Antonia Bayle

[Yimway]

Gungo wrote:

I swear they already said EQ2X was getting its own new hardware.

Eq2x was getting hardware used on other sony now defunct games such as vangard. That hardware is better then the current OLD eq2 hardware. 

There still is alot of questions on what will happen to servers like crushbone which always had horrible lag issues. What are the planned merges.Are they purchasing new hard ware or using some of this older hardware they are removing from naggy/antonia bayle.Will this old hardware improve other servers performance as much as nagafen/antonia bayle has with thier new hardware. Are they purchasing new hardware as well as reusing old hardware. Will Ab and nagafens lag get worse when they remove old hardware. 

My bad, you are correct, this is what was said.

I suspect as far as the rest of your questions, those are decisions they'll make as they observe results from the changes already made.

What I wonder is:

1) Can they now merge all PVP into one realm?2) Can they merge one of the low pop servers into AB?

Since there is little expectation for the populations on either of these new server clusters to grow beyond it is right now, are they using enough of capacity with current populations, or can they perhaps take more with no degredation?

[Andu]

Lol at all the people that say we do nothing on these forums but criticise SoE.

You see, when positive things are done .... you get positive feedback

[Anestacia]

Syndarin@Guk wrote:

Chath and Apos are only saying that because they dont wont AB to be merged with anything tbh

I dont think anyone has to worry about that happening in AB's current state.

[Alenna]

Atan@Unrest wrote:

TheSpin wrote:

Rothgar wrote:

I'm very glad to hear you guys had some great experiences with the hardware upgrades so far.  We still have lots of work to do though.  Over the next couple of weeks we will be phasing out older hardware and making plans for merges and additional hardware upgrades.

I understand if you can't or don't want to answer this.

I thought I'd ask if our old hardware is going to be used for EQ2X

I swear they already said EQ2X was getting its own new hardware.

Actually they said EQ2X was getting the servers vangaurd is no longer using which are newer the the older software we have on the other EQ2 servers.

[Barx]

Atan@Unrest wrote:

1) Can they now merge all PVP into one realm?2) Can they merge one of the low pop servers into AB?

Re #1: Vox is most likely to end up either with Bazaar or Nagafen.

Re #2: No. Merge low pop w/ low pop, now low pop with highest pop. The idea is to merge servers so that they have populations similar to AB, not merge them into AB.

[Yimway]

Barx@Antonia Bayle wrote:

Re #2: No. Merge low pop w/ low pop, now low pop with highest pop. The idea is to merge servers so that they have populations similar to AB, not merge them into AB.

I think thats may be an over simplification.

You've got a new server farm that has significantly more potential vs adding more less powerful blades to existing farms.

I think it may be unreasonable to suggest by increasing the blades currently on crushbone by 20% and just adding more old blades from AB's decomisioned hardware is going to somehow allow crushbone and oasis to be merged into a similar sized server equalling AB's population running on old hardware and expect the same performance.

I would first want to establish what my acceptable load limits are on my new platform. 

Consider the following that may be possible:1) Merge the lowest population same realm server into AB.  (I don't remember off hand which that is, but lets say its Guk)2) Take ALL the decomisioned Guk hardware and add it to the Unrest Cluster.3) Merge kithicor into the new doubled unrest cluster.4) Take Kithicor's equipment and merge it into the next and so on.

I don't have the utilization numbers on the new servers, but if they indicated liklihood of supporting merging more onto them, I would explore that first so that I had an indication of what they new hardware can reasonably support.

My fear is there may be global processes running on the servers that are impacted by the number of simultaneous users, and something specific to the new hardware architecture is allow this to scale better.  I would assume, if adding more old identical blades to AB would have fixed its lag issue previously, they would have done it much sooner.   My assumption here, is there is something limited in the legacy architecture that you can't just double the number of blades and double its user capacity.

I would not be surprised if it required new hardware for each new merged server group.  If growing those legacy clusters was as easy as you're assuming, I'd question why it hadn't been done a long time ago.

[LardLord]

I really hope removing the old hardware and merging servers doesn't undo this fix.

Remember how, on your end, you guys couldn't see the massive lag we were experiencing?  How do you plan to monitor it when you can't really see it?

[Barx]

Atan@Unrest wrote:

Barx@Antonia Bayle wrote:

Re #2: No. Merge low pop w/ low pop, now low pop with highest pop. The idea is to merge servers so that they have populations similar to AB, not merge them into AB.

I think thats may be an over simplification.

You've got a new server farm that has significantly more potential vs adding more less powerful blades to existing farms.

