That's not really true. The APAC servers had been going for a couple of months before anyone was allowed to transfer and they were all pretty full at the time, so character names were definately an isue.

And page by page I see the credibility of this thread being shot to pieces.

Months ago when we first started thinking about the possibility of server mergers I asked my old guild about it. Their server was merged with several others in to one of the big super servers. According to them the transfers all happened smoothly and quickly. As far as guild banks go, they couldn't transfer them directly. They could take the contents of the bank with them. Once they were on the new server, CS were able to reimburse them for their guild bank tabs so they could get them again and re-deposit their stuff. I assume it would be similar again.

That's ok. She'll still have plenty of us usual familiar faces to RP with and plot her revenger aganst the EAmpire!

Awesome post and re-inforces 2 points that I heartily agree with. 1. Many people complaining about lag haven't actually tried playing on a US server and are speaking out of ignorance. I also, have played on both and found minimal difference. If people have tried both and found the lag is bad, then I think that's a valid opinion. Not those who are purely speculating though. 2. This would all go a lot more smoothly if we got better communication. I'd love an APAC super server. That would solve population problems without complaints about lag. It wouldn't be ideal for RPers but most of us RPers realise that we could still do it on a PVE server. An APAC super server it's not going to happen though. We've been lucky to get three locally hosted servers. Most MMO games don't do it. No way bioware would support just one server. It's about cost, and the sooner bioware are honest about that rather than the BS about improving player experience, the better. If they were honest about it, I think people would be more understanding about it and then discussion could focus on how to make the transition go smoothly, rather than obsessing on something that's not going to happen.

I've seen repeatedly in this thread, people claiming that no-one wants this merger which is bull. That is indeed speaking for others. Most people who bother coming to a thread like this are people who are not happy with it so reading through these posts gives a skewed perspective on things. And my posts have been doing just that. Stating my concerns about the decision. E.g. wanting a choice of destination servers. Many of the posts in here have been little more than demanding what bioware have already said isn't going to happen. Played for several months on US severs before transferring to APAC. I still get lag spikes on APAC servers from Perth. There is so little difference in latency in my experience that it's practically a non-issue for me. Hence me pointing out that it is not the only issue people are concerned about.

A lot of the replies are showing different priorities. The primary reason I play a multiplayer game like this is for the interaction and gameplay with other people. Other people are more concerned about the competitive aspect. Some like a bit of both. For the more competitive people the increased latency is obviously a big blow. It's not for me though. I enjoy a bit of pvp and I always rate pretty well when I do WZs (and used to be in a top arena team when I played wow). It's not a biggie for me though if I lag out and don't perform too well. It can be frustrating of course but for me personally it's far more frustrating to not have enough people to play with. That for me is a far greater priority. I can put up with some lag if it means I can do flashpoints and pvp when I want to, rather than playing for hours and sometimes still not getting a pop. So while I understand the anguish over the latency increase, for me, the move to US servers will be a big improvement and I'm looking forward to it. If I was on dalbora then maybe I wouldn't have a problem with pop times, but I like to play on RP servers. Not a hardcore RPer but that's my preference. I guess what I'm saying is that the people who are demanding the apac servers get merged, are not speaking for everyone. They might be speaking for a lot of people but there are also a lot that are happy enough with this move. I know in our guild there are several people who have already said they are quitting over this. There are also just as many (perhaps even more based on discussions on our guild site), who are actually looking forward to being on a busier server. Same thing if you look on the gav daragon server forums. I think the amount of people upset with the change vs people who want the change is probably far more even than what people on here are making out it is.

That's a point a lot of people simply don't get. We would all prefer to stay on locally hosted servers. Of course we would. But it's simply not going to happen. There's a reason no other big MMO does it (people have mentioned planetside but I'd never heard of that til this thread so it can't be that big). People have been saying for months that we would reach a point where APAC servers were no longer viable. If you didn't see this coming then you're looking at things through rose coloured glasses. I just wish they'd be honest about it and stop pretending it's about improving our experience. I've signed the petition but I doubt EA will keep servers going if the population keeps declining. The fact is, population wouldn't have declined so much if they'd done something about it months ago. No matter how this pans out, I doubt we'll get our local servers with fast ping times. If you can't bear playing on US servers then I guess the only other choice is to unsub. Me personally, I'm holding out hope that we'll at least get to choose any US server. Not just 3 west coast servers.

