It's really simple. They are waiting for the DX10 client.

FC is hoping for a Christmas miracle. They are hoping people would come back so FC didn't need to do so much merging.

If they do a server merges BEFORE DX10, two things might happen:

1. They do a merge and have about 3-4 servers. DX10 client comes to live. People want to try it and many resubscribe. Problem is those 3-4 servers are full again and they need to open new ones.

2. They do a merge and have about 3-4 servers. They get bad PR because they had to merge servers. DX10 client comes to live. Not so many people resubscribe because they believe AoC is dying.

Both these scenarios are bad for FC so they want to delay server merges until AFTER DX10 client is up and running.

I know server merge takes time but we've been hearing promises for MONTHS. It does not take that long to merge servers. If they REALLY wanted to merge servers as soon as possible, Craig would have assigned a team on it and it would have been done in a WEEK. But they DIDN'T want to do it fast, instead they gave us new mammoths. My bet is, it's all because of DX10.

DX10 is FC's last desperate act to get their servers back to medium population. I'm sure many will return to see what DX10 looks like. Are good graphics enough to save the game from the curse of FTP? We will see.

You're probably right, but better graphics aren't what's going to save AoC.  At this point, DX10 is like putting lipstick on a pig.

Maybe you are right.

However the current servers can support 800.000 players and let assume AoC have 150k-250k of existing active subscriber ( there is a difference active sub and active player ) .. there is no way that DX10 would bring the old numbers back, maybe will they keep more of existing subscribers and get 10% of old ones.

The fact is servers should be merged and should be merged NOW.

Iam still lucky as I play on Wildsoul EU server and that one is pretty populated, but thats not the case for a lot of other servers.

The best way would be to merge the servers and even open some new ones in January/February when they give some free time to ex subscribers.

There are a lof of players that would like to start on fresh server.

maybe there give us all free cookies and cake!

I think all the talk about direct x10 suggests funcom have fundementally misunderstood everyone complaining about the lack of dx10. Because so many people commented on the lack of dx10 funcom belives imo that it's a massive issue and that people really care about it but it isn't and they don't. The vast majority of comments about the lack of dx10 were simply people upset with being let down and chosing the most visable and obvious omission to comment on since it says its there on the box and isn't in the game.

I'd bet of the 700,000 people who quit the game I bet none of them did so because the water wasn't pretty enough or because they wanted more impressive lighting.

Getting direct x10 into the game will be a good thing and I'm sure many will enjoy the improved graphics, it will also be one less thing hanging around funcoms neck but if they expect it to have any influence on populations then they are going to be sadly mistaken. They have talked about how much effort they have put in over the last few months getting dx10 ready I feel that effort would have been better spent elsewear.

Of course maybe I'm guilty of assuming everyone feels the same way as me though I'm very confident that the technical quality of graphics wasn't the reason for any cancelations

Originally posted by noggy1980

I think all the talk about direct x10 suggests funcom have fundementally misunderstood everyone complaining about the lack of dx10.

I'd bet of the 700,000 people who quit the game I bet none of them did so because the water wasn't pretty enough or because they wanted more impressive lighting.

Of course maybe I'm guilty of assuming everyone feels the same way as me though I'm very confident that the technical quality of graphics wasn't the reason for any cancelations

Yes, you are right. Good point.

People did not quit because of graphics. Most people agree that graphics in AoC are really good. What FC needs to do is to improve things that people don't like, for example gameplay or lack of fun things to do.

My own opinion regarding AoC graphics differs from most people. I actually didn't like the graphics that much. Honestly. I just don't find AoC graphics "pretty". It's difficult to explain but somehow AoC graphics are just generic to me. I don't get that wow factor.

One example. I tried this FTP MMO, Requiem: Bloodymare. When I got to the first city I was amazed. It had this beautiful gothic architecture, everything was dark and gritty, the atmosphere was amazing. I just stood there and looked around. I've never done this is AoC.

If you look graphics only technically, polygon counts etc., Requiem: Bloodymare is no match for AoC. However imo it's much "prettier" to look at. It's like you have 2 paintings. One is made by combining thousands of  different colors and painting techiques, while other one is made with only 3 colors but with a beautiful simplistic balance that makes it true art. More complex is not always better.

I'm a huge fan of Conan books. The author Robert Jordan is lucky he died before he could see what FC did to Hyboria. What you see in AoC is not the real Hyboria. Real Hyboria is a dark, unholy place with murderers and rapists around every corner. I was sorry to see FC failed to deliver that. Maybe they wanted their game to look more like WoW (bright happy colors) to attract younger gamers.

