Today’s patch introduced a great bug. The game no longer automatically creates more instances when existing instances are filled to the maximum limit with people. Apparently, the problem is due to the game miscounting the number of players in each zone.
Whatever the cause, I’m really enjoying this bug. Every zone is bursting over with players and it actually feels like a real MMORPG now. There are crowds of heroes at each NPC and a mob of heroes in the powerhouse. Zone chat is lively (but still very stupid, heh).
Of course, there are downsides. Some zones are pretty laggy and doing quests in the open areas is probably very frustrating.
Previously, each instance had a population limit of around 100 people. Many people always chose to go to the least populated instances, to make it easier to complete quests. As a result, the population was spread thin between a large number of instances. A 100 people in some of these massive zones was not enough to make the game come alive. Now, with hundreds of people in every zone, the game feels dynamic and more exciting.
Cryptic really needs to raise the population limits for each zone.
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Yeah… some of the comments in the crowded areas, like the Powerhouse, were pretty comical.
“Has anyone seen my Mom?”, “Out of the way. I have to pee!” and things of that nature.
I did feel much more MMO-like. Although I don’t think I’d like to see it that crowded all the time, I do think they could stand to raise the instance limit a bit.
Now that it’s back to normal, it feels empty! Bleh.
The problem is that we want a lot of people in social areas (crafting, auction, mail, unity HQ, bank, etc.), but we don’t want too many people in quest areas.
So right now, Cryptic is going with a rather low population limit everywhere, so it always feels a bit empty.
I don’t think this is an easily solved issue.