I'm one of the ones who's been asking for a choice in servers but the main reason for that, is that I want to return to the server I was on before I transferred to an APAC server. I wan to return to my old guild and that is not a west coast server. It's an east coast server. Can we please have that choice? I really can't see any good reason not to allow us to choose a west or east coast server. I'm glad there has been a reply on this matter but as seems so often the case, it's fallen short of what was actually being asked.

Can we please get this thread on track. Several pages of mostly petty arguments about ping isn't productive. Ping = bad so we'd prefer not to have to go to US servers. Ping = disadvantage in pvp and endgame compared to US players on the same server. I think that's enough as we need to say about that point. We get it. I think most people agree that a merger between the apac servers is the best solution. I like to think bioware are open minded enough to re-evaluate their decision and look very closely at whether that option is viable. Whether us loyal APAC players are important enough for them to warrant one server. If they make a decision that it's not viable then can they at least be honest about that and drop the bs about it being in the interests of our play experience. More importantly, can they please be a tad more flexible about the transfers. Rather than just arbitrarily saying everyone who's on this type of server currently will be going to this particular US server. Can we please get a choice in the matter. When I originally came to an APAC server after several enjoyable months playing on Sanctum of the Exalted (may that server rest in peace), I chose to do it. Not only was it my choice, but I was allowed to choose which server I came to. It wasn't a case of, "you're on a roleplaying server so you have to go to gav daragon". I could have easily chosen to move to a pvp or pve server if I'd wanted to. That wouldn't have hurt anyone. Why don't we get that choice now? I know several people who don't necessarily want to go to the same server type they're on now. People on RP servers who would rather go to a PVE server. Or people on a PVE server who would like to go to a PVP server. Is there any good reason why players shouldn't be able to choose their destination server? I can think of none. For me personally, I'm happy to go to an RP server but not the one being chosen. My old server along with some others was rolled in to Ebon Hawke. That's where my old guild and several old in game friends now are. I know my player names and legacy name are still available there. That's where I want to go rather than start all over yet again on a server that's completely new to me. Is there any good reason why I shouldn't be able to choose my destination server without re-rolling? I really don't think that's a big ask. Again I can think of absolutely no downsides to giving people a choice of server. For me that's a pretty important issue and one I'd like addressed.

Try group finder alone as a dps and it will be a lot longer than a minute. Group finder when you're already grouped with someone (especially a tank or healer) is the only way to cut down the wait. It's even worse sub 50. In the past month I levelled a new sniper on imp side to 50. I most played during peak times and always played with group finder turned on while I was questing. In all that time I only had group finder pop 3 times and all 3 of them were when I was close to level 50 (collicoid, red reaper and d7). Only ever did a few heroic quests, some of them solo because on most planets there was never more than a handful of players. Usually single figure numbers. I was essentially playing a single player game most of that time. Generally the only time I get to do any group content is when I schedule it with guild members. I don't pvp much but when I do, there's usually a fair wait before that pops also. I've always like space missions but I've been doing them more and more lately since it's the only dependable way to get bh coms, as there's no need to find other players to do it with.

Those servers had just been through mergers and were already at healthy population levels as a result when FTP started. The server I was on before coming to gav daragon was in a pretty dire situation before they merged with a few other servers. That merger fixed their problems, not ftp. If they were going to do mergers with APAC servers it should have been done back then rather than the 'wait and see' approach which pretty much killed off the apac servers.

This. And it really doesn't help the argument when we get all these posts from people on dalbora stating how busy their server is. I don't think anyone's doubted that. It's about low population on the APAC servers in general. If you think things are so rosy then try playing on one of the other apac servers to see the bigger picture. Try playing it as anything other than a single player game when you have to wait in group finder for a few hours in peak time before getting a pop. Playing for hours on a weekend and only managing a few pvp pops. Then tell us that there are no population issues and that the change isn't justified. Maintaining 3 healthy servers might be financially viable for EA but 1 healthy server with 2 dying servers is clearly not. I'm sorry your server's being killed but ours have been dying for a long time - because they took so bloody long to do anything about this.