I think it may be unreasonable to suggest by increasing the blades currently on crushbone by 20% and just adding more old blades from AB's decomisioned hardware is going to somehow allow crushbone and oasis to be merged into a similar sized server equalling AB's population running on old hardware and expect the same performance.

I would first want to establish what my acceptable load limits are on my new platform. 

Consider the following that may be possible:1) Merge the lowest population same realm server into AB.  (I don't remember off hand which that is, but lets say its Guk)2) Take ALL the decomisioned Guk hardware and add it to the Unrest Cluster.3) Merge kithicor into the new doubled unrest cluster.4) Take Kithicor's equipment and merge it into the next and so on.

I don't have the utilization numbers on the new servers, but if they indicated liklihood of supporting merging more onto them, I would explore that first so that I had an indication of what they new hardware can reasonably support.

My fear is there may be global processes running on the servers that are impacted by the number of simultaneous users, and something specific to the new hardware architecture is allow this to scale better.  I would assume, if adding more old identical blades to AB would have fixed its lag issue previously, they would have done it much sooner.   My assumption here, is there is something limited in the legacy architecture that you can't just double the number of blades and double its user capacity.

I would not be surprised if it required new hardware for each new merged server group.  If growing those legacy clusters was as easy as you're assuming, I'd question why it hadn't been done a long time ago.

True that the older hardware may have some architecture that would make it perform less well with larger servers, but when they say their plan is to merge servers together to get AB-sized populations using the old hardware, I assume that they think it will work. The worst that would happen is they get an AB-sizd population and lag like AB, although given that the new super-server would have up to 2x the hardware I doubt that it would. More hardware should mean that they can spread zones out over more capacity. I doubt it will require entirely new hardware -- AB was working on a single servers worth of old hardware with that population. One of the things about lag is it's not a linear response; you get good performance up until you start hitting capacity, and then performace degrades rapidly as load increases after that. Because of that I would think that 2x the old hardware for a new AB-sized server from merges

Also as an aside: If they want to merge to get AB-sized servers, why would they merge something into AB? We already have quite a healthy population, the extra from any other server would be better put on another lower-population server.

As for why growing the old clusters hasn't happened until now -- I don't know if or how much capacity they've added over the years, or why they didn't add more until now.

[Anastasie]

It's definately not Guk - we have the highest number of HC raid guilds than any other server.  You can get an idea from the server pop page to see which servers are too low. Oasis is really hurting for population.

http://everquest2.com/_views/server...vm?type=Regular

[Gaige]

I'd imagine SOE's dream scenario is 3 legacy servers when the dust settles:

1 roleplay (AB), 1 pve (Unrest?) and 1 pvp (Nagafen) - then they'll do away with Livegamer altogether.

[Yimway]

Gaige wrote:

I'd imagine SOE's dream scenario is 3 legacy servers when the dust settles:

1 roleplay (AB), 1 pve (Unrest?) and 1 pvp (Nagafen) - then they'll do away with Livegamer altogether.

Longterm, I would agree.

[Rast]

I seriously doubt there will be a "RP" designated server when the dust settles, though I wouldn't be suprised with the conclusion of servers being 3/4

[Oakum]

Where are the statements that the merges are actually server merges and not hardware merges as in adding hardware to to servers.

If there are more upcoming server merges it would be nice to know. I really do not think I want to go to a "high" population server like what happened after the last server merge when faydark became befallen with a high population and people were pure ____(fill in the blank with whatever  your favorite bad word is) toward each other in lvl chat, quest mob stealing,  and ninja looting in PUGs of items they really didnt need for selling or alts without asking.

That was followed by a lot of people quiting the game that i knew at the time. The large population ruined their fun with thier inablility to get quest updates ect but some of us did stick around and put up with it of course while we waited for the inevitable drop off of server population to reasonable lvls.

If its not fun, why play?

[Nighrbringer]

Gaige wrote:

I'd imagine SOE's dream scenario is 3 legacy servers when the dust settles:

1 roleplay (AB), 1 pve (Unrest?) and 1 pvp (Nagafen) - then they'll do away with Livegamer altogether.

If I wanted to play on a server with AB's population, I would be playing on AB. I am perfectly content with the population levels on my current server.

All I have ever received from server merges in other games is heartache and trouble, with loss of names that I have used since game launch being at the top of the list.

[TheSpin]

Jalathan@Antonia Bayle wrote:

I seriously doubt there will be a "RP" designated server when the dust settles, though I wouldn't be suprised with the conclusion of servers being 3/4

Well... since one of the two truly high pop servers is RP....   I doubt this to be the case.   Unless they open up all servers for free transfers like they did in previous merges and there is a big move to get off of antonia bayle.

