Final Merge, Server Transfers, and Other Servers.

[FirepowahQQ]

You'll probably loose a lot of the PvE population (any estimate here would be a shot in the fog) and thus much of the cashflow.

Being a so-called carebear myself, I don't care much for the PvP mentality of insulting and denigrading both opposing and fellow combatants.
My ignore list would just grow by a mile, but I foresee many would just up and leave, not wanting to be farmed by PvPers who have had years of experience while they have none. No one enjoys being farmed and to boot insulted about their lack of PvP skills afterwards.

Look at the numbers. Only the PvE server has a healthy population, on the US side at least. There is a reason for that, and that's the reason, I personally believe, a super PvP server will never happen, no matter what Hyboria is supposed to be like, in your personal opinion.

There is also a reason why PvP servers are empty and i am pretty sure even Funcom knows it yet they ignore facts

[K4nnyc]

With the ultimate and final merger between the two biggest servers in AoC about to take place, the question of what will become of the other servers comes into question.

Invariably, everyone will be given 1 free server transfer. This will probably lead to the death of Tyranny (if it isn't already completely dead) and Rage (or whatever the EU PvP servers called).Thus,

+ Do you believe it will still be fair for new players to create characters on a dead server? (and discover theres more PvP on the PvE servers.)

+ Do you think its more reasonable to fold B&G, and the PvP servers. Add a PvP Flag system on the PvE servers and merge ALL servers into one super server?

Discuss.

They have been working on this merge for over a year. To carry out the merger they moved the EU servers to the USA.

If you think they will change their plans now you are completely insane.

The servers will merge, most people on Fury will move their chars to Crom, leaving a few on Fury ofc, just in case..

Rage is Rage, the people that play there would have left already if they wanted to, its been super low population for all but the first 3 months of its life.

Tyranny and Set are the same as Crom and Fury. No difference imho. Most will leave a char on Tyranny and move to Set/Crom.

This is whats going to happen. Not some 5 year old dream about pvp flagging...

[Chaman-bourru]

Being a so-called carebear myself, I don't care much for the PvP mentality of insulting and denigrading both opposing and fellow combatants.
My ignore list would just grow by a mile, but I foresee many would just up and leave, not wanting to be farmed by PvPers who have had years of experience while they have none. No one enjoys being farmed and to boot insulted about their lack of PvP skills afterwards.

This is a loud minority. Always the same that go emo and whine. Always the same who spam global with "elitst" stuff. Sure there is a little (okay... big for some) ego contest with some harmless (i find) teasing but if you've got enough sence of humour it rarely gets out of proportions and you can actually make friends !

Now, if they decided to keep one server with PvP ruleset it would only be possible with a complete change of how guards and criminality system works.
I played for a long time on PvP-RP servers and all in all... they were PvE servers with PvP ruleset. Worked pretty well.

Today on PvP servers, it's almost impossible to get ganked a lot. The only places it can eventually be annoying is at Hyrkanian or Wolves quest givers. But then again, usually big noobs do that, problem solved by calling a friend and questing in groupes rather than solo.
It works like this: Gankers alone, hard to retaliate so bringing a squad of PvPers from your guild won't work. But grouping up with a friend or two will most likely put you out of harms way.
Gankers in groupe, grouping with friends isn't always enough but ! It's easier to retaliate and if you bring a squad of PvPers from your guild there's a good chance it escalates and makes it fun for them (and while they are fighting you can go back to questing if you're not into pvp at all).

Makes guild life more intresting in my opinion... but i doubt i'll have convinced you ^^

Look at the numbers. Only the PvE server has a healthy population, on the US side at least.

Many things have to be taken in consideraton here and it hasn't always been like that. I remember a time where PvP servers where overall more populated then PvE ones. But still... like you i doubt a PvP server will ever come. No worries.

Not fond either of the flag system. Kind of feels useless and diminishs the use of a good guild.

[Pondtus]

They have been working on this merge for over a year. To carry out the merger they moved the EU servers to the USA.

If you think they will change their plans now you are completely insane.

The servers will merge, most people on Fury will move their chars to Crom, leaving a few on Fury ofc, just in case..

Rage is Rage, the people that play there would have left already if they wanted to, its been super low population for all but the first 3 months of its life.

Tyranny and Set are the same as Crom and Fury. No difference imho. Most will leave a char on Tyranny and move to Set/Crom.

This is whats going to happen. Not some 5 year old dream about pvp flagging...

