A Land Far Away

Twiggy wanted me to post thus, so here it is.

Only if we can supersize l00t and xp on the others.

Server reduction is not necessary for consolidation IMHO, it just takes PROACTIVE players.

i'm the first apathy vote. w00t!

I'm not apathetic, but I'm not Yes or No either. Maybe remove "dead" servers slowly instead of culling ALFA down to 4-5 servers immediately.

I just think that we should keep our current situation in mind when expanding the current number of servers in ALFA2.

To enable standardization, communication, global DM's, server enhancements (builders/scrippies), AND player density, I think it is needed.

Aerthrin wrote:To enable standardization, communication ... DM's, server enhancements (builders/scrippies)...

While less servers do make this easier, its not terribly so. And perhaps more key, its not going to get any better this late in the game in NWN1. Technical standarization is already out the window, as far as I can tell no serious effort was ever really made towards it. Its on the menu in big bold letters for NWN2, but its not a whole lot harder to make it work for 5 servers than 10.

What is easier for me is when each server team has a tech-savvy member instead of every other server team. But thats true of anything, more talent in one place generally helps.

What's so wrong about Ronan's "campaign server" idea?

Oh yes - it's reasonable, a good compromise and middle-ground... and this is ALFA.

I'm all for downsizing.
Just make sure we can accomodate large numbers on whatever servers we decide to keep, as I am seeing Sembia almost to capacity, and that will cause serious lag, especially when people start logging in and out, keeping their vaults cluttered, etc etc.
If we need to travel to some other place, like, say, a server that gets shut down, we can merely bring the areas in that we need, then, remove them.

I see Ronan's idea as a good compromise. Hopefully we can have one or two of our more capable hosts move from a dead server to the most densely populated ones as well. Dungeonserver is becoming more and more like an unacceptable hosting solution.

Alara wrote:What's so wrong about Ronan's "campaign server" idea?

Oh yes - it's reasonable, a good compromise and middle-ground... and this is ALFA.

Hah! Sorry. I meant... hah! hah!

So let me get this straight. If we have a host, we have active DM's, keep our server current, and yet for some reason only have X amount of players, we will be given the boot?

I see this as a temporary solution to the density problem. With such a small community we should focus our energy on fewer servers and try to make the ALFA experience as good as possible. We simply don't have enough members to have more than (about) four servers at the moment. That's how I see it.

In my opinion cutting servers at this point will do a tiny fraction of good compared to the tension and animosity it will cause in the community. No one wants the server they are on to be cut.

How can this possibly serve to aid ALFA as we move forward, I can only see flames and bickering as a result, and lingering resentment at a time where moving into NWN2 is far more important than consolidating NWN1.

We're more creative than resorting to downsizing, theres been many threads about improving content, and as I posted a few days ago, the server numbers have been relatively strong lately.

WD, Sembia, TPI, DF, BG, TLR, NC, NU - all of these have had strong numbers lately, and cutting the others would not serve the cause of density one bit, as the players on those servers, if so few indeed, will scarcely make a mark on the others.

Downsizing = tension and bad feelings in the community, I realize that every single ALFAn thinks they could manage the situation better than any other ALFAn, but I truly do not see the small benefit of grouping players as overweighing more crap on the boards and hurt feelings of those who've likely done nothing wrong with their servers.

I don't really see this as bringing so much good for the community. So far I see it bringing up more bickering and screaming. Personally I wouldn't mind one bit if a HDM said "Well it seems nobody wants to play on my server, so I will take it down and DM owhere the players are." That said I think as was mentioned alrady before, that we should keep the current situation in mind when we plan for a expansion for ALFA with NWN 2, cause honestly, I don't see the new engine bringing a gazillion of new players.