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Makarus

NFI-SFI Ocean connection

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some kind of high wind high danger full of sharks and stuff crossing server to connect north and south freedom

but the mailbox doesnt work between either, no shared trade.

make it dangerzone to cross.

have islands with cannibal npc zombies too just incase you get shipwrecked

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There is no doubt that connecting the NFI to the SFI is in the works for the future.

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There is, doubt, though.

I've seen official wording that makes it clear that they are not committing to connecting the servers at any point.

 

So it comes down to this. 

What are the arguments for connecting the servers?

- player retention. (Players are upset by the thought that there are islands which are basically the same, but inaccessible for arbitrary reasons. Something that upsets players will, statistically speaking, cause players to leave the game. This may apply to established SFI players who must choose between "missing out" on the new servers, spending significantly more money in order to play on both, or moving to NFI and being unable to recover sunk costs on SFI; it may also apply to new players who choose a server before understanding the distinction between SFI and NFI.)

 

What are the arguments against connecting the servers?

- technical reasons. (Changes have been made to NFI versus SFI servers that are incompatible or that would cause balance problems to bring into concordance.)

- game/market balance reasons. (Veteran SFI players can flood the NFI market with cheap enchanted goods, fast horses, and so on.)

 

What else?

Edited by Sheffie
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I’m banking on them merging at some point by still grinding xor at an ally deed while building a new home on harmony. 
 

I would be really disappointed if they were never connected (simply because I want to continue playing on xor, and the population of the game is no longer on SFI)

 

I don’t expect a merge for possible a couple years though, just like P&R. Economies will need to be similar otherwise it seems unfair to the NFI players as it did before the P&R merge. 
 

 

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My gut says after one year of isolation, they will merge.  In 6 months, we have hit high 90s in most of the critical skills.  Within another 6 months, 90s skills will be common place.  The market is getting closer to equalizing - not there yet!  But it is getting closer.  SFI went up and NFI is coming down.  Gems are now about equal.  SP was 3s, now bounces between 2s and 1.5s.  Enchants and rares are still high.  Bulk is 1.5 to 2x on NFI.  Beams and concrete equal or at times lower on NFI.

 

The biggest complaints on merging will be in the Uniques dominance.  Right now it is highly exclusive and how can it not be?  Dragon scale and hide are almost priceless for being so rare.  Once servers merge, the exclusivity changes dramatically.  Players holding multiple sets will get to sell to NFI players at 2-3x what they go for on SFI.

 

There will be tons of heartache from those that enjoyed being at the top on NFI and make crazy good silver marketing, but in time that business will shrink regardless of merging or not.

 

The big benefit in the merge will be the excitement for migrating from one cluster to another.  This will being in more subs from older, bored players and new deeds on both clusters.  More subs and deeds pays the bills, so the benefit to the company can't be ignored, just for the sake of some players market position.  Think about those players too.  They make bank from other players, so they don't have to buy silver from the company or subscriptions from the company. If they go, it probably isn't going to impact the revenue a great deal.  The ones that spend the silvers are the ones that need to be retained.

 

Remember all the trader drainers?  How Code Club managed to keep that train wreck going for so long, supporting a group of players to play for free, was beyond me.  "Here, spend a little money now and you have a lifetime subscription to the game and we will never see another dime from you, thank you!"  That was the worst business model ever.  They figured it out, fixed it and made the game better for players that spend money to play.

 

So, TLDR: They will merge when they feel it will be better for the game revenue than keeping them separate.

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all i can say as someone whos playing on both SFI and NFI, i think a merger should be within the next 6 months...SFi is died down because all of us have made alts to play on NFI because the community went there. the player base and community should never be split like this...

 

now you could merge it similarly like the guy at the top mentioned and make it a single route from sfi and nfi by ship with no mailing system....at least then it is more historic, and it will not flood the market so easily by forcing people to sail quite a ways to trade said items, but it would allow the community to at least be a whole again. Its something new and different why not try it. without the danger and other weird stuff he mentioned...lol, could even put a server toll on it for all i care. to cross from SFI to NFI you have to purchase a ticket or something to have in your inventory. there is a lot of things that could be used to slow the issues people will have with the economy. Its not like there aren't solutions to these problems. 

