So ideally we'd have 3 servers and locked to a realm per server. This is simply not a possibility with today's population. Enter the realm timer.

With short realm timers, like the current 5 minutes (even less if you exploit), not only has realm community been lacking with people playing all 3 realms on the same server, but we've entered a world of "realm hopping." That is, switching realms in say the middle of a relic raid to the winning side. The solution that many have put forward has been to increase the realm timer to something like 8 hours, where you could not hope to switch just for a temporary benefit in realm points.

However, many people do not like this idea because it means they are restricted from playing the character they want to play, when they PAY money every month to have access to the game.

Let's look at how another of Mythic's games, Warhammer Online, handles realm timers. Rather than set it on log out, it sets it on REALM SWITCH. That is to say that when you switch from Destruction to Order you set an 8 hour timer locking you out of Destruction. After the 8 hours have passes you can choose to log back into Destruction should you choose, but doing so will activate a 8 hour timer on Order. However if you continue to play Order your Destruction timer will not be set back to 8 hours _until_ you actually _switch_ which realm you are logging on to.

Quite effective for a two sided game, but I wanted to think how it could be applied to a 3 sided game without locking people out of logging on to a realm, seeing if there are any groups for them, and if not, switching realms. So for a 3 realm game I would suggest the following modification to this system. Rather than set the realm timer on realm switch, set it after playing a current realm for 45-60 minutes. After that time the other two realms lock out. However just like with the Warhammer Online system, once that timer is up, so long as you do not activate the realm switch timer, you are free to immediately log into any realm of your choice.

Now the obvious forum troll counter to this is that "mythic doesn't have any programmers, kthxbi." I'd have a simple suggestion on how to program this with one man in half a day. Simply modify the character save server side script so that every time it performs a save of a character, it performs a /stats on that character. It then saves 3 variables on the account somewhere for playtime in each realm. So [playtime_$REALM] += ( [/stats playtime of character on $REALM] - [playtime from last character save from current login] ) gets executed every player save, and then when the total playtime for any given realm exceeds the grace period, say 45-60 minutes, that account is now locked to that realm assuming the realm is a change from the LAST realm the the player locked to. Simply reset [playtime_$REALM] every time the account is logged out for 1-2 hours.

To my mind this system would still allow anyone logging on for the evening to choose any character they want to play, but allow locking to prevent rampant realm hopping.

Does anyone see a glaring flaw in this system? Or do so few people actually care about realm hopping that it would be pointless to spend the resources on it?

waste of time and resources

people who cry about switching realms are the zergers in NF, and there is no way to counter someone relaying information with vents and other 3rd party chat.

as for actual numbers being lost on side X and bolstered on side Y, the amount of whines you will hear from said zergers who swap over like that will outweigh the people who ONLY play one realm to this day. i'm amazed at how many people i group with on occasion who say they have never played another realm. which i equate to only playing 1/3 of the game. but to each his own i suppose.

not to mention the 8v8/smallman/soloers who swap realms to fill a needed slot for a group or because a certain side has population issues. some enjoy the underdog realm since there are more enemies to fight.

i would prefer that they work on issues that harm everyone like the lag or the CTD bug that happens late night when zoning. or hell, they were supposedly doing a year long celebration for the 10 year anniversary, but all we've gotten were pictish camps iirc.

 

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realm timer need to be removed imo

 

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Waaaaaay to complicated for mythic

 

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I would certainly cancel if they increased the realm timer. I couldn't care less about relic bonuses or realm pride, but I do care about being able to find action.

 

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It could be more complicated than you think.

So you want the character database, the one that was designed without almost any flexibility, to be redesigned to hold 3 new items? Your suggestion could be simple but it could also end up being much more complicated than you initially think. Mythic seems to have a difficult time removing the very simple timer from Archived servers and keeping the timer on Ywain, yet removing the timer on Archived servers should be much easer to code than your suggestion.


(In an ironic twist, having a 60 min grace period could promote hopping. The few who really like to hop could simply make sure they hop every 55 min.)


Hopping is not all that “rampant”.

I think that Realm hopping being a rampant problem is a fantasy of players that want to whine. Not that the OP is whining but it seems that the OP is generating a solution based on the whining of others. Most players are not hopping (isolated exceptions do not change a general truth). While it is true that some players and some groups hop a lot, most players do not hop that much.


Long timers can inadvertently harm many who do not hop to chase battles.

I do not hop at all, yet I hop all the time. I play one realm almost 100% of the time. My daughter plays a different realm almost 100% of the time but when I am not on she uses my account in her realm and when my daughter is not on I often use her account in my realm. From the viewpoint of Mythic it would look like the two of us hop all the time, yet we each actually only play one realm.


I have a friend with 4 family members who play and the family has 5 accounts. Each of them has picked their own realm to play and they almost never switch realms. They do share a bot account and they also share their main accounts. Example: daughter is using the general bot account so son is using dad’s account as a bot because dad is not playing at that time. An outside observer, or Mythic, would think these people always realm hop yet the main players actually do not hop at all, they just share accounts.


Family members sharing accounts is more prevalent than many think and a long realm timer would have most families who share accounts, leaving the game.


To put a stop to the vast majority of hopping where players are chasing battles, a simple and much shorter timer is all that is necessary.

 

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realm hopping not a problem imo.

What's the point of switching to a side that is taking a relic? other than saying you were 'part' of a relic take, which means nothing, i see no benefit.

 

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I do play one realm, have tried the others but I prefer it. The realm hopping isn't as big a problem as most make it out to be. The bad players usually migrate to the higher pop side, while the better players prefer to the challenge of playing on the low pop side. So it is pretty much a wash.

 

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This.

 

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