This has been great! Having several servers moved to our formerly thriving- since quiet server has returned our numbers back to what they were pre-APAC transfer during the week of 1.2 release... up to 300 at peak times on weeknights, instanced fleets, 30-60 people in daily hubs.. tons of PuG HMs and Ops... and I imagine more will accept the transfer option before the weeks end. I was also lucky enough to have my original server directed to my current server I re-rolled on in March, meaning my original 50s can finally join my legacy, AND experience end game content on the dark side. This has been a good move.. people are reforming, commiserating, adjusting, excited about new players, new PvP competition, new guilds forming like crazy.. both the reformation of those from before and the new.. meaning new Operations competition as well And for a republic dominated server, to acquire a slew of empire characters who are tired of fighting themselves.. I'm hopeful that these changes and the invigoration of our community sticks around! Half of the player boredom, in my opinion and experience, is the lack of group/social/PvP opportunities. With a thriving community, we might keep people around in time for upcoming patches. Thanks BW!

1. Make a weekly that requires you to do all of the hm fps and have the reward be a vanity pet, or black hole coms, or rakata token, something. It can change each week too, just to make it interesting, and to keep people doing them constantly. (submitted by Arius) There is a weekly quest for completing Kaon Under Siege HM and Lost Island HM (The latter drops a Rakata Chest Piece) that rewards Black Hole Comms. Doing Dailies rewards daily comms which can be used to buy your campaign relics, as well as Rakata Implants and earpiece. In addition to the Corellia weekly, which also rewards black hole comms. I've acquired the majority of my set of Black Hole gear this way. As well as looting chests/bosses in EC Story Mode. Further, running the flashpoints can still be beneficial, as you can collect columi gear/tokens to gear out your companions appropriately as well.

Lack of foresight, and slow to fix the error. This game has so much potential, and I believe it could grow to be even better.. but the population issues are simply killing this game for so many players. Myself included. I've re-rolled several times, and my latest formerly busy server is now slowly dying as well. There is one heavy server.. and that's a ridiculous ratio with over 110 servers in light status around the clock.

Erm, I'm not here to spout negativity or rag on the game. I want this game to succeed, as I love it and want to enjoy it. I'm just here in hopes that, when the community managers - who apparently read and report the major issues players are discussing to the devs - might take into account the demand for efficient and effective merges/transfers and maybe re-prioritize it, in addition to implementing the occasional rare gem of valuable suggestions. All the while looking past the "THIS GAME SUKS" garbage and find elements of what their customers want that fall in line with Bioware's vision. As a producer for another developer, I would do the same, especially while brainstorming improvements and future additions. Wishful thinking, I know. But we're not all doom & gloom naysayers here because we like flamewars.

Except for the fact that you don't need an antivirus program, you won't have to replace your computer within 1-2 years, it won't die (I had my macbook running as smoothly as the day I bought it for 6 years - and it still does - a new pc still has load times) and the OS functionality and design is just.. so much better. It's seamless, and smooth. I am in love with my 27" iMac. It's a little over a year old and still runs SWTOR flawlessly. I could never go back. And I was adamantly against Macs until I was forced to use one, because of my preconceived notions of it, remembering apple products of the past, and being the child of the Chief IT officer for a major corporation who worked closely with Microsoft... Now the whole family has been converted It's not about the brand or the image, it's the intelligent design of it's products - in terms of functionality. Yeah they're gorgeous, but it's the software/OS design that makes my little heart sing.

Same here At Guild Summit the devs stated that the client would not be coming anytime soon. If at all. As I personally hate Windows, it's [lack of] functionality and the issues it presents -- I would love to run it on my Mac OS (I miss expose/spaces/simple, fluid alt tabbing and running programs side by side seamlessly - further, not having to constantly switch over just to play a game.. sigh) Bootcamp works for the time being. It just sucks having to adapt to two functionalities, the clunkiness of windows 7 (i.e., trying to replicate the appeal of Mac OS), hot keys, etc. and switching over several times per day. Ah well. I wouldn't hold your breath on BW implementing this within the next year or two.

