Throne and Liberty: How will Server Consolidation work?

Throne and Liberty's upcoming Server Consolidation feature outlines Studio X's future plans for the title, promising to bring ailing servers together to boost connectivity among players. The game's wild streak of success of becoming one of the most highly successful MMORPG launches in recent history has since stymied a little but NC Studio X has no plans of stopping its forward progress.

Throne and Liberty's servers have long been divided into Early Access and Global Launch categories, with separate Auction Houses and restrictions switching over post-launch. The studio plans to merge all the smaller servers into newer, bigger ones to boost player retention, touting it as Server Consolidation.

Throne and Liberty's Server Consolidation will take some getting used to

Players will have more options to engage with others in-game (Image via NCSoft)

Server Consolidation is still some time away but NC Studio X wants to begin the process as soon as possible, according to the latest iteration of the Tico Talks official program. The video indicates that the Server Consolidation process has a two-fold goal, which is as follows:

To ensure that the competitive landscape between servers is maintained.
To widen the player pool that can play together on each server.

This all-encompassing drive towards unifying the playerbase will not be done overnight but will be a step-by-step process. Furthermore, the developers will be keeping an eye out on all possible avenues of exploitation that could potentially take place, whether it's PvP or Auction House-related shenanigans.

As of now, the Server Consolidation effort will include the following steps:

Merging the Auction Houses of Early Access and Global Launch servers.
A Free Server Transfer period.
Removal of Server Transfer restriction between Early Access and Global Launch players.
Consolidation of existing servers as the final step.

Server Consolidation will serve to widen the playerbase for dungeons runners as well (Image via NCSoft)

This process will not merge an existing server into another one but will create a new, larger server space instead. Truth be told, this is a step in the right direction for some of the less populated and unbalanced servers. Furthermore, this update will bring much-needed player engagement for the upcoming Talandre expansion.

Players should take some solace in the fact that ArenaNet, an NCSoft subsidiary studio, has already undertaken a similar effort, with Guild Wars 2's megaservers. If push comes to shove, Studio X can take pointers and some lessons from its sister studio and even implement novel features that could benefit the game's health in the long run.

Also read: Throne and Liberty: 6 lackluster weapon combos you should avoid

Currently, information is rather scarce, as Server Consolidation was only confirmed in the first few minutes of Tico Talks, with not much additional exposition provided. To make up for that, the studio has promised an extensive article later this week. So look forward to our coverage of that topic later down the line.

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Edited by Dinesh Renthlei