Stop advertising Cadence as "new server"

[TheTrickster 2,284]

48 minutes ago, Archaed said:

To be fair, it's still the most populous and active server, and by those rights new players will get the better community experience, right? 

Better?  That has been a point of some discussion and not inconsiderable controversy.  Busier, maybe - or at least perceived as busier.  It is one of the larger servers, though, so density might be a consideration. 

 

It was actually created, and marketed on the fora and in the server choice window to stop people all crowding onto the other slightly-less-new servers which apparently had been practically carpet deeded.  I haven't seen the stats on deeds or upkeep, but I believe that even on Cadence there are a LOT of well paid-up deeds (whether their owners remain active or not).  So, if it is the busiest it should probably be bottom of the pick list.   😄

 

BUT, and here is the thing - it is not new.  It is most certainly not a "NEW SERVER" with an exclamation mark.  Try calling a car that has been in use for more than 18 months "new".

[TheTrickster 2,284]

5 hours ago, Archaed said:

The differences in nfi and SFI are not code. The only differences he's referred to in code are the client. I've not seen any discussion on them being separate codebases. 

 

My bad, went digging. 

 

It's not entirely different code or something that needs to be compiled in two separate ways like the client, it's just different settings, the way one thing works on one server might not work the same on the other. So it's not something that has to be managed

 

But,

On 4/26/2022 at 11:23 PM, Keenan said:

So, let me shed some light on the possibility of a merge and what it will actually take.

 

There are technical challenges here that haven't been present in other clusters:

• NFI has a number of changes that have yet to be implemented on SFI. This was done intentionally to see the results long-term. I won't list them all here, but we need to review these changes and see what the results are.
• These changes have caused disparity in the code base making NFI and SFI currently incompatible with each other. A merge isn't as simple as opening the borders.

Then there are other concerns:

• What of the effects on the economies? In particular, SFI's economy would literally transform NFI's economy overnight - for better or worse.
• What of the effects on the people in both clusters? This thread is a testament to the fact that opinions are split.

These concerns and challenges are the primary reasons why a merge is not in the plans for the short term. Long-term remains to be seen, but we'd be talking beyond a 6-to-9-month timeframe if we do this. The sheer code work involved alone will require scheduling, and we have a lot of work on our plates already.

 

With regards to conducting a poll, one thing I've asked of the development team is to dust off the in-game voting mechanic and figure out a way to deduplicate votes from alts to have a more fair and accurate account of what the player base wants. I do not want a person with more money or silver to weigh more heavily than a person who simply keeps a single account going, so it's important to me to get that right. This isn't our highest priority at the moment, with the coming update taking precedence.

 

Edit: One other thing I would likely see us do before a merge is to allow travel to Epic first. Again though, there are code complications that must be handled first. This is why it isn't possible right now.

 

I hope this clears up my intentions with regards to a merge. The TL;DR is "it's not a 'never', but it's certainly not any time soon".

 

That doesn't read as just some settings, when the product manager refers to "the sheer code work", and specifically refers to "disparity in the code base".  Not disparity in settings, but disparity in the code base.

[Archaed 2,280]

5 minutes ago, TheTrickster said:

That doesn't read as just some settings, when the product manager refers to "the sheer code work", and specifically refers to "disparity in the code base".  Not disparity in settings, but disparity in the code base.

It's okay, I know what that means

[Tor 523]

Yeah Cadence is not a new server anymore. But latest on NFI cluster, i guess. The same treatment should get Xanadu then, fort SFI cluster, refer it as a new server. Also in Freedom isles (SFI) description there's a kind of warning that teft is a risk and it's your responsabilty to secure your items with locks and stuff. Who there's no such warning for NFI to scare people off from a theft?

 

7 hours ago, Archaed said:

The differences in nfi and SFI are not code. The only differences he's referred to in code are the client. I've not seen any discussion on them being separate codebases. 

 

My bad, went digging. 

 

It's not entirely different code or something that needs to be compiled in two separate ways like the client, it's just different settings, the way one thing works on one server might not work the same on the other. So it's not something that has to be managed

So, where do you dig this info? Can you point us so we can see what's the difference and make decision where we wanna play? I mean, if it's a not a secret.

 

It's nice if people have a proper info and then decide themself where they wanna play, not just being assumed or being just told where should play or what experince they wanna have

[Shmeric 581]

2 hours ago, Archaed said:

To be fair, it's still the most populous and active server, and by those rights new players will get the better community experience, right? 

One could argue, this is thanks to the pointy sign "go here" for 20 months. If that sign pointed to Harmony, population stats could be different.

 

From Niarja, April. Quick count, don't quote these to the overlords.

Cadence, 75 new deeds, 72 disbanded, 50 by upkeep (66% of founded)

Harmony, 39 new deeds. 37 disbanded, 28 by upkeep (72% of founded)

Nearly the same ratio.

Now, if the pointy sign were to point towards Harmony, one could argue these 36 extra deeds that Cadence got, would be in Harmony and you/we could say "it is the most active server..."

Right?

But I'm not arguing.

 

However, I don't think one server deserves to get promoted over others like that. Especially with a 20 month old "new" label.

If the idea is to funnel most new players to one server "for better community experience", then why even maintain the rest?

 

[Tor 523]

And that "better community experince"  explains the current player retention. Because it's so much better everyone wanna stay

[mysterydate 49]

Kinda like having Indy as the starter server ...same thing ..other servers die while one is filled 

[Cecci 1,609]

12 minutes ago, mysterydate said:

Kinda like having Indy as the starter server ...same thing ..other servers die while one is filled 

I agree, that was also a terrible idea!

[ofLegends 33]

On 5/25/2022 at 7:29 AM, Archaed said:

To be fair, it's still the most populous and active server, and by those rights new players will get the better community experience, right? 

 

No. Players are looking for different things.
Like I said in the OP, some people want to just get on and find a spot ASAP. They don't care where it is, what's nearby, or even who is nearby. These are the ones giving the game its recent negative publicity on steam atm.

Others are looking for impressive views, like what you'd get from Xanadu or Independence. The ones who care about community in itself would probably avoid Cadence entirely, because, as it's a "new server," they will assume it's 90% new players who aren't yet established.

 

 

On 5/25/2022 at 10:52 AM, Shmeric said:

One could argue, this is thanks to the pointy sign "go here" for 20 months. If that sign pointed to Harmony, population stats could be different.

[......]

Now, if the pointy sign were to point towards Harmony, one could argue these 36 extra deeds that Cadence got, would be in Harmony and you/we could say "it is the most active server..."

Right?

[......]

 

That's exactly my point. One could argue that, and I do. I don't understand why people keep saying Cadence is the most active like it's a selling point, as if there's not a sign constantly pointing every new player to Cadence since its creation. It probably sees the most unique account logins, but obviously that doesn't mean they keep playing.

Edited May 26, 2022 by ofLegends