Yes it was. At least, for my former guildmates it was. Bioware has stated that if you have established yourself on your destination server with new characters, and you initiate a transfer of your original characters to that server, the highest of the two legacies will be the one that is recognized.

I had two characters to 50 by the end of January. I was leveling with two real life friends. While leveling, we were the only 3 people on each planet after Alderaan, the same was the case with my alt whom I leveled by myself. I attributed this to the game still being rather new, and thus maybe the rest of the player base hadn't got there yet. Within a few weeks, I noticed the population declining significantly. My guild dwindled - which was the largest at the server's peak - to being the only one signing in over two weeks, and I decided to look into re-rolling. Researched server populations, re-rolled on several to find the right fit and one that was consistently populated, and finally committed. Now I've got two more 50's, a 40 in progress, plus others, and level 39 legacy.. but now THAT server is declining (we lost half of our population, as the designated "Aussie" server - which I didn't know about - in the APAC transfer). Soooo... re-rolling AGAIN is a bit out of the question.

I agree with this. Population issues aside, I've continually told myself to give it time. This is indeed a new game. And (sorry to compare) with other MMOs.. start to current state.. had years of development time to create and implement features that were convenient, and enriched game play. I believe, if they address the major issues that currently stand, that this game could certainly grow to be amazing. It's just requiring patience, and providing feedback when they poll the community for desired features. Competition might be good for Bioware.

I re-rolled on the Harbinger, and I had the same experience that you note. But the APAC transfer has killed it. Despite having convinced myself that it wouldn't. After re-rolling on 5 different servers, with multiple 50s, 40s and 30s.. I don't think I can bring myself to do it again. I think the key point to note here, is that they took all of the AUS/APAC players, and moved them to three servers. And they all have a rich population. I think if they took steps to do this with the US players, by eliminating the excess servers for when they're actually needed, and condensing the player base to fill the remaining servers, the US players could have the same rich experience that you are currently enjoying.

I love this game. I like the aesthetics better than any current MMO, I will be forever ruined by the voice acting (I am really looking forward to GW2.. but after the SWTOR cutscenes, the GW2 Dialogue scenes disappoint me..), I like the story, despite never having watched all of the Star Wars films. I simply liked the game for the game. Yes, some convenience features are missing. I get that it's a new game, and I can't necessarily hold it to standards of those in the past, when I played those games several years after their initial launch. I should also mention, I'm a producer for another (small-time) game developer. In my opinion, the game needs more life. While, for me, being on the second most populated server -- I can run flashpoints, operations 4x/week (on two diff characters), run dailies, pvp, etc. so I feel there is enough to do, however, there needs to be more "filler". The world event was a great temporary addition.. but I think, this is with exception to bugs and whatnot, which are of priority, that events/mini-games/social hubs should be added to bring life to different areas of the game. For instance - the central floating casino in Nar Shaddaa - introduce dailies, add Pazaak/Sabbacc/swoop racing/etc. to add engaging activities to participate in while taking a break from leveling, gaining rested xp, waiting for raid times or pvp queues, etc. HOWEVER, the biggest issue with this game is the server populations. 110+ Light servers around the clock. They opened too many in expecting a much larger player base. They have 1/10th the players that WoW does, and yet only 1/2 of the servers. I think top priority other than bugs should be cutting 50, or likely even more, servers, and merging those players onto the remaining servers. For instance, Server A, B & C get Moved to server D. Resulting in a larger community, and yet you're still with your guild, your friends, and your existing community, if one even existed (Hard with 30 active players on the entire faction). This is supposed to be a Massively Multiplayer game, and it's lacking the Massive because the player base is spread so thin. Half of the draw in this game depends on having a large, ACTIVE player base. (Flashpoints, Operations, Heroics, Community, etc.) When my server died, I quit for two months - not out of spite or resentment, I simply didn't have any reason to log in. It wasn't until I was reminded of how excited I was for this game, and the upcoming 1.2 patch, that I worked up the nerve to re-roll on the most populated PvE server I could. Unfortunately, with the APAC transfers half (if not more) of our player base has since relocated.. relegating us to the forever standard-light population group. This was after resisting and debating all of the doom and gloom in general about how our server would take a major hit. They really need to cut the servers in half - no target transfers between a small handful of servers (and hopefully not like blizzard, and from larger servers to fill out a small one) But a large, coordinated move between 50-60 dead servers to invigorate those remaining. I'm content with endgame, I feel I don't have enough time to do everything. But when I hit a wall for trying to get FP groups, and guilds losing Ops members, and the like.. that's content, and basically the entire endgame game play, that can't be accessed any longer. Kill the social elements in addition to that, and there's no longer a draw to play. I didn't like Tera, I wasn't interested in D3, and I've pre-ordered GW2. But I want to play this game. I want to be playing it next year. I want so much for it to succeed, and I have faith that the devs can implement great features and content in the future - I mean, two patches with new content in the first 5 months? Awesome. But the content means nothing without the social element. And to wait 6-7 months for a fix that was being called for and necessary back in January (when I took my hiatus) is proving detrimental. Especially for how much emphasis Bioware puts on preserving community. By the way, Early Summer? June 20 is the official first day of Summer.. so that could be up until August 1 for this to be implemented, which is too long, and will be too late.

