Our test of the new hardware on Shadowclaim this weekend went pretty well. We gathered some good data, but there's a bit more we'd like to get. In particular, we need higher concurrency numbers -- the lobby we used this past weekend was limited to 250 users; for the next phase, we'd like to see 1000 simultaneous players logged in. So we've added a quick launch lobby to the test page to allow for thousands of concurrent users, and we'll be continuing with the live events and the guest appearances. So come on over and help us hammer on these servers! And get killed by Martine, have a snack with Bael-Zharon, chat with the White Rabbit, defend Greenspire from renegade Tumeroks ... c'mon, it'll be fun!
To get to Shadowclaim, go to http://zone.msn.com/asheronshadow/. (You may need to choose 'Play Asheron's Call' from the left-hand menu the first time you visit.) Click on the Shadowclaim Quick Launch, and in you go!
Ken Karl:
First off - Its GREAT to see so many people who are so eager to help out and put some additional load on our new servers? I want to thank you for that.
But now to why you can not get in.
In AC1, as you probably already know from the main page, we have two type of lobbies. The normal lobbies (with chat) and Quick Launch (without). The normal lobbies are built to have a capacity limit of 250 people. This is really for sanity sake. One thing to remember is that these are the same lobbies that are used elsewhere in the Zone. And normally, people will stay in the lobbies and talk. Could you imagine what a normal lobby would look like with 1000 people chatting at once?
So we knew for AC1 we would not necessarily care so much about chat in the lobbies, but we did not want to make it so all lobbies in the zone would have 1000 people and chaos. So we came up with Quick Launch lobbies. No user limit to these lobbies because they have no chat.
Well, in preparing for Shadowclaim, quite honestly, we just didn't think about which lobby to use. We just put up the one that we normally use on the back door page to get in. A normal lobby. And being as it has been a while since we had rolled out a new lobby, I forgot about the built in lobby limit.
So where does that leave us? Well, we are getting excellent testing in and the load is great. But we also definately would like to get more people in if at all possible. So while it unlikely that the lobby situation will change tonight, we will work on things backend tomorrow to see if we can't tweak this lobby to let more people in. While it might seem like the answer is just "Turn on another lobby" or "Raise the limit" both have risks associated to them to the entire site. As there are variables that have to be tweaked with any lobby change or rolled out, done the wrong way has a cascading effect. So it mostly requires testing time to make sure the new lobby or any lobby tweak we would make, would not mess up other things (and perhaps prevent you from getting into AC1 at all).
So keep checking back on the page. See if you can get into the lobby.
One thing that would help is that once you are in the game, if you could ALT-Tab back out of the game, and exit your lobby instance, that will free up a slot for another person. It will not have any negative effect on your characeter.
Thanks again for all your help!
Ken
WOOT-- Shadowclaim QUICKLAUNCH lobby is up! This lobby has literally no limit (well it does, but its very very high).
Please use this lobby if you do not plan on chatting! Just going right into the game.
