Population?

[Enzdid]

I just came back from a lengthy break and decided to try Shadowfax since the quicker leveling and difficulty settings sounded cool. Having a decent time so far but it's very quiet, do many people actually play on this server? Judging by forum activity Treebeard seems more busy but I don't particularly want to level slower. Are there certain peak times or days I should know about where there's more of an influx?

[Harvain]

You don't have to level slower on Treebeard, that is your choice. It's just one of the main features of Treebeard.

Treebeard tbh would be better to get on for short and long term gameplay.

[WeirdJedi]

The idea of Shadowfax is a double-edged sword. People that want to level faster will complete the content faster and therefore tend to sit back until the next level cap comes up. While Treebeard has a more relaxed atmosphere with people wanting to group up to take their time and level up which means more people are available.

The devs recently added this regarding the Shadowfax server: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WHeXZIfmi0&t=3560s

It is about the size of one of the smaller normal servers. They are satisfied with the population. It will continue on.

[gardavil]

My wife, our friends and myself, plus a few more real life friends make up SHoA kin on Shadowfax, and every time any discussion of moving to Treebeard is mentioned the majority say NO to Treebeard... they are satisfied with the content release speed on Shadowfax. Here's to the hope Shadowfax outlasts them all.

[Rosealba]

Here's to the hope Shadowfax outlasts them all.

Amen to that! I love Shadowfax - it gives me the opportunity to re-live all the old areas where I haven't been for years - without boredom! And absolutely no lag!

[Frisco]

It is about the size of one of the smaller normal servers. They are satisfied with the population. It will continue on.

There's no way this is possible. There are times I've logged on to Shadowfax and there were *14* people on. The entire server, barely enough to fill a raid. What f2p server even approaches that low of a population at any time of day? Even Anor bottoms out at about 20-22 people.

Is 14 people even an MMO anymore?

[just logged into every U.S. server. Shadowfax had 21 people on. No f2p server had fewer than 200. Treebeard had 120. Anor had 55.]

[Koulionz]

12 ppl are online atm. I hope they let us transfer our toons to live server soon.

[Harvain]

12 ppl are online atm. I hope they let us transfer our toons to live server soon.

For Shadowfax?

And SSG has stated, multiple times, for the near future they are Supporting ALL LOTRO Servers and that every Server has numbers that are worth supporting (at least at the last time they spoke about such).

Folks when looking at the Social Panel only see those Characters logged in at that moment, not on Anonymous and have no grasp of the total amount of Accounts that might log into a Server every 24 Hours, 1 Week and Monthly Basis (Monthly Basis being the more important Number compared to the 24 Hour or 1 Week Numbers).

[Frisco]

They say they're planning on keeping every server open until the very moment they announce that they're not. Hardly evidence of anything.

And there are fewer anonymous people on Shadowfax than on live servers, I imagine, since there are so few people (don't want to hide from the other 30 people if you want to do group stuff) and no pvp. And it's not typically a huge percentage of people going anonymous. Can maybe add 25%. So there are really ~15 people on.

And number of monthly or even daily logins don't really matter that much to players. If there are only 12-60 people online at any given time, that is not a thriving server even if 400 players are on over the course of a full day. It's not the product most people are paying for when they play an MMO.

[SniperCT]

They say they're planning on keeping every server open until the very moment they announce that they're not. Hardly evidence of anything.

Exactly. And that is what happened with Ithil.

[gardavil]

Ithil indeed, I found out at last minute quite literally, not fun.

Alright then... If SSG won't speak about server closures until last minute like they did with Ithil... purely for speculation purposes... hypothetically speaking of course...

Query: If SSG won't discuss which servers they will close until right before the closure... then which Legendary server(s) and/or regular servers do some of you believe would be kept by SSG?

purely for speculation of course...

(I ask of course because I have gone through enough server closures and transfers over the years, would rather find an island that isn't going to "sink into the sea" due to low population )

Thanks and Cheers.

[Harvain]

Ithil indeed, I found out at last minute quite literally, not fun.

Alright then... If SSG won't speak about server closures until last minute like they did with Ithil... purely for speculation purposes... hypothetically speaking of course...

Query: If SSG won't discuss which servers they will close until right before the closure... then which Legendary server(s) and/or regular servers do some of you believe would be kept by SSG?

purely for speculation of course...

(I ask of course because I have gone through enough server closures and transfers over the years, would rather find an island that isn't going to "sink into the sea" due to low population )

Thanks and Cheers.

Ithil closing was more a random and very bad decision on their part for how that all went down.

Tbh, it's doubtful Server Consolidation will be happening with how the LOTRO Servers are running here in Late 2021 and that as soon as you are over X amount of Character (and its maybe 300+) the amount of issues begin increasing with every extra hundred Characters on a Server beyond where the main issues are being reported by folks. Then LOTRO Servers cannot truly handle 1,000+ Characters so they won't be closing any down in 2022 unless they pull another Ithil and shut one or more down without warning.



2022 is shaping up like a year where a lot of stuff is gonna happen, lots of changes, we "might" see more people wanting to play LOTRO which the Servers cannot handle as they are right now, lots of possibility and it's impossible to say whether LOTRO is going to be coming out of 2022 for the better with all that might occur during the 2022 Development Cycle.

[Sovereign50]

Ithil indeed, I found out at last minute quite literally, not fun.

Alright then... If SSG won't speak about server closures until last minute like they did with Ithil... purely for speculation purposes... hypothetically speaking of course...

Query: If SSG won't discuss which servers they will close until right before the closure... then which Legendary server(s) and/or regular servers do some of you believe would be kept by SSG?

purely for speculation of course...

(I ask of course because I have gone through enough server closures and transfers over the years, would rather find an island that isn't going to "sink into the sea" due to low population )

Thanks and Cheers.

I don't see any of the regular servers closing or merging in the next few years. Not only is it a monumental undertaking, but it uproots veterans and causes all sorts of issues (such as with premium housing availability). Also, server hosting isn't the expense it was in the past. Even without the full details, I'm confident that SSG can comfortably run the current servers indefinitely.

The LS servers are fair game, however. I can see Shadowfax offering transfers beginning next year or simply being shuttered. I've seen Shadowfax, off-peak, drop as low as 6 players unanon.

[BayanWarden]

I played on Shadowfax for about two hours yesterday. And there were only 12 people. Treebeard and Shadowfax came same time. Anor had arrived much earlier. I don't understand why Treebeard is so popular. Everyone is only talking about only Treebeard.


Is it because of name? So why was Riddermark the smallest server in the past? Riddermark was cool server too.


Crazy questions in my mind.

[Harvain]

I played on Shadowfax for about two hours yesterday. And there were only 12 people. Treebeard and Shadowfax came same time. Anor had arrived much earlier. I don't understand why Treebeard is so popular. Everyone is only talking about only Treebeard.

Is it because of name? So why was Riddermark the smallest server in the past? Riddermark was cool server too.

Crazy questions in my mind.

Folks like Treebeard better because there is a not small at all amount of folks who want a "slower" Leveling Experience.

Granted this doesn't cover everyone but basically X amount of those folks want to be able to Level through Content, being within the Level Range if not slightly below and never really being Over-Leveled for any Content.

Add to that the Landscape Difficulty and SSG & LOTRO have what seems like a great combination to get more folks playing and in such a way that is to an individual's own tastes.

We just have no ETA on when Landscape Difficulty and XP Increase/Decrease from Shadowfax & Treebeard will ever be put on the Main Servers. Which mostly likely is partly due to Ongoing Performance Issues and the Main Servers having far more Characters would struggle to have these 2 System running on them at this time.