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1 hour ago, Wurmhole said:

So, TLDR: They will merge when they feel it will be better for the game revenue than keeping them separate.

 

Counterpoint : Higher prices, means more money from buying silver. Higher prices means its easier to buy a sub. Easier to get a sub = more pop = more demand for items = easier to sell stuff, etc. Also more subs takes silver out of circulation, forcing more silver to be bought which helps revenue. Not having to compete with 10+ yr old accounts was very attractive, it seems. 

 

Regardless of being separated or joined, both clusters will continue to age.. most likely not for the better in terms of population. I think season servers could be the answer eventually. IMO keeping things fresh or as fresh as they can be, is what makes the game fun and helps player retention most. Just need to add value to older players besides just the fun, maybe allow a few(3-5) choice items to be brought home (as long as they are equally hard to earn in the "season server".)  Skills, if they are earned at the same rate, etc. Let's new players experience a new server where everyone is on equal footing. Old players who missed that chance or those who just enjoy the fresh start experience can also join in on the fun while still feeling like they are progressing...

Edited by Aldurair

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There is a reason why names database is shared across NFI and SFI. For possible merging. Not sure if and when it happen but it is still a valid option.

 

If it was sealed that it will never happen, then NFI would have it's own database and most of new players could pick up "normal" names instead looking for wild variations, couse most obvious names are already taken.

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1 hour ago, Aldurair said:

 

Counterpoint : Higher prices, means more money from buying silver. Higher prices means its easier to buy a sub. Easier to get a sub = more pop = more demand for items = easier to sell stuff, etc. Also more subs takes silver out of circulation, forcing more silver to be bought which helps revenue. Not having to compete with 10+ yr old accounts was very attractive, it seems. 

 

Regardless of being separated or joined, both clusters will continue to age.. most likely not for the better in terms of population. I think season servers could be the answer eventually. IMO keeping things fresh or as fresh as they can be, is what makes the game fun and helps player retention most. Just need to add value to older players besides just the fun, maybe allow a few(3-5) choice items to be brought home (as long as they are equally hard to earn in the "season server".)  Skills, if they are earned at the same rate, etc. Let's new players experience a new server where everyone is on equal footing. Old players who missed that chance or those who just enjoy the fresh start experience can also join in on the fun while still feeling like they are progressing...

 

season servers are a bad idea imo...i wouldn't play for them...it takes to long to grind level and get things and most of us don't play 24/7. also jackal server was basicly that and it was more of a flop it started off good and then became less popular...no-one wants to work hard for everything just to lose it all, its why the pvp servers cant keep a player base.

 

now if they want to add a single server that has a yearly season sure, but to over all change the game will never happen. part of the reason servers don't reset is for the historical view points it brings, of kingdoms falling, deeds that existed its why archology was added...

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1 hour ago, eldarian said:

 

season servers are a bad idea imo...i wouldn't play for them...it takes to long to grind level and get things and most of us don't play 24/7. also jackal server was basicly that and it was more of a flop it started off good and then became less popular...no-one wants to work hard for everything just to lose it all, its why the pvp servers cant keep a player base.

 

now if they want to add a single server that has a yearly season sure, but to over all change the game will never happen. part of the reason servers don't reset is for the historical view points it brings, of kingdoms falling, deeds that existed its why archology was added...

 

Between mid epic, late SFI, jackal, and NFI experiences, jackal was easily the best wurm experience personally. Especially early on when you could not get out the gate without a rift beast attacking you, getting up a quick fence in the middle of nowhere, with impending danger all around, was exhilarating. Somehow managed to work 8 hours a day and still get 10 hours of wurm in, I was completely addicted for a time(Actually not a good thing, haha.).

