OFFICIAL NEWS

seto,

i'm a hardware tech, believe me when i say that ryzom in no way needs more then one server for ALL shards. (in fact, if you ask one of the major players in the ryzom dev world {katemi [could be spelled wrong]} he'll tell you the same.

while building a personal server can be a semi costly endevor, (for about 8,000 us you can build a server that would run all ryzom shards, ts3 and many other softwares)

you can download the core server software and run them on a current level desktop, and people have. this is fact, not conjection or theory. as for the costs of servers per month: here's a few public game server companies and their prices.

https://www.gameservers.com/dedicated/
69.99 to 179.99 usd per month

https://www.velia.net/shop/region/frankfurt-am-main
59 to 69 eruo a month (avg 1.35 usd per 1 euro)

https://www.24shells.net/specials/?gclid=COuD6o-ji88CFUIvgQodFjYN _w
79.99 to 119.99 usd per month

that's just the top 3 finds with a quick google search for "dedicated game server hosting".

now, build that same server (up to 10,000 usd) pay less for dedicated static IP and 1 gbps+ with unlimited or multi TB traffic limit.... the whole point of the merge and reason for the PW hour is because ALL shards are running on a single server.

there's no way the game is running on more then one server or there would be no PW hour, and the offical reason for the PW's was because the back-up server is running on the same server as the play server (not to mention the test server as well).

as i said i'm a hardware tech, i build personal, gaming, and business desktops, as well as servers and i also consult and advise on hardware for mainframes.  ryzom may have once been a very intense program to run, but with the more advanced hardware we have now, it's not the case anymore.

the ryzom forge prompted me to look into the idea of programming, but it's not my specialty in any way and i'm very noob about it.

perhaps you missed the forum posts and/or the forge meetings about the shards all running on a single server.  it's possible that ryzom might one day need more then one server, but that's going to take 1000's of active players 24/7/365.  until then, a single server will do it all (and even with 1000's of active players, only the play shard, known as "atys", will need to be scaled to more then one server; the yubo (test shard) will only need one because it won't have 1000's, or be likely to have 100's using it at one time. the back up server might need to be scaled to a 2nd server, but i feel safe saying that it would take 10's of 1000's of daily active players to need that.

i hope that my links (as examples) will help you understand that this new step they're taking will in no way bring ryzom to it's death.  i can think of at least 10 people that sub by the year, that don't even play much at all, but still continue to support the game.

ryzom is a game supported by dedicated fans, there's a very high chance that the game will always have the needed subs to ensure the server stays up, the only real issue is the owners and how greedy they are in terms of profits, if they love ryzom like many of us do, they'll find other ways to make profit, and use the subs for keeping the game alive (not likely but we can always hope that profits aren't their only passion in life).

ok, i've said a ton again, living up to my namesake yet again.

if anyone doubts some of the facts i've shared, do your own searches, use keywords like "dedicated", "game", and "server" and you will be very surprised at how cheep a decent server is.

anyway i'll shut up now,
talk