That's still higher than what you ever see on gav daragon. I know it sucks that things have been ok on dalborra and it's being ruined now. I feel for you guys but spare a thought for players on the other 2 australian servers. It sucks never being able to get a pop with group finder and having to wait an hour or more to get any pvp, even during busier times. Bioware can't leave our 2 servers dwindling and they sure as heck won't pay to just keep one server running, even if it's had 2 other servers merged in to it. They won't keep 3 servers going if one is ok and the other 2 are stuggling and they won't keep things open just for one.

As someone else pointed out, marketing in australia from what I've seen has been severely lacking. EB had copies of the game on shelves for a few weeks after it came out and that was it. No posters or any kind of in store promotion. I never saw it advertised anywhere apart from direct emails I got from being a subscriber. With so little effort put in to promoting the game here is it any wonder there hasn't been enough population to sustain local servers in the long term. Ultimately, I wish someone would come out and officially say it's all about cost. I can accept that. Given how long it took us to actually get any announcements about this issue in the first place though, I won't hold my breath. Responses to the apac community have been given sparingly at best.

I think it's largely a fail PR problem. As I already mentioned, the merger and death of apac servers was inevitable for financial reasons. The big problem is that bioware haven't been honest about that and they're pretending it's all about enhancing player experience and giving us what we want which is obviously BS. Very few people wanted to be transferred to US servers but that's what's been happening. I think they simply need to be more up front and say "sorry guys, things have been tough, subscribers are dropping and we can't afford to run 3 apac servers any more. We definately can't afford to run 1 server. So we're moving you all the us servers so you don't get stuck on dead servers." If they'd put it like that I think there would be less complaints.

Wow had cross server pvp so people from apac servers still played against people from us servers. And my whole time playing wow was on a us server anyway despite living in australia. Personally I think cross server pvp and group finder would have been a far better solution that server mergers or transfers but that doesn't seem to have been even considered.

Yep. It seems to be mostly people from dalbora complaining since you guys didn't have the population issues. Pity things are going to get messed up for you guys but it's not really avoidable. What were the other alternatives? Move 2 aussie servers and leave dal alone? Merge all 3 aussie servers together? In either situation you'd be expecting bioware to continue their apac setup for just one server which just isn't going to happen. That would never be financially viable. I honestly couldn't see any other way of fixing the population issues for the other 2 aussie servers. It sucks that you guys get moved when you're happy with your server but if the comments about solidarity with eh apac community are sincere, then you'd realise that the situation with the other apac servers simply isn't acceptable. As one person pointed out, I just wish bioware were honest in saying it's about cost rather than player experience but that's what it boils down to. The US servers were all merged last year. It was inevitable that we'd follow. I just wish it had happened a lot sooner before our server population issues got as bad as they have.

I played on a US server for a few months before moving to gav. The ping was higher but I never noticed any impact on gameplay. At least no more lag than I've gotten on gav daragon. And of course I played wow for server years where all the servers (including APAC ones) were hosted in the US and had even higher ping. Honestly, I'm not real happy about the situation but ping is not an issue that I consider the least bit important. There are other issues I think are far more important (such as not being able to choose which server we go to). People are making a big deal about it but I think the majority of people worried about it haven't played for any substantial amount of time on a US server.

That's my one gripe. Personally I like the idea of merging with a US server. People on dalbora really don't understand what it's like to play on a server where your only hope of getting any multiplayer content is to arrange it with one of the stable guilds on the server. If I wasn't in such a good guild I'd basically be playing a single player game now. Just not enough population for group finder to be worth anything. Yeah I think combining the australian servers would be better but it's simply not realistic. Other MMOs don't do it because it's not cost effective. We got 3 servers for a year. No way they'll do one. We can demand all we want but when the game's already bringing in a lot less subscriptions than EA thought it would, we need to be realistic about things. Having said that, I want to choose which server I go to rather than have one arbitrarily picked for me. A lot of people who started on harbinger will be returning to their old server. Well when I came to APAC servers I got to pick which one I came to. I chose an RP server but didn't have it forced on me. It wasn't a case of now you came from an RP server, therefore you must transfer to Gav Daragon. I made a choice. Now we're getting kicked off APAC servers I too would like to return to my old server rather than starting off all over again on a completely new one. Nothing against Begeren Colony but it's not the only RP server. If I have to move I want to go to ebon hawke where my old guildmates from the 13th legion are (formerly on sanctum of the exalted before us server mergers).

