Take out Barca, D'Hara and Asylon, and you don't have a healthy continent anymore.
Well, yeah, if you specifically exclude all the high density realms, then of course the density is low, because you tossed out all the high ones. You can make any data set say whatever you want, if you simply exclude all the inconvenient data points you don't like.
Seriously speaking, though, what you mostly end up with is a continent with character density pretty much equivalent to any other island. The overall density on AT is 1.7. On Dwilight right now, it's 1.69. That's characters per controlled region, too, and has nothing to do with realms or realm density. (FWIW - FEI's overall density is 1.97.) Swordfell is 1.7. Fissoa is 1.6. D'Hara and Luria are way higher. Only Astrum and Morek are low.
In any case, the shrinking was NOT done in the hopes that character count would immediately spike. It was done to increase *density*. Increasing density increases conflict, which drives up player satisfaction, and thus retention, and that should cause the character count to go back up. That's a long term goal.
The island-wide density of characters-per-controlled-region when the shrinking started was 1.57. (According to the post at the beginning of this thread.) It is now 1.69. So it's higher. Not a lot. But apparently enough, since we now have a near-island-wide war. (Or so I understand. I really do need to start a new character there. Should I join Morek for the free lordship? Or maybe Asylon. Any free estates there? :p )
The only realms that have dropped in density are Astrum, Morek, and Swordfell.
Astrum has one more character now than they did then. Their drop in density is because they have 7 more regions than before.
Swordfell has 6 more characters now than they did before. Their drop in density is because they gained 5 regions. That's a 50% increase in region count, and a 33% increase in character count. That's not really a loss.
Morek... well, they are just ... weird.
Fissoa has done exceptionally well, character-wise. They lost 8 regions, but gained 7 nobles. Their density nearly doubled.
D'Hara has two more characters than they did before, with half the regions.
Luria Nova is obviously the big winner here. They gained 15 nobles, a nearly 50% increase. Yes, they did lose 9 regions. But they gained a huge amount of fun when the entire island decided to invade them.
If we look back at the realms that exist now, and compare their density then vs. their density now, it has increased from 1.39 up to 1.69. (Total Characters / Total Controlled Regions) A 22% increase?
Yes, there are two realms that are artificially high in density: Asylon and Barca. Personally, I think it's a miracle that they are even still alive. That's a great tribute to the dedication and perseverance of those players/characters. I hope they can manage to survive, and make a go of it.
So, yes, we do have less characters on the island than we did. Did anyone really think we wouldn't? But what you have now is a more concentrated environment, with a lot of political upheaval. It's denser not just from a characters-per-region standpoint, but from the standpoint of a lot more political agendas and ideologies crammed into a much smaller space. That will get the action flowing. No one gets a free pass of being geographically isolated in their own corner.
The key now is to try and nurture that. If the island stays dynamic and active, then the character count will drift back up.
They turned Dwilight into the far-east continent...
I have no idea what you mean by this. FEI is the second highest density island, behind only EC. As far as the political situation, Dwilight and FEI have absolutely no resemblance.
