Cross Realm Zones

[Theotherone]

So, I've been thinking about cross realm zones in MoP and it struck me that mat farming is going to be a royal pain in the ass. I'm on a medium sized PvE server so ganking is not an issue, but the population was such that if I did some mining or herbing before work, I could basically have a zone to myself (5:00AM server time, not many on); now that cross realm zones are coming it's going to be a pain in the butt.

And for questing, I hope it does not apply durring the MoP level up quests, my goodness it's insane trying to get to a quest giver at the begining of the expansion as it is, I can only imagine if we have other realms joining us.

I can understand it for PvP servers to get world PvP moving, but for PvE servers it's just going to be a pain.

[Quinafoi]

Two key notes.

1. The cross realm phasing only applies in low population zones. Immediately following the release of the expansion don't expect to see cross realm people in the leveling zones of Pandaria simply because there will likely be sufficient people from your own server to consider the zone "populated".

2. Even if cross realm introduces PvP players into the same zone as PvE players, this wouldn't actually cause PvP to occur since the PvE player still would have to opt-in to be PvP flagged.

[Theotherone]

Thanks, the pvp/pve I know about, but I didn't realize it was only low pop zones.

[Tengenstein]

I recently moved from a low pop server to a high pop one, farming doesn't seem any harder. Just less lucrative.

[Mackeyser]

I'm currently in the beta right now and the cross-realm bit is bugged. When a pvp player enters a zone with a pve person, it will autoflag all of the pve persons in the zone. As of right now, GC has basically said, "deal with it".

The hope is that they fix it and don't throw their hands up and call it a "feature" as a way to bring back World PvP... I say this as someone leveling a Brewmaster currently in Outlands. Hellfire Penninsula can, is and will be abused if this bug goes live since it's a choke point.

But to directly answer Quinafoi, yes as of right now on the Beta, the PvP player will cause the PvE player to autoflag with zero opt-in. That's exactly how it works now.

From my google searches, I understand it to be a bug. However with a fixed launch date, I am incredulous that it will be fixed in time for launch since they likely need a GM candidate 6 weeks before launch for retail (even if it gets patched prior to launch).

I have a feeling we'll see this bug go live and get fixed on the first pass. I hope they do catch it in time. I just won't be surprised if it takes until the first patch or the first few rounds of big hot fixes to correct it.

[Theotherone]

Hopefully, they fix the bug, it kind of destories the whole reason to go on pve server. Frankly, I don't want to have to deal wtih pvp when I quest or farm or just venture out into the world - if I did I'd have rolled on a pvp server.

[Quinafoi]

I wasn't asking a question, I was stating the intended design. It's beta, you should expect to see bugs. That is the entire purpose of having a beta testing phase, to iron out these unexpected issues that arise.

I wouldn't worry about it ever hitting live that way. Around 55% of the servers are PvE/RP servers. The simple fact of the matter is the majority of World of Warcraft subscribers prefer the PvE experience, or at least not being forced into PvP if they don't want to do. I think it would be suicide for their subscriber numbers if they suddenly forced the majority of their player base into an experience they didn't sign up for when they paid that subscription. Blizzard wants to cater more to the masses, plain and simple. If they change the gameplay experience for their casual players so that they get killed every time they step outside of their capital city, you can bet subscriber numbers will drop. I doubt Blizzard is that foolish to change the game so that it just frustrates the majority of their customers to the point that they drop World of Warcraft and play something else that doesn't frustrate them.

[spaceghost7117]

How do the tiller dailies factor into this issue? We've never had dailies that result in profession materials as rewards before.

[Gregasaurous]

People on PvP servers won't be cross-realmed into zone with PvE players, too my knowledge the different server types will be kept seperate. I believe this was stated when the feature was originally announced.

As to the population issue, I'm pretty sure Blizzard already has software that speeds up spawn rates when there's a large number of people farming in an area.

[squats]

People on PvP servers won't be cross-realmed into zone with PvE players, too my knowledge the different server types will be kept seperate. I believe this was stated when the feature was originally announced.

As to the population issue, I'm pretty sure Blizzard already has software that speeds up spawn rates when there's a large number of people farming in an area.

its a game mechanic. not software. but spawn rates on non rare herbs, ores, and mobs, are based on population.