 

The skill transfer nuke killed any chance of Jackal being a success, my personal experience was that once I saw the skill transfer was 0.5% or whatever abyssmal number it was, I just quit cold-shoulder, felt that my time was wasted and insulted that the devs would even call that a skill transfer. I mean I might as well be playing wurm unlimited at that rate. So actually,  I agree, no one wants to work for nothing, which is why they need a decent balance. Many games these days have successful seasonal servers, the thing with them is that you get to keep all your stuff afterwards plus you get the skins, sometimes exclusive gear and other perks with the season. If you play a season on Diablo 3 or Path of Exile, you keep everything and then some, if they did what Jackal did, your level 99 character that you spent 60 days playtime on with endgame gear would be level 20 with an empty inventory and a bastard longsword skin after the season, that's just... moronic. I suppose the equivalent for wurm and jackal, if they took a page out of other games with seasons, well a step in the right direction, you would be able to at least keep your inventory worth of stuff and skills(Of course in Jackals first iteration you would need to normalize the skill or bring down the gains and timers to that of freedom.) Keeping buildings, would be out of the question, because then they would have to keep the server, which defeats the purpose of having a seasonal server.

 

If I had a stake in Wurm and I was considering merging the servers, I need to gain more players than ones that I disgruntle. People went to NFI for a fresh start, with a merge, I lose many of these players, there are also many people with accounts on both NFI and SFI, I will lose many of these subs as well. Say a player has 3 priest accounts and a main for each cluster, with a merge they will just use their strongest main and probably let a few priest account subs expire as well. What players or subs do I hope to gain? Who is waiting for Release to gain 10 pop to play again?(I doubt they would even gain 10 pop, most people on NFI are established with a deed by now, hardly any nomads, there are plenty of abandoned deeds so there's hardly ant benefit to a merge for a new player beginning now.)

 

On Epic and chaos, ok, if pop could go up, it could help, but who from NFI wants to go to SFI to fight 10 year old accounts? What happens to Defiance pvpers? I don't speak for them, but it screws up the balance there completely. 

Edited by Aldurair

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27 minutes ago, Aldurair said:

 

Between mid epic, late SFI, jackal, and NFI experiences, jackal was easily the best wurm experience personally. Especially early on when you could not get out the gate without a rift beast attacking you, getting up a quick fence in the middle of nowhere, with impending danger all around, was exhilarating. Somehow managed to work 8 hours a day and still get 10 hours of wurm in, I was completely addicted for a time(Actually not a good thing, haha.).

 

The skill transfer nuke killed any chance of Jackal being a success, my personal experience was that once I saw the skill transfer was 0.5% or whatever abyssmal number it was, I just quit cold-shoulder, felt that my time was wasted and insulted that the devs would even call that a skill transfer. I mean I might as well be playing wurm unlimited at that rate. So actually,  I agree, no one wants to work for nothing, which is why they need a decent balance. Many games these days have successful seasonal servers, the thing with them is that you get to keep all your stuff afterwards plus you get the skins, sometimes exclusive gear and other perks with the season. If you play a season on Diablo 3 or Path of Exile, you keep everything and then some, if they did what Jackal did, your level 99 character that you spent 60 days playtime on with endgame gear would be level 20 with an empty inventory and a bastard longsword skin after the season, that's just... moronic. I suppose the equivalent for wurm and jackal, if they took a page out of other games with seasons, well a step in the right direction, you would be able to at least keep your inventory worth of stuff and skills(Of course in Jackals first iteration you would need to normalize the skill or bring down the gains and timers to that of freedom.) Keeping buildings, would be out of the question, because then they would have to keep the server, which defeats the purpose of having a seasonal server.

 

If I had a stake in Wurm and I was considering merging the servers, I need to gain more players than ones that I disgruntle. People went to NFI for a fresh start, with a merge, I lose many of these players, there are also many people with accounts on both NFI and SFI, I will lose many of these subs as well. Say a player has 3 priest accounts and a main for each cluster, with a merge they will just use their strongest main and probably let a few priest account subs expire as well. What players or subs do I hope to gain? Who is waiting for Release to gain 10 pop to play again?(I doubt they would even gain 10 pop, most people on NFI are established with a deed by now, hardly any nomads, there are plenty of abandoned deeds so there's hardly ant benefit to a merge for a new player beginning now.)

