Reply to Thread
Page 1 of 4 1 2 3 ... LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 33

Thread: Any thought of merging Ares and Zeus servers/playerbase?

  1. #1
    Soldier
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Posts
    90
    World
    Zeus

    Any thought of merging Ares and Zeus servers/playerbase?

    Hello, I was just wondering if there was ever any thought of merging the servers/playerbase for NA. I don't know if there's any technical reason for two servers, but I think it's certainly not population/load reasons.

    I'm asking as it seems Zeus population is really low, as the market is dead. I've noticed over time the markets has gone down from pages of potential trades yeas ago to only a few. Just today I check for an Ali quest for sale, and Zero. Looked for Saltpeter, Zero (except for a mine).

    This condition can rapidly spiral down as folks seeing it empty, or can't do things they want due to market issues, stop playing which makes the problem worse as players drain away.

    Hell, I'd take some lag if I could and join the UK server. Their forum thesettlersonline.com is way more active than ours, I assume their server/world is also.

  2. #2
    Settler
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Posts
    239
    World
    Ares
    I've been concerned about population dwindle on Ares as well. Doesn't sound quite as dead as Zeus, but maybe it's something that is worth consideration.

  3. #3
    Mayor Raubhautz's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Location
    Comporellon
    Posts
    2,203
    World
    Zeus
    Have been wondering if there was a death-knell feel around as well... Hate and avoid TO unless I have to as too many thieves hang out there, but even Global-1 is dead for hours at a time; also, I realize that the Expedition thing is not many peeps favorite thing, but I have had as many as 17 explorer searches for colonies go without a single player-owned one show up, and been a month of Sundays since I've seen a titanium colony of any type... Might be a sign.

    Side note: I do not notice such barren activity on my German Server account, during their normal waking hours, there is lots of activity... and they have at least 9 servers?!
    “Many that live deserve death. And some die that deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then be not too eager to deal out death in the name of justice, fearing for your own safety. Even the wise cannot see all ends.”
    J. R. R. Tolkien

  4. #4
    Soldier
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Posts
    90
    World
    Zeus
    Heh, this being popular in Germany is no surprise. many of the harder core trading/city building games come from there (as opposed to super simple like SimCity).
    The Patrician series (Pat III one of my favs) which was full on trading and industry/city building was from Ascaron devs, Germany based. Just like BlueByte.

  5. #5
    Soldier
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Posts
    87
    World
    Ares
    This subject came up a while back on the Euro forums, the biggest problem which nobody was able to agree a solution to was what to do with players who have accounts on both US servers. If a merger was to take place they would find that through no fault of their own that suddenly they would be the owner of what by game rules is a illegal account, one by which under normal circumstances results in a permanent ban of the accounts.

    I look forward to seeing your suggestions on how to avoid this thorny issue.

  6. #6
    Settler
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Posts
    239
    World
    Ares
    Quote Originally Posted by Dorotheus View Post
    This subject came up a while back on the Euro forums, the biggest problem which nobody was able to agree a solution to was what to do with players who have accounts on both US servers. If a merger was to take place they would find that through no fault of their own that suddenly they would be the owner of what by game rules is a illegal account, one by which under normal circumstances results in a permanent ban of the accounts.

    I look forward to seeing your suggestions on how to avoid this thorny issue.
    Just as in many cases when a rule/law is implemented, people suddenly find that something that was allowed previously is no longer allowed. Fault is not really a consideration, only what is and is not allowed. Many a person has learned this when something they grow/make/sell becomes illegal. Whether authorities perform actions such as phased eliminations (people allowed to live on seized property for the rest of their natural life but not to retain ownership) or buybacks (guns) or just take things away (stills during prohibition) is not something that persons other than those in charge really get to determine.

    I see two simple ways to solve this issue:

    1. Ignore/grandfather the merged accounts. When you have a diminishing player population situation, is policing people who play so much that they have 2+ accounts really the right thing to make into a high priority?
    2. Tell everyone up front that the rules are the rules and if you're going to wind up with multiple accounts on a server that you need to resolve that. Get rid of excess accounts and follow the rules.

    I lean towards #1 but that's just my outlook in general. I don't care if you have 8 accounts. There's only 1 of you, so however much you benefit from 7 more accounts, I think it diminishes your experience with all the juggling you'd have to do to run them. Sounds too much like a job and not enough like entertainment.

  7. #7
    Soldier
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Posts
    90
    World
    Zeus
    Thanks for the info, yeah that is a problem.

    I can certainly see forcing someone to drop an account is probably a no go, as someone could have real money invested in it. Although you could say it's no different (or very similar) to Anno where they just said they'll stop development of the game. It's a known fact that money spent on a online game is buying something that eventually is going to be gone, different from single player games.

    Let them move it over, but have to declare it as a second account. And have the game stop any trades between the two accounts. Sure you could still leech one account to support another (why multi accounts are banned) by trading through a third party, but you could do that anyway with accounts on two servers. Two players with their main accounts on different servers support each other with their 2nd account helping the other. No difference really.

  8. #8
    Mayor
    Join Date
    Oct 2013
    Posts
    1,648
    World
    Ares
    The economies of the two servers are not comparable.

  9. #9
    Soldier
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Posts
    90
    World
    Zeus
    Quote Originally Posted by Gwalben View Post
    The economies of the two servers are not comparable.
    Different game rules? Because otherwise if they are different sizes, or different stages (one has more higher levels say), that's exactly comparable.
    You can't compare apples to oranges, you CAN compare a small apple to a big apple.

    Dorotheus didn't mention it as an issue when it was brought up in the Euro forums, maybe he can clarify if it was (whatever the issue is meant to be, I don't see it).

  10. #10
    Noble
    Join Date
    Dec 2016
    Posts
    256
    World
    Zeus
    Quote Originally Posted by MarMarl View Post
    Hell, I'd take some lag if I could and join the UK server. Their forum thesettlersonline.com is way more active than ours, I assume their server/world is also.
    Activity is down in euro too, at peak there was up to 40 pages in TO. So you can bury your hope for lag.
    Newfoundland 12 TO pages, Northisle - 12 TO pages, Sandycove - 15 TO pages.
    This is weird though cause Newfoundland seems most active and Sandycove least active.

Reply to Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts