About the German dimension

[Cz]

Just a few clarifications, for those I haven't spoken with in IRC and through e-mail already:

The servers for the German dimension will be located in the US, at the same place as the two current dimensions, not in Europe.

The dimension will be aimed at, but not limited to, German speaking players. Anybody will be able to log in on the dimension, as long as they have an open Anarchy Online account.

German players will not be forced to play on the German dimension. They are free to choose any dimension among the three.

There are no plans on allowing character transfers to the German dimension. That will have to wait for when we implement dimension travel for all dimensions.

If you have any other questions, post them here, and I'll see what I can dig up.

[Cz]

Here's a copy of the post we made for the community site people a while back, regarding the German dimension. At the time we didn't have a Community Corner forum, and when we finally got one I didn't really think of moving this specific thread here, until now.

But now it's here. If you feel there's anything else that needs to be clarified about the German dimension, please let me know.

I'll also paste in what I posted on AO Basher yesterday:

I got in touch with one of the people in our Operations department right now, and he told me that the German dimension is running its own setup, separate from the other dimensions. We currently have more than enough server side capacity and bandwith for the population of the three dimensions - especially with the new server side compression that has been running since May 2nd.

[_______________Intra]

I thought you were meant to be enjoying your day off.

but since you are here...

does this mean that it is only coincidence that players have been noticing alot more lag lately?
is there some other factor involved?

[___________RobynHood]

If the new dimension is based in the states and isn't solely for German players....then why call it a German dimension? Why not just RK3?

[_______________Intra]

because all text is in german throughout the dimension.
so you will be a little lost if you are non german speaking

[___________Slimgypsy]

Its not all text in German.

The Client and Server Software will stay english. It's just the "officiall" common language there.

You will hear (or even read) german in the Chat. And the Supporters will speak german (and english too, i suppose).

Not to forget the fact, that events (if here will be any) take place during Peaktimes in Europe, which is for me (as a german Player) he only reason to spend a thought on moving there.

-Slim

[_______________Intra]

oh...
I was under the impression that all ingame help and item descriptions and requirements etc etc would be in german

looks like I'm wrong

[Maximilian]

I am German and I got a beta account and I even logged in for some moves. Sunday morning (about 10:00 CET) best connection time to the internet.

1) It needed more than 3 re-logins to finally assemble a test char (neutral Adv). Pings of >6000 and disconnects (ok, it's beta time - really?)

2) There were some people on (5 max), all of them new players.

3) No support in the backyard or in the repsective newbie channel, not even in the OOC. Most of the new players were helplessly moving around without any major clue.

4) The text and all description I have found was still in English (-> Intra). So this might not be of real help for the folks, whose English knowledge lacks 'a bit'.

My impression: Are you sure, FC, that this is the way to go?

I won't change for sure, or add a char in 'der neuen Welt'. Connectivity no way better and German support - where to be found?

So long,

Max(imilian)

[___________Slimgypsy]

Maximilian: keep in Mind that It's the Beta, so that there is no in Game Support yet. Also AFAIK the Newbie-OOC- and the OOC-Channel are not meant to be Support Channels. Sure, you can normally ask experienced players there. But i doubt that there are lot experienced Players yet.

One thing about localisation: PRAY that they don't localize he software.
Just take a look at the Problems GOA encountered with DAoC-Europe and you know what i mean.
I don't know how AO handles Text and epecially interactive text, but I doubt that the database can be switched to any different grammer than english very easy. I guess its more Trouble than it's worth. Not to forget that there are other, more important things to do than localisation.

And for all the helpless newbies on "Die Neue Welt": everyone of us was a helpless newbie (I myself still am after one month of playing) at the beginning and you can't expect to learn all aspects of the Game in one hour.

It will take some time.

-Slimgypsy

[Cz]

Guess others answered most of the questions.

Intra, I heard rumors about a router somewhere outside our network, but have no confirmed info on that. But that would explain why some got huge troubles, while others haven't noticed anything.

