I think that would be fine, my old system before I upgraded my GPU was as follows :- I7 2600k x4 @ 3.8 ghz 2x ATI Radeon HD 5830's in Crossfire 16gb g.skill RAM 128gb SSD Gigabyte G1.Sniper 2 Motherboard That ran everything fine on max at 1920x1080 except I had to turn shadows, bloom and anti aliasing off. Now I have changed the GPU to a Saphire ATI Radeon HD 7970 OC and I can turn everything to max and I get maybe 60-80 FPS everywhere.

OK I had another post on this but it was closed to continue the topic here so I'm going to repeat the original message. Before I get started into my argument I would like to say that I really do like this game. I'm not bashing any single aspect of the game (with exception to server population) and I am not here to start off some horrible flame wars with the fans of this game. I would also like to point out that I am a European player currently on the low population server Luka Sene. During peak time in the republic fleet we don't get much more than around 50 players and Imperial side sometimes hits the 100 mark, so you should know what I mean by light server population. I have been playing the game since launch and have a Level 50 Commando, a Level 48 Sith Inquisitor and a Level 42 Jedi Sentinel and therefore the argument of "Go and roll on another server" is not valid as I am not willing to start all that again. OK so on to the main point of this post. There are currently only 2 English speaking servers in Europe that are showing a heavy population load. They are The Red Eclipse (PvE) and The Tomb of Freedon Nadd (PvP). The other 40 or so servers are mostly either standard or light and therein lies the problem. I was placed in this server at the launch of the game and at the time I had no idea what the server population would be so I had no reason to search out for another server. I will say though that I think Bioware's decision at launch to open more and more servers instead of just increasing the capacity of them was their biggest mistake as several months after the release of the game, we are now seeing the number of players staying with the game has stabilised and is holding at the 1.25 million mark (very well done by the way, that is a good figure), however we have enough servers to handle several times that number. I honestly believe that the best thing for this game right now is to merge some of these other light pop servers together to create a better experience for the people who are currently playing on those servers. And my argument is this... Who cares what the media says about this game if you merge servers? Surely you want to keep the customers that are fans of the game happy than care if some media reporter with nothing better to do turns round and calls your game a failure because your are trying to keep your fans happy. Also in who's eyes is the game a failure if you merge servers? I guarantee the customers wouldn't care as they are now all playing on high pop servers and enjoying themselves a lot more. Also that alone is going to get more people into the game from word of mouth, as when it takes mere seconds to get a group for anything you want on any planet you are on rather than the half an hour or longer it currently takes on my server. People who like the game but were disappointed by the lack of players are going to come back. OK so that's the main point of my argument over, but there is also another option to re-balance servers and that is free or paid character transfers. Let's start with paid transfers. Now I don't think this is as good of an idea and this is why. Every single player on the low pop servers are going to instantly transfer to the only 2 heavy pop servers in Europe. Why is this a bad thing? Well because now you have 2 servers that are way over capacity and have massive queue times, which is also going to put players off as having to wait an hour to even begin playing the game is not good. Also this is just gonna get the players currently playing on those heavy pop servers to move somewhere else and the cycle begins anew. Now onto free character transfers. This is essentially the same as a server merger but only gives players a certain choice of which server they go to. Now if I am sitting on Luka Sene and have the option to move to another server and that server has the option to move to Luka Sene. How do I know what the server will be like? It could be worse as everyone on that server could have moved to Luka Sene and I could be sitting on another dead server with no way to move back again. That doesn't mean that free transfers are a bad thing, just that they need to be handled carefully for them to work. I'm going to give you a quick example on how this could go wrong below. I'm going to reference back to my WoW days. I started playing on a server called Shadowmoon and free transfers were enabled to move to another server called Magtheridon. We were only given a week to decide to move before the option to transfer was closed and on the final day my guild decided to transfer. Some members of the guild did not make it and were then stuck on Shadowmoon. The only advantage of this is that we were now on one of the best PvP servers in the European game but we did not know that was going to happen. Although as an Alliance guild, being stuck on a PvP server with the best Horde guild in the world (Nihilium) was a challenge at the best of times. So anyway those are my reason for wanting server mergers, I hope you take the time to read the post as it was well thought out and has no intention of starting a flame war but in case you can't be bothered here's the TL : DR What does it matter to your currently paying customers what the media thinks about server mergers if it makes your experience a lot more enjoyable? Thank you very much. After much discussion, I learned that although server mergers are unlikely at this time, they are not off the table and I am glad about that as it shows that BW are able to change their minds about certain issues where the community feels strongly about it. This is one of those issues and someone needs to come out and give us some more information as to the exact reasons that they do not want to merge servers. Having James Ohlen saying that the servers are good when I am sitting on a server with next to 0 people on it is a joke. When I have to spam chat for half an hour on any given planet to get a group for a heroic quest, then give up and call in a high level guildie to boost me through it. When even with same faction PvP we still have to wait for upwards of 10 minutes to get a game during peak time and when there is virtually nothing on the GTN I'll tell you now that the servers are not good and mergers absolutely need to happen ASAP or people WILL leave this game. Unfortunately I have stopped playing SWTOR now, even though I have an active sub for the next 3-4 months as I can't find the motivation to log on.

