This is something i was looking forward to before i started playing the game. I am still new to the game but I now have about 170 hours played over the last 2 weeks. Now that I have played and seen the game. Rental servers is now something that I am dreading and kind of hope will not be put into the game.
Section 1: Non-Public Servers
I do not feel the player count is healthy enough for us to be isolating groups of players from each other. This is not ARK where you have about 50,000 players playing the game at the same time. As far as steam is concerned on average we have about 300ish players online with peeks of about 800. I don’t know if the numbers also reflect the PSN players, im going to assume it doesn’t but even so I do not think it would be a massive change.
Personally I feel intill the game gets popular enought to the point where the devs feel forced to add new worlds just to keep up with the player count. This game most likely should NOT have Non-public servers DEPENDING on how much the devs care about keeping the player count on the main server healthy.
Section 2: Player Owned Public Servers
I thought I read something about being able to rent a server that you will have alot of control over AND have it connected to the main universe. I feel this might create alot of problems depending how this is put in.
Since this is something a player haves to buy and I assume keep a monthly fee going. What will happen to all of the stuff on that server when the player stops paying for the server? I feel this might create the situation where work and/or assets can be removed out of the universe with or with out warning based on something outside of the players control if and when other people start to build and play on that world.
I thought I read something about the owner of the world being able to control who can and who can not place plots on the world. This is a function that should not be within a players control on a system that is connected to the main universe. I do not feel a player should be allowed to create any type of rule set that is asymmetrical from the rest of the Universe. furthermore I feel this haves a high potential to be a catalyst for Drama.
I also thought I read something about the owner of the world being able to control who can and who can’t access the world. This is function that should never be within a players control on a system that is connected to the main universe. No Player Should Ever Have The Incontestable Power To Deny Another Player Access To Resources Or Stuff They Might Have Built. This haves the extreme risk of being a catalyst for Drama when rights are revoked by the owner for whatever (most likely silly) reason.
In Conclusion
In short. I feel Non-Public Private Servers might cause more damage then its worth to the health of the main universe. and I feel that Player Owned Servers that are Connected to the main Universe will give a player too much control over what other players can or cannot do, to the point it might create alot of drama related problems.