 

On Epic and chaos, ok, if pop could go up, it could help, but who from NFI wants to go to SFI to fight 10 year old accounts? What happens to Defiance pvpers? I don't speak for them, but it screws up the balance there completely. 

you cant compare a game like wurm with a game like diablo or path finder, there is no comparison there....the seasons there would be nothing like here where u lose entire cities. the nfi servers either way they either quit prems on there sfi or the nfi so they lose prems regardless. a merge is in the best interest of the game once the economy is stable. having a united community connected is better then losing one community completely. imo they never should have released new servers and only promoted new servers. the old servers lost players and gained nothing..that in its own right is destroying the game. the wurm unlimited release another bad decision playerbase wise. each decision they have made has been about a money grab as much money as they can get, and each one has deuterated the playerbase even more.

 

if they changed already established servers into seasons, they would lose there whole playerbase...non of us will agree to losing years worth of work building cities this isnt rust, ark, atlas, or any modern game and you cant compare any of them to this. wurm has and always will be a unique gaming experience. and should be promoted to that end.

 

not only that the games u speak of are 1 time purchase, they dont have a monthly premium, they dont have paid deeds, there isnt a way to get coin really in game to fund the things you need to, so it forces someone to buy that coin which forces a economy in game so players can make coin...i wont pay for a seasonal account to be wiped or a deed i pay for to be wiped. thats just stupid and a waste of money. they would literally have to remove that entire bases that funds the game.

 

wurm is not an instant satisfaction type of game and never will be.

Edited by eldarian
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5 hours ago, Sheffie said:

There is, doubt, though.

I've seen official wording that makes it clear that they are not committing to connecting the servers at any point.

 

So it comes down to this. 

What are the arguments for connecting the servers?

- player retention. (Players are upset by the thought that there are islands which are basically the same, but inaccessible for arbitrary reasons. Something that upsets players will, statistically speaking, cause players to leave the game. This may apply to established SFI players who must choose between "missing out" on the new servers, spending significantly more money in order to play on both, or moving to NFI and being unable to recover sunk costs on SFI; it may also apply to new players who choose a server before understanding the distinction between SFI and NFI.)

 

What are the arguments against connecting the servers?

- technical reasons. (Changes have been made to NFI versus SFI servers that are incompatible or that would cause balance problems to bring into concordance.)

- game/market balance reasons. (Veteran SFI players can flood the NFI market with cheap enchanted goods, fast horses, and so on.)

 

What else?

true.. no timeframe or exact date have ever been spoken/written by the staff.

 

both listed reasons are hilarious:

1) servers are identical, that's the reason we had rmt removed, etc..

2) 'veterans' already gutted the market on nfi, there's only benefit for new players reaching broader market of services and lowering the prices for some goods and services with a "few more" shops

(have in mind whoever had a big shop/market on old cluster, started a new one on the new cluster.. if there's anyone to win anything here.. it's again the same people; do not be confused that you have too much to win from a merge.. with few small exceptions... rare and unique loot like NY gifts/moon metals/dragon drops/kingdom wares/unique game items for pve/pvp.. stuff that are unique will go higher in price with the demand; while bulk sales will be rules by same people from two sides.. even if old cluster have no active premiums at the moment. could be rekindled to work and supply.. at the very least.. some will have bulk laying around and ready to sell.

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14 hours ago, eldarian said:

SFi is died down because all of us have made alts to play on NFI because the community went there.

 

erm...   "We all left because we all left?"

 

I for one made a new main on NFI and played both, until I found that the more enjoyable (for me) community was on the old servers.  The new "community" is in my opinion hardly a community at all - it felt more like everyone just trying to get what they can.  I would prefer to have that quarantined a little longer rather than bring it south.  I do favour a one-time portal between the clusters for new players who have found their choice of cluster unsuitable, although I favour more a brief summary of each server and its cluster when new players are choosing where to go from the tutorial server.

 

 

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12 hours ago, eldarian said:

 

 

if they changed already established servers into seasons, they would lose there whole playerbase...non of us will agree to losing years worth of work building cities this isnt rust, ark, atlas, or any modern game and you cant compare any of them to this. wurm has and always will be a unique gaming experience. and should be promoted to that end.

 

 

The whole point of season servers with incentives, is to build on what you have on established servers while getting to play a playstyle you more enjoy. Such as exploration and deed establishing. If you want to stay in your house on SFI that you spend many years to built up and continue grinding skills, go ahead, you will earn more skill since you aren't wasting time exploring or making new coc tools. I for one cannot handle that monotony without having another MMO up or at least a phone game going on. 

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