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=457244

"Early Summer"? How are they defining early? And summer for whom? If the US, Summer officially begins on June 20th. If it was "early" summer, could that mean in the first few weeks following June 20th? So, maybe by mid-July? That's over 7 months after the game's launch, and the problems have been evident, and numbers rapidly declining, since January. Meanwhile, players like me who have re-rolled after already establishing characters, are now finding that unless we roll Fat Man, we'll be on a sparsely populated server. I rolled to the heaviest population PvE server which just lost over 1/2 of its player base to APAC transfers. So, that's four 50s in total, several 40s and 30s, that I would have to leave behind, in order to get to a Heavy, not even Full, server. And once GW2, Tera, D3, etc. have hit? Will even THOSE numbers, as they currently stand, remain? Some will leave. Yes. But on a server with 25 people at peak, for the ENTIRE faction, not just fleet, losing any one of them is noticeable.

I know I'm repeating old arguments.. However, having been a resident of several dead servers, and eventually one thriving one (before the AUS transfers removed half of the player base) - I have a suggestion. Rather than sponsored transfers, taking players from the 3-5 thriving communities and infusing them into the 110 dead servers - further threatening existing communities, and not actually helping those servers that ARE dead... why not simply close 50-70 of the 110 (seemingly eternally) light servers, and just merge those players to the remaining servers? Then, rather than trying to spread a sparse player base even thinner, you could actually bolster all of the remaining communities. Maybe aim for a borderline heavy population during the prime time slot on each server's time zone (rather than the "just barely hitting standard, for 30 minutes, during peak times.."). By doing this, you build the communities you are striving to "protect" rather than dealing a blow to their population even further, and this game ceases to feel like a single player game - aside from the fact that SPGs don't require a group to down content. This results in an increased number of active players, and a living community. Which provides greater motivation for your players to keep playing - as they could then have the opportunity to experience content, build in-game relationships (guilds, groups, etc), rendering the "there's nothing to do" argument less valid. If you see a drastic increase in subscriptions, and server stress, slowly open new servers for them (one at a time), and THEN open the option for sponsored, directed transfers to then bolster that server, with excess from the 1-3 most densely populated, provided it won't then seriously wound the community (much like the APAC transfer appears to have done on the Harbinger). I re-rolled to a thriving server, as stated earlier, and was able to experience content - all of it, from the heroics, to flashpoints and operations, for the first time in four months of playing. On my prior server, finding a PuG was impossible, let alone 8 players. I never saw ANY of the heroic content. I saw maybe 2-3 flashpoints (with exception to Black Talon/Esseles) and that was back when the server first opened and people were actually logging in. But as the community died, my desire to sign in died. Apparently the same for many other players, as now that server is even less populated. It took me nearly two months to work up the desire to re-roll. Now, being on a densely populated server, I've been able to be involved with guilds, I have a large friends list of players to choose from for PuGs if things are slow, I'm running Operations 2-3 times per week and actively progressing through content. I feel there's almost too much to do. (ha) However, without a rich population, this isn't an option for many players. While I was re-rolling to get a feel for the top 5 servers, I asked in general chat on the starting planets (as well as general on fleet) how many players were re-rolls, and wasn't surprised when I discovered that the majority of them are. I've encountered people from my old server that had re-rolled onto my current one, and half of my guild has re-rolled from elsewhere also. I truly enjoy this game, I enjoy the community I finally was able to find (even our designated trolls), and the content has been both fun and challenging (Analyzing the new endgame mechanics upon the launch of 1.2, Hard Mode Denova runs - finally downing Z&T, Tanks..). I have enjoyed the progress so far, and look forward to what is to come in the future. I simply hope Bioware can implement a satisfactory resolution (for both BW/EA and players) to the population issues, and consider addressing the problem head on, rather than make it worse.

