[US Herald] - Server List and Rulesets For Launch

[Garthilk]

From the From the Dev Team category we have: Server List and Rulesets For Launch

WAAAGH!!!

Servers, servers - get'ya servers! Below you will find the server names we anticipate being available at Launch. These will begin going live Sunday, September 14th with the Collector’s Edition Head Start and will continue to roll out leading up to Launch on September 18th.

Players will be able to choose from four server types: Core, Open RvR, Roleplay, and a hybrid Roleplay/Open RvR ruleset. We will continue to open up servers supporting different server types as the need arises.


Source (http://herald.warhammeronline.com/warherald/NewsArticle.war?id=252)

[Onslaught411]

A lot more open servers than I expeccted. I hope it doesn't spread out the player base for those servers too much...

[Albrecht Kroft]

Wonderful!

Thanks for geting this so early to us. So all you RP guilds out there .. let's see if we can get together!

[Kaylon]

I had a quick question about the wording in this release. Is there any indication of which of those servers will be available on the 14th?

"These will begin going live Sunday, September 14th with the Collector’s Edition Head Start and will continue to roll out leading up to Launch on September 18th."

Will they all be up on the 14th and/or could we get a more solid list in the next day or two that will go live on the 14th and 16th for the preorders? Just wondering and thanks in advance!

-Kaylon

[kleetus]

so are beta toons getting wiped? since the servers I am playing on arent on the list? or are planning some weird transfer?

[aldrayk]

They've always said beta characters would be wiped before release.

[Pyke]

A lot more open servers than I expeccted. I hope it doesn't spread out the player base for those servers too much...

Yea lots of people seem to be asking for them but I am not sure how many will actually end up playing them as the core rule set works so well.

[Azliel]

Beta toons are getting wipped, otherwise there'd be no headstart....

[Chasington]

Yea lots of people seem to be asking for them but I am not sure how many will actually end up playing them as the core rule set works so well.

Yeah I'm stickin with Core, Maybe RP.

[bobzero]

Great news there!

Any information on what time zones these servers will be located in?

It's hard to pick a home without this information.

Eastern/Central/Mountain/West Coast?

[XImpalerX]

I wouldnt be surprised if the OPEN RvR servers became full almost immediately. i think theres alot more people playing Open than you would think. I guarantee of all AoC refugees will roll Open and the PvP community coming from WoW.

[DogOfWar]

So I assume the first set, namely...

Red Eye Mountain
Skull Throne
Badlands
Sylvania
Volkmar
Hochland
Wolfenburg
Dark Crag
Phoenix Throne
Chaos Wastes

... are the CE Headstart release servers and the second set are the SE head start release servers?

[Tinkerer]

It would be even better if they told us which are going live during the head start, and which are coming out on the official launch day. Pretty please MBJ?

[WonTonSoup]

Great news there!

Any information on what time zones these servers will be located in?

It's hard to pick a home without this information.

Eastern/Central/Mountain/West Coast?

This is my question as well. Please label servers by location if at all possible, it really helps for us ping-hunters.

[Onslaught411]

So I assume the first set, namely...

Red Eye Mountain
Skull Throne
Badlands
Sylvania
Volkmar
Hochland
Wolfenburg
Dark Crag
Phoenix Throne
Chaos Wastes

... are the CE Headstart release servers and the second set are the SE head start release servers?

This is a nice catch. I was wondering why they were out of order and it would make sense for the first part to be HS and the others to be opened at launch.

[Tabain]

This is my question as well. Please label servers by location if at all possible, it really helps for us ping-hunters.

All servers will be hosted in Virginia for the US.

[Grunjin]

My biggest worry about the staggering of the servers being opened up from the 14th through the 18th is that they are either going to force people who have the CE Head start on the 14th that are there before their guildies to be stuck on full servers (with queues and all as guilds/friends try to play with their CE Head start friends) or having to re-roll on a server opened later thereby making the whole head-start "bonus" useless anyways.

Hoping it's a majority of the servers being opened on Sunday's CE head start (even if they are more spread out) so that later the CE people and guilds/friends aren't stuck on full servers as soon as the game releases officially on the 18th and then having a few new servers opened up on the 18th itself.

[DogOfWar]

My biggest worry about the staggering of the servers being opened up from the 14th through the 18th is that they are either going to force people who have the CE Head start on the 14th that are there before their guildies to be stuck on full servers (with queues and all as guilds/friends try to play with their CE Head start friends) or having to re-roll on a server opened later thereby making the whole head-start "bonus" useless anyways.

It's two days - not an insurmountable obstacle or a major loss. I know many guilds who are going to wait for the SE headstart to re-roll with friends in a less populated server.

[Ayetalam]

I was wondering if this alos includes servers that were in Open Beta. Cause the Tyrion isnt on hte list, and it the server we were gonna play on.

[SaintV]

So many servers it just makes you wonder how many will be playing at official launch. Bad enough Destruction has more players, I can see people who want to play order logging into a destruction dominated server with low population.

