connected-realms
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Nethaera fills in the blanks on Connected Realms
With patch 5.4 up and running, many players have been wondering about the status of the new Connected Realms feature. Questions have run the gamut from wanting to know the exact criteria of putting two realms together, to wanting a list of the realms that are scheduled to be connected. Most importantly, players have been wondering if the Connected Realms feature has actually been enabled, or if we have yet to see if the process has taken place. Community Manager Nethaera filled in some of those blanks in a series of updates posted on the official forums. The first two realms that have been scheduled for connection are Boulderfist and Bloodscalp. The system will be rolled out over time, much like what we saw with the Cross-Realm Zones feature -- players won't suddenly see all realms introduced to the Connected Realms feature all at once. Blizzard intends to keep realm types together as much as it possibly can -- for those on RP realms, this means if your realm is connected to another, it will likely be another RP realm. Nethaera went on to note that faction balance, something that has caused many players to struggle on incredibly lopsided realms, may not be the ultimate reason for a connection. But perhaps most importantly -- as of Friday, no realms have been connected. Any server restarts or messages about Connected Realm restarts in game are absolutely not an indicator that your realm has been connected to another -- it's simply some of the work that needs to be done in order to enable the connecting process, should it need to be utilized. For now, it seems that players are still isolated on their own realms -- but there should be further updates to the thread if that changes. For more information on the implementation of this new feature, check out the thread on the official forums.
Reminder: Connected Realms will not be turned on immediately
From the Department of Friendly World of Warcraft Reminders comes a note on the pending patch 5.4, scheduled to drop next Tuesday: connected realms will not be turned on at the release of patch 5.4. Instead, they're going to be turned on gradually and fine-tuned as time goes on. We've been seeing a lot of confusion over this, and rightly so -- it's a major feature of the patch. However it's not uncommon for Blizzard to slow walk things out the gate, they do this with raiding and LFR, and in the case of a major game change that is essentially merging servers, it needs to be done extremely carefully. No doubt that when it does get turned on most of the world will erupt in one form or another. We're pretty sure you'll be able to hear it, and we'll be covering aforementioned eruption here as well.
The Queue: Presidential material
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. Saints Row IV's Inauguration Station (standalone character creator) released yesterday. That game's content isn't exactly safe for a site that attempts to be family friendly, but I vibrate with excitement nonetheless. Magruun asked: What is the difference between this Connected realm thing that was announced this week and the Virtual realms from a while back? to me they sound like the same thing.
World of Warcraft sews together realms to solve population issues
Instead of simply merging some of its lower population servers, World of Warcraft is going a different way. Starting in patch 5.4, Blizzard will introduce connected realms: servers that are functionally joined together with other servers to share population and resources. While the affected realms will remain technically independent, the lines between the two connected realms will be blurred. These realms will be able to share population, have one linked auction house, and allow players of both servers to group, guild, and PvP together. So why not just merge? Blizzard's official answer reasons, "Other alternatives such as merging realms would require us to force character name changes if there were conflicts, and could lead to confusion for returning players who'd log in to find their realm missing from the realm list. Some players also feel strong ties to their realm's name or history, and we don't want to erase that." The list of what servers will be connected has yet to be released.
Blizzard releases more information on Connected Realms
Blizzard today released more information on the "Connected Realms" feature that's coming up in the future. The Connected Realms are the same as the Virtual Realms that were announced with patch 5.4, just with a new name and more information. Highlights from this information include: Connected Realms will ideally be activated after patch 5.4's release, although there is no direct timeframe given Only like realm types will be connected -- PvP and PvE realms will not be connected. Players get to keep their names Those players from a connected realm will have a '#' next to their name, just like a '*' appears on players from other realms in the cross-realm LFR, Dungeon Finder, and PvP areas. The timeframe is really important and something everyone needs to keep in mind. Blizzard did not say this feature is releasing with patch 5.4 -- it could come shortly after, or it could come much later. The full post after the break.
