looks like prob no origins comming :(

[reggie]

In terms of Origins and DAoC, I'm sorry that both Mythic and I have been rather silent regarding the game for quite a while. While I haven't been involved in posting about the game in years, we have had a ton of discussions about the game and its future for quite a while now.
UpToWar Devtracker - Mark Jacobs Speaks About Origins - Warhammer Online


Unfortunately, as you know we had layoffs at Mythic and that was one of the reasons we have been silent recently. I wasn't going to tell (or let anyone else tell the DAoC community) that Origins or anything else was coming once I even thought that a restructuring was going to happen within EA because then I would have been put into the position of knowingly lying to the community and I won't do that. We have shifted around some folks and our discussions about DAoC and it's future will continue. I will tell you something else though. When we looked into doing Origins we gathered player feedback about the idea and I was told that it wasn't overwhelmingly something the players supported or seemed to want. Nobody wants to see DAoC abandoned less than I do but right now we need to be rather careful and smart with our resources and make sure we do the right thing. If either current or former DAoC players want Origins, I'd love to see a real groundswell of demand to back that up.

 

[CorNokZ]

So what you're saying is that you haven't even started on Origins yet, which was supposed to be out august last year?

 

[GReaper]

To be fair, even if they had the resources to finish Origins - is there enough of a playerbase to justify it?

I can only see Origins harming the existing servers more than anything else. Unless they can get 2000-3000 new players coming back to fill an Origins server, it's just going to be shuffling the existing players between servers. The current populations of most servers are acceptable, but launching yet another server could cause problems for them.

Even though the excitement last year was quite positive of it, I seriously doubt they'll bother now. All the focus and resources are switched to WAR and trying to save it, keeping the subscriptions as high as possible. DAoC will linger on for quite a while if they keep up with small updates to make sure players remain happy. Cutting costs to keep DAoC running for as long as possible is better than them dropping it too early and upsetting remaining players.

 

[Mabs]

1-800-SawThatOneComingAMileOff

ace, so not suprised by that !

still, a bit of a bastard

 

[Everz]

Not really a let down it was going to be horrid anyways.

Bring on New Old Frontiers change though as mentioned on VN by lori .

 

[Bahumat]

One issue is if it fails, they cant cluster it with anything.

 

[pjuppe]

fuck you, mark.

 

[fettoken]

F*ck. I guess i have to eat my earlier words about Origins being released soon then.

 

[CorNokZ]

Not really a let down it was going to be horrid anyways.

Bring on New Old Frontiers change though as mentioned on VN by lori .

linkage?

 

[Bahumat]

linkage?

chainage?

 

[CorNokZ]

chainage?

failage?

 

[Everz]

linkage?

http://vnboards.ign.com/daoc_general_board/b5176/110442528/p1/?105

Also patches up way before the ETA, all problems fixed and they actually gave minstrel the sorc charm off feedback alone.. im impressed, mythic under Lori are getting there act together .

 

[Malogrin]

who needs origins anyway

 

[Bahumat]

VN Boards - Question About RvR in DAoC

Also patches up way before the ETA, all problems fixed and they actually gave minstrel the sorc charm off feedback alone.. im impressed, mythic under Lori are getting there act together .

Haha Shame VN aren't. I clicked the link and saw this.

Service Unavailable

 

[Everz]

Haha Shame VN aren't. I clicked the link and saw this.

Service Unavailable

In a nutshell its Lori asking about daoc rvr for further updates inc.

 

[Cadaveth]

They managed to mess up RPs though, I got 30k in 20 mins

 

[Bahumat]

They managed to mess up RPs though, I got 30k in 20 mins

yeah then they rolled the servers back.

In all honesty, origins would be good. However the TOA servers are fairly easy to equip your character so its not a big thing for me. When TOA came out I was not a fan because it took so long to do/get anything.

I was saying to some friends the other day: "instead of origins or daoc2 (in a typical sequal sense), why not remake daoc. It's be the same game, but you could have better graphics, maybe use the WAR guild UI to make life easier, but try and keep it the same daoc we know and love."

It's a shame because with fancy new graphics etc it may not pull in new players, just ex/current daoc'ers.

Oh and dual logging something with better graphics would be a bitch no doubt!

 

[old.windforce]

fact that you kinda "need" 2 accounts is kinda hmmzzz

 

[Bahumat]

fact that you kinda "need" 2 accounts is kinda hmmzzz

Yeah, maybe have a buff bot NPC who gives you all the buffs

 

[Afran]

Better really, the population increase from Origins being released (returning old players) would not outweigh the population split on current clusters.

