Arena Cap is not cool...

[BMathis]

What about the Arena Cap?


Geeze don't y'all read? 

[captain1ma]

this may or may not apply, but from an I.T. perspective, did you ever stop to think maybe thats all the servers can handle?? maybe after the threshold is reached the servers react adversely and the Caps are based on that.

most of the computing is done on the local harddrive but there is alot of flow back and forth to the servers. servers with 200, 300 or 400 connections tend to slow down a bit. servers with 700+ i would assume get hot as hell and the performance would suffer a bit based on what i know about servers.

anyway this is just a thought from my perspect. if it doesnt apply, please ignore this post 

[Shuffler]

Yea, I have seen this many times. The problem is, when an arena is capped and no one can join the only way to even numbers is "internal" transfers between countries. So, in reality the arena caps hurt gameplay balance. It would work much better if the arenas were "soft" capped when significantly unbalanced, meaning people could still join it if they were willing to join the lowest country. The soft cap would change to a hard cap once relative balance was achieved. You'd just have to block those that joined during the soft cap period from transferring for 1 hr.

The only problem with with uneven numbers is the individuals playing. CAP has nothing to do with helping or hurting that.

One method I found that helps is to log into the other arena for a few minutes to help change the numbers there..... then log out and immediately check the other arena. Most of the time I find it has increased CAP. Good Luck!

[SlapShot]

this may or may not apply, but from an I.T. perspective, did you ever stop to think maybe thats all the servers can handle?? maybe after the threshold is reached the servers react adversely and the Caps are based on that.

most of the computing is done on the local harddrive but there is alot of flow back and forth to the servers. servers with 200, 300 or 400 connections tend to slow down a bit. servers with 700+ i would assume get hot as hell and the performance would suffer a bit based on what i know about servers.

anyway this is just a thought from my perspect. if it doesnt apply, please ignore this post 

It doesn't apply ... Skuzzy basically said that the servers are hardly stressed at all. CAPS have nothing to do with hardware constraints.

[BaldEagl]

There were 1000s of threads complaining about the gameplay and the community. As the number of subscribes grew, the positive feeling about  AH community went down the drain. The general consensus was that smaller numbers in arenas are beneficial for social interaction and building a better community, and with that, better gameplay.

That was the reason for arena caps. We also got side balancing for better play.

And now there's 1000s of threads complaining about the gameplay and the community.  Well that worked pretty well huh?   

[SlapShot]

And now there's 1000s of threads complaining about the gameplay and the community.  Well that worked pretty well huh?   

Funny thing is ... HT didn't make the CAP decision based wholly on threads ... he said they had subscription numbers that proved there was a problem.

[Zazen13]

Well ... I have been profesionally programming since '78 so yes, I know all about debugging.

I watched with great intent the machinations that HT went thru when making those changes, and I saw nothing wrong with his application/implementation of those changes so as to not fall into the trap(s) that you have mentioned.

I will choose to agree to disagree with you on this point. I didn't find any compelling reason the servers should have been split myself. Nor did I find any reason put forth by HTC sufficient to merit that sort of heavy-handed approach. Retrospectively, I cannot come up with a single, solitary positive result splitting the LW arenas has had on either the gameplay or community. I have always had a sympathetic appreciation for how you personally approach the game. I do realize some like a "small room" to play in. But, I honestly don't believe chopping the LW population in half really enhances the gameplay experience overall. There are several other arenas with various motifs that have a "small room" atmosphere for the minority that enjoy that.

[BaldEagl]

Funny thing is ... HT didn't make the CAP decision based wholly on threads ... he said they had subscription numbers that proved there was a problem.

Before the split there were usually ~700 people on IIRC.  Now, long after the split, there's ~700 people on IF we're lucky.  It doesn't seem to have made any difference other than creating a few new things for people to whine about.

[The Fugitive]

Before the split there were usually ~700 people on IIRC.  Now, long after the split, there's ~700 people on IF we're lucky.  It doesn't seem to have made any difference other than creating a few new things for people to whine about.

your only going by numbers you see posted at the arena page. HTC goes by his subscription numbers. One large arena he was loosing subscribers, many smaller arenas, he's not. My guess is its working or there would be  more changes.

[999000]

If two guys from Minnesota say the arena cap its a bad idea ...IT IS!  ....Might be the best logic you find!
<S>999000

[SlapShot]

I didn't find any compelling reason the servers should have been split myself. Nor did I find any reason put forth by HTC sufficient to merit that sort of heavy-handed approach. Retrospectively, I cannot come up with a single, solitary positive result splitting the LW arenas has had on either the gameplay or community.

Well ... it was not for you or me to "find". Obviously, we don't have access to data that HTC has/had in order to make these types of decisions.

I have always had a sympathetic appreciation for how you personally approach the game. I do realize some like a "small room" to play in. But, I honestly don't believe chopping the LW population in half really enhances the gameplay experience overall. There are several other arenas with various motifs that have a "small room" atmosphere for the minority that enjoy that.

Again, what you or I believe doesn't really matter.

I usually don't play in the "Big Boyz" arenas due to having frame rate problems when flying in large groups, but that is my problem. If I do play in the "Big Boyz" arena, it is usually the Blue arena because it is the easiest to get into and for the most part has a large map up.

On large maps, I can find areas that offer me what I am looking for, along with something that doesn't bring my video card to its knees, and also not having to fight my own countrymen for kills.

The population in the Purple arena, and the fights that ensue in that arena, never cause frame rate problems for me, along with not having to see the constant "I suck and need to deflect from my suckage" smack talk one sees in the "Big Boyz" arena. With that, there are some "I suck and need to deflect from my suckage" smack talk in the Purple arena, but no where near the constant flow that goes on in the Orange and Blue arenas.

Bottom line ... we can speculate/assume ... and that's all it ever will be ... when it comes to this topic.

[hitech]

Before the split we had max of 750 people on line at one time.
This spring we would very often go about 1100 people online at the same time.

Before we made the change we had stopped growing.
After the change we started growing at a new record pace.

Any

[Sunka]

  I guess that's that

[dedalos]

I bet they do... Though if all this was to change one day, and say we did only have one large arena  .... <scary music> .... There'd be chaos from others posting/complaining instantly the exact opposite of what this discussion brings to our community. Though they'd probably  not read this thread before posting the "What the?!?!?" "This is rediculous" "need to split..." etc.

I think the main issue at the start of this thread was the waiting 45 minutes to get into the arena that I (we) wanted, and pay for...

All good discussion here though. <S> & thanks for responding gents.

I think that what ever the decision is going to be, and any other decision for that matter, should not be based on how many threads may get started.  It is only a small % of people on this BBS and an even smaller that actually start threads

[Alky]

It is only a small % of people on this BBS and an even smaller that actually start threads

It occurs to me that participating on the BBS is like voting in elections... If you don't participate, you have no say in what happens at AH or if you don't vote, you can't complain who the elected official is