I hate to suggest this but...

[DarkLegacy2005]

<DIV>Even I cringe at this suggestion, but I think it will be for the better... so bare with me...</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Combine servers, that way there are more people to interact with. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Enough said... post your thoughts.</DIV> <DIV>Again, keep it clean and civil.</DIV>

[LaoSh]

<P>Hmmm..... Cross server teleportation..........I can see it now!   Very cool indeed.   </P> <P>Lao,</P>

[Kaan]

<P>I have to agree...I think it would be good.  I play on the Lavastorm server, and I like it...its a nice little community with, for the most part, friendly people.  Though, it does seem pretty lacking with not enough people.  I work 3rd shift, 12am-8am EST..so when I'm on during the weekends, I'm norm on during that time...people seem highly scarce...even during what I'd considering peek hours it seems less then what it should be.</P> <P>So, I say merge serves as well, but thats just my 2cp</P>

[Twizzel]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> DarkLegacy2005 wrote:<BR> <DIV>Even I cringe at this suggestion, but I think it will be for the better... so bare with me...</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Combine servers, that way there are more people to interact with. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Enough said... post your thoughts.</DIV> <DIV>Again, keep it clean and civil.</DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE>Actually, this is what they did in EQ1, about 3-4 years in, for two reasons.  1) Upgrade of hardware (servers) and 2) diminishing populations.  You are correct that it would provide more folks to interact and group with.  After the equipment upgrade, EQ1 was STILL adding servers (again, this was 3-4 years into the game).  The only problem is that the devs would have to admit that there "improvements" have driven off enough players to make this necessary.  And my guess is that it will have to get even worse before they are willing to take that step.  I guess, in the end, the fact it only took EQ2 a year to reach this stage is a troubling omen.  <BR>

[Tro]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> LaoShin wrote:<BR> <P>Hmmm..... Cross server teleportation..........I can see it now!   Very cool indeed.   </P> <P>Lao,</P> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P>I think you have the wrong idea here.. When they merged servers in EQ1, they simply determined which one of the two servers would remain and which one would go. Once that was decided they simply moved the players from the server that was gooing away to the server that was staying. </P> <P>There is no "Cross Server Teleportation" They just moved characters from one server to another to beef up the population on the remaining servers.</P> <P><BR> </P>

[SalBlu]

I think that something should be done, and really looked into soon.  There are a few servers, like my own, that are really high load, and we're getting like this because there is a sizeable population there already.  And at this point, Antonia Bayle is having server issues.  Dont know if this is due to the huge population, but I really wouldnt count it out.

[Feaw]

<DIV>whats happening is people are begining to realize that they can move characters with coin and items for $50 and are bailing out of the low population servers and adding their numbers to the already higher load servers because they want people to play with.   Cant blame them.   I moved two characters to LDL and started over my self a while back.   They need to merge lower population servers soon before the larger load servers end up with too heavy loads and the low load servers ... well ... *sound of crickets cherping*   Lets face it when you end up often zoning into dungeons and find your the only player there they are much more creepy.  </DIV>

[SalBlu]

<DIV>I'm ready for them to close the doors on AB to character transfers.  Not sure why they havent done so already.</DIV>

[DarkLegacy2005]

<DIV><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> SalBluee wrote:<BR> <DIV>I'm ready for them to close the doors on AB to character transfers.  Not sure why they havent done so already.</DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>cuz imho, a higher pop is probably better.</DIV>

[SalBlu]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> DarkLegacy2005 wrote:<BR> <DIV><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE>cuz imho, a higher pop is probably better.</BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR> <DIV>Have you seen the issues we've been having on AB lately?  Server crashes at peak hours with no more than a 5 minute warning.  Massive server lags, zone crashes... It happens regularly.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>There's high pop, and then there is overcrowding.  We're going to be on overcrowding very soon.  They should just deactivate the ability to make any transfers to AB.</DIV>

[Calthine]

8:30-ish am here on a Monday, 35 people in Sinking Sands.  Doesn't sound underpopulated to me <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[DarkLegacy2005]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Calthine wrote:<BR>8:30-ish am here on a Monday, 35 people in Sinking Sands.  Doesn't sound underpopulated to me <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV>Not bad</DIV>

[DarkLegacy2005]

