Player Numbers & Server Splits

[Irongron]

Hi everyone.

As you probably noticed I recently moved a lot of areas from C&P to the Surface server. This was due to the fact that we are often hitting the player cap on the former server.

This change will not fix that problem, but will make it happen a little less frequently. Even during weekend peak hours I think we'll still have issues with both C&P and Surface filling up, so I will also be moving some areas to Distant Shores.

These will Sibayad, Burning Shores and Red Dragon Isle. All of these are more themetically fitting to Distant Shores, especially Sibayad, which itself is going to be getting a series of updates in the coming weeks.

Now for the good news.

I heard back today from Beamdog that my request to have the player cap removed for servers is approved. The ETA on that is unclear, but hopefully within a few weeks (barring any serious hurdle)

This will basically remove the player cap, which will jump from 96 to around 270. Now that's a huge increase, but just because we will be able to doesn't mean we should, as player numbers that high will definitely cause performance issues. Nevertheless, being able to theoretically support 800 players is definitely exciting.

As some of you may recall Arelith has a lot of promotion material, and an extremely strong network of players to do so. I firmly believe that there are yet many more people out there who would greatly enjoy the server IF they knew about it. Previously I decided to refrain from promotion until such time as first the new website was complete, and then again while I waited for EE to be released.

It's not yet time though. Not only would I prefer to see the player cap increased, but also until such a time as the most serious game bugs have been addressed. If we're going to spread flyers/reach out to RP communities I'd ideally not wish to invite them to play a game where they experience frequent crashes when crossing servers, or getting confusing 'Delete Character' messages when attempting to log in with an existing player name.

Still, I think together we have achieved incredible momentum lately, and that we can still do considerably more to expand our community. Arelith was in the unique position that it was growing significantly before EE, and see little reason why that can't continue.

I'm very proud as where we are as a community, and that is in large part down to you guys. Those of you that migrated from 1.69 have been doing an exceptional job of welcoming and aiding new players, while those of you that are new to us have brought with you an undeniable air of freshness to the server. Playing Arelith right now feels like I'm experiencing a whole new game, and is reminiscent of those very first years on Arelith over a decade ago.

I know also that there are frustrations we're all dealing with. The crashes I mentioned above are an issue, in addition to the great many bugs that we've been working through in getting Arelith fully functional on EE. Some of these we can fix ourselves, others we must rely on Beamdog to fix.

It is worth remembering that even for a company the size of Bioware NWN was never easy to stay on top of, indeed even at the time of its eventual demise a great many bugs in NWN were left unaddressed. Beamdog is a fraction of their size, so I suspect we may have to be patient with issues such as the crashing when crossing servers. After all, given we are the only server using multiple servers that is something they would be fixing specifically for ourselves, just as they are going to attempt to increase the player cap - AGAIN something which as of right now is only really an issue for Arelith. They really don't need to do this stuff, and I'm extremely grateful for that. Despite the frustration that goes with the outstanding bugs, I hope that at least is a gratitude we can all share.

Thanks for reading another of my long-winded posts! (Again something our veteran players are well used to by now)

[Gods_Kill_People]

Thank you for all your hard work, seriously, love this server and all the hard work that goes into making it a reality.

[TimeAdept]

Something to note about moving Red Dragon Island and Burning Shores to another server:

These are areas that, at all entrances, have enemies that spawn directly there. Now you are no longer able to prepare before entering these areas to handle spawns that have things like flying aoe knockdowns, high amounts of sneak attack, and giants hthat haste, incendiary cloud, and meteor swarm.

On top of this, travel to these areas has now been made exponentially more difficult - you can no longer use the portals on Burning Shores or RDI unless you're already on Distant Shores. In practice this means you could probably pay for the boat to sibayad every time you want to go there, but this isn't an option for Underdarkers and Outcasts, who now find themselves with the only way to RDI and the Burning Shores to be the 15k boat ride, or chartering a ship.

I do not know if there are portals on Skal - but if so, this also makes Skal much more accessible, as there are two way portals in RDI and Burning Shores that can now be used to access them.

I think the move to send these areas to Distant Shores is a good one, but I would suggest looking at the way portal crossover currently happens, and ensure that these areas aren't locked off from sections of the playerbase, or made overly difficult to get to, due to being on a new server that before was specifically designed to not have connections, due to bearing Skal.

[Irongron]

Yes, I have considered that TimeAdept, with the Burning Shores and RDI I will introduce 'buffer' areas, and will be moving/adjsusting portals also.

The other issue is respawning. We don't want people dying on Sibayard respawning in Skaljard for instance.

Thankfully I think have a solution to all these problems, which will also include some exciting new content.

[TimeAdept]

Great to hear that you're two steps ahead in big picture. Well done.

[Karris the Anarchist]

Over the last many years, I’ve witnessed a large variety of different PW teams, yet I’m continually in awe of the professionalism and skill with which you guys approach the project that is Arelith. Keep up the good work!

[Party in the forest at midnight]

Yeah, I'm really impressed at how quickly the dev team here reacts to things and works on improving the server.

[Kovacs]

Great! GCP should be pretty scalable (Contact me if you need contacts at Google) regarding performance and hopefully more players will chip in with some donor/patron support to cover the increased costs

I am a new player and am humbled by the great atmosphere you have created. Some mentoring/starting help with maybe rewards from the existing player base could maybe help not losing the uniqueness of this world ?

[Leshpar]

I am super happy with all the work you've been putting into the server. That and the story lines I'm dealing with in game will keep me coming back for a very long time to come.

[SockYeti]

I have already noticed a difference! I have yet to not be able to log in even during peek hours.

Great work and keep it up! 10 points Arelith Crew!