[Grunjin]

It's two days - not an insurmountable obstacle or a major loss. I know many guilds who are going to wait for the SE headstart to re-roll with friends in a less populated server.

Which is why I wonder what is even the point of the head start "bonus". If they release a good number of servers on Sunday (and if above is correct on their guess that there will be 10 servers on Sunday - 5 core 3 ORvR 1 RP 1 ORP -that is not a good number) there will probably be no problem and my worries will have been for naught.

Hence my worry and while it may not be an "insurmountable obstacle or a major loss" there should not even be a CE head start with only a few servers then as it's only going to cause more grief (people will complain about being in a queue on the first day of release, people will complain about feeling forced to re-roll on a low pop server that is released later) and is not a "bonus" at all.

[Scerick]

I can't help but agree with this being a bad decision. Why not have all of them open at launch? I really don't want to be forced onto a server with a Queue because I have the CE HS. I'd rather it just be the same duration as SE if this is the case.

[jc2008]

Yeah I hope they open a lot more than they need for CE headstart... And having the server list is all well and good, but how can we really choose if we dont know which will be open when. Obviously thye plan to have all those open at the launch, 18th, but yet said they will roll them out as needed during CE/SE headstart?

[Panthro]

I can't help but agree with this being a bad decision. Why not have all of them open at launch? I really don't want to be forced onto a server with a Queue because I have the CE HS. I'd rather it just be the same duration as SE if this is the case.

/agree

Have more than enough servers available at release, then add 10 more servers on top of that number :)

If the servers are "underpopulated" do a server merge/character transfer of those few servers and steady their populations.

Queues are for the lose.

[Pangscar]

I can't help but agree with this being a bad decision. Why not have all of them open at launch? I really don't want to be forced onto a server with a Queue because I have the CE HS. I'd rather it just be the same duration as SE if this is the case.

MBJ has already explained why. Use the dev tracker. It would spread the population way too thin, destroying any hope of balanced RvR. What you'll get is a handful of low population servers that hardly have any scenarios or RvR lake activity. This way they can control how each server gets populated and not have servers that get left behind so to speak.

[Keiser]

So I assume the first set, namely...

Red Eye Mountain
...
Chaos Wastes

... are the CE Headstart release servers and the second set are the SE head start release servers?

That's what it looks like to me. Everything up to the first RP/ORvR server is probably going live on the 14th and everything else between 14th and 18th.

[Zolthar]

Has there been any indication of what the server max is? Is it capped at 2000 each side like in beta (4000 total) or is there a much higher limit?

[Kriegen]

Look at the queues that existed for the Open beta, it's going to be a nightmare with a staggered server launch. They should open a number of servers based on all CE and SE pre-orders and a reasonable expectation of launch day numbers. This way guilds can plan what server they are going to be on regardless of what day they start. RvR might be a bit thin until launch but once launch hits they will fill up pretty quick.

[Nissl]

Seems like this will concentrate almost all of the big guilds on just a few servers. Not a good idea. Just open at least 20 of them at the start and let the CE pre-orders deal with a few days of low population.

[Grunjin]

Seems like this will concentrate almost all of the big guilds on just a few servers. Not a good idea. Just open at least 20 of them at the start and let the CE pre-orders deal with a few days of low population.

^
|
|
This. CE Pre-order people I would imagine will be much more willing to put up with two days of low population PvE and low pop RvR than to be stuck in a queue long term come release or just having to re-roll on a low pop server later anyways.

[Dillward]

Seems like this will concentrate almost all of the big guilds on just a few servers. Not a good idea. Just open at least 20 of them at the start and let the CE pre-orders deal with a few days of low population.

CE people are already getting more than enough for what they paid for. Obviously if population becomes a problem they will open more servers; that's exactly what it says on the Herald. If they open all the servers Sunday-Wednesday then there won't be any "clean" servers on Thursday.

I refuse to play on a Head Start server and I would really hope they would give everyone a chance to start "fresh."

[Nissl]

CE people are already getting more than enough for what they paid for. Obviously if population becomes a problem they will open more servers; that's exactly what it says on the Herald. If they open all the servers Sunday-Wednesday then there won't be any "clean" servers on Thursday.

I refuse to play on a Head Start server and I would really hope they would give everyone a chance to start "fresh."

That's fine, open say 20-25 of the 30 servers for CE, don't open any more for SE, and set aside 5-10 servers for launch.

I hope you can understand where I'm coming from as well. The Six Mouths are the main Penny Arcade forum guild and are probably going to be close to 500 members. Maybe 1/4 of those members are CE and we aren't going to make them reroll two days later.

Our open beta experience was that we wound up grouped with Goon Squad, The Old Timers' Guild, and Strumgrenadier all on Todbringer-Destro. Queues were atrocious. Population balance was a joke. Half the time our premades wound up grouped with another premade in scenarios, and the results were ugly. We were planning to try to avoid other large guilds so we don't wind up on a borked, imbalanced server, but if there are effectively 5 core servers to choose from, we just won't be able to.