Most people on AB don't RP, but it's still a good thing to have because it at least groups all the RPers together, which makes for much better RP.

[Writer Cal]

Update:  Tox and Labs, minimal lag.  There was the occasional casting lag of only half a sec to a sec at most during the raid, but nothing more.  Still a huge improvement.  I hope performance doesn't go down with continued changes, because it's just about right for now.

Thanks, Rothgar!

[LardLord]

Yeah, huge improvement, but there is still some lag.  It's not a big deal at all compared to what we had in the past, but I don't get the feeling that AB could handle a significant increase in population without the server lagging again.

[Sydares]

Quabi@Antonia Bayle wrote:

Yeah, huge improvement, but there is still some lag.

This. The upgrade we received did eliminate a LOT of the lag, and it's by no means unplayable. But there are still hiccups of 1/2 - 1 second lag that are irritating when they occur. What confuses me is that even with a lower lag environment, the Ranger ability "Coverage" still can take 5-6 seconds to drop you into stealth despite its instant cast time. I'd always attributed that to server lag. I guess not so much.

[Neskonlith]

I wonder how many servers will be merged into the new AB before the lag returns to an unplayable level, as it makes sense for SOE to consolidate as much as possible since the incoming EQ2x diversion of new accounts will likely leave Legacy servers withering over time.

[Caethre]

(( Antonia Bayle is a RP server. Every player on it, chose it either because, like me, they specifically wanted to play on a roleplay server, or because they didn't mind that it was the RP server and chose it for its "personality", or more recently, just for its population. All such players in either of these categories have as individuals chosen to create or move characters to a server they knew was tagged as RP, whatever their reasons, and have been welcome.

Personally, I can't see SOE merging the (very popular) RP server with a dieing normal-blue-server. If server hardware continues to improve and/or populations dwindle, and merges become possible (or even likely) with the largest server, it would be far more logical to merge AB with LDL at that point, retaining a single RP server. Let the less popular non-RP servers merge with eachother.

Obviously if we ever reach the point where there are only 2 or 3 PVE servers left and SOE wanted to merge those, this argument would become moot at that point, as the game would be dieing. But that is not where we are now. ))

[Laenai]

Quabi@Antonia Bayle wrote:

Yeah, huge improvement, but there is still some lag.  It's not a big deal at all compared to what we had in the past, but I don't get the feeling that AB could handle a significant increase in population without the server lagging again.

^^^^^

The lack of massive lag is fantastic.

However, there's still enough latency that the release of Velious will be another disaster in lag for our server.

And please don't merge anyone into us or it'll go back to being what it was.

[Gungo]

Having a toon on AB I agree the population level of Anotnia bayle should not be increased at this time. Maybe in the future LDL could be merged into AB but right now it is not recommended unless you plan on adding additional servers to AB to offset the gain of the merge with LDL. The other servers are badly in need of a server upgrade and merges should be made to make the other servers up to the population levels of AB or the AB-LDL merger. Right now I know crushbone is having tremendous amounts of lag especially in outside contested zones and in the underfoot raid instance.

I would love to know the plan on when these servers would be upgraded and what the plan is for server mergers.

[Steinbeck]

Rothgar wrote:

I'm very glad to hear you guys had some great experiences with the hardware upgrades so far.  We still have lots of work to do though.  Over the next couple of weeks we will be phasing out older hardware and making plans for merges and additional hardware upgrades.

So, with nothing really pertaining to me as a level 90 raider with this current GU, when can we expect those server upgrades and merges that were spoken about?  I'm really in need of something to be optimistic about 

[Notask]

Greetings, Gamers

I know this is the wrong forum to feedback my opinions but the Antonia Bayle server is the server that I haved played on for more then 4 years. I am currently a guild leader of one of the major guilds. The reason I'm typing this is I have noticed that the player base is really getting bad and the gradual decline of Everquest 2 is making me sad. Every one is either keeping to them selves or boxing their characters. Players and not wanting to form groups and if they are they are paying for their so called, "power leveling service." Guilds are having trouble maintaining a large enough player base to raid harder content. I know that the new expansion is approaching and that the player base usually goes go down. I have some suggestions and opinions that might help eliminate some issues.

 

How do we get players to want to group with each other instead of soloeing? 

