Too crowded, need more servers

Hoylegu · April 2014

Hi all,

Everything is too crowded. The one "megaserver" idea is great for PvP, but horrible for PvE. First I thought it was just that everyone was young and in Stonefalls. But then I found it equally as crowded in Dashaan. I'm 20 now, almost half way through the PvE content, and EVERY mob is ganked, every public dungeon is bursting at the seems, leaving no mobs to kill, every boss is camped horribly. It's just sad. What's the fun in 20 people ganking a mob in a fraction of a second while running to the boss? The same applies to quest mobs above ground.

The game sure would be a lot more fun if you took all of these people and spread them out over many servers. That way I could maybe duo with my wife, or team up with a few guildies to enjoy the PvE content. But now, everything's just a race to get in one shot before the mob dies.

Hoylegu.

Saerydoth · April 2014

They ARE spread out over many servers. That's how the megaserver works. It creates/destroys "instances" of the game depending on population, to keep the world population (fairly) constant. Maybe in some really crowded areas it could ust a little adjustment, to tone down population a little bit.

But the fact that you can log out when a quest isn't working, and log back in to find it working, means that you have switched "instances". So there is definitely more than one.

Sharee · April 2014

The people actually are spread out. There are multiple instances of every area, each holding only limited amount of players.

I know it because it sometimes happens that i enter game, find out my friend is playing, we group, try to meet, and realize we are invisible to each other(each in a different instance). So one of us has to use the 'travel to friend' option so the server puts us both in the same instance.

But yes. Less people per instance would probably be better.

Saerydoth · April 2014

Exactly. The OP's "suggestion" for how to handle it is already being done. It just needs to be fine tuned a little. I think they need to adjust downward the population cap of an area before it's split into more instances. This is just fine tuning though.

Woenprom · April 2014

Support.
Creating more less-crowded shards will make the game much better.

freedompurveyor · April 2014

I haven't gotten as far as many, but so far I think the population is pretty good. I come from playing another MMO where our server had an abysmally low population, so I feel like this is working very well.

SMW1980b14a_ESO · April 2014

I wish places like banks and tradeskill stations had a much smaller population limit. Tired of wading through an ocean of players to find the NPC.

Saerydoth · April 2014

freedompurveyor wrote: »

I haven't gotten as far as many, but so far I think the population is pretty good. I come from playing another MMO where are server had an abysmally low population, so I feel like this is working very well.

It's close. It's a very fine line they have to walk here. If they let the world get too empty it's going to feel dead. When people crowd into a small area, it gives the impression of much more of a crowd than there actually is. I still agree that they might need to tone down population just a *tiny* bit. But not much.

circilion · April 2014

Agreed, some of the starter areas feel crowded. trimming down the instance pop would be awesome. but whatever, its not like I feel crushed. There are bigger issues to bug out first before tackling this IMO.

Saerydoth · April 2014

SMW1980b14a_ESO wrote: »

I wish places like banks and tradeskill stations had a much smaller population limit. Tired of wading through an ocean of players to find the NPC.

Turn nameplates on for players. It really helps, trust me.

felixgamingx1 · April 2014

Saerydoth wrote: »

They ARE spread out over many servers. That's how the megaserver works. It creates/destroys "instances" of the game depending on population, to keep the world population (fairly) constant. Maybe in some really crowded areas it could ust a little adjustment, to tone down population a little bit.

But the fact that you can log out when a quest isn't working, and log back in to find it working, means that you have switched "instances". So there is definitely more than one.

Is that why when I join a group I have to tele to them in order to see them!?

Saerydoth · April 2014

felixgamingx1 wrote: »

Saerydoth wrote: »

They ARE spread out over many servers. That's how the megaserver works. It creates/destroys "instances" of the game depending on population, to keep the world population (fairly) constant. Maybe in some really crowded areas it could ust a little adjustment, to tone down population a little bit.

But the fact that you can log out when a quest isn't working, and log back in to find it working, means that you have switched "instances". So there is definitely more than one.

Is that why when I join a group I have to tele to them in order to see them!?

Yes. That means you are on a different server from them. Teleport to them places you on their server. The "megaserver" is not one server. It's a bunch of servers just like WOW or any other MMO. It's just your character is not fixed on a server like it is in those, it can freely move among them as population demands.

Blizzard is actually trying to build something like the megaserver for WOW now with cross realm zones. But Zenimax is technologically FAR ahead of them in this regard.

kirrasha · April 2014

A workaround for this crowded feel at quest objectives, is to make quest objectives spawned individualy (sp?) for each player, instead of being free for all.

Sure, competetion is not a bad thing, but this is too much old school way of doing things.
Seeing 30 players run around like headless chickens, trying to outrun eachother just to get that quest item...

Hell, a I stood for half an hour just watching quest objectives spawn and dissappear within seconds, during a quest in The Rift, something with burning corpses.
I took note of just 4 corpses, when they spawned and it what order. Then camped right where the first of the 4 would spawn and spammed E.
Thats how I got it done.

Or how about the, kill 12 bunnies within 1 min with the use of a specific bow only, quest...
Yeah, try do that with 20 others trying to do the same thing. I only barely managed it at 3:30 am in the night.

SuperScrubby · April 2014

Yeah that's why. I personally like seeing a sprawling zone. I too have played games that were ghost towns and made it very boring. Even if I'm doing solo content seeing other people run around me makes me feel like I'm actually playing an MMO.

hamburgalers · April 2014

I agree with the original poster. Way, way, way too many people per instance (and yes I'm sure he understands their are multiple instances, its just each is far too crowded). As others have said, it's not fun watching 30 other people kill every mob in sight and just walking through each quest without actually doing anything. I'm level 25 and I've rarely had to fight anything, and never get to fight bosses since they are always being camped.