QFT

/10char

[Foxcat]

Look at the numbers. Only the PvE server has a healthy population, on the US side at least. There is a reason for that, and that's the reason, I personally believe, a super PvP server will never happen, no matter what Hyboria is supposed to be like, in your personal opinion.

Even though a bit out of context I'd like to note that EU servers was moved to US despite the population numbers, giving much higher latency to the majority of the AoC population.

It didn't result in a mass migration from AoC. Sure there was a lot of worries before hand and some of the best PVP'ers really feel the latency made their game a lot less enjoyable.

Just as I recon a lot of PVE'ers would worry up front of how life would be on a PVP server. But really, it isn't that bad, it just adds an extra dimension to the rather static PVE gameplay grind. I'm sure most PVE'ers who think life on a PVP server must be horrible would realize that it isn't, and definately not worth quitting over.

[Lleilwin]

Just as I recon a lot of PVE'ers would worry up front of how life would be on a PVP server. But really, it isn't that bad, it just adds an extra dimension to the rather static PVE gameplay grind. I'm sure most PVE'ers who think life on a PVP server must be horrible would realize that it isn't, and definately not worth quitting over.

Makes guild life more intresting in my opinion... but i doubt i'll have convinced you ^^

Not really, but the discussion is valid

What you both forget, I think, is that the majority of PvEers rarely if ever PvP. They don't know the mechanics, keyboard-turn and remain static targets.
In short, farm material.

Yes, they/we can learn but it will take a lot more than knowing the basics in order to feel that a fight against either a natural sense for PvP or a 5-year weight of experience is anywhere close to a fun experience.

Noobs have a steep learning curve they have to overcome and I've seen too many trying to learn the ropes of PvP and giving up because their selfconfidence got flattened by their own so-called teammates. I doubt that would be different in the unlikely event AoC would become an all-out PvP game.
Yes, it is a minority that speaks, yet it is only the minority that speaks, so we loose potential PvPers and gain more global and forum QQ about how minis don't pop.

You could both be right, of course, but I do have my doubts, though.

[K4nnyc]

A super pvp server will never work in aoc. Putting it bluntly, there are too many things wrong with pvp for it to work. And funcom dont have the money/devs/balls to fix it and make it work. I could list all the things wrong with pvp here for you but it's been said many times before!

When this merger comes Crom will be the place to play.
The PvErs will just have to use their ignore function to blot out the mungs from global.

Then its business as usual

[-tomhet-]

Nah, i would play GW instead of AoC if it comes for this quick fix solution

Hyboria was created for brutal killing, not some pussy carebear hugging like PvE servers are

Border kingdoms were bad idea from start point. They are just cheap copies of other trash areas with no creativity whatsoever. Should be removed completly and move sieges to normal play areas like Khopself and Fields of the Dead

Also people exploit this just like they do with bori,KK and t4. They gear themselves in carebear land then they land to PvP areas with max geared characters, absolutely no go. Like example Fury's russian top guilds never even touch PvP unless they are fully KK geared with t4 raid weapons. Wohoo, i grind skill

first off majority of world pvp is a stalker party or solo player who focuses easiest prey possible.

at low lvl's a guy doing his quests middle of fight is primary target; and this being major reason why so many who tried game left or moved to pve servers right at tortage.

at lvl80 in kithai its almost same deal your questing and invariably some ranger stuns you from a mile away and kills you before you can reach him.

its highly popular at least in eu to use kesh oasis as a duel spot and lots of people congregate there where they happily hug the guards while doing their global epeen contest, truth is some just prey on duels to taunt them and then run to guards, others boast alot and then just run to guards instead of fighting and when killed 3-4 times leave zone.

and that is fury.

on my old server aquilonia wasnt that much diferent except guild rivalry was real and it promoted lots of hatefull/fun squirmishs in open world, where a guildie getting atacked while trying to quest or trying to reach an instance would sprant a good fight.
also some rp-pvp events existed along side "normal" rp.
that died with aquilonia and rest of other rp-pvp servers wich should have been merged together not with fury.

highlights, open world pvp inst consensual, and good part of it revolves fighting near guards wich are easily exploited to ruin pvp.

given that reality why is it so terrible that you rework epic instances to be pvp instances instead with the following:
.pvp armor+aa's given on entrance of instance like unchained minigames wich are promised
.double rewards from every quest completed in the zone
.no guards anywhere
.limiting to lvl's entering to avoid having lvl80's in low lvl areas farming lowbies
this would fix consensuality issues and provide at same time incentive for people to quest in open world.