<DIV><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> SalBluee wrote:<BR><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> DarkLegacy2005 wrote:<BR> <DIV><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE>cuz imho, a higher pop is probably better.</BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR> <DIV>Have you seen the issues we've been having on AB lately?  Server crashes at peak hours with no more than a 5 minute warning.  Massive server lags, zone crashes... It happens regularly.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>There's high pop, and then there is overcrowding.  We're going to be on overcrowding very soon.  They should just deactivate the ability to make any transfers to AB.</DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE>Or make the servers able to handle the load...<BR></DIV>

[klepp]

<DIV>not all of them, but some server mergers wouldnt hurt.</DIV>

[DarkLegacy2005]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> klepp wrote:<BR> <DIV>not all of them, but some server mergers wouldnt hurt.</DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR><BR>I concur

[Lerath_Litefo]

<div></div>Heh...you're checking for overcrowding at 8:30am on a Monday morning on a US server???  lolLet's see...all of the kids are in school and all the adults that have a life are at work.Now if you check at 8:30 PM and tell me there's still 35 people in SS1, then I'll agree your server population is pretty low.As it stands now on Mistmoore, It's [expletive haxx0red by Raijinn] near impossible to do some of the new solo writs, because those mobs are so heavily camped.  Hopefully the fact that they're increasing the spawn rate on those writ mobs with LU18 will alleviate some of that.<font color="#ffff00">EDIT:  My apologies, Calthine.  I just re-read your post and caught that you said it doesn't sound UNDERpopulated to you.  When I read it the first time I thought you said that 35 players at 8:30am didn't sound OVERpopulated.   I read too fast for my own good sometimes, lol.</font><div></div><p>Message Edited by Lerath_Litefoot on <span class=date_text>12-12-2005</span> <span class=time_text>01:47 PM</span>

[IllusiveThoughts]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Lerath_Litefoot wrote:<BR> Heh...you're checking for overcrowding at 8:30am on a Monday morning on a US server???  lol<BR><BR>Let's see...all of the kids are in school and all the adults that have a life are at work.<BR><BR>Now if you check at 8:30 PM and tell me there's still 35 people in SS1, then I'll agree your server population is pretty low.<BR><BR>As it stands now on Mistmoore, It's [expletive haxx0red by Raijinn] near impossible to do some of the new solo writs, because those mobs are so heavily camped.  Hopefully the fact that they're increasing the spawn rate on those writ mobs with LU18 will alleviate some of that.<BR><BR><FONT color=#ffff00>EDIT:  My apologies, Calthine.  I just re-read your post and caught that you said it doesn't sound UNDERpopulated to you.  When I read it the first time I thought you said that 35 players at 8:30am didn't sound OVERpopulated.   I read too fast for my own good sometimes, lol.</FONT><BR> <P>Message Edited by Lerath_Litefoot on <SPAN class=date_text>12-12-2005</SPAN> <SPAN class=time_text>01:47 PM</SPAN><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>eh? MM solo writ? problems?  I see none of these.  what SS writs are you doing?  theres one writ that has a fast pop, easy to do in 10 min, I can crank out 5-6 an hour.

[Calthine]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Lerath_Litefoot wrote:<BR> Heh...you're checking for overcrowding at 8:30am on a Monday morning on a US server???  lol<BR><BR>Let's see...all of the kids are in school and all the adults that have a life are at work.<BR><BR>Now if you check at 8:30 PM and tell me there's still 35 people in SS1, then I'll agree your server population is pretty low.<BR><BR>As it stands now on Mistmoore, It's [expletive haxx0red by Raijinn] near impossible to do some of the new solo writs, because those mobs are so heavily camped.  Hopefully the fact that they're increasing the spawn rate on those writ mobs with LU18 will alleviate some of that.<BR><BR><FONT color=#ffff00>EDIT:  My apologies, Calthine.  I just re-read your post and caught that you said it doesn't sound UNDERpopulated to you.  When I read it the first time I thought you said that 35 players at 8:30am didn't sound OVERpopulated.   I read too fast for my own good sometimes, lol.</FONT><BR> <P>Message Edited by Lerath_Litefoot on <SPAN class=date_text>12-12-2005</SPAN> <SPAN class=time_text>01:47 PM</SPAN><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>LOL, glad I saw your edit <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  Yes, I was pointing out that if SS can have 35 people in it at 8:30 am on a Monday, we're probably not suffering from UNDERcrowding.  Nor are we insanely overcrowded like AB reports being, which is nice.  I like being on a medium-population server.

