Char_Ell
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Posts posted by Char_Ell
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2 hours ago, JediQuaker said:
I think the PTS is currently running on the same 'server farm' as the live servers, so basically the same server configuration. 🤔
Not according to Keith's December blog post that I linked in my previous post. They've been running PTS on AWS since before 64-bit client testing started.
QuoteWe’ve updated our forums and game launcher with new tech, are in the midst of bringing the game to 64-bit, and have been successful in testing content on servers hosted in the cloud. This was an initiative that we’ve been working towards for the better part of the year, and we are now in a position to talk about it. The last few rounds of testing on the Public Test Server have been done on AWS!
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64-bit
7.2.1 will be the update that contains the 64-bit client. We have received a lot of good feedback and very helpful reports since we opened testing back in December. We ask that players continue to help us test the game in 64-bit to ensure a smooth launch, especially if they were running into issues previously.@JackieKo Hello. I'm curious if BioWare plans to move SWTOR servers to Amazon Web Services platform (per Keith Kanneg's 2022 December blog post) in conjunction with roll out of 64-bit SWTOR game client with 7.2.1 or if the transition to AWS will happen separately and not as part of the 7.2.1 deployment. As far as I can tell based on previous info provided the 64-bit client has only been tested with AWS servers. I wonder if there are potential concerns deploying 64-bit client with current server configuration if current server configuration has not been tested with 64-bit client.
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13 minutes ago, DWho said:
These are what Bioware should have dealt with first instead of nickle and diming casual players to death. In the business vernacular, these are "low hanging fruit". Big impact for relatively little effort (especially the GTN circumvention).
I agree credit sellers, bots, exploits, and circumvention of the GTN to avoid taxation need to addressed as part of lowering in-game inflation. However I am of the opinion that most of these are not "low hanging fruit" as you seem to think and are not relatively little effort. The only one that may be low effort is updating the game to apply tax to player-to-player traders.
BioWare has made attempts in the distant past to ban accounts determined to be involved in credit selling. It's something that keeps coming back and that can only be because there is sufficient player demand for credit selling service to make it worth the effort. I don't know what BioWare has done in the past few years to combat credit selling but my impression is little to nothing. I suspect COVID and the transition to remote work along with "a lot of changes happened this year (2022)" that Keith Kanneg mentioned in his 2022 December blog post effectively pushed these issues too low on the priority list for much in the way of resource allocation.
I've read a lot of posts in this thread and the concerns about adding travel costs to the game that aren't currently in place. At this point I feel that BioWare is at least starting to look at ways of combating inflation and they're taking small steps to begin with. So although it has taken much longer than it should have I am appreciative that at least some action is finally being taken. I certainly hope and expect BioWare will keep an eye on new player participation and retention data to ascertain if the increased travel costs are having negative impact there. If they think it does then BioWare should revert to the previous travel costs or lower them. SWTOR's high inflation is something that has gone on for too long and methods to lower the inflation are quite likely to cause some degree of pain/angst for SWTOR players. I don't think this can be avoided.
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2 hours ago, Owari said:
I've been going back and forth with customer service over this issue, and they haven't been helpful. I bought replacements for almost all of my gear from a conquest vendor named Pala. I wasn't paying attention to the fact that the items weren't going into my inventory.
Palla Nalle is the conquest gear upgrades vendor on Republic fleet. What you don't realize is the system is working as designed. It's probably more an issue that the design does not do a good job of communicating the impact of a decision to purchase an item from Pala Nalle.
Inventory only appears on Pala Nalle when your character has an item equipped or in your character's inventory that she can provide an upgrade for. So if you have a 326 rating Noble Decurion chest piece and you access Pala Nalle's inventory you should see a 328 rating Noble Decurion chest piece that you can purchase. If you purchase the 328 rating Noble Decurion chest piece then the game instantly removes the 326 rating chest piece and replaces it with the 328 rating chest piece you purchased. If after this you access Pala again you would see a 330 Noble Decurion chest piece available for purchase. If you purchase it then the game will again instantly remove your 328 rating chest piece and replace it with 330 rating chest piece. To repeat, items purchased from Pala Nalle are upgrades and the item you're upgrading will be removed and replaced by the game with the upgrade you purchased.