[_______________Intra]

thanks for the update Cz. glad its probably not the german server that is causing problems. I havent logged in for any great deal of time over the past couple of days so I dont know what lag is like now

[Soulraiser]

Newbie OOC Channel isn´t monitored by the support staff (usually) and you can only receive it if you´re below level 6. No wonder there isn´t that much going on if there´s only the 5 or 6 of you online at that time from your side ...

From what I have heared, the game will be localized if it turns out to be a success, but no ETA yet. For the time being it´s still in English and if you take a look at the German versions of UO, D2 or DAOC we should be thankful for that :-))

BTW ... if you think there is no support on Dim3 just because there aren´t any Greeters, petition for help on RK1 and Dim3 and compare the response times. I was pleasantly surprised when I had a problem the other day on Die Neue Welt ... no 3-4 hour wait for me :P Got help very quickly.

Soulraiser Lvl151 NT RK1
Zenturio Lvl15 Trader Die Neue Welt

[___________Slimgypsy]

I think the new server is comparable with the UO-Shard Drachenfels.
This Server is located directly beside the Europa-Shard (both in London) but somehow (maybe because of the Name) the common language there is german. But i knew a lot of other players there, who didn't spoke a word german. And also a lot of german players, who swiched over to english as soon as they became aware of a player who can't speak german in the round.

I don't see why on the new server shouldn't be also english/italian/spanish/etc... speaking comunitys. Who knows, maybe it happens that the server becomes mulitlingual. That won't be the worst thing (IMHO).

-Slimgypsy

[_____________Thoemse]

I am from Austria and therefore german is my native language.
FUNCOME READ THIS: We don´t need a ****ty german dimension!
We need bugfixing and SUPPORT! If you guys whould use the time you spent to build this german dimension into bugfixing and helping ppl AND balancing the game a lot ppl would be happy by now.

[Cz]

Originally posted by Thoemse
If you guys whould use the time you spent to build this german dimension into bugfixing and helping ppl AND balancing the game a lot ppl would be happy by now.

Some of the time spent on this dimension was by our Operations team who does not do any bug fixing, support or balancing of professions. The rest was done by Gamigo.

[_____________Thoemse]

Thanks for the info Cz.

[Achmed20]

its funny ther germany gets a own server ...
im german too but i rely dont want to use that server. why should i play with maybe 500 people on "die neue welt" if i can play with 5000 on RK1.

Japan gets a own channel so why not just make a new channel for germans?

[______________Shiori]

*no lag
* friendly players
*chance to learn a little German from immersion
*easy to find team

I find German players are mostly able to speak enough English to put up with the fact that I cannot speak German. In fact, most have been very friendly and helpful to me, since they already had the experience of playing on RK-1 or 2 before where the primary language there was not native to them and they understand the difficulties.

There are already many people there level 100 and up, so don't think of this as a newbie server. If anything I would say fewer new players and more experienced ones. Not that new players are bad. Just the proportion is low enough so people have time to help them out. Begging just never happens as far as my limited understanding of German can detect. People won't bug you. Nobody spams the ooc or shopping channels with macroed messages.

For German players: Do not worry, most of us non-Germans try to be polite enough not to spam your ooc and shopping channels with messages in other languages. We understand this is a server for you, and are thankful for the nice way you treat us as visitors/foreign residents.

For non-German players: Don't dismiss this dimension. I have characters on all of them, and Die Neue Welt has already become my favorite. Try it, you might like it. Lag just isn't an issue at all for me anymore, even in big cities like Omni-Ent. You don't have to be lonely though, there are enough players to team and interact with and since everyone is trying to level up in this new place, people are very likely to help each other. Please do remember this is a German dimension and if you don't speak German, don't expect a German player to magically know your language necessarily. Most do know English and in many cases several other languages, but of course some will not. Be polite. If you speak even a little German, try to use it if you can. If you must speak in your own language like me, it is a nice gesture to apologize for the necessity.

For anyone who speaks at least one language other than German, please send a tell. I am trying to form an Omni affiliated guild to assist speakers of other languages. German players are *very* welcome to join. I hope in time to have branches for Clan and Neutral so nobody needs to feel lost.

For me, Die Neue Welt = Peace and quiet, and good connection.

[Cz]

Old issue. Closing it.