[Lerath_Litefo]

Aye...not all writs are a pain, but a few of them are next to impossible.  Have you tried doing the one with the Sandscrawler magus yet?  Those things are very uncommon pops as it is now.  Get a few solo people running around there grabbing those as soon as they pop and it takes FOREVER to get that writ done.  I've given up on those and just delete that writ everytime the NPC gives it to me.  There's a couple others that are almost as bad.My point is that while the lower level zones may be becoming ghost towns, that's only because the majority of the server population is moving up to T5-T6 zones.  The more time goes by, the more crowded the DoF zones are going to be.  If you think SS and PoF are getting crowded NOW during prime time, give it a month or two.  Now throw in a couple of server combines, and it would not be uncommon to see SS4 or SS5 opening up regularly.  <span>:smileytongue:</span><div></div>

[Rijacki]

Part of the problem was with the day of release.  A lot of people gravitated to the "first server listed alphabetically" because that's how their guild or group or whatever decided would be the easiest way to stay together.  The first server, alphabetically, was/is Antonia Bayle.  Thus, even from the first day, AB got more than its fair share of people.  The other reason AB got more than its "fair share" is because a lot of non-RPers from EQ1 had the notion an RP server would be "easier" because they think RPers are not as good players (or at least don't level as fast) meaning they would have less or no competition for higher level stuff. There has been little incentive to move off AB and lots of people have seen its higher population (from release) to be a reason to go there, especially in transferring away from another server with a complaint of "not enough people".  Some servers being medium to high population with others as low is a result of demographics.  IF the devs were to, instead of combining servers, offer FREE 1-way transfers guild transfers from the high population servers to the low pop ones, it could ease some of the situation on AB as well as the other servers.  However, the "top guilds" on the small pop servers would probably be very upset at that because then they would have increased competition for stuff. There are enough players to be spread amoung the existing servers, it's just the nature of most to gravitate to where others are... and thus cause overcrowding in one place and undercrowding in another. (As for me.... I love my guild.  I wouldn't want to leave them... if the -guild- wanted to move, though, I probably would... transfer or not) <div></div>

[LaoSh]

<DIV> <HR> </DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE> <P>Trook wrote:</P> <P></P> <HR> LaoShin wrote:<BR> <P>Hmmm..... Cross server teleportation..........I can see it now!   Very cool indeed.  </P> <P>Lao,</P> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P>I think you have the wrong idea here.. When they merged servers in EQ1, they simply determined which one of the two servers would remain and which one would go. Once that was decided they simply moved the players from the server that was gooing away to the server that was staying.</P> <P>There is no "Cross Server Teleportation" They just moved characters from one server to another to beef up the population on the remaining servers.</P> <P><BR> </P> <HR> <P> </P> <P>I know there is no "Cross Server Teleportation", why do you think I said    "I can see it now"!   Meaning, Im imagining it.  LOL  Im saying it would be cool to have that option.  Where you can move in and out of servers on teleporters.  That way people from lower populated servers can go visit the higher ones on off peak times to grab a group or whatever, and the people on higher pop servers can go do writs or harvest in the lower pop servers during peak times......etc.....you see where Im going with this........just alleviates some of the headaches during the worst of times for both types of servers.</P> <P>Lao.</P>

[Lerath_Litefo]

Would never happen.  The ability to move from server to server and buy/sell/harvest/etc stuff on other servers could really screw up the fragile balance of server economies.  And would you REALLY want to be a permanent member of a low population server when they opened up your server so all the farm-bots can flock there to farm all of your nodes/names?<div></div>

[LaoSh]

<P>Haha, yeah good point.......farm bots should be banned and shot, simple as that.  End of problem.</P> <P>Lao,</P>

[sharz]

<div></div>lol how about when you cross servers it says <Vister> under your name and when you log out you get sent back to the server you came from<span>:smileytongue: and your not alowed to buy from servers if your visting servers </span> <div></div><p>Message Edited by sharzor on <span class=date_text>12-13-2005</span> <span class=time_text>07:53 PM</span>

[Hamzil]

