Newbie Zones: Ready for Launch?

[Lojik]

I know it's been mentioned before, but it really seems like the newbie zones are going to be practically unplayable at launch. Let's assume a population at the low end of estimates, 1000 players. You're probably looking at numbers something like ~350 on Faydwer, ~250 in Qeynos, ~200 in Freeport, ~150 in Oggok/Grobb, ~50 in Misty. Do you guys think GM's will add more mobs or have gms in different zones with /spawn command (I think someone mentioned they did this on some new servers on live.) If not, which zones do you think will be most able to handle the amount of players?

1) Freeport. Seems like a decent bet, as there are not one but two newbie yards. Dark elves will probably come here too, some will stay in nek. EC and Nro have some newbie stuff.

2) Qeynos. Probably going to be really awful. I think people will be attracted to this one with all the great newbie quests, but theres only one newbie yard, QH is relatively spaced out, and a lot of barbarian and erudite players will come here to hunt. Speaking of that....

3) Everfrost. Seems emptier of roaming gnolls and goblins than I remember on live, but we all know how reliable memory is. It's a tough start on blue for sure with hardly any level 1 roamers in those chasms. Maybe it won't be that bad on green since most mobs are level 2+ people can group and take them down, but still seems somewhat devoid of creatures to hunt.

4) Tox. Actually not as bad a newbie zone as you might think, but the current version on blue is littered with too many infected rats (75% of stuff north of the river maybe?) rather than stuff that drops armor/weapons. Seems to be a classic monster though so it's probably going to be like that at launch unless it gets fixed.

5) Misty. I don't know much about this zone, but since it's pretty much going to just be halflings here it might be a good bet. I am not familiar with mob density

6) Feerrott. Some camps here that are tough for single ogres to break, but should be doable with groups of ogres, so might not be that bad? Not sure if mob density is enough for peeps though, seems unlikely?

7) Innothule. I'm not sure there will be enough creatures here to hunt for the newbies, as you pretty much need to stay close to the wall. Unless some brave groups venture into the watery parts of the swamp, but there don't seem to be a high density of critters so I'm not sure it'd be worth it.

8) Gfay. I don't know shit about this place as a newbie zone, but it seems like a lot of people love it. How good is it going to be with 250+ (probably at a minimum) newbies looking to kill orcs. How is the monster density in this zone?

9) Steamfont. Also don't know shit about this zone, is there enough to hunt for 50 gnomes and some sprinkled wood/half/high elves that want to come here (maybe some dwarves?)

10) Butcher. Don't know much about this zone either but seems pretty spread out.

11) Neriak. Forest is ok I think, I'm assuming people will hunt the halflings on green. Probably a bunch gonna go to freeport.

What do you guys think?

[loramin]

I think the first few hours are going to be pure insanity, no matter what [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

But I think after that, we'll see it spill out all over the place. West Karana is full of stuff for low level players to level up on for instance. On Blue there's no reason to enter the zone until you're ready for Scarecrows or Bandits, but there's plenty of lower level animals no one even bothers to kill, because they can just go to Qeynos Hills/Everfrost (closer), or Blackburrow (has fangs) instead.

But if all those zones are full ... West Karana will be far from the only zone I think we'll be surprised to see low level people XPing in.

[Deathrydar]

Honestly, I am trying not to think about it. I am waiting to see what happens. After the outcry that happened here for something as simple as removing tab cycling targeting, I believe not as many people are actually after the classic experience and will stay on blue.

But, if it's crazy, then it's crazy. I am just going to soak it all in! [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[pink grapefruit]

We survived wow classic launch; this will be fine too. Don't expect to make huge gains right from the start tho lol

[Vizax_Xaziv]

Originally Posted by pink grapefruit [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

We survived wow classic launch; this will be fine too. Don't expect to make huge gains right from the start tho lol

Classic WOW uses a phasing mechanism to spread the population out based on player level, active quests etc.

That Westfall zone youre questing in, with 300 people, in just one of likely DOZENS of instances of that zone. Each Classic WOW server caps at 35,000 players (FULL on server select).

G99 will not even have dynamic noobie mob spawns let alone multiple phases of entire zones. The comparison is apples to cucumbers here.

[Verityn]

Originally Posted by Vizax_Xaziv [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Classic WOW uses a phasing mechanism to spread the population out based on player level, active quests etc.

That Westfall zone youre questing in, with 300 people, in just one of likely DOZENS of instances of that zone. Each Classic WOW server caps at 35,000 players (FULL on server select).

G99 will not even have dynamic noobie mob spawns let alone multiple phases of entire zones. The comparison is apples to cucumbers here.

The last EQ live TLP server I was on had layering too. I remember Unrest being fully camped on all of it's layers and I want to say there were 25 to 50 layers.

[pink grapefruit]

Originally Posted by Vizax_Xaziv [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Classic WOW uses a phasing mechanism to spread the population out based on player level, active quests etc.

That Westfall zone youre questing in, with 300 people, in just one of likely DOZENS of instances of that zone. Each Classic WOW server caps at 35,000 players (FULL on server select).

G99 will not even have dynamic noobie mob spawns let alone multiple phases of entire zones. The comparison is apples to cucumbers here.

35,000 pop w phasing seems comparable to 4,000ish w/o phasing. not sure what point ur tryina make here

[Lojik]

If there's a dearth of things to kill, would we see level 1 raids? Could they take down orcs in sro? Gnolls in bb?

[Chryorn]

Originally Posted by Lojik [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

If there's a dearth of things to kill, would we see level 1 raids? Could they take down orcs in sro? Gnolls in bb?

We will probably see groups of level ones and twos trying to kill things they usually wouldn't try to escape the overcrowded newbie areas. But with the way level and skill points determine hits given and taken it will get a lot of those groups wiped. It is going to be lots of fun.

[Vizax_Xaziv]

Originally Posted by pink grapefruit [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

35,000 pop w phasing seems comparable to 4,000ish w/o phasing. not sure what point ur tryina make here

No. The WOW phasing uses an algorithm to move people around based on player levels, active quests, mobs needed etc.

It's not simply multiple instances of zones.