Other people had mentioned not being able to login before due to server being packed, but it never happened to me until just now.
I went to a site that others provided to see how many players is actually on, and it seems the maximum number of players a server can hold is 6,000 max (5950 spaces for players, 50 reserved for GM).
I recall when L2 was first introduced at 2004, they said max players possible per server is 5,000, so 6,000 is probably a newer server.
Other MMORPG games now have server that can hold 20,000 players, let alone 10,000 players.
I don't own a game company so I don't know how much it cost to buy a server, and I am not a game designer so I don't know if L2 will be compatible to new server.
What I do know is that NC should have expected a huge influx of players when they go Free to Player or use the parallel server system (same server, just have multiple channels) like how other Free to Play servers run.
If I were NC, I would probably go with the parallel server system, I know they have old servers lying around, so it costs way less than buying a new one that holds 20,000 players.
Anyway, just throwing this out there, food for thoughts.
They are adding more servers. They have already opened 2 new ones since going F2P. I wouldn't be surprised if the numbers stay solid that they have another one on its way. Alot of the new players I think will start quiting after hitting the grind, so I don't think they want to be to hasty in just creating servers like crazy, because nothing say headache to them and their customers like a server merge. (each time they have merged they lost a good chunk of players)
That and the game has gone F2P. It's not going to spend alot more then its making off the game this late in its life. When games go F2P they are essentially doing a last ditch effort to keep some money flowing to keep the servers turned on.
I know they created two new servers, which in my opinion was a bad idea.
They should have used the parallel server system, where it's still Chronos, but it has channel 1, 2, and 3 etc, you can use old servers for this so there is no need to buy new ones.
I totally would agree that some new players will quit, but from my experience of leveling a brand new character, grinding does not start until 86 now, so those who got ADDICTED will not give up something they worked so far.
In a way, it's sort of a mind game tricking the newcomers, it is like "Hey look! You are so close to level 99 to beat the game, why give up at level 86? Come on~~~ Come on~~~ Come on~~~!"
One thing I would add though, is that the NC is really bad at selling stuff, look that the things they sell at L2 Galleria and L2 Store, other than 50% EXP/SP, all others are not that attractive for buying.
They should really learn from other Free to Play game companies on how to make money, just look at NEXON and Perfect World, they are super at ripping players' wallets apart.
The game has been more or less dead for the past few years, they even had to shut down several servers because there wasn't enough revenue to keep them up, nor sustainable populations on them to make the game fun.
The game came to the point where it had 2 servers only.
Now its gone F2P and of course a big influx of players will come, but one thing is the players that come and another the players that stay.
A lot will come, there will be plenty of "ohhh" and "ahhh" and "=O" but after the first impression is gone, some will remain and some will leave.
so they can't just go crazy and launch 10 servers........... only to see them populated by a scarse few players. Its simply better to Err on the side of caution, and start with 2 servers, and monitor how many players join, and more importantly, how many players STAY.
once they've gauged that, they will open more servers acordingly. We just gotta be patient, and endure the storm while it lasts.
I agree with you on the servers. But the thing is, with all the new games coming out, it's near impossible to predict how may steady players there will be. They did the GoD for the players that have paid and played for a really long time. Now they can charge the long time players even more for all the Galleria stuff.
There will be a huge number of people that just want to see what L2 is all about since it's free and most will abandon it sooner rather than later. It's unfortunate, because L2 has some cool features, but it's not exactly user friendly.
Personally I have played off and on since 2005 and have 2.5 years of paid time, for 2 accounts so I have some serious time and money in. I stopped playing a few years ago because of financial issues, so now that's it's free I thought I could come back and have a great time. I have played GoD and made up some new characters on the Magmeld server and had some fun doing some quests, but I realize after trying to log in and play and not being able to, the lag in the towns, getting disconnected on a regular basis. Even free, I think I'll pass for now.
New servers or not, this is a game for the people on Chronos and Naia.
Only thing comes in mind is EVE and they are using totally different cluster system for their world. And when they do end up having huge amount of players in one place they do lag as hell.
A lot of people have to realize that the L2 world is not instanced; not heavily like WoW or Everquest where each "map" is an instance.
I propose to the OP an experiment once he reaches level 60 or so since before that he won't be able to do it.
Port to ANY town, and start walking to a town on the opposite side of the map, see how many loading screens you get.
I think you'll be surprised to find NONE. I dare you to play any other MMO where this happens that is out there today; walk from Gludin towards Giran and then head to Aden, you can walk all the way; it's a bit boring but it's possible.
That's why this game has a very low ceiling for players; you can't cheat your way around the open world; wich also is one of the biggest in the market.
Even the "dungeons" are not instanced, they exist as the same shard of the world; this is why the open PvP has any meaning at all, you can't "hide" in another shard, all of your friends and enemies spawn with you in the same world.
Try it OP, go for a walk, you will find Aden is rather big; it should help you understand just how stressful on the servers is keeping a database in real time of what is spawning where.
Oh and by the way; pick up your trash, it lags the server.
There's global crisis people stop asking for stuff they cannot afford.
There are demands and suggestions, I am suggesting that they use old servers to do parallel server system, but it's something they should have thought of a long time ago.