OK there's not much more I can add to this post as I think both sides of the argument have been supported very well. It appears that most people are in favour of server mergers and that Bioware are in agreement to a degree (by reading the PC Gamer article). With that being said, I would love to get a response from someone high up in Bioware and hear their views on the subject, maybe there is another side to the argument that I am not seeing or there is a technical reason to why server mergers cannot happen. In any case I would like to thank all the people who have put their views forward. It has been a very good conversation and hope it goes further as this game deserves to dominate the MMO market place and not stagnates into obscurity (although I doubt that will happen).

OK look I never said that server mergers will be the perfect solution for everyone because that just doesn't exist, and yes SOME people may have characters on other servers, but I'm betting that majority don't because of the legacy system. The the two things are not mutually exclusive, there is nothing wrong with merging two servers together and then allowing a migration to balance the rest of the servers. There will never be a fix that suits every single player but fix the problem for the overwhelming majority of players and you will have done right in most people's eyes.

OK my numbers may be a little bit off and I am certainly under no illusion that my server is the worst but you see the point I am making. Also it might be a great thing to get to know every single player on your server but that's only a small positive in a sea of negative's.

Sorry I am disagreeing with you now, the Fleet IS the centre of the world, it's the main hub for all players and gives you a very good idea of how the rest of the server is doing. So when you say that during peak times you have around 450-500 players on both fleets on your high pop server and I have only 100-150 players on my low/medium pop server, you don't see that as a problem? When you have several hundred players on your capital planets and we have less than 30, when you have 50-100 players on every single planet and can get groups for everything in an instant and we so few players we either have to spam chat for half an hour or call in our high level guildies for a boost through every single heroic quest, you don't see that as a problem? Cross server queuing will destroy the community as it allows players to be complete jerks with no repercussions. that's a bad thing in case you didn't know. Merging 2 or more servers together so that we all have your numbers is a far greater thing and it boosts the community.

Well for a start I don't disagree with you in theory, however, we all have seen what has happened to the community in WoW since cross realm dungeon finder came out. No one bloody talks to each other, there is no solid community. Cross realm battlegrounds I don't see as a problem though. Now this is where I disagree with you. Allowing players to make a choice of of which server they want to migrate to is a very bad idea as a player (or many players) may make the wrong choice and not realise it until it's too late (I describe that situation in my original post). However, forcing 2 servers to merge together and then allowing migration maybe a week or so after the dust settles would be far better as players can get used to new experience and truly decide if migration is needed for them.

Well OK I see your point, but let me tell you this LUKA SENE during peak times is a standard pop server yet still only get 50-80 players on the Republic Fleet, that is not good enough. When I created a character on The Red Eclipse server I saw over 100 players on Dromand Kaas and it was still that high at 01:00. that is the difference between a high pop and low/medium pop server. it's huge. And you could constantly see groups for every heroic quest starting all the time. You might have to wait half an hour or more on my server to find a heroic group to do stuff with. So high pop = good thing. Full pop with hour long queues = bad thing and that's what I point out in my original post. Let's say for example that you have two low pop servers, one has 2000 republic players and 1000 empire players, and the other one has 1000 republic players and 2000 empire players. Join the servers together and you are left with one server with 6000 players in an equally balanced form and everyone has a good time. Yes there are going to be some complaints but overall there would be far more enjoyment for those 6000 players. Now do that to all low pop servers in the game and you have one hell of a game.

That's actually an interesting read and it shows that server mergers are on the table if needs be. I'm very happy that Bioware are acknowledging this as a problem and are willing to do whatever it takes to make server balance correct.

Yes using my brain and my eyes And your right 3 people on a main player hub is woefully inadequate.

Well I am getting my info based on the fact that I look at the server list during peak times and only see 2 heavy pop servers (the ones I mentioned). I don't need to look at TORSTATUS to figure that out. Personally I would much prefer to have 10 or 20 heavy pop servers than any low to medium at all as I know that every single player who wants to do something in this game will have a far greater opportunity to do that as there will be more players on each server. Now remember it doesn't need to be Heavy pop all the time, just during peak times, at least then we know that if there is a mad rush of players for a new update that the server can handle the extra load. If later down the line you get more and more players and the servers can't handle it, that's when you start bring new servers back.

Yes of course you are right, people will complain just for the sake of complaining. But it is only the minority of players that are vocal on the forums anyway so I really don't think this will cause Bioware much concern.

No the problem with your argument is that there are only 2 Heavy pop servers in Europe but 38 (ish) Low pop ones. Taking the players off the heavy pop servers and letting them spread all over the other 38 (ish) servers is going to make things worse as your just gonna end up with 40 (ish) low to medium servers. What you need to do is say "Right, we are going to close 19 of our lowest pop servers and allow those players to move to either 1 other PvE or 1 other PvP server". Then you close those 19 servers and have a vibrant community on 20 servers not a dying community on 40 servers.

Yea but migrations are basically the same as the free character transfers that I wrote about in the original post. Also what I would do is close the really low pop servers after the migration as you don't want free weekend trial players being dumped on empty servers as that is not gonna get you more customers. They need to see it as a massive vibrant community with tons of people at any given time.

I think in a way your are right, SOME players are irrational. SOME will complain. SOME will quit (or keep bashing the forums). But the majority of people currently on the low pop servers will welcome the merger and the chance to play the game the way it was intended, An MMO, a MASSIVELY multi-player RPG. Having 5 people on the fleet with no one to play with is not fun, no matter how good the levelling is (and it is good).