Smolderforge Support Community

0 BGs
Guild starting to do 10man PvE so no PvE for me
Everyone donates for their gear so we can't beat them in arenas.
Guru is decent unless 1 faction camps a GY because you can actually get up there. LOS should have been added.
Heroics are completely useless...
Events would be awesome but too bad donaters would probably win the PvP ones 100%

This is not a QQ thread. Not a "this server sucks ass" thread. It is a "i'm letting you know what my opinion is thread" because people feel the same way as I do. People may not see it but I am on for around 16-18 hours a day on this server and I have seen many people say the stuff I just said in their chat box.

Just wondering what is going to be added in future. I'm already bored.
I know population is an issue, but that wasn't even stated in what I said. It isn't an issue to what I am even stating the biggest problem is.

To those who said donations don't ruin a server.
Donaters outgear players badly
Donaters win game
Losers begin to feel no hope
Losers begin to feel bored
Loser quit the server
Donaters can't queue because Losers quit
Donaters feel bored
Donaters quit

To those who say skill > donaters. 2 tier levels higher is a GIANT FREAKING DIFFERENCE SO PLEASE DON'T GIVE ME THIS BS. I thought you guys actually knew something before server came out. Welp i tested this theory and I AM FREAKING RIGHT. 2 tier level higher players do SO MUCH MORE DMG THAN SOME1 WHO IS IN FURIOUS. so go fall down a well.

Once again.. my opinion. Not a QQ or Server is shit. Don't BASH me b/c i am 100% right in every single case. If you are a "Loser" you will understand this circumstance.

I feel exactly like you... oh doh one of my chars is a donor but something has to be done/changed for this server to prosper i feel like something is missing from the owd smolderforge :<

Just give it time. IT JUST OPENED. Once more people begin getting geared up, and people begin getting organized - than you will get the feel of old sf.

It's just a phase that all opening servers go through. Hang in there.

I agree with a lot of the stuff that was mentioned, and I honestly feel the server has a limited lifetime for the 'serious' players.

What I would love to see in a server is actual competetive raid progression, which is hard to give, as there's so much work to be done on the bosses, and it would have to have a completely different donation model than SF currently uses, as you shouldnt be able to donate for top end gear, which breaks progression.

I think the problem is gear scaling in WOTLK

Furious to Wrathfull + ilvl 264trinkets is comparable to the difference between S1 and S4 in TBC.
OFC none of this would be a problem if it was possible to honour grind/pve farm to relentless/ilvl251 etc.

When the population gets better and more BGs go on I don't see this being a big problem, but atm it does make the playing field rather uneven.

Edit: Anyone know what type of pop 2.43SF started with in the first few months?

Exsurgo wrote: Edit: Anyone know what type of pop 2.43SF started with in the first few months?

I think it's important to know the history of private servers in line with when we started. Most private servers were home-run, as was Smolderforge originally. Running them on dedicated servers was very costly and no one really donated for much at the time. When we started in 2008 we were on a home-computer that could hold 40 people with severe lag due to bandwidth limitations. Eventually we had that raised twice and could hold 80, 100 people with lag once again. Eventually in late 2009 we switched to a small dedicated server that could hold much more.

I can say though, that initial 40 people population took weeks, if not months. I remember freaking out with excitement when I saw 32 people online once. That was the most we'd ever see. (private servers were very different back then than they are now). The lag was horrendous (but acceptable back then).

The times have changed and I cannot say how long or what it will take now. But I can say, there's really not many funservers anymore. Smolderforge was a funserver because that was the majority of servers at the time. Now they're scarce. I think it will take us some time to build up a community centering around SF Wrath before there is more people online. BGs not being promoted is hard for me to do anything about since, unlike TBC, I cannot rotate BG queuing systems and there are no Marks of Honor to cash in for anything.


I will add things, and change things over time as I observe what works, and what doesn't. Changes won't be immediate but these things, they do take time.

I think it can be expected it would take a little time to build up to a workable population. I must say I had no idea that the 2.43 server had such humble beginnings.

I think once we hit a consistent 100+ player mark pvp and pve will become much easier. I am looking forward to such a day and will support the client like I supported tbc (which is an amazing server despite the hunter/warlock pet bugs :)

So yeah I think the only significant problem is population itself and I am sure the player count will climb steadily.

Exsurgo wrote:I think it can be expected it would take a little time to build up to a workable population. I must say I had no idea that the 2.43 server had such humble beginnings.

I think once we hit a consistent 100+ player mark pvp and pve will become much easier. I am looking forward to such a day and will support the client like I supported tbc (which is an amazing server despite the hunter/warlock pet bugs :)

So yeah I think the only significant problem is population itself and I am sure the player count will climb steadily.

Hopefully, because a lot of the players are from TBC. I been trying to advertise and hopefully it is doing something.

Also back when I played servers in 08 and even in 07 I didn't have any lag or anything near to what Henry explained. So I have no idea what he played back then. Anyway, back to sitting in dalaran looking at people in their cool shiny gears :(

One thing i see allot of servers do which for me is a big no no at the start, is promote things like guru arena, if people have a way of easily farming honour for gear they will not que RBG and from there it goes round in full circle, they don't que RBG and farm guru, RBG don't pop ever, everyone else goes guru cos BGs never pop, new players come in see BG's never pop and leave.

If BG's never pop the server will die eventually, forcing people to BG for there gear at the start of a servers life is the only way, give people no other way of getting honour easily.

It happened on Subwai's server a while back, ended up with atleast 25 people constantly in the guru type arena, easly enough to get BG's popping, but it just wouldn't happen. New players joined saw no one doing BG's and left, server died.

Asoon as you get BG's popping regularly the server will win :)


Another thing i have noticed as well, new players seem to assume RDF and RBG don't work, so don't use them, maybe if there was a regular announcement explaining what these features are and how to use them it might do something. The amount of times ive asked someone to que RBG only to be told its bugged is amazing.

You shouldn't get any honor in Gurubuashi and around the arena.
You shouldn't be able to charge up to the GYs.
You should only fight inside, outside you shouldn't be able to touch anyone.