<P>I used to play on GUK.  Man, that server was pretty crowded at launch, and then 6 months later there was some sort of mass exodus..  I went thru 2 guilds due to players leaving.  The last guild had about 140 players, 40-50 were active 4 months after launch.  6 months after launch about 20-30, 8 months about 10.  No, they didn't leave the guild, they just cancelled accounts.  Most went to WOW and never came back.  It got to the point where I was the only one in zones like EL and RV, Ferrott etc..  I couldn't take it andI transferred to a higher pop server, but now I'm noticing less players than I was used to at transfer. </P> <P>It would really be interesting to see the actual historical numbers since launch of server population/activity.</P> <P> </P>

[Gandi]

I like being on a lower populated server...less competition <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Shotguns]

huh?<div></div>

[gainerface]

<DIV>When they merged servers in EQ1 my characters were on the butt end of the whole affair and some of them ended up with an X on the end of their names.  I really hated that.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I would enjoy playing on a low population server.  As a previous poster mentioned there is less competition for monsters needed for quests, namely writs.  Works for me cause I'm not much into grouping and zero into raiding. </DIV>

[Hamzil]

<P>Yeah, I wouldn't mind being on a lower pop server, its just that this game is so darn quest orientated, you need groups to do many of the quest, (I'd say about 90% of them)  To get groups you need enough people around and the right classes available, and all want to/or don't mind to do the same thing.  For that you need numbers.  I like solo play, just IMHO this game(even though they say it is) really isn't for the solo player.  Much of the content you just can't get to if you try to solo.  Most worthwhile quests require groups too.</P> <P>I wouldn't worry too much about mob competition.  I've rarely run into that situation, and if so, the mob doesn't take too long to come back(respawn).</P> <P> </P>

[LaoSh]

<P>Yeah Hamzilla your right.  The best things are only obtainable in groups, and even raids.  Though this is for a reason.  If it takes 6 people to get an item it should be better, and comparitvely, if it takes 24 people working together to get an item, it should really be better.   I see your point though, the life a pure soloer is fairly limited, which is why I think the reason for the billion useless and boring quests in the game.  Though I think there are many soloers who dont really care about or enjoy doing quests.  This is the problem.    In essense I can see the problems in both an underpopulated and overpopulated server, each has its pros and cons.  I guess it just depends on your preference and playstyle.  </P> <P>This is somewhat off topic but........</P> <P>I have an idea for soloers to get really cool armor or equipment.  I think they should add some kind of rare random drops off mobs that are no drop and no trade.  Then you have to collect a certain amount of pieces over time, similar to collection quests, except they drop off mobs, both heroic and solo.  Once you finish a certain collection of them, you can craft them into a really sweet piece of armor or weapon, item, etc, based on your class.  They could make this cost a good amount of coin, and or involve you getting supplies or ingredients made from other tradeskillers as well.  In any case it would be very cool way for soloers or small group players to still come up with some very cool items based on the time they put into the game, without having to raid or play in groups and clear instances day after day.    Just a thought <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  This would also give raiders another option for getting gear when there isnt enough people around for forming a raid, or during lockout times on raid instances, etc.  Or also for those people who just have really bum luck on drops they can use or winning rolls on loot they do want <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  Me for example!<-------   Day after day I clear these darned instances with groups, masters drop, and I have yet to see anything monk wearable or useable, let alone a monk  Master 1.  It really is discouraging.  </P> <P> </P> <P>Lao, </P> <p>Message Edited by LaoShin on <span class=date_text>12-14-2005</span> <span class=time_text>10:58 PM</span>

[Uumuuanu]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> SalBluee wrote:<BR>I think that something should be done, and really looked into soon.  There are a few servers, like my own, that are really high load, and we're getting like this because there is a sizeable population there already.  And at this point, Antonia Bayle is having server issues.  Dont know if this is due to the huge population, but I really wouldnt count it out. <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>I would trade you but we already tried recruiting people from AB to crushbone.    We had several people pay the obserd $50 xfer fee to come over to Crushbone, and within a week they paid that same expensive fee of $50 to move bad.   All of them said the same thing.  WHERE IS EVERYONE?</P> <P>Crushbone is plagued by a lack of population.   You see the same people a hundred times a day, everyone on the server could name the bots by heart.  90% of the guilds cross raid with each other to come up with enough people to make a full raid. (Yes I know Elysium and FD don't need to do this but honestly guys,  when people think of joining a raiding guild, there are two options simply because there are not enough people to make up a third one).</P> <P>Our server tagline would look something like this      ~WTB people to group with~</P> <P> </P> <P> </P>