No amount of fixes are going to save Neltharion at this point. It's on its deathbed and there's really no reason to watch it die slowly when you can just put a bullet in its head and use the resources for something you can guarantee quality on, like a Vanilla server.
Smh this community demands too much. Can we all just take a moment to realise they are actually working on 4 expansions with a team that is very small compared to Blizzard and they have been doing an incredible job all these years. Literally play on any other popular Cataclysm server and I can guarantee it will be no where near as good as the quality on Warmane.
Literally just launched TBC and pushing our development team to their limit, and you think Vanilla is a good idea. tsk
TBC and Wotlk already contain Vanilla, a lot of the work is already there. There's no point in diverting development to a dying server, especially when it actually requires more work than the other realms. A well-scripted Vanilla realm in Neltharion's place would not only have 50+ times the playerbase but also be the easiest to create and maintain
Another option is to just shift Cataclysm's development to MoP and create a new MoP server with limited transfers from Frostwolf to attract new players and potentially save MoP from ending like Cataclysm.
We offered for all of the Cata players to merge into MoP so we can add Cata's development time into MoP's, and that the Cataclysm players would have a more populous realm to play on. The majority declined, and so we didn't proceed with it.
You should seriously consider redoing this. When that poll was made, Cata had around 1k players. Now we're down to 300, I'm pretty sure the consensus from what players there are left has changed.
There is no going back for Cata at this point either way, and MoP could use a slight boost in population. If a merge was to be done, Conquest Catchup scripting should be finished first though to give the Cata players and other new players a bump to be semi competitive.
All I've been reading about this subject are excuses. Excuses that will lead to destruction of Cataclysm realm itself. They will lead to no future development and maintenance, no further advertising techniques to increase population growth and then an official closing of Warmane Cataclysm private servers.
I used to love cata played it for a long time when it had a really good peak, But like everyone you take a break and that you go back to other expansions i still log on to cata and say hi to the people that still play. But i think in my honest opinion Its time Warmane, Cata had an amazing run its been running for a decent time let it merge with mop or offer people that spent coins to help the server. A pre levelled character with pre raid gear and a compensation of a few coins to get what they wish on any of the Servers. The guys have been loyal.
From the point of an Icecrown's player view,I feel sad for Nelth.Back in the day(molten) I remember when there were 3 cata servers with an average of 3-4k people each.Warmane actually announced their plans for Cata,ok,we got the idea of it.After this with the news of an almost perfect Wotlk server Nelth players received some hope until it got demolished by the TBC realms news.Did you really expected people from Nelth to go and say "Congratz on TBC server lauch"?
All I've been reading about this subject are excuses. Excuses that will lead to destruction of Cataclysm realm itself. They will lead to no future development and maintenance, no further advertising techniques to increase population growth and then an official closing of Warmane Cataclysm private servers.
They have already said that they won't focus on Cataclysm and Mist of Pandaria. They said that Wotlk would be their main focus, and The Burning Crusade has been asked for a lot higher playerbase then the two expansions after Wotlk, therefor they get more attention.
If you had read trough not only this forum thread, you would know that they have already said the the Cataclysm players, that they won't close the server, but it won't get too much focus too.
The fact of the matter is, regardless of what a handful of individuals want, there's just not a lot of love for Cata. It added a lot to low level content with the race+class changes and rebuilt the world for a less grueling leveling experience, but the endgame was regarded by most as sub-par. Ultimately, there's just no appeal to Cata and that's not something Warmane can control.
Due to the lack of appreciation for endgame and the lowest pop of all Warmane realms, players who aren't hardcore Cata lovers unfortunately have little incentive to level characters on Nelth.
Believe me, I can understand having love for a specific version of WoW that isn't one of the "big 3"- it really salts my fields and burns my crops that a lot of people turned away from MoP either by judging a book by its cover, or dropping it at the very start before they remedied Daily quest hell, because MoP had such a meaningful story and beautiful zones and music. I can understand the sentimental value some people place in Cata, but the lack of popularity is just something Cata lovers need to accept, and they need to understand that Private servers are not big companies that can pull in a constant stream of skilled Devs and other staff, so they rely on those who step up to apply on their own accord, and not many have the coding skill and dedication to do so.
With 4 expansions and 7 servers, Warmane has to allocate its Dev power to what has the greatest appeal, and Cata is unfortunately the lowest appeal, and thus is the lowest priority.
The Devs could pour their souls into that realm and it'd still be among the least popular. If anything, since much of Cata's appeal is in the leveling experience which can still be had in MoP, I think the only way to really revive Nelth to some degree would be to turn it to an instant 85 realm (or just 80, or offer free or low-cost level boosts).
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Also to address some other points in the thread: I'd hope Warmane doesn't release WoD or Legion. WoD was met with even more contempt than Cata, and Legion being the current expansion has plenty of active PServers right now so it's not a wise decision to throw another one into the pot so late because many people will just stick to whatever they're already playing on. Some ****ty server essentially holds a monopoly on Vanilla so that's not really a good plan either. I think Warmane's got it laid out good right now- adding any more expansions would stretch the team thin.
Smh this community demands too much.
Gamers, my dude. Gamers. Even the official retail forums are always 70% "Give me this! Take away this! Me me me!" and at least half of those suggestions would only result in causing a bigger riot than that time Blizzard was going to link RealID names with forum posts.
5+ year old bugs still exist on the WoTLK server... and this was the primary realm for years.
I'm not a programmer, but I have friends who are, and a running joke in the programming world is "Fix one bug, two more pop up." Bug fixing aint easy or simple, lol.
You should seriously consider redoing this. When that poll was made, Cata had around 1k players. Now we're down to 300, I'm pretty sure the consensus from what players there are left has changed.
Yeah, I was one of the most vocal in posting against shutting down Neltharion on these forums. But dead server is dead. And I just don't see the potential interest in the private server community to bring Neltharion back. I hate it, but that seems to be the reality of the situation.
So I would now be in favor of merging Cata into MoP, IF the current Cata players are given something substantive in compensation. Not just a level 85 toon to level to 90- it takes next to no time to level that. Maybe an 85 toon with a partial coin refund so we can get some gear at 90.
if you think nobody plays cata because staff doesnt fix weekly like on wotlk/tbc then you are so wrong. people dont play cata onward because they are garabge expansions for the majority. vanilla-wotlk servers also had huge population back in the days when every boss was tank and spank on pservers.
if you think nobody plays cata because staff doesnt fix weekly like on wotlk/tbc then you are so wrong. people dont play cata onward because they are garabge expansions for the majority. vanilla-wotlk servers also had huge population back in the days when every boss was tank and spank on pservers.
And yet Cata was quite popular until they decided to stop fixing it. Just because it's too difficult for you to manage playing it doesn't mean others don't want to. There are still some adults who play WoW.