 

1.  The way the game is currently designed the more players you have in a group the less experience the group gets. That needs to be swithced around. Either encourage players to want to group or expect players to solo play and not want to get into harder group content. Increasing the experience gain for each additional group member in a group is a priority in my opinion for survival of this game.  This will encourage players group more with other players and also to box more accounts. That means more money to help support the games future. 
2. Platinum and loot runs through old and new world content should be increased in the amount of based on how many players are in a group or raid.  As an example, players that one group x2 raid zones should see a decrease in plat and item drops by 50% as to a full x2 raid should see a bonus to platinum and also loot drops. Players need to be encouraged to always try and get a bonus for grouping.
3. Raid zones should have a set number of players required to enter. x4 Raid zones should be set at 12 players and x2 should be set at 6 players. Players that have saved timers are allowed to zone back into those zones with out the penalty of having a 6 player requirement. Yes, this does sound like a pain if players are trying to zone some one besides them self into a zone for a quest update. Players that can't do the raid zones should try and join a guild or be encouraged to improve on their chracter so they can do those raid zones.
4.  I see more players with out guild tags nowa days. Their response is, "what's the point of a guild?" I tell them to group and socialize with one another and try to help progress the guild on their mission. Players need to to know that having a guild is a benifit to them. There is so many guilds that make the player base of other good guilds go down its sad.(1) Guilds should not be allowed to level up past a certain set point with out the set player population and or status. If players leave the guild, "the guild could loose a level."
5. Guild halls help out in a way but can also be one of the turning points in why less players socialize with one another. Before guild halls got released, the meeting points for players were at taverns across Norrath. Zones were packed full of players from all sorts of guilds communicating in /say /ooc sending tells to one another. That does not happen any more. The citys are dead and are only there for new players coming to the game and saying to them selves were are all the players? Remember, the Antonia Bayle server is a RP server. Were are all the role players?
6. Advertising is also a major problem.  I have seen no advertising at all on television, radio, the internet or the news except for when a player killed them selves a few years back over Everquest 1. Everquest 2 is a great game. It has good graphics, and excellent game play. Start advertising the game to help encourage growth. In my opnion, the developers do not care about this game or their jobs. They dont care about making money other then getting a quick fix from players. So in return over the next few years we shall see servers merging and the population decline. Less content for the buck and more station cash items to support the less income coming from the players monthly subscriptions. This game will eventually go to free to play.
7. Stations Cash "Market Place" is another downside to the game but also a plus to the cash flow to SoE. I know that station cash is one of the major funding factors to keeping this game moving.(1) I beleave that every station cash apearance item, potion, pretty much every thing except for the major Station Cash items like race change potions, character server transfers should be able to be player made. Most of the stuff available on the market place is appreanace or house items. Let the crafters be able to make the Station Market Place items with the optional store to buy those items if players cannot afford players to craft the items. (2) Players are playing for free with the expense of others paying for station cash cards for the price of platinum. It's hilarious that players can pretty much play this game for free now. Station cash cards cost about 250-350 plat. That amount can pay for a monthly subscription. Station Cash is all about profit. It's sad that its so transparent that the developers dont see the negative side to the Station Cash Market Place or they just dont care and only care about profits and not the players that play the game. 
8. Dungeon Finder is a great idea but it is not working properly and discourages grouping and players queing up. For example, I was qued up on one of my alts sitting around 200 crit mit at level 90 to all the DoV dungeons with 2 other players last night for about 2 hours, while in the process of trying to find a tank and also healer in open chat. I spent most my time with those 2 other players chatting on Vent discussing problems with the game and how to improve on them. (1) The Dungeon Finder needs to be opened up to other servers. (2) 15 minute timers for player lockouts need to be removed. Sometimes players make mistakes and on what pick and should not get a penalty. I have had some guild members and my self with bad luck getting those lockouts zoning into cleared zones. (3) One of my officers sat 17 hours in a dungeon finder que with out getting a hit for an instance, "he has a screen shot."
9. Guild Hall Harvesters should have a chance for rares. When the harvesters return from going out collecting raws the person that clicks on the harvesters should have a chance of getting a rare from the guild harvesters. This will encourage players to use the guild harvesters more.
10. Mentoring players should get a bonus not a penalty. I have noticed when higher levels mentor other players that they get a less experience. That needs to be changed to a bonus to higher levels mentoring down to lower levels to encourage higher levels mentoring.

This post is based off my opinions and the help of others from my guild. I want to say thanks for your time in reading and hopefully some information will bring some inspiration to the future game content. I hope that this post gives enough feedback to create a forum for game improvements. I would like to see some responses and opinions of players to help make Everquest 2 a better game.

Regards, PoR Guild Leader

[feldon30]

Notask wrote:

x4 Raid zones should be set at 12 players and x2 should be set at 6 players

Guilds should not be allowed to level up past a certain set point with out the set player population and or status. If players leave the guild, "the guild could loose a level."

