Yuppers.

Yup, but WoW offers transfers. Not sure when in the life of the game they started, but low pop servers is a problem in MMOs for like a decade. I think at this point in Rift's life, they were already offering transfers, but not sure. This is about when I stopped (halfway through 1st paid month). I know they were at least talking about them, as they started making posts before I stopped. But Bioware says...very little about anything. I know I was at the point, with a 50 tank and 30 healer, of either unsubbing or re-rolling. I chose to re-roll for the last 3 weeks of 1st month sub. I would much rather have paid $50 and moved those 2 characters to a populated realm. But transfers - just another thing that Bioware didn't seem ready for.

That's all true, as well. But right now there are servers which never hit 50 online 50's, and other servers that have 350+ online 50's at 2pm server time on a weekday. The playing environment on those 2 servers is dramatically different, trust me.

I would not be suprised if merges don't happen. However, they really need to happen. Playing on a low population server, quite simply, sucks.

That's not at all the case. On decently populated servers there are dozens upon dozens upon dozens of 50's queuing. On low populated servers, at times there isn't even a dozen. As a reroller, I know this. My old server, The Razor - "Standard" during prime time - not always even ONE warzone going on, and rarely 55+ total 50's online at once. New server, a heavy one from like 10 am it's time until like 3 am it's time, at "Heavy" there are over 350 50's online at once. It has nothing to do with leveling speed, and everything to do with server population.

MMOs that's generally the case. The absolute NEED for gear to be competitive means that, generally, people only PvP to gear up. I wish MMOs were different (and similar to console shooters) where the PvP was simply fun enough for people to simply PvP for PvP's sake, but so far WoW, Rift and now TOR have not seen fit to design their PvP that way, but to stick with the MMO "gear grind" design. The bad thing about the gear grind is that even people who actually like PvP get sick of it during the grind. And TOR's RNG bag system makes that even worse, with a feeling of ZERO reward along the grind, at times.

I know this. I'm not actually complaining about "lack of end game content", either. But I can totally understand why someone would. I guess my main points are that I can totally understand why someone would NOT see a hardmode version of something as "new content", and that there were many games prior to WoW and LK expansion that never used hard modes as "end game content". Ultimately, the general idea that "end game content" pretty much ONLY equals raiding in MMOs, I think, needs to change. To what, I don't know, but to something else. But I'm way past the point of thinking - buy game, level to max, raid it's raids for 3 months and gear, raid the new raid for 3 months and gear, raid the next new raid for 3 months and gear, buy expansion, level to max, raid it's raids for 3 months and gear, raid the new raid for 3 months and gear, raid the next new raid for 3 months and gear, buy expansion, level to max...being what I want out of an MMO. Maybe that's the only successful (financially) way to design one, I don't know.

I guess it comes down to whether you consider heroic/hardmode/nightmare mode versions of the same stuff different content. Mostly, I don't. Sure, Black Talon hardmode is different than Black Talon normal, but most stuff is not drastically different. There used to be games that didn't have "hard mode versions", but actually had other stuff in place of that. WoW has only had hard modes for 2 expansions, but now that's the standard? I'm not saying everything about WoW is bad, but it's not necessarily good, either. As someone who did ICC 25 normal within 3 or 4 weeks of LK being available (day before 1st buff we downed him), when I went back to do ICC 10 heroic, I did NOT feel like I was doing any new content. Maybe the consensus amongst MMO players, now, is that if it drops better loot, it's new content, but meh. Doing hard mode versions is about as interesting, in terms of "new content" as doing the exact same quests, only a couple levels lower, on an alt. Is it more challenging? Yes. Is it more interesting? That depends on the player. For example, I beat Demon's Souls twice, but every New Game + adds about 8% difficulty, up to 8 or 9 NGs, I think. Did I not beat the game, because I only beat it on New Game +1? If I stop playing it at that point because I'm bored, and claim I have "nothing more to do", am I actually wrong because I can keep upping the difficulty and do the same things again and again and again?

