NCsoft's strict server balance policy for Aion

As a result of some vague server messages and a confused player base trying to reserve their characters in Aion's preselect period, NCsoft tossed up an informative preselect server status page. This page lists all European and North American servers and labels them as either 'Temporarily Locked,' 'Elyos/Asmodian Only,' or blank.

Some of the servers are jam-packed, while others have plenty of room to grow (no labels). NCsoft has temporarily locked new character creation on the higher population servers until the lower population servers catch up. To maintain faction balance they are also keeping track of Asmodian and Elyos populations. If one side becomes too dominant, new characters of that faction are disabled until the other side can catch up.

This has led to some frustration from preorder customers who fear they may not be able to roll on a server with their guild mates. Apparently, everything will work out as the lower population servers start filling up, so our fingers are crossed. We've all seen what can happen when companies get too overzealous with their server launch plans. The situation could be worse.

Update #1 (Sep 19 @ 10:48am EDT): Looks like all servers have been unlocked, but 8/24 of them are 'Elyos Only.'
Update #2 (Sep 19 @ 12:30pm EDT): Some players are reporting they can make Asmodian characters on the 'Elyos Only' servers. This is probably due to a lag period between real-time server status and web updates.
Update #3 (Sep 19 @ 3:00pm EDT): It appears that restrictions have been lifted (see http://twitter.com/aion_ayase).

Reader Comments (53)

I love how everyone wants to roll the "dark side" these days. What happened to people wanting to play the good guys? Did WoW and the embarrassment of being Alliance do that to you?

The fact is, when the hordes of people run to one side, the other side ends up better in the long run. Take WAR - rush to Destruction. Slowly many good players gave up and moved over to Order. I now find that Order has far more organization and team players. A smaller Order force usually dominates the larger Destruction force.

I am a horde/destruction/asmodian style player - but I'll be trying Elyos for the sole reason that being the underdog team on US MMOs eventually ends up being the more fun/winning team.

It's really hard to consider Elyos the underdog simply because they are available for open character creation during the pre-select. The faction balance margin is very low so there will not be a true "underdog" in the sense of WAR or WoW.

Please see the two status updates. Thank you!

If there's any frustration it's because of someone's lack of understanding on how Aion's server balancing works.

As it's been pointed out a few times, there's no reason for panic and getting upset at something so minor. It's been known since 2007, at least, that servers would be balanced this way otherwise the game wouldn't work, how was that not clear before if you spend five minutes looking up how the game functions?

So in other words patience and bid your time, it's not because your preselect today that you're stuck on any given server, this is just to make sure you get your name and is really just a small bonus for people who pre order. In other words, what the bid deal is I have no idea. Just breathe. :) Also preselection doesn't even guarantee you get the name you want, I have friends who didn't get at least one of theirs and they tried to get on as soon as possible...

EU servers have NO limitations now, NA ones will follow soon, according to a CM.

I find it hilarious that people's reason for not playing is that they 'wont be able to join their guild'. I think it's a serious problem, and a little cliquish to already have a guild of set people, excluding others from playing with you, instead of joining the game and creating a new social environment with the few friends who are able to join. But then I'm not in a guild like that, and mostly play for my own enjoyment, even though I'm a little hardcore - so what do I know.

As for not being able to join your friends..well why don't YOU join THEM on a server that you ALL can roll on? It's completely insane that you're so attached to the Emo demon-angels that you can't sacrifice yourself to join the other side. When I joined wow, I wanted to be Horde, but I joined my friends on the Alliance side. I chose the Asmodians, but I wouldn't have cried if I had to choose the other side. It was a momentary whim, not a well-thought out choice between emo and angel.

I think it will be a goo thing, if Ncsoft can overcome the tides of immaturity with their practicality. Not always an easy thing, so it'll remain to be seen if it'll be successful or not.

Okay fine, just like Eve Online (except one GIANT universe like that wouldn't work in a game like this, it would have to be multiple instances of the same area like CO). Also, I am just saying that I think the best way to do it is one server. I wish more games would do it. Aion looks great, it looks like a great game. I'm just saying I like the 'one server' system better. Chillax brosefs. Also I'm not into whatever that online wrestling game is Garmr is talking about.

I understand it's annoying some, but if it means balanced servers I can deal.

First I understand that people are not happy about not getting on the server they want or the race they want.
But then again, would those people be happy on a overfilled server lagfest and no other race character to fight?!?

C it realy doesn't matter what NCsoft does, cos there will always be people unhappy. I it isn't the server than it's the balance or the lag.
I can't wait to here the bitching on sunday when the high loaded servers have problems getting all the players to auth and logon.

I think it's like this, when you want to go to a popconcert you make sure you be ontime for a tickit (even if you have to sleep in front of the ticket office) so if you so badly wanted to get on that one server you should have been sleeping on your pc to hit the connect button the moment the servers came on.

So has anyone actually covered the story of the massive server queues today (9/20)? Having spent $50 on the pre-order only to *not* be able to play on pre-release is downright fraudulent or, the very least, poorly managed.

The pre-release was sold with the incentive that you could get head of the release crowd, only to find that just about every server had a 1-1.2k (or higher) queue with an hour + wait while every played Barbie dress their toon. How much worse is it going to be at release? Will I have to wait a month so all the drooling fan boys can get it out of their system or the company wise up?

Again this is a small bonus for pre orders. You didn't pay more to get the game you just had foresight in ordering ahead and so to thank you NCsoft gives you the CHANCE to play a few hours before the official launch.

In other words in reality nobody owes you anything and they surely did not even have to indulge us and just let the servers implode on release with the weight of so many people trying to log on.. This is way for them to funnel people in disguised as a prize.

:P Personally I'm just happy I get a big of time to get out of the newb zone before non-preorder people start getting in.

Just my point, you can't get in. The servers are at capacity unless you play some on a timezone that's very undesirable. Regardless if it was pre-order or not, the servers are not able to accomodate the sheer volume of players right now. That means waiting until the concurrent user count goes down, which will be about two weeks depending on how the retails release goes.

All-in-all a very stupid move by NCSoft considering they knew exactly how many pre-orders they had and could have planned better. The insult here is that since the game is 99% race to max level coming late to the game means your friends will have beat you the top and will be bored before you even get a chance to play.

It seems like the major complaint is that people paid up early to avoid the issues usually associated to launch day. That's a pretty fair argument from a consumer stand point; you didn't get what you thought you were paying for. Fair enough.

On the balancing act that seems the be Aion's current server status: give it a week or two. Regardless of how well or poor a game's population, balance, and community turned out to be, it definitely doesn't happen on launch day, or prior to it in this case. I can completely understand the frustration of getting your guild hacked to shreds (you can't just call all of them and say "hey, we're swapping servers!" like you could with RL friends) as it happened to my DAoC guild when a chunk of us ended up dispersed through out WAR's factions AND servers, but give it a little time. Either stick with it and bite through the current auto-balancing for a week or so, or reroll on a server where you can all fit on your chosen faction.

NCsoft's strict server balance policy for Aion

Reader Comments (53)

Posted: Sep 19th 2009 11:59AM Anatidae said

Posted: Sep 19th 2009 3:55PM Cristiano Cenizo said

Posted: Sep 19th 2009 12:51PM brookep said

Posted: Sep 19th 2009 1:29PM Cendres said

Posted: Sep 19th 2009 2:19PM DarthCheese said

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Posted: Sep 21st 2009 11:56AM (Unverified) said

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