They are not writing code completely from scratch, transfer tools have been out for many years now, sure they need to tweek things for their specific use but it is not like they are starting from zero. There was some posts here saying that they did include server transfer code but the legacy names broke it somehow. The beta testers also warned them a year ago they would need to have server transfer tools available so this is not a new subject, they just failed to deliver on things they already knew needed to be done. This could explain some of the layoffs........ It comes from both ends. As with the already mentioned transfer issue, they seem to have tried to create transfer tools but screwed up. Don't believe for a second that the managers are happy at so many lost subs caused by low populations on 99% odf the servers.

unsubbed, still have a few days of the free 30 days or would have been out already. I tried to play an alt and see new content but the lack of other players is just too depressing for me to stick with it. I can't see paying $15 a month for a game missing some of the key features that are now considered basic in the MMO world. Sure, I can understand that some features can take some time but a transfer tool should have been ready at launch to cover the known 10 to 20% loss every MMO has after their launch. For 95% of the players, this is a single player game, the "MM" is missing from this "MMO". It is estimated that SWtor has lost around 50% of their subs and are going further down every day, the bleeding can only be stopped by closing at least half of the servers and offering a cross server LFG tool. Closing servers will give people at least the feel of other players on the game and a cross server tool will let people find groups at all times of the day instead of only 4 hours (at best) during the evenings.

I don't think you fully grasp what tool we are asking for my friend. Almost all of the content for leveling can be done solo, there is no need for groups to do those, the few things you can group for while leveling are not worth the time it takes to group up and do them. The x-server LFG tool is mainly needed for post lvl 50 group content. Right now if you can't play this game inside the 2 to 4 hour window of active status for a server, this is a single player game (some servers never show active though). Well there will never be such a thing, even WoW has had peak use times and off peak times, that is one of the biggest reasons they put in the x-server tool in the first place. Rare cases? Right now odd times as you call them are at least 20 hours out of the day. The best population SWtor has is the fatman, and not even the lowest server on WoW has populations that low. If WoW had to put in cross server, obviously that should tell you that just having a large number of accounts on a server does not equal a lot of players at all times of the day.

If you had only 1 server then any LFG tool would be the same as X-server, just saying..... A "FULL" server for 2 hours in the evening does not mean there will be anyone on that specific server in the morning. The x-server tool would allow players who play at any time to group with other people who play at the same time and maybe even discover people they like and move to their server. I have had 2 people move from their server in WoW to mine after we used a LFG tool to find people to fill out a group. They are both now officers in my guild.

To be honest I don't believe any of those guys actually played WoW, they are just making stuff up because they hate the idea of letting casuals find groups. I have played WoW from the start and have seen the game both with and without the LFG tools and there has never been any negative result to adding a LFG tool. On the other hand there have been many positive results for adding the LFG tools such as more geared players to form more guilds. More geared players on each server for regular pugs. More regular people playing the game instead of stuck up elitists. The only people who have any negative result from these tools are the elitists who lose their grip of control over the server.

Don't count your chickens before they are hatched. If you read between the lines for some of the vague comments they have made, some of these features may not get released as promised. And that will be the next thing people complain about.

The MMO is based on how many other people are available to pull groups from. I have 7 lvl 85 toons on WoW and have a very strong guild with progression groups. We have around 400 toons in our guild and we are considered just average. We all use the LFG tools and none of us just sit in town all day as some of the people here try to claim a LFG tool would cause. In this game there is nobody else to play with outside a 2 to 4 hour window for 99% of servers. Even the fatman shows low pop in the mornings when I log on so for 20 hours out of the average day, this game is single player.

I really love it when people like this tell such complete lies about how the tools are used in WoW because it proves they are actually scared of something else, I do not know for sure but it seems the elitists are scared to death that someone who is not part of their elite circles will get gear that should only be reserfved for them and their fellow elitists. The lie this guy tells is simple to point out, before the LFG tool was added sitting in a town all day trying to find a group is exactly what people had to do, after the LFG tool was added, suddenly you could leave town and go out to quest and still find groups for dungeons. There are actual achievements in WoW for going out and completing quests, even some of them for completing all the quests for a given zone, do not believe for a second that WoW players just sit in town all day waiting for dungeons because that is not the truth. It is BW's fault that the tool did not work, part of that was the low populations but also it was just too "old school". I used the tool many times and never found a single group using it, spamming chat was the only way to find a group. You get to actually experience content, I have used the existing tool and spent over 3 hours one day trying to find an 8 man group without success. I have 7 lvl 85 toons in WoW and a dps queue can be 30 minutes or more sometimes but at least you can actually find a group at some point, with this game I have never been able to find more than a basic 4 man hm. Content is nerfed based on actual data for people who attempt content, some encounters have also been made more difficult in WoW as well because it was seen as too easy. I have a question for you, do you believe all group content should be so difficult only the 2% of elitists can finish it? As a followup question, if this is what you believe, then tell me why 98% of the regular population should keep paying for a game when it is designed to never allow them to see group and endgame content? The term "merge" is simply the joining of dead servers into larger servers, don't get stuck on sementics, the real reason people want a true merge is to preserve guilds and such but it is obvious that BW has their hands full trying to fiugure out how to make a basic transfer tool work so the more complex merge idea is simply beyond them and will never happen. The problem is, the few groups who have stuck this mess out will be pretty upset when they find out that guilds will not be allowed to move together as one and the money they spent on the guild will be lost. Losing legacy names and toon names will also upset many people and the entire mixup will earn BW another 10% decline in subs just from their not doing things the way people want them to do it. Sure, BW can change their game as "they see fit" but the problem is if they do not do as the people want, those same people do not pay for the game. If they stick to 8 year old game concepts then they will end up with around 250,000 subs or less.

