I want control over server merges!

Server merges are out of control.... I must have merged 10 times during today's play session.... It's really ruining the game for me at this point. Tired of it.

You rather be in an empty server and not realize it?
Your choice to merge or not, you choose to remain alone....thus having many one man server with no others.

Basically wanting a solo server.

@burnbacon "Basically wanting a solo server." How do you come up with this? I don't want to be alone on a server. I guess my desire to engage in PvP should have expressed that, didn't it? I actually got upset about being moved from a full server to an empty one. And I really don't understand why I got merged, because - as I said - there was so much going on around me on the old server, which was great, and the new one was just lifeless. Guess the server merge mechanism screwed up in deciding that I had to be moved.

I think the solution in Guild Wars 2 is much better. The game tells you that your current server is pretty empty, so you are aware of the situation. Hence I do in fact realize that I am on an empty server, in contrast to what you said. The game then asks you if you want to be moved immediately, but if you want to finish your quest first or whatever, you can decline that. The game then leaves the door open for you to switch servers within the next 60 minutes via a little icon in the corner of the screen, effectively giving you control over the right timing to switch servers.

I don't know though what happens after that time is up, I never waited that long. You may also be moved forcefully, but knowing that 60 minutes in advance is still better than having no control over it and being merged surprisingly.

I sank a gally and a brig at a FOTD recently. Had to ditch my sloop in the process, I spawn back to my ship when the fort is clear and I see the gally making its way back in the distance. I hop on my sloop and it server merges me out of the server.

Janky system shouldn’t boot you out of a server just “because”.

@satanicnemesis I always fear this stuff happening to me. This can ruin hours of fun within just a second and it is a real threat especially to solo sloopers.

@wowsuchmagic said in I want control over server merges!:

@burnbacon "Basically wanting a solo server." How do you come up with this? I don't want to be alone on a server. I guess my desire to engage in PvP should have expressed that, didn't it? I actually got upset about being moved from a full server to an empty one. And I really don't understand why I got merged, because - as I said - there was so much going on around me on the old server, which was great, and the new one was just lifeless. Guess the server merge mechanism screwed up in deciding that I had to be moved.

I think the solution in Guild Wars 2 is much better. The game tells you that your current server is pretty empty, so you are aware of the situation. Hence I do in fact realize that I am on an empty server, in contrast to what you said. The game then asks you if you want to be moved immediately, but if you want to finish your quest first or whatever, you can decline that. The game then leaves the door open for you to switch servers within the next 60 minutes via a little icon in the corner of the screen, effectively giving you control over the right timing to switch servers.

I don't know though what happens after that time is up, I never waited that long. You may also be moved forcefully, but knowing that 60 minutes in advance is still better than having no control over it and being merged surprisingly.

What he said might not have applied to your situation but it is something that would happen if people did get control over merging. No, it is best to leave server merge control out of players hands as it would get abused by those who desire private/PvE servers. Yes it needs some improvement but giving players control over it is not the way to go about it.

@dlchief58 It felt like he addressed me personally, but yes, in hindsight I realized that he might have spoken in general.

I understand that it may be abused, but to do so you must be "lucky" enough to end up on an empty server in the first place. I still think that at least some control should be given to the player. As already mentioned, a sudden server merge can ruin a whole evening of fun. The 60 minute "grace period" that Guild Wars 2 grants you before you are moved by force should be a good solution to counter abuse. If you encounter other players within this period, the timer may be reset or disabled because there is no need for a server merge any longer, but if you are still all by yourself after the time has passed and you have not yet agreed to the proposed server merge via the user interface, you will be merged by force.

The "grace period" may even be shorter than 60 minutes, but sudden server merges should not be a thing. The game should be fair enough to give you a chance to pick up loot that you stashed on some island or to open the fort vault that you finished before and that you had to flee from. There are quite a lot of things that a server merge can ruin.

Even if nothing changes about the sudden server merges, the preconditions for a server merge should be reconsidered. It still drives me nuts to understand why I have been server merged while TWO enemy ships were in my proximity. We had a lot of fun fighting each other (at least I did) and it just doesn't make any sense to be server merged onto an empty server in that situation.