I've read just about everything possible regarding server transfers, and have seen nothing about the criteria for free transfers, other than what I've listed below. Ideally, it would go the way of the merge and have everyone from a few dead servers the option to move for free to another dead server.. but even then it might only result in a semi-standard population server. And thus, still leaves the 100+ other dead servers to fend for themselves. The most informative piece I've found regarding the free transfers and how they'll work is this, which doesn't define which population server will be the destination: "Arymono: When will character transfers be available for everybody? Dallas Dickinson (Senior Producer, Live Services): We will be rolling out our Character Transfer Service in early summer. First we’ll have some targeted free transfers from/to specific servers, but that will be followed with a broader system where you can either take advantage of free promotional transfers to specific servers or paid transfers to the server of your choice. We know everyone has more questions about character transfer, and we’ll reveal more details closer to the launch date." Like I stated previously, I hope they don't do as Blizzard does, and offer them from the heaviest population to the lightest, to balance the two - being that the one heavy server is still in a precarious position, if my formerly heavy server is any indication. I would certainly hope that Bioware had the foresight to lump all of those services together, but to be honest.. I may be a little skeptical, being that "early Summer" could very well be mid-July (Summer officially begins on June 20th..) meaning it will have been 6-7 months for them to address the issue. Showing a lack of proper prioritization, in my opinion. Although, I certainly hope you're right. Another forum thread I've been following, calling for much the same. http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=442646

Hey, I'm on this team. Scroll up. I was merely showing a prior poster that they do recognize it, but as I said, the news just isn't very good. Thus, we post here, in hopes that if and when the community team peruses it, they can see our fervor for this to be implemented as a top priority, and get it done.

They do respond. Just not to every thread. I've read everything I could find from BW about this issue. Whether it be community Q&A, Dev Tracker, @SWTOR twitter, Interviews by gaming sites with the devs about the issue -- Link to Interview: "But while BioWare lead writer Daniel Erickson said subscriptions are not dropping, he explained that the number of concurrent users at peak times has declined. Those light server populations may lead to server mergers, he said. "Nothing is off the table when it comes to making sure our communities are strong and active on each server," he explained. He said that BioWare is currently doing "anything and everything" to increase concurrent user numbers." Dev Posts: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=4345892#edit4345892 http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=4174224#edit4174224 http://www.swtor.com/blog/community-qa-april-27th-2012 The news just isn't very good.

