Realm popularity?

Hey all. I'm coming back to DAOC/Blackthorn after having last played retail in 2001/2002 when I was 12(!).

Throughout DAOC history, including free shards, what has realm popularity looked like? Who is the underdog in terms of population? I'm still deciding where to play when launch happens and I always like supporting the underdog.

Thanks!

nobody knows it exactly, but mostly Hibernia was the underdog if you only count the amount of chars .

only a few hib are able to do bad things to a sleeping mid zerg

Player wrote:Hey all. I'm coming back to DAOC/Blackthorn after having last played retail in 2001/2002 when I was 12(!).


Throughout DAOC history, including free shards, what has realm popularity looked like? Who is the underdog in terms of population? I'm still deciding where to play when launch happens and I always like supporting the underdog.


Thanks!

Using AI and guild listing, alb will rule. But its only a very very rough indicator. No one really knows for sure.

1. Albion (especially in NA timezone)
2. Midgard
3. Hibernia

Thanks for the info on realm popularity, I am also a returning player from long ago who is trying to decide which realm I should support. I played Mid at launch so that definitely has the most nostalgia for me, but I admit I like supporting the underdog too so maybe Hib is an option.


I think more important to me than numbers is what type of community will develop on each realm. Does anyone have any thoughts on that so far? Or is it just too soon to tell.

You can't really tell in advance.
A few things generally happen every time;

• Albion tends to attract a large number of casual players, leading to a large realm population, but relatively low RvR participation
• Hardcore RvR players tend to migrate realms often, if not outright playing them all simultaneously
• You can't go wrong picking the realm you enjoy most, numbers and balance be damned

After speaking with a few people that I know, it looks like albion will be the highest population for launch. They seem to be the strongest out of the gate and going forward so most people I've chatted to aren't planning on gimping themselves from the get go. With the realm loyalty system, chances are they will hang around on albion too unless there is a major imbalance

It's very simple: Albion > Mid > Hib.


Albion is going to totally dominate the rest.


And no, RvR diehards aren't going to waste time constantly rerolling and grinding their way back up from 1L to 5L.


Given the RvR mechanics—which will effectively finish off the least populated faction—you can pretty much assume that only Alb and Mid will be viable in RvR.

Well I cant speak to every form and shard of DAoC and its entire history throughout, but i can speak on Blackthorn (and Phoenix which is another case), and speaking for BT from alpha to now even.
It will be Hib > Mid > Alb. Albion will be the underdogs in RvR due to current balance and design, and will need to zerg to not be fumbling fodder.


People will populate to which has the most effort, the most dev and gm participation, knowingly or unknowingly. So expect Hibs and Mids to run most of RvR here, keeping in mind past, present and future lopsided custom balancing, Dev/Gm interaction and willingness. Pretty much which realms are more favored and which realms have most effort naturally, those realms will be funner to play.


Most people go where the action and fun is.


Things seem to change quick and slow on this server, so who knows what will actually happen in terms of future balancing and gm/dev efforts throughout. If I had to guess though in terms of population again it would be.... Hib > Mid > Alb.


Yee, any specific questions on why or how I arrived to these conclusion's, opinion's and fact's feel free to ask.