Daoc server clustering live next week.

[eldaec]

Previous threads have discussed how daoc are planning to merge the frontiers of low population servers; and allow people on these servers to travel to the pve zones of the other servers in their cluster. This will have a significant impact on large raids and ToA.

The herald now has a post up explaining that it will go live next week.

The ability to put a frown on the tiny group of pixels that nobody ever sees but which represents your character's face, has been delayed to make way for this. Oh the humanity.

Specifics on the detail are as follows...

Traveling to a Clustered Server

 - In order to travel between servers, we have added new Channeler NPCs to each of the main cities. These NPCs are the "travel agents" for the realms, which will teleport players between servers in the cluster.
 
Camelot - Channeler Kho'unas
Jordheim - Channeler Jith
Tir na Nog - Channeler Galia
 
 - (Catacombs Client) When a character zones into a new area on a clustered server, the server name is printed in the center of the screen.
 

Character and Guild Names
 
 - Names currently in existence are not guaranteed to be unique for players or guilds. New characters or guilds created are subject to name duplication restrictions, but existing names are unchanged.
 
 - Newly created guilds are subject to emblem duplication restrictions. Existing guilds with duplicated guild emblems will not be changed.
 
 - If you have two characters with the same name on the cluster, you communicate with them by appending the server name if they are not from your home server. For example: If you have Bob of Pendragon and Bob of Hector and you're from Pendragon, /send Bob or /send Bob-p will go to Bob of Pendragon, and /tell Bob-h will go to Bob of Hector.
 
 - In all chat messages, if a player is from the same server as you, the text you see will remain unchanged. If they are from another server, their name will be printed as "Name-ServerName:" (the same format you would use to /send to them).
 
 - In any shared region kill spam messages, the kill spam will always contain the server name information of the two players (eg: Bob-Pendragon was just killed by PlayerX-Hector).
 
 - Names over the heads of players will display as "Player of Server" to players on other servers in the cluster. Players from your home server will display normally as they always have. Realm Enemies will display normally as they always have (Race and Realm Rank Title).
 

Zone Sharing
 
 - Based on player feedback, only New Frontiers, the Battlegrounds, Darkness Falls, Passage of Conflict, and Summoner's Hall will be shared in the server cluster. Trials of Atlantis and Catacombs zones will not be shared. Clustered servers will maintain separate versions of Trials of Atlantis and Catacombs zones - players from other servers on the cluster can use the "travel agent" NPCs to migrate to another server, and then travel to that server's Trials of Atlantis or Catacombs zones.
 
 
Bind Points

 - Bind points will be server dependent. For example: If you bind at Tir na Nog on Hector, then go visit Pendragon and die, you will release to Tir na Nog on Hector.
 
 - Releasing to your house bind will teleport you to the server the house is located on.
 

Restrictions
 
 - Characters will only be able to purchase lots on their home server.
 
 - Characters will only be able to join guilds from their own server.
 
 - Guilds will not be able to join in cross-server alliances on their server cluster.
 
 - When clustering occurs on live servers, there will be a timer in place to prevent cross-realming characters. After logging a character into one realm on the cluster, you will have to wait some amount of time before being allowed to log into another realm on that same cluster. Because Pendragon is an open test server, this feature will not be enabled at this time.

Q: Which servers will be clustered?

 A: I don't know. No, really, guys, I have no idea. It's the top question for the week, and I'd tell you if I knew. This is still a big discussion around here. About the only thing I can promise is that Nimue will not be clustered with Mordred. NO ONE is getting clustered with Mordred.

[eldaec]

In other news, I still find the zone name 'Passage of Conflict' amusing.

[Big Gulp]

In other news, I still find the zone name 'Passage of Conflict' amusing.

That would be a good name for when I had my kidney stone.  I think I'll use it.

[chinslim]

Seems like a clusterfuck.  Clustering sounds like it will most benefit well-established gank groups and guilds who're looking for more competition or more plentiful RP farming, since they already have their own established community to organize from.

The #1 goal of clustering/merging should have been to make it easier for players to get involved in a player community(guild/alliance). That was the big problem with small servers.  It's a world of difference there being a 'casual player' or belonging to one of the top guilds.

I wonder how relics will affect things too.

[HaemishM]

Actually, the #1 goal of clustering was providing challenges to over-populated realms by giving the under-populated realms more of a pool to choose from. However, I'm not sure this will help much, because in a game where the zerg is might prevalent in RVR, giving the over-populated realms the same access to other server's player pool just means a bigger zerg.

While the concept of cross-server alliances sounds good, I think that would be better established by offering guildwide transfers.

[Nebu]

The good: In the past couple months I have been playing the majority of my time on Nimue.  The average population of this server at peak is about 700-900 people representing all 3 realms.  Since it is also a ropeplay server, many of these people choose not to play RvR.  This means that on any given weekday evening, my group can run around for 15 - 30 mins and not find a single engagement in RvR.  Clustering represents an opportunity for those on low population servers to log on and actually find engagements in NF.  I'm pretty happy that clustering is on the way even if it means that I'll get zerged on occasion.  Being able to find a fight in less than 20 mins will make the game more enjoyable those days when I only have an hour or two.

The other advantage that I see would be the opportunity to make new social connections and find more people to do things with (RvR, ML's, Artifact encounters).  Right now, the options on Nimue are limited by how many people we can find.  Even something as simple as a pickup rvr group has become a challenge as few support class players remain since the release of WoW.  Merging us with a larger server represents an opportunity for those with less time to log on and have some fun without having to sit inside an RvR zone looking for a group the 2h they are online.

The bad: There will be other additions as well.  Merging two servers means the combination of two new mini-cultures.  There will be the usual e-peen brandishing and posturing between people that consider themselves "leaders".  Also, many of the non-RvR areas will become shared.  An advantage of a low population server is that we can go to a rare encounter and not have to wait in line to get the gear we need.  The merge of a large server with a smaller one will allow the larger server access to the smaller server's PvE areas as well (if I understand the patch correctly).  While some would consider this a mixed blessing (more people to do ML's, but also more people competing for artifact encounters), I see this as little more than noise that will partially cast a shadow on the good effects noted above. In other words, the bad isn't really all that bad.

The ugly: I don't see too much "ugly" other than my personal playstyle.  RvR will become a zergfest and I imagine that tower and ck battles will consist of many more people than I've seen since my days on Guinivere.  My personal preference is to engage in 8v8 battles along the travel routes between battles.  It's fun to match tactics against another group when things are reasonably balanced and see who comes out the winner.  I've decided to look at this as a more positive thing recently.  Yes, there will be fewer 8v8 fights available, but the increase in action will make the game a better experience for all.  

Summary: I think clustering will have an overall beneficial effect on the game.  I've seen many people coming back from WoW in anticipation of clustering and think that it will cause a mini-spike in numbers for Mythic.  Sadly, I think that clustering will be little more than a honeymoon period for this 3 year old title.  Once the novelty wears off, Blizzard should be both implementing and streamlining their PvP Battlegrounds.  I figure I'll see what happens and enjoy the ride while it lasts.  There really aren't many options for fantasy based pvp these days.  Until Blizzard demonstrates that they can offer a better alternative, I'll stick with DAoC.

[eldaec]

First cluster announced, Palo, Iseult, Bors, and Gawaine. People with characters in different realms across tht cluster will not be able to switch realm without an 8 hour break out of game....

At 8:00 AM EST on Tuesday, February 8, all the servers will be taken down for 1.74. At 10:30 AM, all servers will return except for Palomides, Iseult, Bors, and Gawaine. Those servers will be clustered and brought back online at about 3:00 PM EST.

Regarding characters from different realms within the cluster that already exist: We will obviously not be erasing any characters. However, players on clustered servers will not be able to log into different realms within the cluster for eight hours after logging out of any particular realm. For example, if you log in to your Midgard character on Bors, and log out, you will not be able to log into your Hibernian from Gawaine or your Albion friend from Iseult for eight hours. You can log into any character from Midgard, of course, but that will reset the “realm timer.”


After tomorrow, players with no characters on any of the servers in the cluster will be able to choose one realm, and will not be able to make characters of a different realm anywhere in the cluster.