If you want to believe "early summer" is a specific time then be my guest, but those of us who live in the real world know it is intentionally vague to allow them room to wiggle out of putting it into place. Offering a specific time like the end of June would stop the flow of people leaving because it would give us something to look foward to, some light at the end of the tunnel but it would also put them in a bad spot if they fail to meet that goal, by being intentionally vague, they are admitting they have no confidence in their ability to produce the transfer tool right now, and that should tell you a lot about what is going on inside their company. So if they just say they will try to produce something, that to you is the same thing as doing it? The "MM" is completely missing from this "MMO", right now for 99% of players this is a single player game with server side saved games, until BW addresses this lack of other people to group with, they will continue to lose subs. The first 10 to 20% of lost subs was what anyone should have expected from a new released game, the rest of the 30% lost subs are from a complete lack of modern tools everyone in the MMO playing world have come to expect an MMO to have. The lack of any plan to deal with the drop in populations is in my view pretty irresponsible.

"Early summer" is not a timeframe. It is closer to a rumor than anything else, like the talk of "super servers".

The simplest answer is most usually the correct answer, and the simplest answer is it has never worked and is still beyonbd their ability to deal with, otherwise they would be offering a timeframe for it's release.

If the tool did not work, then it was never there, kinda simple logic. If they are still fighting with it after 6 months, obviously the base tool was never even close to working. The initial decline of subs was expected, but almost all of the more recent decline can be pretty easily put on the lack of other players to play with and completing the transfer tool would have prevented most of that loss. Hell, even a x-server lfg tool would have helped to diminish losses but we do not have either tool and people are voting with their feet.

Wow, slow down a little and try reading what I said again. I never said the games were released with these tools (some were added pretty darn fast though) I said they had these tools currently so it is only common sense that the average MMO player is used to having these tools and have come to expect a modern MMO to have them. The only tool I believe they should have had ready at launch is the transfer tool because everyone in the industry knows there was going to be a decline after the first 30 days. I do believe tools like the basic LFG limited to server only should have been done by now though, we have to remember these are not new tools, the program knowledge is already done and in use with many other games, they do not have to create these tools from nothing.

You know what he meant JC, why is it you are always playing semantics and avoiding the easy to understand points people make? He was pointing out they started out with 1 million accounts and are now down to about 250,000, subs are a different matter because even SWtor has had a false boost from the 30 days free they offered and when that is gone, I wonder what the true number of subs will be? This discussion is actually pretty silly, BW created a game with the look and feel of a 8 year old game, it was released without tools (like server transfers) that every major MMO has as standard today and put simply, the attempt to go "old school" has failed.

Put simply, the claims of widespread abuse and ninja looting "just because of a x-server tool" are lies. Sure, there is an exception to every rule and every now and then some idiot will take something he should not take or get angry and pull something on purpose just to wipe the group but these things are so very rare it does not do any justice to the tools to even mention them. I have 7 lvl 85 toons on one server in WoW, making number 8 right now, I have used the x-server tool many, many hundreds of times and I can only vaguely remember a few times that any one idiot had acted poorly enough to cause me to notice him. The other claims of eliminating all guilds and such, are also false, WoW has more guilds now than ever before because there are more geared players to form good raiding teams and more guilds in the first place. Without the LFG tool you have fewer geared players and less guilds with raid ready members, period. I love the "accountability" lies the best, what accountability are we speaking about? The ability to spam attacks on some guy in chat because you are pissed off? BW has already officially said it is okay to roll for alts and companions so based on game rules, there is no such thing as a ninja..........so what do you have to complain about? I for one ignore idiots who spam attacks in channels because most of the time it is pure BS, there is always 2 sides to every issue and no way to know for sure who is right so it is better to just tune the garbage out. 99% of players tune out the attacks and other spam garbage as static, nothing more.

