Blue Posts and Other WoW News: Still ongoing discussions on extra character slots
by Adam Holisky 
Jan 11th 2012 at 11:59PM
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Blue posts
Extra Character Slots
Quote:
Hey Neth, any talk around the watercooler about extra character slots? I mean, with the monk class, it'll be impossible to have one of every class now on the same server.
Hey Neth, any talk around the watercooler about extra character slots? I mean, with the monk class, it'll be impossible to have one of every class now on the same server.
There are on-going discussions about how we want to handle this issue. If I recall correctly, there were some ideas brought up at BlizzCon about what we could potentially do to alleviate the concerns about extra character slots, but I don't have any more information on a specific decision right now.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Drakkenfyre Jan 12th 2012 1:39AM
I understand they have to discuss it, and that they have to be very careful about implementing it because having everyone on each server suddenly being able to make X amount more of characters could really screw a server load up. But after 7 years of it being asked, they need to go thru with this.
Whether it's an additional slot or two, the proposed and very popular lifting of per-server limit, and just using the account limit, or even charging a one-time fee for those extra slots, they need to do something. It's been asked for for 7 years, and the reply has been "We're thinking about it" for 7 years.
Noyou Jan 12th 2012 3:47AM
They have a dilemma. First off there is the space issue. Some servers probably can't handle everyone adding a buttload of toons. Next is all the money they would lose off of server transfers. I hope they do it. I don't want to delete any toons but I will if I have to.
Luci Jan 12th 2012 9:27AM
Ikr. I'm an altoholic and I love creating new toons. I usually get my main up to end-game and do that content with her, but with all the little alts I generally stop playing them when they get to a higher level and create a new one! I love doing this and it's getting to a point where I don't play WoW because I can't delete anymore toons and I don't see the point of starting over on a new server when I have played for so many years and have so much awesome stuff to share with my baby alts. I have deleted so many over the years :(
Langis Langley Jan 12th 2012 2:12AM
While I can see why people would be frustrated at Blizz not yet addressing an issue they were asked about 7 years ago, why does anyone need more than 10 characters on the server?
This question is rhetorical and requires no answer.
scarebro Jan 12th 2012 2:31AM
being able to have one character of each class (come MoP, of course.)
Silversol Jan 12th 2012 2:52AM
Personally I don't like deleting max level toons when an expansion rolls out to play the new classes with my friends.
Philster043 Jan 12th 2012 3:28AM
^ What Silversol said. I have 10 allies and 10 hordies, each grouped up on two different servers, all on their way to 85 (whenever I have time.) Each class has at least 3 specs, so this way I'm also able to explore every class and spec without having to change anything. I don't RP, but it helps me to imagine my characters all have their own ambitions and stories from the time I start playing them. I like variety so I've included every race as well. I am also fond of at least 19 of my characters (my dwarf paladin is the only one I am seriously considering deleting.) Anyway, I like that they can still all help each other with their professions and whatever else they may pick up on their travels through Azeroth.
Granted I'll probably just make one Pandaren monk and leave it at that, and probably on Hordies, and I probably won't bother making another on Allies because I already have two of all the other classes. Whenever a new race emerges in a future expansion, I'm hoping that race will be able to be a monk for my Allies. But either way, can't do that with just 10 character slots on each server.
yujie.max Jan 12th 2012 3:34AM
This guy clearly is one of those people who has rolled 5 of his favourite class.
If it isn't very clear, no, I'm not serious, and this is a joke.
ahsanali Jan 12th 2012 2:51AM
Given that you can be logging in on one character at a time only, how would this increase server load?
I understand that behind each character are database records to track inventory, gear, spec, achievements and config (keybinds, macros etc).
That said, database space should be cheap - I expect they probably have large DB servers per datacenter, not per realm.
So how again would increasing character increase load? I'm genuinely confused why this is a massive problem.
Drakkenfyre Jan 14th 2012 10:46PM
Each character is a text file in a database. One of the reasons they don't simply just dump in 50+ slot bags is because for each slot added to a bag for a character, that's another space in the database it has to keep track of.
Each server has potentially 500,000 characters or more. The last time some statistics went out, it was said Blizzard, if the source was correct, has something on the order of 6 Petabytes of character data if I remember correctly. That's 6000TB. Each character slot added adds potentially (character inventory size) + four inventory slots + Max size bagsx4 + Bank + Max sized bagx5 + Void Storage. Even if you don't have the max sized bags, your character's entry allocates for that potential size. Now times this by every account on a server. By opening up the discussed option (remove the per-server limit, and just going with the existing account limit) you literally are giving it the chance to become 40 times worse PER PLAYER (as ten is the current limit, and 50 is the account limit.) If you assume at worst every player on a realm creates their max amount of characters on that server, your requirements just went up by 40 times for that entire server.
The servers don't simply use your standard SATA hard drive you pick up from Best Buy or Newegg. These are enterprise-level drives with reduntant backups.
brain314 Jan 12th 2012 5:49AM
I think you mean 5 times worse, going from 10 to 50.
Drakkenfyre Jan 15th 2012 12:35AM
Yes, 5 times worse, per player. So character amount X 5, at the worst.
The servers would have to have their storage upgraded at least to twice their current capacity to make sure they don't run into problems shortly. And there is something like 225 servers. Assuming each datacenter has a central storage for the characters on all of the servers for that datacenter, that's 4 datacenters for the North America based servers alone.