I believe people complained about dx10 because it was a lie printed on the box. It wasn't the lack of dx10 that was the problem, lots of games don't have dx10 and are just fine. People objected to the blatent lie, and the carrot on a stick promises to have it in soon after release that followed, that funcom used to retain subscriptions.

Getting dx10 in now, with the boxes on store shelves having listed the game as having dx10 for the past half year or so, doesn't wipe that slate clean for funcom. The lies don't just vanish once funcom has dx10 in game. Getting dx10 in now doesn't correct their mistake. Because the real mistake was in their business practices, and not in their feature list. Though the feature list probably has some pretty glaring problems as well.

The boxes should have been recalled and a correct feature list put on the box, there should have been a public apology, and everyone that bought the game before this was accomplished should have been fully reimbursed their money, back when the game had just been released. Having waited this long and done nothing, they have not addressed the real problem.

AOC has the numbers in front of them.   They do not need to do server mergers, the players have already done it.  The dead servers are completely dead.   Actually doing server mergers would be a PR problem and would probably move only a few thousand players.

It's basically exactly the same thing Warhammer is doing to avoid the stygma of 'server mergers'.  They put a little pop-op on 60% of their servers telling new players that those servers are low population and encouraging them to roll on higher population servers.  but the low population servers are still technically accessible, so warhammer doesn't have to admit mergers.

warhammer has free character and guild transfers, thats very different to doing nothing. In warhammer this is pretty much the same as a server merge but it wouldn't be as good in AoC due to the City system.

Why not server merges yes ? 

Because the Player owned cities prevent it atm....  PPL have worked their socks of for creating those and Funcom has no way to move those with ppl on merged servers.

But if they wanted to loose like 50.000 more ppl by doing server merges and letting big portion of players loose their cities....  THey are welcome to.

Originally posted by Frobner

Why not server merges yes ? 

Because the Player owned cities prevent it atm....  PPL have worked their socks of for creating those and Funcom has no way to move those with ppl on merged servers.

But if they wanted to loose like 50.000 more ppl by doing server merges and letting big portion of players loose their cities....  THey are welcome to.

It really shouldn't be difficult to code a solution to citys, how about changeing it so resource stack up to 10,000 in one stack, then allow the guild leader to click a building and turn it back into it's resources, then the city can easily be moved. There are loads of easy to code ways of dealing with this.

The battlekeep plots will have to be faught for again of course but since battlekeeps were a mess for the first 3 months of the game it's hardly a big deal.

Player made cities, that shouldnt be a problem due to how the game is set up.

instances are catered exclusively to each guild and city.  several cases you have  5 or 6 guild cities in the same exact location but in a different instances.  so in Funcoms case they would simply make more instances and drop the merge guild city into its rightful place with no hassle,   if nothing blows up of course.

one possible issue of course would be the battle keeps, that is territories of land claimed by players that cannot be instanced,  people who have worked her butts off defending and countless times rebuilding the walls and buildings for battle keeps may have to grit their teeth and get hit by the big one. reason being due to the merging there are possibly other guilds that have claim to those said battle keep cities. 

In funcoms case, what i see from it is the possibility that when the merges take place, the battle keep cities , All of them, will be reseted, thus being up for grabs. on my server, Cimmeria all this will do is cause so called alliances to break apart and fight amongst themselves,  drama will commence, candy taken, and tears flowing.

But imo a changing of the guard of other guilds finally getting a crack at one of those battle keeps is in a sense long over due.

Question,  would you move/merge servers if that meant you would have to give up your guild and guild rewards?  LLose your patterns and everything you had invested in building your Guild Town?

I think that may be a major stubbling point for Funcom.  I mean besides being lousy programmers.

DX10 will most likely be coming before server merges, and more then likely before Christmas. Here's a simple way you can get the clear signal from FC, OP.

Check your email in a week or two from now for a "please come back" email from FC; a month's worth of free play-time. If this is the case you can be sure to make the assumption that what you suggest is exactly what they are thinking. Like every other MMO (like every other anything right now) they would be more then intelligent enough to capitalize on Christmas.

Basically, what numbers they have left after January is a final verification to FC of how severe or insevere of a case they need to make their server merges. As what that shows is basically going to be the consistent playerbase for the game until they release their expansion. Hell, I haven't heard any news of that since four months ago; are they even planning on having an expansion anymore?