As for buffbots they wouldn't do that for the same reason as above imo More buffbot accounts would be closed than how many players would play again

 

[Everz]

fact that you kinda "need" 2 accounts is kinda hmmzzz

Never had 2 accounts and always survived, buff begging/charges/pots or rolling a vamp/friar/mauler etc is the way to beat the buffbot need.

 

[Sneakers<>Matriarch]

To be fair, even if they had the resources to finish Origins - is there enough of a playerbase to justify it?

I can only see Origins harming the existing servers more than anything else. Unless they can get 2000-3000 new players coming back to fill an Origins server, it's just going to be shuffling the existing players between servers. The current populations of most servers are acceptable, but launching yet another server could cause problems for them.

Even though the excitement last year was quite positive of it, I seriously doubt they'll bother now. All the focus and resources are switched to WAR and trying to save it, keeping the subscriptions as high as possible. DAoC will linger on for quite a while if they keep up with small updates to make sure players remain happy. Cutting costs to keep DAoC running for as long as possible is better than them dropping it too early and upsetting remaining players.

The problem with reasoning like this is that you assume unhappy players are gonna stay with the game longer just b/c there is no Origins server as an alternative. Just logically flawed in the very base of the assumption. Marc Jacobs isn't acting just 'cus of this possibility.

But I have to ask, who would stay in a game they are unhappy with indefintely but would as soon as anything they wanted more came jump ship? Answer is that it doesn't go hand in hand, an unhappy customer wouldn't stay, he would move on..and would come back when he get x y z that he desire from the game.

I'm very close on quitting daoc again after my 8 man group died out since there is nothing this game has to offer when it comes to none 8v8. Solo = duells, sometimes amusing I admit that. The other is bridge camping, or dock camping, tower camping both wich will make you face more nummbers then you can handle and you will be outnumbered and killed each and every time - you lost total control of wich playstyle you want to be subjected to.

Small scale, cannot kill 8 mans, not fun to kill soloers or newbies who have 0 chance, might aswell go wank off. Small group in a zerg, standing at dc/brynja/occasus bridge, unable to do anything, unable to achieve anything since you cannot fight a simular size zerg + guards + structures.

The opposing zerg gains nothing by attacking, bolt casters, archers just whore rps killing eachother over and over again. Melee chars, support hybrid classes are basically just wasting their time.

Now this is how I feel about NF and I know many others who quit over the years do aswell. These people have moved on long ago since they found that NF didnt offer them anything that OF didnt do so much better in terms of all around RvR and enjoyment.

So take me as an example of a the somehwat unhappy customer mythic so desperatly want to clinge on to, WHY would I stay in the game when I'm not enjoying myself? Answer is I won't I will leave to 95% certainy next time subs are up.

If I loved the server rules, the NF, the toa and so on and was more happy then ever, why would I then move to Origin just because people who already left the server and came back filled the server? I have no incentive other then that it is higher population and that I don't mind OF so win-win situation, right? I will be happy regardless.

So in the end you are left with 2 options:

1) Revive the game, take abit of a risc - but if it works out as planned huge returns.

2) Just maintain and observe for another 8 months, while the nummbers dwindle further downwards. And eventually we will see exactly what happend to Dyvet but at large scale - people leave not 'cus they don't enjoy the idea of the game, but since that idea is no longer present, too low population to support a healthy gameplay and then people move on.

I can gurantee that this is the way daoc is heading, just a matter of how long time it will take.

I don't see how they cannot go with option 1. I think it is a prity poor decision from the ones in the boardroom, and especially from the CEO that has the original VISION of the game. I think they are content with what they have and that they really don't give us, the customers, one bit of thought - it is about money, as always and we are not taking a backseat place but rather riding in the trunk, shoot in the head wrapped in plastic for the nearest lake.

 

[Sneakers<>Matriarch]

Just read all the replys MJ posted on that linky, and it seem like the company, is more or less stuck on the possibility that the players that hate doac atm will stay and slowly witter away, still making it profitable enough to keep doac alive rather then thinking in the lines of a revive.

What I find funny though, is that the whole idea of Origins when it was raised on VN boards didn't include mayor overhauls that would jepordize the current population in a manner where you would end up with 0 players in 3 months time.