I think frostvein said it best, however the point of this thread isn't even a wow comparison or complaining about features - we're complaining about Bioware's mistake in opening over 120 servers for a player base that wasn't there, spreading those players so thin that experiencing multiplayer content in a Massively Multiplayer Game is nearly impossible for them. The complaint is that the transfer system wasn't implemented, merges weren't implemented as soon as the problem was recognized, the player base is declining even further, as those on dead servers are losing motivation/reason to play --- and they're delaying the implementation of a solution for this issue to some vague date. "Early Summer"? Well.. how are they defining early? And summer for whom? If the US, Summer officially begins on June 20th. If it was "early" summer, could that mean in the first few weeks following June 20th? So, maybe by mid-July? That's over 7 months after the game's launch, and the problems have been evident, and numbers rapidly declining, since January. Meanwhile, players like me who have re-rolled after already establishing characters, are now finding that unless we roll Fat Man, we'll be on a sparsely populated server. I rolled to the heaviest population PvE server which just lost over 1/2 of its player base to APAC transfers. So, that's four 50s in total, several 40s and 30s, that I would have to leave behind, in order to get to a Heavy, not even Full, server. And once GW2, Tera, D3, etc. have hit? Will even THOSE numbers, as they currently stand, remain? Some will leave. Yes. But on a server with 25 people at peak, for the ENTIRE faction, not just fleet, losing any one of them is noticeable.

Nailed it. Well said.

I re-rolled several times. All dead servers now.

Or is that part of the Guild Allies & Adversaries program? Legacy updates are in the "Coming Soon" tab of the Legacy page. Also, transfers coming with 1.3, as it would seem from the dev tracker, podcast and community q&a - which, if you're looking for clues as to what's coming, I'd suggest checking it out.

I really enjoy sandbox. It was the concept that drew me to MMOs in the first place (SWG was my first.) As a child, I remember playing Zac McKracken (sp?) or something to that effect, and wishing I could do what I wanted in video games rather than being restricted to a few developed areas with specific goals. SWG suited that need - it blew my mind when I was first introduced to it - I could quest, explore, level certain skills, spend my time dancing in a cantina if I wanted, scouting the best sites for a house, etc. - in other words, exactly what I had wanted in a game. The theme park aspect can help, especially for those without direction - especially who are adapted to theme park style gaming - who have no idea what to do. Who NEED direction. Thus, I think it would be great to have a combination of the two. Not restrictive, but guidance where you need it, if you need it.

There are puzzles in SWTOR The +10 Datacron, Colicoid War Games, a heroic zone with power conduits in Balmorra (I think?), answering the questions properly at the end of the Revanite quest on Dromund Kaas(wherein, answering wrong will result in a "punishment" of having to kill "x" mandalorians, beasts, etc.), answering the questions properly during the meeting with the mystics on Voss (which affects what beasts you'll have to face), KP and EV both have puzzles, as does Denova, and frankly, I find determining answers my companions will like (to unlock more quests, and gain more xp from completing them) to be a puzzle when becoming acquainted with them. I agree with the OP though, what drew me to MMOs in the first place (SWG was my first) was, as a child, wishing I could do what I wanted in video games. SWG suited that need - it blew my mind when I was first introduced to it - I could quest, explore, level certain skills, spend my time dancing in a cantina if I wanted, scouting the best sites for a house, etc. etc.

You can see the entire server population for your faction (it truncates at 100) via /who and removing the republic/imperial fleet from your search field. Note, the post that yours is in response to said "online" not "in fleet".

My (former) entire server has about 24 people online. You can /who and remove the fleet from the search field and if there are less than 100 people online, you can see everyone and where they are. Try running Cademimu when you're the only person online within 5-10 levels of the requirement for that FP. When you are the sole person on every planet past Alderaan, try finding a group. This is not an exaggeration, laziness/lack of effort or lack of being resourceful. It isn't the techniques, I think you're just not wanting to acknowledge that having 110 permanently light servers is a problem. You can try to recruit groups in general and whisper all day, but if no one is there or in level range to join you, it will be fruitless. Having been on a heavy server and using the same techniques that didn't work on a dead server (actively recruiting throughout the server for FPs, finding an active guild, etc.) I know my methods aren't flawed... because regardless of your methods, you will not get a group if there is no one to group with. You got groups because you were fortunate enough to a.) have people online in your level range who were b.) interested in going, and because you made the effort to initiate a group. Once again, no matter how much effort you put into looking for a group, it will not work if those initial two variables aren't there.