[The American Council [PvP1 EU - USA]]

Appreciate the feedback ... and let me add a "Good Job" to Gavin who worked very hard to get this together.  

[Ambassador Office]

United States

 

Server - PvP One - EU

 

Sturmgrenadier / SG

 

Leaders

IGN: Jern

IGN: Gavin

 

English

[Important information about the new EU server.]

I'm not sure if you've ever developed software or handled large databases (if you have, my apologies).  This is not going poorly at all.  Backing up an entire database and restoring it to a new machine, then getting it reconfigured and set up to the point that you can log a few developers in and test it prior to reopening the source database takes a little bit of time.  Planning and discussions to take this action have been going on internally for a longer time than you think.  Please refrain from commenting on how well or poorly things are going when you are not privy to the Developers' conversations and procedures.  

 

With that out of the way, the question remains, "how can Game Labs encourage at least part of the population of PvP1, which is overcrowded, to move to PvP3"?  We have had a week of complaining about ping times to PvP2, massive complaints about waiting in Queue, and massive complaints about not being able to take all assets to a new server.  There exists no tool that allows the Devs to press a button and have assets transfer.  Heck, at the moment, there exists no tool to allow the Devs to rename someone or change their nationality.  Tools like that will come when the feature list is far smaller and the game mechanics stabilize.  So, given that the community just can't fathom the idea of starting on a new server with just their rank, given the community can't stand waiting in line to play the game, and given the community just can't tolerate the ping times to PvP2, what is the best answer?  I'd say restoring a backup of PvP1 to a new EU based server is the best response to the community's complaints.  

 

The fairest way to mirror the assets is to do so unannounced - otherwise you then get a rage thread where people yell about how they didn't know this was going to happen, and it isn't fair that others knew and were able to grind up their assets (or relocate them to strategic places to start an immediate offensive, etc).  This means that PvP1 is now status-quo on PvP3.  Those that decide to move servers will be in the exact same spot they were in, good or bad, and those that stay on PvP1 are in the same boat so to speak.  I appreciate that players do not want to split the community, but the fact remains that PvP1 is overpopulated, and actions must be taken to ensure a portion of that population wants to go to 3.  PvP2 is consistently low population, there is zero incentive for the Devs to encourage anyone to leave PvP2.  The fact still remains that gold is easy, XP is hard.  

I most certainly do deal with software development and deployment.  I have to explain what went wrong every time I announce a downtime and exceed my schedule. I also let my customers know well in advance of long downtimes and what they are for.  As Pedroig pointed out already there are steps that could be taken to help make the new servers actually be effective.  Mostly it involves notice and communication.  Secondly I also feel that more should be done to increase server populations.  2000 souls is not much to fill 8 factions and all of that Ocean.  

 

 

Thanks,

 

Jern

www.sturmgrenadier.org

[Important information about the new EU server.]

Hello Captains

 

We are deploying the new server today that will be based in Europe. 

To simplify things for the players on the PvP One we will copy all the data from PvP One to a new server once. Rank, Gold, Ships and assets counted at 12am 26th Jan will be copied.

 

What this means:

If you don't like the queues on PvP one you can just relog to the new EU server and have all the assets you had on the 26th Jan. 

 

What it does not mean

It will only be mirrored once. So if you continue playing on another server only rank will be synchronized as usual. If you acquire a lot of new assets after 26th they will only be present on that server. 

 

Temporary name for the server:

PvP 3 EU Mirror

Names for servers will be changed next week. 

 

Sorry for all the confusion it might cause.

 

Greetings, 

 

I am loving this game and fully accept that it is still in development and some changes and tough decisions will have to be made.  But, as a leader of a gaming community that is trying to play this game in coordination with other communities, we would greatly appreciate notice of major changes like listed above.  I want to be as constructive as possible, but it seems obvious that this was not well thought out, and based on extended downtime not well implemented either.  Perhaps since this seems to be going poorly, you should consider leaving things as they were, give the community a few days to process this information and make plans.  Then try to implement the one time copy and move option later this week.   

 

Thanks for your consideration, 

 

Jern

www.sturmgrenadier.org