This is why I am afraid of cross realm zones

[evil950510]

http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/06/08/the-o ... aiting-ar/

Just imagine waiting around for a rare with every other hunter from multiple servers at once.

[pop]

I thought cross realm zones are optional? GASPED T T

[Kurasu]

I thought cross realm zones are optional? GASPED T T

Nope. The cross-server zones is a new feature they're putting in through the game. They're using it to add some more population to zones that would normally be dead. Think Desolace, Feralas (maybe not with the whelplings there, but now it's pretty dead), Silithus, et cetera. Zones where you can go for days and only see one or two players. It's not optional; it's game-wide.

... and this, right here, is one of the reasons it bothers me, too. Plus, the fact I love the above zones *because* they're dead and quiet. I always used to love leveling in Desolace and Silithus.

[meepitco]

...and so...
the camp for Aeonaxx/TLPD will get harder...

[Kalliope]

Maybe Blizz will change the most extreme spawn rates to compensate. We can hope, anyway.

*hugs Chatter* This is not good news for you either, buddy. :/

+1 to the WoW Insider poster for letting Loque go to hunters, btw.

[Sasrei]

They didnt really say what zones would get it.. I still dont like the idea mostly cause well when I level I do it solo id prefer silence to: having a zone filled with people who kills the rares you want in order to get extra xp, and waiting for quest mobs to spawn. I enjoy the quiet really, barrens chat sucked. It really did.. Id prefer that instead if you wanted to you could quest with real ID friends I still wish you could trade with them..

[Gimlion]

This has been my qualm with the change since it was first mentioned. I've suggested it should be optional, but to no avail. I'm SO happy I managed to tame Loque and KK before this goes in, as my server is fairly busy there as it is now, but with more people it'd be hell trying to find a rare pet there.

[Vephriel]

I'm not sure if the cross-realm zones will even apply to high level areas, it seems more something to use with low level old world questing. I don't think it'll be a huge issue concerning the high profile rares. In any case, I'm sure we'll get more details in the future. I think it's still a bit early to be getting worried.

[Ziarre]

^ This. Low-level zones are the ones most often deserted, and they've said they're only doing low-level zones to start (I believe that was in the initial announcement of them, or soon after).

[Mindsprocket]

Right now I'm not really worried about it. More people doesn't have to mean the area is overcrowded. I like questing alone, too, but I don't mind seeing other people now and then. I also don't think that there will be so many people killing quest mobs that questing becomes impossible. And Barrens chat isn't really something that's bound to happen in every zone with more than one person in it either. And while more competition for tames makes it somewhat more difficult, I don't think that it'll be a huge issue. I mean, people managed to tame OCJ back when players actually went to Hinterlands (and his spawn rate was much longer too!). So the worst that could happen is that taming "old" rares becomes as difficult as it used to be (and possibly as it "should" be according to Blizzard since they never wanted zones to be deserted).

This is all depending on how many people will actually be in the zone. Sure, if Feralas and Badlands permanently become as crowded as Mount Hyjal on release day that would be a nightmare. But if they simply become as populated as Mount Hyjal is now I see no problem with it.

[Kalliope]

Yep, which is why I am concerned about Chatter more than I am the higher level rares. He's difficult enough to find up as it is, since he's so easy to spot.

I like idling with him, okay?

I don't see any zone becoming overpopulated due to crossrealms phasing; there must be caps on that. I think Mindsprocket's last post hits this all pretty well.

[Sasrei]

Yah.. they want you to be able to be all buddy buddy with people but yet they take away "have group will travel". Id rather be fully alone and be able to get summoned to a rare I want, then have to run around with a ton of people .

I still think them taking that away is a stupid idea.. they could always make it so you cant in Mop or increase the timer or something. Ive spent the past 5 levels running from mobs who want to kill me.. during that time I did not stop to appreciate the sceanery, especially when I just used the flight path anyways. But derailing.. my bad. I would just rather they put that time and effort on something we really need, then someting that isnt so dire. Well but then again last time when I needed help on a quest I just summoned a buddy to help me, it was nice... I just dont understand the whole point of it, I always quested alone even in areas with a ton of people. or quested with guildies.