The biggest hit is the augments you mentioned. I have not personally upgraded gear after augmenting it but I remember in early days of SWTOR 7.0 players complaining about losing their augments after upgrading gear. I'm not sure if BioWare did anything to address this issue and am not really interested in testing to see how it works. Safest bet is to remove your augment from an item before you upgrade it. That way you won't lose the augment even if you do lose the augment slot.
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39 minutes ago, ksareas said:
I think that most agree that being preferred should at least give you access to write in the forum, after all you continue to have all the full content for several months or years until they release a new expansion and therefore you continue to contribute in one way or another way within the game, be it in pvp, in trade, in flashpoint, etc.
Count me as one of the people that don't really agree but recognize it's BioWare's decision to make. They haven't allowed non-subscribers to have any forums access since the game launched in late 2011. I'm somewhat ambivalent about the whole thing. As a subscriber I'm not really sure that forums access provides me with recognizable value. Dev posts are the greatest draw for me and I don't need a subscription to view those. I can post about SWTOR and topics of interest elsewhere (e.g. Reddit) if I want. However if these official SWTOR forums become even more of a slapfest than they already are I will likely participate less than I already do.
If BioWare chooses to allow non-subscribers to post here then it will generate more posting traffic for them to moderate. Even if they decide to limit topics and/or forums non-subscribers can post there will be more forum activity for BioWare to handle so if they make the decision to grant non-subscribers forums access I hope they're prepared to handle it.
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1 hour ago, MortenJessen said:
As an aside, I have a 1 Gb fiber connection, it only took like 8 mins to download the install, and a further like 20 mins to install it, so not that it was a problem, I just find it weird that I had to re-install the entire thing over, since I cant find any notes that says that my (now previous) version is (was) different from the new one....
I played PTS after the 64-bit client was made available but not since Jackie Ko announced a new PTS version on 2023 January 20. I definitely downloaded a good chunk of data today, as expected per the info Jackie Ko provided, and my Star Wars - The Old Republic installation folder now shows as 111 GB in size. I forgot to check what it was just prior to downloading the updated PTS 64-bit client today but a couple of months ago it was 97.7 GB.
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On 1/31/2023 at 6:59 PM, lEziol said:
Honestly it doesn't matter AT ALL what you all think is good or bad, the system has been proven time and time again to be the direct downfall of many guilds across NUMEROUS games who had/have this feature. Additionally, the Game Master's won't ever do anything to help return the guild to you even if you can prove you MADE the guild.
Not sure why you seem to have thought everyone was going to agree or even should agree with your viewpoint. If you want to retain ownership of your guild and you're planning on not logging in for more than 28 days or unsubscribing then you'll need to kick everyone out of your guild and only leave in those characters that you trust will return guild ownership to you upon your return. I understand you don't like how this works and want it changed. Obviously there are others, including myself, who think the auto guild manager swap function is a good thing.
On 1/31/2023 at 6:59 PM, lEziol said:You can try to justify and group-think this, but I see and have seen NO BENEFIT from this system except to those who wish to do hostile takeovers of guilds and rob them. You cannot change my mind.
A classic example of the pot calling the kettle black if ever I've seen one.
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On 1/28/2023 at 11:31 AM, ZUHFB said:
they don't, that is why we get no content and that is why people are quitting
the mmo population site even displays numbers for MMOs that are shut down, my number is more accuracte by a large margin
explain how its 5k steam players, even if its 10-15k using the old one (highly unlikely) it is still not even in the same dimension as 100k
I don't get why you say your number is more accurate. As I stated, your previous number is, at best, an educated guess. The only numbers I think are reliable are from steamcharts.com. You think Steam players outnumber non-Steam players. I think the opposite. So any extrapolation made from steamcharts.com as to actual subscriber numbers is strictly a guess because 1) steamcharts.com does not distinguish subscribers from non-subs and 2) steamcharts.com obviously does not have the number of SWTOR player accounts not playing thru Steam.