Mythic themsleves started to implement new things and elements, like they wanted to ruin the whole project on puropse to have an excuse to not do it.

Ponder they only did one thing, revert to OF, keep all the expansions and get rid of Agramon - only have to put the Laby port in the home frontiers, like a DF zone.

Now say they can raise the same excitment as they had last summer, was numerous of guilds talking about renewing and running 8 mans, all over the forums was talk about setups and whatnot. Make one server like this, and then cluster the rest of the NF servers on US and let EU be.

Now say my theory is right, and the people who like NF stays, since they would probably have quit anyway if they didnt like it, and the ones who move to the new Origins server are the ones who was unhappy and about to quit anyway.

Now this new Origins server has 3k pop. And say the people who where happy about NF but doesn't mind OF also change server, now we have a minor problem where the people who hate OF ( for whatever reason ) stays on the NF server but find themself alone, or a much lower population, and to the point where people just quit since there is noone around.

Now all of sudden you have one healthy server, and one dead server. The mayority of people are happy with the new server and a minority is upset since it killed their NF server. The end justifys the means in this scenario. A mayority is happy VS a 'happy minority' , an 'indiffrent minority' and a 'pending to quit any day very unhappy minority'.

This is as I see it a good solution, and also could warrant/justify a new wave of very aimed advertisement, and a possible opening of a new server.

I mean Jacobs talked about how they did advertise DAoC years ago and with limited success, I mean the obvious answer is that they hired a bad PR firm, I have never seen a single DAoC ad, ever. They should look at Blizzard and learn from them, how they with a mix of aimed pin point pr and a massive wave of pr pulls in millions of subbers with an average gameplay content with dated graphics aswell.

 

[Coldbeard]

Basically they are deciding to cling onto a dying game and rather have it fade away than go all out with origins as the final chapter of DAoC and make it end with a boom!

In a way I understand why they are unwilling to take such risks, they have their profits and costs to consider and they have to carefully weight their options. Origins definitly will affect the current population, but they have to ask themselves is the current population even worth substaining? For how long will it be? No doubt they've realized the game is at it's final stage and in my opinion it would be far better to put all efforts into one last round of DAoC and make it count instead of just fading out into oblivion. Sadly, EA Mythic seems to disagree.

 

[Sneakers<>Matriarch]

Basically they are deciding to cling onto a dying game and rather have it fade away than go all out with origins as the final chapter of DAoC and make it end with a boom!

In a way I understand why they are unwilling to take such risks, they have their profits and costs to consider and they have to carefully weight their options. Origins definitly will affect the current population, but they have to ask themselves is the current population even worth substaining? For how long will it be? No doubt they've realized the game is at it's final stage and in my opinion it would be far better to put all efforts into one last round of DAoC and make it count instead of just fading out into oblivion. Sadly, EA Mythic seems to disagree.

Everyone mentiones how it wil affect the current population, I don't see how you can reason like that.

In my previous post I kinda lined out the diffrent ways of thinking, quite unbias aswell I think.

And still I cannot see how introducing origins will make the ones who obviously like NF servers leave and play origins, and if they do then thats good isn't it since then they enjoy something else even more?

And if there is 3k population on one server that has a much greater potential then as we have it today, with one US cluster of 6-7-8 servers with a total of 1200 during prime. Even if it means a few hundered people who won't budge from the NF servers are affected by less population due to others changing to a server they like MORE, I would say it is worth it in every aspect you could possibly think of Oo.

Furthermore, MJ talked about money and resources and I can appriciate that argument since it is after all not charity they are conducting but still most of the changes they proposed came from themselves and they were complicated and wierd changes, that would take alot of resources and men to follow through.
Most people on the forums here on FH, VN, warcry and so on only wanted the OF zone back, they didn't care about wether the same classes was in the new server or if the same expansions where left in. After all ToA isn't a time sink anymore - and IMO is a rather good expansion in its current form. It is the damned NF zones that are so flawed to the very core that it is quite pointless to logon if your not 1) a stealther 2) have 8 man.

I think they will loose more people leaving due to finding out daoc has no future plannings then they would loose people due to NF servers beeing empty after an Origins release, and having the HC NF fans to play on <100 population clusters ( obviously quitting ).


Oh well, time to find an entirely new game to play, anyone seen anything good as of late?

 

[Everz]

Everyone mentiones how it wil affect the current population, I don't see how you can reason like that.