I've never complained about a "lack of end-game content", but I can see why someone would. My experience (before I re-rolled on a server with actual population - which I didn't think I ever would) with "end game" is that there's not a ton of it. But I never expected a ton of it from a new game (I expected more features from a new game, and better ones, but not "content"). I've tanked all but 1 of the 50 HM Flashpoints (heard that Directive 7 was bugged, so we never went there), and then we heard Normal Mode EV was easier than most 50 HM FPs, so we sort of on the spur of the moment went there as a guild, and beat the 1st 2 bosses the first time we went in, in about 90 minutes. I would not call us a "pro" guild at all, but we're also not bad players. I would also say that the amount of gear you have, and the number of different modes you beat something on really don't matter to "finishing the game". Some people (myself included) mostly want to "see the content". To bring up WoW and the LK expansion, after my guild beat LK 25 man (the day before the 1st ICC buff), I felt I was "done", and stopped raiding. Most of my guild kept going in Heroics. That being said, 4 months later, to play with friends, we started some ICC 10 Heroic runs (and in the end I got 3 toons drakes), but I didn't do that to "beat the game", but to do stuff with friends. I also didn't see any NEW content doing that, and learned to HATE Sindragosa's voice actress with a passion that runs so deep I can't tell you where that hate ends and my soul begins. But if my LK experience (with regards to raiding) had ended the day we killed LK 25 man, I would still have been content with how much content I'd done. I wasn't fully geared in ICC 25 man stuff (close), and had done only lootship on heroic. If, in TOR, I clear both Karraga's and EV on normal, there are no new fights to see (at the moment). At that point it becomes a question of "is the time spent doing this enjoyable enough to keep doing it?". The gear upgrades are minimal (I think, could be wrong), and it's not, really, new content. I kind of equate hard mode/heroic versions of raiding to New Game + in consoles. I don't ever feel I have to beat a game in New Game + to "beat the game".

When can we expect news on server merges or character transfers (to get off of low populated servers)?

Pretty much this. I am still enjoying swinging a lightsaber, but the MMO part of this game (system designs, interface, quality of life things) is severely lacking. Almost the opposite of Rift, where I found that the interface, designs of systems and the like was really well done at launch, but the world itself was boring (setting/story/etc).

As a healer main in all other MMOs before this (50 jug tank/30 sorc heals), I always vote for top heals as MVP, unless someone else was clearly the MVP. I just know how much a good healer can make all the difference in the outcome of 2 otherwise equally matched groups.

Honestly, it depends on what server you are on. I can 100% deny it, because they simply DO NOT HAPPEN on my server. No amount of you telling me what PvP is like on your server changes the fact that there is no PvP on Ilum on my server. The reason? 3 or 4 reps show up, they get killed by the 6 or 7 crate farmers (and the messages give away that they're coming). Once news hits guilds that Reps are on Ilum, those 6 or 7 become 15 or 16, and those 3 or 4 become 5 or 6. 20 minutes later the number of Reps is 0, and the number of Imps dwindles from that 15 or 16 back down to 8 or 9, because now a few people are 3/30 on their daily from kills, and are suddenly desperate to get 27 crates. THAT is PvP on Ilum on my server. Not this past weekend, but the weekend before, it was late at night, and I was 30/150 on my weekly. I got to Ilum and was completely alone. 90 minutes later I was 150/150 and had not seen a single soul in that 90 minutes. Just because Ilum is good for you doesn't mean it's good for everyone. Oh, and this is on a "standard" server.

The thing about it is anyone who's only got 1 50, but has done any sort of end game PvP in WoW would already know how a PvP stat adversely affects brand new level cap toons. The only difference in the gear grind in WoW vs TOR is that in WoW you can be in crafted 85 resil gear (not great, but better than quest greens) and in an AV weekend can fully honor yourself out so you're not complete **** in a BG. Not so in TOR. And the changes aren't going to do much to help, though it will be faster. But the time it takes to actually catch up to current fully championed expertise 50's for a new 50 will be LONGER after the changes. Only when gear is equivalent is skill fully tested, and that is the ultimate problem with PvP stats (and gear in PvP, in general). Your gear is not a sign of how good you are, and how good you perform in any given warzone is not a sign of how good you are - your gear and how you perform are largely determined by how much you play, and in the case of TOR, also by how lucky you are with RNG bags. All putting new 50's with no expertise up against 400+ expertise people does is make some of those new 50's quit PvP. People not PvPing is NOT good for PvP. Happened to so many people in WoW, and WoW still hasn't really learned from this, and it happens even MORE here, because many people came here look for something better, only to find the PvP system is mostly the same, but just that little bit worse (with RNG).

Good for you. I'd like to see more than a 4v4, ever, on Ilum. But most likely it's 8v0 and we're running round NASCAR-style opening boxes. People talk about their own experiences, and many people's experiences with PvP in TOR are bad. Much of that is down to low pop "standard" servers, or the RNG bag system that like 95% of the players seem to hate, or the poor performance in Warzones or Warzone wins not counting. And these things aren't really being addressed by Bioware. The forum posts most definitely are NOT, the vast majority of the time. And when they do finally address things (like today), it's like a pygmy pulling teeth from a shark getting information out of Gabe and Georg. How many posts did it take them to explain the patch notes? Why not just actually, you know, explain them in the notes themselves? But then read further into Georg's post, and you wonder how much he could have read because he clearly doesn't understand what players want, even though he explicitly states he does. That's baffling. And not at all encouraging.

