facetious.and 'dolt' is that bothersom ?
errmm ... lol
but
why ????
" I goaded you into insulting me."
?? are you trying to get people in trouble? shame on you
B
brundlefly
Guest
I ll accept that . But for arguements sake , can you answer any part of the question for me ? Im just curious about the numbers.
K
Kral
Guest
Doing server virtualization at work for the applications and databases I support, there is no cost benefit to EA merging GAME shards.
EA could save money from reducing the number of physical servers used to support the current game community however.
The cost savings of shutting down physical hardware can be achieved by virtualization the servers onto one hardware chassis, with multiple virtual OS partitions, and multiple current UO shards on each physical chassis.
On the other hand:
EA could force the players to merge GAME servers. What was the last two times that EA forced a change on players? Oh yea, OU:R and AOS.
What would happen is that the people who have chosen low population shards, or people who would not be happy about housing changes, or the disjointing the shards community would make people quit.
The end result of a GAME shard merger would be lost subscriptions and revenue for EA, and lost revenue from xsharding tokens.
So why would EA GAME merge shards?
No reason at all.
EA may well have already done server virtualization on the current shards, and all west coast / east coast shards may be on one physical platform (I doubt it based on the news stories about hardware problems)
A well done server virtualization is seamless to the user base.
If you do not like the shard you’re on, get a transfer token.
EA could save money from reducing the number of physical servers used to support the current game community however.
The cost savings of shutting down physical hardware can be achieved by virtualization the servers onto one hardware chassis, with multiple virtual OS partitions, and multiple current UO shards on each physical chassis.
On the other hand:
EA could force the players to merge GAME servers. What was the last two times that EA forced a change on players? Oh yea, OU:R and AOS.
What would happen is that the people who have chosen low population shards, or people who would not be happy about housing changes, or the disjointing the shards community would make people quit.
The end result of a GAME shard merger would be lost subscriptions and revenue for EA, and lost revenue from xsharding tokens.
So why would EA GAME merge shards?
No reason at all.
EA may well have already done server virtualization on the current shards, and all west coast / east coast shards may be on one physical platform (I doubt it based on the news stories about hardware problems)
A well done server virtualization is seamless to the user base.
If you do not like the shard you’re on, get a transfer token.
I thought about this some more, and I decided that from here on out you will be known as 'boy'. I never claimed to be a l33t pvper, but I hunt and play in Fel and I do pvp when the occason warrants it (spawns, self defense, someone pisses me off, etc.). I have just as much right to chime in as someone who is trying to make up for RL anatomical deficiencies by acting all big and bad in a pixel-gameU play legends too.....and i don't see you. So while you might spend your time filling bods in your (Fel)house, This does not mean you can chime in when a big boy fellucian is talking
K
ken01
Guest
LOL no one gripes more than the Felucca bunch. Make it so we can kill everyone like we used to, fels dead merge shards so we have someone to kill, give us a ren shard and on and on and on. When will You get it if the majority of us wanted you to be able to pkill us at will tram would have never happened.
K
kennykilleduo
Guest
One thing I learned in the last few years , players want LOT of changes , but will not give up ANYTHING for a better UO..
There's really no point in consolidating shards for Trammel players. If you are a Feluccan player, I suggest you move to Siege.
Trammel players in general do not need other players to play the game. Bumping into other people can be positive, but when there is limited space for a particular activity, sometimes it can be a burden. I sometimes think many Trammel players would like it if the entire Sosaria were instanced the moment they left the bank and select other places. They could do whatever they wanted whenever they wanted and still have a common place to congregate and to buy and sell their wares.
If you are interested in consolidating shards at all, I suggest you move to Siege. It's great. Otherwise, it's kind of a dead issue.
This isn't directed at murderers and reds only. There is a huge blue guild on the shard that (obviously) loves the Feluccan play style. And yes, the "Feluccan play style" is more than just endless murdering.
Trammel players in general do not need other players to play the game. Bumping into other people can be positive, but when there is limited space for a particular activity, sometimes it can be a burden. I sometimes think many Trammel players would like it if the entire Sosaria were instanced the moment they left the bank and select other places. They could do whatever they wanted whenever they wanted and still have a common place to congregate and to buy and sell their wares.
If you are interested in consolidating shards at all, I suggest you move to Siege. It's great. Otherwise, it's kind of a dead issue.
This isn't directed at murderers and reds only. There is a huge blue guild on the shard that (obviously) loves the Feluccan play style. And yes, the "Feluccan play style" is more than just endless murdering.
C
canary
Guest
As much as I'd love to consolidate shards I would rather not mess with Seer placements, history or my home in UO.
I think housing is the last thing that (oddly) keeps some of us here.
I think housing is the last thing that (oddly) keeps some of us here.