Not a cheap undertaking by any means. But it's something they are going to have to face. As more and more races and classes get added to the game, people are going to have to delete more and more alts to fit the new ones in.
Unless they went insanely greedy, and started offering restoration services for deleted characters, for a fee (i.e. why add new character slots, just delete an old one, then restore it later) they will have to eventually add it in.
Sterb Jan 12th 2012 7:57AM
"Each character is a text file in a database." I doubt that. If you mean each character database entry carries a text field for the name, that's true, but that's hardly a big issue, the issue is that it's another row in the database.
As for the rest of your post, I'm going to lose a lot of respect for Blizzard if they set up their databases in the manner you suggest, where all data for all characters are stored in one gigantic database (or database table). Bag data, quest data, achievement data, reputation data is all practical likelihood stored in different databases or at least tables. Are they still taking up space? Sure, but storage is not nearly as expensive as everyone suggests and I believe is being over valued.
As for suggesting that EVERY PLAYER will take advantage of the additional player slots is patently absurd. An significant portion of the population has one or two toons and doesn't branch out. It's not a good estimate to use the entire player base of a server or the game.
The computational cost and development cost are more likely the costs that Blizzard is concerned about. In all fairness, I doubt the former is the real concern and it's more likely the latter, but considering how much money they make that wouldn't be a popular explanation.
Ugh, anyway, between that and the article on 64-bit being more efficient in general because the numbers are bigger has made the computer scientist in me sad.
EverythingRuned Jan 12th 2012 9:42AM
guys...
THEY JUST ALLOWED PEOPLE TO MAKE INFINITE FREE TRIAL ACCOUNTS. database space is not the issue!
Drakkenfyre Jan 12th 2012 1:40PM
Sterb, they have explicitly said one of the reasons they don't jump bag size by a huge amount is because even added a handful of slots takes a massive amount of space up across the entire server database. So adding double or even triple the amount for each bag slot would be a huge hit on their storage. So they only add 2-4 slots at a time for each expansion.
They have also used this as an example when talking about removing the key ring slot, and adding Void Storage. The entire reason they removed the key ring slot is because it could allow them to offer Void Storage. By removing the "customized" data, such as enchants, gemming, and anything else which requires additional flags they can strip the entry into an item number and nothing else, allowing them to offer 80 slots.
The notion of "every" player making alts is a worst-case scenario. Didn't you see me say "at worst" several times? Of course not every single person is going to max out their account limit on one server. I said it gives it the chance to happen. I have seen more than one person admit they have 50 alts scattered across multiple servers. Does that mean it would massively affect one realm if several hundred people did it? No. But it's still a danger you would have to take into account.
votlemnouk Jan 12th 2012 6:36PM
@EverythingRuned: the infinite trial doesn't necessarily have to take more database space. People who would stick with free trial are likely to be the very same people who would create one free trial account after another (for instance, to check with WOW friends while playing another game). So, if anything, the infinite trial will result in a lesser number of unused accounts.
Speaking of which: I think they really should start actively culling the rarely played low-level characters on long-unused accounts. There's no point in keeping them around forever hoping that their player will come back (and subscribe). And if they DO come back eventually, Blizz could always offer them a heirloom piece, a mount, a bag of gold or some other way to compensate their "loss".
LogSpoon Jan 12th 2012 3:04AM
Having 3 Level 85 toons, and 7 level 70-80+ toons myself, I was just thinking the same thing the other day. I'd love to play the Monk on my usual server, but at the current 10 slot character limit, it would be impossible without deleting one of my very high level characters!
And I don't see this impacting server load, but maybe hardware capacity for stored character. But, how much does a stored character actually reserve on a hard drive? I doubt it's much for Blizzard to actually worry about.
Paid character slots doesn't seem like a terribly unreasonable idea, either. If you can afford the new expansion, maybe tack on another $10 per character slot?
Philster043 Jan 12th 2012 3:33AM
Might just be the way it's all set up. It may just not have been designed to contain more than 10 characters. I have no idea though, I'm not a Blizzard tech.
ahsanali Jan 12th 2012 4:19AM
I know they're not using SATA drives. But even if they were using FC drives, disk space is still relatively inexpensive.
My point is, they organized realms by battlegroups because they shared infrastructure. If you look at the IP addresses for realms, you'll find all realms in a given battlegroup seem to exist in a single subnet.
So if they consolidated realms by battlegroup for shared infrastructure efficiency such that they could share the same group of instance servers (no longer true, this has been opened up so any realm can connect to any instance server in the wider region), I strongly doubt they use a database server PER realm. I expect they have a highly available RDBMS system per battlegroup/datacenter servicing all realms there.
Much the same way you'd have clustered web servers in one tier, then a cluster of app servers in the middle tier and then the database backend, also clustered, in a classic three tier architecture.
If they're doing things this way, then it doesn't matter to the RDBMS which server your characters are created on as long as they're on the same battlegroup. So for instance, if your server is super busy like say... Blackrock or Mal'Ganis, it is the server's processing capability that is the bottleneck. Not the RDBMS which is servicing more realms, some of which may be less populated.
However if they have one RDBMS per realm then yes, for sure, increasing character slots while guaranteeing that things don't collapse will be very difficult.
Shadda Jan 12th 2012 6:53AM
I wonder if AH inflation might not be another concern? AH players would have that many more characters to store gold on, and increasing the number of characters on a server without increasing the number of players behind them might mean an increase in demand for materials, both of which could mean a jump in AH prices.