Yes, I agree the person you originally replied to had zero basis for their sky high subscriber numbers unless they were relying on mmo-population.com for SWTOR numbers as it says the game currently has 218K+ daily players. I have no idea how that site comes up with its numbers though so I do not give them any real credence. I think all we have is steamcharts.com to give us some idea of population trends, not actual subscriber numbers or overall player activity.
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Per the 7.2a patch notes only the weekly limit for Daily Resource Matrix currency was increased, not the total cap. Seems like this was intentional change by BioWare.
Game Update 7.2a-
Increased the weekly cap of the following currencies to 2500 (up from 1500):
- Conquest Commendations
- Daily Resource Matrix
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Increased the weekly cap of the following currencies to 2500 (up from 1500):
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5 hours ago, ZUHFB said:
sorry are we playing the same game? This game has roughly 10k subs. 6-7k play through steam and 2-4k via the normal Launcher
2 hours ago, ZUHFB said:steamcharts, if you ask on fleet roughly 70% of people play through steam, steamcharts usually say 6-7k and thus we get to 10k
also where the heck are the other 90k of players hiding? like imagine thinking this game has more than 15k subs, lmao
Yes, steamcharts.com shows player activity for players that access SWTOR thru the game client. Yes that number has averaged around 4,875 (not 6-7k) players per day over the last 30 days. This is not a subscriber number. No way to tell how many of these players are subscribed and how many are not.
Asking on fleet? Really. I have a hard time believing you've asked enough and gotten enough answers to have an accurate idea of how many players play using Steam and how many use the normal launcher to then extrapolate subscriber numbers. Sure, you can say this but there is way too much anecdotal data to ascribe any degree of accuracy to your numbers. It's a somewhat educated guess at best. I personally would be surprised if the number of Steam players exceed the number of players using the regular launcher.
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16 hours ago, orig_mrrabbit said:
It is pretty clear that Satele Shan and Star Forge are virtual servers residing on a single machine.
Question: Is a separate hardware network interface provisioned for each server OR are they sharing the same hardware network interface and time sharing it at 50% each under load?
=8-)
Question: Why do you think BioWare would answer a question about how their current server hardware is configured?
Do you think Jackie Ko will go to their server peeps and ask for this info?
As a data center administrator do you get requests from clients asking you to provide detailed hardware configurations that the client can in turn provide to the client's customers? I can see the data center client wanting this level of detail for their own internal use, not for their customers' reference. I'm guessing most data center clients aren't keen on revealing this level of detail to their general customer base.
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14 hours ago, TrixxieTriss said:
Knowing what they mean by this is probably more important than server mergers.
How will they implement it?
Where will the cloud server(s) be geolocated?
Will all the servers be in one location?
If they move or combine locations, how will they account for player lag?
I’m surprised more people havent been clamouring for this info because it has the potential to cause bigger problems than just mergering servers.
You could try asking Jackie. She seems responsive to you.
My server lag on current 64-bit client PTS, which Keith Kanneg says is on AWS, is about 10ms lower than Satele Shan and Star Forge. It would be interesting to know what Asia Pacific players like you are seeing for their server lag on 64-bit PTS. Regardless, PTS is just one server. All we know is BioWare plans to move production servers to AWS in "near future" (makes me think 3-6 months). Other than that we've no idea if they will incorporate other changes, specifically server merges, in the plan to move servers to AWS.
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On 12/22/2022 at 4:53 PM, illgot said:
With transfers being 50% I don't think it matters what any of us want. I think mergers are already being planned.