Something does seem off with the current server merge programming. A few nights ago, a friend and I were parked in the interior of Thieves Haven. We were just wrapping up an Athena Run as emissarys when we were server merged. Loaded in right next to another ship. We quickly finished loading up our items and took off. We could have and probably should have attacked and stolen loot, but we were so stunned that we just wanted to get away. It would've been a pretty cheap way to ruin someone's night. As we pulled away from Thieves Haven, two other ships were arriving from other directions, well within the island banner point. It just seems weird that the server merge doesn't or wouldn't take into account where ships are relative to your own. Maybe it shouldn't merge you into a server that has a ship in the same grid block?

@figmentspark Interesting, that's pretty much the opposite of what happened to me then :D

I can understand the frustration of feeling like you are merging a lot or merging into less populated servers, seems to be hit or miss when we get merged.

No way to force a merge, nor an exact way to prevent one. Surely it would be abused if there was a way though.

From my understanding, server merges occur when the server is empty, near empty, or stale.

This is to keep the population on the servers up and prevent solo servers, and to keep the servers fresh as the longer they are up the higher the chance of things becoming corrupted which impacts performance and general player experience.

There seems to be one condition that has to be met for a merge to happen once triggered, and that is for all of your crew be on the ship.

Triggers that fire off a check for a potential merge are...

• Dropping the anchor.
• When a players location state changes: island to ship, water to ship, ship to ship, etc...
• When the ship enters/leaves the bounds of an island, around the time the island name appears in the banner.

There are more, but for a crew of 2 or more, best way to avoid a merge when you feel you are at risk of one is to keep one member off the ship at all times. Not an option for solo players though...

@archangel-timmy sagte in I want control over server merges!:

From my understanding, server merges occur when the server is empty, near empty, or stale.

This is what I thought too and why I am so frustrated about being merged from a full server, with enemy ships in my proximity, to an absolutely empty one with nothing to be seen on the horizon. I just don't get it. I actually felt safe from being server merged, because there was so much going on around me, but I got slapped in the face.

There are more, but for a crew of 2 or more, best way to avoid a merge when you feel you are at risk of one is to keep one member off the ship at all times. Not an option for solo players though...

Exactly this is why I think sudden server merges are a special threat for solo sloopers, because bigger crews can avoid the preconditions for a server merge. A solo player can sometimes, but not always do so.

Bring back anchor drops being the trigger for server merges!

I'd be willing to bet 5$ (us only, must be spent on ancient coins lol) that there would be a lot less "private/peaceful server" threads...

Server merges should never be in the player's control. It would just be too easy to exploit to end up on a solo server, and why the system was changed from the drop anchor trigger...

... but I do think it's far too frequent now. Part of the problem is server hopping PvPers. It happened a lot when FOTD first came in and players were hopping for active forts. That's still a thing at a much smaller scale but the big one now is hopping for Athena Emissaries, checking the table in the tavern and jumping if it's empty.

I don't see Rare changing how Emissaries work to combat that but there can be tweaks done to server merges to make them less frequent. A cooldown on server merges could achieve this - not a long one, but when you get multiple merges within the span of an hour, that's really frustrating (especially with common bugs that happen after merges).

In the OP's case, as there were clearly other ships visible on the server, it's most likely the server was nearing the end of its "life" and had to shut down, forcing the merge.

Server merge clearly needs to be worked on. couple of days ago , server merged happened to me and my crew just as we were handing our loot in the outpost. before we merged our ship was parked in one of the outpost's docks and there was no ships insight. after we merged not one but two player ships spawned right in font of us. good thing we only had couple of chests left otherwise it would have been a frustrating experience.

@shapperd2565 said in I want control over server merges!:

Server merge clearly needs to be worked on. couple of days ago , server merged happened to me and my crew just as we were handing our loot in the outpost. before we merged our ship was parked in one of the outpost's docks and there was no ships insight. after we merged not one but two player ships spawned right in font of us. good thing we only had couple of chests left otherwise it would have been a frustrating experience.