If there were multiple servers I could switch to a low or medium pop server, but their isn't, so essentially the mega server forces everyone into a high pop server (which many people do not like).

For me this is far more important than any "bug", if the crowding issue isn't fixed I'm unsubscribing before the free period ends.

ImmortalElensar · April 2014

Only places that I have seen to be over crowded have been in the crafting area. Blacksmith mainly as you also have the Light/Medium Armor crafting in the same spot. Also the bank, it seems to be very easy to lose track of the banker in the sea of players sometimes.

Also to note, I have never seen 30 people surrounding a boss. Sure I've seen upwards of 10, my advice start a conversation, no doubt some are there probably for the reason of bosses seem the best supply of Soul Gems. As I said in a previous thread what would ruin it for me is if I ran into actual bots such as someone maybe playing on a multiple computer setup to run more than one account.

christian.griffinb16_ESO · April 2014

While they actually ARE already spread out between instances, I agree that they need to be spread out even MORE. For a while I was actually a lower level than I should have been because I was missing out on killing all the mobs in these quests.

Moonraker · April 2014

SMW1980b14a_ESO wrote: »

I wish places like banks and tradeskill stations had a much smaller population limit. Tired of wading through an ocean of players to find the NPC.

I agree.

It also creates a lot more lag and demand on the computer especially during this launch period, tends to diminish immersion with 30 other standing still like zombies around one bank teller, and there is a lot of places in game where they could provide at least a limited set of facilities.

Main thing is they need to at least give the option to access the bank in 2-3 places through a zone would spread it out more. Nothing grand.

There are crafting stations dotted around and that's great. The problem is I have to go to main city every few quests just to process and store materials in the one bank.

michaelpatrickjonesnub18_ESO · April 2014

20 people standing around an anvil, like vultures on a dead deer.

jamesharv2005ub17_ESO · April 2014

I cant believe people are complaining about having lots of players in the game. Isnt that what we want?

Tabbycat · April 2014

jamesharv2005ub17_ESO wrote: »

I cant believe people are complaining about having lots of players in the game. Isnt that what we want?

Not when it prevents you from completing quests or dungeons.

Utildai · April 2014

Not to mention the fact your only about 1/6th of the way through the PVE content, not almost 1/2 of the way through. Once you hit 50, the other two faction's zone open up... FYI.

kameekazee · April 2014

more Pvp Campaigns would be nice though

rawne1980b16_ESO · April 2014

kameekazee wrote: »

more Pvp Campaigns would be nice though

Why would that be needed?

Only a couple of the EU ones are full and the rest are horribly unbalanced.

The 3 full ones have decent PvP going for them but the rest are all full yellow maps.

We need less campaigns in the EU to fill the empty ones up and balance things out a bit more.

jorill · April 2014

I love threads like these. EVERY mmo has this problem. TOOO MANY People NEED MORE SERVERS!!!! A month later. NOT ENOUGH PEOPLE!!!! NEED LESS SERVERS!!!!

jamesharv2005ub17_ESO · April 2014

Tabbycat wrote: »

jamesharv2005ub17_ESO wrote: »

I cant believe people are complaining about having lots of players in the game. Isnt that what we want?

Not when it prevents you from completing quests or dungeons.

What dungeon is it keeping you from completeing?

7788b14_ESO · April 2014

I ran through a public dungeon today and didn't kill one mob. There were so many players they were dead when I got to different parts of the dungeon. I'm in groups of people waiting for that one item to spawn to complete a quest. Some quests give completion to everyone who tags it, some do not.

Actually once that free month is up me thinks there will be room.

Reblosch · April 2014

Well the actual point is that multiplayer gameplay in this game is more often a nuisance rather than a fun feature...

murklor007neb18_ESO · April 2014

Its been a couple of weeks, why wouldnt all areas be crowded, lol? Population with spread out more as the average level go up. Seeing as there is no scaling in the game and pointless to return to old zones, ultimately what we got is Cyrodiil, adventure zones and veteran content. And neither would be bad to have crowded.

Primalsteam · April 2014

Hoylegu wrote: »

Hi all,

The one "megaserver" idea is great for PvP, but horrible for PvE.

Actually, PvP does NOT use a "megaserver." It is a traditional sharded set-up. The campaigns are your shards.

Hoylegu wrote: »

First I thought it was just that everyone was young and in Stonefalls. But then I found it equally as crowded in Dashaan.

Does it not occur to you that the crowding IS because so many people are leveling, and that as you leveled out of Stonefalls so did the other folks you were running around with? Of course it would be just as crowded in Deshaan.

The key is that the instance you're in is set up to host a certain number of players. Right now, there's a disproportionately large number of these players in the first few zones. Later on this will not the be the case. I'd bet ZOS is going to want things to reach a final equilibrium before they start "tweaking."

spesimen · April 2014

I have to say I completely agree with the original poster. All quest areas and dungeons are just crammed with people. It also seems to have gotten worse after the friday 18. maintenance. I think they need to tune the "instancing" a bit so that there are a little less people in each area.

The way it currently is it kind of ruins the immersion for me. Every single mob fight anywhere is swiftly joined by 2-3 other players roaming the area. There just is no challenge in swarming everything. Finding a lower populated area or server is also not an option..

Perhaps it gets better after some time. Currently it seems to get worse in each new area I enter.