Merge The Shards. Yes the idea would need a bit of refining to implement, and a lot of dev work. But afaik we're all connecting to servers located in the same place (cyprus?) so latency would not be an issue, if true. i could be totally wrong though. Language barriers? Humans get over/around it, or don't interact at all/much. Shards don't interact atm so no loss there...
op's would be an issue. what else would, though? gh's/apts shouldn't be much of one. i really don't think this would create a massive overpopulation issue...
could always make a new shard/reopen an old one, if player population warranted it.
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another problem might be all those dead/inactive accounts with gh's and condos, if there's a limitation on the # of gh/condos in each 'section?'
(you rent apts you buy a condo) (should implement a rent system too maybe, and an 'escrow?' holder for your stuff when you get kicked out for nonpayment of rent)
/edit
op's would be an issue. what else would, though? gh's/apts shouldn't be much of one. i really don't think this would create a massive overpopulation issue...
could always make a new shard/reopen an old one, if player population warranted it.
edit
another problem might be all those dead/inactive accounts with gh's and condos, if there's a limitation on the # of gh/condos in each 'section?'
(you rent apts you buy a condo) (should implement a rent system too maybe, and an 'escrow?' holder for your stuff when you get kicked out for nonpayment of rent)
/edit