Because that current population are your active customers rather then those of who are canceled? Origins will kill normal servers, horrid idea tbh best thing to do is change NF to OF and everyone is happy. Not everyone wants to start again.

In my previous post I kinda lined out the diffrent ways of thinking, quite unbias aswell I think.

And still I cannot see how introducing origins will make the ones who obviously like NF servers leave and play origins, and if they do then thats good isn't it since then they enjoy something else even more?

Because the general population will leave if only to go and try it, look at classic servers on US, they were introduced and most of the ToA servers took a huge population hit they never really recovered from, people who stayed on NF left because there server became empty, again new server is bad.

And if there is 3k population on one server that has a much greater potential then as we have it today, with one US cluster of 6-7-8 servers with a total of 1200 during prime. Even if it means a few hundered people who won't budge from the NF servers are affected by less population due to others changing to a server they like MORE, I would say it is worth it in every aspect you could possibly think of Oo.

First all, get the delusion out of your head that this server will get 3k pop. for longer then a month. The ToA servers have a steady combined population in the 2500's range that has been steady for a long time, why would Mythic risk ruining that?
In the long term Origins server could kill the game.

Furthermore, MJ talked about money and resources and I can appriciate that argument since it is after all not charity they are conducting but still most of the changes they proposed came from themselves and they were complicated and wierd changes, that would take alot of resources and men to follow through.

Yes, the changes were retarded, they should just reroll to 1.65 which they have stored or just re-add OF in + laby ports etc

Most people on the forums here on FH, VN, warcry and so on only wanted the OF zone back, they didn't care about wether the same classes was in the new server or if the same expansions where left in. After all ToA isn't a time sink anymore - and IMO is a rather good expansion in its current form. It is the damned NF zones that are so flawed to the very core that it is quite pointless to logon if your not 1) a stealther 2) have 8 man.

See the above.

I think they will loose more people leaving due to finding out daoc has no future plannings then they would loose people due to NF servers beeing empty after an Origins release, and having the HC NF fans to play on <100 population clusters ( obviously quitting ).

If anything the past weeks has shown me that DAOC has a future, Lori took over and already you can see the changes , there giving feedback and listening to the customers (look at minstrel perma charm). There wanted to know what the cutstomers want by the numerous polls and threads on VN. DAOC has alot of life in it and Mythic are doing something they havent done for years, showing that it has a future. Hell look in the New OF, its all nice and updated with new structures, all the mobs/guards back in and what not.. all the proof i need that DAOC has a future.

Oh well, time to find an entirely new game to play, anyone seen anything good as of late?

If you baseing you decision to play a game whether it has a future or not then don't bother, always thought they were there for fun myself .

 

[Pertan]

What bugged me the most about those posts is that Mark has no idea what the status is on daoc, just how much money it makes.
Shouldn't be that hard to get a weekly update by someone who works on the game.

 

[Sneakers<>Matriarch]

Because that current population are your active customers rather then those of who are canceled? Origins will kill normal servers, horrid idea tbh best thing to do is change NF to OF and everyone is happy. Not everyone wants to start again.

Can't really do this since alot of people like NF, and that means you have to give people an option 1) play nf 2) play of. If people rather play NF on a dead server then thats the price they will pay for their preference. All the people who wants to enjoy OF will do so, and not giving them an OF server with the reason that the NF server ( and the minority who likes it there ) will suffer is not enough. It is a flawed assumption to think that people will settle for mediocre and something they do not fully enjoy, for a short period yes people tend to settle but indefinatly, no way - they will call it quits, and especially now when the whole OF server idea is killed off.
The whole idea that the NF servers will die due to one OF server means it will be appealing to alot of people, wich is justification enough to release and go forward with it.

Because the general population will leave if only to go and try it, look at classic servers on US, they were introduced and most of the ToA servers took a huge population hit they never really recovered from, people who stayed on NF left because there server became empty, again new server is bad.

Classic servers where released when ToA server still where a timesink ultra ZZzz to retamplate and farm gear on, and so on. So the comparision isn't really on a 1:1 basis.
But you are right, some people will leave just to try it out, the thing is..OF isn't something people really need to try out to know that they will prefer it, alot of people KNOW they prefer OF over NF and also have strong arguments to why they would. Other people will know NF server is what they prefer, and only a smaller part will be the JO-JOing people who 1) havn't played OF before 2) are indiffrent and only sheep after where other people go. Also this Origins server will mean NEW SUBS, if hyped and PR'ed right. Mythic havn'thad this opportunity for years and years and they just 'passed' it. Now the game will witter away.