I agree with you on the servers. But the thing is, with all the new games coming out, it's near impossible to predict how may steady players there will be. They did the GoD for the players that have paid and played for a really long time. Now they can charge the long time players even more for all the Galleria stuff.
There will be a huge number of people that just want to see what L2 is all about since it's free and most will abandon it sooner rather than later. It's unfortunate, because L2 has some cool features, but it's not exactly user friendly.
Personally I have played off and on since 2005 and have 2.5 years of paid time, for 2 accounts so I have some serious time and money in. I stopped playing a few years ago because of financial issues, so now that's it's free I thought I could come back and have a great time. I have played GoD and made up some new characters on the Magmeld server and had some fun doing some quests, but I realize after trying to log in and play and not being able to, the lag in the towns, getting disconnected on a regular basis. Even free, I think I'll pass for now.
New servers or not, this is a game for the people on Chronos and Naia.
It's true it's hard to predict, as NC thought L2 being such an old game would only brought a couple thousands more players, but but they didn't expect close to 20,000 players.
They build the dam too small, now the city the people below faces a flood.
The game has been more or less dead for the past few years, they even had to shut down several servers because there wasn't enough revenue to keep them up, nor sustainable populations on them to make the game fun.
The game came to the point where it had 2 servers only.
Now its gone F2P and of course a big influx of players will come, but one thing is the players that come and another the players that stay.
A lot will come, there will be plenty of "ohhh" and "ahhh" and "=O" but after the first impression is gone, some will remain and some will leave.
so they can't just go crazy and launch 10 servers........... only to see them populated by a scarse few players. Its simply better to Err on the side of caution, and start with 2 servers, and monitor how many players join, and more importantly, how many players STAY.
once they've gauged that, they will open more servers acordingly. We just gotta be patient, and endure the storm while it lasts.
A lot of people have to realize that the L2 world is not instanced; not heavily like WoW or Everquest where each "map" is an instance.
I propose to the OP an experiment once he reaches level 60 or so since before that he won't be able to do it.
Port to ANY town, and start walking to a town on the opposite side of the map, see how many loading screens you get.
I think you'll be surprised to find NONE. I dare you to play any other MMO where this happens that is out there today; walk from Gludin towards Giran and then head to Aden, you can walk all the way; it's a bit boring but it's possible.
That's why this game has a very low ceiling for players; you can't cheat your way around the open world; wich also is one of the biggest in the market.
Even the "dungeons" are not instanced, they exist as the same shard of the world; this is why the open PvP has any meaning at all, you can't "hide" in another shard, all of your friends and enemies spawn with you in the same world.
Try it OP, go for a walk, you will find Aden is rather big; it should help you understand just how stressful on the servers is keeping a database in real time of what is spawning where.
Oh and by the way; pick up your trash, it lags the server.
You think I would not know this for I have been here since Beta, yeah?
That is another part I like about Lineage 2 and Lineage 1 (quit after L2 was out), which is also why at the time I quit Ragnarok and play Lineage 2, as the world of Lineage 2 is much free.
As I sense PVP is in your blood, I can see your point that parallel server is a bad idea for PVP as people can just jump server if they are in danger.
You do know that the monster and player graphics are all on users (players) end right? Only commands of the actions and data (inventory and various mathmatic algorithm) of monsters and players are on server end, which is why we can't solo L2 with the client we download. Hence, it is not an issue of graphic but server processing of data.
By the way, pay a visit to the 2 big Free to Play companies that know how to tear apart a player's wallet, NEXON and Perfect World.
NEXON's flagship is Mabinogi, looks like a kids game, but there is a lot of fighting that need to use brain. It is just like L2, you can do almost anything, and there is no class limit (you can be anything you want throughout the game anytime) and no armor limit. The old maps are instancelized but new map are not, and you can fly but not swim in lake or ocean. They run as parallel server system.
Perfect World's flagship is Perfec World International of course, its freedom to do thing in even better than L2, no instancelize and you can fly and swim. It's also an old game but the server can hold a huge number of players as they started out using a high player capacity server. There is also no armor limit and somewhat no class limit, such as a cleric can be a full magic cleric or a cleric that suck a magic but act as a fighter.
I highly doubt you'll read my reply but just putting this out there for others who reads it.
I read it, but L2 is also more resource intensive; it has to report positions of NPCs and PCs; maybe not monsters you are not engaging in combat.
So yes, the server doesn't draw all you see, but it still has to keep track of where 6 thousand players are at any given time; a real time database of the shops and transactions, all of that is network traffic AKA lag. *shrugs*
And yea I've seen and played PErfect world, but the world itself is not as big as Aden and there are tons of places you can't go; L2 has relatively few actual terrain barriers.
Also remember that unlike some other games, you can drop an item in L2 and it won't dissapear until maintenance when they reset the servers, or if they do I have never tested how long it takes, but it's more than an hour.
I can understand the situation and that things are going to calm down in a few months, the thing that i don't understand is why they don't temporarily stop the creation of new accounts in servers like Naia, they can benifit from it in many ways and it will bring some relief in the servers. Take for example the adena shouts spammers.. even if they ban the account they make new one in 2 min or ppl that they bot freely knowing that even if the get banned they can make new account and start over and over and over again.