After a closed beta and an early access for Founder’s Pack owners, Albion Online has opened its new Albion East server to all.
The Albion East server was announced back in January as a new option that would offer better performance and connections for those over in the Asia-Pacific region. On top of that, the event scheduling would also be more amenable to those who log in from that region, since they wouldn’t have to go on the European times or the one set for the Americas.
Now the server is live, after some issues, and a bit of maintenance that isn’t a surprise when opening new servers. Sandbox Interactive has also detailed just how things will roll out on the fresh and shiny new server.
Some, including our own Nick, were concerned that the new server might siphon players away from the existing server population (the original server is now known as Albion West). The thought here was that there would be some balance issues, and potentially the new server might be under-populated. With Albion Online, the competitive side of things requires players to compete against, so the questions asked were valid.
The rollout will be gradual. As detailed in today’s opening devblog about Albion East:
“Initially, Albion East will have a reduced world size relative to Albion West, in order to maintain competitiveness and density of players. As the player base grows on this new server, it is anticipated that more regions will be opened up, and its development will be constantly observed in order to judge this process.”
Since Albion West also grew over time, it seems the team is using their experience to foster the new shiny server and respond to player concerns that arose. To start, the closed off zones will mostly be in the Outlands and Roads of Avalon. (There’s a blog post detailing exactly which regions are locked as of server launch.)
Read the full details over at Albion Online.