So as I said before, you will end up with a lesser portion of QQing ppl on the NF servers complaining about how OF server ruined their population and they now have to quit. But you will most likely also end up with a 3k capped OF server with alot of returning players, who might not have subbed to mythic for years. These people also have played other games since they quit daoc and might attract players they met in other games, the potential is deffonatly there and good thing could come out of it.

So slowly dying NF server wittering away VS potentially 3k population OF server + hype + some advertising ( directed PR) + QQing minority on NF servers.

First all, get the delusion out of your head that this server will get 3k pop. for longer then a month. The ToA servers have a steady combined population in the 2500's range that has been steady for a long time, why would Mythic risk ruining that?
In the long term Origins server could kill the game.

The delusion is that people unhappy with the game atm with no present plans for the future will stay with the game. The game is wittering away, once enough "unhappy" players left it will reach a certain point where even the happy players will start to feel the consequences of an even lower population then before, and they too will leave, and the snowball is rolling.

Yes, the changes were retarded, they should just reroll to 1.65 which they have stored or just re-add OF in + laby ports etc

This server will have a 3k population if released correctly, as in no bullshit addons - people want Origins not some fancy new version of the game, wich is what the dev team or game designers where doing/working on.

Some marketing, get people interested in it, and yes 3k population instantly. Wether or not people will stay depends on the RvR balance, and how much content there is - if keeping ToA, craftings, dragon and so on there is alot of content to back this new server with. So the question will be do people prefer OF or NF, if they prefer OF they will stay, of not they will return to NF.
If the mayority decides to play OF that server will flurish, and if NF servers die from that then so be it, atm NF servers ain't doing that good, hand havn't for quite some time. If OF servers is not what people want they will head back to NF servers.

Most likely, the people who stayed with the game for all these years on the NF servers are 1) Happy with NF don't like OF 2) Indiffrent 3) somewhat unhappy with NF hoping for OF server. Now group 2 and 3, will most likely be in mayority to group 1, so if these people vanish from the server and play on an OF server then, yes the NF server will struggle in nummbers even more. But these people will also enjoy the new OF server alot. In the end you cannot acommondate everyone, and if you / mythic think people who are not that much into NF will stay indefinatly with no plans for future improvements ( A FUTURE ) they are wrong, they will just let subs run out = loss population.

So again the options are 1) do nothing, let the community witter away. 2) Do an OF server, and revive the game, get old people back with 14 day trials, and an e-mail campagne(sp) to oldies, and advertise on the larger gaming sites in hope of attracing ALL NEW players.

I would be very surprised if it didn't cap this server in matter of days. All the people on Freeshards would look to this server, that alone will be over 10k ppl. If this means a ~1200/~2000 ( US and Eu ) NF cluster dies for a 3k pop OF server then thats a good trade, IF you can keep the new people, wich I think you could.

If anything the past weeks has shown me that DAOC has a future, Lori took over and already you can see the changes , there giving feedback and listening to the customers (look at minstrel perma charm). There wanted to know what the cutstomers want by the numerous polls and threads on VN. DAOC has alot of life in it and Mythic are doing something they havent done for years, showing that it has a future. Hell look in the New OF, its all nice and updated with new structures, all the mobs/guards back in and what not.. all the proof i need that DAOC has a future.

US largest TOA cluster has around 1200-1400 prime, the other cluster is dead and if not clustered people on there will 1) quit the game 2) have to reroll on Devon. Don't see where yo gotten then 2500+ nummbers from, on Eu servers atm there is a declinage in nummbers again, and is dipping down from the +2000 mark.

And I don't see how we can assume this game will see any improvements just because they say so, they have a habbit of lying, exagerating and ommiting the truth on a consistant basis, they will say whatever you want to hear to keep your sub for a month longer. That they still have OF zones with updated graphics and guards on the US test server is just sad. I wounder what would happend if people activly just copied their chars over there and used the glitch to get into OF and conduct 8v8 and random RvR in there instead of on the live server, that would be interesting.

If you baseing you decision to play a game whether it has a future or not then don't bother, always thought they were there for fun myself .

Well I'm not gonna play a game that I see have no future, as in broken things remain broken, and a flawed RvR area remains flawed..that is to me not fun at all, and as you said yourself most ppl play to have fun, as simple as that.