reguarding border kingdoms and sieges to say the least they are underused.
why is it terrible to rework them to have something along these lines
.player would join 1 of 3 sides and fight for battlekeeps

.groups of 6 wouldnt get disbanded and would get randomly added to one of the 3 sides trying to balance out sides, something like 36 players max on each side and excedent turned to disbanded duets, and if too many leave one side algorithm should swap 6man groups to teams with less people

.only the 3 teams can fight or defend battlekeep and claim towers

.solo players or duets can enter zone but cant compete for
battlekeeps only harrass them, outside of the 3 teams

.shrines of bori capture points be capturable by the 3 teams and instead of altars have towers with a balista on top(no more sacrificing pve materials delete that pve nonsense)

.players would drop unbound items from personal inventory, have some pvp materials needed for battlekeep fights dropable upon death

.pyre system expanded to all 3 zones for ungrouped solo players and duets to sacrifice body parts from the harrassment they do to teams.

.all battlekeeps with t1 lvl (maybe reduce size a little to have only inner walls, no outerwalls)

.all of team players get as prime objective capture towers and battlekeeps for asure pvp xp gain only when there is an oposite team fighting them and walls are being rebuild or destroyed

.inside the keep a vendor selling his reconstruction services in exchange for pvp points gained by maintaining controll of bk&towers by team or destroying them

.special vendors to hire npc merceneries lvl80 epic mobs to man the walls in exchange for pvp points

.all players entering get quest to kill players from oposite teams and sacrifice 10 body parts in pyres.

.players be allowed to use kithai pets in zone

.rangers not allowed to use track, disable tracking

.everyone entering have all aa's available+pvpt2 set

why not having a chaotic 3 warzones wich could accomodate all instead of what we have?

but i also agree that making certain open world places capturable would be great incentive for open world pvp.

[KullOfValusia]

An option/button for [PvP] when entering a zone is the best decision for Age Of Conan.

When we merge, we will all be given free transfers between the PvP servers and the single merged PvE server. Tyranny is done. I still know many on tyranny who decided to not transfer the last time and are now kicking themselves as they currently play a single player game. They will probably not risk missing the boat again thinking Fury might save their open world pvp. They will not make the same mistake twice.

The Tyranny equivalent for EU (Fury?) will be best advised to also transfer their toons to the single merged pve server. Unless, Fury is healthy, in which case stay.
However, if all the PvP you see on Fury is minis and sieges, come to the merged pve server you'll see a lot more action and you pvpers will be more happy for it, no more 30 minute waits for minis to pop.


P.S. one more thing. Has anyone thought about how the game will change in terms of feel. I mean, I know most of the end game 80's on Set, it really feels like a community although I despise half that community lol. BUT, once we merge with Crom and pretty much triple our population all in one go... its gonna get real crazy IMO. The lag , the fight for resources, and the drama is gonna get CRAZY. OT will feel overcrowded and I fear the latency is gonna become nuts. Oh well.

[Kellaxe]

I think the ONLY way that the PVP and PVE servers can co-exhist is to offer what both want. Open world PVP, and open world PVE.

That is PVE's do not want open world PVP. They want to explore, quest and fight NPC's in peace. That being said, having several zones that are open world PVP might be enough to appease the PVP'ers as long as there is also a reason to be in those zones (Objectives, PVP quests, no guards in these zones, etc...) The border regions, city/resource zones would give several open PVP zones to accommodate this, but again, it needs to be more than just offering open PVP in those zones. Maybe each zone is a different tier of PVP (I.E. Lacheish planes is 70-80, Poitain 50-69, etc...) so that you could find open world PVP at any level, not just end game. maybe if you enter one of these zones, it scales you to the level of the zone?? Just some thoughts...

The biggest thing is that FC would be asking the PVP'ers to compromise, but the alternative is to have their very own dead server, or they could be on a server full of life with limited PVP zones, but a reason for people to be in those zones...

I would take it over a dead server. Imagine if everyone were on one server. Mini's would pop 24/7 in all tiers, the PVP zones would be very active. No guards means no guard hugging or exploiting, and if you enter those zones, beware...you are red to all!

FC really has a chance to do this right by implementing such a server...I just doubt they would do it. PVP'ers just need top be on board with PVP that FC could actually implenet rather than the pipe dream of a robust active open world PVP server...which is never going to happen. I want PVP, so if this kind of plan could offer it, and allow us to co-exhist on the same server...sign me up.