[Mindsprocket]

I assume that this is more a technical problem on Blizzard's side. Those zones take up space on their servers. They probably don't want to waste resources on maintaining empty areas for the off chance that some player may actually wander through. So the morve several empty areas into one not so empty area, thus freeing up some space. (I'm really bad with this technical stuff as you can probably tell XD But I think that's the general idea).

[Vephriel]

It could be the technical stuff, but I think their main reason is just to get that populated feeling back into the game. When I played in Vanilla you could always chance upon someone out in the world, whether it was questing or exploring or just wandering around aimlessly. It's something I really miss from the game these days where the majority of players sit in their home cities and low level zones are deserted.

It's not as though this means zones are going to be super crowded, I think it'll just be nice to encounter other people out there in Azeroth.

[Ziarre]

They're not trying to crowd zones, just populate them. There IS a difference.

[Meggers]

Hnng, I'll never get an Aeo at this rate. XD I've been waiting to camp till people were a little less "current xpac". x:

[Ziarre]

But right now's an excellent time! Most people are in Dragon Soul, or letting their accounts idle in pre-expansion lull. Deepholm is pretty dead most of the time on Suramar--I was sitting out there for a while some weeks ago and the only souls I saw (aside from Slabhide grinders) were a mage who started to stack on me (I made my presence quite obvious in case she hadn't seen me and she cleared out) and two people who flew around the zone in circles for hours. It got pretty amusing to watch them pass by after a while.

[Meggers]

But right now's an excellent time! Most people are in Dragon Soul, or letting their accounts idle in pre-expansion lull. Deepholm is pretty dead most of the time on Suramar--I was sitting out there for a while some weeks ago and the only souls I saw (aside from Slabhide grinders) were a mage who started to stack on me (I made my presence quite obvious in case she hadn't seen me and she cleared out) and two people who flew around the zone in circles for hours. It got pretty amusing to watch them pass by after a while.

It's not so dead on Arthas.

[Makoes]

This link might prove useful if you havent already looked at it. It covers the Q&A of cross-realm zone sharing.

Personally I am looking forward to this, there are a lot of zones out there that really dont have any other players in them (on my realm) I'd like to see more people while I quest, level or explore. I can understand the fear of "rares" being harder to find now that "dead" zones will have more people...but atm, old world "rare" mobs seem to be up so much they arent "rare" anymore. I'd like to see it go back to how it was ment to be, where coming across a "rare" is unexpected and exciting.

I also like how they will be keeping an eye on things like nodes, to make sure that the cross realm isnt effecting the economy in that manner.

[Worba]

They're not trying to crowd zones, just populate them. There IS a difference.

^ This.

Also, overcrowding just means more of a glut in the beginning, but it dies down. Case in point: back in 4.0 people complained they'd never get to tame Terrorpene because he was in such a high traffic area. In 4.2 people said the same (but even moreso) about the new trick tames, which were in amongst all the molten front dailies.

Meanwhile at the same time (or very shortly after) you've got others saying "everyone" has Terrorpene and the others, that they're so common people are tripping over them in towns, etc etc.

Now that was a massive exaggeration at least for any of the dozen+ servers I play on, but nonetheless after a few months it was not uncommon for me to stumble across these mobs with no one else around. And these were among- if not THE "l33test" pets of the time, in the most popular areas of the time (a week or so ago one of my friends saw all of them up together).

So, yeah. Maybe I'm being too trusting but I really don't see this turning into the rare tames apocalypse. The only rares this is likely to impact to any degree are the rare mounts (aeon, poseidus, tlpd etc), and again as long as they're just doing this for low pop areas the net result will be that low pop servers will just have to deal with what high pop server collectors have ~always~ had to deal with.

Also with respect, empty zones aren't supposed to be. Yes it's quiet and peaceful but from Blizzard's perspective they're not bringing in a very good return on server resources. Which is not to say every zone should be jam packed with players - obviously this will involve some tweaking (probably on an ongoing basis), but if the zone feels deserted, something's wrong (or at least suboptimal).