 

[Everz]

Can't really do this since alot of people like NF, and that means you have to give people an option 1) play nf 2) play of. If people rather play NF on a dead server then thats the price they will pay for their preference. All the people who wants to enjoy OF will do so, and not giving them an OF server with the reason that the NF server ( and the minority who likes it there ) will suffer is not enough. It is a flawed assumption to think that people will settle for mediocre and something they do not fully enjoy, for a short period yes people tend to settle but indefinatly, no way - they will call it quits, and especially now when the whole OF server idea is killed off.
The whole idea that the NF servers will die due to one OF server means it will be appealing to alot of people, wich is justification enough to release and go forward with it.

Right so your saying that we should introduce a OF server simply to kill off the NF servers where people have worked and worked on characters for years, even though those servers (Devon) is hitting 2100 at prime (reached this Sunday)?

Noone wants to start over again at this stage in the game and be forced to have to move because of the one server.

The demand for OF is blinded by nostalgia, there really isnt much wrong with the game as it is atm. Again it back to the fact as to why do Mythic want to ignore there existing customers to flip them off to try and please people who will hang around for a month then leave.

Classic servers where released when ToA server still where a timesink ultra ZZzz to retamplate and farm gear on, and so on. So the comparision isn't really on a 1:1 basis.
But you are right, some people will leave just to try it out, the thing is..OF isn't something people really need to try out to know that they will prefer it, alot of people KNOW they prefer OF over NF and also have strong arguments to why they would. Other people will know NF server is what they prefer, and only a smaller part will be the JO-JOing people who 1) havn't played OF before 2) are indiffrent and only sheep after where other people go. Also this Origins server will mean NEW SUBS, if hyped and PR'ed right. Mythic havn'thad this opportunity for years and years and they just 'passed' it. Now the game will witter away.

Alot of people prefer NF to OF, your going to hurt the pop either way. Origins is flawed to death people only wanted it because on paper it sounded like a rollback to 1.65 which it wasnt. Hype has long died down and most realized that the idea was wrong from the beginning, it needed more thought and work to be perfected so admittedly Mythic did go the wrong way about doing this. The game has grown in the past 4 months, theres servers (german one at 2500) and (devon at 2100) plus a host of others in the 600-1000.. how is the game withering away when it is re-growing if anything when compared to WAR release where devon was hitting a low 600 and german 1000?

So as I said before, you will end up with a lesser portion of QQing ppl on the NF servers complaining about how OF server ruined their population and they now have to quit. But you will most likely also end up with a 3k capped OF server with alot of returning players, who might not have subbed to mythic for years. These people also have played other games since they quit daoc and might attract players they met in other games, the potential is deffonatly there and good thing could come out of it.

There wont be 3k capped OF server blah blah that you dreaming of mate, the same issues that remain in DAOC will still be there. Noone wants to start from scratch as i've already said. OF on normal server.. that would cause a buzz as everyone will be able to play there old chars in OF.. minimum hassle and maximum profit by that as people will think 'ah nice, i only have to sub and i can give it a try and not have to do 1-50'.

Why bother if you clustered the ToA US servers you would hit 3k anyways?

So slowly dying NF server wittering away VS potentially 3k population OF server + hype + some advertising ( directed PR) + QQing minority on NF servers.

Dying? No, its been growing at a huge rate over the past 4 months, like i said prior point at WAR release Devon was at 700 and the others around it floating at the 300s, now Devon is at 2100 and the others hitting the 700s?.. How is that dying. thats growth man.

Only QQing ones are the minority who really havent played in god knows how many years still harping on about gimme my OF wah wah wah. It's gone and past we've all dealt with it and are still having fun, why can't y'all?

The delusion is that people unhappy with the game atm with no present plans for the future will stay with the game. The game is wittering away, once enough "unhappy" players left it will reach a certain point where even the happy players will start to feel the consequences of an even lower population then before, and they too will leave, and the snowball is rolling.

How is it wittering away again? Have you ever seen the populations/growths lately?

Everyones happy atm, the action is great and works well with NF tbh as theres fights wherever you go as at 2k~ish mark it has the population to support it.

This server will have a 3k population if released correctly, as in no bullshit addons - people want Origins not some fancy new version of the game, wich is what the dev team or game designers where doing/working on.
Some marketing, get people interested in it, and yes 3k population instantly. Wether or not people will stay depends on the RvR balance, and how much content there is - if keeping ToA, craftings, dragon and so on there is alot of content to back this new server with. So the question will be do people prefer OF or NF, if they prefer OF they will stay, of not they will return to NF.
If the mayority decides to play OF that server will flurish, and if NF servers die from that then so be it, atm NF servers ain't doing that good, hand havn't for quite some time. If OF servers is not what people want they will head back to NF servers.

But theres no point shoving up a server so that it split a healthy population, thats all i have to say on the subject, focus on what you have got an improve it rather then go off onto Origins etc.

Most likely, the people who stayed with the game for all these years on the NF servers are 1) Happy with NF don't like OF 2) Indiffrent 3) somewhat unhappy with NF hoping for OF server. Now group 2 and 3, will most likely be in mayority to group 1, so if these people vanish from the server and play on an OF server then, yes the NF server will struggle in nummbers even more. But these people will also enjoy the new OF server alot. In the end you cannot acommondate everyone, and if you / mythic think people who are not that much into NF will stay indefinatly with no plans for future improvements ( A FUTURE ) they are wrong, they will just let subs run out = loss population.

Where did you get this don't like OF/like NF etc bullshit from?

I like NF and OF i wouldnt mind a server with either on, but from what i can tell the populations that are playing at the moment are extremely happy, the action is solid 24/7 and no 'gimme OF' moans anywhere. Your coming across as quite a bitter outsider mate from the sounds of it, you havent played in what.. a year or so? So you opinion on the current playerbase is pretty much void.

So again the options are 1) do nothing, let the community witter away. 2) Do an OF server, and revive the game, get old people back with 14 day trials, and an e-mail campagne(sp) to oldies, and advertise on the larger gaming sites in hope of attracing ALL NEW players.

I would be very surprised if it didn't cap this server in matter of days. All the people on Freeshards would look to this server, that alone will be over 10k ppl. If this means a ~1200/~2000 ( US and Eu ) NF cluster dies for a 3k pop OF server then thats a good trade, IF you can keep the new people, wich I think you could.

Or option 3) Improve on what they've got, advertise, offer returns, emails, dev blogs and the works.. pretty much what they are doing now. Like i said you out of touch in what DAOC is like at the moment as you seem to be spouting stuff that the playerbase simply arent saying or wanting.

10k pop on shards? There a reason people play them.. there free, just because DAOC opens a server it doesnt mean they will come flooding in.

3k Pop will never ever happen, again why sacrifice a healthy current playerbase?

US largest TOA cluster has around 1200-1400 prime, the other cluster is dead and if not clustered people on there will 1) quit the game 2) have to reroll on Devon. Don't see where yo gotten then 2500+ nummbers from, on Eu servers atm there is a declinage in nummbers again, and is dipping down from the +2000 mark.

Nice,
Devon hit 2100 on sunday prime and regularly gets 1800's by 10GMT.
Killibury gets around 800 on sunday prime and regularly gets 600 by 10GMT.
Bossiney gets around 900 on sunday prime and regularly gets 750 by 10GMT.

Do the maths.

I dont know EU server, i can only tell by the people i speak with who actually PLAY there who tell me the pops of the german cluster currently. Theres no decline my friend, just growth, stop clutching onto straws with this one, face the facts that no OF because DAOC is gaining alot more subs off just being a better game atm.

And I don't see how we can assume this game will see any improvements just because they say so, they have a habbit of lying, exagerating and ommiting the truth on a consistant basis, they will say whatever you want to hear to keep your sub for a month longer. That they still have OF zones with updated graphics and guards on the US test server is just sad. I wounder what would happend if people activly just copied their chars over there and used the glitch to get into OF and conduct 8v8 and random RvR in there instead of on the live server, that would be interesting.

Not possible to rvr on pend but still, there evidence there working, interest in the customers wants on VN and so forth which i explained in my last post.

Well I'm not gonna play a game that I see have no future, as in broken things remain broken, and a flawed RvR area remains flawed..that is to me not fun at all, and as you said yourself most ppl play to have fun, as simple as that.

What broken atm? The game is more balanced then it has ever been, stop letting nostalgia block the realism heh. RvR zones are pretty fun atm, action in DF/Laby and NF alongside Molvik/Thid most nights? I'm not complaining so what if DAOC doesnt have a future, everything gotta die sometime its all about the fun factor before it does.

 

[CorNokZ]

tl;dr

Can someone sum up this thread, lol?