This ^. People are making such a big deal about ping being a problem but seriously - how many MMO games actually base servers in australia? WOW certainly doesn't and I never had a problem with playing in highly ranked arena teams (top tier of pvp for those not familiar with wow) and being part of our server's top progression groups. I wasn't even playing on one of the APAC servers (which in wow are hosted in the US so the ping is the same). go on wow threads and ping for australian players is not something that gets discussed a lot. I think losing our apac servers sucks but if people are getting that worked up about latency - well I think there are far bigger problems that bother me. I started this game playing for a few months before transferring to Gav Daragon. The only - I repeat - the only reason I transferred was because of timezone differences. Not enough people were on when I was on. The community on my old server was incredible and I haven't seen anything like that since. When I first transferred to gav daragon it was pretty good population wise but I never saw any noticeable difference in lag. Sure the numbers were a little different but not enough to actually have any impact on gameplay. Since then, my old server has merged with others and is now far busier during their off peak times than our server is during peak times. I've seriously considered quitting recently because the low population has been a joke. I know people on dalbora apparently haven't been having population problems but it's pretty much been a game breaker for us. There might have been better solutions but for me this is an improvement. WZ wait times are pretty considerable even during peak times. Group finder even worse. And sub 50 group finder - I can literally play for a few hours in peak time without group finder coming up once. Other than scheduled events with our guild, the game has pretty much become single player. The comments about not wanting to play with americans I find appalling to be honest. I've never had issues playing with americans. I found the community on my old server to be more mature and drama free than what I've seen on my current server. Especially lately with some of what's been going on. So making digs are playing with americans are seriously uncalled for IMHO. Our guild's far from aussie anyway as we also have a lot of kiwis as well as members from asian countries. So if people have actually tried playing on a US server and found the lag, play experience was bad etc then I think their opinions and concerns are valid. I think a lot of the comments in this thread though are based on a great deal of ignorance. Edit* For the record, I think apac server mergers would be a better solution but realistically I don't think that will happen for reasons of cost. It's probably just not financially viable for bioware to run a single dedicated server in a different country. Few MMOs do. Certainly none of the big ones I'm aware of so don't expect better ping from wow, guildwars etc. In my opinion cross server group finder and pvp like in WOW would have been a better solution but bioware has never entertained that idea. So what we're getting is not my preferred solution but it's better than playing on a dying server. They should have done something months ago before things got this bad.

I like wow the way it used to be but it sucks now IMO. Funnily enough I actually preferred pvp in wow and it's pve I prefer in this game. I played on a wow server that did have a fairly low population but cross server pvp and group finder fixed that problem. That's a solution I would have liked to have seen here. Never even got considered as an option as far as I can tell. Would have been far better than server mergers.

That's pretty much the reality. It's not the best solution but it would have been a lot better if it had been done sooner. The population problems have gotten steadily worse while they twiddled their thumbs, waiting to see what impact FTP had on the population. Would have saved a lot of cancelled subscriptions in the meantime if they'd just done this or something else in the first place. The lack of action over such a long period of time has been enough to drive a lot of people away. Several that I know of personally.

I don't believe that was ever given as a reason for APAC servers. It's always been more about community and playing with people in the same time zone. Most MMOs don't have servers hosted locally. That includes the biggest MMO world of warcraft which last I checked, had APAC servers but not ones hosted locally.

I am a WA player so for me there really isn't much difference in latency between US and apac servers. Most games don't have servers hosted locally. WOW doesn't. That's the biggest MMO and despite the number of complaints people might have about that game, complaints about ping in pvp is not one you hear a lot. They have APAC servers but they've always been hosted in the US.