Going back a ways to the post that revived this thread on December 22. I am not seeing any indication that BioWare is planning on merging servers. One of Keith's statements from his December 20 blog post leads me to believe server merges are not actively being considered (emphasis added). If BioWare thinks they can grow SWTOR's player base in 2023 with these technical updates then why would they be considering a server merge? Unless BioWare has a way to allow for server merges that mitigates most of the big negatives that came with previous merges (forced name change, character slot concerns)? However this would be pure speculation since as far as I know BioWare has not revealed any technology updates that would mitigate server merge concerns.
QuoteMoving servers entirely to the cloud in the near future will enable us to improve the game experience for our players and create opportunities to increase the player base over time.
How realistic BioWare Austin's goal to increase SWTOR's player base over time is certainly up for debate and remains to be seen. I understand 50% off character transfers can be interpreted as a prelude action to a server merge. It may also be interpreted as a way for BioWare to provide greater incentive to players that are not happy with their current server's population to transfer to a server that has a higher population and thus reduce population complaints.
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7 minutes ago, JediQuaker said:
As far as I know, 'cloud server' in this case refers to idea that the game runs on a 'client' in 'the cloud' that takes the processing load off your local computer. The 'cloud' client just 'streams' the 'standard' game from the normal game servers. That is, there's no separate 'cloud server'.
Also keep in mind that the SWTOR server(s) is not just one computer that anyone can run in their basement. It's a whole 'farm'. 🙂
I believe OP refers to SWTOR PTS currently being run on Amazon Web Services cloud, not streaming the entire game from a server so a local client is no longer required. Keith Kanneg informed the player base of this in a blog post last month.
With respect to the SWTOR server(s) are a "whole 'farm'" comment, that has always been the case. OP just wants a server(s) added with a SWTOR version of the game as it existed at some point prior to KOTFE.
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5 minutes ago, Dekibra said:
ok, putting it like this makes a little more sense, thanks!
but still - why not make it 2,500 period, like with the commendations - me iz still confused ^^
Glad that helped. Unfortunately I think I am unable to really clear up your confusion as I think your question is really more along the lines of "why have a weekly cap that exceeds the maximum cap for DRM's?" That is something only BioWare can answer.
Conquest Commendations in 7.2 were 1,500/week with 2,500 cap. This changed to 2,500 per week with 7.2a but the cap is still 2,500. To reiterate the only cap that changed for both Conquest Commendations and Daily Resource Matrix in 7.2a was the weekly cap, not the overall cap.
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Patch notes match what I see in game. 1,200 is the cap for Daily Resource Matrix but you can earn up to 2,500 in a week instead of the 1,200 it was pre-7.2a. So if a player is really grinding the DRM's they need to also spend them before hitting the 1,200 cap.
https://www.swtor.com/patchnotes/12202022/game-update-7.2a (emphasis mine)
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Increased the weekly cap of the following currencies to 2500 (up from 1500):
- Conquest Commendations
- Daily Resource Matrix
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Increased the weekly cap of the following currencies to 2500 (up from 1500):
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44 minutes ago, LJ_Gibbs said:
I guess part of my issue is that we just got 330 a little bit ago. It's not like we were at 330 for a year were we? It would be different if we were stuck at 330 for longer. It's almost like they knew they were going to give the lower tiers 336 and started it off with 330 so there was "something to do" after a while.
Yes, BioWare made it clear they would be adding new gear tiers in 7.0. Eric Musco stated it again in the SWTOR 7.1 livestream.
As for why, I think it's obvious BioWare wants to retain SWTOR players and gear grind is one of the methods they use towards that goal.
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1 hour ago, ReveredDead said:
People mostly play this for the incredible story content. If you guys want to reinvigorate MMO community interest in SWTOR. Create a KOTFE sized story expansion with a well written and deep story spread out across monthly story updates like it was when KOTFE and KOTET came out.
I suspect you are not qualified to represent most of the people that play SWTOR. Nobody is. There are certainly a segment of players that play SWTOR for the story. I just don't know how large that player contingent is compared to others player categories that are primarily focused on other parts of SWTOR besides story.
I think the KOTFE/KOTET were interesting creative risks that BioWare took but they didn't pan out for me. Speaking for myself I would not like to see a return to KOTFE/KOTET style of story telling.
