No merge for Delos and Sutekh

After two weeks of player demands for communication about Season 5, AGS broke their silence today, with an announcement of the new release date for the season, as well as a controversial plan to merge several worlds. A stream of outraged posts mushroomed on both the official discord and r/newworldgame, with the main concern being reduced access to war content. Some players welcomed the merge, hoping to see healthier numbers for trading and group-based activities, like invasions, races, and farming for artifacts.

Despite record-low population numbers, Delos and Sutekh were not included in the merges. In the 24-hours preceding the merge, the Delos population peaked at 673 and Sutekh made it to 101 but spent most of the time in double digits. In the previous round of server merge announcements, players from Sutekh fought hard not to be merged, citing access to war content, unimpeded resource farming, and small server community vibes as the main reasons. Since then, others have spoken up and requested the merge, stating that it is impossible to win invasions or participate in trading.

I supported the idea of maintaining two servers in the region, and still think that choice is preferable. However, I have noticed an impact on trade activity at Delos’ current population levels and shudder to imagine how much people on Sutekh are missing out on. Only the Sutekhese can speak for what it right for them.

The main reasons against a server merge now are:

• 100 extra people on Delos won’t make much difference to us (although it would make a huge difference to Sutekh).
• Lack of server choice means there is nowhere for people who have been harassed to go except to quit the game.
• Sutekh remains a place where people who want to experience war can do so. Even if that means war loggers.

Still, the community is quite surprised AGS didn’t include this merge. I guess we’ll see what happens in June, after the “Big Announcement” TM.