Every big guild is going to be on one of the servers that is open to CE customers on day one, period. We don't care what the queues are like on newer servers they roll out later; we're going to stick together. If they really go with just a handful of CE servers those servers are going to get crushed at SE and launch.

[Spektrum]

Seems like this will concentrate almost all of the big guilds on just a few servers. Not a good idea. Just open at least 20 of them at the start and let the CE pre-orders deal with a few days of low population.

Exactly. Our GL got the CE and will now either have to forfit his head start to wait for a less populated realm, or establish our guild on the small set of servers available for CE. Either way it will be a lose/lose.

[Viggo Vickers]

Argh just finished updating the NA part to my guide yesterday >_<

[Kahine]

Excellent - glad to see the Open-RvR/RP ruleset servers will be in place at launch

[Katlan]

there is 60k ppl for CE HS... there is gonna be more than what you think we are gonna have available... they arent gonna throw 60k ppl into 10 servers, prolly be closer to 15+ for CE HS

[Scerick]

That's fine, open say 20-25 of the 30 servers for CE, don't open any more for SE, and set aside 5-10 servers for launch.

I hope you can understand where I'm coming from as well. The Six Mouths are the main Penny Arcade forum guild and are probably going to be close to 500 members. Maybe 1/4 of those members are CE and we aren't going to make them reroll two days later.

Our open beta experience was that we wound up grouped with Goon Squad, The Old Timers' Guild, and Strumgrenadier all on Todbringer-Destro. Queues were atrocious. Population balance was a joke. Half the time our premades wound up grouped with another premade in scenarios, and the results were ugly. We were planning to try to avoid other large guilds so we don't wind up on a borked, imbalanced server, but if there are effectively 5 core servers to choose from, we just won't be able to.

Every big guild is going to be on one of the servers that is open to CE customers on day one, period. We don't care what the queues are like on newer servers they roll out later; we're going to stick together. If they really go with just a handful of CE servers those servers are going to get crushed at SE and launch.

Great post Nissl. I'm at work so I can't post how I feel in detail but you just summed it up 100%.

[Dillward]

That's fine, open say 20-25 of the 30 servers for CE, don't open any more for SE, and set aside 5-10 servers for launch.

I hope you can understand where I'm coming from as well. The Six Mouths are the main Penny Arcade forum guild and are probably going to be close to 500 members. Maybe 1/4 of those members are CE and we aren't going to make them reroll two days later.

Our open beta experience was that we wound up grouped with Goon Squad, The Old Timers' Guild, and Strumgrenadier all on Todbringer-Destro. Queues were atrocious. Population balance was a joke. Half the time our premades wound up grouped with another premade in scenarios, and the results were ugly. We were planning to try to avoid other large guilds so we don't wind up on a borked, imbalanced server, but if there are effectively 5 core servers to choose from, we just won't be able to.

Every big guild is going to be on one of the servers that is open to CE customers on day one, period. We don't care what the queues are like on newer servers they roll out later; we're going to stick together. If they really go with just a handful of CE servers those servers are going to get crushed at SE and launch.

I do understand where you are coming from, in fact I have the CE as well. In all honesty I don't care at all how many they open up for CE, hopefully enough for everyone to have fun and not have queues. This of course on the condition that they open brand new servers on the Official Release day.

[shongray]

http://herald.warhammeronline.com/warherald/NewsArticle.war?id=252

Please Note: We will provide the list of servers that will be available on Sunday morning for the CE Head Start on Saturday, September 13th

Not much time to get the gang together to pick a sever, the internets tubes will be bogged down with emails and IM's discussing what server to got to....then Sunday morning head start with probably just kill the internets altogether :(

[Raistaran]

I believe it was Mbj who said they plan to start with a lower concurrent population cap, and then gradually raise it through launch. Not exactly sure what they plan to do exactly, but I could see them using this to help artificially spread out the CE population while still allowing room for SE preorders to join the same servers.

We'll just have to wait and see. I have faith in Mythic. :)

[jc2008]

some word from james on this at least:
http://vnboards.ign.com/warhammer_online_age_of_reckoning_general_board/b22997/108572908/p1/?295

Hey all,

The plan is to start with a limited number of servers and begin rolling them out as my post says.

Please remember there were only 60 thousand Collectors Editions sold, we need to make sure that the CE servers are populated enough while leaving room for expansion as guilds, friends and family come in with the SE Head Start and then after launch on the 18th.

Thanks all :)


Guys,

You're reading too deeply into this. We've got plenty of servers (far more than are on this list) we will bring up servers, whether they be core, open-rvr, etc. as the need arises.

We're all MMO players too, many of us have guilds that are excited and want to get in and get started too. Trust us that we're looking out for the best interest of the game and that we know what we're doing.

Don't Panic


Hopefully they know what they are doing and the CE servers dont get overpopulated and we all gotta reroll once or twice onto new servers..