Outvoted? The official line for lost subs is over 400,000 but I believe we all know the true number is much, much larger than this number. You ever hear about people voting with their feet? Do you understand the concept? But just for fun let's consider I am outvoted as you say, that has nothing to do with my points. The idea is not if I am or am not outvoted but if those attacking the idea are telling the truth or just making stuff up as an excuse?

I started a new thread because each time any comment is made about a x-server LFG tool a large number of people come out of the woodwork to attack the idea with many claims that I see as completely false so I would like to address each one I see and ask the community to either offer some real proof to their claims of admit they are making them up just to kill the idea. 1. The most common complaint is that when someone behaves poorly in a run on their server you can later go spam attacks on that person in global chat so everyone else on the server knows this person behaved poorly in some way. While there may be 1 or 2 people with a pad of paper beside them waiting to write down names (and check their list of hundreds of names in every group they join) of people who are complained about in chat, 99% of the normal players tend to ignore people complaining in chat because we understand there is always 2 sides to every complaint and how do we know who is really telling the truth? The person can play an alt for a couple days and nobody will ever remember him anyway. Besides, BW has already said needing for companions and alts is acceptable so what else are you gonna complain about? 2. Another complaint is a X-server LFG tool will kill the feeling of community on the server, that there is no reason people will get to know each other if the tool is added. I wonder where this comes from to be honest. I have played WoW from vanilla and I have added more people to my friends list and real ID list in the last year than all the years before all with a LFG feature in the game. I have to say, there is no way anyone can honestly say this is true when the biggest MMO to ever exist has never seen any issue with the tool causing people to no longer be friends or find friends. 3. All guilds will dissapear because 99% all game players are lazy and if they can get their gear without having to join a guild then they will not do so. This one I believe comes from certain people who run guilds and love the power they have over the content in the game. If you can only see endgame content if you are part of a big guild, then that means the leaders possess a lot of power over the playerbase. While it is true that the leadership of guilds loose some of their power over the server, it does not mean there will not be guilds, in fact once more people get access to more gear made possible through more access to regular runs, suddenly there are more guilds doing endgame content. Instead of there being a shortage of geared players, you now have a lot of geared players to create more groups. I have asked many times for people to go to wowprogress and look up how many guilds there are on each server for WoW and then look at how many have downed content as guilds. With so many guilds existing and most of them downing endgame content as a guild that shows the claim of a LFG tool killing guilds for what it is, a lie. 4. The last most common claim is that the server transfers will fix the population issues and there will be no need for x-server. Let me remind you that WoW had a regular LFG tool and even with their much larger server populations people were still having problems finding groups. I remember waiting very long periods of time for groups to fill in so just having a bigger server will not be enough to fill out groups for the 20 off peek hours of the day. Here is the real issue at hand: How many of us would want to give up having a cellphone? Live life with just a home phone and no texting or even internet on a portable phone? We have all become used to having the convenience of the portable telephone/texting/internet "TOOL" and if we were asked to give that up and go back to wired telephones we would look at the person asking like they were crazy. Well the same is true for games released without the basic tools we have all gotten used to having in our MMO's. It does not matter if other games did not start with the x-server LFG tools but if they eventually did add them and for most MMO's the answer is yes, they did add them. I get the feeling a small number of the SWtor players and many of the game designers are hooked on nostalgia from their memories of the way they think things were 8 or 10 years ago but I remember how WoW was at it's start and there were just as many a-holes then as there are now. Do we want a videogame that is more like a horse and buggy or a Bugatti Veyron EB16.4 Super Sport?

This has been asked many times and they have ignored the question, and that is more of an answer than the vague comments of when they will start transfers (earky summer). The few comments made seem to be purely single toon transfers, this being because they still have to figure out how to make a transfer work and the vague timeline is becuase they have no idea how long it will take them to learn how to make a transfer tool function.......... If they are having difficulty figuring out how to make a basic transfer function work, you can bet they will not be allowing guild transfers because that will be way more difficult for them. Don't bet on any refunds on money spent on guilds either.

Sometimes I wonder at the lack of basic understanding so many people have. Okay, let me make this easier to understand for you, if BW says tomorrow that we can all transfer to one of 10 new servers, how do we choose? How do we know what server is right for us? I play during the day and work at night, can I tell by looking at the 10 choices what server will have the best daytime populations? This is why I pointed out BW is asking the players to blindly pick a new server to move to. BW has in their possession exact data showing play times and active populations for every server. Yes, when BW gets around to allowing server changed there will be a small surge of players returning but they can simply add a 5% buffer to their numbers and safely figure out how best to group together all but the 2 active servers they have now. So in other words, we should not get 10 new servers to choose from, BW should simply tell us what server to move to based on their player data because only BW has the data to do this right.