Forcing player behavior is never the answer.

[Xenxex]

#2 & 3 is a great way to get people to lose further interest in the game. So they sell loot, big deal. Tons of people benefit from it not just the ones(like me admittedly) who fill their pockets. Tons of people arent able to put the time to raid or have to afk intermittedly often.

#6 is a constant reminder that i dont think anyone is in charge or SoE's marketing or they are just very bad at marketing and PR. They tend to do everything at the last minute in a very lackluster fashion, and things are often leaked elsewhere before the playerbase even knows about it.

#8 X-server or bust.

#7 Kinda neat to let the players add items to Market Place for players to buy with their own SC/Plat. +1

[Skeeter630]

feldon30 wrote:

Notask wrote:

x4 Raid zones should be set at 12 players and x2 should be set at 6 players

Guilds should not be allowed to level up past a certain set point with out the set player population and or status. If players leave the guild, "the guild could loose a level."

Forcing player behavior is never the answer.

How is this forcing behavior?  This is encouraging participation.  Or have we forgotten what MMORPG stood for?  EQ2 has turned into a solo fest with a flame chatroom built in.  We need to shift the focus back on the grouping and raiding aspect instead of who can make the most plat in an hour.  I have played several MMOs over my years as a gamer, and I have seen a lot of those die out.  The reasons were always varied, but the primary reason was almost always the shift to players being able to solo endgame content or solo farm massive amounts of whatever in-game currency that is in place.  Once you destroy the economy, you destroy the competative drive in the game, which ultimately destroys the game itself.  Encouraging players to actually interact with each other is the essence of MMO's, and will be the only thing that will save this otherwise incredible game.  OK, flamers and trolls, you have the floor.  Ready, set, GO!

[Ragefighter]

Skeeter630 wrote:

feldon30 wrote:

Notask wrote:

x4 Raid zones should be set at 12 players and x2 should be set at 6 players

Guilds should not be allowed to level up past a certain set point with out the set player population and or status. If players leave the guild, "the guild could loose a level."

Forcing player behavior is never the answer.

How is this forcing behavior?  This is encouraging participation.  Or have we forgotten what MMORPG stood for?  EQ2 has turned into a solo fest with a flame chatroom built in.  We need to shift the focus back on the grouping and raiding aspect instead of who can make the most plat in an hour.  I have played several MMOs over my years as a gamer, and I have seen a lot of those die out.  The reasons were always varied, but the primary reason was almost always the shift to players being able to solo endgame content or solo farm massive amounts of whatever in-game currency that is in place.  Once you destroy the economy, you destroy the competative drive in the game, which ultimately destroys the game itself.  Encouraging players to actually interact with each other is the essence of MMO's, and will be the only thing that will save this otherwise incredible game.  OK, flamers and trolls, you have the floor.  Ready, set, GO!

how about in stead of saying make all x4 raids doable with 12 people just add a little more x2 content??

the meaning of x4 is that it takes 4 groups (idealy) to do it.

I would love to see more x2 zones.  it is a good starting place and if your guild lacks population or a core group of 20+ raiders of the required class balence than x2 zones are great.  maybe even throw in an x3 zone! I like the tofs zone and drunder x2 but the tofs zone is doable with like 3 well geared players now and drunder is getting there too.

but by all means keep making x4 zones as thats where i like to be =]

the problem is there are so many ways to mass farm coin.  I got a few people in my guild who got well over 20K plat and (to me thats just insane but they have been playing since the begining and there is absolutly no real reason to use plat in a hardcore raid guild that uses DKP bids based on attendance.)

that being said I am not saying make us pay plat to open chests!!

there needs to be a market for plat to be spent that removes it from circulation.  kind of like how station marketplace works but allow for players to exchange excess amounts of plat for unique goods.  I would say add a merchant to the monthly "fair" events that sells a random assortment of SC goods or other desired items each month.  this kind of market should mainly be geared towards appearance items or maybe consumable items.  not actual gear that is used over ingame items.  If something looks cool I am willing to bet someone would throw down 100p for it.

ALSO important is the fact that items sold by this kind of merchant should be heirloom, so the items do not overrun the broker...

IDK thats just my 2 copper,  now to log in for raid =p

[Shotneedle]

Requiring 12 players to zone into an x4 would just be an annoyance. People zoning into x4s to sell loot can field 12 accounts between 6 people anyway.

Mentoring players getting an xp bonus would just lead to even faster power leveling.

Making easymodes x2s and hardmodes x4s would encourage players to join better guilds.

[SOE-MOD-08]

Please do not bump dated threads.  Thank you.