That's not actually how it was. People were mostly wanting expertise eliminated, but if not, most definitely a 50's bracket so that level 10's didn't have to face expertised-50's. Many people also posted how a 50's bracket would kill 50's PvP. On my "standard" server it has - I can go 3 hours in queue and not get one. On actually populated servers, I'm sure that's not the case. The ultimate problem with PvP in TOR comes down to 3 things, pretty much: 1 - Completely stupid RNG bag system. 2 - Not taking into considerationg the glaringly obvious incoming faction imbalance with regards to Ilum and open world PvP (and a bad Ilum design to begin with - why so big with so many servers having 3-10 people tops in the area at one time?) 3 - Cloning resilience from WoW - it was a quick fix in WoW, which many have disliked to this day, but was accepted because it was better than the alternative - raid-gear determining PvP. The solution SHOULD have been aiming to eliminate gear from PvP, as most PvPers I know would like their actual skill to be the #1 determining factor, not gear. But the TOR team cloned resilience, but poorly, and tacked on RNG and inane costs to gear, so that, to this point, any individual's ability to suceed in PvP is down to RNG bag luck as much as anything else.

Why this? Why is it random? I can not think of something dumber to implement in a PvP gear system.

Given the evidence so far..really?

This change would have been good in like October or November, but at this point it's a little too late, in the immediate (like next 3 months) of the game. Currently you have people who geared up in the 1.0/1.1 system, and some have full sets, and some who've put the same amount of time and effort (and may even be more skilled) have not even halfway completed sets. That, ultimately, is the entire problem with the PvP gearing system in TOR. But those geared people currently have X pieces of champ and Y pieces of battlemaster, and new 50's get creamed because of gear (and maybe skill, but ultimately it's the gear). After these bag changes go into effect, the rate at which new 50's can close the gear gap will actually go down, not up. Because if I'm reading these changes right, the rate of Champ gear gain will drop, but Centurion gear change will go up. New 50's will get Centurion gear faster than now (because right now RNG for Champ gear is faster than buying Cent gear, and Cent gear is crap anyway), but Champion gear much slower. That's the problem with the change - the gear gap from current geared PvPers to new 50's will actually close SLOWER, not faster, than it does now. There will be an initial gain by new 50's of Cent gear, which makes a ton more sense than the current system, but the actual catching up in gear will take longer than now, as catching up requires Champ and eventually BM gear. You can't rollback people who gained under the old system, but these new changes, which would have made sense if it was how it was at launch, just give those already geared an even longer duration of a gear advantage. These changes don't change the fact that the initial system was garbage, and the RNG element of it is abyssmal, and the bugs/exploits/whatever you want to call Ilum fast 60 Valor poor planning and design, with seemingly no consideration for faction imbalance.

I'm pretty sure this is NOT "exactly what you guys asked for." What people have continually asked for is the elimination of RNG. Maybe read your forums to find out?

Well my experience is that 15% is a high estimate, so his numbers of length of time played to get Champion's gear is actually a low one, for me. But my RNG luck could change in the future, who knows. That's actually the problem with RNG (apart from it being completely stupid). Without the actual RNG hard numbers, we're just guessing. Guessing and hoping is simply frustrating. Myself, I don't PvP much now at 50. I had 1 and bought 5 more when I dinged, and have completed the weekly each week since dinging (the warzone one - not the Ilum one as there simply aren't people on Ilum to fight, and being one of 7 Imps NASCARing around isn't at all fun). I completed the Ilum weekly once. Have purchased extra bags whenever able. I've opened somewhere around 55 bags in total - I have 6 pieces. Unfortunately I have gotten 2 legs and 3 implants, so I can only actually equip 4 pieces after about 55 bags - I do have those extra 2 mods in other PvE pieces, though. So, in my experience, 15% is HIGH. Also, in my guild, there are people who have had much better luck than me, and much worse luck.

My main is always male in any MMO. My alts are nearly always female. In TOR, no, I will not follow female - male companion romances. In other Bioware games I generally play 2 characters (female renegade shepard, male paragon shepard, for example - and the female renegade is *MY* shepard because of the stellar voice acting compared to the male), and the female of course romanced the Asari (and stayed true). In Dragon Age - male romanced Morrigan, female romanced Leliana, etc for DA 2 as well.

You should have 1 bag in your inventory and 1000/1000 when you ding 50. If you can, buy some of the weapons along the way as well (I believe they have expertise on some modifications, but not 100% sure). You should also expect to be disappointed when you open those 6 bags.

You would think that something like this, which has been complained about since release 6 weeks ago or so, would have been addressed at least once on these boards, right? At least some explanation as to WHY they think it's a good idea.

1 - Modern MMO features (customizable UI, useful grouping tools - cross server or not, I don't care, dual specs - hell triple specs, etc.) 2 - Less servers/more people per server. My "standard" server feels dead. 3 - Bioware to hire a new PvP team and come up with something that's not absolute crap in it's design.