The question is, how does someone know what server to move to? I personally play only during the day, most servers show low pop during the day so unless I get lucky I doubt moving to a new server will help my situation. On the other hand, BW has player info including times of play and what days they play right in front of them and could easily combine low population servers into healthy and active servers using this player data. Asking players to stumble around in the dark and choosing a new server to move to blindly seems a little foolish to me.

Okay, 2 points to make: 1. Is it spoiled to want a car with air conditioning? Could I produce a car based on the "model T" design and expect the car buying public in general to all go out and buy it? The point you seem to miss is while there are a few video game players out there who are happy with the "model T" style of video game, most people are not going to be willing to settle for that low tech and bottom end sort of game. 2. It does take time to code features but they at the same time do not need to re-invent the wheel, all of these features have been around for many years in various games and it is a lot easier to do now than it was when WoW had to create these tools from scratch. If they are missing the skilled people they need to program these features, then they should go out and hire qualified people instead of stumbling around in the dark while their paying customers leave.

Nice dodge of the point, good to sewe you are too scared of facts to actually see them. The kiddies are at school and and adults are at work on WoW too but I see hundreds of people on the server to play with at the same time.....population is the problem, a problem even BW has admitted to and there is the latest promise of "super servers" to further support the truth of the population issue, too bad you are too blinded by this elitist need to try and keep casuals from getting access to content to see this reality. Nice rant but it does not address my point, I am not lazy, I have spent hours at a time trying to find groups but it is hard to find groups when there is only 2 other lvl 50's on fleet. I work at night, I have no ability to play during the peak population times when all the guilds run, I have spoken to most guilds on my server and none of them are interested in runs during the day. Lack of ambition? Banging out a lvl 50 in 3 weeks for a casual is pretty ambitions I would believe, I am sure elitists like you can make lvl 50 in a couple days but I am doing pretty good from a normal standard with a person who has a job and life outside of the computer world. The problem is even the fatman is pretty dead during the day because BW has more than twice the number of servers than they need. I am sure I am not the only person playing this game during the day, but at the same time the daytime players are spread all over different servers. This would be true for 2 hours in the evening on my server, the other 22 hours my server has only a tiny number of lvl 50's playing and nobody ready or interested in doing runs. I would love to be able to just type "LFG XYZ" and go do runs, hell if this was true I would never be on this forum. Let me ask you a question, do you truly believe BW would be talking about LFG tools and "super servers" if there was no problem? They have the data, they know exactly how many people are playing the game on every server and what levels they are......if there was no problem they would not spend money and time even talking about transfers and LFG tools, obviously there is a problem, and you are just playing the usual Elitist garbage of trying to keep the casuals down. I know you are here and dodging the real and proven point of low populations that keep most players from enjoying the game through no fault of their own. If the game is so great and has no flaws at all why are you here? If there is no need for a LFG tool for you then adding one for other people who do need it will have no effect on you because you will never use it. BUT.........if you plan on using it, obviously even the elitists are having to admit there is a problem finding groups, lol.

The promise of a "super server" or transfers is still missing the one thing most players concerned with the population issues wants.......a time it will be put into place. People have been complaining about the lack of population and the inability to find people to group with for months, but only recently has BW even hinted at trying to fix this huge problem and even now it is still only rumors of ideas they have. We need more than ideas, we need answers and a timeline for completion. We are paying customers, we are paying to play an MMO, but the MM is missing from this MMO.

The game should have been released with a LFG tool, period. The lack of other people to play with is the number 1 reason most people I talk with are leaving the game. Video games like this started from the old DND crowd who were used to long and complicated steps to play their games but as computer power came into the piucture, suddenly all that complicated mess smoothed out (anyone old enough to remember the bag full of various dice needed to play DND?) and now people were spending more time on story and less time on complications. It seems to me that BW tried to roll back time and put people back on tiny servers with low populations and make everyone dependent on the big guilds for endgame content like the early days of WoW when it came out, but that time has passed. People have already gotten used to large populations and being able to see some of the endgame content without having to toe-the-line under the rulership of a few top guilds and they are not now willing to go back to being treated like garbage just because they don't want to be bossed around by the elitists. Ask yourself if you would be happy driving a car without air conditioning? Air conditioning is certainly not needed but we have gotten used to having it and now a car produced without it will not sell. The same is true for modern MMO's without LFG tools.

Actually it would not be very difficult, data saved for 1 toon is actually very small, server economy would be the most difficult issue to deal with. Making the auctions global for all servers would be the truly difficult task, I doubt they would consider it. The reason so many people are screaming for mergers is because there is nobody to play with in this game. What do you call an MMO without other people to group with? That is called a single player game. Short term they can have cross server LFG to let people experience some group content and pacify them for awile but sooner or later a large number of servers must be shut down to consolidate the few players they still have into a small but active community of players. The number 1 reason so many people are leaving is no access to group content.