Sounds exactly like something that happened to me and a bud a few days ago on Reaper's Hideout, we were busy offloading about 50 villainous skulls and halfway through we got merged into the middle of a battle between two galleons parked there. We've never scarpered so quick! XD

@wowsuchmagic

People would just exploit this and use it to stay in dead servers.

I wish they would just find a way to constantly back fill empty space on servers and completely remove the need for a merge.

Its 100% server hoppers looking for a server with a bunch of emmisarries up. It feels necessary to do as there are so many new players or players afraid to run a flag.

I'd like to be merged to an "emmisary server" as soon as I raise a flag and know everyone else is running a flag too. This wouls lead to better fights with more experienced crews and greater risks/rewards.

I've noticed many more server merges lately as well, and many not when I'm in an empty server. As stated above, I'm guessing the server hopping has a big impact on this, not to mention the difficulty Rare seems to have in keeping servers full. Since my crew server hops looking for emissary ships, we might be part of the problem.

Also, since people are sharing merge nightmares, I'll share mine. We had just chased and sank a ship that ran with the FotD key. On our way back to open and, of course, server merge. Yes, the fort reset and no loot. Luckily, the ship we sank also had a ritual skull (you mean they were stacking, dang!) and the lights were on, so it was easy to rectify, but it could have been a sad end to that adventure.

@chronodusk said in I want control over server merges!:

@wowsuchmagic

People would just exploit this and use it to stay in dead servers.

Yes, if you could simply deny a server merge and the server would not bother you again, you could exploit it. But if my suggested solution of the server giving you a little grace period before still forcefully merging you would be implemented, I don't see how that could be exploited, because you can't outrun the server merge, it will happen eventually.

A notification some time before being merged and a merge cooldown would be the least I could wish for, so you know what is going to happen to you in advance and you can "plan" around it. If I knew that I am going to be merged within the next 15 minutes, I wouldn't even bother starting something that a server merge will ruin anyway. It's a waste of time to sail towards your destination for 10 minutes, be server merged, sail towards your new destination for 10 minutes, be server merged again, and so on.

there is definitely a problem with the merge system currently. there are situations where it merges when it shouldn't but also situations where it should and doesn't. i do not see how changing it so that the player decides would be better than the server deciding. this needs to be fixed for the server deciding no the player. it would be all to easy to find a server which is empty that the player could exploit into not having any fear of having another ship sink them. there is a solution to the problem just not the one you conceived in my opinion.

@cpt-bolleck sagte in I want control over server merges!:

there is definitely a problem with the merge system currently. there are situations where it merges when it shouldn't but also situations where it should and doesn't. i do not see how changing it so that the player decides would be better than the server deciding. this needs to be fixed for the server deciding no the player. it would be all to easy to find a server which is empty that the player could exploit into not having any fear of having another ship sink them. there is a solution to the problem just not the one you conceived in my opinion.

Again... if you read my idea thouroughly, I don't want to give control to the players completely. You simply should get a choice between an immediate merge or the chance to postpone it for a while until you have collected all your loot out of a stash on an island or a finished fort or whatever. If you did not agree to the merge within, say, 30 minutes after it was suggested to you, you will get merged by force eventually. So, you cannot avoid the merge.

I DO NOT want palyers to be able to avoid a merge completely. I just don't want the merge to be such a devestating surprise as it can be nowadays.

@licenturion sagte in I want control over server merges!:

PS: if you are only in the mood for PVP hit 'leave game' and hit the arena button. There you have constant action and you don't get merged .

The kind of PvP is different though in arena. You don't fight over potentially hard earned loot (and a lot of it sometimes, i. e. after a FotD) and there is no real loss when you lose a fight in arena. The worst that can happen to you in arena is that you come off badly in that round, that is different in adventure mode. Sometimes PvP in adventure mode does not even include fighting, a good steal without even killing or sinking someone can be just as rewarding (as AbsolutePixel puts it: "Sea of Thieeeeeves ... it's in the title!"). Besides that, arena can't be done solo, so if none of my friends are online, that's a no-no. So yeah, arena can be fun, but it's a different thing.