like every other decision i've made as developer, the answer is yes and no. no, your characters will not be wiped, but yes there will be the option to play on a wiped server.
my current plan is to set up two additional servers, one for NA, and one for EU, each of which can only be played on by certain characters. that is, the new servers cannot be played on by characters made on normal servers (NA1, NA7, the EU ones), and characters made on the new servers will not be able to play on main servers. additionally, there will be no option to transfer between these two types of characters, and characters made on these new 'wipe' servers cannot be strat heroes.
essentially, the wipe servers will give players the choice to participate gameplay on the same level as everyone else. additionally, these servers will be wiped semi-annually or something. ideally this could include seasons or special items for the person who performed the best on the servers during said season. or other things, it's more of a concept at the moment.
why this?
well, the community is pretty much dead split on the issue of wipe. if you wipe, you lose players who don't want to see their progress .. wiped. but if you don't wipe, you run the chance of game slowly dying out completely. at the same time, wiping gives the opportunity of starting afresh, and drawing in new players, while not wiping leaves player's grinded items intact. now, i'm not pro wipe, nor against wiping. i just see the benefits and drawbacks of each side, and wanted to come up with a solution that could in some sense get the best of both worlds. with this system, players have the option to participate in the peasantry wars, or keep playing on main servers with their hard-ground equipment. i'm fairly sure that the new servers will allow us to test whether there is a demand for a wipe, as we will see whether these servers are popular or not. if they aren't popular, and die out, well then it's pretty likely that there aren't a large amount of players willing to come back if the mod is wiped. if they are popular, and players come back, then that's great!
thankfully, this won't be entirely difficult to implement. it requires adding in some values to the database, copying the current battle gamemode and slightly modifying it, and ensuring that there can't be contact between different types of players. if i worked like i did in november, this could be definitely done in a week. but, there's other things i need to focus on for now.
what are issues with this?
i can't think of a lot. as far as i can tell, the only risk that comes with this is splitting the playerbase. which is fairly valid. but, my hope is that players would give the wiped servers a try, even if they were not pro-wipe. alternatively, these servers could be set up for specific periods during the week, leaving the rest of the time for the main servers. if worst comes to worst and playerbase is split in a way that threatens future population stability, then there's always the option of shutting down the servers. hopefully that won't happen
that's my general plan as of now regarding the wipe issue. i'm open to ideas, criticism, suggestions, all that stuff, but unless someone has a stronger proposal, this is what will get implemented. i'm not gonna give out definite dates of when this will occur, but likely before summer. i'll try to remember to read the thread. and do let me know if my idea is unclear at all