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2 hours ago, Shinzzun said:
@Char_Ell You just want to argue for the sake of arguing and You totally derailed the topic of this thread which is the very very sad history of Bioware in this game and the fact if nothing come out next week , there is no 7.2 and ZERO anniversary special that they promised us for almost a year now. But i guess that was the purpose of your white knighting fanboism, and thinking that posting in green makes You somehow special 🥱
I was the one that warned you about derailing the thread with your insistence that BioWare was on always year-end holiday and did not start working again until February ever since the game launched. I simply wondered if that was right and took the time to research, only to find out that BioWare had released patches in the first 8 January's since SWTOR's launch. I am at fault for thinking you would simply acknowledge your mistaken claim instead of resorting to ad hominem attacks.
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2 minutes ago, Shinzzun said:
"no patch release in month of January for years 2020, 2021, or 2022" that.. ....was.... exactly my point......
No. Your claimed point was (emphasis mine):
53 minutes ago, Shinzzun said:A lot of people that played this game since its release know that Bioware in Austin always are gone from just before xmas until early February. Nobody has to prove anything this has been repeated every year since this games release.
You specifically stated it has been this way since this game released. The facts show this is a false statement. But apparently you have no problems with revising your own history in support of your own narrative, even if it's less than a few hours old.
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1 minute ago, Shinzzun said:
A lot of people that played this game since its release know that Bioware in Austin always are gone from just before xmas until early February. Nobody has to prove anything this has been repeated every year since this games release.
I hope you'll understand if I say I need more objective evidence than just your word to believe it. If you're basing your opinion on length of time between patch release dates then I think this is flawed method. Just because BioWare doesn't release a patch on January 5 does not necessarily mean they're not back at work. That being said, patch notes history does indicate BioWare has released patches in January.
no patch release in month of January for years 2020, 2021, or 2022
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1 minute ago, Shinzzun said:
If You played this game that long then You know very well that Bioware has NEVER only had 2 to 3 weeks ever. Every single time they launched a patch before winter holiday season they always earliest fixed or answered to anything at all first week of February earliest. There is a very long and very public trail and history of exactly this.
Just my guess. You seem to think it's longer than that but that appears to be your guess too since you didn't provide any supporting evidence. All BioWare's career page says is "bonus winter holiday vacation time."
Don't derail your own thread.
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10 minutes ago, Shinzzun said:
(people like me that played since 2010 know exactly what this means...)
I think this means you need to check your history since the game didn't launch until 2011 December.
At this point BioWare has only committed to launch 7.2 "this Winter." I got the impression BioWare wants (wanted?) to get 7.2 on production servers before year-end holidays and agree that next week is last shot at making it happen in 2022 due to most everyone for BioWare getting 2-3 weeks off for said holiday season. At this point I don't really care if it's next week or next February as either one falls within the winter season for the northern hemisphere. As long as they don't provide a firm date and then 2-3 weeks later decide to push it out another 2 months...
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Considering most, not all, of the responses to Chris Durel I have to think this is where BioWare has to really consider the wisdom of providing any direct written response to players' concerns. "You're not listening to the community at all" seems quite hyperbolic to me. Many players seem to think that if they tell BioWare something then BioWare should do what they say. What we have here is a classic disagreement. BioWare explains their reasoning and some players make their argument for why they think BioWare is wrong. Listening is not the same as doing what one is told. Someone can tell me to go jump off a cliff and I can read and understand what they said so I "listened" to them. I just chose to not do what they told me to do.
7.2.1 transition to 64-bit client to include server transition to AWS?
in General Discussion
Posted
The only way to decline is to stop playing the game. BioWare has announced that the new 64-bit SWTOR game client will replace the current 32-bit game client with the 7.2.1 update. Once 7.2.1 goes live (date has yet to be announced) then all SWTOR players will be required to update to the new version of the game with the 64-bit client. Same goes for the server transition at whatever point in time that happens.